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Keith mindlessly cleaned the coffee machine, trying to do something to occupy himself in the very empty shop. Lance had his head resting on the pastry display case. They were the only ones on schedule and the only ones in the store. The weather wasn’t even bad outside but the shop was completely empty of any caffeine deprived people, leaving the two workers with nothing to do.“That machine any cleaner than it was 20 minutes ago?” Lance asked.“Have you finally made an imprint on the case yet?” Keith sassed.“Leave me alone, I’m bored.” Lance whined. “There’s nothing to do and we can’t go back home cause Kolivan will kill us if we close up early without his permission.”“Which we won’t get.” Keith moaned.“Exactly.” Lance said, finally getting off the display case and using his hand to smooth the smug out. He wasn’t in the mood to actually clean it. That was a problem for later. Now though, he wanted to find something to do. He pulled open the drawers and pulled out all their markers and then went to the back and grabbed a new sleeve of hot sleeves. Keith gave Lance a confused look as he dropped them on the counter and dragged one of the stools behind the counter over.“What are you doing?”“Well we have to refill the hot sleeves at the end of the day anyway, let’s have some fun with it.”Keith knew this is where he should reject the idea, but…he was really bored. Besides, he and Lance would be doing something together, like it wasn’t enough that they had shifts together. Keith wouldn’t deny his crush on Lance. Not when he knew that Lance felt the same, and he wasn’t being smug about that. Lance had promised his mother that he wouldn’t date anyone during the school year and they figured out their feelings near the middle of the semester. Lance was keeping his promise but would still flirt with Keith, paying him compliments or insist on pressing up against him more than necessary during their busier hours.“Only a few more weeks till the end of the school year.” Lance would say more often now, like he had to remind Keith only a few more weeks before they had a chance to finally date. Part of him worried it wouldn’t be the same, but until they got there, he wouldn’t question it. Just look forward to it.Keith started a complicated layered drawing of a flower while Lance passes by with cat faces, music notes and mermaid tails. Lance had started a drawing of a detailed blaster when he leaned over and opened the pastry case and pulled out an apricot and blueberry tart.“You’re gonna get in trouble for that.” Keith said.“You gonna tell on me?” Lance teased.“If I don’t get any I will.”Lance let Keith take a bite of the pastry before taking a bit out of the same spot, staring Keith down.“Do you ever wonder,” Keith asked as he finished his flower and moved on to a flame, “if the wait will be worth it?”“What do you mean?”“I mean with us. We know we like the other person but what if the wait wasn’t worth it?”“I think of it like an actual relationship, you never know how it’s gonna turn out and besides, this way we have more time to get to know each other.” Lance pointed out.Keith couldn’t disagree with that. He knew that Lance was scared of big dogs so he had slowly introduced his own dog Kosmo instead of just letting him surprise Lance completely. Lance learned that Keith hated having to wait for a really time. With getting the chance to know the other person’s flaws, it made things pretty clear if they were right for each other. Keith would agree that even with their differences, he still really liked Lance. So as much as he complained and worried about having the wait, he admitted it helped him like Lance more.“’Sides, most people give up about two weeks in, you’ve stuck around for a long time. Trust me, if that doesn’t make you think I still won’t want to be with you, I don’t know what will.”“Guess it’s good I don’t like to give up.”“Thank goodness for that.” Lance said feeding Keith the last bite of the tart.They continued drawing on the hot sleeves when someone finally came in. Shiro and his boyfriend Adam were regulars who kind of knew that the two baristas liked each other.“You two look like your having fun.” Shiro said, watching Lance draw a chibi version of Keith’s dog Kosmo and hearts.“There’s nothing to do, leave us alone.” Lance whined, as Keith got up like a responsible barista.“Then can we get our regular orders?” Shiro asked.Lance pulled out the cups and let the two patrons choose a marked hot sleeve before handing it to Keith to make the drinks before going back to work on the different hot sleeves.“So, have the two of you started dating yet.” Adam asked as he watched Lance continue his dog drawing.“It’s not the end of the school year yet. But don’t worry,” Lance said, looking over his shoulder at Keith, “it’ll happen soon. Until then, I guess I’ll just have to be happy with this small coffee shop flirting.”
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Lance opened the door, making sure there was no one in the hallway. He knew the moment he was caught, he’d be in trouble. The bundle in his arm moved but Lance kept his grip tight. He walked as quick as he could to his room when a hand clamp on his shoulder.“What are you doing?” the Galra asked. Lance had seen him around, part of the Blade of Mamora group that was living at the castle, offering protection to the royal family as well as offering support against the tensions between Altea and Daibazaal. This member was the smaller one, the one who was always with the leaders. His eyes widened as he took in Lance though. “Your majesty?”“Shhh!” he hissed, grabbing the Galra by the wrist and tugging him into his room, quickly shoving him inside, shutting the door behind him.“Have you been outside the castle? Your father gave strict instructions for you not to leave the grounds.”“He’s not my father so he doesn’t have control over me.” Lance said as he took the bundle to his bed and put it down. “In case you weren’t paying attention, I don’t have white hair like the rest of the family.”“But, you have the same blue eyes.”Lance took in the confused face on the Galra’s face, his gold flecked purple eyes taking in the blue markings on his cheek and his blue eyes, similar to the royal family.“I was adopted. My family was refugees from Earth. We had been attacked by robbers and by the time help arrived, most of my family was dead, the rest of us too injured to move. I was the only one still alive and was taken in by the king and his family. These markings are only from a kiss the princess gave me, they’re not real.”“Oh.” The member said, then looked at the bundle on Lance’s bed. “What’s that?”“The reason I was outside of the castle. I get that this marriage between the princess and the prince of Daibazaal is important, but that guy is a creep. He said his mother likes doing experiments and was even considering taking this guy back to her.” This guy being a black cat with blue fur along its spine.“What did you do?”“I destroyed the sentries he sent to capture this guy and brought him back.”“By yourself?”Lance raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What, like it’s hard? I have perfect aim and access to a blaster.”“You are…nothing like I expected.”“I’ll take that as a compliment then. What’s your name? I’ve seen you around but I don’t know who you are.”“My name is Keith your majesty.”“Don’t call me that. I might be part of the royal family, but I’ll never see the throne. Just call me Lance.”“Lance?”“That’s my name. Just Lance.”“Ok then, Just Lance. What do you plan on doing with this one?”Lance looked down at the cat that climbed into his lap. “Hide her from that creep and take care of her.”“Why do you not like Prince Lotor?”“I don’t trust him. He’s as slimy as a snake and full of secrets. Plus the idea that he’s the bridge between Daibazaal and Altea?”“He is Galtean.” Keith pointed out.“What he is is entitled. It’s obvious he doesn’t like being Galra so how is he a good bridge between the two planets? Why not you guys?”“The Blade of Mamora?”“You’re from Daibazaal and want peace between the two planets.”“Be that as it may, we’re also a rebel group. I doubt even if someone from the group managed to mate with your sister – I’m sorry, the princess,” Keith corrected himself when Lance glared at him. Obviously, he wanted the separation to be very clear. “I don’t think it would fix the issues the two planets have. Does she at least like him?”“Too much in my opinion. He’s just so smooth with his words that he wooed her when she’d be flipping guys like him to the floor. Trust me, I’ve watched. It’s a lot of fun.”“I’ve seen her do it, don’t worry.” Keith said.A knock on the door jolted them and Lance put his finger to his lips before answering.“Your majesty, your father would like to speak to you.” Coran, the assistant of the king called.“What for? He’s already locked me in the castle because I was being truthful to that prince.”“I don’t think calling your future brother-in-law a slimy Xznly Squiwl is exactly truthful.”“But he is one.” Lance muttered loud enough to be heard.“Be that as it may, your father would like to speak to you.”“He’s not my father.” Lance said, still not moving.”“If you do not get out here, I was told to drag you out if necessary.”“Fine, I’ll be right out.” Lance picked up the cape he’d wrapped the cat in and shook it out. “After we’re gone, you can sneak out. Just make sure she doesn’t follow you.” He told Keith before he left his room.He followed Coran to the thrown room where King Alfor was waiting, Allura and her darling fiancée standing on the main floor.“Lance, there you are. Lotor wanted to speak to you.”“Really? I’m bursting at the seams.” Lance said, sarcasm covering every word. “Can I go because I’m sure anything he has to say isn’t at all important.”“Don’t be rude Lance. That’s what got you in trouble in the first place.” The king chastised, Lance rolling his eyes.“I need to look at your cape.” Lotor said standing in front of Lance.“I really don’t think it’s your style but I’m sure the royal seamstress can make something that would suit you.” Lance mocked.“Always a foul mouth on you, isn’t there?” Lotor asked, glaring down at Lance.“Only for Xznly Squiwls like you.”“Lance, behave!” Allura called.“A gift for my mother has gone missing and a someone saw you near the scene of the crime, seeing how my sentries were destroyed.”“Wow guess they’re about as good as you.”“Where is it, you little brat?”“Name calling. Wow, mature. Really Allura, perfect guy.”“Lance, did you have anything to do with the missing gift?” the king asked.“And because he said I was, you believe him?” Lance sassed.The door to the thrown room opened and Keith slipped in. “I’m sorry for interrupting but I happen to overhear.”“Overhear?”“The accusations. Was the Prince’s present a cat, black fur with blue along the spine?”“What’s your point?”“That cat belongs to me. The king knows I own a companion with those colours. His majesty has seen her and went to go save her.”“You must be joking.” Lotor said, obviously not believing Keith.“He has said he has a companion with those markings. Are you sure?” the king asked.“Very. I know his majesty was ordered not to leave the grounds but if it wasn’t for him, I would have lost a very dear companion.”“I supposed so. My apologies Prince Lotor, but I’m afraid that cat wasn’t for adoption. Lance, seeing how you broke the rules to save a dear companion, I supposed I can lift your punishment, tomorrow morning.”“Tomorrow!” Lance complained.“You were rude this morning. I’ll see it that your punishment is lifted tomorrow. For now, you can go back to your room. My dear Blade, if you could be so kind?”“Of course.”Lance huffed and left the throne room, Keith following him.“Quiznaking asshole.” Lance muttered.“I think I see why you don’t like him so much.” Keith said.“My point exactly. Thank you by the way.”“I thought it was the least I could do. You risked a lot to go save her.”“So, assuming she doesn’t actually belong to you, what animal do you have with black and blue fur?”“My wolf Kosmo. You should meet him sometime.”“Well, I don’t exactly have a ton of friends here. Sure you wouldn’t rather do something else?”Keith raised an eyebrow at Lance. “Something tells me, someone has to keep you out of trouble.”“Oh, you haven’t seen the half of it.”
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He was back, the mermaid. The one from the deepest parts of the sea where pressure was heavy like the pressure of a steam vent about the erupt at the volcanic pools. He had just appeared one day, getting as close to one of the steam jets as possible, like he was trying to get warm. He didn’t fully understand it. Keith tried scaring him off, but he just swam fast. As quick as he was crawling on the seafloor, that was all he could do. Growing up around volcanoes got tar and ash all over his tail. The hard casing acted as armour but he was never strong enough to actually lift his tail like he’d seen the armoured mers do. So he learned how to move like a snake mer on the ground. He was used to being alone. He barely remembered a different type of warmth holding him when he was just a pup. The sight of that mermaid had surprised him. No one had ever tried to get close but this strange mermaid did.“Keith!” he called, his wings fins glowing under the sunbeams as if he was in the complete dark and he was glowing. Keith remembered the first time he saw it. He just started letting this mer in and started talking to him. He took him into a deep cave when he started showing uncomfortability with the pressure of the deep sea and his fins and the scales on his body started to glow. That’s when it felt like having him around was ok.“Lance.”“Look what I found!” Lance said, almost crashing into Keith, showing him the designed scale. “It was in one of the leviathan cravens. I think it’s a scale from one of those armoured mermaids. Look at all the designs on it.”“They come here and sharpen their nails in the lava pools above.” Keith explained, though he did take the scale from Lance.“Really? Can we go up to the surface?” Lance asked, already pasting himself close to Keith, latching onto his warmth.“Are you ok though? You left because you weren’t feeling comfortable.” Lance had to go back under every now and then to make sure his body was fine from being above the usual pressure.“It’s fine. Besides, you can lay on top of me for a little while.”Lance had this habit of when he didn’t want to leave but needed pressure on him, he pulled Keith down on top of him. He’d say Keith was warm and he didn’t want to move, even though Keith was sure he was squishing him. Lance complained furiously if Keith even thought of moving.“We could go check out one of the caves. There are new gems down there.”“Later, I want something first.”Keith felt himself tugged down and before he knew it, he was on top of Lance. He hadn’t even noticed that Lance had been sitting near the nest he’d made with the lava for whenever Lance wanted to sleep in warmth. The cooled lava was still warm to the touch. Lance would usually tug him on top of him in the same nest.“I thought you wanted to go to the surface?”“Later. I’m cold.” Lance gently moved Keith’s hair from his face. “Don’t you still have that thing I gave you, the one for your hair?”“I didn’t want to lose it so I left it in my kelpbed.”“Is that where you keep everything I give you?”“Of course, it’s the safest place.”Lance seemed to preen at that thought. “Good. I keep the things you give me safe too.”Keith didn’t know what the idea of that made him happy. Honestly, he didn’t understand why being around Lance made him happy. But he wasn’t going to question this. Compared to the loneliness he lived in before, this closeness, it was nice.
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Keith took a small bite out of his toast as he tried to warm up as much as he could before he would be flying in cold weather. He was so focused on his breakfast he didn’t see a tanned person sneaking up behind him until his vision was blocked.“Guess who?” a voice asked, making Keith laugh.“Hmm, I do wonder. Is it my 6 foot, really buff Slytherin boyfriend?”The voice scoffed as Keith got his vision back and felt arms wrap around his neck as the person leaned on him. “They wish they could be as perfect as me. And excuse you, just because I’m in Ravenclaw and not on Quidditch team doesn’t mean I’m not buff.”“I guess so.” Keith said, turning so he could look at his boyfriend.While Keith was in Gryffindor, Lance was in Ravenclaw. They had been rivals for best grades in the class, Lance throwing a loud fit whenever Keith beat him. Lance’s siblings were pretty well known, especially his duelling prodigy sister Veronica and that had put pressure on Lance to be just as good. Keith found Lance hiding up in the Astronomy Tower having a panic attack when the end of term grades came in during their Third Year before Christmas.“I told my parents I could pass my extra subjects with no problems and I almost failed both of them.” Lance had said when Keith asked what’s wrong. “I told my parents I could do it and I failed.”“So?”“Oh, of course you don’t care. You’re perfect at everything! Even Shiro knows your perfect and he’s the living embodiment of perfect. Nothing is ever hard for you and you know it.” Lance said with anger.“I’m not good at everything. I don’t make friends easily, I actually hate being compared to Shiro and I failed Charms. I’ve never been able to pass that class. You’ve seen me struggle not to set things on fire in there.”“So? You’re still better than I am. Everyone says that you’re always going to win.”“I’m not. I don’t do well under pressure. I run away, but I have never seen you run from anything. It’s not finals yet so you have time to get better. Stop thinking you’ll lose and prove yourself like you always do.”Lance hadn’t looked like he believed him at all and left leaving Keith feeling like he didn’t get through to him. He had gotten a letter though on Christmas with a package of his favourite chocolates. All it said was ‘thank you’ and the next time he saw Lance, he had this new determination in his eyes. He was able to pull from Hunk that Lance had talked with his sister, who then told their parents because she thought they deserved to know how much pressure Lance had on him. He’d been sat down for a much needed talk and the air had been cleared between his family and him.“It’s a little weird though. I was always telling him to tell his family how he felt and he never did. I don’t know why he suddenly changed his mind.”Keith didn’t want to automatically say it was him, but the timing seemed so obvious. Lance didn’t seek him out until they both tried claiming the strangely only empty table in the library during exam week.“I think sharing is the least I can do. After your help.” Keith pretended to look confused. “I know Hunk told you. I wasn’t expecting Veronica to go tell my parents but it worked out in the end for the better.”“I’m glad.”Lance had drastically improved his grades to something he was proud of and on the train ride back home, invited Keith to come sit with him and his friends. Thing had changed between them and the letters exchanged during the summer was only the start. They started getting much closer in their Fourth Year and on Easter break, Lance asked Keith out. They’d been together ever since. Lance didn’t exactly want to go and hide his relationship, even though the attention made Keith a bit uncomfortable. Keith was already known for being the Gryffindor beater who skills allowed him to join during his first year and everyone knew who Lance was because of his family. But Lance used his new outlook on having to be the best on how they lived their relationship, it didn’t matter, as long as they were happy.And Keith was.“I guess those muscles from holding my broom case have to show somehow.” Keith teased.“Ha ha. You’re so hilarious.” Lance said sarcastically as he climbed onto the bench next to Keith and stole a piece of fruit from his plate. “But speaking of strong people, have you seen the new beater for Slytherin? I don’t think he’s human.”“His name is Sendak right? I heard he almost got into a fight with Shiro.”“Shiro probably almost kicked his ass didn’t he?”“He wanted to but he was on prefect duty.” Keith said, thinking of his brother who was in Slytherin. “But he knows I’m his brother so I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to take it out on me on the field.”“Try and be careful. I don’t want that pretty face messed up that I can’t kiss you when you win.” Lance said, already pressing kisses onto Keith’s cheek like he couldn’t stand the idea of not kissing Keith. Keith didn’t want to lose that either.“I’ll be fine. I can take on a 7 foot creature and still hit bludgers to the opposite team. Speaking of which, I need to head down to the changing room soon.” Keith stuffed the last bit of his toast in his mouth and picked up his bag, letting Lance pick up his broom case like he always would, his free hand already linking with Keith’s.“Where are you going to sit?” Keith asked as they started to head down to the Gryffindor changing rooms.Lance would usually bounce between the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor stands during the games.“Pidge actually said I could sit with them at the commenter bench.”“With the teachers and guests?” Keith clarified.“Yep. Don’t worry, you’ll understand why when you get out there.”They reached the changing room to quick in their opinion. Lance pulled Keith close, pouting at the idea of having to pull away.“You promise you’ll be careful?”Wrapping his arms around Lance’s waist and leaning more onto him, Keith said, “I promise. The minute the game is over, you can kiss me as much as you want.”“That’d better be a promise.” Lance said, already leaning in to kiss Keith.He knew he should have stopped him, he did have to get ready, but kissing Lance made him forget all that. Made him forget a lot of things and Lance knew it. Keith could complain all he liked about how Lance would steal kisses or do it to get him to stop talking but god, it was worth it every time.“Excuse me,” the two pulled away to see Adam, the team captain, “As sweet as this is, I’d like to be ready when we start.”“Sorry. Ok, now I really have to go.” Keith said.“Fine.” Lance groaned, pulling away and pouting a little.Keith pulled his red and gold scarf and looped it around Lance’s neck before taking his broom case from him. “I’ll see you out there ok?” he pressed a quick kiss to Lance’s lips before following Adam inside.
Keith ducked as Sendak sent another bludger to his head. He hated being right sometimes. Since the game had started, Sendak was sending every bludger to him. Keith just used it to send the Slytherin team off track. Still, some calls were too close. It didn’t help that he could actually hear every scared gasp from Lance from how close he sat next to Pidge. He glanced over at the teacher’s box where a large banner with a Gryffindor lion painted in blue and grey moved with the chilled air. He could see the red and yellow scarf tied around Lance’s neck. He was sure some of the teachers were annoyed at Lance for shamelessly using the space so he could cheer Keith on.“And Gryffindor has the quaffle! Team captain Adam is heading down the field and Slytherin chaser Lotor and Ezor are headed after him. He dodges a bludger from beater Zethrid, he throws! And it’s in! 10 points to Gryffindor!” Pidge announced. “They’re still 30 points behind Slytherin so here’s hoping they can find the snitch soon. And oh! Gryffindor beater Keith just dodged another bludger from Slytherin beater Sendak. Really, almost gets his ass kicked and decides to take it out on his brother. Like really?”“Pidge.” Professor Ryner warned.“What? It’s true. I mean look at Lance, he’s getting anxiety.” Pidge defended.“Pidge, I have anxiety.”“See?”Keith couldn’t help but laugh as Professor Ryner’s scoldings were caught in the mic. They were suddenly cut off though.“Both seekers have spotted the snitch!” Pidge announced.Sure enough, two players were speeding off in the same direction. And Sendak just hit another bludger to him.“Keith, go!” Lance yelled into the mic, getting yelled at by Professor Ryner.With a powerful swing, he hit the incoming bludger in the direction of the Slytherin seeker who had started to get ahead. The seeker pulled away to dodge giving the Gryffindor opportunity to grab the snitch.“Gryffindor caught the snitch! That’s 150 points! Gryffindor wins!”While the rest of his team went to dogpile on their seeker, Keith flew down to where Lance stood waiting for him. He flew close to box and leaned down so Lance could take his face in his hands and press a kiss to his lips.“And it seems like the real celebration is up here.”Lance just showed them his middle finger. The scolding had been worth not parting lips.
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Lance wasn’t one to call people names. He’d been bullied when he was a kid and he didn’t want to do the same to other. But god, his roommate was a bit of a slut. It seemed like every other weekend he’s wake up to see another guy leaving Keith’s room. Never the same person twice, which meant one night stands. Lance was glad he was a heavy sleeper so thankfully he never heard the late night activities, but after walking in on the third one night stand using the only shower in the apartment, it was starting to get annoying.“It’s like he doesn’t care about the fact that he’s living with someone!” Lance complained over the phone to his best friend Hunk. “He’s got guys trailing in and out of here, it’s ridiculous! If I walk in on one more of his exploits, I’m gonna scream. If he wants to be a, I can’t believe I’m saying this, a slut, he can go to their place.”“Wow, you don’t usually go calling people sluts. Not even that girl who lived next door to you in college who’d have her boyfriend over like all the time. Do you remember how loud we would hear her moan?”“Trust me, I’m glad I don’t have to go around and hear Keith. I don’t think I’d be able to look at him.”“And the fact that you do think he is pretty hot has nothing to do with it.” Hunk started to tease.“Hot as that mullet head is, he’s losing any interest I have in him with all the guys he has over.” Lance said.Lance wasn’t going to deny he thought Keith was pretty hot when they first met when Lance came to check out the apartment. He was pretty pleasant and they got along, but he never mentioned he’d be stringing guys in and out in their roommate contract. If it wasn’t for the closeness to his job and the pretty good food Keith would make for them, Lance would be considering moving out.“Maybe you should talk to him.” Hunk suggested.“It’s not like I can go, ‘hey Keith, can you stop bringing your one night stands over? Having to clean up after them is really annoying. Please go home with them.’”“Well what else are you going to do? Just put it up with it?”Hunk had a point. He had to solve this. Problem was, it was Saturday, which was prime time for bringing one night stands. That was going to be an interesting conversation to have when he came home with his flavour of the night.“You sure I can’t just go look for a new apartment?”“Lance, just talk to the man.” Hunk ordered.Lance groaned, “Fine.” But he wasn’t going to enjoy it.He sat in the living room with his laptop, working on a work project, anything to distract his mind from the conversation he was going to have. He was never awake when Keith got home, it was usually pretty late based on the two times he was stumbling through the bathroom when he got back. He had no clue if Keith would be drunk or be stumbling in halfway started or even in the middle of seducing the guy even more. He really hoped they didn’t invite him to join.It was nearing 1 am when he heard Keith’s voice from outside the door.“Will you fuck off? Why the hell are you following me? I said I didn’t want to do it with you again.”“Oh don’t lie darling. You couldn’t control yourself last time. I’ve seen you with all those other guys, trying to make me jealous.”“Oh fuck off! You weren’t even that good. I swear to god, if you don’t leave, I’m going to scream bloody murder.”“I don’t believe you. I know your just playing hard to get.”“Get off!” Keith yelled before Lance heard a slam against the front door. He shoved his laptop off his lap and rushed to the door. “Let me go or else!”Lance swung the door open and caught Keith as he fell in, thankfully pulling him away from his apparent stalker. Lance recognised him. He’d been the first guy Lance had walked in on.“Who the hell are you?” the man asked.“His boyfriend.” Lance said, not even thinking.“Boyfriend? Yeah right, I’ve seen this slut taking guys from the club home with him.”“Oh yeah? Funny when he has me, that he’d settle for guys like you. Not much to see in my opinion.”The guy scoffed, “You know what, keep the slut. Not worth my time.” The guy stomped away, leaving Lance and Keith to sigh out in relief.Keith pulled away from Lance and closed the door before turning back to his roommate. “Um, thanks.”“No problem.”“I’m surprised you had said you were my boyfriend though.”So was he. “It just came out. He believed us and that’s all that matters. Look, this is what I needed to talk to you about. Your one night stands are becoming a problem. I’ve walked in on at 3 of your guys, including that one. Not to mention the mess the two of you leave in the apartment half the time. I don’t care what you do on the weekends, just, go do it at their place.”“I know.” Keith said. “I overheard you earlier on the phone. I had forgotten my wallet and came back to it.”“Oh.” Lance felt like crap. He ever meant for Keith to hear him. No one liked being talked about behind their back and Lance just had gone ahead and done it.“I decided to lay off the weekend exploits and was paying my tab when the asshole cornered me. Pretty much followed me home.”“Wait, followed you home? Didn’t you drive out to wherever?”“Yeah, why?”Lance had a bad feeling. “Doesn’t that mean this guy could try and come back and try something?”“I don’t think he would. Unless you think otherwise?”“I mean he did follow you. You’ve got to get a restraining order on this guy.” Lance said.“Um, good idea, except I don’t know his name.” Keith said, looking a bit ashamed.“Of course you don’t.”“Ok look, tomorrow, I can go and find out his name from one of the bartenders. I’ll take care of this and then you won’t have to deal with anymore of my one night stands.”The wording of that sentence made him feel like an ass. He had been complaining but he never meant for Keith to feel bad about it. The apology was right there on his lips, all he had to do was say it, but instead he just said, “Ok, fine. Night.”Lance felt like a complete coward.
It was his day off the next day and Lance was planning on spending the morning inside his room to avoid Keith. All he could remember was the look on his face when he admitted he heard Lance talk about him. Lance never wanted to bring that feeling on anyone, not after he’d been treated as a kid. Keith didn’t seem like the guy who didn’t seem to care what people thought about him, he really looked hurt.“Lance? Can I come in?” Keith asked, knocking at his door.“Yeah? What is it?”Keith opened the door and slipped in, actually looking worried. Lance hadn’t really ever seen that look on him. “So, I might have an issue. I was checking the mail before I was gonna head to the bar and I saw that guy’s car outside.”“Are you telling me this guy never left?” Lance asked, pushing himself off his bed.“Maybe? Do you think you can come with me? I don’t think he’ll try anything if he sees us together.”“That’s a big if.” Lance pointed out.“Don’t have much choice, do I? Look, I need to get this guy’s name if I want to keep him away from me.”Lance sighed. “Ok, let me get changed.”Before he knew it, he was following Keith out of the apartment. He tried not to jump when Keith grabbed his hand and tugged him to where his bike was waiting. Keith handed him a spare helmet before climbing on. Lance climbed on behind him and pulled on his helmet and hesitated to put his hands around Keith’s waist. This was starting to feel to real, like he was just going for a drive with Keith, not going with him as a fake boyfriend to keep him away from an over eager one night stand.“Lance? You ok?”“Fine.” Lance said finally wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist, tightening when he pulled out and onto the street.As they drove more into the city, Lance thought about the times they’d watch movies together. Lance was a cuddly person by nature and would start to lean on Keith during the movie. Lance had expected him to push Lance off but he never did, always moving his arm to the back of the couch so Lance could lie comfortably. It was in those moments Lance wished he said something to Keith. Maybe if he did, Keith wouldn’t be in this situation. They finally stopped and as Lance pulled his helmet off he saw a car passing that slowed down just enough to stand out.“Was that him?”“Yeah. Let’s go.”The front door to the club was locked, but Keith’s loud pounding got a member of staff to open the door. Explaining to the owner the reason that they needed the name of the patron took longer than Lance would of thought. But they got a name in the end and the owner even offered to bring down one of their police friends to come after they said the guy had been following them.Keith collapsed onto one side of a booth table and groaned loudly. “I’m sorry I dragged you into this.” He said.“It’s ok. I didn’t mind. But…I should be the one to apologize.”Keith pushed himself up and looked at Lance. “What do you mean?”“What I said last night, about you…”“Being a slut? I’m not going to deny that I like sex Lance.”“Still, I shouldn’t have said that. I hated people talking behind my back but I did the same thing to you. Maybe if I didn’t say anything, you never would be in this position.”“Or that guy would have followed me anyway. Besides, my brother hasn’t been happy with how many times I’ve been out. He keeps telling me I’m going to get myself in trouble and he was right, again. He keeps telling me I should just stay in on weekends but I get bored easily.”“Well…I tend to stay at home and watch movies. A few times I go out with my friends to go bowling and stuff. It’s usually Hunk, his girlfriend and Pidge. They’re not into physical activity so I’m usually third wheeling half the time. If you want, you can join us. Maybe some time away from the clubs could do you some good.”“So what? Like double dates if your Pidge friend doesn’t join in?” Keith asked, sounding like he was teasing.Lane felt his face get hot. “Whatever you want to call it.”“Ok then. If it’s ok, sure I’ll join you. But do you think we don’t go out tonight?”“That’s fine with me. Movie night?”“My pick.”
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What had he been thinking? Lance was obviously insane as he stared at the gold eyes that were staring him back.“I need you to do me a huge favour.” His boyfriend had asked, keeping as still as possible so he didn’t get blood everywhere. No, Lance was not hurting his boyfriend. Well, at least not to actually hurt him.Lance was a witch and his boyfriend was a demon. They both attended Atlas Altea, a school for supernatural students. Lance met Keith there when he needed to get vampire venom for a potion and had been directed to a vampire named Lotor. Keith had been his roommate at the time and had been asking questions about the potion Lance was making since Lotor couldn’t talk with his teeth stuck in the container for the venom. They bumped into each other every now and then after that and Lance asked him out. Their date had gone well and they were still going strong 2 years later. Keith would tell Lance to come to him for any demon thing he needed for potions, getting possessive if Lance even thought about asking anyone else. Lance thought it was cute until the page would list so many things needed from a demon and he’d get really worried.Hence why he was taking blood from Keith then. His potion called for it and Keith only waited long enough for Lance to get a container before cutting his palm.“Seeing how you’re bleeding for me, I’ll do anything.”“My mom and I have to go to Hell for this family thing and I was wondering if you could watch Kosmo for me.”“Your dog? I mean I guess. I’m not going home this weekend so I can work on this potion.”“Really?” Keith said, his gold and purple eyes lighting up. “Thank you so much! Kosmo might seem a bit much but he’s a sweet guy don’t worry. Just give him tons of attention before you start work and keep important things away from him or else he’ll chew on it and drool at the same time and that’s a whole other mess. Other than that, he’s really easy to take care of.”Lance put his hand on Keith’s cut and let his magic work to close the cut back up. “Sounds like fun. I’ll take great care of him.”“I know you will.” Keith said, pressing a kiss to Lance’s cheek.The morning Keith left their dorm, ungodly early in his opinion, he told him he’d have Kosmo come on his own from their house before they left for Hell.“I won’t really be able to talk to you while I’m in Hell, so don’t be too surprised ok?”“Ok, love you.” Lance slurred before falling back asleep.He woke up much more awake and decided to wait for Kosmo to appear before he got anything else done. He didn’t know why it never accrued to him but then he saw it. It being Kosmo. Keith’s pet dog.Though Hellhound was more accurate.Lance stared at the large black furred animal, the blue and white fur making his gold eyes stand out. The beds at the school were pretty high up from the ground but Kosmo apparently would have no problem with that as the edge of the bed seemed to reach his shoulders. How did it never accrue to Lance that his demon boyfriend’s pet obviously was also from Hell? He wanted to call Keith but he remembered what Keith said about the chances of getting through to him. He was on his own.“Um, nice dog?”Kosmo tilted his head at him. It reminded Lance of what Keith would do when he was confused. It was pretty cute.Lance decided if Kosmo hadn’t lunged at him, that he was pretty safe. He climbed down from the bed, stopping when Kosmo decided to sniff his leg. He let out a little sneeze, sparks of blue flames escaping his jaw, making Lance launch back.“Ow.” He said, rubbing at where the sparks landed. He watched Kosmo’s ears flick back, like he was cautious. “Ok Lance, you have to take care of a Hellhound until your boyfriend gets back. It’ll be fine.”Climbing down at the end of the bed, Lance disappeared into the bathroom, hearing Kosmo follow him. With a light blue spa headband, Lance pulled his hair back and started to brush his teeth. In the mirror, he saw Kosmo lay down in the doorway, staring him down. He turned to look at Kosmo, who’s ears twitched at the sound of the bristles on Lance’s teeth. Strangely, the more he looked at Kosmo, the more he saw Keith. Keith’s own purple furred ears would twitch at the slightest sound and he’d just stare at Lance at random times.“You’re interesting to look at.” Keith would tell him.He missed Keith all of a sudden. Mornings with Keith would be spent still in bed, maybe still asleep, maybe slightly awake and talking in low voices. It wasn’t very often since they started rooming together that they didn’t spend mornings together.When he was done brushing his teeth he started on his facial routine and Kosmo started to show a big interest. He got up from where he’d been sitting and resting his head on the counter.“Can I help you?” Lance asked. Kosmo just pushed his head up further and started moving bottles around. “No!” Lance said, using his leg to try and push Kosmo away. “Leave my face potions alone. Not even your master is allowed to touch them.”Lance rushed through the rest of his routine and left the bathroom to get Kosmo to follow him. Lance opened the mini fridge and pulled out a yogurt, yelping when Kosmo almost barrelled into him, his eyes on the container.“What? Wait, no!” he yelled when Kosmo tried standing on his hindlegs, the weight throwing Lance to the floor. “Get off!” Lance yelled as Kosmo climbed on his reaching for his yogurt. Lance snapped his fingers and lifted him off with his magic, allowing him to stumble up. “Gez, you act like Keith when he realises I have his favourite snack and it’s the last one.”Lance left Kosmo dangling there and went to his desk, picking an orb that was filled with what looked like the sea. Using his nail, he drew a symbol into the glass and watched the water slosh around and move until the whole the orb was covered in the water. When it started to turn red, Lance felt hopeful. Then a blurry image appeared.“Lance?” Kosmo perked up at that sound.“I know I can’t talk while your in Hell, so I’ll make it quick. One, why didn’t you say your dog was a Hellhound and two, why is he chasing my yogurt?”“I thought the Hellhound thing would have been obvious and I let him eat the yogurt on the lid. I know it seems like he’s being a lot, but I swear he’s good.” Keith reassured.“He acts like you. I miss you.” Lance whined.“I know, but I just got here. I’ll be back before you know it ok?”“Fine.” Lance pouted.“If you really miss me that much, tell Kosmo to come cuddle you.”Lance did have to work on his project, but he really missed Keith.“Ok, I’ll let you go. Love you.”“I love you too.” Keith said, before his image faded and the water returned to its original colour and state. He put both it and Kosmo down and pulled the top off of his yogurt, holding it out for Kosmo. He sat on his hunches as he licked the yogurt off the lid, licking his jowls when he was done and looking up at Lance like he was begging. “You are like Keith.”He gave in just as easily, eating majority of his breakfast before letting Kosmo lick the rest out of the cup. Lance laughed as Kosmo got yogurt on his nose.“Silly pup.” He said, rubbing at his ear, marvelling at how soft his fur was. “You know, Keith should bring you around more.”Kosmo let out a huff and Lance quickly leaned back to avoid the flames that escaped his mouth. “I could do without the flames. I think I need to stock up on my flame blockers and burn creams.”When Keith was finally able to come back, he found Kosmo in his spot on the bed, Lance sleeping with his face tucked into his fur. He rubbed at the Hellhound’s ears, who’s eyes opened to look at his master.“You kept him happy?” Kosmo flicked his ears. “I knew you would. Good boy.”
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“Blue, look over here amour.” Lance called over to his white furred cat. All he got was a tail twitch, leaving him to sigh. “Come on, don’t you want to show Kosmo how much better you are?” another tail flick as if to say Lance was the only one who cared.Ok, fine, maybe he was the only one who cared. And honestly, he didn’t really compete as much as he was giving one person a picture.He had met @blade-red-stars or Keith as he later found out, on Instagram. Keith was a tattoo artist and his pictures had shown up during Lance’s search for flowers Lance wanted to use as inspiration for his nails. Like Kosmo would show up on Keith’s feed every now and then, the same would happen on Lance’s own fashion Instagram with his cat, Blue. Lance had been scrolling through his page when he saw a picture of Kosmo, seeming to make himself at home in Keith’s suitcase. Lance then posted a picture of Blue doing the same in the reusable grocery bag and tagged Keith in it. The next post of Keith’s was a sketch of Blue and tagged Lance in it.He sent him a private message telling him he thought Blue was cute. That’s how their friendship started, bonding over their pets. They would playfully compete to see whose pet had the cutest picture that day. They would always compliment the other’s pictures from Keith’s sketches to the tattoo or any progress pictures of someone’s finished tattoos and Lance’s OTDs or the nail art he had done. It was when Keith posted a picture of Kosmo climbing on someone’s skateboard outside of the tattoo shop he worked at, Lance saw a familiar café.
Do you work near Altea Café?
It’s right across the street, why?
My friend owns that place. That means we live relatively close by.
I guess. I have to drive 30 mins to get to work. I haven’t gone to that café though, they look way to expensive.
It’s not, really. Allura just has high tastes that it reflects in the interior. You know what, I’ll prove it to you.
Lance then called Allura and asked her to deliver a cup of coffee and a muffin to Keith. He had gotten a few questions before she agreed. Keith had then sent him a picture of his received order.
Ok, this is actually good. Did you really call your friend and order this for me?
Thought I should at least get a taste of the amazingness of Altea’s food. Think of me when you have it.
What about with other things?
That had been the first time Keith flirted with him. it certainly wasn’t the last. What started as a friendly bonding leaned into flirting most of the time. There were few pictures of Keith himself on his and he was very good looking, Allura confirmed.“Most would probably be swayed away by the scar on his check, but it doesn’t deter his good looks.”It really didn’t. There had been this one photo that was one of Lance’s favourites. Keith had taken a hike to see the sunrise with Kosmo and the rising sun was behind him. The gentle backlight made him look really good.Lance was knocked out of his musing by his phone buzzing with a message from Keith.
I swear to god, I got another one of my neighbour packages! You’d think they would pay attention to the address when delivering.
Lance grimaced at that. He’d been getting his packages half opened and dumped on his front door with loud pounding after it. He guessed Keith was on the opposite end of what he was experiencing but whoever kept dropping off his packages kept making him feel like it was his fault they were being delivered wrong. He was going to have to catch the person who dropped his stuff one of these days and have a firm talking to them.
Don’t take it out on the person who the package belongs to.
But it keeps happening! It’s getting so annoying to drop their stuff to their house. Now I have to go drop their stuff off before Kosmo’s walk.
Still, not their fault the postman can’t read.
It really wasn’t. The first time Lance’s package got misdelivered, he thought he had put the wrong address so instead of going to the saved address, he painstakingly typed out his address letter by letter. It was still delivered to the wrong place.He was opening Blue’s wet food for her dinner when he heard the familiar thump of a box being dropped and dropped the can. He’d ordered new makeup and if that person cracked his new pallets, there would be hell to pay. He swung the door open as the pounding started up and stopped.“Keith?”“Lance?”Sure enough, Keith was standing outside the door, his unmistakeable scar present. Sitting by his feet was his husky-malamute mix Kosmo staring up at him.“Wh-what are you doing here?” Lance demanded to know.“I live in this building. I was dropping off the misdelivered package.”Lance then remembered his possibly damaged pallets and grabbed the box from the ground. He went to his island, leaving the door open and Keith hesitantly came in, holding Kosmo’s leash tight when the dog spotted Blue sitting on the counter, still waiting for her dinner.Lance carefully opened his pallets, sighing in relief at the sight that his pallets were fine.“Ok, I really like you but if you broke my make up, I would kill you.”“I didn’t drop it from a high height, I kneeled down and dropped it. None of your other stuff was damaged was it.”“Now you see why I told you not to get mad at the person, I don’t exactly like you pounding at my door.” Lance complained.Keith looked slightly guilty. “Sorry. But seriously, it was getting annoying with how many times your stuff ended up at my apartment. I can’t believe I didn’t realise it was you. I mean I’ve seen some of the clothes in the packages in your pictures.”“I mean, I knew you lived in the area but I didn’t realise you were this close either. Oh god, this is weird. We talk all the time but now that we’re actually facing each other, it’s weird.” Lance moaned.“I mean, we could hang out. I still need to take Kosmo on his walk. If you want, I can bring back dinner. Chinese?”“Sure.”Lance was still reeling that the guy he’d been flirting and friends with was so close. But he was curious to see what would happen.
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“I know what you’re up to and you won’t get away with it.”“Oh god.
I know I’m not supposed to have it in here but it’s so cold outside and I panicked –”“Wait, what?”This
wasn’t at all what he expected. He was coming back from his tutoring session with Adam, who seemed like the only person who believed that he had a chance of getting into the fighter pilot program, when he saw Keith sneaking around. Keith was the best student at the Garrison and everyone knew it. His test scores were perfect, his flight simulations always passed and he was Shiro’s favourite. He was also stuck up, arrogant and an asshole, at least in Lance’s eyes. He’d tried being nice to him when he first met him and got it thrown in his face. Lance was hurt and tired of getting compared and told how he wouldn’t compare. Some dark part of Lance just wanted to get Keith into trouble. He got into enough of that by himself and was getting in constant trouble for it but he always seemed to get chances. So he went to scare him, maybe get a provocation out of him, but he hadn’t been expecting that response.He watched Keith undo the top few buttons of his orange uniform shirt and saw a small ginger head poke their head out. It was a kitten.“Did you see it’s mom?” Lance asked, jumping into fostering mood. His family fostered a lot of cats. The lived near a large colony and would help with TNR a lot of the times. Only when the moms weren’t around or they snuck in the house to give birth there did they take human action and help raise them before adopting them out. “Tell me you didn’t just pick up a kitten without checking to see if it’s mom was there.”“No, I was outside for hours and I kept my distance. She wasn’t even well hidden so I was sure she was alone but I double checked.”“Ok, I need to get a better look at her to find out how old she is but we need to get her warm first.” Lance started listing off.“Wait, we?”“Yes we. There is no way that kitten has a chance if you’re the one raising it. I’m helping you. Now, do you have a heating pad or something?”“No?”“Ok fine. I’ll do it the old fashion way. Come on, my room is empty now. Hunk still has class.” Without even waiting for an answer, Lance grabbed Keith by his arm and pulled him to the dorms. He opened the door to his room, revealing the messy yet well lived in room. The loft beds weren’t made and the desks that were under them were almost just as messy. One loft bed had posters and pictures all around it while the other seemed to be covered in gadgets and cook books.Lance threw his bag on the desk with the photos and opened one of the drawers to pull out a bag of rice. He also pulled out a can of KMR, kitten substitute, a bottle and a small can have wet food. He also pulled out a package of sock and pulled out one side, pouring some of the rice in the sock and stuck it in microwave. He saw Keith was still standing in the middle of the room, the kitten still curled up.“Off.” He ordered.“Huh?”“Take your jacket off.”“What?” Keith asked scandalized.“So I can see the kitten idiot. I need to know how old she is and check if it even is a she.”“Oh.” Keith undid the rest of his shirt and let Lance take the kitten from him. She felt thin and cold, no doubt from the sudden chill the area was experiencing. She was wiggling in his hands a lot. He didn’t have a scale to measure her she he gently opened her mouth and peeked inside. Her incisors were poking out and he saw the beginnings of canines, so she was 3-4 weeks. A quick peek under the tail proved she was a girl. “Go into the closet and on the floor there’s a tub. Grab one of the blankets in there so she can get warm with the heating pad.”“What heating pad?”“The rice filled sock? It’s gonna act as a heat source for her. Luckily, whoever her mom was didn’t leave her really young. She still needs to be bottle fed and there’s a chance she might already go to the bathroom by herself already but we’ll have to wait to find that out.”“How do you know all this stuff?” Keith asked pulling a blue blanket out of the bin.“My family fosters kittens. Animals aren’t allowed in the buildings unless service animals but I always have the items ready just in case.” Lance noticed Keith staring at him. “What?”“Nothing, it’s just…you usually seem to have nothing better to do than poke and prod at me so I didn’t realise you’d care about this sort of stuff.”Lance bristled at that. “It might not accrue to you in the mullet head of yours, but I have other things I focus on and knocking you off your high horse is one of them. And another thing, even if I didn’t know how to properly take care of a young kitten, that wouldn’t stop me from trying. So how about you stop judging me and help me.”Keith looked slightly apologetic and handed Lance the blanket, which Lance wrapped the kitten in and pulled the rice filled sock out of the microwave.“Now start the kettle, I’ll teach you how to make a bottle. Once she gets warms, she’ll realise how hungry she is.”Keith listened to Lance’s orders and watched as the hungry kitten downed the bottle of milk.“Good girl, you were really hungry, weren’t you? Now the question is where the heck are we gonna keep you? Hunk is gonna be back in two hours, 3 if he decides to go sneak into the kitchen and cook something seeing how tonight is taco night. I swear, my family is Cuban, doesn’t really like tacos and can do better tacos than this place. She can’t stay here.”“Well actually, I have a room all to myself.” Keith said.Lance rolled his eyes, “Of course you do.”“For your information, my roommate dropped out of the Garrison. All the other rooms were filled and no new students came in so I have the room all to myself. We can keep her in there.”Lance thought for a second. “Fine. But I’m still helping to take care of her. I still don’t trust you to do this correctly. And you can’t tell Shiro, he’ll just go and tell Iverson.” Lance demanded.“I can keep a secret.”“But you can’t control your hair.” Lance muttered loud enough.“Excuse me?”“Pay attention, will you? She still has to be stimulated to go to the bathroom, unless she can do it herself, which in that case, you’ll be doing laundry a lot more. It’s gonna be kinda hard to hide a litter box.”Keith sighed, like he was wondering what the hell he got himself into.
Keith flicked a wad of paper and watched the 5 week old kitten dash after it. She might just be at the age of wanting to start play but she was catching on pretty quick. Still a bit wobbly though. He still couldn’t believe he was keeping a cat in his dorm. It was a hassle having to rush back and forth between classes and his room to feed her, even with Lance’s help, but he was enjoying it. Even the extra time with Lance. He wasn’t sure if they’d ever truly consider themselves friends but they were pretty close. After the kettle in Lance’s room broke, they had to sneak into the kitchen to get hot water. Which meant Lance having to go and make some sort of fool of himself to distract everyone so Keith could fill a thermos of it. They worked well together surprisingly. Lance was still in charge of taking care of the kitten and he made it pretty well known. Keith just put up with it but Lance did know best. He’d watch Lance play with the cat and cuddle her, gently stroking her sleeping body with the pleasant smile on his face.Speaking of which, Lance was late. His tutoring session with Adam had apparently been cancelled so Keith thought he’d be over once his classes ended.There was pounding at his door, which startled the kitten.“What?”“There’s surprise inspections going on, they’re heading to our section next. I’d hide your things.” A cadet yelled from outside the door.Shit. Fuck. Damn it.Surprise inspections were just how they sounded. Different members of the staff would each take a section of the dorms and search all the rooms to make sure the students didn’t have anything they weren’t supposed to. They’d almost taken his mother’s dagger one time, but let it go when he mentioned it was a family heirloom. However that wasn’t going to fly with the kitten. He scooped up the kitten and hide her under one of the blankets at the end of the bed before shoving all the obvious cat stuff into his bag. The kitten started mewing in confusion but Keith quickly shushed her. Shiro had left a week ago on the Kerberos mission and even though he knew Adam and Shiro left on bad terms, Adam was still nice to him. He was hoping Adam would search his room, he’d understand.“Inspection!”Shit. It was Iverson.With one last shush to the kitten, Keith opened the door, standing out of the commander. The man’s single eye took in the room.“I should hope I don’t find anything in here.”“No sir. Nothing at all.”“Cadet, do you not have access to a broom? The floor is covered in paper.”That it was. It was the simplest toy for the kitten to start playing with so pages had been ripped from his note books and made into balls. Most of them would end up in places the kitten didn’t want to reach so Keith would just make more.“I was writing an essay sir. Wasn’t happy with what I was been writing so I tore it from my book.”“Try not to kill the planet more.” Iverson ordered.“Yes sir.”The man walked around the room, Keith following him, hoping there weren’t anymore opportunities for him to get caught. He opened the closet, drawers from his desk and the extra storage containers. Keith glanced up to where the kitten was hiding, glad the blanket wasn’t moving. He might just get out of this. Then of course, Iverson lifted the mattress and the kitten made her displeasure known, loudly.“What the?” ripping the blanket away, the kitten meowed even louder. Iverson turned to Keith, who looked away.Shit. Fuck. Damn it.
Lance stood by the door that lead out to the parking lot and watched as a Garrison Jeep pulled in and Adam got out. He didn’t bother waiting for him to come into the building, Lance ran out to meet him instead.“Is it true? Did they expel Keith?”“No thankfully not. Luckily your sister pointed out everything that Keith had was to help raise the kitten, so most of the board couldn’t find fault in Keith taking in a kitten to take care of it, especially after the cold front.”“Did he say who helped him?”Adam looked confused. “What are you talking about? Keith said he found and raised the kitten himself. Apparently, he fostered kittens before so had the stuff needed.”Lance was surprised. Keith never told the board he was involved.“Where’s the kitten now?”“With your sister. Why?”“I need you to do me a favour and take me to where Keith is.”“Why?”“I’ll explain later. Just wait for me ok?”Lance ran back inside and tracked Veronica down, where he found her feeding the kitten. She pulled away from the bottle when she saw her other owner though.“Hey sweetie.” Lance greeted.“’Sweetie’? Lance how do…wait.”“I might have been the one to help Keith, but I guess he didn’t give me up for some strange reason.” Lance still didn’t understand why. Ok yeah, they bonded over taking care of the kitten. It’d had might of only been 2 weeks of taking care of the kitten together, but Lance found didn’t hate Keith as much as he did before. They had a few things in common and could actually have a conversation. He still didn’t think it would not be enough for Keith not to give him up.“Keith said he was the only one involved. He never mentioned you.”“Yeah, I know. Look, can you help me? I want to take her to Keith. I need to talk to him anyway.”Veronica looked like she had questions but agreed to help. She signed a pass for Lance to be let off the grounds and packed up the kitten’s things, making sure Lance wasn’t caught as he rushed back out to meet Adam.“So…last time I checked, you didn’t exactly get along with Keith. How did that change?” Adam asked.“Well, I found him sneaking back in and after getting yelled at by Iverson that day, I just wanted to get him in trouble. Then I found out he’s snuck this girl in and I knew he’d have no clue how to take care of her. So I told him I’d help and we bonded I guess.”“I’m proud of you.” Adam said, Lance looking at him in confusion.“What do you mean?”“Well, I know how much you don’t like Keith, even if I do. You could have gotten him expelled but you didn’t because you wanted to take care of the kitten and the fact that you were worried about him tells me you actually care about him.”Lance shrugged. “I guess so. I mean, he’s not that bad.”“I’m glad you think so. I think he could benefit from having a friend like you.”Keith was on the porch of the wooden cabin Adam pulled up. He seemed extremely confused until he saw what Lance was carrying.“How did you get her back?” He asked, meeting Lance halfway.“My sister was looking after her.” Keith looked confused. “Communication Specialist McClain? That’s my older sister.”“Oh. Um, can I?”Lance let Keith take the kitten out of the bundle he’s kept her in so she wouldn’t squirm during the ride. She quickly made herself at home on Keith’s chest, her claws hooking to his shirt.“Can I ask you something? You could have told the board that I was also involved, why didn’t you?”Keith was pretty quiet before he answered. “I didn’t think you deserved to get in trouble. Besides, it would have pushed back your chances in getting into the Fighter Pilot program.”Lance didn’t think Keith actually had been paying attention when he mentioned that. “But what about you?”“I get in trouble all the time, this is nothing new.”“Well, thanks. I thought that since you got suspended for a month, you could take care of her. Usually cats are adopted out at at least 8 weeks and I thought she would benefit staying with someone she knows. I can come by as much as I can.”“You could get in trouble.” Keith pointed out.“You’re not the only one who can break a few rules.” Lance answered, a confident smirk on his face.“I’m sure.” Keith said, a teasing smirk on his face.Adam couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. Those two, they were like him and Takashi. Maybe when he got back, he could talk things out with him.
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“You are such a fucking control freak! I can’t believe I have to be in a group with you!” Lance screamed from the other room.Pidge really wished they hadn’t broken their headphones. Granted with the fact they were working under the sponsorship of Daibazaal Industries, it would be totally easy, but nothing was easy to get from Zarkon. That’s why they were building their cred as the Four Horsemen so he’d easily fall into their plan. They needed at least one more show to truly get his full attention so they could start their final plan. Pidge wasn’t sure how alive they’d be for this with the way Lance and Keith kept arguing though.They knew a bit of the relationship the two had, some parts filled in by Hunk’s mentalism. Lance had been Keith’s assistant back when he was just starting out as a magician. Apparently, there was a falling out and Lance was replaced with another assistant. In Pidge’s opinion, Lance was better. Lance then went on to working his own act of being an escape artist. Keith left comments on his website that at first at first glance seemed kinda nit-picky but Pidge actually noticed they were good criticism to keep Lance safe anytime he dropped into water. Lance could complain all he wanted, but Pidge noticed Lance actually listened to those comments. Hunk had figured out the two used to date but it ended badly, something about Keith not giving a ton of attention to Lance. Point was, there was a lot of tension between them. Of course, with the pressure of doing what The Eye wanted them to do, things were getting worse.“It’s a shame Keith knows how to tune into my tricks. I could have hypnotized him and had him and Lance solve their issues.” Hunk said, lifting his hat from his face from where he was sleeping on the couch.“Then Lance would have kicked your ass like he keeps threatening to do.” Pidge reminded.“Oh yeah. Can’t forget what he did to that handsy stage hand can we?”“Or what Keith did to him after when Lance wasn’t looking. But I swear this is getting out of control. If this keeps up we could end up messing up and losing Daibazaal and lose our chance at The Eye.”“I’m sorry that you can’t seem to understand basic instructions. Apparently, all the water you keep drowning in has gone to your head!”“Basic instructions? Who the hell put you in charge you K-pop star reject!”Pidge was focused on the lock they were trying to undo when Lance’s screaming broke their concentration and they heard a snap. Their pick broke. The pick they had as part of their kit since their brother gave it them. The same brother they couldn’t talk to by order of The Eye ‘for protection’ they said.“What happened?” Hunk asked.“I just broke my lock pick because they’re fighting. You know what, screw hypnosis. I’m taking care of this myself.” Pidge stood up and grabbed their bag from the table, dumping everything out and grabbed a pair of handcuffs. They’d been giving them problems because the tumbler wouldn’t unlatch to unlock the handcuffs. And now, it was their problem. They walked into the room Lance and Keith were arguing in and quickly latched the cuffs around their writs.“What the hell? Pidge?” Lance asked.“Uncuff us now.”“No. thanks to you two, I just broke my lock pick, the one my brother gave me before we got started on this whole crazy plan. So you two can spend all day together, because even I’m having trouble unlocking these.”“You can’t be serious.” Lance said, tugging his hand, like he could break the cuffs apart.“Oh I’m very serious.”“We have practise in an hour.” Keith reminded.“Then it’ll be just like old times. See you there. Hunk and I are going for lunch. Come on Hunk!”“What the hell? Pidge!” Lance yelled, trying to go after them but stumbled back when his wrist was tugged.“Ow! Lance!”“Have fun you too!” Hunk called from the living room before the front door was closed.Lance glared at Keith, “this is your fault.”“How is it my fault? And by the way, aren’t you the escape artist?”“With a hidden key I can.” Lance reminded.“Well apparently you can’t do your job properly.”Glaring at Keith, Lance kicked him hard in the shin, not realising that Keith collapsing would drag him down as well.“Pidge, what the fuck!”
“That’s a very interesting way to practise.” Zarkon said, raising an eyebrow at Lance and Keith handcuffed together.“You can thank Pidge for that.” Keith said, shooting a glare at Pidge, who shrugged helplessly. None of them were expecting their sponsor to show up at their practise.“I’m practising my lockpicking skills and thought I should try on someone other than myself.” Pidge explained.“Well then, I look forward to the practise.”“Of course. Excuse us.” Keith said, grabbing Pidge by the arm and dragging them, and essentially Lance, to the side. “Get these off of us. We’re not going to be able to practise with these on and especially not with Zarkon right there.” He hissed.“See, um, slight problem. Those handcuffs are giving me issues unlocking.”“High and might ‘nothing is ever locked’ can’t unlock a pair of handcuffs?”“I was working on them but you two arguing was starting to piss me off and you made me break my lock pick by the way.”“Then find a paper clip or something because if we’re still stuck together when it’s time for us to get up there for practise, I’ll make you disappear like I do my cards got it?” Keith threatened.“Alright fine. You two just stay in the green room. Hunk, you first.” Pidge called jumping off stage.“Alright then.” Hunk said turning to the theatre staff, who all looked a bit nervous. “Who’s first?”
Lance tugged at his hand, making the cards Keith was shuffling fall from his hands. He hadn’t really meant to do that but Keith’s constant moving was hurting his hand. Keith always had a deck of cards on him, shuffling through them with ease. Lance knew Keith always wanted something to do with his hands. He remembered back when he was his assistant. Due to the fact they were late, they climbed into a cab and Keith had his cards in the suitcase in the trunk. Keith had started picking at his hands to the point where he was starting to draw blood so Lance took his hands and started drawing with his fingernail in his skin. He’d calmed down after and even though he never got a thank you, there had been a black rose on Lance’s bag at the end of the show. Lance tried giving Keith one back after they’d been reunited, but it seemed Keith didn’t remember.They did date back when they were working together. They depended on each other, held each other up but Lance wanted more support than Keith could give. Maybe at that time, they thought they were more than ready for and wen things started not working out, they took it out on each other. Lance wanted to work things out with Keith. Part of him still felt the same but the other part of them still hated Keith.“Where the hell is Pidge?” Keith groaned.“Probably got dragged into practise probably, which we still have to get to.”“This isn’t like back in the old days Lance. we can’t exactly do our old trick up there.”Lance had a small smile to his face. “It would certainly make things interesting. I remember when you let me try my first escape trick on stage.”“You lost the key and had to then clip me to the saw.” Keith felt like reminding.“It worked didn’t it? I got the audience very impressed with me.” Lance bragged.“Yeah, that’s one word for it.”“Course, you never let me even try to even do anything else after that. Guess you didn’t want me screwing up anymore.”Keith didn’t say anything but started to shuffle his cards again and then fan them out. Lance went ahead and took a card without prompting.“Compared to now, your skills weren’t nearly as good. You still manage to get yourself stuck in bad situations because you can’t get to your key quick enough.”Lance tried not to bristle at that. Thing was Keith was right. But Lance had wished Keith had told him this back when they were working together instead of making him feel like he was constantly disappointed in him.Shoving the card back into the deck, Lance snapped, “Sorry I wasn’t good enough.”“I never said that.”“It sure felt like that half the time. You know, I was hoping with how we have to work together that maybe we could fix things from how they’d been before but you could apparently care less. I don’t know why I’m so surprised. Where the hell is Pidge?”Keith handed Lance a card not looking at him. Lance took it, still annoyed at Keith but stopped when he saw what was on the other side. It was an old picture of Lance, locked in his chains. “Unlock your mind to the newest escape artist, Lance McClain? What is this?”“The flier I would have made you pull before we broke up. The show at that big theatre? I was going to give you the stage. But I guess my usual behaviour had finally pushed you over the edge.”“Why did you never tell me this?” Lance asked, stunned that Keith had actually been thinking of giving him a show, like a complete show.“Would it of made a difference? It might have fixed things with us for a little while but we both know we weren’t right for each other then. I can’t give you a show now, but I can at least help you get into the one thing I always said had to be a myth.”“Guess you have changed.” Lance said. “Well not everything. You’re still a control freak.” Lance said.“Thank you.”“Ok,” Pidge said, finally coming into the room. “Sorry, I had to pull Hunk away from hypnotizing Zarkon’s wife and practise a few card tricks. Thankfully, I did grab his wife’s brand new broach, sharp end and all. Hold still. Also can I just say I’m surprised you two didn’t kill each other while I was gone.”“Yeah, don’t hold your breath. I’m sure I’ll say something that’ll piss Lance off later.” Keith said.“Yeah, we’ll see if I can hold me tongue.”
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So today is Youtuber AU day and I've done a whole series on that au and I hated them all, which made me realise I'm really bad at it. My friends came over last night and I was talking to them so I didn't even bother attempting. If you did want to see my YouTuber AU fics, check out
https://archiveofourown.org/series/784368 . It's all YouTuber AU, so hopefully you enjoy it. Sorry there's no fic today but look forward to tomorrow.
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Keith saddled up the horses, trying not to burst from joy. He won the tournament the day before, the prize for a day with any member of the royal family. There was only one person he wanted to be with, the one person who he was willing to fight for. Prince Lance, cousin to the Queen Allura. They hadn’t gotten along at first but after Keith defended Lance from an assignation attempt, they grew closer. To earn a day alone with Lance and to keep him from those stuck up knights, Keith competed in a tournament and won. Before the final match, Lance snuck into his tent and they teased each other back and forth about where Lance wanted to go and Keith was going to make it a reality today.With both horses saddled and ready to go, Keith led them from the stables and out near the front of the castle where a woman was waiting for him.“Shay.” Keith greeted, as the woman came down the stairs and towards him.“Here you go. A fully stocked picnic and a blanket.” She said, handing Keith two saddle bags, which he attached to his own horse. “I heard that the prince ordered no guards to follow.”Keith patted the sword he’d spent the night before the banquet sharpening. “The Prince said he didn’t want to be bothered.”“I’m sure.” Shay answered with a teasing smile.Keith shook his head. “You and your husband are exactly the same.”“Well I married Hunk for a reason.”Keith rolled his eyes, making sure everything was set while he waited for a certain member of the royal family to come. When he heard the multiple movement of armour, he looked up to see the Queen’s guards stream down the stairs and take their place as the Queen stepped down the stairs, Lance following. Shay and Keith quickly bowed, the Queen just as quick to tell them to rise.“Keith, my cousin has asked me not to send guards with him because he believes someone trained by Takashi will be perfectly capable of protecting him. I’ve agreed, as long as he takes his own weapon with him,” she stated as Lance walked past her, his famed blue bow in his hand, along with a quiver of arrows and attached them to his horse’s saddle. “I expect him to come back in one piece, with no life threatening injuries on him.”“Yes my lady.” Keith answered.“Very well. Lance, try not to get into trouble.”“Trouble finds me.” Lance said, as Adam came over and assisted him onto his horse.“I’ll keep him out of trouble your majesty. As best as I can.” Keith promised.“I supposed that’s the best I can ask. We shall await your return then.”Keith bowed again to the Queen before climbing onto his horse.“Ready?” he asked Lance.“Lead the way fair knight.”With a gentle kick to the side, Keith’s horse took off towards the gates, Lance’s own following. They soon left the cobble stone path and took one that lead into the forest. Keith noticed Lance bringing his horse next to his own and giving him this challenging look.“Shame you didn’t do jousting. Is your horse even fast enough for that?”“You want to find out?”“I think I can guess the answer. Go Sapphire!” Lance’s horse pulled up ahead and Keith started to follow when he remembered the food. He could imagine how Shay would react if she found out her meals had been ruined because of a competitive match.Lance didn’t stay ahead for long though. When he realised he was alone in his race he stopped Sapphire and turned her to face Keith. “It’s no fun if you let me win.”“It’ll be no fun either if our food is messed up from our race and Shay finds out.”“Oh, of course. She would skewer us with one of Hunk’s swords.” Lance thought out loud.“Besides, I was hoping that I could ride next to you anyway.”Lance gave Keith a shy smile. He loved that smile, whenever Keith would go and return Lance’s sugar laced words, Lance would give him that smile.“Sure.” They let their horse walk near each other, close enough feel the other’s horse, their body heat making them think of the rider.“So I heard the Prince Lotor took off last night.” Keith asked.Lance let out a scoff. “He didn’t want anyone to know he was beaten by an ‘errand boy’ as he put it when he told my cousin last night. I was more than happy to see him leave.” Lance said.“I’m sure. Of course, this errand boy had more than enough satisfaction throwing him to the floor.”“I almost wished he tried attacking you when your back was turned so I could actually attack him and not get in trouble for it.” Lance complained.“Sorry I couldn’t give you the chance.”Lance shrugged. “You can make it up today.”“Yes your highness.”Before they knew it, they found the willow tree and river next to it. They stopped their horses and Keith climbed down when Lance cleared his throat. He was now sitting side saddle and seemed to want help down. With his hands on the prince’s waist, Keith pulled Lance down, not moving when Lance’s feet reached the floor putting him quite near Keith.“Thank you.” Lance said with the look on his face.“Of course. You can take the saddle bags and get things set up while I take care of the horses.”“Yes sir knight.” Lance said, slowly pulling away and moving to Keith’s horse and taking the saddle bags off. Keith kept his eyes on him as the prince walked over and moved behind the tree’s natural curtain. He took the saddles off and lead the horses to a grass filled spot and tied them to a tree before going to Lance.Shay had thought ahead and had packed a blanket for them, which Lance was sitting on as he pulled things out from the bags.“I guess it’s good you didn’t race me.” Lance said as he pulled out a glass bottle and gently put it on the flattest part of the ground. “It looks like Shay’s famous sweetened drink.”“I see she pulled out all the stops.” Keith said, sitting next to Lance and pulled his dagger from its holder and started to peel an apple.“All our favourite things. I still can’t believe you actually like those god awful sandwiches.”“What? The fish one? They’re not bad.” Keith said, smiling at how Lance’s nose crinkled.“They make my fingers smell weird.”“That’s because you pick it out all the time. If you just ate it, you wouldn’t have that problem.” Keith pointed out, flicking the peeled skin off to the side for any animal to have. He cut the apple into wedges one by one, letting Lance take it when it was cut. They were silent, only the sounds of the forest and the river surrounding them.Lance had finished the apple and Keith was sucking the juice off his fingers when he felt Lance lean on his shoulder, resting his hand on his arm.“I’m glad you won. I’ve wanted a day to have you all to myself.”“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give you that earlier.”He felt Lance shake his head. “It’s ok. This is fine. You know, I do need a manservant.”“Do you now?”“I don’t do much during the day anyway. I see no reason you can’t help Ulaz and help me.”“I’m sure your cousin would see right through that.” Keith pointed out.“Oh trust me, with how often she disappears with Adam and Shiro, I don’t think she can complain.”Keith laughed and rested his head on Lance’s. “Blackmailing the Queen is considered treason. I don’t think even being her cousin will get you out of that.”Lance let out an annoyed huff and pulled away from Keith, moving so he could lay down with his head on Keith’s lap. “You’d think you’d be excited at the prospect of spending more time with me.”Leaning over so he could see Lance’s face and giving him his own version of that smile Lance would give him. “I can assure you, spending any moment with you is exciting.”
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“Target approaching.” Keith heard on his headset, the blue lights on the tips of the red ears glowing as they picked up approaching, cautious footsteps. The blue lights being the only light in the room, Keith watched the figure walk into the room in the Altean blue of his visor. Clenching his bayards as they activated, Keith jumped down from his perch and knocked the figure off their feet. They went sliding across the room as Keith stood at the ready, the red lights of his duel swords lighting his face.“You.” The target growled. They were female, blue skin and similarly coloured hair and horns. Prince Lotor’s right hand woman, Axca.“Me.” Keith said before launching himself at her. She dodged his attacks but he pushed her into a wall, pinning her down, with one sword against her neck, the next ready to plunge into her stomach.
“Alive, Keith! Alive!”
Keith let out an annoyed huff. “Do I have too?”
“That’s what the princess gremlin wanted.”
Keith groaned and knocked the base of the other bayard onto Axca’s head, knocking her out. “Got it and with a possible mild concussion.”
“To be honest, I’d be surprised if it was anything different. Alright, I’m coming down now.”
The swords shrunk down and Keith slammed the hilts back together, forming the bayard, letting it disappear in red light. He wanted to call into the princess and announce a job well done, but he knew a certain blue clad teammate who’d get annoyed at that. At the sound of a ship landing, Keith grabbed Axca by her ankle and started to drag her to the entrance. A large blue lion leaned down and opened its maw to let out the same blue clad teammate Keith had been thinking about. Like the suit he was wearing, it was black on the chest, letting the Altean blue V stand out, the same blue as the lion on the pieces of armour and back of the suit. Only those paying very close attention could see the slight limp of him as he walked towards Keith.“Wow take the idea of dragging her pretty literally huh?”“Just hurry up and help me Lance.”From behind a visor like his, Lance’s bright blue eyes shun with mischief. While Keith held her by her legs, Lance lifted under the arms and they quickly got her into the main area, where Keith attached handcuffs to her.“Can I call it in now?” Keith asked.“Yes, just use the communications on Blue since your already here.” Lance walked over to the piolet chair, hitting a few buttons once his seat was moved int position. Soon, a screen came up with a young girl. She wore a similar outfit except Lance’s blue and Keith’s red was green for her. Under the visor were two green marks on her cheeks.
“Did you get her?”
“Had to stop Keith from shish kabobing her, but yes.” Lance answered.
“Good. Get back here and put her into holding. Shiro is still on his retrieval mission and Hunk is still helping me with the jammers. Allura’s been in meditation all afternoon so I need someone around.”
“Got it princess. Try not to miss us too much.” She rolled her bright green eyes as the screen blinked off. Lance’s own visor started to turn yellow as the Lion got up. “Alright Blue, you heard her. Let’s go home.”Keith collapsed into the spare seat the Blue Lion brought in, waiting for Lance to pilot them home. He wished he could have flown Red but the princess made it very clear that the Galra would be expecting the fastest lion. Keith smirked at what Iverson must be thinking now. The biggest flight risk and the person blamed for the Kerberos mission failure, running around the galaxy taking control of any planet and breaking down the one hope of defeating them.A portal opened up and deposited them in flight range of a white castle with many orbiting rings. Lance docked Blue into her docking station, his visor going back to it’s usual Altean blue as Blue powered down, lowering herself to let everyone off. Keith went to where they left Axca who seemed to just be waking up. A firmly planted foot to her chest kept her from getting up though.“Ah, it looks like she doesn’t have broken bones.” Keith looked over his shoulder to watch another Altean, who looked similar to the Princess, the same green marks and honey brown hair that was long enough to be pulled into a ponytail.“It was tempting.” Keith said as the Altean approached and started down at Axca who glared up at them as she struggled.“It’ll be fun to break her later then.”“Wow Matt,” Lance said coming out from the control room, “you can’t yell at Keith for bringing in rebels with broken bones but then you don’t get in trouble for having fun.”“I am an integrator. I get to have fun. How’s the leg by the way?”Lance looked down at his left leg, which didn’t look different under the white and blue armour. “Fine. I didn’t break anything. Hunk and the gremlin Princess got busy?”“Yep. I wouldn’t expect to find them anytime soon. More fun for me though. When Allura comes up though, tell her to join me in the cells. Pick her up.” Matt ordered the sentries following him. The white panelled robots picked Axca up, even as she struggled and lead her off the Blue Lion, ignoring her screaming and cursing.When Matt left, Lance turned to Keith. “So what do you want to do? And don’t say train. I didn’t tell Matt but the new fit is slightly irritating.”“Jesus Lance.” Keith sighed, grabbing Lance by the arm and dragging him from Blue to the closest common room and pulled him to the couch. Keith watched Lance step down into the sunken couch, his eyes on the left leg. Once Lance was seated, Keith started to pull off the armour attached there, Lance already used to this process. Keith pulled up the leg of the black and blue suit to reveal a white prosthetic leg. The leg seemed to be made of the same things the sentries were made of but with wave motives drawn into it. At the line of where Lance’s leg stopped and the prosthetic began, the skin was red like it was irritated. “Why didn’t you say anything?”“I just got fitted for this one after that crazy chick from the Prince’s group broke my last one. I’m not really in the mood to lay down on a slab for 4 hours again. I’ve had my fill of that for the week thanks.”Keith sighed. The Alteans might have been the ones to take the Kerberos crew but Lance had had the brunt of it. The youngest member of the crew, they wanted to do experiments on him, one of which had cost his leg. Around that time, the Princess, Pidge as she asked to be called, had essentially saved the other crew members Alfor and Coran and then saved Lance. She’d built his first prosthetic herself and Lance joined her as she continued to lead the war of taking worlds. She’d been searching for the Voltron lions when she found one was on Earth and sent Lance to get it. It’s how he found the rest of them to be honest. Alfor’s daughter had entered the Garrison – the same school who placed the blame of the missing crew on Lance – to find out the truth. Shiro had been trying to stop her from sneaking out and Keith was just following Shiro. Hunk, he had been Lance’s oldest friend, leaving after everyone blamed Lance.Lance had come crashing down and after getting himself out of Garrison’s control, dragged them along to go find Blue. Keith had known Lance when he was at the Garrison. They would constantly compete and try to one up each other. Keith hadn’t said it then, but he enjoyed the challenge. So when Lance disappeared, Keith was angry with all the comments that were slung around. He knew Lance wasn’t responsible. They were wrong about him and it was going to come back to bite them, hard.He was pretty sure that’s why he decided to stick around. Allura stayed to be with her father, even though a lion didn’t react to her. She did have a surprising connection with quintessence. Hunk stayed for Lance as his best friend. Keith and Shiro didn’t have to stay, but Keith didn’t want to leave. Part of him had thought it was because of his mother, who surprise was an alien, but he questioned that when Lance wanted to know.He’d just been lying on the couch, cooling down after a training session when something dropped onto his lap. He opened his eyes to see Lance staring down on him as he straddled him.“Can I help you?” Keith asked, looking into Lance’s unnaturally bright blue eyes. Everyone’s eyes had changed once they bonded with their lions.“Nothing much. I’m avoiding Matt and saw you here.”“Why are you avoiding the princess’ brother? Isn’t he just the integrator and extra tech support?”“He’d be insulted to hear that.” Lance said, with a smile that said he’d also called Matt that. “He’s also the one in charge of my leg.”Keith looked over at the prosthetic leg he could see without Lance’s shoes one. “So?”“I’ve had my fill of flat top beds for a while. Gotta love the gremlin princess for saving me, but it’s amazing she doesn’t seem to notice how much I hate having to get my leg checked.”Keith put two and two together. He didn’t know what the Alteans did before their princess stopped them, but he knew it had been harrowing. “Ok, fine. But why are you on top of me?” Keith asked, shuffling down a little so Lance was a little less directly on his lap.“Well I had a question, something I’ve been dying to know since you bonded with Red and stayed here. Why are you staying here? I mean, we met your mom when going to take Red back. You said that you were an orphan. I thought you would have stayed with her.”Keith raised an eyebrow. “The woman left me. She said it was to protect me and Blue from you guys but it would have made more sense to stay on Earth, not leave.”“Fair point.” Lance said, tilting his head, his finger brushing over Keith’s chest. “But still, she is your mom and you seem like the type of guy to go fighting against the enemy.”Keith shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere if that’s what you’re worried about.”“Because the gremlin princess scares you?” Lance teased.Pidge was the last thing on his mind. The idea of leaving, meant doing it along and leaving a place where he felt accepted, strangely. It also would mean leaving Lance.“I have a reason to stick around, isn’t that good enough?”
Lance shrugged, “I guess so.” Then he dropped himself on Keith’s chest, essentially laying on him.“What are you doing?”“I’ll go find Matt later. Staying here feels nice so stay still.” Lance requested and so Keith did.Since then, Keith never questioned Lance avoiding getting his leg checked out but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t get worried when Lance said he was in pain.“How bad does it feel?”“It’s not horrible. I can put up with it.” Lance said, taking his other leg armour off. He also pulled off his headset and visor, dropping it on the couch next to him. “I don’t know what the gremlin princess will send us off on another mission but if it starts getting worse, I’ll get it checked out.” He promised.“You’d better. I need my partner in full health.” Keith said, sitting next to Lance on the couch.“Don’t worry. Not like I’m gonna let a bunch of Galra take me down. Oh,” Lance suddenly pushed Keith down onto his back. Lance had a habit of literally sitting on Keith’s lap when he wanted his full attention. “We still have to practise that manoeuvre we did to destroy all those rebel fighters. When Shiro gets back, we should practise it.”“You can’t ask this with climbing into my lap?” Keith asked.Lance pulled Keith’s visor off and stared down at his bright red eyes. “I like making sure you keep your attention on me.”“Trust me, I don’t think that’s gonna change.”
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Keith leaped down from a perch as he continued on his way home. His haul was good, he’d gotten a good number of things for his dad to sell at his store. He jumped onto the road, knocking shoulders with a passer-by, lifting the ring on their finger, stuffing it into his pocket. He suddenly felt the back of his vest being grabbed and was thrown into a stall, startling the owner. Keith’s gaze focused on the blue leather clad person in front of him. They were flanked by what was the Isle’s strongest children, the Gaston twins. Though, neither of them were as strong as their younger sister Zethrid, nor as smart as her. Standing nearby was the one with the most power, Hunk, son of Maleficent. Hunk looked a bit bored to be there. The person standing in front of all of them though, looked livid.“Oh look, it’s the fairest on the Isle.” Keith teased. Most would feel worried with the crowd in front of them, but not Keith. Not when he was getting the reactions from the one person he’d been aiming for.“Oh look, it’s the Isle’s street rat.” Blue eyes narrowed. “I won’t ask twice, where is my necklace?”Keith smirked and shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”“Don’t play dumb with me. I want that necklace back or else.”“What are you going to do? Send your lackeys after me?”The person strode forward and fisted the front of Keith’s vest pulling him closer as he growled, “I’ll deal with you myself if I have to. Now give it back!”“Hmm, no.” jolting forward, Keith pressed his lips against the other’s and shoved him away, pulling his broach from his jacket before taking off.“The hell? He kissed me! Get back here your street rat! What are you two doing standing there? Go after him, now!”The Gaston twins took off, leaving a furious teen and an amused son of a fairy.“Wow stole your necklace and your first kiss. I think he might actually like you Lance.” Hunk teased.Lance turned and glared at his best friend. “Shut up Hunk!” he yelled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “When I get my hands on that street rat, he’s dead!”“I’m sure he will be, but need I remind you your mother is expecting you home? I need you to actually be at school so I’m not bored. Come on, let’s go.” Hunk said, pushing Lance on the pathway towards his house, the Castle Across the Way.Most people moved out of the way for the sons of Maleficent and the Evil Queen. While they’re mothers hated each other, Hunk and Lance were the best of friends. Lance had done something no one expected him to do. He personally went to Hunk and invited him to his 6th birthday party, after seeing Hunk gazing down at them because he never got an invitation. It didn’t matter what their mothers demanded, the two were close, always with each other. Everyone knew the red apple shaped ruby necklace that would be around Lance’s neck was a present from Hunk and he’d never take it off or was seen without it.Well until one son of Jafar had stolen right off his neck. Lance had been chasing him around for almost a week trying to get it back. Lance knew Keith had it. The street rat had pulled it out from where it was hidden under his shirt in attempts to taunt him, which worked perfectly.Lance wasn’t joking, when he got his hands on that street rat, he was going to rip his head from his body in order to get his necklace back.
Shiro hummed happily as Allura kissed him, arms around his neck as she pulled him in close. This was nice. No screaming from his mother, no threats of what dogs do to boys who don’t listen. No fear of waking up and realising all the good things, few as they might be on the Isle of the Lost, had all been a dream. Not when these lips made sure he always knew this was never a dream.A wolf whistle from above pulled them apart. He and Allura where hiding in their usual space, behind the statue of the dragon form of Maleficent. Sitting up, between the stone wings, was Keith, in his usual red leather and beanie, smirking down at the two.Allura rolled her eyes. “What are you doing up there? Don’t you have things to go steal?”“I’ve only been at school for about 10 minutes and have half my bag filled, thank you very much.” Keith said, sliding down the statue so he was sitting more on the tail.“Your father would be so proud. Now go away.” Allura ordered.She didn’t get the chance to go and kiss Shiro again as they were joined by someone else.“Can someone explain to me why Lance is on a war path to find Keith?” Matt, son of Queen and Knave of Hearts, asked, latching onto Shiro’s arm.“Oh look, the other 1/3 of your relationship.” Keith teased.“Huh?” Matt asked confused.“3 1/3s is a whole, so us basically.” Shiro explained.“Oh. Aww, you two are my 2/3.” Matt cooed.“Keith, what did you do?” Allura asked.Keith pulled a chain from his shirt, showing off an apple shaped red gem. Everyone’s eyes widened at the sight of it.“Have you lost your mind?” Shiro asked, pulling away from his boyfriend and girlfriend to yell up at Keith. “You stole Lance’s necklace? The one he got from Hunk? Whose mother is the evillest villain on this island? Do you have a death wish?”“Oh please. Lance is just going to use Hunk’s influence to scare me but he’ll deal with me himself and I can handle him.”“Um,” Matt piped up, “Lance has told anyone that sees you and brings you to him has first punch to your face.”“Like they can catch me.”“Keith, this isn’t some low level villain you’re stealing from. Everyone knows not to piss Lance off. His best friend is the kid of the evillest villain and don’t think for a second Hunk wouldn’t take care of you himself.” Shiro said.“He’s not the only one who has access to magic.” Keith said, jumping off the statue’s tail.“Oh please. Keith, your father said he saw your eyes flash red when you were a baby and hasn’t seen it since. Hunk on the other hand scares people when his eyes flash gold. I’m telling you, if Lance doesn’t kill you, Hunk might.” Allura said. “Why did you steal the necklace anyway? You of all people know what that necklace means.”“I wanted to get a reaction out of him.” Keith shrugged.“Well you got it.” Matt said flatly. “Keith seriously, just go return it.”“Street rat!” a familiar voice yelled, making Matt flinch.“I would suggest now.”Keith hummed with a cocky smirk on his face. “I don’t want to.” He said, walking around the statue so he could get back into the hallway. The children of villains, hardened by their years with their parents, cowered as a blue clad prince stalked through the hallway, closely followed a male dark fairy. Lance’s eyes narrowed when they found Keith’s.“Where is it?” he growled.“Oh what? This old thing?” Keith asked, tugging at the necklace.The Evil Queen’s power was more in potions as opposed to Maleficent’s power as a dark fairy, but Keith was sure he wouldn’t be too surprised if Lance’s eyes started glowing in his anger.
“Give it back.” He ordered.“Why don’t you come get it yourself?” Keith mocked, taking off as Lance started to run after him.“Wait a second, Lance! Wait!” Hunk yelled chasing after the two.“Oh he is a dead man.” Allura moaned in distress.Shiro shook his head. “Come on, no point staying here. Might as well go down to the docks.”“Keith had better hope that Lance doesn’t catch him. He’s gonna get really hurt if he does.”
Hunk wasn’t someone who went chasing after people, both literally and figuratively. But apparently when you were friends with Lance, that’s what you did. Every child on the Isle knew how to quickly climb up buildings and jump from places but none were as good as Keith. The guy stole from everyone for his dad, so it was no surprise. Lance was good as well, even in heeled boots. Hunk just never made an effort to go out and just go jumping around for fun so it was no surprise it was a bit behind the other two.He watched, Keith climb up a stack of wood and jump for the edge of a roof and climb up. Lance was still on the ground but easily keeping up. People of the Isle moved out of the way for Hunk at either his yells or the sight of him. he watched Keith lead them away from the more populated area of the market and shops and more towards the area the lead into the barren forests. Hunk’s hopes heightened. Keith might know the city and all the places to climb, but Hunk knew the forest. He had a flourishing garden hidden in a little pocket, the only true thing of beauty in the dying island. He’d searched through these forests for the things needed to raise his flowers. He watched Lance catch up with Keith as he jumped down from the roofs and continuing to run.“Come here you street rat!”“Gotta be faster than that princess!” Keith called as he took a sharp turn as he crashed into the treeline.Hunk got an odd feeling. He wasn’t sure why his gut was telling him to stop. Not until he saw a familiar flower growing on a branch. A rhododendron, a flower meaning beware. And there was a reason Hunk had helped that flower to grow up there.“Oh no. Lance! Stop!” he yelled.Lance didn’t listen as he launched himself onto Keith and managed to slam into his back. Losing his balance, Keith went pitching forward, his other foot moving in attempts to catch his balance but was startled when his feet didn’t hit anything, other than dry and brittle roots as he and Lance fell into a hidden hole.“Lance!” Hunk yelled reaching the edge of the hole and looked down. He was surprised to see Keith on his back with Lance still on his front, like he’d turned and grabbed him so Lance wouldn’t get hurt. “Lance! Keith! Are you ok?”Lance moaned and started to push himself up. He looked over his shoulder and saw Hunk looking down at him, completely worried.“Ow.” He turned and realised he was still on top of Keith. “Don’t mind me princess.”Lance jumped up but crumbled down when his ankle burned with pain. “Ah!”“Lance!”“Ow.” He moaned. “Hunk get us out of here.” He begged.“Well I can’t exactly use roots from here, everything is dead.” Hunk pointed out.Keith used one hand to push himself up, holding onto his arm once he was up. “If I know Allura, she probably went to docks to go bother Axca.”“Captain Hook’s kid?” Hunk questioned.“They dated at one point. Not the point, they have rope on the ship.”“That’s all I need to hear. Lance try not to kill him until I can get you both up here.” Hunk said.“I’ll try to control myself.” Lance said, glaring at Keith.Hunk got up and ran for the tree edge. He had to be quick if he didn’t want Lance to actually kill Keith.Once Lance heard Hunk leave, he turned to Keith, eyes narrowed.“This is your fault. If you just gave me my necklace we wouldn’t be here.”“I doubt that. I’m sure I would have found some way to piss you off princess.” Keith said, flinching at the movement of his arm.Lance furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at Keith’s tight grip on his arm. “What’s with you?”“Oh nothing except when I think when I cushioned your fall, I think I dislocated my shoulder.”“What?”“This wasn’t exactly a small fall, not to add on to the fact that you crashed into me.”“Because you stole my necklace!” Lance yelled. He gritted his teeth, “What do I need to do?”“What?”“I’ve had a dislocated arm, what do you need me to do to set it back.”Keith didn’t have to ask who could have dislocated Lance’s arm. “Think you can get over here?”
Hunk moved away from the door of Ursula’s Fish Shack as Zethrid went flying out, her girlfriend sprawled on top of her. He swung the door open to see Allura in a sword fight with Axca and winning from the sloppy swings of Axca. He looked around and saw Shiro sitting at one of the tables. Matt was nowhere in sight, so he made a beeline for him.Shiro glanced up and saw Hunk coming towards him and sighed, “I don’t know where Keith disappeared to if you can’t find him.”“Don’t worry, I know where he is. He’s currently at the bottom of one the death pits in the forest.”“Death pits?” Shiro asked, stunned.The Isle had once part of the great, hero filled kingdom of Auradon and home to a large group of villains before they were caught. The Death Pits had been dug and hidden in hopes of catching any heroes who tried to capture them. Some had never been found and when the Isle was split from the original land, those pits stuck aroundd. The rhododendron had been Hunk’s tell for any pits he’d found when going through the forest.“How did he? You know what, never mind. Where is that hole?”“Forest, and Lance is down there with him.”Shiro groaned, picking up the book he’d been sketching in. He turned to his girlfriend who’d just thrown Axca into a left table, with both swords in her hands. “Allura, stop playing with your food. Keith is stuck in one of the Death Pits with Lance.”“What? Keith is where? That stupid, ugg. Axca, I’m done with you for today, but first I’m going to need something from you.”
A sickening crack filled the hole as Keith let out a pained scream and Lance started apologizing.“Why are you apologizing?” Keith gritted out as the pain in his arm dulled slightly.“I, I don’t know. I just know it hurts.”Keith let out a huff, smiling to himself. “You really don’t change, do you?”“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance asked confused.“You wanted to know why I took your necklace right?” Keith asked, using his free hand to go and unclasp the necklace that miraculously survived the fall. “I did it because I like you.”“Everyone likes me.” Lance said.“No. everyone likes you because you’re the fairest on the Isle. I like you because your different.”Lance looked confused. Everyone told him he was pretty and that they liked him, but his mother told him never to listen to those words. He would marry a prince or princess one day. Nothing less was perfect for him. But with watching the Auradon Network everyday and seeing the happy couples who got their happily ever after and so obviously in love with each other, Lance wanted that. For someone to be in love with him for him. truly in love with Lance, not Lance, son of the Evil Queen, but Lance. the guy who liked fashion and dancing and romance. Who got scared of the dark sometimes and had a sweet tooth. The real him.“On your sixth birthday, your mom decided to give Maleficent a true slap to the face. She invited everyone on the Isle to your party except Hunk. Everyone had bets on what they expected Maleficent to do to you and your mom when she realised what was going on, but you changed all that. Do you know why?” Keith asked, his free hand playing with the red gem.Lance shrugged, “Because I invited Hunk?”Keith’s usual smirk was replaced with a fond smile that was doing things to Lance. he wasn’t allowed to look like that. “You saw Hunk looking down from the Bargen Castle and you jumped off your throne and ran into the store and people were so sure that you were going to antagonize him, but then your leading him into the party. Then you took Allura’s party bag and gave it to Hunk. No one ever saw the two of you separate after that. You did something most of us villains wouldn’t even dare of doing. You were nice to someone else, not for your own benefit. It took me a long time to try and figure out how to get your attention and I happened to bump into you that day and lift your necklace.”“Seriously? That’s why you took it? Why didn’t you just say something?”“Would you have believed me?” Keith pointed out.Lance opened his mouth but shut it tight. “Ok, maybe not.”Keith held out his hand and dropped the necklace into Lance’s hand. He noticed the gem didn’t look cracked or smudged.“I’m still pretty pissed at you but…if your serious about this and I mean actually serious, not something your doing to pass the time or mess with me…I’ll take you up on one date.”“One date?” Keith asked, his smile turning cocky again.“Unless you can somehow convince me to go on more.”“Alright. I’ll take that one date. But be ready to ask me on another one.”“You always this cocky?”“Only when I know things will go my way princess.” Keith said.Lance good-naturedly scoffed, when a rope dropped down. The two villain kids looked up to see Hunk, Allura and Matt looking down at them. They heard rustling above so they guessed Shiro was dealing with the rope.“You are such an idiot! Do you see what your insanity got you in to?” Allura scolded.“Are you ok?” Hunk asked.“My ankle still hurts and Keith had dislocated his shoulder.” Lance called.“Oh, first name and not street rat. Maybe we should leave them in there a bit longer so they can really get along.” Matt joked.“Not on your raspberry tarts! Get me out of here!”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Keith didn’t know how he got into this position. He watched Lance play with a string of red ribbon, twirling it around his finger, this dopy smile on his face.“It’s kinda romantic isn’t it? The idea of a simple string can lead you to your soulmate.”Keith didn’t dignify that with a response. He just went back to cursing his luck. He and Lance were part of an acapella group on campus called The Paladins. They’d been asked by the school to have a small Valentine’s day performance and they had agreed. They decided their theme would be Soulmates and because they were only going to perform 3 songs, Allura had suggest they tell stories on different types of soulmates.“And we should do it in pairs!” She said, clapping her hands.“Why?” Keith asked confused. There were 5 people in the group, 6 if you counted Pidge, which they didn’t since they only joined in if the song had a rap for them, staying with the sound tech gear during performances.“Isn’t it obvious? Shallura wants to show off their relationship and I’m sure Hunk wouldn’t mind either.” Pidge had said.Allura pouted at Pidge. “No, the theme is Soulmates, so of course the stories should be read by ‘couples’ so to speak.”Shiro shrugged. “I think it’s a good idea. I mean so many people have come up with different ideas for soulmate universes and there’s the classic ones to. All those in favour?”Keith noticed Lance’s hand shot up before Shiro’s question was finished, his face glowing with his smile. Keith had been outvoted with Allura, Hunk and Shiro against him.“Shiro, can I do Red String of Fate?” Lance asked.“That’s a good one.”“Um, I wanted to do the one where the words you write on your skin appear on your soulmate’s skin. I thought it was something Shay and I could connect to since we’re in a long distance relationship. She’s coming to the show by the way.”“Well since Pidge isn’t going to be singing with us, did you want to invite her onto the stage to read it with you?” Allura suggested.“Wait, that means I’ll be with Lance.” Keith said.“Well unless Lance wants to do it by himself and you do one with Pidge.” Allura suggested.“No thanks. I don’t really like love so I don’t want to have to talk about it.” Pidge said.“Oh come on Keith, we’re sing songs about love. It’ll fun.” Lance said.Yeah, fun. Talking about soulmates with the guy you like but are sure is not interested.So here he was no with Lance in the crossbar of their dorm, trying to come up with a story.“How do you imagine you’d meet your soulmate?” Lance asked.“What? Lance don’t tell you don’t actually believe that stuff.”“Of course I do. I mean with a family like mine, how can I not.”“What is that supposed to mean?” Lance asked confused.“My grandparents, parents and older brother all married their first love. I mean I’m not going to be that lucky because my relationship status is ‘can’t keep one’ but it still gives you hope doesn’t it? Seeing these couples who are still completely devoted to each other.”Keith narrowed his eyes slightly. His mother was an the, some secret service and as much as he knew she loved his father, she hadn’t been there when he died, not even allowed to leave to come get him by her superiors. It had been a few years until he was finally back in her arms, but during that time, he’d been so sure their love couldn’t be real because she wasn’t there. During that time, he’d been fostered by Shiro’s parents and they were the type of couple who didn’t show much PDA, showing their love in actions and words. Maybe it was different for him compared to what Shiro knew, but he was sure that love wasn’t something that was real, something that wouldn’t happen to him.Then he met Lance. He wouldn’t say he loved him, but he really did like him. Lance had a voice of an angel for one. He was usually so happy and people didn’t seem to have any trouble making friends with him. they had knocked heads earlier but once they actually got to know each other, they became close. It was usually fun when they were paired together for duets but this one was rubbing him wrong. He knew Lance was bisexual, but he seemed to almost always date females. The only male he ever saw Lance date was Ryan Kinkade and how the heck to did compete with that? So having to talk about soulmates before singing love songs on the day dedicated to love wasn’t something he wanted to do.“Hey, did you know the story of the string of fate was because an old man would tie the sting to the pinkies of kin spirits who have something to learn from each other. It can get tangled and stretched but it’ll never break.” Lance said.“Goody.”“Ok, what is your issue with romance? Bad breakup?” Lance asked.“Let’s just say romance never works out.”“Seriously? What about Hunk and Shay? Allura and your brother?” Lance asked confused.“Look, sometimes love doesn’t work out because you won’t get anything in return.”“Oh my god. Keith, you like someone!” Lance realised.Shit. “no I don’t.” Keith said, packing his things up.“Yes you do.”“No I don’t. Drop it Lance.” Keith ordered as he tried to leave, but Lance shot up from his seat and blocked Keith.“No. No way. You can’t run off after telling me this. How long has this been going on.”“Lance.”“Keith! You should know me by now to know I’m not going to drop it. Who is this person and why do you seem to think you have no chance?”“Because I know I don’t. Look I got to go.”“Keith please? I can help. I’m not doing anything this Valentine’s.”For some reason, just hearing that made Keith mad. “I’m not some charity case Lance. Just because your luck with love is way better than mine and that I’d never get the chance to even experience that isn’t something you can rub in people’s face.”“Wait, what? Keith?”“Just leave me alone Lance!” Keith snapped, taking off.Keith ignored the buzzing of his phone. He’d missed practise. It wasn’t like people wouldn’t notice, there was usually 6 people in their practise room. Keith kept hitting himself. What he’d said, about not getting never getting a chance to experience love, it sounded like he was talking about Lance’s love. He might not have been wrong but still. He knew this would happen. Part of him wanted to skip the performance entirely, except the idea of the whole group after his head wasn’t something he wanted.He jumped when his door started to rattle from the pounding his door got.“Akira Kogane!” Keith flinched. Once Shiro had found out that his Japanese name was Akira, he made an effort to use it when he was in trouble. “I know you’re in there! You skip practise and you can’t be bothered to pick the phone up? Keith, open the door!” Keith didn’t move. “I’m warning you, if you’re not at practise tomorrow, you’re in big trouble.”Keith groaned. Stupid Soulmates theme. He wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for that. He looked up when he heard a much quieter knock on his door.“Keith?” Lance? What was he doing here? “Look, I know you kinda didn’t want to see me or talk to me but…I wanted to apologize. I shouldn’t have pushed. I wasn’t trying to rub anything in your face and I don’t think you’re a charity case. I never did. I know Shiro said you’d be in trouble if you missed practise tomorrow but we all know that you have your part down perfectly, so I wouldn’t be too worried if you still want to avoid me. I just hope that means you won’t miss the show.” Lance was silent like he was hopping for an answer. “Um, I worked on the story. I have the part you need to read and you can read it now or you can wait. I hope you actually come.” Keith saw a folded sheet of paper pushed under the door. “Hopefully you’ll be there, because I want you to hear the end.”“I’m going to kill him.” Allura said as she took an angry sip of water. It was the day of their performance and Keith was nowhere to be found. It might only be 3 songs but they were split for 5 voices.Lance leaned against the wall, playing with sleeves of his blue long sleeve crop top. All the Paladins were dressed in their colours, all they were missing was red. After Keith’s outburst after pushing him about the crush issue, Lance had gone to hide in his room until practise. He’d been going over his words in guilt when he kept stopping at what Keith said about not experiencing it. Lance was sure Keith meant love but there had been the small part of him that wanted Keith to mean loving him. Which was stupid because Keith was not interested.Maybe? He didn’t know and he knew if he kept staying there trying to figure it out himself he’d go insane so he went to talk to someone who’d tell it to him straight.Pidge was in the practise room, avoiding the outside world like they usually did.“You’re done with your story yet?” They asked in leu of a greeting.“Not exactly. I pissed Keith off at me.”“I mean, no offense, but you two tend to do that to each other. What’s so different about this?”Lance explained what had happened and told Pidge what he kept thinking. Pidge knew about his crush, not telling anyone because of blackmail Lance just so happened on them in a turn of events.“But it’s crazy right? I mean it’s Keith.”“I don’t get it.” Pidge said.“Why would he like me?”“Ok, Lance. listen to me. Yes, you have you moments of being annoying and yes, the two of you can rub each other the wrong way at times, but you two have more of a chance than you think.” Pidge pointed out.“You’re just saying that.”“I’m not. Don’t tell him I told you this, but he trusts you. Keith is more often than not one to go off and ignore someone he doesn’t like but you two hang out pretty often, don’t you?” Lance nodded. “Lance, if you want my advice you should just take a chance. You two are pretty connected to not give it a chance.”So that’s what gave Lance the idea to write the story. A story of the Red String of Fate that connected them. He’d given Keith the first half but he needed to be here to read it.“Guys, we have to start. This is right before the dinning hall opens and no concert is gonna compete with food.” Pidge announced.“What do we do?” Hunk asked.“I guess we perform. Lance, you’ll have to sing Keith’s parts.” Shiro directed, waiting until Lance nodded before leading the group into the small performance space.While they were given a warm welcome, they could tell the crowd was confused at the empty stool next to Lance.Shiro counted off before they greeted the crowd. “Hello, we’re the Paladins.”“Happy Valentine’s day. We’re glad you decided to come spend it with us. If this is your first time with us, I’m Allura.”“I’m Lance and-”Lance was cut off by Keith rushing into the room, in his red clothes. The group let out a sigh of relief, though Allura and Shiro looked annoyed. Allura more than Shiro.Keith took the microphone from Pidge before sitting next to Lance. “Hi, sorry I’m late. I’m Keith and Lance, Allura and I are the main singers.”“I’m Shiro and I’m the beat boxer.”“And I’m Hunk, the bass. Also, hi Shay!” Hunk said, waving to his girlfriend who was seated next to Pidge at the sound control desk.“We usually have a small theme for our performances and this one is rightfully called Soulmates. There’s a lot of tropes and ideas of soulmates and how we find them so we thought we tell you some of our favourite before each song. First up is Hunk.”“Shay,” Hunk called over, “the trope I choose was the idea of what you write on your skin will appear on your soulmates skin. My girlfriend and I are in a long distance relationship. I went to her country on an internship and met her and we had to separate and it was hard. So this is the story we came up with.”Hunk handed Shay his microphone after she opened the page in her hands.“When you first feel the connection, you watch the scrawled handwriting or small doodles appear on your skin and you feel happy that you have someone you can connect with. Then you ask them where they’re from, thinking you can convince your parents with your childlike wonder that they can take you to meet them and it turns out that can’t happen because you don’t have a passport to go flying off to the other side of the world to go see them. Time zones mess with your chance to talk to them until you can find the perfect golden hour where you can write to each other and talk, with the wishes of maybe you can see them in person soon. Years go by and you haven’t seen them but with each written word you know you won’t give up on them. Then finally, you get the chance. Either you get on a plane or they do, but it doesn’t matter because suddenly you don’t have enough space on your skin to say everything you want to say. But then you see them, with those familiar words and drawings all over their skin and you can’t believe it’s really them. It’s odd to be talking instead of writing but you make it work. It’s like nothings changed. When it’s time to separate again though, you wonder how you’ll get through the night without them nearby for you to whisper words to them. You’ve become so consumed with the love you share you know sleep won’t be possible until you can be surrounded by it again.”Taking the microphone again, Hunk said, “And this is Can’t Sleep Love.”After they started the rhythm, Keith started, with Allura and Lance backing him up.Tell me am I going crazy?
Tell me have I lost my mind?
Am I just afraid of lovin'?
Or am I not the lovin' kind?
Kissin' in the moonlight
Movies on a late night
Gettin' old
I've been there, done that
Supposed to be hot
But it's just cold
Somebody wake up my heart
Light me up
Set fire to my soul, yeah
'Cause I can't do it anymoreLance lead the chorus
Give me that can't sleep love
(Give me that can't sleep)
I want that can't sleep love
(Give me that can't sleep)
The kind I dream about all day
The kind that keeps me up all night
Give me that can't sleep love
Maybe I'm too picky, honey
But I'm not in the world you're in
I'm not in it for the money, ooh
I'm here looking for the real thing
Kissin' in the moonlight
Movies on a late night
Gettin' old, yeah
(It's gettin' old!)
I've been there, done that
Supposed to be hot
But it's just cold
(So, so, so cold!)
Somebody wake up my heart
Light me up
Set fire to my soul (To my soul, to my soul, to my soul.)
'Cause I can't do it anymore, no
Give me that can't sleep love
(Give me that can't sleep)
I want that can't sleep love
(Give me that can't sleep)
The kind I dream about all day
The kind that keeps me up all night
Give me that can't sleep love
Oh, I'm tired of dreaming of no one (I'm tired)
I need somebody next to mine (I'm, I'm tired, yeah!)
'Cause I'm dyin' to give it to someone (give it to someone)
Because I can't do it anymore!
Oh! Give me that can't sleep love
(Give me that can't sleep)
I want that can't sleep love
(Give me that can't sleep)
The kind I dream about all day (about all day)
The kind that keeps me up all night (keeps me up all night)
Give me that can't sleep love (Can't sleep love)After the room had quieted from the applause, Lance pulled a paper from his back pocket, seeing Keith pull one from his jacket’s pocket, along with something in his fist.“Ok, well the next trope is probably the oldest one out there, the Red String in Fate. A string that will tangle and stretch, maybe even fray but it will ever break.” Lance explained.“So this is our story. One person surrounded by the best kind of love, who’d crave it to be true for them as well. Another person who was stopped by the world from getting the love they deserved until they believed that love wasn’t real. Love pushed and pulled them around, making them question themselves when a chance at real love came to them.” Keith started.“An unseen string pulled the two into the same direction, joined by similar interests. The one who didn’t believe in love let their walls down, just enough for the love filled one to latch onto them. The one filled with love wanted to share their love with the one who didn’t believe it. Fear tangled the string in wondering what they would receive in return. In that fear they pushed and caused the string to pull away as a wall started to build.” Lance continued. He hadn’t finished when he watched Keith drop a length of red yarn and tie one end on his finger and grabbed Lance’s closest hand, making him drop his paper and switch hands for the microphone. “The one filled with love wondered if keeping the string tangled in fear would make them lose something.”“So the one who didn’t believe in love decided to take a risk, to follow the string and go for it, deal with the consequences later. Because if it’s meant to be, then so be it.”Lance really wanted to say it could be, but he was also in front of a full audience. “And the string would lead them to where they needed to be. This is Can’t help falling in love.”Lance cleared his throat and switched his hands again, so the red string could be clearly seen. Keith was right and so was Pidge. Take a risk and go for it.Shiro counted them down before all the members started singing.Wise men say
Only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay?
Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you?
Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand,
Take my whole life, too
For I can't help falling in love with you
Like a river flows
Surely to the sea
Darling, so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand,
Take my whole life, too
For I can't help falling in love with you
For I can't help falling in love with you
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Lance knocked on the door again, hoping someone would answer. This wasn’t happening. He was not locked out of his own dorm room because he forgot his keys in the room when he went to go grab dinner and study. Except, well, he was. He knew Hunk wasn’t there. His high school sweetheart went to a college a few hours from theirs and her extremely over protective brother wasn’t going to be on campus for the weekend. His other suitemates though, James Griffin and Lotor Daibazaal, the assholes, had to of gone out for the night. The most annoying thing was they all hung their keys up on hook by the door, so they knew he didn’t have his keys yet they still locked the door. He groaned, dropping on the door and sliding down to the floor. It was cold outside and he just wanted to go back into his room and put his fuzzy shark onesie on and drink hot chocolate and fall asleep listening to the new Alexander Jean CD he finally got.Part of him wondered if he’d get in trouble for falling asleep in the dorms’ lounge but he knew the last time someone had done that, they woke up with dicks and curse words drawn on their face. Lance was not risking that. He tried to think, was anyone he knew on campus still awake? Allura? No, she had early morning practise, so she’d be asleep with her earbuds in and he didn’t really know he roommate too well. Adam? He was the RA for a whole other building and if he remembered correctly, his favourite TA was on duty tonight so he couldn’t have guests. Pidge? No to that too, they lived with their brother and Matt loved annoying him by flirting with him and he didn’t have the mental compacity to put up with him right then.In his frustration, Lance picked up his Japanese text book and threw it down the hall, where it hit the door on the other side. He heard the door opening as he threw his face into his hands.“What the hell? Lance?”He looked up and froze when he saw the person at the end of the hall. Shit.“Keith!” he cried, shooting up and stared the other male. “What, what are you doing here? I thought you lived in Montgomery.”“I do, but my brother lives here and he’s busy and asked me to watch his cat.”“Huh?” Cat? Pets weren’t allowed in the building? And what brother? And why was Keith even here?Keith and Lance were in the same Japanese class. He had noticed him on their first day. There class was set up so the desks were in a circle and Keith was opposite Lance. the first thing he had noticed was his hair was a bit of a mullet but other than the tragic hairstyle, Keith was really good looking. Like drop dead gorgeous, with his dark eyes and obvious muscles. Back when the weather had been hotter, Keith came to class with his bangs clipped back and his hair tied into a messy bun and Lance felt his heart stop. No one should look that good. Didn’t help that he’d been in a tank top and it took everything in him not to get lost during the lesson because he kept staring at Keith. Whenever they stood next to each other when the teach would have them practise writing characters, Lance would control himself not to blush. God, literally last week, they were paired to do a practise conversation and Keith asked him if he was free on Saturday and Lance melted a little before remembering it was a practise conversation.“What are you doing out here? And throwing your textbook out that hall?”“Huh?” Lance realised Keith was talking to him. “I left my keys in my room by accident and even though my other roommates so my keys on the hook by the door, they still locked it.”“I can call security for you?” Keith offered, holding out Lance’s textbook.“Thanks, but Hunk used the suite’s free passes when he kept forgetting his keys, hence why we hang them up by the door now.”“Oh. Are any of your roommates coming back?”Lance shook his head. “Hunk’s gone to see his girlfriend for the weekend and I know my asshole roommates left for the night. Everyone else I know isn’t the best option to stay the night with.”“Did you want to stay the night with me?”“What?”“My brother went to grab something from the student store and his therapy cat keeps meowing if he’s not in the room, so I’m keeping her occupied.” Keith explained.“That’s what that noise was?” Lance said, thinking back to the times he was so sure he heard a cat meowing. Then he remembered something else. “Wait, the guy who carries the spaceship bag is your brother? I though he was a pre-vet student.”“Shiro a pre-vet major? No, Shiro studying to be a teacher. He’ll be back soon and my roommate dropped out halfway through the semester so I’ve got a dingle. You can sleep on the extra bed and we can come back the next day to make sure your roommates are back.”A whole night with Keith, alone? Lance would not make it through the night.“I, I don’t have anything to wear. I needed a shower.” Lance tried to excuse.“Most of Shiro’s hand-me-downs I use as pyjamas. I have extra towels too.”Lance struggled to find another excuse. He didn’t want one because a whole night with Keith, yes please, but it was also Keith.“Sure.” He agreed in the end.“Cool, come on. we can wait in Shiro’s room till he gets back.”Lance slowly followed Keith into the room, which he realised was one of the random singles on the floor. While one wall was taken mostly by a bed, the other had a large cat tree and a steady incline of perches, including a bridge that lead to the dresser. Tangled up in a teasing rope toy was a black cat, with a few patches of white.“That’s Kuro, Shiro’s therapy cat.” Keith explained as he gently nudged her side, moving when she twisted in attempt to sink her claws into his foot.“Oh. Ok. Medical issues?”“Mostly. He has really bad anxiety after this accident he had. He’s much better than he was when he first got her but I guess you can say she’s overprotective. She doesn’t like having him out of her sight.”“I see.”The door opened and the guy Lance and Hunk were always so sure was a pre-vet student came in, unzipping his jacket. Most of his black hair was hidden by a beanie, but his white dyed fringe was still in his face.“Oh, hello?”“Shiro, this is Lance. He lives across the hall.”Shiro’s grey eyes lit up with recognition. “Right. You live with Lotor right?”“Unfortunately.” Lance said. It was no secret he didn’t like Lotor or James.“Yeah, he makes it a habit to complain about me bringing Kuro to class.” Shiro said.“I’m sure he does.”“Lotor and his other roommate locked Lance out so he’s gonna spend the night with me.” Keith said, picking up his jacket from Shiro’s bed.“Alright.” Shiro pulled out two bowls of instant ramen and gave whatever was left in the bag to Keith. “I’ll see you around Lance.”“You too.” Lance said following Keith out the door and back into the cold air.“Are you hungry?” Keith asked, his words slightly muffled with his scarf around his mouth.“Um a little.” Lance admitted. “I can just grab something from the vending machine when we get to Montgomery.”“No need, I have food in my room. I hope you don’t mind ramen.”“Consists of most of my diet.” Lance admitted.They soon reached the building and Keith tapped his student ID to the card reader, pulling the door open when it let out a beep. He led Lance up two flights of stairs and down the hall where a door covered in a Sherlock door poster hung, making the door look like the door for apartment 221B. According to the old marking on the door jam, it was actually room 221.“Wow.”“Yeah, I had gotten the poster for Christmas before I started college and when I saw what my room was, I knew I had to bring it.” Keith unlocked his door and let Lance walk in first before he followed him. one side of the room looked unoccupied while the other was obviously lived in. the bed was covered in red and black sheets, the blanket shoved near the end of the bed, almost covering the large hippo plush. The desk was pushed against the end of the bed and held a large monitor for the desk top computer. Most of the wall was covered in posters of different anime or space related. On the chest of the drawers, acrylic stands and figurines were spread out, picture frames placed in free spaces around them.Lance dropped his things on the empty bed and glanced over at the pictures. There was one with Keith and an older guy. He almost looked like Shiro but Lance could tell that he resembled Keith more. Another picture held a woman in army fatigues who looked more like Keith. There was one with Shiro and Keith along with a dog, who looked like more fur than anything. He looked over at Keith as he dropped his jacket onto the chair, taking the bag to the microwave that sat on top of the mini fridge. He turned on the kettle sitting on top of it and pulled out the other bowls of ramen.“You said you didn’t like beef ramen, right?” Lance looked confused, unsure how Keith even knew that. “You mentioned it in class one day, around the food section?”He had mentioned that, but that had been during a practise conversation that Lance knew he hadn’t been paired with Keith for.“Um yeah. Don’t really like the taste of it.”“I have soy sauce udon, is that ok?” Lance nodded and watched Keith pull a container out from the fridge and put it in the microwave. He picked up a mug that seemed to hold all the cutlery Keith owned and held it out for Lance.Lance smiled at the sight of Studio Ghibli themes chopsticks as he took the Kiki’s Delivery Service ones.“I didn’t realise you were such an otaku Keith.”“Have you seen my bookbag?”He had. It was covered in pins from different animes and the bag itself was Kingdom Hearts themed. “I prefer my pins on an itabag.”“Oh I have itabags, I just don’t use bags on campus except for my bookbag so there’s no point in bringing them.”Lance couldn’t help but laugh. He was still nervous about staying the night in Keith’s dorm, especially with his crush on him but he was learning a lot about Keith. It was slowly becoming easier to relax around him. The microwave went off and Keith pulled out the container, a cloud of steam erupting when Keith opened it and offered it to Lance.“Seafood dumplings. I was going to finish these tonight so feel free.”“Is it ok?” Lance asked. With Keith’s nod, Lance picked one up between his chopsticks and took a small bite. “These are good.”“There’s this kinda unknown dim sum place not far from here. It’s pretty good.”“Sounds like fun. I should check it out.”The kettle went off next and Keith went to fill the bowls with hot water, keeping the lids down with a chopstick each before sitting next to Lance on the bed. He took Lance’s chopsticks from his hands and used it to pick up his own dumpling.And there went Lance’s blood pressure, shooting up at the thought of using the same utensils as Keith.
‘Congratulations Lance, you’ve become a complete child with a crush.’
“Were you studying Japanese?” Keith asked.“Hmm?” Then Lance remembered it had been his Japanese textbook he threw at Shiro’s door. “Yeah. The kanji is really hard.”“Yeah. I get confused with some of them. I’m not looking forward to when we have to start using them in our writing.”“I’m still more worried about speaking part of it. When I get nervous, my mind starts switching Spanish and Japanese.”“Oh yeah, I remember the midterm exam, the speaking portion. You recovered really well though. If you want, I can help you practise your speaking.” Keith offered.“Oh, you don’t have to.”“I want to.”Lance couldn’t really answer after that. He wanted to. Keith didn’t have to but he wanted to.“Sure. If it’s ok with you. Man, you are really doing a lot for me. Letting me stay the night, feeding me, helping me study.”“I’m sure you can figure out some way to repay me.” Keith said, his voice sounding flirtatious, making Lance’s heart stop again.
‘He isn’t allowed to do this. I’m dying, why is he doing this?’
“You ok?”“Yep, sure, totally fine.” Lance rushed out. Then Keith gave him this smile. God, he really wasn’t allowed to smile like that!“Here, I think the ramen is ready.” Lance took his chopsticks back, and stuffed a dumpling into his mouth, trying to organize his thoughts. “Did you want to watch a movie?”“Sure, you can choose.”Keith handed Lance his bowl, which he started to dig into then woke his computer up. He put a DVD into the drive and skipped to the main menu.“Ohh, Kingsman! I love that movie. The second one was really good.” Lance said as he saw the main menu.“It’s one of my favourite ones. I remember Shiro saw it with his boyfriend and they said Eggsy had gotten married to a blonde chick and my mind went to Roxy.”“I know, I watched it on the plane ride home but I was half asleep and the person next to me was watching it and was like ‘I can’t believe they shoved those two together! That was one of the stories good points, that Roxy and Eggsy were only best friends, never even hinted to be in a relationship. I was glad we were both wrong.”“I know. But I guess it speaks to how Eggsy values relationships. He liked Roxy only as a friend and they stayed that way the whole time and even though he only wanted to have sex with the princess, he was able to hold a relationship with her, something he never wanted to risk, even for his job.”“I kinda hope I can have a relationship like that.” Lance said.“I’m sure you’ll have no problem.” Keith said, in that same flirtatious voice.Oh god, Lance didn’t know if he was trying to say something. That was a tomorrow issue. For now, he was going to enjoy watching this movie and ramen with Keith.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
They were back at the inn at Wiebian Swamp, the inn master still looking the same as the one they’d fought all that time ago. Twin sister according to them, but whatever. They got their food and rewards and missions from them and that’s all they needed.“5 health plates please.” Pike asked, checking to make sure his group was still at their table before leaning forward. “Has anything been dropped off for me?”The innkeeper’s eyes shifted around before pulling a scrap of paper and handed it to Pike. He quickly opened and read it before burning it on a nearby candle. Then he pulled out a small bundle of gold coins.“Rooms for the 5 of us tonight.”The bundle was quickly taken and replaced with 5 keys. “Your food will be delivered.”“Thank you.” Pike thanks before taking the keys back to the table. “Check it out. Free rooms for completing the mission.”“It would be a waste if we didn’t use them.” Valayun said.Jirou nodded, “We can rest for the night and get a new mission in the morning.”“Awesome, I’m going to go make people’s bags lighter.”“Oh please try not to get caught, I don’t want to get thrown out.” Valayun begged.“I’ll try my best.” Pike said, disappearing into the crowd.Block looked over at the dwarf of their group. “Melkavar? What is it?”“Have you noticed whenever we earn free rooms or if Pike offers to get a room, the next morning he seems tired, like he never got any rest? And why this inn only that we get free rooms? Why is it never any other place?”“Why is that an issue?” Block asked.“I think he’s hiding something.”“It’s not like Pike is double crossing us.” Jirou said.“I know that, but it’s something more.”Valayun looked concerned. “It wouldn’t hurt to check. What if there’s something wrong and Pike won’t tell us?”“I say wait till he tells us.” Jirou insisted.“But what if the mission we get tomorrow is something we need to be sharp for and Pike is too tired to focus. We can’t risk that.”Jirou didn’t look happy but agreed in the end.Pike came out of the inn, looking back to make sure no one saw him and quickly took off, jumping over the bad spots of the swamp until he was on the dirt path the lead into the forest. He eventually took to the trees, moving quicker. He wanted to get there soon, he wanted to see him. it seemed like ages passed but soon he was able to see something, a red glow of a fire.There.He jumped down to the ground and quickly ran to the light, stopping at the edge. A large blue and black furred wolf curled near the fire but it was the person leaning against it he’d been wanting to see. He took a moment to take him in. His pale skin only slightly disturbed by the purple mark on his cheek. His pointed ears, clearly seen because of his tied up hair, dark enough to match the night sky. His clothes were just as dark, pieces of his blue armour making him stand out. Pike could have stood there for hours taking him in, but then he’d have less time to be with him.“Dark.” He called.Dark eyes turned from the fire to Pike coming from behind the tree line. Dark shot up and it seemed like in moments, he was in Pike arms. Pike held him close, taking in the scent of the oils Dark used for his swords and something else that was completely him.“I missed you.” Dark said, Pike’s ears twitching at the sound. Gods, he missed this so much. He never wanted to stop this.“You were gone for longer.” Pike complained.Dark pulled away enough so he could look at Pike, putting his hand on his face and rubbing at the scar. “I know. It took a while longer to catch my target. The minute he was taken care of, I rushed over here. I don’t think I could have survived any longer without seeing you.”Pike took Dark’s chin in his hand and pulled him in closer. “We have all night. I’m not going anywhere.”Finally, finally, their lips met and it felt like the world stopped moving. Dark’s hand moved from Pike’s cheek to his hair, trying to pull him in closer, which Pike greatly responded to.However, they pulled apart when the wolf started growling. They stayed quiet, concentrating on their surroundings. Dark had apparently heard it first, as he pulled a hidden dagger out and pulling Pike out of the way, threw it in the direction of the sound. Pike flinched at the familiar scream, but soon got angry.“Get out here! I know you followed me!”It was silent but then the members of his group stumbled out from the treeline.“Who are they?” Dark asked, finger twitching to pull out a new dagger.“Members of my party, who should have been asleep!”“You’ve been sneaking out every time we come here, you can’t expect us not to be curious?” Melkavar defended.“Or you could just mind your own business!”“Hey, it’s fine.” Dark said, turning to the still growling wolf, “Down Kosmo.” The wolf stopped growling but still seemed to be glaring at the new people who were interrupting his master’s return. Pike was still glaring as well. “My name is Thunderstorm Darkness. I’m a bounty hunter with the Mamora guild.”“Our apologies about bothering you. My name is Jirou. This is Block, Melkavar and Valayun. We didn’t realise Pike had a lover.”“Weren’t supposed to.” Pike grumbled, Dark putting his hand on Pike’s crossed arms.“We should be glad it was them and not a member of my guild.”“Why? Does your guild not allow love?” Valayun curiously asked.“It’s less about that and more about the status I hold. My guild works directly with the Elven kingdom, which my mother happens to rule. I’m allowed to avoid my duties as prince as long as I don’t get distracted. Unfortunately, catching this thief trying to steal from me was the start of my downfall.”“So that’s why we come back to the inn. The Wiebian Swamp is near the Elven kingdom. When we arrive, the two of you sneak out to see each other. That is so sweet.” Block said, tearing at the thought of what Pike and Dark had to go through.“It been even worse to be away from him in recent times.” Dark confessed, his thumb rubbing at the still tense skin of Pike. Pike put a hand on his, squeezing. “Since…” Dark trailed off, leaving Pike to roll his eyes.“They’ll question me anyway. We’re married.” Pike announced.“Oh.” Was all the group could say.“Of course we need to keep a secret from my guild and mother. That’s why we can only meet at night.”“Why can’t he come with us?” Block asked.“What? Block!” Pike yelled.“No seriously. I mean, being away from the one you love is the worst and we never know when we come back here. Thunderstorm-”“Just call him Dark,” Pike said.“Oh right. Dark said he avoids his duties as a prince to be part of bounty hunter guild so obviously, you don’t want to be a prince, right?” Dark nodded. “It might mean we won’t be able to come back to this area for a while, but at least the two of you wouldn’t be separated. Besides, we could help with bounty hunting missions.”“Block come on.”“Pike,” Dark interrupted. Pike looked back at Dark, taking in the look on his face.“You’re not serious, are you? You’d be hunted down. You can’t expect me to be ok with you turning your back on them. You told me how hard you worked to win the guild’s respect.”“And I don’t want to have to force them to accept something they would never approve of. I’ll miss it yes, but I miss not being around you more. I might lose you when we’re separated and I don’t want to regret not being near you or fade because I couldn’t try and save you.”Pike took Dark’s hands. “Tell your mother at least. No listen,” he said when Dark tried to interrupt him. “She’s the only thing you have left and I know it would hurt her if you just disappeared without any explanation. I know you can get past any guards if she tries to lock you up but I think she at least deserves to know. Promise me?”Dark nodded and saw Valayun push the group members back into the forest. Deciding they were alone enough, he took Pike’s face and pulled it down to kiss him. “I’ll be there tomorrow. Don’t leave me ok?”
Don’t leave me ok?
Pike had promised Dark he wouldn’t, but the morning had passed and Dark still wasn’t there. After he left with the rest of the group the night before, he hadn’t gotten any sleep. Part from excitement that the man he promised his life to would be with him finally, the other part was terrified. Pike had lost his family so he wanted Dark to cherish his bond with his own mother. He wanted the two of them to keep a close bond, but he was scared his mother would hurt Dark in attempts to keep him at the kingdom.He’d hoped when he came down the next morning at get breakfast, Dark would be there, that smug smile he’d have when he surprised Pike. But only the innkeeper was there, waking any drunks that slept on the tables. They ate and waited for a while, Jirou asking if any had answers about his brother’s master. Then he got a lead. They still waited longer but it was the early afternoon before Jirou asked for them to go follow the lead before it went cold. They moved slowly, Pike not moving from his spot by the door, staring across the swamp, hoping the see a familiar shape.But nothing. Dark wasn’t coming.“Pike.” Jirou came up to him. “We can go get him.”Pike shook his head. “No. We’re not ready, we’d never get through the guard. Besides, your brother’s master…”“Pike, I think I can wait a little while longer to avenge my brother and his master. This man, he’s your husband.”“I know. But…it doesn’t matter. Let’s go.”Pike’s heart ached as he approached the animal Valayun had called down.“Pike!” the thief looked to see Jirou’s gaze across the swamp. He ran over to see a familiar figure on top of an even more familiar wolf.Dark’s gaze was hard, quickly locking onto Pike. As he got close, he reached out and grabbed Pike’s outstretched hand and pulled him on top of Kosmo, not stopping as they continued running.“Where were you? I was about to leave.”“It took a while to get away from the guards.”“I take it your mother wasn’t happy?” Pike asked, glancing over his shoulder to see the rest of the group following on the steed Valayun brought.“She was actually fine with it, the council not so much. They ordered the guild to hunt me down and bring you with them so you would be killed.”“Dark!”“It’s ok. My mother approved and that’s all I care about. Better get used to me around. I’m not letting you go anytime soon.”Pike couldn’t help but scoff happily. “I would hope not. I’ve stolen your heart, didn’t I? You have to make sure I take good care of it.”“I don’t worry. I know you will. Now let’s hurry up because I was running from a horseback guard.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Did you hear that Keith Kogane is supposed to be judging the Masquerade contest?”“Really? I heard he was supposed to be attending the convention for a panel.”“I hope we can see him during a photoshoot.”Lance couldn’t help but smirk at the overly excited girls’ comments. He collected his room key and went to the elevator. As he waited for it, he heard the girls speaking again.“OMG, what if we find that cosplayer he’s always posing with? Weren’t they kissing in that last picture?” They weren’t for the picture, but they certainly were after.“I know. I want to know who they are.”Yeah, that wasn’t happening. Not after the hate he’d gotten back in the early years of his cosplaying years. Honestly had it not been for Keith’s convincing, he would have given up on cosplaying for good. He got back into it, because he missed the kinda addicting stress of getting costumes ready, the rush to get your make up done before it was time to go.Though, he’d admit, he didn’t like the long wait of having to pick up the badges. Thankfully, he had someone to help him skip that line.He took the elevator up to the 4th floor and walked down to the hall to the last room, using his key card to open the door. The room was already filled and he spotted Keith sitting at the end of the bed, a reporter Lance guessed, sitting on the chair from the desk. Keith glanced over and waved at him. Allura, who had been chilling on the couch, stood up and quietly directed him to where the closet was.“Your Yukito jacket is done and so is your Prompto jacket. You brought the other things?”Lance lifted the suit bag that held his black suit pants and blazer for his Sanji cosplay. “Everything is in my suitcase. How much longer for the…interview?”“With this cosplay website that does a featured cosplayer and cosplay photographer each month. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s pulled into another interview before we go to pick up our badges.”“I really hope not. We were stuck in that line for ages last time he had to those interviews.” Lance complained.“So is the life of a celebrity cosplayer. Lower level than an actual celebrity, though not to the very eager fans who want to meet him.”“I know, I was getting my key and I heard two girls talking about Keith. And of course, who his mystery cosplay partner is.”“You know,” Allura pointed out, “it’s not like you and Keith hide your relationship. You’d think they would have figured out who you are by now.”That was true. Lance wasn’t shy about clinging to Keith both in costume and out of it. Granted, most people couldn’t figure out who he was in cosplay.“Can’t complain though.”Lance sat with Allura as the interview was wrapped up and the person left, leaving Keith to collapse onto Lance’s lap and hug him close.“That took so long. How do celebrities actually do this on a daily basis?” Keith moaned.“Hey, if you didn’t look so good dressing up, this wouldn’t be an issue. Though, can’t hate the extra perks. Oh don’t worry you big baby. You’ve got me, your perfectly stable relationship.” Lance said, hugging Keith close.“And me, the only person who can get you to stay still long enough to do your make up. Speaking of which, badges?” Allura poked in.“Right. Let me just change my shirt. I put up a poll and had everyone vote what my Day 0 cosplay would be.”“Tell me they chose Nico Di Angelo please?” Lance begged. When Keith asked him for suggestions, Lance joked that he could finally be his twin. Keith didn’t expect that the choice would actually win.“Just be happy I’m not making you wear a Camp Half-Blood shirt.” Keith teased. He’d heard enough of Lance’s rants about the orange being obnoxiously bright.Allura lead them towards the convention centre, the couple following with their hands laced together. They heard screams of people recognising Keith, which he placated with quick waves as they found Keith’s manager who lead them to collect their badges. Lance stood to the side when Keith was swarmed by fans asking for pictures.“Is the person you usually pose with here as well?” a person asked.“He is.”“Who is he? You never tag him on Instagram.”“He doesn’t want to be tagged. He didn’t have the best experience at cosplaying before. He only does it with me when I ask.” Keith explained.Insults that he should stay within his own skin tone, callus words and the 2 people who got physical about it. Keith had personally taken care of those 2 but Lance didn’t want to cosplay anymore. It took a long time to build his confidence back again, to even get Lance to do the smallest cosplay with him. Keith tried to bring up the issues that Lance and other cosplayers faced, but not even his celebrity status in the cosplay world could change everything. Lance would cosplay with him, but he didn’t want his name tagged on anything. Keith listened to his boyfriend’s wishes though he could get Lance to show off his skills and claim that fame.“That’s a shame. You two are really cute together.”“Thank you. Now if you excuse me, I need food. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Lance took in his face. He was used to hiding most of his natural freckles under concealer so seeing them all out was strange but Keith had a photoshoot that morning as Noctis from Final Fantasy XV and he was joining him as Prompto. It was a bit strange to see him with blond hair. He had died his hair white once and he liked how it look but blond was a whole other ballpark.He looked over to where Keith was sitting in front of the mirror letting Allura do basic make-up on him. His manager, Shiro, was sitting on the couch nearby.“So after your photo shoot, you have the panel at 2 and a possible interview.”Keith groaned, before Allura snapped for him not to move. “All I do is dress up as different characters, how do I have this much to do? I’m assuming my signing is still on?”“Yes.”“Hey, think of the bright side.” Lance said, plopping himself down next to Keith, “the signing happens in the dealer’s hall. I can go look and get the things you want to get. Plus I’ll be there to see you at your panel. I do make everything better.”Keith rolled his eyes. “I guess.”“Alright. All done. Shall we get going?” Allura said.“Oh, can you make sure and get a kissing picture?” Lance asked.“We will, don’t worry.”“You do know that’s gonna make people want to find out who you are even more right?” Keith pointed out.“Worth it.”
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Lance shoved his duffle bag into his locker, trying to make sure neither his or Keith’s jackets fell out. He’d found he didn’t have swim practise that night and he didn’t want to have to drag his bag back home. Once everything was set, he went to close the locked but stopped at the sight of the pictures on the inside door, making him smile. It had been at a cheer competition back during football season, Lance in the school’s colours of black and grey with the multicoloured stripes and Keith dressed to support. Another picture was one of Keith and Lance when they were younger sitting on the back porch of Keith’s parent’s lake house. Another one even younger where the two of them were covered in paint from the first paint war they started on purpose, not on accident. They still got in trouble, but it had been worth it. It felt like it was the first time they really became friends.Keith and Lance knew each other since kindergarten. Keith was new, Lance’s family already traipsing in and out of the local kindergarten like clockwork. Lance was always desperate for attention, despite being the youngest and Keith got tons of it when he first started. Lance tried making friends with him but in Keith’s shyness, he’d said no in a sort of rude way. Needless to say, Lance had decided he didn’t like Keith and tended to start fights with him. When it started becoming a problem, their parents came in and in complete opposite to them, their mothers became quick friends.One day because both of his parents were busy with his other siblings, Lance’s parents asked Keith’s if Lance could stay with them for a couple hours after school. Lance’s young mind thought it meant his parents didn’t want him anymore and started crying after an hour of neither of his parents coming to get them. Krolia and her husband tried calming Lance down but in a strange turn of events, it had been Keith to calm him down.“Your mom gives you tons of kisses when she picks you up right? That means she loves you. She won’t give you up.”It had been those strangle blunt words that got Lance to stop crying. He stuck with Keith until his mother came to pick him up, planting those same kisses Keith talked about on his cheek.“Did you have fun sweetie? You didn’t fight with Keith, did you?”Lance shook his head. “I like Keith now.”“Well thank goodness for that. Would it be ok then if Keith came home with us sometimes then?”Lance furiously nodded his head and that was that. The two were stuck to each other like glue. Lance was there when Keith’s father passed away and Keith helped Lance through his sexuality crisis. They wouldn’t say those times had been happy, times where they didn’t snap at the other, but they stuck with each other and helped them get through it. Lance was sure that’s what made him realise his feelings for Keith. Lance had been pretty horrible when he was trying to accept his bisexuality but Keith didn’t leave. He took his harsh words, hitting Lance if need be but he didn’t leave. Lance had been able to accept that and he wanted to tell Keith, but there was a tiny problem. It seemed that Keith liked him too. Well, that wasn’t a problem. It was Keith had a habit of taking off when Lance was trying to tell him. at first, he thought it meant Keith knew but didn’t feel the same, but when Keith actually stuck around he exhibited the same actions Lance had done when he realised how he felt about Keith.It was a bit funny actually, Keith thinking he was keeping it a big secret. He’d left a ‘secret’ admire note in their shared locker. Wasn’t really secret because Lance recognised Keith’s handwriting. Another time his ‘secret’ admire tried to leave a mini muffin on his desk before his Pre-Cal class except Lance had been able to get to the classroom earlier than usual and watched Keith stuff the muffin in his mouth and then almost chocked. For the sake of Keith not killing himself, Lance knew he had to confess soon. Now if only he could get Keith to stay still long enough to tell him that. He had a plan though.
Keith shuffled through the lunch line, grabbing an extra cup of strawberries for Lance. He hadn’t seen Lance in Pre-Cal, which probably meant his coach had pulled him from classes to talk things to work on. Keith was starting to get sick of himself running away from telling Lance how he felt. There was a small part of him that was so sure Lance knew how he felt but Lance, the perfect person never pushed him. He kinda wished he did, so he could finally get over this. Finally reaching the front of the line, he asked the lunch lady for a fork and punched in his student number. He looked up to take the fork and raised an eyebrow at the tulip he got with it. The petals were red and from the number of petals, it looked like it was a peony tulip. There had been a field of them at his dad’s favourite area down at their lake house so they had always been his favourite flowers.“People are in line, move it.” The lunch lady said, not even giving Keith a chance to ask about the flower. He quickly left the pick up area and dropped his tray at the usual table and picked up the carefully wrapped flower.“Hey Keith.” Keith looked up to see his cousin Shiro standing there with his boyfriend, matching knowing looks on their face. He watched Adam put a wireless speaker on the table and hit play, Roses and Violets from Alexander Jean starting to pour from the speaker. In fact that speaker looked familiar. He didn’t have a chance to think about that as Shiro and Adam both handed him a red peony tulip each before leaving before he could question them. It seemed to trigger a steady line of people coming to hand him flowers. Allura, Pidge, Hunk, members of the swimming team, a few familiar cheerleaders, some of the people who went to the same karate class as him, even Mr. Smyth, his favourite teacher. The last flower came with a note.“Please stop running away?” he read.“Yeah, it makes trying to confess to you really hard.” Lance’s voice said from behind him. he turned to see Lance holding a white peony tulip. “So think you can stay still long enough so I can tell you I feel the same?”“Feel the same?”“No offense Keith, but you make it really obvious. I know what your handwriting looks like so the secret notes aren’t really secret and you almost chocked on a muffin you tried to leave for me.”“That wasn’t my fault! You came to class early.” Keith said, not seeing any point in denying it. Lance felt the same, what was the point?“I’ve been wanting to tell you but you always run away when I’m close to telling you so here we are. So, do I still have a chance?” Lance asked, holding out the white flower.“Yeah you do.” Keith said, taking it, startled when Lance quickly pressed a kiss to Keith’s cheek causing the lunchroom to burst in cheers.Lance laughed at the slap on the shoulder his action earned but it was worth it. He and Keith had been stuck with each other since they were kids and he wasn’t planning on giving Keith up anytime soon.
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How did it come to this? It seemed like a week ago, Lance was just trying to prove he deserved his place in the fighter pilot program, though a certain asshole named James liked trying to prove he didn’t. he and Hunk had planned on grabbing Pidge and just going to town. Instead they found Pidge on the roof searching for something and hearing about Voltron. Then, Shiro came crashing down in his escape pod. Alive, with a bit of white and a new arm, but alive. But the Garrison wasn’t interested in listening to what had happened to him. they wanted answers on Shiro’s arm more. Lance lead them down to try and stop them only to see his own cousin Adam knocking Iverson to his ass.“I thought you said you didn’t like him anymore?” Lance asked as he helped Adam drag the unconscious pilot to a nearby Jeep to get away from the Garrison.“Not the time Lance.”“I’m just saying. You two were engaged and you weren’t over him when he left and you’re risking your job to save him.”“Lance, be quiet!”Adam drove them to the house of an old Garrison professor, who apparently had a lot of secrets.“He married an alien? Like an actual alien?” Lance asked, even as he looked at the picture in his hands. He also noticed the young baby in the woman’s arms.“He told us that his wife had come here trying to make sure no one found this ship. We don’t exactly know where it is, just nearby.” Shiro explained. “In order to make sure no one found it, she had to leave and she took their kid with them. We could tell it still affected even though she promised he’d be safe. He made us promise that if something happened, we’d make sure this ship wasn’t taken. And I’m sure this ship we was talking about is part of Voltron.”“Luckily for us,” Pidge said, looking at the paperwork that Adam had located that they were scanning into their laptop, “he left us with a lot of clues.”“Plus with the info Pidge had in his diary,” Hunk started, ignoring the fiery glare he was getting from Pidge, “I can track the energy.”So they followed Hunk’s tracker to the cave and after Lance activated the seal, found the Blue Lion. He had flown it from Earth and away from the Galra as Blue wormholed her way back to the castle. They then awoke Princess Allura and Coran and found out what was actually happening. Then Adam dropped more surprises on them.“This woman, the one you said found the Blue Lion, was Galra?” Allura asked, her voice hard.“Princess look, I get that you are angry with the Galra for what they’ve done, but you can’t tell me that the idea that a rebel group within their ranks isn’t too hard to believe?”“The Galra are all the same.”Adam looked frustrated. “Here’s a history lesson for you. Earth had a guy almost as bad as Zarkon. Believed that his race was superior to everyone and was responsible for thousands of deaths through genocide. But not everyone in his ranks were on his side. There were people who would be killed for hiding those people he believed were less than them but they did it anyway because they knew that man was wrong. Don’t stand there and tell me they’re all the same when what you’d considered to be a primitive race managed to look past that.”
In the end, the princess agreed to give them a chance and paired them up with a lion. Lance and Hunk got the Yellow Lion, Shiro and Pidge found the Green and Adam stayed with the Princess, who still couldn’t locate the Red Lion. Once they were back at the castle, they decided to leave Arus.“That ship that was after the Blue Lion will no doubt still be tracking us and I don’t think 3 Lions is enough to take it out, judging from it’s size.” Adam pointed out.“You’re right. The Black Lion is still under lockdown until we can find the Red Lion. My father was its Paladin. It’s possible that Zarkon could have taken it.”“Well let’s hope it’s not on his ship then. The Blade of Mamora might be able to help us track it.” Shiro said, Allura still looking sour at the thought of having to work with Galra.So here they were, on a set course to the coordinates that was left in that pile of papers the former professor left. God, he didn’t even know his name. Adam and Shiro said that he told them to call him Texas, never giving his real name. after he left being a professor, he’d become a fire fighter but died saving a family. Did his wife and child even know? Did they keep contact after they left? This was making Lance truly think about relationships. He never had a stable one, people calling him clingy and immature. He’d idealized Adam and Shiro’s relationship, but he saw how Adam’s worried made Shiro think Adam didn’t trust him and they split. He knew they still had feelings for each other; Adam had been inconsolable when the news about Shiro and he’d seen Shiro staring at Adam when he wasn’t looking. Their love was real but they weren’t trying to fix it. Texas obviously loved his wife, despite she was from a completely different planet. He loved her enough to let her go, so she could keep him safe. Lance didn’t want to take risks that would cause him to lose the person that mattered the most to him, whoever that might be. If he had the chance to be with that person, then he was going to take it. He was involved in a war now and now more than ever was no reason to be scared of taking chances.Allura had been mad when the Blade on the other line said only one lion could come in, even more so when they decided Shiro would go with Blue and by default, Lance.“I should be the one to talk to them.”“Princess, I’m sorry, but you haven’t exactly shown a good spirit about this. We need their help and if you stand there spitting at them for something they can’t control we won’t get anywhere. You said the Black Lion would pair with me so that makes me leader and I’m doing this for the good of everyone. Lance is a good pilot. I trust him to get us there safely and I know he can provide support if I need it.”Allura didn’t look too convinced. “Fine.”They were on the path when Lance thanked Shiro.“I know you and Adam aren’t really together anymore, but it’s nice to know you still trust me.”“My relationship with Adam isn’t going to change your skill. You earned your place amongst the fighter pilots Lance. Blue choose you out of everyone and I think that counts for something. Besides, like your cousin, you have an open mind and the ability to make people feel comfortable around you. I feel like we’re going to need that.”“You know, you could use this as an excuse to make up with Adam.”“Lance, I appreciate it, but no. I don’t think Adam and I have a chance.”“Even though this is a war, you’re not even going to try?”Shiro smiled down at Lance. “You really want everyone to have a happy moment, don’t you?”“I mean I think at the very least we deserve it.”They reached the base and walked in carefully cautious. They entered a hall filled with masked beings of different sizes and builds.“You claim to be Voltron, but what I question is how you ended up finding us?” the one in the middle asked.“We followed coordinates left by one of your members. She crash landed on Earth and met someone who protected her. It was because of him we found out where the Blue Lion was.” Shiro explained.“One of our members?”“Yes, I believe her name was Krolia?”One of the members moved away from their rank. They were much smaller than the rest of the group. Lance and Shiro watched as the mask dematerialized and a human face stared back at them, purple marks on either side of his cheek. Lance had only seen Krolia’s picture fully once but he could tell this person was almost her carbon copy.“How do you know about my mother?”
Keith, as he told them, stared at the picture Lance had known. Shiro thought they should at least take it from the cabin so they had proof of who Krolia was. Lance sat next to him quiet, glancing over at where Shiro stood speaking with the head of the Blades, Kolivan. Another Galra, Ulaz, was also nearby. Ulaz had been the one to get Shiro out of capture from the Galra and sent him to Earth.“My mother told me about my dad but I never knew him. I was still a baby when we left.” Keith said.“According to Shiro, he talked about you a lot. He could tell your dad missed the two of you.”“I wish I could have met him.” Keith said, eyes trained on the man he never knew. “Can I keep this?”“I don’t see why not.”“Thanks. It’s just, my mom gave me the only photo I have of him but I keep it on me and got hurt during a mission. It was pretty soaked with blood.”“Keep it.” Lance insisted. Keith was certainly different. For one, he seemed to fight against everything Kolivan said, so he had a rebellious streak a mile wide. Lance wasn’t gonna deny he seemed pretty and really fit. He also seemed like he needed a friend. The Blades seemed protective of their members but the way Keith fought against Kolivan, something told Lance he kept to himself.“So why haven’t we heard about anything from Voltron until now?”“Well, we’re still missing one Lion, which in turn keeps the Black Lion locked up still.” Lance confessed.“What colour?” Keith asked.“Huh?”“What colour is the Lion?”“Red, why?”“My uncle, well he’s not actually my uncle but my mom grew up with him so their like siblings and he helped raise me so-”Lance cut him off, crying to stop a smile from coming on his face. For a guy who seemed pretty serious, he rambled on a lot. It was really cute. “It’s ok, I get it trust me. Your uncle?”“Right, he’s in Zarkon’s ranks as a spy right now. He said that he heard the Red Lion had been transferred onto Commander Sendak’s ship as a way of trying to track the other lions. I don’t think it worked since he never found the others except the Blue Lion from what we heard.”“Then he must have been the guy chasing after us when I got Blue off Earth. He’s been chasing after us and he had what we needed this whole time. Does Kolivan know this?”“Yeah, Thace only told me because I asked. If Kolivan’s smart, he’d send some of us with you guys to get it.”And he did. The plan was that Lance and Hunk would distract Sendak and Pidge, who implanted the training mazes invisibility into the Green Lion, would take Shiro and the small group of Blade members onto Sendak’s ship. As Lance piloted Blue in the direction of Sendak’s ship, a private line came onto his coms.“Lance?”It was Keith.“What is it? What’s wrong?”“Nothing. I’m just…nervous I guess and I trust you and wanted to talk a bit.”The fact that Keith trusted him after such a short amount of time made him feel good. “Hey, your going to be fine.”“I know, it’s just, I have this weird feeling. Like something’s gonna happen.”“Something bad?”“No, not bad exactly. Something big is gonna happen. I can feel it and I feel like it’s gonna change everything.”“Well be careful ok? You said your mom was undercover as well, I think she’d like to come back to you in one piece. I know I would.”Keith laughed a bit, brightening Lance’s mood more. “I’ll try my best. I do have a habit of getting into trouble.”“Well try to curb the desire.”“We’re at the ship.” Keith announced the jokes in his voice disappearing.“And we’re nearby. Good luck.”“You too.”He’d been piloting Blue away from the fighters, waiting for an answer on where the Red Lion was when she burst out of the ship, quickly taking out fighter ships.“Lance!”“Keith? Wait, are you?” Lance asked looking as the Red Lion flew near Blue.“Yeah. Let’s get to the castle to get the Black Lion first ok?”While Allura certainly wasn’t happy about a member of the Blade being the chosen pilot, they quickly released the Black Lion and in a feat of desperation, were able to form Voltron and destroy the ship.Lance found Keith in the hanger for the Red Lion.“Well, you are certainly full of surprises, aren’t you?” Lance asked in a teasing voice.“That’s one word for it.” Keith said, patting the ground next to him. “I guess I was right when I said I felt like everything was gonna change.”“Change is good. It’s scary as hell yeah, but sometimes you just have to go for it. Kinda like love, the ultimate change.”Keith got a wistful smile on his face. “My mom would say how she could have turned her back on almost everything if it meant staying with my dad. She loved him that much that she questioned her mission as a Blade. Just for those few years of happiness. Part of me wondered if it was worth it but now being a Paladin, I know it is. I’ll be doing something good and learning as I go and that makes me pretty happy.”“I’m glad. You’re gonna do great.”“Thanks. So, I’m gonna need some help figuring all this Paladin stuff out. Think you can help me?”“Get ready for you first lesson in human culture Keith, the person you know and love who won’t leave you alone.”
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Leandro breathed heavily as he quickly darted into an alleyway, pressing himself against the wall as the Garrison cars rushed past him, still following that hologram he sent in his place. Once he was sure they were gone, he let out a sigh of relief and allowed his legs to lose all strength and dump him on the floor. God, his older brother would be so disappointed in him, getting caught so easily by the Garrison. There’d been a time where he would have been able to lose them in no time at all, sending them in one direction as he went off to catch his next target but not anymore. He’d gotten very used to working with a partner, someone who’d be there at the last second if things started going south. Someone he could trust.Someone who was missing.Akira had saved his ass when a particular target was close to crushing his skull in. one second, he was staring up at the target, his arm dislocated and a cut on his forehead and the next Akira came screeching into his life on his motorcycle, subduing the target in a few short, and kinda sexy, moves. He brought Leandro back to his place where he patched him up. He promised he’d help Akira out if he ever needed it as thanks.Turns out he needed help bringing down a drug ring known as the Galra. They had apparently messed with Akira’s brother, turning him into a guinea pig for their new drugs. Leandro agreed and that’s how they became a team. They were part of a larger one known as Altea, but the two of them, they were partners, could completely trust the other. It seemed natural that eventually their partnership started to mean something else. They’d just been hanging out in Akira’s room and Leandro kept staring at him and then just kissed him. he pulled away sure he messed everything up but Akira pulled him back and kissed him for even longer. They waited a few days before finally talking everything out, but they reached the same conclusion. They wanted to be together. No one else on the team seemed surprised when they didn’t hide their relationship and things just continued as they were. Except he got to kiss Akira whenever he wanted.Akira, with his badly dyed black hair and the goggles he’d stolen from Leandro that sat on his head and their matching black and red/black and blue jackets. The way his eyes shined when it was just the two of them, the way Akira was more likely to get into trouble trying to save a cat then Leandro, just everything about him he couldn’t help but love.But during a drug raid, they got separated. Things were actually looking bad and Akira shoved Leandro onto one of Altea’s transports before acting as a decoy on his bike. After 2 days of no word, Leandro started to panic. No one could get through to him as he went after Galra lackies trying to find out where Akira was. All he knew was that Akira hadn’t been caught but they still didn’t know where he was. Even tonight, with his team’s begging, he went and tried to find information from the Garrison’s systems. Which of course he didn’t find anything which then lead to him to getting caught.Pulling out a pair of glasses, Leandro put them on, the holographic lens activating.“Oh look, the stupid idiot is sending out an SOS.”Leandro sighed. Pana, their resident hacker, was not happy when they found out what he was going to do. He didn’t know why calling them now would suddenly change that.“Pana, you can either continue to yell at me over comms or you can get me out of here and do it in person.”“Fine, I’m rerouting a line for a bus service to come get you. Be prepared for a whole lot of yelling when you get back!”Not that he listened to any of it. While Pana stood over them reminding him again and again how stupid he was for trying to sneak into the Garrison, he was staring at the picture he’d brought up on the nearby holoscreen. It had been a picture Pana actually took of Akira and Leandro curled up on one of the couches together. Leandro’s hand was still curled into Akira’s hair as they slept, his hair out of its usual ponytail and missing his goggles, but he was curled up and content. He missed running his hands through Akira’s hair, pointing out the bad job he’d done once again on dying it. He loved Akira’s white hair but it stood out too much on jobs, hence the reason he dyed it. He remembered once when there was a whole month that the Galra were laying low because they had been able to get one of their main officers arrested and Akira let his hair grow out. The way the city lights looked on his white hair, Leandro feel even more in love.“Are you listening to me?”“Pana, come on, give it a rest.” Shiro came into the room and rested a hand on Leandro’s shoulder. “He knows it was a stupid idea but his boyfriend has also been missing for almost a month. Cut him some slack.”“Fine.” Pana sighed. “I’m just saying, Akira will yell at him way worse when he gets back and find out what Lea got himself into.”“We all know he will. Now Leandro, how about some target practise on a chain of Galra. There’s been word that they’re going to break off and create an even stronger Quintessence drug and I think we should at least stop that from happening.”Leandro needed something to do before he got so wrapped up in his own head of worrying where Akira was.
There were few lackies protecting the higher officials at the bases so Leandro was in charge of taking them out with his sniper rifle while Shiro took care of downloading the information and destroying the stock. Purple lights from his prosthetic followed his arm as he pounded in the faces of anyone who tried stopping him. just ahead though, he saw a red light moving quickly, like it was part of some weapon someone was fighting with. The dark lighting wasn’t helping him figure it out. Then the light came shooting towards him. he dodged out of the way to see the light, which was a laser blade on a very familiar dagger, was lodged into the head of a lacky he missed who had been close to attacking him.“Akira?”From the shadows, Akira emerged. Shiro felt a huge relief at the sight of him. he looked a bit worse for wear, his clothes dirtier than usual and even his hair had whiter in it from it growing out and wasn’t even in its ponytail.“Where have you been?”Akira summoned his dagger back with it’s recall function and let Shiro pull him into a tight hug, which he returned.“I got to the other side of the island but apparently that’s where Hagger is. I spent so long trying to avoid her, when’s she been sending out people to find us. I also met another rebel group. It took so long to finally get a way back here. Word in the underground was that this was your next target. I’m fine, don’t worry but what about Leandro?”Of course, gone for a month but was more concerned about his boyfriend.“A complete mess since you’ve been gone.”“Is it true he broke into the Garrison?”“To look for you, yeah.”“I’m going to kill him, he’s such an idiot! What was he thinking?” Akira started to complain, though Shiro could tell he was really worried.“Hey, destroy stock first then you can yell at him. He’s taking care of officials.”With Akira’s help, they were able to set charges and get the info Pana needed before Shiro told Leandro to meet him at the rendezvous point. Akira was still muttering about what he was going to do to Leandro for doing something so stupid.
He found out a bit more about the other rebel group who were attacking the Galra, former members or family of members who wanted nothing to do with them. Shiro thought it was worth trying to work with them.Leandro came down the stairs of a building he’d hopped to, the bag with his rifle on his back when he spotted Akira. He dropped it on the floor as he ran off to meet Akira.“Akira!”“Leandro!”Akira ran to meet him in the middle, though it wasn’t to hug him. As soon as Leandro was close enough, Akira grabbed the closest body part and flipped Leandro over onto his back, staring down at him in anger mixed worry.“What the hell were you thinking?! You snuck into the Garrison, the guys who are after our butts almost every day? For what? Have you lost your mind? What if something happened to you? It was hell enough not knowing if you were ok, were you seriously going to do that to me?” Akira screamed.Still on his back, Leandro stared up at his boyfriend, the guy he trusted with his life, and couldn’t help but smile like an idiot.“I missed you Aki.”Even though Akira was still upset about what Leandro had done, he wouldn’t deny that it didn’t matter because he was finally back with the man he loved. He pulled Leandro up, and held tight. “I missed you too you big idiot.”“Your hair grew out. Trying to tantalise me again with your pretty hair?”“Maybe.”The two pulled away enough to stare at each other, taking the other in. a whole month without the other was torture, pain and heartache. But they were together now and that’s all that mattered. Not able to wait a second more, Leandro kissed Akira, who squeezed him tighter, never wanting to let go.“Hi, this romantic reunion is very sweet, but we do actually need to go.” Shiro called out.“I’ve got my bike. Think they can deal without us for a few hours?” Akira said against Leandro’s lips.“Fuck if they can’t. I’m letting you go for another few hours at least.” He replied before pulling him back into a deep kiss.
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Noctis sat in the car Ignis had driven him in, waiting for the familiar blonde head to appear in the stream of people walking into school. Finally, he spotted someone dodging people, his green wristband a beacon.“Prom’s here. I’ll see you later Iggy.”“Do remember to share the desserts with Prompto and also remember no running off to the arcade this evening. Your cousin will be here this evening and your having dinner with him.”“Iggy, you know as well as I do Keith will be completely fine with burgers.”“Be that as it may, he is a visiting royal so we have rules we must follow. So no running off.”“Fine.” Noctis exited the car and met up with Prompto. “You’re pretty late.”“Sorry. My mom called me right when I was leaving.”“Everything ok?”Prompto’s parents worked as journalists but their office was based out in Altissia so they lived there while Prompto lived in Insomnia. They paid his bills and sent him a small allowance, since he worked part time. Usually if they called, they’d be on the phone for hours catching up.“Yeah. My mom was mostly calling to ask if my cousin could stay with me for the weekend.”“Your cousin?”“Well, his mom is friends with my mom and they’re really close so he’s kinda like my cousin. Anyway, he’s a part time model and there’s this event happening.”“The Moonlight Fashion Show?” Noctis interrupted.“How do you, never mind. He was asked to join the models kinda late so they couldn’t get him a hotel so my mom was asking if he could stay with me.”“Funny. My cousin is also coming for a visit.”“What cousin?”“His mom was my mom’s sister. They were a bit estranged from each other because of some really bad argument but my dad knew my mom still cared so he kept her in the lop. After my mom passed, my aunt didn’t want to lose her connection with me so she talks with us way more. Anyway, she’s coming to visit before going to Lestallum for some sort of union talk, so I’m having dinner with her and my cousin tonight so no arcade.”“Is he cool or?”Noctis shrugged. “He’s pretty cool. He’s kinda like me. Knows he’s related to royalty but doesn’t make it a habit of letting people know that. He likes to keep to himself.”“Sounds exactly like you. I’d like to meet him if I got the chance. Oh by the way. Would Iggy be free to maybe drive me to the airport so I can pick him up? He’s coming in tomorrow afternoon.”“I guess. I can get you a taxi if you need it.”“No, that’s fine. You know I don’t like taking your money.”“Not like I’m using it for much else, but if you really need a ride, I can beg Specs to take you. What’s your cousin’s name anyway?”“Lance. His name’s Lance.”
Noctis happily sat out of training as he watched Galdio spar with Keith. Even with wooden swords, it was easy to see how well Keith could keep up. Keith technically wasn’t part of the royal line, his mother’s family was added to the royal family tree as dukes and duchess, so he was never expected to learn how to fight. When he first visited though, he had watched Noctis practise with Gladiolus and wanted to try. They had to send a member of the Glaive to help train Keith because he liked it so much. Noctis would still preen at how he would still manage to keep Keith on the ropes.The young fighter was thrown to his back by Gladio, the wooden sword flying from his grip.“Good, you’ve gotten better. Still not good as me though.” Gladio joked as he pulled Keith up, ruffling his hair when he was on his feet.People would think Keith and Noctis were brothers and he could kinda see it. Their hair was on the long side but Keith’s was more of a mullet while Noctis’ looked like he just rolled out of bed. Their eye colour was also different but they other than looks, they both like keeping to themselves and didn’t make friends easily. Noctis was lucky with Prompto but as far as he knew, Keith hadn’t exactly made friends in his school. But Keith’s personality was a bit prickly for those who didn’t know him well.“I can see that smug smile of yours.” Keith said, tugging his hair tie out of his hair, ruffling it to air it out.“Just happy to see someone else at the mercy of Gladio.” Noctis joked, dodging the same hair tie.“Asshole.” Keith collapsed next to his cousin, looking tired now that training was over. “My trainer has to be going easy on me.”“Well they’re not Gladio so probably. If you’re that tired, maybe we could skip dinner and just get Iggy to grab us burgers.” Noctis suggested, really not in the mood to get dresses up for a dinner with his cousin.“Tempting, but my mom said at least one or two of the council members would join us so they could talk to her. Speaking of things my mom’s making me do, you know the Moonlight Fashion show?”“Yeah, what about it?”“My mom is insisting we go.”“Ouch.”“Yeah, so guess who I asked to come with us?”Guess who he asked? Wait…“Tell me you didn’t.” Noctis begged.Keith gave him a deadpan look, “If I have to suffer, so do you. Besides, your dad wasn’t going and you guys had tickets.”“Why am I the one suffering though?”“Because I can’t get out of it. Noctis,” Keith went from deadpan to pleading, “I don’t want to go to this by myself. Please come with me?”It was like Keith knew if he pouted, he’d get his way. The asshole was good at looking like he was a poor boy who only wanted a simple thing and it’s be a crime to say no.“Uggg, fine. You so owe me for this.” Noctis grumbled. “Oh, wait a second. You remember me telling you about Prompto?”“Your best friend right?”“Yeah, I forgot he mentioned that his cousin was supposed to be walking in that show.”“Does this mean I get to meet the famous Prompto?”“I’m going with him and Specs to pick up his cousin at the airport tomorrow after school, how about you meet him then.”“Anything to get me away from having to spend the afternoon drinking tea with high society ladies my mom has to entertain now that’s she’s here.”
Keith wasn’t one to make friends easily but Prompto was pretty good at making him talk. Since they picked him and Noctis up from school, Prompto had asked him tons of questions, all of which Keith answered. He never felt that he was being integrated and he watched just how comfortable his cousin was with the blond. They just easily melded together.Ignis insisted that he get Prompto’s cousin – friend? – through security like he was a member of the royal family so they didn’t spend all afternoon waiting in arrivals. Prompto tried, hard, to get Ignis to not do that but his pleas were unheard. Keith could tell Prompto was really Noctis’ friend because of actually wanting to be his friend, not the prince factor.“So this cousin of yours? How’d he manage to walk in one of the biggest fashion shows if he works part time?” Keith asked.“Oh, check it out.” Prompto pulled his phone out and after a bit of searching, showed Keith the picture on his phone. Lance had been modelling a sweater, the largeness of it sliding off his shoulder, his blue eyes smouldering. It took everything in Keith not to start blushing. Part time or not, Lance was really good looking. “Part time or not, you look like this, you get called. Just, he was part time so he wasn’t first pick but after another model got really sick, first person they called was him. And it’s not photoshop. Check this out.” Prompto swiped to a picture of him and Lance posing on a couch. “That was when I visited my parents earlier this year.”“He’s really good.” Keith pointed out.“Right?” Prompto preened. “Just wait till you see him walk the runway.”“You sound like a proud mother.” Noctis teased.Prompto stuck his tongue out at Noctis. “Most people tend to look at him and think he can’t do the job.”“Sounds like someone I know.” Noctis’ own phone buzzed and he pulled it out. “Iggy’s got your cousin. Said he kinda scared him?”“Lance never believed me when I said I was friends with the prince so he thought he must be in trouble.” Prompto said, not sounding at all sorry.Soon enough, Ignis came through arrivals, followed by a tan skinned teen, his brown hair mostly hidden by a backwards snapback. Keith noticed he also had blue eyes, but not like Prompto’s. His reminded him more of the sea. He also looked slightly scared, looking relieved when he finally spotted Prompto.“What the hell you asshole?”Prompto laughed. “Not my fault you didn’t believe me.”“I thought I was about to get sent back home.” Lance complained, hitting Prompto on the shoulder, “I can’t believe you didn’t even warn me!”“You wouldn’t believe me.” Prompto pointed out. “Noctis, this my cousin Lance. Lance, this is his royal highness-”“Prom.” Noctis complained.“Ok fine, this nerd is Noctis and this is his cousin Keith. And you’ve met Ignis already.”Lance bowed his head slightly as he shook Noctis and Keith’s hands. “Nice to meet you. You didn’t have to come all this way to pick me up.”“No point of Prompto paying for a taxi and having to wait very long for you to come through security. It was no problem.” Ignis said, leading the group to where they left the car. A few Glaives were there for extra security and quickly helped Lance getting his suitcase in the car.Keith opened the door for Lance. he looked at him and gave him a smile. Wow, and what a smile.“Thanks.”“No problem.” Keith said, watching Lance climb into the car.“You’re drooling.” Noctis teased as he climbed in after Lance.“So you didn’t get me a hotel, did you?” Lance asked.“Please, you’re not that important. You’re roughing it with me.” Prompto said. “Noctis is coming with us because we do need to work on a class assignment together.”“Hang on, you can’t abandon me now. Tea with society ladies remember.” Keith begged, turning to face his cousin.“Well, I just need to settle in but if you want, I can hang out with you.” Lance offered.“Good enough for me. God knows this assignment might just kill us.” Noctis said, answering for Keith.“Should I be worried?” Ignis asked.“No need Iggy, I promise he’ll still be alive by the time we’re done.” Prompto promised. “You sure you don’t mind sticking around?” He asked Keith.“It’s fine.”“Don’t worry, I’m sure I can entertain royalty for a few hours.” Lance said.Ignis dropped them off at Prompto’s house and Keith took it upon himself to take Lance’s bag inside.“You’ll be in my parents’ room, it’s all clean.” Prompto directed.“Try not to need us for a few hours so I can finally die.” Noctis said as he walked to Prompto’s bedroom.“I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Come on, I’ll show you the room.”According to Prompto, his parents lived in Altissia so the fact that the room didn’t look lived in wasn’t surprising. Lance dropped his book bag on the bed and pulled his hat off.“You can lay down the bag at the end of the bed, I have to unpack everything.”“Sure.” Keith did just that, unzipping it so Lance could start unpacking and sat at the end of the bed.“So, I don’t think I’ve actually heard of you in terms of the royal family.” Lance said as he pulled clothes out of his bag.“Technically speaking, I’m not part of the royal family. We have a title but that’s only because my aunt was Noctis’ mother.”“That’s right. Normal commoner caught the eye of the king, love at first sight and all that.”“Basically. Uncle Regis wanted us to be part of the family even though my mom and her sister were arguing at the time. Uncle’s always made sure we’re taken care of.”“He sounds pretty amazing.” Lance said.“He is. So, how did you get into modelling?”Lance looked slightly embarrassed about the attention on him. “Oh, well. Prom loves taking pictures and whenever he was in town, I’d kinda stick to him like glue because I could never make friends easily. He’d take pictures of me and I didn’t want to make his pictures look bad, so I’d try modelling in the mirror. It was actually thanks to Prompto that I got scouted. We were taking pictures on the beach and a scouting agent thought we were actual professionals. Prom wasn’t going to move to Altissia just to work as a photographer but I was offered a contract. My mom agreed as long as it was part time so I could finish school.”“You a Junior like them?”Lance nodded. “I like modelling but I don’t know if it’s what I’ll do forever. I like a lot of things. I like going to the aquarium and part of me wants to try to go into marine biology.”“That’s a big step up from modelling.”“Not only that, the best program for it was way out of my price range. Maybe I should just stick to modelling. It’d be easier”“I think you can do it. Just because something is easy doesn’t mean you should just give in. a lot of people think I should go into politics to help my uncle but I want to work as an officer. Because of who my uncle is, politics would be easy but I don’t want easy.”Lance took Keith in before giving him a thankful smile. “You’ve got a point. And besides, Galding Quay is also a bit of a fashion district as well as where the program is. Modelling does come with a big pay check.”“Well there you go.”“You know, I was so sure that there was no way Prom was best friends with a prince because as far as I knew, all members of the royal family had to be stuck up.”Keith let out a scoff, “Noct and I are the last people to be stuck up. We’re too busy avoiding unwanted talk and boring conversations.”“So I can tell. Looks like I was wrong about you Keith. I wonder what else I was wrong about.” For some reason, that made Keith feel like blushing.
The day of the Moonlight Fashion show was here. The day after Lance got in, he was busy with rehearsal so Keith only saw him when he came with Noctis to Prompto’s house. They talked, almost falling into it as easily as Noctis and Prompto did with each other. Well except, Keith was pretty sure he gained a crush on Prompto’s cousin. He was good looking and really nice and his laugh was something he could listen to for hours. Wow, Keith was a bit obsessed but he was fine. he never felt that way about anyone, ever, so if that’s how his first crush was going to happen, then so be it.He tugged at his tie, noticing his cousin wasn’t looking comfortable either. He was also wearing his crown, because it was required for events such as this, and he could tell Noctis wanted to throw it across the room. Prompto was doing a good job of distracting him though, talking up a storm, and showing him the pictures he got. They were able to sit in the front rows next to the catwalk so Prompto was gushing about the perfect picture opportunities.“Smile.” Prompto said, holding up a much smaller camera to face the small row of them. Keith naturally smiled, feeling Gladio sticking his head into the frame at the last minute. “Dude come on, that motion blur is so not good.”“Well excuse me.” Gladio said, sinking back into his seat. There was a row of Glaive members sitting next to him in the second row and Keith knew there were more around. Ignis himself was seated next to Prompto, his eyes trained on his tablet, noise cancelling headphones on his ears.The lights finally dimmed and the noise died down as the main designer for the fashion line came out onto the catwalk.“Welcome everyone to the Moonlight Fashion show. As you know, I have collaborated with many designers, both amateur and professionals so we can create the designs you see today. I do hope you enjoy our show and I’d also like to extend a kind welcome to the prince of our glorious kingdom, Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum.”With the painted Prince smile, Noctis stood up and waved at the applauding crowd.“Now please enjoy our show as we walk through the moonlight.”With another round of applause, the main designer stepped off the catwalk as the first model walked down the catwalk. A lot of the clothes were black, navy or a deep purple, most having a sparkling effect within its seams. Then Lance came onto the catwalk. His pants were dark blue with crescent moons tastefully sprinkled throughout, his black top having cut outs for his shoulders. Keith definitely noticed the glitter around Lance’s eyes. As he turned to walk back down, he caught Keith’s eyes and winked at him.“You’re blushing.” Noctis whispered, laughing as Keith threw his elbow into his side.Lance came back down near the end with a girl on his arm, her one shoulder galactic inspire dress taking most of the attention, even as Lance spun her so she took up the room at the end of the catwalk. But Keith’s eyes were trained on Lance, his blazer looking like the night sky and his suit fit him perfectly. Lance sent him another smile as he took the hand of his partner and walked back up the catwalk. It was a bit hard to pick Lance out when all the models came out so the designers could get their recognition, but he was able to pick him out near the end of the line.Once the catwalk was once again empty and the lights had risen, Ignis stood up. “We’ve also been invited to the afterparty. It would do good to make an appearance.”“Lance is supposed to be working that too. Come on, I want to eat overpriced free food.” Prompto said, making sure he had his camera before dragging Noctis to the exit.The after party was in the room next door and was a bit dark so the motion sensored floor could light up well as people walked around. There were different podiums and soon models from the show came in and stood on them, allowing the audience members could take a closer look at the clothes.Ignis stopped Noctis from following Prompto to the food table. “We need to go greet the designers.”“What for?”“One of them is the niece of the royal seamstress. Besides, it’s the polite thing to do.”Noctis groaned and Prompto promised to save him a plate as they disappeared into the crowd. Most of the Glaive members disappeared to, no doubt to check out the place and keep an eye on Noctis. He knew a few still had their eye on him, so Keith went around to go look for a particular model. He found Lance surrounded by a few women who seemed more interested in Lance’s body than his clothes. He’d changed back into his first outfit, his face shining from the glitter still on it.“Excuse me ladies.” Keith interrupted, holding out his hand for Lance, which he took and stepped off the podium. “I’m afraid I need to steal him.”Keith pushed Lance away from the pouting ladies and lead Lance to a less populated area.“Thank you. I felt a bit like a slab of meat. Is this how Prince Noctis feels? Is this how you feel?”“It can be much worse.” Keith admitted. “You looked amazing up there.”“Oh thank you.” Lance said, a blush easily seen even in the dark light.“Are you going to be doing the modelling all night? I think Prompto said he wanted to get burgers after.”“I thought I saw him darting to the food table?”Keith shrugged. “I mean, free food but I know I could still go for a burger.”“I’d love to but I’ll be working until the party is over.” Lance said, looking upset. “I would love to spend some more time with you.”“Well, if you’re free tomorrow, would you like to have breakfast with me? Not at the Citadel or anything, but there is the secret dinner Noct and I like going to.”With a slightly shy smile on his face, Lance nodded. “I think that’ll perfect. I’d love to. I have maybe 4 minutes before I need to get back on the podium. Want to split a cupcake with me?” Lance asked, pointing to where the food table was.“It would my honour.”
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End him. Just end him. Shiro would complain about his college classes killing him, but all that was doing was making Keith dreed college. I mean, yay for the fact he was going with his friends but he didn’t know if he’d survive to get their first. Senior year of high school was torture. Captain of football team, head of at least 2 clubs, not even adding in the fact that he was in almost all AP classes. Why did he let Shiro talk him into that? Screw the scholarships it secured for him since he was not planning on playing sports in college, this wasn’t worth it. Finals were approaching for them and he’d finally be able to relax but god, he wanted death.He sat at the usual table outside the school near the tree Lance had been climbing when he first met him. the thought of his boyfriend made him smile slightly. They met when they were freshmen. Keith keeping to himself in his nerves of being in high school and living up to the weight of his brother had been broken out of that when Lance’s shoe fell off while he was up in the tree. Keith got it for him and after that, they were always bumping into each other until Lance found Keith eating lunch alone in a corner and invited him to sit with his friends. He and Pidge bonded immediately and Hunk was a god send with his culinary creations that he fed to their group. Lance had joined the cheerleading squad as their only male member, so Keith would often wait for his dad to come get him and Shiro with Lance who’d wait for whichever family member was free since their practises ended around the same time.When Keith got his bike in his Sophomore year, he started driving Lance home, which started to be later when they’d stop at the nearby dinner for something to eat and sometimes even later than that if they did something else after eating. One of those times was when they went ice skating, all because Lance mentioned how much he missed doing it. He was stopping Keith from stumbling when Keith took one look at him and asked, “Are we dating?”“I mean, I guess. I did order that huge food platter and didn’t share but you still paid for everything.”“I never asked you. Do you want to go out with me?”“Of course I do.” Lance said, seconds before Keith fell to the floor, pulling Lance with him. “Ok, I might change my mind now. Ow.”“Too bad, your stuck with me.” Keith said, starting to get up.That had been that. They dated ever since, a few minor fights but nothing that made Keith doubt how he felt for Lance. Keith, even for all his aversion of being the centre of attention, got the cheerleading team to help him ask Lance to prom. The tears had been worth it.But back to the utter want to die. He had so many projects to do for his classes as well as the last big events their clubs were doing. It felt like he had no energy left. He literally pulled an all nightery to finish a project for his English class. He had no sleep or breakfast and a whole lot of stress. There was still time before class, so maybe it would be ok…if he just…passed out…right here.Keith’s head was on the table top by the time he finished that thought.That’s how his friends found him when they finally arrived, coffee and doughnuts in hand.“Is he alive?” Pidge asked, looking at the unmoving person.Lance put his stuff down on the grass and slid next to his boyfriend. “He’s alive don’t worry. He’s been working on a ton of projects and studying. The AP exams are coming up.”“Oh yeah. How did he end up taking them again?” Hunk asked.“Shiro thought it would be good for him. I love Shiro, but somethings he thinks are good for Keith usually aren’t. My baby gets stressed and then locks himself in a ball to deal with it himself.” Lance pouted taking in his boyfriend’s sleeping face. He’d been trying to get Keith to come over to his house so he could get him to just this, sleep, relax, take a load off. Lance was lucky, he took a lot of the harder necessary classes so he had a free period and a student aid job, when he wasn’t tutoring students in Spanish.“Has he eaten anything?” Hunk asked.“I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t.” Lance said. “Also, I’d look away if I were you.”While Hunk looked confused, Pidge rolled their eyes. Lance leaned closer, nuzzling against Keith’s ear, slightly blowing in it.“Baby wake up.” He started pressing kisses to Keith’s neck, causing him to start squirming, eventually waking up.“Stop.” He slurred, his tiredness not giving him a chance to pull away.Lance continued to press kisses to the side of his face and his neck before turning his head to kiss him. “Morning sleepyhead.”Keith whined, dropping his head onto Lance’s shoulder, hiding his face in his neck and leaning heavily on him.“Oh, my poor baby. Did you even sleep last night?”“Just take me out.”“Sniper or date?”“You memes.” Pidge called from where they started on a doughnut.“Ignore them. Can you at least eat something before you pass out?”“Feed me.” Keith tiredly demanded.Laughing at him, Lance pulled the box closer to him and grabbed a doughnut and fed it to Keith as he continued to lean on him. he was still tired by the time the bell rang, leaning on Lance the whole time he was walked to class. Lance got him to his seat, crouching nearby as Keith dropped his head on his desk.“I walk you to class.” Keith said tiredly.“You need some spoiling. Don’t worry, it’s almost over. I’ll come get you after class kay?”“Hmm, best boyfriend ever.”“Yes, I am.” Lance boasted, pressing a kiss to Keith’s head. He was already planning on how to work Keith’s time so this didn’t happen again. Though, he wouldn’t say no to a very cuddly boyfriend again.
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Lance let his body move with muscle memory of warm up classes. Plie, grand plie, stretch all around. The movements of ballet were familiar to him, something he had grown up doing. He’s made his family proud with his success at his school, one he changed his name to get into so they wouldn’t be influenced with the McClain name. As far as Lance was concerned, he’d continue on his path to success with his hard work to be accepted into a ballet company, retire when he was he was told, teach ballet himself or own a studio. He didn’t expect that his plans would be slightly derailed by the appearance of aliens and him being a chosen ‘warrior’ so to speak to battle against them. One day he was normal, the next he was changing for class when a classmate pointed out the pink wings on his back.“When did you get a tattoo? No way your parents actually said yes to that.” With the help of said classmate and a pair of compact mirrors, Lance took in the wings that were separated by his spin on his back. That was only the beginning.Luis came with the car to come get him after rehearsal and brought the family dog Blue with him. then Blue decided to jump out the open window and go tackle a passing girl. That girl was Allura, who’d later come by to drop off the handkerchief Lance gave to her to wipe off the dirt from her and then saved him when Blue had been turned into a monster.It turned out they were Mew Mews, people whose DNA was compatible with a certain endangered animal, infused on the day James Griffin and his friend Ryan Kinkade conducted an experiment. Now they had to fight against these aliens, who were trying to take over their planet after their own was destroyed. They called them Galra, because Allura hadn’t been in any mood to try and pronounce their scientific name and it just stuck. They later found Pidge, Hunk and Shiro and their team was complete. At first their only big opponent had been Lotor but he gained allies in Sendak and Ezor. It didn’t matter though, because the 5 of them always managed beat them but things hadn’t looked good 2 weeks ago.It was the start of summer vacation and Allura was supposed to spend a day with her best friend Adam but ended up getting sick. After checking in on her – and maybe pointing Adam in her direction, the poor boy always worried about her – Lance split up from Pidge and Hunk to go the shopping mall when he was attacked by Chimera, creatures or human souls fused with an alien parasite, turning them into monsters. These Chimera had been fused with fish from the nearby river and Sendak took little time ordering them to attack Lance. even after he transformed, he had trouble pushing them back and removing the parasites and was pushed into the river.Sendak had been floating above him, bragging how his friends would no doubt be in the same amount of trouble when what looked like a Chimera wolf jumped between them, ripping through the fish Chimeras, separating the parasites. It growled up at Sendak, who looked stunned at the sight of it when a figure appeared behind him. Lance watched as another Galra, armed with a purple curved sword, swung his sword down, only to be blocked by Sendak’s arm. There was obviously still a lot of power behind it as Sendak went crashing into the river. The Galra dropped down next to the wolf and Lance had stared at his tense back.“You little- who are you?” Sendak growled.“Red and I’d run off if I were you. You’re not going to win this fight.” He spoke. Sendak definitely tried to prove his opponent wrong but with Lance adding assistance with his bow and arrow, Sendak had no choice but to retreat. Lance had let out a shaky sigh of relief when he remembered Sendak said his friends would be in the same boat and Allura was sick. He glanced over to the other Galra, who was looking him, his arms crossed.“Um, thanks I guess? Unless you wanted to kill me yourself.”“If I wanted to, I would have done it already or sent Kosmo to do it for me.”Lance glanced down at the Chimera wolf, its gold eyes staring him down.“Right, um, I need to go. My friends are in trouble.”“Then I’ll see you around, little swan.” Red said, before he took off, his wolf following him.Once he knew all his friends were safe, Red was all Lance could think of.“He’s just a Galra, no doubt trying to infiltrate us.” James said, not trusting of him when Lance explained what happened to him.“He really could have killed me.” Lance pointed out.“It wouldn’t actually be too much to assume a Galra didn’t like how things were taken care of. The Galra might want to live here because it’s safer for them but they might not agree on how to do it.” Shiro pointed out, still ticked off his entire scheduled had been disrupted by a Chimera suitcase trolley of all things.“Well, I don’t trust him so forget about trust him.”Lance thought James was an asshole half the time but he did protect them. He still wanted to meet this guy again, Red. Who was he? Why did he protect Lance? Why did he fight against Sendak? He had questions and James wasn’t going to stop him from finding the answers. Of course, he needed to find him first.“And rest. Alright, let’s clear the bars and meet in the centre please.” His teacher instructed.But first he needed to get through class.
Lance waved at a little kid who was pointing up at him, well him in his Mew outfit. They had tried to hide who they were but back when they’d been trying to convince Shiro to join them when he thought they were a bunch of little kids way over their head, they stopped a Chimera that Lotor created during a live filming of a show Shiro was on. no one knew who was behind the coloured hair, animal features or oddly chosen clothes to battle alien in, but everyone knew about the Mew Mews, the people who protected them from the alien attacks. The little kids were just stoked to have a superhero in their city. Lance was hoping the attention would maybe catch a certain someone’s attention.Lance wasn’t like this usually, despite to try and get someone’s attention but after the insanity had become his new normal, the sudden change had been, nice. And he did still want his answers. Then he saw a wolf on the top of a building. It was large, black and blue fur and gold eyes, piercing at him.“Gotcha.”Lance took off, letting his wings fly him to the building, watching the wolf turn and run off. He continued following when something wrapped around his foot and pulled him down. He was so surprised that he didn’t have time to react. He was expecting to hit the floor but instead fell into someone’s arms. A certain purple skinned pointed eared someone.“I never thought you’d be so stupid. What are you doing out here?”“Um,” Lance felt like he was at a lost of what to say. “I didn’t mean to be a bother.”“You’re not,” Red said, gently putting Lance down on his feet, kneeling to unwrap a chain from his ankle. He really hoped that didn’t bruise. “However, you weren’t paying attention. I could have been Lotor, or Sendak or even Ezor.”So Red knew who they were. Interesting. “I’m not scared of them.”“I know, but as you saw when we first met, they know that splitting your team up will weaken you.” He pointed out, standing up and wrapping the chain up.“I wanted to talk to you about that. Just who are you? Why did you save me?”Red stared at Lance before giving him a small smirk. “I wanted to. I’ve been watching you guys for a while and you’ve always caught my eye.”Lance felt his face start to get red. “I’m being serious! You know Lotor and his friends and I know that earth used to belong to your race before it started breaking apart. You should be helping them get rid of us so you could leave that other planet you’re stuck on.”“I’m not exactly from that planet. My family went in a different direction and found a place to live. But we heard Zarkon was aiming to take back Earth. I never thought it’d be fair that people who had the planet now should be forced to move or be killed.”Lance took in what he said. “But, we don’t take care of our planet.”“Doesn’t mean you can’t learn. You and your friends are in the public eye and if anything helps push things, it’s the words of a trusted person.”“So you’re helping us by protecting us?”“Protecting you, but yes.”Lance looked away, hiding behind his blue hair. This wasn’t normal. People didn’t flirt with him like this. He felt Red moving his hair away from his forehead, making him glance up at the Galra.“My boss doesn’t like you, you know.”“Luckily for me, I don’t need his approval. Besides, if I betray you, I’ve seen you with that bow and arrow of yours. Something tells me I wouldn’t be stupid enough to get on your bad side.”Lance gained his own smirk. “Good that you know. I still have questions and you still need to stick around.”
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Lance was angry. He refused to look at the man standing in front of him. he was sure if Keith was around, he’d be frowning at Lance for the abundance of emotions he was giving off.“I need you to do this for me.”Lance glared up at the man. His dad. Hades. He never wanted anything to do with him. anytime spent down at in the Underworld was spent with the only person there he liked, Persephone and his personal hellhound Kosmo. His life had been turned upside down when he found out Hades was his dad. Any friends he made at Camp Half-Blood turned their back on him. Keith was his only friend right now, and granted he only started talking to him because Lance’s bad emotions started messing with him. he was lucky he stuck around after that, but still. Hades had been nothing but trouble so when he appeared on the one night Keith convinced him to stay for the bonfire, Lance’s mood crashed.“I don’t need to do shit for you. If you’ve got a few loose hellhounds, how is that my problem. Obviously, you can’t do your job properly.”Hades’ narrowed his eyes at his son. “How dare you.”“Fuck off and leave me alone.” Not able to take anymore, Lance got up and stormed out of Coran’s office, his mind only on getting back to his cabin.Waiting by the door with Kosmo was Keith, who met Lance halfway.“I’m sorry.” Lance said.“What for?”“My emotions.”“Lance, that’s the last thing on my mind right now. Your dad showed up out of nowhere, I get why your emotions are a mess right now. What did he want?”“Some of his hellhounds got loose and he wants me to go get them. I’m not his errand boy and if he can’t control them it’s not my problem.” Lance said, going and opening the door to his cabin. He shuffled to his bed and flopped on it, listening to Keith come closer.“How did they get loose? I thought they generally stayed in the Underworld.”“Apparently Demeter came to see Persephone and they got into their usual argument about her marriage to Hades but it got out of hand and they took off.”“Um, Lance?” he pulled up his face to see Keith look concerned. “Aren’t hellhounds usually bad to be around, like they might go and attack people.”“Uhh, maybe? They like me.”“Ok look, I get that you don’t want to give into your dad, but a lot of half-bloods are scared of hellhounds. And if I know anything about dogs, they attack if they smell fear.” Keith pointed out.“Ugg, and if they hurt half-bloods, I’ll get blamed for it.”“Oh, yeah and that. I know this is something he should take care of, but if you take care of it, you can hold it over his head. And besides, if you accept the quest, you can take those you feel is worthy.”“Is that your way of offering to come with me?” Lance asked, with a smirk.“Hey, you can take care of the hellhounds and I can get info from anyone if needed. Besides, someone needs to watch your back.” Keith said, sharing a smile with Lance.“Fine. I guess I should go tell him I’ll do it. Thank you for offering to come with me.”“Of course. Do you want me to come with you?”Lance shook his head, “It won’t take long. Besides, I need to go see the Oracle after anyway.”“Alright, I’ll be here then.”Lance left the cabin, his mood lighter. Keith had a way of doing that. He remembered when Keith came to talk to him the first time. He’d been very clear on why he was there but he still stuck around after. He was always ready to fight anyone that gave him a bad look and he made Lance feel normal. Part of him knew that he had gained feelings for Keith but he didn’t want to go and push at it in case it turned out badly. He didn’t want to lose Keith in his life.He found his father ready to storm out of the Big House when he stopped at the sight of his son. “I’ll do, only because you can’t control your pets and it’ll just be bad for the rest of us.” With that, he walked past his father and went of the stairs to the attic, where the current host of the Oracle was already waiting for him. their eyes turned white and they spoke.
“You will go to a doorway hidden in trees. Avoid the claws of the beast. When all is returned, an answer to a question shall be earned. To not take this opportunity will result in a lost chance. The one important will never give you a glance. Protect him from the beast and return the luckiest.”
Lance watched their head fall forward and blink past the mist. Lance was confused because he was sure that he was also given him relationship advice?“Is it time for dinner?” the Oracle host asked, seeming tired.“You missed it but I’ll tell Coran to get you something. Get some rest.”“Tell him to let Adam know I’ll be asleep up here.” They said, getting off their stool and dropping down onto a nearby blanket covered mattress.Lance left them to get rest while he went over the prophecy over in his head. Doorway hidden in the trees was obviously the Doorway of Orpheus, a way the man known as Orpheus took when he went to bring his wife back. That meant they had to go to New York, Central Park to be more exact. Avoid the claws of the beast, meaning the hellhounds won’t go back easily. An answer to a question shall be earned? To not take the opportunity would mean the important one wouldn’t give him a glance? Did that mean, if Lance didn’t take the opportunity to tell Keith how he felt, he’d lose him in the end? Great, no pressure. He knew that prophecies had double meanings but this one seemed pretty straight forward.He met Keith on his way back to his cabin.“It’s really late and I need to pack for tomorrow. When are we leaving?”“Early, sooner we can round them up, the better. It’s gonna be a hard.”“Right, I’ll be by your cabin in the morning.”“Okay.” Lance didn’t know how he was going to do this.
“Oh what a cute puppy! What’s his name?”Ok, so originally, they were going to go to New York after breakfast but Keith had gotten into an argument with his siblings over him going with Lance on the quest so Keith came early and Lance decided they should at least get a head start. So using his shadow travel, he got them as close to Central Park but was stopped by his own growling stomach. Hence why he, Keith and Kosmo, who now looked like a poodle of all things to those affected by the Mist.“Kosmo.”“Oh he’s so cute. We have pupchinos if you want to get him one.”“Um, sure. But can it be in the biggest cup you have, he’ll have trouble getting it out.”“Of course. Be right back pupper.”When the waitress left, Keith couldn’t help but laugh. “Pupper? Kosmo is anything but.” Kosmo glance up at Keith for the remark but Lance could disagree with that.“Alright, after we eat, we’ll walk over the Doorway of Orpheus. That’s where the Oracle said they’d be. They also said it would be dangerous but they’re hellhounds so not that surprising.”“What else did they say?” Keith asked, picking up his panini.Lance was going to start on his French toast but stopped when he remembered the rest of the prophecy. He had to tell Keith how he felt or risk losing him forever. He wanted to say that Keith wouldn’t leave him but he didn’t know if that was true. What if he didn’t take the chance and then something happened that made Keith see him differently? It was nerve-wracking to even think about. Not the kind of thoughts he needed before going to try and corral a small group of hellhounds.“That was it.”“Really? Last time I went on a quest my prophecy was at least 5 sentences long.”“Different for everyone I guess.”They finished their food, where Keith used his allure like charmspeak to get the food for free.“You scare me sometimes.”Once they were near the entrance closest to where the Doorway was, Lance put his palm on the grass and focused. As a child of Hades, he could sense death and hellhounds carried around a particular feeling of death. “Not counting Kosmo, there are 6 of them. They’re all by the Doorway thankfully but we wait any longer they can go out and search for prey.”“How do we get them back to the Underworld.”“Hellhounds can shadow travel so I have to open a separate door to the Underworld. I’ll be really drained by the end of the fight so I trust you to have my back ok?”“Got it. Let’s go.”When they got near the Doorway, Kosmo started to growl low in his throat.“Be ready.” Lance said.Keith pulled a dagger from his belt, that grew to a sword while Lance summoned his own sword from his shadow. They slowly walked forward when three figures burst out from tree shadows. Kosmo went a took one of the hellhounds down, while Lance and Keith got the attention of their own. Keith kept the hellhound away from him with his sword. When it jumped out at him, he let his finger brush over the dove engraving on the hilt, letting the blade glow pink before hitting the hellhound in the face. It shook its head, still growling at Keith when he ordered it to lay down and it obeyed. Aphrodite might not have been happy her son liked to fight but at least she made sure he was protected. The dove released a magic similar to charmspeak.Lance used his shadow to create a shield to block his own hellhound and summoned an opening to the Underworld to swallow Keith’s hellhound and his struggling own. Kosmo had pinned down his own opponent, letting Lance pull it down to the Underworld as well.“That wasn’t too hard.” Keith pointed out, watching Lance take deep breaths. He could already feel the effects of summoning 3 openings one right after the other.He slowly got to his feet, taking slow breaths. “We still have the other ones to worry about. We should let our guard down.”“Right. Will you be ok?”“Yeah, I’ll be fine. let’s go.”They reached where the Doorway sat and saw the other hellhounds surrounding the door. They looked like they were in a less good mood than the others.“They’re gonna catch our scent. Be ready.” Lance instructed.Sure enough, the hellhounds started growling when they realised they had company. Lance used the shadows to create another shield and once they were stopped, Keith attacked with his sword. One swiped at Keith, Lance pulling him out of the way. He heard Keith let out a pained cry as he put his palm to the ground and summoned another opening, pulling the last of them back to the Underworld. When they were gone, he felt his whole world tilt as it started going dark around the edges.“Lance!” Lance blinked slowly, seeing Keith lean over him. he didn’t even realise he’d collapsed on the floor. He felt so weak. “Lance, answer me. Are you ok?”“Tired.”He felt Keith pull him up and whistle for Kosmo. He felt Kosmo’s fur under his hands as Keith got him on his back and felt himself lean back, leaning on what he could assume was Keith’s chest.“Kosmo, get us back to Camp Half-Blood.” Keith ordered the hellhound.Lance felt Kosmo moving and then the familiar feeling of shadow travelling before the sounds of New York were replaced with the quietness of Camp Half-Blood. He let Keith pull him off Kosmo’s back and then stumble to his cabin. Even the fairylights in his cabin felt to bright to his eyes as he finally collapsed on the bed. He heard Keith rummaging and the light dimmed behind Lance’s closed eyes.“I turned off the lights, are you ok?”Lance opened his eyes and looked at Keith, the blue fire from the fireplace allowing Lance to look at him.“I’m dizzy, my head hurts and I feel really weak.”“Does this always happen?”“When I overuse my powers. Are you ok?”“Just a minor scratch, you pulled me away in time.”Lance could just make out the scratches on his arm. They were thin and seemed to of stopped bleeding but they were long. Disregarding how weak he felt, he put his hand on the wound and allowed himself to heal it.“Wait, Lance stop!” Keith pulled his arm away and Lance could see it was mostly healed. “You just opened 4 portals to the Underworld, don’t waste more energy trying to heal me. I’ll be fine. everything’s ok now.”Lance slowly blinked at Keith. Things were ok now, which meant…
When all is returned, an answer to a question shall be earned.
Lance had to tell Keith how he felt or he could lose him forever. He didn’t want to lose Keith.“We should tell Hades his hellhounds are returned. Do you have a fountain or something so we can Iris call him?”“You can’t Iris call in the Underworld.” Lance pointed out, smiling to himself that Keith didn’t realise that.“Because there’s no sun in the Underworld for rainbows to appear. Ok fine. you get some rest and on my way to the infirmary, I’ll go tell Coran we succeeded ok?” Keith said, about to get up when Lance stopped him.“I need to tell you something. It can’t wait.”“Lance, you look like your about to pass out.”“I know, but I have to. It’s part of the prophecy.”Keith looked confused. “I thought you said that the prophecy was only 2 lines.”“I lied. Trust me, if you heard the whole thing you’d understand. But I don’t want to lose you.”“You’re not going to lose me. What is it?”“I like you. Like really like you. But I couldn’t say anything because I didn’t want to lose you but they said I would if I didn’t say anything.”Lance felt himself get even more sleepy as he watched a smile come on Keith’s face. He felt a soft hand brush at his hair.“Hey, I’m not going anywhere. I’m not sure if you’ll remember this when you wake up, but I like you too.”“Oh, ok.” Lance felt happy at that admition but his tiredness was winning out.“Go to sleep Lance. I’ll be here when you wake up. I promise.”Lance let his eyes slid shut as he heard Keith get up. He stopped not long after.“The flower crown, you kept it?”“Persephone kept it alive for me.” Was all Lance said before he drifted off.
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Lance took a bite of the muffin Hunk had left for him after a stress baking session. He’d been going to meet Shay’s family for the first time and he was so nervous. Lance reaped in the rewards because Hunk was fine and he got the pastries as a result. He was set for breakfast and times he felt peckish for snacks for a while. He went to go sprawl out on the couch, maybe build up the motivation to get started with his next project when someone knocked on his door.Not bothering to look through the peephole, Lance pulled the door open, taking in the person on the other side of the door. He’d seen him around, lived right across the hall with his brother. And despite the cold weather outside, he was wearing shorts and what he guessed was a tank top under his zip-up hoodie.“Hi?”“Um hi. I’m Keith, I live across the hall.”“Yeah, I’ve seen you around. I’m Lance.”“Nice to meet you. Um, funny thing, I forgot the keys to my apartment and my brother is at a work thing that he won’t be back from in like an hour from and I just came back from the gym. Do you think it’s possible I could borrow your shower so I don’t smell like sweat waiting for him to come back?”With his pleading expression, Lance couldn’t find it in himself to say no. “Sure. Come on in.”Lance led Keith to his bathroom and told him he’d get a towel. Part of Lance wondered what he was doing. He never made an effort to go make friends in his building. He’d still been getting over his break-up with his ex at that point and wanted to be alone. Keith was his type in terms of looks but he wasn’t about to go running into another flirting session, not even a one night stand, not while he was still dealing with his ex. He knocked on the bathroom door and opened it at Keith’s answer.“Here you…go.”Keith had his back turned to him and Lance’s eyes trailed over the muscles on Keith’s back. He turned to see Lance at the door and Lance got an eyeful of the defined abs. His arms were also a work of art.“Lance?”“Huh? Oh, yeah. Um, here you go.” Lance shoved the towel at Keith before closing the door and tried to still his beating heart. God, Keith was really hot. Like really hot. “No, nope, not going there. Lance, do not go there.” He muttered going to grab his laptop. Work would distract him.He opened his laptop, making sure he had his external hard drive and tablet when his phone buzzed. It was from Allura.
I’m coming over.
Lance let out a sigh, leaning back on the couch. He and Allura dated for a while and the fight that ended their relationship actually almost ended their friendship for good. It made matters worse when he found out Allura started dating Lotor. The asshole’s dad had fired him because Lance stood up for himself, which left Lance struggling to find a job after. He never liked Lotor or his family after that, so he’d been pretty miffed when he found out Allura was dating Lotor. He had listened to Allura sing him praises when he tried to tell her what he’d done. It put a lot of strain on their friendship and made him feel awkward around her. They had adopted a cat together, Blue and now he was about to become a single parent of their fur baby because the apartment Allura was moving into didn’t allow pets.“Ugg, got a hot guy in my bathroom and my ex coming all in one day. I need headache meds. And my headphones.”Lance went back to his room and grabbed his headphone and plugged them into his iPod, pressing play and letting the music pull his thoughts from the worries he had.Because of that he didn’t hear Keith calling for him, didn’t see him exit the bathroom trying to look for him.“I thought I had another shirt.” Keith muttered to himself as he pulled up his sweatpants that was sliding off his hips. “Where did he go?”Then someone knocked on the door.Keith looked around and still seeing no sign of Lance, he decided to just go open the door. On the other side was a woman with long white hair with a man with silver white hair.“Who are you?” the woman asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “Where’s Lance?”“Inside? May I help you?”Just then Lance came out from the hallway and stopped at the sight of Allura and her new boyfriend Lotor.“Lance who is this?” Allura demanded to know.“Why does it matter?” Lance asked, going over and pulling Keith away from the door and away from Allura. “It’s my apartment, I can have whoever I want over. Besides, why is he here?”“Lotor drove me over.”Lance narrowed his at Lotor. “What was so important that you couldn’t text me?”“I wanted to tell you you’d have to come get Blue yourself. I thought I’d at least come to see you.”“Still could have texted me.” Lance said, glaring at Lotor.“What’s the matter McClain? See something you like?”“I don’t like snakes.” Lance snapped. “I’ll pick Blue up, don’t worry. Just tell me when.”Allura hadn’t taken her eyes off of Keith, eyes narrowed untrustingly. “Who are you?”“Keith, I live across the hall.”“How long have you been sleeping with Lance?”“Excuse me?”“OMG, Allura, will you back off? Look, just go please.” Lance shut the door and groaned in his hands. Forget work, he needed a nap.”“She’s extremely nosy.” Keith pointed out, as he used the towel to dry his hair.“I’m so sorry about that. That was my ex and her asshole new boyfriend.”“No offense, but I think your better off. I hope she doesn’t bother you more because of me being here?”“It’s fine. I just need a nap.”Keith took in the stressed face. “Do you have tea? It helped me when I’m stressed.”“Oh, I couldn’t.”“It’s the least I can do for letting me use your shower.”Lance nodded in the end. “In the kitchen, cupboard above the stove.”“Got it. Hey, but do you have a shirt I could borrow?”Lance took a quick glance at Keith’s bare chest. “Sorry, I haven’t done laundry yet. Try not to burn yourself.”Lance felt slightly bad that he was ogling at his half-dressed next door neighbour, but he needed something to keep his mind off what just happened.“Did you guys share a pet or something? Who’s Blue?” Keith asked as he brought over a cup for Lance.“Allura and I adopted her. She’s a Savanah cat. After we broke up, we still decided to share her but her boyfriend’s new apartment doesn’t allow pets so she’s gonna be mine.”“If you want, I can come with you when you need to pick her up.”“Oh, you really don’t have to.” Lance said.“I don’t mind. I wouldn’t feel right leaving you to deal with them by yourself.”Lance took a sip of his tea taking Keith in. they’d just met and here he was offering to put himself under the scrutinization of his ex and her annoying boyfriend. Maybe there was something more to this guy.“Sure.”
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Lance stared at the man in front of him. “Again?”Keith shrugged his shoulder apologetically. “The stage crew haven’t fixed the window yet.”Lance sighed, “Gimme.”Keith handed over the jacket with a rip in the sleeve. He watched Lance put his book arts thing down – he wasn’t sure what it was called but Lance explained it was like a stamp – and look over the rip.“It’s in the same place again. I have half a mind to go talk to Pidge.” Lance said, getting up and taking the jacket over to the table marked for fixes. He quickly pulled out the roll of thread and a needle. “If you need to head back to stage you can go.” He told Keith.“No it’s fine. I’m not needed for another 2 scenes. If it’s ok, I can wait back here.”“That’s fine by me. Adam’s out today so it’s just me back here and I’ve already finished making the pieces he asked me to it. I could use some company.”Keith sat himself down next to Lance at the table, pulling a pair of scissors for Lance to quickly grab. “Did you finally finish Clear Card?” he asked, continuing the conversation they had started the day before.Yeah, day before, because Keith came about a rip in his jacket that he kept making because he couldn’t find it in himself to talk to Lance himself without a reason. It was supposed to be a one time thing, but Keith would get nervous and the next thing he knew, he’d used a pair of Pidge’s scissors and cut through the thread, blaming it on the exposed nail he knew Pidge had ordered to be fixed after it happened the first time.Keith wasn’t happy about being a part of the college’s production of Hadestown, let alone being a Fury, but then he met Lance. he’d seen Lance around. He was a photography major who was also double majoring in Book Arts after he heard his orientation leader saying it was dying art. It was a hard thing to do honestly, but Lance was doing it with pride and somehow not dying? Or maybe he was good at hiding it. Thing was, he admired Lance and then when he was working in the costume department for the production, he saw him around even more. Which then lead to his nerves of wanting to talk to him which had been solved with the ripped sleeve and then it went downhill from there.“I did. They have to have a second season, right? I mean, not everyone is gonna be able to read the manga so we’re gonna need answers.”“I think they said there would be one, just not sure when.”“God, I had figured out the deal with the cards but I hadn’t guessed that. And Kaito, dude, what did he do and what does it have to do with Akiho?” Lance questioned, Keith watching his eyes light up with excitement. His nimble fingers sewed the hole even though he was watching what they were doing.“How is your project going?” Keith asked, glancing at the block Lance had put down.“I don’t know what’s more dangerous, trying not to poke myself with needles or not letting the gouge slip and gouge me. I’ve done it before, it’s not fun.” Lance said, showing a faded mark on his finger that Keith guessed was where Lance accidently stabbed himself. “My bookbinding teacher would always tell us to not get blood on the books. I’m sure Adam would say the same.”“Seeing how he was here when I ripped my jacket the first time and I think he wanted to rip my head off in retaliation.”“How does your brother take it?” Lance asked, talking about Shiro, Keith’s older brother.“I learn not to ask.”They were interrupted by Romelle, the assistant stage manager. “Keith, we need to do the last scene again.”“I’m done anyway. Hey, after rehearsal, do you think you can walk me to the Book Arts Centre? I need to pick up another block and they still haven’t fixed the lights on that pathway.”A chance to talk to Lance without having to destroy his hard work? Keith couldn’t say no to that. “Sure. Thanks again.”“Be careful with that window.” Lance warned as Keith pulled his jacket back on and left the backstage area.“You do know we fixed the issue with the window, right? I keep seeing him take Pidge’s scissors.” Romelle warned.“Oh I know. It’s cute that he thinks I don’t know but something tells me he wouldn’t be able to talk to me without it. Hopefully this olive branch will get him to stop ripping up my jacket.”“And you didn’t just tell him that yourself?” Romelle asked.Lance shrugged. “I like the attention, especially from him. now get going. Sooner we finish practise the sooner I can have a protective Fury walk me down the scary path.”“You’re impossible.”“Hopefully he likes impossible.”
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Lance walked through the forest, taking in the quiet sounds. He’d just helped Hunk close up shop and Pidge’s tavern was no doubt crowded from the sudden influx of dragon hunters. There had been rumours that there was one spotted nearby. Altea had once been attacked by a large horde of dragons which then made things even worse for magical creatures. As an elf himself, they would be most likely killed for entering Altea. Made matters worse that he was also a mage. Mages weren’t allowed to use magic within the kingdom unless they worked for the crown. The kingdom was oppressive in that context, but Lance felt at home there. He felt locked down in the village he grew up in but in Altea, even with the fear of getting caught, it felt like home. Hunk and Pidge kept his secrets and rarely expected anything in return.He said rarely because Pidge did ask for his help in cleaning the tavern after fight filled nights or when there had been an overindulgent drinker. Not glamorous, but with the happy life he had, it was worth it.Be that as it may, he wanted to try and find the dragon before the hunters did. He had helped other magical creatures escape any harm in Altea and he wasn’t going to stop. Maybe there’d be a day where they wouldn’t have to fear anymore but until then, Lance would do his best.With the setting sun his only light, he had to work fast to find any sign of a dragon. With his magic, he searched for a magic signature and was able to find one, but it was getting weak, like it was fading. Lance rushed to where the signature was located and stopped when he saw a large red and black dragon near the lake. Their body had scratches, the biggest one on their face as well as on their shoulder. Lance slowly walked forward, taking in every wound. He stopped when the dragon’s eyes opened and a growl sounded in the air.“Shh, shh, it’s ok. It’s ok, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m a mage, I can heal you.” The dragon growled more. “I don’t work for Altea.” Lance pulled the hood of his clock down and moved his headband back, pushing his hair back to show his pointed ears. “I’m an elf. I won’t hurt you, I promise. If I don’t heal you now, you’re going to die. Let me heal you please!” he begged.Finally, the dragon stopped growling and seeming to sink down on themselves. Lance could feel the signature getting weaker. He had to work fast.Coaxing water from the lake, he made it surround the wound on the dragon’s shoulder and concentrated, his blue eyes glowing and marks on his cheeks appearing. The dragon groaned at the feeling of their wound stitching itself back together.“Shh, it’s ok. You’re ok.” Lance whispered, working faster.Finally the cut had closed and seemed healed. Lance then moved over to the cut on the jaw of the dragon, comforting the dragon when they groaned again. The dragon was quiet once the healing was done and Lance had started healing the smaller cuts and starches. He felt drained when he was done, but the feeling of the dragon’s signature feeling stronger made it worth it.“You’re ok now. I don’t think you should stay here though, Altea is practically hosting dragon hunters right now.”Gold eyes revealed themselves to stare at Lance before their wings stretched out and Lance was blinded by a bright light. When he opened his eyes again, in the dragon’s place was a human. His clothes were dark, ripped in places. Lance watched scales that were on his face slowly disappear.“You, you’re a Draconian.” Then Lance took a good look at the mark on the pin that kept the Draconian’s cloak on. “That’s the symbol of Altea? Who are you?”He didn’t answer, only stared at Lance. “What’s an elf, a mage elf at that doing in Altea?”“What? It…it’s my home.”“Then we’re the same. My home is there with the one person I trust the most.” The he started to sway and Lance shot forward to grab him.“Ok, that’s nice and all, but I just healed you. You need a chance to recover.”The man took deep breaths and looked up at Lance. “Your marks.”“Huh? Oh, they appear when I use magic. They’re going to stay for a while.”“There’s an abandoned cabin near here. I was trying to get there so I could heal myself.”“What happened to you anyway?” Lance asked, throwing the man’s arm around his neck.“I was on a tracking mission. Didn’t realise his magic was lethal. Got caught too easily and had to fight him.”He seemed to be beating himself up for getting caught. Just what did this guy do in Altea? Lance wanted to ask questions but he needed to get him to the cabin first. With the man’s instructions and a bit of magic, Lance was able to find the cabin quickly. While it might have abandoned with the unliveable aura around it, it seemed like it was frequently visited. The cot had many blankets on them, which looked high quality. There was simple food of a loaf of bread, cheese and dried meats.Lance rested the man on the cot, making sure he was comfortable before going and cutting a small slice of bread, placing cheese and meat on it.“Eat.” He ordered, holding the slice for him.The man took a bite, looking better now that he wasn’t moving.“Who are you?” Lance asked.“You first.” Lance could see the man had the advantage; a Draconian hiding within Altea, a high enough person to have the mark of the kingdom on his cloak.“My name is Lance.”“And how did you end up in Altea? Elves are rare as it is, why come to a place you could be killed in if found?”“My village never felt like home to me so I started wondering around. I meet a friend and found Altea through him. it might be dangerous, but Altea feels like home to me. Now you. You’re at eve more risk than I am. You’re a Draconian. You’ll be killed if found out.”“I won’t. not with who my brother is. Ever hear of the Dragon Knight?”“The Black Prince’s companion? Why?” it took only a second for it to register. “You’re-? but, how?”“My brother’s looked out for me since he took me in. they won’t hurt me.”“But…aren’t you scared about what would happen if they did?” Lance asked.“Compared to what I was used to before my brother saved me, it’s much better. Obviously, you feel the same.”He did. Fear or not, Altea was his home.“What’s your name?” Lance asked.“Keith, my name is Keith.”
It was days later, all the dragon hunters gone from Altea, when Lance met Keith again. He’d been in the back forge with Hunk, when he heard the bell ring as the door to the shop open. Lance had taken his headband off to readjust his hair so it didn’t feel bulky under the headband to hide his ears. He was fixing the headband back in place when he saw who was waiting in the shop. He might have had his hood up, but Lance didn’t think he could ever forget that face.“Keith. What are you doing here? Are you feeling ok?”“I am. My brother insisted I get rest when I got back to the castle. My brother was tasked to go take care of something for the King and I never let him go on his own. I… wanted to let you know I was ok.”“Thank you for coming to tell me.”“Is it alright for you to show your ears like that?” Keith asked. When Lance saw Keith, he’d let the headband slip back down.“I was in the back with Hunk. I had needed to fix my hair to hide my ears better.” Lance said, patting his hair down.Keith however moved closer so he was pressed against the counter and brushed some of Lance’s hair away from his ears. “I like your ears.”“Thank you, but not everyone would agree with you.” Lance said, patting down a blush.Just then Lance saw the door opening and the heard the bell sounding. His only thought was that his ears were exposed when Keith took his face into his hands, fingers covering the pointed tips and pulled him close.“Hey Lance, Hunk. Matt had lunch for – oh. I’m sorry. I’ll come back later.” Pidge said, walking back out of the store, though that didn’t pull Lance and Keith away from each other.Lance relished in the sudden kiss for a few more moments before he gently pulled away. Keith stared at him with half lidded eyes and Lance was sure he looked the same.“Sorry.” Keith rasped.“No, no it’s fine. Pidge knows about me so it’s ok but thank you for protecting me anyway.” Lance said, passing his tongue across his lips.“I…I have to go. My brother is waiting for me.”“Of course. Stay safe.”“I will. Um, can I come see you, when I return?”Lance nodded. “I’d like that.”With a nod to himself, Keith left, Pidge appearing moments after. They watched Lance fix his headband and his hair, letting his thumb brush past his lips.“So, who was he?”“The Dragon Knight?” Lance answered.“Must me some knight.” Pidge teased.“Yeah, something like that.”
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“Are we going to see granny?” Sylvio asked, watching his uncle feed his little sister.“Yeah, are you excited?” Lance asked, pulling the empty bottle away from Nadia’s mouth and then handing it to the young boy.“Yeah, I can’t wait to spend my birthday with them. Uncle Lance?”“Hmm, what’s wrong?”“Can we go see mommy and papi?”Lance’s smile faded a little. Sylvio’s parents, his own older brother and sister-in-law, died in a car crash. Lance had been babysitting his niece and nephew, being the only family member living in L.A like Marco, while everyone was in Florida. He’d just put the kids to sleep, wondering where his brother even was when he got a call. Everything had changed in that night. Being the only one of age that was in the area, Lance had gone from an uncle who was going to start working at the local kindergarten to being a stand in parent. It was hard, having to readjust, having to explain to his nephew that his parents weren’t coming back, to try and calm his niece who’d cry for her parents’ way of calming her. Sylvio had finally understood that his uncle was going to take care of him and his sister from then on, he seemed to grow up. He was only 4, Lance hated that he felt like he should be the one help take care of Nadia when all he should be concerned with was living as a 4 year old. Lance had sent the ashes of Marco and his wife Lisa to Florida to live with his parents after he’d find Sylvio staring at the urn for hours.“Sure buddy. You need to tell them about all you’ve been up to.”“We’re about to start boarding for Flight 239 from Los Angles to Florida. Please look at your ticket for your boarding group number. We’d like to invite our first class flyers and membership flyers to start boarding.”“Grab our tickets buddy.” Lance instructed as he fitted Nadia into the front carrier, feeling her little breaths against his chest. “What number we got?”“1!” Sylvio called, showing off the tickets to his uncle.“That’s right. You hold on tight to that ok? I’ll hold our bag alright?”“We now invite group 1 to board.”“That’s us! Let’s go Uncle Lance.” Sylvio said, jumping from his seat and running to the line. Lance smiled apologetically to the people who’d been cut off by Sylvio. The flight attendants smiled down at Sylvio as they took the tickets and scanned them before pointing then in the right direction.“Whoa, buddy, not so fast.” Lance said as Sylvio ran down the corridor to the plane.“Hello little one.” The flight attendant at the entrance said, helping Sylvio onto the plane. “What’s your name?”“Sylvio. That’s my sister Nadia and my Uncle Lance.”“Is it your first time on a plane?”“Yeah! I’m going to see my granny.”“Oh, well when you go see her, you’ll have to show her this.” The flight attendant pulled out a pin of wings and attached it to Sylvio’s shirt.“Uncle Lance, look!”“Looking good buddy. Can you ask her where our seat is?”“Oh, where are we sitting?” Sylvio asked, letting the flight attendant look at the ticket.“You’re number 12 B which means you’re on the left. Do you know where your left hand is?”“Yes!” he relied holding up his left hand.“Let’s go buddy. Thank you.”Using his left hand, Sylvio counted the chairs they passed slowly, Lance reminding him which numbers came next. They reached their seats and Lance had Sylvio climb into the seat by the window when he realised he had a problem. Nadia was still on his chest and he had to lift the carry on suitcase into the overhead bin. He could take her off and lay her down in the seats, but he could feel her start to squirm and he didn’t trust Sylvio to keep her still.“Do you need help?” Lance looked to see the person standing behind him. he only had a backpack on, his sweatshirt drowning him.“Um, if you could? I don’t want to risk hitting her.”“Of course, back up a bit.” Like the suitcase weighed nothing, he picked it up and slid it into the overhead bin. Once it was set, he gestured for Lance to sit down. He waited for Lance the sit in his seat next to Sylvio before pulling his bag off and sitting next to him.Their seat was the one right after the last first class seat so in no time, Sylvio climbed off his seat and sat on the floor. Lance didn’t say anything as it would still be some time until he had to sit his nephew down again and focused on making sure Nadia’s baby bag, that also held his laptop and tablet he’d given to Sylvio for the trip was under his seat. He didn’t want to have to shove it in the overhead bin. He saw that their aisle mate was the same, shoving his bookbag under his seat.“Excuse me,” one of the flight attendants asked, “we have basinets if you want one for your daughter?”“Niece and thank you.” Lance said, patting Nadia as she started to whine a little.“You probably have time to feed her before we take off.” Their aisle mate said.Lance looked over at him. he’d stripped his sweatshirt, not bothering to fix his shirt, which even its mess showed his fit figure. He also noticed how long his hair was. It was past his shoulders and looked really soft. He hoped Nadia didn’t spot it. Lisa had long hair so Nadia was used to long hair being near her when she was being held.“She already ate. Thankfully she got hungry before we had to board.”The guy looked down at Sylvio who was looking under the seats. “You having fun down there?”“Uh huh!”He let out a small laugh, smiling at Sylvio. Thank god, he seemed to like kids. “Cute kid.”“It’s in his genes. We McClains are adorable.”“I’m sure.”Everyone was seated and Lance had coaxed Sylvio up to his seat for take-off. Their aisle mate offered him gum to help with the pressure build-up, letting Sylvio take an extra one. Nadia had dozed off and Lance hoped she’d stay like that for a while. Sylvio’s eyes were glued to the open window as the plane went down the runway and started to pick up speed.“We’re going fast!”“Keep chewing buddy, it’ll help your ears.” Lance said.Soon the plane tipped up and they took off. Sylvio’s chewing slowed as he watched the world below the plane grow smaller. Lance glanced down as Nadia’s face scrunched up. He gently shushed her, hoping she stayed asleep. As they got higher though, she moved around more and woke up crying. Lance groaned in his head. Crying baby and they weren’t allowed to move around yet, just his luck.Sylvio, thank god, turned away from the window and started asking his sister what was wrong. Usually it would calm her down slightly but Lance guessed the pressure was hurting her too much for her to pay attention to her brother.“Is it the pressure bothering her?” His aisle mate asked.“Yeah, I’m really sorry.”“It’s fine, really. I know people get annoyed by it but babies can’t really control these things.”Lance was extremely grateful of the understanding man. Finally the seatbelt sign turned off and Lance blocked out what the head flight attendant was saying as he undid his seatbelt and was let out by the still slightly ruffled man. “Sylvio, stay here ok?”“Ok.”Lance tried to ignore the looks he got as Nadia continued to cry. He hadn’t gotten the chance to grab her pacifier though he doubted she’d keep it in her mouth. He gently shushed her, bouncing as he tried to calm her down. Thankfully her cries lessened but she still whined loudly.“Shh, shh, you’re ok.” He whispered when he saw the same man coming towards him. he moved away from the bathroom thinking he was heading there.“Your, um, nephew, asked me check on you?”“Sylvio yeah. He knows he can’t do it himself. You don’t have to.”“I don’t mind. What’s her name?”“Nadia.”“Nadia.” He called, standing next to Lance. “Nadia.”Hearing a new voice, Nadia tired looking for it, her whining quieting some.“Do you want to try holding her?”“If it’s ok.”“Sure. Help me?” he asked, pointing to the buckle on his back.It was unclipped and Lance slipped the handles off, keeping Nadia close to him. he let the other man take her, easily taking her into his arms.“You’re pretty good.”“My brother has a kid, I volunteered at their day-care.”Nadia’s whining stopped as she stared up at the new face. She blinked and reached out her hand.“Wait, Nadia, no!” Lance said as she gripped his hair, holding it firm in her grip. Her gaze was completely fixed on the long black strands in her fist. “I am so sorry. She has a thing with hair, she doesn’t let – no don’t put it in your mouth! Oh god, Nadia.”“It’s ok. I mean there are worse ways to spend a flight. I never did introduce myself, I’m Keith.” He said, his hand pulling Nadia’s fist away from her mouth.“Lance, hi. Um, she’s not going to let go.”“It’s ok, I don’t mind holding her. Besides, you still have your nephew to worry about.”“Um, right. Thanks.” Lance pulled off the carrier entirely and lead them back to there seats where Sylvio stared at his sister in Keith’s arms.“She liked his hair?”“You know your sister. Do you want your tablet?”“Yes please.”“How old is he?” Keith asked letting Nadia stand on his lap so he wouldn’t risk her pulling out his hair.“4.”“He talks a lot for a 4 year old.”“Another gene of McClains, we don’t have an off switch.” Lance said, opening the armrest to pull out the try for Sylvio, letting him navigate the tablet on his own. “So you volunteer at your um?”“Nephew. I picked him up one day and was asked to stick around to help with something and the next thing I knew, I kept going back. I work in security so kids except my nephew I never thought were my forte. Turns out I’m not bad with them.”“I can tell. I work at a kindergarten and I don’t think I’ve managed to calm a fussy kid down the quickly.”“I guess you’d be good with kids. You got Sylvio very worried about you.”Lance gained a pain smile on his face, “it for a different reason. Their parents died a while back. I went from babysitting uncle to new dad in a night.” Looking over at Sylvio who focused on the tablet. “Sylvio had to understand that so young. When I dropped him off to school on the first day back, he wouldn’t stop crying for hours and of course seeing her brother cry made Nadia sad.”“That must have been a lot.”Lance nodded. “It was. Parenting is terrifying enough. It’s hard but a smile from either of these two makes it feel worth it.”“I know they must apr-Ow!” Keith was cut off when Nadia pulled on his hair.“No Nadia.” Lance said, pulling her fist open, even though she whined. Keith sat her on his lap and gave her his hand to play with. “Again, really sorry.” He said, pushing Keith’s hair off his shoulders.“Here’s that bassinet.” The flight attendant came and attached the carrier onto the wall in front of them, pressing down on it to make sure it was stable. “Let’s give your boyfriend’s lap a break.“Oh, uh, he’s not my boyfriend.” Lance corrected, feeling his cheeks getting hot.“What’s a boyfriend?” Sylvio asked, Lance frowning at him.“Now you pull your attention from the tablet. Don’t worry about that silly.”“Sorry, it’s just she seems so comfortable on his lap and he seemed so nice to you as you were boarding. My apologies. We’ll start the drink service soon.”“Thank you.” Once the flight attendant left, Lance turned to Keith. “I honestly feel like all I’m doing is apologizing.”Keith lifted Nadia off his lap and placed her in the basinet, watching her look around. “It’s ok. I can certainly say this is one of the most interesting flights I’ve been on.”