The next day Keith walked into school dreading the day. He has every class with Lance. Every. Class.

Keith skipped going to his locker and decided he'd just carry his jacket. Lance knew he went to his locker every morning and he wanted to avoid any possibilities of running into him.

Kids were all giving him strange looks and whispering making Keith uneasy.

He saw Pidge looking at her phone by herself and he decided to join her.

"Oh my gosh, Keith, are you okay? How are you?" She immediately looked at him worried.

"What do you mean?" Keith looked at her confused. "What's going on?"

She handed him her phone. A news article read: "Lance has a new boyfriend?!-or not!"

"No, no, no, no!" Keith muttered as he read.

The article displayed photos of the boy's smiling and talking and getting into his car. There were even photos of Lance with his arm wrapped around him protecting him from the press.

But then the article gets worse. It then claims that Lance dumped me and let me walk home. Which was only partially true. There were photos of him with tears and trying to hide my face walking away from them. It even showed me flipping them off with tearstained cheeks.

"It's everywhere. Every bit of social media is eating this up." Pidge said sympathetically.

Keith felt anger bubble inside him. The whole school- no, the whole world will see him at his lowest point. Keith was closed off, he never showed emotion and never let himself be vulnerable. He finally let down those walls to Lance and this is the price. He'd never forgive him.

The bell rang and Keith went to class never feeling more humiliated in his life. He wouldn't show anything affected him whatsoever. He kept a hard confident and emotionless face.

He walked in and saw Lance immediately stand up from where he was sitting.

Kids all made 'oooooh' sounds. Keith kept his composure and sat on the opposite side of the room.

Lance followed him to where he sat pleading. "I-I didn't see you at your locker this morning." He said and Keith ignored him pulling out his binder for class. "I need to talk to you."

Keith looked at him calmly. "Don't you have someone else to trick and humiliate?"

"Keith, I didn't mean to, I promise. Please. I didn't know." Lance begged.

"Didn't know? Didn't know that I actually respected you? You said I wasn't different from everyone else but I feel I can say the same for you. Didn't know..." Keith repeated, "I can't believe I was stupid enough to like you and let it blow up in my face."

"I, I didn't know you feel that way."

"Felt. I can assure you I'm not making the same mistake." Keith stared as the second bell rang and the teacher walked in.

She gave a look to Lance and Keith and motioned for him to sit down which he obeyed. She cut a sympathetic look to Keith and he just looked down at his homework.

Everyone knew, even the teachers. The bell rang and Keith realized he had an open period in which he was going to have to deal with Lance.

He packed his things up quickly and left before Lance could mutter a word.

He dropped his things and helped the librarians re-shelve books. He saw Lance walk in and ducked back behind the bookshelves of the nonfiction section. Lance saw Keith's bag and folded his arms looking around annoyed that he was hiding from him.

Keith shelved a book and began searching for the spot of the next one. It was up higher and Keith reached as high as he could it not being enough. Lances hand came into view wrapping his long fingered around the book. They still both held onto it and it was held in between them.

Keith tried to pull it back but Lance held on. Keith let go and stomped off to continue. Lance slid the book in its place and he stopped Keith. "Please, talk to me."

Keith huffed and set down the books. He motioned for them to leave the library and Keith started walking down the hall where no one could hear them. "Why should I?"

"Because, feelings don't just disappear." Lance spoke helplessly.

"What do you know. You don't seem to have any." Keith went to go back to the library but Lance grabbed his arm.

"Just... hear me out?" Lance pleaded.

Keith couldn't say no. Not to him. He listened with a worried and nervous expression.

"I didn't know you had feelings for me, I swear. When I saw you read what I wrote I became angry and embarrassed. I didn't think you'd return my feelings. What I said about you being like everyone else was stupid and I wasn't thinking. I didn't let you speak, I didn't get your side of things." Lance explained. "And about you walking home, I never would've let that happen I swear. I thought Shiro picked you up. I looked outside but you were probably already just up the street."

Keith wanted to be mad. He wanted to stay angry at him forever. But more than anything he just felt sad. Sad that all this occurred, sad how it played out, sad at the results.

"Please forgive me. I'll leave you alone forever if you do." Lance promised.

Leave him alone? Keith didn't want him to leave him alone. It was a misunderstanding. "Then I guess I won't forgive you." He spoke.

A smile spread across Lances face and he quickly pulled Keith into a hug. "Thank you, I'm so sorry."

"It's fine, it was all one big accident. We just both reacted bad." Keith assured. He didn't actually want to lose the boy. Lance sighed and rubbed his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"People are going to say I'm just trying to save my career but I want you to know you mean more than to me anything and that's not true, okay?" Lance grabbed him by the hands.

"What do you mean save your career?" Keith looked at him with worry.

"My agent called. After that my popularity definitely declined. I'll be lucky if I sell two albums." Lance said.

"What?! Lance, you have to do something." Keith urged.

"No, it's fine. What happened happened." Lance assured pulling Keith into another hug.

Keith however got an idea. And while he didn't think it all the way through, he was sure it was going to work.

"Hey Keith?" Lance asked pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Hm?" Keith asked his face still buried in Lance.

"Will you be my boyfriend?" He asked nervously.

Keith lifted his head slowly and nodded before pulling him into a kiss.

Keith pressed record as he sat awkwardly in front of his phone.

"Hi, my names Keith Kogane and it's apparent I've become the subject of a hot topic involving Lance McClain.

We were not dating at the time when the article was released. And for the more embarrassing part, where I'm photographed crying as I'm leaving his house. It's one big misunderstanding.

We both broke each other's hearts due to both of us not knowing how each other felt. It was a horrible accident really. Lance never meant leg me walk home by myself thinking that my brother picked me up.

We saw the article the next day and it just made me more angry but Lance explained and I couldn't be more grateful for that.

I... I like Lance very much, and I'm making this video to debunk whatever it made people think about him. I found out the article could ruin his career and I'm making this without him knowing because I know he doesn't want me to feel any more embarrassed than I already do. But Lance loves making music, and he doesn't deserve to lose that. Especially not because of me.

I hope this cleared up what happened. And I hope no one is angry. Lance is the most kind, and caring person I've met and I hope you can all see that like I do."

He ended it letting out a breath of relief and posting it for the world to see.

It took about a day for the video to blow up. When it did it was everywhere. People were talking about the teenage boy who poured his heart out to save the boy he likes' career.

The next day at school he was putting things away in his locker before he was suddenly pulled into a hug. He relaxed seeing it was Lance and wrapped his arms around him. "Thank you." Lance muttered in his embrace.

The two boys had become the worlds most beloved couple overnight.

======

Lance and Keith set a stack of books on the table next to them and they began re-shelving them together. They moved perfectly ducking and reaching to put the books away.

Graduation was just a few days away and they had a plan. Keith is going to college and Lance... is going with him.

Lance managed to balance his career with school and even started working some on a new album which Keith was very supportive of.