Archive of Our Own ^beta

Lance knew what insults Keith would and wouldn’t react to, he was normally stoic, just standing there taking the insults. He’d laugh when he thought you sounded ridiculous and just look when Lance tried to insult him.

Months ago, which felt more like decades, Lance had wanted a reaction and badly. So he’d wracked his poor little brain for something. “You freak!” He’d yelled.

Shiro had to physically hold Keith back.

He had his bayard out and threw it at Lance, and Lance ducked it before staring at Keith as Shiro was actually restraining him from doing something. And Lance, who was famously now not scared of anyone on his team, was terrified as Keith screamed something at him and Shiro ended up having to drag him away.

So Lance didn’t call Keith a freak ever again.

Now, Keith had a sword at his neck. That, that was not the plan.

Lance was planning on drinking some drinks that Shiro would’ve never let him drink, and flirting with some people to hopefully forget the dumb mullet which he found himself getting smitten with.

That was the plan.

Simple, easy, a chance to relax.

But no. Keith, who was supposed to be the leader, really fucked this one up.

It started a little like this:

“Allura!” Lance screamed, “Duck!”

Allura did duck, because she wasn’t an idiot.

Keith and Pidge had gone off to retrieve some information. Leaving Allura, Hunk and himself to defend the entrance of the Galra base. If they exploded this one, this system would be mostly free for a while and the rebels would take over and definitely figure it out.

Hunk was just going berserk with his gun, shooting down anything that moved and Lance was using his gun as a sword, more than a gun, shooting when he needed to. But also bashing in sentries heads with the end of the gun.

“Any problems?” Keith asked, “Apart from the obvious with Lance—”

“We don’t have the time for this,” Lance yelled back, “Be quiet and let us do our jobs.”

“What’s got you in the grumps today?” Pidge asked, and Lance was going to cut up all of her wires in her sleep if she kept on.

“Shut up.” Lance grit his teeth before spinning around, whacking a sentry in the head and firing his gun at another sentry. With a slight glare he shot down a sentry behind Hunk and two behind Allura. 

They fought in silence for a bit.

Whacking another sentry with a crunch as it went down, adding to the pile of metal at his feet. The metal that they’d lug back to the castle and break apart to make spare parts for various things.

“Duck!” Allura yelled and Lance hit the floor before he really registered the word. Her sword and the whip flew over his head and took out several sentries, as Lance scrambled away as they hit the ground where Lance had just been.

He found himself surrounded by sentries not long after, using his bayard, which was slightly broken and wouldn’t fire right. Essentially as a sword, as he swung it around like crazy, trying to defend himself from the sentries until Allura or Hunk could help him.

With a grunt he got in the side, thankful for the armour on the stomach which they’d installed not too long ago. It was still gonna leave a mark.

Another swing and Lance was knocked off his feet, trying to scramble away but was surrounded by sentries trying to kill him.

He needed a sword.

He was fucked with his rifle.

A sentry swung down with a staff, it was going to impale him—

There was a flash of red slight, which stunned the sentries and Lance for a moment as he stared at what was in his hands.

It was Keith’s sword, The old sword form, the red one.

Lance stared for a moment too long. Before swinging up at the sentry with the staff, hitting through the groups as he wielded the sword like it was his own. He couldn’t explain how he knew when to duck, and block.

His experience with sword’s were incredibly limited, mostly mucking around with Keith. So he had a feel for them.

But Lance didn’t just have a feel for this sword, he was darting and jumping out of the way like Keith would’ve. Acting like Keith, with Keith’s sword. Lance almost laughed, as he darted out of the way, whirling around and slicing through several sentries.

When the sentries were nothing but a pile of metal at his feet, Lance looked over at Allura and Hunk. Who’s eyes were wide and they were staring in what Lance could only describe as disbelief.

There weren’t any more sentries. “We’re done here,” he said into his comms. “You two need to be out right now.”

“Yes, Dad,” Pidge muttered. “Honestly, the nerve of some the straights.”

“I’m not straight.” Lance said and there was a noise of something breaking or hitting something through the comms. “Are you alright?”

“Keith just tripped,” Pidge sounded amused to say the least. “Are you okay?”

“Fine!” Keith squeaked. “I knew this.”

“Wait, what?” Hunk said.

“Lulio…” Lance said slowly, and Hunk looked like he’d just been shot. His eyes went wide and he attempted to open his mouth and say something several times. “Why else did it look like I’d been chokeslammed?”

Hunk stared at him, “You made out with a prince?”

“Technically he’s a king…” Lance turned his bayard over in his hands, his deformed bayard, “So…”

Everyone went quiet, and Allura looked at him, her smile breaking out widely. “Is this a calling?” She was bouncing a little bit, dancing from foot to foot. “Please tell me this is a calling?”

“Can we talk about this when we get back?” Lance asked. “Unless you don’t want these scraps.”

“No!” Pidge squeaked, “When we get back!”

“Yup.” Keith said, “Start loading the sentries onto Yellow. We’re coming back now. Does anyone else have any revelations, so we can start making fun of people correctly?”

“Wait!” Hunk picked up two sentries and started dragging them to his lion. “Is anyone else here straight.”

It was silent.

Lance snorted.

Cool then. Hunk groaned. “Now I’m surrounded by disaster gays.”

That was met with laughter.

Eventually they hauled the metal back, and everyone sat in the common area as Pidge and Hunk were taking the sentries apart. They were sitting on the floor, Allura, Coran, Lance and himself were on the couches.

“So,” Allura said, and her eyes were sparkling. “Is this your first calling!”

Lance looked at Keith, confusion clear across his face. “Coming out,” he clarified and Lance nodded before looking at Allura, then at Keith, then at Allura again.

“Um… yeah? I mean— is it really coming out if you made out with a guy? Probably not—”

“Coming out to yourself and coming out to others is a very different thing,” Keith said, looking down at his leg. “Also, if you think this is over, just know you’ll be coming out every second day.”

Pidge snorted, and Hunk yelped as the metal twisted in her hands. “Oh, fuck.” And they started trying to salvage the metal that Pidge had basically cut through.

Keith laughed, it was a small laugh, but nonetheless a laugh. “It’s a thing. Coming out all the time.”

“Keith, you knew I wasn’t straight,” Lance sat up a little bit so he could look at him.

“Still. You never really said—”

“Okay,” Pidge clapped her hands together, getting their attention. “How come anytime you two talk I feel like I’m third wheeling.”

“Because you are?” Hunk said and Lance threw a pillow at him. “Don’t shoot the messenger!” Lance threw another pillow. “Stop shooting the messenger!” And another pillow. “This is a war crime!”

“Your face is a war crime,” Lance picked up a pillow and started hitting Hunk with it, who grabbed his own pillow and swung at Lance wildly. There was a lot of thumping and giggling. 

Keith sighed, snatching the pillows out of their hands. “Why does anyone want kids?”

“You our dad or something?” Lance asked.

Pidge didn’t even look up from the piece of metal she was prying off of the sentry. “That’s considered insest in most cultures—”

“Pidge!” Lance squawked. “I am very, very, not into Keith, just because I’m bi doesn’t mean that I like Keith I mean, look at his dumb mullet, he has the fashion sense of a potato. I’d never, ever like someone with the fashion sense of a potato.”

Everyone stared at him. “Um.” Keith said. “Lance, Pidge never said you liked me.”

“What?”

“She could’ve just meant Hunk?”

“Well she didn’t!” Lance yelled, burying himself deeper and deeper into this hole. 

“Pidge did not specify,” Allura said, grinning and Lance wanted to kill himself. “It may have been of her… memes, or even an obscure reference. You were also very quick to defend yourself.”

“I don’t like Keith! Why are we even having this conversation?”

Keith just laughed, and Lance glared at him.

“I don’t like him, he’s… he’s… a dumb head.”

“A what?” Hunk asked and Lance started flailing.

“A dumb head!”

“What does that even mean?” Keith asked, and Lance flipped him off.

“That your face is dumb!”

“You are very defensive Lance,” Allura pointed out again. “If I were accused of liking Keith, I would not be this defensive, I’d just know it was not true.”

Lance groaned, “I don’t like Keith, I mean look at him.”

Hunk looked offended on Keith’s behalf. “Look, I’m straight, and I know that Keith is attractive… I mean, look at him!” Hunk gestured wildly towards Keith who raised an eyebrow. 

Pidge nodded enthusiastically. “As an asexual, aromantic, I am the best person to say that Keith is attractive. Like look at that jawline.”

“Can we not talk about how attractive I am?” Keith asked, his arms were crossed now, and Lance would have cared more if he wasn’t actually dying of embarrassment. That’s what they’d put on his tombstone.

Here lies Lance McClain. He died of embarrassment. 2035-2052

“Even by Altean standards,” Allura said, “You’re not that bad.”

“That bad!” Pidge and Hunk screeched. “How high are the standards on Altea?”

“Not that high,” Allura grinned. “But generally that haircut isn’t considered attractive—”

“What’s with my hair! It grows like this!” Keith pulled on a stray bit.

Lance was still bright red, and decided that he needed out as soon as he could, because he hadn’t been this red since the sunburn incident of ‘43 and he’d also gotten severe sunstroke, if he wasn’t careful he’d get… sick or something.

Yup. Perfect logic.

“No hair grows like that,” Pidge argued. “Seriously, just let someone give you a haircut.”

“After what you did to your hair!” Keith said, “Hell, no. Allura would stab me—”

“You’d look better that way,” Allura added. So very helpfully.

This was it. This was actually how Lance died, on the couch in The Castle, as everyone talked about how Keith needed a haircut. Which was true, his hair was stupid and ugly and gross and Lance wasn’t at all attracted to it. Not even the tiniest, smallest bit, even though it looked really soft and was a really pretty colour—

Especially because it was at the perfect length for pulling—

No. Nope. Not going there.

It was not the perfect length for anything. It needed to go.

In fact, Lance was getting the scissors right now. 

He stood up and everyone looked at him, “I’m getting the scissors to fix Keith’s hair.”

“No one’s cutting my hair!” Keith threw himself onto the couch so he was laying down. “It’s fine the way it is.”

“Fine?” Lance scoffed. “It looks like something shat on your head.”

Allura snorted a bit too loudly, which set Coran off.

“I’m getting the scissors,” Lance turned around, until something grabbed his heel and he was sent towards the ground. Keith’s boots jumped over him and ran down the hallway to the kitchen. Where there were scissors. “You bastard!”

“Don’t call an orphan a bastard, bastard implies I have parents!” Keith yelled back, and Lance made no attempt to move. Just laying there, before facing his friends.

All of them looked smug, even Coran, the traitor.

“Shut up,” Lance groaned. “Don’t say a thing.”

Pidge finally looked up from her tinkering, or whatever she was doing. “Seriously? How Keith hasn’t figured anything out is beyond me, especially after that!”

It went quiet and Lance hugged himself around the knees. 

Hunk threw an arm around his shoulders and hugged him. “Hey,” Hunk said, in what Lance recognised as the tone siblings used when things got a bit too real. “If you don’t want us joking about it, we won’t. Isn’t that right?”

Lance didn’t see this. But Hunk behind him, was making vaguely threatening gestures, threatening enough that even Pidge nodded, gulping slightly. Everyone nodded and Lance nodded in return, hugging his legs a bit harder.

“Hey,” Pidge said in the same tone, “That was shitty of us, and I’m sorry. Crushes are off the table.” It went quiet for a bit, and when no one responded or argued Pidge added, “When they’re around anyway.”

Lance grinned and nodded. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

“So,” Pidge said, smiling widely. “You’re bi!”

“I guess I am,” Lance also returned the smile with one of his own. But his smile grew a bit wider than Pidge’s. “Oh my God, I am bi. People. I am bisexual.”

Allura grinned widely. Clapping her hands together. “In Altean culture,” she said, grinning still. “When someone has their first calling, their family throws a giant party.”

Keith walked back in, scissors in hand, stepping around Lance and sitting down on the couch. Glaring slightly at Lance, and running a hand through the tips of his hair.

“We don’t really have enough people to throw a good party here,” Pidge said. “I know! A Voltron Coalition party, we invite our allies—”

“I don’t think I want everyone to know,” Lance looked down at his shoes. “I mean… it’s not really any of their business right?”

Allura looked a bit sad, but nodded understandingly. “I understand, sometimes I forget Altean culture is different to your culture.”

An idea popped into Lance’s head, who sat up a little straighter. “When we get home,” he said, “We can have a proper party, we can all invite people from our families or our friends, or whoever. It’s a thing on Earth, a coming out party! We can combine cultures.”

“But we dunno when we’re going home,” Pidge said. “That could be ages—”

“I know,” Keith said, and everyone looked at him. “There are huge parties going on all the time, maybe we have a break to celebrate Lance’s coming out, and then we’ll have a proper coming out party when we get back to Earth.”

Something Lance noticed was that Keith never called Earth ‘home’ and something about that made Lance sorta… sad, that Keith didn’t see the planet he came from home. He called Earth home all the time, apart from Allura and Coran, (and Keith) they all called Earth home.

Maybe Keith just didn’t have that.

“That’s…” Allura paused. “A great idea.”

“There’s a reason he’s leading,” Pidge said and Keith’s face lit up completely and Lance rolled his eyes, but he also laughed. “Even if Lance does help clean up his messes.”

Lance felt offended on Keith’s behalf, “Excuse me? That’s literally my job, also, I’ve cleaned up harder messes.”

“Like?”

“Well one time Hunk exploded the oven—”

Hunk gasped, launching himself at Lance and smothering him with a pillow. “And nothing, nothing happened.”

Lance went to protest but got a mouthful of pillow, and that kinda stopped that from happening.

Keith was sitting at the cool holo-table, looking through party invites that they’d never looked through before, they had just ignored them. Lance was sitting next to him, his feet on the table despite Keith’s protests, until he learnt to just accept it.

“It’s a metaphor,” Lance chewed through some snack bar. “About acceptance.”

“Right,” Keith said absent-mindedly. “What planet did you and Shiro go to?”

“Kakar?”

“Right,” he muttered, “That’s in the… Y’Kour Quadrant, right?”

“Yeah,” Lance said, taking another bite out of his snackbar, “Are we trying to land there?”

“Yup.” Keith threw an invitation to the side, one he’d be keeping then. “It’s a matter of checking all these and getting Pidge to see if they have any Galra ties, and then those who are just creepy and then—”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Lance sat up, taking his feet off the table. “You’re stressing out like crazy over this.”

Keith didn’t say anything and Lance decided he still had more to say. “Yes we want to be in the Y’Kour Quadrant to visit Odziz again, but we also wanna have fun.”

“But—”

“No. There is no buts here… well… there are but, nevermind. It’s important that we have breaks, and yes, it’s important that we find out what the fuck Odziz did to Shiro, but it’s also important that you know when to have a break.”

Keith sighed, rubbing at his eyes and Lance realised that he looked absolutely exhausted, like even breathing too much was dragging down on his bones. His eyes were fluttering closed every few seconds and he yawned.

He looked like a right mess.

Lance frowned, “You look like shit.”

“Thank you Lance,” Keith mumbled. “You’re so kind, I have work I gotta do.”

Lance moved his chair, so his shoulder was brushing with Keith’s and he looked at the hoverscreen. Keith was doing this manually? What sort of psychopath would do it manually? He opened another screen and selected the Y’Kour Quadrant.

Almost all the invitations closed, apart from about twenty. Lance looked at Keith who hit his head on the table. “I’m a fucking idiot.”

“Yup.”

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

“Don’t be salty.”

“I’m fucking salty!” Keith complained, “You’re a bitch.”

“You’re a bastard.”

“Don’t call an orphan a bastard!” Keith exclaimed, “It implies that I have parents, infact, you’re a bastard.”

“My parents were married when they had me,” Lance said with a grin. “Can’t be a bastard.”

“You’re adopted,” Keith crossed his arms. “Why didn’t they send you back?”

“The other option was you,” Lance said, and Keith glared at him, before hitting him in the arm and Lance cackled.

“You’re awful.”

“You’re in denial.”

“Denial of what?”

“My awesomeness.”

“What awesomeness?”

Lance gestured at his body and Keith rolled his eyes. “This awesomeness, I could bench press you.”

“I could bench press you. Mister Scrawny arms would not be able to bench press much more than a twig.”

“Hey!” Lance hit Keith in the shoulder. “I am very strong.”

Keith raised an eyebrow, “You have the same strength as a piece of pasta.”

Lance staggered like he’d been shot, before looking up at Keith. Who realised what was happening a moment too late and Lance launched himself at Keith, they fell down in an ugly jumble of limbs and Keith squealed.

So, Lance was on top of Keith. And not in a fun way. He had one of Keith’s arms pinned, and his legs were pinned to the ground too. Even if Keith was using his other arm to push at Lance’s chin he didn’t move an inch.

“Am I strong?”

“No!” Keith pushed at Lance’s chin. “You just caught me off-guard, we need an arm wrestle.”

It was weird how non-affected Keith was by this, Mister I’m-Too-Cool-For-Affection was being pinned to the ground by Lance, and acting like it was just a normal day in The Castle. Which it was. But Lance generally didn’t pin Keith to the ground.

Generally.

Keith sighed, before letting his free arm drop to the side, which Lance also pinned and Keith swore aggressively. “Get off,” he complained.

“Say I’m strong—”

A door slid open and Allura walked in, she raised an eyebrow. But walked up to the holo-table, stepping over Lance and Keith. “Hello,” she said, “Keep doing whatever you were doing, I am just checking the systems.”

“Don’t close anything,” Keith said, before looking back at Lance. “Get off me, you idiot.”

“No.”

“Lance.”

“Nope.”

“Why do you want to be on top of me—” he cut himself off, “That sounded wrong.”

Allura snorted and Lance shot her a glare.

“Because, I’m stronger than you and I’m never letting you forget it,” Lance grinned and Keith tried to wriggle underneath him. “I’ll get off if you tell me that I’m stronger than you.”

“You want me to lie?”

“Fine, I’ll stay here all night.”

“You’d like that? Wouldn’t you?” Keith said, before immediately regretting saying that, the regret and embarrassment on his face even before he’d finished. “Oh. Um. I didn’t—”

Allura snorted again. She was doing a bad job at acting like she wasn’t here.

“You’re stronger than me,” Keith said flatly, with zero emotion in his voice. 

Lance hopped off, and Keith shook his head, and Lance was pretty sure that he was redder than he was before. “You’re an idiot,” Keith muttered, turning around and basically bolting. 

Leaving Lance with a lot of emotions. Mainly concern.

Allura turned around to him, her white hair swishing around with her. “How clueless are you?”

“What?”

“Were you even there, that is not something that friends do. Stare into their friend’s eyes longingly.”

“Nope.” Lance walked out, “Not doing this.”

Allura laughed, shaking her head, but smiling fondly.

“The outfits!” Coran exclaimed, “They’re the most important part of the entire thing, we must have our outfits in order.”

Lance was bouncing on his feet. “I have ideas!” He said, and Pidge rolled her eyes, but fondly. “We all wear suits corresponding to our lion colours. So like, Keith wears black, Pidge green, you get the idea.”

“I love that idea,” Allura said smiling, but it faltered for a second. “But, what is a suit?”

“Oh boy,” Keith sighed.

And Lance started going into an in depth description of what a suit was, he was jumping around and using Keith was the size of things, as Keith looked exhausted with him. But he was not stopping until Coran would close his eyes and all he could see were suits.

Pidge was less interested than Keith, but Hunk was nodding along with him, adding the odd comment here and there when Lance said something wrong, or started slipping into Spanish, or just needed a word that he couldn’t think of because his brain wasn’t keeping up with his mouth.

Keith and Pidge had turned to talking about conspiracies, when Lance was explaining the function of a tie. Right in the middle of his explanation Keith said, “We’re not wearing ties.”

“What?” Lance spun around quick enough that he must’ve gotten whiplash.

“They’re too easy to grab in a fight,” Keith said.

“Your hair’s too easy to grab in a fight,” Lance countered.

“Why do you think about how easy my hair is to grab?”

Lance scowled, “Because one day, some Galra’s going to grab you by the hair and throw you across the room. Even Pidge’s hair isn’t long enough to grab easily.”

“Allura’s is,” Keith argued, taking a few steps over to her and grabbing a strand of hair, pointedly proving that it went down to her hips. “That’s way easier to grab in a fight.”

“She ties up her hair.”

“Fine!” Keith said, “I’ll tie up my hair.”

“Nice to see you argue about the important things,” Pidge said, taking a bite out of a snackbar that she definitely didn’t have before. “Like… hair.”

“Back to suits,” Coran said, “How heavy are they?”

Lance jumped into another long-winded explanation about how heavy a suit was.

Lance’s outfit was his new favourite thing, it was simple really, but still, Lance decided that it was his favouritest thing that he’d ever worn. 

The jacket and pants were pitch black, in theory at least, in the right light, they sparkled a little bit, with small bits of gem embedded in them so that they looked like the night sky, and damn, did he look like the night sky.

Underneath his jacket was a red button-up shirt, which Lance had to explain the meaning of what a button-up even was to Coran. The shirt was a bit tight, tight enough that he undid the top button.

Everyone’s button-ups had some sort of embroidery on it, Lance’s were seashells, on the back of his shirt. It was a darker shade of red, but not dark enough that it was that noticeable. It was just a nice addition.

Coran had been very secretive over who got what embroidered on their shirts, so Lance only knew what he himself had. Glancing in a mirror he ran a hand through his hair, puffing it up a bit.

His jacket had a spot for his bayard, which he slipped in and looked at himself in the mirror. Before giving the mirror finger guns, and promptly deciding he looked stupid and groaning. 

He looked like Keith. With the red and black. 

“Lance?” Pidge’s voice came from outside the door. “Are you ready?”

“I look like Keith,” he groaned.

“I can assure you, it’s not as bad as you think…” Pidge said. “Probably… are you wearing gloves?”

“No.”

“A crop-top jacket?”

“No.”

“It’s fine,” Pidge said, a door squeaked open and Lance looked at Pidge who was currently viewing him like how she viewed on of her science experiments, her eyes darting up and down. Looking at him.

Pidge, like him, was wearing a black jacket and black suit pants. Unlike Lance, her jacket had been buttoned up, but peeking from behind the jacket was a lime green shirt, not neon, it was almost calming.

Her hair had been brushed a little bit, and she also had a clip in her hair that was shaped like a leaf, excitedly, she unbuttoned her jacket to reveal her shirt with leaves and vines embroidered into the shirt in a forest.

“It’s cool, right?”

“So cool!” Lance agreed, before stepping towards Pidge. He unclipped the clip before sliding it back into her hair in a way that would keep the hair out of her eyes more. “There.”

“Thanks,” Pidge grinned toothily. “Look at my boots!” She swung a leg up onto Lance’s bed and showed off the boot, which was black with vines and leaves embroidered into the side of them. 

Lance had just got generic shoes.

Scam.

“Does it fit?” Lance asked, grabbing his suit jacket and putting it on, the only reason was because he wanted to reach his bayard if anything happened. Ruffling his hair a little bit more Pidge nodded approvingly, confirming his question, but also that he looked good. “Not too tight or anything?”

“Nope.” Pidge said, her smile was incredibly toothy. “Have you heard that the Gyrty’s have actual soulmates? Like and a really in depth description of love? Apparently some people call it ‘The Planet of Love’!”

Lance raised an eyebrow, as Pidge slammed her hand on the control panel and the door slid open. “So plenty of people to talk to then.”

“They also do not condone cheating,” Pidge said, dragging her shoes as she walked, her hands moved in a way that would have Maria McClain impressed with the way she managed to not hit anyone but still flail accordingly. “If they think you’re in a relationship with someone and they catch you cheating that can be punishable by death.”

“Can it?” Lance glanced at Pidge. “You’re trying to be vague, what is it?”

“Don’t let them think you and Keith are in a relationship and then chat up someone,” Pidge said easily and Lance spluttered. “Because that’s very not honourable.”

“Right…” Lance nodded a few times, “Also, why would anyone think Keith and I are—”

“You’re kidding?” Pidge said, actually stopping to look at him. “You’re not. You are so coupley, you hand each other drinks and food all the time, and you always move next to him, and when you tell a joke you look to see if he’s laughing first. And how Keith laughs the loudest at your jokes—”

“Okay!” Lance squeaked, “I get it, I get it, people might think we’re a couple. I won’t chat up anyone.”

Pidge grinned. “Okay.”

Eventually they made it out to the dining area. 

There was a thunk and a chair and a certain Keith Kogane clattered to the ground. Lance knew it was Keith because of the flash of black and the muffled swearing. 

Hunk and Allura were looking at him, quite worried. Allura was wearing a blue shirt, with juniberries sewed into the bottom part of her shirt, and fading as they went higher and higher. Her hair was twisted in a complicated braid, and she was wearing the same black trousers and jacket that everyone else was.

Hunk was the same, the jacket and the pants were black, enough to hide into the shadows if he wanted to… well the bright yellow shirt with what appeared to be roses embroidered into the fabric. Lance smiled.

Apparently, (according to Hunk) when he was little, him and his little sister Hannah, had tried to eat some roses that their Mom’s had gotten from each other for an anniversary of some sort. And then that started Hunk’s love of making impossible ingredients into food, figuring out a way to eat roses.

Eventually Keith’s head popped out from behind the table, and eventually the rest of him followed.

Oh. Lord.

Keith’s hair was in a ponytail out of his face, but a few strands of hair still fell into his face, framing his face perfectly in a way that got Lance to stare at him. Because he didn’t have enough hair to hide behind now, just a few strands.

Lance didn’t even know Keith had a forehead.

But it got better. From Keith’s beautiful face, pale, but slightly flushed from who know’s what. He (like everyone else) was wearing the black pants and black suit jacket. And his pants looked way tighter than everyone else’s pants. Or was Lance imagining that? Because he was about to be struggling in a second because those pants seemed way tighter than everyone else’s—

His jacket was slung over the back of his hair, and his sleeves were rolled up, in a way that made Lance very, very gay. Completely gay, only gay. Boys. Boys. Boys. His mind supplied him, somewhere he knew he also liked girls, but he was ignoring that because Keith looked hot and Lance was about to faint.

His shirt was clinging to him in all the right places, and meant that he could see the muscles in his torso move with him as he looked at Lance, before down at his shirt. It was a very dark grey, not quite black, but it was very close to being black, but different enough that you could see the different colours.

He had three stars embroidered into his shirt, around his left rib, there were three stars and Lance was staring. Like, staring, he wasn’t even trying to hide it at this point. How Keith hadn’t figured it out at this point was beyond him.

“Do I look okay?” Keith looked down at his shirt, “Why are you staring like that?”

“I never thought I’d see the day where I could almost pretend you didn’t have a mullet,” he said, and Keith rolled his eyes and flipped him off. “It’s true, it’s one of the new wonders of the world, after—”

Pidge sighed, “Look. We’re going to be late. Everyone to their lions.”

Keith nodded, “She’s right, Lance, stay here, I need to talk to you.”

Lance quickly went through the five stages of grief and nodded slowly, as the others filed out. Leaving Lance and Keith.

He didn’t trust himself not to do something when Keith looked… like that. 

“I’m going to Kakar,” he said, his arms crossed, “I need to speak with Odziz.”

“What?” Lance screeched, “Are you crazy, Odziz is a snake that can look into everything inside of you, your thoughts, fears, everything. What will Odziz say that matters?”

“Odziz did something to Shiro,” Keith’s fists were balled up by his sides. “He did and I need to find out what, I’m not expecting you to come with me, infact, don’t. But… I just want you to know.”

Lance stayed silent for a long moment, before giving a soft sigh. “Okay, I can’t control you. Just— be safe, remember everything Odziz does is in your head. Everything they say isn’t true, it’s just what you think is true.”

He looked puzzled for a second but nodded. 

“I’ll cover for you,” Lance said and Keith nodded. “Okay? We’ll line up our stories when you get back,” he took a step closer to Keith and grabbed his wrist, feeling the gauntlet already on there and he sighed. “Keith.”

“Lance.”

He grabbed the gauntlet and set a timer for four vargas and held it for a moment longer than he needed to. “You’ll be back in four vargas. The party will be going much later than that. It gives you longer than you need.”

Keith nodded.

“Come back,” is what he said, “Okay? Unless you’re injured then stay here. I’ll make something up, or you make something up…” a pause, when Keith and him were just looking at each other. “Okay?”

“Yes,” Keith’s tone was almost not there, more of a breath than a word, his eyes were still on Lance’s. “You’re an idiot,” he said lowly and Lance gave a small smile. “See you.”

“See you.”

“I owe you a dance,” he stepped back, before walking towards his hangar, pausing to call over his shoulder. “Not even Zarkon can stop me from that dance!”

That’s not straight.

Lance waved his hand to himself, as Keith’s footsteps got quieter and quieter.

Even if Keith did like him. They were in the middle of a war, they had better things to be doing, they didn’t have time or the energy and if everything fucked up then they may not be able to form Voltron.

It wasn’t worth it.

Pursuing anything with Keith wasn’t worth it. It would just get one of them hurt.

Lance took a deep breath. This was fine.

He had a party to attend to.

The party didn’t suck that much. It was outdoors, with soft purple lights lighting the entire place. There was a dance floor which Lance was avoiding, what appeared to be a bar, that Lance wasn’t drinking from because he didn’t trust the party for some reason.

There were long tables with food on them, which Hunk and Pidge were basically hovering over, enthusiastically talking about tech and food. They spotted Lance and their faces lit up, and Lance felt a little bit warm and fuzzy inside.

“Hey!” Pidge said, “Took ya long enough, where’s Keith?”

Lance turned around, pretending to look around before turning back at Pidge with a shrug. “No clue, probably sulking because he has to speak more than once.”

Pidge snorted and Hunk laughed. “That’s our emo,” Hunk said with a fond grin and Lance rolled his eyes. “So…” Hunk said, a cheeky smile on his face. “You’re at a party…”

“Yes?”

“With romantic lighting,” he gestured around at the purple that was surrounding them. “Your original colours.”

“What are you implying—”

“Confess!” Pidge said, slamming her fist down on the table, making some drinks spill a little and several people looked at Pidge in annoyance. “I’ve only seen you two pining for like… a week, but I’m already about to kill myself watching you.”

“No,” he said simply, opening his hand to count the reasons this was a bad idea. “One, he might not even like me back. Two, I don’t want him to think I only care about him because I have a crush on him. Three, we’re in the middle of a war and we don’t have the time and one of us could— not make it out. Four, if we fuck it up we can’t form Voltron. Five, he’s currently busy leading.”

“Okay,” Hunk put his hands on his hips, “Here are the reasons you should try. One, what if he does like you back? Two, you cared about him before you had a crush and he knows that. Three, are you willing to die or for Keith to die without ever telling him that you liked him? Four, we waste time doing dumb things all the time—”

“We had three days of holidays,” Pidge supplied, drinking a drink Shiro would’ve never let her have. So Lance snatched it out of her hands.

“So you’d have time to do whatever. Five, he’s not that busy. He’s literally at a party right now. Six…” Hunk’s voice became that serious, brotherly tone that Lance knew so well. “You’re allowed to be happy Lance.”

“There’s a war—”

“And?” Hunk said, “You’re allowed to be happy, you’re allowed to fall in love. I did. You can’t let a war take over your life, because then they’re winning, then they’re sucking out the things that make life worth living and that’s a win.”

Lance remained speechless.

“Be happy,” Hunk smiled toothily. “Because, you’re allowed to have some joy in this fuckery. And our team can be the joy, but they can also be the sadness. But that’s what loving is, being there for the good and bad.”

Pidge sniffled and Hunk looked a bit teary too. 

“You deserve happiness Lance.” He finished and Hunk wiped at his eyes, “And I reckon Keith would make you happy.”

“You make me happy, I don’t need to—”

“You don’t need to,” Hunk put his arm on Lance’s shoulder, his eyes caring and soft. “But you want to, and that’s okay. It’s not a crime to want Lance.”

Pidge sniffled, before throwing her arms around Lance and Hunk threw himself around the pair of them. Hugging each other tightly, and Lance smoothed out Pidge’s hair as he was sandwiched between the warmth.

Wow. His friends were amazing.

Eventually, they all let go of each other and Lance smiled at his two best-friends, the siblings that he’d found and he just smiled at them, trying to say thank you for everything that they’d done for him.

“Thanks,” Lance said and his voice broke a little, but he didn’t find himself caring too much about that. Because he loved his friends, and they loved him too. “For everything, for being here.”

Hunk smiled at him, his entire face looking like a Christmas tree. “You’re here for us,” Hunk said, “And we’ll be here for you.”

So Lance hung out with Hunk and Pidge for the first while, doing crazy dance moves that he’d never repeat, and eating crazy food that made him feel sick to his stomach. But most importantly, having fun with them.

Pidge did keep freaking out about cool tech, and Hunk would geek out with her and then Lance would geek out with them about geeking out, and there was lots of screaming and jumping up and down.

He was having fun.

Someone tapped his shoulder, and he half expected it to be Keith.

Instead it was the familiar dark brown skin, cheek markings, and black hair tinted with a deep, dark green. “Lulio!” Lance exclaimed, smiling slightly. “Hey, w—what are you doing here?”

Lulio grinned, “It’s a long story.”

“I have time.”

Pidge and Hunk were looking at him, Pidge looked mad and Hunk looked supportive. Lance looked back at Lulio.

“I have time,” he repeated.

“No he doesn’t!” Pidge yelled, “He doesn’t have time!”

Hunk started dragging her off as she yelled at Lance’s back about how he was very, extremely busy and talking to Lulio would be a waste of his ‘precious paladin time’ and both of them chose to ignore that.

Eventually Pidge wasn’t yelling at them and Lance laughed, it sounded awkward, even to him. “Um, hey,” Lance said, which was always a really strong opening. “So, why are you quadrants away from Dubux?”

“So,” Lulio clapped his hands together. “Get this. I was supposed to have a diplomatic meeting, which, fair enough. I’m doing great as The King by the way, so if you ever need political protection—”

“No.”

“Okay, okay, jeez, just a suggestion. Then The Blade of Marmora picked me up mid-space because apparently I intruded on their base. Honestly, they shouldn’t have put it between like two black holes and expected me not to go in— my map said it was a shortcut.”

“Right,” Lance nodded. Even though he didn’t know who the fuck The Blade of Marmora was and if he should’ve been scared. “Who?”

“The Blade of Marmora, they’re some up-themselves Galra who think they’re so great because they have some fancy swords and fight against Zarkon. Like buddy, we’re all fighting Zarkon and we all have swords, so sit down.”

“Oh.” Lance said. “Wait, wait, wait, there are rebel Galra?”

“Duh.” Lulio hit Lance in the side of the head, “There are always people who rebel, always, and I wouldn’t be standing aside while some evil people made a whole bad wrap for my entire species.”

“The Blade of Marmora,” Lance repeated, “Right, I’ll mention that at some point. Like the Lotor— oh fuck.”

Lulio raised an eyebrow, as music started to play louder and louder, and Lulio grabbed him. “We’re dancing,” he said, “There’s been this guy trying to feel me up all night.”

“You’re a king? Tell him that you’ll cut his head off.”

“Apparently he finds that hot!” Lulio returned, putting a hand on Lance’s waist, rather than hip, which he appreciated. “So I need a big strong paladin to save me.”

“Allura’s over there,” Lance gestured over his shoulder. “She’s way scarier than me.”

“Exactly. I’ll get my head bitten off.” He grabbed Lance’s hand and they started dancing, it was just a gentle sway really, barely a dance and more of a distraction. “I quite value my head.”

“There’s nothing up there.”

“Who said I was talking about that head?”

“I hate you,” Lance said, as Lulio held out his arm and Lance twirled. 

“So where’s Keith?” Lulio asked, spinning Lance back around and starting some fancy foot movements which Lance followed with ease. “I’m guessing you’re covering for him, is he hooking up with someone?”

“No.” He gritted out.

“Oh!” Lulio said, “It’s like that. Damn.”

“It—” Lance cut himself off, because it was like that, and he didn’t want to lie. “Yeah…”

“Cool,” Lulio grinned as he twirled this time and turned back before letting Lance take the lead. “So, I’m guessing you’re a hopeless liar.”

“Kinda.”

“Okay,” Lulio smiled, “I’m sure it’s top secret paladin stuff.”

Eventually the music stopped and Lulio let Lance go, with a bright smile. “Hope that was alright.”

“It was fine,” Lance said, as he picked a drink up from a table and handed it to Lulio, before picking up one of his own. 

He hadn’t really looked at Lulio yet, but he was wearing red too. With what looked like a toga, with a golden belt around the middle, and a more modern looking shawl, that was black with red sequins on it.

They were wearing the same colour.

Ew.

Pidge rocked up soon, her eyes narrowed at Lulio. “Where’s Keith?” She asked pointedly. 

“Why would I know?” Lance blurted out, “It’s not like we’re attached at the hip, we’re two different people with very different goals and wishes and everything— everyone keeps assuming that we know everything about each other. I don’t have Keith on a leash so why would I know where he is, for all I know he could be fighting Zarkon right now—”

“I saw him by the drinks bar,” Lulio said, “Talking to some guy.”

Pidge nodded, before shaking her head at Lance. “That explains the weirdness, Lance, get it together dude.” She walked off in the direction of the drinks bar and Lance watched her go, knowing she wouldn’t be able to find him.

He felt a little bit bad.

Lance looked at all of the stuffy representatives of all the nearby planets, in the Y’Kour Quadrant. If this was the case, maybe Lance could find out some answers of his own. In fact, he could.

Sure, maybe Keith was off doing to cool shit. But Lance, Lance was not, but he wanted answers of his own. And if he wanted to find out, he would be finding out. He looked at Lulio. “I need every semi-important person listening to me.”

Lulio nodded. “Tell paladin stories really loudly,” he said, “People will come to listen to you, trust me.”

“Oh…” Lance looked around.

“Just talk to me,” Lulio said, “Tell me some stories about Voltron.”

Keith stood on the planet, which was beautiful. With black jagged stone standing proud in every direction. Standing high enough that if he tripped, he’d probably get impaled. On the surface the only thing that wasn’t black were flecks of gems, in every hue of the rainbow.

But still. The whole impaled thing.

The sky was a pale pink, the colour of Allura’s Altean markings, a soft colour that Keith didn’t know from anywhere else. Maybe Adam had gotten Shiro a jumper this colour once upon a time? 

He couldn’t remember.

Keith looked down easily, and started towards a waterfall. It was the only place here that could be entered, Black made a noise behind him and Keith ignored her. Going through the waterfall and getting his armour and hair drenched.

Great. He’d need to dry off before he got back to Gyrty’s. With a sigh he stepped into the cave and forgot his train of thought.

The rocks in here were every colour that Keith could think of, blending into each other so that it looked natural and like it was supposed to be like that. He stared around the walls of the cave. White gems sparkled out against the rainbow hues of the rocks.

It was beautiful.

There was a pond next to him, which was reflecting the hues of the rocks, shining and showing the shimmering gems that stood out in the reflection. Keith looked over the pond, seeing his own reflection like he was looking into a mirror. He stared for a bit longer.

He looked exhausted. Really, really, exhausted.

This place didn’t feel claustrophobic, with the shining gems lighting up everything. It was bright, and spacious almost. 

He should’ve gone on this mission.

In front of him the cavern extended into a hallway. Which Keith had seen when Pidge and him were watching the mission. But it was so different here, Keith knew a few things.

The comms would short out, so whatever happened in there, he’d have to get out of there too. With a soft sigh he stepped forwards, clutching his bayard tightly in his hands, his footsteps echoing around the hallway.

Slowly the colours dissipated as he walked down the hallway, as the light from the rocks went away more and more, until he needed the light of his gauntlet. The only sound was his footsteps and breaths.

The hallway turned into a room. Odziz was in here.

Fine.

He stepped forwards, into the cavern. The light from his gauntlet barely lit up anything in this room. His hand on his bayard tightened, and he waited for Odziz to show up and he’d give that snake a piece of his mind.

Odziz hurt Lance, and did something to Shiro.

Mess with his family, and Keith would mess with you.

With a glare Keith waited. Standing in the cavern. Knowing that a giant grey snake with gems embedded into it would meet him soon.

Something brushed against his leg and Keith didn’t flinch. He’d had people brushed against him with worse intentions than Odziz before. Something brushed against his back and Keith whirled around his bayard transforming.

“So…” a deep echoing voice came throughout the cavern, echoing off walls that Keith couldn’t see. “You are the one they call Keith Kogane.”

“I am Keith Kogane,” he replied, twisting around in the dark, catching something out of the corner of his eyes but not long enough that he could make anything out apart from a grey blur. “And you’re Odziz.”

“Indeed I am.”

Keith took a deep breath, whirring around when something touched his calf. “Show yourself!” He yelled into the darkness.

There was an echoing rumble, which Keith guessed was what was the equivalent as a laugh. Even if some rock fell around him and Keith didn’t even think about jumping around to see where it landed.

“Oh, Keith,” the voice laugh ed. Booming and echoing, enough to make Keith’s ribs feel like they were vibrating. “You think you’re so brave, I suppose you have to be, look like you have the upper hand— it didn’t work in the homes, why do you think it’ll work here?”

Keith gripped his bayard tighter, as something wrapped around his leg, slowly. Instead of screaming he just looked straight ahead, trying to see the actual snake in the dark. “You wear the armour of one who came here not too long ago, but you don’t have his kindness, his compassion… unlike him, you’re a freak. ” 

The word ‘freak’ was spat, in the way that Keith used to get called at the homes. The way his foster-families would call him that whenever he did something slightly odd. 

He felt cold all over.

“Just a child pretending to be an adult, but children need to be cared for right? They need to be loved, and you weren’t, which is why you’re so broken.”

“Shut up!” Keith brought his bayard down into Odziz’s tail wrapped around his leg. “Shut up! What did you do to my brother?”

“You think he’s your brother?” Odziz snarled, and rocks tumbled to the ground around him. “You think he wants you. No one wants you, and if they think they want you, they don’t when something better comes around.”

“That’s not true!”

“But it is,” Odziz hummed again, a low sound rather one filled with anger. “Your own mother left you for… something else, she took one look at you and left. Your father cared more about the people in that building than you, he ran to his death to get away from you.”

He stayed quiet, his grip tightening on his bayard as he looked around.

“The person you call your brother, left you for space. He found something better than you and he left you. You think they won’t do the same? You think that as soon as they’re on Earth they won’t leave you for their real families.”

Keith felt boiling hot all over, every word cut deeper and deeper than the last. Actually hurting his chest with every word.

“They’ll leave you! You were born alone Keith Kogane, and you will die alone!”

“Tell me what you did to Shiro!” Keith yelled into the cavern, “Tell me what you did to him!”

“Nothing,” Odziz’s voice was lower than normal, and quieter too. “I suppose I must have reminded him of something he couldn’t escape.”

“His early death!” Keith yelled at Odziz, and still couldn’t see him. “I know about it! What did you do to him!”

“Nothing.”

Keith brought his bayard down into the ground and it made a horrible sound. “Tell me!”

“I did nothing to the pathetic excuse of a leader,” Odziz snarled. “I did nothing to the broken man you claim is your brother. I did nothing to him apart from remind him from the inevitable.”

“Then what happened?” Keith yelled into the abyss. “What happened?” His voice echoed and he was met with silence.

“Don’t ignore me!” He roared, slamming his bayard into the ground again and several rocks fell to the ground. “I said, what happened to Shiro. Tell me, or you’ll be buried under all this rock.”

“I do not know,” Odziz said, “All I know is that you’re pathetically in love with someone who won’t ever love you back. He didn’t love you when he was here, why would he love you know. When you’re a freak.”

Keith gritted his teeth and glared, looking at the light flooding into the cavern, turning around and going towards the light, to get out of this hell. 

“He’ll never love you,” Odziz boomed throughout the cavern. “No one can love you, and can you blame them?”

He took a deep breath, and squared his shoulders, keeping on down the hallway, his footsteps the only thing comforting him. Keith took a deep breath, another deep breath and started walking again.

This was fine.

“Then I pointed a sword at the Galra officer, and told him to let the kid go, and the Galra actually pissed himself,” the crowd around him laughed and Lulio rolled his eyes, but didn’t correct him. “He let the kid go, and I had a great dinner with that kids family.”

“Another time I got shot in the shoulder by a Galra sentry,” he rolled his shoulder, “I actually hurt my shoulder doing that, my muscle has been weird since then.”

Another alien, with light pink skin piped up. “We have a ritual for muscle pain.”

“Oh?” Lance said, looking at the light-pink alien, who had antenna which were twitching a little bit. “Really?”

“Yeah!” They said excitedly, “Our planet is renowned for our methods of healing muscles.”

“Really?” Lance pretended shock and amazement, before looking like he was thinking and looking at the alien. “Where are you from?”

“La-Kua,” the alien said proudly. “It’s on the next quadrant, we’re the only civilization that can heal in the way that we do.”

Lulio took this as Lance finding what he needed, before grabbing a glass and ‘dropping’ it making eyes shoot to him as people started fussing. Leaving Lance and the light-pink alien smiling.

“On Earth, we have a disease when people loose the ability to control and use their muscles, can you treat that on La-Kua?”

“Yeah,” the alien nodded enthusiastically, “I’m not supposed to tell you how it works, but you are a paladin of Voltron, so if there’s anyone I should be telling, it should be the most charismatic paladin.”

Lance swore that the alien batted their eyelashes at him, and he ignored the urge to groan. Instead nodding. He needed information, and if flirting was the best way to do it, then it was the best way to do it. He nodded enthusiastically.

“It’d be an honour to be told by someone as beautiful as you,” the words felt sour and gross in his mouth. Blinking a few times he nodded again, ignoring the bad feel in his mouth.

The alien giggled. Freaking giggled.

“The reason why on La-Kua we heal so effectively, is because we give the person we’re healing some of our quintessence, as healers have lifespans of thousands of years, we can spare plenty.”

“Oh,” Lance tilted his head, “What does shared quintessence do?”

“It’s unknown,” the alien said with a wide smile, “Quintessence is essentially a life-force, and healers only give a smidgen of theirs, barely enough to do anything but heal. There hasn’t been a true Quintessence sharing or swap since the Altean’s, and none of our healers are old enough to remember the Altean’s.”

“So, you share life-force?”

“Yeah,” the alien grinned, “Barely any, and the healthy quintessence hopefully interlaces with yours and heals your body. It can be rough for a while, but it evens out to be an effective method. For a week or so it hurts.”

“Is that right?”

“At least for our healers and patients,” the alien said, and Lance still didn’t know their name, so should’ve probably figured it out. “And if either of them use their bond against the other,” they wrinkled up their face. “It’s the highest dishonour, punishable by death.”

Lance nodded. It wasn’t much of a lead. But La-Kua was the best lead that they had at the moment.

“It can heal almost anything,” the alien said happily. “And the Altean’s learnt how to harness that in pods.”

“Princess Allura is over by the food tables,” Lance said, “I’m sure she’s more than happy to talk to you about quintessence and how pods work.” Their face lit up and they scrambled over to Allura.

Lance sighed, before relaxing. As Pidge walked up to him, looking around and then gesturing wildly around the both of them. “What the fuck? Where is Keith?”

“The bathroom,” Lance sipped at a drink.

“How long has he been there?”

“Since the last time you asked,” Lance sipped again at his drink and Pidge groaned.

“What’s happening to him?”

“You don’t wanna know,” Lance shuddered, “He ate something and now he’s vomiting out his guts,” he shuddered a bit more, “And you know how much Keith hates being cared about.”

Pidge nodded, twisting her hands as she looked up at Lance, actually concerned and her eyes incredibly soft. “Is he okay?”

“Yeah,” Lance said like it was obvious, “I asked around, with human biology it just fucks you up for a bit, I reckon he’ll be good before the party’s over.”

Pidge nodded, “Hunk is talking to the chef, so can I hang out with you?”

“Yeah! Fuck, yeah, let’s go eat some gross alien food.”

“Fuck yeah!”

So that’s what they did, Lance and Pidge ate food, and if Pidge vomited once, who was Lance to judge her. It was fun, Pidge looked more like the child that he was supposed to be, rather than a child pretending to be an adult.

She laughed louder than he’d seen her in a while when he got some sort of food in his hair, messing up his hair, but considering her hands were covering in the same food she wasn’t able to help.

“You’re ridiculous,” Pidge laughed, doubling over. “You’re a nightmare of a human.”

“I’m a dream-like human,” Lance said instead, looking around to find Allura or Coran to save him from having blue goo in his hair.

Instead he was met with a mullet, Lance shrieked. “Keith!” He exclaimed, “Are you done vomiting your guts out?”

Keith nodded, “Think so,” he ran a hand through his hair… which was damp? Why on Earth was Keith’s hair damp? “If I hurl again I’m trusting you to do something.”

“Something, thanks for the description,” Lance muttered, just as Allura popped up behind Keith and sighed. “Allura! Hey.”

“Lance. Pidge.”

“How’s your night been?” Lance asked with a smile and Allura shrugged, before looking at Keith.

“Where have you been?”

If Keith was panicking about giving an answer he didn’t show it, “I ate something weird,” he said casually, like he’d said that more than once. And he had not. So Lance was a little bit impressed. “I’m good now.”

Allura sighed, looking between Pidge and Lance. “I suppose we must clean you up,” she sighed a little bit tiredly, “Pidge come with me. Keith, fix Lance.”

“Right,” Keith said, as Allura and Pidge walked off. Leaving Lance and Keith.

“When did you get back?” Lance hissed, “You have not been here this long.”

“I’ve been here for like… a couple of dobosh’s,” he shrugged again, before looking around. “Where’s the bathroom?”

Lance pointed at the bathroom and Keith dragged the pair of them over there. It was a sad looking thing, with what appeared to be a sink and some paper towel. Keith led Lance over next to the sink, and grabbed some of the paper towel and put it underneath a tap. It felt oddly domestic.

Domestic enough that his heart stuttered and spluttered in his chest, trying to figure out what to do with these feelings. Which were quite gross. (If he could stop having those that would be nice.)

Keith ran the towel through Lance’s hair, getting a chunk of blue goo and it got washed down the sink. “Did you find anything?” Lance asked, and Keith wrinkled up his nose, shaking his head as he ran the towel through his hair again, getting more goo out of his hair.

“Nothing I didn’t know,” Keith murmured, refusing to look Lance in the eyes. “Put your head in the sink.”

“What?”

“We’re washing your hair,” Keith basically dragged Lance to the sink, and Lance did as he was told, feeling cold water on the back of his head. He went to flinch away and Keith held him there.

Keith’s fingers tangled through his hair, running his fingers through the goo as it washed down the sink. Turning the sink a worrying colour of blue. Still, Keith’s fingers were darting through his hair, and it felt so nice. Just nice. Nice enough that Lance had forgotten everything he was going to say to Keith about La-Kua and Shiro.

Eventually Keith’s fingers weren’t in his hair, and he assumed that his hair wasn’t blue anymore. Lance grinned, before Keith grabbed more paper towel and started drying his hair.

That would’ve been fine, if it wasn’t like Keith was trying to shake his brain inside his skull.

Lance yelped and stepped away, “That’s how you dry a dog,” he said, “I’m not sure if I like what you’re implying.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “You’re an idiot, not a dog.” 

He grabbed Lance, putting him in nothing less than a chokehold as he started drying Lance’s hair and roughly, much to his protests. Eventually Keith slapped a hand over Lance’s mouth and Lance did not stop protesting.

“Be quiet,” Keith said, “You’ll live.”

“Stop being rough with me!” Lance mumbled against Keith’s hand. “I am delicate.”

“I’ve seen you thrown across a room by a sentry, stabbed in the side and had an artery severed,” Keith said sharply. “You’re not delicate.”

“I am!” Lance argued, still muffled by Keith’s hand. Which was honestly a personal attack to his personal being. “I am delicate, and you’re ignoring that by trying to dry my brain and my hair.”

“There’s not a brain to dry,” Keith said flatly.

He let Lance go, who’s eyes shot around to the mirror, where his hair had gone frizzy and was sticking up in almost every direction as Keith stared at him, watching him trying to flatten his hair.

Lance would almost call it a fond smile, as he scrambled to make his hair look a little bit put together. And all he succeeded in was making his hair more frizzy looking and uncontrollable.

Eventually there was a sound from Keith. It was laughed. The sort of laughter that made it so you couldn’t breathe, and made it so that you needed to gasp for breath. Keith was folded over, crouching and clutching his stomach as he laughed.

He wasn’t going to be dramatic. But Keith’s laughter was one of the best sounds he’d ever heard, and combined with one of the best sights. Keith crying with laughter, was also one of the best things he’d ever seen.

Keith laughed a bit harder, for a bit longer, before offering his hand up to Lance. Lance pulled him up as Keith collapsed into his arms, his body shaking with laughter. “You’re such an idiot.”

Eventually Keith got his act together and managed to wipe the tears from his eyes. Smiling brightly. “La-Kua,” Lance said in a small voice, and Keith looked puzzled for a moment. “They have a healing ritual that can heal almost anything.”

“You think Shiro went there?” Keith asked, holding his gaze. “It’s the same quadrant?”

“It’s a lead,” Lance said, nodding a little.

Keith’s face was blank for a moment, before the words set in and Keith’s face lit up. “You’re amazing!” He almost yelled, verging the line between a yell and a normal tone. “You’re amazing Lance!”

Lance laughed shortly, and Keith started pacing up and down the bathroom, his eyes flickering back to Lance every now and again. “Seriously! You’re amazing, I went off to do shit all and you actually got a lead, and clues, and stuff. That’s incredible!” He stopped for a second, looking Lance in the eyes. “You’re amazing.”

There was a noise and Lance jumped around, seeing Lulio standing there. “Oh, hey Keith.”

“Hey, Lulio.” Keith said, crossing his arms and looking between Lance and Lulio. “Why are you out here, Dubux is ages away.”

“Long story,” Lulio muttered, “Basically The Blade of Marmora got me, and in exchange for not murdering me, I need to spy for them every now and again. Because I’m a king and can get into places that none of them can get into.”

“The who?” Keith asked.

“I’ll explain later,” Lance said and Keith nodded slowly.

“The dancing is soon,” Lulio leant against the door, having the nerve to almost look smug about it. “Unless you’re doing a different type of dancing in here.”

Lance felt very hot all of a sudden. 

“What?” Keith gestured at the sink. “I’m washing goo out of his hair.”

“Looks like the goo’s out.”

“We’re talking,” Lance defended, crossing his arms. “We’ll come out in a second.”

Keith snorted and Lance shot him a glare. Lulio nodded slowly, his hands up in a pretend surrender, walking backwards. Before closing the door.

“That was a normal interaction,” Keith said flatly. “C’mon, I owe you a dance.”

“You owe me much more than a dance,” Lance smiled and Keith smiled back at him.

“I suppose I do,” Keith smiled softly, holding out his hand to Lance. 

“Classy to ask me to dance in a bathroom,” Lance quipped and Keith rolled his eyes, and Lance still took his hand. “Keith Kogane, king of class.”

Keith led him out of the bathroom, into the actual party place.

All the tables had been moved away, and the lighting was pink now, instead of purple. A rainbow of people, well aliens, danced around. The music was pounding in Lance’s ears, echoing and he was pretty sure he could feel it in his ribs.

Keith was grinning widely, before turning to Lance properly. “May I have this dance?” He asked above the music, and was basically yelling. 

“If you must,” Lance replied. “Do you even know how to dance?”

“No,” Keith said and Lance, he really did try to stop the smile from taking over his face. “Haven’t danced in my life.”

Lance rolled his eyes, he pulled Keith to him, who made a noise and put his hand on Keith’s hip. Clutching his hand with his own, leaving Keith with one awkward arm just hanging there. “On my shoulder,” Lance said and Keith did that.

They were close.

They were really close.

Keith looked down at his feet nervously then back up at Lance. “Hey,” Lance said softly, barely above the music. “It’s just like sparring, just follow my lead.”

With a soft sigh Keith nodded, his fingers tightening around his shoulder. Lance stepped forwards and Keith stepped backwards. It really was as simple as Keith following him.

Lance and Keith started moving, and Keith followed him easily. With a grip on each other it was hard to not follow. Keith started speeding up, darting around, the same way he fought people, apparently he danced.

Because Lance was never one to back down from a challenge, especially from Keith, he darted around him too. Until everyone else was a blurry mess at best, and not there at worse.

Keith was laughing a little bit, and he was getting faster and faster. So Lance thought of something to slow him down.

So he pulled Keith closer. Until there was barely any space between them, maybe an inch or two. A couple of centimetres. Keith faltered completely, almost tripping over his own feet and Lance held him up and smiled.

“You bastard,” Keith whispered, but laughed a little bit too.

And Lance could feel the heat radiating off of Keith, and feel his breath on his face. They were just so… close to each other, so, so, close to each other. Close enough that Lance felt like he was going to do something stupid. It almost felt inevitable to do something completely and utterly stupid. But they were so close… and Lance couldn’t blame himself or Keith for anything that happened here.

In what must’ve been a second, but felt like entire lifetimes, Keith started dancing again. Spinning around and dragging Lance around with him, and Lance didn’t care that Keith was leading anymore, because Lance was actually enjoying himself.

He knew that the dance floor had been cleared for the pair of them, so it was just them spinning and twirling around, while everyone watched them. But it felt like it was just Keith and him. He barely noticed the crowds of people around them, and instead noticed Keith.

Keith was fierce, and he danced the way he existed. With passion, with some rough edges, but something softer and more precious underneath. 

In a war, where kindness wasn’t permitted. Being kind was one of the greatest weapons that they had.

They had that over the Galra, they had that over the rest of the universe. It was why they kept fighting, because of kindness.

Eventually Lance could hear to music trying to end, slowly getting quieter and quieter. And because he was someone who grew up around music, he was going to be able to guess when the final note was.

Keith stepped again, and Lance strained to listen for the music. Waiting for the rise of the music, and then the eventual fall again. He grabbed onto Keith, a bit tighter.

“Hold onto me.”

“What?”

“Hold onto me.”

And Lance dipped Keith, who scrambled for a grip. His fingers and nails digging into Lance’s back, he looked shocked, as Lance held the pair of them there. Before Keith relaxed a little in the hold and just looked up at Lance.

For a moment all they did was hold onto the other, and look at each other. Their chests heaving as they looked at each other, and they smiled. The music had died, but Lance didn’t even notice that, because all he could see was Keith, and his stupid, beautiful face.

He would’ve done something stupid if not for the crowd around them clapping and whooping and Lance almost dropped Keith. But instead dragged him up onto his feet. 

Keith ducked away, before running off in the opposite direction. A hand clamped around his shoulder and Lance turned around, looking at Allura, who was smiling sympathetically. “It’s okay,” she said softly. 

“Is it?” Lance watched Keith’s back. “This isn’t exactly a great sign.”

Allura didn’t say anything, but just smiled at Lance. “Trust me. It’s okay.”

Lance nodded and spun around, looking at Pidge and Hunk. Hunk gave a thumbs up and Pidge did too, smiling too. “Hell yeah!” She said and Lance just stared at her, as his smile dropped a little bit. “Oh,” she said. “Not great—”

“Yeah, no shit!” Lance yelled and Pidge put her hands up slowly. He threw himself at Hunk who wrapped him up in a hug. “I’m going to kill myself,” Lance muttered. “And I’m not being dramatic at all.”

“Sure,” Pidge said and Hunk swatted at her.

An alien stood in front of them, staring at Lance, their nose scrunched up. “That was a disgusting display of affection, in front of all these people?”

Lance stood up straighter, looking at the alien. “What?”

“Do you want all these people to know— know that you’re a freak.”

And Lance didn’t know what rule of psychics Keith ignored, but Keith was there in a second. Maybe less, and the alien was sprawled on the ground. 

Lance didn’t even think, to stop Keith from lunging forwards at the alien, and dragging him backwards. Even if there were currently swords pointed at the pair of them, even if it was a dumb move on all accounts.

Which meant that Lance and Keith had a bunch of swords pointed at him, and Keith had his sword at the alien on the ground. Lance was still reeling from the emotions, of the dance, of Keith trying to run off, and Keith punching the alien in the face. 

Holy shit. Lance’s mind whispered at him, holy fucking shit, Keith was hot. That was hot. That was hotter than the lava I was supposed to fall into.

Instead of saying that he also grabbed his bayard and it transformed into the gun, and he pointed it at the alien who had a sword underneath Keith’s chin.

Allura, Pidge and Hunk were also around, their weapons pointed at various people. Their eyes were set and they glared at the people with swords. Lance didn’t curl his finger around the trigger, instead he stared.

“Don’t threaten our leader,” Pidge said through gritted teeth.

Lance took a deep breath, “This better be a translation error,” he snapped through clenched teeth. Watching Keith stare at the sword, pointing at his throat, as Keith held a sword down at the alien on the floor. “Otherwise, it’s an act of war.”

“What?” The alien on the floor said, shaking a little bit.

“Freak,” Lance spat. “It’s the highest insult on our planet, so it better have been a translation error otherwise I swear to God, we’ll rain Hell down on you.”

It went silent, dead silent and everyone stared at them.

Allura glared, “Get your hands off our leader, or so hope you can explain why Voltron will never ally with your planet and you can explain how we’ll never go out of our way to save you from the Galra.”

All the swords on the other side were sheathed almost immediately and Allura stood, her deadly grace very evident. Instead of saying anything, Lance grabbed Keith. “Are you okay?” He asked and Keith nodded.

“Are you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Keith closed his eyes for a split second. 

“What made you react like that?”

Keith hesitated for a moment, and Lance couldn’t blame him. “Just… Odziz said some things, and I hate the word.”

“They weren’t true,” Lance replied. “They’re what you think are true.”

Keith didn’t reply.

“La-Kua,” Keith announced, “Lance and I are going to La-Kua.”

“Why?” Pidge asked through a mouthful of food goo.

Shiro was standing in the corner, and Lance glanced at him, before looking away and at Keith. Who’s eyes darted away from Shiro too.

“It’s knowledgeable to know about the capacities of our allies, especially if they can heal almost any injury, we may need it.”

“Why can’t we go?” Pidge complained. “Do you not trust us?”

“What?” Keith said, “No, there are castle repairs, and Lance and I dunno how to do them. We can knock out two birds with two stones.”

Pidge nodded but looked skeptical. Glancing at Lance before looking back at Keith and nodding. 

Later Pidge and Hunk surrounded Lance and asked, “Is this your sneaky way of a date?”

And Lance really wished it was a date, rather than snooping about what had happened to Shiro, and if anything was really wrong with him. But considering all that Keith had told him, Lance had a horrible sinking suspicion.

This wasn’t Shiro.

The question was, who was it?