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Lance liked to think he was intelligent. He usually couldn't tell when people actually liked him, due to having been pranked in the past. It didn't help that he had a naturally, flirty personality that got him in trouble. When he legitimately liked someone, his flirting was sloppy and absentminded. Nothing like the smooth operator people assumed he was.
He was, however, pretty certain this time around. Lance had a plan and he only hoped it would work. Keith was the only one to know what was happening, as he'd noticed the change in behavior as well. Lance had been worried and talked about his concerns to the half Galran, feeling Keith would be the only one that wouldn't let it slip to anyone else.
They were in the dining room when Lance was going to initiate his scheme. Coran was shifting his gaze warily. He wasn't privy to what was going on, but there was something about the tension in the air. At first, he thought it was more rivalry shenanigans from Keith and Lance. However, when he saw Keith give the Cuban a thumbs up, his face serious, it was then that the ginger realized the Red and Blue Paladins weren't sitting together like usual. He was alarmed when he saw Lance get up and shimmying his way over a few seats down. Coran almost said something to stop him. But he noticed how nervous Lance looked and decided this was something he needed to do, leaving well enough alone.
Shiro saw the movement out of the corner of his eye, but decided to ignore it...teenagers...Allura was drilling the others about what Earth was like, wanting to know more about Voltron's newest Paladins. Pidge was in their own little world, typing like a madman at their laptop. Keith had gone back to eating his food, making it seem like he wasn't an accomplice to what was going to transpire. Lance was in the clear.
This could go one of two ways. Lance had mulled it over for days. He would either get a boyfriend out of this or no boyfriend but no ruined friendship. The Blue and Yellow Paladins were too close as best friends to allow something like this to hurt what they already had. Lance let out a silent exhale as he reached over and, sniping the orange headband off Hunk, ran to the door.
The air stilled and was deathly quiet as Hunk felt around his head for the missing piece. A bushy, black eyebrow twitched as he swiveled around to look behind him. Lance was jogging in place by the door, waggling the headband in a teasing manner.
"Betcha can't catch me!"
"LANCE MCCLAAAAAAAIN!" Hunk roared as Lance darted out of the room with a loud laugh, the door sliding shut as he left. There was a screech on the floor as Hunk's boot hit the tile and he went after Lance. Allura, Coran and Shiro blinked widely, surprised. Keith snickered behind his hand. Pidge would say something akin to 'dead man walking' without actually looking up from their computer screen.
The Hispanic male had clearly misjudged Hunk's reaction. He seemed angry; Lance expected it to be along more jovial and joking lines. That's when Lance remembered it had been something from his grandfather, though Lance couldn't recall if it had been a gift or if it had actually belonged to the elderly man at one point. As he ran, skidding through the halls of castleship, Lance undid the knot in the fabric. This wouldn't work at all if it was still tied.
Scratch that, this could end one of three ways. Lance hadn't factored in death as a result of his shenanigans. He knew from training and seeing Hunk in battle that, even though he really was just a giant teddy bear, there was a lot of weight behind those fists...oh please, just not the face buddy!...Lance made a vow to haunt Keith's ass for eternity for humoring him and agreeing that this had been a good idea...sunovabitch!...
Almost missing his turn out of panic, nearly falling face first into the floor and having to push himself up with his hands, Lance tried to calm down and remember the layout as he ran. He'd been planning this for about a week, mapping out the hallways on the main floor. The idea was to wear Hunk out and then let himself be captured in one of the dead ends. Hunk was a big guy, so Lance didn't think it would take long, but he also hadn't expected to awaken a raging bull. He'd have to make it look like he didn't plan this and keep himself from going too fast so Hunk could at least see where he'd gone.
Lance had liked Hunk for a while. It had been a natural progression that had started near the end of their enrollment at the garrison. They had been best friends for some time and sharing a dorm at school had made things more intimate due to the close quarters. Most people assumed Lance liked girls, but only a few of those closest to him knew he liked both men and women, though he had a preference to the latter. Lance, however, didn't know where Hunk fell and didn't feel it was right to just ask him for the sake of knowing. That, as his best friend, Hunk would tell him if he felt it was important enough to know.
A conversation like that would never come up for Hunk. In fact, Hunk only knew Lance was bi because he'd managed to catch him making goo-goo eyes at one of the upperclassmen and was called out on it by another student. Lance would be flustered and try to brush it off, but would be uncharacteristically quiet the rest of the day. Hunk would ask him about it when they went to bed that night and Lance had been honest with him. This knowledge never fazed the Samoan man and Lance was glad for that. He couldn't stand to lose another friend over something that he couldn't help, which was why Lance wasn't open about it. But, at the same time, Hunk wouldn't share with the class, so to speak, so Lance was left wondering.
Once getting stuck in space and becoming Paladins of Voltron, everyone on the ship had to start getting along. It had been easy, for the most part. There had been some hiccups here and there, but that was to be expected. Pidge had been on their team at the garrison, but they hadn't shared a dorm. So there was closeness, but not to the same extent as sharing sleeping quarters would have done. Though, after Pidge coming clean about their secret, Lance was pretty sure sharing a dorm would have been awkward and that Pidge themself had planned it that way.
Lance wasn't sure how Hunk felt about him. He knew they were close and Hunk had no bones about putting Lance on a pedestal as his best bud. However, since living on castleship, Lance was noticing some things that had given him some hope. Namely that Hunk was spending more time in the kitchen and Lance knew he would bake to come down from stress. He'd be in there even if it had been days, even weeks, since a mission or attack, thus no real reason to be in there.
Hunk would also burn off steam in the training room. This was where Keith had noticed it. As someone that was more of a lover and not a fighter, Keith found it odd that Hunk would spend any amount of time obliterating training bots that wasn't a team exercise. The Korean American would ask if something was wrong, but Hunk would ignore him and leave. Keith didn't think Hunk hated him or anything, but something was up. It would take some time between Keith and Lance to figure out when the change had actually started. That's when it hit them.
Keith and Lance had never been close. In fact, they were the furthest thing from friends once everyone was gathered that night. Everyone expected them to take the longest to get along. While they hadn't been wrong, in comparison to everyone else, they had bonded much sooner than anticipated and had some pretty solid teamwork. Because of this, there had been rumors between some of the other people living there than he and Keith were an item. While neither of them were offended at this gossip, it was the furthest thing from the truth. It was when this started happening that Hunk's attitude began changing.
Was Hunk jealous? Lance actually wanted it to be true. However, the Cuban had some reservations and he started to doubt himself as he turned another corner...what if I'm wrong?...He had to remind himself it would be fine if he was. Hunk would likely reject him lightly and continue on like nothing happened. Their friendship wouldn't be altered by this. But what if the jealousy hadn't been romantic? Lance almost stopped dead in his tracks as he realized Hunk might have thought he was being replaced. Maybe that's why he was angry right now?
While being more of a pack animal than a solitary creature, it wasn't like Lance was just dishing out best friend titles to everyone either. Lance had many friends, but not many that were close. Hunk was the only person Lance had let in so much and saw the truest form of himself. Lance was pretty certain Hunk was aware of this and might have thought he'd start getting shut out if Lance had been a 'no more than one best friend' kind of person. However, Keith wasn't his best friend. Not yet. Lance felt it could be feasible, but he wasn't ready to let someone in so close again right now. But Hunk would have no way of knowing this, nor would he know that Lance was fine having more than one best friend. Lance was just picky.
Noticing Hunk was having a hard time keeping up, Lance made his move. He could hear Hunk groaning from several yards away, stopping every little bit to catch his breath before giving chase again. Lance had a hunch that Hunk was doing all this out of frustration and couldn't sort out his feelings. Why else would he be doing things he normally wouldn't or being stressed when seemingly nothing was happening? This had been the reason to wear him out. Then Lance could initiate the final part of his plan while Hunk was disoriented and less likely to have any walls up.
Switching gears, Lance stopped for a moment to figure out where he was and head towards the dead end. Grinning, he started up again and hung a left, the second right, then the third left. He pretended to act like a trapped mouse as Hunk appeared at the end of the hallway. The bigger man took up so much space in the narrow corridor, Lance wouldn't have been able to escape if he wanted to. Hunk managed to get a second wind and sprinted down the hall before Lance could get his bearings. Arms on either side of the Cuban's head, hands slamming against the wall, Lance was pinned with nowhere to go.
"What the heck, dude?!" Hunk shouted, as much as his staggered breathing would allow. "The hell has gotten into you?!" Lance was momentarily scared as he swallowed, uncertain if he should continue. He internally shook his head; he'd made it this far. It was officially too late to back out now.
"Sorry, man." Lance smiled sheepishly, as fake as it was. "I forgot how much this thing means to you." He brought the orange strip of fabric up and tossed it over the back of Hunk's head, the ends in his fingers.
"Thank you!" Hunk's head dropped for a moment as he blinked out the spots he was seeing...I'll never have to do cardio for the rest of the year...wonder if Allura will give me a pass during training...As he brought his gaze back up, his eyes met Lance's and he barely had any time to register the next few moments as they came.
Lance, sucking in a breath and hoping this wouldn't go to shit, gripped the fabric and tugged the headband towards him. This brought Hunk's face into his own and their lips met, albeit a bit sloppily. Lance could tell when the gears, stiffened by the exhaustion from running, finally caught and started running. Hunk's face starting to blush was the equivalent of the machinery smoking. Lance could feel the tension drain and Hunk's weight shift in his arms. It was no longer a threatening pose, now only just being held to keep Hunk upright.
When they finally broke apart, Lance looked up at Hunk, smiling nervously. He was searching for his own answer before Hunk could speak. While tiredly drooping, the chocolate brown eyes were twinkling. Taking one of Lance's hands into his own, he took the headband from him and put it into his pocket with the other, placing it back on the wall when he was done.
"Is that what this was about?" Lance nodded, his eyes staring at their shoes.
"You've...been acting weird lately and I..." He sighed heavily before continuing. "I might have had an idea about why...so...I...took that chance..." Hunk's eyes widened.
"Was it that obvious I was so out of it?"
"Dude, KEITH OF ALL PEOPLE noticed!" Lance laughed.
"I'll be damned," Hunk said with an awkward grin. He shook his head, pulling his hand off the wall and standing upright, his other hand still in Lance's. "...thank you..." Lance's blue eyes blinked owlishly. "I wasn't actually sure what I was feeling, since I've never felt like this about anyone before. So you can probably imagine how frustrating it was for me trying to sort myself out and none of my usual methods worked."
"Which would explain why you started murdering those poor training bots," Lance chuckled as Hunk started to tug him down the hall. "Um...for how long?"
"I'm really not certain? It may very well have been before we came here, but I was definitely made aware of it after." Lance smiled as he followed Hunk, his eyes trained on the floor. He stopped for a moment, his heart needing a more solid confirmation. As Hunk's arm lost slack, he peered behind him and turned to face Lance.
"...this is it, right? You want this?" Lance's eyes flew open as he, unexpectedly, had arms wrap around him. Hunk's nose touched Lance's and the next words were spoken softly, before their lips met in something much more put together than their first.
"...I'm all yours..."