The only thing Keith could hear was a fuzzy noise. Like that ringing he got in his ears after being at a concert for hours, but somehow even more deafening. He tried to open his eyes, but all of the muscles in his body had frozen in place.

Oh God, was he dead? Was Lance dead?

Lance! All of the memories of their last moments together swirled into Keith's mind, making his heart beat out of his chest. He had to stay alive. For the chance of just a few more moments with Lance. His eyes started to flutter, and the never ending darkness from behind his closed eyes was replaced with a blinding white light.

~

"I swear to Alfor, if he doesn't wake up soon, I'll g-note him until he wakes up screeching."

Keith groaned.

"Please don't do that, I'll start crying."

"Yeah, exac–KEITH!!" the green paladin shrieked, throwing herself onto Keith. "We thought you were dead!"

"You gave us a huge scare, dude!" Hunk added, squeezing Keith and Pidge into one giant Hunk Hug. God, Keith was so grateful to be able to see them. As Hunk let go and Pidge scuttled off him, he sat up and looked around the room.

"Where are we?" he asked, not recognising the lion they were in as red or black.

"We're in my lion," Pidge said. "Can't you tell by the green hue that is literally everywhere?"

"Ha, ha." Keith deadpanned. His heart dropped to his stomach in dread as he finished scanning the room. "Where's Lance?"

The two paladins looked down at the floor.

"Uh..." Hunk mumbled, fiddling with his hands.

"Where is he!" Keith shouted, not knowing whether he wanted an answer or not.

Pidge took over. "Keith, he–"

The door burst open.

"Hey, I got the food for— KEITH!" Lance shrieked, almost an exact replica of what Pidge had sounded like minutes before. He dropped whatever he was holding and ran over to the bed Keith was sitting on. Keith couldn't talk. He was frozen as the love of his life embraced him, tears trickling down his shocked face. He's been given back to me.

"My sharpshooter..." Keith whispered into Lance's shoulder.

"We're okay," Lance whispered back reassuringly. "We're okay."

They'd been given a second chance. A chance to start over. To rewrite their ending. Keith wanted to stay in his embrace forever, but they broke apart as the door opened once more.

"Keith!" Shiro half shouted as he pushed his way in between Pidge and Hunk to approach the boys, turning back around briefly to say a short apology to both of them.

"Don't you EVER do that again," Shiro commanded as he pulled both boys into his embrace, Keith in his real arm and Lance being cradled awkwardly by his robot stump. "What were you thinking!?"

"We, uh..." Lance started, then cut off as he realised he didn't know what to say.

"Had some stuff to talk about?" Keith finished for him awkwardly.

"Oh, yeah, we know." Pidge said, as an evil smirk appeared on her face. "Lots of things to talk about..."

"I don't like that smile," Lance whispered to Keith.

"Oh, quiznak!" Keith swore, suddenly realising why Pidge was grinning. That was how she'd managed to find them!

"I can't believe it took you until you thought you were going to die to confess your feelings, buddy!" Hunk said, patting Lance on the back with a grin.

"YOU GUYS WERE LISTENING IN ON OUR CONVERSATION?!?" Lance shrieked, jumping up off the bed, any previous relief about seeing his friends dissipating in that moment.

"You were very brave telling him about your true feelings, Keith, I'm very proud of you." Shiro smiled, squeezing his brother tighter.

"Were ALL of you listening to the whole conversation?!" Keith asked, feeling suddenly uncomfortable being so close to the person everyone had heard him confess his undying love for.

"Well, Allura had to stay with Blue and the other lions after you were dragged away by those 'harmless little space blobs', and Romelle, Coran and Krolia slept through the whole thing." Pidge explained. "So the only ones that know you made a My Chemical Romance reference in your last moments are us three."

"I can't believe you," Keith groaned. "That was supposed to be a private moment!"

"Dude, if it had really been a private moment, you guys would totally have been dead by now." Hunk cut in helpfully.

"Yeah," Pidge said. "I'm the one that tracked you and found you guys passionately making out in space without your helmets on."

"Did you have to word it like that?" Keith mumbled into his hands, which were now covering his face to hide his embarrassment.

"Hey!" Lance pouted. "You make it sound like we were being reckless on purpose! We didn't just decide to run out of oxygen!"

"But you did decide to leave your lion in deep space to go and have a nice little gay conversation in private with your 'rival'." Pidge shot back.

"Only so you wouldn't listen in!"

"And we all know how well that went for you!" Pidge said with a smirk.

The two paladins stopped their bickering as Shiro stepped in between them, putting his hands on both their shoulders.

"Alright, that's enough." He said in his stern 'dad voice'. "I think we should give Keith and Lance some private time to discuss... things."

Keith smiled gratefully to his brother, feeling his heart flutter at the notion of talking to Lance, properly alone this time. Shiro seemed to push Lance closer to Keith, before ushering Hunk and the little green demon towards the door.

"Yeah, you go get your man!" Hunk yelled as the group left the room, neither boy sure who he was addressing.

The door shut, and there was finally peace and quiet.

"Did you...really mean what you said out there?" Keith asked quietly, keeping his gaze on the closed door. "Or was it a spur-of-the-moment confession that you just said to make me happy?"

Lance sat back down beside him with a soft thump, scooting closer so their legs were brushing against each other. Keith's breath hitched as he felt Lance's hand caress his jaw and turn his head so he was looking into his deep blue eyes. God, he was beautiful.

"Would I lie to you?" Lance said softly.

"Yes." Keith scoffed, trying and failing to look away from Lance's alluring gaze.

"Point taken," Lance chuckled. "But this time, Keith, I didn't lie. I meant every single word I said out there to you. It just took you saying what you felt for me to realise that I felt the same way, and I have for a long time."

"Oh," Keith spluttered, not knowing what to say to that. His brain was on 'holy-shit-he-said-he-loved-me-and-really-meant-it' panic mode, and looking directly into Lance's eyes was not helping in that regard.

Keith seemed to have passed on this panic to Lance, because he could see the colour darkening on Lance's cheeks and a slightly terrified look in his eyes as the words came tumbling out of his mouth.

"I mean, we obviously don't have to rush into things if you don't want to, and you'll probably change your mind about me sometime soon, so you know what we don't even have to do this cause you probably don't actually love me and I've made a complete and utter fool of-"

Keith grabbed Lance's face with both hands.

"Shut up, you moron."

He pulled their lips together, and the whole universe around them melted away. All that mattered was that they were here, alive, and Lance was in Keith's arms. No matter what battles and challenges the future held, they would face them together. Keith gently broke out of the kiss, and pressed his forehead to Lance's.

"I love you, Sharpshooter."

"I love you too, Mullet."

"FUCK YES!" Pidge yelled from outside the closed door. Her next words were muffled, as either Hunk or Shiro put their hand over her mouth.

"We can't get a moment of privacy around here, can we?" Keith chuckled.

"Just wait until we get back to my lion, hot stuff," Lance said with a suggestive smirk. Keith felt his cheeks heating at the notion as he took Lance's hands in his, and pulled Lance with him as he stood up.

"What are we waiting for, then? We've got all the time in the world, dork."

The end... for now

a/n Thank you for reading!! I'm thinking of writing an epilouge, depending on if anyone wants to read it. Let me know, and have a great day!! <3