...."I'm sorry," Keith said. And he meant it. This whole thing was unfair to Lance.
"It's not your fault."
"Actually... I think it is."
Lance pulled away just enough so that he could see Keith's face. "Why would it be your fault?"
"I don't think I was doing what I was supposed to be doing," Keith uttered quietly. His hands fisted the back of Lance's shirt for a moment before he let go of him entirely and stepped back into his own space again. Lance's arms dropped back to his own sides and his head tilted in question as he kept his eyes on Keith. "I'm sorry to have dragged you and the other Keith and your kids into this."
"Keith, you didn't drag anyone into anything. You didn't do this. But... if you leave here with a different perspective..."
Keith watched Lance's mouth pull into a genuine smile, one that reached all the way up to his eyes. He wondered when he began to distinguish Lance's smiles.
"I want you to be happy, Keith. Your Lance wants that too, I know it."
"How —"
"'Cause you're his person."
A flicker of doubt, but Keith pushed it away. He wanted. He so very much wanted.
"I believe you," he whispered in response.
Lance's smile grew wider, blinding in a way because that sure looked like pure joy on Lance's face.
A strange noise broke the moment, almost as if someone had broken a stick in half by stepping on it. Keith glanced around the backyard, and wondered where it could've come from, although his attention was drawn back to Lance when he heard Lance gasp.
It occurred to him, then, as he watched Lance stare hopefully up at the night sky, that this was the exact moment they'd both been waiting for since his arrival. But now that it was here, his eyes widened in a panic, because he didn't think he was ready to leave. He needed more time. He wanted to say goodbye to the kids, even if they didn't know it was a goodbye. He needed to make sure Lance knew he was truly sorry for dragging this little family into this mess —
"Lance." He reached out to Lance without hesitation, and found Lance's hand waiting for him. Lance's blue eyes, happy but calm as they bore into his own, were all he could focus on.
"Keith, you're going to be okay."
The protective determination in Lance's eyes was making Keith's eyes sting and he nodded quickly in response.
Lance used their joined hands to tug Keith towards him so that he could wrap him in another hug and whisper into his ear, "You can have this. Trust me."
Then Lance released him at the first sign of a tug from the universe.
After that all Keith knew was wind and that crackling noise — both loud in his ears — as he felt himself flung through the portal. He didn't fight the pull this time, and instead just watched as stars flew by (or was he flying past the stars?) and hoped that this meant that he was going home. Keith wasn't sure what he'd do if this landed him in yet another reality.
The thoughts that could've spiraled from that slightly depressing and nightmarish notion were quickly splashed away, quite literally as Keith hit cold water, falling beneath the surface with the force of the fall. He felt arms around his torso and before he could even begin to struggle or panic over the drastic change in his surroundings, Lance was pulling him not only to the surface, but towards the shallow end so that Keith could feel the bottom of the Altean pool and stand on his own two feet.
