Chapter Ten

Riff's apartment was a mess. Lance sat on her couch taking it in, thinking he'd had it all wrong. He'd thought it be spotless, everything in its place, everything where it belonged. Riff had everything together, her life was in order. She owned her own business, she had a place of her own. She helped out other people who didn't have their life together. Riff wasn't the mess, everyone around her was.

Riff walked back out of her kitchen with two beers, she put one down in front of him, sat down opposite on a chair, after moving a pile of books. She was spotless, long raven dark hair, same shade as Keith's falling down to her waist. Glasses framing light blue eyes, she wore a simple black dress over an amazing body. Lance never had pinpointed a guess on her age, though, there were times when he looked at her thought she couldn't be over twenty-five, and there were other times when she seemed older than everyone else in the room. So of course she was somewhere in between.

"This is about Griffin," she said, didn't ask.

Lance nodded, feeling really out of his league with Riff. The only time he'd spent with her at been the brief time she'd taken him aside with her, her hand strong on his arm feeling like a lifeline that night when the cops were going to haul everyone in Griffin's apartment for drugs. They hadn't spoken one word, but he had vague memories of her telling the cop things about him that few people knew. Had Griffin told her?

"He means it," she said. "He's turning another leave, been working rather hard to, got himself in trouble again in the middle of it of course. As he does. He hasn't been able to pay me rent since he got arrested this last time, and his bail money and the lawyer weren't easy..." She shook her head.

Lance stared at her. "Why do you keep bailing him out?

"Griffin's important to me." Riff smiled. "We all have people we can't turn our backs on Lance, he's mine. It's because with all the faults, and there are a lot, he's a good guy somewhere underneath all the crazy. And now I have an indentured servant for what looks like life."

"He's not dealing?" Lance asked, needing to know straight out.

"No."

"There is an entire bedroom over there I've never seen?"

"Yes."

"When he said no strings, did he mean it?"

Riff took her first drink from her beer, then sat it down on the table. "No such thing, Lance, and I know you know that."

Lance took his own swig of beer, swallowing it down and he tried to think about what to ask next, what to say next? He wasn't sure what he was looking for from Riff. Or if what he was looking for was possible for him to find. What he wanted was for Dai and Katie to get married and stay in the house with him and Hunk, not go off and be newlyweds on their own. It was selfish. It was wrong, but it was what he wanted. It would mean that he got to keep the first real true friend he'd ever made in Hunk. He got to keep Pidge, who for whatever damn reason looked up at him, and liked him. He got to keep the extended family that was the Garrets and the Jeremiah's. It was awkward, it drove him crazy, he complained about them all the time. He always had to run away at some point every month, sometimes more than once, Sometimes he on his Kessel and drive away from it all. He made Hunk cover for him more than not with Pidge. But it was a place over his head, with little worry and with people who liked him.

The second he lost that roof over his head, the second it would all fall apart.

Griffin was the second best offer. Griffin was his only other offer. Lance needed to know something that would make him feel a little more at ease about it and a lot less antsy about it all. It wasn't that he didn't trust Griffin. As a friend he trusted Griffin, he'd turn to him for a favor if Griffin could help him in a heartbeat, he'd had in the past and he'd never been turned away or disappointed. He trusted Griffin as far as Griffin could trust himself - Griffin was his own worse enemy, he told that Lance once when Lance had come to him after getting himself in a jam and telling Griffin he was always getting himself in trouble.

"Don't be like me, kid. Don't be your own worst enemy, you'll never win the war."

Lance guessed, what he wanted to know was if Griffin's war was at a low or something. Lance stared at Riff, trying to figure out exactly how you asked that question.

"Griffin, he talks, you know that. He talks about you. More than you might think, Lance. He wants you safe. He wants you okay, he knows the situation is precarious right now, and unlikely to turn out how you want. So he's offering you the room, he means it. He wants you to have a place to come too, if nothing else. It's my place, really, the man isn't paying rent, you won't have too either. So you'll be my guest, under my protection. I'll keep your safe."

"Why would you want to do that?" Lance asked, responding to Riff putting herself out there for him, he wasn't much past an acquaintance to her. It shocked him when Hunk who now had known him for three years still stuck his neck out for him. Why would a stranger?

Riff drank her beer and studied him. "I've watched you. You've been walking in out of my joint since your first year at the Academy, in and out of that apartment. You've been there for Griffin a night or two when he was dumb, high on something he shouldn't have taken. I saw you that night the cops came, Griffin shouting for me to help you before I helped him. Never before had I heard him put someone else first. I figure it all adds up to you being somebody I watch out for. I have Griffin on the list, why not you. Plus there are Griffin's dreams to take into account."

"His stupid dreams?"

"His stupid dreams," Riff said with half smile. "I've seen to many of his dreams come true to discount his dreams on you. Though they are bizarre."

"Yeah, whatever," Lance said. "I just, there is no chance of me getting arrested if I move in with him?"

"There is always a chance, this isn't the best part of town. And, I don't know how stupid you are capable of being, but you have a dream and I don't see you letting that slip away."

"No, no way," Lance said.

Riff stood up and waited, Lance realized she was waiting for him to follow her lead, so he stood up as well. "Griffin will follow your lead, Lance. But don't forget that he'll also be selfish, it's who he is and we can't change him completely. He'll be who he is." As she spoke she walked to her door and Lance followed her. Then she opened the door and said. " And keep in mind this one thing..."

Lance stepped over the threshold and into the hallway, waiting for her to finish her sentence, he turned and looked down at her, into her blue eyes. "What?"

"Griffin is in love with you." Riff said holding his gaze for a full beat to let it the gravity of what she said sink in. Then she shook her head at him, leaned up on her toes and kissed his cheek and then shut her door in his face.

Lance stood there, staring at the dark wood of her door not sure if he felt more confused or more clear than when he'd walked in. He now knew it was true that Griffin owed her money, it explained the other job, Griffin wanted to pay her back in cash as well as in work. It was why he was at Dovetails, calling in favors from Sara. If Riff said Griffin was working on going straight then it was true, Griffin was working on it, and Lance was relatively safe. Riff had given him her protection that meant something around here, in this place, in this area. He knew men bigger than Hunk that ran scared at her name.

It was the last thing she said that was crazy. Griffin in love with him? He didn't believe that, Griffin didn't do love, it'd been one of the first conversations they'd ever had. Griffin's long diatribe against love and romance, as he chained smoked. Lance had been spouting similar phrases, and agreeing, that there was no reason to be looking for love, when something casual would do, they'd both been looking for the same thing that night anyway. Sex and nothing else, but they'd found they'd talking to each other, so friends it was too.

Lance had been lying about not wanting love though. He knew he'd been lying, but it'd been to protect himself, he had to protect himself but if he didn't no one else would. His dad had made that clear to him. Griffin though? Griffin probably lied too, sure, everyone wanted love and protested they didn't at some point. But Griffin was going thirty already, he was older, he'd made so many mistakes, he was trying to pull himself up again. Why the hell would he be in love with an kid from the Academy about turn nineteen?

Lance had seen Griffin's walls, they were hard steel with some people, he'd watched them go up and he no illusions that he saw through all of them. He was in a friend zone, and ex-bed buddy zone. It all added up to it being really doubtful that Griffin had some torch for him, maybe he wanted to still sleep with him, but love and sex aren't the same things to a guy like Griffin.

Not like it was with Keith. Not like he wanted it to be with Keith, he wanted it to be right with Keith. Speaking of walls, Keith had burrowed under Lance's so fast it made Lance's head spin and he kept thinking he should be scared. But it was like flying with Keith, it felt right, every touch, every time they talked, every look, every ride on the Kessel. He was going to make sure Keith knew that tonight too. That Lance was with Keith, only Keith, until Keith got bored of him because Lance wasn't going to get bored of him.

Didn't think he ever would. Keith had too much offer, Lance figured Keith could keep surprising him for a long time to come. Lance grinned and he started to speed up as he walked down the stairs to the bar, his mind completely forgetting the conversation with Riff and thoughts about Griffin as it went back to its current favorite mode: Keith, Keith, Keith.

~~.~~

Keith felt strong hands on his shoulders and was amazed at the amount of tension that instantly vanished from his neck and shoulders. He leaned back into it, eyes wide open as he swiveled on the stool just enough to face Lance. "Finally," he said, "I've drank enough orange soda's to turn into an orange."

"Orange soda?" Lance said, spinning Keith around on the stool to face him entirely.

"I wanted to wait for you," Keith said feeling his cheeks heat up, only a little, he was getting a little better he thought. Not completely embarrassed or stammering around him, and that damn intense, hot-hot gaze. Lance was staring at him, his hazel eyes a kaleidoscope of colors, amber, gold, brown dots on a canvas of multiple greens, and as always they were amused, mischievous and had that extra something that Keith didn't know how to name but it seemed aimed at him and he liked it. He liked it a lot, he loved it, he reminded himself. He loved Lance, and he didn't want Lance anywhere near Griffin.

"I have a part time job," he blurted out, which Keith realized two seconds later was really a dumbass time to do so, because Lance had been about to kiss him. Lance's eyes were right there, his nose was almost close enough to bump into his, but Lance was too smooth a kisser for that to happen, and his lips were so close to Keith's own.

"Uh, what?" Lance murmured, mind focused on more important things like kissing and groping, and less life and death things than jobs, homes and possibly living with a guy who was still hot for you.

"I have a part time job," Keith repeated, even as his body screamed at him to finish what Lance had started and kiss him, grab him by the jacket collar, pull him down and shove his tongue down Lance's throat and beg for more. Keith groaned, why was he being all responsible now? Oh right, he was jealous, but really this was a crappy place to live, Lance needed to be somewhere safer, like where he lived now.

"Where are you going with this?"

"I could move in with you and Hunk, I mean it's really part time. I haven't even been working the past two weeks, cause they are out of town and closed the job. It's a Bonsai Shop near Lena's, they're friends with my Aunt and Uncle, it's mostly for pocket money, since I have a scholarship for the Academy, Aunt and Uncle can afford to pay for what it doesn't cover. I could ask them for more hours, and if I moved in I could help out with Stoker too."

Lance moved back then, Keith decided to grip the stool with hands so he wouldn't grab Lance and bodily move him back into 'about to kiss position,' instead Keith kept his eyes on him, hoping he hadn't over stepped any unknown boundary.

"You'd do that?"

"Yeah," Keith said. "Of course, I'd have work more, I mean it's mostly just every other weekend, if that, honestly. When I need money... I kind of go in when I need money or they need me, near holidays."

Lance laughed. "Cool gig."

Keith frowned, he sounded like some spoiled rich kid, he'd never thought of himself as a spoiled rich kid, because he wasn't. He was on a damn scholarship for a reason, his Aunt and Uncle could barely pay what they did but they insisted and that is why they'd asked their friends if they could give him work when he needed extra cash. "You know that all came out kind of wrong?" Keith muttered, blushing. "I'm not some dick like Fargate who doesn't work hard, I mean damn. I just, it's for extra cash. I try not to impose really, you know. I study more than I party, to keep the damn scholarship, otherwise I can't be here at all. And..."

"Keith shut up, I didn't... You..." he grabbed Keith's hand, Keith felt him pull and was sure he was about to dragged somewhere where they weren't at a bar, surrounded by other people when a voice cut through the other people and said.

"Hey, Lance, you finally showed up for your date. Kept him waiting long enough, didn't you. He's all hopped up on orange colored sugar water, too." Keith groaned, when the pull stopped and Lance turned.

"Hi, Griffin, look he and I, need to step outside for bit, so..."

Keith watched as the two of them locked eyes. Griffin gave nothing away, at least as far as Keith could tell in his expression or his gaze. He cocked his head behind him though towards the bottles of booze. "What should I have ready for the two of you?"

"Just beer," Lance said, the 'duh' unspoken but loud.

"We'll talk?"

Lance shrugged. "Yeah, might not be tonight though, okay?" he said, tightening his grip on Keith's hand and tugging again, and Keith was on his feet and they were away from the bar. Through the crowd, and Keith saw the guys he usually ended up playing darts with, at the dartboard, see him, start to call him over and stop short with their mouths still open. A bit of pride rushed through him there, and then he was being pulled through a door he never knew existed and was out on a tiny balcony - that he did know about.

"I always wondered how you got to these?" Keith said.

"Through the doors to them, Keith, obvious. Aren't you supposed to be like the second smartest guy in our class?"

Keith shrugged. "I never really looked, because usually you saw men making out on them and I never had a guy I wanted to make out with with me - well before now."

Lance grinned and his hands came up, went into his hair and Keith was closing his eyes getting ready to be kissed thoroughly but instead there was nothing. Keith opened his eyes and Lance was just staring at him.

"You're real?" Lance said.

"Uh, yeah," Keith said.

Lance tugged at his hair.

"Ouch, hey! I spent time on that!" Keith said.

Lance laughed. "Yeah and I always mess it up anyway, yet the helmet never does, that takes talent."

Keith shook his head, hands coming up to fuss with his hair, Lance watched him amused leaning against the brick wall of the building. "You'd work full part time hours, live with a seven year old - which seriously cuts into study time, think about it. For me?"

"Yeah, of course."

Lance shook his head. "That's, wow. But it won't work."

Keith shook his head. "Why not? It could work, think about it? I could ask Sven. He's complaining all the time about having too much free time, he could find a job."

Lance bent over he laughed so hard. "Don't pull in your dorm mate, Keith, come on."

"It could work," Keith said. "Then you and Hunk don't have to worry. You don't have to worry, I don't want you..." Keith trailed off, listening to three different sirens going off in the streets around them, two getting closer, one going away. People arguing on the street, and he thought of Griffin in there, always wanting time with his boyfriend. "I don't want you here."

Lance sighed and closed his eyes. "You can't rescue me, Keith."

"I can try, I owe you one anyway, right? And it's ridiculous you can't just come back to the dorms. Maybe the chancellor?"

"Hunk's parents already tried, they talked to him on my behalf already."

"They did?"

"Yeah," Lance sighed, pushing his hands into his pockets. "Crazy, right? They do more for me than my parents. My dad pays for this place just so he doesn't have to see me. It's awkward, I never know how to show I'm grateful, that family is all so big and boisterous. It kind of feels like being swallowed whole, sometimes when I watch them all eating I fear it literally."

Keith chuckled.

Lance grinned.

"Riff promised me her protection."

Keith stared at him.

"Keith that's a good thing, she has a certain reputation. If people know that I'm under her protection, I'm safe here."

"What about Griffin?"

"He's just Griffin, Keith. I've told you."

"What if you and Hunk find someone else to move in with you, take me then?" Keith said, trying to get back to his initial plan, keeping Lance where Keith knew he wanted to stay, he could see it, he'd seen it when he was talking about Hunk's parents. Even in the complaint about them being too much at times.

"I'd take you now," Lance said.

"Then let me," Keith said.

"No."

"No?"

"Okay, so your Aunt and Uncle's friends, own that little Bonsai shop on the corner, by Lena's?"

"Yeah?"

"They can't pay you enough, to cover what your half of the rent would have to be, no way, they can. And you, you need to keep focused on your own stuff to keep your scholarship you don't need to worry about my crazy."

"Yeah, I do."

"Keith, no you don't," Lance argued, straightening up off the wall and getting into Keith's space. "If I end up here, it really won't be that bad. You don't have to try find a way to save me from losing the house."

"Yeah, I do, I love you," Keith argued, his emotion and his tongue way ahead of his brain. Lance's eyes widened, Keith's ears heard what he said and he seriously contemplated jumping up onto the railing behind him and making a break for it on the ground below. He could do it without breaking a sweat, it would be easy, he even still had the keys to the Kessel. He could steal Lance's bike, say he loved him and leave him standing on a balcony all in one go.

Time ticked by, Keith could feel the whole body blush that had slammed into him like a wall of heat starting to fade away, the night was fairly cool and the breeze was cooling him down. His heart was in his ears, so he started to count. It was three minutes, of nothing but them breathing, standing there, staring. Keith kept reminding himself to breath, kept telling himself he could take it back, he could, he just had to figure out how to take it back? Was that what Lance was waiting for? If he did take it back, how did one do that without making it worse? He didn't really want to take back something that was true, but it was too soon, no one was supposed to say it this soon in a relationship were they?

When the hell was Lance going to say something?

Keith couldn't take it back, so he was stuck with it out there, which meant he was stuck waiting for Lance, because it was up to Lance to respond and oh crap, oh crap, oh crap...

"Huh." Lance made a noise, stepped back and leaned back against the brick wall.

"Huh!" Keith yelled, because really that much awkward silence and then he says nothing but (ITALIC)huh(ITALIC)?

"I believe you."

That tripped Keith up, who said that? "What?"

"I mean girls always say it, first dates they say it all breathey after I kiss them good night, it's ridiculous really and I know it's bullshit."

Keith rolled his eyes.

"Guys, guys always say it right after or during sex, but we haven't had sex, yet..." Lance trailed off. "A couple have told me after a few more dates but it always felt like a line. But none of these things are comparable to you. Because you aren't at all comparable to anyone, which is why you're..."

"Why I'm..." Keith pushed.

"I mean, I had ever intention of telling you tonight."

"Telling me what?"

"I'm yours, only yours, only want to see you and be with you until you're tired of me, which I guess isn't going to happen any time soon, unless I'm screwing this up and making you completely regret blurting that out."

Keith felt sudden relief crossed the one step of space between them and leaned his forward against Lance's shoulder. "I thought I just screwed up."

Lance's hands fell onto his hips, fingers pressed hard against his jeans, Keith could feel them against his skin. "No, not at all, I was just in shock from believing you and trying to wrap my head about that."

"Not that hard to get," Keith said, moving his head a bit and kissing the skin of Lance's neck.

"Fuck, we're going to the house," Lance murmured, his hand going into Keith's pocket and retrieving his Kessels keys. "I'd let you drive, but you don't know the way from here," he grinned. He then moved to the railing, moved onto it and jumped down.

Keith looked down, Lance was grinning up. "Quickest way out." Keith did the same thing, happy that it wasn't be used as an escape.