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When Keith is really bored at these kinds of meetings, he thinks about Lance.
It used to be a guilty pleasure of his. Not just because he was zoning out during potentially important talks — often times he’d been asked his opinion on something and hadn’t been able to give a straight answer, having not been paying attention — but also because it was Lance.
Because, at the time, Keith had been harboring a secret crush on him. He’d been fantasizing about him constantly, imagining what it would be like if he flirted with Keith the way he flirted with half the people they came across, and he could easily get lost in his head.
Nowadays, the only part that Keith feels guilty about is the lack of attention he’s giving to his future allies.
They started dating several months ago. It was actually one of the most humiliating moments in Keith’s life. He’d been delirious with a fever he’d picked up from an alien planet — only contagious to Galra, apparently, so they hadn’t thought to warn them — and Lance had ended up doing most of the taking care of him, given he was right across the hall and could often hear Keith throwing up or moaning in sheer pain.
It was on one of the worst days, when the fever was the highest, that Lance brought him soup. Keith was so overcome with gratitude that he teared up, and then he was clinging to Lance, and then some stupid, idiotic part of his brain was spilling everything — telling him how pretty his eyes were, how soft his hands felt, how badly Keith wanted him all the time, how he couldn’t stop thinking about him ever.
And days later, when Keith was of sane mind again, he considered killing either Lance or himself solely to avoid further embarrassment.
(It all worked out, obviously. Lance eventually managed to catch Keith in a moment alone, and instead of dragging Keith and his embarrassment through the mud, he asked whether he’d actually meant all that. And when Keith, grudgingly, had owned up to it, Lance had replied in kind. And then… well, it all kind of started from there.)
The only thing is, they haven’t gotten around to telling the others. It’s just — their friends can be kind of intense.
Back when Lance still hooked up with aliens occasionally, he almost always got some kind of talking to. Speeches about being responsible and concentrating on the mission and being dedicated and avoiding distractions. They just don’t know how the team will react to the two of them. If it’ll blow up into some huge issue, and even whether their relationship would be able to weather that kind of storm.
But so far, with just the two of them and zero teammates getting in their business and ruining everything, it’s gone great. Which is exactly why Lance is the perfect daydream material when Keith is bored out of his mind.
Like Lance’s hands, for example. They’re always soft because he moisturizes every time he washes his hands. Seriously, every bathroom in the castle has a bottle of lotion next to it for this explicit purpose. When they’re planet-side, Lance gets fidgety and uncomfortable after washing his hands, not having lotion to immediately moisturize them with.
Even though Keith doesn’t understand it, he definitely benefits from it. He could hold Lance’s hands for hours, just running his thumbs back of forth over them.
His lips are a different story. They’re so expressive, Keith could block the rest of his face from view and know exactly what Lance was thinking from the shape of his mouth alone.
They quirk upward on one side when he’s teasing Keith. He grins when he’s kidding, unable to make a joke with a straight face. His tongue comes out to dart across his lips on occasion — when he’s nervous, when he’s turned on. He pouts when he’s trying to pester something out of Keith. They tremble when he’s about to cry.
And Lance’s sense of humor… Keith could spend the rest of his life without being able to see anyone but Lance, and he’d still laugh just as often. He somehow always knows the right thing to say, at just the right time and with just the right emphasis, to send Keith into hysterics.
Before they started dating, Keith mostly acknowledged Lance’s jokes with scoffs and snorts and unintentional laughter, when he couldn’t help it. But back then, he’d been mostly Lance-adjacent. He hadn’t been the focus. He certainly hadn’t been Lance’s target audience.
Now, Lance spends half his time just making Keith laugh. He couldn’t possibly begin to calculate the amount of time they’ve spent alone in one of their rooms, gasping for breath because of something stupid Lance had said. It’s even better when Keith is the one who makes Lance laugh. It sends this little thrill through him, making Keith feel stupidly proud.
See what he means? He could spend an entire day just thinking about Lance. Detailing all the parts of him that he loves, thinking back to all the things they’ve done together. Lance works as a perfect distraction, although perhaps he works a little too well.
“Right, Keith?” Allura says sharply, glaring daggers into his soul. The other leaders of this planet are staring at him expectantly, and Keith nods, following Allura’s obvious lead.
“Of course,” Keith says.
Allura smiles back at the other leaders, relieved. “As I was saying, the paladins are perfectly capable…”
“Nice,” Lance whispers, bumping into his shoulder. Keith glances at him, but Lance is staring across the table, looking like the perfect paladin, someone who’s clearly paying attention. Keith doubts a single word they’re saying is actually sinking into his head.
“Shut up,” Keith whispers back. “You distracted me.”
“How?!” Lance demands. “I didn’t do anything!”
Keith doesn’t bother to share. Lance has no reason to know that he doesn’t need to do anything to occupy his every thought.
“We’ll now proceed with the tour,” the queen says benevolently, and everyone stands in unison as if the tour was something they previously agreed upon. It probably was.
Keith hastens to follow, falling into step beside Lance as they leave the meeting chamber and continue through the palace. The building apparently doubles as a museum/research center, which is evident as they make their way through the next several rooms.
There’s a galactic map in one of the rooms, splayed over the walls, ceiling, and floor. It shows where their planet, Amortia, is, as well as several of the planets around them, most of them close and trusted allies. Another room is full of historical artifacts, including bones, saplings from near-extinct plants, and ancient documents. The next room is full of bugs.
“Yuck,” Lance whispers to Keith, forcing him to hold in a giggle. He can’t help but agree, watching them all roam freely throughout the room. Flying ones and long, stick-like ones and big, slow ones.
“Imagine if we accidentally stepped on one,” Keith says. “We’d probably ruin the alliance, just like that.”
Lance laughs quietly, trying to hide it with a thoughtful hand to the mouth as he gazes up at the ceiling, where several kinds of bugs are encased in cocoons.
“Just remember the precautions we told you about as we make our way through this room,” the queen says elegantly, drifting along the floor.
Keith and Lance exchange wide-eyed looks, trying their best to copy her. Pidge picks her way through the room with a pinched face of disgust, clearly not liking being surrounded by bugs any more than they do.
They’ve made it almost entirely through the room when Keith manages to kick one of them. One bug had darted in front of him, making him stumble back, and the movement of his foot dragging across the floor propelled another bug almost entirely across the room. In retaliation, a big, pink bug leaps at Keith. He almost slaps it away before remembering that these are sacred bugs, and in his hesitation, it bites him.
He gasps, jumping from the sudden jolt of pain, and Lance grabs him by the arm and pulls him close, saving him from stepping on another bug.
“Uh oh,” Pidge says darkly.
Everyone else is already looking at them. Allura looks furious, probably unable to believe that they’ve fucked up this early in the day. Hunk looks worried, clearly not knowing the properties of these bugs any better than Keith does, and Shiro just looks strained. That might also be because he has a fear of anything that creeps and crawls.
“Oh,” the queen says, looking at them with delight.
“I’m sorry,” Keith says abruptly. Apologizing is probably for the best, right?
“Don’t be,” the queen says. “It was this little guy who bit you, yes?” she says, ducking to the ground and straightening with a bug in her hand. It’s big and pink, almost heart-shaped, and Keith nods. It sat heavy on his hand for just a second before sinking its demony little pincers into his skin.
“You’re lucky,” the queen says, lifting her hand and prompting the bug to fly away, landing on the ceiling. “There are few of them left on our planet, thanks to the fact that their shells sell for a high amount. We keep some of them here to protect them, but they rarely bite people. It’s considered good luck, in our society.”
Keith doesn’t think there’s anything lucky about it. Besides, it’s not like the bug chose to bite him specifically. It was an act of revenge on Keith for punting its friend across the room.
“Is it… poisonous?” Allura asks carefully.
“Not at all,” the queen says. “The next room features these creatures’ properties, in fact. Come along.” She gestures them forward, standing by the door while they file past her.
When Lance releases Keith, allowing him to walk freely, she places a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll want to stay close,” she warns him, and then she strides into the next room. Keith itches the bug bite on his hand, hoping it wasn’t some kind of radioactive beetle. That’d be the lamest superhero to become.
“The love bug,” the queen says grandly, gesturing to the walls around them. There are pictures of the bugs and its variants on every surface, as well as informational plaques beneath them. She stops beside the picture of the bug that bit Keith, smiling at him excitedly. Keith shifts on his feet, not liking where this seems to be going.
“The pink love bug, or the premtact love bug, is one of the rarer kinds,” she explains. “It’s pincers deposit a harmless venom into the victim, who then falls in love with the first person they touch.” Her eyes slide to Lance, who is now standing stiffly beside Keith.
“Wait, what?” Keith says, feeling a nervous chill come over him. What the fuck. What’s going to happen to him? Will it even work on him, considering he’s already in love with Lance?
“Yikes,” Hunk says quietly. “They’re going to kill each other.”
That might be true on Lance’s end. He definitely looks pissed, though Keith isn’t sure whether he’s mad at Keith for getting bit or the bug for biting him.
“It should kick in any minute,” the queen promises them. With that, she falls silent, just watching Keith. He stands there anxiously, waiting for the venom to send him into a weird, loving frenzy.
Lance is right to be worried, Keith thinks. There’s a chance that the venom could remove his filter entirely. What if he starts blabbing about the fact that they’ve been dating for a long time, now? What will the team think? What if they try to intervene?
But as the seconds drag on, Keith doesn’t feel anything. He feels completely normal, and he realizes that that’s a bigger tell than the love bug coming over him and making him act like a hopelessly in love idiot. If nothing changes, they’ll realize that he’s in love with Lance already. Worse, Lance will realize. Fuck.
The not-so-funny thing is, Keith has always had a hard time showing his affection. In the beginning, when he and Lance starting dating, he was closed off about everything.
He would never be the first one to kiss Lance. He’d just be waiting and waiting and waiting for Lance to decide to kiss him, reveling in it once it finally happened. Lance ended up catching onto this, and there was one time where they were hanging out in Lance’s room and Keith couldn’t figure out what the fuck was going on, why Lance hadn’t bothered to kiss him yet. Usually, they’d be well on their way to a makeout by then.
But they just kept sitting there, doing their own things, and Lance kept ignoring the glances Keith sent his way. No, not ignoring them. Because Keith realized that there was a smile slowly growing on Lance’s lips, his amusement building the entire time.
“Dude,” Lance had said eventually, finally looking up at him. “You realize you can be the one to kiss me, right?”
Keith had flushed all the way down his neck. He’d spluttered — definitely something incoherent — and ended up storming out of the room in a fit of embarrassment. He came back later that night, pressing Lance against his sink and kissing him deeply, because fuck it, he couldn’t back down from a challenge.
But it was like that with everything. He shied away from holding Lance’s hand, just in the privacy of their own rooms. He squirmed in embarrassment every time Lance tried to cuddle him. God knows Keith can still barely even stand the humiliation of being the one to initiate a hug. There’s just something about the vulnerability of it all, he thinks…
Except everyone’s staring at him. Clearly waiting for something that’s not coming, and Keith has to do something. Holy shit.
He lets his eyes glaze over. He tries to rip out his soul and expel it far from his body, send to a place where it doesn’t have to experience any of this first hand, and turns to face his boyfriend.
“Lance?” he says quizzically, trying to sound lovestruck.
“Yeah?” Lance says. He looks a little wary, probably not sure whether this is Keith talking to him or the love bug.
Keith stumbles forward a step, burying himself in Lance’s arms, and the queen and her entourage break into applause. Keith breathes out a sigh of relief, apparently having done the right thing. Lance laughs awkwardly, pretending for the benefit of their friends, and pries Keith off of him. But then he gets a glimpse of Keith’s face — brick-red with an accentuating glare, because Lance’s chest is honestly the only safe place in the entire room — and he flushes in response, obviously realizing that Keith is pretending for everyone else’s benefit.
He tugs Keith right back into his chest. Keith can hear his heartbeat. He clenches his eyes shut, trying to ignore the waves of embarrassment washing over him. Fucking hell, Lance already realized he was still him. Which means that he obviously knows that Keith is in love with him for real.
“I don’t think he was ready for the hug to be over,” Lance announces to the room. “He had… sad eyes,” he lies.
The queen’s laugh is tinkling. “Yes,” she agrees. “I doubt he’ll want to be far from you for the next few days. But it’s a wonderful experience — an honor, really, for both parties involved.”
“Yeah…” Lance says carefully, obviously agreeing just to be polite.
“Holy shit,” Keith hears Pidge whisper. She’s probably looking at him. Thinking about how out of character he’s acting. Keith wants to explode into a thousand little pieces, ceasing to exist at this very moment. He can only take so much humiliation.
The queen continues to present, detailing the ways the love bug tends to affect people — thank God, Keith thinks, memorizing every detail — and then they continue on with their tour, Lance managing to maneuver Keith into a side hug so that he can actually walk.
They get through the tour mostly unscathed, and then the queen signs on to join the coalition almost immediately. She thinks Keith getting bitten by a love bug was a sign of the greatness to come, and then they’re sent on their way, back to the castle-ship.
Back to a place where Keith will have to continue to put his feelings on display for the benefit of their friends or risk them finding out about the two of them for real.
“Meeting,” Allura says immediately upon their return to the ship. “Now.” Everyone files obediently to the bridge, taking their seats for the meeting. Keith follows Lance to his seat instead, sitting on his lap and trying not to give it all away with his red face. Everyone’s already looking at him — it’s impossible to escape their scrutiny.
“First thing’s first,” Allura says, turning toward Keith. “Keith, how much do you understand of what just happened?”
Keith scrambles for the right answer. He tucks his face into Lance’s shoulder while he thinks. “All of it?” he says finally, hoping he can get away with it.
“Please explain what you understand,” Allura says, standing in the middle of the bridge with her arms crossed.
“That bug bit me,” Keith says simply. “And I love Lance.”
Lance stiffens beneath him. Jesus fuck, Keith’s really not escaping this unscathed. But Lance should’ve realized it already, honestly. It’s not like he’s been very subtle.
“Right…” Allura says slowly. “Because of the bug.”
Keith frowns. “The bug helped me realize,” Keith says. “The love was already there.”
“No, the bug made you fall in love with Lance,” Pidge says. She’s sitting sideways at her own station, her legs dangling over the arm.
“How could you say that?” Keith snaps, sitting up and glaring at Pidge. “Fuck you.”
Pidge gapes, her glasses sliding down her nose.
“Okay,” Allura says carefully. “We’ll just have to deal with this for a few days.”
Keith scoffs, electing to ignore her. He buries his face back in Lance’s chest, hoping that they’ll leave him out of it for the rest of the conversation. Hoping that he can be done acting.
“Lance, are you… gonna be able to deal with this?” Shiro says. He sounds embarrassed, probably feeling awkward just seeing Keith in this state. He doesn’t blame him.
“Um — I mean. I think I can handle it,” Lance says haltingly. He rubs Keith’s back, then, as if to comfort him.
“I’ll delay our missions,” Allura says with a sigh. “I don’t think we should do anything grave while Keith is… indisposed.”
The conversation dwindles, the team coming to an agreement, and Keith pokes his head out of Lance’s chest. “I want to train,” he says to him.
“Okay, we can train,” Lance says. He stands up after Keith does, led by the pull of Keith’s hand.
“We’ll come with you,” Shiro offers, standing up as well.
“No you won’t,” Keith says. “It’s a date. Lance, tell them it’s a date.”
“Sorry guys,” Lance says. “It’s a date.”
Everyone stands stiffly and awkwardly around their stations, clearly not knowing how to act around a Keith that wants nothing to do with anyone besides Lance.
“You got this, buddy,” Hunk says to Lance, patting him on the back as the slip out of the bridge. Lance mumbles something in agreement, and they walk in silence all the way to the training deck, the doors closing behind them, before Keith collapses against Lance’s chest.
“I hate my life,” he groans.
Lance is finally open with his affection. His hands come up to touch Keith — everywhere. He slides them up and down Keith’s sides. Cups the back of his neck, tugs at his hair, cups his face. In doing so, he manages to peel Keith off of him, able to view the pouty expression Keith is sporting.
“You’re doing great,” Lance says, rubbing a thumb across his bottom lip. “You don’t need to be embarrassed. Everyone else thinks this is just the love bug talking.”
“Everyone but you,” Keith mutters. “And they’re seeing it, anyway. It’s humiliating.”
“It’s not,” Lance insists. “Although… I didn’t realize the love bug would have no effect on you.”
Keith groans again, closing his eyes and giving up on the thought of standing. Lance laughs, catching him before he can fall, and he grabs his hand, pulling him toward the staffs they use for practice.
“I’m just saying,” Lance says. “You could’ve told me you loved me.”
“I was going to,” Keith says grumpily. “Sometime. Eventually.”
“If it makes you feel any better, the love bug wouldn’t affect me either,” he says, spinning to face Keith with a grin. He tosses a staff at Keith, which he nearly fumbles in surprise.
“Wait, really?”
“No, I’m just lying so I don’t hurt you feelings,” Lance jokes. “Yes, you idiot. I’ve been working up to saying it for a while.”
“You’re such a hypocrite,” Keith says, spinning his staff toward Lance viciously. Lance blocks him, their sticks colliding with a thwack, and then they’re fighting for real. "You could’ve told me,” Keith imitates, pitching Lance’s voice up obnoxiously.
“Ass,” Lance says. “You think I sound like that?”
“Maybe,” Keith taunts, and then it’s on. They’re fighting all out, twisting and turning around the training deck, dodging each other’s blow and doing their best to surprise a hit out of the other. Keith used to beat Lance easily, back when Lance only ever trained his shooting skills, but it’s been getting harder and harder. Now, Lance can keep up with Keith effortlessly. Sometimes, he even manages to get a hit or two in.
They continue until they’re tired and sweaty, panting and leaning on their staffs for balance. The exercise has managed to clear Keith’s mind, some, and he’s feeling a little better already, even if there are still a few days of embarrassment ahead of him.
If there’s any upside to the whole thing, it’s that Keith can slip into Lance’s room that night without a care in the world. Sure, Lance’s room is only across the room from his, but it’s on the way to both the kitchen and the lab. There’s always a chance that Keith could step into the hallway only to run into someone coming back from a midnight snack or some late-night tinkering.
A few times, he’s even had to alter his course, pretending that he’s only up to get something to eat when he runs into someone in the hall.
But tonight, he just changes into his pajamas (Keith tried to crawl into Lance’s bed in his clothes from the day the first time they’d had a sleepover, and Lance had told him to either change into something else or sleep in his boxers) before heading over to Lance’s. He gets to fall asleep in Lance’s arms without any of the preamble.
The only problem is the next morning, when they emerge from Lance’s room to the sight of Hunk and Pidge knocking on Keith’s door. All four of them freeze, Hunk and Pidge slowly turning around to look at them.
“Heeyyy buddy,” Hunk says slowly, staring at Keith. Keith shifts closer to Lance, leaning into his side while glaring at Hunk.
“That’s not your room,” Pidge points out.
“It’s Lance’s room,” Keith informs her.
“Where he normally sleeps alone,” Pidge adds. Wrong, Keith thinks, not that she’d know that.
“You know,” Hunk says, obviously trying to come up with a solution on Lance’s behalf. “It’s probably a better idea to sleep in your own room. That way both you and Lance can get the sleep you need in case we have a battle we have to go to.”
“Calm down guys, it was fine,” Lance tells them. “Just some light cuddling.”
Pidge looks at Lance sympathetically. “He’s going to want to eviscerate himself after this shit’s done with,” she says.
“Future Keith,” Hunk says to Keith, staring deep into his eyes as if he can contact the future version of him that way. “Don’t feel embarrassed about all this when you’re back. You couldn’t control it and we understand that.”
Keith stares at Hunk blankly, not knowing how to respond, and finally ends up just grabbing Lance’s hand.
“I’m hungry,” he tells him.
“Prince charming has spoken!” Lance says, and he leads Keith — and by extension, Hunk and Pidge — to the kitchen.
The day is… exhausting, to say the least. The team feels bad about letting Keith monopolize Lance’s time and especially sleep in his room, apparently, so they not-so-naturally decree that today will be a team-bonding day, everyone forced to hang out together in the lounge. This is a million times worse, because Keith doesn’t have to act at all when he’s alone with Lance, but in front of everyone else, he has to do the most embarrassing shit.
Keith ends up finding a method to the madness. Eventually, despite being surrounded by the rest of their friends, Keith manages to pretend that nobody else is there. He takes this as an opportunity to tell Lance all the things he loves about him. While everyone else will think that it’s just the love bug talking, Lance will know that it’s genuine. Even better, he’ll be forced to act along with Keith, pretending that all the shit Keith says doesn’t effect him whatsoever.
Keith starts when they’re both on the couch, Lance sitting normally and Keith sitting with his legs sprawled over Lance’s lap.
“You know what I love about you?” Keith says, which will soon become a mantra, and Lance hums, prompting him to continue. “Your ears,” Keith tells him. “Ears shouldn’t be that cute. I want to bite them, like, all the time.”
Lance’s eyes widen slightly when he realizes Keith is telling him the truth, not just acting for the others, and he slouches a bit in his seat, embarrassed.
“You know what else I love about you?” Keith says, and he continues like that again and again and again.
Your voice, Keith tells him at one point. I love the way it sounds. I love the way you hum under your breath when you’re distracted, and sing the random shit that you’re doing. I love how it gets all pitchy when you’re annoyed and scarily flat when you’re angry.
Your hair, Keith tells him. You spend so much time making fun of mine, and then you don’t even do anything to style yours. Except it’s annoying, because it looks good anyway, like it’s purposefully tousled and not just regularly tousled.
Your shoulders. They’re one of the most attractive parts of you, I don’t know why. I could eat your shoulders.
Your legs. I can’t even say more about them. Just — all of them.
Your hands, your mouth, your eyes.
Your jokes, your laugh, your smile.
Keith spills it all, murmuring most of it to Lance, but he doesn’t doubt that their friends tune in at points, listening to the love bug mumbo-jumbo that Keith feels fit to tell Lance.
Thankfully, it seems like they get sick of hanging out after a while. Eventually, they let Keith lure Lance to another training session — trusting that he can occupy Keith and a weapon on his own — and they’re finally free.
“You’re evil,” Lance tells him. “You know that?”
And thus, they successfully make it through the second day. They almost make it through the third and final day, too. They would have, were Hunk and Pidge not so nosy.
They’re holed up in Lance’s room, having avoided their friends for most of the day, and they’re making good use of their unexpected free time. Most days, they’re swathed in missions and battle plans and drills and reports. Free days like these are fewer than expected, and it seems like a waste to do nothing productive with their free time.
Which is why they’re tangled under Lance’s sheets, gasping into each other’s mouths as they grind against each other. Their clothes were abandoned a while ago — littering the room at random — and Lance has him pressed into the bed, Keith arching up into him fervently, wanting more, always wanting more.
And then the door whooshes open and the mood is spoiled and the world is over.
“What the fuck,” Pidge says, standing there gaping. Hunk is red-faced, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open, and he quickly jabs the button to close the doors on them again.
“Fuck,” Lance bites out, just before they slide open again, Pidge obviously wanting to put a stop to whatever this is. They’ve maneuvered off of each other by the time they’re back in view, thankfully, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at the head of Lance’s bed, the sheets pooled around their waists.
“It’s not what you think—” Lance starts, but Pidge is having none of it.
“Allura!” she shouts. “Shiro!”
It takes, in Keith’s panicked mind, exactly two seconds for them to appear. And then they stand there in horror, just looking at the two of them. Caught in the act.
“Lance,” Allura says thunderously. “How dare you take advantage of Keith in this state—”
“Princess, please,” Lance says quickly. “It’s not like that.”
“It sure looks like that,” Shiro snaps. “You two need to get away from each other right now.”
Keith grips Lance’s hand under the blankets, telling him silently, stay the fuck beside me. This is one situation he doesn’t have the guts to deal with alone.
“He’s not lying,” Keith says desperately. “We’re dating.”
There. Bombshell. Prepare to be amazing and destroyed viscerally. It’s all over now.
“Keith,” Allura says tightly, pinching the bridge of her nose, “I know you think the two of you might be dating…”
“Allura, we really are dating,” Lance tells her.
“That’s not a decision Keith can agree to in this state,” she seethes.
“No, we were dating before the love bug,” Lance says, slow and careful. Really letting it sink in.
“The love bug didn’t even effect me,” Keith admits, feeling himself flush. More so than he already is, being caught naked in Lance’s bed. “I was just pretending. We didn’t want you guys to figure out that we were actually dating.”
Everyone’s silent for a second, just staring at them. Finally, Allura regains her composure.
“Get dressed,” she instructs them. “Meet me in the bridge.” With that, she punches the button and the doors slide shut with a horrible sense of finality. Keith squeezes Lance’s hand even tighter, dreading the coming confrontation.
“What do we do?” he says, looking at Lance desperately. Lance crawls onto his lap, poking his chin up and pressing a kiss to his mouth.
“We convince them to fuck off and let us do whatever we want,” he says. “We’ve been dating for months and haven’t messed up any missions. That’s proof enough.”
Keith nods, solemn, and he follows Lance out of bed, picking up his clothes and putting them on as slowly as possible, trying to stave off the inevitable.
“Don’t worry,” Lance instructs, grabbing his hand. “We’ll be fine.”
Together, they make their way to the bridge. Everyone is already waiting for them, looking shellshocked and confused and impatient.
“The story,” Allura says, perched on the control board. “From the beginning, please.”
“Um,” Keith says, glancing desperately at Lance. He clears his throat, taking the lead.
“Well, it started that one time when Keith had that Galra flu,” he says. “He was really delirious, and he ended up telling me that he liked me.”
Keith’s eyes slant to the side, then to the floor, in a general sense of embarrassment. “And then I wanted to throw myself out of an airlock, but Lance told me he felt the same way,” Keith says.
“Right. So, we started, y’know, dating,” Lance says awkwardly, shrugging. “And we didn’t want to tell you guys because we thought you wouldn’t approve. Or that you’d want us to break up.”
“Which we’re not going to do, no matter what you say,” Keith says imperiously, crossing his arms. “We’ve already been dating this whole time and we haven’t done anything to negatively affect the team or our missions. We’ve proven that we can balance our relationship with our duties as paladins.”
“And also we’re in love,” Lance chimes in. “And if you try to destroy true love, you’re going to hell.”
“Oh my God,” Pidge says. “Is that why the bug bite didn’t effect Keith? ‘Cause he was already in love?”
Keith shrugs. Coughs into his fist. “Yeah,” he says finally, shrugging.
“But then why’d you act like—”
“So you wouldn’t find out!” Keith blurts.
“You two are ridiculous,” Allura says finally. “Of course I wouldn’t make you break up.”
“Wow, Keith is a better actor than I realized,” Hunk says. “We could totally send him on some kind of recon mission. Have him blend in with the bad guys.”
“Please never do that,” Keith says desperately. Lance laughs, reaching up to muss his hair, and Keith smacks his hand away. “What did I say about doing that?” he snaps.
“That you love it?” Lance tries.
Keith springs into action, trying to mess up Lance’s hair in retaliation, but Lance dances out of the way, laughing.
“Wow,” Pidge says quietly. “They’re really dating.”
(It isn’t until the next day that the love bug wears off for real. Keith didn’t even notice its effects, while he was on it, but with the venom fully purged from his system — let’s just say he’s embarrassed about all the shit he said to Lance on the couch. Not that he admits this to anyone, even Lance. He just knows that Lance would find some way to tease him with it, which Lance does well enough on his own, thank you very much.)