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“...Do you think the others will be ready soon?”
Akira’s eyes shoot up from the pad of paper he was currently writing on, staring at the other man in the bedroom. He shuts the book, shoving the pen to rest between the coil and the paper.
“I would hope so. We had all agreed to meet at six, did we not?” Akira looks over at the clock hanging on the wall, which causes him to pull his lips into a tight frown. “Isamu, it's still only four-thirty. You’re not one to sit around nervous.”
“Who said I was nervous?”
“You keep playing with your shirt.”
Isamu’s eyes widen slightly, moving his hand away from his turtleneck and shoving his hand into his lap. Akira watches him, before getting up and moving so he was sitting next to Isamu. He wrapped an arm around him, gently rubbing Isamus shoulder. He visibly relaxes, letting out a sigh.
“....Are we going to die fighting Sincline, do you think?”
“What- no- Isamu, what makes you think-”
“We have nothing else to lose!” Akira quieted down, watching his fiance. “Takashi has already died for me. Once we defeat the Galra empire, then what? Our planet has been blown up. The princess has to rebuild an entire kingdom. If we don’t die during the battle, what do we have left to live for? Fala’s nanny will let us nowhere near any royal duties. All we are to this planet are commoners, useless, replaceable- ”
“Isamu!” Akira turns so his dark brown eyes looks straight into Isamus indigo ones, moving his hand to hold onto Isamus cheeks, taking note of the tears threatening to spill over. “You are not replaceable. And we have- we have so much to look forward too-”
“Like what? Name one damn thing-”
“The beach!” Isamu’s breath hitches. “The beach. Sunny days, grand feasts held in the castle. The site of seeing everyone freed from the Galra empires tyrannical rule. Waking up and not having to worry about- about piloting the lions. Or Sincline or- or death. We can live, Isamu. We can actually live.” Akira realizes his hands feel wet, and it takes him a moment to piece together it's from Isamus tears. It takes him even longer to realize why his own cheeks were wet.
“...do you… remember, before we left earth, that promise you made to me?”
“...with the house?”
“Yeah.” His voice is small, much to small to be recognized as the fearless, confident pilot of the red lion. “With a fireplace, and wooden floors. And we would have a cat, and in the backyard we would-”
“Have a garden, so when your family came over you could cook them a homemade dinner.” The couple shares a soulem smile. They both know this could never happen, Isamu’s family had died when earth had been destroyed.
“...I’m counting on you, for that to happen. And when we get married I want- a huge wedding. With red and blue flowers, with Tsuyoshi as my best man, and Ryou as yours. Hiroshi can be the ring bearer.”
“I thought the ring bearer was a position taken by a young child?”
“What? He's only fourteen.”
They laugh, together. Isamu reaches up to put a hand overtop of Akira's, sighing deeply. Their fingers intertwine, and Akira admires the ring wrapped around Isamus finger. The bright, gold band compliments the striking ruby red jewels, and it all stands out against the brown skin of his lover. His own ring is made of a dark metal, surrounded by sapphires. Akira pulls Isamu closer, wrapping his right arm around his fiance.
“... Can you make a promise to me, Isamu?”
“Of course.”
“Don’t you dare die on me.” Isamus eyes widen out of shock, but his face softens. “I couldn’t live on- live with myself, without you.”
“...I promise, Akira. I promise.”
However, some promises are meant to be broken.
++
Lance kicks a rock, watching as it soars through the air easily. The team was on some dumb planet with no atmosphere, no gravity, and was thoroughly abandoned. However, despite being a, in Pidges words, "Shitty rock,” Allura was insistent that the paladins do patrol of the planet while Coran used the ship to extract some of the material from below the crust. They had explained it to the team about what this stuff did and all that fancy stuff, but honestly, Lance couldn't find himself to really care. He was also 87% sure he saw Shiro almost fall asleep during Alluras explanation on the planet-dirt or whatever it was and honestly, it's one of the only thing that's keeping Lance from falling asleep right now.
Lance does a few small hops, enjoying the feeling of doing some moon-jumps. Oh, if only Neil Armstrong could see him. He would be jealous of the serious air Lance is getting right now, except, he wasn't really getting any air because of the lack of air on the planet, so really, how much air was he really getting-
“Lance! Watch out!!” Lance turns to look to his side, trying to figure out who's there or what he needs to watch out for, before he is promptly hit in the back of the head with a rock. Lance lets out an undignified squawk, the force from the rock enough to actually push him to the left a little bit. He quickly regains his surroundings, and he whips his head around to see who would even dare toss a rock at Lance Fuentes, moon-jumper extraordinaire and-
Oh. Its Keith.
“Lance, are you alright?” Keith jetpacks over as he is much too cool for moonjumping, landing in front of Lance. “I didn't- think you were over here.” He reaches over to help Lance straighten out, but Lance flails his limbs and pushes Keith away.
"Nah-ah-ah-ah! No touchy!” Keith frowns, huffing, watching as the blue boy flailed to get a good grip on the ground.
“You need-”
“Nothing! I need nothing! I am perfectly fine and ready to go!” He uses his arms to push off the ground to get himself out of his horizontal position, however, he pushes to hard and ends up doing a 180, ending up in another horizontal position.
“.... You need to straighten up.” Keith states. Lance snorts. He sounds like my old school teachers , He thinks.
After a few more failed attempts, Lance allows himself to be pulled and set back up into a standing position, and he glares at Keith.
“So… why were you throwing rocks?” Keith huff's, picking up another rock and looking at it.
“This is the most boring planet we have ever been on. The only thing to do is,” Keith chucks the rock back the way he came, watching as it sails through the air, “Is to chuck rocks.”
Lance lets out a false gasp, smiling a little. “You? Keith Kogane, bored of a mission? Never thought the day would come.”
“Don't try and act like you're having a great time.” Keith gives Lance a small smile. “I saw you making rock statues earlier.”
“Well, duh, something has to live on this shitty planet. Even if it is only some statues.”
“...Did you name them?”
“Penelope and Alfred.” Keith nods approvingly of the names, knowing Lance has better naming skills than he ever would. “So, anyway, how much longer until we get to leave?” He starts making his way back down the path (aka, following cool craters) he had been taking before being rudely interrupted by a rock. Keith follows, deciding that sticking around the blue paladin is the best course of action.
“ About fifteen minutes, I think.”
“Oh thank god, I don't know how much longer I could take here.” Lance reaches the crater, hopping into it and sliding down the side on his shoes. Keith watches him, a small part of him hoping that he falls. “Why does this random planet have resources anyway?”
“I dunno, I don't run the ship.”
“Thank god, we would all be doomed.” Keith glares at Lance, and although the tinted glass of the paladins helmets make it nigh impossible to see the others face, he can perfectly envision the shit-eating smirk on Lance's face. Lance reaches the bottom of the crater, slowly sitting down. He starts picking up rocks, making another small statue like he had earlier. “I need a name, Keith.”
“...What?”
“For the statue!” Oh. Keith frowns a little, thinking back to the time he was in charge of naming the class hamster in fifth grade and naming it ‘Turkey’ since he had a turkey sandwich that day. “Well? Got anything?”
“Um...Jian?” Lance stops for a moment, mulling over it before setting the final rock on the statue.
“Jian it is!” Lance smiles, before a small glint in the dust catches his eye. He looks at the small pile of rocks he was digging through, reaching over to grab the shimmering item. It looked like… a ring? It was gold, embedded with rubies. Although it was old and worn, all covered in dust, it looked like it still contained the beauty it had on the day it was created. He rolls it around in his hand, the dust rubbing off. Lance looks around, confused. How did such a polished, professionally made ring end up on this wasteland of a planet? Lance starts moving some more rocks, wondering if he had maybe stumbled upon some space-pirate gold or something.
Keith watches Lance toss rocks and kick them around, destroying the pile there. Poor Jian had even fallen over and Lance had no idea. He watches the blue paladin dig for a minute, before jumping over the edge of the crater and sliding down, to join Lance in the middle.
“What are you doing?”
“I think I found space pirate treasure!” Keith sighs, his eyes rolling. Maybe the boredom had gotten to Lance's head. Coran had said space pirates exist, but that was close to 10 000 years ago! There were probably like- space police or something. Then again, the treasure could be 10 000 years old… Keith wouldn't admit it outloud, but he's getting excited about the thought of Lance actually finding pirate treasure. Keith reaches the bottom of the crater, making his way over to Lance. Hes cautious of the random rocks going all directions as Lance tosses them up. As he's walking over, he kicks a rock towards Lance. Under the rock he had kicked, oddly enough, was another ring. Keith bends down and grabs it, pulling up the dusty circle. At first, Keith assumed that it was fake. The black band and the dull blue gems imitates the look of plastic and glass. However, after rubbing his glove on it he realizes the band is made of a shiny black metal, and the gems were nothing short than stunning, professionally cut sapphires.
“Oh my god, is that another ring?” Keith looks up, staring at Lance.
“Is this what you meant by pirate treasure?”
“Yes! Kind of, that- I could only find this, and you found that… what do you think they are?”
“Rings.” Lance slowly turns towards Keith, and they’re both silent for a moment. “... Wedding… rings.”
“Why would there be wedding rings on a barren planet?”
“I have no idea…” He inspects the ring Lance is holding, grabbing Lance's hand to bring it close to himself. Lance quickly pulls his hand away, huffing audibly over the coms.
“Hey! You already have a ring!”
“I just wanted to look at it-”
"First , you just want to look. Next thing you know you have both rings, one on each hand, and I'm stuck here ringless!”
“Lance, it's not even your ring!”
“Then that one you're holding isn't yours either!”
“I never said it was!”
“Paladins!” Both Lance and Keith quiet down at the sound of Alluras voice, however they continue to glare at each other. “Coran has finished extracting the mineral from the planet's mantle. Please head back to the castle at once!”
“....I’ll make it there before you do”
“Like hell you won't.”
~
Lance sits on his bed, twirling the ring in his hands. Since the mission, he has wiped it off and found a small case for it to sit in, for safekeeping. He wonders what the story behind the ring is. There’s no inscriptions on it, no reason for it to be there. (He had asked Coran, turns out the planet has always been a barren wasteland). He frowns, gently, before slipping it onto his pointer finger. It didn’t feel quite right. It fit, and it looked pretty nice, but it didn't work out. Kind of like accidently putting a sock that’s usually on your left foot onto your right foot. So, using that logic, Lance tried to change which finger the ring should go on. He quickly found out the only place the ring felt right on was his ring finger.
He blames the fact that Keith called it a wedding ring as to why it only worked on his ring finger. However, despite the fact he's not married and it's not even his ring, he admires how it looks on him. He never thought red would be his colour, but the gold compliments his skin so well. He holds it up, smiling a little as it shines in the light. Maybe he would wear it, for just a little bit longer.
Meanwhile, in the other room, Keith was having a very similar predicament. He twists the black and blue ring around his finger, and frowns. Why were these rings on that planet? What does it know that Keith doesn't? Why does Keith feel oddly attached to it? He lets out a loud sigh flopping backwards and lying on his back. Alright, stop focusing on the rings , he thinks. He tries to use the technique shiro taught him, whenever he needed to distract himself from something.
“Ring… Ring…” He speaks to himself, trying to find a word that begins with G. “...Garrison, Nocturnal, Lance…” Keith's eyebrows furrow, because he doesn't want to think about the fact he and Lance have matching wedding rings. He clears his throat, closing his eyes. “Eskimo, Ostrich, Home, Earthworm, Marriage, Erotic-” His eyes shoot open, and he sits up. Thats enough of that. He gets out of bed, grabbing his bayard and started trekking towards the training room.
So much for alternative coping mechanisms.
~
It's not until the next night do Lance and Keith talk.
Of course, between that time they had discussions. About training, food goo, and at least one argument; However the two of them had never talked about the rings.
Lance sits in front of the holographic solar system, which is being ignored for his interest in the ring. His ring. He knows that Keith feels the same way about the ring he's been wearing, too. It's not hard to miss, the lack of gloves and the sudden appearance of the black band on his finger. If the rest of the team has noticed, no one has said anything. To Lance, at least. He only faintly registers the sounds of the door opening, and the footsteps walking towards him.
“...Hey.” Keith sits down next to Lance, crossing his legs as he sits. Lance gives him a quick look, before redirecting his attention to the hologram.
“...Hey.” The boys go silent, the slight buzzing sound of the castle suddenly seeming much louder than usual.
“...You… uh, couldn't sleep?”
“...Yeah. You?”
“Yeah.”
“...”
“...”
Welp, this conversation was going nowhere.
Lance lets out a big sigh, sprawling out a little, causing his blanket to fall to the floor.
“Okay, we both know something is up with this.” Keith looks over at Lances semi-sudden outburst, eyebrows raised.
“What? Up with what?” Lance holds up his hand, the ring shining in the light. “...Oh.
That
.” Keith looks down at his own hand, holding it up for Lance to see.
“You feel it too, right? The like- weird bond between you and it?”
“I know what you mean. It's like the lion bond.”
“Exactly! But like… not?” Keith nods in approval of Lances statement. “It feels more like- cosmic, or something.”
“...How do you know what a cosmic bond feels like?”
“...You spent a year in the desert making conspiracy theories because you felt a bond to something.” Keith pulls his lips into a tight frown, and Lance lets out a small laugh.
“...So… cosmic bonds.”
“Right!” Lance looks at his own hand, and then Keiths. “...Do you think that- the fact they’re wedding rings mean anything?” Keith gives him a confused look, looking Lance in the eyes. “...Well I mean… If I feel attached to one, and you feel attached to the other, and they’re wedding rings, do you think that means that-”
“Are you suggesting we get married ???”
“What, no, oh my god-”
“Lance were not even dating yet!” Lance shoots a shocked look at Keith, before it transforms into a kitty-cat smile.
“... yet ?” Keith realizes what he just implied, and his face flushes a deep red.
“...Ever. It’s not happening. I should go I think Shiro's calling me, I need to go water my lion-” Keith starts to stand up as he rambles, but Lance quickly grabs his left hand with his own.
“Keith, wait!” Keith continues to look down at his shoes. “I never- I never said we couldn't date.”
“Lance, you hate me.” Keith looks up, only to meet Lances frowning face. Oh, how he hates that face, and he hates it even more that he's the one who caused it.
“Keith. I don't hate you.” Lance pulls Keith down again, so Keith lands on his knees. They sit their, Lance holding onto Keith's hand for dear life. “I never have, even if I seemed like I did. You’re- I was jealous.”
“What's there to be jealous of?”
“Lots,” Lance smiles up at him, "Like your eyes.” Keith smiles back, his cheeks turning into a light pink.
“I don't know, your eyes are pretty great as well.” Lance smiles wide at the compliment, pulling Keith closer to him. “So… are we dating?”
“Yeah… Yeah! We are. I think we are.” He rubs Keith hand with his thumb, tightening his hold. “...Are we keeping the rings on?” Keith watches Lance's hand move against his own, taking a moment before nodding, pulling Lance closer and wrapping his right arm around him. Lance smiles, enjoying the warmth of Keiths arm. “Rings on, then.”
“... Can you make a promise to me, Lance?”
“Of course.”
“Don’t die on me.” Lance’s looks over at Keith, a little shocked at his request. “...I wouldn't be able to live with myself, if you died.”
“...I promise, Keith. I promise.”