Accidental Intentions

27 • Teamwork

Apparently Lance had not offered his assistance out of the kindness of his heart. The lanky bastard tired quickly and needed help pulling himself onto the walls.

After a few attempts of Keith hoisting Lance up the boys found it easier for Lance to help up the shorter, stronger boy who would in turn help pull up the taller, slighter one.

Keith was still pissed. And he hated touching Lance. A lot. And they had to touch. A lot.

The faster you do this the sooner you don't have to see his face, Keith told himself as he placed his foot in Lance's cupped palms. After pulling himself up, Keith turned and reached down for Lance's brown arms. Once Lance was up, Keith would drop and they would start again.

They were barely halfway when Lance requested a break. Keith rolled his eyes at the Blue Paladin, but secretly he was getting tried too. And sweaty. Keith decided to ditch the jacket. He could always get it later.

As he shed his outer layer, Keith felt Lance's eyes on him. Was his face that readable? Or could it be that Lance was checking him out?

"What?" Keith demanded aggressively.

"I was wondering when you were gonna take that off," Lance answered.

"Huh?" Lance waiting for him to take his clothes off?

"You always take your jacket off when you train," Lance explained.

Oh. Right.

Keith had been so flustered when he had faced against Lance to spar that he hadn't bothered to remove his jacket.

"Gah! Would it have been too hard to leave us with a bottle of water?" Lance complained as he eyed his water bottle laying outside the bounds of the maze.

"I don't think Shiro expected us to be hopping over walls. We were supposed to find a path through the maze together," Keith pointed out.

Lance wiggled his over-expressive eyebrows. "Beat the system!"

"I think the term you are looking for is fuck the police," Keith corrected.

But we are still working together, which is what he wanted, Keith reflected. But Lance didn't seem to mind as he was caught up in the thrill of finding that the easiest path wasn't always the conventional one. Just like water. Keith envied his flexibility.

Lance pulled the collar of his shirt up to wipe his face. Why was it so hot in here?

After a few more minutes the paladins resumed their wall scaling. But the more they climbed, the warmer they grew and the more they sweat. When they were about what Keith figured to be just 8 more walls, it happened that they had both grown so slick that Lance slipped out of his grasp and crashed onto the floor on his rear. Lance then fell back into his back dramatically and didn't move thereafter.

"You okay?" Keith questioned after the Blue Paladin made no attempt to get back on his feet.

"You look weird."

"Huh?"

"With the walls not being visible. You look like you're flying. But in like dumb positions. Pose for me! Do Voltron!"

"Get up and do it yourself!" Keith grumbled.

Lance shook his head and crossed his arms. "No way. Not after you dropped me like that."

"It's not like it was on purpose!"

Lance raised his stupid eyebrow at him.

"Lance?"

"Hmm?"

"Take off your shirt."

Lances eyes widened, as he self-consciously hugged his arms around himself. "What! No!"

"As a sweat rag, genius!" Keith did his best to look indifferent as he rolled his dark eyes. Yeah, he could have removed his own shirt, but he felt that Lance had already seen enough of his body. And, frankly, it wasn't fair. Not to mention the funny way Lance looked at him when he was removing his jacket.

Lance considered a moment before rising to his feet and doing as Keith suggested. As Lance raised the shirt over this head, Keith wobbled from his perch on the wall.

Oh shit.

Perhaps it would have been better if the he had removed his own dark tee, weird looks and all.