Chapter Text
“Keith, Lance. Hold on for a second.”
Lance is mid turn when Shiro’s voice forces him back around, interrupting his plans to follow after Hunk and ask if he wants to play one of the many games Lance has invented during his time in space. The castle gets boring, and Lance likes to pride himself on his ability to keep it interesting.
He spares a glance to Keith, who looks as confused as Lance feels, and then snaps his gaze away, grinning at Shiro. “Did you want to commend my awesome skills? Tell Keith that he should try and be more like me?” Lance pretends not to notice Keith’s glare.
Shiro sighs, and Lance feels a wave of worry. That’s never a good sign. (Though, Shiro is sighing a lot these days. Probably a byproduct of having to save the world and being more or less in charge of four teenagers.) He’s also wearing his signature concerned face with a touch of discomfort, which means whatever he’s about to say isn’t going to be something Lance wants to hear. He braces himself for the worst.
“I think you guys should spend more time training together,” Shiro suggests, but it sounds less like a suggestion and more like a request. “You guys have the worst dynamic of anyone on the team and—”
Even braced for impact, the words make his stomach drop. He’d been prepared for something , but not that.
“Uh, no we don’t,” Lance interrupts, and he’s sharing a look with Keith that says they’re on the same page. See, Keith agrees with him.
Sure, they might fight sometimes, but they don’t have the worst dynamic. It isn’t like the fighting gets in the way of their teamwork. At least, he doesn’t think it does. He scrunches up his face, trying to remember past arguments and times that could have dubbed them worst dynamic. There was that one time they crashed their lions into the ground, but it’s not like that was a recurring thing.
They make a good team. They’d already agreed on that, but here was Shiro, telling them otherwise, and it doesn’t sit well with Lance.
“Well, I’d still appreciate it if the two of you started working together more often,” Shiro tells them, and Lance looks to Keith to gauge his reaction. He doesn’t seem opposed to the idea of spending more time with Lance.
“Sure, whatever, if it makes you happy,” Lance says, and then finds himself adding, “But for the record, if we have a bad dynamic it’s Keith’s fault.”
Keith turns to glare, and he huffs, “If it’s anyone’s fault it’s yours!”
Lance shakes his head with an innocent shrug. “Keep telling yourself that, buddy.”
Shiro sighs again, and Lance ignores the way his stomach twists. He doesn't like the idea that he and Keith are somehow bad together.
They aren’t perfect by any means, but they’ve come a long way. Supposedly, they haven't come far enough.
Whatever.
The next day, Keith asks Lance to train with him.
He has his hands shoved deep in his pockets, standing outside Lance’s door like if he stands there long enough, some hole in the floor will open up and he’ll fall through.
“Do you want to train with me?” Keith asks, the words come out reluctant, or maybe nervous. It’s not like they’ve never trained together, they’ve just never gone out of their way to do it. It’s always been, ‘you’re here, I’m here, we might as well work together.’
Lance doesn't let himself get excited. He knows the only reason Keith is asking is because of what Shiro said. Of course Keith would want to make Shiro happy.
Lance leans against his doorframe, grinning. “Are you using Shiro as an excuse to spend time with me?”
Keith crosses his arms over his chest, unamused. “You know what? Forget it,” he huffs, turning around.
He doesn't get far before Lance calls after him. “Hey, Keith, hold up! I was joking. I think it’s a good idea, training together,” he rushes to get out before Keith can get any further.
Keith looks at him, skeptical. “You think it’s a good idea?” He asks, his words coming out slow, like he thinks Lance is gonna finger gun and say ‘gotcha.’
“Yep,” Lance confirms with a nod, and Keith doesn't seem completely convinced, but he’s no longer taking back the offer.
They walk side by side in silence, and Lance only sneaks a few glances at Keith, watching the way he keeps his eyes trained on what’s in front of him. He’s wearing a slight pout that he Lance doesn’t think Keith’s even aware of, and ugh, it’s annoying how Keith can be cute without ever trying.
“So uh, what’d you have in mind?” Lance asks when they reach the training room.
“Um,” Keith pauses, like he hadn’t thought that far in advance.
Lance imagines Keith making a spur of the moment decision to ask Lance to come with him, and the thought brings a smile to his lips before he can stop it.
“I can teach you how to fight with a knife.”
Lance’s eyes widen slightly, but he quickly hides his surprise, nodding in an attempt to give off the impression of chill. “Okay, cool.”
“You want to?”
“Yeah. Sounds exciting,” Lance says with a shrug. Having Keith teach him how to fight with a knife? No big deal.
Except that, every time Keith’s hand lands on Lance when he's showing him how to position himself, touch cautious, like he might break Lance if his grip is too tight, it feels like a big deal.
Lance has had crushes before. He knows them well enough to recognize the signs, to know the swirling in his chest and the tingling of his skin at every touch is how his body reacts when he like someone.
Against all odds, He likes Keith.
Keith is hot tempered and impulsive, and he gets on Lance’s nerves like no one else can but he also… well—
Keith is cool. Keith has always been cool, and maybe that’s part of the problem, because every time Lance watches Keith fly, Lance feels a longing in his heart, a longing to be that good, to have the kind of talent that other people look up to.
Lance knows that he’s a good pilot, but he also knows he’s second, and.... Second doesn’t feel good. Second feels like failure.
Having a crush is hard enough, but having a crush on someone you feel inadequate to, that’s a lot harder.
Lance pushes the thoughts aside in favor of focusing on Keith’s instructions, and when Keith decides that Lance is ready to do some actual fighting, he pretends the closeness that comes with knife fighting doesn’t make his heart bubble with warmth while simultaneously making him nauseous.
Lance has always thought crushes were fun. They’re less fun, however, when the effects hit you in the middle of a god damn knife fight.
He puts up a good fight, he thinks, but in the end, he’s forced to admit defeat.
Despite that, he’s prepared to boast about what a fast learner he is, how he totally almost took Keith down, but Keith surprises him by beating him to it.
“You almost had me there, for a moment,” Keith admits, and he sounds impressed. Lance hates how that makes him giddy.
“What can I say?” Lance brags with an exaggerated shrug, “I’m a fast learner.” Keith didn’t beat him to that line, at least.
“Yeah, you are,” Keith agrees, and Lance curses the heat that rises to his cheeks.
A silence falls between them, and Lance is ready to take that as his queue to leave, he’s already making his way to the door, the words, ‘Thanks for the lesson, Mullet, but I’ve got places to be,’ on the tip of his tongue, but the words never make any further because—
“Do you really think we have the worst dynamic?” Keith asks suddenly, causing Lance’s heart to take a nervous beat as he turns around, hoping the shock doesn't show on his face.
“I don't think our dynamic is worse than any of theirs,” Lance says slowly, carefully, like one wrong move will send them both crashing down.
Keith shakes his head, huffing out in obvious frustration. Lance watches the way Keith’s face twists, like he’s working through his thoughts until finally he gets out, “ I thought we made a good team. ”
Lance swallows, remembering when he said those words. He still stands by them, no matter what Shiro thinks.
“We do,” Lance agrees, and watches as Keith nods.
“I wish,” Keith sighs, biting down on his lip. “I wish there was a way we could show him that.”
Part of Lance is tempted to dispel the tension in the room with a joke, something along the lines of, ‘Aw, Keith, I didn't know you cared so much,’ but he knows now isn't the time for a joke. The air between them feels too heavy.
So instead, he swallows his nerves and says, “Maybe there is.”
Keith’s eyebrows furrow in confusion, and he asks, “What do you mean?”
Lance grins, and it only falters slightly. “Beat me and I’ll tell you.”
Keith’s lip pulls up slightly at the challenge. “You’re on.”
Lance realizes almost immediately that Keith had been going easy on him before, and that knowledge irritates him. He doesn't need the help, and he doesn’t want Keith acting like he does.
“You better not be holding back,” Lance grunts, narrowly missing Keith’s jab.
“I don't want to hurt you,” Keith says, eyes trained on Lance.
“Then don't worry about hurting me.”
Keith shakes his head, leveling Lance with a look that he can't quite place, other than the disbelief that comes with it.
Lance uses Keith’s temporary loss of focus to hurl himself towards Keith, but that does not work in his favor because before he knows what’s happening, Keith has him pinned against the wall, knife to his throat.
“You might find third hard to believe,” Keith gets out, “but I care about your wellbeing.”
The words go straight to his heart.
Lance glances from the knife to Keith, whose breaths comes out heavy, similar to Lance’s.
And of course Lance’s mind decides to remind him that he finds Keith attractive, which is not a thought he wants to be focusing on when said attractive person is currently pinning him against a wall.
Lance coughs awkwardly, and Keith seems to realize the position they’re in, taking a step back and moving the knife to his side.
“So, uh,” Keith turns the knife over in his hands, eyes glued to it. “Are you going to tell me your plan now?”
Lance lets a moment of silence pass before pushing himself from the wall. “After a shower,” he tells Keith. “You should take one too, you’re not smelling too great.” Lance tilts his head and raises his eyebrows, catching a glimpse of offense on Keith’s face before he starts walking away.
“You don't smell good either!” Keith shouts to his departing back, and that actually makes Lance smile.
Apparently, if you’re Keith Kogane, all it takes to make Lance smile is telling him he smells bad.
Lance recognizes that his idea is bad. He knows that, he acknowledges that, but that doesn't stop him from sharing it with Keith anyway.
It’s not like Keith will agree, so what’s the harm in suggesting it? Keith wants to prove Shiro wrong, and this would definitely work, so while he recognizes that it’s a bad idea, he can’t say that it’s all bad.
It’s definitely not the worst plan he’s ever come up with.
Maybe.
Keith’s knock on his door makes him question that.
Lance hops up from his bed, swallowing his nerves and throwing the door open with a grin. “Hey there.”
Keith’s faces shows a moment of surprise at the commotion, and then he’s giving his head a small shake, laughing under his breath with an eye roll. Cute , Lance thinks, and then internally sighs at himself for letting the thought surface.
“So what’s the plan?” Keith asks, stepping into the room and out of the way so Lance can close the door.
“I mean, so like,” Lance starts with his back to Keith, and then he turns to face him. Breathe, Lance . He lets out a breath. “Hear me out.”
Keith raises an eyebrow. “Should I be worried?”
“What? No, it’s a good idea. It’s just, uh, okay. You want to prove Shiro wrong, and uh, well, I was thinking, a really good way to do that would be to fake date,” the words are out, he could stop there and wait for Keith’s reaction, but the idea of silence right now scares him, so instead he keeps talking. “You know, because if we’re dating he can’t say our dynamic is bad. Or it’s less likely. I don’t know, you don’t have to say yes, it was just—”
“Okay,” Keith interrupts, and Lance’s heart rate picks up.
“Okay?” He repeats, as if he isn’t sure what it is Keith is agreeing to.
“Yeah, okay .”
“Seriously?”
“It’s a good plan.”
Keith just agreed to fake dating him. Keith is going to be his fake boyfriend.
Holy shit.
Lance feels his cheeks heat up at the idea, and wow, nope. He is not allowed to blush right now. Not a good idea. It’s a very, very bad idea. None of this is a good idea! What was he thinking!? What is he thinking!?
“So, uh,” Keith starts, and Lance notices the way he shifts, like he’s not quite sure how to say what he wants to say. “How are we gonna...do this?”
Before answering the question, Lance makes a quick list in his head of things he should never do:
- Ask the boy he has a huge crush on to be his fake boyfriend for the sake of proving a point (even if Lance thinks he's going to say no, because apparently he might actually say yes!)
“I, uh, hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Lance admits.
“We’ll plan it out together then,” Keith suggests tentatively, and Lance can’t believe this is actually happening. He’s currently alone in his room, with Keith, about to discuss the details of their fake relationship. That means talking about their fake history, and their fake feelings, which maybe aren’t so fake for Lance.
What could go wrong?
He gets his answer no more than five minutes later, when the words, “So, um, we’re going to have to kiss,” leave Keith’s mouth, followed by a blush.
Kissing.
Of course they have to kiss.
Lance attempts a laugh, something to ease the awkwardness, but in the end it only makes things more uncomfortable.
“No problem,” Lance says with a shrug and a falsely confident grin. “I’m a pro.”
Keith rolls his eyes. “I’m sure you are,” he replies in a tone that indicates he thinks Lance is full of himself.
And then, because this is Keith he’s talking to, and whenever he’s with Keith he seems to lose whatever filter he has, the words, “You’ll be saying something different when I’m kissing you,” come out before he can stop them.
It takes two seconds for his mind to process what he just said, and another second for slight panic to set in.
What. The. Hell.
That’s not what he meant to say! Or, well, it kind of was, but it wasn’t supposed to sound… like that.
He chances a glance in Keith’s direction, and oh. Oh . He’s blushing, and not the light blushes Lance has noticed on him before, but a deep blush that makes Lance’s insides feel all mushy and warm.
And wow, that’s not fair at all.
Lance takes a slow, cautious breath, trying to regain his composure, to pretend those words never left his mouth.
Lance needs to say something. He’s not good with silence, especially when that silence comes with awkwardness hanging around in the air.
“Wow, you’re really blushing.”
Well, that probably wasn’t the best option but it got Keith to look at him, and glare. That’s something!
“Shut up,” Keith mutters, and Lance’s lip pulls up in a smile. Familiar territory.
“You shut up,” Lance retorts, and he doesn’t miss the ghost of a smile on Keith’s face either.
“I bet you suck at kissing,” Keith says, but there’s no malicious intent behind the words.
“I bet you suck at kissing,”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
“You’re going to lose,” Lance informs, because making this whole thing into a competition makes it easier.
Keith is holding his gaze, the same determined look Lance is wearing mirrored on Keith’s face. “I didn’t realize it was a competition.”
“Isn’t everything with us?” Lance asks, and he’s not sure why that causes his heart to skip a beat, or why it makes the atmosphere between them feel thicker.
“Guess so,” Keith says, but he doesn’t sound convinced.
They hold each other’s eyes for a moment (possibly multiple moments) longer than necessary, before Lance finally averts his eyes and says, “So, back to how we became boyfriends.”
Half an hour later, they’ve got a story to tell if anyone asks. It’s not the most exciting of stories, but it’s believable, and that’s all it needs to be.
Basically, somewhere between saving the world and picking fights, they realized there was a reason they were constantly standing around each other, and blada blada bing, one thing led to another and then Lance confessed his feelings and it just so happened that Keith felt the same, and now they’re happily dating.
For Lance, it isn’t that far off from the truth. Other than the whole “confessing feelings” part, that is.
He wonders how different this conversation is for Keith, since he’s not dealing with the existential crisis that often comes with having a crush. But not just any crush, no , a crush in the middle of space, on one of the six people he’s currently living in a flying castle with. Add in the fact that they’re responsible for the fate of the universe, and a crush really is a recipe for disaster.
“When are we going to tell everyone?” Keith asks, breaking the silence and pulling Lance from his thoughts. (Probably for the best.)
“How about right now?” Lance suggests, because there’s no better time than the present, and mostly he just wants to get it out of the way.
Before they both realize what a horrible idea this is.
“Do you think it’ll work?” Keith asks, like he’s genuinely curious.
“Of course it’ll work!” Lance informs, too upbeat for the amount of nerves he’s currently experiencing. “Who wouldn’t believe you’re in love with me?”
Keith rolls his eyes and lets out a sigh, but Lance can hear the quiet laugh it holds.
“You have an announcement?” Shiro asks skeptically, looking between the two of them.
“Yep,” answers Lance with a nod, which only seems to increase Shiro’s wariness.
“It’s not bad,” Keith clarifies, and Shiro only raises an eyebrow before shrugging.
“Well, we’re all here, so go ahead then.”
A wave of nerves pass through Lance, but he puts on a big grin and pretends that everything is great, that nothing could be better.
“Keith and I have something important to tell you all,” Lance informs loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention.
They’re met with the same dubious look that Shiro had given, and Lance catches himself glancing in Keith’s direction to see if he finds it as frustrating as Lance.
To his surprise, Keith’s eyes are already on him, causing Lance to glance away before he has a chance to search for his answer.
It’s something about the implication that anything involving the two of them is going to be bad that doesn’t sit well with him.
It’s something about the way everyone just assumes they don’t like each other that makes him stir uncomfortably.
Lance wants to show them how wrong they all. Lance wants to replace, ‘Lance and Keith, the worst dynamic,’ and turn it into, ‘Lance and Keith, the best dynamic.’
His heart pounds at the realization. Having a crush is one thing, this feels like something else entirely. A different set of emotions he’s not ready for. That’s a thought he can dwell on later. Right now, he has some minds to blow.
“We didn’t want to tell you because we didn’t want it to change anything,” Lance begins.
“And we wanted to figure out what it was first,” Keith picks up.
“And now that we know, we want to tell all of you,” Lance says, gaze turning from the confused faces of the team and resting solely on Keith. Lance doesn’t pay any mind to the warmth that seeps into his chest when Keith looks back, expression soft. He spares a moment to wish it were real.
“We’re dating,” Keith delivers the bomb, wrapping his fingers between Lance’s as the words leave his mouth. Lance only half notices the way everyone is gawking at them in stunned silence, Keith’s hand in his making it hard to concentrate on anything else.
He’s wearing his gloves, of course he is, but the contact still makes Lance’s heart flutter in a way that should only be possible when you’re holding the hand of someone you’re dating, which he isn’t, because none of this is real.
“ Dude, I’m your best friend! Why didn’t you tell me first?” Hunk breaks through the silence, and Lance feels bad the moment he sees the hurt expression Hunk wears.
I didn’t tell you because then I’d have to talk about my feelings, and I don’t want to do that, because we’re not actually dating, I just can’t seem to keep my bad ideas to myself.
But Lance can’t say that, so he gets an apology ready, but before he has time to say anything, Hunk’s voice is filling the room again. “I mean, I totally knew you liked him but still! I’m supposed to be your best friend, man!”
Lance’s face goes red, and he hopes desperately that Keith doesn’t notice. He hopes desperately that Keith won’t think anything of Hunk’s words.
“Um, uh,” Lance laughs, and it comes out far more strained than he’d intended. Get it together, Lance . He takes a breath and starts again. “I’m sorry man, I really wanted to tell you but Keith said we should wait to tell everyone at once.”
Lance doesn’t miss the glare Keith throws his way, but it only brings a grin to his lips.
“Humans have a weird way of showing affection,” Allura comments, and Lance isn’t sure how to respond to that.
Fortunately, Keith knows exactly what to say. “It’s different for everyone.”
Those words, four simple words, should not make his heart stir the way they do.
“I’d tell you not to let it affect Voltron, but that’s probably going to be Shiro’s thing, so… don’t be gross in front of us,” Pidge tells them.
Lance only manages a squeak in response before Shiro is speaking, his voice full of authority. “Being able to form Voltron is our number one priority. I hope your relationship will improve your teamwork rather than cause problems.”
Lance swallows, feeling the pressure of Shiro’s assertion. Shiro’s comment is the reason this whole thing started in the first place, so hearing his reaction to the news feels… odd, in a way.
Lance thinks their teamwork is just fine how it is, but whatever. They can get better. They can show Shiro just how good of a team they are.
“We won’t let it get in the way,” Keith promises, and Lance wonders for a moment, how he’d be feeling right now if everything about this conversation was real, if they weren’t faking it out of spite.
Coran’s voice keeps him from dwelling on the thought for long. “This is interesting news!” Coran declares. “You might be interested in hearing the stories of the past blue and red paladins.”
Keith and Lance give each other a confused glance before turning back to Coran, the question evident in their expressions.
How does this have anything to do with the past paladins?
Coran opens his mouth to provide an explanation, but his words are drowned out by the sound of the castle alarms going off, putting their big announcement to an end.