Archive of Our Own

Summary:

It’s been years since Lance last went to a concert.

Three, to be exact.

He said it so casually, like that night in April he never kissed a certain dude with a mullet. Like he didn’t kiss Keith under flickering stage lights and cheap speakers that kept cutting out between songs.

Keith Kogane.

Just a friend. That's what Lance always explained. Just someone he grew apart from. Nothing more.

But no one believed him.

Not Pidge, who remembered clearly how Lance used to always run over to Keith after he got into a fight with James Griffin. Not Hunk, who saw how Lance always looked at Keith ever day in class. And definitely not Shiro.

Shiro knows damn well.

He’s known since the beginning—since the day Keith almost got himself expelled from the Garrison, all sharp edges and bad decisions. Shiro was the one who stayed. The one who grounded him, pulled him back, gave him something steady to hold onto.

He was there when Keith left, too.
Didn’t try to stop him. Just watched as Keith chose something bigger than Earth.

Something bigger than Lance.