Chapter Text
Keith looks at his comm again and frowns at the lack of notifications.
By this time, Lance has usually sent at least three videos of silly things he comes across – Keith snorts as he remembers the hopping pigeon – and triple amount of memes. Sometimes a selfie too, you know, to take Keith’s breath away with his gorgeous – gorgeous - face.
But today – and now that he’s thinking about it, the past two days as well – has been oddly uneventful. He hasn’t even seen Lance that much, just once a day at the Garrison cafeteria and only when they ran into each other in the hallway. Lance had acted normal on both occasions, smiling at him warmly and pecking his cheek the way he always does.
He’s probably busy, Keith thinks but the frown on his face only deepens.
He tucks the comm into his pocket and tries to clear his mind. Shiro is giving details about the next planet they’re going to help and restore, so, Keith tries to focus on that.
It’s not like worrying about something that is probably nothing serious will do him any good. If Lance was upset or angry with him, he would’ve said so for sure. It’s not like him to… bottle up his emotions and… act like nothing’s—
Oh, God.
Okay, it’s okay. Keith can fix whatever he messed up. He’ll just… figure out what he messed up and then he’ll fix it, for sure!
He should’ve guessed that something was wrong the morning he woke up to find all of Lance’s clothes had been gone, only his toothbrush remaining untouched. Lance had said he wanted to do laundry, but Keith should know better by now that he can be an expert at hiding his true emotions when he wants to.
Fuck! How did he manage to fuck this up already?
“—Keith?” he hears and snaps his head up. Keith hadn’t even noticed that he was staring down at his lap? He swears he was looking at Shiro seconds ago.
Shiro looks at him warily. “Would you like to say anything about the routine?”
Routine? Shit, he has no idea what the routine is.
“No,” he says as professionally as his confused ass can manage.
Shiro squints at him but nods and continues.
This time Keith listens, ashamed for being caught being inattentive.
.
Keith finds Lance in one of the empty conference rooms. He’s typing something on the laptop with a couple of papers neatly placed on his side. There’s an empty bag of snacks and a drained red cup on the table.
He’s so focused on his typing that doesn’t even notice Keith’s sudden presence. With that knowledge, Keith sneaks behind him and carefully lowers his face, almost burying it into Lance’s neck. He smells like coconut and Keith inhales the scent deeply, before sticking his lips on the soft skin, blowing raspberries.
“What the—” Lance yelps and whirls around so quickly that the chair squeaks.
“Hi, love,” Keith smiles at him innocently, feeling pleased.
“I swear you’re a ninja, I just have to prove it,” Lance whispers, a hand on his heart and a little frown on his face.
Keith kisses Lance on the cheek and sits next to him.
“Whatcha up to?” he asks, leaning an elbow on the table and his head on his hand.
“Just writing the review of my last mission,” Lance answers and sighs, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
His hair is dissolved, sticking in different directions, making it look all fluffy and soft and glittery.
Wait.
Lance lowers his hands from his eyes and Keith notices something shimmery on his cheekbones, too. It’s… a sight Keith didn’t know he needed in his life.
“What’s that?” he asks with wide eyes, nodding at the boy’s face.
Lance looks confused for a moment, then he makes a small ‘oh’ sound and laughs.
“V and I introduced Romelle to makeup,” he says, chuckling under his breath. “It evolved into an explosion. I tried to get it all off, but glitter is haard.”
Lance says and moves to wipe at his cheeks. Keith quickly grabs his wrist. No way he’ll let him wipe those off.
“It looks good on you,” he says, shamelessly flicking his eyes between Lance’s hair and cheeks. “You look like a pretty fairy.”
Lance’s eyes go wide and his cheeks turn into a delicious shade of red. Keith loves when Lance is all blushy and flustered.
“Want me to buy some fairy wings, too?” he jokes, Keith knows it’s to cover up how embarrassed he is. And just because he can, and also because it’s fun seeing Lance lose his composure, Keith leans in closer, their faces inches apart. Lance’s breath stutters slightly, and Keith carves a smug smile across his lips.
“You were saying?” he says, voice low. Lance is staring at his lips and only when Keith’s grins widens, he snaps his blues up.
“Huh?”
Keith laughs and moves away.
Then, a little nervously, he says: “Haven’t been seeing you around lately,”
“Yeah,” Lance quickly speaks, averting his eyes back at the laptop. Keith’s feels a knot in his stomach. “I’m really behind my paperwork and Shiro will probably kill me if I don’t send these to him by tomorrow.”
Keith knows how much Lance hates writing reviews and managing paperwork, and it’s not the first time he scribbles it a day before it’s due, but that has never stopped him from spending time with Keith.
Now, Lance really could have shittone of work this one time, but…
“Wanna have a movies night?” he asks a little timidly, and if there’s a note of desperation in his voice, well, Keith hopes Lance won’t catch it.
Lance glances at him and smiles that sweet cheeky smile that has the full potential of putting Keith into cardiac arrest.
“Sure,” he says cheerfully; the glitter on his face and hair shimmer when he turns to the screen. “I’ll just wrap this up and… uh, your place, right?”
Keith furrows his brows. “Yeah?” he says, confused because Lance never used to question their hangout place, they wordlessly agreed that Keith’s apartment is better than the Garrison dormitory. “I mean, unless you want to.”
“No, it’s cool,” Lance adds quickly, nodding in an awkward way. He clicks his tongue. “Oookay, I’ll just finish this, you can grab some snacks meanwhile and I’ll come over when I’m done.”
“Okay,” Keith agrees, still thinking this whole situation feels… not right.
Keith starts to lean in for a kiss, but thinks against it – it’s already weird between them, he doesn’t want to push things farther. Instead, he ruffles his hair, tiny dots of glitter sparks around him in the air and Keith puffs a laugh when Lance smacks at his hand.
.
At the beginning of their relationship, Keith had said he did not know how to do this exactly. He had said he did not know what would change between them – except for the obvious physical contact part. He had thought to himself if he had to start acting differently in some way, maybe he had to use specific words now or had to guess specific things or had to abandon some of his habits for the sake of a healthy relationship.
Lance had smiled widely – and that smile had been the brightest one he’s seen on Lance to this day – and had called him cute and adorable and had ruffled his hair when Keith frowned and said not to make fun of him. At his questions, Lance had answered that he only had to be himself and act the way he felt was right and honest.
So, Keith believed him and the fear of being too boring and too dull and too less for someone as outgoing and summery and lively as Lance was started to fade away, was replaced as a warm comforting feeling.
They still challenge each other into doing obnoxious things, like who can eat the most dumplings, which ended up with both of them feeling sick to their bones, so their old dynamic hasn’t really changed much.
Keith always has fun with Lance, even when they’re just bundled up on the couch watching a movie, Lance will drop a funny comment and Keith will laugh until he’s teary and breathless.
Now, that known fear sneaks on him again and Keith thinks that maybe, unlike from himself, Lance does not have fun around him, that Keith is not enough, that maybe for Lance spending time with him became an obligation, became something he has to count seconds for its end.
He grabs another bag of chips and throws it in the basket, a little too forcefully.
Deep down Keith knows he’s probably overthinking this.
But what if you’re not, says a voice in his head and Keith growls.
It’s going to be okay, they’ll have a relaxing and fun movies night, Lance will enjoy his facemasks and Keith will enjoy putting them on Lance’s pretty face. They’ll cuddle and kiss and laugh when something stupid happens in the movie.
It will be fine.
.
“Oh, no, come on— yeah, okay, just walk in there like it’s nooo big deal, okay,” Lance shouts again, irritated at the movie character who’s about to sign his own death sentence by walking into the, clearly, haunted house.
Keith snickers, popping another cracker into his mouth.
“Honestly, I just want to see a good horror movie, you know? With a logical and good plot and smart characters who don’t trip on their feet, dude come on! My niece is four and runs better than you!” he continues, throwing his arms around and now full-on scowls at the screen.
“You were supposed to relax, Lance, not get worked up about a cheap horror movie,” Keith says, smiling with amusement.
Lance looks at him. “Oh no, I’m chill, cool, totally-motally relaxed, because unlike him—” he looks back at the screen. “—I’m not acting dumb and— oh my God, the top stairs? The door is right there, you absolute ameba!”
“Okay, we’re watching something less stupid now,” Keith says and pauses the movie before Lance really loses it.
Lance sighs and leans back into the couch. His hair is held back with a fluffy pink headband that has tiny bunny ears – Keith neatly fainted the first time he saw Lance with those adorable little things – and his face is covered in green facemask, which Keith had blissfully volunteered to apply on his face.
“If I were a ghost, I’d never haunt someone so stupid,” Lance grumbles with his cheeks puffed and if not for the facemask, Keith would’ve reddened them with kisses without a blink. “I mean, think how offensive it is when they just keep tripping? Like, you’re gonna die anyway, at least try and make it fun and enjoyable.”
Keith laughs breathily, flicking through movies. Lance stands and walks to the bathroom to remove his facemask and Keith clicks on the rom-com section and pick a random movie; he knows Lance loves most of them.
When Lance walks back, his face is all glossy and clean, headband removed so his hair is a messy and adorable puffball. He’s still wearing jeans and a t-shirt and Keith tries not to think that usually he’s already changed into sweatpants – if not arriving already dressed in them that is.
Lance slumps close to him, sliding an arm around his middle. Keith does the same, and then, abruptly, falls back, dragging Lance with him so he’s lying on top of his chest.
Lance yelps, tightening his hold on Keith. He frowns down at him but wiggles a little so he’s settled comfortably between his legs.
“I like your headband,” Keith tells him, looking up at his face – there’s a birthmark on the corner of his left eye, so tiny it’s almost impossible to notice unless you’re really looking; it’s a lighter shade than Lance’s usual skin tone and it’s shaped almost like a four-pointed star. Keith adores it.
“You sure like a lot of things about me,” Lance says, his voice teasing and light. He crosses his arms across Keith’s chest and places his chin on top of them.
Keith hums, then moves up to place a featherlight kiss on the mark, his heart fluttering at the way Lance sighs and leans into the touch.
When Keith pulls away, Lance’s eyes are closed. The room is dark, save for the TV screen dimly illuminating the place, but Keith can still make out the slightest color of pink on Lance’s cheeks and he takes in the view like he’ll never see something this beautiful ever again.
Keith has always known how breathtakingly handsome Lance is, but now that he can really look at him without the fear of being caught staring, he’s constantly proven how truly, unimaginably beautiful Lance is.
Keith could just stare, and stare and stare at him. How the tip of his nose is slightly sloped up, how the faded freckles dust across his nose and cheeks, almost as aim targets for Keith’s kisses, how his eyelashes cast slender shadows on his cheekbones, how—
“I can feel you staring,” Lance whispers, his brows furrowing by an inch and his voice coming a little uneven.
“You’re beautiful,” he says like an explanation. Lance’s face darkens, and Keith thinks if he had been touching it, he would’ve felt it become warmer.
Lance leans down, meeting their lips into a kiss, soft as velvet and sweet as honey. Keith snakes his arms around the other’s waist and pulls him closer, needing more of him, all of him. Lance tilts his head to the side and it makes everything so much better Keith barely manages to hold back a whimper. He never wants to let go of Lance and if it were up to him, he’d stay like this for the rest of eternity – with Lance in his arms, warm and safe and so responsive.
Keith breaks the kiss when his lungs scream for air, moving them to the side. He trails soft kisses on the boy’s cheek, the skin soft under his mouth. He stops at exactly the center of Lance’s right cheek and blows a fit of raspberries, causing Lance to giggle and squirm away.
After that Lance places his head comfortably on Keith’s shoulder and Keith slides one hand into his hair, playing with the short locks mindlessly as they continue watching the movie. The anxious feeling from before forgotten and Keith thinks how stupid his fears had been.
Until he jolts awake to a completely dark apartment, a blanket dropped on his body and a Lance trying his best to sneak out soundlessly.
“Lance?” Keith calls, his voice thick with sleep. He sits up and clears his throat, blinking to clear his foggy vision as well.
“Oh, sorry, I woke you up?” he whispers, his face lost into the darkness. Keith frowns and taps on his comm on the coffee table. His eyebrows are high into his hairline when Keith sees the time.
“It’s almost two in the morning,” he says, fumbling for the remote to turn the TV on for a light source.
“Yeah, I fell asleep,” Lance says shyly, almost as an apology.
Under the dim light, Keith sees that Lance already has his one shoe on, holding the other in his hand. He sees the small bag for his skincare products already packed and placed down against the wall.
Keith frowns. “Why are you sneaking out?” he asks, standing up and moving so he’s in front of the other.
“I’m not sneaking out.”
“Than what should I call this?” Keith retorts, a little angry and… hurt, okay? It hurts, because he was sure everything was okay between them, yet here Lance is, leaving.
“I just, I didn’t want to…” he trails off, averting his gaze on the floor.
Keith feels his heart sink; his blood goes cold because Lance didn’t want to stay.
“Are you upset?” he asks, trying his hardest for his words not to come out broken. “Did I say something or… do something to upset you?”
“What?” Lance exclaims and snaps his head up, staring back at him. “No, of course not, what… why would you think that?”
“I don’t know, Lance, maybe because you’ve been distant for the past three days?” Keith snaps, hating how his voice carries a note of vulnerability and panic. “You took your clothes the other day and you don’t text me almost at all anymore and I barely see you at work and now this,” he says, gesturing at him with his hand. His chest is moving heavily, the words I just, I didn’t want to are ringing loudly in his ears, almost making him cry.
Lance places the shoe on the floor slowly, looking guilty and a little alarmed. Keith notices how Lance jolts closer, but moves back immediately as if trying not to cross a border.
“I didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” he says, voice quiet. He tilts his head down like a scolded child.
“Just tell me what’s wrong, Lance,” he pleas, taking a step closer to the boy. He hates how Lance looks, sad like raindrops.
Lance doesn’t move for a while and Keith almost thinks he won’t answer him, but then the pair of blues find their way up, staring right back at him.
“I just— I mean, I just wanted to give you some space,” he murmurs.
Keith furrows his brows, because space is the very opposite of what he wants from Lance. He steps closer again, lifting his hand to trace a tentative line on the other’s arm.
“Why did you think I needed space?” he asks softly, flicking his eyes from one sky blue to the other. Lance blinks and looks down again.
Did Keith make him feel like he needed some space? Make him think he was unwanted? Because that’s so absurd he can’t even take the idea of Lance being too much seriously.
“I just…” he starts, then breathes out what sounds like an almost painful groan and continues. “When I saw Emma she said something about her partner being too annoying because they kept texting her all the time and wanted to be with her all the time and like, she said she knew she was being mean for thinking that way but she just wanted them to give her some time for her to actually miss them and…” he stops, inhaling after the word-vomit. “I was afraid you’d start feeling that way, too.”
Keith stares at him dumbly. He blinks. What?
“Because I do all that stuff, like, I send two hundred messages and always stay over without even, like, asking if you’re okay with this because maybe you want some alone time,” he continues, now rambling nervously. “And I always drag you to crowded places and— you don’t even like people and crowds and there’s only so much you can take before you’re fed up with me.”
Keith just wants to run into a wall.
The way Lance is looking at him – vulnerable and small and… afraid – it kills a little piece of Keith’s heart.
“Lance,” he says his name the softest way, linking their fingers together and tugging a little so he’ll look up.
Lance meets his eyes. “This is important, Keith. You’re… you’re so important to me and I care so much. I just, I didn’t want to mess things up,” he says and right in this moment, Keith would collect the stars and bring them all to Lance.
“You’re not messing anything up,” he reassures, looking directly into his eyes so if his words fail, his gaze will carry the intensity of his emotions. “I don’t think you can ever be annoying, Lance. Those videos you send to me are hilarious and I love them, okay? I love that you’re attentive and always want to spend time with me,” he says and puffs a short laugh. “I mean, do you know how happy I get when you send me something that made you think of me? It’s almost embarrassing.”
Lance deflates and only when his shoulders relax does Keith notice how tense he had gotten.
“And about staying over,” Keith continues, covering up his nervousness with mockery. “If having my consent is what’s worrying you, then… just move in with me,” he says, as confident as his buzzing nerves can muster.
Lance pulls away slightly, looking at him with wide eyes; Keith does not miss how his whole face lightens up like starlight.
“Like, have a key and everything?” he asks dumbly, his words carrying a childish mirth that causes Keith to grin widely, causes his heart to jump and his chest to feel unexplainably warm.
“You already have a spare key,” he says.
“Yeah, a spare key,” Lance replies and the usual glee returns to his voice. “Now I’ll have, like, a key. Like, my key. To our home,” he continues and with each word his smile grows impossibly wider and Keith is, for the second time in his life, granted the opportunity to see that blindingly bright smile again, the one that makes his blues worth the shine of an entire galaxy.
Lance looks just as drunk on happiness as Keith feels. He slides his arms around Keith’s neck and pulls him closer, and Keith is quick to wrap his around Lance’s waist, holding him tight.
“You’re not saying this just to make me feel better, right?” Lance whispers.
“I’m not,” Keith shakes his head and looks at him. Lance smiles again, it’s so boyish, so perfect and so, so beautiful, Keith fears he might explode.
“I don’t think you realize how important you are to me, sweetheart,” he adds, lifting one hand to “tuck” the short brown hair behind his ear; he knows Lance loves it when he does so.
Lance leans into his touch before moving in for a kiss.
But it lasts only for seconds because Lance is suddenly jumping up and Keith, on the verge of panic and surprise, instinctually catches him, his one arm sliding under the boy’s knees while the other supports his back.
Lance looks up at him, a smug smile toying on his lips.
“Carry me to bed, darling,” he says sweetly, playing with Keith’s hair on the nape of his neck and wiggling his legs.
Keith looks down at him, barely managing to contain an unamused look.
“I changed my mind, you can return the spare key,” he deadpans, but turns around and walks towards his – their, God – bedroom. Lance laughs a full-body, a shaking-shoulder, a beaming laugh, and Keith will carry him like this around the whole goddamn world if it means he’ll hear that laugh again.