"How's this for a séance outfit?" asked Lance, doing a little twirl.

"You didn't seriously invite me to your room to watch you change, did you?" asked Keith. He realized too late what that sounded like. Luckily Lance was oblivious.

"I'm not hearing a yes or a no," teased Lance, still spinning slowly around.

"That's not an outfit, it's just your Altean pajamas," said Keith.

"Yeah! It's a slumber party!"

"I'm confused –"

"You often are."

"Is it a séance or a slumber party?"

"It's both," said Lance. "Duh!"

"How is that a duh? Nevermind. Look, I don't think we should be calling this a séance or dressing special," said Keith. "It feels disrespectful."

"Then why are you dressed special?" asked Lance.

Keith very nearly blushed. He looked down at his clothes. "I'm... not?"

"Yeah, you are," said Lance. "You're dressed all emo like you're going to a séance."

"These are just my regular clothes," said Keith.

Lance shook his head. "Colour exists, Keith. You should try including it in your wardrobe sometime."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Keith. He'd had his favourite red jacket, but he'd left it in the Castleship before he'd left for the Blade. Likely its atoms were contained in the diamond crystal now. Even if it had survived, it was likely too small.

"Oh, that reminds me," said Lance, rummaging back inside his closet.

'Please don't let him change in front of me,' thought Keith. 'I really can't handle that.'

But to his surprise what Lance pulled out was his red jacket. "Here," said Lance, holding it out. "I went past your room when we were evacuating the castle and it was just sitting there on your bed all sad. I grabbed it thinking you might want it back."

"Thank you," said Keith, holding it to his chest more like a security blanket than a jacket.

"Probably not going to fit over those big arm muscles you grew though," said Lance because he can never not talk. "How much do you think you can bench press?"

"I... don't know."

"Yep. I'm pretty sure my growth spurt will come along any day now," said Lance, stretching his natural lengthy body upwards. "Not that the ladies have ever complained."

Keith felt his heart sink then immediately felt disappointed with himself. Wasn't he long over this crush? He wasn't a boy anymore and it seemed clear Lance was strictly hetero.

"Do you think the Princess likes me?" asked Lance, out of literally nowhere.

"She tolerates you," said Keith. "We all do."

"No, likes me likes me."

Startled, Keith looked at Lance's face, but Lance was looking down at the ground with a bit of colour in his cheeks.

"I...don't know," said Keith, feeling like a robot.

"She's been giving me these looks...," said Lance.

'Like you would recognize a significant look,' Keith thought, bitterly, but then he kicked himself. Lance would notice a look if it were mutual.

"Veronica said she likes me, but I don't know." Lance got quiet. "Keith, can I tell you something?"

"I don't know what you would, but go ahead," said Keith, his voice flat.

"I haven't actually gone out with anyone... or kissed anyone... or even actually told anyone that I liked them."

"That's a little surprising," said Keith, honestly.

"Why? Have you?" asked Lance, accusingly.

"No," admitted Keith. "But I've been busy."

"Me too!" cried Lance. "Like we've never stopped moving since this whole Paladin-destiny-save-the-universe thing began. It's not that I haven't wanted to, but we've never had real time for relationships. It's like our whole youth got put on pause while we did this huge, crazy thing, but now it's done. Well, mostly. And Earth is becoming this intergalactic peace haven and nothing has come along to kill us in weeks it's like, okay, it's time."

Keith didn't know what to say. What could he say? Lance, I liked you and maybe I still do? No, Lance wanted advice on the Princess and Keith just wasn't capable of doing that. "I think I'm the wrong person to ask about this stuff," said Keith, being honest but vague.

"Yeah, but I'm kinda strapped for options here. Last time I mentioned the Princess to Pidge and Hunk, they mocked me pretty hard. And Shiro's obviously going through something and I can't talk to the Princess about her." Lance was doing that adorable thing he does where he counts things out on his fingers, but he folds them down out of order and ends up holding up random fingers on each hand.

"Do the last part maybe," said Keith.

"Talk to the Princess?"

"Yeah," said Keith. No, that's not what he wanted to say, but he'd caught himself thinking Lance was cute and the only remedy for that was extreme self-sabotage.

"I just told you I can't."

"Kinda concerns her though."

"Whatever. Fine," pouted Lance. "How do I do that?"

"Ask her out," said Keith. He was struggling not to sound grumpy. He truly regretted coming to Lance's room alone now.

"Can we role-play it?"

"No."

"Please," said Lance, using the prayer hands to beg. "Just be a Princess for me. Just this one time."

Exit. Keith needed an exit.

"Hey, you saw flashes of the future, right?" asked Lance. "What did you see of me? Was I dating Allura?"

"I'm not a psychic, Lance!!" yelled Keith. He was going to run for it. He was going to knock Lance down and run for the bedroom door. He didn't care how it made him look. He'd find a way to explain it to Lance later, but he had to go.

"Whoa, sorry," said Lance, of course stepping in front of Keith, like he knew a trapped animal when he saw one.

Keith was going to push him down. He was. It's just he kinda put his hands on Lance's chest to shove him and then he stopped. Just stopped. And then suddenly he was just standing there with his hands on Lance's pecs and Lance was looking down at his hands with this confused look and he knew Lance was really thrown off because he actually stopped talking. Then the worst thing happened. Lance looked up at him and their eyes met. Close range eye contact... physical contact... Oh no...

"Slumber party!" screamed Hunk, leaping into the doorway.

Keith panicked. And then he did it. He shoved Lance. He shoved him right to the ground...

Then looked at Hunk who had this tired look on his face. "You two seriously fighting again?"

"Ah ha ha," said Lance, getting to his feet. "You know us. Keith and Lance. Always at each other's throats. Rivals to the bitter end."

Why was Lance covering for him? Keith had just yelled at him, inappropriately touched his chest, likely gave him the most obvious 'please kiss me' look in the history of human attraction then shoved him to the ground. The only possible explanation for why Lance wasn't immediately calling him a lunatic and demanding he explain is that Lance really thought they were fighting... maybe.

"Anyway," said Hunk, moving past whatever the hell that was. "I picked up the candles for the séance." He held up a backpack. "And I brought thermos of hot chocolate and I made séance cookies!"

"Bro, you are the best," said Lance, grabbing at the backpack.

"Ugh," said Pidge, in place of a greeting as she appeared behind Hunk. "Let's go get this affront to science over with."

"How can you still have that attitude after all the 'afic e've een," said Lance.

"What?" asked everyone in unison.

Lance swallowed his bite of séance cookie. "After all the magic we've seen. Séance kinda fits right in with our experiences so far."

"Guys, can we not call it a séance?" said Keith, finding he could clear his head now that his interactions with Lance had supervision. "It feels disrespectful to Shiro... And to Adam... This shouldn't be a fun night. We need to respect the dead. I mean... I knew Adam."

"I knew him a little," said Lance. "He was my teacher in three of my classes. I liked him. He only threatened to fail me once."

"He was a really good teacher," agreed Hunk.

"He was more than that," said Pidge. "When I was a student he figured out I was lying about my identity, but he never outted me. He covered for me. He understood my mission to find answers about my family."

The four Paladins stood in silence for a moment.

"I think we're in the right mood now," said Hunk. "Let's go meet up with Shiro and Allura."