With more force than needed, Keith tossed his helmet against his motorcycle. He glared at the building before him, knowing all too well who it belonged to. He hadn't know Lotor well. Their interactions were through Lance and once Lance broke ties with him Keith had nothing to do with the snake.
He did know, however, that Lotor's father did not have the best track record. You could have called him a mafia boss if you wanted to but that term couldn't seem to describe everything Zarkon did. Lotor didn't exactly follow the choices of his father but had inherited a large sum of money from his passing a few years back.
Since then he had started up his own business. Keith couldn't tell you what kind of business it was because he didn't care. He was here for one reason only.
The moment he entered the building he barged his way up to the front desk, scaring the living daylights out of the receptionist when he took her phone and slammed it shut, ending the call she was on.
"S-Sir?" she stammered, the blood draining from her face.
"Lotor." he hissed. "Tell Lotor that Keith Kogane is here to see him. Now."
The poor girl nodded, her fingers trembling as she dialed up to Lotor's office. He answered almost immediately listening to her stammer the message. She nodded, then motioned down the hall. "M-Meeting room two. He will meet you there."
He nods and barrelled into the room. Not willing to sit down he paced. He wanted answers. He wanted them more than he wanted anything. He didn't have time to be confused or question why Lance hadn't told him about Lotor earlier. No matter how much he thought about it, nothing made sense.
Maybe Lance just didn't want to worry him? Or maybe Lance had tried to tell him but Keith hadn't been paying enough attention.
He had no idea. Lotor was the only one who could confirm any of these answers and Keith trusted him as far as he could throw him.
He hated the guy, if Keith had to be honest. For many reasons. He rubbed Keith the wrong way, yes, but more than anything it had been how he treated Lance back in their younger days.
He had met Lance their first year of college. At that time, his boyfriend at been Lotor. Keith wanted to say he was no boyfriend stealer, and he had tried to keep his feelings for Lance strictly as friends.
It had worked for a long time, a good year or two. And despite his one-sided feelings, Keith never tried to push his feelings onto Lance or step between Lotor and him. That didn't mean he didn't notice how Lotor neglected Lance. How he would spend his days making Lance feeling small and lesser than himself.
Lotor constantly put him down, belittling and being downright mean. Lance was too nice of a guy to say anything back and at one point just accepted whatever Lotor threw at him. It wasn't right and his crush or not, Keith didn't stand for it.
He made sure Lance understood he wasn't alone and that it was okay to leave Lotor. Through a lot of convincing and the help of their friends, Lance finally managed to see how horrible Lotor was. And then, the next day before Lance could even put his foot down, Lotor left. He dumped Lance for some sort of ending victory and never looked back.
It was downright wrong.
But Lance was able to move on, and the following year Keith finally confessed his feelings.
Everything was doing fine and he thought he'd get some sort of happily ever after with Lance… till he went missing.
Yet he knew, things had been going wrong long before that night. And it was his fault.
He wasn't mean to Lance, but he hadn't been a good boyfriend either.
He shouldn't put himself on the same level as Lotor with what he did but he felt he deserved to be there after what happened.
"Keith~" A voice sang out. He frowned and turned, the snake he came to see standing before him.
"Lotor," he grumbled as the long-haired man stepped in, his group of four women following close behind him. They were basically his bodyguards, assigned to escort and protect him at all times. His Father made it a necessity to have guards, and Lotor had picked the best of the bunch. No one had been able to even get a scratch on him since.
"Oh, Keith, still as aggressive as ever. Did you really have to give my poor secretary a heart attack?" he chided with a chuckle. As he walked in he pulled out a chair for himself, moving across the room to where a few classes and drinks were placed. "Oh well. How wonderful it is to see you. How have you been? Still climbing the ladders to get your own business?" Lotor asked with a charming but fake smile.
"Stop with the formalities." Keith snipped. "I'm sure you know why I am here."
"Yes and No." Lotor pours himself a cup of tea, motioning for Keith to join him at a table. Reluctant at first he eventually sat down. Lotor's gangle of goons kept close by, each eyeing him warningly not to try anything funny with their boss. "I heard Lance went missing, sorry to hear. It was all over the news. Yet I'm not sure what exactly you have to gain by coming here."
"His work," Keith says simply, venom dripping from his tone. "You've been in contact with Lance and got to see him at least a few times a month. I confirmed it with some of his other workers."
"So much for customer privacy." he mused.
"No games, Lotor. Why were you seeing Lance so often?" Keith smacked his hand on the table, pissed. Blame it on the possessive tendencies he sometimes got with Lance, but knowing he had been seeing his Ex so often… it made his blood boil.
"Dear me." he clicked his tongue, clearly not surprised, "I thought you knew? Did darling Lance not tell you?" he was enjoying this, the smug smile on his face enough to make Keith want to reach over and punch him. "Guess you two weren't as close as you thought. Maybe you two should go to couples counseling."
Keith jabbed an accusing finger at him, "Like I want to hear that from you. Don't forget how you treated Lance."
The older man tilted his head, a sick smile on his face, "You say that like we're so different from each other."
The patience Keith was clawing at wasn't lasting, replacing each passing second with rage. "Excuse me?"
"It's always sad how we don't realize how much we need something till it is gone," Lotor says with faked sympathy. "Probably hurts even worse knowing you hardly got to see him before he disappeared."
"How do you-?" Keith's eyes widened.
"Ignoring him for months. Ditching him on every date you promised to go to. Neglecting and leaving him free to be snatched away. How inconsiderate of you."
"Shut up!" he rose, sensing his guards looking ready to make a move but not caring.
"If you were just going to throw him away you should have sent him my way." Lotor purred, "I would have taken good care of him."
Keith felt something snap. The next thing he knew he was surging forward to grab a hold of Lotor's collarbone. He slammed him roughly against the wall, the table flipped to the side. How dare someone like Lotor talk like he knew him. When he knew nothing!
"Shut your mouth before I cut out your tongue!" In his anger he had grabbed the knife from his belt, holding it towards Lotor threateningly. He never showed such violence when Lance was around. Back when he was younger he was prone to such acts. He didn't want to be that kind of man anymore. He wanted to be good, especially in Lance's eyes.
But Lance was gone.
Lance was out there somewhere and he was sick and tired of having no answers!
When Lotor's companions rose Lotor quickly lifted his hand to stop them. They tensed, the four women keeping a distance with his command.
"Come now, Keith. Resorting to violence?"
"Hard not to when you seem pretty guilty." Keith growled darkly.
"I was not responsible for his disappearance if that is what you are insinuating." Lotor scowled.
"Funny how hard I find that to believe. Why in the world were you seen with him so much then?" Keith demanded.
"I chose him as my regular stylist because I trusted him with my hair, that is all."
"How did you know we hadn't seen each other then?" Keith challenged.
"You can get Lance to say a lot if you get him talking about you, Keith." Lotor rolled his eyes. "The fact that he couldn't see you was something that really upset him. If you bothered to pay attention to that."
"You wanna say that again?"
Lotor snorted, "Lucky for you, I have other matters to attend to. I don't have time to play your childish games, and for both of your sakes, I would focus on Lance. He isn't the type to get involved in anything illegal, so whoever did this had other reasons than to threaten him. If I had to take a guess the reason for his kidnapping is for something else. Perhaps something involving yourself. If I were you I would double check to make sure you haven't pissed off anyone lately." He paused, "Or, maybe it isn't even about you. Lance had a lot of admirers, Keith. We both know that. Admirers aren't always sweet…"
"What are you trying to say?" Keith frowned, "Someone took Lance because they… liked him?"
"I'm not suggesting anything, just offering some possibilities. It's good to have an open mind on every option in situations like this." Lotor removed Keith's hand from his shirt, straightening it out. Keith stepped backed when he cleared his throat, "Either way, this person knew you wouldn't be home. They knew you would miss the date and leave Lance home alone. I would retrace your steps on who exactly was aware of your meeting that night."
Despite how much he hated the guy, Keith realized he was on to something. He had been more helpful than most that day and Keith appreciated that to an extent. "Right…" With his anger gone, he was starting to feel tired.
He collected his coat without much else to say. As he walked out the door, getting glares from the four women who always tagged along with Lotor, her heard the dark prince call his name.
"I do hope you find him, Keith." Lotor seemed to be honest when he said this. "Our history aside, I do not wish any actual harm to Lance."
Keith glared over his shoulder but eventually nodded.
Stepping out of the door he was surprised to find a familiar car parked near his motorcycle. Shiro had managed to track him down and he didn't look happy.
"Not even going to text me and let me know you were okay?' his brother demands.
Keith set his gaze, shrugging on his jacket. "I couldn't guarantee you would let me go."
Shiro sighed, "You might be right about that." he leaned against his car, folding his arms. "Well, I'm here. We might as well see what we can dig up."
Keith was shocked, "Really?"
"Yeah. I want to find him too, Keith." Shiro gave him a gentle look. "So how about you start by explaining why you came to see Lotor of all people?"
Keith felt heavy and he felt it in his voice "I guess Lance has been cutting Lotor's hair for him these last few months. He never told me."
"Oof." Shiro cringes. Ex's were rough as it was but it being Lotor. Definitely not something pleasant there. "You sure he never told you? Maybe he had and you just weren't paying attention?"
"I don't know." Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, "Either way, it was the only weird thing I learned that was going on with Lance's life. So I came to ask him some questions."
"And what is your gut telling you?"
"He didn't do anything to Lance," Keith concludes. "But he gave me a few tips. Shiro, did you tell anyone I was planning to have dinner with Lance that night?"
His brother blinked, puzzled. "Not that I recall. You told me but it wasn't exactly news to spread around."
"Right. But someone must have told someone." he begins to say. "Whoever took Lance knew I wouldn't be home. Or at least knew any date I had planned with Lance previously I had canceled."
"So you think it's someone we know?" Shiro was stunned.
Keith held up a hand, "Now hold on. I didn't say that." not that the option was far off, but he never wanted to think any friends they had would ever harm Lance. "I'm saying it's someone who knew our plans. Friends, acquaintances. Maybe a friend told someone they knew- or Lance even told a client of his the day he was working. Lotor told me- he said Lance tended to babble if I was brought up."
"He does usually do that. He never stops talking about you." Shiro smiles.
Keith didn't let that happy feeling in his chest distract him. "The point is, we need to figure out who knew about that night. I remember that Hunk and you knew about that day. You said you didn't tell anyone, but what about Hunk?"
"I doubt he would just go telling people about the plans of his friends," Shiro says. "In the end, we have to figure out who Lance told, and that is kind of hard to do when we don't know where he is and can't ask him."
Keith cursed. All this work and he still didn't feel any closer to Lance. If nothing else he learned Lance didn't tell him everything.
"I think we should go talk to Shay." he finally decided.
"Why Shay?"
"She is his closest friend. If he was doing anything new or talking to anyone suspicious she is the best bet to figuring that out." Keith decided.
"Well, then we head to Hunk's place." Shiro pulled out his keys. "And let's get you something to eat when we get there."
"I"m not hungry."
"I know. But you should eat anyway." his brother patted his back, his eyes gentle. Keith couldn't say no to them.