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"Hey Keith, you know what James wants for Christmas?" Pidge asks at lunch one day.
"No. What?" He asks. "He wants you to kiss him cause he likes you." She says nonchalantly. The paladins, along with Ina and Ryan, freeze.
"He what?" "James has a crush on you. It's so obvious." Pidge says. "You're the only one who he calls by their first name, he actually laughs and smiles around you, he gets this weird look in his eye when looking at you, and is the only one who tells you when to sleep or calm down when you're overworking yourself." She explains. "He's also the only one you listen to when they tell you that, so I'm assuming you feel the same."
"You're not messing with me, are you? James actually said that?" Keith asks. Nadia smirks. "I asked him word for word, if he wanted you to kiss him for Christmas. And he said, and I quote "Fuck yes." After, of course, some stuttering and blushing."
Lance laughs and nudges Keith with his shoulder. "Looks like Griffin has a crush on you. You guys gonna go smoochy smoochy under the mistletoe?" He jokes.
"Shut up. And no. Mistletoe is stupid." Keith grumbles, causing Lance to gasp. "No it is not! How can you say that?" "Yes it is! Who came up with that idea anyway? Hey, here's a random plant. Oh, I know! Let's force whichever two people who are under this to kiss! That's the stupidest idea ever."
"As much as I enjoy hearing Lance and Keith argue, why are they arguing about mistletoe?" James asks, setting his tray down next to Pidge's, Nadia on his other side. "Keith likes someone and Lance was teasing him about it."
James raised an eyebrow. "Really? The great and stoic Keith Kogane has a crush? Tell me more." He joked leaning forward. Keith rolled his eyes. "I just don't get mistletoe. Who decided kissing under a plant would be romantic?" James shrugged. "Probably the same person that decided cupids are little fat babies." Nadia laughed. "I remember those! They looked so weird. But don't diss mistletoe. It can be very useful." She says, waggling her eyebrows. "Rizavi, no. Not after the last time." "Last time?" Hunk asks.
Ryan sighs. "She found some and started walking around the base with it. Basically so she had an excuse to kiss Ina whenever she wanted." "I still don't know how she found so much. You put it up everywhere." James says, glancing at her. "It was all over the place, in almost every doorway." Ina laughed. "She kept trying to push James under it with different girls. He finally just yelled at her 'NADIA! I'M GAY! I'M NOT KISSING ANY GIRLS!' So she bought him a sweatshirt with a lil pride flag on it. Where is that anyway?" James shrugged. "Dunno. But if I find it, I'm going to start wearing it. I don't want any repeats of last year."
"Hey, we should get Keith one." Hunk suggests. Ryan gasped. "We can do the glitter thing again!" James groaned. "Kinkade, no." "Glitter thing?" Pidge asks. "They got rainbow glitter and shot it at me when I got out of my ship. It was stuck in my hair for days."
"But it was so cool! You literally glittered in the light." Nadia pouts. "Yeah, and it tracked all over the base. No more glitter, and no more big things where I havw to come out again. If I haven't told someone by now, they don't need to know."
Chrysler party
James walked in, and Keith felt his mouth go dry. Blue jeans and a dark red sweater shouldn't have looked so good. Paired with little light brown boots, his feet clicked a bit as he walked over to them. "Griffin! You clean up nice." Lance said, high fiving him. "You're not too bad yourself McClain." He says. "James! There you are!" Pidge says, swinging an arm around his shoulders. "We were getting worried. They're about to start dancing." James laughed. "The what?" "Dancing!" Hunk sand. "And not just the party type. The ballroom type, like in movies." "How do you even do that?" James asked. "It's simple." Pidge says, grabbing Lance. "One person puts their hands on the other's waist, and takes their other hand." Lance grabbed her waist and Pidge put her other hand on his shoulder. "And the one who's waist got grabbed puts their hand on the other's shoulder. Then you kinda sway, and sometimes spin."
The music started and Lance jumped excitedly. "Come on Pidge! Dance with me!" He said, pulling her onto the dance floor. Nadia took Ina and Ryan found his girlfriend Alexis while Hunk ran off to find Shay. "Guess that leaves us two." James says. Keith offers a hand. "Mr. Griffin, would you give me this dance?" James laughs. "But of course Mr. Kogane." They step onto the dance floor, Keith grabbing James's waist and hand. "This is so weird." James says after a few minutes. "It's actually pretty quiet. This only happens right before or after something bad happens." "Do you want to go outside?" Keith offered, and James nodded.
They went outside and stared at the snow. "It's cold." James mumbled, rubbing his arms. Keith hugged him from behind, pressing his chest against his back. "Better?" "Y-yeah." James says, blushing a bit.
Pidge and Nadia smirk, exchanging a knowing look. "Guys! The ditch is freeing over! Its like a lake!" Lance exclaims, running back up the hill. "The rainwater from earlier is freezing over, but be careful going down, it's slippery." The others started running down the hill. but James hung back. "I think I'll stay here." Keith smiled. "Nope. We're going down there."
James raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly are yo-whoa!" He exclaimed when Keith picked him up bridal style and started running down the hill. "Keith!" James laughed. "Be careful!" Keith laughed and jumped on a patch of ice, his boots sliding down it as him and James laughed. They slid down the rest of the hill, and out onto the ice.
The others laughed at them as they slid out to the center. "Keith!" James laughed, still in his arms. He smiled and dipped him down backwards. "Yes?" He mused as James threw his head back and laughed. When he brought it up again, he was blushing a bit.
In the moonlight his eyes shone, and he could see the stars in them. "Keith? Are you ok-" Keith cut him off with a kiss, placing his lips against the others. James melted into it, one hand going to cup Keith's face. As they kissed, Keith brought him back up, pulling away after he stood up straight again. James's cheeks were flushed, and he smiled at Keith. "Merry Christmas James." Keith said.
He could hear their friends laughing behind them, and knew they'd be talking about this for weeks. "Merry Christmas Keith." James said, pulling him in again.