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It’s nearly sunset, and the whole group is gathered around a campfire on the beach. It’s so terribly mundane after everything they’ve been through that it almost doesn’t seem real.
Keith isn’t paying much attention to anyone in particular; he and Pidge are cross-legged in the sand with a bag of snacks shared between them. Her focus is down at the tablet in her lap, but he has his arms wrapped around his middle, staving off the cold, as he admires the way the waning sunlight smolders on the water. Lance was right; in all the galaxies they’ve seen, there’s nothing out there quite like Earth’s ocean.
Lance approaches in bare feet and crouches down in front of Keith with one of his sparkling smiles, his hair tousled from the salt spray and the wind. “Hey, will you walk back to the car to get my jacket with me?” he asks, his expression brimming with boyish charm.
Keith just looks at him for a moment, admires the way that Lance has come alive since they’ve been here and then nods. Lance’s grin grows wider, and there’s something mischievous about the expression, but Keith stands regardless, brushing the sand from the back of his pants. “Yeah. I’m getting a little cold, too.” He glances down at Pidge. “We’ll be right back.”
Lance scoffs as he grabs Keith’s hand. “Aww, Keith, don’t make any promises you can’t keep.”
Keith raises an eyebrow at him at the same time that Pidge snorts, head still tilted down to her tablet. “Thank you for having the decency to take him somewhere else to be gross.”
Lance chimes off an over-exaggerated and gracious “You’re welcome!” when Hunk, Romelle, and Allura all offer up their own sarcastic thanks. Keith wonders if he should feel embarrassed, but the only thing he can manage to feel is the warmth from Lance’s hand and the carbonated bubbles of happiness popping off in his chest. He finds himself smiling as Lance tugs him in the direction of the parking lot, rolling his eyes at Shiro who gives a wink and two thumbs up.
The sand is white and soft under their feet as they walk away, still warm from the heat of the sun. “What indecent things are you going to do to me?” Keith asks casually over the sound of waves washing up on the shore.
“What makes you think we’re going to be doing anything nasty?” Lance counters, but there’s amusement in his voice and he’s barely containing his mirth. It’s clear he’s enjoying this.
Keith leans his shoulder against Lance’s and hums. “You gave me The Look.”
“I just wanted to spend a few minutes alone, is that so lewd?” Lance tightens his hand around Keith’s, threading their fingers together. Keith always thought that the cheesy, romantic idea of two hands fitting together like puzzle pieces was so over-done, but he gets it now.
“Depends on how you plan to spend them.”
“Keith, I’m starting to think you want to do indecent things to me .”
Keith exposes the sharp edge of a tooth in a crooked smile, soaking in the satisfaction when a blush rises up into the crest of Lance’s cheeks.
“I see,” Lance replies with a little laugh, bumping his shoulder into Keith’s. Keith merely brings their hands up to his mouth and presses a kiss there to the back of Lance’s, lingering for another one at his wrist, and then one more at the knuckle of his thumb.
“But later,” Keith murmurs, dropping their hands back down to swing again. “Preferably in a bed. Where it’s warm and there’s less sand.”
Lance’s laughter grows and the sound of it is so compelling that Keith chuckles, too. It’s amazing how infectious Lance is, how eager Keith seems to be to mimic or respond to him after all of the bad air between them was finally cleared. It’s not even a conscious decision on Keith’s end; he’s helpless, entirely, to all of Lance’s whims. The only decision he ever made in this regard was to stay for Lance, and when he tries to imagine any other future for himself, he can’t. There’s nothing to see.
They chat about this and that as they pick their way down the beach to the parking lot, walking slowly to prolong their time together. It’s not that they don’t see each other a lot, because they do, but between the team, the Garrison, and their families, quiet moments can be hard to come by. Keith cherishes them all, quiet and loud, soft and hard, but mostly, he really just looks forward to making more of each of them.
Once they reach the cars, Lance fishes the keys out from the lanyard in his pocket and unlocks it. Keith releases Lance’s hand to open the backseat and grab their jackets, pulling them out. He tosses the denim one at Lance and then slips into the soft grey sweatshirt that he managed to borrow from Lance’s brother at the last minute. It feels good to be warm, to have an extra layer against the chilly whip of the ocean breeze, and he looks up to say as much when he’s suddenly being pressed back against the side of the car.
He smirks down at Lance, who has placed his hands on either side of him, trapping him firmly there against Lance’s chest. “What’s this?” Keith asks.
Lance grins eagerly, his blue water eyes glittering. “You fell into my trap and followed me all the way out here, where no one will hear you scream.”
Keith reaches up and fixes the collar of Lance’s jacket. “Oh no,” he monotones. “I had no idea. What are you going to do with me?”
“Pfft, haha!” Lance snorts and then fixes a softened look on him. “Get your head out of the gutter, mullet. I just want to kiss you.”
Keith smiles at him, heart keening in his chest and, oh, there. Right there. The light from the setting sun lays over the curve of Lance’s cheek just right. It makes his eyes appear clear, like a babbling mountain spring, and catches fire in the rich brown of his hair, the golden stretch of his skin. He could easily be anywhere, with anyone and he’s here, with Keith. His eyelashes flutter, dark and pretty against his cheek, and Keith has the very distinct thought that Lance McClain is the only boy he’s ever going to want to kiss.
He smooths his palms down the front of Lance’s jacket. “You’re so beautiful here,” he murmurs.
“Here?” Lance asks, somewhat shyly upon hearing the weight in Keith’s voice.
Keith nods slowly and reaches up to brush some of the wayward hair back from Lance’s cheek, following the movements of his hand to commit these finer details of Lance to memory. His hair sticks up at the run of fingers, textured by the salt of the ocean, and it’s so incredibly endearing it threatens to steal Keith’s breath for a moment. “By the water,” he clarifies. “At sunset.” He lets his hand slide gently over the sun-warmed side of his face. “Here.”
He wishes he could describe it better, so that Lance could know just precisely how gorgeous he is, now and all the time. Keith had never known that he could fall more in love with Lance after the initial confession, but after that first kiss, that first fight, that first vulnerable moment, and that first night together, he is finally coming to understand that it will never end for him. The process of loving Lance is a forever thing. A waking up every day, seeing his face, hearing his laugh, and falling again and again and again kind of thing. Loving harder and deeper with every breath and never wanting to know anything else.
Lance smiles at him now, laying each arm slowly and carefully over Keith’s shoulders. “Is it crazy that I’ve seen you every day for the past two weeks and I still miss you?” he asks.
Keith slides his hands up under Lance’s shirt to find warm skin that shivers under his touch. “Not crazy,” Keith assures him, his palms laying flat and firm against his waist. “What is crazy is that you’re not kissing me yet.”
Lance clicks his tongue, the sun yellow and soft against his face. “I should probably fix that, huh?”
Keith shrugs. “Sometime this year would be nice.”
Lance laughs again and then secures his arms tighter around Keith’s neck before leaning in. The moment their lips brush, Keith pulls Lance against him and slides his hand around Lance’s waist, up to the hollow between his shoulders, eager to touch as much of his skin as possible. Lance makes a pretty sound at that, half-surprised and all encouragement and suddenly Keith is almost too warm inside of the sweatshirt.
Lance smells of sunscreen and salt and his kiss is so deep and so good that Keith is sure he’ll never be able to smell sunscreen again without thinking of this very moment. He rubs at Lance’s back slowly, idly, and tilts his head with a low breath for a new angle, feeling almost dizzy as Lance presses his weight even more heavily against him.
“I don’t wanna go back,” Lance says, just a breath against Keith’s mouth, eyes dark and glassy, hands fisting now in the fabric of Keith’s jacket. “God, I just want to stay here with you.”
Keith wonders if he’s talking about now, and their friends on the beach, or if he’s talking about the Garrison and the work they have to do when they return on Monday. He shares the same sentiment, no matter the subject. “I know,” he murmurs.
“I just wanna kiss you, Keith,” Lance whispers, forehead pressed to the ridge of Keith’s eyebrow. “All the time, you know? I-I just–”
Keith doesn’t know why he feels that so deeply in his chest, but he does. It’s not sadness, but it’s something very wide and consuming and he doesn’t have a name for it. He wraps his other arm around Lance’s waist and holds him snugly there, hands clutching at the hot skin of his back, and then he tilts his head and drops into another kiss. Lance melts against him, tongue against his lip and then inside his mouth. It’s so good. He feels Lance smoothing the hair from his face, running his nails up the back of his neck, pressed together from hip to chest.
They linger when they shouldn’t. The others will be wondering where they are because no one really believed that they’d get up to anything outrageously inappropriate at a public beach, but Keith is reluctant, even once the kissing has lost its fervor and turned into softer things that make his heart gentle and his ribcage tight with emotion.
“I don’t wanna go,” Lance sighs into the crook of Keith’s neck. The sun has almost entirely disappeared, making the sky a blazing, neon pink, making the entire world a little less fiery than it had been a solid fifteen minutes ago.
Keith peppers the side of Lance’s neck with little kisses, his arms now outside of Lance’s shirt and wrapped around him beneath the denim jacket. “There’s hot chocolate,” he murmurs, despite wishing they didn’t have to move, either. “And s’mores. And you promised Coran you’d teach him another one of your obnoxious campfire songs.”
“Hey, they’re not that obnoxious,” Lance protests and Keith almost shivers when he feels and open-mouthed kiss against his pulse.
“They will be once Coran gets a hold of them.”
Lance chuckles, and then begins to laugh, pulling slowly away from Keith’s neck. “Okay! You’re actually funny sometimes!” He pats the tops of Keith’s shoulders.
Keith grins and pushes away from the car to give Lance a quick peck on the cheek. “I think you’ve rubbed off on me.” Lance waggles his eyebrows and it has Keith rolling his eyes. “Gutter, Lance.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know, we can roll around in the gutter later tonight.” He smirks and grabs Keith’s hand. “Let’s get this over with, then.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Keith can still smell the sunscreen and taste the salt. He tightens his hand around Lance’s and he follows.