Keith’s cheeks are already burning with a mix of shame and embarrassment, fists clenching and unclenching several times before he shoves them into his pockets. “I… uh.” 

Lance drops his hands into his lap and looks up, expression rather deadpan. “My entire family thinks I have amnesia, Keith,” he starts, and Keith winces. “They think I proposed to you somewhere out there in space and that you said yes. They think we’re engaged! I wasn’t out that long, was I?”

Keith presses his lips together. Lance arches his eyebrows expectantly. “Um. No,” Keith manages, then grimaces when Lance throws his hands in the air.

“So what happened!” he cries. “Why does my family think that we’re madly in love?” 

Is that such a bad thing? is what Keith wants to say, but he swallows the words down and stares at his feet, searching for something to say that’ll allow him to leave her with his body still intact. He clears his throat and opens his mouth to speak, but nothing will come out. Lance just sighs again, glancing away and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Look, if I really had proposed to you, I’m pretty sure I would remember,” Lance says softly.

Keith crumbles, squeezing his eyes shut and pressing the heels of his palms against them. “I’m sorry,” he says weakly, more like the breath of a whisper. “I didn’t mean for it to go this far. I just wanted—I’m so sorry.” 

Lance shifts in his bed, sheets rustling with the movement. “Keith—”

“I just wanted to see you,” Keith blurts, feeling badly for cutting him off but suddenly unable to stop himself even though he had been speechless only moments ago. “That was all, I swear. I was worried about you, but they wouldn’t let me in because only family is allowed to visit but I had to see you, so I gave them the first excuse I could think of. I told them we were engaged, but it was just so I could get inside, I didn’t mean for it to turn into such a big thing, and I swear I didn’t mean to lie to your family.”

“Okay,” Lance answers agreeably, although from the look on his face he looks more like he’s trying to appease a scared, cornered animal. “Maybe you should like, sit down or—” 

“Everything just happened so fast,” Keith interrupts, desperate to fully explain himself. “Your family got here and no one knew who I was but one of the nurses must have told them what I said because then they were all trying to comfort me instead of the other way around and—they immediately took me in like I belonged there, like I had been there all along and I tried, I tried to tell them the truth but every time I got the chance I froze, and now that it’s been this long I’m too scared to say anything because I don’t want to hurt your family, Lance—” 

“Keith,” Lance repeats firmly, and Keith’s breath shakes when he inhales, clutching at the fingers that have slipped into his hand and tugged him closer to the bed. “Oh my god. Please don’t cry.” 

Keith doesn’t even realize he’s started, not until he blinks the tears out of his eyes and feels them hit his cheeks. “I’m sorry,” he croaks. “You should be with your family right now, not cleaning up my mess.” 

“I’ve been cleaning up your messes for the past three years, haven’t I? I think I can handle one more.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you.” 

“No, you—I’m not upset, Keith. I was just confused, so I may have overreacted a tiny bit.” Keith vehemently disagrees with the overreacting bit—really, Lance’s reaction was rather tame compared to what Keith had expected—but he doesn’t get to voice it since Lance continues before he gets the chance, squeezing his hand. “But to be fair, a proposal would be going just a little too fast, don’t you think?” 

Keith sniffs, wiping at the wetness of his cheek with the back of his hand. “What?”

“I mean, you could at least ask a guy to dinner first.” 

Something in Keith’s brain is taking longer than it should to click into place. He stares at Lance, somehow both distantly yet acutely aware of their intertwined hands. Lance arches his eyebrows expectantly, much like he had just a few minutes ago, and Keith stammers out what he hopes to be a coherent sentence. “I—I mean, do you… want to? Get dinner with me?” 

“Why, Keith!” Lance gasps dramatically, cheeks tinted pink but eyes bright with amusement. “I thought you would never ask. Yes, I would love to get dinner with you. Just as soon as I’m allowed to leave this hospital bed, that is.” 

Keith blinks. Suddenly everything he’d been so panicked over seems silly, in hindsight. “Wait. Really?” 

Lance just smiles, tilting his head thoughtfully. “We can talk more later. For now, how about we bring my family back in so we can explain the situation to them, okay? Together.” 

Somehow it’s comforting to know that there’s something for them to talk about ‘later,’ when Keith was so convinced that he’d made a mistake that wouldn’t be so easily forgiven. It makes the relief in his own returning smile that much more genuine as he nods and says: 

“Okay.”