WHO: Lance & Keith WHEN: Before Atlantis. WHERE: In the Voltron suite WHAT: A little getting on each other's nerves, a little opening up about insecurities... WARNINGS: Soft looks. So soft.
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The light starting to filter in through their balcony sliding door was enough to stir Lance from the depths of sleep and nudge him gently into that pre-awake phase of morning relaxation. He turned onto his side, curling a bit so that he could catch some of the early sunbeams across his face. The warmth was a blanket of comfort all its own.
What wasn’t a comfort was whatever had sailed across the room in the moment following that. It bounced off his nose and landed on the blankets beside Lance without much sound. A soft groan escaped the Paladin as he frowned and cautiously opened one eye to see what it was.
Red?
Soft.
A stuffed animal?
Lance opened his other eye as he picked up the small plush toy and blearily reviewed the evidence. He propped himself up next, and turned to look across the room at Keith’s bed, where, presumably, Keith was still sleeping.
“Hey. Keith?”
Keith flopped from his side to his stomach and grumbled into his pillow. The last dregs of a dream swirled through his head despite the brightening of the room and that pleasant warmth of the sunbeams that could either inspire a few more hours of sleep and wake him right up. He’d managed to kick off most of his blankets over the night between tossing and turning. The question made it through the fuzzy dreamscape though and he raised an arm to wave it off or turn off the comm or stop wherever it was coming from.
“Just ice cannon him or shut up, Lance,” he mumbled half into the pillow. “I got this.”
Lance furrowed his brow as he crab-walked himself up to sitting upright. The room was coming into focus now, and it was evident that whatever was going on in Keith’s half of the room, it was more chaotic than restful. The pile of blankets on the ground made that much clear.
Ok… Those sentences made a whole lot less sense than the previous question. His eyebrows scrunching down, Keith frowned. “Not Robeasts,” he grumbled as the dream evaporated. Because the voice wasn’t in the dream, it was…
His eyes snapped open and he pushed himself up a little so he could take in his surroundings. Same room he went to sleep in. Still on the ship. Still two beds and, yup, Lance in the second bed. With no immediate threat in sight, he groaned and rubbed a hand over his eyes then across his mouth. “What?”
Steadily now, Lance could tell Keith was on the verge of snapping out of it. He waited, fingers toying with the small plush lion while Keith started to absorb his surroundings. Whatever time it was, it still felt early enough to not bother getting up and out of bed. Instead, Lance waved the small Red Lion in the air in front of him.
“You assaulted me with your Lion, and then told me to shut up. Also…” Lance prodded the Lion’s small nose. “You have a stuffed animal Red Lion? When did this happen?”
Keith shifted his arm to prop himself up more comfortably and turned his attention full to Lance. Then he froze and his eyes went wide when he saw the stuffed animal in Lance’s hand. How… Ok, yeah, Lance said something about getting assaulted by it, but… He pushed himself up more to do a bed check. Pillow, under the arms, under torso, and, nope. No lion. Which meant…
Turning himself over to sit down on his bed, he scowled at Lance. “How’d you get that?” he grumbled.
Lance heaved a sigh, his head drooping as he looked at Keith. He snapped his fingers. “Wake up. I just told you. You lobbed it across the room at me.” And now that the little lion was in his grips, he felt justified in setting it down next to him on the blankets.
“Either that, or it flew over here on its own. Like, hey, I’m supposed to be the Red Lion Paladin now.” Lance couldn’t help it. It was probably not a smart idea to rile Keith up, but…
Oh well.
“You said ‘assaulted’,” Keith pointed out with a finger jab in Lance’s direction. He scooted to the edge of his bed with the full intention of making a snatch to reclaim the red lion. “That doesn’t mean ‘you threw it’!”
He’d just grab the lion and change the topic. Leave it at that. Being early morning, he could just lock himself in the bathroom for awhile to get ready for the day. Except the next words froze him in place, a wave of anger burning through him. Lance was probably just joking. The usual poking and prodding to get a reaction, but that topic still felt too raw. A cut that never really got looked at or taken care of and was likely nasty and infected by now. His fingers dug into the sheets on either side of him as he glared daggers at Lance.
“So, what? You’re just going to hand your PJs and slippers over to Allura then?” he snapped.
Lance leaned back just a little as Keith looked like he was coiling to pounce. Alright, so it wasn’t the best decision, but half the time, Keith’s fuse ignited without even needing any help. Lance put his hands up in truce, grabbing the small lion and tossing it back over to Keith. Whatever the case was, he didn’t want Keith to spend the day giving him a cold shoulder. Or a hot-dagger glare.
“I’m just saying, man. Don’t get mad at me,” Lance offered, which wasn’t much of an apology, but it wasn’t an attempt to wind Keith up anymore. “I would’ve stayed with Blue if I had a choice about it.”
The fire behind the glare dimmed a notch with each placating offer until Keith looked down and away, the outburst collapsing inward without something to truly fight against. Because Lance was right. None of them had a choice in the matter. They were all at the mercy of whatever whims guided the lions. Lance just seemed to have a way with words and picking just the right ones that’d slam dead on against one of his buttons.
He stayed silent, just staring at where the lion had landed on the bed. This was stupid. All of it was stupid, including how he’d even gotten the toy. He’d only filled out that list to Santa because if he didn’t someone else would have done it for him and then who knew what he would end up with. The answer to what he’d want had been obvious though. He hadn’t expected to get any of the items and yet Christmas came with the added bonus of his speeder and the small stuffed lion. Not the real Red, but… it was something and cuddlier than the plastic action figures at the stores… and ok, he asked for it, but also it was given just to him and…
He breathed out a sigh as he kicked his feet off the side of the bed and stood up. And he was being stupid. “Keep it,” he mumbled as he headed towards the sliding door to the balcony, the room feeling too small. “I’m getting some air.”
The sudden departure left Lance still seated on his bed, his attention lingering on Keith’s form as it shuffled out the door and leaned on the balcony railing. Maybe a couple months ago he would’ve considered that a decent attempt and would’ve taken the clue to leave the other Paladin alone, but Lance shoved that thought aside after a few brief seconds. He tossed his own feet over the side of the bed and stooped over Keith’s bed to fetch the small lion plush.
The door slid open easily, and Lance was relieved to find that it wasn’t windy or cold. Brisk, sure, but the sunlight was warming through the still air.
Lance quietly stepped around Keith to find some open space along the railing. He placed the red lion on Keith’s shoulder nearest to him, the small legs straddling and securing it in place.
“You know, you weren’t there when it happened, but Blue outright blocked me out. She put up that barrier, and I thought… you know, in that moment, I thought that was it. Even my own Lion realized that there was a better fit than me,” Lance started, voice soft.
Keith wasn’t surprised at the door opening again. Granted, he wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d been left out on the balcony alone either. Maybe a little disappointed, which he wasn’t going to think about, but not surprised. But the other boy following him after outbursts like that had become… habit? It felt like habit… Enough so that he expected it, even if the length of time waiting couldn’t be predicted.
What he didn’t expect was a stuffed animal being draped over his shoulder. He broke his far off stare at the ocean to turn his head enough to eye the little red head next to his before turning his attention to Lance. There’d been mentions of the circumstances surrounding the lion change up, but, well, they were just mentions. Brief. Brushed off. Also, just… facts. Blue shut him out. It’d never gotten personal though… A personal experience that sounded a bit too familiar…
He took a deep breath, his hands fidgeting on the railing before he looked back out at the sea. “When we found Red,” he said just as softly, “when I was on the ship, he wouldn’t let me in. Nothing. Just sat there long enough that the Galra had time to rally and attack and still nothing. Opened the airlock to get them all out and my grip slipped before I could close it and…” He shrugged, a slight motion that didn’t jostle the lion from its perch. “I thought that was it. Just the end. Nice try, but not good enough. Time to float out in space until the cold or lack of air does me in.”
Lance had perched on the railing, elbows crooked and his upper body leaning outwards over the water. The tang of salty air felt good in his lungs after Texas and it’s arid climate. Besides that, the sound of Keith’s voice -- in a rarer tone that was gentle and maybe even exposed and open -- was grounding. It made deciding to come out here feel like the right choice, now that Keith wasn’t bolting.
Lance tilted his head to look over at Keith. The funny way his hair was sitting from being pushed around by the pillow only made it look fluffier than usual, and Lance had to shake himself off the thought of it. He gripped the rail with his hands instead.
“So… basically, you decided: hey nothing is working, let me do something crazy? And that worked for Red?” It wasn’t as much of a joke as it must have sounded like. When Red called out to Lance, it wasn’t anything like that. No nearly dying. Just a call from Red when he’d been at his lowest. “I mean, I thought back on it. That first day when Blue opened right up for me? Maybe she was opening for someone else at the time, but I grabbed the seat first. I don’t know.”
He fell quiet for a second, then added, “It makes me sorta jealous of Hunk and Pidge. They probably don’t have to worry that one day they might walk up to their Lions and right into a force field.”
A snort of amusement escaped Keith before he nodded his head slowly. “Probably the whole protecting Red from staying under Galra control is what worked, but…” He shifted his weight on the railing so he could reach up and scratch the head of the lion plushie on his shoulder. “Something crazy would work with Red too.” The urge to ask what had happened with Lance and Red flitted through his mind, but was pushed out just as quickly as it’d appeared. Not because he wasn’t curious, but more because he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer. Whether it would just pile onto that knot of doubt in his stomach that fed into nightmares of getting locked out or worse attacked by Red and had him lashing out at jokes about a stuffed animal choosing to fly over to the other Paladin. Besides…
He shook his head. “You knocked and she opened, Lance. If Blue had wanted anyone else she could’ve just waited for them to approach. She didn’t have to open when she did. She wanted you.” He sighed. “Yeah… But you never know… Maybe one day, the Black Lion will actually decide that Hunk should be the head and then we’re stuck seeing how the rest of them feel again…”
This felt more like the usual. No strained conversation, no brooding. Lance offered a sideways smile at Keith’s reassurance, even reaching out his elbow to give Keith a small nudge in the side. That angry, combative thing that tended to happen with the other teenager used to feel like an impasse, but Lance was finding that there were plenty of ways around it and through it. It just took a willingness to try -- on both their parts.
“Hunk would be the first one to turn that down, or he’d lock himself in Yellow until the Lions got tired of waiting,” Lance replied. He swung around, draping his arms over the railing and letting the sunlight warm up his shoulders and back. It also gave him an easier time of looking at Keith. And there that feeling was again… a small drop in his stomach, quickened pulse. If Keith had his own gravity, it felt like it was pulling Lance closer…
Lance cleared his throat. A hand moved up to push his hair back from his face a little, busying itself with another task while he tried to shake his mind from its tangent. “Anyway, if anyone gets Black in the future, I’m betting on Allura. I mean, if anyone was born to do this stuff, it has to be her. Guess it also depends on how much you believe all of this is fate, huh?”
A smile slowly quirked Keith’s lips. Between the nudges and glances, it was hard to not just return the gesture. Especially when, well, Lance painted a perfect picture of Hunk’s reaction. He could see it perfectly and almost hear the Yellow Paladin’s voice perfectly as he rejected it all. He shook his head.
“It doesn’t really work that way,” he pointed out before raising an eyebrow. “Or does Hunk not get a ‘respect the Black Lion’s choices’ inspirational speech?” His expression softened, the anger and annoyance from earlier melted away. But then he had to admit it was difficult to stay annoyed (at least from the previous topic) when Lance was just this… at ease. The other boy had a knack for it anyways, but with the sun and the ocean stretching out to the sky, he looked like he just belonged here with his blue eyes and, ugh, he was freckling wasn’t he? Yeah, there were definitely freckles happening… quiznak that wasn’t fair…
Shaking his head to redirect his gaze and thoughts, he plucked up the red lion and carefully draped it over Lance’s shoulder. “Maybe, but she’d need to jump over you to get there.” He shrugged. “If that’s even how it works. Who knows what they’ll want when the time comes.”
Lance raised an eyebrow at the stuffed animal as it came to rest on his shoulder now. The red of the fabric standing out very obviously against his blue pyjamas. But it was something else to focus on for a moment, and that helped Lance take a breath and mentally shift away from his wandering thoughts.
“If that’s even how it works,” Lance echoed. He’d sat in Black’s cockpit when they were trying to find Shiro’s replacement. There was nothing. It just felt so final when it happened. Black didn’t even seem to give an indication that maybe one day it would work… not that any of the Lions ever did that, but he had been hoping so hard for a sign that maybe he was leader material. Ever since, it seemed not worth bringing up. Second-in-Command wasn’t anything to scoff at. That Red chose him was an honor, right? It was.
“Guess there’s no saying until we get there.” It wasn’t totally clear who Lance was speaking to, but his eyes were still locked on the small Red. He gave a small sigh and turned to hook one of the chairs that were out on the balcony. “Which isn’t happening until we get home, anyway.”
Keith resettled himself on the railing, finding a good angle to rest his elbows and weight so he could keep looking out at the ocean. Calmer now than his initial staring contest. Especially with Lance not quite so close, that moment from earlier broken at least a bit. “Hopefully once we’re home, our luck will actually hold and Shiro’ll stick around for awhile,” he murmured softly. “Stick around so long that we’ll all end up laughing over having even worried about who flies which lion.”
With the heavier bit of conversation slipping away, he couldn’t help thinking back to the original questions that got them out on the balcony in the first place. He glanced over at Lance a second before looking back out to the sea. “Christmas. When we got all those gifts from ‘Santa’.” His head tilted to the side in a nod towards the stuffed animal. “I got him then.”
Lance gave a snicker of laughter to Keith’s small offering of humor. He tipped back on the chair, stretching his legs out so they were semi-notched against the balcony railing. If he thought about it too much, it was clear that Keith couldn’t promise anything. Even if Shiro stayed, apparently Keith himself would leave the team. Lance mentally sidestepped the thought, preferring instead to take the Red stuffed animal from his shoulder to set it on his raised knee.
“I guess Santa’s got jokes. And some serious cash based on the gifts people were getting?” Lance nodded his head backwards to rest against the chair’s back. It was easy to get lost staring off into the gentle waves beyond the ship. The sunlight hitting the surface of the ocean was making it shimmer. “Hey, you hungry? We can get stuff delivered to the room.”
“And some traveling skills,” Keith pointed out. “That’s definitely my speeder, not just one he happened to build or buy or something.” He could easily be content to just rest out on the balcony, with just the faint rush of the water below and the quiet conversation. But then Lance mentioned hungry and… yeah. Adding food to that equation would actually be good. Even if he still wasn’t too keen on this whole room service thing. He nodded as he abandoned his perch and turned towards Lance. “You might have a good idea there. I could go for some breakfast.”