Work Text:
“I’ve always wanted to travel through space,” Lance mused softly, as his gaze swept over the vast expanse of stars before them.
He and Keith were laying down, sprawled comfortably atop one of the larger balconies on the Castle of Lions, which was landed on a planet that- according to Hunk and Pidge- had an atmosphere rather similar to Earth’s. With the inky darkness stretching as far as the eye could see, but with twinkling specks of bright, burning light generously peppering the sky, it was impossible not to feel some semblance of… calm.
What was more impossible about the situation was that Keith was enjoying it with Lance, and Lance alone- and they had made it at least twenty minutes without verbally ripping each other apart.
Keith drew in a long, slow breath, only to sharply release it in the form of a snort once Lance piped up- albeit quietly.
“You? Really? I never would have guessed,” he drawled in response, teasing sarcasm dripping from his words, “I’ve always wondered why you were studying to become a pilot.” Keith, with his hands behind his head, spared the paladin beside him a brief glance… only to find Lance’s lips twisted downward in some sort of restrained frown.
A moment of silence elapsed.
“I’m surprised you even noticed,” Lance responded curtly, quietly, and almost bitterly. The sour inflection of his words was hardly detectable, but to Keith- to Keith, who already came to terms with the fact that he spent an absurd amount of time noticing Lance- it couldn’t have been more painfully present. The Red Paladin’s gaze hardened.
“I’m not following,” he falsely claimed, with his brows slightly drawn downward. If his initial thoughts were anywhere near correct, he was following. Lance puffed out something akin to a dry laugh- a singular, sardonic ‘hah.’
“M’just saying that I’m surprised that you even knew I was trying to be a pilot,” Lance explained, as if it were the simplest concept in the world. There was something deprecating in his words, and it rubbed Keith the wrong way for a reason that was well beyond him.
Except… it wasn’t.
“That’s kinda dumb,” Keith stated, rather bluntly. “Of course I knew. What happened to, y’know, being rivals? All neck and neck, or whatever.” His inquiry was paired with a loose swirl of a gloved hand in the air above them, as if to emphasize his point. From the corner of his eye, Keith spotted Lance’s halfhearted little shrug against the sleek metal panels of the Castle.
“That’s exactly what it is to you: whatever,” Lance said, trying to punctuate the statement with a rise in his voice- something to display that he was amused. Yet, while the way he gritted out the words indicated that he wanted to drop the topic… Keith wanted to do no such thing. Clearly, something was bugging him, and Hell if he wasn’t going going to try to resolve it.
“Lance,” Keith managed, though he was wary and suspicious and so, so much more. It was rare that the two ever found themselves in easy water when they were with the others, but alone… When alone, Keith dared to hope that there was something different. It was a good different- but that, right then, was far from being ‘good different.’
“Keith,” Lance responded simply. The Red Paladin pushed himself to sit upright as he faced Lance, one palm pressing into the metal behind him to support his weight. Lance only remained lying down, gazing upward at the stars.
“Would you just stop being so damn cryptic and talk to me already?” Keith said, sounding the slightest but exasperated. He liked knowing things- and when he didn’t, it made him… uneasy. Uncertainty made him uneasy. As someone who faced a lot of uncertainty in their lifetime, and knew that he was going to face even more, Keith took immense gratitude in the company and presence of the Paladins and Coran and the princess. They were around, and dependable, and he knew they were going to be there.
Since the incident with Pidge wanting out of Team Voltron, he’d been hesitant to make any real connections. And yet… there he was.
Absurdly close to the other Paladins.
Absurdly close to Lance, who endlessly claimed to hate his very being.
There was a little clench in his stomach at a certain four-letter word. It was a reminder of just where he and Lance really stood (from Lance’s perspective, at least): they were rivals.
No more, no less. Keith went along with it, despite not exactly understanding the complex dynamic, mostly because it was so easy to bicker with Lance. Somehow, the Blue Paladin knew every button to push. That, and Keith could never find it in himself to step down from a challenge.
So when Lance suddenly dismisses the rivals-thing that he endlessly pursued in Keith’s time of really, really knowing him… Keith borderline panicked. He was scared inside. It was bad enough that the possibility of losing those who were closer to him than his blood- losing his new family, his team- was so high, but when Lance suddenly shifts in character and shows a hint of being fickle hearted, Keith can’t help but worry.
For multiple reasons.
It was unreasonable to a certain extent, but that didn’t matter much. What did matter was the way that Lance didn’t even bat an eyelash at the way Keith pressed him into explaining himself. He only stared up at the stars, looking worlds away, but also closer to Keith than ever.
So he sucked in a breath, letting his chest rise, before pushing it out slowly and turning his eyes to a particularly bright dot in the sky.
“When I… when we,” Keith began, making it a point to include him, “rescued Shiro, I did remember you.”
“As a cargo pilot.”
“That’s not the point, Lance,” Keith snapped, folding his legs and slumping forward. “I remembered you. Because on the first day of school, you were running around to literally everyone and introducing yourself.”
“I don’t see where this is going,” Lance said, having furrowed his brow. Keith delivered a slap to his upper arm, though it earned a sharp hiss in response. “Dude, what the hell?”
“It means I noticed you,” Keith huffed, “of-fucking-course I did.”
“You took one look at me, and walked away, asshole.”
“What else was I supposed to do?”
“Tell me your name, say hi, something other than immediately turn around,” Lance listed, raising his fingers with each noted reason.
Keith frowned. He pursed his lips, not daring to look over at Lance.
“Why do you care so much? Why do you remember all of this stuff?” Keith asked, fingers curling as he lowered his brow. A bubble of hope swelled in his chest in anticipation of Lance’s potential way of answering the question, though he chastised himself for it mentally. (There’s literally no way, Keith chanted, he hates you.)
Keith counted fifteen seconds of silence and two of Lance’s heavy breaths.
“Because you’re all I’ve ever been compared to,” Lance admitted. “People hand out expectations like candy. I’ve got tons of ‘em, but they just so happen to come in the form of- surprise- you.”
When Keith finally looked over at him, his eyes were screwed shut. Before he could ask for clarification on a matter he thought he was starting to understand, Lance continued.
“‘Keith could have done that.’ ‘You’re only a fighter pilot because Keith washed out.’ ‘I bet Keith would have been way better at this.’ Keith this, Keith that- even when you disappeared off of the face of the Earth, you followed me around! Iverson wouldn’t let me live it down!”
And slowly, the pieces fell into place. Keith remained silent as Lance kept talking, and he remained seated when Lance got up to pace the floor of the balcony.
“That’s why I try so hard. Because you effortlessly just are everything I’ve desperately tried to achieve, and it’s not fair. And it doesn’t help that you’re so- so fucking noble whenever we’re in battle and--”
“I’m not noble,” Keith interjected, “I just do what has to be done.”
“Uh, news flash, buddy- that’s kinda what being noble is,” Lance said, before throwing his arms up, utterly exasperated. “See? See? You don’t even try!”
Keith stared at Lance, blank-faced and silent… Though endless amounts of comforting words swarmed his mind. He was just unable to summon his voice to articulate any of them. After another beat of silence, the Blue Paladin dropped his hands to hang limply at his sides.
“Home was the only place I could escape you. And now? Now, I can’t even go home,” he added quietly, hands now tucked into the pockets of his jacket as he hunched his shoulders and turned his back away from Keith.
He was homesick.
Lance was homesick.
And Keith’s presence was only making it worse, apparently. The sick feeling in his gut grew exponentially, forming a bitter lump in his throat.
“No wonder you hate me,” Keith mumbled, mostly to himself, as he rose to his feet with the intent of leaving Lance alone. Though he wanted to do something, he found himself incapable- Lance said it himself, he just wanted an escape.
Keith took one last glance at Lance, who remained staring up at the stars, before pivoting on his heel and turning towards the entrance to the castle.
“...I don’t even hate you. I wish I could hate you, Keith,” Lance said, his voice washing over the other paladin like Earth’s tides. He froze mid step, reconsidered everything he was about to do… then turned around to face Lance, who was sitting on the lip of the metal deck, with his legs hanging over the edge.
“I would hate me if I were you,” he assured Lance. The Blue Paladin snorted.
“That’s one way of apologizing, sure. I’m trying to hate you- trust me. You’re just... actually really hard to hate. It’s easy to argue with you, but it’s kind of impossible for me to hate you.”
There it was again. The bubble of hope that Keith allowed to grow, despite knowing it was going to inevitably burst.
“You’re confusing. Has anyone ever told you that?” Keith said, as he slowly- tentatively- made his way across the open balcony to stand beside Lance. The smallest smile tipped his lips upwards.
“Yeah, you have,” he said. “So are you gonna sit down or what?”
Still no eye contact. Still nothing that was going to betray how Lance was really feeling. Keith was in no place to criticize him for not being straightforward about such a matter, but even as he claimed a seat beside Lance, the other paladin hadn’t uttered a word.
It was bothering Keith- the uncertainty- but h decided to brush off the issue in favor of simply enjoying the company beneath the endless canopy of stars. They seemed to be brighter, for some reason.
“Hey,” Lance piped up, moments later.
“Hm?”
“I’m sorry. About… earlier. It’s just--”
“Yeah, I get it. Homesickness. You miss Earth. They all do, too, y’know.”
Lance made a face, but Keith could only see it from the corner of his eyes.
“That makes it sound like you don’t,” Lance pointed out. When Keith shrugged a shoulder, Lance only looked more confused. “You’re telling me you don’t miss Earth? At all?”
Again, a shrug.
“I don’t have much to miss.”
“The food?” Lance proffered.
Keith made an “eh” motion with his hand.
“The sun?”
“...I lived in a desert.”
“And yet, you are paler than like, three whole alien moons.”
“Oh, my God.”
“Seriously, though! The ocean? Grass, trees and birds?”
“A desert, Lance.”
“Duly noted. But what about your famil--”
...Lance cut himself off. Keith winced.
“...Oh,” was all that Lance said afterwards. Keith nodded slowly, leaning back on his palms as he stared up at the sky. A little knife stabbed him in the stomach, but Keith willed away the twisting feeling in favor of retaining his placid disposition. One word, six letters, three syllables. They had an unpleasant effect.
“I’m sorry,” Lance mumbled, hunching his shoulders as he did so. Keith could feel blue eyes watching him intensely, though he hadn't ripped his own eyes from the stars.
“It’s fine,” Keith said, prior to swallowing thickly and letting his gaze flicker over to Lance for half- no, a third- of a second. “Don’t really need a family that doesn’t exist when I’ve got Team Voltron.”
It could have come off as insensitive, seeing as Lance had a real family back on Earth, but it didn’t seem as if it was interpreted it in an offensive manner. Instead, Lance’s smile- the all too familiar grin that Keith has spent a little too much time staring at in the past- returned… but it wasn’t directed at the sky. The Red Paladin was able to determine that much with the aid of his peripherals.
“I spent a lot of time thinking about going to space,” Lance noted quietly, still watching him intently- but before Keith could say that the assertion about travelling through space had already been made, Lance spoke up again. “And about the stars. I had those glow in the dark plastic stickers in my bedroom, and I’d dream about seeing the real thing up close.”
Keith turned his head to properly face Lance.
“...And are they living up to your expectations?”
Lance shrugged.
“I dunno. I’m a li’l too busy looking at the ones in your eyes.”
“I--” Keith stammered, having almost choked on air. “You- you can’t just… Oh, you are so fucking lame.”
“You’re lame.”
“That comeback was lame. When did you come up with it- five years ago?”
“Your hair is lame. When did you get it- the eighties?”
“Would you just shut up already?”
“Why don’t you make me?”
…
After a moment’s pause and a brief lapse of better judgement, Keith threw caution to the stars and made Lance shut up. The solution was temporary, as Lance rocketed back in talking a mile a minute within seconds, but it was nothing that another kiss couldn’t fix.
And, to top it all of? Keith could safely say that both kisses lived up to all of his hopeful expectations.