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“We are not painting our room purple.”
Lance pouted and craned his neck towards Keith. “Oh c’mon, babe. It’ll be perfect! You're red and I'm blue and together we make purple,” He said as he waved his paint roller in the air, sending specks of baby blue flying through the air.
With a shake of his head, Keith replied, “We're already painting the living room blue and the kitchen maroon. Any more red/blue references would be excessive.” He slapped more of the wine red paint onto wall.
Lance shot him a wicked grin. “My love for you is never excessive.” Keith rolled his eyes, but couldn't stop the corner of his mouth from twitching upwards.
“Everything you do is excessive. Do I have to remind you how you proposed to me? After I had already done it?”
Lance groaned in frustration as he moved his paint roller up and down the wall. “Yeah, because I needed to redo it. Your ‘proposal’ was just you asking me, "So you gonna marry me or not, asshole?’ while we were making dinner. You’re terrible at being romantic.”
Keith mumbled, “At least I proposed first.”
Lance pointed his paint roller to Keith. “Oh my god I can’t believe you still won’t let that go. You did not win the proposal game. Mine was so much cuter and you definitely cried.”
“I shed like maybe five tears. And only because you were bawling after I said yes. Even though I had already proposed the week before. You knew I was going to say yes!” Keith said, throwing his hands up in the air.
“It’s the principle of the thing, cariño.” Lance blew his bangs out of his face before continuing. “And you’re not fooling me. You enjoyed every minute of it. It was at the planetarium, for crying out loud. I’m a genius and you should be honored to be bound to me for life.”
Keith smiled as he watched Lance complain. He knew Lance was right, but his adorable pouting face made him want to tease Lance a little more.
"Yeah, forever bound like those two stars you bought for us that are actually light years away from each other."
Lance gasped. "I can't believe you just made fun of our stars! That was like the best part. You couldn't stop staring at the certificates for the rest of the day."
Chuckling as he finished touching up the corner of the wall, Keith said, "I'm just saying those stars are galaxies apart."
Lance, looking a bit miffed, replied, "Sometimes it feels like you're a galaxy apart."
Keith glanced over at his husband at that and realized maybe he had gone too far with the teasing. He crossed the room and hugged Lance from behind.
"You know even if you were galaxies away from me, I'd still come find you," Keith muttered into the fabric of Lance's shirt.
Lance laughed fondly and leaned back into the embrace. "You need to give me some warning before you say cute shit like that."
Keith nuzzled his face deeper into Lance's shoulder and placed gentle kisses on his neck. Lance hummed contentedly.
"This is why I can never stay mad at you. It's unfair," Lance joked, but his voice was laced with affection.
Keith murmured, "I know," into the crook of Lance's neck before letting go to resume work on the kitchen.
As he bent down to dip his brush in more paint he heard Lance call out, "So you did think the proposal was cute?"
Keith chuckled. "I never said that."
"Just admit it already. You definitely liked it," Lance teased in a singsong manner.
Keith shrugged as he moved his brush along the wall. "You'll never know."
"Wanna bet?"
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Keith asked in an amused tone, but Lance remained uncharacteristically silent. The lack of a witty response made Keith look up and turn around suspiciously, but when he looked over the kitchen counter Lance was nowhere to be found.
"Where did you--"
His question was interrupted by a cold, wet sensation on his neck.
"Aaarrghh Lance!" Keith cried out, dropping his paint brush in surprise. He whirled around to see a mischievous grin on his husband's face.
"Say it, Keith. You think my proposal was cute." Lance held up the paint roller threateningly.
"No way," Keith said as he backed away from the paint roller and placed a hand to his neck. "Ugh, this is so uncomfortable."
Lance extended the paint roller towards Keith's face. "Don't be stubborn. Just say the words, 'Lance had the best proposal ever and I'm the luckiest guy in the world,' and this will all be over."
Keith leaned further back as he shook his head frantically. "Lance, I swear to god if you come any closer, I am divorcing you.”
Lance grinned. “I’d like to see you try.” He inched one step closer to Keith who put his hands in front of his face.
Keith tried to keep a straight face but couldn't stifle his giggles. "Laaaaannncceee, I'm serious."
Lance giggled along with him. "Suuuure you are, because you sound so scary right now." He tickled Keith's side with his free hand, which made Keith jump in surprise and move his hands from his face.
Lance took the opportunity to roll paint from Keith's forehead to his nose.
"LANCE! I can't believe you!" Keith yelled as Lance rolled more paint onto Keith's arm. "Quit it!"
Lance held Keith in place with his free arm.
"Say it first."
Paint splashed onto Keith's left cheek.
"No."
More paint on his hair.
"Saaaaayy it."
"Never!"
"Then I'm not stopping," Lance said as he lifted Keith's shirt and rolled the paint down his stomach.
Keith was not proud of the scream he made in response.
"THAT IS SO FUCKING COLD."
"You're fucking cold. A cold-hearted husband," Lance shot back.
Keith took advantage of Lance's newfound grip on his shirt to break free. He slipped his arms from his sleeves and started to run.
Only to promptly trip over his can of paint.
Keith heard Lance cry out, "Watch out!" and he braced himself for impact.
To his surprise, a strong arm quickly wrapped around his waist and hoisted him back upright. When Keith cracked open an eye, he found himself pressed flush against Lance's chest.
Lance whistled. "Woah there, samurai. That was a close one."
The firmness of Lance's protective grip made Keith blush slightly, but in an effort to hide it, he grumbled, "And whose fault is that?"
Lance rolled his eyes. "Yours. For being so stubborn." He waggled his eyebrows. "Shouldn't you be thanking me for rescuing you?"
"Oh yeah, my hero," Keith muttered.
Lance laughed and looked down at the floor. "At least we were smart enough to cover the floor with a tarp. It'd have been a pain to clean up otherwise." Dark red paint had spilled all over the floor and around their feet.
Keith sighed. "It's still going to be a pain regardless."
Lance heaved another sigh in return. "You're right." He loosened his grip on Keith and started to move towards the hallway. "We better go sh--"
Lance's foot slipped out from under him and he came crashing down into the sea of paint.
Keith's momentary concern was replaced with roaring laughter when he saw Lance's entire right side was covered in paint.
Lance lifted his arms in defeat. "Alright, alright maybe I deserved that. Would you just help me up please?" Keith snickered at Lance's defeated tone and stretched out an arm without thinking.
It only took him a second to realize what a stupid move that had been when he felt Lance yank him down.
He landed on Lance's stomach with a grunt and heard Lance say through snorts of laughter, "I can't believe you fell for that. Literally."
Keith smacked Lance's chest. "I'm sorry I trust my husband."
Lance raised an eyebrow. "Is that right?"
Keith squirmed and said defensively, "Is that so wrong?" He expected Lance to make some sarcastic remark but instead he was greeted with the gentlest expression on Lance's face.
"You never change," Lance whispered tenderly as he brushed Keith's hair back.
Keith stammered, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Lance ran his thumb across the paint on Keith's cheek. "I'm just remembering why I fell in love with you. That's all." Keith felt his face grow hot but it only made Lance smile even more. "I can't believe after all this time the smallest things can still make you blush."
Keith tried to reply but when he opened his mouth nothing came out. Lance took the opportunity to lightly nip at Keith's lower lip.
"You know," Lance murmured into Keith's parted lips. "Even if you don't say anything, I always know what you're thinking. Your emotions are written all over your face." He lazily brushed his lips against Keith's.
Keith felt himself growing weaker in Lance's arms, but managed to ask, "So what am I thinking now, genius?"
Lance pulled away slightly and stared into Keith's eyes. In that moment, Keith felt as if his whole soul was laid out exposed in front of Lance. Years ago, he would have hated the thought of anyone seeing him so clearly, so intimately, but somehow Lance made vulnerability feel like a privilege.
He realized why as he watched Lance's face soften with more care and affection than Keith thought possible. His voice even quivered slightly as he choked out a quiet, "I love you."
Keith was barely able to say, "Correct," before his mouth was enveloped in the warmth of Lance's kiss. He could feel the hunger and need rolling off his husband in waves. Keith wondered if it was possible to get addicted to this feeling of being so completely and unconditionally loved.
After a while Keith broke away, gasping slightly, as he whispered, "Hey, Lance."
"Hm?"
"I did love your proposal. A lot."
Lance simply pressed his lips to Keith's and muttered, "I know."
"And I love you."
"I know." Another kiss. "I love you, too."
"I know."
Lance traced a heart in blue paint on Keith's forehead before saying, "You know what we should do now?"
"What?"
Lance broke out into a grin. "Make purple."
Their house filled with the sound of giddy laughter as Lance picked Keith up and spun them in circles all the way to the bathroom.