What Are You Hiding? // Klangst Highschool AU

Colors; 1

Everything is blue, His pills, his hands, his jeans,
And now I'm covered in the colors,
Pull apart at the seams
And it's blue,
And it's blue.

Everything is grey,
His hair, his smoke, his dreams
And now he's so devoid of color
He don't know what it means
And he's blue,
And he's blue.

——-
First, Keith noticed, it was the quiet. Suddenly, Lance wasn't being as boisterous as usual. It wasn't really abrupt, if he thinks about it, but it did worry him. As long as he had known him, Lance was loud. He was obnoxious, outgoing, comedic, and everything that Keith wasn't. It used to bug him, annoy him to no end, when the guy wouldn't. Shut. Up. But he had since learned, that that was just who Lance was.

Lance liked being in big groups. He liked people. He loved making people laugh, and he loved to tease. That was his personality, and his extroverted tendencies made him approachable. So when Lance stopped hanging out with most people, started sticking to Hunk more and more, and started talking less and less, it didn't take an idiot to figure out that something was wrong. And Keith could definitely be an idiot sometimes.

It probably took him way too long to come to a conclusion that one of his- dare he say it- closest friends was going through something. He thought it wasn't a big deal at first. Figured he was just in a funk, and he'd be fine in a couple of days. It wasn't until the second realization hit him (like a ton of bricks), that he finally started to piece things together.

And the second realization was this; Lance had stopped smiling. He didn't laugh, he didn't joke anymore, he was just in a never-ending daze it seemed like. And Keith didn't like it. Lance had lost his signature cocky smirk, and it was like his personality had done a total one-eighty. He was acting like Keith. And it was unsettling, to say the least.

Keith tried to ask Hunk about it, but the big teen just gave a small shrug and a sad, tired smile in response. Keith tried Pidge next, but neither of them could come up with a viable reason for the hispanic to be so out of character.

Keith was going to try to talk to Shiro, but his brother was so oblivious sometimes, even more so than Keith. And Matt wasn't even worth a try, he was an oblivious ball of sunshine, so focused on his own stuff he couldn't really see past it. Not that he was a bad guy, he was actually pretty cool sometimes, he just had a one-track mind. Kind of like Pidge when she got focused on something. But whatever. He could figure this out.

Two days later, Keith was still trying to figure it out. Things hadn't gotten better, in fact, they'd pretty much gotten worse. Keith never thought he would admit it, but he missed the sound of Lance's voice. Because the other teen had almost completely ceased utilizing his vocal chords. And it was both worrying, and pissing Keith off. What was his deal?

No one knew. He gave up thinking about it, and decided to go straight to the source.

And then he talked himself out of it.

So he went to see Hunk a second time, determined to get an actual response this time. But his second venture turned out to be just as fruitful as the first one. All Hunk said, was that Lance wasn't talking to anyone- including Hunk. And just when he was getting ready to call for an intervention, Lance started going back to his usual self. After two weeks, Lance was talking again. Granted, it wasn't much, but it was steadily getting better. Keith chose to ignore the way Pidge and Hunk were hovering over Lance, like mother hens. What mattered was that Lance was doing better.

After a week of slow progress, Lance was starting to smile again. It had been close to three weeks, but the hispanic teen was finally starting to sound like himself again. And Keith was grateful for that- happy even. Except something was still off about him. Another week and Lance was mostly back to his old self, except for a few things that Keith couldn't help noticing.

His smiles didn't always reach his eyes.

He was flighty and nervous the majority of the time.

Every so often, he'd stare off into space, and someone would have to shake him out of his daze.

He wasn't eating a whole lot.

More often than not, he'd start to say something, catch himself, and say something neutral, instead of saying something obnoxious without thinking, like he used to.

Most of these things were normal. For anyone but Lance.

And it rubbed Keith the wrong way. He didn't like it.

But he didn't know what he could do about it, as Lance wouldn't let himself be alone with Keith. They used to hang out often, at lunch, after school, on weekends; doing anything and everything. But Lance didn't even talk to him anymore. He talked to everyone else just fine, but was just short of blatantly ignoring Keith. And that pissed him off.

He had been worried, for fuck's sake. And Lance had come up with their "code". And Lance had been the one who almost always initiated their conversations, and he was the one who planned most of their "play dates", as he referred to them, just to piss Keith off.

And... Keith was lonely, he realized. He missed the obnoxious guy that annoyed the hell out of him. That was surprisingly sweet at times. That always tried his hardest to make people laugh. That had sought Keith out, even though Keith had been a complete asshole.

Lance had brought him out of his shell, brightened his world. And the light that Lance had brought, was fading. Something was dimming him, muffling his light, hurting Lance. And that made Keith livid. He couldn't allow this to continue. He refused.

So he'd get to the bottom of it; whatever was bothering Lance.

Because nothing was going to stop him.