Rivals (Klance)

Chapter 14

Lance had absolutely nothing to do for the handful of hours he had to wait for Keith to get out of school. He had no homework yet, he couldn't sleep on his own, and he couldn't text any of his friends because he was avoiding all of them. He was bored and hungry.

'Guess eating could keep me entertained for a few minutes.' Lance thought, making his way down the stairs to the kitchen, where Shiro and Adam were hanging out. Why the kitchen? Lance had no clue.

"Hungry?" Adam asked with a knowing smile as Lance tiredly stumbled into view. Shiro hadn't told him much, but he knew that he was having issues sleeping, which was enough for him to feel bad for the kid.

"A little." Lance admitted.

"Didn't you just have lunch?" Shiro asked, concern lacing his voice.

"About an hour ago, and the thought of food then made me nauseous." He explained, to tired to really care if Shiro and Adam knew just how bad he was getting. Shiro already knew just as much as Allura at that point, so what was one more thing added to that pile of trauma?

Adam and Shiro exchanged a look, both seeming worried with Lance's confession.

"Well what'd you feel like? I could make you something?" Shiro offered, knowing that if he was feeling nauseous like that, that it would be hard to eat something he really didn't want to.

"Toast." Lance said simply. He had be able to stomach it that morning, so he figured he'd try it again. He just needed to eat something.

Shiro nodded, having a good idea what his thought process was behind his answer and got to work on plopping two pieces of bread in the toaster.

While he was doing that, Adam decided to make some small talk with the younger boy. "So you and Keith, what's going on with that?" He asked, nudging Lance in the shoulder.

All the drowsiness seemed to leave Lance's body as he sat bolt up right at the question. "Wh-what? What you mean?" He asked, pretending like he had slept on his chest the night before, or like he wasn't planning on doing it again that night.

"Um, well you guys were asleep on the couch last night, it was kind of hard to miss." Shiro said, pushing himself up onto the counter. He was facing the island, where Lance and Adam were seated.

Lance turned a deep shade of red. "I hadn't slept in over twenty four hours and when he said I should sleep, I kind of had a panic attack. He calmed me down and then moved so we were laying down and I fell asleep like five minutes later." Lance explained, hoping that they wouldn't read to much into his retelling.

Adam nearly squealed. "That's so cute." He said with a beaming smile. Then he sent a glace at Shiro, "I can totally tell you raised him." He said, referring to Keith.

"Was that a compliment?" Shiro asked, a little concerned and confused.

"Definitely." Adam said with a nod. Then he turned back to Lance, who was still bright red. "You were both still on the couch when Takashi and I got back last night, but you guys weren't down here when we woke up this morning. What happened?" He asked, not wanting to pry, but curiosity was eating at him.

Using context clues, Lance figured that Takashi was referring to Shiro.

"I woke up in the middle of the night, freaking out, and I woke him up. He didn't want to stay on the couch because it was so uncomfortable, so we just went upstairs." Lance said, to tired to care anymore. He was already beyond embarrassed, it couldn't have gotten much worse.

"Mhm, and did you two sleep in your own beds?" Adam asked, totally knowing that they had continued to cuddle after they went upstairs.

Lance avoided eye contact when he answered. "I had just woken up from a nightmare, the thought of being alone scared the crap out of me. What'd you expect?" He said, avoiding saying no directly.

Before anything else that would scar Lance for life could happen, his toast popped up from the toaster. Lance heaved a breath of relief as Shiro handed him a plate with the two pieces.

He started to slowly eat, but stopped after the first piece. Shiro and Adam were both just happy he got through one piece, so they didn't push him to finish the other one. He slid the plate out in front of him, resting his head on his arms and closing his eyes.

Shiro started up a soft conversation with Adam, knowing that if Lance was gonna try to sleep at the counter, it was because their voices let him know that he wasn't alone. They carried on a conversation for about half an hour before Adam asked, "Do you think he's asleep?"

"Seeing as he didn't answer that question, I'll say yes." Shiro responded.

"I can't imagine that the counter is comfortable." Adam mused, watching the younger boy.

"Maybe that's the point. If he's not comfortable, he can't fall into a deep sleep and he doesn't have to worry about nightmares if he's waking up every half hour anyway." Shiro said, he was still sitting on the opposite counter, but he had a mug filled with coffee in his hand.

"Should we leave him be, or should we stay here until Keith gets back?" Adam asked, directing his attention back to his boyfriend.

"Not that I'd want to leave him alone in the first place, but I think Keith would try to beat us up if we left him." Shiro said with a quiet chuckle. In the past four days the two boys had seemed to finally start to get along and maybe even gotten attacked to each other.

"I still find it funny how this kid's trauma and Keith's motherly instincts are the reason that they finally stopped fighting twenty four seven." Adam said, resulting in him and Shiro laughing.

They stayed in the kitchen after that, just talking and catching up. They had no where to be anytime soon, so they just enjoyed each other's company while waiting for Lance to wake up or Keith to get home.

The sound of the front door to open let them both know that Keith had finished school and was back home. "Welcome back." Adam said in a hushed voice as Keith walked into the kitchen to see Lance asleep at the island.

"How long has he been sleeping?" Keith asked, shocked that he had actually been able to.

"A few hours." Shiro responded, finding it adorable that all Keith seemed to be concerned with was the sleeping boy.

Keith's eyes widened a fraction as he looked up at him. "Seriously? And he hasn't woken up yet?" He asked, not being able to believe it.

"Nope." Shiro said.

Keith took grabbed a stool on the side of Lance that wasn't already occupied by Adam. They couldn't have been talking for more than twenty minutes, when Lance started to talk and move around in his sleep.

Keith was off his stool and leaning down next to Lance, trying to wake him up, in seconds. It didn't take as long to get him awake as it had the night before.

"Morning." Keith said with a soft smile as Lance's eyes finally opened.

Adam was silently fan girling next to Shiro as they watched the interaction.

"Hi." Lance said back, a little out of it from the nightmare.

"You got some sleep." Keith observed.

"Mhm. I didn't like it." Lance said with a grimace as Keith lightly laughed.

"I can see that. Homework?" He asked. He had a feeling Lance would be up to anything that could get his mind off the nightmare.

"Yeah." He said in a breathy voice.

"All your stuff's upstairs, let's go." Keith said, nodding his head in the direction of the stairs. Lance nodded and followed after Keith.

Adam let out a the air he had been holding in his lungs. He whipped his head to Shiro and said, "I ship them more than I ship us."