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“twenty minutes.”
“hm?”
“ twenty minutes , lance.”
“and?”
and ? and keith was beginning to lose his patience. and their food was beginning to get cold, which doesn’t sit right with the warrior in the slightest because the egg rolls from the old mom-and-pop shop down the street tasted the best when they were piping hot. unfortunately for keith, they were, in fact, growing colder by each second that his boyfriend usurped from dinner in order to continue slathering his face with… whatever that stuff is. it smells good, at the very least, but that doesn’t account for the hunger that plagues him.
“and i’m starving. you always get fussy if i start eating our food without you, but then you take a million years to do something as simple as washing your face.”
lance huffs, annoyance clouding his expression ( which keith is almost surprised he can detect considering the new mask that lance pasted on ) as he switches his attention to the oil and lotion combination he utilizes for his body.
“it takes time to look and feel this good! don’t be dramatic just because you can’t appreciate proper skin and self care, babe.” lance lifts one of his legs to stroke the concoction along his skin, making certain to get every inch before he shifts to the other leg. keith observes him for all of thirty seconds, features painted with slight apathy as one of his hands reaches out to slowly grab an eggroll, because if he has to wait any longer for his boyfriend to finish this ridiculously religious routine he has, keith’s obviously going to waste away into nothing.
lance catches him in the act however and swats at his shoulder in protest. a resounding groan seeps from the swordsman, but an angry lance is a lance he doesn’t want to deal with, so he sets the now lukewarm eggroll back into its spot with the others. he almost pouts truly, thinking about how they’re going to have to microwave the food now, and it just never tastes the same when you do that.
“are you done now?” keith inquires at the next five minute mark, his stomach growling its ravenous wrath as lance washes off the clay on his face & neck.
“your stomach sounds like a wild animal.” is the brunet’s response, a little chuckle in his tone, patting his face dry with a small towel.
“damn, i wonder why that could be.” the sarcasm drips from his words like a leaky faucet, amethyst eyes rolling so hard he nearly gets a headache from it.
“oh, hush, i’m done already, alright? let’s just warm up the food so we can eat.” lance takes it upon himself to perform that action, considering he’s the reason why their dinner became cold in the first place.
keith can appreciate that, watching as lance walks away to the open kitchen, donned in nothing but his robe and pajama pants underneath, food in hand. curiosity settles in the forefront of his mind, because lance always makes such a big deal about his skin care routine, and keith can’t help but ponder if the results of it are that good. now that he thinks about it, he doesn’t ever pay much attention to the difference between lance before the act and lance after it.
his thoughts are interrupted by the smell of renewed food, and even though its not going to taste as fresh as it would have had they eaten it earlier, keith’s hunger is strong enough that anything designated as a human grade consumable would have been good enough for him. once their dinner is set back on the table in front of them, lance turns on a bluetooth speaker he keeps on the counter for background music, to play songs from a playlist that he’s so appropriately named “dinner time.”
“ya’ have a playlist for literally everything you do, is that normal?” keith quips with a small, half-cocked smile, already having devoured two out of his four egg rolls.
“yes, it’s normal . people have background music going for all sorts of activities. you’re just a weirdo who likes to sit in silence. i’m showing you the beauty of dual stimulation.”
keith’s brow raises, his smile sharpening into a bit of smirk. “dual stimulation? did’ja learn those words from pidge?”
lance’s own brow twitches, pointing his fork towards his boyfriend and accidentally flinging some rice in his direction. “first of all, i KNOW big words, alright? pidge doesn’t know everything! i know things. i know tons of things!”
keith nearly chokes on his rice when a laugh breaches his throat. “okay, okay, relax babe. look, you’re wasting food, throwing rice around like that.”
“oh yeah? how’s this for wasting food?” on that cue, lance tosses a piece of orange chicken right at keith, who just barely moves out of the way with a mouth full of sushi. the chicken flies unceremoniously to the floor behind the warrior, and once keith gets the sushi down, his sights train back on lance, who’s looking a little more sheepish.
“ really ?”
“⎯⎯ maybe if you hadn’t dodged it, it wouldn’t have ended up on the floor.”
“maybe if you hadn’t thrown it , it wouldn’t have ended up on the floor.”
lance scoffs, but rises from his seat to walk past keith and pick up the poor piece of food. keith, however, decides lance needs a bit more punishment and quickly shoots out a hand to pinch his thigh, hard enough to startle him but not hard enough to seriously hurt. lance squeaks and almost jumps five feet into the air, swatting at his boyfriend once again before he grabs the chicken and tosses it into the trash.
he tries to walk past keith for the second time, but has to expertly dodge another pinch attack, his lips wavering as the gunner tries to fight off a budding grin. keith, meanwhile, grins openly, a playfulness shimmering in his eyes as lance makes his way back to his seat. they finish the rest of their food with the occasional banter back and forth, until keith takes it upon himself to clear the table and toss empty trays into the trash.
“you’re insufferable, y’know that?”
“you like it.”
“like being pinched? absolutely not, that crap hurts. like a papercut.”
“didn’t know you were that sensitive.”
“i’m not sensitive , i’m soft . i’m soft and smooth thanks to that unbearable skin routine you can’t stand.”
“soft and smooth huh?”
“yeah, duh. that’s what skin care happens to do. i’m super soft, actually. can’t believe it’s taken me telling you that for you to realize it.” lance tsks, shaking his head as though he were disappointed in his boyfriend.
“but not sensitive?” keith slowly brings his body up from the chair, taking just as slow strides closer to lance on the other side of the table.
there’s a sudden shiver that dances up lance’s spine. he’s prey with a predator nearby, locked onto him and ready to pounce.
“no — not at all.” lance settles his vision on keith, watching him closely as he stops moving to stare back at lance. it’s silence between them, until something clicks, and then
lance bolts.
lance bolts, in his fluffy robe and even fluffier slippers, bounding towards the stairs where the sanctity of their bedroom lay in waiting.
keith chases after him, wondering when lance got this fast in his reaction time. he makes certain that lance doesn’t trip on the stairs ( even if he’s the reason why lance is scrambling away in the first place ), and follows him all of the way into the bedroom. unfortunately, the gunslinger doesn’t stand a chance against keith when it comes to raw strength, so when keith tackles lance onto the bed, there isn’t much he can do to fight back against him.
not that he honestly wants to.
because the space between keith’s arms is right where he fits perfectly. so perfectly, in fact, that if he didn’t know exactly what his love’s sinister plans were, he would’ve just melted right into his embrace without any hesitation.
“what’s the problem, lance? i’m just holding you.” keith’s sneaky arms dive to coil around lance’s waist, equally sneaky hands settling right over his stomach. even though he has yet to really move any of his fingers, lance is already having difficulty fighting off the toothy grin that wobbles onto his lips.
“k - keith, wait, wahahait, hold on ⎯⎯”
“what’re you laughing for, lance? i’m not even doing anything.”
yet.
he doesn’t have to say the word, but lance can hear it within his mind. he doesn’t have to move his fingers, but lance can sense those ticklish sensations beginning to surge across the surface of his skin, even from on top of his robe. it only grows worse once keith slithers those hands inside of the garment ⎯⎯ the only thing keeping him at least somewhat safe ⎯⎯ and lance has a visceral reaction that forces him to bite down on his bottom lip.
“keheith! your hands are cohohold! stoppit!” lance attempts to pull his love’s hands off of his chest and belly, but the action is half-hearted, not enough strength behind it to really mean it.
“ oh ⎯? oh, holy shit lance, you really are soft.” keith’s eyes widen and his jaw slacks some, as though he’s transcended to a new level above mortal knowledge.
“i ⎯⎯ i tohold you! it’s called personal hygiene!” lance bites back without any venom, but anything else he might have said gets swallowed up by the full-on giggles that flutter from his lips as keith’s fingers finally begin to explore.
he skitters those trained digits all over the expanse of lance’s stomach, gently squeezing the softer parts of lance’s lower waist with a bright grin that he couldn’t dare to hide.
“dude, what in the hell goes on when you shower? it’s fuckin’ insane how soft you feel.” one of keith’s hands leaves lance’s stomach in favor of continuing his exploration, fingers smoothing down one of his hips to scritch lightly at his boyfriend’s thighs, which earns him a proper squeal.
“keith ⎯⎯! st - stop, it tickles too muhuhuch!”
“too much? i’m barely touching you, what happened to not bein’ sensitive ?”
every swipe and stroke and squeeze sends ticklish electricity all over the gunman’s body, squirming underneath keith with another weak push in an attempt to make him stop. his giggling evolves into belly laughter when keith leans down to plant gentle kisses on any exposed skin he can find, relishing in the warmth of each spot where his lips touch down. lance feels so damn delicate, keith swears every touch feels like he’s caressing the petals of rose.
a shriek rips from the hollows of lance’s throat when keith bends down to nuzzle and kiss at the spaces between neck and collarbone. a dusting of cherry paints over lance’s cheeks as his laughter heightens in octave and volume, leaving keith absolutely charmed. he can be so fucking cute, how could keith justify stopping when his boyfriend looks like this? flustered, and gleeful, and enjoying every bit of this, even if he tries to protest otherwise.
“ keeeith ! no more!” the brunet chokes out, gasping when kisses shift into mischievous nips and fingers spider up from his thighs to his sides. lance’s breath hitches before another squeal pops out of his lips, attempting to curl over and deter keith’s fingers from their onslaught on his sides. truthfully, keith has no i ntention on stopping and every intention to not only continue tickle his love until he’s a pliant, jelly-like, laughed-out mess, but to also kiss, nibble, and mark every inch of his body for the rest of the night. and lance has very little (honest) complaints about it.