TREES | klance ✔︎

07 | keith

edited.

life was nothing but a movie to him.

everything we say, every action we make. the butterfly effect was very real to keith even if he didn't act like he believed in shit like that. well, he didn't until his mother died.

she actually wasn't really dead. to him though? corpses were a disgrace to the reality of her existence taking up too much space on this fucking earth. she died the day she left him home alone when he was five. she didn't come back for four days. bruises and scab holes all over her arms. cps took him away ten minutes after she came home trying to tidy herself.

his sister was at a girl scout camp that week so she didn't witness it. in fact, when she heard that she would be under custody of a man whom was not in the pictures their mother showed her, she instantly moved on. she wasn't in the system, she didn't have to fight. she was too young to understand anyway; too young to even understand how to cope. keith didn't hold her against this. she got a good education from being with her real father. she got it good and that wasn't her fault. he was just unlucky.

it was okay to be unlucky, that's what their mom said when he was four - sister was seven. they were at a pumpkin patch fair and he didn't catch enough rubber ducks in the barrel to win a candy apple.

he had matured (as mature as they come) by eight. in bed thirty seconds before lights out in the foster. only read comics with any superhero that was red. didn't like violence. he was a calm, quiet kid.

then that foster home that he was so perfect in, didn't cause trouble, they sent him back to a group home.

it's okay to be unlucky - that's what his sister told him when keith earned a five minute phone call for doing chores all month.

life had changed and he met the shirogane family. he became colder by the years. people were warned to not touch him. he was so jumpy, so used to needing to be defensive within those homes that he could not be touched. by the end of elementary, he was in the household of takashi shirogane and his parents. they adopted him almost immediately when they saw the brotherly chemistry between the two kids. it worked out. the unlucky turned into luck. even if the rest of the school years sucked and he had no friends, shiro was his brother and he had a roof over his head that didn't trap tension within the household.

he was comfortable.

takashi taught him that it was okay to be comfortable. it was okay to feel. keith didn't entirely agree with this solely because he never saw a reason to feel. there should be no feeling within him as long as he gets by and keeps his head down, silent as he does so.

and then he met lance. correction, lance met keith. the two were like a purplish horizon with an aura of mushed blackberry scented candles. keith did not like him. he knew before lance even spoke, he knew this kid was insufferably flawed with no direction of what common sense is, a lack of knowledge.

but boy does he shine.

he wished he could shine as bright as lance mcclain because god how would it feel to exhilarate a pure kind of soul that will give love like how a momma bird brings back her babies their worm. lance mcclain lance mcclain lance mcclain, could he say his name all day. a name to roll off of a tongue so nicely should also be so easy to call his.

wait a minute.

lance mcclain. a shy lip biting giggle. lance mcclain, a small whisper.

must the butterfly effects unluckiness bring lance mcclain, should keith forever die at the mention of him.