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Keith hated Allura.
He never said it but Lance could tell. He was always trying to get out of playing with her at recess, and he frowned more around her, and crossed his arms, and looked like he was eating a slug. And slugs were pretty gross.
But he had no idea why. She was so pretty! And cool! She knew magic tricks that her dad taught her! Her dad wasn’t a magician, which was lame, but he knew some magic tricks even though his real job was Principal of their school.
“¿Keith, por qué odias a Allura? Why do you hate Allura so much?” Sometimes Lance asked Keith questions in Español and then English. His parents said that was a good way to teach him.
“I don’t!” Keith snapped, and that was kinda suspicious.
Lance narrowed his eyes. “Oh yeah? Then why do you always frown when she comes over to play?”
Keith crossed his arms and scowled (Keith’s dad taught him that word and it had become Lances favorite English word) and stomped his foot. “You don’t have to worry! It’s fine. I don’t hate Allura!”
“You do!”
“Don’t!”
“Do!”
“엄마! (Mom!) 란스가 짜증나!”
“No,” Lance shouted without thinking, “Whatever he said, it’s not true!”
Keith’s mom appeared in the doorway, hiding her laughter behind her hand. “Calm down, boys. I could hear you all the way downstairs.” She smiled at them. “What’s this about?”
Keith tried to get a word in, quick Korean spilling out, but Lance made sure he was faster and much louder. “Keith won’t tell me why he hates Allura! He doesn’t ever wanna play with her! Even though she knows magic tricks!”
Keith turned on him in a flash, so fast it reminded Lance of when they’d first met, Keith skidding to an impressive stop for a gentle impact. But he could tell by Keith’s face, he wasn’t about to be any kind of gentle.
“Why do you care about her magic tricks so much?! I could learn magic tricks!” And then he’d spit out something in Korean that had wiped the laughter right off his moms face.
He’d had to go home early that day. Keith sat on his stairs scowling at a wall, Lance staring at him, as Keith’s mom explained to his mom that she needed to have a chat with Keith and he wouldn’t be much fun to play with for the rest of the day.
His stomach twisted up inside him just thinking about it, and he knew he was gonna have to put his foot down. Keith either had to tell him why he hated Allura, or he- he… or he wouldn’t be allowed to hold his hand! Maybe not ever again!
That had been two days ago. Lance sighed, huddled in his coat, Rachel chattering on about something Romelle had done at recess yesterday, and kicked at the brick wall while they waited for Mrs. Holt to get to school and let them into her class.
Keith was taking forever. He looked up at the rest of the class, the other kids who always got there early. Keith always got there right after Lance and Rachel did. But not today.
A sudden terror made him reach out for Rachel’s arm, squeezing her tight.
“Ow! ¡¿Leandro, por qué hiciste eso?! Let go!” (Leandro, why did you do that?!)
But Lance wasn’t listening. “Rachel, what if Keith hates me now because I yelled and he’s going to go to a different class?!”
Rachel yanked her arm away and put her hands on her hips, rolling her eyes at him like their older brother Luis did. “Dummy! Keith es tu novio. He can’t do that until he breaks up with you!”
Lances stomach rolled at that thought, and his heart squeezed in his chest, and he felt tears pricking in his eyes, and he kicked at the wall harder to try to stop himself from crying. He couldn’t cry in front of James! Then he’d call him a baby and his life would be over.
He wondered if Keith would really do that. They weren’t even husbands yet so he could! Mamá said marriage was only for grownups but maybe he should’ve married Keith anyways so he couldn’t break up with him. He bet Allura would marry them at recess! But if Keith was already going to break up with him…
He jumped at the tap on his shoulder and panicked, wiping his face, because he did end up crying just a little bit.
But when he turned around he jumped again because it was Keith! He almost smiled, but then frowned instead. They were fighting and he wasn’t supposed to smile in a fight.
Keith’s own frown got bigger, his eyes narrowing like he was figuring something out. “Were you- did you just cry?! Why? Was it James again, because if he, if he like, called you names then I’ll tell Mrs. Holt and she can-,”
Lance cut him off. “Keith, no! James didn’t even talk to me yet today!” He sniffled a little bit and he almost tried to come up with some other reason he was crying, but he didn’t think it was right to lie to your boyfriend, especially if they might get married at recess some day.
“I was just sad because you might break up with me today,” he sighed, hanging his head. He fiddled with his coat zipper in the silence until he had to look up and see what Keith was doing.
Keith looked confused. “You- what?”
Lance didn’t really want to say that again because it made his insides feel broken, so he didn’t.
After another few seconds of silence, Keith reached up and ruffled Lance’s hair.
“Hey!”
“Lance, my 엄마 (mom) said-,”
Whatever his mom said got cut off by the school bell and they both realized Mrs. Holt had opened her classroom and everyone else was already inside, putting their backpacks away.
Lance squeaked and hurried inside, grabbing Keith by his backpack strap and dragging him in too.
Lance practically bounced in his seat for most of class. Keith kept telling him to hold still but he couldn’t help it! Whatever Keith was gonna say sounded important and he didn’t wanna wait to hear it! But he had to…
Thankfully, it was Wednesday. A half day. And that meant recess was shorter, but it was also earlier! So, after waiting for forever for recess, and bouncing all his energy away, the moment Mrs. Holt said recess, Lance and Keith were off like a bullet across the playground to their special spot where not even Allura was allowed to come in. It was a bush with a small opening that led to a tiny open space behind it.
Lance giggled into his hand, breathless, until he remembered they were still fighting. He turned to Keith and did his best to give him his Serious Face.
Keith, as usual, started without prompt. “My 엄마 said I was being super rude and I should say sorry, so I’m sorry,” he muttered first. “And she said that it wasn’t okay to lie to you either. But I wasn’t lying! I don’t hate Allura, pinky promise.” He held out his pinky and Lance took it with his own, relieved, then confused.
“But then, why do you not want to play with her?” He held his pinky a moment longer and then dropped it.
“Mom talked to me about that, too… It’s not Allura that I don’t wanna play with. It’s just that you like her a lot and it makes me feel like you don’t like me as much.” Lance opened his mouth, shocked, but Keith rushed on. “She said that was wrong! And you can like other people AND me. And I know that! But I still think wrong sometimes.”
Lance thought long and hard about that. He tried to imagine if Keith was super excited about someone else who wasn’t him, and he couldn’t quite do it because Keith was never excited about people, but if he did really like hanging out with someone else… and he talked about them all the time… he frowned. That did sound like something he wouldn’t like. But he wouldn’t want to make Keith not be their friend anymore, so what could make him feel better?
Oh!
“Oh! Keith! What if we just get married? And that way we’re husbands and we’ll always know that we like each other the most, way more than we like our other friends!”
Keith squinted his eyes and hummed. “Hmm. I dunno, can we do that? I thought your mom said that’s for grownups?”
Lance scoffed, waving his hand. “Yeah, but she’s not here right now! And once we’re married she can’t un marry us!”
Keith’s scowl melted off his face and he started smiling again. “Yeah? You think so?” His eyes shone with hesitant excitement.
“Yeah!”
“Ok, let’s do it! Oh, but…,” he frowned again , and poked a hole in his plan, again. “We don’t have rings.”
Oh. Right. “Well… maybe,” he said, thinking out loud as he patted his pockets, “we can just… oh! Here! Tada!” He pulled out a purple marker he’d stuck in his coat earlier and forgot about. “We can use this!”
Keith stared at the marker and then stared at Lance. “What.”
He rolled his eyes. “Ugh, Keith, like this!” He took Keith’s hand in his own. “Which finger do you want your ring to be on?”
Keith pointed to his middle finger.
Lance pulled the cap off with his teeth and then concentrated, drawing a shaky line all the way around Keith’s middle finger. Satisfied, he grinned and handed the marker to Keith.
Keith nodded and took it. “Which finger?”
Hmm. He didn’t want it on the same finger since then Keith might think he was copying him. He didn’t want it on the end of his hand either so not his thumb or pinky. Maybe his pointer? He pointed to his pointer finger and Keith nodded again.
He drew a much nicer line than Lance had been able to do and he was impressed but also annoyed.
But it didn’t matter because this was their wedding and Lance wasn’t gonna ruin it over nicer drawing skills! They probably only had a few more minutes until recess was over!
“Ok, we got the rings, so now we just need someone to say all that stuff people say when they marry people!” Lance bounced up and down, smiling so wide his face hurt.
Keith smiled right back and then, making Lance even happier, asked quietly, “Allura?”
“Yeah! C’mon!” They ducked back out of their special bush and ran back to the playground where Allura liked to play on the monkey bars. Luckily, Romelle and Rachel were racing on them so Allura wasn’t busy.
“Allura,” Lance shouted, “can you marry us?!”
Keith laughed and didn’t even try to shush him.
Allura blinked at them before she smiled too. “Oh! Really!? I get to be your guy’s minster?”
Lance nodded quickly because that word sounded familiar and church-like even though he wasn’t sure what it meant. He held up their hands, clasped together. “We already have the rings so you just have to say all the words you’re supposed to say. Then we’ll be married!”
Allura clapped, hopping from foot to foot. “Okay! Let’s start right now then! Ummm. Ok. Lance and Keith, do you take this man to be your awfully weddinged husband, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?”
Lance squeezed Keith’s hand and looked right into his eyes. “I do,” they said at the same time.
“Then I now pronounce you husband and wife- I mean, husband! You may kiss the husbands!”
Lance kissed Keith’s cheek before he could protest and then dashed away giggling and screaming, knowing Keith would catch him. He knew Keith would always catch him.