Chapter Text
Pidge staggered across the room, dropped her helmet on the floor and flopped face-first onto the couch. “If anyone needs me, I'm dead,” she announced, words mostly absorbed by the cushions. Lance could still make them out though – back at the Garrison he'd spent more than one late-night study session with Pidge curled up around a pillow and quizzing him on trig formulas while half-asleep. This was actually pretty coherent in comparison.
“You're going to smother yourself,” Shiro said. “At least take off your boots. Who raised you?”
Pidge turned her head to the side just enough to glare at him. “You know damn well who.”
Shiro grinned at her. His helmet was hanging from one hand as he ran the other through his hair. He looked tired, but somehow on him it just looked manly and heroic while Lance felt sweaty, gross and horrible. He could hate the guy sometimes. “You make an excellent point. Boots off anyway.”
Lance grabbed her ankles and hauled her legs up enough that he could wedge himself into the corner of the couch, then dropped her feet down in his lap. “Problem solved. Night.” He let his head drop back against the couch cushions and yawned so wide his jaw popped. “Ow.”
“I feel that,” Hunk said heavily. He dropped onto the couch opposite them and leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees and his head hanging down. “My bones are tired. My hair is tired. My spleen is tired.”
“I think you all need to be in your own beds,” Shiro said firmly.
“Can't,” Lance said regretfully. He stared up at the ceiling, thinking about a solid eight hours of sleep the way he usually thought about sex. “I have first shift on monitor duty until we have enough juice to open a gate out of Galra territory.”
He could hear Shiro shift his weight, maybe stepping closer. “I don't want you working while you're exhausted,” he said.
He was about to volunteer to take Lance's place, which was so fucking tempting, but really it just meant that Shiro would be working while exhausted instead of Lance. Honestly, the guy who was going to be calling the shots if something did go down needed the sleep most of all. “Nope, I'm fine. It's just a couple of hours and then I can hand it off to Coran.” He yawned again, so wide he couldn't keep his eyes open. “It's cool. Just gotta get my second wind. I can go all night.”
Pidge made a rude sound.
Hunk grunted. “I'm pretty sure I used up at least five winds today.”
“You guys were amazing out there,” Shiro said. “I'm proud of all of you. I know that wasn't easy but we did a lot of good.”
Lance groaned. “Stop inspiring me, I'm too tired to properly enjoy it.”
Keith laughed from somewhere by the door. “You do look kind of wasted,” Keith said, his voice coming closer, and then a warm, calloused hand cupped the side of Lance's face. “Come on, sit up. I made you some tea.”
“Ugh,” Lance said articulately. “I think I love you.” He opened his eyes and smiled up at Keith, who was leaning against the back of the couch and watching him with a vaguely amused smirk.
“Five years later he thinks he loves me,” Keith said. “See if I make you tea again anytime soon.” He handed over the drink though – a small thermos with the lid off and wafting the earthy smell of-
“Space coffee!” Lance flung his arms up to take the thermos, forcing Keith to swat at him when he nearly knocked it out of his grasp. “Oh my god. Where did you get this? My rations ran out weeks ago!”
It wasn't really coffee, not exactly, just boiled roots from the Balmera that created a tea that smelled and tasted almost exactly like old fashioned Earth coffee and had nearly twice as much stimulant. Shay's family had fed it to them once and been somewhat bemused by the Paladin's enthusiasm for it. Since then every time they returned to the Balmera there was another batch waiting for them. But visits to Shay's home were few and far between and the space coffee usually ran out long before they could resupply.
“I saved some of my share for an emergency,” Keith said.
Lance ignored the implication that him being on monitor duty was an emergency. “You're giving me some of your last space coffee,” he said. “I take it back. I know I love you. You are my favorite husband.”
“I better be your only husband or I'm taking my tea back,” Keith said dryly.
Lance pulled the thermos close to his chest and shielded it with his hands as much as he could. “Well, I mean. Hunk.”
“We're a little married,” Hunk said without lifting his head.
“You're a lot married,” Pidge said into her cushion. Shiro nodded emphatically.
“Well, Hunk, yeah.” Keith combed his fingers through Lance's hair and didn't even make a face at how sweaty and gross it was, which was true fucking love in Lance's book. That and the space coffee. “I knew about Hunk. But no more husbands.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss against the top of Lance's head. “I love you, too,” he said, soft enough that the others probably wouldn't hear. Then he left, went to help Shiro get the others to bed.
Lance sat there for a minute, taking small sips of the tea and feeling the ache in his bones as he watched Shiro haul Hunk to his feet and propel him down the hall toward their rooms. Keith had given up trying to coax Pidge to her feet and was just dragging her off the couch by her arms while she whined low in her throat and went limp. Lance laughed and leveraged himself up off the couch. His legs and back hurt even more now than they had before he'd sat down and he could feel the muscles in his back starting to rebel. The next two hours were going to suck.
“She's ticklish,” Lance said. He stopped at Keith's side for a quick kiss. “Seriously, go for the ribs, but watch your head, she's a kicker.”
“Traitor,” Pidge whined. She aimed a kick at his shin that would have hurt like a son of a bitch if she'd had any energy at all left in her.
Keith laughed. “In a minute I'm gonna leave her here and risk Shiro's disappointed face.”
“Not the face,” Lance said. He offered Keith the thermos but Keith shook it off, leaned in for another kiss instead and licked at the taste of the tea on Lance's tongue.
“You guys do remember I'm still here, right?”
Lance broke the kiss with a sigh. “At least haul her back onto the couch before abandoning her, she'll wreck her back on the floor.”
“She'd deserve it,” Keith said. “You should go. The sooner you start monitor duty, the sooner it'll be over.” He leaned down, grabbed Pidge by the belt and hauled her up over his shoulder despite her startled yelp.
“You're sexy when you're assertive,” Lance said. Pidge snorted. “Don't knock it, short-stuff, that's a million-dollar view you've got there.” He aimed a mock-glare at her as Keith started to march toward the living quarters with a grim sort of determination. He was just as exhausted as the rest of them, Lance could tell, just better and more stubborn about hiding it. “Hands to yourself!”
“Lance,” they said, in an exasperated chorus and he laughed.
He already felt a little better, a little less tired, a little more awake. Maybe it was the tea, but he thought it was probably the company.
“Hey.” Keith paused in the door. “When you get home, wake me up?” He gave Lance one of those smiles Lance loved the best. The tentative ones that meant he was letting himself ask for something he really wanted even if he thought it was silly or clingy. The ones it had taken years for him to really feel comfortable with. “That was... rough. Out there. I just... I want to know you make it home.”
“I will,” Lance promised. He curled his hand around the thermos as Keith and Pidge left, let the warmth of it seep into his palms for a long couple of seconds before he turned to head in the opposite direction.