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Lance didn’t know how he had gotten here, flushed and panting under Keith, who had an arm across Lance’s throat and a triumphant grin on his face.
He blinked a couple of times, forcing himself to focus on something other than the warmth of Keith’s body pressed on top of his and the outline of his chest through that atrociously tight shirt. His eyes were unfortunately drawn to the other’s unfairly gorgeous eyes instead. What kind of eyes were purple anyway? The universe was clearly out to get him.
“Not going to defend yourself?” Keith smirked. “Usually, you won’t shut up about how you only lost because Hunk put something in the food goo that you were allergic to.”
Lance shook himself out of his stupor and rolled his eyes with what he hoped was a convincing act of his usual annoyance at another sparring match lost. “I’ll get you next time, mullet. Besides, my gun beats your sword any day of the week.”
“Yeah, as if,” Keith scoffed, rolling off Lance to lay beside him on the ground of the training room. “Remind me how many times my sword has saved your ass?”
“Your saves tally is only two above mine, and that’s only because those guys ambushed me on our last mission!”
Keith laughed, and despite the slander being said against him, Lance couldn’t help but grin, knowing he was the one to cause it.
The black paladin turned onto his side and Lance followed suit, putting them face to face.
“Thank you,” Keith breathed out.
“The great Keith Kogane thanking me? I never thought I’d see the day!”
A beat.
“What exactly are you thanking me for?”
“For being my red paladin. For having faith in me when I didn’t have any in myself. Shiro was the only person I let myself rely on for the longest time, so when I lost him - again - I couldn’t handle the pain.” Keith swallowed before looking Lance straight in the eye. “You saved me.”
Lance stared in shock. This was so not how he expected his evening to go. Grabbing Keith’s hand, he dragged him into the tightest hug he could manage. When Lance pulled back, he realized they had found themselves in the reversed positions from earlier.
Keith was sprawled below him, cheeks glowing pink, and his hair forming a halo around his head.
And Lance was gone. He laced his hand with Keith’s and said, face inches away from his former rival’s, in barely more than a whisper, “I really want to kiss you right now.”
Judging by the way Keith surged up to meet him halfway, he agreed.
If there was a sort of desperation in the way Keith kissed him, Lance dismissed it, giddy with the revelation that Keith ‘Who are you’ Kogane somehow liked him back.
In the morning, when he woke up to a mission alert and the bed was cold next to him, he assured himself the Blade must have needed Keith and he would be back soon.
The next day Keith was leaving, and it was oh so easy to slip back into the resentment he’d felt for Keith back when he was still a cargo pilot.
And if he fell asleep hugging the jacket Keith had left behind two nights before and poorly holding back tears, well no one was there to say anything about it.