Chapter Two: A Quick Bite to Eat

Again, brief authors note: This is coming out after season 8, which means nobody is all that happy rn. Like, at all. People really hate this season and I can see why, but I'm not gonna complain about it here. This is something I stopped writing just before and after season 8 for a bit so yea. I wrote the first chapter almost a month ago, and then S8 came and yeah. Anyway, enjoy! Happy Holidays!

Warning: someone is told to kill themselves, but no suicide happens. Just in case.

For a couple of days, Keith had continuously forgotten to turn on his alarm (he, despite request, showed up at least three hours late every day) and had suffered for it. Recently, he'd gotten his alarm set properly. Today, he had forgotten again, much to his own disappointment. He got to school around 11:30, so it was basically time for lunch. He decided he'd walk to the multipurpose room now, as Coran (the way too cheerful guy at the front desk) had already called Ms. Britton to say he was there. He got there early, not that it surprised him, and sat down at their usual table.

He had found that they were comfortable, and he had quickly started to talk more frequently. Shiro was someone he got close with quickly (he always sent friendly smiles, and he didn't tease Keith all that much.) He'd also found Pidge an enjoyable company, with sarcastic comments and brain smarts. Hunk was insanely nice, which he found comforting in the morning. Matt had calmed down, and was no longer calling Keith his soulmate (he found he had no particular opinion on him, they didn't interact much.) He liked Lance the most, however, because he was friendly and flirty and kind. Not to mention drop dead gorgeous. Not that he was gay for Lance or anything, they'd just met after all.

Lost in thought, he hadn't noticed Pidge and Hunk come in. Pidge ruffled his hair and sat down, ignoring Keith's irritated yelp. Hunk smiled and sat down in his usual spot in front of Pidge. They immediately went to discussing some project in STEM, and he turned around in time to see Shiro come in with a guy he'd only seen once or twice. They came over, hand in hand, to the table.

"Hey, Keith!" Shiro said, excitement in his voice betraying attempted casual behavior. "This is Adam, I think we've talked about him." Keith nodded, knowing that Shiro was probably going to continue on about him, but instead he got an Adam speaking.

"Hey, Keith right?" The boy held out his free hand to shake. Keith, per usual, didn't take it. He dropped it awkwardly, "I'm Adam, nice to meet you."

"Yeah, nice to meet you," Keith responded. "I'd try to smile but it would just look strained." Adam laughed at that and sat down in the spot that was usually left open in front of him. He heard the rest of the kids come in, and then a little while later, Lance yelling. No, not just Lance yelling. Allura yelling too. He took a deep breath, and turned slightly toward them.

"Allura, he's hurting you!"

"No, he's not! Lance, he's the best guy I've ever met!"

"He put me in the hospital!" Lance's voice broke, and he sat down next to Keith. Keith quietly put his hand on Lance's shoulder, Lance didn't pull away.

"He's changed Lance! I promise, just talk to him!"
Keith decided to cut in, knowing that his own experience with Lotor had been rather terrible, "I hate to cut in, Allura, but just because he has changed for you doesn't mean he's changed for everyone else." He surprised himself with how confident he was saying that. She was another person he'd gotten comfortable with, but she usually did all the speaking.

"Just because you're all utter dimwits that can't see how amazing he is doesn't mean it's my problem that you hate him," Allura said, choosing to ignore what Keith said. "In fact, if you are going to make the decision to hate him, I'll choose to hate you!"

"Allura, please," Lance started, only to be cut off.

"Don't 'Allura, please' me! I hate you, Lance!" She didn't even give anyone a chance to respond, she stormed away and toward their usual table.

Lance didn't try to move anyway, absolutely stunned. The shock melted away soon after, leaving pain in it's place. Nobody at the table said anything, no one dared to break the tense silence Allura had left. Keith was scared if he tried to say anything, Lance would just start crying.

It didn't take Lotor long to catch up, four of his little minions behind him. Keith started to stand up and tell him to go away, but Shiro grabbed his elbow and pulled him back into his seat.

"Aww, is somebody mad that his little crush sided with her boyfriend instead of him?" Lotor folded his arms over his chest. Behind him, Axca and Narti (he had a group project with them, they were actually pretty nice) looked extremely hesitant. The other two looked uncomfortable just standing there, but did not seem to have any problems with what Lotor was about to do.

"Whatever Lotor," Lance muttered, trying to pretend he didn't care. He was failing miserably, and Keith could already see this tumbling downhill within seconds of him saying it.

"Don't pretend you don't care," Lotor said. "No fun that way. We all know you love Allura so much you'd date every other girl in this school to prove it."

The monitors started dismissing for the next class. Shiro, Pidge, and Narti were the only ones to hesitate leaving. Keith, Axca, Lotor, and Lance were the only ones who didn't even consider leaving. Keith knew right away that things were gonna be bad, and if he was honest with himself he didn't care. He already wanted to bash Lotor's face in, so what did it matter?

In no time, things escalated. There was no one to supervise, they thought they'd left. Lotor was basically spewing death threats, or as close as he could get to them without someone hurting him. Everything was going fuzzy with anger in Keith's eyes, he wasn't even truly sure what was being said. He vaguely saw Axca's mouth open and heard something along the lines of 'stop being an asshole.' He forced himself to tune in.

"Excuse me?" Lotor hissed, spinning on his foot to look at Axca. "You know, that isn't nice. If you aren't going to support me, you can go kill yourself!"

Keith's vision went red. He felt the burning of growing his fangs, barely, and let out a low growl. I can't believe he had the audacity to tell someone to kill themselves. And he hurt Lance, I'm so fed up with Lance getting hurt by this dick.

Out of the corner of his eye, Keith could sort of see the shocked looks on Lance and Axca's faces, but it didn't matter. He was so done, it didn't even matter if they hated him. He could see Lotor clearly, horror carved into his perfect features. Dark blue eyes wide in fear, one foot back as though trying to run, mouth slightly parted in shock.

Keith took one large step forward and dug his fangs into Lotor's neck. There wasn't a sound. Not from Lance, or from Axca, and especially not from Lotor. He pulled away quickly, horrified with himself. Axca wasn't there, but he could feel Lance's gaze boring into his back. He flinched at the searing pain of his fangs disappearing, not even leaving a trace of their existance. He was overwhelmed by panic.

He ran. He ran so fast he could barely feel his legs by the time he reached his destination. It was his apartment, not that he recognized it. The lack of fear he'd had before he bit Lotor had been replaced with swaying walls and lack of breath. I can't believe it. Why should I care so much? I don't...I couldn't...no way. There's no way I have a massive crush on Lance. I do, but...how did it happen.

He fell to the ground and fell into fitful sleep.

Lance's POV

Lance stood at their group's lunch table, staring at the blood that was pouring from Lotor's neck without even really seeing it. He was having trouble processing, understanding. Keith had done this, but Lance didn't know how. How was it possible for him to just spurt out fangs and drink the blood of someone he was mad at? How had Lotor made him that mad? His head hurt. He was sure he'd heard a quiet 'I'm sorry' from Keith. What did that mean? He wasn't leaving, was he?

Lance snapped back to his senses, and ran from the lunch room to the nearest classroom. It was the class Allura was currently in, Ms. Zufelt's, but that didn't really matter to him at this point. He hurried to her desk, and she asked what was wrong.

"There's a student in the lunchroom, badly hurt. I think we'll need an ambulance. It's really bad. He got attacked by a wild animal…" Lance's voice stayed terribly quiet, and he made sure that even the students closest wouldn't be able to understand. This was bad.

"Okay," she said, being insanely patient for the lack of details she was given. She addressed the class to tell them to be quiet, then led him out of the room and toward the multipurpose room. Lotor was still there, and the blood was still red. He again couldn't help but get taken back in time. He saw the blood seeping through Keith's shirt, the body slumped against his front side. He saw fear, fear like a wild rabbit about to be killed. Dominance once had was gone, and that scared Lance more than the blood he saw now.

"Lance?" Ms. Zufelt cut through his thoughts, a hand on his shoulder. "I know this is hard, but I need you to go back to class until this is handled. Okay?" He just nodded and took a couple steps away. He called his mom as soon as he got to class, he needed to process.

Okay! Ya'll, I'm in so much pain. Umm..something happened. I know I said I had this planned out, and I do, but only major plot points. I didn't expect to go this far so I'm shooketh. Anyway, uploading tomorrow again. I'm so stressed oh my heck. This will be finished by Christmas. I'm shaking, this chapter hurt to write. Bye, hope I didn't emotionally scar you for life.