When the knocking didn't stop, Keith managed to get up and open the door. And when he saw that it was Lance on the other side, he nodded a slow and silent hello before turning and walking back to where Belle was strapped into her highchair.
"Keith?"
"How'd you know where I lived?" He glanced at Lance long enough to see that he was entering the apartment and closing the door behind himself.
"Hunk told me. Don't be mad at him, I was worried when you didn't show up at the park and then you weren't responding to my texts."
Keith's brows furrowed as he remembered that he was supposed to meet Lance today. He also wasn't sure where he'd left his phone…
"Sorry about that," Keith said. "I didn't mean to waste your afternoon or make you worry."
"I'm just glad to see you're both okay." Lance had reached the table and Keith could practically feel Lance's gaze on him. "Hey, man, are you okay?"
A cool hand pressed itself to Keith's forehead and his eyes fells shut as he fought the urge to lean into it. Or just collapse face first onto the table.
"Does your head hurt?" Lance asked, voice quieter than it had a been a moment before.
Keith nodded and reopened his eyes with some effort when Lance removed his hand.
"Anything else? I want to know which medicine to grab for you."
"Throat," Keith admitted. "But I can't take anything, it all knocks me out. I have to take care of Belle." He pointed uselessly to the little girl who stared up at them while munching on pieces of toast and raspberries. It wasn't the most balanced dinner but it was literally all he could manage tonight.
"I'll take care of her," Lance assured. "You should just go get in bed. I'll bring you some medicine and then Belle and I will hang out here. If I run into any trouble with her, I promise to call my mom or Lisa in for reinforcements, okay?"
Keith hardly ever let anyone watch Belle, certain that he needed to take care of her himself. But his head was so fuzzy he was having a hard time finding a good reason why he shouldn't go get in bed, something his body was begging him to do.
Blue eyes filled his vision as he turned towards Lance and found him crouched in front of him. "Please, Keith?"
It was the last thing Keith remembered before blearily forcing his eyelids open sometime later. He rolled over in his bed and found his phone plugged in to charge on his bedside table. His eyes blinked repeatedly at the brightness when he swiped it open to see what time it was.
But when he saw that it was 9:36, he jolted upright.
And then regretted it immediately when he was hit with dizziness.
He must've groaned or made some other sound because there was a light knock on his bedroom door before Lance entered with Belle on his hip. He lowered Belle to the bed and she quickly crawled across the blanket until she was sitting in his lap, a handful of his loose hair in her fist.
"You okay?"
"It's so late," Keith said, voice hoarse. "Belle should be in bed already."
Lance scratched the side of his face as if in thought and glanced at the phone in Keith's hand.
"You know its morning, right? And not night?"
Alarm shot through Keith. "What?" He pushed himself out of bed, keeping Belle in his arms since she wasn't letting go of his hair, and made it to his window to push aside his blackout curtains. Sunlight hit his face, making him flinch for more than one reason.
He turned back to Lance. "I'm so sorry. How long was…" he paused and tried to do the math even though he had no idea when he fell asleep. He wasn't even sure how he made it to his bed.
"I'd say you got a solid thirteen hours, which you clearly needed. You looked like death last night," Lance said flatly. "And I told you to go to bed, so don't apologize about sleeping. Belle and I have had a ton of fun. How do you feel now?"
With the panic of not being there to care for Belle subsiding, Keith hugged Belle a little closer. His throat wasn't burning anymore and his head was more of a dull ache than the pounding from yesterday.
"I do feel a lot better," he admitted. "Mainly just a smaller headache now."
"You've got some color back," Lance said as he approached and lay the back of his hand on Keith's forehead again. "Not that you have a lot of color to begin with," he teased. Keith huffed a breath, strong enough to send some of Belle's curls into motion. "You want to take a shower? Belles and I can hang out."
"I think you've been trapped here long enough," Keith protested. "You have to want to get out of here."
"Keith," Lance said slowly, "there's literally nowhere else I'd rather be."
As if that was just a thing to say to your ex-boyfriend, Keith thought as he stared back at Lance. As if the ex-boyfriend didn't look pitiful and gross from being ill. As if Lance hadn't just taken care of a toddler on his own for thirteen strait hours.
Keith sighed, part defeat, part acceptance, and part hope that Lance meant what he said.
When he rejoined Lance and Belle in the kitchen after his shower, he spotted a blanket from his hall closest folded on the couch, so at least Lance had been somewhat comfortable the night before.
Belle toddled over to him and attached herself to his leg as Lance also came over and handed him two pills and a glass of water.
"Just headache meds," Lance assured. "Not the knock-out cold med from last night."
"Thanks," Keith said, shuffling with the tiny girl clutching his leg until he reached the kitchen table and could sit. He'd taken a short shower, but he already felt like he'd been standing for too long.
Lance placed eggs in front of him, scrambled, full of cheese, and exactly how Keith liked them. He ate every bite and then let Lance lead him to the couch. Lance pulled up one of the singing cartoon shows that Belle loved and that Keith had already seen too many times.
He didn't care right now, though, because his feet were in Lance's lap and the pillow under his head as fell back to sleep smelled like Lance.
Lance thought Keith was going to put up more of a fight about going to bed and leaving Belle with him last night. But then Keith had basically slumped onto the table as if he'd planned on sleeping there, and Lance had to practically carry him to his bedroom, force him to sit up long enough to take some NyQuil, and then tuck him in. All while getting Belle out of her highchair and trying to carry her at the same time.
He didn't take the time to check out Keith's bedroom, just tried to hush Belle as she tried to jabber to a sleeping Keith before returning to the kitchen with her. He dug around in Keith's fridge and pantry to see what other food he had. He finally resorted to a toddler microwave meal from the pantry. The trickiest part about the entire ordeal was figuring out how to buckle Belle back into the highchair. It didn't seem like it should be hard… but there were straps that came over her shoulders? Had those been in place when he hastily unbuckled her earlier? He couldn't remember.
He handed her a fork when the mac n cheese meal was ready but when she only managed to fling food on the floor, he took the fork away and began to feed her bite by bite, chattering away with her the entire time, even if their conversation didn't make any sense. He fed her until she began to push the fork away.
"Time to play with Lancey Lance," he exclaimed to her as he carried her over to the main room where a toy basket was located (it was the exact same basket his mother had in their living room at the farmhouse which had him thinking this basket was likely a gift from his mama). Their play was similar to when she had been to his house for dinner, mainly scattering the toys and handing him certain ones. It was all fun and games until a certain smell hit him and he realized he was going to have to figure out the diaper situation…
He carried Belle into her room but stalled at the door. Every wall in Keith's apartment was a light grey color, likely the standard from the landlord, but Belle's bedroom walls were a light purple. Above her crib was her name spelled out prettily in white paint. The white wood of the crib matched the dresser, matched the bookshelf, matched the rocker. There was a soft blanket in her bed and a few stuffed animals. The bookshelf was almost completely full of board books, with the exception of a few parenting books on the top shelf. There was a humidifier on the floor and a white noise machine on the dresser next to where the changing pad and diapers were located.
Keith had put so much effort into sweetly decorating this room for his daughter that it hit Lance once again how deeply embedded this little girl was in Keith's life. How much they'd both suffer if Belle was taken away.
"I'm gonna make sure this adoption goes through, Belle," he murmured into her soft black hair before he lowered her to the changing pad and buckled the straps around her belly. "But, first. Do you think you could give me a play by play on how this diaper thing works? Or do you have two seconds for me to find a YouTube tutorial?"
Belle garbled an incomprehensible sting of words to him and he nodded seriously until she stopped.
"So, it can't be that hard and just wing it? That's what you're saying?"
It… was an experience. So was figuring out the diaper genie. But he managed.
He dug out some pajamas while they were in there and changed her into those. He also found Keith's phone next to the wipes' container. Since the phone was dead, he took the opportunity to creep into Keith's room, trying to shush Belle the entire time, even though Keith didn't budge while they were in there. He plugged Keith's phone into the charger on his bedside table and pressed a hand to Keith's forehead, relieved to find it not as warm as it had been earlier.
When they returned to the living room, Belle began to crankily chant "Ba ba ba ba," and Lance was pretty sure he knew what that meant.
He found sippy cups in the drying rack and a cannister of formula next to the sink. "You don't happen to know how many scoops you get, do ya, Belles?" Lance murmured as he tried to read the instructions on the side of the cannister.
Belle switched from "Ba ba ba" to "Da da da" and Lance had to agree that Keith would have likely already had this handled by now.
"We can't ask him, though. Wait!" Lance scooped her up and dashed into the hall bathroom. He set her on the ground for a second while he jumped on the scale to weigh himself, then lifted her again and weighed the two of them. "Okay, we can do this," he said to her as he tickled her belly and rushed back to the kitchen, finally able to follow the formula directions now that he knew her weight.
She gratefully took her cup when it was ready and settled herself against his chest as he carried her back to the living room, veering paths before he reached the couch to return to Belle's room instead. He turned on the white noise machine, sat in the rocker, and just rocked them as she drank her formula. She used one hand to hold the cup while the other seemed to search for something before finally grabbing a handful of Lance's shirt to hold. It was only later, when Lance thought about it, that he realized she was likely used to holding Keith's braid in that free hand.
When she let her cup sit in her lap and looked adequately sleepy, Lance stood and lowered her into the crib. He covered her with the blanket but froze when he took another look at the stuffed animals in the corner of the crib. He lifted a well-loved hippo and stared at its familiar face, remembering the night he'd won this for Keith at the county fair. The way Keith had excitedly shaken Lance's arm when he'd successfully hit every target. Keith's smile when Lance handed him the hippo. The way Keith had tasted like cotton candy when he'd kissed him in thanks.
"Po-po," Belle murmured as she pulled the hippo from his hands and sleepily rolled over with it.
Lance turned off her light, there was a nightlight that shone a galaxy onto her ceiling, and closed her door as he left. He leaned against the hallway wall and took a few deep breaths. It almost hurt to have a flashback to when Keith was his while he was in Keith's apartment - spending time in Keith's world - while Keith was definitely not his.
He breathed through it, though, reminded himself that he really would rather be here helping Keith than literally anywhere else, and dug through Keith's hall closet for a blanket. He set up camp on the couch and turned on the television. And audibly gasped when he saw Keith's digital movie collection. There weren't hundreds of movies here, there were thousands of movies. Keith had them arranged by genre and Lance scrolled through them, almost frowning when he saw movie titles that he'd never expect Keith to ever watch.
He thinks he maybe got through half a movie before he fell asleep on the couch. He'd like to say that there was beautiful sunlight streaming through the windows when he heard Belle waking up in the morning, but it was still dark outside.
He managed to change another diaper and took a good guess that a sippy cup of formula would be sufficient for her for a while. She toddled around the kitchen with her cup while he yawned and got the coffee maker working. Then they sat with their cups in the living room and watched a chipper, musical show in a digital movie folder he found labeled "Hell's Belles". At least until he woke up enough to properly cook them some eggs.
He was happy to see Keith looking less like death when he finally woke up a few hours later. Happy to feed Keith. Happy to see Keith dip into another nap on the couch in their company, which seemed to relax Belle a bit as well.
And when Keith woke from his couch nap, Lance peered over the side of the couch to watch Keith's face as he blinked and stretched himself awake.
"Your eyes look better. Clearer."
Keith blinked a few more times and nodded. "Yeah," Keith said, voice raspy and delightful.
"Come on," Lance said, offering Keith a hand to help pull him from the couch, "I made us some dinner."
"Thank you," Keith said as he settled at the table and smiled at Belle, already strapped in her highchair and currently chewing on a plastic spoon as she waited for her dinner. Belle grinned back and began to bang her spoon against the highchair tray with a loud squeal.
"Okay, okay, chiquita, I've got you," Lance admonished with a laugh. Belle stopped banging her spoon and Lance paused when he realized he was being watched by two identical head tilts, two identical eyebrow furrows. He smiled at the two of them and wished he could take a picture. Instead, he placed the breakfast casserole he'd made in the middle of the table so Keith could serve himself while he began to serve Belle, making sure the ham was cut into tiny pieces.
"This is so good, Lance," Keith said after a few of his own bites.
"I'm glad you like it," Lance said, digging into his own piece now that Keith and Belle were both fed. "Can I ask you a question?" He asked and then waited for Keith's nod. "Where does Belle go when you go to work?"
"She doesn't go anywhere. I work from home when she's asleep."
Lance frowned. He thought about how late into the night Keith must have to work and how very early Belle was up this morning. "So, when do you sleep?"
"I don't need much sleep. I get by. And it's not like I only work at night, I try to take advantage when she naps during the day, too."
Lance chewed his next bite slowly, thinking about how exhausted Keith had appeared every time he'd seen him since his return. "I feel like… you got sick because you ran yourself into the ground, Keith. Have you thought about getting a babysitter? Even if it's just a few hours during the day so you can get more sleep at night?"
Keith shrugged a bit and kept his eyes on his food. "I feel like I should be the one taking care of her," he said quietly. "Plus, it's just been worse lately because she had two teeth coming in," Keith rationalized, "so she wasn't napping well and there were a lot of interruptions at night."
Lance didn't want to push him, but this didn't seem sustainable, especially if something that was just a normal part of baby growth, like teething, began a cascade that resulted in Keith being so sick that he couldn't care for her. Kids teethed multiple times. Did Keith get this sick the last few times Belle had new teeth? Had he reached out for help from anyone? (Probably not). And what was going to happen when Belle got sick? And if Keith caught that illness, too?
The only thing Lance knew for sure was that now that he was back, he was going to show up for Keith and Belle.
"What do you do for work?" he asked, deciding to let the other subject drop for now.
"Well, I got a bachelor of science in architectural studies," Keith said as he scooped another piece of casserole onto his plate.
"Wow," Lance said, impressed.
Keith huffed a small laugh, "Yeah, I don't use the degree at all."
Lance laughed, "No?"
Keith shook his head. "I spent a lot of my free time in college feeling snarky and watching movies."
Lance's expression dropped but Keith rolled his eyes at him and sent him a small, mischievous smile.
"Some of the movies were so dumb." Keith was cutting his food into the tiniest pieces and Lance soon realized Belle had already finished what he'd given her as Keith transferred the food to her tray. "And I maybe started leaving reviews."
Lance's eyes narrowed. "Happy, pleasant reviews?"
"Nope," Keith said, popping the p in the word.
"Are you telling me you became a movie critic? Is that why you have the biggest digital movie collection I've ever seen?"
"I just wrote honest reviews of movies and I guess others thought they were funny because people started to share them. I'd post a review and by the next morning it would've been shared thousands of times."
"Keith, are you an online celebrity?" Lance asked with a wide grin.
Keith rolled his eyes again. "Before I graduated, I had an online site reach out and ask if I'd become their freelance movie critic. I figured I could do it on the side," Keith said with a shrug, "but after a few months I was approached by a bigger online news site that offered an exclusive contract, and ..." He shrugged again. "I just never got around to looking for an architect job."
Lance was still grinning. "Your job is to watch movies and then provide your honest review of them?"
Keith nodded. "I'll analyze movie ticket data, too. But everything I do, I do from here. I don't go to film festivals or anything."
Lance pulled his phone from his pocket. "What's the news site?"
Keith shook his head, mouth twitching and eyes amused. "I'm not telling you."
"Keith!" Lance said.
"Keef!" Belle squawked, kicking her legs and grinning at the two of them as she ate.
"A bajillion people get to read your work all the time and you won't let me? Are you serious?"
Keith's mouth twitched again and he nodded as he pulled his own phone from his pocket.
Lance's eyes narrowed as Keith began to type into his phone. "Does my family know who you work for?"
"Yeah, but I'm texting them now to ask them not to tell you."
Lance made another squawking noise (which Belle happily mimicked) as he scrambled to text his family himself. He got quick negative responses in the family group chat. He tossed his phone to the tabletop and squinted at Keith's innocent face as Keith took another happy bite of his food. He seemed to already know that the McClains were choosing his side over Lance's.
"Okay, it's on, Kogane. I'll find you myself."
"Good luck with that."
Keith paused the movie he'd been watching when he heard Belle begin to wake from her nap. Walking into her room and having her coo at him and lift her little arms so he could rescue her from her crib, all soft and still sleepy, so that he she'd usually rest her head on his collarbone and snuggle a few minutes before she'd truly wake and begin to destroy the main room, was his favorite part of every day.
He changed her diaper and was headed towards the kitchen for a snack when there was a knock on the door. He wasn't disappointed to find Lance on the other side of the door, just surprised.
"Hey, Belles," Lance said, leaning down to get eye level with her, something that not everyone did and that he admired about Lance. Belle began a steady stream of gibberish noises that included the word "Lon" here and there that Keith was pretty sure was supposed to be Lance's name. Lance did too if the giddy grin on his face meant anything.
"What are you doing here?" Keith asked, hoping it didn't sound too abrasive. He swung the door open wider so Lance could enter.
"You said she normally wakes up about now, so I thought I'd come over and play with her and you can get some more work done. You now, during the daylight hours." He wiggled his fingers in Belle's direction and she lifted her arms towards Lance.
"Um, are you sure?" Keith asked, thinking about the movie he had to finish today as he handed Belle over.
Lance swung Belle around in a circle and she squealed out a laugh. "Yup. Are you working out here? Want us to play in her room?"
Keith shook his head. "No, I have a projector in my bedroom, too, so I can finish what I have to do back there. You two can hang out here. I was just about to give her a snack."
"Cool, I can do that." Lance swung Belle onto his hip and headed towards the kitchen. "You want a banana or puffs today Belley-boo?"
Keith watched them go and then quietly made his way back to his room to finish his current project. He kept half an ear open for Belle while he worked, but while there were a lot of happy squeals, he only heard her fuss once or twice.
And when he was finished a couple hours later, he returned to find that Lance had made spaghetti. He was already cutting the noodles into tiny pieces for Belle.
"You finish?" Lance asked brightly, as if he hadn't been entertaining a toddler for two hours, something Keith knew could be draining (it wasn't the playing that was necessarily draining - he had previously decided - it was likely the constant supervision to make sure she didn't die).
Keith nodded. "I did. Thanks, Lance. I won't even know what to do with myself when she goes to bed later."
"Sleep," Lance emphasized while looking particularly pleased and relieved. Keith wasn't sure why Lance felt relief, it wasn't like Lance had to make sure Keith met his deadlines.
"I made you guys spaghetti using my mama's sauce recipe." Keith's eyes lit up and Lance's grin grew wider. "I'm going to leave you to it." He kissed the top of Belle's head, sent Keith some cheesy finger guns, and then was out the door before Keith had a chance to say anything else.
Keith isn't sure what he would've said, if given a proper chance. But he felt a little unsettled with Lance gone.
The next day, Lance knocked on his door right after naptime again. He shood Keith away to work, played with Belle, and made them dinner before quickly exiting as they sat to eat.
The same thing happened the next day. And the next.
A solid week went by before Keith finally managed to ask Lance to say and eat with them. Lance agreed easily, looking pleased as he filled his own plate and quickly joined them at the table.
"How do you have time to come over and do this every day?" Keith was almost afraid to ask, as if pointing out that this was taking a lot of Lance's time would make Lance realize it too, which might lead to less Lance visits. But Lance had to have his own life, too. It was beginning to feel irresponsible to take so much of his time every day. "Aren't you the third partner in Hunk and Rachel's bakery? Hunk's last text to me was that they were never going to get everything set up in time for their opening date."
"Hunk is being dramatic," Lance said with a wave of his hand. "First of all, I'm the business and finance guy for the bakery. I've got the investors signed on and I've found the funding for the equipment, rent, etc. Most of my work is finished until they actually open. And second of all, Hunk and Rachel won't let me touch any of their kitchen equipment so the fact that they keep rearranging everything is on them. They could probably open tomorrow if they'd just stop touching stuff and finalize their menu."
Keith laughed at that and Lance seemed to stop his tirade to just watch. Then Lance shrugged, almost timid and explained that he didn't have much else to do currently because he was new to the area, professionally-speaking, and he was still putting out feelings to other businesses to offer similar services. "I feel like, once the bakery takes off, which we know it will with Hunk and Rachel in the kitchen, then I'll have something significant on my resume for other businesses to take note of."
Knowing how charming Lance was, Keith had no doubt he'd have a slew of clients to choose from in the future. For now, he sat back and enjoyed his dinner. He tried not to let himself get used to relying on Lance to come over every day, but… He gets used to relying on Lance to come over every day.
And since he's getting more sleep at night (he knows that's Lance's main goal), he finds that he has more energy for everyday chores that he used to let stack up until the absolute last second (the laundry is getting washed more frequently versus waiting till everything is dirty, the bathrooms are getting wiped down more often, he has more energy to make a list for the grocery store instead of wandering aimlessly and tossing in random items). Plus, he's maybe a little more observant about what he wears every day, since Lance is going to see him in it.
A few weeks into their arrangement, he finished work and came out to find Lance and Belle zonked out together on the couch. Belle sleeping on Lance's chest, half her face smooshed into his sweater, little rosebud mouth open as she dozed. Both of Lance's large hands were resting on her back and he released a light snore with every exhale. It was way too late in the afternoon for Belle to be sleeping, which meant that she was going to be a terror later and refuse to go to bed at bedtime. Keith sorta wanted to be upset about this impromptu nap. But… This was probably the cutest shit he'd ever seen. He pulled his phone from his pocket and took a picture.
Then he left them there and let them wake up to the smell of the dinner he cooked for them that night. Lance looked pretty sheepish when they woke and even offered to stay after dinner and help Keith settle her for the night.
"A bath would help calm her for sleep, right? Let me help."
Keith grinned and said nothing else, only because Lance had clearly never seen Belle in a bath. He sat on the closed toilet seat with one leg pulled up to his chest while Lance sat on the floor next to the tub and did his best to get Belle clean while Belle repeatedly yelled "Waves!" and kicked her feet to create a dramatic ocean-like storm in their tub.
"I feel like you're enjoying this too much," Lance stated to Keith once his shirt and pants were completely soaked.
"Yup," Keith replied with a wide smile, although he did let Lance borrow some dry clothes to go home in later.
When Lance was not at Keith's place, he was keeping in touch. Keith wakes up to Good morning texts. Texts asking if Belle ate her meal or threw most of it on the floor. Picture texts of parks or playgrounds he thinks Belle would like. One day Keith got a picture text of tiny hiking boots and a caption asking Keith for Belle's shoe size. Lance also started sending Keith memes from dad comics that are hysterical in how truthfully funny they are.
But then he'll also text reviews he finds online. He still hasn't figured out which reviewer is Keith, but Keith is enjoying watching him try.
11:57 am: The movie is shockingly unfunny, largely boring, and a waste of talent
12:02 pm: A kid could've written that one. I'm a little offended that you think its one of mine
12:03 pm: So I'm looking for snark closer to your response to me vs what I found
12:03 pm: Understood
10:10 am: Messy, lazy, and too reliant on unnecessary butt and fart jokes
10:15 am: No
5:46 am: When they combine the human with the CGI animal in the same scene, they don't seem to be occupying the same screen. Or planet. Or dimension really
5:48 am: Why are you up this early?
5:50 am: Kaltenecker submitted a verbal request that her breakfast should be served before the chickens bc shes been here longer and has seniority and I cant argue with that kind of logic
Keith snort laughed and was glad Lance wasn't here to hear it. He was supposed to be irritated to be woken up this early, not amused by how funny Lance could be, no matter the hour of the day.
5:51 am: Is that a yay or a nay on the review?
5:52 am: Nay
9:10 pm: I wasn't expecting this to be good, but I also wasn't expecting it to be quite this bad
9:15 pm: I've have had that thought. Never typed it out
1:15 pm: Everyone knows that if you don't have anything nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all. Less well known is the adage: 'You can't publish a movie review that is entirely blank.'
1:20 pm: Okay, that one is funny. Wish I could claim it
1:21 pm: At least I'm finally getting warmer