Lance pulled into Keith's driveway at precisely seven pm, which was the agreed upon time. He was wearing his favorite blue button down and khakis. Lance thought he looked pretty good, if he did say so himself. Keith, however, was a bit of a mess. Mentally, of course. Physically, Keith looked great. Allura stood behind him, combing out his hair and straightening out his red polo shirt. "Allura, stop!" Keith whined, sounding reminiscent of a five year old. "Keith, I am the only reason you ever look presentable when you go out on a date so shut up." Shiro looked up from his book and adjusted his reading glasses. "She's right, Keith."

Keith didn't want to talk about it. "It's not a date, and will you two knock it off? He's probably right outside!" As soon as Keith closed his mouth, the doorbell rang. Allura reached for the doorknob but Keith tried to stop her. "No! Shut up!" "Keith, calm down!" "Shiro, help me out here!"

Lance's first impression of the Shirogane family all together was a pretty good description of how things usually worked around that house. Allura tucked a strand of hair behind Keith's ear while he tried to wrestle himself away from her. Shiro towered awkwardly at 6'2, trying to figure out what to do about his brother and his soon-to-be wife. He had a pair of reading glasses wedged up onto his head. It was pretty chaotic. Lance loved it. He stood there, grinning like an idiot until the brothers and Allura realized that the door was open. "Lance!" Allura said, and reached out the threshold to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Shiro greeted him with a bro-hug, and Keith stood there awkwardly biting his lip. "Hi," he said.

Lance extended a hand. He wants to shake hands, Keith thought. How very heterosexual of him. So obviously, Keith as well put a hand out. But he was most certainly not expecting Lance to take his hand, say to Shiro and Allura. "We'll be home soon!" and proceed to lead Keith to the blue BMW waiting in the driveway.

As soon as they got into the car, Lance starting talking. "So a buddy of mine, Hunk, owns a cafe downtown... he wanted me to be there for the grand opening, but a seal at the aquarium I work for was having her babies that night."

"You work at an aquarium?"

"Yeah, while I'm getting my marine sciences degree. What about you?"

"I'm studying to be a bio-med engineer, even though Shiro wanted me to be a police officer like him."

"Well I'm sure you're a fantastic engineer." Lance didn't know why he'd said that. Stupid. Keith looked out the window and blushed. They sat in silence for a little while too long. "Do you mind if I put on some music?" Lance broke the quiet. "No, not at all. What do you listen to?" Keith asked. "A bit of everything. Except country. I hate country."

Keith laughed. "What did country ever do to you?"

Lance shrugged and twisted the volume dial. Queen B blasted out of the BMW's speakers and Lance starting singing along. "I can see your halo!"

Keith stared. Lance had a nice voice. Was there anything he couldn't do?

"Ha-loooo-ooooo!"

Lance paused and turned to Keith. "Sing!"

Keith didn't want to admit that he had never purposely listened to Beyoncé. "Um, halo?"

Lance laughed and pulled into a parking lot. The cafe looked Olive Garden-esque, and Keith was glad he'd neither over or underdressed. But then he started to freak. Lance's friend owned this place, right? He was going to meet a friend! How would Keith be introduced to the friend? As a fellow friend? As something else? Shut up Keith, he thought to himself. Just be chill. They got out of the car and walked up to the entrance. Lance pulled the door open and bowed forward. "After you," he said with a ridiculous accent.

Keith scoffed and smiled. Lance walked up to the hostess. "Table for two, please." She led us to a table and put two menus in front of us. Lance reached up and took the girl's glasses. "Lance!" Keith said, surprised. He can't just do that, right? Lance put on the glasses and stared at the menu for a moment. Then he spoke. "I think I'll take a hug from my best friend to start out!"

The girl laughed and took her glasses back. Lance stood up and gave her a bear hug. "How are you, Pidgeon?" he asked, and gave her a mocking kiss on the cheek. She rolled her eyes. "I've told you how I feel about the name Pidgeon, Lance."

Keith studied 'Pidgeon.' She was short, shorter than him and Allura, with a messy ginger bob cut. Owl eye glasses sat on the bridge of her nose, and her hands sat on her hips while she glared playfully up at Lance.

Lance gave her another playful kiss on the cheek, and turned back to Keith. "Keith, this is Pidge. Pidge, meet Keith!"

Pidge's eyes widened. "You're Keith?" She looked back at Lance, seemingly impressed. Lance elbowed her and sat back down. Pidge looked down at him. "Seriously, what do you want? Just give me your drink orders to start."

"I'll take an iced tea. Hunk knows how I like it." Lance said. He looked over at Keith. "What about you?"

Keith swallowed. "Uh, just a ginger ale is good, thanks."

Pidge walked into the kitchen to get their drinks. "You should get the quesadillas," Lance recommended. "I stole one of my mom's recipe cards and gave it to Hunk. What about you? Who cooked in your family before you move out, your mom or dad?"

Keith looked down. "I, um, don't really have either. My mom died right after I was born, and my dad left pretty early too. Me and Shiro spent a lot of time in foster care."

Lance took Keith's hand in his. "Well, now you're in college and you've got a family too, right? So I guess it all ended up pretty good!"

God, his smile, Keith thought to himself. Lance had such an infectious smile, it gave Keith butterflies in his stomach. Keith smiled back. "Yeah, you're right."

Pidge came back and plonked two drinks onto the table. "Do you guys know what you're ordering yet?"

"Lance says I'm having the quesadillas. Can I get them with chicken and no onions?" Keith asked. Pidge nodded and turned to Lance. "What about you, Lancey Lance?"

Lance was about to answer but Keith snorted. Lance looked mildly offended. "Lancey Lance? You're such a loser!" Keith kept laughing. Lance smiled, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. Keith saw that and immediately regretted ever opening his mouth. "Tell Hunk to surprise me, Pidge."

Once she had left, Keith looked over at Lance, who was pretending to study the dessert specials. "Hey," Keith said. Lance looked up. "Yeah?" he answered, with another fake smile. "I didn't mean that, okay? I'm really sorry. Lance, there's nothing you can't do."

Lance's smile went back to normal. "Thanks, Keef."

Keith froze. "What did you just say?"

"Yeah, that's what Shiro and Allura call you to piss you off, right?"

"My name isn't Keef!" Keith whined. "I can't believe that they told you that!"

Lance laughed. "Is it true that you used to watch hippo documentaries to relax?"

"Shut up!" Keith should have been mad, but he wasn't. "I'm so going to kill Shiro..."