A house is only as fun as your house mate

chapter 1 and 2/3

This time when he had woken up for the second time that day, Keith opened his eyes to see a figure sat at the base of his bed. Giving a little yelp, Keith lept from the bed, fighting stance activated and ready for action. The figure stood and walked over to Keith whose eyes still hadn’t quite adjusted to the brightness of the room. Once they had focused fully, he saw Lance’s confused face. He punched Lance’s arm anyway for scaring him, in which he received a soft wince from the other man. “why did you just walk into my room?” Keith demanded. Lance sighed and shook his head. “im sorry, I came to check on you so that we could pack your stuff and take you away from here but you didn’t answer. Your door was unlocked so I don’t know, I guess I just walked in and saw you sleeping. I just couldn’t resist not staying with you. I know that you like feeling guarded while you sleep so I thought that I would take on that role today.” Keith couldn’t help relaxing at the words of Lance. He really should have been mad but he just couldn’t seem to find a way to be. “And uh, also you were sleep taking so I had to make sure you were okay.” Lance confessed, he rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he continued to stare at the raven haired man. “dear god, do I want to know what I said?” Keith face palmed and stared down at his feet, feeling utterly defeated. “well you were mumbling about some post about you.” He sighed. Keith paled before finding the perfect opportunity to talk to his acquaintance about the post of which he saw. “oh, you mean this post.” He stated. Keith never meant for this to be teasing or challenging in anyway, he simply just wanted to know ‘why’, yet Lance paled himself this time around. “oh, are you sure that was the post you were mumbling about?” he pleaded. Keith nodded.

“i don’t use social media and I typically don’t look at anyone else’s, especially not people who know me.” Lance bit his bottom lip anxiously before deciding to brush off the post all together. He grabbed Keith’s stuff and helped him pack before heading out of the door. Keith locked it for once and left, letting the main reception know that he will be checking out early. They signed him out and let him go so that he could run after Lance. They got to a pure white Nissan, much like the one from yesterday. Lance decided to place Keith’s luggage in the back of his car and told Keith to follow him as he drives back to his place. Once they were both in their cars, they made their way to the new McClain residence that belonged to master Lance himself.

Keith had never been to Japan and didn’t expect to find Lance living there either. He wouldn’t have thought in a million years that it would be his kind of territory. But perhaps for once, Keith was wrong and didn’t know Lance as well as he thought he did. As far as Keith was concerned, Lance’s family all lived in Cuba so he had no idea why he would move such a long distance away from the family that he loved, especially if he didn’t even speak the language. If Keith were in his shoes, he wouldn’t move away from his family if his life depended on it, he would do anything for the comfort of a family. Though now, those wishes seemed a little bleak and farfetched. Keith continued to find himself staring out of the window at the scenery beyond as he followed in close pursuit behind Lance. He watched as tree upon tree rushed past along the highway, he felt nothing at seeing the beautiful green, just kept his focus on the man that had began to enter his life again. Keith was fully aware that this was not going to be an easy ride, living with this man. They had done it before yes, but that was a struggle, until the end. One of the last memories he had of Lance was sitting, looking at the sunset and convincing him that Allura would love him. How foolish Keith had been to let his guard down so deeply. He only got hurt in the end like usual, once Lance left. God, Shiro didn’t even contact Keith afterwards. Once Curtis entered his life, Shiro was gone. Another friend of Keith’s lost, and unheard from again. Maybe he was grateful for having Lance back. Just maybe he felt strongly that they could make this work and even possibly, Keith could let down every wall he had built up over the last ten years.

They came to a stop outside a house that was at least, four stories high. Lance wasn’t kidding when he had said that he had a house too big for one. Keith looked at the house before looking back at the car in front of him. He ran his hand through the fringe that covered his left eye and moved it away from his face. He pulled his sleeve over his hand, revealing a small hairslide that he kept there constantly in case he needed to pin his hair back. He slid it through his fringe and pinned it to his head so that it was out of the way and that he could see what he was doing. Lance got out of the car first and made his way to the front door, expecting Keith to jump out and follow. He didn’t. He unlocked it quickly before walking over to where Keith was sat. He looked into the window of the car and boy did he regret it. Keith had pinned up his hair, revealing both of his eyes. Lance couldn’t take it. It reminded him of that time in his life about two years ago that he started posting pleas and begging people to find Keith. Lance had never been at such a low before and he didn’t want to feel it again. Especially not for someone like Keith. He still didn’t know why he had been so adamant that he wanted his old friend. But seeing him now in the flesh, Lance understood why. He felt the same fluttery feeling, that he had felt when he first met Allura, when he saw Keith again, it was so strong to the point that he threw his arms around the shorter man and very nearly cried into his shoulder. God it was pathetic, he had never felt anything for Keith. Perhaps it was because of this confusion towards the man that spurred Lance to go and ask Keith to live with him. He wasn’t expecting anything out of this predicament that he had created. No, he just wanted Keith to feel more comfortable until he could find his own place. I mean, by the looks of it, Keith didn’t even work. Lance couldn’t just stand out of the way and wait for Keith to move on, I mean it could take years before he found a place to live. In Lance’s mind, however, he wouldn’t mind if Keith stayed for years. He wouldn’t lie, he was still fairly fond of the man. I guess he always had been. Excluding all of the arguments that they had ever had in the past and all of the fights as well as the reoccurring verbal attacks that had been shared over the years, Lance still admired the man. Perhaps he even loved him. No that wasn’t right, what was he saying. Lance of course didn’t love Keith. He never could, he may have had a slight interest in guys but Keith was off limits. He couldn’t date someone like him. They were friends and had stuck by the other for goodness knows how long. Loving Keith would just make so many things complicated that shouldn’t be.

Keith eventually got out of his car and looked at the slightly blushing Lance before him. “are you okay?” he asked, still frowning. Lance nodded idiotically and unfolded his arms that had been crossed so tight his knuckles had begun to pale in colour. He walked over to Lance’s car where Lance opened the boot revealing Keith’s bag of belongings. He took it from the taller man’s grasp and led it up to the big Oak door that opened into Lance’s home. It still seemed unreal that he would be living here for goodness knows how long. The blue paladin unlocked the door and moved out of the way to allow Keith through, then he followed behind. Keith strutted in confidently but like he didn’t care. He suddenly did care when he got hit by the smell of Lance everywhere. It smelt, blue, if that were even possible. The entire place smelt like the ocean breeze with a hint of bubble-gum and blueberry. A weird combination of things but it worked, and Keith wouldn’t deny, it made him feel oddly happy. He took it all in and it reminded him of being back in the ship and entering Lance’s quarters to go and wake him up. He would never intend to go there, but it used to happen more than he liked to admit. He secretly liked looking at the younger man when he was in fact younger. Lance was certainly a looker but Keith could never think that because he hated the man. What Keith didn’t know was, if he truly hated Lance, there is a strong chance that he would not be stood in the hallway of Lance’s house and taking in the scent of the place, and certainly not fantasizing about looking at young Lance and thinking about how good he was. The Cuban male really hadn’t change at all over the last ten years. He still bore the same goofy smile where needed and held the same aura that he had back then. He just knew the limit now which was a bonus for Keith; he didn’t have to keep him in line the same. Lance noticed the fact that Keith was hesitant to move so he gently placed his hands on the shoulders of the ex-red paladin and massaged them lightly to shock Keith out of his daze. He smiled down at his old friend since he had grown significantly taller than the other over the years. Keith looked up and met Lance’s gorgeous blue eyes before turning away and looking at something else, a faint smile trying to escape his face. He leant into Lance’s touch subtly so that he wouldn’t notice. Lance let go soon after leaving Keith feeling slightly desperate for more of the friendly affection. He didn’t let it show, however, and continued to aimlessly wheel around his luggage. He eventually got led upstairs so that he could put it in the spare room that Lance had spent all day clearing for his new guest. They left each other alone then, Keith in his new room and Lance downstairs so that he could fix them some dinner.