Work Text:
“Lance. Put those back.”
“But-“
“Put. Them. Back.”
With a sigh, Lance shoved the tights he had been in the process of pulling out back into his bag mumbling something about art or aesthetics. The members of Voltron were at a different sort of training session with a different sort of team-building twist. They didn’t having weapons or battle dummies, instead they had an open room in the ship with Allura and Coran fiddling around with some panel in the corner. After a few moments of waiting, not very patiently, until the princess turned around with a small clap and announced their task for the day. “In order to form a more cohesive and powerful team unit, we’re going to practice dancing.” Her statement was met with a variety of resistance before Allura held up a hand and stated, “It’s this or fifty laps around the ship again.”
That effectively shut everyone up.
For whatever reason, Lance had a pair of tights in his bag that he was trying to pull out to change into. Shiro put a stop to that as quickly as Allura had shut them all up earlier. Now, the five of them were sitting or leaning against the wall, waiting once again, as Allura and finished reviewing some sort of book and tying up her hair.
“Now, you’re all going to be paired up and we’ll spend some time learning the steps before putting into practice.”
“I’ll be your partner, Allura!” Lance quickly raised his hand to volunteer, taking one for the team obviously. That plan was shut down.
“No, you’re going to dance with Keith.”
“WHAT?” She ignored both of their protests and continued to talk over them.
“Pidge and Hunk will dance together and Shiro will dance with me. This is the most effective pairing to build up the partnership between the units of Voltron.” Keith and Lance both continued to sputter out protests before Shiro clapped both of them on a shoulder.
“It’s just dancing guys, the quicker we get started the quicker we can be done.” Pidge and Hunk we already attempting to practice some basic back and forth steps and Shiro made his way over to stand next to Allura. Keith stood there with his arms crossed, eyes narrowed at Lance as they were told to get into position
“What are you doing?” Keith immediately took a step back when he felt a hand graze over his waist. He looked over at Lance whose arms were outstretched in the space where Keith had just been standing.
“Getting into position.”
“W-why-“
“Do you want to touch MY waist?” Keith lips thinned as he didn’t respond. “Besides I’m not going to actually touch your waist.”
“You’re not?”
“Keith, please.” Lance rolled his eyes and stretched his hand out again so it was hovering just above where his hand would have rested had they actually been dancing. “You can just have your rest just above my shoulder and we don’t even have to hold hands.”
Keith did as Lance suggested, his hand in the space just above his shoulder. “Huh. How did you ever figure that out?”
“When you’ve gone to as many family functions as I have and danced with many distant family friends that you don’t really want to, you learn how to work around it.”
“Are you two done?” The two boys suddenly realized the attention in the room was all on them as Pidge spoke up from around Hunk. Allura was giving them a look and they both nodded quickly before she began to talk through some basic steps.
It was nothing too complicated, one step forward, two steps back, and they all seemed to grasp it pretty quickly. Pidge and Hunk were actually the best at it as Shiro accidentally kept stepping on Allura’s feet occasionally. Keith and Lance well, it was obvious that their problem stemmed from their desire to NOT touch each other.
“Lance! Keith! At least hold hands!” Coran called from the back where he was overseeing the exercise. They both shook their heads as they attempted to follow the steps Allura had taught them. Even without Coran drawing attention to that particular body part, it was their hands that they were both paying particular attention too. It felt like both their hands were on fire and that the other boy they weren’t quite touching was on fire as well. Despite the fact that the dance wasn’t too complicated, they both red in the face as well as it seemed like they got closer, and closer, closing the distance they had built between them ever so slightly.
“You two are not getting the point of this exercise, at all!” Allura’s sudden shout of frustration caused everyone to break apart. “It’s to come together as a part of Voltron! Not keep as much space between you and your partner as possible!” She stood still for a moment before pointing her index finger at the pair and issuing an order. “You two are going to stay in here until you learn the meaning of this dance and how building this partnership can help you communicate. I don’t care if it takes all night.” Before anyone could protest she quickly hustled the other members of the team out of the room warned the two before shutting the door, “You have one hour.”
Lance flopped down on the floor with a sigh. “Seriously? Just because we won’t touch each other in the context of dancing?”
“She’s gonna get mad if we don’t improve on this though, and I do not want to spend all night in here with you.” Keith lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe his face off, Lance had to quickly remind himself not to stare at the trim stomach on view in front of him for those short precious seconds. “Let’s at least get the basics down so we have something show for this.” They spent a good chunk of their time just practicing the steps over and over, and arguing occasionally. The steps were truly nothing complicated and both Keith and Lance could at least execute them properly. The two resumed their previous hovering position as they practiced the steps together when Keith asked, “So, you dance a lot with your family?”
Lance grinned, “Oh yeah. I’m pretty good, if I do say so myself. I got a pretty mean dip.”
“You dip me, you’re dead.”
“Wasn’t planning on it. But…” Lance trailed off with a mischievous look on his face before he proceeded to grab Keith by hand, stepped out, and spun him into his chest. He let out a soft grunt when the move wasn’t as graceful or smooth as it normally was. “Well, it’s usually a lot better than that.” He laughed, a little awkwardly, as Keith quickly stepped away from his position, his face close to matching the color of his jacket.
“Let’s just…keep going.” So, they started again. This time the physical distance was even closer than it had been before, and was getting closer and closer and they danced to the music that was now just playing in their heads. Soon, Keith’s hand was resting on Lance’s shoulder, his thumb resting against the curve of Lance’s neck. Lance’s hand was gripping the slim waist in front of him, fighting the deep urge to pull him closer and closer again. Soon, their trembling hands were touching, fingers to fingers, palms to palms, then they slowly moved until they were loosely interlaced. Then, it was their faces. The distance between their lips slowly began less and less. Neither of them were showing interest in pulling away, when suddenly the door opened and Allura walked in.
“Alright! Show me you two understood what this had to do with communication!” The two boys broke apart to a distance that would suit a middle school dance, both of their faces flushed, both their hearts pounding, and not for any reason of physical exertion. Without a word, Lance quickly walked out of the room, his fingers hovering just above his lips now. “Lance!” Allura tried to catch his attention, but the paladin wasn’t paying any attention for once. She turned to Keith to try to get an explanation, but he was just as spaced out as Lance had looked.
“Yeah, I think we got it.” He mumbled before he too went out the doorway, leaving a very confused Allura in the room wondering what exactly had happened.