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Keith had already been having a terrible morning— hungover from when Lance convinced him to drink the gifted alcohol from the planet they were on in celebration of something— when he heard Shiro say the words that would make it the second worst day of his life.
“Lance has a WHAT?” he shakes from his previous lifeless walk around to turn to the conversation Shiro and Adam are having by the kitchen counter. He must have heard wrong. Maybe he needs to clean his ears, he hadn’t done that in a week. Deynos wasn’t a planet one could simply relax on.
“A fiance,” Shiro repeats slowly, arching a brow at him like Keith’s confusion confuses him, and confirming that it was not a problem with Keith’s ears but instead just a problem with his life. “He’s been bragging about it the moment you two got back from Deynos. You’re telling me he got engaged on the planet you were both on, hitched a ride on your ship on the way to Earth, and you didn’t know?”
There’s a strange tone in his infuriating brother’s voice that tells him he’s missing something, and Adam’s snickering into his hand as he used his other one to hold on to Shiro’s waist for support isn’t helping to put down the familiar signs that he’s a butt of their joke. Again. Just like when he was a teenager. He hates them with a burning passion.
“No,” he hisses, then takes a deep breath, because these assholes are not going to win. “I didn't know. That’s why I’m asking.”
“How, though?” Adam asked, a shit-eating grin on his face, and he was too hungover for this bullshit. “You’re telling us Lance didn’t say a peep about his sweetheart for the whole trip back?”
“I—“ Keith starts, then cuts off. Lance did convince him to drink in celebration, though Keith figures he’d been too drunk afterwards to remember asking what was being celebrated. He remembered a lot of hugging, the brown and blue eyed man climbing into his lap to laugh about something in his ear, and then getting off of him to dance around in joy. “I, uhm..”
“Don’t remember?” Shiro fucking giggled.
“Too wasted?” Adam added in, way too happily.
Bastards, both of them. Keith scowled and shoved his face into his hands, wincing when the pounding in his head only got worse, thoughts of Lance and whoever his (probably douchey) fiance was scattering his brain. His asshole brother reached over and patted his back, humming in fake sympathy.
“I’ll go get you some raw eggs.” he tutted, huffing as he gave Adam a gentle nudge so that he’d leave the space between his legs. His husband got the hint, unnecessarily helping Shiro off the counter with his hand still settled on his waist. Keith gags a little, making a retching noise that prompts Adam to kick him in the shins and his brother to flick his forehead.
“Just some advil, dickwad.”
“No, I think eggs will do the trick.”
Shiro makes his way over to the island, opening a fresh carton of eggs that makes Keith do a double take, because since when did Takashi Ramen-or-Starvation Shirogane have fresh anything? Then he remembers his brother is married, and eyes the lovesick fool looking at his brother with heart eyes while said man cracks an egg over a glass.
Shiro comes back to place the glass on the counter next to Keith, then settles himself to lean against Adam, who immediately wraps his arms around him. They’re both being douchebags, grinning at him for his hungover self, but their position is so domestic it makes him tear up a little– he thinks that the alien alcohol must carry on till the morning after for it.
Lance had a fiance, someone who he would become just as domestic with. Lance was engaged– getting married, hitched, tying the knot. To whom? Keith has no fucking clue, which is a sign this wedding shouldn’t go on, right? Because he and Lance may have started on the wrong foot, but they were closer now; best friends, even. The Black Paladin and the Red Paladin, the Red and the Blue, Team Leader and Right Hand Man. And Lance would have told him if he met someone, and they would have met before the notion of getting engaged would take place, and, and Keith could assess if this someone was worth Lance’s time– if they deserved his heart.
Because Lance’s heart was big, and held space for any newcomer that may need his love. He doted and he cared and he cherished, because that was just who he was at his core.
Keith was one of the lucky many who found themselves a place in his heart as his best friend, but some of the lucky many didn’t deserve to be. Like Lance’s first boyfriend, from his third year in the Garrison– all the way back to when he was fourteen. Some asshole named Ivan. Keith had not known Lance then, but from the frown it put on Lance’s face to tell him the story of their failed relationship, he wishes he could have been. To erase the history there, because anyone who could ever be ashamed of Lance didn’t deserve to know him at all.
This fiance, whoever they were, had managed to be in Lance’s life long enough for him to accept engagement. Had managed to be loved enough by Lance that he would want to love them forever. And somehow Keith, Lance’s best friend (he said so himself!), has never heard of this person until today, so sue him if he’s a little suspicious.
Thinking of Lance, in the position of Shiro or Adam with someone else as the other, made his chest ache. But this wasn’t about his own feelings— those didn’t matter. This was about Lance and his soft heart that deserved to be someone who loved him just as he did, tenfold. Keith would be happy to just be in his life, as long as he was allowed to be in it. And he was going to make sure this fiance, who would soon be in Lance’s life forever, deserved to be in it at all.
“I’m gonna talk to Lance,” he announced abruptly, startling the lovebirds that were previously in their own world, being all sappy in a way that made his gut turn in— not in jealousy! In pure disgust. “I, I’ve never heard of him having anyone. And he would tell us about that before any marriage shit, right? It sounds pretty fishy.”
Shiro and Adam stare at him, dumbfounded. There’s something else he’s missing, but his brain is still too wacky and he refuses to consume that raw egg.
“And it’s not that I don’t trust him, I do— I trust him with everything, but he’s a lover, you know?” he runs his fingers through his hair, a little hysterical. “Loverboy. Even to those who don’t deserve it, so we should at least give his fiance we’re only now hearing about a shovel talk, right? Cause we care. At least I do— you’re fine with this, Shiro? He would tell us about having a relationship before he got engaged!”
“Keith, deep breaths,” Shiro soothes, placing a hand on his shoulder. He gives Adam a look, having a mental conversation, then turns back to him. “What do you mean, only hearing about this now?”
“I meant that I’m only hearing about this now!”
“Christ alive,” Adam mutters. “I thought his hangover was just messing with his memories, but I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“I’m not gonna try and play guessing games with you two when Lance could be making a big decision about spending the rest of his life with someone we don’t know,” Keith huffs, standing up properly and stumbling a little at the shock of movement. “I’m gonna go find him.”
“Keith, wait—“
“Bye!”
Finding Lance is easy.
While his mom could be a bit embarrassing about it, the alien meat-based diet she’s been forcing on him really has enhanced his senses. Senses he was born with as part-galra but never became attuned to due to Earth lacking the similar nutrients that help. Especially his sense of smell and hearing
It was weird, at first, getting used to so many scents and sounds— bordering overwhelming. Lance was with him for the harder part, when his senses peaked and everything was too much. He would push into Keith’s room and help him eat the blandest, best-suited-for-situations-like-this soup, with its almost nonexistent smell, and rub his back like the good friend he was. He’d rib him sometimes, tell him that he and Kosmo were so bonded he became something of a dog too, what with all his new heightened senses. It should have offended him, but he only leaned into Lance’s embrace more— proving his point of being a clingy dog.
His body had sort of imprinted on Lance, his smell— that shea butter and coconut lotion he uses a constant clinging on his skin, his citrusy shampoo— to the point Lance could be on the other side of the Garrison’s entire campus and Keith would be able to find him.
He’s laughing delightfully with Hunk on his phone, still in New Altea as part of his universal cooking show, when Keith enters the lounge, eyes brighter when they spot him.
“Keith.”
That is the only thing he says, but he feels himself melt anyway. Feels his shoulders sag and his body relax, the tension there gone at just the sound of his voice, of his name being called. He almost forgets what he came in here to do, until Pidge walks in— unaware of his being in the room.
“I want to say you and your betrothed rushed it,” they start, a mocking lilt in her voice at the word. “You know, not even dating and skipping right to fucking engagement— but I think we all saw it coming.”
Just like that, all the tension is back.
They didn’t even date?
Lance notices his building upset immediately, walking up to him and placing a hand on his bicep. The touch is electric, it always is with Lance, but it doesn’t drain the anger he’s feeling on behalf of the man he loves.
“What’s wrong?” his love asks, and Keith wants to punch his stupid fiance.
He had learned to be patient, over his years spent in space. Learned to be gentle, and how to listen and wait. But everything he’s learned goes out the window when it comes to Lance— always Lance.
When Shiro told him patience yields focus, it goes in one ear and out the other when Lance was baiting him into stupid competitions. When Hunk told him to chill out a little, it was always his right hand man encouraging him to spar with all his heart— because they were equals, he could take whatever Keith gave him, and he was right. He didn’t need to change with Lance, he was patient and gentle enough for the both of them. He was his balance.
And he deserved wooing— courting, or whatever. He deserved dates under the stars, on the beach he loved so much. He deserved the world and more, not a spontaneous proposal. He deserved everything. It’s why Keith never pursued him, because he doesn’t love the way Lance does. He loves so much, but not like him— not in the way his best friend wanted.
Pidge turns to him— to them, because Lance is on his arm trying to find out what’s wrong with him, and grins, “If it isn’t the betro—“
They don’t get another word out, because Keith is already dragging himself and Lance out of the room.
Lance complies with no complaint, eyeing him worriedly. When they finally make it to a secluded corner, Keith is the first to speak.
“Why would you say yes!?”
This is his first mistake.
Blue and brown eyes widen, then flash with hurt that makes him want to take back the words. He wants to say so, rephrase the question, but his own raised voice brought back his migraine. He’s regretting not downing that egg now too.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Lance asked, careful, though there was a tinge in his voice that Keith knew was a sign of him choking down tears. “I love the idiot that proposed, and yeah we should have made it, like, official, first, but it didn’t matter. Waiting, I mean— not to me. Is it what Pidge said? I really don’t care, Keith, I love y—“
“That was a big decision you made, Lance,” Keith whisper-shouted, which didn’t help anything. The offense is clear as day on the love of his life’s face— wow, he must love his fiance a lot. “You’re gonna spend the rest of your life with this person, because you swore on your grandmother’s name that you’d never marry someone who you might get divorced with.”
“Someone I might get divorced with!? I spent eight years being in love with this person,” Lance seethed, poking his chest harshly when he said the last two words. “Eight goddamn years in love with you! You do not get to propose after all those years of circling around each other only to backtrack the day after! This is not the time to not mean what you say, Kogane!”
“Eight yea— what?” he blinks. “Me? When, I— I proposed? When the hell did I propose!?”
Lance gapes at him, and they stare at each other in silence.
“On Deynos, you bought one of the rings that were offered to us,” Lance started, sounding defeated, and Keith would do anything to get him up again— be happy, be angry, but never so downtrodden— “You got on your knee and asked me to be your space ranger partner for the rest of our lives, held my hand and slid the ring on and everything.”
“Yeah, I know I did that,” Keith said, still confused. Everything is processing slowly, and he wishes he never drank that stupid alien alcohol, no matter how convincing Lance was with his batted eyelashes. “Those were the equivalent of ring pops here on Earth, magic alien rock candy, the Deynians were just offering us dessert. I— That wasn’t an actual proposal, I was trying to cheer you up, you were sad about something, and..”
He stops abruptly at the look on his best friend’s face. Lance had taken a step back, and Keith instantly wanted to bring him back closer.
“It wasn’t real?” he asked, softly, his usually bright eyes a little dimmer.
“It,” Keith swallows, mouth dry. “It was rock candy, Lance.”
This is his second mistake.
“Didn’t matter to me,” the other man sighed, taking something shiny off his finger, and it is only then Keith spots the very ring he had jokingly proposed with. “I was just happy we were together, and that you wanted to be— or, um, I thought you did.”
His hands are shaking a little when they press the ring into Keith’s hand, which involuntarily closes around Lance’s fingers. Lance immediately pulls away, leaving the ring with Keith. It’s a golden band that had looked beautiful with the color of Lance’s fingers, the bright violet gems— alien rock candy— glinting mockingly at Keith.
“I’m sorry, Keith,” he says, looking away from him now. “I— Um. I should have known you were just joking around. I’ve been a big influence on you, huh? Ha.”
Lance is crying now, and he rushes forward to wipe away the tears, but the other takes another step back.
“Don’t,” Lance shakes his head, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Uh, it’s fine. Just forget what I said, it was dumb, I shouldn’t have assumed—“
“Lance—“
“— I shouldn’t have dumped all that on you, I should have known something was wrong the moment you asked why I said yes, I’m sorry—“
“Lance, I—“
Keith keeps trying to take a step forward, but for every time he does, Lance takes a step back.
“I’m sorry,” he heaves, visibly holding back a sob. “I’m sorry, Keith.”
Then he runs away, and Keith lets him. This is his last mistake.
Lance is in love with him, like how Keith is in love with Lance. And Keith let him run.
He stands there for who knows how long, a ring in his pale fist, burdening a killer migraine— as well as a cracking heart.
Lance evades him for two whole weeks, and it is the most miserable two weeks Keith has ever experienced.
He had gone two years without Lance before, back in the space whale with his mother. It was different, then, because he could see Lance in flashes— the future, the past— and it was just a little bearable, knowing Lance would still be in his life when they were older.
It’s different from now, when he sees Lance in the halls of the Garrison, and just as quickly, speeding away from him. It won’t be long before the former blue slash red paladin’s break is over, and he’ll go back to space as a travelling sort-of diplomat, in a planet Keith can’t go to unless a humanitarian effort was required of the Blade of Marmora there.
Shiro and Adam had let go of being assholes to console him in his well-deserved Lance-less state, but their words aren’t all that consoling.
“I can see why you thought a jokey proposal could have cheered Lance up,” his brother starts, placing a bowl of noodles in front of him. “But maybe next time, actually make it sound like a joke and not an earnest, devoted love confession? You know, so there’s no misunderstandings?”
“Or maybe,” Adam cuts in, placing a fork in his bowl because Keith still refuses to learn how to use chopsticks. “Don’t jokingly propose at all. The only time you should be getting on one knee and sliding a ring on Lance’s finger with a soft, adoring look in your eyes— you didn’t hear it from me, that’s how your now ex fiance told the story— is when you actually want to get married.”
“Point.” Shiro huffed, moving to kiss his husband’s cheek in reward. Adam smiles charmingly, moving to the side so he pecks his lips instead.
Keith wants to drown in his bowl of noodles.
“I do want to marry him,” he says forlornly, picking at his fork. “I just— I’m not what he wants.”
“He literally told you he was in love with you!”
“I know, okay!?” Keith glared at his brother, who merely raised a brow at him, prompting him to explain. “But he wants someone who’s gonna— gonna sweep him off his feet. Plan little dates that take everything into account. Love him as much as he loves them. I— I’m not a sappy guy.”
“Didn’t you just describe yourself?” Adam asks, face furrowed. “When you’re both on Earth, you’re always planning to take him out to places he mentioned wanting to go to once. Or when you’re in the same orbit, even. You literally have an album of pictures you took of Lance when you go sightseeing on other planets. It’s separated from the album of pictures you have of Lance when you’re on Earth!”
“He asks me for the pictures sometimes, the organizing is so I know where to find which one he’s asking for!”
“The fact that you’re organizing at all is already a huge thing, Keith, because in the past when I’ve been living with you 24/7 not once did you willingly even bother cleaning your room,” Shiro drawls, looking like he was resisting the urge to strangle his little brother. “That’s you adjusting to what Lance would want, all because you love him. That’s you putting in the effort to be someone who could be compatible with him. Someone who deserves him, as your ass insists, without being forced to change completely. You’ve always had the potential to be a sentimental bastard.”
“Also, not a sappy guy?” Adam snorts, as if the very concept was hilarious. “Your smitten self currently has a carefully folded jacket with its very own special slot in your otherwise junkyard of a closet. You know, the one your ex fiance embroidered stars on for you two years ago and doesn’t even fit you anymore.”
“I—“ Keith pauses, pushing his bowl away in order to smack his head into his hands. “That doesn’t mean I deserve him. I should have realized what was going on, the whole fiance thing, I remembered the joke proposal! But I didn’t, and I made Lance cry because of that, and anyone who makes Lance cry—“
“Keith—“
“He deserves better.”
“Is he not worth it?” Adam suddenly asks, completely serious.
“What?” He stares at his brother-in-law. “What kind of question is that? Of course he is.”
“Then be better,” the older man flicks his forehead, which makes him hiss. “I don’t understand how you could ever think you’re not ‘worthy,’” he makes mocking air quotes, “of Lance, after the list of shit your brother and I just gave as examples, and I know you have your esteem issues— but Lance loves you. Not as someone who can be pathetically in love with him, which you still are, by the way, but as you.”
“Do you think Lance could only love you if you offer him big romantic gestures?” his brother asks.
He bites his lip, looking away from them. “Of course not, he’s not shallow.”
“Then give him some credit, Keith,” he’s given another flick on the forehead, lighter than Adam’s but still stinging, and he looks back to them in order to glare. His expression softens when they’re both patiently looking back, and for a moment, he’s fifteen again, and his brother and his brother’s boyfriend were asking him his side of the story. “You’re already what Lance wants, even before you started doing your sappy shit. You’re already who Lance wanted for eight years.”
He clenches his fists, avoiding their eyes.
“Lance never would have said yes to a sudden proposal before ever even dating,” Shiro took his right hand, unfolding it and flattening it on the table. “But he said yes to you.”
He did. He had said yes with so much happiness, when Keith had gotten on one knee, as if he didn’t even have to think about it— not for a second. Like it’s always been Keith, for him.
“Shit, I’m dumb,” he mutters, ignoring the synchronized ‘yes, yes you are’ from the other two. “I’m gonna talk to—“
“Go!”
He scrambles out of his chair and speedily leaves the room.
Keith would like to rephrase his earlier statement: Finding Lance should be easy.
The only traces of his scent anywhere is in his temporary dorm area, the place he stays in when he’s only staying on Earth for a few days, though him staying at the Garrison for over two weeks was already weird enough. Other than that, his scent all around is gone, meaning Lance is gone, and Keith hates his life.
Short of torturing the information of Lance’s whereabouts from the Holt siblings with threats of Kosmo slobbering their tech with his alien saliva, Keith doesn’t have any legal way of finding him— not with the procedures put in place that directs information about each pilot’s destination to specific units.
There are illegal ways though. Like going to your target’s sister.
“Keith.”
“Veronica.”
Lance’s sister wasn’t someone Keith had expected to become especially friendly with, but over the years— as well as sheer proximity via a certain pining Galra, whose name starts with the letter A— they had been able to consider each other close friends. The true lesbian and gay man solidarity that Keith struggles to find with Acxa, who trips him one day and then pats his back the next.
But Veronica, to reiterate the first two words from his inner monologue, is Lance’s sister. And judging from the unimpressed look on her face as she eyes his Black Paladin Garrison uniform, she had already heard the story on Lance’s end.
He inhales, preparing a speech on why he knows he kinda fumbled and is willing to set things straight (ha) when she immediately cuts him off.
“Don’t,” she huffs. ”I’ll tell you where he is if you promise you’re not gonna let him run off again. Lightning speed, Kogane. You gotta think fast on what to say or he’s gonna run away like you’re our mama with an overloaded plate of food for him.”
Keith.. wasn’t expecting that.
He’d been prepared for yelling, a thorough shovel talk, a ‘I never want to see you within 5 miles of my brother ever again!’ talk, but not— not this. Not advice, albeit snipped and snarky, and willingness.
“Have I ever told you you’re my favorite McClain sister?” he blurts out.
“Duh, your other option is Rachel.”
She pulls up a notepad and pen from her pocket, writing something on a page and then ripping it off. She hands it to him.
Phobyos System, First Quadrant: Kiyupidis
Pod: 01052151404
“He’s taking a pod?” Keith finds himself asking, eyes flitting over the number first. Lance usually went with his own crew, on a proper ship— hitching a ride with Keith had been a rare thing. Did they not get back from Deynos yet?
“It was kinda an impulse flight, Keith,” Veronica sighs. “He was supposed to be on rest mode on Earth for two months, you know— family time. But suddenly he wanted to immediately start on his trip for Kiyupidis.”
“He stayed here for two weeks though, he should have been cleared to leave the Garrison after three days.”
“He was debating.”
“Debating?—“
He stops.
To stay and talk or to leave.
Keith glares at the ground, then sags.
“I,” he gulps. “I can’t read his mind, okay? I try to— to do what’s gonna make him happy, but I messed it up, and—“
“Keith.”
He looks up.
“No one’s mad at you,” says Veronica, though the frustration on her face sort of contradicts that. “Especially not Lance. Lance misunderstood what you did, with good reason, by the way— his crew were witnesses. He’s mad at himself.”
“I know, and he shouldn’t be.”
“Then find him, and talk. Don’t let him run away from this, from you— not unless you actually want to let him go.”
“I don’t,” he rasps. “I— I couldn’t, not unless he asked, and I still wouldn’t want to but if it’s what he needs—“
“Then go already, because that’s not what he needs.”
He goes.
The Phobyos System was actually a close one, right next to Eryes, where Deynos was. Both were located near the outer edges of the Andromeda Galaxy. Keith thanks his lucky stars for the Altean technology that Allura had provided for the Garrison, which lets him use a wormhole to close enough coordinates. He’ll have to remember to send her a fruit basket or something.
Landing on the planet, just a few vargas after he’d wormholed within the system, Keith starts his search.
Finding Lance is easy, again, in an environment so devoid of smell the only stark scent is like a beacon. His pod is a few feet from Keith’s, and near it he can see him, beautiful as ever.
He is talking rapidly to Kiyupidian, a noble of sorts, judging by the green robes, and making big gestures with his hands. Usually, on his diplomatic exploits, Lance is more calm. Collected— charming.
Now, he looks like a nervous wreck, as he is when he’s frazzled— when something is distracting him from being the good representative he is. Something churns in Keith’s stomach, and the ring in his pocket feels heavy. He walks towards Lance and the noble.
Don’t let him run away from this.
Not unless you actually want to let him go.
“Hey, Sharpshooter.”
Their eyes lock.
Lance turns to run, but Keith’s ready, this time. Quick as lightning, he loops his arms around the other’s waist and pulls him into his chest. The Kiyupidian, being ever the empath, quickly makes their leave.
Keith’s nose is flooded with citrus.
“Keith,” Lance wheezes, staring down at where Keith’s hands are clasped over his stomach. “What? Why are you here—“
“You didn’t let me talk.”
The man in his arms takes a deep breath, then another. Shakily, he puts his own hands over the bigger ones keeping him in place, accepting his fate.
“Okay,” he says, still trembling a little. “Okay, um, not here?”
Keith looks around, where some Kiyupidians are staring at them, and promptly remembers the docking area is a public area. Without a second thought, he picks Lance up and throws him over his shoulder.
“What the hell!” he shrieks, blushing furiously. “What are you— Keith, put me down!”
The march back to his ship is filled with Lance’s indignant muttering and Keith’s huffed out laughs. It’s great, and nostalgic— it feels like the tentative days of when they first became closer friends.
Reaching the ship, he finally puts Lance down. Before the man can open his mouth, Keith gets on one knee, pulling the ring out of his pocket.
“What—“ Lance gulps, staring down at him with wide eyes. The cerulean blue and the woody, warm brown shine under the night sky of the planet. “Keith, I don’t think doing that is gonna fix anything right now. No amount of love for you that I have is gonna stop me from decking you in the face if you propose marriage to me today. I’ll say yes but I will probably throw something at you.”
“It’s not a marriage proposal,” Keith soothes, taking the other man’s hands in his. He bites his lip, thinking on how to say what he wants to say, then sighs. “I— I love you too. More than anything, maybe not as long as you, or maybe I haven’t known as long as you have, but I do know I’ve loved you for at least six years.”
“Rookie numbers,” Lance says, teary-eyed and loving. “Beat you again, Samurai.”
Keith laughs, a deep, joyous rumble in his chest that he only ever does when he’s so unbelievably happy.
“You did,” he says, smiling, and hopes Lance can see the adoration in his eyes as he looks at him. He brings the man’s hands to his lips and kisses both, reveling in the shiver that got. “I’m sorry I didn’t confess sooner.”
“Don’t be,” Lance says, smiling at him as tears run down his beautiful face. “I didn’t either, remember? Not until you asked me about the whole fiance shit.”
Keith presses another kiss, to his knuckles this time. “I’m sorry about the proposal misunderstanding.”
“It wasn’t your fault, I should be sorry, I should’ve known you were joking—“
“But I wasn’t,” Keith cuts him off, and before Lance can overthink that, he goes on. “I mean— I meant to start it off as a joke, but I found myself just telling you the truth. I meant every word. I do want you to be my partner forever, I will want you for as long as you’ll have me, till the day I die.”
With his own hands shaking, he presses a lingering kiss into Lance’s wrist, never looking away from his eyes. He couldn’t, even if he tried.
“But I want you to have me properly, the way you always dreamed of. I want to be introduced as your lover. I want you to have me before you’re locked onto me forever.”
He fumbles with the ring still in his hand, the gemstones glinting— like hope, this time. Gently, adoringly, he slides it onto Lance’s ring finger, feeling his pulse race and hearing his sharp intake of breath.
“This— This isn’t a proposal, but it’s a promise. Let me be with you, properly, without doubt. Let me show you I can be a good boyfriend. And if you still want me after experiencing that, let me get on one knee again and ask you to marry me, for real, when the time comes.”
“You just loopholed so I can’t punch you since this isn’t technically a marriage proposal.”
Keith flashes him a grin, basking in the way it makes Lance flush a gorgeous red. “Is that a no?”
He already knows the answer, for once. “It’s a yes, idiot.”
He’s ready for it, too, when Lance collapses onto his knees and wraps him in an embrace. His body is wracked with little sobs he’s trying to contain, and Keith feels his own eyes prick with tears.
When they pull away to look at each other, they’re both smiling so hard their faces ache.
“I love you,” Lance whispers. “I love you so much. I’ve loved you for so long.”
“I love you too,” Keith kisses his forehead, hand reaching up to wipe stray tears from the other’s face. Lance leans into his hand. “More than words can explain.”
“I still don’t understand why you’d bother to go through the dating phase only to get engaged immediately three months after.”
Pidge is giving Keith the most unimpressed look they can muster, which is deeply unimpressed, as they stir the coffee that he generously got them.
“You don’t have to,” he mutters, choosing to avoid her eye roll. “Lance and I get it. That’s all that matters.”
As if on cue, the love of his life bounds into the room, radiating pure joy that makes even Pidge smile.
“Hunk is doing catering!” he cheers, eyes sparkling. He plops himself down on Keith’s lap, throwing his arms around his fiance’s neck.
“Course,” Keith said, looking up into his face with adoration. In the background, Pidge makes a retching noise, but he can’t really notice anything else when the beautiful man who said yes to him is on his lap, looking at him like he hung the moon and stars. He lets his hands rest on Lance’s waist, smiling at the small laugh it rewarded him from his ticklish love. “He wouldn’t miss that opportunity for the world.”
Lance hums, leaning forward to nuzzle into his neck.
“Yeah, I’m out of here.”
They both laugh as their friend gets up and bolts through the door, looking back into each other’s eyes and knowing there’s love there— and there will be love for the rest of their lives.