Confusing Carnations (Klance)

Ch 11: Pull It Together

A few days had passed since Lance's and my conversation by the lake. In that time, my Hanahaki had ceased a bit, leaving me only throwing up roses once everyday over little mishaps or agonizing over my own thoughts. To Pidge's satisfaction and relief, my disease had halted, neither ceasing entirely but never moving to the next stage, which was incredibly lethal. The process had been petals, to flowers, to finally the stems and thorns. I was standing fairly steadily at the flowers stage.

"So, Keith is in love with Lance?" Hunk was leaning back in his chair looking to Pidge. They were alone in communications room, working on a project together.

Pidge glanced at him before going back to what she was doing, "It appears so." Being enrapt in what she was doing, her responses were short, detached.

"I never would have expected that from Keith," he chuckled softly, feeling still anxious about the situation, "On the bright side, it looks like they are getting along a bit better now."

Turning to face Hunk, Pidge spoke, "Keith won't get treatment, as you know." Hunk nodded. "I'm really under a lot of pressure trying to figure out what to do. Keith doesn't want anyone to know and I can't force him to get help. Bringing Lance to him that day was entirely unplanned- I did it on impulse." Pidge spoke quietly but frantically, very unlike the calm calculative Pidge Hunk had been accustomed to.

Trying to cheer her up a bit, Hunk added, "It was a smart decision. Keith seems to be getting by a bit easier and even Lance has been pestering me about how Keith is doing- telling me to make sure he's eating and whatnot," Hunk then looked away slightly, with a cheeky grin, "He'd totally hate me for telling anyone that though."

That piqued Pidge's interest, "He's been doing that?"

"Yeah," Hunk laughed, "Lance is totally worried about Keith right now, though I'm sure he would deny it."

Furrowing her brows in thought, Pidge started, "What if..." Lance fell for Keith? She knew the thought was brash and unlike her to even suggest, but she really was running herself ragged trying to help Keith while feeling like she was failing at it.

Catching on, Hunk added, "I think it could be possible, honestly," Pidge glanced up, feeling a bit better at being reassured that her thought wasn't at least impossible, "You know how Lance has had that weird Keith fixation even when we were in the Garrison."

Pidge sighed happily reminiscing, "He could recognize Keith by the back of his head, no matter the occasion," Pidge laughed a bit, "I tried to confront him about it once but he refused to even entertain the topic."

"I have always thought that Lance had a thing for Keith but was too stubborn to admit it," Hunk laughed a bit, "He overcompensates for everything."

Pidge immediately went quiet, mulling around the thought. Of course she knew Lance had a tendency to overcompensate due to his insecurities. In her stress over the situation, she wanted to be a good friend to Lance but she also desperately wanted to save Keith. Due to the immense pressure, her intuition had been dulled a bit. If Lance had some sort of attraction to Keith, there's no way he'd admit it. Most people would leave it at that, but Lance...started a one-sided rivalry.

Suddenly, Pidge jumped up and hugged Hunk, "Hunk! You're a genius!"

Hunk laughed and patted her back softly, "I know, I know."

Meanwhile, in another part of the ship, Lance made his way to Keith's room with a plate of food and water. It was already noon and Keith hadn't come out yet. Lance grumbled to himself about how thoughtless Keith was as he came up to the door and knocked.

I opened my eyes groggily and looked towards the door. Getting up, I put on pants since I sleep in only boxers and a shirt, and walked to the door. I could feel my hair sticking out in nearly all directions, but made little effort to fix it. At this time, it was probably Pidge checking up on me.

When I opened my door, I saw Lance. I squinted a bit and rubbed my eyes. Upon opening my eyes once again, I came to the conclusion that I was not, in fact, imagining it. "Lance? What are you doing here?"

Lance finally turned himself to face Keith, since he had been looking away out of embarrassment. It took a lot of willpower to swallow his pride and check up on Keith himself. I'm just being a good friend, Lance tried to reassure himself in his mind. The truth was, after that day at the lake, Lance couldn't get Keith's scared expression out of his head no matter how he tried. For reasons beyond him, he figured that Keith was always brave, never feeling fear or doubt.

When Lance looked at Keith, he was about to complain about how Keith wasn't eating enough and go on about how he has to do everything. But when he saw Keith's hair, he immediately began laughing. "Oh, my God, Keith," he wheezed between laughs, trying not to drop the plate of food and glass of water.

I tilted my head, "What's so funny?"

"Let me put down this food and I'll tell you," Lance laughed a bit still moving further into the room past Keith, who made no move to stop him.

Setting the food down on the bed and the water on the dresser, Lance sat down and patted the space next to him. I rolled my eyes to try to fight against the redness of my face as I sat down by, but not super close, to Lance.

"So, what is it?" I spoke unamused, though there was a small smile making its way to my face.

Without thinking, Lance automatically moved his hands to Keith's hair, trying to flatten it to no avail. "You have such bad head, I don't know if I can fix it like this," he chuckled quietly.

I felt my face going hot against my will, trying to speak but unable to find the words. I felt his hands run through my hair and smooth it and I wished I could have stayed in this moment forever.

Lance himself had been caught up in what he was doing, and mumbled to himself, "Your hair is soft." It was then that Lance looked down to Keith's face and saw the shocked, red face. What the hell am I doing?! He quickly removed his hands, not allowing them to linger. I've probably made Keith super uncomfortable! What is wrong with me?!

When I felt his hands leave my hair, I looked at him as he stood up suddenly. All the blood rushed to Lance's face and he frantically said, "I realized I have to go." Lance began to speed walk to the door before he remembered the reason he came there and came to a halt. "Eat and drink something. You aren't taking good enough care of yourself." With that Lance left, to Keith it seemed, as quickly as he had come in.

I stared at the doorway then moved my sight to the food on my bed. My hand subconsciously made its way to my hair. My heart was pounding in my chest. I threw my face in my hands, trying to steady myself. God, Lance, you have no idea what you're doing to me.

Pidge had been on her way to check on Keith like she had been doing semi-regularly when she saw Lance bolt out of the room, not noticing her, and slid down the wall beside the door. He threw his bright red face into his hands and began mumbling to himself about how he needs to pull it together.

Flickering her eyes between Keith's door and the obviously flustered Lance a couple times, she felt a shit-eating grin go over her face.

Hello! This is the longest chapter I think I've written! Unfortunately, updates are going to be less frequent starting now because I am getting a new job. By less frequent, I just mean not more than once every day or every other day, but it's highly possible that I will spam updates some days because I enjoy writing this a lot! On the bright side, I am officially done with high school! I honestly don't feel very different but I get to go to one of my favorite restaurants to celebrate so, you know, go me. I'm not officially graduated yet but I finally finished all the assignments for the year. My last day is actually May 6. I'm really excited to write the next chapter, huehue.