Work Text:
Feburary 10th, 2016
There is something holy about Hunk’s food, Lance muses as he watches Keith grin around another mouthful of Hunk’s latest Valentine’s Day creation: a realistic, gore human heart. Filming this latest How To Cake That had been hilarious and encouraging Hunk’s antiques towards “Mrs. Cake” had been enough to have Lance laughing behind cameras for almost the majority of the baking process. Pidge was gonna have a field day editing the audio.
But for now it was almost midnight and he had paper work to fill out. It was tax season and he was so close to done he could taste it. Scrapping the last of the dark chocolate ganache from his plate, he stood and stretched.
“Heading out?” Hunk asked. Behind him, Keith finished off his plate and flashed Lance a “blood” stained smile, all teeth and buttercream.
“Yup!” Lance grinned throwing out his trash. “Need any help cleaning up?” There wasn’t much left. Just warping up what remained of the cake to send to Shiro and Allura. Ever since the baby, they’d made it their mission to keep the new family stress free with frequent dinners and enough sweets to distract from the sleep deprivation. It was unfortunate little Joan has been feeling colic.
Hunk shook his head, already pulling out the tupperware. The fridge made a concerning sputtering noise and Lance made a note to budget in a maintenance check. Hopefully it’s just the fan acting up since they’d upped the heat in the bakery to maintain room temperature as the winter in Montreal just got worse and worse.
(Sometimes Lance had to wonder what his family was think, an island boy moving to one of the coldest places in the world short of Russia.)
Keith grabbed the cake before Hunk and took it the fridge. Hunk rolled his eyes, “I could have done that.” But the affect is ruined as he yawns.
Keith shrugged, “It’s what I’m here for, right.” He shrugged on his coat and grabbed his camera equipment. Lance grabbed a case and asked. “Need a lift?”
“No. Shay says she’s on her way to pick me up.” Hunk assured them. Together the three of them turned off the rest of the lights and locked up the kitchen before heading to the front. “See you in a few.”
Keith groaned and Lance laughed. When he’d first met Keith, he’d never assumed he’d be a terrible morning person. But then again, High-School-Lance would never have assumed he’d have a chance to find out. Since they’d hated each other. Competed against each other in everything from academics to sports to the arts. Lance still remembers the day he beat out Keith by taking the leading role in Macbeth. One of the proudest moments of his life.
As if knowing what he was thinking about, Keith shot him a somewhat sour thought. “Why are you grinning like that?”
Lance’s grin widened. “What do you think High-School-Keith think of you today?”
Keith hummed and looked away, up and up at the moon and the few starts that weren’t blocked out by the city lights. Sweet Eats bakery was located in a quiet neighborhood. Most of the lights were off. It had snowed since they’d started filming and the cold night air had left it to crunch under their boots. “I was an angry kid in high school,” Keith finally offered.
Lance snorted. “That’s an understatement.”
“Hey!”
Lance laughed, unlocking the car and helping Keith fit it all into the trunk. “But yeah… I was too.”
And yet here he was…. The four of them co-owning a successful bakery at nineteen with apartments and a stable relationships and great friends and enough money to pay the bills and more. He thought about their classmates off at university and felt an odd sort of warmth in his stomach.
“We didn’t do too bad, did we?” Keith said finally, closing the trunk.
“Come on, old man,” Lance knocked his shoulder against Keith’s. That warmth steadily growing, “Let’s go home.”
Keith made a wounded noise, “We were bonding, asshole.”
Lance just laughed. “I’m cooolllldddd, Keith!” He jumped into the car and screamed, “We can bond at home. I’m feelin’ waffles.”
Keith followed, laughing. Cheeks flushed from the cold. Red buttercream still staining his teeth. “Fine but I’m picking the movie.”
“Over my dead body, Kogane.”
“Whatever you say, Ferro.”