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1
Keith looks up to see Lance striding towards him, clearly panicked as he makes indecipherable, jerky hand gestures.
As he gets close, Keith barely has time to get a quick glimpse of something in his eyes – relief, maybe? – before he’s pressed up against Keith with his arm around Keith’s waist, whispering hastily in Keith’s ear, “Please just go with it,” and proceeding to kiss him on the cheek. Keith doesn’t know what he’s ‘going with’ but it seems fairly irrelevant when Lance’s breath against his ear and lips against his cheek have shocked him to silence.
Lance releases him all too quickly, and Keith feels the sudden lack of warmth far more keenly than he has any right to. Lance slides his hand into Keith’s instead and Keith’s whole body simultaneously relaxes and tenses. He doesn’t know where to look.
“This is my boyfriend, Keith,” Lance turns to face the Santullan who had trailed after him, whose face turns slightly sour as she looks Keith over. Wait, what?
He only has a moment to process any of this before she’s smiling knowingly at the two of them, nodding as she says, “I see that now. Please excuse my misunderstanding.”
“Not a problem,” Keith manages to croak out before she disappears back into the crowd, gathered for an ‘informal canapé evening’ – thanks Coran – one of their allies is holding for the Voltron team.
“Uh- Lance?” He asks intelligently.
“Yes?” Lance responds innocently, like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth or like he didn’t just tell someone that Keith, who he professes to hate on a weekly basis, is his boyfriend. Keith looks pointedly at their entwined fingers and Lance extricates himself, careful not to touch Keith any more than he absolutely has to. Keith regrets everything. “Oh. Ha. Well. I may or may not have been hitting on that beautiful lady out of reflex, and she actually responded?”
He looks so confused Keith nearly takes pity on him, but snorts instead. “I can see why you’d be surprised,” he says, replying with the snark Lance would be expecting but hoping Lance can tell he’s joking. In actual fact, he is surprised – Lance is handsome, charming and fun, and despite some notable exceptions like Allura and Nyma, Keith had thought that his affections were regularly returned.
“You shit,” Lance shakes his head with a small grin. “I just. Wasn’t really feeling it, you know? Figured it’d be easier to claim ‘already partnered’ than ‘I’m just an idiot who flirts with people out of my league so I don’t have to worry about making real connections.’” He turns away, clearly distressed that he’s said more than he intended to. His skin glows in the light from the chandelier above, his eyes glistening and his cheeks reddening. How he could think anyone was out of his league is maddening; a talented pilot and good friend and paladin of Voltron and-
“You’re so pretty,” Keith mutters angrily.
“What was that?” Asks Pidge, who’s standing next to him and grinning evilly so presumably Keith actually said that out loud. Has she been there the whole time?
“Shit. Uh… I said shitty. That was a shitty plan.”
Lance’s drops his eyes to the floor and the corners of his mouth turn down. “Won’t happen again, you were just the closest friend I could find. Sorry for blowing your chances with anyone here,” he says dejectedly, and makes as if to head back into the crowd. Friend?
“Wait, Lance.” Keith grabs the other boy’s shoulder to stop him and then quickly drops his hand, feeling that delicious and terrifying flood of warmth again. Lance looks back at him hopefully. He’s not really sure what to say but just wants to put that beautiful smile back on Lance’s face. “There’s no one here out of your league.”
He’s not quite sure what the look is that flashes over Lance’s face – disagreement? Disappointment? – but half a second later the blinding grin is back as Lance winks at him. “I knew you liked me. Thanks dude.” And with that he throws himself back into the fray with reckless abandon.
Of course Keith likes him. He’s a great pilot, smart and intuitive, but more importantly an amazing friend, kind and caring and so full of warmth and love it spills over to all of the paladins when they connect their minds to form Voltron. Keith’s honestly addicted to that feeling. And holy shit, this whole situation has opened Keith’s eyes to something he’d never thought possible. He doesn’t just like Lance. He likes Lance.
A muffled sound comes from Pidge, who has apparently been staring at him while he comes to this revelation. He hates to think what his face was doing throughout. He ignores her.
2
The next time, it’s apparently for Keith’s benefit.
They’re at the wedding of three influential Pentarans who are solidifying their planet-wide alliance with a love-match. It’s all very romantic, according to Allura and Lance who have been keeping up with the news following Voltron’s assistance in freeing the planet from Galra control.
The actual ceremony is completely different to a human one, though still incredibly heartfelt judging by the unshed tears sparkling in Lance’s eyes when he turns to Keith with a beautiful smile while the Pentarans exchange lanterns containing some kind of blue burning fire with no apparent source of fuel.
Keith misses the next few minutes of the ceremony while he tries to get his fluttering heart back under control.
So when everyone starts moving toward the river behind the couple he blanks. “Wait, what?” he hisses to Lance, who’s closest.
Lance’s answering grin is worryingly large. “Come on, I’ll help you, fire-boy.” He proceeds to take Keith’s hand like it’s nothing, despite the distress that their closeness is causing Keith’s entire body, which feels far too warm given they’re outside in fairly mild weather. The warmth is immediately flushed, however, as Lance drags him straight into the river. He sees all the guests are fighting their way across the current. Shouldn’t someone have warned him about this part? He is not wearing appropriate clothing and also doesn’t know how to swim.
Lance, of course, is a natural; his lanky frame – make that muscular, wow – allowing him to glide through the water with ease. Of course, he’s regularly mentioned Varadero, where he and his siblings used to swim in the surf. Keith remembers well because of the way Lance’s eyes light up whenever he’s talking about home; it’s a look that’s caused Keith to spill green goop down his front on several occasions.
Somehow Lance is still holding Keith’s hand, half-towing him across the river like some kind of incredibly handsome tugboat.
Lance blushes, and Keith realises he said that last bit out loud. What the fuck. He’s sure he hears Pidge’s characteristic snort nearby, but he can’t see the other paladin when he looks around.
Lance seems to have recovered and banters back, “That is the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me, darling.”
“Wow, you really need more romance in your life,” Keith answers in what he hopes is a meanly sarcastic tone, trying to get back any semblance of dignity.
“Just waiting for the right person to bring it!” He winks, and Keith flushes – again – and ignores it as they’ve reached the other side of the river and have to scramble up the embankment. He sorely misses the feeling of Lance’s hand in his, though.
The way Lance’s wet dress clothes cling to his beautifully toned body go partway toward making up for it.
*
Despite the ceremony being radically different to human ones, there seems to be some sort of universal rule that says that afterward, everyone eats. And there are… allocated tables?
“So for some reason the other paladins are all up on table two, and you and I are stuck in the back on eleven?” Keith wouldn’t care because he isn’t a fan of social interaction and he’s very happy for Shiro and Allura to maintain that side of things, except that – “I’m literally the head of Voltron now!”
Lance grins at Keith’s frown. “Babe, it’s just because you’re an eleven outta ten!” Keith rolls his eyes at Lance’s overly loud outburst, though doesn’t quite manage to hide his light blush at the line.
And the Pentaran on Keith’s other side seems to agree with Lance, their eyes raking down Keith’s formal attire and lingering in places that make Keith shift uncomfortably in his seat.
“I guess this is the party table,” they say suggestively.
Keith doesn’t usually have to rebuff advances; he knows he’s objectively attractive but he’s always been shy and apparently has a ‘resting bitch face’ – thanks Lance – that makes him unapproachable. So the only person who usually flirts with him is Lance, which is obviously just joking around because he still doesn’t even seem to like Keith sometimes. So he opens his mouth and eloquently says, “Uhhh-”
Fortunately Lance seems to have noticed his squirming and puts an arm lightly around Keith’s shoulders, his other hand extended to the alien and his voice cold as he says, “Hey, I’m Lance and this is my boyfriend Keith.”
The alien smiles and shakes his hand genuinely. “I should have known, you have very interesting chemistry,” they say in a very matter-of-fact way, gesturing to the space around the two of them like there’s something physically present in the air, before turning back to the person on their other side.
Keith and Lance exchange confused glances – like, literal chemistry or? – and before he can lose the nerve Keith leans in to Lance, his lips brushing Lance’s ear as he whispers, “Thanks for the save, boyfriend.”
He’s rewarded with a small shudder from Lance as the other boy’s cheeks redden, and he replies, the pitch of his voice just a little too high, “Uh, save? I mean yeah, ha, guess we’re even now!”
A few drinks later suave Lance is back. “Come on, handsome,” Lance winks, grabbing Keith’s hand and pulling him toward the dance floor.
Keith has to admit it to himself; he’s totally gone for both Lances: the flirty, smooth-talking, talented pilot; and the kind, insecure and easily-flustered boy. With the way Lance acts, he’d think the feelings were mutual if the other boy didn’t still flirt with anyone on two legs. The only upside is that Keith’s noticed he definitely flirts with the male and non-binary aliens too.
Well, Lance has already claimed him tonight so he has time to enjoy the way Lance’s hand feels in his; the way his body moves as he dances, as graceful as if he’s back in the water; the way he pulls Keith flush against him when a slow song comes on.
And if they drink too much and dance a little too long and too close together, they’re at a wedding. It’s expected! None of the other paladins actually say anything snarky about it, so they must have been subtle.
Though later, back on the ship, Keith does walk into the kitchen to find Lance saying “-so unfair! It’s a personal affront to me, a human person who has to exist in proximity.”
“I know,” Hunk says, consoling, “you’ve told me four-hundred and thirty-seven times.”
It’s probably unrelated.
3
Word seems to have spread that the red and blue paladins are together.
At their next formal event – who did Keith piss off in a past life? Maybe more to the point, who did Lance? – the democratically elected ruler of Udelai greets Allura, and then turns to Keith.
“Ahh, the red paladin who now pilots the black lion. And the blue who pilots the red,” she nods to Lance who is standing close by at Keith’s right as is now usual – which, wow, when did that become the standard? Keith’s not really sure, but the warmth he feels now when looking at Lance is equal amounts friendship, respect and that elusive something else. And those feelings are reflected right back at him when Lance raises his own eyes to Keith’s, lips quirked into a grin.
“I see the rumors of your bond were entirely accurate,” she continues, “we have prepared your chamber as such and hope you find it amenable.”
“Sorry, our bond?” Lance asks, Keith still stuck on ‘chamber.’
“Are you not a bonded pair?” She frowns, and Allura pulls a face and makes several hand gestures from behind her, absolutely none of which Keith can comprehend.
Lance seems to understand, however, answering, “Yes, me and my boyfriend Keith, of course,” with a wink at Keith as he takes his hand.
“Oh, excellent. I’m sure I’ll see you again later,” The Udelite acknowledges Hunk, Pidge, Shiro and Coran before moving on to the next important guest.
“That is not what I intended, Lance,” Allura frowns at him. “Keith, are you alright?”
Keith realises he’s been staring at his and Lance’s intertwined fingers, and shakes himself. “Uhh, yes, sorry Allura, I guess Lance must have misunderstood your gestures, it’s not his fault.” Lance smiles at him beatifically, and his heart stops beating for a moment.
“I thought you wanted me to smooth it over, Allura! But you’re right, it might have been a bad idea because now none of these pretty aliens will want to smooch me.” Lance says forlornly, and Keith feels a sting of jealousy, despite knowing that Lance hasn’t been flirting with anyone much over the last couple of months. Not that he’s been taking particular notice or anything.
“Like they would have anyway,” he tries a joke, though it comes out somewhat less light-hearted than intended.
But his eyes are smiling, so Lance softens his response of, “Hey, fuck you,” with a grin and an elbow to Keith’s gut.
Keith grins, “Is that an offer?” There’s a brief pause and then everyone’s jaws drop, including Lance’s and his own. “Uhh... I mean-” he flusters, searching fruitlessly for the words that will allow him to travel back ten seconds in time.
“Holy shit,” says Lance. “Are you flirting with me?”
Well, nothing for it, Keith thinks. “Yes?”
“Finally!” Lance says gleefully. “Keep doing it.”
They all ignore Pidge’s mutter of, “Finally? He called you a handsome tugboat like two months ago.”
*
Later, they enter their shared room, and Keith immediately backs Lance against the wall, leaning close until there’s barely any space between his lips and Lance’s, looking into Lance’s eyes as he breathes, “This ok?”
“Fuck yes,” agrees Lance, dragging him up the rest of the way and crashing their lips together in a crescendo of passion and enthusiasm, if a little inexperience on both sides. Their lips slide together and the warmth Keith feels for this beautiful person – his beautiful person – blazes through his whole body, flush as it is against Lance’s. He kisses his way along Lance’s jaw and up to his ear, Lance letting out little breathy moans like he’s actively trying to short-circuit Keith’s brain.
“We need to talk about this,” he says, trying to recover any semblance of sense before he loses himself entirely to Lance.
“We’ve been talking around this for months,” Lance whines at the loss of contact, attempting to recapture Keith’s lips with his own. “What’s one more night?”
And Lance never makes much sense, but why would Keith let that stop him from listening to the other boy now?
4
“This is my boyfriend, Keith.”
Keith feels warm. Now that it’s true, Lance’s statement makes him feel – soft? Blegh, he should probably be a bit better guarded.
Literally better guarded, apparently, he thinks as fighters – Lotor’s – appear from the crowd of Delarals and start attacking.
“Shit,” says Lance succinctly, and they both pull out their bayards, Keith immensely thankful they were wearing their armor for this mission, despite the missed chance to see Lance in finery.
“Everyone out the side exit!” Keith shouts, ushering several Delarals in the right direction and hoping the rest follow while he returns to Lance and Allura, standing back to back and having already taken out several Galra combatants each.
“Duck,” yells Lance, taking out one who was about to hit Keith with a well-placed shot, Keith only just managing to roll out of the way and come back up swinging his blade, taking down another two. “You’ll have to take off your armor, it’s clearly restricting your movement, babe.”
How Lance can keep that nonsense up in the middle of battle, Keith will never know, but where he once may have feigned annoyance he now just grins. “I love you.” Shit.
“Please stop flirting in battle!” Allura somehow manages to sigh wearily despite also being in the middle of the action, expertly taking out numerous enemy fighters with her whip.
The three manage to finish off the Galra in the room before Keith can put his foot in his mouth again, running outside to the sound of, “Pidge and Hunk, rescuers extraordinaire. Come in, beta team.”
And it really is all over from there, the green and yellow lions mopping up the leftover Galra and the other three paladins protecting innocents on the ground.
It’s almost disappointing, because Keith wouldn’t mind putting off the conversation he’s going to have to have with Lance for much, much longer. Maybe a few days. Surely there’s some clean-up they’re going to need to do. On opposite sides of the city.
“Dude. I can see you stressing out from up here,” Lance advises him, in the process of making his way back down from the roof he’d claimed as his ‘sniper’s nest.’ “Wait, is this because-? Holy shit, you love me!”
Keith definitely hears a snort over the comms, and apparently so does Lance.
“I mean, shit, I love you too, of course I do! How could you possibly be worried about that? I am so madly in love with you, I’m going to frickin’ show you as soon as we’re back on the castle-”
Keith rolls his eyes as he hears three loud coughs simultaneously come through his earpiece. But he also can’t keep the smile off his face.
5
The black lion does a barrel roll at Keith’s deft command, skimming the underside of the large Galra warship in a maneuver Allura had termed ‘ridiculous,’ Hunk ‘super cool’ and Lance ‘dangerous, you asshole!’ when he’d suggested it. He comes out the other side firing at their unprotected flank, scoring a searing blast that cleaves the ship in two.
“Woo-hoo! That’s my boyfriend, pal!” Lance gleefully shouts across comms deliberately opened to broadcast to the enemy. “Oh, shit.” His glee quickly turns to horror as a hundred or so small fighter shuttles spill from what is apparently the hangar of the ship, heading straight for the black lion who had already taken the brunt of the battle damage. Lance quickly whips the incredibly fast red lion toward Keith before Keith can stop him, and slams into the swarm.
“Lance! Shit, Lance?! Everyone move in and get them off him.” Any caution Keith would usually have flies out the window when Lance doesn’t respond to his hails.
“Carefully!” Warns Allura, though her lion is obviously almost as desperate as Keith to assist its former pilot.
They all fly closer and start shooting down the fighters one by one, but they’re tiny and there’s so many of them and the paladins still manage to shoot the motionless red lion a couple of times, Keith’s teeth clenching tighter every time until Hunk shouts, “Stop grinding your teeth, Keith, I can’t hear myself think!”
“Magnets!” Shouts Pidge over the top of the brewing argument, “They’re so small, if I can just circumvent the override and turn my lion into a giant magnet, we can sweep them up, like using a magnet to collect thumb tacks.”
“What can we do?” Keith asks desperately.
“Keep them distracted. Hunk, ready the big gun.”
It’s then that Keith notices three of the fighters peel off and enter the red lion through a small hole they’d made in her hull. “Shit, guys, breach! Allura, I’m going in, you keep firing on the rest while these two get our sorry arses out of this.”
The black lion zooms in and ejects Keith like a bullet toward the red. He slams into the side of Red – “Sorry, girl,” – and claws his way inside, immediately coming up face first into a fist slamming into his helmet. His ears ringing, he stumbles back before righting hmself to the gravity inside Red and striking back with his now-extended bayard, stabbing the Galra fighter through the chest.
The other two turn back around from where they were approaching the cockpit, and raise their guns threateningly. The red lion isn’t sealed so they can’t say anything to him, but their meaning is perfectly clear.
Suddenly, they both go down, and leaning against the wall behind them is Lance, clearly battered but very alive, bayard in hand. He grins. “Fixed my comms,” he says, pointing to his helmet.
“Fuck, Lance! You’re ok!” The relief in Keith’s voice is so intense it’s almost palpable. He strides over to Lance and gets as close as he can while their helmets are still on, his forehead against Lance’s. “Marry me?”
The stunned silence over the comms – Keith forgot the others could hear – is quickly broken by Lance’s response: “Shit yeah, you smooth romantic.”
“You guys really need to stop making romantic announcements in the middle of battle like this.”
“Better than in the middle of formal events, Pidge,” Lance jokes with a weak shudder.
“Uh, help?!” shouts Allura, and from the Red Lion’s viewscreens they can see her annoying the fighters around them.
Pidge says, “Ok, I’ve got it! Get back,” and she does indeed manage to sweep up the fighters like the little gnats they are. “Hunk,” she warns and apparently releases the magnet while braking, sending the fighters careening directly toward the warship, where Hunk is waiting with a huge blast from his bayard that sends the ship crashing directly into the fighters.
“And you thought your move was cool, Keith,” says Lance. He takes off his helmet when the air pressure corrects to normal.
Keith rolls his eyes, removes his helmet and kisses Lance soundly.
+1
“This is my ex-boyfriend Keith,” Lance says proudly.
The Kallians they’re assisting look slightly confused, like they’re not sure the translation has come through correctly.
The rest of the team just shake their heads as Keith steps up next to Lance. “I asked you to stop saying that,” he frowns, though his eyes are sparkling with mirth. He turns back to shake the lead Kallian’s hand. “Hi, I’m his husband.”