Lifesavers~ Klance

3

Keith pushed his earbud into his ear, turning up the volume. Lance was late- again.
Not a moment later, the lanky boy sloppily ran up the the table, shoving his bag from his shoulders and collapsing in the seat. "Sorry," He huffed. "Had- had to go- to my sisters- piano- piano recital." He ended with a weak smile, and Keith couldn't help but conceal a smile himself.  "No worries for now. But try not to be late next time." His mouth twitched.  "She's really good, too." Lance noted, flipping open his binder. "Better than everyone else in our family.  I used to play, but I sucked at it. I'd rather play guitar.  Actually, a lot of us tried playing. But she was the only one to actually excel in it, I guess." He shrugged, tapping his lip with the edge of his pencil.  The black haired boy looked up, trying to be stern. "Lance, focus." He made a face. "If you don't want to hear me talk, why don't you wear headphones?" Keith lifted his hair. "I am."
"No you're not. You're wearing earbuds. Wearing earbuds suggest that you are wide open to conversation, but headphones mean you want to keep to yourself. See?" He rummaged through his bag, pulling out a pair of pale blue beats. "You can wear mine if you want." Keith looked at the headphones thoughtfully. Though he wouldn't admit it, he liked Lances rambling. "No, I'm okay. Thanks."
Lance grinned. "I knew you liked my talking."
"Shut up."
Keith turned his music down a bit, pulling his book out. "That same book?"
"Nope."
"You lost interest? Finally realized it was a love story?"
"Nope. Finished it. Onto the next." Lance whistled. "Damn. Fast."
"I like reading." Keith said plainly.
"What I don't get is how you can sit for hours and just read. For fun. Like, don't you get fidgety? Bored?"
"Nope. You're doing the same thing right now. Sitting still."
"Yeah, but I'm doing assigned work. That's different."
"Not really." Keith's eyes flicked up to see his student sigh and glance back down.

A little hard candy rolled around in his mouth as Lance ran his tongue across his teeth.  Keith raised an eyebrow.  "Lifesaver?" The dark haired boy accepted the offer with a ghost of a smile, his slim, pale fingers plucking a red one out of the pack and popping it into his own mouth.  "Back to work, McClain." He grinned. Lance chuckled and continued hurriedly scribbling answers onto the page.   He stretched his hand out, flexing his long, sore fingers.  "Keiithhh," he whined. "Help meeee."
Normally, Keith would've rolled his eyes and kept reading, but since Lance was, after all, his student, he had to put his book down and lean across the table, reading over Lances work.

Lance couldn't help but watch as the black haired boy came forward, his hair falling down and one shoulder of his baggy shirt slipping lower. 
"You're good," Keith remarked. "But you do need practice.  You're getting the right formulas, but the answers are wrong, see? If you substitute this here then the negative is cancelled, which makes a chain reaction..." Keith kept explaining, but Lance zoned out. He thought about his family and friends, and how much he loved them, and how it would be cool to regard Keith as a friend. "Wanna get ice cream?" He interrupted Keith abruptly. His tutor looked up, obviously surprised.
"We're in the middle of a session."
"We can finish there."  Lance pleaded, the blue in his eyes shining.
"Fine." Keith huffed. "But only if you focus then."
"Yes sir!" Lance slid out of his chair, watching with joy as Keith did the same.

"Mint chocolate chip?" Lance shook his head.
"Guess again." Keith scanned the flavors. "Mm.. uh.. moose tracks?"
"Nooo!"
"Strawberry then."
"You're so bad at this. I can guess yours in a minute."
"Prove it." Keith crossed his arms, leaning on one leg. "Chocolate." Keith's expression went from one of surprise to one of pure betrayal. "What the heck..?"
"Am I right?" Lance prodded him with a finger. "Yeah. What- how did you guess?" Lance grinned again, shrugging. "I read people well. I live with a big family, it's kinda a necessity." He chuckled, and we ordered. As the lady behind the counter handed us our cones, I turned to him. "Big family? Tell me about them." We sat down at a table. "Ok. So. There's my older brother, Alejandro, my older sisters, Sophie and Alexi, my younger brother Jay, the twins- Briana and Park, and the baby, Anise. And me and my parents, of course." Lances eyes shone.
Keith chuckled, eyes wide. "Wow. You weren't kidding when you said big."
"No sir, I meant it." Lance laughed too, then ducked his head to lick some ice cream dripping from his cone. "I couldn't imagine living with so many people," Keith chuckled.  "It's just me at my home."
"Yeah? How old are you?" Lance leaned his head on a hand.
"19 in October."
"Ah. I'm 18, but I have to stay home because Ma works and someone has to pick up the rest of my siblings and take care of them till she gets home." Keith nodded thoughtfully. "Impressive. You do all that? What about your older siblings?"
"Alejandro moved out with his fiancé last month, and Alexi and Sophie go to college and sometimes night jobs." Lance finished the sentence then eyed his melting ice cream. He licked the outside, then crunched down on the cone. "Oh." After a long pause, Keith spoke again. "So, you've gotta focus now. Back to work."
Lance nodded, remembering the deal he made with his new friend. "Right. Let's finish this." He dramatically cracked his knuckles and twirled his pencil in his hand.