Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Ow!” Keith quickly pulled his hand to his chest, to see a large lump forming just below his first knuckle.

“You ok?” Lance asked over the comms, slight concern in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just got bit by a bug,” Keith said, shaking his hand, to try and get the swelling to go down, “it’s just kinda swelling right now.”

“I’m on my way,” Lance said, and Keith heard the foliage to his left ruffle slightly. The five of them were spread throughout the jungle, but they all made sure that they were within walking distance to each other. As Lance made his way over to Keith, the two made eye contact. Keith’s vision went pink.

“Lance!” Keith grinned and launched himself into the red paladin’s unsuspecting arms. They both tumbled to the ground, and Keith giggled.

“Uhh...guys...something’s wrong with Keith,” Lance said, and soon the remaining members of Voltron found the two. The self-proclaimed “loner” black paladin was cuddling up to a very confused, and slightly scared red paladin.

“This is...strange,” Allura said, slowly, as if she was still trying to process. Pidge just burst out laughing and was doubled over.

“Uh, ok Keith, let’s let Lance stand up now,” Hunk said, carefully pulling Keith up from the ground. When Lance had regained his composure, Keith reached over and intertwined his fingers with Lance’s. The red paladin was quickly blushing.

“I think it might be best if we made our way back to the village, and see what they think might have caused this,” Allura said, guiding the others back through the rainforest. Once they made their way back to the town, they quickly found a healer.

“Well, it seems the Black Paladin was bitten by the love bug. When infected by its venom, the victim will temporarily fall deeply and madly in love with the first person they lay eyes on. I don’t have anything to reverse the effects, but it should dissipate in a few days,” the healer said, and then shooed them out of their tent, saying they have more pressing matters to attend to.

“Well, I guess the only thing we can really do is wait this out. But we’ll have Coran take a sample of Keith’s blood so we can understand this a bit further,” Allura said, and the other paladins nodded in agreement, except for one.

“Wait, does this mean I’m gonna be stuck with Keith? Like this? Indefinitely?!” Lance asked while Keith hugged him from behind.

“Unfortunately Lance, yes. But it seems quite harmless. You might want to just relax and enjoy the attention,” Allura said, a wicked smile creeping onto her lips.

“But - C'mon guys. Seriously?!” Lance cried, throwing his arms up in frustration as the others made their way back to the castle.

“Did you find any Galra sentries?” Coran asked, not looking back at the odd scene behind him.

“Thankfully no, but Keith did get bit by this weird bug, and now he’s got gooey eyes for Lance,” Pidge said, flopping down into her chair. Coran whipped around to see a frustrated but resigned Lance being cuddled by an unusually amorous Keith.

“You got bitten by the Love Bug?!” Coran asked, racing over to Keith, his face beaming. Keith nodded happily and rested his head on Lance’s.

“Please fix this Coran,” Lance pleaded but Coran barked out a laugh.
“No can do number three! But it is fascinating to see this in person! I thought it was only a myth!” Coran said, quickly circling the two and taking notes. Lance groaned.

“How long do you think this will last?” He asked, trying to cross his arms with Keith still holding one of his hands.

“Well, I’m not sure. I’ve heard it can range anywhere from three days to three years!”

“Three YEARS?!” Lance cried, almost on the verge of tears.

“Well, it will most likely be the former. Right now, I suggest you all head back to your quarters and get some rest,” Allura said, placing a hand on Coran’s shoulder as if to quiet him down.

“Ah, yes, splendid idea! See you all in the morning!” Coran said as the four paladins left Coran and Allura in the bridge.

Once Keith and Lance made it to Keith’s room, Lance pried Keith off of him and held him at arm’s length.

“Ok buddy, you’ve gotta stay in here tonight. And can you cool it on the touchy stuff? It’s kinda freaking everyone out,” Lance said, and Keith’s expression dropped.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you tonight? I know you have nightmares, and I want to help,” Keith said, placing his hand on Lance’s.

“W-what? How do you know that?” Lance asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Keith lowered his eyes.

“I’ve heard you crying. I know you try to make sure that no one else knows, but I do. I have for a while now, but I never knew how to help, or how to talk to you about it. It was shitty of me not to tell you, and it was shitty of me to not do anything. I’m sorry Lance,” and when Keith looked back up at Lance, there were tears in his eyes.

“Oh god, I made you cry, I’m so-”

“Sleep in your own room tonight Keith,” Lance’s voice was cold, “and just leave me alone.”

Keith watched as Lance turned his back and walked towards his own room, leaving him alone.

The next few days were uneventful. After Lance told Keith off, he kept his distance but was obviously heartbroken. He kept making puppy eyes at Lance and would eat copious amounts of Hunk’s ice cream imitation into the wee hours of the morning. It got so bad that he wasn’t even focused on training. He was completely and utterly infatuated with Lance.

About three days later, Allura, Coran, Hunk, and Pidge pulled Lance aside to meet with him.

“You have to talk to Keith. Now,” Pidge said, pointing an accusatory finger in Lance’s face.

“What? Why?” Lance asked, crossing his arms stubbornly.

“Because of this,” Hunk said, and pulled up the video feed to the training room. Keith was fighting a training bot and was losing, miserably. His swings were half-hearted and he looked miserable.

“You’re affecting his combat. If this goes on, we could be seriously weakened in battle. You must talk to him,” Allura said, and Lance sighed, staring at the screen.

“Ok. I will,” Lance said and left the room. On the screen, the rest of them watched.

Once Lance stepped into the training room, Keith’s attention was him. His face lit up and then dropped.

“Oh, hey Lance. I’ll leave if you want me -”

“KEITH!” Lance cried, just as the bot rammed into him, throwing Keith into the wall. Lance immediately pulled out his bayard and jumped into action. He quickly knocked the droid back with a swift punch to the face, and then shot him down. He quickly turned off the training sequence and rushed over to Keith’s side. He was rubbing his head and coughing a little bit.

“Are you alright?” Lance asked, putting his arm behind his shoulders to prop him up. Keith looked up at him and smiled dumbly.

“Now I am,” And winked sloppily. Lance was dumbfounded for a moment until Keith burst out laughing.

“Sorry, I’m kidding. Yeah, I’m ok,” He said, grabbing Lance’s hand. Lance pulled Keith up from the ground and smiled. After a few moments of silence, Lance sighed.

“I...I’m sorry about the other night. I was out of line, and I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I just...I didn’t know how to react when you said you knew about my nightmares. Not even Hunk knows about them, and I didn’t want to tell anyone, because I knew Shiro already had them and everyone was always worried, and I didn’t want anyone to worry about me,” Lance avoided Keith’s gaze until Keith pulled his chin up so he could make eye contact. His eyes were hardened, but the tears forming at the outer edges of his eyes betrayed his rough demeanor.

“Lance...don’t you ever think that you shouldn’t be worried about. You are not a burden. You are an integral part of this team and you deserve just as much love and support as any of us. We worried about Shiro’s nightmares because we cared about him. I was scared about approaching you about yours since Shiro’s stemmed from his PTSD, and I didn’t know if I could help you like we helped Shiro. And I might’ve been bitten by some stupid bug that makes me go crazy for you, but regardless, this is important. We all love you, Lance.”

Lance brought a shaking hand up to his mouth and covered a quiet sob. Keith almost aggressively wrapped his arms around Lance and pulled his head into his shoulder. Lance wrapped his arms around Keith, one around his neck and the other around his waist, and cried. And cried. And cried until the two were just sitting on the ground of the training room together and Lance had no more tears to cry. When he looked up at Keith, he saw that he had dried tears tracking down his face. Almost unconsciously, Lance reached up and brushed his thumb across Keith’s cheek. Startled, he looked down at Lance, and time seemed to stop.

When the two paladins realized how short a distance they were from each other, they had two choices. One - pull away and let this be. Ignore it and each other until it fades to distant memory that they each remember fondly, about what could have been. Always pondering what might have happened if they made a different decision. What would have changed. Or two -

Lance slammed his lips into Keith’s. Keith blinked in surprise but quickly reciprocated, with the same level of passion. Both had been craving affection from the other for so long, and they both believed the other would never reciprocate their feelings. They were wrong. As the other paladins plus an advisor watched on the monitor, they quickly turned it off and left the two to be together in peace.

They left the training room about 15 minutes later, faces flushed and hands intertwined. Hunk quickly ran over and picked them up in a suffocating hug. When Pidge saw them, she winked at each of them individually and then later pulled each of them aside separately to give them the “if you hurt my brother-but-not-really-my-brother I’ll kill you in multiple different ways and you’ll wish you’d never met me” talk. Allura gave them each a curt nod but squealed in delight to the mice who relayed her excitement back to Lance and Keith. Coran gave them an enthusiastic thumbs up and then returned to talking about something that neither of the couple understood. They quickly retired to Lance’s room for some privacy.

Lance and Keith had been dating for the past two months and Lance was panicking.

“Psst...psst! Coran!” Lance whisper-yelled to the ginger altean who was looking at something on the control panel.

“Lance? What is it, my boy?” Coran said, but Lance quickly shushed him.

“I need your help,” Lance whispered again and waved him over.

Coran followed the red paladin to where he was crouched behind his chair and crouched with him.

“What’s wrong?” Coran asked, whispering fairly loudly. Lance rolled his eyes but continued.

“I’m worried about when the love bug’s bite is gonna wear off. Keith and I have been together for a couple months now and I’m scared that when the love bug’s venom gets out of his system he’s not gonna like me anymore! What if he goes and dates some other hot Cuban boy? Or a cute alien?!” Lance’s breathing had quickened and was panicking, but Coran placed a hand on the boy's shoulder.

“Lance, calm down. I highly doubt that Keith won’t like you after the venom wears off. He’s become very fond of you, you know,” Coran said, twirling his mustache, “you know I was a bit of a matchmaker myself back in my-”

“Coran, he’s fond of me because of the love bug! It’ll go away after it wears off! You guys said it should only last a few weeks, and it's been months. It has to be wearing off!” Lance cried pulling at his hair. But before Coran could answer, the doors to the bridge opened revealing Allura and Keith.

“Lance? Coran? Are you alright?” Allura asked, spotting the two crouching behind Lance’s chair. The two immediately bolted up.

“Uh, yup! Yep! Totally fine. Nothing to worry about Princess!” And the chorus continued from the two until Keith walked over and grabbed Lance’s hand.

“What’s up?” He asked quietly, and Lance sighed, resigned.

“...C'mon. Let’s go talk in my room,” Lance said, pulling him along to leave Allura alone with a worried looking Coran.

The walk to Lance’s room was silent, and uncomfortable on Lance’s end. Keith was perfectly fine with silence, but Lance always felt like the silence was suffocating. That something else had to drown it out, like banter or music or something, but Lance really didn’t want to talk right now, so he opted for anxiously tapping his fingers on the side of his leg. They walked for a few more feet until Keith pulled Lance to the side and pressed him up against a pillar.

“Uh...Keith?” Lance asked, but Keith just grinned mischievously, and then placed a gentle kiss on Lance’s lips. He began to make his way down Lance’s jaw and onto his neck, making Lance more and more flustered. Keith loved watching the normally suave and flirty paladin get all tongue-tied and lose his composure, all because of what he can do with his mouth. Once Lance was out of breath and had a few sufficient (and very visible) hickeys, Keith looked up at him and rested his forehead against his. They stayed like that for a moment, their eyes locked as Keith stared at Lance with love and admiration while Lance was still nervous and out of breath. Lance carefully reached his hand up to Keith’s face and cupped his cheek. Keith closed his eyes and leaned more into Lance’s hand and smiled.

“God I’m gonna miss this,” Lance whispered, letting a tear fall. Keith’s eyes shot open.

“What?” He asked, defensive and worried.

“No, no, Keith don’t worry. I just...I’m gonna miss this. Us,” Lance said, letting his arms drop to his sides.

“What do you mean? Are you breaking up with me?” Keith asked, and they both felt their hearts shatter a little at those words.

“Oh no, oh god no. I would never be dumb enough to let you go. I just...I know this’ll all go away once the love bug’s venom wears off. You’ll go back to being straight and narrow and I’ll be alone again,” Lance sighed. There was a beat, and then Keith began to laugh uncontrollably.

“What? What’s so funny?” Lance asked, and began to become irritated.

“No...it’s not you...I just...you’re so cute,” Keith said in-between laughs and placed a sloppy giggly kiss on Lance’s lips that were pressed into a thin line.

“Why are you laughing at me?” Lance asked quietly.

“Lance...the love bug’s venom wore off about two days after we started dating. Also, me? ‘Straight and narrow’? C’mon Lance, I thought you knew me better than that,” Keith said, playfully punching Lance’s arm while he stood there in shock, mouth agape.

“W-what? So you mean you actually like me? And this isn’t you being affected by a bug?” Lance asked and Keith nodded, still giggling. Lance beamed and jumped onto Keith, wrapping his arms around him and planting a kiss squarely on his lips.

“I love you,” Lance said, and then the two blinked in shock. A smile crept onto Keith’s face.

“I love you too, dummy.”