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Lance has always been a flirt. He never let an opportunity pass to tell someone how they made his heart soar. He never discriminated, everybody had an equal chance of being put on the spot by Lance’s unending string of compliments, whether they wanted it or not.
So, Lance assumed that at this point, the rest of Team Voltron would have accepted this as an important and equally lovable part of his dazzling personality. Sure, maybe Shiro would like him to be a little more serious every once and awhile, but it wasn’t like Lance was putting the mission in jeopardy! Lance found himself explaining that he had little to no interest in actually settling down with any random alien he found on a planet they were liberating. He just likes pretty people! Is it a crime to politely let someone know that Lance would be totally on board if they were too?
In the beginning, the team would let Lance do his thing. Shiro would snap if Lance goes too far (and sure, Lance does sometimes forget where the line needs to be drawn), Pidge would roll her eyes, and Hunk would watch over curiously. But they didn’t exactly interfere.
Not until recently. Nowadays, Lance couldn’t even get a word in before someone drags him off in the other direction.
Lance hits on a particularly attractive refugee from a runaway ship that they intercept, and suddenly Allura shuts down his lion’s communication signals.
Lance whistles when he spots a handsome alien as he steps foot on a new planet and suddenly Coran is keeping him in the castle to help him with some work.
Lance does nothing more than wink at a stranger and suddenly Hunk, Pidge, or Shiro is talking his ear off, asking him to do things for them, all that keep him away from any new locals.
After not being allowed to even interact with anyone out of the team, Lance is fed up. Is it really that annoying for everyone else? He decides to take a stand.
Lance is not an early riser, so he’s usually the very last one to arrive at breakfast. This morning, however, he thought it was important to have the talk while everyone is gathered together, so he woke with the sun.
He gears up for the day, and is about ready to march into the dining hall, bringing hell down with him, when he overhears someone say his name right out the door.
It’s the rest of the gang, joining around the table. Lance flattens against the wall, listening.
“Lance is just…” Shiro starts, “Lance.”
“Well, if Lance could stop being Lance for a little while, this would be less of a situation,” Keith’s scowl can be heard through the wall.
Keith? Keith, who has been the least interested in Lance this entire ordeal? When did he have any say in this?
Pidge huffs, “Listen, you can’t expect Lance to figure it out. His head is as thick as his helmet. Why don’t you tell him and make this easier for the rest of us?”
“No,” He shoots back, and then takes a breath, “Look, I really appreciate what you all are doing for me. If you could keep it up for a little while longer, I promise I’ll get myself together.”
“No worries, buddy,” Hunk’s voice, a slapping noise, and Keith squeaking was all heard at once, “We all know how oblivious Lance can be. And as long as you are comfortable and we can form Voltron, we will help you out for as long as you need it.”
Confused, Lance thinks for a moment. What did Keith not being able to form Voltron have to do with him? Lance knew that Keith was having some troubles a few weeks ago, but Shiro talked to him and all was better. Lance didn’t think it was anything to worry about (although he did tease Keith a bit for it).
“Thanks. All of you.” Keith says, “I just...I can’t help but feeling bad, you know? A dumb crush causing everyone so much trouble.”
Allura coos, “Feelings are very powerful, Keith. Especially with fellow paladins. We can’t imagine the emotions you are having, but we can be here to assist you in any way. And anyway, I think it’s cute!”
Keith laughs, “At least one of us does.”
Lance, suddenly, began piecing everything together in his head.
Keith.
Not being able to form Voltron.
Him.
Not being allowed to flirt with others.
Crush?
Holy.
Lance has to take a second to process it. Keith had feelings for him? Why didn’t he tell him? Why was Lance so clueless? How long had this been going on? Why did EVERYONE know besides him?
Still leaning against the wall, Lance thought of a plan. Should he approach Keith on his own? Talk gently about it? Should he barge into the room, demanding answers?
Did Lance like him back?
Lance closes his eyes. He knew the answers to all those questions. He just had to act on them.
Lucky for him, acting on his feelings was Lance’s forte.
He turns the corner and struts into the room, stretching and yawning dramatically, “Ahhh! Gooood morning, everyone!”
Lance grins as everyone suddenly shifted, and pretends to act casual, as if they weren’t just talking about him.
“Well, you’re up early!” Coran spoke for the group.
“Oh you know me. Early bird gets the worm and what not.” Lance slid into a chair, next to Keith, who plays the ‘I don’t care about you’ look so well, Lance second guessed if he heard the earlier conversation correctly. “What’s on the agenda for today?”
Allura and Coran took turns explaining the status and the day’s plans. Galra ships flew nowhere in sight, but they were upcoming a planet that they believe to be in need. They should arrive there by midday. Until then, the paladins should prepare themselves. The planet may or may not be hostile.
“The plan is to go in and try to make peace,” Coran explained, “We’ll split up in groups of two. Two to approach first, test the waters. If they aren’t shot at immediately, then they will find a place to land and wait for a sign to either attack or help. Then Allura and I will come down with the castle, one of you by our side. We will attempt communication and ask if they need help. Then, the last group will be a bit behind us, ready to attack and provide us cover if we are left vulnerable. Any questions?”
Everyone shook their heads, it wasn’t a very difficult plan. Most of their missions ended up along those lines with a new planet, everyone had at least one partner to be sure no one was left behind.
The group began to converse of who would go with who, and where they would station when Lance’s arm shoots up to the sky and he yells, “Dibs on Keith!”
For a good minute, there was no sound as everyone stared at Lance, who simply shrugs and says, “Hey, all I’m saying is that this is probably gonna be another boring rescue mission and I want some eye candy by my side.”
Lance debated on not looking at Keith’s face but then decided he just had to. It was worth it. The Red Paladin’s expression was a mix of confusion and flattery, but tied together with the will to remain stoic.
“What, you talking about my lion?” Keith tries to sound cool but fails.
Lance winks, “Whatever you say, pretty boy.”
Lance stands up, stretched again, grinning at the awe on everyone’s faces, “Call me whenever we get there, I’m gonna go shower. Oh, and Keith? No need to ask, you’re already invited.”
Turning on his heel, Lance didn’t need to imagine the shock on all of their faces. He debated back to listen in the on the following conversation, but then decided he just had to. He didn’t hold back for long, in fear that someone would walk out and catch him. But he did hang long enough to hear Hunk’s whisper of, “Wait, what just happened,” which made him grin.
As expected, the mission was a piece of Altean goo cake. The planet was relatively peaceful, only being harassed by a few Galra ships that were easily sent away with much trouble. The people were simple farmers. Their planet produced bounties of delicious food, and harvested rich minerals that the Galra were greedy to take from them. As Allura explained this, Lance was sure to comment, “Boy, I’d like to harvest your rich minerals-”
“ Lance, ” Shiro chastises, "Wait, who are you even talking to?”
“Keith, of course,” Lance grins, before putting a private image of him making a kissing face on Keith’s communication screen. Which didn’t last long before Keith quickly swiped him away.
Team Voltron promises to hang back for a couple days just in case the Galra ships hadn’t received the memo that this planet was no longer a part of their trading routes.
Until then, the people held a feast of their best foods and drinks for their saviors, although they had hardly done anything. They didn't even have to form Voltron. Then again, the team wasn’t about to pass up a meal that wasn’t Coran’s food goo. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course. It simply got old after a while. At least that’s what they told Coran.
They all were gathered in the hall after they sent the ships away. Shiro was hazy about celebrating so soon, but Lance digressed,
“Come on!” He grins as they all came back from putting away their lions, “If they want to celebrate us, I say we let ‘em!”
Allura chimes in, “The Frateries are a formal people, we can’t show up in our armor. We’ll have to find something better to wear.”
“Do we even have anything like that?” Pidge asks.
Allura grins, “In fact, we do! The old paladins did more diplomacy missions than fighting, so it was imperative to dress to your best!”
With a few clicks of a button and fighting five paladins worth of complaints, Allura was able to get the group dressed in their finest attire.
Each padalin was dressed in their individual color, only now instead of armor, they wore a suit, equipped with a bow tie, overcoat with a long tail, and a stash across their chest was well decorated with pins, medals, and an extremely fancy pocket handkerchief in the pocket of the coat.
“Wow,” Hunk comments, “These old paladins sure did receive a lot of awards, didn’t they?”
“Well, they were indeed the defenders of the universe,” Allura says, “Oh, and Pidge, I do hope you are comfortable...?”
Pidge looks more than unaffected as she grins and straightens her bow tie, “It's no problem, I rock this.”
Allura giggles, “That you do. Now are we ready to go? I expect they are finished setting up by now.”
Shiro, looking like some kind of bulter god in his suit (no really, it was simply unfair), grins, “They move fast, don’t they? Well, team, ready to face the crowd?”
Keith, standing with his arms crossed, scowls, “Do we have to go? I feel ridiculous in this.”
Shiro shrugs, “Come on, maybe it will be fun.”
“Yeah, Keith!” Lance smirks, “You can be my date!”
With that, they all made their way out of the castle and towards the other, larger one.
While they make the walk, Lance hangs back, admiring everyone’s outfits. By ‘everyone’, he means Keith.
Keith’s tailcoat was a ruby red, like his lion, but outlined in gold stitching. His pants, like everyone else’s, were a plain black, similar to the bow tie at his collar. Underneath his coat, although, Keith wore a golden vest, and had a white, frilled blouse underneath, complimenting the gold stash. In summary, he looked nice.
And, like Lance, he didn’t want miss the opportunity to tell him so.
Lance picks up his speed and set himself right behind Keith. Then, he leans in close to his teammate’s ear and whispers, “No wonder you are the guardian of fire because you are hot .”
Keith stops dead in his tracks, causing Lance to run straight into him. Lance, not expecting the impact or the way Keith felt pressed against his chest, fell over. He manages to catch himself quick enough to not ruin his own suit on the grass, but did manage to attract everyone’s attention.
Lance watches as everyone looked straight at Keith, instead of him. Lance moves to see Keith’s expression, but the rest of the team apparently lost interest, and a hand shot out in front of him.
Lance takes Keith help to stand up. After he brushed the dirt off his uniform, he gave Keith a small smile.
The Red Paladin did not return it, instead picked up his pace. Lance frowned at the simple rejection, but didn’t pout for long. They reached the doors and strolled through the castle.
“Whoa,” awed Hunk, “This place makes our castle look like Keith’s creepy desert shack.”
That it did. It was obvious that whatever rich minerals the Frateries had access to, they knew how to use. The walls were huge, and carved with such incredible designs and vivid colors, Lance didn’t know walls could be so beautiful. Don’t even get him started on the floor. Every piece of furniture was its own work of art.
When they got to the ballroom, everyone’s jaw was slack in amazement. The ceiling was painted to make a landscape, an astonishing image of the views of the planet. And if they weren’t looking at the decorations, they were looking at the people.
The people, who were almost as pretty as the art. In fact, they were pieces of art themselves. Each person had long, pastel colored hair, which contrasted to their dark skin. Their eyes took up most of their faces, and seemed like their eyelids closed sideways. As strange as that was, it made them beautiful.
And the most beautiful of them all was the ruler, who was walking towards them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Lance could see his fellow teammates glancing at each other, as if devising a plan. He probably would not have noticed if he wasn't aware of what they were doing, but as the leader came forward, Hunk moved backwards, to stand next to Lance.
Oh here we go.
The leader, a elegant woman who seemed awfully young to be in charge of such a rich place, approached the group, “Welcome, heroes,” she spoke in a gentle, soothing voice, “I am Empress Reyana, and we hope this pleases you. We are forever grateful for your assistance.”
Shiro spoke for the group, “It’s no problem. Thank you for honoring us. It’s nice to take a break once in a while.”
As the two talked, Hunk spoke to Lance, “Cool place, huh? Wonder how they made all this stuff.”
Lance crossed his arms, “Uh huh. Real cool.”
“Y-yeah,” Hunk said. Lance must know how hard this whole thing was for him. He could hardly keep a secret, “Maybe we can skip out on this party and go explore those cool caves they have?”
Lance turned up his nose, “Oh yeah? What about the food, Hunk? I bet they are serving some great food here,” If to prove Lance’s point, a waiter with a platter of food passed them, “Oh, Hunk, do you smell that? I don’t know what that is, but it sure does smell good.”
The group began to move, being led away to the guest’s table. Lance could swear he heard Hunk’s stomach growl as the Yellow Paladin said, “Actually, we might need to rain check that,” and he scurried to the table and didn’t waste a second filling his plate.
Just as Lance was about to grin about his victory, something grabbed his elbow. He whipped around to see the Empress herself, sending Lance a fanged smile.
She, with her hand still placed on his arm, said, “You must be the Blue Paladin. I’ve heard many stories about you. Stories of bravery and heroism. You must be extremely talented.”
Lance almost broke. What was he supposed to do? This lady was feeding his ego with a spoon pretending to be an airplane. It would have been so easy!
But Lance lived for a challenge. He takes a step back and says, "Must have been the old one,” and then walk: to the table and takes a seat.
Lance debated on not looking around the table, looking at everyone’s faces, but then decided he just had to. And boy, was it worth it. Yeah, that’s right. Lance, the King of Charisma, shot down the hottest alien lady they have met as of yet.
What made it really worth it was Keith’s face. What was that? A pinch of hope? That’s right, buddy. Lance is all yours. Now just ask!
The night flew by. The food? Amazing! The company? Satisfactory. The music? Well, what they lacked in musicians they made up in artists. By the end of the party, the people gifted them with a beautifully drawn painting of the five lions, which the team accepted gratefully.
And when they finally finish the night and go back to their castle, everyone is more than ready for bed.
“Rest, paladins,” Allura smiles, "Today was a success, we can only hope tomorrow will be as well.”
“Goodnight, Princess,” they all say, then retreat to their rooms.
On the way back, Lance caught up with Keith, “Wild party, huh? Though, I’m disappointed I didn’t get a dance from you! Always next time, right?”
Suddenly, Keith turns on him, face red and hands in fists, “Stop it, okay?!”
“What?” Lance takes a step back, startled by the outburst.
“Stop this!” Keith repeats, “I get it, you figured it out. I don’t know how but you did. And I’m fine with you messing with me all the time, but this, this is cruel, even for you. So if you are going to make fun of me for liking you, then don’t talk to me at all. Just...leave me alone.”
Keith turns and starts walking faster to his room.
Lance is left standing in the hallway, thinking: This idiot.
Keith shouts when Lance run up to him and pushes him from the behind, “ What the hell? ”
Not finished, Lance pushes him again, and Keith is up against the wall. Lance debated for a second that this was a bad idea, as Keith was in a fighting stance, but decided he had gone too far to quit now.
So, Lance stalked up to Keith, cornering him against the wall. Keith holds his fists up, prepared to fight if needed, but his whole demeanor softenes to confusion when Lance places his hands over Keith’s closed fists and lowers them.
“ What are you-”
Lance closes the short gap between them, kissing Keith gently. That’s all it was, a soft, gentle peck before Lance pulls away, smiling down at Keith’s confused face.
“Hey, guess what,” Lance grins.
Keith looks up, searching Lance’s eyes for something genuine. Then, before Lance could open his mouth to say anything else, Keith grabs him by the wrist and pulls him down the hallway.
“Hey-whoa, where are we going?”
“Whoever’s room is closer,” Keith growls.
“ Whoa-oh-oh,” Lance calls.
It turns out that his own is closer. Keith waits impatiently as Lance keys in the code to open his door. He watches amused as Keith basically starts bouncing as Lance took his own sweet time.
Once unlocked, Keith practically pushes Lance inside. The door isn't finished closing when Keith attaches his face to Lance’s again. The Red Paladin pushes Lance down on his bed and crawled over him, not once taking his mouth of his teammate’s. Keith’s mouth make it’s way up and down Lance’s neck, followed by small moans, while his hands found Lance’s coat and began pulling it off.
Lance’s hands make way to Keith’s face to try to slow the Red Paladin down. Not that he was complaining, Keith’s hot lips pressed against his, moving fast, eager to explore all the ways they fit together. In fact, Voltron save him, he was really, really enjoying this. Lance has kissed other people before, a good handful, but no one had made Lance melt like Keith was just then. The Blue Paladin could have very well stayed in the moment for a questionable length of time, Keith opening Lance’s mouth with his, and testing the waters with his tongue. Waters that greeted him eagerly.
But, with great trouble, Lance pulls away for a moment, looking at Keith’s face. His eyebrows scrunched together, making his face give off a look of pain and focus. A look saved for fighting.
Keith leans back in, trying to reconnect them, but Lance holds him back. Keith’s eyes snapped open, and his expression made Lance’s heart break. He looks so hopeful, so worried, so fragile. Lance feel bad how much power he had over Keith’s emotions in that moment. Or at all.
Lance runs a hand through Keith’s hair, and smikes, “Well, now we know why you pilot the impulsive lion.”
An familiar scowl appeares on Keith’s face, “Am I really doing that bad?”
Lance laughs, “New to this, are you?”
Keith doesn't say anything, just looks down.
Lance meets Keith’s eyes again, and shoots him a grin, “Hey, guess what. Me too.”
“Really? Mr. Flirt has never done this before?” Keith smirks.
“Wha-I wouldn’t say never ,” Lance complains, “I just. Haven’t had a whole lot of experience with. You know. Anything other than kissing.”
“We don’t. You know. Have to now,” Keith blushes, “I think we have a whole lot to talk about before we go there. Especially a certain someone’s behavior lately.”
Lance smiles, “You have a point there. Just making sure we are on the same page here. So before we get to that.. .”
No further words were needed as their lips connected once more, this time softer, somehow making Lance's heart only leap out of his chest even more than before. Lance debated on leaving before the night was over, and telling everyone the news, and rubbing it in their faces, but then decided that Keith’s arms were much too warm, and that would just have to wait.