Chapter Text
Dating Lance is an experience.
Sometimes good, sometimes weird, sometimes infuriating. Because Keith isn’t used to being around people all the time, while Lance hates being alone.
And so in what Lance sickeningly likes to call “their honeymoon period”, he wants to be around Keith literally all the time. He texts him first thing in the morning, he shows up outside his dormitory door if they don’t spend the night together, and he’s even somehow managed to convince Ms. Allura to change his lunch period to match Keith’s (a little birdy named Pidge tells Keith that the usually strict guidance counselor only agreed to change his lunch period because he promised to stop trying out pickup lines on her)
And while Keith appreciates Lance’s enthusiasm, he also finds it mildly suffocating at times. But he’s not exactly sure how to talk about it to anyone.
Luckily, Hunk picks up on the fact that all is not quite right in Lance and Keith’s honeymoon paradise, and he stops Keith after lunch one day.
“Keith, buddy, Lance is like a koala,” he says. “You’ve got to figure out how to nip that in the bud if you want some personal space.”
“What exactly does that mean?”
“You’ve got to tell him when he’s clinging to you too much, or he’s just going to keep hanging off of you all the time. I mean, I don’t really care too much, he reminds me of my little brothers who practically climb my legs when I go home during breaks, but I know you’re not used to it.”
“What if I’m overreacting though? I don’t want to hurt his feelings, you know?”
Hunk shakes his head. “Nah. Lance is a lot to handle. Even just as a friend. I can’t even imagine what it’s like dating him. Speaking of which– what is it like dating him, anyway? Ever since I’ve met him, he’s just been a huge flirt. He’s never had an actual girlfriend or boyfriend since I’ve known him. And I’ve never seen him as into someone as he is into you. He really, really likes you.”
Keith blushes and looks down. “Well...it’s...it’s really nice. Yeah.”
Hunk laughs. “Is that it? Just ‘nice’?”
Keith doesn’t know what to say, exactly. He’s never been one for too many words, and the reasons that dating Lance is “nice” isn’t something he really knows how to describe. It’s the first time he’s ever felt like someone has really cared about him, who would notice if something happened to him, who would seek him out in the middle of a storm, to make sure that he’s okay. It's the first time anyone has ever given him an affectionate pet name, and even though he knows it's silly, he still feels a little thrill thrumming up from his stomach to his chest every time Lance calls him “babe”.
He doesn’t know how to describe the warm feeling of being wrapped in Lance’s free flowing affection, how to put into words what it’s like to wake up to Lance curled up next to him in his too small twin extra long bed, his walnut hair spilling across the pillow.
But it appears that he doesn’t need to, for Hunk can tell exactly what he’s feeling from the starry look in Keith’s eyes.
“You’ve got it bad, my friend,” says his cheerful friend. “I feel like you might just be a koala too.”
After three nights in a row where Lance stays in Keith’s room until 3am and Keith is subsequently so sleepy in class that Shiro even asks him if everything is okay, he finally decides it's time to say something to his boyfriend about how much time they’re spending together during lunch, before their friends arrive at the lunch table.
Things don't exactly go as planned.
“Hunk called me what?” says Lance, practically howling with laughter. “A koala ? What does that even mean?”
“He said I was one too!”
Lance looks at Keith appraisingly. “Come to think of it, you are kind of like a koala. You have a death grip when you hold onto my arms when we watch horror movies. And you climb me like a tree.”
“I don’t think that’s what Hunk meant.”
“Aww, babe, I have a new nickname for you now! Koala!”
Pidge clears her throat and announces her arrival at the table, which has gone completely unnoticed by both boys, by spouting out a random fact just as Hunk walks up with his tray.
“Did you know that when koalas fight, they sound like they've swallowed helium balloons?”
Hunk raises an eyebrow. “What are you talking about, Pidge?”
“Oh, Lance has a new nickname for Keith. He’s calling him ‘Koala’ now.”
Hunk turns to Keith, who shrugs and flushes.
“Keith…” he starts, before sighing and shaking his head.
Lance lights up as he notices his jolly friend standing beside the table.
“Hunk! Thanks for the nickname inspiration! Keith really is just like a koala. He’s got soft hair and he’s cuddly and he has sharp claws that he likes to dig into my-”
“Ew, don’t be gross,” interrupts Pidge, rolling her eyes. “I’m eating lunch.”
“You’re just jealous of our love, Pidge.”
“I would rather marry a robot than go on a date with either of you.”
Lance pouts. “Way harsh, Tai. Why are you raining on my parade? You aren’t this mean to Hunk!”
“That’s because Hunk doesn’t tell me what Shay likes to do to him while I’m in the middle of lunch.”
“Hey, don’t bring me into this!” protests Hunk. “I haven’t done anything other than trying to help my friends. And Shay and I are—”
“ Just friends ,” chime in Pidge and Lance in unison, while Keith watches with interest.
“That’s fair, I guess,” says Lance. “Someday, though, Hunk. Someday soon you will have your own koala bear just like I do.”
He turns to Keith with a fond and sweet smile and rumples his hair before getting up from the table. “Time to go to class. By the way, babe, have I told you lately how hot you are?”
Keith turns an unflattering shade of red. “ Do we have to do this here? ” he mutters in a low voice.
“Yup!” declares Lance. “You lost our bet and you have to deal with it. Two more weeks. So tell me, have I told you lately how hot you are?”
Keith groans and mumbles, “No. How hot am I?”
“You’re as hot as the sun, and I’m your earth, revolving around you forever.”
Hunk tries to hide a smile while Pidge gags.
After the lunch bell rings, Lance tugs on Keith’s sleeve to hold him back as the others leave.
“Hey— you know the dumb pickup lines are just a silly joke, right? I mean yeah, you lost the bet, but if it’s really bothering you, I can stop. I don’t actually want to be a dick. I’ve been enough of a douche to you already.”
Keith feels mildly guilty for being annoyed with Lance— he’s just trying to have a bit of fun, and there’s no doubt that even though the flirting is completely over the top, Lance is being completely genuine. He is his boyfriend, after all. And he doesn’t want to hold the whole letter misunderstanding over him forever, especially considering the beautiful love letters that Lance wrote for him afterward. He hasn’t told him, but he always carries his favorite letters in his backpack.
“No, it’s okay, I’m fine,” he replies, his tone shorter and more clipped than he intends for it to be, and in his rush to leave the lunchroom, he misses the troubled look on Lance’s face.
After dinner, Keith is surprised when Lance doesn’t tag along behind him to his room as he has for the past two weeks, and though he is surprised to admit to himself that he’s grown accustomed to Lance’s constant murmuring and humming while he works on his homework in the evening, it’s nice to have some alone time for the first time in a while.
Still, Keith starts feeling antsy after half an hour of sitting in silence, and it suddenly occurs to him that Hunk was right. He is a koala, in a way. Being with Lance has changed him, and what he once craved—alone time—no longer feels the same.
This time, he’s the one that texts first.
Keith: Hey, why didn’t you come over after dinner tonight?
Lance: Oh, I figured you wanted some alone time
Lance: I know I’ve been coming over a lot
Lance: I forget that you’re not used to it
Lance: I don’t want to exhaust you
Keith: What? You’re not exhausting me
Keith: Hold on
Keith: That doesn’t sound like you
Lance: Um..yeah…
Lance: I kind of talked to Hunk
Lance: I was feeling kind of worried after lunch and he noticed
Keith: Oh
Keith: ...what did he say?
Lance: He explained what he actually meant about the whole koala thing
Keith: Ah, fuck
Keith: Lance
Keith: I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier
Keith: I just didn’t know what to say
Keith: And I felt like I was being a dick
Lance: Dude
Lance: Never feel like a dick for communicating
Lance: Because clearly that’s our biggest issue
Lance: Look, if I’m in your face, just tell me
Lance: I’m a big boy
Lance: I can handle it
Lance: Pidge literally insults me all day
Lance: If I can’t take a hint from my boyfriend
Lance: Then I’m not much of a man
Keith: Heh
Keith: What are you doing right now
Lance: Thinkin about you, babe
Lance: Like always ;)
Keith: Come over
Keith: I want to tell you something in person
Keith: I’ve been waiting to talk to you about it
Keith: I think now is finally the right time
Lance: is that code for doing something dirty?
Keith: Lance.
Lance: I’m /kidding/
Lance: I’ll be over in 10
Keith paces around his room like a restless lion until Lance finally arrives, looking curious.
“Okay, so what is it that you wanted to tell me?”
“Have I ever told you why I left the Garrison Institute?”
“Oh! Are we doing storytime? Man, I did not come prepared.”
“ Lance . I’m serious.”
“Okay, okay, I’m listening.”
“So I was a scholarship student there—”
“Yes, I am aware.”
“So I didn’t have time to make friends or anything. I was always trying to keep my grades up and focus on fencing so I could stay on top of everything. And I was doing a good job.”
“Okay…”
“Until I met him .”
“Babe, I can’t believe you’ve been holding that in this whole time,” says Lance, squeezing Keith’s hand.
Keith sighs and looks down. “Yeah, I just...it’s hard to talk about you, know? I know my anger issues are something I still need to work out, but I’ve never been humiliated like that before, and I haven’t since.”
Lance shakes his head. “We need to do something about this. Let’s go out. You need to get out of here.”
“Like what? It’s already 9pm. Curfew is in half an hour.”
“Not a problem! I was thinking Altea Freeze, it’s just a five minute drive from here.”
“Yeah, but a twenty minute walk. Red’s in the shop.”
“You know, I have a car too…”
Keith rolls his eyes. “That piece of junk that you call a car is about to die. I highly doubt it can even get us to the exit of the school, let alone the ice cream shop down the road.”
“ Heyyyyy , what did Blue ever do to you? She’s a trusty old sedan and she works hard. It’s not her fault that she’s old. She’s got brittle bones.”
“Cars don’t have bones.”
“My dear literal koala, it’s called a metaphor.”
“Whatever. Fine. Let’s go.”
Despite his better instincts, Keith gets into Lance’s car, deciding that perhaps an ice cream cone isn’t such a bad idea after all, especially considering how shaken up he feels after remembering the events from the Garrison Institute.
But Lance doesn’t stop at the Altea Freeze.
In fact, he drives right past it, merging onto the road that leads towards the highway.
The very highway that taken north, which happens to be the direction they’re going in, will lead straight to the Garrison Institute.
“Lance, what are you doing?!”
“Babe, we are going to your old school so I can kick Zachariah Black’s ass straight into hell.”
“ WHAT?! NO!”
“Yup, it’s happening, so you might as well settle in for the ride.”
“Lance, what the fuck is wrong with you? I got expelled for beating him up!”
“Exactly. REVENGE.”
“Are you crazy? This isn’t some sort of movie or game! We could get in serious trouble!”
“I don’t care. You expect me to listen to you tell me that some douchefuck with purple hair and gold contacts who turned you down in front of everyone and got you kicked out and not do anything?!”
“I knew I shouldn’t have shown you his picture,” mutters Keith, glowering as he leans against the window and looks at the fields rushing by.
There’s nothing to be done. He is trapped in his obstinate and reckless fucking boyfriend’s wreck of a car, going 90 miles per hour down the highway towards his least favorite place in the world, just so he can exact unnecessary revenge.
Keith’s scolding falls upon deaf ears over the next two hours, and soon, they have arrived on the Garrison Institute campus. Lance parks in a discreet place on a nearby street, and quietly slinks towards the entrance while Keith follows him, continuing to berate him in a low voice.
“Lance, this is stupid. And reckless!”
“Hey, I’m not the one who got expelled from this place. They don’t even know who I am. We’re gonna be fine.”
“When you said you wanted to get revenge, I did not realize this was what you meant!”
“How is that even possible? Haven’t you ever seen any teen movies where the heroes get revenge on the villains?”
“No,” says Keith flatly as Lance drags him through the doors of the Garrison Institute.
“Man, I really wanted to go here,” whispers Lance in an awed voice as they walk through the quiet hallways, whistling at its ornate interiors. “I was so cut up when I didn’t get in.”
“ I don’t want to be here ,” hisses Keith in response, snarling like an angry cat. “They have security cameras everywhere. We’re going to get caught.”
“Calm down, babe,” murmurs Lance, his voice like caramel as he squeezes Keith’s tense shoulders, pressing a kiss against the nape of his neck. “Your man has got this. I asked Pidge to hack in and remotely disable all of the security cameras ages ago.”
“You have no fucking clue what you’re doing. None at all.”
Lance whirls Keith around to face him, blue eyes blazing. “I know that I’m angry at how that asshole treated you. I know that I want to make him feel worse than he ever made you feel. And I definitely know I can do that by beating the shit out of him.”
“You don’t have to do this,” says Keith, for the millionth time. “I told you, it’s fine.”
“I know,” says Lance. “But I want to. For you.”
Keith’s frown continues to deepen, and Lance sighs.
“Will it make you feel any better if I tell you that I packed a first aid kit in case things go wrong? I mean they’re not, but I have Hunk on speed dial, too. It’s gonna be fine.”
“We are two hours away from the Academy. It doesn’t matter if you have Hunk on speed dial. He’s not gonna get here in time.”
“Babe, please stop worrying and let me beat up the asshole who rejected you and let me feel like a hero.”
“I regret ever telling you this story.”
“I mean, I guess I could thank him, too...if he accepted your confession, we probably wouldn’t be together.”
“I can’t believe you just said that!”
“Come on! It was a joke! You really need to work on your sense of humor. Lest you forget, it was my idea to come here to beat him up tonight.”
“Yes, and it was a stupid idea! Zachariah Black is not a joke! Do I need to remind you that his father is the actual headmaster of the Garrison Institute? And that I got expelled from this place the last time I tried beating him up?”
Lance snorts. “Are you kidding me? I’ve heard he’s 5’6’ and a total loser. Pidge told me that he plays the same online video game that she does and his username is Emperor Zarkon. Emperor Zarkon , Keith. What kind of a username is that? Does he have some sort of Napoleon complex? Honestly, I don’t even understand what you saw in him in the first place.”
Keith twists his lips into a wry smile. “Me neither. He fucking sucks.”
Lance looks with confusion around the vast halls. “So where do students sleep here anyway? Where do we need to go to beat this guy up?”
“The boys’ dormitories are down this way,” says Keith, pointing down a particularly cavernous hall that has an ornate chandelier hanging from the ceiling. “If Zach is still here, he’s probably in one of the rooms down there.”
A sly grin spreads across Lance’s face. “Sweet. So we’ll go in there and break his face.”
“For the millionth time, even if you got Pidge to disable all of the security cameras, beating up the son of the fucking headmaster isn’t exactly going to go well for either of us. And you call me impulsive! Are you listening to yourself right now?”
“You’re right. It’s not worth getting our knuckles bloody for this douchenozzle. I have a better idea. Let’s reverse Home Alone this instead.”
Keith blinks in confusion. Lance does this a lot, making references to things he’s never seen.
“What are you talking about?”
“I always forget you’re practically like an alien when it comes to popular culture. It’s basically a movie where a kid beats up home invaders without actually touching them. So like- we’re the inverse. We’re the intruders, but coming up with a clever way to smash in Emperor Zarkon’s face without breaking a nail.”
“You don’t have any nails, you bite them all off.”
“Besides the point!”
“Okay, so what is your brilliant plan?”
Lance twists his lips, wondering how to explain the mechanics of his idea to someone who’s never seen Home Alone .
He’s not sure he can do it.
But Pidge can.
“We have to what?! ” screeches Keith as Pidge snickers over Facetime.
“Look, Keith, I know that you’ve never seen the movie, but that’s what Lance means. And honestly, I’m surprised, but this is the best idea he’s ever come up with. I think you’ve actually had a good influence on his brain.”
“Hey, just so you know, I heard that!” protests Lance.
“I know,” says Pidge. “That’s why I said it.”
“Guys, I don’t know about this,” cuts in Hunk, voice wavering. “This is wrong.”
“Hunk, my friend, my buddy, my pal, my love—my other love, that is,” says Lance, turning to smirk at Keith, “This is the chance of a lifetime for you. Let out your inner prankster. Use your engineering powers for chaotic good. I know you’ve watched Home Alone like fifty times.”
“Yeah, but I would never actually do anything like that! It’s a fantasy!”
“Not anymore, my friend. Tonight, fantasy becomes reality,” trills Lance. “Tonight, you and Pidge are going to tell my boyfriend and me how to set up the best booby traps the world has ever seen.”
“But—” protests Hunk, as Pidge cackles. “I didn’t sign up for this!”
“You signed up for this the day we became friends, buddy,” responds Lance.
Pidge cuts in. “Okay, Keith. You have to help me out a little bit here. What kind of stuff did Emperor Zarkon have in his room?”
“Well…” considers Keith, trying to remember. There was a time when he knew the inside of Zach’s room well, but he no longer does.
Pidge sighs. “Hold on.”
She moves out of view, fiddling away on her laptop, while Hunk squawks behind her. “Pidge, that’s wrong, that’s such an invasion of privacy! You can’t do that!”
Pidge slides back into the screen with a manic grin on her face. “If you want to do some in person reconnaissance, I just found out what room he lives in now. 6006. It’s on the second floor of the building you’re in now. I also found out where the closest supply closets are to the room. They’re one floor up, right next to the hallway door. And the good news for you is that he isn’t home right now. I hacked into his phone and he’s spending the night with some dude called Sendak. What kind of name is that? So weird. Anyway, the text messages were actually pretty kinky—”
Hunk cuts her off by clapping his hand over her mouth. “I really don’t think Keith wants to hear that.”
Pidge rolls her eyes and Lance nods in approval. “Gross, but okay. That gives us some more time. Let’s do this.”
Adrenaline is pumping through Keith’s veins as they walk closer and closer to Zach’s room. It’s been almost a year since he walked down these hallways, since he got humiliated in front of the entire class and was unceremoniously kicked out.
At the time, he was filled with sheer rage and sorrow and the feeling of utter betrayal. All he saw was red—pure red, and he still doesn’t remember everything that happened. It was all consuming and terrifying, and even though he hasn’t told Lance, it’s one of the main reasons he didn’t want to come back here tonight.
But fate has other plans, and his strong-willed, obstinate boyfriend has literally dragged him to confront his past, in the silliest way possible...through an elaborate series of pranks.
It’s funny, where life has taken him.
But still, he thought this would be easier than it is, and as they approach the room, Keith falters.
Rationally, he knows that Zach is not inside. He knows that he’s not there, and that Pidge has disabled all the cameras, and that they are both skilled enough at sneaking around to not get caught.
And yet...he hesitates.
Lance catches onto his reluctance immediately and grasps onto his arm.
“Hey, babe, are you okay? You seem pale.”
Keith shakes his head. “I...yeah, I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” replies Lance, pursing his lips. “I don’t think you should go to that douchefuck’s room. I can do the reconnaissance. You get the stuff from the supply closet.”
Keith sighs and leans forward, momentarily resting his head against the crook of Lance’s neck.
“Thanks.”
Lance murmurs something unintelligible and wraps his arms around him, and for a few moments they sway, moving back and forth in a sort of standing waltz.
Fifteen minutes later, Keith is standing outside Zach’s new room with a bucket of tar, mops, a toolbox, super glue, rope, and several other odds and ends that Pidge has directed him to pick up. He’s not even sure what all of them do, but he trusts his devious little gremlin friend, who seems to be reveling in the information that Lance has been feeding to her.
He waits for Lance to come back out of the room and is mildly surprised to see the look of disgust on his boyfriend’s face as he closes the door behind him.
“What? What happened?”
“That is the most emo room I have ever been inside in my entire life.”
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being emo,” says Keith, eyes narrowed.
“Babe, I know, and you really make the whole 100% black clothing thing and eyeliner thing work, but he’s not just emo. The douchenozzle had purple cat ears hanging on his wall. Purple. Cat. Ears.”
“Oh. So he still has those,” responds Keith, chortling.
Lance raises his eyebrows so high they’re practically touching the ceiling.
“You...you knew he had those...and you were still into him?”
Keith shrugs. “I’m not saying I had the greatest taste in men. Or that I do now.”
“Rude.”
“I was joking. Who’s the one who has a bad sense of humor now?”
Lance sighs and smiles, but something tells Keith it has nothing to do with his joke.
“We’ve really got to work on your line delivery.”
Within twenty minutes, Zachariah Black’s room looks like a prankster’s paradise, with paint and shampoo streaked floors, his fancy lego collection torn apart and glued to strategic places in the floor for maximum stepping pain, and a bucket of water hanging precariously over the door (an engineering feat directed by Hunk, who continues to protest the entire endeavor but somehow continues to come up with ingenious ways of booby trapping the room).
Wet socks have been placed all over the bed, while Lance has glued the purple cat ears to the fan overhead and turned it on at full speed, snickering as the purple faux fur revolves around. They have emptied two bottles of cologne onto his large purple pillow, which Lance has drawn a face on that eerily resembles their foe (Keith is surprised by his boyfriend’s artistic skills), and has pulled his uniform over it, making the pillow look like an extra large voodoo doll. Lance perches the makeshift doll on the computer chair facing the door, placing a cosplay wig he finds on the desk on top of it as a final touch.
Pidge, who continues to stay connected to them via Facetime so she can see everything that's happening, has a frighteningly manic look on her face during all of this, and something tells Keith that she’s doing unspeakable things to Zach’s computer. But he decides it would probably be in his best interest not to ask.
It’s past midnight when Hunk hesitantly points out that they’ve set up at least fifty different booby traps, and that it might be a good time to stop.
“Hunk, you’re right,” says Keith. “Come on, Lance, let’s go back. This is more than enough.”
“Aww, babe, but I had so many more ideas!”
“This is enough to make him regret messing with anyone. I’m sure of it.”
“Fineeee. Let’s go home.”
Keith and Lance run to the car, breathless from laughter, cheeks flushed, and they can’t stop laughing as they start driving.
Pidge calls Keith’s phone just as they cross the town border. As he picks up and puts her on speaker, her voice is giddy with anticipation.
“Guys! He’s coming back! I turned the cameras back on and saw that Emperor Zarkon is on his way back.”
“Oh shit!” shouts Lance. “What’s happening now?”
“He’s walking up the stairs with a huge smile on his face. But he won’t be smiling for long,” she adds, a savage glee lacing her words.
Keith nods with satisfaction. “Good.”
“You guys wanna see? I can feed the video to your phone.”
“Aww, man, I really do, but I’m driving,” says Lance.
Keith points at a gas station on the opposite side of the road. “Let’s pull over there for a minute.”
“Good idea.”
Lance parks just as Pidge transfers the video feed to Keith’s phone, and they watch in glee as Zachariah “Emperor Zarkon” Black gets his just desserts.
Keith grins as he watches every trap go off, practically clapping his hands with glee.
And even though Lance is just as enthralled at first, his gaze soon turns to Keith, and he can’t look away from the bright smile on his face as he laughs, his face tension free for the first time in days.
This is what he came for. This is why he wanted to come on this crazy journey in the first place, risking Keith’s anger. Just to see him laugh again.
Lance doesn’t understand how anyone could want to genuinely hurt him.
He knows he’s done it himself. He was an idiot. He still is, sometimes.
Keith turns to him, noticing his sudden silence. “Hey, what’s up?”
Lance shakes his head and smiles. “Nothing. I’m just...you’re okay with this, right? I know this was kind of a crazy idea—and really kind of dumb—”
“ It was fucking insane , is what it was,” interjects Keith. “The stupidest idea you’ve ever come up with.”
Lance opens his mouth to protest, but before he can say anything, Keith’s lips are pressed against his, and all his thoughts are brushed away, replaced by the warmth pooling in his stomach and spreading through his body as he leans deeper into the kiss.
Kissing Keith is familiar now, in the most wonderful way. Lance knows what makes him sigh, he knows exactly how to make his pulse start racing, and how to make him whisper “More,” in that husky voice that sends shivering thrills up Lance’s spine.
And yet something about this moment feels new and exhilarating, borne of adrenaline and pure mischief, and Lance suddenly nips at Keith’s bottom lip, like a playful lion cub, and Keith’s eyes fly open in surprise before narrowing in a mischievous look of his own as he pulls away and dives toward Lance's neck, and as his lips work their way up his skin, Lance has a feeling that even though he's the one who bit first, Keith is going to be the one who leaves a mark.
Lance whimpers as Keith’s breath ghosts across his cheeks, waiting fretfully for him to turn his attention back to his thirsty, needy lips, pursed in an expectant moue.
Keith laughs quietly at his boyfriend’s impatience and moves his hands up to cup the sharp curves of his jaw as he shifts back upward and leans forward so their foreheads touch.
“Thank you,” Keith whispers against his lips. “For everything.”
Concerned would be one way to describe how Shiro feels right now. Or panicked. Or livid.
He has just completed his nightly round of the dorms, but Keith is not in his room.
Normally, this means that he is in Lance’s room, which is fine. Despite the fact that students are not allowed to spend the night in each other’s rooms, Shiro often lets it slide if he knows the students in question are responsible, and he knows that Keith and Lance are. Usually, he would trust them to be back on campus at a reasonable time far more than he would trust, say, Pidge.
But Allura has just called him and informed him that Lance’s room is empty as well, and given that Shay, the student monitor, has just texted him to inform him that all the recreational student areas are empty, that can only mean one thing.
It’s almost 1 am, and neither Lance nor Keith are on campus.
Even though Shiro has all of the phone numbers of the students he mentors, he doesn’t like to call them unless it’s absolutely necessary, but this time, it looks like he has no choice, and with a long sigh, he dials the number.
Keith sounds guilty when he picks up.
“Hello?”
“Keith, where are you? I came by your room and you weren’t there, and Allura said that Lance wasn’t in his room either. Are the two of you together? Are you off campus?”
“Umm...yeah,” Keith responds, slow and hesitant. “We’re...we’re in Lance’s car.”
“Keith, you know I have always supported your friendship and relationship, but you need to come back to campus right now. It’s four hours past curfew. I expect better from both of you.”
“We...we’re on our way back. But..uh...it’s gonna take some time.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re on the highway. We kind of—well, I’ll explain it later.”
“You’re on the highway?!”
“Yeah—wait...Lance, what are you doing? What’s happening?”
Shiro hears Lance cursing in what sounds like several languages and the loud sputtering of an engine before Keith responds again, in a voice much darker than before.
“My brilliant boyfriend here forgot to fill his ancient car up with gas. Even though we were even sitting at a goddamn gas station earlier. And it just died.”
“Her name is Blue, and she does not appreciate the implied insult!” protests Lance. “And you didn't see I was out of gas either!”
Shiro hears the sounds of shuffling and struggling and what sounds like Keith muffling Lance’s mouth with his jacket sleeve before Keith’s voice comes wavering through the phone once more.
“Shiro, can you hear me? We’re stranded on the highway. Arus 1. There’s no way we can make it back to campus unless someone comes out and gets us.”
“Are you serious?”
Lance’s voice whines through the phone. “I’m sorry, Shiro—please help us? Pleaseeee? We can't do this alone, we need youuuu.”
“I don’t get paid enough to do this,” mutters Shiro, pressing his palm against his face with a groan.
“What on earth are they doing on the highway in the middle of the night?” shouts Allura, as Shiro conveys the news to her as she meets him in the main dormitory common room, which is thankfully both deserted at the moment and soundproof.
“What do any teenagers do in a car at night, Allura?” replies Shiro, rubbing his temple with his hand.
Allura shakes her head primly. “Honestly, I truly expected more from both of them.”
“At this point, I'm more worried about how we’re going to bring them back. If either of us get our cars, Headmaster Coran is going to wake up and ask where we’re going. You know what a light sleeper he is.”
Allura purses her lips. “Well, we could tell him we’re going for a late night grocery run, if he wakes up.”
“Allura, you know I love and respect you, but you are the worst liar on god’s green earth and Headmaster Coran won't believe you for a second, no matter how hard you try to be convincing.”
“But he's practically my second father.”
“My point exactly.”
“So then what do you suggest we do?”
“I've got an idea,” pipes up Pidge as she walks into the room. It's clear from the look on her face that she’s been eavesdropping.
“Pidge, why are you awake?” scolds Allura. “Classes begin at 8am!”
Pidge shrugs. “That's what coffee is for.”
“Katie Holt, you are sixteen years old. It does not matter that you skipped two grades. You are still too young to drink coffee regularly!”
“Besides the point,” Pidge interjects. “You have a problem. I have the solution.”
“Okay, okay,” says Shiro, trying to calm the situation down. “What is your solution, Pidge?”
“We take one of the school minibuses. They’re big, we can all fit into them, we can use them to tow Blue back, and they’re parked on the other side of campus, so Headmaster Coran won’t hear it and wake up.”
“Hmm,” says Allura, considering the idea, as Hunk walks into the room behind her, yawning as he heads towards the kitchen area . “It’s not a terrible thought.”
Shiro sighs. “Pidge, even if this crazy idea of yours works, who is going to drive the bus? Don’t try to convince me that you know how to drive it because you drive the Holt Family Van. I know that thing is huge, but it’s still not a bus.”
Pidge blinks innocently. “Who said I was going to drive the bus? Hunk is going to drive it.”
“Wait, what?!” squawks Hunk, whirling around as he hears his name. “I just got out of bed and came in here to get a glass of water! Why are we talking about me driving a bus? What’s going on?”
Shiro shakes his head. “Don’t worry, Hunk. Pidge is just being facetious. Go back to bed.”
“No, I’m not!” protests Pidge. “Hunk is a certified bus driver.”
Shiro blinks, confused. “How— what?”
Pidge pats his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. Just accept that he is. Hunk, we need to take a little spin in Yellow. Right now.”
“What?! Can someone please explain what’s going on?”
Allura cuts in. “Hunk, Lance and Keith are stranded on the highway.”
“Yeah, he didn’t fill Blue up with gas when you told him to,” adds Pidge, waving her arms. “And now they’re stuck in the middle of nowhere. Typical.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I told him to fill the tank up two days ago.”
“Oh, that was a bad idea. Two days ago he was busy writing a song for Keith in the common room for like three hours and he definitely wasn’t even listening to anything you said.”
“But Keith doesn’t even like his singing!”
Pidge snorts. “You think Lance doesn’t know that? That’s why he was so determined to write a song that would convince Keith of his talent.”
“Why. Why is he my best friend. Why.”
“We already discussed this earlier, Hunk,” says Pidge. “Come on, big guy. Time to rev up Yellow.”
“I deserve better than this,” mutters Hunk.
“I know.”
“I told him to fill up the gas.”
“I know.”
“I’m going to kill him after I rescue him.”
“ I know. ”
Later, Shiro will reflect on the absurdity of the situation he is in right now, but right now, he’s too focused on bringing Keith and Lance back to campus, so he doesn’t really think about how strange it is that he’s crouched in a tiny minibus seat meant for someone much smaller than him, while Allura hovers over his shoulder, gripping the back of his seat so tightly it's almost buckling, Pidge is sticking some sort of speed tracking device out the window, and Hunk is muttering a constant stream of what sounds like curse words under his breath as he merges onto the highway.
Shiro sighs and picks up his phone to call Keith, who immediately answers.
“Hi Shiro, are you coming?” he asks, sounding far more relaxed than a seventeen year old punk who's stranded in the middle of a country highway should have the right to sound.
“Yes,” says Shiro. “Sit tight, I'm on my way.”
“Okay.”
He doesn't mention that he's bringing the entire peanut gallery with him. At this point, it doesn't really matter.
“What’s your favorite constellation?” Lance asks Keith.
They’re sitting on the hood of Blue, stargazing while they wait for Shiro to arrive.
“I don't know,” says Keith. “I've never really had much time to stop and look at the sky.”
“It's one of my favorite things to do.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, it's one of the things you mentioned in your last letter to me.”
“You remember that?”
“How could I forget? I always carry it with me.”
Lance turns to Keith, eyes wide.
“ You what…?!”
“Yeah, I keep it in my wallet. It's...it’s the nicest thing anyone has ever written for me. It's not really something I'm used to,” says Keith, flushing in the darkness.
“Shit, I wrote that because I didn't know how to talk to you or what to say— I don't even remember what I said!”
Keith laughs and leans forward. “Well, you wrote that you wondered what it would be like to have your fingers tangled in my hair while we made out under the stars—”
He takes Lance’s hands and places them on either side of his head, brushing the strands through his fingers.
“And you asked me if I liked stargazing.”
Lance stares at him breathlessly.
Keith grins and pulls away.
“Do you count as a star? Because I like staring at you.”
Lance blinks.
“Did you just—”
“I did.”
“Oh my god.”
Keith has told Lance that Shiro is coming to pick them up, so when he is gazing down the highway, he is expecting to see Shiro’s sleek black SUV.
What he does not expect to see is Yellow, the Voltron Academy minibus that Hunk drives on occasion, speeding towards him as the sound of Pidge’s whooping voice carries down the deserted road.
“What…” he starts, gaping at the scene.
“Is going on?” Keith completes the thought.
They slide off the hood of the car in shocked silence as the bus pulls up beside them and Shiro, Ms. Allura, Pidge, and Hunk all file out.
They stare at each other silently for a few moments before Hunk rushes towards them first, berating his two friends so strongly that Shiro finds that he doesn’t have to say anything at all. Instead, he and Pidge retrieve the towing cables from inside the bus and attach Lance’s poor dead car to the back, while Allura hovers behind Keith and Lance like a fretful mother hen, herding them into the bus.
In a matter of minutes, they are back on the road, slowly making their way back to Voltron Academy, with Keith and Lance sitting in the bumpy seats in the back of the bus, holding hands and smiling like fools, as though they’ve just spent the past few hours on a romantic date instead of sabotaging a room and ending up getting stranded on a highway.
Keith knows that all eyes (even Hunk, who keeps sneaking peeks in the rearview mirror) are discreetly on him and Lance, for they are both brimming with a bubbling sort of giddiness that is infectious, even when it is nearly 3 in the morning. He knows that they are curious—Ms. Allura and Shiro in particular, who have not been privy to the previous events of the night.
But for some reason, he finds that for once, he doesn’t care.
In the short time that they have been together so far, normally, Lance has always been the one who’s demonstrative in public when it comes to displays of affection, while Keith has always preferred a bit more privacy when it comes to sharing his feelings.
But tonight, despite everything, Lance has helped Keith overcome the dark undercurrent of shame and regret that he didn’t even realize was still within him, and for that, he is willing to deal with some curious stares.
As Lance turns to smile at him, Keith squeezes his hand tighter.
They’re good. They’re strong.