Cleaned up the sketch!!! Wanted to post it since I'm not sure when I'll have time to color this. I only get like 2 hours a day to even work on stuff like this. But look both boys have their own little Keith/lance!!!
Tendrils of flame snake upwards in the orange-yellow haze beyond the mountains. The entire sky has been consumed by that nauseous color, casting the alpine in its infernal glow. Every breath tastes like smoke. Real fire and brimstone shit.
"C'mon, Lance, let's go on a boy's trip. It'll be fun!" Lance mocks.
This is a klance fic for @love-kl and everyone who wants to read it!! <3
Lance yawned as he flew Blue to Exidia. He was kind of bored of these missions. They had to just walk around and map everything out and take anything remotely interesting or related to the Galra back to the castle. This mission would last hours, which Lance wasn’t particularly excited about. Of course he had to be paired with Keith too. Ever since Pidge introduced Allura to the buddy system he’s had to be paired with Keith for every single mission. Lance was just sick of it! Keith was boring, quiet and really stubborn. Lance HATED the silence when they walked, but Keith just wouldn’t respond to his attempts to make small talk. Lance groaned quietly and landed his Lion next to Keith’s.
He drew in a breath as he stepped out of Blue, the planet was..beautiful. Luscious, tall grass was everywhere. It was a light blue, but it looked nice. There were trees pretty much everywhere. They reminded Lance of willows, their leaves making the tree droop to one side. Little insects were flying around slowly. They were pretty little things with all sorts of colors. The sky had a few beige clouds here and there, but the sky itself was a pretty shade of pale yellow. Lance’s hands gently brush against the tall grass, it felt amazing. Keith soon walked over to where Lance was and he also smiled slightly.
“It’s amazing here, isn’t it?”
“It’s so similar to Earth..” Lance answered quietly.
Keith hums and nods: “Should we get this mission over with? Everyone else has already gone to their designated areas.”
Lance sighs and nods, standing up straight.
They started walking to the area that needed to be mapped out. Lance tried to make small talk once in a while, but soon just gave up and admired the nature around them. Both of the paladins walked in silence until a high pitched scream came from Keith. Lance quickly turns to face him and to his surprise, Keith has fallen into a pretty deep pit.
“Keith!! Are you okay?” Lance yelled down the pit.
A quiet groan came from Keith as he stood up and craned his head to look at Lance. There was a bit of distance between them, but Keith could probably climb out with some help. He looked down at his armor and noticed a piece of the armor covering his shins had chipped off. Keith squinted at his leg. It was a little bit dark, but he was sure something was crawling on his leg. His eyes soon caught dozens of bright pink bugs climbing on him. Another scream clawed its way out of him. Keith could hear Lance’s panicked yelling from above, but he was frozen still. He tried to move and shake the bugs off, but hissed in pain when a few bit him. So, Keith continued standing there until a hand wrapped around his bicep. He looked up to see Lance leaning into the pit with most of his body, trying to haul him up. Keith grabbed his hand and tried to climb up despite the painful bites. The bugs eventually let go, but his leg was now a bit swollen with heart shaped bites.
“I think we should just map this hole and go back. Those bites look pretty bad, Keith.”
Keith tried to respond, but everything was going hazy. His head tilted to the side and soon he fell straight forward into Lance. Lance carefully caught Keith with a frown.
“Okay..we should really head back now..”
Lance carried Keith back to Blue while trying to connect with Allura or Shiro. He figured both of them would know something about these bugs which knocked Keith out. Lance was so focused on getting them back into a lion that he completely missed the look of complete adoration coming from Keith.
Back in Blue, Keith refused to sit anywhere else but Lance’s lap. Lance didn’t really have a problem with this since he was used to his younger siblings sitting on his lap all the time. Keith was much, much heavier than a kid though. He also curled up in Lance’s lap like a cuddly kitten. His arms were wrapped around Lance’s neck while he smooshed his face into his fellow paladin’s neck.
The flight back to the castle was pretty hard on Lance since he had to reach the controls by wrapping his arms around the barely coherent Keith. When they finally landed, Lance had to carry Keith all the way to the med bay where Coran and Allura were waiting for them. They both tried to pry Keith off of Lance, but he had an iron grip around Lance’s neck and would whine whenever either of the Alteans laid a hand on him. Lance eventually had to sit down because Keith was weighing him down, a lot.
A few hours later, the other paladins had flown back to the Castle and helped Coran and Allura get Keith off of Lance. Even though he complained a lot, Shiro managed to grab Keith and strapped him down onto the hospital bed so Coran could inspect him while Lance explained everything.
“Hmm, this seems like an average love bug bite. Keith will come to his senses in a day.” said Coran, examining the bites on Keith’s leg.
Lance stared at him, dumbfounded before letting out a screech: “I’m sorry what?! A love bug?”
Allura perks up from beside Lance: “Ah, yes! Love bugs are sometimes found underground on some planets! They make the person bitten absolutely obsessed and clingy to their crush depending on how much they like the person! I’m pretty sure Keith has a gigantic crush on Lance. I used to really like these bugs too.”
She hadn’t seemed to realize what she had said, looking around in confusion. Everyone had fallen silent, even Keith. A blush quickly crawls its way up Lance’s neck and onto his face then reaching his ears too. Shiro was staring at Keith as if seeing him for the first time. Pidge and Hunk took a minute, then looked at each other. A wicked grin spread across Pidge’s face and she held out her hand: “C’mon, Hunk! You know I won that bet!”. Hunk groaned and dug around in his pocket for any loose change he could fork over. Coran was delighted and congratulated Lance who was still way too flustered to speak.
After determining that Keith was too out of his mind to do anything but whine for Lance, Shiro had to help get Keith’s armor off. He was chuckling slightly, thinking about how embarrassed Keith would be if he found out the entire team knew about his crush on Lance and how they had to pry Keith off of Lance to examine him properly. To be honest, Shiro liked this version of Keith way better than the quiet and closed off one.
Everyone had headed off to their respective rooms by the time Shiro and Coran changed Keith into more comfy clothes. He was still begging desperately for Lance. Figuring that he wouldn’t be able to sleep without the other paladin, Shiro carried Keith to Lance’s room. He knocked softly, hoping to not disturb Lance too much. The second the metal door slid open, Keith sprang from Shiro’s arms right into Lance’s where he affectionately nuzzled his face into Lance’s chest. Lance glared daggers at Shiro and reluctantly closed the door, Keith still wrapped around him like a koala.
That night, Lance had slept better than he would’ve thought. Keith was warm and cuddly, basically a comforting heating pack wrapped around Lance. As soon as Lance pulled his blanket over himself and settled down, Keith fell asleep almost instantly. Lance’s eyes started drooping shut not long after and eventually, both of them slept in a comfortable silence.
Keith’s eyes slowly opened and all he felt was warmth and arms wrapped around him. He blinks the sleep away and looks up. Keith was tucked against Lance’s chest and he wasn’t complaining. Wait. How did he end up here, in Lance’s arms, after falling into that bug infested pit?! Keith tried to wiggle free and just woke Lance up in the process.
“Keith.?” Lance said hazily.
Keith froze and looks up at him with an awkward smile: “Hey..Lance. Mind telling me how I ended up here?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll pop into the shower real quick. You can ask anyone else about it. Everyone basically knows already. I’d suggest Shiro though, he wouldn’t twist any facts.”
And with that, Lance left Keith on his bed and walked into the bathroom with a long yawn. Keith carefully climbs out of bed and heads to his own room to do his business. About half an hour later, Keith was seated at the dining table with everyone except Lance who was most likely doing his skincare routine.
“Shiro? Could you tell me what happened? I don’t remember any of it, really.” Keith gruffly requested.
Shiro chuckled and started talking: “Lance told me you fell into a pit and got bitten by some bugs that left heart shaped bite marks on your legs. They should be gone by now, but you apparently had to be carried by Lance into the lions and then into the med bay. Coran and Allura couldn’t get you to stop clinging to Lance so, after the mission I helped them do it. Coran said that a love bug bit you and..everyone knows you have a massive crush on Lance. You kept whining for Lance, so I had to drop you off at his room. Congrats, Keith.”
Keith stayed silent, as his ears slowly started to tinge red, a massive difference to his rather pale skin. Everyone knows how much he likes Lance now. This was a massive embarrassment to Keith and he scurried off to find Lance and discuss it. Keith barged into Lance’s room only to bump into him as he ran in.
“Keith? Why are you still here?” Lance said, raising an eyebrow.
“Lance, we really need to talk about what happened.”
“Alright, we can sit on my bed..”
Keith fiddled with the hem of his shirt as he slowly sat down, avoiding any eye contact: “I assume you already know?”
“Well of course I do.”
“Might as well come clean then..Lance, I really, really, really like you. I was wondering if you..feel the same way?” Keith peered up at Lance, hopefully.
Lance averted his gaze to the ground and muttered something, but he repeated it louder: “After that night.? I think I might feel the same way.”
Keith’s head whipped up in shock. He definitely hadn’t expected Lance to say that, but soon his vision got cloudy. Keith could hear Lance panicking about the tears streaming down Keith’s face, but he was too overjoyed to tell Lance that these weren’t sad tears. Lance was wiping Keith’s face with his thumb, but resorted to just holding him instead. When the tears stopped coming, Keith lifted his hand up to gently cup Lance’s face. Lance leaned in close, so close that Keith could smell his peppermint toothpaste. Both of them slowly close their eyes as their lips softly collided. They spent a while kissing each other to oblivion until Keith pulled back, panting.
