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Everyone knew Keith and Lance were head over heels for eachother except for them, which wasn't that big of a surprise for the other paladins, yet did get quite annoying at times.
To be honest, Keith was the absolute worst with hiding his affection, while still never openly telling Lance (who would somehow not notice the fact that Keith was constantly staring at him, or at least he wouldn't admit that he did.) His days were filled with longing stares, his eyes following Lance even when he had something important in which he was supposed to do. Little warm smiles would touch his lips whenever Lance did something Keith liked in particular, and his anger when Lance would flirt with others was almost always apparent. While the whole ‘rivals’ thing had mostly blown over, Keith would almost always be in a pissed mood towards Lance after he said anything flirtatious to anyone that wasn't him.
Lance was more subtle with his flirting, with his feelings towards Keith that he denied he even had. Small things, like ‘accidental’ brushing of their arms, touches lingering a little longer than they should have. Even when flirting with others it was always somehow linked back to Keith, watching amused as Keith got flustered and pouty as he did so. He had no intention of his flirting working out, if anyone responded to it he dropped it immediately, but he did enjoy the way Keith responded (he was cute when he was mad). He figured Keith was just annoyed at the way he flirted, that he was just sick of Lance's antics. To be honest, he had no idea the affects he was having on the poor boy.
At least, he didn't until their last mission.
Lance had, of course, ran into a rather pretty female alien on this mission. It was just him and Keith this time, so Lance had no problem with flirting as he'd only get a reaction from the one he wanted one from, not have to deal with Pidge constantly complaining and asking him to shut up for once.
To be fair, he wasn't expecting her to flirt back. Or to grab his hand, or kiss his cheek, or Keith to storm off as she did so. It all happened so fast that by the time he noticed Keith was gone, he didn't have a chance to try and stop him.
“Keith! Wait!” He called after the red paladin, pulling his arm from the girl's grasp as tried to run after him, only to be responded to with silence. “Keith! Where are you going, we have a mission to do! Hold on!”
Lance was running now, while Keith was walking. To say he honestly didn't want Lance to catch up to him was a lie. He wanted to yell at Lance, wanted to get it over with and just get the rejection done. It didn't mean that he wasn't scared shitless.
Lance pushed himself in front of Keith, his brow furrowed and a frown of his face. “What the hell was that, Keith?” He demanded, his arms firmly grasping the other boy’s shoulders to keep him from walking on. “You can't just walk away like that, especially not when we're on a mission! What if something happened, what if something was hostile? You could get hurt!”
Keith's expression turned sour as Lance talked, his eyes flashing with a challenge as he uttered a response loud enough so only Lance would hear. “Not like you would care if I did.”
“What do you mean I wouldn't care!?” The blue paladin exclaimed, his eyes wide and muddled with confusion. “Of course I would care!”
“Obviously not a lot considering how friendly you were with that girl over there!” Keith practically hissed, trying to pull himself from Lance's grasp to no avail, so he decided to continue speaking. “Why don't you ask her to help you with this mission? I'd bet she'd be MORE than happy to help!”
Lance stared at Keith for a long time, and Keith's eyes dropped to the ground as he breathed heavily, trying to keep himself calm. When Lance spoke again, it was barely more than a gentle whisper.
“Why are you so angry? I didn't mean-”
Another spark of anger fueled Keith's chest, and his voice raised to an almost exasperated yell. “Of course you didn't mean to hurt me! Of course you didn't mean to make me realise I have no fucking chance with the first person I'd ever liked as more than a friend!”
Keith didn't notice the hot tears streaming down his face and falling onto the extraterrestrial ground, his voice breaking while he tried to continue his tangent to Lance. “You flirt with every damn girl that catches your eye, even when you know it makes me uncomfortable! Hell, I don't even know if you like guys, but it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt to see you with these aliens you don't even know, when I'm right here, I've been here, hoping for you to maybe notice that every time we talk I die a little inside!”
Lance was watching Keith break down, his heart breaking Iike the boy sobbing in front of him. He was at a loss for words, his mouth open slightly as he longed for something to say and yet nothing would come out. His hands fell away from Keith's shoulders, but he didn't leave. He had gone to far, taken to many risks, he may as well finish his argument now.
“So no, I don't think that you would care if I left, or got hurt, or whatever the hell would happen to me if I walked away. You hardly care when I'm right here.” Keith finished firmly, his hands clenched to fists by his side as he stared heartedly at the other boy, only growing more disdained when he didn't say anything.
“Why won't you-”
He was cut off with the feeling of Lance lips to his own, a surprised noise coming from somewhere at the back of his throat as they did. After a moment of shocked stupor he responded, confusion and heart fluttering excitement combining into one force and expanding his chest as butterflies filled his stomach.
Considering this was his first kiss, it wasn't that bad, if anything it was only hindered by the events leading up to it.
Lance was the one to pull away, and that's when Keith noticed that, much like him, Lance had his own tears slipping down his cheeks, his face staying close to Keith's.
“I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry…” He murmured, his arms wrapping around Keith and holding him, his whole body seeming to shake with his tears. “I should have known, I shouldn't have…” He swallowed hard. “...I didn't think it was possible that you actually liked me back.”
Keith relaxed into his touch, relief flooding from his chest as Lance's last sentence left his lips. “No, no don't apologize…I shouldn't have been so mean, you didn't know.”
They stayed like that for a while, ignoring the looks from aliens passing by. When they finally separated, Keith could feel the blush warm his cheeks.
“So...does this make us…?”
Lance nodded, a grin ghosting across his face as he wiped a stray tear away. “Yes, if you want…”
“Of course I do!” Keith exclaimed, before quickly clamping his mouth shut with his hand over it.
Lance chuckled at this, pulling Keith's hand away from his mouth and holding it. “Good, now let's finish up this mission so we can actually do something somewhere, I don't know, safe.”
Keith couldn't have been more excited to finish a mission, and when they finally came back and announced to the rest of the paladins that they were together, you should have heard Pidge’s shriek of, “FINALLY!”