#teddywrites

“Yeah, uh, coming mum,” he called back. They waited for her footsteps to disappear down the hall before Keith could even tear his eyes away from the door, relaxing against his bed as Lance let out his breath with a disappointed sigh. He knew what was coming.

“Okay, Romeo, out you go.” Keith patted Lance’s thigh as he pulled back the covers. Lance, left only in his sweatpants, laid firmly on the mattress shaking his head.

“Nooo, I don’t want to go. Let me stay,” he whined, attempting to pull Keith back against his chest before he could reach for the hoodie he’d stolen from him about a week prior. 

“Mum would kill me if she knew you’d been sneaking in at night, you have to,” Keith pleaded, eyes wide as he tried to force Lance out of his bed. 

“Keith, I’ve been staying here about three nights a week for the last two months! You don’t think she knows?” He asked, leaning over the bed to put his socks back on, tying his converse with a huff. 

“Nope,” Keith said frankly, shaking his arms until his hands poked out of the ends of Lance’s hoodie. He climbed out of bed, catching one of Lance’s arms as he grabbed his shirt, pulling him to his feet. “And she isn’t going to find out. Now, window. Out.” Keith gave Lance a gentle push towards the second-storey window, an easily slidable roof just underneath it that would drop Lance in the front yard of Keith’s house. Lance held his hand up to his heart, scorned. 

“Nine whole months I’ve loved you and here you are, forcing your dear, sweet boyfriend out of a window to ride his bike the whole way home. How you wound me,” he feigned. Keith raised an unsympathetic brow, arms crossed over his chest.

“Forsooth,” he mused, causing Lance’s facade to crack with the upturn of the corner of his lip.

“Ah, so you finally did your English homework,” Lance said, one foot already standing on top of the garage. He straddled the window sill as he slid on his shirt.

“I may has't,” Keith smiled before dawdling over to Lance, handing him his phone. “See you at school.”

“Don’t be late,” Lance said, standing fully on the roof so that he could lean back in, hands supporting him on the sill. “I love you.”

Lance kissed Keith sweetly, clearly not caring as much about morning breath as Keith did. 

“I love you too,” Keith said before leaning in again, even if he knew that Lance did it on purpose, because Keith really just wanted to kiss his boyfriend. “Bye.”

“Bye,” they muttered to each other between short pecks before Lance pushed himself up, slid down the roof, and landed skilfully on the lawn. Keith watched him as he ran down to the street, pulling his bike out of the bush he had stowed it in, and rode off towards his own house. Keith watched until he’d disappeared over the crest of the hill that led to his street, actually enjoying the warm sun and the singing birds because Mondays were always good when he started them next to Lance. 

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Keith was startled back to reality by his mother’s voice. He’d not even noticed she’d come back up to find him.

“Oh just… some birds,” Keith lied. Krolia stared at her son for a second. 

“Okay,” she replied. “Come get breakfast, we have to leave soon.”

“Cool, be down in a sec.”

***

Keith woke up tangled in sheets and all of the extra blankets he and Lance had thrown over themselves as they went to sleep the night before. His entire body was engulfed in the warmth of the strong arms holding him close, heat radiating off Lance’s chest that was pressed tight to Keith’s back. 

Lance groaned as they both stirred, instantly pulling Keith even closer as the raven wiggled around to face his boyfriend. Keith felt a sleepy kiss against his forehead as he tucked his face into Lance’s neck. It was warm there. No need or desire lingered to go anywhere else. 

Lance adjusted his feet to intertwine them with Keith’s. He, however, managed to pull the blankets with him as he did and for a brief moment, a gust of piercing cold air let itself into their safe cocoon. In unison, they gasped an indigent “Ah!” and huddled in together, giggling as they found themselves safe from the dreary Monday morning weather.

They laid in silence, sharing soft, lazy kisses as the rain poured on outside. The windows were fogged and if they tried just the slightest it was as if nothing else in the world existed outside Keith’s bedroom. 

Until they heard shuffling around in the kitchen below.

Keith let out a deep sigh, placing a few more kisses to Lance’s defined collar bone before patting his side solemnly. 

“Hhh, you should probably go now,” he weighed the unfortunate words on his tongue as he spoke. Lance merely groaned in response, snuggling deeper under the mountain of soft blankets where the sting of the outside couldn’t get him. 

“Keith, baby. You can’t possibly make me go out there. You wouldn’t make me ride home in the rain,” Lance begged, holding him and rocking him, like a half-hearted shakedown. Keith huffed, considering his options for a second. 

He peeked his head out of the covers, hair still a mess over his face. It looked so cold out there that his skin prickled just at the thought of it. But then he thought of his mother downstairs, catching them. Each rattle of a closing kitchen draw made his heart pound. It was a tough choice.

“Oh my god, you’re gonna make me ride home. I can’t believe my small, loving, sweet boyfriend is going to send me out like this. I could catch a cold Keith. Do you wanna be the one looking after this snotty-nosed bastard?” Lance persisted almost too loudly and pointed to himself. 

Keith snorted and placed his hand over Lance’s mouth to hush him. He thought about it for a second longer, eyes narrowed to a squint, shifting from the bedroom door to the window. Lance’s eyes remained wide as he awaited Keith’s verdict. 

“Fine,” Keith said after a second. Lance whispered an elated cheer before pulling the both of them back under the blanket pile to cuddle.

Keith didn’t know what his next move was, but while he was laying so comfortably and soundly in Lance’s arms he was sure of one thing. That move was not going to be for many, many minutes. He opened his eyes so that he was just staring blankly at Lance’s chest as the brunet carded a hand through Keith’s knotty hair​​—the pair simply pretending that it wasn’t as such due to Keith sleeping like the dead, and Lance’s fingers totally weren’t getting stuck and tugging on a knot every few strokes. 

Keith was almost completely lulled back to sleep when he heard a knock. 

“Keith, I called you already what are you up to?” His mother’s voice became increasingly clearer as the door opened ajar and without a second to lose he threw the blankets over Lance’s head, holding them tightly up to his chin. He hoped it looked like he was just really cold, and that their entangled bodies just looked like Keith under a mass of about four quilts. 

If Krolia knew anything, she wasn’t letting on; Keith thought he was safe.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. Bit hard to get out of bed today. I have to plan my course wisely to get from here to the warm shower with as little time in the antarctic hallway as possible,” Keith explained, trying to appear nonchalant as Lance feathered kisses to anywhere he could reach on Keith’s chest without moving. Krolia nodded inconspicuously. 

“Okay, well, breakfast is on the table, get it while it’s hot,” she told him taking a step back out of the room. She stopped, however, just as she was about to close the door. “Oh, and there is a place set for Lance too,” she eyed Keith smugly, a faint smirk on her lips as she closed the door. 

He rubbed his hands together against the cold, breathing out a whirling cloud as he searched the grounds. Beyond the almost black bark of the oak trees, the only thing that stood out against the white was him. Old and worn skates tied in neat little bows, layers of dark clothing that almost made his small frame disappear beneath it. Lance frowned at his hung head, and hunched shoulders as he stood upon the frozen lake.

He watched Keith push himself to and fro, gliding slowly from foot to foot on the ice, a dawdle of a movement. Barely a scuff of his foot against the dark surface.

Lance tied his skates quickly, huffing out the cold air as it entered his lungs. He approached gently, not a twig or stone breaking as he drew near. Lance touched his blades to the bank of the pond, catching Keith’s attention. For a moment they just stood in knowing silence. For the pond behind the mansion was his now. All the money did belong to him. Out of the two things he had in that mansion that could be taken away from him, the world had picked the wrong one, leaving Keith with the thing he’d be happy to go without — stripping him of the other, which he’d held dearest.

Lance propelled himself gently towards Keith, stopping before him, and taking his ice-cold, pale hands in his gloved ones. He rubbed Keith’s cold knuckles under his concealed thumb, and soundlessly, he leaned down and rested their foreheads together.

It had only been days since his dad died. And he’d saved all his posters. Mere days since Lance’s hoodies were replaced with someone else’s. Keith’s father’s clothes hung off him loosely, pulling his usual strong stature to the ground. Keith crumbled under the sentimentality of the memory. Lance breathed in against Keith’s hair.

Keith didn’t smell like Lance anymore, and it was like Keith didn’t smell like himself anymore. But he wasn’t himself at that moment. Lance didn’t know if Keith would ever be the same self again. Keith’s dad was the best dad for him; he was all he ever could have needed.

He encouraged Keith to not be shy about his relationship at home or at school. He took Keith to concerts and hockey games. He let Keith be who he was, he let him be a normal teenager without the weight of everything that was coming to him. Cause money could be gone tomorrow, but his dad was gone today, and it was the only thing that couldn’t be undone.

“I’m happy I got to have as much time as I did with Dad,” Keith said, his voice wavering against the cold -- soft, like he hadn’t used it in a very long time. “I didn’t lose him as a little kid, ya know. We had a real relationship where he saw me as another adult. We were best friends.” He said, his skates sliding between Lance’s so that he could be pulled into his chest.

Lance could have said a million comforting things. But nothing could be said that didn’t already hang in the hostile air. Nothing that wasn’t being said in the way they stood together against it all. At the pond behind the mansion, nothing needed to be said out loud. It laid bare, it swam with the fishies. It was all they needed, so it was all they took.

***

Kuroo shot up from his office chair, jumping back quickly to doge one of the monitor as it came in an extremely close proximity to his head. Red emergency lights were flashing, tinting the grey room amber as alarms blared, his original disturber of his slumber. He checked the monitors quickly, rapids searching them for the cause of the panic. He eyes landed on the bottom right screen - the entry to the bomb testing field - where he caught sight of it.

A large purple aircraft, unlike any design he had ever seen in his time working with the government and airforce. It’s sides were glowing blue as smoke rose from the crater it had dented into the patch desert. He knew instantly what it was, his bones riddled with excitement, adrenaline pumping furiously through his veins.  

Maybe he wouldn’t be the first to know.

Kuroo ran, sprinted down the halls, instinct and muscle memory from the last four years guiding him through the concrete labyrinth of underground hallways. His could hear multiple footsteps echoing off every surface, increasing his speed so that he could still be to the crash site, the first to discover what was inside. No thought of possible harm could stop him as the elevator to the surface appeared at the end of a long hallway, it’s blue glass revealing it’s vacancy.

“Yes.” He panted out as he reached the cool glass, resting on it as he slammed the button to open it, breath taking over all noise. The swooshing sound of the glass seemed to last forever as the eager man shook with anticipation. As he leaped inside he let the door shut, turning around with the biggest grin. He could still be first. Kuroo’s small flattered as he looked down upon the hall as the machine lifted him up.

It was empty; the footsteps he had heard clambering off the bricks were that of his own. ‘It’s fine, it’s late, it was still night outside. There is always less people on night shifts.’ He told himself, not wanting to even entertain the idea for a second that no one was excited or knowing about this as he was. The alarms were still going off like crazy, why was no one else around?

As he reached the top level he didn’t even let the door open the full way before squeezing himself out, not hesitating to run into the freezing cold night air. He cool now see his rapid breath as he was drawn to the flying object, feeling that he was only a short distance away as he flew past the metal fence acting as a barrier around the field. He had to slow down as the smoke from the crash got into his passage way and caused him to cough. He hoped that anything inside it was still alive as he struggled to catch up with everyone else. The everyone else Kuroo had convinced himself must already be there.

He entered the thick cloud of smoke that was close to the door of the aircraft that had been forced open upon the impact. He knew he was acting irrationally and against all his training by blindly running into the scene with no preparation and no protection besides the clothes on his back. His old sports jacket from highschool protected him well enough from the cold but would it from alien weaponry. He didn’t care, the thoughts of his hayday came back to him. The extraterrestrial and UFO department would flourish once again.

“KUROO!” He heard a shout, the only thing thus far that he stopped him in his tracks.

He wiped his head around trying to see through the thick cloud, eventually re emerging from it, to see the first sign of human life that night so he could go back to seeing the first sign of alien life in almost a year.

He strained his eyes to see the person running towards him, yelling back as soon as he could make out the black and white spikes of his old coworker.

“Bokuto! Late to the party are we?”

“No fair, you were closer.” He called back, placing his hands on his knees to regain a steady beat once he reached his friend.

“Yeah well so were a lot of other people, but do you see them. Do they even know what is happening?” The taller man gestured to the barren land.

“Oh they know alright.” Bokuto stood, “Kuroo, none of them know how to deal with this, the only ones who do are those of our department.” He encouraged Kuroo to work out the answer himself, which he did quickled.

He cursed under his breath. “You’re right, most of us had day shifts today.”

Bokuto nodded.

“Is anyone else here tonight, it is hardly possible that it is only us.”

Bokuto replied after a thinking for a second. “There maybe a few.”

“Shall we wait for them-”

“Yes.” Bokuto didn’t even let him finish. “You may be the best at this but you acted as if you knew as much as the the people back in the control room watching us by the way you just ran in blindly. We need people with supplies and weapons, we don’t know what’s in there, so as much as I want to run in there and kick some alien but - surely not as much as you do - we need to be prepared.

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Kuroo wanted to sound cold but due to his impatience it came out more whiney, like a child.

“With them.” Bokuto looked back in the direction of the facility. Three figure were closing in on them, traveling by motor bikes to move faster. Soon their old coworkers and friends Kiyoko Shimizu, Daichi Sawamura and Kōshi Sugawara were revealed to them, bringing them guns and stunning devices as well as capturing and communication mechanisms for their own use.

“Ready when you are.” Daichi stated instead of a greeting.

“I’ve been waiting so long for this to happen.” Sugawara said bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Yes! So excited, Suga.” Kiyoko agreed, more words then they ever thought she could say in a day, this was as rare as the aliens.

With our friends now there to provide backup, Bokuto and Kuroo re entered the slowly clearing crash site, just able to make out the ramp up to the ship using the glowing light emitting from the aircraft as their guide. Once they were up in the foyer of the aircraft, there was still no sign of life, only two identical hallways leading off in opposite direction.

“You take right, I’ll go left.” Kurro commanded and we set off.

“Make sure to shout if you get anything.” Bokuto tapped his walkie talkie which was fastened to a pocket on his sleeve before disappearing behind the opening.

It was a surprisingly quiet and anxious jog down the hallway. Kuroo never stopped once, checking every room, going up two flights of ramps. ‘Maybe the aliens didn’t have legs’.

Everything had been empty so far. Was it possible that this was nothing but discarded space junk from another species?

Kuroo had found himself directly above where they had entered, but about five stories higher. He was on the final floor and the only thing he had found was a very large window that looked upon the whole base.

This room and all is corresponding doors was his only hope left.

The first door he tried on the other side of the room lead to an area identical to the one he was in just before, most likely Bokuto would be arriving through it shortly if his journey was as uneventful as Kuroo’s own. He tried the rest, breaking them down if he had to. All were just simple storage cupboards. He would definitely have to investigate these later for artifacts.

Kuroo’s heart was breaking as he was left with one more door. The white metal was the only thing that stood between him and his biggest dream coming true. Setting his things down on the big confrance looking table in the center of the room, all except his gun, he approached the door.

“Not locked he whispered to himself as it slid open from simply censoring his presence. The small room was lined with a bench running the length of the walls and had shelves above them full of glowing substances. A medical bed positioned in the middle. Kuroo could feel a lump in his throat forming at the empty room until he almost fell over after the sudden realisation of two feet sprawled out on the floor behind it.

“No!” he gasped, unable to believe if this was real.

He approached the unconscious body slowly, more of the apparently small figure was revealing itself to Kuroo. He did a double take when he saw the full thing.

“Human?” He questioned to nobody.

He quickly vetoed that idea once he began to search the alien, which only made his heart flutter.

Most of the beings features were the same apart from it’s dark purple hair turning blonde at the end of it’s shoulder length style, pointed ears and red marks just under its eyes.

He went to touch it’s arm. Hesitating slightly before realising that nothing had happened. He picked it up supporting its head which had flopped into his chest, and under its knees.

“I’ve got one. The only one. You see anything? I’m heading out. Over” He spoke into his own walkie talkie.

“Nothing I’m on the ground again. Over.” A crackly voice gave back. The magnetic energy of the ship must be interfering with the radio.

Kuroo brought the small alien out of the aircraft, a vehicle ready to take it back to camp.

“That’s all?” Suga sounded happy and sad at the same time. Kuroo could relate. He rode with the being and soon they were back, alone, in a medical looking room of the human’s own.

Still dumbfounded that the being looked so human he began to look closely at it again. It was breathing, he noticed, so he decided to pull up a scanner to see what this thing was made of, unsure about how it had bloody lungs!

With the big metal contraption over the sleeping alien he turned it on. As it loaded up Kuroo moved his face really close to the other, looking at the birthmarks on the aliens face. From what he could see, with the mouth and eyes being shut, it looked so human. He could only possibly be a-

Golden eyes snapped open.

“AHHHH!” It let out a screech, raising a hand and pushing Kuroo away and hurtling itself off of the table and into the corner of the small room.

“It’s okay.” Kuroo said, aware that it probably couldn’t understand it, as it covered it’s face with a hand, bringing its head down to its knees.

“Where am I!” It demanded.

‘Holy Crap!’ Kuroo was flabbergasted.

“English!” He yelled, instantly switching from his native tongue to the western dialogue.

“What?” It didn’t look up.

“You speak English!” He made clearer.

“What’s English?” It replied.

“Oh, well I can understand you, and you, I” He explained.

“I guess.” It looked up finally, glowly lifting it’s gaze, a look of fear turning to confusion as it had also instantly noticed their similarities.

“You’re… Altaen?”

“Human.” They spoke at the same time.

“Oh, human.” It sounded disappointed.

“Altaen!” Kuroo repeated, still excited.

“You know of us?” It asked.

“Well yeah,” Kuroo’s face faltered for the second time that night. “Only that race has been extinct for centuries.”

“Nope.” It mumbled

“Their planet was exploded.”

“Well they didn’t get all of us.”

“How?”

“There is this thing called Some of us were on a mission in this other thing called space.” It spoke very sarcastically for how quiet and shy it also was, barley meeting Kuroo’s eyes.

“Oh so you are like ten thousand years old then?” Kuroo asked.

“No.” The alien sounded irritated now. “Breeding.” It responded quickly, regaining its shy composure.

“Right. So do you mind if I ask a few more questions.”

“Sure. then can I leave.”

“That’s not up to me.”

“So i’m gonna be dissected or something.”

“No, no. We may not be as advanced as you sir, but we have come far since the days of mutilation. My job is to keep you safe. So you’re good as long as you stay by me.” Kuroo smiled.

“Cool.” The alien sounded calmer and relaxed its shoulders a little. “Ask away.”

“Name?”

“Kozume Kenma.”

“Cool.” He wrote it down.

“Race, Altaen.” Hw spoke as he noted. “Gender.

“What’s a gender?”

“What do you mean? Altaen’s have genders.”

“We these ones don’t. What ever a gender is.”

“You must have evolved past them in the last ten thousand years.

“Possibly.”

“Reason for crashing on our planet?”

“That’s a joke right?”

“Yeah. But why’d you come near us.” Kuroo admitted.

“Joyride. Not my fault your magnetic field is hella strong.”

“Hella?”

“Really.”

“I know what it means. Just why.”

Kenma shrugged.

“Well for now that’s all I need. Mind if I take a photo.”

“For science?”

“Nope.”

“Okay.”

Kuroo took Kenma to the food court then. It was really empty this time of night so they could chat in peace.

“You eat human food.”

“Never tried it. Is it like goo?”

“I’ll get you some jelly.”

Later the pair was sitting at a table, Kuroo using all his effort to make the situation as comfortable for his guest as he could. They could work with the crew tomorrow, he quite like this new discovery.

They ate jelly together in silence for a bit before Kenma looked up to see Kuroo staring.

“Do I have a booger or something?” They covered their nose with their hand, looking down and wiping it.

“No! No. Just curious.” Kuroo reassured Kenma.

“Then what?” He grew embarrassed.

“I just didn’t think an alien we found would be this small.” He said honestly.

“Small!” Kenma stood, speaking the loudest they had yet, slamming their hands on the table moving around to Kuroo who also stood, a near foot above them.

“Well watch this.” They raised his eyebrows as he began to grow, Kuroo was amazed at the being ability. However when they finished their party trick they were still a few inches of matching Kuroo’s height.

“Cute.” Was all he said.

“I’m not cute he said, pouting.

Kuroo took the opportunity to look back into Kenma’s eyes. The golden iris’s contrasted perfectly with their purple pupils, a match to the creatures hair.

They were catlike in shape and absolutely breathtaking.

“No, no your not. How about… Gorgeous?” Kuroo blushed slightly at his attempt. ‘Was that a flirt?”

“Gore...Jesus?” Kuroo had thought Kema would get flustered but he just tipped his head to the side.

“No, um… Beautiful.” Kuroo tried. Again with no success.

“Something else.”

“I don’t know? Stunning.” He was running out of ideas.

“I did not!” Kenma just looked more offended than happy.

“I don’t know!” Don’t you have any positive words for physically appealing people.” He wracked his brain for other English words to explain with.

Kenma thought for a moment. “Hot?” Kuroo blushed deeper.

“Uh, Kinda. Maybe more, charming?” He stuttered.

“Well, we have one… It’s uh… Perfect?”

“Yeah, let’s go with that.”

Kenma’s eyes widened. Their marks began to glow as they shrunk back to their first size.

“Um, oh, thanks…” They really were flustered now.’ Kuroo thought. ‘And yes, that was a flirt. Sooth Kuroo.’ He smirked to himself.

Kenma took his seat again and Kuroo his. They chatted for a while longer before Kenma began to yawn and Kuroo offered to show them to a room in their facility. He agreed to stay in a neighboring room for the duration of Kenma’s stay due to, as Kenma had put it, the fact that they didn’t know anyone and he was the only one that they felt comfortable with.

Kuroo wasn’t sure if that kind of sentence held the same value in Altea as it did on Earth but he let it slide. Kuroo went and sat on the end of the ‘Perfect’ creatures bed, watching as they sat down too.

“Thanks for not cutting me open.” Kenma smiled, however their head was still facing is lap and their hair still covered most of their face.

“Thanks for eating jelly with me… and breaking a scanner but that is for a different day.” Kuroo tried to joke.

Kenma yawned again so Kuroo told him goodnight and made to leave. Right as he was about to leave, Kenma called to him. Kuroo first wondered if this would be like in the movies where the alien would ask something awkward like ‘would you stay with me tonight.’ or some other embarrassing thing. But even if secretly he hoped they would, Kenma just tilted his head once more.

“Really, tell me what a geder is? Is it like lumps? Or an extra limb?”