When Two Worlds Collide

Chapter 7

Keith was shocked at this. No one ever since his dad and Shiro had ever cared enough about him to do something nice like that for him. It made Keith's stomach flutter, though he didn't know if that was because of the nausea or the fact that he was kind of secretly in love with Lance. Ever since he had laid eyes on the Cuban when he first met him in the Garrison he was a goner. Though for the longest time he didn't know his name, and he was too shy, and scared to go up to him and ask. So he just kept everything to himself and just watched what happened from afar. He always thought that Lance would never return his feelings, and had accepted that fact long before he got the boot from the Garrison when Shiro vanished. And his thoughts were recemented when they got to space and all that Lance seemed to want to do with him was start a fight. So he just gave up and resigned himself to dying old and alone, and locked up his feelings for him so that he wouldn't have to deal with it. Though that didn't last long when they first encountered the Garla.

When Sendak and his men had invaded the Castle when they were still docked on Arus, the can of worms was reopened. He really thought that not only was he going to lose his brother again, he was going to lose Lance as well. Seeing Lance so beat up, and cradling him in his arms, it was more than just any platonic bonding moment. The whole time that Lance had ended up spending in the pods Keith felt like he couldn't breathe. He ended up having one of the worst panic attacks that he had in years. Shiro, who he himself had just come out of his own pod at the time (He was injured, nowhere near as bad as Lance but Keith made him go in anyway to be on the safe side) was able to calm him down fairly quick. But that still didn't make the heaviness in his chest go away until Lance finally emerged from the pod almost a week later. And his heart got stomped on all over again when Lance had said that he didn't remember their quote, unquote "bonding moment" and even wrote him off whenever he tried to bring it up to him. And from then on, he just decided to keep his distance from Lance and just let himself be Lance while he would be Keith, nothing more, nothing less. It was killing him inside.

But now, as he was sitting here on Lance's bed, listening as Lance was explaining something t+nice that he did for him, it took his breath away, just a little bit. "You did all of that for me?" Keith asked him. Lance paused for a moment and nodded his head in agreement. "Thank you." Keith whispered. "Hey, it was no problem man, I did because we're friends." And also because of the fact that Lance was in love with Keith, and Keith was hopelessly in with Lance went unmentioned for both parties. But, whatever, if they confessed now then it would kind of mess up with the plot of this wouldn't it? Well anyway, don't worry about that now.

The two of them sat on Lance's bed in an awkward silence for a while. Both of them were guilty of trying to sneak glances at the other and move their gaze to something else in the room whenever they got caught staring. The tension in the room between them was so thick that you could probably cut it with a knife. It was a wonder that the two of them didn't realize what it was and do something about it. But both of them were too scared to make any sort of move since they were afraid about how the other one would react.

Thankfully, Lance ended up being the one to break the silence between the two of them. Though what he had to say was definitely something that Keith didn't want to talk about. "So,... um.. Keith I have a question for you.." Lance said. Keith looked up at him, and Lance could have sworn that his eyes were shimmering in the light. "What is it?" Keith asked him. Lance took a good few minutes to prepare himself to ask something that seems very personal to Keith, and to be ready when Keith flipped out and started to drop kick him all over the room. "OK, now, when I ask you this, you have to promise me that you won't get mad and go off alright?" Lance asked him. He could see that Keith was taking a couple of minutes to ponder what he was saying and if he was going to agree to it. Surprisingly, Keith agreed fairly quickly, which kind of made Lance's head spin just a bit. "Shoot." Keith said when Lance hadn't said anything. "UH,.. Alright then, why are there so many scars on your body, mainly your arms, wrist and thighs?" Lance asked him. And that was when all Hell broke loose, for the first time.

Keith sat there completely stunned. Lance knew? Of course he knew, he said that he cleaned him up when he got sick. Keith looked down at the clothes that he was wearing and realized that they weren't his, they were Lance's. The thought that Lance had seen him without clothes on, made his stomach turn, and his heart started to beat faster. And there was probably a redness to his cheeks also. He was so embarrassed, and ashamed. He had broken one of his many promises that he had made to Shiro, and in trying to hide it he got caught. Keith lifted his gaze back up to where Lance was. He was still sitting there across from him on the bed, waiting. He really wanted Keith to come clean, and spill his guts about all of this so that he can probably make fun of him for it. Well, Keith won't give him that satisfaction. He wouldn't let Lance make fun of him for his issues anymore.

"What are you talking about?" Keith asked him. He deicded to play dumb and to see how much he actually knew before he got mad. Lance didn't seem to be impressed with him avoiding the question. "What am I talking about?" Lance asked him. Keith mutely nodded his head. "I'm talking about all of the scars that are littered across your body that I saw when I changed you out of your puke covered clothes." Keith could tell that Lance was getting pissed at him. And that was when he realized that he didn't want to be here and having this conversation with him. So he pushed back the covers and moved to stand up. "What are you doing?" Lance asked as he saw Keith try and get up. "I'm leaving." Keith bit out. Lance scoffed. "Of course, as soon as you hear something that you don't like or a topic that you don't want to talk about you run away, typical Keith."

That really made Keith mad. He spun around to face Lance and the look that he gave him was deadly. "Look, you want to know the reason that I'm walking away so bad?" Keith asked him harshly. "Yes, I would like to know." Lance answered him. "Fine, then I'll tell you." Keith gritted out. "I'm leaving because I know that if I stay any longer, I am going to completely break down, and I know that if I have it here in front of you then it's going to be even worse than normal." Keith confessed. "So excuse me for worrying about my own mental health for once." Lance sat on the edge of his bed completely shocked. He honestly didn't really think that Keith would tell him anything that personal. He just thought that Keith would get all prissy, storm out and leave. He didn't expect this at all.

The two of them just existed there in Lance's room for a bit. Lance was sitting on his bed, while Keith was standing in the middle of the room looking very lost and out of place. Lance couldn't take it anymore. Him and Keith were just starting to become friends, he couldn't let this ruin them now. "Keith, come here, please." Lance pleaded with him. He held out his hand showing that he meant no harm whatsoever. Keith stood there and looked at him for a moment. More than likely he was trying to gauge if Lance was telling him the truth or not. He took a chance though and reached out to grab Lance's hand. This was a sign of good things to come in Lance's book. But if only he knew how much more hardships that he would have to go through before he could get his happy ending.