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Lance doesn’t understand why Hunk is being so difficult about this. Keith could have gotten himself--and all of them--killed with his little stunt, but Lance seems to be the only one to find Keith at fault here. Sure, his plan worked, but he ended up nearly unconscious with several broken bones because of it! It’s a wonder they weren’t all in the same condition!
“I mean, yeah, his plan was risky,” Hunk shrugs, “but Keith’s a smart guy, and sometimes you need to take risks to defeat a fleet of Galra ships.” He sips his drink as Lance paces back and forth in front of him.
Pidge, sitting on the opposite couch with their computer, pipes up. “Besides, Allura says he’ll be fine after a few hours in the healing pod.”
Lance frowns. “It doesn’t matter when he’ll be fine!” He stops pacing momentarily to throw his hands in the air. “The point is, he could have gotten us all really hurt! He could’ve gotten himself killed!”
“But he didn’t,” Pidge fires back, and Lance scoffs.
“Look,” Hunk says in his best ‘concerned friend’ voice. “I know that you have this whole crush-slash-rivalry thing going on--”
Lance cuts him off with a louder scoff, flabbergasted. “What do you mean, crush? I do not have a crush on Keith!” He stops pacing again, this time seemingly frozen in place as a furious blush climbs to his cheeks.
Hunk and Pidge exchange a look that Lance doesn’t even want to try and interpret. “Mm-hmm, yeah, keep tellin’ yourself that,” Hunk says, fighting a giggle, and Lance becomes indignant.
“I don’t! He’s my arch-nemesis!”
“Aaaaand also your crush,” Pidge drawls, not even looking away from their computer screen.
Lance wants to argue, to snap back at Pidge for spewing such utter lies, but all that comes out of his mouth is an angry sputter. “You don’t--! I’m not--! That’s--! UGH!”
With his words failing and face burning, Lance turns on his heel and stomps out of the room. Pidge and Hunk’s uproarious laughter echoes behind him.
---
“I don’t have a stupid crush on stupid Keith,” Lance grumbles to himself as he passes through the corridors. “Stupid Pidge. Stupid Hunk. They don’t know anything.” The thought crosses his mind that perhaps he’s a bit irrationally angry, that if Hunk and Pidge are really wrong, he wouldn’t be so affected, but he stamps those traitorous thoughts down just as quickly as they pop up. He slams the door to his bedchamber a bit too forcefully, flops down on his bed, and heaves a bitter sigh.
They’re wrong, he thinks. This is not what a crush feels like. A crush feels like... like, when a pretty girl smiles at you and your heart turns in a circle!! My heart doesn’t turn in circles when I think about Keith! Well, okay, maybe when we’re sparring but that’s just battle adrenaline! I only think about him so much so I can get better than him! And I’ve certainly never thought about kissing him! Well, now I am, but that’s just because Hunk and Pidge brought it up.
A deeper part of his brain replies, no they didn’t, you thought that one up all by yourself. He feels the heat in his face again, reasons that it’s just embarrassment, and goes back to his circular thoughts.
---
“I’m worried about him,” Hunk tells Pidge when Lance doesn’t show up for dinner. “I think we took it too far earlier.”
Pidge looks up from the Galra tech they’re examining, furrowing their brows. “Is he still sulking?”
Hunk nods. “I went to knock on his door and he told me to go away.” He sighs. “I feel really bad.”
Pidge lowers their gaze. “Man, I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings.”
“I really don’t think he knows he has a crush,” Hunk says.
“Oh, come on, not even Lance is that dense,” Pidge replies.
Hunk raises his eyebrows. “Keith doesn’t know either. That Lance likes him. I think he knows that he likes Lance though.”
Pidge blows a stray hair out of their face. This is way more complicated than it needs to be. “Guess we should apologize, huh?”
---
Lance doesn’t get out of bed until he hears a series of knocks on his door later that night. “Who is it,” he demands.
“It’s us,” Hunk’s voice calls back. “We came to apologize.”
Lance opens the door a crack. “I’m listening.”
“We took our teasing too far,” Pidge says. “We didn’t mean to make you upset, and we’re sorry.”
“Hah!” Lance throws the door wide open. “So you admit that I don’t have a crush on Keith!”
Hunk and Pidge exchange a look again, but nod. “Yeah, of course.”
Unfortunately for Lance, it’s at that moment that Shiro comes out of his room across the hall to see what the commotion is about. He sees the three standing in Lance’s doorway and smiles warmly. “You have a crush on Keith?” He asks.
Lance turns red again.
“That’s great!” Shiro continues, failing to notice Pidge and Hunk frantically gesturing for him to stop talking. “I’m glad you’re reciprocating!”
Lance is about to retort for the umpteenth time that day that no, he does not like Keith, but then his brain catches up on Shiro’s words. “Wait, what? Reciprocating?”
Pidge and Hunk are gesticulating wildly, and Shiro finally takes notice. “What?”
Lance is bright red now, up to his ears even. “Who reciprocates what?” His voice is a bit higher than normal, and he clears his throat awkwardly.
“Um,” Shiro says, looking back and forth between Hunk and Pidge and Lance. “Nothing?”
Pidge hits their forehead with their palm.
“No, no, no,” Lance points an accusatory finger at Shiro. “You can’t do that! You can’t take that back! You can’t say words like that and then un-say the words that you said because they have already been said!!” His gaze flicks from Shiro to Hunk to Pidge, all looking defeated and guilty. “What are you saying?!”
“We’re gonna go now bye!” Pidge yelps as Hunk elbows them in the ribs. The two of them scamper off, leaving a fidgeting Shiro with an incredulous Lance.
Shiro sighs heavily. “Why don’t we... talk in your room.”
---
Lance’s face seems to be permanently stuck in a goofy look of total surprise, and Shiro covers his face with his hands. “Keith is going to hate me,” he says. “I’m a terrible friend. Please, please, do not tell Keith that I said anything.”
Lance hears his words, but they aren’t registering correctly. There’s no way he could have heard any of that correctly. There is no way in the entire universe that Keith has a crush on him.
“But I... I thought he hated me,” Lance says weakly.
Shiro smiles sadly. “That’s the thing about crushes, Lance, they don’t always manifest in the same way. Keith is rough toward you because he doesn’t want you to know. Because he thinks you’ll never reciprocate. I really thought though...”
Lance shakes his head several times, trying his best to clear it. This is all happening too quickly, and he can’t process everything so fast. “You mean, he acts the opposite of how he feels? Does he... know he’s doing it?”
“Not always,” Shiro shrugs. “Love is a strange thing. It can be tricky.”
Lance thinks back to his earlier thoughts, about his heart turning when he spars with Keith, about the sudden, unbidden mental image of the two of them kissing on his bed. His cheeks burn again.
Now he’s confused.
---
The next day, Keith is out of the cryo pod and it’s back to business as usual. Or, at least, it would be, if Lance could be in the same room as him without feeling his cheeks burn and his heart race. He falls flat on his ass during training, several times. He leaves lunch early, turns around when he sees Keith in the hall, and pretends to be engrossed in Pidge’s research when Keith comes into the sitting area. He can’t stop the storm of thoughts that seem to have broken loose with Shiro’s words the night before, and he most certainly can’t look Keith in the eyes. Because, wow, how had he not noticed how pretty those eyes were? And although he still hates that stupid mullet, somehow it manages to look good on Keith anyway?
When it gets to the point that Keith asks Shiro what’s going on, Shiro decides he needs to have another talk with Lance.
---
“Seriously, are you going to keep trying to avoid him forever?” Shiro asks, sitting on Lance’s bed while Lance fidgets with his bayard.
“Probably, yeah,” Lance returns, refusing to look Shiro in the eyes.
Shiro rubs the back of his neck, his expression full of guilt. “Jeez man, listen, I’m really sorry I said anything, but please try to be more sensitive about Keith’s feelings. Ignoring him is just going to make everything worse.”
Lance sighs. “Shiro...”
“I’m serious, Lance, you’ve been acting weird the past few days and it’s really starting to affect the whole team.”
“Shiro, I--”
“And when the team isn’t working together, we can’t form Voltron,”
“Shiro!”
“And if we can’t form Voltron, the universe is going to fall to the Galra! You can’t do this just because he has a crush on you, just because you don’t like him back--”
“I DO like him!! Okay?!” Lance’s cheeks flush in embarrassment as he stares into his lap, breathing heavily into the silence that follows his outburst.
Shiro’s words die on his tongue. “You--what?”
“I do like him,” Lance repeats, quietly this time. “But I’ve... never had a crush on a boy before. This is all so... new. And scary.” Tears threaten to spill down his burning cheeks, and he sucks in a shaky breath.
Shiro’s expression softens. “Oh. Well,” he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
Lance buries his face in his hands, stifling a sob. “I don’t know what to do.”
Shiro tentatively puts his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s alright, really.”
“Easy for you to say,” comes Lance’s muffled reply. “You didn’t just have your sexuality thrown into chaos.”
“No, but I did once,” Shiro gives him a small smile, and Lance looks up at him.
“Really?” He asks, wiping his face with the back of his hand.
“Yeah,” Shiro admits. “Lots of people question their sexuality, and lots of people get thrown out of sorts because of it. There’s nothing wrong with being upset. You just... need some time to think about it.”
Lance does just that. He thinks about it all night, and all the next day. And the next, and the next.
Finally, he reaches his decision.
---
Today, he tries not to avoid Keith in the hallway. He looks at him while they spar in training. He joins the gang for lunch and dinner again. Everything is almost normal, he thinks, except he feels like he want to kiss his rival. That’s normal, that’s fine. Lots of people have crushes on their rivals. And hey! Now he knows something about himself! This is a good thing. And he likes me. Remember that he likes me.
He repeats this thought like a mantra throughout the day, formulating a plan, a script, plans A through Z. And when dinner is finally over, and almost everyone has left for bed, he takes a deep breath and calls, “hey, Keith, can I talk to you?”
Keith freezes, turns toward Lance. He seems nervous. Lance is nervous, too.
“Yeah?” Keith replies.
The dining room is empty except for the two of them as Lance walks toward Keith. He thinks Shiro told them all to stay out. He’s grateful for that.
Lance clears his throat. He can’t look Keith in the eyes. His stomach is in knots. Breathe, he reminds himself. He likes me. “I, uh, think I realized something the other day,” he begins. Not smooth, Lance.
Keith looks puzzled. “What’s that?”
He flounders for a moment. What was he going to say after that? It was going to be smooth, it was going to be perfect! He can feel a blush rising to his cheeks already.
Screw it. “Can I kiss you?” Bye-bye, plan. Bye-bye, dignity.
Now it’s Keith’s turn to blush furiously. “Wh-what?” He stammers, dumbfounded.
At least Keith’s the one dumbfounded for once. “Can I kiss you?” He repeats, much less confidently.
Keith’s eyes search Lance’s face, looking for any trace of humor, any hint that this is a sick joke of some sort. But the way Lance’s eyes won’t meet his, and with how red his face is... “I mean, um, I guess?”
Lance’s eyes snap back up to Keith’s. Honestly? He hadn’t been expecting to get this far. But here he is. And he takes a step toward him. One more, and there’s hardly any distance between them. He’s never kissed anyone. For all his talk, he suddenly worries that he won’t be any good. Too late now. Keith closes his eyes and Lance puts one arm on his waist--that’s how they do it in the movies, right?--and presses his lips gently on Keith’s.
It’s not really all that much like Lance imagined kissing would be. There aren’t fireworks, it’s a little bit sloppy, he was a bit too far to the right... but it isn’t bad, either. Keith’s lips are soft, really soft, actually, and both their hearts are beating hard and fast, and Lance doesn’t really want to pull away, but he does, just in case Keith isn’t feeling the same way he is.
But when he looks into Keith’s eyes, he knows they’re thinking the same thing.
Lance’s face stretches into a wide grin. They’re both very red in the face, still very close to each other. Lance speaks first.
“You really do like me!”
Keith’s jaw drops for a moment. “You--you’re the one who kissed me! I--you--we--”
“I really do like you! I’m gay for you! Or,” he pauses for a moment as Keith stares. “I’m bi for you? I’m pansexual for you? I don’t know, but you kissed me back!”
If it’s even possible for Keith’s face to get more red, it does. Lance can feel his own blush up to his ears, but he’s still smiling like a goof.
“I... I thought you weren’t into guys...?”
Lance takes a small step back to cross his arms, quirking his eyebrow. “I did too, but,” he shrugs, nonchalantly, dismissing the concern. “Guess I am!”
Finally, Keith grins too.
Then Lance opens his mouth again. “I knew I was irresistible!” He flexes a bicep, waggling his eyebrows at Keith.
Keith’s smile drops immediately as he takes a deep, shuddering breath and says, “Oh god.” He turns and walks stiffly down the hall toward the bedchambers.
“You can’t deny it after that!” Lance shouts after him, “I’m irresistible!!!”