Keith had always hated those little things in life, the things that didn't matter, yet always just seemed to be there. They had no purpose. They just stuck around for the sake of it.
He just ignored them mostly, pretended neither they nor their futility existed.
It worked for the most part. It was easy to bypass them most of the time. But every now and then someone would feel the need to point them out, call them beautiful or interesting.
He couldn't understand it. Why would anyone care about the things that didn't matter?
There was so much more to care about, important things that kept you alive and economically afloat and mentally all there. Sometimes even keeping a reign on the simplest of things was immensely difficult so he just couldn't comprehend the drifting of people's minds.
At least he couldn't until he joined the garrison.
It was a fairly big school, filled with boys who all wore the same thing and, in Keith's perception, were the same in every other feasible way as well. It was a belief he felt fine in holding. It was hardly as though he spoke to them then or he ever found it fathomable he would in future because he didn't find it easy or comforting to make and be around friends.
But then he saw two boys who seemed to be separate from all of the others and he wasn't sure why.
The first of the two figures cast the other into a shadow that hid it from a very confused Keith at first. He was large, both tall and broad, but not intimidating. There was something akin to the look of a deer in the headlights in his dark round eyes at the time that Keith would later realise had never faded away, like it was a permanent quality of his. Those same eyes shone with both passion and intelligence as he spoke animatedly to his marginally shorter friend who Keith could see nothing of at that moment besides the thin legs intermittently becoming visible behind much thicker limbs.
Then the two had rounded a corner and drawn a little closer to Keith who could hear their conversation becoming clearer. The first thing Keith could tell was that the glimmer in the large boy's eyes was not deceptive: he spoke with such great intelligence and knowledge and commitment Keith was instantly convinced not a single teacher would grow to feel any ounce of dislike towards him.
Then his friend became visible.
All Keith could see were the small details. And he wished he could say he hated them. But he couldn't. He was somewhat enamored, in fact.
It began with angles, sharp and drastic yet elegant and graceful. The way they blended together was so pleasing Keith felt he could sit and stare at them all for a hundred years. It then turned into colour; first was the hideous obligatory orange of the uniform, but then it was the coco of soft-looking hair, the coffee of smooth, blemish-free skin, and the glittering topaz of mischievous eyes.
Next came the curves. That of the lopsided grin that broke every so often in a chuckle or comment. Then that of the eyes and narrow eyebrows. That of the slightly disobedient hair.
There was a sort of grace to this boy with his long thin limbs and angles that almost looked as though they had been an artist's stylistic choice.
There was something to the grace that made Keith wish he hadn't noticed it because, from that moment, he noticed all of the small details of everything. And he no longer despised them.
He liked the gentle, subtly therapeutic way the metal doors that lined the hallways closed with a minimal yet always noticeable noise.
He liked knowing that there was a stain on Iverson's shirt or a patch of his beard that was missing when the man tried to lecture him about how much he was wasting by deciding he had a life that could not be restricted to that classroom.
He liked that he could better himself, both in learning and fighting, when he noticed small bumps and imperfections.
He wished he could hate the way the desert outside was no longer a large swatch of colour, rather a detailed landscape that stretched until it met with the sky that was always flecked with the tiniest sections of cloud.
He wished he could hate the way that, suddenly, there was a distinct difference between Taylor who shared a room with him and Edward who say next to him in most lessons.
He knew he hated the way that, compared to everyone else who had grown into their own person in his eyes rather than just a collection of shapes, his memory of Takashi Shirogane suddenly felt so violently bare that it made Keith feel as though he had sent him off again. How could he send him away again if he had never gotten him back?
As time went on, Keith became more used to the small details and he realised Takashi Shirogane would likely never be coming home and he could feel himself coming apart. He could feel the growing chill in the corridors that her more and more barren as every new day passed.
He had passed the boy one day who had managed to make him appreciate what he had once so despised, Lance McClain was his name, as the other stood in a corner, a phone pressed to the side of his face as he spoke rapidly in another language.
Gone was much of that elegance, replaced by an almost cinematic anger persistence and passion that filled his voice, face and body.
Keith couldn't understand a word of what he said but he could tell he was fighting to stay at the school, likely with a parent. It didn't really matter what the other boy did in Keith's mind, he'd be gone soon anyway. There'd be no chance to miss him.
And soon after Keith retreated back into the hot desert, finding refuge in a small empty cabin within which he began to plan because he refused to leave the friend, who he still could not think of clearly enough, behind.
Meanwhile, Lance McClain realised something: whenever he saw Keith's name hastily scribbled away and replaced with his own, or when Iverson decided to remind him that it was the case, he felt like a very little thing.
A/NSo these are just little writer's block oneshots. This was Klance but most of them won't be - there will probably be a lot of au in this because they are all written from randomly generated prompts which are included at the top. I hope you enjoyed this because it's pretty easy and very fun so I will likely update often, most of these will probably be longer too. However, this is done on my phone so I am very sorry about typos.constructive criticism is always welcome.All the best,~We'reAllABitOdd