The smell of Coffee and coconut

8. Wednesday 12th

"Keith?" Lance said. He looked behind him "I found him!" He shouted. Everyone ran up the stairs and Keith finally woke up. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Lance wearing only sports shorts and his family around him.

"Keith!" Krolia said. She bent down and took Keith's face in her hands. She hugged him and he was wondering what was going on.

He looked around and Lance noticed his confusion.
"Yesterday, you came inside the house and vanished" he said. Lance was smiling, believe it or not, he was glad they'd found him.

"What happened?" Krolia asked.

"Well I came home and I- I hid? And then Lance came in the room with Allura an- and I didn't want to come out then so I just stayed hidden and I guess I fell asleep" he looked up at his mother's eyes, they were filled with emotions. Happiness, worry, sadness, confusion.

"Well what happened before you came home? You were crying and all" she said. All the emotions Keith was feeling cane back. He remembered what had happened the day before at Lotor's house.

He couldn't talk, he couldn't tell them what happened. At least not all of them. Krolia told them to leave and everyone did except Lance.

"Lance plea-"

"No! I won't go. He's not ok and I need to know why!" He yelled. Krolia looked back at her son.

"Are you ok with Lance being there?" She asked. Keith nodded but never looked up.

"It's- it's Lotor." He said.

"What about him?" Krolia asked. Keith furiously shook his head, he didn't want to say it. Krolia sighed and looked up at Lance. She left the two boys and Lance sat in the closet with Keith. He brought his legs to his chest and smiled softly.

"If you don't wanna tell me, I'll understand" Lance said. Keith shook his head and brought his hand to his neck. Lance couldn't see since it was dark but Keith noticed. He took off his shirt so Lance would have a better view. His eyes widen and he silently gasped.

"What happened? Did he do this to you?" Lance asked. He was concerned, he didn't know how far it went but either way, it was bad.

Keith nodded but didn't dare to look up. He put his shirt back on and hid his face in his knees. Lance got closer and put his hand on Keith's shoulder.

"It's gonna be ok" he smiled and took the hair out of Keith's face. The tears were soaking his jeans and some of his hair stuck to his cheeks. Lance hugged the boy kept on smiling.
He was happy he could help.

"Thanks, Lance" Keith said silently.

-

The next day at school, Lance went to see the teacher.

"Mrs. Smith?" He said. The teacher looked up from the papers she was grading smiled at the boy.

"Yes, Lance"

"Something came up and Keith can't work with Lotor anymore. I was wondering if he could join Allura and I" Lance said.

"No" The teacher refused, Lance's face went blank and he looked defeated.

"He really can't do it, miss" Lance pleaded.

"Well then he better tell me his reason" she said. Lance turned to look at Keith in horror. He went and bent over to tell Keith the situation. He got up from his place and went to the teacher.

"He sexually assaulted me" Keith said, it was straight forward and the teacher looked up. She had one eyebrow raised.
"He sexually assaulted me" Keith repeated.
Lance couldn't help but feel guilty, he had to say that.

"Come with me," the teacher got up and Keith followed. They went outside the classroom and the teacher had a concerned but skeptic look on her face. She looked at Lance seriously.
"What do you mean?" She asked.

"He pinned me to his bed and gave me hickeys without my consent" he said. He looked down and could feel the tears coming. He couldn't cry in front of a teacher so he blinked them off.

"Did he- did he do anything else?" She asked.

"He touched me in inappropriate places" Keith said, almost emotionless, even though his heart was full of them.

"We need to go to the principal, maybe the police, Keith. This is serious." She said. Keith nodded and the teacher went in the classroom to say she would be back in a few minutes.

They went down to the office and Mrs. Smith explained the situation to the principal. He said he couldn't do anything since it was off school grounds. The teacher got mad and decided to make her own research.

She got on her phone and searched everything there was to know. After about 20 minutes, she finally got her answers.

"Keith, we can tell the police if you want" she said. Keith shook his head, he knew it was pointless. He saw all the cases of young men and women who got shamed just for telling someone, of all the times the police did nothing.

"It's your choice but I think it'd be good to tell" she said. Keith furrowed his eyebrows.

"No!" He yelled. "I don't wanna tell anyone, it'll just be more trouble. I don't want that, now leave me alone" he got up and left. He headed for the school entrance and went out the door.

He breathed in the hot air of June and walked. He walked where no one would find him. The woods.

A hand grabbed his and he turned away only to see Lance.

"I'm not gonna stop you, I know a spot we can go and I can tell my mom we're going over to Pidge's" he said.

"Ok" Keith said. They walked for a bit after Lance called his mom and they finally arrived at the place Lance was leading them.

It was a waterfall that went into a tiny lake back into a river. The place was beautiful, it had trees and lots of plants and even flowers.

Lance started to take off his clothes and smiling. Keith looked at him with a 'what-the-fuck-are-you-doing' kinda look. Lance jumped in the small lake and resurfaced after a second or two. He laughed, his eyes were even brighter than usual– if that's even possible.

"Come in the water! It's good" he said. Keith chuckled and started to strip away from his clothes into his boxers. Keith jumped into the water. His hair was slicked back because of the water.

Lance splashed water on Keith and he returned the move.

"Asshole" he chuckled. They continued to fight with the water and eventually they just sat on some rocks to get dry. They looked at the blue sky and talked.

It was just about 5pm when they were ready to head back home. They got up and dressed. Keith sighed in relief, it was relieving.

"'Twas fun" Lance said, he chuckled and Keith laughed along.

"It was" he smiled and looked Lance in the eyes. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Lance broke the link.

"Well, we better get back" he chuckled and started walking. The walk was long but they talked about how they would tell Krolia what Lotor did.

"What if we just lie and tell her things were just starting to heat up?" Lance said.

"How does that explain the crying?" Keith asked. Lance shrugged.

"Maybe you could say you panicked?" Lance proposed.

"I think I have to tell her what he did and explain the police didn't do anything" he said. He looked down with a sad look on his face.

"Maybe" Lance said. He put his arm around Keith's shoulder, he sighed and looked at him
"It'll be ok"