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Lance did not take himself to a be a sentimental person, nor did he really know how to do laundry without accidentally tie-dying his whites or know how to reprogram his iPhone to not play Britney Spear’s ‘Toxic’ after his sister messed with it. He was a big man, who admitted he had flaws. Like not being able to comfort the morbidly moody.
But there also came a time in his life to go expand himself and be there for someone.
“Hey, angst-face.” Close enough.
Lance approached a giant red lion with a dark-haired boy perched on its top.
The robot was framed by a rapidly descending red sun, making it glimmer with a flaming back and framed by green foliage that look poised to swallow it whole. It lay on it’s side like a wounded beast- which it sort of was.
Keith peered down at Lance for a moment and then retreated farther up on the creatures back, Lance sighs.
He jumps up and starts scrambling up the lion himself. “I see you're still in the orbit of Keith throws a pity-party in the galaxy of bummer nebula.”
Keith was fixating on the rapidly darkening sky. His eyes were a dusty-dim brown, set deep into his face at that moment and his hair was swept in to a messy bun on the nape of his neck, it was also flaky and someone needed to tell him take a shower. Well, a swim in a relatively clean puddle in their situation.
“Did you hear me?” Lance was about to rap on is head with his knuckles when Keith sharply turned towards him.
“You learned some new space terms, congratulations, you are ace-pilot material.” Keith snorts, “nebula.”
“Actually, it was bummer-nebula, party of one.” He says as he positioned himself cross-legged across the lions metal shoulder. It’s screws dug into his tailbone but whatever.
“Lance,” Keith’s voice softened with a slight grimace, “could you just, give me some space?”
Lance had grown up elbow to elbow with siblings and cousins, he chuckles and opens his arms wide, “haven’t you heard,” he points at the expanding stars in the night sky, “all we’ve got is space.”
Keith groans, “really?”
“Come on,” Lance reaches for him, and Keith retracts into himself, “Shiro will be back with help and the red lion will come back online and the shit will be put back into the shit locker. Tidied up, the maid came and she packed it away in a ‘heroes don’t lose napsak’ and the shit is declared windexed away.”
Keith leans towards him wearing a flat expression, “who’s the maid?”
Lance blinks and tilts his head, “huh?”
“The maid.”
Lance closes his eyes and chuckles, “figure of speech my main-mullet.” Keith’s eyes travel up and away from him. “Not that you have a mullet or anything anymore I guess, like some sort of bun, but it looks manly, not worries, very manly, though you could use a shave...do you want me to shave you?”
Lance was rambling, but his skill set also did not include, ‘silence’ and ‘being ignored.’
Keith hums but his eyes travel back to the lion. “I think it’s rejected me."
“Oh,” Lance lowers his head, eyebrows furrowing, “Come on, that kind of thinking is a slippery slope.”
“I’m serious,” Keith’s eyes crinkled at the side, face folding in on itself. "It won't let me in."
“I know, but,” he frowns, “I’m sure it’s just damaged, Allura, or Pidge or someone can fix it when Shiro comes back with them.”
Keith shakes his head and his hand juts out and squeezes Lance’s arm, digging his nails in, “we are in the corners of the universe Lance.” His lips tug all the down, “blind-faith isn’t going to magic anyone here.” He was still grimacing and Lance wanted to suck the folds out his cheekbones.
“Dude, seriously, all I have is blind faith...and collectively all we have is literally magic, magic flying lions that become a bigger magic-robot.”
Their eyes meet like ships crashing into each other in the night, and Lance can feel his heart beat bate itself into thumping in his wrists and throat, hard.
Keith takes a deep breath in through his nose, his face cracking open in the weak light, he sprouts a tight smile, “Lance…” He says his name like a prophet tells fortunes.
Lance blinks and thinks about tunnels and caverns and volcano bubbling up.
“You’re going to get us through this with pure shit-stubbornness, aren't you?”
Lance makes a face, “I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not.”
“Come here.” He rolls over and puts him a type of hug-headlock.
“Whoa, is this a hug or have you descended into space madness, did you touch that weird alien jelly-fish we all said not to?”
“No, that was you Lance, you touched the space jelly and spent three days in a cave thinking you were shedding your skin into a lizard person.”
“Oh. Yeah.” Lance shudders at the memory, the itching, but can feel Keith’s chest pressed against his own and relaxes.
“Lizard lord.” Keith face fell into an easy smile, like he didn’t notice for once he was doing it, and suddenly Lance doesn’t regret temporary lizard lordship.
He snorts and pets the side of the red lion, Keith holds on tighter before his hands soften.
Keith rolls off of him and Lance has no idea what form of affection had just been pressed against him. He settles for rolling on his back too and silently letting his shoulder brush against Keith's.
“You can punch if you want.” Lance offers and Keith’s eyes turn on him with a surprising amount of masked hurt.
“I told you Lance, I don’t hate you.”
Lance gulps, not expecting that answer, “no, nah, yo, maybe if you punch me, the lion will see it as an act of bravery and like, prove yourself to it again? Since you know, it’s hitting the snooze button on you right now.”
Keith shakes his head and sits back up, “I don’t kick stray puppies, that’s the opposite of bravery.”
“No way! You totally fought me before,” Lance pouts and Keith snickers. "And I'm not a puppy."
“I guess you’re not a stray either.”
Lance barks at him, ironically, and Keith laughs again like a silver sound that chimed like bells, it may have been worth it.
“No, but the red lion is like all about proving yourself?” Lance reasoned with him with palms to the sky. “I mean, it’s too bad this planet is the most mellow place in the galaxy outside of a hemp factory....Not that I think you really need to prove yourself."
"Huh?" Keith gives him the patented confused look.
"You're brave." Lance says honestly, "you don't need me to tell you that, but it's worth saying. You don't have to prove it."
Keith was smiling into the scattering of stars that poked through the sky like God took a pencil and jammed holes in a black sheet of paper and laid out swirling patterns. Lance holds his breath like he’s cradling a baby bird in his rib cage, Keith was turning to him, purposefully.
His cheeks suddenly were tinted red like dusting of the surface of mars, “Lance.” He breathed,
“Yeah?”
“Um, I think, I.” He muttered and then leaned over uncertainly, but it happened the way colored glass shatters, all it once. Keith’s lips were on his, eyes open and face flushed, Lance could feel the heat radiating off his cheeks as he kissed him and lips quickly fell onto his own.
The baby bird in his ribcage took flight and wings beat a drumbeat in his chest, lips like tasteless water flowed over his.
Lance pushed himself into the kiss as Keith quickly cradled his head, something underlined the act like a crushing ache. He let's himself be kissed.
Keith pulls back, his eyes closed and hands looking like they were trembling.
“What was that?” Lance breathed, shivering from head to toe.
“I thought. I’d do something brave.” He replied haltingly.
"Oh." Lance was blushing too.
“Uh, don’t tell or whatever.”
“Only if you don’t.” Lance says quickly, a snap decision already made for him months ago, he grabs onto Keith’s ragged collar and pulls him into a another kiss, messy and with Lance’s signature enthusiasm. Keith gasps slightly into his mouth and then lays him down on the back of the lion.
He kisses his neck and their hands intertwine.
Lance floats away, getting light headed as they make out on top of the dead-beat beast.
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They aren’t sure if the night before was related to anything, but Keith’s lion’s eyes light up the next day and Keith steps into for the first time since they crashed there.