saints and soldiers » klance

28: Breezeblocks

Please don't go, please don't go,
I love you so, I love you so,
Please break my heart

(Lance)

Shiro had managed to find Keith some new clothes. Two sets, in fact, so he could alternate wearing them and actually wash them every now and then. Lance had to admit he was relieved. As intrigued as he was by Keith, the lack of proper hygiene... skin care... decent clothing... it had all been killing Lance inside, just a little bit.

Keith had showed up this morning to breakfast in his new clothes- a dark gray t-shirt and plain black jeans- looking almost laid-back, at least compared to normal. His hair was wet again from the showers, and he seemed much more comfortable in what he was wearing than he had in the rags he'd been stuck with before. He still wore Lance's jacket over his t-shirt, though.

Lance didn't even try to fight the ridiculous burst of joy in his chest when he noticed.

He didn't quite remember how breakfast had gone after that- he remembered jumping to his feet upon Keith's approach, and an excited stream of probably-incoherent babbling spilling from his lips as he met Keith and walked with him the rest of the way back to the table, something about the new clothes and how Keith was on his way to being a full-fledged emo, and some hair product Lance had probably mentioned sneaking in for him. It was all kind of blurry now through the haze of his exhaustion.

He was sitting in Allura's office, in one of the almost-comfortable chairs facing her desk. Pidge was slumped in a corner, hunched over her computer. Someone had given her coffee, but neither him nor Allura had objected upon seeing the dark circles and puffiness ringing her eyes. She was as subdued as they were, peering blearily at the screen with earbuds in and blasting music loud enough for him to hear halfway across the room.

Allura shuffled through another stack of paperwork. Technically, she had asked him and Pidge to help her out with some logistical reconfigurations- which was why they were both there at two in the freaking morning, jesus, how would he make time for his beauty sleep- but as she looked up at him again, he got the feeling that there was something else she wanted to talk about. Even exhausted and disheveled, with hair falling from her usually tidy bun and a coffee stain on her blouse, Allura was gorgeous. Lance was almost able to get distracted by the shiny thing in the room- that being her eyes- oh, there was a good line in there somewhere-

"Lance," Allura said quietly, as if afraid of being overheard, even though Pidge's music was still blasting and she hadn't looked up in forty-five minutes and, as far as Lance could tell, everyone sane had already left.

He looked up, nervously shuffling the papers that were spread across his lap. He had a feeling he knew what this was about, and he didn't really want to talk about...

"Did you think about what I said?" she asked. He opened his mouth- to stall, to ask her what she was talking about, to flirt, something, anything- but she cut him off, clarifying, "About Keith?"

Lance sighed and deflated, but gave it one last try. "Are you a magician?" he offered. She gave him a look and started, "Lance-"

He didn't let her finish. "Because when I look at you everyone else disappears," he concluded with a wink and his trademark smirk. Both the grin and his finger guns were wilting and sad with his exhaustion. God, he was a mess tonight. He really needed that freaking beauty sleep, but instead he was... wait, what were they even doing again?

"This is why I need my sleep," he muttered under his breath. Allura gave him a look somewhere between baffled and incredulous and stuttered, "What? Lance- W- No, okay, no. I know what you're doing, and even though I'm tired and I needed more coffee three hours ago-" she sighed a resigned kind of sigh as she looked forlornly at her empty mug- "you're not getting out of this. I know it's not pleasant- the opposite, actually- but this is a conversation we need to have. I'm worried, Lance. I care about you very much, and I want to ensure that you aren't hurt by whatever outcome this whole situation has."