One Bad Romance

Chapter Four

It was a few hours before Keith saw Lance again. He couldn't be sure what time it was, after all, there were no windows in basements, and he had no clue where his phone had gotten off to. Even when Lance opened the door at the top of the stairs he couldn't tell from the light shining in.

Lance still had that same expression but Keith didn't really care, he just smiled at him as Lance sat down in front of him. Lance didn't say a word to him at first, simply looked him over, but Keith didn't mind.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you." He said.

"Because I love you!" He blurted out immediately. Before he could even react, Lance had raised his hand and slapped him across the face. Hard. He sat there, frozen in shock. What did he do? Did he say something wrong? He didn't understand what could've set him off.

"Stop saying that!" He snapped.

"B-but Lance! It's true!" He told him, trying hard to ignore the stinging pain in his cheek. "I love y-" This time he didn't even get to finish before he was slapped once again.

"Shut up!" He yelled at him, and Keith couldn't help but shrink back from him. This was all wrong. This wasn't the Lance he loved so much. That Lance was kind, and sweet and gentle. Not whatever this was. "God, I might kill you just to shut you up!" He glared at Keith.

"I... I'm sorry, Lance..." Keith said softly, worried that even that would set him off again. He was lucky this time, Lance seemed to relax.

"Whatever. Now answer the question right, why should I not kill you?"

Keith had to think about it for a moment. He felt his love should have been more than enough, but if Lance wanted more then he was willing to give him more. The longer he thought about it the more impatient Lance seemed to grow so he knew he had to come up with something fast.

"I can help you." He finally said. Lance looked confused.

"Help me? How?" He asked.

"I, I can do stuff for you. So you don't have to. I could clean, and I know how to cook, I'm sure I could do whatever you ask." He told him, hoping this would be enough to convince him. Lance seemed to think it over before he shrugged.

"Fine. I suppose that's good enough." He said. Keith watched as he brought a pocket knife from his pocket and moved towards him. It took a lot of self control for him to not flinch away. Lance cut the ropes binding his hands first, then the ones binding his ankles. "You can get started with that mess." He said, motioning to the pool of blood, "There's cleaning supplies on the shelf. Have fun." He smirked before standing up and going back upstairs. Keith rubbed his wrists where the rope had been burning before carefully getting to his feet. He still felt rather dizzy and his legs were weak from sitting on them for so long but otherwise he was fine.

He found the cleaning supplies Lance told him about and hesitantly got to work on the mess of blood. The smell was terrible, and scrubbing blood off a cement floor was difficult enough, but he pushed through anyway. Once he had finished he went to put the cleaning supplies back and noticed something sticking out from beneath the shelf. He got down on his knees and looked down to see that his phone had been kicked under there. He was relieved to find it, quickly grabbing it and turning it on. He had quite a few messages from Shiro, asking where he was and when he was going to get home.

He thought about telling him exactly what happened, but he knew that would cause problems. Shiro would try to come get him, and he didn't want to see how that would go. Instead he began to reply to Shiro, telling him that he was fine and that he wasn't going to be home soon, when the basement door opened again. He looked up to see Lance staring directly at him, no, at the phone in his hands.

"What are you doing?" He asked immediately, making his way down the steps. "Why do you have that? You were trying to turn me in, weren't you?" He said seriously, walking up to stand in front of Keith.

"I was only texting my friend, don't worry!" He said quickly. That didn't change his mind, Lance quickly grabbed a fistful of Keith's hair and pulled as hard as he could, causing him to cry out and drop his phone. He leaned down so their faces were close to each other.

"I didn't say you could have your phone back." He growled, before slamming his foot down on the phone. Like anyone else, it just about broke Keith's heart to hear the glass screen shatter.

"I-I'm sorry, Lance!" He cried out as Lance yanked on his hair again. "I'm sorry!"

"That's what I thought." He finally let go of his hair, and Keith looked down at the remains of his phone. No way Shiro was going to know he's ok now. "Now get up." He told him, and Keith shakily did so. Lance grabbed his arm, starting to pull him back to the pipe he'd been tied to before. He instructed him to get back into the position he'd been in before and Keith obeyed, as much as he genuinely didn't want to. "I was going to be nice and bring you something to eat, but after that, I think you can wait until tomorrow." He said as he walked across the room, over to a table with an assortment of objects on it. He picked up a nice long length of rope before walking back over.

"I'm sorry..." Keith apologized again, instinctively shrinking away from Lance.

"Stop apologizing." He said as he once again tied his hands behind his back. "It's getting annoying." Keith only silently nodded in response. Once Lance was satisfied he stood up again, staring down at him. "I'm leaving you here for the night, but if you make any noise I swear to god you will regret it." He threatened, before turning and stomping back upstairs. He made sure to turn the light off beforehand, leaving Keith in complete darkness once again.