Over My Dead Body!

Chapter 7

The café is mostly empty now that the sun is down and the moon shines brightly up at the sky. Keith leans his head against the glass window where he sits on one of the tables in the café. His nose stopped bleeding and thank goodness that it wasn't broken, but it still hurts like hell. Bruises popped up mostly on the left side of his face and the corners of his left eye began to swell moments ago. A patch of cotton is taped on the upper left corner of his forehead where most of the blood was coming off earlier. All in all, he feels like shit. Ten times worse. The short boy presses an ice bag against his left cheek as Shiro approaches him.

"Hey," The buff man greets as he sits down at the chair oppositte to him. "Feeling better?"

". . .yeah." Keith says weakly.

"Keith, I thought you said nothing was going on, that no one was bothering you. Why didn't you tell me?"

The short boy just shakes his head.

"Keith, you always tell me everything. What makes this any different?"

"I-I, I don't know. My head's just been up in the clouds lately."

"Why?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

Shiro crosses his arms, "You still didn't tell me about this."

"I thought I could handle it myself. Plus, it's not that much of a big deal."

"Until now."

". . .well. . .yeah. Thanks again for helping me out, Shiro. How did you know that I was in danger?"

"I was looking for you so you could help me out in carrying things. I couldn't find you so I asked Mark. He said you suddenly left and a group of guys came right after you. He thought they were your friends or something, but it doesn't sound like it to me. So, I knew something was up."

"Thanks, again."

"Don't mention it." Shiro stands up. "Now, wait here a few minutes and I'm taking you home with me."

"What?!" Keith removes the ice bag from his cheek."Shiro, you don't have to—"

"Oh, I want to. There's no way I'm leaving you alone, not after what happened. Who knows what else you're keeping from me that could put you in furthermore danger. So, stay here and give me a few minutes to pack things up for the night, then I'll drive you back at my place."

"But—"

"No arguements!" Shiro frowns then points a finger. "You're like a brother to me. There is no way I'd let anything happen to you. So please, just let me do this."

Keith stares up at him with wide eyes from what Shiro just said. They stare into each other's eyes for a long moment before Keith slowly nods his head.

Shiro smiles, "Thank you." He walks away.

Keith blinks several times before he puts back the ice bag on his cheek. He pulls out his phone to find several text messages from Hunk and Pidge. The majority came from the latter, asking why he didn't showed up for their group project earlier. He cursed under his breath before replying that he's sorry and that he had a messy encounter with "you know who". They instantly reply back, asking if he was okay. He smiles. Who wonders what did he do to deserve these two friends. The short boy replies that he's fine. He puts his phone back into his pocket and stares at the table infront of him.

Keith clears his throat, "Lance? You okay?"

Silence.

"Lance?"

No reply.

Keith coughs into his hand, then, "Hey, are you okay?"

"Are you o—Keith!" Lance shouts. "I should be asking you that. You got bruises all over your face and you're the one asking me if I'm okay?!"