A house is only as fun as your house mate

chapter 1 and 1/3

The entire five minute drive back to the hotel had been one full of tears. Keith couldn’t stand seeing Lance like that. He looked so composed and strong and even mature. He couldn’t take it. The hug that Lance had given him reduced the both of them to tears. How? Keith hated Lance so how could something like that happen? He hit his head off of the steering wheel of his old Peugeot, causing the horn to blare. A few pedestrians turned their heads his way and looked at the young man disapprovingly. Keith had grown used to the looks of other people now. It was just another thing that he had become immune to. The only thing he wasn’t yet immune to, was Lance. Why that was, he didn’t know. He had never felt anything towards that man before except hatred and the odd amount of tolerance. So why did he get so worked up about seeing his face?

After calming down, Keith got out of the car and made his way back towards his hotel room. Pushing past people on his way. He flopped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. An arm lay draped over his forehead, shading his eyes from the harsh artificial light that lit up the room. The bottom half of his legs hung off of the edge of the bed. He fell asleep shortly afterwards from exhaustion.

                                                                   

Keith awoke to the sound of a soft knock appearing at the door of his hotel room. Reluctantly, he got off of the bed, his legs stiff from sleeping with them hanging off of the side of the bed. He winced in pain, checked his hair in the mirror and tried to flatten his fringe ever so slightly. He looked satisfactory enough for anyone else looking. He opens the door and boy did he get the biggest surprise when he opened it. “lance?!” he demanded when he swung it open. Keith instantly felt more awake and alert. Well he had to be if his ex-comrade had just turned up at the door. “hey Keith I uh, sorry, I planned this out. Do you mind if I come in a second?” Lance scratched the back of his head nervously and realised what he was doing so he withdrew his arm and looked at Keith hopefully. Keith held open the door and stood out the way to allow Lance passage but he refused to say anything. Lance perched himself on the edge of one of the velvet clad chairs sat in the corner of the cream room. Keith stood so that he was ready for anything. Not that it would come to anything physical but it was a mental habit that he had trained into his mind. He waited for Lance to start but nothing came. Forced into the position, Keith spoke first. “why are you here?” he huffed. Lance sighed and looked at the floor. He looked anxious and pale, as if he was going to be sick. “Uh, you see, when we were speaking yesterday, you mentioned that you don’t really have anywhere to stay and so you were planning on just moving to the next town over once you were done here. And it dawned on me that I have a place and it is a house too big for one anyway so I uh. Sorry let me rephrase that. Would you like to stay with me?” his voice grew slightly cockier, like the way he used to be. He had a slight confident glint in his eyes and somehow, that made Keith happy. He hadn’t liked how sad Lance had seemed yesterday and so he was grateful that he was showing some of his true colours now. Keith continued to stare blankly at Lance. “don’t you have a girlfriend or whatever that will eventually move in with you?” Keith rolled his eyes at the taller man. Lance shook his head and stared at the floor. His ego gone. “no, I haven’t seen anyone since Allura.” Keith, instantly feeling bad for bringing up such a sore topic, apologised and sat on his bed, relaxing a little more since he knew he had no reason to be so on guard with his old team member. Lance shook the apology off and forgave Keith. After all, Keith did know him as a massive flirt when they were in altea, so why wouldn’t he be now? Keith thought about the offer for a good few minutes before giving his final answer. Lance began to grow a little impatient but he knew better than to lose his cool. He and Keith used to get into all sorts of arguments when they used to live in the same ship, so he wouldn’t blame him if Keith refused the offer in fear of wanting to throttle the other. “fine, I will accept the offer. I mean, how hard must it be to live with you? We have done it before no doubt it would be easier now, especially if you have matured a bit.” Keith responded, folding his arms and rolling his eyes. Lance couldn’t stand the challenging tone to Keith’s voice. He refused to let it go unchallenged. “who said I matured mullet?” Lance stood up and walked over to the raven haired man opposite him. Keith, too, stood up and faced Lance. “you do realise that I cut my mullet off you pig brained idiot.” He scowled.