Lance frowned. "Time to go home, huh?" In the pit of his stomach, something that felt like guilt was churning. He hadn't seen his siblings in ages. He missed them, as much as he wanted to stay with Keith, and he realized he hadn't texted or called them as much as he should have.
"At long last." Keith smiled reassuringly. Don't worry! Your family misses you like crazy, I'm sure, and besides, I'll still see you every day." Lance pouted. "Yeah. Okay. You wanna come inside? It's kinda hot and I make a mean lemonade," he offered, popping the car door open. "Plus, it'd be weird for my family not to know who I've been staying with for the past few weeks." Keith shrugged, putting the car in park and opening his door. "Yeah. Okay."
Lance fumbled with his keys as they both stood in front of the pale yellow door. It opened with a creak, and Lance called out for his mother immediately. Her footsteps thudded down the stairs, and Lance noticed Keith swallow hard, shuffling a little bit behind him. "What, you nervous?" He teased him quietly, squeezing his arm in reassurance. Keith looked at him, eyes less frantic, and released a small, affectionate huff. "Me, nervous? As if."
As if on cue, Lance's mother rushed to the door. "Lance, mijo," the words pushed past her lips and she reached out to give her son a hug. "Ah- mama-" Lance managed, grinning wide from inside her embrace, and leaned his forehead on her shoulder. He missed her a lot. More than he thought he did. When she put him down, her eyes skimmed over the other boy in the doorway.
"Mama, this is Keith," Lance said, pulling Keith forward, who let out a gasp. "He's the friend I stayed with." Keith gave a cautious smile. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. McClain. I'm sorry for keeping your son so long." Lance watched Keith give another tentative smile, and he saw how his mother softened a bit at his shy voice. Did Keith know, he wondered, how sweet he was? Of course my family would like you, Keith, because you're so sweet and funny, and even though you're rough sometimes and you treat everything as a competition and you're kind of oblivious to things, I like you, so of course they would like you. Lance's mother lifted Keith's chin with her forefinger, giving him a knowing smile. "Rosa is just fine, dear. Thank you for taking care of Lance. You are welcome here any time." She held her hand to Keith's cheek, and Lance's heart thumped once at the way Keith melted into it, pursing his lips and averting his eyes at the invitation. It made him wonder if Keith ever felt lonely at home. If maybe- maybe his being there helped Keith just as much as it helped him. Somewhere in the distance, Lance heard his mother telling them she had to pick up the kids from school, and felt her whisper to him that they would talk later. Keith glanced at him, then, and Lance blinked, not quick enough to pretend he wasn't looking at him. Crap. Crap, was I staring? Did he see me? Keith frowned a little, a small line forming in between his eyebrows. Lance fidgeted. Since when did he notice things like that?
"Hey, what are you thinking about?" Keith reached up and flicked Lance's chest, and he jolted. Keith's eyebrows were knit together slightly, his pale cheeks slightly flushed. "Are you good?" He leaned closer to Lance, and Lance could see the faint purple shine in his grey eyes, and he gulped. Had those eyes always been that color? Had his hair, falling over long, dark eyelashes, always looked so soft? Crap, crap. Crap. Lance let out a shaky breath, still captured in his thoughts, before he realized that Keith's shoulders looked a little tight, and he wasn't confidently looking at him the way he usually was- instead his eyes were darting between Lance and the room around them. He was worried, maybe, maybe he felt like Lance was thinking something not so great about him, since Lance definitely had stared long enough. Lance wanted to reassure him, tell him obviously that's not what's happening, I couldn't think something bad about you if I tried, but he didn't. Instead, Lance willed himself to move, and not think about how good Keith looked in his home, how he had looked like- like he had belonged just a little bit in his mothers arms, and he managed to say, eloquently, "Um."
"Um?"
"Um, uh, right. Didn't I promise you lemonade?" Lance's hands tapped fast against his thighs, and he turned to the fridge. "You can, uh, you can sit down, you know, if you want. Mama's only gonna be gone for a few minutes and when she comes back with the kids it'll be really loud and stuff, and you probably don't want to meet them, so you should relax before-"
"I want to." Keith shifted into a seat at the kitchen counter across Lance. Lance stopped squeezing the half lemon in his hand. "Huh?"
"I mean, is that okay? It's just, your mom was- she- she's so nice, and you talked about your siblings a lot, and I thought maybe I could. If you, um, don't mind."
He was uncharacteristically quiet as he spoke, and Lance again had a thought of Keith, and family, and of course Keith would want to meet his, he's practically never had one of his own, and then the urge to hug him, hug him, hug him, kept rattling in his chest, but instead he just laughed awkwardly and said, "Of course you can, dude. I just thought you might have stuff to do or something, but you can stay. You heard my mom, you're always welcome." He grinned at Keith. "Plus, my siblings are gonna love you, man."
Keith shifted, and Lance felt his intense eyes on him as he poured the lemonade into two glasses, sliding one over to Keith. "You think?" Keith asked. And oh, oh. Lance reached across the counter to squeeze Keith's wrist. "Yeah, dude," he said softly. "I'm totally sure of it. They'll be all over you, and they'll probably do dumb stuff like ask you about your hair, and my sisters will want to braid it or something, and the boys'll want you to play video games with them and I'll have to remind them to do their homework first, and, and all that stuff." Keith was looking at him, trying to hide the smile forming slowly on his face with his glass, and Lance was reminded yet again of how imperfect Keith was, how human it was for him to want to feel wanted, to feel liked, to feel like he was finally a part of something. "And even if they don't- which is totally impossible, by the way- they'll get used to you. My mom likes you too much for you not to come back, you know," he teased.
Keith snorted. "She literally just met me," he said, the door opening again on his last word. "Here come the kids," Lance grinned. "Be prepared."
As soon as he spoke, three kids came tumbling through the doorway, shoving each other and fumbling to kick their shoes off. Lance smiled softly at their messy hair and the way they switched quickly between English and Spanish as they yelled over each other. "Lance, Lance!! Lance is back!" The youngest girl looked up and yelled, and her two counterparts immediately shot up, turning to see where she was looking. "Lance!" They screamed, their socked feet thudding softly on the wood floors, and suddenly Lance was on his knees, their little arms wrapping around any part of him that they could, and boy was he sweating but he didn't really care because he missed them a whole lot. He squeezed Park tightly, giving Briana a big kiss and ruffling Jay's hair. "Hey, guys," He was grinning widely. "I missed you nuts." Park whacked Lance's leg as he stood up, grumbling something that sounded like "I'm not a nut," but it was too quiet to tell. "Guys, guys," Lance said, leading the kids over to the kitchen. "Guys, this is Keith. He's my friend." Lance glanced at Keith, who looked a little overwhelmed, and put his hand on his shoulder. "Keith, this is Jay, and these are the twins, Park and Briana." Keith smiled a little, the same way he did when he met Lance's mother- a little uncomfortably, but still nice. "Uh, hello," he said, and that was really all it took. Jay twisted up his face and said, "Are you Lance's boyyyyfriend?" And then the twins started talking and grabbing at Keith's arms and his hair, and suddenly he was being led down to the living room couch. Lance watched from the kitchen, huffing a soft smile, a quick I knew it, I knew they'd love you.
But then his mother touched his arm, gave him a worried look, and he nodded, sitting down to talk at the table.
"Lance, baby," she started. "Don't get me wrong, mijo. I like Keith, he seems like a very nice boy." Lance played with the skin around his fingernails. "And you're a grown up, and I trust you, mi amor, but you were with Keith a long time. Is there... anything you're not telling me?"
Lance's breath hitched. He thought about the broken bones, the night in the hospital, the sobbing into Keith's shoulder as he rubbed his back. His heart raced with I knew she would find out, I knew she would know, how did she know, of course she would, she's mama, she knows me better than anyone, and why did I think I could keep anything from her- And then his throat felt tight, and it was hard to swallow, cause god, the last thing in the world that he wanted was to tell her about all of that, but then she opened her mouth again and said, "..About Keith?" and Lance let out a sigh, and managed, "No. We're just friends. He's- ah, he was my tutor at school, actually."
Rosa looked at him, pursing her lips and softening her eyes. "Lance," she said, and Lance gripped her hand tight. "A-actually," he choked, and he told her about the bullying at school, and how Keith would help him, and how he didn't want to worry her or the kids so he stayed with him, but he left out the hospital and how severe his injuries were because a part of him was still ashamed, and a part of him still wanted to protect his family. And she looked at him as he spoke and bit her lip to stop it from trembling, and when he was done she stood and wrapped him in another hug, this one tighter, and she rocked him back and forth, and Lance wondered why he didn't hold her more often, because this felt like all he needed right then. "Baby," she said, "I know it's hard, please come to me," and Lance almost cried. He almost did, he felt the lump rise in his throat and his breathing start to shake, but he remembered Keith in the other room and squeezed her again before pulling away. "Okay, Ma. I'm gonna go see how Keith is doing. He's..." he looked into the living room, where Keith was nestled against his couch cushions, still animatedly answering questions and ruffling hair and cracking (probably) stupid jokes with his siblings.
His mother smiled. "Keith is...? He's special, isn't he," she said warmly, and a flush rose up Lance's back and tinged his ears. "No, Ma, not like- it's not- he's-"
"It's okay, baby. Go to him." She ran her fingers through his hair one more time before pushing him towards the living room, and he stumbled forward. Keith glanced up at him as he entered the room, an excited twitch in his smile and shine in his eyes.
"Hi," he said quietly, not wanting to interrupt.
"Hi, Lance," Keith said softly back, grinning as Lance perched himself on the top of the sofa.
"I told you they would like you, mullet." Lance teased, and Keith flushed a little bit with pride and a little bit with embarrassment. "Speaking of- is that a braid I see?"
"Yeah- ah- Briana wanted to, so I let her," Keith explained, pulling the braid to one side. Lance grinned back. "Well, now you have to come back. The kids are getting attached." And Keith laughed, furrowing his eyebrows, and Lance thought maybe yeah, maybe he was special.