Archive of Our Own

You can find Lance McClain with his best friend Hunk Garrett at night in their living room apartment playing classical Christmas tunes while wrapping up presents for the people they care for most in the world.

“Hunk,” Lance exclaimed toward his best friend as he wore a beanie mimicking a santa hat, but also had an attached white knitted beard to it, “I’ve gotten him the best present ever.” Lance declared as he wrapped up the white box with red wrapping paper that had candy canes all over it.

Normally, Lance says it’s the thought that counts in a gift not the gift wrapping and as long as you have something to rip off the box everything is fine. He still believes that and most of his friends will see he is the same ol’ Lance. Every single present he handed out to his family, Allura, Hunk, Matt, Pidge, and Shiro will be a mess. The only difference is the wrapping paper with the Holts because Pidge and Matt don’t celebrate Christmas because they’re Jewish. So, he gave Pidge and Matt for each day of Hanukkah a loosely wrapped present with blue and silver wrapping paper spinning with dreidels.

However, he really tried to wrap his boyfriend’s present perfectly. Now, it’s not perfect; there’s a flap or two still needing to be taped down or hidden with a pretty shiny red bow, but it’s the thought that counts. Lance knows Keith knows about Christmas and kinda celebrates it, but he recently got told by Shiro, Keith’s older brother, that Keith and Christmas- if not the entire winter- have a complicated relationship. Shiro was going to explain why, but he was busy at the mall trying to buy Allura, his best friend, a gift before she figured out he didn’t get her one yet and had to go.

Lance knew winter was complicated for his boyfriend and if he could make it even a smidge better for him that’s what he intended on doing. He kind of wished Shiro told him that before he made Shiro give Keith an ugly red Christmas sweater that had white silhouette patterns of reindeers and trees around the words “Merry Chrysler” He had a matching blue sweater with the same pattern, but instead his said “Merry Crimmus”.

“Hunk,” Lance began again when he realized Hunk was not paying attention to him as Hunk was shaking his head toward Lance’s wrapping skills. “Hunk!” Lance shrieked while hiding his box from his friend’s eyes finally gaining Hunk’s focus. Hunk blinked twice finally listening to Lance.

“This is the best gift I have ever gotten anyone in my entire life! It was also the most expensive-” Lance started rambling until Hunk cut him off.

“Hey,” Hunk whined. “It cost a lot for us to make what you wanted. If the geniuses, Matt and Pidge, needed even my assistance you know it was impossible, but yeah you’re right this is the best present ever.”

“Heck, yeah, I’m right!” Lance beamed toward Hunk. “Impossible and expensive is always worth it.” Lance brought his gift from behind his back and placed it underneath their plastic green Christmas tree.

This was the first year Hunk and Lance were able to decorate their apartment to their festive likings because first year at university they weren’t allowed to have Christmas trees real or plastic. Then again they weren’t allowed to have pets on campus at the Garrison or their college, but somehow they managed to not get busted. Yet, for some reason sneaking in trees stumped the two.

To overcompensate for the loss of the past five years without Christmas decorations, their apartment was beyond festive. Christmas wreaths on every single door in the apartment. There were so many colored lights you would think they were on the set of Stranger Things. Stockings taped above their tv in the living room because they didn’t have a fireplace and weren’t allowed to make a hole in their walls.

There were four stockings that hung above the tv. One for Lance, another for Hunk, the third was for Blue, and the last was for Yellow. Lance bedazzled their names onto the white fur of the stocking because how else will Santa know which one is meant for them. Hunk then tried to explain to Lance that Santa isn’t real, but Lance refused to listen to that negativity. Lance told Keith about that incident and Lance was half-joking when Hunk was about to say Santa is fake, but once Keith said with the utmost sincerity Santa is real claiming he was another cryptid. Now, Lance didn’t know if he was kidding or not, because of how he said it with such certainty and confidence. Lance didn’t really care, if his boyfriend believed in Santa Claus than Santa Claus was real.  

“I hope he likes it,” Lance worried Keith might hate it, but he tried to push the thought out of his head. “Everyone tried really hard to make it perfect,” Hunk said staring at the box underneath the tree. “Did you pack up the present I got for him?”

“As soon as Keith and I set up our latest vacay together I packed everything except the kitchen sink.” Lance grinned thinking back to their first  sleepover together.

The night went by in a flash. He remembers seeing a glimpse of Keith’s famous FunCave a.k.a his basement. All he saw was two roombas with knives taped on top attacking each other, either a foosball or  an air hockey table, and toy chests aligned on the walls of the room. Lance couldn’t see much from the top of the stairs, but he did see that it was mostly white carpet until a certain part toward the back where there was a small section of mahogany panels. Lance figured Keith had a sliding door to the backyard since he said he saw Red in the rain one day, opened the door for her, and she ran in. But that was his guess, he didn’t know how to ask because Lance didn’t know if just seeing outside was a big deal for Keith or not. So, Lance thought not to bring it up.

The most memorable part of the sleepover was when Lance thought Keith took drugs. Lance may have thought twice to mention anything he thought might offend Keith about his phobias, but when he saw a used needle on the bathroom sink he freaked out and was concerned for Keith’s wellbeing.

Lance was frantic as he asked Keith what was this all about while holding the needle in hand. Keith had been petting Black while lounging sideways on the couch when Lance interrogated him. He knitted his brows as he pointed out the obvious saying that’s a needle and then he asked why Lance had it. Which resulted in Lance saying he found it on the bathroom sink, that he cares about Keith, and doesn’t want him to hurt himself to which Keith laughed at. He didn’t move before because Red, Keith’s other cat, was sitting on him and that would be rude, but when he started laughing Red sauntered away allowing Keith to stand next to Lance as he smiled.

Keith told Lance to follow him which Lance did. Lance was worried, until Keith told him what he was taking Shiro picks it up for him every month and if Shiro was picking it up it is clearly not dangerous. They walked back into the bathroom and Keith took the needle from Lance, threw it away, saying he forgot to throw that one away in the first place. Afterward Keith opened the mirror, revealed the medicine cabinet, pulled out a small glass vial, and handed it to Lance telling him to read the label. Lance saw the words ‘Testosterone’ and let out a sigh of relief.

He no longer needed to worry that Keith was doing something harmful to himself, but now he was confused. He asked Keith why did he have that and Keith eyes widened in realization  as he responded with a bit of humor laced in that he forgot to tell Lance that he was trans.

Keith was planning on telling him sooner rather than later because he figured they might start dating and that would come up eventually.But now was a better time than any for Lance to find out especially because Keith didn’t want Lance thinking he was taking illegal drugs when he wasn’t.

When Keith told Lance he was trans he didn’t blink twice. Lance’s sole issue was with himself at the fact he jumped to the worst conclusions. Keith didn’t mind it though, he thought Lance’s reaction was funny and told him he didn’t have to apologize since he did nothing wrong and they moved on with their day.

They ended up making a pizza, making a mess, ordering a pizza, and then falling asleep. It was a pretty good first unofficial date for the both of them. Lots of memories Lance won’t forget.

Lance sighed thinking back to it. He smiled reminiscing at how much flour they used incorrectly throwing it at one another. He hadn’t realized Hunk was trying to get his attention until he ripped the wrapping paper in half loudly in Lance’s direction.

“Huh?” Lance shook his head toward Hunk.

“Did you hear my question?” Hunk laughed.

“You were asking me a question?” Lance asked gobsmacked until he remembered. “Oh, wait, yeah, you asked if I packed him the Floam slime and I think I said I did.”

“Yeah, but I asked you something else after that-”

“Not going to lie, I thought about Keith and got distracted.” Lance patted Hunk’s shoulder using him as a boost to stand up from the ground. Hunk lifted his hand so Lance could pull him up alongside him.

They were both heading toward the kitchen because Hunk was making cookies. Only these cookies were a bit of an experiment for Hunk because they were lactose free gingerbread cookies. He was making them for his best friend’s boyfriend because he begged. When Lance starts to grovel he doesn’t stop until he gets what he wants and Hunk cracks faster than an egg. Plus, Hunk likes a culinary challenge and it might come in handy later on for his minor degree.

“What did you ask-” Lance questioned until he got overwhelmed by the heavenly smells arising from their oven. “My favorite chef, you done did it again. That smells like how I imagine a million bucks tastes.” Lance breathed in more than necessary and picked up hints of vanilla, nutmeg, and also cinnamon.

“Hunk, I can already tell it’s going to be a struggle saving some for Keith.” Lance laughed as he leaned on the edge of the counter and lifted himself to sit on the counter. He was watching Hunk’s back as Hunk was watching the cookies. Eventually Hunk turned around, gave the cookies two more minutes, he set up an egg timer and turned to face Lance.

“You’re too kind,” Hunk waved toward Lance bashfully. “Oh, wait, speaking of my cookies I made most of them into gingerbread people, but a few of them I used other cutouts like trees, reindeers, presents, and mistletoes. But I forgot to ask if he celebrates Christmas? I have some extra cutouts of dreidels too for Matt and Pidge that I can give Keith.”

“Hunk, has anyone told you how thoughtful you are?” Lance beamed toward his friend as he swung his legs. “Keith celebrates Christmas, he believes Santa is a cryptid,” Hunk laughed at Lance’s admission. “Yeah, my boyfriend’s cool like that. He is so cool I think he’ll enjoy the mistletoe cookies especially. I remember our first kiss like the back of my hand he and I were-” Lance had feelings of nostalgia as he stared off into the distant viewing the bright kitchen light of a time he realized had yet to happen. Lance blinked, shook his head, and convinced himself that at one point he kissed Keith. They’d been dating for a few months now, gone on dates with each other watching tv shows or playing board games, so of course they must have kissed.

Lance was trying to think of when they kissed. Lance feared that he may have forgotten. For a second he thought they kissed during a commercial break, but then he remembered how much Keith liked the commercials, many times more than the actual show, so he didn’t dare make a move. Then he thought they kissed goodbye once, but Keith actually gave Lance a chocolate Kiss candy because he realized Shiro accidentally got him milk chocolate as a snack once and Keith claimed milk will kill him .

“Oh my god.” Lance let out a deep sigh as his eyes widened.

“Are you okay?” Hunk staring at him with confusion spread across his face.

“I just realized something terrible-” at the same moment the egg timer screamed for Hunk to get the cookies out. Lance was too unsettled by his recent discovery to even noticed Hunk pulled the snacks out. “I’ve never kissed Keith.”

Lance was about to make a mistake. He was absentmindedly about to grab the hot, burning, beautifully tanned cookies straight from the oven to eat away the shock, but Hunk smacked his hand with the robot mittens they had and saved him.

“These need to settle,” Hunk said sternly. “These are in no way finished, what were you thinking?” Hunk was aghast with his best friend momentarily forgetting Lance was unaware of the culinary etiquette.

“I was thinking that I haven’t ever kissed my boyfriend even though he is literally all I think about everyday.” Lance shrieked toward Hunk absentmindedly reaching over to the cookie jars in their kitchen. Dipping his hand into one of the cookies to stress eat taking a bite of it, before spitting it out realizing it tastes like bacon. Lance jumped from the counter to read the label. He ate from the FOR DOGS jar instead of the FOR HUMANS.

“What’s wrong with not kissing your boyfriend?” Hunk shrugged ignoring Lance’s mistake because, they’ve both been there. Lance short-circuited at Hunk’s comment.

“T-that’s all you have to say?!” Lance put his hands on Hunk’s shoulders bringing him back and forth “I like like him, yet my lips have never met his.”

“Ooof,” Hunk was getting dizzy from Lance’s sway so he stepped back putting his robotic designed mitts on Lance’s shoulders. He waited a few seconds to collect himself and face his friend.

“I don’t see the problem. Think about it,” Hunk started talking nonchalantly and turned his back to Lance unaware he was about to blow Lance’s mind in a few seconds as he prepared his cookies for icing. He was making space in the freezer to let the cookies cool.

“When you guys are like eighty, you might not be kissing as much as you can kiss now, so at that point you’ll just want someone you can hang around and laugh with. So, the fact you can just, I don’t know, simply be with Keith and reach solace should tell you that you have something much bigger than kisses with Keith. You have an everlasting bond, you have a-”

“Soulmate.” Lance spoke breathlessly.

“I was going to say a best friend forever,” Hunk turned from placing the cookies in the freezer, “but yeah that works too.” As soon as Hunk turned around he saw Lance with twinkling eyes that contested shooting stars, slightly parted lips that let out a small chuckle filled with an epiphany, and it was an expression Hunk had never really seen from his friend before. But even though he’d never seen it, Hunk could name what Lance was experiencing, he could even feel it just from how Lance looked. There was a warmth near his heart; a flame destined to be shared.

Hunk’s perspective on these cookies changed. They went from a challenge to a mission. With the way Lance was struck with wonder Hunk knew he would have to solidify his position as best man now when Lance isn’t thinking about his future wedding and the best way to anyone’s heart is through food. If the other groom likes him he is a shoe in to Lance’s right hand man.

“Lance,” Hunk smiled toward his friend as he began indirectly making his campaign to be his best man when the time comes. “Not that you need it buddy, but you should get your beauty sleep.” Lance had stepped down from the counter and Hunk was guiding him softly towards his bedroom. “Your best friend, me , will handle everything. I’ll make sure these cookies are utter perfection, butter perfection if you will, so you don’t have to worry your sweet little head about a thing.”

“Aww, that’s so nice,” Lance yawned. “I guess, you’re right I am pretty tired.”

“Hey, I’ll even drive you to Keith’s house tomorrow. I don’t want you worrying about anything because I always have your back now and forever.”

“You’re the best,” Lance exclaimed as much as he could while being tired. He stepped into his room heading toward his bed. “I’m going to text Keith before I nod off, but goodnight buddy.” Lance told Hunk who was in the doorframe because he was turning the lights off since Lance forgot to.

“Sweet dreams,” Hunk started to close the door. “Sweet dreams.” He said once more as he closed the door fully leaving Lance to his devices.

Lance grabbed his phone off the side of his desk.

11:42 PM

Lovely Lance: Cant wait to see you tomorrow

Cryptid Keef: i hope you like the decorations i went all out for you

It was hard to tell which gleamed more, Lance’s smile from Keith saying ‘I did something for you’ or his phone screen.

Cryptid Keef: you gotta tell me how the window wonderland works

Lovely Lance: You mean winter wonderland? Like the song?

Cryptid Keef: nope

Cryptid Keef: you’ll see

Lovely Lance: Okay :D i’m so excited im gonna sleep now so i can see you instantly sooner

Cryptid Keef: that's smart

Cryptid Keef: im going to try to do the same thing

Cryptid Keef: maybe if we sleep at the same time we can lucid dream together

Lovely Lance: In that case, see you in my dreams ;)

Cryptid Keef: if it works yeah thatll be fun

Cryptid Keef: wait youre flirting again

Cryptid Keef: im going to try

Cryptid Keef: flirting i mean i know how to sleep

Cryptid Keef: okay here i go

Cryptid Keef: sweet dreams sweets

Cryptid Keef: was that good?

Cryptid Keef: oh wait you might be asleep

Cryptid Keef: cant wait to see you :)

Lance couldn’t read the messages because as soon as his head hit the pillow he was lights out, but when he would wake in the morning he would have an excitement that matched his triple texting boyfriend’s.

Even though it was only Christmas Eve, Lance still felt as if it was Christmas because he was heading toward his present: Keith Kogane. Hunk dropped him off like a mom dropping her son off at preschool for the first time.

“Do you have everything you need?” Hunk called out to Lance as he was walking down Keith’s pathway.

“Yes-” Lance nearly got whiplash when he turned on his heels. His duffel bag nearly threw off his balance, but he caught himself at the last second remembering Keith’s present is somewhat fragile.“You’re going to make me look bad in front of my boyfriend!

“At this point you probably already made yourself look bad, but he likes you anyway!” Hunk giggled toward his friend.

“Hey!” Lance griped toward Hunk with his hands on his hips.

“I am kidding,” Hunk spoke loud enough to be heard, but then mumbled to himself, “only a little bit.” Hunk raised out his hand through the van window waving goodbye. “Have fun! See you next year!”  Hunk started driving around the cul-de-sac.

“Kiss Shay at midnight!” Lance laughed toward Hunk as he quickly hit his brakes making a screech that wreaked havoc on Lance’s ears.

Hunk had a crush on their upstairs neighbor, Shay, and she has a crush on him too. Yet, neither will admit it and Lance likes to poke fun when the time is right. Hunk pursed his lips into a line toward Lance and he could hear Hunk’s grumbles underneath his breath from a couple of feet away as he drove off. Now it was Lance’s time to return the favor of waving goodbye as he saw his friend heading off.

Lance turned around to face Keith’s house. He saw the red door with the lion handle, first, but his eyes quickly darted toward the right window. Where he saw two things of interest. In the side of the white curtains he saw Keith covering his mouth laughing. He was throwing his head back watching the debacle between Lance and Hunk unfold. Lance loved every moment of that, but what was in the center of Keith’s window filled Lance with a grand amount of bewilderment he had yet to experience in his life.

Santa was waving at him if he focused on the window enough. The colors were pale and projected onto Keith’s curtain, but Lance could still make out the familiar red jumpsuit and jolly beard. Which reminded Lance of something as he noticed Keith vanished from the window as he opened his door.

Lance remembered from the first time he stepped foot into Keith’s house Keith mentioned Christmas. It took him until this morning to remember because in his dream he revisited that day with Keith.

During the summer Lance kept singing show tunes from the musical Grease and felt bad that Keith was randomly giving him presents, like a creepy facial mask and friendship bracelets he still wears to this day, while he had nothing to offer. Keith said  verbatim “ Every time you show up it’s like Christmas except instead of singing ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’ your jingle is ‘Greased Lightning’. ” which is why Lance didn’t have to feel bad.

Now, Lance thought it was the perfect time to switch it up. Once, he saw Keith open the door. He grabbed his santa beanie placed it on his head and started singing Here Comes Santa Claus , but he mimicked the dance moves from the scene in Grease where they sang a song about a car.

“ Here comes Santa Claus ,” Lance sang paired up with the odd dance combo of a 90s boy band side stepping and a little bit of the chicken dance while waving his arms like an egyptian. “ Right down Santa Claus Lane .”  He managed to sing and dance up the small step of Keith’s house until he was face to face with his boyfriend who was chuckling at his dance moves.

“I think I have a karaoke machine downstairs calling your name,” Keith pointed to his FunCave with his thumb turning to the side, “but what was that?”

“What was what?” Lance leaned on the doorway by placing his upper arm and elbow on the white wooden rim of the door. Lance was suave until Keith smirked with a wave of sarcasm as he crossed his arms still managing to keep one of his hands free so his wrist could point toward Lance’s feet.

“That fancy footwork, where’d you steal that from?” Keith questioned innocuously unaware of Lance’s out of body experience as he came to the understanding that Keith had never seen one of Lance’s favorite musicals. Lance heard glass cracking, children crying, and fires starting. He knew his steps were perfected since he was eight, anyone who saw the movie once and vaguely remembered it would be able to tell with ninety-nine point seven percent accuracy where he got those steps from.

“Oh my god, you haven’t seen Grease have you?” Lance asked shocked, but also with a deadpan voice.

“I knew this day would come,” Keith sighed. “I’ve been planning on watching it, but then I recently found out about these videos that are parodies of infomercials. Then I wanted the stuff they were making fun of, but some of them were out of business so I needed to search on shady sites and Shiro didn’t want to go to the back of a Waffle House because-” Lance cut off Keith with a bellow of laughter.

“I get it,” Lance pointed toward the Santa in the window his laughter still there, but dwindling. “Honestly, whatever this is,” Lance pointed toward the Santa in the window. “It’s probably a  much cooler thing than Grease .” Lance was exaggerating, but it was for a good cause; his boyfriend’s happiness.

“Oh, thanks for reminding me!” Keith let out a breath of relief. “Before I let you in I wanted to ask you about that and if it worked. It’s the Window Wonderland ,  it’s an old timey camera that plays six different short videos of either Christmas stuff or Halloween stuff.” Lance started stepping back from the doorway to get the full view of the projection.

“How bad do you want to change that to the Halloween videos?” Lance raised a brow toward Keith. Lance watched the video changed from Santa to puppies coming out of boxes and Lance was enamoured. He wished the sky was a bit darker so he could see the movie in it’s best lighting. It was cloudy enough to cover the sun so Lance was able to get a suggestion of what was there.

“You know me so well,” Keith leaned against his wall resting his head on the side as he viewed Lance carefully. “I was thinking about letting the skeletons loose and saying I was going for a Nightmare Before Christmas vibe.” Keith noticed small changes in Lance from the last time he saw him.

Keith knew a couple of random facts about Lance because of how constantly they video chatted. Keith didn’t know that Lance, if he wanted, could grow out a beard. He found out one fateful day when the two of them decided they would try to break a world record for video chatting and Lance said he needed to shave. This was news to Keith because he always saw Lance when he was clean shaven, but now Keith had noticed small specks of stubble on the sides of his cheeks. He also knows that he has three of the same jacket because one year he told his family he really wanted an olive bomber jacket and his mom, aunt, and cousin got him it. Keith currently has the one his cousin got him in his closet because Lance ‘forgot’ about it at his house. Truth be told, he wanted to leave it there so Keith would have something physical to remind him he was there; that he was real. Since, a phone call can only do so much.

Lance calls Keith all the time because he knows Keith almost always has free time, but when Keith calls Lance it is always a special occasion because it’s rare for Keith to reach out. Once Keith texted Lance first which freaked Lance out because Keith said this was super important and Lance thought it was a life or death situation, but turns out Keith just found a channel that played infomercials the entire time.

The only time Keith isn’t free is when he is talking to his in home physician who doubles as his counselor. Keith talked about Coran in passing. Lance has never seen him, but when Keith described him he said imagine a crazy orange moustache with curls on the side, now imagine whatever you’re imagining, but intenser. And ever since then Lance has always wanted to see a photo of what he envisions to be a real life Nigel Thornberry, but Keith said he didn’t know how to bring that up snapping a photo of him in their conversations. Keith told Lance that he goes in depth about why he can’t go outside with Coran and trusts him because his therapist used to go struggle with agoraphobia too.

Keith rarely talks about going outside with Lance, they talked about it once when they both realized they wanted to date each other. Lance wanted to ask Keith out and he didn’t want to wait until he could visit him next, which was hard to plan for during midterms, or college in general.

Even though it seemed like the wrong time for Lance to confess his feelings, it also felt like the perfect time. Life isn’t going to wait for the perfect moment, sometimes you need to create your own version of perfect. Lance didn’t look his best; his eyes were bloodshot from a violent mixture of coffee and energy drinks delicately nicknamed on campus, Death. He was up and writing an English paper for thirteen hours straight while listening to lectures he recorded from his astronomy class. Lance thought he was about to die in that library as he saw people shuffle in after him then left before him, witnessed the colors outside shift from a bright soft yellow orange to a dark endless blue, and smelled Death all around him so he thought he earned a break.

There was a moment of intense bravery, perhaps inspired by stress, perhaps destiny, perhaps Death.  He ran outside into the cold of the night, called Keith, and  he remembers how he said it. The middle was strong, but the ending and beginning sounded like it came from the voice of a middle schooler.

“I like like you. I like you in the kind of way where when I think of you I get butterflies in my stomach, but I also feel this sort of contradicting calm. I did the math I have to cram about forty six point eight seven hours of information into twenty two point two hours and that thought makes me want to cry.

Actually, it did make me cry, but then I think of you and everything is better. I think of you and suddenly everything makes sense in a world where nothing has ever made sense. Which made me think about time, time I can’t get back, and I realized I haven’t spent enough time with you. Right now, I am taking a break from studying which I thought was impossible, but you are worth more than the time I can’t get back. You are worth all the time in the world because you slowly, but surely are becoming my entire world.

I guess what I am trying to say is I really like you, please date me and thanks for coming to my TedTalk.” Then Lance pinched the bridge of his nose regretting that last bit- the only time he talked that day was to rehearse a speech for a class - he immediately put his hand down when Keith started talking.

“I’d love to-” Keith was cut off by the cheers and applause behind Lance. In Lance’s moment of bravery he ran outside with just his phone and no headphones. Allowing other college kids to listen to his confession. Unbeknownst to Lance there were people who walked a little bit slower to their destination to hear his very loud admissal of emotions who reacted with every word. Lance couldn’t hear them over the sound of his own heartbeat pounding as he spoke to Keith.

When Keith heard the cheers he got nervous and noticed the crowd of people around Lance and ended the call. He sent him a text that read in a way Lance could imagine Keith saying it in person right there in front of him, so he saw it that way. A direct cause of Death may have been hallucinations, but if it meant seeing Keith right there with him outside than so be it.

“I’d love to,” the spirit of Keith reiterated woefully. “I want more than anything to be with you. Every moment I spend with you or talking to you, I want to hold your hand. I want to call you mine as I’d be yours, but-” Keith was deliberate with his words trying to find the ones Lance deserved. The ghost took Lance’s hands. “But if you were to be with me it would be a game of tetherball. I’d make you stand in place while I’m stuck in the ground.” And suddenly Lance came back to the harsh reality as the mirage of Keith phased away and Lance was acutely aware that there was only a phone in his hands. That Keith was not outside with him and there was a potential chance he would never be.

But Lance didn’t care. He texted Keith saying he walked away from the crowd of people, that he was in a random porta potty, and they could video chat in peace. Keith accepted that video call. He saw that Keith’s eyes were red and puffy which hurt to look at, but Lance knew this was a hurdle they could overcome.

“I think you’re looking at tetherball all wrong, Keith,” Lance spoke trying to ignore how much his lips were chattering as he was reminded that at night the temperature drops. He did feel grateful that it was so cold he could no longer smell because that porta potty gave off negative vibes.

“The thing about tetherball is that I have the choice to go to it. I have the choice to play with the ball and I will gladly stand by it, so long as it lets me,” then Lance realized how weird that metaphor sounds and so did Keith so they started laughing together. And then like magic, Keith knew what Lance meant.

In a world where nothing makes sense, what they had, made sense.

“Okay,” Keith choked out through tears filled with excitement and worry of the unknown. “Let’s do this, let’s go out.”

And the rest was history waiting to be made.

The rest led to this moment in time. Where Lance stood a few feet away from his boyfriend cackling as he flipped a switch to show CGI skeletons dancing on his window.

“This is more you!” Lance smiled giving a thumbs up standing on Keith’s lawn. Keith saw Lance through the negative space of the white curtain and mirrored his gesture. From there Lance realized it was getting cold outside. He knew it was going to snow today, but he expected it much later. He held out his hand as three snowflakes landed in his palm turning into water. Lance let out a breath and saw a small cloud of air and loved it. He was ready to celebrate a white Christmas and a snowy new years.

“It’s getting cold,” Lance shivered as he started making his way to Keith’s door. “Can I come in?”

“Ye-” Keith was at the door about to let Lance until he raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know, can you?”

“What?” Lance tilted his head to the right. “Um, may I come in?” Lance scratched the back of his head.

“I’m not sure, may you?” Keith said inquisitively.

“Keith,” Lance laughed awkwardly. “I don’t understand.”

“I noticed I always let you in my house, but what if you’re a vampire trying to steal my blood?”

“You think I’m a vampire?” Lance guffawed.

“Well, I’ve never seen you do anything to prove you’re not a vampire.” Keith shrugged as Lance looked at him in disbelief.

“What about all my selfies showing that I have a reflection?” Lance put his finger guns and winked mimicking his signature look.

“Could be makeup.” Keith offered as Lance licked the bottom of his lips staring off to the side shaking his head with a sly smile as he stepped into Keith’s house without permission.

“How’s that for proof?” Lance asked with a suggestive smile which Keith returned with ease.

“Pretty good.” Keith wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck. Lance managed to drop his bag softly down on the ground closing the door behind him with his foot, without moving Keith. He nuzzled his head into Lance’s neck. “It’s been too long.”

Lance wrapped his arms around Keith’s waist. He noticed he was still wearing his iconic look of pajamas pants, this time they were of red fleece with candy canes scattered all over the print, but paired with the sweater he told him to wear.

“A second away from you is too long.” Lance admitted as Keith pulled away from him still keeping his arms at close range of Lance. They saw each other face to face with glimmers in their eyes. Their noses were practically touching and Lance was reminded instantly that he never kissed Keith before. He didn’t know if now was the perfect time, but he wanted it to be. Before Lance could think to inch closer Keith separated from him stepping behind Lance to lock his door.

“Can’t forget to do that,” Keith let out a weak chuckle as he turned to Lance grabbing his wrist leading him around his house. “Let me show you how I decorated.” Keith had an unexpectedly tight grip on Lance’s wrist. Lance forgot Keith was always the first person to climb the rope back in gym class.

The first room Keith showed Lance was the living room. Keith decorated his tv with green and red tinsel. The stand that supported the plasma screen had a string of candy cane all around it, in front of the plasma there were small snow globes and Christmas themed candles. The smell of peppermint invaded the air waves. Keith still had the coffee table in the middle of the room and the red couch behind it. There was a Christmas blanket that had all the reindeers laying on the couch.

There was a real Christmas tree to the left of the stand placed in between the middle of the window and the tv. The tree itself was massive extending out farther as it went from top to bottom. Around the tree there was a litter of presents gift wrapped with newspaper which were placed with great consideration. Keith knew his cats were going to try and jump in the tree so he created a blockade around the base of the tree. He didn’t use any glass ornaments with the worry that if he did and Black or Red jumped in the tree ,regardless of his planning, and toppled it over they would hurt themselves, but he had paper and plastic red and golden ornaments. He wrapped the tree with red velvet ribbons. He also had translucent, golden, glittery fabric that wrapped all around the tree which sparkled against the soft warm off yellow light of the Christmas lights. Then at the top of the Christmas tree was a golden star that mimicked the fractals of a snowflake.

Lance was about to say how impressed he was with Keith’s tree, but Keith said his favorite line before Lance could. “But wait there’s more!”

Lance dragged him past his stairs and his doorway to the other side of his house into the kitchen and dining area. Lance saw Keith put his Window Wonderland on top of his black dining table. The kitchen set was stunning. Keith bought glass plates that he knew had Lance’s favorite. They were white in the middle, but as they spread out on the rims there was a coat of royal blue with thin white line coming in and out of the blue making it appear as lace. The cloth on the table matched the plates with the deep tints of blue, there were hints of white throughout the bottom representing snowflakes falling. Everything in the room glowed because of the chandelier Keith had in his dining room. The light emitted was pure white and sparkles cascaded through the room as if it the sun was shining down upon crystals.

Once again, Lance was impressed, but before he could express that Keith dragged him toward the kitchen which was behind the dining room. The only thing separating the two was a partial wall. There was a cutout in the middle and all that was missing was a door, the only difference was that the top of the cutout had been arched instead of straight.

Being led into the kitchen Lance enjoyed the modern look to it. Every appliance was silver and metallic, so clean you could see a partial reflection. Lance loved Keith’s fridge, it could pour cold or hot water and crush ice in two different ways. That impressed Lance all on it's own, but now he saw Keith stuck magnetic and gel-like stickers on it. There were the words ‘Merry Xmas’ in the altering colors of red and green. Then he had a magnet face of Santa Claus and surrounding him his many reindeers. Lance really liked these other magnets on his fridge. He knew he had a set of magnetic words which  arrange to make up poetry or random sentences. Today’s fridge said ‘you are the wish upon the star’ and directly underneath that ‘milk is evil’. Lance loved the duality of his man.  

The kitchen was decorated to the nines in places other than the fridge. Over the sink there were more windows which Keith changed the curtains for. They were still white, but with the addition of a smiling snowman holding its top hat out for a greeting. On the white cabinets a blue snowflake shiny sticker stuck in the middle. There was a bowl of cinnamon sticks and pinecones in a bowl near the sink with a small metallic tree beside it. Keith also bought Christmas themed mittens and placed it near the oven. There were of people ice skating. Keith remembered how Lance said he loved going ice skating during the winter with his family so he got it mostly for him, but a little bit for himself too.

Keith took Lance up towards his room running up the stairs as he followed along gleefully.

“It’s not as decorated as every other room, but it is my favorite.” Keith walked to the right as soon as he reached the top of the stairs. If he walked left he would have gone to Shiro’s old room. If he walked straight a little bit further he would’ve gone into the bathroom.

Lance loved Keith’s bedroom. Keith has a lot of time of his hands after he left the Garrison and just moved into the house. Since, he had been watching a lot of home television shows to kill time he quickly got inspired. Keith would never describe himself as an artist, but Lance would instantly disagree. Keith’s room was an art installation piece. With the light coming in the room it is not as impressive, but as soon as the sun falls and the moon rises the room comes to life. His room is seemingly just a dark blue borderline black from the ceiling to the walls until the night. Keith drew constellations and stars with glow in the dark paint that shine a soft white. Keith painted  it with so much care and thought that it feels like your sleeping with the stars; as if you’ve managed to travel to a place beyond Earth all without moving a muscle.

The sole decoration Keith put up in his starry room was a multicolored led light tree. He made a messy zig zag pattern with the lights using them to act as branches, but also decoration then placed a big glow in the dark star sticker on top. The lights popped against the dark color of the room.

Lance was about to say something, but then he looked at Keith waiting to see if he had anything else to show him. Keith was about to say that’s it before he got cut off, by Red and Black running on top of his blue and yellow constellations bed sheets.  They were wearing sweaters the color of their namesake with plastic silver jewels saying their names on the back.

They hissed at each other until they noticed Lance was there. Black stopped first and Red followed her line of sight. Red walked to the edge of the bed sniffing in Lance’s direction. She only meowed, but it might as well have been her saying ‘Oh, you’re back.’ Lance reached out his hand and she purred upon contact. Meanwhile Black started making herself comfortable on Keith’s bed. She walked over to the window while sitting on the bed getting into a loaf position behind the curtains to look at the snow fall.

“Looks like Red missed me as much as I missed her.” Lance rubbed Red’s belly as she flopped over onto her side.

“Not as much as I missed you,” Keith said impromptu which resulted in Lance’s immediate attention. They hadn’t seen each other in a month in person because Lance was stuck at college. Sometimes their relationship felt like long distance even though they were only an hour away from each other.

“If you want I can rub your belly too,” Lance offered while revealing his pearly whites. Keith sputtered and short-circuited while he blushed at Lance’s comment.

“I-uh- ha,” Keith shook his hair and then placed his fringe to the side as he put his hands on his hips. “Movies, you, I?”

“Yeah,” Lance whispers with an underlying note of mischief knowing he had an effect on Keith before he faced him directly. “First, we watch Grease , then we binge all the Christmas movies.”

“Sounds good to me,” Keith let out a sigh as the pink from his cheeks faded. Now, it was Lance’s turn to take hold of Keith’s hand as they went downstairs to the living room. Keith was looking for the tv remotes to change from tv to a streaming app while Lance grabbed his bag to discreetly place Keith’s gift underneath the Christmas tree and pulling out the baggy of gingerbread cookies which he put on the coffee table in front of the comfy couch.

Lance was used to using Keith’s tv since most of their dates involved watching movies or tv shows. Keith doesn’t have any streaming sites because he normally watches videos online so he borrows Lance’s account.

Lance has his own account and shares it with Hunk, Keith, Shay, and the Holt siblings share one account together since they are practically the same person. Lance likes to look at what Keith is watching and clicks his account for curiosity’s sake. Keith’s tastes in shows are pretty random. Okja , Trollhunters , The Walking Dead -but only until the seventh season he stopped watching after his favorite died-, and another kid show about robots, or something, that Lance forgot the name of. Lance is planning on watching all the shows over the summer when he has three months to binge it all.

Lance went on his own account since Grease was in his favorites and a few clicks away before he changed his mind.

“Hmm,” Lance typed in a few letters with a remote and clicked on Nightmare Before Christmas . “It’s Christmas, we have to watch the classics and I know this one is one of your favorites.”

“But you really want to watch-” Keith started.

“How about we watch it when its our first anniversary? A year from the day I confessed to you outside of a library and inside of a porta potty.” Lance saw the crinkles grow by the side of Keith’s eyes when he implied their long lasting relationship.

“That,” Keith stared into Lance’s eyes as he got more and more comfortable in their seat, more comfortable with each other. “That sounds nice.”

Keith melted into the couch beside him clapping to turn the living room lights off. Even though Lance was wide awake and nowhere near sleep he did the classic yawn to wrap his arm around Keith’s shoulders. Keith knew he did the move , but as he placed his head on his chest Keith didn’t mind, he didn’t mind at all.

It was funny, they always played these movies on their dates, but they never watched the movie. If anything it acted as background music. They would start up a conversation mid-movie, whether they’ve seen it or not, and they start talking about anything.

“I think we should agree that Iverson is definitely the Boogie man.” Lance snickered.

“That’s offensive to the Boogie man.” Keith retorted. “He was always angry for no reason. You breathe and he is shouting your name from across the room threatening detention for having an attitude.”

“In his defense,” Lance said and Keith pulled away from their cuddle session to squint his eyes toward him saying without speaking ‘choose your words wisely’. Lance raised his hands in surrender. “I remember you did always have an attitude with him.”

“Yeah, but he started it.”

“Valid,” Lance nodded in agreement. “Speaking of the Garrison that reminds me of something.”

“Which is?” Keith started to lean back onto Lance when he noticed a transparent bag filled with cookies, but he didn’t mention it yet.

“In some classes you asked the teachers for a key, they gave it to you, and you went somewhere. Now, I’ve always had my theories my most popular one being that you were going to Narnia for a couple minutes, but where were you really going?”  

“Narnia, like you said, duh.” Keith looked up toward Lance biting his lip holding back a laugh. “The real answer is boring. I was going to the staff bathroom, the school said I could use that one instead of the boys bathroom if I wanted because some of the bathrooms didn’t have stalls.”

“Lucky,” Lance gasped hearing why Keith got a key. “The boys bathroom smells worse than the porta potty.”

“Yeah, I know, I walked in one I thought had a stall breathed in and instantly regretted it. I don’t know remember walking out. I honestly think that smell caused me to black out.”

“Or it was so bad you’ve repressed it and if that’s the case please teach me your ways.” As soon as the words came out of Lance’s mouth Lance could feel Keith giggling against his chest. Keith lifted himself off of Lance as he sat up laughing placing a hand over his mouth staring back at Lance amused. Keith shook his head as he did so he noticed the sun had already set which caused him to look around the room to see how the colors of the sky changed the atmosphere of the room into something that felt more like home, eventually his attention was brought back to the mysterious bag of cookies.

“Cookies?” Keith grabbed the bag that had a nice thin stream of red ribbon tying it.

“Not just any cookies-” Lance took one end of the bow pulling it open allowing the angelic aroma of the gingerbread to fill the air between them. “Hunk Garrett cookies. I haven’t had one yet, but I am sure they are out of this world,” Lance brought out the first gingerbread man. There was icing that made him look like a smiling elf. “I didn't even tell you the best part. They are lactose free.”

“Really?” Keith’s eyes widen as he was trying to grab one from the bag, but he was struggling. It was like trying to grab a chip, but your friend was holding the bag and all though there were many chips you couldn’t grab just one and it’s awkward. Only Lance didn’t notice Keith brought the bag down to the couch so he didn’t have to hold it and try to grab one of the cookies.

“I asked Hunk to make special treats for my sweets.” Lance winked toward Keith as Keith pulled out the only cookie he could manage to grab his hands on. A mistletoe shaped cookie.

“Wouldya look at that?” Lance was secretly thanking Hunk for throwing in mistletoe cookie. Lance knows that kisses aren’t the crux of their relationship, but that doesn’t change that he sure would like to kiss Keith. “I guess that means we should kiss or something.” Lance started leaning forward and closing his eyes to give Keith a quick peck, but Keith put the cookie on Lance’s lip.

“Pause.” Keith said as he leaned away from Lance. Lance furrowed his brows leaning back from the cookie feeling a bit sheepish about getting rejected.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“What? No!” Keith was getting flustered. “No, I just- I want our first kiss to be perfect and in between being an introvert and a person who literally never leaves their house I haven’t had the most practice kissing or any for that matter.”

“Oh,” Lance said in relief that he wasn’t denied because of who he was as a person, but then it hit him. Keith had never kissed anyone before. He would be his first kiss. “Oh.”

“Yeah,” Keith said under his breath. “I like to know what I’m doing before I do something and with this,”Keith pointed to his lips and then Lance’s. “I don’t know how to make it perfect.” And like that a lightbulb went off in Lance’s head.

“Easy solution,” Lance jumped on the couch putting one knee toward Keith while the other hang from the couch and Keith mirrored him. “You’re worried about being perfect so how about we do the opposite of that.”

“Huh?” Keith didn’t follow.

“How about we have the worst first kiss ever so that way we don’t have to have any pressure kissing later on because it can’t get as bad as the first one?”

“That is-,” Keith spoke slowly until he broke out into a grin ear to ear. “That is a great plan!”

“Thank you, I try,” Lance clapped rubbing his hands together managing to accidentally turn the lights on. “So, how do you propose we have the worst first kiss possible?”

“Um, well clearly we need to start off awkwardly,” Keith said. “Like in the movies, but how do we do that.”

“Finally my knowledge of failed first kisses will come in handy,” Lance laughed along with Keith. “You go to the right and I go to the left.”

“Like this?” Keith whispered following Lance’s instruction as their noses bumped into other.

“Exactly,” Lance turned his head to the right and started leaning into Keith, but before their lips could brush against each other he leaned back so Keith leaned forward only to meet air. “Wait! I gotta check my breath first make sure it’s still nice and minty!” Lance shouted dramatically as he brought his hands in front of his face and huffed into his palms. Keith cackled as he watched and copied him.

“You good?” Lance asked after he passed his own test throwing up a thumbs up toward Keith who only nodded yes excitedly in response.

“Great! Now, that that’s covered, we can start smooching. Now, to make this terrible we are going to need some teeth clinking or maybe some bad aiming. I think I am going to kiss your lips, but somehow I kiss your eye. Then there’s always the true testament of worst first kisses. You start kissing and you wonder if maybe you should tongue so you do, but then all of a sudden you realize ‘wow, I added too much’ and even though you can’t read minds you now they are just thinking to themself ‘wow, I no longer wish to be doing this.’” Lance got a little bit lost in the sauce remembering that mistake.

“Um,” Keith rubbed his neck as he stared at Lance. “I’m sorry?”

“Since I said all that I’ve said,” Lance shook his head coming back to this moment. “I think I’ve set the mood we were aiming for.”

“Definitely,” Keith rolled his eyes playfully. “Everyone knows terrible kisses start off with a confused apology.” Keith picked up the cookies in between them on the couch  managing to place them on the coffee table without looking. Before he could barely pick up one, but now he was in a different mindset.

“Obviously,” Lance said as the gap between the two of them continued to close. “Only the worst kind of kisses start with all these fails.”

“No way am I going to like this.” Keith whispered with a small smirk pulling himself towards Lance.

“Same here,” Lance could feel the soft wisps of their combined breath dancing on their skin as they got so close.

They both forgot everything they said about a terrible kiss as words trailed off, as distance became togetherness, as lips met one another. This made sense, in a way Keith didn’t expect. He tended to think, over think, and think some more, but not this. Being with Lance was different, it was always a comfort, an understanding that he couldn’t comprehend. What he felt around Lance transcended thought. He didn’t know what this feeling was, but he didn’t need too. Keith knew there was something to be cherished there. He knew he would do just that as long as he felt that fire, and he had an inkling, or two, that flame was eternal.

That moment truly felt as if it had just been the two of them. There was no time, space, or other; only a connection, only hearts beating, only warmth.

Keith and Lance got so cozy together they ended up taking a nap. They didn’t watch any of the movies that streamed after the first as they were getting use to each others lips. They kissed in a way that was fun, but also exploratory, figuring out what the other liked and what he didn’t. There were lots of shared laughter between the two whenever they bumped into each other after they pulled back for a breath.

Eventually they dozed off while cuddling each other. Keith fell asleep on top of Lance. The only reason either of them woke up was because the cats kept meowing at them.The cats were sure Keith and Lance died and didn’t know what to do next so they tried to revive them. Black started licking Keith’s finger tips since it was hanging off the couch. Red was walking around Lance’s head nudging him to try to get them up. They were happy to see their efforts worked.

Keith lifted himself placing a hand by the side of Lance’s face while rubbing his eye with the heel of his other hand. Lance crinkled his nose feeling a tail wagging above his face which caused him to wake up Lance yawned which spooked Red to jumping on top of the red couch’s arm instead of sitting on the seat. When Lance stopped yawning and Keith stopped rubbing his eyes they made eye contact and became acutely aware of how near they were close enough to feel the others warmth radiating from their touching tummies, but they weren’t scrambling to move. To be this close and this comfortable was new territory in their relationship, but it was a newness they were fond of.

Keith dipped down his head down bringing his forearm to rest against Lance’s face to caress his cheek while pushing his small hairs out of his face his fingertips almost dancing against his forehead as he kissed him. They both felt the others smile even if they couldn’t see it. Keith was hesitant to pull back, but then the smell of gingerbread and peppermint reminded him of Christmas.

“What time is it?” Keith asked as he moved away from Lance grabbing the remote to click guide and see the time. Lance turned his head and say the time read 1:34 AM. Lance thought to himself that they were making out for a long long time, but he wasn’t mad about it. It was truly the best way to start a Christmas day. He was just hungry as was Keith. Keith grabbed the mistletoe cookie left on the table from earlier and raised it between them.

“Mistletoe,” Keith said before he gave Lance a quick surprise kiss. Quickly, afterward he broke off a bite of the cookie handing the other half to Lance. There was only one word to describe Hunk’s cooking: angelic. Keith and Lance alike heard the sounds of hallelujahs and praise. And because they were two boys they had no restraint eating the entire pack Hunk prepared for them. It took hours to make, but seconds to demolish. They did however, have a brief moment where they paused eating to reenact the gingerbread interrogation scene from Shrek . Lance acted as the gingerbread while Keith was the interrogator.

“I’m glad it’s finally one,” Keith said as he munched on the last bits of the gingerbread man.  Lance was about to say Merry Christmas, because he assumed that’s what Keith meant, but instead he said. “Primetime is about to start.”

Keith changed the station from steaming to a random tv station where there was a lady advertising a cookbook that features ramen in every recipe. Lance laughed as Keith watch on with intense interest as he gently grabbed Keith’s palm and laced his fingers with his. Keith was a bit shocked by the small gesture as he gazed at his hand and turned to meet Lance’s grin.

“Merry Christmas,” Lance spoke softly to which Keith brought his eyebrows closer together before he realized.

“It’s Christmas,” Keith uttered to himself before he faced Lance with bright eyes. “I can show you your gift!” Keith grabbed Lance’s hand and dragged him toward his FunCave. “It’s down in my basement.”

“Your basement?” Lance’s ear perked with excitement upon hearing the mention of Keith’s basement. “We’re going to your FunCave?”

“Ye-” Keith paused walking down the steps as he turned to look at Lance. “How’d you know I called it that?”  

“Shiro,” they both said at the same time. “I should’ve figured.” Keith said flatly.

“Well,” Keith spoke as he reached the bottom of the steps in the dark beside Lance. The only light that came in was through the glass doors, but even then there was barely any light because the curtains hanging over them cancelled most light.

“Welcome,” Keith clapped turning on the lights revealing the wonder of his basement, “to my FunCave.”  

When Lance saw what was downstairs he could not believe his eyes, but it was not what he expected. It looked like there was a Toys R Us explosion, but everything fell into its perfect place to create a Christmas themed chain reaction. There were domino's all across the room. There were domino's placed on top air hockey table, the floor, over counters, near roombas. They covered nearly every single part of the basement.

“Lance,” Keith pointed toward at small table near the side of the wall directing Lance’s line of sight to a small train perched on top of a small wooden train track acting as a ramp. “You have the honor of setting everything off.”

Lance was not expecting a chain reaction as a Christmas present, but he had never been more excited. He never knew how much he wanted to be the pusher until this moment. He was about to push the train down, but he stopped himself knowing he would want to relive this moment later.

“Wait, I want to get this on my phone-” Lance stopped speaking as soon as Keith pointed toward two spots on his floor and three on his ceiling that had cameras set up.

“Record,” Keith’s voice turned each of the cameras on as a red light appeared on top of the small black devices.

“Wow,” was all Lance could get out. Keith found new ways to impress him. “I’m going to do the thing now,” Lance held a childish grin as he bounced with excitement. “Babe, give me a countdown, this push needs to be perfect.”

“Okay,” Keith laughed as he stood by Lance’s side. “Three,” Lance shook his hand making a smacking sound as he did so in preparation, “two,” Lance rolled his wrist trying to get full movement of his hand, “one,” Lance flexed his fingers out as far as they could before his boyfriend could say “go!”

At that notion Lance hit the back of the wooden toy as it rolled softly down hitting a row of red and green dominos. They fell down in rapid succession, Lance and Keith both followed the trail as it began. There were spirals of dominos falling down which Keith was happy to see unveil because he didn’t know if it would work at first and look bad in front of Lance. Keith wanted to watch the chain reaction as it led to the beady green and red necklace that would set off the dominos on the hockey table, but he got distracted when he saw the sheer amount of pure joy radiating from Lance.

All those hours of painstakingly putting together dominos, random toys, doing math just to make sure the physics wouldn’t let him down was worth it seeing Lance that happy. By the time Keith managed to pull away from his boyfriend’s side profile he saw his work was near completion. He put strings on top of the last bit of dominos because attached to the last domino was a string connected to a piece of paper which would fall forward and reveal Lance’s real gift. Behind the piece of paper that had the words ‘Santa’s Workshop’ written on it there was a package Keith got for Lance behind. He made sure Lance would have no idea of its existence because he coordinated with Hunk to find out the specifics of Lance’s schedule.

When the paper fell Lance saw the small golden package. He faced Keith with a raised brow as Keith tilted his head toward the present.

“What are you waiting for?” Keith asked with a hint of mischief. “You didn’t think I was just going to set up dominos for you and that’s it?”

“I want to have the same level of finesse you do when I show you your present,” Lance chuckled as he stepped carefully over all the fallen blocks toward his gift with Keith trailing behind him.

Lance bent down to grab his present. He noticed that Keith clicked the gift wrap option his job offers because he recognized the golden gift wrap and the yellow smile slash check mark logo slapped on the front.  Hunk gift wrapped it for him, he only knew because Keith told him he could write on top of the logo if he wanted which he did.

‘Hunk wrapped this! Merry Xmas Lance and Keith!’ Lance was touched. He carefully opened up his gift avoiding the sticker so he could take a picture of it later as he saw what Keith bought him and Lance instantly laughed.

“The entire box set of Avatar the Last Airbender and Legend of Korra with a paper Sokka mask.” Lance chuckled toward Keith. “Is this a gift for me or you?”

“Hey,” Keith shook his head. “When I said you were like Sokka and you never saw either of these shows that was unacceptable,” Keith grabbed the mask as he placed it over Lance’s face. “You are going to fall in love with this universe.”

“Keith, was this why you dated me all along?” Lance’s voice was slightly muffled by the mask. “So you could live your deepest fantasies of dating Sokka the snow guy?”

“Oh, no, you’ve figured me out,” Keith said melodramatically. He turned his head to his doors. “Speaking of snow,” Keith pulled the mask off of Lance’s head. “Wanna look at a white Christmas.”

“Yeah!” Lance nodded his head. Keith tiptoed over toward to his doors walking over the fallen dominoes while Lance followed. When Keith walked over to the doors he unlocked the door and grabbed the handle. For a moment, Lance thought Keith might step foot outside of his house, but he didn’t. He only opened the door revealing the wondrous sight of winter.

There had been snow already at the door so some of it fell into Keith’s house. The cold breeze was instant as it filtered through Keith’s home, neither of the boys minded. Lance liked the cold and Keith was always too hot.

Keith viewed the outside very carefully. He first saw the mist of the snow, the falling flakes, and then the untouched blanket of snowfall which filled him with a sudden longing. Lance almost didn’t notice the change in his expression, he too had fallen for the view, but in the corner of his eye he saw Keith’s smile change into stoicism.

“What’s wrong?” Lance knew he normally wouldn’t ask, but this time felt different.  He knew winter was complicated for him and he wanted to help in anyway he can. He wasn’t going to push, but he was going to be there.

“I-” Keith started and stopped. He took in a breath and let it out. There was a soft cloud made as the outside continued to make its way inside.

“There’s something I noticed with Red,”Keith spoke once again staring of into the distance of the cold winter night. “She never comes down here,” Keith was getting choked up as he looked ahead. “I think it’s because she knows this is where the outside is. She knows that the outside is dangerous, unsafe, and not warm. She knows nothing will harm here in here so she decided she will never, ever, try to leave.” Keith let out another breath as he continued his voice hurting more as he spoke.

“I think- I think I’m the same way,” Keith let out a weak chuckle. “I used to love the winter. Actually, I loved the cold. Back when Shiro and I were younger our parents took us out to the ice rinks all the time. Our mom and dad loved figure skating when she was growing up so I got into it while Shiro did hockey. We stopped going as much when we got into the Garrison, but every winter around Christmas we would go ice skating with our family,” Keith began to tear up. “It sucks knowing there’s a world I used to love that I can’t go to, but even worse is knowing there’s broken tradition upon broken tradition.”

“Wait,” Normally, Lance wouldn’t know what to say, but this time he had just the thing. He ran upstairs as fast as he could, he tripped over one of the steps, but that didn’t stop him from grabbing Keith’s gift. Lance raced back downstairs jumping over some steps and the fallen dominos. Lance made a jump that should’ve killed him, but seeing his boyfriend sad gave him temporary superpowers to make that jump possible. “I think you’ll like this.”

“Huh?” Keith sniffled as he grabbed the messily wrapped package. “What is it?”

“I had this made with you in mind,” Lance said as he watched Keith unravel the the wrap to reveal a white box with a lid. Keith lifted off the lid to show one pair of virtual reality headsets and another pair of translucent glasses with wires all throughout the inside of the glasses.

“You see, the VR is for you while the other glasses are for me.” Lance grabbed his pair placing it on his face clicking a button on the side. After he put on his pair he grabbed the red VR headset gently wrapping the black strap around Keith’s head. The white box dropped to the ground and left forgotten. Lance switched Keith’s goggles to on Keith saw himself through Keith’s goggles.

“Why can I see myself?” Keith questioned.

“I figured out a way to bring the world to you,” Lance turned to face Keith’s backyard. “I asked Hunk, Matt, and Pidge to help make glasses that link to yours and shows you what I see, taking you with me wherever I go,” Lance viewed Keith as he tapped another button above the on switch on his headset. “Not only does this act as a video chat, but it also matches whatever temperature I’m in, oh, and it also picks up most smells of what, giving you a full 4D experience.”

Keith turned off his headset, holding it delicately in his hands, his eyes filled with tears filling his eyes to the brim. Lance instantly started to apologize.

“I’m so sorry,” Lance was sad that he made him cry. “I didn’t know if it felt too real for you so I wanted to let you know what it was before I went outside, but I probably should’ve just called and asked you I wasn’t thinking-”

“It’s perfect,” Keith was crying, but Lance was mistaken in thinking they were cries of sorrow. Keith was unable to believe that he has a way of going outside without taking a step outside at all. “I love it.”

“But even better,” Keith moved his gaze from the device to Lance as he whispered. “I love you.”  

A gust of wind blew into the room lacing through both of them as time stood still, as Lance’s eyes widened, as his heart thumped against his chest.

Lance has heard these words before, they’ve been said to him, but normally he says them first. He says it too early in the relationship when love has not yet been founded, but now months later without even saying the words to each other he realizes how in love he his. How completely in love he has been.

“I love you, too.” It wasn’t hard to repeat, in fact, it was hard to stop. “I love you. I love you, so, so much.”

Keith leaned in giving another kiss to Lance. “Take me outside.” Keith murmured against his lips as he started putting the headset back on.

Lance happily obliged. He didn’t care that he didn’t have shoes on as he jumped into the blanket of snow. None of that mattered because he was bringing Keith outside with him and he could hear his echoes of laughter.

Even though Lance was in the freezing cold making snow angels watching the snowflakes fall from the sky on top of him he felt warm because he was with Keith. Because he was loved and in love.

It all just made sense.