Alriiiight! New story! Woot woot! I told a couple people on Instagram about his, but told them the old name. I said it was called 'Changing Fate'. But 'Fixing Fate' has such a nice ring to it! Maybe I'll use alliteration for all the chapter titles, just cuz that's how it's turning out so far. XD So - to karolinatierney00 and : I hope you guys like it! ;)

Chapter One: Cupid in the Classroom

Keith hates February. It's full of overly romantic couples and cheesy gifts and commercials that make him cringe every time. Especially the ones with terrible puns in them. Keith detests terrible puns, and corny jokes, and anyone who makes those kinds of things. And since he dislikes overly romantic stuff, he is not amused when his buddy Hunk starts getting all starry-eyed over a girl he's never noticed before.

"Dude, you literally have not even spoken to her before yesterday! How the hell do you know you like her?!" Keith hisses, leaning over to Hunk, who brushes him off and keeps staring at the back of this girl's head.

"Shush, Keith. You're just salty because you have no one for Valentine's Day." Keith rolls his eyes.

"I don't need anyone for Valentine's Day! And you are being ridiculous by saying that you have Shay! You two have never talked before! You've never even noticed her!" Keith's voice gets slightly too loud, and he hastily leans back to sit normally before the teacher realizes it's him talking. Hunk is oblivious to every single one of Keith's attempts at conversation, and eventually Keith gets bored and gives up. With nothing to do but listen to the monotonous droning of the teacher, Keith soon gets so bored he just zones out. His eyes unfocus, and suddenly, singing that wasn't present before pops into resolution. Keith blinks, refocusing his eyes and the thing stays. Now that he's seen it, it's not out of his sight range anymore,and he doesn't have to try to be able to see it clearly. Just like all supernatural beings he encounters. See, Keith has the ability to see creatures that would normally be invisible to humans. His roommate, Shiro, does too, so Keith doesn't know what it stems from. No one else have ever said anything about any sort of creatures, so…

Anyways. Keith stares at the newest creature, not sure he can comfortably call it something like 'creature'. Because this one isn't just vaguely human shaped, like most humanoids he sees. Nope, it is a human, albeit one with small, fluffy white wings coming from its shoulder blades. Keith is pretty sure it's a he, in closer inspection, so he adjusts his thoughts a little. The thing is wearing a toga, and a short one at that, which leaves half his tan-skinned chest and back uncovered and most of his legs. He's also got a bow across his back, slung over his shoulder next to the quiver of arrows. As Keith watches, he strolls over til he's behind Hunk, whistling the Mission Impossible theme jauntily and fiddling with the small, heart-shaped gold clip at the hip of his toga. Once behind Hunk, the guy gauges where Hunk is looking, and grins.

"Nice. Still working. Nice long-lasting arrows, Pidgeon." he mutters appreciatively, not noticing the human staring right at him from right next to his target. The being - that's what Keith has decided to call it - floats upwards with a flap or two of its fluffy wings and flies over to Shay. He frowns at where her attention is - the teacher, where it should be - and unslings his bow. Grabbing an arrow from his quiver, the being jabs Shay in the arm with it, floats back over to Hunk, and jabs Hunk with it. The arrow disappears, and Keith watches as Shay's demeanour goes all relaxed as she is roped right back into having a crush. So…I'm assuming this is Cupid. Keith thinks, frowning. Great. I hate Cupid. The being is still flying, flitting back and forth between Hunk and Shay to check on them and their obvious daydreaming, and Keith is getting annoyed just looking at him. So when he's close again, Keith reaches out and, pretending he's swatting a fly, grabs his wrist and shoves him so his feet are on the floor. Cupid yelps, wings fluttering spasmodically in shock, and he zips away from Keith a few feet before stopping and scrutinizing him. Piercing blue eyes squint at Keith, judging him with fear buried underneath annoyance and derision. Then, he runs a hand through already-messy brown hair and puts on a ridiculous pout.

"Meanie human. Guess that means you can see me, huh." Keith nods discreetly, and Cupid groans. "Fine, I don't care, just don't interfere with my job. I am a Cupid, and I'm gonna do what I have to do to not get scolded again. That other guy who could see me wrecked everything last time I was here." Keith frowns. Other guy…? Could he mean…

"Shiro?" Keith whispers, curious. Cupid glares at him.

"How should I know?!" With that, he flaps his wings indignantly at Keith and flutters away out of the classroom. It seems like he's done checking up on Hunk and Shay. Keith grabs a sheet of looseleaf paper from his binder and quickly jots down info and a doodle about the newest addition to his supernatural creatures archive. Then, he pulls out his phone and texts his roommate.

Sent: 1:32pm: Shiro, have you seen Cupid before?

Sent: 1:40pm: Yes, I have seen a Cupid. There are more. 'Cupid' is the species. If you've seen one, try get rid of it. It doesn't do anything but cause trouble, based on the time I saw one.

Sent: 1:41pm: Also - quit texting in class. Focus.

Sent: 1:42pm: K thanks. I'll be sure to try get rid of it. It's after Hunk. It remembers you btw. Doesn't like you much.

Sent: 1:44pm: Alright. Now pay attention to your teacher. I'll talk to you after school.

Keith puts his phone back in his pocket and scowls at nothing particular, making sure he's facing the front of the classroom to put up a façade of paying attention. So these Cupids are troublemakers. I guess the stories screwed them up. Soon, the bell rings, and Keith sighs in relief as he heads to his locker to pack up his stuff and head home. Shiro meets him at his locker, greeting him warmly before asking him all about his day as they walk to the bus stop. Eventually, the subject is turned to the Cupid Keith saw, and he explains what he looked like. Shiro nods.

"Yup, that's the one. He was trying to get me and Allura hooked up or something." Keith raises an eyebrow.

"Allura? Why exactly do you not want that to happen?" Shiro shrugs.

"I just think live should be something that grows, not something that's just shot out of a bow." At that, someone right behind them starts laughing hysterically, unable to contain their mirth. Both boys whip around to see another Cupid, this one with short, light brown hair and pale, freckly skin. The Cupid adjusts his (her?) big, round glasses and grins at them.

"How do you think love gets started? It does grow on its own. But it's our job to plant the seed!" the Cupid explains, sounding like a smug big kid explaining something obvious to a stupid child. Then, too fast for either Shiro or Keith to react, she (he?) fires two arrows. One hits Shiro. The other hits Allura, who is near the front of the bus. The Cupid hangs around for a bit, making sure the arrows have worked (they have. Shiro looks like a lovestruck idiot.), before giving Keith a jaunty salute and a shit-eating grin and disappearing. Keith has to drag Shiro off the back exit of the bus to keep him from chasing after Allura.

.oOo.

The more Keith thinks about those stupid Cupids, the more pissed off he gets. They're ruining everything! Them and their stupid arrows! Shiro barely pays attention to him anymore, too busy daydreaming or talking about Allura. It might have been endearing if Keith wasn't so fed up with Valentine's day and all its mushy, lovey-dovey crap in the first place.

It takes a couple days, but eventually Shiro returns to almost-normal. Over the course of those days however, Keith gets so fed up that he actually makes a plan to catch one of the Cupids and make it take back whatever magic the one with glasses put in his brother. Because god damn, a pining, lovey-dovey Shiro is mortifying. For Keith. Not Shiro, though, and not Allura either. They're too busy making puppy eyes at each other. This plan is why Keith brings a small butterfly net with him to school on Monday. He'd bring a larger one, except he'd look weird…and he couldn't find one at the dollar store. And before school, when Keith meets up with Hunk, he keeps on the lookout for one of the Cupids to drop by and check on either Hunk and Shay, or Shiro and Allura. His patience is rewarded when he spies the one after Hunk around the corner of the school. Excusing himself, Keith chases after him. The Cupid is totally oblivious, only realizing what is about to happen when he hears the butterfly net swoosh as it goes upwards. And then downwards. Then, the net's handle is wrenched painfully from Keith's hands as the Cupid shrieks, leaping away and trying to fly but failing as the net tangles in his wings. Keith almost feels bad when he sees the Cupid's wide, wet eyes, filled with pain.

"Ow, ow, ow! What the hell?! What do you humans have against me?!" he keens, trying to grasp the handle of the net. He gets it, but when he pulls on it, he lets out a pained groan and stops. "Get it off! It's wrecking my wings!" Keith folds his arms and glares at the Cupid, who is staring up at him with an accusatory glare from where he's kneeling on the grass.

"Not until you get rid of whatever voodoo you and the other one put on Shiro and Hunk." The Cupid gapes at him.

"You…don't approve of their love? Are you really so evil you'd deny them their happiness?!" he gasps, flailing melodramatically. Keith is reminded of the over-the-top 'acting' the Drama kids do at first. Flailing and yelling and looking absolutely ridiculous.

"Of course not. I want them to be happy. But…I just…" The Cupid gives him a calculating look.

"You just…?" Keith shakes his head.

"They're both just acting super weird. Can they be in love without being oblivious sappy idiots?" A resolute shake of the head, which tosses that brown hair around and doesn't help the messy state of it.

"Nope," he chirps, popping the 'p' and grinning at Keith. "Now. Get my wings out of this damn net." Keith grins at him evilly.

"Nope." He pops the 'p', and the Cupid looks absolutely shellshocked.

"Hey!" he whines. "That's mine! You can't steal my line!" Then, he pouts. "And Pidge is gone today so they can't help me…guess I hafta rely on you, Mullet Boy." Keith yelps an embarrassingly high-pitched,

"What?!" at the nickname, immediately protesting in anger. "It's not a fucking mullet!" The Cupid grins and sticks his tongue out at Keith.

"Sure it isn't, Mullet Boy." Then, he gets up and dusts himself off. Before he can do a thing, Keith grabs the bow and quiver from his hands and stuffs them in his backpack.

"You're not getting these back until you agree to get Shiro and Hunk back to normal." The Cupid protests loudly, but Keith ignores him. No one but Keith and Shiro can hear the Cupid, so that's not a problem. Then, a thought occurs to Keith. "Wait a second. Can everyone else just see a floating net right now?" He gets a glare for this.

"No. I'm not stupid. Anyone who can't see me on their own cannot ever see me at all. So the net's a part of my magic now." He falls silent, which Keith appreciates. Until he hears the salty grumbling. "Stupid humans and their stupid deals getting me in trouble…why does it always happen to me?" He still sounds a little whiny, but by now it's mostly just sad, and Keith tells him to shut up before he starts feeling guilty. Shiro gives him a weird look when Keith rounds the corner with a pouty Cupid trailing him, and Keith just shrugs. Shiro turns his attention back to Allura, whom he is chatting with. Keith grimaces. I can't wait until he brings Allura home and I have to wear earplugs… he thinks sarcastically. He turns to the captured Cupid to point out how ridiculous they're acting, just to pause at the big happy grin on his face.

"Look at them. They're so happy together. Do you really want to break that up?" Keith groans.

"I do not want to break them up! I just want them to stop looking like stupid lovesick puppies! It's ridiculous!" The Cupid folds his arms and shakes his head in disappointment.

"But that's how love works, Mullet Boy. They're gonna be like this for a while, a few dates in at least. Once they really get comfy, then they'll start acting totally normal around each other. And we get to see if they're actually a good couple." Keith frowns.

"Wait, so it might not actually be a good pairing?" he asks in confusion (sounding a little hopeful, too).

"Not necessarily. Love isn't an exact science. It's kind of like gambling." Keith growls, pissed off.

"So you just pick random people and put 'em together?!" The Cupid sighs and fiddles with his toga.

"Not the Cupids. The higher-ups do that bit. That's why a lot of relationships don't work out. The higher-ups just don't understand how love works. That is also why I get in trouble so often. I make my own couples instead of the ones I'm given. They work out great, but I get tagged as disobedient. And then people like you and Shiro come along and try to 'help' me, or hinder me, and I get in even more trouble. The Garrison hates me." Keith expects the Cupid to look sad, but he's grinning instead. "Not that I care! They're all old geezers with entire trees up their asses! I just gotta make sure this mission ends up well. If I fail this, I get kicked out of the Garrison…" His grin fades, to be replaced by a fearful grimace. He obviously does not want to be kicked out. Keith wonders what the consequences of that are. Then, the bell rings, and Keith forgets all about it in favour of going to school. His roommate is definitely a 'dad' friend, and he'll lecture Keith for ever if he doesn't get good grades.

.oOo.

C'mon, Pidge, hurry up and get back here! Lance thinks desperately, trying again to get the net out of his wings. But all that does is send a spear of agony all the way down his spine, setting Lance into a pain-fueled swearing streak. Glaring at the back of Mullet Boy's head, Lance peeks over his shoulder and steals a glance at his notes. Keith. Keith Kogane. Lance's eyebrows raise, and he has to hold his breath to keep from bursting into peals of laughter right then and there. Oh jeez. If this kid hates people being sappy so much, I can't wait to see his reaction when Pidge gets him that boyfriend he's scheduled for. Lance grimaces. Sure, it'll be funny, but both he and Pidge are of the opinion that Keith and the other dude - Carl? Kyle? - are not a good match. They're both too confrontational. Lance gasps and claps his hands when he sees Pidge at the window, pointing to his tangled wings and pouting. Pidge raises their eyebrows and folds their arms over their chest, which is covered with baggy white cloth. Lance still doesn't know what gender Pidge was supposed to be. But that doesn't matter now, because Pidge is kind of neither and both at the same time now. Lance points at Keith and mimes swinging a butterfly net. Pidge rolls their eyes and gives Lance a 'just wait' hand motion. Lance pouts, and turns away, wincing when the sharp movement jostles the net.

"You, Mullet Boy, are a jerk. This stupid net makes my wings hurt." Keith ignores him.

.oOo.

Pidge waits outside for a while, watching Keith. He's definitely got a specific set of quirks, which totally clash with his scheduled partner's. Humming pensively, Pidge flaps their wings and goes to find a way inside the building. I'll have to keep watching all of them for a while. Because Garrison knows, if Pidge is unhappy with a pairing, they're going to change it. And Pidge is very unhappy with the 'Keith and Carson' matchup. They are pretty happy with some 'Keith and Shiro' though. Allura may have to go.

.oOo.

Pidge only gets around to helping Lance after the school day is over. By that time, Lance has followed Keith home, whining and griping enough to get even the super calm Shiro annoyed at him. Pidge is amused by this, and puts off helping Lance again in favour of watching Keith and Shiro interact some more. Shiro is one of the few people Keith is open to, and Pidge really has no idea why the higher-ups would choose Keith a partner he doesn't even know. It's bound to be a disaster. Finally, Pidge flies up to Keith's room, where Lance is distracting him from homework pettily, and clears their throat.

"You!" Keith yelps, pointing an accusatory finger at Pidge as he whirls around to face them. "You're the one that made Shiro all sappy! Get rid of it." Pidge raises an eyebrow at him.

"No way. Not with the way you're asking." Keith seeths, turning back to his homework in a huff as Lance runs to Pidge gratefully.

"Thank the Garrison! Pidgeon, you gotta help me get this thing off my wings!" Pidge's eye twitches, and they spit out an angry,

"No." Lance gives them puppy dog eyes, something he is really good at doing, and keep asking.

"Oh, c'mon, Pidge. I didn't mean it. The nickname's just fun. Please help me!" Pidge smirks at that.

"Alright. Since you asked nicely." Keith definitely notices that, turning his head to look at Pidge with narrowed eyes. Pidge sits Lance down and gets to work carefully extracting his wings from the butterfly net, muttering about how stupid Lance is to have gotten himself stuck in this. Eventually, Pidge gets it out but what's left isn't pretty. There are a few feathers that had to be taken out, and most of Lance's feathers are crumpled in some way. "Crap. Well, Lance, I'm gonna have to pull out some more feathers. Your wings are totalled." Lance whines unhappily, but stays still. Pidge pulls out one particularly twisted feather and get slapped across the face with a wing as it jerks instinctively. "Okay. That's it. Lay down. That's the third time you've whacked me." Lance apologizes and lays down. Pidge places a knee on the wing they're currently fixing, and gets to work pulling out wrecked feathers.

.oOo.

Keith winces yet again as the Cupid - Lance - keens in pain, sound muffled by the pillow he's put over his face. Keith is definitely feeling guilty now, having had to listen to Lance wail in pain for the past twenty minutes as the other one - Pidge - plucks wrecked feathers out of his wings. Feathers that are wrecked because of me, Keith thinks, grimacing. Eventually, Pidge finishes, and Lance sits up.

"Ow…" he groans, gently running his fingers through his greatly reduced wings. "I totally can't fly anymore. I'm stuck!" Pidge nods.

"Yup. For a while, too. Keith. You get to take care of him, since this was your fault. Also, you owe me." Keith doesn't get to ask why, but he gets his answer when Pidge pulls a specific arrow from their quiver. Lance jumps up eyes wide and horrified.

"Pidge, no! That's not allowed!" he gasps, and Pidge rolls their eyes.

"And since when have I ever obeyed the rules?" Lance has no answer for that, frowning in discomfort at the situation as he sits back down on the bed. Pidge leaves, already nocking the arrow to their bow.

"Wait, what's that one for?" Keith asks. Lance sighs.

"It's the only kind of Cupid arrow that breaks up relationships. I'd guess Pidge is going to break apart Shiro and Allura. They're really against that one for some reason." Keith grins.

"Yes! Now Shiro'll quit acting so weird!" Lance just puts his face in his hands.

"The Disappointment Duo strikes again…we're both gonna get kicked out of the Garrison…" he groans dejectedly. Just then, Pidge returns.

"Done. They're just friends now. Now, Shiro is freed up for a way better pairing." Lance groans again, and Keith is about to tell him to stop whining before he realizes that's not why he's groaning. This time, it's because he tried to lie down and that aggravated his wings. Pidge stares at Keith seriously and says,

"You will be keeping Lance with you or at this house, until his wings heal and I come back to get him, because you owe me, Keith, and Lance needs the cover. Cupids are constantly being hunted down by Galra, which are kind of like demons. We try not to get kicked out of the Garrison because that makes us vulnerable. Capische?" Keith nods dumbly, wondering where the heck Lance can sleep. Lance can apparently read minds, because he pulled up and answers Keith's questions.

"I don't sleep. No Cupids do. 24/7 job, baby! But I do need to eat a little bit. Maybe like once a day." Keith sighs and puts his head in his hands. What have I gotten myself into? He thinks to himself. But, he does owe Pidge a favour, and it's not like Lance is that much work, right?

.oOo.

It's Day 3 of Lance Confinement Time, as he's begun to call it in his head. Lance is sitting cross-legged on Keith's bed, staring through the window across the room. He has half a mind to go close the curtains and hide, but he likes the sunlight. Plus, he's not feeling the queasy feeling he never fails to get when there are Galra around. So he stays right where he is, almost in a trance as he stares at the slowly drifting clouds in the blue sky. He can't really control where his mind goes in his current state, lulled into a drowse by the silence of Keith and Shiro's empty house. So eventually, it gets to the topic he's always consciously trying not to think of. And he's so far gone he doesn't catch it in time to stop it, and he's swept away like a leaf in a river. (What a fitting comparison.)

"Ben! Get away from there! The river bank is unstable!" He has told him this so many times. But Ben never listens. He keeps on going back to the riverside, playing in the mud with his little tractors and toys. Getting so, so messy. Lance groans and prepares for a fight as he makes his way towards his brother, walking carefully down the rather steep hill leading to the riverside. He looks down for a moment to place his feet, hears a splash, and when he looks back up Ben is gone. The boy is downstream a ways already, and Lance starts running. He doesn't care about the mud splashing him, or the roots and knolls threatening to turn his ankle. He dives in, and it's freezing. Ben is struggling, but he's young. He can't swim in this current. Lance grabs him. Fights to the edge of the river. Throws Ben onto the shore. Then, a large piece of driftwood hits him, and he goes under. He doesn't resurface anytime soon enough.

Lance jerks to full alertness, shivering. He feels queasy, and although he's pretty sure it's from remembering his own death, he closes the curtains anyways and hides in the corner of the room. What feels like an eternity later, Keith and Shiro return home. Lance gets up, stretching his stiff limbs and heading downstairs to greet them. He's already shoved the terrible memory far into the depths of his mind.

.oOo.

Keith enters his house in silence, and Shiro follows soon after. The older man has been silent the whole walk home, apparently still confused in his free time about why he thought he loved Allura that much, and not just in friend way. Keith hasn't been able to tell him the truth. He doesn't know if he ever will. Because after the fact, he feels really selfish, and is aggressively second-guessing himself. The awkward silence is broken by a happy chirp of,

"Hi, guys! How was your day?" Keith jumps in shock and almost uses some hand-to-hand combat moves before he remembers the Cupid living with him and his roommate now.

"...Hi, Lance." he says flatly, mentally facepalming. Shiro greets him in a distracted manner, smiling nonetheless and seeming happy to see the grinning, toga-clad kid.

"Good. How was yours?" Keith walks upstairs to put his stuff away as Shiro carries on a conversation with Lance, frowning as he sees the closed curtains. Do Cupids not like light? No, that's not it…Whatever. I'll ask later if I decide I care enough. Trudging back downstairs, Keith finds Shiro starting to make supper already, with Lance hopping excitedly next to him as he watches him cook. Jesus. He's like a friggin' puppy. Does he ever run out of energy? Thus far, the answer is a definite no. Keith is about to go to his room when something occurs to him. He had seen a very strange new creature around lunchtime that day. Maybe Lance would know something about it?

"Hey, Lance? Can I ask you a question?" Lance turns around and pads over to Keith, bare feet sticking a little to the linoleum.

"Shoot," he says jauntily, grinning at Keith in his really freaking annoying way.

"I saw a weird creature on someone's back today. I did a little sketch, could you come look at it and tell me what you think?" Lance nods, expression suddenly unusually serious.

"Of course." He follows Keith to his room, and Keith fishes around in his backpack for a bit before finding and extracting his notebook. He flips to the page on which he's doodled what he saw, and hands it to Lance. Lance gasps and his eyes widen in shock, and Keith asks what's wrong worriedly. Lance looks at him with huge eyes, and then murmurs,

"Holy crap, Mullet Boy. You can actually draw! I was expecting a crappy stick figure!" Keith stares for a second before getting royally pissed off, and Lance collapses into hysterics, laughing so hard he falls over. "Ohh, man, I totally got you!" Then, a few seconds into Keith yelling at him in embarrassment and anger, Lance's demeanour does yet another full 180°. He frowns at the drawing, humming as he nods to himself and mouths stuff under his breath. He looks up at Keith and hands back the journal. "You said it was on someone's back?" Keith nods. Lance suddenly looks sick, going pale and staring at Keith with wide eyes. "We need to find whoever it was on. Now. Or really soon at the latest. That thing - a daemon to be specific - is the physical embodiment of negative emotions. It appears when things get really bad. Like, imminent death kind of bad. Judging by your sketch, that particular one is Self-Doubt, but there are many different kinds. That person's life is in danger. We gotta kill the daemon." Keith blinks, taken aback.

"Whoa whoa whoa, what?! A demon?!" Lance shakes his head.

"No. A daemon. There's a difference. It's usually not my job to kill those things, but if it's that bad, it has to go." Keith nods.

"I…okay. Sure. I'll go for a walk and find him. I did a group project with him once so I know where his house is." He stands, and Lance follows suit. He is adamant that he's coming, and eventually Keith relents. It's not like Lance can do anything in his current state.

Ten minutes into the walk, and Keith is regretting bringing Lance. The idiot will not shut up. He rambles on about the stupidest stuff, and Keith is once again reminded of a puppy. An annoying one who won't. Stop. Yapping.

Keith manages to tune Lance out, and eventually they make it to their destination. Keith knocks on the door and waits. It takes a few minutes, and Keith wants to leave but Lance pulls him back, but the door is finally opened. And Keith has to bite his tongue hard to keep from yelling at the state of the person who opens the door. The boy, Tanner Keith thinks his name is, has deep bags under his eyes, and his skin is pale. The creature from before has gotten larger and is clinging to his back, spindly black limbs wrapped around his waist and shoulders, a clawed hand resting on his throat. As Keith stares, unable to tear his eyes away and say anything, the monster turns its gaping maw towards Tanner's ear and hisses in a gargling voice,

"He thinks you're disgusting. Look. He won't even talk to you. Won't even look at you." Lance clears his throat, and that breaks the spell. Keith's eyes snap up to Tanner's sunken eyes and he starts talking, just trying to find anything to diminish the threat of the daemon.

"Hey, Tanner. I was, uh…just wondering if you were okay. You seemed a little off in class earlier today. Anything you need to talk about?" Keith is sweating. If Tanner wasn't totally drained from the daemon's presence, this would be so much more awkward. And it's terrible as is. Tanner's eyes widen at his words.

"You…noticed?" Keith can almost hear the unspoken words attached to that question. You care? The daemon hisses in anger, and retaliates with,

"Only because you were being so weird. You're an idiot. He doesn't care." Keith resists the urge to flip off the daemon. That would just look like he was flipping off Tanner. As Keith keeps awkwardly yammering to Tanner, Lance sneaks around behind him, and without any sort of warning, leaps towards him and grabs the daemon. Yanking the thing off of Tanner, Lance rolls around on the floor with it, both beings trying to pin the other. Tanner blinks, eyes wide, seeming royally confused for a moment, before he yawns, rubs his eyes, and collapses. Keith kneels down to check if he's okay, and then looks up to see how Lance is doing. The daemon has Lance pinned, and Lance is exerting a ton of effort to keep its claws away from his throat, flapping his wings futilely to try get some leverage off of the floor. Keith starts towards him, and Lance yells at him to stop.

"It'll attach itself to you instead! Just close the door and get the dude somewhere he can rest!" The daemon is distracted by Keith, and Lance takes that moment to roll over, pin its scrawny chest under his knees, and kill it with a dagger he pulls from god knows where. Keith drags Tanner to the couch, leaves him there, and joins Lance back outside.

"So…what is Tanner going to think of me when we go back to school tomorrow…?" he asks. Lance grins at him.

"He'll probably forget everything that happened. That, or he'll remember and think of you as an absolute weirdo." Keith rolls his eyes.

"Oh, so comforting. Thanks." he says sarcastically. Lance cackles. Then, he pats Keith's shoulder.

"You did good. You saved that kid's life." Surprisingly, Lance is quiet the rest of the walk home. Keith has the feeling he shouldn't disturb him from his thoughts.