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Lance finds Keith sitting atop the Black Lion.
Kosmo's beside him too, but Lance really can't bring it in him to focus on anything that isn't Keith. Not when Keith is right here, looking so at ease. He’s relaxed in a way Lance hasn't seen him to be in so long, the dying rays of the setting sun casting gold and pink and orange hues all over his cheeks, forehead, the gentle slope of his nose.
There's a heat burning bright somewhere deep in Lance's chest that he suppresses far, far down. He sucks in a silent breath, and before he can think too much of it, he's clamoring up to where Keith is, gravitating towards his side like Lance was made to be there.
He grunts, aiming for casual and missing by a hundred or so light-years. "You know, Red," he starts, "you can be a real hard guy to find when you wanna be."
It's only when Keith jolts from his reverie does Lance belatedly realize that maybe he should have looked in a mirror before coming here. Or at least gotten rid of the atrocious getup Coran had forced him into, because now he just feels ridiculous.
"Hey, Lance–" Maybe he won't notice? "Woah!" … Nevermind. "What… the fuck are you wearing?"
The metal latched onto him clatters noisily when Lance tries to take a seat, and he huffs out a long sigh. "Coran made it for me for my date with Allura," he explains defeatedly, and Keith spares him a surprised glance.
"A date... with Allura?"
"You don't have to sound so shocked, you know."
Lance doesn't even need to look to know Keith is smirking. It's infuriating, how the sheer smugness radiates off of him in near-palpable waves, but it's also infuriatingly hot. It makes Lance want to bang his head against the frying pan attached to his shoulder.
"Wow. " Keith's smiling now, and Lance averts his gaze. "Well done, Lance."
There's a hint of something genuine under the layers of sarcasm, and it makes Lance's gut curl, like the metaphorical butterflies in his stomach have decided to let all hell loose and go rampant on his organs. Oh, God. That weird purple alien oatmeal-looking thing Coran forced him to eat earlier must be doing shit to him.
From the corner of his eye, he catches the way Keith stares expectantly at him, so he swallows down the sudden nervousness in his throat and says with a roll of his eyes, "Gee, thanks."
Keith snorts, and there must seriously be something wrong with Lance if he finds it this fucking cute. Which is weird, because Keith's always been pretty – Lance isn’t blind, the whole universe should be able to collectively agree that Keith is easy on the eyes – but to think of the guy as cute when he'd just sounded like a fucking pig? Lance must be ill.
He shakes his head as if to wave the thought away. Clearing his throat, he adds, "Then again, it might as well be our last. I- I just can't seem to keep all these Altean customs straight."
He doesn’t know what to expect from Keith when the words slip past him, but it’s definitely not the tentative grin that ghosts over Keith’s lips, confident and certain. "Listen, Lance,” he says, and Lance thinks he might be holding his breath. He’s not entirely too sure. He can’t be, not right now, because all his stupid traitorous brain can think about is how stunning Keith looks like this, how all his current problems seem to fade away when they’re together. “If Allura’s going out with you, it's because she likes you. The annoying, stupid, Earth version of you."
“Wow. You really do have a way with words, Kogane.”
Keith laughs, and it's a pretty sound that shoots right through Lance’s core.
Keith isn't looking at him. Not yet. He keeps his eyes on the twilight sky, and it gives Lance free reign to cast his eyes over the sight of him, the scar on his cheek, the line of his jaw, the dip in his neck. Everything that makes him beautiful.
And that’s not something Lance wants to deny anymore.
Keith is beautiful.
It’s a simple fact that filters through his mind unprompted, sinking low into his chest with the airiness of acceptance. There’s nothing debatable about it. He thought of it when he first saw Keith at the Garrison, and he thinks of it now. Especially in this moment, in the tranquil bubble they've temporarily created for themselves.
Here, he doesn't look like the Leader of Voltron. He's not the Black Paladin, with the fate of the universe on his shoulders. He's just Keith. A friend who's made his way into Lance's heart and settled there like he's always belonged in the first place.
Keith's eyes flicker towards him, widening just the slightest bit when he catches Lance staring. Lance can't really feel shame for it. Especially with the way Keith's lips tilt upwards, barely there, like Lance would have missed it if he wasn't watching so closely.
And even something as simple as that is beautiful when it's Keith.
He inhales softly, finally wretching his gaze away from the boy beside him to gaze at the setting sun, dipping low into the horizon and painting them golden. “You watching the sunset?”
His voice cracks at the last word. He can only thank his lucky stars when Keith doesn’t roll his eyes and call him out for pointing out the obvious.
"Yeah,” says Keith instead. “Might be a while before we get to see it again."
"I'm really gonna miss this place."
It’s a small moment of vulnerability, raw honesty in his voice, because Lance knows. They both know. It’s their last night on Earth, and they don’t talk about it, but none of them know when they’ll be back.
Or if they’ll succeed.
Wow, Lance thinks with a silent scoff. Way to ruin your own mood.
“But that’s just it,” Keith shrugs, and Lance turns to meet his eyes. “That's why we've gotta end this war. And we're gonna do it with the Lance that's the Paladin of the Red Lion. The Lance that's always got my back. And the Lance who knows exactly who he is... and what he's got to offer."
Keith smiles, lovely and gentle and warmer than any summer day, like he didn’t just single-handedly flip Lance’s entire world in its own axis with his words, and Lance finally thinks, oh.
Oh.
This boy is gonna be the fucking death of him.
He thinks he might be blushing, Just a little bit. His face suddenly feels too hot, and his heart feels like it’s about to jump out of his chest with how much it’s somersaulting in his ribs. Or maybe that’s just the alien food from earlier talking.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Keith asks softly, and he’s staring out into the sun.
“Yeah,” Lance breathes out, but all he’s looking at is Keith.
Allura comes over for dinner that night looking absolutely amazing.
“You look wonderful,” Lance compliments, and he means it. She looks like a star. He still can’t quite wrap his head around the fact that Allura agreed to all this, but here she is.
“Thanks,” she says easily, rubbing the nape of her neck. “Romelle helped me pick the dress out.”
“I think it really suits you.”
Her eyes flit down his body, giving him a quick once-over, and Lance tries not to squirm under her gaze. “You look quite dashing yourself, too,” she smiles, and Lance can’t help but grin back.
Gesturing at himself, he says, “Well, it’s no Altean vestments, but-”
He trails off, and Allura giggles, shaking her head. “God, no. Imagine you in a Forlonian brill hat.”
Lance has no idea what a Forlogian brill hat even looks like, but he laughs with Allura all the same, his heart beating a steady rhythm in his chest.
Dinner is ready soon enough, and it’s… nice. It’s familiar, and safe, and Lance even brushes aside all the embarrassing childhood stories Marco and Veronica tell Allura about because he’d be damned if he said he didn’t miss this. Eating with his family. Having actual good food on their table. Being home.
Fleetingly, he wonders what Keith is up to. Probably off with Shiro somewhere. Lance hopes he’s resting enough, and he’s at least had dinner instead of pushing his body to the fucking limit with how hard Keith usually trains.
“Lance was always the baby of the family,” Marco’s saying, fond amusement clear in his tone, and Lance tears himself away from thoughts of raven hair and velvet eyes to focus on the shit his family is telling about him now. “It only took you coming to dinner to graduate him to the adult table.”
“Speaking of dates…” Veronica starts slowly, nudging Lance from where his arms are firmly crossed over his chest and, oh boy. He doesn’t like the way her voice sounds. “Maybe you can put in a good word for me with that long-haired friend of yours, hm?”
Lance frowns, blinking up at her. What?
It takes a second or two for it to click. When it does, Lance barely stops himself from jumping out of his seat in protest because what the fuck.
“What?” he squeaks. It comes out much louder than he wanted it to. “You mean Keith? ” His eyebrows nearly shoot to his hairline when Veronica merely nods in confirmation, swallowing hard and frantically waving his hands around as he laughs around the lump in his throat. “No way, no, never. Not happening.”
Veronica arches an eyebrow at him. It makes Lance’s skin crawl. “And why not?”
“Why not-” Lance splutters. He thinks he might be gaping. “Keith is, well, Keith! You can’t date him. I think that breaks like, four different moral rules somewhere.”
“In what world am I not allowed to like someone as attractive as Keith?’
“Keith isn’t-” attractive, Lance means to say, but he knows that’s a lie. He switches instead to, “I’m just saying, Keith deserves someone way better.”
Time stops. Or maybe that’s just the world mercifully putting itself on hold for Lance, just so he could fully register the weight of his words.
The dinner table falls silent. Too late does he realize what he’s said and, oh. Oh no. Now everyone’s staring at him. Great.
Why did he say that? He didn’t mean to say that. He was supposed to say Veronica deserves someone better, not Keith. All Keith likes anyway is throwing his weird knives around and being all brooding and emo! Sure, he may be more beautiful than any night sky, and Lance would travel to the end of the galaxies if it means he could get Keith to look at him in that certain way, all soft and shy that makes Lance’s insides turn fuzzy, and, yeah, he loves making Keith laugh, but that’s different. That’s just him being a good friend.
Veronica’s smile turns from teasing to sympathetic when she tuts and says, “Oh, Lance. I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon, buddy.” And, really now, what is he even supposed to make out of that?
When dinner ends and Lance is whisked out of the house with the reassurance that he doesn't have to clean up – ("Don't get used to it," Marco threatens lightly) – he leads Allura out into their garden, the stars glowing brilliantly above them.
"So..." she says carefully, dragging out the word and kicking a stray pebble. "Did you manage to find Keith earlier?"
"Hm?" Lance glances back at her and hums. "Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I did. We, uh, watched the sunset together and everything."
"Wow. That seems…” Allura smiles, a fleeting little thing that she quickly hides as she coughs through her fist, “rather intimate."
"Uh... I guess? I mean, if you consider him calling me annoying and stupid to be intimate," he says, a soft laugh bubbling out of him.
Allura chuckles too, and she's quiet for a moment, the both of them basking in the stillness of the night before she speaks up again. "You like Keith, don't you, Lance?"
It's a simple question. Phrased with no malice in her tone. She says it like a statement, direct with no room for argument, yet Lance still finds himself floundering, grasping for the right words. "I- What? Well, of course I like Keith. He's like, one of my best friends, you know?"
Allura raises an eyebrow at him. "Go on."
"I mean, don't tell this to Hunk or anything – I swear I love him though – but Keith is... different? He's... special. The two of us–" Lance scratches the back of his neck sheepishly– "I wasn't lying when I said we make a good team."
"He's special, you say?" she questions with a tilt to her head, but all Lance can think of is why the fuck does she sound so amused. There's a shadow of a shit-eating grin playing on her lips that eerily reminds him of Pidge, but he blinks and it's gone as sudden as it appeared. "How so, Lance?"
Lance feels... exposed. Allura is staring him down with a ghost of a smirk and suddenly he feels his dinner doing jumping jacks in his stomach. This was not what he had planned for when he brought them outside.
"Keith is–" Lance struggles to find the right words. He doesn't think there are any in the English language that can perfectly describe how he feels for the guy. "He's… everything to me."
It catches him off-guard. He says it so easily, and his chest feels hot when he realizes how much he means it. Lance pushes on. "I did kinda hate him at first, but now it's... not like that at all. All I can think about is how, when we're together, I feel like- like I can take a dozen evil Galra empires. Like, as long as I have Keith by my side, we could take on the fucking world."
"Really, now?" Allura asks, and if Lance was paying more attention, he would have caught the poorly-concealed, good-natured laughter in her voice. Almost like she's trying to tamper down a smile.
But Lance isn’t paying attention. Because now that he's thinking of Keith, he can't seem to stop.
It's a fucking disease. Keith is a disease, and Lance has long passed the point of no return.
"Yeah," he exhales instead. Warmth creeps up his neck when he adds, "When we were watching the sunset earlier, I couldn't take my eyes off of him. I mean, we all know Keith is really pretty, right? But at that moment? I- I think he's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"Lance," Allura calls. Now she's definitely smiling. Lance doesn't get it. "What exactly is Keith to you?"
"He's... a friend? Allura," he groans, "have you not been listening at all?"
"Oh, I've been listening. But I think you're the one who's not hearing yourself."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She giggles at his pout, which only makes his frown deepen. "Lance," she says, light and tinkling with humor. "I don't think I'm the one you want to date."
He blinks. Furrows his brows. "What?"
“Do you feel the same way when with Pidge?’
“You know, I really don't get where you're going with this–"
“When you’re with Pidge.” Allura explains gently, “do you feel like you could take on a whole bunch of Galra empires? Do you feel like you could take on the entire world when you’re with them?”
“Jesus, no,” Lance laughs, the answer coming out of him immediately. “I’d probably end up slipping up somewhere, and Pidge would come for my ass before the Galra warships even have a chance to take me out.”
“Then what about Hunk?”
“This is starting to feel an awful lot like an interrogation.”
Rolling her eyes, Allua shakes her head fondly and says, “Humor me.”
“Well…” Lance begins, running the question in his head. “I guess not. Sure, Hunk’s one of my closest friends, but I don’t think being with him would ever compare to how I feel when I’m with Keith.”
“Wow.” When Lance glances back at her, her shoulders are trembling, and it’s hard to make out in the darkness, but her eyes are shining. A giggle escapes her, but all Lance can do is stare blankly. Did he say something funny?
“Lance,” Allura finally says, and there’s the widest grin on her face. “You’re in love with Keith.”
"I'm in what with who now?"
"You, good sir–" Allura jabs a soft finger into his chest, voice teasing– "are in love with Keith Kogane."
"That's ridiculous," Lance scoffs with a defiant upward tilt to his jaw. "Why would I like him of all people?"
But all Allura does is smile, looking like she can see right through him. Which is, like he said, ridiculous, because Lance doesn't have anything to hide.
Maybe.
"You just waxed poetry about him on what's supposed to be our date." Lance is quick to open his mouth in protest, but Allura waves him off. "Not that I'm upset, of course, I saw this coming from a galaxy away–"
"What?"
"–but this is just getting pathetic. Pardon me if that sounds rude, but it is."
"I-" Lance gulps, and there's heat flaming his ears, cheeks, neck. It's too much. Even his voice feels weak to him. "I don't like Keith, okay? I just… miss him when he's not around, and I think about him all the time, and, sure, I imagine us one day, running towards each other once this stupid war is over in slow motion with Taylor Swift playing somewhere in the background, and–"
He cuts himself off, eyes widening when realization finally, finally hits him harder than battles with Zarkon ever had.
"And?" Allura asks. There's a wicked glint in her eye. Lance declares then and there that she's been spending far too much time with Pidge.
"Oh my God," he exhales. "I'm in love with Keith."
The sideways smile on Allura's face is borderline menacing when she says, "And this officially makes you the last person to know."
"Oh my God." He feels breathless, and his heart seems to be working double-time with how erratic his heartbeat has gotten. "Oh my god, Allura, I'm in love with Keith."
"I know, Lance." She pats his shoulder in understanding. "I know."
"I- I'm sorry, fuck, this probably makes me a horrible person– this was supposed to be our date–"
"Now that's where I need to interrupt," Allura says, holding up a hand before Lance could ramble any further. "I knew this whole time, Lance. You're not subtle. At all. The only person who hasn't caught on is Keith himself."
Lance thinks he feels his heart jump to his throat, only to free-fall all the way into the pits of his gut and settle right alongside his dinner. “You- Allura, you’re not mad?”
Allura seems to genuinely look taken aback when the words leave him, binking up at him in surprise. “Of course I’m not mad. What makes you think that?”
“I- Well, I don’t want it to seem like I was leading you on… “ he trails off, casting his eyes to the side sheepishly.
“Lance.” There’s something in Allura’s tone, something that Lance can’t quite read, that has him forcing his gaze up. “I’m lesbian? Have I not told you?”
Lance’s jaw positively leaves a dent on the ground.
“You’re- What?”
“I was certain everyone knew,” Allura frowns slightly, looking unsure now. “That’s the right word, isn’t it? I’m pretty sure that’s what you Earthlings call it.”
“Ah.” Lance swallows. He thinks he might need to take a seat. There’s only so many revelations he can handle in a day. “I feel like I should apologize even harder now.”
Allura heaves a sigh, all fond corners and delightedly round. “Go find Keith, Lance. I’ll manage just fine. Besides, I know you want to.”
And Lance does. He really, really wants to see Keith. Keith with his pretty eyes and his dumb mullet and his stupidly endearing smile.
It’s not too late yet. Keith shouldn’t be too far. With one last wave of goodbye and a grateful kiss to Allura’s cheek, Lance is sprinting, the night air biting at his skin, to the one road he knows would lead to a boy made of stars.
Keith.
"Lance?"
"Hey, Mullet," Lance gasps out, chest heaving. Maybe sprinting all the way to the fucking Garrison wasn't his brightest idea, and Lance probably looks like shit, but nothing else seems to matter now that he's found him.
"What…" Keith starts, eyeing him warily, "are you even doing here?"
Straightening up from where he stands bent at the knees, Lance tries to catch his breath. "Ran 40 or so blocks all the way here," he explains, and his voice comes out far too raspy. "May have accidentally knocked someone down into the street, I don't know, I didn't look back."
"I- Excuse me? Aren't you supposed to be on a date with Allura?"
"Yeah, no." Lance waves a hand in the air, one fist placed firmly on his hips. "She swings the other way, you see–"
"She what?"
"–and trust me when I say I'm so, so happy for her, and I didn't realize either, but Keith," Lance pauses, giving his lungs a break. He steps forward and he's beaming. "It's you."
"Uh." Keith blinks. "What's me exactly?"
"It's you I want to be with," Lance smiles, breathless and easy and sure, and Keith's mouth drops open in shock.
"Say that again?" he squeaks, and God fuck if it isn't the most endearing thing Lance has ever heard. "Run that with me one more time, please. I think some water from my shower earlier got into my ears."
"You," Lance starts. He thinks his face might split open with how wide his grin feels. "You can be dumber than people give you credit for, and you get way too infuriating sometimes, and you can be a real hard guy to read–"
"Okay, that is not what you just told me–"
"–but you're also so, so fucking beautiful, and smart, and brave, and it's you I'm constantly looking for. I–" Lance sucks in a shuddering breath– "I would follow you across the fucking universe if you asked me to."
He glances up. Steels himself enough to meet Keith's gaze. And Keith...
Keith looks stunned, blinking furiously, but there's a flush blooming bright and Lance finds himself getting lost in the high color of his cheeks.
"You–" Keith stutters, stops. "You really feel that way?"
"Yeah." Lance isn't sure of a lot of things, but this? He knows he's never been so confident. "Yeah, I really do."
He doesn't say he loves him. Not yet, anyway. Because they have time, and they're gonna get through this war, and he can say it when it starts to feel real.
They don't kiss either. But Keith surges forward, moving like a flood, and falls into Lance's arms like they were made just for him. Lance doesn't know how long they stay like that, feeling Keith's heartbeat against his own chest, but when they pull apart and Keith offers him that bashful little smile, he feels himself drowning in starlight.
“Jesus, fuck," Shiro mutters, running a hand down his face as he eyes the newest lovebirds sitting across the dining table with a shake of his head. "About goddamn time those idiots got together."
"Tell me about it," Allura sighs wistfully. She's pressed against Romelle's side, except at this point she's practically sitting on her girlfriend's lap. Shiro kindly doesn't say anything. "You won't believe what I had to hear from Lance last night."
"You too?" Shiro asks sympathetically, and Allura nods.
"He went on and on, sprouting lovesick poetry on how pretty Keith looks when he does nothing, or how Lance can't stop thinking of him, or how he feels like they can take on the entire world together." Romelle chuckles, and Allura slumps back into her chest. "I swear, those two are denser than any Balmerian crystal."
"God." Shiro laughs. "Keith was the exact same. He came back here and found me and was all like, oh, Shiro," he says, doing a poor imitation of Keith's voice that makes Allura snort. "He's the sun. I mean, the sun was right there, setting behind us, but all I could think about was how Lance will always be the brightest thing in my galaxy."
"We can hear you," Keith snaps, finally looking up from where he'd been giggling, fucking giggling, with Lance.
But all Shiro does is level him with a flat stare. "I think I deserve to do this after the sheer misery you both put me through. If I didn't have a head full of white hair already, I would have gone bald with the way you stress me out."
"You want misery?" Lance questions, cocking an eyebrow and flashing a smirk that immediately drains ten more years from Shiro's lifespan. "I'll show you misery."
And then–
He's kissing Keith.
In front of Shiro's breakfast.
Shiro wonders, in a vanishing moment of resigned defeat, if they had planned this. Because the way Lance grabs onto the collar of Keith's shirt, Keith grinning up at him like he knows exactly what he's thinking, the two of them slotting together like perfect pieces of a dumb, stressful, horribly endearing puzzle, seems all too smooth for it to be a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.
Vaguely, he hears Allura shriek. Romelle even catapults her food into the back of Lance's head, which then leads to Lance breaking apart and screaming out an offended, "Hey!"
Shiro sighs. It's too fucking early for this.
But then he catches the light in Keith's eyes, and the carefree laugh he lets out when a full-fledged food war starts happening in the kitchen at 7 in the fucking morning and Shiro supposes he can let this slide.
Just this once.