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They had been best friends for ages, even through the period when Keith dropped out of the Garrison, Lance stayed by his friend’s side. Even through times when Keith would wander off, searching for answers about Shiro’s disappearance, Lance made sure to let Keith know he was there for him. Even when Lance was feeling down, Keith would pat his back and challenge him to a Mario Kart tournament to cheer him up. Yeah, like all friends, they had their disagreements, and like all the best pairings, they were yin and yang, but their friendship worked.
When Shiro returned to Earth, they teamed up with Lance’s friends from the Garrison to rescue Shiro. They worked like a well oiled machine from the get go, even in the lead up to finding Blue. Keith and Lance had explored the caves together, but nothing big happened until the day they came with Hunk, Shiro and Pidge, perhaps because he was particularly clumsy around meeting his idol, he tripped and landed on his ass, triggering the lion carvings to light up, leading him and the others to finding Blue. Once they’d all boarded Blue, Lance took it as an opportunity to show his best friend how he’d progressed as a fighter class pilot. This, unsurprisingly, made Pidge yell at him and Hunk puke, both of which are well aware of Lance’s flying style. Lance didn’t mind much though, because although he was a little shaken by the barrel rolls and loops, Keith still laughed.
The next step was the castle on Arus. Keith may have rolled his eyes at Lance’s immediate flirting with Princess Allura, but by this point, Keith had grown to know that’s just how it was with Lance: he’d flirt with anyone and anything with two legs.
Then Voltron became a thing. They were millions of miles away from home and Lance was especially homesick, but the comforting words of his best friend and fellow paladins made him feel a bit better. It seemed like they would be in space for a while, so they may as well comfort each other while each other was all they had.
Many missions and the second disappearance and reappearance of Shiro later, Keith made the executive decision to leave Voltron. It broke everyone’s hearts to watch him leave, especially Lance, but there was nothing to be done. Keith, even though he’d assured Lance he wasn’t the sixth wheel in Voltron, saw himself as the weakest link and quit. It was hard for Lance for many reasons: saying goodbye to a good friend that reminded him of home, the gradual distance that came between them over time and something else Lance couldn’t really explain.
“Lance?” Hunk pulled him out of his reverie. “You okay, buddy?”
They were sat in the control room of the castle, discussing their plan for attacking Galra forces. He’d switched off at the mention of the Blade of Marmora. He was worried about his best friend, of course he was. He was going to be a key part of the battle and whenever it comes down to it, there’s always a chance that lives could be lost.
“Uh, yeah. Sure. Go on.”
“Lance, are you sure? You zoned off pretty badly there.” Pidge asked.
“Yeah, of course I am. Never better.” He smiled to cover up the anxiety inside. Its not just Keith he could lose, he could lose any one of his friends.
Allura approached and squatted beside Lance, “I know you’ve not been dealing well with Keith working with the Blade, but we need your utmost attention if we are to win this fight. We have a chance at turning the tides of war for real this time.”
Coran piped up, “the better focussed we all are, the higher the chance we’ll have at success.”
Lance, still unsure and concerned about his friends, swallowed a lump in his throat. Pre-battle nerves had never been this bad before. Maybe because the threat was getting worse. Maybe because he wanted the reassurance of his best friend. Maybe he was just a coward. Despite the doubts in his head, he nodded and the meeting continued, with each of his friends looking to Lance to check he was okay and following. All except Keith. Lance wondered if he was okay.
~
Keith rolled back his shoulders as he docked. He’d made a reckless choice, only Lotor butting in saved his life that he was ready to give up for the cause. Having heard Matt’s desperate cries down the coms, Keith hung his head in shame at the thought of facing his friends. They’d agreed to reconvene at the castle, and he was preparing for the lectures of his recklessness and how much he means to them to come at him.
He leapt out of his pod, only to be immediately swarmed by the paladins, Coran and Matt. Keith noted the absence of Lance.
A wave of “how could you”s and “why would you do such a thing”s and “we care so much about you”s washed over Keith and, just as when he’d left, he was gathered into a group hug, being told just how stupid he was for being so reckless and how glad they all were that he was safe.
He was quickly dragged off to dinner, where they all continued their lectures as he ate the dumb Altean food goop that he genuinely thought he would never get to eat again. He kind of missed it. One thing did bug him throughout the meal though, and that was the absence of Lance.
Surely he wouldn’t skip out on food, or an opportunity to pick a fight with him about his dumb behaviour, as he did when he was the black paladin.
Keith decided he could just ask: “uh guys, where’s Lance?”
At his question, everyone avoided his gaze. Everyone but Shiro. “He went straight to his room and hasn’t come out since.” Keith swallowed; Shiro noticed. “I think it might be best if you leave him. Let him come to you.”
He nodded at the black paladin, a sympathetic expression on the older’s face.
~
Someone knocked on Lance’s door three times; he refused to respond. Lance just buried his head in his pillow, trying desperately to channel his inner ostrich and hide forever. The knocks came again. He groaned into his pillow. Three more knocks. Lance curled his pillow around his face, covering his ears. There was a long pause. Lance dropped the pillow and sat up, convinced the person at the door had disappeared.
“Lance?” Pidge’s voice carried through the metal. He sighed, relieved he didn’t have to face Keith.
“Come in.”
The green paladin looked pitying. “Hey.” She walked over and sat on the end of Lance’s bed.
“Hey, Pidge. How was dinner?”
“Good, Hunk cooked.”
“Are there leftovers?” Lance tried to sound as carefree as he usually puts on.
She didn’t answer. Instead, she left a pause before saying. “He asked about you.”
“No more pleasantries then.” Lance laughed without humour.
“Come on, Lance-“
Lance scoffed. “So now he thinks about me?” He rubbed a hand over his face, exasperated.
“He explained at dinner. You’d understand why he did… what he did… if you’d’ve come.” Pidge said, her voice gentle and consoling.
“Are you defending him?” Anger sparked once again.
Pidge waved her hands in front of her, “no, no, we’re all still mad. It’s just easier to understand what he thought was best for the universe-“
“Well what about what’s best for me?” Lance yelled, but realised his mistake, clearing his throat before saying: “what about what’s best for us? His family?”
“Lance-“
“No, we’re part of the universe too. He can’t just act like he’s expendable and not worth the oxygen. One day he’s just gonna keep pushing and pushing until he does do something stupid.”
~
Keith slid down the wall, putting his face in his hands as he gets down onto the floor. Pidge came out of Lance’s room, shutting his door behind her. She looked down at Keith, a halfhearted smile on her face. “Not yet,” she mouthed silently.
Keith exhaled, his breath shaky. Pidge squatted down to Keith’s height and put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. He put a hand on hers and she helped him to stand up. They nodded to each other in silence and turned to walk to their respective rooms.
~
Lance pretended like he didn’t know what his friends were doing. Hunk visited him the next night, and Shiro the night after that. Coran came two days in a row, determined to cheer him up with silly antics. Hunk probed Lance to play video games with him to distract from whatever was going on in Lance’s head. Shiro tried his best to give pep talks whenever he visited. Pidge returned again and brought him snacks that Hunk had made. The four of them came in a rotation for two weeks. They did work as a distraction from his own head for the short amount of time they visited, but in between, he felt like he floated in a void, darkness enveloping him, not even able to feel the burn of anger anymore. Everything was numb and no matter how he tried, the darkness always came back.
Allura visited on the 15th day. She wasn’t as nice as the other four had been.
“You can’t keep doing this, Lance.”
Lance ran a hand through his already messy hair. “Well hello to you too, princess. You look as beautiful as always.” His voice was thick with sarcasm; he was too tired for this.
“You are a paladin of Voltron, you have a duty to this universe to put aside your own feelings and work with us to keep the Galra at bay.”
Lance said nothing, refusing to let her get to him.
She seemed to notice that her harsh front wasn’t effecting him the way she intended. Gritting her teeth, she tried again. “Keith’s actions are his and his alone. You need to accept that he is responsible for his own life and if he wants to do something like that for the good of the universe-“
“Don’t try to justify what he did.” Lance leapt up from his bed, towering over Allura. “I don’t care what you say about duty or what other bullshit, you would be hurt by Keith’s death as much as the rest of us would.” But not nearly as much as me, he said internally.
“What are you saying, you don’t care?”
“That’s not the point, Allura! He’s our friend and if we lost him, there would not only be a hole in the rebellion, but there would also be a hole in this family.” She didn’t seem to have a response to that, so Lance saw it as a green light to continue his side of the argument. “Everyone has lost in this war, us from Earth can’t go home until the war is over, planets have been destroyed, whole civilisations lost, you know that more than any of us. Do you want to add to that list? Do you really want that?”
Allura’s face dropped briefly. Lance just stared at her, fuming. She then had the audacity to smile at him, although it was a sad smile. “What happened to you Lance? What happened to the goofball who flirted with me at every given opportunity? As annoying as that was, you made me laugh. You made all of us laugh.” She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, but Lance flinched away. “We miss you.” She retracted her hand, clenching it into a fist, “we almost lost Keith. We don’t want to lose you too.”
It was Lance’s turn to be speechless. The two just stared at each other for a second.
Allura broke the silence, clearing her throat and regaining her composure. “Just come to dinner. We’ll save you a spot.”
Out of principle and his own stubbornness, he didn’t go, but he did sneak out of his room to grab the leftovers from the kitchen. A shadow passed over the doorway, briefly pausing to look inside. Lance didn’t risk it, he refused to turn to look in the direction of the door until the shadow left.
He had a horrible feeling; he thought he saw a mullet on the shadow. The darkness came back in a big way that night. Lance didn’t sleep a wink the whole night.
~
Keith grew impatient, waiting outside Lance’s door whenever one of the group went to visit him. He so badly wanted to barge in and wrap his arms around his friend. He wanted to apologise sincerely for his impulsiveness. Its not like he didn’t know how much he hurt Lance; if the roles had been reversed, he would be the same. There isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for his best friend, even if Lance didn’t feel the same way right now. Anger wouldn’t cover how Lance would feel: betrayal, hurt, heartbreak…
The latter Keith refused to think about. The last thing he wanted to do was put Lance through that. Besides, Keith never found out if… it was possible. If it was heartbreak, Keith didn’t know if he could ever forgive himself. He would shatter into a million pieces if the roles were reversed.
He’d never admit it aloud, but Keith cared more about Lance than he did anyone else in the universe, and considering just how much of the universe they had explored together, he knew it was a feat to marvel at, that Keith could find someone like that in billions of lightyears of empty space.
~
One more week passed before Lance left his room, showered and dressed, but not quite refreshed just yet. He still couldn’t face Keith. He refused.
When Lance reentered the bridge for the first time in weeks, he was attacked with hugs. Hunk cracked some ribs, Pidge slapped him for his behaviour, Coran ruffled his hair, Shiro clapped him on the back and Allura offered a thankful smile. Keith… avoided his gaze. Lance could see the shame written all over his face, as well as something else. He looked away, before he could overanalyse anymore.
They were planning a small raid on a Galra base, with nothing to do but wait until Lotor actually came to them. He’d requested a talk, but hadn’t actually followed through with his request. The group theorised that he was making them want him, need him for their rebellion.
All throughout the discussion, Lance kept his eyes glazed over, not focussing on anything in particular. It was the only way he could avoid looking at Keith. The older boy didn’t drop his gaze from him though. Since the planning started, Keith hadn’t taken his eyes from Lance. The others seemed to notice this. Lance only felt more of that emptiness, thinking only of how he almost lost him.
He was yanked out of the darkness with the following words: “And Lance, you’ll accompany Keith-“
“No.” Lance said.
Allura, who looked disappointed in Lance, had been the one to suggest such an absurd plan. He figured she had assumed he had moved passed this. He hadn’t. “Why not? Its a stealth mission, Keith has a Galra pod-“
“I’m not going.” Lance could have stopped there, but he didn’t. “I’m not going with him.”
A few seconds of silence fell before Keith exploded. “What is your problem? You hide away for weeks and just when we think you’re back to normal, you act like a child.”
“What is my problem?” Lance approached the older guy, invading his personal space. He tried not to think about the proximity with Keith. He looked for a split second at his best friend’s eyes, broken and enraged. Another millisecond brought Lance’s eyes down to Keith’s lips and back up again. He steeled his nerve. “My problem is you. How could you be so selfish? Are you really that expendable in your eyes?”
“So what if I am? What do you care? All you’ve cared about recently is the glory of being a hero in Team Voltron, with parades and stage shows all about how great Lance is. You can’t even contain yourself around any girl you come across. I thought you were just flirty back home, but out here, you’ve got billions of girls to pick from, what better audience could you ask for? You call me selfish, what about you, asshole?” Keith shoved Lance.
Lance scoffed. “Asshole, is it? I thought we were friends. Clearly not, if you’re going to throw your life away like you don’t matter to me.” Lance shoved him back, not bothering to correct his slip up before storming out of the room.
~
Keith ran after Lance; even if it had been a heated argument, it was an improvement. Anything was an improvement over weeks of radio silence.
He rounded a corner, panting. He saw the younger boy slip into his room, the door closing slowly behind him. Before it could, Keith threw his bayard to catch the door and wedge it open. The metal groaned, resisting the door stopper. When Keith reached the door, he saw that Lance made no move to stop him coming in.
The younger boy simply sat on the edge of his bed, face in hands. Keith wiped the sweat from his face and collected his bayard, causing the door to close. They were alone for the first time in weeks, nearly a month now. Keith couldn’t find the words. Luckily, (or unluckily) Lance seemed capable.
“What?” He looked up, eyes bloodshot. “What more can you say to me right now?”
Keith’s voice was soft, weak, when he spoke. “I’m sure sorry wouldn’t be enough, would it?”
Lance scoffed. “Oh fuck no. Not by a long shot.”
“You know I didn’t do it just to hurt you.” Keith looked away.
“No, but you did it to hurt yourself.” Lance eyeballed him. “I can’t believe you would even think something so self-destructive wouldn’t have any repercussions.”
Keith raised his voice, only slightly; he was no longer angry. “You’ve got to understand, Lance. I did it-“
“-for the sake of the universe, I know.” Lance just sounded sad.
Keith tentatively approached, stopping just before the foot of Lance’s bed. The younger didn’t move to stop him, so he just sat down. “If you understand, why are you still acting like this?”
“I can’t-“ Lance stopped himself.
“Lance, you know no matter what it is, you can talk to me. You can always talk to me. I’m here for you.”
“You say that, but would you always? If you can do that once, you can do it again.” Lance’s voice cracked. “You’re not always going to be here for me.”
“We’re just going in circles now,” Keith tried to laugh to lessen the tension but it didn’t work. “I am sorry. Beyond that. If I could take back what I did, make things right with us again, I would. In a heartbeat.”
“What even are we anymore?” Lance had buried his face in his hands again.
The question was so unexpected, Keith flushed. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I don’t think we’d be considered best friends anymore.” Lance’s voice was laced with sadness. “We drifted apart, even before you left Voltron. What happened?”
There seemed to be no use in hiding now, with them both so vulnerable and exposed to each other, it was only right to tell the truth. “Allura.”
“Wha- what’s she got to do with anything?” Lance’s annoyance came back, mixed with confusion.
Keith sighed. “You know, back home, your ‘obsession’ with girls, I knew it wasn’t serious. It was all a joke to us, but when we left home, when we found the castle and Allura…”
“You thought, all this time, I was serious about her?” Lance’s expression was now unreadable.
“You’re not being serious?” Keith blinked. “Do- do you like her?”
“Yeah, as a friend. Sure she’s pretty but… no.”
Silence fell in the room, tension thick enough to break a knife that tried to cut it. Keith tried to process it all. Lance had been kidding around this whole time? But why? Keith asked as much.
“Because,” Lance rubbed his eyes, “I’ve kind of been struggling with something. For a while now.”
“What? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m embarrassed, okay?” His voice was weak, “I don’t even know myself, how could I ever explain it to you?”
The penny dropped. Keith had been in the same place, before he even met Lance. It was something he learnt about himself with the help of Shiro.
“Lance, I-“
“I guess,” Lance interrupted, but Keith didn’t stop him. This was something he needed to vocalise for himself. On his own. “If there was a label for me, it would be, bisexual.”
Keith smiled at Lance, “thank you.”
Lance immediately turned bright red, “wh- what for?”
Keith put a reassuring hand on Lance’s back. “For telling me. I know how hard that must have been for you.”
“Oh yeah?” Lance sounded sceptical.
“Dude,” Keith laughed, “I’m gay.”
“You’re what now?” Lance leapt back, pressing himself comically against the wall. “First, Pidge is a girl, then the castle is a ship, now you too? Is there anything else I missed?”
Keith couldn’t stop laughing, “Lance-“
“What? What is Hunk gonna burst in and tell me he’s pregnant? Is Coran an undercover spy? Is Shiro some kind of clone made by the Galra to infiltrate Voltron from the inside out?” Lance was almost screeching, and Keith’s laughter wouldn’t cease.
“No chance, no way and surely not.” Keith managed to answer by the time his laughter died down. Lance was still pretty shocked, but he let Keith put a hand on his knee reassuringly. “Nothing’s changed. Like with Pidge and the castle, nothing about us as a team has changed.” Lance lowered himself to the same level as Keith. “We’re okay.”
~
Even though they’d cleared the air about a lot of things, there was something left unspoken between Lance and his best friend. Yeah, Lance was still mad about the impulsive stunt Keith tried to pull, but he was still left wondering about something.
They’d returned to the bridge a while after their private discussion, only to find their teammates bracing for what was going to be said. They seemed relieved to hear Lance agreed to infiltrating with Keith.
It was only a day or so until they were to reach the base, so they had that long to prepare mentally and physically for battle.
Lance had been somewhat lacking in the training department, so Keith volunteered to help him out as much as he could with the few hours they had to work with.
After dinner, the pair made their way to the training deck, no one in tow, for the rest of the group feared another shouting match would break out.
As it turned out, it didn’t, but there was another type of tension between the two. They took up their own practice swords and started to spar, parrying and deflecting each other as they went. Lance, it seemed relied on muscle memory to get him through, not the actual muscle that had deteriorated slightly in his time off. Keith, however, didn’t stop training it seemed, so he was as ridiculously strong as ever.
There was a moment during their sparring that brought their swords close together and then by extension, their faces too. The two froze briefly, the only sound being their ragged breaths. There was something cliché about the way they stared at each other in that heartbeat, but it was broken by a smirk on Keith’s face and a shove to the ground. Lance looked up and made eye contact with the tip of the practice blade. The elder looked down, that god forsaken smirk still on his face as he spoke: “never let your guard down. Even for a pretty face.”
Training ended a couple hours later, after a stint in the invisible maze, resulting in many electric shocks and laughs from Keith. Lance didn’t mind, even after their fight and the distance that had previously separated them, he still found endless joy in hearing his best friend laugh. It was almost like old times.
Except it wasn’t. Not by a long shot. Back before Voltron and before they knew there was life beyond the stars, there wasn’t any longing looks between the two, no hesitance when they invaded each other’s personal space, no overt flirting between the two. The latter, Lance noticed, was heavily instigated by Keith most of the time. The older boy seemed to revel in the way Lance blushed and became flustered. It was almost like Keith knew...
No. There was no way. The only way he could know would be if Pidge had told, and she promised not to.
On day nine of Lance’s reclusiveness, Pidge had brought some homemade cookies made by Hunk. They were better than the ones that resembled scaltrite from back before the Weblum mission, but that wasn’t hard. Pidge had pried into Lance, trying to tease out as much as she could about why Lance was so badly effected by Keith’s actions.
“I don’t know, I just really care about him, I guess.” Pidge actually scoffed at him in his fragile state, because of this, Lance put a hand to his heart, feigning being scandalised. “What?”
“I care about him too. We all do. But we’re not all cooped up in our rooms, refusing to shower and eat proper meals.” Lance sniffed himself, he didn’t smell too bad to his own nose, but he figured he could have gone nose blind to it after over a week. “I think it’s more than that.”
“Oh yeah?” Lance tried to sound like there was nothing to hide. It didn’t work. “What do you think it is?” He tried not to sound desperate. It didn’t work.
“I think you like him.”
“What? Me like him?” Lance scoffed, over-exaggerating, only digging the hole he’d put himself in deeper.
“The sooner you admit it, the better-“ Pidge paused, eyeballing him, “-for all of us.”
The only way Keith would have known would be if Pidge had told him...right?
~
Keith suited up, tousling his hair before putting his helmet on, knowing Lance would be ogling him. He’d spent the last 24 hours teasing the shit out of him, and Keith would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy every second of it.
He paused for a moment: he hadn’t worn his full paladin armour in a long time, only really using his bayard in combat, or his blade from his mother. Putting on the red armour felt strangely like coming home, finally back where he belongs. As much as he hated to admit it, he could live without the Blade of Marmora. His mother was absent for this long, why would she want to see him after he’d spent so long searching for her? Yeah, he was part Galra, but he was also human, and his friends - basically family now - were human. It’s all he needed, with a couple Altaean’s thrown in for good measure.
“Hey,” Lance put a hand on the older guy’s shoulder. “You okay? You switched off for a bit there.” The red paladin looked concerned, his voice soft.
“Yeah, I’m good. It’s just,” the taller boy raised an eyebrow, an action he found a mixture of endearing and annoying over the years. “It’s good to be back.”
Lance smiled at him, lip quirking up at one side. Keith felt his heart clench slightly, and when that happened, he knew he needed to make Lance feel that too.
So Keith put on a sultry voice, leant forward and spoke into Lance’s ear, lips barely brushing the younger guy’s skin. “When this is all over, I could show you what else is good around here.”
Keith didn’t even need to see Lance’s face to know he was blushing, face practically burning. But the older boy just walked away, a cocky swagger in his gait. It wasn’t long before he heard Lance scarper after him calling out his name.
“Wait! Keith, what do you mean?”
Keith just smirked to himself.
The mission was relatively simple, compared to their last one that took as much of the alliance to barely put a scratch on a Galra fighter. Keith and Lance’s job was to infiltrate the base itself and disable defended from the inside out. Allura and Hunk were to rescue prisoners, while Pidge cloaked herself and Shiro to get rid of any antiaircraft weaponry. Keith could do it in his sleep, but with the recent developments between himself and his teammate, he found himself just as distracted as Lance. They were pretty hopeless.
They made it onto the base with relative ease, only having to dispatch about seven soldiers between the two of them. Keith took up the front, while Lance watched his back, the former trying his hardest to not turn to fire a quip about Lance staring at his ass as they walked. As much as Keith wanted to, he couldn’t, even if he did feel Lance staring at him mercilessly. If either of them are killed during this mission, it would be both of their faults.
They made it to the control room and haphazardly pushed buttons, before Lance found the prisoners release button and called Keith over to him. The older put his hand on the control panel and unlocked the doors to the cells. Their next step was to disable the particle barrier, but Keith couldn’t focus with Lance staring at him still.
“Uh, Lance?”
The younger blinked, coming back to reality. “Yeah?” His voice was husky and uneasy, and Keith thought this would be a great time to tease him with his earlier prepared quip.
“Maybe try helping me take down the defences instead of staring at my ass, okay?”
Lance blushed furiously, raising his voice in volume and pitch as he turned on his own defences. “What? I wasn’t- I mean- I didn’t do anything!”
“I know, that’s why you should help me,” Keith lowered his own voice, “instead of eye-fucking me”
“Come on, I wasn’t even-“
Lance was cut off by a group of sentries flooding into the room, easily 30 or more. Immediately, the two boys fell into their old ways, Keith leaping into action and slicing through three robots at a time, while Lance stayed back and took out the ones at the back. They were a well oiled machine and always have been a great team, so dumb flirty exchanges weren’t going to change that.
~
Sparks flew as Keith cut down the last sentinel and Lance had to take a breath of relief. He hadn’t moved much, but it seemed he’d been holding his breath for the safety of Keith. Goddamn his best friend for being a reckless offensive attacker. He felt like his heart had almost followed through with cardiac arrest.
Lance thought back briefly and figured he’d felt this way after every battle, every fight that he’d fought beside Keith and the others. But that same feeling of relief washed over him when he saw that Keith was okay. Yeah, he was always glad that his friends had survived too, but Keith...
Speaking of the devil, the older boy smirked at him and said another one of his one liners, walking over to Lance. “You know if you wanted to fantasise about me, do it on your own time, okay?”
Keith had the nerve to pat Lance’s cheek and wink at him - Keith actually winked at him - before slashing the control panel behind Lance. He took up that arrogant gait again when walking out of the control room.
“Come on, lover boy.” Keith called out, waving his hand as he passed the threshold of the room.
Lance would be lying if he said he didn’t like this new attitude Keith had adopted, or the way he made Lance blush, or the way his skin tingled under the older guy’s touch.
Or the way Keith’s ass moved.
Because yeah, he was staring.
~
The two of them were running back the way they came when they were stopped by another flank of sentries, this time armed with firepower, rather than those staffs the last group had. Lance immediately started picking them off, at least two at a time. Keith saw this as an opening for him to slide over and start cutting the machines down by the legs.
The two of them easily made their way through the group, and Keith started to celebrate on the inside. This party, though, was cut short by the younger boy’s face draining of blood as a sentinel that was supposed to be dismantled shot one last time at the two of them.
Keith moved to take out his shield, but not before finding Lance wrapping his arms around him, putting himself in the position of human shield.
The older wasn’t having any of this, so in the split second before the shot hit Lance’s back, Keith pulled his shield up to cover them both.
Lance squeezed as he braced for an impact, which didn’t come. The younger pulled back and looked at Keith, who simply raised an eyebrow.
“Really? And I get berated for acting impulsively.” He wasn’t mad, in fact his tone of voice was teasing, prompting Lance to laugh uncomfortably in response.
“We’re even now? I guess?”
Keith smirked, “dumbass,” he muttered as he took down his shield.
Lance didn’t let go of him though. The lanky arms still rested on Keith’s waist. Neither moved. Seconds felt like hours, but neither wanted to be the first to pull away.
Surprisingly, Lance moved closer, resting his forehead on Keith’s.
The moment of solitude was broken by a distant cry from what sounded like Hunk and Allura. Both came running around the corner, stopping abruptly upon seeing the two boys. Lance looked behind Keith (who at this point had closed his eyes and switched off from the world) eyes falling on the gaping Princess and smirking yellow paladin. Hunk cleared his throat and Keith’s eyes flew open. Lance and Keith pushed each other away, blushing violently.
“Whatcha doin?” Hunk said in a sing-song voice, but before they could answer, Allura elbowed him in the gut sharply.
“We need to move, now.” The Princess sounded urgent, but she looked embarrassed for Keith and Lance, as if they’d walked in on an intimate moment, which Keith figured, maybe they had.
Allura started to shepherd the prisoners down the hall and passed Keith and Lance, with Hunk being very unhelpful by winking over the top at Lance, who made a “cut it out” motion with his hand. Aw, Keith thought, he’s flustered.
“Keith head up to the front of the group and guide them to the Blue and Yellow lions, we should be able to fit them all in our lions. If not, be prepared to take some stragglers in your pod.” Allura ordered, which Keith responded with a nod.
Perhaps it was bad timing, but that moment with Lance...
Keith couldn’t wipe the smile from his face
~
As it was, most of the prisoners managed to fit in the two bigger lions, and Pidge (the snake probably talked to Hunk about what went down in the hall) circled around and picked up the stragglers.
That meant Lance would be alone with Keith, the latter of which was avoiding direct eye contact with Lance. He ought to be concerned, but when Keith thought Lance wasn’t looking, he spotted a smirk on the older guy’s face. Uh oh, he was planning something.
The two of them saw off the last of the prisoners piling inside the green lion before boarding Keith’s pod. Lance swallowed hard, convincing himself that nothing was going to happen, Keith wasn’t planning anything. Nope.
Once the pilot sat down, he fired up the engines and started to plug in the castle’s coordinates.
“Uh, what are you doing?” Lance asked.
“Turning on autopilot.”
“Why? It’s not that far-“ before Lance could finish his sentence, Keith was on his feet pinning Lance to the wall of the pod. He seemed to hesitate, so Lance saw this as an opportunity. “Someone’s been watching some k-dramas in his down time.” Lance’s smirk didn’t last long, shaken away by nerves.
Keith blinked at Lance, long eyelashes brushing against his cheekbones in the briefest of moments. “You flirted back.”
Lance put on his screechy voice: “a-ha! So you have been flirting with me!”
“Yeah.” Keith deadpanned.
Lance swallowed again.
“What are you gonna do about it?” Keith asked, competitive voice on.
Lance struggled to find the words to respond with, but was thankfully cut off by the pod boarding the castle.
“Ugh,” Keith rolled his eyes, stepping back. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“S-sure yeah. When? Where? Before dinner? After dinner?” Lance babbled.
Keith ran a hand through his hair, the movement making Lance’s stomach do flips. “I’ll come to you.”
And with that, the older guy leapt out of the pod.
Lance paced his room, now in casual clothes, he wondered if there was anything better he could throw on. He would have, if they hadn’t left Earth in such a rush he couldn’t even get a bag or at the very least a leather jacket so he could make himself look cooler. He was just extremely unsatisfied with what he had on.
Even though it’s just Keith, just his best friend he’s known for ages now. Why would he care what he wore?
But he might, given that he downright confirmed he was flirting with him, and clearly seems into him in some shape or form. That surely is reason enough to want to at least appear to be dressed nicer than his hoody and jacket and jeans that could probably do with being washed more frequently than they do.
“That’s it,” Lance pulled off his jacket and hoodie, he figured maybe he could raid Hunk’s wardrobe, or maybe Coran’s, although in the latter he may only come up with a few bedazzled capes. Just as he was making up his mind, a knock came from his door. “Shit shit shit.” Now in more of a panic than he was before, he missed up his hair, kicked dirty clothes under his bed and called out “just a second.” He tried to not use his stressed out, high pitched voice, but it didn’t work.
He got to his door and froze, deciding on how to pose. Casual? No. Flirty? No. Shy? Keith seemed to like shy. Let’s go with shy then, he thought.
Just as he was straightening out his shirt, the door opened and Pidge barged in, pushing passed Lance. “Okay so about earlier- what were you doing? Your room is a mess.”
She looked at the floor, hoodie hanging off the edge of his bed, his jacket halfway under his bed, dirty plates stacked up against one wall... yeah, maybe it was a mess. “Um, nothing.” Lance ran his hands through his hair, coming down from his panic. He quickly scrambled for a response, eventually coming up with: “Well you’re one to talk.”
Pidge sat on the edge of Lance’s bed, cocky. “My mess is an organised mess. I know where things are.”
“I do too.” Lance folded his arms defensively.
“Lance.” She pushes her glasses up. “Hunk told me.”
“I knew it, that gossipy bitch.” He said to make Pidge laugh; she didn’t.
“Why are you so stressed about Keith?”
“I’m not-“ He was cut off by a sharp glare from her. “Okay maybe I am. But wouldn’t you if you found out your best friend, who you’ve had a crush on for a while, has been flirting mercilessly with you and you really weren’t prepared for all of this to be moving so quickly, I mean I only just found out he likes guys so, I expected more of a gradual thing, not-“ he waved his hands about generally “-this.”
“First of all, I don’t get crushes. I’m too cool for that. Second of all, what did you expect? He obviously likes you a lot, maybe he’s making up for lost time.”
“Or maybe he’s using me for my body-“
“You know that’s not the case.” Pidge cringed at Lance’s last comment. “Just chill out. Everything is going to be fine.”
She stood up to leave, but Lance threw himself to the floor and wrapped his arms around her legs. “No don’t leave!”
“Lance get off,” she dragged her feet along the floor, but he didn’t let go.
“Don’t leave me! Did I ever tell you how cool you are? How amazing and how without you this team wouldn’t be able to save the universe?” Lance pleaded.
“No, but you can,” she kicked him off, “later.” She walked out the room, turning and facing down the hall, “oh hey Keith!”
“Shit,” Lance stood up and brushed off his shirt, straightened out his hair and kicked his jacket under his bed fully.
The man of the hour appeared in the doorway, an eyebrow raised at Lance.
“You look constipated.”
Lance’s face was bright red and he’s pretty sure he stopped breathing for a second. When the silence grew awkward, Lance laughed very over the top. “You’re one funny guy.”
Keith chuckled. “Dumbass.” He walked into the room, the door closing behind him.
Lance sat nervously on his bed, subtly kicking his jacket further out of the way. He was fidgety, uncharacteristically so, and Keith noticed.
“Are you okay?” He sat beside Lance, who suddenly became very aware of how close the other boy was sitting.
“Yeah,” He said, but his voice cracking betrayed him.
“Listen-“
“Keith I think I like you.” Lance yelped, immediately regretting saying it, clapping his hand over his mouth.
What Lance didn’t expect was Keith laughing.
“What? What’s so funny?” His hand stayed locked to his mouth.
“You say that like I don’t know.”
The puzzle pieces didn’t fit. Pidge. She must have told. “Did Pidge tell you? God, I knew I shouldn’t trust her with anything, the little snake.”
“No she didn’t.”
Lance cocked his head, confused. “Then how did you-“
“Well other than you being blatantly obvious over the past couple days-“ Keith laughed, but lowered his voice “-I heard you talking to Pidge.”
“Just now?”
“No, back when you weren’t talking to me.”
“Oh.” Lance looked away, guilt suddenly washing over him. “I’m sorry-“
“For the record, if you hadn’t guessed-“ Keith interrupted, “I like you too.” He exhaled like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. “You dumbass.”
“You serious?” Lance looked up, hopeful.
“No I just said it to mess with you.”
“Oh.”
Keith laughed, “oh my god, are you an actual idiot?” Lance opened his mouth to respond, but Keith stood up. “Dude, do I need to pin you against the wall again? Do I need to keep hitting on you? Lance, I like you, god, I have since we met!”
“...sorry?” Lance stood up as well, “since we met?” He stepped into Keith’s personal space; the shorter guy didn’t back down. “And you didn’t say anything?”
“I thought you were straight!”
“I’m not, clearly.”
“Well, I didn’t know that then.”
Silence fell briefly, an idea forming in Lance’s head. “Well-“ he lowered his voice, “What are you going to do about it?”
Keith chuckled, “You little shit.” Lance felt Keith’s hands creep up his chest, resting on his breastbone. The next thing Lance knew, he was being shoved against the wall, pinned between Keith’s arms, like he had been in the pod. “What do you want me to do about it?”
Even though Lance had been the one to instigate this moment, he was suddenly lost for words. All the younger guy could do was shrug, a clear go ahead for Keith.
The first kiss was gentle, chaste even, but Lance wasn’t having any of it, so pulled Keith by his shirt closer, so they were flush up against each other. Keith fucking smiled before deepening the kiss, his hands threading into Lance’s shaggy hair as the taller nipped at Keith’s lip.
Lance pulled away for a second: “so do you want to go out with me or something?”
Keith rolled his eyes and slapped Lance’s cheek. “Dumbass.” He said before leaning in for another kiss.
Lance pulled away again: “is that a yes?”
“Oh my god yes!” Keith tried to sound exasperated, but he laughed through it. “Now shut up and kiss me back, dumbass.”
Lance did as he was told.
~
To be fair, Keith wasn’t expecting much out of Lance as a kisser. He expected kind of sloppy, inexperienced, but god was he wrong. Just where did that fire come from? He didn’t care at this point. After months of (apparently mutual) pining, Keith finally showed Lance how he felt, and from the way he kissed back... well. Keith was surprised they didn’t go any further that night.
Because Pidge is a snake (Keith agreed with Lance at this point) the youngest in the team came knocking at the door, referencing an old teen movie asking if they wanted snacks or a condom. Both Keith and Lance yelled at Pidge to “fuck off” but Pidge’s intrusion sort of killed the mood for the time being. They heard the green paladin yell about dinner down the hall, so the pair of them shrugged and silently promised a continuation later on that evening.
“Do we really have to go?” Lance whined.
Keith laughed, Lance was just so precious, “yes, it would be awfully suspicious if neither of us showed.”
“I’m sure they’re already suspicious, we’ve been in here a while.” Lance smirked.
“Whatever, let’s just go get something to eat.” Keith walked toward the door, but stopped, holding out his hand and beckoning Lance forward. He approached and Keith intertwined his fingers with Lance’s, revelling slightly in seeing the blush on the other boy’s cheeks. It was silly, they’d just had each others tongues down their throats, how did this make Lance flustered?
“Okay,” the younger said, begrudgingly.
“Oh and before we continue later,” Keith pulled Lance close and whispered in his ear, the words doing nothing, but the tone Keith had used made Lance shiver. “I’m going to get you to clear out those disgusting plates.”
Keith pulled back and saw the bashful face Lance had on, clearly not entirely with it as he said: “Okay,” Like the dumbass was turned on.
The shorter of the pair scoffed as he dragged Lance out.
~
“This is great, Hunk.” Lance said, shovelling food into his mouth, “really. What even is this?” Coran opened his mouth to respond but Lance dropped his fork. “Nope. Don’t tell me it’s some Altaean stuff, I’d rather not know.”
Hunk laughed, “better not to know, actually.”
“Ignorance is bliss,” Pidge said, scooping a forkful into her mouth.
The humans at the table ate happily, while the Altaeans looked positively wounded.
Of all the people Lance expected to bring up the elephant in the room, he didn’t expect it to be Shiro.
“So Lance,” the younger boy’s eyes widened, “what’s with the hair?” The head of Voltron gave him a knowing smile. Lance looked around and saw everyone at the table wore the same expression.
“Yeah, Lance,” Pidge drawled, “What is with your hair?” Lance wasn’t aware there was something wrong with his hair, but it was in fact, practically standing on end, no thanks to Keith on that one.
“And Keith, your shirt,” Allura chided, “You’re normally so presentable.” She tutted.
“Yeah man, it’s all untucked and wrinkled, just what do you look like?” Hunk frowned in mock disappointment. Now that, Lance had to own up to, from when he’d grabbed him by the shirt.
“Dare we even mention the swollen lips!” Coran sounded scandalised.
“Who’s lips?” And Lance understood when he looked at Keith. He felt that his own were, but didn’t know Keith’s was too.
“Both of you,” the five chorused.
Lance slammed his fork down; “god fucking damn it.” He looked to Keith, hoping he was as pissed, but he wasn’t. He was smiling. “What is there to smile about? They know what we were doing.”
Keith looked up at Lance, smile bashful. “You’re cute when you’re mad.”
What followed was an “awww” from Shiro, Allura and Coran, and puking noises from Pidge and Hunk. Lance couldn’t stop the blush that crept up his face.
~
They had been best friends for ages, even through Keith’s time in the Blade of Marmora, during the second disappearance of Shiro, while Keith was the black paladin. Even through times when Lance flirted mercilessly with local female populations; when Lance found it hard to wake up in the mornings. Keith would always be there for him, because deep down, he was in love with Lance. He didn’t always show it, especially when they bickered and fought. They always made up in the end. That way they didn’t have to be lonely for long.
After Keith’s dumbest moment, things did change, quite drastically, over the space of a mere month. Lance punished Keith by distancing himself, they argued openly in front of their friends about how they frustrate each other, they opened up to one another. From then on, Keith couldn’t have felt happier. He enjoyed teasing his bashful boyfriend (because he can say that now), stealing kisses on important missions and riling Lance up at the worst times.
But after all they’d been through Keith wouldn’t change anything for the world. For the universe. If he was by Lance’s side, he was happy and he knew Lance was happy too.