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Red was making an absolute show of rubbing herself up against Keith’s leg to get his attention – withheld from her for hours now, but she’d have to wait just a little longer. The fire was low, burning controlled at his desk, but the potion bubbling over it was very tricky. Any distraction and he could ruin it. Still, he reached down to scratch her behind the ears as he read the next step.
“Red, I need an owl feather,” he told her gently, glancing down quickly to see her up on her hindlegs against him, looking unimpressed that after hours of not speaking to her, he would open his mouth to order her around. “Will you get it for me please?” he pressed, eyes back onto his book. “And the willow tree bark, some knotgrass… a tiger’s tooth, and a bay leaf?”
She harrumphed at him, but none the less padded away. He could hear her scaling the shelves of the wall across the room as he turned the page. She returned moments later, a small bottle in her mouth containing feathers and the knotgrass wrapped up in her tail.
“Thank you,” Keith mumbled, taking the ingredients as she went back for the rest.
He concentrated, willing his flame to burn hotter as he slowly administered the new ingredients, watching for the liquid bubbling up to the surface of his small cauldron to turn just the right shade of blue as Red jumped up into his lap and Shiro started yelling from downstairs.
“What, Shiro?” he shouted back, starling Red a bit. He pet her fur until she settled back down.
“Come down here!” he shouted back, something smarmy in his voice Keith decided he didn’t quite like. “I think you’ll want to see this!”
“Well, can it wait?” Keith yelled back, eyes concentrated heavily on his potion. It had just started to brighten to a nice, healthy cyan, and if he could just have a few more moments of steady concentration–
“Just come down here! I’m trying to be a good brother and not let you ruin a grand, sweeping gesture!”
“Sweeping gesture,” Keith huffed. Frustrated, he decided to hold off on his potion, scooping his fire back into his hands and absolving it. He grabbed Red up into his arms and prepared himself for something immature designed to waste his time and make Adam laugh at him all in one fell swoop, but instead he stepped down onto the landing to see Lance in his living room.
He was standing dead center like an actor on a stage, ears twitching atop messy hair, bomber jacket growing ever smaller since high school had ended but he insisted on wearing it “because it makes me look good, Keith” even as he grew tall as a pole and had numerous wolf-outs in it. He was tall, and damnably handsome, and grinning like a movie star and most importantly, suddenly back from his trip early with absolutely no warning.
Red jumped down from his arms, forcing him to look after her and stop staring. “What are you doing back?” he managed, watching his familiar trot happily over to Lance and begin pawing at his leg now, the traitor.
Lance always hesitated in petting her – something about being naturally unequipped to like cats, but he always tried with Red, squatting down to scratch at her ears and the back of her neck like she liked. “Missed you, I guess,” he said, with that grin, flashing bright blue eyes up to Keith, then back down to Red like it was nothing at all, because to him, it was. “It’s Halloween,” he shrugged for good measure.
Only then did Keith even remember about Shiro, who was nearly hanging out of the kitchen and unabashedly smirking at him. Adam was sprawled across their couch, not even pretending to watch TV anymore. He sent Keith a blatant wink that sent Keith’s cheeks burning.
“I guess,” Keith said, folding his arms. True, it was Halloween, and he’d never had one without Lance, and he’d dreaded the very idea of the possibility for weeks and weeks up to the day Lance had left with his family, but Lance didn’t need to know that.
“Alright, if you don’t care then I guess I’ll just leave,” Lance started, teeth like a shark’s as he grinned. Red pawed at his jeans as if she understood.
“You interrupted my work,” Keith said, instead of playing along at all. As usual it only made Lance laugh. “I was busy,” he pressed, trying to hold his ground, trying in vain to make Lance think he didn’t stop Keith’s world on a regular basis with little to no effort at all. “You could have let me know you were coming.”
“But then it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Lance reasoned, crossing the living room to stand right before him, forcing Keith to have to look up at him. “And I may have broken my mirror again,” he admitted sheepishly, as Keith fondly rolled his eyes. “And since I’m back, we can go into town this year after all.”
Keith hesitated, eyes darting between Lance’s smile and his own socks. “You still want to?” he asked finally.
“Duh. We go every year, I’d never miss it.”
Keith couldn’t hide his smile if he wanted to, could see Lance grinning back between glances and turned to hide his heated face. “I’ll go get my shoes,” he said, turning back up the stairs. He heard Red whine loudly, then her light padding behind him on the stairs. “You don’t have to be so obvious about him, you know,” he hissed at her as she followed him into his room.
Head tilting to the side, she blinked slowly up at him, because who the hell did he think he was kidding?
With his door left open, he could hear Shiro talking to Lance which was never good. He sped up in lacing up his boots, ran his fingers through his hair as he threw all his necessities into the enchanted bag he kept by his door. He ducked back downstairs with Red hot on his heels before Shiro said something embarrassing.
“Okay, we’re leaving, shut up, bye,” Keith told Shiro impatiently, grabbing Lance by the jacket. He snatched his cloak and pointed hat off the hook by the door. “Feed Red,” he said, hoping to distract Shiro from his usual not-funny comments about being back before he had to go out looking for them, but only just managing to shut the door in his face at the end of his spiel as Lance laughed. “Stop encouraging him,” Keith griped, setting his hat onto his head.
“You let him do this, you know,” Lance chuckled back, reaching out to straighten the Keith’s hat so the brim was out of his eyes. “You’re so reactive. He thrives off of it. I should know.”
Keith glared, though there was no real venom. “Shut up.” He stepped toward the dirt road for town, but Lance grabbed his arm.
“Nah, nah, nah, we’re not walking all the way to town, we’re taking your broom.”
Lance had unabashedly been obsessed with Keith’s broom since Adam had gotten it for him on his eighth birthday, and he never let Keith forget it – not that Keith ever could – but sometimes, he liked to pretend. Sometimes he found it more endearing than usual that Lance was so enamored with it.
He pulled Keith by the arm around to the back porch where his broom leaned against the house, looking back and forth between them with poorly concealed excitement so much that he might as well have been wagging his tail.
“Alright, alright,” Keith surrendered, holding his hand out to summon his broom. It stopped right before him, waiting patiently. “Come on,” he told Lance, mounting it. Excitedly, he clambered on behind him.
Keith kicked them off the ground and they were slowly sailing up, up, up, then steady, though his heart was still climbing and climbing with Lance leaning his head over his shoulder. Keith held onto his broom tighter, hoping and praying his hands didn’t combust as Lance sighed onto his neck. “Why do I always have to beg you to do this? This is honestly the best I ever feel.”
Keith grinned, eyes stuck forward. Lance only got to fly on rare occasions such as Halloween when a human wouldn’t think too much of it if they were seen, or on rare journeys with Keith or Allura to gather unusual magical items through the magic lands if he begged to come along. With Lance laughing over his shoulder, it was difficult for Keith not to get as excited about Lance getting to fly as he did.
“The next time I go to the magic lands, I’ll take you with me,” Keith said thoughtlessly, because Lance’s tail was wagging so much, he couldn’t sit still, causing the broom to wiggle unpredictably under them. Still, Keith couldn’t regret it, biting down on his grin to hold the broom steadier. “We’ll take the long way!”
“Real talk?!”
“Unless Allura wants to go earlier than I do, then I’ll tell her to take you instead–”
“Nope, you already said you’d take me!” Lance crowed, laughter trickling out with his words as Keith tried to fight down his blush.
He finally gave up, giddy laughter bubbling up from his throat when Lance grabbed onto his shoulders and full-on howled at the waxing crescent moon between laughs. All the happy energy in Keith’s hands and chest pushed the broom higher and higher.
They landed on a low hill just outside the nearest human town, with quite a to-do on Keith’s part, telling Lance to stop laughing. “Stop making me laugh!” he’d choked out desperately. Stop making me so happy, said his heart and his brain and everything weak in him as he finally managed to focus on bringing them down.
The city before them was well-lit in oranges and purples for the holiday, and the closer they drew, the more Keith could hear noise of laughter and talking and people. They quickly crossed the street, Keith gripping his broom tightly as Lance led the way onto a sidewalk, between two close buildings and out into a throng of humans and sound and activity.
Lance loved the city more than any magical creature Keith knew. He’d only ever been into it little farther than this, but he knew the area like the back of his hand and always spoke of one day seeing the entire thing. If Keith wanted, he could come into town any time he felt like; he looked just human enough that he wouldn’t stand out, but he never did – never wanted to do it without Lance who always had trouble hiding his tail.
He never wanted to do anything without Lance.
“So, what do you want to do?” Said werewolf piped up.
As they fell into line with a large group of people heading further into the city, Keith shrugged. “Let’s see where this goes.”
Lance hummed, lazy smile perfectly in place. “Alright. You should probably hold onto me, so you don’t get lost, though.”
“Fuck you, I’m not short, you’re just growing like a weed.”
Lance’s grin only grew wider. “My point stands, ya little dandelion.” He pulled Keith along by his cloak.
They managed to make it halfway through the throng but got held up behind a small group of teenagers, all dressed up like varying super heroes. One of the girls turned back to look at them when Keith accidentally stepped on the back of her shoe. He prepared to apologize, but instead she smiled, eyes on his hat.
“Cute witch costume,” she said.
“Thanks,” Keith said back, hand lifting to fiddle with the brim. “Cute hero costume.”
“Thanks! Wonder Woman’s my favorite,” she smiled, turning to walk backwards as she confidently struck her hands on her hips. It grabbed the attention of her friends – a mix of girls and boys who all voice approval of Keith’s outfit, agreeing they liked Keith’s hat – black and large and curved into a perfect backward scoop then a soft curl at the top, brim large, round and floppy as it hung over Keith’s eyes and wrapped in a deep purple ribbon. They talked over each other, asking excitedly where he got it.
“I got it for him,” Lance told them, hand still wrapped in Keith’s cloak as he flashed a toothy smile. Keith quirked a brow, his own smile going a bit taunting. It was a rare sight, but it always knocked Keith a bit off kilter when Lance’s instincts made him all territorial like his decade-old pack bond with Keith was in some kind of jeopardy over something trivial.
The teens didn’t seem to notice, instead all focusing on his teeth and ears with varying degrees of surprise.
“Whoa, you look so real,” one of the guys awed, stepping toward him a bit.
Ears twitching forward at attention, Lance’s smile went from threatening to excited as he quickly relaxed. “Thanks!” Keith could see his tail wagging behind him and bit down on a grin.
“Did your ears just move, man?!” one of the girls shouted.
“Oh, did they?” Lance smirked, wiggling his ears for show like an idiot. Keith smacked his arm for it and Lance sent him a wink. The teens were just about apoplectic around them, jumping around and screaming asking how he did it. Lance’s smile finally went sheepish as Keith rolled his eyes.
Doing what he did best, Lance managed to somehow talk himself out of hot water as they neared what appeared to be their destination, a vast, open fair ground with rides and attractions, people milling about everywhere and more decorative pumpkins than Keith could count. Their teen friends trickled off toward it, wishing them a good time.
“Oh, a harvest festival,” Lance whistled lowly. “That’s new. I’ve always wanted to see one of these.”
Keith had heard about them from Allura who had been with Romelle to many, but this was better than he’d imagined from her stories. Lance dragged him everywhere, first running him straight into a corn maze where they got themselves lost within half an hour causing Lance to have to sniff their way out. His nose led them right to a popcorn stand and Keith pulled some human money from his bag to treat them both.
Walking among the stands and attractions, Keith couldn’t keep his eyes from Lance’s smile and his happy eyes. His relaxed ears and his happy gate. He found himself glad Lance was too distracted with the sights to notice him staring.
“Oh, hey!” Lance exclaimed suddenly. He pointed up ahead of them though Keith couldn’t see exactly what it was Lance was pointing at. “There’s a booth up here selling stones and gems!”
“They’re not going to be real,” Keith protested, but Lance was already pulling him along by the cloak.
Keith wound up having to eat his words a short while later as they walked away from the booth and its kind attendant with a healthy assortment of valuable stones and even some possibly rare – if they turned out to be real – crystals shoved deep and safe into Keith’s enchanted bag.
“What can you do with those?” Lance asked excitedly.
“Just about anything,” Keith realized. He’d been needing to refill his stash of Blue Tourmaline for a while now and thought he’d have to make the trip to the magic lands for it. He could probably finish his potion much quicker now, knowing exactly how to speed things along with Tourmaline in place of other ingredients he may have been missing.
“Did you get everything you need?”
It was a simple question – a thoughtful question – but Keith could hear the hesitance in his words. He sent Lance a knowing smile. “No, not quite. I’m still going to have to go to the magic lands soon, looks like. I guess I don’t trust these crystals so much,” he went on, smiling to himself at Lance’s poorly concealed excitement that his trip along to the magic lands hadn’t just been cancelled. “So, what now?”
“That thing,” Lance answered simply, pointing ahead at what Keith knew to be a Ferris Wheel like he’d been waiting for Keith to ask. “I’ve been watching you eye it since we got here.”
Keith didn’t trust himself to speak, so he didn’t.
They clambered in together on one side of a compartment, Keith’s broom strewn across their laps over the safety bar as they rose and rose, then circled back down, then over and over again.
Lance’s eyes seemed stuck on the moon, something that wasn’t that unusual – it came with the territory of being a werewolf. He sort of had to be obsessed with it. As much as Keith had hated to hear last month that Lance would be leaving for the village with his family for so long, he was able to make peace with it simply for the fact that at least he would be with his family during the full moon. But Keith liked to think someday, he’d be able to help. All his work had to pay off sometime.
“Like what you see?” Lance drawled, blue eyes rolling lazily over to Keith though his face remained up toward the moon.
“No,” Keith spat, too rough, too quick, and obviously a lie as he realized too late that he’d been staring again. “I was just thinking.”
“About?”
Keith hesitated, causing Lance to turn his full body in his seat to face him, expression still smug as ever, but with an underlying shine of concern in his eyes. “Why you came back so early,” Keith admitted finally.
“Huh? You’re still on that?”
“Tell me why,” Keith pressed, leaning against the side rail. “Did something happen? Are you okay?” He grinned, watching Lance fidget in his seat. “Did they send you back early?”
“No,” Lance snorted, though his expression remained uncertain, fingers playing listlessly with the bristles of Keith’s broom.
“Then what was it?” Keith pressed. “You love going to the village, especially with your family, so what the hell?”
“I already told you.”
“No, you didn’t,” Keith argued, “I feel like I’d remember that–”
“I told you when you asked me back at the house that I missed you,” Lance said, voice hard in its insistence, eyes alight with mirth as Keith fell silent. “You just never listen to me when I say that.”
Keith blinked, frozen as he was forced to wonder how many times Lance had said that, and he’d somehow missed it. “I thought you were fucking with me,” Keith admitted with a breathy laugh. “You know it’s something you’d do.”
“Well,” Lance grinned back, “yeah. But not about. Not about that.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, you’re my,” Lance sighed, “my best fucking friend, I’m allowed to miss you when I want. I already missed your birthday – don’t think I forgot. I wasn’t going to miss Halloween, too. My mom was just surprised I didn’t leave sooner.”
“Wait, your family’s still there? You came back alone?”
Lance shrugged, though nothing in his eyes was nearly as lackadaisical as his posture was. “Guess they don’t have Halloween traditions with their best friends back home,” he said, dropping his gaze to his lap.
Keith blinked slowly at him. “Guess not, huh.”
“So, you gonna tell me you missed me, too, or what?”
“Huh?”
“I know you did. Red was all over me,” Lance told him with a lecherous smirk, fingers tapping against his thigh as Keith felt his face warm. “I know she reacts to things the way you feel about them,” he continued to Keith’s utter mortification. “I figured it out years ago–”
“Oh, my god, okay!” Keith rushed out, face burning warmer than he could stand as he tried to figure out when and how Lance had learned that and if Shiro had anything to do with it. The more he thought about it the more he knew it was a stupid question.
“So, did you miss me, Keith?” Lance pressed with a waggle of his eyebrows.
“You were only gone five weeks.”
“Did you miss me or not?” he repeated, smile growing and growing in mirth as he scooted across the seat, closer and closer until his arm was reaching out, pulling Keith off the side rail and up against his side. “Don’t lie to me, I can always just watch Red later tonight–”
“Yes, asshole,” Keith glared, feeling his shoulders burn where Lance’s arm had settled around them. Lance only grinned back, eyes going soft at Keith’s admission. It made Keith’s heart feel heavy with the weight of things he couldn’t say. “Of course, I missed you.”
“See?” Lance said, smile lessening into something soft and gentle as he turned his face back up to the moon. “Was that so hard?”
Keith didn’t answer, voice seemingly stuck in his throat, though his eyes went right back to watching Lance’s profile and he couldn’t stop thinking about Lance missing him so much he’d found himself a way back home, couldn’t stop wondering if he’d even gone to his own home before showing up unannounced at his. He couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d dreaded the idea of spending October without Lance at his side – how he’d just managed his birthday without him but felt like the only way he’d get through today would be to toss himself into his potion.
Grand, sweeping gesture, Shiro had yelled from downstairs, interrupting his work for something much, much better.
Lance jostled his shoulder with the arm still slung around him. “Hey, are you even enjoying this?” he asked lowly, eyes heavy on him, face right before his. “We’re doing this for you, you know.”
Keith swallowed. “Yeah, it’s fun. I like seeing everything.”
“It is fun,” Lance agreed with a nod, eyes back ahead just as they reached the top. “But it’s got nothing on flying with you. That’s what I call a view.”
Their compartment was descending but everything in Keith was doing the opposite.
They found themselves on the same hill they’d landed on when they arrived, sitting huddled together as the cold surrounded them. Keith munched thoughtfully on a candy apple, broom across his lap and eyes trailing like magnets to Lance, who’s eyes remained drawn up to the sky. He’d already finished his candy apple on the way out of the city, content to wait for Keith to be ready to fly, hands pressed into the grass behind him for balance. Keith could see him shivering.
Holding onto his apple with his teeth, he summoned his fire up to his palms, holding them out between them. Lance smiled down at him, huddling closer, hovering his hands over Keith’s. He leaned ever closer and Keith could see the flames flickering in his eyes.
“I always liked these flames you make,” Lance said to his hands.
Keith felt his control slipping, flames growing stronger and taller in his hands and he yelped, candy apple dropping from his mouth, willing the flame back down as Lance laughed. He ducked so the brim of his hat would hide his eyes and hopefully his burning cheeks, but Lance tipped his brim back, leaned in to meet his eyes.
“Remember what I said about thriving off you being so reactive?”
Then his hands moved, palms up against the backs of Keith’s hands, helping to cup the flame and Keith became sure his face was burning brighter than any flame he could ever make on his own.
“So, I got you something,” Lance said, an abrupt switch of subject. “For your birthday,” he finished sheepishly as Keith glared, though he knew Lance wasn’t threatened by it at all. His birthday had always been a weird day for him, and he could never really put it into words to explain why he didn’t care for it when his friends asked. But this year, he hadn’t even had Lance to make it better, and he’d never admit it, but this birthday had been his worst in a long time.
“It was a week ago,” Keith said uselessly. Lance hummed over him as he reached into his jacket, hand balled up around something as it came back out.
“Uh-huh, and today’s Halloween, good job,” he nodded as if Keith were five, snorting when Keith tried to kick him. “Shut your eyes,” he instructed, rolling his own as Keith quirked a brow. “Shut up, I’m not going to do anything to you. I’m serious, shut your eyes and stop ruining my grand gesture.”
There it is again, Keith thought, eyes falling shut as he waited for Lance to realize he couldn’t put anything in his hands since there was still fire there, but instead, he felt Lance’s hands loop around the back of his neck, clasping something together. Hands brushed the sides of his neck before drawing away.
“Okay, you can look.”
Letting the fire seep back into his palms, he reached down to the pendant now hanging against his chest – a blue stone. Lapis Lazuli, his birthstone. He turned it between his fingers, trying to speak, to thank Lance, but he couldn’t find his voice, couldn’t even find the right thought process.
“I got this witch from the village to enchant it,” Lance started, voice rambling and Keith could see his hands moving about every which way from his periphery vision like they did when he didn’t know what to do with himself. “I bought it off this other witch who basically harvests Lapis Lazuli and asked if she could enchant it for me, for someone special, but she sent me across the village to the most powerful witch there who… fuck, I can’t even explain it, but it was awesome! She did all this… stuff to it to enchant it so it’ll protect you,” Lance breathed out, winding down a bit, and Keith was finally able to lift his gaze to meet Lance’s. He’d never seen Lance’s eyes look like that, so focused and determined and unwavering and solely on him. “And it’ll inspire you, too, she said. I know you’ve been working on that potion for a really long time.”
He fell silent then, eyes darting back and forth between Keith and the moon and his ears were pressing back against his head and his hands had settled to fumble together in his lap and Keith couldn’t stop hearing the words “someone special” crashing again and again against his skull – couldn’t stop twisting the stone hanging from his neck between his fingers, couldn’t stop staring, couldn’t stop–
“Thank you,” Keith managed, tongue finally coming unlocked enough to speak, to kickstart his body and mind into functioning properly again. “I – really, really love it,” he said, looking down at it in awe again as Lance smiled, soft and sweet and, for once, nothing teasing underneath. “I’ll take really good care of it,” he promised.
“It’s supposed to take care of you,” Lance reminded him, leaning in just enough to be noticeable.
Keith found himself mirroring him. You already do plenty of that, he wanted to say, just on the tip of his tongue, when his head bounced back a bit and it took him a bit to realized that the brim of his hat had just pushed him back from Lance’s forehead. He had half a moment to wonder when they’d gotten so close only for the loud sound of his name erupting from his bag to jolt him back even further.
“Shiro,” Lance groaned without looking, without even having to ask, because who else would it be?
“Sorry,” Keith winced, pulling out his magic mirror to see Shiro waiting, patient and smug on the other side looking like he knew exactly what he’d interrupted. “What?” Keith barked.
“What? I’m just checking on you,” Shiro said back. “It’s almost midnight, so–”
Keith groaned, tossing his magic mirror back into his bag, though he could still hear Shiro talking. His face felt heated and he felt the fire in him pushing to the surface of his skin again, but Lance’s soft chuckle cooled him off a bit.
“Should we head back?”
“He’ll only keep calling me,” Keith answered, remembering about his candy apple only when he looked down and saw it still in his lap, grimacing at the caramel stuck to his cloak. Not wanting to waste it, he took quick bites from the rest of it as Lance snickered.
They mounted his broom and Keith wondered for just a moment what had almost just happened and if… if Lance had felt it, too. He wondered briefly, as Lance got situated behind him, if he’d made things weird only for Shiro to exacerbate it to unholy levels of uncomfortable, but then Lance was holding him tight from behind. He felt his entire body relax. For safety, or otherwise, Keith didn’t know. Moreover, as he leaned back into it, he didn’t care.
“Keith! Infinity and beyond, buddy – let’s go!” Lance ordered wildly, thrusting a fist into the air so enthusiastically, Keith almost lost his balance laughing at him.
He managed to kick them off, using the lightness bubbling in his chest from Lance leaning his head over his shoulder again and laughing right into his ear to keep them steady all the way back.
They landed in Keith’s backyard, laughing and barely catching themselves on impact.
“Think you overshot it,” Lance said, reaching forward to steady Keith by the shoulders before he could stumble on any further and hit the house.
Keith felt like he’d been flushed for the last couple hours as he turned in Lance’s grip, broom held tight in his sweaty fingers. Lance peered underneath the brim of his hat to see his eyes. “Shut up,” Keith huffed. It had been all Lance’s fault anyway, moving around and swaying the broom so much Keith could barely keep it straight. He didn’t want it to be over. “You wanna come in?” he asked breathlessly, uncontrollably.
They walked silently through the tall grass and mushroom clusters to the front of the house, Keith feeling as though in another world as he unlocked the front door. In his living room along with Shiro and Adam sat Allura and Romelle – Allura in the middle of a giggle at something Romelle was saying before Keith and Lance had interrupted.
“Keith, hi!” Allura cheered. “How was your date?”
Keith froze in the doorway, glaring ice and fire at Shiro who was looking some mixture of sheepish and smug on the end of their couch. Allura blinked, innocent as ever, wondering what she’d said wrong as Keith dragged Lance upstairs.
Red all but greeted them at the door when they reached Keith’s bedroom. She jumped off the bed and darted a straight line to Lance’s legs, purring loudly as she rubbed herself up against them again and again, begging for Lance to pet her.
Blue eyes rolled smoothly over, pinning Keith in a knowing stare. Lance was positively beaming as he knelt down in a crouch to scratch Red behind her ears like she liked. Face burning, Keith decided to pretend he didn’t see it, distracted himself by checking on his potion across the room.
“How’s that been going?” Lance asked from the ground. Red was purring and licking at his face like her life depended on it because she was an embarrassing traitor and Keith was going to hide all her food.
“Better lately,” Keith answered, forcing his eyes back on the sky-blue potion sitting idle in his small caldron. He sat at his desk, calling up his flames to light the burner again, remembering the Blue Tourmaline he’d just bought. He flipped through his book, though he was sure he was going to have to play this by ear as he reached down into his bag and retrieved a handful of blue. He took a moment, deciding if it was worth the risk – two months of careful methodical step-following for a shortcut that might not even work.
He felt Lance come to stand behind him, knowing Red was happy in his arms when her tail came down to swish against his face. “You’ll figure it out,” Lance murmured lowly, leaning lower until Keith could see him watching the potion like he even knew what to look for. “You can do anything.”
Right then, Red huffed, sounding bored and disaffected as she jumped from Lance’s arms down onto Keith’s head, kicking his hat off on the way. She landed calm and cool on the desk, sauntering on toward the cauldron and holding her paw over it. A couple of small hairs fell in as she locked eyes with Keith.
The potion bubbled a few moments more, then – there it was. The perfect cerulean.
“You gotta be fucking kidding me.”
He’d poured over recipes and ingredients for this potion for months – had messed up so many batches and destroyed several others because he’d been too stupid to realize he needed his own hair?
“Was,” Lance grumbled. “Was that some of my hair?”
Keith blinked at the potion, impossible to tell what had gone into it now, but…
He looked up to see Lance nervously scratching behind his ear and dislodging some hairs in the process. It wouldn’t have been hard to get some of Lance’s hair. It was kind of always all over Keith’s things anyway and now that he thought about it, he didn’t put it past Red to have spent all her time cuddling with him tonight collecting some.
But if the potion had needed both their hair…
He could remember his mother saying when he was much younger that potion-making put the labor in the term “labor of love,” and then his dad would laugh and say that that was why her potions never turned out right – because she was too stressed while working to put love into anything correctly, and–
“Oh, Red, you bitch,” Keith glared. If she could, he’d say Red just winked at him.
Lance cleared his throat. “You wanna tell me what the hell all that was about?” he asked with a nervous laugh. “I mean, I want to say you’re both better than a ‘hair of dog’ gag, but–”
“Lance, I think it’s finally done,” Keith said, a new type of realization dawning on him as it hit him. He grew more and more certain the longer he stared at it.
He scooped the small flame up from the burner back into his hands. Red seemed to know he’d need a vile, going to retrieve one without him asking. She passed it to him with her teeth and he carefully administered the potion into the long tube, capped it and handed it to Lance who gaped like a fish.
“Uh…”
“It’s for you,” Keith admitted, feeling more and more mortified the more it all started to make sense. It was one of the most basic principles of making potions for loved ones and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it. Every time Allura made a potion for Romelle, she had to put in pieces of both of them. A piece of who it was from, a piece of who it was for, and together, it was meant to form a kind of representation of good intentions, in effect, making the giver’s potion for, and only for, the recipient. Or so it was said.
It was old and archaic, and Allura was the only witch he knew who still swore by it, but she was also the only witch he knew who was so foolishly in love she wouldn’t second-guess an old wives’ tale like that.
Well, Allura and himself now, apparently, and Red had probably known all along.
He looked up at Lance who was only looking more and more confused, so he stood, trying to call up all the ways he’d imagined giving this potion to Lance – tried desperately to erase Red and the petty way she’d just essentially rubbed his face in his love for Lance from his mind, and sighed.
“I’ve been trying to make a potion to make it easier for you when you wolf out,” he said, quick and mumbled and all in one breath. “So it won’t hurt so much when you change, and you’ll still be yourself. Adam gave me this spell, and I followed all the steps perfectly, so hopefully you’ll still know me like you still know your family next time you change, even though I’m not a wolf.”
“But – but, Keith–”
“I know you don’t want me around you when that happens, but I’m not scared of you,” Keith pressed on, staring unwaveringly up into Lance’s unreadable eyes. “And I would never judge you like you think I would. And I’m not forcing you to take this and trust me, but if I keep getting better at potion-making, I know I can make you a better one someday. I found one in my books – it’s complicated, but I think it’s worth it, because it can make it so you don’t lose yourself at all on the full moon, just your appearance would change, so you–”
“Okay, okay, you gotta pump the brakes, buddy,” Lance interrupted with a breathless sort of laugh. He placed the vile gently back onto Keith’s desk and dropped both his hands onto Keith’s shoulders, eyes boring right through him. “Hang on, I’m still trying to process that you’ve spent the last two months slaving over this potion for me.”
“It was nothing,” Keith said, and he meant it. It didn’t cost him anything to do this for Lance. He didn’t care about the time it took or the resources or the trial and error and the secrecy up to now – he didn’t care as long as Lance was okay.
“Holy shit. Thank you, Keith.”
Keith felt trapped there, trapped under Lance’s hands, trapped by his eyes. He wanted to say that he should be thanking Red, but he’d never seen Lance look so honest and emphatic before and he didn’t want to ruin it with something he knew Lance would take for a joke. “You’re welcome.”
Something went pensive and almost longing in Lance’s eyes before he shook it out, turned on his usual easy-going smile. “So. Blanket fort? String lights? Candy? Come, on we’ve got a tradition to uphold here, Keith.”
Keith decided to let it slide for now. “Right, sorry for the hold up,” he drawled with an eye roll. He waved his hand for the chairs around his room to convene in the middle as Red dragged a light blanket off his bed and set about draping it over the chairs. He left them to it to venture into Adam and Shiro’s room, scouring Adam’s bottom drawer for his candy stash.
Back in his room, he found Lance pulling the full comforter off the bed for the blanket fort, draping it over the chairs and folding it so that it created a triangular doorway. He stepped back right into Keith to admire his work.
“We need string lights,” Lance listed, basically standing on Keith’s foot.
“No, we don’t,” Keith realized, smiling sidelong at Lance who looked perplexed. “I learned something cool while you were gone.” He dropped to his knees to crawl into the fort, knowing Lance was right behind him.
As they worked to settle around each other in the near-darkness, Keith realized that Lance had stuffed the area with pillows. Red trotted in, trying to find a place between them only to wind up, predictably, sitting in Lance’s lap once they managed to settle cross-legged across from each other.
“Alright, let’s see it,” Lance said, a silhouette against a dark duvet.
And Keith could feel Lance’s eyes on him as he shut his own, unable to withhold a proud grin as he called his fire to the surface. He focused on dispensing it, on setting it free until he heard Lance gasp and knew that it had worked. He opened his eyes to a thousand twinkling little lights, dots moving all around them. Red whined, trying to catch some.
“Oh, my god,” Lance breathed out, eyes trailing all around them with a look of awe Keith couldn’t remember seeing since they were kids. “What is this?”
“It’s called a firefly charm,” Keith answered, fingers twiddling together nervously in his lap at the attention. “Kind of a specialty for most witches with fire affinities. Allura helped me.”
“You’re amazing.” It had come out sounding torn from Lance’s throat like he couldn’t stop it, eyes hard on him, lit strange and ethereal from the floating lights and he didn’t look reluctant about it at all. “I mean it. You’re seriously the coolest witch I know.”
Keith coughed, nervous and awkward and flushing down to his neck. He stuffed a handful of candy corn in his mouth just for something else to focus on. “I’m sure that’s not true. You just spent five weeks in the witch village.”
“Shut up,” Lance said with a scoff. He shuffled closer, Red hanging on to his thigh like he’d fling her off even though he was hardly moving at all. He reached into the bag beside Keith for his own handful of candy corn until their knees pressed together. “You’re cooler than every witch in that place. None of them could even fix my mirror. Said I’d just break it again, which… I mean they’re not wrong, I know I break it all the time, but still. I just. Really wanted to see you on your birthday.”
Lance’s lashes were so long over beautiful blue eyes staring right into him, everything in them free and honest and out in the open, and a spec of light landed on the end of Lance’s nose and Keith couldn’t breathe and the next thing he knew, he was being honest back.
“The whole time I was working on your potion, I kept thinking about you on the full moon, not hurting the whole time. Maybe watching a movie or something or watching the moon outside and not having to be scared of it or having a functioning magic mirror for once because you didn’t break it in a wolf rage, and,” he took a breath, told himself it’d be okay and met Lance’s endless eyes with his own. “I was with you.”
“Keith…”
“I’d make those flames you like. And if you wanted to go hunt, I’d still be there when you got back. I could take you flying, and you wouldn’t feel like you have to keep yourself away from me every–”
“Keith, just–” he cut himself off with a groan, swooping forward to press his lips to Keith’s, urgent but gentle and yearning and everything Keith had dreamed of. Keith’s eyes fell shut and he felt Lance’s hands in his hair, the only thing tethering him down while the rest of him felt so weightless – like this was the only thing he wanted to do for the rest of his life; sit in this fort with Lance and kiss him until they both passed out.
And he had no idea how much time had passed, how long he’d spent like that with Lance before he pulled away, forehead falling to lean against Keith’s, eyes still shut as he tried to catch his breath, laughing airily when Red whined loudly and dashed out of the fort.
Keith’s arms were wound around Lance’s shoulders, but he didn’t remember putting them there. He didn’t remember situating himself in Lance’s lap either, but he felt like that was more Lance’s doing than his. Lance who was close and warm and blinking lazy-slow-dazed right back at him, lips turning up in a lopsided grin, dopey and happy in a swirl of tiny twinkling lights.
“Well, this went way better than I imagined.”
Keith faltered. “You imagine this a lot?” A sham of confidence, really for how broken apart inside he felt.
“All the time,” Lance admitted with a breathless sort of laugh, a listless shrug that dropped Keith in that much closer. A hand left Keith’s middle to press against his face. “You have no idea.”
“Oh,” Keith said, brain stuck back somewhere where Lance’s lips were on his. “That’s. Good to know.”
“Wow, I really messed you up, huh?” Lance teased, rubbing at the red Keith knew was on his cheeks. “You like me so much. I knew it.”
“Shut up, you’re charming, okay? We don’t have to make a whole thing about it.”
“Oh, Keith, we definitely have to make a whole thing about it,” Lance argued. “But in the theme of grand gestures, I’m willing to put it off ‘til tomorrow, if you’re willing to add this to the Halloween traditions,” he said confidently, tossing in a wink even, but Keith could see it plain as day that somehow Lance still thought he had anything to be nervous about.
Beyond that, Keith’s thoughts were a swirling vortex of Lance and grand gestures and how the two kind of seemed synonymous at this point, and further, if this entire night had been one big gesture made of smaller components meant to lead them exactly where they’d landed. He took one last look at Lance and his endless eyes and his messy hair and the lack of space between the two of them and decided on his own gesture. “Well, I was thinking we could just do this in general. Like all the time.”
“Oh,” Lance said with wide, happy eyes. “As long as it goes down as officially your idea.”
Keith shrugged, feigning indifference, though he couldn’t stop his smile. “If that’s what we’re calling it when I beat you to saying something we both obviously want.”
“Wow, I guess Red’s gonna have a lot less to do now that she doesn’t have to try and convey the way you’re feeling anymore. You know, since you finally – ow!” he hissed as Keith tugged at the hair on the nape of his neck.
“Guess she didn’t need to convey that, huh?”
“No, I guess she didn’t,” Lance said, gently pinching Keith’s side in return. “As much as I’m gonna love you just telling me how you feel now, I’m gonna miss her being all over me like that. I guess she grew on me.”
Keith groaned, wanting to hide his face in shame, but finding that difficult to do with Lance’s face in the way, not that he was complaining. “No, she really is that obsessed with you now, you grew on her, too,” he admitted. “Red’s a traitor and I’m going to starve her.”
Lance scoffed, hands molding to Keith’s sides. “No, you’re not.”
“Of course, I’m not, I love my cat,” Keith scoffed, jumping a bit when Red meowed loudly from outside the tent. “You weren’t supposed to hear that,” he called back at her as Lance continued to laugh.
He started to feel the full weight of the day, or at least the last handful of hours. He thought back wistfully on the night he thought he’d have – having resigned himself completely to deep longing and fruitless potion-making on his favorite day of the year all alone, only for Lance to swoop in like Keith had wished for him with blue eyes and toothy smiles and a trip into the city. With grand sweeping gestures, and an enchanted birthstone pendant, and the seduction of Keith’s own cat and–
“Hey, I’m gonna kiss you again,” he decided, quiet and thoughtful. “And it’s going down as my idea.”
So subtle that Keith almost missed it, Lance’s face tinged ever so slightly red, dusting his cheeks and nose just like his freckles and Keith found himself too flustered and mesmerized to tease him. Lance’s smile grew and grew and Keith could feel his own growing to match as their noses bumped and Lance let out a breathless laugh. “If that’s what we’re calling it when you beat me to saying something we clearly both–”
“Shut up,” Keith laughed against Lance’s lips.