"You're going back to Earth," Lance insists, unceremoniously shoving the tablet into Keith's lap. He sticks his nose in the air and sniffs with exaggerated superiority. "And I'm incredibly jealous. So let me live vicariously through you, come on."
"By writing a list?" Keith replies, irritated. He picks up the tablet to find open to a notetaking program. He leans back against the plush couch of the lounge in cursory defiance. As if sinking into the fabric will get his teammates to leave him alone. Hardly.
"By writing a list of Earth things," Pidge stresses. She reaches over Lance's lap to pull the stylus out of it's sleeve on the side of the tablet. She holds it out to Keith, big, young eyes uncompromising.
"It's like, team bonding," Hunk says reasonably, eyes smiling even if his mouth isn't. "Besides, have you thought about what you're going to do with your time on Earth?"
"Uh," Keith mutters. "No? I figured I'd figure it out when I got there. I'll be focused on the mission anyway."
Lance cries, "Diplomacy with the Garrison is not going to take you that long--"
Pidge says, "You'd be insane not to do something--"
And Hunk says, "Well, Allura's coming with you." When everyone else falls silent, he raises an eyebrow. "Don't you want to show her some cool Earth stuff? I know she wants to get to know it better--"
"Fine," Keith snarls. He snatches the stylus from Pidge's fingers and scoots himself until he's sitting up. He positions the stylus over the paper, getting ready to write, and then,
uh, and then nothing.
He sits there, mind utterly blank. Like a still pond in there. Not a single breeze of thought. Keith just stares at the empty page, limbs frozen.
"Keith?"
What do I want to do on Earth?
His mind races. Races, and still gets utterly nowhere. Like a stalling car, his brain stutters and buffers and grinds itself nowhere. "I don't know,"
"What?"
"I don't know what I want to do on Earth."
Lance makes an irritated noise. "You're insane. You must miss something about Earth."
Keith does not move.
"Like, what about the food?" Lance cries. "Or the music? Or the clothes? Or TV? Movies? Concerts? Shopping?"
"Yeah," Hunk agrees, "don't you have a favorite Earth food? Something there's no substitute for out here. Something that just," he sighs, a little wistfully, "is so quintessentially Earth that it just..."
Hunk trails off when Keith begins to write. Something's occurred to him, spurred on by Hunk nostalgia for food. Something that is nostalgic to him, but hadn't entered his mind until Hunk said those words...
Keith wants to hide it from them, but Lance is already bullying his way into Keith's personal space to get a good look at the screen. Keith tries to tilt it away, but Lance's hand jerks out and grips it by the side so he can drag it to his face. He gets right up against it, blinking, as if he can't believe what he's reading.
"Pink Monster?" He says, in utter bewilderment.
Pidge gags. Hunk's mouth drops open.
Keith rips the tablet from Lance's fingers and cradles it defensively against his chest. "What?" He says, more snappishly than he intends. Hunk closes his mouth, Pidge covers her's, but Lance's expression blooms into a smile. And then a grin. And then he's laughing.
It starts out as a snicker; a snort. Then it devolves into giggles, and then further into little laughs that he tries and fails to smother with a hand. And then he gives up, and throws his head back and cackles, lips parted and chest shuddering in wild laughter. He smacks his palms to his cheeks loud enough to make Keith flinch.
"Shut the fuck up!" Keith shouts, despite the fact that Lance hasn't actually said anything. His cheeks are warm with embarrassment. "It's good! I like it!"
Lance drags his hands down his face, still laughing. And, he gasps for breath, face twisted into a smile it seems he almost can't help. He laughs through the words, "You gotta," a breath, "you gotta give it to him, Earth is the only, the only place in the galaxy that would invent pink Monster,"
And then Hunk and Pidge are laughing, too, fondly. Keith himself cracks a smile, shame easing into something warmer. Lance shakes his head, regaining control of himself. His cheeks are still flushed, and his eyes still sparkling. Smiling widely, he asks Keith, "Why do you like it?"
"Every 7/11 had it when I was a kid," he shrugs. "So when I'd get tired of the other kids, I'd skip school to go, and I'd always get a monster. Pink is just my favorite. I did it like three times a week."
"Where'd you get the money?" Pidge asks, narrowing her eyes.
Telling her about the time he got sent to juvie for a stolen candy bar, of all things, was a mistake. "I didn't." It wasn't about the candy bar, anyway. And he never got caught with the Monster.
"No wonder you're insane," Lance says. He pokes Keith's temple, which causes Keith to startle back, glaring at him. "It's all the caffeine."
"It make me feel sleepy," Keith defends.
"Caffeine made you sleepy?"
"Yes--!"
"No, yeah, that happens sometimes," Hunk interjects. "It's called an erroneous response and--"
"So is that it?" Pidge says, loud enough to interrupt the brewing lecture. "That's all you want on Earth?"
Keith narrows his eyes in thought. Then, he shrugs. "You think Allura would be down to go to a concert?"
All three of them yell, loud enough to startle the mice awake across the room: YES!
