#peggy posts

But, somehow he survived last night.

Keith wasn’t normally one to enjoy loud house parties, but Lance was, so he went every now and then when he happened to hear about it. He always hoped he would catch a glimpse of Lance. He would never approach him, but Keith wanted to watch him hanging out and having fun. Despite never actually running into him at these parties, Keith continued to go. He had to get lucky eventually.

Sometimes he would imagine what it would be like if he did see Lance. He could picture himself confidently approaching him and seducing him with a clever line, making him laugh, and then dragging Lance into a corner of a quiet room and making out with him all night. He wasn’t sure what would happen after that, but they were definitely boyfriends.

Last night, his fantasies almost came true, though.

He was lurking around the edges of the party, sipping on some cheap beer when he spotted him in the middle of the room, smiling at some guy and surrounded by people. As far as parties went, Keith had been having an even worse time than usual, but it’s amazing how the right person could so completely affect one’s mood.

Keith settled against a spot in the hallway where he could surreptitiously watch Lance over the rim of his cup.

He laughed a lot and he smiled even more. He was so bright and wonderful and Keith had a hard time looking away. It was a good thing that everyone there was drunk and definitely not paying attention to him because his staring was pretty obvious. Of course, why would they look at him when they had an actual golden ray of sunshine in the center of the room.

Keith watched Lance get challenged to a drinking contest and his obvious acceptance and, over the next hour, saw him get absolutely wasted. He still smiled and laughed, even though his words were so slurred together by the end that no one knew what he was saying. More often than not, he was laughing by himself at the jokes that he couldn’t speak. It was really cute.

He won, though Keith didn’t think he was likely to remember that come morning, and he was left to relax quietly in a corner while the other partygoers moved on to new entertainment. The poor loser had been moved upstairs to an empty bedroom. Keith didn’t follow the crowd when they all moved to the backyard for a handstand competition, preferring to stay where he was and keep an eye on a very drunk Lance draped over an armchair.

Looking around, he had noticed that none of his friends had thought to stick close by in case Lance needed anything. Typical. So Keith stood alone in that hallway, watching him swing his legs over the arm of the chair and mumble to himself. He had thought that he’d imagined every possible scenario where he met Lance at a party but apparently not. Now he didn’t know what to do.

Should he approach him? What would he even say? Lance was obviously too drunk to think clearly. Maybe he should take advantage of that and kiss him while he had the chance? No, that was stupid. Keith wanted Lance to be very aware that they were kissing. But it was a tempting thought. Too tempting... If Lance was the one who initiated it, Keith probably wouldn’t have the willpower stop him.

Eventually, Lance had managed to speak loudly and clearly enough that Keith could understand him. He raised his voice, trying to get the attention of his friends who were all outside.

Keith had frowned. They wouldn’t be able to hear the pitiful way he was asking for water. He went to the kitchen himself and dumped out what was left of his beer and threw his trash in the open trashcan. He was done drinking for the night. Checking in the fridge, he found a cold pitcher of water and poured some into a new plastic cup.

He brought it into the living room where Lance had resumed swinging his legs. Keith struggled to remember the exact details of their conversation because he had been more than a little distracted when Lance smiled at him and said that he recognized him. They only shared Chemistry class, a class that had about 78 students in it, and they spoke once on the first day, but Lance still remembered him even when he was drunk out of his mind. He couldn’t recall Keith’s name, but it’s not like they were ever properly introduced.

Still, he had helped Lance maneuver his body around so he could drink the water without choking and Keith told him that he should probably just go home and sleep. Lance had given a weak argument but relented quickly in the face of Keith’s logic. He requested that he let his friends know he was leaving, like Keith was somehow in charge of making sure he got home or something. It was nice to know that Lance trusted him enough to assume that Keith would ensure he made it back to his dorm safely.

Keith helped him stand and directed him to the back door before heading over to the closet that had been stuffed full of coats. He didn’t think about the fact that he could spot Lance’s before he found his own.

It took a few minutes longer than Keith had anticipated for Lance to return but when he did, he was dragging a chair with him. Apparently, he got his foot caught under the legs and couldn’t figure out how to get himself loose. Keith had laughed and removed the chair from his leg, leaving it near the door, and supervised Lance as he attempted to put his jacket on. It took a couple of tries before he managed to get it on properly and Keith still had to pull the hood out from where it got caught against his back.

He knew that Lance’s dorm was in the building next to his, so he set off in that direction with Lance trying hard not to stumble next to him. After the third time he fell, Keith realized that this walk would actually be easier if he let Lance lean on him.

Lance talked the whole 10 minutes it took to walk back to campus. He commented on how tall the grass was, he complimented the waning moon, he talked about how his childhood dream was to fly to Mars. And when he ran out things to ramble about, he started asking Keith questions. How did he find him, how did he know that he wanted water, did he know that his shoes were off-brand?

Keith tried to reply to even the most inane things that came out of his mouth, but he quickly found that Lance was happy just talking and didn’t really need to be engaged. Which worked out for him because Lance had moved on to complimenting him and he was having trouble finding words after that.

Your face is really pretty in the moonlight. That jacket looks really good on you. Even if they aren’t Converse, your shoes are really cool.