A house is only as fun as your house mate

Chapter 3 and 3/4: Lance

I unlocked the car before he got there so he needn’t wait for me. Once we were in, we went to the same store that we had met again in the other day. The drive took no time at all but it was worth it when I remembered the nice coffee shop that was down the road from the shops. ‘tea for two' I think it was called. It was run by a British couple so it would be easier to speak to them. I remember going there once and the staff were dead nice. Apart from the one kid with blonde hair who scared me a little. He would always have a permanent scowl on his face but I’m sure Keith wouldn’t mind. After all, Keith always had a frown on himself. I wonder what Keith would think if I asked him to go there with me. Would he think of it as a date? I mean if he did, that wouldn’t necessarily bother me, in fact, I would be pretty happy with that. A date with Keith Kogane, I would be one lucky guy to be able to do such a thing. Keith let barely anyone into his heart so me to be there would be something great indeed. I glanced over at him and saw that he sat gazing out of the window, the light reflecting off of his eyes like stars. “keith?” I asked. A quiet hum came from the opposite person but he did not turn around. “thank you for this. I don’t think you understand how hard it has been.” I continued. I guess I hoped that by sharing things myself he would accept me more or even open up himself. It was worth a shot even if it was a complete Trainwreck. “i can imagine, I saw your posts about Allura. I bet you were heartbroken when you lost her.” He murmured. You know what, that statement was more heart-breaking than the fact that he had mentioned my old crush. How could he overlook the fact that I had written posts about him. I know he saw them, he had after all brought them up in front of me. But the fact that he went straight to Allura and deflected everything off of himself hurt, yet it was a very Keith move. He was never one for being the centre of attention. “it wasn’t just Allura.” I hinted. That caught him off guard. He looked over at me with a look that looked completely innocent like he had just realised things could die. I couldn’t read the expression, I was not familiar with it sadly. I thought I knew pretty much everything about Keith. Obviously not. “Dont tell me you are talking about those posts I saw.” He begged. In normal circumstances I would have definitely laughed the conversation off and pretended that we were thinking of separate things. However, this was no ordinary circumstance as this man was no ordinary man. “you know I fully well meant those posts from three years ago, onwards.” I argued, concern lacing my tone, waiting for how he was going to react. He hung his head as we continued to wait outside of the store in the car. “why did you make those posts about me.” He whispered.
“if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” I sighed with a slight chuckle rumbling off of the end. A pout was evident on his face as he continued to look at his feet. He got out of the car on that note, but not before saying. “try me.” And he left. He didn’t even wait for me to catch up with him. He just kept walking towards his destination. He only stopped once I called for him desperately. His head spun around faster than any drone. Panic flashed across his eyes, then he soon realised that I was just calling after him. He stopped and waited. At that point, I took the opportunity to sling my arm over his shoulder and hold him close to me. I was well aware that Japan had not exactly relaxed on the rules about gay affection and gay relationships but as far as Keith and I were concerned, we were long lost friends that happened to kiss once. But Japan was far more accepting, it was pretty normal now. It tended to be older generations that would teach their kids that being gay was bad and then those kids when they grew up would tell the same things to their kids. I'm guessing that was how so many decades had gone by and Japan was still improving. I could wait though. I very much doubt that Keith and I will develop anything more than just a friendship anyway. We argued too much still to be able to keep a relationship, regardless of whether we both wanted it or not.
We were in and out of the shops in no time since Keith was able to pick out everything easy as he already understood the language insanely well. “how do you understand Japanese so well? It took me years to even just be able to speak it.” Keith gave the cutest little giggle before replying to my question.
“Shiro used to teach me. He knew a fair amount but when he left at the end of it all, I decided to continue with it myself since I did quite enjoy it. I guess it also reminded me of him. I guess that is why I am here in this country now.” He gave a nervous laugh and hung his head as his smile faded.
“you miss him huh?” I offered.
“No, it’s fine, he is happy and that makes me happy.” He persisted. I couldn’t argue though I knew that was the complete opposite of how he felt about the situation. No doubt everyday was difficult for him but he dealt with it so well. I felt the sudden urge to kiss him again. In wanting to I stopped in my tracks to clear myself of the temptation. Keith looked back concerned to see me stood there doing nothing. “lance?” he asked, voice shaking in fear. “is everything okay, did I say something wrong.”
‘you did do something wrong’ I thought, ‘your face is too cute’. I shook the thought away from my mind and tried to get the image of what he looked like as I kissed him out of my head. “everything is okay.” I told him with a smile. He didn’t look convinced but he let me be and didn’t intervene where I didn’t want him to. I gave him a weak smile before we both loaded the shopping into the car and got in ourselves. I turned on the ignition. Keith went back to staring outside of the window. He had a hand cupping the cheek closest to the glass so that he could feel more comfortable and relaxed. The entire of the nape of his neck was showing and his right cheek. It felt weird seeing his mullet gone. I did, I missed it. “are you ever going to grow your hair back?” I asked.
“perhaps.” Was the only answer I got as he still didn’t turn around. I had noticed that his outfit was slowly getting back to its old style. When he first turned up, he wore a black shirt with ripped jeans and a pair of vans on his feet. Now he wore his ripped jeans, a black shirt and his cropped jacket. The jacket and shirt were back, all that needed changing was the jeans and shoes. And after that, his hair. I couldn’t resist this time. I leant over and pecked him on the cheek. I pulled back quick enough to the point I could play dumb and make like I had no idea what happened. He looked at me knowing exactly what I did, blush dusted his cheeks but he didn’t ask about it sadly. I was really hoping he would at least argue with me about it. God what was I saying? I wanted him to argue with me? I must have been corrupted. I sighed and just drove us home, Keith’s face never leaving me for more than two seconds.