Chapter Text
Lance shimmies his shoulders trying to find comfort but the cold hard ground and dead leaves don’t make for comfortable bedding. He crosses his arms to maintain warmth and tries to concentrate on his breathing but with his mind racing, emotions in shambles, nerves kicking up, and his neck freezing, it doesn’t help much. ‘Please, please, just rest’ he tells himself. Panic starts to set in because his train of thought starts to lead to tomorrow night’s potential carnage. What if because of what’s happened tonight, Keith and Allura somehow fail their mission? What if he created an even bigger rift between them? What if he becomes too tired tomorrow and the soldiers capture him? What if he’s forced to choose between people and he can’t? He feels his breathing start to stutter so he breathes deeper to quell the panic.
In, hold, out, hold, in, hold, out, hold, in, hold, out, hold - it’s starting to help - in, hold, out, hold, in, hold, out, hold, in
Beside him, Keith turns again and the sudden movement nearly makes Lance choke on his own spit. Lance tilts his head and recoils when he sees Keith’s eyes blinking at him.
“What’re you doing?” Keith whispers.
“I’m trying to sleep,” Lance answers and reorients himself to continue his breathing meditation. Keith pouts and watches the careful swell and fall of Lance’s chest.
“Is that helping?”
Lance raises an arm to cover his eyes. “I think so.”
“Okay.”
Okay he says. In, hold, out, hold, in, hold, out, hold, in, hold,
“Keith.”
Keith slowly blinks his eyes back open and gazes at the dark silhouette of Lance’s face. His eyes begin to adjust and lines of Lance’s tense lips sharpen.
“I think it’s worth it to be brave sometimes,” Lance breathes out.
Keith’s gaze trails upwards to watch the taunting movement of that hand concealing Lance’s blue eyes.
“What do you mean?” He asks and raises his arms to rest comfortably around his cheeks, allowing him to stare at those tantalising fingers curling in and out.
“Just with all this rescuing stuff…and you.”
Keith sleepily blinks. “Me?”
“Yeah, I’m scared of it all - and you - but I think it’s worth being brave for…is what I’m trying to say.” Lance raises his arm to his head but it bumps into Keith instead. “Sorry,” he whispers and opts to use the arm resting on his forehead to cushion beneath his head.
Keith feels relief wash over him and a deep comfort warms him from inside. Before Keith even really registers what he’s doing, his fingers graze against Lance’s head and the other man finally tilts blue eyes his way. Then Lance raises his head and Keith slides his arm beneath Lance’s neck. To his joy, Lance shuffles closer to him for comfort and for a moment they just gaze at each other. Two bodies thrumming next to each other in red. Black hair spilled out and brown hair tousled by an arm. Blue and purple eyes melding like the sky after the sun sets.
Always this back and forth between them.
“You’re freezing,” Keith comments.
Lance’s eyelids shut gently as drowsiness creeps in. “Yeah,” he responds.
Keith twists Lance’s body to face away from him. “Is this okay?” He asks.
“Mhm,” Lance affirms and he unwillingly feels the tips of his toes tingle as if throwing a celebration.
Keith wraps his other arm around Lance and pulls the man into his chest as he blankets Lance’s back. Lance turns his face into Keith’s arm and Keith feels he could get dangerously addicted to the feel of soft lips grazing gently across skin. They both know that lines are being crossed but neither of them feel like stopping the momentum. Before he thinks against it, Lance grabs Keith’s hand resting on the ground and presses it close to his chest as he curls in, almost bracing himself for something. He feels Keith’s fingers squeeze into his pounding chest as if trying to caress it directly and the man wraps himself tighter around as a comforting heat on his skin blooms. One more night of this escape adventure, and possibly one more night of this. But that doesn't matter right now.
The familiar chirp of the morning birds prompts Keith to transition into a lighter sleep. He briefly comprehends a warmth bracketing his head and leans into it comfortably. Snuggled, if you will. Movement makes Keith squint over Lance’s shoulder and see Allura sit up and shuffle out of the tent. Keith glances towards Lance’s sleeping face and out the tent then scrunches his face back into Lance’s chest.
“Fine.”
He ducks his head under Lance’s arm and shuffles out of his narrow spot. Outside, Allura has already picked out edible nuts and plants which surprises Keith given it took Adam a couple years of regular camping for him to learn.
“You seem to know your way around food,” he announces.
She looks at him with what Keith supposes is as little of a glare as she can muster. “It’s what happens when you’re chased by soldiers everyday.”
Keith rubs his hands then moves to light the fire. “Right…yeah that sucks.” Allura’s face twitches and she turns back to her task at hand. “Pass it over here,” he beckons with a raised hand but she doesn’t turn around.
“I can eat it raw, can you not?” She asks with her words strutting in a way Keith doesn’t appreciate but he clenches his raised hand and knocks it against his forehead with pursed lips. He side-eyes the tent before his gaze falls on the smooth pebble inside the now flaming pit. A reminder of the fun time he shared with Lance skipping rocks and the friendship he tried to reject last night. Yet It was the one Lance gave him after he skipped water for the first time and the one he dramatically tossed in an act of rejection last night. “Look,” he begins with a lower volume. “...you and I have stressed Lance out a lot.”
Allura’s eyes lower but she continues to expertly identify each plant she touches without turning back to the firebender.
“He is risking his life and safety for us when he doesn’t need to. We kinda got him involved,” Keith continues. “For the sake of his peace of mind and for the sake of tonight’s life or death stunt, we need to work together - at least for tonight.”
“For tonight then.”
“That’s not what I mean. We have to start now. Show Lance that there’s nothing to worry about.”
Allura recalls Lance standing against her last night. It was so genuine and so shocking because she didn’t know he was thinking the things he said, at least, she didn’t know how strongly he had felt about those things. She turns on her heel and stomps towards the fire before holding out her foraged goods towards Keith.
“So why can’t you eat them raw, is it an intolerance?” She asks.
Keith scoffs and takes a few items from her grasp. “You can, it just tastes way better when slightly cooked and Adam says the nutritional value improves with a little heat.”
Allura watches as Keith tosses the nuts into the fire and places some of the plants in a waterskin that he throws by the fire’s edge.
“Now we wait a little bit,” he says with a slight flourish.
She sits by the fire with her knees to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. The flickering flames and the heat on her face reminds her of her own tears and screams so she buries her forehead in her knees to stop it. Keith bends the fire out of the pit and it disperses into the air after swaying a few times and Allura feels the obstructive heat dissipate. He flicks out the nuts with a stick and blows on it before cracking one open and tossing it to her.
“Try it,” he suggests.
She picks up the roasted nut that has turned a beautiful brown colour and is emitting a strong and delicious smell. She chews it and it’s almost a completely different flavour from what it tastes like normally but not disgusting at all. In fact, she would even eat these as a snack rather than eating out of necessity.
“...It’s good,” she admits and Keith’s mouth quirks up. He then holds out one of the vegetable leaves pulled out from the waterskin and Allura takes it directly from his hands.
“Whether you like it or not I am a firebender but it’s things like this I hope you’ll remember me for instead of…I don’t really know to be honest.”
“Your hostility when I first met you?” Allura asks with a raised eyebrow.
“What? Oh, that. It’s not personal, I just,” he pauses. This is exactly what got him in trouble with Lance so many times - his reluctance over the man underneath himself. “Just struggling with personal issues that maybe I take out on others,” he blurts out.
“It feels personal when you corner a stranger in an alley and demand answers,” Allura adds.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” he drawls out a little annoyed. “But the sentiment is shared when you distance yourself and show visible disgust.”
She glares at him and he glares back but winces when he catches himself doing it.
“Personal issues are a pain but it’s worth it to be brave sometimes.”
“I would say we’re plenty brave,” she chuckles sardonically.
“Yeah but like, I guess in a personal sort of way. A feelings sort of way…or something,” he flushes at his failure to express the meaning of Lance’s words said to him in the dark of night.
“A feelings sort of way,” repeats Allura and they fall quiet as they chew on their morning meal. Keith wordlessly moves to the tent, still munching on his food, so he can escape the awkwardness. He slides himself next to Lance who is laying on his back which Keith appreciates because he can chew while looking at Lance’s unobscured features.