Order #4
"Y-Your what?" Lance exclaimed. He flipped his attention onto Keith; his eyes twitching frantically. Lance wasn't exactly sure if he really wanted him to repeat that cursed statement or he, Lance, wanted to have a stray satellite smack himself dead. The universe did enjoy screwing him over multiple times in the past with pricey speeding tickets, horrible babysitting sessions, and several failed murder attempts, but—
"I was kidding," Keith interrupted his thoughts. "I was just trying to lighten the mood." He ruffled the edges of his hair and shuffled his feet. This whole day is going to be a mess. "So, where's my uniform?"
"Over here…," Lance pointed towards the kitchen. Since when he's the one to joke? Lance muttered as they entered the kitchen. "So, um, I guess Hunk is expecting me to give a tour or something. This the kitchen, obviously. You'll mostly likely be helping Hunk, here. If it gets busy up front, you'll be assisting me..." He turned to Keith but noticed how strangely observant Keith was being. "What, you're taking notes?"
"...Hm?" Keith snapped back into focus. "Just wanted to get accustomed with the place...It's…cute." Way too cute, why would Lotor ever think this place could be a threat? As they walked towards the back of the kitchen, Keith noted the colorful, bright pillars and counters of the kitchen. Food containers holding a variety of sugar and spices were well-organized in the open cabinets.
"Yeah, that's the vibe we're going for," Lance muttered in a reply. He continued to hold on doubt about Keith. Just out of nowhere, this guy just signed himself up and got the job. Wasn't Keith rich or something...or too much of a loner to become a taxpayer? It wasn't like Alluring Delights was a really popular bakery or anything; it was barely holding it ground against the competitors, if Lance had to be honest.
Out of all the things she's capable of, Lance started to wonder, Allura could have built herself a nice, fancy hair salon...That girl with luxurious white hair that glimmers in any lightening. Heh, she would look perfect in any style known in the galaxy...Up-do...Ponytail...Straight...definitely, a mullet...
SNAP! SNAP! Keith tried to bring Lance back into focus. "Hey! Is this the lodge…!?" Keith felt his hand aching. He sighed, I'm done with this place, and the shift haven't even started yet. He wandered inside to find his uniform. It was similar to Hunk's and Lance's, but red. There was a note:
Red to match that fiery passion of yours! - Allura
What passion? Keith crumbled and tossed the note aside. He quickly replaced his shirt and put on his apron. He took a quick look at the fake ears decor. Why do bakeries like making fool out of their workers? At least, at Lotor's, Keith had no respect for the purple alien when he got the job. ...I'm putting way too much effort into this nice guy act.
"Oh, so, you already changed." Keith became alert as Lance entered the lodge.
Oh, so, you finally snapped out of your daydream, Keith wanted to say, but instead… "Yeah, I did. Um, so, are these ears…" Keith twiddled them in the air. "...uh, mandatory?" Who knew being less ill-tempered would be a problem?
"Unfortunately…," Lance began, overlooking Keith's outfit. "All part of the act. I used to hate them, but I say I look pretty good in them." He smirked as Keith rolled his eyes. "So, let me just apply the makeup, now." He quickly tries to gather the aesthetics from the table.
"Oh, I can do it," Keith started, heading for the makeup kit. "I have some experience." NOPE. Definitely not allowing this.
Lance shook his head. "Uh no. If I don't do it and Hunk hears about it, he won't give me a rest." Lance swiped a mini brush, concealer, and a red face-paint bottle as he moved closer to Keith. Keith began to back up, farther away.
"T-Then, don't tell him, obviousl—," At this point, Keith made the fatal mistake of not noticing the inflatable mattress on the ground. Lance subconsciously swept Keith upward, holding him from the back. They were way too close together for comfort, and Keith understood very well what was happening. This was...every sick romcom trope in the school of how to torture a maybe, definitely, but probably most likely gay disaster. He hated the fleeting seconds of this, but he knew genre well enough (surprising thanks to Shiro) to know that there was always an escape to these—
"Hey, Lance, Keith! Can you…" Hunk opened the door to the lodge, seeing those two in the classic, "This isn't what it looks like" stance. A smile slowly crept on his face. "Am I interrupting something?"
That's my cue, Keith immediately pushed Lance aside, flopping on the mattress below.
"H-Hey, I was about to outline the crescents!" Lance shouted. He whipped his attention to Hunk, pointing the brush in his direction. "And, stop whatever you're conspiring."
Hunk frantically waved his hands in defense. "Eh, what? I-I was just coming in to ask if you two can grab a couple of boxes from the freezer." He began to wave a list to Lance. "But, I see you two are buddy-bud—"
"It was nothing!" Lance and Keith exclaimed simultaneously, avoiding eye contact. Keith flipped over, burying his head in the mattress. Whatever god of this world, if I say sorry for all my brashness towards you and mentally towards others, would you kill me now?
Hunk only subtly smirked at the scene. I'm enjoying way too much. "S-So, can you two…" Lance snatched the paper from his hands.
"Yea-Yea-Yeah!" Lance grumbled, flapping his hands at Hunk. "We do it. Now, go! Don't you have a bakery to open…"
"Yeah...yeah...yeah," Hunk repeated, grinning so widely as he exited. Keith and Lance could have sworn that he is singing some song: "Best friends, best friends, they gonna ascend! Best friends, best friends, friend to the end!" They both sighed.
"Yeesh, it's cold in here," Lance shivered as he unlocked the door to the walk-in freezer. He allowed Keith to hold the door as he walked farther inside. He rubbed his knuckles for warmth.
"Who knew a freezer was capable of such things?" Keith muttered, ignoring Lance's glares.
Lance grumbled to himself before walking towards some boxes off the metal shelves. Keith's eyes wandered around. Just a bunch of frost-covered boxes laying around. He could hear Lotor whispering in his ears: "Perhaps, they're secret ingredients? We could use this to our advantage to gather more intel? Wouldn't you agree, Keith?" How did I ever agreed to work for such a weirdo?
"Oh yeah, before I forget," Lance was examining a box before lifting it up, "don't let go of the—"
SLAM! Colors drained from his face when Lance whipped his head at Keith. He dropped the box. "NONONONONONO!"
"It was too heavy…," Keith shrugged in response, becoming a bit amused at Lance's baffled expression. Lance wobbled around the room; his hands were twitching wildly.
"T-Too heavy he s-says!" Lance grumbled, continuing his lifeless twirling and whirling. He snapped out of it, glaring at Keith. "Too heavy!"
"What is your problem?"
"My problem? My problem?" Lance flung his arm, pointing his index finger at the door behind Keith. "My problem is that you let go of the door!"
"Yes, because, and I will repeat, it was heavy!" Keith shouted. What was his deal? "You were taking a long time, and I was getting tired…"
"Getting tired!" Lance repeated loudly. "Oh no-no-no, this can't be happening!" He paced back and forth in the small freezer more unsteadily.
"Should I call 911 to calm you down?" He was really reaching his pocket to call for his own safety.
"Yes! Because…," Lance stomped his feet. "YOU!" He whipped his whole body towards Keith. "LOCKED!" His finger jostled at the door. "US!" He then jabbed his thumbs above his chest. "IN!" Lance screamed to the heavens. Keith only stared at Lance before bursting into laughter. "Are you really laughing about our imminent deaths?!"
"No, I'm laughing about how stupid you are," Keith coughed back a chuckle. "Here, I thought you were suffering from some sort of panic attack. You do know that doors are meant for entering and exiting?"
"Oh, yeah," Lance replied, biting on his own sarcasm, "how can I forget? Just go ahead, then let us out!"
Keith shrugged. "Yeah, I will." He reached for the door to pull the handle, but… "The heck!" He turned back to Lance who held a prideful smirk. "Where the heck is the handle?" He pushed on the door, then slammed his body against it. But, no budge. "What the—"
"There is none, you noob!" Lance bit.
"Did you break it?!" Keith shouted back in frustration.
"Why are you accusing me?! It was already like that to begin with!"
"To begin with? Who's the idiot designed this thing?"
"How the quiznack would I know? That's why I wanted to warn you to NOT LET IT GO!"
"You never said a thing!"
"I was about—"
"Save it, Taylor…"
"That's not my…"
"Save it!" Keith repeated, losing his composure. He took a deep breath, then rubbed his temples. "Okay...Just how are we getting out of here…? H-Hold up, I-I can call…" He reached for his phone. "What! No signal! Is this place a death trap?"
"I-I don't know," Lance finally gave up and slouched on the floor. He rested his back against some boxes. "We just have to wait for Hunk to notice our absence…"
"But, how long will that take?" Keith took the same position as Lance. He rubbed his hands for some warmth. Really, god of this universe, this is how I'll die… I was hoping for at least a peaceful and, I don't know, ALONE death.
"Argh!" Lance exasperated and punched a box. However, he later took a deep breath to calm down. "Well, I-I guess we at least spend some quality time together as we wait." They looked at each for a second to gather in that quality moment.
.
.
.
That was long enough.
"HUNK!"
"BIG GUY!"
"You're already forgot his name!"
"It has been a long day!"
"So, with that, I am stuck with an intolerable classmate who doesn't understand the difference between all the computer programs we had learned in class for the entire semester. I don't even know how they even skipped Fundamentals with their lack of brain power. Rich kids these days, I swear…"
"That's tough, Pidge. But, back to my original question, is that all you're going to be buying?" Hunk had opened the bakery for the first wave of customers. It was a quiet morning as usual with the regular Pidge coming in for her morning solitude work session. She was smaller than average girl, wearing a cool forest green overall with a white with black polka-dots shirt. She came in ordering her regular, Alfor's Tradition. It was black coffee with a shot of espresso. However, Pidge always added an extra usually...Sometimes, four shots in total when college wants to stab her and she holds it up at gunpoint.
What a colorful imagery, Hunk thought when Pidge first envisioned it for him.
"Like I always said, free refills are what makes a place like this great, Hunk," Pidge smiled, handing him the exact two dollars and thirty-three cents all in coins.
"I'm going to believe in your best judgement." Hunk slid the coins into the palm in his hand before sorting them out in the cash register.
"Why would I cheap you out?" Pidge grinned as she headed for a seat next to the counter by the display of sweet goods. Matt, would definitely want a Voltrookie by the time he picks me up.
"You do that with Lance," Hunk replied. He turned to the Altean Coffee Maker. Of course, it was no difference from a human one; however, here at Alluring Delights, their coffee is purely organic and purely...caffeinated...or whatever that jingle says.
"He's Lance."
"Touché." Pidge pulled out her laptop from her backpack as she began to make herself comfortable. Hunk soon came with her order in a decorated chinaware. "Here's you go, an Alfor's Tradition with an extra shot of espresso."
Pidge cradled the chinaware in the palm of her hands, blew subtly before taking a sip. "Mm, just what needed to finish this coding. Thanks, Hunk!"
"No problem for my favorite customer!" Hunk grinned gleefully.
"Pretty much your only customer at the moment," Pidge smirked before taking another sip. She jerked his attention to the pretty empty space. The place was opened for only an hour for the morning shift, but, since Alluring Delights wasn't as popular as Galra Sweet Empire, it was expected.
"Yeah, I was really hoping those flyers would help," Hunk sighed, scratching the back of his neck.
"You guys are really living in the medieval times," Pidge was busy typing away on her computer. "Social media is thing, you know."
"Lance and I tried, but Allura and Coran are hopeless when understanding," he rolled on the counter. "Yesterday, we even had to help her write an email to our new coworker...Failing in process."
"Mm," Pidge sipped, staring only at the brightness of her computer. "Oh, yeah, so how's the new guy, anyway?" Hunk heard some more clicking and tapping on her keyboard.
"Oh, Keith, you mean. I think he's doing already...Lance almost killed him…," Pidge looked up from her laptop, raising an eyebrow. "But! He was alright, he has some mad jujutsu or somethin' and caught the knife in his hand." Pidge only nodded and went back to typing. "But, I don't know. He seems pretty out of it, though. We were in middle school, together, but it seemed that he doesn't remember a thing."
"Mm," Pidge murmured, trying to fix her code. "Do you think he is suffering from long-termed psychological issue from his youth that is affecting how he is interacting with people and is only here to serve a devious purpose underneath hence why he is attempting to appear normal when interacting with the two of you despite having no recollection whatsoever?"
"No…," Hunk drawled out. "I think he's just adjusting to the new atmosphere…" Pidge shrugged in response. "But, speaking of him, I sent him and Lance out moments ago to get stuff out of the freezer…"
"Perhaps, they're stuck." She continued to type loudly on her keyboard.
"What? No, Lance knows better than to shut the door behind him. That's why Keith is with him."
"..." Click. Type. Type.
"..." Type. Click. Type.
"..." Type. Type. Click.
"Oh, quiznack."
"I-I-I-It was been an h-h-h-hour…!"
"It has been only ten minutes." During his time stuck in the freezer with his insufferable companion, Keith thought multiple ways to creating an escape route. Tampering the door? Tightly sealed. Escaping through the vents? Way to shallow even for me. Planting a bomb? Someone might die in the process… Keith was reconsidering the last option, seeing its benefits, however.
"W-We are going to die here…," Lance gasped, cradling his body for warmth.
"Yep," Keith barely looked at him. I wonder if I can find a gas cylinder here…, but the costs of it... He turned to examine some pipes aligned on the walls. Doesn't need to be too flashy or anything.
"T-Typically, the other person is supposed to proclaim some wishful thinking during these circumstances…" Lance shivered. He even struggled to blink; his eyelashes decorated with frost.
"Oh, I was always taught death was the answer to everything."
When Keith was in foster care (after his father was brutally murdered by penguins or whatever cause of death Keith came up with on a daily basis), he would attend a homework help program sponsored there. It was here where he met his future roommate—brother, father figure, or whatever he is to Keith—Shiro who temporarily volunteers here during his free time.
"Um, h-hey, Shiro, I need some help with this math problem?" Keith asked the elder. Little did Keith knew that Shiro had experienced his first of soon to be many tragedies in his life from a young age. The experience had shaken Shiro's life to the core, making him masked that dark, humorless status of his life.
He stubbed his toe in the parking lot.
Shiro, at this moment in life, didn't have a filter yet for the seven-year-old Keith. He stared deeply at Keith's eyes, giving his almighty wisdom. "Dying is always the answer."
Keith stare at him, then at his worksheet. "Can you help me show my work?"
Seconds were fleeting into more minutes as the two coworkers were surrounded in the endless blizzard. Lance was accepting death as his final answer, so he prayed for hopeful futures of his family, minus Veronica who used up all the toothpaste this morning. Keith busied himself, thinking of how to create an explosive with frozen dough. To be honest, he had no clue what he was doing.
"Hey, can I ask you question?" Keith asked. He put his explosive ideas on hold.
"A-A-Answer away! I-I-It's not like with each breath we waste, the closer I see heaven opening up," Lance coughed.
Keith only rolled his eyes. "Is there a reason you hate me?"
"Well, you are the cause of my soon-to-be death, so…"
"Besides, everything that I did today."
Lance stared at Keith, trying to glare enough into the deepest dungeons of his soul. "You really have no clue who me and Hunk are, do you? No memories of us during middle school, high school...We even go to the same university, you know."
Keith only shook his head. "Not really...Then, again, most parts of my life have been a blur. Give and take a few circumstances…"
Hm, he looks like he's telling the truth...or he strongly believes in that truth...but…, Lance thought. "Then, what do you remember?"
"I remember Shiro, my roommate," Keith thought aloud. "Oh, and, I remember hating a bunch of people. I could give you a list of that. You were initially on it since this morning…Y'know, for almost killing me."
Lance struggled a laugh. It had seemed as the temperature continued to drop by the second. Where is Hunk when you need him? "Uh, I guess, it's kind of petty then to be holding grudges against you…" He mumbled. "Let's start over, huh." He awkwardly tries to lift up his arm, combating against the frozen state it is in.
Keith scoffed to himself, withholding a subtle smirk. He grabbed Lance's hand for firm handshak—
"Why the quiznack are you so warm?!" Lance shouted. Catching Keith off guard, Lance instantly pulled him into a tight embrace. "Your whole body is like a heater! Is that why you were never shivering? Are you even warm-blooded?" Keith attempted to kick Lance away, but somehow Lance was stronger than he appeared.
"Get off of—!" There was some clicking coming from the door.
"Ah-Ha! So, this is where the two of you were dilly-dallying the whole time, eh!" Coran stood proudly, twirling his moustache. There were flashes coming from behind him, with Pidge peeking to take pictures with her smartphones.
"Forthcoming blackmail," she jeered. Hunk shoved past them to hug his frozen coworkers.
"I am so sorry! I would have come sooner, if I have known, and then Coran showed up with a new take-out order, and then I…," Hunk continued to blabber. His eyes were glistening from tears. "Are you two okay? I will prepare the heater in the lodge!" He literally grabbed ahold of them, shoving them in the lodge then onto couch. "I grab some blankets!" He rushed out.
Lance rubbed the back of his head and straightened his back from Hunk's tight bearhug. "That's our Hunk." Keith, on the other hand, felt very awkward from all this physical contact.
"So, how long were you two in there?" Coran followed behind.
"Better question," Pidge jumped in. "Since, when you're into boys, Lance…" Lance gawked at her as she sneered. Keith only laughed at himself, even wondering what would Lotor and the girls would want him to do in this situation. "Is that a smirk coming from the new emo kid?"
Keith jumped. "What? No, I was—"
Bells ringed from outside to signal a possible customer. However, it followed by a clamor of stomping before Allura herself burst inside the lodge. She was sweating frantically; her eyes darting around the room until she saw Coran.
"C-Coran!" Losing her step, she clutched ahold of Coran. Coran held on to her uneasily.
"Princess, what in the name of King Groggery is going?"
"I-I-I," With each breath, Allura struggled to form her words. Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Coran watched her, staring in anticipation for what she has to say. "I—"
"So, bad news, the heater needs some repairs," Hunk burst in the lodge, holding on to some blankets. "But, I found some cozy blankets and fluffy socks…" He looked around, noticing the change of atmosphere. "Shoot…, I'm ruining the mood, aren't I?" Everyone glared at him as he slowly wobbled off into a corner.
Allura again took a deep breath. "As I was trying to say," she breathed in once more. "I've just witnessed a murder."
Yeah, this story actually has a plot...sort of (and Pidge is finally here!). And, yeah, I'm not really a Klance shipper, so think of what you want with this chapter. But, yay, thanks for favorites and follows! I really appreciate it!