Church | Klance

3

It had been a week since Lance and Keith first met and went to the park and the older was right, his parents had been strict on when he could leave the house to see people so the pair mainly relied on texting to communicate with each other.

Keith hadn't said much about why he went to his aunt's house other than the text he sent saying it was because he's gay, Lance understood that it was a touchy subject so he didn't bring it up.

"Mijo, are you ready to go?" Lance heard his mother's voice from the other side of the door since it was Sunday, his family was getting ready to go to the church before the service began.

"Sí mamá." Lance's family was a Cuban family, he was born and raised there for the first few years of his life but they'd moved to America when Lance was ten. His dad was already religious in Cuba and was on his way to become the pastor of the church there, but in search of a better life, they'd moved to America where his father continued his religious work.

Lance was more excited about church today, usually, he had stuck to the same routine which included the same feelings about the service which were usually an indifference towards it. Not for any bad reason, but lately with his conflict with religion and his thoughts of boys, he was uncomfortable in the church. He felt like a sinner like he had no right to be sitting on the first bench acting righteously when he knew he was sinning to everyone.

Today, however, he felt excited, excited to see the rebellious boy whose family saw him as an insult to religion, maybe that made him even more of a sinner than his inner-conflicts did.

As lance walked towards the kitchen, he heard his mom speaking to his dad, "I heard that the Kogane's boy got into some trouble this week already. He and some of his friends were being irresponsible with the law again."

"Well have to see, if he keeps getting into trouble I don't want our boy around him. I know he's not a bad person, no one is, but he's a bad influence for Lance." He listened from around the corner as his dad replied, he knew they were talking about Pidge and Hunk, those had to be the friends Keith was with.

"Everyone deserves a chance, dear. Today at church we'll see them." Lance took this as his que to walk into the kitchen to which his parents promptly stopped talking about Keith.

There was already some eggs toast cooked up for breakfast and his siblings were already and had begun to eat.

-----

As his father recited the bible, Lance took small glances a few rows back towards the Kogane family who had decided to sit closer towards the front today, unlike last week.

However, that wasn't the reason why Lance kept looking back, the specific verse that Lance's father was reading was the exact one that caused him so much distress over the past few years, the same one that made him grow distant from religion and the same one that had caused Keith to be relocated.

"Man shall not lay with man." As soon as he heard those words, Lance tuned out the whole service. In his opinion, something like a religion that's meant to spread love and faith in hard times shouldn't be the root of hate being spread to a specific group of people.

The entire service went on with him holding the bible in his hands, but his mind being elsewhere. He couldn't help but notice the irony in the situation, Lance was surely expected to be the next pastor of the church, yet here he was staring at a boy at the same time that he was being told it was a sin.

Lance looked up to the cross at the front of the church and then turned his focus to Keith who, unexpectedly, had already been looking at him. The two locked eyes for a moment, both losing all focus on the service going on. Lance broke the eye-contact quickly when Keith smirked at him smugly. This action sent Lance's mind into a religious panic, he reminded himself that he should be focusing on the teachings that he was to be learning and being holy like his parents had raised him to be.

He pushed the boy out of his mind and focused on his father's words while not realizing that Keith's gaze was still on him for the rest of the service.

-----

The McClain family stood at the front of the church as a line was formed by the followers of the church either wanting to confess something to their pastor or to thank him for the service. The Kogane's of course were in this line.

"Thank you, Pastor, that was a great service." Mr. Kogane thanked Lance's father while his wife spoke to his mom.

"Mrs. McClain, I wanted to invite your family over for dinner tonight as a thank you for allowing Lance to meet with Keith. Your son is a delightful boy, I do hope that his actions will rub off on our son." As she spoke she stared at Keith with a disapproving look. The whole time, Keith was looking at Lance, not saying anything, but his look still managed to tell Lance that he wanted to talk with him.

"That sounds lovely, doesn't it Joseph." Lance's father looked over when he heard his wife mention his name to which she continued, "The Kogane's have invited us for dinner tonight." Neither Joseph nor anyone else in the family had a chance to give their thoughts before, "And please, call me Selene. Mrs. McClain is too formal."

Mrs. Kogane nodded but didn't say anything about her name, "Perfect, dinner tonight then. Does five o'clock work?" She asked, satisfied when Selene nodded, "We'll see you all then."

As their family started to walk away, Keith spoke up, "Actually, I wanted to speak to Lance quickly. I'll be home right after you guys are."

"You'd better be." His father glared at him then continued walking down the aisle with his wife leaving the boy with the McClain family.

Keith motioned for Lance to follow him to the back of the church which he did. They were still in sight of Lance's family, but this way they had more privacy.

"I saw you during the service."

Lance gave a small laugh, "Of course you saw me, I sat in front of you. You had to see me."

"Not like that." Keith rolled his eyes and sighed, "I mean I saw you not paying attention and looking at me."

Lance felt his breath stop quickly but he managed to convince himself that Keith didn't know about his feelings for boys, he didn't know about his confusion. Keith only knew now that Lance didn't focus in church.

"So, lots of people don't always pay attention in church, you don't."

"I'm not the pastor's son, I don't have to. Plus everyone in this church already knows about me and how I'm bad news." Keith used his fingers to quote 'bad news'.

Lance thought about it and he did have a point, he was the pastor's son. If anyone was expected to pay attention to the pastor's words it would be him.

"I don't always need to pay attention though. I've been coming to church since before I can remember. I'm sure I have the whole book memorized by now."

Keith faked gasped, "Do I hear the pastor's boy talking bad about God?" He smirked at Lance, "Isn't that considered a sin in itself?"

He tried to defend himself but he was unable to. Keith laughed, "Look at you, only a week of knowing me and already sinning."

Lance heard his name being called by his mom, he used this to his advantage and began to walk up to the front of the church for whatever he was needed for.

"I'll see you at dinner." He waved to Keith as he walked away trying not to give in to the realization that Keith made it feel too easy to sin. It felt okay.