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.

3. The Ugly

"I do not understand you," Lance muttered sleepily, not opening his eyes as he nosed his way further into Keith's hair.

Keith just hummed in response, shifting in Lance's arms to press their bodies even closer together to further soak in the shared body heat like a cat in a sunbeam. It seemed like Lance had gone right to bed after the teethbrushing, because he'd never put his shirt back on or showered and still had the faint faded scent of sweat and sex lingering on his skin like a manly, dirty perfume. Keith inhaled a deep and purposeful lungful of air through his nose, holding it in for a few moments before letting it slowly deflate out of him.

Directly into Keith's tangled hair, Lance mumbled out in bemusement, "M'serious, how long have you been here?"

Keith's brain absently fished for an answer, slowed by the cottony drag of his own tiredness. "Maybe an hour?" His chest contracted with something that might have been a yawn or a sigh or both, remembering walking into Lance's room to try to wake him up only to change his mind when he saw how inviting Lance's bed looked with his boyfriend lying on his back to leave a perfect Keith-shaped space on his left side. "Was already morning, anyway." Lance's naked chest had a light splatter of hair across the breastbone, which Keith happily rubbed his cheek against. Oh benevolent goddess of the harvest, may you bless this land with bountiful forests for me to smush my face into. Grant me a future with beard burn on my thighs.

The heavy embrace of sleep lulled Keith into barely hearing Lance's words. "You know what would have been even easier than sneaking into my room at ass o'clock in the morning? Not running off after sex and just sleeping here in the first place."

Why was Lance still talking when Keith was still trying to be asleep? Keith hummed, and it might have sounded annoyed if he had been awake enough to comprehend emotions. "Sure would have. Have to try it sometime."

Lance's chest rose and fell in a long sigh underneath Keith's head, and the hand on Keith's shoulder began absently rubbing the bare skin of Keith's arm. The gentle touch left light shivers behind in their wake, and that combined with the rhythmic rise and fall of Lance's breathing below him lulled Keith back into blissful doze. It was broken by a question from Lance, who was apparently awake and determined to drag Keith kicking and screaming into the morning with him. "Hey, Keith?" he asked softly, enough so that had he waited another minute or two to speak the words Keith might not have heard them through his doze.

Keith took a moment to answer. "Hm?"

"Back a couple months ago when I first asked out for that first, uh… date. Why did you say yes?"

Keith's eyebrows furrowed together. Hadn't he already answered this? He was sure he had just talked about this like, yesterday or something. "Surprised me," he said around a yawn that turned into a frown when it closed.

This again? Wasn't Keith allowed to be done being embarrassed about being so presumptuous yet? What else had he been supposed to think with Lance suddenly flipping from hostile to charming like a switch. It had been a perfectly natural assumption that it was because Lance was trying to flirt with him considering it was LANCE and hitting on people was what he did.

A dissatisfied hum rumbled from Lance's throat and his grip around Keith's shoulder tightened into a hold. "I surprised you?" Keith didn't notice the displeased note in Lance's voice, occupied by being pulled back into wakefulness by a memory from a day or two later when Lance had been talking to Keith and stopped mid-sentence with the observation that Keith's eyes were actually more violet than grey up close and that they were really pretty, and how that comment had dispelled the doubts Keith had developed after their first date ended with Lance ruffling his hair, because Keith maintained that was still a really weird fucking thing to say to someone you weren't actually trying to date.

Ah crap, he was pretty much awake now, Keith realized with distaste. That meant he had no excuses not to get up anymore, and Keith reluctantly started stretching and shifting out of Lance's hold. Lance's grip around his shoulder tightened and he whined out a thin "What are you doing, you aren't allowed to leave. "

Keith wiggled out of his grasp to push himself up onto his arms, rearranging until he was sitting upright on top of Lance's stomach. "We probably missed breakfast," he leaned down to kiss the furrowed line of Lance's brow. "If we don't get up soon they'll have to send someone to fetch us for morning training and we won't get to eat at all."

Lance's hands landed on his hips and he craned his neck up to kiss at Keith's jaw. "Hunk would never let me starve," he tried to pull Keith down on top of him to reach his lips again, and against his better judgement Keith allowed himself to be pulled into a slow languid kiss, reasoning that if they were already late a few more minutes wouldn't kill anyone.

A few more minutes would embarrass them, though, because having no sense of what time it was to begin with meant they could very easily lose track of how long they stayed in bed kissing and lazily pawing at each other, and had Keith ever mentioned that he tended to get a little bit swept up in the moment when Lance kissed him? It was scarily easy to let the world fall away around them when Lance was teasing Keith's lips with his own. So you know. Pidge kinda surprised the crap out of them when she knocked on the door.

"KEITH! I thought you said you were going to wake him up, not fuck him!"

Lance wheezed out a breath of punched air when Keith sat back too quickly on his stomach to shout back at Pidge through the closed door, "I'm not fucking him, we just did some of that last night!"

Lance and Pidge both made strangled noises, and Keith grinned as he rolled out of bed.

They didn't go without food, but that was probably because Lance had a tendency to throw up towards the end of training if he was too exhausted and no one wanted him to pass out from low blood sugar because he'd puked up all the food in his stomach. Again. But it didn't even turn out to be one of the mornings where anyone threw up anyway, so all in all Keith called it a good time.

Now that the usual morning routine had been cleared out of the way everyone was gathered together in the small theater Allura had been in last night. They were getting ready to head into town to get visas, and logically, seeing as they couldn't very well go into Concordia as paladins it made no sense to try to get into Concordia as paladins. As such it was time to make up their new identities, so trunks and boxes of clothes and props were strewn patiently around the floor as they all waited for Allura to reappear.

When she did, she made an entrance. Silver-blue curtains flashed and sparkled as she tossed them behind her, emerging from the gap between them and tossing a jewel-encrusted laser rifle over her shoulder. She was dressed to the nines in what could only be full space pirate regalia, from her polished knee-high boots to her heavy gold-lined shortcoat, all the way up the wide-brimmed hat that looked like it had been stolen either from a victorian duchess or Captain Hook himself. So impressive was the sight she cast no one was even annoyed when Lance wolf-whistled, feeling it was for once well deserved.

Allura grinned cockily, hefting her sword to point and Shiro and declare "My first mate!" Shiro looked appropriately honored, and she turned down the line to direct the sword at Pidge, Hunk, Lance, and Keith in turn and declare at each one "My hacker! My boatswain, my rifleman, and my raider!" Finally, she reached Coran, to whom she took off her hat with a flourish. "And of course, my navigator and helmsman, to whom we all owe our lives."

He twirled his moustache and preened. "You'd hardly be able to get anywhere without me, of course," and Allura dipped an elegant and respectful bow to him.

Allura looked back over the assembled crowd with a confident swagger. "Starting today, we embark on a most dangerous mission."

"...To sell furniture?" Hunk asked with a bemused frown.

Allura didn't let the question break her dramatic momentum. "To infiltrate the seedy underbelly of one of the universe's most prosperous cities, and to join - or failing that begin ourselves - a revolution!"

The paladins looked among themselves. Hesitantly, Lance offered "Yay?"

Allura tossed her hair and put her hand to her hip, apparently content to pretend that counted as a rousing chorus of applause. "The coming weeks will require your absolute dedication to discretion. Concordia is not a safe place for a paladin of Voltron to wander around blind in, and every one of us must diligently maintain our guard." Pacing across the stage, she continued "I do not trust the fact that we've spent two days on this planet and heard not one word spoken of the Galra. Something is amiss, and I will not have us fall into some kind of trap. Which means the roles we make for ourselves in this crew we have to totally commit to, without question." She stopped pacing to face her crew again, and her face light up into a brilliant grin as she declared "So make sure whatever costume you pick it's one you absolutely love!"

Allura's enthusiasm made it nearly impossible for the paladins to even try and take this seriously. She had thrown herself completely into her role as pirate captain, and Keith found even he couldn't help but be infected by her cheer. As such the next half hour or so of all of them toddling around a kiddie theater trying on clothes was lighter than they'd been as a group all month, reveling in their last chances to take time out to have fun and trying to make each other laugh by trying on the silliest costume choices they could find.

It didn't help that even when they tried to dress seriously, it was impossible to maintain any kind of coordination. No matter what anyone tried on the seven of them always ended up a mismatched mess, looking more like the confused attendees of a comicon than a pirate crew of any kind.

Keith himself was totally lost on what to wear, trying to remember what sorts of things the aliens he'd met over the past months had been wearing. It didn't help, too various the array of cultures they'd visited, and he gave up on the idea of blending in in favor of maybe finding something that actually fit him.

The others seemed to be having better luck, settling in to clothing choices and finalizing their disguises. Near one trunk Allura had taken to the contemplation of Shiro's conspicuously memorable appearance, trying to find ways to cover up the scar and shock of bleached out hair with a series of rejected hats and helmets. Pidge offered her own idea in the matter, taking a roll of bandages and sort of tossing it loosely around his face like a ill-dressed mummy. Was she trying to do that, or could she just not see anything behind those giant goggles she'd dug up that had been taking up half her face since the moment she'd found them?

Keith pulled a dark red tunic over his head and down to fit, just about deciding that it was good enough as long as he could be done with this. It was comfortable, he'd be able to move in it, and it had a collar that was tall and loose enough that Keith would be able to duck down and hide his face in it. It didn't happen to have anything as useful as sleeves, and Keith hated the thought of leaving that much bare skin exposed in a strange city, but he could probably dig out a jacket of some kind to fix that.

Not like Lance's chosen coat though, Keith thought to himself incredulously when he saw his boyfriend swish towards him. "There's no way you're going to be able to fight wearing that thing."

Lance's answer was to flap the tails of his trenchcoat like a cape. "Won't have to. I'm the rifleman, remember? No one's even gonna get close enough to come near me, 'cause I'm so fast on the draw I'll snipe 'em out before they even see me coming." He finished off by loudly miming the firing of a rifle.

Keith raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him before turning back to rummage around the trunk he was looking through. "We're gonna get into some kind of chase and that thing's gonna get caught on something and you'll die tangled up in your own stupidity."

From not far away, Hunk shrugged, "I dunno, they can't be THAT impractical. I mean, Nazis wore trench coats and they were some pretty efficient sons of bitches."

"Nazis?" Lance looked down at his coat with a dubious frown. "Fuck you guys, I love this coat and I'm not letting any of you ruin it for me." He turned back to Keith, who had found a pair of long gloves that went all the way up past his elbows to mostly cover his arms. He'd have to cut the fingers off, but it was better to settle on this than be stuck here trying to coordinate his freaking outfit like a… a different kind of homosexual man than he was, or something, who cares at this point let's go already. " ANYWAY," Lance segwayed with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Speaking of my perfect taste and awesome outfit, where's that bandana/handkerchief thing you got?"

Keith blinked at Lance, a little surprised he'd be asking for such a thing. He pulled it out of the pocket of his discarded jacket, offering with a little dubiousness "I was thinking of using it to cover my head with."

Oddly enough, Lance's eyes sparkled a bit at that sentence, and he grinned "Oh don't worry, I've got something for your hair." He took the bandana from Keith and tied it over his own hair mostly for the sake of getting it out of his hands, while Keith watched Lance's sudden excitement with a bit of suspense. Lance reached behind himself with the apparent intent to grab something from his back pocket, but hesitated before pulling it out to show Keith, face flushing a bit and eyes averting in an adorable display of unusual shyness, stalling with "Uhhhh, but come to think of it if you don't like it or feel the urge to get mad at me when you see it then I have the defense that when I saw it yesterday with Allura and said 'Oh my God wouldn't this be so perfect for Keith?' she said 'Oh my God yeah you should buy it for him,' so half of the blame for this goes to her. Especially since she loaned me the money."

Well THAT certainly instilled confidence in Keith. He might have asked but Lance was already whipping out his present to present to Keith, who was startled to find himself face to face with what appeared to be a red plastic headband. "Eh?"

Apparently content with Keith's confused reaction, Lance grinned again. Waggled his eyebrows with a flourish and flicked his wrist, at which point the headband snapped out of its curve into a solid line and the tiny teeth lengthened and sharpened into saw-like serrations. It was not just a headband, it was a headband that turned into a fucking knife, an invention only the Geruda would possibly entertain much less mass-market. Keith kind of loved it.

Carefully, he reached out to take it from Lance, who showed him the place to put his thumb that would turn the comb on and off. A bit shy himself but knowing Lance would be absolutely thrilled by the request, Keith handed it back to ask, "Put it in for me?"

Lance got even more embarrassed by the question than Keith himself had been, turning even redder as he carefully slid the headband into Keith's hair to pull his bangs back. The gentle slide of the plastic teeth against his scalp and sent shivers down Keith's spine and Lance's hands lingered to toy with the ends of his hair for a moment before retreating. And then the two of them were both just sort of standing there, inches apart and staring each other in the eye. Hesitantly, Lance stuttered out around a blush the words, "C-can I kiss you?"

Keith's skin grew even hotter in answer. "Why are you suddenly asking? "

Lance shook his head. "I don't know, you just make me nervous." They both burst into a set of matching quiet chuckles, still not quite able to meet eye to eye. Keith raised himself up to his toes and tilted his head back, meeting Lance halfway in a kiss that both of them were smiling into by the end.

Somewhere behind them Pidge made a sound like she was barfing, and when Allura turned to see what she was making noises at she chirped out, "Oh that's just perfect!" And when they pulled away from the kiss to step away from each other she had already strutted over to steal the bandana off of Lance's head. She danced her way back over to Shiro, who had pulled Pidge's bandages down from his face to rest in a scarf-like pool around his neck. Allura sashayed back over and snapped the cloth in her hand for a touch of dramatic flair, grinning to herself as she tied the folded bandana around half of Shiro's head in a makeshift eyepatch, successfully managing to cover it the entirety of the white lock in his hair after a small amount of tucking and finagling to stuff it under the fabric. "Ta-dah!"

An offended chirp trilled from Lance's throat, and the words "Yeah, but - that was - I was gonna! "

Keith raised an eyebrow at him. "Why does it matter? We can just find you a hat or something."

Lance flailed. "That's not the point! The point is that now instead of me, Shiro is the one wearing something of yours for a whole mission!"

Keith felt himself flush again, eyes automatically darting upwards as if to somehow look at the headband currently occupying his hair. "O-oh," he said a little dumbly, waylaid again. He never was able to tell when Lance was about to say something stupid and weird or something stupid romantic. "Uh, if that's all you wanted," and as he picked up his recently discarded gloves there was only a moment where the voice inside himself insisted he needed to keep those to hide behind if he accidentally started biting again. "You could wear these? Since I've got a different pair on right now, I mean. Than, than my normal ones."

Lance's eyes widened, and he snatched the gloves from Keith's palm like he was afraid he'd change his mind and take them back. He slid them onto his own hands with something approaching reverence, adjusting the straps to fit around his own wrists and holding his hands in the air to admire them. Wearing an absolutely enamoured grin, Lance turned back to Keith to ask "So, how do they look on me? I'm totally cool now, right?"

Actually the fingerless gloves combined with the trenchcoat kind of left a street hobo impression, but Keith figured that wasn't what Lance wanted to hear. "You're very handsome," Keith said instead, meeting Lance back in reaching distance. "But I feel like you've managed to miss out on the 'in-disguise' part of this somewhere," he ran his hands through Lance's hair, dragging the short bangs backward to try to slick his hair out of his face. It was too short and too fluffy to hold like that, and Keith found himself mumbling "Hold on, I have an idea," to wander over to steal the hair gel Allura had been using to try to tame Shiro's hair into hiding.

By the time he got back Lance had started digging around in the trunk Keith had just been looking through, pulling out a wire-rimmed pair of glasses and turning around to call out "Hey, Pidge, you think you could do something cool like turn these things into a sniper scope, or night vision or something?"

"Sure, that's tinker-toys compared to what I'm planning on doing to these babies," the girl confirmed, snapping the strap of her oversized goggles meaningfully.

By the time everyone had picked their outfits and backstories and the crew was ready to head down to the visa office, they had almost managed to match themselves into a coherent pirate crew. A coherent pirate crew made up of a bunch of stragglers from different parts of time and space, or maybe just a cosplay troupe with a bunch of very different definitions of the idea of "space bandit." Lance had managed to end up matching Allura's gaudy steampunk air pirate chic, while Pidge and Shiro had landed somewhere around post-apocalyptic cyberpunk, complete with useless LED lights piping around Shiro's metal arm under attempts to make it look less obviously Galra. Meanwhile, Hunk had only been able to find in his size (and with no extra sleeves) a fur-lined greatcoat that found his image somewhere in the area of russian space viking, and Coran had, for reasons unknown, immediately and without hesitation donned a full set of armor with horned helmet. And as for Keith himself, he wasn't sure what the description "Vincent Valentine's gay little brother" meant but he had a feeling it was not complementary.

The acquisition of a passport, it seemed to Keith, was much the same all over the universe. It involved waiting in a terrible plastic chair among strangers for an hour until the bureaucrat at the counter was ready to receive or deny you at their leisure. And even when they reached the bored geruda they reached a whole new problem that should have occurred to them far, far earlier: Not even Allura and Coran could read the forums they were supposed to fill out. There was a moment where it seemed like panic would break and out Lance and Hunk would charge the counter and take hostages, but Shiro quickly stepped forward to do what he does best.

"Hi there," he said to the girl at the counter, beaming an awkward little smile at her. "Uh, may I ask a question?"

She looked more interested than before she got an eyeful of Shiro's jawline, but held her ground. "Fill out the forums and move to the back of the line, sir."

"I'd love to, but I'm afraid there's a problem there. We're all from, uh… A bit far away from here, and as it is none of us can actually read the current version of the local language. I don't suppose you have these documents in a version of Elpisian from about ten thousand years ago, or maybe a just a translator?"

The girl's eyes widened, blinking in surprise at him. " Ten thousand years? I can't believe you're that old! "

He chuckled a bit, leaning forward to rest an arm on the counter, "No, we're not ten thousand years old ourselves, but I guess our culture is." Keith smothered a laugh with the knowledge that Shiro wouldn't have realized the way he'd just changed his body language, but the geruda had taken note, leaning forward herself until their faces were only inches apart. "We're all from Magrathea, which unfortunately hasn't actually existed for quite a while."

She made an impressed sort of chirping sound, gasping "Oh, my! That planet's been dead for so long, I had no idea any its people could still be alive! How ever did you survive with no planet for ten millennia?"

"Well, as I understand it our ancestors immigrated to Krikket - "

"- Which was locked in a time bubbled five thousand years ago! Oh goodness, I wonder if there were many Magrathean refugees there when they sealed it up…"

Shiro nodded deeply, face solemn. "I'm afraid there were." He sure was laying it on thick for a story they'd cobbled together in ten minutes using a children's almanac they'd picked up on Trisol. "But on the plus side," Shiro smiled, "that means technically, they are all still alive!"

The geruda's eyes sparkled, and she clapped her hands together. "You know, I never thought of that! I guess time prison isn't such a bad punishment after all!" Her figure bounced up and down a bit behind the window, and Keith recalled a similar gesture from one of the local girls he'd seen before. "So, then how did your crew get out of being sealed away, too?"

"That's the fun part," Shiro grinned at her voice dropping like he was sharing a secret, and as predicted the girl swooned a little. "Our direct ancestors were actually pirates. They were off planet on a raid when they heard the sentence for Krikket, so instead of going back home to port they became nomads. Wandering the black skies for thousands of years, never making home on any planet too long in the hopes of preserving the ancient ways of our people."

"Oh, how romantic~!" The geruda cooed, batting her feathery eyelashes. "I bet you have so many amazing stories you could tell."

"I bet you have some stories of your own," they both laughed. "And as it happens, until our visas clear our crew will have plenty of free time around town… Ah, but we'll still need to fill out the forums?"

She waved a hand in front of her face. "Oh of course that'll be no problem! With my expert skills, we can have this wrapped up in like, two minutes! I'll just need a bit of information on everyone in the crew, I can fill in the blanks in just a jiffy after that!"

Shiro's smile was radiant. "That'd be a big help, I really owe you one."

A tittering laugh. "Well, I'm sure you can think of some way to repay me." It was only at that moment that a light of dawning came to Shiro's eyes as he realized what he'd just done. Keith was the only one who noticed, no one else in the room understanding what exactly had just happened here. There was no time for him to try to backtrack, because she was already cheerfully asking "Okay, so can I get everyone's names?"

Which was also the point every one of them realized they'd forgotten to come up with fake names for themselves. "R-right," Shiro said, taking his elbow off the counter and a step or two back away from the window. He gestured to Allura, standing behind him with her arms crossed and a look of quiet anger on her face that bordered on apocalyptic. "This is our illustrious captain -"

"Fenchurch," Allura cut in sharply. "Captain Fenchurch, ma'am."

Shiro pretended he wasn't terrified of her to continue with renewed confidence. "...Indeed, Fenchurch. Which I suppose would make me Zaphod Beeblebrox. And this over here," he gestured to Pidge, "Agrajag," to Hunk, "Zarniwoop," next to him was Coran, "Yooden Vranx..."

The next person down the line was Lance, who before Shiro could come up with a name for burst in with the introduction "Hotblack Desiato, at your service!"

When the girl gave him a weird look for his untimely interruption, Shiro sidestepped him casually. "You'll have to forgive him, his brain's still a little off after spending the last year dead."

Feathery eyes blinked rapidly. "Dead?"

"For tax purposes," Lance assured.

"Oh! Well that's a little brilliant, actually." She looked towards Keith. "And who's the last one there?"

Shiro and Lance both looked at Keith, and then, just for half a second, at each other. "Marvin," they agreed nearly in unison, and once again Keith got the distinct feeling he was missing something. Marvin… The Martian? Was this a Looney Toons joke? Keith could think of literally no other explanation.

"Perfect!" The geruda chirped, and went to typing rapidly on her computer for a moment. "If you've got an ECHO device I can get the details for, I'll be able to send you confirmation when your passports come through. And um, I'll go ahead and send you my number as well, so you can call me if you need anything else?"

Shiro nodded, giving her the address Pidge's funky internet goggles could be reached at. Having already taken up an extraordinary amount of one clerk's time, the lot of them left as quickly as they could.

When they got outside to the alley behind the office building, everyone turned to look at Shiro. Shiro didn't notice, having buried his face in his hands the instant he was out of the gerdua girl's sight. "Oh my god. Fuck. Fuck what just happened back there? Did I just make a date?" Keith finally let himself burst into laughter.

Lance's body flew into a spasm. "Did you not even MEAN to do that?! Did you just outdo every move I've ever made on a girl - combined - onaccident?! "

"I was trying to be polite! I went into that trying only to be polite, it just… Got out of hand."

Allura looked like the answer had managed to offend her even more than the entire affair already had to begin with. "That girl has feelings! I cannot believe you would just lead her on for the sake of something as petty as skipping out on paperwork!"

The words hit Shiro like blows, his shoulders hunching low like a big berated dog. "I didn't -" he cut off the automatic defense, sighing. "I know. I'm sorry." Which turned the situation from funny down to just sad.

Keith cleared his throat, coming in with, "It's not his fault. This is what happens every time he talks to a woman when he needs something from her. He doesn't know how to handle girls," he snorted, trying to choke the laughter back into his throat. "So when he tries to be nice it ends up outrageous flirting." It was getting a bit hard to breathe around the laughter threatening to burst out of Keith's lungs, a memory he'd been lucky enough to be standing nearby to witness nearly breaking his composure. "Like this one time when Lieutenant Solomon came to give him a dressing down for getting loose with the rules, but when he tried to get out of trouble instead he ended up somehow sucked into some weird three way poly date with her and her boyfriend!"

"Shut up , Keith." Shiro hissed from under his palms.

Keith was the only one laughing, the others all looking somewhat baffled and unsettled. Keith figured they just weren't appreciating how truly hopeless Shiro was with girls, and was more than prepared to enlighten them. "It's only when he doesn't want to flirt though. Remember that one time when you were trying to chat up Lizzie Chavez, but you ended up telling her -"

" I know every person you've had a crush on since we met ," Shiro interrupted in a coarse, desperate voice.

To Keith's credit, the first thing that statement brought to mind was the memory of the day after he'd twisted a foot and needed Hunk to carry him to the med bay, and the subsequent angry rant to Shiro about how unfair it was to Keith that a guy could be so nice and have arms that huge at the same time and even in SPACE he couldn't get away from distractingly hot guys. It was only after that that Keith remembered further back years ago to a botched confession of love to Shiro himself, and knew immediately that was not the sort of history that needed to be shared with Lance.

He glanced at Lance first, then back to Shiro, narrowing his eyes. "And you're saying you're willing to weaponize this information?"

Shiro returned the glare evenly. "You keep talking I'll start talking, young man."

Young man, huh? With that card dropped, Keith knew exactly the counterattack to make Shiro crumble. "If you do," he started slowly, voice dropped so low as to be barely audible. "I will tell you in exact, portrait-like detail everything Lance did to me last night."

As expected, a look of true and absolute horror split Shiro's expression. "Jesus christ, man."

"Truce?"

"Truce," Shiro dubiously agreed, and the two continued to stare at each other with eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Around them, the rest of the stunned crew had only one thing to add. And that was Lance's eloquent declaration, "What the fuck was that?! What just happened here?! "

Five minutes later as they were walking back to the castle to begin the long wait for their visas to clear, Shiro's eyebrows drew together lowly, and without thinking he turned to Keith to clarify "Wait a minute - last night ? Last night you had a panic attack."

Keith for once decided to embrace the urge to look smug. "Yeah, I did."

Frowning in confusion, Shiro turned back ahead to watch Lance's back as he walked ahead of them, "How did…" Apparently against his own wishes, Shiro looked impressed. "I don't wanna know, and I don't want to think about it."

"Nope," Keith agreed cheerfully. "You do not."

In the following three days it took for their visas to clear, nothing eventful particularly happened. Except for the part where Allura insisted that Shiro call the geruda clerk back and arrange a date with her, which she and Lance then not only orchestrated but also directly intruded on, clumsily stalking the pair until the poor girl got uncomfortable enough to go home. But other than that, pretty much nothing happened.

Even with the weird-bad date the girl had apparently delivered in good form, sending them a message telling them where they could pick up the physical copies of their visas and where to go to get into Concordia after a few short days. And suddenly, finally, they had made it. Their passes cleared and the guards let them through the gates and past the city's barriers, finally entering the metropolis they'd already spent a week just trying to get into.

Even having been able to see the city from Fyrestone, the view had in no way prepared them for Concordia's true majesty. The instant they got within the barrier Keith could smell the difference in the air, the hot dry smell of the desert instantly replaced with something not only at least twenty degrees cooler but somehow almost artificially clean, like the recycled air of a closed spaceship.

So disconcerting was the smell and temperature drop, it took well until they were into the city for Keith to realize how different it looked from the inside, as well. Looking at Concordia from outside of town, the barrier had colored everything in a shade of soft blue battling against the pale orange of the daylight sky. But from the inside it was invisible, leaving a clear view of Elips's orange creamsicle sky and red-purple mountains. The city was somehow even more colorful than the surroundings, starting with the coral pink shade of brick the buildings were hewn in. They weren't laid out like any city Keith had ever seen, instead of an array of singular buildings surging upwards like stalagmites the city seemed to be built on layered tiers. Entire blocks of buildings only two stories high with roofs that stretched out past the walls to make walkways reaching to building stacks next door that were even higher, and even stacks of buildings that seemed to start midair and only to climb and layer for the sole purple of filling more of the sky. The towers that did exist, shiny with mirrored glass instead of stone, still didn't stand by themselves. Skyways branching out of the walls randomly like the legs of a spider, connecting buildings to rooftops to buildings until the city had an interconnecting web of people-filled paths branching through the skies, everything connected to everything like threads holding the city together by the seams.

And then there were the airships. An entire traffic system moved into the sky, roads marked by the glow of holographic billboards, the panels of light casting the buildings around them in a reflected rainbow. On the very ground the city had never bothered to pave over the distemperate red sands, instead installing raised stone sidewalks to minimize the amount of sand in everyone's shoes and leaving the rest to the whims of nature. Not that the surface of Elpis had been abandoned by any means, white streets filled with the constant hustle of foot traffic and all around them in the sand were planted market stalls of every shape and size and color and ware imaginable.

The effect was nearly overwhelming to step into, and Keith was not the only one who seemed to feel that way. The instructions from the clerk girl had included directions on what part of the city they should exit into when they left the warp stations, which were a teleportation-type affair the paladins had met before on other high-tech planets. Thinking they basically understood what Concordia looked like they had all assumed they were prepared, and thusly all seven warriors of Voltron were struck dead still with wonder when they exited the building they were in to find more color than they'd probably seen in their life, all shining around an ever-moving cacophony of alien life. Looking around at the people it seemed like it hadn't mattered much what they picked to wear, after all - they might as well have stepped out of reality and into a scifi convention on that regard; a woman that looked like an armored valkyrie chatting amicably with a giant sentient blob with no face being among the most average of people their immediate surroundings.

It might have been a good thing that they all stood there boggling, because it had apparently given their tourguide plenty of opportunity to spot them.

"You lot standing around in awe like slack-jawed yokels wouldn't happen to be the crew of the Heart of Gold, would you?" The man who introduced himself seemed like a standard, albeit blue, humanoid alien. When he walked towards them the motion was fluid, though, too smooth for human eyes to register as natural and the first thing that Keith noticed about the man became the fact that his legs were not legs at all but a set of six squid-like tentacles, split into threes to form a pair of "legs" and bound at the knees with a metal brace that presumably gave him the support necessary to stand upright on land.

Allura regained her regal demeanor, turning a sharp glare on the strange fish man. "And whom might be so rudely asking?"

"Why madam, are you playing power games with me or are you really just that ignorant?" The grin that split the man's face was shark-like and pleased, slitted eyes casting up and down first Allura, then the rest of them with an appraising eye and low whistle. "My, do I like what I see! I had been wondering what Magratheans could possibly look like but I hadn't expected you all to be quite this pretty ." He slithered around Allura to land behind Hunk, casting his eyes up and down the crew as he paced a slow circle around them. "All sorts of colors and sizes! What is this you're covered in here, is that skin?" A rubbery finger reached out as if to poke Pidge's face until it was unceremoniously swatted away. The man's pleased, jagged grin was undeterred, slinking back around to face Allura again. He offered a hand, only at the last moment pretending to be polite as he finally introduced himself. "Veret Everett at your service, and I'll be at your every whim as personal liaison to the Merchant's Guild of Elpis."

Which meant of course, they were all stuck with him. At least for as long as it took to set up their stupid furniture store, which meant today had just turned into an adventure in patience. The authoritative scowl didn't leave Allura's face as she met his hand with hers in something that loosely resembled a handshake, and Veret took great and obvious pleasure in the irritation he caused. "Captain Fenchurch. We're interested in selling off some antique furniture we've acquired, preferably in a hurry."

"And I will devote myself to helping you with this task~" Veret grinned, not letting go of Allura's hand. Instead he changed his hold into a caress and stroked his fingers down the length of her hand, admiring "My god, you're even softer than you look! Tell me darling, are you soft all over?"

Damn near every one of them all made a move towards the squid but it was Shiro who actually got there, metal hand clamping around Veret's wrist and yanking it away from Allura so fast even Allura herself hadn't had time to react. "Do not," he said lowly, voice dangerous. "Speak to our captain that way."

Veret failed to look intimidated, instead choosing to cast his lecherous gaze towards Shiro and leaning into the hold he still had on him. "Why there's no need to be jealous, Mr. Tall Dark and Terrifying. If you want to join the party I'm more than capable of handling both of you at once."

Somewhere behind him Keith heard Lance mutter "Oh my god please tell me I don't sound like that."

"Only a little," Hunk reassured him quietly.

"Yeah, you're less gross 'cause at least your lines are clean." Pidge added in a whisper.

Shiro ignored all of this. He kept a sharp, pirate-fierce glare directed on Veret, hissing "Just stick to business," as he let the wrist drop from his iron grasp.

Veret's laugh was obscene, shameless and deliberately taunting. "I do adore you bandit thug types, always trying to force your way around. But try to remember that I'm actually here to help you? The MGE isn't exactly aching for small-time business like yours, and should your guide decide to wander off instead of assisting you I think you'd have a hard time figuring out how to rent the space to sell your wares. You'll have come all this way to Concordia for nothing, what a pity!"

Unfortunately, he wasn't wrong about that. They needed a way to get information, a conversation opener to talk to strangers - an entire two days had been wasted just trying to get into the city, figuring out how to find a rebellion they weren't even sure existed would be impossible if they didn't have some sort of plan. Not to mention the fact that their visas would expire if they failed to actually work in the field they'd filed for. Which meant they weren't just stuck with a disgusting lech, they were stuck with a disgusting lech who liked to flaunt his power and fuck with people just because he could; a perfect combination. They'd be lucky if they went the day unmolested.

Allura's face was pinched, and Keith could see her headache from here. "If you intend to extort us, you'll find we don't need the business quite that badly, either."

Veret's smile changed like a mask slipped from his face, grin turning from wicked to charming and friendly with a casual shrug of his shoulders. "Nah, not really my thing." He dismissed easily, waving a hand. "It all just means I get to be as annoying as I want and no one can do anything." He grinned again, self-satisfied and indeed, annoying to behold. He clapped his hands together in a sudden start. "Allright, allright. So, furniture, was it?" He swished around to face the street, starting into a slithering stride before he even bothered to see if anyone was still behind him. "We'll need a pretty big space for you then, it'll hard to display your wares attractively if they're all stacked on top of each other willy-nilly like Tetra Blocks, eh?"

A bit warily, the crew had no real choice but to follow. "Now you just came out of Warp Station, does that mean your ship isn't parked anywhere close by? Do have dollies for transportation, or were you planning on moving your ship to one of Concordia's underground ports? Because the fee for that is a little pricey, especially if it's a big ship."

"We're landed outside of the city, and hadn't planned on moving our ship, no." Allura confirmed, and Veret made an understanding noise.

The city around them seemed to only grow denser with people, nary a single spot of land free of life no matter how the surrounding sand they wallowed in tried to discourage them. The sidewalks, it seemed, existed mainly for the flow of people trying to get to somewhere from somewhere than anything, so many shops planted directly in the dirt that the people had no choice or apparently qualm about milling about in the sand to buy things from them. "So the easiest thing will probably be to rent you a cargo ship," Veret said, an ECHO screen appearing something on his wrist as he paged through an illegible list on the translucent screen. "Oh, there's a Firefly class that's free right now, that'll run you nice and cheap, and the mid-sized hull ships like that are great for cargo transport. We can just make that another percentage fee like the land will be so you don't have to worry about any kind of down payment, since the Guild can always, you know. Rob you and break your legs, or whatever. I don't know, Collection isn't my department. I hear they can get pretty creative."

"Will we be able to get freely from our ship back into Concordia where our shop is located? Or are we to move all of the goods at once?"

"Well, the Firefly will be able to get you in and out of Concordia no problem, it's owned by the Guild so it has clearance to use the space ports with only a brief check of all your visas on the way back inside. But if you don't get a shop anywhere close to where you want the trip could take quite a bit of time since ships can't exactly use the Warp Stations to just teleport to where you wanna be in the city. We can look at a few locations, see if they look like what you need, but before anything else we need to get you into HQ to set up a contract. First things first, right?"

Allura nodded, her footsteps clicking oddly loud against the sidewalk even among the white noise of the city. "If possible, we'd prefer not to have to find lodgings within the city at night when the shop is closed. If we could find a location southern enough to make our trip back to the Heart of Gold shorter, we'd be much appreciative."

Veret grinned, slinging a friendly and completely unwelcome arm around her shoulder. "See, now that information is helpful to me! This is how we work together, yeah? Can't get you what you want if you don't tell me what you need ." He gestured between himself and Allura. "I like this, what we've got here. I think you and I have some good chemistry."

This time it was Coran who pulled Veret off of her, yanking him by the back of his collar with the cheerful "Off we go!"

Keith was just glad Allura wasn't expected them to sleep in some kind of hotel in town. It wasn't that Keith disliked Concordia, in fact as far as cities went he actually kind of liked what this place had going. But it was a still a strange city and he still didn't trust anyone or anything in it. Keith liked cities in general, preferred them over small towns for the anonymity and ease of access to places to sleep and dumpsters to steal perfectly good food from. But for all that he understood and felt comfortable in cities, that wasn't the same as feeling safe . Pretty much anywhere with people wasn't safe, actually, which meant that Keith had trouble sleeping any time they were out of the Castle of Lions. Yeah, cities were fine, but Keith still preferred the open empty space of absolutely nowhere if he could choose.

But not the desert, he thought with a sudden surge of bitterness. If he ever got the chance to retire to Earth and pick where he wanted to live, he was going somewhere with trees, damn it. And grass. Maybe a farm or something. Keith could totally be a farmer. Not like, a food farmer, because he was so bad with plants he'd managed to get impatient and overwater a cactus until it drowned. But maybe like… An alpaca farm, or something, he was good with animals. What would that even require, like, shearing wool and cleaning the stables and taking them out to graze? He could do that. Keith could totally retire to Canada to raise alpaca.

It'd be nice he wasn't completely alone though. Ideally, of course, Keith supposed he'd have Lance with him, although he didn't figure Lance would much like being stranded out in the middle of the wild with just Keith and some animals. Well there were farms that were close to rural areas, right? They could like. Drive over to visit Lance's family on the weekends, or something. Of course that still left him with just Keith and god knows what to do for the rest of the time...

Stupid. What the hell was Keith even thinking about right now, anyway? They were all gonna die in this shitty space war anyway, so it's not like it mattered what kind of half-baked plans for the future Keith might dream up.

He was snapped out of his thoughts with repulsed shudder when Keith felt an unfamiliar hand touching his hair, fingers brushing against the the puff of his ponytail for a half a second before he jerked away with an automatic draw of his knife. Veret held up his empty hands in defense with a playful shark-toothed smile, turning up the charm and using a syrup-sweet voice to pour out the apology "Sorry, it was just so cute I couldn't help but try to touch~"

Keith felt a hot itchy anger swell inside of him, familiar in a way he hadn't had to deal with in a long time. Another one of those jerks who thought they could talk their way out of anything just because they were good looking; Keith had met this type before. Keith had been a date and a half with this type before, which may or may not have involved more making out than Keith would ever now admit to. This guy wasn't even all that, he may have that sort of handsome-ish face but you'd have to be way into tentacles and douchebags to be attracted to this prick. "Yeah, well any part of you touches me again and it gets cut off ."

"See, now you threatening me is actually not a deterrent at all, because I do like me the feisty ones." At this point Keith didn't even expect a response that wasn't smug so Veret's smirk was hardly a surprise. He leaned in to look Keith in the face, silver-blue eyes meeting his own in a searching look that set Keith on edge so much he flushed and took a step backwards before he could steel himself against reacting. "Goodness, would you get a look of those eyes! You are just an ungodly kind of pretty, aren't you?"

"HEEEYYY, now," Lance cut in, and Keith could see exactly where this was going. Keith would also be a lot more comfortable with this mission if some suspicious entitled jerkoff from the Merchant's Guild did not have so much insight into Keith's personal life as to know who he was involvedwith. As far as they knew right now MGE might actually just be a big crime organization, and showing any hints of personal attachments or weaknesses to this guy might result in their backs getting knived before they even knew what was what.

Keith turned his glare to Lance, trying to figure how how to communicate an idea somewhere along the lines of 'shut your fucking mouth.' What he said instead was a harshly hissed out " You just stay out of this."

Lance reeled back like he'd been slapped. "What did I even do?!"

Keith kept his eyes on Veret, who had unfortunately indeed been watching with a curious eye. The alien smirked to himself, the private little smile of a predator that had just caught the scent of blood. He turned his tentacles to Lance, swooping over to meet his eye next and cheerfully declare "And yours are just the most magnificent shade of blue! I didn't even notice, what a treasure ~"

Lance, unused being flirted with, tensed ramrod straight and flushed bright red like a cherry tomato. This was not the reaction that mattered, though - Keith had been watching Veret who had in turn kept one of the beady yellow squid eyes decorating his temple trained intentionally on Keith. And quite against his will Keith had been unable to stop himself from reacting, the petty possessive part of him screeching about getting that fucksquid off of his man making Keith's jaw clench and his fist curl around his still-drawn knife.

Veret looked like he had been handed a prize, and Keith felt instantly hideously transparent. Fuck. Fuck, he had been seen right through in an instant, might as well have handed Veret a silver platter labeled "vulnerabilities."

What was worse was that Keith became more certain that had been the man's goal all along by the second. He had started out floating around all the paladins neutrally before, making flirting remarks at each one of them in passing like he was testing the waters. After that exchange, however, Veret's attentions became quite focused, zeroing in on Keith specifically like a fox on a henhouse. Which meant that even worse than an indiscriminate lech, this guy was calculated . Keith was beginning to see that every word this guy said was intentional, either to provoke a specific reaction or leave a certain impression, he was sure of it. And if the impression he wanted to give was that of an irritating entitled fuckboy, then what the fuck could this guy be hiding that was worse than that?

The answer was probably deadly, and Keith was determined not to be caught off guard. If everything about his personality was designed to repulse people, then that meant Keith should do the opposite and keep a close of an eye on this guy possible.

It would be less irritating if his flirting were at least more charming. What the hell kind of moron thought it was a good idea to go around calling a man 'pretty' and think it was a compliment? This prick wasn't even the first guy to try to use that line. Keith already knew he was pretty, and it had sure never done him any fucking favors. Pretty had gotten him treated like a girl for an entire date with one guy, and it had landed him another date with a dude who had only been interested in actually learning about Keith as far as figuring out how to get into his pants. And he'd been the one Keith had tried out a second date with (2).

Unbidden, the memory of Lance's awestruck voice whispering " You're so pretty; look so gorgeous right now," echoed around in Keith's head, and he couldn't fight off the blush if he'd tried. Well. That had been during sex, that was a whole different thing altogether. Outside of sex Lance didn't call him pretty. Had called him prettyboy as an insult, but that didn't count either; same as how he called Keith's eyes or hair pretty once or twice, but had also managed to sound more like the fact offended him than he was actually trying to compliment Keith. No, when Lance wanted to compliment Keith he'd tell him he liked how Keith looked when he smiled, or how he loved the sound of his laugh. Freely threw out praise during training and combat, was always telling Keith how cool that move had just been or weren't they both such badasses together? That was... That was how you complimented another boy, right there.

"You know, babydoll, I'd be able to drop the pet names if you'd finally give up and tell me your real one."

Keith huffed an annoyed sigh out of his nose. There was no way Keith was giving him his real name, but at least Marvin would be better than 'Sweetcheecks.' Well. Maybe not Marvin . "Marv," he settled on telling him, which may have been a mistake to give the squid that much leeway because the smile he beamed at Keith was damn near radiant.

"Mars?" Veret asked with interest. Which, no, had not been what Keith said, but it was close enough and he was hardly going to correct him considering he'd given him a cooler alias than Shiro and Lance had picked. "What a gorgeous name! I think there's a star or a constellation called that few systems over."

Given how big the universe was and the current outdated language barrier between them there was a pretty good chance they were not thinking of the same Mars. Nonetheless, possibly because astronomy was largely the only topic Keith could add anything to a conversation about, he heard himself offer "There's a planet called Mars in the galaxy we came from." And, just as an idle afterthought he added. "It's covered in red sand, too."

"How fitting," Veret commented, toning down the flirtation in his voice enough to be tolerable to listen to. But not in his words, because of course he went on to say "If it's half as majestic as you are I'll have to visit sometime."

From the corner of his eye Keith could see Lance seething. Which Keith understood on a basic level but was ultimately also pretty annoying considering how he'd acted that first day in Fyrestone. The thought was enough to spark a renewed flare of saltiness, and just because he knew it would piss Lance off even more he continued where Veret had left the conversation open. "Never been there. I don't like deserts."

Veret laughed, loud and possibly genuine. "Bet'cha just fucking loooove Elpis then!" He had been weaving them through the maze of walkways towards a shining glass tower for a while now, and it seemed like the skyscraper they had just reached was the one he'd meant to arrive at. Still strolling casually like he was among friends and not a group of people he very badly annoyed, Veret entered the doors without looking back and finally stopped bothering Keith in favor of turning back to Allura. "Oookay, this is the lobby where your crew is free to not rob the place while I take you to meet some people and sign some tablet screens, shall we?"

Shiro was quick to step forward. "She will not go unescorted after you already insisted she disarm at the entrance."

Veret rolled his eyes, not pausing. "Fine, then come with, I don't give a shit. Just hurry up, the actual work part of my job is the part I hate most and I'd like to wrap this up in a timely manner."

Somewhere around the exact instant Veret lead her into the elevator and they were alone, Lance turned on Keith. "What the fuck was all of THAT?"

Yeah, saw this one coming. Keith lowered his voice, hissing out "Can't you even try to be subtle?"

Lance just bristled, voice still sharp and high as he snapped out "And what do you even mean by that? "

"I mean, " Keith bit out, not raising his voice because at least he wasn't trying to to attract the attention of everyone on the whole fucking floor. "Why don't you try being quieter and not spreading around my personal business all over the fucking city!"

Lance's face was contorted in irritation, but at least he stopped yelling to join Keith in an angry whisper. " Fine. But you still have to answer why the fuck you just spent the last ten minutes flirting with that… that fucksquid!"

" I was not flirting, you ass, I was being flirted at! Which considering how I let you act every time we land on a new planet makes one of us a fucking hypocrite!"

"Then it must be you because at least I never pretended I didn't have already have a boyfriend!"

And what did that even have to do with anything? "Did you forget we're trying to keep a low profile here? I don't want to go letting everyone around here know about my personal attachments. Do you even remember what we're here for!?"

"What does it even matter who knows that about us?!" Lance scoffed, nearly spitting out the next words. "Just because we're being discreet means the entire whoever-knows-how-long we'll be here I'm just supposed to pretend you're not my boyfriend?!"

" Now is not the time to deal with this ," Keith's eyes darted around to the other occupants of the room who were starting to look curiously at the very obviously fighting pair. Still keeping his voice as quiet as he could when he was this pissed off, he hissed back, "You won't have a boyfriend at all if you keep trying to have this fight in the middle of a crowded fucking room!"

A gauntlet-clad hand landed heavy on each one of their shoulders. And if it had been anyone else it might not have been enough to stop the fight. But as it was, it was who Coran softly said, "I'm afraid he is right about this being rather a bad time. Now I'm all for having a good row to work things out, but it'll have to wait til we get back to the, uh, Heart of Gold, now won't it?"

Lance bit his lip, fist still clenched tight around nothing even as he looked away and nodded. Keith never did figure out exactly how or why Lance and Coran had bonded so, but not even Shiro's authoritative leader voice managed to get Lance to follow a request faster than a disappointed sounding Coran could.

And to be honest it was a good thing he'd stepped in when he did, because Keith was still full boil in his own rage. Fucking Lance always did this, could never manage to take these missions seriously even their lives were in danger. Why the hell couldn't he just understand how easy it was for someone to use the fact that they cared about each other against them? Was his stupid manpride more important than basic self-preservation?

When Allura and Veret came back downstairs it was to a tense and uncomfortable silence. Wearing her best pirate captain face Allura instantly dismissed it, "The arrangements are made. I'll need a couple of you to find your way down to the shipyard to secure the Firefly we've rented, but I want that cargo ship back to the Heart of Gold and being loaded by the time the rest of us pick out a decent shop location."

Without any kind of discussion necessary, Keith went with Coran to shipyard while Lance stayed to continue following Allura. They could both use a few hours away from each other right now.

(2.) When Keith insisted that their second date involve actually leaving his dorm room and getting food in the outside world, his date had proceeded to take him to a total dive, order only water for both of them, talk excessively about his ex-girlfriend, and hit on the waiter all while simultaneously groping Keith's thigh under the table. Keith had excused himself to the bathroom and then climbed out the window.

The ship they rented was named Inara, and Keith fell in love instantly. Okay, that was an exaggeration. Keith didn't fall in love until about fifteen minutes into the flight back to the castle when Coran cheerfully declared that ship was a right dream to fly and asked if Keith wanted to take a crack at her. And maybe it was the way he liked Inara's slightly temperamental controls, or maybe just because it had been so very long since he'd gotten a chance to fly anything, even poor neglected Red, but Keith sort of refused to give up the pilot's seat after that and insisted on the flying the rest of the nearly hour long flight to the castle himself. As for how much more relaxed he felt afterwards, Keith couldn't even find it in himself to be surprised. It just went to show how much he hated being cooped up in small spaces like they had been recently. Just having that little bit of control that flying the ship gave him, having the power to fly straight on into the sky and away from Elpis or crash them into the ground and kill them all in an instant… Yeah, he didn't have a handle on his life or emotions or anything, but at least at that moment he had complete say over where the fuck he went and that meant a lot right now.

And it's a good thing he did manage to cool his head a little, because a few hours after the lot of them loaded up the ship with wares to bring to their new store Hunk had all but cornered him. Apparently the three they'd left behind had wound up splitting up after they'd made sure they knew how the fuck they planned on getting to the shop every day, Pidge and Lance wandering off to explore the city a while while Allura finalized the last of their official business with Veret. Hunk had been able to contact both of the girls in order to tell them dinner would be ready soon and they should start heading back, but no one had been able to get a hold of Lance yet. Hunk had then proceeded to make it abundantly clear that he expected Keith to be the one to and find him, even though he would have to take a podship the fifteen minute flight back to Concordia's nearest border crossing/warp station and then THEN wander around the streets near the shop for a while trying to locate his errant boyfriend when Pidge was actually still around the city to do so themself. But of course, Hunk had been exactly as present for Keith and Lance's fight earlier that day as everyone else in a five mile radius, and the pointed look on his face when he asked Keith to look for him told more than enough of a story. So Keith set off.

It was kind of nice, being able to wander around Concordia by himself. He was already used to watching his own back, so it wasn't so hard to keep his guard up when he only had to be aware of his own location and not his plus seven other people. This meant he could spend more of his attention on the city itself, vibrant and dirty and beautiful in a way that a lot of the too-technologized metropoli of the civilized universe tended to fail at, all cold and sterile in their robotic cleanliness. Yeah, as far cities went, Keith liked this one.

The streets and walkways were color-coded along with being labeled, so even with their inability to read Elpisian it was surpisingly easy to navigate. There were childish-looking maps randomly posted like those in shopping malls and incredibly distinct landmarks like the giant pond full of fish people taking up three blocks of the upper west side, so even though Keith's directions had been more or less along the lines of "follow the blue path up to the four story building and then leave on the second floor to yellow street that travels over the dog park," he had managed to actually find his way around without too much difficulty.

He found the empty street stall they'd be occupying by the time Elpis's red sun set, the blue one rising to take its place like the spinning hands of a clock. And Keith knew enough about cities to be pretty sure they'd been set up in the slums, the brick buildings cracked and holographic billboards flickering in and out of life in the sky the first signs of disrepair as the surroundings grew almost imperceptibly shadier. That alone was enough to set Keith back on edge, a new concern for the disappeared Lance growing where he'd at first been sure his boyfriend had just gotten distracted and lost or ignored his communicator.

It was somewhere near the small jelly man loudly selling something called paopu oil (3) that Keith heard the familiar sound of laser fire. He stilled, listening carefully for more sound. The area he was in wasn't crowded by any means, but there was still enough noise form the passing traffic overhead that he had to strain his ears, only hearing another shot nearly a full minute later and no other signs of any struggle, which should have been audible if the quiet sound of the gun had been. He headed towards the sound, hoping it was someone who happened to have a gun that sounded similar to Lance's bayard, or some other sort of laser being fired for some other non gun-y purpose, casting his eyes around his surroundings as he headed deeper towards the empty ghettos of the run down neighborhood, the tangle of buildings growing less organized and more familiarly shambled like the slums of any city on Earth.

It didn't take too much longer before Keith caught a flash of light overhead, and he followed the line of fire to one of the abandoned rooftops of a short two-story building, a small space overshadowed by the ten-floor apartment building it stood next to. Half-hidden in the shadows cast by the complex next door was a hunched figure that could easily be Lance-shaped, and Keith followed the path of the next careful shot fired to see no enemy or person if any kind. Instead being fired upon was the cracked and fuzzy screen of a giant, wall-sized television repeating an infomercial where a regally dressed geruda woman was giving the same speech ad infinitum. But if it was Lance - and it probably was considering how many human-shaped aliens wielding laser rifles there probably were wandering around this area - then why the hell was he shooting at a TV?

He nearly jumped at the sound of a small explosion somewhere behind him, and Keith whirled around to look for the source. But the only response was an alarm going off and someone screaming "God damn it, Roberto," and even stranger still Keith was now pretty sure he heard an entirely different gun coming from back the direction he'd came from near their shop. Actually, that was probably the gun Keith had heard in the first place considering how far away he'd wandered to get to here, and just what the hell kind of neighborhood was this?

He turned back to the TV, trying to decide if there was any particular reason this particular gun was being shot at this particular screen today. The well-dressed geruda took up most of the screen's image, so it took a second glance for Keith to notice the lettering that blinked and scrolled and waved along the bottom of the screen in patterns that probably made sense if you knew Elpisian. He watched the slow shots as they hit the image, each one fizzing uselessly off the screen in a tiny burst of static that rippled in harsh lines all through the picture. And slowly, Keith realized that the firing was nearly perfectly timed, aiming for one specific letter as it made it's not-quite random journey across the bottom of the screen every time the video recycled.

Target practice, he realized. In a street that wasn't even empty, and no one had noticed because the people in this neighborhood just didn't pay attention to that kind of background noise. Which at first Keith thought was pretty friggin' weird, until he remembered how pissed off he himself had been a few hours ago and how the only reason he'd calmed down at all was an hour of commandeering the cargo ship to fly at unsafe speeds in directions only vaguely similar to their actual destination. Maybe Lance had needed his own… catharsis.

Keith turned his gaze back to the other roof, trying to find a path down to the street he was on. There was an odd ladder attached to the side of the building just across the small alley the street split into, and while Keith was not a hundred percent sure it could lead across to the next building seven feet away he figured it was a good a place to start as any considering Concordia's layout was so much like a video game map. Who know what even led where in this place.

When he reached the roof courtesy of the ladder rungs which slid down to meet his grip in a disconcerting way, he was close enough to confirm that it was in fact Lance he was looking at. Crouched low on the nearly hidden roof with his lower body tucked in the shadows, and Keith was quick to notice he had indeed taken off the ridiculous coat of his while he was shooting. Only to realize that the jacket was folded into a square and tucked halfway underneath Lance, cushioning where his elbows where they were propping him up on the hard rooftop. There were… a lot of other things to notice, once the image in front of Keith really set in.

While Elpis had two suns and no discernable night time, not even a city like this could run everything 24/7. Business hours and sleep cycles demand that the geruda pick time to call night, and it made perfect sense to choose the dimmer hours of the blue sun's reign. The light it gave off was less bright and harsh than it's crimson counterpart, turning the sky a pale mint green and casting the shadows long and blue-tinted like the world was caught perpetually in the early hours of dawn. Even the burning bright red sands were dulled into a burgundy by the green night, turning the bright palette of the city into soft cool tones that almost made it seem like the air wasn't exactly as fucking hot and dry as it always was.

The skyway just a few hundred feet overhead of them was purple, its guiding lights casting a violet glow to everything underneath it, and Keith decided that the array of colors complimented Lance well. From his place maybe fifteen feet away or so Keith was close enough to watch the expression on Lance's face, brow tight in concentration as he peered one-eyed through the lens of the wire glasses Pidge had fashioned into his sight scope and his hair a bit mussed out of place where Keith had gelled it back earlier like he'd been unthinkingly running his hands through it. Every time the video recycled the TV across the street flashed its cerulean background, casting Lance's face in a bright blue light for a few seconds at a time, the monotony of the advert's pattern broken by the briefest flickers that were Lance's shots, each small light fast and faint like a firefly charging across the sky.

Firing his gun also complimented Lance well, actually, in a very visual sort of sense. Maybe it was that rare focus shining in his eyes, but it was a very good look on him. Lance really was one handsome son of a bitch, wasn't he? With his jaw and his eyes and his… augh, stop it. He should just stop with his face.

It wasn't really a striking in-your-face kind of handsome like Shiro, though. Keith's first impression of Lance had hardly been flattering and hadn't involved his looks at all - to spite Lance's outrageous efforts, he tended to leave an absolutely terrible impression on anyone he first meets. It was only later on, with careful observation and actual human interaction that one could see Lance wasn't a huge useless douchebag; that there was someone really worthwhile under all that awful swagger.

It had taken Keith himself the effort of actually looking to find that decency. He'd known that someone the Blue Lion had gone so far out of her way to specifically choose as her paladin couldn't be as much of a prick as he'd seemed, and Lance asking him out out of nowhere had only cemented the certainty that there must be more to him than he'd let on. And so Keith had looked for the good in Lance. And… Keith had found it. Had found plenty of it, more than he could even have ever expected.

Lance had a way of bringing humor and levity to nearly any situation, even the ones that really didn't call for it. And Keith had found it endlessly annoying in those first few weeks as paladins, how Lance never seemed to take anything seriously no matter how grave the predicament they would wind up in. And this obviously was still true on occasion, but now Keith could also see the effect it had on other people around them. To aliens who had spent their whole lives oppressed and afraid, meeting the paladins of Voltron may have been a symbol of hope and security, but it was Lance who continued to humanize them time and time again. Keith and Shiro and Pidge and Allura all had the habit of taking their missions too formally and too seriously, but having Lance break the tension with ridiculous declaration of his superiority had a way of putting strangers at ease instead of making them uncomfortable. He was just… so silly , how could they be afraid of these ten-thousand year old warriors if the tall skinny one was flirting unabashedly with the first cute local he could find? Lance reminded everyone they were above all, still just people.

He did that for the paladins as well, of course. Lance ceaselessly and effortlessly continued to remind them all that no matter what else might be true they were all still a bunch of underqualified overworked teenagers, and that no matter how important this war was they still all had to take breaks to do normal goddamned human teenage things like fall asleep watching TV and fighting each other over games they had to make up their own rules to.

Keith had seen the way Lance acted differently the fewer people were in the room. The individual ways he interacted with each of the people on the ship, and how even in these small daily interactions Lance managed to continue to be thoughtful and sweet almost as if by accident. The way he never let Hunk get a chance to get lonely, so constant Lance's presence by his side even after dating Keith had started sucking up his time. How he gave Pidge an excuse to indulge in her childishness, being silly and petty and crude with each other just to prove they could be efficient paladins even if they decided not to be mature a hundred percent of the time (or ideally, as seldom as possible.) The fact that he never let the age gap or leadership role separate Shiro too much from the rest of the paladins, dragging him into card games they always ended up gambling on and intentionally trying rile a fight out of him just because he thought Shiro getting mad enough to curse him out was the funniest thing in the universe(4). How where Allura had failed to find a sister in Pidge Lance had somehow slipped in to fill that gap instead, going together to explore every new planets marketplaces for shopping and talking about fashion frequently enough that Keith doubted their current costumes matching was in the least bit coincidental. The hours on end he'd spent with Coran watching old Altean soap operas in the background of all of the rooms of the castle they were still meticulously cleaning one by one.

Before he could even be aware he was thinking about it memories came to mind of the way Lance looked at Keith . His half-worried smile last night when he'd pulled Keith into dancing with him. That proud little snicker he'd give when their eyes met just after pulling something insane off in training; sharing a quick smile of acknowledgement with one another before diving side-by-side back into combat. The smug little cat grin he'd get when he agitated Keith into another rant or argument, and the satisfied twinkle lighting his eyes whenever he pulled out another secret Keith hadn't meant to tell anyone ever but had ended up telling Lance.

Yeah, Keith had noticed plenty of things. Keith had seen the way Lance acted when he thought no one was watching. And when he let all of his guard down and thought he was really alone Lance looked… small. Sad and afraid and lonely, trying too hard and desperate not to be left behind. Trying to find a place in a group he was already responsible for holding together.

Any of the last traces of anger drained from Keith as easily as letting it fall from his hand, and in its place Keith felt heavy. The increasingly familiar guilty drop of Keith's heart as it swelled big too in for his chest to contain, breath expelling out in a shaky sigh. Keith knew Lance felt like that, but what had he ever done to help? To make Lance feel better about himself, to reassure him that he was wanted and needed? Had he ever managed to help Lance when he was feeling down, the way Lance did for him? Give Lance that beautiful-safe-warm feeling that made the whole world fall away around them like Lance could do for Keith? Had just done the very night before when Keith was at his worst?

Watching Lance, still tense under the blue and violet glow of the city, Keith had the sinking feeling the answer was no. Maybe… Maybe their relationship wasn't just bad for Voltron. Maybe he wasn't even good for Lance.

The idea of breaking up once again surfaced, brought up from looming ever-present and unignorable in the back of Keith's mind. The side of Keith that was certain it was what was best for everyone assured him that they'd both get over it in time, but… But at the same time, it was already way too late. Keith had already figured out who Lance really was, right? He couldn't unsee all of the things that had so endeared him to Keith in the first place. Lance would still be Lance even if they weren't dating, and Keith couldn't go back to how it was before because… Because he'd never be able to feel the way he used to about Lance again. Keith couldn't just unsee how beautiful he was.

Aw, man. Everything sucked. Everything sucked and Keith wanted to kiss his boyfriend.

Keith of course, being the trainwreck of a person he was, managed to continue standing there doing nothing for several long minutes. Turned his attention from Lance to the screen he was aiming at, watching the light of his shots burst against the flashing letters. Actually, now that he was really looking Lance seemed to be hitting quite a few of them, even just as they rapidly appeared against the blue backdrop. How did he know when and where they were going to show up when Keith still couldn't read the pattern himself? Were his reflexes getting that fast or had he just been sitting here long enough to memorize it?

"Nice shooting there, Hot stuff!" Lance startled visibly at Keith's shout, nearly dropping the gun from his hands as his head whipped around to find the source of of the compliment.

"Keith?" Lance asked, sitting up and blinking in confusion for a moment before he remembered the glasses still distorting his vision and pulled them up to rest above his forehead and rubbed at his eyes. "What are you doing here? I thought you went back to the ship with the other guys?"

"Uh, I did, yeah," Keith raised an eyebrow, shifting his weight to put a hand on his hip. "A couple of hours ago. Hunk sent me to find you so you wouldn't miss dinner."

"Wha?" Lance looked even more confused than before, starting to get to his feet. "No way, it's only been like, twenty minutes," he tried to argue as he stood up, only for his knees to wobble out underneath him so that he had to catch himself to stop from dropping straight to the ground. He looked down at his legs like he genuinely couldn't understand why they'd gotten stiff, then up at the now green sky around them with a betrayed look like he couldn't believe the world had been so rude as to continue revolving when he wasn't paying attention. "Or… maybe a bit longer than that," he amended uneasily. He looked back to Keith, his expression still tense and wary like he hadn't decided if he was done being angry yet. "How did you even get up there?"

Keith shrugged. "I don't know, I climbed? How did you get over there?"

Lance looked around himself, once again uncertain. "Uh… I'm not, uh. Sure. Meet you at the bottom?"

The silent break between them while they scrambled back to the street was too long, long enough that Keith couldn't manage to find an opening for conversation once they started walking back towards the warp station. Lance, it seemed, had decided he was not quite done being annoyed with Keith yet, letting the uncomfortable quiet simmer around them.

Which, fine. Keith had been the one to start this fight, he could be the one to finish it. A man took responsibility for his actions.

Awkwardly, he cleared his throat. "Uhhh," he began eloquently. "Sorry for. You know, uh. Not telling you what I wanted or expected from you and then spazzing out when you couldn't read my mind." Nailed it.

Keith was only looking from the corner of his eye, but the surprise on Lance's face was visible. Clearly not having expected Keith to actually apologize so quickly, he squirmed a little. "Yeah, um. No problem." His brows furrowed together like he kind of wanted to still be angry but now had no choice but to make up since Keith had put his foot forward. "Sorry for. Spazzing out right back at you, I guess," he finished stiffly.

The silence settled around them again. It was still awkward. Keith probably had not apologized well enough yet. "It's… I just get..." He sighed, started again. "It's not that I want to hide the fact that we're together as much as, I feel like it's really important that we keep up our appearances right now. There's something about the Merchant's Guild that seems… threatening, and the idea of that skeevy guy knowing that we, um. Care about each other was… too unnerving to handle."

Lance gave Keith a side-eyed look of his own, but his frown didn't look angry. Just… Resigned, maybe? "And why can't us dating just be part of our space pirate disguises?"

For fuck's sake, don't just say we're in disguise in the middle of - Keith shoved down the voice of reason as it tried to pick another fight. Fished around for a way to explain this that Lance would understand. "It's like… You know how superheroes have secret identities? And how it's not actually to protect them , but the people around them who they love so they can't be used against the hero? I was sort of thinking like that."

Lance seemed not to find the metaphor pleasing. "So, what, you're Batman and I'm Vicki Vale, and you're staying away to keep me safe?"

Keith frowned. "No, I was thinking more like, I'm Batman and you're Green Arrow so we BOTH have to shut up. Like. Double the secrets."

"Batman and Green Arrow never made out," Lance scoffed. "They're billionaire buddies." He let a small silence pause him while they walked. "Superman, maybe. I'd believe Batman and Superman have made out before. Have you ever read some of their crossover comics? Some of that shit gets downright romantic ."

Keith tried to remember how Batman and Superman interacted, but could only recall stiff arguments and at best, awkward friendship. "I only ever watched some of those Justice League cartoons on TV. But I guess if you say so?" At least the superhero metaphor had distracted Lance out of his huff. Maybe it had worked and he had understood Keith after all?

When Keith looked back over at Lance as they reached the line to use the nearest elevator, he didn't look like he was still mad. Not happy, either; more like he was thinking things over, which was good as far as Keith was concerned.

Eventually, Lance grinned. "Or, if I'm Green Arrow like you said, then you'd be Black Canary. They've waaaayyyyyy made out."

Black Canary? The blonde girl in the the leather jacket? Keith had only remembered her in one episode, but `er was pretty sure it had involved her taking on an entire warehouse of bad guys bare-fisted. "Okay, you say that like it's supposed to be teasing me, but I remember Black Canary and she's a badass, so. I'm gonna take that for the compliment it so clearly was."

Lance actually laughed, slinging an arm around Keith's shoulders. "You just can't let me stay mad at you, can you, Pretty Bird?"

They only had a few hours of free time in between dinner and the round of evening training Allura had scheduled for them, and Keith would normally spend that extra time on the training deck warming up before the others got there to join him. Tonight, however, Keith figured he should probably make sure he and Lance were really okay, and followed the other paladin back to his room for… well. Cuddling, mainly.

They were once again tangled on Lance's bed, Keith settled in between Lance's knees with his back to him so that Lance could play with his hair. For all that he insulted the way it looked Lance certainly did seem to love Keith's hair anyway, considering he was always getting his hands on it at every available opportunity. Not that Keith really minded, if he was going to be perfectly honest. Since Keith had never had parents and always cut his own hair, he'd never had anyone touch his hair pretty much period until Lance. He didn't know if it was just the lack of exposure but the action always felt outrageously intimate, every little touch still capable of sending shivers down his spine no matter how much time Lance spent running his hands through it.

Keith, when he wasn't distracted by the feeling of Lance's fingernails dragging softly against his scalp, was playing with his phone. Not Keith's phone - he only ever had a drugstore burner and he hadn't brought that into space with him. But Lance had had his on him, and so Keith was messing around with it now while Lance idly worked his hair into braids.

Lance didn't actually have all that much on his phone, Keith soon realized. There were a couple of games but less photos than he'd have expected, and to his utter astonishment there only seemed to be about sixteen songs on there. Most likely, everything was stored somewhere else like a laptop or harddrive somewhere back on Earth.

What he found in his photos seemed to all be recent as well. There were a couple of pictures of people that had to be Lance's family, but for the most part all of the pictures were from and of the Garrison and people in it. The most recent photos of all were even form here in space, but those were all familiar to Keith by now because at some point Lance had found a way to print some of them out so that he could cover the walls of his room with pictures of planets they've been to and people they've met. None of these older pictures were decorating his walls, though - Keith had a feeling it was because being surrounded by things from Earth would just make him homesick - and so Keith had never seen any of the photos going further back. There were a lot of pictures of students, ones Keith recognized and ones he didn't, freinds Lance had made all smiling at the camera. He really was good with people, wasn't he? Made friends so easily. Even with Pidge, who still kind of hates Lance.

And then there was a flash of white and pink so startling Keith nearly dropped the phone, it slipping out of his hand as he jolted back harshly against Lance and nearly knocking their heads together. "Whose tits are these?!"

"Huh?!" Lance's cry was sharp with surprise, but it didn't last for long. After just a moment, his tone turned embarrassed and contrite as he answered, "Oh, yeah, uh. That'd be Alyssa." Without bothering to ask, Keith deleted the photo as Lance looked over his shoulder. "Yeah, that's… That's fair. You can delete that. I haven't looked at it in months anyway."

"Oh really now," Keith said flatly. Not that he thought his boyfriend to be a liar, it was just simple reason. A teenage boy lost in space with no internet access has a picture of boobs and hasn't looked at it? He'd have to have been as gay as Keith to resist that. Especially considering they'd only started having sex what, last week?

One of Lance's hands fell to wrap around Keith's torso, settling low on his stomach. "Yeah, well. A while back I realized I couldn't quite remember what her face looked like anymore, and then it was just kind of creepy to look at it, you know? Since the picture's uh. Neck down and all."

Which as far as answers went was probably a fair one. Keith still shifted uncomfortably in Lance's embrace. "Why didn't you just delete it right then?"

"Well, I mean, it was a gift, you know? When a girl sends you a naked picture she's like, honoring you with the privilege of gazing upon her loveliness. It would have been rude to just throw it out."

"Well, I already deleted it."

"Which is fine!" Lance insisted, voice high. "You're my current boyfriend, so you definitely have the right to do that without disrespecting anybody. So. That's that." His other hand dropped to join the first around Keith's waist, pulling him to Lance's chest like he was afraid Keith would fly away if he wasn't being held down.

The weird tone to Lance's voice still left Keith unsettled, but he supposed it was all over and done with at this point. And finally Keith realized that maybe what had unsettled him was one odd fact. "Who is Alyssa? You said you've only had three girlfriends, and I remember their names were Priya, Monique and Ann."

"Annette, yeah." Lance agreed. "Alyssa was never my girlfriend, actually. She was a friend of Gwen's, and when she started coming around the house somehow she and I just sort of, um... Yeah," he broke off. "And so we did stuff together a couple of times. But we never went on any kind of dates or particularly talked about anything, it was just one of those… physical sort of deals."

Jesus, Keith had known Lance had more experience than him, but he'd never thought it would even include that kind of experience. He was honestly surprised; he'd thought Lance would be too much of a romantic. Almost against his own will, Keith found himself asking "H- howphysical?"

Lance made an awkward procrastinatey sort of groan from the back of his throat. "Completely? She was… a learning experience." When Keith only grew more tense under his arms, Lance sighed. "She was like, a rebound, you know? Something that needed to happen in order for me to get on with my life." One arm left Keith's side long enough for Lance to scratch the back of his head before settling right back around his side. "Did I ever tell you about my first girlfriend Priya?"

"Sort of," Keith shrugged. She had been mentioned maybe twice? He hadn't really kept track of anything other than her name.

"Hm, that's a no, then." Lance sighed. "Okay. So you know I spent a lot of summers down in Cuba at my Aunt Pilar's house, right? Well one summer when I was… God I don't even remember if I was fourteen or fifteen anymore. But I ended up meeting Priya, who was also there on vacation. And she was only there six weeks before her family went back to God-Knows-Where Michigan." He paused, the fingertip of one hand drawing absent circles on Keith's belly as he lost himself in memories. "It was… The kind of thing that could only be a first love, you know?" His voice was wistful and far away when he started again, the distance curling unpleasantly in Keith's chest. "The kind of whirlwind romance you see in movies that could only happen to fifteen year olds because we were just young enough to be so, so sure we knew what love was. We spent every minute of that summer together, and then on the last day right before she left we, ah. Gave our bodies to each other." He huffed a sigh through his nose, before burying his face in Keith's hair. Without lifting his mouth away from the back of his head, he mumbled. "And then I went home, too. And I was heartbroken and thought I'd never feel like that for anyone again because i was young and stupid and didn't know any better, and… Then there was Alyssa. Just. Right there in our house, whenever my sister had friends over."

"I think I can see where this is going," Keith muttered.

"Yeaaahhhh." Lance agreed, and the long huff of his breath against Keith's neck sent a fresh shiver down his spine. "At first it was exciting, you know? I had only been with a girl one time and had been too nervous to even enjoy it. But with Alyssa, I didn't have to worry about hurting her or embarrassing myself in front of her. She didn't care, she just wanted to get hers, and she wasn't gonna laugh or tell anybody. It was nice." He tipped backwards, taking Keith with him as he leaned against the headboard. "Buuuut, it was also different from Priya in a whole different way. Like, it felt kind of empty, you know? Fun, but… Not really the sort of thing I could go around doing casually."

"What, sex is too intimate to do with just anyone, then?" Keith drawled, not hiding the small bite of sarcasm.

Lance shrugged again, and Keith could feel the motion against his back as Lance's shoulders raised and fell. "As it turns out, yeah. Call me a romantic, I guess. Annette and I never got around to having any sex at all, and we were together nearly two months." He paused. "Not Monique, though. She and I were… that was another whirlwind. But not a good one, probably."

Priya, Alyssa, Annette, Monique… Keith felt kind of ridiculous putting his own name in that list next to them. "You sure have been with a lot of girls for someone who doesn't seem to know the first thing about talking to them," Keith was trying very hard not to sound bitter. Maybe he had no right to rag on Lance for being possessive, after all. Pot, meet jealous, angry little kettle.

"Whaaat?" Lance scoffed, "Not even. I mean, anyone can get a girlfriend, it's not actually hard. There is a very large number of girls who are shy and happy to talk to any guy that talks to them, all you have to do is find one of them and actually listen to what she says for like, five minutes and bam! Instant girlfriend." He finally let go of his python grip around Keith, but only as far as using one hand to go back to playing with his hair. "Besides, I bet you had girls and guys both lining up around the block to get a date with you. You're like, 10/10 hot and good at everything you do."

"I'm definitely not a ten and you have to be at least an eight," Keith denied easily. And if he were really good at everything he might ever have any idea how to act or what to say around his own boyfriend, but Keith probably didn't need to say that. "And while you are right about my looks being what got me the dates I did go on, you're also forgetting the part where I was gay and homeless in Texas."

A beat of silence. "Oh. I suppose."

"Yeah," Keith said, tilting his head to the side and letting his eyes slide shut as Lance's fingers teased the hair above his ear. "There weren't a lot of places where I could even afford to be myself, much less find a boyfriend." A flood of bad memories swirled to the forefront of Keith's mind, going back way too far into the past. Hiding the fact that he was gay became a matter of course even before he knew that's what he was or what the word meant.

One memory in particular stood out, and Keith realized with dismay that it was, in retrospect, his first love. Or at least his first crush, anyway, and it had been even worse than whatever Lance and Monique could have been to each other.

Keith had been twelve years old, maybe even a bit less, and he had just entered a new foster home. Raphael had been a couple of years older than him at fourteen, tall and tan and straight out of juvie. When he'd found out Keith was a fair hand at stealing he'd recruited him into a tentative partnership, helping him knick cigarettes and liquor bottles just because it made Raph smile and call Keith an 'impressive fucking little cabron.'

And then, one day Raphael had left the bathroom door cracked open nearly halfway and Keith had by no means INTENDED to look through there in the first place, but he hadn't known what that odd dry, repetitive thwaping sound was and as he'd passed by, and… And he had been twelve years old and made entirely out of angst and confused hormones, and the boy he liked was touching himself right in front of him. Keith had frozen on the spot. mind screaming at him to leave as his body had rooted itself to the ground in panic and uncomfortable arousal, and at some point while Keith stood there staring Raph had opened his eyes and seen him.

A cold chill ran down his spine as the memory replayed itself, Raph's sharp, angry voice calling him a 'pervy fucking faggot.' How from that point on Keith hadn't even been allowed to look at the older boy for too long without it being an invitation to get his ass kicked, because when he had been asked if he was some kind of homo he hadn't yet known the answer was always 'no,' and never, ever, 'I don't know.' The fact that their foster father had at first intervened on a teenager hitting one of the younger kids until he'd found out why and chosen to stay out of their fights because maybe it would be a good incentive for Keith to learn to straighten himself out. And how his wife had only seen fit to help Keith as far as getting him out of that house as soon as possible.

So, yeah. As far as sexual awakenings went, Keith's was pretty much fuck-awful. Good thing the rest of his life had been equally wretched, or that might have really fucked him up sexually. As it was, Keith figured it was pretty much par for the course.

The silence had grown tense again, Keith stiff and lost in thought in Lance's arms. Lance of course noticed, but also knew better than to say anything considering the sensitive subject matter. Just rubbed a soothing hand up and down the length of his arm, and Keith knew he once again probably owed Lance some backstory.

But not that story. Keith never wanted to share that one with anybody ever. What other times had Keith gotten his ass kicked for being gay?

It was sad how fast Keith could pull up a different memory. He cleared his throat, trying to decide where to begin. "So, um… one of the high schools I went to had an LGBTA Alliance. I went there for a while, and that's how I met the guy I went on that first bad date with." He had never actually made friends with anyone, but it had still been nice just to know he wasn't as alone as he felt. "And so when I got kicked out of that school, I figured if I had found more gays besides me once, it couldn't be that hard to do it again. But the next school was Catholic so that wasn't the first place to go looking, and all I could wind up coming up with for ideas was the nearest gay bar."

"Oh, dear."

"It's not… I never actually went inside," Keith explained. "I was like sixteen and never could have passed for old enough to get in even if I'd wanted to. I just…" He trailed off, surprised to find his throat going tight from emotion even after none of this mattered anymore. "I was lonely, and desperate for someone to talk to and I ended up just… hanging out in the parking lot outside pretending I smoked cigarettes in the hopes that someone would ask to bum one off me."

"Jesus," Lance cursed against the back of his hair, although Keith couldn't guess why considering he hadn't gotten to the bad part yet.

"So, at some point this really beautiful woman comes out of the bar and starts walking home. But the bar is right next to an all-night gas station, and a couple of douchey guys come out of there in time to meet her in the street. And they start hitting on her, and she tried to brush them off up until the point where they noticed she had an adam's apple, and then it turns into harassing her instead." Insane accusations about trying to trick men that still made Keith angry just to think about.

"And you… decided it was your business, then, am i right?"

Keith nodded, the motion brushing the ends of his hair against Lance's face. "Yeah, it was not a smart move, tactically. The guys were both around six feet tall and I was even skinnier than I am now, with Tangerine was wearing five-inch stilettos and a pleather miniskirt. We didn't stand a chance."

"Oh my god, Keith!" Lance's cry was appropriately horrified, and the renewed grip around Keith's waist went from python to anaconda.

"I ended up with… three bruised ribs and a shattered hand, I think it was?"

"How can you say that so casually?" Lance whined, burying his face against the back of Keith's neck. "You can just count off bruised ribs from a gay bashing like it wasn't even a big deal!"

A big deal, maybe, but… "Well, as far as fights I've been in go, that was actually one of the more justified ones." Most of Keith's battles had been more for the sake of standing up for himself, but at least this had been one of the few times he'd ever fought for someone else's sake. He could still remember the broken tear-choked voice she'd used to tell him to lie still on his back to keep his breathing steady, the sensation of long orange wig hairs tickling against his face as she hovered overhead and waited with him for the ambulance to show up.

Keith may not have ever had a home on Earth and he certainly had no family to fight for, but… When it came to making sure this war never got far enough to touch their planet, Keith had his own motivations. And maybe it didn't carry the need and conviction the other paladins reasons did, but he had already figured out who he wanted to defend. Kind people like Tangerine and Louisa Jeffries from ninth grade. People who didn't have anyone else that would fight for them. People like Mr. Palmer from the apartment two doors down, who everyone thought was a pedophile just because he was gay but had let Keith housesit for his cats when he went on trips out of town. Even though if anyone had found out he was leaving a fourteen year old little twink like Keith stay there it would probably enough to get him arrested just for that alone, no matter that they'd never both been in the apartment at the same time. Keith may not be able to do anything for them now, but the least he could do was try to keep their stupid planet safe so they could live their lives.

"Actually, come to think of it, that was the last incident before I got sent to the Garrison," Keith said almost conversationally, hoping a change in subject would break the tension. "Since I didn't have a guardian to send the medical bills to and was still a minor, I sort of ended up pretty much being owned by the government."

"How cheerful," Lance said flatly from the back of Keith's neck. "Is there any part of your life that hasn't been absolutely terrible?"

Keith thought about that for a moment. "Well, first I met Shiro," who then died in space leaving Keith alone and half-crazy in the desert. Keith was going to have to do better than that if he wanted to lighten the mood. "...Uh. And I feel like things have been on a real upswing since I got to space." That was more the direction he'd been trying to take that thought. "I have friends now, for one." He bit his lip, hesitating for a moment before shyly continuing, "And, uh… As far as first boyfriends go, I feel like I've gotten… pretty lucky." Pressed right up against his chest like this Keith could feel it when Lance's heartbeat stuttered for a moment at that, and he let a tiny smile curl his lips. With a bit more confidence to lower his voice into what he hoped was a seductive sort of tease, he added, "And even though there are a lot of ways to have really bad gay sex, somehow my first time ended up being kind of amazing, so. There's that."

Lance's hand snaked its way across the bed to find his, curling their fingers together. Smiling directly against Keith's neck, Lance agreed, "Yeah, I… thought it was pretty amazing, too."

Keith squeezed Lance's hand. Having finally gotten the mood back to cuddly instead of tragic backstory-full, Keith let himself relax back into Lance's hold again, finally noticing the phone still in his own hand. It had timed out while they'd been talking, returning to the default lock screen of a picture of Lance grinning at a confused Keith as he pressed their faces together for a selfie. And, to spite Keith's best efforts to enjoy their time together, couldn't fight the passing thought when he saw it wondering if someday there'd be a new girl deleting pictures of Keith off this very phone, and having every right to do so. It unsettled him all the way until evening training

It was hours later and Keith was back in his own room after evening training, freshly showered and feeling lighter than he had since he'd had Inara's controls thrumming under his fingers. They'd moved up to fighting against more than one droid, the melee fights Keith preferred and they were more likely to run into for a while yet anyway, and their teamwork was even finally improving. Not good enough to be able to all focus on one enemy without falling into each other, but at least now no one was worried Lance was going to shoot their back or about tripping over Pidge anymore.

He smiled to himself as he slipped into his pajamas, sliding his knife from his belt to its resting place under his pillow. Plus, since Keith had known about Lance wearing himself out earlier that day with target practice, he'd been able to predict how slow he was moving and had been able to match his pace, providing the cover necessary for Lance to line up his shots. And yeah, half of them he still missed, but now the ones that did hit were always dead-on target and that certainly wasn't for nothing. Really, at this rate it wouldn't be long until every shot Lance took could be relied on to be perfect.

Keith was just trying to decide if he was worn out enough to go to bed yet or if he needed to do some push-ups first when there was a knock at his door. Which… was odd, because it was actually fairly late at this point.

When he opened the door it was Lance on the other side, shoulders stooped and eyes a little wild. Keith wasn't quite sure if he was concerned, asking, "Lance? Is something wrong?"

Lance jerked a little like the question surprised him, awkwardly scratching at the back of his head. "No, nothing, um. Everything's fine." He looked away, eyes averted down the hallway. "Look, can I come in?"

"Sure," Keith stepped out of the way of his door, allowing Lance inside after him. He had meant to sit on the bed, assuming Lance was here for them to talk about something, but he was stopped by a hand around his wrist as Lance turned him to face each other eye to eye. "Lance?"

Face to face like this Keith could properly see the expression on Lance's face, and just as he was thinking he knew the particular gleam lighting up those blue eyes Lance was pushing Keith against the wall in a kiss that drove straight past being just forceful to dive into predatory. Even having recognized the blatant lust coloring Lance's face Keith didn't have time to be anything except surprised at first, stiffening as his shoulders hit the wall and Lance used the gasp that broke out of Keith's mouth as an opportunity to shove his tongue inside.

Lance sucked Keith's tongue into his mouth harshly, barley giving Keith time or opportunity to actually like, participate in this kiss at all. For some reason Keith found himself relaxing anyway, arm curling around Lance's lower back to drag their bodies closer together as soon as he realized if he kept just standing there dumbfounded there was a chance Lance might stop . He had no idea what was going on, but when Lance used one hand to pin Keith to the wall by the hip while the other didn't just tangle into his hair but straight up fisted it tight enough for Keith to feel the sharp pull against his scalp he decided that whatever was up with Lance Keith was TOTALLY onboard for. This was… Jesus, this was hot.

Lance's teeth scraped against the top of Keith's tongue before biting down, and Keith choked on a moan. He tried to put his hand to Lance's shoulder to push him back a little and maybe slow things down a bit, but even that was met with teeth as Lance bit at his bottom lip even while Keith pulled away from the kiss. Lance didn't go very far and Keith didn't try to make him, just let Lance move onto his neck with more violent kisses as he gasped out, "L-lance," in a voice that was already way too unsteady.

That wicked tongue laved at Keith's pulse point, mapping out the place for Lance to sink his teeth in and sucking so hard Keith almost wondered if he wasn't actually trying to drink blood out of him, after all. He jolted, back arching off the wall enough for Lance's hand to slip from his hip around to his backside to grope himself a handful of Keith's ass. Holy SHIT, he wasn't holding anything back, was he? Just barging into Keith's room and taking what he wanted, going at Keith like his body was all his to play with. Theoretically, being pushed around like this should have made Keith's skin crawl, but… Fucking hell, he guessed on occasion, if it was Lance specifically? Good fucking christ, this was sexy. His usually gentle Lance, so good at warming Keith up slowly like a teakettle set to boil, slamming in here and heating Keith up so fast it was like being thrown right into a fire. Keith's toes curled and his fingers fisted in Lance's shirt. Get a man who can do both, right? Fuck.

Still, this was out of character enough that Keith was still a bit worried this might actually be weird, like Lance trying to start a fight or something. "Lance," he croaked. Clearing his throat to make sure his voice came out less wrecked this time, Keith tried again. "Lance, baby, hold up." There was a moan against his throat, at which point it occurred to Keith that might be because he had accidentally just called Lance 'baby,' because apparently terrible nicknames rub off on a person. He ignored it, pushing on to ask "What's gotten into you?" Lance changed his grip on Keith's ass, squeezing hard enough to probably leave bruises and making Keith shudder a little in Lance's embrace. "...Because if you're hopped on on some alien aphrodisiac I think we should move this to the med bay."

Lance finally removed himself from Keith's neck, apparently satisfied with the array of angry red bite marks he'd littered the pale skin of his throat with. "M'not high," he said against Keith's skin, voice low and gravelly from want. "I'm here because of you, " the words were hissed almost like an accusation, sharp and low into Keith's ear.

Suddenly Keith was being spun around, and he had to catch himself with arms to stop his face from being slammed into the wall. Lance was on him again in an instant, pressing himself to Keith's back and pinning him there, and Keith was glad he'd gotten his arms in front of his face because at least this way he could hide his moans by biting into his own forearm if he needed to. Before that thought was even processed Lance was talking again, harshly whispering "I was in bed trying to sleep," into Keith's ear, the almost angry edge to the words sending another hot shiver down the length of Keith's spine. Lance rocked his hips, grinding his - oh jesus fuckign christ he was hard, Lance was already hard and his cock was pressing in between the cheeks of Keith's ass through the soft fabric of pajama pants and Keith felt himself join him in that state, his own dick rapidly growing stiff in his tightening underwear. "But no matter how much I tried to ignore it, I could still smell you," he rolled his hips again, rubbing his cock into Keith's ass with so much force Keith could feel the head press hard against his hole as it passed by and that bit of teasing friction really did make him moan, low and shaky against the wall. "Smell your hair on my pillow from when you snuck into my bed this morning," he continued, and also continued that harsh sexy grind against Keith's ass. His voice was low, so low it might not have been audible if he hadn't been biting the words directly into Keith's ear, " And your jizz soaked into my mattress ."

Keith shuddered, and the movement of his body shaking against Lance's was so nice he felt his own hips start to rock back to meet Lance's. "M-my…"

Lance stopped moving, hands like vices around Keith's hips and weight heavy against Keith as he kept him pressed to the wall. "What, don't you remember how you came all over my bedsheets last night?"

Fire. Keith was on fire and he was dying and all he could do was just stand there and whimper as Lance groaned into his ear. "...And so it occurred to me," he continued, fingers sliding into the waistband of Keith's pants and underwear and pulling down . "Why the fuck was I jerking off alone in my room when the person who did this to me was in the next hallway over?"

"Okay," Keith squeaked out as he felt Lance pull just far enough away to drop to his knees behind Keith and oooooh fuck what was he doing down there? Weakly, he babbled on, "Okay, that makes sense, then," as Lance directed his legs to spread apart as much as they could with his pants and underwear still bunched at his knees.

The first touch to the soft insides of the top of Keith's thighs was almost tender, Lance's fingers dancing up and down against his skin for a moment before he planted the first messy, open-mouthed kiss. He continued in that fashion, sucking and nibbling at the sensitive flesh between Keith's legs before he was licking him, laving long wet stripes up and down every inch of skin he could taste as Keith shuddered and held himself up with wall, even letting another choked whimper escape when Lance's tongue went so far as to lick at Keith's perineum and the sensitive underside of his sac.

And then Lance was standing up again, and Keith could hear the rustle of fabric as much as felt it against his back as Lance pulled himself out of his own pants and pressed his bare, leaking cock against Keith's naked ass. This time when Lance spoke his voice sounded more desperate than sharp, mouthing at Keith's bruised neck and telling - not asking, but telling and fuck if that wasn't its own kind of hot - "Hey, lend me your body. I'm gonna fuck your thighs for a minute."

Keith groaned and his whole body twitched, starting from his dick. "Kay," he agreed obligingly, and his traitorous body proved it was at least capable of moving as far as changing his footing to bring his legs back together to give Lance a nice, tight place to slip his cock into, popping his hips up invitingly while he was at it. Breath heavy and fast in his pounding chest, Keith reiterated. "Okay, go ahead," in a voice he barely recognized as his own.

Lance didn't take up the offer right away, taking an indulgent moment to grind up in between Keith's ass cheeks again now that there were no clothes separating them. And fuck fuck fuck was that ever not good, because Keith could feel it even more pronounced when the head of Lance's cock brushed past his twitching entrance and the only thing Keith could think when he did was how easy it would be to take Lance inside himself right now and Keith had had no idea how much he wanted it but now he was so, so genuinely tempted to tell Lance to skip over fucking his thighs and just put it in. Somehow the words "Oh god, come on, fuck me, " really did end up escaping his mouth, but Lance had no way of knowing how literally Keith actually meant that and instead pushed his dick into the waiting resistance of Keith's tense, spit-slicked thighs.

Keith bit his lip but Lance's moan was more than loud enough to fill the waiting silence, shaky and broken against Keith's back. Keith tried to squeeze his legs together tighter, squirming against the hard shaft trapped between his soft thighs. Everything between Keith's legs right now was wet and hot and way too sensitive and he shouldn't be getting as much from this as he was but God he liked Lance's cock so much, he could feel how hard Lance was for him and then he started to move , sliding in and out of the waiting space between Keith's legs and even though his thighs weren't sensitive enough to be able to like, get off on this or anything it didn't even MATTER because this was like. Lance's pure, raw sexuality he was laying on Keith here and Keith wanted every second of it.

Lance tried to move slowly at first, fucking Keith's thighs in long, smooth strokes that just left them both shaking and needy. The attempt at gentility didn't last long, and soon Lance was moving against Keith faster and harder, hips pressed right up hard against Keith's ass and breath panting hot and fast against his neck as he fucked himself in between Keith's too-willing thighs hard enough to rock them both against the wall, the only barrier stopping it from slamming into Keith's face being the forearm he was currently, indeed, biting into. Instinctively Keith started to move his own hips, rolling back against Lance in a desperate attempt to somehow get more his cock, slipping it from it's track mid-thigh up to his groin so that now every stroke was rubbing against Keith's balls and the underside of his own dick and even biting his own arm wasn't enough to completely muffle the loud, obscene moan that tore its way out of him.

The fingers digging into his hips turned bruising, and even though it was getting hard to concentrate on squeezing his thighs together the way Lance groaned "Fuck, Keith, feel so good," was more than enough motivation to stay as tense as possible for him. Wanted to make Lance feel good, wanted to keep that hard cock trapped between his legs so tight Lance wouldn't even be able to pull away if he wanted to. "Shit, can't believe the noises you're making," Lance continued, voice choked and broken with lust. "Wish I was inside so badly right now."

"Nnngggaa," What was that? Was that a noise that came out of Keith just now? It couldn't have been. And even if it was there wasn't time for it to matter - Lance's words were somewhere around the sexiest thing Keith had ever heard, had sent a shiver down his spine and even made his ass clench and twitch with the want of being filled. He swallowed a shaky breath of air, surprising himself with how confident his words sounded when he pulled away from his arm to goad, "Y-yeah? You wanna fuck me?"

" Fuck ," Lance swore sharply, his thrusts against Keith growing faster and less steady. " Fuck you, Keith, you know I do." He nosed some of Keith's hair aside to get to the back of his neck, into which he bit the next words directly. "Like you don't already know how often I think about bending you over."

Keith whimpered a little, and he couldn't even muffle it in his arm anymore because now that's where his forehead was buried to brace himself where he was currently being slammed against the fucking wall . The weight of Lance's body against his back, the rhythmic bounce of their bodies against each other from the force of his pounding hips, the shallow breaths panting directly into Keith;'s ear… Jesus, he was… Keith was being fucked against a wall right now. This is what it feels like to be fucked against a wall. Yet another thing he hadn't been aware he really, really wanted in his life, but here he was. Here he was and there Lance was, all force and unexpected dominance and Keith could feel how his breath and hips had both started to stutter and speed up which meant he was about to come because of Keith, just from the memory of last night and the heat of his thighs and everything was awesome right now. "Bend me over, huh?" He gasped shakily against the wall, "You mean, kinda like you're doing now?"

Lance wasn't gentle when he came, either, sinking his teeth down hard into the yet-unmarred skin of the nape of Keith's neck. He kept moving even after the first hot splatter of come hit Keith's thighs, fucking himself against Keith's legs in short, shaky thrusts to the sound of a chorus of moans from both of them.

There was a moment where they stayed like that, Lance's weight pinning a still-squirming Keith to the wall while the grip on his hips finally slackened. When he stepped away Keith discovered that his legs were no longer capable of bearing his weight as he slid gracelessly to the floor in a messy, fucked-out heap.

He rested his forehead against the wall as he caught his breath, idly trying to decide if he should start jerking himself off right there on the floor or if he had the patience to make Lance do it for him. Behind him, he could hear his boyfriend stumbling back a few steps and swearing "Jesus christ, look at what a mess you are," in tone that sounded for some reason less sexy now than perhaps genuinely amazed. "What the fuck did I just d o? A-are... are you alright?"

"No," Keith said lowly against the wall, because he was not okay. He was aching hard and shaking on the floor and for some reason right now Lance was still talking? Instead of touching him? Unacceptable.

"Shit," Lance's voice sounded genuinely regretful for some reason, apologizing, "Shit, Keith, I'm so sorry…"

Keith didn't let him finish or even bother wondering what on earth he was sorry for, having stood up in order to launch himself at his boyfriend and tackle him to the bed in needy kiss. Lance caught him with a surprised "Hmpf!" thumping to land sitting on the bed as Keith crawled into his lap, rubbing his straining erection against Lance's leg meaningfully as he conquered Lance's mouth via kiss.

"Oh," his voice was high in understanding now, and Lance ran his hands up and down Keith's sides softly. "Right, sorry." He broke the kiss to murmur, "Slow down, baby, let me take care of you."

"Don't call me that," Keith complained even as Lance turned them both around to spread Keith out over the bed on his back. Keith took Lance with him, one arm looped around his neck keeping him close enough to still feel his breath against his lips. "I hate that, it's the worst one."

Lance laughed, having to stop to bury chuckles against Keith's neck as he pulled Keith's legs up high to wrap around Lance's waist. "Okay, sweetie, whatever you say."

Keith just rolled his hips up seekingly as an answer, pulling Lance into another kiss that Lance kept far too gentle. For all Keith tried to get things rolling again with the almost desperate jerk of his hips, Lance seemed to refuse to pick up the pace, lazily pawing at Keith keeping the kiss languid until Keith finally had to break it to whine "C'mon Lance, I'm already so hard for you."

Lance shuddered, laying a soft kiss to one of the still-sore bite marks he'd left on Keith's neck. "Yeah, all right. Tell me what you want, honey," He rolled his hips down to meet Keith's. "Tell me what to do to get you off."

Keith grabbed one of Lance's hands from where it drawing light circles on Keith's side. Looked his boyfriend straight and deliberately in the eye, and rumbled "I want you to put your fingers inside me, you fucking tease." Lance's eyes widened, but he didn't shudder between Keith's legs until Keith brought their joined hands up to suck two of Lance's fingers into his mouth.

" Fuck. Fuck, alright, I got you." Lance let Keith keep sucking on his fingers even as he shuffled around, leaning back far enough to to use his free hand to yank at his pants and underwear enough for Keith to get one leg out. Instead of wrapping it back around Lance's waist Keith flung his leg high over Lance's shoulder, opening himself up to exposure as he let Lance's hand slide free from his lips.

Yet still his lover persisted in his wretched teasing, because even when he had a wet finger pressed directly against the tight rim of Keith's entrance he only rubbed gentle circles around the oversensitive ring of muscle that left Keith clenching his eyes shut and trying to stop his hips from trying to fuck down onto Lance's finger himself. "Come on, " Keith's voice was a strained whine, shaking like the rest of his body. "Come on, Lance, I know what I want."

Finally, the tip of his finger pushed inside, and the hard strain of the intrusion stretching the taught muscles of his rim open around it as it forced it way inside was so, so fucking perfect after he'd been wanting it so badly that Keith soon felt the leak of precome fall from his aching cock to splatter onto his own belly. "Oh god yes, come on." Squirmed around the tip of Lance's finger, loving the way it felt catching against the sensitive insides but knowing there was still so much he could take . "God, come on, give me more."

Lance buried another chuckle against Keith's collarbone even as he complied and slipped more of his middle finger inside. "You're still so bossy ," he laughed, and Keith couldn't even be mad because he was going deeper and Keith's insides were twitching and trying to suck more of him in and he just needed this so fucking bad, you don't even understand. "I fucking love it." It stung a bit since spit was not in fact a proper lubricant, but Lance got the whole of his finger inside and fuck it was so, so worth the wait and trouble to get here because he could feel how much longer Lance's finger was than his own, reaching places he'd never gotten to by himself and Keith could just about die now. "Love how you feel inside, too, holy shit, dude."

Keith's eyes rolled to the back of his head, but not in the fun way. "And don't call me 'dude' when we're having sex ." He wiggled his hips, revelling in the delicious friction. "Just call me by my name and start banging me, already."

"Sorry," Lance's voice was still more giggling than contrite but at least he started moving his finger, and just because he was so good at surprising Keith instead of drawing it out to fuck back inside he just started to twist and hook the digit to rub against every inch of Keith's insides. Keith arched his back, a moan twisting its way out of his throat and his fingers digging harshly into the skin of Lance's shoulder.

God jesus fuck , was Keith ever losing his shit right now. After the tease of Lance's tongue inside him last night Keith had been craving this, something thick and solid and Lance filling him up was just too sweet, and he was so glad he hadn't just jerked himself off on the floor because even after all the drawn-out waiting this just exactly what Keith wanted and needed. And then Lance did draw back, slipping his finger halfway out and then fucking it back inside in long smooth strokes that had Keith just about wailing, barely aware of the vibration of his voice leaving his throat or the sound of the words "Oh, fuck, yes, " as they echoed around the room in favor of concentrating on that slide.

"Shit, Keith, you're too…" Lance's voice was a bit broken again, too, and somehow that DID register with Keith, probably because of how sexy it was. "You're too tight, I can't…" It did sting a bit, and the slight twinge of pain was starting to grow the more vigorous his motions got but it was hardly any kind of deterrent for Keith at this point. Lance seemed to disagree, pulling out entirely with a mutter "Need to get you wetter," when Keith tried to protest his withdraw.

Instead of the sound of spitting like he'd expected Keith felt warm fingers swiping over his dirty thighs, and when Lance pushed two of his fingers inside with a wet slide Keith realized that what he was using to ease his way inside was nothing other than Lance's own come. His thin whine turned into a scream when this time Lance didn't bother to play gentle, going straight back to plunging his fingers quickly in and out of Keith's shuddering, greedy heat at a rate that had his toes curling.

Keith was definitely screaming now, or whining or moaning or begging, he didn't even know. All he knew was somewhere in the room was the sound of his own voice breaking with his heaving breath, the heat and weight and smell of his Lance between his legs, and everything else was wound right down at the bottom of his spine where he couldn't even feel the hardness of his own dick over the glorious solid heat of Lance's fingers flickering skillfully inside of him. Fuck. Fuck, his two fingers felt so much bigger than Keith's, longer and a bit thicker and moving so, so well, hooking a little bit at his insides at the deepest part of every stroke and God he'd been wanting this so badly . Needed it so badly, needed to be fucked hard into his mattress and made a mess out of and this was so close to getting that, right now it was so easy to imagine this was Lance's cock and not his fingers - oh god, especially since that was Lance's come inside of him right now, he was never gonna get over that - and just that thought was so hot Keith had riled himself up nearly to coming himself.

Especially with the sensory memory of only a few minutes before. The way Lance felt draped against his back, the fingers digging into his hips as Lance had held him down and pounded him into the door… If Keith thought about that right now when he was already full of Lance's fingers so hot and perfect and huge inside him as he opened Keith up, it was like putting together the pieces of a perfect fantasy of getting truly, properly fucked right now god, did Keith ever like that.

And then, just because he had forgotten it even existed, that's when the tip of Lance's middle finger finally brushed up against Keith's prostate. Keith flailed ridiculously, the arm he'd had twisted into the bedsheets jerking into the air to seek out Lance's head for him to yank on short hair while he heard his own voice shout "There, there, right there! " Lance obliged with a moan of his own, seeking out that spot again and knowing he'd found it by the telling frantic jerk of Keith's hips and desperate screams.

Lance kept his fingers shoved in deep after that, one long finger flickering against Keith's prostate while his forefinger continued to stoke at Keith's insides as much as they could, mostly ending up curving down to hook at the inside of Keith's rim which was like an extra little added bonus of pleasure in between Keith's mind being totally blow n. Where earlier it had been a desperate chase to try to get off now it was the opposite, and Keith had to bite his lip and hold his breath to try to fight off the impending flood of orgasm because this was all too good and too perfect and he wanted it to last, wanted to revel here in bed under Lance's hands and be fucked for days.

Lance seemed to agree, because for a while now he'd been babbling mindless praise neither of them really heard. Telling Keith how sexy he was, how soft he felt inside, how he was twitching around Lance's fingers like he was trying to swallow him whole and he couldn't wait to someday be inside him, find the time to spread Keith out nice and slow and open him up for Lance's cock and Keith couldn't listen to that kind of shit right now, not when he was trying not to come.

His efforts were quite in vain, though. Somewhere in his ramblings Lance had started to say Keith's name, low and breathy with renewed lust and Keith made the mistake of opening his eyes when he heard it, and… And there Lance was. Hovering above him with that hot look in his eye again, staring at Keith like he was the whole universe and there was nothing in the world that could have stopped Keith from coming right then. He tried to keep his eyes open to keep looking at Lance but they just ended up rolling into the back of his head, vision blurring out and semen spilling so hard from his cock it actually shot all the way to hit his chin while the rest of Keith's body convulsed and shook, turning from hot iron to jelly in moments around Lance's fingers.

He was still shaking even as he came down back to reality, too sensitive after coming so hard and flailing a tired arm out to grab Lance's wrist and stop him where he was still trying to softly paw at Keith's insides. Lance fell forward on top of him and Keith embraced it, wrapping his arms around Lance's back as Keith panted into his shoulder, trying to catch his lost breath.

Lance sat up after a minute or two, untangling himself from where Keith had all four limbs wrapped lazily around him like a sloth slining to a tree. Keith stayed where he was, because his bed was warm and his brain was cotton and his spine probably didn't work right now anyway, barley hearing it through his sleepy post orgasmic lull when Lance awkwardly cleared his throat to say. "Uh... Well that was kind of weird, huh?"

Keith just hummed, letting his eyes drift closed and his head fall to the side. "Def'nit'ly a s'prise," he slurred into his pillow. A good, great wonderful surprise that had made Keith come so hard he still hadn't come out of his sex coma yet.

"Um. should I like... " Lance hesitated. "Do you want a towel, or…" he trailed off, and Keith absently wondered if it was because he was waiting for a response. "Are you awake?"

"Hmmm?" Keith hummed, nuzzling further into his pillow. Lance was doing that talking thing again, why was he doing this? Now would be such a perfect time for cuddles, too! This man was so useless. Except for the part where he'd just made Keith come so hard he still hadn't stopped shaking yet.

"Should I…" Lance's voice was still weird in that unidentifiable way. "I'm just. Gonna go now."

"Huh?" Keith asked groggily, feeling the bed shift as Lance's weight left it. Wait, what? He was leaving? After all of last night's hullaballoo about Keith not sneaking out after sex? Keith's eyebrows furrowed together, and he forced his spine and arms to function enough to push himself into a sitting position. He was too slow, though, only catching sight of Lance's back as it passed through his doorway and the white door slide closed behind him while Keith stared dumbfounded.

Well. okay. Maybe that had been weird, after all? He frowned, falling back onto his bed and pulling his skewed shirt the rest of the way off, using it to wipe off the jizz before letting it fall ignored to the floor. Whatever, he'd worry about it later. It wasn't worth ruining the afterglow Keith was still basking in right now.

He sighed, inhaling and releasing a long, slow sigh of breath as he relaxed into the warm spot they'd worn into his mattress. And realized, with a bit of an ironic smile, that he could still smell Lance in his room, too.

(3.) "For all your cooking, cleaning, and sex lube needs! All natural fresh pressed, and only fifteen gac per quart jug! You buy here, you buy only the best! Best in Concordia, best in Galaxy! Come buy paopu oil, it clean your greasy knife and grease your dirty wife!"

(4.) It was. The first time it had happened Lance managed to provoke Shiro into calling him a "cock-sucking little pissant fuckboy," at which point Keith, and indeed the rest of the room, had at first all stared at him in wide-eyed surprise for a moment before they all descended into laughter almost as one. Minus Shiro, of course.