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"Keith. Keith! Keeeith!" Lance had been persistently screaming his name for at least two minutes now, his voice growing louder and higher pitched. For one blessed moment his prayers were answered and the yelling stopped, sounds of struggle replacing it. Let this be the end let this be the end let this be the-
"KEEEITH!"
Keith groaned. Will he ever stop? Lance knew he is trying to study for finals. He and Shiro were the ones who encouraged him to start studying early, so why the fuck was he disturbing him now?
"Keee-"
"WHAT?!" He yelled back, finally tired of trying to ignore the noise.
"I need your help!" Lance called back. Then, quieter, Keith could hear a half sentence that sounded suspiciously like, "Lemme go Shiro" with some grunting, followed by Shiro's stern "No."
Squinting at his notebook, Keith contemplated his options: Go downstairs and save Lance from what was probably either a tickle attack or Shiro trying to get their boyfriend to cook again or stay where he is, put on some headphones and leave Lance to suffer. The second option sounded much more appealing, and he was already reaching for his headset when Lance dropped a sentence so shocking he froze mid-movement to reconsider.
"I'll go with you to that conspiracy thing if you come help me! The exhibition and lecture about the aliens!" His tone held an untypical desperate quality. Beyond the tempting promise, Keith was actually growing curious about what could be so important Lance would agree to go with him despite being so against it before.
Two seconds of stunned silence followed. Then, Shiro's voice: "I'll come with you if you don't come downstairs."
A plot twist. Keith bit his lower lip, thinking. Lance would be more enthusiastic about the exhibition, but Shiro would listen better at the lecture. He'd have really liked both to come, though.
"Shiro's lying! He's got work and he can't go-hmfff!"
"Don't listen to him!" Shiro yelled, laughter in his voice.
That's it. Keith hopped down the stairs two at a time. He rounded a corner and a most confusing scene was revealed: Shiro held Lance in his lap, one hand restraining his arms, the other over his mouth. Not a tickle fight, and definitely not cooking. Not anything remotely sexy, too. Lance was squirming almost violently, clearly trying to break free.
"What's going on?"
"Mhmmm! Mm-mhmmm!" Lance tried.
"Oh, nothing." Shiro smiled at him, shifting Lance in his lap for an easier hold on him. "Just having a little fun." He kissed the side of Lance's head and the other stared daggers at him.
Keith raised an eyebrow at them. "Is that so?"
Lance shook his head violently.
"Yes." Shiro assured him, his smile bigger than ever.
Keith wasn't sure he wanted to know what was going on, but he resolved to find out anyway. Dealing with a pouty Lance was not going to be worth the satisfaction of leaving him to Shiro's mercy. "Doesn't really seem like it to me. Shiro, why're you holding him?"
"Look, Keith. It doesn't concern you." His boyfriend dropped the cheery facade. "It's for his own good."
"Mhmm! HMMM!" Lance disagreed, struggling harder than ever, eyes wild and begging.
Keith sighed. "Let him go Shiro, come on. I gotta get back to studying."
That had some effect on him. Shiro's grip slackened, just for a moment. But a moment was enough for Lance to bite his fingers, startling him into jerking his hand away.
"He took my phone and I need to see what Tyler tweeted about me!" Lance billowed.
Oh, now everything's clear. Lance's slight social media addiction only got worse since he released their "meet my boyfriends" video about a week ago. He spent practically all day on his phone, mood swinging between giddy and melancholic based on the amount of positive and negative reactions he received. He'd be over the moon one hour when one of the more well known YouTubers tweeted their support, then sobbing in the shower two hours later because of an influx of haters.
Generally, though, Keith got the vibe most reactions were supportive, but the mean ones? They were below the belt. Absolutely disgusting. He'd even seen one person calling Shiro a pedophile for dating two guys a few years younger than him. In an attempt to stabilize Lance's mood and prevent a possible meltdown, Shiro's been trying to keep Lance away from his phone, the-goal-justifies-the-means style.
"You bit me." Shiro stared at the man in his lap, scandalized.
"Not like its the first time, get over it. Keith, I just need you to look and tell me what he said, I swear I'll be good after that! I won't get near my phone for the rest of the day! Just this one thing!"
"See, Keith? He's obsessed. It's unhealthy. He's been on his phone, reading tweets and YouTube comments for two hours straight." He gave Lance a pointed look to go along with his last few words.
Ignoring Shiro, Lance stared up at Keith, plea in his eyes. "Please, babe. I'll go to your aliens thing and honest to god try to get into it. Please please please please plea-"
"Ugh! Fine!" Keith grabbed the phone from the table, ignoring the disappointed look Shiro sent his way. He punched in Lance's passcode - a mix of his and Shiro's birthday dates - and opened twitter. "How do I know which one Tyler is?" He looked up at Lance after a moment.
"You're such a technophobe oh my god," Lance snorted.
"Hey." Keith snapped. "Maybe it's not such a good idea to make fun of the person doing you a favor."
"Right, sorry, uh," Lance quickly explained how to find the right tweet.
"It just says we're hot." Keith shrugged.
Lance squealed, clapping excitedly. Shiro wasn't really restraining him anymore, more like casually resting his hands around his torso. Lance wasn't exactly trying to escape either. "But what does it say exactly? I need to knooow!"
"It says "Damn. LanceAlot's boyfriends sure are hot. Must be nice being a part of that sandwich. Congratz boo! Sending love your way"." Keith read in monotone.
Lance shrieked, his entire face lighting up. "Did you hear that?" he turned between his two boyfriends, who were both smiling fondly at him. "He's a legend, and he took time out of his day just to congratulate me." he put his hand over his heart, sighing dreamily. "Plus he's totally jealous of my two gorgeous boyfriends."
"I'm happy for you, Lance. Can I go back to studying without having you screaming my name and asking for help now?"
"Yes. And thank you." Lance tried getting up, but Shiro held him back still, perhaps thinking he'll violate his promise and try to get his phone again. "Lemme go Takashi, I just want to give Keith a little kiss before he disappears for another five hours of studying." squirming, Lance glared back at the man restraining him.
"Keith can come here to get his kiss. I like having you in my lap." Shiro rested his head on Lance's shoulder and the latter slumped.
"Keith! Come here and let me give you a kiss!" Lance demanded.
Keith hesitated just for a moment before deciding that he does in fact want a kiss. He pocketed Lance's phone and knelt on the floor in front of them, cupping Lance's face and softly pressing their lips together. Lance responded eagerly, threading fingers through his hair, drawing him in for a more open mouthed kiss.
"I thought you said 'a little kiss.'" Shiro snorted after a few prolonged moments.
The two parted. "Yeah well." Keith shrugged, freeing his hair and standing back up again.
"It's never going to be just a little kiss when Keith does that thing... You know the thing!"
"Yeah, I know the thing." Shiro nodded.
Keith shrugged again, not a clue of idea what "thing" they were talking about. He was pretty sure they meant it as a good thing, though, and let the matter drop. "See you guys later."
"Good luck." Shiro said.
"Bye babe." Lance blew an air kiss towards him.
Halfway up the stairs, Lance's voice came. "Keeeith! Did you take my phone?"
This time, he didn't answer, only smirked to himself as he patted his pocket. He knew Lance would be too distracted by the kiss to notice.
______________
"He-llo YouTube!" Three voices sang in unison. Three sets of hands made finger guns at the camera, although two of the three hands owners weren't overly thrilled by it.
Lance had to bribe them both with a promise for a free, full length massage to get them to do his signature start with him, but it would be so, so worth it. He wanted them all to wear matching shirts too, but Shiro and Keith shut the idea down as soon as it got out of his mouth.
Like last time, he sat in the middle with Shiro at his right and Keith at his left. The demands for a Q&A were almost overwhelming. After making sure his boyfriends were still on board with it, they decided on a day. Two hours prior to filming, he wrote a tweet inviting his subscribers to ask them questions. His phone hasn't stopped beeping since.
"Remember, if you're uncomfortable with any question at all, even if one of us already started answering it, just say the word and I'll cut it out later." Lance reminded them again right before they started. He already peeked at some of the questions, and a few were... invasive would be an understatement.
They all let their hands drop. "First of all," Lance started, "I'd like to thank everyone who sent their support and love. You have no idea how much it meant to us. We expected so much more hate, and were surprised to find out there was definitely less than we feared. So for that, thank you all." Out the corner of his eyes, Lance could see Shiro and Keith nodding along. Sneaking his arms around their waists, he festively declared, "And now! As promised, my two lovely boyfriends are back for our Q&A video." He quickly kissed their cheeks, then turned to the camera again.
"We've decided to start with one very frequently asked question, then we'll go on tweeter and answer some from there. A lot of you have been asking to hear the full story of how we all got together. Shiro's going to tell it, just because Keith is bad at telling stories - no offence babe," Lance squeezed his side. Keith huffed. "And I will probably die if I have to relive it all again from my perspective. It was embarrassing enough the first time, god."
"It wasn't that bad." Keith shrugged.
"Yeah, only because you weren't the one with a boner in the middle of-" Lance started, then promptly cut himself off and cleared his throat. "Anyway. Shiro?" He turned an expectant look to his right.
Shiro, who was busy looking fondly at them up until now, straightened up a little and turned to the camera. "It all started one chilly winter day. I was at the dojo, alone because it was Keith's day off - he sometimes helps around when he has time - and I was just organizing things for the new beginner's class starting that afternoon. I was in the middle of some warmup stretches when I heard someone behind me whispering "damn"."
Lance buried his face in his hands, groaning loudly.
"Babe, this isn't even the start. Pull yourself together." Shiro patted his thigh. "Naturally, I turn around, ready to greet this newcomer who's staring at me like I'm a really delicious cake. Not even hiding it, too."
"Stooop!" Lance whined. "I wasn't that obvious, come on!"
"You were, and please stop interrupting me. So I introduce myself while Lance is standing there, totally checking me out. Lance introduces himself and we shake hands. Around that time he recovered enough to start hitting on me, which was very flattering, because, you know, he's gorgeous." Shiro glanced at his boyfriend with a small smile. "But, alas, I was a taken man. At some point I casually mentioned "my boyfriend" to gently let him off, and I swear, Lance's face turned from "oh jolly the world is beautiful everything is good" to "I down shots of vodka alone in a bar because the world is cruel" in about 0.5 seconds. It would have been funny if it didn't suck so much seeing him so bummed out. People start arriving and our conversation is cut off. Lance left as soon as the lesson was over. Later, at home, I told Keith all about it, and usually he isn't really the jealous type, but this time he specifically asked me to point Lance out the next time he's in. So I did, but apparently they already knew each other! Lance was hitting on him outside in the parking lot just a few minutes before." The last sentence was mixed with laughter. Keith snorted at the memory, while Lance had to bury his head in his hands again.
"His face when he figured out Keith and I are boyfriends, though... Is there a word that means both despair and jealousy?"
"Shiro come on!" Lance protested. "It wasn't that bad... Was it?"
"It was, and you were adorable. You looked like a kicked puppy every time we touched or kissed. Too bad you were busy feeling sorry for yourself and didn't notice us checking you out like a pair of wolves the entire time."
"We weren't really wolves." Keith said. "Maybe more like dogs. Friendly. Or cats. Because they're cuter."
"Hmm. Like a pair of tigers, then. See, Keith and I had the poly talk way back. We knew we were both open to it. We've even tried it a couple of times before Lance, but it just... Wasn't really right, and ended after a few weeks. But we were smarter this time, and we learned from our mistakes. We knew that before we even suggest anything to Lance, we should make sure we're all compatible and can be friends first. So we did exactly that. We invited him to hang out, and we just... clicked. We hung out often, and opened a group chat and all, and became friends like we agreed. But Keith and I still worried it wasn't the right time yet, that Lance might be put off or intimidated by how long we've been together."
"Got a slight case of cold feet. Thought we'd scare him away." Keith simplified.
"Right, yeah. But then one day we were over here, at Lance's apartment. We were just chilling, Lance showed us a collab he did with Allura, we both told him how nice he looked with makeup on and then he busted out his kit and we started putting makeup on each other and laughing, just... Good times." He gave them all a moment to ruminate. "Then a tickle fight somehow started, and at some point Keith got on top on Lance and yelled at me to restrain his arms so I did and... Lance popped a massive boner."
For the third time, Lance groaned loudly and hid his face, this time going as far as bending all the way down to his knees.
His boyfriends chuckled. "I was mortified." Keith said. "I had no idea what to do and I was getting kinda excited myself."
"I didn't even realize what happened until Lance started squirming like, really bad, trying to break free and mumbling apologies." Shiro pried Lance's hands gently away from his face while he spoke. "Then Lance escaped to the bathroom, and Keith and I had a quick talk and agreed this can't go on and we have to sit Lance down and tell him everything. So we waited until he came back, and he was trying to laugh it off like it's no big deal, but we didn't let him. We sat him down and had a long talk and decided to give it a go. And that's basically it."
Lance thanked the heavens Shiro decided to leave out the part where he was grossly sobbing for almost half an hour, too overwhelmed by relief and euphoria. His mascara ran all over his face, but they still kissed him at the end and told him how beautiful he is.
"God, hearing it like that is almost worse than telling it myself. I genuinely thought I had ruined everything and I was freaking out and... Ugh, god." Lance shuddered. "Moving on! Questions time!" He pulled out his phone. Shiro and Keith brought their heads closer, peering at the screen with him.
"Let's see..." he mumbled. "Alright! This one is a good place to start. What advice would we give to people who are new to poly relationships?"
"Communication." Shiro immediately said.
Keith nodded. "Open, healthy communication. And this is from the guy who has real hard time with it, so take it from me, you want to always make sure everyone is comfortable with what's happening, especially at the beginning. You want to speak up for everything that bothers you, even if you think it's small or insignificant. Just. Fucking talk to each other. Always."
"This is true for any relationship, but even more so in poly relationships. It's hard enough to always notice one person's needs and feelings, and almost impossible to always be on point with two people." Almost as an afterthought, Shiro added, "Or more. So make sure to speak up."
"Okay! Next one, hmmm..." Lance scrolled down.
Who tops and who bottoms if there's three of you?
Do you ever dp?
Which one is the "girl"
How big is Shiro's d*ck
"Oh my god- look," Keith and Lance burst laughing at the last one. Shiro's neck and ears turned bright red and he snached the phone away, scrolling down to lose the tweet before handing it back to Lance.
"Why are all these questions so... Sexual?" Shiro shook his head. "God, I thought we told them last time, we're not sex maniacs or anything. Poly isn't about that."
"He's right, of course he is. Guys. When we said Q&A, we meant questions about the nature of poly relationship, maybe personal experience inquiries. Not our sex life details. You don't ask that just because we're different. You wouldn't ask someone doing a Q&A if they like giving blowjobs, right? So don't ask poly people what they do in bed. Unless they agree to answer these things before, of course. Back to it, then." Lance turned his eyes back to his phone, scanning it for something neutral to answer.
"That one." Keith suddenly pointed at the screen.
Lance and Shiro turned to look at him, wearing expressions of wary surprise.
"Are you sure?" Shiro asked.
"Yeah. It's important, so it's fine."
Lance searched his eyes, and while he didn't seem too enthusiastic about it, it didn't seem like he forced himself either. He gave him a little smile and nod of thanks before turning back to face the camera.
"Kolivthebass asked: "Did you tell your families? And how?" Well, my sisters knew all about it from the beginning, I can never really hide anything from those old hags. My mom knew of Keith and Shiro, but she wasn't in on the whole story until after we got together. A couple of days after the tickle fight incident, I went over, we had coffee and cookies, then I told her I have a boyfriend, then I told her I have another boyfriend and explained everything. It was a little hard for her to imagine it, but she really tried and asked a lot of questions. Then I showed her some pictures of them and she demanded I bring them over next time," Lance chuckled. "I'm pretty sure she adopted them both on the spot and likes them more than she likes me now. I'm so, so grateful of how supportive she's always been, both when I came out as bi and now, more than ever. I love you mom!" He waved at the camera. She'll probably watch this video, he knew, and she always did love when he mentioned her. He didn't mention his father, though. Considering it was only a little over a year since he passed away, he thought his absence be obvious for most viewers. And for those who didn't know... Well, it wasn't any of their business how he brought Takashi and Keith over to his grave to introduce them.
Next was Shiro. "My parents are... Conservatives at heart. They had a hard time accepting it when I started dating Keith, and this poly thing is... Weird for them." His hand, clenched into a fist, was too still on his thigh. Lance took it on himself to pry it into relaxation and intertwine their fingers. Shiro flashed him a grateful smile. "They don't live in the area so I told them over the phone, and I don't think they really understood? It's not like they made a big deal out of it, or were too against it, just... Weren't interested at all. Like it's not a part of my life." He shrugged.
Isn't he saying too much? Lance worried. I'll ask him later if he wants any of it cut out.
After a couple of seconds of silence Keith blurted out, "I'm an orphan. So."
Lance put away his phone and intertwined their fingers as well. Keith didn't talk about his family often, and even after months of relationship Lance wasn't 100% clear about all the details, but he got the idea it was an ugly deal. Slowly, though, Keith was opening up to him about it, so he was trying to be as patient as he could. "That's why my mom adopted him the hardest." Lance added.
Keith relaxed a little, his expression softening. "She's an angel."
"The best." Shiro agreed.
Lance tried reaching for his phone again but encountered a small problem. "Guys." Lance deliberately cleared his throat, raising their joined hands. "I need my hands. At least one."
"I ain't letting go." Keith quickly said.
"Me neither. Lance can just grow another hand and use it." Shiro shrugged, like that made any sense at all.
Lance sent them both incredulous looks, then finally gave up when all he got back was faux innocence. "Ugh. Fine. Shiro, you choose the next one."
Shiro grabbed his phone and it wasn't long before he found another. "Ulzy10 asked: What are you going as for Halloween?"
"Keith? You wanna take this one?" Lance asked. He's been quiet for most of the filming, so Lance wanted to give him a chance to talk.
"Why me?" The tiny confused frown he wore would have been cute if only Keith wouldn't have to be so difficult.
"Because you're doing the cool parts of it." Lance nudged him. "Plus, it was mostly your idea."
"...I guess. Shiro's gonna be Captain America, I'm the Winter Soldier and Lance is gonna be Iron Man. Lance's mom is helping us with the costumes, and I'm making the "cool parts", as Lance phrased it. The armors. I got permission to use equipment from uni to make it all glow and stuff."
"And he's getting extra credit for it as a project!" Lance interrupted, too excited to keep it in. "Isn't it just the coolest?"
"Stop looking at me like that, god you're embarrassing. It's not that amazing." Keith said, shoulders hunched up and looking away.
He still didn't let go of his hand, though. Lance's smile only widened.
Suddenly, Shiro, who's been searching for their next question, started laughing. "Oh god, the timing."
"What? What'd you see?" His boyfriend's heads whipped to his direction.
Still shaking with laughter, he thrust the phone in their faces. Lance immediately joined his cackling, while Keith was developing an uncanny resemblance to an offended tomato.
"It says- Why is Keith so cute?" Lance wheezed.
Keith untwined their fingers so he could cross his arms. "S'not funny you asses." he huffed.
"It's not funny, he's right. It's a very serious matter." Shiro pulled on his adult tone. "There have been several studies on the matter, but the origin of his cuteness is still a mystery. We may never know why Keith is, in fact, so damn cute."
Lance had no idea how he managed saying it all with a straight face. He was howling with laughter by that point. Keith turned away from them completely, possibly to hide his tomato'd state.
"Well, I think this is getting long enough." Lance said once he calmed down enough. "We should stop and start making it up for Keith, or we'll be getting the silent treatment again." Lance kissed his shoulder. Keith shook him off, but there was a shadow of a smile in the way his lip twitched. "As always, be sure to like this video and if you haven't already, click the subscribe button for more videos! Spread the love." he sent the camera a kiss, waited a couple of seconds then turned it off.
"I fucking called it. Everyone loves Keith." Lance pounced on his boyfriend, tackling him into the mattress.
"Get off me you ass." Keith gritted out.
"What was that? Get off your ass? Sure, babe!" Lance shifted to lay on his back instead. He kissed the back of his neck, just for good measure.
"If I forgive you, will you get off me already?"
"Yes."
"Fine. You're forgiven."
"You're the best." Lance kissed the same spot again before straightening back up.
Keith rolled over and sat up, glaring at both his boyfriends. "Though I still don't forgive you, Shiro. You need to make it up to me."
"What?! Lance's apology was universal, right, Lance?" Shiro nudged him.
"Pfft, no. It's every man for himself, darling. Can't help it if Keith likes me more." he smirked.
"Oh, is that how it is?"
"I suppose it is."
"Tickle fight. Me, you, now, to the death. The winner gets Keith."
Keith rolled his eyes at them. "I choose you both. Problem solved. Let's go eat lunch or something, I'm starving."
They ended up having a tickle fight later anyway. For the good old days.