Keith checked his watch as he stood outside of the flower shop, keys in hand. He had locked up the shop about ten minutes ago. Lance was late and Keith wasn't surprised. Across the street, the warm yellow glow from the Seidou's diner shone with excitement as the customers hustled in and out. From the front windows he observed the customers in their booths: cute old couples, teenagers on their first dates, parents wrangling their kids and wiping whipped cream off their faces. The small town all seemed to be congregating in the diner tonight. A sinking feeling told Keith that he shouldn't rain on Lance's parade and tell him that the crowded restaurant was the last place that he wanted to be, he simply enjoyed the quiet more. 

Keith kept his eyes focused to the edge of downtown where Lance would come rolling down the hills, that crazed look in his eyes that he had when he appeared to be hitting light speed on his bike. The air around him appeared to get a bit cooler with the setting sun; Keith hugged his unzipped black hoodie a bit tighter around his torso. 

Where could he be? 

A small pang of worry started to build up in the pit of his stomach. Keith knew that Lance had a habit for getting distracted, which often cost him. Lance had gone through a couple bikes during Keith's time knowing him. Keith's eyes wandered over to his own bike that was chained up outside of the shop. Was he lost? What if that idiot had gone and gotten himself hit by a car? For a moment, Keith wondered what would happen if he went to go find him. He felt silly thinking about it, he was sure Lance was fine...but his stomach still felt tight. 

Swinging his backpack over his shoulder, Keith reached for his phone in his pocket. 

Where are you? I'm done closing up. 

Keith had never texted Lance before. The two had exchanged numbers when Lance started working, more so as a formality for becoming "coworkers". 

As soon as he clicked his phone off, behind him, Keith heard the familiar ring of Lance's bicycle bell. The sunny boy was ringing it frantically but Keith couldn't see that crazed look because it appeared that Lance had a milk crate over his head. Keith's brow furrowed, confused. Soon Keith recognized it was the flower crate that he had put on to the back of Lance's bike. The worry that he had felt faded away into disappointment. What had he done this time? Keith knew that by tomorrow morning, there was bound to be a complaint in the shop voicemail box. 

Even though the idiot had a milk crate over his head, Lance seemed to be carrying with him the last bits of sunlight with him as he rode into town with the night darkness following him, ready to snuff out the last bit of day that was left. Maybe it was because Keith was glad that Lance wasn't ran over, but the smallest crack of smile crept on to his face. 

When Lance reached the shop entrance, he slammed on his brakes, wheels screeching against the pavement. He proudly took of the milk crate and dismounted, looking like he had biked through hell. His mousy brown hair was disheveled and his clothes were smeared with dirt. Lance gave Keith his signature toothy grin and nonchalantly handed him the milk crate. 

"Keith my friend, you will not believe what just happened to me." Lance proudly held his head up high stretching and cracking his back. 

"What did happen to you?" Keith stared at the milk crate in his hands blankly. 

"I'll tell ya," Lance winked to Keith, causing the dark haired boy to feel a weird buzzing in his head. "I think I just saw an angel." Lance dramatically made a rainbow hand motion in front of his face. 

Keith clenched his jaw. "A what?" He shoved the crate at Lance. "How did this get detached from your bike?"  

"Oh, yeah that...I fell, bu-but that's besides the point--" 

"You crashed?" 

"Well that's a dramatic way of saying it, but technically yes." 

"You didn't wreck the flowers again did you?" Keith crossed his arms. 

"Don't give me that look Flower Crown, the flowers were fine, he didn't notice a thing." 

Keith threw up his arms in defeat. "You gonna make Kelli loose customers!" 

"Listen buddy you're missing the point, didn't you hear me say angel??" 

"I'm more concerned about the fact that you're putting the integrity of this business at risk." 

"Jeez why so serious? I said it was fine. Remember what I said? Smell the roses?" 

Keith didn't respond. He had already gone over this with Lance and didn't want to go over it again. His head fell, not knowing what to return back with. He hadn't noticed it before, but Lance's legs were covered in scrapes and dried blood. 

"You're bleeding Lance." Keith's voice was lower, he felt a weird surge to act knowing the sunny boy was hurt. 

"Oh that? It's nothing, it happened when I fell. It doesn't hurt." 

"You can't go into Seidou's looking like that, what if Mrs. Seidou sees you?" Keith was lightly aware that Lance's family and the Seidou's were family friends. Mrs. Seidou was a mom to everyone in town anyways, she would definitely make a big fuss if he saw Lance with those scrapes. "You should go back in and wash them off at least; get the dirt off." 

"Alright, as long as I can tell you about her." Lance's expression turned serious. 

Keith rolled his eyes. "Fine." 

                                                                                   ~*~

In the back room of the flower shop, Lance sat on the counter top next to the big sink among pots, plastic bouquet holders, rubber bands and a couple bags of dirt. Keith had retrieved their small first aid kit from the front desk. First, Lance took a wet paper towel to clean off the dirt from his knees. He winced a little once the cold towel met his raw skin. 

"Ouch" Lance scrunched his eyebrows together. 

Keith looked up to the boy as he sat near him on a stool. "I can do it." He said calmly. The two boys locked eyes momentarily before awkwardly looking away. Lance reluctantly passed him the paper towel and Keith scooted closer. Keith dabbed at the scrapes carefully, then began wiping. Lance's irritated knees had turned pink. He cautiously grabbed Lance's calf to hold it steady. He felt his cheeks get a bit warm when his skin came into contact with Lance's. Keith kept his head down. It was uncomfortably quiet. The florescent lights above them flickered. Keith was meticulous and then moved on to the other scrapes. He didn't like it when Lance was quiet, it was unlike him to have not words escaping his mouth at lightning fast speed. At the same time it was a bit nice Keith thought, Lance's presence isn't the worst. 

Keith took to putting band aids on the deeper looking scrapes after putting on a bit of Neosporin. He was putting on the last band aid when he felt something brush the top of his head. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. He looked up to see Lance with a small leaf in his hand. 

"This was caught in your hair." He inspected the leaf. "You making flower crowns without me Flower Crown?" Lance teased, a smirk growing. 

"Shut up." Keith gulped and took the leaf from his fingers and threw it on the floor. He walked away throwing away the band aid wrappers while trying to hide his face which was getting even warmer than before. 

"You guys got a shirt I can borrow that doesn't have dirt on it?" Lance twirled around pointing to all the dirt bags. 

Keith passed him a clean potting shirt,  an old one of Kelli's that said "ABHS Swim and Dive". He quickly turned around as to avoid looking at the boy who would soon be shirtless, its out of respect. He assured himself. After, the two headed back out of the shop, locked the doors and Lance's bike to the rack, then crossed the street to Seidou's. 

                                                                                        ~*~

By the time that the two boys entered the diner, the line had died down and almost all of the booths and tables were occupied. Except for one. 

"Hey! Lucky us." Lance exclaimed, leading them to the booth. 

Keith nervously fidgeted with his hoodie string. He recognized a few faces from school. He hadn't had many friends from school and especially after graduation he didn't care too much about knowing or remembering names. He assumed they probably didn't know who he was too, and he didn't mind it staying that way. Still, he enjoyed studying the movement within the dinner: the hustling waitresses, friends laughing together, Mrs. Seidou behind the diner counter beaming and handing out plates of pie, and boxing up to-go orders. She was a very kind looking woman, short and stout with graying dark brown hair. Wrinkles shaped her face but they didn't make her look tired at all. 

The inside of the diner had a very 1970's feel to it with red leather seats and booths, the wooden tables and counter and thin mirrors lining the walls, creating the effect that the single room dining area was a lot bigger than it was. The air smelled sweet and buttery from the pies baking in the ovens, a fruity smell was pungent and no one specific fruit could be identified. A symphony of voices collided, cheerful. The vintage light fixtures created a happy white-yellow light that shone like the summer moon. The atmosphere created a content summer feeling that Keith soaked up for a moment, it was something that he had spent a long time imagining from the shop desk. He glanced out the window to look at the darkened shop across the street. So this is the view from the other side.  

"Watcha thinking about?" 

Lance's voice brought him back to the diner. 

"Oh. Nothing." Keith slouched in his seat. 

"Ah. Alright. Well, now I think it is time for me to tell you about the most beautiful girl in the world." Lance leaned forward and his eyes became glossy. 

"Oh yeah, that." Keith pretended to be interested. What was more interesting to him was how deep blue Lance's eyes were, like the deepest depths of the bay. He didn't think he had been as close to them as he was now. 

"Alright alright. So get this, I was doing the delivery and it's going great I'm talking to this dude, I give him the roses blah blah and THEN, I'm about to leave so I put that crate on my head and I hear the sound of someone pulling up the driveway and I see this car, which by the way, let me backtrack a bit. On my way to this house I'm pedaling through the the Altean poppy field and this car honks at me and I'm like "I don't know anyone who has that car" so I'm trying to see who they are and uhhh that's when I fell off my bike BUT that's besides the point! Anyway, I"m at the house and the car pulls up and guess who gets out of the car?" 

"The girl?" Keith already was bored by the story. 

"THE GIRL!" Lance, thrilled, threw his arms up in the air. "And Keith, let me tell you she was gorgeous, beautiful, breathtaking, amazing, I've never seen a girl like her before. She had this incredible actually white hair that looked so soft and that I'm sure smells like daises." The boy gradually become more starry eyed as he compiled his list of adjectives to describe her. Keith could tell he was running out. 

"Did you talk to her?" Keith figured as soon as he got the story over with, the sooner they could drop the topic. 

"Come on man, you know I did." Lance looked smug at Keith sitting across from him. From his perspective, he had made the impression of all impressions on her. It was only a matter of time before she was searching town for him. 

"What'll it be for you boys?" A twenty-something waitress walked up to their table, little strands of her blonde hair falling out of her neatly made bun. She wore the same uniform they all did at Seidou's: a pale yellow dress with white buttons. She had a bit of makeup on, but not too much to be off-putting. Once Lance saw her it was almost like the angel girl didn't even exist. Is there any girl in the world that Lance isn't crazy for?

"Hey puddin'" Lance flashed her a sly look. "I'll take a half a blueberry and my friend will take--" He looked at Keith expectantly. He hadn't even had the chance to look at the menu he was too busy listening to Lance. 

"Coconut." He blurted. Keith didn't even like coconut creme pie, it was just the first thing that came to mind. 

"Sounds good," she smiled, writing down their order, then walking away.

"So, as I was saying, this girl..." 

Lance's words faded away, and Keith's focus faded to to the small vase on their table. The tiny blue glass vase held a three dahlias: pink, yellow and fuchsia. Keith had actually cut the flowers for Seidou's this morning like he always did on Wednesdays. Hunk Seidou came every Wednesday at 9AM like clockwork bearing payment and a friendly smile. Keith figured he was probably around somewhere, Hunk had a way with making the pies like his mother; as Keith had heard. 

Keith took the yellow one from the vase and studied it. He wondered how many people had sat in that same booth that day and looked at the same flower he had cut this very morning. He wondering if someone saw it and it made them happy. 

"--Are you even listening?" Lance wove his hand in front of Keith's face. 

"Yeah." Keith put the flower back.

"You spend all day in that shop and still you're messing with the flowers, I brought you here to get you out of there. You gotta work with me." 

Keith snapped out if it but that didn't stop him from making the impatient quip: "Are you done going on about the angel girl? Do you even know her name?" 

Lance appeared to shrink a bit. "No, but--" 

"Lance! Keith!" Hunk and found the two sitting in their booth and invited himself to sit down. The burly boy had his hair held back with an orange bandanna and had flour on his face. His white cook's apron was stained with all the colors of the rainbow, fragments of pie filling creating an abstract painting on the white canvas. 

Lance cheered up. "Hunk! My guy! Working hard or hardly working?" Hunk laughed in response. 

"Ah! I just love summer, Half-Pie Wednesdays are so much better during the summer. You guys order some?" 

"You bet!" Lanced beamed. "Of course I got the blueberry," The sunny boy looked proud of himself for this accomplishment. 

"It's nice seeing you here Keith!" Hunk gave the pale boy a playful punch on the arm from across the table. Keith gave an anxious smile in response. "Listen, Pidge is on her way, she's got the new Legendary Defender's game! It just came out yesterday. I totally call being the blue lion." Hunk was so excited it looked like he was about to cry. 

"Easy there buddy, everyone knows that I'm the blue paladin. You can be the yellow one, or fight Veronica for the red." 

Hunk frowned, but it soon faded when the waitress came back with the half-pies. "Oh boy, come on Lance, let me have a piece, I've been slaving back there all day." Hunk gave Lance his best puppy-dog eyes. 

"Go ahead man." 

Keith looked down dejectedly at his coconut creme pie. He had seriously made a mistake after the smell of Lance's pie wafted over in his direction. 

Outside, the chugging of a motorcycle engine boomed closer. Keith immediately looked to the street. 

"Hey pass me that spoon" Hunk said to Lance, popping pieces of crust into his mouth.

The motorcyclist pulled up to the front of the diner, dressed in a leather jacket and black jeans. Keith smiled widely. The rider took of their matte black helmet and raked their hand through their styled black hair. The rider caught Keith's eyes watching him from inside. Shiro smiled back at his cousin and headed towards the door. 

                                                                                                ~~~

I wonder who it is ;) Although Lance won't admit it, he thinks that Keith's dark long hair looks super cool on him, there's another reason why he calls him Flower Crown...

I really tried my  best to maintain all of the VLD's personalities intact and I had a lot  of fun writing for Hunk! 

Keith and I also have something in common...I also don't like Coconut cream pie haha. 

Next time: Paladins! To your Lions! Keith has a little secret he doesn't want the group to know and we'll meet a bit of Lance's family.