Keith stopped his hand hovering the door knob before he turned around. "I almost forgot my beanie upstairs, I'll be right," he said before dashing as quickly as he could to his room. That was mostly the truth but he did also feel a painful fear lurking in his head as hateful thoughts rushed in. "What if he just's wants to hurt me?" . More thoughts aroused. "What if hes like everyone else?" he breathed out a shaky breath. He leaned against the wall putting a shaky hand over his face and rubbing his forehead in a calming fashion.
Moments passed by, he snapped out of his dazed thoughts when he heard movement from downstairs. He swiftly grabbed a black beanie off his floor, dusting it off and plopping it on his head in a messy like fashion. He looked at the mirror, eyebrows furrowing. "He isn't like that, I can feel it," he said with reassurance but still laced thinly with doubt.
"Keith!" Shiro called from below with a urgent tone making Keith's heart race fast as he made his way out of his bedroom.
Lance stood like and idiot trying at all costs not to make eye contact with the fairly obvious displeased older brother, who leaned on the front door frame. He eyed Lance up and down shooting him a warning glance before turning to see a flustered Keith walking over quickly.
Lance shot him a soft smile, warming his heart a little. Shiro put his hands out defluffing Keith's beanie in a fatherly like way. Keith swatted him away embarrassed. "Shiro i'm almost 18 years old I don't need you fixing my appearance," he huffed. Shiro only sighed moving to the side, letting him past.
Keith gave him a small smile and a wave before looking at Lance and nodding his head forward, indicating for them to get going already. Lance caught on and nodded back, beginning to make his way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hunk used to call me sharpshooter all the time when we were kids, probably because of my ultimate skills at hitting off the shelf carnival games," Lance laughed with pride as they walked towards the park, talking. "I didn't think you would want to go to the park to be honest, we are technically almost adults," he laughed lightly.
"I haven't been to one in years," Keith looked at the ground before continuing. "I didn't really have a childhood so parks were never really a big thing for me," he rubbed his arm slightly.
Lance looked at him with sad eyes. "That sucks, my childhood was the highlight of my life. Going to the beach, amusements parks with my family and all that jazz," he replied with small jazz hands, lightening up the dull mood as both boys quietly laughed.
Keith looked at Lance again, Lance's eyes filled with happiness. He envied that about him, even when he was mad he still had a hint of that sparkle lurking in those blue eyes of his. Keith gulped after realizing he had been staring at Lances face for a good amount of heartbeats and quickly looked away, scratching his face as if it was itchy.
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They had arrived at the small park and plopped down on the nearest bench, legs aching from the walk. Lance stretched out his arm taking up a good half of the back of the bench. Keith sat on the very edge leaving a gap between the two.
"So,"
"So," Keith replied with a small giggle.
Lance scratched the back of his neck as the awkwardness only got heavier. He tapped his fingers against his knee before an idea popped into his head.
"You wanna see how fast I can climb up that tree?" he said with a smug confident look. Keith gave him a side glance as if to say "Why?". Lance only got up, ignoring the look he was getting from Keith and proceeded to dash over to the tree.
"Lance you're going to hurt yourself," Keith said chuckling.
"Wow thanks mom," Lance replied laughing.
Keith froze as he now had a death stare. "Idiot," he said huffing and crossing his arms as he scrunched up. Lance only shook his head laughing as he tore off his boots so he could use his feet for better grip. He looked up, it wasn't that big of a tree, hes definitely seen taller.
Keith only watched in amusement and horror as Lance began his climb. With every slip or misstep making his heart stop. "Why am I so worried about him? Hes an idiot for doing this,". Keith thought reassuring himself as he watched on.
"You gonna join me?" Lance spoke smuggly from above. Keith looked up.
"Hell no."
"What are you a chicken, mullet?" he stuck his tongue out, mocking.
Keith felt his natural rush of competitiveness and furrowed his eyebrows walking over to the tree. "You're so on you idiot," he huffed before starting to climb up quickly.
Lance watched in awe as his body quickly swooped up the tree, barely screwing up any of his footing as he pulled up from branch to branch. He caught up to Lance within a few minutes, giving him a smug look before continuing higher. Lance growled lightly and followed suit.
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Both boys huffed as they made it to the top. Keith never dared to look down knowing full well they were too high up for comfort. Lance on the other hand sat comfortable on a thick branch, pushing loose hairs back into place. He glanced over to see Keith who clenched onto his knees tightly.
"If you stress out so much you're going to give yourself a heart-attack," he said softly before shifting over to the other branch that was closer to Keith's. Keith only looked straight ahead out to the afternoon sky.
"It's not as beautiful as the night sky," Keith finally said with a sigh. Lance looked out to the sky as well before nodding.
"I remember stargazing as a kid, always dreaming what was out there. Aliens? Other human life? It was mysterious," he smiled leaning his head against the bark. Keith smiled back little dimples forming. "There's that smile," Lance thought.
"We can always come back out here during the night," Lance said without thinking and quickly tried to correct himself. "I-I mean if you want to, you don't have to! I can fully understand if you don't want my annoying self to hangout with you! Oh god i'm rambling again aren't I, I-I'm sorry I do this a lot," Keith couldn't help but blush as Lance fumbled around with his words, speaking at miles per second.
Keith gently put a hand on Lance's shoulder which seemed to make him freeze.
"I wouldn't mind that," he said quietly before taking his hand back and letting the silence between the two sink in for a little while longer.
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They had sat there for what seemed like hours, talking about life, sharing interests. Lance concluded that Keith was a massive emo while Keith concluded that Lance was a total idiot but a charming one at that. Lance had gone on about his family, how they did everything together. Keith had admitted how his mother had abandoned him and his brother when they were young and his father had died in a freak accident.
Lance didn't know what to do when tears struck Keith's eyes. He reached a hand out only to get swatted away. Keith rubbed his face harshly with the sleeve of his jacket until the tears had stopped.
"Sorry..," he said with almost a guilty tone. Lance only looked at him confused.
"For what? Crying? I do it all the time, it's only natural," he said placing a hand on his Keith's arm which to his surprised wasn't swatted away this time.
Keith looked at him as if he was searching for something, information before looking away.
"Do you wanna get down now, I can feel splinters piercing through my thighs," Keith said with a bit of a wince. Lance couldn't help but laugh at that and nodded as they began their journey down the tree.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lance had fallen luckily close to the ground and landed with a thud, Keith had a misstep as well and came barreling down after him, landing right on top of the poor boy. A groan came from both of them as they laid sprawled out. Keith pulled his face up being met inches away from the others. Both went wide eyed staring for a few breathes before Keith sat up turning away.
"S-sorry," he said stuttering.
"I-it's fine just an accident that's all," Lance gulped averting his gaze as well, face flushed hot pink. "How has it been only two days?". He thought to himself. How in the span of two days had he fallen this hard for someone. Maybe Pidge was right. Lover boy Lance was back in business.