Ok so finally this shit week is over 🤧 It was so stressful and embarrassing. Just this Thursday I was hurrying to school and here in Sweden it's currently like -27499202°C outside so it's SUPER slippery and of course my clumpy ass decided to trip and fall in front of a bunch of year sixers, seveners and eighters :') And the same day, my clothes started to fuck up so I had to fix it in the bathroom and of course I forgot to lock the door so one of my classmates walked up on me almost topless😭 But luckily we hang out sometimes so it wasn't just some random person.

BUT UM, HELLO, THE MOST AMAZING PERSON'S BIRTHDAY IS TODAY??? HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHANTELLE❤️❤️ I already wished you happy birthday on snapchat with those EXTRAORDINARY pictures ☆=(ゝω･)/, but you deserve congratulations on every platform💕

This chapter is dedicated to you <3 You'll see what I mean( ◑ω◑☞)☞

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Keith had got a whole of two hours of sleep, which he counted as progress. Not that he had expected any rest when his head was stuffed with so much nonsense, anyways. Lance was nonsense. Everything related to him in particular were nonsense. Especially when it kept Keith awake at night. Not like it usually did - thinking about the blue paladin weren't something he was fond of doing for obvious reasons. But this time, it was something different. How yesterday ended between them was the reason his head was filled with the nonsense in the first place.

Keith could get used to this: it didn't require much, only giving kindness for getting kindness and peace in return. All he had to do was to refrain himself from developing his and Lance's bickerings into actual arguments, and maybe everyday would end on such good notes. It was just so arduous to reflect over what to say to sound nice, but Keith knew he would get over his habit of being mean eventually - slowly -, and only if Lance weren't aggravating enough to make him break his own promise. 

The third day of Query Quest were going okay so far, except for Lance's general annoyance, but Keith couldn't really get rid of it, so he just had to live with it. Meanwhile, he had to act present, and not let himself be drifted away to the same field of thoughts that had kept him awake all night. He couldn't help but to occasionally wonder though, if the other boy would give him that smile today, telling Keith how he appreciated what he had done. He wondered if that smile would keep him up at night again, making him wonder what it meant. Just like those two other times it had happened. But he never got wiser after all the hard thinking, if only he just got more and more confused, building up theories in his head, wondering which fit best for this current situation.

"I'm starting to consider that Shiro to you is like Percy to Nico", Lance mumbled to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Nico does like Percy as his brother." But then he paled, his head shooting up, and he gripped Keith's hand firmly. "Wait, but Nico liked Percy romantically too, so does that mean that you like Shiro too?" Suddenly, Lance put his hand on the other's shoulder, looking him deep in the eye, keeping a serious look on his face. "It's okay Keith, you aren't living in the 1940's anymore. I will accept you. I will be Reyna for you."

"What the hell are you talking about", Keith snapped, slapping away Lance's hand on his shoulder, instantly building his walls around him twice as thick, throwing his promise out into space for the moment. He hoped that he wasn't stuttering. "And who is this Nico anyways? Your friend or something? This is the second time you are referring me to him."

"God, I wish", Lance muttered to himself, glaring down at his hand, but then he looked up again, his eyebrows vanishing into his hairline. "But oh my God, don't you know who he is? Or Percy?"

Keith blinked in utter bewilderment, completely clueless.

"You don't know about the Percy Jackson books?!" he shrieked, looking near to fainting.

"Books?" Keith said monotonous. "You're referring me to a fictional character, which, if I need to clarify, doesn't exist?"

"He does exist!" the brown haired boy hurriedly yelled, his eyebrows twitching. He aggressively pointed to his chest. "Here! In my heart!"

"That still doesn't make sense for you to refer me to him." 

"You're literally the same person!" 

"Oh wow", Keith said with a roll of his eyes. "The other me is non-existent. How wonderful."

"Yeah yeah, say whatever you want, but Nico is you, and you are Nico. Book or not." Lance stared deep into the other's eyes. "But if you haven't heard of Nico, I'm assuming you haven't heard of Patch? From Hush Hush?"

"You got that right."

"Ah!" Lance clutched his heart in agony, squeezing his eyes shut as he fake sobbed.

"Quit whining", Keith growled, still securing his mind with the walls around him, trying to forget what Lance had said earlier. "Can I guess, Patch is me and I am Patch?"

"Damn right! Only that you aren't as near as flirtatious and mischievous as him. You're like... an uncool version of him. You don't even deserve his full name. You're just... Pa. Without the capital P. Just... pa. Did you hear the lowercase of that p..."

"I don't know what kind of reality you are living in, but I suggest you come back to this one. Where there are real people around you, and not two alternative me's that is only existing in books that nobody has heard of."

"You are the only one that hasn't heard of them", Lance shot back, pointing a long, lanky finger at his rival, getting it too close to the other's face. Keith eyed it carefully. "You have just missed out on something as fascinating as this. Living in a shack in the middle of a desert is the equivalent of living under a rock, after all."

Keith took Lance's finger in between his thumb and index finger, pinching it hard, and the other freezed. "I suggest you take your finger out of my face, or else you will get a book in your face, real hard." He slowly lowered Lance's hand, eyeing him the whole time, making sure to come off as intimidating as possible. His promise to himself was still floating somewhere out in space, and he wasn't planning on taking it back in, seeing Lance's behavior now. But if they did end up on bad terms, there wasn't a chance of witnessing that smile again, which then wouldn't turn into nonsense in Keith's head and he would fortunately get three hours of sleep this night. Maybe he had something to look forward to.

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H

e looked forward to nothing.

They had pulled through with another day of Query Quest, yes, but definitely not in the way Keith wanted it to be. No, this was just like the first time they had played, only that they actually asked proper questions but replied with snarky answers, which certainly did not end in the same smiles as yesterday. But the sleeping situation didn't get better, either. Now there were something else corruption Keith's mind. But this wasn't nonsense. This was his darkest thoughts, somethig he had wanted to keep untouched for a while now, and it was ridiculous how he had almost succeeded in hiding it, but then one little comment from Lance and all his hard work was ruined.

He swung his sword harder, grunting with every pull and move. His muscles had since long ago protested, and his brain too, but he kept pushing. Maybe he could just make the drone knock him unconscious, to help with the sleep.

I will accept you.

Keith faltered. The drone kicked him in the stomach. It felt like moving through jelly, when he was actually speed-flying across the room, landing on his back on the floor with a groan. The jelly was still surrounding him, even when he was defeated. He didn't understand why. He couldn't understand why.

"E-end training sequence", he panted, the drone one meter from reaching his non-moving body on the floor. It halted to a stop, and disappeared through an appearing hatch bellow.

No, he thought, staring up at the ceiling, Tracing every line with his eyes, his chest sinking and heaving quickly.

No, you won't.

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You BET I will draw a Klance Hush Hush AU in the future that I will never finish! Patch is bae, period.

But Keith is baer.

BUT HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN!! I HOPE THESE REFERENCES WERE SUPRISING YOU AGAIN❤️❤️

And yeah, I had to search for that Percy Jackson information, which made me love Nico even more, even if I haven't even read the books😍

I know this was very short, but I really wanted to get this chapter out today, plus the updates can come more frequently with shorter chapter🤷🏻‍♀️