Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Come on Keith, do it for charity.”

“Why me, though? Why not, say, Lance?”

“Because Lance is already assigned to the makeup booth,” Coran explained. “He can’t exactly man a kissing booth while painting kids’ and teens’ faces.”

“I guess you’re right but … why me?”

“Keith, you’re the only one who doesn’t have an assigned job yet,” Allura said. “And besides, a kissing booth won’t kill you. All you have to do is sit there and wait for people to show up.”

“Yeah, you say that so easily, but what if there’s people I don’t like?” Keith argued. “I don’t like the thought of kissing just anyone.”

“You don’t have to do more than a peck, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Allura reassured him. “But I really can’t take no for an answer at this point.”

“…fine. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Keith grumbled. “Don’t expect me to sit there all smiling and like it’s the greatest thing ever.”

“That’s perfectly alright,” Coran chimed in. “Why, it might even serve to attract even more traffic! Bad boys are popular these days, aren’t they?”

Keith groaned. “I could really do without being popular, thank you very much.”

The Castle of Lions Charity Fair was coming up in a week. Like every other fair, they had a variety of booths and attractions. Hunk, Pidge, and Matt were in charge of overseeing the rides and other tech-related parts, while Hunk also helped out at the food stalls. Shiro, Coran, and Allura were supervising the whole event, and Keith … Now he was stuck with this of all things.

At least, he thought, Lance’s makeup booth was right across from his kissing booth, according to the floor plan. If he was already stuck sitting there being available to everyone to go and kiss him in exchange for money, at least he’d get to watch Lance smiling—all in his element painting kids’ faces. That would make things just that more bearable, and maybe there would even be an opportunity to chat across the pathway between them.

Speaking of Lance, Keith should probably ask him for help picking out an outfit for this whole mess. Not that there was anything wrong with Keith’s fashion sense, but he trusted Lance’s opinion in these matters. And even if Keith didn’t like the thought of having to kiss any and all strangers who came up to him—he knew that it was for a good cause, so he had to make sure he was looking his best, in order to attract as many customers as possible.

Yes, he had to remind himself that he was doing this for charity. He could do this. He just had to ignore that it was random strangers he was kissing. He would be fine.

~~~

Lance had thought everything was perfect. Sure, he didn’t get to do the kissing booth even though he was definitely one of the most charming individuals out there, but he got to spend his time at the fair working with kids and teens. Being an uncle from a young age himself, that was one of his greatest strengths and something that gave him joy. As for the kissing booth, he thought that maybe Allura herself or Shiro would take it.

Until his lunch “date” with Keith revealed the truth.

“I want to look nice to attract customers for the fundraiser,” Keith explained. “But I don’t want people to flood the booth because I’m apparently a bad boy, as Coran put it. So I need your help to find a good outfit that balances things.”

What a shame, Lance thought. The kissing booth is planned to be right across from the makeup booth, so Lance would have a great view of Keith at all times. Seeing him all bad boy like would be a treat for Lance. Then again … like this, he could still influence the view he would get on the day of the fair—he could make sure there would be a treat for himself to look at.

With that, he heaved a sigh for show. “Since you ask so nicely, I guess I’ll help you. Someone has to make sure you look presentable. We should do something with your hair, too.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with my style or my hair!” Keith protested.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. But for the charity, we have to make it special. Like, at least a ponytail, maybe gel back your bangs.”

“Fine. Whatever you think is necessary, just don’t overdo it. Like I said, I don’t want people to pester me, just bring in a good sum for the charity.”

“Relax, Keith. It will be fine.” After all, Lance, himself, didn’t want more people than necessary to visit Keith’s booth, either. “Hey, you could borrow that one blue plaid shirt from me, that’s not a total step away from your usual fashion, but not as edgy as all your red and black options.”

Keith seemed to consider, though he had an air of doubt on his face. “And you think that would work?”

“I mean, why not? It would be bad if you feel uncomfortable, but you didn’t want to look like a bad boy, so…” He grinned. “Or are you scared to wear my color?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Keith scowled. “As if I’m scared of a color. I’m pretty sure it’s a great fit on me, though the same can’t be said for you and my color.”

“What the heck are you talking about?” Now it was Lance’s turn to scowl. “As if there’s any way that red looks bad on me.”

“Oh, really?” Keith raised his brows.

“You know what? Let’s settle this with a swap. You wear my shirt, I wear yours. Then we’ll see who looks better.”

“Deal.” Keith held out his arm for a handshake to seal the deal. But then, he asked: “But how will we know who the winner is?”

“Uh…” Well darn, Lance didn’t think that far. How many customers they attract could hardly be used as means of comparison in his case—considering he was behind the makeup booth for kids and teens, which was a huge difference to Keith’s kissing booth. When he couldn’t think of anything else, he said: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

“Whatever you say. So you want to style my hair, and I’m gonna wear your shirt … what about the rest of the outfit?”

“Hmm … let me think …” Lance took a bite of his sandwich while going over the options. “Probably just a regular pair of jeans. Most of yours are black or gray anyway, right? And uh … do you even have anything other than black t-shirts?”

Across from him, Keith rolled his eyes. “What do you take me for? I have red shirts and gray shirts, just to name a few. Also band shirts and fandom shirts. You’ve seen me wear those before.”

“Well excuse me for not considering that because most of the time, you only ever wear those black v-neck shirts of yours like you’re a cartoon character.” Not that Lance was complaining, those were a great sight to see with how tight they usually were on Keith’s chest and upper arms. Especially when Lance happened to walk in on Keith training.

“So what? They’re comfy and work with everything.”

Lance merely stuck out his tongue in response, earning him a shake of the head and chuckle from Keith.

Keith asked: “So should I just go for any pair of jeans and a gray t-shirt, then? And my red and white sneakers?”

Lance tried to picture the sight. Finally, he replied: “Sure, sounds decent enough.” In truth, he was dying to see Keith like that on the day of the fair, but there was no way he could say that out loud. After all, Keith didn’t know about his feelings for him.

“Cool. Thanks, Lance.”

“No problem. We have to make sure we’ll have a great success at the fair, after all!”

“Yeah, all for the sake of the charity.”

The fact that Lance staged this outfit for his own benefit would remain his secret. The fact that he was going to wear one of Keith’s shirt at the same time would be a nice side effect. Now he just had to hope that the kissing booth would not become a grand success.

~~~

Keith wanted to slam his head into the small countertop, repeatedly.

It was the day of the Castle of Lions Charity Fair. So far, so good. It started out slow in the late morning. Keith had almost dared to hope that he would get away with slow business, even with the perfectly fine price of one dollar per kiss. That he could end the day facing Allura smiling and shrugging all innocently like “too bad that didn’t work out with me at the kissing booth, huh? Should have done it yourself or ask Shiro.”

But it all changed when the older teens and young adults showed up in the early afternoon.

Suddenly, Keith barely had a break and a line that stretched all the way till the corner of their pathway. At times, the people—a mix of genders—made it a challenge to keep it just a small peck like Allura had reassured him it would be. He was just glad that it was mostly people who appeared around his age group. Then, there was the bunch of slips of papers with phone numbers or various social media like snap chat that were flying all around him … without any conversation to establish an interest or the people asking if it was okay to give their numbers.

The worst part, though, was that Keith barely had a chance to watch Lance do his work, barely had a chance to see him smile so happy and at home doing this job. It was hard to look across the path when he kept having to kiss people, and even more people were still waiting in line. It really sucked, because even aside from Lance’s smile which never failed to improve Keith’s mood, there was also the fact that Lance was wearing Keith’s red and black plaid shirt. And looking damn good wearing it, too, if Keith said so himself. Keith knew that Lance could wear all kinds of colors, but the fact that he was now wearing the color associated with himself, it made Keith’s heart jump up and down and perform summersaults from excitement.

The only thing that kept him sane through all of this was the thought of kissing Lance instead … Even though that also bore a certain risk of his thoughts wandering beyond kisses and ultimately getting carried away.

But whenever Keith got to check the time, he could only barely hold back the defeated groan that tried to escape him. God, he really wished the day would just hurry up and end already, or that people would at least stop crowding him like that.

This was the worst, and he cursed his luck that Allura and Coran had to pick him for this duty, out of everyone. Or maybe he should have just stuck with his usual wardrobe and hairstyle instead of asking Lance for help. Either way, he was stuck here now, and had to deal with his fate.

~~~

Lance was miserable. His plan had completely backfired. Sure, Keith looked absolutely spectacular and was a total treat for Lance’s eyes … Except, Lance barely even got to see Keith. With the masses of people at the kissing booth, Lance could be glad if he caught the faintest glimpse of Keith’s face.

Sure, painting faces was always fun for Lance, and being with kids was a treat of itself, but Lance would be that much happier if he also got to see Keith the whole time.

Then again, watching Keith make out with so many random people, right in front of him, was also a special kind of torture. Especially when he could see all the slips of papers with what had to be phone numbers that people sneaked on the counter for Keith.

Lance kept telling himself that there was no reason to be jealous. After all, he constantly failed to tell Keith how he feels, and Keith probably didn’t like him that way. And yet, that did nothing to stop this ugly feeling in his stomach and chest. If anything, that made it worse: because he knew it was his own fault.

He was so sure that Keith would find someone among the people who came by the kissing booth, would fall for someone and call someone’s number. After all, there were so many attractive people around. Meanwhile, Lance was just … Lance. He just couldn’t compare, ever.

He poured his energy into his makeup work and chatting with the children in an attempt to ignore his feelings. It worked for a while, but the anxiety kept nagging at the back of his mind.

At some point in the later afternoon, when he was tending to the final group before his booth was supposed to close up, one of the kids piped up: “Mr. Lance, do you like the handsome mister from the kissing booth?”

Lance nearly dropped the brush he was holding, but thanks to his nieces and nephews, he was used to these kinds of question. He liked to pretend that the impact was less for him than it might be for other people. “What gave you the idea?”

“Because you keep looking over there,” the kid said.

The other children started to pester him with the same question now, too. Lance sighed in defeat. ”Alright, alright, you got me,” he admitted. “Yes. His name is Keith, and I like him.”

The kids gasped in unison. “So do you want to marry him?” one of the little girls asked with wide eyes.

“Uh.” Lance was at a loss for words. The truth is, he sure wouldn’t mind the idea, though of course, he wanted to date Keith for a start. But for kids that age, he knew the answer they wanted to hear. “It’s a bit early for that, but I guess so.” He picked up the palette of face paint. “Now sit still and tell me what color you want your butterfly to be.”

~~~

It was with a sigh of relief that Keith took the news Allura brought him in the early evening.

“You don’t have to take new customers now. Just continue to sit around though and try to clean up all those papers.”

“Oh, thank god,” Keith said with a groan. “And I didn’t even want any of these, people just kept throwing them at me.”

“Looks like someone sure was popular, huh?” Allura teased.

“Don’t remind me, ugh.” Keith huffed. “It was a nightmare! I barely even got to see how Lance was doing today.”

“Speaking of Lance… he was awfully pouty when he was done for the day,” Allura remarked.

Keith frowned. He already didn’t like a pouting Lance on any regular day. What could’ve been wrong? Had something happened? Keith was dying to know. But Lance hadn’t dropped by at all after closing the makeup booth. Was he avoiding Keith? Was it about their weird bet over who can wear the other’s trademark color better?

He hoped that if Lance was avoiding him, it was just about that, because, wow, would it suck if Lance was avoiding him for some reason. Keith already knew that he would probably act on impulse the next time they meet. Especially with the fact that he kept thinking about kissing Lance all day, while he was stuck at this damn booth.

Allura was watching him with curious eyes, then smiled mischievously. “You might find out if he drops by before you leave.”

“Wait, did he say he’d drop by?” Keith asked, hope bubbling up in his chest. “I haven’t seen him the whole day.”

“He didn’t mention anything.” Allura raised her eyebrow. “Why? Do you want me to give him a message from you?”

“Uh, if it’s no trouble for you—tell him to drop by, because, uh… because…”

At his stuttering, Allura laughed out loud. “Oh, I’ll just tell him that you want to see him, no need for a reason. That’s a reason in itself.”

“I mean, it’s not wrong,” Keith muttered, flicking away the last piece of paper with a phone number he had received before Allura showed up.

Allura merely gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Well, time for me to continue my job and play the messenger for you.”

“Alright, see you. And thanks!” Keith called after her.

Allura merely turned back for a quick wave.

Keith sighed. Well, now it was time to figure out just what he wants to ask or tell Lance.

***

Already before Allura showed up to tell him Keith wanted to meet him, Pidge had tried to get him to just go over there and talk to Keith. Then when Allura walked up to tell the message, the girls grinned at each other before Allura turned back to Lance. Allura took Lance’s hand to put a twenty dollars bill in Lance’s palm.

“What are you—“ Lance tried to ask, but he was interrupted.

“No questions, just go and see Keith,” Allura said sweetly.

“You can thank her later,” Pidge added.

Lance pouted, folding the bill in his hand. He was still pouting when he made his way back to Keith’s booth. What was he even going to say? He couldn’t just slap the note on the counter when he knew that the booth was supposed to be closed already. But he could already tell that it was probably exactly what was going to happen in the end, because damn, he really wanted a kiss from Keith too.

Though why Allura was doing this, let alone give him a twenty bill, Lance had no idea.

Finally, he reached his destination. While he was approaching, Lance could see that Keith didn’t have his attention to the front of the booth. Probably sorting all the numbers he got today, Lance thought with a frown. Then, his spite kicked in. If Keith already probably picked one of those random customers, at least Lance would still get to kiss Keith too, as a belated customer.

With that thought, the moment he was at the stand, he slapped the bill down on the counter top.

“We’re closed,” came Keith’s voice in monotone.

“Can you make an exception? Just for me?” Lance said, already preparing his best puppy dog eyes.

Keith finally looked up at the sound of Lance’s voice, eyebrow raising in surprise. “Lance? What are you doing here?”

“What does it look like?” Lance huffed. “You have a kissing booth. I am willing to pay for the service.”

“…you do realize that it’s just one dollar per kiss, right?”

“I know! But this is what I have at hand.” Lance threw his arms up. “Are you gonna accept or not?”

“Is this just for the sake of the charity, or…”

“No! It’s because I know that you found a boyfriend or girlfriend now and I want to be selfish and have just one kiss from you.”

“What—what are you talking about?” Keith looked honestly dumbfounded. “If this is about all these numbers, I didn’t even want any of these!”

“Wait—you didn’t?”

“No!” Keith exclaimed. “God, no. All day, all I could think about was how much I want to kiss you!”

“You—wait—what?” Lance squeaked. This was a development he did not expect but had dreamed of. “You want to kiss me?!”

“Yes!”

“O-oh…”

Keith sighed. He stood up from his seat and reached his arms out to draw Lance closer by the waist. He studied Lance’s face, just to make sure if Lance really was okay with it, then leaned in to connect their lips. And boy, did this feel so much better than any of the kisses he had that day, and better even than what his imagination came up with.

As for Lance … it was pretty much everything he had dreamed of. When they parted again, Lance looked at Keith with a dreamy glaze over his eyes, lips slightly parted in a surprised little, “oh.”

Keith couldn’t stop the smile from forming on his lips. “And for the record,” he murmured, hands still on Lance’s waist, “I would’ve kissed you for free. I would kiss you at any time.”

“Oh. Uh. Well … it can still go into the charity fund?” Lance said intelligently.

“Do you want to have the change?” Keith raised an eyebrow. “Or do you want me to give you extra service when we’re somewhere private?”

Lance squeaked and blushed furiously, sputtering when Keith laughed in response. Lance pouted. “I mean, you could just kiss me nineteen more times.”

“Sounds like a great plan.”

And this is the story of how they shared their first twenty kisses at a kissing booth that was technically already closed.

In the end, they completely forgot about their bet; the matter of who looks better in the other’s color was an entirely subjective matter, anyway. Meanwhile, when Allura heard the news, she clapped Lance on the back, saying, “you can view it as an early birthday present.” Lance was lost for words, Keith was confused.

The hundreds of slips of papers with phone numbers were forgotten in the trash.