Red [Sheith Fanstory boyxboy]

ch. 03

Lance and I have been friends since we were little. We went to the same school, he was the one with the huge family and all the friends, while I was just the kid that sat alone and had disciplinary issues. I to this day have no idea why he ever started talking to me, but he did, and I could never not get annoyed by those eyes of his and that quirky snarky mouth of his.

He was there though, while I was going through everything. He was there when my father died, while I was going from house to house and no one wanted me. He stuck through with me all this time. And I have no fucking clue why. Hunk and Pidge were never my fans, I still think the only reason they tolerate me is because of me and Lance's friendship. I think sometimes that they're even a bit jealous of me.

Lance was always the one sneaking out to rescue me out of tense situations. I don't know how but he just knew when I needed him. Like the one time a man I stayed with tried to lock me in my own room, Lance was crawling through the window to take me to his place. Or when I was the youngest boy at a home, and all the others were picking on me, especially the one night they stuck my hand in warm water and had me piss my own bed. Lance didn't even care, he barged in –rather politely- and took me away, never again to see that home.

I thought I would have to be humiliated, with my piss stained jeans and red puffy face. I was a mess, but he didn't seem to care. The entire walk to his house, he carried my bag and held my hand; talking about whatever nonsense he was getting into.

I have no idea what changed over the years, or why we're not as innocent any more. Holding hands is a crime, but we still do it of course, or well, did. I used to sneak out to see him when I had first moved in with Allura. Nothing was going wrong, and that fact scared me. I didn't want to belong anywhere. So I would run to his place, throwing pebbles at his window and praying none of his brothers woke up. He would meet me at the back door and we would hide out in his tree house. He would hold my hand, his thumb every once in a while brushing over the knuckles. It just made me feel safe, good. Good enough to drag myself back to Allura's once the sun was peeking up past the forest trees. He offered to walk me back, but it was obvious he was exhausted.

It seemed for a while we were slowly drifting away, I didn't need him to hold my hand any more, or save my ass from situations. He stopped coming over as much, which I'm sure was Allura's doing. She hated when he would come over out of the blue. And I stopped sneaking out to see him. Lately though we got paired up on our senior project for high school. I think its Lance's last effort to spark up what friendship we used to have, but he won't admit to it.

I now had to go to his house every afternoon, we were still in the brainstorming aspects of the project, and we didn't do much talking. We mostly played video games and thought out loud about possible things. He brought up space ships and giant robots while I brought up invisible mazes and swords that act on blood and DNA. All ideas were pretty futuristic and never even capable of being made.

"We're toast." Lance muttered, tossing his controller down after pausing the racing game he was obviously winning at, that I never won at. "We have zero ideas, and it's already a few months into the school year!" I sighed, putting my controller gently down besides his and leaned back in the bean bag.

"If we took a break and actually thought about something we could do instead of playing games, maybe we would come up with something." I sighed out, and he gave me this I-can't-believe-you look. I rolled my eyes, turning my head away to look down at the carpet, socked feet sliding through the pits of wool.

"Keith, video games are what make my head work harder." He protests, hand motioning to the television.

"Yea, and that's why we have thought about, well, nothing?" I ask accusingly. He exaggeratingly gasps and presses a hand to his chest, acting more than just a little offended at my comment. "Hunk and Shay are already building up their little project, and Pidge- who I should remind you are working by themselves- is already done with theirs."