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<3<3
This was stupid. Everything about this was stupid. Why did he ever listen to Lance? About anything, in their whole lives, ever? Everything this man said was ridiculous. Keith didn’t even know if he’d won or lost their bet, considering the bizarre rules they’d set for the competition.
Keith and Hunk’s team had won but only by two points. And that meant, by the rules they had agreed upon, Lance had to spend an entire day doing whatever Keith said with no complaints… but Keith had to be wearing a dress the entire time, no matter what.
Yep. Keith had won but not by enough, and so now he got to be princess for a day. Even got a fancy red dress and matching jewels Lance and Pidge had picked out just for him. And the… the heels. He was wearing little ruby slippers. Because he was a princess.
“Oh my god,” Lance laughed, eyeing Keith up down and all around in his silken attire. “You look amazing, this was either the best idea I’ve ever had or the absolute worst! Either way I cannot wait.”
Keith’s glare could have melted steel. “Hold still so I can kick you.”
Lance darted a quick glance down to Keith’s heels, barely visible under the hem of his poofy red Altean Royal Prom Dress. “Uh. Is that a figure of speech, or a literal order?”
Keith blinked, having not actually considered that. “Literal,” he decided, hiking up his skirts with one hand to give himself room for a good wind-up.
He didn’t kick Lance very hard, because that would be meaner than it would be funny; just one good high-heeled jab to hear the sound of his yelp. Oh yeah, Keith decided with a wicked smirk as Lance hopped and clutched at his now-painful shin. He might just have fun today after all.
The thing was, Keith had never had siblings or playmates, so the idea of winning a bet and gaining a slave for a day was something that had never come up during his otherwise eventful childhood. So…. he didn’t know what to do with his own personal Lance For A Day. He knew theoretically he was supposed to be mean, but uh… Yeah. The first thing he ordered Lance to do beside that kicking thing was just to help Keith do his laundry. Exciting, right?
Okay, so Keith sucked. But what was he gonna do here, order Lance to make out with him? Yeah it sounded fun for a while but ultimately how awkward would that get the next day when he couldn’t order Lance to kiss him anymore? Weird, is what it would be. Weird and terrible and stupid. Keith was gonna stick to laundry.
“You’re boring me,” Lance declared after an hour, knotting off and dropping to the floor the leather jacket he had been sewing fixed. Sewing unprompted, might Keith mention - he had only asked if Lance knew how to get that motor oil stain out of the sleeve and Lance had magic’d up a needle and thread to fix a tear in the inner lining all on his own. “This is so BORING, you don’t know how to play princess at all! My sisters are way better at this game than you, I can’t believe how boring this is.”
Playing princess? Was this a bet Lance had a tendency to make and then lose OFTEN? Shouldn’t that dumb bastard have known better by now? Or had he just figured there was no way Keith could ever be as mean with it as his teenage sisters - okay yeah never mind hearing that Keith was pretty sure it was the answer, actually.
“Why,” Keith asked, flipping his voluminous skirts around him on the bed to better settle into some kind of comfortable position. “If you had won the bet, what kind of shit were you gonna order me to do?”
Lance hummed, eyes pointed up to the ceiling as he considered the question. “You know, normal stuff? Make you eat gross space food and follow me around carrying my things for me like a valet. I had this whole list made up of ways to embarrass you, but now I know how boring you are when you’re Royalty they just seem mean and petty. You took the fun out of being petty with your boring-ass, Keith.”
Boring? Did Lance want Keith to be mean and humiliate him, then? Well, no, probably not, but Keith could see how this would be a disappointment on Lance’s end. He couldn’t even make a good story out of it for later, with Keith going easy on him like this.
Oh, and wasn’t that a sad thought. What good was today if they couldn’t at least make a fun story out of it? Alright, then. Keith could do this. Today, Keith would be The Princess. Not for Lance, and not for himself, but for Shiro and Allura when they came back from that diplomatic conference they were stuck in for two days and got to hear every moronic detail of what he and Lance were gonna get up to.
“Fine,” Keith practically spat, voice sharp with determination. “But remember you asked for it. I was gonna go easy on you today, Lance.”
Lance’s mouth opened, but no words came out. Probably realizing what a stupid thing he had just done by provoking Keith, judging by the look on his face.
“I order…” Keith started instinctively, before realizing he had no idea what to make Lance do. Shit, humiliating, mean, princess, he was the Princess… The first thought that came to mind was to make Lance kiss his shoe, that seemed really princess-like, but. Yeah that was also weird as hell, and probably too humiliating for both of them and not just Lance. Quick, it’s been too long since you started, say something!
“I order you to kiss my hand, peasant,” Keith settled on, holding out his wrist in an intentionally limp and pompous gesture. Fortunately, Lance’s reaction was a burst of confused laughter, one eyebrow raised indulgently as he leaned forward and took Keith’s maidenly hand in his own.
He pressed his lips against the worn knuckle of Keith’s left hand, blue eyes boring straight up into Keith’s. “As you wish, my Princess.”
Keith felt his face heat up in the blush instantly.
Oh, fuck. He was gonna have to watch what he said today, or it was Keith who was going to end up with ten embarrassing stories about him before tomorrow, and not Lance.
<3<3
Opting to play it safe, the next order Keith had was more for himself than anything else. He wanted to work off some stress and in his opinion Lance never spent enough time on the training deck, so this seemed like two birds with one stone.
Granted, he’d never tried running around with a sword while wearing a dress, but he couldn’t bring himself to care about the impediment. He’d figure something out, after all.
So he set the droids on a co-op training mission, low level since Keith was in a ball gown and Lance didn’t practice as much as Keith did. They still made a good team even for all they argued, and once Keith got used to the limitations of his skirt and Lance got properly warmed up they kind of started kicking ass.
And maybe this was a little indulgent for another reason, as well. See now, Lance was a handsome young man as far as Keith was concerned, and as it happened Lance happened to look even more handsome when he was serious. He got this specific look in his eye in battle, this sharp Sniper’s Glare when something had his complete focus that was just… unf. Keith was a fan. And here side by side in a co-op battle? He had all the time in the world between sword strokes to appreciate the sight.
He also noticed of course that today Lance was staring at him an awful lot as well, but. It was hard not to be distracted by the swishing of his wine-red skirts while he jump-kicked android’s heads off. It was a pretty flashy sight.
When the battle wrapped up and they were both tired and sore, they broke for showers. It felt nice to get out of that awful dress and under the hot water for a few minutes, not even realizing how heavy the huge gown was until he’d gotten it off.
And then he was done showering and had to put it back on again, which, crap. At least this time there was someone nearby to ask for help with his zipper. His shoulder was too sore to reach all the way back there by himself right now.
“Lance,” he called over to the next room, where he knew the blue paladin was getting dressed himself. “Come over here and help me with this dress.”
He didn’t realize that by giving him an order Lance would show up immediately, coming over only half-dressed and holding his own clothes to put on on the way. Which meant Keith got to see him in just his jeans, padding over on bare feet and slinging his shirt on as he walked over with an open expression. “What’s up?”
Keith showed him his back, moving his hair aside out of instinct even though it wasn’t long enough to impede the low-jacked zipper of his dress. Lance paused when he got up to Keith, one hand hovering in the air above the zipper as he hesitated.
“Lance?” he called back curiously over his shoulder, holding up the two halves of the top of his dress. “Zip me up.”
When Lance fingers touched the zipper at the bottom of Keith’s back was about the time Keith realized how very naked he felt without the dress all the way on. Like literally, Lance was literally staring down at Keith’s naked back, and he felt his face and neck heat up in a flush that only got worse when he realized there was no way Lance couldn’t see it.
Lance’s fingers brushed against the skin of his back as he grabbed the zipper, and Keith unconsciously held his breath as Lance gently tugged it up to close his dress with a quiet rustle of fabric shifting. “Gotcha,” Lance said in a voice so soft it was nearly a whisper. “All, uh… All dressed.”
“Thanks.” Embarrassed, Keith let himself rub at his sore left shoulder, not sure what to say next.
Lance decided for him, asking “Does that hurt?” And reaching out to poke at the muscle Keith had been trying to loosen.
“Mm-hm,” Keith confirmed with an absent nod, still not having turned around to face Lance until he was sure his face had cooled down.
Lance made a considering type of sound behind him, a long hum that changed pitch about three times as it dragged on. “Okay,” Lance eventually said with finality, and Keith turned around to look just in time to see him grin. “I have an idea. Since you have no idea how to be a princess, I shall take it upon myself to treat you like one.”
Keith blinked. “Huh?”
“Just for today,” Lance said, “I’m gonna pamper you like you’ve never been pampered before. Spoil you like no one has ever spoiled your sad butt in your life. Probably literally, there’s no way those hands have seen a manicure before.”
“Manicure?” Keith asked dubiously as Lance led him out of the locker rooms with one hand on his bare shoulder. “How does cutting my nails count as spoiling me?”
“Oh honey,” Lance sighed pitifully, shaking his head. “You have no idea what’s coming.”
<3<3
There was a specific part of the castle meant for this sort of.. spa day nonsense, Keith had just never known about it before. But the royal highnesses living in the castle at her peak had to keep looking their finest, so why not have a full salon hidden away in a random wing so the queen and all her friends could get their hair and nails done without leaving the comfort of home, right?
Lance seemed to already know where it was, had probably been here before. Had probably been here with Allura, getting their skin treated together and giggling and that’s why they were both so god-damned good looking all the time. Shut up, Keith wasn’t jealous of those two hanging out together. Their friendship was pure and Keith was a better person than that.
Anyway so Lance set him up in this fancy chair, all plush leather to lean back in and get comfortable with a retractable little table to put his hands on once Lance started doing his nails. It was a big enough chair that even with all his skirts he was just able to sit down with room for his legs, where Lance immediately directed him to take his shoes off and soak his feet in the fancy hot water bucket at the base of the chair.
Which… okay, wow, yeah. That was pretty awesome. Even without the heels Keith’s feet hurt pretty much all the time but it wasn’t something he ever thought about or like… gave any bit of his attention to, so suddenly having that soreness pointed out by its own ease when he slipped his feet into the epsom-salted waters was… kind of incredible. And he’d thought ‘soak your feet’ was just an expression, not something people really did.
The moment he got comfortable it was time for the face masks, which Keith objected to on principle but Lance insisted was one hundred percent necessary to soothe the bags under Keith’s eyes that he claimed had taken permanent residence there.
“Your blackheads,” Lance explained as he slathered Keith’s face in greenish-white goo, “are personally offensive to me.”
Keith would have shrugged, but he feared the repercussions with Lance holding a trowel of face-cement to his jawline. The chemicals kind of tingled but didn’t actually burn, so it was probably fine to indulge Lance on this. Hey wait, wasn’t Keith supposed to be he one deciding everything tonight? Maybe he really DID suck at being a princess...
So he tried to get comfortable, tried to relax because that seemed to be the point behind spas in the first place. It was weird, but Lance seemed to both know exactly what he was doing and being enjoying himself while he worked too, so Keith made active efforts to finally chill the fuck out for ten minutes.
He succeeded, though he’d never be able to tell you if that were a good thing or bad. Because you see, the first thing he became aware of once he finally got comfortable and the face mask wasn’t the only thing on his mind anymore was Lance. And his hands. And the fact that his hands were touching Keith’s in a manner one might describe as intimate.
Very carefully, Lance was taking each one of Keith’s individual fingers in his own, soaking the cuticles with a hot towel for a few seconds before he’d get to work on trimming and filing the nail for the selected finger. Each one seemed to take a minute by itself to finish, leaving plenty of time for Keith to look at the way his hands fit in Lance’s and feel the softness of the other paladin’s skin against his.
And the thing was… dear GOD was Keith ever touch-starved. He was so sensitive to human contact, there was no way in Zarkon’s universe Keith could focus on anything but the feeling of Lance’s gentle hands on his, for as long as it lasted. Every touch sent shivers down his spine, what sweet heavenly torture.
Lance didn’t even ask before he got out the nail polish, having somehow pulled out of his ass a bottle of deep ruby red that matched Keith’s dress and heels. He just splayed out Keith’s hands on the little table, and with ease he really shouldn’t possess painted thin swipes of perfect red all over Keith’s newly-trimmed nails.
(The kicker was when he leaned down to gently blow a cool breath on the wet polish. If Keith hadn’t been blushing red as his nails before then, he certainly was after.)
By the time they got down to his feet, Keith already had an idea of what to expect. In fact what he didn’t expect was for anything to be different.
It was. But that was, uh. Hm. Yeah, Lance’s fault, Keith was pretty sure this time it was Lance’s fault.
“Oh wow,” Lance breathed when he pulled Keith’s right foot out of the bath. “You’re… they’re so... Dainty."
“Don’t make fun,” Keith kicked at him without really any intention of hitting, peeling at the corners of his face mask as it started to dry out and itch.
“I’m not making fun! I’m just surprised how cute they are! Feet aren’t supposed to be cute, you’re the weird one here not me,” Lance defended quickly and stupidly, blushing like he knew what he said had made no sense but stubbornly going with it anyway.
Like seriously, the guy Keith liked called him cute and it was in reference to his feet. Was Keith supposed to be like, flattered? Because he was just embarrassed so far.
“They’re all red and blistered, though…” Lance observed, taking a closer look as he trimmed Keith’s toenails. “Are they always like this, or is this just from today?”
“Both?” Keith shrugged. “The heels definitely made it worse.”
“Hmm,” Lance hummed, looking down at Keith’s feet in contemplation after having only done the bare minimum of cutting the nails. “Okay, this isn’t gonna be good enough. We’re gonna have to resort to the Special lotions.”
A raised eyebrow. “Special lotions?” That sounded… ominous.
Lance nodded, patting one of Keith’s ankles. “Yup. Get up, Princess. We’re heading to my room to take care of these callouses.”
“Fine,” Keith said, feeling lazy and impulsive at the same time in his relaxed state. “Carry me there, I don’t feel like walking.”
With a bark of surprised laughter, Lance turned around to offer Keith a climb up in a piggy-back. Keith accepted graciously, letting Lance carry his heels and pretending having his arms looped around Lance’s neck while the other paladin carried his entire body weight like it was nothing wasn’t making his insides flutter.
<3<3
Keith had in fact been inside Lance’s room before in the name of playing video games together, so it's not like merely stepping into the space that belonged to the boy he liked was enough to make his heart pound. For one thing Lance was still carrying him, so if anything was giving him butterflies it was gonna be that. He could smell his freakin’ hair, for god’s sake. When else did Keith get an opportunity like that?
Which is why it was such a shame when Lance had to deposit Keith onto his bed, finally putting the other paladin down. Well, can’t say he hadn’t enjoyed it while it lasted.
Except ooohhhh holy shit nevermind. He had sat down idly on Lance’s bed before but this time when he landed it was on his back, and for a few long seconds until he sat up again Keith’s head was resting in Lance’s own pillow. Not as good as smelling his hair directly had been, but god was it close.
“Don’t bother,” Lance practically scolded Keith when he tried to get up. He was swooping in to shove extra pillows and blankets behind Keith to build a sort of nest out of, directing Keith to lie back down and make himself comfortable in the mess of bedding.
Fluffing his skirts around him on the bed Keith did, leaning back against the pile and watching as Lance wandered over to the attached bathroom to get his ‘lotions.’ He came back and sat down on the floor in front of Keith, where he had his legs splayed out and feet hanging delicately off the end of the bed waiting for Lance to tend to them.
“Oh for -” Lance sighed when he saw Keith picking of the last remnants of his face mask. “Here,” he tossed up one of the jars he’d brought with him, which Keith caught easily. “One more moisturizer for your face. It’ll make you glow, now that we’ve gotten your pores cleansed to hell and back.”
Shrugging, Keith obliged to rub a bit on his face, noticing that it had been feeling itchy with how much the mask had dried his skin out. “Maybe by the end of this I’ll be as beautiful as you are,” he joked idly, rubbing the lotion into his skin.
He earned a genuine laugh from Lance for that one. “Like you aren’t the sexiest person in the castle no matter what you do to your skin.”
“I’m the what now?”
“Huh?” Lance looked up, like he hadn't realized he’d said that out loud. “Aw, Keith, are you self-conscious? Don’t worry, I promise you’re the prettiest princess in the whole castle.”
That made Keith pause. Prettiest princess in the castle? “So I’m prettier than Allura?”
Lance stopped what he was doing, jar of cream hanging half-unscrewed in his hands. “W-well,” he stuttered, face turning red and eyes shifting away. “I said what I said, didn’t I? As far as princesses go, you’re the… The goshdarn fanciest, you are.”
...Okay, Keith was gonna let this slide for now. Lance deserved at least that much evasion. Plus this way no one had to pretend Keith was actually prettier than Allura.
“This is gonna sting,” Lance said as he applied the first cream, using a little trowel so he wouldn’t make direct contact with his own skin as he smeared the concoction on the toughest spots of Keith’s hardened feet. “This stuff eats away at the dead skin, so it’s gonna burn like a bitch. I’ve only had to use it once, that one time while you were in the Blade that I trained so hard my feet started cracking and bleeding. Yours look like they’re about two seconds from doing the same, so we gotta clean up your feet and start from scratch. Give you some baby skin.”
It was definitely working, Keith noted with a hiss. “How long do we leave it on for?”
“Only a minute or so,” Lance assured him. “This Altean stuff is like. Medical grade, once we’re done with all of it it’s literally gonna heal your feet better than the pods would.”
That sounded promising, but the burning was still irritating in the meantime. Keith waited until Lance was using a cloth to wipe away the cream, taking with it layers and layers of dead skin cells that left Keith’s feet raw and red.
The next step Lance didn’t need any tools for, which was promising. He just slathered on the next cream with his own hands, instantly soothing the sting left over the from the last one when it where it touched his skin.
“We’ve gotta let this sit now,” Lance said, “And like.. Regrow a layer of skin for you to be able to walk on. It’ll take a few minutes, so…”
Keith nodded, understanding but not sure what to do next. He watched as Lance stood up, declaring, “SO I’m gonna get us some food while we wait!” Which after how long today had already been, sounded like a wonderful idea.
But with his agreement Lance left the room, which… left Keith alone in here. And unsure what to do but still generally too comfortable to move even after the skin treatment, he just burrowed deeper into the pile of pillows Lance had provided for him and let his feet tingle with the healing power of Altean spa treatments.
He was alone, in Lance’s room. In Lance’s bed, and Keith wasn’t wearing pants right now. He was in Lance’s bed and he wasn’t wearing pants, and that was so embarrassing he was afraid he was gonna throw up from all the butterflies in his stomach. Terrible butterflies. Carnivorous cannibal butterflies eating each other. Oh god, how long did he have to wait like this until Lance came back?
Even in the bizarre humiliation of his crush, Lance’s bed was still way too comfortable to stay wound up. Not when the sheets and pillows smelled like him, and now that Keith was alone in here he could take a deep breath in and suck in as much of the scent as he wanted with no one to make fun of him for it. He was just gonna enjoy this for a few minutes, while he could...
When the door slid open again Keith realized he had dozed off, but wasn’t quite awake enough to open his eyes yet. He just stayed curled up in the spot he’d fallen asleep in, waiting for a reason good enough to get up for.
“God damn it, Keith,” Lance’s voice sounded like it was smiling, so Keith didn’t worry and stayed where he was. “I leave for five minutes and you can’t resist doing the cutest thing possible in that time, can you?”
He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he heard the click of a plate being set down. “Come on, Sleeping Beauty,” Lance said louder now, approaching Keith close enough to tug on a lock of his hair playfully. “You can fall back sleep after we’ve eaten, but this food won't be as good when it’s cold.”
Keith swatted at his hand, finally relenting and sitting upright once more. “You’re the one who told me I was supposed to be relaxed,” he complained to hide his embarrassment for having been caught asleep and cuddling one of Lance’s pillows.
The food was just leftovers from Hunk’s dinner last night, but it was still good. Exactly what Keith had needed, and he hadn’t even noticed how hungry he really was until he started eating. Lance ate his own plate of food sitting on the other side of the bed, joking idly between them as they finished their meals.
Lance even took the plates when they were clean of food, setting them on a dresser and coming back to sit on the floor at Keith’s feet.
“I,” he said as he grabbed one of Keith’s feet to pull it down off the bed again “Am not done with these dainty little feet, Mr. Princess.”
Whatever Lance had slathered on last had absorbed completely into his skin by now, and when he looked down he saw that his heels were no longer as red and raw as they’d been a minute ago, nor indeed as hard and calloused as they’d been another hour before. In fact with fascination he flung the foot Lance wasn’t holding up to his own face, ignoring the skirts to look at how pale and new the skin on his feet really was, testing the baby-softness with his own fingers with nearly obsessive interest.
“They’re like brand new feet,” Keith said out loud. “I’m gonna have to re-harden them all over again.”
“Trust me, that won’t take long,” Lance promised, and Keith looked down at the floor to see Lance wiggling his own toes inside of his socks. “And you’ll feel much better in the meantime.” He tugged on Keith’s foot again, which when Keith actually noticed actually felt kind of nice on the sore muscles of his ankles still lurking under his fresh skin.
Lance took Keith’s foot in both of his hands, which really did make it look as small and dainty as Lance had been teasing. He pressed his fingers into the sides of the foot to give it a light squeeze, digging right into the tender flesh and sore muscles. It felt so good on Keith’s sensitive feet he actually gasped, eliciting a smirk from Lance as he continued to prod at the sore bottom of Keith’s foot.
The heel, the arch, the ball of his foot. Lance even pulled on each one of Keith’s tiny little toes, massaging between them with care. The ankle, the ankle was the best part, Keith decided as he melted into Lance’s bedsheets. His ankles had been so sore and Lance’s fingers were so deft and perfect, poking at exactly the right places and relieving pressure everywhere he touched, like magic…
Just as Keith was officially a puddle of goo held into a dress, Lance patted his right foot with a sense of completion. And then tugged down the left foot to start on that one instead.
He couldn't help it. Keith had been holding it in before but the sigh he let out when Lance started on Keith’s second foot was loud enough to be truly embarrassing. Even worse was when it didn’t stop, more little sighs peeling out of his open lips every time Lance’s finger hit a truly good spot, over and over on every part of his stupid tiny foot.
Keith was in fucking heaven. He’d heard of footrubs like any sane person but he’d of course never had anyone to give one to him before, and so he’d had no idea just how awesome it could really feel. Just how soothing it was to have something as simple as another person’s hands pressing on the sore spots of his overused body…
It didn’t help of course that it was
. Keith had only had a crush on the guy for god knew how long. Every time Lance even patted his shoulder it sent a hurricane of butterflies in his stomach, and Lance’s hands had been on him constantly for like an hour straight now and it was seriously starting to make Keith dizzy. Not like, literally dizzy. Just… Gay-dizzy.
“Alright,” Lance said in a soft voice after god knew how long of lavishing careful obsessive attention on Keith’s small feet. He leaned down to press a kiss on the top of Keith’s foot, and giggled like a total jerk at Keith’s embarrassed squeak. “I think I’ve done all we can here. Let’s see about that shoulder that was bugging you, huh?”
“Huh?” Keith muttered sleepily, drawing his feet back up under himself to curl further into the bed. “Do I have to move?”
Lance laughed, climbing up on the bed to sit next to Keith. “Just roll over, I’ll take care of the rest.”
Keith obediently flopped onto his stomach, cuddling into the nest of pillows once more to re-comfortable-ize himself with a sigh. Lance’s quiet laugh was much closer this time, and he settled right next to Keith to place both his hands on either one of Keith’s less-than-delicate shoulders.
“Woooowww, you’re like, made of pure solid muscle,” Lance marveled as soon as he touched the tense line of Keith’s shoulders, still hard even in his current state of catatonic relaxation. “You really never put down that freakin’ sword, do you?”
“Nope,” Keith confirmed lazily from where his face was buried in a pillow. “Got it under my skirt right now.”
Lance’s laugh was full and hearty like he wasn’t trying to hold back his amusement. “Never change, Keith. Never change.” And with that, he dug his hands in hard, working his body weight into trying to loosen Keith’s stiff back with his hands.
It wasn’t quite as good as the footrub, but it was still amazing. Totally different from the footrub too, Lance had been all soft touches and precision on his feet, but up here on Keith’s shoulders and back he had to use much more force for Keith’s thick overused muscles to even register the massage.
His arms and shoulders were always so sore, and Lance was hitting all the weakest most tender spots and just railing into him with his entire strength. It hurt, every touch just exaggerated how sore Keith really was while it pressed in, but then the relief when Lance let up was incredible. All the tension was worked away like a meat tenderizer pounding on a steak, and it was exactly what Keith had always needed. He probably moaned, and if he did he didnt even care. That’s how good this was.
Eventually the hard touches softened, half because Keith didn’t need his muscles beaten into submission before he’d feel anything anymore and half because Lance had just run out of energy and didn’t feel like putting that much effort into the massage anymore. That was all good with Keith. He was already a comfortable pile of paladin melted into Lance’s bed at this point, now the lighter touches just made him even more calm and sleepy.
A little too sleepy. He was definitely dozing off now, but who cared? Fuck it, he was gonna take a nap in his crush’s bed while said crush used his big handsome hands and pretty long fingers to make Keith feel so good he never wanted to get out of this bed again. And he was just gonna enjoy every damned second of it is what he was gonna do.
Obviously, he lost some awareness of what happened next. Let himself drift off in daydreams while Lance hummed an idle song behind him, enjoying every moment of his pampering until sleep took him.
When he woke up, it was to Lance’s voice again. He didn’t know how long he had been dozing off for this time, but it was once again Lance’s words waking him up.
“-eith? Keith buddy, are you awake?”
Not being awake, Keith didn’t respond. Lance sighed, quiet and affectionate, flicking the hair out of Keith’s eyes where he was laying half-curled on Lance’s own bed. “God damn it Keith,” he cursed in a voice so soft Keith barely heard it at all. “You can’t even help but be cute, can you?”
That was the second time he’d called Keith cute in the last hour, and he was starting to think it wasn’t an accident. “If I’m so cute,” Keith peeled one eye open to glare at Lance, who jumped back with a surprised yelp. “Then why haven’t you kissed me yet?”
“I haven’t -” Lance stuttered, surprised and confused and blushing at least as bad as Keith was. “I - You haven’t asked me to!”
Keith finally rolled over, sitting up to shoot a glare at Lance. “I shouldn’t need to ask, you should be kissing me because you want to, not because I told you to.”
“I didn’t even know you wanted me to, though!”
They were both still sitting on the bed, and now that Keith had sat up they were close enough to stare each other in the eye. Really close, in fact. So close that all Keith needed was to see Lance leaning in towards him for him to follow through the rest of the way in and smash their lips together in a kiss.
Keith had never been kissed before, but he was pretty sure this wasn’t a good one. He did not care. It was still Lance so it was perfect anyway.
<3<3
“Did you use the moisturizer I gave you?” Lance asked, swiping a lock of hair out of Keith’s face a few days later. “Your face looks clearer, are you still taking care of yourself?”
“I think,” Keith smiled, grabbing Lance’s hand to pull it away from his face, “I can handle a little lotion at night. You more than take care of the rest.”
Keith meant that seriously. If he’d thought the foot rubs were going to be a one-time thing, he had severely underestimated Lance. Or possibly the foot fetish he still wouldn’t admit to having. Either way it had Lance picking up Keith’s feet and idly starting to massage them any time they were alone together.
“You’re the one who needs taking care of,” Lance fretted bashfully, turning where Keith was still holding onto his hand into a proper hand-holding by winding their fingers together before keith got the chance to do so himself. “Always overworking yourself, if I didn’t make you stop and take a bath you’d keep going until you collapsed.”
Which was honestly probably true. “Good thing I have you then,” Keith smiled, tugging Lance closer by their joined hands with the intention of leaning up for a kiss.
“Oho, what’s this now?” A painfully and literally familiar voice said in a teasing lilt. “Since when do you two hold hands?”
“S-Shiro!” Lance jumped, instinctively trying to jerk his hand back and just smacking himself in the thigh with their joined hands instead. “We were just uh…” He paused like he was looking for an appropriate lie. “Dating.” He gave up with a shrug and a single word of the honest truth.
“Uh-huh,” Shiro smiled. “And may I ask when this development happened, or is this suppose to be an entirely private affair?”
And that was when Keith realized that, now and forever, the story of how he started dating his first (and let’s be honest, probably only) boyfriend involved him being in a prom dress and being called ‘Princess’ for an entire day.
“Private,” he and Lance both answered instantly.
Shiro, uh. Shiro laughed at them anyway.
<3<3