#klance tickling

Lance bent down, looking at another pile of dark clothes. “Oh sweet! Looks like Coran even had snow pants!”

“And boots!” Keith saw a few pairs behind the jackets. “He really was prepared, huh?”

Lance pulled the slick pants out and laid them on the carpet, enjoying the pleasant sound they made rubbing against each other.

“Black, black, black… they’re all black. Didn’t expect this from Stage-Dad Coran,” Lance began, smirking. “But hey, at least they’ll suit you! Looks like you both had an edgy teen phase.”

Keith opened his mouth to protest.

“I know, I know…” Lance held up his hands. “I shouldn’t use past-tense since you’re still in yours.”

“Man, shut up,” Keith shoved him with his shoulder, laughing.

“Make me, knife boy,” Lance retorted, smiling back largely and shoving him in return.

“I would,” the red paladin began, “but I know the way you’d want me to involves you doing anything but shutting up.” He smirked upon seeing Lance grow pink and avert his eyes.

“Anyway,” Lance grabbed a pair of pants and slid them on over his jeans, trying to hide his burning face. The clothes fit better than he expected them to – apparently Coran wasn’t kidding about being their size. “We shouldn’t keep everyone waiting.” He grabbed a pair of boots and shoved some gloves into his coat pocket.

Keith slid on pants as well, and then stood up with the jacket he’d been touching in his arms. His boots were waterproof so he didn’t grab a different pair to throw on. “Sure thing, I’ll meet you out there.”

“Alright!” Lance smiled at him as he walked out of the room to meet up with everyone who were also emerging, decked out in their foster clothing.

Allura was wearing a large, puffy purple coat with a fur-lined hood. It had a silver sheen, which was seen whenever she moved. She also wore a light pink beanie, and her hair fell loosely out of it and spilled out of her hood. It made Lance briefly wonder if he should’ve looked for a hat as well.

Shiro stood next to her, in a black wool coat similar to Lance’s gray one. He wasn’t wearing a hat, but instead had found a pair of soft gray earmuffs. He was wearing a pair of watching gray gloves as well.

Hunk had found a deep golden jacket that wasn’t all that thick but seemed densely insulated. It was softly shiny, and almost appeared to give off a slight glow because of it.

Pidge wore a black coat that was puffy like Allura’s, and it looked quite a bit big on her, and she also wore a bright red scarf wrapped around her mouth and nose. She had blue gloves on as well, and it looked like there might’ve been another pair on underneath.

Matt had a brown jacket on that went down to his knees, and a gray beanie as well. He was next to Coran who wore a shiny purple and green coat – much more of what Lance had expected from him.

Coran saw him approach and smiled after looking him over. “I see you two found something!”

Lance looked behind him and, sure enough, Keith was approaching the rest of the group. He wore that black jacket and a red knit hat. As he tossed Lance a hat, which he caught gratefully, the blue paladin noticed that he was indeed wearing the black gloves he’d gave him earlier.

“Yep!” Lance turned back and smiled brightly.

“I hope it’s not too cold,” Pidge began, stuffing her hands in her pockets. “I get cold easily, Matt can vouch for me.”

“Yeah,” her brother began, “none of our family can handle cold too well, but Pidge is by far the worst.”

“What are the temperature readings, Coran?” Allura asked, zipping up her coat and rubbing her hands together. “We can’t stay inside too much longer like this, it’s getting too warm.”

The man fiddled with a small device he fished out of his pocket. “In Fahrenheit: about twenty-seven degrees.”

“Let’s go then!” Pidge cheered, excitedly walking towards the exit as Matt followed.

“She may not be great with the cold, but that doesn’t mean she loves it any less,” he explained, looking back at the group, who began to follow as well.

Coran hit the button at the door to open the castle up. The cold wind drifted in and though it wasn’t snowing currently, a bit blew in and melted on the floor.

Their first steps into the snow proved it not to be too deep – only a few inches. And once they had all stepped out of the draft from the open castle door, they found that the wind they initially felt was hardly even a breeze.

Keith saw that Lance’s eyes were wide as he looked out over the blank, white landscape. Snow still had a new charm to him. He walked forward slowly, too caught up in the beauty to even notice his own feet moving.

The red paladin grinned as he crouched down and gathered a handful of snow. He shaped it into a ball, and threw it at Lance’s back with a triumphant yell…

…Only to watch it disintegrate in mid-air.

Lance turned around at the sound of Keith shouting, and saw both his arm outstretched and a puff of white falling out of the air about halfway between them. He also briefly noted that Keith’s jacket was not actually black but the natural light brought out a deep navy blue.

Shiro bent down and probed the “snow” with his human hand. It definitely felt like real, normal Earth snow, but – and he found this as he tried to make his own snowball – it wouldn’t stay together.

“No wonder it blew into the castle, it’s basically powder.” He smiled at the red paladin, “nice try, Keith.”

He began to laugh at Keith’s unamused face…

…Before he was smacked in the back with something.

Shiro whipped around and saw Allura looking all-too-innocent.

“H-how did you… how did you do that?” he asked, more bewildered than anything.

“Do what?” she fluttered her eyelashes at him. “Just because Alteans are strong enough to, in theory, pack powder like this firmly enough to make, say, a snowball, doesn’t mean I did…”

He groaned in mock-annoyance, and bent down to gather a fistful of snow with his mechanical arm. He clenched his fist as tight as he could, trying to cup it instead of just squish it, and when he opened it back up he saw a compact lump of snow. It was more like a mini snow-football, but it looked like it could hold up.

He waited until Matt was facing away from him, and let it sail at his back.

Matt jumped and yelped in surprise on impact, whipping his head around as Pidge laughed in delight.

“I guess Alteans aren’t quite the only ones strong enough,” she giggled.

Matt scooped up some more snow, pressing it together as hard as he could, and threw it back at Shiro.

Needless to say, it fell apart as well.

Allura and Shiro smiled knowingly at each other. They dropped to the ground and started shaping snow and setting the balls and lumps aside.

Coran jumped in front of the others. “Don’t worry, I will be your fighter!” he exclaimed, and followed suit with making snowballs and the others crouched behind Hunk, who crouched behind Coran.

Lance grinned to himself and started gathering snow as the others watched the assault between the groups begin. His ears filled with laughing and yelling.

Before the others noticed, Lance had a near-perfect snowball. He started crawling away from his group so he could get some distance.

Allura and Shiro saw him, and Lance made the motion to keep quiet and winked at them.

Shiro gave an almost imperceptible nod before throwing another at Coran.

Almost imperceptible.

Matt turned around to see what Shiro was looking at and shouted as he saw the snowball leave Lance’s hand.

“Traitor!”

Keith felt it make impact with his right shoulder as he heard the shout.

And with the collision, the tables turned.

Allura and Shiro ran away from each other and started firing. Coran started firing at both. Lance began running from Keith who had started towards him, seeing the next snowball already in his hands.

How did he do that? And so fast?

“Drop that snowball, Lance!” he shouted after him.

“Never!” Lance huffed back. It was tough, running in even this odd, powdery snow. Especially for the blue paladin who’d only experienced it a few times. Keith was more seasoned and began to catch up – and quickly, at that.

A few projectiles began to fly past them. They were Shiro’s, considering the odd shape.

A shriek rose up, and it was Allura. Pidge had dumped some snow down the back of her coat.

If they thought it was chaos, now it was pure anarchy. Matt took the cue from his sister and filled Hunk’s hood with snow and quickly pulling it over his head. Shiro made snow-lumps in batches and fired as many as could fit in his hand at a time. Allura managed to have an almost faultless defense and managed to strike anyone who even dared approach her after Pidge’s stunt. Coran, on the other hand, had an almost faultless defense, striking anyone and everyone else.

Everyone aside from Keith and Lance that is.

Keith was practically at Lance’s heels. With a leap, he tackled him to the ground but Lance managed to hold onto the snowball, cupping it in both hands in front of him.

“Give me the snowball, Lance,” Keith growled quietly.

Lance knew that voice. He felt Keith’s legs on either side of him, and realized the position he was in. He was on his stomach, pinned down, with his arms outstretched in front of him and if he pulled them in, he’d lose.

He felt Keith lean down closer, felt his weight keep him stuck in the snow that thankfully wasn’t completely surrounding his face.

Oh god…

He felt Keith move his arm – his eyes had closed and refused to open as his face grew warmer and warmer – closer to his side.

The coat was thin and surely, he’d be able to feel anything through it…

Keith’s arm – and hand – crept higher and higher without touching him yet. Lance was already squirming, trying to keep quiet to not draw attention.

Oh no that was what Keith was trying to do wasn’t it

Lance flinched, and in clenching his hands ever so slightly, he felt the snowball disintegrate.

“Come on Lance, give it up…”

Keith didn’t notice, apparently.

That didn’t mean Lance had to tell him…

Lance tried to protest, or to prepare himself for the sudden sensation of fingers dancing on his sides or stretched underarms—

But the feeling of a single soft, gloved finger gently brushing down his neck caught him completely off-guard.

The soft, cottony material of Keith’s gloves gave his finger an almost fluffy sensation against his skin. The red paladin was hardly grazing his sensitive neck, and the results were instant.

Lance froze after a small giggle leaked from his lips. He tried scrunching up his shoulders but from how his arms were positioned it was nearly impossible.

“Come on, just give it up,” Keith teased quietly, swirling his digit slowly against the cool, soft skin.

Lance wanted to bury his face in the ground, but the ground was far too cold to do that. He was forced to keep his head angled up a little or give up and relax. He bit his lip while trying to focus on not giving in.

He felt his hands begin to ball up on instinct – to hold onto himself – but forced himself to loosen up his grip. If his hands closed up, Keith would know the snowball was a moot point, and then… he might stop….

He heard Keith chuckle as he felt the weight on top of him shift a little bit. The finger never left his neck, but Keith sat up. Lance winced as he felt another hand on his side. He was right – the coat did still let him feel everything.

The fingers on that hand began to drum a little against his side. Lance’s instincts got the better of him and against his will he pulled his arms down to defend himself, separating his hands and revealing the powder that resided within them.

Keith paused a moment.

By the time he spoke again, Lance’s stomach was filled with butterflies.

“Are you gonna tell me how you can make them in the first place?” And the blue paladin could hear the smirk in his voice.

Lance knew exactly what he was given an opportunity for.

“W-why would I do that?” he said back, voice shaking just a little from fighting back anticipatory giggles. He could still hear shouting and laughing from the others, which was good. Their attention was far from on him.

“Exactly,” Keith began, trailing his arms to have both hands land at and curling underneath Lance’s hips. “Why would you…” he began to press his fingers in just enough to warn Lance of what was coming, “when you know what’s about to happen if you don’t.”

Lance’s breath hitched. “K-Keith come on the others…”

The red paladin smirked, giving his hips a single squeeze. “I know.”

Lance squeaked, catching Shiro’s attention who’d been drawing a little closer to keep up his defense. He hadn’t noticed the two before, but now that he had…

Keith was caught by surprise as a lumpy snowball hit him on the side of the head. He jumped up, the little bubble around him and the one underneath him shattering.

He wiped his face, eyes landing on the assailant. “Shiro!” he shouted, his face turning a bright pink.

“I saw you trying to stay out of it,” the black paladin grinned. “Not on my watch!”

Keith turned his head back to Lance, who had begun to stand up. He offered him a hand.

Lance took it gratefully. “Thanks,” he averted his eyes. “I’ll tell you how later, I promise.” Then, his eyes grew bright, and met Keith’s again. “Shall we rejoin the fight?”

The red paladin smiled. “Of course.”

“So, care to know how I could do that?” Lance asked him, back in his bedroom after coming back inside and shedding the winter clothes.

“You know it,” Keith replied, sitting next to him on his bed after combing his hair free of excess water droplets.

“Well,” the blue paladin began, looking down at his fidgeting hands that were wrapped up in each other, “back home, we lived right on the beach. My siblings and I would always mess around, and we’d have what were like snowball fights, but with the sand.” He laughed at seeing Keith’s confused expression.

“I know what you’re thinking, ‘but sand doesn’t stay together.’ Well, wet sand does – the sand that the waves can still reach. But we found out pretty quickly that it gets surprisingly solid, surprisingly easily.” A dreamy smile graced his face. Keith wanted to ask a question but didn’t risk interrupting him.

“When sand gets super compact like that wet sand did, it can hurt a lot to get hit by it. So,” he stretched his arms and laid back on the bed, feeling more comfortable talking about his home now. He missed it, but now that he’d started he didn’t want to stop. “We learned to craft with the dry sand that was higher up and away from the water.” Keith laid back next to him and put his head on his shoulder.

Lance smiled at him, and extended his arms above him. He began moving his hands in the way he had earlier in the snow. “It was difficult to get the hang of it, but even the tiniest bit of moisture on the outside can help it solidify. Then, on impact, it explodes. No pain unless you get it in your eyes,” he laughed.

“It was actually easier with the snow,” he let his hands fall back onto his chest. “If I breathed on the outside, it would melt just a little and hold the rest of it together.”

That was the end of his story. Keith knew it, too, but the quiet that fell over the room was almost too nice to interrupt.

Almost.

At the same time Lance turned on his side towards the other and began saying “but who knows if that’s the real story,” Keith mirrored him and said “but how do I know if you’re telling the truth?”

Both felt their faces grow a little warm.

“Hah, yeah,” Lance continued, voice back in that nervous, anticipatory tone. “Why would I just give out my secret building technique, just like that?” He turned back so he was looking at the ceiling. “Maybe that was the truth, maybe it wasn’t.”

An anxious smile grew on his face. “You’ll never know,” he put his hands behind his head, feigning relaxation and confidence.

Keith climbed on top of him and sat on his thighs, placing his hands back on Lance’s hips. “Maybe if I finish what we started earlier, I’ll get the answer,” he growled and because he wasn’t leaning down close to Lance’s ear, it was louder than he was used to. It sent a pleasant chill down Lance’s spine.

Lance forced his blue eyes to meet the strange and lovely purple ones. “There’s only one way to find out.”

Keith knew Lance had told the truth, Lance knew Keith knew he had told the truth, and so on. But that didn’t mean they couldn’t pretend, right? In Keith’s eyes, any excuse to tickle his boyfriend was a good one.

And in Lance’s? Well, technically the only thing in Lance’s eyes were his own eyelids as steady laughter poured from his mouth, Keith’s attack already in swing. But surely he’d have agreed if he could’ve. And that was another point that was mutually known, which made the whole experience that much sweeter…