Work Text:
You’re Different a Little – You Got Answers to My Riddles
“Okay, gang, we’re gonna play a fun game,” Lance says with a bright smile that bodes no good for anyone. Keith, who had ended up sprawled on the floor when his boyfriend and pillow stood suddenly, glares up at him through his hair.
“No.”
“Yes,” Lance says cheerfully, sitting down and tugging lightly at Keith’s shirt until Keith, grumbling all the while, sits up and drops his head back on Lance’s lap, “My moms are currently addicted to ‘Table Topics’ because we weren’t nosy enough apparently.”
“What?” Pidge scrunches up her nose and stares at the box in Lance’s hand.
“Oh, I know this!” Allura cries, delighted as only Allura on her second glass of pink wine can be.
It’s Family Dinner Night and Shiro and Allura are actually both in attendance for once, a fact that led to a series of complicated communicative facial expressions between Keith and Shiro – which ended in Shiro smacking Keith on the back of the head and Keith yelling “I’m calling Social Services!” at his retreating back. And a subsequent exchange of complicated communicative facial expressions between Keith and Lance which led to a childish slap-fight and Lance sulking overdramatically for five whole seconds.
As far as Pidge and Hunk can surmise, Keith wants Shiro to make a move on the Allura front, Shiro is a blushing maiden about the whole thing, and Lance wants to match-make but Keith won’t let him meddle. Pidge, for one, is in favor of meddling because humans can’t be trusted to form their own relationships safely – see The Klance Courtship for details. Hunk is against meddling because he believes in fate and true love. This supposed belief is quite possibly directly related to how much he doesn’t want Lance meddling in his own love life.
“It’s a game of sorts –” Allura is endeavoring to explain Table Topics, “You pull cards and they’ve got questions on them –” her English accent is more pronounced when she drinks and Shiro is looking pathetically smitten…until Keith starts tossing popcorn kernels at him. Then he’s just glowering at his unrepentant sibling. Pidge is pretty sure Keith never managed to grow out of the childish impulse to sabotage any and all older sibling relationships. She’s got to sympathize with him – she definitely has had a hand in the destruction of some of Matt’s more disastrous relationships. (Adjective not really needed – her brother’s lifelong love affair with danger definitely extends to his actual love affairs.)
“- and everyone has to answer the question! Sometimes people make up rules too, when we play with the family Coran invents all sorts of mad rules. It’s very chaotic.”
“I’m thinking just straight-up awkward questions,” Lance says, “Ease you novices into it.”
“I’m still not telling you why and how I got arrested, Lance,” Keith mutters into his thigh.
“He was seventeen and in a bar fight because he got lost in the city and asked the wrong people for directions,” Shiro says bluntly, ignoring his brother’s death glare, “There, mystery solved.”
Keith sticks his tongue out at him and pelts him with more popcorn.
Lance hums, “Noooo, now I just have more questions.”
“Too bad,” Keith sing-songs, “Shut up Shiro.”
Shiro just chuckles, “At least I told him about the cool time you got arrested. The other two stories are lame.”
Lance stares at Keith with huge eyes, “I feel so lied to.”
Keith huffs, “We were playing Truth or Dare – I said truth, you asked me if I’d ever been arrested, I said yes.”
“THREE WHOLE TIMES!” Lance shouts, “That’s…really hot, actually.”
Keith snorts, “Glad my youthful indiscretions keep me attractive.”
“You know it, babe.” Lance pets his hair, “Now, are we gonna ask each other dumb questions or not?”
The rest of the group hums agreement, “I’ll start,” Allura offers, “Since I’ve played before.”
“My lady,” Lance bows to her as much as one can bow when one is sitting on the floor, and offers her the box.
She takes it gracefully, fuck, everything Allura does is graceful, the adjective is really unnecessary, “Alright, boys and girls,” she says, “Ooh, this one seems rather appropriate. Ahem. Have you ever come up with a good idea while drinking?”
“Oh yeah,” Pidge says right away, “I built Rover in like, a night, when Lance was off on a camping trip and Hunk and I drank basically all the alcohol.”
“All of it,” Hunk agrees from the doorway, “Also, look who I found!”
“Hi guys!” Matt waves from Hunk’s side, “Hunk found me!”
Pidge rolls her eyes, “Hunk, we sent you to the grocery store. The grocery store. Not the dumb-brother-depot.”
“Yeah, we’ve already got one, see?” Keith throws more popcorn at Shiro and Shiro throws it back because why act like actual grownups when you could behave like toddlers instead?
“Well, I was in line to check out – by the way, buying this much Hard Apple Ale makes me feel like I’m in college again and I don’t like it.”
“Not everyone can drink straight vodka like Keith and live to tell about it,” Lance says sagely.
“The only straight thing about me,” Keith mutters and fucking giggles because even Keith is eventually affected by that much vodka.
Hunk patiently waits for them to stop before continuing with his story, “When I had to stop this guy because apparently there is a limit to how many lottery tickets the cashier is allowed to sell one person at once and he reached it twenty tickets ago.”
“I have a theory about probability I want to test,” Matt protests but is silenced by Pidge’s dramatic sigh as she rubs her temples wearily.
“Just take a Smirnoff Ice like a good little sorority girl and sit down and join the family fun,” Pidge orders and to no one’s surprise Matt obeys with minimal complaint. He settles in next to Pidge and looks around the room like an excited puppy, “So? What are we playing?”
“Table Topics,” Allura tells him, “the current question is ‘Have you ever come up with a good idea while drinking’?”
“Hmm,” Matt seems to seriously consider it while Pidge rolls her eyes dramatically, “No, I can’t say I have.”
Pidge sighs. Well at least he’s self-aware.
“Hunk?” Allura asks and Hunk chuckles.
“Like, fifty percent of my bonding moments with that guy,” he pokes Lance in the arm, “involved alcohol so I guess I’ve got to say yes.”
“Aww,” Lance bats his eyelashes extravagantly, “I’m so glad our friendship was the one drunken decision you didn’t regret.”
“Freshman year is a blur,” Hunk sighs but doesn’t seem too torn up about it.
“Keith?” Allura asks and immediately regrets it when Keith says “yes” while Shiro almost simultaneously says “no.” The brothers stare at each other for a long moment before Keith huffs a sigh and mumbles a reciprocal “no.” Shiro looks smug.
“Well,” Lance takes his turn without prompting, “I’ve made a lot of stupid decisions while drunk…but they all seem to work out pretty awesome-ly so that’s cool. I met Allura when I fell off a roof at a party…and Hunk and I’s epic bromance is nothing to sneeze at…So yeah, I’m gonna have to answer yes.”
“Your lifestyle concerns me,” Keith mutters.
“Hypocrite,” Lance says fondly.
Keith pulls a face but doesn’t argue. They really are sickeningly cute.
“Shiro?” Allura smiles at him and his face goes temporarily blank.
“Uh, no, I’m gonna go with no.”
“Really?” Allura tips her head to the side and Pidge really wants to laugh at Shiro but restrains herself because sometimes she can have manners. But only sometimes.
“I don’t drink much,” Shiro admits, “I kind of had a ‘lost year’ where alcohol and violence featured heavily so that kind of scared me sober.”
“Canadian cage-fighting,” Keith snickers and Shiro flicks popcorn at him. At this rate they aren’t going to have any snack food.
“Allura?” Lance asks her and she taps her lips consideringly.
“I can’t say I’ve ever had any really good ideas but I haven’t done anything I regret,” She shrugs, “Sorry, I’m rather boring.”
“No worries!” Lance says brightly, “My turn!” and makes grabby hands for the deck. Allura passes it to him and he rifles through it until he finds a card he wants, “Oh, yes! Strangest date ever – go!”
Matt gets a pensive look on his face like he’s trying to figure out which one is actually the strangest when Pidge knows as objective fact all of his past dates have been some flavor of strange. Keith immediately snickers and Lance mutters a not-subtle-at-all “shut up, you,” at him. Shiro just gets a vaguely haunted look in his eyes and shakes his head as if to clear it.
“Okay, I’ll go first,” Pidge offers when no one else seems ready to jump into that nest of vipers, “I went on a date with an AI once.”
This is greeted with predictable “whats” from the uninitiated and pained grimaces and smothered laughter from Matt and Lance respectively.
Pidge grimaces, “This programmer I know wanted to expose her new artificial intelligence program to human rituals such as the ‘typical date experience’ to give it a working database. I was one of many people asked to help out.”
“You went on a date with a computer?” Hunk asks, “When was this?”
Pidge shrugs, “It was in college. I got extra credit.”
“How did I miss this?!”
“You were on study abroad. It was a weird time.”
Hunk continues to look incredulous but the conversation has shifted over to Matt, who has apparently picked his weirdest date, “I went on a blind date at a astrophysics conference in Phoenix this one time and I’m not entirely sure what happened in the middle but by the end of it I was tied to an agave plant with a light-up jump-rope in the middle of the desert.”
“At least it wasn’t a cactus,” Allura offers as Keith shakes his head and mutters “fucking Phoenix” with zero explanation or context.
“I went on one of my mom’s dates once,” Shiro offers, as Keith protests, “I was gonna use that one!” in the background. Shiro sticks his tongue out at his brother and continues, “Keith was six, maybe? And I was fourteen and our mom didn’t want to leave us alone because we were living in this really sketchy hotel in Roswell but this other alien enthusiast had asked her out so we all went to an alien-themed diner and I spent three hours chaperoning my mom and keeping Keith from climbing the walls.”
“Unsuccessfully,” Keith points out, “I totally got to the ceiling before you caught me.”
“Yeah, and getting you down caused a horrifying avalanche of space merchandise as it all fell off the wall at once. On top of me.”
Keith smirks. Pidge reaches across their ragged circle and offers her fist for bumping and he obliges.
“Pretty much any date Lance has ever set me up on has been it’s own kind of weird,” Hunk admits, “Lance is actually a really effective wingman if you don’t care what the end result is.”
Lance scoffs, “I am a brilliant matchmaker. You’re just…difficult to match.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I once went on a blind date with an English foreign exchange student only to find out he was my cousin,” Allura offers, “In his defense, he had absolutely no reason to suspect we were related.”
Lance positively howls with laughter and Allura sighs, “It was really very embarrassing for everybody.”
Lance is laughing too hard to respond.
“I once sabotaged one of Shiro’s dates with Home Alone-style traps when he was sixteen,” Keith says quasi-proudly.
“In Keith’s defense, he was eight.”
“In Keith’s defense, the girl was terrible and Shiro was an idiot who should have known better.”
Shiro sighs, “I wouldn’t say that…”
Keith gives him a flat look, “Shiro. Who had to share a trailer park with that girl for three months before you showed up? Me.”
Shiro sighs at him but doesn’t argue. “I still think the traps were excessive.”
“I think they were brilliant.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“Hmm,” Keith hums smugly but doesn’t continue to argue.
Lance gets his breath back finally and says, “Strangest bad date would have to be that time Nyma stole my car – and strangest good date would probably have to be when Keith and I went to the trampoline park and parkoured around until the employees made us leave because their insurance didn’t cover our acrobatic excellence.”
“You almost cracked your skull,” Keith grumbles.
“And yet I didn’t…”
The whole group just sort of snorts at that one and the game continues as usual with Keith drawing “What was the last movie to make you cry?”
“Finding Dory,” Hunk says immediately because Hunk is a sap.
“Rogue One,” Shiro answers quietly and they all have a moment of accidental silence as they remember that yeah, he’s Keith’s dorky older brother but he’s also the only one of them to have actually seen the cost of war first hand.
Matt breaks the tension with a tentative “Suicide Squad? Just, it could have been so much better…” which has them all grumbling agreement.
“I watch Wall-E periodically and sob,” Pidge admits, “Sob like a fucking baby because fucking Pixar, okay?”
“You’ve really committed to this robot theme, haven’t you?” Keith says archly and she nods solemnly.
“My soul is but a data chip.”
“Casablanca always makes me tear up a little,” Allura confesses, “Pretty much all classics with bittersweet endings get me.”
“I cry at literally everything,” Lance laughs, “Pretty much all animal movies will make me sniffle, it’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah, but the most recent wasn’t an animal movie,” Keith teases.
“Shut up, Keith.”
“Do you want to tell them or should I?”
“Ugh, shut up.”
“So we binge-watched Star Trek movies last weekend.”
“Into Darkness had some very dark moments, okay?!”
“Yeah, you totally bawled like a baby when Kirk saved the ship,” Keith grants him, “But you sniffled when the tribble came back to life. You shouted ‘it lives!’. You were emotionally invested in a tribble.”
“I own my emotions,” Lance sniffs, “Unlike somebody. Who has yet to answer his own question.”
Keith huffs but doesn’t deny it, “There are only two movies in the world that can make me cry. And the only reason I’m admitting this, for the record, is that Lance and Shiro can both rat me out if I lie.”
“Damn right,” Shiro says, tone very serious.
Keith rolls his eyes toward the ceiling and addresses it instead of the assembled company, “Shiro and I saw Big Hero 6 in theaters and we had to call one of Shiro’s work friends for a ride because we were too emotionally compromised to function.”
Which…okay…Pidge gets that. She gets that a little too strongly, maybe. She had definitely called Matt immediately after seeing that stupid movie and forced him to promise to never run into a burning building or leave a robot therapist to help her recover from his untimely demise.
“And…” Keith winces, “ugh, The Outsiders, okay? I love that book a stupid amount and that movie is fucking beautiful too.”
Luckily they aren’t assholes enough to make fun of this – a rare moment of Emotionally Honest Keith. Lance just nods and says, “I knew that, but I’m still proud of you for admitting it, babe.”
“Shut up,” Keith grumbles, but presses his cheek against Lance’s leg, curling into the hand still stroking his hair.
“My turn!” Pidge decides to take the path of least resistance and ignore any lingering emotional whatever and grabs the box, “Also, all of y’all are liars, you totally cried when we watched Les Miserables.”
“I didn’t,” Keith says proudly.
Pidge rolls her eyes, “That’s cuz you’ve actually worked the show. You are numb to its transcendent beauty.”
“Definitely,” Keith agrees easily.
Pidge flips through the cards until she finds one her itchy fingers like, “Ookay, so here’re the hard questions – if you had to switch parents with someone, whose parents would you want?”
“Like, switch-switch or just get adopted into their family?” Keith asks.
“It doesn’t specify. Whatever you want,” she shrugs, “I’m gonna go with Hunk because his mom and dad make the best food and I am 100% motivated by my stomach.”
“Pidge’s parents,” Matt tries, but gets shot down by a buzzer noise from Allura.
“Ehhhh, no. You have the same parents.”
“Fine,” Matt sighs, “I’ll follow Pidge to Hunk’s house.”
“Me too,” Lance says, “Anything for barbeque.”
“Um, I guess I’ll go with Lance’s moms because I’m pretty sure they want to adopt me anyway?” Hunk says, “Also, I’m sure my mom will find it very flattering that you’d all abandon your families for her cooking.”
“Well, I would let Matt and Pidge’s parents adopt me,” Shiro says, “Dr. and Dr. Holt are brilliant in their fields.”
“Neeeerd,” Lance teases and Shiro shrugs.
“I think I’ll go with the Holts too,” Allura says, “Us medical professionals have to stick together.”
“Can I have Shiro’s dad but not his stepmother?” Keith asks, “I’m pretty sure she hates me but Shiro’s dad’s pretty cool.”
Lance pets his boyfriend’s hair as the rest of them try to figure out what to do with that statement, “If you can’t I’m sure my moms will take you. They like you.”
Keith smiles one of his rare, brilliant smiles. “Okay.”
Pidge shoves the deck at Matt while the moment lasts.
“What personality trait has gotten you into the most trouble?” he reads, and snorts, “My curiosity. Definitely.”
“Uh,” Pidge has to think about this one, “I don’t know?”
Hunk snorts, “Your tendency to work until you pass out maybe?”
“Eh, sounds legit.”
“Ooh, yes, let’s do them for each other!” Allura says, “That’s brilliant. Me next!”
“Well, Allura gets too emotionally invested in things,” Pidge says, “Like, it’s not a bad thing? But you sometimes care too much.”
Allura nods, “Trues. Hmmm, I know we’ve already talked about Matt but I’d have to say one of your best and worst traits is your tendency to believe the best about any situation.”
Matt chuckles and runs a hand through his hair, “Yeah, definitely.”
“Shiro tries to take care of everyone but never takes care of himself,” Keith says, voice quiet.
Shiro snorts, “Thanks, kiddo. You let your emotions run away with your logic. But you’re better about it now.”
“Gee, thanks,” Keith grimaces but smiles.
“Hunk, my man,” Lance says, “You are the clumsiest person I know. And I know me. Also, your motion-sickness thing seriously worries me on road trips.”
“I like how none of these have gotten too mean,” Matt says brightly, “You’re all very supportive trash-talkers.”
Keith pokes Lance in the face; “You put too much emotional significance on things. You need to just roll with it. It’s not always a conspiracy.”
Lance huffs, “I’ll put emotional significance on you.”
Keith rolls his eyes, “That doesn’t even make sense.”
Pidge cuts in before this can get out of hand, “Cut the flirting. If you’re gonna make out, do the decent thing and go home where we don’t have to look at you.”
“Our wedding is going to be very uncomfortable for you,” Lance says with a bland smile and Pidge rolls her eyes.
“Quit being gross.”
“Okay, new question – ” Shiro has an evil grin on his face, “Where should Keith and Lance elope?”
The evening devolves from there.
…
Later, tipsy half from alcohol and half from good cheer Keith and Lance lie sprawled together on Pidge and Hunk’s couch, too tired to go home but too wound up to sleep. Everyone else is asleep; Matt curled in an armchair, Shiro and Allura on the floor, Hunk on the loveseat and Pidge in the other chair. The blinds are drawn but a little bit of butter-yellow streetlamp light leaks in through the cracks, edging everyone’s sleeping faces in gold.
Keith and Lance, the only ones with their eyes open, an island of wakefulness in a secret, soft midnight world, play with each other’s fingers – tangling and untangling the digits, lazy and flirtatious all at once. Keith’s hands tell a story, Lance thinks, strong and nimble with callouses and small scars mapping out twenty-seven years on his skin. Lance’s fingers are longer than Keith’s, his hands like birds, accustomed to large expansive gestures like flight – clumsy when met with these smaller, teasing motions – like air birds tottering around on land. Keith’s dance around his and Lance finds himself fascinated by the subtle contrast of them. Keith and Lance. Lance and Keith. They’re breathing together, rib cages rising and falling like tides. They’re still wearing their jeans and t-shirts and they’ll probably wake up all twisted up and uncomfortable in the morning but for now there’s something sweet and soft in this in-between time before morning shakes them all back to life.
“Are we really going to get married someday?” Keith asks quietly, the words barely a breath against Lance’s throat.
Lance coughs slightly, surprised and a little uncomfortable, “Uh, yeah? I mean, I’d like to. Someday. Soon. I know I haven’t like, proposed to you or anything, but…yeah?”
Keith smiles against his throat so he can ‘see’ it in the dark. It feels bittersweet, but mostly sweet. The smile fades quickly, though, like a cloud on a sunny day. “Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why me? Why…pick me?”
Lance wraps his arms around him even tighter as if the mere act of holding Keith close will explain everything he can’t put to words. “Because you make me want to be a better version of myself. Because you’re the first person I want to tell when I see something cool or funny or amazing. Because you’re cool and funny and amazing and every time I tell you about it you get this weird look on your face. I have to keep you around long-term just to teach you about compliments and how you deserve, like, all of them.”
Keith snorts softly and Lance chuckles.
“Okay, maybe not all of them. But…just…I don’t know. You’re my best friend. Other than Hunk. Hunk is a decent second. And I want you to be around forever even if we’re just sitting around doing nothing.”
“Reading Dickens is not nothing.”
“Your obsession with dead British writers disturbs me sometimes.”
Keith pinches him and Lance laughs.
“So? Do you wanna do it? The married thing?” Lance asks and his heart twitches in his chest because this isn’t a joke-that’s-mostly-serious this is real. He could say no.
But Keith is smiling against his throat again, “Yeah. Let’s elope somewhere this summer. But if it’s Vegas there has to be a Waffle House within at least a block. I want to get hitched and get waffles in the same hour.”
“You’re so weird, babe.”
“But you love it.”
“But I love it.”
“Love you too,” Keith mumbles and Lance fake-gasps.
“Was that…was that a voluntary, non-Han-Solo-ing love confession from Keith Kogane? What is the world coming to?”
“Just go to sleep.”
“No, I’m going to bask in the glory that is your love and affection.”
“You do that.”
“I will.”
They fall asleep to the sound of silence.