His words weren’t of comfort, though they were comforting just the same. They were spoken with friendship and acceptance in a time when understanding wasn’t enough and those other things were hard to come by.

Lance found it hard to breathe these days. He found it hard to do much but smile.

That wasn’t normal, even by coping standards. He was pretty sure, anyway. It was an involuntary action that likely marked him for the freak he was, but the smile served him well enough to breeze over that concern as well. Like all the others. Especially when no one knew. Because of the smile.

And there it was. It all worked out.

Really.

Which is why he simply kept smiling and ignored the fact that his muscles loosened up and he could almost breathe again as Keith chattered on relentlessly about nothing that had to do with anything. The way friends did.

Just talking. Cars and homework, movies and girls. None of those things had anything to do with his inability to affect a balance. With the fact that he wasn’t cutting it on his own.

It was no big deal. Nothing special. Normal. No big concession.

Everyone breathed.