Don't You Dare Touch Him Again...

Chapter 7

"..I don't know..." Keith sighed, "..I feel like I have to be the strong one... I shouldn't be crying over some S-shit like this..." He couldn't help the stutter. "...I hadn't cried since I lost Shiro to space... N-now I'm crying left right and centre.. I-i need to get over mysel-" Keith was cut off by Lance giving him a hug. He was caught of guard, but accepted the hug nonetheless.

"...You've had a rough life Keith..." Lance spoke softly. "... I think.. you might just need someone to talk to..?" That was the conclusion Lance had come to. Keith never had anyone growing up. Now, that he was going through this, he needed someone. "... If I'm right in thinking that then... I'm right here, man. I'm here for you to talk to..."

Keith had to admit, Lance was right. He needed someone to be there for him. "...Yes... Yes please..." He mumbled. "... Y-you have no idea... How long I've needed someone to say that..." Keith said, hugging Lance tighter.

Lance moved away slightly, looking at Keith's face. His hand came up and cupped Keith's cheek, gently brushing away the tears. Both boys stared into each other's eyes, their faces getting closer and closer. They were centimeters apart when the doorbell rang. Lance jumped up from where he was sitting. His face red with a blush. "O-oh look at that! I-its the door! I'm.. I'm gonna go get that..." He quickly rushed out of the room and went to the door and looked through the peep hole, seeing Shiro standing outside. "It's Shiro. You okay if I let him in?" Lance called to Keith in the living room. He wanted to make sure. Just in case Keith didn't want to see him.

Keith shrugged, "Yeah, it's fine." As long as Lance didn't mention anything about the 'James Situation', he would be fine.

Lance nodded and opened the door. "Hey, Shiro! I wasn't expecting you here?"

Shiro came inside, "Keith isn't answering his phone, and if he's here there must be something seriously wrong. What happened?" Shiro sounded really worried.

Lance just raised an eyebrow at him. "What do you mean 'if he's here there must be something seriously wrong'? Can't we just hang out?"

Shiro rolled his eyes. "Where's Keith?" He asked. Lance gestured to the living room and Shiro walked in. Seeing Keith still sitting on the couch. He had his head down and a somewhere disappointed expression on his face, but once Shiro walked in his head shot up. "Keith, are you okay? I've been worried sick!"

Hearing that, Keith's mind rushed to one conclusion, but he couldn't act on that yet. "..Why would you be worried?" He asked.

"Because you haven't been answering your phone and Lance told me th-" Shiro was cut off by Keith.

Keith glared up at Lance, standing up with his hands in fists. "..You told?"

Lance was taken aback by the accusation. "What? No Keith I didn't-" Keith interrupted him.

"Clearly you did! I asked you not to tell!" He raised his voice at Lance. "I trusted you with that Lance! You already told James that I told you and now you tell Shiro?! I thought you were trust worthy..." Keith stormed out of the room. Was he jumping to conclusions? Definitely. But from what Shiro said, what else could he have assumed?

"Keith wait!-" Lance didn't even get to finish before Keith was already up the stairs.

Shiro's eyes were wide with shock, "..What happened?" He asked Lance.

Lance shook his head. "It doesn't matter right now." He sighed, not even looking Shiro in the eyes. "..I think you should go? I'll text you when I've sorted this out with Keith." Lance said, Shiro agreed.

Shiro left and Lance went upstairs. He knocked on the door of the room he was letting Keith stay in.

"Fuck off." Keith said coldly to the door, Lance didn't listen. He slowly opened the door.

"I just wanna talk. Afterwards you can tell me to fuck off all you want." Lance came into the room. Keith was sat on the bed with his knees up to his chest.

"..I already said fuck off." Keith mumbled, but Lance again, didn't listen. Lance sat at the edge of the bed. Both of them were silent for a couple minutes until, surprisingly, Keith spoke first. "... Why didn't you kiss me?" Keith asked quietly, but Lance heard.

Lance looked at Keith surprised by the question. "... Why do you ask?" He was trying to avoid the question.

"... I asked first." Keith looked at Lance in the eyes. "..You could have kissed me... Why didn't you?"

Lance took a deep breath, hesitatikng, but he answered, "...It's not like I didn't want to..." He mumbled, looking down at the floor. "...It's just... you're going through a lot... And... You would regret it if you kissed me now." Lance was honest in saying that, and Keith could tell.

Keith nodded slowly at what Lance had just said. He didn't think he would regret it, but he understood where Lance was coming from with that. "..I guess that makes sense.." He said quietly.

Lance took a deep breath before speaking again. "..I didn't tell Shiro anything. He doesn't know about it..." He changed the subject.

"...Then what did you tell him? Why was he worried about me? If you didn't tell him he wouldn't be worried..." Keith looked at his hands. "... I didn't want him to know.. I don't want anyone to know..."

"I promise you, no one knows. No one is going to know until you tell them, which I still think you should, but I'm not gonna do that for you." Lance finally looked up at Keith. "... I'm really sorry for telling James... I'm just worried about you.."

Keith shrugged, "..It's fine... I know you were just worried... I'm sorry for throwing that in your face..." He met Lance's eyes once again.

"Don't worry about it," Lance smiled at Keith. "You wanna come back downstairs? Shiro left already so it's just us two."

Keith nodded, now smiling at Lance, "Yeah, that sounds good."

Lance got up and offered Keith his hand, bringing him downstairs to the living room.

((Word count 1044))