It's movie night at Hunk's place, we just finished watching Coraline. The air in the room is full of the smell of popcorn and the feeling of exhaustion. Flushed faces surround me, mine is too. But not from the heat of the room, but the fact that Lance has been lightly brushing my hand the entire time I've been on this damn couch. My brain has been clouded from the awkward thoughts and feelings that I have for this kid. It's so bad to the point that I have a headache, one of those headaches that when you move a pang of pain hits your skull with full force.
"Man that was a blast from the past!" Pidge yawns.
"Sure was. OK, who's gonna get all the blankets and pillows?" Lance says while stretching, his long arms touch my shoulder.
"It's your turn right Lance? Or is it Keith's?" Allura asks, looking to everyone else. They all look a second far from passing out, none of them say anything.
"Uh, I vote Keith." Lance nudges me, I jump at the touch. His sweet grin is pasted against his pretty brown skin.
"Of course you do Lance, but why not you two do it together? Ain't that hard." Hunk responds, Lance grunts at the words.
"Aren't you afraid of us fighting? It'll happen you know, mullet over here has the temper of a gorilla." Lance teases, I feel my anger boil in my guts.
"Let's just fucking do it Lance, I'm not in the mood for this." I finally speak, Lance goes a bit wide-eyed. He doesn't say anything back but the way he looks at me makes me feel a little giddy. I get up and Lance trails behind. I grumble whilst opening the closet of comfort and warmth, Lance leans against the wall next to me.
"Keith are you OK? You seem hella pissed." Lance asks, I ignore him. "Dude just tell me, I won't bite."
"You know what? I am. I'm fucking tired, my headache has been bugging me all night, and now I have to listen to you blab on about how I should feel fine because you're here. Just please, leave me alone." I rant, Lance doesn't even twitch. He nods (finally) and takes some of the blankets in the closet. When he walks away I slam my face against the wall. I'm such a damn idiot, who the hell says that to their crush? Bloody hell.
"Keith? You good?" I hear Pidge's muffled voice from the other room.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
We all played truth or dare for a while, nothing interesting happened. Made a rule of nothing sexual. It started quieting down around 11:30, it's currently 12:30 am and I still can't sleep. Pidge and Hunk fell into their slumber as soon as we said we should go to bed while me, Lance, Allura, and Shiro stayed up a little longer chatting about classes.
"But yeah, no way in hell I'll be able to finish this project. I'm sure as hell not gonna make a video of me fucking dancing. Jesus Christ."
"Keith, if you don't do this project then you won't get your dance major, you can do it!" Allura cheers while holding Shiro's hand. (They started dating in their freshman year of college, Lance almost cried.)
"Yeah, what's so hard about doing it in front of camera? It wouldn't be much different from class." Shiro wonders.
"Geez, I thought you'd at least understand Shiro." I groan, Lance giggles. What kind of dude giggles? And why have I not noticed till now?
"Get over it Keith, not like you're gonna be able to get out of college with your personality." Lance smirks. This fucking asshole, what the fucking FUCK?
"You know what Lance, I'm done with your bullshit, I swear to god I'm going to beat your arse all the way to fuckin' Mexico!" I lift my arm up to punch but Shiro pulls it down.
"Hey hey you two need to chill out, Lance stop riling Keith up. He's already stressed enough." Shiro sighs in disappointment, Allura does too.
"What is up with you two today? You've been really passive aggressive."
"Keith started it! He gave me shit when I asked if he was OK! Estúpido perra!"
"Lance it was your fault! You always piss me off and get me in trouble, I have the right to be mad!" We started the blaming game, Lance said I influenced him, I said he ticked me off, it went on for six minutes approximately. Then Allura threw blankets on us and told us to go to bed. We shut up, Lance tucks himself in and I don't.
I know I won't end up sleeping, so I don't even bother.
It seems like everyone is finally asleep, other than me of course.
Pidge nicknamed me Keith the cryptid because they caught me stealing food from Hunk's kitchen at 3 am. Not a bad nickname, just points out my horrible insomnia problems - and my midnight snack cravings. Speaking of snacks, I'm starting to get hungry. My brain is telling me no, but my body only guides me at this time.
I need to eat.
I avoid touching the popcorn, just thinking about eating anymore of it makes me gag. But the kitchen may have stuff to behold. I stand up and step over a few people. The kitchen light is still on, so it's easy to find the snacks. I dig through a couple of cupboards, nothing interesting yet. Finally, when I open the fridge there's a pile of Hunk's fucking amazing cookies. They still look good considering they were made quite a while ago, maybe I could take so-
"Cryptid Keith, back at it again I see." Lance peers from the corner, mischief in his eyes.
"Do not tell anyone, if Hunk finds out he'll ban me from the kitchen again and no one wants that." I walk over and put my finger to his mouth, he just laughs and pushes it away.
"Don't worry Keith I'm not gonna snitch. I'm not that horrible."
"I highly doubt that. Can you just let me eat a cookie in peace?"
"Nope, I'm making sure you don't throw up like last time"
"Like last time?"
"Do you not remember? You puked in this same kitchen because you ate too many limes."
"I hate limes."
"Apparently you actually like them."
"Anyway, that's bullshit and I can take care of myself." I go and take a cookie from the fridge. As soon as I swallow it, I feel disgusting, I might throw up.
"Fuc-" I run from the bathroom, I throw up in the toilet. Lance sprints in and rubs circles in my back while I barf. This is one hell of a romantic moment huh?
"God damn, your stomach's sensitive." Lance teases. I wipe drool from my mouth, I might cry just because this is so embarrassing.
"You don't need to baby me." I cough, Lance snickers and falls over. "You prick… pfff." I start to laugh too. Lance banged his head on the wall accidentally.
"You're such a mess right now!" Lance points and laughs.
"So are you, you turd." We continue laughing till we both hear shuffling in the other room, probably Pidge since they're a light sleeper. I cover my mouth while Lance listens in through the door.
"Who the hell is laughing? Jesus." I think Pidge fell back asleep, I'm unsure. But Lance gives me a thumbs up for confirmation.
"We're good." Lance does finger guns. Nerd.
"Uh, so…" We don't know what to say now, they room smells like vomit and my breath could probably kill a man. Lance just keeps smiling though, I get a calming vibe off of him.
"Could you uh, flush the toilet?"
"Oh! Right sorry." I turn the handle and sit awkwardly. Lance shuffles, I fidget with my hands. I look up to Lance right then, his hair is standing up on all ends. His skin looks rough but it has a glowy look to it. His shirt is all bunched up too.
"Keith?"
"Hm?"
"I just, ugh, I dunno, nevermind." Weird. I lay down on the tile, Lance just looks… perplexed. I wonder what he's thinking, probably about all the cute girls he's seen at the coffee shop he works at. He never talks about dudes, even though he's said that he's bi. I'd like to know about the cute boys at the coffee shop. (Other than Lance.)
This bathroom has a weird vibe at night, especially if it's with another person. Bathrooms are normally cold, and smell like air freshener. Maybe that's only Hunk's bathroom though, he's scared of his apartment smelling bad all the time. Lance's place smells like pot and sex, like how a college students room should smell.
"What do you think of me?" I ask, Lance jumps at the question. A small grin tugs at his cheeks. My friend in third grade introduced me to his grandmum, she told me that when you smile, it's fairies pinching your cheeks. 'If you listen very well - you can hear them giggle next to your ear when you smile.'
"I- I don't know actually. Like sometimes I really hate your guts, but then we have moments like these and I completely change my opinion of you for like a few days. Those days are the best ones I think." I nod, I barely heard what he said.
"Same, I think." I try to act like I know what's going on, Lance catches on.
"Don't ask me questions if you're just gonna zone out." Lance has a breath-heavy laugh, I chuckle.
"Tonight has felt weird."
"That's what it's like every sleepover."
"But tonight feels even more odd, you get me?"
"No."
"Oh, OK." I feel a blush creep onto my cheeks, I thought Lance had too but he's not that sorta person. It's quiet, like, really quiet. The awkward quietness has toned down but I still feel like there's tension. Lance scoots closer to me, like we're 8 inches apart closer. His lips look really soft, I wanna rub my thumb across his mouth. Is that weird? At this point I don't know what's considered weird.
"You wanna do a thing, like 20 questions?"
"20 questions? Are we on a date Lance?" OK, he's definitely blushing this time. His cheeks are a dark red.
"Not unless you want us to be." Of course he had to have a smooth comeback. He winks then lays next to me.
"OK, I'll do it."
"Ha, nice."
… He stares at me for a while. "Shit, sorry uh… Who do you like? Like like I mean."
"Yeah I know what you mean but hrm…" Should I say it? Should I just…? Fuck. "I-"
"I understand if you don't wanna answer, it's a dumb question anyway."
"It's just really hard to admit this stuff you know? Hah." I feel like my face is on fire, I'm gonna say it aren't I? Am I? "Just… make this easy for me. OK?" He nods, his lips are pursed and holy hell do I just want to steal a kiss. "Please make this easy for me…" His expression goes from curious to 'Oh fuck he's crying' in two seconds. I am literally crying right now, my salty tears are dripping onto the tile. I hold his cheek, and rub his lip with my thumb like I wanted to earlier. He doesn't pull away.
I kiss him.
It isn't long - but I feel relieved. Lance though… that's a different story.
He doesn't object by any means, he just lays there. His eyes are so bright right now. He reaches for my neck and kisses me. I can actually understand whats going on unlike the first one where my mind was so clogged up that the sensation wasn't there. I'm kissing Lance, Lance fucking Sanchez.
"Dios mío, you're… a really good kisser." Well wasn't that a great compliment! Considering Keith hasn't kissed many people, that was great. I guess. Lance pulls me in again, and again, and again. We kiss a lot, like our mouths are sore. And I wouldn't want it to end for the world, but in the middle of it we find that Hunk walked in on us, he immediately left and closed the door behind him.
I don't feel trapped anymore.