Work Text:
Lance didn't understand why this was happening. He and Keith were getting along just fine, and if anything, better than that. They've gotten close over the years, and he thought that finally they were friends. If Lance was being honest with himself, he craved more of the late-night talks and soft smiles Keith had been giving him. But, unfortunately, all that progress got flushed away.
It started with Keith being harsher during sparring. Quiznak, it felt like Keith was trying to kill him. Like he went ten times harder when he versed Lance compared to the other paladins. At first, it flattered Lance that Keith was seeing him as an equal. But it was…weird? Like, even after sparring, Keith had tugged on his sleeve and asked to go again. Lance immediately agreed. Something about how Keith asked made his heart skip a beat. They began fighting, and then it turned into wrestling. Next thing Lance knows is that he's pinned by a panting Keith. Their eyes are locked, and Lance notices how dilated those violet eyes are. Like black holes pulling him in. Then Keith growls. Fucking growls. The noise snaps them out of it, and Keith awkwardly gets off of him. He offers Lance a hand but keeps his head down. Lance takes his hand and tries to alleviate the awkwardness. “Soooo, is that a Galra thing?” Keith rubs his arm, “Can we just pretend that didn't happen?” Lance nods, and they kind of just stand there until Keith remembers he can train as a distraction. Despite this, Keith regularly and frequently invites Lance to spar.
Lance tries to reason with Keith's weird behavior. He thinks Keith is just trying to one-up him, showing that he is truly better than Lance. And it hurts thinking that, especially after they've gotten so close. What makes it worse is that when Lance is chilling around the castle, he can feel Keith circling him. Lance will see Keith stalk up to him like he's some prey. He has called him out about this, but each time, Keith just looks embarrassed and confused. It's super adorable, so Lance is not as annoyed by it. He can't help but think it's some part of his Galra heritage.
Lance can handle the aggressive sparring and weird circling, but he finds Keith sitting in his spot and stealing his items?! Okay, maybe stealing is a big word, more like touching everything he owns. Keith will hang out in Lance's room, sit in his bed, hug his pillow, then hold every item in the room. And it will be while they idly chat, it's like Keith doesn't even notice he is doing it. Once, Keith just took Lance's disgraced jacket on his way out like it was totally a normal thing to do. “Um, Keith?” Keith stops at the door and gives Lance an inquisitive look. Like he isn't trying to nab Lance's jacket. “Dude, why are you taking my jacket?” Keith freezes and then silently places the jacket back and leaves. Lance notices the blush and is even more confused.
Lance needed to know what the fuck was going on. He figures it is something Galra-related since Keith seems unaware of his actions, so he goes to Coran for info about Galran behaviors. He tells Coran about Keith's behaviors and asks if that's how the Galra show their dominance or something. Coran says, “Not quite number 3, if my memory serves right, that sounds more like mating behavior.” Lance's jaw drops. Coran continues, “though I guess it is a type of dominance in a way.” Lance says, sputtering, “Keith likes me?!” “Based on his actions, it seems so, this reminds me…” The rest of Coran's story is tuned out while Lance's mind wraps around the idea of Keith liking him, Keith! It makes no sense, but Lance did think that they were getting closer before all this weird stuff. Is Keith acting like this because he likes Lance? Blush colors Lance's cheeks, and he heads to the training room.
He enters, and he sees Keith turn and smile at him as he fights off training bots. He ends the session and turns to Lance, “Hey, I was just thinking of sparring with you.” Lance kind of stares as Keith stalks closer and pulls him more firmly into the training room. “Ready to go?” Lance looks at Keith's sparkling eyes and has to ask, “Do you like me?” Keith stills, but Lance holds his hand. “Yeah, how did you know?” Lance explains how his behaviors were apparently mating behaviors, and he watches in fascination as Keith's face gets redder and redder. “Sorry, Lance, I didn't realize. I'm sor-” Lance cuts him off with a kiss.