Genre: Fluff
Ship: Klance (Keith and Lance)
Special note: Use of the song, ‘Just a friend to you’ by Meghan Trainor
Lance let himself float, for just one moment more. He let the soft motion of the Altean pool carry him, the slow waves gentle despite the movement of the Castle. Yet the quiet bliss the blue paladin managed to find for but a moment quickly evaporated with a splash.
“Is that…your bayard? Lance said as he picked up the red paladins bayard, floating in the water beside him. “C’mon. Get out, everyone’s already gone to bed,” Keith sighed. He knelt by the pools edge and extended a hand. Which to Lance, floating about in an upside down pull suspended with gravity warping modifications as was the Altean tradition, looked very odd. An upside down Keith, wearing only his red trunks with a soft look in his eyes that extended to his extended hand. Taking the red bayard, Lance took that hand. With a surprisingly strong grip, Keith pulled him up from the water and into the odd grip of gravity above it so that Lance, oddly enough, stood above the water. For a moment there, they were both so fascinated with this that Keith simply kept holding his hand. It was only when Lance grinned at how amazing the little gravity pocket was, that Keith yanked him forward and onto the poolside.
“Uh, thanks,” Lance managed to say, handing back the bayard. Keith took it, biting his lip as he did. After a moment of heavy silence, Lance tried to meet his eye. “So why do you even have your bayard, I mean, everyone’s gone lights out. Doesn’t exclude Red emo’s.”
In his way of reply, Keith did the thing he always did when he decided to say words instead of replying. The thing being a half eye-roll and slight twitch of his head as he looked to the side. “I’m busy, alright,” He said, pulling away to the short ladder outside the bubble. Despite his better instincts and what the stray bit of jealously told him, Lance followed. Out of the pool, the elevator and through the halls until they reached a t-section of the halls. One that headed to Lance’s quarters and other that led to the training room. They hadn’t exchanged a word on their return, the heavy silence returning. So when they came to that turn, Lance gave a click of his tongue.
“It’s a bit late for letting some robots bully you, isn’t it?” he said. Keith let his bayard sword form, giving it a flip. “Sleep is for the weak, right?” He said with a shy smirk. Lance’s state of shock was nearly his undoing. Staring, unblinking at the ground, he looked to Keith, who’s smirk had turned into a bit lip and look of unsureness. “Did you just make…a joke?” Lance laughed, his smile threatening to break his face. Keith let the bayard return to its base form, hooking it in his belt. “Yeah I guess that’s what people would call that. More or less, a joke.”
Lance watched the way the red paladin shook his hands and folded them over his chest. The way he blinked too much and sniffled as though he had a cold. The little bit of jealousy that always swam about in the pit of his stomach went dead.
“You’re not sleeping right, are you?” Lance asked, biting the tip of his finger.
“ – Lance, that’s not your, that’s not your concern,” Keith interjected, trying to brush off whatever concern was clouding Lance’s heart. “It is Keith. I fly a giant Blue space cat and you fly the other red space cat and if we’re all going to survive this war, we need to work all of our space cats together. That means, you need all the sleep you can get,” Lance explained, biting his finger tip harder.
“You’ve always had a way with words, Blue cat. Even in the Garrison, when the drill sergeant would ask you…any question you’d say the right answer but -” Keith began.
“- Flying space cats. Yeah,” Lance chuckled to himself. “Those kind of answers don’t fly well in the military.
“Yeah. I didn’t, either,” Keith, once again, joked. Lightning hit twice. Right in Lance’s heart. So much so, that he wanted to keep talking. “Keith…I um. You don’t have to tell me why you can’t really sleep right now, but. But, how about we just go and sleep in the lounge room? You take one couch, I’ll take the couch on the other side of the room and – boom. Sleep city,” Lance said, his lips feeling odd as each word that came out, was sincere.
A soft look, came over Keith’s eyes. “What makes you think that’ll work?” He said, underneath his breath. Despite himself, a blush almost crept into his tanned cheeks. “Because…it worked last time - ”
“-Lance,” Keith tried to interrupt him again, but Lance only stepped forward. “After a mission, we both came back and just fell onto the couch. Too tired to move, so we just fell asleep or well, you fell asleep on my shoulder and like a brick you refused to move,” Lance grinned, brushing his fingers lightly over Keith’s jaw. “Lance…” he said, quieter this time. “We just, spent the night on that couch, had the best sleep since we stepped onto this ship,” Lance said, just as Keith would, under his breath. The Red paladin’s breath hitched as Lance leant in, close enough that Keith could almost taste his bottom lip – until he drew back.
“But it was just that, wasn’t it? Just a night. It was just a hug, just sleep…nothing more. But that’s – that’s not what friends do,” Lance sighed, his eyes looking for something.
A crack of anger broke Keith’s voice as he tried to shrug him off. “Then what are we? What – what do you want from me?”
Lance searched Keith’s eyes, for just a moment. Right before, in a fit of frustration, Keith curled a hand around Lance’s neck and pulled him down into a kiss. With an awkward snort, Keith rocked back and looked away. “You wanna be more than friends…I get that. Out in the desert I got lonely, all the time really. But it’s worse out here, I think. I know I have trouble treating people the way I should, but I think you deserve more than that,” He admitted, to himself and to Lance.
Smiling, Lance ran his thumb across Keith’s jaw once again. “Let’s start with that, hey? One step after friendship. Not anymore, or any less. And we’ll see where we go from there, Red cat.”
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