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Keith crosses his arms and sighs, leaning further back into his seat. They had gotten a distress call from some planet under attack from the Galra, and after defeating them, the residents of the planet had asked voltron to come down to ‘thank them personally’.
Keith still isn’t convinced that this thank you is friendly and to be honest he doesn't understand why the whole team has to be there to watch a terrible interpretive dance of their fight with the Galra fleet.
Shiro is off to the side talking to the king and queen of the planet, trying to convince them to join the coalition while the rest of them sit in the front row of a theatre eerily similar to the ones on earth.
Keith is trying his hardest not to think about how close Lance is sitting next to him on what is basically a couch, when said person then starts tapping him on the shoulder.
“Psst, Keith,” he glances over to Lance who is pointing up at the stage “that one is definitely you.” Keith tracks his finger up to one of the alien actors on stage.
He rolls his eyes. “No way, that's you.”
Lance squawks pushing against his shoulder “Nuh uh it’s you!” Keith lets himself relish in the contact between them before pushing back. They go back and forth like that until Lance pushes Keith hard enough he knocks into Pidge, who glares up at him from where she was messing with some wires in her lap. Before she gets the chance to retaliate Shiro comes back with the king and queen behind him.
“Good news team King Baisto and Queen Ireall agreed to join the coalition.” Says Shiro.
Queen Ireall steps forward, “And as promised we have our reward to give to you brave paladins!"
“This wasn’t our reward?” Lance blurts out, Keith elbows him for it.
“Oh no! This is a traditional ceremony we do after every battle,” The queen starts forming a ball of something in her hands, and Keith narrows his eyes at it, “this is our reward blue paladin." and sends a blast of something hurdling straight at Keith.
He then watches as two things happen in quick succession, first Lance pushes Keith out of the way of the blast, and two Lance gets hit by said blast.
Keith was right. Quiznak.
He catches Lance, stopping him from falling to the floor while Hunk and Pidge stand up with their bayards out yelling. Shiro already has the queen on the floor with her hands behind her back.
King Baisto steps forward, “Paladins! There has been a misunderstanding! We meant no harm to the blue paladin!”
“Yeah, cause you were aiming at Keith!” Pidge shouts.
“What did you do to him? Is he breathing?,” Hunk turns to Keith, “He’s breathing right?” Keith nods back, Lance’s pulse is beating steadily under his fingers.
“It was a love spell!” Gasps the queen “He will only wake with a true love's kiss!”
“You thought this was a good reward for saving you from the Galra?” Keith spits out. He’s angry sue him! His teammate maybe crush just got hit with a spell meant for him and now he’s basically sleeping beauty.
Shiro turns to him, “Keith, Hunk take lance back up to the castle on the red lion, me and Pidge will meet you there when we get a few more answers.” Shiro's jaw is clenched tight and the glint in Pidge's eyes promises pain. Keith nods and hands Lance over to Hunk who lifts him into a fireman's carry as they head back to the red lion.
Keith settles into red’s chair gripping the controls tightly, opening up a comm line to Coran.
“Coran get the med bay ready. Me, Hunk and Lance are heading back.” He cuts communication before the Altean can ask questions, he’s too angry. At that queen, for casting that spell, at Lance for sacrificing himself to save him and himself for caring so damn much for what will happen to Lance. Red notices his anger sending waves of calm through their bond. All he can think about is Lance never waking up. He takes off into the sky trying to get back to the castle as quickly as possible.
~~~~
Hunk carries Lance off red and Keith follows after. They make their way to the med bay, Hunk nervously rambling to Keith as they walk through the halls. Coran greets them as they enter the room, frowning down at the unconscious Lance. Hunk sets Lance down on a cot and Coran bustles around him conducting tests and checking for injuries.
“So what caused number three to fall unconscious?” Coran asks as he runs something through a computer.
“A love spell.” Keith says stiffly.
“The queen said he needs a true love’s kiss to wake up.” Hunk adds.
The Altean frowns and twirls his mustache, “A true love’s kiss eh? Not sure where we are going to get one of those out here.” Keith bit his lip, should he tell them about his teeny little cru- oh who is he kidding? He’s absolutely smitten for the taller boy. But he doesn’t know how this curse works, does Lance just have to love them? Or does it have to be mutual? It would probably shatter his heart to kiss Lance and have him not wake up, not to mention completely humiliating. He furrows his brow, better to wait and see if it's necessary to tell the whole team about how much he loves Lance.
At that moment Shiro, Allura and Pidge finally walk into the room, Shiro wearing a grimace and Pidge a scowl.
Hunk jumps up from the chair he had sat down in, “So? Get more information out of them?”
Shiro sighed, “The king and queen apologized for cursing Lance without warning us and said that the reward would wear off if their suspicions were wrong.”
“Suspicions of what?” Asks Keith
Shiro pursed his lips together and took a deep breath, “Well.. the spell was meant for you so suspicions that you are… in love.” Keith’s face flamed bright red at that.
“Wha-What,” He chuckles nervously, “I’m not in love with anyone!” He very pointedly did not look at Lance.
Allura cuts off his rambling, “What if their suspicions are right and Lance holds affections for someone?" Keith scowls, he does not want to think about Lance being in love with some random person.
“Well..” Shiro pauses, grimacing uncomfortably.
“Lance DIES if he doesn’t get his true love's kiss!” Shouts Pidge from where she had been silently glowering.
Keith’s breath hitches and he clenches his fists tight. His eyes slide back to Lance. He’s sleeping peacefully on the cot, it looks like he could wake up any second but now they don’t know if he’ll ever wake up. The rest of the room is silent, all processing the information.
Hunk breaks the silence, “So..what can we do?”
“Well we are working off the assumption Lance is in love but can’t get his kiss.” Pidge rubs at the bridge of her nose, as if she already senses how tiring this is going to be, “I’ll start trying to find a cure to the spell.” With that she hurries out of the room.
“We could try putting him in a pod, it could hopefully slow down whatever the curse is affecting?” Suggests Coran.
Shiro sighs, “I think that’s all we can do. Everyone else…Get some rest.” Hunk nods and starts heading to the kitchen to stress bake. Allura mumbles something about searching through the castle's library for a cure before rushing off.
Keith lingers, following behind Shiro as he carries Lance to the pods. His skin is buzzing, he doesn’t know what to do. The only thing he can do is try to kiss Lance but that might not even work! Keith is helpless and it kind of makes him want to punch something.
A hand lands on his shoulder and he jumps. Keith looks up to find Shiro looking down at him concerned.
“You okay Keith?” Keith just sighs and shakes his head. He looks up at the pod Lance is in. He wishes it was him inside the pod potentially dying, he wishes Lance wasn't such a self sacrificing idiot.
Shiro ruffles his hair, “we’ll find a way to wake him up kiddo.” Keith just bites his lip, not wanting to shout about how it’s obvious lance is never going to wake up. Lance has always been a lovestruck fool, it's not unlikely his heart is set on some cute alien girl from a planet they visited.
“Don’t stay here the whole time, kay?” Keith numbly nods, eyes still locked onto Lance's sleeping form as Shiro leaves.
~~~~
It’s been around two days and Lance still hasn’t woken up. Pidge and Coran have been working non stop trying to find a way to break the spell. Keith gazes up at him, Lance's face is slowly getting paler, something he would hate, complaining about losing his summer glow. Keith checks his vitals again. His heart rate is slowly dropping, past the normal rates of deep sleep. Coran had estimated three more days before his heart stops with the rate it was dropping now. Dying of a broken heart. Ha.
Keith has barely left Lance's side during it all. Hunk has been bringing him a plethora of different foods, each time asking how Lance is going. The guy is obviously scared for his best friend and it just makes Keith feel worse. He hasn’t even tried to help, just watched as Lance slowly gets worse the longer the curse stays in his body. He scrubs a hand down his face, the only other person in the room right now was Coran, adjusting the settings on the pod. Coran wouldn’t be the worst person to witness the horrible event of Keith kissing Lance and it doing nothing. It would be fine. Right. Ugh ok he was doing this.
Keith turned to Coran, “Hey Coran,” He hums in response, “I-I could try um kissing Lance?” He cringes at the way his voice cracks halfway through. Coran turns to him with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try number four.” He walks over to the control panel and releases Lance from the pod, Keith rushes forward and catches him before he can get a face full of the floor. He lowers them both down to the ground slowly, cradling Lance’s upper torso in his lap.
His breath catches for a moment watching Lance’s peaceful expression as he slumbers a sleep that for all the team knew was eternal. Keith traced his finger down laces face before cupping his cheeks and giving him a firm peck on the lips. He pulled back slowly, his heart sinking to his stomach the longer Lance laid limp in his arms. Keith lifts his head up, about to tell Coran to put Lance back in the pod when he catches a glimpse of movement in his peripheral vision.
He whips his head back down to watch as Lance’s eyes flutter open, ocean blue eyes he never thought he’d see again staring up at him. That's when the stress and worry of the last two days come crashing down on him, tears fill Keith's eyes and he buries his face into Lance's neck clutching him close.
He can hear Coran cheering in the background, the rest of the team rushing into the room and Lance asking him what was wrong while trying to pat his back while his arms were trapped in Keith's hold. Keith ignores all of it instead letting himself feel the overwhelming happiness bubbling in his chest. Lance loves him! He woke up because of Keith’s kiss! He’s not going to die!
Keith finally stops crying enough to let go of Lance who is immediately swept into what looks like a bone crushing hug from Hunk. The rest of the team all hug Lance and fill him in on what happened before being guided out of the room by Shiro who gives Keith and Lance a knowing look.
They stand there awkwardly for a few seconds, Keith just taking in the alive and awake Lance beside him.
“So-”
“You love me.” Keith blurts out, immediately turning bright red. He’s happy to see Lance is blushing too.
Lance grins shakily, “Um. Yeah..” And Keith realizes Lance doesn’t know he loves him back. Well that can be fixed. Keith strides forward cupping Lance's cheeks. He takes in his face, ocean blue eyes, cheeks blushing a healthy red and lips parted.
Keith leans forward until they’re sharing the same breath. “I love you too.” And then Lance is kissing him and it’s so much better than the first kiss Keith gave him, soft lips pressing against his, both of them trying to express how much they love the other in a single kiss.
Keith pulls back eventually, resting his forehead against Lance’s, he grins and Lance laughs and it's the best sound he’s heard all day.
“Come on, I bet Hunk’s got some fresh cookies for us.” Lance tugs Keith through the door and he laughs, giddy.
Maybe the reward wasn’t completely horrible.