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So lizard people –
Nope. Go to sleep.
But –
It’s 3am. Sleep.
Fine. Good night.
<3
~~
Keith could still feel the tingling sensation on his arm from him and his soulmate’s last conversation. It’s been almost two years and Keith thinks about everything he wanted to say – everything he should have said – every night. How was he supposed to know that he would be kicked out of the Garrison two days later and then live in a shack for a year? How was he supposed to know he’d become a defender of the universe and travel through space fighting aliens?
And apparently there are no pens in space.
Surprisingly, it had been Pidge who was the most upset about this fact. She and her soulmate had known each other in real life and she wanted to be able to let them know she was still alive and have them tell her mom. Hunk gave a shrug and carried on saying he didn’t have one anyway. Shiro had seemed upset but didn’t comment on it. His soulmate was Matt so there was no way for him to respond anyway.
Keith tried to make his face look indifferent but it was hard. He was starting to feel some sort of need to talk to his soulmate recently. With finding Shiro, being thrown into space, losing and finding Shiro again he needed to vent to someone. He needed a distraction.
Lance’s reaction bothered Keith. His face became haunted when Pidge asked Coran if they had anything remotely like a pen. He left the room silently and Keith had to resist the urge to follow him.
Hunk went after him instead.
~~
“So then, while Sophie was distracting mom, Alex and I grabbed our phones off the counter and booked it back upstairs. We deleted all our text messages in record time and had them all back on the counter before mom even realized they were gone. She never found out we were the ones who taped rubber chickens to her car tires.” Lance was trying to keep himself from laughing as he told the story. The others were laughing hysterically even though Coran and Allura looked a bit confused. Keith, however, was almost positive he had heard this story before.
Before he could think anymore on it, though, the siren went off, effectively ending their team bonding moment. They rushed to their lions as Allura briefed them on what was going on. Prince Lotor was attacking another planet they had already freed.
It was a smaller fleet this time and Keith found them defeating them in record time. Or maybe they were just getting stronger. They didn’t even need to form Voltron.
The aliens where just as grateful as they were the first time Voltron saved them and threw them another party to celebrate. Keith wasn’t complaining – their food was way better than the green goo in the castle. Keith wasn’t particularly one for parties but somehow he was able to tolerate this one. The music wasn’t too loud and they were in a big enough room that no one was pushing up against each other.
The only problem Keith found was that the aliens reminded Keith of giant lizards. Two years ago he would have used this as proof that the government was lizard people but now all he could think about was his soulmate. He remembered staying up reading conspiracies and coming up with his own and being so excited to tell his soulmate. Keith wasn’t even upset that his soulmate hadn’t let him rant. He understood how late it was and in hindsight he should have let it wait for when he woke up.
No. Keith was not upset he had never gotten to go on his rant. He regretted not sending heart back.
Keith stared at his drink and decided right then that the moment he got his hands on a pen he’d write enough hearts to make up for each one he had never sent back.
“Dude, you okay?” Keith snapped his head up and found himself staring at Lance’s worried gaze. “You look a little spacey, Buddy.”
“Yeah, fine, just thinking.” Keith took a sip of his drink and stared out at the party.
“You wanna talk about it?” Lance asked. He leaned against the wall beside Keith.
“It’s kinda stupid.”
“Dude, I saw the way you were glaring at your drink. I can guarantee it’s not as stupid as you think.” Lance placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Thanks but I’m fine.” Keith attempted a smile but had a feeling it wasn’t too convincing. Lance dropped the subject anyway and started rattling off about how atrocious the lizard aliens’ dancing was and Keith was giggling before he knew it. Leave it to Lance to cheer him up.
~~
Keith was on the couch in one of the lounges trying to read when Lance walked in with Kaltenecker. Keith had a lot of questions about how Lance was even taking care of the cow but decided it be left to leave it. Honestly, how a cow got into the clutches of an alien in the first place was beyond Keith and he really didn’t have time to come up with conspiracies to figure it out.
“Keith!” Lance shouted and Keith dropped his book in surprise.
“What do you want, Lance?” Keith grumbled. He reached down to pick up the book and groaned when he realized he lost the page he was on.
“I need you to convince Shiro to let me keep Kaltenecker.” Lance guided the cow to the side of the couch and he sat down next to Keith.
“Why would I do that?”
“Uh, because Kaltenecker is the bestest cow in the universe and I love her.” Keith gave Lance a deadpan stare. That was until Lance gave him the most pathetic look that can only be described as puppy dog eyes.
Keith was weak.
“Keith, we cannot keep a cow,” Shiro sighed. “Why are you even defending Lance?”
“I’m gonna be honest,” Keith picked at Shiro’s bed sheets. “I think this is him coping.”
“What?” Shiro looked at Keith in surprise and Keith tried to avoid eye contact.
“He misses Earth. I mean, we all miss Earth, but Lance is taking it a lot worse than the rest of us. I think Kaltenecker is helping him. It seems like he’s been a lot more cheerful lately.” Keith finally looked back at Shiro who looked completely confused.
“Lance has always been cheerful.” It was Keith’s turn to look confuse. Had Shiro really not noticed how fake Lance’s smiles and laughs were when they first got to space? That was mostly why Keith used to always be so irritated with Lance. If he was so miserable then why wouldn’t he just say so?
“Can he keep the cow or not, Shiro?”
Shiro threw his arms up in exasperation. “Fine! Lance can keep the damn cow!”
Keith practically hugged Shiro out of gratitude before rushing off to find Lance.
~~
Keith was thinking about Lance. Again. At roughly 3AM. Again.
He was in the observatory making constellations out of the stars in the galaxy they were currently in. He was thinking about Lance and how the idiot had almost gotten himself killed in battle earlier that day. He only had to be in the cyropod for an hour but Keith was still beyond worried.
“Keith, I know you say you aren’t emo but you really don’t have much defending you right now.” Keith turned his head in surprise and Lance chuckled. “What are you thinking about this late anyway?”
“Lizard people,” Keith said without thinking. He wasn’t sure why he said lizard people instead of literally anything else he could have chosen but Lance’s reaction really made him wish he had said something else.
“Just don’t go disappearing on me tomorrow, Buddy.”Lance gave a forced chuckled and turned to walk away.
What?
Shit.
“Lance, what do you mean?” Lance waved the question off and walked out of the observatory.
Keith couldn’t breathe. He had done that to Lance.
He had hurt Lance and there was nothing he could do to fix it.
Keith was woken up by Coran the next morning with tears still fresh on his cheeks.
~~
They found a pack of pens when they went back to the space mall. Pidge was sobbing as she wrote out a shaky I’m finding my brother and dad. Please tell my mom I’m okay. I love you. Hunk was crying with her and clutching her arm as they waited for a response.
Keith stared at the pen in his hand and then glanced at Lance. He was leaning up against Kaltenecker and staring at Pidge fondly. Keith took a deep breath.
<3
Keith watched Lance’s eyes widen in surprise.
<3 <3
Lance shoved his sleeves up and stared bleary eyed at his arm.
<3<3<3
“I need a pen,” Lance whispered. He cleared his throat. “Hunk, I need a pen!”
Hunk was quick to respond. He let go of Pidge to wrestle out a pen from the pack and tossed it to Lance who caught it clumsily.
Okay, so what are your thoughts on lizard people?
Keith watched as Lance sucked in a breath at Keith’s question. “Son of a bitch.”
“Galra, actually.” Keith hardly had time to brace himself before Lance flew at him. It felt like Lance couldn’t get close enough and Keith held him as tightly as he could. He could feel sobs rack Lance’s body and felt the sudden need to kiss him senseless.
Lance must have had the same idea because suddenly their mouths were together in a sloppy, clumsy kiss. Keith raked his hands down Lance’s back and he had his hands in Keith’s hair. Keith knew they couldn’t let it get too far but god did he want this.
He wasn’t sure how long they were kissing – or how long Hunk was making vomit noises – but they were suddenly broken apart when Pidge let out a squawk of surprise.
“What does she mean I’m grounded when I get back? I’m saving the freaking universe!”