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[quwue]

The next morning, Keith wakes up to a chorus of screams coming from the courtyard. He can’t decide if it is coming from the children or if it coming from the collection of Pidge’s tiny body and Hunk’s huge one, but he hears, “Happy Birthday Lance!”, and it is so loud that it shakes the cabin.

Keith shoots out of bed, cursing himself for missing whatever was happening outside. He combs through his hair with his fingers uselessly and brushes hi teeth, not even bothering to change into his clothes before darting out of his room in his pajamas. In his head, he pictures himself tackling Lance into a hug, kissing him all over his face, screaming “happy birthday happy birthday” until his voice is gone; and deep down, he actually thinks he might do it. He thinks he might go for it. His heart starts pounding and his feet speed up, getting faster and faster.

But then he sees Lance, standing in the sun, all golden and bright and beautiful. He sees the elegant features on his face, his unabashed grin, his bright eyes, his freckles, his hooked nose, his wispy, adorable bedhead, and his stupid popped collar. He immediately loses his nerve.

He can’t help it. Every time he sees Lance, it’s like he gets even better. Even more breathtaking. It surprises him every single time. His breath hitches and he slows his feet, coming to a stop behind Lance.  At the sound of his pathetic panting, Lance turns around and flashes him a dazzling grin that leaves him breathless.

“Buenos días, rojo! Your bedhead is looking especially swell today.”

Keith stomach flips relentlessly in his chest. “Happy Birthday.” It comes out nervously, hesitantly, and Keith mentally slaps himself for sounding so shy.

Lance chuckles. “Gracias, tonto. You going to let me win at Capture the Flag today?”

Keith smiles, already feeling the butterflies swirling in his stomach under Lance’s gaze. He hums. “Maybe just this once, because it’s your birthday.”

Lance pumps his fist in the air and whoops. “Yes! Sweet.” Pidge rolls her eyes and Hunk laughs. Keith drinks in Lance’s smile.

*

Lance has almost all of Hunk’s cake for breakfast. Literally 3/4ths of it. And then spends the next hour complaining about his stomachache, moaning and groaning about regretful decisions, and blaming Hunk for his talents in the kitchen. Hunk shrugs and says, “I told you not to eat it all at once! Remember what happened two years ago with my chicken parm?”

Lance groans again at the supposedly horrible memory of whatever happened with the chicken parm, and Keith laughs, rolling his eyes. “You are one of the most extreme people I know.”

“Me?” Lance shrieks. “Have you met yourself?” And Keith just shrugs nonchalantly in response, loving the way Lance sputters frustratedly and smacks his shoulder.

Keith had gone back to his Cabin and wrapped Lance’s gift earlier in the day. It is now in his back pocket, and Keith is waiting not-so patiently for the right time to give it to him. He leans back in his seat to make sure it is concealed as Lance continues talking.

“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Lance asks. “We gonna roast some marshmallows? Have a heart-to-heart around the campfire? Talk about our place in the universe? Barf up blue icing all day?”

Pidge snorts. “No, you idiot. We are going to go out.”

“Wait, really?” Lance sits up excitedly. “Like, to Applebee's?”

“What? No way. What the hell? We’re going to a club, dumbass.”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “But the nearest club is like an hour away from here.”

Hunk shrugs. “Guess we’re driving an hour then.”

“What about the campers?”

“Coran said he could do a movie night with them. He’s got a whole list of movies planned.” Hunk replies.

A slow smile spreads across Lance’s face, gentle and fond. “Man, I love you guys.” He says. “This is going to be so fun! I gotta go practice my moves!”

Pidge laughs out loud at that, and rolls her eyes. “Okay, Lance. But first, let’s go make sure all of our campers are alive.”

Lance nods. “That’s probably a good idea.”

***

Around 2 o'clock, the day gets especially hot. The sun is beating down heavily onto the campsite and all of the counselor change into swimsuits to try and stay cool. They are all sitting at a picnic table, watching the kids play a pathetically disorganized game of ninja (which includes Lance of course, whose long gangly limbs pretty much tag every child within a five foot radius) and talking about their plans for the night. After a while, Pidge and Hunk round up their campers to go to the Lake, because it is just too hot, and Keith says he will follow them. It goes without saying that it’s because he wants to wait for Lance, but Pidge and Hunk exchange a subtle, knowing look that Keith doesn’t miss before heading down to the water.

A few minutes later, Lance jogs over to the table, covered in sweat and smiling smugly. “Guess who just dominated in ninja!” He flexes his thin bicep and winks at Keith, who is smirking and trying to cover up the persistent heat in his face.

“You are four times their size. Unfair advantage.” He deadpans.

Lance squawks indignantly. “Nu-uh! I won fair and square!”

“You sure they didn’t let you win? You know, birthday pity?” Keith’s smirk has broken into a grin.

Lance scowls. “Cállate, rojito. I’m a winner.” The he sticks his tongue out like the mature adult he is. He takes a few steps forward and plops down next to Keith on the bench. Keith chances a small glance in his direction and sees him staring and his campers playing, looking lost in thought.

“Lance?” Keith asks.

“Hm?”

“What happened on your birthday last year?” Keith sees Lance’s face visibly screw into one of pure discomfort and adds, “Pidge just mentioned that last year wasn’t too great and...I don’t know. I was just wondering. You really don’t have to tell me.”

There is a brief silence and Keith feels like he is suffocating. Then Lance just says, “I mean, it really wasn’t as bad as everybody thought. I was just a little down, that’s all.”

Keith doesn’t say anything, just waits for him to continue.

Lance takes a deep breath, resting his elbows on the picnic table behind him and leaning back. He continues to look at his campers as he speaks. “It really wasn’t that big of a deal. There was this concert that I had bought tickets for, literally a year before my birthday. It was a DJ that I was obsessed with and I was so shocked that he was coming to my small hometown.” Lance chuckles a little. “I was like, woah, hey! And on my birthday too! It was meant to be.”

Keith turns towards Lance a little more, eyes tracing over the graceful rises and dips in his profile. The sun is making the sweat on Lance’s nose and upper lip glisten in the most delicious way. Keith clears his throat slightly, letting Lance know that he is listening.

“A couple weeks before the concert, I had everything planned. I had a ride, I had friends to go with, I had all of the songs on my car playlist, I was set. I had saved up so much money for those tickets and now I was finally getting to go” Keith sees his smile start to fade. “But, you know, shit happens.” Lance clears his throat a little awkwardly. “My younger brother was failing math and science, and he wasn’t going to pass seventh grade. My family needed to sign him up for summer school, and tutoring, and…” Lance takes his elbows off the table and moves his arms to wrap them around himself. “Well, my mom sold my tickets for the money. And she sold them without even telling me...so I showed up at the concert and they told me to fuck off, pretty much.” Lance sighs and shrugs. “I mean, I wouldn't have cared if she had asked me first but...it was all so frustrating, and disappointing, and I felt really betrayed.” Lance takes a shaky breath. “So I came back to camp three hours earlier than I was supposed to, and everyone was like ‘how was the concert?’. And, I mean, what could I say? So I just went to bed early.”

A beat of silence follows and Lance smiles at one of his campers, who waves to him. His face falls when the camper turns away.

“Oh man, Lance.” Keith almost forgets to respond. “Oh man, I’m really sorry that happened.”

Lance turns to him and, surprisingly, smiles. “It’s okay, my brother is in the top 10% of his class now. So, you know, sacrifices had to be made but maybe it was all worth it. He’s a lot happier.” Lance’s smile gets even bigger. “And, I have amazing friends who are taking me dancing tonight! So life does get better, huh? Imagine that.”

Keith smiles, trying to ignore the desperate ache in his chest to wrap Lance up in his supremely gay arms. He thinks about the beginning of the summer, when he hated this camp and he hated Lance and he hated the sun and he didn’t want to meet the team.  “Yeah, imagine that.” He says back.

_ _ _ _ _

It has been a hot minute since Keith has been to a club.

The air is stuffy and hot, the bass is shaking the ground and the dance floor is packed, people pressed up so close together that they can’t even move. Keith wrinkles his nose in disapproval. He really isn’t a clubbing kind of person.

Lance, on the other hand, is beaming. “Holy shit!” He shrieks. “This is going to be awesome!” He grabs Pidge with one hand and Keith with the other and drags them to the bar with Hunk in tow.

“Order whatever you guys want.” Hunk said. “I’m buying. I owe Pidge a bunch of money and Lance is the Birthday boy so, it’s on me.”

Lance grins wildly at him and then turns to the bartender. “Hey gorgeous,” he says smoothly, the nickname rolling naturally of his tongue. “I’ll have a rum and coke, this kid’ll have a vodka soda, and,” he turns to Keith, raising an eyebrow in question. Keith shrugs and mouths, whiskey? Lance turns back to the bartender, “--and this handsome mullet-head will have a whiskey on the rocks.” He winks and the bartender, who is a beautiful girl with long blonde hair and brown eyes, giggles and rolls her eyes at him.

“Coming right up.” She says.

Keith tries desperately to ignore the fact that Lance is flirting with someone who isn’t him. Lance turns around and leans back against the bar, surveying the dance floor. His expression is excited and bright. “Damn, I can’t wait to dance. You’re going to dance too, verdad?”

Keith doesn’t realize that Lance is talking to him until he looks over and sees Lance staring at him, waiting for an answer. He shakes his head wildly.

“Me? Oh, no way. I really really don’t do that. Ever. In my life.”

Lance leans in closer. “What? Dude you have to shout, I can’t hear shit over this music!”

Keith leans in closer as well, not able to control himself. Their noses almost touch. “I’m not going to dance!” He shouts.

Lance smirks and raises an eyebrow. “We’ll see about that rojo. I’ll ask you again once you’ve had a few.” He sends a wink in Keith’s direction and Keith is giddy with anticipation.

About five drinks later, everybody is starting to feel it. Pidge, the designated driver (and also not legal, she just snuck in behind Hunk), is the only sober one and it is very obvious. Lance is telling a story, shouting and using exaggerated hand gestures, his words slurring and his motions sloppy. Keith doesn’t even understand what is going on, but he laughs all the same. Because this is Lance and Lance is hilarious and beautiful and captivating so he laughs because what else can his drunk ass do?

They have already gone through two order of french fries. The baskets are strewn across the table, not one crumb left in them. Lance orders another shot of tequila and they all take it together, clinking glasses beforehand and shouting, “To Lance!” And Keith means it. He really really means it.

A new song starts and the people of the dance floor cheer. Lance perks up. “I know this one! Oh my god I love this song! Hunk, dance with me!”

But Hunk looks rather preoccupied, making heart eyes at a woman across the dance floor. The woman is beautiful, and smiling at Hunk. She beckons him to come over. Hunk looks at Lance panicking, and Lance rolls his eyes. “Fine, go get her big guy.” Hunk grins, eyes glazed over from the alcohol, and sloppily stumbles out of the booth towards the mystery woman.

“Looksszlike you’re stuck wi’ me!” Lance slurs, practically falling onto Keith in the booth. “Dance with me.”

Keith is too drunk to try and hide his goofy grin. “I can’t dance.” He shakes his head wildly, giggling. “I’ll look like an idiot.”

“Come on, guapo, it’s my birthday! Come on, give me something! Quiero bailar contigo, seria divertido, it’ll be so fun lo prometo--”

Keith laughs. “Okay, okay! Enough with the drunk Spanish, I can’t take it!”

Lance cheers and grabs Keith by the wrist. Keith didn’t realize how drunk he was until he actually stands up, the walls spinning and his legs wobbly. He stumbles into Lance and Lance stumbles as well. They both laugh hysterically at their drunken disorientation.  

Before he knows it, he is standing with Lance in the center of the dance floor, surrounded by a sea of moving bodies, pressed together between hundreds of sweaty dancers. Keith is far too drunk to feel uncomfortable, and when Lance wraps his arms around his waist, he isn’t even embarrassed of the small hum that escapes his lip as he presses in close. He feels Lance’s lips brush against the skin just below his ear. “Just follow my lead, rojo.” He says, voice low. Keith nods dumbly, suddenly very aware of Lance’s body pressed firmly against his.

He briefly wonders, in his drunken haze, if it is possible to die from wanting someone so badly. He feels the muscles in Lance's stomach moving against his as he starts to sway his hips, and he is already incredibly overstimulated, helpless, and desperately turned on.

He moves his eyes upwards and Lance is looking down at him, a cocky smirk plastered onto his face. “Now you move your hips too.” He says, tightening his arms around Keith’s waist and bringing them impossibly closer. Keith’s brain short circuits.  

“I can’t.” He says.

“Sure you can.” Lance dips his face lower, leveling his eyes with Keith’s, their noses only a breath apart. “Just back and forth, to the beat. Like me.”

Keith can’t think at all with Lance this close to him. He can feel Lance’s hips against his, swaying back and forth, creating a delicious friction that has him biting back a moan and breathing a little heavier than normal. The heat between them is rising. Lance’s scent envelops him, tangy and sweet and so inviting. Slowly, Keith starts to sway his hips to the beat, matching Lance’s movement. Lance smiles at him, eyelids heavy. “Mmm, there you go.”

The song starts to speed up. The crowd around them grows heavier, pushing them into each other. Keith is dizzy with the feeling of their hips grinding together. He feels Lance’s hands running up and down his back, settling on the curve just above his ass. He digs his fingers into the skin there and pushes Keith’s hips into his. Not expecting the new sensation, Keith lets out an embarrassingly low moan, falling forward and nestling his face into Lance’s neck, not able to control the urge to any longer. The beat is loud and vibrates through his entire body, every thrum of the bass matching up with a sway of hips, a new angle, and new sensation, and holy shit Keith’s head is spinning and it isn’t just because of the alcohol anymore.

The skin of Lance’s neck is smooth under his lips. It smells sweet and musky and Keith doesn’t even think before opening his mouth and darting his tongue out, swiping it lightly over the soft brown skin, his alcohol-induced confidence making his judgement incredibly hazy.  

He feels Lance melt at the touch, grinding forward, harder, and faster. Their movements slowly start to evolve. Keith gives in, sucking the skin into his mouth and biting down, and holy shit Lance is so hot and he tastes so good and fuck he feels Lance shiver against him and tilt his head back, inviting Keith in for more. Their grinding starts to get sloppy but Keith doesn't care, because they are still pressed up against each other in the hottest way and Lance is making small noises, gasps of pleasure and low moans, and Keith can’t even believe a sound that sexy can exist. He can’t get enough. He wants to taste every part of Lance. He wants to drink him, breathe him in, lick him up and down. Heat is bursting all over his body, persistent and terrifying. He needs more.

He moves his face away from Lances neck and Lance whines, low in his throat. They both fall forward, breathing heavily, foreheads pressed together, still moving to the beat. Their breath mingles, Keith can feel it, hot on his face. Lance eyes flutter shut as the sway of their hips match up again. Keith can’t tell if he is hard, but he probably is, and when their noses bump a jolt runs through Keith’s entire body that almost makes him blind with desire.

“Lance--” he rasps, and he feels Lance’s hands sliding up his shirt, running over his stomach and holy fuck he doesn’t know how much longer he’ll last--

The song ends, and it’s like the spell breaks. They both freeze. Lance with his hand up Keith’s shirt, their foreheads resting against each other, hips pressed together, eyes shut, breathing heavily.

“Mmmm, rojo.” Lance hums drunkenly, sounding dazed. He rubs their noses together. “You are a good dancer.”  

Keith wants to lean forward, wants to close the space between their lips. He wants to hear Lance moan again. He just wants wants wants and he is so drunk and Lance smells so good--

“Hey guys! I want you to meet Shay!”  

Lance and Keith jump apart like they have been electrocuted at the sound of Hunks voice. They turn to look at where the voice is coming from and see Hunk pushing through the crowd, holding hands with the beautiful girl he was looking at earlier in the night. She has tan skin and large, brown eyes, with short thick hair that comes to a stop at her chin. “This is Shay! We bonded so much!” Clearly, Hunk is still drunk, but Shay doesn’t look very sober either. Lance laughs and gives Shay a high five, as if that is an acceptable way to meet someone, and Keith waves shyly.

They find Pidge again and sit back down, ordering even more food and laughing about ridiculous things. Keith can feel his present for Lance burning a hole in his back pocket. As he starts to sober up he begins to feel a heavy nervousness come over him. Maybe he made a mistake. Maybe Lance won’t like it, or think he’s too extreme, or get weirded out and stop talking to him. Maybe he shouldn’t give it to him. His knee bounces up and down as the nerves start to overtake him.

The rest of the night goes by in a blur. The more sober Keith gets, the more aware he becomes of the fact that he needs to give Lance his present before the night ends.

Lance keeps glancing at him, a strange look on his face. Keith notices that the flush from the alcohol is slowly leaving his cheeks and he is obviously sobering up too, even if only a little.

The drive back is quiet because everybody is exhausted. Pidge tries to start a conversation, but Lance and Hunk are asleep, and Keith feels himself drifting off too. He hesitantly lets his head fall onto Lance’s shoulder and closes his eyes, feeling nervous and comfortable at the small contact. He falls asleep with a dull heat in his chest, left from the whirlwind the night had been.

_ _ _

When they get back to the campsite, it isn’t really that late. Poor Coran had to handle making sure all of the kids went to bed by 11:00, and it is about 12:30 when the counselors get back. Keith is still tipsy but not nearly as gone as we was before, and by the sleepy look on Lance’s face, Keith can tell he feels the same. Pidge and Hunk bid them goodnight and head to their cabins, rubbing their eyes and yawning.

The present in Keith’s pocket feels like it’s a hundred pounds. Should he give it to Lance? Is it even a good idea? Keith starts panicking because Lance is walking towards him, probably preparing to say goodnight, and he needs to make a decision.

Lance must see the panic in Keith’s eyes because his pretty eyes look dark with worry. “You going to be okay, rojo? Are you still having nightmares?”

Keith feels his stomach drop to his feet, suddenly feeling the urge to cry, because Lance cares. He can hear it in his voice. Lance cares about him. Lance wants to make his nightmares go away. To make him feel better. Even though the past week has been strangely nightmare free, Lance wants to make sure. Keith feels his heart expand like it’s about to burst, suddenly overwhelmed with feelings, and without thinking he stuff his hand into his back pocket and shoves the contents in Lance’s face. “Happy Birthday.” He says, voice breaking a little.

In his hand is a small, white envelope, with ‘Lance” written in chicken scratch writing on the front.

Lance stares down at it, eyes wide, blinking. “You...you got me something?”

Keith snaps his gaze to the floor, hiding his maddening blush. “Yes, I got you something, idiot. It’s your birthday.”

With shaking hands, Lance reaches out and takes the envelope. He continues looking at it like it is glowing. Keith sighs awkwardly. “Are you gonna open it or just stand there?” He tries to sound nonchalant but his voice comes out high pitched and rushed.

Slowly, Lance peels back the front of the envelope, hands still shaking. Keith looks at his face, eyes downcast and dark lashes fanning against his freckled cheeks. He doesn’t take his eyes off of that face, not even when Lance slowly looks up, eyes glassy and wide, locking with Keith’s.

“Keith...these are plane tickets.” Lance says, voice shaking.

“To Mexico.” Keith says. Lance just stares at him, eyes filling with tears. Keith can’t stand the silence and keeps talking. “Because, you know, you didn’t get to go...before.” He clears his throat. “And there are two, so you can take you brother, or Hunk, or your mom, or maybe one of those friends you were supposed to go with, even though personally I don’t think you should take one of them because--”

“Keith.”

Keith snaps his mouth shut and notices that there are tears streaking Lance’s face. Lance holds a hand up to his mouth, but Keith can tell he is grinning underneath it by the way his eyes crinkle at the corners. “You got me plane tickets.” More tears fall from the ends of his eyelashes.

Keith shifts awkwardly on his feet, feeling a rush of emotions too strong for him to handle at the sight of Lance crying. He feels tears prickle his eyes as well but blinks them away. “Yeah, I did.”

Lance shakes his head, eyebrows scrunching up. “How did you--?”

“I made money here too, so.”

Tears won’t stop falling from Lance’s eyes. Keith tries to ignore that fact that Lance is not at all an ugly crier.

“You used the money you made this summer to buy me plane tickets?”

Keith shrugs, but he is shaking under Lance’s intense gaze. “Well all the money you make here goes to your family but...you deserve something too, I mean, for your hard work.”

Lance is looking at Keith incredulously, wide eyes darting all around his face, like he is trying to comprehend what is happening.

“You got me plane tickets.” Lance says again, softly.

Keith nods, trying to control the blush burning it’s way across his whole body. “I...yeah.”

At that, Lance lets out a sob that sounds oddly like a laugh and grabs Keith’s face, smashing their lips together. Keith makes a surprised noise at the contact because holy shit holy shit Lance is kissing him and his lips are exactly how Keith always imagined them to be; warm and soft and sweet and salty like the ocean. Keith breathes in, deep with his nose, and smells that intoxicating citrus that makes his crazy, and suddenly he is wrapping his arms around Lances neck, kissing back with even more force than Lance. He digs his fingers into the hair at the nape of Lance’s neck and revels in how soft, how touchable it is. Lance’s lips are moving so deliciously against his, and he can feel everything. The smooth skin, the hooked nose, the dried tears, the eyelashes fluttering against his cheeks. Lance breaks the kiss and moves his lips to Keith’s cheek. His lips are suddenly all over Keith’s face, planting small pecks on his forehead, his lashes, the tip of his nose, the corner of his mouth. Keith is struggling to breathe under the sudden attention, and between every kiss, Lance speaks, voice sounding helpless. “You” kiss “are” kiss “one of the most” kiss “amazing people” kiss “I have ever met”. He pitches forward and catches Keith’s lips with his again, and Keith swears that he is not alive, the he is dead and in heaven and this is all a dream. He waits for something to go wrong and nothing does. He can kiss Lance forever. He whines as Lance’s hands card through his hair, run up his back, touch him in the way he has wanted for so long. They break because they need to breathe, and Lance’s forehead is sleek with sweat, pressed against his. They are both panting, Lance's lips wet and bitten. Keith hadn’t even realized he was doing any biting or licking at all, but apparently he had.

“You just kissed me.” Keith says, voice hoarse.

“You got me plane tickets.” Lance says again, like he is still in shock.  

“You are,” Keith starts, voice still not back to it’s normal pitch. “You are one of the most amazing people I have ever met, too.”

And as Keith watches Lance’s smile spread across his face, he can’t help but think to himself, easily the most amazing person.

Chapter 9

: softNotes:

I literally have only 40% of an idea of how to end this fic, and I'm still working through it haha. This chapter is a little shorter but heres some fluff for you all, some "after the first kiss" action haha. I'm thinking one more chapter and an epilogue or just one more chapter? We'll see! Either way, coming to an end soon, which is upsetting, but I've already started a new one, which is exciting!

Just wanted to say a massive thank you for everyone who has read, and left such beautiful comments. What a rollercoaster writing this has been. I'm so happy! You are my people.

Chapter Text

They exchange numbers immediately after they kiss.

Really, it is something that should have happened weeks ago, and Keith had laughed for about ten minutes the night before when they broke from kissing for the third time and Lance said, “I don’t even have your fucking number, tonto , quit sticking your tongue down my throat!”

They had gone to bed giggling like twelve year olds, Lance refusing to let go of Keith’s waist and groaning about how much he wanted to cuddle all night. Keith had just rolled his eyes, blushing like crazy, and pushed Lance away (rather reluctantly), saying that literally every bad thing that has happened to him this summer had been due to Lance being distracting. Lance had pouted like a child and crossed his arm over his chest, watching Keith walk towards his cabin. Right before he got too far, Lance grabbed his wrist and spun him around, planting one more kiss on his nose (“Okay that’s it I’m done for real now goodnight!”)

It is 6AM and Keith, by some mystery that will forever stump all of mankind, is wide awake. He is staring at the collection of digits in his phone, screen so bright that he is squinting. There is a heat in his cheeks that hasn’t left since the night before, and he still doesn’t quite understand that it all actually happened. Lance kissed him , more than once. More than twice, even. Lance think’s he’s amazing. Lance wants to cuddle with him. What?

Despite all of this, he can’t seem to control the nerves twisting and turning in his stomach as he stares at the name “Lance (aka el guapo :p)” in his contacts. This is Lance. The same Lance it has always been. Except now he is in Keith’s phone. Keith can text him, and call him, and send him silly pictures--all of which he typically wouldn‘t give a shit about but because it’s Lance, he feels like he is holding the world at his fingertips.

Almost as if Lance can read his mind, his phone lights up and a text appears on the screen. Keith’s heart almost leaps out of his throat as he opens it. All it says are two words in caps.

Lance (aka el guapo :p)

VOLTRON CUPPPPPP

Keith stares at the words in confusion. They sound vaguely familiar to him, but he can’t quite piece it together. Chuckling a little, he texts back.

Keith

...what? also, why the hell are you up?

He gets a response in under twenty seconds.

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)

Tonto, there are only two weeks of camp left. That means itS TIME FOR THE VOLTRON CUP

Keith raises an eyebrow at his phone as if Lance can see him.

Keith

am I supposed to know what ur talking about?

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)

Oh man tonto, you really didnt read the welcome materials did you

Keith

Does it look like I did?

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)

lol , well ur lucky you have me to tell you ;) Voltron cup is the big competition at the end of camp every year between all the cabins!!! Helloo??? Duh, rojito.

Keith suddenly remembers where he heard the words before. The first day that he spoke to Lance, he had told him about it, saying that his cabin “wins every year” and the red cabin is “the loser cabin”

Keith

Oh yeah, when you were still an insufferable asshole you warned me about it, i remember now.

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)  

Oh yeah! Rigghhhtttt, oops

Keith is grinning now, looking down at his phone with an ache in his cheeks from how large the smile is.

Keith

I may have had my tongue down your throat last night but my cabin is still beating all of your blue doodles, so don’t even bother trying

Keith can almost hear the indignant squawk that comes out of Lance at the sight of his message, and he giggles wildly to himself.

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)  

Oh alright i see how it is rojito. Fuck it, it’s on!  

Keith

>:)

_ _ _ _ _

Apparently, the Voltron Cup is a pretty big deal to the kids, because when all of Keith’s campers wake up, there is an undeniable change in energy that is buzzing throughout the cabin. Stacy ties her hair in her lucky hair tie, Leo wears his favorite shorts, and Jack is wearing a shirt as bright red as Keith’s polo, grinning smugly and saying, “I look just like Keef!” as if it is something to be proud of.

In the two weeks that are left of camp for the summer, all five cabins need to somehow be narrowed down to two finalists, who will end up competing in the last week for the Voltron Cup. All activities are included in the competition-- everything from arts and crafts to archery and swimming. This battle, apparently, is something Lance’s cabin has won for all four years that he has been here, and although Keith might like the guy a little, that doesn’t mean his competitive ass is anywhere near giving him the winning slot again.

Keith finishes getting his campers ready and they all head down to breakfast.

The first thing Keith registers as he walks into the dining hall is Hunk’s loud voice. “Let the battle begin!” He shouts dramatically, to which Pidge swats him upside the head and rolls her eyes.

“You are, quite literally, the lamest person I know.” She says fondly.

“Oh hey, rojo. ”

Seeing Lance again makes Keith’s heart lurch in his chest, filling with warmth but also an anxious excitement that he can’t put a name to. He turns to face Lance head on and soaks up the knowing smirk, the glinting blue eyes, the small freckles.

“Oh hey.” Keith replies with the same tone of voice.

“Keith you’re playing a pretty dangerous game if you think you’re going to challenge the Blue cabin for the Voltron Cup.” Shiro says, grinning. “He’s won every year and I doubt you are an exception.” He is teasing Keith in the way that only an older brother can. Keith scoffs and blows his bangs out of his face.

“Well then maybe some things need to start changing!” He says, not able to hide his smile. “My campers are real tough, trained, doodle killers!”

Shiro laughed at that, a little incredulously. “Okay, Keith, don’t take this the wrong way, but coming here this summer has made you exponentially less cool than you used to be.”

“You are also much pinker.” Allura chimes in, her voice teasing. Shiro laughs a little too loud and Keith makes a mental note to tease him about it later.

“The sun is relentless!” He argues, face heating. “It’s not my fault I’m pale as sin and you’re all freaks of nature who absorb sunlight!”

Lance giggles at this, a sound that makes Keith’s face heat up for a whole different reason. “Relax, tonto. Who is the extreme one now?”

“You are savage.” Keith deadpans, standing up to fill his plate. He hears Lance laughing out loud behind him and goosebumps rise all over his arms.

_ _ _

The thing is, Keith isn’t an idiot. He knows that he only has two weeks. Two more weeks, and then Lance will be gone. Back to Miami. They won't be a cabin away from each other anymore. The won't sit against a rock in front of the lake anymore. They won't swim together anymore and they won't--

See, the thing is, Keith is not an idiot. He knows this. He is fully aware of this.

He is just in complete, self destructive, life ruining denial.

_ _ _

As the first activity starts, Keith blissfully shoves the thoughts to the back of his mind and forces himself to focus on his campers.

The first activity is arts and crafts. The campers are challenged to glue as many pipe cleaners together as possible, and the tallest pipe cleaner tower wins. Keith is up against the Yellow Cabin, and Hunk is so mild compared to Lance that he actually just ends up complimenting Keith’s team when they win.

“Wow, your kids are wicked fast!” He shouts, grinning widely. Keith smiles fondly at him and suddenly is able to see how he and Lance have gotten along so well for so many years.

“Thanks Hunk, they worked really hard this summer.” Keith replies, as if gluing pipe cleaners together requires multiple weeks of intensive training.

His campers are all cheering, deafeningly loud, and hugging his legs, climbing all over him, shouting “we won we won we won! 122 pipe cleaners!” Keith laughs, pride swelling in his heart at these kids who have become so important to him over such a short period of time.

“Alright kids!” Allura and Coran are standing at the head of the room, gathering all the teams. On the other side of the room, it looks like Lance’s Cabin has beat out Shiro’s and Pidge’s, with 167 pipe cleaners. Keith glares at him and Lance just smiles back, innocently fluttering his eyelashes.

“Looks like the two teams in the lead are Blue and Red!” Coran yells happily. “Onto the next one, then! To archery!” A brief moment of chaos follows, where all of the kids excitedly try to leave at once and end up falling on top of one another, but eventually they figure it out, walking in somewhat of a regulated line. Keith hears footsteps speeding up from behind him and then Lance is at his side, smelling like heaven and looking impossible not to touch. “ Rojito , don’t get too confident, now, or else your loss will be that much more difficult to cope with.”

In a desperate attempt at calming down his rapidly escalating x-rated thoughts, Keith reaches out to the side and pokes Lance in the stomach. Lance yelps. “What was that for?”

“You better watch your doodle, Lance.” Keith replies, trying to steady his voice.

“Too busy watching yours.” Lance says slyly, winking and jogging away before Keith can even react.  Keith feels heat flaring in his cheeks.

“Hey!” He shouts, trying and failing to sound angry. Lance turns over his shoulder, practically cackling, and Keith can hear his heart pounding relentlessly in his ears.

_ _ _ _

“Look at that concentration, rojo .” Lance is standing next to Keith, watching as the kids (with Allura’s help) start aiming to shoot their first arrows of the day. “Joey is my absolute best aimer. He could shoot with his eyes closed.”

Keith snorts, trying to ignore the fact that Lance is so close he can feel the heat radiating off of his skin. “Just you wait, Stacy is practically unbeatable.”

Lance grins, finally turning to look at Keith. “You sound like a proud older brother.”

Keith shrugs. “I mean, I guess.”

“You hate that this summer has made you go all soft.”

“I’m not soft.”

“You are so soft.”

“I’m not!”

“You are proud of the kids and you keep saying doodle, even when they’re not around. Have you forgotten how to curse, tonto ?”

“I punched you in the face!”

“That was weeks ago!” Lance’s eyes are so bright they are almost blinding. “Ya softie!”

Keith really thinks he should be scowling right now, at least the Keith from four weeks ago would be, but he is biting back a grin that is threatening to split his face in half. God, how did it come to this?

Lance takes a step closer to him. “Just face it, you are a tiny, soft, sunburned rojito .” He is only standing a few inches in front of Keith now, voice gentle and almost fond, but a teasing glint in his eyes nonetheless. Keith goes for a frustrated noise but it comes out as a giggle, and Lance’s face get’s impossibly brighter at his reaction. “But guess what?” Lance continues.

Keith sighs, a little dizzy from their proximity. “What.” He asks, exasperated.

“You are also insanely sexy.”

“Keith!” Shiro’s voice makes them both jump. “Eyes on the campers!” He doesn't sound angry though, just taunting, and Keith feels the blush filling up to the tips of his ears. Lance smirks and winks at him.

“Looks like Stacy is up, I hope she can get enough points to salvage your epic loss.”

“You are the worst.” Keith groans, rolling his eyes and walking towards his campers, the word “sexy” still ringing in his ears and making his chest feel like it’s on fire.

Stacy, as Keith expected, ends up earning the most points for her aim, and when Lance sees the final scores, he whirls around to look at Keith and pouts rather dramatically at the impressive gap in points. Keith laughs at his expression, opting to save his bragging for later because swimming is the next activity and he knows Lance’s cabin is the best at that. Lance quickly smiles as Stacy walks up to Keith, and even gives her a high five, which warms Keith’s heart and makes him feel disgustingly fuzzy.  

_ _ _

By the end of the day, it comes as no surprise to anyone that Keith and Lance’s Cabins are in the lead, and literally tied, leaving very little room for bragging. When the counselors all sit down for dinner, the dining hall is oddly quiet because everyone is exhausted, and they all eat rather quickly so they can rest for the next free couple of hours before bed.

During their free time, Keith watches from the picnic table as Lance tries and fails to teach a Spanish line dance to the campers, stumbling over his feet and laughing hysterically as the kids do the same. His laugh is like music. Jesus, Keith is so--

“--so gone for him, aren’t you?”

Keith jumps a little and looks up at Shiro, who is looking down at him with a fond smile on his face where Keith expected a shit-eating grin to be. Keith doesn’t answer right away, and lets Shiro sit next to him on the bench. The both stare forward at the spectacle, which Hunk and Pidge have now joined, all of them laughing and stumbling into each other.

“Holy shit, Shiro. Just...holy shit.” Keith says. As if that will explain everything. As if it explains the heat exploding in his chest and the fluttering in his stomach whenever Lance speaks to him. As if it explains the way his skin tingles and his mind buzzes when they touch, even just slightly. As if it explains the blinding sunlight Keith sees whenever Lance smiles, or smirks, or frowns, or breathes, or anything, really. He doesn’t want to say all of this to Shiro. He doesn’t want to hear how gone he is. He doesn’t need to know how deep the hole is that he has buried himself into. Thankfully, Shiro understands.

“Yeah. I know.” He replies. It is silent for a bit, the sound of Lance’s laughter warming Keith’s cheeks again, and then Shiro continues, despite Keith desire for the conversation to be over. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

Keith shrugs, trying to quell his erratic heartbeat. “It’s just a crush.” He tries, rather uselessly.

Shiro hums a laugh. “Okay, Keith.”

Keith leans back and wraps his arms around himself, suddenly feeling very vulnerable. “I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.” He says defeatedly.

“It’s not a bad thing, Keith.” Shiro says softly. “When is the last time you opened up for anyone? It’s been years.”

“But he is leaving. I’ll never see him again. This was all so stupid of me.”

“No, it’s not. Do you regret meeting him?”

Keith sighs. “Fuck no.”

Shiro shrugs. “Well then, none of it was stupid. You can’t just decide not to fall for somebody.”

“Fall for--? But, I’m not--”

“It’s just not your choice.” Shiro cuts him off, not letting him deny it.

Lance is on the ground now, and has several of his campers standing on his back, trying to give him a back massage. Hunk and Pidge are rolling their eyes and smiling at the scene as Lance tries to shout instructions over his shoulder. He is grinning wildly, cheeks flushed from the heat and hair sticking out in all different directions. Hundreds of heavily cheesy thoughts are weighing down Keith’s mind, one of them being that he wouldn’t care if the sun went away and never came back, because Lance is enough .

“I might love him.” Keith says dumbly.

“No kidding.” Shiro deadpans, as if the world isn’t crumbling around them because of Keith’s confession. As if everything is normal and this is a conversation they have all the time.

Keith frowns. “You think you have the right to tease? Have you seen yourself with Allura? How much can someone gaze longingly at someone before it becomes a medical condition?”

Shiro’s face turns bright red. “What are you--”

“When the hell are you going to ask her out? She clearly likes you.’

Shiro sighs. “I don’t think so.”

“Seriously? Have you seen yourself?”

Shiro laughs nervously. Keith pushes on. “You have been pining over her for years, Shiro. If I have to listen to you laugh way too loud at one of her jokes again, I think I’m gonna blow my brains out.”

Shiro groans frustratedly, putting his face in his hands. “What if it doesn't work out? This is one of my permanent jobs, Keith, I’m at this camp year round with her. It can ruin everything.”

Keith shrugs. “Or not.” He says, smiling softly. “It could also be really great.”

Shiro huffs and rolls his eyes. “Holy shit, this camp has made you soft. Who even are you anymore?”

Keith scowls and smacks his stomach.

_ _ _ _

Keith is on the brink of falling asleep when his phone buzzes on his nightstand.

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)

Meet at our spot?

Keith stares at his phone for way too long, heart hammering in his chest.

Keith

I don’t know if I should leave my campers…

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)

Just for a bittttttttttttt

Keith smiles despite himself.

Keith

Coming

The response is immediate.

Lance (aka el guapo ;p)

That’s what she said ;)

Keith rolls his eyes, desperately trying to stop his thoughts from using Lance and coming in the same sentence before he explodes and dies. He slips on his shoes and a tank top before pushing open the door and heading to the lake.

When he gets to the rock, Lance is already there, leaning against it with his arms crossed over his chest, staring out at the water. When he sees Keith, he smiles brightly and waves, standing up to greet him. Keith smiles shyly, suddenly unaware of what to do with any of his limbs as he nears closer. It’s a good thing Lance has a plan though.

Lance’s arms circle around Keith waist, pulling him into a hug. Keith freezes for a moment, tense and a little terrified and the multitude of emotions that are filling his chest, but then he feels Lance’s face press into his neck and he melts into the touch.

“ Tonto ,” Lance says through a smile, voice muffled by Keith’s neck.

Keith breathes in, slow and shaky. “Lance,” he says back, because he doesn’t trust himself to say anything else.

Lance lets go and looks down at Keith, eyes practically twinkling. “Your hair is up again.”

Keith chuckles. “Are you aware of how warm it is out here?”

“Kind of your fault for not getting a haircut in...” Lance studies Keith’s hair, “...probably like 12 years.”

Keith barks out a laugh at that. “Right, because that number is not an exaggeration at all.” He says sarcastically. “It’s only been like, a year, Lance.”

Lance doesn’t look at all phased, eyes still shining as they study Keith’s face. Keith feels the heat in his face at the attention. Nobody has ever looked at him like this. He clears his throat. “You’re lucky your hair is light so you don’t die in the heat.”

Lance chuckles, making his way over to the rock. Keith follows him. “You may be right, tonto , but then in the winter I’m always cold.”

They both sit against the rock, staring at the water like they have done multiple times before. Keith briefly entertains the idea of Lance during the wintertime; tan skin slightly paler, less freckles, a cold, bitten rosiness on the tip of his hooked nose, and his long, slender body covered with layers and layers of--

“I want you to come with me. To Mexico.” Lance’s voice isn’t even a little hesitant.

Keith feels like someone just put his heart in an oven, and clearly he is running out of metaphors. Lance is looking at him now.  

“Wait, what?” Smooth, Keith.

“I want you to come to Mexico with me.”

Keith is staring at him incredulously. “But what about--”

“I don’t even understand how you thought I’d take anyone else.”

Keith feels a very inexplicable urge to cry and blinks it away quickly. “But your family?”

“ Tonto , do you know how many places I’ve gone with my family? Do you know how many places I want to go with you?”

Keith just doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand how Lance can just say those things, so openly, unashamed, without his voice even shaking. He looks at Lance with wide, blinking eyes, trying to sort through his thoughts, trying to find anything at all to say, but nothing seems good enough. He wants to say thank you , he wants to say I like you so much , he wants to say you mean the world to me .

He settles for, “I’m going to miss you.” Which doesn’t exactly communicate half of what he wanted, but it’s all he has the courage to say.

Lance’s smile falters a little. “I’m going to miss you too...come to Mexico with me rojo .” Lance’s voice is quiet because of their proximity. “I’ll even translate everything for you.” He grins, just enough for the white of his teeth to show.

They stare at each other in silence for what seems like an hour. Keith’s eyes jump all over Lance’s face, wanting to take it all in, memorize it, as if he hasn’t already. The words slip out of his mouth so suddenly that there is probably nothing he could have done to try and stop them. “I’m sorry, I just, you are just so fucking beautiful.”

Lance looks utterly shocked at this, smile disappearing and a confused, astonished look painting over his features. A red flush spreads across his cheeks and Keith can see it in the tips of his ears. “I’m--what?”

Keith wants to crawl into a hole and die because he has never really told anybody how he feels, ever. But he pushes on. “You... You are beautiful. Literally the first time I saw you I thought I was having a stroke. I’m sure you hear it all the time though.” He mumbles, looking back at his feet to avoid Lance’s eyes. Lance is still unmoving beside him, staring at him with wide, blinking eyes. Keith turns his head slowly to face him. “What?” he huffs, incredibly uncomfortable with the silence.

“I don’t.” Lance finally says.

“You don’t what?”

“I don’t hear it all the time.”

“How?” Keith blurts, completely dumbfounded.

Lance’s soft expression is a little too much for Keith to handle, and he can probably tell by the constipated look on Keith’s face that maybe this is an emotional overload for him. His fond smile starts to turn into the snarky smirk that Keith knows so well, and Keith visibly breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of it.

“So let me get this straight.” Lance says, voice light and teasing. “The first time you saw me, you fell hopelessly in love, because I mean, duh , and then your first thought is to punch me?”

Keith giggles. “No, you idiot, it was so dark, I didn’t know what you looked like. I mean the day after.”

“But I had that nasty bruise on my face!”

Keith clears his throat awkwardly. “Still beautiful.”

Silence.

“Hey.” Lance says softly. “Hey, rojito , look at me.” Keith feels a warm hand on his cheek, long fingers guiding his jaw so that he faces Lance. His breath hitches and Lance leans over, closing the space between their lips.

This kiss is nothing like the first one. It is soft, controlled, and gentle. Keith lets himself fall into it, the tightness in his chest loosening and heat spreading throughout his entire body. Lance tastes as sweet as he smells, and Keith wants to drown in it. He never wants to leave this spot right here, with Lance’s lips on his. He feels Lance’s tongue sweep across his lips, and opens his mouth, inviting him in. They kiss like this for a while, languid, lazy, and slow. Lance then pulls back, eyes still shut, breath slightly uneven.

“Jesus, tonto , I really, really like you.” He takes a shaky breath and sweeps his thumb along the top of Keith’s cheek, earning him a pathetic shiver.

“I really, really like you too.” Keith says, voice sounding much more helpless than he would have liked it to. The minute the words leave his mouth it’s like every muscle in his body loosens, the tension suddenly gone that he has been holding in all summer.

“So will you do it?” Keith bites his lip. Lance’s eyes track the movement briefly. “Come to Mexico with me? Por favor, rojito? ”

Keith laughs, sounding exasperated. “Of course, Lance.”

Lance jumps onto his feet and whoops loudly. “Oh man, yes! We are going to have so much fun! You are going to get so sunburnt , okay, shit, bring like spf 600, also do you want to get one of those hotels with the massage spas and the steam room? I’ve always wanted to use a steam room. It’s like being underwater and still breathing ! At least that’s what I hear, but then we could actually be underwater at the beach like an actual beach oh my god and I’ll be with you!” Lances long, excited rant comes to a stop when he sees Keith looking at him all too fondly. He takes a deep breath, and then softly repeats. “I’ll be with you. ”

Keith grabs his face and kisses him, unable to control the urge, and Lance laughs into it, the sound like music to Keith’s ears.

Chapter 10

: fifteen minutesNotes:

OKAY PEOPLE I had way too much to write, and my life is a mess, so sorry this took longer than usual. There will be one more chapter after this, and then an epilogue (probably their trip to mexico but no spoilers). SMALL SMUT ALERT, yes THERE IS SMUT IN THIS CHAPTER because im a slight ho. If you dont like reading smut, then...its like only two paragraphs and you'll know when it starting lol. thanks for your patience! enjoy everyone!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Time goes by way too fast.

In a blur of playful banter, stolen kisses, swimming in the lake, racing in the courtyard, and screaming things along the lines of ‘Can’t wait to beat your doodle!”, the week flies by. The worst part is that it doesn’t even hit Keith until he is sitting on his bed talking to Leo and Leo says that he needs help fixing the wheel on his suitcase because “packing week” is starting and it’s broken.

Packing week.

Keith has one week left at Camp Voltron.

He knows that going back to college isn’t the worst thing to go back to. Garrison University, where he is studying, is actually a really nice place and a small part of him does miss his tiny apartment, his (sort of) friends, the air conditioning, the bed that doesn’t creak every time he moves, and even some of the work.

But another very large part of him looks at his campers, his brother, and all of the friends he has made this summer and suddenly air conditioning isn't as important as it once was. He knows he can’t stay here forever, and it’s not realistic, and in a week none of these people will be here anymore and it won't be the same. But, he can’t help what he wants, alright?

As literally everyone expected, Lance and Keith’s cabins are the last ones standing in the Voltron Cup. Pidge’s Cabin was easily the best at arts and crafts, and Hunk’s dominated in kickball, but by the end of the week Keith and Lance were so ahead everyone that there was no way any other cabin could catch up.

Lance and Keith met at the lake every night. They didn’t talk about what was to come, they didn’t talk about anything, really. They mostly just made out and complemented each other because it’s not appropriate to do so during the day, and of course Keith has endless compliments to throw at Lance and Lance doesn’t take them very well, surprisingly sheepish and humble whenever Keith says something kind about him.

Keith can feel himself growing impatient, wanting more. More skin, more kissing, more time alone. He feels like every time they stop kissing to catch their breath, it’s a waste of time. He doesn’t want to waste any time. He want to get as much as he possibly can before Lance is gone; before Lance doesn’t live twenty feet from him anymore.

Lance catches on to Keith eagerness, chuckling into his mouth and trying to calm him down, whispering soothing things in Spanish as Keith pushes forward relentlessly. “Hey, tonto, no puedo hacerlo aqui , we can’t do this here.” But Keith just usually makes an embarrassing noise, something between a whine and a growl, and leans in for another kiss.

“ Dios , you’re really testing my willpower right now, rojo .” Lance says tonight, as Keith pushes his back up against the rock and straddles him. “You are making it very hard to say no.” His voice sounds strained, slowing as Keith inches closer.

Keith shakes his head. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted to do this? Shut up and let me make irresponsible decisions.”

Lance chuckles, the sound low and gravelly as Keith experimentally pushes his hips forward, arching his back. “S’really bad idea..” Lance says, voice no louder than a pleasured hum, which makes it very unconvincing. “We really shouldn’t be-- fuck , Keith.”

Keith has pitched forward and is sucking a hickey into Lance’s neck. Lance’s hands fly up to grasp Keith’s waist, pulling his body closer. He lets out a shaky sigh. “ Rojo …” There is a small warning in his tone but it’s barely there. Keith lets his lips detach from the smooth skin on Lance’s neck with a small pop, breathing him in for a moment.

“I’m sorry…” He mumbles, heat flaring in his face for multiple different reasons. “I just...feel like we wasted so much time and I’m trying to get it all back.”

Lance laughs, breath still a little uneven. “Yeah, if only we’d been doing this all summer.”

“I want to…” Keith doesn’t really know how to say it without sounding too blunt. “I mean...how far do you...can you…”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “ Que? ”

“How far do you wanna go...with me?”

Lance just stares at him. “Isn’t that...I mean, that feels fast doesn’t it?”

“What does?”

“Sex.”

Keith clears his throat awkwardly, sitting heavily on Lances lap, but the mood is ruined. “Oh. You don’t want to?” He tries to fight the pout that is appearing on his face but apparently it doesn’t work, because Lance is sitting up straighter and grabbing Keith’s face, panic all of a sudden filling his eyes.

“Oh my god, tonto , I--, Dios , of course I want to are you kidding me?” He laughs like what Keith just said is unbelievable. “I’ve wanted to since the day Shiro wiped that toothpaste off of your face--”

“Wait hold up, what--?”

“But I don’t want to mess this up by going too fast.”

“Toothpaste?”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Yeah, on the first day of camp you had toothpaste on your face at breakfast, remember? Then Shiro had to wipe it off for you. It was fucking adorable. Probably on the top ten list of ‘Adorable Tonto Things’.”

“Top te-- but you hated me?”

Lance shrugs. “I can still wanna plow people I hate. Also, I didn’t hate you, I was upset with you, and then I had dreams where we would have, beautiful, sweaty hate sex and I’d wake up hating you more.”

Keith huffs a surprised laugh. “Hate sex?”

Lance shrugs. “Guilty.”

Keith shakes his head in disbelief. “You are insane.”

“Oh come on, don’t tell me you never had hate sex dreams about me, rojo . When you kiss me like that ? There’s no way.”

Keith blushes. “I mean, I probably would’ve, if I wasn’t having nightmares.”

“Fair enough.” Lance says, smiling.

“I just...want to have as much of you as possible...before we leave, ya know?”

Lance sighs sadly. “I want that too, rojito . Trust me. But I’ve been in situations where I went too fast and...I want it to be more meaningful with you.”

Keith bunches up the front of Lances shirt in his hands and places a kiss, firm and warm, on Lance’s lips. “Fine.” He mumbles against them. “Fine, I’ll wait.”

Lance giggles, carding his hand through Keith’s hair. “ Bueno , I’m proud.” He says, smirking.

_ _ _ _

The final four activities, spread evenly over the final four days, are as follows; Swimming, relay race, arts and crafts, and capture the flag. Keith doesn’t have a chance at winning the swim race, he knows that, because Lance’s cabin is downright crazy in the water. So he gathers his campers together on Monday morning and decides to try and hype them up.

“Alright guys, We gotta work the hardest we have ever worked this week, alright? We are not going to let the Blue Cabin beat us this year!” His statement is met with various cheers from the children, throwing their fists in the air and whooping loudly. Keith continues on. “We know we are going to win capture the flag because, duh, we’re champions at that game, so all we have to do is kick Blue’s doodle in the relay and stack up more pipe cleaners, and we are in the clear!”

Jack raises his hand. “But Keef, we lost the pipe cleaner challenge last time!” He says worriedly.

Keith is about to open his mouth but Lance’s voice booms over his from across the courtyard. “Yeah, Keith! You lost the pipe cleaner thing last time!” He says mockingly. Keith rolls his eyes and turns back to his campers. “I know we can do it, we just have to work extra extra hard okay?”

“That’s what she sa--”

“Lance.” Keith swivels around and addresses Lance in a warning tone. Lance is walking up to him with his campers in tow. “Stop that, there are children here.”

Lance laughs. “It goes right over their heads” he says secretively, ;leaning over so only Keith can hear. Keith wants to argue back but Coran is at the front of the courtyard now, beckoning everyone to gather around.

“Come on, everyone, chop chop!” He says happily. “We have a very busy couple of hours ahead of us!” The campers all circle around Coran, leaving space in front for the two competing cabins. Coran claps his hands together loudly. “Great! Now as you all know, each activity is about two hours, and there will be one every day for the next four days.” Coran twirls the end of his moustache with his finger. “The remaining hours of the day are free for you to do whatever you choose, but keep in mind that you can use the time to park packing!”

Keith chooses to ignore the word “packing”.

“The first activity of the week is….drumroll please!” All of the kids stomp their feet. “Swimming!”

Lance cheers and Keith pouts, crossing his arms over his chest.

“He tonto , get ready to--!”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Keith says, exasperated, but he can’t keep the smile off of his face.

_ _ _ _

Lance’s cabin dominates.

Of course they do. Keith thinks they were all secretly born as mermaids or something, because there is no way any human being can weave through the water that easily. Lance almost becomes the water, all fluid, languid movements. Keith ignores the heat at the pit of his stomach that makes him want to drag Lance out of the water and pull his swim trunks down and---

“Hello?” Pidge and Hunk are standing in front of Keith, waving a hand over his face. “Earth to Keith?”

Keith blinks rapidly, flushing. “What? Oh, hi.”

“Damn.” Said Pidge, looking equal parts impressed and disgusted. “I mean, we knew you and Lance were foolin’ around but I was not expecting this level of thirst from you, gotta be honest.”

Keith feels heat exploding across his face. “Wha-- how do you--?”

“You’re forgetting we’re Lance’s best friends. He tells us literally everything. And I mean everything . How is your lip doing by the way? He said he bit it a little too hard last night.” She says bitterly.

Keith doesn’t know how to react, but a laugh is falling out of his mouth before he can stop it. “Holy shit, I hate him.” He says.

Hunk smiles, amused. “Nah, I don’t think you do.”

Lance and his campers are leaving the water, panting and giving each other massively dramatic high fives, as Coran shouts. “Holy Crow! Four minutes! I think that’s a new camp record!”

Keith tries to calm down the heat that is spreading to his...lower half, as Lance approaches him with water droplets dotting his bare torso. “Beat that. Rrrrrrrojo !” He says, dramatically rolling the rrr sound for an excessively long amount of time. Keith giggles, shaking his head and tearing his eyes away from the smooth skin on Lance's stomach in an attempt to regain some composure.

“You knew you were going to win.” He accuses.

“Yes.” Lance replies, giving a thumbs up and winking. One of his campers calls him over and he sends a small salute to Keith before turning around and jogging away. Keith sighs as he watches him go, a sad feeling filling his chest at the idea of not seeing him anymore.

_ _ _ _

Most of the free time on Monday is spent with Lance dancing around the children, singing silly songs in spanish and running from them as they try to catch him. Keith decides he needs a break from constantly having his heart of the verge of utter annihilation, and retreats to the Red Cabin to start cleaning up a good four weeks of damage. The Red Cabin was already a mess when Keith had first arrived at Camp Voltron, but now it’s ten times worse. There are ambiguous stains on almost every surface, cracks in the walls, some funky smells with unknown sources, and hair ties. So many hair ties. Everywhere.

He ties his hair back and gets to work, soaking a few sponges and beginning to scrub down the most accessible surfaces first. His mind wanders as he cleans. He wonders about his friends back at Garrion University; what had they done this summer? Why hadn’t he tried to contact them? Were they doing things to progress in their career? What the hell even is Keith’s career? He has one more year in college and he has no idea what he wants to do in his life.

What does Lance want to do with his life? Probably something with kids. Probably something way too adorable. Keith lets out a puff of air that blows some stray hair out of his face, scrubbing harder. Does Lance go to school in Miami? Does he live at home? Has he been living with his family during college? And how the hell does Keith not know these things?

His brain doesn’t stop floating around in his head, images of Lance as a pediatrician or a kindergarten teacher making his whole body heat up with a fondness that threatens to knock him onto his face. He files the questions in the back of his mind for another time, when he can sit with Lance and learn everything about him. Everything he wants to know.

The door creaks open behind him and he jumps a little, hand still scrubbing the table back and forth. He looks up and sees Lance staring down at him. A flash of ‘pediatrician Lance’ appears in his head for a brief moment and ties his tongue. He clears his throat. “Uh?” He manages to say. Lance bursts out laughing.

“Hi to you too.” He says teasingly. “What are you doing in here? It’s so happy out there!”

“But the stains are so gross.” He says, gesturing wildly to the splotchy mess all around him. “I may as well do this now while someone is watching my campers and I have time, right?”

“Not right.” Lance shakes his head. “Because I miss you.”

Keith frowns, blushing. “You literally saw me twenty minutes ago.”

Lance shrugs, grinning. “Come on, rojooooo. ”

“Okay, okay fine. But you’re helping me clean later.”

“Deal!”

Lance grabs his hand and they head back out into the courtyard again. They plop down at the picnic table with Hunk, Shiro, and Pidge. The campers have started their own game of soccer, running back and forth while consistently tripping and falling in the mud. Keith sees Jack talking to Stacy, twiddling his thumbs nervously as she smiles at him. It had taken a while, but Jack is finally starting to be nicer to Stacy, and it shows. Stacy is grinning at him and blushing lightly at whatever he is saying. Keith feels like a proud father.

“So, Keith, where are you off too after next week?” Hunk asks, leaning over the table and placing his hand on his chin. Keith turns his gaze away from Stacy to look at him. He shrugs.

“I have one year of school left so...I’m probably going back there.” He smirks at Shiro, who looks unsettled by the word “probably.” Shiro rolls his eyes.

“He is going back there.” Shiro says scoldingly, raising a finger at Keith. “Suck it up for one more year alright?” Keith laughs.

“Yeah, yeah, fine.” He says, waving Shiro away.

“What are you studying?” Pidge asks.

“Astronomy and physics.”

“Astronomy?” Lance cuts in, voice shocked. “That is, quite literally, the last thing I would have pegged you in.”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “Well what would you have guessed?”

Lance shrugs. “I don’t know, forensics? Graphic design? Business management? Literally anything else?”

Shrio laughs. “Oh my god, imagine Keith as a designer. He would die.”

Pidge’s face has not stopped looking fascinated since Keith revealed his major. “Physics? Astronomy? Dude that’s sick! We could have been having such great conversations this whole time! How did I not know this?”

Keith is smiling, feeling very shy as the center of attention. “I’m really not that good at it.”

“He says, with a 4.2 GPA.” Shiro chimes in sarcastically. Lance is gaping at him.

“Four point two--?”

“And he got into college with a full ride,”

“Full ride?” Pidge exclaims.

“It’s really not--” Keith starts.

“Oh, and he’s already been offered two internships since he’s been at Camp Voltron.”

“Wait what?” Keith asks, but Lance talks over him.

“Internships? Dude, get on that!”

“Wait Shiro, how did you--?”

“I check your email more than you do, Keith.” “Holy shit, Keith, that’s so cool!” Pidge is shouting again.

“Guys, stop, it’s not a big deal.” Keith says, blushing furiously.

Lance covers his face with his hands, groaning. “Ugghhh how are you so cutteeee? ”

“This conversation is a trainwreck.” Hunk supplies helpfully.

“Keef!” All conversation comes to a close when Leo’s voice tears through the air, high and panicked. “Keef I think something stung me!”

“Uh oh,” Shiro says under his breath. All of the counselors, as if summoned, get up at the same time and jog over to where Leo is covering his arm and sniffling.

“Hey bud, lemme see. How much does it hurt?” Keith kneels down in front of Leo, holding out a hand. Leo extends his arm forward. There is a small red dot where the bug probably bit him, but the skin surrounding the dot is red, swollen and angry. Keith presses his fingers to it and it is burning hot. Leo hisses, tears filling his eyes.

In one moment, Keith starts panicking internally. He’s dealt with injuries before but this looks like an allergic reaction, and even though Leo is clearly still breathing and his throat isn't closing up and he isn't breaking out into hives and everything is fine, Keith’s minds starts running a mile a minute. Oh my god, Leo is dying. Leo is going to die. A poisonous bug bit him but it’s not going to be like spider man, there won't be any powers he’s just going to fall over dead. I’m too late. His throat is going to close up oh my god just like in the fifth grade when jennifer was stung by a bee underneath the tire swing and she stopped breathing--

He feels a warm hand on his shoulder and suddenly Lance is kneeling down next to him, gently taking Leo’s arm out of his grasp and lightly running his thumb over the bite. It takes Keith a moment to realize that his heart is jack hammering in his chest and he’s broken out into a cold sweat. How long had he been sitting there, staring at Leo with wide, panicked eyes? He doesn’t know.

“Looks like a spider bite.” Lance says. His voice is calming. Firm. Grounding. Keith takes a shaky breath. “Happens all the time, man. You took it like a champ! Those hurt a bit don’t they?”

Leo nods, still sniffing. He raises his other hand up to his nose and wipes it roughly. “Let’s get you to the nurse's office, okay? We can put some medicine on it and you’ll even get a popsicle for being so tough, yeah? How’s that sound?”

Leo breaks into a watery grin, which makes Lance grin back at him. Keith’s chest feels tight. Lance takes Leo’s hand and they begin walking down to the rec center. Keith watches them until the disappear, his heart in his throat.

A moment of silence goes by. Keith knows that Shiro is next to him without him having to say anything. There is a pause where all Keith can hear is his heartbeat, starting to slow to a normal pace again. He sighs quietly.

“Everything okay?” Shiro asks cautiously.

“Yeah.” Keith says, voice a little shaky. “I shouldn’t have freaked out like that. It was so stupid of me.” He keeps his eyes glued to the opening at the edge of the courtyard, where Leo had gone with Lance. “How does Lance do it?”

“Do what?”

“Just...be so calm around kids. And like...in situations of crisis.”

Shiro shrugs. “He grew up in the middle of a huge family. I’m sure he deals with crisis aversion every single day.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Keith says, a warm feeling tugging relentlessly at his heart.

It’s starting to get dark outside and Keith rounds up his campers to start getting ready for bed. Lance doesn’t return after twenty minutes, and Keith doesn’t know if he’ll see him before he falls asleep. As he climbs underneath his covers, in the safety of his cabin, with all of his campers already fast asleep, he sends Lance a text.

Keith

Thank you…

And then with some hesitation, he adds.

<3

*

What Keith doesn’t see is Lance receiving the text, dropping his phone on the floor, and squealing into his pillow like a lovesick, twelve year-old girl.

_ _ _ _ _

The arts and crafts challenge is actually a lot more stressful than Keith prepared for. Coran actually ends up “surprising” the competing cabins by changing the product they had to stack at the last minute. Instead of building something out of pipe cleaners, which are bendy and hold their shape, they have to use popsicle sticks. Lance makes a dramatic spectacle of the thing, obviously, standing up and clearing his throat as if he is about to defend himself in court, and then speaking for five whole minutes without taking a breath about why that is, in fact, “the worst decision ever, Coran-man.”

They end up using popsicle sticks anyway, because according to Lance, behind Coran’s “sunny smile” is a “ruthless dictator who just wants to watch the world burn.”

The room stays deathly silent as Coran scans the finished towers, counting every popsicle stick to ensure that there is a clear winner. Keith just waits, eyes wide and heart pounding, ignoring the smirk that Lance is sending him from across the room.

“Blue Cabin final count: 189 Popsicle sticks.” Coran says. “Red Cabin Final count…..”

Keith holds his breath. He hears Lance draw in a long breath, waiting.

Coran’s face spreads into a grin. “196 sticks!’ Red Cabin wins!”

Keith jumps into the air, whooping as his campers tackle him to the floor. He hears Lance somewhere behind him saying, “What? Are you kidding me?!” When his campers finally let him stand up he just walks up to Lance and sticks his tongue out, because that’s what he felt like doing, okay?

Lance stares at him incredulously. Then he bursts out laughing. “Who even are you, tonto ?”

“I’m a winner! So HA!” Keith shouts poking Lance’s chest as he does it. Lance just rolls his eyes, but he’s blushing. “Just you wait, rojo . There are still two events left.”

“Yeah, but one of them is capture the flag, so…” Keith smirks.

Lance scoffs. “Maybe I’ve been practicing!”

“I don’t even think that’ll help you at this point.” Keith teases, feeling oddly confident.

Lance is scowling, a blush still very apparent of his cheeks. Keith watches as he looks around the room, eyes darting to the campers and counselors leaving through the double doors. When most of the people have cleared out, he pitches forward and captures Keith’s lips with his, firm and warm. He nips at Keith’s bottom lip and pulls away, so fast that it doesn’t even feel like it happened.

“You’re so cute when you annoy the shit out of me.” He says, sounding exasperated. Keith laughs out loud, covering his mouth to muffle the sound.

“You are so strange.”

Lance smiles and leans forward again. This time, the kiss is much longer.

_ _ _ _

Lance sings to the kids around the campfire in the evening. Keith stares like a moron who is hopelessly, stupidly in love.

_ _ _ _ _

They meet at the rock later that night. Lance doesn’t even waste any time before tackling Keith to the ground, licking into his mouth and moving against him in the most delicious ways. Keith feels slightly ambushed, but mostly very turned on. They only make out like this for a few minutes before Keith, already hard in his khaki shorts, decides to do the stupidest thing ever and stop it from moving forward. He puts his hands on Lance’s chest and gently pushes him away. Lance detaches from his mouth with an obscene popping sound that Keith has only ever really heard in porn. “What the hell are you--” Lance starts, voice cracking, but Keith sits up so that Lance is straddling his lap. They stare at each other for a moment. The disappointment is clear on Lance’s pouting face. “Aren’t I the one that usually stops this?”

Keith takes a deep breath. “Don’t you think we should...I don’t know. Talk?” Keith asks nervously, still panting from the kissing.

Lance watches his chest rise and fall, eyes tracking the movement. “Talk about what?”

Keith shrugs. “Like...I don’t know. What is this? What do we do when we leave? What’s going to happen? I don’t even know what you’re studying, or where you go to school..”

Lance raises an eyebrow. “Can’t we talk about this after I jerk you off?”

“Wha--” Keith laughs nervously, heat exploding between his legs and curling in the pit of his stomach. He swallows hard. “Lance.” He says, trying to sound reasonable but failing as his voice cracks.

Lance huffs a frustrated sigh, fingers tracing slowly over Keith’s chest, down to his belly button, then up again. “Fine…” He says quietly. Reluctantly. Keith takes a shaky breath.

“So, I’m going back to school…”

Lance’s fingers don’t stop moving across Keith’s chest. “Mmhm.” He says.

“And we probably won’t be...anywhere near each other…”

Lance flattens his palm on Keith’s chest, reaching his thumb out and swiping it over Keith’s nipple. A short gasp falls from Keith’s lips. “Yeah...probably far away.” Lance mumbles. He swipes his thumb over, again and again, creating small circles around it. It sends shivers down his spine and he swallows hard. What was he talking about? He doesn’t remember. Was it his nipple? Were they talking about nipples? No. No they weren’t.

“And so…” Keith tries to continue, voice heavy. “So... we won’t see each other…”

“Mmhmm.” Lance falls forward, pushing his face into Keith’s neck, breathing out a long sigh that fans across Keith skin. Keith’s eyes flutter shut as he feels Lance’s tongue dragging against the spot just below his ear. He takes a deep breath through his nose, involuntarily tilting his head back to give Lance more access.

“S-so...ah--”

Lance nuzzles his nose and mouth beneath Keith’s ear, nibbling at it. “Hmmm?” He hums, lips closing around the spot and sucking gently. Hands roaming. Keith didn’t even realize Lance’s hand is moving until he feels one grazing his thigh, moving upwards until--

“F-fuck…” Keith mumbles, feeling the pleasure shoot through his body as Lance palms him through his shorts. “Lance...b-but we--nngh--”

“Talk later.” Lance whispers, lips brushing Keith’s ear before moving to press against his mouth again.

“But I--ah!” Lance presses down harder with his hand and Keith finally gives in, grabbing Lance’s face and deepening the kiss. Lance hums a smug laugh against his mouth and Keith swats him upside the head, but they don’t stop kissing.

Keith already can’t handle the feeling of Lance’s hand on him, and there are two layers of fabric in between them. He feels himself start to warm up significantly, breaking into a sweat when Lance starts to move the heel of his hand in slow circles, pressing down hard. Lance climbs onto his lap, straddling him again, never slowing the movements of his hand. They kiss. Lance’s hand moves slowly. So Slowly. They kiss and kiss and kiss until Keith can fucking take it anymore. “ Lance ,” he whines, detaching their lips and resting his forehead against Lance’s. The name comes off his his lips, desperate and frustrated. “ God, please j-just--”

Lance lets out a small, satisfied hum. “Look who’s impatient now , rojo.” Without any sort of warning, Lance’s hand is slipping beneath Keith’s waistband and grabbing him eagerly. With no cloth separating them this time,  Keith lets out the most pathetic moan at the contact and bucks his hips upwards, needing more. He feels Lance’s hand, warm (and much softer than he thought it would be), begin to tug upwards with fast, hungry strokes.

“Holy shit... ” Keith breathes, not really aware that he had said it out loud until he feels Lance’s breathy, hot laugh curling all around him. He lets his head fall back against the rock, Lance towering over him with a smirk on his face that is too attractive to be fair. He tells himself to keep his eyes open. To look up at Lance the whole time. But as Lance’s hand starts curling further around him, rubbing some of the most sensitive places, Keith feels his eyes starting to drift shut against his own will. He can feel Lance’s long, slender fingers, the one’s he’s been fantasizing about for so long, wrapped around his length and it’s all too much and Lance is letting out small, labored breaths that are making Keith stomach practically boil with desire. He lets his mouth fall open slightly to try and even out his suddenly rapid breathing, practically panting as Lance experiments with different positions of his hand, twisting and dragging it along the sensitive skin.

“Fuck, no puedo creer ---I’ve wanted to see you like this for so long, precioso .”

Not the Spanish. Keith can’t handle the Span--

“Jesus--ah--” A particularly pleasant stroke.

“ Quiero ver tu cara , I want to see your face when you come, rojo .” Lance’s voice is deep and shaking ever so slightly with his movements. A familiar heat in Keith’s gut spikes at the sound of it, making his hips twitch slightly underneath Lance’s grip. A small moan leaves Lance’s lips.

“When I touch myself, I always think you about, Keith.” Lance whispers hotly, warm breath ghosting over Keith’s face. Another swipe over the tip. Another hard flick of the wrist. “Your hands...your mouth...your ass ... God , the things I would do to you, rojo …”

Keith gasps, back arching off the rock, pressing his body closer to Lance’s. “Shit, Lance…” His skin is on fire. Every touch burns, but in the most satisfying way. Lance is speeding up, squeezing harder, swiping his thumb over the tip so gently, delicately, and every flick of his wrist has Keith melting, falling, further and further and further into--

“O-oh fuck , I’m so close” Keith hears himself mumble. It sounds far away. It doesn’t sound like him. His eyes screw shut and he feels his whole body tensing and Lance’s hand is still moving but now Lance has fallen forward, sucking hard onto Keith’s neck and biting down aggressively. Keith moans loudly, not even bothered to cover it up and holy shit he’s so close so close so fucking --

“Come for me, bello , come on.” Lance commands in his ear, low and hoarse, and it pushes Keith over the edge, color exploding behind his eyelids and pleasure shooting to the tips of his fingers and toes, leaving a tingling yet numb sensation throughout his entire body.

Heavy breathing.

Toes uncurling.

Muscles loosening.

Silence.

“Fuck.” Keith chokes out, opening his dazed eyes and seeing Lance right in front of him with a smug, toothy grin spread across his face. Sweat shimmers across his skin and makes him look like he’s glowing. “Where the fuck...how long have you been able to do that?” Keith asks dumbly, brain not quite at 100% yet.

Lance winks. “As long as you've known me. Look what you’ve been missing out on, tonto!”

Keith covers his face with his hands. “You’re so good at it. Shit. I don’t think I’ll ever recover.”

Lance shrugs, eyes glinting. “Probably not.” He says happily. And just like that, Lance is back to being a sweet, sweet cinnamon roll, not one naughty bone in his body. Keith’s cheeks warm.

“Um...well, thank you?” Keith says awkwardly. Lance bursts out laughing.

“I think that’s our sign to call it a night, rojo .” He grins fondly down at Keith’s nervous face. “But, you’re welcome.” He adds softly, as if they’re not talking about a handjob but something much more significant.

Keith clears his throat. “Guess we’re not talking tonight?” He asks sleepily. Lance rolls off of him and yawns.

“I don’t know, rojo , I’m pretty beat.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Talk tomorrow?”

Keith smiles. “Fine.”

“It’s a date.” Lance winks, causing Keith to roll his eyes.

“Okay Lance.”

_ _ _ _ _

The relay race, as far as Keith can tell, is going to be pure chaos. Of course, his campers are hopping and pacing and jittering with excitement, but as Keith scans his eyes over the set of obstacles set before them, he can’t help but feel like this will absolutely not end well. The kids have to crawl through a tunnel, hop across several tires laying on the ground, and climb over a 6 ft rock climbing wall.

Nevertheless, Keith is pretty fired up. Deep down, he actually feels like his cabin might be able to win this. Lance may give A+ handjobs, but Keith still wants to win more than anything. He loves the kids so much and they deserve this. They really do.

Both teams are lined up at the starting line. Coran is screaming some kind of gibberish through a megaphone, and the raising volume in his voice is hyping the kids up, making them lean forward further and further to get the best head start. Suddenly, the whistle blows, and the first kids burst off the starting line. Leo is the first to go in Keith’s team, running so fast that he is just a blur of movement. He is ahead in an instant. Keith is screaming so loud that he is starting to feel his voice crack but he doesn’t care because Leo is winning! And he didn’t drop dead from his bug bite! All good things.

Leo sprints back to the starting line and tags Jack, who is the next camper to go. Jack isn’t as fast, but he is agile, and doesn’t even trip once. Lance’s campers are catching up though, following very close behind. He can hear Lance screaming encouraging words in Spanish as his camper crawls rather aggressively through the tunnel, finally catching up to Jack.

Needless to say, it is a very stressful couple of minutes. Keith doesn’t realize that he was holding his breath the whole time until his last camper is about to cross the finish line. He’s about a foot in front of Lance’s camper, and Lance sounds very distraught by how things are looking to turn out.

“Come on, pollito, run!” He screams helplessly.

Keith’s last camper crosses the finish line first.

The screaming is so loud that Keith is convinced one of his eardrums ruptures, and he tackles Leo into a massive hug. “You are so fast, Leo! That head start was incredible!”

Leo looks up at him with a wide, toothy grin. He is about to say something but is then tackled by the rest of his team mates, who are all shouting and telling him to try out for the “running olympics”.

Keith’s heart feels so full. The fullest it has felt in so many years. Full of pride, love, and contentment. He swivels around to look at Lance and throws his hands up in the air. He tries to say, “We won!” or, “Look who has the loser cabin now!” But the words die in his throat when he sees Lance’s smile, beaming and fond, directed right at him. He ends up letting out a “victory whoop” instead because there was no way that any words were going to leave his mouth with Lance looking at him like that.

Coran is screaming, “Red team takes the relay!”

Hunk gives Keith a massive hug.

Pidge holds her fist up for Keith to pound it.

Shiro ruffles his hair.

Keith’s face hurts from smiling.

_ _ _ _ _

One more day.

There is only one more day of camp.

_ _ _ _ _

Packing is a disaster. If Keith thought his first morning in the red cabin was chaos, then he was absolutely mistaken. Trying to get twelve ten year-olds to pack up a month’s worth of stuff is definitely, definitely worse.

There is a kid crying somewhere in the cabin about dirty socks but Keith can’t deal with that right now because Jack and Mike are fighting over who has the bigger suitcase and April lost her special shoes and Keith thinks that somebody just stepped on an earring.

When Lance walks in it’s like he’s Keith’s guardian angel, somehow managing to calm all of the kids down and even get a majority of their things packed in less than an hour. Keith is baffled by everything Lance does. The way he talks to the kids, it’s like he knows exactly what they need to hear. April has her shoes again and Leo is giggling and everyone is just so happy when Lance is around. It’s like there is literal warmth radiating off of Lance that everybody can feel when he’s around. It comforts them all, especially Keith.

Keith feels a brief and very surprising wave of jealousy when he thinks about Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro having so many years with Lance. So many years to watch him grow up, learn, change, become who he is today. Keith wants that. He wants to know him.

Three painful hours pass after Lance leaves where Keith attempts to tie up loose ends, to make sure that everybody is ready to go in twenty four hours. There is a heavy sadness that is suddenly hanging over the cabin, everyone realizing that this is almost over.

Keith is in his own room packing up his things, which is an impressively small amount of things, When Leo appears at his door with the rest of his campers in tow.

“Keef, we are going to miss you!” Leo says, all of the kids behind him nodding. Keith smiles (mostly to hide the pain) and beckons his campers into his room.

“I’m going to miss you guys too.” He sits on the floor and his campers all sit around him. “But aren’t you guys coming back next summer?”

“Well yeah...but you won’t be, Keith.” Stacy says.

Keith frowns. He has never even thought about it. But now that it’s been brought up, it’s almost as if it was a given the whole time.

“Of course I’m going to come back. I’m the red cabin counselor, aren’t I?”

“Really?” Jack jumps up. “You’re really coming back?”

Keith taps his chin. After he graduates college, he might have a job...but he can always negotiate to start a month later…

“Of course I am.” He concludes, grinning. The thought of seeing Lance again after months of probably not seeing him is already stirring warmth and excitement in his stomach. Lance would come back to camp, right? He loves it here.

Keith ends up witting on the floor with his campers until it is time to go to bed. Some of them fall asleep, leaning against his shoulder and across his lap, and he shakes them awake and tells them to return to their beds. He never realized until this very moment, how much he is going to miss these kids.

_ _ _ _ _ _

The last event of the Voltron Cup is Capture the Flag, which is as ironic as it is exciting. Not once this summer has Lance’s Cabin beat Keith’s, so Keith already knows that he is going to win before they line up across from each other and get ready to start the game.

Lance and Keith aren’t allowed to play this time, so it’s entirely up to the campers. But Keith has no doubt that his campers have the perfect plan to win.

The game starts the same way it always does. Keith’s campers are screaming and charging and Lance’s campers are attempting to scream louder. Lance walks over to Keith, standing next to him and sighing loudly, obviously trying to get his attention. Keith rolls his eyes and looks at him.

“What.” He asks, unamused.

Lance sighs dramatically. “Oh nothing. It’s just that I have a feeling...that maybe … by some miracle provided by some sort of deity…. You might actually win this thing…”

Keith bites back his smile. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, just a feeling.” Lance drawls, making a show out of rolling his eyes. “And I’m a little bummed about it, ya know? I’m pretty damn bummed, rojo .”

“Is that right?”

Lance finally turns to look at him, an exaggerated pout on his face. “Someone finally beat the blue cabin. And it was you?”

Keith laughs. “Hell yeah.”

“Well, you know what this means right?”

“What, Lance.”

“You’re going to have to make me feel better tonight.” Lance’s eyes scan over Keith’s face, darkening slightly. “Alright?”

Keith clears his throat, face heating up.”I don’t know man, you might be inconsolable.”

“We’ll figure something out.” Lance smirks. Keith giggles. They hold their gaze for a beat before turning their attention back to the game.

_ _ _

It is no surprise to anyone that the Red Cabin wins. They find the blue flag in a record breaking eleven minutes, and Keith is so ecstatic that he feels like he can’t breathe. He gathers all of his campers into a big group hug and they're all screaming, cheering, throwing mud, jumping up and down, and tackling each other to the ground. Coran tries and fails to scream over them, announcing the red cabin did in fact win, and he is holding a large plastic trophy that is going to be put on display in the rec center.

Lance is wrapped around him before he can even process what is happening, laughing praise into his neck and practically suffocating him with that intoxicating, sweet citrus smell. “Congrats, rojito. You did it.”

Shiro pulls him away from Lance into a crushing big-brother hug that it immediately interrupted by Hunk and Pidge climbing on him and shouting “You won! You beat Lance! We’re going to miss you so much!”

Keith is practically cackling. “I’m going to miss you guys too.”

Being the center of attention has never been something that Keith particularly enjoys, but with these people? He doesn’t mind it too much.

_ _ _ _ _

Keith is sitting by the rock for the last time. He doesn’t hear Lance approaching, but suddenly Lance is sitting next to him. There is a slight, warm breeze shaking his bangs across his forehead. He looks over at Lance, who is looking as stunning as ever, staring into the lakewater.

“I don’t want to leave.” Keith says.

Lance chuckles a little sadly. “Now you know how I have felt for the past four years.”

“I really thought I would hate this place.” Keith says.

“I feel like this is a plot of some cheesy summer camp chick flick.” Lance laughs, rubbing his eyes.

“That sounds pretty accurate.”

Lance shrugs. “Well, it’s back to real life soon I guess.” His voice sounds heavy. Sad. Very unlike Lance.

“I don’t want to leave you.” Keith says softly, trying to keep his words delicate. Lance looks like he is about to break.

“I really, really don’t want you to leave me.” He says quietly, looking forward at his stretched out legs.

“This really sucks.”

“Yeah.”

It’s silent for a bit. They listen to the water, the warm breeze, and the crickets. All sounds that Keith took for granted and now is going to greatly miss once he’s back at the Garrison.

“I’ve never met anyone like you, tonto.” Lance breaks the silence, sending Keith a shy smile. “You put up with me in a way nobody else has.”

“I don’t put up with you because I have to. I do it because I want to.”

Lance laughs bitterly. “Exactly.”

Keith just stares at him. Lance clears his throat. “You never back down from a competition, you take my insults in stride and come up with better ones, you’re mean but kind...strong but sensitive...I’ve just...never met anyone else like you.” Lance sighs, pulling his knees to his chest. “It doesn’t really help that you are fucking gorgeous, either.”

Keith’s face heats up against his will. Nobody has ever talked about him like this before. “What are you trying to say?”

“I don’t care how far apart we are, tonto. I want to date you. I want to be your boyfriend. I want to text you whenever I feel like it, and talk about everything with you, and probably have lots of great phone sex. I just want it all. And I thought that I could just leave and wait until something brought us together again but I really don’t think that’s possible.”

Keith doesn’t even hesitate. He practically trips over his own words. “Yes, I--boyfriend, yeah no I really want that too.”

Silence.

Lance starts to grin, the smile spreading across his face slowly. “Well okay then.”

“I know that Miami is really far from Garrison University but I’m sure we can work it out.” Keith continues, starting to ramble because he is feeling entirely too vulnerable at the moment. “Like, we can do weekend visits, and then we’ll see each other in march, right? In mexico. And then we are both coming back here next summer so I guess if things work out I’ll see you then--”

“Did you say Garrison University?” Lance’s face looks a strange mixture of shocked and excited.

“Yes?”

“That’s where you study?”

“Yeah.”

“Like, that’s where you live and go to college?”

Keith sighs and rolls his eyes. Why does any of that matter?

“Lance, what the hell? Yes.”

“Keith!” Lance shoots upwards, grabbing Keith and tackling him into a tight, breathless hug. “Keith, esta perfecto no puedo cree r you stupid stupid tonto, voy a matarte rojito I’m going to kill you--”

“Lance?” Keith asks, panicking. “What’s happening?”

“I’m from Miami, tonto! But I don’t go to school there!”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “Wait. What? Where do you go to school?”

“Altea University, you perdedor !” Lance’s eyes are glistening.

“Wait but that’s-”

“A fifteen minute drive from the Garrison? Yeah! I know! Fifteen fucking minutes!”

Keith stares at him for way too long, the words still processing. Still trying to find a place in his messed up, tangled thoughts. “Fifteen minutes?”

Lance nods, grabbing Keith’s face in his hands. “Fifteen minutes, tonto.”

Fifteen minutes.

Keith takes a deep breath in. He can see the flecks of gold in Lance’s blue eyes.

Fifteen minutes.

He breathes out slowly, counting the freckles on Lances cheeks.

Fifteen minutes.

Fifteen fucking minutes.

Notes:

two more chapters to go! <3

Chapter 11

: taylor swift dubstepNotes:

I already had this written so I decided to post it anyway! Just the epilogue left! Thank you all so much for your support and kind comments I can't handle this amount of love omfg. Also, I started a new fic if you want to fill the dark void in your life with something else like i do. Its called Follow My Lead, a friends w/ benefits fic (also Klance) you can find it on my profile :) Thanks again and enjoy!

Chapter Text

Keith bursts through the front door of Shiro’s cabin, where Shiro is sitting on his bed reading a book. He stomps up to him and knocks the book out of his hand.

“Hey!” Shiro shouts, eyes wide. “What the hell?”

“You knew Lance went to school next to me! Why didn’t you tell me ? Do you know how much misery I have been going through?”

Shiro’s offended expression suddenly cracks into a smile. “Wait, you’re just finding out now ? Damn. Okay, I guess I owe Pidge twenty dollars.”

“What?” Keith snarls.

Shiro laughs. “I had a bet going with Hunk and Pidge about how many weeks you guys would make out without knowing anything about each other. I guessed two weeks, Pidge and Hunk said one. You are seriously just figuring it out, aren't you? Wow, okay fine they win. I guess I had more faith in you.” Shiro is still chuckling under his breath.

“We tried to talk about it!” Keith retaliates. “Things just...got in the way!”

“‘Making out’ things?”

Keith rolls his eyes. “Oh shut up.”

“I’m sorry, when Pidge brought it up it was too tempting.”

“You could have saved me so much grief!”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger Keith.” Shiro says, still holding back a laugh.

“I hate you so very much.”

_ _ _ _

Keith doesn’t get very much sleep that night for several reasons; one of them being that tomorrow is the last day of camp, and another one being that he spent a majority of the night in Lance's lap, kissing him senseless. It’s not entirely his fault. Lance kept pulling him back in when he insisted on leaving, so at least half of it wasn’t his responsibility.

Fifteen minutes . The words play over and over again in his head. For the past three years, he has only been fifteen minutes away from Lance, and he had no idea. Lance was a few blocks away the whole time. How had they not run into each other at a restaraunt? Or the laundromat? Or a bar? How is it that they ran into each other 129 miles away in the middle of the forest?

Keith really, really doesn't believe in fate. But still. He totally does now, okay?

He hasn’t had nightmares in two weeks, ever since he fell asleep in Lance’s bed. It just filled him with a warmth that never went away and he doesn’t feel as scared as he used to. Is that love? Is that what it feels like? Is love safety? Is it feeling like you’re home?

Lance had said goodnight about seventeen times before finally retreating to his cabin with a blush still burning across his face. Keith was blushing too.

Keith has been blushing like an idiot since his first day in this godforsaken camp.

He goes to bed with Lance’s smell still lingering on his shirt, and falls asleep instantly.

_ _ _ _

Everybody wakes up sad.

It’s not the kind of sad that is outwardly, obviously sad. It’s the kind of sad that just feels like a raincloud floating somewhere slightly above everybody's heads, waiting to lower down and settle on their shoulders. Keith wakes up too early and stares at the ceiling for an hour, waiting for the sun to rise.

When he wakes up his campers, they all chatter about seeing their family again, seeing their dogs and cats. They sound excited, but still sad. It’s all very bittersweet. Leo tells Keith that his dog has, according to his mother, been sleeping outside his door every night waiting for him to come back. Keith briefly considers getting a dog.

Once all of the campers leave the cabin for breakfast, Keith surveys the area to try and estimate how long it will take to clean once everybody is gone. The campers are to be picked up around noon, and then the counselors stay until about 6PM to make sure everything is clean and back to how it was at the beginning of the summer. Keith sees all of the stains that he failed to clean beforehand. He sees the cracks in the wall that will definitely need to be spackled.

Sighing, he walks out the door, not surprised at all to see that the sun isn’t out, and it is raining.

“Wow, can today get any more shitty?”

Keith turns towards Lance and tries to smile. “At least I won’t get sunburned.”

“Yeah, but at the cost of depression? I’m going to have to pass.”

Keith giggles.

Pidge and Hunk make their way out of their cabins, looking exhausted. “I can’t even begin to explain to you guys how much cleaning I have to do.” Pidge groans, putting her face in her hands.

“It’s okay! It’ll be fun, we’ll put on some music in the courtyard and just plow through it. It’s what we do every year!” Hunk attempts to lighten the mood.

“But the only person who ever operates the music is Lance and he has horrible taste!”

Lance sputters. “I-- Que? Pardon? Excuse me? My taste in music is refined and dignified!”

“You listen to Taylor Swift dubstep!” Pidge yells, exasperated.

“It’s the newest art form of this generation!” Lance defends.

“We need to get to breakfast before all the food is gone, guys.” Hunk interjects. Keith nods in agreement. Lance huffs a frustrated sigh in Pidges direction, and Pidge responds with a laugh.

_ _ _ _ _

Sitting at the same picnic table he was stationed at four weeks ago, Keith waits for his campers parents to return. He typically doesn’t consider himself a very cliche person, but there is not one thought running through his head that doesn’t sound like it was barfed up by a chick flick, so he decides to keep them to himself instead of sharing them with his fellow counselors.

Stacy and Jack are sitting across from each other on the grass. Jack is writing something on Stacy’s hand, which Keith can only assume is some sort of contact information. He smiles to himself, wondering what their story was like. Whatever it was, he’s glad something worked out.

Stacy’s mother is the first parent to appear, and when she walks out of her car, Stacy runs into her arms and screams “Mommy mommy mommy!” as her mom hugs her. Keith wraps his arms around himself, feeling a little awkward, but mostly content. Stacy jogs up to Keith as her mom is packing the car and talking to Coran. There are tears in her eyes. “Keef!” she says sadly.

“Come here.” Keith says, opening his arms up to hug her. She pitches forward, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You were amazing this summer. Did you have fun?” He says, finding it very hard to let go.

“So much fun!” She grips tighter. “You are coming back next summer, aren't you keef?”

Keith smiles. “Of course.”

She giggles and lets out a tiny cheer, hugging Keith one more time. “Thank you for being so much fun! I’ll miss you!”

With that, she lets go, smiling wetly and waving goodbye as she gets in her car. It drives away, and Keith doesn’t take his eyes off of it until it disappears.

He takes a deep, shaky breath.

Eleven more to go.

_ _ _ _

Mike and Jack’s mom hasn’t stopped talking for ten minutes. Keith is fine with it, because that means they stay longer, but at the same time, he doesn’t really know how to deal with middle aged woman talking to him about how they make broccoli into rice now and there is a yoga class where you can pet dogs while in downward dog. Luckily Lance chimes in at the last second and charms the woman into talking to him instead, somehow picking up on Keith’s silent cries for help.

Keith ends up hugging Jack and Mike goodbye with the promise of coming back next summer, and their mom makes them say “thank youuuu” for the “wonderful time we had at Camp Voltronnn”.

He wishes that he could say every goodbye gets easier, but it’s actually the opposite. As more of his campers leave, it gets harder and harder to let them go.

Leo is one of the last campers in the Red Cabin to leave, and if Keith is being honest, he is dreading saying goodbye to Leo the most. Leo was his first camper that arrived at Camp Voltron, and he holds a pretty special place in Keith’s heart. When his parents arrive, Keith feels something in his chest tighten. Leo hugs his parents excitedly, but then turns to Keith, eyes wide and lips pouting.

Keith bends down to give him a hug, and Leo practically suffocates him. “Come home with me, Keef!” He shouts sadly. He can hear his parents chuckling from somewhere behind him.

“I can’t bud. But I’ll see you next summer, alright? For sure.”

Leo nods sadly into his shoulder, not letting go.

“Hey, Leo, I need you to do something for me okay?” Keith pulls out of the hug and puts his hands on Leo’s tiny shoulders.

“What?” Leo asks, sniffing.

“The second you get back to school, join the track team, alright?”

“Why?”

“Because you are an incredible runner! You’ll be so amazing You’ll kick everyone’s doodle, I swear.”

Leo falls forward for one more hug, agreeing to do what Keith said. Then, he is waving goodbye, getting into the car, and driving away.

Keith can’t help it. His emotionally-starved ass isn’t used to these kinds of feelings, and tears prickle at the corners of his eyes, threatening to fall free. He swallows hard, trying to quell the sudden surge of feelings in his chest.

“Nope. Absolutely not. I won’t allow it.” Keith hears Lance voice behind him. He turns around a raises an eyebrow.

“What?”

“You aren’t allowed to cry. That’s just incredibly insensitive. Do you know what that would do to my heart?” He clutches dramatically at his chest, then shakes his head. “Can’t do it.”

“I’m not crying.” He tries, voice cracking.

“Nice try.”

“Lance...”

“I know a crying tonto when I see one.”

Keith lets out a giggle that surprises him. “Oh my god.” He rolls his eyes.

“Ah! You smiled. How do I do it? Bueno , I should write a book.” Lance holds up his hands and moves them across the sky as he spells out the title. “How To Cure Tonto Tears ™”

Keith bursts out laughing at that, shaking his head in disbelief at how lame Lance’s attempts at jokes are. With the disbelief, of course, comes fondness. Warmth.

“Thanks.” Keith says, smiling.

Pidge makes a gagging noise somewhere across the courtyard, followed by the sound of Hunk laughing.

_ _ _ _ _

Keith immediately gets to work scrubbing the floors of the Red Cabin. He’s never had to use so much Mr. Clean in his life, and the stains were only getting light, but not disappearing. He took a break and went through each room, making the beds and checking underneath them to make sure the kids didn’t leave anything.

The music playing in the courtyard is indeed Taylor Swift dubstep, and Pidge is screaming insults across the courtyard at Lance for his horrible life decisions.

Keith wrinkles his nose at the sight of a crust stain of the couch, and makes the decision to soak it in some carpet cleaner. As he is spraying the cushion, the door opens and Shiro walks in. Keith gets a flash of deja vu at the sight of Shiro walking into his cabin and asking, “You ready?” Just like he did on Keith’s first day.

“Not quite. Still have a lot of cleaning to do.”

The corner of Shiro’s lip tugs upwards. “You know what I mean.”

Keith sighs. “This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

“Cleaning?” Shiro teases.

“Leaving.”

Shiro nods sadly. “Trust me, I know. It doesn’t get easier, either.”

“There just something so...nice about this place.”

“You mean, aside from the fact that we are two hundred miles away from reality and any kind of civilization?”

Keith smiles. “Yeah, aside from that.” A pause. “Thank you...for making me do this.”

His brother smiles. “I knew you would love it here.”

A sad silence fills the cabin. Keith watches the carpet cleaner bubble and fizz on the couch cushion. Shiro clears his throat.

“So...I asked Allura out.”

Keith gasps. “What? Finally! What did she say?”

“She said yes. Apparently she likes me or something? I don’t understand.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “So what’s the plan?”

“We have dinner on Sunday planned.”

“Oh my god I can’t believe you finally did it.”

Shiro shrugs. “Yeah, I mean I figured if you could find love this summer then it must be possible for literally anybody.” He smirks at Keith.

“Get out.”

Shiro laughs loudly as he walks out the door.

_ _ _

It is 5:00PM and Keith is nearly done cleaning when Lance bursts into his cabin. “Ha!” He shouts triumphantly, pointing at Keith. “I finished cleaning before you! Beat that, rojo !”

Keith raises an eyebrow at him. “We were racing?”

Lance frowns. “Duh.”

“But I didn’t know, so that’s cheating.”

“What? You can’t make up rules!”

“I didn’t!”

Lance takes a few steps closer, crowding up Keith’s personal space. “Yes you did! We were racing and you lost! Plain and simple.”

“Not that simple!”

“Totally that simple.”

“You suck.”

Lance smiles sadly. “Yeah, so do you. Also, let’s never leave.”

Keith feels a tug in his chest at Lance’s sad smile.”I know. I don’t want to.” Hey says, voice quieter now that they aren’t arguing. “But we are going to be so close to each other! You’ll get sick of me, probably.”

“What if all of this is just a magic spell and I’m actually an ugly troll who takes on his true form in small suburban college towns?” Lance says, sounding genuinely worried.

Keith snorts. “I highly doubt that. I don't think there is any suburban college town that can make you ugly.”

“You say that now…” Lance grins mischievously.

“Wait until you see College Keith. That shit is not pretty.”

“Impossible.” Lance’s eyes are glinting.

“No, it’s true. I have Dorito powder on my face and torn sweatpants on ninety percent of the time.”

“I don’t know, I’m into it.”

Keith laughs and falls into Lance, wrapping his arms around his waist. Lance chuckles softly and hugs back. “I’m so glad I met you, tonto .” He says.

“You’re so cheesy.”

“But you know I’m right.” He runs his fingers through the hair at the nape of Keith’s neck and he shivers.

“Yeah, you’re right.”  

Lance pulls back but keeps his arms wrapped loosely around Keith's waist. “And in college we don’t have to watch any kids at night...so…” He leans over and kisses Keith, slow and teasing. Keith breaths out a long sigh through his nose, letting Lance lick tantalizingly into his mouth. Lance moves away slightly. “So we can do whatever we want.”

Keith smiles, rubbing his nose against Lance’s. Heat pools in his cheeks and throughout his chest. “Yeah we can.”

They stand like this for a moment, just breathing each other in, before Lance lets go and takes a deep breath, collecting himself. He looks at Keith with bright eyes. “You ready?”

Keith grins. “Let’s go.”

_ _ _ _ _

Saying goodbye to the counselors isn’t as hard as saying goodbye to the kids, because they have a group chat and snapchats and a million other things that pretty much make it impossible for them to not keep in touch. Even Coran is in on it.

Keith gives goodbye hugs to Hunk, Pidge, Coran, and Allura, making sure not to cry because he would never hear the end of it. Pidge and Hunk say goodbye to Lance, falling to their knees and ugly-sobbing at his feet, which makes him rolls his eyes and tell them to “stop making fun of him”. Keith’s heart feels full as he watches Shiro start to pack their car, readying themselves for the hours of driving ahead of them. His brother asks him where his stuff is, and then he remembers it is still in the living area of the Red Cabin.

Standing at the entrance of the Red Cabin, now empty and too clean to feel comfortable, Keith holds his ratty luggage in one hand and the packet of welcome materials, which he never ended up reading and now needs to return, in the other. He breathes in the smell of dried flowers and rotting wood that he used to hate but is now so familiar to him, and it curls around him like a warm embrace. The Cabin feels much bigger, and emptier, without the mussed up bed sheets and stray swimsuits littering the floor. Keith puts his hand on the door handle, taking one last look, turning around and heading to the car.

During arts and crafts on Keith’s first day as a counselor, the kids asked Keith to draw what he wanted most this summer. Before giving in and just drawing himself chilling by the fan in the snow, he had his mind set on drawing something else. He wanted to draw himself, with all of the counselors, sitting around the campfire with beers in their hands. He wanted to draw happy faces. A family.

Mostly, he wanted to feel like he belonged to something.

Walking into the courtyard now, he sees Pidge and Hunk laughing at something Coran said. He sees Shrio and Allura gazing fondly at each other. And he sees Lance. Fucking Lance, who is looking at him with bright, loving blue eyes, glowing golden skin, and a breathtaking smile.

He got so much more than he bargained for.

Chapter 12

: epilogue: mexicoSummary:

very very very cheesy cheesiness mixed with fluff and also some sex. sorry not sorry. keith is in love. lance is in love. they are dorks and they are madly in love. THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SMUT you'll know when it is starting so it's easy to skip over if youre not a fan!

Notes:

AHHHHHHHH. this whole fanfic was such a whirlwind for me to write. thank you to everyone for all of the kudos and comments, i love these two with all of my heart. you guys are wonderful. MAJOR FLUFF WARNING. I apologize for the cheesy ending but i mean come on, have you read the rest of this thing? no way the ending wasnt going to be fluffy af

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Keith has finally found a place that is hotter than Camp Voltron.

The temperature in Puerto Vallarta is comparable to what he imagines Satan’s butthole to be like. The minute he walks off the plane he feels the humidity hit him like a wall of hot water. He  groans in misery at the same time that Lance sighs with satisfaction. “This is my kind of weather.” Lance says, stretching his arms out and turning his chin up towards the sun.

The resort they found is apparently one of the best in the area. Lance was adamant about them having a spa and a steam room, two things which Keith doesn’t give a rats ass about. But then Lance smiled at him with those stupid white teeth and those stupid dimples and Keith couldn’t really say no. Besides, the thought of Lance in a fluffy bathrobe and a face mask just makes Keith’s stomach warm significantly.

It had been a constant debate over the past few months— Keith wanted to go to a resort with very few amenities and just sit by a pool, but Lance had a checklist of things that absolutely needed to be included. “I have to combine everything I want to do now with everything I wanted to do back then, and yet still have significant time to make out with you” Lance had said when they first started planning their trip.They were siting across from each other on Keith’s small dorm bed and sharing a pizza, writing all of their plans on sticky notes and pasting them onto each other’s bodies in random places. Keith wrote down “steam room” and pasted the post-it to Lance’s forehead. Lance wrote “sex in the steam room” and pasted it to Keith’s forearm. They both laughed until it couldn’t possibly be funny anymore, shoving pizza into their mouths and wasting countless sticky notes on sex related things until all of the sticky notes were on the floor, along with their clothes.

That day seems like it was so long ago now, as Keith walks into the entrance of the resort with Lance in tow. Lance is already making his rounds, greeting all of the employees with that sunny personality that seems to make everyone feel right at home. It also helps that the Spanish rolls effortlessly off of his tongue after years of speaking it at home with his family. Within seconds, the staff are offering them hot towels and mimosas, taking their luggage and walking them to their rooms. Keith looks at Lance, baffled, and Lance sends him a dazzling grin that has his eyes crinkling at the corners; a sight that, even after months, Keith still isn’t quite used to.

Ever since the day Keith went back to school, Lance was there. Keith didn’t really know what he expected. He knew that Lance liked him, but honestly, a small part of him was still afraid that it was all just some kind of summer magic that would disappear once he started reading physics textbooks and taking exams again.

But reading physics textbooks with Lance sitting on his bed his different. Studying for exams while Lance doodles on his small whiteboard is different. Everything is just different now, with Lance around; and it’s a good different. It is like there is sunlight cast over all of the tasks that used to be mundane and dry. It makes Keith wonder how exactly he managed to be happy at all without Lance around all the time. yelling at him in Spanish and making him laugh until he practically peed himself.

Lance had come over in a heartbeat when Keith has nightmares in the winter, tucking himself into Keith’s small dorm bed and carding a hand through his hair. Seeing his tan skin and golden-brown hair wrapped up in layers of winter coats and scarves was truly a slight to behold, rosy cheeks and all. Quite different from the Lance that Keith had known during the summer, but still beautiful. Lance had taken him out for drinks when he was offered a part time job with NASA after graduation. Lance was there, always, no matter what. Aside from Shiro, Keith had never really known friendship or love like this, and it was all overwhelming, but very welcome.

Keith learned a few months ago that Lance is, in fact, on a pre-med track and studying to be a pediatrician (which only killed him a lot when he found out) and he is minoring in music studies. Keith made sure that he was at Altea University whenever Lance had a huge exam the next day. He would drag him to the pool and pull him into the water, throwing off their clothes and swimming naked until Lance was so engulfed with giggles that his nerves were gone.

Old habits die hard, apparently

Needless to say, the the past few months have been making Keith fall so fast, so relentlessly, and so endlessly in love that every time Lance speaks to him, he has to hold his breath and pinch himself, just to make sure this is real. Just to make sure that this is actually his life and Lance is actually his.

It sounds so cheesy and so stupid and honestly, if Keith from a year ago were to hear any of this  he would probably projectile vomit onto the ceiling.

But now, as he is opening the door to their unnecessarily luxurious hotel room, he sees Lance strip down to his light blue boxers and flop onto the bed, all smooth tan skin and long limbs, and his heart stutters in his chest. The moles dotted across his back, which Keith has traced over time and time again, stand out against the skin around them. Probably form the added sun. There is a light tan line around his waist where his boxers are riding lower than usual. Keith stares at him unabashedly because, well he can now, okay?

“Oh man, tonto. This room is amazing!” Lance drawls, rolling into his back and staring at the ceiling in awe. “Did you know that we are on the floor right above the spa? It takes less than twenty seconds to get down there, rojo. Veinte segundos. Dios, this is going to be awesome.”

Keith smiles as Lance babbles on and on about the room. He talks about the coral shower curtains and how the bath towels are folded and how the mini bar has tiny bottles of tequila that are so small they “look like they belong to my sister Maria’s american girl dolls.”

“Okay, this room is awesome and everything but where is the thermostat.” Keith says grumpily.

Lance gasps. “Don’t you dare touch it, you heathen! The temperature is perfect in here!”

“Wha—! Lance, I’m pretty sure my ears are sweating.”

“Oh, ew.” Lance wrinkles his nose up adorably and then laughs at Keith’s helpless expression. “Okay, okay, fine. Don’t need a sweaty tonto stinking up the hotel room.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “Thank you your majesty.”

“No problem.” Lance is chuckling now, picking up the brochure on the nightstand and flipping through the activities. “Oh man, there’s so much stuff I wanna do! But first things first, we’re are going to the beach and fucking relaxing.”

“Relaxing, huh? I think I’ve forgotten how to do that.”

“I’ll remind you!” Lance says giddily. “Maybe I’ll even beat your ass at a game of beach volleyball. And by maybe, I mean, totally and completely.”

“You seriously think you can beat me in beach volleyball?” Keith asks, flopping onto the bed and turning onto his side so that he is laying facing Lance. “Have you not learned?”

Lance raises an eyebrow at him. “Someone sounds cocky. Don’t worry, I’ll put you in your place, rojito.”

Keith mulls over Lance’s words, eyebrow raising. He hums. “Best two out of three?”

Lance smirks at him. “Oh, you’re on, tonto.”

_ _ _

The beach is crowded when they get there, but they manage to find a small nook of sand where they lay out their towels. Lance flops down on his towel, already stripped down to his tiny swim trunks, and stretches, placing his hands behind his head. “This. is. Amazing.” He says.

Keith, of course, stares down at Lance’s body and takes a minute to admire it before scowling. “Well that’s great for you, but some of us can’t just lay in the sun without putting on ten pounds of sunscreen first.” He says bitterly, uncapping the bottle and squirting almost all of it’s contents into his hand. Lance sighs, but it comes out as a laugh, and he sits up and gestures for Keith to sit in front of him.

And Keith may hate his pale, easily burned skin, but if that means he gets to feels Lance’s hands rubbing up and down his back, then maybe it isn’t so bad.

Lance is talking to him, laughing about someone on the towels next to them and saying something about getting a margarita but Keith just lets his eyes close as he savors the feeling of Lance rubbing over his shoulders and trailing his hands over his lower back. Throughout all of the time that they have spent together, especially touching each other, Keith has come to the very odd conclusion that Lance’s hands are pretty much his favorite part of him-- they are so elegant, yet so rough, and Keith finds the combination to be intoxicating.

Suddenly, he feels one of those aforementioned hands swatting him upside the head.

“Ow!” He yelps in surprise.

“Are you even listening to anything I’m saying?” Lance asks incredulously, voice cracking. Keith turns to face him.  

“Uh.”

“ Dios mio , Keith, I’m putting sunscreen on your back, it shouldn’t render you speechless”

Keith blushes. “I was lost in thought! It has nothing to do with you.” He lies, but Lance knows him well enough. He shakes his head slowly, laughing, and lowers himself onto his towel. “You’re all good now.” He says lightly. Then adds. “You little perv.”

Keith tries to make and angry sounds but it bubbles out of him like an embarrassed giggle. Lance’s smirk intensifies when he hears it.

Once sufficiently covered, he lays on his towel beside Lance.

“I can’t believe we’re actually here.” Lance says, sounding dazed.

“Mmhmm.” Keith hums sleepily. “We’d better thank the gorgeous, generous, flawless fuck who got us these tickets.”

Launce laughs out loud. “Feeling a little full of yourself today, huh?”

Keith grins but doesn’t reply.

“Might as well knock you down a few pegs at that volleyball net.”

Keith groans. “But we just laid down!”

“You just know you’re going to lose, that’s all. It’s okay, I accept your terms. We’ll just lay here.” Keith can practically hear the smug smile on Lance’s pretty face.

Keith sighs. “You are the worst person.” But he’s already getting up, and Lance is laughing wildly as he stands up with him.

“Just one game! Once you lose, we can come back here and I can work on my tan.”

“You mean once you lose?”

Lance chuckles. “Oh tonto , you have another thing coming if you think I’m going to lose.”

_ _ _

Lance loses.

_ _ _

“Oh come on, rojo . It’s not that bad.” Lance says, barely able to hold in his laughter. Keith shoots him a death glare.

“What do you mean? It’s horrible! Look at me!” He makes a helpless face and gestures towards himself and Lance finally bursts out laughing, walking towards Keith with tears in his eyes. He desperately tries to catch his breath. “It’s cute!” He attempts, between bouts of laughter. Keith just scowls at him, feeling an embarrassed flush in his cheeks.

They are back in their hotel room after hours of laying on the beach. Lance is a little tipsy because he’s been drinking margaritas consistently since noon, and Keith is…

Well, Keith is bright red.

About two bottles of sunscreen later, Keith still managed to burn all over, his color bearing an uncanny resemblance that of a stop sign. He decides to ignore the pain right now and just focus on the visual, eyes scanning his shirtless body in the mirror, horrified. “But how?” He shrieks. “I practically drank the sunscreen!”

Lance is behind him now. He wraps an arm around Keith’s waist and presses a cool hand to his stomach. “Tssss..” He says, making a sizzling sound at the contact. Keith bites back a smile. Lance is grinning at him in the mirror.

“Maybe it’ll turn into a tan?” He jokes, earning him an unamused look. “Okay okay, never mind.”

“Let’s just go to dinner.” Keith sighs, moving away from Lance and searching through his luggage for the softest shirt he can find. He can tell by the strained noises coming from Lance that he is still trying not to laugh. Rolling his eyes, he shoves Lance’s shoulder and Lance dissolves into laughter again.

Keith settles on a soft, dark gray tank top that feels tolerable on his sensitive skin. He throws his hair up into a ponytail in an attempt to cool down and flops down onto the bed. Lance is still in his towel, scanning the shirts and shorts in his suitcase.

“Why does it take you so long to get ready?” He asks, genuinely curious.

Lance scoffs. “Well unlike you , some people actually have to put effort into looking gorgeous.”

Keith smiles, surprised by the answer. “Well, you aren’t one of those people.”

Lance pauses to look at him. “You’re just saying that.”

Keith shakes his head as Lance flushes, biting his lip and looking back down at his clothes. “Oh, stop.” He mumbles. Keith finds it so strange that ever after all this time, Lance still gets flustered when he compliments him.

They leave their hotel room about half an hour later, because despite Keith’s outrageously kind compliment, Lance still takes forever to get ready. When they finally make it to the restaurant and sit down, Keith’s stomach is grumbling relentlessly.

“Mmm, I’m fucking starving.” Lance says, flipping open the menu.

“Me too.” Keith scans the menu hungrily. “This all looks so good.”

“Hey rojo .”

Keith drops the menu and raises an eyebrow at him. “What.”

“Wanna know what the best part of this trip is?”

Keith continues looking at Lance with his eyebrow raised, waiting for him to answer his own question. He expects something cheesy, like ‘being with you’ or ‘spending time here with you’. But what Lance actually says is, “Now when I call you rojo , it’s even funnier because you’re actually rojo .”

Keith snorts, rolling his eyes and picking the menu back up to hide his blush. Lance is laughing loudly at his own joke.

“Oh man.” Lance says as he starts calming down. “Oh man, tonto , there’s oysters .” He makes a point to wiggle his eyebrows when Keith lowers his menu.

“So?”

“ So oysters are like one of nature’s most known aphrodisiacs. We should get them.” Lance jumps excitedly in his chair.

“An aphrodisiac? Who’s the perv now ?”

Lance rolls his eyes. “Come on! It’ll be fun. Like an experiment! They do it in all the movies.”

“But--”

“This is vacation .” Lance pleads. “What is vacation without heightened sexual experience?”

Keith giggles. “Okay, fine. But if we’re getting oysters then we’re getting wine too.”

“Deal.”

They end up making quite a mess of the whole situation, neither of them ever having had oysters before, and make fools out of themselves in front of the other restaurant guests trying to figure out how to eat them. The wine comes and just keeps coming because this trip is all inclusive so they don’t have to pay for each separate bottle. Keith feels full of warmth and heat and happiness as they stumble a little drunkenly out of the restaurant, giggling and holding onto each other for dear life. The air is hot and thick in the city, streets crowded with party-goers and teenagers clubbing. It really is a beautiful city, and the buzzing in Keith’s brain is making it look even more so. He feels Lance wrapped around him and it really is blissful, in the simplest of terms.

They stop by a small convenience shop and Lance makes friendly conversation with the cashier, blabbering quickly in Spanish and laughing at something he says while Keith searches for a bottle of aloe vera cream. If the cashier is put off by how drunk they appear to be, he doesn’t show it, and whatever Lance is saying to him is charming his pants off anyway, so they didn’t really have to worry about making a fool out of themselves. Keith listenes as Lance runs his tongue, the foreign language sounding smooth and practiced and it falls from his lips. It’s strange because it still sounds like Lance, everything about it, from the inflection of his words to his expressions, and it baffles Keith every time he hears it.

When they leave the store, Lance puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder and gasps.

“We didn’t go to the steam room today!” He whines. “That was what I wanted to do the most!”

Keith chuckles. “This whole city is just one giant steam room, can’t you tell?”

“Not the same!”

“Well, I think it’s open 24 hours, so we can still go if you want.”

Lance pulls away from Keith and makes a show out of tapping his chin and looking up at the sky. “Hmmm…” He ponders loudly. Keith just looks at him, taking in the newly bronzed skin, shiny with sweat, and the blue of his eyes in the soft white light coming from the lamp post above them. Lance’s hair has gotten a little longer since the summer, falling onto his forehead and curling a little at the nape of his neck. He has a slight flush in his cheeks from the wine, and his pursed lips look oddly inviting. Keith can’t help but feel that Lance looks breathtaking like this- all brown skin, red cheeks, and tousled hair, surrounded by palm trees and low lights and summer air and the smell of the ocean and it’s all so very Lance , and so very dazzling.

“Okay let’s do it!” Lance finally decides, as if it was even a question in the first place. “It’ll be empty now anyway.” He holds out his hand with an adorable look of anticipation in his eyes and Keith lets out a breathy laugh, reaching out and lacing their fingers together.

They walk back to the hotel hand in hand, talking about meaningless things and laughing at stupid jokes because that’s just what they do. All the while, Keith’s heart overflows.

_ _ _

The most hilarious irony to ever exist is Lance's reaction to the steam room.

“This is, by far, the worst experience of my life.” He says, after they had been sitting for only three minutes. “I want out.”

Keith laughs. “Seriously, Lance?”

“Oh come on, tonto . There’s no way you can convince me that this is enjoyable! I can’t breathe! Do people actually do this to relax?”

Keith continues laughing, the tipsy feeling from dinner still very present. It’s a good thing they are the only people down in the spa, because they're both drunk and loud and fairly obnoxious right now. “Well then let’s get out of here.” He says. “I hate it too.”

Grabbing Lance’s hand, they walk back into the cool, air conditioned spa and sigh with relief.

“Never doing that again.” Lance says, laughing incredulously as he uses a towel to wipe the sweat from his face. “Never ever ever.”

Keith’s eyes track the droplets of condensation trickling down Lance’s naked torso. He imagines catching them with his tongue, right before they soak into the low hanging towel around Lance’s waist. The muscles in Lance’s stomach would probably jump at the contact, like they always do when Keith trails his fingers along the bare skin of his midriff. He would probably gasp, breath hitching in the addictive, delicious way that Keith adores. Suddenly, Keith feels heat spreading throughout his entire body at the thought of touching Lance, rubbing against him in bed and hearing him moan and--

He clears his throat and tears his eyes away. “Wanna just go upstairs?” He asks, hoping his tone doesn’t sound too urgent. Apparently it does, because Lance lowers the towel from his face and looks at him strangely.

“What’s the rush?” He asks slowly, eyes glinting because he can read Keith by now. He knows what Keith is feeling just by looking at him, and he especially knows when keith is turned on.

Keith takes a breath. “No rush. Just...wanna shower.”

Lance hums, unconvinced. “Okay, tonto …” He looks down at Keith and grabs his chin lightly, leaning forward until they are a breath apart. “Oysters…” He says tauntingly, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“I don’t think the oysters have anything to do with--” Keith mumbles, but is cut off when Lance’s lips press against his. The feeling is now very familiar, but still as exhilarating as it was the first time. Lance kisses him slowly, tantalizingly, teasing with his tongue and nipping at Keith's bottom lip because he knows . He knows that it is driving Keith crazy. He knows that Keith gets impatient. He knows and he’s just a little shit for making it so fucking good.

A shiver runs down Keith’s spine as Lance trails his hand over the skin on his chest, then stomach, then very teasingly slipping underneath the towel before moving back up again. Keith takes a deep breath through his nose, already feeling the heat collecting between his legs and the dizzying feeling of arousal in his head, clouding his vision. He pulls back from the kiss, breathing unevenly. “Lance…” He pleads, voice hoarse. “Please, let’s just--”

Lance nods and they both stare at each other before booking it to the elevator, laughing breathlessly and slamming down on the “close door” button before attaching at the lips again.

They have done this countless times. It’s always the same routine, but Keith never gets tired of it. He is usually the first to bring it up, and then Lance is always a tease about it, leaving light touches all over Keith’s skin until one of them eventually breaks. It’s just how it always ends up happening.

They stumble into the hotel room and fall onto the bed, already working to remove their clothes. Keith hisses in pain as Lance tries to lift his shirt over his burnt shoulders, and Lance actually has to break the kiss to laugh, because he’s a horrible person. He mumbles something along the lines of “aloe later” into Keith’s parted lips and then they are kissing again, this time with much more intensity.

Lance’s kisses have personality. It may seem like a weird thing to say, but kissing Lance is never as simple as just kissing Lance. It’s almost like he is always trying to say something, to tell a story,  even when his lips are preoccupied. And Keith knows that he has fallen in love with all of those stories. Every single one.

Lance tastes like the ocean and his skin is so smooth, so warm underneath his fingertips. He lets his hands explore, running over the peaks and dips of a body that he has come to know so well. The small, familiar noises that Lance makes when Keith brushes over some of his favorite spots (the skin just below his belly button, the top of his forearm, the nape of his neck, the small dip of skin between his collarbones) All spots which he has learned over nights and nights of lazily dragging his hands across Lance’s skin. Lance is panting into Keith’s mouth now, no longer the one in control, and Keith rolls on top of him in one smooth movement, not wasting any time before reaching out and stroking him through his swim trunks, which quickly become the last thing to come off.

Keith strokes Lance, slow and practiced, just enough to make him crazy but not enough to push him over the edge.  He watches as Lance’s face goes from calm and relaxed to tense, with his eyes squeezed tightly in the way they always do when he can feel himself getting close.

“Fuck, rojo, no puedo ... quiero hacer--- I don’t--ahh…” Lance darts his hand out and grabs Keith’s wrist, stopping the movement of his arm. Keith raises an eyebrow at him.

Lance takes a shaky breath. “If you keep going, I’m gonna come.” He says, voice strained.

“Isn’t that the point?” Keith asks, smirking.

Lance shakes his head. “Wanna fuck you.” He murmurs pulling Keith down by the back of his neck and attaching his mouth just below Keith’s jaw.

Keith whimpers slightly at the contact, letting his shaking legs finally give out so that their bodies press flush against each other. When their hips meet they both gasp, Lance’s body jerking underneath him.

“Did you bring lube?” Keith asks, panting.

“What the fuck kind of question is that? Of course I did.” Lance says, voice cracking. “In my bag.”

Keith scrambles off of him and retrieves it, already popping the lid off and squirting it into Lance’s open palms. “Please hurry.” He says, and Lance laughs filthily, rolling over so that he is on top of Keith, straddling his hips with his long legs. Slowly, without breaking eye contact, he eases one finger in. Keith hisses quietly, but then hums at the feeling. “Jesus…”  He whispers. Lance leans forward and kisses him again, long and sensual, working his finger in and out of Keith in a slow, rhythmic pattern.  Keith is letting out shuddering breaths into Lance’s mouth, feeling his legs start to shake as each pump feels better and better. Lance eases another finger in. Keith tightens his grip on Lance’s shoulders. The rhythm continues.

The first couple of times that they did this, Keith was a fucking wreck. He came before Lance could even properly get inside him. Now, he’s a bit better at keeping himself together. It has taken a while, but the dizzying movement of Lance’s fingers inside of him no longer makes him lose it. At least, not as quickly as he used to.

“Oh, rojo …” Lance smothers him with praise, like he always does. “You look so fucking beautiful like this. Fuck, you’re so hot…” The praise, as usual, draws a low whine from the back of Keith’s throat as Lance scissors his fingers in and out, faster, harder, making Keith’s hips stutter and shake, pushing upwards.

“Lance, come on…” He says, a little pleadingly.

“Okay, okay.” Lance is grinning. “So eager.”

Keith rolls his eyes as Lance slicks himself up, trying to ignore the fact that Lance’s cocky attitude is actually a huge turn-on and really, always has been. All thoughts come to a halt when he feels the familiar sensation of Lance entering him.

Keith hears a strange sound, something between a laugh and a moan, and then Lance’s voice quivers as he says, “You...you have the funniest tan line ever...I-It’s like--” He gasps as Keith shifts underneath him, “l-like those ice cream cartons with the vanilla--ah--next to the strawberry.”

Keith frowns, a giggle threatening to burst from his throat, but then Lance starts moving and really, nothing else matters anymore. There is nothing that Keith has ever really felt in his life that beats this. It may seem like an exaggeration, but the heat and the friction and the delicious feeling of Lance filling him up is a little more than heavenly. Just a little more. Keith wonders if life after death is just being in bed with Lance, forever and ever. It seems like a possible contender for heaven.

Lance starts moving faster, filling the room with small, needy sounds that make Keith’s stomach feel like it’s melting. After all this time, he knows exactly what Keith likes. They went through the process of elimination over the past few months and have finally found a way to do it that works for both of them. It had been a bit of a fumbling process, with some awkward and rather gross moments, but now it’s like they are experts in each other. Keith knows exactly what touches will elicit what sounds from Lance, and Lance know exactly.how.to.fuck.Keith.

Keith tried to be on top, he really did, but he just likes bottom so much more. As it turned out, Lance liked being on top more. This always seems to be what works out best for them.

Lance is getting louder, his moaning carrying through the small, humid room. “Fuck.” He hisses, as Keith starts thrusting forward and meeting him halfway with every movement. “Shit, you feel so good…”

Lance is much better at dirty talk than Keith ever will be, in his entire life, and when Lance starts panting heavily, thrusts getting sloppier and looser, he dips down and buries his face into Keith’s neck, whispering “ ‘M gonna come inside you” in the lowest filthiest voice Keith has ever heard.

Keith’s hips stutter in a warning, pleasure building in his stomach and his shoulders and his fingertips and fuck he feels small explosions occurring all over his body, getting louder and louder and--

“You can’t come till I tell you” Lance’s gasping voice rumbles against his neck and he whimpers pathetically, feeling his whole body shaking as Lance continues to pound into him.

‘Lance--” He chokes out.

“We’re going to come at the same time” Lance's voice is shaking violently, the tone sounding familiar from all of the times he has tried to talk right before having an orgasm. It something that he actually does way too often.

“Mmf, hold on, Keith…” One more thrust, Keith’s vision begins to blur.

Fuck.

“Hold on…”

Shit.

“J-Just mmfew more--”

Keith feels the tension paralyzing his whole body, desperate for release.

Then finally, a hot breath on his neck, “Now.”

Keith let's go with a loud groan muffled into the pillow next to him. He feels the rush of pleasure racking through his body and shivers as he feels Lance falling on top of him with strangled moan, coming with him. All of the muscles that were just tensued up are now loose, and Lance lets all of weight fall down in top on Keith, nuzzling his face further into his neck and taking big, gulping breaths.

Keith shakily lifts his hands and runs his fingers down lance’s back, feeling the sticky, sweaty skin and the small knotted pattern running down his spine. It is silent for a long time, but it doesn’t feel long to them because they are too blissed out to really process any time passing.

“Oysters.” Lance says again, into the base of Keith’s neck. Keith can hear the smile in his voice. He bursts out laughing.

“Oysters.” He says back, in between giggles.

“You have to go to the mirror.” Lance says voice slow and lazy. “You have to go to the mirror and look at the tan line on your ass, oh my god it’s fucking hilarious--”

Keith swats at his head and Lance dodges it, laughing as Keith pushes him off the bed and walks to the mirror. “Holy shit.” He says, looking at the stark line of white against his red stomach where is bathing suit used to be.

“See? What’d I tell you?” Lance cackles.

“How did you even continue having sex with me after seeing that?” Keith asks incredulously, trying and failing to hide his smile.

“I’ll admit, it was hard to take you seriously, but I pushed through.” Lance says lightly, eyes teasing. “No pun intended.”

Keith snorts unattractively, glancing at his poor, red, naked body in the mirror again. Sighing, he pulls on a pair of boxer in an attempt to hide the hideous burn line. Launce sits up and slips on his boxers too, standing up and making his way towards Keith with slow, tired movements. He stops once he’s standing in front of him.

“I love Mexico.” He says softly, staring at Keith with fond eyes.

Keith smiles. “Yeah, it’s a pretty nice place.”

“I love you, tonto.”

Keith blushes, heart leaping in his chest. “I love you too.” He murmurs, just for Lance to hear.

Lance grins, planting a wet, sloppy kiss on Keith’s cheek, which in turn makes Keith groan in disgust. “Lance.” He says scoldingly, earning him a laugh.  The moment is over as quickly as it began, and now Lance is blabbering again.

“Oh my god, we should go snorkeling tomorrow. Hay tortugas I heard there are baby sea turtles if we go deep enough and we might even be able to see like nemos!”

“You mean clownfish?” Keith is ignored.

“ Dios mio and then we can build a sandcastle, expect it’s gotta be better than the one that those kids built today because let me tell you that was one of the most structurally disastrous sand castles I have ever--” Lance keeps talking, sentences building onto other sentences and words slurring together. Keith just stares at him, which he really does too much (he kinda has a problem.)

Lance is smiling animatedly, waving his hands around his mussed up hair and shouting about surfing and parasailing and Keith wonders how on earth he managed to get so lucky. There probably isn’t anyone in the world as beautiful as the boy standing before him, and he doesn’t just mean physically. Everything about Lance has been an adventure for him, and he knows that it will just keep being one; because Lance is always challenging him, always keeping him on his toes, and always there. Keith never understood how home could be a person, but looking at the tall, goofy dork of a boy in front of him, he finally understands.

“Lance.” Keith says, effectively cutting off the blabbering.

“Hm?” Lance raises an eyebrow at him. “Oh my god, you stopped listening again, didn’t you?”

“Can I say something super cheesy without you making fun of me?” Keith asks, ignoring Lance’s last remark.

“You already did.” Lance says, referring to the “i love you” moment they had in front of the mirror.

“No, something else.”

He gets a confused look in reply. “Um. Sure, rojito. ” He takes a step forward, wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist. “You know I like it when you’re cheesy.”

Keith’s heart beats in his throat. “I wish I could fall in love with you all over again.”

Lance’s eyes light up, smirk spreading across his face. He doesn’t miss a beat. “Well, there's always this summer, tonto. ”