In hindsight, stealing a bottle of space alcohol from the party last night probably wasn't Lance's best idea. But then, everything seemed like a great idea after drinking half a bottle already.
The day had started out like any other. The paladins had been left to their own devices for the day after having to fight off a Galra fleet the day before. But nothing was ever simple for them in space, and within a couple of hours of being awake, they had received a distress call from a nearby planet where the same Galra fleet was attacking. Allura's voice had sounded over the speaker instructing the paladins to get to their lions and prepare for battle.
The fight had gone pretty well, all things considered. The fleet was smaller than it had been the day before after the paladins had taken many of the ships out. After roughly an hour of fighting the Galra fleet retreated, no doubt reporting back to Zarkon about what had happened. They should probably expect another attack sometime soon. The leader of the planet they had helped had been so grateful for the help of Voltron that they had thrown a party that evening in their honour.
Lance groaned as he opened his eyes, only to shut them quickly as the bright light in the room hurt his head. After a few moments, he tried opening his eyes again, with more luck this time, and sat up. Looking around the room, he realised he was not on the castle, but rather in a room that the leader of the planet, the planet Lance couldn't remember the name of, had offered them last night so they didn't have to make their way back to the castle.
Lance flopped back down on to the pillow and closed his eyes for a second, trying to recall what had happened last night. He could remember there being music last night, a kind of off-sounding tune that had been playing. And there was dancing as well. He vaguely remembered Conan in the dance floor showing everyone his moves from thousands of years ago. He also remembered the drinks they had been offered. Allura's had informed them it would have the same effect on them that alcohol from earth would have, and he remembered Shiro telling them they could have one glass each and that was it. Sitting back up, he looked down to the floor where an empty bottle of said drink lay, and yeah, now he remembers why everything from last night was such a blur.
After having the one glass that Shiro had allowed them to have, Lance had gone looking for more while Shiro had been distracted, and sure enough he'd found it. There were several bottles of it, and one more wouldn't be missed, right? So he'd grabbed one and planned to find Hunk and hide out somewhere while getting drunk.
As he was leaving in search of Hunk, he'd found Keith instead. He'd been hanging out by the door that led out of the party room, which made him impossible to avoid as he left. He hadn't been quick enough to hide the bottle and Keith had called him out for it. But rather than tell shiro, like he thought Keith would, he instead asked if he could join, and who was Lance to turn down an offer of hanging out with Keith? And Lance's crush on him had definitely played a part in letting Keith follow him out the room.
Sure, Lance called them rivals all the time, but recently they had been getting along more. There was less actual arguing, and more playful arguing. Not to mention they'd been hanging around each other more after Keith had offered to help Lance inprove his hand-to-hand combat.
So Keith and Lance had left the party and found one of the rooms they'd been allowed to stay in for the night, and had chatted while slowly drink the bottle of alcohol.
That was where Lance's memory ended. After coming into he room and drinking the alcohol, Lance couldn't remember anything else that had happened last night. Whatever it was couldn't have been too bad, right? They were still on the planet, so nothing too bad could've happened that would have resulted in an end to the alliance Allura had managed to secure and them being chased away from the planet.
Lance sighed and rolled over onto his side, only to come face to face with a mop of black hair. Very familiar looking hair. Hair that was attached to his partner in crime last night. Lance froze. Why was Keith in the same bed as him? What happened last night?
He sat up a bit so he was leaning on his elbow so he could get a better look at Keith. He was laying on his stomach with his head turned towards Lance. Now that he was paying attention, he could hear Keith's soft breathing. He was also topless. Looking down at himself, he realised that he too was topless. They were weRing shirts last night, right? Lance didn't sleep topless, so why would he have taken his top off? Unless… Lance lifted the covers up slowly and looked down.
"Oh fuck," He whispered into the quiet room.
He slowly lowered himself back down to the pillow, careful now not to jostle Keith awake. He stared up a ceiling, as the events of the night came flooding back.
He remembered the quiet conversations, reaching over to lay his hand on Keith's, the soft press of lips, the desperate sliding of tongues, Keith's legs wrapped around his waist as he carried him to the bed. He also remembered his head getting stuck in his shirt where they were both so impatient, and the bump of heads as they tried to navigate each other. He remembered the marks they left on each other, and the feeling of Keith's nails on his back, and the feeling of being inside him. And he remembered the soft exchange of kisses as they cuddled after and drifted off to sleep.
Turning back over onto his side, he raised himself up again onto his elbow, resting his head in his hand. He watched Keith as he slept. The subtle movements as he breathed, and the way his face looked so relaxed, as relaxed as Lance had ever seen it.
He slowly moved the arm he wasn't resting on and placed it on Keith's back. He lightly moved his hand up and down, wanting to touch Keith again, but careful. It to wake him. He gently dragged his fingers around his back, drawing out meaningless patterns, eyes focused on his face. As Lance brushed over a particular spot, Keith flinched slightly and made a noise. A ticklish spot perhaps? Lance saved that bit of information for later, as he carried on moving his fingers around.
Lance lost track of how long he laid there, watching as Keith slept, before he made a noise and his eyelids began to flutter. Lance slowed his movements, but didn't stop completely. With a groan, Keith turned his head into the pillow, bringing his hand up to rub at his eyes. For a second he was still, before slowly raising his head from the pillow to look around.
Lance cleared his threat. "Uh, morning."
Keith's eyes focused on him. There was a beat before he replied, "...morning." He was clearly taking in the scene around him.
Lance pulled his arm back from where it still rested on Keith's back. Keith turned over so he was laying on his back and brought his hands up to his face to rub his eyes again.
"What happened last night?" He asked as he brought himself up onto his elbows.
His eyes brushed over Lance, taking in his shirtless body, before looking back down at himself. Exactly replicating what Lance had done earlier, he lifted the covers and looked down. Lance stayed silent. Keith turned his back to look at him.
"Did we uh," he paused for a second to decided how best to phrase the question, "you know… With each other?" He asked slowly. There was another pause. "We definitely did," he decided, moving slightly into a more comfortable position, obviously feeling the dull ache from last night.
Just as Lance was about to reply, there was a knock on the door, followed by an unfamiliar voice informing them that there was breakfast in the kitchen area. Before Lance had a chance to say anything Keith quickly got up from the bed, grabbing his clothes and dressing quickly, not even glancing at Lance. When he was dressed he looked over in Lance's direction, refusing to make eye contact.
"I'm gonna…" he said, gesturing to the door, and leaving as quick as possible, as Lance just sat there staring at the door Keith had just left through.
After a couple of minutes Lance finally tore his eyes away and flopped back down on to the bed. Did Keith regret last night? Did he even remember any of it? The grumble of Lance's stomach pulled him from his thoughts, and he slowly got out the bed and dressed, before following in the direction that Keith had gone to get some food.
After eating and a quick meeting with the leader, Lance still couldn't remember the name of the planet they were on, they all boarded the castle and set off back into space. The whole time, Lance had been glancing at Keith, who he found had been looking at him too. But had quickly turned away anytime Lance made eye contact. Once in the castle, Keith had made a quick excuse to leave, saying he was going to train, and had left for the training deck, subtly limping, unnoticeable unless you were looking, which Lance definitely was, as he went, and Lance couldn't help but feel slightly proud that he had done that to Keith.
The avoidance carried on for the rest of the week, and during group training, the others could feel something was off, even if they didn't know what it was. It wasn't until the third group training in a row that none of them could last more than 10 minutes against the simulator that land decided he needed to corner Keith and talk this out.
After dinner, and everyone had decided it was time to go to bed, Lance waited in his room for about half an hour, doing his usual skincare routine, before deciding it was time to talk to Keith, and made his way to his room.
He knocked at the door and waited. He could hear shuffling around in the room, before the door slid open.
"Hey," Lance said, rubbing at the back of his neck.
"Uh, hey," Keith stuttered out.
"Can we talk?" Keith said nothing, but moved out the way and letting Lance walk in. There was silence in the room as Keith sat down on his bed while Lance awkwardly hovered in the middle of the room.
"So… The other night…" Lance started. He watched as Keith's face turned slightly red and couldn't help but find it slightly adorable.
"Yeah, about that…" Keith said, but didn't continue on.
"What was that about, man? You just left me there in the morning. You barely even said anything," Lance said, sounding more hurt than he meant to. Keith looked down into his lap where he was fiddling with his hands. "Are you gonna say anything?" Nothing. "If you wanna just forget about it then it's cool. We can just pretend it never happened." That got a reaction. Keith lifted his head and, for the first time in a week, actually looked Lance in the eye.
"I'm sorry." Keith said quietly, then looked back down again.
"It's fine, we can just forget it eve-"
"Not about that," Keith interrupted. "About just leaving you there. That was a dick move." He said.
"Yeah it kind of was." Keith laughed slightly.
"I just didn't know how to deal with it," Keith told him.
"We could've just talked about it."
"What was there to say?" Keith questioned, looking up at him again. There was a pause.
"Do you regret it?" Lance asked quietly, almost dreading the answer. Another pause before,
"No. Do you?" He asked, just as quietly. Lance let out the breath he didn't know he'd been holding, then shook his head. A small smile worked its way onto Keith's face. "Okay."
"Okay," Lance agreed. There was silence in the room as Keith awkwardly shuffled on he bed, while Lance awkwardly shuffled where he was standing. "You know, it was pretty hot watching you limp around after," Lance said with a new found confidence, relishing in the way Keith's face went bright red. "Knowing I did that to you," he continued, slowly walking closer to Keith.
Keith bit his bottom lip, and oh boy did that make Lance feel funny inside. He stopped right in front of Keith, who looked up at him.
"I remember you all laid out on the bed, moaning my name, dragging your nails down my back. I've still got the marks," he said as seductively as possible. He knows he still has them because he looked for them every day he got up, and every night he went to bed, remembering that night.
He heard Keith groan quietly.
"Feeling you beneath me. Watching you come apart under me," he continued as climbed into Keith's lap, knees digging into the bed either side of him as he straddled him. Keith's hands moved to Lance's waist, his fingers digging in slightly, as Lance's went to Keith's shoulders to steady himself.
Lance moved his mouth to Keith's ear. "We could do that again if you want," he whispered, then slowly began to nibble on his earlobe.
"Fuck," Keith quietly groaned out, digging his fingers harder into Lance's waist as Lance ground down into him.
Keith moved one of his hands to Lance's face, turning it before claiming his lips. Lance immediately deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue past Keith's lips and over his tongue.
Removing his hands from Lance's waist briefly and sliding one around his back, Keith moved himself on the bed properly, before Lance pushed at Keith's shoulders, getting him to lay down. Lance followed him down, still straddling him as they continued their make out session.
It wasn't long before clothes were slowly being pulled off and hands were moving other each other's bodies, memorizing each curve and mark that they had been too drunk to focus on before.
The next morning when they woke up tangled with each other, there was no awkward conversation and quick exit. There were sleepy kisses, soft touches, and whispered promises.