Rivals (Klance)

Chapter 15

"That's... not even close to being right." Keith said slowly as he looked over the chemistry assignment Lance had just finished.

"What?! But I did it exactly how she showed it in class!" Lance said with a groan as he let his head hit the counter top.

It was Friday night and Keith was trying, and failing, to help Lance understand the newest chemistry worksheet they got. Lance had stayed home on Thursday to, finally going back that day, only to be overwhelmed with how far behind he was. Keith had given him homework and tired to help him with it, but he wasn't the most patient person and he wasn't a great teacher.

"No, you didn't." Keith said, pointing to all the incorrect work on his page. "You added when you needed to multiply. Don't worry, it was just a math error."

Lance let out a breath of relief. "Thank god." He mumbled. He had thought he was starting to understand it, and if he really hadn't, he would have been crushed.

He quickly went back through the assignment and fixed all of his little mistakes. "Sweet, that means I'm all caught up!" He cheered while happily shutting his book and placing it back into his bag.

"Mhm," Keith said while checking the new notification on his phone. It was a text from Shiro, which caused Keith to frown. " Shiro and Adam are having a date night, so we're on our own for food." He explained, dread creeping into his voice. He could cook, sure, that didn't mean he wanted to.

"I take it you have no desire to cook?" Lance asked, noticing his tone and mood shift.

"Not in the slightest." Keith said with a nod, cleaning up the counter from his own homework materials.

"We could just go get food." Lance suggested seeing as he couldn't cook.

Keith shrugged in response, "Beats cooking I guess." He said, grabbing his sweatshirt off the couch as he made his way to the front door, Lance on his heels.

"Where are we going?" Lance asked as they headed out to Keith's jeep. Keith stilled his movements at the question. "You have no clue, do you?" Lance's voice was full of amusement as he watched Keith try and come up with an answer.

"How about that one café that's like three blocks from here?" Keith suggested, resuming his journey to the car.

"Yeah, that works for me." Lance said, completely forgetting that one of the people he was currently avoiding worked there with their older brother.

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"Howdy fucker." Pidge said with a smirk as they walked up to the table Keith and Lance had sat at.

Lance immediately slammed his head on the table. "I forgot you worked here." He said, knowing he would never here the end of it from his short friend.

"You ignore everyone all day and then show up at my place of work, I knew you missed me Lance." Pidge teased, pulling out a note pad so they could get Lance and Keith's orders.

"I wasn't ignoring you guys, I was just... avoiding you." Lance tried to defend.

Pidge snorted at his response. "Bs. Now what'd you two want?" They asked. They weren't mad at Lance or anything. Allura had fully exposed him on Wednesday and they couldn't blame him for not wanting to interact with any of them. He was probably scared and Pidge actually felt a little bit sorry for him.

After getting the two boy's orders, they went back to the kitchen and Keith and Lance were left alone. "So you're avoiding everyone, huh?" Keith started, needing something to start a conversation.

Lance set his head on the palm of his hand as his arm was propped up on the table. "Can you really blame me? I know that the second I talk to any of them, they'll try to bring it up and ask me a million questions. I just don't want to deal with it." He explained, glance over at where Pidge had disappeared to before directing his eyes back to Keith.

"Well you just talked to Pidge and she-" Keith was promptly cut off.

"They." Lance interjected offhandedly.

Keith's face scrunched up in confusion. "Huh?"

"Pidge is nonbinary. They them pronouns." Lance explained. Keith wasn't really close in their friend group, so it wasn't a surprise he didn't know.

"Oh, well shit. I've definitely called them a girl for like, ever." He said, thinking back to every time he accidently misgendered them.

"It's all good, they don't mind that much, especially if you didn't know. But for future reference," He said with a shrug.

"Noted." Keith said with a nod. "Anyways, they didn't bring it up, at least the part you're worried about. They're all your friends Lance, I don't think they'd do anything that would make you feel uncomfortable or attacked. Except Allura I guess, but I'm sure she probably feels like shit by now." He said, feeling bad for Lance, but not having it in him to care how Allura felt.

"Yeah, you're probably right, but I've kind of committed now." Lance joked, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere that had suddenly fallen on them when this topic came up.

"Lance, you could barely commit to an ice cream flavor." Keith said with a teasing eye roll.

"It's a completely different scenario!" Lance argued. He was just glad they were back to normal conversation. Or at least their new normal. Light banter.

"It's just a good example of your commitment issues." Keith responded, equally glad that they were back to joking around.

"I do not have commitment issues, those are for kids with divorced parents." Lance shot back.

"Jesus Lance." Keith said, laughter escaping him since he was so caught off guard by the mildly offensive joke.

"Just Lance works." He said with a cheeky grin.

Keith sobered up and shot him a glare. "Are we seriously back to this?" He asked.

"Of course we are." He said back innocently.

"Here you two love birds go." Pidge said, showing up out of nowhere with their food and then running off before they could yell at them for their little comment.

They fell into an uncomfortable silence as they ate. Pidge's words had made them both start to think through their new found 'friendship'.

Lance was lost in thoughts about how Keith seemed to be adamant about taking care of him, making sure he eats, sleeps, and helping with homework. It was... charming and Lance couldn't deny that. It didn't help that the boy was attractive to boot.

Keith was thinking about all of his memories that pertained to the tall boy sitting in front of him, the good and the bad. There were multiple that had to do with practical jokes gone to far, but those had a way of making Keith smile. Then the more recent ones, detention and everything that followed after, that made him rethink every decision he had ever made in his life. He had let his rival waltz into his life and completely turn it upside down.

It had been a confusing week for both boys, and they still had another one to go.