Chapter Text
Lance was fucked.
Oh, he was so so fucked.
Sprinting through the castle corridors, he thought of the multiple ways he was about to be castrated. He was late to a very important intergalactic meeting. He was explicitly told not to be late, since Lance was a diplomat, and no diplomat should ever be tardy, let alone a royal diplomat. He was the prince of Altea! The son of King Alfor and the brother of Princess Allura! He had responsibilities! Oh God, Alfor. He was going to be pissed too. Lance mumbled a curse and pushed his legs faster just as he rounded the corner.
Lance was so focused on hauling ass that he didn’t see the two Galran officers turning the same corner he was, right in front of him. He smashed shoulders with the shorter one, and stumbled to a stop. He turned to apologize but was met with a fist to the face and his ankle twisting roughly as he stepped back onto a loose pipe and fell over.
“Watch where you’re going, idiot!” The shorter man spat out, and before he could further assault the prince, the other galran officer yanked him back.
“Keith! We talked about this! No insinuating pain on anyone who slightly inconveniences you!” The taller officer released the so-called Keith, sighing. “I mean, couldn’t you have at least not hit Altean royalty?”
Keith mumbled out a ‘Sorry, Thace’, rolling his shoulder back and huffing. The taller officer bent down to talk to Lance.
“Are you alright?” Thace said gently.
“Oh yeah. Just peachy. Except for the fact that my ankle is most definitely sprained, I will most definitely have a giant bruise on my face and now I am most definitely late to my meeting!” Lance blurted out, sitting up all the way. “Mr. Emo ninja glaring at me from over there isn’t helping either!”
“What did you just call me?” Keith growled, stepping forward and in front of Thace.
“Please forgive Keith. He has issues with anger management.” Thace stuttered out and wrangling Keith backwards.
“Good thing you have your impulse control with you, huh?” Lance bantered. He was used to being a sarcastic little shit. Lance meant it harmlessly. Keith, however, did not feel that way.
“Excuse me? Take that back, you brat!” Keith yelled and Lance scooched back a little. He had no idea why Keith was reacting so violently, and now that he was pissed… Lance was kinda scared… He had only ever dealt with Galran affairs for brief periods of time, and very scarcely. Even so, he knew what they were capable of. Lance hunched back all the way until he hit the wall.
“I’m sorry…” Lance grumbled, looking up at the angry alien. “I really didn’t mean that as a personal insult.”
“That doesn’t matter!” Keith again yelled, and stepped forward. He looked Half Galran, most of his body was human-sized and coloured, with furry ears of Galran descent. As he advanced towards Lance, his eyes got more and more of a yellow pigment to them.
It was terrifying.
Lance grasped his sprained ankle in between his hands as Keith stepped closer once again. Thace was about to step in and stop Keith yet again, when Keith suddenly stopped.
Just stopped.
Lance scrunched his eyebrows together as Keith gently slowly dropped his knees on the ground, now at the prince’s eye level.
“I… I’m sorry.” Keith whispered, with a purple tinge to his face. His eyes didn’t meet Lance’s, instead his gaze was casted towards the floor. Thace wasn’t sure how to deal with this. Keith had never shown an ounce of self restraint. Was it something about that boy? It had to be… So what about Prince Lance made Keith stop. That was definitely intriguing. Keith continued speaking, a little mumbly. “I really don’t know what comes over me sometimes. Are you okay?”
“A bit shaken, I guess.” Lance replies cautiously as he eyes the officer in front of him, fully expecting another outburst. “I’m fine, though.”
“Here. Let me see your ankle.” Keith offered his hand out. Lance just looked at it.
“Really. You want me to give you my injured foot after you just attacked me.” Lance deadpanned. That comment would definitely set Keith off.
But it didn’t.
“No, jerkface. I want to check it and make sure I didn’t do too much damage.” Keith said but this time, with no real bite.
“Okay whatever.” Lance plopped his foot on Keith’s lap. Keith gently lifted and inspected it. “If I had known you’d treat me like royalty, we’d have been doing this a while ago.”
“You’re a Prince, dumbass. I don’t exactly want to be on Allura’s hit list. She already hates me because of the regional galactic meeting three months ago.”
“Oh my God, wait. Wait. WAIT. That was you! You’re the one who somehow managed to explode the hologram projector? Oh my God, I have even more respect for you now!” He laughed out.
“Even… More respect?” Keith looked up, catching Lane’s eye.
“Uh, yeah? You don’t go around the galaxy every day and not hear about Keith Kogane. Now that I know you messed up just as bad as normal people do, it makes you a better person than I already knew you were.” Keith’s ears twitched to Lance’s response. He looked pleased. That was a new one. Keith placed Lance’s foot back on the ground.
“Uh… Well. Your foot is definitely sprained. You need a healing pod.” Keith said, his blush increasing a little bit.
“Thanks for telling me something I didn’t already know. Help me up, mullet. I gotta get into one of those things before Allura finds us.” Lance replied, and placed his hands on Keith’s shoulders. Keith wrapped an arm around the Prince’s waist and helped him stand.
“Uhm… What’s a ‘mullet’?” Keith asked, draping the other boy’s arm over his shoulders and beginning their walk down the hall. Lance laughed. Keith awkwardly laughed a little with him, desperately trying to fit in with the situation. Thace trailed behind the two, slightly dumbfounded. Keith showing an emotion that wasn’t underlined with (at least) some minor aggression was very rare.
“It’s an earth term. When I asked the humans what it was, they gave me two different answers. ‘Business in the front, party in the back’ and ‘an ugly haircut’” Lance laughed “Boy were they right.”
“You don’t like my haircut?” Keith asked, tilting his head.
“I think you’d look better with a ponytail or undercut, to be honest,” Lance said. Keith’s ears perked up.
“What are those?” This trivial conversation lasted for a while as they limped through the corridors. Some Alteans might’ve thought it was weird that a Galran officer was gently chit chattering about earth hairstyles with a slightly injured Altean prince, but the two didn’t seem to notice. The only thing that distrurbed them from their conversation was a direct interruption from a flustered Allura, running towards them.
“Lance! There you are!” Princess Allura jogged up to them. Lance groaned and rolled his head back, then flopped it onto Keith’s shoulder, his nose landing right on top of Keith’s scent glands. Thace was sure Lance knew next-to-nothing about Galran anatomy because you don’t just touch those by accident without facing consequences. That has to bring a reaction out of him. And it did… but not the kind Thace was thinking of. Instead of tensing up, Keith tightened his grip on Lance and puffed his chest out. He almost looked… proud.
“Hey Allura. What’s up?” Lance awkwardly replied, muffling his own voice in Keith’s neck before swinging his head back around.
“What happened to you? Where were you? Why are you with Kogane?” Allura yelled, waving her arms around like a madwoman. It was bad enough that he didn’t make it to the meeting, but being in a compromising position with a Galran officer… That just set her over the edge. Out of the corner of his eye, Lance caught Keith opening his mouth to confess.
“I don’t exactly want to be on Allura’s hit list.”
Lance bit his lip.
“I tripped over Keith’s foot and fell down the stairs!” Lance blurted out.
“I… uh…” Keith spluttered, taken aback by the statement.
“Yep! It was totally an accident and Keith is being really nice and escorting me to a healing pod.” Lance rushed, pushing Keith towards the pod room. “So we’re just gonna go and-”
“Wait! Let me see-” Allura reached forward to grab Lance, and apparently Keith was not having that, because he yanked the prince back and, surprisingly, growled. Before the situation escalated, Lance ripped his arm from Keith’s grasp and scruffed the back of his neck. He gently dug his fingers in the shorter’s boys scent glands, and in that moment Thace thought that maybe Lance knew what he was doing.
“Keith. Keep it together. She’s my sister.” Lance released the scruff hold on his neck and slotted himself back into Keith’s grasp, turning back to the Princess. “Okay. So, thanks for that Allura. I’m just gonna… Go. Thanks.” Lance muttered and entered the pod room, dragging Keith behind him. Allura stood there for a minute, staring after the two boys scuttling away into the pod room like children.
“Aren’t the Galra only that attached to their…” Allura said, directing her attention towards Thace.
“Mates? Yes, Ulaz gets like that with me sometimes.” Allura said nothing at his reply, so Thace continued on, “I’m assuming Keith sees Lance as a prospective m-”
“Hey!” It took the two a couple seconds to realize that they weren’t being yelled at, and the comment was directed to Keith by a tiny scientist holding a miniature robot. It seemed that Keith wasn’t looking where he was going, he just kept walking out of the pod room staring at his hands like he’d been blessed by some sort of God. They heard a small ‘assface’ from the offended scientist as he (she?) stomped into the pod room.
“What’s got you looking smug?” Thace prodded as Keith basically floated down the hall.
“The Prince held my hand. He thinks I’m safe, he told me so.” Keith had not stopped walking, he just gently gazed at his hand and continued on his way. “He thinks… I’m safe.” He mumbled to himself.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Thace said as Keith kept walking.
“I need to find everlasting Altean flowers to use in a flower crown.” Keith said over his shoulder, picking up his pace until he was running in the direction of the botany lab.
“Is Kogane planning on… Courting Lance?” Allura gently asked, massaging her temples to ease the oncoming migraine she knew was coming.
“It appears so.” Thace shrugged, turning back to face the princess.
“And how exactly will Kogane go about this?” She asked.
“After the scenting, it usually begins with gifts. Keith’s personality has a more alpha-like vitality to it, and since they’re both males it’s natural for them to have a more feminine and a more masculine partner. The instincts in Keith are telling him to start courting. He would not court if he was not fully interested or if he thought Lance wasn’t fully interested. Alpha males are usually prone to being protectors. So when their special someone uses them as protection, like Lance did just now, trusting them and seeing them as safe… Boy, do they get to be a handful.”
“Lance is not going to be that easy to catch.” Allura said. “He may have a more feminine personality, but he’s a firecracker. He’s not going to be wooed by scenting and flower crowns.”
“When Keith becomes dedicated to something, he rarely ever backs down. He’ll work as hard as he can to gain Lance’s affection.” Thace replied, trying to get Allura to open up to Keith.
“I still don’t trust him… Not yet at least.” Allura grumbled.
“It’s a good thing you’re not the one who needs to trust him then.”