Rivals (Klance)

Chapter 7

"Why don't you live with your dad?" Lance asked.

Keith directed his attention to the corner of his sheets. "He died when I was six." He said simply. It wasn't something he enjoyed talking about, but he was so young when his father passed away he can barely remember him.

Lance stiffened at hearing the answer. He hadn't lost his father, but he lost his brother, and just that was able to fuck him up pretty bad. He felt a new found sympathy for Keith.

Keith saw that and mistook it for pity. "Don't pity me. I can barely remember him anyways." He snapped, proceeding to look out his window.

They fell into an awkward silence after that, neither of them really knowing what to say. Eventually it was broken by Lance's ringtone. Keith snapped out of his own thoughts and grabbed his book again.

Lance checked the caller id and saw it was the group chat again. He groaned while answering the facetime. "What'd you guys want?" He asked.

"Just checking up on the inmates." Pidge said, a smirk clear on their face.

"We aren't in prison, jeez." Lance said, throwing a glance over at Keith. The raven haired boy didn't seem to be paying him any mind.

"Hey Lance, so I ran out of cookies and I made more, so you're gonna be getting a whole lot more than you bargained for." Hunk said, changing the subject.

"I'm sure I can use them as peace offerings or something." Lance said, noticing the slight twitch of Keith's lips as he said that. The smaller boy totally wanted those cookies.

"Actually Hunk, could I get them today?" Lance asked, making Keith snap his head up and look at him with wide eyes.

"Oh um, sure. I could drop them off at Keith's if you wanted?" He asked, knowing that Lance didn't have a car.

"That'd be great." Lance said with a nod.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Allura asked, noticing how dull Lance's smile seemed.

Lance shrugged. "Enough." He simply said.

"Okay, well he obviously didn't like that questions, so imma head out. Peace." Pidge said while clicking the end button.

"I've got to drive to Keith's so I'm gonna go to. Send me the address?" Hunk asked.

"Yup."

"Cool, see you in a few." Hunk said and then clicked the end call button.

"Bye Llura." Lance said, knowing that she'd want to keep talking to him about last night, but not wanting Keith to hear.

"Wait, Lance-" He hit the end call button. He was totally gonna get his ass chewed out the next day at school.

"You're making Hunk drive cookies over right now?" Keith asked with a raised eye brow, resting his open book on his lap.

"I feel bad for my last question, so I figured cookies were the best apology." Lance said back with a shrug.

"But you're making Hunk drive them here." Keith pointed out, not that he didn't appreciate Lance's though behind the gesture.

Lance held his hands up in surrender. "He offered. We both knew that I would have just walked to his house and gotten them." He said with a shrug.

Keith was taken aback by that. He would have seriously walked to get him cookies because he felt bad about bringing up his dead father? He hadn't seen that coming.

Apparently Lance did have a heart.

"Hunk needs the address." Lance said, looking down at his phone. Keith gave it to him and Lance sent it to Hunk. Only a few minutes later there was a knock on the front door.

Lance was the one to answer it, knowing who it was. "Thanks buddy." Lance said, grabbing the big container of cookies that Hunk had handed him.

"No problem, I was just heading to see Shay anyways." He said with a shrug. Shay was Hunks girlfriend. She was a really sweet girl.

Lance nodded and they said their goodbyes. He took the container back up to Keith's room and didn't miss he way his face temporarily lit up at the sight of the homemade chocolate chip cookies.

Lance laughed as he set them down on the floor. They had both relocated there while waiting for the cookies to arrive. He took the lid off and they both grabbed one out.

"So do you think we've bonded enough for Shiro?" Lance asked absentmindedly while taking a bite of his cookie.

"If we aren't making friendship bracelets yet, then no." Keith said back, causing Lance to laugh. "That wasn't a joke."

Lance sobered up and looked at the shorter boy. "Are you serious? Don't you think he's expecting a bit to much from us?"

Keith shrugged. "He's got high hopes."

Soon enough it was time for dinner and they both headed downstairs. "I didn't hear any yelling or anything getting thrown around. Are you two finally getting along?" Shiro asked as he handed them each a plate.

"Nah, we just had a time of peace for cookies." Lance said with a shrug as he grabbed a spoonful of mashed potatoes.

"Oh c'mon, that was a total bonding moment." Keith said, already sitting at the table with his food.

"We have different definitions of bonding." Lance said back taking a seat across from Keith. It was a small round table, so Shiro was in between them.

"What's your definition then? Because that was totally considered bonding." Keith said with a huff as he started to eat.

"How about not asking a handful of questions and then falling into awkward silence for an hour." Lance offered. He wasn't trying to be snappy, but his sleep deprived voice probably sounded like it.

Shiro was just observing them, waiting to see how it would play out. If they were mature enough, which he was fairly certain they weren't, they could resolve this themselves.

"It's not my fault you brought up my parents." Keith defended.

Shiro's eyes widened slightly at what Keith had said. He definitely hadn't expected that.

"But after it was your turn and you didn't keep the game going." Lance pointed out.

"God, you're impossible." Keith said with a sigh. He had thought they were getting somewhere, but they had just regressed back to the start, but with cookies this time. Could be worse.

"I prefer the name Lance, but if you insist." Lance said back with a tired smirk.

"Lance!"