(( Shadam? Shadam.))
They hadn't meant to, neither of them had. But when Lance fell asleep, and Keith had been too in love with his peaceful face to wake him up, Lance had spent the night.
Normally, Keith would've been up til the ungodly hours of morning, unable to sleep even if his life depended on it. But there was just something about Lance that brought out the best in him. He'd felt so... safe, so comfortable, that he'd drifted off in the taller male's arms.
It was about ten in the morning when Keith's phone began ringing from its spot on the nightstand.
Lance was so used to being woken up by that ringtone that he didn't even think twice while drowsily sitting up. He reached for it, rubbing his eyes and seeing the contact name.
Shiro.
He wasn't sure what compelled him to answer it.
" Hello?" Lance picked up, groggily greeting whoever was on the other end.
" Um... who are you and why do you have Keith's phone?" There was a very concerned voice that sounded in Lance's ear.
" Who are you?" Lance yawned, still half asleep. And Keith, who was beneath him, began stirring.
" I'm Takashi, Keith's brother. Now who are you?" Shiro asked more assertively. Knowing that someone else had easy access to his brother's phone was enough to make his heart drop. He hadn't been told about a new boyfriend, so his mind was already alive with worry.
" I'm Lance... and I'm his boyf-" Lance cut himself off. " I'm his... friend."
" Lance?" Keith asked in his rough, husky morning voice.
" Um... is my brother there?" Shiro awkwardly questioned.
" Keith, your brother is on the phone." Lance groaned, setting the phone on Keith's chest and moving back into the pillows. It was too early for this.
Keith's tired eyes shot open.
" Shiro?" He picked up, and the older brother could finally breathe again. So Keith was safe. That was all he needed to hear.
" Keith, thank God. Are you okay?" Shiro asked, and there was a voice in the background saying something. Keith could tell that it was Adam, but he couldn't quite make out what he was talking about.
" I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Keith yawned, stretching a single arm above his head.
" Well I don't know. When some random guy answers your phone I get worried." Shiro replied, and there was a tiny bit of sass in his voice. If his brother had a new boyfriend, he felt a little hurt that he and Adam hadn't at least been notified.
" Hey, Keith." Adam greeted from the other end.
" Hi. And it's just Lance." Keith blew it off. But he knew that Shiro had every right to be spooked. Especially after what happened with Lotor.
" Is he your...?" Shiro trailed off, expecting his sentence to be finished.
Lance rolled over, hogging the blankets and curling up.
" Lance? Um- n-no..." Keith stammered, chuckling nervously. " He's just a- someone who-er..." He had no idea what he was trying to say. " Why are you calling me this early anyways?" Keith changed the subject.
" We wanted to come visit you." Adam cut in. " If you aren't too busy with your... friend."
" Um-" Keith coughed. " I'm-that would be great." He agreed, glancing down at a very sleepy Lance.
" Cool. I'd love to meet your friend." Shiro said, and there was a playful slap that came through the phone. " Ow, Adam!"
" We'll drive down." Adam said. " We can probably be there by tonight."
" Okay..." Keith said. " Call me if anything changes... but I'm going back to bed." He yawned for a second time.
" Keith." Shiro sternly spoke. " Be careful."
Keith couldn't blame Shiro for being suspicious.
" Yeah. Love you, bye." He said. And after hearing Shiro say it back, he hung up.
" Your brother seems uptight. Is he from the military or something?" Lance mumbled, facing Keith. And the smaller boy leaned back into the pillows, making it so their noses were almost touching.
" He's as soft as a marshmallow. Don't let him fool you." Keith chuckled a little, wondering if he'd even be able to fall back asleep.
" Mhm..." Lance sleepily hummed, pulling Keith close to himself and sharing the blanket. " What'd he want?"
" Him and Adam are driving here." Keith answered, feeling his insides instantly heat up thanks to Lance's unrivaled body heat.
" You have another brother?"
" Adam is his husband." Keith quietly responded. And Lance smiled to himself.
" I see." He said, kissing the top of the smaller boy's bed head.
" I think... they... um-" Keith cut himself off at first. " They want to meet you."
" Ooo, Baby... I get to meet the family already?" Lance teased.
But... wait. What were they even supposed to tell them? 'Oh hey, this is Lance, and he fucks Keith sometimes but they're not together together and they're also not friends with benefits.' Didn't think so. This whole thing was just a mindfuck.
Keith just snuggled into Lance's bare chest.
" Don't make a huge deal. Every time they come down we have dinner and stuff." He explained, hoping that Lance would behave and act like a gentleman.
" What am I supposed to tell them? I'm your coworker?" Lance questioned.
" I don't even know..." Keith trailed off. " Just... you're a person who I... like... and am dating..."
Lance felt his heart flutter. They may not have been boyfriends, but this was better than nothing.
" I'm touched." The taller male remarked.
Keith sat up, scooting out from under the comforter.
" I'm going to shower." He said, but Lance cupped his hand for a second.
" Alone?" Lance asked with an eyebrow wiggle.
That action caused Keith to madly blush.
" Yes, actually... you should run home and do whatever you need to." The smaller boy leaned back down, smiling at him and kissing his cheek. " Come back later, okay?"
Lance felt his face warming from the rosy pink blush staining it.
" Anything for you, Keithy." He flirtatiously said.
...
It was almost seven at night when Shiro and Adam arrived at Keith's place. They usually stayed for a week or two when they made the trip down, so their suitcases were rather large as they lugged them inside.
There was a certain guest bedroom that they always claimed. It was located down the hall from the master bedroom.
" You guys actually got here pretty fast." Keith said, folding his arms and leaning on the doorframe.
" Shiro was speeding." Adam chuckled.
" Wait, really? That's a first." Keith made a face.
" I guess you could say I'm... excited... to meet your friend." Shiro said, unzipping his suitcase and setting his clothes out on the bed. " Is he here?"
" Lance texted that he'll be here in a while." Keith anxiously smiled.
" What is he like?" Adam curiously inquired. He wasn't nearly as apprehensive as Shiro was about this. On the way there, Shiro had been a worried mess about having a repeat of last time. " Handsome, I bet." He smirked.
Keith immediately became flustered, and his face showed it in a pitifully obvious way.
" Um- he- yes... Lance is- he's hot." He coughed.
" He doesn't look like Rapunzel this time?" Shiro turned over his shoulder.
" No. And Lance also isn't a... you know." The little brother said, glancing to the side. Then the doorbell rang a couple times, and Keith's face lit up. " That's him!" He exclaimed, leaving and bounding down the steps.
Adam looked at Shiro seriously.
" Be nice... I can tell Keith really likes this guy. Don't grill him." He told him, coming over to stand in front of his husband.
" He better be good enough for my little brother, that's all I'm saying." Shiro gazed down at his slightly shorter significant other.
Adam stood on his toes to press a kiss to Shiro's lips, only allowing it to last a few seconds before he pulled back.
" Keith is an adult. You have to trust his judgement." Adam caressed his cheek.
" Fine..." Shiro grumbled. " He better be good to Keith."
" Hey..." Keith greeted, answering the door. " I thought you might chicken out."
" Me? Psh..." Lance said, stepping inside. " Never."
Next thing Keith knew, he was being hugged. And though he was tense from surprise at first, he settled into Lance's arms and let it happen.
" I missed you." The taller boy whispered.
" You're such a cliché." Keith snickered.
" Babyyyyy!" Lance whined. " It's true! I did."
Keith was beginning to notice the pet names Lance called him. But he was... fine with it.
" I guess I missed you too." Keith rolled his eyes playfully.
" That's cute." Adam said from the top of the stairwell, and it became clear that him and Shiro were standing there observing.
" Oh!" Keith choked on air and turned utterly red. " This is Lance..."
Lance's face drained into a blush once he saw the two men standing there. If he had to guess, he would've thought they were about 27 or 28 years old. The taller one must've been Keith's brother.
" We ordered Chinese food by the way..." Keith said to Lance. And the taller boy could only nod while watching them come down the steps. It was honestly terrifying. What if they hated him or something?
Normally, Keith wouldn't have introduced someone to them so soon. But they didn't come around often, so this was the time to do it.
Shiro tried his best to seem friendly, not wanting to scare off the first person since Lotor. This guy had to be something special if Keith was willing to be around him.
" I'm Takashi... Keith's brother." Shiro extended his hand to Lance, and the tanner male gulped while looking up at him. He was fucking tall, and all muscle. Lance still shook his hand. " But most people just call me Shiro..."
" Am I allowed to call you that?" Lance asked, not wanting to mess that up.
" Yes." Keith chuckled.
" And I'm Adam." Adam said, laughing to himself while seeing Lance's reaction to Shiro. " He doesn't bite. I promise."
" Right." Lance smiled a little. " Anyways... I'm Lance."
" Keith says you guys aren't boyfriends... so what are you?" Shiro inquired. He was silently inspecting Lance, noticing that he wasn't huge and towering over Keith like Lotor had been. Keith would've been able to defend himself against him if need be, and that was a relief. But one thing Lance and Lotor had in common was their handsomeness.
" Um." Lance scratched the back of his neck. " I guess you could say he's dating me... and I'm just waiting for him to admit he likes me enough to be my boyfriend." He glanced over at Keith.
" I met him because of work." Keith added, and he felt Lance drape an arm over his shoulder.
" Oh..." Shiro and Adam exchanged a glance. " So you're a-"
" Yep." Lance broke out in a nervous sweat.
There was another thing Lance and Lotor had in common.
" Well it's good to meet you." Adam said, adjusting his glasses. " You can tell us all about it while we eat."
Shiro was off put knowing that Lance had come from the same field Lotor had. But he didn't judge Keith for doing that stuff, so he couldn't discriminate against Lance either. Especially when he seemed nice enough.
" I didn't know what you wanted so I just got basic Chinese stuff like fried rice and sweet and sour chicken." Keith spoke to Lance while they walked to the main dining room.
" Literally anything is fine with me." Lance responded quietly, feeling on edge about this whole thing already. He was just hoping that he wouldn't be bombarded with questions over dinner.
Once everyone was situated at the very nice table, they began eating. And it was silent at first, with the room only being filled by the tiny scrapes of forks against plates. Yes. They ate Chinese food with forks. Don't judge.
" So..." Adam began, not able to stand the awkwardly quiet atmosphere. " When did you and Lance meet?"
" I was also wondering about that." Shiro set down his fork.
" Um..." Keith said through a mouthful of rice. He chewed and swallowed quickly, not wanting to make Lance answer this one. " We had to do a video together about a month back. And he rolled up to the shoot listening to Cupcakke." The smaller boy chuckled.
" Isn't that the person that made the 'Hump Me, Fuck Me' song?" Adam asked.
" It's called Deepthroat." Lance smiled in a squirrelly way, not sure why Keith hadn't spared the details. Were Shiro and Adam fine with that stuff? He wasn't sure.
" Are you a fan of her work?" Shiro inquired.
" Yeah..." Lance admitted.
And Keith could feel how distressed Lance was, so he proceeded to grasp his hand under the table. He squeezed a couple times after intertwining their fingers.
" Are you nervous?" Adam asked from across the table.
" Maybe a little." Lance said, holding Keith's hand and trying to focus on not fucking anything up.
" You don't really have anything to be scared of." Shiro shrugged.
That's a matter of opinion. Lance thought to himself, staring at Shiro's bulky appearance and gulping once more. Keith's brother could snap him like a twig if he wanted to.
" So... why don't you both tell Lance how you guys met." Keith suggested. " They're high school sweethearts." He leaned over to tell the taller boy.
" Ooo." Lance seemed to get a little less antsy.
" Well... it started with AP bio." Shiro smiled, looking over at his husband with the fondest expression ever.
" God, that class sucked." Adam groaned. " He was the only good part about it."
" We were lab partners." Shiro laughed to himself. " And Adam was really... um..."
" Forward?" Adam cut in, raking his hair back and blushing.
" Yeah, that." Shiro cleared his throat.
" Who asked out who?" Lance wiggled his eyebrows, getting more comfortable now that they were smiling and laughing.
" Oh, it was me." Adam said, smirking over at Shiro. " This guy-" He nudged his husband. " Was too scared to make the move."
" And that was how we ended up going ice skating on our first date. Which I still don't get, like what made you want to do that?" Shiro asked Adam. And he only shrugged.
Lance was a little surprised when he found out that Adam had asked Shiro out. Given their dynamics-he assumed that Shiro was top- he'd expected it to be reversed.
" That's actually really cool." Lance smiled. He wished he could take Keith out in public, have fun and do things like that with him. But Keith didn't like that sort of thing for whatever reason.
" You think so?" Adam snickered. " I just wanted to watch him fall on his ass the whole time."
Shiro deadpanned and Keith laughed.
" And he did. I remember he came home and was going straight for the Icy Hot." Keith teased.
" Oh yeah, laugh it up." Shiro folded his arms, though he was being a relatively good sport about it.
...
Once dinner was over, Keith took Lance up to his room. He didn't want to see him leave quite yet, and was being a little clingy to him.
But Lance thought it was adorable.
" They like you." The shorter boy murmured, cuddling back onto Lance and feeling more comfortable than he had at anytime in the past year.
" What's not to like about me?" Lance ironically said.
" Shut up." Keith rolled to face him. He pulled the covers over the both of them, effectively making them disappear. " They already like you way better than Lotor. Shiro really hated him when they first met."
" Good to know." Lance pressed a tiny kiss to the tip of Keith's nose. Hell yeah he was better than Lotor. No contest. " Hey, Keith..."
" Yeah?"
Lance wrapped his arms around the smaller male, pulling him close.
" I want to tell you... I won't hurt you. Ever." He whispered in his ear, kissing his forehead softly. " I already like you a lot, Keith."
Keith's face felt like it was boiling from the sudden blush that had colonized it.
So this was what it felt like to trust someone.