Keith treasures his sleep.
He treasures it a lot.
Between being an insomniac, working hard to maintain his academic scholarships, trying to find a job, and these aquarium lessons that seemed to be constantly taking up more and more of his time- Keith was a busy guy.
One who didn't sleep as much as he'd like.
So if Keith was lucky enough to get the recommended eight hours of sleep, he'll likely kill anyone who gets in the way.
Lance, of course, hadn't gotten the memo.
As his phone let out an booming shrill in the middle of the night, Keith jolted awake. He barely got any phone calls, asides from his parents and Shiro, and none of them would be daring enough to call him midst his much needed rest.
He suddenly felt a surge of panic, what if something was wrong? Maybe someone got hurt? He scrambled for his phone, rushing to answer.
"Hello?!" Keith answered in a panic, not bothering to notice the unknown number.
"Mullet! Is that you? What's up?!" A familiar voice yelled from the other side of the phone, way too loud and energetic considering it was two in the morning.
Keith pressed his temples, trying his best to follow the words that Shiro constantly told him.
'Patience yields focus, patience yields focus, patience yields-'
"Hello?" Lance's voice called out loudly again.
'Fuck patience'.
"Why. The shit. Are you calling me. AT FUCKING TWO A.M.!" Keith yelled into the phone, he could hear Shiro grumbling from the other room, obviously awakened.
"Okay, whoa, don't need to get your mullet in a twist, damn.." Lance muttered.
"Did you call me with a purpose or did you just decide to get a head-start on your daily annoyances?" Keith grumbled, obviously agitated with being awoken before the sun.
"Okay, first of all, rude. Second of all, we're outside your door and we were wondering if you wanted to come with."
"Wait, what?"
Lance ended the call with a beep, leaving Keith lost, tangled in his sheets with a confused look on his face.
He was deciding whether or not to call Lance again before his doorbell rang through the small apartment.
Keith could hear Shiro get up to answer it, he threw his blanket to the side before scrambling through the house. He could see Shiro stretching for the doorknob, he shrieked before racing to the door, tackling his brother.
"KEITH WHAT ARE YOU-" Shiro's voice muffled under Keith's hand, which he now held over his brother's mouth.
Keith hushed him, "Okay so there's a boy-"
Now, Shiro was probably more than twice Keith's size. Even when they were kids, Shiro always had the upper hand, so wrestling wasn't exactly a fair fight. Granted, Shiro would never use this advantage if he didn't think what he was fighting for was good for Keith. And at a mention of a boyfriend, Shiro was fucking ecstatic.
Okay, so Keith didn't say boyfriend, per-say.
But that wasn't gonna stop Shiro from immediately tossing Keith to the side, not even letting him finish his statement. and answering the door to play the ultimate wing-man.
I mean what were brothers for?
At the end of the day, Keith loved his brother.
But throughout the day was a very different story.
"YOU FUCKING PRICK" Keith landed on his side after being thrown across the room by Shiro, who now scattered to get to the door, laughing maniacally at his own victory.
Thankfully, what Keith lacked in size, he made up for in speed.
He raced Shiro for the knob, beating him only by a fraction of a second.
Of course Shiro ended up pushing him aside anyways, leaving Keith on his ass against the carpet, as he opened the door and closed it behind him.
Keith was gonna kill his brother.
"Hello there!" Shiro exclaimed, shutting the door behind him to greet the friendly looking boy who stood before him, trying to sound like he hadn't just been wrestling his younger brother for the doorknob, mere seconds before.
"Oh, hi! You are..?" Lance asked, curious about the handsome man standing before him.
"I'm Shiro. Keith's brother." Shiro didn't shy from adding emphasis to his name, ever since Keith first came out to him, years ago, Shiro didn't tire from trying to get him a boyfriend, and this opportunity practically threw itself at him.
"Ah, I'm Lance," he nodded before breaking out his signature grin.
Shiro smiled back, 'He seems nice', he thought to himself, before extending his arm to shake the younger boy's hand, "Nice to meet you, Lance."
Lance smiled, which faltered for a moment when he noticed the arm stretched out for him. He didn't notice the metal underneath the older man's long sleeves before, but Lance's falter only lasted for half a second before he immediately shone a genuine, sun-like smile and shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you too Shiro. Now, if you don't mind me asking, may I speak to Keith please?"
Shiro smiled joyfully, 'Well he's got my blessing'.
Keith was flipping out.
He stood there awkwardly in his red, plaid pajamas and black "MOTH-MAN FOR PRESIDENT" t-shirt he'd gotten for Christmas from Shiro.
'I can't let him see me like this' Keith thought, panicking about his lack of time to prepare.
He quickly jet back to his room, and picked up a simple gray top from the floor that looked decently clean, hurried into one of the dozen black skinny jeans he owns, and threw on his red, college sweatshirt.
He inspected himself in the mirror, he looked pretty good considering he had five minutes and it was 'too fucking early a'clock in the morning'. He straightened his sweatshirt, thinking about combing his hair before thinking to himself, 'Who am I trying to impress anyway?'
He sighed at himself before leaving his room.
He didn't "like" Lance.
Did he?
I mean sure, the guy was attractive. But Keith thought lots of dudes were attractive.
And many of those dudes weren't so obnoxious all the time, or bothered him in the middle of the night.
Many of those dudes also didn't have girlfriends.
But, many of those dudes also didn't go out of their way to make Keith feel welcome, nor have the patience to deal with his "fight or be fought" attitude.
"Whatever, I don't like him like that, and I don't care what he thinks of me" Keith told himself, before walking out of his room.
Seconds later he came back to grab his black ponytail and tied his hair up, cursing at himself for being a 'fucking loser' until finally reaching the door to his home, reaching for it slowly and turning the knob.
Lance was in love with Nyma.
It was clear to anyone how he passionately he felt about her, they could see it through his words, his actions, and most of all- his eyes. Lance's most vulnerable quality seemed to be his eyes- he could never get away with anything, his eyes were the direct gateway to his soul. And with the way Lance's eyes lit up whenever his girlfriend was around, it was obvious he belonged to her. And, just like any person he'd ever been attached to in the past (platonic and romantic) - Lance would likely sell his soul before ever deliberately hurting them.
But, although Lance wasn't available, he wasn't blind either. He knew an attractive person when he saw one.
And Keith was no exception.
He looked especially cute right now, with his hair tied back rather than falling all over his face like usual. His sweatshirt seemed cozy on him, and Lance really wanted to hug him right now.
But Lance was a touchy guy. It didn't mean anything.
I mean sure, the guy was attractive. But Lance thought lots of dudes were attractive.
He also found lots of girls attractive.
He was just being his bisexual self.
Right?
"So, you coming with?" Lance asked, he shoved his hands into the pockets of a green army jacket he was wearing and pivoted on his feet, awaiting an answer.
"Well I'm already up, thanks to you I might add...So might as well.." Keith muttered.
"Hey! If I called you at any other time, it would've been too late, so you're welcome Mr. McGrumpy Mullet."
Shiro looked between the two males, smiling to himself. "Ah- young lo-"
Keith punched his brother in the gut to stop him from finishing his sentence.
"Whoa, okay violent." Shiro hissed, although laughing.
"You hang out with Matt too damn much." Keith said to his giggling brother, before turning around to follow Lance outside.
They walked out of the apartment complex to a blue jeep parked not to far from the gates, side by side without talking until Lance broke the silence.
"So, your brother.." Lance smiled softly.
"Ah, yes, my brother. Overall an amazing guy, except when he's not- which in that case he's an ass." Keith replied.
Lance laughed, "Sounds like my older brother."
Keith looked at Lance with a small smile. He liked Lance's laugh, it was loud and abrupt, just like Lance. And Keith, although having trouble admitting it at times, did like Lance. Just not like that.
'He's not even my type', Keith thought to himself.
"You got siblings?" Keith said instead.
"Oh boy, do I!" Lance laughed again. "One older brother, Luis, two older sisters, Camila and Wendy, and a niece and nephew, not to mention my dozens of cousins."
"That's a lot of people." Keith commented.
"Yeah, no kidding! We're a family of five by ourselves, but both my parents have like six siblings who each have around four kids of their own. We're kind of like a cult."
Keith snorted at that, "A cult?"
"Yup. Don't mess with the McClain's." Lance noted with a wink before opening the car door for Keith.
"The McClain's? I thought your last name was Rodriguez." Keith asked, stepping into the jeep.
"It is. I've got two last names."
Keith raised an eyebrow in questioning.
"Ya, see.." Lance started the car, "My real dad was Alejandro Rodriguez. He was a real awesome, but never around. He was in the army, you know?"
Keith nodded, finding himself interested in Lance's past.
"Well...he died in battle when I was like five or six. I don't remember a lot, I just remember we were at a really low point after that. We were going through lots of trouble, financially and emotionally. My mom had to work overtime, and my siblings started raising money too. My aunts and uncles were a huge help too, I don't know where we'd be without them..."
Keith felt his throat dry up all of a sudden, since when did their conversation get so personal?
"So about four years later, my mom meets this really nice guy. He was always amazing and really nice to us. He loved us like we were all his own children, and most importantly, he loved our mom. So when I was about fourteen, they got married. And to show that all of us were super accepting of him and loved him as our new dad, we signed adoption papers to legally have his last name. It was his wedding gift from us." Lance smiled softly, recalling the memories as he drove down the streets.
Keith cleared his throat, "That's, that's really sweet." He smiled, to show how much he meant it. He had only had a glimpse of this side of Lance before.
The side that made his heart skip.
"Yeah no duh, it was my idea."
'And he's back', Keith thought, rolling his eyes.
"So what about you?" Lance asked innocently, keeping his eyes on the road as he continued the conversation.
"Me?"
"Your family?"
This was getting a little too personal too quickly, Keith didn't like to think about his old family. His biological family.
He decided he could talk about something a little more comfortable to him.
"Well, I was adopted by Shiro's family when I was around twelve years old. And they've been the best.." Keith smiled at the thought of his adopted family, "...It's only Shiro and I but sometimes Shiro just feels like an additional parent." Keith laughed.
Lance smiled widely, he never seemed to stop. "So about Shiro..." He held a more serious tone as his smile softened. "Would you mind if I asked about.."
"His arm?" Keith stated blankly. He was used to the questions, people never asked Shiro about it to his face. "Well when Shiro was about fifteen, they found malignancy in his right arm, and rather than letting it spread they decided to amputate it."
"Oh my god...I'm so sorry." Lance stated genuinely, his eyes were almost teary, and the sincerity of it all made Keith feel like he was choking on air.
"Lance." Keith was glad his voice didn't showcase how shaky he felt right now. If the town didn't look so sullen at that moment, he would've sworn they were in an earthquake. "It's fine really. I mean, for God's sake Shiro was so fucking pumped. He pretended to be Astro-Boy for so damn long it's actually kinda sad."
"No!" Lance laughed, visibly more relieved.
"I shit you not. He tried to convince the doctors to put actual lasers into his arms.." Keith laughed alongside Lance.
He felt good.
He felt like he was in one of those teen dramas he always denied liking. The ones where the two love interests were in complete isolation, and they were having fun and laughing before getting lost into each other's eyes, and then some romantic ballad would play, pushing them to realize they were madly in love and that somehow solved all their problems....or some other corny shit like that.
'But you aren't in some rom-com, you're in the car with fucking Lance modern day Narcissus McClain. Get a hold of yourself you asshat'
Lance was trying to stifle his giggling, which Keith found absolutely adorable, much to his own resent, when he asked another question. "So-" he giggled again, showcasing his small dimples which Keith couldn't help but love, "what about his scar?"
Keith broke out the widest grin Lance had ever seen erupt on the pale boy's face. "You see, my mom used to own Satan's cat.."
It was a surprise Lance didn't wake up the entire town with his uncontrollable laughter.
///
So I legit spent all day on this chapter but still didn't cover all the content I had originally planned (good job tan smh), but I actually like the length and pace it has going so far. I will however try my best to add another chapter (with everything else that was supposed to happen this chapter) by the end of this week. I'm trying to update AT LEAST every other week but life is so busy ;_; nevertheless, thank you guys so much ~Tan♡