(Klance) Like We Were Then

Water under the Bridge

Lance- i can prob leave the house if i let my Lita know

Keith- alright

Lance- where tho

Keith- um..the edge of the park

Lance- ok

Of course Lance was nervous, the park brought back memories. Good ones yes, but good memories reminded him of the pain and well, the park was one of the main sources of his aching nostalgia. He didn't even know if he could stand it. But Keith could, so he had to try.

He got there before Keith, having told Melissa he was going to talk to Keith about some things in private. She eyed him at first but at his worried look her eyes softened and she told him to just be back before midnight. He scoffed thinking about it, kicking grass with droplets of dew on it, like he would be out here that long.

Keith came up the road and caught Lance's eye. They held contact until he came to stand right in front of him and then he glanced down or anywhere but at Lance.

Lance stared at the sky, the stars starting to peek through the velvety violet sky. "Look Keith-"

"Yeah I know what you're going to say okay? And I'm sorry I didn't tell you..just so much has been going on and I couldn't bring myself to speak about it. Especially to you."

Lance knew that was supposed to be a reassurance but the last part kind of hurt. "I was just going to say it's okay that you couldn't tell me before. I understand."

Keith looked up now, and Lance caught a glimpse- just a ghost of the boy he used to know. The 7 year old boy he taught to swim. The boy he found hidden in a janitor's closet, the boy he missed and loved.

Keith blinked, and the boy was gone instead stood Keith, the boy with a fire in his eyes and pain i'm his heart.

Just like Lance.

Lance realized then that him and Keith were more similar now than they ever had been..and maybe that was a good thing. They could work through this together. But one foot at a time.

"Oh. I- I still need to apologize. I took advantage of you. We are both hurt, and vulnerable..and I took what he had in the past and I acted like we could just start back up again which is wrong. Especially because I didn't tell you anything I've gone through now.." Keith said.

"Yeah..but we need to take the change and how we are now and retake this. We can try again. We aren't like we were then but we can be, but more honest and open and mature about this okay?" Lance asked holding out his hand.

Keith hesitated and Lance saw the confliction in his eyes. Pain, sorrow confusion fear and then there was the fire. The fire that Lance knew he would and was already coming to love. God, was it this easy to fall for the same guy twice?

Keith shook Lance's hand smiling softly. Lance returned the gesture amd saw Keith open his mouth to speak before his eyes crinkled and he cleared his throat.

"I don't know how to explain this well but uh.." He blushed. "I mean you already know that I'm gay but I figured it out myself a little before you left for New York and it was because I had uh fallen for you." He coughed looking away.

Lance chuckled. "Heh so did I actually but I knew I was bi."

Keith couldn't hide his blush now under Lance's smile. He cleared his throat again and continued.

"Well I told my family and..well you know- knew my dad. He always hung out with me and Shiro..but after I told him he started to ignore me almost like he didn't know me. I was able to take it but he started to drift from my whole family and that hurt. A lot. He was never home and it was like he didnt live with us at all. For a little while, he still hung out with Shiro but then he stopped. Shiro was scared to come out when he realized he wa bi and likes Matt. He was the "golden boy" in Dad's eyes and he wanted to keep that. He didn't want to end up like me. But I knew the whole time. And it was killing Shiro hiding from his parents like that and Matt was hurting too so we decided to finish this tonight. And it did end well."