Keith had never been so captivated by something in his entire life.

Sitting there in the cooky carnival game booth, surrounded by a variety of good, bad, and ugly prizes, was the loveliest lilac coloured stuffed hippopotamus he had ever seen.

The purple fur, the large stitched brown eyes, the big huggable belly…

He had to have it.

Unfortunately, there was a fee and a challenge between him and that beautiful hippo. A challenge that he was more than willing to overcome.

Just as Keith was about to step up and offer then man running the booth his money, Lance stepped up and offered the man the fee, flashing Keith a wink over his shoulder. “I’m gonna win the grand prize for you, baby.” He promised with a sly smile. “It’ll be a piece of cake.”

…Or, that’s what he said seven tries ago.

Lance was terrible at darts on a good day, even more so when he was drunk. Keith knew that he was trying to show off and be a good boyfriend, getting Keith a big prize from the summer carnival, but… It just wasn’t working out for him.

“Babe,” Keith whispered, wrapping an arm around Lance’s waist. Lance was staring down at the last dart in his hand with such hopeless determination that it was almost sad now. “Let me do this. I’m much better at darts than you.”

Lance whined, not taking his eyes off of the offending object. “But, I’m the one who’s supposed to win this for you. It doesn’t mean as much when you win it for yourself.”

“After watching you fail this many times,” Keith said, ignoring the wounded noise Lance made at that. “it’ll still be memorable. Besides,” he pressed a swift kiss to Lance’s cheek before stepping away, “I can let you pay for my try.”

Lance breathed out a long sigh, considering his options before accepting defeat and passing the dart back to the man. “Fine,” he relented, looking sad all the while. “But only because you’re letting me pay for it.”

Keith grinned, and stepped up to the counter to accept the five darts.

The task was simple, to hit four of the five small balloons on the wall inside the booth for the grand prize.

He’d only need four of his darts.

With scary rapid-fire accuracy, he let the four darts fly directly into the tiny blue balloons in the booth. The man looked suitably shocked with the sudden change of pace, and lifted the hippo down without any prompting.

“Hey, if you want,” the man said while putting the hippo down on the counter, “if you can hit the last small balloon, I’ll let you pick one of these for your boyfriend there.” He indicated to the small stuffed animals below where the hippo was moments before. “A consolation prize for him, after failing so terribly.”

Lance whined really loudly at that, drawing some attention from people walking nearby.

Keith winced, and quickly threw the last dart so he could get Lance away from the offending booth as soon as possible. “Do you have a shark?” he asked, not even looking back. He stepped over to Lance and pulled his sulking boyfriend’s face into his chest.

A bright blue shark waved at him from the corner of his eye, and he grabbed both it and his hippo while still keeping an arm wrapped around Lance. With a smile back over his shoulder to the chuckling booth dude, he dragged Lance away as quickly as possible.

“I can’t believe I failed that epically.” Lance whined into Keith’s chest as they ambled awkwardly along. “I’m a terrible boyfriend!”

Keith chuckled and pressed a lingering kiss into Lance’s hairline, pulling them to a stop by a free bench a fair ways away from the wretched booth. He placed the stuffed animals down on the bench beside them, then wrapped his arms fully around Lance. “You’re not a terrible boyfriend,” Keith assured. “You just… Suck at darts?”

“I couldn’t win you that hippo.” Lance sniffed, shoulders drooping. “I could tell how much you wanted it the moment you saw it, and it’s my duty as your boyfriend to make you happy. And I failed.”

“You didn’t fail at making me happy. You tried really hard, and I love you for that. And, you paid for my try. So, in a sense, you still won it for me.”

Lance groaned dramatically, his face still pressed against Keith’s shirt.

Keith scoffed fondly at his dramatics, but let him stay there while he figured out where they should go next. The night was still young.

He knew that they should stay away from the game booths for a while, lest Lance remember how badly he did at the last one. Fortunately, they were concentrated at the centre of the fairgrounds, so if they stayed more towards the outskirts, they would be fine. They hadn’t done any rides yet, since they started out in the barns by the entrance to look at the animals and craft stuff.

Lance loved looking at all the cool things people created, from quilts to cross-stitch to paintings, and Keith loved interacting with the animals. There was a really big black and white cow he got to pet and he didn’t think he’d ever forget how pink and soft it’s nose was. They even tried to guess exactly how many jellybeans were in the massive jar in the crafts barn. Keith was sure it was closer to three hundred, but Lance swore it was exactly five hundred jellybeans.

That meant they still had their tickets in their pockets for rides. Keith always loved the thrill of fast roller coasters, but he had to think of Lance right now. He needed a pick-me-up after his recent failure, so…

He glanced around until he found what he was looking for, directly across the fairgrounds, standing tall against the other rides in the park. With a smile, he reached a hand between his own chest and Lance’s face to pull him up and out of his misery.

“C’mon, why don’t we go on some rides now?” he coaxed, grabbing both of their plushies. He lifted the shark up to Lance’s face, wiggling it around as he spoke: “Mr. Shark wants you to have some fun.”

Lance grabbed the shark hesitantly, pouting at Keith all the while. “His name is not ‘Mr. Shark’.” he grumbled. “His name shall be… Lettuce.”

Keith stumbled while reaching for his hippo, spluttering at Lance’s horrible name tastes. “’Lettuce’? Why would you do that to this poor shark?”

Lance shrugged, and pointed over to the hot dog and hamburger truck just across from them. “That guy’s got lettuce on his burger.” Was all he said as an explanation.

“…Alright, sure.” Keith agreed hesitantly. He then grabbed Lance’s elbow and practically dragged him over to the Ferris wheel.

As soon as Lance figured out where they were going, he tried to stop them, but Keith kept dragging him along anyways. “Babe,” Lance whined, eying the Ferris wheel, “I don’t deserve to go up there with y–”

Keith whirled around and kissed Lance soundly, hushing whatever bullshit excuse he was going to give him. When he pulled back, Lance’s eyes fluttered open slowly, and he looked properly stunned for Keith’s tastes. “We. Are. Going. On the Ferris wheel.” he swore, giving Lance a look that left no room for argument. “Now c’mon, we can get on before the next round if we hurry.”

Lance nodded with wide eyes. “Uh, sure babe.” he murmured.

As they walked up to the entrance gate and offered the lady their tickets, she took one look at the couple and just waved them up to the ride with a slight smile. Another girl followed them to their seats to buckle them in without a word, before walking back to the control board to start up the ride again.

Keith placed his hippo, who he mentally named ‘Bartholomew’, on the seat beside him as the ride started moving, on the outside so he and Lance were pressed up against each other comfortably. Lance passed Lettuce the shark over to sit with Bartholomew, out of the way so Keith could wrap an arm around Lance’s shoulders.

“I can’t believe you’re on this with me.” Lance whispered into Keith’s ear. “I thought you hated heights.”

“I do.” Keith agreed, staring resolutely at Lance and only Lance. “But, I know how much kissing me at the top of the Ferris wheel is something you want to do.”

“Hmm, maybe.” Lance hummed, and brought his hand up to cup the side of Keith’s face. His fingers tangled into the hair by his ear, and his thumb rubbed along his cheekbone lightly. “Maybe I need some convincing.”

As the Ferris wheel stopped at the very top, seemingly just for them, Keith leaned in to kiss his lovely, idiotic and amazing boyfriend soundly.