Rivals (Klance)

Chapter 19

The next morning was groggy. Keith and Lance had gotten even less sleep than normal, due to them being out so late on top of Lance's nightmares.

"I told you." Shiro said, sounding slightly smug but also worried as the two boys dragged themselves into the kitchen.

"Worth it though." Lance said while dropping his head onto the counter. "Not everyday you get yourself an edgy, emo boyfriend."

"Awe babe, you think I'm edgy?" Keith said, going along with the banter.

"Sh, it's to early for your voice." Lance said, flicking a hand in his direction.

Keith put a hand on his heart. "Wow, I can really feel the love." He said, just a tad bit salty.

Picking up on Keith's feelings of neglect, Lance lazily reached over and grabbed Keith's hand. "Better?" He asked, sounding like he was about to fall asleep any second.

"Much." Keith said, gently squeezing Lance's hand, his eyebrows knit in concern.

Last night had been rough. Sure, Lance had passed out almost as soon as they crawled into bed, but his nightmare of the night seemed worse than usual. He was almost inconsolable after the fact. When he did calm down, Keith tried to ask what was so bad about his dream that night, but Lance would answer.

"So you two are actually dating now?" Shiro asked, placing a plate of pancakes in front of each of them.

"Mhm." Lance responded, picking his head up at the sound of the plates hitting the counter. His eyes were shining at the sight of food.

Shiro sent Lance a worried look, then switched it to Keith, which confused him. "What's wrong?" Keith asked him.

Lance looked up, catching Shiro's mood. "Why're you- Oh, yeah." He said, looking away as he quickly remembered something.

Keith looked back and forth between them, still lost. "Someone want to fill me in or?..." He trailed off.

"How are you even friends with them? With the whole, Adam thing going on?" Lance asked, ignoring his own boyfriend.

Shiro crossed his arms and leaned back against the opposite counter with a sigh. "We really aren't very good friends. We've talked a few times and the only reason you got shipped here for two weeks, was in hopes that you two would finally get along, but I don't think this is what they had in mind." He explained.

"They don't know about Adam, huh?" Lance asked, sounding slightly bitter about it.

"Yeah, not a clue." Shiro admitted.

"You know, they never would have let me stay if they had known." He said, resting his head on his free hand, looking off still.

"Okay, still confused." Keith said, wanting to know what the hell his brother and boyfriend were talking about.

"My parents are homophobic, Keith." Lance said, glaring down at his breakfast, suddenly not hungry anymore.

"Oh. Oh. Um-" He wasn't sure how to respond to that. Homophobia wasn't something he really had to deal with, seeing as he was basically raised by two gay guys. He might have had to deal with it at school every now and then, but it was a completely different scenario when it was your parents.

"Yeah, oh." Lance confirmed. He was absently poking the pancakes in front of him with his fork.

"Guess we'll just have to get good at hiding it until you turn eighteen." Keith said with a shrug, not really being bothered that they would have to hide their relationship for Lance's sake.