Heyy would you be open to do 18 with Klance? No worries if not, hope you have a great week ✨💛
OOOOF this is so horrifyingly late, i hope you had a stellar week yourself and that u enjoy this silly lil thing i made kjhgkfl
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18. “Wait… That tickled?”
“You sure you wanna do this, Lance?”
The Altean ambassador in question nods, lifting the sword he had borrowed from Kolivan and shifting into a stance of defense, though from Keith’s perspective, it was a little weak. “Yeah, c’mon⎯ you can’t be the only cool swordsman around here.”
A roll of tempest eyes ensues, Keith’s own frame moving to settle into a proper stance that was ready to strike. “You’re already our cool, resident sharpshooter. Where did you get the idea to learn how to use a sword?” On the edge of those words lies an obviously teasing tone, one coupled with a gesture of his hand that told Lance to make the first move.
Anticipation flares within the pit of his gut, but he does as instructed, lunging forward with a swing of the steel in his grip. Keith easily blocks the attack and counters with a parry, one that further impairs his posture and makes it all that much harder to make a comeback. Lance grunts and dips at the hips to dodge an oncoming slash, stretching backwards in a lean that narrowly avoids the side of the blade. What Lance doesn’t realize is how much closer Keith’s gotten to him and with a launch of his arm, gloved digits press into, squeeze at and push at his opponent’s stomach, forcing him to collapse right on his ass. The strange thing that occurs, however, is the fact that right before Lance took a dive, Keith heard his boyfriend giggle.
“Wait,” Keith begins, a thick brow ascending along the surface of his temple, the corners of his lips perking into a budding smirk, “⎯That tickled?”
Lance’s eyes widened at Keith’s realization of accidentally hitting at a sensitive spot, but his pride refuses to permit him to give in. He releases a defiant huff through flared nostrils, scrambling to rise back up to his feet and attempting to will the spread of blossom-pink heat away from his cheeks.
“N-No! It did not! That was a cheap trick you just did Keith, take me seriously!” Yet when the aforementioned moves to sheath his sword as he advances, Lance knows right then and there that he’s fucked. There’s an immediate squeak from the amateur swordsman when Keith closes in, hands up in the air with fingers wriggling slightly at Lance.
“Cheap trick? I’m offended. All I did was knock you down, you’re the one who’s so ticklish that merely touching your stomach was enough to get you giggling.”
And Keith is rewarded with yet another giggle, observing with a smugness now sewn into his smirk as Lance backs away from him. “H-Hey, c’mon, Keith, nohoho⎯”
“No, what?” The tonality of his words feign an innocence that even Lance knows is fake, but it doesn’t help the anticipation and butterflies swirling about in his stomach, “I’m not even touching you, babe.”
“Not yehehet!” A small oof leaks from Lance’s lips when he notices something hard behind him, denying him further space to continue his fleeing from Keith. He’d backed right into a wall, and now was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Keith was quick to diminish the distance between the two of them, Lance leaning as much into the wall as possible with the hopes that he would just sink into the surface of it and escape his impending doom.
But he just wasn’t that lucky.
“Not yet,” Keith mimics, yet not even a moment later, digits settle on Lance’s sides and stroke at the cloth covered skin, “Now I am.”
“Keeeheheheheith!” Giggles burst from the sharpshooter’s chest, immediately squirming against the wall as his hands grip onto Keith’s wrists, with all the good that’ll do him. “N⎯Nonononohohohoho!”
“Think of it as stamina training, Lance.” That’s an excuse Keith has utilized before to justify tickling the shit out of the other male and it’s grown tired, especially to Lance, but it works as a tease all the same.
“I⎯⎯I dohohon’t neheheheed sta⎯hahahamina trainihihihihihing!” Lance had indulged in a minuscule break from the throes of battle and missions as the new Altean ambassador, but he was more than ready to dip his toes back into the water and wash off the rust of complacency. Keith, on the other hand, is more than ready to test out his current progress.
“I dunno.. It seems like you kinda do. I mean, look at how much you’re already sinking to the floor, just from a little tickling. You’ve gotta get sturdier than this, babe. Especially if you want to get on missions with me.” The Blade of Marmora has gifted Keith an exception to their rule regarding non-members attending missions with members, so long as Lance is personally trained by and vouched for by Keith himself before setting foot out in association to them. It's a blessing, yet also something of a curse as well, to the both of them.
“Okay! Okahahahay, I geheheht it! I’ll do beheh⎯betteheheher! Plehehehease, stahahap!” Lance’s pleas huff out in short breaths, his giggling reigning over every other verbal function of his body and his wiggling growing worse by the second.
Considering they still had hours of training left to achieve, and Keith could always continue this playfulness later when the situation was a bit less serious, his fingers slow to a halt and remove themselves from his boyfriend’s physique. He leaps back a bit, cautious, as though Lance may try to enact a vendetta right there, despite the slightly taller male indulging in the opportunity to suck up some air.
“Alright then. Pick up your sword and let’s go again,” In tandem with his words, Keith unsheathes his own sword once more, legs shifting to return to his prior battle stance, “I want to see improvement on your stances and more power in your swings. If I manage to knock you down again, I’m gonna tickle you again. Got it?”
Lance gulps, but the threat ignites a heat under him that he hadn’t felt before. He imitates Keith’s stance and performs it much better than earlier, earning a gaze of approval from his love. A bit of confidence rushes through and leads his charge with a swing that Keith actually has some difficulty blocking. They continue on like that for hours, training and aiding one another in becoming even stronger, to the point that when Hunk goes to check on them, he notices them huddled up together against the wall, dozing off against each other.