Chapter Text
It started because of one tragic realization.
Lance was out of moisturizer. The palm-sized green bottle gave a few pitiful wheezes when he squeezed it. He snapped the cap shut and tried pounding it on the heel of his hand, and succeeded in getting just enough to do his face if he was stingy.
He did so, dabbing it at the creases by his mouth, under his eyes, across the T-zone. He rubbed it in using circular motions with the tips of his fingers, just as his mother did it, just as his older brother did it, just as his multitude of sisters did it. Finished, he set the (oh-so empty) bottle down on the edge of the sink.
Lance leaned on his palms as he stared at himself in the mirror. There were a lot of things Lance could handle. Food goo. A limited wardrobe. No internet. Keith. Lack of twin hugs. (That last one was handled by an aggressive regimen of not thinking about it.)
But in order to continue handling those things, he needed something on this Space Adventure With No Foreseeable End to give back a little. The ship being able to sync up with his phone and copy all his music into a database he could access on a wall panel in his room was a start. He definitely enjoyed being able to shake his booty in privacy.
This, however, was a goddamn travesty. If the universe wanted him to help save it, he needed moisturizer. How could he fight the Galra with dry skin? Nope. No no no no no no nope. Unacceptable.
Lance crossed his arms, pouting in the mirror as he reviewed his options. He doubted any of his fellow Paladins had been carrying moisturizer with them when they went on their crazy lion ride in Blue back on Earth—not everyone had the foresight to keep a travel bottle in their jacket pocket like he did. Heck, they hadn’t even thought to carry their phones like he did. (Lance strongly suspected Shiro might have had some sort of eyeliner pen on him. The man had perfect wings on the corner of his eyes, and Lance called bullshit on those being natural.)
Which left him with two options. Coran and Allura. Seeing as Coran would be more helpful if his problem included facial hair, Lance ruled him out. Which left Allura.
Lance squinted. Allura, as naturally gorgeous as she was, had to have some sort of beauty routine. No way she didn’t use something to retain that lovely glow in her skin. And maybe a nail file too. That girl’s nails were fuckin’ fantastic.
Nodding to himself, Lance exited the bathroom to change out of his robe. If he wanted Allura to share her moisturizer goods, he’d have to be extra convincing.
Time to lay on that McClain charm.
*****
“Heeeeey there, Princess.” Lance leaned casually on the center console, chin propped on his hand. “What are you up to?”
Allura spared him an unimpressed glance. She waved her hand and the hologram projected before her rapidly shifted, star systems flashing by before focusing on a particular one. “Charting out our next movements to stay ahead of Zarkon. Shouldn’t you be in the training room?”
“Come on, you know it isn’t healthy to spend all of our time training.” Lance waved his hand. “Gotta give the body time to rest.” He gestured to himself in a sweeping up-and-down motion, as though to say, like this glorious body.
“Point noted.” Allura brought her fist to her mouth as she looked closer at the hologram. “And is there a reason you’ve chosen to direct your poor flirting at me for the moment?”
Lance gasped indignantly. Poor?! He was a master of flirtation! “Well ex-cuse me, Princess! I didn’t think I needed a reason to bask in your lovely presence.”
Allura turned and raised a single eyebrow almost condescendingly slowly. “Lance.”
He huffed. “Fine.” Lance flopped his upper body over the console. “I need your help.”
“You’re lucky that’s turned off,” she muttered, but her blank expression warmed into a small smile. “What do you need?”
“You wouldn’t happen to have any moisturizer, do you?”
“Moisturizer?” Lance pulled the empty bottle from his pocket and handed it to her. Allura looked it over, popping the cap and sniffing. “Oh, is this hydration cream?”
“All the similarities between our languages and moisturizer isn’t one of them. I call shenanigans.” Lance clasped his hands under his chin. “So, do you have any?”
Allura took another sniff. “What a pleasing scent. Yes, I do have some, but mine has a more floral fragrance than this.”
Lance bounced forward, his entire visage bright. “Then, can I borrow some? That was the only bottle I had and I ran out today.”
“It couldn’t hurt.” With a motion, Allura shut off the hologram. “Come with me.”
It occurred to Lance as Allura led him to a portion of the castle he hadn’t entered that he’d never been in Allura’s room. None of them had. Larger than theirs, it was clearly meant for someone of importance. The large, circular bed was enough to be envious of without considering the décor.
“Wait here.” She stepped into a side room—bathroom, Lance guessed—and left him to mill around. Lance tried to distract himself by looking over the artwork on the walls, or the (actually very pretty) art pieces of colorful blown glass, but his attention kept getting drawn back to the bed.
It wasn’t just a bed. It was the kind of bed he’d only dreamed of as a child. First, it was round. Everyone knew the coolest people had round beds.
Second, that canopy. When he was little his twin insisted on getting one, and his mom found one that hung from the ceiling. They tore a few holes in it after a couple years and got tangled more than once, but Lance had come to love that canopy. When they got too old to share a bed, Lance let his twin keep the canopy while he littered his side of the ceiling with glow in the dark stars.
Third, those had to be the fluffiest pillows he’d ever seen. He wanted to dive into them and squeeze as tight as he could like that oversized Roswell plush he’d carted around until he was fourteen.
Last, and this was probably the most important, he could tell that if he jumped on it, it would have the most perfect bounce.
Allura returned just as Lance approached it, fists clenched at his sides. “Here we are, I knew I had a spare jar in there somewhere—”
“Allura, don’t take this the wrong way,” Lance said, “but I’m gonna jump on your bed.”
“Wait, no, why--?”
“ToolateI’mdoingit.”
Lance sprung onto the mattress with a glorious whoop! It barely creaked beneath his feet, bouncing him in the air. Ooooh, he’d definitely been right.
“What are you doing?” Allura set a jar down and rushed to the bed, looking torn between confusion and annoyance.
“You can not tell me you’ve never done this.”
“Why would I have?”
“Oh my quiznack, Allura.” Lance waved her forward. “Come on, get up here.”
She crossed her arms. “Lance, this seems very childish.”
“And you seem very boring.” At the frown that got him, Lance amended. “No, wait, sorry, I don’t mean it like that. I just think you’d have fun if you try it.”
Allura’s lips pursed, her gaze flicking between the mattress and Lance’s face. “I don’t know…”
Lance took up a chant of, “Do it! Do it! Do it!”
“Oh, alright.” Lance cheered as Allura climbed on, taking a few experimental hops. A grin pulled at her lips.
“There you go!” Lance grasped her hands, and pulled her with him in bigger jumps.
After her first big bounce, a startled laugh burst from her mouth. They both laughed and darted around the bed, teeth displayed in huge smiles. They playfully shoved one another for a while, until Lance crossed his legs mid-air and let himself bounce to a stop in the middle of the bed. Allura collapsed beside him.
“See? Told you it was fun.”
Allura sat up. “Alright, alright. You were right.” She raised her knee to lean on it. “Lance?”
“Yeah?”
“Why do you flirt with me so much?”
“Because you’re gorgeous and I’m in love with you?” Allura gave him the same eyebrow-raised look from earlier. “Okay, okay. So I’m not in love with you. But I did have a crush on you!”
“If you don’t any longer, then why continue?”
Lance shrugged. “Habit, I guess? I’m just sort of a natural flirt. My mom always said it would either get me kissed or punched.”
“Well, she was certainly right about that. I’ve wanted to punch you a few times.”
“Hey!” Lance stretched his legs out and rested back on his palms. “But seriously, if it makes you uncomfortable, I can stop. Just say the word.”
Allura shook her head. “Maybe tone it down a little bit, but you don’t have to stop. I’ve gotten used to it by now, and I don’t think I’m the only one who finds it amusing.”
“Sweet.” Lance scooched off the bed. “So, where’s that Altean-brand moisturizer you promised?”
Allura followed him off (in a move much too graceful to be called a scooch), and retrieved the wide, ovular jar. “Here you are!”
Lance twisted the lid off and took a sniff. A sweet, light floral, the moisturizer itself was a faint pink. He rubbed a bit between his fingers. He’d always been wary of putting anything strongly scented on his face, but this stuff was faint enough that he wasn’t worried. And no doubt it’d do wonders for his hands. They already felt softer, even with that small amount.
“You have no idea how glad I am.” Lance recapped the jar. “I thought I was gonna have to suffer with dry, flaky skin forever.”
“It’s no problem. It’s relatively simple to make, seeing it’s largely water based. The hardest part’s getting ingredients for the scent. Tell me, what was the fragrance of the cream you were using?”
“Aloe,” Lance replied. “It’s a plant back home that’s got a ton of uses. My mom grew one in the windowsill. You could put the juice on sunburns, make drinks out of it, all kinds of stuff.”
“We’ll have to see if we find anything similar in our travels. I’d like to recreate it.”
Lance flashed a quick salute. “I’ll be on lookout.”
Allura and Lance walked back to the control room in a strange, companionable silence. Lance passed the jar from palm to palm, thinking carefully. As Allura stepped back to her previous position and pulled up the hologram, Lance rocked on his heels.
“You know,” Lance drawled, “you and I haven’t really talked like this much. Maybe we should do it again. You and me. Hangin’ out.”
“Hm.” Allura tapped her chin as though she had to consider it, but the way she smiled gave her away. “I can agree to that.”
“Awesome! We can swap beauty tips. I’ll find some space cucumbers somewhere and put them on your eyes and tell you stories. It’ll be great!”
Allura blinked. “While that sounds odd, I’m happy to agree. How about once we get the castle moved tomorrow, after your training, you come meet me by my room and we can talk until dinner?”
“Perfect, it’s a date!”
“Lance.”
“A perfectly non-romantic, friendly date!”
“Better.”