TWO

Lance pushed opened the door to the small house he lived in off the GA Academy campus. "Hunk!" he shouted as he shrugged off his jacket, dropped his backpack on kitchen table and made his way into the living room. "Hunk!" he shouted again.

"He's not home," Pidge said, lying on the floor on his back, his thick black framed glasses askew on his face, watching what looked to be a ten year old documentary of ship mecha on the television upside down. Empty soda cans and potato chip crumbs surrounded him. Lance cringed, as he took in what the seven year old had been up to. He counted up the soda cans, 1, 2...6!

"No more soda!"

Pidge stuck his tongue out at him, it was blue, Lance decided he didn't want to know. "If I am home when you are bouncing the walls at three in the morning, Pidge. Do not, I repeat do not come into my room and start talking to me about differential equations in quantum mechanics and how you think you can practically apply them to create a time machine. Do you understand me?"

"Will you stop teasing me about that, I was six, I was just a kid I didn't know time machines were just science-fiction."

"Where is Hunk?"

"I don't know."

"Where are Dai and Katie?"

"Something about the Rabbi and the Buddhist Priest and the wedding..."

Lance spent a minute to try to figure out how that was going to work, then he shook his head. "Whatever, is Hunk coming home tonight?"

"How should I know."

"Cause we aren't allowed to leave you alone at night, Shortstuff," Lance snapped. "And I hopefully have a hot date," Lance pulled out his phone.

"Whatever," Pidge muttered. "I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"It's one the hard rules the GA Academy Chancellor gave Hunk when he took you in, and got me all wrapped up in it. Maybe Katie won't mind watching you?"

Lance pushed a button. "Are you coming home?" He watched Pidge get up and walk into the kitchen and rolled his eyes, screw it let the kid bounce off the walls all night, he could pass his classes in his sleep the little mega-genius. He listened to Hunk tell him where he was and when he expected to get home. "That's too late, oh and by the way why didn't you tell me Keith Kogane is hotter than a fucking volcano?"

"Who?" Pidge asked.

"Keith Kogane," Lance said to Pidge. "No, Hunk, you being straight does not excuse you for not telling me this, if I'd know that I would have been dawdling after flight instruction instead of running straight home - screw my turn with Pidge. Can you get home an hour earlier?"

"I can watch myself!" Pidge yelled.

"Fine, I'm calling your brother and Katie. What do you mean don't bug them they are doing wedding stuff, this is far more important, it's my sex life. Bye," Lance hung up and hit some more buttons. "Hey, Katie, baby!"

"Are you serious," Pidge said sitting back down on the floor and opening another cola.

"Yeah, Hunk's going to be late tonight and I need to get out of here by six. You two going to be home? Will you watch him? Mostly he takes care of himself, you know that..." he eyed Pidge as he shoved a mouthful of potato chips into his mouth and he realized he'd opened a new bag. "Uh, he's just like a cat, low maintenance."

"HEY!" Pidge yelled jumping up and kicking Lance in the shin.

Stifling his yowl, Lance hopped off the pain and bent down and grabbed the new bag of potato chips. "Yes? Yes, thank you Katie! Yeah, bye."

"Okay, I wasn't going to ask but why is your tongue blue?" Lance asked, putting his phone back into his jeans.

"Oh, I ate the last two boxes of sweet and sour candy that were on the kitchen table, when I got home. How come you weren't home, yet?"

"I had to take Kogane to the medbay, couldn't get out of it," Lance frowned and looked at the soda cans again, then the remnants of potato chips. "Okay, you gotta stop eating junk now. No potato chips, and no more soda," he took the can out of Pidge's hand.

"Hey, since when do you actually enforce the rules!"

"When you're one chip away from tossing your cookies and I just lied through my teeth you'd be easy to watch tonight to Katie. You're going to be a hypersonic mega-genius running around all night yammering about who knows what all night. Go brush your teeth, and if you haven't done it already do your homework or something."

Pidge rolled his eyes. "I did it in class."

"Of course you did," Lance rolled his eyes. "Fine, then go online and play one those weird games of yours."

"Whatever," Pidge mumbled and walked off.

Lance walked into the kitchen and poured out the soda left in the can, than put the remaining soda and all the junk food he could see in the cabinet Pidge couldn't reach without climbing up on the counter. They'd put a combination lock on it that so far he hadn't cracked. Hunk thought it was full proof, Lance thought it was a matter of time.

Thinking of time, he looked at the time. He was already running late and damn it he did not want to be late to meet up with Keith. He knew Keith was one of the top students in the Academy, everyone knew that. Hunk had a few other classes with him, said he was sharpest mind in every one of them except Advanced Mecha Mechanics, where Hunk was the top student. Lance knew Keith was the only one who had a chance of beating him out of the top pilot position, that was why he'd started bantering with him during class on the radio. It'd been fun, Keith ribbed him back with a dry wit that he backed up by being a damn good pilot. Lance had to admit sometimes he egged him on just to hear his voice, it was a good smooth voice and now he knew that voice had a mouth attached that looked like it'd look really good doing a bunch of things that didn't include talking.

Keith was built, his flight uniform hadn't hid anything. They were skin tight, Lance sometimes felt like a stick in his, because they didn't hide anything and he just looked skinny and tall in the mirror in the blue flight suits. Keith though looked like he was all lean muscle with broad shoulders and he had an ass Lance was tempting to try bouncing a quarter off of before he'd taken off for home.

What he did do was get a date, for tonight, because there was no way he was going to miss the chance to tap that. He started to think about what he should wear to look at his most edible as he made his way down the hall and poked his head into Pidge's small room - it'd once been a closet, but it worked for the kid. "You good?"

"Fine," Pidge muttered.

Lance sighed, the kid was pouting now great. "What?"

"I just, it's lame that's all."

"What?"

"You and Hunk, having to act like parents just because I had some issues in the dorms."

Lance rolled his eyes. "No, what was lame was a bunch of fourteen and fifteen year olds bullying five year old, Pidge. And the GA putting you in a dorm in the first place and not vetting your roommate better. And trust me Hunk and I taught them a lesson they wouldn't forget. And don't you think this place totally beats the dorms?"

Pidge nodded but then he sighed. "But what about after the wedding when Dai and Katie leave. The Garrets said they'd only keep helping us out if we found two new roommates."

"We'll figure it out, Shortstuff. Look Hunk's only going to be an hour or two late. Katie's going to watch you, so you know she'll probably let you pick the movie tonight and drive Dai crazy with whatever sci-fi classic you pick. You'll have fun, and this weekend I promise I'll take you to the new exhibit at the Science Museum."

"Yeah?" Pidge eyes lit up behind his glasses.

"Yeah, Hunk too, the three of us."

"Cool."

"I'm taking a shower soon, promise me you won't go get any junk food or soda, and did you brush your teeth?"

Pidge stuck out his tongue. It was a little less blue, Lance called it a win. "Yeah, okay, good. Behave while I go make myself look irresistible."

"Do you have that kind of time?" Pidge asked, already playing away on his computer game.

Lance laughed heartily as he opened the door across the hall and walked into the room he shared with Hunk. He had to look good, he had to look really good, if he was going to try to seduce a guy as hot as Keith. He probably had guys falling all over him, but Lance wanted to be the one who won tonight, maybe a few more nights.

He went to his closet and started look through the section he called his Get Laid, skin tight jeans, the shirts that were too dressy to be casual but too casual to be dressy that gave him just the right edge of "I don't care and I know, I'm hot,' somehow it always worked for him. If he tried to be modest, women accused him of being insincere and guys laughed in his face. He'd given up on modesty, he knew he was hot. He was hot, skinny, no matter that he followed the same muscle mass building routine of Hunk. He just never gained as much muscle mass, he just took too much after his father he thought. Well, not too much, he was a conservative banker from the midwest, who had nearly swallowed his tongue the first time he caught his son kissing a boy.

Finally he settled on a pair of pants and a shirt, pulled them out, grabbed a pair of boxer briefs, socks and walked further down the hall to the bathroom. He was running so late, Katie and Dai better get back from their wedding planning thing on time. Lance stripped down, turned on the shower and jumped it not waiting for the water to warm up. He didn't want Keith to think he was standing him up or something.

~~.~~

Keith frowned and folded another pair of jeans back up and put them back in the drawer. He sighed and started digging deeper into his clothes, to the layers he hadn't looked at in months, because he usually just wore the same old tried and true comfortable clothes over and over again. He wanted to look good tonight, because, damn this was an actual date. Lance had really asked him out, he'd waiting around outside the examination room and then asked him out. To celebrate not crashing and dying on the moon, Lance said with a wink. Keith was pretty sure it was a date, a real date, a really real date. He hadn't gone on one in months, and the last one he'd been talked into by a girl named Amelia in his History of Battle Strategies class, and it'd been her really boring gay cousin Clive who'd been visiting her. It'd been the worst date ever, and Keith felt all his dates had been bad dates. It was saying a lot.

Crap, he was a bad date. What if this date went bad, it'd be his fault and he'd landed one with a hot guy, a really really hot guy for once. Keith pulled a pair of jeans, they looked new, in fact he didn't remember them at all. Black, they looked nice, they'd work...maybe? He pulled out another pair of jeans, they were dark blue, similar cut to the black ones he somewhat remembered them. He stared at the two of them.

"Oh for crying out loud," Sven exclaimed, dropping his book with a loud thump onto the floor of their dorm room. "Why are you looking through your clothes like a girl getting ready for her first date?"

Keith blushed, thankful his back was facing Sven. He'd told him what had happened in the cockpit and in Taylor's office, but had left out that after Lance had delivered him to the medical bay he'd stuck around to ask him out. "Uh, I have a date."

Sven chuckled. "So, you are a girl getting ready for her first date."

"Shut up," Keith said and he turned around, holding the two pairs of jeans. "Which ones?"

Sven's dark eyes looked Keith in the face and then looked at the jeans, the he rolled his eyes. "Do I like that Jim Tunn guy to you?"

"It's Tim Gunn, and how do I know that, and no you don't; I just...what do I do here?"

"Wear clothes, meet the guy, hope to get lucky?"

"It's not just any guy, Sven," Keith muttered and he threw both pairs on the bed and started to rifle through his shirts. "I have no good clothes for this, no wonder I only have bad dates."

"Who is it?"

"Lance."

"McClain!"

"Yeah," Keith said.

"Wait, he likes guys too?" Sven asked.

Keith nodded into his drawer, not realizing Sven couldn't see it.

"Keith, are you sure this a date, not just a fly boy bonding thing?"

Keith groaned, this was one of the reasons he hadn't wanted to tell anyone. "He's bisexual," Keith said. "He mentioned it to me like he was ordering a cheeseburger with fries. That doesn't happen unless it's true. It's a date."

"Uh. Did not know that."

"Guess GA rumor mill is slow on something for once. Like did you know that everyone knows I'm gay?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Oh."

"For instance, you never told me, Keith, I heard second hand like I already knew."

Keith straightened up and looked at Sven. "Of course I did."

"No."

"Sure."

Sven laughed. "No, I found out from Amelia when she asked me to apologize to you about her cousin. And you just said, she should be sorry. That was second year, you've never actually told me."

"Oh. Sorry," Keith said, unsure what to say now.

"It's no big deal. Really, I'm not sure how anyone knows because I don't think I've ever heard you say it," Sven laughed again. "Maybe it's because you're always looking at guys butts."

"Less mocking and more helping me pick what to wear?"

Sven sighed and stood up. "I don't know the black pair?"

Keith looked between the jeans, and then put the blue pair back into the drawer. He then threw five different shirts down on the bed and glared at them all.

Sven laughing at him, picked up a few of them, then dropped them back down. "Maybe, I should go get one of the girls on the floor?"

"Don't you dare," Keith yelled.

"I'm getting a girl," Sven said and he left the room, leaving the door open.

"Sven, no, don't!" Keith shouted after him, but it was useless, Sven had walked right into Amelia's room. Then he came out with Amelia.

"She owes you one, doesn't she?" Sven said.

Blushing furiously, Keith groaned and then just pointed to his bed.

"I do owe you, and I'm happy to help Keith," Amelia said. She started to study the shirts he had the bed, holding a few of them up to him and then putting them down. "Where are there more shirts, good jean choice though."

"Thank you," Sven said.

Amelia laughed. "So who is the lucky guy, Keith," Amelia said opening the drawer in his bureau Keith had pointed too.

"Lance McClain."

Amelia whirled around, her brown eyes wide. "Seriously! Wow. I mean I know he's bi, I've seen him at Riff's. Usually, with the staff, I don't think I've ever seen him with anyone male from GA... You must be an exception," she said putting way to much emphasis on the word exception for Keith's taste.

"I doubt that," Keith said.

"Uh huh," Amelia laughed. "Okay, my friend Annie dated him for about three weeks, and believe me that is the longest any girl has ever managed to hold on to him - she said his favorite color is blue." As she spoke she pulled out a blue t-shirt of Keith's he hadn't seen since he'd packed last August before the term started. "Oh this will be perfect, this will show off those arms of yours, awesome." She slapped it onto his chest.

"My arms?"

"Oh Keith, if only know how us girls lament about your gayness," she kissed him on the cheek and started to walk away, but Sven blocked her way.

"Don't I get a kiss too?"

"For what?"

"I picked out the pants," Sven said.

Amelia ducked past him laughing hysterically.

Keith eyed him, rolled his eyes. "Why don't you just ask her out, already instead of embarrassing me."

Sven plopped back on his bed and picked up his book. "I only ask them out if I'm sure they'll say yes. Otherwise it's just a mission of madness."

"And lines like, 'I picked out the pants' will work?" Keith raised his eyebrows.

Sven grumbled and stuck his nose in his book, Keith decided not to laugh out loud given the blush he saw on his friends face and neck. Besides he had a nervous stomach, getting dressed and figuring out what to do with his hair to figure out and less than forty-five minutes to do it in. Keith grabbed his towels, and his bag with his shower essentials. "I'm running late, this is going to be a disaster."

He heard Sven laughing as he walked out the door toward the dorm showers, he frowned, turned back and poked his head back into the door. "I'll tell her you like her if you don't shut up."

Sven stopped abruptly his jaw staying open, his already pale skin paling at the thought.

Keith grinned, it was the small victories, he thought, once again making his way toward the showers. He hoped he looked okay in the outfit Amelia and Sven picked out.