A, You're Adorable (Klance) [DISCONTINUED]

Four: D is for Darling

Darling, those aren't stars in my eyes. I wear contacts.

Lance ran up good ol' Google Translate on the back of Keith's edgy black-and-red motorcycle with one hand and hugged Keith's waist with the other. He ruined the "ultimate edgelord" view with his dinged bike helmet, but he had insisted that Keith drive him to Hunk's house after the studying incident. He eventually pocketed his phone and held on with both hands, purposely squeezing Keith tightly and leaning his head on his back to irritate him.

As a child, Keith had thought that his father's name had been yobo. His mother rarely called him by name. "Honey" was a silly name to have, though. Now Lance would never get over it.

"Baaaabe," Lance cooed into his ear. Keith tilted his head and knocked into him with the side of his motorcycle helmet. "OW! Rude!"

Hunk's grandmother was a nice lady. She didn't spare them an odd glance when Keith entered, dragging Lance behind him as the Cuban held tightly around his waist. "Don't be like this, honeeeeey!"

"Stop calling me that!" Keith shoved him off and ran down to the basement before he could latch on again.

Pidge had stretched out on the couch, leaving no room to sit. "Yo. You finally made it. Did you and Lance get married on the way or something?"

"No. He's just being annoying," Keith pushed her legs to the side so he could sit at the end.

Lance walked down and grinned. "I'm not stopping until you apologize, darling."

When Lance put his mind to something, it was impossible to stop him. Where the drive came from, nobody could tell. Pidge was in the mood for fresh memes 24/7; Lance delivered a new one every morning. To get into Shiro's lab, the minimum grade was an 85; Lance pushed from an 84 to a 90 after a few quizzes. And, now, Keith was going to have to endure what punishment Lance saw fit.

He sat next to Keith. "C'mon. Let's get it over with."

"I'm not apologizing for making you study on your own," Keith turned away.

"You're from Texas, right?" Lance queried, full well knowing the answer, which Keith didn't bother giving. "Well, then how about you text-as me tonight?"

Pidge extended her legs, which unfortunately had the strength to move Lance into Keith enough to almost push the Korean off the couch. "Flirt in your own room."

Hunk arrived with a plate of cookies. "They're half oatmeal raisin and half chocolate chip. Take your pick."

"They all look the same," Pidge took the top one and bit into it. "Ha, chocolate."

Even in the dim glow of the room lit only by the television, Keith could see the ridges of the oatmeal cookie Lance drew. Staring at a computer for endless numbers of nights had an advantage, after all. Just to spite him, Keith took a chocolate chip cookie despite the fact that Hunk never used semi-sweet chips.

"C'mon! I got oatmeal and you got chocolate," Lance whined to Keith. "Switch with me! I know you like oatmeal better, babe."

"I already bit it."

Pidge sat upright to let Hunk on the couch. "It's your fault you actually sleep all night, dude. Heighten your senses."

"I don't care if you already bit it. I'll eat it anyway."

"You disgust me."

"Children, children," Hunk pat Lance and Keith's shoulders, "let's not act like barbarians. Eat your oatmeal and deal with it."

Keith would have loved to have made his father proud by watching Casablanca, but he and Lance squabbled throughout the movie and ruined the experience for everyone. It wasn't his fault he caught Lance staring at him and immediately found that his best reaction was to elbow him so hard he toppled over and into Hunk, who by sheer momentum made Pidge slide halfway off the couch so her dangling hair barely grazed the ground! His other option had been to grimace and let it slide, but what kind of lame comeback was that? At least Lance wasn't trained to see the rising color on Keith's cheeks.

No one else had ever flirted with Keith before, even jokingly. Wait, no, that total scene girl, once. No one attractive had ever flirted with him, before Lance. Ah, shut up. No one had thought he was gay. It wasn't his fault. Well, it was- but that didn't excuse Lance or make Keith any less flustered!

"Lance, quit it," Pidge grumbled as she took a cookie from the plate on Hunk's lap. "It's really annoying that you incited Keith into ruining the movie. If you're gonna flirt, you'd better go through."

"It's not my fault his eyes are pretty!" he exclaimed. Keith kicked him. "What? They sparkle."

"Go flirt with someone else."

"Babe, you're the only one in the room I want to flirt-"

"Get a room!" Hunk and-- mostly-- Pidge cried.

She sprang up. "You're torturing us all, man! So rude. So you two go to that room over there for the sleepover, and me and Hunk will watch the movies like normal people."

"No cookies for either of you. Go work things out," Hunk shooed them off the couch. "Oh yeah, and call your parents to make sure you can sleep over."

The room Pidge had pointed out was the laundry room, which smelled like soap and DIY laundry sheets. The light bulb hanging from the ceiling did nothing to make the linoleum floor and plain painted walls look homey, but it did provide enough light to allow Keith to see how flushed he was in the mirror hanging over the washtub. Maybe if he placed his fist over his mouth in a contemplative position, Lance wouldn't notice. The temperature of the basement could be a good excuse, or maybe the effort needed to push him? But Keith worked out more than Lance, so-

"Are you going to apologize?" Lance inquired.

Keith leaned against the wall and let his hands drop into their typical position, folded across his chest. "No."

Lance's eyes were the color of the bathrobe hanging to dry in the corner; the same as little Maria's; the color of the deep blue ocean that reflected the moon as it struck just past midnight. Not that Keith cared. The Cuban sighed. "Fine. I will, then. I'm sorry for flirting with you. I know it's annoying."

Keith was about to retort with "no sh!t, Sherlock", but he hesitated.

Before he could think of a different response, Lance continued. "Do you think it's hot in here?"

Ah, perfect, an excuse for the ever-present animu blush. "Yeah, it is. I think the boiler is near here."

"Oh! Cool. So, are we good now? I want my cookie privileges back."

"It's your fault you lost them for both of us," Keith shoved him playfully. "Let's go out and reclaim them."