shining like the stars

71

"You might be comfortable going to sleep caked in two days worth of crud," Lance said, as Keith flopped onto his back on the bed. "But I'm from civilization, and I'm going to go take a shower."

"You're hardly even dirty," Keith said. "I can barely smell you."

Lance stared at Keith, mortified. "I'm not in heat, you're not in heat, you shouldn't be able to smell me at all."

Keith shrugged with one shoulder, leaning back on his arm as he propped himself up. "It's not like you smell bad," he offered, but that didn't placate Lance in the slightest.

"I'll take two showers," Lance mumbled to himself, hauling to his feet. He stared down at Keith. "You should shower too," he said, and Keith shook his head.

"What if an alert goes out while we're in the shower?" Keith said. "We'd have to scramble."

"What if an alert happens while we're sleeping?" Lance retorted. "It's the same thing. Besides, nothing will top the alarm going off when we were having sex." Keith didn't turn quite as pink as Lance expected, although he did smile a little, which was more important than the whole blushing thing, anyway.

"Go take your shower," Keith said. "Then ... come back here?" It was a request that made Lance pause, then smile at Keith.

"Not a fucking chance," he said, still smiling. Keith's face twisted, a delayed confusion crossing his features. He hadn't expected a rebuff like that. "I'm not taking my hot clean self and getting into your dirty sheets," Lance said. "I'm going back to my nice, clean sheets." Keith scowled at him, and Lance winked, holding up one finger to his mouth. "Which, perhaps you can join me there?"

"Perhaps you can choke on my dick," Keith muttered.

"All in good time," Lance said, and bounced out the door.

#

The showers were thankfully empty. Lance stood under the hot spray and closed his eyes, kept them closed as the water sluiced over him. The showers were where he went to think, something about the running water, the steam in the air, the scent of it — it all calmed his mind somehow, allowed him process, and let him put everything that had happened over the last week in some semblance of order.

His face upturned to the water flow, Lance pushed his hand back through his hair. The image of Keith with soft purple fur and vivid yellow eyes lingered. It sent a small shiver down his spine, he wasn't certain if it was revulsion or fascination but he better hurry up and categorize it quick, because it wasn't fair to Keith to leave him hanging like that.

Just another bump in the road that was Lance's attempt at a relationship. He really should know better, by now.

He took a step back from the spray and wiped his hand over his face, opening his eyes. Then he started, surprised, as he realized that he was no longer alone.

Shiro stood behind the divider between the two shower stalls, both of his arms hooked over the top of it and watching Lance with some fascination. "Shiro," Lance said, mildly scandalized but without any way to cover up so he cupped a hand over himself in some small paroxysm of modesty. "How long have you been there?"

"Long enough," Shiro said, clearly amused at Lance's attempt to cover up. "You were pretty intent on something, mind if I asked what it was?"

"It's a secret," Lance said, and put his back to the water. "I thought you were gonna stay up all night catching up with your buddy." He didn't mean the words to have a bitter edge to them, although he could taste its flavor now that they were out of his mouth.

"I thought Matt and Pidge could use some alone time," Shiro said. He brushed his right hand back through that short forelock of hair, and then sighed deeply. "How's Keith?"

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Lance asked, and Shiro winced, dropping his hand back over the lip of the divider. "Or did you say something you can't take back?"

"I didn't-" Shiro started to say, then stopped and sighed again. "I'll talk to him in the morning," he said finally. "Once everyone's had some rest. That'll help, I think."

"Yeah," Lance said. He hadn't moved from where he stood, water pounding against his back, hand cupped over himself, as if Shiro hadn't already seen him naked before. There was a strange pull in his body right now, and it was taking a lot of willpower to stay put.

Shiro rested his cheek on his arms, still draped over the divider. He was staring at Lance unabashedly, and Lance felt his cheeks color in. "Why are you staring at me like that?" Lance said finally, and Shiro reacted to his words, lifting his head again and blinking owlishly.

"Because I like looking at you," Shiro said, and Lance went from blushing to beet red in just as many syllables. He held out his hand, his left one, and Lance moved toward him without thinking about it, stepping into his range, his space .... and then relaxing against the pressure of Shiro flattening his hand on Lance's back, urging him gently and firmly to cross that final distance, pressing against the divider and tilting his head and letting Shiro kiss him.

Kissing Shiro was intoxicating in its own right. Lance's hand found Shiro's skin warm and dry, he hadn't turned on the shower in his stall yet; and Lance brought up his other hand to hold Shiro's head still, to frame his face.

When they parted, finally, Lance was breathing in small, short pants, his mouth tingling. "Shiro," he said, dazed.

Shiro carefully ran his fingers up the bumps of Lance's spine. "I want to suck you," Shiro said, and Lance pulled back just a bit. He knew he could break the grip of Shiro's hands with a little effort, but despite the hitch in his throat Lance wanted that. Shiro tilted his head in toward Lance and Lance twisted a little, allowed Shiro access to kiss his neck. "You smell like Keith," Shiro murmured, but didn't stop kissing him.

"I know," Lance said, pressing his weight into the divider now.

"Can I?" Shiro asked, barely lifting his mouth. "I want to taste you again, Lance..."

Lance whimpered and couldn't deny him.

#

Shiro didn't bother to turn off the water. Lance had half a thought about water conservation, then another partial thought about the recirculation system in the ship, and then Shiro's tongue was doing something completely obscene and the thoughts scattered like starlight through cracked glass.

He came in Shiro's mouth, hot and sticky and watched bewildered as Shiro swallowed it all down and then licked his fingers clean. They were in the showers, he didn't have to do that! Shiro's smirk was wicked and disarming and Lance was lost in it. "More?" he asked breathlessly, Shiro's hand on his dick still, and watched as Shiro's eyes traveled up his body and settled on his face.

"Only if you want to," Shiro said, stroking him slowly. Lance shuddered at the way Shiro's touch lit up all his nerves and he leaned back against the divider, barely able to stay upright.

Lance covered his mouth with one hand and grinned, shakily. "Yeah," he said with no hesitation. "I definitely want to."