found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14359542
first kisss lolol
lance's guide to winning competitions
jilliancares
Lance wasn't afraid to admit that he was a tad bit competitive. It was just one of his many personality traits, right along with charming, suave, lovable... the list goes on.
So yeah, sure, he liked to compete. He liked to place bets and make dares and come out on top - it was just who he was. And as such, he tended to not be able to let certain inconsequential things go. Like, for a completely hypothetical example, if Keith were to claim that Blue was easier to fly than Red, since Red was faster, Lance wouldn't be able to let that rest. If that completely hypothetical situation were to happen, Lance would probably say something like, "Oh yeah, Mullet? Well why don't you try to fly her and see just how wrong you are?"
And maybe this hypothetical situation wasn't actually a hypothetical situation but a very real situation, one which had him and Keith marching through the castle, both raring to prove the other wrong. It was just ridiculous that Keith thought he could possibly pilot Blue, all right? She was way different from Red! She needed to be piloted by a kind and loving hand, and Keith was none of that.
"You're gonna be so pissed when she won't even stand up for you," Lance bragged. Keith rolled his eyes, shoving in front of Lance and trying to outpace him.
"I could pilot the blue lion," Keith said. "If we really wanted to make this a competition, we should have you try to fly Red. She'd never listen to you."
Lance ignored the jibe. "Getting cold feet, Keith?" he taunted. "Realizing Blue'll never respond to you? That's okay. You can quit while you're ahead, if you want."
Keith flicked Lance off without turning around to look at him, and Lance grinned. If he was being completely honest - which he rarely was - all this fighting and tension between them was really just a displacement of energy. Like, they got along perfectly well whenever they wanted to. It was just that whenever they was sitting still, whenever Keith was leaning against a wall or sitting on the couch and looking all soft and at peace instead of fired up, Lance's heart crawled up into his throat and threatened to choke him. And he couldn't just let himself suffocate, okay? He had to get all this pent up energy out somehow, and voila - stupid bets and competitions. It was all Lance had left.
Whenever Keith wasn't looking, Lance couldn't keep his eyes off him. His gaze traced the slope of Keith's nose and shape of his jaw and length of his neck. And when Lance stared too long, when Keith somehow caught onto the fact that Lance was ogling him, he would whip his head away and try to pretend like he hadn't been staring in the first place.
So he had to be competitive, okay? It was the only thing that worked to combat Keith's beautiful looks and the stupid things he said that for some reason made Lance's heart flutter. At least when his heart was racing during a competition he could attribute it to exertion.
Like now, for example. His heart was pounding away, solely due to the fact that after Keith had started walking faster than Lance, Lance had started jogging, and then Keith had started running, and now they were both all-out sprinting into the control room. Luckily, Keith veered towards the red lion's entrance on instinct and Lance let out a loud whoop. Keith cursed in realization, now several steps behind Lance in getting to the blue lion first.
The doors slid open, revealing the zip-line, and Lance saluted him. "See ya never, sucker!" he laughed, before turning towards the zip-line. He'd underestimated Keith, however, because Keith immediately started sprinting towards him.
Letting out a fearful yell, Lance jumped onto the zip-line without a backwards glance. There, he was fine, he was safe -
Lance screamed when something slammed into him and he clung to the zip-line even harder, Keith grunting as he tried to cling onto Lance, arms wrapped around his chest and legs scrambling to hook around his.
"Keith!" Lance screeched, trying to wiggle Keith off of him as they were flung down the zip-line. "What the fuck are you doing!"
"Winning!" Keith grunted, his fingers digging painfully into Lance's skin as he slid down an abysmal amount. "Stop wiggling! I'm gonna fall!"
"Good!" Lance scoffed, but he couldn't ignore how hot his face felt, how even though they were flying down the zip-line passage he could barely feel the air whooshing past his face, his entire attention instead located solely on Keith, wrapped tightly around him, face pressing into his back, legs clinging to his own -
Lance couldn't help it. He'd never been all that muscularly-inclined to begin with, and with his and Keith's weight combined his fingers gave out. They crashed painfully onto the sloping floor of the zip-line tunnel, and Lance wasn't even sure exactly how it happened, but one moment it was Keith clinging to him and the next it was Lance clinging to Keith, arms wrapped around him as they plummeted towards the end of the tunnel.
They both yelled when the floor of the tunnel gave way to open air. Instead of the graceful drop into the hovercraft that Lance usually performed, he and Keith shot out of the opening and crashed painfully into the too-small-for-two seat.
Lance landed underneath Keith, his knee banging painfully into the side of the car, and he grunted as Keith's body crushed his, and then they were off, the car automatically propelling them forward. To Lance, the journey from zip-line to lion had always been a fast one, quick and efficient, but for the first time ever Lance couldn't help lamenting over how slow it was. With Keith's body-heat seeping into him it felt like hours were passing instead of seconds.
The hovercraft went over a bump in the track - one that'd always felt consequential to Lance - but it was jolting enough with two people in the seat that Keith almost flew out of the car. The only thing that stopped him was Lance wrapping his arms around his stomach and holding him in place, staying that way for the rest of the swift ride into the hangar.
Blue was waiting at the end of the track, her mouth open and a knowing glint in her eye that said, even from there, she knew exactly what Lance was feeling. The hovercraft, uncalibrated for the weight of two people in its seat, slid to a stop too abruptly and both Keith and Lance were flung out of it, landing in a sprawling heap inside Blue's cockpit.
Lance wasn't exactly sure how, but he ended up under Keith, half on his side with Keith's face pressed into his neck and his mullet invading Lance's mouth - gross. And his hair definitely didn't smell like flowers because there was no way Keith had flower-scented shampoo, thank you very much.
Keith groaned, likely just as banged-up and in pain as Lance was, except his face was still buried in Lance's neck and said groan sent reverberations through Lance's skin. Trying to save face, Lance finally said, "Ugh, get off me." Keith groaned again but complied, sliding to the side and struggling to his knees.
Lance waited expectantly for him to speak, to say something like, Well, that was the worst idea I've ever had, or maybe, Lance I love laying on you let's do that again sometime. Instead of saying either of these preferable statements, Keith grunted, "I win."
Lance was appalled. "What?!" he exclaimed, debating jumping to his feet for added effect before realizing he had all kinds of bruises he'd rather not disturb. "How the hell did you reach that conclusion?!"
Keith, in all seriousness - no seriously, there wasn't even a hint of teasing in his eyes or smirk on his lips - said, "I landed in here first."
"I was under you," Lance felt inclined to point out.
"But my hand was outstretched," Keith answered, and he stuck his hand out as if to demonstrate. Keith was still looking at him completely seriously, eyebrows set in determination and lips pressed into the smallest pout. He looked like he was expecting Lance to argue with him, which wasn't a far-off thing to expect, really, because Lance did love to argue with him. But in that moment he couldn't bring himself to, because God fucking dammit, Lance was in love with this idiot. He was just staring at Keith's face and thinking about how cute and ridiculous he was and he couldn't bring himself to do anything of the arguing nature. All he wanted to do was kiss him, but that would probably get him punched in the neck.
"Fine," Lance sighed, laying back on the ground and trying in vain to ignore the throbbing of various parts of his body. His knee, where he'd banged it into the hovercraft. And his tailbone, either from when he'd let go of the zip-line or crashed into the hovercraft. But he wasn't sure why his elbow was aching or his shoulder throbbing, though he'd probably just banged them at some point without realizing.
"Wait, really?" Keith said incredulously. "You're just gonna let me win?"
"I'm not letting you win," Lance was hasty to point out, a finger held into the air. "You decided you won and I decided that I'm in too much pain to argue with you about it." After saying this, he was expecting a laugh. Or at least a snort of amusement. He couldn't always make Keith laugh - he was typically the hardest egg to crack around here - but he'd gotten pretty good at it over all their time spent in space. Which was why it was pretty surprising when, instead of laughing, Keith scooted to his side and pressed his cold fingers to Lance's chin, making his entire body stiffen.
"Are you really hurt?" Keith said worriedly, his eyes tracing Lance from head to toe. He was frowning, that familiar crease making itself known between his eyebrows. Lance wanted to reach up with his thumb and press it flat. He didn't.
"I'm fine," Lance laughed, and to demonstrate he sat up with minimal wincing.
Keith was still squinting at him distrustfully, his lower lip pouted out and his eyebrows scrunched, and Lance's heart was pounding for no damn reason. And really, truly, he wasn't even thinking when he did it. Like one second, he was sitting there and cursing his heart for beating loud enough for Keith to hear, and the next he'd risen up on his knees without even realizing he was doing it and grabbed Keith's face.
So there he was, Keith's face cupped in his hands and Keith's eyes wide and kind of confused. Panic erupted inside of Lance's chest and his entire mind became a chorus of what the fuck am I doing what the fuck am I doing what the fuck am I doing but he couldn't just let go. How weird would that be!? How would be possibly explain that?
And so Lance kept sitting there. Kept holding Keith's face, seconds dragging by painfully slowly, and Keith's eyebrows were inching lower and lower over his eyes, solidifying his look of confusion, and Lance panicked, okay? There was nothing else he could do! He couldn't just keep holding Keith's face, and he definitely couldn't let go, so he said, "I'm gonna kiss you now," and pressed his lips against Keith's forcefully, if only so he could stop looking at Keith's expression.
And Keith froze against him. He body stiffened, a shocked breath sucked in through his nose, and still Lance just stayed where he was, debating whether to try to drag this kiss out - it was clearly going to be the only one he ever experienced - or back away and apologize as quickly as he could. Claim he'd hit his head and gotten a concussion, maybe. He'd sprint out of Blue and let Keith fly her away if he wanted, so long as he was far from Lance.
Lance only just had time to decide on Plan B: Lie and Evade when Keith suddenly un-stiffened, his hands flying up to catch Lance's wrists and his lips moving slowly, gently against Lance's.
Just like that, everything rushed in. Lance didn't even know what everything was - just that it rushed in. He and Keith were moving against each other, lips pressing harder and fingers digging into each other's skin. It was so sudden and unexpected, so intense, and Lance could barely even formulate thoughts while it was happening.
Somewhere in the back of his head he was screaming about oh my God we're kissing he's kissing me our lips are TOUCHING he's climbing onto my lap?! but the rest of him was just on autopilot, not thinking and just feeling. He was no longer holding Keith's face, instead clutching his waist, trying desperately to steady himself because Keith was on his lap now, was above Lance and dominating the kiss, pushing his tongue into Lance's mouth, holy shit.
"Keith," Lance managed to gasp, between one kiss and another, and Keith just hummed against his lips, one of his hands coming up and shoving his fingers into the hair at the nape of Lance's neck. He ended up tugging on those short hairs there as they kissed, his fingers just gripping and pulling on them over and over again, and Lance was going insane.
He was pretty sure they could've gone on like that forever - Keith had started leaning even more into him and Lance was willing to just let himself collapse backward on the floor - but they were interrupted by a loud beep followed by laughter. Abruptly, they wrenched themselves away from each other and jumped to their feet, red-faced and panting and sneaking glances at one another, before they finally looked towards the source of the noise. There, on the screen, were their teammates, gathered together in the control room and having put a call through to the blue lion. Normally Lance had to approve incoming calls, but Allura had an override, which she must've done the instant they didn't answer her.
Pidge looked fucking gleeful, leaning too close to the screen and cackling as she looked over their flustered, disheveled appearances. Hunk seemed kind of proud - Lance hadn't explicitly told him about his crush but then again, he hadn't needed to - and Shiro looked embarrassed, a hand covering his mouth as he looked at Keith and Lance and away and back again, like he couldn't help it. Meanwhile Allura was clapping her hands with an excited look on her face and Coran was twirling his mustache consideringly, though his lips were quirked up in amusement.
"Um," Lance said, trying to fill the air with a noise that wasn't Pidge's incessant laughter. "What's up?"
"I take it the competition went well?" said Allura, giggling now, and Lance felt his face flare bright red. He tried to stutter out some kind of answer but he accidentally looked at Keith and was forced to take in his scowl - a bad attempt at hiding his own embarrassment.
Finally, Lance decided to go with, "Yes." And then, "I won."
This got reactions out of everyone, including Keith. "What do you mean, you won?" he scoffed, crossing his arms. "It hasn't even happened yet!"
"Obviously because you can't fly Blue," Lance said nonchalantly. "It's no big deal."
"I could fly Blue," Keith argued.
"Oh yeah? Then why haven't you?"
Keith took a single, determined step towards the pilot's chair before Lance reached out and spun him around. Keith looked at him with a mixture of surprise and annoyance but both were quickly wiped off his face as Lance leaned in and kissed him, short but intense, reveling in the shaky breath Keith let out between them, in the way his hand came up to clutch Lance's shirt.
Then Lance pushed him away and crossed his arms. "Go on, Mullet. Give her a whirl." Lance gestured towards the chair again and Keith blinked, obviously dazed. He took a step backwards towards the chair and almost lost his balance. Lance was wearing the biggest shit-eating grin he'd ever worn, though he couldn't deny his knees were feeling weak as well. Still, if this was all it took to start winning all his competitions with Keith...
In the background, Lance could hear the team laughing and whispering to each other, but Keith didn't even seem to notice. He took another wobbly step towards the chair, and Lance followed him. This time, Keith was expecting it, but he still melted in Lance's arms when Lance pulled him in for a kiss. By the time he pulled away, they were both panting, and Keith was looking determined again.
"You win," he said, pushing Lance away from him and straightening his jacket. He cleared his throat. "Let's get out of here."
Distantly, Lance heard what sounded like Pidge going, "OOOOOHHHH," but he was too busy scrambling out of Blue and after Keith to pay it any attention. He caught up with Keith quickly enough, his long legs aiding him in his desperate sprint across the short distance, and Keith was grinning when he reached his side. Lance couldn't help mirroring the expression.
"What?" Lance asked, laughing as Keith just shook his head. "What? Tell me!"
"I don't know," Keith said quietly, his smile still refusing to leave his lips. "I guess I'm just surprised you like me. I thought... I thought my feelings were one-sided."
"Keith," Lance said in all seriousness. "I don't think any crush you've ever had has been one-sided." He cleared his throat, uncomfortably aware of how absolutely head-over-heels for Keith he was. He chanced a glance to the side only to see Keith still smiling at him.
Unable to deal with Keith's precious expression any longer, Lance turned and shoved Keith against a wall, following closely as he did, keeping their bodies pressed together. "All right," Lance said loudly, in the way that he started most of the challenges he threw down. "First one to make a noise loses." And with that, he pressed his lips against Keith's, already holding back a groan.