A house is only as fun as your house mate

Chapter 4 and 1/3: Keith

I watched as Lance stuffed pasta in with meat and vegetables in with bread. “how the hell do you live like this?!” I yelled. Taken by surprise he sheepishly slunk back to me, a handful of carrots and oven chips in his arms. He didn’t look at me and just shrugged. “right. I am only doing this once okay? I am going to organise your stuff and I swear to god, you ruin my organising, you will be the one sorting it all back out while I watch.”
“No help?” he asked, almost pleadingly.
I shook my head. “no help.”
He grumbled under his breath before finally nodding and agreeing to my terms. “looks like we won’t have an issue then.” Lance exasperatedly flung his arms in the air before realising they were full of stuff and the fact they were now strewn all over the kitchen tiles. He bent down to pick all the dozen carrots that he had flung in his fit of annoyance. I chuckled a little at his stupidity and bent to help him out too. We got the job done quicker then, allowing us to progress onto clearing the table space so that I could start my reorganising. I emptied all cupboards and placed it on the table, moving onto the sides if I had run out of room. Lance was surprisingly helpful. He emptied the fridge and the freezer and didn’t seem to get in my way. “what happens once you leave and get your own place?” Lance asked, breaking the silence. “do I get to then trash your organising?” he sent me a raised eyebrow and a slight curl to his lips. I shook my head “nope, I will personally be returning here weekly to check that you have not returned to living like a pig.” I declared. He smiled.
“well, I can’t say I would complain.”  I went back to stacking up the tins of beans and soup into his cupboard, hoping to hide from him the blush that had entered my face.
It was relatively easy to put everything else away in the end once I had started going. Lance had offered his services multiple times but each time I turned it down and told him, I had created this job for myself so I was going to finish it. He just rolled his eyes at me and carried on doing whatever he was doing, which just so happened to be watching me. “cant you find something better to do!” I growled after finally having enough of his eyes boring into my back. “well you could let me help you for starters.” He said. “not happening.” I snapped back. I decided to stand up so that we could have this argument head on. “what the hell Keith!” he demanded. “i was just trying to help.”
“Yeah well you can help elsewhere.” I crossed my arms over my chest waiting for his next response. “i really don't get you sometimes. You will willingly hug me and tell me not to die. You will even go as far as to kiss me but then you will argue with me every two seconds. Sometimes I just wish-“ he stopped himself mid sentence, instant regret clouding his face. “I'm sorry.” He sighed and went to head to his room.
“Lance!” I called after him, walking over to the bottom of the stairs. He stopped too, but didn't turn back around. “what do you want now?” he asked bitterly.
“please just come back downstairs.” I pleaded. He ignored me and entered his room, closing the door behind him on his way. I continued to stand at the bottom of the stairs hoping he would come back to me. He didn’t. What he had said to me earlier entered my thoughts then. ‘i promise, no matter what, I won’t leave you again’. The way things were going, I was going to push him away.
I finished my organising shortly afterwards. There was still nothing from Lance so I decided to make dinner myself in the hopes of surprising him. I grabbed the saucepan and the oil that now sat under the cupboard, defrosted. I mean, who actually put oil in the freezer? I poured some into the cool pan and placed it onto the maximum heat on the electric hob. I grabbed a couple eggs that sat next to the bread bin. Shiro used to give me advice on actual cooking when I was young, he always said that putting eggs in the fridge would prolong their life but sadly there was no room in there for the time being so I had to make do with the work surface as a storage space. I mean, it did the job. I cracked the eggs once the oil was hot enough and threw the egg shells into the bin. I grabbed a couple slices of bread and shoved them into the toaster. Along with a tin of beans for the microwave. I left the eggs to cook and poured the bean contents into a Pyrex bowl that lay in one of the top cupboards. I shoved them into the microwave for three minutes. I was still trying to get back into the habit of using earth time signatures and not altean. It was hard at times but I coped and was getting significantly better at it. It only took me a year. The eggs fried quickly and the beans finished with the toast afterwards. I set them all out on a couple of plates and buttered the bread to make it a little softer. I set them both out on the table and left to find Lance. I knocked lightly on his door. “lance?” I asked relatively quietly, in a soothing tone. “go away Keith.” He grumbled.
“Okay, I just wanted you to know I made dinner for the both of us.”
“leave it in the fridge for me.” He told me. But I was not taking no for an answer. This wasn’t because of my cooking or I wanted him with me, he had to eat and I had to apologise. “there is no room in the fridge.” I explained.
“the microwave then.” He continued to call through.
“The bread will get soggy.” I continued to counter. I heard a muffled huff and then the door opened. “fine, I will come down to eat with you, but after that, I’m going to sleep.” I nodded. “that’s fine by me.” I told him. He shook his head and scowled. Scowling didn’t suit him. I wanted to take it away from his face but I had no idea how to do so. I followed him downstairs and sat at the table opposite him. He didn’t look at me the entire way through but just ate. He picked at the food and didn’t actually eat any until he caught my staring. He shoved a forkful of bread, beans and egg into his mouth and swallowed. His eyes lit up. “how did you?” he asked breathlessly. “this is amazing.”
“thanks.” I said bluntly. Inside, I really liked the fact that he had complimented the thing that I had made. I hardly ever got compliments from him, so every one I could get, made me feel something, like I might be special to him. I guess I wanted to be. He finished quicker than I hoped. I wanted to at least sit with him for a little longer, even if we didn’t say anything to each other. I waited for him to disappear, but he didn’t. He still sat. “I’m sorry for being a cow.” I told him. He didn’t do anything in response. “i shouldn’t have gotten mad at you over such a small thing. I just, I guess I have some things going on at the moment.” My face heated up at the thought of what kept going through my brain. Lance leant across the table and took my hand that held no piece of cutlery. “Keith, I don’t care about what you said earlier, you just confuse me a great deal, I mean, one minute you are like this and then the next you are shouting at me.” I nodded in utter defeat. “i know, it is no excuse but I am trying to figure this all out.” He nodded his head slowly to take all of what I was telling him in. He rubbed soothing circles into the palm of my hand. “believe it or not, I am trying to figure stuff out too. Possibly the same as you, possibly not but either way, I understand it. Just please don’t shut yourself out. I finally got you back after years of begging the world for you and this is what happens.” He removed his hand from me to gesture around the both of us.
“Wait, you begged the world for me. That’s what those posts were?” I could see it written on his face, he wanted to deny but as if thinking twice, he nodded solemnly. “lance, I’m sorry, I had no idea. I thought you were, well I guess I didn’t know what I thought.” He brushed it off.
“it was nothing, but I mean you are here now so it’s all alright now. Am I right?” I shook my head. “no Lance, I need to know, why did you do it?”
“the sunset.” Was all he said before he got up and loaded his dishes into the high speed dishwasher. I did the same with my dishes but didn’t follow him. I figured he needed time. I wonder if Lance was taking about that moment that we shared in front of the sunset, when I told him why Allura would like him. None of that night was staged. I told him why Allura would like him because it was why I liked him. And if she couldn’t like him for that, she was stupid to not see it. I wonder if he felt was I was trying to converse to him that night. I wonder if he felt, me.