Something Sensational (Klance Voltron Fanfic) (Keith x Lance)

Chapter 4

Keith unlocked the door to his apartment and he and Lance went inside. After taking off his boots and hanging his rain jacket on the coat rack near the door, Keith disappeared down the main hallway and into the bathroom to grab a towel for Lance. When he came back he saw that Lance had set down his suitcase and taken off his shoes. He was now standing awkwardly next to the door as a puddle began to form on the floor underneath him due to how wet his cloths had gotten. He was shaking and Keith wasn't sure if it was just because Lance was cold of if it was also because he was nervous. Keith quickly walked back to Lance and handed him the towel so that he could attempt to dry off. "Um, bathroom is this way." Keith said as he motioned for Lance to follow him. The fun flirty energy from earlier was now replaced with an almost uncomfortably awkward tension. Keith hardly ever had house guests so this was a new experience for him and it didn't help that Lance seemed too nervous to touch or ask for anything. The blue eyed boy hadn't even made eye contact with Keith since agreeing to got home with him. When they got to the bathroom Keith flipped on the light and pulled the shower curtain aside."All you have to do is turn this handle to the right to turn the water on and adjust the temperature. You can just leave your wet cloths outside the door and I'll take them to the laundry room and toss them in the dryer. I'll lend you some of my cloths to change into, they should fit ok since we're roughly the same size. I'll just leave them outside the door. If you finish your shower before I come back up from the laundry room then just make yourself comfortable. There's a blanket on the back of the couch if the shower doesn't warm you up enough." Keith said before turning to leave the bathroom."Keith." Lance said causing Keith to stop and turn back to look at him. "...thank you."Two words. That's all Lance had said and yet so much more was conveyed to Keith then just thanks. Lance had said those two words with such care and vulnerability that it went straight to Keith's heart. He wasn't just thanking Keith for letting him use his shower and stay the night. He was thanking Keith for caring about him. He was thanking Keith for coming back for him. He was thanking Keith for being stubborn enough not to walk away. He was thanking Keith for everything he had done for him. He was thanking Keith for just being Keith. Two words that were able to say so much. Keith would have needed hundreds of words to communicate all of that, yet Lance had done it with only two. Two words that now had Keith at a loss for what to say next. His social skills had always been abysmal and had it not been for the fact that he noticed that Lance was still shaking, they might have stood in silence for much longer."You...you should shower to warm yourself up soon. If you stay in those wet cloths too much longer you could get sick." Keith said. Lance nodded his head and turned toward the shower to start the hot water. Keith took that as his cue to leave. After closing the door behind him he went back to his bedroom to get a pair of sweatpants, a sweater, socks and underwear for Lance to change into. When he came back out into the hallway he noticed that Lance's wet cloths were sitting on the towel from earlier, on the floor outside of the bathroom. It was clear that Lance hadn't wanted to get anymore water on the floor than he already had. Keith set the dry change of cloths down and scooped up the wet ones before making his way to the downstairs laundry room. After tossing the cloths into the dryer Keith leaned against the wall. He couldn't get the way Lance looked in the bathroom out of his head. The blue eyed boy had looked so vulnerable, anxious and shy. It was a drastic change from the boy he had spent most of the evening with. Gone was the flirtatious, showboating, annoying troublemaker. Gone was the teasing, the bickering and the quick wit. Keith wasn't sure why the personality shift bothered him as much as it did. He had only known Lance for less than a day and yet seeing him so shy and vulnerable had Keith unsettled. He wanted to rewind back to before this whole mess, back to the Lance that had brought out a side of Keith he didn't even know he had. Rewind back to the teasing and banter. Hell, he'd even let Lance call him strudel doodle again if it would put that smug smile back on his face. The dryer buzzed causing Keith's train of thought to derail. After checking to make sure the cloths were completely dry, Keith took them out of the dryer and folded them before heading back upstairs. When he opened his door he saw Lance sitting in the arm chair next to the window with the blanket Keith mentioned, wrapped around him. He had been watching the rain fall until he heard the door open. Then he turned towards Keith and watched him set his cloths on the end of the coffee table before taking a seat on the couch."Did my cloths fit you ok?" Keith asked."Hmm, yeah. The sweatpants are a little short though since my legs are a little longer than yours." Lance said as he moved the blanket enough to expose his legs to show Keith where the pant legs came down too. "Well, on the plus side you're all prepared in case it floods." Keith teased hoping to lighten the mood. A small smile found its way to Lance's lips."It better not flood, I've had more than enough water for one day." Lance said with a slight chuckle. He still had a shy vulnerability to him but Keith felt this was a step in the right direction. "I'm going to make a cup of tea, do you want some? It would probably be a good idea for you to drink something warm." Keith said as he stood up and started to walk towards the kitchen. Lance got up and followed him, though Keith wasn't sure why. The kitchen and living room were close enough together that they could have kept talking had Lance stayed sitting in the arm chair. Keith put the kettle on to boil and pulled the few boxes of tea he had out of the cabinet and set them on the counter next to Lance. "What flavor do you want?"​"Actually..." Lance said trailing off as he glanced at the fruit bowl on Keith's kitchen counter. "I'd just like some hot water with some lemon in it if that's ok."​"Um sure." Keith said. Keith was a little confused. Did Lance think taking a tea bag from Keith would be taking too much? But that couldn't be right because Lance had said he wanted lemon. Did he think the tea was more expensive than the lemon? Granted Keith had bought the tea himself and the fruit bowl had bed something Shiro brought over last time he visited Keith, but Lance had no way of knowing that. Keith still pondered that thought as he got a cutting board and knife out. He passed them to Lance, along with the lemon so that he could cut whatever size chuck he wanted. When the water was boiled Keith grabbed two mugs and the honey out of the kitchen cabinet. He filled the mugs and passed one of them to Lance who then squeezed the lemon into the warm water before dropping it lemon chunk into the cup as well. Keith made his tea, adding a spoon full of honey to it before letting it sit and steep."...could I..." Lance said pointing to the honey. Keith passed it to him along with a spoon."You sure you don't want tea, it's really no trouble." Keith said hoping it didn't sound as pushy or as awkward as it felt."No, this is perfect." Lance said with a soft smile before taking a sip. "I was up north a few years ago during winter and was kinda stuck in this small town out in the middle of nowhere. I say stuck because when you street preform it's harder to get a crowd when the weather is cold or when there's snow on the ground, so money was hard to come by. There was this coffee shop called Safe&Warm that had a stage set up for open mic nights on Thursdays. I asked the owner if she would be ok with me doing my act on the stage during the day. She didn't mind but she said she couldn't afford to pay me. She said that I was welcome to set out a tip jar and as long as I didn't hound the customers for money, then I could preform. Anyway, I was trying to make enough to afford a bus ticket to go somewhere warm so I had to be really careful with money. Tap water and hot water was free, so I used to get a cup of hot water and then flirt with and sweet talk this girl named Plaxum into sneaking me lemon wedges and the occasional honey packet. Now whenever I want something hot to drink this is what I get, mostly just for the nostalgia factor."​"Sounds like you miss this girl." Keith said.​"Aww is someone jealous?" Lance teased.​"In your dreams." Keith said rolling his eyes. He wasn't annoyed though, in fact he was glad to see Lance relaxing enough to tease him again. "How long ago was this?"​"Hmm...Two or Three years I think." Lance said before taking another sip. ​"How long have you been...street...preforming." Keith asked. As soon as the words left his mouth he wished he could have taken them back. It was obvious that Keith wasn't asking about the preforming, he was asking about Lance's living situation.​"You can say homeless Keith. It's ok." Lance said in an amused tone. His reaction wasn't what Keith had expected. "To answer your question I've been street preforming since I was 14. But I wasn't actually homeless until I was 16."​"What do you mean by actually?" Keith asked."It's a long story." Lance said."You got somewhere to be?" Keith said sarcastically to let Lance know he asked because he wanted to know. Lance pointed towards the living room and the two of them went and sat on the couch.XOXOXOXOXOLance took a few deep breaths before he said anything. He had never told his story to anyone because first of all nobody had ever asked and second of all even if they had Lance wouldn't have wanted to burden them with his troubles. There was something different about Keith though. Lance couldn't put his finger on it but there was something in his heart that was telling him that he could trust Keith. It scared Lance that he could feel this way about someone he had only just met less than twelve hours ago. Yet Keith had already done more for Lance than anyone else ever had, not just in the material physical sense, but also on a deeper level. Lance had know idea how this would play out when morning came and the days went on, but right here, in this moment he wanted someone to trust; and that someone was Keith."I've always loved to preform, ever since back before I can remember. My family moved to America for Cuba when I was about two. I'm the youngest of five children. I have two older sisters; Veronica and Rachel and two older brothers; Luis and Marco. I was forever trying to be the center of attention, always preforming or doing silly things to make them laugh. I would preform for the people in our neighborhood, during school talent shows, on the boardwalk by the beach. When I was 10 a traveling circus came to town. My parents took my siblings and I and let me tell you it changed my life. I wanted to do that, be just like those performers. On the way home I told my parents that I wanted to join the circus. They laughed and brushed it off saying that it was cute how children dream to run away and join the circus. I didn't understand at the time all I knew was that I wanted to do that. So I learned magic, taught myself circus tricks, I was determined that that was what I was going to do. When I was 14 my father said enough was enough. I needed to get my head out of the clouds and live in reality. 'No son of mine will be a glorified clown'. My mother agreed, saying I was good at so many other thing and how I should start taking life more seriously like my older sibling. I knew they would never support me or my dream so I 'ran away to join the circus'. Except there was no circus for me to join at the time so I started street preforming. Being on the streets at 14 is a life no kid should live but I didn't want to go back home. I was too stubborn for my own good. Still am sometimes, as you've seen. Anyway I ended up learning the hard way that making money this way wouldn't be easy. Then I met Rolo who was charming and smooth and Nyma so was beautiful but had a deadly personality. They were older than me by several years, but they stopped by one day to watch my act. When I was done they said I had potential. I didn't know what they meant but they offered me a place to stay so I went with them. Turns out that they were con artists and thieves. They showed me how my slight of hand skills could be used to pick peoples pockets. I know it was wrong and it makes me sick every time I think about all the people I helped them rip off...all the people I stole from. They were good at what they did and twisted their words to make me think what we were doing was ok. I stayed with them till I was 16, that's when they double crossed me. We got caught because and they let me take the fall. They managed to convince the cops that they were just trying to be good Samaritans and that they had been trying to stop me. Since I was still a minor the cops brought me back to my parents. They didn't welcome me back with open arms though. In fact after the cops left my father told me to get out. So I was on my own again for real and for good. But no matter how bad things got or how desperate I was I never stole from anyone ever again and if I met someone along the way who was also struggling I'd give them what I had and I'd go without. I remember after all this happened and I had been low on luck and hope for months, I was sitting on a bench somewhere and these two elementary school kids were walking down the sidewalk past me. This little boy shouted 'look what I can do' before doing a cartwheel. He reminded me so much of myself at that age and I remembered that I loved preforming more than anything. So I poured my heart and soul into it. I preformed wherever I could, whenever I could, for as long as I could. I might not have a place to call home but I've got something that I look forward too everyday. It's not easy and I must sound like a total lunatic to you for willingly putting myself in this situation, but I won't give it up; and I won't stop dancin' till the curtain falls."​Lance let out a shaky breath as he finished talking. He hadn't realized that he had stopped looking at Keith until he felt Keith's hand gently lift his chin so that they could make eye contact again. Lance also hadn't realized he was crying until he felt Keith thumb brush away his tears. This was a whole new feeling for Lance. After Rolo and Nyma, Lance had trouble trusting anyone. He hadn't opened up to anyone, let himself be vulnerable with anyone, cried in front of anyone. How had Keith unlocked this part of Lance when he knew for certain that he had thrown away that key years ago."Sorry." Lance said as he leaned away from Keith and wiped the rest of his own tears away. "I haven't...haven't talked about this in...with anyone before. Guess the wounds weren't as healed as I thought they were.""Don't apologize." Keith said. "I shouldn't have asked.""No I'm glad you did. I didn't know I needed to talk about it until I started talking about it, ya know?" Lance said. Keith nodded his head and the two sat in silence for a minute."It's gotten really late. We should get some sleep." Keith said as he took the empty mugs to the kitchen and set them in the sink. He the went down the hall to his room to grab a pillow and extra blanket for Lance. "Sorry the couch is old and kind of lumpy." He said as he gave Lance the pillow and blanket.​"It's fine Keith. I've slept in far more uncomfortable places." Lance teased.​"Right..." Keith said. "Well, goodnight."​"Goodnight Keith."