9. Keith and Lance

"Hey, Lance?"

Lance looked up from staring at his lap. "Yeah?"

"Considering we're trapped on a Galra warship and it's likely that we'll die here, can I tell you something?"

Keith didn't really know why he was doing this, but he was so done. He was done with the bickering, with the friendly or not-so-friendly teasing and mocking. He was done with mixed signals and confusing feelings.

He didn't want to think about how they were both trapped in the belly of some gargantuan ship with little hope of escape. He didn't want to think about how he was trapped with Lance of all people—Lance, with whom Keith had been confused about since day one.

He claimed they were rivals, but Keith never felt one hint of animosity towards him. He fought with him and argued with him and they never worked well together, but Keith always sort of felt that was because Lance had forced a block into their relationship from the beginning.

And he was done. He was done with it all.

"I, um, I don't want to fight with you anymore."

Lance tilted his head. "What do you mean?'

"Like, all the bickering, all the arguing, all the incompatibility—I just want it to stop. I just want us to stop hating each other."

Lance stared at him incredulously. "Wait—all this time you thought I hated you?"

Keith blinked in surprise.

"Maybe I did at first, yeah, out of jealousy and God knows what else. But that ended a long time ago, dude. I was under the impression we've been friends for a while now."

"Oh."

"I also thought we were on the same page about that, but I guess not."

"Uh, yeah." Keith was reeling. All this time they'd been friends? What the hell? When had that happened?

Thinking back on it, Lance was probably right. At some point the venom in their fights had been replaced with teasing affection. At some point the bickering had become more good-natured. How had that happened all without Keith noticing a thing?

"So, Keith?" Keith was startled out of his reverie by Lance's voice and hand in front of him being held out to shake. "Friends?"

Keith smiled softly, shaking Lance's hand. "Friends."

Lance grinned. "Let's go kick some Galra butt together, friend."

"Keith." Lance groaned.

"Lance." Keith groaned back with equal vigor.

"Stop mocking me!"

"I'm not mocking you!"

"Whatever!"

Lance and Keith were back on a Galra warship. Neither of them were surprised that it had happened again.

But things were different now. Things were different because their cell was smaller. They were different because they were friends. They were different because Keith had a gigantic, massive, proportionally impossible crush on Lance. And it's hard to hide a crush of enormous size from someone when you can only be a maximum of two feet away from them.

The crush had crept up on Keith not unlike his friendship with Lance had crept up on him. Unnoticed until someone told him.

Keith shuddered in embarrassment as he remembered the terrible confrontation with Hunk. He called it a confrontation because it felt like a battle or some weird shit. Or a military interrogation.

"So, do you like Lance?" Hunk had casually asked Keith one day when Allura had put them both on kitchen-cleaning detail.

Keith had paused, adjusting his plastic glove. "Uh, yeah, I guess so. We're friends, so I kind of have to."

Hunk had paused after that as well, facing away from Keith. His shoulders started to shake with barely-suppressed laughter. "No—like, as in you like-like him."

Keith frowned. "I'm not following."

Hunk had turned around and put his sudsy hands on Keith's shoulders. "Keith, are you in love with Lance?"

"What? No!" Keith had sputtered. "Why would you ask that?"

Hunk smirked. "Let me back up a bit. How do you feel about Lance flirting with other aliens and Allura?"

"I - I don't know, it's kind of annoying, but—"

"Last time Lance flirted with an alien on the last planet we were at you sulked for a week."

"I did not!" Keith protested.

"Uh, yes you did. Why don't you like him flirting with people?"

Keith shifted in his place on the floor. "Because it's annoying! And none of them are good enough for him, so he shouldn't be wasting his time with them. But you think that too, right?"

Hunk grinned. "Keith, what do you consider a relationship?

"Um. I don't know. Spending a lot of time together, cuddling a lot, kissing too I guess?"

"And how are you and Lance any different from that?" Hunk cut off Keith's protest with a wave of his hand. "Besides the kissing part."

Keith opened and closed his mouth a few times.

"Great." Hunk looked pleased with himself. "Describe your perfect partner."

"What? I can't do that now! Not after what you just said!"

"Humour me."

Keith stumbled on his words. "I guess … uh, tall? Smart? Sarcastic? I don't know, Hunk, why are you making me do this."

Hunk smiled smugly. "Describe Lance for me."

"Um. He's tall, way too sassy, likes the ocean and the color blue and is smart but refuses to accept it." Keith said in one breath, turning red at Hunk's expression, which resembled that of a very excited hamster.

"What? What is it?" Keith screeched.

"How about you put two and two together, Keith. I'm going to go talk to Allura." Hunk had left the kitchen with an extra spring in his step.

Keith seethed in his seat just thinking about the scene. If Hunk hadn't done what he'd done, Keith would be perfectly normal. He wouldn't be stuttering around Lance and turning tomato-red. He wouldn't sprint from the room every time Lance entered it. He certainly wouldn't be feeling completely and totally terrified of being stuck in a three by four foot Galra prison cell with the man himself, Lance.

"Hey Keith?" Lance's voice pulled Keith out of his downward spiral of thoughts. "Do you think we're going to make it out of this?"

Keith opened then closed his mouth. He felt like an asshole. All the while he'd been freaking out about his feelings for Lance, and Lance had been thinking about survival like Keith should have been too.

"I don't know. We kind of got lucky last time." If Keith were to reach out his hand five inches it would be barely touching Lance's. If Lance reached out two inches, they'd be holding hands.

"Yeah." Lance sat in contemplative silence.

If Keith leaned forward a bit and tilted his head just so, he'd be able to kiss Lance on the cheek. If he leaned a bit further he'd be able to kiss his lips.

"If we're going to die, I may as well tell you. I—"

Lance was cut off by the blast of sirens resounding through the ship. With a clang, their cell door sprang open.

Keith and Lance exchanged looks of surprise, then sprinted out.

They ran down halls, twisting and turning around corners and past empty rooms, all the while hearing the deafening screeching of the alarm.

"Lance, what's going on?" Keith asked between breaths.

"I don't know." Lance panted back.

After a few more minutes of running, they found themselves in a basically-empty plane hanger. All the ships and planes there looked abandoned.

Lance and Keith froze in the doorway of the hangar.

"Should we—?" Keith turned to face Lance.

"Yeah." Lance turned to face him too.

They were nose-to-nose, Lance's breath against Keith's cheek, eyes holding contact for much too long to be natural.

"Keith—" Lance breathed.

They broke apart at the sound of doors crashing open. Lance quickly sprang into action.

"I'll go get us a ship of some kind—just wait here. If there are any Galra, you can defend yourself better than I can. I'll be better off running away."

He prepared to run off, but Keith grabbed his arm.

"Wait, Lance."

They both froze.

"We might die out there."

"Yeah, maybe." Lance whispered.

"So…here. A parting gift." Keith quickly leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Lance's lips. He smiled. "For good luck."

Lance was completely frozen. Keith's eyes widened. I fucked up I fucked up I fucked up I fucked up.

"Lance?" Keith asked worriedly, all too aware of the fact that they were living on borrowed time.

Lance broke out of his daze, grinning madly. "See you on the other side, babe." He gave Keith another kiss before running down the platform.

Keith put his hands to his lips, smiling. "See you on the other side."


Oof. It's been a while. Apologies for the long break between updates. Thanks so much for reading!