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I.
The first time it happens, Lance is unabashedly showing Nyma his guns. It has her giggling, and he's pretty sure by the end of this pitstop she'll be absolutely swooning. He's pretty content with her reaction, it's clear that her and Rolo aren't an item.
He's about to hit her with an artfully crafted pick up line when he gets a hard elbow to the gut. He sends Shiro a dramatically wounded look, the man simply gives him an unamused glare. Lance chucks it up to Shiro thinking it’s unprofessional. He makes a mental note to keep his flirting to a minimum whenever he's around the black paladin.
II.
The second time is on a roundabout trip back to the Balmera. Hunk is eager to visit Shay, and Allura claims to need some sort of healing crystal to replenish the one that feeds energy into the healing pods. (They all know this is for Hunk’s benefit, plus it's a good place to replenish their supplies. The Balmerans are grateful allies after all.)
The four other Paladins have just finished being introduced to Shay and her family when Lance spots her quite handsome older brother. He's standing protectively beside her, a deep frown set on his rocky features. Lance remembers his name is Rax, and something about his prickly personality draws him in.
“Hunk,” he starts not even looking in his best friends direction, “you talked so much about Shay, but you never mentioned how handsome her brother is.”
Shay giggles at the sight of her brother’s openly shocked expression. Lance learns that these rock like people can in fact blush. It's lovely.
“As a matter of fact I’d seriously like to get to know you,” He takes a meaningful step forward only for a suspiciously purple looking Galra hand to be slapped over his mouth. He's reeled in backwards, Shiro’s hand trapping him against the older man's chest.
“Sorry about him,” Shiro gives a nervous chuckle to an embarrassed looking Rax. “We should've warned you.”
Lance wishes this was Shiro’s human hand, he very well can't lick his Galra hand in order to get his freedom back. Instead his pout is hidden, until Shiro finally lets go. He gives him a pointed look before heading to Allura’s side.
He sends Rax a wink, only for the alien to give him an ugly glare. Oh well, can't win them all.
He decides not to try his luck and further, and picks the next best entertaining thing to do. Annoy Keith.
The red paladin is leaning on the outskirts of the small group, an irritated scowl etched onto his face.
“Well, Keith aren't you the perfect picture of teen angst?” He says, one hand on his hip. It's his typical, I'm going to annoy the hell out of you, posture.
“Can you be anywhere but here?” Keith says shortly. His face scrunching up in distaste.
“Nope!” He pops his ‘p’ in a childish fashion.
“Shouldn't you be sliming your way through the Balmeran population?”
“Can't!” Lance says waving away Keith’s intended insult, “Shiro won't let me.”
“So why are you bugging me?”
“Aw, babe, don't be like that you know you love me!” Lance gets an absolute thrill when Keith’s cheeks bloom a pretty pink color.
His first thought is: wow. His second is: I really want to see more of that, he files that away for further inspection.
III.
The princess of this planet is the prettiest shade of blue that Lance has ever seen. It reminds him of the the azure waves back home, he's in love. He's like 75% sure anyway.
The Paladins are all polished up in formal Altean dress, they look great. Lance is wearing a sky blue collared suit, a print of silver embroidery stitched on skillfully. The color contrasting with his skin beautifully.
They’re sitting at the designated Voltron table, waiting for the King to finish his speech.
“I love space,” Lance says his chin is resting on his palm, he's pretty sure he’s sporting a ridiculous enamored expression. Pidge, who's sitting to his left rolls her eyes, but ultimately indulges him.
“Why’s that?” She pulls at the sleeve of her pale green suit, her hair pinned back neatly to show her face, she's absolutely adorable.
“Space has led me to my future wife,” He bats his eyelashes towards the princess who is elegantly standing behind her father.
Pidge only scoffs, “She'd never even give you the time of day!”
“Just for that your invitation to our wedding is hereby revoked!” He turns up his nose indignantly.
“You mean the wedding that only exists in your head? I'm cool with that.” She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly, and Lance wants to throttle the little menace.
“And!” He starts up again, “When I become King, you're banned from this planet. I'll have you named Undesirable No. 1” Pidge being the little snot she is, merely giggles at him. He's completely serious!
His glaring is cut short by the clapping, it signifies that the actual King is done with his long winded speech. The princess is diligently clapping along, praising her father. Lance is sure that this is love.
“She's the prettiest person, alien, whatever, I've ever seen! 19 years of life and only now have I known true beauty—” His tirade is cut short when he's cuffed upside the head.
“Ow!” It actually hadn't hurt, but his dramatics are a habit. He'd forgotten that Shiro was sitting to the right of him, a tragic mistake really. “Oh c’mon! This time I didn't even say anything to her!” He complains rubbing the back of his head.
“Yes, but I heard it. That's all the matters.” Shiro says smugly, Lance thinks being the leader of Voltron has gotten to his handsome head.
He looks around the table for support, all Hunk does is shrug helplessly. Keith on the other hand is resolutely not looking at him, his fists are clenched atop the table. He shoots a puzzled glance at Hunk, he mouths “no idea.”
Lance, absolutely doesn't care when Keith, who looks a little too good in his deep red fitted suit ignores him for the rest of the night.
IV.
They're at a bustling market place on a relatively peaceful planet. He can't pronounce the name of it for the life of him, but it doesn't really matter. They're only there to buy some spices, because Hunk had refused to come out of his room until he ate something other than space goo. It had been an amusing day, until it turned to three. And they say Lance is the dramatic one.
They'd split up awhile ago, and Lance had not surprisingly found himself being conned by an all too pretty alien. The alien had been selling what looked to be shoes, shoes that clearly wouldn't fit his distinctly human feet. It doesn't matter though, the tall alien equivalent of a male, with orange eyes reels him in with a toothy grin. Lance is sure that the attractive alien is even over pricing them.
“I'm not sure,” Lance says shaking his head. He doesn't even have money on him. Actually that’s a lie, he has $2.37, the exact change in his pocket before he'd left earth, but he doubts Earth’s currency is worth much on this planet.
“They would look amazing on you,” The alien, who's name he hasn’t even bothered to learn, drawls out.
“I don't have any money on me” he admits. He feels kind of bad that this guy has been wasting his time selling his product to a customer that can't even buy from him.
The alien simple gives him a lecherous smile, “I can think of other ways you can pay me,” He trails off, the implication clear in the way he says other.
Lance gulps audibly. He's not that type of guy, sure a little kissing here and there is acceptable, but he doesn't know if making out is all the alien means.
“I’d hate to say no to a pretty thing like you, but—”
Before he can even finish his sentence, he's being roughly shoved aside. He stumbles a bit and ends up landing on someone's chest. Said someone turns out to be Keith, he's got an angry and slightly hurt look on his face. His fingers are digging a bit painfully, as he steadies him. Lance cranes his neck to look behind him, and in an unsurprising turn of events finds that Shiro’s the one that pushed him.
He catches the tail end of, “The Paladins of Voltron do not engage in that sort of behavior.” He's not shouting, but he may as well be with how frightened the alien seems to be.
Shiro promptly storms in his direction, and he cringes further into Keith’s chest. He's got his patented Disappointed-Dad-Face on, that's definitely worse than yelling.
“Lance.”
“That's unfair!” He says finally turning around fully, Keith's arms dropping away from his own. Lance makes a vague gesture to The Face, it's making him feel guilty. “I was just about to say no, before I was so rudely interrupted!”
“You better have been.” Shiro says not completely buying the truth! What type of person does he think Lance is anyway? He'd never be hooking up in some foreign alien planet for shoes he doesn't even need.
“Look, I have to help Hunk and Allura load the supplies into the castle.” He's still frowning at Lance, “I better not catch you talking to that guy again!”
And with that he retreats, skillfully walking backwards while simultaneously giving him the universally known I’m watching you sign before disappearing into the crowd again. Shiro is a man of many talents.
“Were you really going to say no?” Lance jumps at the sound of Keith's voice behind him. He sounds relieved, of what, Lance isn't sure.
He slings an arm around the red paladin’s shoulders and directs him down further into the market streets “Of course I was gonna say no!” he grins at a disgruntled looking Keith before continuing, “I only have eyes for you pumpkin!”
He laughs as a rapid growing blush flourishes on Keith’s cheeks. Keith shoves him away, before stomping away from him. He has to run a bit to catch up to him.
He ignores Keith’s annoyed glare, and proceeds to hook their arms together. This time Keith doesn't shove him away.
V.
They've docked on a planet that's mostly just water, little islands spurting up here and there. It's meant to be a vacation of sorts, he wasn't really paying attention. He's currently standing on the pier of one of the islands, a pretty fisherman’s daughter is guiding them around and explaining how their civilization is based on trade rather than any set currency.
Lance is sure he's going to be smacked by Shiro soon, he can feel himself ogling. She's pretty in a timid way, and he really can't help himself. He's got a thing for avid blushers.
He's pretty sure she likes him too, or is at least innocently interested. Every time he so much as looks at her, a purple looking blush shows up on her scale-y skin. It resembles that of fish, he figures it's a form of adaptation to this planet.
Lance pushes his way to the front of their small group, giving the girl a full-teeth-and-all smile. “I have a question,” he can see Shiro looking at him suspiciously, better get this out fast then. “Besides looking beautiful, what's your job around this place?” That earns him another blush, and a hard stomp on his foot from an innocent looking Shiro.
“Fucking ow!” He hisses in his direction, only earning a deadpan look for his efforts.
“Did you guys see that?!” He asks the group, they all pretend not to hear him. His flirting with the fisherman’s daughter momentarily forgotten. He spots Keith glaring at the back of Shiro’s head, he must be on Lance’s side! “Keith you saw that didn't you?”
Keith shifts his glare from Shiro, to Lance. He's taken aback by the intensity of it. “Saw what?” He grits through his teeth, ok...definitely not on his side. But then what's the glare about?
Lance frowns, and sighs in defeat “You all suck!”
It seems like the right thing to say, he decides it's better to be away from the pretty girl than to earn Shiro’s ire. He separates from the group and decides to go let his legs hang from one of the empty piers.
He plops down, and stares out into the horizon. He's unequivocally without question, bored. Shiro was cutting all the fun out of the visits to these alien planets. It's not like Lance meant his flirting to go anywhere, it was just for entertainment purposes. He's not really looking for something, it would be impossible anyway. He's fighting an intergalactic war, he can't keep up a long distance relationship even if he really wanted to. There's just no way.
Plus, all the aliens aren't his type. Sure he can admit they're attractive, but the allure ends there. He doesn't know them, he can't actually like them.
His type is fierce, like the way Nyma had been, she'd had an intense forcefulness to her. It had proven to be too much the second she stole his lion. He needed someone that was ferocious, and fiery, and passionate. Everything Nyma hadn't been. He wants someone who wasn't easy, Rax had definitely been that. Instead of prickly he'd turned out to be ill-tempered. He thinks his type is someone who's thorny, their stubborn sharpness stemming from something beautiful. He wishes for someone with elegance, he pauses and thinks back to the princess. He changes his mind, elegant wasn't the right word. Where the princesses had been too stuffy, he sees his type being graceful and fluid. He craves a sort of bluntness, nothing too brash or forthright like the market boy. No, someone who's straightforward, sure-footed, and candid with their actions. He also wants someone timid, like the fisherman’s daughter. Not shy per se, but a bashful person with a nice blush would be nice.
His mental image of his 'type' is becoming almost recognizable when someone sits down next to him, startling him out of his stupor.
He glances to Keith, who's now sitting cross legged beside him.
Keith takes one look at him and tells him, “Quit moping,” he says in a tone of vexation.
Lance pointedly pokes him on the side “Listen. Here. I'm. Not. Moping.” Every word is punctuated with a poke, until his hand is smacked away.
“Then what are you doing?” Keith asks like he really can't believe Lance isn't pouting.
“I was thinking, like us intellectuals do.” He says snootily, Keith lets out a disbelieving scoff.
“Oh yeah? About what?” Keith’s looking at him, his lips quirking up in an amused fashion.
“About you! My beautiful buttercup,” He reaches up to pinch Keith’s cheek.
A spectacular blush rises to the other boy's face, it's accompanied by a rare laugh, “No, really. What were you thinking about?” He says rubbing at his cheek, it's slightly redder than the other one. He's looking curiously at Lance, and suddenly he can't remember what he was thinking about.
“Dunno actually, your pretty face made me forget,” He finds that this isn't really fake flirting anymore, but the truth.
Keith’s amused smile changes into a more timid one. It's all beautiful and intimate, and Lance loves it. “You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.”
“No I'm serious,” he says reclining onto his hands so that he's leaning backwards. Keith gives him another disbelieving look, and they fall into silence.
Lance can see that Keith wants to say something, he doesn't push him though knowing that he’ll only shut down. After a couple of minutes of staring off into the setting sun, his eyes flicker back to Keith.
“Does it bother you,” He starts off hesitantly, piquing Lance’s interest. He sits up, their shoulders brushing slightly “I was just wondering,” he starts again, “do you wish Shiro would stop, well stopping you from flirting?” It's Keith’s turn to look off into the distance.
“Of course I do!” He bumps shoulders with him, he almost misses the way Keith flinches at his words, so he adds on “I mean it hurts sometimes. And I'm a sensitive guy!”
Keith tears his eyes away from the sea, and levels him with a bemused look. His eyes are muddled with too many emotions, he can't pinpoint a single one.
“No, I mean. Doesn't it bother you that he stops you before you can get anywhere?” Lance thinks the question is ironic, he'd just been thinking about this.
“Oh, that? Nah,” Lance says, a shrug of his shoulders making him press closer to Keith. Something about the warmth he provides, is familiar and comforting. He doesn't know what to make of it.
Keith seems even more puzzled than before, “then why do you do it?”
It's a valid question, Lance doesn't actually have a proper answer to it though. “Spices life up I guess,” he says jokingly.
He feels like the conversation is too serious, so he gets up suddenly. Keith looks up at him in confusion, “C’mon I'm hungry,” is all he gives as an explanation. He offers Keith a hand up, his hand is warm and calloused and Lance thinks maybe he doesn't want to let go. He does anyway.
+1.
They're on some moon that’s notoriously known to be a gifting scrapyard. Discarded metals and tech thrown about, and piled haphazardly. Different alien races are milling about, Lance doesn't even have the slightest urge to look in their direction.
His eyes are busy watching Keith, as he searches through the junk for some piece of tech Pidge needed to complete some who knows what project. He really should start paying attention.
“Hey Hunk?” He asks the boy who's munching away on an unpleasant looking protein bar. They're taking shifts sorting through the rubble, Hunk and Lance finding themselves on their much too short break.
“What's up?” Hunk says around a mouthful.
“What do you think of Keith?” His eyes haven't moved away from the temperamental boy.
“Keith?” Lance misses the way Hunk gives him an experimental look of sorts, “He's pretty good looking to me.”
Lance is pretty sure he's gotten whiplash from how quickly he turns to look at his best friend. “What?!” He all but screeches “That's not what I was asking!” An unexplainable sort of jealousy settles in his chest.
“I know. I was just giving you my opinion,” Hunk says after swallowing the last of his bite.
“You can't say things like that Hunk!” He sounds a little hysterical even to himself.
“Why not?”
“Well because I don't like it!”
“Why not? Do you think he's good looking?”
“I-I,” Lance looks around afraid that Shiro will punch him in the arm for even admitting this. “Well I mean yeah, but—”
“So why can't I say it?” Hunk’s logic is flawless, Lance is absolutely disgusted by it.
“I don't know!” Lance throws up his hands in frustration. Hunk just steadies him with a patient look on his face. Suddenly, “oh my god,...sweet mother of-....I can't, this is?!...oh god I like him!” He whispers the last part mostly to himself.
He thinks back to what he'd pinpointed as his type on the pier, and realizes that the whole time he'd been thinking about Keith. His entire life is a joke!
“You knew!” He points an accusing finger a little too closely to Hunk's wonderful face. But blessed Hunk simply shrugs and admits he'd only figured it out at the beginning of the conversation. He frowns at his best friend, why hadn’t he just told him, instead he'd had to recognize his feelings himself. “You're worse than Pidge,” he says petulantly, before giving his friend a grateful smile.
He heads towards where Keith is standing with Shiro and hesitates. His plan of flirting with Keith hitting a snag, Shiro’s probably going to give him The Face if he flirts with his son. Is it worth it? His brain supplies a vehement: yes!
“Hey Keith!” He shouts boisterously, a few heads turning to look at him. He watches with unadulterated glee, as Keith looks away from his conversation with Shiro and towards his approaching form.
“I've thought of the bestest pick up lines!”
“That's not a word—”
“And! I'm going to use them on someone so beautiful, that Allura and Shiro’s future babies will have nothing on them. And as you know, that'll be one serious gene pool!” He ignores Shiro’s indignant gasp about the crush he's politely been denying. They all know it's a lie.
“Lance, I really don't care or want to know about who—” Keith’s scowl deepens when he's cut off again.
He hums loudly effectively shutting up Keith. Lance decidedly ignores, the way his fists ball up. Even if he gets punched, this'll so be worth it. Plus, he'll have to get in line, cause Lance is sure that Shiro will be the first one to stop this. As tradition goes.
“How does it feel?” He begins giving Keith an expectant look. All of a sudden Keith looks nervous, like Lance has asked him to reveal his deepest secret.
“What? How does what feel?” He looks a bit scared, this definitely not the way this is supposed to be going.
“To be the brightest star in the universe?”
Keith doesn't even blush, he just blinks, “Wait what?”
Lance frowns and rushes on, he's running on borrowed time. He's sure Shiro will notice and stop him soon, “Are you the moon? Because you're glowing!”
“Of course I'm not the moon—”
“Who took the stars and put them in your eyes?”
“You're not even making sense—”
“The Universe must revolve around you, cause you're gravitational forces are bangin!”
“How is that—”
“Are you an alien, because you abducted my heart!”
“No!—
“If you were a Galra gun you'd be set on stunning!”
“I have no idea—”
“You know what's faster than the speed of light? My heart when I think of you!”
“That's impossible—”
This time he cut off Keith with a loud groan. He'd just gotten through the Keith-appropriate pick up lines and the guy was still oblivious. He turns to look at Shiro pleadingly, “Why didn't you stop this!”
Shiro who'd been standing there the entire time looks at him in confusion. Realization dawns on his face like the rising sun, and Lance is prepared for a serious reprimanding. Instead Shiro laughs.
He wipes fake tears from his eyes once he's done laughing and gives Keith a smile like the cat that got the cream. “I'll leave you to it, then!” He leaves, but not before shooting finger guns at Keith.
“Huh,” Lance supplies watching as Shiro heads towards his eventual girlfriend, wife, mother of his half human, half alien children. “Well that was new?”
Keith turns to look at him, a frustrated look on his face, his fists are back to being balled up, “I have no idea what you're talking about!” He hisses in clear exasperation.
Lance rolls his eyes, “we just talked about this a couple of days ago. You even brought it up. Shiro, is always trying to stop me from flirting. I'm surprised he didn't with you.” He finishes looking back to the black paladin. He finds that Allura, Pidge, Hunk, and even Coran are watching on in amusement. He needs a more supportive team he thinks.
“Oh, well he knows you're not serious. You do this all the time. I wish you'd stop…” The last part comes out quieter than the rest. Lance feels his heart drop, well this sucks.
“I am serious? But I'll stop if you really want me to…” He trails off and gives him a dejected shrug.
“Wait? What?!” Keith's face is one of surprise, and what seems like hope?
“I said I'll stop—”
“No before that!” Keith says taking a stepping closer towards him. Lance shifts his weight from foot to foot in nervousness.
“Um? I said I was serious?”
“You mean it?” Keith wraps a hand around his wrist. Lance stares it in confusion, hadn't he just asked him to stop flirting with him…?
“Of course I mean it. I like you—” Before he even realizes it there's a soft pressure on his lips. He can't even shut his eyes before Keith’s regretfully pulling away.
“Sorry, I probably shouldn't have done that,” Keith says apologetically, but Lance isn't even listening. He can't hear over his thoughts, can't hear over the blood rushing in his ears. Keith just kissed him.
Pretty, unattainable, Keith Kogane. Reckless, impulsive Keith. The best pilot of their generation. Red Paladin, and right arm of Voltron, just kissed him.
Apparently he's been too silent for too long, because Keith starts pulling himself away in a rejected fashion. Lance is definitely having none of that!
He pulls Keith back in by the wrist and cups his jaw with his other hand. He tilts Keith’s face upwards and bends down so that their noses are brushing together. Keith’s eyes are wide and surprised, his warm breath fanning onto Lance’s lips. He moves his hand from Keith’s jaw to his cheek, rubbing his thumb against the soft smooth skin of the shorter boys high cheekbone. “I like you Keith Kogane.” He repeats before slotting their mouths together.
It takes Keith a couple of seconds to register what's happening before he starts moving. Keith’s lips are slightly chapped and soft against his own. Keith pushes upwards, like he's trying get impossibly close, his hand landing momentarily on Lance’s chest for balance as he stretches. His arms snake up so that they're wrapped around Lance’s neck.
Lance thinks he hears a wolf whistle in the background, but he can't really focus cause Keith's a really good kisser. The kiss is wet and warm, and innocent all at the same time. He feels like he's melting against Keith’s heated skin.
He pulls back when he can no longer stop a grin from forming on his face. He doesn't move that much, just resting his forehead against Keith’s. Keith lowers himself a bit from where he'd been pressing so insistently onto Lance’s lips that he'd ended up on his tiptoes, he makes sure to drag Lance down by the neck.
They're silent for awhile, catching their breaths before a delightful pink blooms on Keith’s face.
“Did that just happen?” He pulls away slightly to look Lance fully in the face. His pupils are fat and dilated, his lips a darker pink than before. Lance has no doubts that Keith’s about the prettiest thing he's ever seen.
“I know I'm a dream, but this is real handsome.” He expects Keith to pull away and groan, so he's blindsided by the absolute radiant smile Keith gives him. His heart stutters for a beat or two.
“I think you're amazing,” Keith’s voice is breathy, complete awe decorating his face. It leaves Lance wanting more, wanting everything.
He laughs and pulls Keith tightly into his chest, wrapping his arms around him, while the other boy nuzzles into his neck. He rests his cheek on top of his head and distractedly thinks, no tall boys were definitely not his type.
“You know,” Keith starts, his arms loosely hanging around Lance’s waist, “I've liked you since you smiled at me that time the castle was under attack and you'd just shot down Sendak” his voice is barely above whisper.
Lance knows that's been awhile. He can't even fathom, why he'd liked him since then. He'd be quite the little shit back then?
He tightens his hold in slight guilt, “I-I didn't know, I swear,” he thinks back to all the people he'd flirted with, while Keith had been standing right there.
“I know you didn't, no one knew,” his small laugh warms the skin of his collarbone. “I only told Shiro,”
“Oh,” Lance thinks distractedly while rubbing small circles on Keith’s shoulder blade. He's wondering how horrible it would be if Keith had been flirting with aliens like it was his job. Even imagining it is awful.
“Yeah,” Keith continues, “that's why Shiro always stopped you. He knew,”
Lance jerks back at this revelation, “oh my god all those times!”
“I didn't tell him too! I even asked him to stop!” Keith says defensively.
Lance rolls his eyes, pressing a quick kiss to Keith’s lips so that he knows he isn't serious. “You could've asked him to be more gentle! I bruise easily!”
Keith’s laugh is like church bells, Lance never wants to stop hearing it.