Work Text:
He meets him at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Lance doesn't know what made him turn around. Maybe it was because Marco was fighting with Vero and Lance honestly didn’t want anything to do with that; mostly because he didn’t want to be near Mama’s eyesight when scolding his older siblings.
So he turns, rolling his eyes as he purses his lips, trying to look for his Papa so that he would take him to see the planets of their sister galaxy again but then he sees the hair ; all wild, disheveled and long. It reminded him of Tio Antonio’s hair on an old photo he showed him last summer.
A mullet, his tio had called it with a puffed proud chest.
Lance tilts his head to the side in confusion because the one he’s seeing didn’t look like his tio’s mullet but it was still long .
Same thing, right?
The boy with the mullet was staring at the spaceship keychains, his lips pursed together in concentration as he turns the stand over and over again searching for something.
All the spaceships had something written in them, some of them with names and some of them with funny sayings like ‘Girl Power’ or ‘I Want To Believe’. Lance only knows because his brother Luis complained about not finding his name earlier when they enter the gift shop.
Lance had looked for his name too but he had walked disappointed when he found none with his name on them.
He wonders if the boy with the odd mullet is looking for his name.
Maybe Lance can help him find it.
He jogs towards the boy, dodging the crowd around him. He smiles big when the boy finally notices him when he’s close enough.
“What’s your name?” Lance asks enthusiastically. The boy furrows his eyebrows in confusion, looking at him as if he was weird, something that makes Lance to huff. “You’re looking for your name, right? I can help!”
The boy’s eyebrows go up at his words, surprised by the odd offer but then a shy smile grows on his face.
“Keith,” he says quietly. “You?”
“I’m Lance!” Lance says loudly, pointing with his thumb at himself. “My mama calls me Ales because I have two names, but I like Lance better.”
Keith nods silently, quickly going back on his search and Lance follow his lead on the stand next to him. He catches all kind of odd names like ‘Jonathan’ and ‘Barbara’ and ‘Bonnie’.
It takes him a while but, after what feels forever, Lance finally comes across the name he has been looking for. He lets out a loud shout of victory before he takes the keychain off the stand and almost shoves it into his new friend’s face.
“Keith! Keith, Keith, I found your name!” Lance announces, shaking the spaceship keychain in front of the boy. “Isn’t it awesome?”
Keith’s face brightens up at the sight of the keychain, his right hand reaching up to take it. “Thank you, Lance!” he says happily, grinning at the small brunet with a clear gap between his front teeth.
Lance grins back at him. “No problem!”
“I found yours too,” Keith announces happily as he lifts up his left hand and places the same keychain on Lance’s open palm.
Lance takes it wordlessly and blinks as the name ‘Alex’ greets him.
“I couldn’t find one with ‘Lance’,” Keith says apologetically, rubbing his arm. “But you said your middle name was Alex and I found that one!”
Lance stares at the keychain before he looks up and beams at his friend. “That’s awesome, Keith! Thank you!”
Keith beams right back at him and Lance doesn’t dare to tell him that his name doesn’t have an ‘x’ anywhere.
“I gotta go, I think my uncle is looking for me,” Keith suddenly says, looking over his shoulder before he turns back at Lance and smiles. “Thank you for helping me.”
“No problem,” Lance replies with ease and waves him goodbye. “Bye, Keith!”
“Bye, Lance!”
Lance watches him go until he can no longer see Keith among the crowd. He looks down at his hand one more time and snickers softly to himself as he re-reads the name on the keychain.
“There you are, champ.” His papa’s voice suddenly greets him from behind, strong arms picking him up by the waist before he settles him down on his hip. “Your mama was looking for you, cadet.”
“Sorry, papa,” Lance says. “I was helping a friend.”
“Were you now? That’s nice.” The adult nods proudly. “Just tell me or mama next time, please?”
Lance nods sheepishly. “I promise.”
“Awesome, thanks, kiddo - wait, what’s that on your hand?”
“Oh! It’s my name!” Lance says, pulling the keychain up for his papa to see. “Well, kind of. My friend couldn’t find Lance but he found my middle name!”
“It’s close enough.” His papa laughs good heartily. “Come on, let’s buy that before meeting with your mama and siblings outside.”
Lance cheers and throws his small arms over his dad’s neck, hugging him tightly. “Thank you, papa!”
“No problem, kiddo. Make sure not to lose it, alright?”
“Promise!”
It takes him fifteen years to lose it.
Lance gotta give it to Mr. Dante; he really does leave the floor impeccable.
But today is no day to praise the lab’s janitor.
“No,” Lance whines, dragging the vowel long as he spreads his limbs on the floor and looks under the high chairs. “No, no, noo.”
“Lance,” Hunk calls from the back of the lab. “Buddy, it’s not here.”
“But it gotta be here!” Lance shouts in despair, struggling with his own long limbs as he stands up. “I had with me this morning when I came to class. When I got home, I saw it missing so I backtracked my steps to here!”
“You sure you lost it here and not somewhere else?” Pidge asks, her voice muffled as she looks inside the lockers at the entrance of the lab. “Are you sure you didn't go anywhere else?”
“Positive; I already checked our dorm and the cafeteria, the only two other places I went to after class.” Lance sighs, running a hand over his hair in defeat. “I just can’t believe I lost it.”
Hunk pats him on the shoulder with an apologetic look. “Aw, I’m sorry buddy, I know it was special to you.”
“Why?” Pidge wonders as she joins them, eyebrow up in curiosity.
Lance sighs sadly as he leans back and accepts Hunk’s hug. “I had it with me since I was eight; it was the first time I got to visit a real space center ever and decided to be an astronaut.”
“Ah, personal value, huh?” Pidge winces with sympathy, reaching out to pat her friend on the shoulder. “Who knows, dude? Maybe someone saw it after your class and gave it to the professor?”
Lance hums quietly. “That could be possible, Pidge, yeah. I will ask Professor Coran tomorrow.”
Pidge smiles kindly at him, patting him one more time before she punches him playfully. “Come on, let’s cheer you up. I say let’s go to the cafeteria, I’m craving their soup so bad.”
Hunk scrunches his nose in disgust as soon as the words leave her mouth. “Ugh, Pidge, I still don’t know how you can eat that stuff.”
“It’s good!”
“It’s squishy and green, Pidge.”
“Like me!”
Lance snorts on the side, shaking his head in amusement as he takes a step back from his friends. “I’m sorry, guys, but I got somewhere to be.”
The pair of engineers looks at him in confusion before they share a look and smile knowingly. Lance tries not to roll his eyes when their smiles turn into teasing smirks. He knows what’s to come.
“Ah, right, a study session with loverboy,” Pidge says cheerfully, eyebrows wiggling playfully when Lance’s scoffs with an undeniable blush.
“Stop that, it’s not like that.”
“Is it really not, though?” Hunk asks innocently, leaning forward on the table. “You guys have been hanging out awfully a lot recently.”
“It’s called friendship , Hunk.”
“It’s called pinning , Lance.” Pidge cuts in with a snicker. “I mean, sure, both of you had a seasonal friendship but you gotta admit it that it shifted and it’s not only that anymore.”
Hunk snorts by Pidge’s side. “Oh, boy, remember when Lance would complain about Keith and call him his rival all while making his way to meet him at the bakery?”
Lance flushes at the memory. “Stop that, it was because of a team project, jeez.”
“Yeah, true, it was because of that project that you two finally co-lived in the same campus.” Pidge reminds playfully, “and it evolved into something more .”
Lance throws his hands on the air. “You know what? I’m gonna go right now because you two are merciless and I don’t really need to think about my unresolved feelings on my friend right now.”
“Ah!” Pidge shouts, pointing at him in victory despite the fact Lance had already turned around, heading towards the lab’s exit. “So you do admit you have a crush-like-thing on him!”
“I’m leaving!”
When Lance flops himself unannounced on the free chair next to him, Keith doesn’t even bat an eye.
“Nice of you to join me, McClain,” Keith says instead of a proper greeting, quietly turning the page of his book as Lance groans next to him in shame.
“I’m sorry,” he says while leaning forward on the library’s table. “I was on my way here when I noticed I lost something on the way and I had to go try and find it.”
Keith looks up at that, his eyebrows furrowed. “Did you find it?” he asks with honest curiosity as if he could tell the importance of whatever Lance had lost had value to him.
It makes Lance’s heart to skip a beat.
He shakes his head, sighing in defeat. “No, I didn’t but it’s fine. I’m a strong believer that if you lose something, it will come back at some point somehow if it really needs to be in your life, ya know.”
Keith hums. “That’s fair. I’m sorry you couldn’t find it, though.”
“Thanks, man,” Lance mumbles with a smile that grows when Keith sends one of his own at him. That’s smile is for him only.
What a blessing.
“Did you wait long, though?” Lance asks, biting down his lower lip sheepishly. When Keith shakes his head nonchalantly, Lance lets out a small breath. “Ah, that’s good.”
“Yeah, honestly, you’re not even that late.” Keith shrugs, eyes going back to his book. “I stayed a few more minutes at the lab after Professor Coran’s class ended to finish up some stuff.”
Lance nods, quietly considering asking Keith if he had seen his keychain before he shakes the thought off. The chances are low. “Cool, then you ready to start?”
Keith nods back at him, eyes scanning the last paragraph of his page before he closes the book and puts it down. “Yeah, that’s okay with me. Wanna start with the astral plane theories?”
“Sounds like a plan, Mullet.”
Keith snorts, rolling his eyes at the nickname but still reaches out to hold Lance’s hand, humming contently when the brunet immediately squeezes in acknowledgment. They let go a few seconds later but their blush leaves little to hide.
Not that they are trying to, really, at least not between them.
He had lied to both Pidge and Hunk earlier. Neither Keith or Lance have really put a title to whatever it’s going on between them but Lance knows there’s something .
He’s not telling before they figure it out themselves.
And maybe even a while after that, because Lance enjoys the privacy.
“Do you wanna grab something to eat after this?” Lance asks when they are half-through their material. Keith nods distracted as he finishes to highlight a sentence on the book between them.
“How about we go right now?” Keith suggests, already closing the book with a satisfied look “We can finish at my dorm later.”
“I like that idea,” Lance cheers, picking up his things and putting them back on his backpack in hurried moves. Keith follows his actions with a warm chuckle.
“Come on, I parked my car near the library.” Keith grins while standing up and pulling out his car keys from his front pocket. Lance beams back at him, hand already reaching for the extended hand in front of him when his gaze shifts and catches the sight of Keith’s keys.
“I thought you had that in your dorm keys,” Lance says quietly in surprise, eyebrows furrowed as he stares at familiar small spaceship hanging from Keith’s fingers.
Keith blinks, eyes falling on the keychain itself. “Oh, yeah, that one is still on my other keys,” he confirms, using his free hand to dig out his other pairs of keys from his backpack. “See? This one says ‘Keith’.”
Lance stares, tilting his head as he steps closer and hums in confusion. “They are the same?”
“Kind of?” Keith shrugs, bouncing the keys on each hand before he lays them each on his palms for Lance to get a closer look. “I found this one earlier at lab. They look the same but have different names on them. See?”
“That says ‘Alex’,” Lance whispers as he reaches out for the keys. “Keith, this is mine.”
Keith arches an eyebrow before he frowns in concern. “Lance, your name isn’t Alex.”
The brunet snorts, his free hand over his chest as he shakes with laughter. “I - hah - I know, I know but I swear, it is mine,” he chuckles, shaking his head in disbelief. “I lost it this morning during lab, that’s why I was late because I went back to look for it.”
“Oh,” Keith breathes out, still looking oddly confused. “Why ‘Alex’, though?”
“Okay, this is going to sound wild,” Lance warns, raising one hand in mock surrender. “But like, the first time I visited a Space Center, one at Houston in Texas, I helped this kid to find his name and he did the same with me, except that there were no keychains with Lance on them.”
Keith’s grin turns playful. “So he just gave you a new name?”
“More or less?” Lance offers, holding his hand up and tilting to the sides to prove his point. “I mean, I did tell him my mama called me Ales instead of Lance or Alessandro, she still does honestly, so he just --”
“Wait, wait, no way,” Keith says suddenly, eyes growing wide with surprise and disbelief. Lance’s words trail off at the small outburst, looking confused. “Oh no, I gave you the wrong name.”
“What?” Lance asks bewildered and Keith nods slowly.
“I, uh, that was me,” Keith says slowly, lips twitching in amusement. “That summer I was visiting my uncle and he took me to the city’s space center and I was obsessed on finding a spaceship keychain with my name but I couldn’t find any and then a kid helped me and I gave him one back with his own name because he said he was called Alex and...”
Keith trails off, shaking his hands in front of him as he gestures Lance’s entire self as an explanation.
“Wait, wait, did you by any chance had a power ranger t-shirt on?” Lance asks, grin growing on his face when Keith blushes and nods. “Holy shit! You had a mullet when you were a kid? Dude .”
“It’s just the way my hair grows, Lance,” Keith grumbles, unconsciously touching the edge of his hair around his neck. “What about you, huh? You had a fanny pack of Barbie .”
“It was Vero’s!” Lance screeches, scoffing offended when Keith snickers next to him.
“Sure, buddy.” Keith pats his shoulder in mock comfort, offering a smile to ease his annoyance.
Lance’s frown quickly leaves, his grin coming back. They stay quiet for a small moment, sharing glances playfully before Lance clears his throat and holds out his hand.
“Hi, I’m Lance, also known as Alessandro, Ales, and Alex in one special case.” Lance grins mischievously, wiggling his eyebrows, “It’s been a while, huh? How’ve you been?”
Keith blinks owlishly before he snorts and holds out his own hand, easily locking it with Lance’s in a firm handshake.
“Hey, man, I’m Keith, as I’m fairly known as.” Keith’s grin grows when the brunet chuckles in amusement. “I’ve been good; I’m currently studying to become an astronaut.”
Lance gasps loudly at the words, his free hand smacking itself dramatically against his chest. “No kidding? Me too!”
Keith matches his gasp, his own being softer but equally dramatic. “Hey, seems like we got a lot in common, huh?”
“Seems like it,” Lance hums, grin turning into a soft smile as he turns his hand and smoothly links his fingers around Keith’s, quietly pulling him closer. “Wanna share lunch together to catch up?”
“I don’t know; you see, I was about to get lunch with this guy I really like.” Keith shrugs with one shoulder innocently as he slowly starts walking towards the library exit. He bites down his smile when Lance follows him quickly to keep their hands together.
Lance whistles playfully. “What are the chances, so was I.”
“Well, well, well…” Keith says quietly, letting the words to trail off as he catches Lance’s eyes on him. “Small world, huh?”
“And yet I haven’t meet Beyonce.”
“Aw, sad day then?” Keith teases.
‘Not at all,’ Lance thinks once inside Keith’s car, the black haired man staring in concentration at the road ahead of them but laughing openly at every story Lance shares by his side.
The keychain with his unofficial name wiggles the entire way.
He meets him all over again at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Lance pushes through the crowd as he looks for his family, picking a few souvenirs that catch his eye on the way.
He finally catches sight of his family near the keychain stands and there’s a heavy feeling of deja-vu washing over him as he stares at the scene before him.
Keith’s kneeling down in front of the stands, his sleeves rolled all the way up to his elbows as his hands work through their inspection on the keychains. His eyes are narrowed in concentration, scanning every single keychain in hopes to find whatever he is looking for.
The small kid next to him mimics Keith’s movements, narrowing his own pale blue eyes as they scan every keychain with equal passion as his father.
“What’re you two doing?” Lance asks behind them, grin widening when both father and son turn to look back at him in surprise.
“Papa!” His son shouts cheerfully, throwing himself to the adult and cheering when Lance catches him easily. “You’re here!”
“Hey, sunshine! Of course, I’m here. I promised you, didn’t I?” Lance says, hugging his son close to him before he lets him go with a kiss on his head. “Did you like the tour?”
Rey shakes his head. “Nope! We were waiting for you!”
“You were?” Lance asks in surprise before looking down at his husband. “Really?”
Keith smiles back at him with a teasing edge on his lips. “Of course we were. We decided to hang around the gift shop in the meanwhile.”
“Did you guys find anything good?” Lance asks in curiosity, looking for a shopping basket near them and finding none. That’s odd.
“We did!” Rey shouts and holds out his hand for Lance to see whatever he’s holding.
The brunet arches an eyebrow as he kneels down in front of his son but he blinks surprised when he sees a familiar keychain with his name on it.
“Papa found your name but I helped!” His son announces with a proud grin, showing off the clear gap next to his front teeth.
Lance stares at the keychain, taking it from his son to get a closer look, happy to find his first name being neatly written on top of the spaceship. His gaze quickly falls back on his husband, eyebrows furrowed in playful confusion and Keith shrugs innocently.
“I kinda owed you a keychain,” Keith says with a fond smile, pulling up his car keys and letting them hang from his fingers as an explanation.
Lance laughs, shaking his head in amusement as he reaches out and pokes the old keychain with the name ‘Alex’ on it. “Your stubbornness never fails to amaze me, babe.”
Keith snorts. “You love it.”
“I love you .” Lance corrects calmly enough, enjoying the way Keith rolls his eyes despite the clear heating blush covering his cheeks.
“And we found both of my names, papa!” Rey cuts in, bouncing in between the adults in excitement. “Can I get them? Please, please, please?”
Lance chuckles warmly, hand reaching out to ruffle his son’s hair. “You know what, buddy? We’re going to buy them because it’s unfair that your dad already has one of your names on a keychain and I don’t.”
“What is unfair is that you have my keychain name and I don’t have yours.” Keith scoffs, rolling his eyes playfully as he snatches the keychain from Lance’s hands carefully. “This is mine.”
“Ah, so you get my name and our son’s name?” Lance clicks his tongue. “How unfair.”
“Hey, you were the one to name him Alejandro.” Keith reminds, playfully slapping his husband's shoulder. “Not my fault you named our son after your keychain but in Spanish .”
“Hey, I was totally thinking about the first King of Yugoslavia that day,” Lance defends himself as he picks ups his son and walks towards the cashier, making sure to hold out his hand for his husband to hold. “King Alexander was a great king.”
“Sure he was.” Keith chuckles, silently intertwined his fingers around Lance’s as they continue to walk. “Hey, Rey, show dad your keychains again?”
Rey does so excitedly, words falling out of his mouth like water. Lance listens fondly as his son continues to ramble and gently squeezes Keith’s hand, feeling a sudden rush of affection.
Their entrance bowl back at their house gets a little crowded with the final amount of four spaceship keychains huddled together but neither of them complains in the least.