"What were you thinking?!" Pidge rubbed at her eyes, pushing her glasses up in the process.

"I wasn't actually planning on using it!" I ran a hand through my hair anxiously.

"If you weren't planning on using it, then why did you buy it in the first place?" Pidge quickly put her hands on her hips expectantly.

I looked down at the ground quiet now. "Because some part of me did plan on using it. But it really was an accident! I swear!" I looked from her to the closed door and bit at my lip. It was quiet for a moment.

"Somehow, locking Keith in the closet almost seems a little ironic." Pidge snorted.

"Not to mention, a bit of a step backward." I chuckled, but the humor quickly died.

"Well, what are you going to do?" Pidge asked rubbing at her knuckles.

"I'm going to..." I trailed off, "I'm going to take him back to where I got the poison. Maybe the witch I bought it from can reverse it."

"Witch? Poison? Shit Lance, what the hell were you thinking?" Pidge shook her head, but a smile was sitting on her lips.

I laughed, "I don't know." After a moment I turned to look at her, noticing a flaw in my plan. "How will I even get him there?"

"Leash?" Pidge suggested.

"Him wandering away from me isn't exactly my concern. He has no problem staying by my side."

"Then you'll be fine!" She smiled brightly. "Now go fix Keith!"

——————

Earlier that day...

"Paladins! Good news! We're all going to the mall again!" Allura clapped her hands together.

"Weren't we chased out of the mall riding a cow and told never to come back?" Pidge asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah remember, Lance hit his head-" Keith started with a devilish smile.

"We remember!" Lance intervened grumpily.

"Oh, of course it's a different mall! And as a reward for your wondrous efforts the past few weeks, we've decided to give you each some money to spend however you please." Allura handed them three small coins each, the currency unidentifiable.

The paladins shared excited glances as they examined the coins.

They arrived at the mall and quickly dashed in opposite directions. Except for Lance that is. "Hey Keithy, I think saw a couples booth a little further back. Wanna give it a try." Lance wiggled his eyebrows.

Keith's cheeks turned a light shade of pink as he rolled his eyes and walked away. Lance maintained his goofy smile until Keith was out of sight. He frowned and turned on his heels in the other direction.

After ten minutes of wandering, Lance grew bored. Normally, alien junk would have him thrilled, but he just kept thinking about the way Keith rolled his eyes and walked away.

He defeatedly sat on a bench against a wall tilting his head back slightly.

"Ah, love troubles I see." A crackly voice spoke. It was female, but old and crackled.

Lance bolted upright to come face to face with an incredibly short old woman. She had long grey hair and several layers of old yet colorful clothing. Several small wood carved talismans hung loosely from her neck and small leather bags were attached to her hips with a thin leather rope.

"W-who are you?" Lance asked nervously.

She smiled showing her crooked teeth. "Why, I'm Lady Maeel."

"Oh, I'm-"

"Lance. I know." She chuckled. She turned around and began to slowly walk away. It was then that Lance noticed her leaning on a small wooden cane, jaggedly carved from wood. "Are you coming?" She looked over her shoulder.

"Oh uh, yeah." Lance caught up to her, nervously following. She pulled out a ring of keys and began to unlock a door. There were no display windows or signs, and if Lance didn't know any better, he'd suspect it to be a janitorial closet.

She opened it and walked inside, Lance slinking behind. It was dim in the room, the light having a yellow-orange tint. The place was warm and cozy, and every doorway had brown beads hanging down. Red velvet drapes hung over a table that two wooden chairs were pushed under. Inside a small golden cage, a crow was cocking it's head to the side staring at him and shelves full of colorful glass bottles reflected what little light there was in the room.

"Come, come sit boy." She walked by the table and pulled a chair out and disappeared into another room. Lance took the seat and watched her walk back into the the room with a tray of cookies. "So, tell me about this boy." She set them on the table.

Lance took a moment to recollect himself. This was still in the mall right? Does she live here? How does she know so much about me?

"Ah, so many questions." She laughed, her shoulders bouncing in the process. "I do live here and I'm a witch boy. A witch doctor to be more specific. I have the power to help those in need, and you my boy are in desperate need. So, tell me about this Keith."

Lance took a deep shaky breath. "He's... he's my teammate. I've liked him since garrison. It's just... he doesn't like me back, and I don't think he ever will."

"Ah, nonsense! That's what I'm here for." She stood up and waddled to the shelf of bottles. "Help yourself to some cookies, I don't get visitors often."

Lance picked one up and took a bite. His tastebuds seemed to melt at the burst of flavor. They were still warm, and soft, and the chocolate chips were still gooey from the oven.

"Ah! Here it is!" She grabbed a tiny green glass vial down from the third shelf. She sat back down and set it on the table in front of them. "Now, I do have a business to run here. Thus, the vial will come at a cost."

"Oh, um," Lance reached into his pocket and pulled out the coins, "this is all I have."

"Deal!" She greedily grabbed the coins from his hand and they disappeared into her layers of clothing. She set the vial in Lances palm, "just two drops of this in his drink should do the trick."

"What will it do?" He asked, nervously inspecting it.

She raised an eyebrow, "Ah, boy, you know what it does. Keith will be head over heels for you in no time."

Lance opened his mouth to ask another question, instead he jumped at the sound of his communicator ringing. He quickly pulled it out and answered it.

A hologram appeared of Shiro, "Lance, where'd you go? We're leaving."

"Oh, okay. I'll be there in a minute." Lance quickly hung up before Shiro could say anything else. In a way, he knew what he was doing was wrong and cheating. "Thank you for the cookies. And the...the..."

"You're welcome dear. See you again soon." She winked.

As Lance was walking back to the ship, he held the vial in front of him. His fingers felt numb and his chest tingly. There's no way he could use this right? It was wrong.

Right?

"Hey, whatcha get?" Pidge asked pushing up her glasses.

Lance quickly shoved it into his pocket. "Nothing really."

She simply raised an eyebrow at the curious answer, but didn't mention anything of it.

It was late in the afternoon when they all returned to the ship. Lance found himself in the kitchen holding the vial over a cup of coffee. Keith usually comes in here this time and gets coffee precisely a half an hour before he trains.

He squeezed his eyes shut as he dropped some in. Lance opened his eyes and capped the vial. He heard footsteps walk into the kitchen and he slipped it into his pocket quickly.

"Hey." Keith said walking up to the coffee pot.

"Hey." Lance spoke trying to hide his nervousness. "Here, I made you a cup." He slid the mug across the counter to him.

"Thanks," Keith eyed him suspiciously.

"Did I get it right? Lots of cream and sugar?" Lance leaned his hands back on the counter.

"Yeah." Keith took a sip. He let out a sigh, "this is really good. Did you put something else in?"

"Uh, what no." Lance felt his heartbeat quicken.

"Hm," he took another sip, "better not be poison." Then he walked out of the kitchen.

Lance looked as if he was about to collapse. The guilt of his actions were getting the best of him.

"Keith wait!" Lance jogged out of the kitchen to stop him and take away the coffee if it wasn't already too late. Just then, he heard the shattering of the ceramic mug.

The thought that the witch had actually given him something deadly crossed his mind. He turned the corner to see the coffee splashed across the floor along with broken red pieces.

A pair of arms wrapped around Lances neck and soft lips pressed deeply against his. His eyes were wide until he caught sight of the raven black hair and fair skin. His eyes closed and he sunk into the feeling. It was like warmth blooming in his chest. But the bad feeling in his stomach overpowered it. He reluctantly pulled away much to Keith's apparent dismay. "I messed up."

"Lance, you could never mess up with me." He grabbed Lance's jacket trying to pull him closer.

Lance felt himself becoming drawn into him once again. He shook this head and squeezed his eyes shut. "No, I-this is so messed up." He whined looking up at the ceiling. He felt hands on his chest and lips brush along his neck.

"Oh, help me..." he cried, ever fiber of his being was begging him to let Keith keep doing whatever it was he was doing and get lost the the feeling.

He grabbed Keith's hands, holding them between the two. "Lance?"

"I'm so sorry Keith, I'll fix this. I promise." Lance grabbed his face and kissed him. As wrong as all of it is, who knows when he'd get another chance.

Lance dragged him through the halls to Pidge. She was hunched over her desk typing away at blueprints for the next greatest upgrade to their suits.

"Pidge, I did something dumb and morally messed up." Lance burst into her space.

She rubbed her eyes tiredly and slowly turned to look at Lance. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her head when she saw Keith clinging to Lance trying to pull his face down into a kiss.

"Lance, what did you do?" She gave him a disapproving look. Lance pursed his lips as he opened Pidge's closet door and shut Keith inside.

"I sorta may have bought a love potion from a witch doctor at the mall to make Keith fall in love with me." Lance twisted his hands nervously.

=====

Lance freed an arm from Keith's embrace to type in the coordinates to the pod. He entered them and the pod set on the course to where they'd been earlier that day. He sat down, Keith still attached at the hip.

Keith smiled tracing his finger along Lances arm.

"Keith, I'm so sorry. You're probably gonna hate me when you're back to yourself." Lance sighed looking away.

"Lance, I could never hate you." Keith cupped his cheek forcing Lance to look him in the eyes. "I love you."

Lance felt part of his soul crumble at that. He had to remind himself that it wasn't Keith talking; not really.

The pod landed and the two boys hopped out. They held hands as they walked into the mall. Lance worked to recall where he found the lady in the first place. That's when he finally found the door and anxiously gave it a knock.

It opened almost immediately. "Ah, back so soon?"

"I need help to reverse the potion you gave me." Lance begged.

"Why? You got what you wanted didn't you?" She smiled.

"Yeah, but... it isn't right." Lance squeezed Keith's hand tighter.

"I see." She led them inside and they sat down. "I'm surprised, I was expecting you to come back, but not this soon. I anticipated two days at most."

She waddled back to the shelf and grabbed another bottle off. When she walked back, she handed it to Lance. "Go ahead and give that a try. Now out! Out! I have a life too you know!" She pushed them out and closed the door.

Lance looked at the small bottle in his hands sadly. "Let's go." He muttered.

Keith clung to his arm the entire way back to the pod. When they got inside, Lance handed it to Keith. "What will this do?" He asked unscrewing the top.

"Wait." Lance stopped him for a moment.

"Yes Lance?" Keith blinked up at him.

Lance grabbed Keith's face in his hands and stole one last kiss; just for good measure. Keith was likely going to hate his guts after all this, and any dreams of Keith ever liking him will be officially flushed down the toilet. "Okay, go ahead."

Keith smiled sweetly and took a swig.

Lance bounced his leg nervously, how quickly would it come into effect?

"Lance, what the hell..." Keith grumbled.

Lance dreaded what was to come next. He turned to look at Keith, who had bright pink cheeks and he stared at Lance bewildered. "I. Am. So. Sorry. I bought a love potion from a-" He began.

"I know. I could hear the story through the closet door." He spoke grumpily.

"You... remember everything?" Lance swallowed hard. "Oh, gosh, you must really hate me. I really am so sorry."

"I don't hate you. I'm angry, but I don't hate you." Keith sighed.

"But, I- what I did... you're being surprisingly relaxed about this and it's only making me more suspicious."

"Lance, being under the influence of whatever the hell you gave me, was embarrassing. I didn't have any control and that's what I'm angry about." Keith looked him in the eyes. "But, if you bothered to actually talk to me, you would've found out that I like you too."

Lance couldn't help himself as a large smile spread across his face and he pulled Keith into another kiss. They enjoyed it briefly before Keith pulled away. "But I'm getting you back for this!"

The pod landed back on the ship. Outside was Allura and Shiro waiting impatiently and Pidge pouting beside them. "Sorry Lance, I ratted you out."