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“Hey, I, uh, made you something.” Lance held out a box covered in a layer of light purple tissue paper. “Sorry if you don’t like purple. It’s the only color I could find.”
“I like purple,” Keith replied,” but… what is it?”
“Open it.”
Keith cast a furtive glance at Lance as he took the box from him. He lifted the lid and found an array of items piled on each other. He rested the box on his hip with one arm and picked up a cassette player with earbuds wrapped around it.
“It’s a mixtape,” Lance said. “I put together a bunch of songs I listen to to de-stress.”
“Oh,” said Keith, not knowing what else to say.
“Yeah, there’s some Tame Impala on there, this song by patrick Watson that’s really a vibe for when you’re feeling down, and a ton of other stuff.”
Keith replaced the cassette player and took out a yellow ball.
“That’s a stress ball. Self-explanatory.”
Keith squished the ball in his hand a few times before putting it back and picking up a small bag.
“Smell it,” Lance said. Keith gave him a wary look, but held the bag to his nose and inhaled. He breathed in a scent that was minty, fruity, and sweet all at once without being overwhelming.
“Mmm,” he breathed out.
“Smells good, right?” Lance asked.
“Yeah,” Keith nodded.
“It’s a bag of spices. I don’t really know exactly what they are, because they’re alien. I mean, like, they aren’t from Earth. I got them from Hunk.”
Next, Keith chose a small notebook.
“It’s a book of nice things. You can write stuff in there that makes you happy or get other people to write nice things in it, and then you can read them to make you feel better when you’re sad.”
Keith opened the notebook and saw that there was already writing inside.
“What’s this?”
“I went ahead and wrote some nice things in there to start.”
Keith read the lines written in Lance’s messy handwriting.
“You’re an awesome leader.” Keith’s lips parted in surprise. Did Lance really think that? He kept reading on to the next line.
“I think you’re really funny when you aren’t yelling at me (and sometimes when you are).” Keith couldn’t help but crack a smile at that one.
“You should laugh more often. You have a really nice laugh.” Keith blushed.
“You deserve all the stars in the universe.”
Keith looked up at Lance and saw that he was blushing as well.
“Hey, don’t cry,” Lance said. Keith touched his cheek and realized there was a tear there. He blinked and felt several more follow it.
“They’re happy tears,” he said quietly. Without thinking about it too much, he threw his arms around Lance and buried his face in the fabric of his shirt. Lance immediately hugged him back.
“Thank you so much,” Keith mumbled against Lance’s chest.
“You’re so welcome,” Lance replied, and Keith felt him take a deep breath before gently kissing the top of Keith’s head.
Keith loosened his hold on Lance so he could lean back and look at him. They were both still blushing, and Lance was biting his lip nervously, brows furrowed.
“Sorry, I- uh, was that okay?” Lance asked. Keith answered by stretching up on the tips of his toes, placing a hand on either side of Lance’s face, and kissing him softly. Lance kissed back, so Keith kissed him again. And again.
“Was that okay?” He asked, grinning at Lance.
“More than,” Lance replied, and pulled Keith against him for another kiss.