Klance College AU

Chapter 7~ Exhaustion

Keith's POV—

Keith's face lit up at the plate of tacos held out to him. "Mmm~" His mood was immediately lifted by the delicious smell of meat that rapidly filled his room. Lance sat beside him and handed him the plate. Keith hesitated.

"Thanks." Keith stared at the two tacos and examined their contents. "Umm what kind of cheese is this?"

"Old cheddar. I think it's like aged or something for taste? I dunno, it was what my parents used to buy. Is there an issue?"

"No, I can have this kind. I'm lactose intolerant is all."

"Oh, good I got the right kind then."

"How'd you know this is how I'd like my tacos?"

"I guessed. You don't eat a huge variety of foods at the caf, so I went with simple."

"Hmm. I've never had tacos before, so hopefully it's good."

Lance gasped, "you've never had TACOS?!"

Keith looked at him with clear confusion. "Uh, no?"

"Eat up, then! They're the best!"

"Okay, not like I wasn't going to eat the dinner you made or anything..." Keith picked up the hard shell and lifted it to his mouth, but paused. "How... do I eat it?"

Lance scoffed. "Seriously?"

Keith looked at him as seriously as he could.

"Okay, you hold it like this," he held up one of his overflowing tacos and brought it to his face. "Then, you can go sideways to get the most!" Lance bit into it and the shell cracked throughout. He chewed with a cheeky smile on his face, a couple pieces of lettuce hanging loosely from his lip. "Yeah?" He said with a mouthful.

"Yeah..." Keith thought Lance was so funny, but held back his laughter. He took a bite and his mouth was filled with sensations. Food goo for the last week on the community spacecraft and in the caf three meals a day dulled his tastes, but as soon as the seasoned meat hit his tongue, it was like seeing real colour for the first time.

Lance could see the obvious enjoyment on Keith's face. "I take it tacos are pretty tasty?"

"Wow...!" Keith ate his food in record time, almost as fast as Lance, which never happened. They went to the kitchen to wash the dishes and put away all the groceries. Lance had to teach Keith were half the stuff went because he'd never even seen it before.

"This goes in the freezer. It's hash brown patties we can cook tomorrow morning easily." Lance handed him a long box to put away.

"Hmm! Looks tasty on the package."

~~

After the groceries were put away, it was 8:55 and both boys were tired from their days activities. Also, like the night before, their dorm was extremely cold.

Keith shivered. "Don't these people know how to work the thermostats?!"

"They have to. Maybe we should see if we could talk to somebody," Lance said, reaching for the door. As it opened, hot air came rushing in. They both gasped at the temperature difference. The halls and everywhere else was warm and perfect.

"Aw man, we must have a screwed up room," Lance sighed. "Guess we've gotta go tell someone now."

Keith and Lance walked down the hall and stopped.

"Where do the administrators even stay?"

With that, they found themselves roaming the multi- floor building for hours, trying to find the principal's room. Likely, it should've been on the first or second floor. But it wasn't. The two boys walked up many flights of stairs.

"I- I'm so- tired," Keith huffed, dragging himself up the stairs after Lance.

"We have to keep going! How are you so tired already?" Lance stopped for Keith to catch up to him. He was still plenty full of energy.

Keith reached the landing and flopped onto the ground on his back. "I-" he huffed. "I'm not used to climbing so-o many stairs-s-o fast."

"We're on the last few floors. We're bound to find them here. Promise." Lance held out a hand for Keith.

He took it and pulled himself up with all his strength. He held on tight after he stood, wobbling. He felt dizzy and he held a hand to his head. I guess I have a terrible metabolism. Lance must not, clearly. He huffed.

Lance dragged him along down the long corridors and finally they came across a door labelled 'PRINCIPALS DORM- DO NOT DISTURB'. Well, they had to disturb.

Lance knocked on the door, not realizing the principal, along with mostly everyone else in the building, was probably sleeping. It was already 10:30 by the time they found what they were looking for.

The door slid open and Coran stood inside perfectly awake. "How may I help you boys?"

"Our dorm, uh 409, we think it's like broken or something." Lance said, pulling Keith beside him.

"Broken? How so?"

"It's-" Keith took a second to steady his breathing, "really cold."

"Ah, a temperature problem. Well, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do this second, we'll have to wait and see if the engineers can fix it tomorrow. Sorry, but you'll have to stick it out for now. Pool your body heat, y'know!"

"Right. Thanks, be sure to notify them, yeah?" Lance said.

"For sure. Goodnight boys!" Coran slipped back into his room and Lance sighed.

"Guess we're waiting 'till tomorrow."

Keith felt drowsiness tugging on his whole body as the roommates started back towards their dorm. I'm too tired for all this. Lance should've gone alone. I wouldn't be holding him back. He was absorbed in his thoughts, and before he knew it, they had reached door 409.

As they entered, Lance cleared his throat. "So, uh... are we gonna, 'pool our body heat', like Coran said?"

Keith started at him in disbelief. This dude... "Well, if you really want to."

"Alright. I'll go get changed, and uh, meet you in your room?"

"Sure." Keith watched as Lance headed into his bedroom and closed the door, promptly heading into his own and sitting on the bed. He crawled under the blankets and tried not to shiver, but they didn't do much with so little body heat.

Lance came back and had his bright blue blanket over his shoulder. He laid it out on top of Keith's comforter and got into the other side of the bed. The queen didn't fit the two young adults perfectly, but Keith was small, so they made it work.

Keith felt Lance's cold skin graze his bare legs. He got goosebumps as the cold started to wake him up more and more. I'm sleeping with Lance. Why? He's gonna hate me. I know I said he could, but man, what was I thinking? I should've just suffered in the cold alone. This is too much. This is not happening right now. It can't be. He willingly came in too. Maybe he's not mad...

Lance snuggled around Keith and it shocked him. He was facing away from Lance and was now being cuddled by him. He felt his face flush and warm up intensely. Why do I blush so hard like this? Lance probably thinks I'm a total dork.

Lance's hands found their way in front of Keith and he was wrapped around him. Keith could feel the slight heat radiating from him. Even though it wasn't much, it seemed to melt his entire body.

"Sweet dreams," Lance whispered into Keith's ear, sending chills down his spine. His voice felt like it echoed through him.

Keith could barely fall asleep, no matter how tired he was. He felt himself pass out here and there, but other than that, he was awake and worrying the whole night. Lance had fallen asleep much faster than he did, and Keith heard him making small, quiet snoring noises every now and again into Keith's ear. Sometimes it made him shiver or even blush.

He couldn't handle so much contact.

A/N: wow you're still here? Thanks! :) hope you're enjoying the story, cuz I'm having a lot of fun writing it!
Edit: I've finally gotten back to rewriting this book lol! It took like almost a year cuz I may have been super embarrassed about my writing ANYWAYS- I hope you enjoy this :))))