Here is the revised version on Keith's chapter. Everything is the same but I added a new 1k words to it so that I could fix my mistake. Hope you enjoy (sorry you have to reread the same 3k words again...)
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Keith stared at his phone as he cuddled with the giant hippo under his blankets quietly, reading and rereading the text he never sent to Lance.

Keith: Lance, I have to confess this to you or I'll never be able to get over it. I like you, not as a friend but as something more.

"So stupid," Keith mumbled to himself as he deleted the draft in his messages. He was so stupid for ever thinking he had a chance with that idiot. He was simple minded for thinking anything could ever go his way. "I wish I never even met him then I wouldn't be in so much pain..."

He thought that if he managed to tell Lance how he felt then he would have a chance at happiness. He really thought when Lance came in with the hippo and stupid country accent that he was about to do the right thing. He thought that if he got to confess to Lance while they were holding hands that everything would be okay and that it would keep him from thinking about how shitty his life was currently. He was stupid, so, so stupid for ever thinking that and now he knew that for sure because Nyma stole Lance's heart. That sleazy jerk who would probably break Lance's heart managed to steal away Keith's chance at happiness. Maybe it was all for the best though, he did get the adorable stuffed animal hippo he slept with all night.

He loved it so much, it was as big as his torso, it had two pastel blue eyes with a little pink tongue sticking out of its mouth and it was so fluffy and warm. It made him feel better just being able to hold it close to his chest and breath in the lingering scent of Lance. He pursed his lips as he played with the hippo's little legs, flopping them around to simulate a wave as he thought of that stupid country accent Lance had used before.

He named the hippo of course, why wouldn't he? He named it Laney originally, but Vivian thought it was such a lame name, so he renamed it to Mr. Bubbles. It wasn't a manly name but neither was Laney so Keith decided to just roll with it anyways.

"What's this do, bro?" Pidge asked as he poked at Keith's IV, scaring the poor kid half to death.

Pidge, Shiro, and Allura had decided to spend the night in the hospital so that Keith's family could get rest and talk about what they were going to do about Keith's problem. If you were wondering why Pidge was saying bro, then here's a little extra information; Pidge sent the group a picture of two video game characters that looked like the handsome squidward versions of Keith and Lance kissing and ever since then, Pidge thought saying bro around Keith was the best thing.

Keith sat up and swatted Pidge's hand away with annoyance, "That's my IV line, don't touch it you pest," He growled.

"Be nice Keith," Shiro scolded as he sat next to Allura holding his cup of coffee he had bought, though Keith had a strong feeling it was probably an alcoholic beverage since Shiro was on dad duty all night keeping Keith and Pidge from annoying one another. "And Pidge, don't touch anything that is attached to Keith in any way," He added.

Pidge slouched slightly as he allowed his arms to hang down limply, "We've been here for the entire night, I have to find some way to keep myself entertained that doesn't involve bugging Keith's phone to read his texts," he raised his little brown brows as a sly look crossed his face, "Rawr," he did a little hand movement to mimic a cat clawing at the air and Keith's face turned bright red in realization that he saw Raven's texts to him.

Keith threw his phone at the little gremlin, "Why are you torturing me!" He shouted, "Now that you're identifying as a guy I can hit you without regretting it later!"

Allura glared up from her book and snapped it shut causing a loud echoing noise to silence the room. Her blonde eyebrows were dipped into a deep frown and her face screamed murder as she stared at Keith causing shivers to run down his spine. "You are to not hit anybody. It doesn't matter if Pidge identifies as a boy now because violence is a sign of immaturity and peace should be your first choice. Always," She said firmly.

Keith felt like he just got scolded by the mother he never had. "Peace?" Keith scrunched up his nose in annoyance and crossed his arms over his chest in a pout. "I'll show some peace when I get a new liver!" Keith shouted in anger.

"Dude," Pidge stared at Keith with a disappointed face.

Shiro frowned and picked up Keith's phone that had clattered across the floor. He stared at it for a long moment before he held it out for Keith with a gentle smile on his face. He looked like an omen from god; his presence calmed Keith and gave him a sense of security like Lance had given him when he came with Mr. Bubbles yesterday.

"Keith," Shiro began with a soft tone, his eyebrows were turned upwards in a sympathetic expression and continued, "I know that you're feeling hopeless right now, but I believe you'll get the liver you need. You've just got to believe you'll get it as well and get yourself out of the pessimistic state your condition has forced you into."

Keith continued to pout as he stared up at Shiro, how could he think like an optimist when all that currently plagued his mind was Lance's stupid news and the problems he ignored that landed him in the hospital with a midget who wouldn't stop touching the medical equipment, an honor roll student who didn't think much about anything other than politics, and a guy who acted like a total dad. "You don't know a thing about me," Keith grumbled.

Shiro set the phone down on the bed and placed his hand on the top of Keith's head before he fluffed out Keith's stupid mullet. "I don't have to know you personally to know that you're going to be just fine Keith."

Somehow Shiro's words were enough for Keith to forget about all the bad stuff that had been happening, even if it was just for a few seconds. Keith lowered his arms from his chest and began to pick at the thin sheets quietly as his thick brows dipped down slightly. "Maybe, I mean only a miracle could actually save me now..."

Pidge smirked as he looked at Keith from behind his phone screen, "Maybe only a miracle like Lance kissing you could save you," he snickered and began to point at Keith with both hands, "Right?"

"Pidge, tell me more about this GameCube thing you were talking about last night," Allura crossed her legs and leaned forward to tug on the short kid's green sweatshirt in order to force Pidge to sit down. "Also, tell me about the game where you're in that big house with the guns and people."

"You're talking about Resident Evil," Pidge started to gush about the infamous zombie game with eyes sparkling in excitement, "That was one of the first zombie games and let me tell you about sandwiches Allura."

Keith and Shiro felt bad as Allura's face dropped into a look of despair while Pidge babbled on and on about the evolution of Resident Evil and the gaming consoles. Even if Allura had shut down the whole Lance thing that Pidge brought up, Shiro was still giving Keith that 'what-are-you-up-to' look of his. Keith found his face beginning to burn in shame as he realized Shiro was not going to just let something like this slide. "Pidge, don't tease Keith about his crushes," Shiro yawned as he stretched his arms above his head and winked casually at Keith.

Keith felt his chest warm up with the knowledge that everyone in this room had his back and even if Pidge poked fun at him, even Pidge wouldn't go around gushing about Keith's personal life. He smiled as he stared up at Shiro fondly, "Thanks," He stated with a relieved expression.

The door to Keith's room swung open as his doctor walked in with her ashy brown hair hanging over her shoulders like a waterfall that stood out against the teal blouse she tucked neatly into her pencil skirt. "Good morning Keith," Doctor Ari's eyes flicked up from the patient chart she held in her hands and landed on the three non-cancer patients smiling at her sheepishly, "and company," She dipped her head slightly in a greeting before her almond shaped eyes squinted slightly to focus on the chart again.

"Ari," Keith greeted his doctor with her first name. They had grown close over the time he spent in this hospital when he first learned he had cancer. He loved his doctor because she didn't suck up to him, sugarcoat things for him, and she didn't give him special treatment other patients wouldn't be allowed to have simply because of his family name or job. She was someone he could trust. "How close to death am I?" Keith asked with a wider smile on his face.

Allura's face drained of its color as she stared at Keith in horror, "Keith, don't say things like-"

Ari shrugged and fixed her lab coat nonchalantly, "Pretty damn close if I do say so myself, kiddo," She stated causing Keith's friend's jaws to drop in shock at her bedside manners. She flipped through Keith's patient chart and furrowed her brow slightly as she told him exactly what was up with his health at the moment. "Originally you only had a hepatic adenoma so we gave you the medications you absolutely needed and gave you some very strict rules that you had to abide by, or rather you should have because if you had listened to me then you wouldn't be in this situation," She stated firmly as she took out her pen and gently jabbed Keith's right side causing him to flinch in pain. "See that? That's what happens when you don't listen to the specialist honey; also you get jaundice like you got in your right eye there, but I'm not going to poke that."

"Your bedside manner is quite..." Allura gulped slightly as doctor Ari met her blue gaze from across the bed in curiosity. "Something," She finished when Shiro and her exchanged a look together all the while Pidge was practically on top of Keith watching everything that doctor Ari did to him.

Ari nodded in agreement as she looked at Pidge with a weird expression on her face as the little twerp tried to take a peek at Keith's patient chart Ari held away from him. "Yes, it isn't the best, but who cares, as long as I get him the best treatment I can, right?" She inquired before flicking Pidge's little nose with the tip of her pen in annoyance causing the brunette to back of slightly as he covered his nose with a tight little frown upon his face. "Anyways back to you Keith," Ari took a deep breath and went back to her chart, "Since your family chose to not risk anything with a surgical removal of the hepatic adenoma you were advised to take your medication to keep it from rupturing; which it did. Since you chose to deal with the pain of the rupture which is honestly bewildering," She looked down at Keith to meet his purple eyes as she waved her hand around with wide eyes. "I mean, who does that except for a crazy man who wants the sweet embrace of death?"

"Did you just say 'The sweet embrace of death' to a dying patient?" Shiro chimed in as he held his index finger up in confusion.

Ari ignored him and continued to make Keith feel bad for causing so much concern, "Simply because of this, you developed jaundice, bleeding esophageal varices, and your newest cancer; hepatocellular carcinoma which is actually quite common and only later into the disease does it spread."

"So he doesn't need to get a full liver transplant then?" Pidge asked as he stood at the side of Keith's bed with his arms crossed and brows furrowed as he slid deep into thought. Keith sat in the middle of doctor Ari and his younger friend with Mr. Bubbles in his little arms as he buried his face into it with a distant expression on his face. "You said that only later does it spread to other parts of his liver right? The esophageal varices only developed after the rupture right? If that's what his problems are for now then couldn't you nip this in the bud right now and take out the piece that's infected and replace it with a new one, perhaps from a live donor?"

No one in the room understood a single word that doctor Ari and Pidge began exchanging back and forth as they discussed the course of action that the surgeons could take in order to help Keith. Sure, Keith was thankful for Pidge caring so much about him even though they barely knew each other, but he couldn't help but feel a selfish thought cross his mind for only a moment; could he refuse the treatment and just be spared from all the chaos in his life. He wouldn't have to keep up an image for the public; he could leave and abandon the problems that were tearing him apart like the whole Lance thing. He wanted to have peace for the first time in years. All through his life he suffered from abandonment issues and commitment problems all because of his birth parents. His mother abandoned him and his father, so Keith's dad was forced to raised him until he was seven, he took off just like his mother when things began to get tough financially and left Keith to try to take care of himself all alone. Social services picked him up weeks later when his teachers began to notice signs of abuse and neglect from Keith, he was given to the Kogane family not that long afterwards on October 23; his birthday.

Ever since then he learned he couldn't trust anyone and started to label the people he met at school weird names and he even did it with his new family. Sandra never saw him as her own child, but rather a little cash cow that could earn her big bucks if she got him into the spotlight at a young age, which she did, and by doing so it only continued to harm Keith's social abilities and emotional state. The only person he ever allowed to get close to him was his little sister Vivian who also suffered from the neglect that the Kogane parents showed towards their kids. Only until after he started going to the support group meeting did he find himself wishing for someone to be by. Only because of Lance did he feel the need to actually call people by their real names rather than horrible nicknames like 'Daddy issues' or even 'Skank of the century' and being diagnosed with cancer made him push people even further away.

Was it selfish for him to want to be spared the trouble of having his heart being torn up into tiny little pieces every time he saw Lance with Nyma? He didn't want to see Lance smile with anyone other than him and the thought alone pained him to think about being without him. "What if...I don't want the treatment?" Keith said out loud causing the room to fall into a deafening silence. He looked up and nearly dropped Mr. Bubbles as he stared at his doctor with this desperate look in his eyes that was almost animalistic, "I mean maybe it's a sign that I got this again?" He slowly dragged his right hand across the white sheet to stare down at his palm.

There was a saying that went along the lines of this; 'You can tell a lot about a person by their hands.' What did Keith's say to the strangers around him? Did it say or give away all of the pain he's been through all his life; the abuse, the alienation, and even the emotional trauma? He wished he could know what those palms of his told the world around him he had spent so long pushing away.

"Keith," Shiro said in worry, "Would you listen to yourself? You, the guy who thinks god is just this lie people listen to in order to feel a sense of security, are saying that there's this higher power at play in your life. Can't you see the irony in this?" His grey eyes flicked around the room for someone else to speak up, his scar became wrinkled as he scrunched up his nose.

Allura dropped her gaze to her lap as she avoided all eye contact with Shiro. Maybe Keith wasn't the only one in this room that was having second thoughts about even fighting to be in this world. Ari clenched her jaw slightly as she lowered the patient chart, "You're not old enough to refuse any sort of treatment since you're still only seventeen. You're parents or guardians must give me the consent, but even so if you died, your parents could be charged with neglect and your sister could be taken from them. Keith, I highly suggest that you-"

"Okay," Keith slowly nodded his head as he shut down the argument. He began to pick at Mr. Bubble's fluffy fur nervously, "What is the treatment option that you believe to be best for me then?" He asked as he kept his head low.

He couldn't believe that he had just openly admitted that he didn't want to continue living just because of selfish reasons that could easily be fixed if he would just stop running from it all. God, what the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just be a normal person and fix his issues like any other person would do?

"A full liver transplant is the one option we would like to explore more to make sure that you won't have any more issues with cancer in adulthood. Since you have jaundice already, we don't want to keep that old liver in you anymore."

He needed someone next to him to hold his hand right now and tell him that everything was okay. He needed lance here to comfort him just like he did when Lance was bent over the toilet at the mall crying as he threw up. He needed someone to be let into his life, to be able to help him with the things that the doctors couldn't replace.

"You're just lucky that the cannabis you smoked managed to slow the growth of cancer cells," Ari placed her hand on top of Keith's head and ruffled his hair gently as the tiniest smile formed on her lips. "I know you like jumping to conclusions so I wanted to give you the news myself; just because we did a drug test on you and marijuana showed up on it, it doesn't take you off the transplant list."

Keith felt a weight lift off his shoulders suddenly as he found his vision becoming blurry with tears. "I'm not off the list?" He asked the woman standing above him. He felt so happy, so relieved, so many emotions at once that he forgot about ever telling Lance that he wouldn't get a new liver. All of the previous day's events were nothing but a blurred and obscured memory of the past that didn't matter anymore because he was so happy.

Ari shook her head, "You're actually in the top forty Keith, congratulations kiddo."

Keith couldn't even get out the words he wanted to say before Allura jumped out of her seat dropping her book on the floor as she threw her arms around Keith in joy. Before long Keith had Pidge on his bed hugging him from behind while Shiro held all of them in his arms. They were all laughing and congratulating Keith as he held Mr. Bubbles close to his chest and found himself shedding tears of pure joy, joy that he was going to live another day.

"We need to celebrate," Shiro stated as he and Allura pulled away, his arm still on her back almost like they were dating. "Is it okay if we have a small party in here later on Doctor Ari?" He asked with his grey eyes full of hope.

The doctor hesitated for a moment, but when she saw how happy her patient looked, she couldn't refuse. "Of course, but nothing that can ruin his health is allowed. If I see any traces of alcohol I am going to show you the exit with my foot," She pointed out with a serious face.

"Alright!" Pidge shouted as he continued to lean against Keith's back, "I'll have my brother bring our game system so we can play Mario Kart together."

"What about this Residential of Evil you spoke of before Pidge?" Allura asked curiously.

Pidge snorted slightly and shook his head, "You wouldn't even get through the first ten minutes Allura, you're nothing but a scrub."

"You're nothing but a pleb for using such old terminology."

"Keith, be nice!" Shiro scolded.

Keith laughed as he snuggled the stuffed hippo. If he had to count off all the things he was thankful for he would only list one thing; the support group. It introduced him to people who genuinely cared about him rather than his job, even if they had only known each other for a few weeks. Maybe he was just stuck on the idea of being Lance's first kiss, perhaps that was why he thought he had feelings for the boy. Yeah, that had to be it, there was no way Keith could be falling for someone so early.

"Let's invite Hunk and Shay," Keith shouted as he began to think about what they could do as a celebration in a hospital room.

Pidge raised his brow as he peeked around Keith's head to look at his face from behind, "What about Lance? You can't be Brogane without your Leith," he winked devilishly.

Keith felt his cheeks burn up slightly in embarrassment as everyone looked at him expectantly (Though Ari had snuck out of the room without the teens noticing) and looked down at Mr. Bubbles quietly. He loved the gift that Lance had given him, but it wasn't enough to buy back his friendship, especially not after how he chose Nyma over him. He never even took Keith's feelings into consideration the night before, so why should he even consider inviting a wheezing bag of dicks like Lance.

"I'm not Brogane anymore, Pidge," Keith stated as he played with Mr. Bubbles' little arm. "He's busy with Nyma anyways."

The thing was, Lance was busy doing absolutely nothing in the comfort of his own home while Keith made plans that purposely excluded him.

He was huddled under the blankets of his bed as he tried to keep himself from crying. He had been like this since he got home last night from the hospital. His chest felt empty and his stomach felt heavy, he was absolutely devastated by Keith's reaction when he told him about Nyma.

"I thought he would have been understanding," Lance whimpered to himself as he stared at the instagram photo he saved of Keith. He loved this photo so much, Keith was so happy and his smiled seemed to take away some of the pain he was feeling.

Lance was stupid, he was so incredibly stupid for allowing his first real friend to slip away from him so easily. He was a disgrace to the world of social interactions, wasn't he? He believed he had been doing what was best, no, he wanted to believe that what Nyma wanted was for the best. Nyma had to be right about this, she was the most popular girl at school with way more experience with friends than he had ever had in his life.

Sure he had a few friends in middle school he would play video games with after classes ended, but no one compared to Marcia. He and Marcia would always be together, they were practically joined at the hip as kids. She didn't care about what he had looked like back then, in fact she would try to fight anyone who bullied Lance for being overweight, but it changed once he became bulimic. After that, she wanted nothing to do with him as more and more people began to push him out of social circles and forced him to become an outcast.

He needed his sister now, he needed her wise advice from three years ago that got him through the bullying in middle school. He began to sob quietly in his unlit room, all alone beneath the heavy quilts of his bed.

Marcia was outside the door listening to her twin quietly crying himself to sleep as she pressed her hand against her mouth and fought the urge to bust into the room and sit with Lance. She couldn't do it though, she couldn't be there for him anymore now that she had abandoned him for so long, leaving him to face the reality of the cruel world without any moral support.

She wasn't someone he needed anymore in his life, she was just a useless piece of trash that one would find on the street. "I'm sorry, Lance."

I realized I had been ignoring Marcia's character by mistake so I decided to start developing her character now along with Lance and Keith. Sorry if it doesn't seem natural, just tell me and I will fix it as per usual because I need the acceptance of other people to feel good about my writing.

-Anri