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“Lance! Let’s go! Everyone is waiting,” Keith yelled to his fellow paladin, slouching against a massive tree and rolling his eyes at the exchange he was witnessing.
“You have to leave so soon? But what about our date? I want to see you again,” Keith overheard the alien say to Lance as he faltered to come up with a proper explanation.
Huh. He asked them on a date? Come on, Lance. You can do better.
Crossing his arms, Keith looked to where his feet were crushing the flowers that covered this planet. Awful for his allergies. That was pretty pathetic, Keith. Don’t insult them just because you have a massive crush on the guy talking them up. The people here emulated their planet. Their skin resembled the bark of an oak tree in appearance but was smooth upon contact. Their hair was made of flowers, their eyes glowed like opals, and they levitated above the ground to protect the other creatures hopping and crawling about. They weren’t too keen on the paladin’s large, hefty boots, but they preferred them over the destructive Galra rule they’d been under for several years.
The Voltron crew had been on this planet, named Acranam, for over a week, fighting off the soldiers stationed in Galra outposts. Luckily, they hadn’t been settled here for long, so the planet wasn’t completely stripped of its resources. Though, Princess Allura still made her best effort to rejuvenate the planet and reverse any damage done to it and its inhabitants. In that time, Lance had gotten to know about half the population and Keith became more and more hopeless. It was difficult not to fall more in love with the bright-eyed boy under the light of three moons reflecting from luminescent flowers.
“Alright, I’m ready to go! Keith? Hey, come on,” Lance was standing right in front of Keith and when he lifted his head, they were sharing the same breathing space. The sudden closeness startled Keith more than he cared to admit. Without saying anything, he turned in the direction of the castle ship taking large strides away from Lance.
He called after Keith, “Oh, come on! I didn’t mean to make you wait around. Keith, hey! Don’t be mad at me.”
Lance sprinted up beside him and when Keith looked to his left, he was met with bright eyes and a pout.
“I’m not mad at you, Lance. Just excited to sleep in something besides a hut, finally.” I can’t get mad at you anymore. Just mad at myself for falling in lo- Oh God, what if he can hear my thoughts? Is he looking at me? I think he’s looking at me. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. They continued walking in an uncomfortable silence. Keith could feel Lance’s eyes on him from time to time and it took all his self-control to avoid returning the glance. When Lance’s hand brushed against his, Keith nearly lost it. He tried to cover the almost-squeal with a cough and gradually put about two feet of distance between him and Lance.
They continued walking.
…and walking.
Keith was almost sure the ship wasn’t this far from where they were. At first, he thought it was the universe slowing time because it wanted to watch him suffer, but it turned out that they had been walking much further than they should have been.
Keith used the comm in his helmet to contact Shiro and received an immediate response.
“Shiro, are you there?”
“Keith! What happened to you guys?”
Lance was persistently trying to get close enough to hear both sides of the conversation from inside Keith’s helmet. Backing away, Keith tripped over a rock and, this time was unable to conceal the shriek that came from his mouth.
“…Keith?”
“Yeah, I’m here. Sorry. Uh- Lance and I are still on Acranam. Where are you all? Where’s the ship?”
“Um, well,” Shiro sounded like he was struggling to describe the situation, “according to Coran, the ship sort of has…a mind of its own? All of the lions returned to their hangars once Hunk, Pidge, and I boarded the ship and then it left Acranam’s orbit.”
Lance was contently leaning his head against the side of Keith’s helmet, so when Keith decided to raise his voice, he couldn’t help but fall back.
“And you decided to tell me this now?!”
“Hey! Don’t you blame me for that. You and Lance both had yours comms off. I tried to contact each of you several times and neither of you responded.” Shiro’s voice took on a mischievous tone, “We all thought the two of you were having a moment. Didn’t want to disturb.”
Keith could hear Pidge in the background, “or that you were dead.”
Shiro must have shot her a scolding look because her laughter abruptly stopped seconds after it began.
“Anyway,” Shiro continued, “we’re pretty far out. Not far enough to use a black hole to get back there, but it’ll probably take around two days to re-enter Acranam’s orbit. Then we can just send your lions. Until then, you’ll just have to rest easy.”
Keith looked to Lance who just shrugged. What did I do to deserve this? Who is responsible for my suffering? How am I supposed to survive two whole days with him when I almost died twice in the past ten minutes? Needless to say, Keith was panicking.
Somehow, he managed a calm voice. “Yeah, alright.”
“We’ll keep you updated. Keep your comm on…and have fun.” Then, All Keith heard was silence as Shiro ended the connection.
He turned to Lance, avoiding eye contact. “We should probably just head back to the huts where we’ve been sleeping. Shiro said it’ll probably take two days for them to get back to us.”
As he began to walk in the direction from which they came, Lance made an appalled sound in the back of his throat.
“We finally have a couple days off on a beautiful planet with other people and you’re just going to go back to the huts?” Lance sounded as if Keith had deeply wounded him. Keith gave him a disinterested shrug. “You mean to tell me that you joined a space exploration program and you’re not going to explore? Nope, nuh uh, not on my watch.”
Suddenly, Keith was being dragged by the hand in a different direction by a very excited Lance. He couldn’t really hear what Lance was saying over the sound of his own heartbeat, but he thinks it has something to do with some “super cool cave type of thing” that he discovered.
“Lance, wait! It looks like it’s about to rain.”
“No, it’s not!”
Ten minutes later they were standing beneath the overhang of the “super cool cave type of thing,” located on the side of a small mountain, and they were both soaking wet. Luckily, they were both wearing their paladin suits, but the pelting rain outside still found its way into every crack and crevice. They were both slightly out of breath when they reached the cave, but Lance was still beaming. His laugh echoed against the walls. Running out into the open air, he spun in circles, helmet left on the ground beside Keith, and let the water fall onto his face. What was only about ten minutes of watching Lance dance in the rain, illuminated by the three moons and distant lightning, felt like hours.
Keith was shivering and cold, but he’d never felt so warm. Lance looked happier than he had ever seen him.
When Lance returned to the safety of their makeshift shelter, he was panting and his hair was flattened against his head and sticking to his forehead.
“Oh, I’ve missed rain so much,” Lance laughed. Keith wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to the mess of a boy in front of him, but he lost the opportunity when he started shaking from a myriad of sneezes.
When he was finally able to open his eyes again, Lance was staring at him with a sympathetic smile. He hoped it was dark enough that Lance couldn’t see the heat forming beneath his cheeks.
“You alright?” Keith mumbled a response, which was enough for Lance to continue speaking. “So, what do you think of it? It’s kind of dark now, but I still think it’s pretty cool. Found it the other day when we were searching for other Galra soldiers.”
After a considerable silence, Keith, who was trying to cease his shivering, realized Lance was patiently waiting for him to reply.
“Oh, um- yeah. I-it’s pretty…um, cool.”
That seemed to suck all the joy from Lance’s being. “That’s it? You’re killing me, mullet. Won’t lie, I was hoping for a little more excitement than that. I mean, you were the one who found the cave Blue was in, so when I saw this, it made me think of you. It kind of reminded me of that cave. Well, minus the markings and stuff.”
This made him think of me? He was thinking of me?
“I didn’t mean it like that. I do love it, a lot. It’s really…cool and it does look like Blue’s cave without the markings,” Keith was struggling to find enough words to let Lance know that he did appreciate the gesture.
Lance just chuckled at his flustered state. “Oh, so now you want to spare my feelings?” Keith wasn’t sure what he meant by that. He was unable to ask him though because Lance’s eyes lit up and suddenly, Keith was being dragged again.
“I haven’t even shown you the best part!”
A bit further down into the cave, there was a small opening in the ceiling where moonlight shined brightly through, illuminating the area and allowing some of the native plant life to flourish there. The rain had stopped, but water still coated the ground and plant life. The air had that refreshing post-rain scent.
They were standing still, but Lance still had a hold of Keith’s hand. Lance didn’t seem to notice, but Keith felt like he could collapse at any moment. There was a comfortable silence as they both observed the beautiful environment around them. Keith couldn’t keep himself from sneaking several quick glances of Lance, though. He had this small, content smile on his face. The light shining through the ceiling brightened his eyes and illuminated his cheek bones. His shoulders rose and fell softly with his breathing. He is so beautiful.
Then, those bright eyes met his. Keith gasped. He had been caught.
Keith felt vulnerable. His secret had been exposed. He was humiliated.
But, Lance was still smiling softly.
I wonder if he can hear my heartbeat. It’s so loud. How could he not?
Lance turned to face Keith, their hands still clasped together. Water droplets still ran down their faces, but the warmth emanating from Lance had stopped Keith’s shivering. He licked his lips out of habit drawing Lance’s eyes to them. Both paladins stopped breathing for a moment.
When their lips touched, the world around them seemed to stop. Keith didn’t even realize he was on his tippy toes until Lance pulled away and tried to mumble an apology. He couldn’t get the words out before Keith was shaking his head ‘no’ and pulling Lance back in for another one. And another one. And on until it was dark and both were freezing cold and dizzy from the emotions coursing through them.
The next day, Keith didn’t leave the hut. And not because of the romantic reasons he had imagined before falling asleep, but because his allergies turned out to be the onset of a nasty cold. He had a fever, his chest hurt, he was really just a mess surrounded by mucus and tissues.
Fucking great. I’m sure the disgusting mess that is myself right now will surely make Lance fall head over heels.
Fortunately, (or maybe, Keith thought, unfortunately), neither of them brought up the kiss during that time. Lance seemed to busy taking care of Keith in his pathetic state and Keith had lost his voice.
When the other paladins finally returned to retrieve Lance and Keith, physically he was doing better, but mentally, he was a bit bruised. He didn’t want to get his hopes up by thinking that the kiss actually meant a lot, but he also didn’t want to believe it was just a casual thing.
That night at dinner, Keith reassured everyone that he was no longer contagious and would probably be better by the next ship morning.
When Lance started coughing and sneezing uncontrollably an hour later, everyone stared at Keith. Coran, Allura, and Shiro gave him a knowing look. Hunk just looked shocked and Pidge, of course, was laughing so hard her drink almost came out her nose. Keith wanted to sink through the floor and be swallowed a black hole. He couldn’t have controlled the blush rushing to his face, and he did try, but it only got worse when he looked in front of him to see Lance’s chin resting on his palm and a flirty smile spread across his face. He was fluttering his eyelashes and the tip of his nose was red from sneezing into several boxes of tissues.
It is not fair how cute you are.
Of course, Keith was assigned the task of looking after Lance for the following few days. The others refused to risk everyone getting sick and since Keith had already gotten over the same cold, he would be least likely to catch it from Lance. Also, everyone on that ship just wanted to watch him suffer. As if everyone hadn’t known for a while, Keith wore a permanent blush for the next few days. The teasing had ended the day it began, save a few remarks from Pidge. It didn’t matter to Keith though. Just knowing that they all knew was enough to send him over the edge.
And Lance wasn’t making things any easier.
Some days it was Lance’s stubbornness.
“Come one, Lance. Just let me do it,” Keith pleaded.
“I do not need your help to take a drink. I think I can manage,” Lance’s sarcasm backfired when he broke into a coughing fit and ended up spilling the water all over himself and the bedding.
Lance looked up at Keith with sad, defeated eyes. “Keeeeeith.”
“I told you to just let me do it, but nooo…,” Keith left the room without another word only to return not five minutes later with warm blankets and clean pajamas. As well as another glass of water.
Other days it was Keith’s cooking.
“What the hell is that smell?” Somehow, Lance looked worse today than he had yesterday. He sounded like a fussy toddler due to his stuffy nose.
“I made you soup,” Keith tried to gauge Lance’s reaction and was suddenly very conscious of his lack of cooking skills. “It’ll taste good, I promise. I’ve had to cook for myself a lot.”
Lance shook his head, “It is a wonder you’re still alive.” Rather than respond to Keith’s offended expression, he continued, “You didn’t have to cook me something yourself. I’m sure one of the others would have been fine with making food for me.”
“You phrased that like you’re trying to look out for me, but all I hear is that you’d rather have Coran cook for you than me.”
Lance looked around awkwardly and shrugged. That was exactly what he meant.
Keith’s expression fell. “Just eat it.”
He rolled his eyes at the way Lance so carefully put a drop of the soup to his lips.
“It’s not like you can taste anyway. Your nose is all plugged up anyway.”
“I know! That’s what worries me. Because if I can smell this, it has to be a lot more pungent than what I’m smelling and I find that very concerning.”
When Keith’s expression didn’t change, Lance surrendered by putting a spoon full of the soup into his mouth. The way he determinedly kept it down was almost comical.
“It can’t be that bad.”
“Oh, it is,” Lance responded immediately.
Frustrated and rejected, Keith grabbed the bowl from Lance’s hands and headed for the door.
“I’m sorry, it’s just- how do you fuck soup up that badly? I mean, it’s soup.”
“You are really ungrateful. Do you know that?”
Most of the time they were both a mess.
“What do you mean you don’t know which ones are which?”
“I don’t even know the name of the planet these came from. Okay? Allura told me to give you this medicine because if you don’t start getting better you might have to go into a healing pod and-”
“Yeah, except you mixed the two very different capsules up and one causes hair loss!”
“It’s not like it wouldn’t grow back,” Keith tried to rationalize, but Lance wasn’t having it.
“Why would anyone even make a pill that causes hair loss?”
“I don’t know, must be some kind of beauty standard for them or something.”
“To be BALD?!”
“Yes. Bald. Now would you please just take one of these?”
Lance could not believe what he was hearing, “I’d think you were joking if I didn’t know you have no consideration for your appearance.” Keith shot him a look, but Lance didn’t stop speaking despite the rasp in his throat, “I don’t know if anyone has ever told you this, but your whole 80’s emo aesthetic is really not working for you.”
“I cannot believe you.”
“I’m telling you because I care. Just get me a pair of scissors and I will literally change your entire look.”
Keith walked out of the room and Allura returned minutes after with the correct medicine. Apparently, neither of the bottles of capsules Keith had brought were the right ones. Allura didn’t elaborate on the possible side-effects of those.
Unfortunately, as time went on and Lance began to recover, he developed an annoying case of cabin fever. The team had carried out a couple smaller missions without him, so Lance had been stuck in bed for the better of a week and a half. Keith, of course, ended up suffering more than anyone.
“Lance, if you ask me one more annoying question, I will throw you off this ship.”
“All I wanted to know is if the minutes on movie boxes include the previews, credits, and special features or just the movie itself. There is no need to get hostile.”
Keith sat at the end of Lance’s bed, idly scrolling through one of the info tablets Coran had provided them all with.
“Obviously, it only includes the movie.”
“You say that, but I swear one time when I was having a Star Wars marathon, I skipped all of the previews and credits and it saved me like an entire hour.”
“Why were you having a Star Wars marathon?” Keith had asked the wrong question.
“Why wouldn’t I have a Star Wars marathon.”
“I mean, I get that they’re considered classics, but you have to admit those movies suck.”
“What series would you rather have a marathon of?” Then Lance added, “And choose your answer wisely.”
Without thinking, Keith said, “Well, if I had to pick from that genre, it’d definitely be Star Trek.”
There was a long silence following Keith’s answer. So much so that Keith made himself look up at Lance only to see him glaring back at him with his hand defensively placed over his chest.
“How could you betray me like this?” Lance’s voice sounded strained and if Keith hadn’t known better, he would have thought Lance was crying. “I can’t believe you. You know what, no- you can fuck right off.”
Keith turned back to his info tablet and, without hesitation, replied, “Love you too.”
Lance gasped and Keith’s eyes were blown wide as he desperately tried to make himself invisible.
“Keith! You love me?! Aw, that’s so embarrassing!” Lance cooed.
“Shut up!” Keith’s first instinct was to get up and leave but he was pulled back onto the bed by Lance’s prying hands. He pulled Keith beneath him and tickled him until he could hardly breathe. Keith was squealing and laughing along with a mantra of “stop”, “please”, and Lance’s name. He tried to kick and squirm away, but despite Lance being sick for almost two weeks, he was still incredibly strong and held his own against Keith. At one point, he held both of Keith’s hands together rendering him completely helpless.
When Lance finally let up, he was straddling Keith’s hips with his hands on either side of Keith’s head. He was laughing as hard as Keith was breathing. Once he caught his breath, Lance found it appropriate to rest his chin on Keith’s chest, spreading himself out on top of him. Keith was finding it difficult to breathe, not because of Lance’s weight, but because holy shit, the most beautiful boy is laying on top of me fuck fuck fuck-
“Unfortunately, I cannot accept your declaration of love because you prefer Star Trek over Star Wars and in no way is that acceptable,” Lance spoke nonchalantly.
“Really? Because, if I remember correctly, you were the one to kiss me first,” Keith went against all the panic in his mind to finally bring up the only thing he’d thought about over the past couple weeks. It was almost refreshing to see Lance with a bright red blush spreading across his cheeks, instead of Keith. Though, he still ended up adding to the flush he’d acquired from being tickled because Lance looked unfairly cute when he was vulnerable.
“True, but that was before I knew your shameful secret.” The two couldn’t stop grinning at each other.
“Hm. Is there anything I could do to make you forgive me?”
“Your hair is kind of doing it for me right now.”
“I thought you hated my hair.”
“Generally, yeah. But now you look like a cat,” Lance reached up and fluffed Keith’s hair, “a really cute, fluffy cat with pretty eyes.” Keith wasn’t used to this much attention, they both knew, and Lance was loving the effect he had over him.
“You look pretty cute yourself.” Keith had never felt so warm and sappy as he did watching Lance’s entire face scrunch up in a bashful smile in that moment.
As if he was bubbling over with emotion, Lance attacked Keith’s face with kisses. He kissed his cheeks, his forehead, his nose, and then his lips. And his lips again. And then once more.
“I love you, too,” Lance mumbled against the other’s lips. Keith gasped, a bright smile spreading across his face, but Lance prevented him from replying by kissing him again.
The next day, both paladins were sick again. The rest of the crew knew exactly what had happened. It was obvious when they witnessed the two groggily shuffling into the kitchen holding hands.
They were just glad that there would be no more lovesick pining from now on.