Rings | Klance

Smudged.

3rd Person

After the day they'd spent together, Keith was reluctant to return to his job. He had forgotten about the horrors of the night shift whilst he was with Lance and the rest of their friends and even the sight of the front door make him slightly nauseous. His pain was calmed down as Lance's arms wrapped around his torso from behind, the taller boy resting his chin on Keith's head.

"You'll be okay, trust me. I'm going to in the car outside the whole time, I'll watch who comes in, and who comes out." Lance's tone was assertive but reassuring and he nodded slowly, letting his soulmate's words sink in.

"I know... It's just annoying having to come back." Keith huffed, and he wasn't lying. He was genuinely agitated by the fact that he was in a contract with the place, otherwise he would've left there and then.

"I agree, but you're not going to be touched by anyone, and if anyone tries to then make sure you make a fuss. My ring will let me know if you're in trouble." Lance tapped his ring finger against Keith's arms, silently reminding him of the presence of it.

"Okay..." Keith took a deep breath in, shooing Lance's hands away from his chest and turning around, planting a chaste kiss on Lance's lips.

"See you in 6 hours, remember, I'm staying out here the whole time." Lance smiled brightly, trying to cover up the underlying sadness he felt about separating from Keith.

"Okay, I'll send you pictures in the changing rooms." Keith chuckled and laughed, winking at Lance.

He held his hand against the door and started to press it open, only to be stopped by a sharp feeling on his backside. Quickly turning around he glared at Lance who held his hands up in defeat, grinning like a mad man.

"Bye bye, baby."

Keith only snorted before turning back around and making his way into the strip-club.

--time skip because all that jazz would've been boring--

Keith noticed something was off with Kendra, her usual composure was weakened and she looked considerably more lost as time went on. He had only been at work for an hour and a half but his body was exhausted from the constant dancing already. After being given a 15 minute break, Keith found Kendra in the dressing room, tucked up in the corner.

"Hey, you alright?" Keith kept his voice quiet, making sure that no one overheard their conversation.

Kendra looked upwards, her black eyeliner smudged completely and running down her face. She looked broken, and it reminded Keith of the confession to Lance, how he had been sobbing mercilessly. Her expression turned sour and she scowled slightly, trying to wave the boy away with her hand.

"Nope, I'm not leaving." Keith slumped down next to her, being careful to leave some space and pulling out packet of tissues from his pocket.

The girl next to him let out a defeated sigh and curled her legs up towards her chest, burying her face in her hands. After taking a minute or two to compose herself, she looked at Keith directly.

"Laci left me." Kendra's choked out before returning to her heavy crying, wiping at the tears that ran down her face.

Keith had seen Laci a few times after their meet-up, twice whilst her and Kendra had been grabbing coffee at the local shop and once when she was alone in the park, he remembered how she sat alone on the swing as her phone violently buzzed on the ground below. Laci had always been the extremely cheery kind, the person in a group who makes others happy during their dark times and happened to be the light of Kendra's life.

"She broke up with you?"

Kendra shook her head and sighed once more, fiddling with the laces of her stage boots.

"She, left."

"She just... disappeared?" Keith questioned.

"I suppose so. We had an argument, well, a heated discussion about her leaving late one night to meet a friend at the park. She left, and just... didn't come back." Kendra dabbed at her eyes with the tissue, watching the clumps of mascara and eyeliner cover the surface.

"I did see her at the park once..." Keith murmured lowly, he wasn't sure that any of this was his business, but he was drawn back in by Kendra who prodded at him.

"You. You s-saw Laci at the park?"

"Yeah..."

"When?" Her voice was shaky and she stared down at her ring, it was the only indication she had that Laci was still alive.

Keith wracked his brain for the memory of the night that he saw Laci, it was... a week ago? He remembered her alone... and another man, a tall figure approaching her. Leading her away.

"She was at the swing and I could hear her phone ringing, the ringtone was 'Allstar'."

Kendra smiled to herself, laughing internally at the memory of Laci forcing them both to get matching ringtones, purposely choosing the most irritating one.

"There was a guy." Keith said abruptly and Kendra's frown appeared once again.

"I mean, someone else was there. I assume it was a guy, they were really tall. Long hair... platform boots?" Keith thought the description he had given was similar to someone else he once knew, but he pushed his own worries aside for Kendra.

"Oh.. I think. Laci mentioned someone with really long hair." Kendra sniffled, wiping at her face before speaking again.

"She said he's joining the club soon... but she never spoke to me about leaving?"

In all honesty, Keith didn't have any idea of why Laci had just suddenly left. The thought about her leaving Kendra was unrealistic in his mind, they were soulmates for god's sake. Whenever he saw them they had been extremely affectionate towards eachother, so comfortable in a way that would have seemed unusual for a relationship, but they had made it work.

"Joining... as a stripper?" Keith questioned, he had been the only male worker there apart from Rio and the body guards, the women were all equipped with pepper spray if they needed to protect themselves aswell.

"Yea, he filled out a form a while ago... but why would they l-leaveee, they had no reason to." Kendra whined on, clearly getting more confused and agitated as her thought process went on.

"Kendra, surely Laci would've told you that she's breaking up with you. I don't think she's gone."

"Maybe... but everyone else in my life left and never came back." she shrugged it off as if it was nothing, yet Keith felt that it hit his heart directly.

"I know how you feel..."

"I think, I'm gonna go back to work. Get my mind off of it. I'm a tough nut anyways." Kendra rose from her sitting position, cracking her back as she stood. Holding out her hand, she helped Keith up and embraced him slightly before pulling back.

"Okay, I'll be out in a minute."

She nodded and headed towards the door, wrapping a hand around it and pulling slightly.

"Ah, Kendra. You might wanna." Keith gestured towards his face, trying to remind her of the mess that had become her eyeliner. Her shoulders rose and she laughed heartily.

"Ah don't worry, customers like it when I look like I've just sucked dick." And with that she turned around and left, leaving the Korean snickering behind her.

And although he felt better for cheering her up, the image of the man in the park burned into his mind.

Why did he feel like he recognised him?

Sorry this isn't as long as the others, I'm building up to the big part. Well, medium part. :))