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Plunged

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Keith was soaked. Literally.

It hadn’t been out of his own volition that he was now sopping wet and eerily reminiscent of an angry cat. Exploring water-filled planets was Keith’s least favourite type of endeavor and the worst possible mission he could be assigned. Exploring water-filled planets and actually having to go into the water was somehow even worse than the worst.

He didn’t understand why Lance had pushed him into the water when he knew Keith couldn’t swim. Lance knew he couldn’t; everyone knew he couldn’t. Clearly, he’d only done it because he got some kind of sick pleasure from making Keith angry.

Shiro caught up to them, frowning behind his visor. “What happened?”

“Keith is making bad life decisions. Again,” Lance said, waving his hand. “Nothing unusual there.”

“What?” Keith snarled, trying and failing to wipe off the droplets of water that clung to his suit. It wasn’t the same as the water back home, and it continued to cling to the material, seeping through and making his skin crawl. “You pushed me in!”

“Do you have proof of that?” Lance smirked.

Shiro tutted, displeased with them both. “Stop fooling around, guys.”

“I wasn’t—” Keith started. Shiro shot him a look that silenced him immediately. Keith pursed his lips and went quiet. “Whatever.”

Lance laughed loudly behind him, clutching his stomach, and it took all of Keith’s self-control and respect for Shiro not to explode on him again.

He walked ahead, carefully tip-toeing around the edges of the lake. He wasn’t entirely sure if he trusted Lance not to shove him in again. The ground was soft, made with red dirt that sunk into the ground with every step, though not enough to make him fall right into it. The planet they were on orbited a sun, and there was nothing in the atmosphere to obscure it from beating down onto them.

“At least it’ll dry quickly,” Shiro said, patting his back. Keith grumbled noncommittally in reply.

While the others got to lounge around on the castle ship drinking the rewards of their previous mission—to find a respectable drink, which turned out to be some banana-flavoured juice they’d extracted from strange, fuzzy trees—Keith was stuck with Shiro and Lance in search of a rare metal that Hunk needed to repair part of the ship’s functionality. The catch was that it was only found underwater, so Keith had no idea why he would be sent with them.

It wasn’t like he and Lance couldn’t work together. They were friends. When it came down to it, Keith would trust Lance with his life. The problems arose when they were on missions that didn’t ‘come down to it’, as in, Lance felt he had the right to goof off and pester Keith because of the lack of fatal repercussions.

Shiro drifted off again, going down another path through the lake. Lance stayed a few steps behind him, swinging his bayard back and forth and humming to himself.

Keith was far more likely to die from how out of tune Lance was rather than any Galra attacking him.

“Will you stop that?” Keith asked.

“Walking? I can’t fly.”

Keith stopped and pressed his fingers to the crease that appeared on his forehead, shutting his eyes. He was wet, and cold, and hot, and tired all at the same time and he was not prepared to deal with Lance being like this right now.

“Lance,” he said slowly. “I understand that you have some kind of obsession with joking around with me, but for the love of god, stop.”

Lance’s feet stuttered when they hit his and he stumbled backwards, their shoulders brushing. Keith glared at him for good measure out from his sharp fringe.

Lance’s eyes widened exponentially when their gazes met, and his lips parted in confusion. He looked like a kicked puppy. Keith wasn’t too concerned about hurting Lance’s feelings, not when he’d spent the past hour making Keith’s life hell.

“Just stop, alright?” Keith repeated, gentler this time. Okay, maybe he did care a little.

When Lance went back to grinning, the little remorse he had disappeared (again).

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lance said. He slung his arm around Keith’s shoulder, pressing their sides together and causing the damp fabric of Keith’s suit to rub against his skin. Again. Just when he’d become relatively dry.

Being so close, he couldn’t help but stare at the exposed part of Lance’s neck. It was an odd thing to stare at. It wasn’t like necks were a prominent part of the body, or even one that Keith normally found attractive, but Lance had amazing skin and Keith was admittedly amazed at how little pores he had.

Yet another problem, caused by Lance: he was hot. This was one of the bigger ones that Keith was struggling with on a day-to-day basis.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Keith grumbled, extracting himself from Lance’s lax grip. He stomped dirt onto Lance’s shoe and then began to walk away, not wanting to give Lance the satisfaction of seeing his reddened face.

“Contrary to popular belief, not everything I do is to upset you,” Lance said, smoothing out his wrinkled suit and jogging up to him. Keith walked slightly faster so he could outpace him.

“Are you sure about that?” Keith griped.

It was very unfortunate that one of the only people Keith had ever met and thought was attractive would be Lance. Because no matter how well they got along fifty-percent of the time, the other fifty-percent Keith was on the verge of having an aneurysm. Not that he had ever fantasized about what it would be like to be with Lance. Of course not.

“No, I don’t know my own thoughts,” Lance answered sarcastically. He put one hand on his hip. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like that to me,” Keith muttered.

Lance hummed knowingly. “Is this because I jokingly pushed you into the water?”

“Because pushing someone who can’t swim into a fifty-foot deep lake is so funny, right?”

“I would’ve jumped in if you actually started drowning,” Lance reassured him. He carelessly jumped over a ridge in the ground to stand beside Keith again.

“That’s not the point,” Keith snapped.

Lance huffed, pressing his nose to Keith’s shoulder. His hair tickled Keith’s visor and he inched his head away, trying to get their faces as far away from each other as possible. Lance pouted right in the middle of his vision.

“Are you really mad at me?”

His skin was still prickled from falling into the water and his hair stuck uncomfortably to his cheeks. So, yes.

“Yes,” he replied shortly.

“I can teach you to swim. Would that make it up to you?”

Keith snorted and Lance pouted harder. It was laughably unfair how handsome he looked while acting like a five year old. “It’s not about pushing me into the water, or swimming, or even drowning. It’s about you constantly doing things like that every time we go out!”

“You like it,” Lance accused. “You think it’s fun.”

“I definitely do not think that falling into the water is fun,” Keith said, mildly offended that Lance would think that at all.

“I meant the banter, Keith! The head-to-head debates! The excitement of not knowing what comes next!” Lance stepped back and shook his fist at the air.

Keith swatted his hand out of the air. “You’re making that up in your head, because I know exactly what’s coming next if you continue.”

Lance gave him a rather troubling grin. “What’s that?”

“A punch to the face,” Keith said.

“Ouch.” Lance covered his heart with his palm. “Is it because you’re scared?”

Oh no. Lance said the s word.

If there was one thing that Keith was never, it was scared. This was yet another thing that Lance knew and blissfully ignored in order to egg him on.

It worked, and it always would work. Because Keith was not scared.

“I’m not scared,” he said, much louder than it sounded in his thoughts.

Lance tilted his head. “Then there’s nothing to lose with taking up my offer, right?”

Keith scowled. Hard. “Are you being serious?”

“Yeah! I mean, why not? We’re going to be in this area for a few days at least. You’re the only one who can’t swim. It’s a good skill. I promise it doesn’t hurt,” Lance’s grin softened into a normal-looking smile.

“It’s not like we’ve had to swim any time before this.” Keith crossed his arms. “It’s a waste of time.”

“Come on!” Lance squinted at him. “I’m trying to make it up to you, alright? You owe me for how you ate my yogurt yesterday!”

“It wasn’t yogurt, and it wasn’t marked as yours.” It hadn’t even been good yogurt.

“It’ll be fun.” Lance tugged on his suit’s sleeve. “I promise. You have no reason to say no unless you’re scared.”

“I’m not scared,” Keith echoed his words from earlier, even louder this time.

“Nothing to lose, right?” Lance leaned forward, aiming to hug him and invade Keith’s personal space again. He jumped out of the way, letting Lance trip on a rock.

“Fine! Fine. Not now. We need to at least find one deposit of that metal before we leave today or else Allura is going to kill us,” he said, only speaking so Lance would stop bothering him.

Lance pumped his fist into the air again, ducking out of the way before Keith could shove him. “Score!”

Across the lake, Shiro cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled, “Stop fooling around!”

“I heard you and Lance are going on a d-a-t-e,” Hunk said, leaning back onto the couch and kicking his feet onto the table.

“A wh—” It took Keith’s mind a moment to process what Hunk had said. “What?”

“I believe he said you and Lance are going on a date,” Allura commented. She didn’t look up from the documents she was writing, the pen moving elegantly over the paper, not faltering in the slightest.

“Where did you hear that? Did Lance say that?” Keith asked, voice tight and clipped. He could feel his ears burning; thank god his hair covered most of his face. If Lance was running around telling the others rumors, Keith was going to give him a lot more than simply a piece of his mind.

“He’s gonna teach you how to swim, right?” Hunk shrugged, smiling apologetically. “It sounds like a date to me.”

“Ah, is that so?” Allura glanced up from her papers. “That’s excellent news for you two.”

“It’s not a date!” Keith stood up, balling his hands to his sides.

Allura and Hunk not-so-subtly glanced over Keith’s side and nodded at each other.

“Of course,” Allura said kindly.

“Not a date,” Hunk continued.

Keith groaned and stomped away to his room, slamming the door behind him despite no one being even remotely close to hear it. He had to splash cold water on his face for two minutes before his blush disappeared.

 

Keith was having a crisis.

Lance pulled off his shirt and dumped it onto the ground by the lake. Keith swore he’d done something different to his hair that day; it was wispier, sideburns fluffing along his cheeks, and with the sun shining on his skin and making him glow, he looked like a fucking god.

Also, he had no shirt on. That was a thing that was happening as well.

Keith covered his mouth, ducking his head out of the way. Lance had abs. That wasn’t fair. He knew, logically, that it would be weirder if he didn’t have any muscles, since they fought and ran for a living.

But still. How was Lance’s muscles at all okay thing for Keith to see when he was already going through a crisis? His sanity was slowly slipping away from him.

Lance stepped forward, resting his hand on Keith’s arm. “Hey, I promise the water won’t hurt you.”

“I’m not scared,” he muttered, the words falling off his lips automatically.

“Are you too hot? You should take off your shirt.” Lance tugged at the hem of Keith’s tank top and Keith ripped his hands off, bouncing backwards.

“I’m fine,” Keith breathed in sharply, hyper aware of the patch of skin on his stomach where Lance’s fingers had brushed.

“It’ll stick to you when you swim, though. It might be uncomfortable.”

Keith swallowed. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. No one else could believe he was doing this either; Shiro had given him some increasingly concerned looks over the course of dinner last night.

“This is stupid,” he grumbled.

Lance patted his hip comfortingly. “I’ll get in first.”

He slipped off his shoes and then stepped into the water. His toes tickled the edge of the lake, where it met the ground, and he laughed loudly.

“It’s nice and warm. We’re lucky.”

Step by step, he sunk further down into it, until the water met his torso. He went underwater for a moment, coming back with his hair wet. Keith choked, his stomach doing a very uncomfortable twirling motion when Lance slicked his hair back.

“Okay,” Lance said, swimming back to shore. “Here, take my hand.” He said it so casually that if Keith wasn’t smart, he would think that maybe it could be so easy.

Except it wasn’t. He didn’t have his gloves on, and they weren’t in their suits. Lance’s hand was illuminated in front of him, like an angel’s; his fingers were long and spider-like, perfect for a whole host of things that Keith didn’t want to think about right now.

When Keith didn’t move, Lance waved his hand in front of his eyes. “Zynta to Keith?” Zynta was the planet they were on.

Confused, Keith frowned. “What?”

“You know, like ‘Earth to Keith’ except we’re on Zynta.”

Keith pinched his nose and fit his hand into Lance’s. It was the first time he’d ever felt Lance’s palm directly against his own with no fabric to separate them. Like every other part of Lance’s body he’d touched, his hand was warm and soft, slightly bigger than Keith’s own.

“Don’t you dare pull me in,” Keith warned.

“This is a prank-free zone,” Lance promised. “Now, take a step forward.”

The water swayed by his feet, his toes less than a few inches away from touching it. He wasn’t scared of it. He drank water every day. His ancestors had lived on an island, damn it. He just didn’t like it, and he didn’t like it even more when it contained a half-naked Lance making fun of him.

Carefully, as if it would shock him, he took a step forward, then another, until he was in the water up to his ankles. Lance had been right. The temperature was perfect, similar to a bath. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine himself sinking into it and allowing the heat to relax the tight muscles of his shoulders.

Lance entwined their fingers together, snapping him from his thoughts.

“It’s not too hard, see?”

Keith glared, dropping further into the water to spite Lance. It was at his hips now, his shorts loose on his legs. “I can doggy paddle.”

Chuckling, Lance let go of his hand and held onto his arm instead. “Being able to doggy paddle won’t help you in the event of an emergency.”

Lance kept guiding him until they were back where Lance had originally ducked underwater. He gripped tightly onto Lance’s shoulder, his legs moving awkwardly to try and keep himself floating. Lance noticed his struggle and wrapped his arm around Keith’s waist, steadying him.

“Don’t try and act like you’re doing this for my sake,” Keith said. Their sides bumped and he tightened his grip on Lance, staring into the endless depths of the lake. It appeared to go on forever, and only god knew how far down the rest of the metal deposits were. They’d gotten all the ones near the shore already.

He could see trails that resembled seaweed further down, clinging to misty green rocks covered in algae and purple flowers. Combined with the blue sky, the planet was very pretty. If only it was all on dry land instead of in the water. Then Keith could properly enjoy its beauty.

“I am, though,” Lance said.

Keith glanced over at him. Lance’s eyes matched the water, clear and bright blue. Keith would never be able to forget the sight of Lance like this, glistening like gold with his hair windswept and his cheeks covered in water, a faint pink. He very much wanted to believe that Lance was genuinely trying to help him, but Lance was a playful and sometimes crudely jokeful person. Keith wasn’t about to expect Lance to simply lose that because Keith had gotten angry at him over a joke.

Lance sighed. “Let me show you the basics, first. Can you float here?”

Keith licked his lips, looking away, anywhere but Lance’s eyes. Maybe Lance had filled the water with a disgusting taste. Or he was getting the others to rig his room with pop-up boxes for when he got back. There had to be some kind of explanation.

“Yeah,” he said.

“Yell if I’m looking away and you need help. I’ll try and keep an eye on you, though,” Lance said and released him. Keith went back to floating on surface of the water, kicking his arms and legs uselessly.

Lance swam a few feet away. “This is called the front crawl. Honestly, this is pretty much the only style you need to know. If you can learn this one, you’re set.”

He went through a series of motions that only served to confuse Keith’s mind. The idea of stretching out his own body like that brought a series of images of him drowning to his mind and cringed.

“See? Easy,” Lance said smoothly, wiping his mouth of water. “I can hold onto you while you try.”

“I can float, that’s all I need to do,” Keith said, trying one last effort to weasel his way out of this. He already knew what Lance was going to reply with.

“I can go and tell the others that you’re too chicken to—”

“Just don’t let go of me,” Keith snapped. Lance smirked triumphantly.

“I would never,” Lance swore, signing a cross symbol on his chest. He lowered his arms underwater, palms grazing over Keith’s stomach, just enough of a touch to let Keith know he was there to catch him.

Keith took a deep breath, then another, and another, in preparation to shove his head underwater. He knew that he would be getting air immediately after when he tilted his head, but the idea of placing his face in a place where there was zero oxygen concerned the primal part of himself that very much liked being able to breathe.

As if to soothe him, Lance rubbed his waist with one hand. “Start by stretching out your body,” he said.

Keith did so, his arms in particular feeling stiff and awkward. It took him a moment to catch his balance and Lance’s hand smoothed over his body, guiding him until he was in position.

“You’re already halfway there,” Lance laughed. “See? I told you, it’s so easy.”

Keith chewed hard onto his lower lip, a rush of embarrassment making him grumble, “Shut up.”

“I’m not judging you, just saying that you’re doing well,” Lance said.

“I don’t need you to console me, just tell me what to do next.”

Lance curled his arms further over Keith’s body until he was holding him in the very literal sense of the word, only in the water. Keith was barely able to stop himself from sucking in a massive gulp of water from surprise.

“Alternate and move your arms and legs out of the water. You’re supposed to move your head side to side to breathe too, but I’ll hold onto you so you can focus on moving your limbs instead.”

Lance’s fingers accidentally touched his skin again. Okay. Keith had to get this over with quickly. Perhaps that was Lance’s joke: taking advantage of his attractiveness and the publically-known fact that Keith was gay in order to torture him. It seemed a little too cruel for even Lance.

He followed Lance’s instructions, but he couldn’t get his legs and arms to sync up properly, and every time he lifted his legs in the air, the slam down created a big splash that made them both wince. He felt like a fish, though not a real fish that knew how to swim—a fish drawn by a five year old that didn’t have fins or gills. He floundered pitifully until Lance stopped him with a hand to his back.

“Okay, I mean, it’s not the worst attempt I’ve seen,” Lance snorted. “But you’re not really trying to keep a tune.”

“Believe me, I wouldn’t waste time by messing up on purpose,” Keith said, already frustrated with his lack of progress. Swimming was for jerks, anyways. Keith had always liked hiking. Walking was a much more useful skill. Who needed swimming?

Lance frowned at him, eyebrows pressing together. “I didn’t say you did it on purpose.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“You need to focus more on matching your movements. Once you get a rhythm, it’ll come naturally and you won’t need to think about it. Try again.”

Keith did try. Again, and again, and again, until his body was beginning to hurt from staying in one place for so long. The sun was beginning to set as the planet rotated further around it, and the purple flowers beneath them began to fade into blue.

“This isn’t working,” Keith said, shoving Lance away until he realized Lance was the only thing that was keeping him upright. He opted to cling to his arm instead. “We should go back.”

“You got better,” Lance said, not caring that Keith was holding onto him for dear life. “Next time, you’ll get it.”

“Next time?”

“I told you I’d teach you how to swim. You’re getting there, but you’re not there yet. My job isn’t complete!” Lance rapped his fist to Keith’s chest, laughing. “So, tomorrow?”

Lance smiled brightly. Keith narrowed his eyes at him. What was Lance’s agenda? Taking four hours of his day that could be used playing video games with Hunk or brushing up on his fighting skills to teach Keith to swim? Making fun of him couldn’t be that exciting that he’d sacrifice more than a day’s worth of free time.

He looked so excited that Keith couldn’t say no.

“Let me sleep in, at least,” Keith said. Lance kept laughing as he brought Keith out of the water.

(Why did Lance’s abs have to glisten against the sunset? What had Keith done to deserve this?)

“You and Lance have been gone a lot lately,” Shiro said, dropping into Keith’s room without even knocking first. He missed the days in which they had proper manners. At least it was Shiro and not, god forbid, anyone else that would semi-intentionally try and make him miserable. “And yet there’s been no added metal to our storage since I left.”

“It’s only been three days,” Keith muttered in his defense. He wringed his hair through his towel, still trying to dry off from his and Lance’s most recent swim. The water really was thicker on that planet, though it wasn’t something Keith had actively noticed while in it. “He’s been teaching me to swim.”

“So I’ve heard,” Shiro said. He flopped down onto Keith’s bed, flicking his shoes onto the ground. He reminded Keith eerily of a teddy bear, or any other large, cuddly thing. The term ‘gentle giant’ suited Shiro well.

Keith dumped his towel into his laundry bin and sat down beside him, crossing his legs. “How did your mission go?”

“If you really care, you can read my report. It’s with Allura,” Shiro said. He rolled onto his side and propped up his cheek on his hand. “Don’t try and change the subject.”

“Me asking you how you are is now considered ‘changing the subject’?”

“It is when we were talking about your and Lance’s getaway.”

Keith hit him lightly on the shoulder. “We weren’t talking about anything. You came into my room without asking first and mentioned it.”

“So, let’s talk about it now,” Shiro smiled, a twinkle in his eye. Damn it. He knew Keith couldn’t resist that sly look of his.

“There’s nothing to say. Lance is teaching me how to swim. I almost have it, anyways.”

“So he’s been taking you into the water, and…?”

“And held me upright while I practiced my posture. That’s it.”

“He’s been holding you,” Shiro repeated. He moved out of the way when Keith tried to hit him again, significantly harder this time. Shiro retaliated by laughing and throwing one of Keith’s pillows at him.

Keith hid his face into it. “That was a bad choice of words,” he mumbled.

“Keith, it’s alright,” Shiro said, switching to his best friend voice, quiet and understanding. “It’s natural to get embarrassed when being around your crush. I know that feeling too.”

Keith reached over and smothered Shiro’s face with the pillow, dragging it down his face so he could glare him right in the eyes, hard enough to sharpen daggers. “I don’t have a crush.”

Shiro kept on smiling silently, to the point where Keith felt like he was being held at the stake for his lie.

“I’m not embarrassed,” he corrected. “I just wish he wouldn’t make fun of me.”

“You two are past that. He’s not making fun of you, whatever it is.”

Keith chuckled, dropping his head to Shiro’s shoulder. “He makes fun of me every day.”

“Not seriously. Never with your feelings, not anymore,” Shiro said. He patted the top of Keith’s head.

“Then there’s no reason to help me.”

“Or he’s doing it because you’re his friend?” Shiro smoothed down his hair.

“Hm,” Keith hummed, not believing that for a moment.

“Okay, I’m going to let go now,” Lance said. “Don’t freak out.”

They were balanced in the water, in the same positions as they had been in for the past four hours, and the past four days as well. Keith on his stomach, floating with his entire body stretched; Lance’s hands holding sides, steadying him. They were nearing the end of the day. Keith was beginning to get used to avoiding Lance’s face so he didn’t have to see the picture of Lance smiling in the sunset, like a painting.

“I’m not going to freak out,” Keith insisted. He wiggles his toes in anticipation.

“You freaked out yesterday when I let go.”

“That’s because you didn’t tell me first!” Keith elbowed him in the stomach.

“Oof—Yes I did, but you ignored me!”

Keith’s lips thinned together and he waited, not wanting to deny or confirm that. Gradually, Lance released him and swam a few inches back. Keith could easily stay afloat now. It was the actual moving part that was difficult.

“Close your eyes if you need to, there’s nothing to crash into here. Just do what you’ve been doing for the past few days,” Lance said encouragingly. Keith could feel Lance’s eyes snapped onto him, watching.

Keith shut his eyes, though not because Lance had told him to. He didn’t want to risk the urge of looking at Lance and losing his focus.

It turned out that the easiest way to gather that focus again was to imagine Lance’s hands guiding him like they had been before. He followed the same movements that he’d been doing, propelling himself forward and swiping his face along the water, going back and forth to breathe.

It definitely wasn’t good. He’d only had four days to learn how to swim; as far as he knew, most people went to lessons for weeks back on Earth. But he was moving much faster than he had been when he’d been doggy paddling, and it felt—it felt—

Nice. It was fun. Pushing his body through the water filled him with a sense of adrenaline, the same as when he was flying; the ground didn’t limit him.

Lance caught up to him, grabbing onto his shoulder and helping him come to a stop. “That was great! The breathing needs a bit of work, but you did it!”

He lunged forward, hugging Keith. “Oh,” Keith made a noise of surprise. “Yeah, I did.” He was suddenly very aware again of how bare Lance’s chest was, and more importantly, how close they were.

Lance was smiling against his ear; Keith could feel it by the way his breathing had shifted.

“I’m proud,” Lance said, and he sounded genuine. Keith’s heart thumped wildly, so fast that Keith was worried it would jump right out of him. He gulped, swiping the salty water from his lips.

“You were a better teacher than I expected,” Keith admitted.

Lance rolled his eyes in good nature and released him, but he still kept his arms around Keith’s waist. “I was serious. I wanted to help, not waste your time.”

As much as he liked Lance’s arms around him, he didn’t want to get used to the feeling, not when their swim lessons were officially over. He extracted himself and pulled Lance to the more shallow ends of the beach, gripping his hand tightly for leverage on instinct. Not that he needed it; he felt confident enough to swim to shore without his help.

Lance stopped when they reached the level where the water met their hips. “You know that, right?” he asked, not letting go of Keith’s hand and stopping him from walking to shore.

“What?” Keith looked over at him, turning his body slightly. He heard a rustle as Lance shoved his hand into the pocket of his swim trunks. He looked nervous, suddenly, and that instantly made Keith nervous as well.

“Like, I did this because I wanted to help. There was no ulterior motive. Other than apologizing,” Lance explained.

Keith cleared his throat. Now things were awkward again. Lance still hadn’t unbound his hand from Keith’s. “I wasn’t serious about that, but you couldn’t blame me if I did think it.”

“That’s why I’m reminding you,” Lance huffed.

“Yeah, yeah,” Keith said gently, trying to diffuse whatever was bothering Lance. “I know. Thanks for helping me.”

“A legendary thank you from Keith? For me?” Lance fake-gasped. “I’m shocked. Floored, even.”

Lance was always good at ruining the moment. “Oh, shove off,” he said jokingly, taking the initiative to let go of Lance’s hand and move to shore. “I say thank you all the time.”

“Do you have proof of that?” Lance questioned, following him.

“You know what? I take my previous thank you back,” Keith laughed.

Now that Keith could at least traverse the surface of the lake in order to look for metal deposits for Lance to dive to, Allura had a reinvigorated outlook on their mission. Keith was beginning to get familiar with the winding trails that were set over the lake and the different rock formations that laid underneath it.

The only thing that was different was that they were back in their suits. It was heavier than the tank top and shorts he’d been wearing while learning to swim; the only good part of it was that the visor stopped the water from getting into his eyes as he waded around.

“Spot anything?” Lance called, his head popping out of the water as he gasped for air.

“No,” Keith said, looking around. “Maybe we should try one of the other sections.”

“Sounds good,” Lance agreed. They took off their helmets and climbed out of the water.

Weirdly enough, things were more tense between them today than they had been last night, which made absolutely no sense considering Keith had already assured Lance that he’d appreciated his efforts.

They walked in tandem, reaching the other end of the lake after a few minutes of circling around the shore. In complete silence.

“Wait, uh,” Lance spoke up when Keith was about to step into the water. “Can I ask you something?”

“Huh?” Keith said very smartly. “What’s wrong?” he corrected himself. “If something is bothering you, tell me.” The dance that the others liked to partake in to skirt around issues was annoying. Unless it pertained to Keith, he wished they would just admit whatever they were thinking so they all could work through it. It’d happened countless times before where keeping secrets had blown up on them as a team, from issues ranging from Pidge’s family to Shiro’s PTSD to Coran getting upset that everyone liked Hunk’s cooking more than his.

“Promise me you won’t laugh?” Lance asked.

“What? Why would I laugh?” Keith wasn’t really the type to laugh at other people’s problems. Lance should know that.

“Because it’s stupid,” Lance mumbled.

Keith wasn’t grasping Lance’s train of thought. “Because what’s stupid?”

Lance crushed a twig underneath his foot as he took a step forward. Being close in the water felt natural; being close on land still unnerved Keith slightly.

“Just,” Lance visibly swallowed. “Just—Were we—ugh, I just want to know—Everyone was joking that those were dates, but I wanted to know if they were actually dates because it felt like they were, but I also don’t want to assume anything because I value our friendship, so if they weren’t you can ignore this conversation and we can hopefully move on from our lives.” Lance took a very, very deep breath after that.

“Um,” Keith said, following even more behind Lance’s thinking now. His brain worked to process what Lance had said—something about them being on a date and ignoring him?

“Sorry,” Lance said immediately.

“Don’t be sorry?” Keith didn’t mean to sound so confused.

Lance was asking if their swim lessons had been dates. He said he valued their friendship (Keith knew this in a lot of ways, but it warmed his heart to hear it nonetheless). He was desperately attempting not to make things more uncomfortable, and failing, because Keith felt more uncomfortable than ever.

“I’m trying to say that I—” Lance straightened his back, cheeks going a deep, rosy red. “I like you, and I thought maybe you liked me too, but I can’t tell half the time because you’re always frowning and—”

“I don’t always frown,” Keith interjected, frowning.

“—If they were dates, they were really nice, and fun, and I want to do it again.”

“I haven’t even finished understanding what you said a moment ago!” Keith yelled, his own cheeks mirroring Lance’s. “Don’t pile more stuff onto me!”

Lance jumped when Keith raised his voice. “Why are you yelling?!’

“I don’t know!” Keith continued to yell.

So, to recount: Lance had asked if their swim lessons had been dates, implying that he wanted them to be dates. And now he had said he liked Keith in the context of said dates. Which implied that he liked Keith in a romantic way.

For the first time, Keith truly felt butterflies in his stomach.

After a pensive second of silence, Lance started to laugh abruptly, clutching his stomach and keeling over.

“Wh—Are you okay?” Keith asked.

“No, I—I mean yes,” Lance wiped tears from his eyes. “It’s just you’re so cute, and I—fuck, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t say that, but god, it’s been so hard to see you so happy the past few days and not be able to say it.”

Keith stared at Lance like he’d grown two heads. He might as well have; it wouldn’t be out of place with all the weird stuff he was saying.

Like the fact that he thought Keith was cute.

“I,” Keith tried to form a sentence, but it came out as a single stuttered word instead. “I like you too?”

Lance’s laughter died down and he gathered his bearings, standing up properly again. He sniffled, grinning widely.

All he could think about was how beautiful Lance looked as he leaned forward, right up until their lips touched, and how beautiful he had looked every other day that they’d spent in the lake.

“Don’t fall in love with pretty girls, my mom always used to say,” Lance mumbled, kissing him until he was breathless. Keith could barely keep up, between Lance talking in between their lips brushing and the whole idea that they were kissing at all. “Because they’ll only break your heart. Well, the joke’s on her, because I fell in love with a pretty boy and he totally did not break my heart. Right?”

Lance pulled back and Keith realized he was waiting for Keith to answer before continuing. His throat closed up; all he could do was nod, head reeling from their kiss.

“I knew it,” Lance smirked.

“If you knew it already, why did you have to ask me in the first place?” Keith was a little proud of himself for that reply since he could barely see straight.

“Oh, shut it, you,” Lance shushed him. His hands found their spot on Keith’s waist and Keith was content to let Lance kiss him until bugs began to nip at their shoes.

They were sitting by the shore when Keith asked, “Wait, so were those dates?”

“I’m going to say yes, because my new goal in life is to be the most romantic boyfriend ever and having our first date be by a lake seems like a pretty good place to start.”

Keith hated how endearing he found that reply. He didn’t, however, hate how nice Lance’s kisses were as they fell into the water, laughing and rolling around on the shore until Shiro found them covered in mud with their hair messy and lips swollen.

(Allura was not amused at them for going yet another day without finding a metal deposit, but Keith saw her smile at them out of the corner of his eye when she thought they weren’t looking.)