Work Text:
It was rare moments like this that the ‘rival’– as Lance continues to argue – Paladin’s seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Usually after a tough battle, adrenalin slowly dying and being replaced by relief and happiness, the duo’s banter comical and teasing as they would either land on the planet’s surface to make sure its inhabitants were okay or head back to the castle to celebrate the victory, the three other Paladin’s throwing in their own jabs and praises of the finished battle.
There were other instances of course.
Successful training sessions – whether it be against each other or double teaming against the Gladiator –, movie nights (which had become a biweekly thing), once in a blue moon even after Lance gets himself into a Situation™ and needs one of the other Paladin’s – Keith, it’s always Keith – to save his ass. Light teasing from the Red Paladin, letting Lance continue to simmer in warm water until Keith finally decides the Blue Paladin’s been struggling enough. Even when Lance should be made for Keith to let him continue to dig himself into a bigger hole, he just shoots off a couple insults until they’re both silently losing their shit because holy shit those “insults” were a fucking hilarious disaster but they couldn’t let the other see they were actually enjoying it.
“I miss thunderstorms.”
This was another one of those times. After successfully helping a small planet from starting a civil war between its two nations and, during the nation’s little celebration, Allura was able to gain them as allies and spread the word of Voltron and their purpose. The celebration had been pretty mellow, which everyone had been thankful for. Lance wanted nothing more to do then to take a shower and crawl into bed after being awake for over 50 hours, flying back and forth to each side of the planet with Pidge and Hunk while Keith and Shiro stayed with Allura, Coran and the Castle at the western nation – which Lance couldn’t remember the name of, just a lot of n’s and r’s – of where they had originally landed. He had been nearly in tears when the peace talked had finally ended and Allura gave the Paladin’s the ‘a-okay’ to head back to the ship. Shiro had stayed behind with Allura and Coran, as a silent guard, while the others left in their lions.
Somehow though, Lance found himself pulled – literally, how did Pidge even have the strength after the past couple days – into a sleepover like situation in the common room after face planting into his bed after a much needed shower. He had even been too tired to do his usual face mask. It had been hard enough to even force himself to turn away from his precious, soft, warm bed and to the shower. He thinks he honestly wouldn’t have minded sleeping in his armor, kinks and all.
He wasn’t the only participant that had been less than thrilled to be pulled to sleep on the floor. Keith had been silently seething as he sat on the covered floor, arms crossed, eyes glaring at everything that moved, the usual bags under his eyes stood out more than usual. Lance silently wondered, as he was slumped onto the ground next to his rival, if the Red Paladin had actually been asleep when the others had pulled him out here. Judging by his attire – rumpled shirt, collar stretched out as if being tugged (probably by Pidge), usual tight shirt stuck to his skin from being stuffed under his armor for over fifty hours–, he probably was.
Lance, against his better judgement, felt for him. He had grabbed his jacket before being pulled out of the room by his friend and now offered it to the brooding Paladin. He felt a pang of something stutter against his chest at the sight of his teammate clearly uncomfortable and irritated, which was new – he usually didn’t mind the irritated part, as long as it was his doing. Keith’s indigo eyes switched from the jacket to his face multiple times, guarded, glazed but too tired to do much besides pull his sweat slicked shirt off, take his jacket without even a word and face planted onto the pillows.
The Blue Paladin chose to swallow his upcoming words (“‘Thank you soooo much, Lance, you beautiful human being, for allowing me to get my sweaty back all over your nice clean jacket!’”) and ignore the way Keith’s face, ears, neck and the part of his torso that Lance could see flush brightly as he propped himself onto his elbows. He didn’t think he could hold an argument with how he was struggling to even keep his eyes open at this point.
Keith mumbled a small thank you, eyes hidden behind his bangs before falling back to the ground and shoving his arms under the pillow his face was hiding in.
Lance decided to ignore the way his heart suddenly hammered against his chest and took note to how the others had thrown down blankets and pillow to give the Paladin’s that were sleeping on the floor some cushioning against the metal ground.
It was actually quite comfortable once he settled down next to Keith.
The night began with Allura asking more questions about human culture. Lance made a few sexual innuendoes that went over Allura’s head (and earned him a few new bruises from Keith and Coran) when talking about certain topics. Even got a Disapproving Dad™ gaze from Shiro before he fell back against the pillows and decided – if for his own sanity – to, for once, keep his mouth shut and try to catch some zzzz’s as the others continued to talk about Earth.
He wasn’t in the mood to think about home. The day had been exhausting and he’d really love not to turn into a homesick teenager again. He’d been successfully keeping that side of him locked away since the night Sendak had taken control of the Castle of Lions. He couldn’t let his guard down like that again, not with how much was at stake.
The Blue Paladin shook his head and twisted onto his stomach, stuffing his face against the pillows. He wished everyone would go to sleep already. He never minded background noise while falling asleep, but he’d never been this exhausted when curling into bed for the night. He could barely even form words at this point, how the quiznak was anyone even still talking after the mission?
“What are thunderstorms?” Allura questioned Hunk from her place on the couch, arms wrapped around her legs that were covered with a soft blue blanket. The other Paladin’s all laid about the common room while the Altean’s took the couch. Coran taking one side of the large, circle couch will the Princess took the other. Keith and Lance laid not far from Coran, Keith between the couch and the brunette while Hunk laid on Lance’s other side and Shiro next to him. Pidge sat next to Allura for the moment, her own little cocoon of blankets piled on the ground behind the couch where Rover 2.0 was currently spinning around in them.
Pidge had commented earlier that she still couldn’t get Rover’s hydraulics to work correctly, but with how Rover knew it could continue to float in the air without spinning Pidge concluded that it just liked to do that. Its own form of fun.
Lance had to admit, it was actually kind of adorable… as much as a little triangle twirling around in a pile of blankets while lighting up different colors and making soft, happy hums— okay, it was fucking adorable as shit and he felt the need to protect it as much as he felt like he needed to protect his team members. Rover 2.0 wasn’t going to meet the same fate as the original Rover.
“Thunderstorms are one of the seven wonders of the Galaxy.” Lance commented tiredly, words slightly slurring together as he propped his cheek against his open palm and glancing over at the Altean Princess. “Rain and ice that falls so hard from the sky it could penetrate a man’s flesh, loud sounds from the sky that scare even the manliest person in the galaxy, flashes of electricity that could kill a man—”
“And you miss that?” Allura looked over at the Yellow Paladin with wide eyes.
“Lance is making it sound worse than it actually is.” Hunk commented, nudging his friend with a mock glare. “It’s actually really nice when you’re in a safe place.”
“It is.” Pidge commented, leaning her head back to stare up at the ceiling with a faraway look and a soft, solemn smile. “When it’s the middle of the night and your room is dark—”
Hunk sighed contently, “Curled up under the covers or sitting on your bed, staring out the window—”
“With no one else to bother you.” Lance nodded, a small smile as he laid on his back and placed his hands behind his head. “Your room suddenly lights up with the sky, a rumble in the distance a few ticks later… It’s beautiful.”
“It does sound quite enjoyable,” Allura hummed with her own appreciative smile, “if in a safe environment, of course.”
“…That’s debatable.” Keith’s tired voice was muffled against the pillow. The others looked towards him, all assuming he had fallen asleep. The silence spanned out until Keith spoke again, propping himself up on his elbows. The blanket that had been thrown over his head slid down to show off more of his hair. He looked down at ungloved hands – Lance couldn’t believe he wasn’t wearing his gloves – as he opened his mouth but no words came out. He clenched and unclenched his fist multiple times time before huffing and falling forward again.
“Keith.” Lance was as shocked as everyone else to realize that was his own voice that sounded so soft and patient and understanding and so unlike Lance. Lance’s hand hovered over Keith’s form, fingers twitching as he debated whether or not to make the final move and everyone staring at him is not helping.
“I think… we should call it a night.” Shiro’s voice broke through his thoughts, causing the Blue Paladin’s hand to flinch back as if burned and head to snap toward his leader. “We’ve all had a rough couple of days.”
Coran quickly clapped his ungloved palms, the lights shutting off seconds later. Rover’s light was the only light in the room, giving the Green Paladin enough light to jump over the couch and burrow in the blankets with her robotic companion. Allura soon laid back on the curved couch, the others following suit and resting back against their own makeshift beds. Lance, on the other hand, continued to stare at his rival through the darkness.
Rival…
Could he even consider Keith that anymore? Whatever Lance was feeling, he’s observant enough to know that what he was feeling were no longer rival-ish feelings. You don’t worry about your rivals. Not like that.
Lance turned his head towards Keith in the dark, only able to see the outline of the white blanket the paladin was huddled under, with a strange, foreign and not entirely unwanted feeling of – Quiznak, Lance thought with wide eyes – love for his teammate.
Keith… he wasn’t really his rival anymore – if ever –, is he?
Lance listened to the rustle of sheets around him, everyone settling down into comfortable positions around him. He felt Hunk’s unusually cold feet press against his thigh, and he couldn’t bring himself to care for the unwanted cold. The blanket’s Keith hid under shifted, the arm Lance had tucked under the joint blanket was suddenly pressing against Keith’s body heat. His teammate pressing his forehead against the side of Lance’s shoulder, arms wrapping around Lance’s arm. Fingers wound through his own, squeezing as the tired Red Paladin let out a quiet sigh.
“I’m scared of thunderstorms.” Keith whispered against Lance’s arm, holding back a yawn. Lance nodded at him, humming softly in thought.
“I use to be, too.” Lance replied just as softly, remembering how his siblings helped him get over his fear. “It took me a year to get over my fear – a long and grueling process.”
“I can imagine.” Keith tightened his hold on Lance as he yawned, loudly and causing a few of their sleeping companions to shift. Hunk’s feet were no longer present against his thigh.
“Only the bravest of the brave can beat the fear of thunderstorms.” Lance said, remembering his sister’s words to get him to work through his fears. If it wasn’t for his competitive nature, he would probably still be scared of the dark and booming sky. “My brother and sister slowly integrated me from looking out a window during the storm to literally being in the storm.”
“I see where you get your stupidity from.” Keith slurred, shifting closer to Lance.
“My stupid choices are my own—” Lance quickly added on after feeling Keith huff against his arm, “—not that I make any.”
“Sure.” Keith wasn’t convinced. The Blue Paladin rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, well, stupid idea’s aside… it worked.” Lance nodded, looking back up towards the ceiling. “Next thing I knew, I was out on veranda beach, surfing the roughest waves I could find.”
There was a short pause before Keith shifted, his head now on the edge of Lance’s pillow, chin propped up on Lance’s shoulder. “I didn’t know you knew how to surf.”
Lance shut his eyes, shuddering at the way Keith’s breath puffed against his neck. He swallowed thickly, squeezing Keith’s hand, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Samurai.”
The room fell to silence after that. Comfortable, blissful silence that – for once – Lance felt like he could fell asleep to. Keith’s hand in his own was a comfortable weight, almost an anchor, grounding him into the moment in time where he and his friends were able to take a night for themselves and just relax together. No talking about upcoming training or team building; no looking for distress signals or making plans for another alliance; no attack plans against Zarkon or attack plans for shipments.
It was nice, even if this was the calm before the storm.
As he drifted off, he could have sworn he heard Keith mumble, “I’d like to know more.”