Chapter Text
Lance kind of wants to strangle his past self for deciding to pick astrophysics as a major. It’s a hard subject, and he knew that when he entered the program, but Lance had thought ‘hey, space is cool!’ and gone for it.
Curse his stupid, impulsive teenage choices.
From the way that Keith is staring down his own textbook across from him, it looks like he’s regretting the exact same choice. He angrily turns the page for the second time in the last minute, glaring down at the book with tired eyes.
For the past hour, the two of them have been sitting in the library, taking notes on the five (five!) chapters their professor assigned them to work on for homework and swapping notes every now and then just to see if they’re making any sense. Lance would usually be back at his dorm by now, sprawled out on his bed with a facemask drying on his face and soft music playing over his headphones, but drinking lukewarm coffee and studying astro in the unwelcoming library is failing miserably to measure up.
However, as the minutes tick past, Lance is starting to notice that Keith is a little more stressed over this than he is.
Okay, maybe a lot more, he thinks as Keith nearly rips the textbook page in half with how aggressively he flips it.
“Dude,” He finally says, breaking their silence. “I know that Professor Smythe gives us a shit ton of stuff to do, but this is stressing you out way more than usual. What’s your deal?”
Keith looks up from the textbook, signature frown decorating his expression. “I’m not stressed, just annoyed at this assignment. Now shut up and let me get back to work.”
“Yeesh,” Lance mumbles, twirling his pen loosely between nimble fingers as Keith dutifully looks back down at the textbook and his notes. “Someone needs to get laid.”
At that, Keith stiffens, making Lance’s idle movement stop. Keith’s eyes dart up to catch his gaze, mouth falling open and letting a quiet ‘um’ slip out.
Lance gives Keith a small smile. “Relax dude, I’m just messing with you.” He says, leisurely starting to fiddle with his pen again.
“Oh,” Keith says, the tips of his ears dusted pink. “Yeah, no─I knew─I mean I just─I haven’t exactly, uh…”
The pen falls from Lance’s fingers, landing on top of his own open textbook with a quiet thunk in the overwhelming silence of the library.
In Lance’s (admittedly minimal) experience, it’s pretty easy to tell when someone has or hasn’t had sex. It was something he’d started to notice after he lost his virginity, little tells that cropped up whenever sex came up as a topic.
Keith is radiating anxiety like a fucking heatwave, notes abandoned and eyes darting away from Lance, but there's absolutely no way─ no way ─that Keith Shirogane of all people is saying what Lance thinks he's saying. Not possible, not with those stupid-pretty eyes, rimmed with dark lashes, or the thick tangle of his hair, or his annoyingly defined biceps, or the way half their astrophysics class follows him with the same lingering gaze that Lance does.
But then pink pools over Keith’s cheeks, across the bridge of his nose, and his eyebrows knit together, fixing Lance with those sharp eyes and mumbling, “Please don't make me say it.”
He’s saying exactly what Lance thinks he's saying.
“Holy shit,” is what slips off Lance’s tongue first, making the pink of Keith’s face deepen red. “Dude. You’ve never had sex?” Keith groans like he’s dying and buries his face in his hands, hunched over the table.
“Say it louder, Lance, I don't think the fifth floor heard you.” He mumbles into his palms, irritation crystal-clear in his voice.
“But you─”
“No! Okay? No, I haven't.” He hisses through his fingers, cutting Lance off.
“No one’s popped your cherry? No one’s creamed your Twinkie?” He asks, grinning despite his surprise. Keith drags a hand down his face, glowering at Lance.
“If you don't shut up, I'm going to shove this pencil down your throat.” He threatens.
“No one's breached your blowhole─”
Keith’s eyes go wide, and he launches across the table to clasp a hand over Lance’s mouth, his face burning a bright red.
“You,” He says, glaring daggers at Lance. “Are the worst human on the planet.”
“Thanks,” Lance replies, muffled against Keith’s palm. Keith scowls and pulls his hand away, wiping it off on Lance’s jacket and sitting back down, glancing at the wall clock in the library.
“Okay, but seriously, it’s totally chill that you’ve never had sex before. Virginity is a construct anyways.” Lance says, leaning forward in his seat. “I was just surprised that no one’s tried getting down and dirty with you.” Keith looks away from the clock, raising his eyebrows at Lance.
“How is that surprising?” He asks, nose wrinkling. Lance’s jaw drops.
“You’re kidding, right?” He sputters. Keith blinks owlishly at him, head tilting as his expression shifts into confusion. “Oh my god, you're not kidding. Dude, literally half of our astro class has been mentally undressing you for the entire semester. They’ve all probably imagined a thousand different ways to get you into bed.”
If possible, Keith’s face darkens another few shades of red. He splutters, struggling to settle on something to say. Eventually, he lapses into an embarrassed silence, opting to hide his face in his open textbook with a muffled groan. Lance snickers at him, moving his pen off of his textbook to turn the page.
Keith lifts his face from the textbook, bright red cheeks down to a pale pink. He’s chewing on his bottom lip nervously. Lance watches him, eyebrow raised as Keith seems to be searching for words.
“How can you tell?” He finally blurts out. “That they all, um, want to sleep with me, I mean.” Lance snorts at his choice of words, giving Keith a lazy grin before letting his eyes drop back down to his textbook.
“Relax mullet. It’s not like there’s a secret ‘I Want To Bone Keith’ groupchat.” He says nonchalantly, flipping the page and glancing at his half-finished notes.
Keith scowls, reaching for his notebook and tearing out a blank sheet of paper, crumpling it up into a ball and throwing it at Lance. It nails him in the head before bouncing off, falling to the floor.
“I’m serious, Lance.” He says, and jeez, he really does look uncharacteristically serious for such a joking conversation.
“Okay, okay, chill.” Lance says, putting his hands up defensively. “It’s just easy to tell what other people are thinking when you’ve all got the same thing on your mind.” He absentmindedly reaches for his mostly-forgotten coffee, grateful for the distraction but ready to go back to his notes. It seems like Keith has done the same, until he speaks up once more.
“You’ve thought about having sex with me?” Keith says, dumbfounded. Lance chokes, on his drink, coughing harshly as he feels his cheeks heat. Keith just watches, eyes blown wide.
“What?” Lance croaks. “When did I─where did you get─what?"
“You─you just said that you’ve thought about it before!” Keith stutters. Lance looks at him, mouth agape as he realizes─
Oh.
Oh, he did say that, didn’t he.
Huh.
“Well,” Lance says, setting his coffee down. “This has been a lovely study session, but if you excuse me, I have to change my name and move to Iceland.”
“I don’t mind that you’ve thought about it.” Keith blurts out. Lance freezes, staring at Keith with wide eyes, his face on fire. Keith takes a deep breath, hands nervously messing with his own pen. “I mean─I know you, and it’s not like you’re unattractive, and we’re friends so it’s not weird and it’s honestly kind of bothered me that I haven’t had sex, and I don’t think you’d be a bad person to lose my virginity to and ohmygod I did not mean to say that.” He babbles, eyes stuck on Lance like he’s helpless to look anywhere else, and Lance isn’t fully convinced that this isn’t a fever dream. Yeah, he definitely passed out from exhaustion while studying and he’s making this up.
A long, silent moment drags out between them while Lance stares, openmouthed, and after a beat, Keith speaks up again.
“Nevermind, you’re not─” He shakes his head, cutting himself off and sighing. “Can we just, um, pretend this whole conversation never happened?” He says weakly, looking up at Lance. Lance blinks once, twice, and comes back to reality.
“No!” He says, much too suddenly and much louder than he intended, and Keith jolts in his seat. “I mean─I don’t want to pretend it didn’t happen. I was just, surprised that you’d want to?” He says, the intonation coming out more like a question. Keith runs a hand back through his hair, cheeks still flushed.
“Uh, well…” He starts, looking a bit embarrassed. “You’re not the only one who’s thought about it.”
Lance blinks. He blinks again. Pinches himself, just to be sure.
Because─Keith just said he’s thought about having sex with Lance.
It’s a huge ego boost, if he’s being honest, but something hot curls low in his stomach, warming Lance to the core. His mind starts to run wild, starts conjuring images of Keith sprawled out in bed and thinking of Lance, face flushed that same pretty red as he reaches down and cups his─
Lance cuts his thoughts off abruptly, straightening up in his seat, because he is very much still in public and there's no way he’s gonna be sporting a half-chub in the campus library. He may be a hormonal college student, but he's not that bad.
“So…you wouldn't be opposed.” He ventures hesitantly. Keith lets out a quiet, breathy laugh, shaking his head.
“No, I wouldn't.” He says. “God, are we seriously having this conversation?” He laughs again, this time with a tinge of nervousness.
“Hey, nothin’ wrong with some good ol’ friends with bennies!” Lance says, grinning. Keith buries his face in his hands.
“Oh my god, never say it like that again.” He groans, but Lance can see a smile through the gaps in his fingers.
“Just a bro taking a bro’s virginity,” he continues. “Guys being dudes. Dudes sucking dicks.”
“Keep going and I'm gonna cut your dick off, not suck it.” Keith says flatly. Before Lance can say something stupid, like, ‘is that an offer’, Keith glances at the clock and his eyes go wide. “Fuck─I have class in twenty minutes, I should go.”
He quickly shuts his textbook, gathering up his notes and packing everything back into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder as he gets up. He glances back down at Lance, pausing a moment, his expression nervous.
“Do you, uh─wanna talk about this later?” He says carefully, as if there's even a chance that Lance would say no.
“Yeah, of course, dude.” Lance says, offering up a reassuring smile. “Shake on it?” He asks, sticking out his hand toward Keith.
There’s a beat of silence while Keith’s eyes flit between Lance’s face and his hand, then, tentatively, he grabs Lance’s hand with his own. shaking it firmly. Lance grins, making the corners of Keith’s mouth twitch. The two drop hands, leaving Keith to turn and walk towards the double doors of the library.
Lance watches until the doors shut behind Keith, allowing him to turn around and try to focus on his assignment, picking up his pen to take notes. He manages to read about three words before it actually hits him.
He just agreed to take Keith’s virginity.
His grip falls slack, pen dropping to his notebook again as he finally absorbs the past ten minutes of his life.
“Oh my god,” Lance whispers to himself. “I’m going to have sex with Keith.”
✦
The walk to Keith’s dorm is a long one, usually too much of an annoyance for either of them to walk the distance. It's the reason they settle in at the library for study sessions, the reason that hangouts in either of their dorms are rare.
Now, though, Lance couldn’t be more grateful for the walk to give him time to organize his thoughts.
There are five distinct pros and cons to being friends with benefits with Keith.
Pro: Keith is…attractive. Lance isn't blind, he's noticed this more than a few times over the course of their friendship.
Con: It might ruin their friendship.
Pro: He really wants to.
Con: Keith might hate him for taking his virginity (even though it is a construct, the sentiment still stands).
Pro: He really, really wants to.
He hasn't really decided whether or note the last two pros really count for anything but his lack of self-restraint before he’s standing in front of Keith’s dorm, and─well, he’s already here. Can't bail out now.
He shoots off a quick text to Keith so he can be let in, since he doesn't exactly have the keycard required to get into his building, and waits. The January cold easily pushes its way through his coat, and he shivers slightly, arms crossed tightly over his chest.
A few minutes of waiting (and a few minutes of pacing) later, Keith shows up, flashing Lance a small, nervous smile as he pushes the door open. Lance smiles back easily, walking through the doorway and falling in step with Keith as they walk toward the elevator.
As soon as the elevator door slides shut behind them, Lance knows he needs to diffuse the tension building between the two of them. If this is how they act before they’ve even done anything, how are they expected to act natural after?
“So, I’m gonna go on a limb here and say you’ve at least masturbated.” Lance says, because apparently his mouth has decided to operate completely independent of his brain. Keith’s head jerks toward him, his face flushed that now-familiar pink, betraying the pointed scowl the rest of his expression is twisted into.
“Yes, obviously.” He hisses, evidently trying to keep quiet despite the fact that no one else is there to overhear their─admittedly salacious─conversation.
“Okay, good. It’d be pretty sad if you hadn’t, honestly.” Lance replies. Keith huffs, rolling his eyes at Lance.
“Just because I don’t tell you about jacking off doesn’t mean I haven’t, Lance.” He grumbles, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Lance shrugs.
“It could be helpful. Tell me about what you like, what you don’t like, what you think about when you get a hand on your─”
“Stop!” Keith yells, shoving at Lance. He laughs, pushing Keith’s arms down. Keith’s red in the face, but there’s a smile spread across his cheeks, and he lets out a laugh almost helplessly, like he couldn’t tamp it down, couldn’t pretend he didn’t think it was funny. Lance beams, laughing along with him.
The elevator dings, the doors sliding open on Keith’s floor. The two walk through the doors, and Keith leads him down the hallway toward his single, the two of them still giggling under their breath. The situation becomes that much more real as they approach the door, and Lance takes a silent moment to thank god (and Shiro’s leeway as a professor) that Keith doesn’t have a roommate.
Keith unlocks his dorm with a quiet click, holding the door open and looking at Lance expectantly before walking in. Lance glups, taking a deep breath to steady himself before following him through the door.
Keith’s dorm is surprisingly sparse─it’s smaller than Lance and Hunk’s, which isn’t strange for a single, but it has most of the same trappings. A desk tucked into the corner, a bed, a dresser. Keith’s familiar red jacket is neatly folded on top of the dresser, his motorcycle gloves laid on it neatly.
Lance wanders over to his bed, sitting down on the edge and bouncing sightly as the mattress moves. The comforter cover is dark red, unsurprisingly, with star-patterned pillowcases. A small nonbinary pride flag is pinned up on the wall at the head of the bed, the handheld gay flag Lance had gotten him at pride last year held up between the headboard and the wall. Lance smiles at the sight─it’s nice to know that Keith appreciated the sentiment at least enough to keep it around.
“So…” Keith says, sitting down at the foot of his bed, his back pressed against the baseboard. Lance turns a bit to face him, offering what he hopes is a comforting grin.
“So…” he echoes hopefully, prompting Keith to speak. Keith fidgets a bit, still visibly nervous, before running a hand through his hair.
“Friends with benefits?” He says, hesitant. “How is this gonna work, exactly?” He asks. Lance shrugs.
“I mean, it's not like I’ve done it before, either.” He admits. “Hookups, yes, fuckbuddies...not so much.” Keith winces slightly when he says fuckbuddies, which is honestly kind of funny.
“We should probably set ground rules.” He suggests and, okay, he’s being much more logical about this than Lance is. To be honest, his thought process had shut down past the point of get in Keith’s pants. He tells Keith as much, and he blushes bright red, flustered.
“I'm─I'm gonna get paper,” he manages, sliding off of the bed to head for his desk, opening a random notebook to a blank sheet of paper. He grabs a pen, then turns back to the bed, where Lance still sits. He sits, cross-legged, at the foot of the bed, and clicks the pen open, looking up to meet Lance’s gaze again.
“Any ideas for rules?” Lance asks. Keith hums thoughtfully, then scribbles something put at the top of the paper. Lance cranes his head to try to get a look, but he’s barely caught a glimpse of Keith’s slanted, scrawling handwriting before the notebook is unceremoniously dumped in his lap.
- No hickies where anyone can see them.
“Fair enough,” Lance concedes. “Uh, my turn?” Keith nods, and they're both quiet for a moment while Lance purses his lips, trying to think of a rule.
Given how embarrassed he was at the library earlier, Lance is guessing Keith isn’t too keen on letting everyone know about their predicament. If Lance is really being honest, he doesn’t really want to either. He doesn't think Hunk would ever let him live it down if he found out.
“Nothing sexual in public,” he says, handing the notebook back to him. Keith flushes slightly, as if embarrassed by the mere idea, and writes it down under the first rule. Lance grins─it's surprisingly easy to make Keith blush, something he hadn't expected from his stoic demeanor. Keith pauses a moment, then writes down something else under that.
“I’m assuming this is the general theme of the rules so far so…” He mumbles, handing the notebook back to Lance.
- Don’t tell anyone we’re fucking.
Lance snickers, though he can feel his own face warming at the bluntness in Keith’s words.
“I can deal with that,” he says. “Uh, can we agree not to hook up with anyone else while this is going on?”
“I think it's a given that I'm not getting any, Lance.” Keith says drily, but he takes back the notebook, writing it down anyway. Lance smirks.
“Well, you weren't. Who knows what’ll be unleashed once you get some of Lancey-Lance.” He says, winking. Keith makes a face at that, startling a laugh from Lance’s throat.
“Can rule five be that you never call yourself Lancey-Lance ever again?” He says. Lance laughs again, still smiling broadly, but he takes the notebook and pen just in case Keith’s serious.
Looking at the list, it seems to cover pretty much everything, but he still wants to write something else down. Something to ease the tension.
A grin stretches across his face as he finally places the pen to paper, writing down their fifth and final rule. Keith tilts his head slightly as he watches Lance shield the words from Keith’s view.
“Here.” Lance says. Keith takes the notebook, reading the newest rule. He sighs, then fixes Lance with a look as he turns the notebook to face Lance.
“Really?” He says. Lance shrugs, grinning.
- Don’t fall in love with me ;)
“I think it’s an important rule. This is friends with benefits, after all.” Lance reminds him. Keith sighs.
“Fine,” he says, setting the notebook to the side and grabbing Lance by the collar of his shirt. “Won't be a problem.”
Keith tugs Lance in until the space between them is nonexistent, their lips slotting together easily. Lance makes a soft, muffled noise of surprise against his mouth, but it takes an embarrassingly short time for him to melt into it, to let his hands fall to Keith’s waist, eyes fluttering shut as he adjusts himself better. Keith uncrosses his legs, stretching them out on the bed and spreading them to allow more space for Lance, who eagerly presses forward, situating himself between the splay of Keith’s thighs.
It’s clear that Keith’s at least kissed someone, even if he hasn’t done anything beyond that─clear in the way he moves his lips against Lance’s, in the sudden confidence he has, mostly leading the kiss. Keith bites at Lance’s bottom lip, who groans quietly in response, opening his mouth against Keith’s.
Kissing him is everything and nothing like what Lance thought it would be.
Not one to be undone, Lance lets his hands hands smooth down Keith’s sides to palm at the obvious bulge in his leggings, a nervous energy trailing behind the heat of arousal that overpowers him. Keith gasps a little under the touch, pulling back from the kiss and burying his face in the crook of Lance’s neck. Lance smiles, tugging Keith’s leggings down enough for the tent in his boxers to spring up slightly. His smile pulls a bit wider, finding it cute despite himself, and he tucks his fingers under the hem of Keith’s boxers, stopping momentarily to gauge his reaction.
“Hey, you with me?” He asks, voice quiet in the otherwise-empty dorm. “I just wanna make sure you’re okay with this.” Keith is still against him for a long moment, then moves his head slightly, looking at Lance out of the corner of his eye.
“If your hand,” He says slowly, “Is not on my dick in the next five seconds, I’m going to stab you.”
Lance laughs, finally (finally) pulling Keith’s boxers down and curling his hand around the base of his cock. It's a few inches shorter than his own, but thicker, fitting nicely in his hand when he twists his wrist.
Keith shivers against him, giving Lance more than enough encouragement to begin pumping his hand up and down, loosely wrapped around him. Keith’s hands clutch into fists in Lance’s shirt, his breath hot against his neck. He stays pretty quiet, letting out these soft, stilted noises every so often, low grunts and little gasps, but other than that, he keeps silent.
Lance turns his head to press a kiss against Keith’s temple, then whispers, “Don’t be shy, rojito. Lemme hear you. Wanna hear that pretty voice.” Keith’s swears against Lance’s neck, inviting Lance to speed up his ministrations. Keith gasps a little louder, hips twitching up into the tight circle of Lance’s fist. He still doesn’t seem to be fully out of his head yet, so Lance continues talking, filling the silence for him.
“C’mon, I know you can be a little louder for me,” he coaxes, voice saccharine-sweet as he squeezes the base of Keith’s cock. Keith whimpers, and the noise goes straight to Lance’s own dick, heat pooling low in his stomach. He quickly goes back to moving his hand up and down Keith’s length, taking his time in getting back to the pace he was at before he faltered.
“Lance,” Keith whines, hips now thrusting up in time with each pump of his hand, encouraging Lance to go faster. “Please.”
Lance does his best to bite back his own moan, instead grinning, finally speeding up once more. “There you go. Tell me how you’re feeling, sweetheart.”
“Shit─I’m so close Lance, please, I wanna─ please─” Keith begs, breathless, tilting his head up to press his forehead against Lance’s, his eyes screwed shut and face flushed patchy red. Lance presses a kiss to Keith’s lips, still hesitant but firm, then pulls back.
“Go ahead,” he breathes, sure that his own face is just as red as Keith’s at this point. “Come for me, Keith. C’mon.”
Keith lets out a loud groan, head dropping back against the wall as he finally comes, his cock twitching in Lance’s hand and hips jerking up helplessly. Lance murmurs softly into his ear, nipping at his neck and stroking him through it until Keith lets out an overstimulated whimper, batting his hand away weakly. Lance lets go, chucking softly.
“How was that?” He asks, careful to keep his hand off of Keith’s sheets. Keith leans back fully against the wall, still panting slightly.
“Good,” He replies, still breathless. “Really good. Um, tissues are on the desk.” He says, gesturing towards the tissue box.
Lance grins, sliding off the bed to head to the desk, grabbing a few tissues to clean his hand off, then tosses them in the trash bin. He grabs a few more, eyeing his shirt and checking that it (thankfully) was spared from Keith’s jizz. He looks over to Keith, who’s watching him from where he still sits on the bed.
“Did any get on you or the bed? I would have suggested laying a towel down or something, but you were a little too busy jumping me.” Lance says, smirking. Keith scoffs.
“You’re hilarious. Get back here,” He says, moving to tug his boxers back up. Lance obliges, dropping the extra tissues on Keith’s nightstand and helping him move his discarded (and now cum-stained, ew) leggings off the bed. He situaties himself across from Keith, sitting with his legs crossed.
“So, how are you feeling?” He asks.
Keith looks at him carefully for a moment, and then he’s moving towards Lance again, straddling him like it's nothing and pressing a firm kiss to his mouth. He pulls back, a grin on his face while Lance gapes at him, cheeks flushed.
“I’m feeling,” He murmurs, voice dropping low and hands falling to the waistband of Lance’s jeans, hovering over the restricted hardon Lance has been sporting ever since he got Keith’s pants off. “Like it’s your turn.”
✦
“Dude,” Lance says as he ghosts his fingertips over his neck. “You mauled me.” He sees Keith’s cheeks flush pink in the reflection behind him.
“I did not,” he protests, but even he doesn't really sound convinced. Lance pins him with a flat stare through the mirror, and it takes all of five seconds for him to crack. “Okay, fine, maybe a little!”
Lance hadn't noticed the marks on his neck until he caught of glimpse of his reflection. That's not to say he hadn't realized Keith was doing it─he definitely had─he just didn't think that they would be so, uh…
Noticeable.
The hickies are dark purple against brown skin, dotted along his collarbones and the line of his neck. He can almost track the process of Keith forgetting about his own rule, connect it back to still-fresh memories of canines scraping skin and Keith’s low, rough voice murmuring his name and okay time to stop thinking about that.
Frankly, Keith seems more embarrassed by it than Lance is, and Lance is the one who’s going to be sporting hickies for the rest of the week.
“I won’t do it again,” Keith promises, looking legitimately worried that Lance might be mad, as if this is a problem and not ridiculously hot.
“Dude, it’s fine.” Lance says, giving him a reassuring smile. “It was your rule, you get to break it.”
“I─I’m not breaking─I didn’t mean to─” Keith cuts himself off with a groan, slapping a hand to his forehead then dragging it down his face. “You’re insufferable.”
“And yet, you left a fuck ton of hickies on me.” Lance replies, tugging at his collar to show off the dark purple marks on his collarbones. Keith sighs, looking up at the ceiling. Lance snickers, turning to face him, and Keith meets his gaze, still looking slightly apologetic.
“Relax, I’ll just put some concealer on them. I should have enough to cover most of it, the rest will just be covered by my shirt.” Keith seems to lose the tension in his shoulders at that, his expression relaxing into a small smile. The two stay there, then Lance finally claps his hands together.
“Well, while I’m here, should we study?” He asks. Keith hums, considering, then nods.
“Yeah, sure.” He says. He lets out a soft, breathy laugh. “Orgasms then astro. Great.” Lance grins, giving him an over-exaggerated wink.
“Hey, if you play your cards right, we can do this every time.” He says. Keith raises his eyebrows doubtfully, leveling Lance with a flat look.
“If we fucked every time we had to study for astro, I think we’d just work ourselves into exhaustion.” He says.
“Uh, sounds like a challenge.” Lance shoots back, waggling his eyebrows. Keith rolls his eyes, hauling his astro textbook out of his bag and settling back onto the bed.
“Shut up and help me make sense of this,” he says.
Lance follows easily, and, plopping down next to him and quickly falling into their usual argument over exactly what Professor Smythe means when he says that he ‘would know firsthand’ about galaxy formation, he wonders why he ever thought something could ruin his friendship with Keith.