Thread by @Astro_Latte

Happy New Year! Here's New Year’s Klance thread where Lance has a plane to get a kiss at midnight, and Keith is just trying to keep his crush on Lance a secret until he dies. ❤️✨💙

The thing about Lance that people underestimate and that while he’s known as Loverboy Lance across the universe (thank you, Voltron Show!), he’s never been able to complete his favorite New Year’s tradition.

Sure, he’s don a glitzy outfit, reflect on the past and ponder future resolutions. He’s popped champagne and thrown confetti (usually at one of his siblings, and it ended in a confetti war.) All were fun, but none were his favorite.

No, for Loverboy Lance, there’s ONE tradition he’s wanted to complete more than anything else. He wanted to kiss someone at the stroke of midnight.

And no, not a mom kiss on the cheek or a pet lick on the face. Lance wants the real deal. He wants the stars in his eyes, heart in his throat, foot-popping, passionate over the wall homerun kiss. We're talking movie kiss. A new year’s kiss.

Which should be easy, right? Who wouldn’t want to kiss Lance? Lance McClain, Lance. The former Blue-to-Red Paladin, Lance. Dude who liberated the Earth from Sendak, Lance. Half the wings of Voltron, Lance. He’s kind of a big deal, right?

See, the thing about a movie kiss is that it needs to be A Big Deal. You can’t get A Big Deal Kiss pulling in any lucky lady (...or lad - Lance is exploring this, don’t make a big deal of out it) off the teleduv. Nope. This needs intention. This needs a target. This needs a plan.

At least, this is what he told Pidge when he tried to recruit her into his Get Kissed Quick scheme. She stared at him like he grew another head. “Lance...”
“Yes, Pidge?”
“If you want my help to get Allura to kiss your big mouth, you can just ask me. I didn’t need the speech.”

Lance gasps, leaning back in his chair at the Garrison cafeteria. He’s interrupted where Pidge and Hunk were fiddling with a Fiber mechanic or tinking with a Transreality motor. He doesn’t know the difference. “Pidge! I didn’t say I wanted to kiss Allura!”
“You didn’t have to.”

Hunk sighs. “Look, we get that Allura is like…”
“His obsession?” Pidge offers. Lance pinches her arm. “Ow!”
“...your big crush,” Hunk settles, always diplomatic. “But don’t you think planning it around her is a bit..”
“Obsessive?” Pidge adds and Lance pinches harder. “OW! STOP!”

“I’m not obsessive, it's just her first New Years Eve. It should be special!”
“We’ve def celebrated the end of year on the castleship,” Pidge says, pointing her screwdriver at Lance. “Remember when Coran made us drink that nuvil that tasted like sweat?”
Hunk shudders. “Now I do."

He’s about to argue when Keith walks up to their table, tray in hand. He uncomfortably looks between them all, which is typical Keith. “Uh...can I sit here?”
Lance leans his chin on his fist. “Depends. Do you know the secret phrase?”
“Lance,” Hunk whines and Keith rolls his eyes.

“Forget it,” Keith groans, turning away until Lance grabs his uniform.
“I’m just kidding, man. C’mere.” He tugs Keith until he stumbles back into the empty chair. His tray of food almost falls, but somehow he catches it with his ninja skills.
It’s cool, but Lance won’t say that.

Lance snatches a french fry from Keith’s plate, and he glares. Lance sticks his tongue at him. Their standoff lasts for only a second more before Keith rolls his eyes again and lets Lance take two more fries. It’s one of the benefits of being his number two. Free food.

“What are you guys talking about?” Keith asks, eyes resting on the machines on the table. “Uh…is it work stuff?”
“If only,” Pidge whines, leaning over to steal one of Keith’s fries. He moves his plate away. “Seriously?”
“Get your own. I’m hungry.”
“But you let Lance have some!”

“Because I’m Keith’s favorite~” Lance teases, leaning his head on Keith’s shoulder. “Even though he doesn’t want to be stuck with me for eternity.”
Keith groans. “Will you let that go?”
“Not until you say something as nice about me as I did about you.”
Keith snorts. “Fat chance.”

a plan* ugh....we tried.

Pidge and Hunk exchange A LOOK before going back to their machines. Lance’s eyes narrow.
“What was that look?” He asks.
Hunk pretends to be surprised. “There wasn’t a look.”
“You looked a certain look to Pidge. I saw you look it.”
Pidge shakes her head. “We looked no such look.”

“Why don’t you tell Keith about your New Year's plan,” Hunk offers, most likely to keep him off the scent of whatever The Look was about. “Maybe he can help with it?”
Keith’s eyebrows rise. “Help with what?”
“Ugh, nevermind. You’re, like, the last person who’d help me with this.”

“With what?” Keith repeats, annoyed. “How can I say no if you don’t tell me what I won’t help you with?”
Lance sighs. “Fine! I’m trying to find someone to kiss when the clock strikes midnight.”
“Is that all?”
“No,” Pidge interrupts. “He wants to kiss Alluraaaa.”
“Pidge!!”

“Oh…” is all Keith says, picking up one of his fries and dipping it in ketchup. “That’s it?”
“I mean...” Lance tries before he stops himself. Why is he trying to find an excuse for Keith? Since when does he care what Keith thinks? Keith sucks. “Yeah, what of it?”
Keith shrugs.

“Isn’t your family having a party tonight?” Hunk asks, suddenly full of ideas
“Yeah.”
“Then invite Allura. Case closed.” Keith says, “See? I can help.”
Pidge snorts. “Why do you sound so hurt then?”
He slaps Pidge’s hand away from his fries without even looking at her. Ninja.

Lance pouts, knowing that it's probably the easiest course of action. Everyone else on the team was already invited. He just needs to get the courage to ask Allura to come too.

He gets his chance when Keith and him are walking to one of the briefing rooms. They pass Allura and Romelle, who are both sitting on a bench speaking softly. Most likely about the Altean pilot Sam Holt found in the mech.

"There's Allura," Keith says, literally pointing to her like they're at a safari. "Go do your thing."
"What thing?"
"I dunno whatever Lance Thing you do to get girls to like you."
"Like?"
"The finger thing and eyebrow thing!" Keith groans, exasperated. "The Lance Thing!"

"I dunno, I may need a visual aid," Lance teases because making fun of Keith always makes him feel better.
Keith scowls. "Talk to her or I will."
"Are you serious?" Lance can't finish his sentence because Keith is already marching down the hall. "Keith, no! Bad Black Paladin!"

Keith ignores him and Lance cups his hands at his mouth and hisses. "Keith Yorak Kogane, get back here right now!"
Keith stops halfway across the hall, glaring at Lance.
"Yeah! Your mom told me your weird alien middle name! Now get back here before….and you're ignoring me."

Keith stops at their bench and Lance’s soul leaves his body. In a panicked sprint, he rushes over in time to hear, "...party at his parents. We're all going and you should too." "New years?" Allura turns to Lance. He wants to faint. "But there's a lot going on with the Altean...”

Nervous laughter bubbles out of Lance like shaken champagne. "Right! Totally! Didn't mean to bother-" Lance stops when he feels Keith's hand on his arm. He looks up to see Keith's expression soften. He hears his heartbeat in his ears.

"Look, I know you're worried, but there isn't much we can do until she wakes up and when that happens we'll know. It's been a tough few weeks...it may be good to get out and be together. It could be the last time before..."

Lance's stomach swoops. He tells himself it's because the idea of going back into battle is scary, but really….

"Until something comes around that tries to kill you?" Romelle offers, looking at them with a shrug. "Sorry, that's just the pattern I've seen."
Allura sighs, resting her chin in her hand with a small smile. "Okay...I'll be there. It should be fun to be with everyone, right?"

Lance perks up, “Right! Cool! I’ll send you the address and see you then? Bye!” Lance is so excited he doesn’t even feel Keith drag him away by the elbow. It may be a trick of the light, but Lance swears he sees a pink flush high on Keith's cheekbones. It makes his chest tighten.

Keith heads to the farm with Lance later that day. It’s surprisingly comfortable riding with him, the conversion comes easy. It’s one of the things that’s changed since they returned to Earth. Lance and Keith hang out - and it’s easy? Weird, right?

Not only that, but Keith hangs out at Lance’s house a lot - like, A LOT. When they were newly released from the hospital, they needed to build back strength. His head injury meant Keith couldn’t hit the training deck but was more than capable of helping Lance around the ranch.

The thing is, while the conversation was easy on their way to the ranch, once they were setting up for the party, Keith became strangely quiet. Even when Lance pops a balloon in his ear, all Keith did was glare and walk away. It's...irritating. Lance can't stop thinking about it.

Lance knows it shouldn’t bother him, it does in a weird way. Like a bee buzzing in his head. He should be excited because Allura is coming over! He has a shot! But now Keith is being all emo and it’s bugging him, ok? Keith hasn’t been this emo in a long time. Sue him for caring!

Lance lets it go and the party starts as planned. As promised, all of Team Voltron comes over, including Shiro and Adam who Veronica kidnapped from Garrison HQ. “Iverson has them working overtime.” But one look at them and it's clearly DEFINITELY an excuse for Other Activities.

An hour before midnight, Lance manages to find Allura and Romelle in the kitchen as Rachel walks her through some of the vegetables they grow on Earth. She’s just finished poking a radish when Romelle notices Lance. “Hello, Pointy-chin! Having fun?”

“Yeah, are you two?” he asks, and Allura turns from Rachel with a small smile. “We are. Thank you for the invitation.”
“Sure. Um, I was wondering...do you want to get some air with me?”
Romelle and Rachel look between Lance and Allura. He wishes the floor could eat him alive.

Allura’s smile brightens. “Of course, Lance!” She follows him outside and they take a seat on the steps of the front porch. Her hair shimmers in the moonlight and Lance’s stomach sours with nerves. One glance at his watch and he sees there are only 45 minutes until midnight.

“Thank you again for the invitation, Lance,” Allura says looking up at the sky. “It seems that this is a holiday meant for celebration. There’s a special optimism that Earthlings have that’s admirable. I wish to feel a bit of that because the future is...so uncertain.”

Lance glances down at his hands. “I think everyone is scared of the unknown, but the good thing about a new year is that we have another chance to be better. To learn from our mistakes and make decisions that are better for us...figure out what makes us happy.”
“Or...who?”
"Who?"

Lance’s cheeks burn and he turns to meet Allura’s gaze. Her eyes sparkle with a knowing smile.
“Uh...I mean...I guess...so….” he stammers. His watch buzzes on his wrist. It’s 30 minutes to midnight. Allura laughs softly, standing to her feet and wiping the dust from her skirt.

“Thanks for including me tonight,” she says, and he sees the first genuine smile on her face in he can’t remember how long. “Though I’ve seen your eyes following someone else tonight.”
Lance swears his heart is going to beat out of his chest. “Do you mean...K-Keith?!”
She winks.

“It seems that there’s someone else waiting for you,” she says, tilting her head to the side.
Lance turns and sees Keith sitting on the porch swing, beer in hand, looking up at the stars. Allura squeezes his shoulder and goes back inside. Lance lets his feelings settle.

He realizes not for the first time that...Allura is right. He thinks back to every laugh they shared on the farm, food he’s stolen from Keith’s plate, and moments where he’s felt the most dire where Keith's presence is enough to ground him.
Oh...duh. Keith.
Of course it’s Keith.

Lance makes his way across the porch. “Is this seat taken?”
Keith glances up, his eyebrows raise when he notices Lance. “Uh...no?”
Lance drops to his side on the swing, and his nerves calm. It’s the most comfortable he’s been all night.
Lance’s watch vibrates again. 10 minutes.

“So...how’d it go with Allura?”
“Great, we’re gonna go elope tomorrow.”
Keith snorts. “That bad, huh?”
“Not really. More like she wasn’t the person I should’ve been with tonight.”
Keith blinks and it’s clear that he gets where Lance is going.
Lance hears the countdown start.

10...
“You’re kind,” Keith blurts with zero build-up.
9...
Lance blinks. "Thanks?”
8...7...6...
“No, I mean the nice thing about you is that you’re kind. And funny. Even when you’re annoying. You’re also smart."
5...
“And I think you’re the future, too.”
4...

They’re both blushing now, and Lance knows it's not from the beer or the wind chill outside.
3...
“The only future worth defending is one with you in it,” Keith says so softly only Lance can hear him.
2...
“I wanna kiss you,” Lance admits.
1...
Keith smirks. “Then do it.”

The house roars with cheers and Lance pushes forward to capture Keith’s lips. It could be the celebration but he swears he sees fireworks, feels sparks. It’s the stars in his eyes, heart in his throat, movie kiss. And it's with Keith, of course.

Keith smiles. "Happy New Year."

THE END!

Happy 2021! ❤️💙🥂🎉✨

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