'such a pity, a boy so pretty'

19. hooked on feeling

the songs there if you wanna you know listen to it or whatever

-

Keith pulled back and smiled at Lance, masking how terrified he was of what he had just said. Do you think he heard me? What if Lance didn't feel the same way? What if i've ruined what we have?

"I'm not that brave." Lance said chuckling nervously and fiddling with his hands, obviously ignoring Keith's statement of confession, and for some reason this hurt Keith more than if he had just said he didn't feel the same.

"Well I think you are." Keith sighed and hugged him again, Lance hugged back just as tightly, silently reassuring himself and Keith. Wondering if that maybe Keith could read minds and could tell that he'd never loved someone before, or had someone love him like this before. And that he didn't know what to do.

"Are you two hungry?" Rob asked both boys and pulled apart, but keith kept his arm around Lance, who smiled back at him.

"I'm always hungry." Lance said, smirking.

"Okay, we'll go pick everyone up and then we'll go out for some food, to celebrate." Rob helped Keith's dad collect his files and they all walked out of the court, catching a glimpse of the small inconspicuous police car that drove away.

They all climbed into Robs car, except Mr Kogane, who drove his own car. When the car stopped, Lance climbed out and ran into his house, Keith ran after him, lingering back a little as he found Lance hugging his Mother and Sofia, and the rest of his family.

"Have i ever told you guys how much I love you?" He smirked at his family, before a feeling of guilt washed over him and his eyes had found themselves looking over at Keith. He pulled himself away from his family and took Keith's hand, pulling him upstairs and into his room.

His room was like it was before, his old radio played 'Hooked On A Feeling' softly in the background, as Lance shoved some clothes off his bed.

"Lance?" Keith asked as Lance sat him down on his bed and sat next to him and cupped Keith's hands in his own and looked at him. "What's going on?"

"I heard what you said to me back at the court. And I was a jerk for ignoring it, and I'm sorry. I'm just-"

"Lance it's okay if you're not ready to say it back, I get it, don't feel pressured that you have to. I don't want you to say because you have to. I want you to say when you're ready, and if you're never ready then that's completely fine. Just know that I love you, and I care about your feelings too." He squeezes Lances hands.

"Okay, thank you." Lance smiled at him. "You're way better at this than me." He cupped Keith's face with one hand and pushes his hair out of his eyes and behind his ear.

"Better at what?" Keith blushed and leaned onto Lances touch.

"All this relationship stuff, I have no idea what I'm doing." He said smiling at Keith.

Keith pulled him close and kisses him. "I'll tell you a secret." He kisses him again. "Neither do I." Keith smirked mischievously at Lance, who kissed him back, his insides feeling fluttery and light, when Keith smiled along with him. "Now let's go get something to eat."

"Yeah i'll just change out of my shirt and then we can go." Lance said unbuttoning his shirt with great difficulty until Keith slapped his hands away lightly and began to undo the buttons with ease, as Lance kissed his cheek. "Thank you." He smiled and pulled his shirt off, Keith trailed his finger lightly across the white scars that tainted his caramel skin. "What are you doing?"

"Admiring the view." Keith smiled at Lance, who was now blushing deep red, before rolling his eyes and getting up to go and look for a T-Shirt, finding a dark blue one, he pulled it on and changed into his trainers, grabbing his jacket. Keith pulled off his tie and unbuttoned the top button, following Lance downstairs.

Keith, Lance and Maria, rode with Keith's dad. And the rest of the family went with Rob, driving to a small restaurant that was near the heart of town. Maria sat in the front with Mr Kogane, for once without her headphones glued to her ears, currently engaged in a seemingly interesting, to her anyway, conversation about law school.

Lance slung his arm over Keith's shoulder, as the Korean leaned onto him, almost sitting on his lap and they smiled at each other, still basking in the feeling of victory, even if it was in a court room. Keith's dad pulled up to the restaurants car park and they all climbed out, the September air slightly warm around them.

Walking into the restaurant, as Rob sorted out their table, Keith took Lances hand and leaned on his arm, as if being away from him for even a minute would have dire consequences. They all made there way to the table and sat down, ordering their food a few minutes later.

To say the least, the celebratory dinner lightened everyone's spirits, Maria and Mateo kept on stealing their brothers beer when he wasn't looking, Mateos smirk like Lances as they glanced over the table to each other, Lance being the distraction, talking to Rob. Sophia and Keith were in a very important debate with Rosa and Keith's Dad about who was the better band member in AC/DC.

Gabriela was sat on Lances lap, braiding Keith's hair and Diego had taken it upon himself to mix his juice drink with salt, pepper and vinegar, naming his concoction an 'Ageing Potion' as he wanted to be older, almost drinking it before Rosa stopped him.

They were all smiling widely at the end of the night, before returning back to the McClains house for a few more drinks after the children were put to bed. Lance and Keith had somehow fallen asleep on the sofa together, their limbs tangled together as they wrapped their arms around each other, like a lock and key.

Rosa watched them for a while, a smile creeping up on her lips as Keith's Dad came to stand next to her.

"I've been such a terrible mother." She said, tearing her eyes away from them to look at him.

"No you haven't."

"It's my fault any of this happened."

"No it's not, Lance needed you and you were there for him. Whatever Julian did is his fault, not yours. I know Keith thinks very highly of you, and whatever happened to Lance because of Julian, it doesn't affect his, or my, judgement on you." He smiled, patting Rosa on the shoulder.

"Thank you Mr Kogane."

"It's Noah." He smiled back, drinking the rest of his drink before looking back at Keith and Lance. "They look really peaceful."

"You can leave him here if you want, I know Lance will be pleased." Rosa smiled.

"Thank you." He looked at the clock. "I better get going, could you tell Keith i'll ring him tomorrow?" Noah said, walking to the door, Rosa following behind.

"Of course. Thank you again, for everything you've done." Rosa told. him as Noah pulled on his coat.

"You're welcome. Lance is an amazing kid, you should be really proud." Noah smiled again and walked out, waving from his car before driving off. Rosa walked back into the living room to see Sophia covering the two boys in a blanket and Robert clearing away the empty cups.

She smiled at Lance again, then at Keith. She was proud, insanely so. She watched them cuddling, smiling at their cuteness before turning the lights out, inwardly thinking that Keith and Lance really belonged together.

end of chapter 19

fun fact: my brothers called Noah