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It finally started.
For the past half a decade, there has been a tension between the Galra Empire and Altea following a falling out between their respective leaders. The power balance they helped keep in place was tipping. Desire was taking over and frustration followed. Then, eventually, it broke.
Peace was gone.
The Galra and Alteans were officially enemies.
All except for two believed that.
Lance, the second born child of King Alfor and the prince of Altea, and Keith, the second son and prince of Galra. They grew up together and were best friends. They were inseparable. They didn’t care if neither Lotor nor Allura approved. They had each other.
That was, at least, until the war started. They were out picnicking in the castle gardens of Altea after sparring when it began. Servants had approved them, pulling them apart. They could only reach out to each other in vain. It was the last time they were truly happy.
After a year of house arrest, they snuck out and would briefly meet up on an abandoned planet not too far away before heading back home. It’s castle was just kept together enough to feel like reality didn’t exist. Someday they could maybe fix it up, turn it into home away from home.
It became just that. Three years passed and the war was not slowing down, neither side showing any sign of stopping.
However, in this time, Lance and Keith met up many times and soon realized that what they felt was something more than friendship. They had fallen in love with each other. It was strong yet painful.
Were they doing the right thing?
“Maybe we should stop this.”
Keith looked into the worried eyes of the other, his hand instinctively reaching for Lance’s and gripping them tight. “Lance, what are you saying?”
After a beat of silence the Altean shifted his gaze away, replying, “There’s no happy ending for us.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“What other possible ending is there?” Lance asked. He pulled away from the Galra and leaned against the doorway, defeated. “We’ll get caught eventually. Maybe we’re just...not meant to be.”
His attention went toward the lit up sky, lost in the stars.
“You know I want you. It’s not a secret I try to hide,” Keith began, reclaiming Lance’s hands. “I know you want me. Don’t keep saying our hand our tied.”
He admired the blush on the other’s face when he brought those hands to his lips.
“You claim it’s not in your cards, but fate is pulling you miles away from me.” His mind flashed back to when they were first separated. There was no moment more painful. There was never a moment when Lance wasn’t on his mind since then. “But you’re here in my heart, so who can stop me if I decide you’re my destiny?”
A grin crosses the Galra’s lips as he pulls Lance outside onto the rampart, the starry sky lighting up the night around them. “What if we rewrite the stars? Say you were made to be mine.”
The amazed look in Lance’s eyes were everything. He holds the other close from behind as he continues, “Nothing could keep us apart. You’d be the one I was meant to find.”
“It’s up to you,” Keith urged, stepping away just enough for Lance to look him in the eye. “And it’s up to me. No one can say what we get to be. So why don’t we rewrite the stars? Maybe the world be ours...tonight.”
Lance shook his head, a sad smile on his face. “You think it’s easy. You think I don’t want wanna run to you, but there are mountains and doors we can’t walk through.”
Their families would kill them if they found out. They can never enter their homes hand in hand ever again.
“I know you’re wondering why,” he lamented, placing a hand on the Galra’s cheek, “because we’re able to be just you and me within these walls. But when when we go outside, you’re gonna wake up and see that it was hopeless after all.”
When they go back home, war will once again be the reality and they will be separated once more.
Lance stepped to the edge, his gaze turned to the stars and hands outstretched as though trying to grab one, only for it to vanish. “No one can rewrite the stars,” he stated, looking back to Keith. “How can you say you’ll be mine?”
Besides, both of them will definitely will have arranged marriages one day.
“Everything keeps us apart,” his voice shook as he spoke, “and I’m not the one you are meant to find.”
How could he be if everyone in their lives wants to tear them apart?
“It’s not up to you,” Lance stated. “It’s not up to me.”
It was decided the moment the first shot was made.
“When everyone tells us what we can be,” he cried, recalling when Allura told him that Keith their enemy. “How can we rewrite the stars? Say that the world can be ours...tonight..”
Keith didn’t falter, gripping Lance’s hands and pulling him into a dance. The Altean stumbled, surprised, before a wistful smile graced his lips. Their feet moved on their own, and soon it felt as though they were dancing amongst the stars.
“All I want is to fly with you,” they say to each other. “All I want is to fall with you, so just give me all of you.”
“It feels impossible,” the Altean admits.”
Determined, Keith shook his head. “It’s not impossible.”
“Is it impossible?” Lance could feel himself hesitating.
The image of their tranquil past had them voicing their greatest wish out loud in desperation, “Say it’s possible.”
“How do we rewrite the stars?” They ask, their feet stepping along the stars.
“Say you were,” Keith begins, joined in by the Altean, “made to be mine.”
He chuckled at the smirk in Lance’s face and they pressed their foreheads together, smiling. “Nothing can keep us apart cause you are the one I was meant to find.”
“It’s up to you,” they confessed, intertwining their fingers, “and it’s up to me. Not one can say what we get to be.”
Not Allura. Not Lotor. Not their kingdoms. And certainly not the war.
“And why don’t we rewrite the stars, changing the world to be ours…”
They leaned in close, lips meeting halfway. If only this moment could go on forever. Here where they could just dance amongst the stars, happy and together. If only…
Lance froze. Lotor’s threat to murder his younger half brother came back to mind. The Crown Prince had caught the Altean sneaking onto Galra once when he wanted to surprise Keith. He promised to keep their trysts a secret but also promised to kills them both if caught again.
Tears slipped down his cheeks after he pushed Keith away, shattering their fantasy in the stars. His voice was barely above a whisper when he spoke, “You know I want you. It’s not a secret I try to hide.”
He could barely able to look the Galra in the eye as he found himself backing away. “But I can’t have you. We’re bound to break and my hands are tied…”
Keith reached out to Lance, pain reflecting in his eyes. In his mind he begs Lance not to go, his voice lost as he finds himself unable to speak. Once again, his most important person, his love, was pulled away from him.