'such a pity, a boy so pretty'

9. hey buddy

Lance was surrounded by his family, his mum patted him on the shoulder sheepishly before bursting into tears. Lance was still pretty out of it, but tried his best to reassure her.

"Mama it's not your fault, you tried to stop him. It's fine." Lance saw his sister. "Hey Sophia." He smiled, a thick bandage covering half his head. Keith lingered in the doorway, as they all fussed around him, suddenly someone had pushed past Keith, walking into the room.

"Sorry." The man said, looking at Keith confusedly and walking over to his family. He looked like Lance, but taller, a lot like Lance's Dad, except he had Rosa's kind face and eyes. "He did it again?" The guy stated, Keith assumed it was Robert.

"Hey Rob, it's okay." Lance told him trying to sit up.

"Lance stop it, it's not okay, this could've been much worse than it is. I should've been here. Where is he?" Lance shook his head, groaning a little and leaning back. Sophia spoke up.

"We don't know, Mama said he just left." Sophia sighed, with a shrug.

"Right Sophia take the little ones back to your place, I'm going to ring my lawyer." She did as she was told and they all said goodbye to Lance.

"Wait!" Grabriela shouted above everyone, she ran over to Lance, hugging him tight. "I want you to have this, he will help you get better." She handed him her transformer.

"I can't take this Gab, he's your favourite." Lance said pushing the toy back.

"But you can borrow him, please." She looked as if she was about to cry so of course Lance gave in, and hugged his sister, rolling his eyes over her head, she finally let go and Lance made the toy wave goodbye to her, she giggled and followed her older siblings out, putting her hand in Sophia's, Robert started arguing with someone on the phone, Lance beckoned Keith over.

"Hey buddy." Keith said, sitting on the chair next to the bed. "You okay?" Lance looked completely worn out, but he still had that beautiful smile on his face.

"You didn't have to stay. Your dad is probably worried about you." Lance told him, Keith slid his hand into Lance's, who squeezed it back.

"Of course I stayed, I wanted to make sure you were okay, I care about you, you know that right?" Keith joked but Lance smiled brightly, he then shivered, seeing as he was only wearing his small jacket, and one of Lance's shirts, which was quite big on him.

"You can put my coat on if you want" Lance pointed to the green mass, hung over the chair. Kieth shrugged it on and walked over sitting next to him on the bed and wrapped his arms around him, Lance leaned into his embrace with a soft smile. "You're surprisingly warm. Thanks mullet." Lance said.

"For what?" Keith asked stroking Lance's hair.

"For being here." Lance said simply, squeezing Keiths hand one more time, closing his eyes and he was soon fast asleep.

"Argh." Robert groaned leaning against the wall, he turned back and looked at Lance, a pain expression in his aged face. "He doesn't deserve this. And now my lawyer won't take my case, which is just brilliant."

"My dads a lawyer. I could ask him if you want, give him your number, he'd be more than happy to help." Keith said before he could stop himself, what if his dad said no?

"Really? You do that for us? For Lance?" Keith nodded eagerly.

"Of course. I'll ring him now." Keith whipped out his phone and carefully lifted Lance off him, placing him back on the bed, he smiled fondly at him, before remembering about his dad. "Hey Dad it's me, I'm with Lance, at the hospital." He said in a small voice

"Oh, is that how it is? You run out and leave me all alone, all by myself." His dad joked, on the other end. "Wait did you say hospital?"

"Dad do you have any clients yet?" Keith asked him, he heard a flicker of paper.

"Only one, but it's a small case, why?" His Dad had gone into full lawyer mode.

"Um well you see..." Keith trailed off, he put his hand over his phone, looking up at Rob. "Do you mind if I tell him what happened?" Rob nodded, sitting next to Lance on the plastic chair, giving Lance another stressed look before resting his head on the bed. "Well it's about Lance and his family, they want to go to court with Lance's Dad, but their lawyer bailed."

"And you want me to fill in?" Keith held his breathe. "Why do they want to go to court with their own father?"

"Lance got hurt because of his dad, he um hit him but he's done it before. Lance's older brother is here if you want to talk to him." Keith handed the phone over and Rob stood up and walked around the room saying a lot of yeses and no's into the phone, when he was finished he looked like he was about to cry.

"Thank you, Thank you so much." Rob said. "Yeah I'll email you the details, thank you, okay." And Rob handed Keith's phone back. "Your Dad is a life saver." Rob told him and Keith beamed.

"So he said yes?" Rob nodded. "Good, he'll do anything he can." Rob came and sat down again, on the opposite side to Keith.

"Sophia told me why he got mad. About Lance being....bi. Does that mean you're his, um.." Rob gesture to their intertwined hands, and Keith flushed red.

"Um, I don't know actually. We're friends but we do like each other like that, we just haven't figured it out yet."

"Oh okay." Rob nodded. "Whatever you are, I'm glad he has you." He smiled at Keith, before waking out of the room on his phone again. "I'm going to get a coffee do you want anything?" Keith shook his head, he walked out and left Keith alone with Lance. Keith kissed his hand as Lance's chest rose and fell, his head throbbing, the bandage making it look bigger than it actually was, he remembered what Lance had looked like, the blood dripping down the side of his head, Keith shivered and pulled the green coat around him, it was pretty big considering Lance was skinny, the sleeves were extra long and Keith wrapped his hands inside them, pulling his chair closer to the bed and half lying on it, his hand still wrapped around Lance's. He soon fell asleep,wondering what Lance and Keith would become.

end of chapter nine

sorry it's short x