Rivals (Klance)

Chapter 9

School was uneventful for both boys. They only thing worth noting was that Pidge had made Keith sit with them at lunch. The small gremlin wouldn't take no for an answer, from Keith or Lance. Keith was quiet most of the time, as the rest of them, Hunk, Pidge, Lance and Allura, all continued chatting like any other day.

When the end of the day rolled around, Keith waited for Lance at his own locker. They weren't far from each other, only a few lockers down. Lance seemed to be in a heated argument with Allura, so he didn't want to interrupt anyways.

"I'm fine." Lance said for probably the hundredth time the day.

Allura threw her hands in the air in annoyance. She had been fighting with him for five minutes now and he was stubborn as ever. "No you're not Lance. You're having reoccurring nightmares and you're getting a max of three hours of sleep each night. That is not fine." She said, pleading her case again.

Lance slammed is locker shut, catching Keith's attention from his phone. "Allura, how many times do I need to tell you that I am fine! I've dealt with nightmares before. I got over them then and I'll do it again. Stop worrying about me." He said, starting to get annoyed with her. She wasn't his mom, she needed to calm down.

She could clearly see how much he hated her bringing it up, but she could also clearly see how badly he needed help. The only reason he got over the nightmares last time was because he went to therapy and got sleep meds. If he refused any sort of help, he'd never get over them again.

"We both know that you won't be able to get rid of them on your own! You can't do it alone, Lance. Last time you had your family, you had me and Coran, you had people to support you. If you just push people away and brush it off like it's nothing, they will never go away." She said pleadingly. Allura hated seeing Lance slowly deteriorate. It was painful to watch.

He scoffed, not having the energy to keep fighting with her. He quickly turned and started to walk away, spotting Keith across the hall. The shorter boy raised an eyebrow at him in question, but Lance just shook his head. Keith pushed himself off his locker and started to walk with Lance.

"Lance, you can't just walk away from this. It's going to follow you anywhere you try to run!" Allura called after him. When he blatantly ignored her, she huffed and walked the other direction, looking for her uncle.

Keith threw a glance behind them as they made it to the front doors. "What was that all about?" He asked, seeing Allura stomp away.

"Nothing, she's just being paranoid." Lance said, brushing it off. He seemed to be good at that.

"Aren't you guys like best friends? What could you possibly fighting about that could get that... heat?" Keith asked as he got into the drivers seat, waiting to drive until Lance was in.

"Nothing, really. Just.. drop it, please?" Lance said, laying his head on the window and staring off into space.

Not wanting to push it and cause another fight that would just give Lance more stress, Keith stayed quiet the rest of the drive. When they got back to Keith's, Lance was out of the car in a blink of an eye and didn't bother slowing down until he was in Keith's room.

Keith walked into the house and met eyes with Shiro, who looked slightly surprised. Glancing up the stairs, Keith had a feeling Lance was already in his room and decided to let him be alone for a little bit.

"What happened? Did you two get into another fight?" Shiro asked, sounding exhausted.

Keith set his bag down and slipped off his shoes, walking with his brother into the kitchen. "No actually. He's fighting with a friend." Keith explained. He didn't know much about the situation, but he figured he could fill Shiro in on what he did know.

Shiro raised his brows. "Not that it's a good thing he's fighting with them, but I'm a little relieved that it's not you. You can both be exhausting to deal with." He said, an amused look on his face.

Playfully rolling his eyes, Keith continued. "Yeah, yeah. It's the principal's niece. They've been friends for like, ever. I don't think I've ever seen them fight before, let alone yelling at each other in the halls." Keith said, trying to think back through the time he had known Lance and Allura, which had been a long time. Every instance he came across, they were joined at the hip.

Shiro shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes people fight. Maybe they just need some time to cool off. I'd leave Lance alone for a bit though, and when you do talk to him, try to be nice. He seems stressed." He said, sending a pointed look at the younger boy.

Before Keith could respond, there was a loud crash from upstairs. They both snapped their heads to the stairs, then back to each other. "I know I said you should give him space, but maybe go make sure he's okay?" Shiro suggested, going back to making dinner.

With a sigh, Keith pushed off the stool and made his way to his room. Walking in, he noticed that the book shelf was up right in the middle of his room.

"You ran into the book shelf, didn't you?" Keith asked, amused that Lance had done something that he had previously made fun of Keith for doing.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Could you help me push it back into place?" Lance asked, looking up at Keith from where he was trying to scoot the shelving unit across the floor.

"Yeah." Keith said with a sigh. The Cuban boy didn't have much muscle apparently, just something else Keith could use if they got into another insult war.

The book shelf was back against the wall before Keith noticed anything. "Holy shit dude, you're bleeding." Keith said.

The entire side of Lance's arm was covered in blood. "Huh, would you look at that? Got a bandaid?" He asked. He was so tired he hadn't even noticed the blood or the pain. He was just numb.

Keith stared at him wide eyed. As someone who had gotten his fair share of battle wounds, he had no clue how Lance was so unaffected by that cut.

"C'mon, you might need stitches." Keith said, grabbing Lance's wrist on the uninjured wrist and bringing him into the bathroom.

Grabbing a black wash cloth so that the blood wouldn't stain it, Keith wetted it with warm water and then started to clean off some of the blood. "How did you not notice the big gash on your arm?" He asked.

Lance shrugged, "It doesn't really hurt, it's just bleeding a lot." He said.

Once all the extra blood was gone, it was clear that the cut wasn't deep or wide, just long. 'Probably wouldn't need stitches,' Keith thought to himself.

"Seeing as bandaids haven't been invented that can cover this, you'll have to wrap it in gauze." Keith said, grabbing a roll from under the sink. Shiro and Keith always had gauze. Keith got injured. A lot.

"Yeah, thanks." Lance said, taking the roll from his hand. Keith just nodded and left the bathroom to let Lance wrap his arm.

He walked downstairs and just looked at Shiro in awe. "The dumbass cut his arm open and didn't even notice."