Bonding (Klance)

Chapter 7 'I Love You'

Keith Pov

I awoke to the light sound of crackling. Blinking my eyes a few times I noticed Lance wasn't in his sleeping bag. That's when I was hit with the scent of a fire and cooking food. 'Lance must be making breakfast'. I slipped out of my sleeping bag and grabbed my shoes, quickly tying them and stepping out of the tent.

Lance was sitting on one of the little folding chairs that was in the equipment bags. He was messing with the cooking equipment and making some kind of alien food Hunk had packed. I yawned and walked over to the other chair. It seemed Lance hadn't noticed me until then, because it looked like he jumped a little when seeing me.

"Good morning." I said between a second yawn.

"Morning." he said without looking away from the food, but giving me a small smile anyways.

I have been thinking a lot about Lance's and i's conversation last night. He didn't mind that Shiro was gay, he even looked offended that I even thought he would be. So does that mean he'll accept me too? If I came out to him, he'll be okay with it? Is he okay with it because he likes guys too? No that's stupid, Lance obviously likes girls and only girls. But what if, what if he does like guys and was hiding it like me. What if I told him how I felt about him?

My head was spinning with thoughts and questions. I glanced up and stared at Lance. He was too focused on the food to notice. He was so pretty, the slowly rising sun made his caramel skin glow. And his eyes shined like glistening water on a sunny day. Lance had always reminded me of the beach at sunset. I could stare at his face forever and never be tired of it.

"I love you" those three words escaped my lips before I could even think. I froze, eyes shot wide locking with Lance's. As soon as I said it he whipped his head around to face me. I so hoped he didn't hear me, but it was obvious he had. We stared at each other for what felt like forever.

"w-What?" he finally spoke. I didn't know what to say, I couldn't even speak.

"Did you, just say you love me?" I flinched at his words and stared at the ground. I tried to think of something to say, but my mind went blank.

"Gross dude" it felt like my heart stopped. Did he just call me 'gross'? I thought he was okay with that stuff. Is it because i'm gay. Is it because I love him?

"w-What"? Was all I could muster out. I slowly lift my head and look at him. The look he had on made my face heat up and my eyes to water over. Tears streamed down my face as I stared at his disgusted look.

"I- I don't understand. You said you were okay with Shiro being gay. How could you say something like that to me?" I said, voice cracking every now and then. I had started to shake trying to wipe my tears away.

"Did you really think I was being honest about that? I just didn't want to start something that late. But you, having feelings for me. That's where I draw the line. Your disgusting man." he stood up and started to walk towards me. He had this eerie grin on his face. It felt like he was just trying to hurt me. It didn't take long for him to get right in front of me. He bent down and looked me in the eye, still wearing that creepy grin.

"Do you want to kiss me Keith? Is that what you want? Do you want to sleep with me?" he said leaning into my ear at the end. I felt like I was breaking. I couldn't stop crying and my breathing grew heavy. I felt like I was going to pass out.

Lance got up even closer and I ended up falling back off my chair. He just kicked it out of the way and kept walking toward me, giggling to himself. I just crawled backwards trying to get away from him. It was hard to catch my breath and my thoughts were spiraling. Why was Lance acting like this? He's always been the sweetest person. Even if he didn't like me I could never see him acting like this.

I stopped, whatever Lance wanted to do to me I'll let him. I stopped moving, I stopped crying, I stopped trying to figure out why. Why he was acting this way, and why he said what he did. I just curled into a ball. Awaiting him to kick me, or yell at me. But nothing. There was nothing, no sound, no feeling of the ground or hard grass, no Lance. But I didn't move, I didn't want to open my eyes to find Lance standing over me with that look on his face.

"Keith. . . Keith. . . Keith!" I could hear him again. My body tense up and I waited for him to do something.

"Keith, are you okay! Keith, you need to wake up!" wake up? Does Lance think I'm sleeping? No that's not it. He sounds different from before. He sounds like the old Lance, the real Lance; the one I talked to last night.

"Keith, please wake up!" I relaxed my body and welted into his voice. slowly opening my eyes. I looked around a bit. I was in the tent, still in my sleeping bag. A pair of arms grabbed me and lay down on my body hugging me.

"Lance?" was all I could say. My voice sounded rough, I must have been crying in my sleep.

"Keith, are you okay? You were crying and yelling in your sleep." he said sitting up letting me get up a bit. I rubbed my face, I still felt like crying.

"I'm okay now, thanks. You said I was talking in my sleep? What did I say?"

"I'm not sure, you just seemed scared. Are you sure you're okay? You sounded really upset."

"Im okay really. I know it wasn't real and it will never end up happening. I'm sure of that."

"Well as long as you're okay. And you can always talk to me if you want."

"Thanks Lance."

"Do you want some help going back to sleep? It has only been 2 Varga (hour). I could stay with you if you want. I am a great cuddler." That made me giggle. He's always been good at cheering people up.

"Actually that would be really nice." I said half as a joke, but I really want to. Lance seemed surprised but I expected that. What I didn't expect was that he was actually going to do it.

He grabbed my sleeping bag and climbed in. He put his head on the pillow and pulled me into his arms. I didn't know what it meant but I didn't care. I just wanted to enjoy this moment. I didn't take long for me to drift of to sleep raped in his arms.

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word count 1198