Yeeeee chapter 2! I edited this to the best of my abilities right now, let me know if you guys have any burning questions, all comments help me to beef up the story before new chapters go up, just so I can make the story's plotline as clear as possible! You're all so loved, follows and comments mean a lot 3 (Ps. Check out mimi_l_imim on instagram for my art ;) ) Also on AO3
"Ah, well, I've dealt with this before, actually!" Coran twisted his mustache. They'd called him to the medbay when they returned the next morning and asked about the spell.
"You have?" Allura stepped forward. "When?"
Coran turned to her. "With your own parents, princess. That's how they knew they loved each other! They couldn't avoid each other, and thus, couldn't avoid their feelings!" He explained.
Keith felt his belly knot. This was going to end badly.
Allura looked pale at the mention of her deceased parents. "And there's no fix?" Shiro stepped up, setting a comforting hand on Allura's shoulder.
Coran shook his head. "I'm afraid not. The only thing we can do is wait." He gave Keith and Lance a sad, sidelong look.
"Oh… well, thanks anyway Coran." Shiro nodded at him.
It had only been an hour since they'd left planet Tsuru's surface. An hour of holding hands with Lance.
Which, under different circumstances, would have been great. A dream come true, really. But in this scenario, Lance still hated him. Lance still wanted to get away from him. Lance didn't want to hold his hand. The thought almost made Keith drop Lance's hand. But he didn't want Lance to be in pain.
They left Coran in the medical station and Shiro gave them a meaningful look that said: talk, before walking away.
And then they were alone.
Keith felt his skin crawl with the silence. "So uh-" he stopped, because Lance had said the same thing at the same time. They blinked at each other for a second.
Keith coughed. "You go first." He mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
"Um I was just going to ask how- this" he gestured between them. "-is gonna work?"
Keith let out a controlled breath. "I have no idea. I guess we could try seeing how long we can stay away from each other for now?" He offered.
Lance nodded and silently dropped his hand. Keith felt his heart fall into his stomach.
"I'll see you at dinner?" Keith offered. It was two hours to dinner time. It was a test to see if they could make it.
Lance nodded. "Game on." He grinned, deciding to take it as a challenge.
"Sure." Keith threw him a smirk and nodded before heading down the hall away from him.
Thirty dobashes later, Keith was miserable. His chest elephant was back, crushing his ribs and lungs, dancing on his stomach. The flamethrower had returned too. He wasn't dying, but it was no walk in the park. He controlled his breathing and tried to go back to training with the gladiator.
The bot reappeared, bearing down on Keith, who yelled at the pain in his chest and crumpled to the side. The only thing saving him from being sliced like deli meat was his sword, which seemed to weigh 1000 pounds, held above him.
"End- end training sequence!" He gasped, voice hoarse. The bot disappeared and Keith fell to the floor, panting and wheezing. He held his chest and rolled onto his side, trying to breathe.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
He forced himself up and let his bayard disappear. Holding his side, Keith stumbled down the hall and to the showers. He let the cold water pound against his chest, like it would be able to extinguish the burning there. Just another couple dobashes. Not that bad.
Somehow, Keith found himself in clean clothes and showered, sitting at the dinner table. He had been staring off into space for who-knows-how-long before the door slid open. Keith's head snapped to attention at the sound. Shiro walked in with Allura and Pidge. Hunk entered the room from the kitchen, carrying a large platter that most likely held something delicious for their dinner. Keith started to stand up, but his legs were burning, his arms were burning, he felt like he was on fire. He collapsed to the floor.
Those in the room gasped and rushed over. He panted against the cold floor, too weak to lift himself up. Every one was berating him with questions he couldn't answer, couldn't even focus on.
Instead of answering he ground out: "Lance- where's Lance?" He writhed on the floor, worried that if he was like this then Lance could be in serious trouble. Hunk and Pidge vanished to go find him. It felt like hours that Keith lay on the floor, grinding his teeth and trying to suppress his groans of pain. Finally the door flew open and Hunk rushed in. Lance was draped over his shoulder, feet barely helping him move, like they couldn't support him for a second. Hunk set him to the ground softly and Keith used what strength he had to lift his arm and grab Lance's hand once he was close enough.
The effect was immediate. They both relaxed, their pain ebbing away. It took several minutes for them to feel well enough to sit up.
The team helped them to their unsteady feet, sitting them in their respective seats next to each other at the table, their hands held between them. Shiro and Allura gave them worried looks even as they told them how foolish it had been for them to try to stay away that long when this was so unfamiliar. Pidge and Hunk quelled their frantic Princess and leader. "They're fine now, so we should all just try to eat." Pidge said.
The princess and Shiro nodded, but still looked uncertainly at Keith and Lance, eyes darting to their intertwined hands warily.
Keith slipped a small apology to Lance as everyone cleared away from them. "Sorry, Lance. I thought it wouldn't be that bad." He cringed.
Lance shook his head. "I made it a challenge. We can't really control this, and we don't really know much about it. It's nobody's fault. Let's just eat dinner and see where this goes."
Keith nodded. It was kind of weird holding hands with Lance while they ate dinner, but nobody said anything of the topic. Lance instead steered the conversation towards favorite childhood games. After that it was easy to forget the awkward tension in the room, as they all laughed and ate the weirdly delicious roast Hunk had prepared.
"Sardines!" Pidge exclaimed. "Like hide and go seek, but one person hides, and everyone else is it, and once someone finds the person hiding, they hide with them. The last person to find everyone hiding is the loser. The first person to find the person hiding is the one that hides the next round." She explained. Keith didn't completely understand without playing the game, but it sounded fun.
"Hide and go seek tag." Lance said. "It's so much fun, especially growing up, because all of my siblings and I all had friends that lived nearby. Our neighbors would come out and we'd all have one huge game. It's pretty much hide and seek, but you play outside, and the person that's it counts at the base. If someone makes it to the base before they're tagged, then they're safe! But you can't go off the base, not unless you say Olly Olly Oxen Free, then you'll be safe from being tagged. If nobody is tagged you play bubblegum or something to see who's it next. It's the best at night, after dark, because you can sneak past whoever's it easier." Lance grinned to himself at some memory of the game. "That's how I got this scar-" he pointed at a small white scar on his bottom lip. Keith found himself staring at those lips for the rest of the story. "I was eight, and I ran straight smack into my neighbor while playing the game in the dark. I cried for a while because it gave me a fat, split lip and I thought I looked ugly." He chuckled.
The table laughed at the story. "I liked Mr. Lightman." Keith said. Shiro groaned loudly from his spot at the table.
"I was hoping you'd forgotten about that!" Shiro groaned and Keith laughed.
"Never forget Mr. Lightman!" He pointed a finger at Shiro. "So, at this point I was living with Shiro and his parents, and his dad had this game. Sometimes he'd suddenly shut off the lights in the house and grab a flashlight. That's how we knew we had to hide." Keith grinned. "He'd sneak around the house in the dark, saying things to try to make us laugh and give our hiding spots away. When he found you he'd tickle you half to death. Shiro peed his pants laughing once."
Shiro squawked indignantly. "Rude! Don't tell them that!" Keith laughed loudly at that. Everyone else joined in, laughing at the idea of their team leader peeing his pants.
Once the laughter died down, Allura spoke up. "There was a game I'd play with my nanny growing up. Though nobody knew. My mother passed away while I was young, and Coran stepped up to my Father's side for support in that time. Years later, Coran was still there, still at my father's side, and I knew I wanted to give them both a push. My nanny saw what I saw between them and we came up with a game. I'd send her off to find my father to tell him I needed him and I'd send for Coran, telling him my father needed him. They'd meet up, looking for me and my nanny, but we'd disappear, forcing them to stay together. I felt like a sneaky knight of love." She giggled.
"That was you?" Coran gasped from where he'd poked his head in the doorway. Allura shrieked and stumbled out of her chair, giggling like crazy as Coran stormed towards her. "Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused you little fiend!" He cackled after her.
"But it worked didn't it?" She yelled over her shoulder as they circled the table.
"I nearly lost my mind!" Coran stopped at one end of the table. They circled like lions, the rest of the team wheezing in their seats at the whole thing.
"Coran, my dear, nearly lost it?" She paused at her end of the table.
"Why you- rah!" Coran lunged and took Allura down, nearly taking Pidge's dinner plate with them. They laughed on the floor like they had completely lost their minds. The rest of the team slowly made their way over, hunched over with laughter. They'd never seen either of the Alteans behave so childishly and honestly? It was a nice change.
Hunk helped Coran to his feet while Shiro helped Allura up. "Oh my goodness." Allura managed, wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye. "I haven't laughed that hard in more than 10,000 years!"
Coran took her hand and patted it lovingly. "Well, I'm glad you decided to be a sneaky knight of love."
Allura smiled and turned to the others. "My father ended up courting Coran. They didn't have the chance to marry. But they loved each other." She gave him a sad smile.
"Aye, we did." He smiled back.
"I just got emotional whiplash." Hunk wiped a tear from his eye.
The team chuckled and everyone returned to their seats, and Coran took a plate of food for himself.
"So we ended with Allura's game. Hunk? What was a childhood game you liked?"
Hunk hmmed and hawed in thought. "Ahh that's gotta beeeee… Pubbs. The game Pubbs. Whenever my family and I would go to the beach, my dad would be able to hold his breath for crazy long under the water. He would disappear under the water for so long that we forgot that he was in with us, and would sneak attack us from below. He'd surge up and throw us out of the water and a couple feet into the air. We'd yell all scared and come crashing back down into the water. It was so much fun, like a surprise catapult ride." Hunk laughed. "Once, I thought my dad was below me playing Pubbs because I felt something bump my foot. I thought I'd catch him before he could throw me, so I stuck my head under water to look for him. Instead of my dad, it was a dolphin coming to play! It let me do that thing where you hold onto their fin and they pull you around! It was the best moment of my young life…" He trailed off, lost in the spectacular memory.
Keith raised his eyebrows in surprise. That was pretty cool. He'd never even been in the ocean.
"What about you, Shiro? What games did you play as a kid?" Lance asked.
Shiro seemed to think for a moment, but his eyes flashed over to Keith's, a dreaded promise held there.
"No." Keith deadpanned. "No."
"At one point Keith was super into cryptids and stuff." Shiro launched into his story.
"Shiro, I'll kill you!" Keith's voice was low with deadly promise.
"He especially liked mothman. Like, a lot."
Keith resigned to his fate.
Shiro grinned his victory. "We used to get flashlights and go search the forest for cryptids, and whoever got more "realistic evidence" would win. We had to stop when Keith got mauled by a bear." Shiro frowned.
"That was fun." Keith grinned.
The team looked at him all crazy.
He quickly realized why. "The game, not the bear!" He cried. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief and chuckled.
"For a second I thought you were completely nuts." Lance's eyes were wide, free hand pressed over his heart. "Like hanging out with a sociopath." Lance grinned.
Keith felt heat fill his cheeks. "No, but the bear was cute."
"He wanted to keep it as a pet!" Shiro cried, draping an exasperated arm over his eyes.
Keith chuckled. "A big fluffy doggie."
Shiro's intense eyes met his. "Keith, no!"
"Keith, yes!" He retorted.
They all cracked up.
It was a while before everyone started cleaning up after dinner and separating for bed.
It wasn't until then that Keith realized the issue. Keith and Lance's rooms were next door to each other. They stood in the hall, hands clasped together, staring at their respective rooms.
Lance glanced over at Keith. "Think it'll be fine, right?" He said nonchalantly. "Just one night. A couple hours."
Keith took that at a sign to say yes and get off of Lance, so he nodded and dropped his hand.
"Well, goodnight." Lance said, leaving in a hurry.
"Goodnight…" Keith said after him, watching him disappear into his room before moving to his own. He laid down and tried to ignore how his chest already felt heavy.
He drifted off fairly quickly despite the pain singing through his chest. It would be fine.
… it was not fine!
Keith woke up to pain, pain, pain, screaming through his body. It scorched through his veins, weighed on him enough to feel like every bone in his body was being crushed to powder. He wheezed, hyperventilating, and rolled out of bed. He landed with a thump to the floor, only worsening the blinding pain. He somehow, somehow managed to force himself up. His shirt was drenched with sweat, and it stuck to him, shivers wracking his body despite how Keith felt like his skin was melting off. Each step was agony. The door to his room flew open in front of him and he stumbled out into the dim hall, turning towards Lance's room.
His vision swam and swirled, head tilting precariously like he had a bowling ball full of water on his neck instead of his head. He guessed he was halfway to Lance's room when he slammed into something and fell bodily to the floor in a heap.
He thought he was just going to die on the floor right there. But then his pain was subsiding.
Keith lay on the floor, gasping for breath, limbs like jelly… but it was becoming bearable. He forced his eyes open to see that it was Lance he'd accidentally tackled. He blinked slowly, then again in shock.
"Lance?" He panted out, tongue thick and sticky in his mouth, like his head had been stuffed full of cotton.
"K-Keith…" Lance managed. He was breathing raggedly and shivering, but a hand had grasped Keith's shirt in a death grip.
They lay there for a long time, limbs a tangled mess, bodies pressed together on the cold, hard floor of the castle. But it was the most comfortable either had been in a long time. Their pain subsided, a ghostly peace washing over them.
"We- we gotta do something about this…" Lance murmured.
Keith felt himself nod, even though everything in him was screaming no.
"Do you just want to stay in my room tonight? We're not going to be much use to the team all exhausted and in pain, so we should try to get some sleep. We can talk about the spell tomorrow, okay?" Lance offered.
Keith had to take a second because- Lance? Lance McClain wanted Keith- Keith to stay in his room? Keith shook himself. This was to keep them both from dying, nothing else. Keith sighed and nodded.
Lance helped him up from the ground and they pressed into each other as they made their way to Lance's door. Keith's head was swimming, but this time it was with nerves. He was going to spend the night in his crush's room. They walked in and Lance just plopped down onto the bed.
"Uh, Lance?" Keith asked.
"Just lay down, Mullet." Lance's voice was muffled by his pillow. Keith let himself process this before he just sighed and laid down next to Lance. What was he going to do? Argue? Heat sang in the little space between their bodies. Keith got comfortable, his shoulder pressed against Lance's, and tried to ignore how close Lance was. It was just for the night. Lance still didn't like Keith. But, that didn't mean Keith couldn't enjoy just this one moment of peace with Lance. Just because Lance didn't like-like Keith didn't mean there was no hope for their odd sort of friendship to grow into something real. Honestly, as long as Lance was happy, Keith probably would be, too. So, Keith let himself indulge in the moment and drift off to the sound of Lance's soft breathing.