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Keith was frustrated. Which, to be perfectly honest, wasn’t new. The red paladin was constantly finding small frustrations and problems to deal with on this space castle or whatever that he was living on, and most of them stemmed from one blue paladin in particular. But tonight, Keith was frustrated because he couldn’t sleep. He figured it to be an unfortunate side-effect from consuming an alien drink that had the same amount of caffeine in it as 3 cups of coffee, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now except to ride out the caffeine and wait for the inevitable crash. If alien coffee worked anything like earth’s? He had no idea.
Keith ran his hands through his long hair and left his room, carrying his empty mug to the kitchen and thinking about hitting the training deck. He figured if he had so much energy he might as well do something useful with it, and as he headed that way he passed the control room awash with soft lights. Curious as to who else would be up at this time of night, Keith poked his head in the room and saw Lance huddled on the ground, staring up at the gentle lights floating in orbit around the room. The stars moved across the room slowly, washing the paladin in blue light akin to his robotic Lion and across his skin.
Keith was struck suddenly with the beauty and overwhelming sense of longing of the scene he had walked into conveyed. There was something unbearable about this boy sitting alone and staring at simulated images of a life far far away from the one they lived now, and he couldn’t bear it. He couldn’t bear this aching in his chest and had half a mind to turn and clear his mind of it. But he wouldn’t bear to see his friend so lonely and just leave him in this aching state.
“Lance?”
The blue paladin jumped like he had been electrocuted, “Oh, Keith! You took me by surprise!”
Keith had to stifle a laugh at Lance’s face and stepped into the room, “What, you? Surprised? I thought you were the master of all things stealth.”
Lance rolled his eyes and forced out a laugh as they continued with their usual banter. It had become much less venomous as the weeks had gone on and they had gotten to know one another, and Keith found he enjoyed teasing and bickering with Lance over stupid, inconsequential things. It made the whole “Defenders of the Universe” business seem much less intimidating and daunting when you had people who made you see the little things too.
And it felt right. Being here, with Lance, in the middle of the night, came with an unbearable sense of ease that made Keith feel warm inside. He stared for a moment at his blue paladin, watching the way the lights made his blue eyes shine and patterns like freckles across his face. Keith felt a different warmth crawl up his cheeks as he sat down next to him with loud popping of his limbs.
“Dude,” Lance deadpanned, “You’re too young to be sounding like that.”
Keith forced back a derisive laugh, “You think I sound bad, you should hear Shiro’s back when we spar. Or Pidge’s neck after she’s been coding for too long.”
“You mean every moment of her life?”
“Basically.” Keith smiled at that; he remembered having to lift the small girl onto a couch once in the middle of the night when she’d fallen asleep sitting upright.
Naturally, though, Lance had to do one better. “I’m sure Hunk cracking my back after getting out of that healing pod beats anything you’ve ever popped. I felt as spineless as a squid after that hug.”
The memory of Lance stumbling out of the healing pod and his face as Hunk’s mass crushed him made Keith laugh, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the caffeine, or how tired he was, but he laughed much longer and harder than he had in a while. When he finally caught a hold of himself, though, Lance was staring at him with brilliant blue eyes as wide as saucers.
“Uh, Lance?” he suddenly felt self-conscious for some reason, “you okay?”
Lance cleared his throat and spoke quickly, “What me yeah I’m fine, it’s fine, we’re all good and fine, it’s fine.”
“You do realize the more times you say you’re fine the less I believe you, right?” He raised an eyebrow.
That only served to make it worse, however, because Lance just giggled and stood up shakily, “Sí estoy bien pero necesito usar el baño ahora mismo. Estoy bien es bueno, adiós!” He shot erratic finger-guns and ran off, leaving Keith confused and even more frustrated.
He would never understand Lance, ever. One minute he’d be having a good, civil conversation with the blue paladin for once and then it would just get weird and he’d start rambling in Spanish. He was loud and flirtatious and loyal and pretty and—
Keith felt his chest tighten and pressed his fist to his forehead, letting the coolness of his skin clear his mind. Every conversation he had with Lance left him breathless and overanalyzing every detail, wondering what had made him go off.
‘Was it something I said?’
He didn’t really think so. Anyone could tell you that the mere sight of Keith drove Lance up the wall at times, case in point when he’d nearly gotten them killed saving Shiro back on earth. So what the hell had just happened?
Something big, apparently, because Lance started acting especially annoying around Keith after that. He started smirking at him more and was more aggressive with their ludicrous rivalry, though it never had any real bite.
Worst, though, was the flirting. Lance had started being much more overt and flirtatious with any and all the aliens they came across, and not just the girls. It shouldn’t have shocked Keith as much as it did when the blue paladin had quirked his ridiculous eyebrows at an alien and delivered awful pick-up lines, but Keith couldn’t get it out of his head. For some odd reason that bothered him above all else, and he couldn’t stop thinking about it, even when he and Shiro were sparring and he’d nearly been decked by his Galra fist.
“Got something on your mind, buddy?” Shiro asked as Keith countered with his bayard.
“It’s nothing,” Keith shook his head.
Shiro glanced the blow off his metal arm and pressed on, “You know you can talk to me about anything, right? It’s not good to keep things bottled up for too long.”
Keith fought the urge to roll his eyes; of course Shiro would go into “Dad-Mode™” if he sensed anything was wrong. Coran did the same thing, except with a lot more alien confusion and explanations required. “Really, it’s fine.”
He caught Shiro’s raised eyebrow in between strikes, “Okay, I trust you.”
They finished their session quickly after that, the silence only broken by their huffs for breath and clanging of bayard against metal. Keith could tell Shiro hadn’t slept well the night before from this silence; usually the black paladin was focused and cheery, but when he had nightmares it affected his mood while fighting.
When they finished, Shiro pulled off his helmet and wiped the sweat from his brow, “Good job today, Keith. You’re getting stronger every day,” he smiled gently, his eyes distant.
“Does it ever bother you?” he blurted before thinking, “the seeming lack of dedication by the others, I mean,” he added quickly, “Sometimes it doesn’t feel like they understand what’s really important with our mission.”
Shiro looked confused for a moment, then placed a hand to his chin, “Is this about Lance?”
“What?” Keith felt his cheeks flush, “How—what does he have to do with anything?”
“Well, he has been a lot more…” Shiro trailed off, thinking of the right word.
“Annoying?”
“Outgoing is the word I was looking for, especially towards the aliens we’ve recently encountered,” the older paladin looked at him meaningfully, “and I’ve seen how you look at him. You’re not as subtle as you think, you know.”
Keith squawked and felt his face burn, “What are we, sixth-graders?”
“From your expression, yes.”
He huffed and crossed his arms, turning away from the black paladin’s smirk.
“Hey,” Shiro said in a much gentler tone, making Keith turn to look at him again, “It’s okay for you to be jealous; just don’t let it affect the team, okay?”
The red paladin felt his anger deflate like a balloon and nodded, “Yeah, no problem.” It was no use denying anything at this point; it would just make him look more hopeless.
Shiro clapped him on the shoulder and left Keith to his thoughts.
***
Needless to say, Keith tried not to rip Lance a new one the next time he flirted with an alien, but he couldn’t help but notice the way the blue paladin’s glance kept finding its way onto him.
“Well, I may be homesick for earth,” Lance smirked as his gaze flickered over to Keith, “But I’m lovesick for you.”
Keith felt the familiar tightening of his chest with something akin to hope grip his heart. Not because he liked Lance’s eyes when they looked at him. Or that he always stood next to Keith wherever they were.
Or that they had a bonding moment they both remembered.
Nope, nothing like that.