"There you are!" Matt bounded up to them. "Lance! Isn't this amazing! We did this!" He gestured around the crowded common room.
Lance smiled. "We did good, man!"
Keith nudged Lance and pointed. "Looks like Hunk and Shay are happy to see each other again."
Lance smiled softly at Hunk and Shay from across the hall as they talked and laughed without a care in the world. "It's as if the entire universe disappeared. They only have eyes for each other. Cute, wouldn't you say, mi tesoro?" He turned to Keith with a sly smirk.
Matt raised his brow.
Keith shoved him away with a chuckle. "Sure, Lance. Mr. Sappy."
"I could get even more sappy!"
"Quiznak, no!"
"Aw... But you love it when I get sappy!"
"Not I don't!"
"Maybe you would prefer something a little... different?" He raised his brows at Keith suggestively.
"Like what?"
Matt's eyes widened. "Whiiiiiiiile you two figure that out... I'm gonna go meet the rest of--I'm just--going over there--yeah...." He speed walked away.
"Is Matt okay?" Keith asked in confusion.
"I'm sure he's fine...he's Matt... he's just like Pidge... except different..."
Keith stared.
"That made more sense in my head."
"Did it now?"
"Anyway... that thing I wanted to talk to you about. Keith, I--"
"--Lance! Keith! Just the two I was looking for! This is Lance, our blue paladin. And Keith, our red paladin." Allura gestured to them both while talking to a pair of praying mantis-like people in purple robes.
Lance balled his hands into fists at his sides and smiled through gritted teeth, desperately trying to hold back his frustration.
"What fine gentlemen!" The first one exclaimed, their mouth clicking loudly as they spoke, yellow eyes swiveling around to look at them.
"They seem awfully young though." The other added. "But it's a pleasure to meet our defenders of the universe." The second bowed their head and clicked their pinchers. The other followed suit. There was a moment of silence as they remained frozen in place.
Allura glanced at Lance and Keith, mouthing something along the lines of click and bow!
Lance looked back and forth between Keith and Allura before he clicked his tongue as the two did before him and bowed respectfully. Lance, not daring to move, looked up at Keith from the corner of his eye as he held out his hand. Keith took it and did the same, if a bit less gracefully than Lance when it came to bowing.
"Thank you so much for joining in the war effort Lotyl and Axolor." Allura said to them when everyone stood properly again. "We express our deepest gratitude."
"Please. It's a privilege to be here," the one named Axolor responded. "Helping Voltron in the war effort is the least we can do after everything Voltron has done for us."
"Please let me introduce you to the rest of the team!" She exclaimed with a smile as she let them away.
Lance sighed.
"Something wrong, Lance?"
He looked up at him. "Nah..." He smiled.
Keith cocked his head to the side, staring back at him with confusion. "You sure?"
Lance put his hands in his pockets and kicked at the ground, his left hand wrapping around a small object in his pocket. "Yeah. I can't even remember what I wanted to tell you. Probably wasn't important anyway."
Keith looked back at Lance. It was clear that he still wasn't convinced but Lance was relieved when Keith didn't try to press any further.
"We should go meet the others, yeah?" He tilted his head toward the rest of the team. "Work on strategies..."
Lance nodded, faking a smile. "Yeah! Right behind you!"
Lance watched Keith go before he reached into his pocket to bring a small, circular object into the light. He admired its gleaming surface in his hand. It seemed so long ago since he crashed landed and became stranded for almost a month on the same planet where he and Keith first confessed... and had their first kiss. He remembered the odd stones he found, with more color variety than he could ever imagine... but he kept this one, with its bright blue and red coloring that melded together to make a deep violet in the center. He had Coran help him shape it and fixed it up as well as he could. It's only temporary... until he could find a better one... but he wasn't sure. Was this even good enough for Keith? Keith deserved so much more. Besides... there was no way of knowing if this ring would even fit his finger.
Lance, knowing that he was hesitating far too long, pocketed the ring once again and walked back to join the team. He looked to the team. To Princess Allura, regal and diplomatic... Shiro, the strong leader... At Hunk, his best friend... Pidge and her brother, siblings so different yet so caring of one another... and Then his gaze finally came to rest on Keith. When they first met, Lance's only goal was to beat Keith, to be better than him. After a while, he became a teammate, working with him instead of against him. But something changed along the way. He didn't want to win or to be just a teammate... he wanted to be with Keith. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with the boy with the mullet and the smiling eyes. The boy with a sharp tongue and a temper to match. He wanted to wake up by his side every morning... to have a life with him. But the universe was a dangerous place at the moment. Lance knew the odds... it was possible that neither he nor Keith would live to see their twentieth birthday. However, beneath all of his self doubt, there was a small glimmer of hope.
Maybe...
Just maybe...
He joined the others, standing by Keith's side, intertwining his fingers with Keith's own with a soft smile.
Keith looked up at him and smiled back.
Maybe...
Maybe they would all die in this war. Maybe they won't. Maybe they'll live to see their twenties. Maybe not. The one thing that Lance was sure of was that he loved Keith, Galra state and all, and nothing could ever change that... not even a war that threatened to tear them apart. His other hand reached into his pocket to grab the ring in his fist, pressing it into his palm.
Maybe....
Maybe he'll finally find the courage to ask...