Work Text:
Lance was nervous. So nervous that he could feel the sweat beads trickle one after another down his brow. He had no idea that his first time at an office party would make him this nervous. Usually, he was the king at parties. But, that was at college. Now, with his peers and boss being there, he had to show off who he was when he was off work hours, and he had no idea how his coworkers would react to him.
He had gone for a more casual look than the regular suit and tie look he had every day the first month at his new job in the firm. He went with a dark blue shirt, and black slacks. Something he felt would be appropriate for his first office party. The men and women on the 7th floor were nice. Nice to the degree that Lance hadn’t felt like himself in a long, long, time.
Matt, his desk mate, and friend, had taken him to a bar before they made their way over to the office where the rest of the firm were already boozed up and chatting with each other. Lance had to loosen a button from his dark blue button down, he could feel the heat of his nerves hitting him.
“Dude, it’s just the firm, you’ve met pretty much everyone already.” Matt slapped him a couple times on the back when they walked down the block their building stood.
“I know, but we’re talking about all of the floors at this party. I’ve met with like the first seven floors. How are the people on the floors higher than ours? Are they going to eat me alive?” Lance huffed out a nervous breath, thinking about the Sharks on the floors above his own.
Matt chuckled beside Lance, his cheeks flushed from having a beer or two more than him. Having a couple beers in the bar with Matt was refreshing and exactly what Lance needed before manning up to meet with his coworkers he had met and not met with yet. The sweat beads on Lance’s brow were building up again and racing down his temple.
He felt a hard slap on his back.
“Lance! Relax! Everyone already loves you, and those assholes on the 8th floor will love you, too. I bet they’ve already heard so much about you, and look forward to meeting you.” Matt hiccuped, a goofy, drunken smile spreading on his pinky face.
Lance had gone to college with his little sister, Pidge. That was how he landed the job in this high-end firm, and he remembered he promised Pidge to befriend Matt and take care of him for her as he had a knack at disappearing from time to time. How and where he disappeared to, no one knew, but Pidge always blamed at how free-spirited her brother was. If he ever called in sick for a couple days that would only indicate that he was on one of his getaways .
The first month in the firm had gone swimmingly in Lance’s opinion, and all of the people who worked on his floor and below him were the nicest people he knew of. They were always helpful, and made sure that Lance felt like he belonged in their firm. But, the rumors of the higher levels had unnerved Lance.
He had heard different stories about them being called the Sharks of their firm. Always a trick or two up their sleeves to reel in customers. Some of them were rumored to be so good looking that when a customer came on to their level they would be out within a minutes’ time and had already made an offer to one of the workers there.
Lance had always wondered who worked on the 8th floor, but he never dared to take the elevator up that floor, or let alone be bold enough to walk up the short steps to that floor. At times, when he thought back to his high school and college days, he would have thought of himself as good looking, powerful and charming enough to win over girls and boys who he took a liking to, but listening to his coworkers talk about the Sharks who resided above his desk...
A shiver ran down Lance’s spine causing him to dread going to the office party even more. He did not want to be made fun of by the Sharks. Feeling degraded was the worst feeling in Lance’s opinion, but maybe since there would be alcohol involved, the Sharks would be more vulnerable, their charms ineffective on Lance. He could only hope while he took a new deep breath as they neared the entrance to their ten story building.
“I forgot to mention.” Lance heard Matt behind him while he fished for his access card to let him in the building. Lance had noticed from their floor, that there were lights in different colors flashing indicating a party was definitely going on.
“What? Matt, tell me…” Lance grumbled, dreading what he was going to say. He shouldn't have gone along to going to this party. Usually a party was Lance’s favorite place to be, but now that he was a 23 year old and had to prove how much of an adult he has become for his friend’s brother, a party was the last thing on his mind.
“There is one Shark you should stay away from. He’s...good. Let’s just say that.” Matt winked a honey colored eye at Lance.
“What’s that supposed to mean? I’m not going to hook up with anyone at work, Matt. I won’t go that far to ruin my career. I’ve only been here a month. Think how embarrassing that would be to have to meet with him every day at work after hooking up...specially if it ends up badly.” Lance waved a tan hand at Matt when he opened the glass door after it beeped them in.
“Matt! Lance! Finally, the others are waiting up stairs.” Romelle, a coworker, and Matt’s crush, smiled broadly at them, her strawberry blonde hair up in a high ponytail, diamonds sparkling from her lobes.
Matt had forgot how to blink when he took in how amazing his work crush looked in a short black skirt and a tight red sweater. Her smile had blinded him when she made her way over to Lance and him, holding a glass of red wine, the same color of her lips.
“Hey Roe-Roe, why are you down here? Party too much for you? Maybe we should all turn around and go home? Sounds like a good idea.” Lance was turning around to leave, but felt a slim hand catch the back collar of his shirt.
“Hold up, McClain. I saw you two walking down the street from the window. Matt was texting me about how nervous you were for the party. Thought I would come down to make sure you wouldn’t cower and run away. You’re better than that. What happened to that overly confident jackass who we got to meet during your interview?” She smirked at Lance, reminding him of his interview with her and his boss.
Romelle was Lance’s boss, Shiro’s, assistant. She did everything for him, including joining him in on interviews for new employees. He trusted her with so much, that her opinion on new employees meant as much to him as his own opinion. Why Romelle hadn’t started her own firm, was on them. She pretty much lead their floor, and even better than Shiro could have ever done since he lead all the floors, and was mostly situated on the 8th floor with the Sharks.
“Damn it, Matt…” Lance groaned at him, but took the beer from Romelle when she held one up to his face as a peace offering, “Let’s get this night over with. I feel tired already.” He took a long swallow of his beer, wiping his mouth before following his coworkers into the elevator to lift them up to the 7th floor.
“So, everyone is on our floor for this party?” Matt asked Romelle, who was humming to the tune on the elevator. It was the same tune from the past month Lance had worked here and he was so sick of that tune he wanted to punch something, but it could have been his nerves taking over his body causing him to think a bit uncontrollably at the moment.
“Yupp…” She side-eyed Lance, then looked back at Matt, “Everyone.” A low giggle escaped her when she winked at Matt, probably some kind of inside joke they shared, Lance thought. He took a new swallow of his beer, but it was empty.
“Lance?” Romelle patted his shoulder, he craned his neck, his blue eyes the look of dread, like a storm was on its way.
“What? I’m nervous okay, we can’t do anything about it. I haven’t met the Sharks yet, and my shirt is already sweaty, what if I make a really bad first impression on them?” Lance tried to air his arm-pits, but Matt and Romelle couldn’t do anything but laugh at him.
“Seriously, that’s why you’re so nervous? You’re scared of meeting the Sharks for the first time? You’ll never see them again until the next office party so you have nothing to worry about.” Matt laughed, but his look told Lance to remember about one specific Shark he had to keep away from, but Matt never told him who. Now he felt even more nervous and wanted to jump off the building as soon as the elevator dinged the doors open.
“Lance, you’re amazing at first impressions. You even impressed Shiro and no one impresses Shiro. You and one other worker as been able to make him crack a smile, well, besides his hunky husband, but he doesn’t work here.” Her dark blue eyes looking like they were experiencing a really good dream.
Matt waved a hand in her face, a low hum leaving her, “Yupp, she’s thinking about Adam again.” He flicked a finger on her small button nose, “Yo, Roe-Roe! You know Adam’s your boss’ husband, and they’re gaaay.” Matt made a grumpy face, one of pure jealousy for the girl who was lusting for a taken, gay man, who apparently was married to her boss.
“A girl can dream.” She smiled, then winked at Lance.
The elevator dinged on the 5th floor, the doors sliding open to welcome in two new workers. They were both heavily intoxicated, and screamed when they noticed Lance, Matt and Romelle.
“Allura! Hunk! So good to see you guys! What were you doing on the 5th floor?” Romelle asked their coworkers who worked on said floor in Sales.
“Roe-roe!!!!” Allura screamed, holding a whole bottle of white wine and downing the bottle before she started grabbing Lance and squishing his face with her cheek, “And you brought Loonce!!!” She shouted happily.
“We snuck away from the party to do some shots!” Hunk laughed loudly, but he didn’t look drunk at all, Lance thought.
“Did the shots work?” Lance tried to say, but it came out like Ddd shhootts werk because his face was currently being squished by a black-haired beauty who he had tried to impress the first day he started, but was shot down the second he opened his mouth, and instead, they settled to be good friends who had started having Wino Tuesdays at her place to chat about the other workers at their firm.
“I like to think they did. See!” Hunk pointed to himself walking in a straight line in the elevator but there was so little space he only managed to walk two steps from one side to the other, but it was in a perfect line, he was not drunk at all.
“Wow, you’re so drunk.” Matt held two thumbs up to Hunk, and the whole lot in the elevator tipped their heads up when they heard the ding to their floor.
“Let’s get this party started, McClain.” Matt pushed Lance out of the elevator and into a jungle of flashing lights and a large sea of familiar and unfamiliar faces from his firm.
“You know you can call me Lance, Matt…” Lance grumbled feeling he needed to dart to the bar immediately to drown his nerves.
When he turned to find Matt, he was gone, as was Romelle, Allura and Hunk. All on his own, he made his way through the sea of talking coworkers, and a jungle of entangled bodies dancing to the music playing extremely loud.
All of the desks had been moved to the side of the floor to make room for a large dance floor in the middle of the wide spaced room. Lance spotted a bar made of a row of six desks, and chairs placed nearby for other coworkers to sit down and chat instead of dance. If there were any Sharks on the floor, Lance wasn’t quite sure as he was set on finding a drink before being found by any of the Sharks, or the certain Shark Matt was talking about.
Beers, spirits, wine bottles and cans of sodas were all lined up perfectly on the desks. There were also chips, popcorn and other accessories to make cocktails or to shot drinks if needed. This had to be Romelle’s doing, Lance was thinking. He took in how perfectly everything was placed on the desks, and how no one had dared to place a bottle out of its spot since she usually flipped if anything was out of line when she was in charge of anything.
Lance grabbed a new beer, opening the bottle and taking a long, hard sip of the liquid substance that made his brain finally start to fuzz a bit, his nerves calming down radically. Another sip, then another, until he had to grab a new beer when the one he had just grabbed was empty.
As his nerves slowly but steadily left his body, he felt the old Lance was finally popping up. His shoulders slumping down in a more relaxed manner. His shirt not as sweaty as it was before he came. He remembered he had a small perfume in his back pocket and rushed to spritz his neck in a speed of light to make sure it masked any smell of sweat.
He felt his mouth went from a worried frown to a more relaxed grin as he took in the party before him. Sharks. Where were these Sharks he had been so scared of, Lance thought. He wanted to find them and show them who he was, and that he was not scared of them. At least while he was tipsy at least. When the weekend was over, sober Lance could take care of anything that happens tonight, he thought as he roamed his floor.
He found Romelle, Matt and Allura dancing in the sea of bodies jumping up and down, or twirling till their hearts’ content. He didn’t feel like dancing, he wanted to find the Sharks. Matt caught his blue gaze, and noticed he pointed to a certain person who was sitting by himself drinking from a red solo cup looking all gloomy and emo.
Lance tried to read Matt’s lips while he danced with the girls. His mouth was making an O, so it could either be a big No , or Go . Lance darted his gaze to the man sitting alone, and woah, he thought. The man was gorgeous, or so Lance thought he was in the dark corner he sat in. Darkness could trick Lance, but he wanted to see if he was as gorgeous as he thought he was from where he stood and noticed the gloomy, mysterious man with the long, raven black hair taking a new sip from his red solo cup.
Go. It was definitely go Matt was mouthing to Lance and he made his way quickly over to the dark haired man with the gorgeous face in the darkness. Lance didn’t notice when Matt face-palmed as he walked by the dance floor, his only destination the corner of the 7th floor.
Before Lance reached the man sitting alone, he took in what he really looked like as the darkness became brighter the closer he got to the man. He was wearing black slacks and a white shirt tucked neatly into his slacks. He he had a thin red tie loosely tied around his neck, and black leather fingerless gloves hugging his hands. His face. Man, Lance thought. He had a face Lance could fall asleep dreaming about every night, with his milky white complexion and porcelain skin. Lance felt like licking his cheek. He shook his head when that weird thought popped up in his head.
He grabbed a stool and sat down next to the gorgeous man, manning up to use a pick-up line on him, but which one he wasn’t sure until the perfect one appeared in his brain, “Hey.” The dark haired man lifted his gaze, Lance catching stunning gray eyes. He swallowed, then said, “You come here often?” In his best seducing voice while he smiled lopsided at the dark haired man, then laughed a bit at his own pickup line.
The dark haired man cocked a thick black brow at Lance, then his eyes widen a bit when he finally made a good look at Lance. He chuckled, “Of course, I work here.” He said, as he comes closer to Lance, sizing him up with his steel gray eyes, pinning Lance in his seat.
“Lance?” He asks as if he recognized him, Lance blue eyes shimmering in the disco lights from the party.
He knew his name. Okay, fine, he did work at the same firm as him, and sure he might be on the floors below him so Lance had never met him but he could have heard about the new guy, Lance McClain.
“The one and only.” He smirks, but feels off still not quite sure what to do or say to the gorgeous man.
“Lance Alvero McClain?” He calls Lance by his full name, and now he had no idea how he knows this personal information.
“Wait, how do you know my full name? Have you been snooping in the archives here at work?” Lance crosses his legs feeling like someone knew his deepest darkest secrets, which weren’t that deep or dark for that matter.
The man chuckles lightly, standing up nodding his head at the bar. Lance joins him to the bar to grab a new beer. He was intrigued by this man, and not because of his insanely good looks, but because he must have known who Lance was, but Lance had no idea who he was.
His beer tasted delicious as he downed the whole thing within a couple sips and grabbed a new one for good measure. His coworkers were lost in the party somewhere, and he didn’t have the sudden urge to find them quite yet.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” The gorgeous man asks him, taking a sip from his red solo cup, a smile forming when the cup neared his mouth.
Lance frowns at him, “I don’t...who are you?” He took a new sip of his beer, blue eyes electrifying the man to keep on talking.
“Keith? Keith Kogane?” He began, but his grin sunk, “Seriously? You don’t remember me at all?” He pleads.
Lance shoots a thin brow up, “Hmmm...I’m positive I would remember someone with a face like yours.” He said without thinking, a grimace finding his face at how uncool that sounded.
Keith laughs loudly and plants a gloved hand on Lance’s shoulder, “Damn...that’s a good one. Still, I’m kinda bummed you don’t remember me.” Keith’s voice goes from chippery to sad, his face staring at the bottom of his red solo cup.
“We can get to know each other now though. You work here, right?” Lance coos, feeling more bold now that the alcohol had made its way in his bloodstream.
Keith chuckles again, downing the rest of his cup, “No one warned you of me, huh. Guess it’s my lucky night.” He winked at Lance, but makes an aggressive breath.
“What is it? Are you still hung up on me not remembering who you are..” Lance plants his tan hands on his hips.
“Yeah, actually I am. We went to high school together, I was a year ahead of you. You blacked out once during P.E., remember that?” He said in an angry tone, closing in on Lance’s face.
Heat had found Lance’s cheeks when he noticed how close Keith stood. He could see the flashing lights reflect in Keith’s irises, “I do remember blacking out once. Someone had shot a soccer ball pretty hard to my temple, I went out like a light.” Lance laughs at the sudden memory flashing before him.
“And then you woke up in the nurse’s room. Haven’t you ever wondered how you got there?” Keith tilted his head to the side, a lopsided smile spreading on his gorgeous face.
Everything was coming back to Lance. Long black hair resting on the back of his neck. His broad shoulders, and strong arms carrying him to the nurse’s office. He had regained vision for a split second and a younger version of Keith’s face had appeared before him. Fuck, Lance thought.
Now he remembered who Keith was. He was the star athlete at their high school. He remembered how much he hated him, and how much he wished that Keith carrying him to the nurse’s office had never happened. After that day when he was carried in Keith’s arms, he decided to continue to hate him and ignore him for the rest of his high school days, or at least until Keith graduated.
And now, here he was. Working at the same firm as him. Remembering him, looking like, well, like that . Lance did remember that he thought Keith was hot back then too, but he was so hung up on how much he hated him and all the attention he got during those years in high school. Whenever Lance did something worth noting, Keith swooped right in and took his slot at being noticed or praised.
Keith smiled, “You do remember. I can see it on your face, how much you hated me.”
“That was a long time ago, Keith. I don’t hate you now. I don’t even know you, I never knew you back then either.” Lance said loudly through the blasting dance music, “Besides that was like 6 years ago, how did you even remember me.” Lance almost bonks his forehead on Keith’s in irritation.
“Well..” Keith made a sly smile at Lance, tapping off his red solo cup, then drinking it in front of him before he said, “You have a face that’s hard to forget.” At that, Keith winks a steely eye at Lance.
Lance was struck, standing completely still at what Keith told him. He had no idea how to answer that. Slick. This man was slick. He knew what he was doing, and Lance felt helpless. All he wanted was to get to know Keith even better now.
“So, Alvero McClain...if I remember correctly, since I have an amazing memory compared to others.” His voice sounded like honey, Lance thought, “Before you knew who I was. I think you were hitting on me…” Keith drinks up his fifth cup for the night, “Proceed.” He made a pleasant sound after drinking up his drink.
Lance turned around and caught Matt in his field of vision. Matt was pointing both hands at Keith. What? Lance mouthed at Matt, but it was hard to decipher what he was trying to tell him, and there wasn’t time, he had to keep on hitting on Keith apparently since his voice was able to do that to Lance. Persuasion. He was good at that. Lance, on the other hand, was not.
“Cat got’cha tongue, Lance? Which floor do you work on?” Keith asked nonchalantly almost looking bored now.
“7th floor, the one we’re on now. My desk...is somewhere in this mess.” Lance tried to scope out his desk, but it was nowhere to be found in the flickering darkness.
“Cool, that makes me on top of you.” Keith winked, a flush of heat finding Lance’s whole body.
“Excuse me!?” Lance shouted through the music, his whole body turning into a furnace.
“Chillax, McClain. I’m on the 8th floor, above you. Top.” He winked again, pointing a single finger at the ceiling, causing a ruckus in Lance’s pants.
His whole body was swaying, cheeks definitely the color of bright red apples. His pants had gotten tighter for some reason, and he could feel those sweat beads coming back. Shit, why did he feel like this with someone he used to hate? Granted, he had never been able to really get to know the guy, but he was so intimidating and had a large following when Lance went to high school. No way did he ever remember Lance. This had to be some kind of ploy of his, and unfortunately, it was working on him.
“Dude!? What did you think I meant?” Keith said when he took in Lance’s panicked state.
Lance felt bold again, he wanted to prove to Keith that he was able to take care of himself, show him who’s really boss even if he was on the floor above him, which would make him a Shark of all things, but Lance didn’t have time to think about that at the moment, he wanted to make this hot guy swoon for him.
He bared his teeth, making the best wicked grin he had in a long, long, time. Lancey-Lance was coming back. Prepare to meet your doom, Keith, Lance thought when he said, “That’s for me to know, and you to find out, Samurai.” He then winked a blue-green eye at Keith, managing to make his gorgeous face cough up his drink in surprise.
“Fuck, I like where this is going...wanna get out of here?” Keith boldly asks Lance, and all Lance can do is nod. For so help him, he never wanted to come here to begin with.