"And he's just so… ugh!" Lance grinned, covering his face with his hands and letting himself fall back onto the pillow behind him. He heard Keith scoff from beside him.
"Usually when someone's describing a date, "ugh" isn't a term they use to mean it went well." Keith folded his arms, arching an eyebrow at him. It was such a familiar gesture, one he'd been subjected to countless times in the past few weeks, but Lance saw a hint of something else hidden in the tightness of his shoulders and the slight bouncing of his knee.
Keith was sitting cross-legged on his bed with their knees just barely touching as Lance sprawled out next to him. They seemed to find themselves like that more often than not, since Keith seemed to have a weird thing against sitting at Lance or Hunks desk.
If he was being honest Lance didn't really mind. It was kinda nice the way he and Keith had gotten so close…
He was brought back from his thoughts about Keith as the grim reaper in question cleared his throat, staring at him amusedly. Lance felt his face heat up for some reason.
"What?"
"You were staring at my knee." Keith bounced his knee against Lance's for emphasis and Lance blushed deeper.
"I was not!" Lance protested, to Keith's amusement, "I was just thinking about Brandon…" He felt weird as he said this. He had been thinking about Keith, hadn't he? Why did he have to lie about thinking about his boyfriend, when he was actually thinking about his… friend? Buddy? Personal omen of death?
"So, you two are boyfriends now," Keith said slowly, "Like officially?"
"Yep!" Lance nodded, "We talked about it and we agreed that since we'd already hooked up, and gone on three dates that it wasn't too soon."
It had been three days since Brandon had asked him out at the diner, and they'd been on as many dates since. Brandon had sprung the B word on him earlier that day, and Lance jumped on it wholeheartedly.
"Lucky for you." Keith smirked at him, but it lacked his usual casual air. Lance thought back to a minute ago, and the tightness in his shoulders.
In fact, Keith had been kinda weird for a few days now, but Lance had been so wrapped up in trying not to fuck things up with Brandon that he'd just brushed it off.
Brandon was such a sweet guy. They got along really well, and they hadn't stopped texting since the incident in the Waffle House. Lance could see how easy it would be to fall for Brandon under other circumstances, but with the threat of Pidge's death looming over him and the impending deadline, he found himself stressing about how slow things were going.
He knew he was trying too hard, but relaxing and going with the flow didn't really feel right either… This was why he'd been neglecting Keith, and he felt bad about it, but his mission was a little bit more important than his newfound friendship with his grim reaper.
He'd opened his mouth to ask but the words died on his tongue as Keith stood, stretching his arms above his head, instead sighing, "Yeah, lucky me."
"Hey what's this?" He glanced up sharply as Keith pulled a sheet of paper off of his desk, eyes widening.
"Hey!" Lance jumped up, snatching the paper out of his hands, "Snoop much?"
Keith frowned at him concernedly, and Lance sighed, "It's a note to my mom." Keith continued to frown at him, so Lance elaborated, "I've been meaning to do this for a while, but my fight with Hunk made it seem that much more important…"
"It's a suicide note." Keith said, not really as a question.
"Yeah." Lance rubbed the back of his neck, "I feel terrible having to do this, but it's better than leaving her wondering."
"You don't have to let her think it was you." Keith set a hand on his arm, "It could be like a car accident or-"
"No," Lance shook his head, "I need to give her peace, give her some last words and let her think I died because I wanted to."
"That's not going to make it better for her." Keith folded his arms, a sudden tightness in his words, "With a random accident it's sad and shocking but at least she wouldn't have to go the rest of her life thinking that you were miserable and that there was something she could have done."
Lance blinked at him in surprise and Keith lowered his gaze, "I'm just saying. Making it look like a suicide isn't going to make her feel better."
Lance wondered at his expression but didn't pry. He knew that Keith was right, but that didn't mean he felt any better about it.
"I know," He sighed, "I guess I was just trying to figure out a way to say goodbye."
Keith gave him a strange look, but Lance just shrugged it off. He wasn't really in the mood to let all his emotions out. They stood there in awkward silence for a few minutes before Keith started fidgeting. Lance opened his mouth to ask just as Keith blurted out, "Hey why don't you take a break tonight?"
"What?" Lance looked up at him in confusion.
Keith glanced away, an uncertain look crossing his face, "There's uh… there's this celebration thing tonight up in, um..." Lance cursed inwardly as Keith caught himself, pointing to the ceiling instead, "Up there. Usually I don't go to these sorts of things, but everyone keeps asking about my new assignment, and it would probably be good for you to get out for a night."
"You want me to come to a party for grim reapers?" Lance stared at him incredulously, not missing the way Keith seemed to be squirming under his gaze.
"Yeah, I mean…" Keith shrugged, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, "I have a plus one, and Allura's been begging me to go to one of her parties since forever…"
Lance eyed him thoughtfully, Keith almost seemed… embarrassed? He felt a little insulted that Keith was this uncomfortable just asking him to hang out. They'd passed the point of friendship by now right?
"Dude," Lance grinned, happy at the way Keith seemed to perk up at his tone, "I am so in… Is it like a Halloween party, or more like a Day of the Dead kinda thing?"
Keith laughed, "Neither… I mean we do have those, but today's Coran's Deathday. He's like Allura's right hand guy."
Lance raised an eyebrow, "Deathday? As in the anniversary of his death, like in Harry Potter?"
Keith shrugged, "Being a grim reaper isn't exactly the easiest job in the world, so Allura jumps at any opportunity for a party. Kind of like a morale boost I guess."
Lance made an affirmative noise, not entirely sure what to say to that. Glancing around he realized that it was already 6 p.m.
"Uh, Keith?" Lance raised an eyebrow, "What time would be "tonight?""
Keith rummaged in his fanny pack – oh sorry, "belt pouch" – and pulled out his flip phone, checking the time. Lance made a face at the cursed object, not for the first time. "I don't know, like an hour or two? I didn't think I was going so I didn't really pay much attention to what Allura was saying."
Lance's jaw dropped, "It's in an hour, and you're telling me about this now?"
Keith blinked, "Yeah? How long does it take you to get ready?"
Lance stood and pushed past him, heading for his closet, "It depends on what type of party, is it like "come as you are" or should we dress up?"
Keith continued to blink in confusion, and Lance could've sworn he was starting to look like he regretted inviting him, "Uh… well Coran's kind of an old fashioned guy, and Allura likes fancy things so… I guess dressed up?"
Lance smacked his forehead, muttering about time constraints, and shoved at the clothes hanging in his closet. He picked out a nice polo shirt, and then a suit jacket, turning to show Keith, "Dressed up as in A," he held up the polo, "or B?" He held up the suit jacket.
"Hmm," Keith frowned, bringing a hand up to his chin as he concentrated, "Is there something in between?"
Lance groaned, this was going to be harder than he thought. Then he realized something else, "Wait… what are you planning on wearing?"
Keith didn't even need to answer, the look on his face was enough to send Lance diving back into the closet.
An hour - and much bickering - later, Lance stood back, surveying his work. He'd dressed himself in a blue button down, open over a white v-neck t-shirt, and a grey sweater to top it off, which let him get away with just wearing jeans for the pants.
Keith on the other hand, he'd forced into a black and white striped t-shirt and replaced his red crop jacket with a nice black one. He let him keep his normal black jeans but wrapped a red scarf around his neck at the last second.
Keith sniffed uncertainly at the scarf, "I look like a hipster."
"Seriously?" Lance raised an eyebrow at him, "You know what a hipster looks like, but you've never heard of Chris Pine?"
Keith shrugged, and Lance rummaged around in Hunk's desk for a hair tie, "Well, you're keeping it. Now sit down."
Keith frowned, glancing at the chair Lance was patting, "Why?"
"Oh, just sit." Lance yanked him down in the chair and set to brushing Keith's hair.
He had to admit he'd been wanting to do this for a while now. Keith was a good-looking guy, with some nice hair (ignoring the mullet) but it looked like he hadn't used a brush since he died, however long ago that was.
Lance blinked as Keith squirmed beneath him, the tips of his ears turning red, "Lance, what are you doing?"
"I'm not going to let you go to a party with your mullet looking all…" He ran a hand through it, temporarily taken aback at how soft Keith's hair was, "uh, mullety."
"Mullety?" Keith muttered under his breath, but thankfully kept still after that. The tips of his ears remained red, which Lance thought was kinda cute. He wondered when the last time someone played with his hair was.
"Done!" Lance handed him a mirror, "This is what you'd look like if you spent more than five seconds on your hair in the morning."
Keith looked at himself in the mirror, and Lance had to admit he'd gone a little overboard. He'd pulled back most of Keith's hair into a little pony tail, revealing the back of his neck for probably the first time in his life.
He'd left Keith's bangs alone, because honestly they were kinda cute, but he'd added two little french braids starting from just behind his temples to the base of the pony tail so it wouldn't cover his ears.
He waited proudly for Keith to say something, but Keith just stared at himself for another few seconds before putting the mirror down and turning to Lance.
"Now I really look like a hipster."
Lance hit him with the brush, "Would you rather I let you go to a party looking like the freaking lone ranger?"
Keith blushed, and fiddled with his pony tail. Lance smacked his hand away, "Stop it. Now let's go show you off to all your friends."
Keith grumbled a little, but Lance could see he still looked a little pink around the ears, and took pride in the fact that he could have that effect on him.
"Ready?" Keith reached out a hand, and Lance hesitated before taking it.
"Are you even allowed to bring a human?" Lance bit his lip. The last thing he needed to do was piss off the reapers in charge even more...
"The invitation just said plus one. It didn't say they couldn't be human." Keith frowned, "I guess we'll find out."
With that he grabbed Lance's hand and Lance almost threw up as the sensation of falling suddenly overcame him.
He straightened up the second he had his bearings back and promptly lost them again as he looked around at the huge atrium they were standing in.
Blue torches lined the walls and a grand staircase led up to what Lance assumed was some sort of ballroom. The floor was a greyish marble, and as he looked down the hallway on the other side of the room he couldn't make out the other end. Music seemed to be coming from the room at the top of the stairs, and Lance figured that was where the main event was being held.
There were a few dozen people milling about, all of them dressed along the same lines they were - he was relieved to note - and most of them seemed to be heading toward the room at the top of the staircase.
"Where even are we?" Lance gaped in awe at the dizzyingly high ceiling above them, craning his neck as far back as it would go.
"…Not earth?"
Lance raised an eyebrow at him but was saved the cutting remark as a voice rang out from behind them.
"Keith?"
They turned and Lance's eyebrows shot up as the prettiest woman he'd ever seen hurried toward them.
"You actually came!" She hugged him briefly, and Lance tried not to laugh at the obvious discomfort on his face, "Looks like Shiro and Adam each owe me five dollars."
Keith rolled his eyes and grumbled to himself a little at this remark, but Allura just laughed before turning to Lance. She looked him up and down briefly before her eyebrows shot up in surprise, "So this must be the infamous Lance!"
"And you must be the famous Allura," Lance winked at her, ignoring Keith's exasperated sigh, "Though I must say, you look more like an angel than a god of death."
"Hm." Allura's eyes narrowed. "I should hope not. Angels are awfully stuck up."
"I… Uh," Lance stumbled, "I really wouldn't know…"
Keith rolled his eyes, "Lance, Allura. Allura, Lance. Lance is-"
"Oh yes I know, Shiro's been telling me all about this mysterious "Lance" you apparently won't shut up about." She seemed to be holding back a laugh as she said this.
Lance raised an eyebrow at Keith, who promptly turned beet red and stammered, "What? You… annoy me."
"Hey!" Lance folded his arms, "After I braided your hair and everything."
"You did this?" Allura looked at him with appraisal, "I was wondering what made Keith finally ditch that jacket of his."
"Right?" Lance chuckled, and Keith quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him in the direction of the ballroom.
"Nice talking to you Allura. We're going to go find Shiro."
Allura waved to them with a knowing smirk, and Lance grinned at Keith, "Good to know not all grim reapers are as unpleasant as you."
Keith rolled his eyes, "Allura just likes to meddle. She thinks I don't get out enough."
"I second that if this is the first party you've come to." Lance looked across the whole room. There was a dance floor set up in the middle with tables lining the edges of the room. He couldn't see a DJ or any waiters but there were people eating at the tables, and a peppy sort of dance song was emanating around the room.
Keith seemed to be dragging him to what looked like a bar set up on the far side of the room. Again, Lance couldn't see any sort of bartender, but as he watched, one guy tapped the surface, and his glass refilled itself.
"Woah." Lance's eyes widened.
Keith followed his line of vision and shrugged, "Yeah, you get used to things like that."
Without hesitating, he ordered himself and Lance each a drink, and before he could blink, two glasses slid in front of them from seemingly nowhere.
"I don't think I'd ever get used to that." Lance replied gleefully, trying to lean as far as he could over the bar to see if he could spot anything else unusual.
Keith snorted, downing his glass in one go and tapped the bar for a refill.
"Slow down, Calamity Jane," Lance smirked at him, "You need to be steady on your feet if we're going to dance later."
Keith opened and shut his mouth like a fish, looking lost for words, before rolling his eyes and pushing away from the bar, "I wouldn't dance with you if your life depended on it. Come on, let's go find Shiro."
Lance chuckled, following close behind him through the throng of people, "We'll see about that."
Keith seemed about ready to retort when a person appeared out of nowhere, Keith nearly running into him. This new guy was wearing purple pants, a red shirt and a blue vest over that. He had bright orange hair, and to top it off, he also had the biggest mustache Lance had ever seen.
"Oh Coran, hey," Keith took a step back, "Happy deathday."
Coran grinned widely at them, looking slightly mad, "Thank you my boy! I'm so glad you decided to come!" He looked at Lance, "And you've brought a date! This is a happy deathday after all!"
Keith blanched, and Lance laughed at his expression, "He's not my date." Keith hissed, and Lance put a hand over his chest in mock affrontation.
"Keith, babe," Lance widened his eyes and Keith looked like he wanted to die, "You wound me!"
"Ah Coran," Before Keith had time to retort, Shiro and another person walked up behind them, "I see you've met Lance."
"Yes!" Coran beamed, wiping away a fake tear, "I'm so glad our little Keith is finally meeting new people."
"That's one way to put it," Shiro rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, and Lance felt suddenly self-conscious. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to come.
"Well, I'd best be off! Can't have them play the Dance of the Sloviklargelheim without me!" He bowed briefly and popped off, Lance watched him go amusedly. He wouldn't mind knowing someone like him.
"Sorry about that, Coran can be a bit much." Keith muttered, still looking a little red in the ears and Shiro chuckled.
Lance then noticed that the new guy with Shiro was holding his hand and glanced up at them.
"Oh, Lance this is Adam." Keith gestured to him, "Shiro's fiancé."
Lance's eyebrows shot up, "Wait so you guys can-"
He stopped, not knowing how to phrase what he wanted to ask. Of course they could get married, they were still people, even if they were dead. Stupid.
To his relief Shiro seemed to understand his inner turmoil and chuckled, "Yeah we can get married, there aren't any laws against reapers having relationships. Not all of us are as antisocial as Keith."
Shiro raised a suggestive eyebrow at Keith, who folded his arms grumpily.
"Well actually, as far as I know there's only one rule," Shiro continued, "That we can't have relationships with living people." There was a slight edge to his words, and if Lance hadn't known better, he could've sworn he saw Keith fidget a little.
"And thank god for that. I don't think I'd have been able to stop myself if we weren't allowed to be together." Adam piped up, giving Shiro the sappiest look he'd ever seen.
"It's nice to meet you Lance." Adam smiled at him, and for the first time Lance felt comfortable being in this room.
This contentment lasted about five seconds, when Matt appeared at Shiro's shoulder. "You!"
He glared at Lance before turning to Keith, "Why would you bring him here?"
Keith glared right back at him, moving slightly in front of Lance, "Because I can, Matt."
"Not only is he a human, he's the human that screwed up and killed my sister."
"She's not dead yet." Keith growled, "I wouldn't have brought him if he didn't have the situation under control, right Lance?"
The four of them turned to him, and Lance felt his stomach knot up, "Uh, yeah. I actually do have things almost figured out."
Matt narrowed his eyes, "You'd better, or I'll drag your soul out of your ass myself."
With that he turned heel and left, leaving an awkward silence in his wake. Lance turned his gaze to the floor, but startled as he felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up into Shiro's kind face, "We know you're doing everything in your power to fix things, Matt's just being a dick about it."
Lance felt the tension in his shoulders let up and he nodded gratefully, "Thanks Shiro."
Shiro nodded, pulling his hand back and putting it right back into Adam's. Lance eyed their hands enviously, what he wouldn't give to have that sort of relationship right now. Hopefully he was getting there with Brandon, but he still couldn't help but feel nervous.
"Come on," Keith muttered, taking a hold of his wrist, "Let's just go back to the bar."
Lance nodded, "I'm way too sober right now."
They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes, before Keith glanced up at him with a sigh, "I'm sorry I brought you, I should've known something like that would happen."
Lance waved it off, "It's fine, it's nothing I don't think to myself every waking moment."
Keith opened his mouth to reply but Lance was quicker.
"Why did you become a reaper?" Lance raised an eyebrow at him, and Keith blinked in surprise, "Worried your heart was heavier than a feather?"
Keith shot him a look like he knew that Lance was diverting, but didn't have the energy to fight him on it. Instead he took a swig of his drink and chuckled wryly.
"It was because of Shiro. He was a reaper, and I'd already lost him once, I didn't want to be away from him again."
Lance nodded, he'd suspected something along those lines, "How did Shiro become a reaper?"
"Actually," Keith sighed, "That was because of me. His unfinished business was not leaving me alone, but that was far too long of an extension, so Allura came up with a compromise."
"He was your grim reaper." Lance nodded, "Does that mean they killed you early then? I thought grim reapers only followed people who were about to die?"
"Allura couldn't really tell me much of the specifics, but basically Shiro was allowed to follow me as long as I couldn't see or hear him, and he had to become a fully-fledged reaper after I died." He swallowed suddenly, glancing down at his drink, "My death was sort of a mistake, actually. A flaw in the system… Since Shiro was assigned to me, my name was erased from the list of humans up for grabs, and my fate was tossed into the air."
Lance said nothing. He was surprised Keith had even offered up this much and was afraid he'd stop if he said anything. So instead, Lance set a hand tentatively on Keith's arm, surprised to see Keith exhale at the touch, and continue on with his story.
"My mom left when I was born, but then my dad died when I was ten, and then Shiro a decade after that. I was kicked out of school shortly after Shiro died because I just didn't have the motivation to make it through, and after a while stuck by myself it all just sort of became too much. One day I just walked into the desert and didn't stop." Keith grit his teeth and Lance tightened the hand on his arm reassuringly.
"I think deep down I knew I was dying, but in my head I saw Shiro, and I just wanted to talk to him so badly that I kept going. It wasn't until later that I realized I could probably see him because I was dying. Some idiot backpacker found me in the sand, but at that point it was too late, and I guess I died before rescue could reach us." He met Lance's eyes with an unreadable expression, "By walking into the desert, I unknowingly committed suicide far before I was supposed to die.
Lance thought back to his argument with Keith earlier that night, about the note to his mom and how serious he'd seemed.
"Shiro was pissed, he said I wasted a perfectly good life and made Allura give me this job in order to "learn more about humanity" I just think he wanted me to stay close to him. I can't really say I blame him." Keith chuckled, the tension slowly leaving his shoulders again.
Lance was lost for words for a moment and just continued to stare at him. After a moment, Keith blinked and broke the intense eye contact Lance hadn't realized they were making, suddenly looking awkward again.
Lance propped his chin on his fist, still staring unabashedly at Keith, "Makes you wonder about fate and all that."
Keith blushed unexpectedly, "What do you mean?"
Lance raised an eyebrow at him, "Well, if you hadn't spit in the face of fate all those years ago, I wouldn't have you around annoying me all the time. I'd probably be dead right now too."
Keith gave him a strange look, but before Lance could say anything else, he straightened his shoulders, "Okay my turn to ask a question."
Lance smirked, "Shoot."
"What were you even thinking?" Keith raised an eyebrow when Lance frowned in confusion, "Y'know with the whole "one year" thing… Like, why did you even make the deal if you planned on breaking it?"
Lance sighed, leaning back, "I don't know. I guess I just thought when the time came I would just bargain for another year, and another, and another…"
Keith frowned, "We're not a bank."
"Well I know that now." Lance rolled his eyes, "It was my only option though, I couldn't think of any other way out of it."
"You could have just taken the deal as it was. Just searched for a year and died if you'd failed."
"Is that what you would have done?" Lance raised an eyebrow.
Keith's expression turned stormy and Lance wondered why he couldn't seem to say anything right tonight. Before Keith could reply, Lance's ears picked up the song currently being played and shot to his feet excitedly.
"Dude!" Lance grabbed Keith's hand, "We have to go dance right now."
"What?" Keith weakly attempted to pull his hand back, "Don't you remember what I said earlier? "Over my dead body" and all that?"
"You're already dead, so come on!" Lance tugged him up and toward the dance floor. They got into the middle of the room, staying at the edges of the mass of the people for Keith's sake, and Lance immediately moved to join the dancers motioning for Keith to do the same.
"I can't dance." Keith shook his head, trying to back away, but Lance grabbed his wrist and dragged him forward.
"Dude, this is the cupid shuffle. Anyone can dance to it, it literally includes the instructions in the song."
Keith sighed, realizing Lance wasn't going to let up and gave in. They danced to the lyrics and to his surprise Keith got the hang of it pretty quickly.
He even laughed at one point when he went the wrong way and bumped into Lance, who grabbed his wrist and moved them together, "Keith you klutz."
"No one's ever called me that before." Keith laughed.
"Well they should've," Lance laughed, "You're a terrible dancer!"
Keith rolled his eyes, "I tried to tell you."
Lance ignored him, not letting go of his wrist as the music changed. Keith looked a little uncertain, the song didn't contain the instructions anymore and he looked a little lost, but Lance just grabbed his other hand and moved them both to the beat.
"You want to know the secret about dancing?" Lance leaned in conspiratorially, and Keith rolled his eyes, despite the grin slowly growing across his face, "No one actually knows how, you just kinda move your body a lot to the beat and hope you don't look like a complete idiot."
Keith burst out laughing, "That makes me feel a little better."
Lance grinned at him, pulling him a little further into the crowd, knowing that he'd feel better if they weren't out in the open. It was fun dancing with Keith. It might've been the alcohol, or the fact that Lance kept grabbing his wrist and guiding him every once in a while, but Keith seemed to lose his inhibitions after a few minutes and was dancing just as hard as Lance.
They ended up in a competition of sorts, and Lance was having the time of his life. They were pressed rather close to one another, and every once in a while, Keith would get knocked into him, but Lance didn't mind.
After what felt like a few minutes, but was probably closer to an hour, the music changed tempo, slowing down and adopting an almost melancholy tune. A slow song.
The people pressing in on them dispersed, leaving only the couples on the dancefloor. Lance saw Adam and Shiro walk out and immediately cling to one another, smiling and staring into each other's eyes like they were the last two people on earth.
Lance was startled out of his thoughts as Keith coughed from somewhere to his left, "Do you want to…" He kind of trailed off and Lance chuckled, taking up his hand and placing the other on his waist.
"I wouldn't mind at all." He smirked at the pink rising in Keith's cheeks.
"I was going to say, "do you want to go get off the dance floor," but I guess this works too."
Lance blinked, it hadn't even occurred to him. He wondered why his first thought was to dance with Keith, but chalked it up to the hour they just spent very nearly grinding on one another.
If Keith was awkward before it was nothing compared to now. He kept moving his hand as if not sure where to rest it and stepped on Lance's toes twice before Lance stopped him, laughing.
"Hey." Keith muttered, face still red.
"No no, it's okay." Lance smiled reassuringly, happy when Keith met his eyes and relaxed instantly, "Like this, just follow my lead."
He put Keith's hand securely on his waist, pressing closer and giving his hand a brief squeeze. Keith seemed to be suppressing a smile, and Lance took the opportunity to dip him back.
Keith's hands flew to his shoulders, and Lance rolled his eyes, "Relax mullet, I'm not going to drop you."
He pulled him back up and set a slow pace, turning them and guiding Keith gently. Keith sucked in a deep breath, looking a little like Lance was trying to torture him, which, may not have been completely inaccurate.
"I'm going to spin you."
"You're going to what?"
He raised their joined hands over Keith's head and Keith seemed to catch on as he twirled, and Lance pulled him back close.
"You're enjoying this." Keith said accusingly, staring into his eyes, "You're enjoying my pain."
Lance smirked at him, suddenly very aware of how close their faces were, "Of course I am."
He hadn't noticed that they'd been staring for a while until he saw Keith blink and glance down. Feeling protective, Lance pulled him in tighter, not entirely sure what he was about to do, but he felt his heart in his throat, and knew he needed to do something about it.
Keith brought his eyes back up and just as Lance nearly had his nerves under control, the music switched again, and Lance and Keith sprang apart.
Keith was eyeing him warily, and the sudden cold where Keith had been pressing against him was an unpleasant wake up call. Had he just been about to-?
He shook the thought out of his head, and Keith gestured to the edge of the dance floor, "Why don't we go get some air."
Lance nodded mutely, mind still whirling. They ended up back at the bar somehow, and Keith glanced around them before hopping over it, grabbing a bottle of pink wine.
"Hurry." He said, and Lance let out a surprised laugh as Keith grabbed his arm and the room closed in on itself.
They ended up back in his dorm room, and to his surprise Keith didn't leave immediately. They both shed their jackets and collapsed onto Lance's bed, Keith wasting no time in drinking straight from the bottle he'd stolen.
"Hey, you animal." Lance pulled it away from him and reached out for the plastic cups on his desk, "Cups were invented for a reason."
"Yeah well so were mouths." Keith stared at him seriously, and after a beat they both burst out laughing.
Lance wasn't sure what had happened between them on the dance floor but for the moment it seemed to have been forgotten, and he didn't particularly want to ponder it.
They ended up drinking about half the bottle together – although that was mostly Keith's doing - and Lance started to worry just a little whether Keith had an alcohol problem, but then supposed he didn't have a liver to worry about… Probably?
After a while, the room grew silent again, and Lance couldn't help but chuckle wryly
"Heh," Lance laughed dejectedly, waving around the wine bottle in his hand, gesturing at nothing in particular as he paid no attention to the liquid sloshing about in the bottle, "At least I won't fucking miss this."
"This?" Keith looked around in confusion, "You mean your dorm room?"
"No," Lance snickered, laying back and startling a little as he misjudges their distance and his head landed in Keith's lap, "Not dorm life… just the loneliness." He raised a hand up to rest on his chest, "the weight here whenever I'm alone."
Keith hummed in understanding, and Lance recalled his story of walking into the desert. He watched curiously as Keith leaned back against the wall, one hand coming up to rest on Lance's chest near his own hand.
He looked a bit lost for words and Lance knew how he felt, he himself was coming to the realization that maybe they weren't so different.
Maybe because he was drunk or because of the charged atmosphere around them, but Lance's mind searched for anything to derail the current topic of conversation.
"So how many of you are there? What if, like, everyone has unfinished business, do you all have to follow us around?"
"Well, no. Shiro's just trying to teach me a lesson." Keith rolled his eyes fondly, "But there are quite a few of us. Most of them don't stay on the job long. They sort of use it as an "extra credit" system. Like, if your life was decent enough, but you need that extra push to get you through to the good side."
"Celestial extra credit." Lance repeated incredulously.
"Yeah, pretty much. Also, we've been kind of speeding along the process lately, since the population is just getting bigger. We run programs like the Make a Wish Foundation so that people can pass on more quickly and make our job easier."
"No way… You guys run Make a Wish?"
"It makes it easier on the kids, passing through without trouble. Everyone wants extra time, but no one needs unfinished business." Keith fell silent after that, and the atmosphere went back to being heavy.
Lance didn't respond as he was too busy staring at Keith's face. The drunk part of his mind was telling him he needs to get Keith drunk more often, he was learning a lot about Keith tonight… maybe he should push his luck and ask more questions?
No. Pushing was a good way to get Keith to disappear. Literally. Plus, Lance decided he'd had enough drama for the night. Yawning, he sat up and stretched his arms above his head, turning to lay his head on the pillow instead of in Keith's lap, "You can sleep here if you want, but I'm gonna pass out in about 3 seconds."
He wasn't really surprised when Keith merely slumped sideways, his head only a few inches from Lance's on the pillow. He must've been really drunk, because he was out like a light in a matter of seconds, leaving Lance with a suddenly sobered mind and a creeping sense of doubt beginning to show its face.
He jumped as his phone started vibrating against his desk, and he realized with a start that he'd left his phone here the entire night. He hadn't even noticed.
He unlocked it to find almost ten messages from Brandon, his heart suddenly sinking. He hadn't thought about his boyfriend all night. In fact, it was almost as if he'd forgot his existence all together. He definitely wasn't the first person on his mind when he and Keith had been dancing-
Lance felt a cold sense of dread settle into the pit of his stomach. No. Not now. Not when he was so close…
Keith let out a small sigh in his sleep, and Lance turned to drink in the sight of the normally grumpy grim reaper sleeping like a baby, his face more peaceful than Lance had ever seen it.
He was so fucked.
