Chapter Text
It was raining. Actually, correction, it was pouring; freezing cold bullets of ice-water that seemed to go right through him. Lance McClain was miserable. Well, that was to be expected, seeing as he was trekking through sheets of freezing cold rain at seven in the morning on his way to community service.
And it was only his second day.
His mom had refused to drive him today. Or any day in the future, citing ‘you have a bus pass for a reason’ as a reason to force her youngest son out into the pouring rain far too early in the morning.
Lance was a little salty about it, and may have been a little salty when he did finally make it to VLD Cat Rescue and Rehabilitation Center.
“What’s up, motherfuckers!?” Lance shouted as he kicked open the door, arms slightly raised as rain poured down in the background. He had been expecting three equally unimpressed stares back at him; or four, if Keith bothered to show up. But the lobby was empty. He could hear muffled voices from down the hall. With a sigh, he plodded across the room and down the hall to the Kitten Play Room. He kicked open the door, arms slightly raised, residual rain dripping off his soaked clothing.
“What’s up, motherfuckers!?”
Silence fell in the room as unimpressed eyes stared back at him.
“Lance,” Shiro deadpanned, “you're late.”
“You're wet,” a familiar voice teased. Keith gazed up at Lance with a smirk so devilish it made his chest tight.
Lance threw an arm out, gesturing towards the front door. “Hey! If you hadn't noticed, it's pouring outside! I missed my bus and had to stand in a goddamn monsoon to get here!”
“Why didn't you bring an umbrella?” Pidge asked, nose wrinkling. She sat on the floor on a pillow next to Hunk and across from Keith. They were all sitting on pillows in a circle around Shiro, all with papers and pens in front of them.
“It wasn't raining when I left!” Lance cried.
“And… you didn't check the weather before you went?” Hunk raised a brow.
“You know you can get weather reports on your phone.” Pidge smirked. Keith snorted. Lance scowled.
Shiro raised a hand, “Enough, guys. I'm glad you made it, Lance, albeit late.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Lance sauntered further into the room, leaving a puddle behind him. He eyed Keith, “Nice to see you showed up, too. I didn't think you would.”
Keith furrowed his brows, his smirk still plastered on that smug face. “Why wouldn't I? I'm mandated by law to be here.”
“Right.” Lance sighed, “Aren't we all?”
“Not me…” Hunk mumbled.
“Yeah, we know you're not a delinquent like the rest of us.” Pidge said.
“Alright, alright, enough,” Shiro said, but he looked amused. His eyes slid over to Keith, “Keith, go get Lance some towels and one of those extra volunteer t-shirts we have in the back room.”
The amusement vanished from Keith's face. “What? Why me?”
“Because you're the only one who knows where they are.” Shiro said. Keith groaned. He made a point to get up and walk out of the room in the most annoyed way possible.
“Hurry up, man. I'm freezing!” Lance said, taking Keith’s seat and crossing his legs in front of him. Keith growled at him, giving the boy a good glare before attempting to slam the door behind him.
Lance crossed his arms behind his head and yawned, “So, what’d I miss?”
“Stop that,” Shiro frowned. Lance straightened with a bored roll of the eyes. Shiro continued, “Go with him.”
Lance frowned. “Uh, why?”
“You’re leaving a puddle on my floor,” Shiro said, his eyes pointedly flicking down to the linoleum where droplets from Lance's soaked body were accumulating, “Go change in the bathroom.”
Lance stood with an exaggerated sigh, doing an equally exaggerated shuffle towards the door, “I come in from the rain and you send me out!” He glanced back and caught Pidge rolling her eyes at him. Hunk was playing on his phone. Apparently he was allowed to have a phone. The injustice.
Shiro's unimpressed expression did not budge, “Go. And bring the mop back with you.”
“Lo que quieras, viejo!” Lance complained, throwing an arm up for good measure as the door softly closed behind him. Damn those pneumatic doors.
He shoved his hands in his uncomfortably moist pockets and headed for the break room. A smile crept across his face. He liked throwing in random Spanish into conversation. Maybe it was because he liked knowing something that others didn't, like he had a tiny bit of a one-up on whoever he was talking to. He didn't get to be better than others most of the time, but at least he could swear at them in Spanish and they would be confused at least until they could google it.
His running shoes made an awful squelching against the concrete floor. Maybe Shiro had some extra shoes, too. It would be nice not to be walking in a puddle all day.
“Hey. Where are you going?” A sudden rough voice pulled him out of of his completely uninteresting thoughts. Lance turned, seeing Keith at the other end of the hallway, having come from the direction of the kennels.
“Shiro told me to come and change.” Lance said, walking back towards the other teen. Keith held a yellow t-shirt over his shoulder like an Instagram model. Lance hadn't noticed earlier, but the kid looked rough. He had scabs across his cheek and forehead, some that were definitely getting infected. His right ear had a terrible gash on the edge, cutting through the cartilage– that damn cat really did rip out his earring. On top of that, he just looked tired. His hair was a mess and his face looked greasy. The boy did not have a proper skin care routine, of that much Lance was positive.
It was a good thing the guy was hot, because he was a goddamn mess.
“Great.” Keith tossed the shirt to Lance, who fumbled to catch it. It fell to the floor. Smooth. Luckily Keith had already moved on and apparently didn’t notice Lance's great reflexes. Actually, he was moving in the direction of the break room, and away from the kitten play room.
Lance followed him and wrinkled his nose. “Wait, where are you going?”
Keith glanced over and pointed to the door in front of him before pushing it open. “Break room.”
“Shouldn't you be going back?” Lance followed him in, watching Keith as he flopped heavily into one of the rickety folding chairs.
“Yeah,” he said, leaning back in the chair, “But I won’t. I can kill more time if you’re still busy changing. Which… you should probably go do.” He squinted pointedly at the little puddle Lance was making.
“Yeah, I was going to change in here.” Lance said, “Pretty sure the bathroom here is haunted with the ghosts of many STDs. So if you mind…” He flapped his hands like he was shooing away a flock of birds.
Keith shook his head innocently, “I don’t.”
Lance was shook. He unexpectedly had no idea what to say. He stared at Keith, who was staring back at him, arms crossed, “I'm going to take my shirt off. And then my pants.”
“Yes, I’m aware how changing works.”
“And you just… want to watch?”
“Don’t flatter yourself,” Keith huffed and let his head drop against the back of the chair, “I’m just too lazy to move.”
“Okay. Fine. Whatever.” Lance huffed, throwing his shirt off too energetically. The wadded up, wet cloth fell out of his hands and fell to the ground with a moist slap. Lance felt his cheeks heating up. He didn't get outwardly embarrassed very often. He was good at hiding that shit inside. And even though Keith was still gazing up at the ceiling he felt like the guy was staring right at him. So he turned around, feeling oddly exposed, hastily pulling on the t-shirt. It was yellow, three sizes too big, and had “V.L.D Cat Rescue” in big purple letters. There was a screen printed picture of a winking black cat on the back.
“Hey, did you bring any shorts?” Lance asked, glancing over his shoulder at the other boy, “My pants are soaked and I don't really feel like walking around in my tighty-whities.”
“Tighty-whities? What are you, twelve?” Keith breathed out a laugh.
“They're comfortable.” Lance cried, “Are there extra pants or not?”
Keith snorted. “Y’know they made this great invention called ‘boxers’? Have you heard of them?” But even as he spoke he stood up and moved towards the door. “I’ll see if we have shorts small enough for your skinny ass.”
“So you're looking at my ass now?” Lance followed him out into the hallway after shedding his shoes and socks in a pile along with his discarded shirt.
Keith didn't answer the ass question. So Lance disregarded it.
“Okay, but for real, you look awful. Your ear is all red.”
“Yes, a demon cat assaulted me yesterday, don’t you remember?”
“Oh yeah, I remember. I just thought you'd have taken a goddamn shower in between then and now.”
Keith stopped suddenly, glowering at Lance for a moment before opening a closet Lance didn't even notice. In his defense, it was set into the wall and painted the same sad colour of blue. Keith leaned in, shuffling around through piles of fabrics. Lance peered over his shoulder. There were cat carriers and bags of food set on the bottom. The higher shelves had toys, food dishes, bottles, bags of formula, and other miscellaneous cat related stuff. It must be a storage closet.
Suddenly something flew at Lance's face. He stiffened, hands flying to get the mysterious object off his face. Ah, pants. Black sweatpants with the shelter’s logo on the hip.
“There, pants.” Keith said, “Sorry, no panties in here.”
“Ha ha, I'll have you know briefs make my ass look so much better than a pair of boxers.” He was pulling off his pants because, at this point, he had no shame and just wanted to be out of these wet pants. He glanced up and saw Keith staring at him. His face flushed again, “Don't look asshole!” He threw the wet pants at the boy's head. He missed horribly.
Keith huffed angrily, but did turn around, closing the closet door in the meantime. “You’re the one who started to fucking strip in front of me.”
Lance pulled his new pants up, his thoughts racing. He couldn't hold onto a thought long enough to make a coherent retort. So he just picked his wet jeans up off the floor and started padding away back to the break room. “Yeah, okay.” Great comeback, Lance.
They took a pit stop at the break room to collect the rest of Lance's soaked clothes. Keith also grabbed a roll of paper towel, proving he could think ahead at least a little bit.
“Are there ever kittens in the kitten playroom?” Lance asked on their way back, “I feel like I was promised kittens and I have yet to see any.”
“Yeah, during kitten season.” Keith said.
“There's a kitten season!?” Lance was imagining kittens becoming ripe and ready to harvest from a cat tree.
“Yeah. Spring. When all the feral cats get pregnant and pop out babies.”
“Ah. Right. Feral.”
“Okay, are you actually an idiot or are you doing a bit?” Keith wrinkled his nose. They had crossed through the front entrance and had come back to the kitten room door.
“What? What does feral mean? I've never heard that word before.” Lance whined, adding, “English isn't my first language, okay?”
Keith actually seemed to lose his patronizing look. “Oh. It means wild.”
“Like stray cats?” Lance asked, and Keith looked like he was about to answer when the door unceremoniously opened behind him. Shiro's big head and equally giant neck poked out.
“Will you two get in here? What took you so long?” He herded the two boys into the room, where Hunk was still on his phone and Pidge was laying on her back, staring at a cat toy.
“I was helping him,” Keith said, feigning innocence. He held out a hand, gesturing towards Lance. “He wanted panties.”
“What?”
“Pants!” Lance shrieked. “Pants, I asked for pants!” He threw down his pile of clothes on the floor and plopped down on a pillow between Pidge and Keith.
“That's not how I remember it,” Keith walked back over to his pillow and frowned. “Aw what? You got my pillow wet, asshole.” He kicked the damp pillow into Lance's side.
“Keith, stop.” Shiro huffed. That seemed to be a big portion of his vocabulary. The man sat once again in the center of the circle, crossing his legs and straightening out his VLD Cat Rescue shirt. Keith grumbled and dragged over another pillow to sit on, flopping down with a scowl.
“Well, now that we're finally all here…” Shiro started, looking about at his young charges, “I've handed out some photocopied exercises for you. I like to call it your 'personal development’ work.”
Lance picked up the small pile of paper off the linoleum floor. There were two or three pages, double sided, and at a glance looked a lot like homework. He frowned. He was not a huge fan of homework.
“Personal development?” Pidge asked, sounding a bit disgusted.
“Yes! Community service isn't just punishment, it is also rehabilitation. I believe you should be learning how to better yourselves,” Shiro said, “So every morning we are going to work on these handouts and hopefully you'll learn something about yourself.”
Hunk raised his hand, “Do I have to do it, too?”
Shiro thought about it for a second, “Well, I suppose you don't have to, but I think it's a good idea.”
“Yeah, you don't have to be a fuck up to better yourself.” Lance said, winking at Hunk. He glanced back at Shiro, who did not seem to enjoy his stellar joke, “Hah, uh, sorry.”
Shiro inhaled sharply through his nose, “Turn to the first page everyone. Today's about discovering yourself.”
“I discovered myself one cold night when I was fourteen.” Lance said. He snickered, giving Keith a smirk. Keith just rolled his eyes.
“I want you all to answer these questions.” Shiro said, “Be honest. No one else will read it, so don't be afraid to express yourself truthfully. I want you to think about your answers. After you're done, I'll collect the papers and keep them until the end of next week, where we’ll go over your answers together one-on-one, to see your progress.” He smiled in a way that was sickeningly genuine. The guy really believed he was helping disadvantaged youth or something. Lance felt sorry for him, wasting his time like this.
Shiro clapped his hands together. “Have any questions?”
Lance raised his hand. “Yeah, why are there no kittens in the kitten playroom?”
“I just told you,” Keith scoffed. “It's not kitten season!”
“Ah, right. Okay I have another question. Can I postpone my community service until kitten season?”
“I'd like to do that too if possible.” Pidge added.
Shiro stood with a sigh. “You all have pens, fill out the exercises. I'll give you,” he glanced at his watch, “fifteen minutes.” He strolled over to the door and leaned against the wall, arms crossed. Ah, so he was supervising. That made sense, really the guy shouldn't ever leave them unsupervised.
Lance's eyes drifted down to the first question. So many words. He hated reading. The letters always floated around everywhere and it was hard to concentrate. He looked around. Hunk was already scribbling down an answer. Pidge was, too. Keith was staring at the ceiling.
“Why do we have to do this?” Lance finally complained, turning and gesticulating at Shiro, “Can't you just ask me the questions and I'll tell you my answer? Why do we have to write it down?”
“I'd prefer to have you write it out so I can look over your answers again later.” He said. Lance scowled, moving the scowl from Shiro back to the paper in his hands.
Okay, fine. He could do this, he's not stupid. He had a learning disability, which is why he got an extra hour to take tests at school. It's also why he fucking sucked at school. School was the worst.
Fuck, he was getting distracted again. First question. Fuck. He didn't actually know the first word. He’d just skip it. Blank yourself in a short para–
“Do you need help, Lance?” Shiro asked, suddenly in front of him. Lance looked up; Shiro had his arms crossed and his brows slightly furrowed like he was preparing himself to be annoyed with Lance.
“What? No? Why would you think– do I look like I need help?” Okay, maybe that came off as a bit defensive.
“You’ve been staring at the page for three minutes,” Keith said.
“Hey, shut up! Stop looking at me and work on your own stuff!” Lance snapped. “You haven't written anything yourself!”
Keith crossed his arms and huffed. “I’ve already done this stupid thing once before.”
“Well be quiet and do it again.” Shiro said. Keith groaned and hunched over his paper.
Shiro crouched down in front of Lance, his voice quiet.
“Listen, I read your file, I know you have–”
“Hey, hey, hey!” Lance cried, arms flailing a bit, “I get it, we don’t have to share this with the class!” He glanced around. Everyone was definitely staring at him now.
Shiro sighed, nodding, “Okay, I won't. But if you need help, just ask, okay? I want you to succeed here.”
Lance narrowed his eyes. He didn't entirely trust Shiro yet. Sometimes people said they understood and then still treated him like an idiot. And now here was Shiro almost outing him in front of everyone, pretty much screaming 'hey look at this guy who can't read!’.
“I'm fine. I don't need your help.” He huffed, “I’m not stupid.”
“I didn't think you were stupid, Lance.” Shiro said, but he stood up anyways, “You can come talk to me later if you want.” He strolled back to his post next to the door.
He rolled his eyes as dramatically as possible. “Yeah, okay.”
But… he did need help, clearly, because he couldn't figure out what this first goddamned word was. It has a Z in it, why were they using words with Z? If they were using big words he wasn't going to participate out of protest.
So, fuck that question.
He moved onto the second question. There were no Zs at least. First word: if. Great. Second word: there. Amazing, he was on a roll, the next two words were was and… ant– no, anything–
“Do you not know how to read or something?” Keith said, his words just dripping with sarcasm and ire. Lance bristled.
“Of course I know how to read,” he spat, feeling his cheeks going red. He could feel Pidge staring at him.
Keith's dumb, handsome face fell, and he frowned at Lance. Well fuck him anyway, who cares if he was mad? Lance hunched closer to the floor, pointedly not looking at Keith.
A moment later he felt Keith‘s breath ghosting in his ear as the boy whispered, “If you don’t know the words you can ask.”
Lance felt every hair on his body stand on end. His face was burning, and he was offended that this kid had just given him goosebumps. Why was he so close?! He had no business bringing his warm body and sweet voice that close to Lance–
“I'm, uh,” Lance was flustered, but he powered through the sentence anyways, “wh… what, so you can laugh at me?”
Keith raised an eyebrow. “I told you what feral meant without laughing, didn’t I?”
Okay, that was true. He glanced around. Hunk and Pidge had both gone back to actually completing the exercise.
“I don't know what this word is.” He mumbled, pointing at the terrible Z word.
Keith glanced down at the first word on the page. “Summarize.”
Summarize, right. “That means, like, recap, right?”
“Yeah, the question says to recap what you did to get here in a paragraph.” Keith said and, somehow, didn't sound smug or sarcastic at all.
“Thanks.” Lance murmured, feeling butterflies in his gut. This was bad. This asshole was being nice. If he kept this up, Lance might start really getting a crush.
Keith just nodded and went back to his own sheet, a tiny pleasant smile on his face. Lance took this as a cue to actually do his work.
He ultimately asked Keith about four words. Lance managed to answer three of the six questions before Shiro told them time was up. Keith, on the other hand, hadn't written anything down in that time and instead had doodled between the lines. He still handed in the packet to Shiro just like everyone else.
“See, wasn't that therapeutic?” Shiro said, straightening out the pile of worksheets. He didn't give them time to disagree, “So I know you're all itching to spend time with some cats, so let's get to that. It's kitty litter time!” He said this with far more joy than he had any right to have. He clapped his hands together, “Alright, get up guys. C’mon, up, up, let's get going.”
***
The morning was spent on chores. Around eleven a family came past to look into adopting a cat. Shiro all but shoved them into the kennel room when the people arrived, hastily telling Keith, “Have them meet Dr. Acxa, she's in today.”
Keith huffed, and headed towards the medical wing.
“Wait, wait, why do you get to be in charge?” Pidge complained.
“Cause I know where it is,” Keith shot back. “And I know Acxa already.”
“Okay, well, instead of going to see the doctor, why don't we go out the back and share a joint instead?” Lance nodded his head in the approximate direction of the back door.
This made Keith pause. “Do you have another sock joint?”
“Sock joint?” Hunk looked Lance up and down, his eyes settling on his ankles.
“You brought weed?” Pidge wrinkled her nose, “Really? You brought weed to community service?”
“Wait we're talking about weed?” Hunk was now eyeing up Pidge.
Lance ignored Hunk and turned, gasping, to Pidge. “How do you know what weed is? You're a baby!”
“I’m fifteen!” Pidge cried.
Lance shook his head. “A literal infant. You should be preserving your innocence.”
“You didn't answer my question,” Keith frowned, “Do you have it or not?”
Lance frowned back at him, “What, is it my job to supply the weed? You could bring it sometime you know.”
“So you don't have it.” Keith rolled his eyes and resumed walking.
Lance grumbled. “I thought maybe you would have some.”
“I'm on probation, if I'm caught with weed I'm going to jail.”
“Maybe we shouldn't be having weed.” Hunk said, “We could have fun without having weed.”
Pidge snorted. “Having weed.”
“What? You don't need to have weed!”
“Thanks, Hunk. I'll keep that in mind next time.”
They reached the end of the hallway that connected the rescue to the medical wing. Keith pressed his shoulder against the bar and pushed it open. “Here’s the vets’ section. Acxa’s office is just over here.”
“Is Axca really her name?” Hunk asked, “I've never heard that name before.”
“You should talk,” Lance laughed, patting the big guy’s shoulder.
Hunk made a face. “Are you talking about me? Because I already told you it’s a nickname. That was literally the first thing you asked.”
Lance gasped in mock surprise. “Look at you! Being sassy, I like it! It’s good on you.” Hunk frowned, looking slightly confused, like he wasn't sure if Lance was being sarcastic or not.
Keith just rolled his eyes and pushed through the door leading the group into the vet’s office.
They entered a small, white waiting room. There was a receptionist desk, and a single door that was currently closed. The floors were tiled, also white, and most of the walls were taken up by posters for pet foods or pet advisories or cork boards filled with flyers for dog walkers. Lance had never been in a vet's office before. He never had a pet. There was a little dish sitting on the receptionist desk that was filled with little brown nuggets he assumed were dog treats.
“So there's a vet's office attached to the rescue?” Hunk asked in unfettered excitement, literally squealing when he saw a big gray cat hop down from the window sill.
“The vet's office was here first, actually.” A sweet voice drifted across the tiny room. Lance turned to see a young woman standing in the previously closed doorway. She laughed, “Hey Keith! What are you doing here?” This woman didn't look like a vet. She looked entirely too young. She was tall, thickly built, with dark skin and even darker, round eyes. Her hair was tied in tight braids that hung down just past her ears, which sported a pair of sparkling gold earrings. She held a stack of papers in her arms, which she promptly dropped on the desk. She crossed the room and crouched down, wiggling her fingers towards the cat, “Meeps, come here. Meeps. It's time for your pill–” the cat turned and trotted away, jumping up onto a filing cabinet that sat behind the desk, “He fucking hates me.”
“Hey Shay,” Keith said, a rare and beautiful smile on his face, “I didn't know you'd be here today.”
“Oh yeah, I’m trying to get my community hours up.” Shay stood again, a hand on her hip. She directed her attention to the three newcomers, “So, who are your friends?”
Keith shook his head, “They're not my–”
“Hey, my name's Lance,” Lance slid forward, putting on his most dashing smile. He offered his hand, taking hers when she didn't take his, “What's a cute girl like you doing in a shithole place like this?”
“Uh,” Shay wrinkled her nose, pulling her hand away, “my parents own the building. I actually really like it here.”
Oh shit, her parents owned the place! Quick, back pedal, “Well, it is the nicest vet... place I've ever seen. I can show you some even nicer places– OW!!” Lance reeled back, rubbing the back of his head. What the fuck? Keith just smacked him!
“Stop that. It’s embarrassing to watch.” Keith glared at him.
Lance sighed. He turned back to Shay, running a hand through his hair, “Sorry, I’m actually in community service because I have an addiction to flirting with beautiful wome– OW!!” Keith smacked him again. “Okay, seriously dude, that needs to stop!”
“You need to stop,” Keith snapped.
Pidge snorted. “Yeah what the hell? I thought you were gay.”
“What?” Lance said, genuinely confused. “Why? What made you think that?”
Pidge sputtered, “You said yesterday your definition of a good time was–”
“Oh, oh, right! You're confused young one,” He patted her head, or tried to before she ducked out of the way, “For your information, I am bisexual. I still very much love women.”
“This is more information than I ever needed.” Shay said through a strained smile, eyeing Keith as if asking for a rescue.
“The girl is Pidge.” Keith said. Meeps had come down from the filing cabinet and was now enjoying some scritchies under the chin from the guy.
“Katie Holt,” Pidge said, “Pidge is a nickname.”
“Nice to meet you Pidge.” Shay grinned.
Keith nodded towards Hunk, “And he’s–“
“I’m Hunk!!” The boy practically shouted, making everyone flinch. Meeps scrabbled away to hide behind the receptionist desk. “I, uh, i-it’s also a nickname.”
Yikes. That was embarrassing. Lance had never seen Hunk act like that. Granted, he knew him for two days, but this was definitely out of character for him. Oh he soooo had it bad. He could tell just by Hunk’s face. The boy was smitten.
Unfortunately for him, Shay was not impressed with his sudden outburst. Shock would be a more apt description. “Uh… nice to meet you,” Shay said though an uneasy smile. “So, you guys are with the community service program?”
“Well,” Hunk scratched the back of his head, “I’m not- I’m here volunteering. Because I like cats. Uh, gotta get my hours.” He have a lopsided grin.
Shay seemed to relax. “Oh, right on! Me too.”
Lance could feel the shift in her mood. Could practically see her first impression label change from “loud weird criminal” to “loud weird goofball”. With was substantially better. He might actually have a chance with her if he kept it up.
And in that moment, Lance made it his life’s goal to be the wingman to this adorable future couple. He was willing to take a backseat for the sake of true love. Besides, if it didn’t work out, Lance could always be a second choice.
“Yeah, the rest of us are cold hardened criminals.” Lance said with a shrug. He sidled up to Hunk and patted the middle of his broad chest. “But this guy’s just here out of the goodness of his heart.” Hunk gave him a puzzled look, idly rubbing the spot.
“Okay… well, anyways, why are you guys here?” Shay's dark eyes traveled back to Keith.
“Some people came by to adopt a cat so Shiro told us to come meet Acxa.”
“Oh, okay,” Shay headed back towards the door, “Well I'll give you a little tour, then. Ezor and Zethrid are in today as well.”
Ezor? Zethrid? Lance had never heard of those names, but he had at least a modicum of social aptitude, so he didn't say anything.
Pidge, it seemed, didn't have even the base awareness, as she said, “What kind of names are those?”
“Uh, not English, you racist.” Lance said, long and drawn out as to maximize the embarrassment. Pidge did look sufficiently flustered, which white people usually did when the r word gets bandied about.
“I'm not sure where each of them are from,” Shay said, “But they are immigrants. I think Ezor is Indian? Almost positive Zethrid is from Russia. I guess you could always ask for yourself.” She led them down a narrow hall with fluorescent lights that buzzed dully against distant chatter. On the left was a closed door with a large ‘1’ sign hanging slightly lopsided on the adjacent wall. The door on the right was open, this one titled ‘2’ with the same flimsy black placard as the first room.
Shay approached the room, knocking lightly on the open door. “Dr. Axca? I’ve got Keith and some people from the community service program here.”
The group of teens crowded around the doorway, peering into a small, blue room. Lance's nose burned with the smell of rubbing alcohol. In the center of the room was an stainless steel exam table, one end push up against the wall to limit escape routes for scared animals. In one corner was a desk outfitted with a computer and small jars of supplies, like cotton swabs and q-tips. On the walls hung posters depicting cross sections of a cat and a dog in scientific detail.
There was a woman sitting at the desk who had been typing on the computer, but turned to face them. She was a small woman with pointed features, tan skin, and straight black hair that hung to her jaw on one side. The other was braided tight against her scalp. Her eyes were dark, nearly black, and seemed to stare right through Lance.
“Hello.” She said, unmoving. Her expression remained tight, like she had a general air of disgust with a twinge of curiosity. Her eyes slowly slid over the group, settling on Keith.
“Hey Acxa.” Keith said. A tiny smirk pulled up at the corners of her mouth.
“What are you doing here?” She sounded a bit annoyed.
“Shiro told us to come meet you,” Keith said, sitting down in one of the other chairs pushed next to the exam table. “There’s a family here to adopt so he wanted us out.”
“No, I meant what are you doing here?” Her brows raised a millimeter, “Haven't you already gone through this program?”
“Oh,” Keith shrugged, “Well I’m here again.”
“I see.” She watched him silently for a moment, “You look awful. Did you get in a fight? What happened to your ear?”
“A cat got him,” Lance said. He was unprepared for Acxa’s undiluted gaze to fall on him and he withered a bit with her dark eyes staring at him, “Demon cat. Yesterday.”
Acxa’s lips twitched like she wanted to smile but was trying very hard not to. “Was it Sabre Tooth?”
Keith grimaced, “Yeah.”
“Oh my god,” Shay sighed, “It took four of us to get that cat through intake. Zethrid suggested we euthanize her but I bet you know how that went over with Shiro…”
“Well I'm glad someone's going to try to rehabilitate that animal.” Acxa said. She stood, heading for the doorway and parting the group like the red sea around her, “Well, I suppose I'll show you around. This is my exam room.” She vaguely gestured around the room on her way out, “There's an identical one across the hall. This is where we do most of our exams and minor treatments for patients.”
She strolled out into the hallway and the group followed. They went through a door into a far more open space with a divider down the middle. Both sides looked like operating theaters, “This is where we perform surgeries. Dr. Zethrid and Dr. Ezor are currently performing a neuter.” She nodded stiffly to two figures hunched over a rather large dog. The dog was splayed out on its back on the operating table, a blue sheet draped over its body save for a small square between its back legs. Lance looked away. Surgeries freaked him out. He didn’t even like fake surgeries in movies. Actually, just thinking about the fact that there was a dog with some of his insides on the outside was making him feel woozy.
“Wait so they're performing the neuter right now?” Pidge asked. Shay nodded as Acxa gestured to the two scrub-clad women.
“Dr. Zethrid and Dr Ezor perform over a thousand spays and neuters each year.” She said.
“Yeah, no thanks to Mr. Shirogane.” The larger of the two women griped. And she was very large; tall and broad, she looked a bit like she could rip Lance in half if she really wanted to. Much like Shiro, though Shiro looked like he worked out. Zethrid was huge because she was probably descended from Vikings. She had short brown hair, pale skin with patches of rosacea across her cheeks and down her arms. She was also covered in blood, which was horrifying.
Ezor stood next to her, currently clamping down a set of forceps around the base of the dog’s balls. “Yeah, most of those neuters are from his trap-and-release program.”
Ezor was thin, but she looked like she did a lot of squats at the gym. Her scrubs were pink and orange with blue puppies on them. Her skin was a deep brown, as was her long hair, pulled back in a long braid that trailed down her back.
Lance watched as she handed Zethrid a scalpel. He, against better judgement, watched her slice into the dog’s skin and pop out a fucking testicle.
Keith was closest to him, and he felt himself grab onto his shoulder. That woman was literally cutting into the dog's nutsack and pulling out his balls!!!
Keith squinted at Lance, his arms crossed. “Hey, are you okay? You look like you’re gonna pass out.”
Lance was most definitely not okay.
He vaguely realized he was falling, but was completely powerless to stop his face from colliding with Keith’s shoulder.
***
He was suddenly being jostled. Lance groaned, trying very hard to open his eyes. He was minutely aware of noise around him, but his brain was foggy and only running at half speed. Slowly the garbled sounds turned to voices, and then to words he could understand.
“Is he dead? Did he die?”
“He’s clearly moving, Pidge. He just passed out.”
Lance blinked his eyes open. A blurry field of colour slowly came into focus. There was a crowd of people around him. His brows furrowed. Where the fuck was he again?
He saw Keith standing over him, looking a tiny bit concerned, but also a bit like he smelt a bad fart. Oh right. Community service.
“Are you okay?” A woman standing next to him said. Right, one of the vets. Ezor? She was holding her hands out in front of her. Her gloved hands were still covered in blood. Lance groaned, feeling a wave of disgust wash over him. He very nearly passed out again. It wasn't so much the blood, but the fact that he knew that blood came from a surgery–
And then he woke up again.
“Lance? Dude?” This was when he noticed his head was in Hunk’s lap. The guy was gently patting his cheek, looking incredibly concerned, in stark contrast to Keith.
Keith had his back turned to Lance, now, currently ushering Ezor and Zethrid away.
Hunk was still patting his cheek.
“Stop, I'm fine–” Lance groaned, brushing Hunk’s hand away. He sat up, slowly. His face fucking hurt. Why did his face hurt? “What happened?”
“You passed out and face planted on the ground.” Pidge said. Ah, so that's why his face hurt.
“I need to not be in here.” He breathed, trying to stand. Hunk helped him up, maybe because he saw how wobbly Lance was.
“I'll take you back!” Hunk offered, maybe out of the kindness of his heart, or maybe to impress Shay. Either way, Lance wasn't about to turn down the offer.
“You're afraid of blood?” Keith asked, his tone somewhere between disbelief and amusement.
“No, no.” Lance managed to say before Hunk carted him out through the door. The tall kid led him through the vet office and back through the door into the cat rescue.
In the lobby there were two couches set up, pushed back against the front wall to make a small waiting area. Lance wobbled to the nearest one and immediately laid down.
“So are you, like, scared of blood or something?” Hunk asked, following Lance over and sitting on the unoccupied couch.
Lance sighed, draping an arm across his face to shield his eyes from the glaring fluorescent lights. “No, not blood, specifically.”
“Oh?” Hunk sounded like he didn't believe him.
“It's the… the cutting, the beeping of the machines, the…” Lance paused, feeling another wave of nausea. He took a deep breath, “I just don't like surgery.”
“Yeah, apparently not. You passed out.” Hunk said. Lance stared up at the ceiling, slowly realizing how much of a mess he was. He had fainted. He fainted in front of Keith. He was never going to get the guy’s respect now. The dude probably performed neuters for fun with one of his seventeen knives.
There was a quiet moment where the two teens sat, unmoving, a silence hanging above them. That silence was shattered when something suddenly jumped up onto Lance's chest.
Lance let out an inhuman screech.
There was a flurry of hair and hands. Shiro rushed into the room to see Lance face down on the cold tile floor and a flustered Hunk running after a very puffy gray cat. Meeps.
Fuck this day. Honestly.