Keith bit his lip as he switched his TV's input.

"Is it working?" Shiro's  voice asked from Keiths phone (Keith had struggled a bit setting Wii- or rather, Shiro's Wii- so he'd called him for help). The small TV screen flickered for a second before the Wii logo popped onscreen.

"AHA!" Keith exclaimed, a little surprised by how cooperative his TV was being. "It's working, Shiro! Thanks a bunch, man."

Keith received a resigned grunt in response. He sighed, smiling. "I won't forget to ask Lance about Adam, I promise."

"Pinky promise?" Shiro asked, and Keith could imagine Shiro's dark eyes narrowing in seriousness as he held out his pinky.

"Yeah, of course. Pinky promise. I gotta go now, though- Lance'll be here any second and I'm not wearing pants yet."

Shiro wished Keith luck before hanging up. It was Friday night, the weekend after Keith and Lance's carnival date. Both boys had been pretty busy all week because of their graduation that was coming up the following Thursday, but they'd agreed on a hangout at Keith's for videogames and pizza as a reward for getting through finals. Keith had had classes all morning, but he'd taken the afternoon off from the Arboretum so that he'd have time to tidy his apartment until it looked generally acceptable. Being both a neat freak and a perfectionist, the hours had been a whirlwind of Clorox wipes, trash bags, and several loads of laundry that Keith had to lug up and down his building's treacherous stairway.

Keith hoped that his work had paid off as he lit a stick of jasmine incense in the holder by his window. As the sweet, smokey perfume drifted through the apartment as the final touch, Keith walked to the bathroom to give himself a once-over, just in case.

Scrunching his nose so his septum ring wiggled, Keith ran his hands through his dark hair, ruffling the top so that it fell down, slightly over his eyes. He and Lance, who had been texting back and forth intermittently over the week, had agreed to dress down with pj's for the hangout (not a date, Keith reminded himself), and Keith wondered why anyone would ever want to wear anything other than sweats and a hoodie.

Momentarily satisfied with his hair, Keith was about to start pulling pizza fixings out of the fridge when he heard someone knock on his door. Suddenly, his heart was beating a hundred miles a minute and his palms slicked up with sweat. It was then that he realized that he still hadn't put on pants and he nearly tripped over himself as he sprinted to the fresh pile of laundry in the basket in his room to grab some grey sweatpants. Taking a steeling breath, he opened the door.

Lance, a sight as usual, was wearing a fuzzy, over-sized onesie and, oddly, Adidas slides on his feet. He clutched pillow under one arm and dangled a canvas bag from his free hand. "Hey, you," Lance greeted playfully, his eyes shining in the dim hallway light.

Keith smiled back, remembered to breathe, then stepped out of the doorway to let Lance in. "Wow... Your place is nice," Lance commented as he looked around the apartment.

"It's small," Keith said, then, not wanting to sound spoiled, added, "but it's nice to have my own place."

Lance sighed, laughing a little. "Ugh, I bet." He looked back at Keith over his shoulder, "Living with eleven other people can be a little cramped sometimes."

Keith's jaw went slack. Eleven?! "Wow," he let out a low whistle. "That's a lot of people. Do you have to share your room?"

Lance shook his head as he set down his stuff on the coffee table in front of the couch. "Nah, I scored the basement for my birthday last year. I shared with Rachel before that, though, but then Veronica moved out and Rachel got her room and then Nadia and Sylvio got our old room." Keith's head was already spinning with the thought of having the memorize the names of Lance's family. He filed Veronica and Rachel as potential sisters and Nadia and Sylvio as younger siblings.

"Anyways!" Lance said suddenly, looking a little embarrassed, "Let's get this pillow party started, mister."

...

Disappointed but not surprised, Keith thought as his pizza dough ripped for the fourth time, meanwhile Lance was effortlessly tossing his up in the air. As they prepped the 'zas, Lance talked about some of the traditional Cuban dishes he and his abuela made together (which all sounded mouth-wateringly delicious to Keith) and Keith recounted a few of the many times his mother (who was fully Korean) had tried to teach him how to make tteokbokki or pajeon and how he faithfully stuck with his instant ramen leftovers in the fridge.

After what seemed like countless tries of rolling out and stretching his dough, Keith was eventually able to spread it out on the parchment paper in a weird, lumpy, oblong rectangle and begin assembling the toppings. Lance had already slid his pizza, which was adorned with pepperoni and red pepper flakes, into the oven and was currently sitting on the counter, casually scrolling through Twitter. Keith thought about how nice it would feel to step between Lance's knees and wrap his arms around the boy's torso. PIZZA! WE ARE THINKING ABOUT PIZZA!

After a close call involving Keith's pizza, his clumsy hands, and the bottom of the oven, both pizzas were successfully set to cook and the boys took their places on the couch. Lance sat criss-crossed (a tell-tale sign that he wasn't straight) with a pillow in his lap, his knee just brushing Keith's thigh. The florist wondered if the move was intentional, but he had a game to win and he wasn't about to let Lance win just because of the contact.

The boys selected their characters (King Boo for Lance and Dry Bones for Keith) and track (Moo Moo Meadows to start off easy) before hunkering down into game mode. And that was when the fun really started.

...

hey guys! ok so i can explain ahaha,,, i know i promised that i was gonna b more regular and TRUST ME— i feel awful, but i think my excuse is valid, if not at least understandable. these are unfamiliar circumstances so i apologize if i come off as sounding preachy or cheesy but the message is important.

i will always put things that are morally important to me above passion projects. and in the past few months, i have been working on educating myself on, supporting, and fighting for the blm cause. i am white and i recognize my privilege because of my whiteness, but i am trying my best to find and eradicate the sources of internalized racism that is present within me and every other white person on this planet. civil rights for those who this country has wronged for centuries are far overdue, and should never have been taken away in the first place. it is our job to educate and examine ourselves and our moral compasses to fight for those who have been terribly mistreated and abused by the public and those in power just because of the color of their skin. it is up to you and me to do something and make a change so that everyone in this country is truly, indisputably equal.

there's a carrd.co link in my bio that i encourage and expect you to check out, and hopefully updates will be back to normal now that i feel that i have a better understanding on the issues going on right now. please please please do anything and everything you can for this cause, everything counts.

you can always dm me if you have questions, need more links or info, or anything like that, but i also encourage u to strive to look within & educate yourself. there's a highlight on my instagram (c.millsss) with a lot of the informational stuff i've posted on it and i follow a bunch of blm and protest pages if u need more social media coverage.

i am also hoping that all of u are remaining healthy and are still practicing habits to fight the virus, please be careful out there guys,,

here's a little line for u to comment on if i've missed anything while i've been gone or if u want to tell me anything or just say hi <33

again, i'm so so sorry for the wait and radio-silence, the blm movement has just been a priority for me recently and i haven't had the motivation to write.

i love u guys sm <3