"Keith!"
Keith could hear Lance shouting his name, but he ignored it. He could feel the ground get softer as he ran out of the house. Only when he got there did he realize where he had gone; the beach. He stopped just short of the ocean. The wet sand was cool beneath his feet.
Every time the waves grew close to touching him Keith flinched a bit. He sighed, looking out towards the horizon line, one hand behind his back. He tightened his grip on the bottle he held. The boy brought it out in front of him.
Will it work? If I get a response again... Keith pondered whether or not to throw the bottle holding his letter. There was a strange feeling in his chest, as if pulling him to do it. He felt as though he might be able to find some sense of... safety in the stranger.
"Here goes nothing," Keith whispered to himself as he threw the bottle into the ocean. He watched for a second as it fell beneath the waves, then turned around and headed home. He froze when he looked up.
Lance stood by the door, leaning against the frame with one foot resting on the wall. His arms were crossed, and his face wore a solemn expression. He looked up when he heard Keith's startled breath. The latter felt a pang in his heart when he saw Lance's face was filled with guilt. The two shared a few moments of awkward silence before one finally spoke.
"Sorry," Lance uttered. Keith blinked exaggeratedly.
"W-what?"
"I'm sorry," the mer repeated, "I made you upset. I shouldn't have tried to force you to talk about something you don't want to." Keith was silent, save for the quiet shuffling of his foot tapping the sand.
"Why... are you sorry?" He asked. "I'm the one who got angry for no reason."
"Well, I—"
"I should be the one who apologizes to you. But of course I didn't. I..." Keith trailed off, thoughts clouding his mind. You ran away. You ran away from your problems, like you always do. It doesn't take any effort; just push him away like you did with everyone else. Pidge, Matt, Prof. Wimbleton, your parents— It's easier that way. You won't have to worry about keeping them happy, about living up to their expectations...
N-no! Keith thought-shouted at himself. I have to stop living like this.
"Keith?" Lance jumped down the few steps to Keith. He turned his head to the side a bit to reach Keith's eye level. "You ok?"
Lance's voice brought Keith out of his thoughts. He froze when he saw the other boy's face close to him.
"Uh, yeah," Keith stepped away from Lance, "I'm fine." He began to shuffle inside, to be as far away from Lance as possible.
"Wait! I can help!"
Keith stepped off of the stairs and back onto the sand, turning to face Lance once again.
"What?"
"I can, I can help you. If you tell me what's causing them, I can help stop them. I've had my fair share of dealing with panic attacks, y'know." Lance smiled as if he was proud of that.
Keith cracked a smile at that, but only for a second. Wait— that line sounded familiar. From the— Keith paused. It couldn't be. It was just a coincidence. He looked at Lance, who took a step forward. He looked at Lance's blue eyes, the curve of his smile, his carefully graceful movements as he placed a hand on Keith's shoulder.
"Keith, please."
It was just too much. Lance's touch, the look in his eyes, his head inches away from Keith's—
"I, um," Keith stuttered, his face heating up. He had to stop himself from inching forward.
"Yeah, sure," he finally murmured.
Then he made the mistake of looking into Lance's eyes. God, he was going to drown in those eyes. Keith also made the mistake of glancing down to his lips. He could feel Lance's hand relax as he moved a bit closer. Keith's heart began to beat faster as he looked up to Lance's eyes once again.
He was drowning in them. He was falling into the depths, never able to rise out of them.
And that was why he couldn't do it. He was too afraid of drowning— that if he did, he wouldn't be able to reach the surface again. That he wouldn't be able to catch another breath of air.
Keith pulled himself out of his trance and pushed away from Lance.
"Wh— Keith?" Lance looked at him, confused. A bit of pain trailed through his voice.
"Sorry," Keith stammered, "S-sorry. I, um..." Without any words, all Keith wanted to do was run inside. For some reason he just couldn't make himself move. It was like in a nightmare, when all you want to do is run but your feet are stuck in place.
"Hey," Lance smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "It's okay." The tanned boy looked towards the ocean for a second then turned back to Keith.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Keith looked down at the ground, his bare foot sinking into the sand.
"...Do you want a hug?" Keith looked up at Lance out of surprise. He let his lips curve into a small smile, and Lance stepped forward, wrapping his arms around Keith. The latter was hesitant at first, but then cautiously relaxed his arms around Lance's back. He let his head rest against the other boy's neck.
"Thank you," Keith whispered so quietly that it could barely be heard.
But Lance heard it. He smiled warmly. The mer began lightly tracing circles on Keith's back, an instinct from when he would comfort his younger siblings when they had nightmares.
Lance let his focus go towards Keith, and his slight smile quickly became a frown.
"Look, it's fine if you don't want to talk about your nightmares, I'm sorry for prying," Lance commented, guilt evident in his voice.
Keith chuckled, "Stop saying sorry so many times."
"Right, sorry."
There was a moment of silence while Keith rolled his eyes.
"Anyways," Lance began, moving out to face Keith, "Like I said, I want to help. I've noticed that you- um- never go near the water...?" Lance trailed off, looking towards Keith hopefully. Keith's nerves started once again. Should he tell him? Sure, he thought Lance was trustworthy, but he had only known him for a short period of time.
Though maybe that just made it easier to spill his heart out to him.
"Yeah, I," Keith stammered as he tried to avoid eye contact. He squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm scared of the ocean."
He expected to hear Lance laugh or make some sort of joke. But as he warily opened one eye, Lance was simply eyeing Keith with a small smile, as well as a hint of somber in his eyes. Keith's nerves led him to feel the need to elaborate.
"It's, um, because of something that happened a few years ago. I don't really want to go into the details of it all..." Keith's hair fell into his eyes when he jumped at the sudden touch of Lance's hand brushing his own. The corners of the mer's mouth turned up in a crooked smile.
"You don't have to."
That's it, Keith was dead.
Lance must have realized what he was doing, because he suddenly pulled away.
"So, we start tomorrow?"
Keith beamed, his first genuine smile since his brother was taken. He slipped his hand into Lance's, sealing the deal.
"Sounds good."
A/N:
Summary of this chapter - Keith.exe has stopped working -
Hi! Sorry for taking so long with this chap(heheh, irony), I had a bit of writers block with how I wanted to story to go during(and immediately following) this part. Anyways, hope y'all enjoyed it, finally got some Klance moments! I'll admit, this story has been slow to really start :')
Thanks for reading!
- Soni <3