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“It’s not just picture perfect dancing in a white dress.”
The song started out soft and slow, a romantic instrumental piece being played by a live band. Hunk took Shay by the hand and twirled her into his arms, her beautiful white dress billowing out in an almost magical way.
They weren’t originally going to have a wedding, but Hunk’s parents had mentioned it meaning a lot to them if they did, and Shay, ever curious and kind, had jumped at the opportunity to explore Earth’s customs. They didn’t have weddings in her Balmeran culture, but they did have unions—and while those were far less fanciful, she treasured the idea of making Hunk’s family happy, and Hunk treasured that about her.
Just by the look on Hunk’s face as they swayed through their first dance you could tell that he was completely and irrevocably enamored by the woman in front of him. Alien or not.
The room was quiet as their guests watched.
There was something so pure about them together. Finding love within one another even though they weren’t even the same species. Finding love within one another in the middle of a Great War.
When the song ended, Shay’s brother cut in to ask her to dance and Hunk’s mother did the same for her son. Soon everyone was making their way to the designated dance floor. Lance had been sitting quietly at his table, drink untouched, and just staring wistfully at the couples in front of him. He was lost in thought about his best friend. He was so happy that Hunk was so happy.
A hand unexpectedly entered his line of sight, and he followed long fingers up to its wrist, arm, and finally to the face those limbs belonged to. Keith looked down at him with a soft smile.
“Care to dance?” He asked, not a single trace of teasing to be found.
Lance could feel his heart skip a beat as he hesitantly reached out for Keith, and adding with a smirk that he hoped would cover how nervous he felt, “What took you so long?”
He allowed himself to be pulled out onto the floor, and fell easily into Keith’s embrace. It was silent between them, only the soft chatter of the guests and the lilting, soothing sounds of the band around them to remind the former Red Paladins that time was still moving. The feelings were still relatively new... or maybe they weren’t really new at all... but they bubbled in the pit of Lance’s stomach violently now as he moved with his once rival so intimately, so closely.
It was comfortable. The hands in their hands. The smell of each other. The warmth of each other.
They both carefully examined the other’s features—Keith following the strands of hair Lance had styled upwards to show his face, and Lance noticing how the light danced in Keith’s almost purple eyes the same way that Keith danced: recklessly, confidently, and mesmerizing.
“I like you.” Lance whispered, leaning his forehead against the slightly taller boy’s. Keith smiled and leaned closer so that his breath mingled with the blue-eyed idiot.
“What took you so long?” He teased before slowly meeting Lance’s lips with his own.
“It’s not just rainy days where nothing stops the fighting.”
“Seriously, Lance, this isn’t funny any more. Get out of the way. I’m going to be late.” Keith says with a slight growl, shifting his heavy packed bag over his shoulder.
“I am being serious, Keith. No. I told you on the phone that I didn’t want you to go on this stupid mission where they don’t even need you, and that’s final.” Lance continues to block their home’s front door.
“And I told you that they do need me. I’m the one in command. There is a resisting Galra fleet, who we have lost five of our ships—and men—to already. This is serious.” Keith sighs, exhausted with this conversation and wondering how many more times they were going to have this argument.
“We don’t have the lions any more! Things are different now!”
“I don't understand why you're being like this Lance. I've been with the Blade, doing relief work, for over TWO years now, and have fought alongside the Blades for longer than that before we even defeated the Galra in the first place. I know what I'm doing." Keith huffed, walking back into the living room and throwing down his duffel bag onto the couch. He turns to face Lance fully, more than aggravated.
"I didn't say that you didn't know what you were doing. I'm saying that it's getting too dangerous and that you're not going." Lance crosses his arms over his chest in obvious defiance.
"Who do you think you are: Adam? Did you forget that I piloted the Black Lion? Did you forget that we both saved the universe together? --that I have put myself in much more dangerous positions? Don't give me that, Lance. Don't tell me what I can and can't do." Keith resists crossing his own arms, and instead raising them to rest his hands on his hips in continuously growing annoyance.
"Maybe Adam had a fucking point, Keith. Look what happened to him!"
"What are you suggesting?" Keith says, narrowing his eyes as pain flashes across his features. "That you're not going to be here when I come back? What kind of fucked up-"
"I'm suggesting that you might not be." Lance mutters under his breath. Keith catches it.
"Excuse me? I can take care of my-" But before Keith can finish his sentence, Lance loses it. He throws out his arms in an aggressive way that makes Keith forget his line of thought, and steps forward into Keith’s space.
“I CAN'T LOSE YOU TOO!" He screams. Keith stumbles back a step. “Don’t you get that?!”
"You don't ever fucking listen, Keith.” Lance pulls at his hair in a desperate attempt to keep his head on his shoulders, then shoves a finger into Keith’s chest. “That's your problem. That's been your problem since day fucking one--way back when we were still cadets at the Garrison.” He gestures behind him in reference to the past. “You don't ever read between the lines, always taking things at face value, always making things about you. You don't think I know that you can take care of yourself? Keith, you've been proving that to me since the moment we got thrown into space. Training too hard." Lance throws up a finger. "Protecting everyone." Another. "Throwing yourself into the way of battle cruisers on fucking suicide missions and by some miracle managing to not die." He waves out his whole hand in exasperation. Lance takes a breath to steady himself. "Should I get Shiro in here to tell you to stop trying to kill yourself? He seems to be the only person you ever take seriously." Lance sneers. "I always have to spell everything out for you, Keith, and that’s fine! But don't make me fucking say it this time. Don't make me bring up Allura like this."
Keith falters. Repeating the words in his head: I can't lose you too. Too. Too.
"Lance-" Keith starts, but is interrupted before he can finish.
"Were you under the impression that I gave up my life long dreams of becoming a pilot to instead run a fucking farm for shits and giggles? Huh? Were you? You ever think that maybe the reason I decided to milk a cow for a living was because I couldn't leave my family again? Because I couldn't lose them again? You ever think that maybe I don't want you to go because I can't, Keith? I can not lose you too. I can not. lose. you. again." Lance's voice is strained. "How dare you." His eyes dart between both of Keith’s eyes as if imploring him to understand, and when he struggles to form his thoughts, he repeats, “How dare you.”
Keith doesn't bother stuttering out a response. He instead keeps staring, shocked by the outburst, hurt by Lance’s pain, angry at how he hadn’t thought about how Lance might be feeling. Lance had been trying to point it out to Keith for a while, trying to talk to him in his subtle ways, and he was right, Keith hadn’t been listening.
"You know, maybe Adam's methods were wrong, but he didn't want Shiro to die without him, and I can't say I don't relate. Maybe I’m selfish. But so are you."
Keith rushes forward then, "I know... I know, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking," tugging Lance into an embrace, but Lance rips his arms out of Keith's grasp.
"Don't touch me. I'm fucking pissed." Lance picks up his keys and walks to the door. "I'm going to my parents.”
Keith doesn’t know how to proceed. Lance is really mad. Lance had never been this mad with him before. He wants to knock the keys out of his hand, and talk this through. He wants to yell at him for not communicating with him properly until now. How long had he been feeling like this and had never said anything? How long had he been hurting? Can Keith fix this? Keith wants to fix this.
“I don't even care anymore, Keith. Do whatever you want." Lance opens the door and steps out. In Keith’s panic, his first emotion is to fight, so he yells.
“Don’t fucking walk away from me, Lance! We need to talk a-” And with that, the front door slams shut leaving Keith in silence, “-bout this...”
Keith follows him out the door not five minutes after.
“It’s not just high and lows, and Champagne Toasts.
I've come to know that love's not only
The best days or the worst days
Love is the Tuesdays”
Lance sat at the dining table with his family while breakfast was being served, rambling to Veronica about his opinion on some reality TV show they’d watched together when his mom asks, "Mijo, can you pass me the salt?"
"Si, Mama." He responds automatically, looking down at the table for the salt and pepper, when his eyes land on the small black box sitting on his otherwise empty plate. The room seems to fall into silence as Lance reaches for it slowly, heart racing.
"What is this?" He asks. It sounds desperate in his ears for some reason as he lifts it. He looks up at his parents with urgency, "Mama, what is this?! Where is Keith?" Lance turns out of his seat to look all around him but the long haired man was nowhere to be found.
"Open it, my love." His mother encourages gently.
Lance swallows, telling himself that it's not what he think it is. It can't be. Where is Keith? This had to be a gift from his family. He's just being dramatic.
He forces out a laugh, before flicking open the lid and being met with a matte black ring with a thin line of red inlaid into it. There was a gem delicately facing him, that he didn't quite recognize, but knew was familiar. It wasn't a diamond... maybe some kind of crystal--before he could finish that thought, a plate of pancakes is set in front of him while he's inspecting the ring, and Lance peers at it for a second, before doing a double take because there, written in chocolate syrup over his pancakes were the words, Will you marry me?
It took Lance a second for his brain to comprehend the words, rereading them a few times before spinning around to see Keith kneeling behind him, a soft smile on his face.
"Keith?" Lance practically whispers, clutching the ring as if it were a life line.
"I originally wanted to do something bigger for you. More grand." Keith chuckles nervously, scratching at the stubble on his cheek. "I thought you would've liked something like that... I kept thinking about the perfect time to do it, but then I saw you laughing with your family, and I thought everything was perfect right now."
"I look like shit right now." Lance laughs wetly, tears already blurring his vision. He wipes at his eyes with the back of his hands so that he could see Keith clearly.
"You're beautiful." Keith urges with so much sincerity that Lance has to swallow his heart down for a second time during breakfast.
“You’re my best friend, Lance." Keith continues, trying to remember the speech he had practiced in his head a thousand times but knowing he was already fucking this whole thing up. He grabs Lance's shaking hands in what he hopes is a comforting gesture, but really he was shaking twice as much, and Lance always steadied him. "I love you when your hairs a mess, and I love you when your pajamas are wrinkly..." He flicks at Lance's sleeve and the boy chuckles a bit, batting Keith's hand away.
"I love you when you're arguing with me over the way I like my eggs. Or when you're arguing with Veronica about who won Bii Boh Bi's Got Talent."
"Boh deserved to win. The whole show is a scam." Lance interrupts.
"For the last time, Lance, no he didn't-"
"Shut up Veronica, Keith is proposing." Marco cuts in.
Keith starts laughing at the commotion around them, and Lance smiles with a fondness that aches.
"I love that you cause trouble wherever you go and you don't make any thing easy for literally any one." Keith pinches Lance's thigh in a teasing way. "You're loud, you're funny, you're easy to talk to, you're overly opinionated, but you have one of the biggest hearts I have ever seen or known. I want these kinds of mornings with you every day of my life. The messy ones. I want to watch dumb reality TV shows with you and complain about them and have you not care. I want to stand in some beauty store for three hours while you pick out things that I don't understand. I want to bicker about my clothing choices and how recklessly I drive. I want to talk late into the night about our scars, and about our future, and about who the hell was the first person to try cheese.”
Lance snickers, “The important things.”
Keith smiles, “Exactly. The important things.” He picks up Lance’s hand and lightly kisses a knuckle.
“I want to make you laugh and I want to make you mad. I want to make you feel better when you feel hopeless. I want to make sure you always know that you are so special, and so loved.” Keith pauses to chew on his lip.
“You were just Lance, you know? All those years ago. Just... Lance. Hunk and Pidge’s Lance. That guy, Lance. My rival, Lance...” Keith’s voice wavers with emotion. “And now you’re My Lance, and I can’t imagine my life without you. I can’t imagine going to sleep without your kisses and your arms around me, or mine around yours. Or at least I can’t imagine going to sleep without feeling anxious for the next day to start so that I can see you again. You’re My Lance. The Lance I want by my side for as long as you’ll stand by me. The Lance I want to laugh next to and cry next to and share good times with and bad times with. You’re My Lance. And I am your Keith... I will always be yours.”
Lifting his hand to push back the longer hairs covering Lance’s face, Keith continues softly, “You are everything to me, Lance. I love you... and I will always love you. Will you marry me?"
Lance has just been letting the tears fall at this point, and Keith struggles to keep it together before letting a couple fall as well. The blue in Lance's eyes are impossibly bright and the boy nods so fervently Keith worries he'll give himself whiplash. He falls into Keith’s arms then, placing ardent chaste kisses onto Keith's lips and mumbling yes's and I love you’s in between them.
Keith thinks he hears Marco whisper, "I think this is the most I've ever heard Keith talk."
And then Veronica mocks in her own whisper, “Shut up Marco, Keith’s proposing.”
And Keith, well, he smiles so largely it hurts. His heart hurts as it's bursting, his arms hurt from how tightly he holds onto Lance, and then he hears Lance murmur into his neck, "You're perfect. This was perfect." and Keith knows that out of all the pain he's suffered throughout his life, he doesn't mind this kind of hurt. Not at all. Not ever.