Archive of Our Own ^beta

Zarkon was gone, from what they could tell, but Allura and Coran had already cautioned the paladins that the tyrant’s absence would only mean a different threat would most likely emerge from the ashes.  Haggar still lived and, apparently, the Galra ruler had a son and generals after him.  They were prepared, mentally and emotionally, that no functional, long-term relief would come from his demise.  Their empire was full, powerful, and designed not to hinge on one man’s life.  As it turned out, though, Team Voltron wouldn’t even have time to celebrate their victory in battle.

The wounds of war were fresh on their souls and everything got worse when Shiro disappeared.  Despite visibly weak knees at his empty chair, Allura maintained her composure enough to remove them from harm’s way - Coran a constant at her side.  They were welcomed, for a time, into the security of a space pocket that belonged to the Blades of Marmora to allow them the reprieve to lick their wounds.  Kolivan was in frequent contact but he’d taken his people and Slav and returned to their base to reform their own ranks.

Nestled into a pouch of unseen space, the Castle of Lions seemed empty and quiet - a type of silent mourning - as everyone scrambled with their loss.  While all were heartbroken, exactly half of the remaining crew spiraled into an inconsolable mess.  Lance, Hunk, and Coran were numb but otherwise able to carry out their duties; Allura, Pidge, and Keith, on the other hand, were each inching toward their own type of self-destruction.  There’d been no discussion or meeting about it but each functional team member felt the wellbeing of one of their own fall onto their shoulders.

Coran was there for Allura, much as he’d always been.  She would cry on his shoulder when they thought no one saw.  It was in the first moment Lance stumbled across that, late at night and under the stars of the observation deck, that he knew exactly three things:  He truly didn’t have a chance with the beautiful princess, she was in love with someone else, and he was oddly at peace with that.  With Coran’s strength, she was able to keep it together in front of her paladins.  Lance, however, could tell that she was dead inside - all that remained within her was sorrow and a startlingly stoney stubbornness to accomplish her goals.  Even though it would probably involve life imperilling missions and endless insurmountable tasks and even though, once they succeeded, they would still face the same old looming threats as before, Lance was consumed by the feeling that finding Shiro would make everything alright again.  Somehow, Allura’s gut wrenching heartache gave him a sense of complete assurance that they were going to find him no matter what and Lance found that he was unfalteringly willing to follow her lead.

Pidge had Hunk.  Although she didn’t melt the same way Allura had - had buckled down into technological and scientific rays of hope with him, Slav, and Coran - she was still shaken in an undeniable way.  She’d lost her father and brother and, now, the most important member of her surrogate family, as well.  That hard-headed determination to get Shiro back came naturally to her and with a ferocity that scared Lance a little bit when he glimpsed it in scowling heartless golden eyes as she tirelessly worked well past her own physical, mental, and emotional limitations.  As days stretched into weeks, she grew erratic and it was only fitting that, when she broke, she broke down into Hunk’s arms.

Lance, for his own part, felt himself fill up with an unshakeable need to be there for Keith.  There’d always been something about the guy that made him a little weak and a lot stupid but, now - watching as he buckled down in work and training under the triple burdens of loss, new leadership, and rediscovered heritage - it was all Lance could do to not cross the room, envelope him in a hug, and simply refuse to let go.  Somehow, watching him struggle made Lance’s salty bitterness about roles and his own losses go away.  Keith was more than a little crazed at the sudden pile of shit life had thrown at him.  He was surly and, if possible, even more short-tempered than before during even otherwise mundane conversation.  He only spoke to Allura about Shiro and Voltron.  He refused to speak of his heritage to the Blades, focused instead on strategy and Shiro.  He barely spoke to Lance at all.  Keith tried not to reach out to anyone.

It took almost a week of dogged persistence from Lance but, eventually, he cornered Keith on the training deck after what seemed to be a routine sparring match.  They’d wordlessly teamed up against a battalion of Altean training droids set to level five and worked their way through them, one by one.  It’d been physically draining but, Lance found, nowhere near as exhausting as their actual lives were for the time being.  He’d waited until they were done, panting and red-faced from exertion, and sitting side by side on the floor of the training deck against a wall to recover.

“How have you been doing?”  Lance eyed him warily but Keith stared straight ahead and sipped on his pouch of hydrating Altean whatever-it-was that tasted vaguely like apple juice as if he hadn’t said a word.  “That good, huh?  Well, I just want you to know I’m here for you.  I get that you’re under a lot of pressure right now - what with the whole new head of Voltron thing and Shiro missing again and being part Galra -”

“Do you ever stop talking?”

“I think we both know that I don’t,” Lance tilted his head, “but I can listen if you need me -”

“I don’t need anything from you.”  Keith climbed to his feet but wavered a moment as if he was dizzy.  He pressed a palm against the wall to steady himself, which gave Lance enough time to stand up beside him.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it -”

“Then leave me alone.”

“No, Keith, but you need to talk about it.  No one can take on this amount of shit alone and I just want to be there -” Lance’s words fell away as Keith went rigid, turned, and walked away in the middle of his sentence.  Indignance roiled in his belly at the motion and he heard his own voice echo through the room in a deep, commanding bellow, “Keith!”  Before he knew what he was doing, Lance tackled him from behind and brought them both to the ground - something his teammate did not take kindly to, “Talk to me!”  

“I don’t want to!”  Keith shouted as he twisted in Lance’s arms and brought an elbow to the boy’s face.  Lance swore loudly at the blunt pain that radiated from his cheek but he held firm.

“I don’t care!  You need to!”

“I don’t need you!”

“God, it’s like pulling teeth with you!”

“Then why are you even doing this?”  Keith squirmed as his attacker struggled to hold onto him.  They kicked and hit and clawed and slapped - more of an immature scuffle than an actual fight on either’s part - until Lance finally regained control of the situation, steadied atop Keith’s body.  He had him flat on his back, pinned to the ground and unable to move.

“Because you need a dentist!”  Lance stared down with merciless determination into a bright red face and surprisingly watery eyes and felt his heart break inside his own chest, “You are not alone, dumbass!  Stop pushing me away!”

“You can’t understand, Lance!  He was my family!”

“You think I don’t understand losing family?”

“He’s all I had!”  Keith bellowed.

“I am right here!”  Lance bellowed right back and matched his steely glare.  He felt Keith’s muscles relax under his hold and was met with a startlingly hateful glower.

“You wouldn’t understand.  I was closer to Shiro than any of you.  None of you understand what this is like for me.”  Keith spit out his words as if they were poison.  Lance, however, just shook his head as he recognized his partner’s sentiments for what they were.  To his own surprise, he left the bait where it fell and pressed into the problem.

“That’s why I’m here for you and not asking for help from you.  Yeah, it hurts and we all miss him but I’m looking at you right now.  You are not okay and I’m just trying to be there for you.  If I don’t get it, help me understand.”

Keith’s eyes flashed a startled sort of impressed but he just looked away and retained his hard exterior, “I don’t need you.”

“Bullshit.  Ignoring your problems doesn’t make them go away.  Talk to me - all I want to do is help you.”  Lance released his hold on the other boy and climbed off to sit beside him.  Keith pushed up to his elbows and stared with determined silence.  Lance sighed and scoffed at himself as he felt an epiphany approach, “I was wrong though.  You’re not alone - unless you choose to be.  I’m not going to force this because if I try to, you’re just going to shut down more.  But I want to be here for you so, you know, I’m here if you need me.”  He climbed to his feet and turned to leave, the other boy remaining on the ground where he’d knocked him down.

That night, Keith came to him.

It was late, everyone supposedly asleep, when Lance heard the quiet knock at his door.  He pushed back his blankets and shuffled to meet the sound, still only half conscious as the door hissed open to reveal the dead-faced Red Paladin.  He looked resentful and angry but he was there and that was all Lance was willing to think about in the moment.

“Finally ready to talk?”  Suddenly awake, he stepped back to make room for the other’s entrance.  Keith shook his head in silence, his straight expression ever reddening, as the door shut behind him and closed the two into Lance’s room alone.  He pushed past him to crawl into the bunk and curled up in a corner, knees to his chest.  Lance felt his heart break and all he could do was crawl in beside him.  He was dodgy, as if he might plow Lance over to get back out of the room and run away but he didn’t, even as Lance placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.  “We don’t have to talk until you’re ready to.”

He slid his arm around Keith’s shoulders and pulled until the other boy was nestled against his chest.  Keith let himself turn with the motion and followed Lance’s lead until he was nearly in his lap.  His only protest was a quick, “This is gay,” mumbled into the skin against his face.

Lance chuckled, “Nothing wrong with that.”

Apparently, it was all he needed because Keith tightened his hold on Lance’s waist and pulled him even closer as he began to shake and let salty tears flow into the crook of Lance’s neck.  Neither paid attention to how much time passed but, eventually, they’d slumped into the bed and fallen asleep.  It wasn’t something Lance was even aware of until he roused enough to notice motion in his arms.

Keith was trying to leave and, although Lance was still mostly asleep, he knew he wasn’t going to let that happen.  He tugged the other body closer to his own and found it in himself to mutter, “Mm, no.  Stay.”

“Why?  This is weird.”

“You’re the best fucking pillow I ever had.”  He nuzzled his face into thick, fluffy black locks on the top of Keith’s head and squeezed his arms tighter still around the other guy’s shoulders, “And I don’t want you to be alone right now.”

“Lance, I -”

“Shh,” he muttered into the air and began to stroke his hand down the side of Keith’s head, “don’t worry.  S’not weird.  Just stay.”

“You can’t tell anyone about this, Lance.”

“I won’t.”

“Not even Hunk.”

“No Hunk.  Got it.”

“Ever.”

“On my honor as a Paladin of Voltron:  No one ever.”  At his promise, Keith stilled and the two of them remained until the next morning.

Consciousness slowly ebbed into Lance’s being as he became aware of life again.  He was warm and cuddled and snug in his bed and, for a moment, everything felt right.  He took a deep breath, the scent of Keith filling his senses, and let his eyes flutter open to see a mess of black, bed-tousled hair.  Lance looked down to see Keith, still in his arms.  In fact, he’d turned in his sleep and nestled his face against Lance’s chest; the other’s arms were hugged around his body and one of his legs was pulled up to rest heavy on Lance’s hip.

Keith looked good in his bed.

Whoa.  This is hot!  Goddamn it, not now gay thoughts.  He began to push his feelings aside but, in that moment, he recognized what he’d long been avoiding.  That, paired with the screaming realization that his automatic response to feelings for Keith was to reject them, was more than enough to crumple his resolve.

Lance knew he found Keith attractive the moment he’d laid eyes on him at the Galaxy Garrison during their freshman orientation.  At fourteen years old, he hadn’t possessed the slightest clue what to do with those feelings but he’d known they were there by the awkward twist in his gut.  He was left confused and frustrated because he liked girls; he never doubted he liked girls but, the more he thought about it, the more he liked boys, too.  With his older sibling’s support and education, he’d discovered what he felt was called ‘bisexuality’ and he was ready to explore where it took him.  After he met, dated, and broke up with a boyfriend over his first summer home from the Garrison, he felt a little more at ease with his feelings towards Keith so when he saw him again the next year, he’d been ready to declare himself a lost cause for the surly boy’s know-it-all behavior and steely eyes - until their test scores came in.

Suddenly, they were pit against each other by a result-driven system and Lance felt the full brunt of expectations from teachers and faculty and that nagging doubt that he was always one step behind.  It was made unquestioningly clear to him that second best was not an option and he coped the only way he knew how:  Double down and get competitive.  At the time, it was the right thing to do because no prep school crush was worth the future he was desperately trying to make.

In space, far away from automated scoring and one-shot-for-the-top-slot and labels for who was worthy, he’d eventually been able to let go of those feelings - even if he still held on to the love of competition.  Somehow, however, with Keith in his arms, not even that seemed to matter anymore.  That old, constant attraction had turned somewhere along the way - it was a deeper type of draw now that threatened to pull him under.  Odd feelings of nervousness and peace, longing and joy all twisted together into one big knot placed squarely between his ribs.

Oh shit.  I don’t just like you, I want to date you.  The boy in his arms was like a radiator of warmth and his slow, deep, even breaths as he slept made Lance smile to himself.  Bliss flooded his system as he realised that, for the first time since they’d lost Shiro, he felt okay.  Despite the tingly numbness in his arm from resting under Keith all night, he wanted this moment to last forever.  That familiar attraction swirled in his belly.   Fuck you, Kogane.  He settled in and let himself have the moment.

Lance didn’t note the passing time.  Instead, he just remained wrapped up with Keith and let his mind wander aimlessly.  He thought of upcoming events such as Keith’s impending first flight in Black as her actual pilot.  The lion opened for him the night before and let him inside, much to Allura’s chagrin.  Before long, they would set a course, leave the space pocket, and head to some uninhabited planet Coran had already chosen for bonding and practice.

He wondered if Red knew yet and what she would do, or had done, when Keith told her what was going to happen.  He wondered how Blue would take it if he was in the same situation.  He thought of the bond between the lions and their paladins and knew that this transition wasn’t going to be easy.  Allura was going to try to pilot Red and, although no one said it, everyone knew this was not going to go smoothly.

He thought of the bond between the paladins themselves and the boy in his bed and how wonderful he felt, as if he belonged there.  Lance closed his eyes and willed their time together to last as long as it could.  He thought of rainy days on earth, himself tucked into the large bay window of his parents’ house as it poured and thundered and - in his imagination - Keith was in his arms there, too.

At some point, he became aware that Keith, still hugged tight to his chest, stirred.  The boy’s breaths shifted from slow and rhythmic to frozen as his entire body stiffened:  He was conscious now and seemed pretty surprised at their current predicament.  He moved, as if liquid, and tried to free himself from the arms around his shoulders but Lance couldn’t find it within himself to play along or let that happen.  He craned his neck and smiled down with a smug sense of satisfaction, “I’m awake.”

Keith cringed and looked up, “Wipe that look off your face or I will.”  Lance raised one of his hands in the air as if in surrender but he knew his expression hadn’t changed.  There wasn’t a single force in the universe that could make him not grin at waking up in Keith Kogane’s arms.  For every bit of attraction Lance felt towards him when they were awake, seeing him docile and peaceful and knowing that he’d somehow played a part in that, made everything pale by comparison.

Kiss him.  He’s awake now.  Kiss him!

Keith pulled out of his arms and sat on the edge of the bed, “I’ll be on the training deck.”  He pushed out of the bunk and started towards the door but paused for a moment to look over his shoulder, “This never happened.”

“Hey, Keith?”  Lance shimmied from the bunk in chase and closed the small space between them.  He ducked around Keith’s side until they were face to face, where he couldn’t help but note the blush across those high cheekbones.  Lance tucked a tuft of hair behind Keith’s ear and bent down to peer into his eyes for a moment, “I’m not going to tell anyone - no one has to know - but don’t you make it weird, either.  Okay?”  Keith swallowed hard and seemed to think for a moment but, before long, he nodded.  He agreed, pushed towards the door, and left Lance alone in his room.

Their final days in the space pocket ticked away one by one and, as far as anyone else could tell, nothing had changed between Lance and Keith.  They still bickered and debated, competed and quarreled but there was also a new level of something subtle that gave everyone a breath of fresh air:  Lance decided it was unity.  If the crew hadn’t been otherwise distracted, someone might have noticed how they fought ever so slightly less over pointless issues.  Now, if one brought a grievance, it was more than likely to do with strategy or plan or something else of substance.  They still had their moments but, since that fateful night, they’d begun to work together even better than before.

The new Black Paladin spent as much time with his new lion as he spent mulling over courses of action with his teammates and allies.  The two of them - as well as Allura and Red - needed to bond if they were ever going to form Voltron again.  It seemed Keith spent the rest of his time on the training deck, his ever growing frustrations taken out on the Altean bots; most of the times Lance saw him during the day were at meals.  Each night, however - after everyone was asleep - a quiet knock would sound on the Blue Paladin’s door and his guest would slip inside.  To Lance’s delight, Keith kept coming back.

Things were distinctly different when it was just the two of them.  Facades were dropped and vulnerabilities shown.  Keith seemed to understand how much he genuinely wanted to be there for him because he started talking.  With speed and dexterity Lance hadn’t been expecting, Keith inserted himself into his life with seamless intimacy.

He learned that Keith met Shiro as his foster brother when he was seven but that the Shirogane family had only been one stop in a long line of temporary homes.  He learned that his friend didn’t want to be the black paladin:  He wanted nothing more than his brother back.  He learned that one of Keith’s biggest concerns was how Red was going to take things when it actually came time for them to fly.  He learned that Red had yet to let Allura in or bond with her at all.  He learned what he already knew:  Keith was at a loss.

He quickly grew comfortable and talked to Lance about everything that bothered him.  From the monotony of food goo and the tiny way someone unintentionally insulted him to his complete ignorance for how to handle his Galra heritage and deepest, darkest innermost terrors - Keith began to tell him everything.  Lance offered help where he felt he could and gave a quiet, listening ear when he felt he could offer nothing else.

He tried to encourage Keith to talk to the Blades of Marmora about his heritage, since he was sure that was where he was most likely to find real answers, but the other boy wanted no part of that:  “I’d rather just talk to you about it.”

Lance felt his heart melt into his chest and wrapped his arms around Keith’s shoulders to pull him into a hug.  He felt something between a scoff and a chuckle from the boy in his arms but couldn’t be bothered by what it meant; all he knew was that Keith was there and wanted to be there and wanted to talk to him.

Of everything Lance learned as he grew closer and closer to the boy who’d taken to crashing in his room more often than not, however, his favorite had to be that Keith seemed to enjoy cuddling almost as much as he did.  It was surprising at first but quickly became expected as Keith would make his way into Lance’s room and seek out those same arms night after night.  Lance, for his part, wouldn’t have had it any other way.

They spent their days as a team - working to find Shiro, form Voltron, and take down the Galra Empire - but Keith spent his nights with Lance.

It was one such night that they found themselves right where they always were:  Tangled together on Lance’s bed, discussing the events of the day.  Pidge and Slav were convinced that Shiro was in an alternate reality so she’d buckled down and enlisted Hunk’s help to work on something to track and retrieve him based on Slav’s calculations.  The Blades were willing to help to the extent that it did not put a drain on their resources but retained their illusive air since they lost members all the time and did not view the loss of one life as anything extraordinary.  It was an attitude that, although hopefully only temporarily, made Keith even less willing to talk to them about his own history and Allura less trustful of their ally.

The princess was also ready to pull out her hair over Red.  She’d had enough and given Coran the order to set course for the planet, come what may, so they could train; in the morning, they would begin their journey.

It seemed, for a moment as conversation lulled between the two boys, that they’d run out of things to talk about after so many nights of nonstop sharing.  Lance rolled onto his side and brushed black hair out of gray eyes as he smiled, “Let’s play Truth or Truth.”

“The hell is that?”

“It’s Truth or Dare without dares.”

“Why?”

“I want to know you.”  Lance shrugged, “I’ll start off easy:  Favorite color?”

Keith blushed ever so slightly but answered without hesitation, “Blue.”

“Not red?”

“It was red for awhile but only after I got up here and met her.”

“But your jacket -”

“I think I look good in red,” Keith shrugged this time, “doesn’t mean it’s my favorite color.  Before Red, my favorite color was black.”

“Emo.  Why blue now?”  Lance raised up to his elbow and stared hard at eyes that refused to give him an answer.  He groaned and made a pleading face to no avail.

“That’s three questions you’ve asked in a row.”

“Shit.  No, you can ask me three in a row if you’ll answer me ‘why blue now?’”

Keith smirked, “My turn.”

“Damn it!”

“What’s your favorite food from earth?”

“Oh, Keith, why’d you do that to me?”  Lance moaned and turned onto his back as he launched into a sonnet about his Grandma McClain’s blueberry pancakes.  They were fluffy and buttery and just slightly sweeter than any other pancakes so he didn’t need too much syrup.  She used fresh blueberries from her own garden and nothing else throughout their entire home planet compared.  He settled his gaze on Keith, “Why blue now?”

“Still my turn.  I get two.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah,” Keith chuckled and Lance wanted him to make that sound forever, “what’s your favorite song?”

“Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven.”

“That’s -” his mouth gaped open and eyes bulged a bit as his brain worked to process the news and he was at a loss, “unexpected.  Lance McClain:  Lover of classical music?  What the hell?”

“Am I the reason your favorite color is blue now?”

“God, Lance, you said you’d start off easy.”  Keith’s face was steady and unwavering but, just underneath the surface, a shy type of anxiety twisted and Lance could hear it in his voice more than anything else.  It was an odd sensation - his tone hadn’t changed - but he knew it was there and he didn’t want to push too hard.

“Fine.  What’s your favorite earth food?”

“Don’t judge me.”

“Tell me it’s not going to be pineapple pizza or some shit.”

“No but it’s almost as bad.  My favorite food, on all of planet earth, had to be the Garrison’s salisbury steak and rice.”  Keith winced in preparation for the reaction.

“Oh no.”  Lance blanched, “I would take a slice of pineapple pizza every day for the rest of my life before I would take another bite of that rubbery tar bullshit!  No.  This friendship is over.  I can’t do it.  No, just no.  We need to find the nearest church so you can repent of your sins.”

“Hey, what happened to no judgement?”  He swat at Lance’s chest but let his hand remain there after.  Lance smirked and pointed at him.

“I never agreed to that.”

“Don’t tell Hunk.”

“I would never tell Hunk about that!  It would break his heart!  He would cry, Keith!”

The pretty boy with the messy hair swallowed hard and looked Lance over for a moment as he contemplated his next move.  Finally, he seemed to settle, “What’s your biggest fear?”

“You won’t tell me if I’m your favorite color but you want to know my biggest fear?”

Keith turned onto his back and ran his hands down his face with an annoyed groan, “Yes!  Fine!  You’re the reason my favorite color is blue.  Now, what’s your biggest fear?”

“Oh.  Um, okay.”  Lance felt all the oxygen sucked from his lungs and took a moment to steady himself.  Although it took him more than a second to recover from Keith’s admission, it didn’t take him long to pinpoint his worries, “That other people will die because of me in some way.  Or that I die out here and my family never knows what happened to me.  You?”

“That I’ll turn Galra.”

“Not that we never find Shiro?

“That’s up there.”

“What does ‘turn Galra’ mean?  Like you’d get purple and grow new ears?”  Lance gasped and molded Keith’s hair into a pathetic mimicry of the bat- or feline-esque auditory appendages, “They’d be so cute!”

Keith waved the other’s hands away and scoffed, “I meant that my ancestry will be bad news - like I go off the deep end or something.  I want to be one of the good guys.”

“You are one of the good guys.  ‘Galra’ is not a synonym for ‘evil,’ Keith; talk to the Marmorites or not but I need you to remember that much.  No matter what we see or who we meet, you are one of the best good guys.”

He draped his arm across Lance’s middle and Lance felt his heart skip a beat at the motion.  He lightly ran his fingertips over Keith’s forearm and sighed, content, at the soft look on the other boy’s face at his words.  Keith took a deep breath, “Fine, then - that I’ll lose you, too.”

Lance slipped his arm around Keith’s waist and pulled him close, “That is never going to happen, Keith.  Ever.  Do you hear me?”

“You can’t be sure of that.”

“I will damn sure do my best and I think we both know how hard-headed I am.”  Lance obeyed the ache in his chest and took the chance:  He pressed a kiss to Keith’s forehead for a moment but, instead of pulling back to look at the reaction, he promptly tucked his chin atop Keith’s head and tried to will his own blush away.  Lance cleared his throat and continued, changing subjects and aiming towards his ultimate goal for the evening, “Ever have any girlfriends?”

“Um,” Keith chuckled nervously and pulled back from his embrace, “it might make things awkward after what you just did but girls have never really been my thing.  You?”

“Two girlfriends and a boyfriend - officially.”

“Wait,” Keith pushed up to his elbow, “what?”

“You heard me.  And you don’t get to just not answer - now I get two.”

“I answered!”

“No, you implied.  I get two.  Boyfriends?”

“Wait!  No!  Fine, I’m gay!”  Keith’s eyes widened in indignance at the denial, “I want more information!”

“Wait your turn.  Boyfriends?”

He groaned, “Never had a real one but I’ve been with a few guys.”

“Sexually -?  No!  Wait.  I want to phrase this right.”  Lance cleared his throat again and thought a moment, “How many people have you been sexually intimate with?”

“That is an oddly clinical question.”

“Answer it.”

“I don’t know, six or seven.”

“Seriously?  Dude, we’re not even eighteen!”

“It’s easy to have one night stands when you live on your own in the desert.  It was pretty much just go to a bar and wait for some creepy older guy - preferably hot - to pick me up.  They were pretty much all just attempts to get my mind off a missing sort-of-brother and getting kicked out of school and generally watching my life spiral completely out of control.  Don’t judge me.”

“I’m not judging.  I’m jealous, if anything.”

“Don’t be.”  Keith reached towards Lance’s face and cupped his jaw near his ear for a moment before he cleared his throat and let his hand fall away, “None of them were exactly memorable - not even my first.”

Lance caught Keith’s fingers as they fell, knit them together with his own, and brought their joined hands to rest on his own hip.  He smirked, “How’d they take it when they walked in to see the Conspiracy Board?”

“I kept the lights off.”  A blush grew on Keith’s cheeks and around his collar but he answered with self-assured tones, “And you just asked me three in a row so now I get three.”  Keith tapped the back of Lance’s hand with one of his fingers.  He groaned and conceded, “Now, exactly what is your sexual orientation?”

“My sexual orientation is ‘yes.’”  He leaned in close and wriggled his eyebrows.

Keith rolled his eyes, “Oh my God, Lance.”

“I’m bi.”  He leaned back, shrugged, and unwound their fingers to place Keith’s hand directly on his waist.  “When we got up here and I started chasing alien tail I thought I might be pan but then it’s like, that’s ‘hearts not parts’ and I’m so about parts.”  Lance slipped one of his now freed fingers through one of the belt loops on the front of the other guy’s pants and tugged a bit towards his own body.  He relished the hitch in Keith’s breath at the motion.

“And you’ve been with a guy before?”

“Yes.”

“How was it?”

“Well,” Lance chuckled, “I dated him for a few months so we figured out what we were doing eventually and it got a lot better but the first time was the worst kind of special.  It was my first summer home from the Garrison; we were both complete virgins and neither of us knew about lube -”

“Oh no!”

“Yeah and I thought it sounded like a good idea to bottom.”

“Oh!”

“I mean - I, uh, I don’t have to bottom but I did the first time because of porn and it sounded like a fun challenge.  Anyway, it was a mistake.  I was sore for awhile.  Like, it was bad enough my family noticed.  To date, the most uncomfortable moment in my life was sitting with my ninety-seven year old great aunt, a strictly devout Catholic woman, while she asked me what was wrong with my ass after I’d lost my virginity to another boy.  I love her very much but gay sex is not on the conversational menu with her.  Good news is I got out of it, bad news is I learned way too much about her hemorrhoids.”  Lance shifted and enjoyed the sweet sound of Keith’s laughter, “Luckily, one of my sisters - Jen, the slutty one - pulled me aside and took it upon herself to give me a two hour lecture on the hows of anal sex.  That was the day I started calling her ‘the slutty one.’”

Keith leaned in close with a mischievous look on his face and whispered, “You think that’s uncomfortable, try getting your sex ed from Shiro.”

“No!”

“Yup!”  He threw his head back and laughed for a moment, “I have seen him face certain death with more willingness than he had for that talk.  Like, he does a lot without complaint but when something comes up that he doesn’t want to do - oh my God - you’re going to know it.  He seems stoic but he’s really just awkward.”

“And that’s coming from you!”

“Hey!”

“Sorry,” Lance let his voice come out playfully seductive, “did I hurt your feelings?”

“Fuck off.”

“Like, I want to know what happened but I don’t want to give up a question.”

“No, this can be a freebie - even though you’re a dick.”

“Granted.”

“So, sex talk from Shiro:  One summer, when I was a kid, I walked in on him and a girlfriend.  It was graphic - I saw everything - and after she left in a hurry, he came in and we were talking and he apparently figured out that no one had ever fully explained things to me.  Well, this meant his choice was either explain the birds and the bees or wait until I asked his parents. So, Shiro being all ‘death before dishonor,’ was not about to let his parents find out that he’d let a girl come over while he was supposed to be watching me.  He sat me down and managed out this long, informative speech about men and women and love and sex and all this bullshit that kids needs to know at some point.  Now, I don’t remember how old I was but apparently I was old enough to be questioning because after it was all over and he’d done his duty and he was ready to meet is Maker, I turned to him and asked, ‘but what if I like boys?’  On a related note, this was also the first time I heard him swear.”

Lance was helpless to contain the laughter that bubbled up from his belly.  He let his head collapse from his hand to the pillow bunched underneath the two of them.  Once he caught his breath, he’d come to a decision, “No, I’ll spend my question on this:  Did he explain gay stuff, too?”

“Yes, Shiro is nothing if not thorough.  He came back a couple of days later - because he had to prepare - and explained gay sex to me.  Which is, you know, how I knew to use lube when the time came.”

“Shut up.”  Lance huffed for a moment but rolled his eyes, “Alright, next question.”

“How many people have you had sex with?”

“Two:  One boy, one girl - and I was officially dating each of them when it happened.”

“No aliens?”

“Not yet and that was two.”

“Damn it.”

Lance peered into sparkling eyes that made his insides twist.  He took a deep breath and let the real question he’d been wanting to ask roll off his tongue, “Do you like me?”  Keith’s blush grew scarlet but he nodded.  Lance leaned forward, “Can I kiss you?”

Keith mirrored the motion, ever so slightly, in expectation, “Yes.”

“Good to know.”  Lance flopped onto his back with a chuckle, “Your turn.”

He scoffed, “You are an ass!  I withdraw my last two answers!”

“Nope.  Too late.  I heard them.”

“Fine.”  Keith bit his lip, “Do you seriously not remember the bonding moment?”

Lance laughed, “It’s been, like, a year!”

“Answer the question.”

Lance focused on the severity of the look in Keith’s eyes.   Oh, c’mon, you know the right answer.  He swallowed and took a breath, “I do.  I told you you were hot, didn’t I?  Like, it’s a little fuzzy - because, you know, I did have a major concussion - but it’s there.”

“You did tell me I was hot - ‘hot when you look so worried about me’ were the exact words.  Why did you say you didn’t remember?”

“That’s two.”

“I remembered you from the Garrison.”

“What?”  Lance turned back onto his side, perched on an elbow, and stared hard at Keith’s earnest and apologetic expression.

“When you showed up to help save Shiro and I acted like I didn’t know you?  I totally knew you.  I had a crush on you back in school and, when you stormed in out of nowhere, I panicked.  I had shit to do, I had a brother to save, and then you - of all people - showed up and all I could do was pretend it wasn’t happening.  Since that wasn’t an option, I went with the whole ‘who are you’ thing.  If I’m good at anything, it’s bullshitting.  It wasn’t exactly the moment to say, ‘Yes, I know who you are.  I spent my entire Freshman year staring at you and doodling your name in the margins of my notes.’”

I have a crush on you now.  “You doodled -?”  Lance let the words die on his lips as he felt his heart flutter.  He took a deep breath, “I said I didn’t remember the bonding moment because I got scared.  Everyone was there and staring and I got scared so I said I didn’t remember.  I guess we both panicked.”  He swallowed the lump in his throat as he let his fingers play with the button of Keith’s jeans, “How bad do you think it would be if we started dating while you were the head of Voltron?”

“I don’t care.”  Keith dipped his fingers underneath the hem of Lance’s shirt and ran his hand up the boy’s ribs.  Lance shivered and swallowed hard.

Lance clenched his eyes shut as he pulled his touch away, turned onto his back, and let loose a pain filled groan.  He ran both of his hands over his own face and whined, “Goddamnit!  Motherfuck!  Why do I have to?  I do!  I don’t want to care but I do!”

“What would I have to do to change that?”

“Very little!”  Lance whimpered, “But - and I hate myself for saying this - please don’t?  I want to.  I want to more than anything right now but, like, while I still have the willpower left to say something, I need to remind myself the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.  We already don’t know if Red will let Allura in one day or what we’re going to do if she doesn’t and you’re still bonding to the black lion and we need to find Shiro - oh, and the Galra Empire is still around - and the last thing we should do is fuck it up because we have no self control.  Oh, I hate myself.  Feel free to ignore all of that!”

A tense moment of silence fell between them before Keith finally spoke, “Should I go?”

Lance turned back over and swung his arm around the other’s waist, “Absolutely not.”

“One month.”

“What?”

“I will give you one month or finding Shiro, whichever comes first, but then I’m going to kiss you.  Fuck the consequences.  I want you.”

“Oh, God, that’s hot.”

“Lance?”

“Deal!  Fucking deal!”  He nodded and Keith turned over in his arms without another word.  Lance tugged him close and pressed into his back as he inhaled that delicious scent from his hair.  “You think you’re sleeping here tonight or something?”

“Yup,” Keith slipped his socked feet between Lance’s calves and tangled their legs together.  His voice held a soul-crushing lilt as he spoke with complete confidence in his abilities, “I’m going to make this as hard on you as I possibly can.”

He ran his hand up Keith’s side, “You’re cruel.  Hot and wonderful and cruel.”

“Go to sleep, Lance.  Allura is going to try and pilot Red for real tomorrow and we’re going to try to form Voltron with her.  God knows, we’ll both need sleep for that.”

“It should be interesting.  Hey, what did Red say when you told her about all this?”

“She told me no.  I am really not looking forward to this.”

Lance allowed himself to press his lips to Keith’s clothed shoulder for a moment, “It’s going to be okay.  We’ll all figure it out together.”

“Lance?”

“Yeah?”

“Three weeks.”

He chuckled, voice low and smooth, “Deal.”

“I really like you, Lance.”

“I know:  I’m your favorite color.”  Lance chortled and let his hands dip around Keith’s side and settle on his breastbone, “I really like you, too.”

“Thanks for tackling me:  You make a good dentist.”

“Any time, babe.”  Lance noticed the warmth creep up Keith’s neck at the word and he grinned.  He resisted the urge to lean his mouth closer to his bedmate’s ear and let out a string of pet names.   Babe.  Cariño.  Sweetheart.  Sexy .  Instead, he let Keith tangle their fingers together where Lance’s were poised on his chest - well away from the temptation of danger zones - and the two let sleep find them where they lay.

No one could claim Allura hadn’t done her best but, as the Castle of Lions bid farewell to the tiny pouch of hidden space and assumed a course for the planet of Coran’s choosing, she still stood toe to toe with the defiant and indomitable red lion.  She saw them through to the other side of their wormhole and promptly made her way down to her new lion’s hangar.

Wordlessly, everyone except Coran followed.

As Allura approached Red, however, she again raised her particle barrier and outright refused the princess entrance.  It wasn’t too odd of an occurrence, everyone agreed, since she’d done the same thing to Keith when he’d first found her.  What was so pointed about it was the persistence the lion showed this pilot:  It’d been nearly two weeks since Allura first went to her to bond but she would have none of it.  The paladins lined up in a row and each stared up at the unmoved mechanical beast, all scarlet and spite behind her glowing shield that seemed to radiate the word no in all of their faces.  The princess folded her arms over her chest and kept an angry glare glued to the lion, even as she spoke to Keith.

“Any suggestions?”

“No one can make Red do something she doesn’t want to do.”

“I have gathered.”  Allura let out a long sigh and directed her energies at Red, “I am still here, like it or not.  On some level, you must respect that.”  The lion didn’t respond.

Ticks turned into dobashes turned into vargas and, soon enough, Coran’s voice appeared over Allura’s intercom earrings to let them know they’d arrived at and landed on Rexicorl Ubferlon.  After only a little while longer, he joined them in Red’s hangar.

“Any progress, Princess?”

“None.  She is every bit as stubborn as I should have expected from the red lion.”

They’d reached a true standstill and nothing the princess or Keith said seemed to sway Red’s opinion on the matter.  Everyone was there to watch as she blatantly refused Allura access, yet again.  Lance wished there was some way to make the scene playful and humorous but even he knew it was nothing but awkward, painful even, and not the time for a joke.  The princess looked ready to fight or cry and he wasn’t sure what was going to happen from here.  If Red refused to participate, they couldn’t form Voltron; if they couldn’t form Voltron, they weren’t going to be able to take down the remaining Galra Empire.

They needed cooperation and wholeness and teamwork.  They needed Shiro.

As the third varga came to a close, it seemed glaringly obvious that Red did not want Allura as her paladin.  “What would you have us do, then?”  All trace of the normal cheer in the princess’s voice was gone as she hollered up at the enormous machine.

Lance stepped up and rested his forehead against Red’s barrier, “C’mon, Beautiful.  We all know she’s not as hard-headed or crazy as you but she’s willing to learn.”  A sneaking sensation flowered in his mind as he stood up, rigid and alert and keenly aware of exactly what he’d just felt.  Red waited, as if considering his words.  It took Lance’s breath away as he felt her musings on the matter.  He couldn’t help it:  He placed his hand against her fortification.  Slowly, she began to lower her shield.  The glowing transparent red blockade only flashed off for a moment, though, because the second Allura stepped towards the mechanical beast, it was back in place.

“I do not understand,” Allura’s voice was exasperated but also more than a little hurt and Lance felt bad for her.  Almost everyone was at a loss for what to do.  Silence hung heavy throughout the hangar and no one dared to speak for a long while.

It was Keith who finally broke the thick tension.  He stood in front of Red, flanked by the other paladins, and stared up at her with an annoyed gaze as he asked her one solemn question:  “Seriously?”

Lance felt it again:  A low grumble and a sort of purr that was so similar to Blue’s but equally different.  It reminded him of hearing his two oldest sisters on the phone - if they didn’t introduce themselves, there was no way to know who was speaking.  He, however, knew them well enough to know that - so long as they kept talking - he would be able to identify them eventually.

Keith sighed, “Everyone move back - I want to try something.  Not you.”  He reached out and gripped Lance’s hand before he could take more than a step.  Keith unceremoniously shoved Lance forward and waited.  Red kept her peace until the only two people near her shield were Keith and Lance.

Soon enough, an overwhelming sense of satisfaction settled over him.  The particle barrier lowered, the Lion dropped her enormous metal head to the ground, and opened her mouth to permit him entrance.

Lance looked up at the finicky machine  “Me?”

Keith nodded and clapped his hand to Lance’s shoulder, “Looks like.”

“Why me?”

“No idea.”  He was lying but Lance couldn’t tell why.  Nor could he, in the moment, bring himself to care.  He looked back to Red’s open jaws and felt an overpowering sense of awestruck humility that lasted approximately two seconds before the next wave of emotions washed over his body.  He’d been chosen by not one, but two Lions of Voltron; the fact that one of them was Red - the most petulant of the five - was just the cherry on top of his egotistically delightful sundae.  Before he had sufficient time to revel in the moment, however, a third wave of feelings crashed over him:  A strange sort of homesickness and bitter remorse.

He felt his shoulders slump, “I can’t do this to Blue.”

“It is a temporary situation, Lance.”  Allura’s voice echoed off the metallic walls of Red’s hangar, “This entire arrangement is just until we find the black lion’s rightful paladin.”

“She’s right.”  Keith agreed and took a step back with relenting eyes focused on his lion.  In a strange way only the other paladins understood, Red was Keith’s soulmate.  From the moment Shiro had disappeared, Lance knew, the Red Paladin had been banking on Allura’s stubbornness as an eventual out but that relief never came.  He still hadn’t adjusted to the fact that Shiro’s wishes regarding his leadership were being fulfilled and, if the truth was told, Lance wasn’t sure the other boy would ever like it - even if he did, in time, accept it.  Lance snorted in surprise, looked up at looming golden eyes, and knew, in his heart, that this was going to happen.

“Can I at least talk it over with Blue?”

“Yes,” Allura conceded, “but, if she has concerns, you must work to convince her.  If the red lion will not let me pilot her, this is the only way to form Voltron without Shiro.”

Lance nodded and took a startled step backwards as Red seemed to respond to the plan.  She closed her mouth, raised her head, and remained seated without a raised barrier.  A constant purr thrummed through his chest.

This was going to happen.

Lance climbed into the familiar cockpit of his precious lion and settled into his chair.  More than the Castle, more than earth, more than Keith for now - Blue felt like home.  He ran his hands over the armrests and sighed,

“I’m going to be honest with you here, girl:  This seems too orchestrated.”  Lance leaned into the soft headrest behind him, “I take it you guys have been discussing things among yourselves?”

A positive rumble echoed throughout his body.

“And you’ve decided this is how you want it to be.  You’re okay with this?  You.  Not Red, not Black - you.”

A loud purr filled his mind followed by a quiet, peaceful acceptance:   You’ll come back.  The sentiment left him with a proud yet hollow feeling as if he were a child seen by his mother to the bus on the first day of school.  Lance felt sudden tears sting his eyes.  He inhaled deeply and stroked the soft alien leather of his seat.

“I don’t really want to do this, you know.”  Wistful comfort swirled in his belly and he couldn’t help but laugh a little at her.  “God, was it your idea?”

Red.

“No, no, that makes perfect sense.  She would.”  He scoffed in amusement, “Was it all Red’s idea or did you, like, bargain for me?”

Red.

“Wow.  Two lions?  Who would’ve thought I would get chosen by two lions and one of them Red?  No offense but you and I have that whole accepting thing going for us - she does not.”  A powerful sensation gripped Lance in the center of his chest as if he were being pulled apart and shoved together all at the same time:  It was wholeness and satisfaction and love and adoration and acceptance and respect all in one brief, intense moment of utter union and oneness with the universe.

They weren’t words, they were never words, but Lance’s entire being was filled with a feeling so strong it was as if he could hear it in auditory language:   You are more than good enough for any lion.  He was a cub under his mother’s watchful eyes and she was proud.  Lance took a deep breath to steady himself as he wiped at his now damp face with the backs of his hands.  She’d made him cry with the beauty of existence.

He laughed, “I love you, too, girl.”  Another loud purr ebbed into being, stronger than the last.  “Hey, Blue?  Be nice to Allura.  Red was -” Lance shook his head, “not.”

Positive vibes rang through him again and he nodded to the surrounding cockpit for a moment before he wiped his face again and found his way back to her entrance where Allura stood waiting.

She looked stunned, wide-eyed and breathless, as she ran her hand along one of Blue’s enormous claws.  “This feeling.  Is this her?  I know so much about the lions - but this?  It is quite indescribable, isn’t it?”

Lance nodded, “You feel that, too?”  Blue still relentlessly purred.

“I do,”

“She likes you.  Huh,” he mused and rested his hand against Blue’s cold metallic side, “I guess she’s talking to both of us.”

“So she is willing?”

“She helped plan it, apparently.”

“They -” Allura blinked, “they planned it amongst themselves?”

“I’m not sure the other lions had much say but Blue says she was in on the negotiations with Red.”  He cleared his throat and looked back up at his lion - his first lion - for a moment before he looked back at the watery-eyed princess.  “Take care of her for me, okay?  She already has your back.”

“I will!” Allura nodded.

“Oh!  One more thing.”  Lance withdrew his bayard and held it out to the princess as each of them took a deep breath.  “I’ll get mine from Keith.”

“Of -” she stuttered a bit as she took the weapon from his hand, “of course.”  She gripped the handle tight and inhaled sharply as it transformed into something that looked like a bow and arrow, only there was no quiver in sight.  Instead, strung across the large curvature of the weapon, was a streak of light ready to be drawn back and shot through the air.

“Oh shit.  We have Robin Hood on our team now.”

“What is a ‘Robin Hood?’”

“It’s an old human folktale about an outlaw who robbed from rich bad guys and gave the money back to the poor people who’d gotten screwed over in the first place.  He used a bow and arrow - you know what?  I’ll have to tell you the stories later.”  Lance gestured over his shoulder, “Will my bayard change when I’m using Keith’s?”

“Only in color.”  Allura’s face curled into a genuine smile - the first one he’d seen her make since Shiro disappeared, “And I like the sound of this ‘Robin Hood.’”  She relaxed her hold on the bayard and it reverted to the harmless state of handle and key.

“In you go.  Blue’s got your back.  You’re gonna do great.”  Lance watched as she made her way inside his lion - her lion for now - and the jaws closed in front of him.  He turned to leave but stole one last long look back at his true love and took a deep breath before he began to make his way toward Red’s hangar.

The planet was nice - alien but peaceful.  Orange grasses and chalky white and rust colored rocks blurred by underneath them as they each zipped along red skies with pink clouds.  The atmosphere was poison to both humans and Alteans so no one would be leaving their cockpit but, as Lance saw it, that was merely a type of provision:  The planet was uninhabitable and so, therefore, a little bit safer for practice.  Nothing about it would stop spaceships from following them - that was all on Coran in terms of planetary placement in a solar system far from Galra eyes - but it meant no one on the ground was there to be bothered.  They had free reign of the skies on this little ball designated Rexicorl Ubferlon.

Allura seemed to be flying Blue without too much of a problem.  It would take some time for her to learn everything but she was a quick study.  He wasn’t too surprised, given how willing their lion had been.  Red, on the other hand, ran a tight ship.  She demanded every ounce of Lance’s focus, his drive, and - above all - his trust.  When she said jump, she didn’t even want him to ask how high:  She wanted him to act.  The two of them lost their chance at any sort of pre-flight bond because she hadn’t let anyone in on her plan so every move they made was brand new territory.

She grumbled around him as she sensed his train of thought.

“Well?  You didn’t.  You could have saved us time if -” Lance’s words screeched into a nonsensical sound of panic as he pulled up to avoid the rocky mountain tops that suddenly appeared through low hanging clouds.  A low-toned something thrummed through his body:  She’d known that was coming.  “No warning, nice.  You would’ve crashed, too, you know.  Petty.  Got it:  It’s like flying Keith.  Laugh all you want, lady, but I know what I’m doing now.”  He adjusted the controls with a new level of confidence and looped through the air.  Before long, he would be ready to rejoin the others and take his place as the right arm of Voltron.

She snickered.

Allura and Lance regrouped with their teammates and, in time, they were able to fly in formation, execute tactical operations, and eventually form Voltron.  It was a shaky assembly but it was impressive for their first try.  For all that Red had put Allura through over their attempted bonding time - in Blue, the princess was a natural pilot.  Somehow, after their training, Lance felt a little less like a ragtag band of clueless rebels and more like the beginnings of something great.  They still had a lot of work to do together before any of them felt confidant enough to face even the weakest of Galra foes in an actual battle but the foundation was there and it was solid.  Whatever came, it was going to be okay.

Just over eight hours later, with a quick thirty minute break for lunch, Keith finally let them call it quits.  Somehow, even though they’d all seen how he ran himself ragged - on the training deck and in real life - they each managed to be surprised at him.  By the time he allowed them to return to the Castle, even Allura was ready to stop.  Lance felt a different type of quiet satisfaction radiate from Red as he returned her to her hangar.  It reminded him of what Blue’d sent to him before he’d turned her over to her new pilot:  She was proud of Keith.

“He did good, didn’t he?”

Wore you out.

“Oh, don’t you take his side in this.  I understand he’s your favorite - he’s my favorite, too - but if you had a nervous system like ours or muscles, you’d be just as tired as I am.”  Lance felt her giant paws touch down on the cold metal floor and, before long, the machinery began to settle with something that reminded him of relief.  “Ha, maybe you do get tired, too.”

Shut up.

“Really?  ‘Shut up?’  Keith’s been a bad influence on you, madam.”  She grumbled at his words, as close to amused sarcasm as he thought the lions could muster, and he made his way out of the beast’s open jaws.  Once he was clear, she raised her head and sat down on her haunches to power off for the night.

Something else wafted to him.  He watched her with an inquisitive eye as he tried to put his finger on the feeling.  It was interest and approval.  It felt like some sort of sacred trust placed suddenly on his shoulders.  He’d won something, although he hadn’t been aware he’d been competing.

A blessing.

Red was giving him her blessing.

A tender feeling streaked through his heart and he smiled at her, “I like you, too, Red.  I’m touched.  I really am.  Even though the whole thing is temporary, it’s an honor that you let me fly you, girl.”  Something else followed his words:  She was amused again.  He’d missed something somewhere.

Her attention shifted to just over Lance’s shoulder - an odd sensation every time he’d ever felt a lion do that.  They never moved their heads but it was as if he could feel those stationary screens shift in non-existent sockets.  He followed her imaginary gaze to see Keith standing just inside the doorway.

Lance felt a repeat of the previous feelings well up in his gut.  He was getting that blessing again and she intended to make herself plain.  This time, there was a thought attached to it:   For him.

“Uh -” Lance let the noise escape his lips.  He heard an echo of the same sentiment come from his fellow pilot.  Keith was frozen, his eyes wide and brow shot damn near into his hairline.  A soft blush spread on his cheeks as he seemed to comprehend, in unison with Lance, Red’s exact meaning.  She’d said it to both of them.

Kiss him.

Apparently, both paladins heard that thought, too, because they each threw their hands into the air in matching poses of indignance.  Their words came out in unison, matched for volume and tone, as ‘Oh, come on!’ and ‘Seriously?’ mingled together in frustration at the impertinent mechanical cat.  Red seemed far too pleased with herself as her boys each stole a glance at the other and silence reigned.

Lance laughed first.  It was a soulful, rolling belly laugh that spilled over his lips and into the air in sweet, melodic notes.  Keith followed soon after in tittering admittance of the ridiculousness of their situation that quickly spiraled into outright guffaws.  The two of them remained and let the mirth flow freely and unashamed.  They’d already admitted their feelings for each other.  They knew they wanted this.  They just weren’t expecting Red to sit them down and try to make it happen.

Keith sighed happily as the laughter finished dancing from his lungs.  He rubbed the back of his neck, underneath his hair, and looked Lance over from head to toe and back again, “Well?”

Lance’s heart skipped a beat, “‘Well’ what?”

“What do you say?  Call off the deal and make it today?  Be my boyfriend?”

Suddenly, things weren’t funny anymore:  They were deeply, utterly, romantically serious.  All of Lance’s Keith-centric amatory desires and fantasies from age fourteen until less than a full minute ago flashed before his eyes in a whirlwind blur of hope and fear.  His eyes shocked wide and his throat ran dry.  “Uh,” he blinked, “did you just ask me out?”

Keith shrugged in that infuriating way he did when he was trying to look more noncommittal than he actually was, “I’ve liked you for a long time, Lance - and if Red says it’s time, it’s time.  She’s never steered me wrong before.”

“Well, then!”  He started off across the room to where the other boy still stood by the door, every step the carefully planned move of a greater mission, “You heard the lady!”  The space between them disappeared as Lance grabbed hold of Keith’s armor by his collar and pulled him up and forward until their lips connected in a tingling spark.  Their mouths danced against each other - hot and urgent and pent-up and passionate, but exasperating as their armor clashed to keep them apart.

Keith pulled back first, a whine emanating from Lance for only a moment until he realized what his partner’s goal was:  He was pulling off his paladin armor and Lance had never agreed with Keith more than in that moment.  He followed his example until they were stripped down to the skintight black flight suits underneath.

Before Lance was sure what was happening, he was being backed against a wall as Keith crowded him and peered up with sultry eyes that shrieked volumes of I want you.  He felt arms wrap around his ribs and lips pressed back to his and an overwhelming sensation of finally wash over his entire being as he tugged the other boy as close as he could.  Tongues tangled together and fingers roamed in the erotic freedom to explore that they’d each longed for and, at long last, had.  Somehow, Keith tasted like strawberries and, in a tactile expression that made much more sense to Lance than fresh fruit in space, the boy in his arms felt paramount:  Keith Kogane was the greatest adventure Lance would ever have.

He felt a leg stroke up his own and let his hands wander lower, to the backs of Keith’s thighs, as the boy jumped into his arms.  He turned them, their mouths never breaking for more than a moment, and pressed him against the same wall he’d been on.   God, you feel good wrapped around my waist.  Lance burrowed deeper into the miracle of Keith’s being and felt himself let go of reality.  Nothing else in the universe mattered anymore - the only thing in existence was them.  He pulled back ever so slightly, Keith panting against his chest, and rested their foreheads together.

Lance grinned, “To be clear:  Yes, I’ll be your boyfriend.”  Keith’s eyes grew wide and startled and he held his breath as Lance pushed back in to reclaim those lips one more time, soft and sweetly caressing and only for a moment.

Keith pulled back, “I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“Kissing me.”  Lance smiled but the look of pure panic on Keith’s face settled his features quickly.  His partner’s legs grew suddenly heavy in his arms so he put him back down but he kept his arms around that precious waist, pulled close to him for protection and connection.  Keith kept his hands firmly planted on Lance’s back as if that was the only thing keeping him from floating away.  He shook his head.

“No!  As a leader!  I don’t know what I’m doing!  Shiro was wrong.  Shiro was an idiot!  I’m not ready for this, Lance!  I can’t pilot Voltron!  I can’t lead the team!  Putting me in a position of leadership?  Over Allura?  What the hell, man?  Not even he had to do that but here I am telling her what to do as a leg!  And it’s not like I can talk to her about it - that would be weird.  She already hates me for standing where he stood and being Galra and now I’m telling her what to do?  It should be her piloting the black lion, Lance!  It should have been her from the very beginning!  I need to talk to Shiro about this but no, he’s missing - which is why I’m here in the first place!  I am lost with this.  I’ve been lost since he disappeared.  Even when I bond with Black, I’ve been lost and flying by the seat of my pants and I hate this:  It’s new and wrong and not right.  I mean, I can fly by the seat of my pants but this is the first time I’ve ever had to do it with the weight of the entire fucking universe on my shoulders.  I don’t know how Shiro did this, Lance, I really don’t!  What the hell am I supposed to do with all this shit?  I am alone and the first thing that’s made sense since he fucked off to only God knows where are your lips!  Just you, here with me, making out like we should have been the entire time we’ve known each other - that’s the only thing that makes sense.  You’re the only thing holding me to reality, Lance.  I was a horrible substitute son for Shiro to his parents and I’m a horrible substitute leader for Shiro to you guys now.  If I’m going to do this, I’m going to need you!”

Lance tugged him as close as he possibly could and pressed his lips to Keith’s again for a moment, hard and adamant.  He rested their foreheads together again and stared, crosseyed, into watery gray.  “You’re a lot of things, babe, but ‘alone’ is not one of them.”

Keith tilted his chin up to catch those lips again.  He ran his tongue along his lower lip, Lance’s mouth opening to the inquiry, and swallowed the dirty moan that escaped Keith’s throat.  He took the kiss somewhere unchaste, right to the edge of depraved, filled with teeth and need and animalistic fervor and Lance let himself enjoy the ride there as Keith had his way with him.  He dug his fingernails into Lance’s back, a promise of things to come.  Finally, and seemingly with great reluctance, he pulled back and rested his forehead against Lance’s.

“Thank you,” Keith muttered quietly into the air between them.

“Red’s got some good ideas.”  Lance stepped back and smirked, “I’ve got a few of my own if you’d like to hear them.”

“Oh?”

“Well, for starters, I think we should pick up our armor and head back to my room.”  He allowed himself to leer up and down Keith’s frame for a moment until that adorable blush crept up on his cheeks, “And I think I need to get you out of that flight suit.”  They locked eyes and let that bit of knowledge permeate the silence for a bit until they leapt into action and gathered up their breastplates and gauntlets where they were scattered across the floor.

Keith stilled, fixed to the same spot of ground for a moment, and stared up at Red as she purred, content with her matchmaking skills.  He smiled, “Good kitty.”  Lance couldn’t help but smile, join him, and press a kiss to the back of his head.

“C’mon.”  Lance slipped his hand into Keith’s and tugged, “I have a blessing to take advantage of.”

Fin.