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He had always seen Lance showing a lot of confidence.
At first it was because of that that he started liking his friend, how he always demonstrated the advances he had done with his abilities, and how his smile had that tilt of proudness when he achieved something.
And how he showed off being a heartbreaker embittered him a bit.
Of course, he had never seen him date someone for more than two weeks, normally everything ending with the girl wearing a sad smile and Lance explaining to him briefly in the privacy of their shared room that she simply wasn’t his type.
Lance received and showed off the title as if it was a crown, and surprisingly that attracted all the women. Or almost every woman, because Pidge still rolled her eyes and winced in disgust. He supposes that that’s why they are friends and Lance hasn’t tried to flirt with her.
That, or Lance stills thinks she’s a boy.
Anyways, all that show of Lance ‘Heartbreaker’ McClain annoyed him quite a lot. But, to his misfortune, he was still attracted to him.
Maybe it wasn’t because of all the image Lance built of himself in front of the whole school. Maybe it was because he had seen him how he really was, with his snorty laughs when he couldn’t stop giggling for more than two minutes. Or the way he wrinkled his nose and crooked his mouth when he tried to understand math. Or the lost look he had in lunch before Pidge and him took seat with him. Or the honest smile that appears on his lips when he offered the cookies he made the night before. Or the pitch of his voice when he complimented his pastry and the jokes about him being the perfect husband for the fortunate that would fall in love with him.
Maybe it was that he didn’t know Lance ‘Heartbreaker’ McClain, and simply knew Lance, that one with his defects and mistakes that didn’t have anything to do with his flirty smirk and blue eyes. Maybe it was because he knew who he really was.
“Maybe I’m not made for love.”
He went still, the water from the sink hitting his hands. He blinked, looking the plate he had dropped, and he swallowed before reaching for him, huffing to regain his voice.
“What?” he questioned lightly with a chuckle, fixing his gaze onto the plate while rubbing the sponge against it, resisting the urge to look over his shoulder, “Why do you say that? Allura already rejected you?”
There was no answer, and he finished washing the dishes in silence, cleaning up the working area because of the tension.
“I’m being serious, Hunk.”
He pursued his lips, humming while musing over it.
“I don’t think it’s that serious,” he tried to cheer him up, wearing the best smile he could show and turning to him.
But he felt it fell down immediately, his heart falling with it to the ground when he saw him hiding between his arms leaned in the bar, the side of his face against the wood and his eyes lost somewhere in the wall.
“It’s just...” he heard him sigh, and he had to look away and dry off his hands in his yellow apron to distract his want to hug him, “All the girls I’ve dated... all of them that it didn’t work.”
He breathed deeply and walked to the bar, keeping himself in the other side and looking at him fixedly.
“But it just didn’t work out, Lance,” he explained smiling at him, even when Lance was still staring at the wall, “You said it yourself, you broke up because they weren’t your type, not because you’re not made for love.”
Lance stayed silent, his eyes lost like they were when he was alone, like when the only thing he could hear was his thoughts.
“I’ve lied.”
Hunk watched him, seeing him straighten up, avoiding his eyes while his fingers fidgeted nervously.
“Lied?”
“It wasn’t because they weren’t my type,” he answered quickly, the corner of his eyes wrinkling, “It wasn’t because I didn’t like them. It was...”
He waited for him to continue, not wanting to pressure him with another question, and he heard him sigh heavily.
“It didn’t work because I was scared.”
Hunk frowned.
“What?”
“I’m afraid, Hunk,” he admitted in a mutter, his voice shaky and full of breath, “Every time I see the relationship goes to something serious, I...”
Lance bit his tongue and Hunk swallowed.
“I sabotage it,” he said frustrated, bringing his hands to his head and shoving back his hair from his face with a grunt, “I know it looks like I have all the confidence in the world, and I believe I’m the best in everything. But I’m always afraid they’ll say I’m inexpert or useless, or maybe say that I'm not what they expected, that I’m a deception.”
The kitchen was silent for a bit Lance sniffin loudly and rubbing his eyes with his fists, the trail of tears getting trapped in his lashes.
“Remember Nyma?”
Hunk nodded slowly.
“I was with her for two months,” Lance continued without looking at him, as if he wasn’t expecting an answer in first place, “and in our anniversary, she wanted... I mean...”
Hunk tightened his fists, trying to ignore the anger heating his stomach, because he wanted to be there for his friend.
“She wanted to do it with me,” he commented with a breath, “But I was too nervous, and when it came the time to...”
He saw him shake his head and then drop it to the bar again.
“I couldn’t, Hunk,” he finished with dread, his voice to alarmed that sped up his heart in terror, “I couldn’t. And Nyma... she laughed at me when she knew it was my first... my first time. She only was with me because she thought I was good with sex, but I’ve never...”
Hunk left out a sigh that he didn’t know he was holding.
“I’ve never done...” he confessed suddenly, his face reddening briefly to the end of his ears, changing the conversation suddenly, “Everybody think that I’m an expert, and that I break up with the ones I’m dating because they don’t fulfill my requests. But it’s just that I’m scared. I’m scared of not being enough.”
Lance wasn’t the guy everybody think he was. He too had his defects and insecurities. And that was the very first time he had heard that one from him.
Still a bit surprised and puzzled by the sudden confession, Hunk took a deep breath and took off his apron, walking to him and sitting down beside him, Lance glancing him from the corner of his eye before staring blankly at the surface of the bar.
“It’s normal having that kind of fears, Lance,” he explained slowly, tilting his head in an attempt to search for his eyes, “But your failed relationships don’t mean that you’re not made for love.”
Lance scoffed, rolling back his eyes and slumping his shoulders.
“I’ve tried for my relationships to work, Hunk,” he argued with the jaw tense, his hands making fists in his lap, “But I always end up ruining it, or making a dumb mistake, and that’s what makes it end. And I break up with them because I’m scared they’ll break up with me, because I can’t handle my heart being broken.”
Hunk contained a huff because of the ironic of that, and lowered his gaze, seeing his fingers fidget nervously between them before talking.
“But that doesn’t mean you’re not made for love,” he insisted softly, a sigh getting out at the little pain in his heart, “Maybe you feel that insecure because you haven’t met the right person.”
There was no answer and he took it as an invitation to continue.
“You’ve felt this way with all of them probably because they weren’t the right person. You need someone you can confide on and enjoy your company,” he murmured carefully, taking a teasing tone after, “Not just a title and a couple of dates.”
He heard him snort softly and he tried to bite off the smile that formed in his mouth.
“You need someone that can assure you with their words, their actions, with naturality. But saying you’re not made for love...”
There was a beat of silence and Hunk risked a glance at Lance, finding him smiling small, his eyes trailing by the figures in the wood before turning to him.
“Thanks, Hunk.”
And there it was that pitch in his voice. Softer and calmer than the rest. More emotional and lovingly. That one that made his heart beat with more force than normal. Finishing with that sincere grin that he felt it was only for him, that didn’t have even a little pinch of flirty but made him fall for him more than he had.
“Hunk?”
He flinched away and pushing his seat, realizing in that moment with the blue eyes open with surprise and his face blushing slightly in front of him that he had leant into him to kiss him.
“A-ah, I...” he stuttered turning away, trying to avoid the blush covering his face to be noticed, “The cookies! I’ll take out the dough from the refrigerator and-”
A hand stopped him, gripping his arm with not much force, but the mere touch was enough to stop his steps and turn to him, finding his eyes immediately.
“L-lance, wha-”
A kiss.
A little kiss in his lips was the only answer, and when Lance pulled away, looking down with a dark flush in his skin from the tip of his ears to the end of his neck, Hunk startled in what had happened.
“I-I’m sorry,” he apologized letting his arm go, and stepping back, his hands reaching and hiding the lower part of his face, “I thought- when you- I just-”
“I like you, Lance.”
The blue eyes went up to his face swiftly, Hunk reaching for his hands and pulling them off his face carefully.
“I like you,” he repeated, his heart deafening his ears and hitting his chest hardly, “Please, would you go out with me?”
He saw his throat move in a harsh swallow and look down to his chest, his hands tightening in his before leaning and thumping his forehead in his chest, feeling him nod against him.
“Please,” he murmured, a nervous giggle coming out from his lips, “Please, Hunk.”
And Hunk wrapped him in his arms, with his mind determined to make him forget all the insecurity he could have.