Title: Quiet, Please!

Pairing: Klance

Notes: I was going through my A03 account and realised I hadn't posted a few things to here. So, for the sake of making everything match, here's a little Klance ficlet I wrote for a prompt on tumblr. I've really love Voltron and Klance for a while now so I can't believe this is my first time writing for them!

It wasn't like Keith had anything against people having fun.

Okay, maybe he did a little bit. But only when that fun was loud and disturbing and inappropriate. This was a library! There are rules!

He hadn't meant to say it out loud, but now there were three people staring at him. And also everyone else in the library. Maybe he'd raised his voice a little bit.

There was silence, for a moment. Not the kind of silence Keith had been looking for, but awkward, confused silence as Lance, Pidge and Hunk just stared at him.

And then they all burst into laughter, of course. Keith felt his face burning harder than he'd ever felt, and he practically threw his stuff into his bag to stalk away as fast as possible.

Curse his lack of self-control. But seriously, this was the third day in a row that Lance's little group had come in and disturbed him while he was trying to work. Of course, when their class had been set the assignment, they'd all grouped together as usual. Keith, instead, had gone to the teacher after class to request to work alone. Mr. Smythe had regarded him with confusion, reiterated that the class was supposed to work in groups up to four, but reluctantly agreed when Keith refused to budge.

Unfortunately, there had been a reason that their class was supposed to work in groups, and that was that the project was really damn hard. And Keith was smart, but no level of intelligence could really make up for the fact that there was so much work to be done. So here he was, in the library, desperately trying to research perpetual motion machines, while also designing the project cover, putting together the theoretical analysis, and some sort of slideshow that he hadn't even thought about. Not even to mention that he had only just realised that perpetual motion machines didn't even really work.

He should have just gone with the potato clock.

So there he was, killing himself to get this damn project done, while Lance, Pidge and Hunk breezed in there, barely doing any work at all and pretty much just ruining Keith's life. Was it surprising that he'd snapped?

Keith's face was still burning as he sat on a bench outside, trying to rearrange the mess he'd made of his bag while shoving everything in. It wasn't like he really cared about what anyone thought of him, much less those idiots. Not that Pidge and Hunk were idiots, they were actually really smart, but Lance. He was an idiot. A rude, annoying, super-attractive idiot.

Keith didn't find him attractive; that was just an objective fact, based on the opinions of his peers.

Okay, that was a lie. Lance was hardly popular in the romantic sense, despite his efforts. And while he was definitely attractive to Keith, he had long suspected that the opinion was very, very personal indeed. But he was still annoying. Especially when he barged into the library, and always seemed to be congregating near Keith, like he wanted to disturb him. Asshole.

And it wasn't like Lance didn't know how Keith felt about him. Keith would never admit to their rivalry, in fact, he hadn't even noticed it until Lance pointed it out. The moron had literally stood up in class and declared it, for god's sake. It was only then that Keith had even started paying attention to him, and maybe provoking him a little bit, maybe as much as possible because it was really very funny to piss him off. And maybe Keith had bragged about being better than him, a lot. And smarter, and…

…And there was a distinct possibility Keith had brought this situation on himself.

He groaned. Of course Lance was being loud and annoying in the library on purpose, he probably wanted to assert his dominance, or show off the only area in life he could actually beat Keith in – his social skills. Because Lance actually had friends, unlike Keith.

"You didn't have to leave, you know."

Keith's head snapped up so fast he nearly sprained his neck. He expected to see Lance looking smug, but instead he seemed almost guilty.

"I wasn't getting any work done anyway, thanks to you." Keith looked back down at his bag again, avoiding Lance's gaze.

"We were just having fun. You know, fun? It's when you do stuff that makes you happy?"

"It's when you stuff that makes me pissed off." Keith muttered under his breath (but loud enough he was sure Lance would hear.)

Lance gave an overdramatic sigh, throwing himself down on the bench next to Keith. "Well, you get pissed off very easily, it's hard to know what'll set you off."

Keith finally managed to fit everything in his bag and closed it with a click. He ran his fingers through his hair, frustrated. "Lance, seriously, I have a lot of work to do and you're making it really hard to get stuff done. I know you and your friends are just having fun, but you're being selfish, so just…stop it."

There was that look of guilt again. "You could have just…asked." Lance said, weakly.

"Oh, like you would have listened."

Lance didn't have an answer for that, probably because it was true. They sat in silence for a moment, before Lance started talking again. Keith suspected he was unable to keep his mouth shut more than thirty seconds at a time. "You know, back when we first became rivals–"

"We're not rivals." Keith cut him off, but Lance ignored him.

"Like I was saying, back when we first became rivals, I really just wanted to get to know you. Be your friend. But when I asked if I could sit with you at lunch you told me, and I quote–" he put on a voice that was obviously supposed to be Keith, "'I eat alone.' It was very cool. And kinda sad, now that I think about it."

Mean. Keith groaned, rubbing his temple, "Will you please just go away?"

"I still want to be your friend." Lance said, seriously.

It wasn't what he expected to hear. It wasn't…not nice to hear. It was actually kind of sweet. But Keith couldn't possibly understand how Lance had reached this decision.

"Why?" he asked, trying not to sound too pathetic. Lance just looked at him, and shrugged.

"Because…I don't know, actually, you're kind of an asshole." Keith's stomach dropped a little, but Lance continued, "But I still want to be your friend. It's why I kept sitting near you in the library. I was sort of hoping you'd see how much fun we were having and ask to join us for the project."

Keith stared at him, shocked. "You wanted me to join you?"

"Yeah!"

"And you thought I would ask you? You really don't know me at all." Keith rolled his eyes, but was surprised to hear Lance laugh.

"Well, yeah! That's why I'm doing this!"

Keith paused for a moment, really looking at Lance. "You really want to be my friend?"

"Yes. Hunk and Pidge do too. Well, Hunk does. I'm not sure about Pidge. I can't read her."

"I still don't understand why you'd want to be my friend."

Lance regarded him with…what was that? Pity? Sadness? "You have really low self esteem, man. Look, you're cool, and you're smart and you're actually pretty funny – though I'm not sure it's on purpose – and you're cute…I mean…Scratch that last part, that's not what I meant."

"I'm not cute?" Keith did his best to look heartbroken, even though his heart actually felt like it was going to explode.

Lance looked horrified, his face flushing even deeper, "No! I mean, yes, you are but I wasn't supposed to…hey." His expression dropped as he realised Keith was screwing with him.

"I am pretty funny." Keith said, smirking,

"You're still an asshole. Are you going to join the group, or just keep killing yourself working on the perpetual motion machine that won't even work? I swear our project will be way cooler, Pidge and Hunk are probably going to make a wormhole or something."

"Well, if you're making a wormhole, I guess I could get in on that, that's got to be a guaranteed A…" Keith said, warming, a smile creeping across his face. "I…uh. Thanks. You're way less of an idiot than I thought." And you're cute too.

…And he'd said that last part out loud.

"I mean…" Keith stammered, then sighed. "Well, yeah, that's what I mean." Yeah, Keith, own it.

Lance was smiling, but he was also bright red. "Smooth. Very smooth. Well, we're probably going to be spending a lot of time together for this project, but maybe we could also spend time together…alone. Like, at my house, playing Xbox or something."

"Okay. I guess I'll have to kick your ass. We are rivals, after all." Keith flashed a quick grin Lance's way before walking off.

"I knew it!" Lance shouted after him, smiling from ear to ear. He shot two thumbs up to Hunk and Pidge, who were hiding near the Library door.

They didn't end up making a wormhole, but they did get an A.