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Keith let his fingers brush across the blue marks etched into Lance's cheeks. His touch was gentle, but Lance felt it sink into his skin and send a shiver rippling through him as tears welled up in his eyes. Every day, he missed her, felt his heart ache with her sacrifice.
Somehow, impossibly, standing here with Keith he felt a new ache wiggle its way into his chest. The good kind.
Keith started to pull back, patient and tender with him. He knew what Lance had lost, how it had effected him. God knows Lance would never forget, but all he knew in this moment was that he wanted Keith to stay. He wanted to be close to him. So he reached out, gave into his yearning and let that soft, black hair run between his fingers. Keith froze in his retreat. His expression was tender, vulnerable and raw as his eyes betrayed every emotion he was feeling; one emotion in particular that Lance could feel weaving its way into his veins as Keith leaned into him, allowing him to touch.
"Keith." He breathed out, barely a whisper, before he suddenly found himself speechless. The sound of that name on his lips felt inevitable, like fate herself tugged it from his chest and dropped it on his tongue. It felt like coming home.
He had always thought that moving on would feel like betrayal. If Allura had died with him as her only one, then he should surely do the same. In this moment, he understood that he was wrong. His heart beat for the both of them now, as did Coran's, and Keith's, and Hunk, Pidge, Shiro. It was up to everyone who knew her to experience the highs and the lows of their lifetime, the love and the pain, and find the future she saved for them.
Looking into Keith's face, he understood that. He understood the way his heart could hold both of them. The way he wanted, and it was okay to want.
Lance smiled.
Keith smiled, too, as he spoke gently "You're beautiful, Lance."
"Will you stay with me, tonight?" He asked, letting his hand slide down Keith's chest until he reached those pale fingers to intertwine with his own.
"I'll stay." He let out in a low tone, and it was a promise as much as an acceptance. They had lost one another before, it was their time now.