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“You’re not exactly subtle, you know.”
Lance had been so focused on the dissection he was supposed to be performing that he had forgotten his lab partner, Keith, was there. He caught himself before he could yelp in surprise, and a quick glance at the clock on the wall told him that lab would be ending in only about ten doboshes.
“Keith, don’t startle me like that,” Lance muttered, shooting Keith an annoyed glance. “You almost made me stab this poor rat’s kidney.”
Keith’s fluffy ears pinned back as he rolled his eyes, clearly unamused by Lance’s attempt at a joke. “I’m going to be blunt,” he said—Lance didn’t know why he bothered with the warning, since in his experience, Galra had a tendency to be rather blunt regardless. However, Lance still stared in disbelief when Keith next spoke. “What are you intentions towards Pidge,” Keith questioned him. Judging by the set of Keith’s ears, he was more concerned than angry—which made sense, given that Keith and Pidge had been practically attached at the hip their entire lives. Of course Keith would be concerned for her wellbeing.
“I don’t… understand,” Lance said, brow furrowing in confusion. “Do I have intentions with Pidge?”
Keith’s eyes narrowed, and his unsheathed claws tapped idly against the counter top of their station. Lance could hear the faint click of his toe-claws against the linoleum. But that was more of a nervous tick than a show of aggression, from what Lance had seen. Keith didn’t speak immediately, as if he were debating what he should say, but upon noticing Lance’s dumbfounded look, he perked his ears straight up and gave a couple of confused twitches.
“Wait…” Keith said, eyes widening. “You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”
“No?” Lance said, setting the scalpel to the side entirely, tilting his head as he looked at Keith. A frown appeared on his features, as he was beginning to get more than a little annoyed now. “Did I do something wrong?”
Keith sighed, running his hand over his crest as his ears eased at the sides of his head. “You… really don’t know that your crush on Pidge is… exceedingly obvious?” he asked, sounding extremely exasperated.
“What are you talking about?” Lance asked.
“Lotor thought you were being a jack’s ass—” Keith began explaining.
Lance scoffed. “Takes one to know one.”
Keith cut off, mouth left hanging open at Lance’s subtle jab at his boyfriend, before he let out another sigh. “Okay, that’s fair,” he said. “But he was concerned because Pidge is one of his best friends, and you have a habit of just flirting with everybody.”
Lance could concede to that point, at least. He did flirt a lot. However, very rarely was it because he was actually physically attracted to the people he flirted with. When he was younger, he had naively thought that he was supposed to flirt with people, just because that was what people did, but by the time he had entered college, he had only had one or two legitimate crushes under his belt—neither of which had led to anything. His wasn’t sure his flirting could really be called flirting. It was more like giving compliments…
“I’m still confused…” he said.
Keith’s ears pinned back. “The way you look at Pidge is the same way Lotor looks at me,” he said bluntly. “If you like her, you should tell her…”
Lance hadn’t noticed that he looked at Pidge any differently than he looked at anyone else, but… he did know that he was always excited to see her, always smiled at the mere mention of her, was always willing to listen to her technobabble even if he didn’t really understand it. He had assumed it was just because they were close friends, but thinking about it now, being around Hunk and Shiro didn’t cause his heart to leap into his throat.
“Is she at the dorm?” Lance asked, glancing quickly at the clock on the wall. The lab was ending in just two doboshes, and he could see their professor was starting to go around and check on everyone.
“As far as I know,” Keith said, tilting his head to the side as his ears perked straight up. The tips twitched back and forth as he regarded Lance curiously. “Why?”
“I have to talk to her,” Lance said—better to tell her now, before he lost his nerve. He didn’t give Keith a chance to respond as he quickly started cleaning up their lab station.
—
By the time Lance got to Pidge’s apartment, his heart felt like it was going to burst and he was struggling to catch his breath. He had run halfway across campus immediately after Keith had offered to clean up their lab so that he could go. Now, as he stood in front of the apartment door, he wasn’t entirely sure if he wanted to knock or not. He raised his hand, but hesitated. Would she be upset that it had taken him this long to realize…?
But Lance was… well, Lance. He never backed out of something after he had committed himself to it. Taking a deep breath, he finally knocked. It only took a tick for Pidge to respond—something about the door being open—and Lance let himself in. Pidge was sitting in her battered green armchair, while Lotor sat on the linoleum floor in front of her, allowing Pidge to braid his long, white hair. Both of their ears gave the slightest of twitches as Lance stepped into the dorm, but only Lotor turned to look at him. Pidge seemed to be focused on her work.
Lance couldn’t help but notice there was the slightest glow from the green markings on her cheeks, just below her eyes.
“Hello, Lance,” Lotor said smoothly. “To what do we owe the honor?”
“Uh, I just…” Lance began, trying to find his voice. Under Lotor’s stare, he suddenly felt self conscious—and noticing this, Lotor quirked a brow and the slightest smirk appeared on his lips. “Can I talk to Pidge?” Lance managed.
“You do not need my permission to speak with her,” Lotor said easily, turning his attention to his com when it gave a sudden chirp.
“I meant can I talk to her alone?” Lance said, more insistently.
Lotor snorted, ears twitching in amusement as he typed out a quick message. “Alright,” he said, getting to his feet. “I’ll be outside, Pidge.” And then, he disappeared without another word, tying off the half-finished braid as he went. He left the door open just a crack so he would be able to get back inside.
“What’s up, Lance?” Pidge asked, tilting her head curiously. However, her ears were twitching—it was a show of nervousness that Alteans and Galra happened to share. “Is something wrong?”
“I wanted to know if… you wanted to go out for coffee sometime,” Lance said. He spoke so quickly, he thought that perhaps she hadn’t caught what he had just said.
“Okay…” Pidge said, seeming confused.
“I mean as a date?” Lance elaborated, worried that she had misunderstood. “Sorry, that probably came out of nowhere—”
Pidge’s ears drooped in annoyance as she groaned. “Lance, I thought we were already courting?” she said, crossing her arms. Lotor’s laughter could be just barely heard from the crack in the door, and it only seemed to annoy Pidge more—the green markings on her cheeks glowed a little brighter. “Lotor, shut up!” she snapped.
Lance’s cheeks burned in embarrassment. “I… I hadn’t realized…”
“That much is obvious,” Pidge said with a sigh. “I just assumed… humans don’t tend to be as touchy-feely as you… like, I expect it from Lotor and Keith because they’re Galra, but it’s not really a human thing, y’know?”
“I should’ve said something sooner, but I kind of… didn’t even realize that I liked you, like that?” Lance admitted.
“Keith said Lotor was the exact same way,” Pidge said, and a slight smile appeared on her lips. “It’s alright… we’ll just go and get that coffee and it’ll all be okay.”
Lance allowed his shoulders to relax as he returned her timid smile and nodded. Even though he was nervous, there was an underlying excitement there—he couldn’t wait. “Sounds good.”
