Behind the Mask // Klance AU

2

Heheheh... I felt kind of evil writing this chapter... and the second you see why, you're gonna hate me. Let me apologize in advance :)

Keith barely slept that night. His heart was too busy racing. The second he'd gotten home, he ripped his mask off, splashing cold water on his face from the bathroom sink. He could still feel Lance's unbelievably soft lips lingering on his. Dark eyes stared back at him in the mirror, blush still warming his cheeks. He barely registered anything as he got dressed for bed, lying down but not falling asleep for more than a few minutes before the memory resurfaced and his eyes shot open again. 

The next day at school, Keith pushed the memory down to try and focus on school. A test acted as a good distraction, and everything was going well. At least, that was until a certain dreamy-eyed, tan-skinned boy walked up behind Keith as the final bell rang. Keith closed his locker, turned, and ran straight into Lance's chest. Letting out an embarrassed squeak, he stumbled backward, gripping the straps of his backpack for dear life. 

"L-Lance... heyyy..." Keith stuttered out, leaning on the lockers and acting 'casual'. Lance muffled a laugh under his hand. 

"You alright there, Keith?" He asked. 

"Y-yeah. I'm good," Keith managed to say. 

"I was wondering if you could help me with something," Lance said after a moment. 

"What is it?"

"How good are you at finding people based on very very little information?" Lance asked. Keith froze. He knew what he was asking about.

"I... pretty decent at it, I suppose. Why?" Keith asked, trying to sound calm. 

"I wanna find out who the city hero, Spiderman, really is, if I'm being honest. Besides, I kind of like-" Lance stopped talking immediately, slapping a hand over his mouth. 

"Kind of what?" Keith asked quietly. 

"N-Nevermind that! It's not important! Anyways," He continued, composing himself. "If you're free later, you wanna come over and we can get started?" Lance asked. 

"Yeah, I'm free later," Keith said quietly. 

"Great! I'll text you my address. See you later, Mullet Boy!" Lance said, running off. It took Keith a full minute to realize he had just been invited to Lance's house. 

---

Later that day, Keith arrived at Lance's house, just as planned. It was small but certainly larger than Keith's apartment. In all of his shock, somehow he'd ended up on the floor of Lance's room, surrounded by yearbooks, printed photos, and crumpled up pieces of paper. 

"How long have you been working on this?" Keith asked. 

"Only since last night, but-"

"Last night? What happened last night?" Keith asked, even know he knew the answer very well. 

"N-nothing! Nothing happened! I just got a sudden interest, that's all!" Lance said, talking quite fast. The tension was thick in the air. "I... I'll be right back. You can turn on the TV or something," Lance said, before quietly getting up and locking himself in the bathroom. Keith didn't hesitate to turn on the news. Immediately the screen flashed to a car chase down the highway, and it only took a matter of seconds for Keith to slip out of Lance's house unnoticed. When Lance emerged from the bathroom a minute later, his eyes tinged with red, there was no trace of Keith except a small scrap of paper left on an open yearbook. Lance read it out loud. 

"Lance, sorry I left without telling you. My cousin called and she's got a busted tire and three kids, so I headed to help her out. I'll come back if I can. Keith," He read. He set the note back down on the yearbook and sighed, turning to the TV. It was left on the live news feed, now showing Spiderman stopping a runaway vehicle. Something moved by the back of his head, and Lance paused the TV. Grabbing his phone, he used the camera to zoom in before realizing what he was seeing. It was hair. Only a small tuft of it, but hair nonetheless. It was dark, almost black, and it appeared to be longer than usual for a boy. Lance's eyes fell to the open yearbook. The first picture his eyes landed on was Keith's. His eyes flicked back to the TV, then back to Keith's photo. 

"It's not possible... is it?" Lance asked himself quietly. He unpaused the TV, looking for anything that could prove he was right. He looked closely, seeing the masked boy take out a phone to take a photo with a young boy. The phone looked nice and new. It was then that Lance remembered that Keith had a practically ancient phone, that barely worked on a good day. He sighed again. He was so sure that the hair he'd seen belonged to Keith! He flopped on his bed, before getting an idea. He quickly grabbed his phone, punching in a number. 

"Come on... pick up!" He whispered. The call connected on the fourth ring. 

"I swear to all that is holy, Lance, if this isn't important then I'm gonna strangle you with your own limbs after I slice them off!" A voice screeched over the phone. 

"Chill, Pidge. It's important," Lance said. "How good are you at tracking phones?" Lance asked. 

"Phones?" She scoffed. "That's probably the easiest thing I know how to do! Why? What do you need me to do?" She asked. 

"Tomorrow at school I'm gonna slip Keith's phone when he's not looking. If you could find some way to track it, I'd really appreciate it," Lance said. 

"Fine. But if it turns out this isn't as important as you're making it sound, my threat still stands."

"Got it, Pidgeon. Thanks," Lance said, before hanging up and promptly passing out. 

---

The next day, Lance set his plan into action. Keith always disappeared from lunch for a good ten minutes, and never remembered his bag. Naturally, with Lance being Lance, he took the whole thing and sat down with Pidge. 

"Well? Get the damn phone! I have other things to hack today!" She said. 

"Alright, I'm going!" Lance said. Keith's bag was incredibly neat, so finding the phone was easy enough. Lance set it on the table before going to zip up the pocket. He had it halfway zipped when something shiny inside caught his eye. Opening the pocket again, his eyes went wide at what he saw. A sleek silver phone, that was clearly not Keith's usual phone, sat in the pocket. Lance carefully picked it up, before turning it on. Generic lock screen, no security, generic wallpaper. It looked brand new. Lance gently pressed the camera roll button, before gasping. The first picture was the one he'd witnessed being taken over live TV, showing a small boy's smiling face along with the ever-familiar masked figure. Just as Lance opened his mouth to tell Pidge, a shadow fell over his hand. 

"Lance, why do you have my bag?"

IM SORRY IM SORRY IM SORRY IM BEING A LIL SHIT I KNOW!!! Fair warning, next chapter is gonna be pretty angsty but I promise there will be fluff and good stuff soon. IDK when, but soon!

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