Work Text:
“Why, why, why can’t things ever go right for us for once?”
Keith fought the instinctual urge to make a scathing remark about the volume of his teammate’s voice, but bit his tongue as he looked nervously at the crowd around them. He knew Lance was just as tense and aware of the situation as he was, and that any spat between them could end in their imminent doom.
“I’m not asking for like, all the Galra to all simultaneously fall into a coma while we do our thing or something dumb like that, but ay por dios can’t we go one mission without being tracked?” Lance pouted beside him, keeping up with Keith despite the crowd.
Less than half a varga ago he and Lance had been dumped on this Galra owned, Galra occupied swap moon with one goal in mind: gather intel on how far the reach of the quintessence trade went. In that short amount of time they’d managed to achieve their goal, while also alerting nearly every Galra battalion within 10 galaxies that Voltron was nearby and on the offensive.
“Stop complaining and just keep walking,” Keith muttered under his breath, trying to follow his own directions.
The two of them were disguised as space pirates, as this swap moon was less like a mall and more like a 5-story flea market on the outskirts of an intergalactic hub. The hub is where Shiro and Kolivan had told Keith where they’d get the information they needed, but no one, not even Pidge, had been able to predict the amount of security this obscure place had. The moment Lance had plugged in Pidge’s USB to hack the system and get information, an alert had pinged on every screen and device in the Altean castle and Galra tracker they’d owned. Now every Galra and sympathizer on this moon would be on the lookout for two Paladins of Voltron, and because of the Universe-wide telecast of THE VOLTRON SHOW , Lance’s face instantly became dangerous.
“Yeah, but not so fast,” Lance gently gripped Keith’s forearm, “The first rule to being on the run is to walk, never run. Act like you belong here and know what you’re doing.”
“I know that.” Keith grit his teeth and forced himself to walk slower, trying to match the taller boy’s strides.
“Really? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure I’ve had to avoid cops and security guards wayyy more times than you, mullet.” Lance smirked and kept walking at what felt like an agonizingly slow pace, “Believe me, if you keep glancing around like that and looking like you’re hiding something, they can smell the fear on you. It’s why Hunk always got us caught when we’d sneak out of the Garrison.”
“And if we walk much slower people will be able to see your face and recognize us instantly, thereby blowing the whole mission!” Keith hissed back, eyes still scanning the crowd. He wished Pidge had been able to make her cloaking device small enough to work on their clothes, but she’d been so busy with other things recently that the cloaking devices had been all but forgotten.
“Just...trust me, okay?” Lance’s voice was soft beside him, and when Keith spared a look at the Blue Paladin he could see the anxiety in his blue eyes. He was just as nervous and uptight, knowing full well what was at stake.
The former Red Paladin nodded imperceptibly, but from the way Lance’s lips quirked he knew that it had been seen.
Keith returned to scanning the crowd, though he tried to look more with his body and less with his head, as if he were taking in all of the sights and signs around him rather than looking for Galra militants. After a few moments of walking he saw a pair of watchful soldiers coming from one of the side avenues right to where he and Lance would be at their current pace, and he felt his shoulders tense with a promise of a fight.
“Seems like a team has already arrived on the scene,” Keith murmured, “They look pretty standard, we should be able to take them out without slowing down too much―”
“Just shut up and laugh like I said something funny.” Lance interrupted, throwing his right arm around Keith’s shoulders as they approached point of contact.
“What?” Keith said, Lance’s touch sending electric jolts throughout his body.
“Do it, now!” the taller boy hissed in his ear.
Keith forced a chuckle out of his throat as they passed the Galra soldiers, wrapping his left arm around Lance’s waist and leaning into the boy beside him. Something like adrenaline sang in his veins as the two soldiers barely even registered that they passed by, and Keith had to chant in his head don’t look back don’t look back to keep from ogling.
“I can’t believe that worked,” he said in amazement, not dropping his arm from Lance and feeling bewildered.
“Public displays of affection, asere , I’m telling you,” Lance cocked an eyebrow, smirking down at him, “people―and aliens―avoid it like the plague.”
Keith felt jittery and warm under Lance, and was grateful yet confused when they continued walking together in that way, arm over shoulders and arm around waist, fingers absentmindedly picking at each others’ clothes.
They meandered their way through the crowd until Keith could finally see the large archway signalling the entrance to the loading docks where their podship was parked, just below an escalator. It was a blessed and beautiful sight, but as he took one last look around he saw several different groups of heavily armed Galra converging on said escalators in their sweep of the area: a pair walking ten feet behind them, a quintet of sentries and an officer approaching on their left, a sentry and its companion coming from a side street, and two more officers coming straight toward them. Keith didn’t think a simple laugh would be able to get them past this one, and was about to say so as Lance pulled his arm away and stepped in front of him onto the moving staircase. Immediately Lance turned and met Keith’s eyes, pink dusting his cheeks.
“Kiss me.”
Keith thought he must be hearing things, “What?”
Lance shifted on his feet, the intensity never leaving his eyes, “PDA, remember? It makes people very uncomfortable.”
“Yes it does,” Keith agreed, and before he could say or think anything else Lance reached up and pulled Keith’s face to his own. The shock hit him first, nothing but a blank slate and question marks until he realized that Lance’s lips were pressed against his.
Lance was kissing him.
The question marks in Keith’s mind quickly became exclamation points and then burned away with the heat of his cheeks as he instinctively kissed back, his lips softening and shifting against Lance’s. Without thinking Keith’s hands snaked up to Lance’s waist and settled there, fingertips gently fiddling with the frays and seams on the other boy’s disguise. Warmth pooled at the base of Keith’s stomach and blossomed in his chest as he tilted his head and Lance’s grip on his jaw tightened, delicate fingers reaching back and tangling in his hair.
He could’ve gone on like that forever until Lance suddenly pulled away and they had to step off the escalator, walking briskly to their podship and out of Galra sight back to the castle.
As soon as their pod was connected to the castle, Lance turned to Keith with a smirk, “You still uncomfortable, samurai?”
“That’s not exactly the word I would use.” Keith stood and pulled Lance flush against his chest, “Unless you are?”
Lance’s deep blue eyes were blown wide in shock, then shifted into something dark and tantalizing, “With you?” he reached his arms around Keith’s shoulders and laughed, “I’m always on my toes; I never know what you’re gonna go for next.”
“Like this?” Keith hummed as he tilted his chin up and met Lance’s lips with his, savoring the slow way they moved against each other, testing and confirming that this was okay, this was what they wanted.
They continued on like that for as long as it took for the others to reach their podship and open the doors, walking in on a serious PDA fest involving battling tongues and tangled hair. From that point on, everyone made sure to knock before entering any room where Keith and Lance were.