Chapter 2.
Keith POV.
Well, Keith had to give Lance some credit for how much work he had to do on that farm.
He was also impressed at how much he had changed. He was so much more mature, he seemed to be knowing exactly what he was doing, and, to Keith's surprise, he hadn't seen Lance on any of the earth news lately. With Lance, he would have expected him to be begging to be on the front cover of a magazine, or have his own TV show, something like that. But every time he had seen him somewhere on the television, he seemed to be annoyed at the photographer and yelling at them to get out of his business and that he wanted to be alone for once.
Lance? Wanting to be alone? That just wasn't adding up. Something was wrong, he just felt it. The other Paladins didn't seem to be noticing it. That was normal. It was usually just Keith noticing whenever something was wrong with someone, especially Lance. He couldn't really tell, but he was pretty sure that he was the only person that Lance ever really opened up to about his insecurities.
Lance showed them around the farm. He brought them over to the chicken coop and showed them how he collected the eggs, because he didn't get a chance to do that before they got there, according to him.
"Are these incubated?" Keith asked, holding one of them up in front of him.
"Some of them. But we try to keep as little as possible," Lance answered, plucking the egg out of his hand and placing it in the basket. He pointed at a chicken. "That's our new mama hen."
But Keith didn't see any babies around her. Until a little head popped out from under her and a tiny little peep came out of it.
"Aww! Can I hold one?" Hunk asked excitedly.
"Nope. She's really protective of them. She'll probably peck your fingers off."
Okay. Something was definitely wrong. The way Lance said that was like he was trying to make a joke but he wasn't feeling it. That was something that didn't happen with Lance.
When they were starting back up the hill to the house, Lance was lagging behind, so Keith slowed down to match his pace. "Are you okay, Lance?" he asked. "Is something wrong?"
Lance sighed and then gave Keith a big warm smile.
"Like I told you earlier, I'm fine, Mullet." He roughly nudged him with his arm. "Just a little tired, that's all."
Keith narrowed his eyes.
"Look, man, I don't want to talk about it, okay?" Lance said.
He shrugged. "Alright. But don't think I won't listen to what you have to say."
Lance smiled at him again then ran forward to the rest of the group that were teasing each other and just acting like they did before even though it had been such a long time since it happened and they were all adults now. Heck, Keith didn't even have a mullet anymore, his hair was too long to be a mullet so now he had a man-ponytail, which, he looked pretty good as, he thought.
Pidge had been growing out her hair a bit too, but not too much. It was still pretty close to the same thing as it was before. Hunk was still the same. Lance's was now an undercut which was something that Keith was quite fond of, actually. Of course, he never said that.
They got inside and Lance started helping them with all their stuff that they brought. "Alright. We have three extra bedrooms upstairs because some of the family went on vacation. Now, who wants to share a room, or sleep on the couch?"
"I'll sleep on the couch," Keith volunteered.
"You sure?" Lance said. "You could always just get your own room."
"I'm fine with him taking the couch." Pidge adjusted her glasses. "Leaves more room for the rest of us, Lone Wolf," she said teasingly. She laughed that weird laugh and ran up the stairs, following Lance.
Keith sat on the couch. It was comfortable, he sank into it. Something about this life that Lance was now living seemed so stable and nice, very uneventful. It seemed very befitting of Lance. To be honest, probably one of the things he least wanted to so was go out to fight a space-war. Keith actually felt a little bad for him about that. Despite that sometimes he had a fire going on with him, he was actually a very kind and gentle person most of the time.
The other Paladins didn't really see it in him that he could care about things to the extent, but Lance had opened up to him about way more things that would meet the eye. He thought that Lance pictured him as a rival, but now, he was sure that Lance pictured him as a friend. It was mutual. But they were just friends. It had been established that they were just friends.
The others came down the stairs again.
"Man, Keith, you're missing out!" Hunk said. "The rooms up there are awesome."
Keith was starting to regret his decision to stay on the couch. But there was no turning back with that. His friends were especially grabby with sleeping arrangements than they were with some other things.
"You sure you want to stay on the couch, man? I could always just sleep on the couch and you can sleep in my bed upstairs," Lance said.
Keith had to stop his face from turning red. It was a normal question; he didn't have to make anything weird out of it. "No, it's fine. Plus, this couch is comfortable."
Lance shrugged. "Alright, suit yourself." He winked at him and then went to talking to the rest of the Paladins who didn't seem to notice. This time, Keith couldn't stop himself from blushing so he hid it by starting to do something else with the laptop that he had brought with him. That most definitely was not normal for Lance. That wink was almost flirtatious, which he wasn't often with boys like Keith. They were basically opposites, after all.
Keith noticed Pidge looking at him from across the room with a smirk, glancing back and forth between Lance and Keith and smirking even more, then adjusted her glasses and went back to whatever she was doing on the laptop she had. She was probably hacking into something like she often did in her spare time, he assumed. It just seemed befitting of her to do something like that. What she was hacking into, he had no idea.
"Well, I'm off to bed," Hunk said.
"Yeah, me too," Shiro agreed.
"I might as well," Pidge said. Before he knew it, Keith was alone with Lance in his living room.
Sighing, Lance slumped down into the couch, next to Keith. "You guys have been here for three hours and I am already done with it."
Keith looked at him weird.
"Well, except for you. I think it would have been better if you were the only one that visited. As long as Veronica didn't flirt with you. God, she's annoying sometimes."
Keith snorted. "Is that really what you think about your own sister?"
He opened his mouth to say something, then hesitated. "No, actually. I love my sister."
"See? You just don't like some of the things she does. I have no experience with siblings, trust me, but I know with all the people that do have them that I have met, that they never really mean it when they say they hate them."
Lance nudged him with his elbow. "Wow, look at you, Mr. Advice."
Keith smiled a little. "Hey, I am very wise."
Lance laughed and stood up. "Welp, about time I go to bed. I didn't have very much sleep last night so I need it. See ya tomorrow." He made his way slowly up the stairs. Keith watched him until he was out of sight.