Inspired by Voltron: Legendary Defenders
By Melanie O’Hara
Keith couldn’t believe Lance had talked him into this.
Here he was, with Lance atop his shoulders, helping him reach the inordinately low jaw of the green lion. Lance claimed it was some sort of cosmic sign that now was the time to seek revenge for Pidge’s growing-in-frequency pranks.
Keith had only agreed to Lance’s spontaneous need for vengeance for the same reason he agreed to anything Lance said: Keith is weak and Lance is pretty. He flashes that smile, which is so much nicer when he isn’t actually flirting, and Keith loses a good portion of his reasoning.
This time it had led him here, with a boy taller than himself precariously balanced on top of him and his knees almost giving out every few seconds. Lance was straining to reach the mechanized mandible, finding it centimeters from his lanky reach. Keith, on the other hand, was straining to keep standing.
With a final grunt of exertion and a triumphant interjection, Lance grabbed hold of the lion’s gaping maw and promptly hoisted himself up in a rather impressive display of recently acquired strength.
Lance called out to him, something along the lines of ‘look out below’, and Keith found himself quite suddenly faced with the rope Lance had insisted he bring along. At least it served a purpose, he supposed. On the other hand, it meant Lance had put at least some level of planning into this venture and Pidge’s inevitable retribution would be all the fiercer.
He shook his head, gathered as much composure as he could manage and began to climb.
The cockpit of the green lion held both a foreignness and a familiarity, leaving Keith mildly disoriented as he looked around. His eyes eventually, inevitably, found their way to Lance, and Keith followed soon after. Lance seemed to be rooting through the backpack he had brought along, a plain, red one he had found on some planet along the way.
With an overtly devious grin, he pulled out handfuls of what seemed to be the space equivalent of post-it notes. He turned back to Keith, whose face was quite plainly displaying his great confusion, and began to explain.
“Now, Keith,” he began, “it’s very simple. All you have to do is take these sticky notes, and cover the entire cockpit in them.” As he spoke his grin only spread wider across his cheeks, and by the time he was done, Keith would be marveled if they didn’t ache.
Keith found the very foundations of the prank to be ridiculous and couldn’t fathom the inspiration behind it, let alone why Lance had the forethought of purchasing sticky notes or had even gone about the finding of them. But Lance was smiling at him and Keith, despite any inward reservations about their future safety, agreed without outward hesitation.
The process itself took far longer than Keith would have stood for had he been alone. Hours had passed, but they were spent conversing and joking in a camaraderie Keith longed for, even if he wished for more. When they finished, the rumbling of indignance they had felt from the green lion, as well as their own, had settled into a low hum of poorly masked amusement.
Satisfied with their work and giddy with sleep deprivation, they made their way towards the forgotten rope. They clambered about the halls in what felt to them like stealthy silence, laughing all the time at something the other said or did.
None of them had slept properly since they left earth, but it seemed having had no sleep at all had left them in a sort of stupor that the addition of companionship did nothing to rectify. The (surprisingly exhausting) menial labor of applying post-it notes and the act’s own absurdity only worsened the effect.
It wasn’t until halfway back to their rooms that Keith made some comment about this having been one of his most unusual birthdays in quite some time. At this, Lance gasped more dramatically than Keith would have fathomed possible and grabbed hold of his face. Keith had been wholly unprepared for the physical contact, no to mention the proximity that came with it as Lance drew their faces closer. Keith burst into a shade of red that spread warmth throughout his being and sent his heart into a tailspin.
One would think this to be a sobering experience, but as Keith stared into Lance’s surprised and delighted blue eyes, he only felt more intoxicated. Lance released a shrill noise Keith vaguely registered as “It’s your birthday?!” before releasing his face in favor of grabbing hold of his hands. If Keith had been flustered before, this only further unhinged him.
Lance led him back towards the kitchen with pounding steps and rounded the last corner at an almost impossible speed, one that left Keith to stumble in behind him, nearly tripping.
He laughed the whole way and continued to do so as he rooted through cabinets and Keith stared after him in utter bewilderment. Eventually, Lance found what he was looking for, as signified by the victorious noises originating from the cupboard he had most recently shoved his head into.
He whirled around and marched over to where Keith had taken a seat at the counter before placing a bowl of space goo in front of him. Keith couldn’t comprehend such fuss going into the delivery of something so simply created, but Lance beamed and pulled what could only be a candle from behind his back.
Keith couldn’t help but smile back at the boy across from him, awed and gleefully so. Lance ceremoniously stuck the candle into the monotonous goo before lighting it with a device Keith had never seen. He assumed Lance had purchased it at some market or pilfered it from Pidge or Hunk’s ever-growing collection of tech.
In the light of the single candle and the steadily glowing panels of the room, Lance’s face was illuminated in a way Keith had never seen it, but was quite fond of. He sang to him and Keith had never felt more enchanted in his life; Lance had a beautiful voice.
With the song, the light, and this insane inebriation Keith couldn’t name if he tried, he felt a boldness he had yet to experience. When Keith had blown out the candle and Lance asked what he wished for, he reached across the counter, grabbed hold of Lance’s shoulders, and kissed him. Keith had never been great at kissing, but he suspected his exhaustion did little to help this. Lance remained still for what felt to Keith like eons before kissing back.
When they parted, both flushed, Lance stared back at Keith with a dopey smile and seemed at a loss for words for the first time in quite a while.
They both erupted into uncontrollable laughter for reasons they themselves could not discern. Lance had calmed first, and his smiley gaze shifted from Keith’s eyes down to his lips.
They both grinned as Lance hopped over the counter to where Keith stood. They moved closer, faces inches apart before a loud yell broke them apart.
“Lance! What did you do to my lion!”
They burst into laughter once more, and Keith decided that this had been his favorite birthday yet. In fact, he doubted any others could top it.
Fiendish Fan Fiction 