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It comes from
the other side
.
Slow and shapeless but it shifts as soon as blue eyes settles down on his own. Beautiful stands short to describe the man in front of him; dark tanned skin, bright deep blue eyes, vivid purple bangs on each side of his face, faintly touching the golden glitter on the edge of his eyes.
Keith blinks once and then he’s gone.
“Who’s that?” Keith whispers, smacking his lips together, suddenly aware of how dry his mouth feels.
His top hat hangs loosely on his fingers as he watches the show below them, his dark eyes following the shape of the man from a second ago as he lets go of the trapeze bar and allows himself to fall only for his partner to catch him effortlessly in mid-air, her lean dark arms being stronger than they look.
“That’s Lance and Nyma; best trapeze masters you will ever get the chance to meet.” Shiro says proudly behind him. The older man steps forward, squeezing his shoulder and pulling him back to backstage, away from the show. “Now come, we have a lot of things to do.”
Keith follows quietly, stealing one last looking behind him to catch a glimpse of Lance’s flying.
His breath isn’t stolen, it’s
given
.
He gets a chance.
“Ah, Nyma, Lance! Just who I wanted to see!” Shiro cheers, grin wide and excited because of the developments of the night, “I wanted to introduce you to our newest member; Keith Kogane.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Nyma says kindly, pushing her blonde hair back as she pants, chest still heaving slightly with adrenaline.
Keith nods back at her, straightening his vest as Shiro finally let’s go of him. “Yes, ah, pleasure.”
His eyes are quick to fall on Lance’s just as the brunet is quick to look away.
“And what is your act, Mr. Kogane?” Lance asks casually, a silent challenge hidden on the back of his tone as he looks over his bandages carefully, slowly untangling them before looking up at Keith with an arched eyebrow.
“I, I don’t have an act.” Keith replies slowly, voice faint and he feels the way his entire face heats up at Lance’s amused smirk.
“Everybody’s got an act.” Lance says confidently, the amusement lingering on the edge of his lips as he walks by. Keith follows him with his eyes until his silhouette is lost among the crowd and then he sighs in awe.
“Careful there, Mr. Kogane.” Nyma says slowly, bringing him back to the present. She hugs her middle as she presses her palm against her cheek and she stares down at Keith with her unique violet eyes, “Lance might be the bark, but I’m the bite.”
There’s a threat in Nyma’s voice, clear and loud for everyone to hear and Keith doesn’t dare to miss it.
Luxia’s singing holds the entire theater’s breathe but Lance holds his.
Keith stands tall and straight on his spot, surrounded by the peculiar people he has grown to respect, and then he shifts, swallowing the lump in his throat as Lance stands next to him, neither of their eyes looking away from the stage but not really watching.
Keith sneaks a glance, catching the glimpse of Lance’s face. His fingers rub against each other anxiously, heart
beating unnaturally so as his hand twitches.
“Take my hand, would you share this with me.”
He reaches out, his cold pale skin touching a tanned warm one, and he sees the way Lance’s breathe hitches. Keith waits and then Lance seals their hands, a silent confession made for the both of them.
It’s warm, strong, comforting.
It’s
home
.
“‘Cause darling, without you…”
There’s a bubble of excitement inside Keith, pulsing hard against his chest and he recognizes it as the one he got the first time he saw Shiro’s show. The first time he saw Lance.
Keith holds tight to the feeling and he smiles, teeth biting down his lower lip to dim the grin that threatens to sneak its way to his face.
He makes the mistake to look away from the stage and meet a stranger’s eye.
Disgust is clear in their eyes, in the way they scrunch their nose and how they scowl in disapproval. His stomach sink and old shouts from the past ring inside his head; bastard, mistake,
unloved
.
Keith pulls away before he acknowledges his own actions.
“Never be enough.”
He swallows in shame when Lance lets a shuddering breath quietly and then turns and leaves without a word, Luxia’s singing left behind along with Keith.
“For me.”
His hand turns cold.
Keith watches from above.
There’s passion on every move and word that is sung. There’s life, determination and a feeling that drives them further up, pushing them forward at every verse but Keith’s eyes are on Lance only and he sees what’s inside him.
“I’m not scared to be seen.”
There’s a fire surrounding Lance’s sea.
“I make no apologies.”
Then Lance’s eyes locks with his own, feet stomping hard against the ground below him, surrounded by his family of everything but blood and speaks clear and loud enough for Keith and himself.
“This is me.”
Keith doesn’t look away, he owes Lance that much.
Keith gets his head out of his ass and fixes his mistake.
“You think you’re
so
smart, huh, Uptown?” Lance says, eyebrow arched in challenge at the held out tickets
in front of him but his eyes dance with mischievousness. It calms Keith’s hurricane inside him.
“I like to believe so, Monkey.” Keith smirks, adding a playful wink at the end and chuckling when Lance snorts at his tactics. “Come on, the play’s about to start.”
It’s a date, an official date. No hiding, no secrets between them and their feelings are real and known. It really can’t get better than this.
Keith should have known better.
Less than ten minutes inside the lobby before he’s calling out Lance’s name as the brunet steps out and leaves the theater. Keith burns with anger and snaps at his old colleagues, sharp words hitting harder than any punch could.
“May God save you if I ever,
ever
, hear you speak to him like that again.” Keith growls, face a breath away from them before he steps back and chases after Lance.
It’s not hard to find him.
“Can’t stay away from the sky, huh?”
Lance snorts, rolling his eyes as he wraps his hands with worn out bandages. “More like from the ceiling. It’s still a long way ‘til the sky.”
Keith hums, hands shoved inside his pants’ pockets as he walks towards the brunet on the stands. “If there’s anyone who could achieve that, it’s you.”
Lance sighs, tired and exasperated as he lifts his head and meets Keith’s earnest eyes. “What do you
want
,
Keith?”
“Not what.” Keith says softly, taking a seat next to Lance, trying to catch once again his eye when the brunet looks away, “I want
you
, Lance.”
Lance closes his eyes, squeezing them tight before he seals roughly his bandages and stands up. “Keep it to yourself, Keith.”
“You
know
I want you.” Keith exclaims, eyebrow furrowed as he sees Lance’s figure walking further away from
him, “It’s not like I have been hiding it, Lance.”
Lance slows down, pausing to untangle the rope against the pillar before he shakes his head. “Just go home.”
But he is home. “I know you want me too. Stop saying we don’t get a say in this because we do.”
“We don’t, Keith!” Lance says sharply in between, his grip around the rope turning white as he moves towards the middle of the stage, “It’s in the stars. There’s nothing we can do so just give
up already
.”
“Stars?” Keith echoes softly, tilting his head to the side, eyes narrowed.
Lance nods, sighing sadly as he brings down the trapeze ring from the ceiling and sits on it tiredly. “Not meant to be. Fate made its choice, way before we even came to be.”
Keith stays silent, eyebrows furrowed together in confusion before he hums and steps forward, crouching down until he catches Lance’s eyes with his own.
“Then we rewrite them.” He says firmly, eyes vivid and fierce as they stare down at the brunet.
Lance blinks. “Rewrite the stars?” He echoes dumbly and snorts when Keith nods confidently, “That’s not possible.”
“I say it’s possible.” Keith says eagerly, “Who’s fate to stop me if
I decide
that you’re my destiny?”
Lance furrows his eyebrows in bewilderment, mouth open in surprise but something in his eyes lights up. Keith
grins and leans closer, hands grasping the top of the ring.
“What if we rewrite the stars and say you were made to be mine?” Keith whispers quietly, heart hammering against his chest when Lance’s breath hits his lips, “Nothing, and I mean
nothing
could keep us apart. You know why?”
“Why?” Lance whispers softly, eyes falling from Keith’s eyes to his lips in a split of a second. It sends his heart to
race.
“‘Cause you’d be one I was meant to find.”
Keith says before yelping when Lance’s sighs and falls back, hands and knees hooked on the ring as it goes up, leaving Keith on the ground. “The world could be
ours
, Lance!”
“You think it’s so easy, Keith.” Lance chuckles humorlessly, legs spread down far from him as he brings himself down and stops mid-air, hooking his legs around the edge of the ring before he falls and ends up upside down. “I know it looks that way within these walls, but you gotta wake up and see the world outside. Then you will understand that it is hopeless.”
“We don’t need anyone’s approval.” Keith mumbles softly, neck stretching up to meet Lance in the middle when the brunet brings himself down. “No one can say what we get to be.”
Keith swallows heavily, staring right at Lance’s eyes from his place on the ground. Lance’s lips twitches, hand reaching out to touch Keith’s face before it backs out and pulls at the ring, taking him
back up to the ceiling.
“The world doesn’t work that way, Uptown.” Lance says sadly, hands tracing the curve of the ring as he moves, “There are mountains and doors we can’t walk through; it’s just reality.”
“Reality is overrated.”
Lance snorts, shaking his head tiredly as finally disposes of the ring and holds tight the rope above, swinging himself towards the other side of the room and walking on the second floor’s rail. “Might be but it doesn’t change a thing.”
Keith frowns and doesn’t answer, lips pursed in determination as Lance continues to fly above him and Keith maps it out in his head, carefully following Lance’s pattern with his eyes before he nods and runs towards the nearest wall, climbing up fast.
“What are you
doing
?” Lance shouts, eyes blown wide at the sight of Keith climbing over the pillars.
Keith shrugs innocently, a smirk in place as he grabs on the edge of the second floor’s rail on the other side of the stage. “Rewriting the stars.” He says easily, eyes moving along with Lance’s figure until it’s close enough from him and then he jumps.
“
Keith!
” Lance gasps, arm wrapping itself around Keith’s waist immediately as he pulls the man closer to his body.
There’s a warm chuckle against his neck and Lance pulls his face away, blue eyes widen with shock as Keith’s own shine with mischievousness.
Lance blinks owlishly before he smiles, relief filling his heart.
“And you call
me
‘monkey’.” Lance mumbles, warmth spreading through his chest when Keith laughs and nuzzles his forehead against his own. Lance sighs, enjoying the touch as he closes his
eyes and swings them both in the air.
“Is it possible?” Lance whispers then, hesitant to hope.
Keith nods. “It’s up to you and me.
No one
else.”
Lance beams, bright and happy before he smirks and pulls at the rope, bringing them further up. “You and me, taking the world to be
ours
?”
Keith laughs, arms around Lance’s neck as he holds tight and trusts Lance blindly. “Tonight! And the next one and all of them to come!”
“You’re crazy!”
“Comes with the job!” Keith shouts, adrenaline filling his veins as they keep swinging across the stage. Lance laughs softly, carefully pulling at the rope once last time to bring them down before they safely land on the ground.
Keith stays quiet and waits, for Lance to seal the deal one more time. For Lance to reach out and grab his hand. The spark in Lance’s eyes when their eyes meet gives him hope.
Deep blue eyes say
‘I want you’
, openly and fearless.
“I’m sorry, Keith.” Lance whispers instead, words barely a breath away from his lips and sending a shiver down his spine, spark dimming and laughter ceasing.
Lance hand hovers shakily against his cheek, aching to touch and feel, before a small sigh leaves his lips and then it falls limply against his side.
Keith’s not quick enough to catch it and that costs him to stand alone under the spotlight.
Lance’s heart races when he sees his entire family outside and safe from the raging fire inside the only place he
has dared to call home.
It quickly exits his body when he doesn’t see Keith among them.
“Lance!” Nyma shouts, throwing herself at her partner and holding him tight, “Oh my god! You’re okay! Lance!
Keith went - !
”
“
Keith!
” Shiro shouts and Lance’s attention quickly falling on him as the older man starts taking off his coat, screaming his own partner’s name, “
Keith!
”
Lance follows his gaze and a hollow feeling falls deep into his stomach when only fire surrounds his vision.
“What?” Lance whispers quietly, pulling hard against Nyma’s grip, “No, no, he wouldn’t – Nyma!
Nyma
, where’s Keith?”
Nyma whimpers, arms wrapping around his chest from behind when Lance starts to struggle. “We couldn’t stop him; he went inside looking for you and we couldn’t - we....” She chokes up wetly, hiding
her face in his dirty hair, “I’m so sorry.”
“Shiro, don’t!” Allura screams then, pulling their attention back to the scene and it’s barely a blink before Shiro’s silhouette disappears behind the flames. It’s barely a blink before the entire ceiling falls down and Lance feels himself fall to the ground along with it.
“Please, no.” Lance whispers brokenly as he stares at the flames in front of him, “Please,
don’t
-”
It’s a lifetime before a shapeless shadow appears at the entrance and Lance sobs out when he catches Keith’s body hanging limply on Shiro’s arms as the older man takes them both to safety.
Shiro’s barking orders, pulling close his own family as he makes sure the volunteers check on Keith properly, quickly pulling him into a stretcher but Lance’s ears hear nothing.
The world’s on mute as he stares at Keith’s dirty face, red angry burns on the edge of his jaw and right side of his eye.
Lance’s just a few feet away; he could just reach out, push away the dark patches of smoke that glue themselves into Keith’s pale skin that hides underneath it all and they could pretend that they are within their walls again, just the two of them and Keith would open his eyes, the stars that once needed to be rewritten already done so in them.
The chance is stolen from him as Keith’s taken away and the noise comes back to Lance like a punch in his gut.
The broken pieces left behind of the building lay at their feet, and with a heavy regretful heart, Lance realizes that the building itself wasn’t home.
His home is the man who now lies between two worlds once again, repeating their beginnings all over again and Lance makes a choice right there and then.
He’s not doing the same mistake twice.
The stares do nothing to him and Lance finds himself surprised at how powerful the fear of losing someone you love makes you feel strong enough to push aside all that once brought you down.
He sits at the edge of the bed, taking in the sight of Keith. White bandages wrapped around his head, neck and arms, small patches of red and brown spread through them. Breathing shallow and slow, enough to make him stay among the living but sounding fragile enough to take him away without warning.
Lance lets out a shaky sigh, his lip caught between his teeth as he slowly reaches out and holds Keith’s unresponsive hand. The lack of reaction makes him sniff wetly, but the warmth and steady beat that proves eases his heart.
He loses track of the time; sun setting down, moon rising up and then the sun’s comes back out. Lance hardly notices.
He focuses on Keith only and that wins him the chance to witness what once had been called impossible.
It’s faint. So faint that Lance almost missed it, but then it comes again and again. Keith’s thumb rubs Lance’s smooth skin almost shyly, testing the water with a strong beating heart and Lance wants to break down in relived tears at the hesitation in the Keith’s half lidded eyes.
He brushes Keith’s uneasy hesitation away with a gentle squeeze from their intertwined hands before he leans down and drops his chin on top of them, sneaking a quick kiss there with a watery smile.
Keith gasps softly, voice hoarse and dry but the mere whisper of his name falling from the mouth of the man he loves is enough for Lance to know it’s mutual.
No more words are needed and Lance throws away any hesitation from the past to cup Keith’s face with his free hand and kisses him slowly.
Lance melts against the warmth and gentle touch of Keith’s bandaged hand stroking the side of his face, as if he was something precious he has ached for a long time.
And maybe he was. They both were.
“We will come back home.”
Lance chokes out quietly when they pull apart, bringing their hands up
until it rest against is chest, right above his beating heart. “Home again, I promise.”
“We
are
home.” Keith mumbles, his lip twitching upward when Lance beams and nuzzles his forehead tenderly.
“Yeah, guess we are,
amor
.”
Passion stands short to describe the show.
There’s life and emotions on every word and dance move. Cheers and music blend together behind him and Keith takes a deep breath as Shiro drops his top showman hat on his hands, a proud grin and brotherly squeeze on the shoulder giving him the right push to step outside and join the stage.
It’s a feeling like no other, being part of a family and performing together as one. Moving effortlessly with each other as they climb higher and higher to the top and Keith stands right next to them all.
A hands sneaks its way to his own and Keith beams brightly as the sight of Lance next to him, smile matching his own before he laughs when Keith twirls him playful, bringing him closer until they are chest to chest.
“Look at that, the impossible came through.” Keith whispers quietly beneath the commotion and then yelps when Lance dips him down, face a breath away from his own.
“It
is
the greatest show after all.” Lance hums softly before he smiles warmly down at Keith and locks their lips gently in front of thousands of eyes.
There’s no hesitation left in them.