Found Myself Back at Space Camp

[theoriginalriffles]

14 year old Keith passive aggressively blasting the end of Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine (“fuck you I won’t do what you tell me!” x16) when Shiro tells him to make his bed. ​Shiro actually likes Ratm so he just sucks it up with a sigh while Adam laughs at him

[methoxyethane]

Someone had been creeping up on Lance’s high scores lately.

Lance had been going to this arcade since he was ten years old, back when all the best games were just being installed like Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. Now half the games had changed but Lance’s favorites were still around, and he had been working on beating his own high scores for the last seven years - as well as mastering every new game that came in.

Lance was so familiar with this arcade, his home turf, that he even knew all of the regulars by face, and most by name. So when a new guy started looming around and a new set of initials started climbing their way up the leaderboard, it was easy to connect one dot with two.

The guy he suspected was here now, focused on a game of Afterburner, leaning over the game just enough to make his red leather jacket ride up so Lance could see the shape of his ass in tight black denim. Not that Lance typically spent a whole lot of time looking at dude’s asses, but. When perfection was in front of you, it warranted notice.

Speaking of perfection, this guy was totally making Afterburner his bitch. Lance watched him from behind, annihilating enemy ships and smoothly flying through the skies, dodging enemy fire without so much as skimming the ground as it flipped upside down and back again.

“You’re pretty good,” Lance said after a while, leaning up against the arcade machine to get his attention. “You’re KKS, right?”

The newcomer - KKS - nodded. “Keith Kogane-Shirogane,” he said, eyes not peeling away from the screen as he blew a dismissive bubble of pink gum out of his mouth.

Lance whistled. “Quite a mouthful. Mind if I just call you Keith?”

“If you feel the need to talk to me,” was Keith’s clipped reply.

Lance grinned to himself. He wanted to be annoyed at this guy's dismissive attitude, but instead all Lance could think was that that eyeliner looked really cute on him. Made him look like some kind of hard rock punk kitten. Even his standoffish vibe was kind of working for Lance.

Did he dare try to pick up a dude at his regular hangout spot, though? Did he want everyone in the arcade to know he liked men?

“What about you?” Keith asked through his bubblegum. “You got a name, or are you just some kind of creep?”

Yeah, fuck it. If anyone noticed him hitting on Keithy-kitten here and didn’t like it, they could just fuck right off. This was Miami, baby, and anything rolled in the City of Magic. “I’m Lance,” he said, still torn between watching the Afterbuner game Keith was wrecking and Keith’s face as he did it. “Also known as ‘LEM.’”

“I figured,” Keith said, and Lance watched as he divebombed into the ground to take out his last two lives and finish up the game. “If you were anyone else, you wouldn’t be strutting around like you own the place.”

He punched in his initials and finally turned to regard Lance, eyes flickering up and down Lance to give him a good once-over. “So tell me what’s up, Lance? Just come over here to ruin my concentration?”

“You were doing just fine even with me here,” Lance said easily. “I was just wondering if you wanted to play doubles with me. You know, partner up for a few rounds.”

Keith’s bubblegum snapped as he considered, before he shrugged. “If you got the quarters.”

Lance grinned. They went for Pac-Man first, Lance paying for Keith’s game as they both started up on opposite ends of the screen. And if one of them individually was good the two of them together were phenomenal, blasting through levels at top speed and racking up points like they were nothing.

Lance bumped his hips against Keith’s multiple times while they were playing, using the loading screens between levels to flirt with Keith and generally brush against him as much as possible.

They switched over to Galaga after a while, but multiplayer on this game was just taking turns. It left Lance with more time to concentrate on flirting with Keith, testing the limits of what the other gamer would put up with in terms of Lance’s bad pick up lines. Keith didn’t talk much, still chewing absently on his gum as he annihilated his turn at the game, but he didn’t tell Lance to fuck off and sometimes he’d lightly kick at him or bump his hip against Lance’s, which Lance was fairly confident to be his way of flirting back.

“You know, most guys would probably throw the game so I can get my turn faster. If they were trying this hard to impress me.” Keith mentioned idly, leaning against the machine as he waited for his turn.

“How’s that supposed to impress you?” Lance said back, taking his eyes off the game long enough to glance at Keith. “You want someone who will lay down at your feet, or someone you can actually play with?”

Keith smirked, and it looked like Lance had passed whatever test he was playing at. So Lance made his move, abandoning the game mid-level to turn to Keith and ask, “So what does it take for a guy to get your phone number, then?”

Keith stared at him for a long second, considering. Then, he pointed to the wall behind the counter, declaring, “I’ve had my eye on that pink hippo on the wall. Win it for me, and I’ll go out with you.”

Lance’s eyes widened. The hippo on the wall was no joke - the thing was massive, a cheerful pink plush monster with huge smiling jaws, and it cost 3,000 tickets to win.

They’d already earned a few tickets just from goofing off all night. And Lance still had a stash of tickets of his own just from coming here so often, which meant…

Lance nodded firmly. “I’ll win it for you before this place closes tonight.”

A thick black eyebrow raised. “You think you can do it all in one night?” He said, genuinely interested for the first time all night.

“I can’t let you get away, can I?” Lance grinned at him. “I won’t get a chance like this again.”

Keith smiled, leaning himself against the wall. “Well then. I gotta see this.”

It did in fact, take all night. Lance started with skeeball, because it was a fast way to wrack up tickets with his perfect aim. Keith even had the decency to look impressed as Lance scored bullseye after bullseye, until his arms got tired and his aim started to falter.

Other than that his best two games were Duck Hunt and Donkey Kong, and a few hours straining his eyes on each and he finally had the tickets he needed. He slammed them down on the counter fifteen minutes before closing time, pointing to the hippo on the wall with a grin that bordered on feral.

And then the best part happened. Lance handed the stuffed animal off to Keith, who took it iot his arms with wide eyes and a slight bush tinging his cheeks.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you actually got it for me,” he said, actual human emotion in his voice for the first time all night. “It’s so cute…” he rubbed his face against the doll’s, smiling happily as he declared, “And so much softer than he looks. I thought it would be cheap for sure but this is actually a really nice plush.”

He stopped cuddling the doll to blink up at Lance, his blush fully overtaking his face. “I suppose this means I owe you a date.”

“If you have the time,” Lance said casually, fully enjoying everything he learned about Keith as they got to know each other. He knew the guy was cute, but he hadn’t expected THIS level of adorable.

Keith used the free hand not currently cradling an oversized plush to flip his hair off his neck. “You can start by walking me home.”

Offering his arm, Lance escalated his date out of the arcade. “After you, my lovely.

Behind them, the guy at the ticket counter rolled his eyes. No one noticed.

—

[vellichorviolet]

girl i swear every single time i decide i am done with fanfiction and ready to grow up and give up my fangirl days i get thrown back into the pit. because tell me why it’s been five years and my brain just goes you know what you need klance. I WILL NEVER GET AWAY! anyway send some klance fic recs babes

[catsushinyakajima]

College AU vld but the Blade of Marmora is an exclusive underground frat and they let Keith pledge because his mom used to be a frat bro so he has legacy connections. Keith comes back from hazing w cuts and bruises every night looking like he fought wolves (probably did) and he can’t explain it because he’s not allowed to tell people that he’s pledging😭

[aaaarsonist]

I want Keith content without Klance ughhhhhh

[rejected3]

Inspired by this VLD movie +   (¬‿¬) vid XD fb s6

[interwebsconnections]

i have never edited at all, but i wanted to try, does anyone have any tips at all?

[greenpidge101]

Keith seems like the type of child who held his breath when he didn’t get his way

[stellar-starlet]

And since he's half galra, he could hold his breath way longer than a normal human kid. Poor Shiro would be STRESSING and always ended up caving to his demands.

[starsoupart]

hmmm thinking about motoGP racer keith....

[starsoupart]

thought about it a little too hard. oops

wip

[yuhi-san]

adasfedf

Keith going: "calm down. and yes, blasting." is so fucking funny.

a) it is keith of all people telling someone else to calm down

b) he immediatelly follows it up with "yes blasting" which is like the opposite of calm down

[mossyghostsstuff]

He is my favorite, guys

Did you guys know that

[jupiters-junipers]

keith is the guy who puts 100% of his heart body and soul into winning that stupid cheese rolling race

[nymphra9]

Keith Kogane’s Playlist

gonna be doing a series of these

i think keith was raised on artists like johnny cash, i mean his dad lived on a fuckass ranch in the middle of texas. so i think it would’ve been a lot of sort of country but more leaning towards rock music. i feel like radios stations would be where they played it from, his dad might’ve tuned the radio to listen for his mom. like in outer space, and that just lead to them finding stations they liked. i think that could’ve been also how he woke up in the middle of the fuckass night when shiro crashed. imagine some radio going “WEEE WOOO WEEE WOOO” and keith falling out of his small ass bed.

i’m sorry to say it but before the garrison, we don’t know much about his home situation but i’d assume it was poor. so i’m thinking he might’ve not listened to much music after his dad died, he wouldn’t have avoided it just wouldn’t have been seeking it out as much. when he started at the garrison, i think he definitely started picking up on other people’s music taste.

esp shuro’s who i think ranges between white girl anthems and dad rock. no in between, sneakernight by vanessa hudgens still haunts his nightmares.

the garrison is where he had his emo “phase”

think panic! at the disco, bo burham, fall out boy, linkin boy, blink 182, a heartwell ending, ect ect

though i think the whole emo thing definitely remained a thing throughout his life, i think his tastes (similarly to mine) would mature.

so after he gets expelled, i’ll bet like 20$ he had nothing better to do than read books and listen to music.

radiohead was his SHITTTT for when he was doing investigations and broodung

M83 & 1975 for whenever he went biking, or maybe whenever he was just appreciating the scenery in general. his ass would be the type to look at the rocks he’s been surrounded by his whole life and be like “this is the peak of scenery.”

keith watching the sunset: 🙂

his headphones: ABOUUHT YOUUUU 🗣️🗣️

keith; gee yeehaw! this reminds me of a certain cuban boy! good golly! 🤠

i think along with them, he’d also listen to the white stripes, the black keys, bon jovi, things like that. yk embracing the sort of rock he was raised on but with his own lil twist.

the other paladins definitely started getting tired of the strange altean music coran played for them, and made pidge download pirated music. though i feel like keith would be clueless about this happening and would only ask once he notices to shiro working out to party in the usa. then he’d get his tunes in space.

[keiths-haircare-routine]

Even if I didn’t ship Jaith, I can’t deny that James definitely has a crush on Keith, whether or not it’s reciprocated

[palalances]

Grumpy little guy just sitting there

[starsoupart]

I'm in the middle of your picture, lying in the reeds

[avatar4life]

I know people are gonna hate but

I hate klance.

I see no chemistry, I feel nothing at seeing scenes of them together. And I don't even like lance that much, I understand some scenes about his insecurities but other than that I don't like it, not even find him funny.

And I hate that when I look at Keith fanarts, art, fics and edits there's always klance involved. There's so little things about Keith not involving lance that I'm genuinely ecstatic whenever klance isn't involved.

I see them more as friends than anything else.

Also in the past the whole klance community harassing others for shipping them with other people was really toxic and even about the supposedly live action series they mentioned klance again, it's like they're forcing the ship doymt throat that I literally censored the klance tag on here.

No hate to the normal people who ship them but I just wanted to get this off my chest, it's my personal opinion

[starsoupart]

hunger hurts and I want him so bad, oh, it kills / 'cause I know I'm a mess he don't wanna clean up

fic art for a little death by asterika (@catsushinyakajima). ILY MY GOAT <3