Room 1013

You're Leaving?

Lance was greeted into the house with a motherly hug from Krolia. She fussed over his hair and pulled him inside. Keith's feet pattered down the steps, stopping halfway to smile down at him. Lance admired the cat socks he wore. Keith's outfit of choice was distressed jeans and a deep red knitted sweater. He skipped down the rest of the stairs and looked up at him with his hands behind his back. His eyes relaxed and a warm smile formed on his cheeks. Lance averted his gaze to keep his suave composure. "Well, hello there."

Keith's smile widened, "Hello." He snatched Lance's hand and pulled him upstairs. "I wanna show you something!"

Lance was led down the hall and into a large door. Inside was a long white couch with grey pillows and blankets. Across from it was a large TV mounted on the wall. "A home theater," he thought out loud.

"Mm-hmm," Keith nodded. He skipped over to the right of the TV and dropped to his knees, opening a cabinet and shuffling through it. His voice was slightly muffled as he leaned his head into it. "While Mom's making dinner, I thought it would be fun to watch a couple movies."

Lance kneeled down next to him, "What movies?"

Keith emerged from the cabinet with a dvd case in hand, "Dead Poets Society." He tilted it toward Lance, "Then Snakes on a Plane."

Lance eyed his flushed cheeks, "Our favorite movies."

"Yup." He pointed to the couch, "Go sit. I'll put it in."

Lance did as he was told, grabbing a pillow to hug. He watched Keith from behind as he fiddled with the consoles in the larger cabinet. Keith tended to lean onto one leg, popping his hip out. It gave him a curvier figure-adding a feminine touch to his already feminine appearance.

Keith lifted his relaxed foot to scratch the back of his calf, keeping his focus on his task. "Oh, you don't have any food allergies or anything, do you?"

"No, I'm really easygoing."

"Good," he turned his shoulders to face him, "because you're eating with a cancer kid."

Lance chuckled, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Keith returned his eyes to the screen, slowly backing up to the couch. "It means I have overly worried parents." He plopped down next to him.

"Parents?" Lance tilted his head.

Keith glanced over at him with a confused raised eyebrow, "Yeah? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I didn't mean-" he stopped himself, "I've just only met your mother. I just assumed you didn't have a dad."

"Everyone has a dad." He dramatically clicked a button on the remote. "Mine just works a lot." He clapped three times to turn off the lights. "He's a lawyer."

Lance didn't like the movie at first, badgering Keith with questions and snarky remarks. Even though he was annoying, Keith answered him with enthusiasm. He explained things in detail, even bringing up the deeper meanings of them. Keith did this thing when he was excited where he would lift his hands and pull his shoulders together. He talked circling his fingers around each other. Lance found it extremely interesting to watch, so after a while, he asked any question he could think of.

They were finally called down for dinner with twenty minutes left in the movie. Lance groaned, "Can't we just finish it?"

Keith laughed at him and tugged his arm to get him off the couch. "No, it's time for food."

Krolia had set the table and filled it with various platters and bowls. They sat down next to each other, eagerly reaching for their choice of food. After Lance had filled his plate, he picked up his fork, but stopped. Keith had several orange-tinted or matte-white bottles of pills surrounding his plate. He opened every one fluidly with a straight face. To Keith, this was a routine and mundane action. But to Lance, it was saddening. He set his fork back down and waited for Keith to finish taking them so they could start eating together.

Krolia sat across from Lance with one arm resting across the edge of the table. "So Lance, what are your plans for the future?"

Lance's teeth scraped agains his fork as he took a bite of chicken. "The future?"

She shrugged, "College? Tech school?" She stabbed another piece of asparagus. "What do you want to be?"

"Wow," Lance took a deep breath, finishing chewing the food in his mouth. "Well," he returned his fork to the table. "I haven't really thought about it. I guess," he paused, "I guess everyone expects you to have a plan and everything-like those star students that wanna go to Harvard or something." He shrugged, "I'm just going with the flow. I have no idea what I'm gonna do with my life."

Krolia leaned forward slightly, "Surely your parents have an opinion about that?"

"Well," Lance picked up his fork again and took another bite, "as far as they know, I want to go to a prestigious law school."

She gave him an understanding nod, "Ah, I see." She laughed slightly, pushing the hair away from her eyes. "So what about school? Are you finished yet?"

"No actually." Lance took note of Keith's eyes on him. "I took two weeks off to come down here. I have final exams in a few months."

"So you're leaving?" Keith's voice was calm and casual, but his face was laced with concern.

Lance's smile faded when he met his gaze. His mouth wavered as he gained his composure back. "Yeah." He looked down at his plate. "I'll be leaving tonight."

"Oh," Keith's head turned away, and he brought a hand up to his neck. "That's good. Since you have school and stuff."

Lance's chest whined for him to comfort Keith, but he couldn't find an appropriate way. He flashed a forced smile and stood, "Hey, do you wanna finish that movie? We haven't seen mine yet."