Hello! May I please request a scenario where keith is maybe too shy to kiss his s/o so he tries to awkwardly set up mistletoe? thanks!
A/N: yo this is straight up fluff and hopefully reciprocation of feelings. I love Keith~~
Word Count: 2198
“Merry Christmas, everyone!” Lance cheered as he burst into your apartment, arms full of presents he planned on giving to your friends.
You were in the kitchen, pulling cookies out of the oven. Everyone would be coming over to celebrate Christmas together, exchange secret santa gifts, decorate cookies, and spend time together. “You’re the first one here, Lance!” you called. After setting the hot pan of cookies down on the stove, you grabbed the next pan and slid it into the oven. After closing it and tossing your hotpad on the counter, you emerged from the kitchen and smiled. “How have you been?”
Lance shrugged and dumped his presents on the couch. “Alright, I guess.” He collapsed onto a beanbag in the center of the room. “When is everyone else getting here?”
“Soon, I think. Nobody had texted me to say they’ll be late, so…”
Lance pressed his lips together and nodded. “Cool, cool,” he mumbled. “You been busy today?”
“Kinda. I forgot about making cookies until just a few hours ago, when I was out buying decorations. Thankfully I’m almost done, and we can relax a bit.”
Looking around your decorated apartment, Lance commented, “Looks nice in here.”
When the doorknob rattled, you and Lance looked at the door. Soon enough, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro entered the apartment.
A familiar warmth entered your heart when your friends entered your apartment. It had been a while since you saw them all together, and the relief that flooded your body caused your eyes to prick with tears. “Hey, everyone!” You hurried to embrace each of them, and when Lance commented that he felt left out, you have him a hug too. “I’m so glad you were all able to make it.”
“Where’s Keith?” Pidge asked. “Did he get here yet?” She put a small gift on the couch, next to Lance’s.
“Not yet. I’m not sure where he is, but he didn’t say he was running late.”
“I thought he would be the first one here,” Hunk commented. He and Shiro each placed a gift on the pile.
You nodded, lips pressed together. It had been a year since you last saw Keith. As far as you knew, he was helping the Galra rearrange their government. He contacted her on occasion, but there was no stable line of communication. Part of the reason why you decided to have a Christmas party was so that he would come and you could see him again.
Suddenly, your external attitude changed. You clapped your hands together. “Well, I have cookies we can decorate, but I think it would be fun to wait for Keith to do that.” If he shows up at all. “And then we can all watch a movie together. So until then, do y’all wanna play games while we wait?”
They decided on Uno, which was fun. Lance and Pidge seemed dead set on making the other draw as many cards as possible, all the while Shiro was quiet and trying not to draw attention to himself while he slowly ran out of cards.
You checked your phone every couple of minutes, sometimes feeling like your phone had buzzed on your thigh when there were really no messages. Anxiety began to claw at your stomach and reached for your heart to squeeze it. What if he didn’t come at all? Part of your plans for the future relied on him coming to the party. You planned on telling him how you felt about him - how much you loved and missed him - and if he felt similarly, you would adjust to be able to talk to him more. If he didn’t… you would move away and try to distance yourself from the group.
After an hour, you decided it was time to decorate cookies. If you waited much longer, you and your friends wouldn’t be able to watch a movie together.
As you opened your mouth to suggest you all move on, you heard a soft knock on the door. Your head whipped up to look at it, and before you knew it you had risen, opened the door, and felt your shoulders fall.
Keith stood there, giving you a small smile. He wore his usual clothing - a black shirt, jeans. His hair was a bit shorter than you remembered it being. “Hey, Y/N,” he said softly. “Sorry I’m late, I-”
Without a word you stepped forward and threw your arms around his waist. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around your shoulders and dropped his head down onto your shoulder. The two of you stood there until Lance commented loudly that it was getting cold. Then you let Keith go, grabbed his wrist, and tugged him inside, closing the door behind him. That wasn’t the reunion you’d fantasized about since the day you parted, but it wasn’t any less special.
“Now that the special guest -” you shot a teasing look at Keith, “- has arrived, let’s start the party!”
Keith removed his wrist from your grip and hesitantly reached for your fingers, but you started walking into the kitchen and out of his reach, oblivious to what he was trying to do.
Lance saw, though, and gave his friend a sympathetic clap on the back before moving into the kitchen with the rest of their friends.
Keith stood in the living room alone for a few seconds. He put a hand into his pocket and pulled out a small bundle of mistletoe. With new resolve, he followed his friends into the kitchen, reaching up to stick the mistletoe on the doorway as he passed. I can do this, he told himself. I can do this. I can… tell them how I feel.
While they decorated cookies - there were a lot, as the friends planned to visit old friends and some of their teachers from when they attended the Galaxy Garrison - Keith stuck close to you. The two of you worked together to make cookies look as good as they could. You talked to each other like you communicated regularly, like no time had passed since your last interaction.
Hoping you wouldn’t catch him, but also hoping you would, Keith snuck glances at you every minute or so. You had changed so much since he last saw you - not so much, but you definitely looked more mature and grown up and seemed more confident in yourself. You were so different but so the same. He wondered how much he changed in a year.
The one time you did catch him, you gave him a bright smile that took his breath away. Your own heart started thundering in your chest when you realized he had been looking at you. Faces red, you quickly looked back at the cookies you were working on.
“Keith look at this!” You held up a gingerbreadman-shaped cookie that was decorated to look like him. “It’s you! I even got your knife!” It was just a gray line on the cookie’s waist, but he was surprised you even took time to do that. When he saw the scowl she drew on his face, he smiled.
“It’s pretty good,” he commented.
You held the cookie up next to his face and took a picture. “You guys are twins! Not identical, though. You’re more handsome.”
“I’m glad I’m more attractive than a cookie,” he said dryly, hoping to cover up the way his heart thudded in his chest when you said he was “handsome.” It made him feel more confident in what he was planning to do at the end of the party.
“Much more.”
Across the table, Lance was watching the entire exchange. He stared at Keith with a sly grin and raised an eyebrow. When Keith looked up at him, Lance’s grin grew and he nodded.
You and your friends ate pizza for dinner, then moved to the living room to watch a Christmas movie. You sat between Keith and Shiro, drawing your knees to your chest, holding a cup of soda close to your body and swirling it to get the carbonation out.
During the middle of the movie, you found yourself looking around the room at your friends. Lance and Pidge shared a bowl of popcorn on the floor. Hunk sat on the beanbag, which had been dragged to the side of the room. You sat in between Shiro and Keith on the couch. A small smile tugged at the corner of your lips.
Keith leaned over and whispered, “What are you smiling about?”
You turned your head to look at him. Your breath faltered when you realized how close he was. “I’m just… happy.”
Keith nodded. He opened his mouth, like he wanted to say something, but quickly snapped it shut and returned back to his normal position.
That space, no matter how small, wasn’t something you wanted. He seemed to be avoiding touching you. So, you leaned into his side, wrapped your arms around one of his arms, and laid your head on his shoulder. Keith’s eyes only widened. He didn’t move the rest of the movie.
You wished he would.
When the movie ended, you and your friends talked for about an hour, then they all left - except Keith, who seemed determined to help you clean.
While Keith collected cups and plates from the living room, you cleaned up the frosting mess from the tables. The next day you would deliver them.
“Hey Keith?” you called, walking to the doorway of the kitchen. He was currently trying to pick up all the tiny popcorn pieces and kernels that Lance and Pidge had dropped in the carpet, putting the tiny pieces into the empty cups he’d collected.
Keith looked up with a questioning look, eyes looking a bit higher than where you were. “Yeah?”
“Are you going to help us out tomorrow? With taking these cookies to our old teachers?” you asked hopefully, sealing a bag of cookies in a decorated zipper bag.
“Uh…” Finally his eyes met yours. “Yeah. I’ll help.”
“Cool!” You sent him a smile. “Is there - is there something on the door frame?” Before Keith could protest, you were turning around and craning your neck to look at whatever he had been looking at. “Oh.”
Keith’s eyes widened. No no no…
“Who put this there?” you questioned. “Lance?” You threw your hands in the air and sent Keith a bewildered look. “Who’s he trying to kiss? Pidge? What the heck was he planning?” You pulled your phone out of the back pocket of your pants, groaning as you found Lance’s name.
When you were about to press the dial button, Keith launched up from the floor. “Y/N, stop,” he said calmly, despite his heart pounding in his chest. He walked to the door and reached up, pulling the mistletoe off the doorframe. “It was me.” Suddenly his ears started to burn.
“It was you,” you repeated, your voice losing its edge.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Keith swallowed thickly and shrugged. “I was… um… I wanted to-” He groaned and wanted to slam his head into the wall. Why couldn’t he just admit it? What was stopping him? He knew how you felt - it didn’t take a genius to notice all the signs you gave him. You gave him lots of chances. Regret started to flood his mind when he realized he should have just put his arm around you during the movie. Maybe if he’d done that this wouldn’t be so difficult.
You took the mistletoe out of Keith’s hands and held it up. “What? You wanted to what?”
Keith groaned and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “I wanted to kiss you!”
You blinked once, twice, three times - “You wanted to kiss me.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
You just stared at him, body frozen while inside your body and mind were doing flips and shooting fireworks. Stop repeating everything he says, you told yourself.
“I just - I - I love you.” His face turned a dark shade of red at his confession.
“You love me.” Stop it!
Keith nodded, looking at you expectantly.
Not able to quite process the confession he’d just made, you repeated again, “You love me.”
The hope in Keith’s eyes soon fell as his shoulders slumped. “Look, I’m sorry if I misinterpreted things. I thought you might… feel the same… You’re my best friend, and I um… I couldn’t imagine myself being with anyone else. So I - I’m sorry that I misinterpreted our friendship. I’ll… shut up and finish cleaning, then I’ll leave, okay?”
He started to turn around, but you grabbed his wrist and hurried to stand in front of him.
“Keith,” you said, voice barely louder than a whisper. “I love you too.”
Keith smiled softly and held both of your hands in his. “So… what-”
“Kiss me.”
The next day, Lance was not surprised when he saw Keith’s arm around your shoulders, or when you would press loving kisses to Keith’s cheeks or jaw. He was proud that the two of you had finally done something to progress your relationship.
And two weeks later, nobody was surprised when you announced that you would be joining Keith as he continued to help patch up the Galra empire.
