Purple Rain - Klance

The Blue Lion

Lance woke to an empty, dark training room. He sat up slowly rubbing his throbbing cheek, "Well McClain, you stepped in it this time. You learn that Keith might be into guys and what do you do? Oh let's flirt with him!" The Blue Paladin groaned standing up. He stretched and rubbed his aching back. Looking around him, his heart sunk. "Guess I should go apologize," he shivered in disgust at his own words but walked out of the room to do just as he said.

On his way back to the mullet man's room, he wandered passed the observatory. Something catching his eye, he stopped and peeked his head around the corner. Keith sat in the middle of the room, elbows resting on his raised knees, staring up at the clear ceiling to the night sky. Lance bit his lip, before deciding on going in. He quietly ambled toward him, his shoes making soft patting noises on the ground. As Lance took a cross legged seat beside him, Keith glance to the side, then back to the sky.

"I'm sorry," Lance whispered, feeling the need because the atmosphere was so gentle and quiet.

"What," Keith asked in a hushed tone, frowning at his friend.

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I just..." he chuckled nervously, rubbing his neck, "I got a little excited, finding out about.. Your secret." Lance bumped Keith's shoulder, wiggling his eyebrows. Keith tensed, sure Lance was onto him.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about..." Keith couldn't meet the Blue Paladin's eyes.

"It's alright man, I can't judge. I'm a batter that swings both ways if you catch my drift," Lance elbowed Keith in the ribs, forcing the young man to look at him.

"I think so..." Keith answered, thanking God it was dark enough that Lance couldn't see him blushing. Lance sighed, happily laying back, his head in his hands.

"Keith... none of us is gonna think differently of you, just because you like other boys. Pfft, I mean I told you about myself, and Hunk could love anyone - currently a full blood alien - , anyways, Shiro seems like he's pinning for a certain missing ginger and Pidge... She's never shown any interest in "us"--as in guys. Though there was this one time, I thought I saw, this alien girl hitting on her pretty hard once. It was cute. Never seen Pidge at a loss for words...Now, nobody's forcing you to tell us. Just know we got your back."

"Thanks..." was all Keith could come up with to say. He'd heard a similar speech from Shiro earlier today, but Lance was a whole hell of a lot closer to Keith's problem than Shiro was. Keith was gay, he'd figured out that much about himself a while ago. But having feelings for a certain paladin, he hasn't yet been able to overcome. A few doboshes passed in silence, until Keith spoke up. "Lance, what was your real issue with our lions messing around? It can't have just been because Red's mine..."

"No.. that wasn't it. Not really," Lance let out a long sigh, and Keith looked back at him. Lance continued to stare at the ceiling, not meeting his friend's gaze. "The thing is, I've been lonely for a long time. See, my family is huge, I've got siblings, and a little niece and nephew, an abuelo and abuela... we're always together. And as annoying as that is, I loved it. I miss them--more than I could ever say...

"Because of that, I... I needed someone to talk to and like hell am I gonna show any kinks in my gorgeous armour to any of you guys. So the only one left was Blue. She's a really good listener. Sometimes, I'd talk to her for hours, just about the beach and the waves. A few times she'd actually answer, you know in that purring kind of way. The feeling like they're talking to you?" Keith nodded. "Well I got good at understanding her, almost like we were having real conversations..."

"So, what does that have to do with Red?"

"It's not Red's fault, or Blue's. I just, I thought she would have told me if she was interested in Red. Like, I told her about my first crush on this girl named Abree in the second grade and Blue could have shared then, but no...I have to find out by surprise." Keith just couldn't hold it in any longer. Laughter bubbled from his mouth, not harsh but true joy. Lance sat up, frowning.