Klance Oneshots

This is really long, but this is the most romantic shit, oh my god. I'm getting cavities from how sweet this is.

"This is why time travel has a possibility of existing, but only in forward travel." Lance concluded. Was this discussion off topic? Yes. Was he still going to entertain the question anyway? Absolutely.

His high school class blinked back at him with the kind of glossed over eyes which told him that he'd lost them a long time ago. Yeah, maybe discussing the science behind time travel was a little advanced for them, even he had trouble wrapping his brain around the completely theoretic idea. But, of course a student brought it up and Lance is a sucker for talking about the theoretical. It was likely a ploy to get them off track and waste class time, but Lance couldn't turn down the bait.

"Will this be on the quiz?" Katherine (a.k.a. the teacher's pet) asked with a terrified glint in her eye.

"Uh, no. You could honestly forget the last fifteen minutes if it didn't interest you at all." Lance glanced at the time. Only ten minutes of class left. Only ten minutes to wrap up a very boring lecture on basic physics. See, Lance loved astrophysics--loved space specifically--but, to understand it all, thus to teach it, he has to get through the basics first. And Lance hated the basics. Likely why he was an easy target for getting the class off track during units one through four. It's also why he's bias for favoring his higher level astronomy classes over the introductory courses. It's a large high school, so he can get away with teaching quite a few classes, which for him, includes: advanced physics, intro to astronomy, advanced astronomy, AP astronomy, and an intro to astrophysics class. And what he didn't get to teach was given to their other physics and astronomy teachers as well. "We're getting back on topic." Lance declared while desperately trying to switch to the next slide before another student asked a question he couldn't resist answering.

Only, finishing his lesson wouldn't be that easy. There was a light knock on the door and Keith Kogane peeked his head in. "I don't mean to interrupt, but an email was sent out about an emergency meeting as soon as school is out. Shiro asked me to double check that everyone knows." The emergency meeting in question was most definitely regarding a recent incident in which a few students broke into the chemical storage room and tried to mix nitric acid with hydrazine, but they were apprehended before they could accomplish it. Lance was sure the meeting was about safer storage of dangerous chemicals. Lance would dwell more on the fact he had to attend an incredibly boring meeting after this if he wasn't so hung up on the fact that Keith was talking to him. A.K.A. the super hot new hire who happens to also be an astrophysics graduate and teaches in the neighboring classroom. Did Lance mention he was hot?

"Oh, a... yeah. Totally got the email." Lance tried to lean on his desk to seem nonchalant and cool, but promptly knocked over his cup of pencils (because teenagers never had pencils and never returned what they borrowed) and only succeeded in making a fool of himself. He tried to ignore the sound of pencils clattering and rolling across his desk because he's totally chill and has bigger things to worry about. Absolutely.

"Okay, I'll see you in the meeting then." Keith gave an inquisitive look to the scattered pencils.

"Okie dokie!" Lance shouted sporadically before the door shut. And then all at once he wanted to curl up under his desk and die.

"What was that?" asked Yasmine, as mischievous grins spread across the faces of his students.

"What was what?" Lance hoped he came off as genuine as he began to collect the writing utensils .

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the way you just acted like a total spaz when Dr. Hottie walked through the door." Sophie, who seemed to be a quiet introvert but was nothing of the sort, leaned forward on her desk.

"McHottie? Is that what you all call Dr. Kogane?" Lance dropped the handful of pencils back into the cup and folded his arms.

"No, but that's definitely what you call him." Laughed Adrian, a student who pretended to be disinterested most of the time, but he was just as interested in crazy theoretical questions as Lance was.

Lance huffed. "I'll end the lesson right now if you all promise never to speak of this again."

There was a collection of nods across the class and Sophie even made a show of zipping her mouth shut and throwing away the key.

The promise didn't last long of course, and Lance hadn't really expected it to. If there's one thing you could always count on teenagers being, it was nosey. And when it came to teachers' personal lives, students were all ears. So, Lance shouldn't have been all that surprised that when he saw the same class the following Monday, Yasmine spoke up. "About the incident that shall not be named, we want in."

"First of all, calling it 'the incident that shall not be named' is still addressing it. Second of all, students shouldn't know their teacher's romantic biz. Lastly, what do you mean you want in?" Lance folded his arms and sat on the corner of his desk.

"Well, we were talking about it over the weekend, and we can help you. If anyone is capable of helping you score a date, it's us. And you're not gonna get anywhere on your own." Sophie explained.

"Especially when you keep stuttering and knocking stuff over." Jose added, a betrayal if Lance had ever saw one. Jose was supposed to have his back; he usually defended Lance and his weird jokes.

"Excuse." Lance made an offended look and then shifted into something suspicious, "What's in it for you?"

"Well, it's a known fact that people are generally more happy when they're in love, and happy people assign less homework." Skylar joined in.

"Dr. Kogane assigns a lot of homework." Sophie groaned annoyed.

"And, if we're successful, one class we get to skip lecture and watch a movie instead." Yasmine added thoughtfully to the reward.

Lance seemed to ponder a moment. "How would you help anyway? What are you gonna do?" He wasn't actually going to consider this, that would be crazy! But he was a little curious.

"We already made a plan and it's solid. Trust." Adrian pulled out a notebook and waved it in the air.

"You know, if you spent half as much time on your homework as you did meddling..." Lance pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Come on Dr. McClain! Just give us a chance. We made a diagram and everything." Sophie begged.

Lance looked at the faces of his desperate students. He was a sucker for a well-made diagram. "You have to be casual. And I mean casual. Don't make it obvious. My other condition is we can't talk about it during class. And, if this is somehow miraculously successful, it has to be a space related movie." Everyone broke out in cheer and excitement. "Just don't make me regret this."

The moment class ended, there was a huddle among the students. "Phase one is officially being put into motion. Everyone, remember your lines if you have them."

"What's phase one?" Lance raised an eyebrow curiously.

Yasmine turned around, "Phase one involves talking good about you in front of Dr. Kogane. Like, 'Oh Dr. McClain is such a good teacher, I want to be an astrophysicist just like him!'" She batted her eyelashes teasingly.

Lance groaned in annoyance, "Just don't make it obvious."

"Trust us, we won't. We're master manipulators." She nodded.

"I don't think that's something you want to be good at." Lance shook his head and reluctantly accepted his fate.

Two days later, he had the same class again. As the students entered the room, Yasmine saluted him at his desk, "Dr. McClain, I have your report." She handed him a nicely formatted full report of the result of phase one.

Lance looked from the paper to his students. "If you were this thorough with your homework, you'd all be straight A students." He let himself look over the sheet.

Report: Phase One of Mission Lobster

"Mission Lobster?" Lance raised a brow.

"We need something low brow, you know? A code." Jose explained.

"Yeah, but why lobster?" Lance shook his head.

"Haven't you ever seen 'Friends'?" Yasmine slapped her palm on her desk. "We're getting you your lobster!"

Lance rolled his eyes but continued reading. They even included charts! But most impressively, the report was written in APA format, and it was surprisingly well done for a bunch of high schoolers who'd rather do anything but homework. "You know, this is actually-"

"Shush, just read. Don't you want to know what Keith thinks about you?" Yasmine sat on Lance's desk, and normally he would protest, but he was a little preoccupied. Yes, he absolutely wanted to know what Keith thought about him. If he had a shot or not. Even if Keith wasn't interested in men, or interested in Lance, or was already dating someone (he's definitely not wearing a ring), Lance at least wanted to know he had Keith's respect and approval. It was a weird need Lance had, to be liked by everyone, especially the people he liked.

But he found himself saying instead, "No. I don't."

"What?!" Genevieve shot up from her desk which took Lance by surprise considering she seemed indifferent to the conversation at hand. "I worked so hard on that report! We all did!"

"You're in on this too?" Lance was flabbergasted and let his sarcasm get the better of him. "Is the whole school in on this?"

"That's not the point. The point is you and Keith could be such a good couple." Gabe was chiming in now.

Lance pinched the bridge of his nose, "How many of you are in on this? Wait. Never mind, I don't want to know."

"But you want to know about Keith, don't you?" Adrian groaned, "Just read the damn report."

"I really don't want to know." Lance pulled up the powerpoint for his lecture. "I'd rather not know if he thinks poorly of me, and if he does think well of me, then it'll only make me more of an idiot around him. Trust me, it's not a good idea."

"He called you a goofball." Sophie blurted.

"He what?" Lance's eyes went wide. Oh no, that's so much worse. Lance could take indifference over an actual opinion, that would be nice. But the fact Keith had an opinion, and it was that Lance was a clumsy doofus makes everything so much worse. He added locking himself in the lab and moping after class to his schedule.

"In like a good way!" Yasmine interjected.

"Yeah! My line was so say how excited I was for your class and then-" Jose started.

"And then I was supposed to agree, but like make sure we were totally in earshot and hope Keith said something." Adrian added.

"But he didn't say anything, so I pushed it along a little. It was all according to plan of course." Yasmine said matter of factly. "All I said was, 'Dr. Kogane, what do you think of Dr. McClain?' A completely reasonable question to ask on my part."

Lance ran a hand down his face despondently. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. And then he called me a goofball." Lance let his forehead land on his desk with a thump. "Wake me up when it's parent conferences."

"Dr. McClain, don't be so dramatic. You haven't even heard the rest." Tabatha (another member of the wingman committee apparently) rolled her eyes.

"Though we wouldn't have to tell you all this had you just read the report." Genevieve muttered.

"Tabatha's right!" Assured Sophie.

"He was all like," Adrian sat in his chair and did his best Keith impression (and a pretty good one at that). He crossed his arms and sat in the figure-four with his ankle resting atop his knee, he kept his expression moody and annoyed. "Dr. McClain?," a small smile quirked up on Adrian's mouth, "He's kind of a goofball."

"How is that any better?" Lance's voice went all high pitched the way it does whenever he gets panicky.

"It's all in the body language." Jose shook his head. "If he just said it in the normal Dr. Kogane way, it would be bad."

"Yeah," Yasmine agreed, "You had to see it! He kind of smiled when he said it, but it was like a flirty smile. Something almost... bashful maybe?"

"Bashful isn't the word." Sophie shook her head. "But trust us."

"No, no, no, no. No more embarrassing me. That's the end of Project Terrorize McClain." Lance shook his head violently. "Besides, class started two minutes ago. We are already violating one of my conditions."

Lance carried on with lecture and class like normal and included all of his usual terrible jokes, but he wasn't oblivious. He noticed the pouts and less than enthusiastic looks from his students. They didn't laugh at any of his jokes, well that wasn't out of the normal, but they didn't even admonish him about how unfunny he was.

There was a light knock on the door and Keith walked in. "Hey, some papers were left on the copier, are they yours?"

Lance was frozen. "Uh, um..." Keith handed them over and Lance nodded. "The copier was being so slow I thought I was going to have to print them off in the library."

Keith nodded and went to leave. But, Lance's students had something else in mind. "Dr. Kogane, wait. Lance told us a really funny joke earlier, you might like it." Keith stopped and looked at Lance expectantly.

Yup. Lance was going to crawl up and die after class. This was a nightmare. He was definitely giving them a pop quiz for this. "Uh, so, what is blue and smells like red paint?"

Keith shrugged, "I don't know."

"Red paint moving very fast towards you." Lance couldn't help the smile he let free. It was a good joke! Come on!

A small shadow of a smile passed over Keith and he bit his lip and looked down at the dirty tile floor below. When his head flicked back up to look at Lance, the smile was gone and replaced with something amused. "That was terrible."

And just like that he was gone. But the moment the door shut, the students were practically leaping out of their seats with excitement.

"He's got it bad!" Sophie exclaimed slamming her hands on her desk.

"I know I do, you don't have to rub it in." Lance rolled his eyes and dropped the pile of papers on his desk.

"Not you. Dr. Kogane!" Yasmine was grinning ear to ear.

"What are you talking about. He just called my joke lame and left." Lance frowned and folded his arms while leaning on his desk.

"It was all in the body language! He actually laughed a little. You only laugh at a bad joke when you want the other person to like you, that's just psychology." Tabatha said and pushed her glasses higher up on her nose.

"Yeah, well, he was only being polite. I'm his coworker. It would be rude not to laugh at least a little." Lance argued.

"Not if it's Dr. Kogane. One time Adrian told him your photon joke, the really lame one, and Dr. Kogane sent him to the principal's office." Yasmine shook her head.

"Yeah, he told me not to come back until I learned how to be funny." Adrian nodded in agreement.

"And one time Dr. Shirogane made a pun while he was talking to Dr. Kogane. Dr. Kogane kicked him out of the classroom." Jose said solemnly.

"Dr. Shirogane tried to argue, but Dr. Kogane just said, 'I expected better from you' and shut the door on him." Katrina confirmed.

"What are you trying to say?" Lance raised an eyebrow.

"He's being tolerant of your terrible sense of humor because he likes you." Yasmine said it like it was obvious.

"What if my joke was just actually funny?" Lance shrugged.

His class blinked at him. "It wasn't." Said Chase, who Lance was sure was sleeping the whole time.

"Besides, the fact that you're not terrified by Dr. Kogane just proves how good you are for each other all the more." Jose put his feet up on his desk which made Lance give him the stink eye.

Lance bit his lip in consideration. It was a stretch, but Lance was flexible. "Okay."

"Okay?" Yasmine looked hopeful.

"Okay, you can resume operation whatever it is." Lance waved a hand almost regretfully. Even if it was all a dud, at least they'd be more enthusiastic in their learning. "But be subtle!"

A week passed by comfortably and Lance was happy with the peace. His students brought up the arrangement sometimes, but he was usually able to curb it with his lectures. And he did give them a quiz in retaliation for their joke telling fiasco. He didn't actually count it towards their grade and mostly did it to see what they understood well enough to move on and what they needed to review. But it was still good to give them a little bit of a scare. Now, he was just happy to enjoy the refuge of the teachers lounge. It was a safe space, no students badgering him about Keith, or stacks of ungraded papers taunting him. Just him, the coffee machine, and the stained couches. Lance had his tie loosened and he was watching Jeopardy, the only thing that was ever playing on the TV.

"Hey McClain," Keith walked by, on his way to the coffee machine.

Lance nearly spilled his coffee in an attempt to sit up from his lazy slouch and struggled to fix his tie. "O-oh, hey."

"Don't get up on my account." Keith walked over to watch, standing beside the couch. It was making Lance nervous, Keith hovering like that.

'What is the largest known structure in the universe?'

Keith takes a sip of his coffee, "A group of quasars. Easy."

"You're wrong." Lance gloats.

"What?" Keith cuts him an incredulous look, "No I'm not."

"Yes you are. You forgot something. What is a group of quasars." Lance grinned ear to ear. Just as he said it, the answer was revealed and they were right. But mostly Lance because he actually said it right.

Keith rolled his eyes, "That's stupid."

"You're just mad because you would've lost." Lance smirked victoriously.

"I would destroy you at jeopardy." Keith narrowed his gaze at Lance.

"I bet you wouldn't." Lance said with a determined glint in his eye.

'Is an immovable object possible?'

"No!" Lance yelled as quickly as possible to beat Keith even though they hadn't officially started.

"What is no!" Keith followed up. Fuck, he beat Lance at his own game.

"I gave you that one." Lance lied.

'What particle does not interact with normal matter and passes through?'

Keith checked his watch. "Class starts in two minutes." He said standing up.

"No! Not now! I'm only one point behind you!" Lance whined but he stood up too.

"Better luck next time." Keith flashed a cocky smile. "You were a worthy opponent."

Lance rolled his eyes but noticed Keith had loosened his tie at some point during their competition. His eyes watched as Keith fixed his tie. "Geez, we're gonna be late." Lance chuckled and scratched the back of his neck.

"Yeah, and I'll tell my class it was your fault." Keith's expression dropped back into something comfortable and amused.

"Funny, cause I'm gonna tell my class it was your fault." Lance said in that voice he knows gets under people's skin.

But Keith chuckled and and shoved his hands in his pockets. "My students talk about you a lot."

"Really? Mine too. I mean they talk about you a lot too. In fact, I can't get them to shut up about you." Lance admitted. It wasn't entirely a lie, they couldn't stop talking about him and Lance getting together specifically.

Keith laughed at that. "They told me about a lab you did last year where you guys shot off model rockets and one hit you in the eye and you had to go to the E.R."

"They what?!" Lance grumbled. "We made a pact that we would never speak of it again and in return I wouldn't do a cumulative final exam ever again."

"Well, I know what you're doing for your final." Keith chuckled. "I heard you had to wear an eyepatch for a week."

"Two weeks, actually." Lance corrected. "And I heard you sent Adrian to the principal's office for telling a joke that wasn't funny."

"It was pretty awful. It was well deserved." Keith nodded.

"You better take that back! It was my joke!" Lance huffed. He liked this banter, it was like a dance. Something careful and calculated, but it felt like they were falling into step. Synching, in a way. Finding a rhythm of pushing and pulling. And then it dawned on Lance. Was this flirting?

"Well, I can't send you to the principals office, now can I?" A grin snuck up on Keith and before he knew it, he looked like he was actually enjoying Lance's company. A dangerous concept. Then again, Keith was bad at playing it safe.

"I guess you're right." Lance didn't realize they were standing outside their classrooms until he did. "I-I guess I should get to class." He threw a thumb over his shoulder awkwardly.

"I guess you should." Keith said cooly and walked into his own class.

Lance didn't walk into his class, he floated. He came in three minutes late, and his students were quick to give him shit about it.

"Did you happen to pass Keith on the way here or something? Your face is red." Yasmine said with a mischievous smirk.

"It is not!" Lance said defensively, willing his face to go back to a normal complexion.

Lance's next encounter with Keith happened only two days later, barely enough time to recover for Lance. It was on a Sunday and Lance had come in during the afternoon to prepare for Monday's lab. He liked coming in on the weekends, there was something rebellious about getting to wear casual clothes to work even though he wasn't breaking any rules doing it on the weekend. Lance gladly sauntered through the science wing in jeans, a plain white shirt, and a blue flannel. Yup. Such a rebel. Since the incident, it now took three different keys to get into the chemical storage room. He wheeled over one of the carts and began stocking it with beakers, graduated cylinders, pipets, and started fumbling through all the small bottles to find what he was looking for.

He was inspecting two glass bottles trying to make sure it was the right thing when a familiar voice said, "Hey McClain."

Lance screeched and nearly dropped the two glass bottles. "Don't do that! I'm holding chemicals."

"Relax, it's not like it's chlorine or something." Keith shrugged and grabbed a handful of pipets. It was then that Lance had a moment to admire Keith in casual attire. He wore regular jeans (that Lance had to admit was incredibly flattering) with a black T-shirt tucked in, and a bomber jacket over the top. And, normally Keith had his hair pushed back and loose, but now he had the top part of his hair pulled back into a small bun and let the rest hang in soft waterfalls, a brilliant half-up-half-down.

"It could have been." Lance said trying to will away the heat building in his face. Why did he have to be such a spaz? He was blushing just from seeing Keith wearing jeans, it was rather pathetic.

Keith walked up and inspected the items on the cart, "What kind of lab are you doing?"

"Nunya." Lance responded stubbornly. "What are you doing?"

"Nunya." Keith backfired.

Lance went to leave, but turned around. "I'm gonna beat you at Jeopardy next time. I've been practicing my reaction time."

"Oh really?" Keith took a few steps forward making Lance swallow hard. "Put your money where your mouth is."

Lance could think of at least a dozen better uses for his mouth in that moment. And then the thought made him blush. "R-right." Lance stumbled back a few steps to leave but Keith reached out and snatched him by the wrist.

Lance blinked at Keith and his eyes fell to where Keith was grabbing him. "You almost ran into a shelf of nitrous oxide." He said looking over Lance's shoulder where there was a large triangle sign with a skull and bones.

"Oh." Lance cleared his throat. "My bad."

"And you're forgetting your cart." Keith nodded to the cart Lance had spent the last ten minutes stocking.

"Right." He hastily grabbed the handle of the cart and started wheeling away, Keith following close behind.

"Are you always this ditzy?" Keith asked with a smirk.

"Yes, usually not this bad, but I've been making a habit of it lately." Lance said sheepishly.

"Oh? Maybe you're losing it, McClain." Keith teased.

"Just call me Lance. It's weird having you call me by my last name, especially when you're older than me." Lance huffed and wheeled his cart into his room, silently enjoying that Keith followed him.

"Okay Lance." Keith put emphasis on the name. "You can call me by my first too."

Lance nodded suppressing a grin. "If you insist, Keith."

Keith hadn't expected to be effected by Lance calling him by his first name. But there was something about the way he said it, the way his mouth formed around the consonants and vowels that made Keith speechless. Lance's smooth lips curled up in delight at the privilege of getting to call him by his name, and the careful way he said it, like he was testing out the sound. Keith found himself wanting Lance to say it again.

"Earth to--" Lance waved his hand. "There you are. I was talking to you."

"Sorry, what did you say?" Keith shook his head and dropped the pipets he was carrying on the counter.

"I asked if you could reach the spectrometer on top of the cabinet. I store it up there to make sure students won't touch it, but even I can't reach without a stool." Lance put his hands on his hips.

Keith nodded and went up on his tip toes, being just tall enough to grab it. He set it down for Lance and watched the man tamper with the machine like a proper nerd. He couldn't help a smile as he took off his jacket and threw it on a lab chair.

"You know you shouldn't put your pipets on the counter. They're probably contaminated now." Lance said not looking up from the machine.

"It's not like the kids are making IV bags." Keith shrugged.

"I suppose." Lance said turning around to turn off the lights so he could test the machine. But he was met with Keith no longer wearing his jacket which shouldn't be problem, but, Keith shouldn't be that toned.

"What?" Keith put his hands in his pockets cluelessly.

Lance swallowed hard. It should be illegal for Keith to show his arms off like that. He blinked, "Uh, nothing." He brushed past to turn out the lights. He quickly returned and flipped on a lamp and closed the shades making it properly dark in the classroom. By the lamplight, Lance snatched up a square cell and began mixing the deionized water and chemical solute (he used clean pipets, individually wrapped because he's not a hooligan). He capped the square cell, gave it a gentle shake and placed it in the machine. Flipping on the light in the machine, Lance showed Keith the bar that appeared with slants of visible color peaking through.

"Hm, cool. Not everyone knows how to do that." Keith observed.

"Well, if everyone knew how to do it, then it wouldn't be cool. A professor of mine specialized in spectroscopy stuff." Lance grinned and it was so genuine and pretty that it made Keith freeze in place.

"Lance?" Keith spoke, but it came out quiet and gentle.

"Y-yeah?" Lance blinked up at him quizzically.

"Can I kiss you?" Keith wasn't oblivious. He could tell Lance was smitten. He practically tripped over his own feet anytime Keith looked in his general direction. And yeah, maybe Keith was smitten too. Lance was kind of a dork, and he was pretty lame, and even a bit of a klutz. Though, his smile was infectious, and Keith couldn't help but laugh at his stupid jokes. He liked watching Lance get excited about science, or when he gets competitive, or even angry because he's losing.

Lance's eyes widened at the question and a dark cherry red spread across his face. "How c-can you just ask that so bluntly?" He turned around to fumble with the machine but his hands were shaking. he knocked over a bottle of deionized water and panicked but relaxed when the lid stayed in place preventing a spill.

"Is that a no?" Keith tilted his head.

"No." Lance said with a shaky voice.

"Then is that a yes?" Keith took a step closer.

"No." Lance turned around, his back against the counter. "Maybe. I don't know."

Keith stepped even closer, standing directly in front of Lance, nearly chest to chest. Lance was overwhelmed by the proximity, he wasn't sure what to do with his hands or his eyes or his breath. Was he allowed to look at Keith? Would it be awkward? Lance had kissed people dozens of times, intimacy is not a new concept, so why was he so unsure of himself? So scared of messing this up? Maybe it was the added pressure of being coworkers, but the boundary line was invisible to Lance. How far was too far?

Lance turned his head to the side letting his gaze drift across the room, but gentle fingertips grazed his cheek, guiding his attention back to Keith. The moment his eyes locked with Keith, they fluttered shut anticipating the next few moments. And then a gentle press against his lips had his heart hammering in his chest. His stomach did flips as Keiths hand cupped his cheek and slid into the hair at the nape of his neck. Lance shivered and pushed closer. Keith took it as a good sign and Lance felt the tug on his neck to deepen the kiss. Lance's hands were gripping the edge of the counter behind him, but he felt courage to let go and cling to Keith instead. His hands landed on Keith's chest, feeling the soft muscle under the shirt, and then he let his hands glide up to Keith's shoulders.

Sparked by the proposition of touching, Keith's other arm curled around the base of Lance's back and pulled him nice and snug against him. It was warm and thrilling to be held this way, touched this way. Keith could feel the pounding of Lance's heart just below his jaw, and he broke from Lance's lips to kiss the spot. The thrum of the man's heartbeat was pleasant against his lips. He mouthed at the spot kissing, licking, sucking, and grazing his teeth across the skin. Goosebumps broke out across Lance's skin and his breathing became labored and hot, coming out in strong puffs against Keiths ear. One of Lance's hands moved into the loose black hair and he tangled his long fingers in it. "Keith..." The name escaped his mouth without really meaning to and it only seemed to encourage Keith.

Keith's grabbed behind Lance's knee hiking his leg up and the other hand moved under the thigh of his other leg (close enough to be his butt by Lance's standards) and hoisted him up so he was sitting on the counter now. Lance liked this better. With the added height, their faces were level and he was no longer worried his shaky legs would give out on him. He sighed into the kiss, happy Keith had moved his attack back to his lips, he wasn't sure how much more he could take with Keith attached to his neck like a suckerfish. Lance's breath hitched feeling Keith's hands travel from his knees, smooth over his thighs, and move up his shirt to grab at his hips.

Keith's lips slowly pulled away and Lance's eyes fluttered open in question. His gaze met the intense heat of Keith's eyes and he melted. Keith lifted a hand to brush some of Lance's hair to the side. It was gentle, careful, admiring. Lance felt himself leaning into the touch. Even though they were no longer kissing, and the passion had dissipated enough for clarity, Lance's body still felt like it was on fire. Like he was roasting and he needed the cool touch of Keith's hands to bring him back down. Lance swallowed thickly and Keith followed the bob of his adam's apple with his eyes. Their heated stare was intense and Keith opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of footsteps in the hallway had him backtracking quickly. He took a big step away from Lance and helped him off the counter. "Who else is here on the weekend?" Lance huffed.

"Probably Shiro." Keith grabbed his jacket and quickly put it on. He grabbed the pipets off the counter and spared a look to Lance.

Lance had a moment of panic. He worried Keith would take off without any further acknowledgement. Like dining and dashing, which Lance would admit that sounded like a euphemism for sex. But before Keith hurried away, he swooped in for a chaste kiss and planted it on Lance's eager lips. So even though Keith was walking away, Lance couldn't satiate the grin on his face.

He heard voices in the hallway, definitely belonging to Keith and Shiro and felt relief that they weren't caught.

The next morning, Lance was chipper as he unlocked his classroom and readied for the waves of B.O. ridden teens to come. There was a light knock and Keith poked his head in. He seemed to be in a similar mood.

He stepped in and closed the door behind him. "Hey."

"Hey hey hey." Lance chimed, awkwardly sauntering closer.

The corner of Keith's mouth corked up and Lance was tempted to kiss it. And then Keith was kissing him. Lance met the surprise eagerly, but then he pulled away—the rational thing to do. "The bell rings in five minutes." Always the voice of reason.

"That means we have five minutes." Keith had a mischievous grin. And while Lance should continue to be the voice of reason... that had him turning to putty. His resolve was blown away by Keith grabbing him by the tie and yanking him close.

The bell rang and Lance pulled away from Keith's lips in a hurry. Well, one more wouldn't hurt. He dove back in, and then sense hit him again. And so did the sound of footsteps in the hall. "Go! Out! Git!" Lance shoved Keith toward the door. But the sight of students made Lance second guess. "No wait, go through my office." Lance pushed him to the other side of his desk and pointed to the door covered in charts, sticky notes, and pictures drawn by students.

"That's what this is?! Why do you get an office?" Keith huffed opening the door but turning around to argue.

"I've been here longer! There's another door in there that goes out to the hallway. Out!" Lance made a shooing motion.

"Only by a year-!" Keith was in the office but still had the door open to further his argument. Lance leaned against the door closing it on Keith just as the door to his classroom opened.

"Morning guys!" Lance tried to act nonchalant, which means he looked totally flushed like he was hiding something. Luckily though, his students were used to his odd behavior so they brushed it off as weird McClain stuff.

Lance took attendance and noticed an empty desk. "Where's Yasmine? She never misses class."

"She's almost here, she's just late because of a dentist appointment." Lance nodded, he remembered her mentioning she was getting her braces off. As if on cue, the door opened and a confused and startled looking Yasmine walked through the door. She looked over her shoulder and snapped her head to Lance.

"Why did Keith just stumble out of your office and hurry into his classroom?" She threw a thumb over her shoulder.

Lance facepalmed. Well, he had to think of something. "Technically, I'm supposed to split the office with him, but he doesn't need to know that. And I'm pretty sure he's looking for printer ink." That sounded convincing enough, especially to Lance's ears.

Lance was happily grading papers that evening in his office. It was about the size of a closet, and Lance was sure it was a storage closet for the previous teacher, and yes, two desks could fit in there, but it would be really cramped. Anyway, it's not like Keith had to know, he thought cleverly. He finished putting the grades in his computer and switched to grading the 'quizzes' he gave as retaliation. They had done surprisingly well, but a few questions had been missed by the majority of the class. He wrote on a sticky note reminding himself to go over them again during the next class.

He heard the door open and Lance knew who it was immediately. "Shiro, I promise it wasn't me who broke the coffee maker. I swear." Lance swiveled around in his chair and faced... "Oh, hey Keith."

"So uh, some of my students happened to inform me," Keith closed the door behind him and leaned against Lance's desk, "this is supposed to be a shared office." His arms folded and Lance took notice of the way the sleeves of his button up shirt were rolled up, revealing toned forearms. Lance swallowed and cursed himself for having told his class such valuable information. "I made a request to the school for a desk."

Lance frowned, "Well, you were bound to find out some time."

"I could always cancel the request." Keith smirked, "You know, at a price."

Lance capped his pen and made a show of Keith having his attention. "I'm listening. What does Keith want more than an office?"

"Hmmm..." Keith made a show of thinking. "A kiss."

"I think I could make that work. I'll bring my dog in tomorrow, she loves kisses." Lance flashed an amused grin.

Keith shook his head. "A kiss from you. I should clarify."

"A kiss?" Lance quirked up an eyebrow in disbelief. "Deal. But you could've gotten a better deal than that."

"Well, we're in the school after all. Wouldn't want us to both lose the office." Keith stood up from his lean on the desk. He placed a hand on either side of Lance's chair and lowered his face close.

"Schools out, the kids are gone." Lance whispered, his eyes dipping down to the pair of lips hovering just a few inches away.

"Shiro isn't." Keith raised a brow.

Lance knew he was being surprisingly risky, but could you really blame him? Keith was hot. The morning felt like a teaser, and he'd been catching little glimpses of Keith all day. Now, he wanted to feel what he felt on Sunday when they were drunk on kisses and light touches. Lance put a hand to Keith's chest and gently pushed him away so he could stand up. Keith watched Lance in confusion as Lance sauntered to the door. "I'm not much of business man, but I figure we're about, what? Fifty days into the school year? That's fifty days you went without the office." Lance locked the door, "So, shouldn't I compensate you for those days too?" He walked up close to Keith and he could see him visibly swallow. Lance watched his wide eyes follow his movements as he slowly pushed Keith back into the chair. "So how I figure it, I owe you at least fifty kisses."

Keith nodded vigorously but didn't say anything because he couldn't trust his voice in the moment. Especially when Lance was crawling onto his lap, his knees on either side of Keith's thighs. How was this even real? How was Lance even real? Keith was eager, he hardly took notice of the loud cries coming from the swivel chair beneath him. But Lance did, of course he did.

"I don't know if the chair can hold us both." Lance started to pull away, but Keith shook his head.

"It's fine. It'll be fine." Keith said breathlessly. Lance smiled at that, he liked how captivated Keith was, how determined he was. Lance liked that Keith was desperate to kiss him again too. Lance swooped back in with just as much fervor, finally letting their lips crash together. They resumed the dance, the rhythm between them. Pushing and pulling, taking and giving.

Click.

Click. Click. Click.

Snap!

Lance and Keith gasped and they were airborne. The whole top of the chair broke off and went crashing into the floor, the two of them with it. Because Keith had been sitting in it, the chair thankfully broke his fall, and Lance had fallen on top of Keith punching the breath out of the taller man. Lance quickly sat up and snorted with laughter, "Oh my god, I knew it couldn't hold us! My chair!"

Keith was still sitting in the chair, and he groaned forcing himself to sit up. "Don't worry about me. Totally fine." He huffed, unhooking his legs which were draped over the lip of the seat. "I think I landed on my hand."

"Oh gosh, are you okay?" Lance sprung to help him up by extending a hand.

"Yeah," Keith reached his hand out and Lance screamed.

"It's broken!"

Keith looked at his clearly deformed wrist. "What? No it's not. It doesn't hurt that bad."

"That is broken." Lance pointed at it incredulously.

Keith stood up and sure enough, it was definitely broken at the wrist. There was a large lump where the bone was protruding. "Ah shit. How am I going to explain this to Shiro?"

"It was a creaky old chair to start. We'll just say you sat in it kinda hard and it broke and you fell and broke your wrist. Boom, explanation." Lance fussed, unlocking the office door and dragging Keith by the tie. "Where are your things?" Lance asked grabbing his own bag.

"On my desk in the classroom." Keith said holding his wrist. It was starting to tingle a little.

Lance snatched his stuff and locked their classrooms. He dropped Keith's wallet and keys in his bag, "Lets get you to the E.R."

They made it halfway down the hall and Keith hissed, "It's starting to hurt. The adrenaline is wearing off."

They hurried to the parking lot, "Where's your car?" Lance asked. Keith nodded to the red motorcycle parked beside them. "We'll take my car." He shook his head. "I'm so stressed that I can't even admire how sexy it is that you drive a motorcycle." Lance said rushing to his car and opening the door for Keith.

"You think it's sexy?" Keith gave a winsome grin.

"Shut up, now is not the time." Lance helped him in the car and buckled his seat belt.

"I think I need to be the one to tell you that." Keith looked pleased with himself.

Lance frowned and shut the car door. He ran around and quickly got in, started the car, and rushed out of the parking lot. He was speeding, but this was Lance, so he was only going five over.

"Could you drive a little faster?" Keith flinched at the pain in his wrist.

"I'm already speeding!" Lance squeaked. He added a little speed, but not much. Keith figured he'd take what he could get, and decided not to push it lest Lance wrecks. He was surprisingly panicked even though he wasn't the one with the broken wrist. "I can't believe we broke your hand making out."

"It's my wrist." Keith corrected. "And you make it sound like a causal relationship. My wrist broke because of the chair."

"But the chair wouldn't have broke if we weren't making out on it." Lance reasoned. "I'm so sorry. I broke your hand."

"The chair broke my wrist." Keith said again. "Besides, it was a pretty good way to break my wrist."

"Don't butter me up." Lance mumbled.

"Hey Lance," Keith was grinning widely now.

"What?"

"You're making it a habit of going to the E.R." Keith said with a shit-eating-grin.

"If you weren't in pain already, I would kick your ass." Lance said with a look that could kill, but it only made Keith chuckle.

They pulled up to the hospital and Lance rushed them inside. He was speeding to the desk while Keith casually walked in following him. "My friend broke his wrist." He blurted.

"Okay, what's his name?" The nurse, probably used to this kind of reaction, asked.

"Keith Kogane. That's spelled K-O-G-A-N-E." Lance was tapping his fingers nervously while Keith finally reached the counter.

"Date of birth?" She asked.

Lance opened his mouth and closed it. He didn't know that.

"It's October 23rd, 1994."

"Okay, here's a form we need you to fill out and we'll call your name when we have room." She handed the clipboard to Lance. It was then that they noticed how crowded the lobby is.

"Wait, how long will that take?" Lance asked worried.

The nurse shrugged. "My guess is about thirty minutes."

"Thirty minutes!" Lance leaned on the counter. "Look at him, he's in pain!" Lance flailed his hand in Keith's direction, who was standing there patient and nonchalant.

"Thirty minutes is fine, thank you." Keith nodded to the nurse and grabbed Lance's hand with his uninjured one. He pulled him to two open seats and Lance sat down with a huff.

"I can't believe the wait is so long. This is an Emergency Room." Lance looked at Keith annoyed. "How's the pain?"

"Manageable." Keith let the corner of his mouth curl up into a grin and he leaned forward to steal a kiss. Lance liked that. The quick kisses were just as amazing as the long ones that lead to broken wrists.

"Okay, let's fill this out." Lance looked to the clipboard for a distraction from how much Keith was making his heart flutter. "Name, got that. Birthday... October 23rd, 1994." He frowned.

"What?" Keith raised an eyebrow.

"I can't believe you're two years older than me. How is that fair?" Lance pouted.

"You already knew I was older than you." Keith rolled his eyes playfully. "When's your birthday?"

"July 28th, 1996." Lance tapped the pen against the clipboard. "Phone number? I think I'll be wanting that too." Keith chuckled and let Lance copy down the numbers. "Next of kin?"

"None." Keith said reading the questions over Lance's shoulder.

"What do you mean none?" Lance snapped to look at him.

"I mean none." Keith jutted out his chin. "What's the next question?"

"Like no blood relatives whatsoever?" Lance was still hung up on this no next of kin thing.

"Yes, Lance. None whatsoever." Keith nudged him. "What's the next--"

"Not even like an aunt or a great uncle?" Lance asked.

"Lance, I don't know anything about my mother's side and my dad's side wants nothing to do with me. None." He said nonchalantly.

"Oh." Lance quietly wrote 'N/A'.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to--" Keith winced, "dump that on you."

"No, it's okay," Lance tilted his head, "I guess I didn't even consider the possibility that you could be alone." Lance was glad Keith's healthy hand was on his side, he reached over the armrest and took it in his letting his thumb run across the top of his hand.

Thankful that he was left handed, he lifted the pen to the paper again, "Next question--" There was a gentle kiss pressed against his cheek. Lance's face turned red, "Stop doing that before we accidentally break your other hand."

Keith raised a brow inquisitively.

"You know, making out." Lance said probably too loud and a few people looked at them nosily.

"Okay, okay, my bad. Carry on." Keith nodded at the paper.

"Okay, reason for todays visit? I got this one." Lance smiled. "Broken hand."

"Wrist." Keith corrected.

"How did this injury occur? I also got this one." Lance spoke aloud as he wrote, "Sitting in a chair and it broke."

"Don't put that." Keith groaned.

"What am I supposed to put? 'It happened while we were making out'? I don't think that's pertinent information Keith."

"I mean, don't put that. It sounds lame." Keith huffed. "People don't break their wrists falling out of chairs."

"Well, that's an unfair assumption to make." Lance raised his eyebrows.

"You know what I mean." Keith sulked.

"Okay, so what do you want me to put? You broke it fighting a bear?"

"No I-"

The wait held true to the nurse's estimate. Keith and Lance were taken back to a small bed with a curtain around it which Keith was hesitant to sit on. Lance scooted next to him and took another look at his wrist. "It's really swollen now."

"Yeah, it's hurting." Keith sighed.

"You're being surprisingly calm about all this." Lance was sitting so their thighs were touching.

"Or maybe, you're just being a spaz." Keith chuckled. "Besides, this isn't my first broken bone. I was kind of a wild child."

"I don't know if that's reassuring." Lance frowned.

"Wasn't meant to be." Keith shook his head. "Do you want me to be reassuring?"

"No, I'm supposed to be reassuring you." Lance put a hand on Keith's knee and tried not to think too much about it.

"You already are being reassuring." Keith rolled his eyes.

"I'm not doing anything. I'm just sitting here." Lance scoffed in disbelief. "I'd be more useful if I was an actual doctor. Not a doctor of astrophysics. I should've went to medical school. Then I could be fixing your wrist."

"But if you went to medical school, I wouldn't have met you." Keith raised his eyebrows.

"And thus you wouldn't have a broken wrist in the first place." Lance let his face fall into his hands, letting go of Keith's leg.

"Lance." Keith said sternly, getting Lance to look up. Keith raised his healthy hand and cupped Lance's cheek and kissed him. "Lance, I like you. I don't care that we're in the E.R., or that my wrist is broken. This'll just be some funny story we'll laugh about in the future."

Lance stared at Keith in admiration and wonder. He was so strong, and smart, and sweet, and he was crazy about Lance. How did he get this lucky. He opened his mouth to say something back, hopefully just as sweet, but the person on the bed next to them audibly threw up and both boys grimaced. "That sort of ruined the moment."

"Yeah, I don't think the E.R. is a good place for a first date." Keith smiled.

Lance's eyes widened at that. "This is our first date?"

"Well, I guess it's our first time really being around each other outside of work. And we kissed a couple times. I'd consider it a date." Keith nudged Lance jokingly.

But this wasn't a joke to Lance. "Oh god, our first date was me taking you to the E.R."

"Lance, I was just messing with-" Keith shook his head trying to keep Lance from getting carried away.

"Ugh, I'm the worst. My clumsiness broke your wrist and now our first date is sitting in a sterile hospital next to a puking guy." Lance let his head fall on Keith's shoulder and pouted.

"I think this date has gone pretty well so far. Plus, you talk like the date's already over." Keith let his head rest on top of Lance's.

Lance smiled. "Well, I guess it has gone pretty well. And you're right, it's not over yet." Lance intertwined their fingers (good hand of course). "This is significantly better than my last trip to the E.R."

Lance could feel Keith grinning even though he couldn't see him. "I would like to hear more about that by the way."

Lance opened his mouth to tell the grand story, but the curtain pulled back and the doctor walked in staring at the clipboard. "Hello! I'm Dr. Coran." He looked up and recognized Lance. "Ah! I remember you! You're the one who took a rocket to the ol' eye ball about a year ago ain't that right?" His voice was something maybe Australian, but Lance couldn't be sure. Dr. Coran was familiar, it was hard to forget his over-the-top positivity and loud red-orange hair. But what really jogged Lance's memory was the large curly mustache.

Keith was trying to suppress a laugh as Lance grumbled, "Yeah, that was me."

"Ah! But you're not our patient today," Dr. Coran raised a brow at Keith sitting next to him. "Keith, right? You have a broken wrist from a bear attack?"

"You actually put that?!" Keith snapped a look at Lance.

"You told me to!" Lance put his hands up defensively.

"They're not going to believe a bear attack." Keith rolled his eyes. "There aren't even any bears here."

"Migration! It's possible!" Lance argued.

"So I'm assuming it wasn't a bear attack." Coran raised a brow that practically reached his hair line.

"No," Keith shook his head. "I was sitting in a chair and it broke and when I fell I landed on my hand."

"You were sitting in it and it just broke?" Dr. Coran rubbed his chin like he was solving some great mystery.

"Yes." Keith answered quickly.

"Well..." Lance added in a high pitched tone like Keith wasn't quite telling the truth.

"You need to tell the truth Keith. I need to know the cause of your injury before I treat you." Dr. Coran put his hands on his hips.

"I am!" Keith said defensively. "Lance..." He warned.

"I'm just saying, it didn't just break. It was kind of our fault." Lance pursed his lips.

"It was an old rickety chair," Keith glared at him.

"Were you having sex in the chair?" Dr. Coran said like he finally got to the bottom of what caused the injury.

"No!" Both Keith and Lance yelled at the same time.

"We were just kissing! But the chair couldn't hold both our weight." Lance clarified, but Keith's face was still red with embarrassment.

"Ah, I see. No hanky panky in the chair." Dr. Coran nodded, "Well, first of all, we'll need X-rays!"

"It appears we're working with a distal radius fracture, there is mild displacement so we will need to direct it back in place and wrap it up in a cast." Dr. Coran said jolly as ever. "What color cast would you like son?"

"Hmm. I like red." Keith looked at Lance, "What do you think?"

"Blue." Lance disagreed.

"What will it be?" Dr. Coran asked.

"What about purple?" Keith suggested. Lance nodded with a large smile.

Checkout was thankfully much easier and they were able to leave fast after the cast was put on. It clearly hurt, but Lance audibly laughed when Coran told him not to be a baby about it. Before they left the hospital, Lance had snatched up a sharpie and made a point to be the first to sign his cast. He wrote his name with a small heart underneath.

Once he got Keith settled in the passenger seat, Lance was quick to take them to the Dairy Queen across the street. "How about some sorbet?" Lance smirked. Keith had listed lactose intolerance on his medical sheet.

Keith was happy to wait in the car for the few moments Lance took to get the treat. Lance returned and handed Keith the cup of ice cream, but then realized the predicament when Keith attempted balancing it on his lap to grab the spoon.

"Here, let me." Lance grabbed the cup and scooped up a bite extending it to Keith. Keith sighed and took a bite.

"I can't believe you actually put bear attack." Keith said shaking his head.

"You told me to! I'm your right hand right now, I'm just accomplishing what I've been told." Lance withheld another bite for a moment just to get his point across before giving in and letting Keith have more. "You know, for this date being a trip to the E.R., it was probably the most successful and romantic date I've ever been on."

"Oh yeah?" Keith beamed.

"Yeah. I mean, a man clad in fiberglass is super hot. And spoon feeding? How domestic." Lance took a bite for himself, smiling at Keith mischievously.

Keith laughed aloud at that. "It wasn't the most conventional date, but at least it was memorable." He leaned forward and captured Lance's lips. It tasted like sorbet.

"And hey, now you're technically guaranteed to take me home since I'm your ride." Lance smirked.

Keith lived in a very nice apartment. Or at least nice compared to Lance's teacher salary apartment. He realized that Keith too was a teacher, but he felt it was probably best he didn't ask how Keith could afford such a nice place. It was clean but cozy, and Lance's first instinct was to plop himself on the couch which he did. He got out his laptop, "We should find you a substitute for tomorrow."

"A sub? No way. I'm still working." Keith shook his head and worked his coat off, though it was more like draped over his shoulders because he could only put one arm through the sleeve comfortably.

Lance rolled his eyes and shut his laptop. "Fine. And just how do you plan on getting there?"

"I'll take my bike of course." Keith paused. "Oh. Right. It's at the school." He thought for a moment. "Could you drop me off at the school?" He started to slip his coat back on.

"No! What are you thinking? You can't drive a motorcycle with one hand, it's dangerous." Lance stood up and grabbed Keiths coat. "I'll just pick you up."

Keith was staring at him with something fond, but his phone started ringing. He sighed, "It's Shiro." He answered it and held the phone at a distance from his ear already anticipating the stern tone that blared through the speaker.

"Your arm is broken?! What did you do?!"

"First of all, it's just my wrist. And it was an accident, I went to sit in the swivel chair in Lance's office and it broke. I just landed on it wrong." Keith tried to explain nonchalantly.

"Oh, just wait until Adam hears about this. You're going to be getting double the casseroles and soup as normal."

"You say that like it's a bad thing. Adam is a fantastic cook." Keith rolled his eyes.

Lance felt weird listening in on the conversation, so he busied himself by snooping around Keith's living room and looking at pictures. There was a picture of Keith, Shiro, and another guy at the park with a big wolflike dog. That was a little weird. It's good to be on good terms with your boss, but the park? And having pictures of them up in your apartment? And who was this Adam guy?

Lance heard a yawn, but it was a little too animal like to be Keith. He swiveled around and sure enough, the dog from the picture was standing in the hallway blinking at him sleepily. They must've interrupted his afternoon nap. Lance grinned and patted his legs greeting the dog.

At first the dog wasn't convinced, he looked to Keith as if getting permission. "Hey Shiro, I'm kind of tired..." He shoed the dog toward Lance and immediately his tongue was hanging out of his mouth in a happy smile as he trotted over. Lance gave him scratches under the collar and practically shoved his face in the dog's fluffy fur. "Okay, bye." Keith finished his conversation and hung up. "That's Kosmo."

Lance cooed at the dog and talked to him in a high squeaky voice. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? Are you a good boy?" Lance scratched behind his ears and the dog flopped over on his back so Lance could rub his belly. "Blue is going to be super jealous when I get home."

Keith chuckled, "I'm surprised he even came to greet us. He's kind of a sleeping beauty."

Lance smiled. "What did Shiro have to say?"

"Well, he yelled at me to be more careful and said Adam was bringing me a casserole." Keith tilted his head. "Kinda predictable."

"I didn't realize you were so close to Shiro." Lance raised his eyebrows.

"He's my brother. Well not by blood. But he's like my brother." Keith explained. "I met him when I was in foster care."

"I didn't know that." Lance blinked. "That's why you came to work at the school?"

"Yeah, I guess. Kind of." Keith nodded and pulled on his tie to loosen it.

Lance thought for a moment. "I'm getting kind of hungry. What about you?"

"I could eat." Keith nodded. "We could wait until Adam drops by with a casserole."

Lance couldn't help but pout at that. "Well, let's see what you have. We could make something."

"I'm not much of a cook." Keith winced as Lance opened his refrigerator to find mostly eaten casserole dishes and condiments.

"Keith buddy. This is..." Lance took a deep breath through his nose and checked the pantry. "No no no, Keith! Minute rice? My mom would flip if she saw this."

"The minute rice isn't even actually for me. It's for when Kosmo has a tummy ache." Keith rubbed the top of the dog's head.

"Oh thank god." Lance huffed. "Well, I don't think even I could make something out of any of this."

"I'm thinking it's kind of a lazy night anyway. We can order pizza." Keith picked up his phone and managed to dial with his thumb. "What kind of pizza?"

Keith, Lance, and of course Kosmo, wound up on the couch with a box of pizza. Keith was scrolling through the movies at a speed Lance's eyes could hardly keep up with. "Slow down." He grumbled.

"No, 'cause otherwise you're going to suggest Shrek again." Keith kept aggressively clicking the next button.

"You've passed Shrek like a hundred times! It's clearly a sign!" Lance only half joked.

Keith happened to pass Shrek again and hoped Lance didn't notice. "How about 'How to Train Your Dragon'? Toothless reminds me of Kosmo."

"Yes!" Lance got cozy on the couch as Keith pressed play.

They both ate their fill of pizza and Lance felt himself getting sleepy. When he looked to the side Keith was passed out with Kosmo curled up by his legs. Lance enjoyed how peaceful it was, he leaned over and ran his fingers through Kosmo's coat and the dog leaned into it. He let himself properly stare at Keith sleeping. He looked calm and Lance silently wished he could curl up with the other two. But all good things must come to an end, and this came to an end with a knock at the door.

Keith's eyes snapped open and he hurried to get up. "I think it's Adam. You should hide in my room. It's down the hall on the left." Lance complied but he felt a little annoyed. Who was this Adam guy? Why does Keith not want Adam to know that he's hanging with another guy? Is he getting double-crossed?

Lance found his room and sat on the corner of Keith's bed in a pout. Compared to the rest of the apartment, his room was kind of bland. Blank walls, no decorations, just a bed, a nightstand, a hamper and a closet. Though, there were two decent sized windows which made the space less artificial. He kind of enjoyed how much everything smelled like Keith here. It made sense, but Lance was willing to let himself drown in it. He'd fall back into the bed and curl himself up in the smell, the warmth, if only he could.

A few moments passed and Keith poked his head in. "Adam's gone."

Lance yawned, "You got your precious casserole?"

Keith laughed, "I guess. Wanna finish the movie?" He had walked in now, and Lance suppressed the want to touch him.

Lance nodded wordlessly and followed him back to the living room. He watched Keith grab the casserole off the counter and walk to the fridge only to realize he couldn't open it unless he put the pan down again. Lance smiled and walked to the kitchen to help him. Lance peeled back the corner and grimaced, "What is this?"

"Adam said it's tuna casserole." Keith shrugged.

"I could cook better than this." Lance muttered under his breath.

"Huh?" Keith opened the fridge and Lance put the tray inside.

"Nothing." Lance turned up his nose.

"Hey Lance?" Keith smiled as if he found something amusing.

"What?" Lance frowned at him.

"You know Adam is Shiro's husband right?" Keith folded his arms (well, tried to) and got this smug, complacent look on his face that drove Lance mad.

"No. No I didn't know that." Lance pursed his lips and walked to the living room a little embarrassed.

Lance let himself plop on the couch and made a point to steal Keith's spot cuddling Kosmo. "Hey!" Keith noticed immediately.

"Only people who aren't jerks deserve dog cuddles." Lance snuggled in as if to make a point.

"I'm sorry, I thought you knew." Keith was still laughing at him.

"Nope. Hence why I deserve the Kosmo cuddles." Lance pouted.

Keith made a calling noise, "Kosmo, here boy."

Kosmo got up immediately and Lance glared at Keith intensely. "Rude!"

"What? It's time for him to eat dinner." Keith smiled cockily. He wasn't really lying, he really did need to feed him. "What about your dog? Is he okay? You haven't been home to let him out."

"I already texted my roommate," Lance pulled out his phone, "I told him to take care of my precious baby."

"You have a roommate?" Keith asked nonchalantly.

"Yeah, you probably know him, he works in the culinary department, you know? Hunk." Lance sat his phone on the table and yawned again.

Keith was taken back. "Hunk?" Lance's roommate was also a teacher, he could cook, and he's a hunk? And Lance was the one who was jealous? Keith felt his face flush.

"Yeah, Hunk. Do you know him? I'm sure you've met him at least once." Lance rolled his head back to look at Keith over the arm rest of the couch.

Keith was standing with his arms folded staring at Lance. "I don't think I've met this hunk." Keith rolled his eyes in annoyance and tried to look busy in the kitchen.

"No," Lance stood up and sauntered to the kitchen. "Not 'hunk' as in attractive. Hunk as in his name. His name is Hunk."

"That's an unusual name." Keith said like it didn't bother him, like he hadn't just did the same thing he was teasing Lance about. Gosh, the new relationship thing was hard. It was so fragile. He kept waiting for anything to knock it loose, for this to be too good to be true.

"Keith," Lance said his name in a low tone. "My roommate is completely straight and dating Shay."

"Right, yeah, I figured." Keith nodded nonchalantly again.

Lance laughed, "Let's finish the movie." He rolled his eyes.

New relationships were hard. How do you know where the line is without testing the boundary first. And no one wants to be the first to test the boundary. Kissing was okay, making out even, but that was a different playing field than actual couple stuff. Kissing was okay, but was holding hands? Touching? Both boys were on the couch, close, but not close enough. They both wanted something more. They wanted to touch, to hold each other, but were too afraid to make the first move.

Finally, Keith took the leap of faith. He draped his arm around the back of the couch but slowly settled his arm to fall around Lance's shoulders. Lance felt relief at the contact, like a whole door of possibility was opened. It brought a new air of confidence to the budding relationship. So, Lance felt encouraged to lean into Keith, to rest his head against him.

Keith hated the way he had to dance around to get what he wants. It was long, and slow moving, taking each action ten minutes at a time, like they were going to scare each other off. Finally Keith reclined himself on the couch and pulled Lance down to lay on his chest. The position allowed his injured arm space and it was more comfortable. Keith liked the weight on his chest, the feeling of Lance's cheek pressed against him. He could feel him breathing and after a while, he realized he was no longer watching the movie and was instead trying to match the rhythm with his own breath. It was no wonder he fell asleep again and Lance right along with him.

Keith opened his eyes when the end credits started playing and he saw Lance's eyes flick open for a moment too. There's always something about end credits that wake you up. Keith slowly sat up making Lance groan in annoyance. "I was comfortable." He huffed.

"You won't say that in the morning when you wake up on the couch and there's a crick in your neck." Keith tried to reason with the tired and annoyed version of Lance. A new kind of Lance, someone he hadn't met yet.

"I guess I should head home," He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "I could pick you up in the morning. I live down the road."

"Or," Keith licked his lips and questioned if this was too much to ask so soon, "you could just stay the night."

Lance smiled, "Bring forth the pajamas."

So far, sleepy Lance was snippy and whiny, but also drunkenly goofy. Goofy like he wasn't all there and he lacked a filter to separate the funny jokes from the unfunny jokes. Keith liked it. He liked it all the more seeing Lance wearing his clothes. His plaid pajama pants and his alien shirt, but on a whole new figure. A smaller frame than his own, not feminine, but scrawny and tall. Keith tried to unbutton his work shirt to the white undershirt he was wearing, but he struggled with the button. He'd never really thought about having to do this one handed before.

"Want help Keithers?" Lance blinked at him with groggy eyes.

Keith rolled his eyes at the name but nodded anyway. Only, undressing someone--and this isn't new news--is strangely intimate. Lance took the shirt button by button, and Keith wondered again if this was a good idea. It was one thing to hint at sex or joke about it in the daylight, but now that they're together in a dim apartment and their minds are clouded by sleep, it was something curious. They tip toed around it like they both weren't thinking about it, though every moment triggered a new thought of heavy breaths, and sweat, and the image of sheets curling around them.

Lance pushed the shirt off Keith's shoulders and made eye contact with the undershirt like his brain didn't understand. He'd taken off his shirt, and now there's another shirt. Does he remove that one too? Does Keith want to do that himself? But when Keith didn't step away, Lance was quick to bring his fingers up to the hem of the shirt and slide it up Keith's toned stomach. Bare skin and muscle peaked out from the cotton shirt and Lance was too scared to breathe out of fear he'd ruin the moment. Keith raised his arms until the shirt made it over his head and then he lowered them so Lance could help him untangle the shirt from his cast. When it finally fell to the floor, Keith cleared his throat and moved to grab his shorts from the dresser. Anything to break the intimacy for a moment, enough for rational thought to make an appearance.

Keith worked at the button of his trousers with his left hand unsuccessfully. "Do you need help?" Lance asked again.

It didn't help that Keith's hands were shaking. The thought of Lance unbuttoning his pants might be too much, might pose the threat of going too far too early. Maybe it was a bad idea to offer Lance to stay the night. Lance came up behind him and reached his long arms around, his head peaking around his shoulder to see what he was doing. He undid the button and pulled down the zipper and retracted his hands. Instead he planted a kiss on Keith's shoulder and moved to the bathroom. Keith could breathe again.

Lance had probably understood, and Keith was grateful for the space afterward, it did help. It allowed him to calm himself and slip on the shorts. When he walked into the bathroom, Lance was using his finger as a toothbrush with a dollop of toothpaste. It was better than nothing he supposed.

It's strangely domestic brushing your teeth beside someone. Especially when you're wearing their clothes. Lance was quick to finish and rinsed off his finger and the toothpaste that collected at the corners of his mouth. Jokingly, Keith hip checked him out of the way to spit in the sink. Lance was all limbs, and when Keith did it, that's all he saw. A spiral of limbs falling through the doorway. It was quickly followed up by an offended "Rude!"

When Keith walked back into the bedroom, Lance was sitting on the edge of the bed like he wasn't quite sure where he should fit into Keith's equation. What side of the bed does he sleep on? Does he get under all the sheets? Should he--?

Keith turned on the lamp on his bedside stand and turned off the light to the room. Keith grabbed and extra charger and plugged it in on the opposite side for Lance's phone. There was Lance's clue. They crawled under the sheets--all the sheets--and the moment they'd settled, Keith reached to turn off the lamp.

"Did you lock the front door?" Lance asked half asleep.

"Yeah," Keith whispered.

"Are you sure?" Lance raised an eyebrow.

"Pretty sure." Keith nodded.

"Would you stake your life on it?" Lance opened his eyes to give Keith the stare down.

Keith hesitated a moment before getting up to check that he locked the door. Kosmo was passed out on the couch as he walked by. It was in fact locked, and Keith quickly returned to the warm sheets. He settled in again and Lance faced him and mumbled, "Is the stove off?"

"I don't use the stove. It's purely decorative." Keith pinched the knob of the lamp and turned out the light.

"Where's Kosmo?" Lance asked in the dark.

"Asleep on the couch." Keith kissed Lance's forehead.

"See? Kosmo was fine with it." Lance grumbled, referring back to their earlier bickering.

"He's a dog. He can sleep anywhere." Keith rolled his eyes.

It was quiet a few moments before Lance seemed to turn over restlessly. "Is my car locked?"

"Do you think anyone will notice I'm wearing the same shirt and slacks as yesterday?" Lance asked buttoning up his shirt.

"If you wear the same tie, yes." Keith moved to rummage through his own ties.

"I could just go tie-less, and make it a casual Tuesday." Lance unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and turned around to flaunt it.

Keith threw a few ties in his direction. "Try one of those."

Lance held them up. "Okay I can't wear this one, it's too distinct, someone will notice it's yours." He held the one up with a mini UFO pattern on it as if picturing it on himself. "But I do like it, you should wear it."

"Or I could wear this one." Keith held up the dark red tie that he wore practically every day.

"Or, because you can't put on your own tie, you don't get much of a choice." Lance gloated as he picked up the tie and joined Keith sitting on the bed. Keith rolled his eyes but knew it wouldn't do much good to argue. Lance helped shimmy the button up shirt on and pulled the sleeve over the cast and rolled it up so it wouldn't be uncomfortable. Then he gently buttoned up the shirt and when he reached the top, planted a kiss on the warm set of lips there. "This is domestic."

"Would it be weird to say I like it?" Keith tilted his head and planted more kisses on Lance's neck, just below his ear.

"Well, then that would make us both weird." Lance leaned into the peppered kisses. He could get used to this. The morning kisses. The fond looks. It was too early to tell, too soon to make the call, but Lance was in it. Lance was for it. Something about Keith and him just clicked. Their brains were on the same signal or something; conversation came easy, Keith made him laugh like it was effortless, and every time their eyes met, Lance was burning. On some level, it was like he already knew Keith and he was just picking up where he left off, filling in the gaps and figuring out what he missed. And again, on some level, he was sure Keith had the same feeling.

Lance and Keith had only made it a few steps into the school before Shiro appeared. "What are you doing in today? I told you to book a substitute."

"I'm fine," Keith rolled his eyes, "it's a broken wrist. I'm not terminally ill."

"How'd you get here? You didn't take your motorcycle did you?" Shiro folded his arms like he was chastising his little brother, and in a way, he was.

"No, Lance picked me up. He lives down the street." Keith nodded toward Lance and he smiled awkwardly.

"I could've picked you up." Shiro raised his eyebrows, something close to offended.

"You live kind of out of the way. Lance is much closer." Keith shrugged like it was no big deal.

By the end of the day, Keith's cast was full of signatures from students and staff alike. But Keith was most pleased with the name written small but in all caps with a tiny heart beneath it. Lance. Keith was never much for the whole 'relationship thing', and maybe he never even had that in mind when he asked Lance if he could kiss him. It was impulsive, he hadn't really thought at all. Well that wasn't entirely true. He thought Lance was goofy and he looked so pretty and kissable. Keith wasn't exactly expecting himself to become fond of Lance. After all, he'd never really been fond of anyone. Only, now, when he'd see Lance pass by him in the halls or catch a glimpse of him in the teacher's lounge, Keith wanted to talk to him. That might not seem like a big deal, but Keith hated talking to people. He had only so much patience for unwanted conversations in a day, and once he met his quota, his way of recharging was secluding himself from everyone. Keith didn't mind so much talking to Shiro when he got like this, but he'd still prefer his own company. But Lance, Keith felt relaxed talking to him. Lance was entertaining, he made Keith laugh and he felt so good making Lance laugh.

So when days turned into weeks and Lance was still round (much to Keith's surprise), Keith felt content. He was happy to have Lance to himself, even if it meant meeting behind closed doors. In a way, he actually liked how secretive it all was. The shared kisses and fond looks were theirs and theirs alone. No one was hounding them or asking invasive questions, there was no pressure, they could just be. Keith could hold Lance tightly and watch movies with Kosmo and there was no one bothering them.

They never did much besides hang around Keith's apartment and watch movies, play board games and puzzles, or they were just content to be in each other's presence. They'd grade papers together and lesson plan late into the night, Lance would always be the first to doze off and Keith would gently shake him awake and pull him to the bedroom.

They mostly stayed at Keith's since Hunk was Lance's roommate. Hunk knew Lance was dating someone, just not who. Every once in a while, Hunk would stay with Shay and Keith was able to come over and play with Blue for a while. Only, one time Hunk came back sooner than expected and Keith had to slip out the window holding his pants in hand as he dropped from the first floor height. Lance had whisper yelled an apology from the window as Keith crawled out of the bushes. It didn't help he only had one arm!

Surprisingly, they hadn't had sex yet. It's not that Keith didn't want to, and he was sure Lance wanted to also, but they waited so long to do it that it became something special. When they finally did have sex, Keith wanted it to be extra special. He'd never been that way about sex before. He wasn't a sex fiend by any means, but he definitely never waited like this before. And it wasn't like they didn't do anything. Of course they still fooled around (a lot), and that was already mind blowing enough as is, he couldn't imagine how much better it will be when they finally do go all the way.

And god, sleeping with Lance was nice. He never thought he'd enjoy sleeping with someone this much without actually sleeping with them. What makes that even more of an oddity is that Lance is a wild sleeper. He's restless and he squirms throughout the night. One moment he's hogging all the blankets and the next he's throwing them off himself because he's too hot. It took some getting used to, but now when Lance is tossing and turning, Keith just gathers him in his arms and lets the weight of the man rest on his chest. He loved to wake up and look down to see chestnut hair and golden skin.

There was a lot to adjust to when sleeping with Lance. Keith learned the late night paranoia was also part of having a tired Lance. He obsessed and he couldn't sleep until Keith had checked everything was in order. Keith couldn't say he minded much at first, but after the first few nights, he grew tired and didn't want to check the door. Even if he promised it was locked, Lance was determined. If he didn't check, Lance would squirm and toss back and forth until Keith got up to check. Or Lance would make an attempt to get up and check and Keith would pull him back to bed and go check himself. And after a while, he made it a habit of doing it all before they got to bed, checking to make sure everything was in order before they crawled into bed. So when the never ending questions began, all Keith had to do was say: "Check. Got it. Locked. Off."
He could tell Lance had appreciated that because after Lance would exhaust a list of possible things that could go wrong, he would smile and curl up against Keith and sigh contentedly.

So could you blame them for falling so hard, so fast?

"Morning," Keith kissed the top of Lance's head and breathed in the smell of coconut shampoo.

"Morning." Lance grumbled against Keith's chest. Lance was a lot of things, but a morning person was not one of them.

"Remember what day today is?" Keith shook him lightly.

"Friday." Lance turned his head over like he didn't want to be disturbed.

Keith chuckled and flipped them over, hovering just above Lance who groaned in annoyance. "I'm getting my cast off today." Keith kissed his neck and left phantom bites across the soft skin. He'd never leave marks behind of course, at least no where visible.

"Oh my god! That's today!" Lance was awake now and he grinned up at Keith wildly.

"And I have a surprise for you..." Keith smiled smugly and got out of bed leaving behind a very curious Lance.

"A surprise? What kind of surprise?" He was blinking excitedly from the bed.

"I might have made dinner reservations at Primavera for tonight. You know, to celebrate." Keith smiled as Lance nearly fell out of the bed in excitement.

"Oh my gosh! That place is so nice! No way! Oh my gosh Keith!!!!" He was practically prancing around excitedly and he pulled Keith down for a kiss. "This is gonna be so freaking cool! I can't believe you did this!" Lance was so excited he was blazing through his morning routine that usually took upwards of an hour.

All throughout the day, every time Keith caught a glimpse of Lance, the man was positively beaming. Admittedly, Keith was in a particularly good mood too. He even let Shiro's awful pun slide.

"Are you okay?" Shiro raised an eyebrow suspiciously.

"Yeah, why?" Keith turned in his swivel chair to face Shiro.

"Because I just made a pun that even I thought was pretty bad and you haven't kicked me out of your classroom or berated me at all." Shiro folded his arms. "Something's up."

"Nothing! I'm getting my cast off today is all." That definitely was not all.

"That's today? Dang it, I wanted to go with when you got it off. But I promised Adam a date night tonight." Shiro frowned.

Keith felt relieved that he didn't have to come up with a bunch of excuses for his brother not to come with him. "Bummer. But I'll be fine going on my own."

Keith was ecstatic as he watched the doctors cut through the ugly old cast. Lance, was less ecstatic. "Are you sure that won't hurt him? Are you positive it won't cut him? Please watch the goods! Eek! Oh we are definitely exfoliating that arm later, gross."

As soon as the cast was off, Keith flexed his wrist and tested out the movement happy there was no pain. They went back to the apartment and cleaned up and got into some nice date clothes and then they were off to 

Keith was satisfied sitting across from Lance at their lonely table. Lance was stunning, nothing new per say, but it was even more evident in the warm lighting. The restaurant was a quiet murmur of individual conversations and light piano played. Lance reached and grabbed Keith's healed hand in his own. "How does it feel now?" That was probably the fifth time Lance had asked this question, and Keith assured him again that his wrist was fit as a fiddle. They ordered their food and a bottle of wine, and it was all so worth it so see Lance's wide smile.

In the middle of eating Keith excused himself to use the bathroom and he tried to be quick, eager to get back to his beautiful boyfriend. But it was while washing his hands that a familiar face walked into the bathroom.

"Keith?!"

"Shiro?!"

"What are you doing here?" Shiro was surprised, of course this was the last place he'd ever expect to to see Keith. It wasn't really his scene.

"Uh. I... food. I thought I would celebrate getting my cast off with a fancy meal. I'm just gonna get takeout." Keith tried to lie, but he was so on the spot that he worried it didn't come off as genuine.

"Oh, well, since you're here you might as well join Adam and I." Shiro shrugged. "We've barely been seeing anything of you lately! It's like you've become even more of a hermit."

"Oh, ha ha." Keith was starting to sweat. "I'll pass, I'm just gonna eat at home. I don't want to spoil your date!" Keith sadly realized Lance and his date had been thoroughly spoiled.

"Okay, well, you'll have to at least say hi to Adam." Shiro bargained. "He was worried sick when you said you didn't want any more casseroles."

"I told you, I've been cooking myself." Keith shrugged. That was a lie, Lance had been doing the cooking. Keith was banned from the stove after he caught some asparagus on fire.

"You've been... different lately." Shiro eyed him suspiciously. "Are you... seeing anyone?"

"What?! No!" Keith shook his head and folded his arms defensively. Shiro was onto him.

"It's just that, you've started cooking out of the blue, we haven't seen much of you, and whenever we do see you, you look all dazed. Not to mention you've been in a good mood for months now."

It was true. For the three months or so that Lance and him had been dating, Keith couldn't help his good mood. And by good mood, he means looking like he doesn't want to punch something 24/7. Keith shrugged, "Everyone's gotta learn to cook eventually."—absolute lies—"And I'm just... happy." And woah, yeah, Keith was happy. Lance made him happy.

Shiro shrugged and went to use the bathroom. Keith quickly pulled out his phone and sent Lance a few texts.

S.O.S.
Abort!!
We gotta go!

"Who are you texting?" Shiro walked to the sink to wash his hands.

Lance: I told you not to get the dish with dairy!

"Uh, no one, just... checking the score." Keith lied, that one was a little obvious.

"The score? Like football?" Shiro dried his hands and he was giving Keith a funky look.

If Keith answered yes, Shiro would know something was up. Keith had expressed his obvious disdain for football on several occasions. "No! Cricket. I've sort of gained an interest in cricket recently."

"Like the English sport?" Shiro raised a brow, but he seemed to buy it more than the football thing.

"Yeah. Who knew right? You learn something new about yourself ever day." Keith shrugged.

"Huh, I guess so." Shiro started out. "Come say hi to Adam."

Keith followed Shiro back to their table and Adam blinked owlishly at him. "Keith?"

"Hey," Keith pursed his lips and out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Lance. And god did Keith love this man. Lance had two take-out boxes and a to-go cup clutched in his hands, and he was peaking out from behind a tall potted plant. Shiro began turning his head in the direction of Keith's gaze and he realized he'd have to come up with a quick distraction. "Shiro!"

Shiro's head whipped back in Keith's direction at the sudden outburst. "What?"

"I was just thinking today and—um—wouldn't it be cool if we started a cricket team?" Keith spoke nervously. "I mean think about it, it could be interesting."

"Cricket? Like the English sport?" Adam scrunched his nose in confusion.

"Apparently, Keith loves cricket now." Shiro shrugged exasperatedly. "I know, it's like we barely know him anymore."

"Keith, what's up with you lately?" Adam peered at Keith suspiciously.

"Dr. McClain?" Shiro blinked at Lance who was trying to slink past.

"Oh, Dr. Shirogane! And Dr. Kogane! What a surprise!" Lance smiled and walked over. He made eye contact with Adam and realized he wasn't supposed to know him. "Hi! I'm Lance! I work at the school."

"I'm Adam, Shiro's husband." Adam smiled politely.

"Oh that's so cool! I didn't know you were married!" Lance was so nervous he was acting way to enthusiastic about everything in order to hide it. "It's so nice to meet you!" He laughed nervously. "You all must be having dinner, that is SO cool! I'm actually on a date with this super hot chick... um, Katherine. She's waiting in the car for me." He winked awkwardly.

"Oh, that's nice." Shiro said awkwardly.

"Keith! You got your cast off, isn't that cool! Anyway, I should get going, don't want to leave Katrina waiting!" Lance awkwardly sped out of the restaurant.

"Oh my god. Can you believe that? Lance is kind of a dirtbag. He couldn't even remember his date's name." Shiro blinked back at Adam and Keith. "That was awkward."

Keith couldn't believe they bought that. Lance was so obviously nervous and panicky. He really had to treat Lance later. He'd watch Shrek movies with him all weekend to make up for this disaster of a date. "Yeah, what a jerk! Wow, uh, look at the time. Gotta rush home for that cricket game! Bye guys!"

Keith paid the bill on the way out and rushed to the parking lot where Lance was waiting in the car. As soon as he saw Keith, he rolled down the window, "We're busted aren't we?"

"Surprising, no." Keith grinned widely and got in the car.

They drove to the top of Valley Hill (yeah, the name is a little bit of a paradox) and parked on the edge that overlooked the city. They got out and sat on top of the car to eat together and enjoy the view.

"I can't believe they bought that. You were such a bad liar!" Keith laughed.

"Me? You were practically sweating bullets!" Lance laughed letting his forehead fall against Keith's shoulder.

"What were the odds they also had dinner reservations there? That was insane!" Keith shook his head.

"You know, you could have just told them." Lance shrugged taking another bite of his food.

"What? What do you mean?" Keith blinked. "We never talked about telling people before."

"Yeah, well, we never really talked about keeping it secret either." Lance pointed out. "Plus, it's not like our relationship is all new fragile anymore. It's been three months."

"But..." Keith tried to find an excuse. He was trying not to freak out, but he wasn't hiding it well. He liked the secrecy of their relationship, what if they went public and then Lance dumps him shortly after. Everyone would know.

"What? Do you not... want people to know you're dating me?" Lance asked apprehensively.

"Not really. No." Keith answered truthfully.

Lance set his food down and slid off the car.

"What? Lance? What's wrong?" Keith quickly dropped his own take-out box and slid off the car too.

"Are you ashamed of dating me? Is that it?" Lance was angry now. Keith had never really seen Lance angry, at least, not just pretending to be to get Keith to laugh. Keith was not laughing.

"No! That's not it-!" Keith shook his head, trying desperately to fix this.

"Oh, are you just trying to keep your options open?" Lance huffed.

"No!" Keith watched Lance get in the car and lock the doors. "Lance! Lance, what are you doing?"

Lance rolled the window down just a crack, "You're pissing me off because you're staying stupid shit, so I'm giving you a moment to choose your next words very carefully and for me to calm down enough that I don't tear your head off.

"Why do you want people to know?" Keith asked sticking his fingers through the open window because he knows Lance wouldn't have the guts to close it on his fingers.

"Why wouldn't I?! I want to flaunt you, I want to talk about you, I want to be able to be around you no matter who else is around. Don't you hate sitting on opposite sides of the room during meetings, or pretending I don't exist in the teachers' lounge, or sneaking out of the restaurant on our three month anniversary?" Lance sighed. "I know we were worried at first about how serious we were and we agreed it was necessary to keep it quiet, but there's no longer a threat that our relationship is fragile or poses the possibility of coming to an abrupt end. Or... am I wrong?" He looked terrified and apprehensive all of a sudden.

"Lance, no, no, oh my god, that's not it at all. I..." Keith stared at Lance sadly.

"Why don't you want to tell anyone?" Lance asked, and seeing the desperation on Keith's face, he unlocked the doors.

Keith threw open the door and grabbed Lance's hands to drag him out. "I just like having you to myself. I know it's selfish, but I know the moment we're public I'll have to share you. Shiro and Adam will ask a billion question, and I know I don't know how to answer them all. I don't want anyone else to get in the way of a good thing."

And then Lance was kissing Keith, and then they were hugging. "That's... strangely sweet." Lance muttered against his shoulder.

"We can tell people if you want," Keith conceded.

"No, no, you can't just surrender your point. I actually like where you're coming from. We should just compromise." Lance pulled away from the hug to face Keith.

"Compromise?" Keith furrowed his brow.

"Yeah! We could just tell a very small select few!" Lance nodded.

"But wouldn't word just get around then anyway?" Keith tilted his head.

Lance shook his head. "My family lives about an hour and a half away. Let me tell them. And... oh! And let's tell Hunk and swear him to secrecy. Then you can come over to my apartment without having to throw yourself out the window. Hunk is great at keeping secrets."

"Okay," Keith smiled, "I can live with that."

Lance bounced on his feet and planted a quick kiss to Keith's cheek. "I'm going to call my mom right now!"

So, the night didn't turn out quite as romantic as Keith had hoped. But surprisingly, he was okay with that. More than okay. In fact, it might have been better. He was terrified of having an argument with Lance, but if that was arguing, they came back from it better than Keith could have anticipated. After Lance bragged on the phone about "his super hot edgy boyfriend who was both a science nerd but also cool and rides a motorcycle", they had a small make out session in the backseat of the car. By the time they got home, they were stumbling to the bedroom and discarding a trail of clothes behind them.

Lance decided the best way to let the cat out of the bag to Hunk was to invite Keith over for dinner (apparently Hunk is a top notch chef). When Hunk realized it was Keith that Lance had been dating, he almost dropped a whole tray of cookies. But a after the initial shock, he became pretty cool about the whole ordeal.

—————————————————————

~~~two months later~~~

Lance gave Keith a happy smile from across the teachers' lounge as he stirred his coffee. Once the last teacher left, Lance sauntered up to his boyfriend and kissed him tenderly. "I made you some, extra cream and sugar how you like." Lance handed him his mug.

"You spoil me." Keith delivered a quick kiss to his cheek.

At the sound of the door opening, the two pulled away quickly. Shiro walked in and smiled widely at the both of them, clueless about the lovebirds. "Just the two amazing teachers I wanted to see! Hey Lance, you know that chair you put an order in for? It'll be here in a week!"

"He wants something." Keith accused. 'Amazing teachers' and finally getting the new chair that Lance put an order in for five months ago? Definitely sweetening them up.

"Can't I just dote on my amazing staff?" Shiro grinned, but there were definitely underlying intentions.

"What do you want?" Lance peered at Shiro.

"Okay, you got me. I need two more chaperones for the prom." Shiro folded his arms.

Lance lit up, "Oh my gosh! I'll do it! That's gonna be SO much fun! Heck yeah! I never actually got to go to my high school prom. This will be so cool!"

Shiro looked relieved. "Finally! I just need one more, I'll go ask someone else, I know there's no way you'll do it." Shiro shook his head at Keith.

"Actually, I will too." Keith shrugged.

Shiro had to do a double take. "What?! I thought I'd have to threaten to spill your deepest darkest secrets or something to get you there as a last resort."

"No, I'll come." Keith said nonchalantly.

Shiro smiled both surprised but relieved. "Okay! I don't know what got in your head but there's no take-backs!" And with that, Shiro darted out of the room.

"Prom huh?" Lance smiled and wrapped his arms around Keith's neck.

"Yeah, you seemed excited about it, plus, I'm sure you'll look stunning." Keith smiled and kissed the top of Lance's head. "Why did you never go to your high school prom?"

"Well, I skipped it my junior year because I was embarrassed that I didn't have a date or many friends. But for my senior prom I was super excited and went all out, and then I got sick with the flu! It was horrible! And I found out that my date ended up going with someone else and they banged in the parking lot." Lance shivered at the awful memory.

"Well, this will be much better. As long as you don't get sick, we'll have a great time." Keith promised.

The night of the prom, Keith was worried about time. "We should start getting ready."

"But we have like two hours before we have to go." Lance whined and kept playing their puzzle.

"You know that your routine takes a while." Keith rolled his eyes. "Plus we should get there early since we're chaperones."

"Fine." Lance whined. The two got dressed up really nice in suits and ties and made sure to look their best. "Keeeeeith! It's almost time to go!" Lance called from the living room.

Keith appeared from the entryway to the kitchen and was holding something behind his back. "I sort of have a surprise for you." He blushed.

Lance grinned widely and practically screeched when Keith produced two matching boutonnières. "Keith, oh my god this is so sweet!" Lance was tearing up and Keith could barely take a break from the kisses to pin the boutonnière to Lance's tux. And when Lance went to pin on Keith's, his hands were shaking. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, but this isn't all of it." Keith smiled and led him to the window. Outside was a limo and Lance nearly fainted.

"You didn't."

"I did." Keith laughed. And Keith couldn't keep Lance off him. There was a barrage of kisses and hugs and spazzing. "I knew you'd be into it. Since you never really got your high school prom, I thought you might like another shot at it."

They got in the back of the limo and Lance was practically bouncing in his seat and couldn't sit still out of sheer excitement. But then something dawned on him. "Won't people wonder if we show up in a limo together with matching boutonnières?"

"Let them." Keith whispered in Lance's ear and then kissed him tenderly.

"D-do you mean it? Does this mean... we're not keeping it a secret anymore?" Lance was wide eyed with excitement.

Keith nodded.

When the limo arrived, the two got out but they didn't touch or hold hands, after all, old habits die hard. They were early anyway, so not many people were around to see the dramatic entrance. When they entered the gymnasium, the two had to admit that the school had outdone itself with the decorations. The class wasn't large enough to rent a venue, but the walls were so thick with decorations and the lighting was dim enough that it was easy to forget it was a gymnasium at all.

Shiro popped up for a moment and praised their commitment to the chaperoning by getting boutonnières, but the thought they were there together didn't even cross his mind. For the first little while, the two just stood talking near the punch bowl to make sure nothing was spiked, but they still laughed and had fun. The lighting hit Lance's skin perfectly making him radiate a pretty blue and Keith had a gorgeous halo of red from where they stood together.

"Oh my god! Lance! Keith!" Ms. Daley waved and quickly walked up to them. "You guys look great!"

"So do you Ms. Daley," Lance smiled.

"Oh, just call me Tanya! It's not like the kids can hear!" She laughed. It seems she also went all out by wearing a dress and heels and she did something fancy with her hair. "Lance! We should dance! Oh ha! That rhymed!"

"Actually..." Lance began unsure.

"He actually promised he'd dance with me first." Keith said over the loud music. He smiled and took Lance's hand in his own.

"Ha ha! You guys are a hoot!" She laughed.

Lance didn't like that she didn't take them seriously. It wasn't a bromance, this was serious. "Thanks Tanya for watching the punch bowl for a moment." Lance said sweetly and linked arms with Keith just so they were a bit closer. And then Keith and him were moving to the dance floor. They clasped hands and danced around to the upbeat music laughing and giggling like high schoolers. Keith gave Lance a twirl or two, and the night felt like magic.

The response from the students was overwhelmingly positive and exciting. "Get it Mr. McClain!" "Whoop! Whoop!" "We knew it!" "Your lobster!" "We told you we were master manipulators!" "We told you goofball wasn't a bad thing!"

And then when Keith asked what they were talking about, Lance had to give Keith the whole explanation of how their students tried to get them together at the beginning of the school year. And that had Keith laughing and all the more glad he was spending his night with Lance. When the song was over, they walked to get some punch (just to check) and idle for a while longer.

"I-I didn't know you two were a thing!" Tanya blinked at them. The two men just smiled and sipped their punch until she found another teacher to bother.

"Keith! Were you actually dancing?!" Adam was next to them in a matter of seconds, Shiro connected to his arm. "Did my eyes deceive me?!"

"I didn't think we could get you here willingly, but dancing too!" Shiro was delighted at the notion his edgy little brother was flying outside his comfort zone and enjoying himself.

Keith just smiled and nodded, and Lance could tell he wanted to show them without being to obvious or drawing too much attention. "Hi, I'm Lance! I know we technically met before, but I was totally lying my ass of that day and left the worst impression." Lance smiled widely. There was a song change and 'I Only Have Eyes For You' by The Flamingos began to play. "Babe! I love this song! One more dance!" Lance grabbed their punch and set them on a table and dragged Keith out to the dance floor. And Keith had to admit, while he wasn't much of a dancer, he enjoyed himself a lot. And swaying to the music with Lance made his heart swell and he became even more eager for when they got home. Home to their two amazing dogs, their half-finished puzzle, to their 'His & His' towels that they could never tell apart, to their bed, to their paused Netflix show...

"So... you two huh?" Shiro asked as Adam and Lance chatted away.

"Yeah," Keith smiled.

"How long?" Shiro asked.

"Long enough that you're going to be upset." Keith pursed his lips. "Six... almost seven months I think. We basically live together."

Lance gazed over at Keith and Shiro talking and felt relief seeing Shiro pull Keith into a tight hug. He didn't know what they were talking about, but he could tell there was a lot of excitement.

On the ride home, Lance was so exhausted from dancing and breaking up several make out sessions in dark corners of the gym, that he passed out in the back seat with his head on Keith's shoulder. Keith was too excited to doze off, so he just sat and admired the sleeping man beside him.

When they got home, they tiredly trudged up the stairs and entered the dark apartment. They flicked on the lights and shuffled inside, "That was honestly the best night of my life." Lance yawned.

Keith grinned, "I'm glad."

"Oh my god, the look on peoples faces. And oh my god, when you told me in the limo that we were okay to go public. Oh my god, I still have chills!" Lance laughed sleepily.

Keith couldn't contain it any more, he was practically buzzing with energy. "There was actually a reason I wanted us to go public tonight..."

Lance was kicking off his shoes and he turned to face Keith. "Are you okay?" Lance asked, Keith seemed... nervous.

"Yeah, just excited. You see, I wanted Shiro and Adam to know about you before..." Keith fumbled in his pocket, "before I proposed." He opened the small black box and dropped to one knee. "Lance? Will you marry me?"

Lance walked into class that Monday and greeted his class. He turned on the projector and used the camera to show the assignment sheet on his desk.

"Did you all enjoy your prom this weekend?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, but probably not as much as you and your boyfriend!" Adrian teased.

"Dr. Kogane is not my boyfriend!" Lance moved his hand under the projector camera to show off the ring. "He is my fiancé."

And the class went wild.