Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Grapes.

He’d been thinking about grapes all day. Big, purple, juicy grapes. Lance had never had grapes often at home. He never really had a craving for them before and probably only took two or three off the vine while his siblings took whole sprigs. But today he wanted grapes, and he couldn’t figure out why. He didn’t think there’d be any growing there in the US Southwest, so the craving was more of a nuisance really. It was so much of a nuisance, he actually zoned out during class that afternoon thinking about grapes.

And that was unacceptable.

Lance had to focus. He had to keep up in his classes and do well , because if he failed his first semester, not only would Mamá give him the spoon but Abuela would cut him off from the money she paid to keep him there. Not that he was necessarily supposed to know this, as it was something Veronica told him as they boarded the plane from Varadero, and she never told him things he was supposed to know , but he was glad for the heads up. Despite the anxiety it gave him. Yeah.

So he really needed to get over this stupid grape thing.

He’d wash up, go to dinner, and hopefully have a meal that would obliterate that craving.

Good plan, Lance.

But, of course, he’d hit a snag in the plan just as he turned into the hall adjacent to the cafeteria.

That snag being that weird kid from the simulator that liked to punch people. What was his name, again? Nevermind that, Lance was never good with names anyway. Faces were easier, and that kid had a mug no one could forget. He had what Veronica would call a… a resting… something face- whatever. Emo was annoying, and Lance knew it, and crashing into him right outside the cafeteria doors was not at all intended.

Lance fell back onto the ground, a grunt escaping as his backside hit the cold, tile floor. He looked up to see Emo staring down at him with large violet eyes under a creased brow. Flames lit up Lance’s cheeks in embarrassment, and he scrambled to his feet.

“Watch where you’re going!” he shouted quite loudly.

Emo’s left eye winced, then a scowl crossed his lips. “Me? You’re the one who ran into me ! Watch where you ’ re going, idiot!”

Lance scoffed, crossing his arms and cocking his hip like how his mamá did when he or his siblings talked back. “Well, I wouldn’t have run into you if you hadn’t just been standing there like a-a-” Lance floundered for a bit, thinking of the right English word to insult him with, but settled with the Spanish one his papá would use on his neighbour’s dad- “ cabrón !!”

The insult probably didn’t land the way he intended, considering his opponent’s confused look, and the heavily accented “what in tarnation” that slipped under his breath as his vibrant eyes searched for a comeback, but Lance couldn’t help the smug smirk creeping up in his frown.

“Now,” Lance added, feeling pretty big for a thirteen-year-old, “are you going to move or just keep staring at…” his words dropped off slowly and one by one as he turned to the wall to see the school’s over-dramatic data chart for the newest recruits.

By over-dramatic, Lance meant that whoever created it overcompensated to make it look friendly and, dare he say, cute. Not only were the typical names, scores, and placements on there, but the ID photos of each of the students next to the names, all bordered with that weird border paper you found in elementary classrooms. Veronica, he knew, was on the student life committee and it had her stench all over it.

“Ack, Veronica, why did you use this picture of me?!” Lance sprawled himself against the wall, lamenting his photographic shame. “You have hundreds of better ones. Why this one?” He considered that becoming one of the cool kids was off the table now.

“You don’t look that bad,” said Emo from behind him. Lance’s neck practically 180’d at the confession. Emo stood there, hands in his pockets, and a peculiar spark in his bright eyes. He stepped forward. “Besides, the pictures aren’t the point. The scores are what’s important.” He tapped Lance’s data sheet, just below his placement and score. “You tested really well. Just a few points behind me.” He moved his hand to what Lance assumed was his one data sheet, which was to the left of Lance’s.

Lance read the ranking, and Emo was right. Just a few more points and Lance would have tied with him. While that was exciting and all, considering Emo was second place in the chart, Lance was drawn to his picture. That weird mullet framed his face, contrasting his eyes, which popped from under the messy black bangs.

“You’re pretty good.”

Lance turned to him, surprised from the compliment. Emo didn’t look back. His gaze was locked on the rankings, thoughtful.

“I wouldn’t be surprised that we’d be neck-and-neck by the end of the year, Lance,” he said. Then, he turned to leave.

Lance was frozen for a moment before he regained control of his limbs and senses. He lurched forward, hand outstretched. “Wait!”

Emo turned, those eyes, sparkling in the fluorescent light, now locked on him. Lance felt a heat and grumbling in his stomach, an he felt light-headed- from hunger, he assumed. He forced his question out anyway.

“How did,” he swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry, “how did you know my name?”

Emo quirked an eyebrow. “It’s on your data sheet.”

With that, he pushed through the cafeteria doors and was gone.

Lance returned to the data chart (if you could even call it that) and studied it for a moment. Oh yeah. His name was on there. Stupid . He curiously moved slightly to the left and looked at Emo’s sheet.

Or, he should say Keith Kogane’s sheet.

Keith. That was his name.

Oh.

The burning feeling in his stomach only intensified as he looked over Keith’s data sheet and his ID photo. He had to admit, he had never seen such violet eyes before. Lance stumbled a bit, placing his hand over the photo to stabilize himself. He needed to eat. Forget what all just happened and eat.

Good plan, Lance.

But he really wanted those grapes.

Chapter Text

In Pidge’s words, Keith would just love to yeet himself out the airlock right about then.

But he couldn’t, and that was a problem. He was stuck in a broken down elevator in an alien castle-ship with probably the most annoying person on the whole of team Voltron, and, from the sounds around them and flickering lights, the situation wouldn’t be fixing itself any time soon. He sighed, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. As long as he and Lance kept to their sides of the elevator, it should be okay until Pidge could fix the damned thing. Easy.

Except Lance started talking.

“How does an elevator built with futuristic alien technology break down like this? You think they’d prepare for this.”

“I don’t know, Lance,” Keith groaned through gritted teeth. “Do I look like I know anything about Altean engineering?”

“Not everything has to be about you, Keith!” Lance flung his arms in the air as he always did when he shouted at him. Keith scoffed, but Lance kept going. “You know, instead of moping in the corner you could help figure this out.”

“Fine! What are your ideas, Lance?” Keith rubbed his temples, waiting for some halfwit response, but one didn’t come. He peeked through his bangs to see Lance standing there, red in the face with a dumbass expression. Naturally. “Well?!”

Lance looked away quickly and stuttered, “I- I didn’t actually have one.”

Keith growled. “Then why were you yelling at me about it?!”

Lance visibly flinched, taking Keith by surprise. He watched as his fellow paladin, and self-proclaimed rival, kick the floor lightly with his foot and grasp at the ends of the towel hanging over his shoulders.

“Nobody’s ever asked me for ideas before,” he said quietly. Keith could only shoot him an incredulous look before he returned to the defensive. “What?! I don’t have to do everything, you know!”

“At least think of an idea before yelling at me to!”

“Aaaagh!”

Lance paced about the small cabin. Keith pressed himself against the wall as tightly as he could, trying to keep an inkling of personal space, but Lance was bound determined to take all he had. This proved to be of no use, however, as the idiot ended up standing in the middle tearing at his own hair in frustration. Keith winced as Lance’s scream of anger bounced off the walls a good three times.

“Okay, why? Why do I have to get stuck in the elevator with you?” Lance stomped his foot as he rounded on Keith. Before anything else could happen, however, the whole elevator shook and plummeted.

It was only a matter of feet. Just a few feet before the elevator caught itself with a screech and a lurch that sent Lance flying into Keith, and Keith to the floor. When they opened their eyes, they found their faces pressed together, noses pushed to the sides slightly… and their lips touching. Practically locked. It was only minutes, but the two were frozen there for what felt like an eternity. Keith glanced into the ocean blue eyes in front of him as waves of emotion breached the shores of Lance’s expression. Shock. Fear. Embarrassment-

Lance scrambled off him and curled up into a ball in the middle of the floor, leaving Keith to just sit against the wall and stare at him. He lifted his hand to his lips, feeling a bruise forming and a small bead of blood trickling off his bottom lip. Lance was no better with a hand covering his bruised nose and the other his mouth. It was silent for a moment. The lights flickered again.

“I can’t believe I kissed you,” Lance said, his voice muffled by his hand. Keith couldn’t say anything. Still in shock, he dropped his hand to his hip. Lance rubbed his nose a bit, eyes still wide. He wasn’t sure, but Keith thought he saw tears glazing over his eyes.

He furrowed his brow and asked, “Was that your… your first kiss?”

Lance blinked. The question seemed to take him out of his stupor. “Ha, no.” He shook his head and smirked, giving Keith a sideways glance. “That was with Heather, second semester. I’ve kissed plenty of girls since then.”

The way he specified it set Keith’s gears turning. Well, Lance wasn’t too happy he kissed a boy, and that was fine. Sort of insulting, but fine. Everyone has their own thing , and Keith should have assumed Lance’s thing wasn’t boys. It was kind of hard for him to remember that not everyone around him was queer , considering his whole immediate friend group consisted of Shiro, Adam, and, a little later, Matt. So basically he only associated kindly with fellow gay men and… whatever Matt was. Matt was something not straight, Keith could tell you that. He just never really picked a label and-

“Was it yours?”

Keith blinked back to reality. He locked eyes with Lance, who had turned to face him, arms wrapped around his knees. There was a curiosity in his eyes that matched the tone of his question. An air settled about them. Vulnerable. Open. Keith found himself breaking eye-contact and focusing on the floor next to his feet. This was weird. This shouldn’t be happening, especially not with Lance .

“Should I take that as a yes?”

“... Maybe.”

The cabin shook again. Keith and Lance sprung to their feet. The very tension holding the elevator aloft was palpable, and Keith swore he could feel it fraying. It would take another plunge any minute now.

“We really need to get out of here,” he said. Lance nodded.

They made it to the pool. In a roundabout way, but they made it. They made it and then fell through it. Stupid floating Altean pools.

Though, the alarm sounded again, so neither of them had time to comprehend it before dashing back toward the control room. Halfway down the hall, Lance grabbed Keith’s arm, pulling him to a full stop.

Keith immediately started to protest. “Lance, what do you think you’re doing?!”

Lance’s face was covered in a hot, red flush, and his eyes shifted from one spot to another, but his grip on Keith’s arm tightened. “There’s, uh- you’re… you’re, uh-”

Keith groaned, rolling his eyes so hard his head rolled too. “Just spit it out, Lance!”

“You’re bleeding still.”

Keith absentmindedly raised a hand to his lip and felt another bubble of blood spilling over. An indescribable expression crossed Lance’s face, and the space between them shrank. Keith urged himself to take a step back, but he was frozen. Lance caught his eye and kept it.

“Shiro probably is going to think we fought again.” The statement was low and oddly casual.

“Yeah, probably,” Keith replied, curious as to what was happening.

“Kinda my fault that you have a split lip.”

“Yeah, I would say it is.”

“Might as well fix it.”

Keith had no idea what that meant. Whatever had possessed Lance was a strange demon of calmness and… and… oh, dear, possibly gay.

Lance leaned in, only glancing back up a second to ask for consent. When Keith didn’t move, he took that as an answer and closed the gap between them. Keith wasn’t sure how this was supposed to fix it, but his eyelids dropped closed and he could feel himself just fall into the kiss. He lifted himself on his toes to get a better angle, pressing into Lance.

It was over as quickly as it started. Lance was gone in a mere second, leaving Keith standing in the middle of the hallway dazed. He whipped around, seeing Lance’s back rounding the corner. He called out, not knowing what else to do, hoping for some goddamn bloody answers for what just happened, but Lance only leaned around the corner, shouting back:

“I just thought you deserved a real one for your first!”

And then he was gone again.

…

What the fuck.

Keith really wished he could just yeet himself out the airlock right about then.

Chapter Text

The return trip to earth was taking a lot longer than expected. What with constantly having to stop to restock supplies and rest the lions (and their poor pilots who couldn’t just switch out with a passenger if they needed to stretch their legs), Coran’s estimated arrival time was delayed further and further into the future. The stress of it all was starting to weigh itself on Keith’s mind and muscles. If he was honest, he felt like a train just ran over him, reversed, and did it again just to make sure he was properly pureed. He wasn’t honest, though, and kept that small fact to himself.

Their colourful pride of low-powered lions were in deep space, having just passed the Leporis System a few cycles ago. Keith wasn’t sure how long they had until they reached the next star system or even an asteroid belt. His eyes were glazed over, and he felt sleep nagging at the back of his mind. He let go of the controls to rub his eyes. He needed to move. Sitting there for so long was taking a toll on his body.

“Keith, you need to rest.” Krolia’s voice appeared behind him. He normally would have been startled by the sudden noise and attention, but after spending two earth years on a space whale with just her and the wolf, he had gotten used to her silent approach. He turned to her, his eyes slowly adjusting from the screen light to the dark cabin.

“Just a little farther. We may be able to make it to the next star system at this pace. We don’t need to be taking any more stops.”

Wrong answer.

“If you don’t rest we won’t make it to the next star system,” Krolia said, hand on her hip and tone resorting to stern mother mode. He heard that quite enough on the whale, thank you.

“Black’s autopilot crashed before, and he barely woke up from that. I don’t think we should risk that again.”

“Black probably needs more rest too. How about we find a place to land and give you both a break?” Keith should have known where he got his stubbornness from. Krolia was already leaning over him and fiddling with his lion’s controls, searching for coordinates. He huffed and flopped back in the seat to give her her way.

After a few minutes, she seemed to find what she was looking for and pulled it up on his main screen. The map showed a small nebula not far from their current position. Something about the coordinates seemed familiar to him, some sort of concern dancing in the back of his brain, but he was too tired to actually indulge in it and agreed to head for that point on the map.

Keith pressed a few buttons, activating the comm system. “Alright team,” he said, “we’re going to have a rest stop. I’m sending you the coordinates.”

A plethora of groans and exhausted thank yous responded. In the background, Keith could hear Hunk snoring.

“Hunk, don’t sleep at the wheel,” Pidge whined. “Something’s gonna happen to Yellow while you do that and I’m  going to have to fix it.” Hunk continued to snore. “Hunk,” Pidge tried. “HUNK!”

The snoring immediately stopped and a groggy “Huh? Wha- sorry,” replaced it.

“Fuck, Pidge don’t yell into the comms like that! You nearly busted my eardrum,” Lance snapped.

“Well, I wouldn’t have to if Hunk wasn’t sleeping while piloting a giant robot lion!”

A sigh from Blue’s commline drifted through the speakers. “Can we not do this, please? I’m just as tired as you all are, but this is only going to exhaust us more.”

“The princess is right,” Keith said, clearing his throat. “We shouldn’t be fighting. We’ll get to the rest point Krolia mapped for us and then continue refreshed.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Lance casually called through Red’s commlink to Keith’s embarrassment.

Krolia merely chuckled behind him. “You’re welcome, Lance.”

“Please don’t encourage him,” Keith muttered.

“Oh, it’s not doing any harm.”

“Oh, hey, it’s my trash kingdom,” Pidge chirped from their side of the commlink.

Lance immediately started complaining. “Here? We’re stopping here? There’s not even air!”

“Hey,” Hunk, the effervescent, tried to look on the bright side. “At least we can stretch our legs and get out of our lions for a bit.” He attempted to land Yellow on a broken satellite, but it ended up rolling in place like a log under the lion’s pressure. “Oh-oh no. Agh!”

Keith, too tired to really do anything, just watched Yellow run along the satellite trying to get it to stop turning. It wasn’t until Allura and Blue drifted over to take a bite out of the side that it stopped and Hunk and Yellow were free.  He saw Red’s commlink map a soundwave as if Lance had muttered something that the mics couldn’t pick up. Keith dismissed it and parked Black on a nearby trash-heap and made his way to the exit hatch.

“Krolia, Shiro, are you coming out?” he asked.

Shiro sat on the floor, stretching out his legs and arm. “I’ll catch up with you later. How long should we remained stopped?”

“I was going to ask the team what they preferred,” Keith replied, straightening his helmet slightly, which seemed to want to remain crooked. “And by the team, I mean Pidge.” That pulled a chuckle from Shiro.  

Keith turned to Krolia, who seemed to consider it, but eventually shook her head. “I think I’ll stay here and see if Shiro needs a hand.” Shiro grimaced behind her and Keith desperately held back a snort. Krolia only cocked a confused eyebrow. “What? What did I say?”

“N-nothing. I’ll update y’all on the situation through the link.” With that, Keith made his escape.

Keith advocated for a Varga. He really pushed for it. A bit of rest and then back on schedule, but he was outnumbered. Out-sassed would be the proper term considering Pidge and Allura immediately teamed up then Lance had to back up his girlfr- Allura. With the three of them against him and Hunk already sprawling out on the “ground” beneath them, and their extra passengers watching curiously from the lions, Keith had to admit defeat and compromised with three Vargas.  

Three Vargas off schedule.

Add that to the Quintants they’ve already accumulated.

Keith sighed, leaning back against the shipwrecked Galra cruiser. There was a huge hole in its side that likely was the result of a blast from an ion cannon, and his scan showed no signs of life. He didn’t expect the war to change direction so fast in the three years they had supposedly been missing, and he wasn’t sure the direction it was heading now was better. Three years missing, three Vargas off schedule. Keith considered the concept of time was becoming irrelevant at this point.

“Hey, Mullet, what’cha brooding about?”

Keith wanted to yeet himself out into space.

Lance tried to plop down beside him, but, of course, he forgot about the lack of gravity and just floated there. He reached out, grabbing Keith’s arm, to which Keith resisted, and pulled himself down. Keith supposed he had to interact now.

“What do you want, Lance?” The edge in his voice was still there, but two years away from the team, away from Lance, softened the age-old question a little.

“Just coming to see how our leader was doing,” Lance said, looking out into the ether. “Wow, this place is green. No wonder Pidge likes it.”

Keith blinked, furrowing his brow. Green? What the hell was he talking about? He turned his head to see, and, well, Lance wasn’t wrong . He had forgotten that space was filled with colour in the most unexpected places. Just swirls and clouds of colour varying itself about the spectrum. Leave it to Lance to notice the details.

Speaking of Lance, he started to talk again.

“So, how’s Mom?”

“Mom? You mean… you mean Krolia?” Keith looked at Lance again to see him kicking his feet over the edge of the platform.

“Yeah. Mom.”

“Please don’t call her that. She’s my mother, not yours.”

“I thought she was sorta like the team Mom. Like Shiro is the team Dad.”

Keith blanched. Just the thought of that twisted his stomach in knots. “Please don’t give me that image.”

Lance pursed his lips, thinking about whatever image he thought he was giving Keith, before blushing and chuckling under his breath. “Ehehe. Sorry man.”

The air grew silent between them. A subtle tension began to rise. Keith didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t really seen Lance in over two years, and he almost forgot what interacting with him, being in his presence was supposed to feel like.

Not to mention his head was spinning with different memories. That space whale adventure really clogged up his brain with old memories and future ones, which depicted all sorts of realities he could end up in. Everything felt familiar to him, yet it was all so strange. He couldn’t tell whether or not he was experiencing deja vu, or whether his future visions were just playing themselves out in real time.  Or was that the same thing? It was a major issue, and it was messing with Keith’s comprehension.

Was sitting next to Lance supposed to feel this natural?

He decided to reopen the line of communication before he spiralled.

“So, how- uh… how are you and Allura doing?” This was a good question, right? If Keith was correct, this was that reality… right? He wouldn’t admit that was the one he dreaded.

“Me and- me and Allura?” Lance sounded confused. That was the wrong question. “What do you mean me and Allura?”

“Well, you two seem to have gotten pretty close while I was gone.” He had been noticing that, right? Or was this another vision blocking this reality? “Not to mention you aren’t aggressively flirting with her anymore and seem more natural around her and vice versa.”

He snuck a peek at Lance’s face. Those ocean blues caught his eyes and there was no escape now. Lance’s expression was curious but had obviously fallen. “Look at you. You actually can see past your own nose for once.”

Keith wanted to argue, but couldn’t. So he kept quiet. Lance eventually took that as the cue to continue.

“I’m… getting mixed signals. I feel like she may like me back, but at the same time I know she’s still upset over Lotor. You should have seen it, Keith! She was all over him! Like I didn’t even exist!” Lance flung his arms out in his trademark way and knocked his helmet into the side of the ship. Keith stared at him unimpressed. On one hand, the information didn’t surprise him much, and his sympathy level for it was pretty low. On the other, Keith knew exactly how Lance felt. And that bothered him.

“Do you want advice from your leader or concern from your friends?” Keith asked. Lance paused, taking in the question.

“Where did you learn that phrasing?”

“It was something Krolia used to ask me back on the space whale. Or a version of it,” Keith explained. He repeated the same question he heard over a hundred times over the past two years, “Do you want advice from your mother or your senior Blade?”

Lance huffed in amusement. “I like your mom,” he said.

Keith looked down at his lap, tracing his finger over his blade. He had gotten it out before Lance arrived, subconsciously. A small smile crossed his face. “Yeah, I like her too.”

He felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder. The pressure made him look up to see Lance’s smiling face. There wasn’t a hint of mischief in his eyes. This was probably the first real smile he got from him. “I’m glad you got to finally meet her, man.”

As much as Keith wanted this moment to last, he was also a master at self-sabotaging his life. “So, do you need advice on your girl troubles?” he asked. He wasn’t an expert on girls, but he knew guys well enough, so he supposed they weren’t too different.

“Ha, Keith wants to give me advice on girls.” Lance shook his head and let his hand drop from Keith's shoulder. Only it didn’t return to his side or lap or anywhere near his own body. It landed on the platform, close enough to Keith’s where they were practically touching.

Keith rolled his eyes. “I don’t want you so distracted by your crush that you end up blowing yourself up in a fight.”

Something darted through Lance’s eyes, a cold spark of electricity that went straight down to Keith’s stomach and completely unnerved it. But, as soon it appeared, it was gone, and Lance was laughing.

“Sure, man. I’ll keep myself from blowing up.”

Lance let that thought go, but Keith couldn’t. He couldn’t let that look go if his life depended on it. He’d seen that look before. Once with the Blades, when a scouting troop returned with a third of the original party, and once in Krolia’s eyes. That was after a particularly bad wave that gave them the worst of visions.

His hand moved on its own, covering up Lance’s as he leaned in closer. Lance didn’t seem to perturbed by the act, but he wasn’t necessarily cool with it either.

“Did… did something happen, Lance?”

“What do you mean?” Lance was shifting his gaze everywhere but Keith. This all seemed familiar. In more ways than one.

“While I was gone. Did something happen?” He was going to get the information out of this boy. Keith wasn’t going to give in. Not on this.

Lance’s hand balled up in a fist under his, but he left it there, favouring his right hand to do the talking. Keith watched as not only Lance’s expression fly about his face wildly in conflicting emotions, but his free hand as well as it tried to keep pace.

“Nothing happened, Keith! Stop being such a mother hen. We just had a mission is all, and when Allura and I were being an awesome team and such trying to fix this radiation shield so this Galra outpost wouldn’t be obliterated by the radiation, I got caught in one of the radiation blasts when pushing Allura out of the way and Red and I may have died for a second. Allura brought me back tho, so it’s okay! She also seemed really happy I was alive so I guess-”

“Wait wait wait wait! You died ?!” Keith’s grip on Lance’s fist tightened.

“Yeah, but Allura brought me back though. So it’s fine.” Lance frowned, watching Keith’s reaction. However, Keith couldn’t be preoccupied with what Lance must be thinking of his outburst.

“You died Lance. How is that fine?!”

Lance went on the defensive. “Okay, you nearly died at the battle of Naxela, but you don’t see me yelling at you about it!”

Keith stopped. How did- how did he-

“I talked to Matt, okay?! You don’t think I-” Lance growled under his breath- “the team worries about what you are doing when you aren’t with us?”

Keith felt himself pull Lance’s hand towards him, thus pulling Lance towards him. He was on autopilot and all he could do was watch. “That’s different!” Keith argued.

“ How is it different?! ” Lance tried to pull away, but Keith’s grip was too strong. He closed his eyes, and Keith could see tears forming in the corners. Lance kept going. “This is war, Keith. You made a sacrifice. I made a sacrifice. This is how things work.”

“But you died, Lance.”

“And you planned to die .”

They were at an impasse. Keith knew it. Lance knew it. This didn’t settle any feelings, especially on Keith’s side. A fear boiled over in his stomach that he hadn’t felt since… since the memories of Naxela. Since Naxela . He didn’t want to experience those demons again, and he didn’t want to watch Lance throw himself into them.

Keith sighed. His grip finally loosened, but Lance didn’t move away.

“Just promise me you won’t pull a stupid stunt like that again,” he said.

“I can’t make that promise,” Lance replied.

Keith drew his arm back, curling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. Of course, he couldn’t make that promise. Keith couldn’t either, and he knew it. He knew that this was war and sacrifices were to be made. This was war, and he was going to lose people he cared about and not all of them would find their way back into his life. He got lucky once. He wasn’t going to have that luck again.

He didn’t know why he said it, but he did. The words came tumbling from his mouth before he could realise it. He was on autopilot and all he could do was listen.

“I learned why she left me, you know.” If Keith had been focused on looking past his own nose, he would see Lance look over at him in concern. He would see him inch closer to perhaps listen, perhaps to give an attempt to comfort. But Keith couldn’t see past his own nose, so he continued. “She said she left to protect those she cared for most. I thought that was what I was doing when I left the team for the Blades, I’ll be honest. I thought you’d be better off without me. If I had’ve known something like that would happen I-”

“Keith, there would have been nothing you could do,” Lance said, his voice the softest Keith had ever heard from him.

“But I would have tried! I would have rather be there and tried and not just-” Keith cut himself off. He held his breath a moment before releasing it and taking a large one in. He needed to calm down. He was going to say something he regretted if he didn’t.

“Lance,” he said after a moment, “as… as leader of Voltron, I need my right-hand man at my side. I can’t afford to lose you.” He spared a glance at Lance from the corner of his eye. He couldn’t read the sombre light in his eyes.

Lance bit his lip and licked it before speaking. A breathy snicker came out first, and then his declaration.

“Keith, you aren’t going to lose me.”

Chapter Text

It had been a few years since Voltron disbanded. The final battle, and thus the war, was won and the Paladins of Voltron could finally move on with their lives and live freely. Keith enjoyed his new work with the Blade, becoming a humanitarian working towards bettering the lives of all who were affected by galra tyranny. However, he had to say he relished the time he spent back home on earth.

Home was an overstatement, though. There wasn’t a specific place he had to call home, considering his mother stayed with the Blades year-round and only came back if Keith invited her with him. His family with the Blades didn’t often set foot on earth. He stayed with the other paladins on his trips home. He usually asked Hunk first if there was room for him, because, in all honesty, he missed that man’s cooking.

But, recently, he had been staying with Lance on his weird flower farm. It wasn’t that he didn’t think it was special. Allura was a dear friend to him, and, in a way, this was a good thing to honour her memory with. Lance didn’t seem to mind the work, and Keith wasn’t going to complain when he could see the beautiful hills roll past him as he sat on Lance’s porch swing with a beer in his hand.

He may or may not have been looking at Lance’s ass rather than the scenery.

“Where you going?” he asked, leaning back into the swing. It was late spring, and the breeze had just picked up. He dropped his head back and let his hair blow about, his bangs tickling his face.

“Feeding Kaltenecker,” Lance replied, setting his empty bucket down and stretching out his arms. “You should come with. She misses you, you know?”

Keith sent him a disbelieving look. “How would she miss me? I’m not her caretaker. Not to mention she always had an affinity for you.”

Lance placed his hands on his hips. “True, but I could use the help. I was thinking of making milkshakes later.”

“So that’s what the bucket’s for.” Keith sat up, placing his feet firmly on the ground to steady the swing. When Lance didn’t move, Keith took it as a sign to get up and go help the man with his daily chores. He barely made it off the porch steps when he realised he forgot something.

“Don’t go back for your beer, man,” Lance complained. “We have plenty in the fridge. You can just get another later.”

“But why waste it?” Keith said as he tilted his head back and downed the remainder of the can. Lance sighed and shook his head. Keith crushed his can beneath his boot and leaned inside the open window to throw the can in the nearby trash. He turned to see Lance giving him an amused grimace.

“Just act like you own the place, won’t ya.”

Keith shrugged. “Does it really bother you that much?”

“No, but your Texan ass is acting too comfortable. Put your money where your mouth is and give me a hand milking the cow.”

“Don’t you mean, put my money where my ass is? If my ass is the one getting too comfortable?”

“Don’t patronise me, Mullet.”

Kaltenecker was a sweetheart, just how Keith remembered. She was getting old, though. All the adventuring they had done the past few years had not only taken a toll on them but her as well, even though she just stayed in a room eating hay for the most part. He leaned over the fence as Lance shovelled hay into the tin bin he had set out next to the barn. Kaltenecker, ever the loving cow, nuzzled Keith’s outstretched hand, more interested in the company than her food.

“I told you she missed you, Keith.”

“I just smell funny is all.”

“You said it, not me.”

“Excuse me?!”

“I’m just teasin’ ya, buddy!”

Well, if that’s how it was going to be… Keith climbed up the wooden fence and reached over for the hay. He grabbed a handful and tried throwing it at Lance, but ended up losing his balance, and his footing, and toppled over into the pile. Lance broke out into a fit of laughter as Kaltenecker started to lick his face and chew on his hair.

“Dude,” Lance said between laughs, “you’ve only had one beer. There’s no way you are that much of a lightweight!”

“I had two actua- tpph , thank you Kaltenecker, but you’re sadly not my type!” Keith pushed the cow’s face out of the way and attempted to clamber out of Kaltenecker’s dinner. Lance was still giggling when he got himself standing, so he dusted off the stray hay while he was waiting for him to finish.

“Well, I was gonna make you milk her today, but maybe we shouldn’t tease her,” Lance said while wiping a tear from his eye. “Don’t want her to think you’re actually interested.”

“Yes, please don’t set me up with your cow.”

“Sorry, Kaltenecker. We’ll try Pidge again. Maybe they’ll say yes next time.”

Keith blinked, mulling the idea of Lance setting up Kaltenecker with Pidge. “I don’t think that will work, Lance,” he said, trying grasp at the weird image in his head; “Kaltenecker is a cow, not a robot.”

Lance chuckled, looking at him with that warm expression he always did. “Geez, humanitarian Keith is so much more fun to be around than paladin-Blade Keith.”

“And farmer Lance is just as annoying as paladin Lance.”

Lance shrugged, smile not leaving his face. “Maybe you’re my favourite person to annoy?”

That gave Keith pause. Of all the things he expected to hear from Lance, that wasn’t it. He was about to respond when the sound of the dinner bell ringing from the house filled the air. At first, it was faint, but it grew to an aggressive volume the longer they stood there.

“ ¡Aye, Mamá, te escuchamos! ¡Estaremos arriba en un momento! ” Lance shouted up at the house. Keith had no clue what he said, but, whatever it was, got the bell to stop ringing. Lance’s mother called back something in Spanish, but Keith chose to ignore it and look to Lance for answers. His face was flushed and disgruntled.

“I take it we should get up there?”

Lance zoned back into the situation at Keith’s question. He shot him a grin and set his hayshovel against the side of the barn. Lance patted Kaltenecker on her side and climbed over the fence, extending a hand out to Keith, which he took. Once on the other side, Lance stopped Keith in his tracks.

“Hold up,” he said, “you have hay on your butt.”

Keith tried to turn around to see. “I-what?” Before he could do anything about it though, Lance slapped him causing him, much to his own dismay, to let out a squeak of surprise.

“Got it!” Lance shouted, running off.

“What-what?! Why did you have to do that?!”

He didn’t get an answer. Lance was already hopping up on the porch where his mother was standing, shaking her head. He kissed her on the cheek and turned to watch Keith try to catch up with him uphill. Sure, Keith grew a bit during those few years on the space whale, but Lance still had long legs that he knew how to use to his advantage.

“Are you two having fun?” his mother asked.

Lance gave her a smile. “Loads. I’m trying to set Keith up with Kaltenecker.”

Keith, just arriving in the conversation, albeit somewhat out of breath, protested, but Lance ignored him, intent on telling his mother the wedding plans he had made up just then. She just listened, bemused with her son’s antics, occasionally sending glances Keith’s way. Once, he caught her eye and noted the sparkle in it. It was unique, to say the least, but also intriguing. Like she knew something that Keith didn’t. Something that Keith wanted to know, but she wasn’t going to tell him.

“I was thinking the wedding colours could be black, white, and blue,” Lance said, his hand falling onto the middle of Keith’s back. “Kaltenecker loves those little blue flowers that grow at the other end of the field. I was thinking we could put some in Keith’s hair so that way she’d actually go down the aisle instead of just standing there.”

“Rosa, I just want you to know that I did not consent to this arranged wedding,” Keith said, silently begging for her help. Rosa just laughed and told the two of them to get inside and find their seats at the table, otherwise, the food would be gone before they got any.

“Is Marco here with the kids?” Lance asked.

“No, Kosmo has been begging. He’s the size of a horse now, and he’s gotten sneaky with that zappy trick of his.”

Keith was confused. “I’m sure I trained him not to do that.” He felt Lance shift uncomfortably next to him. Without looking, he asked in the most deadpan tone, “You fed him off your plate, didn’t you, Lance?”

“Listen. For a giant alien dog, he has a very effective puppy-dog pout.”

Keith sighed, heading inside to tame his beast. “I gave you one job, Lance!”

“Since when do I listen?!” Lance followed him, throwing his arms up in the air his trademark way.

Rosa chuckled, shutting the door behind them.

Attendance for tonight’s dinner was small in comparison to the amount of food Rosa cooked. Lance and Keith sat side by side on one length of the table, and Lance’s older siblings Veronica and Luis sat across from them. Rosa was still setting out the final dishes, such as dinner rolls and vegetables.

“This is a lot of food,” Keith said, admiring the smell.

“Well, yeah, that’s because you’re here.” Veronica leaned her elbow on the table, holding her head in her hand and tapping her late in boredom. “How come you didn’t bring Acxa with you this time?”

Keith was waiting for that question. “Acxa is leading a supply mission to Elphris 9. I did invite her along, but she said she was needed there.”

Lance waved his hand at his sister, dismissing the topic altogether. “Your girlfriend’s fine, Veronica. Quit worrying.” He twisted around in his seat until he was facing Keith. “You didn’t know? Mom always cooks a big dinner when you-”

“-Or Acxa.”

“-Or Acxa,” Lance sent a glare in Veronica’s direction, who merely cocked her head and scowled, “come to visit.”

Keith’s stomach swirled in a mixture of hot and cold. As nice as that was, he didn’t want the extra effort put into his stay at the McClain’s. “That’s not really necessary.”

“That’s what we told Mom.” Luis jumped into the conversation, reaching over and nicking a dinner roll after checking that Rosa was still grabbing the finishing touches from the kitchen. “But she likes to make a good impression.”

Veronica took a roll for herself as well. “She’s also worried that you all don't get enough to eat out there. She’s been thinking of inviting Krolia and Kolivan down here so she can feed them and make sure the rest of your team is being fed.”

“We’re all being fed,” Keith assured her. He paused, noticing the three’s eyes were all on him, and he was already reaching for a roll himself. “Food goo isn’t the most satisfying, uhm, food, so we often like to eat all we can here.”

Luis laughed. “That explains when Acxa came to visit with Zethrid and Ezor! They practically ate us out of house and home!”

“Mostly Ezor. I don’t know where she puts it,” Veronica agreed.

Lance leaned over to Keith. “At least you don’t do that.”

“Couldn't if I wanted too.”

Rosa reentered the dining room with a vase of Juniberry flowers and Lavender sprigs. She set it in the middle of the table, admiring her work. Keith felt uncomfortable, having such a show and display just for him. He wanted to say something to Rosa, but she looked so proud of herself, he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth past a smile.

She looked at him with some concern, which threw Keith through a loop, until she waved her hands and began mothering him. “Eat! Eat! You don't have to wait on us, Keith!”

Veronica eyed him as if saying, “See?” Keith quickly did as told and started filling up his plate with Lance's help. (And by help, he meant that Lance took a bite off his plate and then replaced it with more food.) After she was satisfied with Keith’s reaction, Rosa skipped over to the archway leading out to the living room and called to her husband that dinner was served.

“If that damn alien hound is in there, I will be eating out here, thank you!” he shouted. Rosa sighed and chose to make him up a plate and serve it to him out in the living room rather than argue. When she returned, she sat at the table decreeing that it was time to eat.

Dinner ran smoothly with the chatter elevating the more excited the family got. Lance was used to it, but Keith was still having trouble acclimating to the high-energy atmosphere. It was a weird sensation really. A buzz tingled in his head. He felt light. Not necessarily grounded. It wasn’t a bad feeling, all things considered. He had been in his own head for so long that the trip outside was a relief. He double-tasked pushing Kosmo’s head away from his plate and listening to Luis tell some story about how he got his head stuck in the chicken wire surrounding the coop.

When the conversation finally made its rounds around the table and settled on him, Keith had to zone back in faster than he was honestly capable.

“Uh, what was that, Rosa?” He asked, finally just throwing a chicken bone to the other side of the room to distract his hungry canine.

“I was asking how your mother was doing.” Rosa cut off a piece of her chicken breast and set it on a saucer. She was already prepping Kosmo his own plate, which Keith came to realise was her signal that she was finishing up. “I haven’t seen her in a while, since the last time you came down actually,” she added.

“She’s fine,” Keith said. “She’s working with Kolivan on a project near Naxela. They haven’t told me the details of it yet, although I am assuming it has something to do with the galran weaponization of the planet.”

“Will you be joining them when you leave?” She poured gravy over Kosmo’s plate of chicken. The wolf perked his head up from his gnawed nub of a chicken bone and sniffed the air.

“I was going to check on the team at Elphris 9, but I will if they need me there.”

A zap electrified the air, doubled when Kosmo teleported behind Rosa. He was now drooling and staring at the small plate of scraps. Rosa knew how to command him, most likely from years of raising five children. He obediently sat and waited for her to place the plate on the floor away from the table and to give her signal for him to devour . She chuckled, watching him eat. She wasn’t finished with her conversation with Keith.

“Well, let her know we miss her and she needs to visit more often.”

Keith nodded. “Will do.”

Veronica was next to demand his attention (and demand she did). “Oh, Keith,” she waved her fork of greens in his direction, “have you heard from Pidge lately?”

He shook his head. “Not recently, no.”

“They called Lance the other day, and I answered his communicator-”

Lance jumped in, accidentally screeching his knife on his plate. “Pidge called me, and you didn’t tell me?”

“They said to let you have your alone time with your future wife.”

Keith almost choked on his roll when he saw the utterly dumbfounded mien Lance not only produced in his face but somehow in his whole body. “What woman are they talking about?!” he practically shrieked.

“Kaltenecker. Who else?”

The tension in his shoulders instantly dropped, and Lance was glaring off into the distance at some (un)known enemy. Keith bit his lip, holding back a smirk as he propped his head in his hand, watching the emotions fly through Lance’s eyes.

“I’m going to kill that little gremlin,” he muttered. Keith barked out a laugh.

Veronica, unfazed, easily picked up where she left off. “They said they were heading off-planet in a few weeks. A trip to Olkarion. I was wondering if you were planning on meeting up with them there.”

Well, that information was new. “We hadn’t discussed any meetings. Is there something they need me for?”

“Not necessarily,” Veronica picked up her plate and held it closer to her as Kosmo, having finished his scraps, was seeking more to snack on, “it’s just in the neighbouring galaxy as Elphris 9, so I thought you two might hang out at some point.”

Lance leaned back in his chair, earning a tense creak from the old wooden legs. “Man, I miss Olkarion. That place was cool. Not to mention they basically became a second home for team Voltron for a while there.” He had a faraway smile on his face, one Keith rarely got to see anymore. This time, there was a warmth behind it, unlike the cold nostalgic grins he’d have back in the early days of Voltron.

Rosa pushed some of the dishes away from her and leaned her arms on the table. “Oh, Lance, you should go.” Lance looked at her, about to say something, but she cut him off. “Let us take care of the farm. You deserve to explore and live. You’re young. This is when you should be out there.”

“But, Mom, I-” Lance frowned, searching for the words he needed to say. The ones that could fully explain the multitude of emotions that threatened to spill out of his eyes. “-I’m not sure I’m ready yet. To leave this place I mean.”

One thing Rosa was, what she was brilliant at being, was a mother. Mothers were loving, but they were honest when their children refused to be honest with themselves.  Her blue eyes lit with a fire Keith had seen in Lance’s many times- on missions, during political conferences, and even more so when he was challenging Keith to some dumb bet. He figured out where Lance got his personality from.

“You’ve done wonderful work here, Lance, but are you sure you don’t get ancy every now and then? You’ve always been an adventurous boy, and not to mention it would be a reunion with your friends. You’re so happy whenever Keith comes around. I think you should go with him!”

Keith now waited for Lance’s reaction. He expected a rebuttal. Lance had pride for his farm, and he knew that. He expected him to decline and say that he really didn’t want to leave earth again, and Keith accepted that, despite how much it tore up his insides. He agreed with Lance’s mother wholeheartedly that Lance should get off this damned farm and return to being the Lance he knew from years ago, but that wasn’t his decision, nor would he admit that was what he wanted.

But the reaction he got was not necessarily what he expected. Lance’s face flushed and he folded into himself and the chair. Keith knew Lance was quick to snap with him, but this was the first time he saw the man snap at his own mother.

“ Mamá, ¿no podemos hablar de esto? ¡No delante de él! ”

Rosa rolled her eyes. “ Es hora de seguir adelante, hijo, ” she said sternly.

“ ¡Estoy haciendo eso, mamá! ”

“Then go,” Rosa smiled, leaning back in her chair and cleaning up her area, “easy as that!”

“Moooooom,” Lance groaned. Keith had no idea what just happened, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Even though Rosa was happily starting her work cleaning the table, and Lance was standing up and going to help, a strange tension hung in the air. Keith wasn’t sure what it was, but some unspoken words were hiding between the lines. Words he felt he needed to know.

A shout from the living room broke the tension.

“Goddammit! No! This is my chicken!”

The rest of the McClain clan had gone to bed, and Kosmo was busy exploring as he often did when he was not at Keith’s side. This left Lance and Keith on their own, in his bedroom just hanging out. It was a cool night, so Lance kept his window cracked to let in a breath of fresh air. Keith was grateful for this, considering they were on the second floor and the AC hadn’t been working that day. Lance’s blue curtains drifted lazily over the window. The breeze was nice, even though it rattled some of the posters on the adjacent wall.

Keith had been left alone for a moment as Lance fetched them some drinks. Keith complained about not getting his extra beer, which prompted Lance to stomp out to get him one. He wasn’t too upset about not having the promised can, Keith just liked to rattle Lance a bit, but he couldn’t deny he was happy to be getting it. He gazed at the posters fluttering on the wall as he waited, his eyes bleared with sleep. They were old Voltron posters, ones created during the war from various planets to promote the war effort. Keith hadn’t known Lance had collected any from their travels, but it seems he did.

He jolted when the bedroom door was kicked open. Lance stood on the other side with a grin on his face, holding two bottles of-

That wasn’t beer.

That was Nunvil.

“Where did you get that?” Keith asked, already reaching out to take one.

Lance handed him a bottle. “Coran’s been bringing some every time he comes to visit. I have a whole case.”

Keith studied the bottle, admiring the fact that it could honestly be confused for an earth beverage. It was made of some sort of bluish glass with the word “Nunvil” written on the side in Arusian. Keith knew the Arusians had gained a fair amount of industry after the war and were into the business of exporting goods (which is why he could read a small amount of the language), but he had no idea they made Nunvil. Actually, that would explain a lot. He tugged on the cork sealing the bottle, and it popped free. He took a whiff of its aroma and gagged. Yup. That was definitely Nunvil.

“How come he’s been bringing it to you?”

Lance was quiet for a moment. He sat on his bed, contemplating before he spoke. “I think it’s because it was the first “alcoholic” drink I had with her.”

Keith peered up at Lance’s face from his place on the floor. There was that nostalgic glint in his eye. The cold one. “One of our… dates… we drank this. I couldn’t get past the first sip, but she gulped it like water.” He said much of the statement slowly like he was considering if he was even using the right words. “Coran found out. I think he’s wanting me to remember the better times.”

Keith swirled the liquid around in its container, watching it slosh about the sides of the glass. “And he thinks this is better?”

Lance laughed a little. Good. He wasn’t spiralling yet. Keith had seen him get down and depressed over, well, everything. Allura’s death. The impact of the war. Lance had taken it all in, soaked it up like a sponge and only ever let his emotions squeeze out when he felt safe, which was usually under the influence. If Coran was supplying Lance with alien booze, he wasn’t necessarily helping.

“Go on, take a sip,” Lance urged, bopping Keith’s shoulder with his foot. “It’ll bring you back to the old days.”

Keith looked at the shiny honey-brown liquid inside. “I hated this stuff,” he said as he dove in. The drink was beyond bitter and seared his tongue and throat on its way down. He coughed a little, trying to get some saliva to coat the affected areas and relax them. The last thing he needed was to lose his voice over a drink.

“Still hate it?” Lance grinned bemusedly.

“Despise it.” Keith took another drink.

Lance uncorked his and slowly nursed at it. He was still able to finish his quicker than Keith was his. Even though he knew it was probably due to drinking it more often than him, Keith’s fuzzy brain took that as a challenge. If he was going to drink the wretched stuff, he might as well have a bit of fun with it. He asked Lance for another one.

“I know it’s not Everclear, but this is still some potent stuff, man,” Lance said, not fully protesting the idea of grabbing another one, “are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” Keith said. He pulled Lance’s pillow off his bed and tossed it at him. Lance caught it, laughing.

“Alright, alright! I’ll go get you your alien booze!”

Two-and-a-half bottles of Nunvil later, Keith was feeling pretty good. Warm, fuzzy, his tongue may have lost some feeling, but it wasn’t too bad. He sat on the floor, legs stretched out in front of him, and his back leaning on the side of the bed. Lance lay on the bed, his head close to Keith’s. He tapped his fingers on the side of his bottle.

“Hey, Keith?”

“Hnnyeah?”

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure.”

“Well, first, it’s pretty clear you’re gay, right?”

“The gayest.”

“What was your first time like?”

“My first time?” The question was enough to sober him up. “What?!”

Lance sat up in bed, eyes wide and waving his hands about. “Wait, no no. No! That’s not what I meant!”

“Then what did you mean?” Keith turned to face him, the man who dared to ask the most awkward question he had ever been faced with. Lance had shrunk back onto the bed, suddenly looking sheepish.

“Your first time… coming out,” Lance said. “Like, was it with your dad or with your friends?”

Keith took a moment to process the question. This was the last thing he ever thought he’d be discussing with Lance. Though they had been drinking strong alien alcohol and each of them had at least two bottles. Which would be the equivalent to… a lot of Vodka. Keith wasn’t sure how much.

But, back to Lance’s question.

“Why?” He caught Lance’s eye and realised the man wasn’t prepared for a counter-question. Lance began to flounder, obviously searching for an answer to give that wouldn’t give him away. The Nunvil really did the trick. Any smoothness Lance had was long gone.

“I… I just want to know, okay? Is it harder with friends or family and…” Lance lost his words.

Keith gave him his.

“The first time you come out, Lance, isn’t actually to your family or your friends. They can’t be the first people you come out to.” Lance gave him a confused stare but didn’t say anything. Keith took that as an allowance to continue. “The first person you have to come out to is yourself.”

Lance blinked. “Myself?”

Keith let out a breath that sounded a lot like the word “yeah” and crawled up on the bed, sitting next to Lance. “Yourself. Because it’s you who is realising who you are. Not anyone else. They just get the privilege of knowing.”

“Okay… follow up question.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you have to test it before you know for yourself?”

“I mean, I knew I was gay before I ever even had sex, so I would say not.” Keith shrugged his shoulders, suddenly aware of how close he had sat to Lance.

“What if… you think you are attracted to him but aren’t sure what sort of attraction?”

Keith ran his hands through his hair. “Geez, Lance, why did you have to get me drunk before you asked me all of these questions? I’m too tipsy to give you answers on queer theory.”

“Keith, I think I might be bi.”

Oh, that was what this was about? Keith gave him a side-eye, checking to see if there were any hints of deceit on his face, but no. Lance was completely serious. He turned around to fully face him, watching those blue eyes follow his every movement.

“When did you come to this conclusion?”

Lance didn’t break eye contact this time. “I think I started thinking about it after our first kiss. The one I gave you after the one in the elevator.”

Keith’s heart stopped. “You remember that?”

“I remember.”

“I thought you forgot it. Like our bonding moment.”

“I remember the bonding moment too.”

“Then why didn’t you-?”

“I was scared. I didn’t fully understand it. I thought I was straight my whole life, Keith, and then you show up one day, with those big pretty eyes of yours, and tell me I was good at something that not even my family believed in me and-”

Keith didn’t know exactly what Lance was talking about at that moment, but he didn’t care to. Perhaps it was the Nunvil influencing his next actions, or hormones, or that stupid unrequited crush he’d suffered for years, but he kissed him. He kissed Lance.

Lance was surprised at first, but he quickly jumped on board, his eyes sliding shut and his hands finding their way to Keith’s hips. At first, it was gentle. Keith had those soft lips captured with his own and held them there, as though if he moved, the whole night would disappear. Lance would disappear like a fading dream. But, Lance, ever the curious and ever the adventurous, tilted his head, leaning in towards Keith. His hands drifted, feather-light, over his hip bones and up his sides, until Lance was holding him tightly in his embrace. Keith threw his arms over Lance’s shoulders, pulling him in closer, deepening the kiss.

Then, what was yearning and sensual heated.

Keith found himself crawling into Lance’s lap, sitting with his knees on either side of Lance’s thighs. Lance’s hands were grasping at his t-shirt, one just underneath on the small of his back, as Keith held the sides of his face, fingers tangling in Lance’s short brown hair, and nibbling at his lower lip. Their kiss danced with the bitter flavours of the Nunvil, it’s heat finding its way to their heads, making the world spin on while they stayed grounded by the feel of each other’s skin.

Of course, the trace had to be broken. Lance’s kisses wandered from Keith’s mouth, down his chin and to his neck. As he nipped and sucked a few good sized hickeys, Keith was thrown back into his senses.

He pushed Lance back, but only slightly, not wanting to lose that warmth he’d grown to love. Lance looked at him, worry in his eyes, wondering if he’d done something wrong. Keith assured him that wasn’t the case.

“Let’s… Let’s try this again when we’re sober, yeah?”

Lance blinked, but let Keith slip off him and onto the bed again. They sat there, still close, in silence before Lance offered to get them one last drink before bed. Keith yawned, accepting.

So, Lance did. He tiptoed down the creaky stairs and into the kitchen, his bottle in hand. The same one he had all night. He grabbed a fresh one for Keith out of the fridge. He held his open Nunvil bottle under the faucet, filling it up with tap water.

He had stopped drinking Nunvil after the first one left a bad taste in his mouth. He’d moved on.

Chapter Text

The alarm blared in his ears, and the glaring red warning light only helped to get his blood pumping. This spike in blood pressure was white noise to his pounding heart as he slid through the crack beneath the closing security door. It slammed and locked behind him as he jumped to his feet. The rendezvous point was close. A few more turns, a few more guards, and he’s there.

A loud rumbling startled him. He was alerted to an intruder in the vents above him, and as he rounded the corner and saw the grate, he prepared for the worst. A guard bot probably followed him from the control room. He was aware he wasn’t being the most cautious, but this was an in and out mission. They had no right to have this much security. He reached for his blaster.

The grate fell open with a clank and a figure fell to the floor, landing on his feet like a badass.

“Damn it, Lance! I had been looking all over for you!” Keith reached out, grabbing hold of Lance’s arm and taking off in a sprint. Lance matched his pace easily.

“Aw, you missed me, Mullet?” Lance teased.

“No- well, yes- but you weren’t where you were supposed to be! I thought you got captured.” Keith stopped abruptly at the corner and pressed his back solidly against the wall. He made sure the coast was clear. He and Lance shared a look then made a break for it.

“I was exactly where I was supposed to be!” Lance couldn’t help but argue. “I went to the control room, downloaded the information on the hacked supply routes, then uploaded the super virus to the computer.”

Within a split second, a blaster went off behind them and grazed Lance’s cheek, blowing a hole in the wall to his side. They whipped around to see a whole slew of guards appearing from the adjacent hallway. Keith cursed under his breath. He grabbed his blaster and shot the ceiling just above the enemy’s heads twice. The paneling collapsed, tonnes of scrap metal falling and barricading the hallway. Bought time.

“Time to reroute,” he said, dragging Lance into a side passageway by the hand.

Lance squeezed Keith’s hand, rubbing the back of it with his thumb. “You’re getting pretty good with that thing.”

Keith looked back at him, a smile in his eyes. “Thanks, Lance, but I’m not sure this is the best time to be flirting.”

“Note taken, commander, but I will flirt with my boyfriend whenever I please!”

Keith rolled his eyes. They arrived at a locked door with a handprint scanner. Keith removed his gloved and slapped his hand down, willing the machine to process his DNA faster. Once it did, they leaped inside.

“I’m surprised that still works,” Lance muttered.  

“Pirates take over imperial bases then don’t change the locks,” Keid said, blasting the security module thus permanently locking it behind them, “not smart.”

“You’re smart.”

Keith chuckled, shaking his head and messing up his already messy bangs. “You are just not going to let up, are you?”

“Nope!” Lance leaned in and pecked his lips. “Never,” he nuzzled Keith’s nose with his own, “never ever!”

Keith pushed Lance back, getting some distance between their faces. He couldn’t help the large grin. “Lance, you are being gross and we are running for our lives!”

“But you love it.”

“No comment,” Keith said, taking Lance’s hand in his. They sprinted down the passage, looking for the hangar they were supposed to meet Acxa and Krolia in. “It doesn’t make me forget about you being AWOL.”

“I told you, I was exactly where I was supposed to be!”

“Yes, but not after that ,” Keith grunted as he sporadically punched the side-paneling looking for a local console. “After that, you were supposed to meet up with me and help me place the bombs and set their detonation timers. Then head for the rendezvous point.  Or did you forget about me?” Keith spared a sideways glance at Lance. He finally hit the right spot on the wall to activate a hub. The panel shifted and turned to reveal the small computer.

Keith already started tapping away, searching for a map of the base. Lance, however, wasn’t done defending himself. “If I forget about you, then obviously I am no longer Lance and some sort of weird Lance clone. I just got into a little snag is all.”

“Right.” Keith turned to Lance. “Looks like the best way to the hangar without getting overtaken by tons of guards is through the vents.”

That earned him a smirk. “Oh, so you saying we’re gonna have to get up close and personal.”

“You’re going first.”

“Why me?”

“Because I know your fascination with my ass, Lance. I don’t trust you to be focused.”

“Not my fault your ass is godly.”

“Just go!”

Lance jokingly groaned and shot down the nearest vent grate. With Keith’s help, he was able to crawl into the vent and pull Keith up behind him. They crawled, Lance following the directions Keith gave him. They broke out over an adjacent hallway to their destination, standing just around the corner and peering into the room. Of course, it had max security.

“Outnumbered,” Keith said. “Krolia and Axca should be here any moment. We should probably wait for them.”

“And risk them getting shot at the moment they bust open that hangar door? Come on Keith, you should have a better plan than that.”

“It’s either that or risk ourselves to very unbalanced odds. You think we could do it?”

Lance grinned wide. “Do I think the greatest black paladin and leader of Voltron and his stunningly gorgeous right-hand man can take a few pirates? Why, yes, yes I do.”

Keith was going to smart off, say something sarcastic about Lance’s modesty, but was silenced by the man himself placing his hands on the side of his head. “But only after this,” he said, kissing him full on the mouth.

It wasn’t like the peck from earlier. It was a complete make out. Tongue and everything. Hands tangled in his hair. His back pressed up against the wall, Lance standing tightly against him. A small noise escaped Keith’s throat. He knew he should push him away, tell him that this was a mission and there is a room full of people that they want to kill them right around that corner , but Keith couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he pulled Lance closer, fingers gripping at the fitted Blade uniform Lance had gotten when he joined the team. Just as Keith was starting to get into it, Lance pulled away. Keith didn’t resist, but he pouted at the loss of body heat.

“Just a contingency,” Lance said. He was reaching for his blaster when he caught sight of Keith’s face. He blinked. “You’re cute.”

Keith’s expression neutralled. “So you’ve told me.”

They prepared for the battle they were about to launch themselves into, discussing who was taking what side and how best to handle the situation. Lance started the countdown.

“One!” he shouted. The two of them ran into the fray, guns blazing. Back to back, they took down the guards one by one. They were surrounded, but, after years of practice, they finally got the hang of protecting themselves and each other.

“Lance, your left!” Keith barely got the words out when a blast shot Lance in the side, knocking him to the far wall. His blaster slid far out of reach, and Lance stood, holding his side in pain. Keith eyed the situation, seeing a flood of soldiers aiming in Lance’s direction now. Of course, the pirates try to kill him while he’s down.

Lance was ready to make a last ditch effort to stave off the attackers. He was ready to start swinging because damn he had plans for the night and he wasn’t going to let a bunch of cabrones take that from him. But fuck did his side hurt. It wasn’t bleeding or anything, thanks to the suit’s amazing padding- like a goddamn bulletproof vest- but that bruise was going to hurt like a bitch in the morning. He didn’t have to risk his beautiful hands, however, when he heard Keith shout his name. Something was flying straight towards him. Lance caught it.

“Keith, why did you throw me your blade? Like a tiny knife is gonna-”

A bright light consumed the blade, blinding every within its vicinity. When Lance opened his eyes, a long, two-toned sword. It curved slightly, veins of blue luxite and some sort of red mineral twisting about it. The blade emblem rested on its hilt. Lance glanced at Keith, who sent him a smirk and nod before returning to his horde of angry haters.

Well, this was cool.

Lance swung, taking the battle to short range. He was a master at both, so the transition was easy, fluid. No hesitation. He trail-blazed a path through, cutting down his enemy until he was back to back with Keith again. There was no time to swap pleasantries, just a nod, as reinforcements stampeded into the room.

“Well, sugar, it looks like we’ll be going down swinging,” Keith said. Lance chuckled, impressed.

But they didn’t have to. A large explosion to the hangar door caught everyone’s attention, and a Blade battleship pushed into the room. A hatch opened, and a flock of grenades was thrown. Another explosion (or a bunch of tiny ones) filled the room with smoke, and Lance and Keith took this as their cue to escape.

They sat in the back compartment of the small ship, on top of a crate. Acxa was busy wrapping an ice pack to Lance’s forming bruise, while he studied Keith’s blade.

“This doesn’t look like your blade. Did you get a new one?” he asked, tracing his fingers over the red and blue veins. It was still activated, and Lance couldn’t quite figure why.

Keith smiled, placing his hand over Lance’s and giving it a light squeeze. “I left my blade back at the base. I couldn’t carry mine and yours at the same time.”

Lance looked at him, eyes wide and a blush scrawled across his nose. “Mine?”

“Yeah, I made it for you. That’s why it could activate when you held it.” Keith pointed at the ed mineral flowing through the blade. “That’s a form of rhodochrosite. From earth. I knew how much you wanted to head home this Christmas to see your family, and I’m sorry that the mission got in the way of that.”

Lance cocked his head. “So you made me this for Christmas?”

Keith dropped his gaze, sheepish. “Well, yes, but also because you’re a Blade now. I wanted to make sure you were outfitted right and had the right protection.”

If he hadn’t been so happy, Lance would have been in pain from smiling so wide. He immediately latched onto Keith, much to Acxa’s annoyance. She let the tape roll drop to the floor and just sat there, staring judgmentally with her arms crossed.

“Babe, you didn’t have to! I already told you that you weren’t going to lose me.” Lance started kissing Keith all over his face.

“Just a contingency,” Keith said while he still could. Lance’s kissing got more aggressive and soon he was sure there wasn’t a spot where Lance hadn’t placed his lips, including his own.

Acxa scoffed, removing herself from the area and sitting next to Krolia in the cockpit. “They are so gross,” she said.

Krolia eyed her. “Oh, you’d be the same if Veronica were here.” The statement earned her a glare from her copilot.

“Lance!” Keith shouted from the back. “Not here!”