Summary:
Keith does his laundry and sees a familiar face.
Notes:
Sorry about the wait. Life happened. Updates might slow down but, this will be finished. I don't want this to go much further than twenty chapters max, but I thought this was an important chapter to have to set up future events and to explain how Keith has been managing. Also, I shall be including my notes and things from where this was posted elsewhere. To you lovelies on fanfiction . net I hope you enjoy! (Also I forgot that they don't like link names here
-_-)
Chapter 7: Laundromat Days
Keith didn't mind sleeping outside. After sleeping in a shack in the middle of the desert, it was nice to have the cool earthy ground underneath his sleeping pallet instead of the hot sand that he would sometimes sink into as he walked.
The biggest issue was the bugs, but if he kept himself covered while he slept it wasn't too bad. The next issue was bathing himself. He'd discovered a nearby pond. The water was ice cold whenever he bathed, but he was used to washing himself quickly. The only problem was that he had to pick a time when no one would just… wander off into the woods and find him, but before the bugs started to get too bad.
The last problem, was that he was completely exposed while he slept, so anyone could sneak up on him.
"When is he going to wake up, do you think?"
"Soon if you don't keep your voice down."
Keith's eyes snapped open as he sat up in alarm. He looked around and watched as two cats stood frozen. "Who's there?"
"Easy now, it's just us."
He woke up a bit more and jumped to his feet. He spun around looking for the voice, he didn't see anyone. He heard the cats behind him meow at him again and after another suspicious sweep of the perimeter for intruders, Keith let his attention focus on the felines.
"What d'you want?" He asked tiredly.
The cats looked up at him with their big, yellow eyes and Keith was unnerved by the amount of sentience they seemed to possess. He brushed off the feeling with a joking, "Well, are you going to answer?" he asked with a smile, and the two cats stepped closer tentatively.
Keith stood still as they crept so close to him that he could bend down and touch them easily. The grey one sat elegantly in the dirt while the bulky, yellow tom cat stopped behind her. It was then that Keith recognized her.
"You're Lance's cat."
The cat slowly blinked her eyes, almost as if agreeing with him. Keith wanted to believe it, because that only further proved that his dreams were memories of his past life.
"What are you doing here?" his only response was a long meow that ended with a purr.
Shaking his head, Keith gathered his toothbrush and toothpaste. He headed down to the nearby pond to brush his teeth and rinse his face. He sniffed his clothes and made a face. He decided it was time to wash his laundry.
His teeth cleaned, Keith headed back to his camp to drop off his dental hygiene products and gathered his small pile of laundry. He made his way to his motorcycle and lifted up the seat to store the laundry inside the compartment. The entire time, the two cats had been trailing along behind him, watching him, at first it was unnerving but Keith was slowly getting accustomed to their stares.
He gave them a little salute, "Looks like this is where we part ways for today."
With that, he started his motorcycle and the cats skittered away from the noise. Keith felt a little bad, but it couldn't be helped. He put on his helmet and set off to find a laundromat.
There was one incredibly close, Keith could have walked and gotten there in about an hour if he had wanted to. He parked along the side of the street and set his helmet on the handle before kicking out the stand and shaking his hair to get rid of the weird helmet hair he was sure he had.
He swung his leg over the seat of his motorcycle gracefully so he was standing on the sidewalk and grabbing his laundry from the storage compartment.
"Keith?"
He whipped around, laundry bundled in his arms, and found Lance standing further down the street with a laundry bag in each hand. "Lance?"
The brunet smiled in greeting, "Hey, buddy! How're you doing?" Lance asked as he lugged his bags over to the front of the laundromat where Keith was standing.
Keith watched him struggle before his brow wrinkled with concern. "Do you want some help with that?"
"Nah." Lance puffed. "You look like your hands are full."
Keith looked down at his four sets of clothes and then back at Lance's two bags. He bundled his clothes together and managed to hold them with one arm. He held out a hand, "Here."
"No, really. I got it! I'm used to this."
"Lance." Keith warned before he sighed and just snatched one of the bags out of the other's hand before storming inside.
Lance followed after him at a jog. "It really was fine. I mean, I managed to get them all the way here, the laundromat was like…three feet away from us."
"Then you should have just accepted my help, instead of being difficult." Keith scoffed.
Keith could have sworn he heard Lance mutter, "Drama king." Under his breath, but the comment only made Keith's lips almost twitch into a smile.
Lance pointed him over to a set of three washers that were all side by side waiting to be used. "Just set the bag down there." He then opened up one of his laundry bags and revealed detergent and softener containers resting on top of more clothes.
Keith's eyes widened because… he'd forgotten that he needed to bring his own soap to these places.
Lance noticed his horror, "What's the matter?"
"I forgot to bring soap." Keith confessed dejectedly.
"That's fine, you can use some of mine!" Lance answered cheerily and Keith could have sworn that a beam of light shone on Lance through the window.
"Thanks."
"No problem." Lance waved away the gratitude before he pulled out a sleeve of quarters and Keith felt like the biggest dumbass to ever walk the face of the earth.
His bank card and license felt like they were burning in his back pocket.
"Does this place, uhh, accept cards?"
Lance burst out laughing as he recapped the detergent he had finished pouring. When Keith didn't join him, he looked over and found Keith's miserable expression. Lance smiled softly before he smirked. "Well, I suppose you can throw your laundry in with mine, but just this once. Okay?"
Keith nodded fervently before he tossed his clothes into the washer before Lance closed it and hit the start button on all of them.
Lance turned to Keith when he'd finished. "Wanna go across the street and wait at the local coffee shop?"
Keith's eyes widened. "Uhh, I don't really feel…comfortable leaving my clothes here."
"What? Scared someone's gonna take 'em?"
Keith rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and didn't answer.
Lance sighed, "Look, if someone is going to steal our wet laundry then they probably need them more than we do."
Keith wasn't sure about that, but he allowed himself to be pulled along across the street to the coffee shop. They sat down and ordered coffee as they sat in one of the window seats at Keith's insistence. Lance talked a lot about the town and how he worked at a nearby veterinary clinic. Keith kept finding his eyes drawn to the entrance of the laundromat to make sure that no one suspicious was entering and that no one was leaving with any familiar clothes.
He found himself distracted from his vigil when Lance stopped talking and looked at him meaningfully.
"Pardon?" Keith asked and Lance pouted.
"I asked you if you did your laundry every week or something."
Keith's eyebrows rose in surprise, "No. This is the first time in uhhh…" He didn't want to say a month… but, "About a month."
"A month!" Lance choked on his coffee but waved away Keith's concerns, "But you only had like… a handful of clothes!"
Keith shrugged and took a sip from his coffee.
Lance grabbed his wrist firmly, "Keith… are you…" he looked around before whispering conspiratorially, "In trouble?"
Keith sputtered with laughter. "What? No!" He couldn't help the laughter that spilled past his lips. "That was just all I managed to pack before I…moved."
Lance raised a single brow in disbelief before he shrugged and let go of Keith's wrist. "If you say so." Then he paused as realization struck him. "Wait. You mean to tell me that you don't have anything else?"
Keith nodded and Lance looked like he'd heard one of the most heinous crimes imaginable.
"We're going clothes shopping." Lance announced, Keith opened his mouth but Lance interrupted him with an ordered, "And don't give me any lip."
Keith's mouth snapped shut before he sighed and allowed a tired smile.
Lance's phone went off and he was quick to mute it before it bothered anyone else in the café. "Looks like our laundry's done."
He waved over the waitress and got the bill, Keith slapped his card on top of it and handed it to the waitress himself so that Lance couldn't pay even if he wanted to.
"For the laundry." Keith explained when Lance complained about his actions. "Just this once." He quoted with a smirk.
Lance froze before he laughed heartily. "Alright, you got me on that one, buddy."
They made their way across the street to the laundromat and the pair of them transferred all of the clothes from the three washers to two dryers. They had to cram their things inside in order for them to fit, but that was all that was available.
Lance leaned back after the lint catchers were cleaned and the dryers had all started. "So, yeah. Clothes shopping. I'm gonna ask my mom if we can borrow the car tomorrow and we can get you some clothes."
Keith looked down and nodded. He wasn't used to people being this nice to him. Hell, even during his parents' funeral all he got were some sad looks and some empty apologies before he was left behind to grieve.
"Keith?"
At Lance's voice, Keith found himself dragged from his thoughts. He wasn't quite sure if Lance knew how grateful he was that he had stopped him from spiraling. It was much better than letting himself get worked up before he had to calm down himself.
"Yeah, that'd be nice."
Lance smiled and Keith felt the jagged edges of his emotional wounds soothed.
They continued to talk to each other before the dryers were finished. Keith picked out his clothes and stuffed them into the compartment under the seat of his motorcycle. He turned to Lance. "You want a lift?"
Lance looked at him skeptically. "How are we both gonna fit with my bags?"
Keith patted the seat and helped Lance settle down when he finally relented. Then, he piled the bags on his lap. "Just hold onto these."
Keith took the helmet off of his handle and almost placed it on his head without thinking, before he gently slid the helmet over Lance's head, careful of his ears. Lance looked up at him, but Keith couldn't see his expression through the dark visor on the helmet.
With a satisfied smile, Keith snagged the spare space between Lance's legs covered by the laundry bags, and fired up the engine.
"You might want to hold on to my shoulders or waist if you can." He advised. He waited until he felt Lance's hands grasp his shoulders before he released the kickstand and drove to Lance's house. He performed some of the gentlest driving he had ever done. When he stopped, it barely jostled anything.
It didn't take more than a few minutes and they were back at Lance's place. Keith helped Lance get up from the seat and held the laundry bags until he was firmly on the ground.
Lance took off the helmet and set it on the handle like Keith had it before, and batted his eyelashes dramatically as he looked up at Keith. "I had a great time tonight."
Keith looked up at the sky, "But it's still daytime?"
Lance just laughed, "It was a joke, Keith." When the other kept looking at him in confusion, Lance sighed, "Don't worry about it. Thanks again for the ride and buying my coffee."
Keith looked down shyly, "Well, thank you for letting me do my laundry today and inviting me for coffee."
Lance gave another one of his heaven-sent smiles before he nodded and headed inside with his laundry bags.
Keith took a moment to remain awestruck, then he drove back up the hill and parked before he made his way back to his little camp. Today was a good day.