Running Before I Get Caught
{A/N: For the purposes of this chapter, if I say "coke" and it isn't capitalized, I just mean soda or pop. I'm from the South, that's what we say down here, sorry, I'll even give you the demographics if you need them.}
"Wanna be open,
But I'm bad with emotion."
“I guess what I’m trying to say is, well, I really like you.”
Keith short circuited.
“I need some air,” he said, the words spilling out of his mouth before he could stop them. He flung the door open and slipped outside, walking quickly away.
His hands went into his hair, pulling the strands tight as his breathing quickened. Why was he acting like this? Wasn't this what he wanted? What he thought about when he was alone and bored?
But thinking about it was nothing compared to it actually happening.
This had to be a joke. The earnest look in Lance's eyes had to be fake. The encouraging glances from around the room were all just part of a prank. A huge, sick, twisted prank.
He kept walking.
It was too cold out to be without a jacket, but Keith didn't care. He just needed to be away from people, away from his friends group, and far, far away from Lance. He shoved his hands into his pockets and kept walking.
He took each turn he felt like taking, no regard for his true direction. It didn't matter after all. The more lost he got, the better. The farther away he was from the group, the longer it would take for them to find him.
And he needed all the time he could get.
"Ooooh, this is not good," Pidge muttered. Keith had been gone for twenty minutes already and Hunk had been pacing the room for the entire time, eyes slightly wide.
"We've gotta go find him!" he cried. "He's gonna get lost, and then freeze, and probably get kidnapped and—"
"Slow down," Allura said, placing a calming hand on Hunk's shoulder. "We're going to figure this one out." She glanced at Shiro, who was still frozen in his spot in the kitchen, and then at Lance, who was sitting on the couch, head in his hands.
"This is all my fault," he mumbled, fingers threading through short hair. "I shouldn't have said anything. I knew I shouldn't have told him anything, I told you guys, but noooo! You insisted and now look where it's gotten us!" Shiro came into the living room, sitting down next to Adam.
"Stay calm guys," he said, though his eyes betrayed his own concern. "We just need to find him. Does anyone know if he has his phone with him?"
"I saw it in his pocket," Pidge said with a smirk. "I can probably track it, give me fifteen minutes and a laptop and I can do it."
"Fifteen minutes?" Hunk turned, seizing them by the collar. "We don't have fifteen minutes! He's probably far away already, he could be in the next town in fifteen minutes! You know how fast Keith can move when he wants to!" Pidge gave a heavy sigh.
"The next town in more than six miles over," they said. "It's going to be okay."
"Damn!" Keith yelled, fists clenching. He was lost.
Very lost.
He didn't recognize anything around him. The street names were all unfamiliar and he was surrounded by stores he'd never seen before.
Originally, he hadn't cared about getting lost. He even liked the idea a bit, being in an unfamiliar place, with anyone that knew him miles away. It sounded freeing.
But now that he was truly lost in an unfamiliar town, it was...
Scary.
Yes, he could fight, he could hold his own. Yes, he had his mother's switchblade if things got out of hand. But no one knew where he was, and he didn't know where everyone else was either.
Keith glanced down at his phone, noting that it was now well past nine. If he was out here past midnight, he'd be breaking curfew laws. A run-in with the police was the last thing he wanted at the moment.
"Sorry, officer, my crush admitted that he likes me but I'm so out of touch with my emotions that I didn't know anything better to do than to run out of the house and get myself lost in this little town."
Not a great conversation to have.
He glanced around for a McDonalds, a Chick-Fil-A, anything. Just some place that was open late and had wi-fi so that he could get back home, or at least figure out where he was.
Home.
Was that what "Shiro's house" had become to him? A home, instead of just drywall and brick and a roof over his head? Were the people there waiting for him really his friends, his (dare he say it) family?
Keith felt like they were.
He took a deep breath, letting the air leave his lungs in a heavy sigh. Hugging himself (and cursing himself for not grabbing his jacket as he dashed out of the house), he walked on.
"Oooh, Pidge, you'd better be making some progress!" Pidge grit their teeth, glaring at her nervous friend.
"I'd be making more progress if you weren't hovering over my shoulder and asking about if every twelve seconds!" they snapped, round glasses slipping dangerously low on their nose. Hunk flinched back and Pidge gave one final glare, shoving their glasses back up violently before going back to work on Corey's laptop.
Shiro placed a calming hand on Pidge's shoulder, which was surprisingly not immediately shoved away. Instead, Pidge gave a deep sigh, running their hands down their face exasperatedly.
"I know this is stressful," Shiro began, "for all of us. But we're going to be fine. Keith is going to be fine. Pidge, you keep working on locating Keith's phone. You're doing great." He then shot a very communicative look at Allura, who was sitting by Lance. She nodded, giving a sort of half smile and then turning back to the boy next to her.
Hunk finally conceded, going over to the couch to wrap Lance in his warm arms. Lance promptly let out a tiny noise and buried himself deeper into his best friend, who rubbed circles into his back comfortingly.
Suddenly, Pidge shot upright, drawing in a sharp breath. Corey's hand was immediately on their shoulder, peering at the screen. All eyes flicked over to where Pidge was sitting.
"What?" Allura prompted.
Pidge looked up, grinning.
"Found him."
Keith had managed to come across a single McDonalds in the area. He pushed open the door, glancing around. At least he had wi-fi now, and it was significantly warmer than outside.
He stuck a hand in his pocket and dug around for a moment, pulling out a two bills and a few coins. He huffed quietly, then went up to the counter.
"Medium fountain drink," he muttered, then, realising that the tone was a bit rude, tacked a half-hearted "Please" to the end. The guy at the register nodded, pulling out a cup and taking the appropriate amount of money from the counter.
After filling his cup with red Powerade, he slipped into one of the booths in the back of the restaurant, running a hand through his hair tiredly. His phone screen was unwelcomingly bright in the dim lighting, making him flinch back momentarily before his eyes adjusted.
Pulling up a new search, he thumbed Shiro's address into the bar and set the starting point as his current location, as he had no idea where he was. According to the internet, it would take him nearly two hours to get back, though it had taken him only one to get there.
Look at that, he really was running from his problems — in the most literal sense of the phrase possible.
He sighed, a hand going to his hair, pulling hard before he brought it back down forcefully, slamming a closed fist against the table. The guy at the register jumped, and Keith muttered a tired apology before letting his forehead hit the table and groaning quietly.
Should he just text Shiro and ask him to pick him up? He opened his messages as if ready to do just that, but as soon as he did, his screen flooded with notifications from the group chat.
8:10
spacedad: Keith, are you okay?
8:17
spacedad: Do you need some time?
8:22
spacedad: Come back home, bud, we're getting worried.
8:23
princess_puffy_hair: We wont say anything Keith
princess_puffy_hair: We can just carry on like we were
princess_puffy_hair: We'll finish the movie and then go sleep
ultra.concentrated.sunshine: I am about to whip out my whisk and bake until the smell of my cookies brings you home
ultra.concentrated.sunshine: That is a threat
8:35
hacker_bird: don't think you can hide, i see all
hacker_bird: okay that was kinda creepy
hacker_bird: but seriously man i will not hesitate to track you
And a single string of private messages from Lance.
8:46
blue-boi: Hey, I'm really sorry.
blue-boi: That was really stupid of me to say.
blue-boi: I'll never bring that up again, I swear.
blue-boi: I won't even talk to you if that's what you want.
blue-boi: Just come back please, we're all really worried.
blue-boi: I'm really worried.
Lance using proper capitalization, punctuation, and full sentences? He must have felt really bad. Keith sighed, backing into the group chat once more.
9:28
k.kogane: I'm fine, guys. Sorry about making you all worry.
Instantly the chat exploded with new messages, everyone relieved to know that he was all right. Keith couldn't help the soft smile that crossed his face. They cared, they really, truly cared. However, he also couldn't help but notice the absence of one username. He sighed, sitting back against the chair.
He needed to make this right.
He needed to talk to Lance.
Shiro had told Keith to stay where he was as soon as they received Keith's message. He just hoped that he'd seen it amidst the flurry of other messages.
The group got into Shiro's car, at least, as many as could fit. Pidge sat up front next to Shiro, as they were giving directions. Hunk sat in the back right seat and Lance sat in the left, staring blankly into the night. Allura, Romelle, and Corey stayed in the house, despite Corey's offer of riding in the trunk.
It was a quiet ride and held a silence so unnaturally awkward that Shiro just had to break it.
"Look, this is nobody's fault," he said, eyes still on the road in front of him. He heard Lance huff out a sigh from behind him, knowing exactly who Shiro was addressing.
"I never said it was my fault," he countered.
"You were thinking it," Shiro said. "We know you, Lance."
"Yeah, bud," Hunk agreed, nodding. "You tend to, uh, place false accusations on yourself I guess. You do it pretty often, actually." Lance simply rolled his eyes, turning back to the window, his head leaning against it.
Shiro got the message. Lance could be the cheeriest person in the room, but when he shut down, there was no getting through to him. It would take some time. After all, he had been so excited, but Keith...
No, he couldn't bring Keith into this. It wasn't his fault either. He had gotten close to Lance, yes, but that didn't mean he wanted to be romantically involved. Lance had misread the situation.
They all misread the situation.
"Left at the next intersection," Pidge muttered through the silence. Shiro switched lanes, glancing back in the rearview mirror at Lance and Hunk, who were staring out of the windows beside them.
"How long, Pidge?" Shiro asked, turning onto the next street. They glanced down at their screen.
"'Bout six more minutes," Pidge replied. "Do you..." they began, then stopped, lowering their voice. "Do you think everything's gonna work out?" Shiro turned from the road momentarily to give Pidge a reassuring smile.
"I know it will."
Once the directions were loaded, Keith set off once more with a newly refilled cup, this time full of Mountain Dew for the caffeine. He shuddered at he stepped outside, the cold biting into his skin. His breath made little, white puffs in the frigid air. He glanced down at his phone screen.
Right down Crogan Street.
He set off, trying to stay as far from the road on the street shoulder as possible. It would really suck if he got hit by a car right now. What would his gravestone say, "Died running from romantic feelings"? Not really something he wanted set in stone.
As he walked, he took his opportunity to plan his speech for when he got back. Would a simple, "I'm sorry, I won't do it again," suffice? No, this needed something more than some quick, offhand apology. He- He really needed to get it together before the got home.
And what about Lance? the little voice in his head seemed to say. He groaned, taking a long sip of his soda. What in the world was he supposed to say to him?
Headlights from ahead jerked him out of his thoughts, making him veer even farther away from the road though they were coming in the opposite lane. He just hoped it wasn't a cop car. "Bad boy" looking high school kid walking around late at night seemingly in the middle of nowhere? Recipe for disaster with the police.
As the car drew closer, somewhere in the back of his mind, Keith realised that it looked insanely familiar. Then, it hit him (not the car, thankfully).
Shiro.
He could just make out a head of fluffy brown hair in the front seat, illuminated by the light from a screen. Pidge. Of course. The kid was a tech wizard, they had most likely tracked his phone or something.
He glanced back to Shiro, who waved to him, pointing to a tiny shopping centre on Keith's side of the street. Keith nodded, turning into the little plaza while Shiro parked in one of the many empty spots.
As soon as the car came to a stop, Shiro stepped out, pulling Keith into a tight embrace. Keith tensed for a moment, but then found he rather liked being hugged by Shiro and let himself relax. Pidge climbed out of the passenger's side, a smirk on their face.
Hunk barrelled out of the back seat, turning the embrace into a group hug.
"Air," Keith warned, tapping Hunk's arm.
"Ah, right, right, sorry." The death grip loosened before the two pulled away completely. Shiro's hands remained on his shoulders, turning him from side to side, looking him over.
"Shiro, I'm fine," Keith dismissed. "No blood, no breaks, no bruises." Shiro let out a relieved sigh and pressed Keith's face back into his shoulder, going for one more quick hug before pulling away for good.
"Y'know, next time you want to do some urban exploration, tell us where you're going," Pidge said, though a subtle relief hung in their eyes. "Oh, and bring a jacket." They tossed a familiar red hoodie to him which Keith gratefully put on.
He heard the car door open and shut once more and looked toward the source of the sound. There, blue eyes focused on the ground, hands shoved into jacket pockets, stood Lance. The taller boy snuck a glance at Keith, but averted his gaze almost immediately after.
Shiro looked between the two for a moment before making his decision. Whispering a quick, "We'll give you two some space," to Keith, he gave Pidge and Hunk pointed looks and led them off to look in store windows.
Keith took a deep breath.
"Hey," he said, cursing himself immediately afterward. He runs away after his crush confesses feeling for him and makes the guy feel like absolute trash and all he has to say for himself is hey?
"Hey," Lance echoed, just as awkwardly, fingers fiddling with his zipper. "I'm, uh..." he trails off, unsure of what to say. "I'm sorry. For springing something like that onto you. I, uh, thought it was a good idea. Clearly not."
Keith's eyes widened marginally.
"Whoa, no, don't be sorry," he halted, shaking his head. "I reacted the wrong way. I'm the one that made you feel terrible. I should be saying sorry." Lance gives a weak smile.
"Apology accepted," he muttered, turning to go back into the car. Keith stepped forward, catching his wrist. Lance whirled back around.
"What?"
Keith took a moment to breathe, calming his nerves.
"I didn't get to reply." Lance looked up at him, confusion written in his eyes. Keith sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"I'm, uh," he stuttered. "I'm no good with words." Lance let a little smile slip.
"Yeah, I know." Keith hit his shoulder.
"Let me have this moment," he grumbled. Another deep breath, composing himself, rehearsing the lines in his head...
"Can I speak with my actions, just for a minute?" Lance looked a bit stunned, as if he was expecting something totally different.
"Y-Yeah, sure."
"Good."
Then, fingers curling into Lance's shirt, Keith pulled the taller boy down into a kiss.
Keith shut his eyes tightly, not wanting to see Lance's immediate reaction. Lance, on the other hand, stood shock still, eyes blown wide.
After a moment, Keith risked a look up, violet eyes peering through dark eyelashes. He stepped back, watching a breathless smile make its way onto Lance's face.
"Really?" Keith grinned.
"Yeah, really." Lance laughed shortly, chasing Keith for another quick kiss. Blue met purple for a long moment, both boys smiling idiotically.
"Finally!" Pidge screamed from behind them, running up. "God, I thought we were going to have to watch you two pining for another year!" Lance gave an awkward little laugh, rubbing the back of his neck. Hunk initiated another bone-shattering group hug, somehow roping even Pidge into it this time.
A few minutes later, they piled back into Shiro's car, Keith being forced into the middle seat. The atmosphere was significantly more relaxed, and smiles were abundant, especially from a certain two idiots.
The street was empty and the town was quiet. The warmth in the car and the new feeling of love and security seemed to weigh down Keith's eyelids.
Lance glanced over at the boy next to him, who was fighting sleep, head nodding as his body tried to force him to drift off. He smiled fondly, wrapping an arm round Keith's shoulders and pulling Keith against himself.
"Sleep," he muttered. Keith shook his head.
"'S just a few more minutes 'till we're home," he mumbled back. "I c'n stay awake."
"Just sleep so that I can carry you heroically into the house and then be cheesy with getting blankets," Lance said, rolling his eyes, though that same fond smile was still on his face. Keith let out an amused little "tch" before giving in, shutting his eyes and leaning into Lance.
Lance's hand immediately went into Keith's hair, running through it gently. Keith opened one eye, peering up at Lance.
"What're you doing?"
"Ah, sorry," Lance panicked. "It's just something I do with all my little siblings and-"
"Don't 'pollogize," Keith muttered, shutting his eyes once more. "I like it." Lance was keenly aware of Pidge's smirk from the front seat but simply sent a glare their way and resumed his previous action.
As promised, once back at the house, Lance gathered Keith into his arms and carried him inside, finding that Romelle and Allura had already drifted off and the only person remaining waiting was Corey. She went upstairs with Pidge to do God knows what, and so Lance settled for putting Keith on the couch.
Shiro brought pillows and blankets down for the remaining few, AKA Lance and Hunk, who promptly made themselves comfortable on the floor. Lance glanced at Keith for a moment before shutting his eyes with a smile.
Looks like his Mama owed him fifty dollars.
—fin—