Work Text
The last thing Keith was looking for when he walked into class that day was trouble. It was the first day of senior year at the Garrison, and for once in his life he was actually trying to avoid starting any fights.The room was identical to every other classroom in the school: the teacher’s desk at the front with an electronic whiteboard behind it, six rows of evenly spaced desks with screens built into them, the wall separating the classroom from the hallway with built-in windows, and the wall on the outside of the building made entirely of glass.Keith didn’t really take in the people. He didn’t have to; they were the same faces that he had seen for the past three years. It also wasn’t like he had anyone in particular to look for. Keith didn’t really have friends. He had enough of a reputation of beating up people who crossed him that most students just stayed out of his way. To be completely honest, Shiro was really the only person he cared about, which was fine with him. He didn’t need anyone else.At least, that was before Shiro had left for the Kerberos mission.Keith had understood that he had to leave. After all, that was Shiro’s job. That’s what he’d been training to do. He just didn’t predict how much he’d miss him.
“Make me a promise,” Shiro said.
Keith gave him a look, arms crossed over his chest. They stood a few hundred yards away from the spaceship they would take on the Kerberos Mission. Shiro was already suited up and stood with his helmet under one arm.
“You know I’ve never been good at keeping promises,” Keith said.
Shiro gave him a knowing smile and put his free hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Of course I know that. But this is important to me, okay? Just stay out of trouble while I’m gone, alright? I don’t need to come back and hear they kicked you out of the Garrison for punching Iverson in the face or something else equally stupid.”
Keith made an indignant noise.
“Don’t even try to defend yourself, Keith. We both know you’d deck him if you got the chance.” Keith expected Shiro to look angry or at least stern, but when he looked up at his brother, he was fighting to keep a smile off of his face.
Keith’s own face split into a grin. “I’ll try my best.” Shiro punched his shoulder playfully. “You’d better, because the only person who’s ever been willing to defend you is going to be on the edge of the Solar System.”
Keith found his smile faltering. “Alright, so I promise to stay out of trouble, but you’ve gotta make me a promise too.”
“Anything for my little bro,” Shiro responded, voice still playful.
“Just… come back, okay? Come back home.” Keith’s voice broke a little and Shiro set down his helmet to hug him tightly.
“Of course I’m coming back, Keith. I’m not leaving you alone.” Although he didn’t say anything else, Keith knew what he was thinking: I’m not leaving you alone. Not like your parents.
Sam Holt walked up behind Shiro after a minute, putting a hand on his shoulder and clearing his throat lightly. “Alright, son, it’s time.”
Shiro pulled away, picking up his helmet before ruffling Keith’s hair a little. “Remember your promise.”
Keith pushed his hand away without malice. “Remember yours.”
He watched the three men walk away against the backdrop of the setting sun. There was a woman and a girl, both with the same ginger hair as Sam and Matt Holt, standing a few feet away from him. Even if he had been a social person, he wouldn’t have approached them. They needed time to process this as much as he did.
They stayed there long after the crew had moved out of sight. They stayed as the sun set lower, the sky turning from a bright yellow to a burnt orange. They stayed until someone working there escorted them to a safer distance for the liftoff. They watched the ship launch into the sky, leaving a trail in its wake as it left the Earth behind. They stayed until the trail of smoke, the only real knowledge of them having been there at all, was gone.
Keith tore his eyes away from the window, the vast expanse of orange land and yellow sky reminding him too much of the day Shiro left. Instead he focused on maneuvering past the students who had already chosen their seats for the semester, squeezing past the groups of friends talking about whatever gossip was the most important that day, and making his way to the seat in the last row directly beside the window.Sitting down, he scanned the rest of the room. Most students chose to sit in the middle of the class — not standing out as the eager kids who sat in the front or the slackers who stuck to the back. There was one kid in the seat on the other side of the last row, closest to the hallway, but besides that he had the row to himself. That was fine with Keith. He planned on keeping the promise he made to Shiro, and sitting in the far corner of the back row sent a pretty clear message that he didn’t want to interact with anyone. Add to that his propensity for breaking people’s noses if they messed with him and he figured no one would be stupid enough to go near him.Turns out he was wrong.Keith tuned out the noise of students around him as the classroom began to fill, choosing instead to have a staring contest with the gecko outside of the window. Besides, there wasn't anything better to do. He didn't have anyone to talk to and probably would have just scared off anyone brave enough to approach him. The little moss green guy seemed as good company as anyone else, and it didn't run away when they made eye contact. It just stared at him from his perch on a rock outside, and he stared back. Time ticked by. The gecko’s eyes were just on the verge of closing, and Keith could taste his oncoming victory, when he noticed the room go silent. Glaring at the lizard in a silent ‘you win this time’ way, he turned his attention back to the class.At first he didn’t pick up on what had made everyone go quiet. Most of the seats were filled, and the teacher hadn’t arrived yet, so some students were still trickling in. It wasn’t until he looked at the figure standing in the doorway that he understood.Lance McClain.Lance fucking McClain.Keith’s reputation may have been bad, but it was nowhere near the level of Lance’s. If both their reputations were boats, his would have been a mere lifeboat to Lance’s Titanic. Keith’s bad habits kept people away from him. Lance’s drew people in.See, Keith had the habit of beating the shit out of other people. Lance had the habit of sleeping with anyone who so much as looked at him the right way.Keith was thankful he’d never had a class with the guy before, so it had been easy enough to avoid him. It wasn’t necessarily that Lance was a bad person. Hell, he doubted if anyone knew enough about Lance to say if he was a good guy. But Keith had always heard that Lance’s reputation had a way of dragging you down with it. Again, the Titanic reference comes to mind. Lance is the fucking iceberg. If you steer clear, you may make it through okay. Keith didn’t even know what you’d have to do to be considered an… associate of Lance’s, but he wasn’t intending to find out.It wasn’t like he was trying to protect his reputation or anything; at this point it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t give a shit what people think about him. But he promised Shiro to stay out of trouble. And if he knew anything about Lance McClain, that boy had trouble written all over him.Anyone could tell he was trouble just by looking at him. He had this… glint in those annoyingly blue eyes of his. Like, seriously, is it even possible to have eyes that blue? Then there was that maddening, cocky smirk of his. He’d flash that ‘I’m hot and I know that you know it’ look at girls, shoot finger guns in their direction, and walk away laughing at their expressions, usually ranging from flustered to annoyed to nonplussed. If he caught any guys staring at him, he’d give them a little two-fingered salute, smirking the whole time.Keith hated the guy.He hated Lance’s eyes, and his stupid smirk, and his childish, unabashed flirting. He hated hearing about his latest exploits, or who he was seen with, or frankly hearing his name at all. All it brought into Keith's mind was him strutting down the halls, hips sashaying and long legs eating up the tiled floor, hands in his pockets, looking for all the world like he owned the place.Okay, so maybe he didn't know Lance well enough to hate him. He'd never actually interacted with the guy, but that didn't mean Keith couldn't hate the idea of him. Everything he'd heard about Lance added up to create the image of someone he knew he wouldn't like. He didn't need to talk to him to figure out that they wouldn't get along.Unfortunately, Keith wasn't going to get through senior year without talking to Lance McClain. He wasn't even going to get through first period.Because as he took in the boy standing in the doorway, scanning the empty seats, Lance was on the move. Not all of the seats were taken — there were some scattered throughout the room, most of them single seats because the kids with friends had mostly gotten there early to make sure that they'd be together — and he figured out where Lance was heading a second after he'd begun to move.Lance McClain, one of the biggest sources of gossip in the Galaxy Garrison, was about to chose his seat for the rest of the semester, and it just so happened to be at the desk directly beside Keith.Everyone in the class had their eyes glued to Lance as he made his way to the back of the room. Keith, in some nightmare-esque irony, froze, unable to move.Maybe if he’d put his backpack on the seat to his right, Lance would have just picked another spot. If he’d sent the other boy a strong enough glare, maybe he would have backed off. But all Keith could seem to do was sit there, watching Lance like everyone else. It was like time slowed down as he glanced between the boy in the blue-and-white baseball tee and the seat beside him. He could hear people talking in the background, but he couldn’t discern any of their words. Keith was seriously feeling like he was in the middle of a nightmare, just stuck watching everything going on around him. It had to be a nightmare, right? Time only slowed down like that when something terrible was about to happen — car accidents, falling and breaking bones, finding out someone you love is hurt.He would know. He still remembered getting the news that his dad wasn't coming back from work.Just like in any of those situations, he knew what was coming, but there was nothing he could do about it. Lance seemed to be making his way over in slow motion. He strutted across the room so he was standing on the far side of the desk. And then Keith blinked. When he opened his eyes again, time was back to normal, and Lance McClain was sitting right beside him.The whole scene of Lance coming over and sitting at the desk couldn’t have taken more than thirty seconds. It took Keith at least that long after he sat down to remember how to form a coherent sentence.“What are you doing?” Keith hissed when he found his voice, leaning over slightly to be heard, but not too far. He didn’t need anyone getting any ideas.Lance turned to him as if noticing him for the first time. “Um… sitting?”Keith rolled his eyes. “I can see that. I meant, what are you doing sitting next to me?”Lance shrugged. “Isn’t the back row usually for people who don’t want to bring attention to themselves?”All you ever seem to do is bring attention to yourself, Keith thought. Why stop now? But he took a deep breath, remembering his conversation with his brother. “It’s also for people who don’t want to interact with anyone else.” He was hoping Lance would get the hint and leave it at that, but the other boy just stared at him blankly. “Like me.” Still nothing. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose for a second before trying again. “I’m politely asking you to sit somewhere else.”“And I’m politely declining.” Keith opened his mouth to object, but Lance just held up a hand to silence him. “Look, I’m trying to minimize my interactions with other people, too. What better way of being left alone than sitting next to the one guy no one wants to fuck with?”Keith scoffed, already coming up with a witty retort when Lance’s words actually sunk in. “That’s actually… not completely stupid?”Lance rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I’m not the total idiot some people paint me out to be.”Keith worried his lip in thought. “Okay, so obviously I can’t force you to move seats, but letting you stay here doesn’t mean I want anything to do with you.”“Letting me…?” Keith thought he saw anger flash across Lance’s face, but the shadow of emotion was gone as quickly as it had come, making him wonder if he saw it at all. “That’s fine. I’ll leave you alone in return for you ‘letting’ me sit here. Scout’s honor.” He held up three fingers in the scout’s salute.Keith barked out a mirthless laugh. “You were not a Boy Scout.”“Yeah, well neither were you, but the meaning behind it stays the same. What would convince you I’ll leave you be, getting down on my hands and knees and swearing it?”“Oh, I’m sure you’re already very used to being in that position.” Keith saw the corner of his mouth turn up in the slightest hint of a smirk, and the smile that had formed on his own face fell. “Wait, you’re not actually going to…. Oh no.”The smirk and the glint in his eye was all the warning Keith had before Lance was out of his chair, kneeling on the ground with his hands clasped in front of him. In seconds his expression went from cunning to pitiful; his lower lip jutted out in a pout and his eyes went wide. He looked like someone kicked his puppy. Scratch that, he looked like he was the kicked puppy. Keith was so taken aback that all he could do was sit there in shock as the — hell, there was no other word for it — performance Lance was putting on unfolded.“Oh, please, Keith, sir,” Lance said, in the most pathetic voice Keith had ever heard. “Please let me sit next to you. I promise I’ll be a good boy.”At this point everyone had turned to look at them, varying degrees of disgust and confusion on their faces. Keith could feel their eyes scanning him. His stomach churned. He didn’t like any of this. Not one bit.And that, he realized with a growing sense of dread, was exactly what Lance had wanted. He wanted to cause a scene and bring Keith the one thing he was trying his hardest to avoid — attention. He knew that, in doing so, Keith would cave and let him sit there, because any other reaction would have caused even more of a problem for him.Lance had been right; he wasn’t the idiot people made him out to be.The harsh whispers of the rest of the students staring at them were cut short as the sound of boots echoed off of the linoleum tile in the hallway. The teacher was coming.Just like that, everyone turned back towards the front of the class, sitting up straight. Lance stood and slipped right back into his seat as if nothing had happened. He shot Keith his signature cocky grin before turning his attention to the front as the teacher walked in.This was going to be one hell of a school year.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance swaggered down the hall towards his room, whistling along the way. When he reached it, he swiped his ID card at the scanner to the right of the door and waited as the metal panels swooshed open before stepping inside. He tossed his school bag onto his desk before jumping onto the bed, hands weaved behind his head and a grin wide on his face.Hunk, sitting at his own desk, turned around to watch his dramatic entrance. Lance noted that, in spite of his own best efforts, the corner of Hunk’s mouth turned up in his own small smile. “What has you in such a good mood?”“It’s not that great,” Lance fibbed. “No better than any other day.”“Okay, sure, but you're never this happy on the first day of the school year.”“What an astute observation, my friend,” Lance said, rolling onto his side to face the boy across the room. “Would you like to guess why I’m so happy today?”Hunk smiled goodnaturedly. “Normally I would, but I’d like to get a head start on the homework Professor Diaz assigned.”Lance lay back on the bed, throwing his arm across his face and letting out a huff. “You’re no fun.”The large Samoan boy laughed. It was one of those deep, fully bellied laughs that always brought a smile to Lance’s face, even if he was trying to act upset. “Maybe, but is anyone fun based on your standards?”He let out an indignant gasp. “Hunk! Are you saying that I have high standards?”“Oh no, I know better than to respond to that.” Hunk cast one last look at the papers on his desk, letting out a small sigh, before abandoning it entirely. It was bound to happen eventually; Lance was more entertaining than homework, and Hunk was a sucker for gossip. Since Lance’s life was basically entirely gossip, it worked out well. Hunk spun in his desk chair so he was fully facing his roomate. “Alright, so are you going to tell me what happened or are you going to keep me in suspense all day?”Lance, having Hunk’s undivided attention, perked right up. He’d always been that way. Lance thrived under attention, whether it was from one person or the entire school. Then again, the attention he got from everyone besides his best friend had never really been positive, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. He couldn’t change the way that other people saw him.Once you were painted out to be one way, there wasn’t really any way to fix it. He’d learned that lesson three years before.But this was his senior year, and he was going to graduate and show everyone who ever looked down on him that he was more than his reputation.Of course, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t use the rumors about him for his own personal gain. If he had to live with the title of ‘fuckboi’, you bet your ass he was going to live up to it.He relayed to Hunk the events of his first period class, including a full reenactment of him pleading at Keith’s feet that had Hunk doubled over in laughter. As Lance got to his feet and moved over to his desk, Hunk let out a wispy last laugh, wiping tears from his eyes. They settled into their normal comfortable silence, both turning their attention to their assignments, but it wasn’t long before Hunk spoke again.“Hey, um, Lance?”“Yeah, bud?” Lance turned towards his roomate to see the larger boy pushing his index fingers together in shy thought.“Don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but do you think you were a little harsh on Keith?”The Cuban boy frowned, brow knit in thought. “What do you mean?”“Well, it’s just that… he’s never really done anything bad to you before, has he? He hasn’t said anything mean to you before today.”“Dude, are you taking his side?” Lance asked indignantly.Hunk quickly put up his hands in defence. “No, no! Don’t get me wrong, I love it when you use people’s words against them like that. I just don’t know if… it was really necessary this time. I mean, I don’t think he’s like the other guys.”“How? How is he not like the other guys?” Lance knew that his best friend only has his best interest at heart, but he’d come in here in such a good mood and this reality check was bringing him down really fast. He wanted to start off the year on a good note, and this was starting to feel less and less like the win that it had when he’d left the classroom. “Sure, he didn’t directly call me a derogatory name, but that doesn’t mean what he said didn’t hurt. It always hurts. No matter who says it, no matter how many times I hear the same implications, it still stings. And even if he hasn’t said anything like that before, it’s not like I’m causing any harm. He’s already got a bad reputation. How can it get any worse?”Lance felt his friend’s eyes following him as he paced the room, coming to a stop and looking right at him when he finished his rant. Both of them were silent for a moment.Hunk sighed. “You’re right. I know that no matter how many names you get called, it doesn’t stop it from hurting the next time. Just keep in mind that maybe Keith has as many reasons to be closed off from people as you do.”A bell rang in the distance, making both boys look up. “Shit. We’re going to be late to our first flying class of the year,” Lance said. “Did you look at the bulletin to see who our teammate is going to be yet?”Both boys walked out of their room, the door swooshing closed behind them as they headed for the hangar.“Um, no, but it’s right down the hall on the way. Let’s check it out now.”They turned a corner and Hunk pointed towards the board on the wall. Like most everything else in the Garrison, it was orange and black. It wasn’t unlike their phones, Lance noted; though it was mounted to the wall and stretched basically from the height of his knees to the top of his head, it was still the same technology as the small orange screen currently nestled in his pocket.Scanning the holo board for their flight group, Lance saw plenty of names that he new and a good amount that he couldn’t identify. The freshman class seemed to be relatively big this year. He wondered absently if the school had changed their admittance policy or test, or if the candidates were just better.“There,” Hunk said, pointing out their names and pulling him out of his thoughts. In black block letters, it clearly said their names and their roles:
PILOT: LANCE MCCLAIN
ENGINEER: HUNK GARRETT
COMMUNICATIONS: PIDGE GUNDERSON
Lance was silent for a moment before saying, “What the fuck is a Pidge?”“That would be me,” Lance heard from behind him, making him jump with a yelp. He turned to see the small figure that had spoken.“I’m Pidge Gunderson,” the young boy repeated, adjusting his round glasses. “I take it you’re Lance and Hunk?”Hunk scratched the back of his neck with an apologetic smile. “Uh, yeah, that’s us. I’m Hunk and this,” he said, pointing a thumb towards Lance, “is my roommate Lance.”The Cuban boy had regained some of his composure over his jumpscare, though his brows had settled into a furrowed expression. “How did you just… materialize like that?”Pidge smirked mysteriously, glasses flashing in the light like some anime character. “That’s a trade secret of short people, Lance. We have to have some tricks up our sleeve you tall people don’t know about. Now, I believe we’re going to be late.” With that, the small boy turned on his heel and walked down the hall towards the hangar.Lance turned to Hunk, looking incredulously at his roommate. “What just happened?”Hunk laughed lightly, patting his friend on the shoulder. “I think you were just showed up by a fifteen-year-old, bud.” Lance let out a light groan. “C’mon, Pidge was right. We’re gonna be late if we don’t get a move on.” He guided his friend down the hall until he’d seemed to recover from his overreaction.They somehow managed to make it to the airdock right on time, though they were the last people to enter the large room. The rest of the students were already standing by the door that lead into the hanger, and they seemed to be clustered into their flight groups already. Hunk and Lance slid up beside Pidge just as the door swished open. Everyone quickly formed several lines and stood at attention as Commander Iverson appeared behind the door. He towered above the cadets and stared down at them with his dark appraising eyes. Lance had often wondered over the past three years if the man had been staring menacingly at kids for so long that he forgot how to blink. He sure as hell had gotten his fare share of looks from the commander in his time at the Garrison.Iverson scanned the students, and Lance could have sworn he saw the wheel’s turning in his head. Sometimes he seemed more like a computer than a man with the way he always analyzed everything, just like was doing with them now. Though, Lance thought begrudgingly, that was what made him a born leader.As he looked among the students, his eyes settled on Lance. “McClain. I see you’re still here.” There were a few snickers from some of the other upperclassmen around him, because of course they thought the commander was being rough on him. But the brown haired boy tightened his grip on his wrist that he held behind his back as he stood at attention as Iverson’s words resonated through him.It had been a while since he’d thought about that day three years ago, sitting in the commander’s office.
“I’m glad you’re here, son,” Iverson said from across the table.
I didn’t really have a choice, Lance thought, though he kept the words to himself, focusing his attention on his lap and not the man before him. “
Why don’t you tell me what brings you to my office today, cadet?” The commander’s voice was noticeably softer than any other time he’d heard him speak, and that scared him almost as much as sitting alone with him.
“I know you’ve heard already, so I don’t really see the point in saying anything,” he said. An uncomfortable silence lingered in the air and he quickly added “sir” to the end of his sentence. The last thing he needed right now was to be written up on insubordination or disrespecting a superior officer.
Iverson let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I only know the rumors that are going around, and you don’t seem to be saying anything on the matter, so I only have what information comes from others. I need to hear what happened from the source.” The man leaned forward onto the desk. “I want to hear your side of the story, cadet. Who circulated those pictures of you?”
It had been about a week since everything in Lance’s life had gone to shit. Before, everything had been great; he’d had friends, he was doing well in his classes, and he was even doing well enough in the piloting program to rival Keith Kogane’s skills, the best cadet pilot at the Garrison. He’d also caught the attention of an attractive older student — a boy.
Lance curled his hands into fists as he remembered the night he’d spent with the other boy, how he’d asked him to pose, taking pictures, saying they were only for him. How Lance had been uncomfortable with it and tried to tell his partner to delete them, and when he wouldn’t, how Lance threatened to break off the relationship. The boy quickly vowed to delete the pictures, they made up, and they went to sleep.
But when he woke up the next morning, Lance’s phone was blowing up.
His partner had posted the pictures on Lance’s instagram account, pretending to be the younger boy.
Lance had deleted the pictures right away, but not before the damage had been done. Everyone in the school now thought he was a slut, and there was no way for him to defend himself.
“
I… I can’t tell you that, sir,” Lance said, keeping his eyes glued to his lap.
“If you tell me what happened, we can help you get this whole mess sorted out.”
Mess. That really was what the situation had become, wasn’t it? “I’m sorry, sir. But no matter how much this person hurt me… he’s not out to his family or anyone else. I can’t do that to him.”
Iverson leaded back in his chair. “I see. That’s a noble decision you’re making, cadet, but just keep in mind that this young man didn’t seem to think about you that way when he posted those images.”
Lance had just sat in silence until the commander had dismissed him. He hadn’t known what else to say. He hated his partner for what he’d done, but that didn’t stop him from considering the other boy’s feelings. He just couldn’t out someone who wasn’t ready, no matter what they’d done.
He knew what that was like all too well, and he couldn’t put another person through it.
“Cadet!” Iverson shouted, snapping Lance out of his thoughts. The rest of the class was headed into the hangar while he stood there lost in his memories. “Get a move on!”Lance jogged to catch up with everyone, to more snickers from people around him.This was going to be one hell of a school year.