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kickstillkickin · 4 years

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Klance Month 2020 Day 1 - Royalty

"You have to go," Shiro insisted. "You're the Prince of Marmora."

Keith continued hacking at the dummy, unbothered. "If I'm a prince, how can anyone make me do anything?"

"We are the hosting country!" Shiro cried out. "The ball will take place in our very own castle, and you can't be bothered to attend?"

"That's correct," Keith shot back, effectively ending the conversation.

The guard ran his fingers through his hair. He'd all but assured the queen he could get her wayward son to attend in her place. If only he could turn back time to that very moment and tell himself the inevitable truth: no one but his mother could get the prince to do anything he didn't want to do.

Unless...? A stray thought crossed his mind. "Your Highness, I have a proposition for you."

"Shiro, I'm not-"

"Best me in a duel," Shiro challenged. The hesitation in the prince's features gave him the courage to push forward. "If you can best me in a duel, I'll drop it."

A third party might describe Keith's answering grin as scary. "Deal."

"You haven't even heard the full terms," Shiro chided.

"Don't need to," Keith scoffed. "You said you'd leave me alone after I win."

Shiro glared at him half-heartedly. "If you win. If I win, you attend the ball and I don't hear another complaint until after it's over."

"Thorough," Keith quipped.

"I've learned what happens when I'm not," Shiro shot back with some meaning.

The prince shrugged. "I won't apologize for my success in dodging my princely responsibilities."

"Heaven knows I wasn't asking you to," Shiro muttered. "Shake on it?"

"Thorough," Keith repeated a bit more wryly, grasping his friends hand. "Here you are, my good sir." He tossed a wooden sword to Shiro.

The guard nodded his thanks and took a fighting stance. He understood where Keith's confidence came from. As they struck and parried, trading ground and feeling each other out, Shiro recalled the great number of times he'd been knocked on his ass while sparring with the prince. He was getting better every day.

But Shiro had been around a little bit longer, and had the good sense to fear the consequences brought about by defying Queen Krolia. He stumbled and cried out, holding on to his arm.

"Shiro? Shiro!" Keith dropped his sword and ran to his side, kneeling down next him. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Shiro sprang to his feet, putting a knee in Keith's chest and holding the wooden sword to his throat. "Looks like I win. You have a ball to get ready for."

"You bas-"

"Ah, ah, ah," Shiro scolded as he stood and dusted himself off. "We shook on it. I recommend running a bath. You look awfully roughed up."

Keith gave up his protests before he could voice any of them. His bodyguard had quite thoroughly put him in his place. No amount of loopholes and technicalities could get him out of this one. He let his head fall to the ground and stared up at the sky. This was going to be a long night.

. . .

The Marmoran prince made his appearance several hours and one bath later. He emerged from his chambers with a permanent grimace. At the sight of his personal guard waiting for him in the corridor, he turned around in the doorway.

"Oh, don't be like that," Shiro called after him. "Between you and your mother," he said with a shrug, "sorry. Your mother's far more frightening."

"Believe me, I'll be having a few choice words with her the moment she returns," the prince muttered, stalking down the hall.

Shiro rolled his eyes as he kept paced with him. "You look handsome, by the way."

"I feel ridiculous," Keith scoffed. "These clothes are ridiculous. This ball is ridiculous."

"Do I need to lend you a dictionary?"

Keith glared at him. "What's it even for? So the royals can congratulate themselves for being great royals? Believe me, it's not that hard of a job."

"No. The ball is in celebration of our continued good relationship with Altea," Shiro explained. "Most Alteans expected the treaty to fall apart by now. We're proving them wrong."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?"

The guard shrugged again. "You weren't planning on attending. Why would it have mattered?"

"I would have planned on it if you had just-" Keith stopped walking. "Then what was that in the courtyard? Challenging me to a duel?" He demanded.

Shiro offered the world's most genuine smile. "I knew you'd be going no matter what. How I got you to realize that was just for me."

"I should fire you," Keith threatened.

"You've only been threatening me with that since you were eight," Shiro replied, an edge of sarcasm in his voice. "Now, if we don't want to be late, I recommend we keep moving, your highness."

Keith chose to save what little face he had left by storming off without so much as a word. Shaking his head, Shiro followed closely behind. "For politic's sake, you should probably spend a few minutes with Altea's crown princess, Allura."

"Whatever. You can point her out to me after I've had a glass of wine," Keith sighed. "You've tricked me into coming to this blasted ball. I'll play along with your politics. Can I at least sneak in without being announced?"

Shiro wished he could let him have just that one. "If we weren't the hosting country. . . Sorry, Keith."

"No, it's fine," the prince muttered. "Did you really think I expected you to say yes?"

The pair came to a stop outside the double doors leading into the ballroom. "Announcing Crown Prince of Marmora Keith, and his personal guard Takashi Shirogane," Shiro informed the attendant.

The doors opened and Keith cast his gaze around the room. A sea of people--strangers--stood before him. In the narrow space between his entrance and his being announced, he laid eyes on a sight that took his breath away. An Altean, draped in the finest silks, had linked hands with a young girl. The two of them spun to the beat of the music. Keith swore he could hear their laughter from where he was standing. His warm brown skin seemed like it was breathing life into the crowd. As if his obvious joy was infectious.

Two loud knocks happened somewhere in the back of his mind. Some part of him acknowledged them as drawing attention to his entrance. But they were muffled. Unimportant. The Altean and his dance partner paused and looked up. Even across the dance floor, Keith could see the vastness of the ocean, the blueness of the sky sitting in his eyes. He knew they were announcing his name.

For the first time that day, Keith cared what he looked like. His hair was braided neatly down his back. His crown sat carefully atop his head. His clothes were the simplest formalwear he owned. Dark trousers and shirt under a blood red tunic. He couldn't have looked less like a prince.

Shiro subtly cleared his throat, and reality came crashing down upon him. He was supposed to bow as a greeting to the guests. Keith bowed and wondered if he was supposed to say a few words as well. He looked over the crowd again, but he'd lost the Altean. Another quiet cough and he started walking. A glance over his shoulder told him that had not been the right thing to do. Keith would have to explain at a later time that, tongue-tied as he was on top of his aversion to public speaking, this was the correct course of action.

The music resumed and the ballroom returned to its normal volume. Galran nobles and visiting Alteans nodded their respect as he walked by. Keith suddenly realized several moments too late that his guard had been speaking. "What?”

"Is something the matter with you?" Shiro whispered fiercely. "I've never seen you like this."

"I'm just- I-" Keith tried and failed to find the beginning of a sentence.

Shiro could have strangled him. "We walk into the ballroom and the moment you lay eyes on the Altean royalty, you turn into a political nightmare."

"There's more than one Altean royal attending?" Keith asked.

"What does that matter? What's going on with you, Keith?"

As he tried to find the words to explain, his eyes wandered. There! Warmth and laughter radiated from the stranger. He truly was captivating. "Who is that?"

Shiro had to follow his gaze. "That is the second Prince of Altea, Lance. His older sister, Crown Princess Allura is just next to him."

"Lance," Keith repeated.

All the color drained from Shiro's face. "My God, you're lovestruck."

"What?"

Letting out a sigh, Shiro took a wine glass from a passing tray. "Just go talk to him. I'll take care of politics tonight."

"Talk to him?" Keith repeated, snapping out of his daze. "Are you insane?"

Shiro placed his empty glass on another tray. "Probably," he said, linking arms with the prince and pulling him toward the Alteans. "Let's go."

"Princess Allura, Prince Lance, may I say what a pleasure it is to have Your Highnesses with us in Marmora," Shiro introduced as he approached. He elbowed Keith in the side.

"Pleasure," Keith mumbled, altogether too focused on his shoes. He felt his ears warm under the gaze of this mysterious Prince Lance.

Allura laughed. "Why, the pleasure is all ours. Please, don't bother with stuffy titles. This is a ball to celebrate our friendship, after all."

"Quite right," Shiro agreed with a smile. The music slowed, and he saw his chance. "Prin- Allura, would you do me the honor of a dance?"

"Of course!"

The two of them moved toward the dance floor. Keith tried to keep his breathing even and not make a complete fool of himself.

"How about you?"

Keith looked up and realized it had been Lance to ask the question. His voice sounded like warm honey. "What?"

"Would you like to dance?" Lance inquired, holding his hand out.

"Yes," was the only word Keith trusted himself to say.

Lance led him toward the dance floor. A gently hand appeared on his waist. Without meaning to, Keith flinched. "Sorry. Do you mind if I lead?"

"Probably a good idea," he admitted. "I'm not much of a dancer."

"You're a prince," Lance told him, cocking his head to the side. "What kind of prince doesn't know how to dance?"

They swayed to the music, waltzing across the floor. "I never said I don't know how."

"Just that you aren't very good?" Lance finished. The humor in his tone was obvious. It sparkled in a way that had Keith enraptured.

"You have the ocean in your eyes," Keith found himself saying. The words spilled out of his mouth without so much as a second thought. He regretted them the moment he said them.

Lance laughed, spinning Keith out. "And you have the stars in yours," he said when his hand returned to his waist. "Was that a friendly compliment or are you flirting?"

"I'm attempting to," Keith replied. "Is it working?"

"It's not not working," the other prince said with a wink. "You could stand to talk a bit more."

Keith racked his brain for interesting conversational topics. Not only did he draw several blanks, he was faced with the stark realization that he does not talk to nearly enough people to have any solid knowledge on the subject. Lance was waiting for him to say something. He panicked.

"I can throw knives blindfolded."

Lance blinked a few times. "Okay, not what I was expecting, but also I don't believe you."

"I can too!" Keith insisted. The song ended. Dancers bowed to their partners. Keith and Lance glared. "If you really don't believe me, I'll prove it to you."

"I'd very much like to see it, since I don't think you can," Lance countered, following him out of the ballroom.

The pair of princes marched down to the armory, unnerving the soldier stationed there, and emerged on the practice field. Knives and blindfold in hand, Keith brought Lance over to the targets. He rightly proved the bratty Altean prince wrong over and over again, all the while Lance insisted that it shouldn't be possible. Each brought up personal feats which qualified them in their own opinions. Keith was right because he'd been training since he was a child. Lance was right because he could actually dance.

They bickered, and they talked, and when a petty fake-argument got out of hand they wrestled a bit. It was certainly a fake argument because both of them laughed as they rolled around in the grass. And, when the night was over, they said their farewells. Keith offered a proper farewell to Princess Allura (as proper a farewell as a prince could manage, with an off-kilter crown and grass stains on his tunic) and a lingering look to her younger brother.

Keith went to bed to bed that night feeling lighter than he ever had in his life.

. . .

The next morning at breakfast, Shiro gave the young prince a knowing look. Keith, however, was so unbothered that he was actually smiling. "I assume things went well last night," he commented.

Keith let out a sigh, completely ignoring his breakfast. "I have a diplomatic mission to Altea in a few weeks. He promised to write."

"So I guess it was a good thing that you attended the ball," Shiro went on, a rare self-satisfying smirk on his face.

"Shame I didn't end up staying that long," Keith replied as he stirred his eggs around his plate.

Shiro shook his head. "Yes. It's a real shame."

For the first time in his career as Keith's personal guard, he actually had good news to report to Queen Krolia. The prince hadn't completely massacred his appearance at the ball, and Shiro had covered for him well enough after he'd disappeared. But the real good news was in his own unfounded fears. The Alteans were only a little insulted, and Keith had all but ensured their continued alliance for years to come.

Good news, indeed.

#KlanceAUMonth #klance #keith kogane #lance mcclain #kick #yes my writing is terrible #what about it #my writing

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bluethisisforyou · 6 years

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Klance, 22 🌹 i'd lOVE THAT 😍

22. “I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.”

Lance didn’t feel himself slipping. In fact, he had toned down the longing glances and the smiles. At least, he thought he had. Looking in the mirror one morning, he’d decided to limit himself to two glances a day, maybe three if he’d thought he deserved it.

“That’s a stupid plan.” Pidge said, half under some machine. “Lance, not to be mean, but that’s grade A idiotic.”

“He’s right, you know?” Hunk sat off to the right at the table, fiddling with some new alien technology that glowed a terrifying shade of red. “Why don’t you, I don’t know, say something?”

“Ok, first off, please be careful with whatever you’re doing because that looks ominous. Second, there is no way in hell I’m saying anything. That’s how he finds out.”

“So wait for him to notice or die first.” Pidge rolled out from under. “What a way to live.”

“I mean, it’s all about the power of wishful thinking.”

“Lance, I hate to be the one to do this,” Hunk looked up, “but we’re in the middle of war. In space. We might all have a time limit, here.” He set the tech aside. The thrumming noise it was giving off left them in complete silence. “If anything, you might really-”

“Ok, thanks, Hunk, for that.” Lance rubbed the inside of his arm and the quiet enveloped them all. After a pinch to his arm, Lance looked off into the distance at the high castle walls. “I just, and then what? Say I say something. Then I die…or he dies…I mean,” he smiled sadly, “then what’s the point?”

“It might be a chance for you to be happy.” Pidge moved their head so they made eye contact with Lance. “I think that’s what this life is for, to be happy. You won’t know unless you try and to die not knowing is something you’re gonna regret if there’s an afterlife.” Lance’s eyes widened. “You know, if ghosts exist in space.”

In space.

Lance nodded at each of his friends. Wordless, he turned tail and didn’t think about where he was.

Instead, he thought about where he was not.

He wasn’t in the backyard where the grass usually got long because he’d rather help his little sister look for ladybugs rather than kick them out of their home. He wasn’t five minutes from the ocean, the salty breezes acting as good night kisses in all their secondary nature. He wasn’t where the sky faded and the lights got strung up for parties and the food was better than anything in the world. He stuck his hands in his pockets and continued walking.

He noticed the streaks on the castle floor, thinking back to when he would race the lights in the convenience store and how his older sister would have to scoop him up for their mother.

He laughed, gently, as the tears began to prick at the corners of his eyes.

It just-

“Hey.” The voice was soft as Lance looked up. “Lance.” Keith stood there, just leaving his room.

Lance gently bit his tongue before speaking. “Hi.” There was pause. “Where are you-”

“What are you-”

They both stopped, looked at one another- really looked.

“Hey, are you okay?” Keith managed before Lance said something that would’ve given everything away. “You can tell me, if you want to.” Keith offered a smile smile before it faded. “But only if you’re comfortable.”

“I, uh, just feeling. Feeling homesick.” Lance supplied a smile. “Y’know, the usual.”

“Listen, I was going to go up to the observation deck to clear my head.” Keith looked off to the side.

“Oh, yeah, don’t let me-”

“Come with me?” Keith looked back, a slight eyebrow raised.

“Keep you,” Lance finished.

“What do you say?”

“Sounds,” Lance thought about everything, “sounds good.”

“Great.” Keith smiled and Lance took another quiet look at Keith.

That was allowed glance number two.

Lance walked alongside Keith quietly until they got there. He let all the memories continue to pile like blocks, even when they sat down on the steps to see the sky a bruised purple. He let his family’s voices run around in his head, telling him to do simple chores, to help do this, that, and to come back home.

Determined to get it all out of his head, he started to look over at Keith, then stopped. Looking ahead at the stars, he went, “So, what’s going on with you? Why are you clearing your head?”

“Well, firstly I’m the black paladin now, so that’s a lot.” Keith looked over at Lance slightly. “It’s not bad, since you kind of helped me out, you know?” He hugged his knees to chest. “It’s a lot, having to be the head. I mean, I know how Shiro dealt with it but I’m just…a boy from the desert.”

Lance didn’t dare look over.

“Yeah, well, I’m just a boy from Cuba, Keith. We’re all capable of leading but the black lion chose you. You should be honored.” Lance finally allowed himself a glance to see Keith looking right at him. “I mean, you were pretty good at the Garrison until you got kicked out.”

“God, how long ago was that,” Keith muttered, ending in a smile. “I remember everything, the fights, the assholes, and Shiro. Man, that place sucked.” He paused as he looked out at the stars, slowly smiled, and then looked back at Lance. “I remember you used to sneak glances at me back then, too.”

Lance felt his heart skip three consecutive beats. “What?”

“I’ve seen the way you look at me when you think I don’t notice.” Keith let go of his legs and extended them.

All the voices in Lance’s head vanished because they’d know never know what to say.

“What-what do you mean?” Lance let himself take another good look. “Just how…do I look at you?”

“Like I’m the only one in the room.” Keith played with his hands on his lap. “Like you’d be heartbroken if I left. Like when I left.” He looked over, offering a small smile. Lance kept his eyes on Keith, watching his fresh new rule vanish into thin air. “I don’t, I don’t understand.”

“Don’t understand what?”

“Why you look at me like that.” He let his hands separate slightly. “I know why I look at you like that but that’s-”

“You what?”

“You know you’ve been looking less lately?” Keith placed his hands on the floor. “That’s when I’ve been looking more. I just, uh, I’m not wrong, am I?” Doubt crossed his eyes as he looked back at Lance. “Am I?”

Lance took a quiet deep breath. “You’re not.” He smiled a small smile. Then he lost it. “What makes it so hard to understand why I look at you the way I do?” He sat still, waiting, glancing out of the corner of his eye.

Keith slightly moved his jaw around with one hand. He dropped it and let it rest on his leg. “Well, I was alone for most of my life. It got kind of rough until all of you came along and we found Shiro. I just, I just didn’t spend a lot of time with other people because it was getting easier to keep my distance. In fact, getting kicked out was what my body had been wanting.

“It’s strange, feeling that kind of craving unconsciously. But, it’s amazing when that want surfaces. Like, I suppose, how it feels for the both of us. But,” he hesitated, “I don’t feel like I’m worth it-”

“Neither do I.”

“Lance,” Keith looked over at him, ready to argue.

Lance felt Pidge’s words from earlier finally sink in.

“But you make me happy, underneath it all. And, well, I’d like to be happy and it’d all be better together, wouldn’t it?” Lance finally smiled a full smile. “We won’t know what that’s like if we both deny it. We won’t know until we try, right?” He felt the butterflies in his stomach stir and quiet all at once. “Right?”

“Yeah,” Keith breathed, the world almost lost to the stars outside. “You’re right.”

Taking another deep breath, Lance stood up and walked over to where Keith was. He held out his hand. “What do you say? Want to try? Together?”

“Sounds good.” Keith took it and Lance pulled him up. They stood there together, close. Hearing each other’s breathing that close, Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and pulled him close. He squeezed tight then began to slip away.

Lance caught him. “Hey, you’re good.”

“Sorry, I just didn’t know what to do.” Keith smoothed out his hands on Lance’s back.

“No, you’re…you’re good.” He took a deep breath and smiled. “You feel good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Lance tightened his hold. “You feel like home.”

Keith responded by holding on a little tighter. “Really?”

“Yeah.”

After they broke off of one another, Lance took a step back to get a good look at Keith. It was as though starlight had managed to make its way into the palace.

“What is it?” Keith cocked his head.

“I hope one day you understand why I look at you the way I do.” Lance said gently.

“If only you do the same for me.” Keith smiled, honeyed and quiet.

“I can try.” Lance breathed and it was the best he could do. He smiled in return as Keith echoed his words.

It was the best they could do, for now.

Walking off side by side, they both took numerous glances at one another.

Smiling, they knew this space was theirs.

It was just a matter of growing into it.

Trying to, anyways and it was enough.

Always would be.

#I think this is longest of this batch @ 1625 words #I really loved this prompt #also I tried adding more around the dialogue and wow that did wonders #hope you like it #asks #uroskana #mini fic #klance #klance fic #klance fanfic #klance fanfiction #voltron #voltron legendary defender

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