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“This isn’t revenge, right?” Keith pauses to steady himself, “You’re not doing this to get payback?”
He has his hands full, and he’s struggling. He’s got a foldable umbrella tucked under his right armpit; a bag with towels and changes of clothes slung over his left shoulder; another bag with food and drinks in his right hand; and finally, a bag with stuff for Kosmo in his left. It’s not just that, though. For some reason, Lance blew up the beach ball before they left the house, so Keith has to hug that to his chest all the while balancing everything else.
Keith gets that he may be strong or whatever, however he can’t help but feel like this is unfair. Especially when Lance, who walks leisurely in front of him, carries nothing but two surfboards. Even Kosmo, who’s trotting beside Keith, understands. He keeps turning his head to Keith every few metres, as if checking whether he’s holding up okay. If Kosmo were human, there would no doubt be pity written in his expression. Keith appreciates that at least someone is sympathetic. He would bend down and give the boy a good rub behind the ears, but, well, he’s occupied.
“Of course not!” Lance calls back. He then turns around and flashes a smile at Keith, teeth and all, before telling him, “You’re just so handsome when you’re like that, I can’t resist.”
The words make Keith flush. Now it’s not just the summer sun making him hot.
Even after all these years, despite having been together for a while now, Lance can still make him blush with the simplest of phrases. He hates it.
(He really doesn’t. Because when Lance notices, he always chuckles—a bright sound that still makes Keith’s heart beat faster. Because Lance will purposely do it, just to get him shy, make him timid, then make up for it with kisses all over. Because it only goes to show how much Keith loves Lance, and the fact that the feeling will never get old.)
“I don’t look like anything but a mess right now,” Keith mutters under his breath.
“A hot mess!” Lance retorts, and Keith startles. He wasn’t intending for him to hear that.
He gets flustered again, and decides to stop protesting. It’ll only be a little longer, and there’s a cool breeze that passes by sometimes, which helps. Also, if Lance keeps spouting nonsense like this, Keith’s going to end up tackling him, and… Well, they wouldn’t be needing the surfboards anymore.
Eventually they reach a secluded area—more secluded than the rest of the beach, at least—amongst rocks. There are larger ones which differ in size scattered here and there, as well as a section of rock that forms something resembling a path leading to the water. Even better is that there’s a cave-like structure a bit further back, in the shape of a triangle. Or the top half of a giant creature’s mouth, Keith observes. He points this out to Lance as they head into it, and his boyfriend’s whole demeanour brightens.
“That’s exactly right! We used to call this the ‘Shark’s Mouth’ when we were younger. Well,” Lance rubs the back of his neck, “I guess we still do.”
“Is this where your fascination with them started?” Keith had been taken aback by the amount of shark decor in Lance’s room when he first visited, but he’s used to it now. Besides, he had his own obsession with an animal, he could relate. If he could express his love for hippos the same way, he would. (After he revealed this to Lance, Lance took him out to buy all things hippo related, and scoured the web for other kinds of merchandise. Needless to say, he and Lance can be embarrassing when they decide to be decked out in full shark-and-hippo gear.)
“Nah, I was actually scared of them for a really long time. My siblings used to joke that this cave would come alive and eat me and I freaked. And whenever we were in the water they would pull pranks on me by going under the surface and tugging on my leg.” Lance shudders, putting a hand to his chin and tilting his head up to the ceiling as he adds, “Man, they were kinda cruel, weren’t they?”
Keith doesn’t know how to respond—if he’s supposed to respond at all. He didn’t grow up with siblings, he can’t begin to understand what the dynamic is like. The closest he’s got to that are the other Paladins, but even then they weren’t given the opportunity to fool around or act like the children they were. Lucky for him, he’s saved from having to answer when Lance pulls out the last of the towels, and picks up the surfboards again.
“You ready to head out?”
Ever since they got back to Earth, Lance has been talking about teaching Keith how to surf. Keith doesn’t have an affinity for the water—Lance had to teach him how to swim too—but he relented because: a) how could he ever deny Lance anything, and b) he convinced Lance to agree on the condition that he would have to learn how to ride a hoverbike.
That being said, Keith hopes he doesn’t end up the same way Lance did that day.
The kind of hoverbike Keith owned wasn’t meant for carrying passengers, so the only way he could show Lance how it worked was to have him squish right up behind him and watch as he handled the controls.
It wasn’t long before Keith started regretting the idea, because Lance would not stop trying to distract him.
First, Lance tightened his hold around Keith’s middle, squeezing, bringing them closer together. Keith relished in the sensation of Lance’s arms around him, but it restricted his movement, and made it difficult to properly manoeuvre his bike.
Following a drop wherein Keith nearly missed the landing (the bike practically touched the ground, the sound of metal scraping hurt Keith’s heart), Lance finally realised his actions were dangerous and he relented, sitting back. Some blissful moments followed where Keith could drive with ease and concentrate on instructing Lance, rather than preventing them from crashing. The serenity didn’t last, however, as Lance soon got into mischief again.
He began tickling Keith, making him twist and jerk, while Keith was trying to explain how to use the brakes. It was important Lance got this, because from (painful) experience Keith knew how difficult it was to get the hang of it the first few times. Lance had the benefit of Keith giving him tips and tricks too—he’d better appreciate it.
Then, as Keith took them around a bend, cool wind blowing their hair, Lance stopped moving his fingers all over Keith, instead focusing his attention to Keith’s neck.
Specifically, he decided to nuzzle it, pressing kisses against the sensitive skin, sending tingles down Keith’s spine.
Keith couldn’t handle it.
“Fuck,” he hissed under his breath, before abruptly braking. It caused Lance to propel forward, and he would’ve flown off if it weren’t for his arms being around Keith like a rope tied to a cleat.
When the bike finally came to a complete stop, Keith jumped off it, wanting to be far away from it for the time being. As for Lance…
Lance was looking at him with a confused, if a bit pissed off, expression. He appeared so innocent, as if he hadn’t the slightest clue he caused this, and maybe that was the final straw.
Keith marched right up to him, pulled him off the bike (with more force than possibly necessary), and smashed their mouths together (definitely with more force than necessary).
Lance made a noise of surprise before registering what was happening and reciprocating the kiss. Keith was rougher than usual; there was no soft glide of his tongue across Lance’s lips, there was no gentle touch at the base of Lance’s neck. He kissed like he was starving for it, and they finally broke apart, it was because they were now starving for air.
“And what was that for, big guy?” Lance asked through half-lidded eyes, voice husky. He sounded like he was more than happy to go back for more, but that’s not what they were doing right now.
“Your turn,” was all Keith said after wiping his mouth, lightly shoving Lance back towards the bike.
“What?! Just like that?” Lance became sulky, pouting, any semblance of ‘sexiness’ gone. (Screw you, Lance would say, I’m always sexy. No quotation marks.)
“Yep. I can’t drive with you being like that, so you’re on your own now. And since you weren’t listening anyway, you must know what to do.”
“Oh, I’ll show you how much I know.” Lance gave Keith a level look, always willing to take on a challenge—especially one that came from Keith. “Just watch me, pretty boy.” He was cocksure, and walked the way he talked, all confident and self-assured.
Then, before hopping on the hoverbike again, he turned to Keith and said, “Give me a kiss for good luck?”
Keith scoffed, “You wish,” and stood back with his arms crossed to watch the show.
Truth be told, Lance wasn’t actually that bad. He could definitely start the bike and balance himself on it well. He started very slow (Keith could walk beside him), but as his confidence grew so did his speed. Soon, he was doing laps around the place, going up the ledges and back down them. Keith smiled as he observed him; it made him happy to see Lance enjoy himself.
When the teen finally had enough, he approached Keith and prepared to stop. He seemed to be doing fine, he eased off the throttle and pulled on the breaks, but then he made the critical mistake Keith had warned him about. He didn’t sit back.
And because he was leaning forwards, when the bike halted he was flung in front of it, causing him to face plant into the dirt. Keith winced, because ouch, that looked like it hurt, and he jogged up to his boyfriend who had sat up and was currently rubbing his forehead.
“What the hell, Keith? Why didn’t you tell me that would happen?”
“I did! You weren’t listening!” Keith couldn’t believe his ears. Did Lance seriously just accuse him of purposely letting him hurt himself?
“Hm,” Lance appeared to contemplate for a moment. “Still. This is your fault.” Keith gawked at him. “So now you gotta carry me home and patch me up, okay?”
Keith shook his head, huffing out a laugh. Lance was smiling too, despite his injuries.
“I gladly will.”
Looking back, it wasn’t a bad experience. They spent a lazy night in together, in bed in each other’s arms, watching a movie.
Keith feels like there’s less of a chance of that happening here. If he loses his footing and falls into the water, he could drown, and as strong of a swimmer as Lance is, Keith doesn’t know whether he would be able to pull him back to shore and resuscitate him in time.
“You aren’t going to die, Keith,” Lance says for the nth time, reading Keith’s mind.
Easy for you to say, Keith thinks, looking at him with unimpressed eyes. He doesn’t know that. And when Keith does die, he’s going to come back and haunt Lance for the rest of his life as one massive ‘I told you so’.
“Seriously,” Lance holds out his hand, “just trust me. Look, even Kosmo is having fun in the water!” Keith glances in the direction Lance is indicating, and sure enough, his space-wolf is happily paddling in the water, without a care in the world. “I mean, you can join him if you want,” Lance shrugs, “I did teach you the doggy paddle.”
Keith immediately reaches down and splashes water into Lance’s face. He stands there, face wet, water droplets dripping down his hair and chin. Keith braces for a retaliating attack, but it never comes.
“You know what, I’m not even gonna be mad. We’re at the beach—if there’s still a part of me that isn’t wet by the end of it, we haven’t done things right. Now come on.”
This time, when Lance asks for Keith’s hand, he gives it to him.
He lets Lance lead them out into the sandbank, hand in hand, and when it becomes too deep to comfortably stand, Lance pushes the boards out beside them and gets on one, gesturing for Keith to do the same on the other.
Paddling on the boards is fine. Lance actually had Keith practise this in the pool. It’s the fact that they’re going further and further out into the ocean that scares Keith. When he turns his head around and sees how small the yellow shoreline has gotten, his heart sinks a bit and he gulps.
Thankfully, Lance decides they’ve gone far enough and sits up, turning his board around. Keith follows, but his nervousness increases. He really doesn’t want to wipe out, even though he knows he most definitely will.
“Hey,” Lance speaks with a soft voice, and he calms the beating of Keith’s heart. “There’s a wave coming. You want me to catch it first to you can watch and copy? Or do you want to get it together?”
Keith thinks about this for a moment. While having Lance go first and demonstrate will probably help more, Keith really doesn’t want to be out here by himself, so he tells him he wants to catch the wave together. Despite not feeling ready for it at all. But hey, maybe this’ll be like flying. Maybe he’ll pick it up right away. (He hopes.)
“Okay, here comes. Start paddling, then follow everything I do.”
Oh, Lance didn’t even have to tell him. Keith is going to follow Lance like his life depends on it.
They paddle forwards a bit, and then Keith feels the start of the wave under him, like a volcano about to erupt. He feels like he’s being elevated, and when they’re angled down towards the water, Lance jumps up.
Alright. Keith takes in a breath. The moment has come.
He pushes against the board and tucks his feet under. Then, he brings his knees in and into position, like Lance had taught him. Finally, he gets up, a bit shaky, holding his arms out to balance himself.
It took him longer than Lance, and he was a lot less graceful about it, but Keith is now standing on his board too. He’s actually doing it. He’s surfing. He can’t contain his excitement.
“Lance!” He calls out, not wanting to move his head. “Are you looking at this? I’m actually— Oh, shi—”
Keith is plunged into the water. He squeezes his eyes shut, and hears the sound of water gushing around him. He’s curled in a ball and tries not to panic. He isn’t going to drown; he knows how to float; and if all else fails Lance is here with him.
He calms himself down enough to outstretch his legs, and a wave of relief comes over him when they hit the sand. From there, he pushes against the ground and breaks the surface of the water, taking in a deep breath and wiping the water from his eyes.
When he opens them, the first thing he sees is his board floating close by, so he swims over and holds onto it, resting his cheek against the smooth surface, using this time to catch his breath. Then, he notices Lance coming back towards him from the shore, and even from this distance Keith can see the worried expression on his face, so he gives a tired smile and wave to let him know he’s okay.
“I’m fine, Lance,” he says after Lance reaches him, grasps hold of his head and checks all over to make sure he hasn’t been cut or hurt otherwise. It’s comforting like this, feeling Lance’s gentle touch, and having the water roll under him, rocking him smoothly.
“You had Kosmo worried too,” Lance tells him carefully, and only then does Keith realise that Kosmo is sitting behind Lance on his board.
“Aw, come here boy.” Keith paddles closer to Lance, and Lance grabs hold of his board to keep them together. He then gestures to his pet, and Kosmo jumps onto his board, rubbing his wet fur all over Keith. “I’m okay,” he assures him, hugging him and petting him. Kosmo licks one wet stripe up Keith’s neck, and he chuckles. “See? All better.” He directs the words at Lance too, just to really reinforce the fact.
They spend a few more moments chilling at sea, before Keith has regained the energy to get back to land. When they make it back onto the hot sand, Keith lies back in it, flings his limbs out, and savours the sensation of being grounded. Lance sits beside him and takes his hand.
“Were you really that worried about me?” Keith asks, turning his head. Lance just looks ahead.
“Not entirely. I mean, I taught you what to do, and you’re a fast learner. I did forget how scary it can be wiping out the first few times though, so sorry about that. And… I guess when I looked back and saw that you were gone, it brought up some thoughts and memories I’d rather forget, so I got scared.”
“Hey,” Keith gets up right away and wraps his arms around Lance’s neck, pressing Lance’s head against his shoulder. “We’re home now. We’re safe. There’s nothing that’s going to take me away from you. You think the ocean scares me? I’ve faced much worse.”
Lance lets out a light laugh, “Don’t say that too loud, I hear the ocean spirits can be pretty frightening.”
“Ocean spirits?!” Keith pulls back to look at Lance, “Is there something you didn’t tell me about?”
“Nope!” Lance replies not-so-innocently (there’s a glint in his eye). “There is absolutely nothing for you to worry about.” And he gives Keith one of his winner smiles.
Keith eyes him with suspicion, debating whether he wants to wrestle him into the sand or not. In the end he just stands up, and heads towards the water.
“You wanna go back in already?”
“Yeah, why not,” Keith shrugs. “I’m not gonna let one wave get to me. Besides, I’m supposed to be able to surf by the end of this, aren't I?”
“Well,” Lance takes off his leg rope and approaches Keith, grabbing hold of his board, bracketing Keith between them. “If you want instant success, I can come with you. Me helping you surf still counts as you surfing, right?” He winks.
“Sounds like a plan,” Keith grins, giving Lance a peck on the lips.
This time, when they reach the point to get on the board, Keith rests more forward than before, and Lance takes his position behind him. It’s strikingly familiar to how they were sitting on Keith’s hoverbike, but Keith is determined to make sure it’ll be a better experience. For one, he has no plans to distract Lance as he brings them back to shore.
The two paddle out together, and while Keith feels a bit… weird with Lance lodged between his legs, well, it’s not like Lance isn’t familiar with that, or all other parts of him. So, he gets over it pretty quickly, but then a new challenge arises.
See, while Keith declared he would not affect Lance’s concentration, he soon realises that there was nothing stopping Lance from messing up his.
Even though Lance is the one leading them, in charge of the whole situation, he apparently still thinks it’s a good time to mess around. As they’re still heading out (further than the first time, Keith notices), he begins to nip at Keith’s skin like some fish. He starts at his ankles, slowly making his way up, until he gets to his inner thigh just above the end of Keith’s shorts.
It’s not a bad sensation to be honest, the bites send a jolt of surprise up Keith’s spine every time, but it certainly is getting him riled up. Especially because Lance is focusing on the fleshiness of Keith’s thigh, scraping the skin with his teeth, sucking with his mouth, licking with his tongue.
Keith reckons there’ll be a hickey, or a few, by the time Lance is done, and he doesn’t know how to feel about not getting any action with it.
So, he tries to stop his boyfriend from kissing pointedly not his mouth while they’re paddling.
“Isn’t that kinda gross?” He bends his back leg up, knowing it’ll get in Lance’s way. “I mean, there’s no doubt I’m all salty and shit.”
“Like you’re not salty otherwise?” Lance retorts, then laughs at his own comeback.
Keith rolls his eyes. "You know what I mean. There's no way ingesting seawater is healthy."
“Yeah, but I grew up in the ocean. This is basically normal water to me.” Keith turns around with a shocked expression. He’s not being serious. “I’m joking. Man, your face. But I do think I probably have a higher tolerance to it than you. Whatever that means. Don’t worry about it,” he goes back to basically munching on Keith, “it’s all good.”
Finally, Keith sighs, thumping his forehead on the board, resigning to his fate. If there’s anything he’s learned recently, it’s that there’s no stopping Lance once he puts his mind on something.
That characteristic really is more beneficial than detrimental though, especially when it works in Keith’s favour.
When Lance decides they’ve gone far enough, he taps Keith to tell him to sit up, doing the same himself before turning them around. He keeps them afloat in the same spot as he watches for a wave, and instructs Keith on what to do when it comes in the meantime.
“You just lie still and hang on, I’ll do all the paddling. I’ll let you know when it’s time to stand—I’ll get up after you. You’ll still have to maintain the position I taught you and control your own balance, but I’ll be there to help you. And then, we’ll be riding the wave back to shore! Easy peasy.”
Keith thinks this is one of those ‘Easier Said Than Done’ instances, but before he can even complain, Lance starts paddling again. Keith braces for the wave, a bit nervous from his previous try, but also more calm with Lance behind him.
Just as Keith feels the wave come under them, Lance tells him to get up, and he does it as best he can with another person on the board. At one point, he puts his weight too far forward, except just as he thinks, Well, guess this is it, Lance latches onto his wrist and pulls him back. Lance guides him into the proper standing position, and rests his hands on Keith’s waist to keep him steady.
The same exhilarating feeling Keith felt the first time returns, but it’s increased tenfold as he’s actually staying on the board, and as Lance is holding onto him so.
He only topples when they reach the shallow parts of the water, such that there’s really nothing to keep the board up, and he steps off it easily. When Lance gets off too, Keith wraps his arms around him and kisses him on the cheek.
“That was awesome! You are awesome!”
“Why thank you,” Lance takes an extravagant bow. “You’re pretty awesome too. By the end I barely had to hold onto you.”
Keith is pleasantly surprised by this. He hadn’t realised that Lance loosened his hold. Just as he’s about to say something about it though, he spots Kosmo coming at them from the side and kneels down to catch him.
Lance does the same next to him, and Kosmo falls into their arms, making them fall back.
He’s a comfortable weight on top of them, and even his licks, though ticklish, aren’t unwelcome. Then, all of a sudden, he starts to glow blue.
This can only mean one thing, but all Keith and Lance can do is share a look of fear and shock before— Poof!
Keith looks down to find a sea of blue, getting closer and closer, and he frantically closes his eyes and sucks in a breath before— Splash.
He has promptly been dumped into the water. And whilst the water is cooling, refreshing on his face, it is also very, very vast. Keith swims around himself in a circle, looking all around, and finds the shore far, far away. Further than they’d ever gone on their boards. He then looks for Lance, whose head pops up above water not a moment later and immediately comes towards him. Keith feels himself relax immediately. At least he’s been subject to the same fate (he’s not cruel for thinking that, right?).
“Uh…” is how Lance greets him when they reunite. “What did your wolf just do?”
“Teleported us right in the middle of nowhere, it seems.”
“Well, not nowhere, but it certainly is a fair distance from the shore. It would be a pretty long swim back.”
Keith grimaces. It’s not that he hates swimming, he just doesn’t enjoy it. And since he’s not in a life or death situation (hopefully), he’d really rather not.
“Wait, do you have your board?”
“My board? I left it on the beach when we went out together. We were using your board.” Lance’s features change when he realises what Keith’s getting at. He looks around them, dives under the water for a moment, but comes back up with disappointment written across his face. “Did you take the leg rope off when we got back? Either that, or Kosmo didn’t want us to have it.” Lance narrows his eyes.
Speaking of Kosmo… Where was he?
There had only been one flash of light, so the wolf should be with them right now. And if they manage to get a hold of him, they can teleport right back without any issue or effort exerted.
It’s harder than imagined trying to locate a fur of blue among, well, blue, but soon they find something bobbing up and down in the water which isn’t following the pattern of the waves. Lance sets off towards him immediately, with Keith trying hard to follow close behind.
“Here, Kosmo!” Lance calls out. “Why don’t you teleport us back like the good boy you are?”
Following those words, Kosmo starts swimming in the opposite direction. Lance lets out a noise of frustration, but luckily Keith was a bit behind Lance, and if he goes to the right, he might get him.
“Come on, Kosmo, just let me—” Keith lunges out as best he can with one arm, reaching to grab hold of Lance with the other. If he could just make contact with his pet…
Kosmo dodges.
And then, somewhat out of character, Kosmo snarls at them. He bares his teeth, puts a few metres between them, and teleports himself away from Keith and Lance.
“Did he just…” Keith trails off, trying to comprehend what just occurred.
“I think Kosmo might be a bit pissed we were trying to take away his swimming time.”
“He’s the one giving me too much swimming time!” Keith groans, and throws his hands against the water. It feels very childish, but he doesn’t care right now. He wants to go back! “What’re we going to do?”
“Well, we can start slowly heading towards shore. If you get tired swimming you can always just float on your back and the waves will help you move forward. Worse comes to worst, you could hold onto me and I’ll swim us back?”
At that suggestion, guilt washes over Keith. He realises that Lance could probably make it back fine, but because Keith is here with him, he has to consider him as well. At this point, he’s just a handicap. Maybe he should ask Lance to swim back and retrieve a board. But then he’d have to swim this leg twice, and that’s arguably worse.
Keith is so busy contemplating ideas which deepen his frown, he doesn’t realise that Lance has swum right up to him, and startles when he cups his face.
“Or,” Lance starts in that voice, the one that’s maybe a bit cheeky and has a 50-50 chance of Keith either loving or hating whatever he’s about to propose, “we can stay out here for a bit. I doubt that Kosmo will leave us stranded. He’ll come back for us. Eventually.”
Keith raises an eyebrow in question, he can’t think of a single thing that would warrant them not going back.
Lance answers the question when he slots his leg between Keith’s, tangling them together. Keith accidentally kicks Lance a few times before getting accustomed to treading the water with him, but he gets the hang of it.
Then, as they’re floating in the middle of the ocean (not really, but it feels like it), Lance leans in towards Keith, and presses their mouths together.
It’s not the best kiss—something that stands out is the pure saltiness of it—but it’s certainly up there.
There’s something about kissing and being kissed like this, where your feet don’t touch the ground, where you aren’t attached to anything, that makes you weightless. It makes you feel like latching onto the other’s lips for something to hold onto, and it positively gets better the more you do it.
At one point, Keith is so into feeling Lance, relishing the points where their bodies make contact, that he forgets he has to keep himself afloat. He goes down with the kiss, tilting his head back where Lance leans forwards to meet him, and only realises to kick when saltwater enters his mouth.
He comes back up immediately, spitting to get the flavour out, gagging at just how bad it is.
“Oh, shit, are you getting tired? Guess we should get going then.”
Lance turns into a horizontal position, but Keith stops him before he can take his first stroke. He pulls Lance back towards him, easy in the pliant water, and re-enters their previous position. He licks his lips, then looks Lance dead in his ocean-blue eyes.
“On the contrary, I think we were just getting started here.”