Flower Boy - Klance | completed |

Ch. Nineteen

Ch. Nineteen

Keith's breath was lost to the morning air around him, but he didn't care. His arms pumped at his sides, the frigid wind around him stinging his rosy cheeks, coiling around his bare arms and numbing his fingers, but he didn't care.

He didn't care if he tripped and fell off a cliff, at this point, so long as he was able to make it to that stupidly comforting, brown, two-story house just ahead of him. Keith's throat stung from the cold air around him, almost becoming painful to inhale, but he pushed on, knowing that in just a few more strides, a few more inches, he would...

Keith stopped just outside the sturdy wooden door, fist raised mid-way into the air as if he were about to furiously knock, yet hesitated. He was hesitating, doubts clouding every rational thought that could have possibly crossed his mind. No way they would want to see him, after everything that had gone down. His siblings might have been the one and only exception, but he still wasn't even sure about them.

Before he could make a concrete decision about what to do, the door swung open for him. Natalia let out a yelp as she almost slammed into him on her way outside, stumbling back uncertainly so she could take a look at who was standing on their stoop.

Once she took in Keith's still form, fist still frozen in the air as he stood there, eyes as wide as hers, Natalia only blinked up at him for a second more before none too gently slamming the door in his face.

He sighed at the obvious dismissal, ears twitching as he listened to people shuffling around just inside. There was no movement on the other side of the door, and he figured Natalia was doing the same thing as him; listening.

Timidly, he leaned forward, resting his forehead on the door with a shaky breath as he raised his knuckles to the wood, tapping on it gently because he knew the girl could hear. "Natalia, please," he whispered.

All movement inside the home seemed to cease, and Keith waited with baited breath, the flat of his palm now pressed up against the structure as he squeezed his eyes shut. Nobody was coming. Nobody was... Nobody was coming.

This was the end.

Keith, clenched fists stuffed into his pockets, shoulders tense and shaking, slowly began to turn from the door. He made his way down the concrete in front of the house, down the rocky path that led him back to the street, where he would have to figure out where to go.

Pidge would probably take him back in, but he didn't want to be a burden. Maybe he knew someone from school who would... No, let's face it. Keith wasn't friends with anyone from school.

Behind him, the door cracked open, but he forced himself to keep moving, knowing they were just watching to make sure he'd really left.

"Keith."

Keith turned at the sound of his name, tucking his bottom lip in between his teeth as he turned back, observing the way Natalia leaned on the doorframe, a cautiousness in her eyes he'd never seen before, but it was neighbored with curiosity. "You have one minute."

He couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe someone had spoken to him, after everything. Keith's lips parted, eyebrows raising in surprise before Natalia rolled her eyes, a familiar, teasing smile upturning her lips as she nodded inside the house, to a place obscured to Keith's vision. "Okay, maybe ten. Come on, idiot."

"Thank you," Keith whispered, turning back to her and picking up his stride, easily slipping into the house around the younger girl, resisting the urge to reach out and ruffle her hair like he'd done so many times to Dominic.

"Keith?" A familiar voice asked from just inside, and Keith raised his gaze to the kitchen door, where Oliver was poking his head through curiously. Upon seeing his friend, a smile had instantly grown on his face, dotted with light freckles. Suddenly, Keith was almost tackled in a side-hug, and he glanced down to see Dominic clinging onto him, hiding his face in Keith's shoulder.