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Lance sat (laid more like) on the hard bench in a pod, with the others of course. They had a mission to get the planet people of Hargan on their side of the war, Coran had given a brief explanation on how the Hargians were like. They had a hierarchy, a very strong one, if you were single romantically you were on the bottom, if you were dating you were middle and if you were married you were very honorable, but if you marry or date just for a place, you were outcasted. They took love very seriously, it was normal to go on dates with your lover everyday, it was normal to worship your lover like a god.
Hookup culture was definitely not a thing on their planet.
Compared to Earth it was much different, people just don’t want to acknowledge that.
As they approached Hargan Lance saw a bright yellow planet, swirls of brown and green swirled around the planet, he could tell those must be the land parts, so the yellow bits must be a water source of some kind, or maybe these people don’t need water like some of the planets they’ve encouraged?
Lance felt the weight shift as they landed, gravity finally coming back to them, the ramp of the ship lowered, immediately the Hargians greeted them with their hellos, they were a blush pink with yellow eyes and very long hair in many different colors. Lance noticed the clothes soon after, they wore loose shirts and very short shorts or long pants with most of the sides cut out.
Their leader-High priestess Lyrean-had stepped in front of the other Hargians, greeting them with her own soft smile. She wore layers, many layers.
First was the red silk layer, it was most similar to a scarf, it wrapped in criss crosses around her body, started at her neck and was tied at her hip, the next layer was a sheer sparkly orange tulle, also staring at her neck, but it wrapped around her arms this time, and the last was gold velvet, it started at her hip and tangled around her legs, tying in bows near her ankles, she wore no shoes, as did the rest of the Hargians.
She looked over them with her bright yellow eyes, staring at all of them.
“Which of you are union bound?”
“Excuse me?” Allura said, furrowing her brows.
“Which of you warriors are bound by the union of love? Unless you paladins are…bottom dwellers?” She whispered the last part, like it would cause a terror. It probably would.
Allura panicked, of course, love is so important to them that if they tried to get them to join the coalition without at least one couple on the team, it’d be impossible. Let’s see…Hunk? Too sacred of confrontation to lie, Pidge? Could probably lie, but can’t get along with anyone enough to act dating-y enough, let alone married, Shiro? Could probably, but who with him? No, he’s too old for any of the other paladins, so that leaves…
“These two! They’re married, they’ve been married for three decaphoebes yesterday, actually.” She blurted. She pointed towards Keith and Lance, who were just shoving each other.
“Ah! Three?! In such heat of war? How splendid! How’d you do it?” She turned her head to the two, who were staring at Allura, completely mortified.
“Uh…” Lance had tried to start, but Lyrean interrupted;
“Matters none, you must dance with us!”
Lyrean pulled the two to an open roofed room in the castle on the planet, it was huge and had weirdly shaped roofs, or no roofs at all. The room’s floor was extremely smooth, gold velvet like Lyrean’s outfit dropped along the walls along with red silk bows.
“Off with your foot boxes,” she said as she started helping the music players get to their instruments,
“What?” Keith asked.
“The restrictions on your feet, you surely cannot dance with those on,”
Keith looked at Lance, fear swirled in his eyes, maybe it was closer to dread, not because Keith cared whether or not he had shoes on, it just…it took forever to manually take off any of their armor. The boots were probably the hardest too, they were knee high boots, the foot part has almost haphazardly connected to the shin armor, connected by circle shaped lames, which, you had to take off first, then the foot part and finally the shin part.
Lance immediately sat down on the floor, pulling at the lame on his right foot, when he finally got it off he moved on to the second one on his right foot, it was then Keith sat down and helped him with his left foot, Lance stopped briefly to look at Keith bent over and picking at the price of his ankle, he’d never seen Keith in such light, he’d never see him help him in anything other than battle, maybe being his husband would t be so bad, wait, what?
He snapped back to reality and finished the second lame on his boot and pulled off the sabaton, then the greave, and started to help Keith on the left but he was done, not wanting to make it awkward (which he still did); he said “thanks”. Keith nodded and started on his own, Lance practically numbed to help him in return.
After literally ten more minutes of taking off boots they stood up, Lyrean had clapped and music started, it was upbeat and happy, Lance smiled and took Keith’s hand.
Keith was pulled close to Lance, but before Lance could start dancing he heard a whisper; “Lance…” Keith had begun, “I-I can’t dance,” it sounded frustrated rather than scared or shy.
Lance chuckled lightly, “of course you can’t,” he teased, “the ground is slippery, just slid with me, it’ll look good no matter what,” he pulled Keith closer so Lyrean can’t tell they’re talking, “unless you fall on your ass,” he started moving, backwards and Keith followed.
“Pretend we’re sparring, you’re great at that, every time I back up you walk forward, every time I go forward you go back, make sense?”
It took maybe three seconds before Keith got the hang of it, thinking of it as sparring definitely helped, he and Lance were already so great at reading each other in battle. He was surprisingly graceful, “Keith, I’m going to spin you, okay? I’m going to pull away, hold you hand up in the air and you use your feet to propel yourself and spin, like how you do when you dodge,” Keith nods and Lance pulls back, holds his hand in the air and Keith is spinning, very well.
Maybe too well, way too well, he’s spinning too much, Lance needs to stop him.
Lance grabs Keith’s waist to stop his motion and they are so close they can feel each other’s breaths on each other’s cheeks. Keith’s eyes are so purple, specs of gold look like stars in them.
“Wrap your arms around my neck, like you're choking me, but much much softer, okay? Hug me,”
Keith’s eyebrows are furrowed again. He stares at him a little longer before obeying and shoving his nose in Lance’s neck. His cheeks burn, red and hot, maybe from dancing, maybe because of how soft Keith’s hair looks, how it smells of salty sweat mixed with a generic brand of shampoo, strawberry probably. It didn’t matter, what mattered was how loud the applause of the Hargians was, they pulled it off, pretty well.
“Dinner, a feast!” Lynear says, she paused for a second, “but first, a game for our honorable lovers.”
“Oh my god, there is no way she’s making us do more shit,” Lance whispered to Keith, he chuckled.
She led them all to the dining hall, she had lance sit first, at the table on a marble stool. “Lance, dear blue one, place your hands flat on the table.” The table matched the chairs, marble as well, maybe they didn’t call it marble like we did on Earth.
“Keith, red one, you will come here, sit up on the table,” two Hargians helped Keith up on the table top, he sat in front of Lance on his knees, it seemed a bit uncomfortable.
“Lance, you must keep your hands on the table, Keith, you will pour this sal-pecha into his mouth, he must trust you to not ruin his armor,” she said “or his dignity,” she giggled, so did her people.
Lance saw the other paladins behind Lynear, he completely forgot they existed for a while, Keith kind of had that effect on people, it was then he noticed Keith was now holding a jug of salty smelling purple juice, the jug was a see through red, god, the Hargians really liked warm colors.
“Open,” Keith barked.
“Rude, that’s no way to talk to your husband Keith-y,” he was mostly joking,
“Sorry darling, open up,”
Lance’s eyes widened and his cheeks flushed but he complied to the request and opened his mouth. Keith seemed nervous at first, spilling a little on Lance’s chin, but as he did the dancing, he focused and almost got all of the small jug’s juice in Lance’s mouth, down his throat, when Keith focused on said throat too long he would mess up, spill a bit on his chin or cheek, though, the cool juice felt nice on his burning skin there.
As soon as the jug finished Keith jumped off the table and sat in the seat next to Lance, Lynear's voice (it was getting annoying, it isn’t just Lance right?) spoke again; “excellent performance boys! Now, feast!”
The feast was delicious, but the only thing Lance could think about was Keith hovering over him, pouring the salty-sweet nectar into his mouth.
- - -
Later that night, two Hargians had led the blue and red paladins to their room. Lance knew he should’ve guessed they would put them in one room, what he didn’t expect was the fact that it was decorated head to toe with romantic hearts and roses. There were chocolates on the bed, or they look like chocolate at least.
Keith and Lance said their thanks to the two and dropped their boots from their hands. And headed to bed, Lance pulled out his bag, it was a strappy messenger bag he got on one of their missions. He pulled out the robe and pajama pants he wore to bed, he plopped onto the bed and started the long task of taking off the rest of his armor.
There was silence for a bit, it wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but it was different than their usual bickering, teasing, and fighting.
“What…what’re you gonna wear to bed?”
“I-I didn’t think we were staying the night,”
“So, you don’t have clothes?”
They were talking softly, much softer than normal.
“I only have one extra shirt, no pants, but you could borrow that? It’s clean?”
Keith stared for a bit, Lance realized he was being nice to Keith, not just for a mission, not for show, not just for battle, not because of something serious. But because Keith looking this lost makes his heart pang.
“Sure, I guess, I could just sleep in that, if you don’t mind?”
“Nah, you’re good,”
So Keith slipped into the extra shirt Lance had brought, just the shirt and boxers. No way this is gonna be awkward at all.
And surprisingly it wasn’t, Lance got in on the side closest to the window, Keith was fine to get on the other side, they didn’t even feel the need to face away from each other.
They were fine. They were good actually.
Keith was three seconds before falling asleep. And Lance had whispered to him, Keith wanted to ignore it, but it felt physically painful to ignore Lance after today.
“It was nice not fighting with you today, like it was different, and don’t get me wrong, I love fluffing your feathers, but it was calmer today, we were more in sync I guess.”
“Yeah, yeah actually,”
“It was really nice being your husband today Keith,”
“You too, sharpshooter,”
- - -
The suns rose, yes, suns. On Hargan, there were two suns. Two very bright suns, which practically blinded Lance this morning. He turned around and shoved his face into his pillow, which now smelled like Keith’s shampoo. Keith laid absurdly close, too close. In Lance’s blue shirt that was already very big on Lance himself, but thankfully both of them are pretty similar in size, just Lance was 1-2 inches taller.
He looked so peaceful sleeping, there was no eyebrow furrow, no scowl, no nothing. Just a soft look on his face and half curled hands by his side.
There was a sudden loud bang on the door, it frightened Keith awake, he practically jumped out of bed and into a fighting position.
Well, there goes peace.
The door opened, Lynear herself was at the door, eyes closed as she excitedly exclaimed; “hello honorable ones! You should come down to breakfast, eat. Your friend Hunk had shown us to make your cakes from pans!”
It was then Keith realized he was half dressed in front of a high priestess. He shifted back into a normal position and then climbed back in bed to cover up.
“Yes, Lynear, we’ll come down in a seco-tick. We just have to get dressed,”
“Yes, I’ll leave you to it, Allura mentioned you like dressing alone, farewell paladins, I’ll see you in a bit,” she smiled again and left the room, closing the door behind her.
Keith groaned, falling back onto the pillow.
“I don't want to manually put the armor back on,”
“Me neither bud,”
Lance got an idea,
“Hey, what if we got outfits from these people, like ask if they could bring us some clothes?”
“Have you seen what they wear Lance? It’s either booty shorts or pants with more holes in it than the moon, not to mention the loose ass shirts with yet again, more holes,”
- - -
Keith was totally rocking a red poncho like shirt and baggy pants. He found some with not many holes. Apparently there’s a reason for the holes, since they have two suns; outside, where most people spend their time, it’s extremely hot, especially in summer and spring. Thankfully these people here are adapted pretty well, and the paladins don’t have work outside where there isn’t air conditioning.
Lance had chosen a blue wrap style shirt, it started at his neck and wrapped around his body like Lynear’s clothes. He chose the longest shorts they had, which was maybe a third of his thigh.
They walked in the dining hall together. The other paladins were waiting by the door for them. Pidge started cackling as soon as they got a glimpse at the two of them, and as soon as they calmed down they looked again and fell on the floor.
“Pidge get the fuck up,” Keith deadpanned. “There is absolutely nothing funny about this, it’s what everyone else is wearing here,”
“I know, I know. Number one: since when did you follow trends, edge lord? two: it’s funny because you’re doing it, and you look crazy, I mean come on, what the actual hell is this poncho bro,”
A Hargian walked by, Lance was quick to action, “don’t listen to them…darling, you look radiant in red,”
Keith tried so very hard not to cringe, and so did Lance.
Hunk snorted as Lance tried even harder to look lovey by putting his arm around Keith’s shoulders. There is no way either of these two are going to live down this mission.
“Alright you two, I know it wasn’t exactly ideal that Allura put you in this situation, but it was important to the mission and you are actually doing a pretty good job at not screwing it up.”
“Wow, thanks Shiro,”
“Honorable ones, and team Voltron, come sit,”
They walked to the marble table once more, it was garnished with many fruits and flowers, pancakes (though they were orange,), juices.
But there was a particular muffin looking thing Lance wanted to try, as soon as he got situated he reached for the muffin, only to touch Keith’s hand, Keith looked at him, his eyes saying “bitch, this is my muffin.”
And missing their bickering just a bit, Lance smirked at him and stole the muffin. Keith leaned in and whispered to Lance “if you don’t give me the god damn muffin I will actually bite you,”
“Do you think they would find that romantic Keith-y?”
“Screw off, give me the muffin,”
“There’s like three other ones,”
“Yeah, but that one’s got more strawberry looking things than whatever the fuck sal-pecha berries are,”
“Y’know, since I’m such a good husband I’ll give it to you this once,”
Lance handed the muffin over to Keith, who was giving him a surprised look. Guess he didn’t expect Lance to actually give him the muffin.
Keith had said a small thanks and took a bite of the muffin.
Roughly ten minutes later Keith scooted closer to Lance, leaned in to whisper to him.
“Do you think they’re expecting a grand display of affection from us?”
“Maybe? Coran said that it was normal for them to worship each other,”
“So like, what do we do? Hug? Hold hands?”
“Kiss? Is that what they want?”
Keith stopped, tensed up, “maybe like a peck? Just a ‘I’ll see you in a bit’ kiss?”
“Yeah but we’re not leaving each other’s sides at all,”
“Right, okay then no kissing?”
“What’s a normal way to show affection here?”
“Ask Allura?”
“Ask Coran?”
The two left it at that, finishing breakfast very quietly.
About thirty minutes later, a tall handsome Hargian man had walked over to them, he had a very snake-like face. He sashed over to Keith, not both of them, just Keith.
“Hello, you are very cute, red one. I like your hair, it is very black, like the gems around here in the ground, gnartonite. I’m yet to union bond at all, maybe we could stroll the orchard?”
Lance felt his face grow hot, his breathing became shallow, jealousy stormed in his stomach. Why, though? It’s not like Keith is his actual husband.
Keith didn’t seem much happy with it either, his knuckles were turning white with how hard he was gripping his fork, and he wasn’t responding the guy.
“Woah woah woah, cool it tall ass, Keith here is my beloved husband, yeah, that’s right, he’s taken, off the shelf, bought and eaten, no more Keith for sale, the warehouse is empty! Right Keith-y?”
“Yes, Lance…y poo?” He giggled, partly from Lance’s expressive language and partly from his own response.
“Oh, I’m so very sorry, I just didn’t see any betrothal jewelry, no ring, no bracelets, necklaces, not even arm bands, for no more mix ups around the galaxy you should really invest in one,”
“Oh, yes, well, we hadn’t really…thought about that, y’know, we got married in space, uh, it’s pretty taboo to get married to a man as a man or woman to woman where we come from,”
The man was quiet for a second, like he couldn’t comprehend why a place would find happy love of any kind disgraceful.
“Well then, come with me, I’m sure Lynear would help you two out,”
And that’s why they are now in a white room also garmented with red velvets and yellow fabrics. Getting their ring fingers measured. The royal jeweler had designed two matte black rings, each with thin strips of color, one red and the other blue. He said the red is to go to Lance and the blue to Keith.
The fact that it’s color coded, makes it so much more personal than normal rings, the fact that Lance will be wearing Keith’s designated color on his finger as a wedding ring, shakes him to the core.
It doesn’t have to mean anything, right?
Who are we kidding?! God! No one actually believes this is just for the mission! Get a grip! Denial! Denial!
So yes, Lance’s heart skipped a beat, many beats when Keith looked at the ring on his hand, on his ring finger, and smiled.
Lance likes, no, loves Keith, and he has for a while, he likes his stupid hair and freaking smile, he likes the way he’s always able to do anything, anything if you put it in fighting terminology. Hell, he even likes being his husband.
And yeah, he’s gonna tell him. When pigs fly, that is.
- - -
It was late in the evening, when both suns were setting, that they decided to leave. It had been two hours since Lynear and the rest of her people decided to join, but they wanted Voltron to stay a bit longer.
So, back in the hangar of the pod, Lance looked at Keith. The others were in the control part, looking at the yellow planet from the windshield. It was just them, together.
Keith and Lance had both started to talk,
“I really-“
“Y’know-“
“Oh, sorry you talk,”
“No, no, you first,”
They both shut up and looked at each other.
Really looked.
They don’t know who moved first but in no time they were kissing. It was fast and deliberate but so, so worth everything, anything this world had to offer.
Lance’s ring, lined with the same red that was his face right now, burned into his finger. As Keith’s hands roamed his shoulders as he kissed Lance, he felt truly happy.
They pulled apart.
“Lance, I really, really liked being your fake husband, but I want to be your real boyfriend.” He frowned, completely serious.
“And I want to be your real boyfriend, I want to be able to see you calm, happy, I don’t want you to hate me.” He sounded winded, he sounded desperate, pull it together Lance.
“I never hated you Lance,”
“Me neither,”
They sat there, soaking in each other’s presence, longingly they held their bodies close, far too close to be fake.
And that’s how Lance started dating his (fake) husband.