A house is only as fun as your house mate

Chapter 6 and 1/3: Keith

I dropped Lance off at work after he had selected me a suit to wear today. He gave me a quick peck on the cheek as a goodbye before leaving to meet up with another man who had just gotten out of his car next to us. He was a tall guy with silver hair and a fairly muscular frame. Lance had begun to talk to him when he heard me pulling out of the parking space. He sent me a wave and a wink, then proceeded to laugh at the man next to him, who seemed equally as confused as I was at Lance’s action.

I made my way back home. It was weird viewing the small brick house as home. I had to constantly remind myself that I wouldn’t be staying there long. I couldn’t forget the original plan of moving out, no matter how much I perhaps wanted to. I didn’t want to leave Lance but I will always forever remain as an invader to him. He didn’t need me, I wasn’t good for him. But, for the time being, I was going to make the most of being with Lance, after all, he knew I had to leave so why not do what I have wanted to do all my life? Either way, we both know the outcome.

I pulled up outside the little house and entered to go and spruce myself up. Lance had thankfully given me the only other spare key that he owned so that I could come in and out of the house as I pleased. Especially when he was at work. It helped then, now that I was looking to get a job, it just worked. I decided that I had plenty of time before my interview and I had nothing good to do so taking a shower was the next best option. I had to look good for it and smell good at the very least. It wasn’t like me to normally go a day without showering anyway. Since Lance was not home, I got the whole place to myself, in other words, freedom. I ventured to the bathroom, and ran the water until it was hot. I hopped in soon after and felt the water droplets hitting my back at a repetitive pressure and speed. I grabbed the closest bottle of soap to me and depending on what it was would depend on what I washed first. I glanced over the label, noticing the little cursive letters that spelt out blueberries. I chuckled softly to myself and rubbed the shampoo into my hair. It made me think, maybe I hadn’t changed all that much. Rubbing the shampoo in, reminded me of my old ‘mullet’ and reminded me of actually how much I missed it. These thoughts were ones that I had had frequently. I knew that I wanted to change and never did, but it really hit me now. I never changed. I still love Lance, I loved my hair, I loved my style, I loved Shiro, I loved music. Just because I lost the love of certain things doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to love them. The last ten years had been unbearably difficult. Even after the Galra fell, Allura left us all a mess to clean up and yet she made out that she saved the universe. I took the blade of Marmora, I took the Galra, I took the worst lot and damn was it a job. New scars joined the one on my face, across my body. I could usually hide those since typically they were along my torso and they weren’t overly that deep. They healed well, leaving stringy lines of connected flesh. That’s one of the reasons I refused to take off my shirt around Lance. I had to do it once because I was going to die of a heat stroke otherwise, but even then, I covered myself. Those years were the ones that I grew to hate Shiro and Lance, and everyone else for that matter. Shiro left me to go and live with his husband, happy, and free. Lance left for his family, yes he lost his girlfriend but he was happy and free. Pidge left to do what she loved most, she built robots and created AI, she was happy and free. Hunk, he got to cook for the entire galaxy, happy and free. What did I get, I got to continue fighting. Yes I didn’t mind being on edge constantly but I wanted to be happy, I wanted to be free.

Now I had Lance, he made me happy, he freed me. But what have I done for him?

Feeling scared at where my mind was going, I got out of the shower, wrapping a towel around my body and grabbing a smaller one to dry my hair with. I rubbed the damp strings aggressively and inspected the scar on my cheek. It had begun to look more raised again. It had phases of deciding when and where it wanted to look bad. Today was not a good day for it. The least I needed was my scar to affect me getting the job. I blew it off, realising that there was nothing that I could do about it. I left for our room and found the suit draped across the bed. I hadn’t actually seen it before now so I inspected it deeply. It was a black jacket and tie with a plain white dress shirt and black trousers. I lifted it up to throw on the shirt when I noticed a slip of paper fall out of the pocket in it. Curious, I crouched to pick it up and unfolded it open.

Saw this and thought it would look beautiful  on you, especially in a different setting. Now go crush that interview ~ L

I couldn’t help the smile that tugged at my mouth. My chest felt that little stab of pressure again. I dropped the piece of paper and held my hand in front of my mouth, biting back a little sob that wanted to escape. He really was nice sometimes, if only he could say that kind of thing to my face, it would mean the world. I picked it back up again, folded it and placed it back in the pocket. It may be stupid but I was adamant that I was going to take it with me, so I could have another piece of Lance with me. The truth is, I was scared. I didn’t want to rock in and speak to them, I was too antisocial for that. I pulled on each individual piece of the suit, finishing with the tie and then the jacket. I checked myself in the mirror to see whether it fit well enough. It was perhaps a little big but it was barely noticeable. The thing that got me the most was that it smelt like him. I unfastened the top button and pulled down the tie a little, to just give me some breathing room. I checked the time on my phone, preparing to leave. I had five minutes to get there. I grabbed my phone, wallet, and keys before dashing out the door before I was even later. I hopped into the car and made my way down the road, arriving at twelve exactly.