~:~ Barely Human ~:~

~:~ Prologue ~:~

He'd been shot.

"LANCE!" Keith screamed as he suddenly came skidding to a halt. But he had no time to think before a series of gunfire began spraying through the air all around them and Keith was ducking to the ground. The shock and adrenaline pulsing though his system made it hard for Lance to make sense of anything, stunned to the point where his brain felt like mush and everything was a blur. The pain brought tears to his eyes and made it harder to see than it already was with all the fog in the dark of the night.

A little ways away, Keith held his head in his hands and screwed his eyes shut. A sudden, sharp rise in temperature had the fog dissipating. The gunfire loud and terrifying as it rung all around through the neighboring forest like echoes of ghosts.

Lance gasped for air and held his shoulder tight, hoping that pressure would relieve it. It only made it worse.

"Lance! Get up!" Keith screamed from where he was.

Lance slowly looked up, the world around him was swirling and fuzzy and he couldn't make much sense of anything. Keith began to crawl towards him, his body grinding against the soaked bitumen as he made his way to him. Lance tried to speak, but the pain through his body even made breathing hard.

"You have to get up!" Keith cried when he finally found himself next to Lance, who lay in a puddle of his own blood, sweat and tears, along with the water of the earlier rainfall.

Tears from Lance's eyes began to spill once again, and it ripped Keith's heart in two to witness. Keith quickly inspected the new wound Lance had adopted in his shoulder and his throat ran dry. It was horrible, bu the would live. Keith choked out a plea.

"Please- please get up!"

Keith shuffled around so he was shielding Lance from the enemy. His back exposed to the gunfire, like a defense mechanism. He would protect Lance even if it meant putting himself between his love and the threat of danger to keep him safe.

"You have to get out of here!" Keith began to roll Lance onto his back and helped him sit up. Lance grabbed his wrist before Keith could move him any further and his glazed, petrified eyes found his lover's.

"What- what about y-you?" Lance coughed as his bloodied fingers gripped Keith's forearm a little tighter. Keith's eyes softened and a weak, weary smile found his lips. That's when Lance's heart stopped and his eyes widened. He knew exactly what was about to happen, and no way would he go through with it. Keith was ready and willing to sacrifice himself to keep their enemy at bay long enough for Lane to escape. Quickly, he was shaking his head, holding Keith even tighter. He refused to let go. Not now. Not ever.

"You're the most important person in my life, Lance. I'd do anything and everything to keep you safe." Keith said as his free hand found Lance's cheek and delicately ran his calloused palm against his warm, soft skin, wiping away askew tears. Lance's world was crack down the middle right before him.

And Keith was on the other side.

"No! Keith please-"

"So you better get up right now."

"Keith, don't do this-"

"Get to that gas station and call for help. You better stay safe, I need you to stay safe." Keith was still smiling, even though the tears that had pooled in his eyes started to fall. Tears that evaporated almost instantly as they left his eyes. Lance reached up to grip the collar of Keith's jacket, even through the otherworldly pain in his shoulders.

"Come with me!" Lance begged him. He couldn't do this. He couldn't go through with this. He needed Keith. "We can get out of this together! We'll run away! We'll- we'll figure this out! There has to be another way! We-!"

"Lance..."

Around the two, the gunfire continued to wail on, soldiers heavily dressed in black armor who bore large firearms began to appear through the mist, marching towards them with frightening stance.

"Before I met you, I was nobody. I was an outcast. A throw-away. I had nothing. I was nothing..." Keith says, his throat cracking here and there. He doesn't care about the gunfire. He needs to make sure Lance knows this. "Nobody would accept me. Nobody but you. You saved me Lance. You gave me everything."

The sound of and army of trucks approached in the distance, they were closing in on them and fast.

"Now it's my turn to return the favour."

Storm clouds had begun to swell in the overcast above them and rain drops found the Earth's surface again. Lightning cracked an thunder roared, the world really was cracking in two. Right beneath an Armageddon sky.

"I love you so much Lance. So fucking much. Don't ever forget that." Keith said quietly as he leaned down to press his forehead against Lance's. Lance was crying at this point, the sobs leaving his lips were strained and croaky. Keith placed a kiss on his head. Lance trembling and his fingers dug tight into the fabric of Keith's shirt. Determined to not let go.

"Thank you for giving me a life. For giving me your love, Lance. I'll always be with you." Then Keith began to pull away, Lance grabbing at the air before him, desperately trying to reach out and take a hold of him again. But with a flash of light, a rise in the temperature, a crackle of fire in the rain and the encore of cries, he was gone.

"KEITH!" Lance screwed his eyes shut and screamed at the cold space before his as he found his feet. Holding his shoulder tight, he frantically searched the highway with his eyes for any sight of the fiery boy.

Lance was shredded into a thousand pieces. Tears spewed down his cheeks and onto the floor, he couldn't tell which was rain or not. A sob escaped his lips and his nose scrunched. He couldn't believe it. He'd let Keith go.

A bullet shot past his face, a slit of pain began to spread across his cheek like wild fire, startling the fuck out of him. He blinked through the tears and sucked in a deep breath, looking for any sign of Keith. He was nowhere to be seen.

Keith was gone.

Lance made a run for it. He was weak and his whole body felt thick with pain. His vision cloudy and his brain throbbing with an oncoming migraine, but he kept running.

"I love you so much, Lance. So fucking much"

Duck his head with a sob, Lane ran as fast as he could. The cool air is chilling his skin as it hit his tear stained face.

"Don't ever forget that."

He loved Keith. He always would. He could never NOT.

But the rain would never be beautiful to Lance ever again...