#2023keithtober

Keithtober '23 week 4

It hits Keith two years later. Two years after the end of the war, a year and a half after he and Lance started dating, four months since they proposed to each other, three days before their planned elopement. 

He made it.

He hunches over the sink where dishes sit in water, left from soaking overnight, and his fingers curl around the edge of the countertop, knuckles white. It’s past dawn now, but only just. The sun’s rays warm his face and wrap around his body as the sun rises past the horizon. He puts a hand up near his eyes, not surprised to find the corners of them wet, and he smiles.

“Keith, what’s wrong? What happened?” Lance asks as he suddenly rests a tentative hand on his shoulder. Keith almost startles, not having heard Lance’s approach at all, but controls the impulse in time. Lance may like to sleep in late but he is quick to wake at any sound if needed, a by-product of war—-though Keith didn’t think he made any noise. Maybe it was intuition.

When he doesn’t make a move to brush Lance off, Lance wraps an arm around his waist, pulling him closer. Keith finally shakes his head at Lance’s initial question and dabs the corner of his eye with the heel of his hand. “I’m okay. I was just… I just realized I got what I never thought I’d ever have.”

Lance’s hair is mused from bed, morning stubble dotting his jawline. Drool crusts the corner of his mouth and he is so beautiful. “Keith,” Lance breathes softly, reaching forward to brush his hair out of his face.

“I got a family,” Keith mumbles and kisses Lance. Folding into the push and pull, he feels the curl of Lance’s lips stretching into a grin as he chases after them. Keith pulls back with a smile of his own and his eyes remain closed. “I made it.”

His younger self would never believe him, would call him a liar and maybe spit in his face for giving him false hope. But it’s not false hope. Not anymore. Not with Lance.

He opens his eyes to find Lance staring at him in complete adoration as he cups the side of his face, fingers twisting in his hair. “Thank you,” Keith says against Lance’s skin. 

“No need to thank me, Mullet. You did it all on your own.”

Scars & stars #2023Keithtober

Keith used to look up at the stars from his shack in the desert. He'd dream of reaching out and being able to touch them hoping one day he'd go far enough to actually do so. They'd twinkle in his eyes brighter than any moon and he'd wish upon them his every hearts desire in secret.

The thing about being amongst the stars is no one tells you they've waged war in-between them. No one says they'll earn you scars that dance across your skin like stardust. So Keith does what he can in that same war that divides the stars from the ones he wished to touch.

He clings to the wishes he used to make hoping that maybe when this ends he can wish on them again. The stars are forever his friend and Keith will never let go of that ideal so long as he lives.

So here he is collecting his own stars in the form of scattered scars across his skin. Each scar a new addition to the constellations forming in his flesh.

Throughout the war he becomes his own galaxy each scar a new story to tell, a new mark to leave behind. Keith used to hate them, they were reminders of what the reality of the stars were but as he's settled into those scars he's realized

The stars were always there for him the only difference is now he collects them in a different way. They are so less beautiful than they were before and now they are something tangible, something he can actually touch just like he used to dream about.

View the prompt list thought up by @k1ance-a-lot & I! Here ↓ (& if ur feeling ambitious sae has a larger one posted too!)

Day 1: Stars

Keith's family had always admired stars.

Keith couldn't remember much from when he was little, but his pa had said it was his ma who spurred the obsession.

He said that his ma would take baby Keith in her arms, late at night, even as his pa chided her that Keith needed his sleep.

His ma would roll her eyes, "If he's anything like me, he doesn't need the full rest, especially when the stars are only out at night."

"You look so much like her, and I could never say no to her eyes. Then she'd hold you close and I'd have to face two pairs of them."

He always said it with a smile as he ruffled Keith's hair.

"I was a goner the days I met you and her."

It soon became a tradition for their little family. Keith, his ma and his pa. They'd go out on a blanket and Keith's ma would tell them all about the stars and constellations- some even his pa couldn't see!

But then, suddenly, it was just Keith and his pa. Keith was too young to understand then, too young to truly remember.

Keithtober Day 19 - Crossover

voltron ✖️ she-ra

Keithtober Day 18 - jacket

drew klance in their canon matching jackets ❤️💙

Keithtober Day 13 - Fall