#I love Keith serenading Lance with Prince

[emphasis-all-mine]

Hey, for the writing promt, klance 14 please!

Okay wow I’m on a weird “let’s mess around in canonverse” kick (heh) so here’s another one wherein I bend timelines around and get a bit angsty but I promise a happy ending and only vaguely implied ultimately platonic allura+lonce. (And some legit Romellura for funsies.)

14. things you said after you kissed me

**

The first time Lance kisses him, Keith just blinks and says, “Thank you.”

**

The first time Keith kisses Lance he doesn’t notice his visor hasn’t finished rising back into his helmet and Lance screams and gets a long, red scrape on his cheek.

**

The first time they kiss each other they’re drunk on nunvil and somehow they haven’t gotten to the pukey phase so there’s this tiny window they have when their lips press together before the both of them whisper a quick excuse and go empty their stomachs in separate corners of the room.

“We are never doing that again.”

Keith doesn’t know if he’s referring to the nunvil or the kiss.

**

“Of course I meant the nunvil, mullet!” Lance yells when he pulls back from their second mutual and third successful kiss (not that Keith is counting).

**

Keith is totally counting. He gives Lance nineteen at once. (Eighteen kisses and one to grow on). That makes a total of thirty-seven so far.

“Happy Birthday, Lance!” he says when he’s finished.

Lance smiles, running his hands up and down Keith’s Marmora armor. “It is now.”

**

All the numbers fly out of his head when he finds Lance after Naxzela and pins him against the wall and kisses him.

“What’s wrong?” Lance says, scanning his face.

“We should start again…” Keith looks down at lips that he would have never been able to touch again if he had–

“Okay,” Lance doesn’t understand what he means, but he’s too clever not to figure it out eventually. “Okay, we start over.”

Keith nods, and Lance kisses him back.

**

“Morning,” Keith murmurs after his wake-up kiss. He tastes minty breath and still can smell the lotion from Lance’s night mask.

“I don’t want you to go solo, Kolivan isn’t telling you something.”

Keith sits up. “You really think so?”

“You didn’t hear the nerves in his voice? We’re taking Red and I’m going in with you.”

“… You just want an excuse to wear the Marmora suit he got you.”

“Is that a complaint?”

“It’s a dream come true. You look damn hot in it. Shows off those big, broad shoulders that I love.”

Lance bites his lip. “Anything else you love?”

“C’mere, and I’ll show you,” Keith grins and Lance bends down to kiss him again, and again.

**

“My mom–I mean, Krolia is watching us again,” Keith says after he pulls away. “Sorry.”

“Keith, she’s always watching you. You’re her son, she hasn’t seen you in years. I’d be doing the same thing, to be honest.”

“Lance…”

“Never let you out of my sight,” Lance kisses him again, and sighs. “What if she’s right, and it’s gonna take two years to reach the quantum abyss?”

“Then I guess I better get used to her staring.”

**

“Keith,” Lance pulls back. “Your wolf is staring at me again.”

Keith huffs. “So?”

“Keith.”

“Why is my wolf staring worse than my mother staring?”

“Your mother doesn’t have jaws that can tear my throat out.”

“Yes I do, who says I don’t?” Krolia says, interrupting them and Keith and Lance bounce apart from where they were making out on their makeshift beds. “Do you want me to take the wolf on a walk so you two can finish?”

They both groan.

“Ah. The mood has been murdered.”

“Yep.”

“Absolutely.”

**

They end up kissing each other breathless the moment Krolia leaves with the wolf to forage for dinner.

**

Lance runs over to Keith, wrapping his arms around Keith’s neck and kissing him deeply.

“I love you,” Lance says, pulling back. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Do what?”

“Put laxatives in Iverson’s coffee when he called me out in front of our class and said I was lazy.”

“… technically I paid Matt and he went through Adam so you can’t prove any–mmph!”

Lance kisses him again.

**

Keith blinks.

“That was… wow.”

Lance nods.

“You uh, you look good with the scar?” he says. “Kinda grizzled, little rough around the edges,” he licks his lips. “I liked it.”

“You had… Altean marks?” Keith blinks. “Blue ones.”

“I mean, this stuff doesn’t have to be set in stone, there’s like string theory and multiverses and–”

“So you think we won’t break up?”

Lance kisses away tears that he doesn’t realize have started to fall. 

“It looked like we were still friends, so that’s good, right?” Keith sniffs.

“I will never not be a part of your life, I don’t know what any of that means, but it doesn’t mean we stop being Lance and Keith. We’re together now, and that’s what we should focus on.”

Keith kisses him and holds him tight.

**

“I kissed Allura.”

Keith blinks.

“Um. Good to know?”

“I mean, you and I aren’t seeing each other anymore. So I know you know we’re seeing other people, and I’m seeing her and I just didn’t want to not tell you a thing and have it be like, a thing, like me keeping it from you and–”

Keith would usually kiss him silent but they can’t do that when they’re broken up.

“Thank you for telling me.”

“Okay.”

“You also don’t have to tell me anything else you end up doing. I’d honestly prefer it.”

Lance blinks.

“This sucks.”

“Yeah, it does.”

**

“You never kissed me goodbye,” Keith whines, leaning on Lance.

“God, why do we keep trying to drink nunvil?” Lance hiccups.

“It would have been kiss number…” Keith does some fast math in his head. “777. But no, you never kissed me goodbye, so we’re stuck at 776 for the rest of time and space…”

“Even with the reset?”

“No, I’m including the ones before the reset. We would have had a perfect lucky number. Seven-seven-seven. Oh seven, and we’ll watch them fall…”

Lance rolls his head back, putting Keith’s other arm across his chest, hand resting on his shoulder. It’s familiar, comfortable. It’s how they sat for nearly two years flying through a quantum abyss.

It’s how they tried to comfort each other after seeing every possible future fight. Eventually they ended it, afraid to even tempt fate, and allow themselves to tear apart any good will, any possibility of friendship or reconciliation.

“…stand in the way of love and we will smoke them all.”

“Is that a song?” Lance asks. “It sounds familiar.”

“Prince,” Keith nods.

“He’s my favorite,” Lance stares at the nunvil bottle. “Damn alcohol, making me forget my favorite musician.”

“Knew a girl named Nikki…” Keith laughs into Lance’s neck. “I found out he’s your favorite so I learned all his songs.”

Lance blinks. “When?”

“When I saw our wedding, shhhh,” Keith whispers. “Don’t wanna jinx it, already lost him once. Gotta make sure I don’t lose him again. Got this one little chance to hold on to.”

**

Kiss number 777 isn’t a Goodbye.

It’s a Hello.

(Again).

**

“How do I look?” Lance smiles as his little niece finishes painting blue Altean marks under his eyes with the bio-luminescent paint Allura gave her.

“Beautiful!” she grins. “Just like Auntie Romelle!”

He looks over at Keith. “She’s right, you look beautiful.”

Lance beams. “Your turn,” he says, standing up so Keith can sit down.

“Do you want blue ones or red ones or pink ones?” she asks.

“You should make him some purple ones.”

Keith shakes his head. “Pink ones. We’re celebrating Allura and Romelle getting engaged, aren’t we? This way we can match them.”

Lance leans in and kisses him.

“Thank you,” he says.

“You’re welcome,” Keith replies.

**

From the Writing Prompt Meme!

[ilovelocust]

The Price Of Flowers - Chap 1

Note: This is the Hanahaki Blackmail fic I’ve been talking about. I’ve prewritten quite a bit, so I will be updating this fic once a day for at least the next eight days. Also, while this first chapter is from Lance’s PoV, the rest of the fic with be from Keith’s perspective.

I hope you all enjoy, and I can’t wait to see what ya’ll think as this progresses.

Chapter One - Fates Messenger

The farmer’s daughter artfully sprawls by the pond. Choosing to meet her end on the same grassy banks she’d first laid eyes on the handsome Prince. Ruby red petals spill from her lips, as she uses her dying breaths to proclaim her absence of regrets that her deepest yearnings have left her to the ill fate of the Lover’s Curse. The vines may steal the air from her lungs, but she will pass on knowing that she has been blessed to feel more profoundly than any other.

Tears prickle the corners of Lance’s eyes. He’s seen the scene a hundred times, but even knowing the Prince is only moments away from bursting free of the forest to reveal that her true love is requited, lifting her curse, cannot take the power from her words. The movie came from a time when people dared to believe in Love. When people didn’t try to cure their feelings with scalpels and doctors but with declarations of passion. A time when people truly understood the devotions of the heart.

Lance was meant for another era. If he was so lucky as to be the host of flowers. He wouldn’t cast aside fates messenger so casually. He would treasure it as the gift it was. An affirmation that his feelings were no mere crush to be tossed aside but the most pure form of love imaginable. Ones so great the universe itself chose to bless them with physical form.

Somebody snickers beside him, Lance scowls at the interruption. Keith’s muffling any further noise with his hand, but Shiro continues to whisper something in his ear. Probably mocking the emotions portrayed on the film for cheap laughs. Some people just couldn’t appreciate something so deep and meaningful. Needing to tear it down, to make up for something lacking in their own courtship. If he’d been granted the same opportunity, he would not have wasted it so casually. He’d have built upon the romantic setting to enchant Keith instead of dismissing it.

The music picks up. The Kiss! Lance looks back just as the Prince holds the Farmer’s Daughter in his arms and kisses her like the Queen she will be. His heart swells. At least in one place, things happen as they should.

-

Keith’s laughter is like the sweetest of music. Genuine and from the heart, all the more valuable for how hard it can be to elicit. Lance is swept up in the sound. Bolstered in knowing he did that, he’s responsible for that joy. It’s almost enough that he can forget while Keith is laughing at his jokes, Shiro’s arm is the one wrapped around Keith’s shoulders.

Shiro says adds on, and Keith stops laughing for him. Attention breaking away so he can smile up at Shiro instead. Jealousy isn’t responsible for the burning in his chest, his emotions are not so low. This is the ache of longing he feels. The slight bite of memories from a time when Keith had given him the same soft smiles.

When Shiro’s was lost for all those months, he and Keith had gotten so close. Lance had been there to remind him to leave his room, to show up for classes, to eat something not from a microwave. He’d been a rock of stability for Keith, when he’d been set adrift, with enough humor to make sure that Keith still laughed. When Shiro hadn’t been there for Keith, Lance had.

The waitress shows them to their table. He and Hunk on one side, Shiro and Keith on the other. Keith is no longer smiling. That wouldn’t happen if he was the one on that side of the table. If Lance were allowed, he would give Keith the world. Take him out dancing, serenade him in front of his building late at night, show him the joys of spontaneous walks in the rain. If he could, Keith would never stop smiling for him, because he’d never let Keith be unhappy.

Knowing how good they could be together, makes their separation all the more painful. If Keith was just a little less loyal, his dreams could be their reality.

When Shiro came back from the war scarred and missing an arm, Keith had dropped everything and glued himself to the man’s side. Some would have backed down presented with their once handsome boyfriend beaten down, but Keith was too good of a person to end the relationship right after a tragedy. He’d left Lance behind, taking a break from school to help Shiro recover. Lance had gone from eating lunch with Keith everyday, to not seeing him for four whole months, and when he had seen him again? The strain had been written across all his features. Keith’s eyes had been black with lack of sleep, hair a mess. His expressions tired. He’d never looked worse.

Keith wasn’t the type to share his feeling. Even when they were close, insight into his thoughts had come more as outbursts that Keith couldn’t suppress than quiet conversation, but Lance payed attention. He saw the look on Keith’s face, when Pidge had spoken quietly to him about how to deal with Shiro and Matt’s trauma. The look hadn’t been full of joy like it should be when discussing someone you were dating.

The burning in Lance’s chest increases as Keith began to talk of his classes. Ones he no longer shares with Lance. One more reminder of what Keith had given up. It simply wasn’t fair. Keith was young. He should be enjoying his life to its fullest. Shiro was a good guy, but Keith shouldn’t feel as if he has to let everything else slide just to take care of Shiro.

He should have confessed when he had the chance, before they found Shiro and brought him back. Lance should have opened his heart and said those three little words. They could have gotten together, and then Keith wouldn’t have felt obligated to resume his relationship with Shiro. Now it was too late. Keith will never leave Shiro, no matter how much it takes from him.

The emotions stick in Lance’s throat. Choking down his words. He wants to spill everything on the table. Tell Keith the truth give him a chance, but he can’t not here, not now, “I’ll be right back,” Lance stands excusing himself. He walks quickly towards the men’s room. A few moments to collect himself, then he can go back and be the goofy guy everyone loves. The bathroom door swings shut behind him. Right now it’s too much, though. He feels as if he could gag on it all.

Lance breathes deep and chokes. Something is actually sticking in his throat. He grabs hold of the counter as his coughing nearly doubles him over. Whatever it is, it is stuck good, but even though it brings tears to his eyes. He slowly hacks it up. Something coppery enters his mouth, and Lance spits it into the sink.

Lance looks down and freezes. It can’t be. It’s so rare. No one in his family has ever experienced it, but rubbing his eyes doesn’t dispel the image. Contrasting against the pure white porcelain of the sink lies Fate’s calling card, in the form of a single blood red petal.

-

Hanahaki’s Disease:

A rare disease that afflicts humans who pine for somebody they think does not return their feelings. Its only symptom is the growth of flowers and vines in the patient’s lungs. If left untreated it will eventually suffocate the individual.

There are two known treatments: convincing the patient their feelings are requited and surgical removal. Both treatments have their own side effects. Requited love will reverse the symptoms of the disease, but if the patient later loses that love, the disease can reappear stronger than before. Surgical removal has no chance for relapse, but causes the patient to lose all feelings for the subject of their affections.

Deciding on the best course of treatment is a decision best left between the patient and their doctor.

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