Work Text:
Keith looked up at Lance from the corner of his eye, who had been studying him quietly ever since he pulled out his phone.
‘What?’ Keith looked back down at the screen.
Lance cocked his head. ‘You’ve been staring at that for like, ten minutes, dude. What did Shiro say?’
‘How did—‘
‘He’s the only person who texts you other than me. Even Pidge and Hunk know to go through me ‘cause you never answer.’
‘That’s only ‘cause you’re always on your phone,’ Keith shoots back instinctively, immediately regretting his harsh tone.
Lance pays it no mind, just raising an amused eyebrow as he sets his drink down on the coffee table and settles on the opposite end of the sofa, swinging his legs over Keith’s.
It doesn’t even take ten seconds for Keith to cave. ‘Yeah, yeah, alright, I get the irony.’
Lance chuckles and leans forward to wrap his arms around his knees, practically in Keith’s lap. He’s so close Keith can smell his expensive shampoo.
‘So, what is it?’ He shifts to look Keith in the eye. ‘Is it bad?’
Keith shakes his head and lifts his phone for Lance to see.
Lance’s eyebrow’s furrow. ‘‘I bought surprise tickets for today, coming to get you at 1,’’ he reads. ‘What for?’
‘Fuck if I know.’
‘Well, you have three hours until you find out, buddy,’ Lance says and clambers off the sofa, ‘good luck. I’ve gotta go, though.’
‘Oh, you’re working today? Don’t you normally start earlier?’
‘Allura had an appointment in the morning, so Coran said I could have the morning off, too. Can’t have Naveen with no Tiana, he said.’
‘That’s… nice,’ Keith says, ‘nicer than I thought a company like Disney would be.’
‘This is Coran, not Disney. His supervisors would probably flip if they knew. I don’t know how he does it, honestly.’ He tugs his jacket on and grabs his bag. His eyes go soft. ‘I’ll see you later, yeah? Tell me how it goes.’ He smiles, and Keith melts.
‘Yeah,’ he replies, pointedly ignoring the heat creeping up the back of his neck, ‘I’ll tell you what happens.’
***
‘Where are we going, Shiro.’
‘No can tell.’
‘That’s not the phrase.’
Shiro just smiles fondly and reaches over to pat his brother’s head in the passenger seat. ‘You’ll know it when you see it.’
Keith sinks lower in his seat and scowls. ‘No shit,’ he mutters under his breath, but not quite under-his-breath enough, as Shiro gives him a look.
‘Look, I promise you’ll enjoy it.’
***
‘Shiro, no,’ Keith says as soon as he sees it, ‘no, no, absolutely not. No.’
Shiro is, to be fair, trying his hardest to contain his laughter. ‘Why? Don’t you like Disneyland? You know, I’d heard that you really liked Disneyland. Was I wrong?’
Keith rakes a hand through his hair, straining against the arm Shiro is trying to push him towards the gates with. ‘Oh my God, this is why you parked so far away. So you wouldn’t have to fight to get me out of the car.’
Shiro snorts and covers his mouth.
‘This isn’t funny. I’m not going.’
‘But I already paid for the tickets!’ Shiro’s feigned innocence is completely ruined by the grin stretching across his face.
‘If- if I see- Shiro, I’ll die.’
‘Don’t you think Disneyland would be glad to see you?’
‘No, why would he- stop! I’m not going.’
‘Aww, c’mon, you’ve never seen him at work, this could be your chance.’
‘No.’
Twenty minutes later, standing inside the entrance in a pair of glittery Mickey ears, Keith knows he is a weak man.
He tells Shiro as much, and Shiro almost falls into the fountain laughing.
‘Keith! Shiro invited us here to see you embarrass yourself!’
Keith withers. ‘Tell me you didn’t.’
‘He did!’ He turns slowly to see Pidge and Hunk, both barely concealing a laugh as they approach.
‘I’m going home.’
Shiro brushes past him and pulls out the map. ‘No, you’re not.’
***
They step off their fourth ride of the day and Keith pushes the hair out of his face, breathless.
Hunk claps him on the back. ‘See, we said you’d enjoy it!’
Keith squints up at him past the glare of the sun. He opens his mouth to answer but Shiro beats him to it.
‘That’s ‘cause we’re going on the rollercoasters. That’s Keith’s favourite part of theme parks.’ He pauses. ‘Well, they’re his favourite part of other theme parks.’
‘Will you cut that out?’ Keith groans, face flushing.
‘I don’t get it,’ Pidge says suddenly, scrunching their face to move their glasses up their nose, ‘you guys see each other all the time, you pretty much act like you’re married at your apartment. What’s the big deal about seeing him at work?’
Keith ignores what Pidge says about them acting like they’re married for the sake of his mental health. ‘It’s just… different.’
Hunk looks up from his sandwich to add, ‘at work, Lance is a handsome prince, and all that.’
‘Yeah, but Keith thinks Lance is handsome anyway. Anyone with eyes knows that.’
Keith whines pitifully from behind his hands. ‘I just can’t.’
‘You know,’ Shiro starts, and Keith immediately dislikes the innocent tone he’s using, ‘we’ve been here three hours and we’ve done pretty much the whole park...’
Despite his best efforts, Keith feels hope rise in his heart. ‘Are you saying we’re… done? We can go home?’ And not embarrass me, he finishes in his head.
‘Well, we’re done’ —Shiro tucks his hair back under his baseball cap as he scrutinises the map just a little too thoroughly— ‘except New Orleans Square, of course.’
‘How about a little liquid courage?’ Hunk says quietly, digging in his bag.
Keith squints at him in disbelief. No way did Hunk bring alcohol to Disneyland, during the day. No way.
What Hunk produces from his rucsac, however, is, to Keith’s relief, not alcohol.
‘That’s orange juice.’
Hunk grins. ‘I know. I just wanted to give it a more exciting name.’
Keith sighs, wondering again how he got himself into this, and takes the juice.
‘I’m not getting out of this, am I?’
There’s a chorus of ‘no’s, and Keith scowls.
‘Ready, trooper?’ Pidge snickers, and it’s only then that Keith realises that they’re at the entrance to New Orleans Square already.
He whips around, but each of them has occupied themselves with reading their maps, mouths pressed into lines of indifference.
He turns back and steps away from them. ‘I hate you all.’
The square itself is enclosed by tall, pale-painted buildings, layers of balconies stacked like cakes and laced with pale green fencing. He gazes up at one building in particular as he rounds the corner, French-colonial arches stretching up to a sign which reads ‘Blue Bayou Restaurant’ in seriffed lettering. The narrow street opens up in front of him onto a dock bordered with benches and completed by an ornate fountain standing in front of the glittering water.
The thrum of people parts for a second, and Keith catches sight of a puff of green, shimmering and soft, and he makes a beeline towards it against the tide. He knew it had to be Allura.
When he reaches her, he sees her smiling brightly at a couple of small girls whose eyes are so full of wonder and excitement that it makes the corners of Keith’s mouth twitch up to match.
Allura says one last thing to them, and they giggle, waving as they make their way back through the crowd. Allura straightens and shifts, eyes catching on Keith as he leans into her eye-line.
‘Keith!’ She smiles again, and the dark green glitter around her eyes sparkles with the movement.
‘Hey, Allura, how, uh, are you?’
‘I’m good,’ she spins with a flourish of the layers of her dress, ‘finally made it here to see us?’
Keith laughs nervously, remembering suddenly that Lance had to be here somewhere. ‘Yeah, something like that.’
She gives him a look that he knows from how Shiro has been looking at him all day and turns to scan the crowd. ‘Ah,’ she touches his shoulder, ‘there he is.’ She points, and Keith spots Lance immediately.
He looks soft, decked out in jade velvet and crisp browns, cape spilling out under him where he’s perched on a bench. Beside him is a boy who couldn’t be older than six, wiping his nose on the sleeve of his shirt as he looks up at Lance with big, teary eyes.
‘He’s probably lost,’ Allura supplies.
Keith watches as Lance says something gently to him, tapping a finger on his own knee. The boy brightens a little, hands unclenching from his cuffs. Lance continues, leaning closer almost conspiratorially.
It’s almost magical, watching the sadness fade from the boy’s face as Prince Naveen whispers secrets to him and points at birds he’s spotted in the trees.
After a moment, Lance reaches into a pocket and pulls out a notebook and pen and offers them to the boy who takes them hesitantly. Then, his whole face lights up and he grins, uncapping the pen to scribble something on the page.
A woman weaves past Keith, face pinched, but she pauses a few feet in front of him. In an instant, the tension leaves her shoulders and she watches the two of them for a second.
Once he’s done, the boy looks up, and practically springs on the woman, tiny arms wrapping around her waist.
Keith shakes himself out of his stupor, looking to his left for Allura, but she’s slipped away into the crowd already. He brings a hand to his mouth, rubbing the edge of his cuff over his bottom lip as he makes his way over to the bench.
Lance is slipping the notebook back into his pocket when Keith clears his throat awkwardly. He jumps, then relaxes as he looks up, then jumps again as he makes eye contact with Keith.
Keith releases his lip from his teeth, not having noticed when he worried it between them. ‘Hey, Lance.’
To his credit, Lance recovers quickly. ‘That’s Prince Naveen to you, mullet.’
Keith huffs out a laugh. ‘Yeah, no, I’m not calling you that.’
‘So this was your big surprise from Shiro? Speaking of, where is he?’
Keith blushes. ‘I, uh, left him at the entrance to the square.’
‘Needed to see me that bad? Couldn’t stay away?’
‘Oh, shut up,’ Keith muttered, but any bite was lost to the flush on his cheeks.
‘How much of the park have you got around?’
‘All of it, I think. At least, all the stuff we wanted to do.’
Lance smirks, and Keith wants to kiss him. God, he wants to kiss him. ‘Saved the best till last?’
If he looks at him like that again he’ll do it. ‘Nah, we just forgot about you.’
Lance feigns offense, hand flying to his heart as he gasps. It makes his cape ripple, which should look ridiculous, but somehow he pulls it off.
‘You look good,’ Keith blurts out without thinking.
Lance pauses, hands falling to his lap. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before he answers. ‘Not so bad yourself.’
Keith almost chokes on air. He shuffles. ‘Right, um, I’m sure you have… people to meet. I’ll— I’ll see you at home, yeah?’
Lance grins and stands, flicking his cape over his shoulder as he throws his arms around Keith’s neck. ‘See you, Keith.’
Keith thinks he might die if he has to ever see Lance like this again.
***
It’s almost eleven when Lance stumbles into the living room and drops his keys on the end table.
He frowns, noticing a distinct lack of Keith. After checking the kitchen, and Keith’s room, his frown deepens.
It takes noticing the open window for him to find him. Lo and behold, there Keith is, dangling his legs out over the fire escape with his fingers resting against the railing by the window frame. Lance slips in to sit beside him on the ledge.
‘How did you like your first trip to Disneyland, then?’
Keith’s eyes find him in the half-light, and Lance’s heart somersaults. In the light of the streetlamps, Keith’s indigo eyes reflect an almost cat-like yellow that punches the breath right out of Lance.
He smiles gently, and his eyes turn dark in shadow. ‘It was good.’
‘What was your favourite bit?’
Keith was so close to him Lance could taste the toothpaste on his breath. He breaks eye contact to flick his eyes to Lance’s lips. He leans just slightly closer.
Lance can hardly breathe.
‘Hunk’s sandwiches.’
Keith leans back out of his space and looks out over the street.
Lance blinks his eyes open (when had he closed them?) and it takes him a moment to process Keith’s answer. When he does, he sucks in an irritated breath.
He hasn’t even gotten any words out before Keith’s laughing. Round and full and lively, bubbling up out of him in delightful waves. Lance finds he can’t remember what he was annoyed about.
Keith looks back at him, street-lamp-amber-indigo eyes sparkling with mirth, and Lance decides if he doesn’t kiss him he thinks he’ll combust.
‘Keith, I—'
It’s not the worst way to be interrupted, with Keith’s lips, he decides. He sort of missed Lance’s mouth at first, hitting the corner that had curled up while Keith was laughing, but he’s soft and warm and tastes of mint and something sweet, and Lance likes it. He likes it even more when their mouths align and Keith traces along the seam of his lips with his tongue.
He’d give Keith anything he wanted if he asked for it like that.
He reaches up and tangles a hand in the hair at the nape of Keith’s neck, and Keith makes a sound in the back of his throat that has Lance melting against him.
When they pull apart to breathe, Lance smiles, and it spreads across his face until he can’t do anything but smile. ‘Hey, Keith?’
Keith hums, his whole face soft.
‘I really, really like you.’
Keith snorts, and it’s a noise so disgustingly adorable Lance wants to hear it again (and again).
‘Cheesy.’
‘You love it.’
‘I do. Unfortunately.’
Lance beams.
:::::::::::::
‘You know, I think it’s still pretty cool we fell in love at Disneyland. Even if I work there.’
Keith rolls his eyes fondly. ‘We didn’t fall in love at Disneyland. I was in love with you before that.’
‘Details, schmetails.’
‘Remind me why I love you?’
‘Because I look so good in fancy dress.’
‘Oh, right, yeah,’ Keith says teasingly, wrapping an arm around Lance’s waist and pressing his nose into the space above Lance’s collarbone.
‘Happy anniversary, baby.’ Lance whispers into his hair.
Keith opens an eye to look up at him. ‘I love you. Even if you think I’ve only been in love with you since Disneyland.’
‘I love you, too.’