Shit is about to go down, guys🙊

⟴ ⛢ ⟴

Today was the day where Keith would officially throw away his chance of having an actual life.

And oh, going to team Voltron's first banquet, that too.

He still had time to stop whatever he was about to do, and take a moment to reflect thoroughly about his dumb little observation, but a bolt must have gone loose in his head because his thoughts was certainly not stable.

And then there was Lance, behind the reason behind it all.

It wasn't something he did in particular, like, all the time. It was more like small bits building up to something bigger, and Keith hated that he had to be affected by it. He was starting to think that he let himself be affected by it, ever since their bonding moment, he guessed. It was confusing to him, since he normally didn't give a shit about anyone. But Lance wasn't just anyone. He was a jackass who he needed to observed.

Their fourth round of Query Quest yesterday had gone uneventful after the whole Spanish thing, and it had just been useless questions thrown back and forth, from there, until the only thing they found out about each other were thing anyone could guess. But Allura didn't seem to mind when it was time to report to her; it seemed like the only thing she cared about was that they weren't brawling like before, and what kind of things they found out about each other didn't really matter. Maybe they didn't even have to put up with this activity. Maybe they could just stop fighting. That was what everyone wanted from the start, after all.

They were currently returning from a very intensive trip to the space mall, and it was now time to change for their first banquet. They would be going to those for several days, and it had been something they'd been planning for quite some time now. When they weren't training for the last drop of sweat, they often gathered up in the control room to structure a schedule and make calls to a variety of planets to arrange a day they could visit them. The whole point with this was to spread the word that Voltron had returned, with new paladins and new security, and tu ensure every species safety as best as they could.

Keith couldn't understand why they had to dress up so fancy for that. Why couldn't they just call everyone and tell them? It was so much more faster and convenient.

"This will be awesome!" Lance said merrily as he entered the control room, followed by Hunk smiling broadly behind him. They were both dressed up fancy; Lance has managed to find an attire that resembled something like a blue shirt and pants, only that this shirt had neon pattern and open shoulders, which immediately led Keith's thoughts to that it was probably customized to an alien specie that had something sticking out of their shoulders, which made him shudder. Or the design was just that crazy.
Hunk was wearing almost the same clothes, only that his was yellow, and far more colorful. But they both wore their regular shoes, and Keith guessed it was because they hadn't find any alien shoes that fit their feet.

Keith, on the other hand, found just the right thing: a plain black button up shirt he found in the Earth store, going with his daily pants and shoes. And to spice things up a little, he decided to pull his hair back into a loose ponytail with a bandaid he found in the infarmary since he didn't have an hair tie or anything better than that. He felt ridiculous, but looking at Lance and Hunk made him feel slightly better.

The duo both fixed each other's hair a little bit more by running their hand over it to put it in place, before both looking at everyone else in the room. They were the last one to arrive.

"Finally", Keith muttered, pushing himself away from the wall he had been leaning against for the past twenty minutes. He looked at Shiro in front of him, dressed in something similar to the two fools that had just arrived, only that his clothes were a little bit more unobtrusive, but it had the same kind of structure. Had they all been shopping at the same store, or something? "Can we go now?"

"Everyone seems ready" Shiro confirmed with a little nod, looking over all the paladins. "We can now prepare for takeoff."

"Everyone does NOT seem ready", Lance had to exclaim, walk up to Keith and prodding a finger up his chest, looking at Shiro. "What kind of outfit is this? This is no way to dress fancy! If anything, it will just scare everyone off. We want to make a good first impression, right? Keith will just not let us do that."

"Just because I don't look like an ornament doesn't mean my outfit is bad. My eyes hurt just by looking at all the patterns and colors on your clothes", Keith snarled, realizing he was insulting not only Lance, but Hunk and Shiro too, since they practically wore the same kind of clothes. He was happy with his achievement.

"Everyone is looking amazing", the buff man said, not having any of their shit. He turned around to look at the two alteans that had been discussing something intensively over the holograms for the past ten minutes. "Princess? Everyone is ready to go."

Allura swirled around immediately, cutting Coran midsentence, looking over at the paladins. She wore the same dress she usual had on, only this time, she had added a sparkling, big necklace to the attire, laying like a diamond cover over the top of her collar - it seems like she had got her sparkling thing from the mall, after all. Her hairdo was also different; A big bun at the top of her head, with a long braid going around it. It wasn't major changes, but somehow they seemed to bring out a completely new look to her. One that Lance would instantly notice.

"Well hello there...", the blue paladin purred, pushing Keith aside, making him stumble sideways before regaining his balance and promptly trying to pull out his dagger form his holster to attack, but Shiro sensed it right away and firmly put his metallic hand on the sharp object, giving him a stern look. Lance was already in front of the princess, fixing his collar, shooting her a grin. He then took her hands in his, leaning down and placing a protracted kiss to her skin, before standing up again and lifting up her hands closer to his chest, looking her in the eyes. "Is there an airport nearby, or is it just my heart taking off?"

"What's an airport?"  Allura asked.

"Ah, your folly makes my heart go woosh!" Lance let go of one of her hands to clutch the fabric over his chest.

"Excuse me, what do you mean by folly? I can understand things just perfectly. There is nothing wrong about my experiences. It's just your Earth culture that's too confusing..."

"Mmm, of course. I'm sure you have tons of experience in kissing. Maybe you could show me your skills..." He was starting to lean in for a kiss, but before he could finish, or Allura could pull away, Shiro was beside him, trying to stop the other boy this time. Keith was free to move now, and he debated on whether he could try to take out his dagger again. Pidge saw his movement, and gave an approving nod before going back to straightening her green tuxedo.

"Okay loverboy Lance, that's enough", Shiro said, pulling the lovestruck boy away from his crush, drawing a frustrated whine out of him. "We have a banquet to attend to."

⟴ ⛢ ⟴

Keith wanted to escape.

It had only been ten minutes, according to Pidge's phone, and he swore that he was starting to get grey hair. He could even feel how his skin was slowly wrinkling. Maybe it was the strange alien air that was doing things to his body. He even considered going back to the castle to put on his armor, with helmet and everything. Wouldn't it be wise to wear that from the start? Since they were here to represent Voltron and its service. It was only logical to wear their uniforms, as a representation of their battle looks. But Allura claimed that to be able to create some kind of assurance, they needed to look equal with their supporters. Keith couldn't seem to understand how the other's could look equal when everyone was looking like baubles.

Lance was taking his plan seriously. As soon as Allura had finished her rehearsed speech for the Farglan's, he skedaddled over to any alien girl he could find in the crowd, turning on his very un-charming charm, and Keith saw every wink he shot, every finger gun he fired. That's right, he didn't have anything better to do, so he had watched the casanova flirth with girls from left and right, not being able to tear his eyes away. He was torturing himself, having to witness something like that, and he didn't know why he couldn't look away.

"Excuse me!" Suddenly Keith was forced to avert his eyes, since he was switlty turned around by a pair of hands, making his head spin momentarily. When he recaptured his focus again, he looked down at the stranger, frowning. It was a Farglan girl, shorter than him by an inch. The alien look was something bizarre; hair like several thick tentacles running down her shoulders, starting off as dark blue and shifting to a tint of dark purple at the bottom. Her whole skin was dark blue, her plump lips navy, her scleras coal black, but her irises standing out as neon yellow. The black dot-like marks on her forehead twitched when she flashed Keith an apologetic look, taking his arms and putting it around her slim waist.

"What the hell..." The perplexed boy was adding up every cuss word he could use in his head, but before he could utter any of them, the alien spoke.

"I'm so sorry about this." Her voice was deep, and her black, long collar dress swayed when she forced the two of them to move to the slow music around them. "I have a very good explication for this."

"I could really use that right now", Keith muttered, hating how his arms was around an alien girl other's would count as totally hot. More specifically Lance.

"Well, you see, me and my part... or, ex-partner is currently going through some bumps, and he have been all girls this whole day, so I kind of wanted to test if he would react in any way if I did the same with other Farglan's." She flitted a look sideways, before quickly looking back, moving faster.

Her explination seemed logical, but that didn't change the fact that Keith was feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"Why did you pick me out of everyone?" the red paladin hissed, suppressing a groal as the Farglan made them twirl. She was surprisingly strong.

"You seem like my age, standing completely open, with no one to dance, and you're also very good-looking", she answered, her gaze flickering between him and what must have been her ex-partner. When she looked back at Keith again, there was a hint of something roguish in her neon eyes. "The boy thing was just a bonus. You'd be just as remarkable as a girl too."

Great, an alien bisexual girl that I have never met before and is currently forcing herself up on me to make her ex boyfriend jealous, Keith thought to himself bitterly. What more does space have to offer?

"This moment is very strange..." The raven haired boy said, starting to withdraw his arms, but the Farglan immediately pulled them back around her waist, pressing herself closer to him, making him internally scream.

"No! He is looking at us, you can't back away now!" she whisper-screamed, as if the boy would hear them from wherever he was standing.

Automatically, Keith's looked to the side, over to where the blue paladin had stood last time he checked. To his surprise, he was still standing there, a girl clinging to his arm, but he wasn't looking at her.

He was looking at them, at Keith's arms around the alien girl, at her pressing herself up on him.

No, he wasn't looking. He was glaring.

"I think it's working!" Keith's dance partner chriper, tangling her arms around his neck, absentmindedly twirling the strand of his hair around her long fingers. Keith didn't even bother to suppress his growl this time. The alien girl flinched, her eyes widening (Keith knew that if she had eyebrows, they would have been raised). "Oh sorry, I didn't even introduce myself. I'm Belanna, very pleased to meet you." She wore an askew smile on her dark lips.

Keith was two seconds from shoving her off. "I didn't really have another choice. You literally forced me to meet you." Where Lance still looking at them? Was it his gaze he was feeling at his side? Why did he even wonder in the first place?

"I know this is all kooky, but just know that you're doing me a really big favor by dancing with me." Belanna saw Keith's gaze and chuckled. "Involuntarily. But... I think I'm doing you a favor, too."

The red paladin blinked in confusion, stopping his swaying movements for a second, but the Farglan instantly made them move again. "What do you mean?"

"I think you have a jealous adherent, too", she cooed, glancing to the right, to that direction. Keith followed her gaze almost immediately. There he was, still glaring at them, his eyebrows so knitted together they were almost merged. Lance gripped the table cloth of one of the very long dining tables firmly, his eyes looking dark from over here.

"Lance?" Keith mumbled, while still looking at the boy. The two of them held each other's gaze before Keith needed to look away. "He's not a jealous admirer. Actually, he's trying to make someone else jealous, by doing something similar to what we're doing."

Belanna wasn't buying it. "Maybe you're his victim. Ever thought about that? Ever thought about how he could have been lying about who he was trying to impress?"

"I don't think you understand", Keith pressed, growing irritated. "We hate each other's guts. If he's giving me the eye it's probably because he sees this whole getting a girl as a competition."

"Do you even like girls?" she asked with a raise of imaginary eyebrow.

Something stuck in Keith's throat - maybe air - and he had to cough it away, looking down at their feet.

"What? You want to label me as something?"

Belanna looked even more dazed now. "Why would I label you based on what kind of gender you like?"

Of course, this wasn't Earth. They didn't have to label you for what you liked or what kind of person you are. For them it was just... like. They could prefer anything they wanted and it would be as normal as breathing.

"How much longer do we have to do this?" he asked instead, feeling the urge to look to the side again, only to check. But he refrained himself from doing it, and instead tried to find the urge to pull away from the alien girl, and go back to scowling at everything and anything from the middle of the dance floor.

"Just until something happens..."

"Keith..."

"Belanna..."

Their names came from two different directions at the same time, and their heads shot to the side, looking at the source of their called names.

Lance was there, so much closer than before, and he looked Keith deep in the eye, as to convey a silent, exasperated message. Up close his eyes looked so much darker, almost black. There was no depths to them, only a flat void of enmity.

Meanwhile, a Farglan boy was standing on the other side of Keith, looking at Belanna with the same kind of fury that the blue paladin held. The tension around them was so heavy that it could weight down anybody.

"Can I have a word with you, please? In private?" the alien boy said, his voice deep and firm. Keith didn't know when him and Belanna had stopped moving, or when she withdrew her arms from his neck, but now she was completely turned away, looking up at the newcoming, who couldn't be anyone else than her victim.

"Yeah," she breathed barely audible over the music, and the Farglan boy immediately took it as his cue to grip her arm and pull her away to somewhere else.

"Yes, take her, because I need to talk to Keith privately, too!" Lance shouted at them, and the red paladin flinched.

Belanna turned around waving. "It was nice to meet you Keith! I hope to see you in the future." A wink followed after that, and Keith hated that he knew exactly what it meant.

Lance, on the other hand, didn't know what it meant, and therefore interpreted it in the completely wrong way. He positioned himself in front of him, crossing his arms intently. "What the hell?"

"What?" Keith asked dumbfounded.

"What what? Can you explain why you were dancing with a Neytiri wannabe out of nowhere, who, quite frankly, is very hot?"

Keith mimicked Lance's rigid posture. "Can you explain why you care?"

The irritated boy seemed taken aback by the question, like he wasn't expecting the argument to be centered at him. "O-of course I can! It's simply because you aren't supposed to get the hot girls. I am! I'm dealing with a mission here, and you're ruining it!" 

"How am I ruining it?" Keith prodded, feeling how strain his shirt felt the longer he stood cross-armed. But he couldn't risk loosing his disposition now, not when he was feeling so above Lance, since he wasn't making any sense. "I very sure I'm not getting in the way for your whole Allura mission, since, you know, I'm only minding my own business."

"That's not the p...!" Lance began, but quickly cut himself off, taking a deep breath. His voice still held the same pitch when he continued, though. "It's not that! You're... You're just not supposed to get the girls, period!"

"So that's the problem now?" the raven haired deadpanned, glaring at someone who accidently elbowed him in his side, before directing his eyes at his rival again. "Me getting the girls? It's that just too much for your ego to handle?" He didn't know where this altercation was going, but only that it was extremely odd; he never would have thought that he would have an argument about getting girls with Lance, since he simply didn't like...

"It's too much for anyone's ego to handle! You just aren't that type. Anyone knows that. Keith doesn't get girls. That's just absurd!" The blue paladin gesticulated dramatically, almost hitting the other's face with his arms. Keith took a step back.

"So that's how you've painted me as? The type that doesn't get anything in life. The type that's just too emo to get the girls, or anything in particular. You're so stereotypical, Lance, do you know that. But whatever, take her if you want, use her as your toy to show off to Allura. Do whatever the fuck you want, I don't care." He was already turning around, starting to depart from their spot on the dancefloor. Something told him that this argument was running deeper than just the moment; it was like this triggered several bottled up feelings to rise to the surface, jumping out one at the time. Slowly, Keith was starting implode, and he rapidly needed to get away, before he could have a victim.

The music around him was calm, but still it doused his head and set it on fire. He had time to only push himself through a couple of meters, before a hand was stopping him, and he fought against it, trying to turn around again, but the hands were more determined, and managed to spin him around, holding him in place.

"Hey hey, wait now...", Lance said, his eyes getting back some of its luster, exposing a written feeling behind the glossy surface, one that Keith couldn't read. "What's that all about? You know I didn't mean no hard feelings. Not literally, at least. Don't take this so seriously."

Keith tore his arm from the other's grip, his head burning, his heart spiraling. The music was screeching in his mind, something typically so dulcet, turning into something so appalling. Like the suspense music in a horrorfilm.

"Then why the fuck, did you bother me?" he growled through gnashed teeth.

The disarray his body was still ongoing even as he turned around and left, and was present through the rest of the day, all the way to something that happened next...

⟴ ⛢ ⟴

The tea is piping hot, guys