"Hell no!" Lance hollered back in defiance. "No way am I going through those stupid drills again today. Forget it!"
Keith stepped forward, again ready for another battle with his second in command. "Yes you are! Now get in your damn lion and lets get started! I want to get this done before supper tonight you know!"
Lance plopped down in the chair beside the control board and stared up determinedly. He shook his brown hair in a smug gesture of disobedience. "We've been doing these things everyday for a week. Can we not even have one lousy day off?!"
Keith leveled a serious gaze at Lance and his eyes narrowed, his lips taught. He sucked in some breath and checked his temper. In a low, deep voice he hissed, "Well if some people would learn what the drills are for then we wouldn't have to do them so much."
Lance bit his tongue at the insinuation of his captain's words. He knew very well by now what they meant. "Oh God, not this again." he droned at the familiarity of where this conversation was headed. "The fact that I occasionally use my own judgment in battle has nothing to do with understanding these idiotic drills."
Some snickering from Hunk and Pidge across the room received a lengthy glare from both Lance and Princess Allura, who was digesting this latest confrontation with admirable indifference. She'd seen this too many times to let it affect her.
"Look Lance, I don't know what your problem is, but if you can't follow my orders, then maybe you'd better let someone else do the job."
Lance and the others looked in startled disbelief at Keith, who was leaning forward on a table as though he was going to jump over it and go straight for Lance's throat. His voice had sounded unbelievably venomous and angry, but yet so sure and absolute, as if the threat was real.
"What?!" Lance stammered back confused. Never had an argument progressed to discipline before, and certainly not one so final.
Keith shook his head trying to clear out the rage that was clouding his judgement, but all he could think about was how Lance had this coming. "You heard me Lance. I'm sick of cleaning up after you and your idiotic whims of grandeur! In case you haven't noticed this yet, we are a team here, and that means that there are certain boundaries that have to be maintained."
Lance stared at Keith as though there was something in the words that he should have been picking up on but couldn't. The way Keith was burrowing his dark eyes through him left him surprisingly at a loss for reply. But Keith was not finished.
"I've had enough of your insubordination! Either you straighten up your damn attitude problem, or pack your bags and give your job to someone who can handle it!" and with that Keith stalked past Lance and out the door at the back of the control room, his heavy steps still heard from down the hall.
Lance turned around to watch Keith's diminishing figure until the door closed and blocked his vision. He stared hard at the iron in his way and replayed the words of his captain through his thoughts again, until a large hand shook him back to reality.
"Lance, he didn't mean that, I know."
Lance turned around to face Hunk who was trying to offer some type of ointment for this obvious new injury. Lance was used to the others trying to patch things up between him and Keith, but this time he didn't think they could help. This time was different somehow. He nodded in agreement, although he failed to really believe Hunk's explanation. He wandered out of the large room, vaguely aware of the frantic chattering that started as soon as the door shut behind him.
Certain boundaries…what had he meant by all that cryptic nonsense? Perhaps the line that was drawn between friendship and duty? Lance suddenly felt irritated. He would choose friendship himself, but not Keith. His ass was always stuck on honor and obligation and a whole host of other self-righteous callings. Lance flopped over on his bed, swiping off the clothes on the mattress haphazardly to the floor. His room was a mess but he didn't care. It was always a mess really, unlike Keith who kept his room so prim and regulation spotless. Lance growled again under his breath at the thought of Keith. Why did his mind always wander back to Keith? It was as though he controlled him and issued orders even when Lance was asleep. Sleep. That was what he needed right now. A good long rest to clear out his head and let this latest conflict blow over. He slid his hand under one flat pillow trying to get comfortable, but his fingers brushed something hard and thin.
"What the…" he lifted the pillow and stared down at a small yellow envelope. He picked it up and looked it over, wondering not who had left it but whose it could be. It didn't seem possible that it could have been for him. Since there was no name on the front he slid his finger along the top and opened it. His eyes scanned the brief message scrawled in blue ink.
Lance,
I need to talk to you. Please come see me in the garden.
Keith.
Lance scowled as he realized who the letter was for and from. He wadded it up in perturbation. He didn't feel like talking to Keith right now, didn't feel like arguing again at this late hour. That's what it would most likely come down to, that's what it always seemed to come to lately. They could barely hold a civilized discussion. But then he unwadded the letter to look at it again. Please come see me… Lance read the letters once more, somehow softened by the gentle language of what was written. Maybe he should go see Keith and straighten all this out before they had to go into another dangerous battle with tension looming overhead they didn't need. He slid out of bed without bothering to change out of his pajama bottoms or put on a shirt, figuring every one would be sleeping by now, and left out the door.
Keith looked around the garden, enclosed and private, darkening quickly from the faded orange sunset, and wondered why he had picked this spot to talk to Lance. No, he didn't need to ask why. It was the same reason why he paraded past him from the shower in just a towel, always guarded him too close when they would play basketball on days off, or swim in the skimpiest amount possible when they went to the river. He wanted Lance off guard, he wanted Lance to notice him, and he wanted Lance to be alone with him somewhere where magic could happen.
Damn Lance, he thought bitterly. He never notices me at all. But then why should he? There were plenty of girls at the castle who returned his obvious flirtations, even Allura sometimes. That thought made Keith thoroughly aggravated. He remembered when Allura had kissed Lance as a 'reward' for his efforts in battle. Keith knew that Allura had feelings for him and not Lance, but it didn't matter. He hated for anyone to touch Lance, even a princess. Is that what was causing all this tension between them? Keith's inability to deal with the way he felt for his own teammate?
He heard footsteps on the marble walkway of the garden entrance and his pulse quickened just a notch. He sat down on the white bench and waited until he could see the dark shadow of a familiar slender body coming around the spring flowers. He suddenly felt insecure and open, afraid that he wouldn't be able to hide the longing and turbulent emotions in his eyes from Lance's scrutinizing gaze. Lance could always see through him, and he knew that. Until now, until he had threatened to cast away the closest person to him, did Keith realize that he might not be able to contain the feelings he had any longer. Lance stopped several feet away for safety's sake, and stared down at the mass of raven hair that wouldn't look at him. He cleared his throat.
Keith glanced up and managed an unconvincing smile that he knew looked plastic. It faded quickly as he let his gaze wander down the other's body. Lance stood there shirtless, the white skin of his slim body a bizarre blue tint in the light from the moon. His eyes were white and shiny, like a bird's careful eyes that searched for weak prey. Keith almost fled from that gaze, almost ran away from what he had planned on settling tonight.
"Lance," he began cautiously, he voice already trembling. "I didn't mean that earlier."
Lance crossed his arms and mulled over the uneasiness in Keith's voice. They'd had arguments before, so what was the big deal about this one? "You sure sounded like you did."
Keith stood up, which startled Lance into taking a step back, and closed the distance between them by half. "I wouldn't ask you to leave, Lance, never. I was angry." He explained as his hand went forward with a mind of its own. He was almost touching the bare ivory chest. Lance retreated another step, his back grazing the rough bark of a tree. The look in Keith's eyes was impossible to interpret and far too alarming. He'd never had another person look at him this way, this direct and stabbing. He couldn't tear his own eyes away from the black marbles piercing him. Keith moved closer, his own inhibitions evaporating quickly, replaced instead by the rushing of adrenaline and the steady heat rising in his body and his blood. It didn't matter anymore if Lance knew how he felt, or what he thought about it, he just wanted him to know. He couldn't stand holding it in anymore and pretending that his only interest in his second in command was purely military.
Lance shuddered under the dark hand that found the soft skin of his chest and lingered there. It eased down around his ribs and then to the trunk of the tree. He was feeling it again, the forbidden desires that rushed in to haunt him every night as he tried to sleep, clawing at his brain with moral madness. He knew suddenly where this was going, and it alarmed him, although he had seen it coming for months. He'd always just ignored it before, chalked it up to his own lustful imagination. His mind raced as he finally ripped his eyes away from Keith and turned his head, eyes searching frantically for a way out of this. He couldn't face it yet, realizing that his wayward desires were more reality than he had imagined.
"I need you Lance."
The voice, deep and heavy, snapped Lance back into Keith's waiting gaze. Lance pushed further away, his fair shoulder blades grinding into the coarse bark, as Keith eased his head down, closer to the quivering mouth that was so like his was just seconds ago. Now the roles had been swapped, and Lance was totally off guard before him, just the way he wanted, and Keith was the confident one. He laid his mouth softly over Lance's for a second of reassurance before crushing into him when Lance did not immediately resist. He worked his lips around, pulling and grasping at those beneath with fierce want, working the other mouth open. Lance made a muffled noise into the cavity of Keith's hot mouth, but Keith did not pull away or lighten the kiss. He pushed his tongue carefully between the other lips, tasting the remains of fruit that Lance had hurriedly eaten for supper. Keith recalled the way Lance had avoided him at the dining room table like he had the plague, and retreated with just an orange and apple to eat in his room. He would not let him escape so easily this time.
Lance shivered all over from the intensity of the kiss and the way his body was reacting to it. It was already too hard to resist kissing his captain back with equal fervor. He had to get out of this before the two of them crossed some tabooed boundary from which there was no return. He felt to his right, suddenly washed over with fear as he sensed Keith's other arm come up to block him from escaping. He was trapped.
Lance jerked his head away and pushed Keith in the chest as hard as he could, but the captain had been ready for some kind of struggle. This was Lance after all, and they always fought about everything. He tightened his grip around the tree, but did allow Lance the opportunity to protest.
"Keith, what the hell are you doing?!" he cried, his head spinning with an intoxicating blend of desire and confusion.
Keith did not answer the not quite angry outburst. He buried his face down into Lance's neck so that he could nip at the sensitive skin there. Lance tried to object but it came out as a low moan, his own arms unconsciously raising around Keith's waist and smoothing the red uniform. He nudged his face against Keith's black hair, wanting another of the hungry kisses. That was when Keith slipped his hand under the elastic band of Lance's pajama bottoms.
Lance jerked and forced the tanned hand away, struggling from Keith's hold on him. Afraid that he had pushed too far, Keith relinquished his hold on the tree to grip Lance tightly around the back and keep him from bolting away.
"Calm down." he ordered gently into Lance's brown hair, aware of the death grip Lance had on the front of his red uniform. Lance pulled back to glare at Keith's black eyes, but melted unexpectedly at the soft look there.
"Let me go Keith." he tried weakly. He felt tired and he just wanted to go to his room and sort out what had happened.
"Why do you want to go? I know how you feel about me." Keith answered back, slightly wounded.
Lance wedged an arm up between them and pushed off. He stumbled a few steps away. "It won't work Keith. We can't be together."
Keith reached out for Lance but stopped as the other sank away. "Why not? Because we're both men?"
"Yes." Lance answered back coldly. His back was burning from the scraping of the bark.
"What does that matter if you want me?" Keith felt his composure slipping down a stair. Lance was gaining footing again.
"We'll get into trouble…" it was a lame excuse but the only one Lance could come up with.
"No we won't." Keith attested, feeling too anxious to worry about consequences, "There are no rules about sexual preference in the handbook you know."
Lance scowled. "You would know that. And if there were then I suppose you'd just walk away from me and forget the whole thing, right? You'd just forget about me."
Keith grabbed Lance's thin arm angrily, twisting it so that Lance had to look at him. "That isn't true and you know it!"
"Do I? What was it you said Keith? There are boundaries to be maintained? Are you sure that this isn't one of those things that crosses one of those lines, pushes your loyalty too far?"
Lance smirked as Keith backed off in the shock of having his own words thrown back at him. "That isn't what I meant Lance."
Lance made a contemptuous noise through his nose and turned around to leave, but Keith had already seized him by the arm again. He pulled Lance against him as hard as he could, determining that if this thing came down to an all out fist fight then he would oblige. He was settling this right here and now.
"Keith, I swear if you don't let me go…" Lance growled as the warm hands were already searching up his chest.
"You'll do what? This is one fight you can't win Lance. You can't win because you want this as much as I do, but you're too afraid to take it."
"I'm not afraid," Lance shot back, then he finally became aware of the wet feeling splattering his bare chest. It was raining on them. He gaped around the garden that sparkled with fresh drops of water from the sky. It was darker now that the moon was hidden behind thick clouds and the entire walkway was covered in ebon shadows. He hadn't realized how black the garden had gotten while he'd been resisting Keith's advances. He squinted into the thick foliage, suddenly nervous of the mysteries of the indefinable bushes and trees, and the occasional rustling that they produced. He backed up into Keith without thinking.
"If you aren't afraid then prove it."
Lance turned to hear the taunt in his ear, hot and moist and dripping with passion. He wasn't sure what to say in rebuttal, so he just stood there, his back to Keith's chest.
"Your back is scratched." came a softly worried voice. Lance felt his shoulder blades being caressed and kissed from his neck down to the dip just above his rear. He realized that he was sitting now, the hard marble of the walkway beneath him. Keith was molded around his bent spine, the rain falling larger and faster now, soaking them both, causing Lance to feel cold. He shivered under Keith, hoping that he wouldn't move and let in the biting night air. The soothing caresses were over his chest again, and he leaned backward, almost in his captain's lap, so that Keith could easily work the harder skin of his stomach. Lance sighed and felt his mind relaxing under the gentle ministrations while his body tightened uncomfortably. He cracked his eyes just in time to see Keith's left hand slip under his pants and between his legs.
"Oh god Keith what-" the rest of his protest squeezed out as a sharp gasp. Rain dripped down into his eyes, and he snapped them shut, twisting under Keith's searching hand. But Keith was ready and he steadied Lance into his lap, kissing the nape of his neck and tangling the auburn hair in his free hand.
"Relax Lance. I didn't know you were such a chicken." Keith teased.
Lance swore something back and forced his eyes open, titling his head so that the rain fell from his brow. He stared down at his thighs and could see every movement Keith's hand made under his soaked blue pants that clung. He sucked in a deep breath as the hand enclosed him again, soft and probing. He moaned as Keith ran his fingers up and down the long shaft there, pausing each time to tickle the tip. Keith began to work the area harder, delighted by the responses that Lance was producing. Lance gripped at the red material of Keith's legs around him, raising up to meet the warm hand between his thighs and push into it. He almost cried out when Keith decided to use his other hand as well, utilizing this one to search the other areas that were accessible as Lance unwittingly spread his legs wider.
Keith smiled to himself. He always knew that if he could get Lance started then he would be able to take him all the way. Lance, for his part, began to worry, his mind reeling but still functional. He knew that this was only going to go in one direction, and he didn't want that. At least not here in the eerie dark on this hard, frozen marble.
"Not here," he gasped, barely able to produce that much resistance.
Lance was relieved when his captain raised him up and guided him by the wrist out of the garden, all but running. Water sloshed off from them onto the tiled floor of the castle hallways, leaving a trail of puddles behind, Lance's bare feet sliding twice from the slipperiness of it. Keith yanked Lance into his quarters, hastily pushing the lock button on the wall. He pulled Lance to him, kissing him aggressively, ignoring the fact that his lips were already swollen from earlier. Then he jerked him to the bed, tugging at Lance's pants before they had even lain down. He removed them and settled down over his second in command, straddling him, clothe against bare flesh.
That alarmed Lance. He realized that Keith had been in control the whole time they had fooled around in the garden, and he wasn't giving Lance an opportunity to either resist or continue. He was keeping him submissive. Lance twisted around onto his side, so that his jaunty hipbone stuck into Keith's crotch. Keith arched in surprise, and then chuckled.
"Are you teasing me?"
"Is there a reason why you still have your clothes on?" Lance asked while glancing sideways at Keith through brown bangs.
Keith only laughed amused and leaned over to kiss Lance's cheek, covertly sliding his hand down again.
"Turn back over Lance." He whispered forcefully into the high cheekbone. Lance realized what was happening and rolled to the other side of the bed. He shot a lengthy glare at Keith while he wrenched the thin sheet up around him. Keith sat back on his heels, unsure whether to be annoyed or concerned.
"What is it Lance?"
Lance studied the darker body before him and watched the black eyes blink in confusion. "Do you think you can just order me around in bed, too?"
Keith almost laughed then. It was the same old routine, even in the face of making love. He leaned forward to Lance and wrapped his arms around him, chuckling softly into his shoulder. "I just thought I'd lead you in this like I do in the lions. I should have known you'd resist me here as well."
Lance's anger melted suddenly away into a rolling laugh that shook him in Keith's arms for several minutes. He leaned forward into Keith's lips, feeling his own pulse from tenderness. He bit at the lower lip, yanking it temptingly until Keith smacked his thigh under the cover. "That wasn't very nice." He muttered reproachfully while he rubbed a little at the sore spot, although his eyes were sparkling with mischief. He reached both hands under the sheets and forced Lance down onto the bed, blanketing him with his body. He realized though that his wet clothes were sticky and hindering his movements, so he jerked them off hastily. He loomed over Lance for a moment, the two of them gazing down each other's naked bodies. Keith was darker skinned and larger than Lance, his limbs more filled and his muscles clearly defined. Lance was honey hued, almost porcelain, his body thinner and smaller, and just delicate enough to make him appear so much more vulnerable than he did with his clothes on. Keith ran his hand over the muscles in the stomach beneath him, delighted at the way they tensed.
Lance pulled Keith down on top of him, kissing him again frantically as Keith ground their hips together under the covers. Lance snaked his hand between their bodies and brushed it against the hard object that jutted against his thighs. Keith moaned and shattered against him, falling onto Lance's chest. Lance grinned at this chance for revenge and began to do to Keith what had been done to him. He worked the hard area for a few moments before he realized he didn't know what to do next. He retrieved his hand and lay there waiting. Keith breathed heavily, aware that the thing pleasuring him had been removed. After a second of collecting himself he glanced up to meet Lance's questioning eyes. Realizing that the lead had been relinquished to him once again, he pulled up to kiss Lance quickly on the mouth before disappearing under the covers, his head buried between two thighs. Lance whined out loud as the heated mouth closed over him. He twisted and ripped at the covers as the smooth tongue swiped in long strokes, urging his hips to push off the bed and beg for more. He tensed from head to toe, feeling every pulse in his body merging on the one spot where Keith was kissing and sucking him. He felt something climaxing in him, a strangely electric feeling he'd never imagined before, then he shuddered hugely, burning with heat for only a moment longer.
Then he fell to the bed, unsure of what had happened. He only knew that he felt better now than he ever had before. He felt Keith lick him and then kneed the sore area lovingly. Keith smiled up at Lance, who looked back with dark, glossy eyes. The captain wiped at his mouth and crawled up Lance's chest to lay over him and kiss him tenderly.
Lance looked at his lover, sensing that there was something else still left to do. He thought about repeating what Keith had done to him again, but that didn't seem like what was supposed to happen. For all his flirting and brass, he really had no actual experience in this type of thing, and he needed instruction. Keith moved off him unexpectedly, leaving Lance cold against the night air, and searched through his drawers until he pulled out a bottle of something like oil. Lance watched in fascination as Keith liberally applied the liquid over himself carefully for a minute, and then climbed back into bed.
"Lance, roll onto your stomach ok?"
Lance gazed stupidly at him for a moment, still unsure of what was going on. He did as he had been told anyway, content to simply obey orders this once. Than he felt a finger slide into him and he arched up to question what was going on. Keith pushed him back down and whispered something softly into his neck that made Lance freeze. Keith worked the opening carefully with three fingers now, until he felt that Lance was ready. God knows he was.
"Lance, are you ok with this? It's gonna hurt you know. It'll be easier if you relax…"
Lance didn't answer back, only nodded and bit his lip. He felt Keith settling in on him and easing down…
Lance awoke early that morning to find Keith absent from the bed. He heard the shower running across the room and decided to investigate. He cracked the bathroom door and found in singularly difficult to see through all the steam.
"Keith?"
"In here dummy." came the taunting reply.
Lance walked over to the shower and poked at the curtain timidly. "What are you doing up already?"
The plastic barrier flew back suddenly and Keith pulled Lance into the shower with him. Lance shrieked in shock before Keith could stifle him with his hand.
"Are you crazy? Someone will hear you!"
Lance pulled away, angry at being caught so easily. "It's not my fault!"
Keith sank to the floor of the shower, pulling Lance down with him and blocking his next impending protest with his mouth. "Hush up for once will you?"
Lance leaned back against the other side of the shower obstinately, deliberately letting his legs sprawl apart farther than necessary. He grinned at the way Keith blatantly stared at him. He'd been hidden under the darkness of night before, but not now, and he liked the naughtiness of it.
"So why did you get up this early?" Lance repeated while splashing water into Keith's face.
"I thought you might want to talk before we had to go to breakfast."
"Talk?" Lance repeated. Yeah, that's what always happens after something like this right? After you sleep with your best friend who also happens to be your superior officer.
"Lance, I figured you'd either wake up this morning and really hate me for taking advantage of you, or you'd be so horny you'd want me to screw you all over again. I'm hoping that it's the latter…" Keith wandered off in his thoughts, blushing modestly as his body started reacting once more. Damn himself for being so attracted to Lance and so bad at disguising it.
"Keith, it's going to be hard to hide this from the others. Especially if I get a hard on every time you glance at me. I want to be with you but…" it was Lance's turn to leave an unfinished sentence. He looked at Keith and blinked the spraying water out of his eyes, hoping that Keith would say something corny and reassuring like he always did.
"Don't worry about the others. Who cares what they think?" Keith replied while leaning over Lance to kiss his nipple teasingly. Lanced mewled in delight. "Think we have time for a little play?"
Lance stared down at Keith who glanced up from sucking voraciously at his chest. "Why captain," he jested seductively, "are you sure you don't want to go and practice some with the lions?"
Keith grinned back at the implication. "That's not a bad idea, but right now I think I'd rather play it safe and take you here."
Lance smiled, imagining what Coran or Nanny would think about the two of them engaging in questionable acts in the cockpit of a sacred lion. He couldn't resist teasing Keith some more. "I knew you'd get all strict on me eventually. How much better could it get than making love in a giant robotic lion that we use to save the universe?"
Keith slid his hands between Lance's legs to shut him up. "Don't make me pull rank on you." he warned.
"Ok ok!" Lance started, sliding down under Keith to block the water from hitting his face, "Just don't think that you'll always be in charge here."
Keith leered wickedly then and scattered kisses around Lance's collarbones. "I'm counting on that, Lance. I'm counting on that."
End ;)