Ardor | Klance [COMPLETED]

VIII. Precipitous

There was this one time, when Keith was really little, and he had been playing catch with his mom out in their driveway. They laughed as the small green foam ball flew back and forth between them, and took turns running after it when Keith didn't catch it.
Keith missed the ball, and it flew behind him into the street.
"Don't worry, honey," his mom laughed. "I got it." And, before saying another word to him, she jogged out into the street to grab the ball that Keith had dropped.
There Keith stood, turned away from his mom, glancing up at the sky and smiling, because he was in the perfect daydream.

And then it happened.
A dark red pickup truck came whirling around the corner of the cul-de-sac, not stopping, despite Keith's screams of warning, and hitting his mother from behind. The truck sped off, leaving his mother dead in the middle of the road. Roadkill.
That's all Keith needs to remember, and, in fact, that's all he needs to completely lose it. He never forgave himself, knowing that he killed his mother because he couldn't be bothered to catch a ball. A foamy green ball killed his mother.
He stood there, stunned, before running to his lifeless mother and screaming for neighbors. By the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late.
It wasn't exactly his mother's death that made his past so rough; it was the aftermath. No neighbors would take him in, and he was sent to a foster care system. There, he was just one in a million, just another stupid kid who just needed somewhere to sleep at night. The employees at orphanages didn't understand anything he said, and the workers at the donation centers just ignored the kids there. Then, came the foster families, some good, some bad, but none permanent. Nobody cared to have him for more than a year at the most, and he just slipped in and out of countless neighborhoods. For as long as the little boy could remember, he was nothing more than an outcast.
When he joined the Garrison, he remained a stranger, but he was with so many others just like him, and it was different than any foster home. He was the best flyer there, but there was one who caught his eye. The one with the softest blue eyes and tan skin with the slightest freckles, that you could only see if you got close. Keith bumped into him one day, and while that kid was most ignorantly telling him off, Keith had found himself staring.
When he left the Garrison, not by choice, but by force, and found that shack outside the school, he couldn't help but wonder what had happened to freckle boy. But, at least he could forget about his silly little crush now that he'd never see him again.

Until that day that Shiro landed.
"Uh, who are you again?"

"Um, the name's Lance."

"Oh yeah, I remember you. You're the cargo pilot."

"Well I'm fighter class now, thanks to you washing out."

All through the time he was alone, the only thing he was glad about is that he wouldn't have to see Lance anymore, and when they became paladins, he first thought Lance was too annoying to handle.
Boy, was he wrong.
Keith has basically lived with his crush for almost a year, and every day, it just gets worse. Shiro knew first, then the rest of the team had the stupid 'Operation Klance' stuff that actually worked, and...

Now?

Well, now, Keith was standing still, unable to move, watching the boy with the blue eyes and tan skin with the freckles get dragged in the opposite direction of him, taken by people they couldn't fight.