Violet Nights

Chapter 26

Saturday, 2:30pm--

There was something eating at Keith's mind. Something...something that he strangely felt the need to share with Lance. It wasn't that it was too important. Would he even care? Probably not. They weren't even friends so why would it matter if he cared or not? But Keith wanted to get closer to him. He didn't know why. He'd never wanted to get closer to people in the past, especially due to his major trust issues, but...why Lance McClain of all people? Why not someone like Hunk? Or Pidge? The only person he was ever "close" with was Shiro. Heck, he barely knew Adam all that well. 

He still hated Lance's guts right? And the guy still hated him. 

But maybe this mattered. Even if they weren't friends, he wanted to be honest. Especially if they were going to become friends. Not that that was even likely, but heck, it was worth a try.

After Lance's little nephew ran off again, Keith hesitated before looking over at him. It was less of a look and more of a quick glance to make sure he might be listening before he began speaking. He didn't meet his eyes, just held his own legs nervously and stared at the sand.  He ran his finger along the edge of the softness of it and the border of the beach towel they were sitting on. He noticed that Lance had scooted a good three to five feet away from him since the last he'd looked over at him. It was almost as if he didn't want to  be physically close to him. 

Yeah, that was probably it. They were rivals, after all.

"Lance." Keith said abruptly, trying to think of a good way to start a conversation like this. How did people even come out to their rivals? Did people even do that? This entire situation didn't even make sense. Why was he even doing this? 

He finally looked up--not at Lance--when he heard a response. His eyes trailed out to the waves of the blue ocean laying out like a sheet of rippling glass in front of him.

"Yeah?" came that higher-pitched voice, a little raspy, but still kind of annoyingly ringing in Keith's ears like a softer version of a fire alarm. He sounded casual and cool, yet there was a hint of very slight annoyance in his voice. Jeez, what was his problem? He seemed to get pissed every time Keith spoke. (Well, he couldn't blame him; he felt the same 90% of the time.)

When Keith didn't say anything, Lance groaned and nudged him roughly from the few feet away he was seated. "Well? What do you want?"

"Why are you getting mad??"

"Because you didn't say anything!"

"I'm about to! Can you just give me a second to process my own words in my head??"

Lance rolled his eyes and waited for Keith to think of what he was going to say. Keith sighed and let his knees fall from his arms, resting them flatly on the towel, his ankles curling around each other delicately.

"I have something that I probably should tell you. I don't know how you'll react to it--Actually, honestly, I don't even know why I'm telling you." Keith sighed again, knitting his eyebrows together and looking away all tsundere-like.

"What is it?" Lance asked, sounding like part of him really didn't give a shit, and the other part like he was trying to pretend like he cared. When Keith glanced over at him, he was texting someone on his phone--or...something.. Upon further examination, he noticed that he was scrolling through Instagram.  Keith could just feel his anger boiling inside of himself as he growled inaudibly.

"Is it weird or something? You keep hesitating." 

"Would you shut up? I'm getting there."

Keith exhaled before reaching over Lance to draw something in the sand with a stick. It was a square with 6 stripes across it. He slapped the stick on the ground and pointed at it, eyes sharply looking at Lance.

"What is that?" Lance asked dumbly, a blank stare on his face. Keith groaned and picked the small stick up again, drawing a circle next to it and writing 'me' with an arrow pointing to it.

"Use your words, Keith. I have no idea what that means." 

Keith groaned longer and drew two male symbols next to each other. He looked at it then at Lance with a frustrated stare and grunted angrily.

"You have a brother?"

"Fuck, no, McClain. You're an idiot." 

"Use your words!"

"I'm gay!"

Silence...

"You're what?"

Keith just looked done with life when he heard that. He stood from his kneeling stance and threw the stick at Lance's head, watching him slightly flinch.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"I am gay!  Homosexual! G-A-Y. I like to kiss and make out with other dudes!"

"Jesus Christ, Kogane, I know what gay means!"

"Well you sure don't act like you don't!"

  The entire time Keith had been flailing his arms around in the air like a mentally retarded seagull coated in oil. His face was twisted into disgust and confusion.

"What is that??"  Lance asked, pointing at the square with 6 stripes. 

"It's a pride flag! What did you think it was?"

"It's not in color!"

"Well, I'd think someone would know what a square with 6 stripes meant!"

"And what is this supposed to be?" He asked again, pointing at the circle.

"It's a circle. I'm as straight as a circle."

Lance was silent. He was suddenly putting all of the pieces together in his head.

"Oh..."

"'Oh?'"

"Well...I thought you were gay, I just never said anything. And I didn't want to just assume that you were just because you wore girlish clothes and I never see you with girls except for Pidge--and hell, she's hardly a girl."

"Are you fine with it or not?" Keith prompted, placing his hands on his hips and staring down at Lance with half-lidded eyes. Damn, he was cute. 

Am I seriously thinking about how smoking hot my rival is? 

"Look, dude. I don't really care who you fuck and whatnot. It's not any of my business. And even if I was religious, it still wouldn't be my place to try to make you like girls or something. "

"Okay."

"Okay."