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Keith woke up to a commotion outside of his door. He thanked past him for having the foresight to lock his door the night before, because based on the excitement in Pidge and Hunk’s voices, they would have barged in and jumped on him if they could have. Keith groaned and rolled over to look at his watch. He was thankful that he still had it because in the vacuum of space, time was irrelevant and he just couldn’t get the hang of Altean time. His watch blinked 6:00 am to him. His alarm would have gone off in another fifteen minutes anyway, but he still mourned the loss of those extra minutes of sleep. He reached down from his bed and picked up his shoe, throwing it swiftly towards his door, both to scare off the children excitedly shouting for him to wake and to confirm that their efforts had been successful.
“Come to the dining room when you get dressed,” Hunk ordered, although his tone was anything but authoritative.
Pidge on the other hand was clearly irritated at him. She added an angry, “And hurry it up!” before he could hear the shuffle of their feet moving away from his door.
He rolled onto his stomach and shoved his head into his pillow with a groan. He wasn’t in a hurry to go see what had Pidge and Hunk acting like school kids. If it really were important, it would have been Allura or Shiro to awaken him. He waited five more minutes before he got out of bed, fearful of what a vengeful Pidge would do if he kept her waiting any longer.
He pulled on his jeans and shirt before checking his hair in the mirror. It was its usual birds nest, strands sticking up awkwardly from every place on his head. He tried his best to make it stay down, but without a shower, the endeavor was fruitless. He sighed, hoping that Lance would take pity on him and not start a fight over something so silly so early in the morning.
As it turned out, he didn’t have to worry because as soon as he entered the dining room, Hunk had placed a red paper hat on his head. Keith looked up in confusion, but as soon as he surveyed the dining room, he understood. On the far wall was the phrase “Merry Christmas” strung up with string and cut haphazardly from red and green paper. In the corner sat a makeshift Christmas tree that Keith could not discern what was actually made from, but it had Pidge’s name written all over it. He wondered what all it could do besides being a Christmas tree, because she had clearly put some effort into the metal looking fauna. The rest of the room was decorated with strings of paper garland and paper snowflakes. It looked like a kindergarten classroom, but Keith supposed that was the closest they could get to real decorations in space.
To complete the room, someone, obviously Hunk, had cooked a Christmas feast. Or well, a food goo feast that looked festive because it was not the usual radiation green. Instead it was a colorful mix of rosy red and forest green. He had even made one that looked like a ham and another that looked like a turkey. Keith eyed them dubiously because even Hunk’s fabulous cooking skills could not replace real food.
Keith’s anger at being rudely awakened eased at the sight. Clearly Pidge and Hunk had put in a lot of effort to the surprise and were excited to share it with the rest of the paladins.
He walked over and sat down at the table next Shiro, who was explaining the Earth holiday to Allura while Hunk and Coran were fixing up plates. Pidge and Lance were in the corner, playing animatedly with the tree.
The scene was almost jarring for Keith, mostly because it was an unfamiliar one. Christmas had never been a big deal to him; he had never had a family to share it with before. But as he glanced around at the paladins and Allura and Coran, he realized that was not true anymore. And that thought was both comforting and terrifying. He stood up, in what he hoped was not a panicked manner and exited the dining room, all but running to Red once out of everyone else’s view, in search of her soothing thoughts to calm his conflicting ones.
As he got closer he could feel her calling to him, asking in her own way what was wrong. Even with their bond, he struggled to explain it to her as sat down on her left paw. She lifted him up to his favorite place to relax, the crown of her head. While usually training was enough to calm his tumultuous emotions, Red was better when those emotions took a less angry turn.
Beneath him, he could feel her purr to soothe his worries. His pulse slowed and he relaxed onto her head. Keith wanted to be happy, and part of him definitely was, but the other part. Well, old habits and feelings die-hard. In fact, he was pretty sure his cautious behavior was engrained so deep he would never escape it, even if he wanted to. But seeing everyone, even Allura and Coran, celebrating Christmas made him want to more than anything had before.
“Hey, you can’t run away on Christmas!” came an annoyed voice from the entrance of Red’s hanger.
Keith groaned at how easily Lance had found him. The castle was big, but apparently not big enough. He was going to have to start looking for new hiding places.
He made no reply, knowing that that would just spur Lance on. Well, basically anything he did would spur Lance on. The blue paladin would never know when to stop, and that was a fact Keith had come to terms with.
“Hey Red, a little help here?” he heard Lance ask and his traitorous lion complied. Like Keith earlier, Lance stepped onto her paw and she lifted him up to where Keith was.
Instead of moving to where Keith was laying, Lance stayed standing, his hands fidgeting. That made Keith stop. Lance is nervous, Lance was never nervous, he thought.
“Didn’t you technically run away from Christmas to find me?” Keith asked, annoyed.
“Uh, well…” Lance sighed. Clearly there was more going on than Keith skipping out on Christmas dinner.
“YouseethethingisImadeapromisetomyselfand…” Lance forced out, words all jumbled together, but Keith still managed to understand the gist of what Lance was saying. He had had enough practice after all.
“Okaaay, what does that have to do with me?”
Lance stared as his feet as if they had done something to cause him pain. “Everything,” he whispered.
“Loser, would you please just spit it out so I can go back to my self reflection?” Keith rolled his eyes, knowing that goading Lance was the best way to get him to talk.
“I am trying to give you your present you ungrateful idiot!” Lance shouted at him. Keith was confused. Very confused. Lance was clearly not holding anything that even remotely looked like a present. Keith looked at him stupidly.
Lance ran his hand through his hair and down his face in exasperation. “God, why’d it have to be you,” he muttered, more to himself than to Keith.
“My present to you is me!” Lance practically shouted. “Wait, no, that’s not what I meant, well it is what I meant, but not like that, I mean not yet, I mean…”
Keith breathed in and out in what he hoped was a calm manner. Red laughing in the corners of his mind was definitely not helping him process what the blue paladin had just implied.
“I’m going to need you to explain,” Keith forced out, praying that his voice didn’t sound as breathless to Lance as it did to himself.
“Why are you so dense?” Lance exclaimed, but he continued, less nervous than before. “I like you. In a romantic I want to be your boyfriend sort of way and its all your fault!”
“My fault?” Keith asked, more so Lance would keep talking meaning that he didn’t have to respond immediately to Lance’s sudden confession.
“Ugh… your hair, it’s just, the way it curls and looks floppy, and that stupid shit eating grin you get on your face when you think you’re winning an argument and don’t get me started on how you look when you’re training, I mean, it’s your fault for wearing such tight pants…” Lance kept going, but Keith had heard enough. Lance likes me… like that? Keith was in shock. Sure, he had never hated the blue paladin. He enjoyed their arguments and admired Lances perseverance and passion in everything he did. Keith didn’t hate him, but did he want to date him? He could feel Red enter his mind again, pushing him forward gently. The lion knew him better than he knew himself, because while the only emotion he could consciously feel was shock, Red showed him that he was also happy.
Keith looked up at Lance. He stopped talking, Keith wasn’t sure how long ago and was now shifting his weight from foot to foot, a nervous yet optimistic look plastered on his face. And Keith’s heart fluttered. He thought back to all the battles, to him saving Lance’s life, Lance saving his, and then to the little things. How Lance looked while they were arguing, while they were training, while he was deep in thought, the way his forehead creased when he was perplexed and they way his smile always reached his eyes. Shit. Red sent him a thought that sounded like “No duh,” and pushed him forward again.
Keith placed his face in his hands and hung his head before quickly standing up and taking a step towards Lance.
“You’re the idiot,” Keith whispered, taking Lance’s face in his hands, cupping his cheeks gently.
Lance’s eyes lite up. “No, pretty sure you are the idiot. Who just confessed his feelings, oh yeah, that was me! I won this round,” Lance declared loudly. Keith couldn’t argue with that logic.
Keith sighed. “Fine, you win.”
“Are you gonna say it or not?” Lance asked.
“Say what?”
“That you like me too!”
“Do I need to?”
“Idiot…”
“Fine, fine! I like you, you dork, can I kiss you?” Keith shouted, his voice trembling and his face heating up to the temperature akin to lava.
To his credit, Lance flushed as well, before nodding his head. Keith crashed their lips together in a kiss as awkward as the two of them were. He knew that he was never going to look at Christmas the same again.
~~~~~~~
“Let me get this straight. You made a promise to yourself, to tell me on Christmas, but thought that no one was keeping track of what day it was back on Earth so it wouldn’t be an issue?” Keith asked, barely keeping a hysterical grin off his face.
“I mean, it sounded like a good idea, don’t give me that look! Keithhhhh!” Lance screamed in fury and embarrassment as Keith fell over laughing.
“You are the biggest idiot in the galaxy!” Keith said after his airways were once again able to get oxygen when his laughter subsided.
”Yeah, but I’m your idiot,” Lance pointed out.
“Would you two please get a room?” Pidge breathed angrily at the two dorks making googly eyes at each other in the control room.