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Keith was resting on the couch in a common room in the Garrison. Now that they had gotten back to Earth, there was more time for relaxing. His wolf was next to him on the couch, Keith slowly petting him. Soon Lance walked in the room and sat down on the other side of Keith.
“Hey Keith!” Lance smiled brightly.
“Hey.”
“I have a question.” Lance looked like he was fighting back a slight smile.
“Uh…okay.” This should be interesting.
“Were your parents bakers?” Lance asked, his smile letting loose.
“Lance, what? You know my mom, and if anything, it’d be Hunk’s family that are bakers–”
“Because they sure made you a cutie pie!”
“Lance what are you talking about, what the hell is a – oh.” Keith could slowly feel himself heating up. “What the hell was that?” He asked, his gaze shifting from Lance. That couldn’t have been a pickup line, could it?
“It was just an innocent question! Here: I have another one. Are you a banana?” Lance smiled at Keith.
“I don’t even want to answer that.”
“Because I find you appealing!” Keith groaned in response.
“Are you just testing out pickup lines on me? Why don’t you save these for all the other girls you flirt with?” Had Lance figured out Keith’s crush on him, and was using him as pickup line practice to tease him?
“Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.” Lance said with a smug grin on his face
“Why are you like this?”
Lance stood up then turned back to Keith saying, “You know you love me,” He winked, turned around, and walked out the door, leaving Keith with a very red face.
*****
The next day, Pidge was teaching the little kids of Lance’s family how to make volcanoes. She called over Lance and Keith for help.
“Okay, so now that we have the structure of the volcano, we need to make the chemical reaction! This reaction will be what causes the volcano to go boom! So, to explain how this works, first, Uncle Lance here is going to be vinegar.” Pidge grabbed Lance’s wrist and brought him up closer. “Then, Keith is going to be the baking soda.” She grabbed Keith to do the same. “When they combine,” she pulled them closer together, interlocking their hands, “They fizz up and then explode! Isn’t that cool? Are you guys ready to try it?” This earned a cheer from the kids as she walked away with them.
The two boys, however, remained holding hands. Keith could feel himself getting red and was looking away from Lance. As he started to release Lance’s hand and move away, Lance held tighter and pulled him in close.
Keith could feel Lance’s hot breath against his neck as Lance lightly whispered, “If I’m vinegar, then you must be baking soda, because you make me feel all bubbly inside.” With that, Lance released Keith’s hand and walked away, again leaving Keith with a very red face.
*****
The day after that, Keith was in the kitchen making himself a nice, healthy, salad lunch. He was in the middle of adding some vegetables when Lance walked in.
“Oh, hey, Keith.”
“Howdy,” Keith replied, sarcastically, hoping that Lance wouldn’t attack him with more pickup lines. He wasn’t sure his heart could handle it.
“You makin a salad? Good idea!” Lance fished around for things to presumably make his own salad. That’s when it happened. Lance had a cucumber in his hand and had been looking down at it. “You know, if you were a vegetable, you’d be a cutecumber.”
Keith could feel the heat rising up his cheeks and replied with a “what.”
“What?” Lance asked, feigning ignorance.
Keith decided to ignore that and pretended Lance didn’t say ‘cutecumber.’ He probably just said cucumber, right?
Lance decided he had enough vegetables in his salad and started to cut up fruit for the side. “I think if you were a fruit, though, you’d be a fineapple.” Lance then took a bite out of an apple, grabbed his food, and exited the room, for a third time, leaving Keith bright red.
“At this point I’d probably be a tomato…”
*****
Keith walked in on Lance sitting, playing on his phone, seemingly not noticing him. He knew he was wrong when Lance soon spoke, saying, “Hey, Keith, are you a camera? Because every time I look at you, I smile.” He then looked up at Keith, gave him a huge, adorable smile, and made his way out of the room.
*****
Keith had been reading on the couch when Lance came in to grab something. Keith suddenly sneezed, and Lance stopped before saying “I would say God bless you, but it looks like he already did.” Lance then left a confused, blushing Keith alone in the room.
*****
Keith was just walking in the hallway when he spotted Lance coming toward him. He was about to move away from another predicted attack when he noticed that Lance tripped and fell on his hands and knees. He rushed over to help him up, asking, “Did you just trip over air, you dumbass?”
“Yeah, probably. I’m fine, though. Actually, do you have a band-aid? Cause I just scraped my knee falling for you.”
Keith had gotten used to the pickup lines at this point at had turned less red. He replied with a straight face, “Why would I have a band-aid? Check the medical office.” And then made it on his merry way. He pretended to ignore his heart thumping in his chest and decided he didn’t hear the last part of Lance’s statement.
*****
A similar time that involved Lance falling was when the two were cleaning. They had gotten into a food fight and had to clean up after themselves. Keith hoped Lance wouldn’t pull another pickup line while they were alone, but, alas, he did.
Keith was swiffering while Lance was sweeping, the two starting at opposite ends of the room, meeting in the middle. When they met in the middle, Lance tripped over Keith’s Swiffer, Keith immediately dropping it to keep Lance from hitting his head on the ground.
“Lance! Watch where you’re going!” Keith started to remove his hands from Lance, but Lance refused to budge, instead choosing to speak.
“Is your name Swiffer? Because you just swept me off my feet.” Lance smirked at Keith before being dropped and abandoned by a blushing man with a mullet.
*****
The final time was when the team was having burgers for dinner. Lance sat himself next to Keith while they were eating dinner and seemed to be conversing normally.
Okay, I should be safe, Keith thought. But oh, was he wrong.
While no attention was on them, Lance leaned over and whispered, “You must be a bacon burger, because you’re bacon me crazy.”
“Lance–“
“But, if you were a McDonald’s burger, you’d be McGorgeous.”
“Lance!”
“Or–“
“LANCE! Why are you doing this?” Keith yelled loudly, causing all attention to drift to them. Lance blushed and looked away.
Lance exhaled before saying, “Can you come with me? We should probably talk in private.” He got up and stopped at the door, holding it open for Keith. Keith, also red, soon followed.
They walked silently in the hallway with Lance leading to some unknown location. After a little walking, Lance stopped, thinking a bit, before holding pointing to Keith’s hand. “Your hand looks heavy; do you want me to hold it for you?”
“Lance,”
“Okay, okay, I figured it was worth a try at least.” Keith could’ve sworn he saw Lance’s face fall before turning away. If Keith was being honest, he did want to hold Lance’s hand, but first he wanted to figure out what was happening.
But then again, he really wanted to hold Lance’s hand.
As they continued to walk, Keith felt his hand brush against Lance’s and thought he felt Lance’s hand flinch. He decided to give in and hold Lance’s hand anyway, looking away as he did so. He was sure his face looked like it was bursting into flames.
After a little more walking, Lance led Keith into an observatory room. Still hand in hand, Lance led Keith to the middle and began to sit down.
“So, what was the point of all of this?” Keith began.
“What? Me dropping pick up lines on you? What do you think, mullet?”
“I don’t know! Don’t you just use pickup lines on random girls you want to…pickup?”
“Well, yeah, but do you think I use those great ones on them? Or do them as often? Or continue to hold their hands even when they’re clammy?” He said, lifting their hands on the last part.
Keith started to remove his hand when Lance held on tighter.
“No, okay, sorry. I get it. I seem like a player because you just see me flirting with a whole bunch of cute alien girls. I promise I’m not, though. Those are all in good fun, but there’s no real truth behind them. But, with you, it’s only truth behind them.” Lance looked up at the sky of stars above them, “Like, if I could reach out and hold a star for every time you’ve made me smile, I’d hold the sky in the palm of my hand. I know it sounds cheesy, but it is so true.”
They sat in silence for a bit before Lance continued. “If I had a star for every time you brightened my day, I’d have a whole galaxy by now.” Lance looked over at Keith and smiled softly. “I think you must be the moon, because even when it’s dark, you still seem to shine.”
Lance’s smile wasn’t his usual smirk, but a genuine, small smile. Keith thought that Lance’s face in the starlight looked beautiful, and the fact that Lance, despite using pick up lines, seemed so genuine and cute, was too much for Keith.
Keith grabbed Lance’s shirt in a fist and pulled him forward quickly. He stopped for just a moment while their faces were inches apart and looked in Lance’s big, blue eyes. Keith slowly closed his and brought Lance’s lips to their own. Their kiss was long and slow, but very sweet. Keith’s hand left Lane’s shirt to cradle his face, and Lance’s hand was around the back of Keith’s head. Their other hands were still intertwined when they separated, both out of breath and red in the face.
“So…the pickup lines worked?”
Keith took a breath before speaking, “Lance I’ve…sort of liked you for a while before that. I just…thought you found out and were using these pick-up lines to make fun of me or something. I didn’t realize that you were being genuine.”
“Keith, I’m so sorry, I would never play with someone’s feelings like that. I didn’t even know that you liked me in that way, or at all, so I figured I’d whip out the good lines for you. Just ask Hunk, he knows I’ve been saving some of those for a while.” Lance looked at Keith before pulling him into a hug. “I’m sorry that you thought I was making fun of you, that must’ve hurt.”
Keith slowly wrapped his arms around Lance before replying “It’s whatever.”
They stayed in each other’s arms for a while until Lance broke the calm silence. “Some people say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth. Obviously, they’ve never been in your arms.”
Keith immediately broke the hug and looked Lance right in the eye, despite his red cheeks. “Lance, why are you like this?”
Lance just smiled before saying, “You know you like it,” he leaned over and kissed Keith’s cheek before grabbing his hand again and intertwining their fingers. He then laid back to look at the stars.
Keith also laid down before asking “Got any more dumb one-liners?”
Lance gasped before saying “My pick-up lines are not dumb! I seem to remember someone with a mullet liking them. And besides, I have to save some of them for later.”
Keith sat up and grumbled under his breath “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” before reaching over to Lance’s shoes.
“What are you doing?” Lance sat up on his forearms.
“I’m tying your shoes so that you won’t fall for anyone else, you adorable idiot.”
Keith expected Lance to laugh at him but instead, Lance was speechless and red himself. “Holy crow, dude. That was good. Dang, you’re cute.” Lance brought Keith into his arms again before asking “Do you like the material of my shirt?”
“Uh…what?”
“Do you like the material of my shirt?”
“Uh…sure?”
“Good, because it’s boyfriend material.” Keith could practically feel Lance’s smirk before groaning. Lance broke the hug and looked into Keith’s eyes. “No, but seriously. Keith, would you uh, want to maybe be my boyfriend?”
Keith felt a little smile appear on his face before saying, “Yes, you loser.”
“Aw hell yeah! Do you work at Starbucks though? Because I like you a latte.”
Keith chuckled then said, “I like you a latte too, Lance.”