"Look, you stay on one side of the pool, and I'll stay on the other. And we'll be far, far away from each other."

Lance nodded at Keith's request, looking awkwardly at the floor. They were standing on opposite sides of the elevator that led up to the Castle of Lion's top floor, where they'd heard there was a pool.

"Very far," Keith added.

Lance had wanted to go swimming as his whole body ached from the intense training Allura and Coran had been ordering the Paladins to go through to prep for battle. But Lance had never been extraordinarily strong and was actually rather thin and lithe compared to Keith and Hunk.

It wasn't like he wanted to be big and buff, but being thrown to the floor again and again by the stronger robot opponent in the training sim definitely didn't do wonders for his confidence or the soreness of his muscles.

Rolling his shoulders, he and Keith waited in silence for the elevator to rise. After a few more seconds, it halted. Except, instead of the doors opening, all the lights in the elevator promptly shut off, leaving the two Paladins in complete darkness.

"Uh, Keith? What just happened?" Lance asked nervously. Keith groaned and pulled out the small tablet that all the Paladins were given to communicate with each other. He pressed a few buttons on the dimly illuminated screen, then waited.

"What's up, Keith?" Shiro's voice asked nonchalantly from the tablet.

"I think the elevator's broken," Keith replied dully, sounding annoyed.

Shiro sighed. "Maybe Coran shut the power off? He did say that he needed to shut off the online systems in order to... fix the... the wormhole thing. Sit tight, I'm sure he'll be finished in a bit."

Lance wanted to smack his head off the wall- really?

"I'm with Lance. I don't want to be stuck with him for the next hour in an elevator," Keith complained loudly.

"Maybe try climbing the shaft?" Lance stifled a giggle, aggressively shoving his mind out of the gutter.

"Okay, fine," Keith responded, sounding very much like an angsty teen- oh wait, he was an angsty teen. He turned off the transmission and the elevator was dark and silent again.

Setting to work, both began to reach up and press the panels on the ceiling of the elevator, trying to find the hatch that would allow them to get up into the shaft of the elevator. Lance was the one to eventually find it and he was beginning to grow a hunch that Keith was too short to touch the ceiling at all and that he'd just been faking it.

Nevertheless, Lance hoisted himself (and then cautiously helped Keith) up on top of the elevator. The two stared up the long vertical passageway loathingly. "How the hell...?" Keith muttered.

Lance suddenly had an idea (which Keith would probably hate). Eyes fixed on the winding space above them, he asked Keith, "Have you ever seen The Emperor's New Groove?"

"The what?" Keith asked irritably.

"You know, the kids' movie? The llama? Cuzco?"

Keith shook his head. Lance sighed. "Just follow my lead." He promptly stood back-to-back with Keith, who let out a muffled grunt of surprise, looped elbows with him, and then situated them on the center of the elevator.

"On my count, we're gonna start walking up the walls."

"You're insane."

"You got any other ideas?"

"Fine. On my count, though. Start on your right foot. One, two, three."

It went alright for a little bit. They had to get used to it, but it actually worked surprisingly well. That is, until...

"It's right, then left, idiot. You're off," Keith snapped after they slipped down a few feet from lack of balance.

"No, you're off! And you're shoving too hard!" Lance countered indignantly.

"You're not shoving hard enough!"

They paused to regain their balance on the sides of the walls and Lance relaxed his muscles, feeling the cool, damp sweatiness of Keith's back on his own.

"I should be at the pool right now," he muttered mournfully.

Keith sighed, looking over his shoulder at Lance. "Would you stop whining?" He glanced up the elevator shaft to see how much farther they had left to go. His eyes landed on the vent in the side of the passageway and realized that they were closer than he'd thought. "Lance, look." The Blue Paladin glanced up too.

"C'mon," he said determinedly, pushing hard against Keith's back as they stepped in sync. In less than a few minutes, they were sliding through the vent. Lance couldn't keep himself from yelling as he slid down behind Keith- it was like a terrifying vertical slide of doom.

And then, all of a sudden, he was face-down on the cold, hard tile floor of... "What the heck?" Lance shrieked. As he looked up, he realized that the "pool" was on the ceiling. He and Keith had landed in a large, circular room with lights surrounding the perimeter. In the center of the room were four large pillars that hung above the ground, seeming to support the "swimming pool", which was an oblong surface of bright blue water.

"Stupid Altean pools," Keith muttered.

They slowly walked forward into the center of the room, still gazing upwards to the crystalline blue water above. "How do we get up there?" Lance asked in awe. And then, before he could ponder further, he felt a strange sensation.

Lance was floating. His feet slowly lifting off the tile floor, he drifted upwards, the lights catching on his skin and in his hair, zero-gravity as he drifted up towards the pool.

"Lance?" Keith asked nervously, bemusedly concerned.

"Come on!" Lance laughed, holding out his hand. Against his better judgment, Keith grabbed Lance's palm and felt, with a jolt, the soles of his feet leave the cool tiled ground (or ceiling?) of the room. His stomach lurched, but he kept his eyes glued to Lance's face, his sunny smile as they glided up towards the pool.

When they were at about the midpoint of the room, Lance felt his center of gravity change and suddenly, he wasn't floating up, but falling down. He and Keith fell into the pool with a splash. Surfacing, Lance looked around in wonder, treading water as he pondered how it was possible. A single room with the ability to have two gravitational pulls?

He turned and looked over at Keith, who held an expression similar to his own. With an evil grin, Lance sent a small splash Keith's way. The tiny wave broke over Keith's right shoulder, causing the mulleted Texan to cast Lance a suspicious glance.

Another splash, small, harmless. Keith looked up again, this time catching Lance's eye and mischevious lips. He splashed some water at Lance in turn, still not too big a wave.

And then, Lance fucking unleashed. In an instant, he was rising out of the water, sweeping his arms forward, sending two massive waves towards a bewildered, but soon a sly grin slid over his lips and he was splashing back with all the force he could muster, kicking frantic waves over at Lance, all the while suppressing laughter.

The Blue Paladin shrieked and whooped with laughter, his calls echoing off the walls of the room, his voice reverberating off the tiles, water in his eyes and mouth, nothing in his mind but the petty battle. He let himself get carried away and suddenly lunged at Keith, throwing his long arms around him and pulling them both underwater.

Their limbs sliding against each other, legs tangled, Lance's hands on Keith's torso, fingers splayed across his broad chest, bubbles escaping their lips. Keith closed his eyes, but under his fingertips, he could feel the fine lines of Lance's jaw, the soft texture of his hair in the water under his palm. He didn't dare look for he knew that the image of Lance, gorgeous, floating above him with that playful smirk, would likely do him in.

Instead, he waited until Lance surfaced, pulling Keith up along with him. They broke into the air together, chests heaving as they gulped in air. Still, Keith didn't open his eyes. He was so close to Lance that he could feel the cool exhales of breath on his bare shoulder.

One of his hands was still pressed to Lance's neck, just below his jaw, the other to his chest. He felt Lance's arms semi-encircling him, his long fingers on his lower back, his other palm resting just below Keith's shoulder blades. They were a tangled ball of yarn. A swirling tornado of skin on skin. A knot, slipping past each other, only becoming more tightly stuck.

Keith slowly opened his eyes. He couldn't look Lance in the face yet, so he focused on his hand on Lance's chest. Below his fingertips, he felt the Cuban's heartbeat, quick and strong. It thrummed nervously beneath his palm as if Lance's own heart was reaching through his skin to touch Keith.

Keith's eyes worked their way from Lance's chest to his neck to the shell of his ear to the freckles on his cheeks. He skirted around his eyes to his forehead, to the effortlessness of his wet hair swept back, save for a cowlick that curled out of place. Keith allowed his eyes to meet Lance's and god, that was a mistake.

Those eyes held a million questions and all Keith wanted to say was 'yes'. Yes, I've liked you since the day I saw you. Yes, I was just playing hard-to-get but you didn't catch on. Yes, I know, I know, I know. The blue of Lance's eyes was so captivating Keith feared he'd get stuck. They glued him to the spot. They held a promise and so many other unspoken words. They dared him to break contact.

So he did. He let his eyes drop to Lance's lips and then back up to his eyes. Back and forth again. The water of the pool was warm and silent and calm and all Keith wanted to do was melt. He swooned just a little, his knees faltering, and Lance caught him, pulling him closer than Keith thought imaginable, fingertips pressing into his skin gently, his eyes only asking one question now.

Keith answered it with his lips, unable to form 'yes' but capable of meeting Lance halfway. The first kiss was soft and sweet and lingering and Lance's lips were nothing like those in the countless daydreams Keith had imagined. They were pillowy soft and sweet, slightly tacky from chapstick that tasted like synthetic cupcakes.

Keith did melt. Into Lance's lips and arms, his heart open and ready to be read, surrendering everything but the feel of Lance.

...

(smth nice n lowkey steamy to make up for bein late - bold of you to assume i edit <33)