A/N
This fic is dedicated to eyugho on tumblr, whose art is not only fantastic, but also the basis of this story! ;)
If he were to squint, the strange plants surrounding them looked a bit similar to palm trees.
Notos was the most earth-like planet they'd visited in a while: blue skies, white clouds, green grass… The only thing missing so far was an ocean, but the humidity in the air held a whisper of rain, and for once Lance couldn't keep himself from hoping.
As team Voltron trailed toward the castle after the diplomatic party, Lance dawdled, lazily scanning the skies for any sign of rain clouds.
"Lance! Try to keep up, would you?"
He turned to Shiro's fondly exasperated expression, nodding sheepishly as he jogged to catch up with the group.
"You'll have time to explore later, I promise, but for now we have to get through the boring stuff." Shiro clapped him on the back, and Lance hastily swallowed his nostalgia.
"Boring? Are you kidding?" he grinned, earning himself an eye roll, "I heard there was gonna be a parade later!"
"Is that all you ever think about?"
Shiro sighed as Lance turned to stick his tongue out at Keith, and quickly ushered them both onward, "Come on guys, not in front of the Notorians."
The three of them turned back to the group, who had continued on obliviously. The Notorians seemed much too enthralled with Allura and Hunk to pay their pause any attention; though Lance couldn't say he blamed them.
The Notorians themselves were a vaguely humanoid species; only instead of legs they had scaled tails with fin-like protrusions. Kind of like land snake-mermaids; which got Lance to wondering if there were any beaches nearby as they all ascended the castle steps.
An hour later, about halfway through the meeting, Lance was ready to eat his words as he drummed his fingers against the table boredly. He could see Pidge's eye twitching in the corner of his vision and bit back a smirk, slyly increasing the tempo of his drumming.
"Would you stop that?!"
Lance leaned across Pidge to scowl at Keith, who was glaring at him with his arms folded, "Oh I'm sorry, am I bothering you?" He hissed back, careful to keep his voice at a whisper.
The resulting glare was answer enough, so Lance increased his tapping, reveling in the way Keith's eyebrows began to twitch. That, more than anything, was always a surefire sign that he'd managed to strike a nerve.
He could see Shiro side-eyeing them reproachfully, but the Notorians were too preoccupied with the presentation to pay them any attention.
Besides, it'd been days since he'd last bugged Keith to the point of twitching, and Lance had to admit his pettiness meter hit an all time high that morning when Keith had actually pushed his lion out of the way just to show off.
"Gotta be fast" his ass.
Lance escalated the tapping, and even went so far to click his tongue, and Keith slammed his hand down on the table, "Could you not be annoying for two seconds?!"
Allura's voice faltered as the Notorian delegation all turned to them. Kolivan at the end of the table seemed particularly unamused by the interruption.
Shiro stood, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "I'm terribly sorry, it's been a long day and I'm sure Keith's just tired from the battle earlier-"
"More like tired of Lance's shit." Pidge muttered, and Hunk tried to conceal a snort.
Shiro shot them a glare, and Lance grinned at them smugly. Luckily Allura swooped in and saved the day, "Perhaps the paladins should go catch their breath for a while before the parade," Lance's ears perked up at the word, "And we can continue this meeting in the mean time? I'm sure your people would love the opportunity to see the paladins of Voltron up close."
The Notorians whispered amongst themselves, a few of them side-eyeing Lance and Keith before the leader finally nodded, smiling graciously at Allura, "That sounds like a wonderful idea, Princess. If they follow the path we took here they should reach the town. Feel free to walk around and meet the people."
"Yes!" Lance jumped up, racing to Hunk's side, "Time to meet some of the locals." He raised his eyebrows suggestively and Hunk groaned.
"Just try not to scare them off, we need this alliance."
Lance scoffed, "Hunk, buddy… You underestimate my skills."
He heard Keith snort from behind him, but was saved the snarky retort as Shiro punched his shoulder reproachfully.
The second they set foot on the ground Lance relaxed, the air was still warm and humid, and he could just barely make out a couple particularly dark clouds on the horizon. Just one time he wished it would rain while they were planet side.
The trek to the village was down a path lined by thick foliage. Most of it was foreign looking: brightly colored, and oddly shaped, though dotted once in a while by those towering plants that reminded Lance vaguely of palm trees.
Pidge kept stopping to scan the blooms around them with her gauntlet, muttering things about biorhythms or something else tech-y, but Lance paid her no attention as he admired a particularly pretty flower… thing.
It honestly resembled a hand more than a flower, but its surface was a deep purple that Lance found extremely captivating. As he bent down to touch it he wondered absently if the Notorians would throw these things during the parade like Earthlings did with flowers.
"Hey, maybe you shouldn't touch that."
Lance rolled his eyes and turned to find Keith staring at him, arms folded. He startled as he realized Keith's eyes were the same strange deep purple as the hand-flower, but quickly shook off his surprise, opting instead for a more basic scowl.
"Oh of course, the fun-killer has to come and kill all the fun." Lance reached over and touched the flower, "Look, I'm touching it. I'm not dead yet, am I?"
Keith grit his teeth, his eyebrows twitching once again, "I'm just saying, we don't know anything about those things. What if it was poisonous?"
Lance rolled his eyes, holding up his covered hand, "Dude we're wearing armor. Plus, I think the Notorians would've warned us if they had poisonous plants growing in their backyard."
"Maybe they assumed none of us would be stupid enough to go around touching stuff." Keith frowned.
"Hey, who're you calling stupid?" Lance glared, "At least I'm having fun, unlike you, who's just as grouchy as usual!"
"Woah, come on guys." Shiro got in between them, shooting each a look, "Seriously, what's gotten into you two today?"
It was true they hadn't been arguing as much lately; somewhere along the line their rivalry had turned into camaraderie, and then tentative friendship, and then… Lance didn't like to admit it, particularly not to himself, but it'd even begun to morph into something a bit… more.
Though naturally, the more he was sure there was something other than friendship on his mind, the more sure Lance became that the same didn't go for Keith.
Ever since he'd come to this conclusion, Lance had done his best to cover up his feelings; the more he felt, the more he would antagonize Keith. It was foolproof.
Lance grumbled, backing off and folding his arms, "Keith's being all surly again."
"I'm not being anything!" Keith growled, "You're the one acting weird!"
"Lance." Shiro shot him a look as he opened his mouth to retaliate, and Lance quickly reconsidered his approach.
"Whatever." Lance shot Keith one more glare before stalked away, and offering his arm to Hunk in mock chivalry, "Come along Prince Hunk, I wanna to go meet some Notorian babes."
Hunk rolled his eyes but took it anyway. Pidge caught up to them as Shiro and Keith lagged behind a little to talk, and Lance offered her his other arm, which she accepted with only minimal eye rolling.
"Hey," She squinted up at him, "Quit pulling his pigtail."
Lance scoffed, ignoring her implication as Hunk snickered from his left, "More like quit pulling his mullet, am I right?"
Pidge shot him an unamused look, "You know that's not what I-"
"Yeah, you're right, Pidge," Lance agreed, just loudly enough for Keith to overhear, "Maybe I should just cut off his mullet in his slee-"
"DO IT AND YOU DIE!"
Lance snickered and Hunk poked him in the side reproachfully, "Pidge's right dude, there are better ways to get his attention-"
"It's not like that, big guy," Lance cut him off hurriedly, "I just like pissing him off. We are rivals after all."
"Maybe to you."
Lance was about to retort when someone cried out suddenly from behind them. He whipped around just as Keith doubled over, one hand clutching the back of his neck, "I think something just bit me…"
"Keith!" They all hurried over, Lance in the lead, "Hey man, are you-"
He placed a hand on Keith's shoulder but jumped back quickly as Keith's head snapped up, their eyes locking suddenly.
"Uh…" Lance blinked as Keith's expression morphed into something unreadable, "Dude?"
"There!" Pidge pointed to a large pink bug fluttering around a few feet away, "Shiro catch it!"
Shiro quickly swiped at it with a glowing hand as everyone else watched Keith's strange expression apprehensively.
"We need to get it back to the castle so I can make sure Keith hasn't been poisoned or anything." Pidge bit her lip, shrinking back as Keith suddenly launched himself at Lance.
He let out an extremely unflattering yelp as the team's quickest member wrapped his arms around his neck like lightning.
Lance lay winded for a few moments, Keith having literally tackled him to the ground, before realizing that Keith hadn't actually tried to strangle him but instead was… hugging him?
"Keith? Buddy?" Lance prodded at Keith's shoulder, but the red paladin refused to budge as he buried his face in Lance's neck.
Lance felt heat pooling into his stomach, and it dawned on him suddenly that things were about to get real bad, real quick.
"Shiro!" Lance struggled desperately, "Get him off me!"
Shiro and Hunk snapped out of their surprise and moved to rescue him; Shiro handing the bug off to Pidge, who had procured a small containment unit from her back pack.
With a tremendous amount of effort, the two of them managed to pry Keith up off of him, but as he was yanked away Keith let out a piteous whine, fixing him with such baleful eyes that Lance felt his chest physically constrict.
"Shiro, Pidge, what…?" Lance couldn't tear his eyes away from Keith, who was struggling to get back to him, his eyes pleading.
"We have to get him back to the castle." Shiro grunted, obviously strained with the effort of holding Keith, "Stay back." He motioned at him as Lance made to stand up, "I can't tell what he's thinking, but it seems to be centered around you."
Lance gulped, glancing away from Keith's expression, and slipped his helmet on, signaling to Coran to get a bed ready.
They met in what Lance lovingly referred to as the "Nurse's Office," which was where they all went when their injuries were too light to warrant a trip to the healing pods.
There wasn't much in the room; just a few beds and a cabinet full of supplies that were, for the most part, rather similar to what you'd find in an average Earthen nurse's office.
Lance watched anxiously as Shiro handcuffed Keith to one of the beds, unnerved by the way his eyes seemed to be glued to his. Lance paced back and forth experimentally, watching the way Keith's eyes tracked his movement like a haunted painting.
Soon after they arrived, Allura had burst in asking them each a million questions and remarking that Keith should've known better than to play around with random bugs.
Lance braced for the inevitable smug glance, but frowned when it didn't come. Instead Keith seemed to finally manage to tear his eyes away from Lance, glancing up at Shiro.
"Let me go."
"I can't." Shiro frowned, "You attacked Lance, and you aren't acting like yourself."
"I'm perfectly fine, look." Keith raised a hand, waving it in front of his face sarcastically, "I don't need to be policed."
Shiro looked conflicted, glancing to Allura who shrugged, seeming equally confused. Finally, he turned to him, "What do you think, Lance?"
Keith flinched noticeably at his name, and Hunk sputtered indignantly, "Oh come on, Keith just attacked him!"
"Very true," Coran nodded, "Are you sure it's the best idea to let him loose after he physically assaulted another paladin?"
"Guys it's okay." Lance placed a hand on Hunk's shoulder, recalling the way Keith's arms had wrapped around his neck, "He didn't hurt me, and he seems fine now… right Keith?"
Keith flinched, obviously avoiding his eyes, and Lance gulped.
"Shiro, please." Keith rattled the handcuff pointedly, and Shiro raised an eyebrow at Lance, who nodded.
"Fine," Shiro sighed, reluctantly, "but you can't-"
The second the restraint was removed, Keith ducked around Shiro's outstretched arm and pounced on Lance, who had been expecting it, and managed to remain upright as Keith nuzzled into his neck.
"Keith!" Shiro rushed over, but Lance gestured for them all to calm down.
"Look," He spread his arms as Keith clung to his torso, trying to seem as unaffected as he desperately wanted to be, "he's not hurting me."
Shiro and Allura stared at him flabbergasted, and Coran tapped his chin, "How peculiar… this isn't some strange Earth custom is it?"
"Definitely not." Hunk shook his head, "You had it right the first time, this is definitely peculiar."
Lance glanced down at Keith, who had raised his head and was staring at him intently. At Lance's confused expression, his face broke out in a small smile, and Lance swallowed thickly, hoping Keith couldn't feel his heart racing in his chest.
"Shiro?" He asked nervously, and Shiro shrugged.
"Don't look at me… Pidge?"
Pidge had just re-entered the room after running off to consult the Notorians, avidly typing away at her computer, the bug in a little pod connected by a cable.
"Honestly?" She adjusted her glasses, glancing around at them all, "it's a miracle something like this hasn't happened sooner. I mean, we've visited how many strange planets over the past couple of months alone? The chances of us not being affected by any of their ecosystems is-"
"Pidgeon!" Lance shouted over her babbling, "English!"
"It's a love bug."
"It's a what?!" Lance exclaimed, twisting and shoving until Keith was happily hugging him from behind so he could properly convey his stress to Pidge, who was seeming entirely too unconcerned.
"Oh!" They all turned to Allura as she exclaimed, "I've heard of these, we used to import them to Altea during the festival of the Sloviklargelhem!"
"Ah, yes," Coran piped up helpfully, "The festival to commemorate the mating season of the Sloviklargel! I believe Valentine's day is the closest thing you earthlings have."
Coran had been attempting to learn more about Earth culture, mostly from Lance, who, more often than not, somehow managed to get stuck on pod cleaning duty with him.
"Okayyy…" Lance drew out the word, trying desperately to ignore the way Keith had begun nuzzling his cheek into Lance's shoulder blade, "I'm still not following, what does that have to do with the bug?"
"This insect was part of a popular game among our people," Allura covered up a giggle with her hand, shooting Lance a piteous expression, "It's really quite harmless."
"Basically when someone's bitten by one of these things, they act all lovey-dovey to the first person they see." Pidge grinned at Lance evilly as he realized what that meant, "It'll wear off in a few days."
"What?!" Lance gaped at them, barely registering as Keith's hands roamed over his chest, "You can't be serious!"
"Lance, chill." Pidge rolled her eyes, "It's not that big of a deal. Just suck it up and deal with it, or avoid him. It's not that hard."
"Well…" Allura grimaced, "Those affected by the love bug bite can sometimes be very… determined."
The room fell silent as they all recalled Keith manipulating Shiro into removing the restraints. Lance in particular was trying to calculate how long it would be until his big secret was unceremoniously thrust out into the open. He didn't know how long he would be able to hide it with Keith latching onto him at every available moment.
"Hey," Hunk finally broke the silence with a chuckle, "maybe this way they can actually bond and stop arguing all the time."
Pidge and Shiro snickered, and Allura shot Lance an apologetic glance as he did his best to keep from acknowledging Keith wrapped around him; which was made particularly difficult as Keith pressed a tiny kiss to the back of his neck.
"Okay!" Lance wrenched Keith off of him, ignoring his quiet moan of displeasure, and turned to Coran and Allura, "What are we supposed to do now? We can't exactly attend the parade with him literally hanging off me... I don't want the whole universe to think I'm dating Keith!"
He felt Keith's hands reaching for him again and placed his palm against his chest, holding Keith firmly at an arm's length.
"Yes, well…" Allura frowned and Lance felt his hopes fall, "We talked with the Notorians, and we've agreed to cancel the parade under the, um… unusual circumstances."
"Aww come on!" Lance protested, giving up on holding Keith back and trying not to grimace as Keith's arms immediately encircled him, "First Keith won't get off me, and now we have to cancel the parade!?"
"I'm sorry Lance." Allura seemed a bit disappointed herself, "but with Keith in this condition we really shouldn't present ourselves to the public. Believe me when I say that rumors never die, and unless you're okay with people assuming you two are a couple..." She trailed off at the horrified expression on Lance's face.
He was about to protest when he felt a puff of breath against his ear.
"Don't worry."
Lance tensed, feeling shivers play chase up and down his spine as Keith whispered against his ear, "I'm sure we'll get another one."
Lance swallowed thickly, hoping that Keith couldn't literally feel his tension as he smiled softly against his neck.
The other paladins, along with Allura and Coran, seemed to be averting their eyes, and Lance knew how it must have looked to them.
"Well!" Lance announced, painstakingly peeling Keith from his side, "I'm going to go shower… or train. I don't know, one of the two."
He shrugged awkwardly and made to leave, but Keith immediately followed him.
"No," Lance shook his head adamantly, "You stay here." He pointed at the floor in front of him and Keith stared at him uncomprehendingly.
"But…" He fidgeted anxiously, and Lance felt uncomfortable just watching him, "I can't come train with you?"
Lance narrowed his eyes, "Will you be able to keep your hands to yourself?"
Keith nodded hastily, "Self restraint is what I'm best at."
Lance tensed, trying not to think about Keith having to restrain himself from touching him and shot the rest of the team a questioning glance.
They all seemed about as lost as he was, so he simply shrugged, "As long as you stay at least twenty feet away."
Keith grinned and skipped up to him, looping their arms, "What?" He asked innocently, "You never said I couldn't on the way there."
Lance gulped; a scheming Keith was not a Keith he wanted to be on the wrong end of. As the door swished shut behind them, Lance couldn't help but think that perhaps he was in too deep…
A/N
Don't ask me to pronounce "Sloviklargelhem" I basically key smashed and then added vowels until it was pronounceable.
The next chapter will be up tomorrow!
(Also, sorry I haven't updated my other story in a while… I'm working on it, but I was having a bit of trouble with Lance's pov so I'm writing this story for practice!)
MDL