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Parties were stupid, Keith decided. Nothing in the world could convince him that flouncing around on a dance floor while inebriated partygoers tripped and fell around him was any sort of fun. If he wanted to mingle with sweaty bodies and get some exercise, he would just hit the training deck and spar with his teammates.
Of course, none of them seemed into that idea after freeing their most recent ally from the Galra. Apparently saving a planet is cause for celebration and not more preparation for the next battle. Which was why Keith found himself glued to the ballroom wall of a planet who’s gaudy décor and sociable residents indicated they cared more for disco balls and strobe lights than planetary defense.
To their credit, as far as Voltron welcoming parties tended to go, Keith would probably rank their’s pretty highly. The music was tolerable, the food and drinks were up to Hunk’s standards, and all of team Voltron were immediately swept up into the festivities. Save for Keith that is.
He sighed and took a sip from the drink he had been nursing for the past hour. It was far better than Nunvill, but still left behind a bitter feeling trailing down his throat. When they had arrived at the party, Shiro had made assurances to him that they would be in and out, they just needed to show face to be polite. This message was not made clear to the other paladins though. Hunk and Pidge immediately made a beeline for the hovering DJ station where Pidge got into a lively conversation with the roadie about the tech. Hunk somehow got into a dance battle with the locals, drawing attention from everyone nearby and eventually dragging Pidge into it as well.
Allura and Shiro seemed to have gotten caught up in their own discussion about Voltron’s future with the planet and other sorts of alliance talk. As interesting as that was, Keith could not stand to stick around to hear any more. Which only left Lance.
Keith had lost sight of him from the second they arrived at the party. He could already imagine what Lance was getting up to without even needing to see him. He thrived at these types of events, and as much as Keith hated to admit it, Lance was good with the people. He knew how to talk, and how to say the right things to get the right reactions out of crowds. Though it didn’t always work out romantically speaking, he was likable. Keith couldn't help but be a little jealous of that.
A familiar whoop of excitement drew Keith’s eyes from his cup to the crowd. There in the center of it all was Lance. He had some alien girl in a dip and laughing along with him as some onlookers smiled and cheered. The spotlights were centered on them and Lance was grinning like he didn’t even notice. A knot formed in Keith’s stomach and he grimaced. Yeah, he hated these events.
After a moment, Lance seemed to feel Keith’s stare on him, and he looked up and met Keith’s eyes. A flash of recognition passed across his face and Lance smiled even wider. He picked the girl back up from the dip he had her in and twirled her into the arms of another dancer nearby. He shot a wink at the two of them as she blushed and looked wildly between Lance and her new partner. Before Keith could process whatever that meant, Lance made his way to him.
“Hey samurai, what are you doing all alone over here?” the paladin asked.
He leaned against the wall casually and smirked at him. Keith caught the way his chest heaved from all the previous dancing and the flush on his cheeks.He ignored it.
“Is that the kind of line you used on that girl to get her to dance with you?” he questioned.
“Nah, she approached me actually,” Lance answered with a grin.
Keith’s eyebrow raised but he wasn’t too surprised. It wasn’t that out of the ordinary for Lance to get asked to dance at these kinds of things. Especially when he put himself out there as much as he did. Still, Keith had to make some effort to sound neutral on the matter. “You must be psyched then, filled your quota for dances with pretty girls for the night.”
He hummed, “Not exactly, I was just dancing with her to make her look cool for the guy she was too nervous to ask out.” He looked over and Keith could see her smiling and laughing with the guy Lance practically launched her into earlier. Oh, that was actually sweet.
He looked back at Lance and saw him smiling proudly before he turned again to Keith. “Besides, I’m not always trying to pick someone up at these events.” Keith looked at him incredulously. “Righttt,” he drawled out.
“I’m serious! Sometimes it’s fun to just dance,” Lance shrugged. He folded his arms and made a pout. “You wouldn’t know that though, since you always blend into the walls like a plank of wood.”
“I do not!” he declared.
Lance looked him up and down. “Do too. You're one leaf short of a whole tree at this point with how deep your roots are planted in the floor here.”
Keith spluttered but had no response. He couldn’t think of the last time he tried to have fun at one of these events to disprove Lance. The blue paladin smiled victoriously and pushed himself off the wall to fully face Keith.
“You could prove me wrong though, right here right now.”
Keith eyed him questioningly. “How?” he asked. Lance extended his hand out to Keith and did a slight bow. “Dance with me, just one song. You get to prove you’re not a total stick in the mud and I get to see you have some fun for once.”
The offer hung in the air as Keith considered it. One dance couldn’t hurt, it wasn’t like anyone here would remember how potentially embarrassing it would be. Plus, half of the team was preoccupied with their own business. The smaller, more pathetic part of Keith’s brain made note of the chance he would get to get past his and Lance’s ‘rivalry’ thing for a night. He supposed that despite involving dancing, the offer was very tempting.
He sighed and took Lance’s hand to shake it. “Fine, one dance though.”
Lance smiled. “One dance. Though you’ll probably want to stay for longer with how much fun we’ll be having.” Keith doubted it but couldn’t voice his disproval before Lance yanked his hand forward and dragged them onto the dancefloor.
Keith had to hand it to Lance, he did know how to have fun, and Keith did end up staying for longer than a single dance. After he had been dragged out into the crowd, Lance found a spot big enough for the two of them to comfortably stand. Around them people swayed to the music as the strobe lights twinkled overhead. Lance was immediately pulled into the rhythm of the song playing as Keith stood there awkwardly with his hands positioned upright.
Of course, Lance was quick to take notice and giggled at Keith. He mouthed something that couldn’t be heard over the sound of the music. After a second, he shook his head and grabbed Keith’s hands. Suddenly, he smiled and gave Keith a big twirl that left him spinning and grappling onto his shoulder. Lance dipped his head down by Keith’s and spoke a bit louder this time, “Just copy what I do, no one’s going to care.”
The red paladin nodded and let go to start miming the bopping and jumping Lance did to the music. It wasn’t hard after that to lose himself, and soon one song turned to two, and two turned to three, and Keith found himself actually having fun. He was dancing horribly, by all standards, but no one around them paid any mind. Lance certainly didn’t, every time Keith looked up at him, he was sporting a wild grin and shaking Keith’s shoulder wildly with glee.
A much deeper part of Keith was excited to get a taste of the other paladin’s world. Whether he would admit it or not, he couldn’t help looking out to him whenever these events happened. He guessed a part of it was being jealous of how well he was able to get on with other people. It was never something Keith was good at and no matter what he tried he could never be on Lance’s level.
But another part of it, the part even now Keith was struggling to come to terms with, was that he liked being around Lance. The light that Lance brought into every room was something that Keith was only ever able to view from the sidelines. Neither of them had gotten along very well from the start of their journey, and Keith never thought he would be able to make a friend like him. It wasn’t something he was able to do at the garrison, and certainly not something he had been able to do when the two met again when they rescued Shiro. However, here Lance was welcoming Keith into his world. It was weird, and Keith was feeling things he hadn’t ever considered before.
The song that was playing started to come to a close, and the group around the two of them had backed into them enough that they were practically squished together. Now that they weren’t dancing, Keith had the sense to be embarrassed about the situation. He tried to squirm out, but the group was not letting. He moved his hands up between the two of them to put some space in between. From what Keith could see Lance was not faring much better. He made eye contact a few times before decidedly grabbing Keith’s wrist and dragging them to a more open spot.
He let go and out a breath of relief in the fresh air and looked back up at Keith again. “Sorry, I could not breath at all back there” he chuckled. Keith felt about the same way.
“It’s all good, I wasn’t really enjoying being all cramped like that either,” he admitted.
The two stood awkwardly, and Keith wondered when the music was going to pick back up again. Despite everything, he was actually enjoying himself quite a bit, and his heart waned a little at the thought that it was going to be over. Lance looked like he was about to say something when The DJ’s voice cut through from the speakers.
“Alright, alright, coming up next we have a request from a special guest,” Keith could swear he saw a flash of green duck behind the DJ booth. “Grab your special someone and get ready to slow it down to some sweet tunes!”
Lance paled and Keith felt his heart do a flip. “We don’t have to dance to this one if you’re ready to call it quits,” Lance offered. The paladin looked a bit more nervous about this song than he had the rest of the night.
“Well…” Keith gave it some thought. “We wouldn’t want to be a couple of ‘planks of wood’ on the wall for the rest of the night, would we?” he asked. This time, he offered his hand to Lance. The Cuban’s face lit up as he grabbed it and the two clumsily got into a slow dance position.
Keith realized he might’ve been a little too ambitious when he tried to figure out where to put his hands. “I don’t actually know how to slow dance” he admitted.
“It’s ok, I’m not that experienced either,” Lance confessed.
“Seriously?”
“Nah, I got turned down at most of the dances I went to growing up. I got to try it one time at my sister’s quince, but I don’t think dancing with your mom really counts,” Lance laughed. He guided Keith’s hand to his side and placed his own on his shoulder.
Keith giggled, “No, I don’t think it does.” The rhythm eventually caught up to them and soon they were swaying to the beat. “If it makes it any better, I didn’t go to my middle school’s, and I left the garrison before I could entertain the thought of going to the ones there either,” Keith added. Another couple bumped into them but as Keith went to apologize, he saw they were in their own world wrapped in each other’s arms. Unconsciously, his own hold on lance grew closer.
Lance hummed at the contact. “Pshh like you’d actually show up to one there, if it wasn’t a flight class I doubt you’d be interested.”
Years of fighting made Keith privy to knowing an opening when he saw one, and for once, he hesitated to take it. His mind wrestled with the idea before ultimately giving in. “Maybe if you were the one to ask me to it, I would’ve been.”
Lance choked and stumbled. Keith righted him and they fell back into the position they were in before. “I like guys,” Lance blurted out.
Keith blanched. “Right,” he said.
“I mean, like, I talk to a lot of girls, but I’m still totally into guys too,” he attempted to get them back into the motions of dancing, but neither was paying much attention to the music. “So that wouldn’t have been an issue, if you were there for the dance” he clarified while looking anywhere else but at Keith.
Keith wore a blank expression. God, he had managed to make Lance uncomfortable. He sucked in a breath. “Right, the issue would be it being me.” Lance’s eyes widened and he shook his head ‘no’ vigorously.
“No no! The opposite actually.” He dipped him, but unlike his dance with the alien girl earlier a shy smile was displayed on his face. “Keith” he stated. “I want to hang out with you more. Just us, no rivalry or fighting involved.”
Keith fell to pieces as he processed what Lance said. Purple eyes bore into blue and heat rose to his face. After a second, he pushed himself upward and took the opportunity Lance’s surprise gave to spin him downwards and reverse their positions.
“You sure about all that?”
Lance cleared his throat and his face flushed furiously. “Maybe some parts of the rivalry can stay.” Keith smiled and the two of them stayed like that for a moment. Eventually, he pulled him back up and Keith rested his head on Lance’s shoulder. He would have to ask the DJ afterwards what song was playing, it had to be some kind of alien science-y nonsense that was making his head feel as hazy as it was.
As the song’s bridge carried on, they were back to swaying lazily. Keith managed to build up the courage to make some more embarrassing admissions for the night. “I think I always wanted to be your friend,” Keith softly spoke. The quiet of the music made carrying a conversation much easier.
“You did?” he sounded skeptical. “You didn’t even remember me from the garrison though?” Keith blinked. He didn’t realize that memory had such an effect on Lance.
“I didn’t know you then, back there I was so wrapped up in my own world I couldn’t see past myself.” Which was true, he had been so worked up about his past and finding Shiro that it was hard to see anything else. “But after I got to know you, I wished I did. Maybe then things would’ve been better between us.” The music slowed and Keith could tell the song was almost over.
“It can be better now,” Lance’s voice was tender, and Keith’s eyes rose to meet his. A beat passed between them and an unspoken question started to form on Lance’s lips. Suddenly a call was heard across the dancefloor.
“Lance!” Hunk called out and the two separated. He seemed to spot him and made his way over. “Lance! Shiro’s rounding us up to go back to the castle, have you seen Keith…” he stopped when he saw the two of them and quirked an eyebrow. “Oh, so you have seen him.”
Realization dawned on him, and he went bug eyed. “Wait were you two…” he was cut off as Lance stopped him before he could ask. “I took Keith dancing, nothing more.” Yet, Keith mentally supplied. “Where’s the rest of the group?” he asked.
Hunk’s eyes flicked between the two of them before continuing, “Everyone’s gathering at the bridge. Shiro said to meet him there in ten.” He then turned to Keith, “Oh, and he said something about telling Keith ‘You’re welcome’ whatever that meant.” Great, Keith’s earlier reservations about the night were now coming to bite him in the ass. Lance had the audacity to chuckle and Keith sent him a glare.
“I’ll meet you guys there, I gotta go get Pidge. I lost them at some point after getting sucked into that dance off, I think they said something about trying to find you guys, but I couldn’t tell.” They both looked cluelessly to each other and back at Hunk. “We haven’t seen them here, good luck though,” Keith shrugged. Hunk waved a goodbye and they were left alone again.
“We should probably start heading back,” Lance commented, and Keith wished Hunk hadn’t found them. “Yeah, Shiro will get all worried if Hunk gets there before us.”
The two started walking back but as they reached the entrance to the castle Lance stopped them. “Hey Keith?”
Keith turned to face him, “Yeah?” Lance hesitated for a moment before sweeping to the side and pressing a quick kiss to Keith’s cheek. “I had fun tonight, and I meant it when I said I wanted to hang out with you more.”
Keith went pink and pressed his gloved hand to where Lance had kissed him. He smiled and softly punched Lance’s shoulder, “It’s a date then.” Lance grinned up at him and together they made their way back into the castle.
...
It wasn’t until the next morning when Pidge presented them with a printed-out photo of the two of them slow dancing when they realized they hadn’t been as subtle as they had tried to be. Keith didn't mind, subtle wasn’t his thing anyways. And hell, he thought, maybe these parties weren’t so bad after all.