#who remembers being on forums and having to email fic on the down low

[promithiae]

I will never not be shocked and go into a vague panic when I see iwtv fic on ao3. Amazing. What a gift.

New chapter up! Armand and Daniel do medical forensics at their kitchen table, Louis makes diplomatic overtures, and people continue to say, "Daniel, you must understand--"

[a-flower-that-writes]

Klance 2018

Finally able to post my Klance week! This is my fic for @sunflowerscientist picture!

If you like what I do, buy me a coffee!

Read on Ao3

He had been looking forward to this break for a long time now. It was seriously overdue and now he basked in the warmth of a star that he knew. A star he never thought he would come to miss. There was the sounds of cars down on the street, children laughing without a care and a parent warning them to mind the other people walking. It was...peaceful. These people and their simple lives that went on like a slow stream below him.

It had been a really long time since they could properly relax. Between keeping the castle battle ready, training both on foot and in the lions (and that was not even counting the political stuff!) they had all been looking forwards to a nice break from it all.  Even Coran and Allura had been looking forward to a relatively safe planet to recoup their energy on, one that still existed.

Keith took a slow breath and held it, letting himself relax against the balcony railing with a content hum. Smelled like they were going to get rain. He liked the rain here, no risk of it melting anything important or smelling like rotten eggs. Just simple sweet rain that would feel soothing on his face when he turned it up into the drops. He could also smell the plants nearby, they were blooming soon. He made a note to take a few clippings with him when they went back but for now he just...basked.

Everything was so calm here, hard to believe it was chaos anywhere else. Is this what it was like to live in a bubble? Had this been everyone, before? Before Zarkon, before Lotor, before…...everything. He could feel the sun warm his skin and hair and wondered if he’d tan at all. Lance would be happy at that, he always did think Keith was unhealthily pale. ‘You turn red in harsh artificial light’, he’d teased. ‘I’d love to see you on the beach.’ Rolling his eyes, the paladin shuffled his weight from foot to foot. Keith thought he was just fine thank you, not everyone needed to look like they walked off a magazine for skin that was ‘kissed by the sun’ or ‘made out of honey’ or some other equally silly title. Lips pulling into a smile, he muffled a laugh as he remembered Lance’s reaction to that comment. He loved making Lance laugh like that.

He wasn’t sure what alerted him, maybe a soft scuff of a foot or perhaps just the air moving but a smile crossed his face just before arms wrapped around him from behind with a body pressing against his back soon after. “Gonna rain tonight I think.” Lance commented, chin resting on Keith’s shoulder. No matter how many times it happened, Keith wouldn’t get tired of how easily Lance loved. He loved Keith, loved the rain, loved hugs and kisses and touching and just being. Lance loved the rain more than anyone did and could always be counted on to try and go out and just run around in it. No matter if it would get him sick or not. (The first few times, however, they learned that not all rain was created equal. A few embarrassing medbay trips and stinky ointments later, Lance learned to check out the atmosphere before carelessly running out into bad weather.) He was also king of trying to bait people into it as well, and it was hard to refuse him when he was just so excited about it. Even though it usually ended up with Lance tackling someone into a puddle. Usually, that person was Keith and usually, that turned things into a mudball fight. A big, messy, slippery, staining mudball fight.

Keith nodded without a word, hand going to lace through one of Lance’s as they stood on the balcony. “Where are the others?” He asked after just soaking in the rays for a little while longer. They had been cooking, which meant Hunk was cooking, and the other’s were loitering around and using the cover of ‘being helpful’ to steal bites and nibbles as if Hunk was not very aware that they were doing it. But no matter how many times they would be chased out of the kitchen with a spoon, like unruly kittens, they would eventually migrate back toward the smell of food to bother the chef some more.

Lance rubbed his cheek against Keith’s loose hair as he answered. “Got kicked out, it was Pidge’s fault.” He replied with a haughty sniff, which meant it was definitely Lance’s fault, and he just didn’t want to admit it. He took a deep inhale, nose tucked into Keith’s hair before speaking again. “Shiro went to go help the neighbor with her twenty evil giant dogs. What kind of crazy guy likes taking so many giant dogs for a run when on break??” he asked incredulously as Keith laughed.

“She has three, very sweet and not at all evil dogs and they are well behaved, they just do not seem to like you.” He replied, turning to kiss Lance’s cheek to soothe his pout. “I don’t see why not!” Lance couldn’t help the upward quirk of his lips, however. “Pidge go back to catching up on their forums?” He guessed, knowing how much the green paladin enjoyed trolling ‘alien hunters’ at this point. It had become something of a game for them, using various emails and usernames and a slew of images to get the forums all up in a froth. Only a small portion were any real photos of aliens, most were off center and blurry images of the team. ‘Cryptids’, they’d called them.

“Naw, went to go hit the pool. I think their last ‘cryptid picture’ broke the forum.” Keith could not  help but start laughing, knowing damn well that the ‘cryptid’ was just a only somewhat blurry and out of focus Shiro after falling into what amounted to mostly swamp water but a weird shade of very gross purple. It took 6 hours to get the stuff out of his hair alone, nevermind his clothes.

His laugh was infectious however, and soon Lance was laughing as well, the two ending up clinging to each other as they recalled just how miserable Shiro had been when the picture had been taken! Covered in gross looking goop that also smelled so weird. Of course being laughed at most likely did not help their case when he decided that revenge was a dish best served with bear hugs. Sticky, greasy, funky, swampy bear hugs.

“I can not believe it actually smelled like hot dogs of all things!” Keith giggled when they finally started to calm down, rubbing at his eyes with a few remaining snickers. “Not even the good ones, either. Stale ones that have been left in the water for two hours.” Lance added with a grimace, tongue sticking out of his mouth. A pregnant silence filled the air, not uncomfortable as the sound of laughing children drifted up from below once more.“This is nice.” He sighed, hand coming up to comfortably rest his chin on, while Lance did his best octopus impression. He had to shift his very bony chin a bit before they could settle down for a good cuddle, that thing could be a weapon all on its own.

“I think I recall a certain someone wondering if Hunk could cook it.” Lance commented, as if that someone had not been himself. The elbow he got for the comment was worth the laughing oof it wrung from him. “It was worth a shot!” He insisted, backing up when Keith turned to swat at him again. “Abuse! Betrayal! I knew this inevitable day would eventually come!” He shouted, dodging Keith’s swats in the most dramatic fashion he could manage on the balcony. “I expected the betrayal to come in space though! Not here on Earth, a double betrayal! You devious fiend!” Lance would have kept going, he had a few more lines in reserve after all, but he hit a pot and went down on his ass with a thud. Only for Keith to follow, not having expected there to suddenly be legs flailing right where he had been moving!

Down he went with a yelp and a thud, followed by another thud as one of the plants tipped over. Likely due to a limb flailing into it at some point. “Ow…” Lance whined, blinking a few times and lifting his head carefully to feel the back. A little bump, his elbow hurt more where he smacked it against the surprisingly solid flower pot. “You okay?” he asked, looking down at an almost comically confused looking Keith.

“....pft..” Lance watched as Keith started to snicker, making a valiant effort to stifle it only for it to grow into full blown laughter that drew Lance in. They lay there on the wooden flooring, pot dirt likely getting into Lance’s hair and laughed until they were crying. Every time one of them started to calm, they would look at the other and off they both would go once more. By the time they managed to calm themselves, they were both very lightheaded and wheezing.

“Oh...oh my stomach...please…” Lance wheezed, clutching onto Keith as if he could squeeze the giggles out of them both. Not a likely outcome but the best he could manage after laughing so hard. “...there is so much dirt in my hair..” he added after a moment, tone almost nearly petulant and grinned as it set Keith off for another round of short snickers.

“Quit that, my cheeks hurt” He gasped as he sat up slowly, rubbing said cheeks but his eyes were still smiling. “...Yeah you’re laying right in the dirt.” he informed Lance without a shred of mercy just to watch him groan about his precious locks. “Come on, up. Let’s fix this.” The pot itself had managed to survive quite well but the dirt and plant itself needed some rescuing. “Go see if there’s an open bag of soil while i find the broom?” He suggested, looking inside and spotting it just by the doorway.

Sweeping the dirt was easy enough and Keith was done before Lance returned, lugging a half full bag of dirt. “So..do you have any idea how to do this?” Lance asked as he set the bag down with a slight oof. Who knew just dirt was so heavy!

“Do what? Put dirt in a pot?” Keith replied slowly, not sure if Lance was messing with him or not. He looked between the pot and partially uprooted plant, camomile he thought, and back to Lance with a shrug. “Put the dirt in..?”

“Yeah but how do we tuck the plant in right” Lance clarified, nodding as Keith made a low ‘ooohh’ of understanding. That left two Paladins of Voltron standing there, staring at the pot and bag of dirt. Heroes of the Galaxy, bested by a potted plant.

“Okay..weelll...let's stand it up at least” Keith eventually suggested, kneeling to start fixing the very lopsided plant, settling it more standing in the pot. “Maybe just pat dirt in around it?” he said, shifting over so Lance could bring the bag closer.

By the time they were finished, both of them had filthy hands and Keith needed to sweep again but the plant looked pretty rescued. Leaning on the broom, Keith grinned at Lance. “I think that’s a solid point for team Voltron, yeah?” Lance threw a small pod of dirt at him before standing.

“Ugh I have dirt under my nails.”  he complained, leading the way to the kitchen so they could wash up properly. At least it started as a proper wash up, but Lance shook his hand and it flicked water at Keith, who splashed him back and it was only not wanting to clean up another mess that prevented a water fight.

The two wandered back to the patio to let the sun finish drying them off, not wanting to waste the last bit of it before the rain started. Lance waited till Keith settled against the railing comfortably before plastering himself against his back and letting Keith take his weight with a grunt. There was some grumbling but Keith didn’t shrug him off and soon they settled down. Not even Lance’s pointy chin could ruin the moment by jabbing his poor shoulder.

“This is nice” Keith commented after long moments, hand having moved to lace his fingers with Lance’s own to squeeze gently.

“Yeah...wanna go play in the rain tonight?” Lance asked kissing Keith’s ear loudly, grinning at the half hearted kick that got him. “C’mooon, you know you wanna run around in the mud. I’ll bet we can coax Shiro to come bring us towels and then nail him with mud balls..” he cajoled, knowing he had him when Keith perked up.

“....Only if you can convince Pidge to hide as our secret backup when Shiro ends up tackling you into the mud again.” he bargained, closing his eyes into the sun again as Lance gave a cheer. It was good to be home.