Fireworks [Klance AU]

Eleven

(Strong[er] language)

"Quit it, fag!" The faint sound of skin hitting skin is heard.
  "Then keep your mouth shut!" A fist flies into a face, only for it to come back and make another round into the face.
  "Keith, get out of here already!" Ashton's voice rings throughout the entirety of the football field, several boys looking at him.
  "Ash, you're an idiot!" Keith shouts, and his fist makes contact with a face.
  "Both of you whore fags need to just leave," one of the boys say. One in which Ashton had known for three years now, Carson Bonds. He hadn't hated or liked Carson, it was pretty neutral until about a day ago. Until about a day ago, this secret that only Keith and one of Ashton's friends, Rayne, knew, was leaked by accident. And these boys from the football team decided they would try and beat it out of Ashton just for the sake that there was one less queer in the school, and when Keith got involved, that just meant two less. People just wanted to get rid of things they didn't understand.
"Shit," Keith murmurs as he blocks a punch with his forearm. There are three boys out here. One being Carson, and the other two are Jacob and Connor Maxwell, two brothers. Keith is then grabbed by his hair and dragged to his feet. Jacob draws his arm back, and Keith sticks both of his arms up to block his face, and it worked, but a hard piece of metal comes into contact with Keith's arms, which makes him grunt.
"What the hell man?! This is unfair!" Keith screams as he brings his leg up to Jacob's side, his knee making contact with the boys ribs.
"Keith, please, just leave! For God's sake, go get Rayne or something!" Ashton shouts.
"No, you need to leave. You don't need this on your record," Keith says, and attempts to kick Jacob again. Carson and Connor decided to gang up on Ashton, assuming Keith was the weaker one.
"Fuck off!" Keith shouts as he grabs the boys hood and yanks it back. Keith hooks his foot in the hood and lets Jacob land a few punches on him before being able to apply enough weight in the hood to pull the eldest Maxwell brother to the ground. Keith gets the upper hand and flips Jacob onto his stomach. He grabs his hoodie sleeves and pulls them past Jacobs hands. Then he ties them, and makes his way towards Ashton.
"Get off him," Keith says simply as he grabs the belt loop on the back of Connor's jeans. He pulls him back, and grabs Ashton's arm.
"Run," Keith says as he gets Ashton out of Carson's grip.
"Keith-!" Ashton tried to speak before Keith pushes him away. Ashton hesitates before starting to run, but it turns to a sprint as he heads towards the school.
Keith is in a three on one battle at this point. He could tell he was screwed if he couldn't get out of there soon. He wanted to have him and Ashton split up at this point, just to keep the boys off one or the other.
"Retard," Carson mutters before trying to hit Keith. Keith can finally focus in and use his reflexes.
"Jacob, go get Ashton," Connor says, and at this point, they know they need to keep it as two on one, but Keith has already made a plan in his head. If one tried to go after Ashton, he'd just make a run for it, and that's just what is about to happen.
Keith gets his chance and starts to sprint off the field. Some blood has start to run down his face, and starts to get in his eye. He tried to wipe it away, but every few seconds it just makes its way back down to his eye.
"Fuck!" Keith could here one of the boys yell. Keith runs towards the gym door and is praying it's unlocked. As he approaches, he slows and starts to jiggle the door handle until it finally opens, but not from his own success, from someone opening it. And Keith was met with a. Face he wasn't hoping to see. He quickly covers his face with his arm and pushes past, mumbling a "thank you." Keith quickly makes his way out of the gym and into the small cafeteria that sits right outside of it. His eyes quickly dart around, seeing if there was any trace of Ashton. He didn't see any sign until he realizes there is a bathroom up stairs that no one goes to because the janitors never clean it, and Keith runs to the stairs. As he takes a few steps, he can hear the gym doors slam open, hitting the walls and bouncing back. He can hear voices, so he starts to take two steps at a time. He makes it to look he second floor and sprints to the bathroom on the other side of the F hallway in the west wing. He catches the wall and pushes himself into the bathroom.
  "Ash?" Keith asks as he pants, walking and checking each stall. Then he notices a pair of feet hanging from ceiling. He looks up and sees Ashton lying between the pipes and the ceiling.
  "How in Hell did you get up there?" Keith asks, walking into the last stall.
  "I jumped?" Ashton says, but he honestly wasn't really sure himself. It was a pure adrenaline rush for him, and he'd just got off it.
  Keith tried to climb up on the toilet and reach for the top of the wall.
  "Here," Ashton says as he leans up to lend a hand. Keith takes it, and jumps. Ashton pulls him at the same time and he's able to get the top half of his body into the ceiling.
  "Sit here until the beginning of second?" Keith asks as he heaves himself up. There was about two feet worth of space between the metal in the top of the building and the tiles that you see in classrooms. They had managed to lay themselves on top of the pipes that are in between. They could hear feet running past the bathroom, then teachers yelling at them, or calling for another teacher to get a principal. Keith shrinks his legs up to rest on the wall where he decided he would lay. They lay there for another forty minutes, listening to their own breathing. Then Ashton starts to hum to a song that Keith had only heard the few times he's walked in on Ashton drawing. Keith had always admired Ashton's voice, and was sad he couldn't use it how he wanted to. Ashton was one of the most crafty and talented people Keith knew. He could sing, he could draw, and he was athletic when he wanted to be. Keith had always been jealous of that.
  "What's the name of that song?" Keith asks as he watches Ashton climb down.
  "This Is Home," Ashton says before switching to mumbling the lyrics.
  "I'll cut my hair to make you stare, I'll hide my chest and I'll figure out a way to get us out of here." Keith starts to climb down as well, and as they both walk to the exit, the bell rings.
  "Want to clean up until the two minute bell?" Keith asks. He looks at Ashton, and he nods. Ashton had what looked like brass knuckle markings all over the left side of his face. He also had a bruise forming on the right side of his chin, a cut right underneath on the side of his neck. Keith only got away with a cut above his right eyebrow and a slash on his right cheek that went from his mid cheek to the top of his neck, along with bruises up and down his sides and one on the left side of his face, and it was already swelling. Keith walks in an attempt to find paper towels, but no success, so he checks his pockets, and to his luck, he finds a bandana in his back pocket that he used just for fashion.
  "Come here," Keith says as he starts to wet the bandana. He looks at Ashton, and chooses to start with the one on his neck. Keith had a hesitation before placing his hands on Ashton's neck, but starts to dab at the cut after a moment.
"I'll get Supreethi to come and see us at lunch, she has some stuff to clean us up properly," Keith says as he moves to the next cut that was on his cheek from the brass knuckles.
Ashton admired how soft of a touch Keith could give, despite the way he fought. It's one thing that Ashton doesn't really understand how to do. Maybe it's the family he grew up in, or the people he surrounded himself with when he was younger, but he had never been able to give the soft touch that Keith had always given to him.
  Keith pushes himself up onto the counter and keeps saving at the cuts and the small patches of dirt.
  "If they give you any issues anymore, let me know," Keith says, and wets the bandanna again. He looks at himself in the mirror and starts to dab at his own cuts and dirt.
  "Okay," Ashton says, but it was with a moment of hesitation. He didn't want to get Keith involved with anything, but he knew he didn't have a choice.
  "Go ahead and grab your things, but meet me right in front of here when you're done," Keith says as he hops down and looks at his outfit in the dirty mirror, "Also, keep your head down. Try and not make eye contact." Keith starts to walk out of the bathroom, and Ashton follows quietly behind. They slowly make it down the hallway that has a few people, but not many since the two minute bell was to ring about any minute. They both split ways at the main hallway and go for their things they had left by their lockers.
  Keith had his locker in the downstairs north hallway, and Ashton's was in the upstairs west hallway. This was an inconvenience due to their situation. After a few minutes, the two minute bell had rang, and the two had met up again. They were making their way to Misses Groom's room, and Keith was praying that he could just sit in the back room this class period and paint. Studio days were his favorite.
They walk into the room, and luckily are met with Misses Groom's before they even take three steps in.
"Oh, God," She says and waves for them to follow. A muffled laugh is given from Ashton, but they both follow behind the middle aged woman.
"I'll email your teacher, who do you have?" she asks.
"Boswell," Ashton says and looks over at Keith.
"Alright. Keith, can I talk with you?" Grooms asks as the bell rings. Keith nods and follows her into a small hallway that connects her room and another art teachers room.
"What happened to you two?" she asks.
"Just a small fight," Keith says, worry evident in his voice.
"Who?" she asks, her hands placed on her hips.
"Some football kids," Keith says, and shifts his bag.
"Fine, you obviously don't want to talk. I promise I won't tell anyone, I'll back you up if something happens," she says and starts to walks towards her classroom.
"Thank you," Keith says, knowing she meant it. He follows her out and walks next to Ashton.
"All of your stuff is in the back room," Grooms says. Keith smiles and nods. He grabs ahold of Ashton's sleeve and drags him towards the back of the room.
"Thank you," Ashton says as they enter the room and Keith drops his backpack.
"For what?" Keith asks as he starts to pull out an easel.
"I mean, everything, so much more than I can think of," Ashton says. Keith just chuckles and continues to pull out his materials when a light knock is heard on the door frame.

-

(A/N: extra long wait, for an extra long chapter. Sorry this was a bit of a filler, guys, and sorry it was super long. This was to kind of show the relationship between Keith and Ashton, and to show a different side of Keith that might or might not be shown again. He's very protective of what he loves.
  Also, I'm still needing an artist, so if you'd like to try for that spot for the comic, pm me on here, or message me on Instagram, @ trier.pluto .
-t)