Rivals (Klance)

Chapter 12

Lance still said nothing.

Slowly, Keith sat up, moving Lance with him. "C'mon, this couch is one of the most uncomfortable things I've ever slept on." He thought that the taller boy needed a little bit of a nudge to admit that he'd prefer a bed.

Honestly, Lance just didn't want to move. He was dead tired and wanted to stay laying on Keith and try to fall asleep again. Normally after a nightmare he wouldn't bother trying, but he had been really comfortable.

"Lance, I'm not gonna carry you." Keith said with a huff as he tried to get Lance to stand up. "I will ram your head into every wall, intentionally or not." He clarified.

With a groan, Lance finally let Keith pull him off the couch by his wrist. "Thank you. Now c'mon, I wanna go back to sleep." Keith said, leading Lance through the living room, up the stairs, and into his room.

He got into the bed first, pulling Lance down after he hesitated for a second. Keith set up a few pillows in the corner of his bed, where it met the wall, and leaned back, pulling Lance back onto his chest. The other boy seemed to be comfortable there on the couch, so Keith figured it wasn't a bad idea.

He wasn't wrong. Lance snuggled right up to him, thankful for the slight rise and fall of his breathing and the sound of his heart beat. It reassured him that he wasn't alone.

Keith brought his hand up to his hair, trying to lull him back to sleep. "Are you going to school tomorrow?" He asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, I should have gone today." Lance said back. He knew why Shiro had made him stay behind, but he had stayed awake all day anyway. He could have at least been at school.

"You should have been sleeping today. That was kind of the whole point of you staying home." Keith pointed out.

"Because sleeping by myself in a completely empty house sounded so appealing." Lance said back, tired sarcasm entering his voice.

Keith let out a sigh, knowing he couldn't blame Lance for staying awake. "Fair enough. But now you have me, so try and get some more sleep, okay?"

"Okay."

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The next morning was.... awkward. Neither of them knew what to do or say. They had spent the last twelvish hours cuddling. But they still hated each other? They were just confused at that point.

Getting ready in near silence, they were ready to go in record time. Keith was downstairs first, raising his eyebrows at Adam sitting at the counter while Shiro made breakfast.

"Keith!" Adam said with a smile as he turned and caught site of the teen.

"Hey Adam, did you stay over last night?" Keith asked, confused as to when he arrived at the house.

"Oh yeah. Shiro called me, saying that you were all snuggled up the couch with your mortal enemy and I didn't believe him, so I came over to see for myself. Then I just kind of stayed over." Adam explained, causing Keith to turn a bright shade of red.

"Saw that, huh?" He said while taking a seat next to Adam.

"Mhm. So what's up with you two? Was the whole feud just over sexual tension or what?" Adam pried, causing Shiro to spit out his coffee and Keith to choke on his own saliva.

"What? It's a valid question!" Adam defended.

"That's not- Why would- I'm not- He's not- We're not- I don't-" Keith sputtered, only to be cut off by Adam's laugh.

"Jesus kid, calm down. I was just teasing you." He said, but shot Shiro a wink, letting him know that he was completely serious.

A few minutes of normal conversation later, and Lance was downstairs as well, a little confused about the guy sitting at the counter.

"Good morning Lance." Shiro said with a smile. Lance weakly smiled back. His head was all over the place at that moment. Between the dreams, Keith, and the fact he would have to deal with Allura later, he had a lot on his plate.

"This is Adam, he's Shiro's boy toy." Keith said bluntly, trying to get back at him for the sexual tension jab.

It worked.

Adam was simply appalled and Shiro did another spit take. Lance couldn't hold in the small laugh that escaped his lips at their reactions. Keith had a small smile of triumph at making him laugh.

"Excuse me? I am a man thank you very much." Adam said, seemingly only offended by the boy part.

"That's seriously what you're worried about?" Shiro asked his boyfriend, only slightly baffled. He shook his head and went back to the stove, only to notice the time.

"Um, aren't you guys kind of late?" Shiro asked hesitantly, noticing the time.

Keith's eyes widened as he noticed it to. Lance seemed unbothered at first, but then he took a second to remember what Keith had told him on Monday.

"Shiro, you have to call us in. Please." Keith pleaded, knowing that he'd be in big trouble.

"Yeah, I saw that one coming." Shiro said with a sigh. "Go, I'll tell the office you had car troubles or something." He said, pointing to the door.

The boys grabbed slices of toast as they raced to the door. Then they were locked in a small space together for the tenish minutes it would take to get to school.

Lance cleared his throat after the first few minutes. "Um, thanks.... for last night." He said hesitantly, just wanting it to stop being so awkward. Even fighting was better than the uneasy silence that had settled over them.

"We never bring it up to anyone, like ever. Agreed?" Keith asked, keeping his eyes on the road in front of him.

Lance let out a relieved breath as he nodded and said, "Agreed."

After another few minutes Keith spoke up. "Does that happen, the nightmares, like every night?" He asked, a little scared for the answer. He had seen how messed up Lance was from the dream last night, he couldn't imagine going through it once, let alone every night.

"Um, yeah." Lance said awkwardly. There was no point in hiding it, he'd notice eventually.

"Wow," Keith breathed out. "That's gotta suck." He said, not really knowing what else to say to him.

"You know? You're not wrong about that." Lance said back, trying to lighten the mood a little with his laid back attitude towards the topic.

"Shouldn't you-" Keith started, but didn't get to finish.

"Please, just- drop it?" Lance didn't want to talk about it anymore, especially if Keith was just going to say what everyone was saying.

Keith nodded, and they spent the rest of the drive in another round of silence.