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Keith has been quiet since they finished, one hand in Lance’s hair, the other resting on his hip. Periodically, he presses his lips into Lance’s hairline, or smooths his hand over the small of Lance’s back, as if to make sure Lance can’t possibly get any closer. Just as Lance is on the edge of sleep, he hears Keith murmur, “Come with me.”
Lance pulls away marginally, reaching up to rub at his sleepy eyes. “What?”
He watches Keith run his teeth over his bottom lip as he meets Lance’s gaze, seemingly wide awake, softened by the half-moon light that drifts in from Lance’s bedroom window. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but I want you to come with me.”
Immediately, Lance’s belly tightens, his heart leaping into his throat, opening his eyes wider. This feels like a dream and it’s not. “What brought this on?”
Keith’s gaze softens a bit, lidding. He reaches up, brushing his thumb along Lance’s sharp jawline. “I’m going to be gone longer than three months this time, and I’m tired of leaving you.” He thumbs at Lance’s bottom lip. “I don’t want to do it anymore.”
Lance knows he’s got a hundred thousand other responsibilities to take care of here on Earth, but suddenly none of them seem important at all. “You miss me that much when you’re gone, huh?” he says softly, unable to help himself, a smile slowly spreading across his face.
Keith rolls his eyes, but the somber look about him has started giving way to something more relaxed. “You know I do.”
Lance grins, delighted. His face feels warm with a blush. “Okay, well, say I did come with you. What then?”
Keith’s eyebrows crease in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I mean ,” Lance says, “what does that mean for us? And what are your expectations for me?” He snorts when Keith simply blinks at him. “Classic Keith. You haven’t even thought these things through. Are you asking me to join the Blade relief efforts as a team member? And if you are, is it because you admire my skills and think I’d be useful in the field? Am I supposed to report to you as a subordinate of some type?” He props himself up on his elbow and cups his chin in his hand. “Or is this about sex?”
Keith makes a sound of frustration. “It’s about wanting to be with you.”
Lance looks at him, his heart growing lighter and warmer and warmer and warmer and-- “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“No sex?”
“I didn’t say that.”
Lance laughs.
Keith sighs, but offers a half-smile, finding Lance’s laughter infectious. “I haven’t been thinking about how I’d use you, Lance. I just don’t think we should be apart anymore.”
Lance softens up to that, reaching one hand up to touch Keith’s chin, his thumb running slowly and deliberately along his jaw until it reaches the edge of his scar. Words are hard to come by here, the emotion so strong inside of him that it makes it impossible to think. Keith doesn’t prompt him, or ask for an answer, he just watches Lance look at him and waits. As the moment drags on, he grabs Lance’s wandering hand and brings it to his mouth, pressing a kiss to the inside of Lance’s wrist before propping himself up on his elbows to close more of the distance between them again.
The warmth inside of Lance yawns wide and consuming. Has Keith always been this steady? His dark eyes rimmed with dark lashes framed by unruly dark hair promise stability, a lasting anchor; in the shadows of his bedroom, the moon high in the sky outside his window, he’s almost brave enough to name it love.
“Of course I’ll go with you,” Lance says after he’s sure that his voice won’t waver, Keith’s honesty making him tender and pliant and willing to submit to all of his whims without a question. Oh god, he’d do anything Keith asked of him. “I thought you’d never ask.”
“I should have,” Keith whispers. “I should have asked you a long time ago.”
Lance touches Keith’s mouth with gentle fingers, gaze flickering between Keith’s lips and his eyes. “Why didn’t you?” lol
“I don’t know.” His breath rolls over Lance’s fingertips. “Maybe a part of me was afraid you’d say no. Maybe another part of me was reluctant to admit how much I needed you.”
Lance’s eyebrows furrow. “You say that like you’ve had an issue holding back from me, and I know that’s not true.”
“Maybe,” Keith murmurs, “the biggest part of me didn’t want to make you choose between your family and me.”
Lance shivers, skating his hand down Keith’s throat, over the muscular swell of Keith’s chest, slowly and deliberately. “Don’t take this the wrong way, babe, but that was never a choice.”
Keith rolls his head to the side as Lance’s hand continues to smooth over his stomach lower, and lower. “How am I not supposed to take that the wrong way?”
“You are such a big fucking idiot, Keith,” Lance laughs. “The only reason I haven’t followed you on one of your humanitarian missions yet is because I knew you would come back to me.” His thumb caresses the edge of Keith’s belly button as he rolls his eyes playfully, his heart hammering in his chest. “Like I’d even try to live without you.”
Keith’s eyelashes flutter as Lance’s hand slows, stopping right above where Lance knows he wants him most. He bites his lip to hold in his laughter when Keith tips his head back and groans in frustration, collapsing back into the pillows. “Lance.”
He leans in and kisses at Keith’s throat. He strokes at the little happy trail his hand is resting against. “Yes?”
Keith snags a hand behind Lance’s neck and urges him up, bringing his weight down on his own chest. “C’mere.” He drags his mouth against Lance, who responds to it immediately. “If I’m an idiot, so are you.”
Lance grins into their kiss, grabbing at Keith’s hip. “Fair enough.”
Keith groans again, like he’s fed up, but he only hauls Lance closer, rolling them until he’s pressing his hot and heavy weight down against Lance. For all of his teasing, Lance is the one who melts, unable to help it when Keith touches him like this, his hands desperate. He makes an embarrassing noise of affirmation when Keith slots a leg between his thighs, but Keith kisses it away, swallows it whole, and takes it for himself. Lance can’t be bothered to keep quiet anymore when Keith devours all of his little sounds like he’s starving for them.