the castle is really cold at night, so a lot of the time keith will slip into lance’s room for warmth.
he doesn’t know how, but lance is always very warm and soft. (keith suspects this is because lance is like sunshine: glowing and radiant and full of life and energy. but he’d never say that out loud, because that’s like, super lame.)
and keith finds space really, really cold; living in the desert in dry, hot, awful heat for an entire year with no AC, and then suddenly being thrown into the void??? yeah, he’s not dealing well with the transition
it’s kind of a Thing between them. neither of them speak about it. they never speak about the way keith will slide under the covers beside lance, or the way lance just instinctively snuggles closer and throws an arm over keith’s waist, or the way keith’s entire being thaws when he sees how peaceful lance looks when he’s sleeping.
once they’re finally Official™ keith will make a point to tell lance how pretty he is when he’s sleeping, and lance will fluster and reply with a stuttered “yeah well–you– you’re pretty all the time, so suck it.”
(they’re both blushing messes for like, an entire week after this)
lance doesn’t deal well with quiet, and most of the time, that’s what space is. there’s no background hum of electricty– altean technology is completely soundless, they’ve discovered– or of wind or rain or family or anything. it’s so quiet it’s deafening, and lance always feels like he’s suffocating.
more often than not, it’s hunk who notices first; they grew up together, so he can tell as soon as lance is starting to panic. he’ll usually take lance somewhere private and just talk to him until he calms down.
keith notices this and wants to help, too. he’s not really good at talking, but lance is his boyfriend, and he hates feeling like he’s useless.
so one time lance starts getting really quiet and tense and he’s starting to shake gently and hunk is Nowhere To Be Found, keith is the only one there, so he does the first thing he can think of and just (hesitantly) pulls lance into a hug and starts rambling some senseless story about a really cool lizard he found in the desert one day.
eventually lance is shaking harder and keith is about to just go get hunk because oh god he’s making it worse but then lance looks up at him and his eyes are rimmed red from crying but he’s smiling and laughing.
keith melts and chokes on his tongue and loses his ability to create words, but that’s okay, because lance is hugging him back and kissing his cheeks and whispering “thank you” and “i love you” over and over again.
lance gets keith to do a face mask with him like, at least twice a space-equivalent of a week.
keith doesn’t really care all that much about skincare, obviously. he’s just a ‘splash water on your face and go’ kinda guy. when lance learns this, he is horrified.
“well i used to use soap sometimes but–”
“yeah. like dove or whatever shiro had around.”
“yeah i guess? i didn’t pay attention to what he washed his face with lance what the hell”
so yeah lance is deeply offended. he’s like, “you’ve offended me, my mother, and ALL of my ancestors with your CARELESS ANTICS” and keith snorts and pins his hair back and says “then teach me, you moron” and lance is shook and goes “oh. yes. okay”
he somehow managed to create a few different face masks with space goo + ingredients that mimic like, clay, shea butter, coconut oil, etc. from around the universe and he slathers this muddy looking one all over keith’s face.
“for detoxification, retexturising, and radiance,” says lance.
“alright,” says keith, who doesn’t know what that means.
it has to stay on for a half hour so they’ll spend that time just laying there shoulder to shoulder on lance’s bed, sometimes holding hands, talking about whatever, until keith starts grimacing and saying “its getting all hard and dry and i can’t move my face” and lance says “that’s normal” and keith looks at him, horrified
keith, trying desperately not to: STOP don’t make me laugh MY FACE IS CRACKING
