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There’s only one thing that Lance hates more than Keith.
And that’s the things Keith does to him.
His whole life he’d been a flirt, draping himself over girls with that sly grin without a care in the world. He was even titled as such: Loverboy Lance, the lady’s man and the biggest flirt in the galaxy.
Ask anyone and they’ll say “Lance flirts with anyone who has two legs”, and hell, that was an understatement. The guy even flirted with mermaids.
No one knew this, however, but it took him so long to get to this level of confidence. Those recurring thoughts of, “Wow, that guy’s really pretty” would put Lance into complete and utter shock.
So imagine what he felt looking at Keith, short-tempered, hot-headed Keith, stupid jacket wearing and mullet-haired Keith, and thought, “Wow, that guy’s really pretty”.
His immediate reaction was disgust. His bisexuality had really failed him because Keith?! Was he that desperate for a relationship in the lonely ship above all civilization that he looked at Keith, of all the people on Earth--no, of all the people in the universe.
Lance then shook his head. It was just a thought. Nothing more. He didn’t need to get worked up.
Right?
Wrong.
One cruel night, Lance was innocently strolling past the rooms of the castle while whistling, coffee in hand. Most of the rooms were empty, as the paladins had begun to sleep. Allura and Coran were still awake, plotting some new plan about an attack against the Galra.
But one room was left open. The training room. As Lance passed, he heard the active noises of some training of sorts going on inside. Curious, Lance poked his head in, and his eyes immediately widened to what he saw.
Robots circled the room, a hunger to fight programmed in their eyes, focused on their target. Within seconds they’d surged forward, attacking from all directions, moving so fast Lance’s eyes couldn’t even follow them. They didn’t need to, anyway. They were focused on one thing.
Keith.
Keith, in the center of the room, taking down the robots one by one.
He was nothing but a black tank and tight pants, revealing muscles rippling down his arm, bulging biceps, and abs even prominent through his shirt. How did Lance never notice that through his jacket? Lance was entranced as he raised a muscular arm to push his hair back, his muscles flexing before he attacked.
His body surged forward, filled with a newfound passion as he glazed his eyes over each robot, and they weren’t simply there for training anymore. They were there for him to take down with a swing of his sword. His body became immersed with passion, with the same intensity he had while taking down any enemy. It didn’t matter whether it was a programmed enemy, Shiro, or a fully trained Galra, he always fought like it was his last battle. Energy and determination surging through his veins, flashing burning red-black. He fights like he has nothing to lose.
God, Lance only dreamed he could ever be that strong.
An aura seemed to surround Keith, a boiling, raging aura that resembled a fire-- you would get burnt if you got too close. Burnt by that passion, that hunger to fight that seemed to emerge within Keith’s veins. He took the robots down one by one, the sword cutting through the air before colliding with metal, moving before he even thought of what to do next. His muscles flexed, his lean body pushed itself further, and Lance was mesmerized.
The last robot fell.
Keith collapsed, taking in inhale after inhale of sweet, fresh air, panting, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead and arms. His eyes finally went open, and he smiled. Those stupid eyes then flickered up and met Lance’s and were painted in confusion as to why he was here.
Lance was jerked back to reality and immediately turned crimson, jolting back. He collided with the door, Keith’s gaze still burning into him, before getting up and making his way back to his bed. He walked slightly faster, hands clenched into fists, attempting to forget about the way his heart jump as their eyes met or the way it raced when he watched him fight.
He didn’t sleep well at all that night.
Lance had obviously done something to upset God because he was 100% sure the universe was against him. Accepting the fact that he might be…..god…. attracted to Keith was shaking him to the very core. And then while trying to accept that, the universe had decided to make Keith the most attractive he’s ever been. It wasn’t fair. At. All.
First, Lance was enjoying breakfast with the rest of the paladins. Hunk had treated them all to a new recipe that tasted absolutely divine, flavor rich and Lance’s taste buds were practically crying with joy. Pidge and Hunk were having a heated conversation about whether the chicken came first or the egg. Shiro was suffering silently, politely talking to Allura. Lance was sprawled across his chair without a singular care in the world before Keith walked in. With his hair in a bun. A bun.
Tied back messily over his face before collecting into a bun atop his head, strands of his hair escaping to fall over his blue-grey eyes, wearing his usual attire except missing his signature cropped jacket, his muscles still somehow prominent in the long-sleeved shirt.
What had he done to deserve this punishment?
Lance didn’t realize he was staring until Hunk dug his elbow into his side with a smirk. “You got a thing for Keith, Loverboy?” He joked.
“W-what?! N-no! Shut up!” Lance replied, but his deep blush said otherwise and he groaned, placing his head in his hands. Keith decided at that moment to take a seat between him and Shiro, and Lance wanted the ground to swallow him whole.
“You ok, Lance? You’re looking pretty red. Is the food spicy or something?” Keith commented, picking up a spoon of food and popping it in his mouth, chewing slowly.
Hunk let out a snicker and Lance groaned again, before slowly getting up and leaving the room, muttering some awful excuse. Truth was, if he spent another minute with effortlessly gorgeous bun-wearing oblivious Keith sitting next to him, he’d either die, pass out, or get blood loss from a very, very bad nosebleed. It would not be pretty.
Lance avoided Keith’s gaze at all costs, but it was killing him slowly. Somehow his hopeless crush made him ten times more aware of everything that Keith did. When he smiled, oh my god, it sent a swarm of butterflies blossoming within his stomach and the world seemed to become a little brighter. And his eyes, Lance couldn’t believe he’d never noticed them before.
They were shaded a blue-grey and were just so intense, and sometimes Lance felt as if he could read exactly what was happening in his head just from his eyes. When he smiled they lit up, catching the light and twinkling, when he laughed they screwed close, wrinkles forming beside them when he found they caught aflame, burning with passion. It was amazing.
There were sometimes...ok, too many times, when Keith felt Lance’s gaze boring into him and raise a brow.
“Do I have something on my face or something?” Keith would ask, and Lance would quickly shake his head and stammer some dull excuse.
Meanwhile, Hunk and Pidge had made their mission as “Team Punk” to get them together. Pidge actually found out before Hunk, but Hunk claimed he ‘felt’ it first, which led to a heated argument about who ‘discovered’ them. This continued for a fairly long time until Shiro walked in, and they both turned quiet with a grumble.
Until Shiro draped a hand over both of their shoulders and whispered, “I figured it out first.”
Yep, turns out Team Punk weren’t the only ones noticing the...unusual behavior. Ok, in all seriousness, the whole damn galaxy knew about the two except for, well….the two. Allura had heard from her mouse, Coran caught Lance staring, Shiro had been teasing Keith about it for weeks and Team Punk was already onto the stage of putting their mission into action.
“How long did they stare for?” Pidge whispered, catching up to Hunk one day during training. They both analyzed Lance and Keith like they were a difficult puzzle they HAD to solve.
“Forever.” Hunk replied, eyes narrowed and focused. “Ok, well like, 5 seconds.”
“That’s an increase than the last spotted amount. Which was?”
“Yesterday at 4:55 pm, common room. Stare lasted for 3.8 seconds.”
“Progress has been made! Project Purple Paladin is a go!” Pidge replied, lifting her hand to high five Hunk before the two were snapped at by Shiro to get back to training.
“Purple…paladin?” Shiro had whispered to them after, and in his defense, the name did sound pretty stupid.
“Yes. Purple.” Pidge rolled her eyes, letting an annoyed sigh. “Lance is the blue paladin, and Keith is the red! Purple!”
“Oohh…” Shiro replied with a slight smile. This whole situation was utterly hilarious.
Allura was secretly in on the mission after Pidge and Hunk had literally gotten down on their knees. She’d been hesitant-- “Isn’t it an invasion of privacy?” “Wouldn't it disrupt their missions?” “We’re fighting the Galra, there’s simply no time for romance!”, but one look from Shiro and she immediately agreed.
Coran was giddy, claiming he’d never seen anything so romantically dramatic since the Altean Drama shows he used to watch. He was overly obvious though, wearing an obnoxious grin anytime he spotted either of the two doing well….anything within ten meters of each other.
Pidge even ‘accidentally’ misplaced Lance’s phone in the lounge, and when Lance went to retrieve it, jacket swung over his shoulder, Keith happened to be there, sprawled across the couch, watching TV. Keith’s eyes flickered up as Lance entered the room, and shot Lance a curious look.
Lance’s throat immediately went dry as he met Keith’s gaze, and he opened his mouth to say something before closing it again, his mind immediately going blank as he was in the presence of the red paladin. Lance’s heart began to race, blush spreading across his face and down his neck. Keith noticed and, damn him, he smirked. The corner of his lip curling up, his eyes narrowing, it was the worst and the best thing Lance had ever seen. God damn him.
“I-I..my phone, I left it-” Lance stammered, suddenly forgetting how to talk. He gave himself a mental slap. He was supposed to be cool around his crushes, god damn it! Not a blushing, stuttering, awkward mess! It was a nightmare.
Keith nodded slightly and reached behind him, pulling out his phone and holding it out to Lance, his gaze falling back to the show on Television. Lance reached forward with a gulp and retrieved his phone, but Keith had his entire hand wrapped around the phone. His hand ended up wrapping on top of Keith’s, and he couldn’t help but marvel at how lean and long his fingered were, how he had a slightly calloused palm from his intense fights.
Then, without thinking, he slipped his fingers between the gaps of Keith’s hand, intertwining their hands. Lance let out a small, happy sigh, this was the touch he’d been craving for..well, God knows how long.
“Uh...Lance? Keith questioned, eyes scanning his with an unreadable expressed, eyebrows drawn together. Lance looked at him, then down to their hands, before letting out a shocked cry and jerking his hand back, dropping his phone in the process. He immediately chased after the device, desperately catching it while Keith chuckled. Lance turned a burgundy red now and bolted out of the room as fast as his long legs could possibly carry him.
Meanwhile, Shiro and Coran watched eagerly from the security cameras, followed by Hunk who was practically worshipping Pidge for getting them to the next stage- Hand-Holding.
“You did it, Pidge! Did you see that? They held hands for like, 4.3 seconds! And Lance blushed-” Hunk exclaimed with over-enthusiasm.
“Of course it worked! My plans never fail!” Pidge replied with a smug grin. “They’re up to at least stage three of PPP! If my masterplan goes as planned, we should be almost there!
“I feel like a proud dad.” Shiro held a hand to his chest and closed his eyes with a goofy smile, causing Allura to groan.
“Wh-...I don’t understand why you all are so invested in this!” She sighed, shaking her head disapprovingly. “Remind me again what your so-called masterplan is, Pidge.”
Pidge and Hunk both grinned before Hunk cleared his throat.
“Our masterplan consists of exactly ten stages. Why ten, you ask? Well, Keith has five letters, and so does Lance. And ten is a good number.” Hunk began, and Pidge rolled her eyes before he continued. “Stage One- Getting Lance out of the I-hate-you-Keith-stupid-mullet-head phase and into the Hey-I-realise-I-might-not-hate-you phase. Stage 1- Successful.”
“And how did you influence this and not, well, Lance doing it by himself?” Allura retaliated, and Pidge grinned.
“We both made small comments and had lengthy conversations with him. Such as- Hey Lance, ever notice how strong Keith is? Hey Lance, why do you have a rivalry with Keith? Lance, Keith’s pretty cool. But not as cool as you.” Pidge demonstrating, before wincing at the last comment and adding, “Hunk said the last one. Anyway.”
“Stage Two- Help him realize hey, you actually like him! Stage Two- Successful!” Pidge added. “Stage Three- Get him out of denial and give him opportunities to get closer to him. Check!”
“Stage Four is when Lance tries to figure out if Keith likes him back, meaning he definitely wants to grow their relationship to something more,” Shiro informed with a grin, and Allura had to admit, it seemed slightly less stupid when Shiro said it. Pidge and Hunk nodded in return.
“Stage Five, and my personal favorite is when Lance or Keith come up to us for advice!!” Hunk grinned, and it was obvious he’d be excited, he loves nothing more than helping his friends out.
“Stage Six- Working up courage with help from their loyal friends-”
“Stage Seven- The confessions! Romantic, beautiful confessions, under the sunset, or a full moon in our case, or in each other’s room..”
“Stage Eight- I like you too stage, mutual feelings and by far the best stage.”
“Stage Nine, Dating!! Boom, together, it happened, we did it!”
“Annddddd the final stage, First Kiss!!” Pidge cooed, making kissy faces and clutching her hand to her chest. Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk hunched together, laughing, while Coran was actually writing out the plan. Allura put her head in her hands and sighed. Again.
Meanwhile, Keith was 100% done with whatever they all were planning. It was getting on his nerves, big time. He’d waited long enough for Lance to get his head out of the clouds and actually pay attention to him after watching him flirt with anyone and everyone except for him. He couldn’t help the jealousy he’d feel as Lance would flash the girls that sly grin. Keith wanted to see that grin for himself, and only him.
It was a relief when Lance started showing interest in him, but that didn’t stop the surprise. Hell, the guy was even worse at hiding it than he was, no-- he was one hundred times worse. Lance blushed and stuttered and his gaze darted and his hand rubbed the back of his head as his cheeks turned pink and oh my god, it was the cutest thing ever.
Once Shiro found out, hell broke loose. Meaning, when you have a friend as good as Shiro figure out, or the dad friend, you never. Ever. Live it down.
Shiro would sit on the far side of the table, knowing Keith would sit next to him so that he could sit next to Lance too. He’d smirk as Keith would unintentionally stare at Lance for a little too long. Claim he wouldn’t stop teasing until Keith told him the truth.
So he did.
“I like Lance.” He said one day after they finished sparring, and Shiro, goddamnit, he hugged him and went on about how proud he was. It. Was. Hell.
On top of that, Pidge and Hunk and their stupid mission to get them together. Every time Lance got close the paladin would lose his mind and run away before a single thing could happen. His teammates would squeal about how they were getting closer, but how was any progress going to happen like this?
He was sick of it.
So, one day, he decided to change that.
The Voltron team were sitting in the common room, sprawled out and comfortable around each other before Keith grabbed Lance’s arm and pulled him out of the room, saying he needed to talk to him.
Lance felt his heart jump out of his chest and he turned his head to see his friends cheer before Coran sent him a thumbs up as the door closed.
Keith pressed his back against the wall behind him, leaning against it lazily, his arms crossed and eyes narrowed. Lance moved back, attempting to calm his heart and remain the calm, cool self he always was but it wasn’t working. At all.
“I think you know why I brought you here.” Keith finally said, breaking the silence and thick tension that was apparent in the air. Lance gulped and shook his head slightly.
“Nope, no idea whatsoever, seriously-”
“Can you just shut up for one second? Man.” Keith snapped, before clearing his throat and continuing what he was trying to say. “The plan they’ve been doing. It’s annoying me.”
Lance raised an eyebrow, this was obviously news to him. “Wait, what plan?”
“Shiro and the others have made a plan-- a full one with stages and everything-- to get us together,” Keith explained, and Lance felt he was going to fall apart. How did he say that so casually?! And was that why Pidge and Hunk and Allura were all- oh my god, he was so stupid. How’d he not know that?!
“And it’s annoying me. I don’t want those idiots hanging off my every move if I already know what I want.” Keith grumbled, and Lance’s eyes went wide.
“What do you mean?” He whispered, feeling his heart pound with every increasing moment.
Keith rolled his eyes, as if it was stupidly obvious, and planted his hands on Lance’s shoulders and staring at him intensely. “I like you, Lance.”
Lance felt like his world was going to explode. Or his chest. His mind. Everything and everything. The distance between them suddenly seemed to far and he craved the touch again, his lips parting as his eyes widened because did that really just happen?
I like you, Lance.
I like you, Lance.
I like you, Lance.
Had he heard wrong? Was he dreaming? Was this even happening?! He didn’t know, didn’t know what was going on or what was happening but he knew that goddamnit he needed to do something or he would lose his mind.
“I’m going to give you three seconds to punch me.” Lance breathed as Keith’s hands dropped from his shoulders, clenching his fists and mentally preparing himself.
“What?-” Keith started, but he could barely say anything before Lance made his move.
He surged his body forward, arms reaching up and pulling Keith’s face towards him in a desperate kiss. The angle was completely wrong, and his eyes were screwed tight because they were kissing and god, Keith’s lips were so soft and just-
Lance pulled away.
Keith stared at him in awe. Did he really just do that? Lance gave a sheepish look, before realizing what he’d said.
“One…” He whispered as Keith continued to stare, before attempting to string together something to say, anything to say.
“Two..” Lance continued, his face flushing red and moving slightly closer.
“Three-”
“Oh, just shut up already!” Keith snapped before reaching towards the back of his head and tugging Lance’s lips back to meet his own, lifting his other hand to cup Lance’s face as the two kissed, eyebrows drawn together aggressively.
Lance smiled and wrapped his arms around Keith’s back and the two melted together, lips moving gently, attempting to get used to this new feeling. Lance’s lips tingled, and his heart was beating so hard, his chest filled with this light, this soft blinding happiness that seemed to radiate between the two as their lips met over and over and over again.
Keith finally pulled away, turning his head to avoid Lance’s gaze, causing the blue paladin to smile.
“I like you too, Keith.”
“I know.”