The Secrecy We Thought Would Forever Be Ours

one-shot

Lance awoke to the sound of the bell. The bell that was used to call for a meeting of the whole town. He quickly got dressed, then was out the door to the middle of town. There he found the guillotine set up, guards surrounding the area, standing in front of the crowd of townspeople.
"What's going on?" Lance asked Allura, who he had stopped walking to stand by.
"They found that Galra who had used that pod," Allura smiled, "It's my first execution viewing, I'm so excited."
Lance's eyes widened, snapping his head towards the guillotine, his breath quickening, to see Keith being walked towards it, and being placed inside.
"It's probably going to be gory, won't it?" Lance called out to the guards, delaying the execution for even just a couple of seconds, "shouldn't you face the head away from the crowd?"
His father thought about this, before ordering them to release him so they can turn the guillotine.
"Oh, smart thinking," Allura nodded.
But Lance could care less. He looked over at Keith who was still being held in place by guards, but out of the way from a knife. What am I going to do, were the only thoughts going through Lance's head.
Keith's mind ran back to the playhouse he calls a cabin. Lance had told him he could take anything he thinks could be useful. Keith had taken a bunch of stuff. But Lance considered it a little. He remembered putting stuff into travel bags, that some were hidden, and the rest were confiscated. But he had put some stuff in his pockets, lucky for him they didn't pat him down. There were some knives, broken glass, basic necessities if you might die to delay that fate a bit longer. But he had put in this smoke bomb looking things, except it was flat. Like compressed paper. He had Lance about this, which he had confirmed that's what they were and showed him to set off the bombs.
His hands were being held near his pockets, the guards weren't paying attention to him, instead were watching the guillotine move. He lifted his leg to move the sweatshirt he was wearing (Keith found it lying around in the cabin), for the pocket to reach his hand, quickly pulling out the smoke bomb.
Keith stared at the guard's hand that was holding his dominant arm. Waiting for the perfect time to lurch his arm free and activate the bomb. Which happened quickly when Lance yelled out.
Lance had finally realized what Keith was planning: he was holding the miniature smoke bomb in his hands; those packs a punch. All he needed now was a distraction. Lance was good at those.
"Hey Allura," Lance approached her cautiously.
"Hm?" Allura turned, before jumping at Lance screaming the word spider.
It shook most of the crowd and everyone that wasn't a part of it. Including the guards holding Keith, they not only loosened the grip, but they also fully let go in a moment of startled panic. Keith, recognizing the moment of perfection, activated the smoke bomb and darted.
The smoke cleared after a couple minutes. During those two, guards scrambled around, tripping over each other, yelling, running head-on into someone else, even falling into the crowd, all searching for Keith. Once the smoke cleared though, they realized he was gone and most likely has been since the smoke began.
Lance smiled internally; he couldn't show his happiness externally unfortunately. They all saw a devastated Lance who knew this was his fault that the execution wouldn't happen and now a Galra is on the loose. They didn't see the Lance that could jump for joy that he had helped save his best friend's life.

The dining hall was quiet. It wasn't its usual loud self of clattering dishes, loud talking across the large table, maids running around frantically trying to set up dinner. But now, there was no dinner placed, maids were standing nervously in the doorway unsure of what to do. The royal family staring at Lance.
"Do you realize what you did?" The king finally broke the silence, in a loud booming voice. Making some jump.
"I'm sorry," Lance responded, he had already apologized a million times. But that's never enough, he'll be remembered for this one mistake and not for all the good things he has done.
"That's not enough, Lance," Allura turned her head to stare at him coldly, "especially over a stupid spider."
"What do you want me to do, huh? It's not like I can go back, unless you want to execute me in Ke- HIS place, all I can do is apologize."
"We are not going to do that. Stop the stuttering as well," The king spoke, then stopped to think for a moment, "okay, well, no more outside."
"What?" Lance exclaimed in shock.
"That's your punishment, no more outside. You now work inside or in the town, woods are off limits."
"Wait, no! Don't do that," Lance raised his voice slightly out of desperation.
"Okay, no woods, no hanging out with that Bulmarian prince, Hunk, since your friends," He added to the punishment, "good enough?"
Lance was standing, away from the table just staring at his father, "It was just one guy..."
"It was just one guy? It was a Galra!" Allura stood up, slamming her hands on the table yelling at Lance.
Lance backed up, before running out of the dining room straight to the back door, and to the woods. Hearing his name yelled behind him. He was running towards the old playhouse, which might be obvious to his father or half-sister, but it might not be at the same time.
When he opened the door tears were already falling down his face. Keith, who had previously just been sitting on the couch, jumped immediately to comfort him.
Lance stuttered over words, trying to make out an understandable sentence. But Keith didn't need to know what happened, the look on Lance's face made it obvious he didn't want to share but felt like he was forced too.
"Lance," Keith spoke softly, reassuringly, while staring into Lance's eyes.
Lance stopped looking at the ground to stare at Keith, who was now holding his cheek, wiping away the tears. The silence only lasted for seconds when Lance started to apologize and tried to reluctantly explain again.
Keith has seen Lance get into one of these moods before, it's almost impossible to get him out of it. You have to find a way to get him to stop talking, in a caring way of course.
"I just- uhm, I-" Lance was cut off by Keith suddenly kissing him. It was a full of love kiss, soft, caring, and passionate. Lance kissed back similarly to how Kieth kissed him. They pulled away from each other, Keith being the first to speak.
"Whatever happened, it's okay now," Keith smiled and spoke softly after they broke the kiss.
Lance smiled in return, resting his forehead on his, before looking up at Keith through his eyelashes, now looking at him, he spoke quietly and hesitantly "Keith? You, uhm, you have Altean marks."
"And yours have dimmed," his shock laced his whisper, "that's the Altean soulmate thing, right?"
Lance nodded, "We're soulmates... well, I'm glad it's you Keith, I don't think I've ever loved someone more."
Keith stared at Lance before placing a soft quick kiss on his lips, "I love you more than anyone too."