Work Text:
A scream filled the room as he woke, shooting upright with a hand clutching at the fabric covering his chest, heavy breathing escaping his lungs and cold sweat covering his skin as he tries to find a sense of calm. His door bursts open and in comes his brother, panic evident on his face. "Keith!?"
Keith looked at his brother with terrified, tearful eyes as he sat on the bed, pulling Keith into his arms, gently rocking them from side to side. Keith clutches onto his brother's shirt tightly and a few shaky words spill from his lips. “S-shiro… They w-won’t stop...”
“It’s okay Keith, I’m right here, you’re not alone… Just relax…”
It takes about an hour before Keith has completely calmed down and sleeping again, Shiro stays a little longer, sitting on the edge of the bed before sighing and going back to his own room.
Keith slept dreamlessly for the rest of that night.
The early sun shone through the curtains, into Keith’s room, directly through the opened slit, causing Keith to stir awake with a yawn, sitting up and stretching the sleep from his limbs, he stumbled his way to the bathroom nearly tripping over packed boxes along the way, giving his face a wash and turning on the shower. Once showered he shoves on some black skinny jeans with a loose t-shirt, and ties his hair up in a small ponytail then sighs at his reflection, dark circles under his eyes are getting even more visible with each nightmare he has and he’s been having them every night, he even contemplated taking a sleeping medication but always shrugs it off as he doesn’t want to rely on a pill to help him sleep.
Keith heads to the kitchen, Shiro is already awake and is making breakfast. The smell of hickory hits his nose as the bacon sizzles on the frying pan; there’s also a sweet honey aroma coming from the pancakes stacked on two separate plates, drenched in syrup, just the way Keith likes it. Shiro glances over at Keith and sighs. He wants to talk to Keith about his nightmares but knows Keith will just avoid the question and change the subject, it’s been this way ever since he started having the nightmares, so Shiro doesn’t ask. Keith won’t tell Shiro what the nightmares are about-it’s anyone’s guess-but he started experiencing frequent nightmares every day since the car accident he’d been involved in almost two months ago. That accident took the life of his and Shiro’s parents-well Keith’s adoptive parents. It also took away Shiro’s right arm, Keith was left with a broken arm and leg, but he was unconscious when the paramedics arrived. He’d been in a coma for two weeks, and Shiro can only guess that is the reason behind his younger brother’s nightmares.
“Morning”
“Morning Shiro, it smells pretty good out here” Keith sits at the table with a glass of orange juice.
“Well, It’s your favorite so I hope it smells good” Shiro grins at him. “What time do you have to be at the school tomorrow?”
Keith pulls out his phone and checks the schedule he made for himself “Um...11:00 AM for registration and whatever.”
Shiro nods, piling bacon onto both plates. “We should probably get going as soon as we’re done eating then..”
“I have a few more things I need to pack up and then I’ll be ready to go,” Keith pulls his plate towards him and starts to eat.
After breakfast Keith finished up his packing, moving the boxes out to the moving truck Shiro rented for the day. They were moving closer to the school Keith got accepted to. He applied for the art program and now he’s moving to a new town. Unfortunately, they couldn’t afford another apartment at the time, so as of now Shiro will be staying with an old friend.
Once everything was packed into the truck Shiro texted the guy they were gonna be living with for the time being that they are on their way.
“He’s excited to see us again,” Shiro said with a smile as he puts his phone away.
“I bet he is, Even though it’s only been about a month since you guys last seen each other. “ Keith grins and makes sure Shiro’s car is safely secured to the trailer attached to the moving truck.
“Yeah, well for him it probably seems like a year,” Shiro laughed and stands near the driver’s side of the truck. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah” Keith nods, climbing onto his motorcycle.
“You remember where he lives?”
“That’s not something I was planning on forgetting,” Keith smiles
“Then lead the way.”
Shiro climbs into the driver’s seat after Keith puts on his helmet and gives him a thumbs up, he starts up his bike and pulls ahead of the truck, onto the road with Shiro following behind.
Keith enjoys riding his bike, he finds a sense of calm while he rides, it’s just something about the wind hitting his body and the speed that can give him both an adrenaline rush and a sense of calm. It’s the only time his mind is ever empty, the only thing he’s focusing on is the road.
It takes close to an hour before they reach their destination, Keith pulls up the driveway, leaving enough room for Shiro to park as well. Before Keith can even take his helmet off, a guy with light brown hair is running down the front steps.
“Keith! Shiro! You made it!”
“Hey, Matt,” Keith waves with a smile.
Shiro waves as he climbs out of the truck.
“How’s Pidge? She here?” Keith asks.
“Yeah, she’s inside. Go on in, I can help Shiro with the boxes,” Matt gives him a big grin
“You sure-” Before Keith can even finish his sentence Matt has already moved over to the truck to help Shiro. Keith just shakes his head and goes inside. “Hey, Pidge?”
“Keith! Get your ass over here now!” Pidge calls from the living room, excitement evident in her voice.
“Alright, Alright, I’m coming,” Keith laughs as he steps out of his shoes and makes his way into the living room.
He instantly plops down on the couch next to Pidge, who doesn’t waste any time putting him into a headlock. They’re both laughing now as Keith tries to escape.
“So, how come I had to hear from Matt that you and Shiro were moving in?” Pidge asks after letting Keith go; a hint of sternness in her tone but the excitement still evident.
“Ah, sorry, I was a little preoccupied with packing...”
“I'm pretty excited that we get to go to the same school again!”
“Yeah, maybe we'll have some of the same classes, I know most of your classes are engineering but ya never know,” Keith shrugs as he speaks.
“I told my friends-Hunk and Lance- that you were starting school tomorrow. They're pretty excited to meet you; Hunk is taking engineering classes with me but Lance is more focused on the more artsy type classes like you”
“The way you describe them to me when we would message each other made them seem pretty cool, and I look forward to meeting them too”
Pidge and Keith chatted for a nice bit, while Matt and Shiro unloaded and carried in the boxes. Matt’s house was a four bedroom so Keith and Shiro get to sleep in separate rooms. Keith isn’t too keen on sleeping here because of his nightmares, he doesn’t want to wake anyone up in the middle of the night with his screams but he can’t afford to get his own apartment.
After everything was off the truck and stacked inside, Keith stands, stepping closer to the boxes.
“So where am I sleeping”
“Oh, just down the hall, third door on your left!” Matt say’s with a smile “And Shiro your room is the first door on the right”
Keith gives him a thumbs up and takes a box he knows is his straight to his new room. The room was spacious, a double bed was pushed up against the left wall, and a side table alongside the bed. There was a dresser on the adjacent wall and a closet on the opposite wall.
Keith places the box on the floor and went back to grab another. He had marked his name on his boxes so he wouldn’t get them mixed up with Shiro’s stuff. Pidge steps into Keith’s room while he was unpacking and sits on his bed.
“Dude. Is this all you have?” she scans the room, only five boxes sit on the floor.
“Yeah, well it's all I want. I have some more stuff packed in the boxes that me and Shiro are putting into storage” Keith shrugs and continues to unpack his stuff, placing some clothes into the dresser and hanging up a few jackets and shirts.
Pidge quickly stands and snatches a jacket out of his hand. It was a red cropped jacket with a white collar, white stripes running down the sleeves and yellow stripes on the chest.
“DUDE! You still have this!”
“Hey! I actually like that jacket!” Keith snatches it back out of her hands.
Pidge laughs. “It makes you look like a pokemon trainer!”
Keith huffs and hangs it up. “So are you just gonna sit there and criticize my stuff or are you actually gonna help me?”
“Criticize,” Pidge smirks.
Keith rolls his eyes but a clear smile is present on his lips as he continues to unpack boxes. About two hours later, Keith finally has all the boxes unpacked and placed flattened in his closet. He picks up a bag and sketching supplies, and settles everything in his bag and slings it over his shoulder.
“I’m going to go out for a bit, see you later,” Keith said and heads towards the door, picking his keys and helmet up on the way. “Hey Shiro, Matt, I’ll be back later”
“Hey, be careful on your bike!” Shiro shouted from the kitchen.
“Always am!” Keith yells back as he shoves on his shoes and heads outside.
He puts on his helmet and starts up his bike, carefully backing out of the driveway once checking to see if the road was clear. Keith rides fast-he always has- he likes the feeling of moving fast. It’s so relaxing but it also excites him. Keith rides for about an hour before stopping by the ocean. He parks his bike and hangs his helmet on the handlebars making his way towards the beach. It was empty excluding the people coming and going from the small coffee shop nearby. Keith goes close to the water but not close enough that if he sits he’ll get splashed.
He sits there long enough to draw a detailed picture of his view, every wave of the water sketched perfectly, the streaky clouds in the sky replicated onto the sketching paper. It’s no secret Keith enjoyed drawing, it’s what he’s going to school for. Keith doesn’t just draw scenery, he can also draw objects or characters straight from his mind. He can paint with vivid colors, and draw using colored pencils that look so realistic that you have to touch it just to tell it’s fake. Once he’s finished he makes his way towards the small coffee shop, A Help Wanted sign hanging in the door, there is only one other person inside and two workers.
One of the workers was a female with long silver hair tied up in a ponytail, she had a green apron tied around her waist, she was cleaning up the counter. The other worker was a male, he had short brown hair, he was finishing up the other customer's order just as Keith walked in. Keith walked up the counter as the other customer walked away. The female server was the one to take his order.
“Hello! What can I get you?” She greeted him with a cheerful smile
“Ah, hi, Could I get a black coffee?”
“Sure thing! Lance, could you make a black coffee?” She called over to the other worker who Keith now knew was named Lance.
“On it” Lance called back as he picked up a cup.
“Oh, um I saw the Help Wanted sign in the door, are you hiring?” Keith asked.
The woman nodded “Yes we are! Are you interested?”
“Yeah, me and my brother just moved in with a friend, but I’d kinda like to have my own place...so I’m looking for a job.” Keith gives her a shy smile just as Lance brings over his coffee. Keith caught Lance’s expression change as his eyes widened at him but he doesn’t comment on it, Lance just ducks away and continues to clean his station.
“Hm, do you mind if I ask you a few questions now?” The woman asked.
“Sure.”
“Okay, Well the first thing I need to know is if you’re in school?”
“Well, I’m starting tomorrow.” Keith scratches the back of his head.
“Okay, and have you worked in a coffee shop before?”
“No, but I’m a quick learner”
“Well...Since you’re going to be attending school, I’m going to ask you to come in on the weekend and we’ll give you shot” She smiled “Lance will be your trainer, also my name is Allura” She reaches her hand over the counter to Keith who takes it and shakes it.
“My name is Keith.” He smiles.
“We’ll see you Saturday at 11:00 AM Okay?”
Keith nodded and paid for his drink “Okay” He moves to sit at a table inside to drink his coffee. He could feel eyes staring at him as he sipped at his drink but every time he looked around or back at the counter no one would be looking at him. Keith just shakes it off, finishes his drink and leaving after throwing away the cup. He places his bag over his shoulder again and climbs onto his bike before he can put his helmet on, Lance runs out of the coffee shop, he’s coming towards Keith.
“Hey! Um, you said your name is Keith right?” Lance shifts a little awkwardly.
“Yeah?” Keith raises an eyebrow
“Ah, do you happen to be..do you know Pidge?”
Keith raises both eyebrows, slightly surprised by the question “Yeah, we’ve known each other for years, I’m staying with her. Why?”
“So you’re the Keith she’s been talking about!” Lance smiles. “I can’t believe you have a mullet!”
“Hey! I don’t have a mullet, it’s just long!” Keith huffs “and you must be the Lance I’ve heard so much about.”
“Pidge talked about me?”
“Yeah, but I’m not telling you what she said,” Keith smirks
Lance pouts slightly “For your information I wasn’t gonna ask!”
“Sure, your face definitely says that” Playful sarcasm evident in Keith’s voice.
“Hmf, anyway, I can show you around the school tomorrow if you’d like? Do you have your schedule there with you? They usually send it to you with your acceptance letter”
Keith ruffles through his bag and hands Lance his schedule.
“Hm.Looks like we’re gonna be in the same classes” Lance grins and hands back the schedule. “So what’d you say about me giving you a tour?”
“Yeah, sure... Beats finding my classes by myself.” Keith shrugs and smiles a little.
“Great! Oh, can I have your phone?”
“Why?”
“I’m going to give you my number dummy” Lance grins
“Oh..yeah, here” Keith reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, unlocking it and handing it over. Lance types in his number, handing back the phone and holds his own phone out to Keith.
“Here, you can add your number to mine.”
Keith takes the phone and proceeds to add his number into Lance’s contacts, handing the phone back.
“I should probably get going.”
“Yeah, I got to get back to work anyway...You can text me for anything! I’ll answer” Lance laughs. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” He waves and runs back into the coffee shop.
Keith grins and shakes his head, putting his helmet on and heads back to Matt’s house.
Everyone was sitting on the couch when Keith stepped inside.
“Hey, Keith there’s a plate of food in the fridge for you if you want it.” Matt calls with his own mouth full “Shiro cooked”
Keith gives a thumbs up and heads to the kitchen, taking the plate and placing it in the microwave to warm up the food. He heads to the living room and sits on the bean bag chair next to the couch, digging into his food.
There’s a movie playing on the TV, It takes a few minutes before it clicks to Keith, the movie that is playing is indeed one he knows all too well.
“You were watching Step Up without me!”
“Not our fault it came on while you were gone” Pidge grins
Keith just pouts and eats silently, Shiro grins.
“So uh...I might have a job starting Saturday” Keith pipes up after the movie ends.
“Really? That was fast, where to?” Shiro asks.
“It’s at this small coffee shop by the beach. It’s not a very big place” Keith shrugs
“Wait, wait...is this place called Voltron Cafe?” Pidge asks
“Yeah, Why?” Keith raises an eyebrow.
“Cause that’s where my friend Lance works, did you meet Lance??”
Keith nods “Yeah, I did actually...He gave me his number, he’s also giving me a tour around the school tomorrow”
“That’s great Keith” Shiro smiles.
“Hold on! That was supposed to be my job!” Pidge crosses her arms.
“You didn’t ask me if you could show me around the school, plus me and Lance have basically every class together so it will be easier”
Pidge huffs “I guess you two seemed to have a good meeting anyway,” she says.
“I guess..he was a little awkward and slightly forward”
“Well that’s just how Lance is, he tends to be pretty forward sometimes. It’s just something to get used to” Pidge laughs slightly.
It was getting late, Keith was sitting on his bed, laptop resting on his legs. He's scrolling through Netflix, he doesn’t want to sleep, he’s afraid to sleep, only because he doesn’t want to have a nightmare and end up waking everyone in the house, it was okay with Shiro because he was used to Keith’s nightmares and often he would still be awake from insomnia, but now he’s living with two other people that have no idea what happens when he sleeps. So he doesn’t sleep.
Keith finds something to watch and plug his headphones into his laptop, keeping the sound at a low enough volume it can’t be heard still.
Nearing the end of the show, his phone buzzed, a little confused on who is texting him at close to two in the morning he picks it up and raises his eyebrows at the name on his screen. Lance was texting him.
1:49 AM - Hey, you still awake?
1:51 AM - Yeah, why are you asking? Shouldn’t you be asleep?
1:55 AM - Can’t sleep but Hunk and Pidge wouldn’t
answer so I thought I’d see if you would,
I know we just met today and you are
probably trying to get to sleep but I’m too awake
to fall asleep so I wanted to talk with someone.
2:00 AM - So I’m your last resort?
2:01 AM - No No I didn’t mean it like that! I’m sorry,
I’ll leave you alone, sorry if I woke you up or
something…
2:05 AM - Dude it’s fine, I was just messing with you,
the truth is I can’t sleep either.
2:05 AM - If you want to talk we can talk
2:07 AM - Ok, ok… so what’s up?
2:08 AM - Watching ‘Step Up’ movies
on Netflix, hbu?
2:10 AM - MAN I LOVE THOSE MOVIES! We should totally
start a rabb.it and watch them together! I mean...if you want to…
I’m not doing anything, just laying in bed….
2:13 AM - You wanna watch Step Up with me?
Sure..but what’s rabb.it?
2:16 AM - It’s just this website where you can
share your movie with someone or basically
anything really. I can set it up and send you
a link on Skype if you want?
2:18 AM - Sure, my Skype is JustTrash...
2:22 AM - Seriously dude? Haha, I’m adding
you now hang on.
About five minutes later Keith got a friend request on Skype from LoverBoyLance. Keith laughs a little at the username and accepts the request.
Skype
---------------------2:26 AM / Jan, 23---------------------
JustTrash: LoverBoyLance? Really? And you made fun of my name
LoverBoyLance: Oh shut up.
LoverBoyLance: I’m sending you a link now.
LoverBoyLance: https:// lets.rabb.it/886j/gZ6ZmPoOJ
Keith clicks onto the link and a screen pops up showing that the only two members are Keith and Lance, there’s also a place for them to talk to each other. The screen shows that Netflix is open on Lance’s laptop and the Step Up movie options are on the screen, soon Keith gets another skype message from Lance.
---------------------2:38 AM / Jan, 23---------------------
LoverBoyLance: So Which one are we watching anyway? Starting with the first one or no?
JustTrash: Yeah The first one is alright.
LoverBoyLance: Awesome! I haven’t seen these movies in so long!
JustTrash: Me and Pidge used to watch them all the time, same with me and my brother.
LoverBoyLance: That’s cool, me, Pidge and Hunk watched them together about a year ago.
LoverBoyLance: but anyway! Let’s start watching!
Lance starts up the movie, he also had his webcam on. Keith could just barely see Lance, the only visible light showing his face was the light from his laptop, Keith decided to turn his webcam on too, the only visible light was Keith’s small desk lamp and the light from his laptop as well. Lance waves when he notices Keith turned on his cam. They make it a little over halfway through before Keith sends Lance a skype message.
---------------------3:18 AM / Jan 23---------------------
JustTrash: So why do you like these movies?
LoverBoyLance: I don’t know, guess I just always wanted to be a dancer when I was younger that I just got into liking these kinds of movies, kinda hoping that I could learn a few moves from them, haha, and I guess it just stuck.
LoverBoyLance: What about you? Why do you like them?
JustTrash: they have pretty good music in them, and I guess they can be funny sometimes but I kinda just really like watching the dancing, I never had a dream of being a dancer but I always liked watching dance and well I still do so I still watch these movies.
JustTrash: You said you wanted to be a dancer when you were younger, can you dance? Did these movies teach you anything? Aha
LoverBoyLance: haha not exactly, I tried to do a move I seen and ended up breaking my ankle, I was 12 at the time.
LoverBoyLance: But I can actually dance now, I never stopped trying once my ankle healed, I mean dancing is still something I wanna do, not professionally but on the side, like how you see some street performers playing instruments for money, sometimes dancers do it too and well that’s what I want to do
JustTrash: that’s pretty cool, I never had any dreams like that.
LoverBoyLance: Really?? Nothing at all??
JustTrash: Well...I did want to be a singer when I was a kid, Learned how to play guitar and everything so I could make my own music, but I couldn’t afford to make it to any auditions so I gave up.
LoverBoyLance: I wanna hear you sing sometime.
JustTrash: Maybe if you show me you can actually dance.
LoverBoyLance: deal. But you have to play the guitar too haha
JustTrash: you’re pushing it now. I never said I would actually sing for you so don’t get your hopes up lover boy ha
LoverboyLance: I will get you to sing sometime!
JustTrash: We’ll see.
It was getting close to five in the morning, Lance had to get up at seven. He saw on Keith’s schedule that he doesn’t have to meet him till around 11:30 near the office, Keith gets registered into the school system at 11:00, which is also the start of both his and Keith’s first class, but knowing this he will still probably meet up with Keith earlier than when he is supposed to.
They were still watching the movie, at least till Lance took a look at Keith’s cam. Keith had fallen asleep, head tilted to the side and mouth slightly agape. Lance couldn’t tell if he was snoring or not because Keith didn’t have his mic on but he still looked pretty cute.
‘No, no, no Lance do not fall for him, you will not fall for him…’ he told himself, but he couldn’t help but smile at the sleeping boy on his screen. Lance exited the internet and turned off his laptop, he looked at his phone for the time, 4:45 AM, he sighed and placed his phone on the side table next to his bed ‘Guess I should try to get some sleep too..’
Lance’s alarm went off, telling him it was time to get up and get ready, He almost slept through it, he would have if it didn’t get louder after 5 minutes of not hitting the button to turn it off.
Lance groaned and sat up, turning off his alarm and stumbles to the bathroom to shower.
Once showered, he gets dressed in jeans, a black t-shirt, and a blue plaid shirt, left unbuttoned. He gave his face a wash and made his way to the kitchen of his little apartment, grabbing an apple and then grabbing his bag, heading out.
Lance makes his way to the campus, eating his apple on the way. Pretty soon there was the low rumble of a motorcycle being heard from behind Lance, he turned his head to take a look behind him catching a glimpse of the crimson red bike racing past him. Lance just chuckles, knowing exactly who was riding that, he only silently wished he wouldn’t drive so fast.
Keith wasn't too excited to be here, attending Altea College, but he was excited to start the art classes. While on his way to the campus, Keith noticed someone walking the same way, it didn't take long for him to recognize the person to be Lance. Keith kept going, he wasn't stopping for Lance, they just met the other day, he wasn't letting him ride his bike. Not yet anyway.
Once at the school he parks his bike and takes off his helmet, a few of the passing students who were either getting out of their cars or walking into the campus buildings were staring at him. Keith didn't like it, not one bit, students continued to stare as he started making his way into the school, they were whispering, some with an expression of awe and some with annoyance. Keith heard some of the whispers. ‘Another new student?’ ‘He's so cool!’ ‘Look at him? Who does he think he is, showing up here and acting all cool?’
Keith ignored them, making his way into the building. Suddenly a hand dropped down on Keith's shoulder making him jump.
“Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you!” Lance laughs, taking his hand away.
“You didn't scare me…” Keith pouts and shoves his hands into his pockets.
“From the way you jumped then it sure seemed like I did” Lance smirks and leans forward to get a better look at Keith's face.
“Shut up” Keith blushes a bit from embarrassment.
“Ha! I knew it!” Lance grins widely before throwing his arm around Keith's shoulders. “Come on mullet, the registration office is this way” Lance guides Keith towards the office, once outside the door Lance steps away from Keith “I'll be out here waiting to show you to your classes”.
Keith nods, heading inside the office after knocking first “ah, Mrs. Holt? I'm Keith, I just started here today”
“Ah, come in, come in.” Mrs. Holt motioned for him to come in and sit down. Keith slowly entered the room fully and sits down on one of the cushioned chairs in front of Mrs. Holt’s desk.
“So Keith, you applied to the art department, yes?” She asked.
“I did,” Keith replies.
“Okay, and I’m going to assume you already have the schedule we sent out in the mail?” Holt asks looking up from her computer at Keith.
“I did, I have it right here” Keith answers, reaching into his bag to pull out his schedule.
“Okay,” She said with a smile. “If you would like someone to show you around the school I can gladly assign you a tour buddy?”
“No need, I have a friend who I share the same classes with, he offered to show me around” Keith responded with a smile.
“Alright, Well Keith I hope you enjoy your time here and if there’s anything you need to know or if you need help with something regarding your classes, you can find me here” Mrs. Holt smiles as she dismisses him.
Keith nods, standing up from the chair and leaves the room. Lance was leaning against the wall waiting for Keith to exit the room. “All ready to start your first class?” Lance asked with a smile.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Keith says with a small laugh.
“Let’s get going then” Lance takes ahold of Keith’s wrist, dragging him down the hall and up a few stairs. Once on the second floor, Lance let go of Keith’s wrist and motions him to follow. Lance leads Keith down to the end of the hall to room 2-29 Art History. “Here’s our first class of the day,” Lance says, a little less enthusiasm in his voice. Keith grinned. “Alright, where do you sit?” Keith asks.
“In the back” Lance answers with a smile. “Come on there is an empty seat next to me,” Lance says, entering the classroom and heads to the very back of the classroom. Keith follows, sitting in the chair next to him.
The hours tick by fast, pretty soon lunch was upon them, Lance practically dragged Keith to the lunch room. Keith didn’t have anything for lunch though. Lance dragged him to his and Hunks lunch table, Pidge occasionally sat there too when she wasn’t off studying somewhere alone. Today though, Pidge was there, striking up a conversation with hunk about the robot they were building when Lance and Keith showed up.
“Keith!” Pidge smiled “Enjoying your first day??” She asked.
“Yeah, I guess so” Keith smiled
“Oh, This is Hunk!” Pidge gestured to the guy sitting across from her.
“Hey!” Hunk waved at Keith with a smile
“Hunk’s my best friend!” Lance said sitting down next to Hunk and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.
“Excuse you! Our best friend!” Pidge protests.
Hunk just shakes his head with a smile. “Sit down Keith, we don’t bite, I promise” He smiles.
“I don’t know, Pidge might” Keith jokes, sitting down beside her.
“Hm, He’s right, I might” Pidge laughs and nudges Keith’s side.
Lance takes notice that Keith isn’t eating anything, he’s just sketching in his sketchbook “Hey, Keith? You gonna eat anything?”
“Oh..uh” Keith looks up from his book “ I didn’t actually bring anything to eat.” He admits.
Lance’s eyes widened “You gotta eat something” He digs through his own lunch and hands Keith an apple “Here, I packed two”
Keith looks at the apple “You don’t have to give me anything, I can just eat when I get home” he protests.
Lance, however, insists that Keith take the apple “no friend of mine is going hungry! Take the apple”
Keith smiles a little and takes the apple “Thanks” He eats it slowly though.
Lance goes back to eating his own lunch but not without glancing over at Keith with a worried look on his face. Pidge catches the look and tells herself that she will ask Keith for Lance about his eating habits later.
Pretty soon lunch ended, Lance and Keith only had one more class other than the free period which was last before they got to head home, but Keith will probably ditch once free period starts. Everyone stood up from their table and goes their separate ways, Lance and Keith headed to their class. “Come on, it’s on the second floor again,” Lance says, motioning for Keith to follow him.
Class ended and Keith grabbed his belongings, leaving the classroom. Lance quickly grabbed his own belongings and chased after him “Hey Keith! I’m going to the study hall, come on, I’ll show you where it is” Lance says with a smile.
“Actually since it’s a free period I’m going to leave, I don’t have anything to stick around for,” Keith says, Slinging his bag over his shoulder.
“Oh, alright” Lance frowns a little but doesn’t push Keith into staying. “I’ll see you later” Lance runs off to find Hunk and Pidge.
Keith heads to the parking lot, Putting his helmet on and sits on his bike, starting it up and pulling away from the campus lot.
Pidge had been watching him from the window of the study hall when Lance plopped down on the seat next to her. “What’s up, Pidgeon?”
“Ah nothing, thinking about what else me and Hunk can do with our robot” Pidge grins
“Sweet, Where is Hunk anyway, I thought he had a free period too?” Lance asks looking around the room.
“No, Hunk still has class, It’s just us” Pidge takes her phone out of her pocket “Where’s Keith?”
“He ditched, guess he thinks he’s too cool to hang out with us huh?” Lance Laughs.
“Nah, Keith would never think that. But he doesn’t really like school, It wouldn’t surprise me if he dropped out after a month.” Pidge admits fixing her glasses.
“Really??” Lance asks.
“Yeah, I’m surprised he even applied here, to be honest” She shrugs.
“Anything else you can tell me about the guy, he seems a little closed off” Lance asks.
“Yeah, that’s Keith, he won’t open up unless he knows for sure he can trust you and he gets to know you.” Pidge points out. “But I can tell you that it’s only Keith and Shiro that moved here, Keith’s parents died when he was very young, Shiro’s family adopted him, So Shiro became like a brother to him.” Lance frowns as he listens to Pidge talk “And That bike that he rode to school, it was a project his father had been working on before he died, Keith found it in his old house and decided to take it to fix himself so he could have a piece of his dad with him.”
“That’s really sad” Lance frowns
“Yeah it is, And I worry about Keith, he falls into these slumps some days and those days I remember Shiro said that he likes to take his bike out, and just ride. I get worried that one day he’s gonna crash his bike, and it’s no good to talk to him about it because he won't listen, he’s too stubborn.” Pidge sighs.
Lance suddenly gets a sinking feeling in his stomach, he starts to worry that something bad will actually happen one of these days. “I think I’m going to head home, Wanna walk with me?” Lance asks
“Nah. I’m going to wait for Hunk, I’m going to his house after” Pidge smiles “You can come too?” She offered.
“No. I can’t I have to work later” Lance smiles a little “I’ll see you tomorrow,” He says as he grabs his bag and stands up. He waves as he walks out the door, walking out of the building and back to his own apartment.
Lance had to get to work in an hour, he had 10 minutes to make it home, shower and grab a small snack before he had to head to work. He’d taken extra shifts after work because he was starting to have trouble paying his rent after having to put his car in the garage-Which he got back a few days ago. Once Lance got back to his apartment he unlocked the door and headed inside, taking his shoes off and throwing his bag onto the couch, heading straight for the shower. Putting his phone on the bathroom sink he plays his favorite playlist as he strips down and makes sure the water isn’t too hot or too cold before stepping into the shower. He can feel himself relax as the water runs down over his skin. Twenty minutes later, Lance’s playlist cuts out and he turns the water off, stepping out of the shower, drying off and gets dressed in his work uniform, towel drying his hair he grabs his phone and heads into the kitchen to grab a quick snack.
Lance’s phone vibrates as soon as he puts it down to search through the fridge. Lance picks it back up noticing that it was Keith who messaged him, he opens the message with a smile.
4:05 PM - Hey, you busy?
4:06 PM - Yeah sorry mullet, I got to get to
work soon, why?
4:09 PM - Ah nevermind then, it wasn’t important.
Lance frowns at the text before replying
4:13 PM - no what is it?
4:21 PM - Nothing
Lance sighs, he finished his snack and grabbed his car keys, shoving his phone in his pocket and heading off to work. He parked his car and got out, locking the doors, walking into the cafe. “Hey, Allura” Lance waves as he heads to the back.
“Hello, Lance!” Allura called out.
Lance puts on his apron and clocks in for his shift and immediately starts cleaning up the machines and refilling the pastry section.
“Lance, I need to leave in an hour, are you okay here by yourself, we haven’t been that busy today but if you need the extra hands, you can call in Keith, Coran will be in at six o’clock,” Allura informs Lance.
“Don’t worry I’ll be fine” Lance smiles
“Ok, I believe you” Allura grins and tends to the customer who just showed up.
An hour passes fairly quickly and Allura announces that she has to get going and leaves the cafe in Lance’s hands. Lance waves bye as Allura walks out the door and tends to another customer that showed up.
After about half an hour goes by Keith walks into the cafe, he seems off. Lance looks up from cleaning the counter when he heard the bell on the door chime, he waves but instantly notices that something is off with Keith. He watches as Keith moves to sit down at a booth, not ordering anything, just sitting down and looking at his phone. Lance frowns sadly and makes a Medium coffee, carrying it over to Keith on the house, sitting in the booth across of him. “Hey mullet, you okay? I got a coffee for you, on the house.” Lance pushes the coffee closer to him.
Keith looks up from his phone “ah, thanks, you didn’t have to do that though.” Keith says. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me” Keith answers.
“You didn’t seem fine when you texted me earlier, what was that about anyway?” Lance decides to push.
“Nothing, it was nothing” Keith huffs
Lance sighs, hearing the door chime again he gets up “Fine, but just so you know you can actually talk to me, I don’t judge.” he heads back behind the counter to help the customer.
Keith frowns, looking at the coffee in front of him, a small smiley face drawn on the cup, he sighs a little, he’d messaged Lance earlier because he wanted a distraction, he wanted company, although he would never admit it, Lance was good company.
Keith lifted the lid to the coffee cup and sniffed it, afraid to take a sip and it be some fancy drink but it just turned out to be a black coffee, just the way Keith liked it.
Sipping slowly at his drink he continues to look through his phone, deciding to leave after a while, getting up and waving goodbye to Lance, he heads back to Matt’s place.
Lance’s shift was almost over, time counting down to 11:30 pm, The cafe was an open 24/7 place so sometimes Lance’s shifts ran late or really early, He hates the really early shifts because he just wants to sleep in on the weekend instead of working. Lance checked the time again, and it said 11:31 pm, he shouts out to Coran that he’s clocking out now. “Okay, See you on your next shift my boy!” Coran calls back. Lance grabs his car keys and his bag, heading out to his car, unlocking the driver's side door he gets in and sits there for a few minutes, checking his phone. There were no new messages, he put his phone down and headed back home.
Once back home Lance changes into some sweatpants and a t-shirt, grabbing his laptop from his nightstand and heading to the living room, laying down on the couch.
Lance turns on his laptop, checking to see if anyone was on skype but to his disappointment, no one was online, not even Pidge or Hunk.
Meanwhile, Keith was getting himself a midnight snack, Shiro had gone to bed as well as Matt, Pidge decided she was going to stay over Hunks tonight because she didn’t have an early class tomorrow so Keith was the only one awake and he was hungry. Keith grabbed a few cookies from the cupboard and a glass of milk, sitting at the table to eat his snack, eating slowly, dunking the cookies into the glass of milk, drinking the milk right after and deciding to go to bed. He hadn’t spoken to Lance since that moment in the cafe, he honestly didn’t know what to say after that experience so he just didn’t say anything. It’s now past midnight, Keith lays in bed, he doesn’t want to sleep but it would be the second night in a row he hadn’t slept because of his fear that the nightmares are going to wake him, but he’s too tired to care, he sleeps, but he’d only been asleep for one hour before he wakes up in a cold sweat, with trouble breathing, shaking, but he didn’t scream, not this time.
With each passing second Keith tries to calm himself down but it’s useless, he doesn’t go to Shiro, he doesn’t leave his room, what does he do? He picks up his phone and with shaky fingers, he calls the first number he finds in his contacts and that name just happened to be Lance.
It took a few rings before Lance actually answered “Keith? Do you have any idea what time it is??” Lance says with a yawn, slight annoyance in his tone, but all annoyance disappears when he hears Keith speak.
“L-Lance…” His voice shook as he tried to spit out a sentence “I’m sorry for c-calling”
“Keith A-” Before Lance could actually ask his question Keith had hung up, he tried to call Keith back but Keith wouldn’t answer. Lance left him a message after a few more failed attempts on getting Keith to answer his call. “Keith, Is everything ok? I don’t know if you meant to call me or not..and I know we only met pretty much two days ago but you can talk to me... I’ll listen.”
Keith listened to the message after he calmed down a little, really wishing it wasn’t Lance’s number that he called.
The next day rolled around, after not sleeping anymore during the night, Keith was already up and showered, eating a bowl of cereal when Shiro strolled into the kitchen. “Oh...Good morning Keith” Shiro runs a hand down his tired face “I wasn’t expecting you up already.”
“Couldn’t get to sleep” Keith admits.
Shiro frowned and asks “More nightmares?”
Keith nodded and finished off his cereal.
“Keith, Why didn’t you come to me?”
“I didn’t want to wake anyone else up by knocking on your door, it’s not that big of a deal” Keith shrugs and sets his bowl in the sink, finishing off his glass of water “I’m heading off now, got an early class today”
“Keith…?” Shiro tries to continue the conversation.
“Drop it, please. I’m fine” Keith grabs his keys and pulls on his jacket, stepping out the door, closing it behind him.
Shiro sighed after Keith leaves, going about his morning.
Keith backs his bike out of the driveway, heading towards the school, once again passing Lance, who was walking to school. Lance waved this time, Keith didn’t wave back, he’ll just pretend that he didn’t see him.
His bike parked, he pulls off his helmet and makes his way into the school. Once he got settled into a seat in the back of the class, he realized that he had some time to spare so he pulled his sketchbook from his bag and began sketching.
A few minutes pass by and soon Lance was dropping into the seat next to Keith.
“Hey, mullet”
“Hey” Keith didn’t look up from his drawing.
Keith probably doesn’t want to talk about what happened last night so Lance doesn’t bring it up, wanting to stay on Keith’s good side. “What are you drawing?” he asked, trying to peek at the drawing.
“Nothing” Keith covers the page more with his arm.
“Oh come on, you can’t say nothing when you’re obviously hiding it now” Lance smirks.
Keith glances up at Lance, a smirk of his own present on his face “It’s nothing you need to know about.”
“It’s gonna be like that is it?” Lance asks in a playful manner.
Keith just laughs a little, closing the book and slipping it back into his bag once the teacher started the lesson. Assuming that Lance wasn’t going to bring up the early morning call meant Keith can pretend as if it didn’t even happen and actually enjoy the rest of his day.
Everything seemed to be going great, it’s been a month since Keith and Shiro had settled in with Matt and Pidge, Shiro was still on the look for his own apartment, although Matt had told them they could stay as long as they wanted-he wasn’t going to kick them out anytime soon-he enjoys the company. Shiro had found himself a job, and Keith has been doing well at his own job at the cafe on the weekends. Everything was great, well, it was until it wasn’t.
Lance was on his way to school, it was Friday and he could not wait for the day to be over so he could sleep in on Saturday. While walking to the campus he listened for the sound of Keith’s bike roaring up the street, it’s become sort of a habit to Lance now and he smiles to himself when he hears that bike and watching it fly past him.
Keith saw Lance walking again, he usually doesn’t acknowledge Lance on the way to school but today something in him decided to lift his hand to wave at him as he passed by.
Lance smiled more and lifted his arm to wave back to Keith, laughing once the bike was out of sight. ‘Guess waving every morning paid off.’
Once at the school Keith stayed sat on his bike, waiting for Lance which he had been doing for the past two weeks. Just as Lance was walking up to Keith’s bike, Keith was pulling off his sweater, his stomach showing for a brief moment but long enough for Lance to catch sight of those defined ab muscles, Lance could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks but he hopes his face isn’t as red as he thinks it is. “Hey Keith”
Keith ties his sweater around his waist. “Hey.” he yawns as he stands up with his bag slung over his shoulder.
“Tired mullet?” Lance asks with a smirk
Keith shoots a glare Lance’s way when that nickname left his lips. “When will you stop calling me that?”
“I’ll stop calling you that when you finally cut your hair.” Lance laughs, slinging an arm over Keith’s shoulders as they head towards their first class of the day. They both sat down in their seats in the back of the class again, Keith letting his bag hit the floor after taking out his sketchbook but before he could put pencil to paper, Lance is whispering something to him.
“Hey, um... You took that job at the cafe so you could get your own apartment right?” Lance asks.
“Ah.. yeah, why are you asking?” Keith glances at Lance with his eyebrow furrowed in confusion.
“I’m looking for a roommate and was wondering if you’d be interested?” Lance asked, he spoke quickly, bunching all his words together.
“ah...What about Hunk, why not ask him?” Keith asks, shocking by Lance’s question and also confused.
“Hunk already got his own place.” Lance points out.
“but...Why me?”
“You’re the only one I have left to ask. You can say no... I’ll just put up a few flyers if you don’t want to be my roommate, but I’d thought I’d ask” Lance admits with a smile.
Keith takes a few minutes to think it over. ‘Paying half the rent is better than paying full rent...Lance is pretty ok guy too...but...no, My nightmares haven’t been that bad lately… Maybe moving in with Lance will be ok…’ Keith thinks to himself.
“Sure.. why not..” Keith agrees with a smile “When can I move in?”
“Wait really?? Awesome! How about tomorrow? It’s the weekend so you can take your time moving your stuff”
“Sounds good to me, you going to come by and help me?” Keith asks with a grin.
Lance shakes his head “Nope you have to do it all by yourself” He grins “Of course i’m going to come help, I have a car that you can put your stuff in”
A few hours go by, finally it’s the end of the day. Lance walks out of the school with a relieved sigh “I can go home and relax!” He exclaims with a smile.
“I guess I got some packing to do” Keith laughs a little “i’ll pack everything I need right now after I get back home from a ride... “ Keith says, smiling. “Do you want a ride home?” Keith asks.
Lance freezes in his steps and looks at Keith with wide eyes “On..your bike?”
“Well Yeah, I do have an extra helmet, I keep it in the bag hanging on the side of it.” Keith proceeds to unzip the bag and pulls out another helmet, red, like Keith’s.
“I uh...I never rode...on one of...those” Lance admits a bit nervous.
Keith laughs a little. “Come on… You won’t fall off, I promise” He grins and offers the helmet to Lance before shoving on his own and sitting on his bike.
Lance shoves on the helmet after a bit of hesitation and climbs onto the bike, sitting behind Keith. “You’re going to have to hold on to me… It’s ok” Keith says.
Lance lifts his arms to wrap around Keith’s waist but hesitates. Keith grabs Lance’s wrist and pulls his arm around him. “Hold on Lance”
Lance finally wraps his arms around Keith and lifts his feet off the ground as Keith starts moving. Lance’s grip it tight, but not tight enough to hurt, he’s tense but slowly Lance relaxes as the bike travels along the pavement, his screams turn into laughter and his eyes open to watch as all the buildings and trees fly by in a blur.
Keith smiles as he hears Lance laugh, feeling the other’s arms loosen around Keith’s waist. The ride ended too soon, Lance climbed off the bike after Keith pulled up in Lance’s driveway. Pouting he hands Keith back the helmet who then shoves it back in the bag hanging on the bike. “I promise i’ll take you for another ride sometime ok?” Keith asks, noticing the way Lance’s pout turns into a smile “That sounds like a plan” Lance says excitedly. “I’ll see you tomorrow Keith” Lance waves as he heads inside and Keith makes his way back to Matt’s house.
A few hours goes by, Lance has showed and just finished eating, it was leftover spaghetti but it was still food. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and sends Keith a text.
6:45 PM - Hey, Packing yet??
There was no response. Lance didn’t think anything of it, maybe Keith was packing and didn’t hear his phone. He exits Keith’s chat and decided to text Hunk.
6:50 PM - Hey buddy, what’s up??
6:57 PM - Nothing much, pidge is here
We’re working on our robot, hbu?
7:05 PM - Absolutely nothing, I’m pretty
bored, I texted Keith but he hasn’t answered.
7:10 PM - maybe he’s busy? You guys
have been getting along well ;)
7:11 - oh no, no,no no don’t even go there!!
7:15 PM - Go where? Idk what you’re
talking about ;) ;)
7:17 - I do not have a crush on Keith!
7:23 - Whatever you say buddy ;)
Lance put his phone down, ‘Hunk doesn’t know what he’s talking about, I do not, DO NOT have a crush on Keith’ he tried to reassure himself. Lance checks his phone again, it’s past a half an hour and Keith still hasn’t gotten back to him, he shouldn’t it’s too soon, but he begins to worry. Keith had always responded to Lance’s text only a few minutes after Lance send it, but not this time.
Lance decides to call Matt, who answers after the third ring.
“Hey Lance What’s up?”
“Hey, Has Keith come home yet?” Lance asks
“Ah, no, I haven’t seen him, hang on….Shiro! Has Keith been here yet? Shiro? Wait….Oh no…” Matt’s tone changes from confused to worried very fast.
Lance can’t hear what Shiro is saying but he gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Matt, what’s going on??”
“Lance...Ah.. about Keith… Can you come to the hospital?”
Lance doesn’t respond for a few minutes “Lance?”
“Ah..Y-yeah, Yeah..I’ll be there”
“Ok, I’m going to call Pidge.” with that Matt hangs up and Lance stares at his phone for a while before it clicks in his brain that he needs to go, he needs to be at the hospital. Lance quickly shoved his shoes on, grabbed his keys and ran out the door to his car. Hopping in the driver's seat he fumbles with the keys before getting them in the ignition, starting the car he heads towards the hospital.
Shiro and Matt were already there, Pidge and Hunk too. Lance rushed in through the doors, full panic on his face as he ran up to Shiro and Matt “What happened??”
Matt planted his hands down on Lance’s shoulders “Keith..he was in an accident. A 4x4 pick up was going well past the speed limit and ran a stop sign as Keith was crossing, the truck impacted with Keith’s bike, but that’s all we know”
Lance stood there, his brain working to process what he had just been told but his expression was blank. He glanced over at Pidge who had tears in her eyes, wiping away any that fell down her cheeks, He looked at Hunk, who was holding Pidge in a comforting embrace. Then he looked at Shiro who’s expression read anger, confusion and sadness all rolled into one.
Anger built up inside Lance, anger at whoever decided it was remotely ok to run a stop sign, anger at himself for feeling as helpless as he does right now, but worry and sadness overcame that anger and he runs his hands through his hair “Oh god.. Oh no.. he’s gonna be okay though right?...Right??”
It was Shiro now who took hold of Lance’s shoulders “Lance… Calm down… We don’t know Keith’s condition yet… I know this is hard to hear, it was hard for all of us to hear but right now we need to be strong for Keith.” Shiro’s eyes were full of emotion but his expression was hopeful.
Lance takes in a few deep breaths before nodding “Yeah.. Yeah…”
Almost as soon as Lance takes a seat after 10 minutes of pacing, a doctor emerged from one of the doors. Shiro quickly stood up and stepped towards the doctor. Everyone watched with bated breath, waiting to hear what the doctor had to say. They watched as Shiro ran his hand down his face, stopping to cover his mouth. They watched as Shiro wipes away a few tears as he makes his way back to the group after thanking the doctor.
“He’s out of surgery, they had to realign his the bone in his leg, he is in the ICU right now, he needs help breathing with a breathing tube, and..and he might have some memory loss” Shiro speaks a bit too calmly after he sat back down.
“M-memory loss??” Pidge asks, slight shock in her voice.
Shiro nods. “They’re not certain on that yet, they will be able to tell for sure when Keith wakes up, but they don’t know when that will be” Shiro sighed “It could be a week or more before he wakes up or it could be less...who knows.”
Lance lowers his head down into his hands, Him and Keith had only been friends for about a month now, that’s not a long time for him to be as worried as he is but damn if he isn’t worried, him and Keith had gotten pretty close during the time they spent together, even if Keith kept to himself still, he did open up somewhat to Lance, even to Hunk. He’d become their friend… that’s why he’s so worried, it’s why everyone is so worried, but all they can do right now is wait.
A week goes by, a long slow week, Shiro had taken a few days off his job to be with Keith in the hospital, Lance had avoided school for a day or so after hearing that Keith had gotten in the accident but he couldn’t avoid it forever, Pidge and Hunk took a few days off as well.
Keith hadn’t woken up yet but he hand been moved out of the ICU and into a regular room, although he still needed help with breathing from a machine.
The first time Lance was able to go see him, it wasn’t good, Keith’s leg and arm had been in a cast, he had a couple of bandages on his face, Lance had been told Keith’s helmet came off during the accident, Keith had a few more bandages on his arms and around his rib and torso. He had been covered in bruises as well. Today Lance was going back to see him, hoping there was any more news, hoping Keith has woken up.
Lance walked through the hospital doors, making a beeline to Keith’s room. Shiro was there, Shiro was always there.
“Oh hello Lance.” Shiro gives him a tired smile.
“Hey Shiro, how is Keith doing today?” Lance asked, sitting down on the chair on the opposite side of the bed.
“He’s still the same, nothing any different than before.” Shiro sighs.
Lance frowns “How are you doing Shiro?”
“As good as I can be right now.”
“Why don’t you go rest on the couch over there, get some sleep? I’ll keep an eye on Keith.” Lance offers a smile and motions to the couch over against the wall, across from Keith’s bed.
Shiro hesitates, glancing back and forth between the couch and Keith.
“I promise i’ll wake you up if anything happens, go get some rest shiro.” Lance insists.
“I guess I could rest for a little bit. Just please wake me up if anything happens?”
Lance nods “Will do, I promise.”
Shiro moves to the couch, sitting down “Thanks Lance” He gives Lance a small smile before laying down and closing his eyes.
Lance glanced down at Keith and sighed, he reached over a pushed a bit of Keith’s hair out of his face. The bruises that Lance could see were starting to turn from a purple blue color to an ugly green color, he sighs and pulls a few clips from his pocket that he had specifically brought for the sole purpose of clipping Keith’s bangs out of his face. “I should have asked you to stay, stayed and studied or something, anything to keep you from riding off and then you wouldn’t be here right now.” Lance hesitantly leans down and presses a kiss to Keith’s now exposed forehead, little did Lance know Shiro had been secretly watching, a knowing smile on his face before closing his eyes once again.
Lance sat back in the seat, closing his eyes.
There was a sound, what was it? it sounded similar to an alarm. Lance opened his eyes and found himself lying in a bed, his bed, in his bedroom. How did he get here? He doesn't remember going home.
Lance sat up, realization hitting him that this wasn't his room after all, he's never seen this room before, at least he doesn’t think he has.
Movement from the bed caught Lance's attention making his head snap to whatever had moved alongside him only to see none other than Keith.
‘Keith? Is this Keith’s room? Have I ever seen Keith’s room before??’ Lance questions as he studies the figure laying next to him, hair sprawled out over the pillow, arms under said pillow. He looked beautiful. To Lance Keith looked perfect in this moment, he hopes that he would never wake up from this dream.
Keith hums as he starts to wake, hand coming up to rub his eyes. “Is it morning?” He asked.
Lance looked off to the side where his phone layed flat. Confused on why Keith wasn't kicking him out of his bed or freaking out because Lance was in his bed but this was a dream after all, and a damn good dream at that.
“Yeah, it's ten in the morning” Lance answers Keith's question.
Keith moves and places a hand on Lance's chest, pushing him back down to the bed.
“We don't have to get out of bed yet” Keith whispers.
Lance glanced down at the hand that was now resting on his chest before turning his gaze back to the owner of said hand, who was smirking at him and boy did that smirk make Lance's breath catch in his throat.
“sounds… Sounds good!” Lance silently cursed himself for the sudden raise in pitch of his voice, hoping Keith didn't pick up on it, but he had and Keith chuckled slightly at the sound.
“What's wrong McClain? Cat got your tongue?” Keith leans up to place a kiss to Lance's jaw, sending shivers straight down Lance's spine.
Dear god never let this dream end, Lance thought to himself as Keith pecks small kisses down Lance's neck. Keith's kisses are soft, Lance has pretty much turned into a puddle under Keith's touch. Keith leans up to look Lance in his eyes but Lance's eyes were closed. “hey Lance?”
“Lance??”
“Lance.. Lance wake up??”
Lance's eyes flutter open, coming face to face with Shiro. He sat up very fast “Shit.. I didn't mean to fall asleep” Lance says as he looks down at Keith who still hadn't woken up yet. He remembers the dream and covers his face with his hand to hide the blush.
“It's alright, I was just waking you up to tell you I had to get to work, call me if anything changes ok?” Shiro asks
Lance nods “will do”
With that, Shiro had left, leaving Lance alone in the room with Keith.
During the time Lance spent with Keith, nurses came and went, either checking the monitors, one came and changed his bandages. Lance was close to falling asleep again until he heard a sound, something like a groan, his eyes focused on Keith, who had woken up.
“Hmm?... Where?” Keith asks, eyes squinted trying to pick out his surroundings.
“Keith??” Lance stood up and looked down at Keith, Afraid that this was just another dream.
“Who- Lance?” Keith had closed his eyes again, it hurt to keep them open. “Where am i?”
“... Keith… you're in a hospital.” Lance answers, sitting back down.
“Hos- why am I in a hospital?” Keith asks, voice raising slightly in pitch.
Lance frowns sadly “you were in an accident on your bike.”
“Accident..? My body hurts…” Keith furrows his eyebrows in pain.
“I'll go get a nurse, they need to know you're awake” Lance says, standing.
Before Lance could get very far, Keith had grabbed ahold of Lance's wrist. “I'm not gonna die am I??” Keith's eyes were now on Lance, widened in fear. “Oh god, please don't let me die” his voice shook near the end. Panic had set in and Lance could see the attack coming so he moves back to the bed and holds Keith's hand. “Keith.. Keith, you won't die, I promise” Lance's expression was a mix of worry and sadness. “Follow my breathing.” Lance proceeded to breathe in deeply and then out. Keith follows Lance’s breathing until he calmed down.
“You’re not gonna die Keith” Lance assures him. “I’m going to go get a doctor” he gives keith a small smile and pulls away to head out.
One week, one week had gone by since Keith had woken up, the doctor had told Shiro that Keith could go home today, Keith had asked to speak with Lance so Shiro called him, told him the news and once he got there, Shiro left them alone in the room.
“Hey” Lance said, walking over to the side of Keith's bed.
“Hey” Keith offered Lance a small smile.
“So what did you want to talk to me about, pretty boy?” Lance smirked and leans back in the chair he was sitting on.
Keith rolls his eyes but his smile doesn't falter. “That offer you gave me, before the accident? Does it still stand” Keith asks.
“You mean the one to be my roommate?” keith nods to answer Lance's question “well, I mean yeah, but wouldn't it be better to stay where you are living now? At least until you are fully ok?” Lance questions.
“I know I can't work, meaning I can't pay you any rent yet, but I promise that as soon as I am ok to work, I will pay you everything that I owe…” Keith says.
“Look Keith, I was doing fine by myself for a long time now, having you in my place wouldn't be an issue. But, I just thought you'd want to be with family” Lance admits.
Keith just shakes his head.
“Guess I got myself a new roommate” Lance grins.
“Yeah and besides your place is closer to the school” Keith adds with a smirk.
“Oh, oh funny! Only live with me cause I'm closer to the school, I see how it is” Lance laughs.
“I already told Shiro and he's… ok with it” Keith smiles.
Lance nods and offers a smile in return “alright, I'm gonna head home then and clean the place up a bit”
Keith nods and Lance stands, heading out of the hospital and back home.
Keith was now moved into Lance’s apartment and he was resting for what was left of the day, Shiro had brought them dinner so Lance didn’t have to cook- Lance was thankful for that.
Everything just seemed to go back to normal, well as normal as it could get now.
After a few months had gone by, Lance and Keith seemed to have gotten closer and closer. They often were seen holding hands as they walked even though they try- although unsuccessfully to hide it. They will deny that they are dating to anyone who asks but honestly anyone can see that it’s only a matter of time before it really happens.
Today they were sitting in their apartment since it was saturday and Lance was lid across Keith’s lap while Keith was reading a book and that’s exactly how they spend their night, no talking, just enjoying the other’s company.