#oblivious keith

It’s strange.

It’s different from when they first started. (First met? Keith’s not sure. Lance is so insistent that they’ve known each other since they were twelve, but Keith thinks he’d recognise someone like Lance, someone who smiled that brightly and laughed so loud. But he doesn’t, and he doesn’t understand why he doesn’t, so he doesn’t think about it. He pretends in his head that they met saving Shiro and that’s that.) When they first started learning each other (that’s a better way to put it), Lance went red all the time, but Keith knew exactly what that was about, could read the hard set of his jaw and the anger making his dark eyes steely. Sometimes he would grin to himself and make the flush on Lance’s cheeks deepen on purpose; say something incendiary and challenging in the most casual one of voice he could manage, just to watch how furious he got, how indignance straightened his spine and squared his shoulders and made his cheeks glow.

He called Lance Rudolph, once, and he went ballistic. It was the first time he ever won a spar of theirs, and half of that was because Keith was laughing too hard to breathe. To this day no one believes Lance when he insists it happened. (Keith does feel bad about that, a little. Everyone seems to think it was just Lance who egged Keith on in the beginning, just Lance who purposely made things difficult, but Keith is grown enough now to admit that he had as much fun pissing Lance off as anyone else would. Well, grown enough to admit it in his head.)

Keith still makes Lance go red all the time, now. The issue is that he doesn’t know how he does it.

They still compete. Obviously. It’s fun and it’s easy and Keith is a fan of things that are fun and easy. That’s why he’s into demolitions. And pod racing.

But the competition no longer has that flare of genuine rage. Lance himself had admitted it, sniffing pompously after a late night spar and informing Keith that he had, apparently, “sucked all the fun out of hating by being endearing or whatever”. He also mentioned something about Keith’s “stupid fucking big round pouty eyes and depressing backstory”, but Keith doesn’t know what to make of that so he shoves it back into the recesses of his mind like many other things, including the first time someone other than his Pa said they loved him, Shiro’s safety lectures, and any and all calculus lessons he has ever sat through.

(It’s a mess back there.)

Keith, too, can admit that the animosity is gone. He no longer wakes up and hears Lance’s voice and considers drop kicking him into a black hole. Sometimes he even hears Lance’s voice and realises he’s smiling on reflex. Now he and Lance hang out. Voluntarily, and a lot. They spar. They swim. They harass Hunk. They harass Pidge. They harass Shiro. They harass all their friends, really. Sometimes Lance uses manoeuvres he’s learnt in sparring to pin Keith to the ground and force weird products onto his face and hair, dodging Keith’s attempts to bite him, preaching about their cleansing qualities or whatever. Sometimes Keith even does it without hissing and generally being a nuisance.

Sometimes Keith follows Lance quietly to the observation, late at night, and sits with him while he cries. He can’t decide how he feels about those nights. He’s not sure if he’s allowed to think about them outside of when they happen.

In all of this, though, Lance’s ruddy face has stayed pretty common. Keith can excuse it when they’re sparring, because it’s admittedly a lot of cardio, but at the same time Keith doesn’t get that red and he’s way paler than Lance is. He can almost kind of excuse it when they swim, for the same reasons.

He doesn’t get it any other times, though. He doesn’t know why Lance goes red at the most innocuous things, like when Keith tells him his hair smells good or his laugh is pretty or he’s actually really good at that nerdy math game Pidge likes, holy crow, I didn’t know you were that kind of smart. Nerd. He doesn’t understand why Lance goes red when he trips and Keith catches him, ‘cause he’s a big klutz, you’d think he’d be used to it by now (it’s not like Keith is going to let him fall. Well, usually not). He doesn’t get why Lance goes red when Keith compliments him in training, because usually when Lance gets complimented he gets a big head about it and preens for an hour.

It’s just strange.

Mostly, though, it’s not that big of a deal. Maybe Lance is just a blushy kind of person. He’s taken to teasingly calling Lance Red, because it’s better than Rudolph, and also because Lance goes scarlet every time he says it, so it’s kind of like he’s a wizard who can make Lance flush on command. Which is cool. Other than that Keith mostly just pretends it doesn’t happen. They hang out too much for Keith to bother. If he questioned it every time, he would go bananas.

“You have icing smeared on your face,” Keith comments on one such hanging out occasion. (They’re plundering the kitchen for the cupcakes Hunk made and specifically forbade them from touching. But Hunk allegedly broke into Lance’s room last week and stole the last of his toner, whatever the hell that is, so fair’s fair.)

Lance pops the last of the cupcake into his mouth then turns to face him. “Where?”

“Here,” Keith says, tapping the left side of his own chin.

Lance, like a dumbass, makes a swiping motion on the left side of his face, instead of mirroring where Keith touched. He misses the icing entirely.

“Left side,” Keith says, exasperatedly.

Lance scowls at him. “That is the left side.”

“No — the other left.”

“There is no other left! There’s only one left!”

Rolling his eyes, Keith reaches over to wipe the icing off for him. There cannot be any evidence on them, after all. When Hunk has a conniption over his missing cupcakes they must play the plausible deniability card so they can snicker about it later.

He swipes his thumb under Lance’s bottom lip, trying to scrape the icing off with his thumbnail. Lance inhales sharply.

“Sorry,” Keith murmurs, softening his grip. He must have scratched him. The icing didn’t come off, though, so he switches tactics and slides off the counter, shifting so he’s standing in between Lance’s open legs and cradling Lance’s cheek in his palm to tilt his head. He rubs his thumb much softer on the stubborn streak of whipped sugar, and that works a little better. He keeps rubbing until finally Lance’s skin is clear, all the half-dried icing now spread on the pad of Keith’s thumb. He licks it off without thinking.

It’s sweet.

Lance makes a strained whimpering noise. Keith flicks his gaze up to meet his face again and is less surprised than he should be to see a flush glowing across his cheekbones, making his freckles seem much darker than they are. His pupils are dilated so wide they nearly swallow up the brown of his irises, and Keith can’t tell if he’s looking at him or through him.

He sighs heavily. “Dude, do you have a condition?”

It takes Lance a long moment to answer. By the time he finally does, his gaze has moved firmly to his lap, neck bent so that Keith can’t really see his face. His ears are still read.

“I’ve got a fuckin’ heart condition,” he mutters.

Keith furrows his eyebrows. That’s weird. He’s seen Lance’s medical scans before — he’s in the pods a lot. You’d think that kind of thing would be on there.

“It doesn’t show up on your med scans,” Keith points out. “Is it, like, a genetic thing?”

Slowly, Lance picks his head back up, squinting at him for several long moments. Keith begins to squirm.

“You’re actually slow,” Lance says with an almost awed tone of voice. Which is mean. “Like, genuinely, actually slow. I think there are bubbles in your brain.”

“Hey,” Keith protests, pouting. “I help you commit cupcake heists, and this is how you treat me?”

Instead of answering, Lance continues to stare at him. He almost looks bewildered, which does nothing but make Keith more confused.

Eventually he lets out a long, tired sigh. It is not the first time Keith has heard that sigh. That is a sigh he hears when Shiro finds him throwing up his guts after eating a tub of ice cream out of spite. That’s the kind of sigh he hears from Allura when Keith ignores instructions and boulders through the shocks from the invisible maze to get it done faster. That’s the sigh that says I wish I had a trebuchet to strap you to it and release you into the sun. Keith is very familiar with that sigh, although he usually makes it happen on purpose, or at the very least understands how it’s warranted.

Right now he is completely lost.

“I am going to go bother Coran,” Lance says finally, pushing himself off the counter and walking towards the door. “You are not invited. I will talk to you when I want to strangle you less. Goodbye.”

“Bye,” Keith calls out, head tilted in confusion. He watches Lance go until he disappears down the hallways.

keith and allura became a thing in the middle of a heated battle

they kick ass and actually talk things out because theyre both straightforward people.

keith raises concerns about lance's "crush" towards allura, and admits he'll be very much jealous. allura assures him she will talk to lance.

when lance finds out he gives them both a bright thumbs up and both sigh in relief.

lance is screaming inside. not because of allura.

because during keith's stint as the black paladin, lance started getting confused over whether he liked allura or was developing feelings for keith.

eventually, he concluded that while he was infatuated with allura (seriously she was a Woman) he considered the connection between him and keith to be deeper and more meaningful. thus, he loved keith more than he liked allura.

he tried denying it which is why the conversation between hunk and pidge teasing him about allura happens, but the boy loves keith and kept it a secret. during shiro's return and them going back to earth lance comes to terms with his feelings and tries to talk to keith and fails

and then kallura.

kallura's affections are very much real aand are very strong which is why lance doesnt truly resent the two about it. he's never seen keith so settled and happy, so he steps aside.

keith confronts lance about his assumed feelings for allura and lance just coldly ends it with "you dont know me well enough to assume I was in love with allura, keith."

keith is confused, allura is too. shiro suspects but respects lance's wishes to stay silent.

meanwhile, lance is dying inside. it turns out keith only cares about him in a distant, team family sort of way.

he ends up confessing to red, who kind of grows protective over lance, who's heart burns like the hearth of a home. and kind of snubs keith for a hot second before lance gets red under control.

when they get to earth and lance spends some time with his family, he gets the hanahaki disease.

rachel is the only one who gets an answer out of lance and is immediately wary of keith but lance snaps her out of it

NONE of the paladins are aware of lance's feelings for keith except shiro

shiro definitely does cknfront lance about his sickness but the moment he sees petals fall out of lance's mouth he puts two and two together and is promptly horrified

shiro keeps making glances at lance and kallura and its pissing keith off

lance tells shiro off. "I know you're worried Shiro, but the last thing Keith and Allura need is for me to get in between them. Drop. It." "But Lance, you–" "Don't you GET IT? I DON'T MATTER SHIRO. NOT TO THEM. Please...just...leave me be. I'll last till the end."

keith and allura, eavesdropping, wonder what that was all about but cant make heads or tails off of it.

at one point post battle. lance ends up coughing flowers right after the battle, and though he cleans it up, a little blood is left in the corner of his lips.

allura sees this and brings attention to this. shiro tries his best to play it off for lance's sake and lance catches on quickly, but keith isnt having it and has coran check him.

lance feels light headed and escapes to the bathroom

there he pukes a lot of blood and flowers, collapsing but not unconscious.

this is how allura finds him. she rushes him to a pod and NONE of the paladins can figure out what was wrong with lance other than "he's got persistent flower seeds in his lungs"

keith shouts at shiro who visibly flinches but gives in and explains.

the team is horrified.

but they still think lance is in love with allura.

in thus universe the hanahaki is still just that obscure angst trope so theres no known medical record of curing it other than shiro's words of "only if his love is reciprocated"

keith and allura "take a break" from the relationship to try and convince lance that allura loves him

it goes about as well as you could expect. lance sees through the bullshit.

allura tries, she really does. shes so so so so so very scared of losing anyone else she loves so if pretending to love someone she doesnt is what it takes to save lance, then she's damn well going to do it.

as for keith, yeah, he admits he and lance didnt really get on with each other in the start, but dammit, lance has been part of keith's small circle and damn if he was letting anyone else he loved get away from him

nothing allura does works. keith storms shiro's room, who had just assisted lance (who was in the bathroom at the time). keith confronts him and asks why lance isnt cured yet.

shiro stalls and shifts around the issue, uncomfortabel with revealing a secret that isnt his to tell. other than him, lance is the only one with homosexual tendencies.

"Why the fuck isn't Lance cured?"

"Maybe it's because you're using the wrong person, asshole."

Lance has never been more intimidating while standing half naked with only a towel around his waist.

"For fuck's sake, I love you, Keith Kogane. Not Allura. This whole pretending to reciprocarte my feelings plan was never going to work."

"But...you've always been in love with her!"

"I was never in love with Allura! I loved the idea of being her boyfriend!"

"But why Keith?"

"You're his girlfriend. You tell me."

"I think they can't understand why you went from hating Keith to loving him."

"Oh my god. You really thought I hated you? EVEN AFTER SHIRO'S DISAPPEARANCE? I was you literal RIGHT HAND Keith, and your biggest supporter! Just...forget it." Lance leaves the room and cries in his own room. Oops.

From then on Keith and Allura spend the rest of Lance's life left apologizing and just generally beibg a better friend after talking with Shiro. Keith spends time with Lance while Allura fruitlessly spends hours with Pidge and Coran researching for a cure that doesnt involve reciprocation. She fails, but Lance appreciates her efforts.

Some angsty fluff happens with everyone and tears are shed.

Finally, at the end, it isn't Allura who sacrifices herself to the cosmos, but Lance, who, even without Quintessence to spare, went on a separare mission to enact a ritual that enables him to act as the sacrifice instead of Allura. This puts the Hanahaki disease on hold, but he keeps the fact that he paid a higher price to exchange it with another curse a secret. He just ends up coughing the remaining petals

He hugs Allura tight and kisses her cheek. He gives everyone else a tight, heartfelt hug. Hunk hugs him the longest, and Shiro's is the most desperate one.

To Keith, he cups his jaws, Keith grips Lance's waist tight (this is purely platonic, remember that Keith has only NOW found a family worth fighting for and cannot fathom the idea of losing any of them. Read: Shiro.) and doesn't want to let go. Lance looks at him fondly, before dropping two rings in Keith's palm. His final blessing for Keith and Allura.

Keith is full on crying, begging Lance not to go, he can't leave them like this, not like this, there has to be another way. Lance smiles sadly, tells Keith not to worry about it. Allura hugs them both tightly, which prompts everyone else to pile around him as well.

As Lance fades away, he gives Keith one last gift. A flower that falls as soon as Lance's lips land on Keith's forehead.

hey!! i believe this is it?

New by europa_report

(chapters: 11/13 | 43,758 words | M)

"Why?"

"Why leave home and drive across the country? Well, Keith, is your life going the way you thought it would?"

sorry i really like the idea of this

So, Keith is super oblivious.

Lance is not.

But, Lance has never been in a male x male relationship so... He doesn't want to make the first move in case he does something deathly wrong.

Plus, Lance knows Keith at least likes men (and according to how he reacted to girls, Lance assumes he's gay but wouldn't put his money on it), so it still is possible that Keith has been in a relationship, right?

Keith doesn't know what the fuck is happening.

All of a sudden Lance makes him so happy, and he can't stop smiling when he's around him, and it's gotten so bad to the point where he avoids him EVERYWHERE.

Lance: Hey Keith, what're ya up to?

Keith: Nothing

Keith: *Naruto runs out of the kitchen with food goo dropping on the way*

Lance: He's been spending too much time with Pidge.

Lance is fairly confused after that interaction, because Keith just seems way more pissed around him now and maybe he was wrong?

But also, Keith lived in a shack in a desert for a year, so how can Lance trust his social skills?

Lance-social-star-McClain can't figure out Keith and he's SO irritated by it because he even figured out the little gremlin had more backstory then they said back at the garrison. And honestly, they need a couple of lessons in social etiquette too.

So one day he confronts Keith, because he's honestly so Done™ with this shit.

Lance: Hey Keith?

Keith: *very distracted and not realizing Lance is talking to him* hm?

Lance: Do I make you uncomfortable? Or am I not tolerable? Because I meant those arguments in all good fun, y'know, like friendly teasing and stuff... And, well, you... you've been avoiding me.

Keith: *staring him in the eyes, face slack with shock*

Keith: I'm gay

Lance: WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!

Yes, Keith had a gay panic and honestly who could blame him because Lance was just so sweet and vulnerable to him and wanted to make sure he wasn't bothering him and Keith is just so whipped.

Lance looks really hurt after Keith has no sign of saying anything else, so he starts to retreat, slumped and radiating a depressing aura.

And a sad Lance is a sad Keith, so Keith needs to stop this now.

Keith thinks maybe he's homophobic or something because he's oblivious as hell, so he tries to make sure they're okay.

Keith: If you're homophobic or something that's okay, I'm sorry I said that all of a sudden and I don't want you to make you uncomfortable-

It's then that Lance turns around.

He's gripping his left arm in a slumped position and his head is hung low.

But once Lance looks up Keith's heart is shattered into a thousand pieces.

Lance's face is tear-stricken and his eyes already have red rims. He has this sad smile on his face, and his eyes shine even more blue than normal. Keith shouldn't be appreciating the fact that he made Lance cry but oh my God he's gorgeous when he cries and honestly who can be gorgeous while crying? But Lance's eyes. The water from the tears swims around in his eyes, and what normally would be a shallow beach in Cuba is now the deep end of a New York port on a stormy day. It makes him gorgeous, but it makes Keith's heart ache.

Lance: First of all, I'm not homophobic.

Lance: Second of all, I... I'm just upset because you've been avoiding me and... you seem to be really mad at me... Honestly if I did something wrong, please let me know and... Even though I don't know what I did, I'm sorry.

Meanwhile Keith is having a huge internal panic because oh God Lance thinks he hates him but he doesn't know what to do so he says the first that comes to mind and...

Keith: I like you.

He's taken aback by his own statement because is that what it is? Is this what liking someone is like, is that why his heart feels so full near him?

Lance stares at him with wide eyes because what? Oblivious Keith™ knows what liking someone feels like and ADMITTED to it?

Lance: Are...are you being serious?

Keith: *looks Lance in the eyes*

Keith: Deadly.

Lances eyes are like the ocean, and he's the sand, because he keeps getting drawn back in over and over no matter how hard he tries to get it to stop...

But honestly? Keith doesn't care.

Because as long as he's with Lance, he's safe.

Read All About It by starlightment on AO3 ~ Ongoing ~ Mature ~ No Warnings ~ Klance  

Keith is Altea High’s star athlete. And Lance, a wily reporter for the school newspaper, is crushing hard. The only problem? They’ve never actually met before. So when Lance decides to broadcast his long-hidden feelings in an explicitly romantic exposé, he ends up accidentally sparking a school-wide epidemic. Suddenly the entire student body is in on the drama, but are words truly enough to win over the school’s enigmatic heartthrob? [High school AU. Klance.]

A rly random short where Keith is oblivious, Lance is kinda cool for a second, and they’re both pining dorks. 

Keith always knew this was a bad idea, he never had a real family, and the thought of having one was always daunting. He kept to himself all his life so why oh why did he let the other paladins let him take him to meet their family, 

OK, the rest of the team was bearable, but why in heavens name did he agree to meet Lance's family?! (" because you have a crush the size larger than the sun on him and you literally can't refuse him if he uses puppy eyes." A treacherous part of his mind supplied. "Go back to your pit" he told that part) 

Keith didn't even know it was possible to have such a big family. Lance's three brothers, two sisters two of them were married with kids of their own, and Keith thought that he'd never in his life fit in with the family, but the McClains, as he learned, are a welcoming bunch. 

It has been three days and honestly Keith was feeling more at home than any foster home he'd ever been in, that's not to say he's treated specially or anything, he's just treated as another son of Rosa McClain. 

"So, Keith," Sofia sits next to Keith on the sofa with a smile that rings hundreds of warning bells in his head. He looks towards Lance on the opposite sofa to see him giving warning glares to his older sister from beside his abuella. 

"Uh, what?" Was Keith's eloquent answer.  "You've been in space so long, and if Lance is to be believed..."  "He's not." Keith pointed out wryly.  "Not my point, Lance has been going on and on about how he met and wooed so many space babes, haven't you met someone?" Sofia prods. 

"Well, he probably would if he could stop brooding for a minute!" Lance interjected to Keith's frustration. Somehow the blue eyed Cuban has come to the understanding that Keith is straight, the only reason Keith knows this is because Shiro told Keith about and the reason he didn't correct Lance yet is so he doesn't get more clue that his stupid hopeless crush exists.

"PAH!! Nonsense, it doesn't matter that he's broody, someone must have shown an interest in him?! Why would anyone let such a handsome boy get away is beyond me." Abuella decided to input looking at Lance for some reason who sputtered. 

"What are you talking about?!? Of course he's not handsome with that mullet!!" Lance exclaimed in a high pitched voice. 

"Sure, sure, but we should definitely set him up with some one, that face it too pretty to be single." Sofia says in a tone that sounds awfully close to Pidge's when they plan a sabotage or destroy garla fleets using sneaky plan.

"What about with Mari? She's a nice girl." Rosa says as she enters the room, apparently interested in setting Keith up for his certain doom too. 

"Ooh ooh or maybe Bianca?" Sofia piped up. 

"No way both of them are way too nice to be with sir mullet!!" Lance exclaimed and.... Why is this his life?

"Why don't you let Mari or Bianca choose that? Not like you can say something about who Keith could or couldn't date." Abuella says looking pointedly at Lance again and the boy splutters. Was there an inside joke he was not privy to?

"With all due respect I don't think Mari or Bianca -whoever they are- would be my type" Keith interjected as politely with his uncomfortable situation. 

"Why not? What is this type of yours anyway?" Rosa asks not unkindly, unlike someone would have done. 

"Boys, I like boys." Keith says and he sees almost everyone freeze, each of them has a different expression. Rosa looked stunned, Sofia looked slightly pained but happy too, Lance looks like some one just told him the sky is green and abuella had the biggest shit eating grin. 

Keith realized what he just did and instantly his mind became a broken record that loops, 'i fucked up i fucked up i fucked up' here is a family that had accepted him and what did he do? He screwed up his chance to fit in that's what. 

His inner self deprecating thoughts were cut off by abuella's boisterous laugh, "HAH! See! Pay up Sofia, I told you he'd say it before a week." Keith stared wide eyed as Sofia grumbled and handed the older woman a ten dollar note. 

"What?" Was as best he could react. He again looked towards Lance to see him looking just as flabbergasted. 

"Well, you see, Sofia here bet ten bucks that it'd take you at least a week to tell us that you're gay, I took her up saying that it'd take less, obviously, I won." Abuella finished looking very much smug. 

"Seriously Keith, couldn't you wait till the week was over?" Sofia pouted at him and Keith felt himself relax seeing Rosa shaking her head at abuella and Sofia's antics. 

"Well, I don't know why you bet against me in the first place! The exact same thing happened with Lance......." Abuella said something else but it got lost in Keith's head. 

"Sorry what happened with Lance?" Keith asked almost scared of the answer. He looked between Rosa, abuella and Lance the latter looking like a deer caught in headlights. 

"Well, Sofia said it'd take at least till he's out of the garrisons to get out of the closet. I said he'd do it before he went. Obviously this isn't the first time I won from Sofia, it's so easy!...." Abuella said ignoring both Keith and Lance's widening eyes. 

"Well, I won the other bet so there." Sofia said pouting. Keith and Lance both gave her an incredulous look, how many bets did they have going on?

"The other bet? Lance prompted. 

" yeah, about the guy you had a crush on, you know... From the Garrisons ~" Keith honestly wasn't sure if it was the lighting or something, but the singsong voice along with the smile she gave Lance made Sofia look about as demented as Zarkon, coming from someone who actually saw the guy, this means saying something. 

Slowly the words sank in and Keith looked towards Lance blushing up a tsunami. Something happened when their eyes connected, Lance's eyes widened and he stormed out of the room. Keith had no idea what just passed, he looked towards Rosa questioningly. 

Said woman sighed, "Keith, sweetheart, you know sometimes it feels like having four sons is really really hard, but then I met you and i really really want you to join the family, so go after that boy?" Rosa smiled at him and with the lack of doing something, he blushed.