#random note but tightrope from the greatest showman reminds me of them

[animinarts]

Even after everything..?

20 episode milestone (；ω；)

[onpointedfeetandbrokendreams]

Happy International Fanworks Day!!

Hi, I’m joining in AO3′s International Fanworks Day with this Short fanworks challenge: Get out your tablet, your laptop, or your phone and create a short fanwork on the following topic: What does your favorite character—or your favorite pairing—get fannish over?

I chose Klance, since I’m already writing long, multi-chapters fics about my main fandom (which is YOI), I hope you’ll enjoy!

(The line about the ships names refer to my other Klance one-shot

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It is a relatively peaceful day on the Castle of Lions, Galras aren’t attacking, Allura, Coran and Shiro are talking with allies and making plans and the other four paladins lazy around, talking about nothing in particular. Peaceful, however, until Lance starts humming a song and Keith dares to ask what it is.

Lance falls silent immediately and walks towards him with an outraged expression. “You mean you’ve never seen The Greatest Showman??”

“Is it a movie? I wasn’t that into movies back on Earth, more like… Documentaries or stuff.”

“Ugh, you are impossible. You don’t know what ships names are, you don’t watch movies, were you even human at all? We have to right this. Immediately. Where’s my favorite genius nerd?”

“I’m right here, Lance. Jeez, when you talk to Keith it seems like the rest of the universe disappears.” Answers Pidge, who is, in fact sitting on the control panel right next to Keith. They have a mischievous glint in their voice that, as expected, makes Lance blush and his voice grow an octave in pitch. “T-that’s not true!”

“Sure,” deadpans Pidge sarcastically. “I don’t think we can find any movie’s stream from here, though. We are in space after all.”

“But it’s important!! I mean, That movie is like… The best thing ever existed! Ever! He needs to see it.”

“And why do you care if he watches a movie or not?”

Lance shivers. He doesn’t have an answer to that, he just… Wants Keith to see it? Well, not everything has to make sense, they have nothing else to do right now and he is bored.

“If we can’t find the movie then we’ll need to improvise. Hunk, my sun and stars, please help me.” He says dramatically, turning to the yellow paladin who smiles at his best friend brightly.

“Anything for you, moon of my life. Oooh, this is going to be fun!”

Lance whoops. “Okay, so, Pidge, you are a gremlin, so you are going to be the General.”

Pidge rolls their eyes. “I knew you would say that. You are so predictable that I won’t even comment on this.”

“There’s only four of us, so we’ll have to stick to the main characters,” comments Hunk, always worried when his friends start bickering.

“Yeah, I know, I was just joking,” reassures him Lance grinning. “I, of course, I’m going to be Zendaya because she is the gorgeousest like I am. Hunk will be Barnum because he is the best singer among us - sorry, Pidge - and you can choose if you prefer Charity or Phillip.”

Pidge ponders it. “Hm, that’s difficult. I would love to be Phillip just to make you fall when we dance together but…” They side eye Keith before continuing. “I think I’ll go with Charity. I can be a girl for one day and she has one of the best songs after all.”

“That is completely true. I’m so in love with Tightrope,” comments Lance in a dreaming voice, opening and closing his eyes and bringing his hands together near his heart.

“Wait, wait, wait. Everyone stops for a second. Do you mean that I have to sing? And dance?” Asks Keith, who hasn’t understood a word they said except for gorgeousest - which is still giving him the creeps - and singer and dance.

Pidge snickers but Lance turns deadly serious as he puts a hand on his shoulder and locks eyes with him to explain:

“This is of the utmost importance, Keith, buddy, my man, you have to do this.”

“I really don’t think that it’s a good idea. I don’t know the songs and I’ve never danced or sung before! Can’t I just, I don’t know, watch you?”

Lance makes his best impression of the puppy dog’s eyes. “Please, if you don’t participate there’s going to be only three of us and we won’t be able to recreate anything properly! It’s not going to be embarrassing, we aren’t singers or dancers either, it’s just… A little piece of Earth?”

Keith is a little overwhelmed. From this close, Lance’s eyes are just… Too much. Too blue, too soulful. He can see the hope surfacing at the idea of doing something that reminds him of their planet even if just for a moment and Keith… Can’t really say no to that, can he? It’s unfair of Lance to bring this up. He sighs, resignation clear in his face and body posture and, before he can even voice his consent, Lance is already beaming, every ounce of melancholy or nostalgia completely gone from his features. Keith finds himself smiling a fond smile. Pidge sees him and gives him a knowing look. He immediately schools his expression back to mildly annoyed.

“Fine, what do I have to do?”

Lance explains the story briefly. There’s this ambitious man who wants to become someone and bring wonder and innovation to the World so he first opens a wax museum, then he begins to offer a show with extraordinary acts, oddities and things never seen before. He risks everything in the process, including his house and his family before discovering what it is that really matters to him more than success. It’s a good story, Keith has to recognize it, but the best part is Lance’s face as he tells it. His eyes are sparkling with awe and he is trembling with excitement. When he finishes, he is a little teary.

“And the songs are what makes it even more amazing! Luckily, I have them all on my phone so we can recreate everything!” he finishes.

Hunk dries a single tear, commenting. “I cry every time just by listening to this story. No matter how many times we watched the movie at home.”

Even the usually emotionless Pidge has a small smile playing on his lips as he nods.

Then, Lance makes them move to the Blue Lion hangar and makes space for their stage.

“Blue, my beautiful, you are going to be my accomplice in this, aren’t you, lovely?”

Blue purrs at his paladin’s praise and he cheers loudly. He enters the robot to plug his phone in, as he and Pidge - or, should he say, Pidge following his suggestion - has managed to do some weeks prior with some hacking and a lot of swearing.

When he comes out of Blue’s mouth, the first notes of the opening song already playing, he opens his arms as to greet an imaginary audience and bows, proclaiming:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, let the show begin!”

Hunk chuckles and steps in the middle of the “stage”, assuming a similarly dramatic pose. They don’t exactly need to sing, because there’s the actor’s voice in the background, but it’s more fun, so they do their best with the interpretation, moving around the hangar and mimicking what they remember of the choreographies, using the random objects they found when they need props.

Keith is trying to follow their lead but he is not an actor, nor a dancer and he doesn’t know what the scenes should look like or how the songs go. Mostly, it’s Lance who drags him around, telling him where to go or when to freeze in a pose. He is supposed to be this sort of rich guy from the high society who starts his career by doing pretentious dramas and ends up being Hunk’s apprentice in the circus and falling in love with his trapezist, now portrayed by Lance. When the first song ends - which is a flash forward of the ending so Lance said he must be in it - the story goes back to the beginning. Hunk and Pidge dance together, recreating the love story between the main character and this girl he has loved since his childhood and that he pursue along with his dream. Pidge has a very fresh singing voice, that meddles beautifully with Hunk’s baritonal tones. The two dance playfully, Hunk launches them around and they laugh, shoving him in retaliation. Lance is bouncing on his toes, unable to stay put while he waits for his turn. Soon, the song ends and it is time for the setting up of the circus. He hurries to take his position and insists that Hunk do a lift with him, too. They manage a simple one before falling face first to the ground in a mess of limbs. Pidge laughs hysterically and even Keith can’t hold back a snort. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Lance, who winks at him as he dusts himself off to resume the choreography.

After that, it is time for Hunk’s duet with Keith. They are in a bar and talk about their potential partnership while sharing drinks, now played by some screwdrivers that were previously laying abandoned in a corner of the hangar. He has to admit that he is having fun. Being there on space, so far from home, and fighting in a war none of them was prepared for, it is nice for once to do something stupid and a little childish. They are young, after all, and they need to ease some of their tension sometimes. He realizes that he has never seen his companions smile so openly before. It is… Good.

Since no one is playing Jenny Lind, the famous opera singer that the protagonist hires to get approval from the rich people who don’t like his circus, they sit on a corner and use her song to catch their breath. Then, everyone is on the stage again except for Lance, who disappears into thin air.

“Where did he go? He loves this part!” says Hunk, scanning the place for their missing friend. Keith shrugs but Pidge seems to have figured something out and says nothing, expecting a move. That doesn’t take long. As soon as the music fades and the following begins, a long rope rolls out of the blue lion’s mouth with a barefooted Lance climbing down from it. Keith doesn’t have time to gawk because he is pushed to the bottom of the rope by Hunk, who has now understood, too. The yellow and green paladins retreat to the side and he remains frozen there. He remembers the others talking about Lance doing an aerial dance show but he never actually realized what it meant. So they were talking about an actual aerial dance! He has seen it sometimes on television but never from this close.

“He won’t know what hit him! He’ll regret missing that show sooo much!” whispers Pidge between giggles.

Lance ties himself up using the rope and starts doing figures in time with the song. A perfect split, hip lock, some falls. When he reaches almost the end of the rope, he elongates a hand to touch the baffled red paladin. He is too mesmerized to think so he just reaches his own hand to grab the one he is being offered. The two share a sheepish smile as Lance pulls him up and Keith lets him even if he knows that he would totally fall if the other let go and that he is looking far less graceful than him. Lance’s arms are long and strong and he finds himself trusting them despite his precarious situation. He tries to grab the rope, tying up his feet as he has seen Lance do and with some tips from him he manages to hold himself on his own. Lance is upside down, his hands a few inches over Keith’s on the rope and they are looking into each other’s eyes like it’s the first time they do so.

“Hi,” Lance says in a breath.

“Hi,” he mumbles in response, unable to find other words.

Seeing a perfect opportunity for a wrongdoing, Pidge chooses that exact moment to snatch the rope and move it in a circle, with Hunk’s involuntary help. “They blackmailed me!” He apologizes when he catches Lance’s accusing glare.

“It’s for realism, Lance!” Pidge explains but their evil look betrays their real intention.

Keith and Lance manage not to fall, somehow, but as soon as they stop spinning, they climb down with a sigh of relief and finish the dance with their foot on solid ground.

It should be the time for Pidge’s solo after that, but the atmosphere is ruined and there’s no going back to the illusion. Keith and Lance tackle them looking for payback and when Hunk tries to separate them, he is pulled into the battle too. They wrestle until the songs are long forgotten and they are found by Allura and Coran who were passing in front of the hangar and heard weird noises and squeaking.

“Paladins? What’s happening here?” The Princess asks, debating whether to be amused or worried by the display in front of her.

Pidge wears their most innocent expression and looks at the Princess with wide eyes, pointing to Lance and Keith and yelling:

“They attacked me, it’s their fault!”

Lance steps in:

“Our fault? You almost made us fall from that rope and forced the poor Hunk to help you!”

“In the original scene they are spinning around the room! I did it for the show!”

“Keith was barely holding himself up, he has never done anything similar to aerial dance, it was dangerous!”

“So you admit that you weren’t worried about yourself but about him?”

“Of course I was worried about him! Besides, you ruined our moment!”

Pidge smirks. “Good, then my job here is done. Allura, Coran, Hunk, we can go.”

“As much as I am glad that those two are apparently getting along better, I would like someone to explain to me what’s this all about,” Allura asks, unconvinced.

“Don’t worry, Princess, we’ll explain everything. Now, though, we have to leave these two to their Bonding Moment,” replies Pidge, winking at Keith and dragging Hunk behind them as they walk away.

The red paladin’s face matches the color of his lion resting in the neighboring hangar. Lance takes a moment to realize what he has just said but it’s Keith who breaks the silence, focusing the conversation on the less embarrassing topic.

“Thank you, Lance, for helping me before.”

“I… Of course, it was my fault you were up there in the first place.”

“True. But it was fun.” He offers a tentative smile at that, before adding: “I don’t know where or why you learned aerial dance, but it was very beautiful.”

“Thank you. You were pretty good yourself! You managed to climb the rope without no one even teaching you!”

“Well, you helped a lot.”

Lance hums, unsure for a moment before he gets an idea. “We should do it again sometimes, I could teach you how to do it properly next time.”

Keith is a little taken aback by the offer. It’s not like they never do things together, it’s just… That they never do things together by themselves. They hate each other… Don’t they? But if Lance is asking.

“Sure. That would be nice.”

It feels like it’s the first time they are talking for real. Sincerely, without the need to hide behind a challenge or their respective pride. It’s the same as they felt when they were on the rope. They share a smile, like they did before.

“See, it was important for you to participate in this movie in the end.”

Keith laughs softly. “Yeah, it was.”