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“You ready to go?”
Adam looked up from where he was packing up his overwhelming stack of messy papers to grade. There stood Shiro, leaning one shoulder against the doorframe, arms crossed, smile not completely innocent.
“Well aren’t you a good fíance, picking me up after work.” Adam teased.
“Only the best for you.” Shiro stepped inside the classroom, letting the door swing shut. In the quiet privacy of the classroom, where desks rested in askew rows and whiteboards still had complicated Physics formulas and equations, he leaned forward and pressed a deep kiss to Adam’s lips.
Adam immediately reciprocated. They didn't get a lot of moments like this — quiet, total privacy. They were usually so caught up in mission debriefings, homework to grade, running cadet drills and raising their own mess of a rebellious cadet. Times to enjoy each other’s company truly was precious.
Still, Adam broke the kiss first, never one to go too far in public. “Hey, we have the whole weekend to do that.”
“I doubt it. Keith’s already at home.” Shiro mumbled, still pressed against his boyfriend.
“We’ll work around him. Send him on an errand or something.”
"Doubt that will get rid of him."
Shiro snickered as Adam finally shoved the rest of his papers in his bag and the two walked out of the classroom. They left the buildings and walked further down the hill to their on-base housing that the Garrison staff were assigned. It was also where Keith liked to live to get out of the “horrid stuffiness and extreme disgustingness” of his dorm and roommate.
They didn’t speak until they reached the door. Adam inserted his key and twisted the lock open, pushing open the door, expecting nothing more than Keith lounging on the couch, ruining his dinner appetite with chips and the terribly unhealthy energy drinks Shiro keeps buying for him.
Except —
“Keith, we’re — whoa, whoa, whoa!”
“What the hell?” Shiro barked behind him, stumbling to a stop behind Adam.
And Keith, lo and behold, was practically frozen in shock (Shiro called it his “deer in headlights look'') underneath another boy. Both were laying on the couch.
Both of them had no shirts on.
“If we don’t move they won’t see us,” The boy mumbled from where he was still draped over Keith, maybe hoping they wouldn’t hear.
Keith glared at him. “They’re not mole rats.”
“What the hell is going on?” Adam interrupted, his voice loud and sharp and nothing short of dangerous.
Keith (roughly) shoved the boy off of him and they both scrambled for their Garrison-issued, absurdly orange uniforms. Standing up and desperately trying to button the shirts, the boy was facing them, and Shiro and Adam could get a good look at his face.
“McClain?” Adam couldn’t even hide his shock, because what the hell was Cadet McClain doing making out with Keith?
The two hated each other! Hated each other. Neither Shiro nor Adam had seen the two have a healthy conversation, one that wasn't riddled with verbal abuse and insults sharp enough to cut far too deep.
“Uh, L-Lieutenant Wrona.” He raised his arm in an awkward, hesitant salute, and looked like he absolutely wanted to sink into the floor when he saw Shiro behind him. “Officer Shirogane.”
It came out as more of a squeak.
“Okay, don’t freak out, it’s not what it looks like.” Keith stood up too, fumbling with the buttons on the uniform.
Adam couldn’t help but notice that Keith’s was too big and Lance’s much too small, but both boys seemed desperate for some sort of covering that they didn’t bother switching.
“In their defense, it’s exactly what it looks like,” Lance mumbled, again maybe hoping that Shiro and Adam wouldn’t hear.
“Who’s side are you on?”
“There’s sides? ”
“I said, what the hell is going on?” Adam said again between clenched teeth.
Keith and Lance looked at each other for a split second before looking away, as if they were burned. Lance fixated on the rug. Keith looked at a random spot on the wall. “Well…”
Shiro was still silent behind him, probably from shock, but Adam could feel the confusion and indignation radiating off of him. His own frustration was beginning to rise.
“McClain.” Adam snapped.
“Sir?” Lance couldn’t even look at the two men.
“I’m going to say this in the nicest way possible. Get out of my home.”
“Already leaving, sir.”
He hadn't even finished his sentence before he grabbed up his stuff into his arms and brushed past them. Shiro and Adam watched him race down their porch steps and into the street, shirt still small and half-buttoned, face a shade of red Adam hadn't thought was physically possible.
The walk of shame for a kid who hadn't done anything sexual, but was unfortunately stupid enough to get caught.
Once he was safely away from the door, Shiro pushed it forward. The door swung closed with a heavy thud, leaving a deafening silence in its wake.
Keith meanwhile, looked like he was begging every star out there to let the ground open him up and swallow him whole.
“So.” Adam roughly plunked his stuff down on the table hard enough to make Keith visibly wince. “Don’t you have some explaining to do.”
_____
Monday came around soon enough, with the harshness of early morning drills and surprise pop quizzes. But Adam? He would be lying if he said he wasn’t absolutely enjoying this.
It was last period of the day. The period with both Keith and Lance.
Immediately, he noticed how Lance avoided Adam and Keith’s gaze, instead hiding his face behind a book. When Keith entered the room, he immediately headed to his seat without looking at anyone.
And it was so apparently obvious that both boys were pretending they didn't exist.
Adam expected it from Keith, who they grounded over the weekend (and, for once, received no argument). He came in first, pointedly looking everywhere except Adam, and stalked to his seat in the back row, immediately covering his face with his textbook. Lance shuffled in only seconds later, ears already ablaze in a way that only deep, soul-burning shame could inspire. He too didn't even glance towards Keith or the front of the classroom the entire period.
It was hilarious.
But, Adam still had some unfinished business.
“Alright guys, I’ll let you go a bit early today.” He announced at the end of the period glancing at the textbook. “Finish up those two worksheets and check your answers on pages 35 and 36.”
Happy chatter broke out immediately between the cadets and all of them began to pack their stuff away. Lance fumbled with his bag in his haste, and Adam almost chuckled.
“Cadet McClain, hang back for a few moments please.”
Lance froze and a chatter of “ooh” went around the classroom like wildfire. Adam let his eyes wander to the back, where Keith’s face was such a bright shade of pink it nearly glowed.
As all the students filed out of the classroom (Keith hesitantly), Lance shuffled up the desk with his shoulders hunched high and his eyes barely able to meet Adam’s.
“S-Sir?”
“Keith tells me that you two are not dating.” Adam got right to it. “If this is true, why were you making out with him on my couch?”
Lance winced. “Uh…I uh — I’m sorry?”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I uh…I guess I don’t know.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, sir.”
Adam watched him with as intense of a gaze as he could muster. Silence settled like a weighted blanket until Lance fidgeted and cleared his throat, clearly fighting the urge to bolt.
“Uh — I-I’m — um — I'm sorry for my actions in your home I — that wasn’t uh…a-appropriate of me. But uh…I really — uh — I really like Keith and he’s, er…reciprocated these uh, these feelings. But if he’s not ready to date yet, then that’s okay with me. But I’m not just like…doing...st-stuff with him for kicks I um — I really like him? But I’m still sorry for using your home for that…kinda stuff.”
Adam blinked down at him. He expected a fumbling, loose apology — not a genuinely mature one from the boisterous class clown.
“Hm.” He adjusted his glasses slowly, never taking his eyes off Lance. “I appreciate that apology. You’re free to go.”
Lance stared at him, clearly surprised he didn't receive a month's worth of detention. “Oh uh — I…okay. Thanks. Thank you, sir. Uh —bye.”
“Bye Lance.