Archive of Our Own

“Okay, but why Keith?” Lance asked Pidge and Hunk while collapsing on his desk. In front of him was Pidge on her own desk, and Hunk was at his right side. Both of them looked at each other, then looked back at Lance.

“I don’t really see the problem with that,” Pidge replied adjusting her glasses.

“Yeah, man. Shouldn’t you be thankful? He kinda saved your life,” Hunk agreed crossing his arms.

And he wasn’t exaggerating. The day before, Keith had saved Lance’s life. Not that he had planned to do it. It just happened to be that Lance was about to cross the street while there was a car approaching because he was too focused on his damn phone to worry about his security, so Keith just reacted. He ran towards the boy and jumped to him without thinking about it, making both of them fall in a safe zone while the driver of the damn car honk the horn.

“What the heck, man?” Lance had asked when he realized that he was on the floor, with Keith on top of him.

“Next time, check the road before crossing,” Keith had said before standing up and returning to his pathway.

“What?”

It had taken some seconds for Lance to realized what had happened. Only when some of his classmates has hurried to help him to stand up and he saw their worried faces of his and the car that was disappearing in the horizon, Lance put two and two together and came to the conclusion that Keith had just saved his life.

Well, maybe not his life. Maybe Lance wouldn’t have died if he would’ve been hit by that car, maybe we would’ve gotten some scars, some minor injuries…

“I am thankful. I guess. I think. I don’t know.” Lance complained resting his face on the desk.

“Why are you so conflicted about it?” Pidge sighed, knowing what Lance would say.

“Because it’s Keith! We are supposed to be rivals!! And now I owe him! I don’t want to owe him!”

“I can’t believe that the guy saved your ass and you’re just worried about having some kind of debt,” Pidge said while readjusting her glasses. Hunk gave Lance a disapproving look.

“Yeah, he probably didn’t think about what he was doing and just reacted. Lance, just tell him ‘thanks, if you ever need anything tell me’ and that should be enough,” Hunk suggested.

Lance raised his head dramatically and gave him an exasperated look. “It’s not that easy! He probably is thinking about a way to humiliate me now that I’m in debt with him.”

“Why do you have to be such a drama queen?” Pidge asked without expecting an answer, “Oh, you can actually ask him what you should do to repay him,” she said while moving her eyebrows suggestively.

Hunk sighed, knowing that Pidge was only trying to mess up with Lance. And she was achieving it.

“JUST WHAT KIND OF PERSON DO YOU THINK I AM?” Lance shouted, before realizing what Pidge was intending. He heard a chair moving to his left side and cursed Pidge mentally. She had made him scream just as Keith was entering the classroom.

“Hey, Keith.” Pidge greeted the boy, ignoring Lance and feeling proud of herself.

“Hi.” Keith replied before going back to his business.

Pidge returned her attention to Lance, who was looking daggers at her. She chuckled, her day had just been made.

“C’mon, Lance,” Hunk said before anything could escalate any further, “Just relax. Don’t let Pidge get in your head. Here, have a cookie,” he added after reaching to his lunchbox to take some cookies from it, “you can have some too, Pidge. I made them myself.”

“Oh, you don’t even have to ask,” Lance said while taking some and stuffing them in his mouth.

Hunk just smiled softly, feeling happy about his cookies being appreciated, and relieved because the conflict was over. At least for now. He knew better than to expect Lance to drop the subject soon.

Luckily for him, the teacher soon entered the room and started with the class. However, to his disgrace, as soon as the class had begun, Lance started to behave… weirdly. He was stopping from time to time to glance at Keith, who was not even paying attention to him. And Hunk knew that non-reaction was somehow bothering Lance. In the end, Hunk would be lying if he said that he had payed attention to the teacher, he had been too worried about Lance doing something stupid that he couldn’t concentrate. Hopefully Pidge would lend him her notes.

Seconds after the bell rang, the classroom was almost empty. The only remaining people where the three of them, and Keith. Even the teacher had left. If it had been another moment, Lance would have commented about that, but his mind was preoccupied with Keith. So when he heard the chair at his left side move, he quickly turned to the black-haired boy.

“Keith!” he said way louder than he expected, taking him by surprise, “Uh… thanks for yesterday,” he added, softer this time, without really knowing what to say.

“Ah, no problem,” Keith replied giving him a little nod.

“You know, if you need anything you can tell me,” Lance said repeating the words that Hunk had said to him.

“No, it’s okay,” was the response Keith gave before making his way out of the classroom.

“See? He is not planning to humiliate you,” Hunk reassured him.

“Are you kidding? He is clearly hinting that he wants me to figure out what I have to do! That’s so unfair!” Lance claimed, taking his backpack from the floor.

Hunk and Pidge looked at each other and sighed, knowing that this situation was far from over.

It was just the beginning.

The next time Lance and Keith had classes together, Lance offered him one of Hunk’s cookies. Which was politely rejected because Keith had just eaten some mint candy that would spoil the cookie flavor. The next thing was offering his pen while Keith was searching through his backpack, which was also rejected because Keith found his pen just in time. And many little things were rejected because Keith didn’t need them at that exact moment, and Lance was getting frustrated, so he decided to go a step further.

That’s how he decided to invite Keith to his group’s table at lunch. And Keith had doubted.

“C’mon, man,” Lance said, maybe trying too hard to sound inviting.

“Uh, sure,” Keith agreed mostly because he didn’t feel like making an effort to get away.

Lance wanted to scream. It was the first thing that Keith had accepted! Yes, it was a small thing, but Lance thought that if the collected little things he would be able to pay his debt with Keith.

And Keith thought that it wouldn’t hurt to sit with them. It could be better than sitting by himself, and it was certainly better than sitting with Shiro. Who had lunch with a teacher, anyways? Was there something as lame as that?

So they both walked together to the table that was already preoccupied by Pidge and Hunk. The latter two seemed rather surprised to see Keith approaching the spot, but they greeted him with warm smiles, hoping that Lance wouldn’t do something stupid.

They started eating and Lance, Pidge, and Hunk were talking about random stuff that Keith wasn’t really paying attention to. Just how different was this from eating alone?

“Keith?”

Keith was caught off guard when Hunk had said his name.

“Yes?” He said quietly, lifting his glance from his lunch.

“I wanted to know it you would like a cookie this time,” Hunk said in a friendly manner while offering some.

“Sure, thanks,” Keith said after taking one. He took a bite and realized that Hunk was looking at him enthusiastically, “Oh, it’s really good!”, Keith complimented after swallowing.

“I know, right?” Lance commented.

“Thank you! It’s my own recipe,” Hunk replied proudly, “You can have more if you want,” he offered with a smile.

And Keith did. They were really good. And he also felt good. It was nice to see some friendly faces instead of eating alone, also cookies were always appreciated. Taking that into considerations, Keith sat with them the next day, and the next, too.

However, Lance had just began to make some progress with his made-up debt. After that innocent lunch, he started to try even harder to do things for Keith. And Keith had already noticed, and was losing his patience.

“Keith, do you want my dessert?” Lance had asked one day.

“No, thanks,” Keith had said before resuming his conversation with Pidge about aliens.

“That seems heavy! Want some help?” Lance had asked when he saw the guitar-shaped case on Keith’s back.

“No, I’m fine,” Keith had replied firmly.

“Didn’t know you were a music guy,” Pidge had said when she saw him.

“I just like the bass. It’s kinda underrated,” Keith had simply replied.

And more offers came.

“Keith, need help?”

“Yo, Keith, coffee?”

“Keith, want some cookies?”

“Keith, need help with your homework?”

“Do you want me to get that for you, Keith?”

Even though it was freaking him out, Keith didn’t understand the reasoning behind it; until when Pidge told him about Lance making up this debt in his mind. Which Keith honestly thought was stupid.

“Keith─”

“Oh, my god. Please stop,” Keith interrupted him, closing his locker, “You don’t have any kind of debt with me. Seriously, stop.”

“But─ You saved me! I have to─”

“Seriously, Lance. I just saw you there, and jumped to push you. I didn’t even mean for that to happen. I just reacted. You’re okay, that’s what matters. I don’t need nor want anything in exchange,” Keith firmly said, and Lance could see Pidge and Hunk with that “told you so” look.

“But─ Keith! I─” Lance tried to protest, but was interrupted again by Keith.

“Okay.” he sighed, “Buy me lunch today and we will be even,” Keith suggested, really wanting Lance to cut his shit.

“No. It’s not equivalent. I have paid around 30% of what it should be. 23% if you discount Hunk’s pastries, because he does them and I just take them, so─”

“Okay,” Keith stopped him again, trying hard not to scream at him, “If you want to repay me so badly, go with me to the arcade this Saturday. You buy lunch, I’ll get the tokens. Final offer.”

“Uh, sure? Do you like going there? Are you just suggesting anything so I’ll feel better about it? Because if that’s the case I don’t think─”

“There’s this event this Saturday that I want to attend. I don’t want to go alone and going with Shiro is too lame. Who goes to the arcade with his older brother? He still thinks that Link is called Zelda,” Keith admitted, “So, deal?” he finished.

“Oh, right! Sure!! I’ll go with you!!” Lance replied enthusiastically.

“Okay, cool,” Keith said intending to go to his classroom.

“Oh, wait,” Lance said, making Keith stop and turn to him, “You said this Saturday? I kinda already have plans with Plaxum… Maybe two Saturdays from now?” Lance said with a quieter voice.

“Oh, no. It’s okay. Just… forget it. Forget what I said, it’s fine. Have a good time. Also, forget about your stupid debt, okay?” Keith said before he started to walk towards his classroom.

Lance saw Keith walking away and he couldn’t help but to feel somehow guilty. Damn his forgetful mind.

And Keith felt stupid for telling him something personal. He usually didn’t talk about his interests, or his family. And he really felt happy when Lance had said yes, so obviously it hurt when he retracted himself. Damn, Keith hated to deal with emotions. That’s why he used to sit alone at lunch!

Stupid feelings.

Stupid Lance.

Stupid feelings for Lance.

And it’s not like he was planning to have a crush on Lance, it just… happened. And it wasn’t fair. Because Keith knew that the other boy was giving him attention just because he still felt that he owed him something. Or that’s what he had concluded after Pidge told him why Lance had been persistent to help him in some way.

The thing was, Lance was like the sun. It was bright, shining, warm… and that could be proved by the way he treated Hunk and Pidge… and recently Keith. But…

It wasn’t real, was it?

So of course it had been a stupid decision to ask him to go to the stupid arcade with him. He already knew why Lance was so friendly with him, goddamnit! To be honest, and Keith would never admit it in public, Keith knew something like that would happen. It was obvious. But it needed to happen. That way, Lance would stop pretending to care about him. And Keith would stop trying to be something he wasn’t.

He wasn’t friendly.

He was a loner.

A socially awkward boy who wanted to believe that Lance’s actions had been genuine.

He should’ve known better.

And he kinda did.

But it still… it hurt.

Keith went to the classroom where his next class was. He didn’t bother with lunch that day. He just stayed in the classroom, looking outside the window, wondering when life had gotten so complicated.

Lance was surprised when he sat on the table and Keith wasn’t around. Keith usually was already there, talking with Pidge about some random stuff regarding aliens when he got to the table. But today, there were not even signals of Keith. So, Lance assumed that something had happened that day and that he would see him the next day.

And he did, Keith was in the classroom in the morning, minding his own business.

“Hey, man!” Lance said approaching his classmate, “You weren’t at lunch yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah. I had lunch with Shiro,” Keith replied, without wanting to share more information.

“Oh…” was all that Lance could say back. Okay, he knew that Keith was protective of his own emotions and thoughts, he had been paying attention since the first day that Keith had enrolled at their high school. However, this was different. Because Lance had noticed a change in Keith’s attitude since he had started to hang out with the group. Damn, he never would’ve expected that Keith would be into aliens and cryptids, but he was. Keith liked to have long conversations with Pidge, with Hunk and even with Lance! But now… Lance could only feel that Keith was avoiding him.

And it felt wrong.

Sadly for him, Lance could only feel worse when lunch came. He knew Keith wasn’t going to be there, yet still his stomach hurt.

“It’s called guilt,” Pidge said without looking up from her lunch. “You are feeling guilty.”

“But why? I just told him that I couldn’t go with him this Saturday. He shouldn’t be that angry about that,” Lance said, trying to think through the situation.

“You think that’s why he felt bad?” Hunk asked, gaining the attention of both Lance and Pidge.

“Why else─”

“Oh, my god. You, stupid boy.” Pidge interrupted, “Have you stopped to think about that maybe Keith just wanted a friend? That he thought you wanted to be his friend, but then thought that the only reason you care about him is because of your stupid logic?”

“I mean…” Hunk continued, “I think that maybe the fact that you called off his plans so easily confirmed that thought, Lance.”

“Oh…” Lance said while deep in thought, “Oh, no.” He added when he recognized that what they were saying was true.

The alarm had gone off on Saturday morning. And Keith had tiredly turned it off, and buried his face again in the pillow, not wanting to wake up until lunch. He wasn’t going to do anything that day, anyways. So, why would it matter if he stayed in his bed for a few more hours?

Sadly, Shiro had other plans. Just as Keith was falling asleep, he heard a knock on his door.

“Keith? Are you awake?” Shiro asked while opening softly the door.

“Mmm…” Keith replied, without uncovering his face.

“I thought you were going out today?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I’m staying home today,” Keith said still avoiding looking at him.

“But, Keith, you were talking nonstop about how much you wanted to go today.” Shiro said while sitting on his brother’s bed.

“Change of plans,” Keith replied rolling to the side, facing the wall.

“Oh…” Shiro said softly, “Then, what to make breakfast with me? We can make pancakes!”

“No, I will sleep a little more, I’m kinda tired,” Keith replied without moving.

“Are you sure, buddy?”

“Yes. Would you let me sleep more? School has me tired.” He said in quite a harsh tone, without intending to.

“Okay… If you need anything, tell me, okay?” Shiro said while resting his head in what he assumed was Keith’s shoulder. He knew that there was something bothering Keith, but he also acknowledged that pressuring him wouldn’t help.

So Shiro went downstairs, headed to the kitchen with the purpose of making the mentioned pancakes, wanting to cheer up Keith a little. And maybe that way they could talk about what had happened.

He took the flour out of the counter, the eggs and the milk from the fridge, and was about to start pouring the flour into a bowl when he heard a knock on the door. He paused what he was doing and walked towards the sound.

When he opened the door, Shiro was met with a boy he didn’t completely recognize, but looked somehow familiar.

“Uh… Mr. Shirogane… Does Keith…? Is Keith here?” The boy asked nervously.

“What do you want him for?” Shiro asked protectively, while wondering why he was in his house so early asking for his brother.

“Uh, uh… My name’s Lance... We were supposed to go out today, but I kinda told him no? Well, not really, he was the one who assumed it. And I felt kinda bad, so I guess I’m here to go out with him after all? Is he even still here? Did he leave already? I guess he already left, right?” He asked rapidly, getting lost in his own words.

Shiro looked at him confused until he was able to put two and two together “Come in,” he replied, opening the door.

Lance did as told, and sat in the sofa that Shiro had pointed at, with Shiro sitting in front of him. Okay, he would be lying if he said that he wasn’t intimidated. Shiro was a huge guy, and he had some scars that looked scary, and he assumed that he was protective with Keith. Plus, he was a teacher. Yes, he didn’t have classes with Shiro, but maybe he still could do something to prejudice Lance. Oh, no. Would Shiro kill him? Would Lance die without being able to apologize with Keith?

“So, you’re Lance,” Shiro started, with a soft expression.

“Yeah…” Lance said, gaining a little of his confidence.

“I’m glad to finally meet you face to face. Keith has never been good making friends, so I’m always scared that he will isolate himself”, Shiro admitted, “but when I saw him eating with the three of you I was relieved.”

“Oh, really? I think Keith is a great guy. Sure, he’s kinda awkward at first, but he’s pretty chill. Pidge and Hunk appreciate having him around, they help to soften his frown. I think he doesn’t realize that he will get wrinkles if he still keeps frowning like that,” Lance said, and he was happy when Shiro chuckled.

“It’s great to know that he has some good friends, then.” Shiro suggested and Lance’s expression changed.

“Well… not really… I mean, Hunk and Pidge are awesome and treat him very well. But, uh… I think I haven’t been acting as a good friend. I think you already know, but Keith kinda saved me a while ago, and I felt that I needed to compensate him for that. So, I tried to help him and give him things he didn’t need. I didn’t stop to think about his real feelings, I guess I was really selfish…”

Lance directed his gaze to the floor, with a guilt feeling growing in his stomach. He wouldn’t lie, he hadn’t realized how selfish he was being with Keith until Hunk and Pidge had spoken with him about it. He was just doing it because he wanted to feel better with himself.

And it was like that. At first, at least. But he had grown accustomed to having Keith around at lunch, so when the day came that Keith wasn’t there, Lance couldn’t help but to feel a little bit sad.

“Haven’t you thought that maybe you are not considering Keith’s feelings? I mean, the main reason you wanted to get close to him was because you felt that you had a debt with him, man.”  Hunk had said that day.

“Yeah, Lance. You are only doing this for yourself. Now Keith must be thinking that you don’t really care about him and that you were only paying him attention to feel better with yourself, man,” Pidge had agreed.

Shiro crossed his arms and rested his back on the sofa, looking at Lance with a smug expression. “Well…” he began, interrupting Lance’s thoughts, “I think I’m not the one you should be explaining yourself to. He’s still in bed, but I can bet he’s awake. Second floor, right door. Tell him about the pancakes.”

Shiro stood up and walked towards the kitchen after giving Lance a pat on the back, leaving the boy alone in the living room.

Lance remained there for a few seconds, trying to think about what he should do. He let out a sigh and decided to stand up. Shiro was right. He had come this far because he wanted to apologize with Keith, and that’s what he was going to do.

Finding the right room hadn’t been difficult, but deciding to enter hadn’t been as easy. Lance stood outside the door for a moment before taking a deep breath and knocking the door.

Tock tock…

Nothing.

Lance breathed out again and decided to just open the door. Well, maybe decided wasn’t the right word, he hadn’t really thought about it before doing it. He entered the room and stood in front of the bed, looking at the lump that was covered by sheets.

“Get out, Shiro.” Keith said in a low voice, without even moving.

“I’m… uh… I’m not Shiro...” Lance replied quietly, almost in a whisper.

“Lance!?” Keith had almost screamed. He rolled on the bed and almost fell on the edge.

“Uh… hi.” Lance said awkwardly, waving his hand slowly. He was taken aback by how rasping Keith’s voice was, and ended up without really knowing what to say.

“Wha─ What are you doing here?” Keith asked, quieter this time. He then proceeded to sit on the bed and to fidget with the sheet covering his legs.

“I… I came here to apologize,” Lance started, “I was so focused on helping you in order to repay whatever debt I made up that I didn’t stop to think about how you were feeling. I was completely selfish, and I gave the impression that the only reason I was hanging out with you was because of that same stupid reason. And it wasn’t like that, I like hanging out with you, and so do Hunk and Pidge. I was stupid, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, man. You didn’t need to come here just to apologize,” Keith replied with an expression that Lance couldn’t completely read, but he still knew that it wasn’t completely good.

“I… also came here to take you to the arcade,” Lance said fidgeting with his thumbs, “I cancelled my plans with Plaxum and I decided to come here to─”

“Lance,” Keith interrupted him, “you don’t have to do this, okay? You owe me nothing. I didn’t jump to make you owe me shit. I just reacted, okay? Now, please, just leave,” Keith said firmly, making Lance feel quite angry at himself.

“It’s not like that!” Lance exclaimed, “I didn’t cancel because I owe you. I’m not here because I want to repay you this time. I came here because I really want to go with you!”

Keith covered his face with his hand, hiding his blush, “Why do you have to make things so complicated?”

Lance shrugged, “I don’t know. That’s just who I am as a person.”

Keith uncovered his face and let a little chuckle, “Yeah, I can see that.”

Lance smiled in response. “So… what do you say? C’mon, Keith, I brought you a pacman sticker!” He said with enthusiasm, feeling better after seeing Keith’s little smile.

Keith looked at him and sighed, “Okay,” he agreed, “Let me shower first and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

“Okay! Cool! See you then! Also, Mr. Shiroga… wait that sound weird, uh… your brother is making pancakes. He told me to tell you that.”

“Oh, I knew he would do pancakes anyways.”

Keith started to stretch his arms, then he rubbed his left eye, and then he realized that Lance was still in the room, “Lance…”

“What? Oh, yeah, right. I’m going downstairs, you shower, and dress and all of that. Right, right,” he said before exiting the room and closing the door behind him.

Keith let out a long sigh, smiling like a fool while his heart was jumping on his chest. He slapped his face softly and got up from his bed, preparing everything to take a quick shower.

Lance walked down the stairs towards the kitchen and found Shiro already pouring the pancake mix onto the pan.

Shiro took a glimpse at him and felt good about the look on Lance’s face, “I guess everything went well,” he said going back to his pancake duties.

“Oh, yeah, totally,” Lance replied a little absently, without being able to shake the image of a sleepy Keith with bed hair. He wouldn’t lie, Keith actually looked cute that way.

“Hey, Lance, why don’t you help me with this?” Shiro asked in a friendly way. And, once again, Lance did as told, and started to help Shiro (who had given him permission to call him that) with the breakfast while they were sharing little stories about Keith.

Some minutes later, Keith joined them in the kitchen, wearing a black tank top under a plaid red shirt, black ripped jeans, red sneakers, and his usual fingerless gloves. Keith’s outfit contrasted with Lance’s, who was wearing a white t-shirt under a light blue sweater, jeans and blue sneakers.

“Morning, sleepy head,” Shiro said as Keith was sitting in the kitchen table.

“Hi. Uh, sorry for how I treated you earlier,” Keith replied.

“Here, pancakes,” Shiro said with a bright smile, “Lance helped me, so you better eat them all.”

Keith gave Lance a look, and Lance smiled softly, “FYI, this time I didn’t do it for you, I did it for Shiro.”

“That’s great to know,” Keith said with a nod and a small smile.

Shiro sat with them and they had breakfast together, chatting about trivial stuff.

“Okay, let’s roll!” Lance exclaimed when everyone had finished eating.

“Shiro? Do you want me to help you clean up?” Keith asked looking at his brother with big eyes.

“Not necessary,” Shiro replied understanding the message, “you two go have fun. Call me if you need anything,” he said taking his plate and taking it to the sink.

“Okay. Let’s go,” Keith said standing up and walking towards the door, followed by Lance. “Bye, Shiro,” he said before closing the door.

“Why did you want to go today?” Lance asked once they were seated on the bus.

“Uhm… Today is the last day that one of the games will be there. They’re removing it tomorrow, so today they’ll have many things related with it, candies, cookies, drinks, and I, uh… I really wanted to go,” Keith said fidgeting, feeling a little bit embarrassed. Yes, he was a nerd. But it was the first time he had someone to confess that to.

“Oh, that sounds nice!” Lance commented enthusiastically, “Man, it’s been a while since I’ve gone to an arcade, though. I bet I’m all rusty now.”

“Heh, don’t be afraid to loosen up a bit,” Keith said with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow, and Lance swore that he was about to wink at him.

Lance swallowed and stared blankly at Keith for some seconds, “I’ll definitely beat you at something,” he replied after overcoming his surprise.

“Oh, I want to see you try, Lance.”

“You better prepare yourself, Keith.”

Both of them were competitive, so neither of them really thought about what they were saying before saying it. However, at the eyes of the people that were near them in the bus, it seemed like they were flirting, and the old lady behind them didn’t know how to feel about it.

The first game they tried was Mortal Kombat, which Keith won without trying too hard.

“You were saying?” Keith said proud of himself after the K.O had appeared on the screen.

“Oh, man. I told you it’s been a while, you nerd.” Lance replied trying to act as if Keith hadn’t just hurt his ego.

“C’mon, let’s move!” Keith said after taking the tickets from the machine.

Keith took Lance by the arm and started to move around the place, feeling quite happy. Not only he was on the place he had been talking about for a month, he also was there with Lance, and Lance seemed to be having fun.

And he was. Even though Lance had lost almost all the games they had visited, he was having a great time. It had been so many years since the last time he visited an arcade. He could remember going with Hunk to the one that used to be near their houses, but now that place was nothing more than a pizza shop. Not that he didn’t like pizza, but there used to be pizza at the arcade as well, so it seemed like a retrogress rather than an upgrade.

But now he was in a really cool one with Keith. Even though Lance was competitive as hell, and had set Keith as his rival the first time he saw him at school, he was amazed by how happy and jumpy Keith was. That’s when Lance realized that he didn’t really know him. Sure, they had been having together for the last few weeks, but Lance had been so focused in being useful for Keith that he didn’t think about being his friend first. And how he wished he had started to pay attention earlier. Lance never thought that Keith could be so… expressive.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Lance said crossing his arms on his chest after losing again to Keith.

“I think you forgot the confidence you had on the bus,” Keith said mimicking Lance’s pose.

Lance stuck his tongue at Keith, causing the latter to let out a little chuckle that made Lance blush a little. Who was this guy and what had he done with the emo Keith!? Not that he didn’t like the emo Keith. Wait, what was he talking about?

“I’m choosing this time,” Lance said turning his back to Keith, in part to take a look to the other games, in part to hide his stupid blush. “Hmmm… OH! I know!!” he exclaimed taking Keith’s arm and making the boy follow him this time, which caused Keith’s heart to skip a beat. “I will for sure beat you in that!!”

“A dancing machine?” Keith asked freeing himself from Lance’s arm before he could explode, “Oh, it’s on.” He challenged removing his shirt and tying it around his waist, knowing that he would sweat as hell if he kept it on.

“Oh, you bet!” Lance replied feeling encouraged. He imitated Keith and put his sweater around his waist.

“Hold on,” Keith said before taking a hair tie -which Lance had assumed it was just a bracelet- from his wrist and putting it in his mouth. He then proceeded to tie his hair in a ponytail, leaving his ears exposed to Lance for the first time.

The piercings on Keith’s ear took Lance by surprise, and he started to wonder just how many surprises Keith was hiding. He also asked himself if the purpose of Keith’s mullet was to hide those piercings from school staff.

“Okay, let’s go.” Keith said putting the tokens into the machine.

“Are you prepared to lose this time, mullet?”

“Last time I checked you were the one losing, pretty boy.”

Shit. Shit. Shit shit shit. Keith was about to melt down. Did he just call Lance “pretty boy”? Not that he didn’t appreciate Lance’s appearance, he had a crush on him after all. But one thing was to have a crush on someone and another was to kind of admit it without intending to.

“Don’t try to flatter me, I’m not letting you win this time!” Lance said a little bit nervous.

“Oh, that’s what you were doing this whole time?” Keith replied trying to remember how to breathe.

“Let me show you, Keith.”

Lance winked at Keith before turning his attention to the screen and Keith almost forgot how to breathe again. He was so glad that he didn’t have asthma, or he would surely be dead by now. The game started, and it took Keith some seconds to notice it. However, it took him no time to catch up with Lance’s score, who was also not expecting that Keith could be a good dancer.

Damn, just how much have I been missing?

Lance began to put more effort into his feet, without realizing that his sweater had fallen to the floor until he almost tripped with it. He stopped for a moment to pick it up, and he looked at Keith for the first time since the game had begun.

And he fucking lost it.

Keith was so… bright. He looked completely focused and determined, and Lance wondered how that expression suited him so good. Lance’s gaze moved from Keith’s ear to his neck, and he unconsciously started to follow a sweat drop that was going down Keith’s neck and that disappeared under his tank top. Without even realizing it, Lance was completely frozen, holding his sweater tightly on his hand.

“What’s up, Lance? Gave up alrea─”

Keith was cut off when he decided to look at Lance. Lance was there, looking so… completely different from what Lance had looked before. He was staring right at Keith, with a slight blush on his cheeks and Keith felt mesmerized. Just one look at those blue eyes and Keith found himself glued to the floor, unable to think. He could feel his own heart trying to evacuate his chest.

Both of them were breathing agitatedly, due to the dancing and to the way they were looking at each other. The way their chest moved was comparable to the way their hearts were racing, without knowing what to do, or what to say. They completely forgot about their surroundings and just stood there.

“WELL DONE!”

They heard a loud voice that startled them. They looked confused until they noticed that it had been the machine. The game was over, and neither of them had won. Well, Keith had achieved a higher score, but since both of them had stopped dancing before the song was finished it didn’t really count, right?

“Seems like you won again,” Lance said coughing a little, trying to connect his brain with his body.

“Yeah…” Keith said without being able to do what Lance was attempting to.

“So… you hungry? I promised to buy lunch. Well, you promised for me. Well, I don’t know if that’s correct but it was settled that I would buy lunch today. So… lunch?” Lance asked with each word overlapping the other.

“Yes, yes. Lunch sounds great,” Keith replied as fast as Lance had asked.

Both of them walked in silence to the fast food area, without really knowing what to say.

“So… what do you want to eat?” Lance asked to break the silence.

“I don’t know. Uh…” Keith replied trying to focus on the food, without being able to recall what was edible and what wasn’t.

“How about pizza? You like pizza?”

“Oh, yes. Pizza sounds good.”

Things didn’t change much while they were buying the food, both of them were still quiet, while their hearts were racing inside their chests. Once the pizza was ready, Lance took the box and Keith the drinks, and they sat down on a table.

“There you go,” Keith said handing Lance his drink.

“Thanks.”

“…”

“. . .”

It wasn’t until they took a bite from the pizza that they realized how hungry they actually were.

“Oh, my god. This tastes delicious,” Keith commented after swallowing.

“I think I’m in heaven,” Lance added, with sauce dripping from his mouth, “So…” Lance started, trying to break the silence.

“Yeah?” Keith replied taking off his eyes from the pizza and focusing on Lance.

“What’s your… favorite… animal?” Lance asked, clearly not thinking better about his question.

“Dude, that’s so random,” Keith replied. Lance thought that it would be the end of the conversation. Oh, no, everything would get weird and awkward because of his stupid behavior. Who stares at a friend like that? Did Keith hate him now? “I think it’d be hippos,” Keith answered.

“Oh…” Lance said with almost a sigh, feeling relieved that Keith had actually thought about the question, “Wait, why hippos?”

“Oh, man! They’re awesome! They’re so big, and they can swim and run. Dude, they should be the king of the jungle, they basically have no predators!” Keith replied enthusiastically before being able to control himself, “I mean… uh…” Keith tried to go back on his enthusiasm. Would Lance think he was weird?

“I never thought about it that way,” Lance said, erasing Keith’s doubts in a second, “I think hippos can be cool,” he nodded, “but sharks are way cooler!”

“What? No! If you put a shark and a hippo to fight, the hippo can fight in the land and in the water! If you take a shark out of the water, it will die!” Keith replied after swallowing, feeling personally attacked.

“No, no, no. Sharks are way prettier and awesome than hippos, dude! They come in different sizes and patterns! All hippos look the same, where is the variety, bro?” Lance asked, defending the sharks.

“Okay, no. Yes, sharks are certainly pretty, but hippos are way more majestic, dude! What are you even talking about?”

Keith took another slice of pizza and looked defiantly at Lance, who had finished his slice.

Lance took another piece of the pizza in front of him, “Well, I think that sharks are─” he interrupted himself when he noticed that some of the sauce had fallen to this his shirt. And it wasn’t just the sauce, a tomato slice and a piece of pepperoni decided they wanted to go as well. “Shit, my mom’s gonna kill me!” Lance exclaimed while trying to clean his shirt with some napkins.

Keith started to laugh without being able to stop himself.

“You don’t get to laugh; do you know how hard it is to remove stains from white cloth?!” He asked with an offended voice.

“I’m sorry. It’s just… You must have seen your face. It showed complete defeat,” Keith apologized, still laughing.

“Oh, you still think this is funny?” Lance said before throwing a ball made of a clean napkin to Keith’s head.

“Oh, you’re going to regret that!” Keith replied, accepting the challenge and taking two napkins that became a bigger ball.

He threw it at Lance, but missed him, so it landed on the floor. Lance smiled smugly, “Oh, you were saying?”, he asked before throwing another paper ball to Keith’s face. And so the battle began. Lance had a perfect score of ten out of ten while Keith was struggling both to avoid and to aim the balls. Most of Keith’s attempts to hit Lance were in vain, but he wouldn’t complain about it. He was having so much fun. And so did Lance.

Obviously, their little game of throwing paper at each other was stopped by an angry-looking employee who was there to scold them for littering the place. The employee asked them to leave, and both of them followed the instructions, since they were scared that the employee would hit them with the broom if they didn’t leave. Luckily for them, there was almost no pizza left at the table, but it still hurt to abandon it there.

Lance and Keith hurried to the game zone again, hoping that the incident at the food zone wouldn’t mean that they’d have to go early. Once they were out of the dangerous area that was that waiter’s land, both of them looked at each other and started laughing quite loudly.

“Oh, god. Did you see his face? He wanted to straight up murder us!” Lance exclaimed trying to breathe.

“It was your fault, though! You started!” Keith said without really complaining, he was as amused as Lance for the situation.

“Oh, no, sir. You started laughing at me, I had to recover my honor!” Lance said, hitting Keith on the arm.

“And oh, boy, you did! How come you didn’t miss!?” Keith asked returning the friendly punch.

“I am an awesome guy. I was born a sharpshooting ninja.”

Keith couldn’t take it anymore and he exploded in laughter. Tears were almost rolling down his cheeks. He couldn’t help it. Everything seems so unreal. Lance’s face when the sauce dropped, Lance’s expression when Keith started to laugh at him, his comments while they were throwing paper ball at each other, Lance’s smile, his laugh… It almost felt like a dream. Keith never expected to be this close to Lance. To have such a great time with him. To see him so… real. And he wasn’t sure if his heart will be able to cope with everything that was going on, so all he could do was to laugh.

And Lance wasn’t managing it too well either. Keith’s laugh was contagious, who would’ve thought? It was the first time he saw him like that. And he was captivated by it. Maybe it was the adrenaline after running from the waiter, maybe it was the tasty food, maybe it was the color lights that were around them, either way, Lance could admit that it was a nice view. And he could also say that he wanted to see more.

“Okay, okay,” Keith said trying to calm down, “Do you… ha… Do you want to keep playing?”

“Ahhhh…” Lance said breathing slowly, “Yes, that would be great,” he finished when he was able to say more than two words together.

“You pick this time,” Keith suggested.

“Hmm…” Lance murmured while moving around the place, followed by Keith, “How about…” he paused for a few seconds, “...that?” He finished pointing at a shooting game.

“We haven’t shot in all day! I can’t believe it,” Keith replied following Lance to the station.

Both of them were prepared with the plastic gun on their hands. And, for the first time in the day, Lance was crushing Keith’s score. He even saved his character multiple times by shooting the zombies that were attacking Keith. And he didn’t fail. Which was impressive, Keith had to admit. By the time the game had ended, Keith’s score was merely a third of Lance’s.

“Ha! Who’s the loser now?” Lance exclaimed, expecting Keith to react in a competitive way, with comments about how he was the one winning, actually.

“Heh, nice work, sharpshooter,” Keith said with a genuine smile, going once again against what Lance could have expected.

And so went the afternoon, now both of them were dragging each other by the arm to decide what game to play next. They even replayed some of the first games they did when they arrived, and Lance was progressively getting closer to Keith’s scores. Not that close, but Keith was sure that if he Lance kept playing, he would eventually get there.

Both of them were having so much fun that they didn’t realize that time was passing, until Keith’s phone rang. It was a text from Shiro, “ Hey, you coming home soon?” and Keith noticed it was later than he thought.

“Oh, shit,” Keith exclaimed, “Shiro told me to come home for dinner,” he added, looking at Lance.

“Oh… I guess time does fly when you’re having fun, heh?” Lance replied feeling a little disappointed, he didn’t want to leave yet. He didn’t want this day to end, “I guess it’s time we left, right?”

“Yeah…” Keith said with the same tone, “Uh… we accumulated a lot of tickets, though,” he added opening his backpack. When they arrived, it was almost empty: it had one water bottle, his wallet and some loose change moving around. Now, it was packed with orange tickets that they had been collecting all day long, “I’ll go to the bathroom now, you can go and exchange them for anything you want,” Keith offered with a smile.

“But, hey, don’t you want to exchange them yourself?”

“Nah. I want you to go. You actually impressed me, you deserve it.” he said before tossing Lance the backpack. When Lance was able to react after catching it, Keith was already headed to the bathroom.

Lance sighed softly, with a small smile on his lips, and went to trade the tickets.

“Dude, just choose something already,” said the girl working at the exchange point.

“Aghh… so many things… What do you think would be the best?” Lance asked, trying to remember how many tickets they had collected.

“I already told you, man,” the girl replied tiredly, “with that many tickets you can choose anything from the first to the third shelf. Just pick up something.”

“Okay, okay. Jeez… Chill,” Lance told the girl, who just looked at him with murderous intentions, “OH! I know! I know! I want that plushie!” Lance exclaimed excited, after noticing the hippo plushie that was in the second shelf.

“Okay,” she said after taking out the plushie, “you still have a lot of tickets left, dude.”

“Arghhh… Wait, can I save them?” Lance asked trying to get away from choosing again.

“I already put them on the machine, dude. There’s no turning back. You can give them up, if you want,” she suggested.

“Noooo! That’s not an optioon!!” Lance complained putting his face on the glass.

“Don’t rest on the glass,” she said as unaffected as before.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Keith asked, returning from the bathroom. He had let his hair down and was wearing his red shirt again.

“There are still tickets leeeefttttt…” Lance said dramatically.

“So? Why don’t you choose something that costs a lot of tickets? Haven’t you decided already?” Keith asked trying to peek at what was in Lance’s hand.

“I… uh… It’s because it’s ugly like you,” Lance defended himself before showing Keith the blue plushie on his hand.

Keith felt his cheeks turning red, and the girl working there finally felt something besides tiredness, “Uh… how many tickets are left?” He decided to ask the girl, he didn’t want to embarrass himself by saying something stupid to Lance.

“You can get anything from shelf one to two with your tickets,” the girl replied in a softer voice.

“O...kay…” Keith was trying hard to think, and having Lance next to his with a fucking hippo plushie was not helping his mind. He looked at the shelves, hoping they would give him the answers to all his problems. And that’s when he saw it, “I’ll take the shark, please,” he decided, making Lance look instantly at him, “It’s ugly like you,” Keith said trying hard to stop his face from getting redder.

“Okay,” the girl said before taking the shark and giving it to Keith. Why was the shark red anyways?

“Here, have your ugly shark,” Keith said almost hitting Lance with the plushie.

“What are you talking about? He’s as handsome as me,” Lance replied, trying to act as if his heart wasn’t rising right now, “Yours is the one who’s ugly,” he added handing Keith the hippo.

“It’s not ugly,” Keith defended.

They stood there for some seconds, just looking at each other, without completely understanding the situation or being able to say something.

“Are you gonna kiss or what?” The girl interrupted their… well, whatever that was.

“What!?” both of them replied at the same time.

Keith coughed, “I think it’s time we left… Shiro’s gonna be worried,” he said, trying to brush the matter off.

“Yeah… that’s a good idea,” Lance replied, coming back to the Earth.

“Have fun”, the girl said in her same monotonous voice as before while they were leaving.

Both of them walked silently towards the bus stop. Keith had the hippo under his arm, and Lance was practically hugging his shark.

“I had a great time,” Lance said once they reached the stop.

“Me too,” Keith replied with honesty, “Thank you for coming.”

“My pleasure.” Lance said with a smile, “Next time I’ll make sure to defeat you, though,” he added with a soft punch on the arm.

Next time… next time… next time…

Keith loved how that sounded, “Oh, I’ll like to see you try,” he said challengingly.

Lance just let out a small laugh, “Just you wait, I’ll show you how awesome I am!” Lance added with a wink. Oh, god. He didn’t realize at first that he had winked. Oh, no. Now Keith would think that he was a creep. Quickly, think of something, “Oh, there comes the bus!”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s true,” Keith replied without knowing what was real anymore.

Both of them walked in silence inside the bus, and didn’t make a comment while they searched for a seat.

“So, uh… I wanted to apologize again for going all crazy with you,” Lance started, “I’m sorry if I made you feel like I didn’t care about you. I do care. I- I mean, I appreciate you as a friend. I actually didn’t realize that I was acting like a jerk until Pidge pointed it out. So, uh, I’m sorry, man,” he finished, kind of stumbling in his own words. It was weird. Being with Keith suddenly felt different.

Keith nodded, hiding a smile, “It’s okay, Lance. Just… don’t do it again, okay?” He finished with a small smile.

Lance nodded, “So, in a fight. Who do you think would win sharks or hippos?”

Keith took no time to reply, “Obviously hippos! We already had this discussion, Lance. The hippo would take the shark out of the water and in less than a minute your shark is dead.”

“You are dead!” Lance replied giving Keith a friendly punch in the arm.

“I thought you were the one getting killed today! With that sauce stain…” Keith added with a sly smile, without being able to control his impulse.

Lance had completely forgotten about his stupid shirt. So many things had happened during that day for him to remember it. “Shit. Right, my shirt… Oh, man, I’m really going to get murdered. You have to organize my funeral, okay? And make Pidge and Hunk get a tattoo of my face.”

“Why do I have to plan your funeral?”

“Duh. Because my shirt got dirty while I was with you, so you must plan it. And make a pretty speech. If you don’t give a nice speech I’ll go haunt you,” Lance finished by touching Keith’s nose with the shark’s.

“Get your ugly shark away from my face,” Keith demanded, pushing it gently away from his face with his hippo, “What if instead of planning your funeral, which sounds like a hassle, you give me your shirt, I wash it and I return it to you on Monday? I seriously don’t want to plan your funeral.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. Believe it or not, I know how to use a washing machine,” Keith said with a low voice.

“Okay! That sounds good! Hold on a second!”

Lance started to take off his sweater and before Keith could react, he was about to take off his shirt.

“Wait,” Keith said holding Lance’s hands in order to prevent him from getting shirtless, “What are you doing?”

“Uh… trying to give you my shirt?” Lance said before realizing just how close they were, “I… uh… there is no other way, you know? We get down in different stations, so…”

“Yeah… right,” Keith replied removing his hands from Lance’s. He immediately faced to the other side, trying hard not to blush in front of Lance. Obviously, it didn’t work. But Lance couldn’t see that at the moment, which was enough.

“Here…” Lance said after he had put on his sweater again. He handed the shirt to Keith, who took it and put in inside his backpack, “Thank you…”

“No problem,” Keith replied, holding firmly his hippo with his hand.

Lance didn’t know what to do with his hands. He was nervous. And he wasn’t used to nervous. He was always confident when it concerned going out with people. You could see him throwing around cheesy pick up lines and compliments whenever he was on a date. Well, that was mainly because the people Lance had dated were not so different than how they presented themselves to to the world.

Keith was a new concept.

And Lance wasn’t expecting him to be.

Wait.

Date?

What was he talking about? That wasn't a date.

Was it?

Lance let out a sigh and he held his shark with both arms, trying to stop thinking so much. He felt stupid. Why was he overthinking everything so much?

And Keith was in similar conditions.

He already knew that he had a crush on Lance. But… his feelings had grown exponentially in just one day. One day ago, he would look at Lance and he would just feel something weird in his stomach. Right now, he felt like his heart would explode. And having the hippo in his hands didn’t help either.

What was he feeling at the moment?

Why things were always complicated when they were related to Lance?

Neither of them were able to say a word, or to look at each other. They were looking to the other side, trying to figure out their feelings. The only thing they knew was that they were feeling good. Confused, but good.

“So… I’ll see you on Monday,” Keith said once they were closer to his stop.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lance agreed, “Would I be seeing you at lunch, then?” he added.

“You can count on it,” Keith answered with a smile, “Bye,” he said while standing up.

“See you,” Lance replied with a soft smile.

Keith left the bus and walked towards his house feeling like he was floating. Everything felt so… different.

Lance had had a good time with him.

Lance had stopped when he saw Keith dance.

Lance had given him a fucking hippo.

Keith had given Lance a shark in return.

Just… What did it all mean?

Keith entered his house and was greeted by Shiro, who was watching tv.

“I guess it went good,” Shiro said looking at Keith, “nice hippo, by the way,” he added returning his eyes to the screen.

“I… uh… ye… ah… yeah…” Keith was unable to produce a sentence, let alone a word, “It was fine,” he finished after remembering how to speak.

Shiro gave him another look, without saying anything. But wasn’t he saying a lot. Keith could read his expression like a book. The raised eyebrow, his smirk, the way his face was tilted and how it was supported by his hand…

Keith knew better than to stay there, “Lance spilled sauce over his shirt, and he said his mom was gonna kill him, so… I have it now, gotta wash it, bye,” he said hurriedly, almost running towards the washing machine. Shiro just let out a sigh and smiled, while he softly shook his head.

Keith couldn’t believe what he was doing.

He was fucking hugging the shirt.

He didn’t know why.

He just… he had to.

Keith breathed deeply and felt Lance’s essence invade his mind.

And he decided to stop because that was weird.

He poured some stain remover over the sauce, and he threw the shirt into the washing machine. Once the shirt was washed and dried, Keith took it with him to his room, where he folded it and put it in his school backpack.

Dinner started quiet. Even though Shiro knew that it was better not to tease Keith about it, by now he had already realised that his brother had a crush on Lance. It didn’t take him that long to notice it. Then again, that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t bring Lance into the conversation. He could always fake obliviousness.

“I’m glad you were able to go, after all,” Shiro said honestly.

“Yeah,” Keith said before taking a bite, “Me too.”

“I’m just… I’m happy for you, you know? It makes me happy seeing you interacting with other people. I’m glad you have friends, Keith.”

“I’m just glad I didn’t have to go with you,” Keith replied with a teasing voice, knowing that Shiro would understand that he had acknowledge what he had said, “It was good not having to explain every game,” he added with a smirk.

“Oh, yeah, I’m sure that’s the only reason why you enjoyed today,” Shiro said without being able to help it.

“The food was also good,” Keith replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Oh, yes. I’m sure,” Shiro agreed, lifting his right eyebrow.

“Oh, my god. Shiro, shut the fuck up,” Keith replied in one breath.

“I’m not saying anything,” Shiro defended himself, “Also language, Keith.” He added without really meaning it.

“Fuck you,” Keith said returning to his mashed potatoes.

Shiro let out a laugh, “Just know that you can count on me. Okay, buddy?” Shiro offered a smile before returning to his food, as well.

“I know… Thank you,” Keith said softly.

Once he had said his goodbye to Shiro, and had brushed his teeth, Keith was ready to go to bed. He sat on the edge after putting his pajama, and there was the hippo, staring at him.

Keith stared back, as if the hippo would blink or say something.

Keith had a thought in his mind.

“It’s stupid,” he said to no one.

“I’m not doing it.”

“I’m too old for that.”

“Just what kind of teenager would do that?”

“Not me, of course…”

By the time Shiro had entered the room to see if Keith had let anything turned on, he saw his brother asleep with the hippo in his arms.

“Fuck it,” Keith had said just before taking the hippo and holding it tightly when he got inside the bed.

Little did he know that Lance was in the same conditions as him, sleeping calmly with the shark in his arms.

At first, Lance had asked why it had to be Keith the one who saved him. Now, he was glad that it had been him.

I know shit about drawing, but you can bet it ain't gonna stop me <3