(( Apparently there was some confusion on the last chapter. I didn't want to drag opinions into this, but yes, I believe it's up to Keith what he does with the baby. It's his body, his choice. That's all I'm going to say about that.))
Keith's hand was in tremors as he stared at the mound of pills atop his palm. Take these and there wouldn't be a problem. Just an easy way to pretend this never happened.
He was crying harshly, knowing that it would be so wrong to just kill their child without Lance even knowing it existed. What kind of a person would do that to their boyfriend? Not Keith. In that moment, he made a choice that was going to change his life forever.
He dumped the pills into the toilet, quickly flushing them away.
Keith couldn't do it. Not to Lance, not to himself. This was his child, his responsibility. That tiny, helpless creature didn't even know what it felt like to breathe, or to be held, or anything. It only knew how to trust that its parent would keep it safe.
In that moment Keith had chosen a long and dangerous road to travel. One filled with plenty of pain, and little moments to share with Lance along the way. One filled with dirty diapers, and late nights. He couldn't betray the little life inside of him that knew nothing better than to trust him.
Shiro was going to kill them. Keith was very aware of that as he dried his tears with the bathroom towel. Lance would... wait. What would Lance do? Keith didn't even know if he'd be pissed or really anything else. He just stared down at his tummy, holding his hand to it. Their baby.
Keith knew it wasn't ideal, being pregnant in high school. He'd be lying if he said he was happy, or that he was excited to find this out. But... he wasn't willing to terminate his pregnancy. If Lance wanted him to, that might tip the scale, but that was the only way. If Lance wanted this child, any talk of abortion was out the window.
...
Lance was so confused. He felt this sort of... energy. Like it was just trying to pull him in the direction of Keith's house.
As he sat on the park bench, hearing the leaves on the adjacent tree rustle in the wind, he was so puzzled. His alpha instincts were going absolutely crazy, almost like they would've if Keith was in danger. He'd come to this place, the spot where they'd spent their first date, in hopes of clearing his head.
Lance pulled out his phone, seeing that the only notifications he had were from the group chat with his friends. He didn't check it. What mattered was that there weren't any messages from Keith like there normally would've been. That was the most concerning thing.
He pressed the call button under Keith's contact, and his leg was restlessly bouncing up and down as he struggled to find a comfortable sitting position. The dial tone continuously rung, and with every time it went without being answered, the levels of anxiousness inside of Lance doubled. Of course Keith wasn't feeling good, and maybe he was just sleeping or something, but that wasn't a good enough excuse to appease his instincts.
...
Keith glanced down at his phone, seeing Lance was calling him, and his beautiful face popped up on the screen. It only made Keith more emotional, but he tried his best to get it together. Lance would probably get worried if he didn't answer, considering the omega was pretty much on his phone 24/7.
He sniffed, wiping his face and shakily reaching for the phone.
" Hello?" Keith answered, straining himself to seem perfectly fine.
" Keith?" Lance's blood pressure immediately starting dropping from dangerous levels as he heard his boyfriend's voice.
" Who were you expecting?" Keith sarcastically asked.
" N-nobody... I just wanted to talk to you..." The alpha said. " Sorry if I woke you up or something." Lance nervously chuckled.
" It's fine." Keith said. " I haven't been able to sleep anyways." He wasn't even lying as he held the phone close.
Tell him.
Fucking tell him you coward!
" So... what's up?" Lance asked from the other end.
" You called me, remember?" Keith reminded him, blankly staring at the pregnancy tests that had all proven his suspicions to be correct.
" Oh-yeah... right. My instincts are just..." Lance trailed off somewhat. " They were making me worry about you." He said, scuffing his shoe at the ground.
Keith tensed up.
TELL HIM GOD DAMN IT!
" Why would you be worried about me, Babe?" He chuckled, chalking it up to Lance being silly.
" When I bonded you, it sort of tied me to you. Sometimes I know how you're feeling... and right now I feel like something's up." Lance explained, wondering why Keith was laughing in a nervous way.
" You're probably just picking up on me being sick." The omega said, trying to find an explanation other than 'Oh yeah, Lance! You got me fucking pregnant!'.
" But... Keith... it's different." Lance couldn't put his finger on why he felt the way he did, or why Keith was acting so weird. Sure, Keith was always weird, that was part of the reason why Lance loved him, but this seemed... too weird. " I almost feel... like... scared. Are you feeling like that?"
" No." Keith answered his question unnaturally quickly. " I'll-um... I'll talk to you tomorrow!" Keith exclaimed, hanging up the phone in panic. He looked down at his promise ring, feeling like he was violating it by not telling him. Was keeping it from his alpha the same thing as lying?
Lance looked at his phone in a confused way.
" Yeah... love you too, Keith..." He murmured to himself.
...
Keith hadn't slept all night, so it made sense when he crashed sometime around seven AM. He was completely wiped out, and just content to be sleeping for what felt like the first time in a million years.
" What the fuck do you mean you're pregnant?! Keith, how could you do that?!" A voice echoed.
" I-I didn't mean to!" Keith exclaimed, not even sure where the voice was coming from.
" You let him! You let him bite the condoms open and didn't even try to stop him!" Another voice shouted, then another and another. They were everywhere, like Keith just couldn't escape them.
It sounded like everyone he cared about had suddenly turned on him the second they figured out. Everyone except for Lance, as the voices were yelling at him as well. Everyone was tossing the blame around. Your fault. His fault. Their fault.
It was the sound of the garbage truck that woke him up around three in the afternoon. And the unrelenting nausea was the first thing that Keith felt as he groggily sat up. At least he wasn't running to the bathroom and vomiting up everything like the day before. Keith wasn't about to drink his usual morning coffee, but it was still better than actually puking his guts up first thing in the morning. It was about the worst wake up call he could imagine.
He'd been having nightmares and everything, but at least he didn't remember too much. It was only the general fear that all of his friends would hate him, and disassociate themselves from him once they found out.
As Keith got up, he was extra careful, remembering that he wasn't just having to worry about himself anymore. From now on, he was doing everything for two. He had to think more in depth about his decisions, and how they would effect the baby.
The omega decided he should probably get up and start getting ready for Lance's. He'd probably be heading over to his house soon, so he started grabbing clothes. It was just a simple outfit, a Panic! at the Disco t-shirt and some ripped, dark blue jeans. He also put on his beat up, old black Converse that had been with him through literally everything.
After Keith had brushed his teeth and finished getting ready, he departed from his room. He slowly went down the stairs, wishing that he could take something to ease the pain of his raging headache. But that was a no no. Apparently ibuprofen was bad for the baby, and he'd discovered that while surfing on the web the night before. Considering he hadn't been able to sleep anyways, Keith had found the time to research some do's and don'ts.
" Hey, Shiro." Keith yawned, seeing his brother in the kitchen. He was currently having some sort of sandwich, but the second he saw Keith, he set it down. Keith made a face at the weird look his brother gave him. " Shiro?"
" Keith, do you have something to tell me?" Shiro asked him, narrowing his eyes as the other boy got himself a glass of water.
The omega's insides were pulsing. His heart was rattling inside his ribcage, and he almost instantaneously broke into a nervous sweat.
" No?" He raised an eyebrow at Shiro, actually doing an okay job playing dumb.
" I'll ask again. Do you have anything you should probably be telling me right now?" Shiro looked at Keith seriously.
" What do you mean?" Keith asked, coming to sit across from him.
Shiro sighed, moving to toss an empty box of heat suppressants onto the table. And Keith's face just sank.
" Why were you looking through my trash?!" He angrily exclaimed.
" It's garbage day. While I was going around, I saw this in your trashcan, but that's not what we're talking about." Shiro said, sliding his plate and sandwich off to the side. " Did you take these because you're pregnant?" He sternly asked him. And Keith sat stiff, not answering him with words. The look on his face was really making Shiro worry. " Keith."
Keith looked down.
" I didn't go through with it..." The omega mumbled.
Shiro breathed a sigh of relief, but he was still steamed at his little brother for keeping this from him.
" Keith, how could you do this? One, you're pregnant after I've told you a million times to be SAFE! Two, you went behind my back, and almost gave yourself an abortion, which-newsflash, can hurt the baby instead of killing it! And three, you STILL tried to lie to me about it! What the hell!" Shiro had told himself that he wasn't going to yell at Keith for this, but he was beginning to lose his temper.
" I'm scared, okay?!" Keith felt his eyes tearing up as he raised his voice. Instead of helping the situation, he was effectively making it ten times worse.
" Scared?! You're pregnant, Keith! Do you know how serious this will be if we don't take care of it soon?!" Shiro exclaimed. And Keith stopped prepping himself for what he was about to say.
" Take care of it?!" He yelled, getting up. " Just what do you mean by that?!"
" Keith! You know exactly what I mean! You're still a kid, you couldn't raise a baby even if you tried!" Shiro wasn't meaning to sound as cold as he did, but hell, he was an actual ice cube.
" It's not your fucking call!" Keith hissed at him.
" It kind of is, you're my brother! And you're living under my roof." Shiro raised his arms in disbelief.
" Oh, so this is your house? Not the house that we've both been living in for our entire lives?" Keith was incredibly hurt that his brother would cross that line. " Am I some sort of guest in your house, Shiro? Excuse me!"
" Don't turn this around on me! I'm not the one who went off and got knocked up!" Shiro stood up as well, and he leaned over the table in a seemingly menacing way. Keith backed away, almost wondering if he was going to take a hold of him.
" I'm having Lance's baby, Shiro! You can't stop me!" He let tears streak down his cheeks as he pretty much screamed at him.
" Does Lance even know about this?!" Shiro hollered, but Keith was already running out the sliding glass door behind him.
He couldn't stand there and listen to that anymore. It didn't matter that running was making him want to keel over and puke in the middle of the sidewalk. Keith had to get out of there. Shiro, his own brother, wasn't even there to support him. Sure, he'd go to the police when Lotor was after them, but he couldn't go to bat for Keith when he really needed him to?
Keith felt like someone had just punched him right in the gut. He was close to sobbing as he ran down the street, and he honestly looked crazy. But anyone else in his position might've done the same thing. Shiro. Practically the only person who had been in his life forever. He wanted him to kill the baby?! And what for?! Would it be embarrassing to him or something?
Keith was pregnant. End of story. If he wanted the baby, then it wasn't Shiro's place to come in and try to bulldoze the pregnancy. This was Lance and Keith's baby. Not his.
The omega was panting as he continued running and crying at the same time. He had to get the fuck out of there in case Shiro tried to come looking for him with the van. The adrenaline that was coursing through Keith helped to give him the energy to keep going.
Lance.
He had to tell him.
Wow. This was pretty pathetic, or so Keith told himself. He was literally running and crying to Lance like a child. But at that point, he was starting to not care so much about how it made him look. He was running for the baby, and for himself, and for Lance.
Fuck pacing himself. Keith began going faster, feeling an intense stitch in his side from the sudden overexertion. He clenched his jaw for a second, continuing to run and struggling to breathe through all the sobbing.
After a while more, Keith saw that he was coming up on Lance's house. And though he was exhausted, he pushed through it. Keith knew that Shiro probably wouldn't hurt him, but he still felt unsafe out in the open like that, where he could be found.
...
Lance had that feeling again. Even more intense than the night before.
He was putting on his shoes, ready to leave for Keith's and check on him before his parents could leave. It was just such an awful feeling, one of dread and absolute terror. And Lance couldn't stand it. He couldn't handle his alpha instincts anymore, as they had been trying to shove him through the door for hours already.
One thing lay on Lance's mind; Keith. Was he okay?
Lance tried to call him again, and Camila came into the room, looking down at him in a concerned way. He held the phone by tilting his head and trapping it on his neck.
" Lance, I'm sure he's fine." Ronny told him as she walked by with a bag of pretzels she was taking up to her room.
Lance was too wrapped up to even listen to what his sister was saying. He didn't even dignify her comment with a response as he got on his other high top.
" Mamá, ahora vuelvo." The alpha told his mother in a paranoid tone of voice.
It was then when Lance hung up his third unanswered phone call of the day and went out the door. He shut it a little harder than he'd meant to from how worked up he was.
It only took a couple seconds before he saw Keith running up their long driveway, and his heart skipped a beat, but not in a good and flirty way. He could already hear the pained wails that his boyfriend was emitting almost like a malfunctioning siren.
Lance ran towards him, trying to meet him in the middle. They were still a ways from the house by the time Keith crashed into Lance's arms and began crying into his shoulder.
" I-I'm s-so so-sorry!" The omega sobbed, trying to say something, but it came out choppy and broken-like. And Lance looked completely distraught as he firmly wrapped his arms around his shaking body.
" Woah, woah, Babe... breathe." He said, knowing that Keith would spiral into a panic attack if he wasn't careful. Lance had no clue what was happening, but Keith had ran there, and he wasn't bloody or anything, so that was a good sign. " Can you try to calm down a little bit so we can talk about whatever's happening?" He reached to stroke the back of Keith's hair in a soothing motion.
" L-Lance! You d-don't underst-stand!" Keith was soaking the front of Lance's shirt with all the tears he was crying.
" Keith-"
" I'm p-pregnant!" Keith shouted into the fabric that covered Lance's shoulder.
Lance's eyes grew wide enough to cover nearly half his face.
" What?" He asked, becoming more serious yet not any less comforting. His alpha instincts, upon hearing that, were trying to take the control away from him. Keith, his omega, had his child growing inside of him? Nobody else was getting near Keith, nobody else would be allowed to do anything to their baby.
" You heard me!" Keith yelled. And he found himself being hugged into Lance more. " And-... Shiro is trying to g-get me to..." He trailed off, and that was more than enough to enrage Lance on the inside. No one would be doing anything to terminate Keith's pregnancy. Lance would make sure of that even if it was the last thing he did.
(( Well, shit.))