RIGHT FOOT | klance (keith x lance)

9. Mercy

Kolivan was all up Keith's ass that day. Keith had gotten a grand total of five minutes late to work because traffic was bad and he hopped off the bus three stops before his actual one or he would've gotten even later to the café. But Kolivan thought that, plus him having gotten Keith that phone notice weeks before that meant Keith was being at his undisciplined self. And to top it all a customer had tried to grab Keith's ass from behind the counter and Keith snapped at him.

So Kolivan kept watching Keith the whole day. It was very uncomfortable and it meant Keith couldn't slip up at all. The first wrong move he made would mean he would have to stay about ten minutes after work to listen to Kolivan scolding him about how he needed to focus more on work, etc, etc, etc. Keith really didn't need that. He was a great employee and Kolivan knew that.

Having Kolivan all over him during his work hours meant Keith would get home and just want to go to bed. But he wouldn't be able to because Shiro's friends would be over and he would have to stay with them at least for a while. Great.

I was fine, though. Keith had had worse days at work before, especially before having started working at the café. He'd worked at a thrift shop once and had to deal with a bunch of noisy and awful teenagers who would go there at least once a week just to make a mess of the store and Keith would be responsible for kicking them all, but then get scolded for using physical strength or shouting at the kids. He'd worked as a waiter once and couldn't deal with big groups of white rich adults shouting with other employees because they'd let a couple sit before them when they had gotten there first and would just be even louder as the employee tried explaining they couldn't sit a group with seven people at a table for two. Keith had gotten fired for getting in the middle of one of those arguments and actually leading the group to a table for two and telling them to 'fucking sit on the floor or on each other's fucking laps, then'. His employer hadn't really liked his attitude or his language.

Besides, Keith had a zero patience policy with grabby people at work – or in general. He had always been the type of person who got into fights when he saw people sexual harassing others on the street. The reason he had been fired from his job at the thrift shop was him having punched the owner square on the jaw when he had sexually harassed one of Keith's female co-workers and made a joke about it to Keith. Keith hadn't even have time to think, he didn't even let the guy finish his "joke"; he just saw it happen and turned around to punch him as hard as possible.

That meant that he not only wouldn't let the customer touch him, but he didn't plan on letting them get away with trying to. So when they tried, Keith started shouting and Kolivan had to actually keep Keith from jumping on the customer and pick a physical fight.

"Keith." Kolivan started after dragging him to the 'employees only' area. "Hurting our customers is unacceptable."

"Trying to grab people's ass without consent is unacceptable." Keith answered and gritted his teeth. Kolivan sighed.

"I understand." Kolivan held Keith's shoulder. "But you cannot try to punch our customers." Keith groaned and nodded, trying to refrain from rolling his eyes at his boss. "Calm down and go back when you feel ready. I will take care of that man and be sure he leaves fast." Keith nodded again and sat down for a second.

It was unfair for Kolivan to be so up his ass as he was, but Keith was grateful that, even still, Kolivan was willing to let that one slide because he knew Keith had a point. Was his way the best was to deal with the situation? No. Was it right and work appropriate to shoot first, ask questions later? Definitely not. But he did have a point.

The rest of the day was uneventful, but Kolivan had stayed even closer; he had paid even more attention to Keith's every move, to his every right and wrong. So when the time to leave arrived, Keith felt like the luckiest man in the universe and left as quickly as possible before Kolivan could pull him to the side and lecture him about something.