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Lance had always been a hugger. Constantly seeking out physical contact, giving and receiving. The offer of a hug was always hanging off his lips.
With Hunk, he didn’t have to ask first. They had a 24/7 greenlight hug agreement. Anytime, anywhere.
Pidge only accepted hugs when she was sleepy. Not tired, sleepy. Lance learned the difference quickly and painfully.
Lance had only hugged Shiro twice, it felt a bit odd to embrace his childhood hero, but they’d both been kept awake by nightmares and after the initial shock of the offer, Shiro accepted graciously.
Allura’s hugs were prim and proper, just like her. They were short but strong.
Coran hugged like a ‘potbellied wablemagger’, whatever the fuck that meant. Lance decided to translate it as ‘over enthusiastic and on the verge of strangulation’ but they were nice.
Lance had never hugged Keith. He knew Keith was an exceptionally not touchy person, plus with their rivalry, opportunities hardly ever came up. But, by their calculations they’d been in space for two years and the rivalry morphed into an uncertain friendship. The shift had been so slow and gradual, that Lance only accepted it was something more than friendship as he caught himself pulling Keith aside after an exceptionally tense team meeting.
Shiro had been missing for over two movements and they’d just spent three hours arguing over finding a new Black Paladin. Lance had spent a majority of that time watching Keith. He looked small, curled into himself, and glaring. Lance hated it.
So when Allura dismissed them with a frustrated sigh, Lance followed Keith as he practically bolted from the room. It took an abnormally long time for Keith to realise he was being followed. A fact he tried to hide under a sharp glare.
“What, Lance?” the edge in his voice was dull.
Lance frowned and pulled him into a branching hallway. He let go of Keith’s wrist and opened his mouth, before closing it again. What was the plan here?
“What?” he asked again, impatience sharpening his tone.
Keith jutted out his chin, staring at Lance through his bangs. The velvety grey irises pulled Lance into boyish thoughts of dark rooms and light laughter. He shook his head to clear it, he didn’t have time for that right now.
Lance sucked his teeth before forcing the question out, “Do you want a hug?”
He’d planted his eyes on Keith’s shoulder; partially to watch out for angry, murderous movement. When no response- physical or verbal- came, Lance looked to Keith’s face.
Confusion and something else Lance couldn’t place had replaced the annoyance and impatience that had covered Keith’s face before he looked away.
“What?”
Lance bit back the impulse to ask if that was the only word Keith knew. Unfortunately, all his effort went into censoring his first stupid response, so the second, equally stupid response slipped out instead, “You know, a hug? Two or more people putting their arms around each other in a friendly and definitely not murderous way?”
The strange labelless look in Keith’s eyes was gone, Lance mentally kicked himself, “I know what a hug- you know what? Just fuck off.”
Lance started to apologise but Keith was already gone.
-
Two days later and Lance was following Keith again. Black had accepted Keith as her paladin that morning and now Keith was taking it out on the gladiators.
There were five of them, all holding pristine white and blue blades, surrounding Keith. His paladin armour (still red) was exaggerating his heaving chest.
Lance stayed planted in the doorway, eyes transfixed on Keith. The training level was high, higher than Lance had ever cared to try. And while he was doing well, Lance noted Keith’s movements weren’t as fluid as usual. Instead they were choppy and rushed.
Lance decided to ignore the fact that he apparently watched Keith enough to recognise when he wasn’t okay solely from the way he moved.
Keith ducked under a swinging sword and where he’d usually sweep his leg under one of his foes to trip them, he instead just tangled his legs around one of the gladiator’s. Keith grunted and brought his shield up with hardly any time to block another robot’s full forced strike.
A shocked sound clawed its way from Lance’s throat, notifying Keith of his presence. Unfortunately, Lance’s entrance only distracted Keith more and he let out a yelp as another sword slammed into his shield with so much force that it dematerialised from his arm.
Fear squeezed Lance’s chest and he charged toward Keith and all the murdery bots. He screeched as he ran, “End training sequence!”
The bots hummed and fell into their default position. Before they even began sinking into the floor, Keith shot to his feet and glared daggers at Lance, “Resume training sequence!”
“ Dude , end training sequence!”
Keith practically growled, “Resume training sequence!”
Lance did growl. He opened his mouth, and at the exact same time they shouted:
“End training sequence!”
“Resume training sequence!”
The gladiators glitched. Keith flinched at the crackling sound coming from the bots still surrounding him. Sparks flew everywhere and all five bent forward at the waist, as if they were trying to fold themselves in half.
Keith surveyed the damage with a bewildered expression while Lance began giggling. The sound seemed to remind Keith of Lance’s presence and he glared at him.
“It looks like they’re bowing to you,” Lance snickered and bowed as well, “All hail Samurai! New team leader!”
Keith’s tone was a warning, “Lance.”
He straightened up and watched Keith carefully extricate himself from the circle of gladiators. His arms were crossed and Lance found himself grateful for the layer of armour in between Keith’s arm and his punishing fingernails. Keith was scowling half heartedly at the floor and Lance wet his lips before breaking the silence. He rubbed the back of his neck, and looked away, unsure of exactly what he was about to say.
“Listen I wanted to say- I mean. I wasn’t teasing when I offered you a hug. I know you’re not a touchy guy, but sometimes not-touchy people still want a hug. So I just wanted you to know it wasn’t a joke… I didn’t….” he forced himself to stop rambling when it became clear Keith wasn’t going to do it for him. He risked a glance at Keith and found confused and unsure eyes waiting to meet his.
Lance liked to consider himself- after two years- to be a Keith expert. But there were still looks, tones, and mannerisms he had yet to decode. Frustration and enticement twisted together in Lance’s gut, feeling not unlike a stomach ache.
“Sorry,” Lance concluded, but because he didn’t know when to stop (especially around Keith) he continued, “But do you want a hug?”
Keith’s lips pressed into a straight line and his brows furrowed, but Lance noticed it wasn’t quite a glare. He seemed to be as frozen as the gladiators. Lance opened his mouth to try and snap him out of it when Keith shook his head.
“I’m fine,” his voice did nothing to support his statement, he sounded worn thin.
Lance did his best to act like he believed it, “Right-”
Keith had already turned to face the gladiators, “Resume training sequence!”
Nothing happened.
“Resume training sequence?” it came out as a question.
Still nothing.
“Begin training sequence 43.”
There was no sign that Keith’s command had been heard. Lance couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across his face.
Keith whipped around, to actually glare at Lance, “You broke them!”
Lance’s grin soured, “I did not!”
“Well how do you explain that ?”
“User error!”
“I was fine!”
“If I hadn’t been here, your neck would be enjoying a nice new breeze!”
Keith yanked at his hair and screamed in his throat. Lance bit down his annoyance, he knew this was how Keith blew off steam, and with the gladiators down, he actually thought he could see the steam coming out of Kieth’s ears.
“Listen I’ll spar with you,” he spoke, unsure if he wanted it to come out gentle or irritated, it came out a little bit of both, “We can get Hunk and Pidge to look at the bots later.”
Keith was giving Lance that odd, unreadable look again. He really needed to figure out what it meant. But it was gone just as quickly as it came; Keith’s face was flushed a pretty pink, Lance figured from the level 43 type training.
Keith didn’t say yes, but he also didn’t say no, so Lance strode over to him and put his hands up, ready to begin. Keith’s eyebrows rose up skeptically, “You’re still in your civvies.”
Lance snorted, “No one says civvies, doofus. Now come on.”
He rolled his neck out and hopped from one foot to the other, “Give me your best shot. Begin training level Lance.”
He watched Keith’s mouth twitch and his cheeks flush seconds before he found himself laid out on the floor with a throbbing cheek.
“Ow,” Lance groaned, he slowly focused on Keith stooping over him. His eyes were wide and his dark hair fell into a halo around his face. Lance rubbed at his face and wondered if his heart was supposed to beat that fast.
“You were supposed to block that!” Keith whisper-yelled, even though they were the only two there.
Lance tried for a withering stare but feared it came out half hearted when Keith extended his hand and helped him up.
“I wasn’t ready!”
Keith was walking now and Lance was following, “You said to give you my best shot, and that wasn’t even my best!”
“I was distracted!”
“By what?”
“You--errr mullet. Your mullet caught the light and assaulted my retinas.”
Keith shot him a dry look, “Classic. Is that overused insult included in Training Level Lance?”
Was that a joke? Lance didn’t care, he was laughing, despite the pain in his face when he smiled. They turned another corner, “You know it is.”
Keith was a half a step ahead of him but he could sense the eye roll. They walked in silence just long enough for Lance to begin to wonder if he was supposed to be following Keith when they came to the kitchen. Keith moved to the freezer and Lance hopped up to sit on the counter.
“Hungry after our hardcore sparring session?” Lance joked but could feel the itchy edges of embarrassment creeping in his stomach.
Instead of answering like a normal person, Keith shoved a bag of frozen… something into Lance’s hands before leaning on the counter opposite to him. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was glaring daggers at Lance’s dangling feet.
A beat passed before Keith mumbled, “It’s for your face, I’d hate to tarnish your pretty boy complexion.”
Oh. Lance moved it to his cheek, feeling a blush rising. Wait-
“You think I’m pretty!”
Keith’s fingers dug into his bicep, “I was referencing your reputation as the pretty boy of Voltron; your fraudulent reputation.”
Lance slammed his fists and bag against the counter in indignation, “Hey! I see how it is, first you abuse me physically-”
“You were supposed to block it!” Keith’s cheeks were pinker than they had been a minute ago Lance was sure of it.
“And now you go for the emotional blow as well!”
Keith groaned, tilting his head back to glare at the ceiling. Lance caught himself staring at Keith’s Adam's apple as it bobbed up and down when Keith swallowed. His own face burned, so he pressed the frozen whatever they were to his face to cool himself down.
When Keith looked down from the ceiling Lance saw that unreadable expression on his face again. He held Keith’s eyes and smiled at him, hoping the look would stick around long enough for him to decipher it.
He watched as Keith chewed the inside of his cheek, eyes darting away and back to Lance’s eyes. There was no exact moment to pinpoint when he began liking Keith like this, all he knew was he constantly wanted to be around him, to impress him, rile him up, calm him down. He wanted to know what Keith thought when he looked at Lance, but he was also scared of what the answer would be if he asked for more.
“It’s not that I-” Keith’s quiet voice snapped Lance out of his thoughts, “It’s just- I don’t really know how…”
Lance frowned, unsure of what they were talking about, “Uh… I’m gonna need more words. You don’t know how to… what?”
Keith was staring at Lance’s feet again, his messy bangs covering his eyes. But Lance was staring at Keith’s arms, they were still wrapped tightly around himself. His hands dug into his bicep like he was trying to compress himself, like he was trying to give himself-
“Keith,” Lance spoke gently, he slid off the counter and took a cautious step towards him. There were times when Keith really reminded Lance of a cornered animal, he moved slowly, “Are you saying you don’t know how to… hug?”
Keith looked up at him through his bangs and Lance was finally able to name that expression. This was how Keith looked when he was being vulnerable.
Keith was searching Lance’s face for something as he took a step closer to him. Lance wasn’t sure exactly what Keith was looking for, so he couldn’t say if he’d find it, but the only thing on Lance’s face was gentle curiosity.
When Keith didn’t say anything Lance added, “I can teach you.”
Keith’s nose wrinkled and a spark of hurt, or maybe hope flashed through his eyes, “Don’t make fun.”
Lance smiled softly and gently brushed his fingers against Keith’s arm, He spoke with all the sincerity he had, “I’m not.”
They were in the danger zone, Lance knew it, he’d seen Keith blow up or shut down in far less vulnerable moments. He needed to tread carefully.
Lance moved his left wrist over his right and gently guided Keith to uncross his arms. He ran his thumbs over Keith’s wrists and pulled him closer. He huffed out a gentle laugh at how stiff Keith felt against him. He moved Keith’s arms toward his waist before wrapping his own arms around Keith’s shoulders.
It was awkward and clunky, Keith still wearing his armour and seeming entirely unsure of where to put his hands. A shiver shot up his spine when Keith finally brushed his hands against Lance’s back. This was fine. This was good.
Lance wanted nothing more than to bury his face in the crook of Keith’s neck. But he knew that would be too much, besides, with the collar of Keith’s armour, it wasn’t really a possibility.
He closed his eyes and smiled to himself, his heart was beating so fast he was pretty sure Keith could feel it reverberating against his armour. Lance lost track of how long they’d been embracing, trying to think of ways he could initiate more of this.
When he felt Keith begin to let go, he forced himself to follow suit. He took a half a step back, not wanting to overwhelm Keith but also not quite ready to pull himself from his orbit.
“Well?” Lance spoke softly, it was his turn to search Keith’s face- looking for any clues as to what he was thinking, “What did you think?”
Keith met Lance’s eye, his face still flushed. He shrugged and gave Lance a sort of halfway smile, “It was okay… Good, I think.”
Lance beamed, he brought a hand up and rapped his knuckles on Keith’s chestplate, almost like he was knocking on a door, “Well, it’s even better without a layer of space armour in between.”
Keith snorted a small laugh and Lance looked down to where Keith had covered Lance’s hand with his own. He could feel Keith’s body heat through his gloves and he found himself basking in it.
Before he could stop himself, Lance looked at Keith’s mouth. His lips were parted slightly as Keith exhaled slowly. Lance forced himself to look into Keith’s eyes instead, hoping he didn’t magically get ‘KISS ME’ tattooed across his forehead. Or maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea…
Keith was already watching his eyes when he looked up. His grey eyes always looked almost violet in the castle’s lighting.
I need to look away , Lance thought, or I need to kiss him .
Keith decided for him before Lance could make up his mind.
He tore his eyes away from Lance’s, and Lance could actually feel a pang of loss in his chest. Keith dropped his hand and side stepped away from Lance, his voice was tight, “I’m uh- going to go talk to Hunk about the gladiators.”
“Right,” Lance’s mouth was dry, “I’ll be here,” he grabbed the ice pack instead of Keith’s hand, “icing my face.”
The corner of Keith’s mouth twitched up again and he turned and left.
Lance definitely didn’t watch him go.
-
A movement later, Lance shot upright in his bed, gasping for breath. He was in the haze of the nightmare, unable to truly remember the dream, but terrified of it nonetheless.
He pawed at his pounding heart while wrestling with the blanket that was tangled around his legs. He was still trying to figure out where he was when he flinched at an urgent metallic knocking.
“Lance?” the voice was muffled behind the- door. His door. Right. He was in the Castle of Lions, floating somewhere in space.
“Lance?” the voice called again, he still couldn’t tell who it was, “Are you okay? I heard yelling.”
Lance tried desperately to slow his breathing, but his mind was still racing and the damned blanket was still trapping his legs. He wanted to cry- or maybe he already was?
“Answer me!” Lance could barely breathe, let alone get words out, “I’m coming in!”
The light from the hallway flooded Lance’s room as he finally freed himself from the blanket. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and blinked at the backlit figure. He’d recognise that mullet anywhere.
“Keith,” Lance gasped, chest still heaving.
Keith was kneeling in front of him in an instant, hands pressed to the tops of Lance’s knees, “Yeah. You’re okay. I think you had a nightmare.”
Lance chose to believe the sound he made was a laugh instead of a sob, “You think?”
Keith was brushing his thumbs back and forth over Lance’s knees, almost absentmindedly, and Lance could feel his shaking body begin to calm. He stared at Keith’s pale hands while his breathing returned to normal.
“Do you, uh- want a hug?” Keith spoke with a small smile on his lips.
Over the last movement, Lance and Keith had had several “hug lessons”. Once he’d gotten a bit more comfortable, Lance realised that Keith hugged like he did everything else, fiercely and without remorse. It was clear to Lance that Keith didn’t need hug lessons, he’d just needed permission to hug. That didn’t stop him from making up critiques to justify more lessons, just to get more of his god-tier hugs. Truth be told, he’d begun to feel the gnawing ache of guilt slowly surrounding the delicate butterflies in his gut. Part of him knew he was using Keith, but another part of him longed to be held in the way Keith did so naturally, even if that was all he could have.
But Lance’s still elevated heart rate drowned out all of that pesky guilt, he nodded slowly, “Okay.”
Keith nodded in return and stood with Lance close behind. Once they were both upright, Keith shyly pulled Lance in. Usually in their ‘lessons’ Lance would move Keith’s arms around his waist, but in the quiet of his room Lance found Keith’s arms wrapping around his shoulders instead. Their slight height difference caused Lance to stoop down a little, but he didn’t mind. He leaned in and found Keith’s firm hold pulling him into the crook of his neck. Lance bit his lip and pressed his furrowed brow into the warm skin of Keith’s neck. Lance could have stayed there forever, but when he caught his head tilting, bringing his lips dangerously close to Keith’s skin he forced himself to pull away.
Keith let go and stepped back all while looking into Lance’s eyes, “Are you okay?”
Lance’s face was burning, and he prayed that it was dark enough in his room to hide it. He forced a smile onto his face, “Fine. We should get some sleep.”
The thought of sleeping made Lance feel queasy, he bit his lip and tried to breathe normally. All his efforts were foiled when Keith’s hand brushed a lock of hair behind Lance’s ear, despite it not being long enough for it to stay there, “We all get nightmares, Lance.”
He looked so beautiful in the soft light filtering in from the hallway that Lance had to stop himself from kissing Keith right then and there. Instead he wrapped his arms around himself, a feeble attempt to hold himself back and nodded, “I’ll be okay.”
Keith looked like he wanted to say something more, but he just nodded at nothing in particular and moved toward the door. As he stepped into the hall, Lance called out his name.
Keith met his eyes.
“Thank you,” Lance said sincerely.
“Get some rest, Sharpshooter,” Keith replied as the door slid shut.
Lance’s heart leapt in his throat and his face burned. He collapsed onto the bed and pressed his heels of his hands into his eyes.
Idiot , Lance groaned. He almost kissed Keith tonight, twice. The guilt he’d ignored was back with a vengeance now. Keith trusted Lance, he’d opened up and let Lance get close. And Lance was using him.
Forgoing the blanket, Lance laid on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He was sure he wouldn’t be getting any more sleep.
-
They landed on planet Orilia the next afternoon. The indigenous population, the Adhai, had recently joined the resistance so Team Voltron was paying them a visit to cement their loyalty. The Galra influence on this planet was small, but Allura was adamant about the diplomatic aspects of the job.
The meetings were dry but positive and Lance found himself spending more time planning how to talk to Keith than actually listening to what was going on around him. He’d decided to avoid Keith and their ‘lessons’ until he figured out what to say.
On the third morning, Keith cornered him. He pulled Lance into a side hallway and Lance had a flashback to him doing almost the exact same thing.
“Do you want a hug?”
It took him longer than it should have to realise Keith had actually spoken out loud, and he wasn’t just replaying that first conversation back to himself.
Keith was wearing a crooked smile, but his eyes were creased with something Lance couldn’t quite pin down. Good lord, when was Lance going to get to the centre of Keith’s many, many faces?
“Actually I’ve been thinking and you uh- you’ve graduated. No need for more classes.”
When he thought about telling Keith he was cancelling their classes, he’d always expected to see hurt, or maybe anger on Keith’s face. He didn’t expect a soft smile with a hint of confusion in those gorgeous grey eyes.
Keith crossed his arms and fucking smirked at Lance, “Wasn’t it just three days ago that you said my form was ‘mediocre at best’?”
Lance had said that, he bit back a groan and ran a gloved hand through his hair, “Look it’s just not a good idea anymore, okay?”
“What’s not a good idea?”
Lance risked a look at Keith’s face and we watched as the hurt curdled into anger.
“Just- this,” Lance gestured between them, then without thinking, “Us.”
Keith jabbed two fingers into his chest, pushing Lance back a step, “ This was your idea. I never asked for-”
He cut himself off as his face crumpled. Lance cocked his head to the side, “Keith?”
His eyes were shining but Keith sneered, “I never asked for any of this and there definitely isn’t an us .”
He’d known this would hurt, but he’d expected the hurt to be self inflicted. Lance couldn’t decide if he wanted to cry or scream, so he went for a secret, third option. He shoved Keith back, “No shit there isn’t. Who’d want to be an us with you ? You don’t even know how to hug.”
It was a lie, and an ugly one at that, but Keith had hurt him, so Lance wanted to hurt him back.
Keith’s lips curled into a snarl and he grabbed Lance by the collar of his armour. Lance grit his teeth and refused to flinch. He stared at Keith, silently daring- or begging- him to deck him.
Instead the castle’s alarms began to ring. Adhai guards ran past, calling out that a rogue Galra fleet had infiltrated the city.
“Shit.”
Lance looked back at Keith, not knowing if an apology or request for orders was going to come from his mouth. Keith didn’t give him the chance to find out. He shoved Lance toward the main hall, hands still on his collar, “Go! Get somewhere high and get to work.”
-
Lance did as he was told. There weren’t many Galran soldiers, but from the scope of his rifle four stories up, he could see they were especially skilled. The bright white of his teammates’ armour stood out from both the Galran and Adhai’s darker toned armour.
He took his time, kept himself steady while he took out the enemy combatants and called out warnings over the comms. Lance knew he was killing people, he and his team couldn’t afford not to, but he pushed that and every other thought out of his mind.
“Pidge, cover Hunk’s six, he’s got a crew sneaking up behind him,” he shot down one himself to help even the odds.
“Got it, Lance!”
He hadn’t seen Keith in a while, “You good, fearless leader?”
It took longer than Lance liked to get a response, “I’m fine. Stay focused.”
Lance grit his teeth and turned his attention back to his scope. Part of him hated being away from the action, and almost like he’d sent up a prayer, the action found him. The only warning he got was a soft crunch of gravel, but that was all he needed. Lance whipped around and used the muzzle of his rifle to block the knife that was aimed for his back.
The comms must have picked up on his grunt. Pidge called out to him, “Lance?”
He managed to kick his assailant back a couple steps before updating his team that he was indisposed.
Keith swore in his ear, “Don’t go anywhere, I’m coming.”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” Lance shot back. The Galran soldier had recovered and Lance ducked under the swinging knife, narrowly avoiding a blow to the side of his head. He managed to get to his feet and the soldier was on him in an instant. His rifle wasn’t much use to him at this close of range, but he did his best to counter attack with it as a blunt force weapon. Lance took some hits and managed to return a couple, including smashing the soldier’s nose in with his shield.
Lance scrambled back hoping he could get enough distance to use his rifle for its intended purpose, but he froze when he saw the soldier tear the pin from what Pidge had lovingly named a ‘Fuck’ grenade- because that’s what you should say if you see one. And Lance was no exception. He’d seen the effects of its blast and shrapnel enough times that his next move was nothing if not completely logical.
Lance jumped off the roof.
He heard a shout in his ear- maybe his name- and the echoing blast of the grenade overhead. His helmet blocked out the sound of rushing air that he knew should be there as he fell. The risk of death from a four story fall was 50%- he’d looked it up after seeing an action movie.
But he had something that protagonist didn’t- a jetpack.
It worked best in the vacuum of space but Lance managed to slow his descent enough to change the direction of his fall from straight down to a sloppy 45° angle. He grunted and rolled uncontrollably across the hard ground with the force of his landing. The air was knocked from his lungs but he fumbled for his shield, miraculously activating it as the debris began to land around him.
Lance’s eyes were clenched shut as his shield and shoulder absorbed the impact of the rubble. His ears rang as he struggled to level his breathing out. Once the sound of falling debris ended Lance opened his eyes to see a sword swinging at his head.
He heard his name ring out through both the air and comms. Lance activated his bayard and swung as hard as he could, he winced at the screech of metal on metal. He shoved his feet into the core of his attacker to gain some distance. And somehow, despite his aching ribs and pounding head, he managed to aim and fire, striking the soldier down.
Lance let out a shaky breath and forced himself onto his feet. He had a perfect view of Allura throwing a Galran soldier halfway down the city block, and Hunk plowing through the last few soldiers on his way to Lance.
Something- or someone, rather- got there first. It came from the side and almost sent them both toppling over, but Lance was tackled into… a hug?
His ribs screamed at him but he most likely would have fallen on his ass if he’d been standing on his own. The embrace was clunky and awkward but it was also fierce and-
“Keith?”
He was shaking as he pulled away from Lance, “I’m sorry, I know you said- but I saw you fall-”
Lance cut him off by grabbing Keith’s collar, much like Keith had done not even an hour before. He looked at Lance with a mix of fear and relief on his face before Lance pulled him in and pressed his lips into Keith’s.
His mind caught up with his body and it was his turn to pull away, he was breathless, “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said those things-”
“Shut up and kiss me,” he felt Keith’s arms wrapped around his shoulders to keep him where he was and pulled him back in. Lance deepened the kiss as much as he could with their armour and helmets between them.
Right when he began to wonder if he’d actually been part of the unlucky 50%, Hunk barreled into both of them, picking them up and swinging them off the ground- effectively breaking off the kiss in favour of not smashing their teeth together.
Pidge’s voice crackled through the comms, “Leave it to you two to have your first kiss on the battlefield .”
Lance laughed as Hunk set him and Keith down, he tried to hide a wince (his ribs were not happy with him) but Keith noticed and immediately considered Lance with fierce concern written plainly on his face. He pulled Lance into a side hug (Lance hadn’t even taught him that one) and let him put his weight on Keith’s shoulders, “Come on, Sharpshooter. Let’s get you looked at.”
Lance smirked as he began walking, “You can look all you like, handsome.”
Keith rolled his eyes but pulled Lance a little closer.
Lance felt a blush rise to his cheeks as he labelled a feeling he hadn’t realised he’d been craving for the past two years. Keith made Lance feel held.