#to notice the whole thing w the aliens they enslaved. like i thought the planet he blew up was the moon and the planet they were on was

[snekdood]

kid me loved misinterpreting villains

[lilhemmo]

honestly i love how much you love vegeta! and i really like the way you write him! would you be able to write something around the majin saga?? not necessarily in the saga but centered around the same type of things?? maybe vegeta admitting that he misses the way he used to be when he didn't care about anything and didn't have any attachments?? and then something happens to make him realize that love isn't a crutch but a weapon? thank you in advanced!!!

a/n: thank you so much, you sweet little thing!! i hope i do your request justice :)

a/n x2: wow i am pretty much just rambling in this fic. hopefully it makes some sort of sense. 

“I will not be bested by that sad excuse for a Saiyan again!”

You hear the roar from across the courtyard and it piques your interest. You look outside to see Vegeta panting, chest heaving as he blasts through a training session. You want to laugh, but this time is different. Vegeta has always been tense, but the past few weeks have been excruciating. 

“Vegeta!” you call, leaning out the open window of the kitchen. He turns just enough that you know he’s recognized your voice and you smirk, “Lunch is ready.”

“How dare you interrupt my training?” he scoffs, snatching a bottle of water from the countertop. Vegeta drinks the entire bottle, crunching the plastic between his hands before tossing it perfectly into the trash can. 

You take a breath, “Are you okay?”

Vegeta pulls a plate of food from the counter and broods over the top of it for a moment before eating a few bites. He’s surprisingly reserved today, which only makes you even more scared and confused. 

“I refuse to fall behind him any longer,” Vegeta scowls. His jaw trembles under the stress of his teeth as he grinds them together roughly. “Even in death, he surpasses me. I can sense it.”

You shake your head and lean against the counter, your arms tucked around your abdomen. “I think that’s part of the reason you’re having issues.”

He raises a brow and you swear you see his eyes start to glow. Vegeta grunts before shoveling another mouthful of food between his lips. he doesn’t answer you immediately, but when he does, the sheer anger that is simmering just beneath the surface of his words sends a chill down your spine.

“I would rather die than be bested by that terrible representation of our race.”

You swallow and respond despite everything in your body telling you to tread carefully, “I don’t know what crawled in your armor this morning, but you need to calm down. Your whole life doesn’t have to revolve around Goku, you know. Maybe try just getting better for yourself?”

“You foul woman,” Vegeta growls, grasping you by the collar to pull you close. “How dare you speak out against me, Prince Vegeta?”

“Talking about yourself in third person won’t make you any more intimidating,” you narrow your eyes at him and wedge your pointer finger into the hollow of his throat. “I’m sick and tired of this back and forth, Vegeta. It’s redundant for you to believe that all there is in life is for you to be better than Goku.”

“Kakarot,” he huffs under his breath. 

You roll your eyes again, “Regardless! Haven’t you seen that there is so much more to life than just the next fight? You’re absolutely ridiculous!”

Somehow you manage to slap his hand away so he releases his grip on you. You turn on your heels and don’t look back over your shoulder as you make your way back to the engineering building, ready to fill your mind with busy work so you don’t have to worry over the frustrating prince. 

--

Something shifts the next time he’s in the med bay. 

You’ve engineered a new type of spray on bandage that minimizes healing time by half, which is much better than your last invention. You’re rubbing in the adhesive when you notice the Saiyan’s eyes are on you.

You tilt your head up in silent questioning. He does not say anything.

Vegeta’s dark eyes are difficult to look away from - he commands you with just a glance and you know he would have made a strong king, if his planet were still around. He would have been a proud Saiyan, one who led his people with honor. 

“What are you thinking about?” he asks you, breaking your mind from your imaginative state.

You can’t help the small grin that perks your lips, “You.”

It’s bold, and daring, but you do it anyway. 

His voice catches in his throat as his Adam’s apple rakes across the thin skin of his neck. Vegeta tenses under your hands, but you continue your ministrations despite it all. You are wrapping gauze around his bicep when he asks why you’d be thinking about him. If you weren’t so distracted by the sinew of his muscle, you’d be sure that he’s nervous. 

“I’m imagining you on Planet Sadalla, or Planet Vegeta. You, as a king, with your tail.” You lick your lips and refuse to meet his eyes, you can’t handle the intensity now. A blush brings heat to your cheeks, “I think you’d have made a wonderful king, a great leader. You have honor and pride and you know your way around an enemy. I’m angry at Frieza for taking that from you; I wish I could punch him in his smug, alien face.”

A chuckle catches you off guard. You turn your head to look at him, a smile gracing his face. It’s strange, new. You want to cup his cheek with your palm and take in every curvature of his face, but you know better. 

“Frieza would demolish you, little earth woman,” Vegeta cackles. His palm presses to your thigh where it’s straddling the bed next to his own body, and you feel a wave of heat and electricity spark in your veins. His eyes are hooded when he looks up at you, “I appreciate your desires, nonetheless.”

You grit your teeth for a moment as you contemplate speaking up again. Whatever emboldened you before is back at it, and when you say your next words, you confuse the Saiyan prince even more: “I hate what the world has put you through, Vegeta. You’ve been enslaved, murdered, stolen from your home, lied to, and manipulated. I wish I were strong enough to become everyone of your oppressors nightmares, but I know I’m not.”

“I don’t need your-” 

Something stops Vegeta mid-sentence.

He clears his throat and starts again: “Would you like to train with me?”

“Wh-” You drop the bandage in your hand and it rolls around on the floor until it’s nothing but a cardboard tube. You tilt your head and he chuckles at the sight, “You look like a confused animal, earthling. Do you want to train or not?”

You swallow thickly and stumble over your words for a moment before agreeing. You pick at your cuticles when you speak again, “W-What would be the point? You’re so much stronger, I wouldn’t be a challenge for you at all.”

“Tch, nonsense,” Vegeta stands to his feet and flexes his hands into fists, feeling his way around the bandages there. “I trained with Kakarot, and he’s hardly more than a child in an overgrown Saiyan body.”

You shake your head. You can’t believe this. 

“Vegeta, I-”

“Do you want to, or do you not? I won’t offer again.”

-

It’s another hour before he has you pinned to the ground, knee between your legs and a palm pressed firmly to your throat. You claw at his arms but he pins your wrists above your head with a quick side swipe.

You kick him in the back with your free leg and cry out for mercy. He chuckles as he releases his hand from your neck, but does not remove himself from you. 

“You did well,” he tells you, brushing a stray lock of hair from where it was stuck with sweat against your cheek. Vegeta smirks, “You’ll be the strongest earthling in no time.”

You can’t help it when you laugh, “Vegeta, Krillin would take me out in one blow. You don’t have to lie to me, I know I’m a weakling.”

His thumb stops against your law and his eyes are like crystals when he glares down at you, “Don’t ever call yourself weak. You’re the strongest woman I know.”

The fact that he so gently left out “little earth” from before the “woman” bit does not go unnoticed by you. You take a chance and reach up to run your thumb over the pulsing muscle of his bicep. 

“Gah,” he squints and steps away from you, rolling his shoulders as he stands to his full height. He shakes his head and looks down at you, “That’s all for today.”

You squeeze your palms a few times to regain feeling, noticing the small splits and cuts there. You weren’t able to get hits on Vegeta, but you did manage to slam into the walls and floors and fighter-bots a few times. He must notice you looking at them because he asks, “Does the doctor need a doctor?”

You don’t want to admit that the gashes in your hands hurt as bad as they do because he just called you strong, so instead you nod your head in the slightest. The motion makes him chuckle and you like the sight of a smile on his face. 

He walks just ahead of you back to the med bay, his own bandages still fresh from the past few training sessions he’s held on his own. You find your way to one of the beds and sit a still as possible while he plucks different supplies from the cabinet. You think he’s going overboard - he’s got all kinds of things sitting on the counter now - but you dare not criticize him for fear of him possibly lashing out and you having to dress your wounds yourself. 

“Thank you,” you force yourself to say before the pain of stitching you up begins. You look up at him as he loiters over you, all bulk and muscle. It’s still a strange sight to see when the smallest of grins upturns the corners of his lips. 

“I couldn’t let you give yourself second-rate stitches,” he shrugs off your compliment, doling out a few anti-bacterial wipes to clean the blood and dirt off first. “If you get an infection, you won’t be able to train again.”

You nod and let him get to work. He slots himself between your knees and holds your palms more gingerly than you thought ever possible. You try your hardest not to wince when the antiseptic soaks into your open wounds, you know that Vegeta would take back what he said about you being the strongest woman he knows if he saw you squirming because of a little stinging pain.

“You can stop being so tense,” his voice is just as gentle as his touch and it startles you. You swear you hear a short bark of a laugh part his lips.

“I’m sorry.” You swallow the lump in your throat and try to relax your muscles. You swing your feet back and forth just enough to brush your thigh against his and the friction makes you both startle. 

Vegeta looks you in the eye, “Why are women always apologizing?”

You’re confused by his question until you realize that you did in fact apologize. Your cheeks burn and you feel your stomach flip, “I-uh, I don’t know.”

“Well, little woman,” he grabs for the cotton bandages to wrap your clean hands so they can heal. “You should stop apologizing. You have nothing to be sorry for, not with me.”

Vegeta turns his head and glances at your split lip before silently starting to clean it as well. His thumb brushes the pad of antiseptic over the cut and you hiss at the feeling. Surprisingly, he cradles your jaw in his palm and kneels down to look at your wound closer, never releasing the cotton pad from your lip.

You go to apologize, but he pushes the pad of his thumb against your parted lips, “Don’t.”

Your brow is raised and he answers your quiet question, “You were about to apologize. I already told you there’s no need.”

The lump in your throat grows with emotion and you let him continue his ministrations. He’s close to you and his Saiyan blood pumps hot in his veins, the skin of his that’s touching you making your body boil. You lean into his hand and he doesn’t rebuff you, so you stay there while he cleans your lip. 

“There,” he removes the cleansing pad from your lip and takes a half step back from you. Vegeta looks up at you and you’re suddenly aware of how close your faces are. If you were to lean forward and he weren’t to run away, you could kiss him soundly, despite the split on your lip.

It takes all of the courage in your body, but you grip him by the hem of his shirt and tug him down to kiss him square on the mouth. Vegeta lets a surprised gasp echo from the back of his throat and it turns something over in your belly. You let your fingers wander, the pads of your bandaged hands brush over the taut muscle of his abdomen. 

Vegeta’s hand is still on your jaw, his thumb just under the soft part of your chin. He holds you still, his other palm cupping your thigh as it inches up his side. You whimper as his teeth graze over your lip, splitting the wound again. His tongue touches the sensitive flesh and then he pulls away, his thumb finding the wound once again.

“I guess you’ll have to take a break from training, little woman,” Vegeta smirks, eyes tracking the movement of your pulse against your neck. He snickers, “You’re bleeding.”

“As if,” you curl closer to him, your ankles wrapped around his calves. “You just don’t want to have to face me again. Like I’d give you the satisfaction.”

The look on his face is one you can only describe as prideful.

-

“I’m only joining this stupid competition so I can kick Kakarot’s ass!” Vegeta growls, curling his hands to fists. “If we’re here for some silly reason other than the competition, I’m going to rip you all apart!”

Goku is standing in front of him, halo hovering over his head, and it’s like a billboard that displays all of the Saiyan prince’s inequities. The kai’s share their ideas and it only makes Vegeta’s blood boil.

A heat begins to pulse at the back of Vegeta’s head and he hears a voice, small and slithering like a tendril of smoke. It threatens to take over his mind if the plume grows too large. 

I will give you the tools to overpower Goku and take back your Saiyan pride once more. 

Vegeta shakes his head, the voice pounding against the sensitive spots just behind his eyes. He swallows the lump growing in his throat and tries to ignore the temptation.

You will finally be able to surpass the lower-class Saiyan and prove that you are the almighty Prince Vegeta!

A searing starts on Vegeta’s forehead and he doubles over in pain. He screams, attracting the eyes of those around him. 

I will help rid you of all your possessions that are holding you back! You will be the mightiest warrior! 

“Vegeta!”

He turns his eyes to see you in the bleachers, your hands cupped around your mouth as you shout out to him. 

The way tears sit in your eyes makes his heart clench in his chest, but the burning keeps coming. The cloud of smoke is burning just behind his eyes, clouding his mind until it hurts to keep his eyelids open.

Your steps are quick as you rush down the bleachers, pushing past security. He can sense your energy as you come closer, and the closeness of it pulls him from his fog. He winces as he looks up at you, falling down to his knees as the writhing pain continues. 

“What is going on?” you ask him, mirroring his position. You shake your head, “Hey, talk to me.”

“Get away from me, you foul woman!” Vegeta snaps.

You can see the tears in his eyes, and you know that there is something sly afoot. You run your hands over his shoulders and up his neck to cradle his jaw, “Stop this. What’s happening?”

Vegeta winces, “I-I said to get away.”

You notice there is a symbol pulsing red on his forehead - it looks similar to the letter “m”. You brush your thumb over the spot and Vegeta whimpers in pain. 

“I need to beat Kakarot,” he murmurs, blood trickling from his nose at the struggle. “I am sick and tired of these earthly tendencies I’ve picked up. I’ve forgotten what it means to be a proud Saiyan!”

You tilt his chin upward and he looks you in the eyes and you can see that there is some horrible internal battle that he’s going through. You’re not sure if you can do anything to help him.

“Vegeta,” you whisper, your knees digging into the dirt. “I’m not sure who is trying to overpower you, but you’re so much stronger than this. You don’t need anyone else’s help to pass Goku’s power level. You can do it on your own!”

You palm his cheeks, forcing him to look at you. His eyes are dull and you feel his spirit fading as the mark on his forehead grows more opaque.

“I don’t need you,” he grits the words between his teeth like they hurt. Blood trickles down his nose as he continues fighting. His palms dig into the dirt, his Super Saiyan form threatening to break through. “I don’t need you!”

You try not to take it personally - he’s going through something and you must be a part of it. You swallow your pride and force your tears to stay locked away, “Vegeta. I can feel some negative energy. Please, tell me what’s going on.”

She does not know what it means to be a proud warrior. She is but a mortal! Get rid of her, she is the problem. She has made you weak, she has softened you. She is what is holding you back from becoming a true Saiyan warrior!

“You’re the issue,” he grumbles, looking you in the eye. His eyes glow blue and the aura around him starts to shine golden and you know that Super Saiyan is on the way. “You’ve made me weak, you frail, pathetic earthling! I’ve grown too comfortable here, too complacent. I’m a pathetic Saiyan - I should be proud! I should be formidable! Instead, I’ve become satiated. I’ve lost my drive!”

A resounding SLAP can be heard across the entire courtyard. 

Vegeta’s cheek is bright red and your hand is ready to come back around for another smack. Your lip is trembling but you force yourself to speak, “Your doubt in this moment is what’s making you pathetic, Vegeta.”

His jaw goes slack and he tries to formulate a response but you notice the dark symbol on his forehead is beginning to fade just slightly. 

“You having something to fight for makes you that much more powerful. When you have nothing to lose but yourself, it’s easy to fall, it’s easy to take a loss because it doesn’t matter.” You coddle his cheek, feeling horrible for the action but knowing it was necessary nonetheless. You lick your lips and feel your voice growing heavy, “Whatever this is that’s tempting you to break away from the path you’re going down, it’s lying to you. It’s manipulating you.”

“How dare you!” Vegeta’s brows are raised, eyes wild, “How dare you insinuate that I, the mighty Prince Vegeta, can be manipulated!?”

Your lip quivers, “Go on, then,” you shrug, falling back on your heels, “make it easy. Say I never mattered to you.”

Flashes of memories burn behind your eyelids. Moments of lips and hands and skin. Moments of secrets and truths and laughs. Moments where you thought the feelings blossoming between the two of you could mount to something much more permanent.

“I-” Vegeta’s voice is caught in his throat, his fingers shaking at his sides. 

He’s looking down at you and trying to beat out the cloud in his mind, the voice that’s telling him how you really shouldn’t be important. He can’t help but feel that it’s all lies - but if it’s lies, then why does it feel so right? 

That’s right, Vegeta. Let go of her. Let go of your attachment. I can make you powerful, but you have to let go.

“Listen to me, Vegeta,” you pull at his cheeks again, forcing his gaze to fall on you. You run your hands against his face and push his hair back out of his eyes, “I don’t know who is on the other side of this, but don’t let them win. You’re the strongest, smartest, and most capable fighter I know. You can beat this!”

Vegeta grips his hands in his hair and squeezes his eyes shut, letting out a feral scream. Tears surge down his cheeks and he starts talking in an ancient language that you don’t understand, and to someone that you cannot see. 

The symbol on his forehead glows bright red before fading away. 

He releases a puff of breath through his mouth before falling to the ground, the exertion from the internal struggle wearing out his body and mind. 

You catch him against your own body, resting his head in your lap, “C’mon,” you look up at the others, “I’m going to take him back to Capsule. It looks like you guys have a fight to win.”

-

When Vegeta awakens, he’s surprised to find you curled up in a chair with a small scrap of a blanket covering only half of your body. There are gentle snores rumbling in your chest and the Saiyan finds himself grinning at the sound. 

“Hmm,” you murmur as you readjust, your eyes opening just enough to check on him. Once you’ve realized that he’s awake, you leave your eyelids cracked so you can keep a closer watch on him. 

“You stayed,” Vegeta manages. He doesn’t reach out to grasp for you - he doesn’t feel like he has the right. Not after what he said at the arena earlier. He never has really deserved you, but now he knows that you should run far away from him. 

You nod and tuck the blanket up under your chin, “Yes, of course. Someone had to make sure you didn’t try for world domination in your sleep. You were under some heavy medicine.”

“I’m so sorry,” he blurts.

You’ve never heard Vegeta apologize for anything, ever. 

Your body is moving before your mind can comprehend. You’re climbing into his hospital bed, holding onto your scarce blanket as to not totally invade his space. You tuck yourself into his side and take a deep breath.

“You were being controlled by a wizard, I know that now.” You brush your thumb against the bulging muscle of his bicep. “I’m so sorry, Vegeta. I just want you to have some peace.”

He turns, much to your surprise, and envelopes you in his arms. Your ankles cross and you hold back tears at the thought of what he was going through silently. You feel the warmth of his kiss against the top of your head, “I shouldn’t have said those things to you. I didn’t mean them. I-I was...frightened.”

You tilt your head upward, the corner of your mouth grazing his jaw, “I know. I can’t even imagine.”

Vegeta swallows and brushes his thumb over the shell of your ear, lingering against the corner of your jaw. He smiles, “You got me through it. He was trying to use you against me, to tell me that you were the reason I was weakening. And yet, knowing that it was you trying to talk me out of it was the very thing that convinced me to break out of the wizard’s control and come back to my senses.”

“I-I,” you take a short breath, unsure if you want to make your admission out loud. Instead, you back pedal, “You’re important to me, Vegeta. I’m so glad you’re safe.”

He tilts your head upward and you feel his lips before you can blurt out anything else emotional. Vegeta’s palm stays against your neck, so he can feel your pulse. For some reason he needs to be sure that you’re real and that you’re safe. 

“You foul woman,” he murmurs against your lips, and you can feel the smirk in his voice. “How dare you make me fall in love with you?”

You smile in return, your body melting as he holds you close. You shrug, running your thumb over his collarbones. “I hope that won’t be a problem, Prince Vegeta?”

His eyes turn to dark, crystalline orbs that take in your every minuscule movement. Vegeta’s breath hitches, “No, little woman.” He presses a warm kiss to your lips, biting down on your lower lip with his sharp canine teeth. 

“I don’t think it will.”

a/n: I HOPE THAT YOU LOVED IT. FEEL FREE TO REQUEST MORE! SORRY TO THOSE WHO HATE ME WRITING THIS WAY BUT IDC I LOVE IT AND I’M WATCHING SUPER RIGHT NOW AND IT’S GOT ME IN MY FEELS FOR GEETS.

[attemptsatwriting-exe-blog]

Smooth Operator (Klance)

This is a Klance one-shot posted from my previous writing account, @whysleepwhenyoucanwrite . It can also be found on my AO3.

Prompt: I was going through the prompt list you reblogged annnnnnnnnd, "In my defence, I thought this would go a lot more smoothly." Seems like perfect Klance material to me. I don't know if you need anymore to go on aside from that prompt, cause I've never really asked for something like this before. Thanks!

A/N: Thank you very much for requesting, anon! I feel like this may have gone in a different direction than the prompt suggests but ah well, freedom of interpretation and all that :D Sorry this took so long! I’ve been busy with college work and life’s been getting me down, but I finally managed to get this to you! Some of it feels a little rushed, too, but I tried my best :)

Warnings: Discussion of consent issues, that’s about it really

Smooth Operator (Klance)

“So, your plan is to flirt with them?”

“Not like that, you jerk! Just… let them realise that they’ve got a lot more freedom than they know.”  Keith scowled. “I’m not sure I like this plan.”  

The Vruihr were a race taken over by the Galra centuries ago; they had the interesting abilities of telepathy and telekinesis, which made them valuable. Upon landing on Vrui in order to take out the main Galra base on-planet, Lance and Keith had separated from the rest of the team to investigate their surroundings. What they’d found had been… unexpected.  

The Vruihr weren’t hostile, but also didn’t appear to be opposed to their planet being dictated by the Galra Empire. From what Lance concluded, they had been brainwashed; it was a likely assumption given the amount of generations that would have passed down, being told what they needed to hear so they would carry out every whim of the people enslaving them. It was… surprisingly non-harmful, for the Galra - which kinda weirded Keith out.  

Lance, unsurprisingly, was a lot better at communicating with the Vruihr than Keith was - reassuring them with gentle smiles, cracking out quips and bad puns at every turn, acting out, just being… Well, Keith supposed, he was just being Lance . Which Keith couldn’t exactly fault him for; it was part of his nature, and Keith definitely didn’t mind it when he was on the receiving end.

Which may have been the problem.  

Okay, so , he was jealous. He was allowed to be! Lance was his teammate, his right-hand-man, his… well, everything. No one had meant this much to him since Shiro, which was, well… terrifying.

Keith hadn’t grown up around people he could trust. His mum had left him, and he’d never really stayed anywhere long enough to make strong connections with others. If it wasn’t for Shiro, who knew where he would have ended up.  

So when Shiro had disappeared… twice … it had kinda messed him up. He hadn’t felt that alone, that lost in what felt like forever… it had hurt.  

Which was why he was terrified. Because being close to Lance and having someone else to connect with was great and all, but the idea of losing him hurt Keith to think about. They were fighting a war, they all knew that; people died in wars. If Keith had to lose someone he cared about again , he didn’t think he’d be able to handle it.  

Lance’s communication with the Vruihr had resulted in some new-found information: that the aliens were chosen randomly and allocated partners to reproduce with. This was where Lance’s smile had slipped; he’d begun protesting that that wasn’t right, that they should be able to choose who they were with - Keith had to pull him away before the Vruihr’s frowns gave way to questioning.  

“Lance, you can’t - just calm down a little, okay?”  

Lance had turned on Keith, looking angry, and Keith took a step backwards, hand removing itself from where it’d latched onto Lance’s elbow. Witnessing his reaction, Lance had taken a deep breath, before reattaching his gaze to Keith’s with a softer expression.  

“It’s just… they’ve been brainwashed , Keith. They’re not - they can’t consent to this, not when they’re - just - ugh…”  

Lance’s breath had seemed to leave him all at once, the Paladin standing hunched over with a forlorn expression on his face. It was almost disjointing to see him looking so distressed; Keith was used to the loud, obnoxious Lance they’d all grown to love, not the sorrowful boy in front of him.  

“Lance…”  

Shit, what could he say?  

“… Look, when we take down the Galra base, we’ll be able to help these people more. But until then, we just need to focus on our mission. The faster we work, the faster we get to address the issue.” That was a relatively good thing to say, right? Right?  

Lance had frowned. “Why not address the issue now ?”  

“And how do you suppose we do that?”  

The Cuban boy paused for a moment, lip jutting in concentration, before a familiar smirk that did weird things to Keith’s heart made its way across his face.  

“The way I’m used to.”  

Without another word, Lance had turned abruptly on his heel and swaggered in the direction of the group of Vruihr. Dumbfounded, Keith had stared after him, watching as Lance addressed the nearest Vruihr with a smile and a finger gun - which was when it clicked.  

“You’re going to flirt with them?”  

Keith honestly didn’t see what Lance’s plan was. Flirt with them so they fell for him instead of whoever their ‘partner’ was supposed to be? Where was the logic in that?  

Lance was now happily in what seemed to be his comfort zone, his trademark smirk sitting comfortably across his features along with a singular eyebrow raise. Sighing, Keith leaned back against a nearby tree, content for now to observe.  

He sure as hell hoped Lance knew what he was doing.  

Not long later, and Lance had made his way around most of the Vruihr, exchanging smiles and flirtatious comments and earning blushes in return. Keith supposed that it was almost a skill, in a way - a frankly annoying and not-all-that useful skill, but nonetheless. The blue-armoured Paladin kept turning back to Keith every so often, shooting him a grin and a thumbs-up. After the who-knows-how-many-times he’d watched Lance shoot a Vruihr a finger gun, Keith pulled him aside.  

“Lance, what is your plan here? We don’t have long, and you’re spending this entire time messing around -”  

“You’re missing the point, Keith.” After gracing a still-bewildered Keith with another grin, Lance stood atop a rock and began addressing the Vruihr by mass.  

“So, from what I’ve gathered, you’re going to be allocated partners that you reproduce with soon, right?”  

Amid the nodding Vruihr, Keith observed Lance begin some kind of speech, wondering where this was going.  

“What if I told you you don’t have to be allocated partners? What if - if you could choose someone you wanted to be with, or to be with nobody at all!”

A confused murmur began to arise from the aliens, who were frowning with confusion. Lance pressed on over the noise.

“Look - where I come from, you get to choose. You get to know someone, maybe fall in love with them - some people get married, and they live their whole lives together - by choice! And some people decide that maybe they’d rather be without a romantic partner, or not be tied down to a singular person - and that’s fine, too! The point is, on Earth you can choose, and on Vrui you should be able to as well!”

A stunned silence fell among the group, before a female Vruihr - Keith didn’t know any of their names - spoke up, green eyes wide.  

“What do you mean by ‘love’?”

Lance’s eyes widened, and he sat down on the rock, his expression turning earnest.  

“Well, it’s like… you really like this person - or, in some cases, people - and you really want to be with them. Sometimes you feel weird around them, like you’re weirdly nervous and your face goes red and you can’t think of what to say. It’s different for everyone - like, say, you might start off hating them.” Lance huffed out a laugh before continuing. “You start by hating them, and you’re jealous of them all the time, and you do everything just to make them notice you but they don’t even remember you. But then you keep learning more about them, and you start helping each other out, and trusting each other, and watching out for each other, and then you realise maybe they’re… not as bad after all… “  

Lance had trailed off, and Keith was staring at him, frozen, because ‘holy shit that was weirdly personal and could it be about me it can’t be about me but it could but WHAT oh crap he’s staring is my face red my face is definitely red -’

“So… you feel flustered? A-And your face heats up? Is that love?”  

Snapping out of the trapped-gazing they were in, Lance turned to the Vruihr. “Well, it’s… part of it, I guess? I mean -”  

“That’s how I feel around you, Lance!” The Vruihr exclaimed, staring up with starstruck eyes. “I… I love you, Lance!”  

“I feel that way around him, too! I love Lance!” A male Vruihr stepped forward.  

“I do, too!”  

“I love Lance!”  

“ I love Lance!”  

The sought-after Paladin froze, looking very much like he’d realised he’d messed up.  

“W-Well, that’s not so much love , more attraction , but, uh… I’m flattered! Really!”  

Inching his way towards Keith, Lance began to explain hurriedly while putting distance between himself and the Vruihr. Keith’s hand twitched for his bayard.  

“Look, the thing is, love is… it has to be reciprocated for you to make… advances. The other person has to agree , you see, and…”  

“You don’t love us, Lance?” A Vruihr asked, and were those really tears? Really? Keith maybe sorta loved Lance but he didn’t spend his time crying over him - whatever.  

“How can we make him love us?” Another spoke, and ‘ that’s it, we’re getting out of here’ . Keith grabbed onto Lance’s wrist and ran, alarmed protests followed by the sound of multiple footsteps sounding behind them.  

“Wh - Keith, what the Hell - ?!”

Dodging through trees and shrubbery, Keith trusted that Lance would keep running with him and let go of his wrist. After he was satisfied with the amount of distance between them and the group of Vruihr, Keith ducked behind a bush, pulling Lance with him.  

“In my defence, I thought this would go a lot more smoothly,” Lance panted, tilting his head backwards.  

“Of course you did,” Keith muttered. Lance made a sharp cry of indignation, turning to face him with a frown.  “What do you mean by that? I was trying to make them see that they had other options, and they just - took it the wrong way!”  

“Well, maybe now you’ll realise that flirting with everything does not fix the issue,” Keith ground out. “Look where it’s got us - hiding from a horde of aliens who want to - screw you? Keep you as a pet? Who knows?”  

“Well, that’s not my fault!” Lance argued, voice rising.  

“Oh, you were asking for it! ” Keith snapped back, and had just enough time to think ‘ oh god, that was a fucking awful thing to say’ before he was rewarded for his comment with a fist meeting his face.

Looking up from his place on the floor, Keith was greeted with Lance looking the angriest he’d ever seen him, rubbing his knuckles with a shaking hand.  

“Don’t you…” Lance breathed, voice catching before speaking stronger. “Don’t you ever say that kind of shit again.”  

Mildly terrified, Keith sat up, shaking his head rapidly. “I won’t - I - I swear I never - I don’t think that -”  

“I get it.” Lance’s voice was lower than usual, lacking its typical brightness, and Keith couldn’t shake the awful feeling that he’d fucked up. He racked his brain, trying to find the words to express what he was trying to say, God why did he have to be so bad at words -  

“There you are! Lance!”  

“Shit.”  

Without properly thinking it through, Keith jumped in front of Lance, bayard formed and ready before him. “Leave him alone!”  

Shocked, the Vruihr stopped in their tracks, blinking cautiously at the sword in front of them.

“Look…” Oh crap they were all looking at him. They were all looking at him and he couldn’t talk to massive groups of people oh god oh god oh god - “Y-You can’t… force someone to love you. Or to like you, even. It’s… wrong, be-because - well, because - uh…  

“Okay, so Lance was telling you how you have a choice, right? And in love, and relationships, both people have a choice. That’s… very important. The point, that, ah, that Lance was trying to make, is that… You should all have a choice. In everything, that is - not just love, but everything you do. Y-You’ve been told that… that all you have to do is do what the Galra say, right? And that’s… that’s not right. You have a choice.”  

…  

‘Well, that was a shitty speech.’  

No one moved; Lance was stuck staring at Keith, Keith was staring at the floor in the hopes it would open up beneath him any time soon, and the Vruihr were all staring at Keith with the same expression.  

“Keith!”  

The sudden voice through his com startled Keith.

“Shiro?”  

“Keith, Lance, we’re going to need backup. Can you make your way here?”  

“We’re on our way,” Lance confirmed, setting out in the direction of the Galra base.  

“On your left, Keith!” Lance yelled, just before a Galra sentry could attack. Keith dodged, swung, and sliced into the body of the drone, removing his sword from its body to move on to the next attacker.  

“Guys, there’s more incoming!” Pidge cried, Hunk confirming he’d join her for backup. “There’s loads of them!”  

“Shiro, what do we do?” Keith asked frantically, swinging his sword at another sentry. There were far too many of them, there was no chance the five of them could get through all of these alone -  

A loud crash sounded from the other end of the hall, and Keith turned to see… a horde of Vruihr, loud and raging.  

“What - ?”

Blowing ten sentries into pieces without even touching them, one of the Vruihr - the one who had asked Lance what love meant earlier - stepped forward to address them.  

“We were thinking of your words, Paladins Keith and Lance, and… you’re right. We do have a choice. And so, we will fight for our right to make our own choices.”  

Before anyone could reply, the Vruihr let out a loud battle cry, attacking the Galra forces with a force Keith hadn’t thought them capable of. Unleashing their powers on the fighters, the battle was over almost instantaneously, and the people of Vrui were free.  

“Lance?”  

The brunet boy turned his head from where he’d been watching the stars, eyes widening when he saw Keith.

“Yeah?”  

“I - uh… I just wanted to apologise. For what I said, back on Vrui.”  

Lance’s eyes softened, posture relaxing as he smiled. “Nah, don’t worry too much about it.”  

“No, it - it was wrong, it was an awful thing to say, and I don’t - I don’t think like that. No one asks for - for anything like that.”  

“I know, dude. What you say doesn’t always correlate with what you think, I get that.”  

Blinking, Keith sat down next to Lance, gazing up at the stars so he wouldn’t have to make eye contact.  

“Well, I guess… It did go as smoothly as you thought.”  

That earned Keith a snort from Lance, which was unfairly cute , as he lay his head down on Keith’s shoulder.  

“Is this okay?” he mumbled, and somewhere over the ‘ oh my god oh my god oh my god I am too gay for this shit ‘ in his brain Keith managed a coherent “Yeah.”  

Keith could see the appeal of sitting up here; it was quiet, and the view of space - stars, asteroids, distant planets if they ever flew near to a solar system - was incredible. If he needed a moment to calm his head, he’d probably return here.  

“When you were talking about love, back there…” and woah when did Keith allow those words to exit his mouth?, “… it sounded kinda… personal. Like… you know… the whole “starting by hating them” and “them not even remembering you” thing?”  

Feeling Lance stiffen, Keith wondered if he’d crossed a line. Maybe he should have left it for another time?

“So, you noticed it was about you, huh.”  

“Well, uh…” Keith felt his face heat up. “I mean, yeah. Kinda.”  

Neither of the two said anything for a moment, simply breathing together and watching the stars pass by. Feeling the brush of Lance’s hair on his neck, and the rise and fall of their chests as the both of them inhaled and exhaled in unison, Keith honestly would have been content to stay still there forever.  

But, there were probably things that needed to be addressed.  

“I feel the same way, you know,” he murmured.  

Lance startled, limbs sprawling in different directions as he sprung away from Keith. “Wait - you do ? WHY?! ”  

What sort of question was that?  

“Well, you’re - you’re Lance . You make jokes to cheer us up, you care about everyone, you’re passionate, you always put others before yourself. You’re - just - eh, words.”  Lance chuckled, then moved closer to Keith again.  

“Well…”  

“Well.”  

“Be my boyfriend?” Lance asked, turning to Keith with that smirk that did weird things to his insides, and those eyes sparkling the way they would when he’s excited, and, well…  

“Sure, Sharpshooter.”