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LANCE
It's an average day for the paladins of Voltron. Thankfully, so far today the Galra Empire seems to be leaving them alone, and they'd had a big mission the day before, so Shiro is letting them take a day off. Currently, the five of them, minus Shiro, are lounging on the long sofa in the castle's common room, tired and bored. Well, only Hunk is tired. Pidge is hyped up on some kind of Altean energy drink Coran had made the mistake of offering her, and Keith is pacing back and forth in front of the couch. Lance is stretched out, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the back of the couch. He's bored beyond measure, to the point where he's zoned out and the only things he can really pay attention to right now are his own thoughts.
Pidge, who had been in the process of solving something that looked like a holographic Rubik's cube, suddenly hops to her feet. "Hey, we should play hide and seek," she says.
Hunk, half-asleep, yawns and glances up at her. "I don't care what you guys do, but only wake me up if the game is getting really interesting."
Lance shrugs as he stood up. "At this point, I'd be willing to play Spin the Bottle just because it's something interesting to do." This is kind of a lie, as he wouldn't really want to kiss any of his fellow paladins (or Allura. Or Coran.), but it would be fun to play regardless. Besides, if the bottle did land on Lance, he would just lock himself in his room until everyone gave up.
Pidge claps her hands excitedly, bouncing up and down in her oversized sneakers. "Keith?"
Lance catches a glimpse of Keith rolling his eyes. "Sure," he says, trodding over to stand next to Lance.
"SHIRO! ALLURA!" Pidge suddenly bellows at maximum volume, causing Hunk to startle and nearly fall off the sofa. Both Lance and Keith flinch, Lance instinctively covering his ears.
Within a few moments, both Shiro and Allura run in, the mice hanging on to the latter's long white hair for dear life and the former not wearing his armor, but toting his bayard like he's ready to stab someone.
Pidge claps her hands, excitedly bouncing up and down even more energetically than before on the balls of her feet. "Alrighty," she chirps. "Who's ready to play hide and seek?"
Shiro sighs dramatically, stuffing his bayard into one of the impossibly deep pockets of the baggy hoodie he is wearing.
"What is this 'hide and seek'?" Allura asks, confused. Pidge grins demonically. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun," she murmurs as Shiro turns to Allura and begins explaining the concept of the game to her. Lance can practically see the gears whirling in Pidge's brain as she dreams up some nasty scheme.
Lance pulls off his jacket, folding it and gently setting it down on the sofa so he can have more freedom of movement. Keith does the same, and Lance can't help but watch a little too closely, his eyes following the red paladin's movement, and holy crow that shirt is way too tight.
Lance ripped his eyes away from the red paladin before he can start questioning his own morals, and he's met with Pidge giving him a knowing smile from under the rims of her glasses. He glares back at her.
It's just one of those things about being rivals.
"Okay," Shiro says as Allura gives Pidge a hesitant thumbs up. "We're ready."
Lance flexes his shoulders as Keith shoots him a rivalrous glance.
"I'm giving you guys one minute to hide. Anywhere in the castle," Pidge says.
Lance returns Keith's glance, smirking as everyone readies themselves to run. He's mentally shifting through possible places to hide, crossing certain ones off the list.
"Starting...NOW!"
Shiro is the first out of the room, heading off down a hallway. Lance sprints towards the nearest door and down a corridor, then up a flight of stairs, two at a time. At one point he spots Allura's long hair flashing by as she darts around a corner, the mice literally at her heels.
Sprinting up yet another flight of stars, Lance comes to a narrow corridor with a sloped ceiling. He runs as fast as he can without smacking his head on the ceiling to the other end, skidding around the corner and slamming straight into...
"Keith?"
"Lance?"
The red and blue paladins stare at each other in utter bewilderment as they realized that they've both found the same hiding spot. Lance mentally curses as he processes the fact that Pidge is actively hunting them, and neither one of them is going to want to run back the way they came. As if it wasn't bad enough that he's wound up in the same hiding place as Keith, it's also a very cramped place.
"Okay, Lance said, struggling to push down the weird fluttery feeling that has suddenly materialized in his stomach. Maybe he can reason with Keith. "How about one of us goes the other way, and the other—"
He's cut off by Keith grabbing his collar and pulling him behind the nearest door, which has about half a foot of space between it and the wall.
"Uhh, what the hell?" Lance mutters, thankful that the spot between the door and the wall isn't illuminated well, or Keith might see the profuse blush on his face. For some reason, Lance's heart is racing, and he could swear he can faintly hear the red paladin's heartbeat too. Well, it isn't surprising, considering they were squeezed in an impossibly small space, literally almost pressed against each other.
"Shh!" Keith hisses in Lance's ear, sending a shiver down the blue paladin's spine as he feels Keith's breath on his neck.
"What? Why—" Lance is cut off by Keith covering his mouth with his hand. Not a moment too soon, as just then Pidge's voice echoes down the hallway, causing them both to tense up.
"I'M GOING TO FIND YOU," she screeches. "YOU CANNOT HIDE FROM THE MIGHTY KATIE HOLT."
"Oh Lord, help us all," Lance grumbles through Keith's fingers, causing Keith to let out a breathy laugh. Lance reaches up as gracefully as he ccan without elbowing himself, Keith, or the door, and gently pries the red paladin's hand away from his mouth.
"Which one of us is going to move?" Keith hisses a moment later, not bothering to drop Lance's hand for some reason. Lance bristles in mock annoyance. "I am not moving. I'd rather be stuck here with you than be bested by Pidge. I will have you know that back home I would always win at hide and seek. I would always hide in the trees, and nobody could find me," he brags.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but...Lance McClain, king of hide and seek. Next round, please teach me your witchcraft," Keith responds.
Lance tenses up in surprise. He pauses, thoughts racing through his head. He wasn't sure how to react to Keith actually asking him to teach him something.
"Sure thing, Mullet," he murmurs more suggestively than he intended to. Lance is starting to get uncomfortable crammed in this tiny space, and he can only imagine how Keith feels, but he knows that neither of them wants to be the one to risk getting caught by Pidge.
It's just one of those things about being rivals.
Keith's hand, still loosely attached to Lance's, suddenly tightens in a vicelike grip as both of them tense up again. Footsteps can be heard coming down the hallway, and from his spot pushed up against the wall Lance can see Pidge's strawberry blond mop of hair bouncing as she jogs down the hallway, right past where he and Keith were hiding.
As soon as her footsteps begin to fade, Lance lets out the long breath he'd been holding in. "This is the most high-stakes game of hide and seek I've ever played, and you should have seen some of the rounds I had with my siblings."
Keith laughs again, and it's not a sarcastic snort like usual, nor is it a giggle, or a chuckle. It's a small, barely audible laugh. A real one. Lance shifts, wriggling his hand out of Keith's chokehold and crossing his arms behind his head.
"Are we ever going to move?" Keith asks half-heartedly. His tone of voice implies to Lance that he doesn't really care either way.
Lance shrugs. "Do what you want to do, Mullet. But personally, I think this is nice." He feels the anxiety creeping up his arms in the form of goosebumps as he realizes how close he just came to flat-out flirting with Keith. Lance silently prays that Keith doesn't take what he's said the wrong way. Besides, he might be bi, but he doesn't like Keith in that way...or does he? Wait, what if the goosebumps aren't from my anxiety? Lance thinks suddenly as Keith's arm brushes obnoxiously close to Lance's waist. Lance rests his back against the wall as much as he can, feeling like he could to melt into the cool metal right now.
"Can I...lean on you?" Keith mumbles, startling Lance.
"Wh—what?" Lance stammers. If his blush wasn't visible before, he's sure Keith can see it now. In the dim light, it's hard to tell, but he swears he catches a glimpse of a rosy tint to the red paladin's pale cheeks as he dips his face to the side to avoid eye contact.
"Sorry, I just—I—um, I'm kind of tired. I can't really lean against the door either," Keith explains with a good amount of awkwardness. It takes all of Lance's willpower not to crack a joke in the moment; where he would normally have rattled off some kind of snappy comeback and his classic smirk by now, he instead feels a little insecure. He doesn't really want to offend Keith—
Wait, what? I don't want to offend Keith? We're rivals, that's pretty much all we do. Offend each other.
It's just one of those things about being rivals, Lance repeats to himself inside his head.
"Sure," he blurts out before his inherent nervousness can take hold and make him stutter. Lance isn't sure if he was expecting some sort of forewarning, or something, but Keith takes no hesitation and rests his head on Lance's chest the second the words are out of his mouth. Lance's breath hitches in his throat. The words are on his tongue, This isn't really necessary, but before they can come out of his mouth he hesitates.
And he realizes something.
Holy crow, Lance thinks, as he not-so-subtly moves one hand from the wall to Keith's shoulder. He doesn't know how in Hell it took him this long to put together, but hey, it's hard to be a defender of the universe and keep track of who you've got feelings for.
I think I might be in love with Keith Kogane.
KEITH
Keith's treacherous heart jumps as he feels Lance's warm hand resting on his shoulder. Every curse word in the book, and a few more, fly through his head as he processes what's going on. Keith, the red paladin of Voltron, is standing behind a door in a dark hallway with the boy he's had a crush on since the Garrison.
Oh yeah, there's totally nothing suspicious about that.
See, Keith was lying when he said he didn't remember Lance, the night they found Shiro and Blue. He remembered Lance. He remembered Lance's blue eyes, infinitely bright and deep, he remembered the countless grins and laughs, all the bad jokes. He remembered all the times he watched from afar, musing if he would ever gain the courage to speak to Lance.
He remembered how, when he dropped out of the Garrison, he wondered if he would ever see Lance again.
And now, here we are, he thinks. Over the last few months, they've gone from complete strangers, to rivals, to reluctant allies, to a team. To friends. And Keith has no idea what to do.
The sound of Shiro's squawking as Pidge finds him rings through the corridors, causing Keith to grin, his cheek pressed against the side of Lance's neck. Lance chuckles quietly. The two of them seem to have made some sort of silent agreement; as far as Keith can tell Lance is also not planning on moving until he's sure everyone else has been caught by Pidge.
Left to his thoughts as the occasional faded noises of yelling and laughter echo from somewhere else in the castle, Keith's rumination, of course, immediately goes to Lance. There's one question on his mind, and it's taking the the normally calm and collected red paladin a serious amount of willpower not to blurt it out. Keith notices that he has a habit of blurting things out a lot when he's around Lance.
He casts his gaze downwards, staring at a blank patch of wall. Lance's words from a minute ago echo in his head: Besides, this is kind of nice.
Keith has known for...well, quite a while, that he has a crush on Lance. But he's never acted on it. He's not sure if Lance would reciprocate his feelings, and while if they were still on Earth he might confess, he knows better. If Lance doesn't like him back—or if Lance does like him back—it could impact Voltron as a team. And as much as Keith would love to just kiss Lance here and now, he knows he has a duty.
But what Lance said...
Keith is torn apart inside, and there's no better way to put it. Maybe , he thinks, I should act on my feelings for once.
Maybe, instead of following my duty all day every day, I should do something differently.
Keith takes a deep breath, lifting his head off of Lance's chest. "Hey, Lance?" he asks.
"Yeah?" is Lance's quiet response.
"I have something I need to tell you."
"I have something I need to tell you too," Lance says before Keith can begin his explanation. The taller boy looks down at Keith, locking eyes with him. Keith braces himself, heart sledgehammering in his chest.
"I remember the bonding moment," Lance says.
Keith instantly forgets what he was going to say, staring in shock into the deep blue eyes of the blue paladin.
"You...remember it?" he breathes.
Lance's lips twitch upwards in the slightest hint of a smile; a real smile and not his usual smirk.
"I never forgot it. I just didn't want to say anything."
"Why not?"
The blue paladin hesitates. "I was scared," he mutters. "I was in denial. I was insecure."
Keith can't help but let out a little laugh of agreement. He knows all too well what both of those emotions feel like. He realizes his slip-up as Lance's shoulders sag, and he gives Keith a dejected look.
"Oh, that's—quiznak. That's not what I meant, Lance," he says quickly. "I was laughing because, well...I know the feeling. Fear, denial. Insecurity."
Lance smiles sadly, and Keith feels a painful tug in his chest.
"But most of all, I think I'm just homesick."
So Keith listens, and Lance tells him. Still squished in that little space between the door and the wall, Lance tells Keith about Varadero Beach, and his little siblings, and how he's an uncle now. And he says, with total confidence and no hesitation, "When we go back to Earth, I'm bringing you to meet them. They'd love you."
And Keith can't help but smile, because Lance didn't think twice about including Keith with his family.
"What about you?" Lance asks. "What's your family like?"
Keith inhales. He exhales. He stays silent for his own sake.
After a moment, he hears a soft "Oh" escape Lance's lips. "Sorry," the blue paladin whispers.
Keith shrugs. "It's alright, I guess my home is with you and Team Voltron."
Both of them tense up at Keith's choice of words. "M—me?" Lance stammers.
Well, better now than never, Keith thinks. "Yup, Sharpshooter," he murmurs, closing the distance between the two in a split second. His lips collide with Lance's, and to his surprise Lance's hand doesn't move from his neck.
When they finally break apart, Lance is blushing but also grinning furiously. Before Keith can react, the taller boy wraps his arms around the red paladin and pulls him into a hug. Keith looks up at Lance again, one of his hands on the blue paladin's waist and one on his shoulder. He's about to lean in and kiss Lance again, when suddenly a loud crash reverberates through the hallway, causing both of them to jump.
The door flies open (or rather, shut), revealing one very horrified Pidge standing there, staring at them.
Keith and Lance stare back, an expression of pure terror on Lance's face. Before either Pidge or Keith can react, Lance snatches up Keith's hand in his and sprints away, dragging the red paladin with him.
"HEY! That's not fair!" Pidge screeches, running after her two targets. Lance and Keith hurtle down the stairs, hand-in-hand, until they finally come to a stop in the common room, both breathing hard. They jog past Shiro and Allura, who both look freshly traumatized (this is not surprising, considering the screeching they had heard from Shiro).
Lance collapses onto the sofa, Keith flopping down next to him without letting go of the blue paladin's hand. They barely have time to breathe before Pidge zooms in, darting over to the couch and tagging them.
"Why were you hiding in a closet?" she says accusatorially. Keith resists the urge to make a closet joke, instead retorting with, "It was behind a door, not a closet." Pidge rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Congrats, you lovebirds. You won. Also, I'll have you know that I heard your conversation. All of it."
As Shiro walks over to the group, Keith notices the black paladin's gaze flick to Lance and Keith's intertwined hands, and no doubt picking up on how close the two are sitting to each other on the sofa. Behind Shiro, Allura claps her hands like an excited child. "I knew you two were going to get together eventually," she chirps. Keith feels a blush rising to his cheeks. Lance smiles and rests his head on Keith's shoulder, intensifying the feeling that a swarm of butterflies is in his stomach, having a collective seizure.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Hunk's voice cuts in to the conversation, as he wakes up on the other side of the couch. He sees Keith and Lance curled up a yard or so away, and grins. "So these two are a thing now?" he asks, putting his hands on his hips as he turns toward Pidge.
Pidge smirks. "Yep. And you owe me a batch of those cookies."
"What? I thought—"
"You bet they would confess in under a month. I bet it would take them a week."
Pidge mirrors Hunk's confrontational stance, raising her eyebrows. "Cookies," she says firmly and coldly, before cracking up into a fit of laughter. Hunk and Shiro join in, Allura giggling softly in the background, and Keith feels Lance squeeze his hand comfortingly.
The butterflies in Keith's stomach don't cede, but he feels much happier than he has in ages.
Because he knows he has a home.