hey there pretty boy (klance)

CHAPTER 05

He doesn't make sense of what's happening until he's standing in line at one of the town's many ice cream parlors, having witnessed Lance order a monstrous, unnatural concoction of flavours - which is almost more impressive than whatever Keith saw at the beach - and when it's his turn to order, Keith just awkwardly coughs, "uh, I'm lactose intolerant."

Lance sits beside Keith on the bench outside the shop, pouting as he licks his ice cream. "You should've told me. We could have gotten something else-"

"I really don't care about the ice cream Lance, just eat yours before it melts. And can you please explain to me what the fuck just happened?" His voice kicks in as if someone had flipped a switch. He realizes that he's gripping the edge of the bench with a concerning degree of force and tries to relax his fingers.

The boy stares intensely at the cone, catching a drip with his tongue before it lands on his hand, and then glances to Keith. "Yeah, so, I'm a god."

Easy. As if it's nothing.

"Specifically, like, god of oceans, tides, storms-" Lance tilts his head thoughtfully and counts on his fingers, ice cream leaning dangerously.

"S-storms?"

"Yeah, I..." He trails off at the expression on Keith's face. "I guess you could say that I cause them?"

Keith looks at his lap. He's seven again, clinging to the table leg and sniffling as rain beats the window. With every crash of thunder he hides his face and worries that the house will cave in around them. Then he's twelve, hiding under a blanket while his grandparents watch the news on TV one room over and Shiro has passed out on the bed beside him. Seventeen, and cancelling his plans just because the skies are grey.

Finally, he's twenty, and anxiously checking the weather because storms mean panic attacks and sleepless nights. He's sitting in the breakroom at the store because Shiro's working and Keith doesn't want to be home alone. He's taking pills when it starts to rain just to keep it under some form of control.

"Keith?"

"I have to go."

Lance doesn't try to stop him, or follow him. Maybe he anticipates a reaction like this after dropping that kind of bomb. Keith feels his throat closing up, almost as if the sky had clouded over and thunder bellows as a storm approaches, except...the sun is still shining.

Back at the apartment, Shiro is reading a book in the kitchen, apparently satisfied that Hunk and Shay had Voltron under control. He peers around the corner as Keith is kicking off his shoes and trails after him into his bedroom.

While his brother flops facedown on the bed, Shiro leans against the doorframe with crossed arms. "So, this Lance boy?"

"No."

"Really? 'Cause Hunk told me that you said he was cute," he says lightly, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

Keith shoots him a glare from the bed. "It's not happening." I swear, if Shiro tries to act like my dad and give me girl advice.

"Are you sure?" He leans closer with a slight smile.

"Shiro, I said it's not happening!"

Keith regrets snapping as soon as he's done it, but he can't take it back so instead he buries his face further into the blankets. He knows that he's going to start tearing up if he keeps talking - he can tell by the way his words cracked, just a little, so Keith keeps his mouth closed.

He exhales shakily as he feels Shiro's hand on his back, rubbing slow circles like their mother used to do when the boys were upset. Keith curls in on himself. It's worse when he starts to tremble and then he's crying into the blanket, gentle hiccups and warm tears that don't have any rhyme or reason to them. As many times as Shiro says it and Keith repeats it in his head, I'm okay, he can't make his body believe it.

Finally the episode subsides and Keith lets out a tired sigh.

"Are you going to be alright?" Shiro asks quietly.

"I think - yeah," Keith sighs. The feeling of panic has suppressed itself for now. He closes his eyes and focuses on breathing.

When he wakes up, his brain struggles to orient itself. It's more misleading because the sun is setting and his clock reads 7:03pm. Shiro is sitting in the bed beside him, back resting on the wall and eyes closed. Keith almost feels like he is fifteen again.

His brother blinks and looks around sleepily. He observes the shadows growing in the room, giving Keith a look because they both work tomorrow and something tells Keith that they probably won't be getting much sleep tonight.

"Movie marathon?" Keith suggests, as Shiro slides off the bed and stretches his arms over his head.

"Yeah," his brother agrees as he shuffles towards their living room, "but I get to pick, because I'm not sitting through another one of your dumb conspiracy documentaries."

"What? But you loved Mothman!"

Keith feels more like himself as he drags himself from the bed and follows Shiro. He stops by the bathroom to splash cold water on his face, ignoring the red-rimmed eyes that stare at him in the mirror, and settles onto the couch to see that Shiro has already selected one of his intense action movies.

It takes some time, but he eventually lets himself become immersed in the activity on the screen. He's thankful for a distraction despite the fact that he doesn't follow the plot and is more confused at the end of the movie than the beginning. Keith always figured that action movies were supposed to be simple, yet he can never get into them the way Shiro does.

He does manage to persuade Shiro into letting him watch an hour long film about how the government faked the moon landing. Keith has already seen it, but he's not about to let his brother know that - especially when Shiro hides an eye roll and stifles a laugh at some of the ridiculous evidence that they attempt to propose, making an effort to enjoy the documentary for Keith, who is really just relishing in the opportunity to torture his sibling.

It's the first time that Keith is late for work.