#me when i name my kid Lance but i have a lisp

[greenteafiend]

Childhood Klance Gift Exchange

Here’s my piece for @xxxshinx.

(Keith and Lance are 8, you can find it on Ao3 here)

Keith was afraid.

He liked his old school. He liked his old house, and his old friends. He didn’t want to come to this new school where he didn’t know anybody. He wanted to go back home, and most of all he wanted his mother.

“Class, we have a new student joining us today. Would you like to introduce yourself to the class, Keith?”

The teacher smiled down at him kindly, but Keith hunched his shoulders and shook his head.

“Okay, who would like to look out for Keith, and help him get settled in?” Keith let out a sigh, beyond relieved that she didn’t push him. He kept his eyes trained on his shoelaces. He didn’t need anyone to help him, he just wanted to be left alone. (That was a lie, his chest just hurt at the idea of getting comfortable. That would be the same as accepting that he’d never see his old friends again. He’d never see his old house, his mom-)  

“Oh, me! Miss, pick me!” an eager voice with a slight lisp had Keith looking up. Sitting at the front of the group of students was a boy with golden skin, brown hair, and his two front teeth missing.

The teacher smiled indulgently.

“Thank you, Lance. Why don’t you do sit next to him, Keith? Stick with Lance and I’m sure he’ll show you everything you need to know.”  

Not knowing quite what to make of the boy’s exuberance, Keith did as he was told.

“I have two older brothers and an older sister, have you got any brothers and sisters?”

Keith didn’t have any siblings. He didn’t have anyone. He remained silent, as he had been doing all morning in response to Lance’s questions.

As Lance had been doing all morning, he went right on prattling even though Keith gave him no indications he was actually listening except for the fact that he was following the teacher’s instruction by sticking with him.

“Luis is the oldest, and then Marco, and then Veronica. Veronica is cool because she lets me play with her toys. Luis is cool because he has a girlfriend and one time she brought over these cookies she’d baked and they were yum! Marco is mean because he won’t let me play on his x-box unless mom yells at him--”

“Hey Lance! Let’s go play!” interrupted a classmate whose name Keith didn’t know.

“Do you wanna go play, Keith?” asked Lance. Except it came out sounding like ‘Keef’ on account of his two missing front teeth.

Keith shook his head, hunching his small shoulders.

“You can go though,” he said, voice scratchy from disuse. It was the first thing he’d said to anyone in days.  

“It’s okay, Amy. I’m gonna stay with Keef,” Lance said, shooting Amy his bright, gappy smile.

Over the course of recess Lance got asked to to play half a dozen more times by other kids, and everytime Keith tensed up and looked uncomfortable. Everytime Lance would turn them down and give Keith that same reassuring smile.

Keith didn't understand it. Lance was obviously popular and well-liked by their peers, why was he still hanging around him? Keith was refusing to talk and he was boring. Everyone else had always left him, why wasn’t Lance leaving him too?  

“You can go,” he mumbled.

“What was that, Keef?”

Keith’s cheeks turned pink and he didn’t even understand why.

“I said you can go! I don’t need you to hang out with me if it’s only ‘cause you feel sorry for me!”

“Keef-” Lance’s young voice sounded hushed and serious, “You’re crying.”

“Am not!” snapped Keith, but his voice hitched and small fists furiously rubbed at his eyes because he was. He was crying. In front of a boy he’d just met.

And then that boy hugged him tightly. He wrapped his skinny arms around Keith’s even skinnier shoulders, and patted him on the back.

“W-what are you doing?” asked Keith, sniffling.

“My mama does this when I’m sad and it makes me feel better. Is it working?”

“No,” Keith replied, even as he snaked his small arms around Lance’s waist and clung to him tightly.

“Hm, probably cause I’m not your mom,” replied Lance sagely.

“I haven’t got a mom anymore,” Keith confessed in a hushed whispered, the reality that she wasn’t coming back finally sinking in for him.

He understood what ‘passed away’ meant.

He’d dealt with this before with his dad. Except instead of ‘motorcycle accident’ this time it had been ‘cancer.’

It wasn’t fair. Keith had already lost his dad, it wasn’t fair that he had to lose his mom too.

“There, there, Keef,” said Lance, rubbing circles between Keith’s shoulder blades, “I thought you seemed cool, being all quiet and mysterious, but.... you’re sad,” he said, his tone uncharacteristically serious.   

He took Keith to the boys’ bathroom and had him splash cold water on his face, and when recess ended and they headed back to class, Lance covered for him when he stubbornly refused to speak when the teacher asked him a question.

When the bell rang and everyone was dismissed, Keith caught Lance by the edge of his blue t-shirt and tugged a little to get his attention.

“Keef?” he acknowledged. His eyes were kind. Keith let go of his shirt as if it had scalded him.

“Thanks. For being nice,” he bit out gruffy.

The smile Lance gave him was radiant.

“See you tomorrow!”  

Keith smiled back hesitantly. It was hard not to in the face of that enthusiasm.

When Keith arrived at the school the next day, he didn’t feel afraid.

He still liked his old school. He still liked his old house, and his old friends. He still wanted to go back home, still wanted his mother.

But his new school no longer filled him with dread.

“Hey, Keef!”

How could it when Lance smiled at him like that, so infectiously joyful?

Keith still ached for his mother; he ached for familiarity, but this boy made him feel a little better.

“Do you wanna go play on the monkey bars with Hunk, Keef?” Lance asked.

“Okay,” said Keith, smiling fondly, completely unaware of just how many times Lance would provoke that exact smile on his face in the years to come.

#chklanceexchange #childhood klance #klance #fanfic #voltron #my writing #platonic klance #klance friendship #xxxshinx