Note: I know nothing about motorcycles and I of course totally made up the name, when you see it that should be obvious.

Chapter Three

Keith was outside five minutes early, he felt late, he was usually ten to fifteen minutes early. He didn't know how he'd lost so much time, it was somewhere between looking for the right pair of jeans and the disaster of his hair. He resisted the urge to touch his hair now as he thought about it, it looked fine, Amelia had rescued him with her flatiron, it was fine. Didn't matter that it was really breezy out and it felt like it was blowing all over the place on him as he walked down a few more steps scanning the area for Lance.

His throat tightened, his palms kept getting ridiculously sweaty, he wiped him for the nth time already on his jeans and the date hadn't even started yet. He tried to distract himself by people watching his fellow Cadets and their friends around the dormitory entrance and the other dormitories surrounding them, but his eyes kept falling onto the couples. The ones who were being picked up for a date, who looked all smiles and confidence. They all looked like they knew what they were doing, not a unsure one of them in the bunch. Keith felt that way about facing down any martial arts opponent, on the firing line for target drills, at the ready for flight course full of traps and tricky maneuvers - his only opponent there was McClain anyway... could he think of this date like Flight Instruction class?

He swallowed, no there couldn't be a competition on a date? Could there? Keith sighed, his past failures at dating hitting him all in the gut like punches. What had he done, saying yes to Lance, so what if he wanted to pin the guy to a wall and lick his way across every inch of pale skin that didn't mean they'd have anything in common outside of flying. What if that was all they did talk about? Then it be what Sven said, a stupid damn fly boy bonding experience at some lame sports bar most likely. Not a date. A date had...Keith wondered what a good date had. His bad dates had crappy restaurants, one had even been a fast food joint with coupons - freaking Amelia's cousins - and then even worse kisses at the end, never started by him because he hadn't wanted to kiss any of them by the end of the date. They'd all been, wrong, just totally and completely wrong, he hadn't found anything in them beyond their initial appeal to make him want more.

Keith didn't think Lance would be like that, though looking at his watch, Lance was already five minutes late officially. He frowned, he knew a lot of tall tales about Lance. There was the dating reputation he had on campus with the women, that Keith never had thought twice about until today when he learned that their were also men involved in that reputation. Except none of them were from the school, all of them were civilians, off Academy grounds and probably older. Experienced. All Keith had were bad unwanted kisses, his own hand and a disgustingly shameful porn collection on his lap top. If this was a usual Friday he'd be in the library right now, face in a book, studying for a test in Quantum Mathematics that is two weeks from now. Lance probably never studied on Friday night, there was one thing they wouldn't have common. What if they didn't have anything to talk about? What if they just sat there in uncomfortable and crappy silence? Lance McClain was known for doing crazy and impulsive things, Keith always thought everything out, he planned things but he hadn't planned this and now he thinking himself into a nervous wreck.

He started to focus on his breathing, he tried not think about the weirder and crazier rumors he'd heard about Lance. Like how Lance wasn't allowed to live on Campus, or even enter a dormitory because he'd dangled an Admiral's son off the roof by his ankles his first year. Or how he nearly got expelled because he'd been caught hot wiring a teachers jaguar by the Vice Chancellor - who it was rumored hated McClain and thought he didn't belong in the Academy or in the Garrison at all. Keith didn't know any of the truth of these things, he didn't put much credit into rumors, what he did know about Lance he liked. He knew he was the best pilot in the Academy, he knew Lance could out fly the Cadets in the years ahead of them. Because he could and he had to work his ass off to keep up with Lance. He knew he liked Lance's voice on the radio, egging him on, saying reckless and stupid things when their superior officer and instructor could hear them, pushing him to want to kick Lance's ass. He also knew as of today, Lance McClain checked things out when they looked wrong, Keith hadn't stayed in group, and hadn't gotten back in with group within a realistic amount of time. Especially with Taylor yelling at him too on the radio - not that Keith could hear it. Lance had ducked out of the drill himself, of which he'd been in the lead, to check on him and ended up saving his Keith's hide. He'd be space junk right now. He owed him.

Didn't matter if he was arrogant, reckless, a flirt, Keith felt his stomach flip, how was he going out with the campus flirt? This had to be disaster, Lance was a totally different person than him, they couldn't possible have anything in common outside of flying, Lance probably just wanted a one night stand and to be done with it. Keith weighed his options on that, he did want the guy, the guy was hot that was how he'd gotten into this mess in the first place. He saw Lance dead on straight and not out of the corner of his eyes for the first time and all he could think about was sex. Maybe, maybe he could do a one night stand? If it was with the right guy, this guy could be the guy, he had the right reputation? Keith frowned even as he thought it, he just wasn't the type, he put too much on the action of the sex, he brought to much with it to the table. It had to mean something more, it had to mean there was a deeper connection. He sighed. He was about to have another bad date, the thing was he really didn't want another bad date. Especially this time.

He glanced at his watch, ten minutes late, he sighed. Maybe he should go inside, maybe Lance McClain was going to stand him up. Then he heard a motorcycle, one with an engine that sounded amazing, it was roaring toward the dormitories. He looked toward it and his mouth dropped open, it was his dream motorcycle. It was a 75 year old classic Falcon Manufactured Limited Run Kessel, only it looked and sounded as good as new, and it was painted bright red the exact shade Keith always dreamed of having if he could get his hands on one. He unconsciously started walking toward the bike and was shocked when it came to a stop right in front of his own dorm. He stopped short a few steps up from it, his eyes going to rider then a strange feeling creeping over him. He watched as an old blue and battered helmet came off the rider and revealed Lance McClain, who looked right at him, shook his head and said. "Sorry, I'm so late, I had to wait for a babysitter. Long, long story, wanna hop on?"

Keith loved motorcycles, they were the closest you could get to flying while earthbound, the feel of them, the speed of them, you being in control of the movement as moved across the earth. It was almost like piloting a spacecraft, and there was his date, the hottest guy he'd ever seen, sitting on his dream bike, asking him to hop on. A voice in his head was saying, 'Marry him Keith, grab on and never let go, this one is yours to keep.' Keith shook it off, didn't even really process it, he was too focused on the double hotness of the bike and Lance. He walked over and just sort of touched the bike.

"How the hell did you get a Kessel?"

"Roommate and I found it in a scrapyard, if you can believe that. He helped me rebuild it, he's genius with mechanics, we found most of the parts in the scrapyard too. We think an old Kessel mechanic must have tossed all his stuff when people stopped needing the parts, plus the old bike. It'd been in a crash but all it needed was some body work and the paint job."

"I, wow, I've had dreams about this bike?" Keith admitted looking back at Lance and finding himself being stared at so intently he felt his cheeks heat. "I, yeah. Good bike," Keith stammered.

Lance grinned, turned around then came back with another helmet, just as battered as his but red. "Here, hop on already, we're late and I made a reservation and have no idea how long they'll hold it. This place doesn't really reserve seating, I'm a special case."

"Why's that," Keith heard himself asking, his heart beating a mile a minute as he climbed on the bike behind Lance and pulled on the helmet. "You take all the guys you date there?"

Lance laughed. "No, one of my roommate's dad owns the place. Feel free to hang on to me, by the way," Lance added as he started up the motorcycle and took off took fast out of the dormitory drive.

Keith felt the rush of take off, his hands landed onto Lance's hips and felt like they belonged there, his chest pressed against his back from the inertia and that didn't feel wrong at all either. He'd even managed an attempt at joking that hadn't gone horribly wrong, either. Keith grinned as he realized how Lance moved in and out the curves of the road on the bike. He rode the bike as effortlessly as the flew, so Keith was able to left go and not worry about crashing, or the driving making mistake, and he got to enjoy a ride on his dream motorcycle with one hell of a hot guy. If the rest of the date failed, he at least had this much, Keith told himself. This was fantastic.

~~.~~

Lance for once in life wasn't laughing off the fact flying and driving a motorcycle were as natural as breathing to him. He could feel every finger of Keith's against his hips, and it wasn't because Keith was gripping on for dear life. It was just because the man had strong fingers. Strong slender fingers that Academy rumor had it could rip out men's throats. It was rumored that he wasn't allowed to use the full force his his martial arts ability because he could kill any body at any time if he did, including the instructors. He usually taught the classes he was in, along with the instructors. Lance had never been in a class with him, but Hunk had he'd said that much was true. Lance didn't much care if the guy was lethal or not, he just found his mind wondering to what all that strength could do when focused on something else, something with more baser intention and naked intentions.

When he'd taken off his helmet, he'd been all he could do not to drool. Keith been standing there, wind blowing his hair, looking like some kind of movie star from Japan about hit Hollywood and take it by storm. He looked finer than fine, Lance had wanted take off the t-shirt he had on then and there, the biceps on the guy were fantastic, he'd wanted to kiss them and then see what was hidden underneath the shirt, which really gave nothing away.

Keith though had instantly fallen in love with the Kessel and made Lance like him all the more. Damn, he loved the bike, Lance was going to have let him drive it, and he never let anyone drive it. But he could see it, he felt it, he was going to let Keith drive it. He'd been watching Keith stroke the steering, touching the speed controls, watching the column of his neck, the way his hands moved and a lump had formed in Lance's own throat. Keith then looked right at him and Lance had almost froze. Him, Lance McClain had almost froze on what he was supposed to do next on a date. Somehow he'd pulled it out, grinned, givenhim his helmet, managed to get out the line about holding on to him - but no where near as smooth as normal.

This guy was doing something to him. Lance already knew that, he knew that because he was taking him to Dovetails. When Keith made the joke about him taking all his guys to the restaurant they were going too, he had no idea the nerve he hit. Lance never took dates to Dovetails. Dovetails was owned by Katie's parents, her dad ran the kitchen; they were catering her wedding of course. Hunk, Pidge and he ate there every Sunday. When all the Garrets were in town, that is where they ate, dragging him and Pidge along.

Hell, he'd even taken his own parents there once. But most the time, he went there alone. It was a great ride down on the bike, windy curvy roads, he could take back roads of dirt and gravel and get the most out of the ride - like he was doing now to show off to Keith. Then he'd get a drink, hard whiskey and sip slow, then he clear his head by walking on the beach. Sometimes he just needed to be alone, away from everything. All of it. There were so many damn expectations from everywhere. Then he'd enjoy the ride back home even more than the ride down.

Dovetails wasn't a place he shared, not with people who weren't - family, and Hunk and Pidge hadn't asked permission to gate crash - so he had no idea why the hell this was the only place that had felt right to bring Keith too. He barely knew the guy, you couldn't really count all their competitive egging on of each other through a shortwave radio. And that had been to challenge himself, to push himself, to shut up the insecure voices in his head he'd let this this hotshot, top student in every other field of Academy beat him down in his own zone. It hadn't heard his voice was sexy as hell, though, Lance thought wryly, parking the bike in the motorcycle parking in the back of the restaurant.

Keith was grinning ear to ear, when Lance met him eye to eye again. "That was a great ride," he said.

"Yeah, I love the ride down here, take it a lot sometimes just because," Lance said.

"Were you born on a motorcycle or in flight?" Keith asked next, shaking his head. "You took some crazy ass risks like they were nothing and the bike stayed firmly where it should, and I didn't even freak out. I always freak out if I don't control," Keith laughed.

"I've been taking those curves since mid-term first year. It's no big," Lance said, trying to discreetly wipe his palm on his jeans before taking Keith's hand. Nerves coming up on him again out of nowhere, he was never nervous on dates, he just did them and got what he wanted out them, of course maybe that was the issue. He wasn't really sure what he could get out of Keith, and should have meant he didn't ask him out in the first place, but he had.

"Uh, Lance?"

"Yeah?" Lance said, slipping his hand into Keith's, surprising him and making Keith look at him with those intense dark eyes of his, Lance had to stop himself from leaning in and kissing him then and there. Keith seemed a bit skittish, he didn't want to freak him out, he definitely didn't want to do that, he wanted to keep him around for bit. That much Lance knew for sure.

"This place looks kind of fancy?"

"It's not, trust me, it just looks that way because of the ocean view, but it's a casual romantic getaway, or a fun family getaway. We are not underdressed."

He watched Keith's eyes rove over him, stopping and going over a few area here and there to appreciate what he saw, Lance grinned wider. He was wearing what Keith was wearing, black jeans, red t-shirt and a black button down unbuttoned over it.

"Yet, you look more," Keith threw up his free hand.

"You look hot, no one is going to give a damn past that," Lance said with a wink and he started dragging Keith around to the entrance of the restaurant. He could hear his heart in his ears, but he kept telling himself he wasn't going to let some nerves and walking into a bit of new territory with the guy get to him. He'd decided to go for whatever it was he was going for here, with Keith Kogane, and he would, full throttle, engines blasting, no turning back.