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Similarly to the other paladins Keith only had what was on his person when they were shot into space with the Blue lion. Sure they were given some extra clothes and got their own copied from the Castle and the Alteans, and have acquired little trinkets the mice bring them but not much.
There was one major difference from the other paladins and Keith. Keith was always ready to go.
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1.
Keith was starting to space out. From his perch in the corner of the common room he could honestly feel the argument beginning to form. Allura and Shiro were discussing some sort of training schedule with Hunk and Pidge adding in their commentary (complaining), somehow Lance was keeping quiet, seemingly spacing out too.
Keith sighed internally as he reached into his belt pocket for a package, he’d always start to snack when others were talking and he himself wasn’t needed. You could have probably caught him sitting in the back of his garrison math lessons snacking on a piece of bread, crackers, always just something.
He internally cheered when his fingers caught on the ziploc of peanuts he’d stashed away. When they had left the shack (all of the paladins back on earth) he snagged it, figuring he was going to get hungry somewhere along the lines of their probable adventure. Keith then grabbed a small handful of the shells and started to pick at them off and eat the small edible bit inside.
After the fourth peanut shelled Keith let his mind wander. He didn’t necessarily mind having to do Alluras training, he just preferred his own circuit or even Shiros. He liked working with a sword too, back on earth he never really thought about using a weapon other than a baseball bat or his dagger in a pinch, a sword was cool. He was suddenly started out of his thoughts by his name getting yelled.
“Keith! What are you eating??” Lance's voice called, cutting Shiro's monologue and Keith's thoughts off.
The boy in question glances around the room to see everyone's eyes on him, he quickly swallows to talk. “...Peanuts?” He felt like a deer in headlights, he hadn't done anything wrong.
“Space peanuts?” Lance questioned further.
“No?” Keith replied with a voice of both slight anger, annoyance, and confusion. “Regular peanuts?”
Lance voiced his confusion, “Wait. What??” Keith showed him his hand of peanuts and shells to prove that yes, he has real earth peanuts.
Not even a moment to breathe later he was bombarded with questions.
“How is that even possible?!” Lance.
“How many do you have?” Hunk.
“Wanna share with the class?” Pidge.
Keith chose to only respond to Lance, he wasn’t going to give up his snack that easily– Pidge. “They were in my belt pouch? Where else?” Seriously, where else would he have kept them?
Lance didn’t seem to find this answer acceptable, “Why were they in your belt pouches?!”
First of all, volume control, jeez. Second, “For a snack on the go!! The meeting was getting long and I was hungry!” Keith was getting more and more irritated, was it a crime to snack?
Allura suddenly pushed through the wall of paladin to reach Keith, “I want to see the Earth peanut!” Keith fixed her with a glare. “...Please?”
Keith sighed and gave everyone a peanut, two for allura because she said please. He still had a bag(?) left in his belt so he guessed he could share.
“Thank you for sharing Keith,” Shiro teased, smiling overly bright at Keith, all teeth and eyes shut.
Shiro kicked Pidge, sending stumbling into Lance, Hunk, and Allura before they mirrored Shiro and a chorus of thanks starting to sing in the air.
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2.
While Keith has snacked from his belt pouches before, after the peanuts everyone seemed to be eyeing his belt whenever he had it on. Today was different from the usual occurrence, today they were sitting in the infirmary, waiting for Pidge to get out of the healing pod. It was nothing major, in fact it didn’t even happen during a battle.
Looking over the security cameras in her work room the team had learned the following. Pidge was climbing some sort of wire-riope, trying to reach a panel on the wall, her harness (that she somehow had to foresight to make and wear) wasn’t secure. A part of the fabric that went around her back had a tear in it and it tore when she was climbing down, making her fall on her arm; breaking it.
So here they were, waiting for Pidge to get out of the 2 hour long pod trip, anxiously biting their nails, Hunk more so than anyone else, hoping she’d be okay.
Hunk and Lance were leaning against each other and the pod, more nervous than anyone else. While everyone logically knew she’d be fine, it's just a broken arm, they couldn’t help but be scared for her. Allura kept nervously checking her status, and Coran went quiet. His normal boisterous attitude and stories being missed. Shiro was pacing, he only did so when things were bad.
Keith was sitting on a cot in the corner, his hands weaving a needle and thread through the ripped harness. During his stay at various foster homes he’d acquired the skill to sew. New clothes weren’t very common so anything torn had to be fixed or thrown out, and no one ever offered to fix the clothes. Keith learned sewing from a ripped up book and an older foster sister, together they would sew the younger kids clothes and stuffies back together.
The tell tale beep of a healing pod, that sounded weirdly similar to a dishwasher chime, rang through the air, sending everyone on high alert. Two thirds of the Garrison Trio jumped up and watched as the door to Pidge's pod slowly opened, the fog clearing.
“Pidgey! Oh my, we were so worried never do that again you gremlin!” Lance cried as he caught and hugged her. Hunk soon joined in with his own pleas.
“Thank you for not dying Pidge, you need to be more careful, what if you broke your legs– or- or got paralyzed!"
Pidge groaned as she started to wake, “Quiet down, you guys are too loud.”
Allura and Shiro chuckled a wet laugh before the latter placed a hand on her shoulder, “Good to have you back Katie.”
“Indeed number five! I’m glad to have you back.” Coran cheered, his perpetual smile coming back in full force.
Keith glanced up from his sewing with a small smile at the trio before going back to work.
“Wheres my glasses?” Pidge started to grumble.
“I think Keith has them,” Shiro supplied, nodding in his direction.
Pidge wobbled her way over to Keith before pausing, “What are you doing…?”
Keith looked up from his project again, “Sewing your harness back together.”
“But- how? There's no sewing needles on the ship…” PIdge said skeptically.
“Heres your glasses first,” Keith handed them over from where they were clipped onto his belt. A mumbled thanks in return. “I had a sewing kit in my belt.”
“WHAT?” Lance’s voice cried from where he was still standing by the pod.
“I had a sewing kit in my belt.” Keith restated.
“Keith, I think he means why.” Pidge offered, placing her glasses on her nose.
“I don’t know, I’ve just kept one on me, must’ve had it when we got to space.” Keith said with squinted eyes, finishing up the stitch he was doing before tying it and cutting the thread with his knife.
“Here,” he started to hand it back to pidge with extended arms, “It’s fixed, it won't break again unless you cut it on purpose.”
“You are such a strange creature Keith, thank you.” Pidge replied, in awe.
Keith could hear shiro soft, muffled laugh from his place in the room right before Pidge surged forwards giving him a hug. At first he was frozen, but then he melted into the hug.
“Be more careful next time.” He whispered into her hair.
“I will.”
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3.
“Keith, what are you doing?”
The red paladin looked up from the training room floor he was laying face down on.
“Laying down?” He replied, again, what did it look like?
Allura gave an audible sigh as he walked over and crouched next to Keith.
“That’s not quite what I mean and you know it. Are you alright?” Allura scolded.
“Fine, just tired.” He mumbled, face still to the ground.
“Wonderful, now get up. The mice want to braid hair and you are the only other one with long enough hair to do so.” Allura cheered.
Keith groaned but dragged himself up and started to walk with her to her room. Once inside Keith paused.
“Why is Lance here?”
“Hello to you too, mister mullet.” Lance replied. He was sitting on Alluras Bed with the mice in his hands.
“None of that, come now. You have to show the mice human braids!” Allura called as she sat down at her vanity, shifting on the bench and patting it, beckoning Keith over.
Keith sat down next to her as Lance walked up behind them and placed the mice on the Princesses shoulders.
“Start detangling the hair first, then we can get started.” Lance told the quartet of space-rodents. “Do you have a spare hair brush for Keith?” Lance asked Allura.
In lieu of a response Allura handed the mice a brush with white hair clinging to it and Lance a brush that appears to have just been bought. Lance started to instruct the mice how to brush that hair as he did to keiths.
The red paladin kept as still as he could, but with Lance's hands in his hair… It was weird, he’d normally never let anyone this close to his head or neck, but it felt… easy with Lance. In fact, the hands that started to part his hair into small sections began to feel soothing. Far too soon were the set of hands leaving his hair.
“Do you have a hair tie, or rubber band? I need to tie this off so I can help the mice finish up.” Lance asked, the question was directed towards Allura but Keith had a different idea.
He reached into the belt, not needing to look as he pulled out a small hair tie ball and reached back to hand it to Lance. There were all sorts of colors of ties on it, normally he’d snag some from a foster home when they stopped cutting his hair and started to form them into the ball. He always misplaces his hair ties so having an object like that in his belt had become a necessity.
“Keith, where do you keep all of this stuff? Is your belt like Mary Poppin's purse?” Lance asked, near hysterical and he grabbed the ball of hair ties.
“I don’t know who that is.” Keith replied, just barely making out the ‘of course you don’t’ lance mumbled back as he tied Keith's hair off.
As Keith started to look at the intricately woven braid across the crown of his head, Lance started to help the mice finish up. By the time both sets of hair were done and braided Keith and Allura were both sporting a french braid around their heads, keeping their hair out of their faces.
“You can keep yours in for a day or two and it’ll stay, come ask for help when taking it out so it doesn’t knot.” Keith got instructed, “I'm gonna re-do Alluras in a different style.”
Keith gave his thanks before he walked out the princesses room and back to his, hearing Allura whispering to Lance in hushed giggles. Why did his chest feel warm? And why couldn’t he stop smiling?
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4.
It was when Keith finally needed to take the braid out when it happened again. He was walking to and from the most common areas people could be found on this ship when he spotted Hunk, Coran, and Pidge in the girls work room. Pidge was dangling from the ceiling in her fixed harness, twisting a screwdriver into an egg-like… thing, while the other two were fiddling with some machine the size of a yoga ball.
“Yo, Keith.” Pidge called from her place, 15 feet in the air, “Toss me a philips head screw diver and needlenose pliers?”
Keith mumbled and affirmative, beginning his hunt for the tools. After a near two minutes of searching he gave up and just reached into his belt for the army knife he had and tossed it up to her.
“What is this?” Pidge asked, looking at the different tools she could pull out, “and where did you get it?”
Keith sat in the spinny chair that no one ever seemed to use before answering, “It's a swiss army knife, from my belt.” He grabbed the rubix cube from the desk that Pidge had actually brought with her from earth.
“Dude, how much stuff is actually in your belt and how much are you getting just to mess with us?” Pidge tsked when her hand slipped off the egg, nearly dropping it.
“You can’t be saying that when I’m messing with the rubix cube you brought, and everything has been from my belt. Where would I even get the stuff anywhere other than Earth?” Keith countered.
“Touche.” Pidge said as she dropped the knife back down.
An aborted ‘Pidge!’ sound came from Keith as he launched forward to catch it. That knife was one of the only things he had from his father and she’s treating it like it was just a piece of metal! Keith had reflected in the past about how both his parents left him with a knife, Shiro just thought it was funny.
“What happened to being careful?” Keith grit out.
“Sorry, I was aiming for hunk.” Pidge apologized, her tone uncaring, but he could tell she meant the apology.
“Hey! I'm working with Coran, you could at least try not to murder me.” Hunk said, turning away from his project to glare at Pidge.
Coran seemed to have only tuned them back in, “That actually reminds me of a story from my youth, I was actually only about a hundred deca-pheobes old when King alfor and I had escaped from his fathers castle to go out on a… what do you call it, a picnic! Ah yes, a picnic, we had a grand time that nearly ended up with young king alfor having to look for a new spouse, what a time. But you three probably don’t want to hear my story, I have been told I ramble.”
Pidge, Keith and Hunk all looked at each other.
“Actually Coran, I don’t have anything to do right now and I’m actually wondering how that story goes. Wanna tell me?” Keith offered, pausing in his spinning.
Coran looked like he’d won the lottery with how wide his smile was. By the end of the day Keith had forgotten about his braid but had gained the knowledge that Coran and King Alfor were actually lovers, so that was cool.
What. A. Day.
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5.
When it happened for the probably not final time it was only Keith and Lance. Somehow both ended up on the observation deck, a blanket around Lance's torso, just having fallen off his shoulders and Keith sitting patiently. They’d been there for about 45 minutes, just comfortable enough to keep the silence going, sitting together without words.
“I miss Earth so much.” Lance suddenly bemoaned, keeping up his dramatics. He didn’t even wait a beat before going into all the things he missed. His mother, his family, the beach, pizza, anything and everything he could think of. Keith resigned himself to sitting and listening before an idea struck him.
“Want a gummy worm?” Keith asked, then tried to explain, “I mean, I have Earth candy and you miss Earth…”
Lance stared, only for a moment before shrieking, “OH MY GOD KEITH!!! WHERE DID YOU EVEN GET GUMMY WORMS??”
“From my belt pouches? We’ve been over this I'm pretty sure…” Keith frowned.
“We’ve been in space for months!! How are those even good??” Keith is starting to think Lance never learned volume control nor to keep his short term memory.
“Yeah? I just opened the bag.”
“You opened a bag of gummy worms for me?” The pout and puppy dog eyes Lance pulled must’ve been rehearsed, and why did they make Keith feel warm?
“...So gummy worm?” Keith tried, starting to regret even asking.
For some reason Lance's cheeks flushed a beautiful red, mouth agape. “While that may be gross that they’ve been in your belt all this time I won’t deny the opportunity.”
Keith smiled and they turned back to the stars and started to chew on the gummies.
“Hey Keith?” Lance asked, eyes still trained ahead after their second handful of gummies, “Thanks.”
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
+1.
Today they were sitting in the common room with couches, everyone slightly exhausted from the battle they had that morning. Keith kept feeling a set of eyes on his belt.
"Hey Keith, what else is in your belt pouches?"
Keith turned his head lazily to look at Shiro, before he could open his mouth to clinically list off what his belt contained, Pidge spoke up from where she was hanging off the couch.
“I know, Lance's heart.” She gave a half hearted chuckle at her remark.
Keith's eyes opened wide and he felt his face blushing, what???
“I told you that in confidence Pidge!” Lance screamed as he lunged for her.
Hunk didn’t even open his eyes and he grabbed Pidge by the scruff to pull her out of Lance's reach, Keith has always been amazed about how strong the yellow paladin is.
Keith stood up abruptly, stopping any further advances between the blue and green paladins.
“I’m gonna go.” His voice cracking on every syllable. He turned to the door and practically ran out ignoring anyone's protests (Lance).
As soon as he was in the hall his hand came up to cover his mouth. Keith didn’t exactly know why, maybe it was to hide his furious blush, maybe it was to cool it down, hell, maybe it was to stop thinking about what might’ve happened if he stayed in the same room as Lance. The red paladin continued in a speed walk to his room. A shower, yeah that’ll help.
“Keith, wait.” Lance's voice sounded winded as his steps ceased behind Keith.
Against his better judgement, he stopped.
“Wow, didn't actually expect you to wait,” Lance breathed as he circled around in front of Keith. “Look dude, I know that you are probably disgusted that I have a crush on you and all but can you give me a chance to clarify?”
Keith felt himself nod, hand still around his mouth.
“I really like you and it’s totally fine that you don’t feel the same. Pidge was right though, your dumb mullet and fanny pack have entrapped me, and despite my better judgement your emo-ness has charmed me. I know that we have this ‘rivalry’ going on but I'd like to be friends at the very least if not more and- holy crow I'm rambling. Can you please say something Keith?”
The ravenette took a moment to compose himself, just looking at Lance that distressed hurts him. He carefully took his hand off his face and took a breath.
“I do feel the same.”
“Wha-what?”
Keith took Lance's hands in his own, “I think I like you too Lance.”
The moment that Keith's words clicked in Lance's head could only be described as beautiful. His chest swelled and his smile grew before he scooped Keith in his arms and twirled them around.
“So… boyfriends?” Lance asked with a sheepish smile once he set Keith down.
“Yes Lance, boyfriends.” Keith gave a wry smile back, just barely holding in laughter.
“You have no idea how happy I am right now.” Lance beamed, still holding onto Keith.
“I think I might, after all,” Keith smiled, “I have your heart in my pocket.”