An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Evan Hansen/Connor Murphy
Characters: Evan Hansen, Connor Murphy (Dear Evan Hansen), Other character briefly or mentioned
Additional Tags: Fire Watch AU, Firewatch au, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Suicidal Thoughts, Drug Use/References, All that other stuff that is usual of DEH?, treebros, More to be added as they happen
Summary:
Evan Hansen takes a job as a fire lookout in Shoshone National Park, expecting a peaceful three months of silence and nature. However, he didn't anticipate running across an old high school classmate, especially one who has more issues that he does.
title: the first to the last (kiss fic #8)
pairing: keith/lance
notes: we made it into s8 territory fellas. in which keith has a plan.
*
So. Keith had these...plans.
A lot of it was typical stuff. Small stuff. Like, he had plans to read this long list of romance novels he’d accumulated over the course of the past year. He had plans to ask Hunk for a few cooking pointers since he was kinda rusty when it came to variety in the kitchen. He had plans to fix up his old hoverbike after one of the gears busted, to repaint it, to gift it to Acxa, who seemed fond of the thing. He had plans to go through his old belongings in that long-forgotten shed in the middle of the desert, to clean it out and take what he needed, to leave what he didn’t.
But...there were some big plans, too. Huge plans.
Like: taking Lance to Cuba.
Like: having a very important conversation with Lance’s mother, about a very important, very top secret question he wanted to ask.
Like: asking Lance this question.
He didn’t have everything figured out, but he wasn’t really worried about that. Keith had never really been the type of guy to make plans. Impulse and reckless abandon were more his speed, but he’d learned that he was capable of a lot of things he never knew he could be, after Lance.
Like: gentleness.
Like: loving someone, and being loved in return.
Like: making plans.
It is easy, to want to do these things. Lance, with his thousand watt smile and his adorably tousled hair, turns his big blue, sparkly baby-i-love-ya eyes on him and that’s it. He doesn’t even have to ask. Keith just—wants.
But as a paladin of Voltron, and a ranking officer in the Garrison - as a soldier - plans are always subject to change. Which is how Keith found himself in the middle of space with a new set of plans. They are much less about Lance, which sucks, and much more about finally putting an end to this god forsaken war they’d all been dragged into.
Most of the time, they are dangerous, too. So, despite the separated missions, the orders from high officers on the ATLAS, the risk of death hanging over their heads every damn day, Keith’s first and only priority is making sure that he comes back to Lance, every time, no matter what. There is little else to fight for, if not for this future he sees so clearly behind closed eyelids. Every night, he dreams of waking up in a house near the beach, smothered beneath a sleepy, heartfelt boy who wears a ring on his third finger and a dog as big as a horse, lined in the gold of the morning sunshine, dust motes twinkling like stars.
They’ll get there someday.
That’s the plan, at least.
Keith pulls away from those thoughts as the black lion’s jaw hinges open and he steps into the hangar. It’s kind of late - he was due back hours ago from a simple mission to pick up supplies on a nearby planet, but there had been complications and well—
The wind is suddenly knocked out of him as a flash of blue barrels into his chest and collapses on top of him as he hits the floor. He doesn’t have any time at all to recover because Lance is there, pressing harried kisses into the screen of his visor, hands gripping fiercely at Keith’s shoulders as he crouches over him, unforgiving in his crowding presence, though Keith remains totally unbothered by the close proximity.
“Lance,” he laughs, one arm pinned by Lance’s knee, the other reaching up to grab at the his waist. “Lance—“
Lance doesn’t even pause, expression a total blur, as he rips the helmet off Keith’s head and then leans in desperately, hands cupping Keith’s face firmly as he presses his mouth against his. The hand on Lance’s waist curls, applying more pressure and snaking an armored arm around as Keith struggles to free his other arm. His eyes flutter shut, groaning as heat explodes under the collar of his high-necked flight suit when Lance licks his bottom lip aggressively and bites down.
Lance seems to approve of that sound, his knees sliding further apart in a wide straddle as he melts to rest the majority weight on top of Keith, freeing the trapped arm. His hands stay near Keith’s face, brushing away the spill of dark hair around his ears and holding the strong line of his jaw. Keith gathers him closer as he reaches up with his other arm now to grip the back of Lance’s neck, eagerly returning the kiss with scrunched eyebrows and a starburst of pleasure burning low in his belly.
After a moment, Lance separates their mouths with a humid pant against Keith’s lips for air, but he dazedly pulls Lance back down with another groan, a part of him going absolutely wild when Lance responds with a whimper caught in the back of his throat. His mouth is hot and wet, opening easily to Keith, welcoming the attention, drowning in it, the pliant lines of his body begging for it.
Mindful of the hard plating of his paladin armor, Keith rolls them to settle his weight over Lance, hips resting in the cradle of his thighs, and that’s when he loses himself. For a long while, they lay there tangled up on the metal floor, kissing like they’ll never get another chance. Lance’s arms end up around Keith’s neck, hands buried in his hair as he lets Keith ravish him into a drunken mess of unsteady heartbeats and sweet little gasps of pleasure.
Once he feels mostly satisfied, Keith pulls back slightly, only enough to admire the way Lance’s eyes flutter open, low-lidded and dark, parted mouth shiny and red and perfect. He’s gorgeous all the time, but there’s something especially wonderful about a Lance that is looking up at him with a greedy sort of expression, like he can’t stand the space between them and is thinking about asking for less of it.
“You’re late,” Lance murmurs breathlessly, thighs bracketing Keith’s hips firmly in an attempt to keep him close.
Keith runs his gloved hand through the wild ends of Lance’s hair with as much gentleness he can before curling his fingers and kissing the delicate line of Lance’s eyebrow. “Sorry,” he says softly.
“Your comm went out.”
“There was a storm on my way back.”
“You can’t do that to me.” Lance’s expression clouds over and there’s a crack in his voice. “You can’t—you can’t—“
Keith leans down and kisses him quiet for a long, sweet moment. Lance slides his hands from Keith’s hair down the curve of the armor on his chest and then down to his waist with a sigh, holding him there as though to steady himself. Keith separates after he’s sure he’s eliminated that fragile thing in Lance’s voice, nosing his way down to then kiss his jaw.
“How was your assignment?” Keith asks against his skin.
“Sucked,” Lance whispers into the ridge of Keith’s eyebrow. “Missed you, Keith.”
Keith kisses up to his ear. “You came back safe.”
“Had to. I promised.”
That makes Keith warm on the inside. He leans back to smile down at Lance. “Thank you.”
Lance responds by sticking out his tongue. “Maybe you should take a page out of my book.”
Keith scoffs and reaches down, inching his gloved hand under Lance’s T-shirt, wishing that it was bare so that he could feel the the heat of his skin against his palm. “I came back safe, too.”
He’s rewarded with narrowed eyes and a shiver from the gentle touches on his rib cage. “Babe, you were late. I lost, like, ten years of my life tonight waiting on you to show up. You’re just lucky you did, or I’d have to kick your—ah.” His eyes flutter as Keith runs the hand back down his side, and dips his fingers just barely beneath the waistband of his pants, shifting the weight of his hips. Lance tilts his head back, arching into the touch, and Keith can’t help himself when he leans down and opens his mouth against the delicious skin of Lance’s throat.
“I’m always gonna come back to you, Lance,” Keith tells him. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
“I know,” Lance says, breath heavy as he smiles. “You still gotta make an honest man out of me.”
Keith chuckles and presses one last kiss into his skin before pulling away and sitting back on his knees. “Who said I was ever gonna do that?”
Lance props himself up on his elbows and he looks—Jesus, he’s cute. His hair is mussed, mouth still bright, bitten-red, eyes glittering with equal parts mirth and exaggerated outrage. His shirt has been pushed up, exposing a pretty stretch of a lean, brown stomach, his legs parted obscenely wide and open on either side of Keith. He wants to lean back in and press Lance into the floor, the hunger and the heat low in his belly wild with desire.
“I know you wanna marry me, Keith,” Lance accuses playfully, pointing a finger in Keith’s direction, eyebrows sharp over his pretty blue eyes. “Someday, I’ll get you to admit to it. Mark my words.”
Keith flashes him a toothy grin, thinking about Cuba, about Lance’s family, about that one little question. He thinks that Lance says that stuff to tease him, says it because he knows that they’re in love and it’s the real kind, the forever kind. Thinks that Lance doesn’t really expect it to happen any time soon. They’re still young, but Keith already knows he’s never going to want anyone else. It’s always been Lance, it always will be Lance, from the first to the last.
A blush rises into the crest of Lance’s cheeks as he pulls his hand back and then pushes up into a sitting position. He reaches towards Keith and cups his face in his hands, squishing his cheeks. “Stop looking at me like that, Kogane, my poor heart can’t take it.”
Keith can feel how soft he is, how Lance’s flustered little statement only makes him softer. He circles Lance’s wrists with his fingers and pulls his hands away so that he can kiss Lance’s palms reverently.
Lance stares and groans, cheeks growing more ruddy by the second. “Babyyyy.”
“I need to report in to Shiro,” Keith whispers, kissing up Lance’s arm slowly as he leans in. “And then I need to get something to eat.” His mouth presses just above the crook of Lance’s elbow. “And get out of this armor.” Lance’s bicep. “And take a shower.” His shoulder. “And then,” —his throat— “I think we should go to bed.”
Lance drops his head to the side and shudders through a breathless laugh, basking in the attention. “I’ll do anything you want if it means me getting up off this floor.”
“You attacked me.” Keith kisses his cheek.
“Maybe, but you flattened me like a steam roller when you flipped us over.” Kisses Lance’s lovely mouth, watches as Lance’s eyes flutter again when he lingers.
“You weren’t complaining.” Keith draws back slightly and smirks.
Lance grins crookedly. “No, I really, really wasn’t.”
Keith laughs at that and then finally makes it back to his feet, pulling Lance up after him. Immediately, because he can’t help himself, he leans in for another kiss, and then another, a little zip of pleasure lighting up his spine when Lance leans into him and makes a soft noise in the back of his throat.
“I have a question to ask you,” Keith whispers between their mouths.
Lance hums, half-gone. “Lay it on me, pretty boy.”
Keith, distantly, thinks about Cuba, thinks about Lance’s family. Thinks about the war, and how close they are to the end and how he wants to do this the right way, because that’s what Lance deserves. He cups Lance’s face and kisses him with a little more pressure. “It can wait.”
He meets no resistance. “Okay.” A sigh, sweet and light. “Okay.”
Maybe they stand there kissing for another ten minutes before Lance is finally able to break the spell and drag Keith out the hangar by the hand, flushed and starry-eyed, scolding him for being so damn insatiable.
But imagine flight attendant au with pilot Keith and lance attendant and Keith has a slight Texan accent as he talks over the comm thing... lol I’m on a plane and the pilot has an accent and it’s giving me ideas
thats so cute omg and i...............................got carried away with this
*
-there’s still a one-sided “rivalry” in lance’s case
-keith probably absentmindedly blew lance off on one of his first trips so he decided forever more that keith was rude and also Public Enemy No. 1
-keith doesn’t remember that ofc and is generally confused (and irritated) by lance’s disdain and the excessive amounts of sass
-lance probably always ends up on keith’s planes lol
-”there are like a million planes in our fleet WHY is it always HIM romelle why is the universe so fickle and cruel”
-his face gets hot every time keith talks over the intercom tho
-he tells himself its bc keith’s voice is annoying. that cute little southern lilt? obnoxious.
-you know what it’s also really funny if they’re always running into each other at the airports
-in lines for coffee or food, in the bathrooms, in the crew rooms, and sometimes even in the same hotels
-lance has had it up to Here
-one day, he’s tucked into the quiet room in the one of the crew rooms, trying to nap during his short layover, and he’s trying really hard not to be emotional, but it’s his abuela’s 90th birthday or somethin and his whole family is throwing a party but he can’t be there bc he has to work and it’s making him sad.
-really sad. he hasn’t seen a majority of them in a long time because he’s kept so busy and he misses them a lot and abuela certainly isn’t getting any younger u know
-so maybe he’s crying a little bit.
-as his terrible luck would have it, someone walks into the quiet room just in time to hear that sob lodged in his throat and there’s a long, awkward pause after as lance tries to steady himself and the person just stands there so that’s–
-”are you okay?”
-of course it’s keith
-lance tenses and doesn’t dare turn around. probably says something harsh and sarcastic and mean and his voice is raw and he’s sure this is about to be like, the worst day of his life; he’s sure keith is going to tease him or mock him or something but
-keith simply says, “i’m sorry” and he leaves the quiet room, shutting the door behind him.
-lance doesn’t get any sleep tbh, but he is thinking about keith now instead of his family which is better but also worse in so many ways
-and when he leaves to catch his next flight, there are a few crew members watching TV and one eating lunch over a newspaper and he finds keith awkwardly slumped over in one of the uncomfortable chairs against the wall. he must have been exhausted to fall asleep like that. his neck is gonna be stiff and sore when he wakes up, and he must be cold because he gripping at his elbows even in his sleep. he needed a cot a lot more than lance did, and he forfeited that to give lance privacy.
-lance is kind of distracted for the rest of the day and he keeps thinking about how he should have done something. left a note or something…
-he decides that he could just buy keith a coffee as thanks except
-it’s like weeks before they are scheduled to fly together again and lance hardly sees him in between all that (which of course, right, like the one time he actually wants to SEE keith) and he thinks it might be weird at this point? but he honestly can’t stop thinking about it.
-so one night on a particularly long layover, he orders a pizza and makes his way to keith’s hotel room on the floor above his to like, finally pay it forward and get this nagging guilt off his back
-only he’s never seen keith dressed so casually - dark sweats, dark shirt, hair messy and slightly damp from his shower - and it’s…a lot to process.
-keith is sorta suspicious “you’re not trying to poison me are you?”
-”har har, very funny, just take it so i stop feeling like a jackass.”
-”besides the obvious, why do you feel like a jackass?”
-lance looks away and shoves the pizza into his hands and his face is hot, hot, hot with a blush he prays to god keith can’t see. “you had plenty of reasons to be a dick to me when you caught me crying in the break room and then you fell asleep in the common area and probably had a really shitty headache afterwards because those chairs are not comfortable so–that’s why.”
-and keith takes the pizza, but “you really expect me to be a jerk to you?”
-”no, but sometimes i wish you would be one so we’re more even.”
-and that’s really honest but keith kinda sighs and half-smiles and then steps back from the door. “well, i hate to break it to you, but i can’t eat a whole pizza by myself.”
-they don’t talk a whole lot, but they do sit on the end of keith’s bed and watch a terrible movie on some local TV channel while they share the pizza between them and at the end of it all, when lance is walking back to his room later that night, his heart is pounding so hard in his chest he can feel his pulse at his throat
-a few days later, they run into each other in line at a cafe in an airport and keith buys him a coffee and a blueberry muffin as “thanks for the pizza” and lance is dismayed bc “no, dude, that was my thanks for being cool about my shitty attitude” but keith only smiles at him and insists
-they start getting along better after that
-a few days later, romelle is like “ok i know ur always talking shit abt kogane but merla saw you guys solving a crossword together in the crew room yesterday without biting each other’s heads off”
-”whats wrong with that? i got pop culture brain and he’s got random trivia brain - we make a good team!”
-they exchange phone numbers and then they’re talking literally all the time, about anything and everything. they both have a hunger and passion for travel and for trying new things and they bond over the places they’ve been and the sights they’ve seen. and lance has gotta finally and fully accept that he really, really, really likes keith. like, really really. a lot. too much.
-on one layover where they again happen to be in the same hotel, keith knocks on lance’s door - dressed casually again in dark clothes and messy hair and jesus christ the muscles in his arms - and asks if he wants to maybe get a drink with him.
-maybe lance does.
-they get drunk. keith leans on the bar and fixes lance with those dark, glossy eyes and lance doesn’t know if he’s drunk more off the alcohol or the way that keith is looking at him. keith says “why do you hate me so much?”
-lance tells him about the first time they met and adds, “dude, what? i don’t. i never hated you, keith. i was just butt-hurt that some hot, sexy pilot couldn’t even deign to say hello to me on one of my first flights and it was easy to stay mad about it. if you haven’t noticed i have a tendency to be over dramatic.”
-and there’s a lot there, to focus on. a lot to pull apart. but keith rests his cheek in his hand, elbow on the counter and stares, face flushed with the heat from the alcohol. his accent has deepened a little bit. “you think i’m hot and sexy?”
-and lance is panicking a little bit, but not enough to make him close up. “i think you think you’re hot and sexy.”
-keith hums. “i don’t think that.”
-”well, you should.” lance feels that its suddenly unbearably hot in the bar, but he takes another drink.
-and after a moment, keith blinks slow and lance thinks the heat should be melting him from the inside out. he feels so hot over that look that he thinks he should die from fever on the spot. “you wanna know what i think?”
-because lance isn’t quite drunk enough, he says, “no.” and keith merely smiles at that before changing the subject.
-they manage to get back to the hotel at the perfect level of inebriation - not too drunk and not too sober - and bc im a gratuitous ho, they probably fall asleep together in lance’s hotel room, fully dressed (shoes and all), both above the covers, the TV on and the volume down low.
-lance wakes up in the early morning to a hand brushing the hair back from his face and a low “i gotta go back early, lance, but i’ll text you later.”
-if lance wasn’t still half-asleep, if his eyes weren’t so heavy and sticky, if he wasn’t feeling warm and drowsy and safe he might not have said “okay. miss you.” and he might not have leaned into that soft touch against his temple, but he does. he does.
-if this was a fic something dramatic would happen about now. maybe lance has family issues or keith starts pulling away because of some personal problem or something but it doesn’t matter bc this is just supposed to be a cute list of hcs for an au like this LOL
-eventually, maybe a few weeks later after keith’s birthday (lance got him a book of crossword puzzles and keith calls him for answers he can’t get instead of looking at the answer key at the back and its very cute) lance finally texts him “what were you thinking that night when we were at the bar?” in the middle of the night.
-keith returns the text by calling and lance has a brief bout of panic before answering the phone.
-”i think you’re beautiful and i like the way i feel when i’m with you,” keith says by way of greeting. “i think i should ask you on a date, and i think you should say yes. and then when i take you home afterwards, i think you should let me kiss you.”
-lance’s heart threatens to burst out of his chest as he stares up into the dark. “you wanna know what i think?”
-”yes.”
-”i think you should have asked me a long time ago.”
-and they fall in love and travel the world together and its beautiful THE END
