Lance could only describe it as being swept into a tornado, of not knowing if you were passing through the storm or if you were the storm, but then... it was still. Lance dared to stop kissing Keith, dared to stop hungrily trying to devour his soul through his lips so Lance could keep him with him always, he dared to stop (even though it killed him to pull away) so he could look at what they were dealing with.... You know, see what oblivion looked like.
"Keith!" said Lance, rocketing to his feet, dragging his make-out buddy up with him. "Look! It's our stars!" The night sky was clear. Gone were the hazy ghost-like figures of their past and now there was only fresh air, wide open space, and a pair of red and blue stars shining brightly in the sky.
"Our stars?" asked Keith, looking up to where Lance was pointing.
"Well, yeah," said Lance, scratching the back of his head and blushing. "Isn't that what you thought when you saw the red and the blue?"
"My lion's black now," said Keith.
"Yeah, but you still wear red armor and also you can't have a black star because it would be invisible."
Keith was looking at Lance now and Lance couldn't figure out how to read what that face was until Keith said, "You literally think we have stars together in the astral plane?"
Oh no... Was Lance being too eager too soon? Had they not just been kissing? Weren't they into each other? Was that not what all of this was about?
Lance's panic seemed to amuse Keith who smiled and said, "Why you so obsessed with us?"
"So we are an us," said Lance, breathing a sigh of relief. "Okay, that's good to know."
"Lance," said Keith, sincerely. "You just saved me from... disappearing. Yeah, there's an us." Keith took Lance by the hand. We're talking full on palm on palm contact. Hardcore finger entwining.
Lance marveled at how this simple gesture made his heart soar. Then Keith did this thing where he used one of his fingers to scratch the center of Lance's palm. Lance felt electricity shoot from his hand down to his toes. Quiznak, was hand holding always this sensual?
"You play it really close to the chest," said Lance. "I didn't even know you were gay."
"I didn't know you were bi."
"No one knew."
"Except Shiro."
Lance felt confused. "No, he doesn't."
"You talked to him about it," said Keith, annoyed.
"Yeah, but I cleverly covered it up. He didn't know who I was talking about."
Keith gave Lance a 'you can't be this dumb' look. Oh, how Lance loved those special looks Keith saved just for him. But why was he getting this one now?
"Shiro knows."
"Like... through gaydar?" asked Lance.
"You are so lucky you're pretty," said Keith, shaking his head.
"Keith thinks I'm pretty," sing-songed Lance.
"And you think I'm... grizzled was it?" asked Keith.
"Yeah and it works on you and I'm here for it," said Lance, using his free hand to gesture to Keith's entire body.
"And at what point did you become... here for this?" asked Keith, curious.
"Like, when did I start liking you?" asked Lance with a blush. "Maybe since the Garrison, but I didn't figure out it was a crush until recently. I didn't really know why I wanted your attention so much. When did you, you know, figure out you wanted a piece of Lancey Lance?"
Lance saw Keith winge. Keith looked away. "We just watched when."
"Wait. The bonding moment?" asked Lance, suddenly outraged. "You didn't like me at all until the bonding moment?"
"I am a late bloomer," said Keith. "I'm the first to admit that." Lance was still pouting. "But I at least noticed you were cute at the Garrison."
"Yes!" cheered Lance, dropping Keith's hand so he could do a full on twirl. "You remember me from the Garrison! I'm memorable!"
"Lance, honestly how could anyone not notice you? You're the loudest, brightest person in any given room at any given time. Not noticing you is like not noticing the sun."
"I'm your sun," gasped Lance. "You're my moon. We're like Romeo and Juliette except we're both dudes and nobody's gotta take the big sleep." Lance was in full on ramble mode now. "Wait... when I ran into you while I was saving Shiro -"
"I was saving Shiro..."
"You acted like you didn't recognize me."
"Oh yeah, I full on gay-panicked and lied."
"Whaaaaaat?" squeaked Lance. "That's a thing we do? We have our own attraction-based brand of panic?"
"Yeah, you can learn all about it in the queer handbook."
"Nice. Never got issued one of those... Can I borrow yours? I promise not to eat anything sticky while reading it."
"Lance, that was a joke."
"Aw, you made a joke. You're so much like me now. Our personalities are merging into one."
"You are... just downright giddy aren't you?" asked Keith, shaking his head.
"Yeah, I am," said Lance, suddenly taking Keith by the hips and pulling him up against himself. "Aren't you?" Lance enjoyed the blush that entered Keith's cheeks. He brushed away a mullet strand just so he could see the blush deepen.
"I guess there's a reason gay means happy," said Keith, making another joke. Lance wondered if Keith's gay-panic was threatening to make him spazz out and shove Lance to the ground again. Actually, that hadn't been so bad before...
"Keith," said Lance, tipping his head so their foreheads touched. Now he was rocking his hips, making Keith sway with him, the feeling being just so intoxicating. "My whole life I've been like, 'no homo,' but when I'm with you I'm like, 'yes, homo.'" Lance leaned in for a kiss, Keith stopped him with a single finger pressed to Lance's lip.
"Yes homo?" repeated Keith. "Yes homo? That's what you think passes as a romantic line? Yes homo?"
"Hey, I said a ton of romantic quiznak earlier when you were about to blip away. Not everything I say can be a gem. I talk so much, eventually I'm going to say the wrong thing."
"Yeah, but now 'yes homo' is part of our origin story!" complained Keith, full on stepping out of Lance's embrace.
"So what?" cried Lance. "It's not like we're going to tell anyone I said 'yes homo!' we'll just tell them all the other romantic stuff I said earlier that I'm currently blanking on."
"Lance, be real."
"You're right. I'm totally going to tell everyone about 'yes, homo.' Our grandkids will to be like, 'abuelo, how did grandpa know you were the one?' and I'll be like, 'well ninos, your grandpa was like "no homo" and I was like "yes homo" and then we knew we were in love.'"
"Okay," said Keith, pressing a finger to his temple. "Three things: One - I never said 'no homo,' that was you –"
"Yeah, but when I tell the story, I'm going to say that you said it because it adds dramatic tension."
"Two - We're going to have grandkids together? And three - We're in love??"
"Two men can have grandkids, there are ways. You're gay, you should know this from your handbook or whatever. And also..." Lance got a bit of colour in his cheeks. "Quiznak yeah, I love you."
*******
Lance loved Keith. Had wanted him since the Garrison. Interanlly Keith was doing cartwheels, but all the logical part of his brain could think was, wow, they were bad at communicating. But they were talking now and Lance was baring everything so... "I love you too," said Keith, crossing his arms across his chest.
"No, nononono," said Lance, stepping up to Keith. He took Keith's arms and unfolded them and then wrapped them instead around himself. "No more of that hugging yourself thing you do. This is where your arms go from now on."
Oh no, Lance really was super intense and romantic and Keith couldn't stop blushing. He wanted to kiss Lance, but he wasn't ready yet to initiate.
"Go ahead," said Lance.
"Uh."
"You can kiss me, Keith. We already said we love each other. Are you gay-panicking right now? Or gay-freezing? I need to learn the terminology. Do you think you could make me some gay cliff notes? Or maybe I'll copy the important stuff onto the back of my hand. There isn't a test, is there?"
Keith kissed Lance just to shut him up. And oh, this one was even better because they were facing each other and they weren't flickering in and out of existence. It was amazing what the right angle and being corporeal could do for a kiss.
"We really should get out of this hell hole," said Lance, sounding all breathy.
Keith had to kiss him again. Just for sounding like that. Now that he knew he could do it, it would be hard not to do it.
"I never would've thought of you as affectionate," Lance was saying, spacing the words out between kisses.
"Mmm just wait until we try this in our bodies," said Keith and then they both gay-froze, seeming to remember they were just quintessence in some kind of memory realm.
"Okay, now I think we should really try to get back to the others," said Lance.
"Blue and red lead us to the astral plane, right?" said Keith.
"Just follow our stars," Lance agreed. The two of them set off, hand in hand using the stars as their guide, the cliff they'd fallen down loaming off in the distance.