He'd begged Ronnie and Rachel to wait in the truck and then posted himself outside the front doors of the Garrison High at the end of the school day. But the exiting crowd was thinning and he was just beginning to be afraid that Keith had already left when the familiar mop of black hair finally come into view.

"Keith!" he yelled, even though he wasn't that far off from him. Before he could cringe at his own loud volume, Keith's head popped up and one side of his mouth twitched in a way that Lance always counted as a real smile. He squeezed past a group of kids to reach Keith's side and grinned. "Want a ride back to my place?"

"For what?" And it was honestly the first time Lance even noticed that James Griffin was beside Keith. Griffin glanced between Lance and Keith before studying Lance more closely. "Don't you have farm chores after school or something?"

"We've got practice," Keith said, turning his back to Griffin even as he included the jerk in his we pronoun. Lance glared at Griffin over Keith's shoulder anyway. "It goes till about five. Can I come over after to work on our project?"

Lance refocused on Keith. "If you come over then my mama will insist you eat dinner with us," he said with a smile.

"Pretty sure I'll be hungry by then," Keith said with another mouth twitch.

"Will you need a ride?"

"Keith, let's go man," Griffin insisted, hand on Keith's shoulder to try to pull him away.

Lance sent Griffin another glare as Keith ducked his chin before glancing back up at Lance through his lashes. "Are you offering to come back here and pick me up?"

Lance's face softened as he met Keith's eyes. Shy Keith was an entirely new experience.

"Yeah, of course. Can't leave my partner hanging. Plus, my mama raised a gentleman."

He got a full smirk as Keith also shook off Griffin's hand. "Okay, McClain. I'll meet you out here around five?"

Lance nodded and tried to tame his smile as he made his way out to the truck where his sisters were impatiently waiting to go home.

Lance exchanged one more wave with Keith before Keith climbed into the passenger seat of Shiro's car. He jumped when his father's voice interrupted his dreamy staring.

"I like having that one over for dinner."

"Papa! You startled me."

"I like the way he looks at you when you're not looking."

Lance felt his heart skip a beat as he glanced at Shiro's disappearing car before looking back to his father. "Yeah?" He knew his grin was pretty dopey, but he couldn't have contained it if he wanted to. "You think he likes me?"

"What are you going to do about it?" his father asked, a happy grin on his own face.

Lance turned back towards the front door in thought, eyes unfocused but staring towards the rows upon rows of cornstalks that grew on either side of their dirt driveway. "Well, he said he has a baseball game tomorrow night."

"Sounds like he'd like you to be in attendance."

Lance rubbed the back of his neck. "I mean, he could've just been mentioning the game -"

"Leandro, that boy looks at you like you hung the moon. Go to the game."

Lance's smile reappeared. "Thanks, papa."

"You don't even know the rules of baseball," Hunk commented as they found seats in the bleachers.

"Hit the ball, run the bases, three outs. What else is there?" Lance asked. He'd had to play baseball during P.E. enough times to know the basics. He was even wearing his snapback the right way to properly keep the sun out of his eyes so he could see.

"Okay, so why the sudden interest in attending a high school game?" Hunk asked. His eyes scanned the diamond ahead of them until he landed on the pitcher. "Ahhh, isn't Keith Kogane your chem lab partner?"

Lance sat up straight and tried to appear innocent. "Yes."

"And hasn't he been over to your house, like, three times this week?"

"We had to finish that project…" Lance's voice petered off as he turned and squinted at Hunk.

"How do you know exactly how many times Keith has been over?"

"I also hear your mom loves him."

"Hear from who?" Lance asked before gasping, "Wait, are you seriously getting all this from Rachel?"

Now Hunk straightened in his seat and appeared to look innocent. "You know we were paired up in our cooking class. We exchanged numbers."

"Your project for that class was turned in weeks ago. I know because I was your guinea pig for several of the draft versions of those weird cookie things. What are you, like, texting my sister for fun?"

"We have a lot in common," Hunk defended.

Lance slumped and groaned as he dragged a hand down his face. "You're trying to date my twin? She's like the girl version of me!"

Hunk laughed. "She's not the girl version of you, dude. You know your sister better than that. She's… more subdued and is fun to bake with and she smells nice."

Lance groaned again before muttering, "I smell nice."

Hunk only laughed again before quickly saying, "Also, I thought you were dragging me to this so you could flirt with someone in the stands so I invited Rachel so I'd have someone to talk to." Then he was waving and Lance frowned as he watched Rachel spot them and then make her way up to them.

"Hunk!" he hissed.

"Sorry! I'll still be right here to listen while you pine for Keith." He stood up as Rachel reached their row and smiled at her.

"Hey, Hunk, Lancey Lance," Rachel said as she tried to step on his foot while also smacking the brim of his baseball hat, knocking it backwards and almost off his head.

Lance pushed her and she wobbled like she was going to fall, which only meant that Hunk got to save her by wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close and Lance pushed himself to his feet and headed down the stairs towards the home dugout to avoid whatever was going to happen next.

"You came." Keith's voice reached him through his haze of wondering if he was going to have to see Hunk kiss his sister.

"Yeah," Lance said with an easy grin when he spotted Keith, his worries fading as Keith rounded the chain link fence to join Lance on the other side. "I didn't realize how popular the games are." He waved towards the busy bleachers behind them.

"Rude," Keith said as he also smacked the brim of Lance's hat and nearly knocked it off.

Lance only laughed and readjusted it, certainly not as put out by Keith's attempt as he had been by Rachel's.

"Although, this is a game against a rival team, so probably explains the turnout," Keith added as he eyed the stands. "Are you here with anyone?"

Lance bit the inside of his lip to tame his smile as watched Keith continue to avoid eye contact by studying the stands. Keith was chewing on his bottom lip and rubbing his thumb against his fist. He'd never seen a nervous Keith before.

"Hunk. And apparently my sister."

Keith finally met his eye with a small smile. "You want to meet up with me after? I have Shiro's car. We can go get something to eat?"

"Yeah, definitely." Lance's grin was full blown now before he grimaced slightly at his next thought. "Plus, I really don't want to stick around to see what Hunk and Rachel are going to get up to after this."

"Oh," Keith's eyes widened a bit. "Are they a thing?"

"No!" Lance exclaimed before slumping a little. "Maybe."

"So, you're saying you need me to save you from them?"

Lance began fluttering his eyes at Keith. "My hero." Another mouth twitch from Keith. "Although, I do think it would be fun to hang out with you in a manner that doesn't include chem lab notes."

Keith's mouth twitched and he took a step closer to Lance. He ducked his chin so he could look up at Lance through his lashes. "So, there'll be no chemistry between us tonight?" he murmured.

Lance sucked in a breath before saying, "I take it back," on a harsh exhale, "chemistry can totally be our thing. Lots of chemistry. I love our chemistry."

Keith smiled a real smile before he ducked under the brim of Lance's hat to plant a small kiss on the corner of his mouth. "You gonna cheer for me?"

"Yeah, I've got you," Lance choked out.

"Keith!" Griffin called, and when Lance glanced over, he found the team's third baseman glaring at Lance over Keith's head.

Keith didn't even acknowledge that he was being beckoned, just smiled again at Lance and said, "Thanks. I'll see you afterwards."

Lance could only nod dumbly as he watched Keith, in those sinfully tight baseball pants, swing back around the chain link and head to the pitcher's mound. Heat had rushed to his face and he almost had to ignore the excited tingling feelings running down his arms and legs in order to climb the stands again. How was he was supposed to now sit through this game (how long were these things?)

Still, he made his way back up to his seat and ignored the knowing looks Hunk and Rachel sent him as he grinned his way through all the innings. He cheered when they won. And when he met Keith in the parking lot afterwards, and Keith gave him the game ball that he himself had just been presented by the team, Lance pulled him in by his shirt and kissed him against Shiro's car.

Keith clambered to the top of the wood pile, which was a haphazard assortment of sticks and logs put together by the McClain siblings. He'd already teased Lance that it didn't look incredibly sturdy, but when Lance teased back that Keith was just scared, he'd begun to climb.

He squawked when Lance climbed up behind him, mainly because he wasn't sure the wood pile was going to support two of them, but Lance only smiled as he reached the top with Keith and dropped his chin on Keith's bare shoulder from behind. The summer sun had nothing on the heat he could feel from Lance's bare chest pressed to his back.

"Here you go, Keith." Veronica handed him the rope that hung from the tree standing tall next to them. Keith gave it a few sharp tugs, eyeing the branch it hung from as he did so.

Lance laughed again, although his hands landed on Keith's hips and he squeezed reassuringly. "It'll hold. We've been swinging from it for years."

"Hm, so this rope is how old?" Keith asked him quietly.

"My father replaces it every couple years. You're safe." One of his arms wrapped around Keith's waist and the other hand grabbed the rope to help. "I've got you. Just hold on tight, put on foot on the ring at the bottom of the rope, and then push off."

"Let go when you reach where we are!" Hunk called from where he and Rachel were treading water in the lake.

"Ready?"

When Keith nodded, Lance's hands dropped off of him and he moved away, giving Keith the space he'd need. He fit one bare foot on the plastic ring tied to the bottom of the rope, tightened his hold, and eyed where Hunk and Rachel were.

"Oh! One more thing," Lance said, and when Keith turned to him, he received a lingering kiss from Lance, which lasted long enough for his siblings to start loudly complaining.

Keith's stomach swooped in the best way and he smiled at Lance as he pulled away, ready to try to the rope swing for the first time. Not that it mattered much anymore. No way was this going to compete with the happy butterflies provided by the boy next to him.

Despite it being a chilly fall night, he'd pulled Keith onto the front porch after Sunday night dinner. Well… after Sunday night dinner's dessert. Keith must've eaten at least five of his mother's extra fudgy brownies. Lance was pretty sure most people would be surprised at the amount of sugar Keith routinely inhaled, given how fit and trim he was.

There were two rocking chairs but he'd pulled Keith into his lap before Keith could even try to sit in the second. Keith had laughed and allowed it, but then asked, "Are your parents going to be okay with this?"

"Mmhmm," Lance hummed, distracted by his new easy access to duck his fingers under Keith's shirt hem so he could feel Keith's stomach muscles twitch as his fingertips slid across his skin.

"They're so nice," Keith sighed. "I don't want them mad at me."

Lance wrapped his fingers around Keith's hip and squeezed as he dropped his forehead to Keith's. "They wouldn't be mad at you for sitting in my lap," he said quietly with a chuckle. "They'd be mad at me for corrupting you." Keith snorted and shook his head. "You really like them? I know we spend a lot of our free time here, which… could be annoying. Maybe you want to hang at your place more? Or do someth-"

Keith kissed him into silence, a trick he liked to use often, but since Lance reaped the reward… He wasn't going to complain.

"Yes, I like them. A lot," Keith whispered when they broke apart. "And I like spending time here. I'm not saying Shiro doesn't feel like a big brother, because he does, and he's provided a lot of stability for me, since I began living with him, but… Your family… I like that you share them with me. I like knowing what a real family looks like, feels like."

The light from inside reflected off a slight sheen in Keith's eyes before he ducked his face away, and Lance couldn't have Keith feeling ashamed or regretful about sharing with him. His arms wrapped around Keith to pull him as close as possible into a hug, which Keith easily melted into.

At the same time, emotions were welling up in his own chest and he tried to parse out what they were. Empathy for the hurt and loss Keith had faced in his own life. Gratefulness that Keith was in a stable and safe place now. Gratitude that he was the one that had captured Keith's attention (thinking back to the side eye Keith had sent him the first time Lance had sat at their shared chem lab table to where they were now…) He was honored to earn Keith's smiles. That he was gifted Keith's kisses. That he was someone Keith trusted.

He tried to think about what it would feel like to have his entire family shrunk down to just one older brother and shuddered at how quiet and lonely that would be. He hugged Keith tighter before pulling back enough so that he could kiss him again. His fingers moved to slide through Keith's hair and one of Keith's hands lifted to his neck, fingertips tickling the hair at the nape of Lance's neck.

That last emotion swirling around in his heart remained as the others faded away. It warmed his chest and sent shivers down his spine. He hadn't expected it this quickly. But it didn't scare him in the least.

"I love you, you know," he murmured to Keith.

Keith gasped and pulled back with wide, shiny eyes. "You do?" he whispered.

Lance tucked some of Keith's hair behind an ear. He nodded.

Keith pressed a quick kiss to Lance's mouth before he sniffled and nodded himself. "Me too. I love you, too, Lance."

"I just think this is more fun than prom," Keith muttered from where he was nestled into Lance's side on the couch.

"Prom will be exactly like this!" Lance threw his hands up as if to indicate his entire living room.

"Uh, how?" Hunk asked from other end of the sectional where he was currently cuddled with Rachel (despite Lance's complaints).

"I should start making you all wear tuxes in here then," Lance's father said with a laugh as he settled into the loveseat with his mama.

Lance grinned at the way they cuddled together and pulled Keith a little closer to him. He pressed a kiss into Keith's hair and felt Keith squeeze where their fingers were intertwined. Nadia and Sylvio were both squeezed into the couch on Lance's other side while Ronnie sat in a nearby rocking chair. It was a traditional family movie night, with the exception of Luis and Lisa who had opted to go out on a date night since they clearly had free babysitting tonight.

"I just mean you'll be surrounded by people you know with the teeny tiny addition of tuxes, music, and dancing," Lance stated. "You know Shiro would love to rent you a tux."

"Only so he could take a million pictures."

"Shhh," Sylvio said, eyes still glued to the screen.

Lance had wanted to watch one of the Jurassic Park movies tonight, but with his niece and nephew around they were forced to forgo vicious man-eating dinosaurs and re-watch the first Toy Story. At least Keith didn't seem to mind.

"You've seen this at least twenty times," Lance muttered to Sylvio and then flinched when Keith pinched his leg. "What? He has!" he whispered to Keith. He glanced around the room and, seeing that everyone else seemed to be actually watching the movie, leaned in further to whisper to Keith. "You really don't want to go to prom?"

Lance would be lying if he hadn't had a few prom fantasies that featured Keith in a tux slow dancing with him. They'd been dating for over a year now and this was senior prom. And while he was well aware that Keith was pretty adverse to big groups (although he fit right into McClain family functions) it hadn't really occurred to him that Keith might flat out refuse to go.

Keith lifted his head from Lance's shoulder to meet his eyes. "I have to wear a tux?" he whispered.

"You'll look smokin hot in a tux." Keith huffed a quiet laugh into Lance's shoulder. "Plus, everyone will be in a tux, it'll draw more attention if you're not in one."

Keith rolled his eyes. "I hate that you're right about that."

Lance leaned in and pressed a kiss to the corner of Keith's mouth. It had become something of a habit that they both did, especially when they really wanted something. And Keith's deep sigh in response meant he knew prom was a special request.

"Okay," he begrudgingly whispered. "We'll go to prom."

"Yes!" Lance exclaimed with fist pump and enough volume to make almost everyone in the room jump. "We'll get fitted for tuxes separately, though," Lance said as he ignored Nadia poking him in the side to try to quiet him. "I don't want to see you in yours until the night of prom."

Keith sighed another deep sigh, but Lance still saw a small smile as he rested his head back on Lance's shoulder. He grinned over at his parents, who were both smiling fondly at him, before he settled back into the couch and quietly watched the rest of the movie.

"So much more comfortable," Keith sighed with a full body stretch despite the fact that he was climbing the ladder ahead of Lance to the barn's loft.

"Don't fall back." Lance smiled as he watched his boyfriend stretch like a cat on the ladder. They'd come back to his house after prom, ditched the tuxes in Lance's room in exchange for sweats and t-shirts, and then snuck out of the house to hang in the barn.

And since Keith's pause had forced Lance to pause on the ladder as well, he took advantage of the position he was in and reached up to squeeze Keith's rear end.

"Hey!" Keith said with an honest to God giggle when the squeeze caused him to jolt and a foot to slip.

"Don't fall!" Lance laughed, despite being the cause of Keith's balance issues. "If you go down, you'll take me with you and we'll both be broken!"

Keith peered down at him, mouth twitching as if he were fighting a smile. "You're gonna let me fall?"

"No, I've got you," Lance said with enough fondness to earn that smile from Keith.

When they'd finally (and safely) reached the top, Lance pulled out the blanket he'd stashed there earlier and rolled it across the hay. "Come here," he murmured, laying on his back and beckoning Keith into his side.

"Soooo much more comfortable," Keith repeated as he complied.

"But you looked soooo good in your tux, babe," Lance murmured in response. "I'm gonna cover my walls with pictures of you in that tux."

"Ridiculous," was Keith's only response.

Lance chuckled to himself, thinking of how he'd already covered his walls with photos of just Keith as well as the two of them together from the past year. Keith in his baseball uniform (mmmm) at games last spring and this spring. Keith at the lake last summer. Keith in their cornfields. Keith at family birthday parties. Keith laughing with his mama while they fed the chickens. Keith talking to his papa while they both manned the grill at a recent family barbeque. There was Lance's birthday at the beach and Keith's birthday at a haunted house. A selfie Lance had taken of the two of them when they'd reached the top of the ferris wheel at the fair last fall.

Now there'd be tuxedo pictures and soon cap and gown pictures. He hadn't told Keith yet, but for graduation he'd bought him two tickets to a professional baseball game in the city. He sorta wanted to give them to him when he could ask Ronnie to be ready nearby to take a picture of Keith's (hopefully) excited expression. From there, there'd be photos of them in the stands. More summer pool pictures. And whatever else came as they began college in the fall. They'd both been accepted to a nearby college, close enough that they could both continue to live at home for now.

"I really love you, you know."

"Good thing," Keith commented idly, "I did wear a tux for you."

Lance pretended to growl as he propped himself up on an elbow and narrowed his eyes at Keith. Although Shiro had tried to style Keith's hair back and away from his face for the night, most of it was loose again, wild around his head where he lay. Lance ran his fingers through it to tame it down and watched as those pretty violet eyes fluttered at the touch.

Lance ducked his head and pressed a quick kiss to Keith's neck before blatantly sucking on the skin in the way that he knew would make a deep sound escape Keith's throat. "You're supposed to say you love me, too," he whispered deliberately into Keith's ear, leading to a visible shiver from his boyfriend.

"I do love you, too," Keith whispered back before wrapping his hands around Lance's face and pulling him upwards to kiss him.

Lance hummed happily into the kiss. He was pretty sure he'd kissed Keith a million times by now, but it still led to sparks under his skin every time. Crazy butterflies. A deeper hunger that had his hands trailing from Keith's hair, over his shoulders, down his ribs, and to his waist. His fingers dipped under Keith's shirt and then skimmed Keith's waistband, fingertips trailing over the soft skin until Keith apparently grew impatient with him, dropping his hands from Lance's hair to begin pushing his own sweatpants off.

Lance chuckled a bit at that, which earned a small glare from Keith, but he also pushed himself up quickly and murmured to Keith to let him help. He pulled Keith's sweatpants off and when Keith tugged at the waistband of Lance's own pants, he got rid of his own pants as well before rejoining Keith on the blanket. Snuggled close, free to press kisses where they wanted and let fingers wander to places that they knew would lead to gasps and eventual panting breaths.

Lance was so busy kissing his way down Keith's chest, Keith's shirt pushed up and Keith's hands back in his hair, that he almost didn't hear Keith speak when he asked, "Did – did you bring anything?"

He lifted his eyes to meet Keith's. "If I say yes, I don't want you to think it's because I expected anything to happen."

Keith chuckled, and since Lance was currently resting his chin on Keith's belly, his head shook with the laughter. "So, yes you did?"

Lance nodded.

"It's not like we haven't tried before," Keith teased.

"Don't remind me," Lance grumbled as he shifted to the side so he could pull a backpack from where he'd stashed it in the hay.

"It's not just your fault," Keith said matter of factly as Lance pulled a bottle of lube from the bag.

And thankfully, that was true. They had tried to go all the way in the past. It was just that… their stamina never let them last long enough… Lance blamed Keith's talented mouth. Keith blamed Lance's skilled fingers.

Lance sat back on his heels and drank in the sight of a slightly flushed Keith with a fond smile. There was something incredibly special about being the only one to see Keith like this, being the only one who Keith trusted enough to share this.

"You sure you want to try again?"

Keith's mouth pulled into a devilish smirk as he sat up and pulled Lance into another kiss.

"Practice makes perfect, right?" Keith asked between kisses.

Lance laughed as he leaned forward and pushed Keith back down to his back. "Love you," he said.

Keith laughed. "Love you, too."