Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

   Hello, readers! It's me, your author, and I'm just here to give you some details about the story! I really hope you enjoy this story. I already have all the parts pre-written so the updates will be come pretty frequently. More details about that will be down below, along with other facts.

Details About the Book:

Rating: General Audiences 

Genre: Romance

Main Ship: Klance (Keith x Lance)

Total Word Count: 12774

1. I will NOT be switching the point of view. The point of view is Keith and will stay Keith. I don't want you to get confused or anything, so just to let you know.

2. There will be no smut or sexual content in this story. There's one minor dirty implication in here, but that's that. So, welcome all the kiddos!!

3. The art in this story is not mine. It goes to the artists respectively:

     - Erubus_G o n the FanFiction Amino and Erubus on the Art Amino.

     - Ellen on the Art Amino

4. This written piece was for this year's (2018) Cross Amino Big Bang. So, that's the reason this piece is actually finished and isn't laying in the dust of my drafts. It was a wonderful experience doing this challenge and I will most definitely do it next year, and I recommend you do it as well! 

5. I had this piece betaed (edited) by the wonderful @snapishginger on Instagram. She is not a writer but a photographer and you should give her all the support you can! Her photos are amazing and if you're in her area, make your moments last by getting a shoot done by her. You can find more information on her page. 

6. Updates will be quite frequent because of the story being pre-written. They will happen once a week on Tuesdays (hopefully I'll stick to this) for future reference. There are four parts and an Epilogue, so it'll be over a month of posting! WHOOP!

7. I do except constructive criticism. If you have any, please let me know in the comments. It'll hopefully make my writing better and more enjoyable for you guys, gals and non-binary pals. Please point out any grammar or punctuation mistakes and I'll fix them straight away. 

8. There will be spoilers for season 7 of Voltron. Some parts were written before season 7, but I tried my best to include as much as possible from the latest seasons, such as new characters that were introduced. There won't be any major spoilers, but if you don't know of certain people, that might be a leak for you.

9. Hate is NOT aloud in any of my books. If a see someone being disrespectful to another person, I may have to delete or report the comment. Please be respectful of the people in this community. Don't be afraid to speak your opinion, but please don't be disrespectful of others. Be nice if you don't agree with someone. I've never really seen this happen, but just to make sure. All of my readers have been amazing on my other books and I love you all! 

10. I cross posted this on the Voltron and FanFiction Amino, and Wattpad, so if you see the same story on any of those sites with the username @ GlassesGirl11, don't worry because that's me. If you do see it on a site without that username and it's not credited to me, please message me.

     Anyways, that's everything and I hope you enjoy this story! 

— GlassesGirl11 

{Date Published: 18/09/11}

Chapter Text

[ANY WARNINGS: there's like, very, very minor talk about a past death in one paragraph, but that's it.]

     Getting out of bed is always hard. However, it's even harder when you spent the night before editing and readying future videos for publishing. Videos being published? Late nights? What could my profession be? Well, to inform those who have the poor decision to continue listening, I'm a YouTuber.

     Yes, yes, a YouTuber, quite astounding! Because you obviously don't know who I am, my name is Keith Kogane. I'm a musician and my username is The_Awkward_Emo. I know, it's really weird, but one of my friends (cue the gasping. Yes, I know! I have friends! What a surprise) changed it to that and I can't fix it. She did something to my account so whenever I try to change it, she receives an instant notification on all of her devices. Not only that, but a video of a pug licking a window appears and whenever I try to exit out of it, it pops right back up. You don't know how many times I've had to call her over to disable it, her cackling all the while. It sucks, but I have to deal with it. Oh, and yes. For the people who were wondering, the friend I'm talking about is named Pidge Holt. She's the most tech-savvy person in my friend group — aside from her brother Matt — and has a gaming channel THEpiDgEon67. 

     Getting back on track, I groaned into my pillow as I rolled onto my stomach. I don't usually hate mornings. Normally I'd take the time to appreciate the quietness and lack of people rushing around. I'd soak up the seconds I'd have alone in the gym, because no sane person would be there as early as me. Even still, trying to get up after a long night is dreadful, even if you are a morning person. 

     I had just about fallen asleep again when my phone had a wonderful idea and decided to rip away my slumbering bliss by allowing a call to go through right at that exact moment. Why do I have the worst luck?

     I rolled over yet again, grasping for the awful sound that ruined my morning. I quickly discovered that my attempts were in vain as I toppled over the side of my bed, narrowly avoiding my dark oak night stand. The THUMP! and sudden pain sure woke me up.

     I let out a groan of pain as I sat up, using my bed frame as a helpful support. I quickly stood after that. 

     I finally fumbled the still-ringing object into my hands and answered the call, not bothering to check who it was. Without my glasses or contacts in, it would be too blurry and would probably give me a headache if I tried. In times like these, having bad eyesight sucks. 

     An upbeat and familiar voice filtered through my phone's speakers and to my ear. "Hey, Keith! Are you going to the gym today or not?"

     Takashi "Shiro" Shirogane. Oh, my lovely brother that just loves to tease me in front of my friends and probably the best brother I could have (don't tell him I said that. He'd tease me about it endlessly if you do and it would be a terrible experience). We aren't actually related if you were confused by the different last names. He's been my best friend since childhood so we both eventually ended up thinking of each other that way, even if he's seven years older then me. His mother took me in when my father died, seeing as my mother wasn't able to take care of me at the time. She was in the American army and didn't receive the news of his death until later. He wasn't sick at all. Actually, he was is pretty good health. However, one of the detriments of being a firefighter is the possibility of not coming home. With my mother, Krolia Kogane, and Shiro's mother, Diane Shirogane, already being good friends, Shiro and I were already aquatinted. After being told she could go home by her commander for that exact reason among a few others that aren't important, she came home devastated. We ended up staying with Diane and Shiro for a while so the both of us could compose ourselves. In the process, Shiro and I became good friends. 

     With a groggy and croaky voice, I responded, "I don't think so. I had a long night last night and I just woke up."

     He laughed at that. "Well, okay then. Just remember to get your video up."

     I yawned through an unintelligible: "Yeah, yeah, I know.”

     Apparently, he could understand what I said (or he just guessed), because he said, "Okay. See you soon!"

     "Yeah, you too. Love ya'!"

     "Love you, too."

     Shiro then ended the call and I fell back into my bed with another - you guessed it! - groan. Why does being tired have to be a thing? 

     After getting showered, brushing my teeth, putting my glasses on (because I didn't want to stick a medical rubber things in my eye just yet) and eating a small breakfast of just two toasted pieces of bread with butter, I found myself back at my desk in my office staring at my laptop. The brightness of the black, sticker-covered device's screen seeped into my unblinking eyes, making them sting. I blinked once, then twice, then leaned my face closer to the screen with a pose that was certainly not good for my neck. My face was screwed up in a shocked and unbelieving look.

     There, sat in my mailbox on Gmail, was an email from Lance McLain. The one with the amazing YouTube channel and over seven million subscribers. I bet you won't be able to guess or believe what the email said. I can't even believe it. Okay, here it comes. It said that he — Lance McLain — wanted to do a collaboration video with me — the measly Keith Kogane.

     Quickly typing up a reply, that yes, yes, I would like to collabe, I moved my mouse to hover over the send button and held my breath. I closed my eyes and clicked the button. Hearing the SWOOSH! of the email being sent off, knowing I couldn't change what it said even if I wanted to, I let go of my breath and slowly opened my eyes. 

     Pushing away all of my useless worries, I decided to distract myself by editing a video that I recorded recently. With Krolia's birthday being tomorrow and the day I'm posting this, I decided to play House of Gold by Twenty-One Pilots as part of her gift. 

     Once I was done doing the very extensive editing for the video, I plopped down on my sofa in my living room. I randomly turned on a channel. Something about a talking dinosaur? I honestly don't know. The time seemed to pass by quickly after that and two twenty-minute episodes in, I heard the faint, distinct sound of an email being sent to my phone and the hum of my laptop receiving it as well. I slowly sat up and reached for my phone on the coffee table in front of me. I opened my phone and opened the Mail app. I refreshed the page, getting a couple new emails from YouTubers I'm subscribed to that posted a new video, and one very important one: the reply back from Lance. 

       Lance McLain 

       To: Keith Kogane

       Subject: Official Business.

       Sent On - June 25, 2018 at 11:36 A.M.

 Okay, cool! I don't know how we could collabe, maybe you could play an instrument and we could do a duet? I don't know. We can figure it out then, maybe? I'm not a very organized person and I don't really like following plans. Guess it comes with a big family. If that's okay with you, of course? Is this Saturday good for you? 1 maybe? 

     I cocked my head in confusion. I didn’t know he could sing, I thought, but rolled with it anyways. It’s not like people who aren’t professionally musicians can’t sing, so who cares? I paused my show and quickly typed a reply.

     Keith Kogane 

     To: Lance McLain

     Subject: Official Business.

     Sent On - June 25, 2018 at 11: 42 A.M.

     Sure, that's good with me. How about at my apartment because if we do end up doing a duet I have all my instruments here? It's on the second level of Altea Apartment Buildings and Condos. Number 18.   

     I sent the message, hoping that the person I sent it to wasn't a stalker who goes by the name Lance. I closed my laptop and set it down on the coffee table. My mind was reeling about how this was going to go. Worrisome thoughts circulated my head. Is Lance as nice as he is on video? Will this opportunity work out properly? Why is my phone percentage already at twenty-three? Trying to distract my brain from my worries, I plugged my phone in and un-paused the show currently displayed on my T.V. Trying and failing to focus on the weird show in front of me, I let my thoughts continue to drift. 

     Oh, god, I hope I don't mess this up.

Chapter Text

[ANY WARNINGS: none]

     I ran around my apartment, scrambling to try and make the small living space at least presentable. Usually, I am a very neat person. If I place everything where it’s designated spot is, then everything will be neat and I would be able to find it easily! Sadly, over the last few days I’ve been pretty busy. With what? The day after I got the email from Lance I was with my mom the majority of the day and well into the night with the mother-son birthday celebration. The day after that I went to visit Shiro because he needed some help with all of his coaching because he’s a personal trainer. After that we decided to hang out because we haven’t done that in a while and that took up the day. The days after that I had to record videos and edit them merciless. So let’s just say my apartment is a little bit messy. 

     Neatly folding and placing a blanket on the armrest of the couch in the living room, I plopped down tiredly on the chair as I sighed heavily. /A few minutes of down time before he arrives, I thought gleefully. I still had my rectangular, black rimmed glasses on. I forgot to put my contacts in this morning, labeling them as too much of a hassle to deal with, and just stuck with my normal eye wear. That was then, though. I probably shouldn’t wear these during the video. 

     Just as I got up to do so, I heard the annoying buzz from just outside the apartment building of someone wanting to get in. 

     Groaning, I walked across the room towards the entrance of my living space. I pressed the button beside the speaker and it buzzed again as a static-y voice came through the receiver. 

     "Hey! It's Lance. I was wondering if you could let me in? It's boiling out here."

     Chuckling, I let the YouTuber in and soon enough there was a knock at my door. I opened it and saw the face of the Cuban. I let him in and got out of his way to let Lance into the apartment. 

     He was wearing a blue-sleeved baseball shirt and jeans. If he was a close friend of mine, I would've probably commented on his wonderfully chosen Summer clothes, but because we barely knew each other, I decided to let it slide. Plus, it's not my place to judge. I wear black and red on a regular basis, no matter what the weather appears to be like outside. 

     And... cue the awkward silence. I’m socially stunted according to Pidge and you should take her word for it. I guess it’s a mother-son thing because Mum’s not that good in social situations either. She’s better then me from years of experience with different generals and bosses she had to listen to, though. I guess I just got the brunt of it. 

     To back up Pidge’s accusation from earlier, pretty much half the time when I'm talking to someone who is a stranger or a person I don’t know that well, I'm debating in my head whether or not it would be socially acceptable to say something sarcastic about the situation or about the few recent politic facts I've recently seen circulating some different social medias I'm on. The other half of the time I'm trying to listen to the person talking to me. This usually leads to an abomination of jumbled up and stuttered over words. 

     Now that I'm thinking about it, that's probably why Pidge and I get along so well. Even though she's better at being social then me, she still would rather be huddled up in her room doing whatever she does on her computer. Please don't tell her this, but, god, do I want to have at least her level of social awareness right about now.

     I coughed awkwardly into my fist. "Well, um... you can take off your shoes at the door. Uh, follow me."

     I turned around and started to walk through the living room and to the kitchen. I heard the scuffing of shoes being taken off and the padding of socked feet along the floor behind me. Once we got to the kitchen, I nodded my head towards the island with four neatly pushed in chairs surrounding the other side. He sat down in the centre chair. 

     “Do you want water or something?" I asked.

     Lance grinned awkwardly, his dimples peeking out, and scratched the back of his neck. "Sure, water sounds good to me."

     I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it with filtered water from the fridge. I passed it to him and he mumbled a 'thanks'.

     "So, uh, what type of video do you want to record? Like, on your channel," I asked.

     "Um, because my channel is entertainment based, we could search the internet for a good music related skit. Yanno, because of your channel," he sent me one of his dazzling smiles and for some unknown reason, I felt my cheeks heat up and my pulse start to rush a bit faster. What is up with me today?

     "That sounds fun! We could just do a duet like you suggested for my channel. Just pick a random song that we both know, of course." I sent a small smile of my own back.

     He took a sip of water then stood from his chair. "D'ya want to do the duet now? It might be a bit easier."

     "Sure," I replied.

     I showed him to my recording studio. It wasn't really much to see. There were two cameras already out on tripods facing or on the keyboard. Said keyboard was pushed into the far back corner to save space. One of the cameras was positioned so it saw the keys from a side view and the other one was in front of the instrument, making it so you could see the face or faces of the people who are playing. Beside the black keyboard were two ukulele cases that were propped up against the wall. On the other side of the room was an L-shaped desk which had some notebooks and stationary supplies scattered around its surface. My sticker-covered laptop was front and centre of the whole display. On the walls hung a few pictures of friends and family or abstract paintings. 

     "Nice office," Lance complimented simply.

     “Thanks," I said as I went towards my desk to shuffle a few things around. "What song d'ya want to do?" I asked, facing the Cuban boy once again.

     “Um, I dunno. Any suggestions?”

     I leaned back against the desk and crossed my arms. "Well," I said thinking, "we can do any song from the musicals Dear Evan Hansen, Hamilton or A Very Potter Musical. As well as most popular songs on the radio or from 'The Greatest Showman'. And maybe some Disney songs, just depends which."

     "Oo," Lance said and tried to force down the teasing smirk that was trying to force its way onto his lips. It was a losing battle, "we've got a theatre nerd on our hands, don’t we now?"

     "Oh, shut up," I said as a sheepish and flustered smile found its way onto my face, a light blush accompanying it. Why does my skin have to be so pale?! "Just chose a song and we can do it."

     "Do what exactly?" Lance said, wiggling his brows. I glared at him. "Fine," he huffed. The dark-skinned boy was silent for a couple of seconds then answered my question properly. "How 'bout 'Tightrope' from The Greatest Showman?”

     I shrugged. "Sure." I shifted through my folders of sheet music for the song. Finally finding it tucked away in one of the folders labeled 'TGS', I walked over to my keyboard and placed it on the stand. I pushed out the bench and sat down, patting the spot beside me for Lance. He sat down, and I started to turn on the cameras.

     "It's actually pretty cool you know all this music. From what I heard, learning the piano is pretty hard," Lance complimented.

     A smug smile tugged at the corner of my lips. I sat back down in my spot beside him and coughed into my fist. 

     "Thanks," I said. " It's actually not that hard if you have a good teacher." I looked over to him. There was a little pause of silence until I broke it, trying (for just this once) to keep the conversation going. "Do you know any instruments?" 

     "Erm, just the guitar. Pretty basic to be honest," he shrugged. 

     "Cool. Um, I was actually a bit surprised when you asked me to collaborate. Why was that anyways?"

     Lance shrugged nonchalantly once again. "I've been watching your videos for a while now, so, since I'm also a YouTuber, I thought why not give it a shot?" 

     My mind short circuited for a second. He's been watching my videos for a while? I didn't know he would watch my videos! Well, obviously he would have to watch my videos to know who I am, but other than that, why would he?

      Accidentally letting the pause in between talking get to long, I finally responded. "Oh, um, that’s cool. I didn't know you watched my videos."

     "I watch a lot of other YouTubers. Y'know, to know what's trending and stuff. A lot of the ones I watch are in your friend group, so it's hard not to be curious and check out your channel." He turned to face me with his signature smirk plastered on his face. "Plus," he drawled, "I always love watching good talent when I see it."

     I flushed. "Oh, uh, thanks."

     His smirk transformed into a smile. "Can't help to not say what's true."

     My blush deepened.

     I opened up the cupboard and took down a bag of chips as a snack. It was already almost five and we just finished filming for both of our channels. Lance was at the island once again, his blue-cased phone discarded beside him on the counter. It took awhile to do the duet properly, with either me messing up the keys or one of us going in on the wrong time. Surprisingly, the skit we did took longer. Well, I don’t know how long it usually takes to make one, so I shouldn’t be one to judge. But, now that I actually have experience in that department, I can say it takes a lot of work. All of you who do that kind of stuff deserves praise. 

     I produced two bowls from a different cupboard and poured around the same amount of chips into both. Placing one in front of Lance, I sat beside him on the stools and ate a couple of chips, feeling awkward tension start to fill the room. 

     “Thanks,” Lance mumbled gratefully, smiling, noticing the bowl in front of him.

     I nodded my head in acknowledgment. “No problem.”

     He took a few chips and ate them. Then, most likely trying to dispel the awkward air between us, he started up a conversation. “So,” Lance said a bit to loudly as I looked towards him. The other YouTuber winced at the too-loud word, “This was really fun.” The corner of my mouth twitched upwards and my shoulders dropped slightly, less tense. “The duet we did was surprisingly really fun. I’ve never actually sang with someone except my siblings and random people at the bar when I’m drunk, so this was a nice change.” 

     I laughed at that. “Yeah. We should definitely coll-“ my sentence was cut short by a sudden furious banging on the front door. We both flinched at the sudden noise. I sat up straighter and my newly not-tense shoulders became tense again. 

     “Sounds like someone wants to get in,” the dark-haired boy beside me mused.

     Grumbling, I got out of my seat and started heading towards the other room. 

     “Don’t be amused, Lance. The person trying to break the door down could easily want to kill both of us for money.”

     The banging continued. 

     “‘Way to get my hopes up,” Lance responded cheekily. 

     “Then you would be dead too.”

     “Darn, I didn’t think of that.” 

     A laugh escaped my mouth and I grinned. I finally reached the door and peeped through the eyehole. Fluffy, honey-brown hair was all I needed to see to know who it was. I opened up the door and in fell an excited looking Pidge. 

     “Keith! Keith, guess what?” she shouted excitedly. 

     “What’s the point in guessing when you’re just going to tell me?” I said, closing the door behind her and walked back to the kitchen, Pidge eagerly bouncing up and down beside me. 

     “Oh, shut it,” Pidge said. “Anyways, this is really important,” she said quickly. 

     I turned into the kitchen and saw that Lance was still at the island, contently munching down on the chips I gave him. “Okay,” I said slowly in response. 

     “The trailer for Ultron: Heroic Protectors season six just came out and it’s absolutely amazing! Have you watched it yet? Apparently Kole comes back from the Sword of Namora and-“ her fast pasted rambling was cut short when she realized there was another person in the room other then them. She furrowed her brows. After a moment her features filled with recognition. “Are you Lance McLain? Y’know, the YouTuber.”

     He grinned at her, his dimples appearing on his face. He sat up straighter in his seat. “Yup! You’re Pidge right? From one of the gaming channels?” 

     She nodded slowly, forgetting all about her excitement from earlier. “So, why are you here? Are you guys going on a date or something?” A mischievous smirk made its way onto her face. 

     My cheeks flared as Lance’s eyes seemed to pop out of his head and choked on the chip he just ate, luckily getting it unstuck pretty easily by taking a swig of water after from his water bottle sat beside him. “What?!” I exclaimed. “No. No, no, no, no. We’re just doing a collabe! No date involved!” I spluttered.

     “Well, you could’ve just said so,” Pidge said, stifling her laughter by biting her lower lip which didn’t really do anything to smother her snorts and giggles.

     I glared at her, my face still red from before. “A-anyways,” I stuttered, trying to change the subject, “Ultron, right?” 

     “Okay, then,” she obliged. “Have you seen the new trailer yet?” Pidge supplied.

     “No, I was working all day. I didn’t even know it came out.”

     “Isn’t that, like, a kids’ show or something?” Lance asked. “I’m pretty sure my younger siblings watch it.”

     Pidge crossed her arms and scoffed. “Even if it was a kids’ show, why does that matter?”

     “Plus,” I added, “there’s stuff in there that would normally not classify as ‘kid friendly’.”

     Lance shrugged then got up after finishing his bowl of chips. “I guess I’ll see tonight. I should probably go anyways. My Mamá’s in town and I promised I’d help with dinner.” He walked over to me and held up his hand. “Gimme your phone so I can type in my number,” he said with a smile, his dimples returning once again.

     I gave the YouTuber my phone and he quickly typed in his phone number and a message. After he sent it, a muffled moo could be from his pocket. His face flushed slightly and he gave me a sheepish grin. “It’s because of Kaltenecker,” he said quietly.

     My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but I decided to not question it. He gave me back my phone and he walked past the both of us and through the living room to the entrance. He put his shoes on and turned around to us one last time and smiled, showing his dimples. “See ya’ around!”

     “Bye!” I called back to him.

     His smile widened and he left. Pidge turned towards me and smirked almost knowingly, even though there was nothing to know. She didn’t say anything about that though, and instead told me to get some chips. She headed towards the living room. I watched her confused as she plopped onto the couch and started up my console. She is even more weird then me. 

     We ended the night falling asleep on the couch out of exhaustion from yelling and screeching at the screen watching the new trailer and several other tv shows and movies. What a normal night. 

Chapter Text

    
     For some odd reason, almost all of Lance and I’s viewers responded very happily when we posted each of our own versions of the collaboration, not that there was anything to respond negatively about. Like usual, when I posted the duet video with Lance, my YouTube feed suddenly got an uproar of notifications. But, unlike other times when I post things on the internet that I can never get back — no matter how embarrassing it is — the comments were a bit more… interesting, to say the least.
You must be confused. Even I’m confused as to why these comments were coming in. Sure, my YouTube community can be a bit weird and over protective at times — and they weren’t hate if you’re worried about that — but these were weird even for them. Especially because they kept repeating this one phrase. Well, word. Klance. Over, and over, and over again.

     Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you look at it), everything clicked when I saw a particular comment while I was looking through my feed a few hours after publishing the video. I was sitting on my couch at the time. The vent above me was spraying cold air in my face from where I sat, giving me some relief from the hot early August heat. I held my precious black laptop in my lap. My phone was beside me, shuffling through the music on my phone. I wore casual clothes; black basketball shorts and a loose grey top. I also sported my black, rectangular glasses that I wore when I didn’t want to bother putting in my contacts. Yes, it was that kind of day.

      And then I spotted it.

MovieNerd47 • 8 minutes ago

Is that a LOVE SONG??! Omg! I ship it! KLANCE FOR LIFE!! (Thats the ship name i saw going round. Keithxlance! Get it??)

     My mouth opened in shock and my cheeks started to burn at the realization. My fingers that were scrolling through the comments froze, hovering just above the laptop’s keyboard.

     My viewers… think of us in a romantic relation ship??! What the hell? Why would they? Yes, the song was a love song, but that doesn’t matter! Almost all songs in the The Greatest Showman are love songs! It’s doesn’t mean anything! Plus, it was one song. One! God, my viewers. What would Lance- Lance! What would he be feeling in this situation? Was he okay with this? From what I know of him, he’s a pretty laid back person, but that was on camera. It’s common knowledge that people are (in most situations) different on camera then off. What if he wasn’t fine with this? How would he react? Will it change our friendship?

     You are probably confused (again. I need to start explaining more). Let me explain. You see, for the past few days after recording the videos, Lance and I have been texting regularly, even though it has only been two days. It was nice to add another contact to my contact list and have someone new to text and we’ve become friends. What if this whole situation ruins that? Would it be even more awkward then the time that I accidentally texted a person ‘I love you’ when I was trying to text my mom? That was a really awkward situation to explain, especially because they thought I was being serious and not in a platonic way. It was a younger YouTuber I did a collabe with one time. I barely knew her and what made it worse was that she was a female. Now, don’t take that the wrong way. I know many strong, independent women who are actually very sweet and caring and deserve the best, but I just don’t like girls that way, if you know what I’m saying. We actually did a few more collaborations after that incident, including a story time of that awkward moment and we became friends.

     But all that’s beside the point. The point is, will it effect this friendship thing we have going on?

     Thankfully, my worries were put on hold by a ding that came from my phone and shook me out of my worrisome daze. I quickly closed my gaping mouth and picked up my phone that was turned onto the lock screen from the notification. The song then switched from ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran to ‘Broken Crown’ by Mumford & Sons.

Lancey-Lance: Hey, wat r all of these twitter notificatiouns im getting

Lancey-Lance: **notifications

Keith@theDisco: its probably from my new youtube video. Plz dont react badly, but check the comments.

     I held my breath in anticipation. This is the make or break moment and hopefully he doesn’t react badly. After a few moments, the three typing bubbles showed up and an all too familiar ding made its way to my ears. Relief flooded through me as I read the message, my shoulders dropping.

Lancey-Lance: OMG! I’m W H E E Z I N G ! (and why would I react badly?)

     I typed up the best response I could think of.

Keith@theDisco: isnt it a bit… I dunno, weird?

Lancey-Lance: Well, ya of course but we can just confon it on social media isn’t tght the way most people do it ?

Lancey-Lance: **confront

Lancey-Lance: **that

Lancey-Lance: perhaps twitter ?

Keith@theDisco: no

Keith@theDisco: don’t do it

Keith@theDisco: Lance?

Keith@theDisco: hello?

     Just then, a Twitter notification popped up at the top of my screen saying that @LanceaLOT7 tagged me in a post. Oh, Lance... I tapped on the notification, sending me to the app.

LanceaLOT7 • 2 second ago

I see mine and @the_Awkward_emo’s viewers really liked our duet on Keith’s channel. Just to clarify to a lot of people in the comments, Klance is not canon, but you can still ship it. ;)

     My cheeks started to heat up at the tweet in embarrassment and there was a twisting feeling in my stomach. I swiped a piece of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear before going back to the messaging app.

Keith@theDisco: Seriously?

Lancey-Lance: wat? Is it to anonymous? I’m offended that there’s a possibility of u not liking it!

Keith@theDisco: why r you like this

Lancey-Lance: wat do u mean? Awesome?

     I laughed. That boy and his dramatics, I thought, shaking my head.

Keith@theDisco: i just think it is something you would do

Lancey-Lance: well, I just did it so I guess youre right

     My smile widened as I closed the laptop in front of me and sunk deeper into the couch I was sitting on. My glasses lifted up on my nose at the bad angle as the arm of my glasses got pushed down and started hurting my nose. I didn’t bother to fix them, to warped up in my own thoughts to fully comprehend it. This boy…

     Sadly, it continued happening. Over the past month of Lance and I’s friendship, and multiple collabes with not just me, but with other YouTubers of our now intertwined friend group, the comments about this so called ‘Klance’ continued to appear in our notification boxes. And, of course, Lance wasn’t teetered about it at all. He kept posting the same funny content on the desired date and everything’s the same. And the same thing goes for me, but with the subjects related to music.

     It’s actually pretty funny. Especially the times when we liked to tease the viewers on the subject during live streams. Either it be small comments that weren’t entirely true but not entirely fake (which, now that I think about it, is pretty mean) or small movements the fandom would take out of context. Of course, it was all fun in games and no one was getting hurt in any way in the process. Pidge has also took a liking to the ship and contributed to that, which is not surprising at all because of how mischievous and gremlin-like she can be at times.

     Obviously, there were some awkward moments where some people asked questions we weren’t completely comfortable in answering, but they weren’t that bad though. Of course, we still didn’t answer it, that would be an invasion of privacy and our personal comfort, but most of the commenters probably didn’t intend on being rude, so we just skipped past those sort of questions.

     Also, throughout the last month, Lance and I have grown closer to each other. Not like Hunk (the only childhood best friend that Lance is still in contact with and is very close to. He introduced me to not that long after we first met) and Lance’s type best friends. Or, for that matter, Shiro and I’s brotherly best friend dynamic, but we were pretty close. It’s actually pretty surprising. Usually, it takes me some time to warm up to people. Hunk was an exception though. He was so welcoming and kind but not overly so with his sarcastic comments, so it was hard not to warm up to him fairly quickly. However, Lance seemed different. Either it be his dramatics; his big ego that can get annoying at times; his flirty-ness to any moving creature; or his kind and warm eyes, he was just different then anyone else I’ve met. And, yes, that sounds cheesy — and is cheesy —, but it’s the truth.

     Surprisingly, still on the topic of friendship, everybody got along surprisingly well, even though everyone was starkly different from one another. As I was building up a friendship with Lance, my brother just couldn’t not get involved because that’s just how he is, and met Lance in person after about a week. Even though this isn’t surprising at all, Lance and Hunk excepted Pidge into their once duo, now trio. He also met Allura who is a jewellery maker that’s quite infatuated with Shiro. Don’t worry, it’s mutual. The YouTuber instantly started hitting on the white-haired woman, which, once again, wasn’t surprising at all with his over the top flirty attitude. With only one glance at Shiro, you could tell he was jealous, even though Allura showed no interest in Lance. If any of you are doubting this fact, I would like you to take in consideration his tight grip on his glass and how he slowly crept closer to Allura every time Lance said a crude pickup line towards her. My brother was practically hugging Allura by the end of the exchange. It was quite funny to watch actually, besides the knot twisting in my stomach every time the YouTuber shot Allura his flirty smile. I really got to figure out why that keeps happening.

     It was sort of weird when he met Matt (Pidge’s older brother that I mentioned earlier) officially. Why? Well, this is a fun story. Apparently, Lance already met the honey-haired male before at a gaming convention that Hunk dragged him into. Because Matt had recently released a new mini video game, he was helping run a stand that sold the games that Matt coded along with his other friends called the Rebels, with some other small video game businesses that they worked with. According to Lance, they talked a bit and Lance played a demo to a different game he was selling and practically gushed over it. But, wait a second, the good part is coming. When Pidge introduced her brother, insulting him in the process, the Cuban mentioned their interaction before and Matt didn’t remember a second of it. There was quite a bit of awkward silence after that, that lead to them bursting out into a laughing fit, so it ended up okay.

     Oh, and yeah, Lance met Allura’s uncle who was a YouTube DIY-er who’s username was the CoranicMustache, Coran, and him immediately hit it off. How did that happen? Well, if I must say, and I must, Lance really liked the ginger’s moustache. He legitimately asked, ‘Woah! Is that gorgeous moustache real?’ Summing up the detailed story, Coran took a special liking to him.

     So, yeah, that somewhat guides you to now. What were we doing at this moment? Watching a movie.

     “I think we should have a group name,” Lance suddenly blurted our from where he was sitting in a chair in the corner of Pidge’s living room. We (as in Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, Allura, Coran, Matt and I) were currently sprawled throughout Pidge’s living room at her apartment having a movie night. We already watched the first Percy Jackson movie (Pidge, Hunk, Matt and I complained through the whole thing saying things like ‘it’s not even close to the book!’ and, ‘why is Annabeth a brunette?!’ Honestly, Rick, what have you let them do?), the second Percy Jackson movie (which we also complained about, even though the rest of the group kept shushing us because apparently it was actually entertaining), and the Lion King (which we actually liked, though we sang through a lot of the songs including ‘Hukuna Matata’ and ‘Can You Feel the Love (Tonight)’). We were now half-way through Mulan (which might have been more annoying than the Percy Jackson movies because Lance, Pidge, Hunk, Matt and Shiro were obnoxiously singing along to ‘Be A Man’ and all the other songs).

     I cocked my head towards him from the side of the green, soft-fabricated couch I was sitting on. “What do you mean?” I asked confused.

     He looked at me saying, “Y’know! Like, how the Avengers are called the Avengers and how the Incredibles are called the Incredibles. A group name because we’re basically a group, right? I mean, do you even know how many times we’ve hung out as a group and other junk?”

     My face scrunched up in confusion. “But why would we need a group name?” I asked Lance.

     Lance opened his mouth to reply, but was interrupted by Pidge. “Could you guys talk about this later?” She groaned annoyed.

     Lance puffed his cheeks out in annoyance and scoffed. “Pigeon, this is a very important matter! We should talk about it now, not later. Mulan and musical numbers can wait.”

     Pidge leaned her head against the back of the couch from where she was curled up at the end of the opposite side of the couch I was on. The honey-haired girl looked up at the ceiling in contained anger and took a deep breath to calm her self down. “First of all, don’t call me that. Second of all, I can’t believe you of all people just said that!” she exclaimed.

     Matt piped up from his spot on the ground beside Shiro. “I agree with Little Sis’. Not the Pidgeon part, though. Call her that all you want.”

     Pidge shot her head towards the direction of her brother with an exasperated expression. “Matt!”

     Matt just shrugged. “I just agreed with you so I don’t know why you’re angry,” he said turning back to the movie nonchalantly.

     “I think it’s a good idea!” Coran said from his spot on the rocking chair beside Pidge.

     “Thank you, Coran!” Pidge said, sounding exhausted.

     “Oh, sorry number 5. I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about Lance’s idea,” the ginger said with his British accent.

     “Thank you, Coran!” Lance repeated.

     “Your very welcome my boy,” Coran replied. Pidge just groaned.

     “So,” Lance continued. “I think we should be called Voltron: Legendary YouTubers!”

     “But Shiro, Matt and I are not YouTubers,” Allura stared from the floor next to Shiro.

     Lance waved his hand dismissively at the statement from the brown-skinned woman. “Yeah, but you’re in our videos so much you’re basically are one.”

     “But we are not,” Allura persisted.

     “You basically are and that’s close enough!” Lance exclaimed, almost yelling and threw his arms up in the air, a centimetre away from hitting me in the face. His cheeks puffed out, a habit he does when he’s agitated.

     “But we aren’t,” Allura pressed.

     “Does it really matter?” Shiro grumbled from the floor, effectively shutting both of them up. It was practically a sacred rule to not upset or disappoint Shiro on movie night.

     After a few moments with only the movie playing in front of us for noise, Hunk finally decided to add onto the conversation.

     “So, um, thank you for letting me join the argument,” he said sarcastically. “I really enjoyed it, but if you’d let me, I’d say I like the name.” As an afterthought he added, “We could also just add ‘and others’ to the end of it if it really bothers you Allura.” There we go. Peace maker Hunk is in action.

     Lance grinned at his friend. “Anybody else object?” Lance asked. Nobody said anything besides my quiet muttering of ‘I couldn’t care less’ which earned me a scowl form Lance, so the Cuban exclaimed gleefully, “We are now Voltron: Legendary YouTubers and Others!”

     Let’s just say the rest of the night was Lance changing the rest of the lyrics to most of the songs in the movies to fit our new ‘name’ and screeching the words instead of singing (I’m very sorry Pidge’s neighbours). It could’ve just been his version of singing, though. We will never know. Everybody eventually fell asleep. (In the morning during the breakfast that Hunk made, the dark-skinned Cuban dubbed last night the first sleep over with us being Voltron. He even marked it in his calendar to celebrate. Apparently, with how Lance described the event, there’s going to be multicoloured cake, streamers, and Twister. How fun. I shook my head while he was talking, smiling into my plate full of breakfast foods. What a dork. A funny, amazing dork, that i — WHAT AM I SAYING??! Umm… just erase that from your memory please and thank you.)

Chapter Text

  
     The first livestream we did as the so called Voltron: Legendary Defenders and Others was quite legendary. Sorry, um, it actually wasn’t anything special. We did the basics. You know, played a couple rounds of Truth or Dare, answered some questions people asked. Normal stuff that could and will embarrass us. It was pretty memorable. Well, not the stream itself. More of the content in the live-video and the events before and after.

     It was actually about a month after that faithful first sleepover as Voltron. The hot summer months when everyone was meeting each other were long past gone and October was rolling in. Let me set the scene.

     I set up my sticker-covered black laptop in the living room on my coffee table to make it show the largest space I could get the camera of the device to cover. The laptop was facing the soon-to-be squished couch, hopefully showing the whole thing. How did I do that? It’s simple really. I stacked a bunch of books from my bookshelf in my room, a basket and other miscellaneous items I could find. I then set my laptop on the make-shift stand and prayed to all the different deities out there that it wouldn’t fall. Perfectly safe, right?

     After checking a few times to make sure everything I wanted in the frame was shown, I opened the tab to the live-streaming site I use and closed the transportable computer. Sighing heavily, I sat down on my maroon couch. My black, smudge-less, glasses shifted uncomfortably on my head, but I didn’t bother changing their position. I didn’t really care about it that much. In truth, I cared more about what I was wearing at the moment then the pain from my stupid glasses.

     Just as I finished, there was a buzz near the front door coming from the little box that told me someone wanted to come in from outside the lobby. I got up out of my lazy position, groaning tiredly, and walked over to the front door. I could either buzz the person who wants in, in, or, I could decline their offer. It’s a very detailed and excruciatingly hard process.

     I pressed the button. Static ensued until a familiar voice filtered through speakers. “Hey, Keith!” Lance’s cheery voice said over the microphone thing. “I just, y’know, don’t want to be out here in this chilly weather, so could you let me in? Plus, I want-“

     “I-I’m sorry. You’re cutting out. I can’t hear you,” I interrupted him. I playful smirk made is way onto my face.

     There was a little pause of static before Lance’s exasperated voice came through the speakers. “Oh, c’mon! I thought we bonded!”

     I chuckled at his response and hit the button to let him in. I walked back to my living room. A few moments later there was a knock at my door.

     “Come in!” I yelled at the person behind the door.

     “Hey~” I heard from the entrance of my apartment, along with a scraping of shoes and the creak and click of the door closing.

     I looked behind me to see Lance walk into my apartment with a black fabric bag in his hand. The dark-skinned male hesitated slightly when he looked up from taking off his shoes and his signature green sweater. His hands hovered over the hook for a millisecond longer then needed. A light pink covered his cheeks and he muttered something under his breath that suspiciously sounded like glasses. The moment of hesitation was gone as fast as it came and he soon was walking towards me with the same bag as before. It must’ve just been my imagination.

     “Hey,” I said with a small smile from where I was on my couch. “What’s the bag for?” I asked as the YouTuber plopped down beside me.

     “Well,” he started, glancing down at the black bag and back to me, a grin forming on his his face, “because it’s obvious that Hunk will bring cookies and other tasty stuff, I’ve decided to bring my own fair share of junk.”

     “Like what?” I questioned, staring at the bag curiously.

     “Yanno, normal livestream stuff.” He opened the bag and set it in his lap. Lance started to procure the different processed food from the bag. “Chips; chocolate; popcorn,” he labeled off, saying the names of the items as he took them out of the bag.

     I grabbed a random item out of the bag and looked at it. I stifled my laughter. “I never knew you where into Dora gummies! I thought you were more of a Star Wars gummy person.”

     Lance took the pink box out of my hands forcefully. He scoffed as a light pink covered his cheeks. “Excuse you, there’s nothing wrong with Dora! Besides, these are for my niece and nephew because they’re visiting tomorrow for a few days.” His pink cheeks puffed out in annoyance. “They’re their favourites.”

     I gave him a small smile. “I’m just joking,” I said and bumped his shoulder playfully. 

     “Yeah, yeah,” the brunette grumbled, waving his hand dismissively. He pursed his lips and pouted. Actually pouted. God, he’s cute.

     There was a sudden, familiar, furious rapping at the door. Both of us flinched. I got up and walked to the door and opened it without looking at who it was. It was obvious, really. With the distinct knocking and the no buzz that came (which everyone had to do. Pidge probably just hacked it somehow). To prove my mental point, Pidge barged into the small apartment, not even caring that she bumped my shoulder forcefully when she walked past me.

     “Nice to see you too,” I mumbled as she plopped onto the couch beside Lance. She just mocked saluted me and started a random conversation with Lance.

     Hunk was there as well, still standing in the doorway with a kind smile and a couple containers of presumably fresh cooked food. “Hey, Keith!” Hunk said, smiling warmly. He shifted the containers in his arms and stepped inside the apartment. I closed the door behind him as he took off his shoes.

     “What’s in the containers?” I asked curiously.

     Hunk shrugged. “Just food.”

     I gave him a small smile and lead him into the living room where everything was set up. “Does any of it need to be refrigerated?” Hunk shook his head. “You can just set it on the table then.”

     I sat down beside Pidge. She had her phone in her hands, scanning the room with her eyes for anything out of place. Her eyes then landed on the bag at Lance’s feet, eyeing it curiously. “What’s in the bag?”

     Lance turned toward the small female, trying to figure out if she was trying to tease him or not. I tried to hide my snicker by biting my lip, but at the small sound, Lance just glared at me.

     Pidge looked between the two of us innocently. “What?” She questioned. Her eyes narrowed, trying to calculate the situation.

     “Just junk food,” Lance replied slowly.

     “Okay,” Pidge said confused.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Pidge jumped up from her seat. “I can’t believe-!” she started saying, but cut herself off mid sentence. “I will not stand for this!” She stomped her foot on the ground and turned to look at us.

     I looked at her startled. “Huh?”

     She pointed dramatically at the laptop setup, flailing her arms around. “Do you know how dangerous this could be?” the honey-haired girl exclaimed. “The laptop can get very hurt!”

     I looked at her dully. “If it’s so ‘dangerous’”, I started, using air quotes, “then fix it.”

     She crossed her arms as she looked over at me with a pout. “Fine,” she declared, “I will.”

     About an hour after Pidge’s tech-y outburst, everybody was at the apartment, all squished onto the main couch. We started the stream once Matt, Shiro, Allura and Coran finally came about a half hour ago. It’s been pretty ordinary and the questions have been normal, except for a certain few, but what can you expect? The food Hunk and Lance brought, along with some snacks the others raided from my kitchen, were now widely spread out between the group. Shiro, being the most considerate person here, decided to bring reusable plastic picnic plates for everyone to use. I don’t think Lance and Coran understood what plates were, because they just kept on snacking over the couch with only their hands to shield the couch from the dreaded crumbs. At least Coran was thoughtful and actually put his hand underneath the food he was eating. Lance didn’t.

     Speaking of Lance, his gummies still laid untouched by the group because of his constant insistence. He even went as far as looking at anyone with great disapproval if you so much as glanced at the pink box, which he soon after just put it by his coat and shoes by the entrance. Only I knew the reason of this over protectiveness, snickering anytime that someone in the comments asked about it, or someone in Voltron for that matter.

     I was sitting in the middle of the group, front and centre of the screen. On my right was Lance who moved over when Matt and Shiro came, insisting that it was fine to sit there. I was squished into Hunk who was on my left. He didn’t seem to mind, so I guess he was okay with it. Beside Hunk was Pidge who was practically sitting in Hunk’s lap. Allura was beside them, taking up the last bit of space on the couch. Unluckily for Coran, because he was the last one here for some reason or another, he had a nice spot on the floor. Don’t worry, I got some spare blankets and pillows for him. I’m not that harsh.

     Coran had been the one reading off most of the questions on the laptop since he was the closest. The ginger kept choosing all of the weird questions though. They were still pretty basic and it wasn’t like he was choosing the ones that could have made the person in question uncomfortable. Just weird ones. Allura truly has the best uncle.

      Pidge was finding ones on Twitter to answer, going through all of our accounts to chose the best ones she could find. Yes, I said all of our Twitters. She can hack anything if she wants to.
“Ooo,” Pidge said. Her eyes lit up childishly and she started to squirm in her seat from excitement, “I found a good one!”
We all looked at her expectantly. She smiled at us wickedly.
“It’s sort of a Would You Rather question, but a bit different. It’s for everyone except Hunk, Lance and Keith,” Pidge continued. “‘Kay, ‘who, out of the Hunk, Lance and Keith, would you save from a burning building? There’s no ifs, buts, or other questions about it. Only the person you pick survives,’ asked SuperStarmarkers’.”

     “Well, it’s obvious everyone will pick me,” Lance said playfully beside me.

     Allura rolled her eyes and answered the question. “That’s easy. Hunk, he’s the best out of all of them.”

     Lance slouched in his seat beside me, crossing his arms with a pout.

     “Aww, thank you Allura!” Hunk said with a smile.

     “You’re very welcome, Hunk.”

     “I’d choose Hunk as well,” Matt responded.

     “Why though?” Pidge questioned.

     Matt shrugged. “I guess I just like him a tiny bit more then the other two.”

     “Hey!” Lance and I squawked at him.

     “What?!” Matt exclaimed, putting his arms up in a defensive position.

     If it would make you feel better, I would choose you Keith,” Shiro said.

     “Thanks, Shiro. That makes me feel so much better,” I said sarcastically.

     He rolled his eyes at me and leant back in his seat.

      “Why am I not getting any votes?” Lance said. I noticed him sink further into the couch, sitting criss-cross with his knees in both mine and and Matt’s laps. His pout was turning more into a sad frown.

     “You’re wrong, my boy. I would choose you!” Coran said. The tone of his voice was giddy and heavily laced with his British accent. No matter how long he stayed in the United States, that dang accent just wouldn’t go away.

     Lance lightened up a bit at this, giving Coran a small smile.

     Same with me if I was able to choose,” I told him. The smile he directed to me was… softer in a way. There was a light flush to his cheeks, but with his dark skin tone, I couldn’t decipher if it was from being too cold or too hot or from embarrassment.

     “Sorry, Hunk, but I’d go for Keith as well,” Lance admitted. Hunk just shrugged.

     “Well,” Pidge said, pushing her circular glasses up the bridge of her nose, “if you let any of them die, a duo or trio would be broken. But, if I really had to choose, I’d go for Keith.”

     I fell back in my seat and looked over at Lance. I stuck my tongue out at him childishly. “Haha.”

     “Oh, shut your quiznack,” Lance mumbled in response.
Allura and Coran gasped while the others just looked confused. “What does quiznack mean?” Matt asked.

     “Completely ignoring him, Allura looked down to Cornan, a disappointed look on her face. “Did you teach him that?” she asked.

     “Uh, yes, I may have taught him that,” Coran admitted meekly, still looking at Lance in astonishment, mouth opened wide.

     “I don’t think that’s how you use that word,” I told him.
He ignored my chastising and sat up once again, looking at the computer for the next question.

     “What does quiznack mean?!!” Matt exclaimed once again.

     “You don’t want to know,” Allura grumbled, discarding her ‘princess-y’ façade and slouched into her seat, un-crossing her legs.

     I closed the cabinet beside the fridge. I had just put away the last of the left overs, now all I had to do was wash the reusable plates Shiro brought and give them to him the next time I saw them. Not now though. Sometime tomorrow. Right now, I’m going to bed.

     The stream was pretty fun, if I do say so myself. Hopefully the viewers enjoyed it. The questions at times were a bit odd, but what would you expect? It’s hard to think up questions.

     Pidge and Lance were staying the night which was decided once the live stream officially ended. Why? For Lance’s case, my place was closer to the airport where Lance was picking his sister, nephew and niece up tomorrow. He wanted to spend the maximum amount of time with them, and if in that goal let him stay over to save gas, who cares? Pidge’s reasoning was because her ride here was with Lance and she decided to stay here with him because of that. Hunk asked her if she wanted to ride with him, because he’s such a good friend, but she declined the offer. Now, I was stuck with a hyperactive flirt who was practically bouncing off the walls (the most probable reason to that was that he finally understood how close it was until he could visit his sister and her children) and a sleep-deprived night-owl that is very stubborn about keeping her sleep schedule. What was her sleep schedule? Well, that’s an easy answer. She doesn’t have one and stays up every night to an unknown time. Everybody who wasn’t staying the night already left, most likely wanting to get home to go to sleep. Once the stream ended, it was pretty late.

     I went to my room and sat down on my bed heavily. I produced my phone from my pocket, going through the recent notifications when there was an excited knocking at my door.

     “Come in!” I shouted.

     Lance was the one that opened the door, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly. When Lance gets excited about something, especially something that’s family oriented, you can’t stop him.

     “Yeah?” I asked.

     “Do you have a spare blanket? Pidge took all of them,” I narrowed my eyes at him, sure that that wasn’t the full reason, but went into the hallway to grab some anyways. I opened up the spare closet. Grabbing two plain, spare blankets from in there, I turned around and gave them to Lance. When he didn’t leave when I gave them to him, I shot him a questioning look.

     He rubbed the back of his neck. The YouTubers excitement and happiness morphed into something different. Nervousness. I couldn’t place why he was nervous — there’s no reason for him to be — so I was even more confused then before.

     He took a deep breath then said, “If you were a fruit, you’d be a date ‘cause I’d definitely want to date you.”

     I managed to keep my blush under control. After a few moments of shock, I was finally able to untangle my tongue and say something. “That,” I started laughing, “was the worst pick up line I’ve ever heard.”

     “Y-yeah,” he stuttered nervously.

     I leant up and barely pecked his cheek. He immediately flushed bright red, even with his dark skin tone it was very prominent. I smirked at him. “And yes, I’d want to date you too.”

     I waited a moment, then decided that I wouldn’t get any reaction out of him for a bit in the state he was in. His body was completely frozen, and a dazed look was spread across his face. I bet if I touched his cheek, my hand would burn off from how hot it looked from his blush. My face flushed as well, and I snapped my fingers in front of him. Lance came out of his daze decently quick.

      He looked at me with a disbelieving look. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

     I started to fiddle with the hem of my shirt. “No, b-but if you d-don’t want to-“

     He wrapped his lanky arms around me in a hug, effectively shutting me up. After a few moments with his head on my shoulder and my head tucked neatly into the crook of his neck, he slowly lifted up his head. He leant our foreheads together softly. “Is this okay?” he asked quietly.

     I nodded my head, at a loss for words. “So, um,” Lance started quietly, “is after my sister leaves good for you? Like, for a date.”
I breathe out, smiling at him and locking his ocean blue eyes with mine. “Definitely,” I breathed.

     “Hey Keith, I wanted to be nice and actually ask, so is it possible-“ Pidge’s cut off her sentence as she looked at the two of us. We jumped apart quite forcefully, each of us jumping into the opposite wall from each other. She smirked and then turned around to leave, not saying anything. “Can I be the maid in honour?” She shouted from the end of the hall.

     “PIDGE!” we squawked. She just chuckled.

     The date the following week with Lance was amazing, to say the least.

Chapter Text

     Doesn’t everyone love reunions?

     The answer is: no, not everyone loves reunions. There is always that one family or friend group that continues to meet, though there’s that one person who doesn’t want to be there, which is perfectly fine no matter who you are in that situation. You can’t sacrifice your happiness for just one person.

     As a kid, I was that one person. Why? Because I never had reunions. Now, let me explain myself, okay? Firstly, there was no point in them. I didn’t have any friends at the time, which quickly changed when I went to college, and the only family I had was my mom and my dad, so, really, there was no one to unite with in the first place. What’s the point in a family/friend reunion with no one to visit? It’s a joke!
Now, though, after years have past and I actually have friends to reunite with, a loving family of my own and my mom to visit, it’s different. It’s, I don’t know, exciting and heart-wrenching at the same time. In a good way, of course. It’s amazing seeing people you’re close with after a long time apart.

     Why am I bringing this up? Well, as of now, I was getting ready for our third annual Christmas family reunion. It’s pretty frustrating really. Well, the getting ready part, not the actual reunion. Getting the kids (and Lance. Still, after all this time in a winter wonderland, he’s still a Cuban at heart and is never prepared for the winter) all ready in their marshmallow-like snow gear; hats, gloves, jackets and sweaters, snow pants, etc., packing up all the presents, attempting to bake the day before but failing miserably. Only until everyone is in the car with everything packed up and everyone pee-free is when everything truly starts to calm down.

     “Daddy!” I heard my six-year-old son, Liam, whine from the end of the hallway, dragging me from my thoughts. “Carlos won’t give me back my red lion! I even told him nicely!” he said, stomping into Lance and I’s bedroom.
I looked over in his direction. The pale-skinned boy’s hair was a tousled mess and I knew for a fact it wasn’t like that a few minutes ago when Lance combed it. His jeans and dark blue polo shirt looked like they were put on hurriedly. Probably were, I thought.

     “Could you go ask Papa instead, Lili?” I asked.

     “B-but,” he stuttered. Liam’s eyes started to glisten in un-shed tears and his lower lip started to tremble.

     I glanced at the golden band around my ring finger. My eyes trailed back to my son still standing in the doorway. The way his bottom lip trembled, dipping into a frown, red-eyed and teary, reminded me of Lance the day we decided to officially quit YouTube. The online platform was already steadily decreasing in popularity, so we decided it was for the best and it was. We wouldn’t have been able to raise our children and have the relationship we wanted to if we didn’t. It was a sad day all around.

     This always surprised me. One, that I’m able to picture days years ago in such vivid detail. Two, that even though Liam isn’t biologically related to either of us, he can still pick up on our different habits, hence why him and his Papa cry similarly. Now that I think about it, all three of our children — Liam, Carlos who is eight and our youngest child, Charlie, who is two — are like that. They developed some of our ticks and habits from us from being around them so often.

     “Okay,” I said to my son and crouched down to his level. I wiped the tear that escaped from his eye. “I’ll go talk to him.”

     Once we were all packed up and ready to go, we started our half an hour drive to the Adam-Takashi household where the reunion was being held. If the the name Adam-Takashi confuses you instead of it being Altea-Shirogane or at least Allura-Takashi, here’s the explanation: once Shiro and Allura finally admitted their feelings for each other, they got together. After a few months of dating, Allura realised that Shiro was acting differently towards her. More like a friend then a lover. They decided to break it off after Shiro told Allura that he figured out he was gay and that the feelings he held towards her got jumbled up and was actually just great admiration, confusing him. Allura was, of course, hurt, but they continued being friends. Shiro ended up meeting a guy named Adam who was really sweet and they became friends. A few weeks after this development, BOOM! a new relationship blossomed. Allura also found another guy, who ended up being a complete jerk, got her pregnant, then left. Lotor was an absolute jerk (I would use stronger language, but my children are around), and no one liked him after that, even though some people didn’t even like him in the first place. We all helped her recover from her heart break and helped her raise her child after that, Pidge and Emily being the most helpful.

     Lance was driving our old, dark blue, Chrysler minivan with me sitting beside him in the passenger seat. It took us a while to get Carlos and Liam settled down from their justifiable excitement. In the process of that, Charlie got excited for no reason and made it even harder to get her in her car seat which was already hard to get her into. The other’s were just a seatbelt click away, but Charlie just had to still be a very young toddler. All of the gifts for our family-like-friends were stacked up in the trunk of the vehicle, along with some food to share and some things Carlos and Liam insisted on bringing.

     Seeing the medium sized house covered in Christmas lights appear on the right of us after the short drive was a miracle. Liam and Carlos practically leapt out of the car in their excitement to see everyone after their Papa turned the engine off. They ran around the car, surprisingly not falling on their butts from the slippery surface, and waited for us so they could go inside. I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door of the vehicle, letting the cold winter air waft into the nicely heated van. I stepped out of the vehicle to start unloading the stuff in the trunk.

     I walked around the car and opened up the trunk as Lance got little Charlie from her seat in the car. I saw Lance place a little purple toque on her head, making sure that her ears didn’t get cold. He gently lifted her in his arms, tucking her safely in his one arm. With her securely in his arm, he hefted as much stuff that he could in his other arm.

     Once Carlos and Liam had the stuff they just had to bring in their arms, they raced up the icy pathway, not slipping once again, and rang the doorbell without mercy. With my arms full of wrapped food and various presents, a started to carefully walk towards the snow covered house. Lance followed beside me.
Before we were able to reach the slippery front porch of the house, the door opened to show a white-haired Shiro in a fuzzy ugly Christmas sweater. The sweater was purple. Knitted snowflakes and stars covered the entirety of the piece of clothing with a large snowman on the front. Shiro grinned at our appearance.

     “Uncle Shiro!” my two boys cried out and jumped at the strong man’s legs, hugging him. They nearly toppled him over, but luckily he was able to stay upright. The two boys dropped everything they carried, covering the majority of it in snow. Charlie sensed the excitement of her brothers in her Papa’s arms and started squirming, squealing at the happy cries of her siblings.
Lance and I walked up the steps carefully. “Hey, ‘Kashi,” I greeted with a smile.

     “Hey, Keith,” his kind smile looking like it would fall off his face if it got any larger. “Hey, Lance.”

     He gave us both a quick hug and ushered all of us inside the warm house, thankfully picking up the discarded items my sons dropped. Once I walked in, a wonderful aroma of cinnamon and a burning fire filled my nose and a warm feeling filled my stomach. My smile became softer.

     Lance handed Charlie over to Shiro so he could take his winter clothing off, her gurgling happily at the new presence. He also set down the other stuff in his arms at a nearby table. Before I was even able to take my coat off, a ball of fuzz ran through the entrance way and into my legs. I fell backwards onto my butt, almost hitting my head on the door behind me. All the stuff I was carrying fell to the floor around me and I was suddenly very grateful I wasn’t the one carrying Charlie at the time. Welp, I thought to myself, I guess Pidge and Emily are here.

     The ball of fuzz known as Rover bounded onto my stomach, making me wheeze. I heard Charlie squeal happily above me and my family asking me if I was okay. Honestly, I was surprised Liam and Carlos didn’t run off into the cozy home yet.

     Lance shoed away Rover and helped me up, grabbing my arm to do so. Carlos ran up in front of me. “Are you okay, Daddy?” He asked concerned.

     I gave him a smile. “Don’t worry, Carlos. I’m fine.”
He nodded and smiled, running off with Liam. There we go. My prophecy came true.

     “Are you sure you’re okay?” Lance asked, his grip on my arm tightening.

     “I’m sure,” I assured him, giving him a lingering kiss on the forehead. He still looked worried though.

     I looked at Shiro sternly and he just rolled his eyes, turning around and walking away with Charlie to who-knows-where. I turned back to Lance who was still looking at me worriedly.

     “I know you’re protective of your family-“ I began but he interrupted me.

     “Especially of you,” he said.

     “I know, and that’s good, but I’m fine. I’ll probably just get a small bruise.”

     He didn’t look pleased with that answer, but excepted it anyways and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “Okay.” Lance wrapped his arm around my waist almost protectively.

     “I swear I’m fine,” I told him.

     “Okay,” he repeated. The former YouTuber nodded his head once and his concerned look transformed into a large toothy grin, “and don’t swear in front of the kids,” he mocked.

     I looked at him incredulously and shoved him playfully with my shoulder. “There aren’t even kids around!” I stated.

     “Yeah, yeah.”

     Lance’s grip around my waist slackened after he gave me another quick peck and he finished taking off his winter clothing. Once he was done, not even waiting for me to finish up, he grabbed some stuff I dropped earlier along with some other things that we brought, gave me a cute smile and marched into the living room where you could hear light chatter.

     With the rest of the stuff we brought balanced precociously in my arms, I made my way to the cozy living room. Just before entering, I heard Lance dramatically say: “I can’t believe you betrayed me like this, Em! You let your dog tackle my husband! How could you?”

     I entered the room just as I saw Lance put a hand up to his chest and flop down on the (luckily) unused couch that was behind him. It seemed that he already put the stuff that was in his arms down because nothing fell on top of him when his arms spread out beside him.

     As usual, it seemed like we were the last ones to get here. Hunk, Shay and their one-year-old were there, along with Matt and his girlfriend, Allura and her four-year-old daughter, my mum, Pidge and her girlfriend Emily, Coran and of course Shiro and Adam because they were the people who lived here. I assumed the rest of the children and dog were somewhere else in the Christmassy house.

     “Hey!” I greeted everyone, smiling.

     Emily glanced at me then back at Lance, her blonde hair swooshing a bit. “He looks perfectly fine to me.”

     Lance opened his mouth then closed it again and finally decided to just grumble a quick, “Whatever.”

     I placed all my stuff down on one of the tables set out in the room. Everyone minus Shiro and Adam’s child, Hunk and Shay’s firstborn, and Lance and I’s two eldest children were spread about the room, some squished on the sofas and chairs and some sitting comfortable on the floor. I sat down on the couch cushion beside Lance.

     The whole group chatted for a long time, opening up the food and presents once we called all the kids back. Everything was nice. Everything was surreal. I felt safe and happy. It was amazing. Sure, maybe I did some embarrassing stuff in the past and Lance and I’s relationship isn’t perfect. Sure, maybe if I sang a different song in the car something might’ve changed today. I don’t know, but there’s one thing I do know: I wouldn’t change anything that has happened for the world. Not the embarrassing moments, not the fights Lance and I had, not even changing the first song Lance and I sang together all those years ago that started up all this drama. I wouldn’t change a thing, so, I guess you could say this all started with a tightrope.