Chapter Text
Lance’s eyes eagerly dart from one blaster gun to the next, paying no attention to the shopkeeper trying to rush his decision. His gaze finally lands on the one.
It’s love at first sight.
With a slight turn of the head, the sniper rifle shifted from a vibrant blue to a striking red. Trying to catch the mesmerizing colors from all angles possible, Lance crouches down and gasps, startling the shopkeeper.
Purple!
In just the right light, the blue and the red combined to make a stunning shade of purple that Lance swears he’s never seen before.
“So, uh-”, The shopkeeper interrupts Lance, mouth still gaping, “are you gonna buy it or what? The mall closes in 10 doboshes.”
Lance nods, not taking his eyes off the sniper, “How much?”
“For the trio-chrome? 1600 GAC.”
“Any chance that could be lowered?”
“Nope.”
This time, the blue paladin looks up at the orange alien and squints. Orange, just like a prison jumpsuit because that price should be illegal. He digs through all his pockets and only pulls out 800 GAC.
Before leaving the ship, he told himself he wouldn’t try to buy anything he couldn’t afford again but he couldn’t just leave the blaster here! A trip to the space mall didn’t happen often enough for him to wait until next time.
“Could you give me a couple minutes? I’ll be right back.” Lance says, not even giving the shopkeeper time to answer.
He speeds off toward the same wishing fountain he and Pidge had raided last time. A few moments later, much to his disappointment, he only finds a total of 120 GAC.
680 more to go.
He steps out of the fountain and sits on the edge, contemplating every solution: Robbery was quickly ruled out because Shiro and Allura would be beyond mad.
Hmm.. maybe he could ask to borrow the money.
Coran and Pidge? No. Getting stuff for castleship upgrades.
Shiro? Hard pass. That would be too similar to asking his real dad for money and that never ended well.
Hunk? Quiznak. He still owed him 100 GAC for losing a bet.
Allura? Well-
Lance’s frantic process of elimination was cut a little short when he saw Keith a floor above, heading straight toward a knife shop.
“Oh hell no! He doesn’t need another knife.” Lance wastes no time and sprints toward the closest elevator.
“KEEEITH! Keith! Keith-y Keith! Wait up!” Lance called out right before the red paladin entered the door of the shop.
Quiznak , Keith thought.
Keith rolled his eyes and started walking toward the other boy, “Lance, what did you do this time?”
Lance was still trying to catch his breath so he just motioned toward the direction of the blaster shop and wheezed, “Not... Enough... GAC.”
Keith scanned the people nearby to identify any possible security personnel. “How much time do we have left until the guards catch up? I don’t want to have to carry you back to the lion.”
Lance laughed loudly, putting his hands back on his knees right after he was able to stand up straight again.
Keith looked at him, confused.
This time, through laughs, Lance says, “There’s no guards.” He takes a few seconds to gather himself again, “I just really really really need to borrow 680 GAC.”
Keith notices Lance’s rolled up and slowly dripping wet pants (regardless of his efforts of preventing it), “I’m assuming you already tried the wishing fountain?”
Lance smiles sheepishly and nods, “Yep, so that means that you, Keithy boy,” he slings his arm around the red paladin's shoulder, “you’re my only hope right now. I can pay you back once I get the funds but just know that I still have to pay Hunk back from a bet I lost the other day. It’s actually a pretty funny story so I don’t regret it much. The food goo hose started malfunctioning and Pidge told me-” He abruptly stopped himself and looked at Keith, expecting an annoyed expression but instead it just looked like he was actually listening to the story and even waiting for more.
Weird.
“Sorry, I’m rambling,” Lance starts again, “I forgot we’re low on time. So what do ya say? Could you do me a favor, buddy?”
Keith thinks about it for a second and asks, “Another gaming console?”
“No, actually, it’s a super gorgeous sniper rifle except it shoots out beams instead of bullets, which is a lot better in my opinion, and definitely a lot quieter! I bet you’d like it too!” Lance continues, excitedly, “At first glance, it’s as blue as those gummy sharks back on Earth my nephew used to love but from a different light, it’s as red as maraschino cherries. Then it gets even better! A slight movement changes it to a breathtaking purple. I can’t even describe it, that’s how pretty it is!”
Keith can’t help but smile at Lance’s enthusiasm. If describing the blaster wasn’t the most important thing to him right now, he’s sure Lance would be literally bouncing off the walls.
“Ya’ know, now that I think about it, the colors kinda represent you and me, or our lions that is, so that’s totally a sign from the universe that you gotta help me out, right?”
Keith keeps smiling and lets him continue talking as he leads them both to where he saw the blaster shop when they first came in.
“I could even help you learn how to use it while I gather the money to pay you back. It could be really fun! I mean, I know you don’t need help when it comes to fighting and stuff, but it’s just an option. It would technically be partly yours anyway, so you’d obviously be allowed custody sometimes. It’s pretty much gonna be our child but without the eating and sleeping and crying and- Wait. How’d we get downstairs?”
Keith thanks every god out there that Lance is too distracted to notice how red his face was or how he couldn’t stop smiling the entire way down.
“You didn’t have to give a sermon to convince me to help you.” Keith tries not to laugh at Lances surprised face, ”This is the right shop, yeah?”
Lance grins and nods excitedly.
They both hand the GAC to the unmoved shop owner who sighs, secures the case, and gives Lance the ‘Trio-chrome Snipe-Blaster’. He promptly herds both paladins out the door with a monotone, “have a nice night”, followed by the sound of the door locking behind them.
Lance sets the case down, containing only the best gun he’d ever seen, and tightly wraps his arms around Keith.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you! I could totally kiss you right now, dude,” Lance says without question, keeping the red paladin (in lion and in skin-tone) in a firm hug. “Seriously though. Muchísimas gracias, Keithy.”