Work Text:
“You can’t sleep either?”
A voice separates Keith from his thoughts, and he turns around to see none other than the blue eyed boy he’d come to love, wearing nothing more than his usual pajamas, face mask, and blue lion slippers. He takes a seat next to Keith’s spot on the platform where Allura used to stand, unprompted but not unwelcomed.
Lance has a weary aura about him, something that doesn’t go unnoticed by Keith. His face mask looks hastily put on, as if he was in a hurry to get it on so he could go to sleep. His hair is messy, as if he tossed and turned, but it doesn’t look bad on him.
“I came out here to clear my mind a little. I thought maybe the atmosphere would be better, or something.” Keith says, turning away from Lance to look towards the nebula the castle ship currently resided near, although he couldn’t say the view was any better.
“Yeah, it is wonderful, isn’t it?” Lance says, a mix of wonder and sadness in his voice.
“Lance... Are you okay?” Keith asks.
“What do you mean? Of course I’m okay. Who said I’m not?” Lance says, feinting surprise at Keith’s concern.
“I mean... You don’t seem as happy as you normally do.”
Lance smiles a sad smile.
“Yeah, I guess I’m not.”
“Do... you wanna talk about it?” Keith offers. He’s not good with these kinds of things, especially not comforting people, but seeing Lance sad is the same as seeing the sun covered on a rainy day, and Keith wanted to blow the clouds away to see the light.
“I just miss home, Keith. I guess... You wouldn’t really be able to understand.”
He’s right. No matter how much he tried, Keith could never truly understand how Lance felt about Earth. He didn’t have what Lance had.
“Can you help me understand?”
And for a second, Lance turned brighter than any star.
“There’s so much, Keith. Playing on the beach, swimming in the ocean, eating at the pizza shack while the sun sets over the water, and everything is so perfect you just feel like you’re in a movie... And the garlic knots, oh man. If I could survive off of one food alone, it would be those.” Lance laughed, and for a second it seemed as if everything was okay. But again the sky turned to grey.
“Do you ever think about how we’re fighting a war, Keith? We risk our lives everyday as if it’s nothing... We’re all so young, Keith. We should be having normal classes at the garrison. Shiro and Matt should’ve been exploring Kerberos. Coran and Allura should... be doing whatever Alteans do.”
“You mean you and Hunk should be having normal classes at the garrison. Pidge is too young and I got kicked out.” Keith smiled, trying to lighten the mood.
Lance smiled at him, and Keith lost count of just how many times he could fall in love with a single person.
“What did you even do, anyway? All I was told was ‘discipline issues’.”
“I maybe missed a... couple classes.”
“A couple?”
“...Maybe a little more than that.”
Lance laughed. “Geez Keith, did you hate it there that much?”
“I had better things to do with my time! The only reason I was there was because of my flying skills and because my dad wanted me to go. Thankfully Shiro was there.”
“Better things like what, eating sand and scorpions and lizards while trying to find the mysterious blue lion?”
Keith elbowed Lance in the side.
“I did not eat sand!”
“You’re not denying the scorpions and lizards?”
Keith was silent for a moment. “Listen... I didn’t have a lot of food-“
“Oh my god Keith, you ate scorpions and lizards-“
“I had to!”
Lance laughed, and Keith was thankful for the dark atmosphere masking the crimson storm he was sure was spreading across his cheeks when he felt the former blue paladin leaning into him.
“What did you even do out there anyway? Trying to find the blue lion all day every day sounds lonely.”
“Well... That’s really all I had to do. But it was interesting whenever I found a new clue. I didn’t even know what I was looking for, and that was the fun of it.”
“So you were basically like a ghost hunter. Trying to find proof of something you’re not sure exists.”
“Yeah, basically.”
“Well, I’m glad you found it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, or else I wouldn’t have met so many amazing people. I’m tired of war, that’s for sure, but if we didn’t come here I wouldn’t have gotten to know Allura, Shiro, and Coran.... Oh, and you, I guess.” Lance chuckled, starting to sound tired.
Keith smiled and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever.”
Lance looked down. “Keith, you know I don’t actually hate you, right? But don’t tell anyone else that.”
Keith could feel his heart jump straight into his throat. “Could’ve fooled me.”
Lance’s head found a new home on Keith’s shoulder, and Keith didn’t think his heart rate could go up anymore, but he kept proving himself wrong. He was sure Lance could somehow feel it through his shoulder.
“Yeah, I don’t really hate anyone. That’s not the kind of person I am.” Lance yawned. “I was just a little envious of you, that’s all. But now I know how big of a dork you are. I mean, you got into a knife fight at the mall.”
“Hey, the sales guy accused me of stealing my own knife! What else was I supposed to do?”
Lance chuckled. “I don’t know, politely explain to him it was yours?”
“That wouldn’t.... Okay yeah, maybe that would’ve worked. But at the time it didn’t seem like it would.” Keith admitted.
He looked down to Lance, who was smiling peacefully with his eyes closed, as if he was at peace with the universe.
“Of course it would work. And that time when you went to the Marmorite base, and I said you would shoot first and ask questions later? You didn’t even deny it.”
Keith was silent. “Well... you weren’t exactly wrong, I guess-“
“I know I wasn’t! Keith, you really need better impulse control.”
Keith took a deep breath. “Well, it’s a good thing I have you, then.” He looked at Lance, who he could’ve sworn had the slightest of red tints on his cheek under that white face mask. But it was probably just the weird lighting.
“Yeah.” Lance smiled even wider. “How did you ever get by without me?”
Keith laughed and suddenly Lance’s eyes were wide open, staring up at him, with what looked like a mix of admiration and pride.
“Woah. That was new. I made Keith laugh. I deserve an award.” Lance waved his hand around. “Lance, most handsome savior of the universe, made the most emo boy in the universe laugh.”
Keith smiled at him. “Yeah, I’ll make sure Coran gets you a plaque. Or do you prefer a
trophy?”
“Definitely trophy. They’re bigger and shinier, and who wants a boring old plaque? Nobody reads those things anyway. But they see a trophy and they’re like ‘woah, the person this belongs to is awesome and totally deserves this trophy and tons more’.”
“I’ll make sure Coran gets you a trophy, then. The biggest one he can, engraved with ‘Lance, most handsome savior of the universe, made Keith laugh’. I’m sure it’ll look great in your room. I mean if you even have room, that video game system takes up all the space.”
“Hey, Hunk and Pidge built that from scratch. It was like a miracle, they invented the space version of the wii. The... Spii.”
“That’s the name you’re going with? Spii?”
“I’d like to see you come up with a better name, mullet.”
Keith smiled at the familiar nickname. Out of everyone, Keith was really the only one who Lance even gave nicknames to.
“Uh... The... Yeah.”
“Wow, can’t wait to go back home and release our new console, called the ‘Uh The Yeah’. We’ll make millions.”
Keith laughed. “Shut up.”
“Oh man, I get two trophies now.”
Keith laughed again.
“Three! I’m on a roll, Coran is gonna have to give me another room just to put my trophies in.” Lance said with pride, expectantly looking at Keith to stop laughing so he could use his shoulder as a makeshift pillow again.
Keith calmed down so Lance could rest his head on his shoulder and his heart could try to long jump out of his chest again. “I’m sure we could just display them in the lounge.”
“Oh yeah! We could rename it to ‘Lance’s Trophy Room’, so everyone who wants to relax could also go and admire my great achievements at the same time. Sounds like a perfect plan.”
“So we make you your trophy room and then we go back to Earth to release the Spii?”
“You mean the Uh The Yeah? Yeah. And when we’re millionaires, I can take you to meet my family.”
Keith didn’t expect to hear that tonight. Or ever, for that matter.
“Why?”
“Why? I think they deserve to meet the person who named the console that made them millionaires. They’ll say, ‘Oh Keith, how great you are with words! I never could have thought of that brilliant name! You should become a poet!’”
Keith couldn’t help but laugh again. “Yeah, okay. And there’s your fourth trophy, Mr. Savior Of The Universe.”
“That’s Mr. Most Handsome Savior Of The Universe to you.” Lance yawned again.
“My shoulder comfy?”
“Surprisingly, yeah. It’s better than laying on the rock hard floor out here or using my slippers as pillows. So I’ll take it.”
“Do you want the red lion slippers? It’s not like I use them.”
“Nah, I like Blue’s... Besides, you’re the red paladin. I’m just borrowing your lion. Red is your color, not mine.”
Keith smiled at that fact. “You sure you don’t want one red slipper and one blue? Make a statement?”
“Keith buddy I love you but your fashion sense...” Lance trailed off.
All that was going through Keith’s mind was that I love you, but he still managed to choke out a response. “W-What about it?”
Lance smiled weakly. “Nothing. Maybe I will take one red slipper... Make an important statement.” He leaned more into Keith, obviously falling asleep.
Keith rested his head on Lance’s. “Goodnight, Lance.”
“Goodnight, mullet.”
Come morning comes a confused Allura and Coran, a smug Hunk and Pidge, and a caring Shiro, who put a blanket over the sleeping pair’s shoulders.
Of course, with that comes a lot of pictures taken as well.
But they didn’t need to know.