handsome dude from the train // klance

Chapter 3

When Lance saw him again the next day, he was quick to note that the guy still hadn't brought his own umbrella. Just like last time he was wet and passed out against his backrest with his left arm loosely curled around a plastic bag.

A plastic bag with a bright pink post-it stuck to it.

'TO: HANDSOME DUDE FROM THE TRAIN'

Lance felt excitement bubbling up in his throat as he carefully took the bag from the guy's lap. He didn't want him to wake up, that would just be... awkward. But he would most definitely not leave a present behind either, nu-uh, not in a million years. Lance loved presents.

Settling himself into the seat across the sleeping guy, Lance peeked into the bag. There wasn't much in it: a towel - his towel, he recognized - and a donut in a small plastic wrapping. Grinning broadly, he turned the bag over and let the items tumble onto his lap, careful to not let the towel become damp again. The plastic was despite obvious attempts to dry it still painfully wet. Emo-guy should really start bringing an umbrella in the mornings.

Speaking of staying dry.

Lance shoved part of the plastic bag under his backpack, hoping to let it air dry as much as possible. If it was less wet by the time he would leave the train, the guy could totally use it as a weird makeshift umbrella thing. Praising himself for the good thinking, he then turned towards the towel, lifting it and sniffing at it. And, believe it or not, it was clean. It smelled like laundry detergent, something that Lance was pretty sure hadn't been used on this old thing for years now. Not that he didn't clean his towels, he just didn't really use the small ones his mother liked so much. It was safe to say that he had gotten it back in a better state than he had given it away.

Unsure of how to proceed, Lance lowered the fabric and pursed his lips. He was pretty sure that he had gifted the towel to emo-guy in his note, so it wouldn't be right to take it back again, would it? But emo-guy had cleaned it and brought it back for him, so would it be okay to refuse it?

Lance gloomily began to pick at the towel, side-eyeing the donut. It seemed delicious, Lance couldn't wait to try it. Was this payback for the muffin? It probably was. Now he was even less sure what to do, it had been supposed to be a present! A good deed coming from the kindness of his heart! Maybe Hunk would know.

Deciding to shoot Hunk as many messages as it would take to wake him up before his alarm, Lance shifted the towel and donut onto his left leg while searching his right pocket for his phone. There it was. Hunk would surely forgive him for waking him up, he was a good guy like that. Irreplaceable, really.

Just when he had pulled Hunk's contact up, Lance saw the paper peeking out between the towel. He let out an excited squeak and completely forgot about waking his friend in favor of reading whatever message Mystery Guy had left him.

Hey,

I really hope that you will get the bag this time, I fell asleep yesterday waiting for you. Sorry. I wanted to thank you personally and return this but I'm too tired after work to stay up for long.

Thank you for the towel, I washed it. The muffin was delicious. I hope you like the donut too.

Also I don't have an umbrella - but don't worry, I've been surviving this for years. Thanks for caring though, I guess.

-Keith

Keith.

Lance couldn't stop his eyebrow from raising amusedly. Punk-emo guy apparently had a name and didn't have any problems with strangers knowing it. Then again, he probably realized that Lance didn't mean him any harm - otherwise the whole 'giving him presents' thing wouldn't make any sense. And it wasn't as if there were a lot of other people on the train that could have taken the bag in his stead.

Slowly, Lance let his eyes wander over Keith again. He was still wearing that leather jacket in combination with the fingerless gloves and combat boots. It made him look dark and edgy, not at all like the person that would write him such a cute note. Needless to say, Lance was intrigued.

For the lack of a better idea, he dug a pen out of his backpack and began to write a response.

Hey Keith,

I got the bag. I didn't expect you to return the towel, much less wash it, but thank you anyway. Same goes for the donut (even if I haven't tried it yet I know it's gonna be delicious. Donuts ftw man)

Also. Dude. Invest in a freaking umbrella. Idc how emo and scene your jacket makes you look, you're gonna catch a cold like this. Which - not cool. Just in case you didn't get the memo. You could look for a black one with knives or skulls if you don't want to break character, just get an umbrella, man.

-handsome dude from the train

Lance grinned smugly as he placed the note back inside Keith's plastic bag. He couldn't wait to see him again on Thursday, if everything went according to plan then Keith would either arrive with an umbrella or another text for Lance. There was no way that Keith would let an insult like that slide, right? Scene kids were usually kinda touchy about their appearance... and if Lance was lucky then Keith would be no exception to that.