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Keith sat in the dining area of the castle with everyone except for Hunk, who was finishing up with breakfast, and Lance, who was either still sleeping or still getting ready. He figured the latter, since Lance was usually with the rest of the group by the time they started eating. Since the blue paladin insisted that he needed to get a full eight hours of sleep every night, he was more often than not the last one to start his day. Of course, he was a royal pain in the ass if he missed out on sleep, so it was preferred that he was late. Keith would never admit it out loud, but he admired Lance’s ability to do what he did to keep himself upbeat and as happy as he could be, being stranded out in space.
As Hunk started bringing over the plates of food, Lance walked in, pouting, and before anyone could ask about it, he was whining. “This is a tragedy! An outrage! My entire life is about to be ruined!”
“What’s going on, Lance?” Shiro questioned. They all knew he was probably being more dramatic than the situation called for. Shiro always let him talk, just in case the issue actually pertained to everyone else on the ship. Regardless, they all knew that when Lance was upset, it was best to let him talk about it.
“I’m almost out of my skincare products! I only have enough for tomorrow!”
“Have you talked to Allura and Coran about Altean skincare? Or asked about looking during a supply run?” Pidge suggested, not looking up from their plate of food.
“Yes! Altean anything is scary and Allura has insisted that anything like what I need is either going to be extremely expensive or in Galra territory and it’s not worth risking it for a luxury,” Lance was visibly frustrated.
“The best we can do then is just look out for it when we make stops. I’m sure you’ll be fine living without it until then,” Shiro tried to be comforting.
“Ugh, I should have looked while we were in the space mall. There would have been something there and it’s hopeless to ask Allura to go back.”
“We don’t need to have perfect skin to fight against Zarkon. It doesn’t matter how we look,” Keith chimed it.
“This isn’t about that! It’s about taking care of myself so I can fight well!” Lance snapped, stomping out of the room. Shiro frowned.
When Lance was out of earshot, Hunk spoke up, “Lance has always taken his skincare routine very seriously. He’s done it for years. Now, I think it’s more important to him than it was before since it’s the one from Earth that he still has, er, had.”
Keith suddenly felt like a jerk.
This morning was still replaying in Keith’s head even as he tried to train. He couldn’t bring himself to focus, so he shut the system down and went to change out of his paladin armor. He knew he shouldn’t be fretting over Lance being upset, but he couldn’t help it. They were getting to be pretty good friends at this point, and Keith had recently acknowledged and accepted the fact that he had feelings for Lance. He never intended to do anything about it, especially given the whole Voltron situation. He didn’t want to act on them and mess up the entire team and pursuing a relationship when they had the universe to defend didn’t seem like the best idea anyway.
Regardless, Keith felt bad about what he had said and wanted to do something that would make Lance feel better. He found himself walking to the control room, where he assumed Allura would be.
“Oh, Keith! Is there something you need?” Allura greeted him as he walked inside.
“Uh, actually, yeah, it’s about Lance-”
“Lance and his desperate need for his beauty supply stock to be replenished?” She smirked and rolled her eyes, “I got the monologue from him this morning. I’d offered to show him some Altean products weeks ago before this was even a thought, but he refused.”
“Are we stopping for supplies soon?”
“We should reach a planet that has some things we need for the ship by tomorrow morning. But I’ve told him, it’s going to be too expensive or there’s not going to be anything at all.”
“I’ve hardly spent any of my allowance. I’m sure I’ll have enough. Let me go?”
Allura sighed, but smiled. “Alright. I’ll take you, Hunk, and Coran with me tomorrow. Don’t expect anything, but then again, you’d be much less insufferable about it than Lance.”
“Thank you, Princess.”
The next morning went as Allura said it would. Lance, of course, complained about not getting to go since he usually goes when Hunk does and he wanted to look for potential products.
“I’ve chosen the best team based on what we know about this planet and its inhabitants. I’m sorry, Lance, but I won’t risk it for a luxury item,” Allura calmly explained. The explanation was enough to stop him from vocalizing more discontent, but he would probably be pouting all day.
One the ship taking them down to the planet, Allura explained that she’d be going to talk politics while the three of them would head to the market. “Keith will be going on his own to look for something to bring back for Lance.”
“Wait, what? Seriously?” Hunk looked over to the red paladin.
“Yeah. I probably have enough money since I haven’t spent any of my share.”
“Aw, young love!”
“Hunk.”
“Relax, I’m just messing with you, but this is, like, really nice of you,” he paused, “For the record, though, your crush is not subtle and we all know. Well, Lance doesn’t know. He’s beyond oblivious.”
“Whatever. I won’t do anything about it.”
“This is kinda doing something about it. But, hey, it’s your decision and I’m not gonna meddle.”
They landed without much more discussion. Allura went off on her on and Hunk and Coran parted with him once they made it to the market, agreeing to meet back at the entrance in two hours.
As he walked, he mostly saw ship parts, food, what looked like toys or trinkets, and tons of other things he had no idea how to categorize, though he was certain they weren’t skin products. He listened to conversations of shoppers that passed him, but heard nothing. He could keep walking around, but he knew it’d be much quicker to try and ask someone.
“Um, excuse me?” he asked, approaching what looked like a family. They eyed him curiously, but stopped walking to let him speak, “I don’t know if you can help me out a bit, but I’m looking for a place that sells, uh, skincare stuff or beauty products? Is there anything like that here?”
“Keep going all the way down this row of stands, then turn right at the end. It’ll be on your left, though they will likely be low on stock, if there is anything left at all,” the tallest one answered.
“Thank you,” Keith waved and walked the way that he was instructed.
Just as the alien had described, there was a stand with a small creature trying to draw in customers. He approached the table and was immediately greeted by the salesalien. “Welcome! What can I get for you?”
“My friend is out of… stuff. I have a list of what’s in it, but it’s from Earth. I don’t know if you’ll have anything similar? It’s mostly, uh, dead sea minerals?” He had no idea how in the world something like that could make up a face product, but Lance must've known what he was doing.
“Earth? Never heard of it. Let me see that list,” she reached her hand out and Keith gave her the slip of paper, “Water, kaolin, bentonite, maris sal, linalool, methylchloroisothiazolinone…” she mumbled the items on the list to herself with a thoughtful expression. “Can I test my products on your arm?”
Keith nodded and pulled off the armor and the gloves from his suit before reaching his arm over the table. The alien began putting a little bit of a bunch of products onto his skin.
“Does anything burn? Sting? Feel like it’s doing something it shouldn’t?”
“It’s not painful. I don’t know what they’re supposed to feel like, but um, is it supposed to dry like this one or this one?” he pointed to two of the lines of the cream.
The salesalien giggled, “This one is meant to be washed off and this one is meant to be peeled, so they should be drying differently. If none of them are causing any pain or discomfort by now they are all safe for your species to use. I don’t know what your friend’s skin is like, so I can’t make any specific recommendations. Take your pick.”
Keith had hoped only one or two things would be safe so he didn’t have to chose. He didn’t even know what Lance’s skin was like, so he had to wing it.
About five minutes later, the salesalien was beaming and Keith had almost no money left. He did, however, have an abundance of product for Lance. When he met up with Coran and Hunk, the two raised their eyebrows. When Allura joined them, she looked amused. They’d probably never let go of the fact that Keith definitely panicked and bought everything.
Hunk agreed to keep Lance busy enough for Keith to put all the products away in Lance’s cabinet in the bathroom. He didn’t want to make it a bigger deal than he knew it was already going to be. Once that was all settled, he returned to the rest of the team and listened to Allura’s post-mission announcements, then headed to his room.
Lance’s heart was racing. He had gone into the bathroom, prepared to scrape out whatever little bit remained in his products before he turned in for the night and was met with cabinets full of lotions and face masks and scrubs.
Impulsively, he ran out of the bathroom and bumped into Shiro. “Lance? Everything okay?”
“WholeftallthethingsinmycabinetdidAllur--”
“Woah, slow down there.”
“Who left the stuff in my cabinets? Was it actually Allura?”
“From what I heard, that would be Keith.”
“What!?” Lance’s jaw dropped.
“Don’t look at me. If you want to know, he’s the one you need to talk to.”
Lance didn’t know how to react. Shiro left him alone to process the information that Keith was the mystery gifter. Keith was the last person Lance would have expected to do something like this. He found himself walking to Keith’s room, which was right next to his room so he supposed he could just go back to his room if he chickened out. He tapped on the door, pretty quietly, but he was sure that it was heard. The door slid open a few moments later.
“Oh, uh, hey Lance,” Keith’s voice faltered a little bit, not having expected Lance to approach him so quickly, “Can I… help you?”
“Didn’t you already?” Lance chuckled.
“Ah, yeah. It was nothing, really.”
“‘Nothing really’ he says! Keith I could kiss you I’m so happy.” Keith’s eyes widened. “It’s a figure of speech!” Keith visibly released some of the tension from his muscles, and Lance took the opening to step forward and gave him a quick peck on the corner of his mouth. “But actually kissing you works, too.”
“Don’t tease me like that,” Keith looked down and reached for the button to close the door, “You’re welcome for the stuff.”
“Hey, hey, wait a minute! I’m not teasing you,” he blocked the door from closing with his arm, “Do you want to… try some of the product with me?”
Keith was silent for a few moments, but eventually nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
“Great! You kinda bought enough to last me like a year.”
“I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Obviously,” Lance took hold of Keith’s wrist and led him down the hallways and into the bathroom.
Lance was bouncing as he pulled one of the face masks off the cabinet shelf. They say across from each other on the bathroom floor. “Alright, Keithy,” Keith’s heart skipped a beat at the nickname, “I’ll put this on my face and then you just copy what I do on your own face.”
He nodded and watched as Lance took some of the substance onto two of his fingers and started slowly rubbing it on his left cheek in circular motions. He spread it across his cheek, then on to his chin, and then on to the other cheek. He took more of the cream as he needed and kept the same motion going, adjusting the size of the circles as needed, all over his face until it was completely covered. “Your turn!”
The bottle was pushed toward him, so Keith did the same, or what he thought was the same. He took the cream onto his fingers and then began rubbing it on his face.
“Keith! Keith, no!”
“What?”
“You literally just watched me do it, no, you know what, give me that,” Lance snatched up the bottle and scooted closer to Keith, “I’ll just put it on you. Bonding moment, right?”
Lance reached his hand up and began fixing the glob that Keith had rubbed onto his face. His touch was gentle, and he moved his hand in the same circular motion he’d used before. He pulled away to add more of the cream to his fingers, and Keith shivered at the contact this time. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Yeah, it’s fine. A little cold, but, uh, fine.” Lance nodded and kept going. It took a bit longer for Keith’s face to get covered, probably because Lance just wasn’t used to putting this stuff on other people. Regardless, it was over and Lance was no longer in his personal bubble. “These things really do look stupid.”
“It’s not about how they look while they’re on, it’s about the magic that happens and what you look like afterward.”
“Magic? You mean making my face stiff and uncomfortable?”
“Stop talking, you’re gonna make both of our crack and fall off.”
“Our faces?” Keith joked, though he tried not to smirk.
“Oh my god no the ma- oh, you’re joking. Shut up.”
They sat in mostly silence. Lance started humming something that Keith didn’t recognize, but he did like it. He hadn’t expected to enjoy sitting with Lance like this, even if his face felt extremely unpleasant. It was times like this when Lance wasn’t being overly dramatic or too outspoken that reminded Keith how much he liked Lance. It was times like this when he wanted nothing more than to act on his feelings.
The humming stopped suddenly, making Keith look up and into Lance’s eyes. Since when were they so... blue?
“Can I kiss you?” the words left Keith’s mouth before he could stop them. He saw Lace’s expression falter, as much as it could with the mask.
“Didn’t… didn’t I already-”
“Lance.” The boy in question nodded, and Keith moved toward him. Their lips touched, barely, but Lance backed away abruptly.
“No, nope, no, no, no, no I just got the mask in my mouth that was disgusting.” Lance sputtered and Keith couldn’t help but laugh.
It wasn’t long before their faces were washed. Keith had to admit that these things really do work; his face felt very nice and overall he felt refreshed. They walked back to their rooms, and both stopped in front of Lance’s door. “Do you… want to come in for a while?”
Lance blushed, looking expectantly at Keith. “Yeah, alright.”
He opened the door and as they walked inside he commented, “I mean, I guess I owe you a kiss. Or two. Or more.”
“I guess you do.”