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Lance groaned softly as he cracked his eyes open, head throbbing. Just how much of that nunvill did he drink last night anyways? He remembered there being a celebration, a party. They had saved a planet, Oberox, and the people threw them a parade. Lance grinned a little and winced as his head protested with a painful throb. . Everyone in the universe apparently drank nunvill, since the Obraxian's had loads of it and insisted they drink a lot. Lance did drink a lot too. Lance regretted his decision to drink as much as he had now of course.
Slowly he righted himself, his legs swinging over, bare feet touching the cool of the floor and looked around. His room, so he was on the castle ship again. And wearing his clothing from the day before too, so Lance had passed out probably as soon as he was horizontal for five seconds. He vaguely remembered talking to the Obraxian's, flirting with someone, pretty heavily, and... playing a drinking game with someone. Hunk? Coran maybe. Could have been both of them for all he knew. His mouth had a foul taste in it, which meant he had passed out before brushing his teeth.
Lance stood slowly, shuffling to the bathroom and groaning when he saw his expression. He even looked hung over, and he gave his own armpit a delicate sniff only now, wrinkling his nose. Ew. Lance stripped slowly though, his body feeling like lead. Part of it was certainly the hang-over he had, and part of it was the battle they'd fought. It wasn't an easy one, had taken everything they had to drive the Galran fleet back again, but they'd done it somehow. Probably only because it was a smaller fleet. No robo-beasts had shown up to help the forces either, which had only helped them. Not a lot, no, but a little.
Lance groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead when he bent down to pick his clothing up and dump them in the cleaning pod built for clothing as he usually did before bed. It wouldn't take a long time to clean everything, dry it, fold it, then press it too. The next step was grabbing his toothbrush and the toothpaste. Altean's had something similar to toothpaste anyways. It tasted exactly the same and came in several flavours, but Lance liked the one that tasted like cool mint the best.
Once he had rid himself of the foul taste of bad oral hygiene, he shuffled to the shower, tapping the buttons to tell it he wanted his water at the same temperature as last time. Once Lance had figured out the perfect water temperature -which had taken four and a half weeks- he made sure he never changed it again.
The spray helped Lance wake up a little bit, and it felt good to get the ache out of his limbs too. He simply stood in the water for a few minutes, letting it run in rivulets down his body, dripping from his hair. Well, he called it water. He knew it wasn't, not really, though it was quite similar. Pidge told him their bodies processed it just like water, though the chemical compound was just slightly different, and the scent appeared natural. Lance thought it smelled like lavender, but everyone said it was something else. Shiro insisted it was chocolate, Pidge swore up and down it smelled like new computer -whatever that meant- and Hunk insisted it was the sweet scent of s'mores. Keith said it reminded him vaguely of rain on a field of flowers, but Lance had teased him for that and he stopped arguing about it. Lance regretted saying anything about that now, he liked Keith's description the best.
It was a while before he grabbed the soap, washing every inch of himself that he could reach, then rinsing off, grateful that the soap on this ship smelled as good as the water did. Not to mention it was moisturizing, which reminded Lance he would have to pamper himself extra tonight to make up for forgetting his nightly routine last night. His head still ached when he finally hit the button to turn off the water and opened the shower door, grabbing his towel to dry off. He was slow with that too, getting his arms and shoulders first, then his waist, legs, shoulders again where his hair dripped and finally towelling his hair dry. He stepped out once he was mostly dry and headed to the laundry press, tapping it lightly. Blue light meant it was done, so he was able to pull his clothing back on. Time for food, and to find out if there was a space-equivalent of Advil.
When he reached the dining room there was Shiro and Keith, so he more or less ignored them while he grabbed a plate and squeezed some greenish slime food goo out of it. It tasted more or less like okra but it was slimier some how. Lance had always hated okra. Shiro smirked though when Lance sat down, which was odd. What was odder though was Keith turning bright red and looking away, almost shyly. It was kind of cute in a way, not that Lance would ever cop to thinking Keith was cute. Or that he liked him. Or maybe loved him.
“S'there any like... pain killers on board?” Lance asked, sticking a spoonful of food in his mouth. The food goo felt especially slimy today, and he had to fight the urge to gag.
“Nope, don't think so,” Shiro said, his tone amused. Weird. Even weirder when he snickered as Keith shyly glanced his way and apparently had difficulty forming words. Keith was never not witty though, so something must have happened right?
“Uh. Oh. Okay. I'll check with Coran then I guess. My head is killing me...” Lance groaned.
“I'm not surprised. You drank a lot last night. I mean, we kind of all did, but you drank like twice what the rest of us drank too. Anyways, I'm gonna go check on the princess,” Shiro said as he stood with a little grin. He winked at Lance and Keith before leaving the two alone. Very, very odd!
“Did something uh, happen? Between Shiro and Allura I mean?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.
“N-no, I don't think so,” Keith stammered back, turning red and staring at his bowl of food goo with sudden, and intense determination. Okay, seriously, something was happening and Lance was the only one out of the loop it seemed.
“Hey you two~! Gettin' some alone~ time~ I see?” Pidge asked as she walked in, practically singing with delight. Keith turned as red as his lion and Lance was just confused.
“No? Shiro was just here. He went to check on Allura and then you came in so, we're not alone really,” Lance pointed out.
“Huh? Oh, sorry buddy. We can leave so you two can-”
“Hunk. I am not skipping breakfast even if it does taste like swamp slime,” Pidge said, grabbing a bowl to fill at the food hose. She sat down across from Lance shooting them both a grin and waggling her eyebrows at them. Okay, so whatever it was that was wrong with Shiro and Keith was wrong with Pidge and Hunk too then.
“Hey, there are pain killers right? I just um... my head is kinda really aching...” Shiro said no, but maybe Pidge and Hunk knew?
“Pain killers? Did you and Keith get-”
“Pidge! Absolutely not!” Keith cut her off before she could finish, and the shit eating grin she had made Lance mildly suspicious. It felt like she hadn't been about to accuse them of fighting, which was usually what left Lance sore, since Keith could kick his ass all over the training deck. What confused Lance more than her grin though was Keith's panic and apparently perpetual blush, since Keith had been gradually reddening from the moment Lance had sat down beside him. Somehow Keith was still getting redder, which Lance had to admit was a very impressive feat at this point.
“I'm just hung over Pidge. Where are they so I can kick this headache to the curb and get on with my day? Food goo just isn't helping either, it tastes worse than usual somehow...” Lance huffed, stirring it idly with his spoon.
“I think Coran can find you some, in the medical bay,” Hunk said as he ate his food goo. He made a face with the first bite and then seemed to eat more easily after that.
“Right, right. Ugh. I'm done, okay, I'm gonna go and get that then, I can't eat this nasty,” Lance said as he stood and pushed his food goo away from himself at the same time. Keith followed his movements with his eyes, still red, but Keith made no movement to follow him either until Pidge smirked and made to say something. Lance only caught her 'Ooooh~! L-' before Keith stormed out and stuck with him.
Their walk was silent, and terribly awkward. Lance really liked Keith of course, but he'd never admit that, since he was sure Keith wouldn't feel the same. Keith was all rough around the edges and sharp as a knife. Keith probably didn't like anyone like that, and if he did, Lance suspected it would be some battle-hardened woman with stern eyes and a wit as sharp and quick as Keith's own.
The walk to the bridge to find Coran seemed like it took a full year with how awkward and silent it was. Keith didn't seem to make eye contact, glancing at him now and again and then averting his gaze just as quickly if Lance happened to catch him. What had gotten into everyone suddenly? Had he stripped and danced naked on a table or something? No, he'd had all his clothing when waking up.
“Coran, hey, got any pain killers?” Lance asked as they finally arrived on the bridge. Coran looked between the two -Keith staring pointedly at a spot on the wall- and chuckled.
“Yes! Yes I do. Hang on a tic, I'll be right back! You two Mikleodes wait here~” Coran chirped and Keith groaned, his head falling into his hands. Lance couldn't remember what a Mikleode was, but he knew it was some animal off Altea. Probably deadly and terrifying then, so he didn't know why Coran was calling them those.
“W-we're not-! N-never mind,” Keith was basically squeaking that, and Lance's jaw dropped as he turned to gape openly at Keith. Keith caught his gaze, and quickly looked pointedly at the panel in front of him. What the hell had gotten in to everyone?! Allura walked onto the bridge with Shiro just then and they both snickered at the sight of them.
“Could you guys stop? It's not like-like uh,” Keith couldn't seem to get anything out of himself suddenly as Allura and Shiro burst out laughing.
“Lance you're taking this remarkably better than Keith is. I'd thought you'd be more embarrassed about all this, after all you did last night~” Allura teased. After... after all he did? Oh no. Lance paled visibly, looking between Allura and Shiro, still amused, and Keith, still bright red.
“I uh, admittedly do not remember anything past playing a drinking game with either Hunk or Shiro or both,” Lance said and the statement had a remarkable effect. Allura and Shiro stopped laughing, staring in surprise, before laughing even harder. Keith stopped blushing, and looking so shy and embarrassed and then turned to glare at Lance with all the fury he could manage.
“So you're telling me that first you forgot our bonding moment, and now you forgot... you forgot!! This too?!” He snapped. Lance swallowed at that.
“Yes?”
“Lance, you are unbelievable! I can't believe we-!” Keith turned all red again at that which only caused more confusion for Lance. Keith turned and stormed out now though, and Lance had the strangest feeling that he should go after Keith.
“We what? Shiro what'd I do last night?” Lance asked, looking at him in a panic. Shiro was giggling so hard he had tears in his eyes though, finding all of this too funny.
“Oh man Lance, you forgot another bonding moment! He will never forgive you!!” Shiro laughed and Lance sighed.
“You kissed him~” Allura said finally, still laughing too. Oh, well no wonder Keith was- wait, WHAT?!
“I k-k-kiss, I-I kissed, we k-kissed-” Lance stammered turning as red as Keith had been all morning so far.
“Oh trust m-me, you did more than th-that!” Shiro laughed, holding his stomach as he struggled to get his breathing back under control.
“P-please excuse me,” Lance mumbled weakly as he left the bridge to chase after Keith. Lance had kissed Keith? Had done 'more' than that too apparently but he couldn't remember what he had done either. And Keith was angry too now, and this was all such a huge mess! Lance did catch up to Keith though, and he reached out, grabbing his wrist gently.
“What do you want now Lance? Can't you just leave me alone already? What is this, are you just doing this on purpose? Is this some kind of joke to you or something?” Keith snapped. Oh boy, he was pissed. Lance swallowed lightly at that.
“No! I-I'm sorry. Keith, I am, I didn't mean to forget all that, I was just really drunk and I do like you, but I didn't think I'd kissed you or anything, and I don't remember anything at all, so like, I kinda wanna kiss you again because I'd like to remember that, but considering everything I guess you probably don't-” Lance was cut off then by Keith grabbing his jacket on both sides and pulling him down, their lips crashing together forcefully.
The kiss was angry at first, but Lance took control after a moment, his hands coming up to cup Keith gently, one under the jaw, the other behind Keith's head as their tongues met. Cinnamon . Lance thought to himself. Keith tasted like cinnamon. It was a long moment before they pulled away from one another, and Lance felt almost dizzy when he did. Keith looked like he felt the same though, his cheeks just dusted pink, and those stunning, violet eyes all hazy.
“I really like you,” Keith mumbled, blinking twice and then looking away, apparently embarrassed. Lance felt a surge of bubbly giddiness inside of him at those words though, and Lance gently turned Keith's face back towards him before kissing Keith again.