Keith wakes up the next morning to a call from Lotor. Lotor who had found Keith as everyone was leaving the dojo the first night and had insisted on exchanging numbers. Keith hadn't wanted to give in, but he'd noticed everyone else from the Galra dojo was waiting for Lotor, and since he didn't think he'd be able to dissuade Lotor anytime soon, giving in had been easier. He regretted it now that Lotor is calling him at… Good god is it seriously only five in the morning? That is not cool.
"Whaaaaat?" he moans into the phone.
"Dear me, did I wake you?" Lotor says as if it is unusual to not be up at five in the morning during summer vacation when one has literally nothing to do until the evening's practice.
Keith groans rather than formulate his answer into words. Fuck this guy.
"Well I thought I'd tell you about my brilliant idea right away but I guess I can call back at a later time," Lotor said benevolently.
"You do that," Keith grunts, and hangs up. He fumbles his phone back to the end table by his bedside and rolls over, intent on going back to sleep, but his brain is too busy turning over Lotor's words to drift back off again. He waits about five minutes, willing it all to go away, but finally he caves and sits up and picks up his phone. Lotor picks up after one ring, as if he knew Keith would call back. Which he probably did, the jerk.
"So what's this brilliant idea of yours?" Keith mumbles grumpily.
Even through the phone, he can practically see Lotor's grin.
x
Outside the ice rink, Lance is Lance-ing. He's alternating between freaking out because he's never skated before so how the heck is he supposed to show up Keith, boasting about how he's gonna completely crush Keith for once, making winky faces at random girls passing by and occasionally pointing his finger guns at them, grumbling that Keith is late, and generally being an absolute dork. Pidge and Hunk are loving it. This right here is like 90% of the reason they are friends with Lance. The remaining 10% has to do with common interests, similar senses of humor, and just generally being stuck together since pretty much forever. But mostly it's the entertainment factor of watching Lance do stupid things that they later get to mercilessly tease him for.
Keith finally shows up, looking all pale and emo, even more so than usual since it's so rare that they see him outside the dojo where he's always in his gi. He did go to the same school as everyone else for a few weeks, but he was soon transferred to a special school because he sass-mouthed the principal. Lance had a hard time not pointing out how if Keith didn't have to constantly one-up everyone then he might have lasted a bit longer at the school. Except then it might sound like he actually had a problem with the fact that he didn't have to see Keith for an extra six or so hours a day during the school year. The two hours of practices was already plenty of Keith as far as Lance was concerned.
"Hey sexy," Lotor greets when Keith jogs up. Keith doesn't even have the good graces to apologize for being late.
"Talking about yourself?" Keith shoots back, not particularly out of breath for someone who was running late.
"As a matter of fact, I am rather-" Lotor begins, but he gets no farther before Acxa cuts him off by clamping a hand over his mouth.
"Okay, that's enough of you," she says sweetly, and drags him over towards the ticket window. The others follow a few paces behind.
"Seriously. Don't get him started on talking about himself ever," Zethrid warns. "He'll never shut up."
"Yeah, like the one time I invited him to my gymnastics club, and we had some mirrors on the one wall to help with choreographing floor routines and stuff, and he spent over an hour just checking himself out and fawning over himself. It was disgusting," Ezor adds.
"You have got to be kidding," Lance states. And yet he somehow believes it.
"We wish. Lotor is his own biggest fan," Ezor says, translating the motions of Narti's hands.
"You shouldn't ever compliment him either," Zethrid says, continuing her warning. "If you do he'll insist you keep going until you cover all the things you failed to mention. I complimented a throw he'd used to win a match once before, and then he wouldn't let me be until I had fully described the grace of his body and the power of the throw and the fluidity of his motions and it was all so revolting. I like complimenting good judo. That's my thing. But with him? Never again." Zethrid shuddered.
They reached the ticket window and everyone paid their entrance/skate rental fees, and in they went. They collected their skates, and Narti, who turned out to play hockey back home, helped Lance figure out his skate size. Lance was secretly glad when Keith also asked for her help, confessing he'd never been skating before. Lance's goal for the day was to outskate Keith, and provided Lance didn't spend the whole day falling on his face he actually stood a reasonable chance of doing just that.
Everyone else had been skating before. Lotor, of course, glided over the ice as if he was born to it, Hunk proved to be rather graceful as well, and of course Narti flew out onto the ice like a bat out of hell and had half the rink marveling at her speed and mobility. The rest of the Galra dojo girls weren't too bad either, though they were a little wobbly. Matt and Pidge, however, immediately headed for a small section of the rink cordoned off from the rest, that had repurposed walkers to help beginning skaters. Lance and Keith cast suspicious glances at each other, then followed after Pidge and Matt, figuring they'd take things slow to start with. But Lance didn't plan to take things slow for long.
When Lance first stepped onto the ice, he expected his leg to slide out from under him and cause him to gracelessly flail about on one leg before falling like some sort of comic. But it was surprisingly easy to balance. Using the wall for support, he made his way over to one of the walkers, but already he was considering trying to skate on his own. However, he was feeling cautious today. One thing that had always been his downfall in the past was his tendency to rush into things, and he was not going to do that today. He was going to be careful, and be certain of his limits, and he would figure this out and put Keith in his place. Yeah.
As Lance took control of one of the walkers and began practicing pushing himself along the ice, he took a look over his shoulder to see how Keith was doing. This caused him to lose his balance, not because he couldn't handle the movement, but because Keith looked ridiculous. His feet were far apart and he was bent really far forward at the waist and his expression was half terrified and it was great. Lance was really glad Pidge had talked him into this.
They'd only been skating for about fifteen minutes when it was announced that all skaters should exit the ice so that it could be cleaned. Lance abandoned his walker and took a few careful strokes, making it to the exit on his own. Once the zamboni had done its thing, he vowed he would try some actual skating. He'd probably fall, but so what? He spent two hours falling on a regular basis for judo. The ice was just a little harder than crash pads or mats, that was all.
Lance spared another glance at Keith as his rival exited the ice. Keith looked seriously shaken, and Lance tried not to grin. He was certainly enjoying every minute of this, especially if Keith wasn't. Maybe it was cruel to take such pleasure in Keith's discomfort, but the roles had been the other way around plenty of times and it was so so refreshing to see things from this side for once.
Lotor generously supplied a round of hot chocolate while they waited for the ice to be cleaned, insisting it was just payback for the hospitality the Voltron dojo was showing him and his colleagues. Lance opted not to drink his. With Lotor involved, it was probably drugged. He DID NOT happen to take note of the fact that Keith did the same. Even if Keith was shivering quite a bit and could probably really use the hot cocoa, it was no concern of Lance's what Keith did and didn't drink.
Finally they could return to the ice, and after the eager skaters like Narti were all on the ice, Lance hesitantly put his foot into the rink and then pushed off.
x
Keith was really not cool with this whole skating thing. Whose crazy suicidal idea was this? He was certain he was going to fall, and when he did he would certainly impale himself on this impossible footwear and he would die except he was already bound to die anyway since he couldn't handle everything that was happening right now. He wasn't entirely sure what Lotor was up to, but it involved him, and Lance, and how was he supposed to deal?
After the ice was resurfaced, he watched idly as the skaters exploded out onto it, biding his time before returning to his attempts to master this deathsport. So he was still sitting and shivering (because Lotor had insisted he would warm up once he started skating so just a jacket would be warm enough) when he saw Lance sail out onto the ice.
Once again he was reminded why he was so hopelessly crushing on this guy. He was just so graceful. From the get-go all it had taken to make Keith fall for Lance was a simple roll-out. That was the figurative falling. Since then, he had fallen for Lance plenty of times, and Lance had literally swept him off his feet plenty of times as well, and it was so hard to keep his mouth shut every time they worked together during practice, because all the puns he could be making but if he did Lance would flat out murder him. Nope, it was simply no good.
Keith watched as Lance made one lazy circuit around the rink, then began another, going a bit faster as he gained confidence. But Keith hadn't come here to sit and freeze, so he finally got up and returned to his walker, and tried his best to not fall to his knees with every step. Lance had said he'd never skated before. Either Lance was a liar, or he had some innate knack for this because of course Lance would be good at this, it was just like him. It was also really unfair, because right now Keith really wished he could fly along like that, and he would do so at Lance's side, and it would become a race and Lance would be so annoyed but it would be so fun and maybe, just maybe, Lance would say something nice at the end, like "good race" or "you skate well", but more likely Lance would be lording it in his face that he'd won, because of course Keith would let him win, except if Lance noticed he'd lost on purpose Lance would be pissed so maybe he'd win but then Lance would be upset so he really couldn't-
Lotor interrupted Keith's decaying fantasy by prying his hands off the walker and dragging him towards the main part of the rink.
"Lotor! Wait! Stop! I can barely even stay upright, I can't go out there!" Keith cried, panicked.
"Relax, I'll hold you up," Lotor said. He hauled Keith past where Narti was showing Lance how to stop and heard Lance asking her if she'd teach him how to skate backwards next, and Keith kinda hated Narti because he'd like Lance asking him to teach him things. Like that would ever happen.
Lotor continued skating backwards, pulling Keith along, and Keith struggled to stay upright.
"Relax, hon. Let yourself glide and I shall guide you," Lotor promised. Keith didn't trust that promise. He still didn't trust that promise when a minute later they were turning and doubling back to where Acxa was translating something Narti had said to Lance, and all of a sudden Lotor was letting go and Keith really should have seen that one coming, and he was on a crash course for Lance, but then at the last minute Lance moved and then Keith found himself being caught by Narti. Oh thank god. He thanked her profusely, and she smiled in a sort of "It's okay, I understand" kind of way,and he tried to ignore the disgusted look on Lance's face as he managed to stagger over to a wall to hold himself up again. Lance skated off, and Narti and Acxa followed after him, leaving Keith alone with the treacherous snake who was at fault for everything.
"What a shame. That was an excellent opportunity for you," Lotor said calmly, as if he hadn't just tried to murder Keith.
"Yeah, dying together. Sounds great," Keith drawled sarcastically.
"You would not have died. You are a judoka, and a good one from what I've seen. You would never shame your dojo or your senseis by dying from a fall."
"Maybe the fall wouldn't kill me, but the humiliation would. That or an irate Lance. Thanks a ton, Lotor."
"Such sass. I'm only trying to help."
"Help me into an early grave, maybe." Or that's what Keith meant to say, but he only got out "Hel-" before he noticed how very close Lotor's face was to his, and swallowed before trying again.
"Uh, Lotor? Do you think you could back off a little? Please?" God he sounded so feeble and pathetic.
"As I said, I'm only trying to help," Lotor murmured, and then their lips locked, and somehow because Lotor had been so close Keith wasn't all that alarmed by it and let it happen. He tried to enjoy it, because hey a really hot guy was kissing him, but said hot guy was also a total snake who he could not trust and also he really wished it was Lance. With a sigh, he broke off the kiss, pushing Lotor away.
"Sorry, but there's just no way I'm gonna fall for you," Keith said.
"I don't expect you to."
"Then what are you-"
"How many times do I have to say it? I'm helping you."
"How is this helping anything?"
"Because there's a certain someone who is currently sending furious glances this way in such a manner that I cannot help but think that perhaps things are not as hopeless between you and he as you presume," Lotor replied.
"Lotor, you-!" Keith was almost glad when Lotor cut him off with the second kiss, as he hadn't really thought of what would come after the "you" yet. But almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear warfare and things hadn't escalated quite that far. Yet.
Before Keith could get away from Lotor the second time, Lotor himself pulled away. Or was pulled away, as Keith found himself being spun around and Lance was dragging on his wrist, pulling him away. What a shame Keith was such a lousy skater that of course he ended up doing a face plant.
x
The fury Lance felt made absolutely no sense. There was literally no reason for him to be angry right now. So Lotor and Keith had been kissing. Big whoop. Except it WAS. But WHY? He hated Keith, and he hadn't formulated a particularly positive impression of Lotor either. So if he disliked both of them, why should it bother him? Maybe because he disliked them both he hated the idea of them finding happiness together? Except after the camp was over, it's not like Lotor and Keith would be able to see each other that much, which would be sheer misery for them. But why else would he be so upset?
Keith falls over no less than five times before Lance gets him to the nearest exit and hauls him off the ice. Keith's nose is slowly trickling out a small stream of blood, probably as a result of that first face plant, and so Lance hauls him off to the bathroom to clean that up. Keith doesn't even protest anything, and Lance wonders if Keith got a concussion as well as a bloody nose. He'll have to text Shiro-sensei later and let him know so he can do a concussion test.
Lance is a bit surprised when Keith finally does speak.
"Thanks, Lance," Keith whispers.
"Oh, uh, you're welcome? What exactly am I even being thanked for here?" Lance replies.
"Back there. I- Lotor's- That guy is really hard to deal with."
"I dunno, you seemed like you knew what you were doing." Lance feels an odd pang in his chest as he says it, and suddenly he's afraid he's going to have to apologize for interrupting them, because he really doesn't want to apologize for that for some reason. Though he does still need to apologize for what he said yesterday...
"Not really. I never know what I'm doing with him. Or more like, I never know what he's doing, and he has this way of involving other people without bothering to ask."
Keith is shivering a bit again, and Lance takes pity on him.
"So, uh, like, you wanna get something to eat or drink? To help you warm up?"
"Hot chocolate would be pretty nice right about now. Let me get my wallet from the coin lockers."
"No need, I've got mine with me," Lance says, indicating a pocket inside his coat. "This time's on me." He goes to leave the bathroom, but he doesn't quite make it out before Keith calls out to him again.
"Hey Lance?" Lance turns. "You're a really good skater." Lance turns back around quickly, hoping that Keith doesn't see his blush. He probably looks really weird, coming out of the bathroom bright red like this, but as long as Keith doesn't see the effect of his words. Something inside Lance curls up contentedly, and despite all his plans to stick it to Keith today, he realizes he won't be doing any gloating about his mad skating skills at all.
