(( *throws full tea cup* *scalding tea spills and splatters on the floor* oops...))

" Lance, it's fucking hot out here..." Keith groaned and wiped some sweat from his forehead. The sun was shining right in his face and staining the back of his eyes.

" It's so nice... what are you talking about?" Lance smiled, basking in the humid air and hoping that he'd tan. Keith deadpanned, laying back in his chair. They were both poolside, enjoying the nice weather. Well, the weather Lance liked. It reminded him of Cuba, of his childhood. Up until what happened with his family, he'd actually had a pretty decent upbringing. The beaches, the sand, it was his optimal habitat.

Lance never wanted to leave as he reached for Keith's hand, holding it in his own. He squeezed it, looking over Keith's shirtless chest. They were both only wearing swimming trunks.

" I'm surprised nobody has noticed all your hickeys~" Lance teased his boyfriend.

Keith blushed and covered his neck with his palm, trying to hide the very dark, inflamed marks Lance had left all over him.

Lance sipped his margarita with a shit eating grin on his face. He was grateful he was allowed to have it by the pool, as long as he wasn't swimming, that is.

" If you say that too loud people totally will." Keith told him from the side of his mouth, flustered as all hell. He had his hair up, so he couldn't even rely on his mullet to distract from them.

Lance chuckled, tempted to pull Keith over and just make out with him. They were in public, though, and people were all around them. They were at the tiki bar behind them, in the pool in front of them, and on their sides in the other poolside chairs.

" Maybe I want people to admire my artwork?" Lance teased.

Keith pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. He didn't know how to respond.

Lance was so lovesick that it hurt. It was written all over his face as he stared into Keith's eyes.

That's when he got a lap full of something positively frigid. Lance's drink slipped out of his hand from how startled he was, and it spilled everywhere when it hit the cement floor. Thankfully the glass didn't break.

Keith looked over, seeing a girl that neither of them had noticed. They'd been too focused on each other. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into pigtails, and her drink had flown as she'd apparently tripped.

Keith got up, concerned.

" Woah, are you okay?" He stood before her, offering his hand to help her up. She looked up, panicked.

" Oh crap! I'm so sorry! I-" She looked over at Lance, who was still freezing from the waist down. Keith helped her up, and Lance got up as well.

" It's okay, he's fine." Keith told her.

" Romelle, are you okay?" Allura came rushing over to her friend. Romelle nervously chuckled while seeing her.

" I'm fine, Ally." She told her, looking back to Lance and Keith. " I'm so sorry..." Romelle cringed.

Allura looked down at the spilled drinks.

" Really, it's fine." Lance assured, wiping the sticky drink off of his abs. He was used to being covered in other sticky things... but a margarita was a first. " It's been a long time since a chick has dumped her drink in my lap." Lance joked, thinking about his high school days.

Keith cleared his throat, side eyeing Lance. He dared him to use the word 'chick' one more time.

" I can get you a new drink right away." Allura told him, shaking her head and smiling nervously. " Again, so sorry."

" You don't have to-"

" It's really not a problem." Allura spoke.

" Her parents own this place." Romelle informed them, and Lance and Keith looked at each other in a baffled way. What were the chances?

" Oh, really? That's pretty sweet." Keith said. He'd never been good at small talk, but he was doing well so far. It was even more difficult when it was with a pair of incredibly beautiful girls, considering how gay he was. Were bikinis supposed to be hot? They sort of made Keith uncomfortable, so he tried his best not to look at them.

Allura snapped her fingers, walking to the bar. The bartender looked up instantly, knowing exactly who she was.

" So... what are your names?" Lance asked casually.

" I'm Romelle... and that's Allura." Romelle said. And from the way she blushed, Keith read between the lines. It was almost like how Shay would've blushed at Hunk, or Matt and Adam at Shiro.

" Is she your girlfriend or something?" He asked, not thinking twice. Man, he needed to work on not being so blunt.

" Keith!" Lance scolded under his breath.

Romelle's eyes bulged, and Lance smiled nervously, wondering why the hell Keith had just asked that.

" No. She's engaged." Romelle cleared her throat.

Allura returned with wipes. They were the wet naps people would need to use if they ate the buffalo wings the resort made.

" Here, um-" She stammered, and Keith took them. He unwrapped them, telling her a quiet thank you before running them all over Lance, who turned very red. Keith wasn't at all shy about touching his boyfriend. He got jealous way too easy.

" Ally, they thought I was your girlfriend." Romelle told her, giggling. There was pain in her eyes, but she played it off as nothing.

Allura laughed, covering her mouth and showing that she was wearing a ring. It was a very pink gemstone in the middle of the band, and it was rather large. Anyone could've deducted that the ring cost a fortune, or could've bought a small country.

" Don't tell Lotor or he might blow a fuse." She joked, and Keith and Lance nearly toppled over from shock. Lance choked on air while looking at her like she was nuts, like he'd imagined what she'd just said.

" Did you say Lotor?" He asked her, and Allura nodded.

" Yeah." She smiled, grabbing her phone from her adjacent chair and turning it on. Lotor's face was on her lock screen, and Keith and Lance's mouths were agape. They were both frozen. " Isn't he cute?"

Romelle chuckled nervously, and Lance's eye twitched. Keith's eyes darted over to his boyfriend, who began falling over. His eyes rolled back as he landed half on top of the chair.

Keith snapped out of it once Lance actually fell over.

" Lance?!" He exclaimed, kneeling and shaking him. Keith hit one of Lance's cheeks with his palm. " Hey, come on!"

" Did he just faint?" Allura panicked. " Oh no! Should I call 911?"

" No, no, he's fine. Right, Lance?!" Keith laughed and shook him. It was about ten seconds later by the time Lance was sitting up and holding his head. Keith could finally breathe again once his boyfriend opened his eyes. Lance had literally fainted because of Lotor. Wow.

" Thank goodness..." Romelle sighed in relief, placing a hand to her chest.

" Hey, are you okay, Babe?" Keith asked Lance, who took his hand. Lance nodded, still panicking on the inside. They were talking to Lotor's fiancée?!

" Lotor doesn't happen to be here, does he?" Lance asked Allura, trying not to sound ominous. If Lotor was there, Lance was fully prepared to lock he and Keith in their room for the rest of the vacation.

" No, he's still in the states." Allura told him, pulling her mane of hair back and putting it in a giant messy bun. " We just come here a lot because we can. Sometimes he just surprises us with plane tickets here. But... how do you even know Lotor?" She asked them both, raising one of her sculpted white eyebrows.

" Er-" Keith stammered. It was then when the bartender showed up with the new drinks, handing them to Allura, who thanked him.

Romelle looked down at the couple, who seemed scared out of their wits. She realized maybe Lotor had done something to them, too.

" Hey, Ally... let's go get facials or something? It's hot out here." Romelle changed the subject, and Allura shrugged.

" I guess we can. Um... see you two around?" She asked Lance and Keith, who absentmindedly nodded. What the fuck?!

Romelle ushered her friend away, looking over her shoulder once or twice. She needed to figure out a way to get Allura away from Lotor. She couldn't just spill everything unless she wanted her head on the chopping block, however.

...

The sun had set, and Lance and Keith were on the beach. Shiro had a whole part of the coast reserved for them, which was legal as long as it was on resort property. They'd both decided they needed something to get their minds off of earlier.

They had a giant beach towel that they'd laid down in the sand, and they were both atop of it, sitting up and facing the rippling waves of the ocean. It was a navy blue color because of the sky's darkness.

There had been a long period of silence between the two boys, but Lance slid his hand over to rest on Keith's, soon gripping the smaller male's in his own.

" The stars look beautiful tonight..." Lance spoke, sending Keith a mushy and romantic stare. He had a flower hidden behind his back, one that he'd swiped from the flower garden on the walk over there.

" Yeah... they're never this bright in the city." Keith responded, smiling back at his boyfriend. The sounds of waves splashing on the shore, as well as the island breeze rustling through palm trees were in the background.

" You're still the most gorgeous thing on this island, maybe even in the universe." Lance smirked, pulling the flower out. It was a reddish colored lily, and he tucked it behind Keith's ear. The flower in Keith's hair wasn't the only red thing about him. His cheeks were soon stained with the pigment, and he couldn't help but lean closer to Lance.

" Shut up." He snickered in a flustered way, pressing his lips on the taller boy's and smiling into the contact.

Lance felt proud of himself while giving everything he had into the kiss. His love was blatant on Keith's lips, and in the way he gripped Keith's hand, and in the tender way his eyes squeezed shut. Lance had never fallen so hard for someone before, never found himself so head over heels.

Once they pulled back, Keith affectionately nuzzled by Lance's neck. It was rare that he would be so blatant about something like that, but Keith's ego was the last of his concerns right then. He cuddled closer to him until personal space was nonexistent.

Lance wrapped an arm around Keith from the side and tucked him in against his body's contour.

" You're perfect, you know that?" Lance murmured and placed a kiss on the top of Keith's head. He could honestly say that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Keith, but he couldn't tell his boyfriend that quite yet.

He needed to hear the word first.

Keith kissed Lance's neck softly as he buried himself there. He was so flustered that he didn't even know what to do with himself anymore. It wasn't exactly out of the ordinary for Lance to make him blush and elicit butterflies in his stomach, but it wasn't usually that dehabiliating.

It was at moments like that, with the sky's beauty so unrivaled and with Keith's feelings for Lance so strong, that he wanted to get out. Keith had thought maybe he'd abandoned the idea of escaping, but it was tempting right then. He didn't want to just run off with Lance in the middle of the war and abandon the family... but... maybe... after Lotor was dead. Maybe they could have a shot at a normal life, and a normal, less chaotic relationship.

Lance had hoped that maybe Keith would take advantage of the romantic atmosphere and tell him, but he just had to keep on waiting.

" Hey, Lance..." Keith murmured on his tan skin.

Lance hummed and pulled Keith onto his lap, holding him close and savoring the feeling of Keith's body so near to his own. It was indescribable, the way it made his heart calm and his eyes lid, the way everything suddenly became okay.

" Have you ever thought about... leaving? Someday...?" Keith asked him, keeping his voice low.

Lance's eyes widened.

" Baby, what are you talking about?" He questioned. " This... Shiro has given me everything that I have..."

Keith looked to the side, sighing.

" Nevermind."

" No, not nevermind. I want to know what you mean." Lance turned Keith to face him yet again. He was coming off more combative than he had meant to. " Hey, I'm not mad... you just surprised me with that, that's all."

" I..." Keith gulped. " I mean like after we get all of this Lotor stuff sorted out."

" Keith, Baby..." Lance's face sank somewhat. " I'm next in line... so are you. We can't just dip out because it's hard. Shiro is eventually going to step down, and when that happens, he's giving us both everything..."

Keith listened to Lance's words, knowing that their lives were pretty much set in stone the moment Shiro put everything in his will. That wasn't to say Shiro was dying soon or anything like that, but they could literally inherit everything at any given moment.

There was a catch to this sort of life, and Keith didn't like it one bit. What if something happened to either he or Lance before they had the chance to do anything? He felt his gut wrench at the thought of it.

" But... I don't... I don't want to lose you." Keith stared down.

Lance pulled his boyfriend into his chest and let him stay there. He held Keith close, keeping his arms around him supportively, almost like he was incapable of letting go.

" I'm not going anywhere... and I'll never let you go either..." The taller boy promised him. Keith sank into Lance, inhaling his comforting and signature aroma. He always smelled so much like home, wherever that place was.

Keith reached behind Lance and tangled his hands in his brunette locks, wrapping his legs around Lance's torso and staying close to him.

" Keith... I'll never leave you." Lance assured. " No matter what happens with this war... I'll be damned if I let anything happen to what we have."

Keith prayed to anything and everything that Lance was right, and that his words wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass later.

They all had to be on high alert. Vacations were supposed to be a time for relaxation and winding down. And they had done exactly that before... that day. Lotor's girlfriend was apparently some rich daughter of the owner of the resort, and that meant that they weren't safe.

Shiro had told everyone that they were going to discuss it later that night, and Lance and Keith didn't have much time. They'd have to meet Shiro at one of the resort's bars for a game plan discussion.

After all, this was serious. Who was to say Lotor wasn't on the island? Sure, Allura had told them that he wasn't... but she could've just been lying for him. She could be one of his many pawns.

" Thank you..." Keith murmured into Lance's shirt.

" For?"

" For being here..." The shorter male spoke in a muffled tone.

" I love you, Keith." Lance swallowed thickly. " Where else would I be?"

Keith didn't know.

(( I'll have to flee the country after the next chapter... Pidge Stans are going to come for me...))