klancepride with cal

day 3- first kiss

"Look, you stay on one side of the pool, and I'll stay on the other. And we'll be far, far away from each other."

Lance nodded at Keith's request, looking awkwardly at the floor. They were standing on opposite sides of the elevator that led up to the Castle of Lion's top floor, where they'd heard there was a pool.

"Very far," Keith added.

Lance had wanted to go swimming as his whole body ached from the intense training Allura and Coran had been ordering the Paladins to go through to prep for battle. But Lance had never been extraordinarily strong and was actually rather thin and lithe compared to Keith and Hunk.

It wasn't like he wanted to be big and buff, but being thrown to the floor again and again by the stronger robot opponent in the training sim definitely didn't do wonders for his confidence or the soreness of his muscles.

Rolling his shoulders, he and Keith waited in silence for the elevator to rise. After a few more seconds, it halted. Except, instead of the doors opening, all the lights in the elevator promptly shut off, leaving the two Paladins in complete darkness.

"Uh, Keith? What just happened?" Lance asked nervously. Keith groaned and pulled out the small tablet that all the Paladins were given to communicate with each other. He pressed a few buttons on the dimly illuminated screen, then waited.

"What's up, Keith?" Shiro's voice asked nonchalantly from the tablet.

"I think the elevator's broken," Keith replied dully, sounding annoyed.

Shiro sighed. "Maybe Coran shut the power off? He did say that he needed to shut off the online systems in order to... fix the... the wormhole thing. Sit tight, I'm sure he'll be finished in a bit."

Lance wanted to smack his head off the wall- really?

"I'm with Lance. I don't want to be stuck with him for the next hour in an elevator," Keith complained loudly.

"Maybe try climbing the shaft?" Lance stifled a giggle, aggressively shoving his mind out of the gutter.

"Okay, fine," Keith responded, sounding very much like an angsty teen- oh wait, he was an angsty teen. He turned off the transmission and the elevator was dark and silent again.

Setting to work, both began to reach up and press the panels on the ceiling of the elevator, trying to find the hatch that would allow them to get up into the shaft of the elevator. Lance was the one to eventually find it and he was beginning to grow a hunch that Keith was too short to touch the ceiling at all and that he'd just been faking it.

Nevertheless, Lance hoisted himself (and then cautiously helped Keith) up on top of the elevator. The two stared up the long vertical passageway loathingly. "How the hell...?" Keith muttered.

Lance suddenly had an idea (which Keith would probably hate). Eyes fixed on the winding space above them, he asked Keith, "Have you ever seen The Emperor's New Groove?"

"The what?" Keith asked irritably.

"You know, the kids' movie? The llama? Cuzco?"

Keith shook his head. Lance sighed. "Just follow my lead." He promptly stood back-to-back with Keith, who let out a muffled grunt of surprise, looped elbows with him, and then situated them on the center of the elevator.

"On my count, we're gonna start walking up the walls."

"You're insane."

"You got any other ideas?"