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Lance can’t really say he’s expecting Keith’s visit, but he also won’t lie and say he’s surprised. When Keith briefly knocks on his door just before midnight, after leaving this afternoon to “run a quick errand in Black, don’t wait up,” Lance doesn’t even get up to let him in — Keith’s handprint has been keyed into the door for so long that Lance has forgotten a time when it wasn’t. The knock is more of a greeting than a request for entry.
He doesn’t even get up as Keith takes three quick strides to where Lance is laying on his bed, he only shoves a bookmark in his novel and has just enough time to set it on his dresser before Keith flops on top of him, resting his chin on folded hands and staring at Lance’s freshly washed face.
“Hey,” Lance greets with a grin, brushing Keith’s bangs off his forehead.
Keith grins back at him, leaning into the touch. “Hey, Lance,” he says softly. Lance feels the rumble of Keith’s low voice vibrate through his chest. It makes him feel settled, calm. Cared for.
“Where’d you go?” Lance asks after a couple minutes of just enjoying the feeling of Keith’s weight on his body. It’s better than any weighted blanket, and Keith knows it.
God, Lance loves this man.
“Olkarion.”
“Mm. How come?”
Keith closes his eyes as Lance continues to card gentle fingers through his hair. It’s not a mullet, anymore — it’s too long for that. Keith hasn’t cut it since they came to space. The long braid it’s usually in won’t stop Lance’s teasing, though — he’d call Keith ‘Mullet’ if the man was bald. You don’t get to bury that hairstyle in the past.
“Just double checking something,” Keith says carefully. “D’you know Olkarion marriage certificates are recognised on almost every single known planet in the universe?”
Lance’s freezes briefly, but continues his steady motions through Keith’s hair.
Not surprised, but not expecting it.
It’s silent for a few moments. Not an uncomfortable silence, not even a hesitant one. Keith doesn’t look nervous or afraid. The only way he’s looking at Lance is lovingly. Reverently. Lance feels a lump in his throat.
“I’m not easy,” Lance warns eventually, voice shaking. “I need a lot of attention. There are days where I can’t get out of bed. I flail around in my sleep. I’m whiny, I don’t eat many different foods, and I don’t always liked to be touched. I’m a handful.”
Keith turns his head the next time Lance brings his hand back to brush through his bangs, pressing a gentle kiss to the palm.
“You think I don’t know all that already? Lance,” he leans his head into Lance’s cupped hand, and Lance strokes a soft thumb over his cheekbone. “I don’t need you to be easy. Or palatable, or healthy, or pretty — although you are — or normal. I just need you. I love you, sweetheart. I’m in love with you. I don’t want to be anything else.”
Lance can’t stop the tears clouding his eyes, and wouldn’t if he could, anyway. Keith has known him at his lowest, and loved him then. There’s no reason to hide.
“Besides, I’m not perfect either,” Keith adds. “I get angry too easily. I say mean things just to hurt people sometimes, even though I always regret it. I have a ridiculously minuscule amount of impulse control. I forget important dates and anniversaries — you’ll probably have to remind me every year, several times. I regularly forget to eat and shower. I’m just as much of a mess as you, nae salang. But I want you with me, Lance, always. I want us.”
“I want you too,” Lance chokes out. “All of you. Every part of you. I love you, I love you, I love you. Entirely and wholly, Keith. You’re my moon and my sun and my stars. You’re everything to me, amor. All I’ve ever wanted or needed.”
Keith plants his hands on either sides of Lance’s torso, heaving himself up. He hovers on top of Lance, grinning widely, and Lance giggles through his tears, because the position is just so ridiculous.
“There’s that smile,” Keith whispers, before he leans down and presses the world’s gentlest kiss to Lance’s lips.
Seriously. You’d think he’s made of porcelain, or something.
Lance wraps his arms around Keith’s neck and yanks him down, kissing him harder. Keith loses his balance, and collapses on top of him, making them both laugh. The kiss is messy, wet because Lance was just crying everywhere, and their teeth clank together every time they giggle, which is frequently.
But it’s the best kiss Lance has ever had, because it’s his first kiss with Keith, so it’s perfect.
Keith pulls away to press kisses all over Lance’s face; his eyebrows, his forehead, his cheekbones, his nose, his chin. He presses kisses to the side of Lance’s head, his neck, his collarbone — anywhere he can reach. He makes his way over to Lance’s left ear, pressing a kiss right under it before biting the lobe playfully.
“So is that a yes?” he asks.
Lance snorts, flicking him on the temple. Keith pouts, but allows it.
“Of course it’s a yes, you doofus. I said so yesterday, didn’t I?”
“Just checkin’,” Keith confirms, before pressing one last kiss to Lance’s cheek and sitting up. “Okay, you ready to go?”
Lance raises an eyebrow, although he's one hundred percent certain that he’ll follow Keith wherever he goes.
“Keith, it’s, like, one in the morning. My hair isn’t straightened and I’m wearing pajamas —”
“You look beautiful,” Keith insists, and Lance knows he means it. “Besides, I double-checked. There are, like, three hundred marriage offices on Olkarion, and at least half of them are open 24/7. Plus, we need to get rings on the way.”
Lance raises his eyebrow even higher, smirking. “I thought I said you had to get a ring before you asked again,” he teases.
Keith huffs, but he’s grinning. “Yeah, I know, but I figured you might want to pick them. I know you have a very particular taste in jewellery, and I didn’t want to accidentally pick something that might have a weird feeling or something.”
Lance’s teasing expression drops into something like shock, although he knows he shouldn’t be surprised by Keith’s thoughtfulness. As impulsive as he tends to be, he genuinely has everyone’s best interests at heart, and always has them ahead of his own. Lance can feel his chin start to tremble. Again.
God, this man is literally everything he’s ever wanted. Lance would wonder if Keith’s even real, but he knows he couldn’t come up with Keith no matter how hard he tried. It regularly blows his mind that even something so mighty as the universe was able to make someone who just… clicks with him, as well as he does. Lance can’t imagine what they’d be if not together.
“I love you,” Lance says again. “So much.”
Keith leans down and kisses him again, so softly, before pulling them both up from the bed and to Black’s hangar.
Once they’re settled in the cockpit (Lance in Keith’s lap, which would give Shiro, Allura, and Coran a hernia if they found out. They’re sticklers for safety, and this is not a safe position. It is fun, though. Also kind of sexy), Keith starts outlining his thoughts and plans to Lance.
“So, obviously, our final stop is Olkarion to get hitched. But we have to stop somewhere to get rings. There are a couple shops on Olkarion, but you deserve the best, so that’s not an option,” Keith says matter-of-factly, and Lance hides a smile.
“So what’s the plan, then, fearless leader?”
It’s Keith turn to smile, like he always does when Lance calls him that. Lance loves that particular smile, and so he says it as often as possible, no matter how much Pidge gags about it (which is an added bonus, honestly).
“You remember that time you got that weird Altean disease that made you break out in mumps and you were so embarrassed that you wouldn’t leave your room unless everyone left the castle first?”
Lance scowls at the memory, but nods. That stupid disease sucked. It was the worst. Call him a drama queen, but he thinks he was justified. He had a giant mump on his face, people. His gorgeous, beautiful face. Obviously he had to prevent people from seeing that.
“Well, on one of the times we were out of the castle I was screwing around in space, and I came across this planet, right? And I swear to God it was just like Niðavellir.” At Lance questioning glance, Keith hurries to explain the reference, cheeks a little pink. “The, uh, Dwarf realm. In Norse myth.”
Lance’s grin grows, and he can’t help a teasing comment: “Geek.”
Keith’s scowls, and his cheeks redden further, which is adorable. He flicks Lance’s nose and continues.
“Anyway. I ended up asking them if they wanted to join the Coalition, and they were pretty chill about it. One dude also said he’d trade me a favour if I let him check out my knife, and I figured that was a pretty good deal, so I agreed.”
Lance is a little surprised that Keith let some stranger touch his beloved knife, but then he remembers how often Keith geeks out to him about Magnus Chase and Percy Jackson and all that myth stuff, and the surprise fades.
Man, he really landed the cutest fiancé (soon to be husband!) in the universe. God.
“So, here’s the thing — they can make anything. Literally anything. And their planet is chock full of precious metals and jewels and stuff. They’re also inhumanly fast. Well, obviously, because they’re not human, but you get the idea. Also, they don’t really sleep? Olso said he only sleeps every few centuries, and he had a nap last century, so we should be good to trade that favour now, if you want. This way your ring can be anything you want, and I can match.”
Keith is looking at him so hopefully, and Lance all can hear is the blood rushing in his ears. He knows he says it all the time, but Keith is literally his favourite person. This is, no word of a lie, the sweetest, most thoughtful, kindest, most loving thing anyone has done for him. Ever.
He leans up, cupping Keith’s face in his hands, and kisses him soundly. For several minutes. Long enough, in fact, that Keith lets go of Black’s controls to wrap his arms around Lance’s waist and dip him, a little.
When Lance finally finds the strength to pull away slightly, a trail of saliva connecting their mouths (which, in literally any other situation, would be disgusting, but Lance is so happy right now that Keith could pour soup in his lap and his mood would be unchanged), several minutes have passed. Oops.
“I love you,” Lance repeats. He feels a bit like a broken record, but it’s the only sentiment he can think of that encompasses all he’s feeling right now.
Keith smiles. “Great!” he chirps, “I’ll message Olso quickly and then we can head over. Shouldn’t be more than a half hour ride.”
Unsurprisingly, they find a way to kill that time:
“— and it turns out Zeus had stripped Apollo of all his godly powers? Again? But this time he was pretty serious about it, and also he didn’t let Apollo stay hot —”
Lance sighs (okay, dreamily, he’ll admit it), looking up at Keith’s excited face and wildly gesturing arms. He’s about 10% focused on piloting Black (thank the universe for sentient lion autopilot) and 90% focused on meticulously detailing the entire storyline of Rick Riordan’s demigod universe. All two bazillion books — once the references started to drop, it was like the rest of them came spilling right out.
And Lance wants to hear every word of it. He’s completely enamoured with Keith — his legs are swinging and everything, like in the romcoms. He’s whipped. If he wasn’t so happy he’d be a little disgusted with himself.
Honestly, though, he’d challenge anyone to look at Keith’s passionate lecture about the demigod universe and not fall a little in love. C’mon, now. His eyes are just so bright. It’s so cute.
“— and I haven’t even covered what’s happening down in Brooklyn, seriously, if you think Apollo had it bad —”
Keith is cut off my Black’s sudden stop (which, honestly, is a little sad, but Lance reminds himself that he’s going to hear these rambles for the rest of his life and feels considerable better), and through the windshield a small, brown planet is visible.
“They live underground,” Keith explains, “‘cause there’s almost no ozone layer, and they need to breathe, so.”
“Got it.”
The land Black as close to one of the entrances to the city as they can, holding hands as they excitedly bound down the stairs to a huge metal door — it looks like the entrance to a giant safe in those old-timey cartoons.
As soon as they get close, the gears on the door start turning rapidly, and in seconds the door whips open to reveal a short, hairy alien with biceps the size of Hunk’s head.
“Keith!” greets the alien jovially. Hearing him speak is slightly disorienting, because his moustache and beard are so big that they mask any movement of his mouth.
“Hey, Olso,” Keith responds casually, but his smile gives away how excited he is. “This is my fiancé, Lance.”
The alien grins (at least Lance thinks he does — his moustache twitches upwards, like Coran’s does when he’s about to make a horribly painful dad joke that only Shiro finds in any way funny). “So this is the Lance I’ve heard so much about, eh? The one who shines brighter than any sun and whose smile brings you to levels of joy you found previously unimaginable? He’s certainly as handsome as you’ve described,” Olso says, winking at the couple.
Keith goes a bright cherry red, and Lance joins him, butterflies outdoing Simone Biles with all the flips they’re doing in his stomach.
Holy smokes. Is this how Keith talks about him to other people?
Olso laughs heartily at their faces, ushering them in. He turns around as soon as they cross the doorway, turning a giant wheel to shut the massive door. “Ah, young love,” he says with a sigh. “I remember when I first wed my partner, friends. I was just as besotted as Keith, and talked about them to anyone who would listen. They blushed just as much as you did, Lance, when they found out — what a lovely sight!” Olso sighs just as dreamily as Lance did earlier, which makes him smile. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard Keith talk about you already. He’d hardly spoken three words to me before he mentioned you, and then you were his favourite subject to discuss. I was overjoyed to hear he’d finally mustered the nerve to ask for your hand.”
Lance squeezes Keith’s hand, a little overwhelmed an a lot flattered. “Really?” he whispers.
Keith smiles sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he says softly. “I kind of love you, in case you didn’t notice.”
Lance snorts, and presses a quick kiss to Keith’s still red cheek. “I don’t think I could avoid noticing, dork, even if I was the densest person to ever exist. Apparently you can’t talk to someone without talking about me.”
Keith shrugs, not denying it, and Lance grins. He swings their hands back and forth as they follow Olso to his workshop.
Lance’s jaw drops as they enter, and he’s completely speechless. First of all, the whole thing is built in some sort of sapphire cave, which is probably one of the coolest, most badass and hardcore places to build a workshop. Aside from that, wonderfully beautiful and intricate pieces of artwork are strewn about the whole place. Several dozen delicate necklaces, crowns, thrones, even. It’s wild.
“Amazing, isn’t it,” Keith comments.
Amazing does not begin to cover it.
“And everything was built in under a day,” Olso brags, which Lance feels is pretty justified. If he built even one of these things, he’d probably never shut up about it. “But Keith has told me your rings are a matter of urgency, and I owe the good man a favour, so I’ll have your rings completed in a few minutes. Do you have your designs ready?”
Keith turns to Lance, expectant. “You can design mine too, if you’d like,” he says. “You’ve got a good eye for that stuff.”
In a millisecond, Lance as transported back to his five-year-old self, small and endlessly curious on his mother’s lap.
“Why don’t you have a diamond on your ring like Eli’s mama?” he’d questioned.
She’d smiled at him, eyes far away as she ruffled his hair. As if recalling distant memories. “I asked papá to marry me. The rings with the diamonds are usually for the people who are asked, not who do the asking.”
“So why doesn’t papá have a diamond? Why doesn’t he even have a golden ring? His ring is blue!”
His mother had laughed loudly, pressing a kiss to his head.
“Yes, mijo, that is because papá is in the shop all day. If he had a ring with a diamond on it, he wouldn’t be able to wear it to work, which would make him sad. And I got him a blue ring because blue is his favourite colour,” she said simply.
Lance thinks of how he’s never, not even once, seen his parents take off their rings. How they smile every time they see them. He thinks about how often he and Keith are doing a job that is dangerous, a job where they need their hands. He thinks that he doesn’t need a giant diamond to know how much Keith loves him.
“Just two gold bands,” he says softly.
Keith smiles at him, just as soft, not doubting his decision for a second.
“Coming right up,” Olso says quietly, sensing the mood in the room.
As promised, a few minutes later, Olso has finished the rings. He gives both to Lance, who cradles them gently in one hand (he has to keep one hand free to hold onto Keith, obviously).
“They feel okay?” Keith asks, and Lance nods, too emotional to say anything.
“Thank you, Olso,” Keith says for them. “We’d stay longer, but…”
“I believe you have a wedding to attend,” Olso finishes, eyes twinkling. “I’ll let you fellows out.”
Lance lets Keith guide him out, unable to stop himself from stroking the rings continuously. He hasn’t even put his on yet, but he already loves it. A physical symbol of their love.
Once they’re back in Black, Keith wraps his solid arms around him, holding Lance tightly. Lance buries his face in Keith’s neck, taking a moment. As happy as he is, he’s a little overwhelmed, and he’s grateful Keith knows him well enough to give him a break.
Lance pulls away after several minutes, pressing a lingering kiss to Keith’s jaw. “Thank you,” he whispers.
Keith shakes his head, grabbing both of Lance’s hands and squeezing. “Don’t thank me for being decent, baby. You deserve the world.”
Lance squeezes Keith’s hands, smiles at him, and tugs him towards the piloting chair.
“I dunno about you, but I’m kind of ready to be your husband,” Lance says, changing the subject with absolutely zero subtlety.
Keith laughs, head thrown back. “Yeah, me too,” he says, sitting down and pulling Lance back into his lap. “Let’s go tie the knot.”
By the time they get to Olkarion (it took… longer than it should have. But Lance is a little engagement-giddy, and he has spent the last who-knows-how-many-hours on Keith’s lap, so sue him for getting a little handsy), it must be something like 4:30 in the morning, and both of their lips are kiss-swollen and red. Lance’s hair is a curly mess, and Keith’s hair has been tugged on so many times his scalp has to hurt.
It’s perfect.
They stumble into the first marriage office they see, so giggly they almost look drunk. Luckily, the officiant appears to be amused, congratulating them on their engagement before having them sign their papers.
Keith signs first, and Lance slides into the bench next to him, not even hesitating before signing his name as ‘Leandro Agustín Nuñez Carmen Esposita-Kogane’. Keith sucks in a sharp breath, looking at Lance with carefully guarded eyes.
“‘Kogane’?” he asks, hushed. “You sure?”
Lance smiles at his (basically, at this point, c’mon) husband, soft and loving. “When I left Earth, there were something like 76 McClains,” he starts. “When we get back, there’ll be at least eight more. I want to be a Kogane, my love. I want to carry on your family’s name every time I introduce myself. Someday, I want to tell our children about their grandfather, whose name they share, and about his heroic deeds on Earth and in raising a wonderful, feral, half-alien desert menace.” Keith chuckles, tears streaming down his face. Lance brushes them away, pressing his love through their skin. “Plus,” Lance adds with a wink, “I think Lance Kogane sounds pretty cool. All menacing and stuff. Mr. and Mr. Kogane, the butt-kicking ninja leaders of Voltron! Watch out! Pew pew pew!”
As he hoped, this makes Keith laugh, tears fading away. Lance finishes his signature with a heart (because he’s sappy and he can), and the officiant beckons them to an altar.
“Do you have personal vows, or would you prefer to repeat the standard words we have prepared?”
“I have my own vows,” Keith says confidently. Lance agrees. He has nothing prepared, but he doesn’t need any. He knows how he feels about Keith. He’ll never need to practice telling people about how much he loves his husband.
“Lance,” Keith starts, holding their hands together and beaming at him. “You’re my everything. You’re my control, you’re my calm, you’re my excitement. You’re everything I look forward to see in the morning and everything I’m grateful to have seen at night. I told you before, sweetheart, and I’ll tell you until I die and even after: you light up my life, baby. Everything you are makes me better.”
Lance doesn’t even pretend the words don’t make him bawl like a baby. Keith is smiling so hard his eyes are crinkling, which always makes Lance feel all crackly and delighted.
“I lo—” Lance sniffles, interrupting himself, trying to get the tears under control. He fans his face, breathing deeply. “Okay. Whew. Okay. I’m good.” Keith looks so encouraging, and Lord above, Lance loves this man.
“You are everything I’ve ever wanted,” Lance confesses. “I’ve read books, I’ve seen movies, I’ve heard my sisters talk about boys since I was a kid. I have pretty high standards, you know.”
Keith snorts, tightening his grip. “Am I getting replaced by a Jane Austen character?” he teases.
“That’s the thing! You’ve completely redefined love for me. I dunno if you remember, but I was telling you about an episode of a romance-drama I love — I quoted one of the romantic lines in the series: ‘You’re the bane of my existence and the object of my every desire’. I was all swoony about it. But you scoffed, rolled your eyes. You looked me in the face and said to me, completely seriously: ‘Anyone who genuinely believes you’re the bane of their existence doesn’t deserve you. You’re too good for someone who doesn’t love your whole self’. And it was a throwaway comment, for you, you barely even blinked but — that’s when I knew, Keith. That’s when I knew I loved you with my heart and soul and mind and I will love you for as long as my soul exists. You are my universe, my love, and I can’t wait to hold you for the rest of our days and beyond.”
Lance is no longer the only one bawling. Even the officiant is a little teary. He has them repeat a few more sentences as they put their rings on each other, and just like that, they’re married. Wed! Keith doesn’t hesitate even a second before pulling Lance into a searing kiss, dipping him down and licking into his mouth. The officiant clears his throat and Keith pulls him back up, smirking.
“Hey, husband.”
“Hello yourself, husband.”
They stand there, grinning like fools, until the officiant hands them two copies of their wedding certificate and shoos them away. They sprint out of the office, laughing the whole way, until Keith makes a sudden stop and Lance almost gets his arm pulled out of his socket.
“What?“ he asks, peering over his husband’s (!!!) shoulder. He sees a little booth with a red curtain covering the entrance, and he immediately picks up Keith’s train of thought. The crowd into the tiny photobooth — it’s not really made for two people, they have to squish right together — and feed the little machine as many GAC as it will take.
They take dozens of photos, some grinning and goofy, some silly poses, and several genuine photos where they’re smiling softly at each other. Lance’s favourite is the one where he told a dorky little joke that he doesn’t even remember and Keith’s whole face his scrunched in laughter, leaning on Lance, as Lance stares at him in what almost looks like awe.
Once they’re out of GAC, with pockets so full of pictures they’re bulging, they meander back to where Black is parked, stopping every three seconds to kiss or laugh or dance or just beam at each other. There’s always been something magic about staying up late with someone you love, but tonight it’s magnified by maybe a million, and Lance never wants the night to end.
Eventually, though, they start to tire themselves out, and by the time they make it into the cockpit they can barely keep their eyes open. They set the course for the castle, heads pressed together and fingers intertwined. Lance can’t stop smiling at their rings.
They stumble back into the castle, giggling and whispering through the halls like they’re teenagers at a sleepover rather than two grown adults, shushing each other when they laugh loudly enough that they might wake the rest of the team.
The crash into Lance’s bed, giddy and possibly a little drunk on love.
“We’re married,” Lance whispers, awed, holding his hand up to admire the ring. “We’re husbands.”
“We are,” Keith agrees, just as soft and reverent. He has a heavy arm around Lance’s waist, legs tangled together, lips pressing constant kisses to the back of Lance’s neck. Lance squirms around, shifting so he’s facing Keith. His husband.
“I love you,” he says seriously. “And I’m glad you asked me to marry you, even if it was a little out of nowhere and you forgot to date me first.”
Keith huffs, but there’s no bite to it. He presses his lips to Lance’s forehead, tightening his arms.
“It wasn’t that impulsive,” he mumbles. “I’d been thinking about it for days.”
“And the dating part?”
“…Yeah, okay, I forgot that one. I just… I love you, y’know? Dating is to get to know someone, to fall in love with them. I’ve been falling in love for you since you flew us through a wormhole. I just didn’t realise.”
“Fair,” Lance breathes, eyes drifting shut. They really kind of have been dating, even if they weren’t official about it. He goes to Keith for everything — every thought, every worry, every idea. Keith is his person. He can’t remember the last time he went a day without talking to Keith at least once. Hell, he can’t remember the last time he slept by himself.
“I love you,” Keith whispers, half asleep.
“Love you too,” Lance responds, and he’s smiling as sleep overcomes him.
After all — tomorrow, he’ll wake up to his husband. And if that isn’t a great reason to sleep, well. He doesn’t know what is.