There, nestled against my pulse

Chapter 10

The next morning, Keith and Lance see the rest of the team off, waving from the safety of the Olkari's main tower as the castle rises into the sky.

When it's a mere spark in the distance, Lance turns to Keith and says, "You ready for some exciting times on patrol, cruising at the speed of a turtle in boring, galra-free space?"

Keith raises an eyebrow. "Whoa there. You sound like you want a fight."

"I'm surprised you don't," Lance retorts, crossing his arms and cocking his hips. "What happened to hotheaded Keith? Raging Keith? Sword-swinging, fire-breathing Keith?"

Keith eyes him, taking in the familiar, confrontational stance, and feels fondness tickle his throat. He hasn't seen this in a while. He wonders why he ever thought Lance was irritating like this, when it's clearly just cute, now. "Alright, what is it? You might as well spit it out."

Lance holds out for about five milliseconds before sagging back against the floor-to-ceiling window. He's almost pouting. "Look, last time I was on patrol duty with Pidge, I was bored ten minutes after we landed. There's nothing to do around here."

"I helped out with construction on my rotation with Shiro." Keith glances out the window at the workers milling around. "I mean, there's not really a lot of work, considering everything is practically tech magic—they were scrambling to find something for me to do last time. But we could do that, if you want."

"Keith. My buddy, my man, my partner, my dumb, dumb, samurai." Lance steps into Keith's space, clasping his shoulders and turning him so they're facing each other. He leans in, until they're nearly nose-to-nose. Keith's caught between wanting to close the space and judo-flipping Lance to the ground so he can run away. "We are not doing construction work for an entire day when the Olkari could do it all in a minute with their hand-wavey magic. Absolutely the fuck not."

"Al-alright, yeah okay, whatever you want," Keith stutters, feeling hot under his collar. He doesn't know where to look, gaze flicking from Lance's mouth and then jerking up to his eyes and then up to his hairline and back all over again. "H-how about. Um. I think Ryner said something about a waterfall? Somewhere down south of here? We—we could go check you—IT! We could check it out."

"A waterfall?" Lance leans back. Which is great, because Keith can breathe now. "There's one around here?"

Keith nods, trying to surreptitiously inch his way out of Lance's grip. He's unsuccessful. "Yeah, it's supposed to be really cool. Pretty. Stunning, whatever. Ryner said it has healing properties, too."

"Huh." Lance blinks. "Wait, are you saying...are you saying you're taking me to see a cool magic waterfall? Just like. Just the two of us?"

Keith gives Lance a confused look. "Yes? Unless you want to bring someone else along?"

Weirdly enough, this makes Lance let go of him and take five hurried steps back. He's wide-eyed and flushed from forehead to collarbone.

"You—" He crosses his arms. Uncrosses them and covers his mouth with both hands. Drags them up over his eyes and into his hair and then back down to cup his cheeks. He blows out a noisy breath. "Keith, buddy, just to clarify—"

A loud buzz emits from Keith's helmet, where it sits on the bench with the rest of Keith's space suit. He puts it on, sparing Lance a glance, who still looks like he's got sunstroke. "Yeah?"

"Just checking in with you two." It's Shiro. "You guys good down there?"

Keith rolls his eyes. "We're fine, dad."

"Yeah?" A note of teasing slips into Shiro's voice. "And you're patrolling, right, and not still standing in the tower staring into each other's eyes or something?"