L: You'll never be a man
Why don't you understand?
You are who you are
And that will never change

Nobody wants to speak to you
Nobody wants to watch what you do
You're fading into the background 
A ghost gliding through the halls

The sun is slowly starting to set
Highlighting what you'll never get
A gradient of pink and blue
You fall too far on the spectrum

The mirror cracks as you scream
Why won't anybody help me
Pronouns lap against the shore
Soon to bury me in the waves

L: Fricking hate being alive 

K: Don't say that

L: No one will ever understand

K: I kind of get it. Not gender dysphoria but not being accepted and stuff

L: I know… do you think I'm being too dramatic?

K: No

K: It's difficult

L: Yeah

L: Anyway

K: Anyway

L: How are you

K: It's 3am

L: So??

K: What happy person is up at 3am

L: True

L: What's up?

K: Just kinda lonely??? Thinking about my lack of friends

K: I know its not as serious as your problems so don't worry about it

L: Do you want to come over?

K: At 3am?

L: Yeah

L: Just sneak out

K: I haven't even been to your house before 

L: It's fineee

K: Then… sure

K: Send me the address 

L: Okayyy

K: Hopefully it's a walkable distance

“Uh… hi,” Keith forced an awkward smile as Lance swung his front door open. Lance was wearing an oversized hoodie with a band logo on and a pair of skinny jeans that looked like they could have been stolen from Keith’s wardrobe. “You like All Time Low?”

“Yeah. They’re my favourite band, if you couldn’t tell.” Lance responded, gesturing to the image on his hoodie. The logo was from the Future Hearts era which, although outdated, was representative of Keith’s favourite album.

“What’s your favourite song?”

“That’s a hard question,” Lance guided Keith into his house and up the stairs towards his bedroom. Keith couldn’t help but notice the sheer amount of baby photos adorning the walls, featuring all of Lance’s siblings. “Probably Break Your Little Heart or something.” He ended up saying as they both sat down on his space-themed bed covers.

“Good choice.”

“Yup…” Lance glanced around his room in an almost frantic way, his head jolting in all directions until it settled on his Switch. “Do you want to play some video games?”

“Sure, what do you have?”

“Let’s see…” Lance scanned his shelf, eyes tracing the names of all of his games. “I have Snipperclips? Mario Kart? Smash?”

“Let’s play Smash. I’ve only ever played it alone and it’s honestly not the same as with real humans.”

“I get that.” Lance threw the remote in Keith’s vague direction but, luckily, Keith caught it in his right hand. He then leaned forward to turn the TV on and load up Smash.

After directing through the main menu, the character selection screen lit up the TV. Lance was immediate in selecting Yoshi, claiming he was an “absolute classic” in an almost obnoxiously loud tone but, thankfully, he didn't seem to wake anyone up. Keith took his time until he settled on Link.

They selected one of the Pokemon maps and spawned on the screen, ready to fight. After the countdown, both began spamming the buttons with the hope of a win. Eventually, Link slashed his sword at Yoshi and the timer ran out, announcing Keith’s win.

“Ha!” Keith exclaimed with a wide grin on his face. “Link is the best character in Smash: confirmed.”

“You got lucky,” Lance grumbled, folding his arms and pouting (it was kind of cute but Keith would never admit that aloud). “Rematch?”

“It’s on!”

They managed to complete a few games before Lance got tired of losing and switched the game off in favour of something else. “What now?”

“I don’t know… I don’t usually hang out with friends.”

“Right… we can watch something?"

"Sure."

"I have an idea…" Lance clicked a few buttons on his TV remote until the Disney Plus logo filled the screen. After pressing something else, he opened Love Victor, the gay TV show he had mentioned once over text. "I assume you still haven't seen it?" Keith shook his head and, so, Lance pressed play.

Just a couple of episodes and an hour later, Keith felt something hit his shoulder gently. He flickered his gaze to see that Lance had fallen asleep on his shoulder. His mouth was cracked open and soft sounds were escaping in an adorable snore. A few weeks ago, he might have pushed Lance away but he didn't. Instead, he allowed his own eyes to fall shut too.

-

When Keith woke up, the first thing he did was meet eyes with Lance who was staring in his direction. Blushing and turning away, Lance murmured, "I was about to wake you up…"

"Oh, thanks."

"Yeah, sorry for falling asleep on you like that. I'm sure it was weird for you." Somehow, Lance got even redder. He resembled a tomato more than a human.

Keith shrugged in an attempt to look nonchalant, despite having kind of liked the feeling of falling asleep with somebody else. "It's fine but I should probably go."

"Okay. Did you want to borrow some clothes or something? I know you slept in those so…"

Keith's initial thought was that it would be kind of cute. His second thought was that it would be really weird to wear someone else's clothes. "Nah, I'll just shower and get dressed when I get home."

Lance nodded before guiding Keith to the bottom of the stairs. "See you Monday."

Keith had every intention of being in school so he replied with, "Yep."