Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“You’re staring again, Keith…” Shiro nudged his friend as he set down the pot of asters. They worked together to run their flower shop, but as of last month, a tattoo parlor had opened across the street. With it came a talented tattoo artist whose name was still unknown to them.
Keith jolted at the contact and went back to sorting the roses into their proper containers after shooting a glare at Shiro.
“I’m not staring at anything. I thought I saw a cat running by.”
“Sure you did. You definitely weren’t staring at the tattoo boy who you definitely don’t think is cute and dateable. Go ask him out for coffee or at least introduce yourself.” Keith was ready to choke Shiro. Like hell was he going over there.
“I’m just saying. Nothing is going to happen between you and him unless you actually speak to him,” Shiro rolled his eyes and didn’t flinch when Keith flicked his arm.
“For starters, I don’t even know if he’s gay or bi or whatever. Secondly, he’s all tattoos and dyed hair and piercings and I’m all flowers and overalls. I doubt I’m his type,” Keith reasoned as he put down the last rose.
“I changed my mind. You don’t have a choice in the matter. He’s walking over and I’m going on break. Have fun!” The taller man smirked and took off his apron before sprinting out the doors.
“SHIRO-!” Keith spun to face the entrance as his partner ran out and the artist walked in. He was so screwed. He looked even better up close, but he had to stay professional.
“Welcome to Tron Flowers! Looking for anything in particular?” He asked, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
“I’m looking for something cute,” The stranger smirked and looked the other over. Keith didn’t notice since he was already pulling out some bell flowers.
“Like these?”
“Cute, but not as cute as the one I’m eyeing.”
“What’re you eyeing?”
“You.”
Keith was ready to die. This was not fair. He was not allowed to be suave and holy shit was that a tongue piercing.
“Not for sale. Did Shiro put you up to this?” He scoffed. As much as he wanted to get to know this stranger, he was not going to swoon in front of him that easily.
“Shiro the one who flew out of here when I came in?”
“Yes.”
“Kind of?”
“What does that mean?”
“He told me to look out the window occasionally during the day and I caught you staring for a good five minutes, dude,” He chuckled as Keith turned bright red.
“I wasn’t staring at you, Blue.”
“Name’s Lance. Sorry. You were staring at my ass.”
“There was...a cat!” Keith lied as he took note of the other’s name.
“A cat? A cat yesterday during lunch and during closing time and earlier?”
“Yes.” He knew his lie was obvious, but he too stubborn to give it up. He was about to retort again when Lance brought his hands up to the sides of his heads and curved his fingers down.
“Nya.”
“What the fuck, Lance?” Keith took a step back and looked at the other in confusion. At his reaction, Lance’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“So you’re not a furry?”
“How in hell did you make that assumption!?” Keith exclaimed. How had he been infatuated with him?
“Ignore him. He came here to ask you on a date and it’s clear he’s fucked it up,” A slightly higher pitched voice piped in and after a few seconds, a body appeared to the right of Lance.
“Name’s Pidge. They pronouns please.” Keith was too flustered to respond at this point. Why couldn’t Shiro be here? That way he had an excuse to leave.
“Not cool, Pidge. I was being super suave-y and shit!”
“Yeah. Calling the person you’re trying to woo a furry and nyaing at them is a great way to convince them to go on a date with you.”
Keith watched in silence as the two bickered about Lance’s flirting abilities. He regained himself and butted in a few seconds after Pidge had called Lance a yiffer. Whatever that meant.
“You were pretty suave when you first came in, but you lost it after you admitted to Shiro basically putting you up to this. Now my idea of you being really cool and mysterious is shattered by the reality.” Pidge burst out laughing at Keith’s statement.
“But will you go on a date with me?” Lance waggled his eyebrows, which were also dyed blue. Keith’s expression turned to one of disbelief.
“I can’t believe you.”
“What if I woo you with dancing?”
“No.”
“Please! I’m desperate and you seem really adorable so please go on a date with me?”
“Way to make me feel special.”
“Wait! Shit. I didn’t mean it like that, Keith!” Lance whined, getting the other’s name from his nametag.
“You single, Pidge?” Keith completely ignored Lance and turned to the shortest of them.
“Yeah, but I’d prefer to keep it that way,” They shrugged, shooting a smirk towards Lance.
“I’ll take Lance away for now, but he’ll probably come back to try again. Good luck, neighbor.”
And he did. Every Tuesday and Thursday, around lunch, Lance came back and asked. Keith was always tempted to say yes, but his stubbornness kept him in check. This went on for at least two months before Shiro and Pidge decided to step in.
“Keith. What gives? I thought you liked him?”
“That was before he accused me of being a furry and thought using cheap pick up lines would successfully woo me,” He huffed and set down the pot of flowers a bit harder than he intended to.
“Just go on one date with him? Maybe you’ll actually like him? He’s probably just nervous around you right now.”
“Ugh fine. Just so you don’t bug me with it again.”
-
“Dude. How many times have you gotten rejected now?”
“I lost count, but Pidge- he’s so cute? Did you see his blush? It’ll be the death of me!”
“Talk to his friend and see if he can give you any tips on how to win his heart because at this point it’s just getting really sad,” They suggested as they continued to trace a design onto a piece of carbon paper.
“That’s actually a really good idea. Thanks, dude! Cover for me? I’m going to go ask him now.”
“You’re lucky that your boss is Hunk. If it were anyone else, you would be out of a job for running off so much,” Pidge sighed as Lance ran out the doors and across the street.
-
“I promise I won’t bug you as long as you say yes. Speak of the devil,” Shiro’s eyes shifted from Keith to the doors. Lance burst in with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“It’s Wednesday?” Keith pointed out, but Lance shrugged.
“I’m here to talk to someone else today.” Shiro looked up and noticed Keith’s look of disappointment appear for a split second.
“Come on back,” The taller man shrugged and walked to the backroom as Lance followed after blowing a kiss towards Keith.
Keith rolled his eyes and pretended to swat it out of the air. Why did he feel upset that Lance wasn’t here for him? What could he possibly be asking Shiro? He frowned a bit and proceeded to water the succulents. They were his favorite plants in the shop.
Lance emerged with Shiro from the back about twenty minutes later. Keith was busy helping a customer and didn’t notice right away. Once she had left, he saw Lance in the corner of his eyes sitting on the desk.
“Aren’t you supposed to be working right now?” He asked, a little agitated at Lance’s interest in Shiro over him.
“Yeah. You seem tense. Don’t worry- I’m not cheating on you, snuffums.”
“Excuse me?” Keith looked up and nearly barfed at the pet name.
“Would you prefer cutie? Babe? Sweetie? Sweet heart? Darling?”
“I’d prefer Keith,” He asserted and shot a glare at his snickering friend.
“Shiro! You said Keith likes pet names!”
“Okay, I lied, but the rest is true. I swear on my shop.”
Lance narrowed his eyes at Shiro before pecking Keith’s cheek and swinging off the counter and heading back to the tattoo parlor.
“I’ll see you tomorrow!”
“Looking forward to it!” Keith rolled his eyes, but he was a little excited for tomorrow.
“Now then- what did you tell him?” His eyes traveled over to meet his partner who shyly looked away.
“I didn’t tell him anything…” He lied and walked away to tend to the bonsai trees.
“Liar,” Keith murmured under his breath as he leaned against the countertop.

Chapter Text

The next day Lance came back as expected, but this time he entered with a gift. Keith raised a brow at the box in his arms. It was a little wider than Lance’s torso and looked somewhat like a cake box bakery’s would give you except it had a ribbon tied around it. Lance was grinning proudly as he plopped it into Keith’s arms.
“What’re you waiting for? It’s for you! Open it!” Lance demanded impatiently and after giving him a momentary glare, Lance undid the ribbon and opened the present. Inside were sugar cookies, a flower crown, and really fucking cool looking throwing knives; the thorny stems in their handles winding up to the blood red roses carved into their blades. Keith froze at the knives and wondered how Lance knew he liked all of the objects in the box before it hit him. That’s why he’d come to see Shiro yesterday.
“Thank you. This is really sweet of you,” Keith grinned and took the flower crown out of the box before setting it gently on his head. He turned to face Lance who had turned a faint pink.
“A ‘thank you’ from Keith. Never thought I’d see the day!” Shiro teased from the back of the shop.
“Shut it, Mr. I have no shame and will budge into all my friend’s interactions!” Keith shouted back bitterly. He reached into the box and pulled out a sugar cookie to try. It was a bit softer than Keith would’ve liked, but decent either way.
“Did you make these yourself?”
“Yeah, actually. My boss offered to help, but I declined,” Lance announced proudly.
“You should’ve taken his help.”
“Excuse me?” He looked hurt at the implied insult.
“I’m kidding. They’re good,” Keith snickered at the reaction he’d elicited.
“Do you like the knives? I know they’re kind of a weird gift, but Shiro said you like throwing knives in your free time which, by the way, is terrifying.”
“They knives are gorgeous. Where’d you find these?”
“The antique shop my friend, Allura, runs sells all sorts of crap so I asked if she had any cool knives and turns out her store has an entire shelf dedicated to throwing knives? So I went to check it out and I saw these and figured ‘Keith likes flowers and knives. Perfect’.”
“Beautiful story. Can you send me the address of the store? I may go and get some more knives. You can never have too many.” Keith muttered as he picked up on of the knives to observe it.
“I’d need your number for that. Are you offering?” Lance smirked, deciding to ignore the strange obsession with knives Keith had for now. He’d thought the florist just liked to throw knives as a casual hobby, not collect and fawn over them. Keith rolled his eyes and unlocked his phone after setting down the knife.
“Here, put your number in my contacts.” Keith passed the phone to Lance who did so eagerly. He was about to pass him back his phone when he saw that Shiro was the only other contact in the phone.
“Dude. You need more friends.”
“I have Shiro, my knives, and my plants. I don’t need more friends,” The florist argued, a little offended by the comment. Shiro was muffling his laughter at the statement, but Keith didn’t notice since he was focused on his phone. He sent Lance a text so that he could add him to his contacts which were filled with many more people.
“How come you don’t even have your parents on there?” Lance asked, not thinking about the possibilities in his mind first. Keith tensed and curled a little into himself. The artist picked up on his movements and instantly regretted asking in the first place.
“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“It’s alright. They...they died while I was in middle school.” Lance didn’t ask how and nodded solemnly after murmuring a small ‘oh’ in reply. Keith ate another one of the cookies and untensed a bit.
“So...about going on a date,” He mentioned and Lance’s face lit up in response.
“I knew the gift would work!”
“I was planning on saying yes today anyways, but okay.”
“So it was my stubbornness?”
“Actually no. It was Shiro who wouldn’t stop bugging me to accept that finally convinced me to,” Keith admitted bluntly and Shiro winked at Lance from across the shop.
“You couldn’t lie and say it was me?” Lance pouted at the florist who just shrugged in response. “Rude. Whatever- you still accepted so prepare to be amazed! I’ll pick you up at seven. Wear something cute,” The artist winked and blew him a kiss before sprinting out of the store.
Keith rolled his eyes but didn’t swat it out of the air this time.
“Since you’re going on a date tonight, you should go home and prepare. Also- you may need this,” Shiro slipped over to Keith and pulled out a condom.
“SHIRO! First date. I don’t even like him that much!” Keith flushed and hit the condom out of Shiro’s hand.
“I was joking about the sex, but you can go home if you want. Today’s a light day so I can hold down the shop by myself for the rest of the day, but I do expect full details of how the date went tomorrow!”
“Alright. I’ll see you then with a full report on my date,” Keith rolled his eyes and slipped the apron off. It was time to actually make himself look decent. He hadn’t gone on a date in almost two years now so he hoped he wouldn’t fuck it up too badly. Keith grabbed the box and went to go walk home. As soon as he set the box down in his kitchen, he realized that Lance wouldn’t know where to pick him up.

Lance <3
K: You put a heart next to your name in my contacts? Really? What are we? 12???
L: I think it’s cute <3
K: You forgot to ask me for my address btw
L: Shit
K: 700 N Franklin Blvd unit 1208
L: Thanks. That’s in town, right?
K: Yep.
L: I looked it up /how do you afford that/
K: I live there with Shiro so we split the rent
L: You two are like conjoined at the hip are you married or something
K: No way in hell I’d marry Shiro. He’s like my dad/brother
L: /daddy/
K: whY? I'm leaving before I regret saying yes
L: Bye cutie patootie <3
Keith spent over an hour coordinating outfits to choose from and spent another half hour deciding between all of them. He'd finally settled on a vest over a white button-up with shorts over cat leggings. It was cute and could work with most of the date activities that Keith could think of. He checked his phone. 6:39. He figured had time to shower before he got changed. After ten minutes of showering, five minutes of grooming hair, and another five of actually getting dressed, Keith was content. As he headed towards the door, he grabbed his new flower crown and positioned it onto his hair neatly. As he was tying up his boot laces he heard a honk and giddily smiled. As cocky as he thought Lance was, he was looking forward to the date. He tied the last knot, grabbed his keys, wallet, and phone off the ground and headed out the door. Lance was waiting on the sidewalk and behind him was a motorcycle. He was dressed in a black varsity jacket over a low-cut shirt that hung loosely on him, revealing more of the tattoos that reached the artist's neck. On the left side of his neck was what appeared to be a tree. It was placed underneath a strange 'v' symbol that was under Lance's jaw. On the right was what Keith had originally assumed to be just waves, but now he saw there was a fish amongst those waves. He knew Lance had his entire arms tattooed, but he was never close enough when Lance was sleeveless to see what the tattoos were of. However, the tattoo sleeves leaked onto Lance's wrists. One wrist had flowers whilst the other had a death star. 'I swear if he has a Star Wars themed tattoo sleeve, I'm going to cry.'
"Holy fuck you're adorable." Keith's train of thought was interrupted by the sudden compliment and he realized he'd been staring.
"I better be after the amount of effort I put into this outfit," He responded as he walked over to Lance, "you don't look half bad yourself."
"Thank you," Lance hummed, secretly cherishing the fact that Keith had put in a lot of effort just to look nice for their date.
"So where are we going?"
"Secret."
"Why won't you tell me?"
"I want it to be a surprise!"
"Fine," Keith rolled his eyes as Lance took a seat on his bike and patted the seat behind him. Keith plopped down and took the helmet Lance proceeded to offer him.
"Hold on tight!" Lance laughed and Keith wrapped his arms around Lance's waist tightly as Lance sped onward.