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Keith fiddled with the bouquet in his hand. Brows knitted. He really wished James hadn’t left. Not like this. He didn’t have much to wallow in regret, Shiro had walked in a little tentative.
“Hey, how’ve you been?” Shiro said, slipping into the room and taking a seat in the chair next to the bed.
“Getting better,”Keith smiled. “Hospital food sucks though.”
“You only have the rest of the month to suffer through at least,” Shiro shifted in the chair, eyeing the bouquet.
“Which one of your adoring fans gave you this?” Shiro gestured to the bouquet
“Oh my god Shiro! I don’t have fans!” Keith blushed lightly.
“I beg to differ. Many cadets have tried to get your autograph after the whole galra battle…”
He backed Keith right into a corner. Like he always does.
“Fine...James actually got me this.” Keith said quietly as he remembered what transpired literally minutes ago.
“Are you sure you don’t have fans? Hm, I ran into him just before getting here. He seemed all distracted, something happen?”
“Kind of? He has a thing for me, and I do too but. Mixed signals and all that.”
Shiro had grabbed the flowers from Keith gently, slowly turning it around. His purple eyes were scanning them thoughtfully. “You know, it wouldn’t hurt to go after him. James probably has no idea what to make of it right now.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Keith clicked his tongue after he said that, looking directly at Shiro, who raised his head from his inspection. Keith leaned in closer to Shiro.
“Now,”
Shiro tilted his head.
“Please just get me some actually good food.”
----
James didn’t go back to the ward after that incident. Finding literally any excuse under the sun to avoid going back. He couldn’t face Keith again, not after what he did-no, what he ruined. Whatever foundation his and Keith’s friendship had started to grow on was overwatered, drowned. He didn’t even know if Keith even saw him as a friend, he for sure was an ally at most. But he was a shitty kid, said some shitty things and often times got retribution for what he did; maybe this was one of those times. Maybe he really did need to get over it.
Pining after Keith for years wasn’t the best look. Definitely didn’t do wonders to his love life, if it even existed for those 4 years at the Garrison.
James was in the simulators again to not only avoid Keith, who was now allowed to move around, but also his team mates. They always sensed when something was up with him, teasing him in good light but still. It was just fucking annoying. And neither could he actually tell them exactly why he was on edge. He’d get over it, it wouldn’t last for long.
His mind was starting to clear again, the simplicity of the sims was probably the trick. After actually piloting and having to fight enemies, the simulator was a breeze. And to think this machine was his biggest worried as an entry level cadet. James let out a breath as he passed another level and was getting ready to start up another one when he heard a knock on the door. Pausing for a second, he pushed open the door. On the other side, was the person he’d last expect.
“Kogane?”
Keith cocked his head to the side. “This is the last place I’d expect you to be.” He remarked. The bandage and other wounds were gone, he had a cocky grin on his face. Keith looked pretty good for someone who was in the hospital for a month.
“Who told you?”
“Lief,” He answered and offered James his hand to step out. Lucky for Keith, James was too distracted in planning Lief’s downfall for this. Still, having such close contact after his slip up was too much; once the necessary touch was over he immediately moved out of Keith’s space.
“Why were you looking for me anyway? Are you sure you wanna spend recovery time going straight to battle practice?”
Keith’s mouth twitched, almost curving into a smile.
“Maybe I want to.” Keith crossed his arms, “it was too stuffy in that hospital room anyway.”
He smiled, “I’m up for that.” James led the way out of the simulation room and out the hallway. “And I won’t go easy on you.” He added with a smile.
----
The hangar was, thankfully, empty. It was a good thing that practice wasn’t scheduled for today and neither would the pilots even want to practice anyway. Keith was in good spirits, keeping up with small talk and all that.Keith moved to the black lion, walking into the mech through the mouth; James had slid into his ship.
The ship lit up as he adjusted himself back into piloting. He became used to the fusion of alien and human tech powering the MFE ship. Commander Holt explained that the MFEs may have bonded with their pilots akin to the Voltron lion bond, but just a tad bit weaker.
Keith opened up a comm line. “Hey, just realized that since we’re the only people here, I gotta authorize the hangar to open. I guess this can be your head start.”
“Getting cocky aren’t we? Thought we’d make this fair.”
“I am making this fair, you really think you stand a chance against me?”
There it was, the fire that Keith always had within him, but now it was more controlled. Concentrated. James couldn’t help but smirk. He needed that. To fight fire with fire.
“Fine. Don’t go easy on me.”
Keith laughed before disconnecting. James watched him exit his lion and head back towards the door. He waited for a moment in his ship, lounging as much as he could in the small space. Keith pressed on the keypad, allowing the hangar to open up to the sky. James’ ship took flight to the sky, he had long since gotten used to the high speeds the MFE took.
After the steady take off, he cruised the open air slowly and cranked up the speed. Since they didn’t get official air clearance, James made sure to fly higher in order to avoid being seen by Garrison staff. It wasn’t too long before he spotted the Black Lion gaining on him.
“I thought you wanted a chance to win?” Keith said with a snarky voice
“You know how I like to play,” James rested his head in his hand as they breezed over the cloud cover. “I don’t like to cheat.”
“It’s not cheating if I let you do it.”
“Fine, new rules then, we race to the mountains.”
“That’ll be a breeze.”
“Good,” James said, getting out of his lazy position, and taking up the handles. “We start now.”
He took off at a high speed, and for once he just decided to disregard the speedometer to the side. He had something to prove. Keith was momentarily shocked, his lion didn’t take off when James had done so.
But the radar quickly picked up the black lion’s movement, just minutes behind him. James dove down from the cloud cover and yet still much above the recovering city. The MFE ship twisted as he cut through the air, soon the city fell to open lands. He knew he was going to make it to the mountain soon, over the dense forest land. On his radar, the Black Lion was gaining on him, fast. James kicked up the speed as the Black Lion was hot on his tail.
“You’re such an asshole you know that?” Keith said in a playful tone. “Too bad that won’t get you out of this one.
“Try me,” James smiled as he dived down, and used the momentum from diving to pull back up, twisting through the sky at his top speed before gradually slowing down as he reached the mountain peak. Keith descended just seconds after.
“What the hell dude, had no idea you could do that,” Keith managed to get out, his tone betrayed his stoic demeanor.
“Had no idea I could either, until I just did it. Have to say, I kind of took a page from your book.”
“It’s good to break the rules sometimes huh?” Keith laughed a little. They both landed their ships onto the mountain peak.
There was a bit of silence as they watched the sky. “You know...wanna check out the inside of the black lion? It’ll probably be your only chance,” Keith teased.
That was true, it would be his only chance. Besides, who was he to decline Keith when he’s actually opening up for once?
“Sure, why not”
----
Now inside the black lion, all banter fell silent, though comfortable. James took his place standing on the side of the pilot’s seat. He held onto the top part of the seat for comfort reasons. Keith looked comfortable, not sitting in the seat as Garrison students are taught, formally and with purpose. He guessed it all made sense since this was Keith’s home for a while.
Keith looked so relaxed, to be frank he was glad he could help Keith blow off some steam. The purple glow from the black lion’s control panels set a calming glow, almost like a night light. The screens hummed as the black lion took off once again.
“Pretty nice right?” Keith stole a glance to his right to look at him.
James clicked his tongue as he took in the changing scenery. “It’s not like anything I ever seen before. How the hell did you learn to fly it?”
“Well, it’s like, more of a bond rather than learning anything. I mean, I did have to learn some stuff. But all the abilities were unlocked once I-we get closer to our lions.”
“Tch, I knew it was a bunch of magic stuff but it sounds so ridiculous.”
“I didn’t think you’d just run with this whole Voltron thing.”
“I didn’t have a choice.” James said with a teasing tone. “In the end, it turns out magic really is real. Along with aliens and all that. When your back’s against the wall, you’d have hope for anything to happen.” He looked down at the floor, looking at how the light of the stars and the lion’s interior danced across.
“...And Voltron is a symbol of hope.” Keith mused, a little distant while looking off into the sky ahead.
James moved closer, leaning in to press a hand to Keith’s shoulder. “You aren’t alone you know.”
Keith glanced up.
“I know.”
That was all it took for James to lean away. Though he missed the contact. Sad, how this might be the last time he’d actually be able to invade Keith’s space. He’s not like Shirogane, who knew Keith for a long time, who got so ridiculously close to Keith in such a small amount of time. He probably could never reach that level.
He never liked to dwell on it too hard but he does regret what he done in the past, especially to Keith. He just hopes Keith feels the same.
Keith’s hands went slack on the handles, his face wasn’t determined just...distracted.
“You know,” Keith’s hands twitched on the handles. “You don’t have to look after me...but you still choose to.” Keith turned to look directly at him now. “Why?”
It was almost like an accusation. Keith was probably waiting to corner him after all this time. God he was a fucking idiot to think Keith would drop it.
“I...I don’t know...Look Keith, I don’t deserve you. You have Shirogane right? You don’t need me. I was horrible to you back then.”
“Does that even matter anymore? You aren’t the same person as you were when we were kids. I’m not either. We’ve both been through hell and back and you want to avoid me because of something from our past?”
James bit his lip and looked away. He didn’t want to deal with this, he didn’t want any of this.
“I...I like you too. Just, if you don’t want this, it’s ok. We don’t have to talk about it.”
James stayed silent for a while, turning over those words in his head. He liked Keith, but what he had said in the past kept bubbling over. He and Keith were barely friends and yet something new grew between them. Was it really fair to indulge in that?
"Is Captain Shirogane ok with this?"
Keith tsked, "of course he knows." he had fully turned towards James. "he's fine with it. He likes you too." Keith added with a small shy smile. Pink dusted his cheeks, this was Shirogane's affect on him. This was his affect on Keith too.
"God...Keith..." he trailed off. Words seemed far off, unobtainable. Keith had shifted again in his seat, this time, leaning closer to James. Keith's hand touched his face, feather soft as his lips brushed against his. He hadn’t realized he closed his eyes until Keith laughed, still holding his face, pulling him in for another kiss. This one was deeper, pulling James out of his mind and into the present.
Keith pulled back with a cocky smile on his face and James wanted to see it more.
“We should head back, don’t want them reporting us as missing,” Keith winked but James was still in absolute shock.
“...Yeah, we should.”
Keith smiled and turned back to pilot the ship back to base.
----
The hangar was quiet and thankfully still empty when they returned. Keith docked the Black Lion properly and they exited. He buzzed with the fact that any of this happened.That Keith actually accepted him, and that he’s going along with this.
“See you tomorrow,” Keith whispered as they made their way through the labyrinth of the Garrison dorms. Despite taking the lead for most of the evening, Keith was pretty shy with initiating any physical contact once they made it back to base. But of course he could change that.
“Yeah, see you soon.” James pulled Keith into hug. Then they separated and went their own ways to their rooms.