"How could you be so reckless!? Your image is everything Keith. There's rumors going around that you got in a fight at a bar. Is that the kind of rumor you want getting out? These pictures are pretty damming." His agent threw some of the photos on her desk so that Keith could see. One was Keith standing in front of Lance protectively looking quite furious with the douche canoe on his ass. And another was of Lance dragging him off. "Keith? Are you even listening to me?"

His eyes snapped up to meet her boiling ones. If he looked close enough, he was sure he could see the reflection of her wringing his neck. "I'm listening."

"I know all you young artists go through rebellious phases where you want to go crazy and ignore everything your agent has to say. But we're the ones looking out for you, we have your best interest at heart. Do you think these fuckers who posted these pictures care about you? They don't give a shit about your image." She stood in front of Keith and leaned on her desk folding her arms. "Who's the boy in the picture Keith?"

"No one. I barely know him." Keith mumbled.

"Listen to me. You signed a contract with me. We agreed the best move was to keep your... queerness under the rug or in the closet for a while." She spoke slow and sharp.

"But, we agreed for a while. You said it would be impossible to get my music out there as an openly gay man. You said once my music was out there I could come out and live how I want." Keith couldn't keep the whine out of his voice.

"And you will! Eventually! But you're hitting top charts! The people love you! You're still young, you'll have plenty of time to live later. But right now you're making bank, why can't you see that?" She sighed.

"Who gives a fuck. I made a shit ton. I've made more than I know what to do with really. It's cool. It's great. Really. But who fucking cares? What's the point if I'm miserable?" Keith raised his voice unintentionally.

"I can't believe you're really spouting that shit off to me. I'm working hard to make these opportunities for you. And you're not miserable, don't be dramatic." She rolled her eyes and stood up to move to her office chair.

"I see. You just like getting rich off me. I was fine with it. You do work hard and you deserve to make good money for it. But I can't believe I let you turn into a leech and suck the life out of me." Keith stood up from his seat and looked down at her.

"Did you just call me a fucking leech?"

Keith ignored her. "There was a time when you had my respect. You were a powerful and successful businesswoman dominating a workplace overrun with men. But my respect for you is gone now. You really got lost in all this. You aren't the same woman who saw a young teen with a lucky talent and took to making me something better. You just make me look like something better."

"Are you finished?" She asked sharply raising an eyebrow. Keith said nothing. "I don't give a shit whether I have your respect or not. You can loathe me for all I care! But you have a contract, so for the next 15 years, I own you. Do you understand? That means you do as I fucking say. I don't ask a lot Keith. But if I told you to dress like a damn monkey and do the hula in front of live television, you say yes ma'am."

"I want out of the contract." Keith said through clenched teeth.

"And that's not how that works. Besides," a cruel grin spread across her face, "you're nothing without me Keith Kogane. I make you. If you were truly yourself do you think you'd be a star loved by millions? No. You want your music to be on the radio, to reach people? Do as I say."

Keith felt himself collapse. What could he do? She was right. The next fifteen years of his life didn't belong to him anymore. People like Lance think they want someone like Keith until they realize he's human just like everyone else. That illusion will break and Lance will dump him. And if he doesn't, he's likely just a leech—there for the money and the fame.

"I'm glad we reached an understanding." She grinned. "Furthermore, I don't want you seeing Lance McClain again."

Keith startled. This felt like threat. He should have known she already did her research. Keith stood to leave.

"And how'd that commercial go?" She asked resuming business on her computer.

"It sucked." Keith said blandly.

"That's good." She responded distractedly. "I want you to go to the studio and practice, you have a live performance soon on a talk show and I need you to sound perfect because some very important people will be watching."

"Fine." Keith started out.

"One more thing." Her eyes flicked up from her computer screen. "Just in case people get any ideas about you and this McClain boy, Serena Marie, the actor, her agent and I have arranged a whole secret relationship scandal for the two of you. It should really boost popularity for you both."

"No." Keith deadpanned.

"That's not up to you. Let this be a reminder that actions have consequences." She pushed up her glasses and went back to work.

Keith left feeling angry and out of control. When he made it to the studio he could barely control his angry breathing to sing. He felt like screaming and crying and exploding and imploding all at the same time. But he did none of that. Instead he took deep breaths and resumed his practice.

Ding

Keith blinked, he must've forgot to turn off his ringer. It must be Shiro he assumed.

Unknown sent a message.

All day in between helping students, Lance and Shiro plotted the perfect text. And they came up with nothing.

"It has to be attention grabbing so he isn't bored, but cool. And it has to show interest without explicitly showing interest. But it also has to spark a whole conversation." Shiro instructed.

"I can't do this." Lance sighed. They had a whiteboard out with several text ideas with precise calculations at their success probability. But the pressure was getting to be too much. "I just want him to like me." Lance crossed out the last text idea.

Shiro sighed and gave a pitiful look. "I'm sorry, we made this kind of complicated huh?"

"We're scientists, that's what we do." Lance sat down and let his head thump against the table.

"Yeah but it doesn't make it any easier." Shiro patted his shoulder. The tutoring session was finally up and the last of the students had left. The two men cleaned up the library and cleared out, the younger obviously discouraged.

Lance sat in his car in the parking lot of the school and pulled out his phone again. Why is he overthinking this? Keith will either like him for him or he won't. And he shouldn't have to go crazy trying to be who he thinks Keith wants. He typed out a text and sent it. He dropped his phone and took a deep breath to still his rapid heartbeat.

Hey, how'd the commercial go? The one that had nothing to do with music.

He put his keys in the ignition and drove home trying not to think about it too much. He didn't let himself look at his phone until he was back in his apartment cuddled up in the blankets on his couch. He pulled out his latest assignment and then promptly checked his phone.

Incredibly boring :/ they had me promote this cologne that smells like ass

Lance felt himself grin and the screen and excitedly typed out a response.

Please tell me it was one of those super dramatic cologne commercials that's in black and white

Lance dropped his phone and found himself unable to stop smiling. He was giddy and excited just from a simple text to the guy. He worked on calculations for a while before checking his phone again.

Oh definitely
They had me burst out of water like some kind of fucking whale

Lance laughed aloud.

I must see this for myself
I'm scouting this commercial out

Pidge ended up coming over to hang out and study while Lance worked on his assignments. Her, being an engineering student and all, she had different work from Hunk and Lance.

"What's with you?" Pidge asked watching Lance pick up his phone and grin from ear to ear before enthusiastically texting back for the hundredth time. "You look smitten. Are you texting Keith?"

"W-what? What makes you think I'm talking to Keith?" Lance blushed.

"I saw the way you were looking at him last night, I'm not blind Lance. And you look like a love struck puppy dog." She pushed up her glasses.

Lance sighed. "He's just so great."

"But?"

"But... I just don't want to get my hopes up." Lance gave a weak smile.

"I wouldn't worry about it so much Lance. I'm not blind, I saw the way he was looking at you too." Pidge encouraged him.

The two boys continued to text each other late into the night, falling asleep phones in clutch.

Keith woke up that morning with a text from Lance the night before.

I can't believe you've never watched Sunshine it's such a good movie
Goodnight Keithy

Lance woke up that morning with a response from Keith to last nights text.

Sorry totally passed out last night
And I guess you'll have to show it to me

Lance nearly fell out of bed. Holy shit, if he was reading this right, Keith was suggesting they watch the movie together.

You bet your ass give me a time

Lance jumped up and did circles around his room waiting for a reply.

Tomorrow night

Lance screeched

You're on

Keith sat in the studio and read the words over and over again. You're on. He's going over for a movie tomorrow. Just him and Lance. Alone. Like a movie night. Like a date. And he was excited.

They continued to text back and forth and Keith sat working out a tune for a new song. Some hours later, his agent walked in talking aggressively over the phone. When she hung up, her eyes darted to Keith.

"Well if it isn't our star! How's the music coming along?" She grinned.

"Fine." Keith answered shortly. "Also, I'm taking tomorrow night off."

"Last time you said you wanted to take the night off you went to the bar and caused a lot of trouble for me. Besides, your performance on the talk show is a few days after, wouldn't you rather practice."

"I don't want to wear out my vocals right before a performance. I just need the night to work on music and feel creative." Keith used an excuse.

"Well, I guess if it's for your music. Sure." She patted his head.

Keith wanted to recoil under her touch. He loathed the women in front of him, someone he once looked up to.

"Look at me." She cooed and Keith obeyed. "I know it's hard. But you'll thank me one day for keeping you on the right track. You'll be rich and you can surround yourself with all the gay men you desire. Or whatever you're into."

Keith dug his nails into the palm of his hand.

"You'll see that Lance and others like him are just obstacles. They'll latch onto you like a leech and use you for your money and fame." She gave a condescending look.

She left and Keith found himself spiraling. Anger, frustration, embarrassment, hopelessness—it all hit him at once. And he found himself bursting out of the studio and onto the street feeling suffocated. His shaky hand pulled out his phone and he pressed the call button for his most recent contact, habit for Shiro. So when he saw Lance McClain pull up and the phone began to ring, he considered hanging up. But then the ringing stopped.

"Hello? ...Keith?" Lance's voice came through the device and Keith all at once felt like he was collapsing in on himself.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing," Keith let out a shallow and shaky breath. "God I'm sorry,"

"You apologize too much." Lance recounted what Keith said to him at the bar. "Walk me through it, what happened? Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine." Keith stumbled out. "I'm sorry, I meant to call Shiro. I'm just a little out of it."

"Well, I'm pretty sure Shiro is lecturing a freshman physics class right now. So he's busy. I know because I'm his TA and I'm switching the labels in his office to piss him off." Lance's calm voice spoke and Keith felt himself cooling down.

Keith let out a breathy chuckle. "I didn't mean to disturb you at school..."

"I'm terrorizing your brother out of sheer boredom, you didn't disturb anything." Lance sounded soft and soothing through the speaker.

"Right. Shiro owes me one for temporarily putting an end to your chaos." Keith's earlier panic subsided and he forgot about the fight with his agent for a moment.

He heard Lance chuckle. "Now that you've calmed down, do you want to talk about what happened?"

"It was nothing really. My agent and I just haven't been seeing eye to eye lately and we had an argument just now. Yesterday too. But I just... it's so irritating." Keith huffed.

"What about?"

"I... I can't talk about it." Keith said slowly.

"That's okay- oh hey Shiro! Done so soon?" He could hear a bit of muffled chatter and it sounded like Lance was moving.

"With Keith?" He heard his brother quietly from the other line. Then a bunch of excited noises and finally silence.

"Oof, sorry about that. Takashi came back and I had to move to the hall." Lance came through again.

"He's done?" Keith asked.

"Yeah," Lance confirmed.

"Thanks!" And then Keith hung up. And Lance stood there a little butthurt. He pursed his lips and shifted to his other foot trying not to be insulted. Of course Keith wouldn't confide in him or talk to him about his life problems, it's not like he's his boyfriend. And Keith did tell him in the first place that he didn't mean to call him.

Lance walked back into Shiro's office and saw the man on the phone with he could only assume to be Keith. Lance grabbed his bag quickly and left not wanting to eavesdrop.

Their steady stream of texts didn't end and Lance decided to forget the call. He went to bed that night thinking of their movie night tomorrow. As buddies. As friends. He reminded himself.

The next morning, he took extra time getting ready and attempted to tidy his apartment. Organizing his papers and moving them to the extra bedroom he turned into an office. He cleaned and made sure everything was spotless and ready for tonight.

Keith woke up that morning and the first thing he thought about was Lance and how he was going to see him again tonight. And as he received his schedule for the day, he told himself he wasn't allowed to think about it, so that his day could go by faster. He worked on his newest song that was coming together better than expected and later he was doing a meet and greet at a convention. Meet and greets usually exhausted him. People exhausted him.

After the meet and greet, Keith collapsed into the car and mumbled to his driver, "please take me home."

"Sorry, but we have an alternate destination." The man spoke stoic like. It wasn't his usual driver. The passenger door opened and a woman hopped in with a large container of makeup and hair products.

"No, what now?" Keith groaned sitting up.

"Just hold still," she brushed and dusted at his face gently making small adjustments. No one was telling him anything and when they pulled up in front of a coffee shop, his confusion deepened.

That's when another dark vehicle pulled up and the beautiful actress Serena Marie stepped out. Everything about her was elegant and perfect, even the slight frown she was sporting.

Keith huffed and stepped out too.

They looked at each other for a moment and he could see she was just as excited about this as he was. "Ready to make a scandal?" She asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be." He took her hand in his and walked inside. They smiled nice and gave each other fond looks as they sat up to a table by the window so that the photographer could get better pictures.

"So what did you do?" She asked.

"I was seen in public with a guy, my agent is trying to hide the fact I'm gay." Keith said taking a sip of his coffee.

"Really? Same. My agent is trying to cover up the fact I'm a lesbian. Some reporters saw me go into a hotel and think I was meeting someone, which I was, my girlfriend. So we needed a scandal about who was in the hotel room." She spoke sadly through a fake smile.

"This is so fucked."

When Keith arrived at Lance's apartment, it felt like this was what he was working for all day. He knocked on the door and it opened immediately.

"Hey," Lance smiled.

"Hey." Keith came inside and was touched to see a bowl of already popped popcorn, his favorite candy and drink waiting for him. Blankets littered the couch and the movie was already on and paused.

"Sorry, I might have got a little carried away. I was just pretty excited." Lance rubbed the back of his neck bashfully.

"This is awesome Lance," Keith beamed. He kicked off his shoes and quickly made himself comfortable on the couch. Lance joined him and sat about an arms length away. To Keith's dismay.

"How was work?" Lance asked trying to find the remote.

Keith grimaced, "Not... great."

"I won't make you talk about it." Lance smiled. "Shiro wanted me to come in and tutor again today. I went in for a few hours."

"I noticed you switch back and forth between Shiro and Takashi."

"At school we really should use Takashi out of respect, but Shiro and I are cool." Lance smiled. "It should actually be Dr. Takashi. But he doesn't really mind."

"You and Shiro seem kind of close." Keith fiddled with his fingers.

"You think so? I guess I kind of see him as like a father figure sometimes. My family is several states away and living here without anyone but Hunk and Pidge has been kind of difficult. I confide in Shiro about a lot of things. He usually gives some crazy good advice or puts things in a new perspective for me." Lance held the remote in his hand but didn't move to play the movie.

"Yeah, he's really good at that." Keith nodded. "I never knew my mom, and my dad died in a fire when I was ten. Being in all those foster homes, it wasn't until I was sixteen I met Shiro. He's always looked out for me, and he was the one who supported me when I decided I wanted to be a musician." Keith faltered under the word musician, puppet felt more like it.

"You don't sound all that excited about that." Lance noticed.

"It's nothing." Keith shrugged.

"Is this about the fight with your agent?" Lance asked.

"I just hate how fake everything is and how I can't live the way I want to. I just want some freedom." Keith huffed feeling himself getting worked up all over again. "I know she's worried about my image but I don't know that I care anymore."

It was silent for just a beat. "When I was in high school, I was pretty popular. I know, me, Lancey Lance. And I know this doesn't really compare to the scale of your situation but..." Lance took a glance to Keith to see him intrigued.