The last two days of the camp are fairly uneventful. Friday they play some games the senseis invent on the spot, like a weird version of "freeze" where when the music turns off they have to fall and the last person to hit the floor is out. Then, on Saturday, they run a fairly normal practice but finish with a mock tournament. Keith wins of course. Lance would like to say he got second, but the cold hard truth is that he got out in his first match thanks to a dirty trick wherein Ezor yelled "Keith is making kissy faces at you!" from the sidelines, and Lance found it too distracting and lost. Ezor did try and apologize and Acxa tried to insist on a rematch, but Haggar-sensei was the judge and awarded Acxa the point with a malicious smile.

As for Lotor, he gets ejected for using an illegal hold-down on Hunk. Hunk is the one who actually makes it to the finals against Keith, and Lance can't help but feel a little jealous. He may or may not try to convince Hunk that if he stuffs a pillow in his gi and wears a wig he can pass as Hunk and get to face Keith. May or may not meaning he totally does. Hunk laughs in his face and tells him "Don't worry Lance, I promise not to bruise your boyfriend too much." Since Lance isn't sure he can truly call Keith his boyfriend yet, he ends up too flustered to retort.

Pidge later shows him some pictures she took during the tournament, including ones of him watching Keith's matches with the dopiest look on his face. He's not even embarrassed though, because Keith just looked that good out there. And with a little luck, soon he'll be able to tell everyone with pride that that boy is his. He melts a little just thinking about it.

For Lance, those two days are filled with something far more important: trying to unbias his family against Keith. It's hard work, since his siblings keep reminding him about every last thing he's said to slander Keith since they met. It's unpleasant work, since his mom washes his mouth out with soap for telling lies when he admits that he may have been a little too harsh on Keith before. It's frightening work, since his dad is smart enough to put two and two together and realizes that Lance is going to be bringing Keith home in the near future, and heads out to the hardware store "to prepare". And for the first time in his life Lance wonders if his dad isn't above using torture on prospective significant others.

x

When it comes time to say goodbye to the Galra dojo guests, Keith is surprised to find he's a little sad to see them go. Not Lotor though. That guy can hurry up and disappear.

But the rest… sure they're all lifetime members of the Lotor fan club (they even have jacket patches) and they do have some very questionable methods at times, but they're actually pretty nice. They promise to see each other all again soon though, in tournaments. And Keith thinks that maybe they really are his friends, or they could be anyway, and maybe that's rather nice after all.

And then comes D-Day. The day he has to meet Lance's family. When he arrives at Lance's house, the family is all out on the lawn, which is significantly cleaner than the time when he and Shiro dropped Lance off (Keith may not have looked at the house back then, but he had peripheral vision and that mess was hardly something you could miss). They all have stony stares on their faces, and Keith is a little terrified, but there in the middle is Lance, looking like he's about to faint from nerves. And according to Matt, Lance actually did faint from nerves before his first tournament, which ended up not being his first tournament since he missed weigh-ins as a result of his fainting.

What happens after Keith gets out of the car is something he would not recommend experiencing. The entire family surges forward as one, and he is certain he's about to die. But then they simply surround him and stare. It's crazy unnerving. Luckily, after about ten long seconds Lance manages to push his way through the ring of relatives, and then they're staring at him and Keith rather than just Keith, which is more embarrassing but less terrifying.

"Uh, hi?" Keith finally manages. There's a lump of fear in his throat but he'll be damned if he isn't going to at least try to make a good impression. "I-I'm Keith. Kogane. Keith Kogane. Um, nice to meet you."

And just like that all the impassive faces split into grins and he gets herded inside. Lance somehow gets left protesting in the dust, and Keith wants to go back to him since he feels a little less threatened with Lance at his side but everyone is talking and bringing out photo albums and offering him drinks and food and asking him questions and he just can't keep up.

After what seems like hours of doing his best to answer people's questions and agreeing that yes, Lance was such a cute baby, and yes he will have a glass of water because his throat was starting to get sore, Lance finally manages to extract him from the throng. He has no idea how it happens- one moment he is on the couch telling Lance's little sister that her doll is cute and getting endearing looks from both the owner of the doll and Lance's grandpa who apparently made the doll, and the next thing he knows a door is shutting and the noise gets quieter and Lance is whooshing out a sigh and collapsing onto a bed.

"Sorry about that. I know they can be kinda overwhelming," Lance says.

"They're… nice. I honestly half expected to get murdered by now," Keith admits.

"Nah, they only do that to the real jerks. But you haven't done anything to offend anyone, you haven't chickened out yet, and you've actually managed to score some major points according to my grandma's tally, so things are looking good for you."

"Oh. Good. I think. So, would it be overly optimistic to start asking where you'd like to go for our first date?"

"We-ell, Pidge kinda promised me a ticket to the amusement park that she has yet to cash in on, and since she was so kind about trying to help us out, I was thinking of asking her to scrounge up a second ticket since her dad designed like half the place anyway so I'm pretty sure they still get in for dirt cheap, and if it's alright with you…"

"Roller coasters? Count me in. I bet I can go longer without screaming."

"Oh it's on." Lance grins, but he can't help but remember the arcade.

"Just, are you sure it won't be too much or anything?" he asks.

"Why would it be too much?"

"Just, like, at the arcade, you seemed kinda upset and so I thought maybe you ended up a little overstimulated. Like, I guess you're kinda more introverted than me, like a lot more, and-"

"I was kinda upset because I didn't like seeing you flirting with your fans."

"Flirting… with? Fans? Huh?"

"When you were dancing off against Lotor. Afterwards there were all these girls, and, well, I kinda got jealous."

"Okay, just a warning, I'm about five seconds from laughing at you, because dude, if they hadn't gotten in my way I was totally on my way to use my champion's rights to demand you go another round with me."

"Oh."

"Yeah. So, it wasn't the arcade itself that bothered you then?"

"No."

"So we could go back sometime? And I could teach you how to master all the shooting games and the moves to win the dancing ones?"

"Sure. Sounds great."

"Cool."

A knock on the door comes, and Lance's mom pops her head in to ask if Keith wants to watch some home videos.

"Awww, maaaaaa, not the one of my kindergarten graduation," Lance whines.

Lance's mother's only response is the twinkle in her eyes as she leaves the room, leaving the door open.

"What's so bad about your kindergarten graduation?" Keith asks.

"I uh, I kinda sorta tripped on my way up the stage. And ripped my little graduation gown. And had my pants fall down. And let's just say the rest has to be seen to be believed, and even then it's a little hard to believe, and it is sheer and utter humiliation in the form of a grainy VHS tape. I have tried to destroy it a few times over the years, but my mom is good at placing decoys. Or she has twenty billion copies. Both are entirely possible."

"Wow. I feel so sorry for you right now."

"Thanks, man."

They go and watch the home videos, and Lance's kindergarten graduation truly is unbelievable. If it weren't for the quality of the film which could only come from a home video that had no special effects, Keith would have thought it was somehow doctored because it was just so unreal. Lance was a walking disaster, and Keith loved it. He loved him. And so when they go for a walk after the movie and end up sitting on a bench together at a park a few blocks away, Keith figures this is about as much privacy as they're gonna get today, and he might as well bite the bullet.

"I'd still be okay with you kissing me, y'know," he tells Lance.

"I'd ask where that came from, but I was kinda thinking about that too, to be honest," Lance admits.

The kiss is nothing to shout about. It's short, and not deep at all, and yet it spreads a comforting warmth through Keith that fills him up with happiness. And then they get up and head back to Lance's place, and Keith talks with Lance's family some more, and when he finally leaves he is sent home with a patchwork quilt made by the McClain family.

That night, even though it is summer and it is hot, Keith sleeps under that quilt. For the first time ever, he has friends, he has a boyfriend, and all in all, it feels pretty darn good.