Flower Boy - Klance | completed |

Ch. Two

Ch. Two

Something had been off about Dominic from the moment he'd stepped out of the school building.

Keith had greeted his little brother and Oliver with a raised eyebrow and two frappuccinos he'd bought for them. Oliver had instantly grinned, (a typical Oliver reaction) upon seeing Keith, gratefully taking the drink from his hand and sipping quietly. Dom, on the other hand, never spoke, turning down Keith's offer with a shake of his head. He pursed his lips and cast his eyes to the ground, ducking under Keith's inquisitive gaze. Oliver glanced at him periodically, and when Keith shot him a questioning look, the boy only shrugged, as confused as Keith was.

Dominic's day had only gotten worse when Keith had attempted to turn the keys in the ignition of his Jeep, only to be greeted with a few, half-hearted sputters from the machine, followed by silence.

Great.

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose, and Oliver touched his arm gently, trying to be comforting while he peered inside of the car. "Is something wrong with the wiring, or is she just completely out of gas?"

"Gas," Keith murmured glumly, patting the roof of his baby gently and sighing into his other hand. "I was supposed to fill her up last night, but it completely slipped my mind until just now. I'm lucky she made it to Tim Horton's and back to the school. She should have died before that."

"I'm sorry, man," Oliver bit his lip sympathetically, glancing back to where Dom stood solemnly a few feet away. "Dom, you good to walk back to your house? Red's outta gas."

"Yeah, whatever," Dominic murmured, eyes cast downward as he played with a blade of grass with the toe of his shoe. Keith furrowed his eyebrows. "Dom, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," Dominic snapped, fiddling with the bottom of his shirt and refusing to meet Keith's eyes, which only worried him further. He and Shiro would team up to interrogate the kid later if it came to that.

For now, he let the subject drop, ruffling his brother's hair and crossing his arms. "Let's go, then." Keith sighed, dipping his head and allowing Dom and Oliver to slip past him.

It wasn't like it was an extremely long walk, the house was only about twenty minutes away; Keith was just put off by the fact that he knew his lungs and muscles the same would be burning as he never exercised in his spare time.

The teenager was silent as he observed the pair ahead of him, tucking his cold fingers snug into his pockets. Oliver's hand was still featherlight on Dom's arm, and Keith's mouth twitched when his brother finally gave in, raising his hand and grasping the cuff of Oliver's sleeve loosely.

Five minutes into the walk, Keith was already hit with the beginning of something similar to fatigue. He felt pathetic, honestly, at the sheer amount of aching he'd felt burning through his joints after just a few minutes of speed walking.

The sound of an engine revving down the street behind the group alerted Keith's attention, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. Before anyone even had time to glance behind them, Keith, almost subconsciously, stepped forward and pushed the boys away from the road, shielding them the only way he knew how.

When nothing immediately crashed into him, the base tone of an electric guitar pulsing through the ground while fireworks burned into the sky, Keith took it upon himself to glance behind the group of three cautiously. A sky blue Chevy with tinted windows was closely tailing them, and Keith's heart started to pound faster in his chest when the truck didn't continue down the road, instead slowing to a stop with the headlights glinting and the engine humming softly.

Keith turned his attention back to the boys, hands on their upper backs as he pushed them forward at a slightly increased pace. He ducked down slightly so his head was ear-level. "When I say run," Keith murmured lowly. "We're going to fucking bolt, we clear?"