Work Text:
~1~
Keith groaned as he felt his body being weighed down by the amount of clothes hangers he was carrying on each side of him. He was surrounded by a bunch of strange clothing of every possible color on the spectrum, and Lance just kept piling him with more and more stuff to carry. He sighed, momentarily losing his balance just from having his shoulders drop due to how much clothes he carried.
“I thought Allura said we were having a break day...how is this a break?” He complained. Lance was literally leaping from one side of the clothing store to the other like he was some sort of mini wormhole.
“Of course this is a break! We’re getting to try out all these fun, new outfits! There’s, like, no clean new clothes on the castle,” Lance paused his running about to look at Keith. “Did you know I’ve been wearing the SAME pair of underwear for, like, weeks?” Keith’s face wrinkled in disgust and embarrassment as Lance just kept gathering stuff to try on. That was an image he certainly had not needed.
“Okay! Give me those! And take this!” Lance swiped the clothes Keith was carrying for him out of his arms and replaced it with a blue phone device that Pidge had made for him. Keith looked at the phone in his hand quizzically.
“Uh, why are you giving me this?” Lance blinked at Keith as if he’d grown a second head.
“To take pictures! Duh! We are having a complete photoshoot and you are going to catch me in every outfit in every pose! After all,” Lance posed with his hand shaped like a gun under his chin. “Everyone knows a lady likes her man with style.” Keith could’ve sworn he saw Lance’s teeth shine on the word ‘style’. He rolled his eyes as Lance rushed into the changing room, waving at him excitedly before shutting the door. Keith was speechless as he stared at his reflection in Lance’s phone. Just great.
It had been really out of the blue when Allura suddenly announced that the Paladins and herself would be taking a day off, but none of them had been complaining. Apparently she had a list of activities and places that she loved and thought they would love that she wanted to take them to, and so here they were at their first destination. It wasn’t Keith’s first time at a space mall, but this one in particular seemed even more refined and Earth-like than the last one. Even he had been somewhat excited to take the day off and explore the mall, expecting to just be able to kick back and walk around. What he hadn’t expected was to be ditched by everyone. Hunk had immediately wandered off at the smell of food that only he could smell, and Shiro had claimed that he was going to go find a shop specifically for Earth-like things. When Keith had tried to go with Shiro, he’d simply panicked for a moment before forcing Keith to stay, claiming that he would go alone. Keith did as he was told, but only because he managed to conclude from the way Shiro was acting that the man was probably off to find more eyeliner or something. Coran had disappeared as soon as they’d arrived, leaving just him, Lance, Pidge, and Allura. And that was how they ended up in a clothing store.
“And voila! Now, now everybody, don’t all clap at once!” Lance walked out of the changing room with his arms behind his head. He had sunglasses and a snapback on along with a windbreaker type of jacket. He was clearly trying to act cool. “What’s wrong? So blown away you can’t even take pictures?” Lance grinned, snapping and pointing finger guns in Keith’s direction while looking in the opposite direction. Keith had never cringed so hard in his life.
“We aren’t seriously doing this, are we?” Lance raised his eyebrows before pushing his sunglasses up and walking over to Keith sassily.
“Of course we’re doing this! I’m not dressing up for nothing! Now come on! You can’t seriously be telling me that you don’t want pics of this!” Lance struck another weird pose with his back facing Keith, and he noted that Lance’s butt was pushed just a bit too far out there. Other aliens who were in the store were looking at them from the commotion they were causing, and Keith felt himself die a little on the inside.
“Lance, we’re being watched.” Lance just emphasized his pose more, grinning at a scowling Keith. “Fine.” Keith rose Lance’s phone and turned it on, bringing up a series of numbers. Lance’s face dropped its grin for a second.
“Oh, right, sorry, my passcode. It’s-”
“Your birth date, I know already.” Keith cut Lance off, typing in the passcode to his phone. Of course Keith knew. It was classic Lance. He rose the phone and took a picture, raising an eyebrow as he noticed that Lance had been looking at him in surprise rather than smiling for the camera. He quickly shook his head before fixing his pose.
“Oops! Sorry bout that! Okay, let’s try again!” Keith’s eyes squinted in annoyance as he gave a heavy sigh, but he didn’t argue. This picture came out much better with Lance showing his shiny, perfect teeth. Lance ran over to look at the picture, beaming.
“That’s great, that’s great! Now wait right there! I’m going to find a better outfit!” Lance rushed back into the changing room, leaving Keith waiting with nothing better to do but analyze every single detail of the pictures he took of Lance.
They had a little photoshoot for at least an hour, and the amount of different pictures they took was insane because honestly Lance changed outfits so fast Keith was beginning to think that he was the one who was half alien. By now, though, Keith was tired of playing photographer.
“Don’t you think this is enough, Lance? Just buy the ones you liked best and let’s move on, maybe go find Hunk or something.” Lance just stared at Keith for a while before he broke out into laughter, doing that stupidly dorky Lance thing where he would start slapping his thigh as if that would help him calm down. Keith didn’t even understand where this was coming from, and he wished that Lance would just shut up already and tell him why he was laughing. Eventually, the hysterical boy did stop laughing, rubbing at his eye as he looked back at Keith.
“Oh, Keith, that was a good one. Buy? I’m...ha...I’m not BUYING any of these! I can hardly believe you would...suggest that!” Keith didn’t know which one ticked him off more, the fact that Lance had to pause in between words to chuckle or the fact that Lance had just said he wasted their time here for no reason.
“What do you MEAN you’re not buying any of these?! What the hell has the past hour been for, then?!” Okay, it was definitely the latter that he was ticked off about. Lance just sauntered on over and tossed an arm around Keith’s neck, tapping on his phone in Keith’s hand to bring up a gallery of all the pictures.
“This, Keith! I told you, we were just shooting pics! I never planned to buy any of these!” Keith’s eye twitched as he moved Lance’s arm off of him.
“Why? What’s the point of trying on so much clothes just for pictures?” Lance grinned, grabbing a nearby outfit that he’d prepared.
“For memories! And obviously, because, well,” Lance looked down at himself then back at Keith with a raised eyebrow. “I gotta do these clothes a favor and let them take a ride on this bod, don’t you agree?” Keith felt his face redden with anger, or maybe embarrassment. He wasn’t sure.
“I gotta go put this one on now!” Lance snapped finger guns at Keith before speaking in an exaggeratedly low voice. “Don’t you dare touch that dial, boy.” He slipped back into the changing room, and Keith looked at his reflection in Lance’s phone again to see his face was even more red than he thought. Anger. It definitely had to be anger.
He groaned in annoyance as he was stuck waiting for Lance again. He began swiping through the one million pictures he’d taken of Lance, as was routine for him by now while he waited. It wasn’t that he LIKED looking at Lance’s pictures. Definitely not. He just had nothing better to do, and he didn’t want to look like some guy who was waiting for his boyfriend or something. Like seriously, that was stupid. Why had he even thought that? How stupid. Of course it wasn’t like that. Duh, Keith.
Yes, Keith was only looking through the pictures because he had nothing better to do. Who would actually look at these pictures just because they wanted to, anyways? Lance looked like a literal dork in his so-called bad boy outfit, and his pirate outfit had caused everybody in the shop to give them weird looks.
Keith swiped through the photos more, stopping on Lance’s impersonation of Santa Claus. It didn’t look anything like Santa Claus’s clothes, it was just a red and white outfit. It would’ve been much better if he had just said he was trying to impersonate a candy cane, or better yet, a peppermint. Keith liked peppermints. But Keith didn’t like Lance. So a candy cane was a better comparison. After all, it’d fit with Lance’s stick-like figure.
Keith chuckled to himself at that thought. He would have to point that out to Lance later as they looked at the pictures just to get him mad. Not that he planned to look through the pictures with Lance ever.
He continued going through all the pictures he took, stopping at Lance’s supposed summer outfit, which had just been straight up dumb, what with the shirt that was purposefully too small so that it showed off his well toned stomach. The worst part about that outfit, though, had been the shorts. Seriously, they were so short that they showed off so much of Lance’s lean, sculpted, perfect legs. Seriously, those things were shaved so nicely, leaving no hair and only his beautiful, shimmering skin accompanied by the muscles of a swimmer...but it was a dumb attire since obviously it’d make everybody around him stare at his legs. Of course, it wasn’t a problem for Keith if other people were staring at Lance’s legs, it was just the thought that if he were the one wearing it it’d be ridiculous and annoying, that’s all. That’s why he didn’t like the idea of that outfit.
“Keith! There you are!” Keith looked up at the sound of his name to see Allura walking over to him. Pidge was trailing slightly behind her, a look of irritation written all over her face. Keith waved at them a bit. While he and Lance had been on one side of the clothing shop, the two girls had been on the other.
“Um, are you okay?” Keith asked as Pidge let her arms hang in front of her, looking dead as a door nail.
“No...Allura has been dressing me up for the past hour…” She looked over at Keith, perking up in sudden interest. “What’re you doing? Why do you have Lance’s phone?” Keith quickly powered down the phone, but it was too late. Pidge had seen the pictures. She leaned forward suspiciously as Keith scratched the side of his head.
“I was just keeping myself busy.” Pidge was about to respond, but before she could, Lance came out of the changing room dressed like a magician, cape and all.
“Voila! I can do magic tricks now!” He announced, spreading his arms out. Allura got a surprisingly fond look on her face as she observed his outfit and clapped her hands together.
“Lance! You must take matching pictures with Pidge!” Lance grinned eagerly as he and Allura both crouched slightly, getting on face level with each other.
“Let’s find some outfits for her to match mine!” Lance exclaimed.
“I’ve got some here, we’ll come up with themes and everything!” Allura agreed. She and Lance began shuffling through clothes as Keith and Pidge stood silently, their eyes slowly moving to cast each other side glances.
“Well this is...new.” Keith said as Lance and Allura fawned over possible costumes together. Pidge groaned.
“I’m telling you, she’s too much for me! She had me in a bunch of dresses and stuff. It’s horrible, Keith! Horrible!” Pidge emphasized her last words by turning and grabbing onto Keith, shaking him.
“Alright, Pidge! Let’s see how this looks on you!” Allura grabbed Pidge and began walking over to a changing room as Pidge’s hands reached for Keith, crying for him to save her.
“Um...alright then.” Keith muttered to himself. He turned to see Lance had also already ran into his changing room. He sighed and turned Lance’s phone back on, knowing that he’d have to take pictures so that Lance could have this all on his phone to look at later. They both changed fairly fast and stepped out of their changing rooms, dressed in matching yellow robes.
“So what sort of matching theme was this?” Keith asked as he raised his phone and Lance forced Pidge into posing for the camera.
“It was Hunk themed!” Allura announced from off to the side as Keith took pictures. He raised an eyebrow at her.
“Hunk themed? Why is that even a thing?” The three of them either didn’t hear Keith or didn’t care about his question, because as soon as he had finished taking a few pictures, Allura and Lance were shuffling for more clothes while Pidge seemed to be contemplating jumping out the nearest window. Keith’s mouth couldn’t help but curl into a small smile as he watched the scene. Maybe it was a break day, after all.
They continued dressing up for another half hour, and he took numerous pictures of Lance and Pidge in matching outfits when, out of nowhere, Lance suggested the stupidest, most horrifying thing.
“Time to switch! Allura, Keith, it’s your turn to take pictures in matching outfits!” Keith felt the world split in two as his eyes widened and his body became stiff with horror. It was a stark contrast to Allura, who practically leaped in excitement and exchanged a high five with Lance.
“Heh. Looks like it’s your turn.” Pidge said, elbowing his arm gently. He gave her a stink eye before turning to Allura and Lance, who were discussing what they should choose to make him wear.
“Look, I’m not dressing up! That’s...weird!” Keith said. Allura was suddenly in his face, pointer finger against his chest with a look of disapproval, forcing him to lean away.
“You most certainly will dress up with me! This is our day off, have some fun! And don’t leave me to dress up by myself!” She returned back to standing by Lance, and Keith sighed.
“Fine...but only if I get to pick what I wear. You guys will make me wear something totally weird…” Lance grinned.
“Nonsense! I was only picking this out for you!” He revealed a green skirt from behind his back, and Keith’s eye twitched.
“I’ll stand by what I said. I’m picking what I wear. Also, no pictures. Got it?” Lance and Allura looked at each other before giving him a simultaneous thumbs up, which somehow didn’t make him feel any better. He got up and began walking through the shop.
“The theme is nature, by the way! Can’t wait to see the outfit you choose!” Pidge yelled. Keith groaned. He really didn’t want to do this. If the theme was nature, he’d just pick something that easily corresponded with it.
He grabbed clothes that were green and casual before heading into the changing room. He couldn’t believe he actually let Lance and Allura talk him into doing this. What was up with them, anyway? They were surprisingly terrifying when they were on the same wavelength and getting along.
As Keith was changing, he heard Lance and even Pidge beaming from outside over how Allura looked. Apparently she’d already finished changing.
“Hurry up, Keith! We all want to see!” Pidge yelled from outside. She was chorused by Lance.
“Yeah, we wanna see how you look!” Keith felt his face heat up, probably because of how embarrassed he was over having to wear something that he wouldn’t normally wear. They were rushing him like crazy from outside the changing room, so as soon as he was done, he stepped out, unable to meet their gazes. He saw that Allura was in a beautiful, silky green dress that let one of her legs out, literally like an Earth model. Pidge and Lance had been gawking at her, but as soon as he stepped out, their eyes latched onto him. There were a few moments of silence before all three of them began to laugh hysterically.
Keith’s face reddened even more as he clenched his teeth together. “I told you I’d look ridiculous!” He hissed. He looked down at himself. A simple green t-shirt was on the top half of his body with a large four leaved clover covering it, and he wore simple green shorts. His blush kept reddening as Lance, Pidge, and Allura couldn’t seem to stop laughing. Finally, Pidge seemed to regain control of herself just a bit.
“It isn’t that you look ridiculous...just...green is definitely not your color.” Lance slapped his thigh a few times, drawing Keith’s attention to him with narrowed eyes as he spoke.
“I guess that’s one way to put it, but, seriously...man, Keith! What made you choose to be a leprechaun of all things for a nature theme?!” The three of them erupted into more laughter as Keith felt like melting into himself in embarrassment.
“Don’t worry about it, Keith! Between the green and your red boots and red face, I’d say you look sort of like, well, perhaps a forest fire? That’s still nature, technically!” Allura offered. Lance grinned.
“Yeah, he sure is a forest fire. Because, because he uh, hates nature!” Lance said, looking in Keith’s direction. “Don’t mind if I just…” Lance raised his phone and, before Keith could respond, took a picture. Keith felt himself explode as he turned and stomped back into the room.
“That’s it! I’m taking this stupid costume off!” He shouted. Lance grinned and shouted back from behind him.
“Yeah, oh, don’t worry! You’re not short enough to be a leprechaun, anyways. Leave that to Pidge!” Pidge’s glasses shined dangerously at that. Keith heard the sound of Pidge kicking Lance in the shin, and a less-than-manly scream reverberated throughout the entire space mall for everyone to hear. Good. Lance deserved that.
Keith shut the door to the changing room behind him, looking at himself in the mirror. He was panting and blushing up to his ears. Why had he even worn something like this? He clawed at his shirt angrily, pulling it up and over his head.
Stupid Lance and his stupid teasing. So stupidly annoying.
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~2~
“We’re here!” Allura announced as the paladins walked into an amusement park of some sort. There were aliens and alien rides all around them. It all looked so foreign to Keith. Especially since…
“I’ve never been to an amusement park before.” Keith said, barely even realizing that he’d said that out loud. He just looked around at all the activity before his eyes fell on his six companions, who were all just staring at him as if he’d grown a second head. Except Shiro, he just looked like he’d expected Keith to say that. “Um…” Keith looked behind him to make sure it was him they were looking at like that and not someone else.
“You’ve never been to an amusement park before?!” Hunk exclaimed, doing a bunch of hand motions as he spoke to show that he was that much more shocked. Keith scratched the back of his head.
“Uh...no?” It was Lance’s turn to press forward this time, but instead of his previous look of shock, he had a confident grin now.
“Well then, leave it to me! I, Lance, proclaimed prince of good looks and fun times, shall gladly escort you and show you how to have fun at an amusement park!” Lance ended his weird dialogue with a pose, one hand dramatically staged against his forehead and the other stretched out towards Keith.
“I think he meant self-proclaimed.” Pidge whispered to Allura in the background. Keith just stared at Lance’s dramatic pose for a bit before raising an eyebrow.
“No...thank you?” Lance’s eyebrow twitched as he returned to standing normally.
“What do you mean? I’m, like, the number one person to show you how to have fun! Beside Coran!” Lance pointed with his thumb behind them all, where Coran had somehow strayed from the group to ride on a six legged creature that resembled a rabbit the size of a bed.
“Wait, Coran! I don’t think that’s a ride!” Allura gasped as she and Shiro went to help him. Lance put his hands on his hips as the others yelled in the background.
“Point is, we’re on break today! I bet you just don’t want to show everyone that you’re a wuss on rides. Is that it? Are you scared of checking out this amusement park?” Lance grinned teasingly, leaning towards him as Keith pondered this.
“With you leading me around? Terrified.” He replied simply. Lance’s eyebrows drooped as he got told off. He sighed before grabbing Keith’s arm.
“Well, too bad! You’re coming with us anyway!” Keith gave a shout of disapproval as Lance dragged him along. The others seemed to have had managed to save Coran from being eaten, because they were right next to Lance and Keith as they stopped in front of a large sign.
“And, voila!” Lance shouted, turning to them all with his arms spread out. “As my logic goes, we must do the most fun thing first!” Pidge scratched her head.
“But, none of us have ever been here before. Only Allura and Coran knew about this alien amusement park, so how do you know this is the most fun thing?” Lance leaned at her to shush her before going back to standing normally, smiling nervously at them all. Behind Lance was a large roller coaster; the largest one at the park. Shiro looked around before stepping forward.
“I don’t see why not. After all, I trust Lance’s judgement when it comes to stuff like this.” Lance’s smile grew more confident as he gave the team a thumbs up. Keith just looked on skeptically as everyone else began lining up.
“I don’t see how this qualifies as fun. We fly way faster than this and perform way crazier loops on a daily basis in our lions.” Lance chuckled, walking forward and clapping Keith on the shoulder.
“Oh sweet, innocent Keith. Roller coasters are completely different from lions!” Hunk walked up behind Lance to back him up.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Like, for example, I don’t throw up in the lions anymore, but when it comes to roller coasters I still...oh. Oh wait. I think...I might not feel so good.” Hunk’s eyes began swirling as he watched the roller coaster, and his hands suddenly covered his mouth. He mumbled something along the lines of, ‘go on without me’ before he ran away to find the nearest trash can. Keith just watched him run off in confusion as Pidge lined up excitedly.
“I can’t wait! I love roller coasters, and this one looks awesome!” Keith raised an eyebrow as Pidge seemed to revert to a kid; something that was relatively rare. Allura stood beside her, also beaming, and Coran was telling Shiro some sort of story about how he once watched someone die on a roller coaster.
“Seeeeee? Everybody’s pumped about it! You have to go!” Lance leaned forward. “Unless you’re, you know. Too scared.” Keith’s eye twitched as he pushed past Lance’s shoulder.
“Fine, I’ll ride your stupid train thing!” He got in line behind Pidge and Allura, tapping his foot impatiently.
“Nailed it!” Lance called as he danced on over, standing beside Keith.
Keith observed the roller coaster as it came to a stop, ready for it’s next set of passengers, and suddenly understood why everyone was standing side by side in line.
“...two people per cart?” He said. Lance nodded enthusiastically.
“That’s right! Now, get ready to be blown away by your first roller coaster ride!” Lance pushed Keith forward with the line and followed after him, making Keith grunt in annoyance. He sat behind Pidge and Allura, who looked back at him.
“I swear, if you throw up on me during this ride, I will destroy you.” Pidge threatened. Keith raised an eyebrow.
“He won’t.” Lance scooted into the cart, sitting down next to Keith and grinning at the girls. “After all, he’s got me riding with him.” Pidge and Allura didn’t seem too reassured as they turned back to face forward. Keith looked at Lance, who pulled down some sort of rail from behind until it was in front of them in their cart.
“Wow, I can’t believe alien roller coasters are this similar to Earth ones! It’s so you can hold on and not fall.” Lance said, explaining the last part when he noticed Keith giving the rail a confused look. The red paladin snorted.
“I was the number one fighter pilot at the garrison and I’m current pilot of the red lion. I think I can handle a little speed.” Lance grinned as the roller coaster began to lurch forward, slowly climbing up towards the top of a crest in the tracks.
“Oh, really?” Keith just sat in the cart, confused as to why everybody else was yelling in excitement as they reached the top of the crest, staring down at a long narrow dip. “Then let’s see!” Lance yelled out that challenge before throwing his head back to howl in excitement as the coaster sped down the tracks.
Keith wasn’t sure exactly what happened. One moment he had been looking on in confusion, and the next, his heart was lurching up into his throat and he felt himself racing down towards death itself. Noises he’d never before made were currently escaping his mouth as he held onto the rail for dear life. Finally, the roller coaster reached the bottom point and dipped back up before going into some loops. Keith pounded his feet against the bottom of the rail as the ride sped up before it began climbing up another large hill. This was nothing like piloting red or a plane! He looked over at Lance, who had an exhilarated look on his face.
“Isn’t this fun?!” Lance exclaimed. Keith’s insides squeezed as they reached the top of the crest and stared down at another drop.
“I HATE YOU!” Keith managed to shout at Lance before the ride plunged. From then on, the entire thing was a blur to Keith. He wasn’t even sure what was going on, just that the roller coaster was going really fast and was doing crazy maneuvers. At one point, it left the tracks and started flying and looping about in the sky, and that was when Keith realized holding onto the rail wasn’t making things any easier. His hand subconsciously reached out and held Lance’s arm as he screamed and wished for it to be over already.
He felt Lance squeeze his arm back, and somehow, a bit of panic went away as he turned to look at him. Lance nodded at him with a smile, his eyes still bright with thrill. From there on out, Keith didn’t look anywhere else. He held and screamed at Lance right up until the ride completed it’s final dip.
As they began getting off, Keith found out his legs didn’t work, and his head must’ve been left behind somewhere on the tracks as he laid back dizzily.
“Lance…” He groaned. The stupid tan boy chuckled and propped Keith’s arm around his neck, helping him up and off of the ride. As soon as he was on solid ground again, the nerves in Keith’s legs began to remember how to feel.
“Geez, just look at you. Even I didn’t think you’d take it this badly…” Lance muttered as Keith had to lean on him completely.
“Shut up.” Keith found it hard to speak as he stumbled alongside Lance. The others were all around them, and Pidge was talking super fast to Allura, who looked at her in fond amusement.
“Even Pidge is fine!” Lance teased. Keith grumbled and pushed himself away from Lance, falling onto the floor. When Lance bent down to help him back up, Keith waved him away.
“Don’t bother, I’ll...get help from Shiro.” Keith said, looking pointedly at Shiro. The black paladin sighed and walked over, helping Keith up. Hunk approached them from nowhere, looking a little better than when they’d last seen him.
“Hey guys! Did you have fun? I hope you had fun. I didn’t have fun I, I actually had to stop watching because I felt like throwing up a second time.” Keith felt his stomach churning as he groaned.
“I’m the one who feels like throwing up here…” Lance moved, getting in Keith’s face with his arms crossed and a grin on his face.
“See! I told you you wouldn’t be able to handle it!” Keith grumbled, barely in the mood for Lance’s stupid teasing.
“Just be quiet, you’re making my ears ring. And for the record, I did handle it.” Lance chuckled.
“Yeah, but you had to hold onto me the entire ride.” Keith felt his anger melt into embarrassment. Quiznak. So he didn’t imagine all that.
“Oh my gosh! You held hands?!” Pidge exclaimed, jumping over. Keith’s face reddened as he shook his head adamantly. He looked up at Shiro for back up, but the larger man was just smiling at him, as if he knew something they didn’t.
“I-it isn’t like I needed to!” Keith argued, stumbling away from Shiro to stand on his own two wobbly legs. Lance laughed.
“Sure! I mean, I can still feel your hand! You were literally squeezing the blood from my arm! But, I guess that doesn’t mean anything.” Keith panicked. The others were all listening now. Maybe it wasn’t too late to deny it? Even though he’d basically already said he had done it? Whatever he did, he needed to do it now.
Keith opened his mouth to speak, but as soon as he did, he felt his stomach churning again as his head washed over with nausea. He gripped his midsection, forehead sweating in even more embarrassment.
“I think...ugh!” Keith pushed past them and went to find the nearest trashcan to throw up in. He felt so dizzy and horrible as he finished spilling his insides, leaning backwards. This was all Lance’s fault.
Hunk suddenly ran over and threw up, too. Keith just raised an eyebrow, looking away so as to avoid the disgusting scene. When Hunk was done, he fell back on the floor.
“Sorry, seeing you throw up made me have to throw up…” Keith could’ve almost laughed. Almost. He turned to see the rest of them approaching, and the triumphant smirk on Lance’s face wiped away any humor he might’ve been getting from Hunk.
Stupid Lance and his stupid teasing. So stupidly annoying.
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~3~
Keith sighed as he walked out of the castle and stepped out onto the beach in just a pair of trunks. After being forced to wear stupid clothes and go on crazy rides, this seemed like a good change of pace. The star that acted as this planet’s main source of light and heat was radiant in the sky, and it made the yellow sand dazzle as if each grain were actually made of gold.
He looked around the beach and saw Lance standing by the water’s edge, obviously in nothing but his swimming trunks. Lance began leaning to either side, stretching his legs across the floor. Keith thought back to the pictures he’d taken of Lance’s summer outfit that had revealed way too much leg as he watched him stretch. It was obvious that his lithe legs were strong as they stretched out across the sand, and from the way Lance was moving, it seemed he was used to doing whatever he was doing.
Keith’s eyes roamed more, up Lance’s legs to his naked, darker toned body. His shoulders were broad and his back flexible as he reached down to touch his toes, putting him in a position where his butt was facing Keith.
Keith’s face immediately became red as he looked away, mentally scolding himself for basically checking Lance out. He saw Allura and Pidge sitting on a beach towel a little ways away in their swimsuits and decided to walk over to them as a distraction, calling out a small greeting. Allura returned it, but Pidge just sat there looking grumpy.
“So what are you two doing?” Keith asked. Allura sat up a bit more, repositioning a straw hat that sat atop her head.
“Well, I figured I’d use this day off to have some bonding time with Pidge!” She wrapped her arm around Pidge, bringing their cheeks together to look at Keith. “You know, girl to girl!” Allura’s toothy smile was a direct contrast to Pidge’s frown. Her eyes were screaming “Help me” to Keith.
They heard a yelp from Lance and turned to see him still stretching with the water washing up by his feet. Keith looked back to Allura.
“Are you sure this place is safe?” Allura raised an eyebrow before waving her hand at Keith dismissively.
“Of course it is. Trust me, I used to come here all the time 10,000 years ago. This place looks no different.” Keith shrugged. As unassuring as that was, he wasn’t willing to argue with the princess right now as he looked back at the water lapping at Lance’s feet.
“What’s he doing, anyways?” Keith hadn’t even realized he’d muttered it out loud until Pidge replied.
“Why don’t you just go ask him?” His eyes widened as he looked at her in shock.
“What? Why would I do that?” Pidge raised an eyebrow, and she almost seemed to be giving him a look that said she knew more than he did.
“Uh, maybe because you were wondering? Unless you’re embarrassed to approach him or something.” Keith cast a side glance at Lance, who turned to show off his toned stomach. A bit of red crawled up his face.
“Of course I’m not!” He retorted before walking towards Lance, leaving Pidge and Allura staring at his back like he was bipolar.
“Lance! What are you doing.” Keith demanded more than asked. The Cuban boy raised an eyebrow at Keith’s tone of voice.
“Uh, I’m stretching? Duh? Everyone knows that stretching is a necessity before you get to swimming!” Lance began stretching some more, leaving Keith to watch the way his limbs effortlessly wrapped around his body in different stretches. When he realized that Keith was just watching him, Lance stopped. “What? Aren’t you going to stretch, too?” Keith bit his lower lip and looked away.
“Of course not.” He replied. Keith had no intention of going in the water today. Unfortunately for him, Lance seemed to be misinterpreting his refusal to stretch as he leaned forward.
“Oh, I get it! You think that you don’t need to stretch in order to beat me in a swimming race, is that it?” Keith looked at Lance in confusion.
“What? No, Lance, that’s stupi-”
“Ha! I knew it! Well, well, well, getting a bit cocky, don’t you think?” Keith scratched the back of his head.
“Are you listening to m-” Lance huffed and pointed at Keith dramatically with his other hand on his hip.
“Very well! You’ll rue the day you underestimated me! I’ll have you know that I was the youngest in my family, and yet I beat my older siblings in swimming races every time we would compete!” He grinned, shutting his eyes and bringing his hand that had been pointing at Keith to rest beneath his chin, and Keith swore Lance must’ve been imitating a rehash of some cheesy musical. “So, knowing all this, do you still wish to race me and face certain humiliation?” Lance stopped in a weird pose, and Keith was glad that this planet’s beach was uninhabited, or else he would have to pretend he didn’t know who Lance was for the second time that day.
“Oh, oh, oh! Are you two about to have a race?” Hunk asked, stumbling out of the ship and running over to them. Lance’s confident grin widened.
“That’s right. I’m about to whoop hot boy’s butt over here.” The three of them froze at the realization of what Lance had just said. “I mean, you know, it’s hot!” Lance looked up. “The sun! It’s hot.”
Keith’s face was reddening for the nth time that day, and Lance’s adorably horrible attempts to cover up what he said wasn’t helping. Now Keith had more than one reason why he couldn’t do this with Lance.
“No, we’re not racing.” He quickly turned to walk away after saying that, figuring he’d just go find Shiro or something, wherever he was. Hunk called out in complaint.
“Come on, Keith! You’re just going to let Lance get away with calling you that?” Keith stopped in his tracks from how hard that comment made him cringe with embarrassment. Did Hunk not realize that Lance had just called him ‘hot’? That wasn’t an insult, that wasn’t something that made Keith’s blood boil. It was...it made him…
...happy…?
Keith shook his head. No, not happy. That wasn’t why his heart was thumping in his chest right now. It was awkward, that was all. That’s why Keith didn’t want to be around Lance right now. And even more than that, he didn’t want to race him because…
“I really want to see you two race!” Hunk said, smiling innocently. Lance seemed to still be recovering from what had come out of his own mouth.
“Y-yeah. What, are you scared you’ll lose? Like you lost our bet at the amusement park?” Keith grimaced at the mention of the park, and he turned around to face them.
“There was no bet! And, I’m not scared!” Lance grinned, back in his teasing groove, the awkwardness from earlier momentarily forgotten. Hunk just watched their exchange, looking excited to see them race.
“Oh, really? Then why won’t take my challenge?” Keith bit his lower lip, about ready to blow up at Lance and just tell him.
“Because.” He said, his fists clenching as Lance danced on over to him, leaning forward.
“Because you’re afraid?” Keith’s eye twitched.
“I’m not afraid!” He shouted, not wanting to be seen that way by Lance. Or by Hunk, too. He didn’t want to be seen as being afraid by any of them, not just Lance. Obviously. That would make no sense.
“Then why?” Lance asked, slurring the ‘why’. Keith could feel the fire burning in his body, rushing to his head as words prepared to burst out of his mouth. But he couldn’t-he shouldn’t.
“Why?” Lance pressed, and the question seemed to repeat again and again until Keith lost it.
“Because I don’t know how to swim!” He shouted angrily, breaths coming out in heavy doses. There. It was done. He said it. It was out there now.
Lance and Hunk stared at him with shocked looks on their faces, and Keith suddenly felt a little more self-conscious than usual having Lance look at him like that.
“...what?” He asked, casting his gaze down at the sand. Lance and Hunk exchanged a look before turning back to him, and Lance tossed an arm around his neck. Keith shivered at the feeling of Lance’s skin on his as he turned to meet his grin.
“Why didn’t you say so? We’ll teach you!” Keith raised an eyebrow at that unexpected request. Lance was offering to teach him how to swim?
“...what’s your ulterior motive?” He asked uncertainly. Lance continued grinning, showing his teeth as his arm retracted from Keith’s neck and he returned to standing directly in front of him.
“Nothing! It’s just, it’s an unfair advantage if I can swim and you can’t! Besides, as someone who grew up near a beach his whole life, I can’t possibly allow somebody to go their whole lives not knowing how to swim. Talk about embarrassing.” Keith’s face reddened again at that. Oh, so he was just looking for another way to tease Keith, was that it? Instead of making fun of him for not being able to swim, his plan was to tease Keith by pitying him? Yeah right. As if Keith was going to let that fly.
“Okay.” Hunk made a strange gasping sound as Lance looked on in shock, having not expected Keith to agree. He did his best to hide the grin that threatened to appear on his face upon seeing how shocked they were, instead watching them innocently. “If you’re offering, then okay.” Lance looked to Hunk for help, but the yellow paladin was already tip-toeing away, leaving just them two. Keith let a bit of his grin slip onto his lips.
He was about to point out how it was his win, how he’d beaten Lance this time, when suddenly, there was a sigh.
“Well, alright. I mean, I meant what I said, after all. Just the thought of not knowing how to swim terrifies me!” Keith’s jaw dropped a bit at what this was implying. No way. Was Lance really going to do this?
He got his answer immediately as Lance reached forward and grabbed Keith’s wrist, and he was so shocked he didn’t process any of it fast enough to retaliate until he had already been dragged until he was ankle deep in the alien water.
“W-wait! What are you doing?!” Keith shouted, tugging his wrist from Lance’s grasp. Lance looked at him like he was crazy.
“What are you talking about? Aren’t you the one who asked for this?”
“What are you, stupid? I was obviously joking!” Lance pondered this for a moment before smiling, reclaiming hold of Keith’s wrist.
“Too bad! You’re stuck with it now! Besides, I taught all my nieces and nephews how to swim. You’ll never find a better swimming coach in the universe, in terms of skill or looks.” Lance’s smile turned into another signature cocky grin. Keith’s eye rolling was interrupted as Lance tugged him, and he gave a shout of disapproval as he was brought further into the water until they were at least waist deep.
He couldn’t believe he was doing this. Lance held both of his hands gently in his as Keith’s feet began rising from the ground to float freely in the water behind him.
“Alright, that’s pretty good. Now I’m going to start pulling you along. Your job is to get used to splashing your legs in the water while floating like this.” Keith did his best not to look up at Lance’s smile, instead staring straight ahead. That wasn’t much better, because his eyes ended up boring straight into Lance’s stomach, and quiznak, the swimmer boy was much more sculpted up close. He didn’t have crazy abs or anything, but from up close Keith could see the stable, muscular frame that fit into Lance’s tall, slender build perfectly.
And as if that wasn’t enough to take Keith’s focus off of swimming, Lance’s voice kept calling out to him every three seconds in such a smooth tone. He’d never heard Lance use this tone of voice before, and he figured it was one he normally reserved for his younger nieces and nephews.
“That’s it. You’re doing good. Keep coming. You ready to speed up?” Keith was only listening to Lance’s voice and not what he was actually saying as he paddled his legs behind him randomly. He could hardly believe this was the same voice that loved to tease him and get him annoyed. Sometimes it was the most irritating thing in the universe to hear, but right now, Keith let it surround him like the water he was swimming in. As the noise began surrounding him more, so did the water, and before Keith knew it, he had accidentally let go of Lance’s hands and gone below the surface.
Keith’s eyes were wide as he flailed his arms, struggling to break the surface. He couldn’t believe this. Was this how he would die? Drowning thanks to Lance’s? Thanks to Lance’s stupidly pretty skin, and his stupidly perfect stomach, and his stupidly precious voice?
A hand grabbed Keith and pulled him up, and he gasped as he broke the surface of the water, feeling Lance holding his shoulders. Keith was ready to curl his body into Lance’s. But then the stupid buffoon spoke, and that ruined any gratitude Keith might’ve had.
“Uh, Keith? Are you alright?” Keith’s eye twitched, because Lance’s voice was back to just being annoying and he didn’t seem worried about what had just happened to Keith in the slightest. He grumbled.
“What, is that all you have to say? Maybe you could apologize for almost letting your damn teammate die?!” Lance just blinked in surprise.
“Keith, what-”
“Like seriously! You almost let me drown! I’ll never find a better coach my ass!” Keith turned to glare at Lance, but was taken aback when he saw a look of amusement on his face. “What’re you beaming about, asshole?” Keith spat. At this point, Lance looked like he was trying not to die from holding in his laughter.
“Keith...look around you…” He managed to squeak out before he was gone, laughing hysterically. Keith looked around and saw that they were only arms deep in the water. He confirmed this as he pushed away from Lance and felt his feet land on the sandy floor. Oh. Oh quiznak.
“You...and you...thought you were going to drown…!” Lance’s laughing got even louder now that he wasn’t holding onto Keith.
Speaking of Keith, his entire face was red and he was shrinking back into the water in embarrassment, a part of him wishing he’d just drowned so he wouldn’t have to deal with this. Lance waded over to him in the water, and Keith immediately walked back and away from him, wanting to just hide forever.
“Hey, why are you running away from me? You might drown if I’m not with you!” Keith felt his face redden even more as Lance gave him a grin that said he was never going to let Keith forget about this.
“Shut up! You’re so annoying!” Keith shouted back, trying to wade his way back to shore. Lance went after him as Keith grumbled to himself.
Stupid Lance and his stupid teasing. So stupidly annoying.
“Wait, be careful! The water is shallower over there, so you have a higher chance of drowning!” Keith’s ears burned at Lance’s teases, but he continued walking away with his back to Lance. And then a wave of water splashed over his head, stopping him in his tracks. He heard Lance giggle from behind him.
“...would you just quizn-” Keith whipped around to face Lance angrily only to get another face full of water thrown at him. Lance grinned challengingly at Keith, who glared at him. They stayed still for a while, just glaring at each other before Keith dipped his arms under the water and splashed them up at Lance. The resident beach boy gave a squeal of delight as the water splashed against his skin, and his voice sounded so childish and gleeful that Keith felt the red anger on his face turn into something else. It felt like Lance did that a lot. He drove Keith crazy, but ‘crazy’ could mean so many different things, and right now, he was thrilled as he splashed Lance with more water.
“Take that you annoying so-called teacher!” They waded around in the water, splashing at each other and smiling.
“What is this, a splashing battle?” They stopped and turned to see Allura and Pidge wading over to them, and they stopped in embarrassment at being caught doing something so childish. Allura shook her head.
“And to think the two of you are paladins of Voltron.” Pidge nodded.
“If people saw the two of you and knew you were defenders of the universe, I think they’d prefer to just let the Galra take them.” Pidge and Allura exchanged a look before they suddenly attacked, splashing water at Lance and Keith. The two boys shouted as they tried blocking their faces with their arms. Allura and Pidge giggled and yelped as they began getting splashed back, and before long it turned into a free for all, with all of them splashing at each other and running around in the waist deep water, laughing and making loud noises.
They played around like that for a while before calling a truce, all four of them panting with their hands on their knees.
“I’m pretty sure I won.” Lance said. Keith snorted.
“Oh please. Everyone knows you ate the most water.” Lance looked up to reply to Keith, but was cut off. Raising an eyebrow, Keith turned to see what Lance was looking at.
“Hey. Looks like you guys had fun.” Shiro had walked over to them, his top completely bare. His muscular shoulders and chest were on perfect display, and he currently had all four of them staring at him speechlessly. He raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, guys? Are you okay?”
“Don’t worry about it, Shiro! The kids have probably all just tuckered themselves out! Or it could be that the water has alien properties that causes harm to brain damage! Oh no! That means we’ve already been affected too!” Coran popped out of nowhere, jumping in front of Shiro and blocking his vision. Coran was…
...wearing nothing but his underwear.
Not even the memory of Shiro’s abs could cleanse the four of them from what they just saw as they all groaned, looking away.
They were all getting nightmares that night.
----------
~4~
Smoke filled the air in the kitchen, causing Keith to fall into a fit of coughing. He felt somebody rubbing his back a bit as Hunk shouted Shiro’s name and ran over to where the smoke was coming from.
“You okay?” Lance asked as Keith began calming down from coughing. He nodded at Lance before going back to stirring the pot like he was supposed to. After a long day of shopping, walking around an amusement park, and then playing in the water, they had decided to end their night by eating and playing games. What he didn’t understand was why they all had to help in the kitchen. He understood the concept of pulling your own weight, but not all cooks were created equally.
“You can’t just turn the heat higher for no reason! And Pidge, what did I say? You use the blunt side of the knife for that!” Hunk’s voice was shouting orders, and Keith just prayed that the other side of the kitchen kept messing up so that he wouldn’t have Gordon Ramsey himself breathing down his neck.
Lance leaned over, looking into Keith’s pot.
“Okay, that looks good. Here, why don’t you cut the rest of these vegetables while I reduce the sauce?” Keith just blinked.
“What? No, I can just reduce the liquid. Not like it’s hard to pour stuff out.” Lance stared at him for a second before he began laughing.
“K-Keith, that, that’s not what reducing means! Oh man...what, do you not cook?” Keith eyes widened a bit at hearing Lance use cooking terms he wasn’t used to, and suddenly he felt a bit more self conscious. “Alright, switch places with me. I’ll take it from here, but I’ll need those cebollas chopped up for when I’m done.” Keith looked down at the vegetables on the cutting board in front of him, assuming that’s what Lance had meant by ‘cebollas’.
He hesitated, sweat running down his forehead as he stared at the greens. He knew he wasn’t sure what to do, but he would rather die than let anyone else figure that out, especially Lance of all people. Besides, how hard could it be? He picked up the knife and rose it, eyes focused. And then, he slashed, making a small grunting noise as he did so.
“What? Huh? HUH?!” Lance let out gasps of horror as Keith slashed with the knife, cutting the vegetable up. “Stop, stop, stop!” Lance grabbed a hold of Keith’s arm, and, as soon as he got it to stop moving, snatched the knife out of his hand before lightly hitting Keith’s head with the handle of his ladle.
“Ow! Hey, that’s hot!” Keith exclaimed, hands going to his forehead where he’d been hit. Lance set the knife down behind him before putting his hands on his hips. Between that pose, the look on his face, and the apron, he seriously looked like a scowling old lady.
“Keith! What the quiznak were you doing?!” Keith grumbled, looking to the side and avoiding eye contact, so Lance leaned forward. “Hello? What, were you trying to kill me?” When he didn’t get an answer, Lance raised an eyebrow. “Wait, were you?” Keith gave Lance an embarrassed glance, and suddenly, he seemed to piece it all together.
“Holy quiznak. You can’t cook.” Keith’s face reddened even more as Lance said it out loud, a chuckle in his voice. “I can’t believe it! That’s, wow! You can’t cook!”
“Don’t say it so loud you idiot!” Keith yelled in embarrassment, but it was too late. Hunk walked over.
“What? Keith can’t cook? Well, he’s not the only one…” Lance was laughing hysterically as Keith just hugged himself uncomfortably. When he finally calmed down, Lance clapped Hunk on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry, chef! I’ll teach him! He’ll be a cook in no time!” Hunk nodded at Lance in approval before going somewhere else in the kitchen, leaving just the two of them. This seemed familiar.
“Well, looks who needs me to teach him how to swim AND cook. You need me for a lot of things, don’t you think?” Lance waggled his eyebrows, and somehow that made Keith blush even more as he looked away.
“Shut up! I don’t need you for anything!” Lance chuckled and, in the blink of an eye, he was standing behind Keith, his apron pressed lightly to Keith’s back.
“I do love the tsundere types.” Keith froze completely, and he felt Lance do the same from behind him.
“...wh-what?” Keith asked, shocked. Surely he’d just heard wrong?
“Uh...here’s the knife!” Lance said, changing the subject as he put the knife in Keith’s hand. Surprisingly, that was enough to distract Keith as he admired the sharpness of the blade. Lance cleared his throat. “Keith, please. You’re eyeing that knife the way a murderer would.” Keith grumbled, but his voice suddenly got jumbled in his throat as Lance grabbed his wrist.
“Wh-what’re you doing?!” Keith stuttered out, looking back at Lance, who raised an eyebrow.
“What? I’m helping you cut these bad greenies! Now come on, just let my hands guide your hands and we can avoid a lashing by Gordon Ramsey.” Keith bit his lower lip and slowly nodded. The faster he was out of this kitchen, the better.
Lance moved Keith’s hands for him, his grip on his wrists firm enough to move for Keith but lose enough so as to not hurt him. It seemed like this wasn’t Lance’s first time doing this for somebody. Keith thought this over for a bit before speaking up softly.
“Have you done this before?” Lance hummed a bit, and Keith’s face reddened as he felt Lance’s front half press to his backside.
“Sure have. My cousins used to all grab me and force me to teach them how to cook because they were too embarrassed to ask somebody else.” They cut vegetables in silence for a while before Lance spoke up.
“I can’t believe you don’t know how to cook, though! How did you even survive in the desert?” Keith scowled.
“I do know how to cook! I just...don’t know how to cut vegetables all fancily!” Lance chuckled, and Keith could feel it rumbling from Lance’s chest, which was pressed closer to his back than before.
“That’s not much better! You can’t call yourself a cook if you can’t chop vegetables!” Keith grumbled in response, not even feeling like responding to Lance’s teasing. As they began cutting the last of the vegetables, Keith subconsciously moved his head back until he felt Lance’s chin press up against it.
“Your cousins and nieces and nephews, they’re all really lucky that they have somebody they can look to, somebody who will teach them.” Lance stopped all his actions, and the two of them just stood there with Keith leaning back into Lance.
“...I know. I don’t know how to cook very well. I don’t know how to chop vegetables.” Keith’s eyes zeroed in on the knife in his hand, his grip tightening. “I don’t know how to swim. I don’t know how to have fun at an amusement park. I never had anybody to teach me those pleasantries.” His grip on the knife handle tightened even more. “Never had anybody to teach me those things you’re supposed to learn from family.”
They stood in motionless silence, their bodies pressed together. Keith didn’t know why he had just said all of that. That wasn’t the direction he had been intending to take his sentences, but somehow, he just ended up spilling it all out. He bit his lower lip in nervousness when suddenly, he felt Lance’s hand move from his wrist up to his fists, which were clenched around the knife as though he were holding it for dear life. The boy behind him whispered in his ear.
“You do now.” Keith’s heart sprouted wings and soared out of his chest as he pressed himself back against Lance even harder. It felt so comforting, like he was being caught after being pushed over the edge of a steep cliff. He was so busy riding on cloud nine that he didn’t even realize as Lance moved their hands together to finish chopping the last vegetable. They stayed pressed against each other for a while longer before Lance was forced to step back and away to check on the boiling sauce. Keith felt disappointment settle into him as he turned to look at Lance.
When he was done working with the liquid in the pot, he turned back to meet Keith’s gaze with a goofy smile.
“Well, now you can cut vegetables a little better! This means we won’t have to worry about anyone dying in the kitchen from now on!” Keith was about to give a retort, but he didn’t need to as an explosion sounded from the other side of the kitchen. Lance and Keith’s eyes widened comically as Hunk’s voice lit up the entire castle.
“SHIROOOOOO!”
----------
~5~
A moose. How the heck was Keith even supposed to imitate a moose?
This was beyond humiliating. He’d agreed to play charades with them only because he hadn’t exactly known what the game was. If he’d known it meant acting out a random word that you drew from a bin without speaking for the entertainment of others, he would have thought a bit more carefully about his decision to participate.
So now here he was, on all fours, face redder than a tomato. Lance immediately jumped up from where he was sitting.
“Oh, I know! You’re acting out the red lion!” Pidge rolled her eyes.
“No, Lance, his face is just red because he’s embarrassed, he’s not doing that on purpose.”
“Oh.” Lance said, settling back down. Keith’s face reddened even more at that. “Is standing still part of your act?” Lance asked. Keith shot him a glare, and he stuck his tongue out at Keith. Quiznaking brat.
Keith suddenly thought of something. He rose his arms above his head, connecting them to look like antlers. Quiznak, this was so embarrassing.
“Is he a rabbit? Probably not because, you know, rabbits don’t get this red.” Keith fumed at Lance making another stupid comment. He was way angrier than normal at him right now. They’d literally just had the biggest bonding moment Keith had ever had in his life back in the kitchen, and yet here he was, teasing and tossing sarcastic comments at Keith again. The stupid blue clown had claimed to not remember their initial bonding moment, no way in hell was Keith going to forgive him if he chose to just forget this one. After all, it had meant so much to Keith…
Did it not mean anything to him?
“Perhaps it’s a quyrtg’fil!” Allura shouted, ruining his thoughts. They all just looked at her with a look that said ‘we have no idea what that is’. She pouted and sat back down next to Pidge.
“That’s the fourth time none of you know what I’m talking about!” Pidge patted her on the shoulder.
“It’s alright, princess. I know what you’re talking about.”
“As do I!” Coran chimed in, holding up a pointer finger. They turned back to pay attention to Keith, who was out of ideas now. He just threw up his arms, shrugging at them. Lance chuckled, shaking his head with his arms crossed.
“I guess he’ll never be able to talk until he can act it out right.” Keith’s eye twitched. That was it. He was too angry to play games anymore.
“I can talk just fine thanks. Maybe you’re the one who needs to never be able to talk!” Lance just raised an eyebrow.
“What? Me?” Keith snorted.
“Yeah, who else could I be talking to that loves to run their mouth way too much?” He grabbed the nearest pillow and chucked it at Lance, who caught it in surprise.
“Are you saying you wanna switch places? Because that’s fine by me!” Keith huffed in annoyance and went to sit down next to Hunk, who was eating scraps from their team-cooked meal earlier. Lance took center stage, reaching into their bin of words and looking at what he’d have to act out. He smiled in excitement before he started waving his hands like waves. Then he got in the fetal position on the floor. Keith just looked away, still angry. It wasn’t long before Pidge called out ‘seashell’.
“Alright, Pidge!” Lance yelled as she got up and high fived him. Keith risked a glance, and at that same moment, Lance looked over at him with a triumphant smile. He didn’t even say anything to tease Keith this time, he just looked at him.
Stupid Lance and his stupid teasing. So stupidly annoying.
...and so stupidly confusing.
----------
~1~
Keith sighed as he walked down the hallway to his bedroom in the castle. Everyone else had already retired for the night. Today had been one of the most emotionally confusing days of Keith’s life. He was ready to just go to sleep and momentarily get rid of all the stress…
...only it seemed life had other plans for him as loud, running footsteps sounded behind him.
“Hey bud!” Keith cringed in disappointment and anger as Lance threw his arm around Keith’s shoulder and called him ‘bud’. Apparently he had still been wandering the castle, too.
“What do you want.” Keith said, continuing to walk down the hall. Lance frowned and ran to stand in front of Keith, forcing him to stop walking.
“What’s wrong? You seem awfully tired.” Keith huffed in annoyance.
“Who’s fault do you think that is?” Lance looked up as if he were trying to piece it together, and Keith balled his hands into fists. He didn’t care if Lance was just pretending; it was still damn annoying.
“You’re insufferable!” Keith shouted. Lance looked shocked as Keith blew up, slamming his fist into his thigh in anger. “You’ve been all up on my case all day! You’ve been so annoying and teasing all day, and I’m at my limit! I mean seriously, what is wrong with you?! It’s almost like you’ve been trying to flirt with me all day or something, like, like...like you LIKE me or something!” Keith was panting by the end of his outburst, letting his rage out. He prepared for Lance to give some remark that would only annoy him even further, but instead, Lance stayed silent, his face reddening a bit. Keith’s eyes widened. Why was Lance’s face reddening? He thought back to what he just said and began to piece things together.
“...wait...do you like me?” Lance spluttered.
“Uh, no!” Keith felt his heart beating faster in his chest in excitement, and seeing Lance get flustered for once was endearing. There was no way Keith was going to give up this advantage.
“Holy quiznak, you DO like me.” Lance spluttered more incoherent nonsense before he managed to make a sentence that was acceptably understandable.
“Do not! I just...no!” Keith grinned.
“Yes, you do, you were flirting with me all day!” Just saying these words was making Keith’s insides incredibly happy for whatever reason.
“I wasn’t!” Lance exclaimed. Keith shook his head.
“Liar! I know you were.” Lance’s face reddened at that before he let out a loud groan.
“Okay, fine! What if I was? Would that make you happy?!” Just like that, Keith lost his teasing advantage as he felt his face redden, because for whatever screwed up reason, his heart was telling him to say yes.
“N-no!” He denied. He was so confused by everything he was feeling right now, and because of that, he continued speaking. “B-but, would it make you happy if I was happy that you were flirting with me?” Lance scoffed as if that were the most ridiculous thing.
“Of course not!” Keith crossed his arms, heart stinging a bit upon hearing that.
“Okay, fine, but either way, you were still flirting with me.” Lance blushed a bit more.
“Y-yeah. Fine. I was. But I flirt with everybody! And besides, you liked it!” Keith had half a mind to agree and say yes, he did in fact like it, he loved every second of it. But he was still sort of upset, so he didn’t.
“Of course I didn’t like it! Why else would I be this angry at you? Because you’ve been annoying me all freaking day! I mean seriously, you...after I told you everything in the kitchen it’s like you just...like nothing changed!” Lance paused at that, looking like he’d just had a revelation. Keith mentally slapped himself for bringing their most recent bonding moment up.
“...oh.” Lance muttered, and the shift in his voice gave Keith chills. “I get it. You’re not mad because of the teasing or anything. You’re mad because of that.” Keith bit his lower lip. A part of him wanted to yell that that wasn’t true, that he was just annoyed with Lance after all his teasing today, but Keith knew that he’d enjoyed Lance flirting with him. He knew the only reason he was upset with him at all was because it almost felt like their moment had never happened. Lance smiled a bit as he walked towards Keith, and he let him approach.
“Come on, look at me.” Lance said. Keith did so, and wow, he almost forgot how pretty Lance’s eyes were after going an hour or two without looking at them. That was a scary thought. He didn’t want to ever forget how pretty those eyes were. Lance chuckled a bit.
“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to make you feel like it didn’t matter to me. I was just...wondering about how I felt.” Keith snorted at that.
“Haven’t you been flirting with me all day? Doesn’t that reflect something?” Lance twiddled his thumbs.
“Well, I suppose...but normally I just flirt with whoever. It doesn’t mean I like them. So I wasn’t sure if what I felt for you was genuine or if I was just...being me…” Keith felt his anger slowly fading. He reached forward and grabbed Lance’s hand.
“...do you like me?” Lance looked away, making Keith raise an eyebrow. He’d never imagined Lance would be so shy about this; not that he’d imagined this happening before or anything. Lance sighed.
“I’ve never actually...told somebody I like them like this before…” Lance muttered. Keith’s eyes widened.
“What? You, Lance McClain? The ladies’ man?” Lance scowled in embarrassment.
“I know, I know...but, really. I usually never get this far. And besides...I usually never like somebody as much as...as much as I like you, anyway.” Keith perked up at that, eyes widening.
“So then...you do?” Lance scowled again.
“Yes, I do, you stupid tease! I do like you! I like you a lot, I like you more than I’ve ever liked anybody else! There, that good enough for you?!” Lance yelled like a little child, and it made Keith’s heart flutter each time he said it. Their hands squeezed each other tighter as Keith smiled wide.
“Yeah, I think I’ll accept that. And uh, you...you were right…” Keith muttered, fumbling over his words. Lance smiled at him encouragingly, setting Keith’s emotions on fire. “I...I did like it when you flirted with me.” Lance took a step closer to Keith.
“And?” Keith’s face reddened, but he took a deep breath before taking a step closer to Lance.
“And...I like you, too. I like you a lot, I like you more than I’ve ever liked anybody else.” They both smiled and began laughing at the way Keith copied Lance’s confession. When they calmed down, they looked at each other, their noses only centimeters apart with Lance bending his head down.
“Look at you. So short, you’re cute.” Keith lightly tapped his fingers against Lance’s chest.
“Really? You’re going to tease me right now? I thought I was the one with the teasing upper hand here!” Lance chuckled as their noses pressed together.
“Babe, I’m gonna be teasing you until the end of time.” Keith’s heart melted at the way Lance called him ‘babe’, and the rest of him proceeded to melt along with it as they closed the distance between their mouths, and simultaneously, closed the distance between their hearts.