There Is No Lube In Space

by Lala to the power of 2

A journey through Keith's eyes as we explore the beginning of he and Lance's relationship; wherein he learns about sex, trust, and how falling in love can work for your mental illness and not just against it. Also, they both almost die in that huge planet-wide conspiracy Keith gets them caught up in.

1. The Good

AN: So this fic wasn't supposed to be any more than like, fluffy porn, but then plot and drama infected it and now it's a catastrophe. It's still got a lot of fluff and a TON of porn, but. Like, whenever I couldn't think of an idea for alien shit I used a nerdy reference and walked away, so… There's a lot of familiar names and weird science and shit. Look, the plot and romance work, just bear through the rest, I swear this will be a good ride if you can ignore my laziness and overenthusiasm in turn.

AN2: Also, because I couldn't figure out how else to do it, " " " Triple Quotes""" mean three people talking in unison. It won't come up that often. Like, twice, I swear.

Relationships, Keith was discovering, were messy, complicated, stupid, stupid affairs that no sane person would ever chose to be a part of. It's like abandoning all control and reason to the whims of another person and trusting your mental health to them on the hopes that they aren't a selfish asshole or, say for hypothetical example, a total raving imbecile .

The only thing worse than dating a total raving imbecile (hypothetically)? That would be the desert. Keith hated deserts. Just, so damn much. So one could only imagine his joy when they docked on the planet and even before they dropped the barrier and stepped outside Keith could smell the heat and sand without even laying eyes on the impending desert.

Twenty minutes. Only twenty minutes since the paladins had docked to land on this highly populated desert planet, and was already sure he hated it here. The air was about a hundred and fifteen degrees in the shade and so dry he could choke on it. In the sunlight it was enough to make everyone - except for some reason Lance, the fucking asshole - sweat and boil in their own instantly-sunburned skin. There was a blood red sand everywhere, from his hair to his teeth to the joints of his paladin suit, and even against all reason the crack of his ass and god damn it Keith had LEFT the desert, he'd gone into SPACE and was supposed to have finally escaped this bullshit. But Allura had to check to see if she still had friends in a place that hadn't known she existed for ten thousand years, so here Keith was in a worse hellhole than he'd ever lived in back on Earth.

They hadn't even managed to make their way into the approximately China-sized city Allura had wanted to come to the planet Elpis to visit yet. The entire vastness of the metropolis was by far too densely populated to land their castle in, so they had to park their ship miles away from civilization. And then of course, the great city Concordia was surrounded on all sides by the craggy rock walls of the basins the city had been built in on nearly all sides with guarded barriers in any spot that wasn't, so even once they'd flown a couple of the castle's podships all the way to the city limits they were turned away with a raised nose and not so much as a hint on how to get a visa to get inside.

In the end they'd manage to find a town not too far from the border, the vast cityscape looming over half the horizon and mountains tall enough to nearly block out one of Elpis's suns spanning the other. Hoping to get information from the locals, the paladins had scattered themselves into the town in search of visas like their lives had turned into a video game and this was the first boring quest.

Keith had noticed just from hovering above Elpis that for a place with so many people around there seemed to be no Galra influence here at all. No outposts, no ships, no stray Galran soldiers wandering about the border town they'd flown into on the castle's podships. Keith found it all terribly suspicious. There was no way that Zarkon would leave a place this conspicuous untouched, especially considering the reason the princess had wanted to come here was because the Geruda had once been Altea's allies in the past. As far as Keith was concerned this just meant whatever Galran influence here was going to be subtle. As paladins, they'd need to be completely on guard in this place to prepare for any more spies or bounty hunters trying to make a quick buck, and any stranger that seemed like they wanted to help probably intended to kill them or worse.

Which is why it was completely ridiculous that the first thing his own boyfriend did when they reached civilization was to start hitting on the natives. Because Lance was apparently The Actual Worst, and to Keith's bad luck the local alien population seemed to be made mostly of out of elegant red-scaled lady creatures with no visible male variations. Keith wanted to punch a tree, but this being the fucking desert there weren't any around.

"So tell me, ladies," Lance was leaning against a finely-crafted low stone wall, a trio of tittering alien girls Keith could barely tell apart hanging off his every word. Lithe and wide-eyed and swathed in yellowed-white sashes for clothing, they all three carried themselves with the same too-interested flirty body language toawwrds Lance. "We're just a couple of space tourists passing through on our way to save the universe, and I was wondering how such a huge beautiful city with such beautiful people ended up springing up way out here in the galactic boonies." Translation: Why would so many people choose to live in a place so obviously hellish and terrible of their own volition?

" " "Oh!""" The three girls looked excited at the question instead of offended like they probably should have been. "That's because of us!" One of them, the shortest of the three, performed an odd dancy little swerve of her hips in excitement, red feather ponytail waving behind her like a banner and scaly tail whipping out behind her so violently Keith was surprised when it didn't smack against either of her friends. "Our species, that is, not u s specifically." She giggled a bit, hopped on the balls of her lizard feet , and gestured towards the vast purple and red mountainscape lining the half of the planet's view that wasn't taken up by the great city Concordia, but it was the girl with the shorter crown feathers sprouting from her hairline like a lion's mane that continued talking in her place. "You see -"

"- Here on Elpis there are only a few species that can survive our harsh conditions, right? Well, before we technologized the CRAP out of this place, anyway. So way back when we Geruda were evolving our ancestors didn't have enough viable mates around and started breeding whatever WAS around," she spun a clawed finger in a small loop in the air.

The last girl with with the skinniest… beak thing hanging just above her wide smile took over the story as easily as if they were passing a ball between them. Maybe he should have been paying attention when they'd introduced themselves, he realized, but their names had bled together and he couldn't for the life of him figure out who was who at this point. Her tone was more... subdued than the others, "Or at least that's how the story goes. Anyway a couple million or so years pass, and the Geruda have evolved the amazing ability to breed with nearly any species in the whole universe. Pretty impressive, right?"

That sounded. .. Keith did not like how that sounded, actually. But that was probably because he was biased against anything sexually compatible with his boyfriend, and less an actual opinion of the race as a whole. In fact if not for that specific fact, he might have found their capabilities rather interesting. Keith watched as Lance's eyebrows shot up to his hairline, sputtering out "Oh, wow ," just in time for Keith to contemplate smacking him upside the head. "Like the Asari, then?"

" " "Yeah!""" the girls cooed. Like the line of a typewriter setting back, the first short girl was once again the one to step forward. "Well, sort of. They can only make more Asari daughters, but if a stray chromosome gets mixed in during conception we could birth either a Gerdua or whatever the father's species was just as likely! Nothing in between though."

The fluffy-headed girl was next again, and Keith wondered if it was even an accident they were taking such perfect turns. She waved a hand in front of her face dismissively, "Not to mention our lifespans are just a flash in the pan compared to them. Who would wanna live that many dusks anyway?" Considering Elpis had two suns hanging on either ends of the sky, that was probably how they measured years - a real night couldn't happen out here more often than once every blue moon. "Life is supposed to be a short, glorious burst of beauty! All fireworks and flowers!"

Lance and the girls all nodded and hummed in agreement at that statement before the blue paladin whistled lowly. "So then, all these people from all these different galaxies started to come here just to uh… Meet Geruda, huh?

They nodded in barely-imperfect unison, the short girl flailing out a skinny arm to gesture grandly at the city spanning the entire left half of the horizon. "Yup! A whole society built, all for the sake of flirting with cute girls!" All for the sake of getting laid, more like. Should they really be so proud of this heritage? Were they that naive, or that… open?

"Well, I can understand why," Lance grinned, resulting in a chorus of pleased girly chirps that was just about enough for Keith, right there. He resolved to stop listening and tune this nonsense out, but he couldn't manage to focus on any thought other than how hot and and how annoyedhe was right now. His paladin armor was trapping the heat inside like a freaking solar panel, sweating pouring off his exposed skin in buckets and making his hair stick to his neck uncomfortably. They had to figure out a way to get passes into the city, and the only way to do that was with information, and the best way to get information was by talking to people and Lord knows Keith wasn't the person to go to on THAT front. So technically speaking, Lance was not doing anything wrong and Keith could not be mad. But it was still irritating to watch. A swish of bright red feathers caught his attention as the skinniest girl sashayed violently, and Keith realized the reason most of the Geruda kept their crown feathers short or tied up was probably due to the very struggle he was having now. He tried to remember if he had a hair binder on him.

"Who's your cute friend, anyway? He hasn't said a single word this whole time!" Keith's attention was caught, and he looked up in time to see Lance gesturing over his shoulder towards him with an awkward little smile.

"Oh, him? That's just the bae." What the- The bae? Thebae? The bay? What the hell had Lance just called him?

" " "Bae?""" The girls looked among themselves questioningly for a moment, before the shortest one chirped a knowing "Oh!" She turned to the other girls. "Like a FonFon-Ru," she said in explanation, causing the other girls to turn to look at Keith for a moment. Having apparently assessed him, they all three cooed "Awwwww!" and gave Lance a thumbs-up. Keith could not for the life of him decipher what had just transpired.

"I know, right?" Lance said with a bashful grin, and everyone started laughing. Which was all kinds of what the fuck. Was he being made fun of? "So as it were, the two of us have been trying to get into Concordia, but they're not telling us how to get this authentication stuff they're talking about! I was hoping some local gals like you might have some directions to whatever kind of office we'd need to go to…?"

Skinny girl shrugged. "Elpis-born citizens get free pass in and out of the city with no problems. And since we never have much reason to leave town anyway, we wouldn't even know where to start!" The girls all dipped their heads, " " "Sorry!"""

Well that was a bust, then. Keith scowled, resolving to drag his boyfriend away from these harpies now that it was clear they couldn't help them. He finished tying his hair up into the best ponytail he could manage, determined that if he could do nothing else about this day he was at least getting his hair off his neck and drying off. "But you know," The short girl said coyly before Keith could think of an excuse to get them both out of there. "Speaking of short bursts of beauty, you two should totally hang out with us for a while! We know the BEST place in town to get a good drink, and the food out here in Fyrestone is better than anything you can get in the city!"

Oh, those nasty little - "Uhhhh…" Lance took a step back, startled. When he recovered it was with an easy smile, "Well as much as we'd love to join you, I'm afraid we just can't spare the time. Important universe-saving business and all, you know?" Damn straight they didn't have time for this. At least Lance managed to say the right thing SOME of the time.

"Aw, that's too bad," the fluffy one booed cutely. "It would have been fun to spend some time with such handsome strangers!"

"Eh," Lance just waved a hand on front of his face. "He looks nice from here, but his complexion is awful and his hair is only that shiny 'cause it's greasy." Or not.

And at this final straw Keith finally stepped forward and snapped , "Oh, what the HELL, Lance!"

His idiot only grinned, easily dancing out of the way of the strike Keith aimed at his head to come around to his rear. Before Keith could turn around Lance was already leaning over to peck a quick kiss to the back of his neck with the affectionate murmur, "You look cute with your hair like that, by the way," with all the deadly precision of an arrow striking Achilles' heel.

A shiver shot down Keith's spine that was the closest thing he'd felt to cool all day, and if his face hadn't been flushed before from the heat it certainly was now. Not fair, that son of a bitch was just not playing fair here. Lance was still behind him, putting one hand on his shoulder while he turned to the girls just enough to call out "It was a true pleasure talking you you lovely ladies, but I'm afraid we really must be going. Thanks for your time, Sasha! Leash, Lala!" He said to each of the girls in turn.

They were about to walk off when the sound of a startled chorus of squaked "Huh!?"s paused them.

"Did I say something weird?" Lance asked with worry.

The Geruda all shook their heads. "You actually remembered which one of us is which!" The short-haired one who seemed to be named Sasha exclaimed. "When we're not even standing in the same order anymore!"

Even Keith had to frown at that. That shouldn't be weird, should it? "Because you all… have different faces?" Lance said with confused hesitation.

"Yeah, but tourists never take the time to notice them!" The shortest girl - Lala, apparently, called out.

Sasha and Leash both looked at each other with their arms folded, the thin Leash mimicking a dismissive "One Geruda is as good as any other, right?"

Sasha continued, "It's not like it makes a difference anyway!" And they both stuck out pointy green tongues in disgust.

"Wow, that's. Really sad," Keith said sympathetically. He kind of wanted to point out their habit of talking in unison and finishing each other's sentences, but figured that was probably not going to win any favor points. Also, he felt like a total asshole for not being able to even trying to remember their names the first time, which… Hell. Just, Hell.

The Geruda waved him off. "I mean, it's not like we don't bring it on ourselves. It's just annoying to be called the wrong name all the time, you know?"

" " "So it's REALLY flattering to be remembered right on the first try!""" Lala hopped up on her toes and all three waved in time. "Bye, Lance! Lance's Bae! Come find us if you change your minds about lunch~!"

Keith gave a reluctant wave back as they wandered further into the bordertown. Conversationally, Lance chimed in "You know, it might not be a bad idea to find them for dinner later on after we regroup."

"Why am I even dating you," was Keith's rather telling flat response to that. Lance only laughed it off, but miserable and jealous in an alien heat Lance just did not seem to be bothered by, Keith was pretty sure he meant it.

Seriously, why WAS he dating this moron? Just because he'd asked Keith out (twice)? That didn't mean Keith had to have said YES! What about this had seemed like a good idea. What had Keith been thinking?

Staring at the line of Lance's shoulders and neck as he walked in front of Keith, he admitted he knew what he'd been thinking. He'd been thinking that he was surprised by how sincere Lance had seemed by the offer, that there must be more to the other boy than he allowed to show on the surface. Lance had thrown him off guard, and so instead of thinking like a responsible paladin Keith had reacted like the lonely gay teenage boy healso was. A lonely gay teen who had just been asked out on a date by a cute boy with a nice smile and broad shoulders and Keith was just a human being, okay? A horny sad human being like any other.

And then even worse Lance had gone and taken him out on a really good first date. Which, what the hell, who would have expected THAT? For Lance to ask him on a date out of nowhere and then proceed to be respectful and funny and interested in what Keith had to say? It was easy to get swept up in the moment after that. For a while. Like. A month or so of being swept up in the moment, Keith would say. Is, is how he would definitely put it. Getting carried away, that is.

And then of course it was revealed that Lance was, in fact, a huge moron, and they had that huge fight wherein Keith stopped speaking to him for a week. And they had made up, and Keith had pretty much forgiven him for his stupidity, but after that Keith was just… Wary. He'd gotten a taste of heartbreak and wasn't eager to experience it twice, and trusting Lance after that hadn't been easy.

But Lance had even known that would be true, and the next few days he'd tread delicately like a minesweeper on thin ice. He'd given Keith space and time alone to think, hadn't tried to force conversation when they were together. Slowly edged his way back into Keith's personal space with knees brushing together and a gentle hand stroking lightly through his hair, and when they'd finally kissed again it had felt like a first kiss but better because it had carried the warmth of familiarity (and also because Keith had actually known what he was doing this time.)

Keith's eyes ran down the length of Lance's arm down to his hand swaying between them as they walked, thinking of hours spent with fingers linked together in the comfortable din of the lounge as everyone cheerfully talked over the movie they had put on.

They were walking side by side right now, the backs of their gloved hands only inches away from touching in between steps, the shifting sand beneath their feet pushing them closer together . With a sudden startling desperation Keith wanted to link their hands, needing the comfort of Lance's palm against his and his pulse where Keith's fingers could reach it. He wasn't sure why he wanted that so badly any more than he knew why he couldn't just reach out and take it - some unnamed anxiety stilling his body, wrapping him in tension and halting his actions.

It was all fine, wasn't it? They were dating, and had never bothered to hide it at any point. In fact from context Keith was pretty sure 'bae' meant something like the old ball-and-chain, so Lance had probably just unabashedly told those strange girls about them, right? There was no reason in the world not to just stretch his hand out those few necessary inches and twine their fingers together. And yet Keith still couldn't do it.

"Hey, let's go this way," Lance's sunny voice broke the silence, and Keith looked over to where he was pointing in time to miss Lance grabbing hold of his hand and tugging him down the street they were about to pass by. "Looks like there's some offices down here, we can wander in and out asking questions like lost children."

"We kind of ARE lost children," Keith said back, using this chance to change Lance's grip on his hand and weave their fingers together and breathing deeply as something inside him unwound the tiniest bit. "Children lost in space with no adult supervision except our half crazy moustache uncle."

"Aw, come one, I'm sure at least Shiro counts as a responsible adult."

"I have known Shiro a long time and while I have the utmost respect for him, I can safely say that in that regard at least you are severely overestimating him." ("I've known Shiro a long time, trust me, he doesn't")

Lance laughed, the sound charming and infectious as ever and a tiny smile spread to curl Keith's own lips.

At least, until Lance veered off to talk to a pair of alien women who were, shall we say, dressed appropriately for the unfortunate weather. "Oh, hello there! Is it just a mirage, or have a couple of Goddesses descended to bless my humble eyes?"

"Lance, what the SHIT? Are you seriously flirting with girls right now?!"

Lance looked as though Keith's outrage was for some reason confusing to him. "What?"

Keith gestured exaggeratedly between them. "WE'RE HOLDING HANDS!"

Lance looked down at their linked fingers. "I still don't understand the problem."

Keith fucking hated his boyfriend.

An entire day of wandering a heat-scorched town full of friendlier-than-smart bird ladies and the paladins had gotten a surplus of information about Elpis. None of it helped them figure out how to get any closer to entering Concordia and actually speaking to the royal court at all, because while the Geruda were a chatty race they had no problem deflecting questions they didn't feel like answering with a giggle and a compliment, and Keith was reluctant to admit it but their excessive femininity was proving to be a much better defensive reflex than he'd expected. They may not have been hyper-intelligent beings of high culture, but the Geruda were definitely cunning in their own way and Keith wasn't going to let one of them catch him off guard by any apparent flightiness. A lot more could be accomplished with a distracting bat of feathery eyelashes and a quick hand than people realized.

Being so on edge and overheated all day, Keith was honestly relieved when it was decided they'd just head back to the castle for the night instead of trying to find a hotel to stay in. Quite generally, he needed the stress relief just knowing they were sleeping under the castle's barriers would bring, and then proceeded to be too paranoid of an attack to get any rest anyway. Other than the sand and heat and unenterable secret city, everything and everyone on Elpis was so nice . It put him on edge like nothing else.

But on the plus side, the three girls had been right about Fyrestone's food. Hunk had dragged back an entire sack of ingredients to the castle with him, and out of it had whipped up a spectacular dinner that had Lance moaning around his spoon and cursing about how "Oh my God you did it Hunk, you made chili powder, I love you forever and owe you my first born child." Which had seemed excessive until Keith had actually tried the dinner, and promptly also swore to give Hunk Lance's second-born child as well. In fact by the end of dinner Hunk was officially owed three of Lance's future children, two space goats, a mansion by the sea, and courtesy of Pidge: should he ever desire to cash in on it, a full two-minute tongue kiss from Shiro (who shrugged and agreed 'It was a good dinner.')

So dinner had been enough to unwind a bit of the paranoid tension being on a new planet always awarded Keith with, and he had plans to work off some of the rest on the Gladiator. Mind thoroughly occupied, it hadn't occurred to Keith to wonder what Lance was doing right then or how that might somehow affect him. Which was his own fault, really; if he had thought about how his boyfriend tends to operate he might have been prepared for when he was inevitably waylaid in the hallway on his way down to the training deck.

"Slow down, there, Sugar!" Lance called, dashing after Keith with some unfamiliar Altean tool swinging wildly at his side. "I've been looking for you for ages, man!"

Keith was currently in no mood for whatever shenanigans Lance was plotting. "What for?" He asked cautiously, reluctantly stopping to wait for him.

Lance awarded him with a dazzling smile when he caught up. "So, it seemed to me like earlier today you lacked appreciation for the elite reconnaissance skills I displayed," Was he LOOKING to get punched in the face again? "Which is fair since my whole information-gathering technique is pretty much just flirting with the locals. I'll admit that's kind of an asshole-y way to go about things considering you were. You know, right there and all."

"Oh, so you noticed," Keith replied flatly. Was it good that Lance acknowledged this was bad, or was this bad because he knew and did it anyway? Probably both. Everything Lance made Keith feel had always been complicated, he supposed.

"Aaaannnnddd since we still haven't gotten into the city I don't even have anything to show for it. So I figure I probably owe you some kind of 'I swear-I'm-not-a-fuck-up apology."

"...And are you going to keep doing it?"

A pause. "Well. Yes," Lance admitted. "Sorry. Because even if it was useless we DID learn a lot, and all of my other ideas are historically terrible. BUT," He swung whatever he'd been carrying up into a two-handed grasp, and Keith realized it was some kind of stringed instrument. "Since you know I don't actually MEAN what I say, that means I can make up for it with gratuitous apology songs!"

Something tightened in Keith's chest as he found himself, stupidly, rather charmed by the idea. Apology songs, huh? He did know that Lance was still better at smooth-talking strangers than him by a longshot and couldn't honestly tell him to stop when he was the only one of the two of them getting anything done. As for meaning it, well. Lance couldn't talk to people the honey-sweet way he did if he didn't mean at least SOME of it, Keith knew. Just because Lance didn't have any intentions to DO anything didn't negate it when he called a girl pretty or complimented them on their sparkling amber eyes. That was something Keith was probably going to have to get over; and judging from the hopeful excited twist in his ribcage Keith supposed grand romantic gestures were an effective balm for soothing his jealousy. "Are you sure 'gratuitous' is really the word you wanted to use there?"

Lance flickered his eyebrows theatrically. "Oh you bet I am." He began to stroke the strings of the instrument lovingly, and Keith immediately learned why 'gratuitous' was indeed the correct term.

The twanging noise that the instrument rang out was something akin to an electric banjo. A banjo that was currently on fire . He didn't know if it was the instrument itself or just how awfly Lance was mutilating it, but he sound was violent in a way he hadn't thought a banjo could possibly conceive, and it seemed to echo not only down the hallway but into Keith's very bones, ringing painfully against the inside of his skull.

Keith buried his face in his hands. "I regret every choice in my life that has lead me to this moment."

Lance frowned and rolled his eyes, and thankfully the cacophony of torture ceased. Slinging the terrible instrument of monstrosity across his back like a soldier mounting his rifle, Lance sighed, "You say that every time I try to be romantic."

"And how did you think," Keith asked slowly, "that this would be romantic? " In theory Keith supposed he could see how it was supposed to be - serenading your lover with a song composed for them and played on a classical instrument. The reality of course was Lance assaulting him with a space banjo. A space banjo he had no idea how to play. Nothing about the experience had been pleasant.

His boyfriend dripped with righteous indignation. "How is it NOT romantic? I'm the MOST romancin-est." He slung an arm around Keith's shoulder. "And if you had let me get to the part of the song with lyrics -"

"Dear God, you wrote words for it?"

"...You would have found out that no I did not, and I was planning on making them up as I went. Spontaneity is SUPER romantic. I'm a master at boyfriending." Lance flashed a grin.

"How lucky am I," Keith deadpanned, beginning to walk away.

Being still attached via Keith's shoulder, Lance chose to go with the flow and walk with him rather than drop his arm. "Hey, you knew what you were getting into when you agreed to go out with me," he said with a hint of warning in his voice. "I mean, do you have any idea how much time I used to spend thinking about girls?" He said with way too much seriousness. "Guess where all that energy gets redirected now, Sweetheart?"

"No," he said flatly, both to the question and nickname.

"That's right!" Lance carried on, shaking Keith harshly by the shoulder. "Bothering you, my little Cherry blossom!"

"Please stop calling me weird pet names," Keith begged, wondering if how offended Lance would be if he ducked out from under his arm and just ditched the guy.

"Not until I find one you like -"

"Which you won't," Keith interrupted.

"Which I WILL, because I'm incredibly charming and you soak up affection like a sponge." Both of these points Keith instinctively wanted to argue with. He could find fault with neither. "Now stand back and prepared to be blown away, because I have like, an entire book full for pick-up lines memorized and you get to experience the full force of my mad seduction skills."

Other than all of the people he was just flirting with? How much did this guy even have IN him? Well, Lance was, Keith reasoned, usually nigh impossible to understand in the first place. "...But we're already dating."

"Yeah," Lance agreed. "Which means I can't use these on anyone ELSE. For one thing, no one would ever speak to us if I tried. Now tell me, are you an alien, baby? Because that booty is outta this world."

Keith just stared at him, bemused. "...We're already in space, Lance. What world could my booty be out of?"

Lance stared back in dismay. "I don't understand why you were easier to flirt with when we weren't actually dating yet."

Keith didn't understand this either. The smoothest and easiest time of their relationship so far had been the period at the beginning where neither of them had any idea what was actually going on or what they were doing. This seemed telling to Keith, but he wasn't ready to let his worrying impede on what was, for the most part, a pretty good relationship so far.

Because for all his idiocy and weirdness, Lance really was a good boyfriend. Mostly. He was understanding and affectionate, could make Keith laugh more than he probably had in his entire life. Was astonishingly patient, allowing Keith all the time he needed to get used to being with someone and never tried to rush or force him into anything, which was pathetically way more than Keith could say for the two guys he'd tried to give five minutes of his time to in the past. And he was someone Keith could spend hours on end with without feeling anxious or uncomfortable in the silence, able to do nothing more than enjoy each other's company and Keith had always believed that was the most important part of being with someone. Not to mention he was, you know. Sort of physically attractive, or whatever.

So it's not like Keith doesn't like his boyfriend. It's just that… Aside from being a good boyfriend, Lance is also sort of an egomaniacal self-delusioned jackass sometimes. And he was an idiot, and he loved showing off and arguments and being deliberately annoying for his own amusement. So no one's perfect.

"Honey I'm an astronaut, and my next mission is to explore Uranus."

And none of his pick-up lines made sense. "Uranus has already been explored. It's all gas and ice."

Lance didn't even look deterred in the slightest. "You know at this point it's just fun to hear how your brain works with these responses of yours." He looked around at the hallway, as if just noticing they'd still been walking. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"I was going to the training deck," Keith answered honestly, because this conversation had done absolutely nothing in the way of relieving his stress and hitting a dummy with a sword sounded like exactly what Keith needed.

Lance's arm immediately dropped from his shoulder. "Well, this has been fun. We'll hang out later, Mon Cherie," which might not have been as awful a name had he not mangled it into sounding like 'mahn cherry.'

Keith stared as Lance tried to retreat. He wasn't ACTUALLY mad at Lance, more… Everything else about today and this planet. So far their only positive interaction today had been the memory of a hot kiss to the back of his neck, and Keith would rather not leave it at just that. "Why don't you join me?" He wasn't going to let that stupid banjo ruin the last bits of today they still had left.

"Eheheheh," Lance held up his hands defensively. "I mean, you know how they say couples shouldn't spend all their time together! We can use tonight to hang out with our other friends!"

Keith hummed. "Good point. Then we'll train together now, and afterwards for the rest of the evening I'll hang out with Hunk." He grabbed Lance by the arm and started to lead his boyfriend down the rest of the hallway.

Lance groaned like the truly mature person he was, complaining "You're the worrssssstt, why are you making me DO things, " and made absolutely no effort to struggle, probably in protest of the amount of effort it would take to do so.

He didn't complain any more when they got to the training deck and started removing their jackets either, Keith asking "You did bring your bayard, right?" and watching the revealed flex of Lance's forearms as he rolled up his sleeves. He barely ever saw Lance's bare arms, he realized suddenly. He should really remedy that.

Lance didn't notice his distraction, griping "Yes dear," sarcastically. "I stopped leaving it in my room after that time the ship tried to kill me, remember?"

And that totally made sense, because Keith himself had had nightmares about that day and he hadn't been the one almost blown out of an airlock. Good to know Lance wasn't a hundred percent careless.

Keith called up for the start of the program with the draw of his sword, and out of the corner of his eye watched Lance flash out his rifle and shift to a position out of sight behind him as the Gladiator activated.

Keith leapt into battle with his usual enthusiastic vigor, charging at the robot with a quick strike from the left, timed just so to dodge the downward slash attack the Gladiator had started off with. After that it was easy to fall into the tranquil fire of a good fight, losing himself to reflexes and the rhythm of combat.

This, he decided as his body swayed reflexively out of the way of a spear lunged towards his ribcage, was exactly what he had needed. All of the useless frustration of the day finally melted off with every metallic ring of Keith's sword striking it's target; every swing and parry and lunge and dodge was catharsis as he wore his body down from tenseness to relaxation.

He was peripherally aware of Lance moving somewhere behind him, dodging stray attacks from the Gladiator in between the occasional shot of laser fire that would sail past Keith's head. Which really did prove they needed to train together more, because Keith had not yet learned when to expect Lance's fires and was currently coming closer and closer to being accidentally shot in the back of his skull.

Maybe he was getting TOO relaxed. Keith needed to rely less on instinct when he was fighting side-by-side with someone, he knew, and would need to compensate if he wanted to avoid them falling all over or maiming each other again. He tried to better split his concentration between Lance and the attacking android, but the end result was the frustrated realization that he wasn't able to figure out what the other paladin was doing from sound alone and was starting to lose ground to the Gladiator for trying. He focused all his concentration back onto the robot, deciding that the best course of action here was just have faith his boyfriend didn't shoot a hole in his spinal column. Dodge low and parry, ignore the laser skimming under your armpit, and don't look over at Lance when he curses under his breath and jumps out of the way of the Gladiator's spear muttering about needing higher ground.

Keith was still having a hard time getting back the upper hand, and now Lance had even stopped the strategically timed rifle fire that had been helping Keith to keep the robot off-balance. He thought he heard something shudder and move behind them, but judged it as unimportant when Lance muttered "Oh, that'll work," and went quiet.

He couldn't completely get his focus back anymore. Keith was beginning to regret setting the training routine at a harder level then he usually worked out on, having apparently overestimated the usefulness of having Lance in there with him. He was just considering calling out to Lance to shout 'What the fuck are you doing back there?' when the Gladiator finally got in the strike it needed to knock Keith off his feet and bowl him to the ground. He rolled away from a stab that clanged loudly against the hard tile floor, scrambling to keep his grip on the hilt of his sword as the robot loomed menacingly above him, the shadow of its blade casting a dark pall over Keith's face in the second before the droid brought it down.

And that is when a burst of three shots struck the Gladiator right in its thin black neck, the robot's head flying off its shoulders and three feet away from the force of the small localized explosion the laser damage has caused, the entire humanoid form dissolving into green pixels before it could so much as drop to the ground.

One thing about the training deck, you see, was the fact that none of them were entirely certain how it worked or what it did yet. Keith knew it had different programs and routines and environments, but no real idea of how to activate most of it. Evidently Lance had stumbled upon one of the environmental features because the far wall now had a series of video game-esque shelf protrusions sticking out of the wall at varying length and height like a staggered and confused staircase leading to the ceiling, too narrow to be considered real steps. Lance had managed to hang himself from them anyway, as when Keith turned around it was to the sight of his boyfriend propped up four feet in the air, left hand hooked on a high platform above him so he could hang from that arm and plant his feet awkwardly on two different shelves. With his right hand, he held his rifle, which Lance quickly dropped out of firing stance to shout "Holy shit, did you see that!?" in amazement.

Keith stared at Lance in equal wonder, still splattered across the wall like a monkey that had been shot out of a cannon. How the hell had he made three dead-on shots one-handed and hanging by three fingers off a two inch ledge? From the look on his face, Lance did not know, either. He quickly made sure to pretend he did though, clearing his throat and correcting "I mean, did you see that? All I needed was you to distract him for three seconds for me and BAM! Saved your pretty behind like a hero valiantly rescuing his princess!"

Keith decided to give him this one. It HAD been pretty damned impressive, enough so that even that now that the dumb shock had worn off a pleasant heat was blooming low in his belly. He may be a terrible flirt and a shit pilot, but what Lance was good at he was good at. And that apparently included sharp shooting, which Keith just now decided was incredibly hot. This man hadn't been chosen as the blue paladin for no reason; Keith's boyfriend was a badass.

Said badass promptly fell off the wall and onto his face. Keith proved that there was something wrong with his taste by finding this adorable, and walked over to offer Lance a hand up.

Lance took it with a grin, letting Keith help him to his feet and then using the grip on their still-joined hands to pull Keith into a clumsy spin, yanking him into an embrace against Lance's chest at the end because he was the kind of irredeemable sap who actually did things like that, like real life worked the same way movies did and people spun their partners all the time and probably broke out in song. "Hello my lovely," he greeted proudly, managing to wear a smile that looked cocky and enamoured at the same time. He was an embarrassing person to know, and the entire situation was just embarrassing to be in in general. Keith tried to be annoyed but just couldn't find it in himself, relaxing easily in Lance's hold. A smile was spreading across his own face, cheeks growing warm as he felt his heart tighten and throb like it suddenly didn't even fit in his chest anymore, and Lance continued, "No but seriously, I'm completely awesome, right? I thought for second there you were for sure gonna get speared through the face and I TOTALLY blew that thing's head off like I actually knew what I was doing or something!"

"Well, I would have been fine," Keith argued back immediately, because he'd still had his bayard in his hand and had even just begun the motion of bringing it up into a block, and no amount of affection he held for the guy could let Lance feel like he'd one-upped him. "That was something else, though, I have to admit." He lifted himself the last three inches separating the space between them to lean in for a kiss, which Lance met with enthusiasm. Perhaps even a bit too enthusiastically, as what Keith had originally intended to be a rather chaste expression of affection quickly devolved into something more base when Lance dragged his teeth over the skin of Keith's bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth in a way that sent warm trills down his spine.

Keith wasn't sure why he was always surprised when Lance kissed him like this; all excitement and passion like he was thirsty for the taste of Keith's mouth. Kissed him like he wanted him, like Keith was as beautiful and desirable as all of the elegant long-limbed alien women he had spent so much effort pursuing. The new realization every time their lips came together gave Keith a heady feeling, one he happily sunk into now.

Keith could admit they got a little… Carried away, after that. He'd like to use the leftover adrenaline from the fight boiling his blood as an excuse, but the truth had more to do with Lance's tongue in his mouth and his hands, sweaty and too-warm crawling up under his shirt to paw at his back and Keith was just not hard to turn on, okay? And he'd never tell him for fear of his ego swelling up to galactic proportions, but Lance was good at kissing.

Or maybe Keith was just that easy, he considered as Lance ran his tongue along the roof of Keith's mouth. He certainly felt easy right now, melting under Lance's lips like a crayon in sunlight. His hand had moved to the back of Lance's head without him noticing, an unconscious effort to keep Lance's mouth exactly where it was as his fingers curled and twined in dark hair. And while he couldn't say his feet gave out they'd still ended up stumbling backward towards the wall, and even though he might have sworn he was facing the other direction suddenly his back was to it and Keith was pinned between the wall and Lance's tall body. Stupid handsome awful tall body, all pressed up on Keith with his long arms caging him in and pinning him to the wall between two of the odd ledges and had Keith ever mentioned how very, very gay he was? Because that was relevant right here. If he wasn't there's no way he'd have just broken their kiss to let that thin whine escape his throat at the feeling of Lance's hand groping possessively at his ass.

"God, you make the sexiest noises," Lance whispered against Keith's lips in a hot breath. He peppered a trail of kisses from Keith's mouth to his jaw and down the line of his neck, teeth scraping lovingly against his pulse point. Or maybe, Keith considered, the problem wasn't how gay or how easy he might have been, but just how much he liked his stupid boyfriend. He wasn't even sure which option was worse, but either way Keith was pretty much done for at the feel of Lance's hot mouth on his neck muttering mindless praise into his skin. Another hideous whimper loosed from his lips and his back arched like a slutty ferret so Keith's hips could meet Lance's, and, oh… Oh, he was hard right now. That had taken embarrassingly little stimulation, and Keith might have been ashamed but he didn't have time because Lance was moaning like Keith being so pathetically horny was hot or something and shoving a knee up between his legs to rub against him and it was just about all Keith could take.

Keith's head was swimming and his heart was beating about a thousand times a second, and suddenly all the heat and and boiling pressure was overwhelming, and he had to push at Lance's shoulders to put some space between them. "W-wait," he gasped, desperate to catch his breath. "Wait, Lance, hold up."

With only a little hesitance, Lance removed himself from Keith's throat, pulling back to look at him and taking a small step to put distance between their bodies again. His eyes were a little wild, but the overall demeanor he presented was worried as he asked "What's up? Is something wrong?"

With just that small affirmation the anxiety that had momentarily overcome Keith dissipated air being let out of a nervous balloon. "Yeah," he confirmed after a taking a moment to let his breathing return to normal. "I mean, no, I'm fine." His eyes wandered from Lance's eyes down the path of his jaw and neck, down to the defined shape of his collarbone. Lance had a sweat stain ringing the collar of his shirt, and the erection Keith still sported had time to suggest that he'd be much more comfortable if he let Keith take that pesky thing off of him. He licked his lips, hoping his next words would be heard over the deafened clamor of his heartbeat, "I just thought we might take this somewhere more comfortable." Lance's eyes went wide, and Keith could feel his face prickling hotly from how hard he was blushing. Lance still didn't say anything for a moment, just gaping fish-like at Keith until he felt the need to awkwardly clarify "Y-you know, with a couch or a bed or something."

Lance ran a hand through his hair, and the nervous shake in the gesture eased another knot of tension in Keith's stomach. "Well, jeeze, when you put it like that what else could a guy say?" He answered with bluffed confidence, leaning forward to plant another dirty kiss to Keith's hungry mouth, one he pushed himself against. It was quick and delicious, and Keith had spent a lot of time in his life not being kissed up until this point and that was something the two of them would need to work together, he was pretty sure. When it ended Keith's tongue darted out and wetted his lips, and when he saw the way Lance's eyes were locked on his mouth he smiled. He wrapped his cold hands into Lance's sweaty one, held on tight, and pulled his dumb boyfriend behind him before he lost his nerve. Lance stumbled along eagerly, the dopey smile of a man who knew he was about to get some splitting open his face.

A few twists, turns, stairways, and lefts later Keith slowed down and halted as they came to a fork. As far as he could recall, to the left was a nearby room with a couch. Down the right path and further away was the guaranteed privacy of his own personal quarters, but... Further away. Lance naturally asked why they stopped, and Keith bit his lip, explaining his indecision. Lance blinked a moment, and then practically pranced to the front of Keith with an exclamation of "Well, sooner is better, right? I wanna touch you like, yesterday." Keith couldn't fight off another smile, and they started down to the left with delighted urgency. One good thing about Lance's impatience? It kept Keith from having enough time to lose his nerve.

The Rec room was one of several scattered throughout the castle, and they were mostly identical. Two entrances on either side, a transformative table, and two deep couches. Lance and Keith burst into it without actually checking to make sure no one was inside before they were on each other like a pair of octopi in mating season, kissing and groping at each other in a hormonal parody of an embrace. It had barely been a few minutes since they'd been necking in the training deck, but Keith was pretty certain he'd never been this turned on before in his life - probably because the other times he'd been aroused up until now had pretty much all involved his left hand and a bottle of lotion.

Lance was pushing him towards the couch, and Keith let himself be led clumsily backwards until his knees made contact and he nearly toppled onto it. Reluctantly, he pulled back from Lance and the way he was using his tongue to thoroughly canvas the inside of Keith's mouth, but only long enough to finally peel that ridiculous shirt from Lance's damp skin and discard it to the floor where it belonged.

It had been well over half a year now since they'd all been drafted into space as paladins. In this time, no one was exempt from daily group training unless they were halfway to dead, and the results of the rigorous regimine Allura demanded of them were… Quite apparent. Pidge now moved without their footsteps ever making a single sound, Hunk's arms were approximately the size of tree trunks, and Lance… Among other developments Keith had already taken interested note of, Lance had managed to turn his abdomen into a steel cheese grater. Keith knew this fact intimately, because during the numerous occasions during which they made out Keith would take every available opportunity to get up on that. Just. All over that shit. Now was no exception, as Keith took a moment to enjoy the view and run admiring fingertips from Lance's sternum down the line of his stomach, skipping over his belly button to brush against the dark hairs just underneath that trailed in a pleasing line to his straining pants.

Lance laughed a little, partly because he was ticklish and mostly because he was an asshole. "Enjoying yourself there, Darlin'?"

Keith nipped at Lance's bottom lip, catching it in his teeth for a moment. "Shut up and do something useful for once."

Lance more than made good on that, sucking Keith's tongue in his mouth and pushing him down onto the couch with the perfect amount of toe-curling forcefulness. He didn't quite land on it properly, ending up hanging half off the sofa with one foot flailing a bit before planting on the floor while Lance made room for himself between Keith's open thighs. Refusing to break their kiss a second time Lance shoved Keith's shirt up towards his armpits, running greedy hands up the length of his sides and down his stomach with a brief detour to brush his thumbs over Keith's nipple. He didn't even have time to enjoy it before Lance moved one hand to his hip and tangled the other in Keith's hair, and then suddenly there was the skin-on-skin contact of Lance's belly against his and the warm weight of his body settling on top of Keith's. It occurred to him that he might feel suffocated or overwhelmed like before, but there was no panic rising within him now. He knew that he could stop Lance at any moment, and that safety turned the feeling of being held down by a man into something erotic; before he knew it Keith was raising his hips to meet Lance's and when their flies rubbed against each other and Keith realized Lance was as hard as he was he couldn't help but break the kiss to moan into Lance's mouth.

"Madr é , you're so sexy ," Lance cursed softly, his hot breath tickling Keith's wet and kiss-swollen lips. The hand that had been pressing down on his hip was suddenly sliding underneath it to grab at Keith's ass, using the grip on Keith's hips up to meet his and roll them together and Oh, goodness gracious fuck . Keith had not known those long fingers viciously groping his ass would feel nearly as good as the friction of their clothed excitement rubbing against each other did, and was quite too busy choking on another humiliating whine to care either way. "And the sounds you make, babe. I swear every one goes right to my dick."

"'Babe' is probably the worst yet," Keith barely managed to croak out in complaint as Lance bit at his ear, distracted by hands and teeth and sweat and the continued motion of their hips against each other. His arms had been looped uselessly around Lance's neck and shoulder for a while, and Keith was starting to feel pathetic for his inability to keep up and do something other than hold onto his boyfriend desperately rock his hips like he didn't know what else to do. Which was a bit on the totally true side, but that didn't mean he shouldn't be able to at least make something up - Lance seemed to be doing just fine, and how many times could he POSSIBLY have done this before?

But it just all felt so good . Who could blame Keith for the desire to just lay back and revel in sensation; let Lance have his way with him in whatever no doubt creative fashion he saw fit? And really, it was Keith's first time, wasn't it? He should be allowed a little leeway here. There was nothing wrong with letting his head fall back and his body relax underneath the slow lazy grind Lance had set, no real reason he couldn't just dig his nails into the hot skin of Lance's naked back as he sucked at Keith's throat with the fervor of a man who had spent an inordinate amount of time entranced by that particular region. And come to think of it he was definitely going to leave a hickey at the rate he was mauling Keith's neck, probably a multitude of them and even with the high collar of his jacket there was no way that tomorrow he wouldn't be wearing an obvious array of teeth marks branding his neck and everyone would look at him and know exactly what happened because who the hell else could have possibly…

The train of thought was interrupted by the realization that Lance's hand had let go of its grip on Keith's ass when he had melted back into the couch, and now it was working on the buckle of his belt with Lance purring the words, "Hey, can I…?" against his jaw.

Keith nodded quickly. Lance wasted no time in peeling himself up off of him and sitting upright for Keith to suffer the privilege of the sight of Lance sitting on top of him, shirtless and sweaty and hard against each other as Lance licked his lips and slowly pulled Keith's belt out of his pants loop by loop. Oh fuck, whatever it was they were doing it was not going to last long. Just the feel of relieved pressure off his dick as Lance unzipped the confines of Keith's jeans was too close to setting him off; he'd probably lose it the second Lance actually touched him. Had he bothered to mention to Lance that he was a virgin before now, or was that pretty much a given? He definitely felt like it was a given. He was sure freakin' acting like one, that was for sure.

Fuck it, he didn't care. Before Lance descended upon him again Keith pulled his own shirt the rest of the way off, just in time for his boyfriend to lean down and suck a fresh bruise onto his exposed collarbone, hand skirting teasingly along the waistband of Keith's underwear. Keith shuddered under the touch, driving a knee intentionally up to press between Lance's legs. Lance broke away from Keith's red-bitten skin to groan lowly into it, and he could just shut up about the sexy noises Keith was supposed to be making because that was definitively the hottest sound that had ever been uttered by anyone. He did it again: a deliberate slide of his thigh up against the straining hardness in Lance's jeans, his reward a filthy " Fuck," cursed against his pleasantly bruised throat as he jerked and ground himself down against Keith's leg.

Keith grinned. "Enjoying yourself there, Darling?" he quoted smugly, biting back a laugh when Lance's eyes widened.

"Oh, you foxy little -" He didn't bother to finish his own sentence, a defiant fire sparking in his eyes as Lance dove forward to trap Keith in a forceful kiss. Momentarily distracted by the way Lance was sucking viciously on his tongue, Keith didn't notice the hand yanking his underwear down until it had a shaky grip around his dick.

Keith immediately bit his tongue, choking them both.

Lance just laughed, snickering heavily around his bitten tongue until he stuck it out and touched two fingertips to it to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "Okay, maybe hold off on the kissing for a while," he said with a shrug, words clumsy around the sore muscle. He sat up a bit again, eyes no longer on Keith's face as he looked down the line of his body to settle on the tented underwearing peeking out through the thrown-open window of his fly. "Just as well; I wanted to see your face anyway," he said sort of ironically considering he was looking intently at Keith's crotch as he pulled down the shorts. "Oh wow," Lance said conversationally, like one observing the pleasant weather. "I didn't think you'd be cut," he said, staring intently at Keith's exposed dick.

Oh, what the fuck, why did Lance have to ruin EVERYTHING? "Why - how - Have you seriously spent that much time wondering about what's in my pants?!" He finally settled on before a shudder racked his body at sensation of gentle fingertips gliding softly against the underside of Keith's aching cock.

"Well, yeah," Lance admitted openly, finally taking his eyes off Keith's crotch to look at his face again, even as his fingers continued to tease. "I mean, I had to know exactly how gay I am for you, right? There's different levels to this shit. Had to consider the situation carefully." Long fingers wrapped delicately around Keith's cock, the pressure of Lance's grip so relaxed it was almost a worse tease than the trailing fingertips had been. "For instance," Lance continued, voice no longer steady as his attention strayed to focus on Keith, "I know for sure that I'm not Glory-hole levels of gay, even if I knew it was you on the other side. Every man has his limits, and it turns out a hole in the wall is one of mine." Keith might have smacked him but Lance had started to lightly squeeze his hand at irregular intervals, and the unpredictable bursts of starlight-hot pressure were worth putting up with even Lance's extreme levels of nonsense.

"Jesus christ," Keith complained, throwing an arm over his eyes and turning his head away at a tantalizingly forceful moment of grip. "Why do you always have to ruin everything by saying things? Can't you just shut the fuck up for one minute?" Lance's thumb flicked against the underside of the head of his cock, and the next words were more of a sob than the threat he intended them to be. "I swear to shit I'm gonna put my fist in your throat, you prick."

Lance, being a total asshole, just laughed and began to stroke his hand up and down Keith's length, still tensing his hand randomly to twist another out bursts of pressure as he went. "You're so classy. The classiest of all the shack-dwelling dumpster hobos."

Keith just groaned, homicidal rage drowned out by pleasure as Lance's hand sped up, stroking and squeezing Keith with single-minded enthusiasm. "You're the goddamned worst," was the most he managed to complain, unoccupied arm reaching up blindly to grope at Lance's shoulder and dig his nails into the tense muscles beneath his fingers.

"Seems like I'm doing something right," was the distracted mumble Lance returned with, and Keith heard his boyfriend swallow a gulp of nothing as his breaths grew heavy. The movement of Lance's hand slowed down again, but this time it was because he had stopped to shift his weight from one arm to his knees, newly free hand grabbing Keith's wrist to drag it away from where he had been using it to shield his embarrassed eyes from seeing or being seen during this too-intimate moment. Lance didn't let go, pinning that wrist above them on the arm of the couch and leaning his weight on it, eyes locked straight on Keith's as he rasped out in a voice so low and sibilant and erotic there was no way it could be intentional, "Quit hiding - I said I wanted to see your face, didn't I?" And then of course, before Keith even had time to fully comprehend how hot that had just made him, Lance's hold tightened as the drag of his hand on Keith's prick grew more rigorous.

His hips arched up into the movement, mind fuzzing out for a moment as Keith let his body jerk and tremble on its own accord. He'd never felt anything this staggeringly intense before, his own hands nothing compared to the exhilarating blaze of having someone else's - no, not just someone else, of Lance - having Lance work his body, eyes still glued on Keith's whenever he could bare to look at anything but Lance's naked shoulder. "Fuck, Keith," Lance's voice was still doing that husky breathy thing, Keith noted as he watched the rapid swell and ebb of his chest as he took in each deep breath of air. "I even like the way your cock feels in my hand," he observed with a touch of wonder in his voice. "Hey, Keith. Tell me what you like?"

Keith struggled to focus on the words, far too thoroughly distracted by the firm grip stroking him still-too-slowly. "H-huh?"

"Talk to me, Keith," Lance licked his lips, and then because he was a bastard and also because he was good at what he did he stopped the steady glide of his hand to toy with head of Keith's dick, teasing it for a moment with a twirling thumb and rolling fingers that quickly grew wet with precome. "I've never touched another guy here, you're gonna have to help me out." Well he must jerk off constantly then because right now he was doing QUITE WELL at it. "Tell me how you want me to touch you, Kitten," Lance panted, and God Keith really had to stop looking at his face because the way he was looking at him right now… The way Lance was looking at Keith, heated and ravenous like the only thing that mattered in the world right now was doing whatever it took to make come undone, to totally wreck him with touch and God, how it was working.

A thin wanting whine was the first thing to exit Keith's mouth when he tried to speak, and even the words he did manage to collect only went as far as "I - I don't… I don't know, just…" The stroking started up again, the pace faster than before in a steady crescendo. Keith's fingers clawed desperately at Lance's back with one hand, only aware of the wrist currently held to the couch as far as the thought that he really did enjoy the bruising weight of being pinned down far too much and his voice broke in a gasp "Just - fuck, Lance…"

"Come, on Keith," Lance, at least, was starting to sound as wrecked as Keith was, little rolls of his own hips jerking his still-trapped erection against Keith's leg. "Talk to me, tell me how to make you come," he begged, grip now deliciously vice-tight and viscous-wet, sweat and precome aiding the hurried glide of his palm around Keith's throbbing cock. "You're so pretty; look so gorgeous right now," the praise was mindless, just Lance running his mouth because he didn't know how shut it off and Keith knew that. Knew it, and knew that if he weren't so crazy hot and halfway out of his mind with impending orgasm he'd have mind to consider the words humiliating, but… But right now Keith couldn't imagine why being called pretty could possibly be a bad thing; wanted to be pretty and sexy and beautiful and drive Lance as crazy and messed up with desire as Lance was doing to him. "Wanna see your pretty face when I make you come," he was still babbling, staring at Keith's face and breathing too close and too hot on Keith's skin and working his hand so fervently like he was chasing his own orgasm and not just filthy desperate to see Keith's…

The heat was overwhelming, and Keith was suddenly aware of every muscle in his body having tensed up like a bowstring. He was holding his breath - when had he stopped breathing? He didn't know but when he tried to start again the gasp came out a strangled cacophonous moan, and he wanted to stop the noises but he was so God damned close to coming the concentration required to force his mouth closed was just too much. In between every heaving breath he was whining so loud it seemed to his own ears like screaming, body taught and shaking until he actually WAS screaming, sobbing out something that could have been incoherent nonsense but also might have been the name 'Lance.'

His dick jerked and spilled over Lance's fingers, movements slowing down to a tolerable crawl as he squeezed out the last drops of Keith's orgasm. Shuddering, jelly-limbed and barely able to breathe, Keith used the last of his energy to lean up. Using his grip on Lance's mauled shoulder to pull him down, Keith mashed their tired mouths together into a much-needed kiss; lazy, messy, and utterly perfect.

The haze cleared from Keith's mind slowly, blissed-out and reveling in the comfort of a kiss as he came down from his high. Lance was still moving, still panting on top of Keith, but now the hand that had just been on his Keith's length was shoved down his own pants. Keith broke the kiss to look down between their bodies, eyes landing on the head of Lance's swollen cock where it flashed out from under the frantic movements of his hand, jerking himself off with fingers still sticky with Keith's come.

Keith grinned to himself. Time to get that payback he'd been hoping for, he decided with a spark of manic glee. He shoved Lance off of where he was still leaning over Keith's right hand, gently directing Lance to sit back with a push to his shoulder while Keith all but climbed into his lap. He straddled one thigh so he could lean their bodies against each other, and now it was Lance's turn to stare dumbfounded as Keith bit the bottom of his fingerless glove, peeling the sweat-damp fabric off with his teeth and letting it fall into the couch cushions while he licked a broad stripe across his palm. Lance wrapped a steadying arm around Keith's waist to rest in the small of his back, eyes wide and lustful as they watched Keith's wet hand crawl between them to wrap around his waiting cock.

"Shit, Keith," Lance swore under his breath. Keith smiled, deciding he, too, liked the feel of his boyfriend's dick, thick and heavy in his hand as he flicked his wrist and began to return the kind treatment Lance had given him. Lance's other arm wrapped around him too, now, and he buried his face in Keith's shoulder with a groan at a particularly severe flex of his hand. If Keith had thought the heat in the room was bad before it was nothing compared to having Lance wrapped around him and panting like an epileptic koala, clinging to Keith and fucking his hips up into Keith's waiting fist.

Keith looped his own free hand around Lance's neck, fingers weaving in thick hair that had gone curly from sweat. He felt heady, small and vulnerable and sexy and powerful all at the same time, but instead of confusing somehow all of the feelings that should conflict just felt right . Like something that against all odds, seemed to fit together.

He wanted to share that feeling.

Keith licked his lips, a smile curling them against his will as an idea struck him. Lance had said he wanted Keith to talk to him, right? Keith could do that, all right. Bending his head forward a few inches so his mouth was pressed right against Lance's ear, Keith conjured up the most broken and wanton voice he could manage - not difficult considering he still felt pretty broken and wanton at the moment - and slowly moaned into that waiting ear "La~nce…"

"Holy shitfuck -" Lance sputtered against Keith's collarbone, hands clutching at his back and hip as he jerked and came in a hot splash against Keith's hand. Okay, NOW Keith felt powerful, he decided. He just did that! He just made his boyfriend come in his hand just by saying his name ! This feeling was why women gave blowjobs, he realized with decisive clarity. This is why people sucked dick, and at some point in the probably very near future he was going to put his mouth on this boy's penis. Well. At least accepting it in advance was a good thing, right?

They finally peeled themselves off of each other, at least separating as far as a foot or so away from one another on the couch. Ah, crap, and Keith was still too embarrassed to look at Lance, gaze wandering anywhere but his boyfriend's eyes. This was so embarrassing . Why was this only so embarrassing now? Why not give minutes ago when they'd still had their dicks out? Sex was so weird. Sex was weird and Keith's face was hot with redness and his hand was sticky and what the hell was supposed to happen now, exactly?

"Uh-oh," Lance said stiffly. Keith looked up to see his boyfriend holding up Keith's black tee-shirt, apparently dropped onto the couch in their frenzy and not the floor like he'd hoped. The uh-oh in this situation was painfully obvious - a flashy off-white protein stain, mostly likely form Lance's jizz-splattered hand planting on it when Keith had shoved him against the back of the couch.

"Is - can I wear it backwards? Or inside out?" At least long enough for Keith to get back to his room with his shower and laundry.

Lance turned it around with a contemplative frown. "Uhhh… Well. We could claim it's toothpaste?" He offered weakly before actually looking at Keith - sweaty and hair-mussed and covered in hickeys. Just like anyone who just woke up brush their goddamned teeth. "Or. Oh shit, did we leave our jackets back in the training room?"

Keith had to stop halfway in the act of pulling his disgusting shirt on to bury his face in his hands.

They snuck back to the training deck without running into anyone, which was actually pretty logical considering the actual size of the castle. Keith pulled on his jacket, both of them stopping to observe how it did absolutely nothing to cover up the stain streaking across the belly of his shirt and soaked through on the other side.

"That's - okay this is not acceptable," Lance sighed, abandoning the act of pulling on his own coat halfway through to sling it over Keith's shoulders haphazardly. "You can't go walking around looking like a porno advertisement, and at least mine zips... up…" His words trailed off when he watched Keith actually take the jacket, slipping his own red one off and handing it to Lance as he pulled his arms through the soft sweater-lined material of Lance's looser coat. Keith looked up at Lance curiously, only to see that his normally hazel skin had gone atomic red with a blush. "Jesus dude, you are deadly to my health, you know that?!" He gestured to… All of Keith. "How am I even supposed to deal with this?!"

Keith looked down at himself in confusion, shrugging one side of the jacket back up where it had been sliding down one shoulder. Once again, he had no idea what Lance was going on about. "Deal with what?"

Lance smacked a hand to his forehead. "Nevermind." He shook his head. "It's nothing; you're adorable. Go take a goddamned shower before my mind explodes." He gave Keith a light shove towards the door, and even though their rooms were only a few hallways away from each other they ended up separating almost immediately, one short parting kiss before they wandered off in separate directions in search of cleanliness.

Keith stood in the shower for longer than he normally did, letting the hot… uh… Clear Altean water substitute that smelled lightly of juniper leaves run over his body while he stared vacantly at the soft white walls of the bathroom. Eventually he shook himself out of it, washing his face and hair with the soaps Lance and Allura had given him and kept repeatedly asking if he was using, because at least if he got on board with this "good hygiene" thing they keep railing about everyone would finally stop calling him a greasy Jawa.

Every room in the castle that possessed a shower in it also contained an Altean washing machine. Keith was not sure what, exactly, an Altean washing machine was or how it worked, but it was about the size of a waste paper basket and steam-cleaned your clothes to professional cleanliness in less time than it took to actually bathe. He put his freshly-purged shirt back on with a tired little sigh, leaving his jeans in favor the small indulgence of a pair of Altean pajama pants he'd been given by Coran. It had taken ages to get used to the castle, but now even when they were landed Keith was finally comfortable enough here to feel safe sleeping unarmed - a luxury he hadn't always been granted in his life.

He stepped out of the bathroom back into his small adjoining bedroom. He looked around the room, feeling a little awkward and uncertain for reasons he couldn't name. Well shit. What was he supposed to do now? Should he just… Go to bed? It seemed early for that. Or, no, it seemed weirdto do that. He sat down heavily on his bed. His hand twitched with the need to do something, and Keith ended up rubbing at his lightly-bruised wrist absent-mindedly.

Lance's jacket was sitting on the foot end of the bed, strewn lazily where Keith had tossed it on his way to the bathroom. He picked it up now, running fingers along the worn fleece lining of the empty coat, the only coherent thought forming in the swirling fog of his brain being that it smelled like Lance.

The same scent Keith had just finished washing off of his body. He felt his face heat up red again, remembering all of the dirty-awful-wonderful things they'd just done together. Holy shit. Holy shit, Keith had just lost his virginity. Was this… Was this normal? That it had just sort of happenedlike that, no real thought or planning involved? Was that how it happened for everyone? Keith figured it probably actually was. Sometimes girls had the time and location and situation planned out ahead, but he was pretty sure for the most part sex tended to happen spontaneously. So, this was normal. Keith was normal. Feeling like this was… Probably normal.

And how DID he feel, anyway? Keith wasn't even sure. Satisfied, but at the same time, sort of… Empty. It wasn't that he felt like something was wrong, or regretted what they'd done. Far from it, the fresh memories rolling around in his head carried warmth and contentment with them, it was just… It was right now. Sitting in his room alone, holding his boyfriend's coat and probably only seconds away from doing something pathetic like using it as a pillow to sleep or bringing it up to his nose to smell like a schoolgirl with her sweetheart's letterman. This hollow, lonely feeling that was getting so oppressive Keith could almost choke on it, and suddenly he was frozen. Frozen like earlier when he'd been too afraid of absolutely nothing to reach out and take his boyfriend's hand, tense and shaking and lonely and so, so goddamned confused. What the hell was wrong with him? Why couldn't he just… stop feeling like this and be normal again? Why couldn't he move?

Keith felt his fingers curl into the jacket, grip so tight he might just tear finger-shaped little holes in the fabric. Just that tiny bit of motion was the thread Keith needed to grab onto, dropping the heavy coat from his hands like it was a lead weight and shooting up to stand to his feet in one jerky motion. He didn't know why he was standing or what he was going to do yet, but if Keith stood still for longer than a half a second he was going to be stuck frozen in baseless panic again and started walking, stepping over the fallen jacket and striding right out of his door and down the hallway.

And… That was it. He was moving, even if he didn't know where he was going yet, and that small affirmation that he had at least that much control left was all Keith needed to calm down, breath slowing down back to normal and oddly certain that if even he stopped walking he wouldn't be caught up and petrify again. Well that was… That was a weird time to have one of those, Keith thought with a frown. That sort of thing usually happened in more predictable situations, like that time he'd foolishly tried to work a job in the food industry and proved that people with social anxiety should not try to be morning diner waiters. Disturbed, Keith resolved not to go back to his room yet, not until he felt… Normal again. He wandered down the empty spaceship corridors, bare feet cold against the hard tile.

He wound up, to no one's surprise, in front of Lance's door. Not bothering to knock or alert his boyfriend in any way, Keith walked in, the doors sliding closed behind him with an automatic whir.

"Oh, hey Hon," Lance greeted in surprise when he entered. He had also showered, opting to dress in full Altean sleepwear plus shiny blue bathrobe, looking entirely comfortable and happy even while having been burst in on unannounced. "What's up?"

His total nonchalance was relieving in an indescribable way, and Keith let a deep sigh of air leave his lungs. He crossed the space between them in three long steps, striding over to Lance and unceremoniously knocking him over onto the bed, Keith following after and climbing half on top of Lance to curl into his chest as he tried to sit up. "Um," Lance only hesitated for a moment, adjusting himself to sit more comfortably against the headboard and wind an arm around Keith's shoulders. He smelled more like soap and the tea-leaf shower water than himself, Keith noted with distaste, but other than that everything was pretty good right now, and was finally truly relaxed for the first time since yesterday at least. "Apparently commandeering my lap is what's up," Lance said in amusement. "Not that I mind, but I think we passed the mark for post-coital cuddling like, fifteen minutes ago."

"Yeah, well fifteen minutes ago I was a virgin," Keith mumbled into Lance's shirt. "Shut up and cuddle me, damn it."

From this position it was easy to hear when Lance's heart stuttered and sped up at the comment. "Oh, man, seriously?"

Keith didn't raise his head, only looking at Lance with a flicker of his eyes. "What, like you didn't know?"

Lance's hand wound around to pull him closer, Keith's forehead pressed against his neck. "Well I mean I guess I hadn't assumed that you HAD ever done it, but that's not the same as realizing that'd you'd never done it before, you know?" Keith did not know, in fact. Lance paused, possibly realising this for himself. "Er. So I guess it's more like I knew, but just… Wasn't thinking about it. At the time. A little while ago here," he explained stiltedly. Keith decided to just let him stew in his awkwardness, perfectly content where he was at this moment. Lance swallowed thickly. "So is it bad that knowing that just made what we just did like, a hundred times hotter? Because I was already gonna be able to jerk it to this memory for like the next twenty years, but now knowing that was the first time anyone had touched you just totally doubled the potency of that as spank-bank material…"

Keith, quite despite himself, couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of his chest. This ridiculous pervert, he thought to himself affectionately, letting his eyes slip closed as the two of them laughed in each other's arms.

Keith wasn't sure when they fell asleep or how long he was out for. Just knew that he was waking up still sprawled all over his boyfriend, and sat up carefully to try not to wake him.

The lights in Lance's room where all still at full, but Keith got the impression that it was the middle of the night anyway. Or, human body night anyway, since both space and Elpis herself had trouble with that distinction.

Too awake to fall back asleep with Lance, Keith careful slipped off the bed with a brief stop to turn off the lights and pull a blanket up over Lance as he left the room.

Not quite ready to return to his own room but not certain what else he could do, Keith wandered off towards the kitchen in hopes of scoring some of tonight's leftover dinner before it was ravaged by the others and gone for good.

When he got there he was only mildly surprised to find the lights already on. Even less shocked was he to see Hunk, leaning against a white countertop sucking tortilla soup out of a spoon. He barely spared Keith a passing glance, staring sleepily at the wall and muttering "There's still some cobbler in the fridge."

Keith mumbled a thanks in return, and was soon hopping up to sit on the counter with a plate full of something that tasted a bit like peach cobbler but was somehow spicy-sweet under the fruitiness. For a few minutes they ate in companionable silence, staring vacantly at the same wall and sharing moment of peace. Delicious, syrupy red peace. "This is such a good friggin' cobbler, dude," Keith praised tiredly. "That whole dinner tonight was probably the best I've ever eaten in my life."

"Thanks, man." Hunk didn't even pretend to stop eating while talked, shoveling another spoonful of soup into his mouth as he said, "I'm glad y-" before his words cut off into a choke and a cough when looked at Keith.

Keith frowned. "You okay, buddy? Maybe you shouldn't talk and eat at the same time."

"I'm fine," Hunk said in a high-pitched voiced, then pounded on his chest once, clearing his throat with a final cough. "I'm fine," he repeated in an only marginally more stable voice, but didn't actually look like he was in any real distress. Other than being oddly embarrassed, bright red and looking everywhere but Keith's face as he squeaked out, "Just, um. Couldn't help but notice what a… fun and eventful night you look like you had yourself."

Keith raised an eyebrow, trying to decipher what he was talking about. And then all at once he figured out what he must look like with his rat's nest hair and love-bitten skin, slapping an embarrassed palm over his sore neck in the reflexive hope that he'd happen to cover a bite mark with it. Hunk just laughed, apologizing with a shake of his head. "Oh man, that's not gonna do you any good, dude. You've… you're sporting more hickey than neck right now, my good man. You look like you were mauled by a vampire." Keith groaned, burying his humiliation in more alien fruit cobbler. God damned Lance. "You WEREN'T actually mauled by a vampire, right?" Hunk joked, "Because if my best friend is a blood-sucker I think I should probably know in advance."

Keith chuckled. "You know, I think the vote's still out on that one. I'll be sure to get back to you as soon as I figure it out."

Hunk laughed, hearty and infectious, and the two lapsed into another friendly quiet together. Hunk finished eating, draining the last of the soup by drinking directly from the bowl and setting it on the counter, spoon ringing against the inside of the dish when it hit the countertop. Conversationally, he asked "So, did you have a good night?"

Keith thought about that question, idly licking syrup off his fork. "He did not, at any point, stop talking," he stated with a decisive nod.

Hunk burst out with another laugh, this time mixed with a pained groan. "Oh, man, don't tell me that! I can picture it WAY too easily."

It was Keith's turn to laugh. "Hey, you asked, man."

"I did not ask that and you know it," Hunk denied. "I was being friendly and making polite conversation and you ruined it with shit I just do not want to know. I'm already gonna hear enough about this from your boyfriend tomorrow, and I just don't want that kind of behind-the-scenes info on anyone's sex life at all ever, thank you."

Keith grinned. "Well yeah, that's why we can tell you. Your not caring about people's sex lives is one of the finer of your many good traits," he chuckled.

Hunk smiled, too, but it was a bit thin. "Yeah, well. Tell that to my dad," he shrugged, rinsing out his used dishes.

"Huh?"

Hunk blinked at Keith's question, probably having not meant to say that last part aloud. "Er. It's just Dad Issues. He's disappointed in me, I'm disappointed in him, et cetera." He tried to wave off before realizing Keith had no idea what that would mean. "Oh. Right. Well, like…" he trailed off. "It's not that he's a bad person, just…" he tried again, frowning in concentration. "Dad is sort of the xenophobic racist gay-bashing, type, is all," he decided on finally. Keith stared at him. "That sounded bad." Hunk sighed. "Okay the thing about families is, that you love them no matter what! Which means they can be an asshole, or someone you don't like or want to spend time with, but you love them anyway because they're your family, and you've all seen each other at your bests and worsts and you know each other. You can't help who you love, and generally speaking for most people, you can't help but love your family," he explained.

"I… Think I can understand that," Keith said hesitantly. He'd been in and out of probably a dozen foster homes, seen and lived with all kinds of families as a kid. Never been a PART of one, but he'd seen them.

Hunk was still frowning like he felt like he hadn't explained the situation adequately. "Yeah, maybe you can," he said after a moment. He shrugged stiffly. "Anyway, the way it is with my dad is that we don't happen to get along so well. Different ideas, mostly, but if it wasn't for my mom and sister we'd probably never speak to each other." Hunk put the clean dishes away, and then turned and automatically grabbed the now-empty plate from Keith's hand before he had the chance to protest that he could clean it himself, turning back to the sink and continuing to speak. "I still love him, and I respect him and respect that he's mostly the way he is because his ideas are old-fashioned and also grandpa was a huge dick, but…" He ran the sink, and Keith twitched with the desire to stop him and clean up after himself, but it seemed more important to let Hunk use the minor chore as anxiety-born distraction tactic it seemed to be. "But once, when I was like eleven or twelve there was a gay wedding at the local church and I can still remember he turned to me and said 'If you ever to try to bring a faggot home and call him your boyfriend I'll kick you both out on the streets.' Like, holy crap, Dad! Good to know your love is conditional on who I get a crush on in the future!"

"Wow," Keith winced empathetically. "That's fucked up,"

Hunk shrugged again, putting Keith's clean plate away too, and then grabbed a sponge to wipe down the still-clean counter. "He wouldn't actually do it - Mom would throw a fit at the prospect of turning ANYONE out on the streets, much less her own son. But yeah, for the most part. We'd just as soon have nothing to do with one another." He finally ran out of things to clean or pretend to clean and looked at Keith again, still sitting on the countertop. "But… Yeah. You can love someone and still recognize that your life would be better off without them, you know? Some ties are ones that you have to cut, because they're toxic and they'll eat you alive."

Keith slipped off the counter and onto his feet. "And… Your dad is one of those toxic relationships?" He asked after a moment.

"Nahhhhh," Hunk said with an easy smile. "Just stating a general fact. I'm a pretty forgiving guy, personally. All we have to do is not talk about anything that involves personal opinions and me and Dad get along just fine." He laughed, slapping Keith's shoulder jovially. "But I 'spose I don't need to explain how families work to you now that you've got us, eh?"

Keith smiled at him. "Whether I like you all or not, right?"

Hunk returned it with a grin of his own. "Now you're getting it," he said cheerfully. "Now if you'll excuse me, we should probably get our asses some sleep. We're both gonna look ridiculous if Lance is more well-rested than us tomorrow after so clearly getting laid."

Keith looked down at as much of himself as he could, and even from his own point of view could see a hickey glaring red on his collar bone just under the collar of his shirt. "As much as I'd like to, there's really no hiding it, is there?"

Hunk patted his shoulder sympathetically. "None at all." His smile beamed even further. "And if Shiro gives you guys The Talk? THAT I wanna hear about. I bet it'll be great."

Keith found himself oddly grateful for the fact that all of his friends were, without exception, kind of assholes. It was a good place to call home.