Leverage [Lotor X Lance]

The Koy Pond

"Lance, did you know sharks will die if they're pulled backwards by their tail," Keith suddenly brought up while they were walking into school together. Shiro was having early football training, so Lance had to pick him up. When he saw Kieth run into his car, his immediate thought was, I can't be the mom friend, but I might be.

"I do now," Lance responded, and Keith nodded, moving hair out of his eyes.

"You can't kill any other fish that way, did you know that?" Keith chriped, and Lance shook his head. "Why do you think that?"

"Because," Lance started, staring up at the sky, subconsciously searching for the moon, "sharks are apex predators? They're like alphas. So, they have amazing strength and speed, as well as power over other creatures in the sea, but...

"Don't alphas die if they haven't mated by thirty-five? It's like their ultimate weakness, so they use their power-- their enhanced abilities that nature gave them-- to intimidate their way into not dying. If a shark ever became pissed at you, Keith, would you risk hoisting it backwards by its tail?"

"N- no, I wouldn't Lance," Keith admitted, shocked towards Lance's query. "Are- aren't you supposed to be stupid?" Keith muttered, eyebrow twitching. Lance laughed, deep and loudly like always, and Keith's stupid face formed a small blush. Not that he liked Lance. Of course he didn't! Lance was straight, and a beta. Keith didn't like betas.

"Do you like anyone, Keith?" Lance asked, still looking at the sky. He remembered Lotor, the pure alpha just like his father, and wondered why he had no friends. He didn't seem like a bad person, not at all. Yet, he doesn't act like he knows how to make friends. It makes Lance curious about the kind of person Lotor was raised to be... and the kind of person Lotor actually is.

Totally disregarding Keith have a gay explosion next to him due to his question that wasn't supposed to mean anything, he finally turned to the mullet-infested teen. Keith sucked in a breath, eyes quickly glancing towards Lance's lips before back into his stupid black eyes. "Yeah," he admitted, and his air practically stopped when Lance did a friendly eyebrow jump as of to ask Who?

"I do too! Though, he's quite..." Lance laughed, thinking about how Lotor was just so weird. But then his smile dropped. He can't have a crush on Lotor just because he's cute... and polite... and amusing— "Nevermind."

Keith wasn't listening anymore, though, because he felt like as soon as the word 'he' slipped through Lance's mouth, he was dangling from the word. "You like guys?" Keith blurted. Lance gave him a confused look, before a flash of amusement crossed his face.

"And girls. I didn't think I had to come out, seeing that I flirt with everyone despite them being girl or boy."

"You're pan?" Keith croaked, but Lance just shrugged. Keith wondered how something so life changing for him could be something so... nothing for Lance.

"I don't like labels," he responded. Keith looked at him, shocked, and wondered whether or not the person he liked was him and if it was, should he kiss him right now. Lance's phone dinged, and his smile returned. "Bye Mullet, see you around!" And then he was gone.

Lance made his way to the back of the school, where there was a garden in which the Sustainability Club has been working on since Lance was a sophomore.

He planted his butt down next to the koi fish pond and boredly stuck his finger inside. He wondered what it would be like if, when a fish came up to his hand out of curiosity, he grabbed it and flung it to the other side of the pond. But then he excluded the thought and decided it wasn't the most sane thing to do.