Surface Level || Klance

Chapter One

Keith clutched his bag close to his chest, the bus slowly came to a stop. He could already smell the salt in the air, they were at his destination. He looked out the window, his cousin stood on the sidewalk close to the street.

He wore a black t-shirt, blue shorts, and held up a sign that read 'Keith Kogane'. He even had a stupid smile on his face, Keith cringed at the corniness. The bus stopped, it jerked almost throwing Keith forward into the seat in front of him.

"Fucking bus," He grumbled and righted himself. He pushed back his hair and stood up. The bus was surprisingly empty considering his stop. He shrugged and enjoyed the free aisles until he reached the front of the bus. "Thanks." He mumbled to the bus driver. He slotted money into the box.

The doors opened up, and Keith walked outside. The full force of the ocean smell hit him, he took a deep breath. For once he felt at peace like for a moment he could breathe without pressure on his chest.

"Keith!" Keith frowned, in a second his peace was broken. He sighed and turned to look at the disturbance. His cousin came bounding for him.

"Shiro..." He had gotten much taller since the last time he had seen him. He was sporting a new scar across his nose, and white highlights in his hair.

"Hey, long time no see. You look...different." Keith shrugged and looked away cooly.

"That's usually what happens after puberty." Shiro forced a chuckle and folded the paper he held up.

"Uh...yeah. Hey, I'll take you back. I didn't bother taking the car, I figured we could walk and catch up." Keith frowned, he would have been more content skipping all of the talking parts.

"Yeah, sure." He slung his bag over his shoulder. Shiro looked like he wanted to say something, he let out a breath and turned away from Keith.

"Come on, the beach shouldn't be too far away now." He began walking down the sidewalk. Keith followed close behind him. He looked to either side of himself.

Everything about the area screamed beach town. From the sand on the sidewalk to the small shops placed close together. There were already people walking around in bikinis, and bathing suits despite it only being the very beginning of May.

"Pretty awesome here huh?" Shiro asked he looked over his shoulder at Keith. Keith avoided looking directly at him.

"It's okay." He was careful to show his excitement before he even put his stuffed down anything could happen and he'd be gone again. Shiro scoffed.

"Okay my ass, you'll fall in love with this place. I'll give you a week." Keith shrugged again, he had no doubt. He couldn't wait to see the ocean, he just wanted to be close to the ocean again. "So how's Aunt and Uncle? Still, have a stick up their asses?"

"It's only gotten worse. They wanted to send me back to the orphanage." Keith said dimly, he looked up at Shiro. Shiro chuckled and rolled his eyes. "I'm not kidding." Shiro's smile fell immediately.

"Keith...sorry. That's shitty, I didn't think they wo-" Keith held up his hand to stop him from continuing.

"It's whatever, I'm here now. I could care less what they do. I'm eighteen anyway." Shiro frowned he slowed down enough so that he was walking next to Keith.

"Doesn't sound like you don't care." Keith resisted glaring at him, he hated the dad like tone Shiro was taking with him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," Keith said firmly. "I don't want to talk about it." Keith refused to look at Shiro, he could feel Shiro's eyes trying to force a look. Shiro sighed and faced forward again, falling silent.