Archive of Our Own ^beta

This convention was not going the way Keith had planned.

First, he hadn't been able to finish his costume before he'd had to leave, forcing him to need to finish it at the hotel during the convention itself, missing pretty much most of the first day.

Second, he hadn't really budgeted properly, so he couldn't afford to go out to eat, relying on a single box of microwave popcorn for the whole weekend.

And finally, when he'd decided he'd bring the last of the sewing he had to do with him to finish by hand during a panel, the fire alarm went off.

Which was how Keith found himself sitting on the curb across from the hotel where the convention was being held with a bundle of fabric in his lap, surrounded by a bunch of other nerds in costumes.

“Now that's dedication,” a male voice beside him commented. “Not gonna let a potential fire stop you, huh?”

“Nope,” Keith replied, not looking up from his work. “The costume contest is tomorrow, and I'm going to finish on time.”

“I believe you,” the voice said warmly. “Well, hopefully this will get sorted out quickly and you can get back to your sewing machine soon.”

“Didn't bring it,” Keith said, still keeping most of his focus on the fabric and needle in front of him. “Took the bus up, and it didn't fit in my luggage.”

“Shit. So you have to finish the whole thing by hand?” The man asked sympathetically. “You know, I have my machine with me. Once we get the all clear to go back in, did you want to come by my room to use it?”

That made Keith pause his work and turn to the person. “Wait, what? You don't have to--”

He stuttered to a stop at the sight of the other man.

To say he was hot was an understatement. He was tall and broad shouldered, and dressed in what Keith immediately recognised as a Paladin from the Monsters and Mana MMORPG -- the same game that Keith’s costume was from. He had dark hair and eyes and a strong jawline, looking every inch like the stereotypical heroic character. There was also a scar over the bridge of his nose which Keith couldn’t quite tell if it was real or makeup, but either way, it suited his face.

The man raised an eyebrow, seemingly confused at why Keith was staring at him, as if he was somehow unaware of how stupidly attractive he was.

“Is everything okay?” He asked. “I promise, I’m not trying to be a creeper, or anything, though I guess that that might be what a creeper would say…”

“No, no, it’s not that,” Keith assured him, racking his brain for a plausible explanation for his hesitation beyond his obvious thirst. “I just… recognised your costume! From Monsters and Mana, right?”

The man smiled, making his whole face light up like the sun. “Yeah! You play it, too?”

Keith nodded, lifting the bundle of fabric in his lap. “I’m actually working on a barbarian costume from the same game.”

“That’s so cool! What server do you play on? I’m on Atlas. Oh, and my name is Shiro, by the way.” He extended a hand at him.

“Keith. And I’m on Voltron,” Keith admitted, shaking his hand. “Atlas is a roleplay server, right?”

Shiro nodded. “It is, yeah. Not big on roleplay?”

Keith shrugged. “It’s okay occasionally, but I’m not that great at it. Too blunt.”

Shiro laughed. “That’s okay. I’ll admit, my brother accused me of being a super nerd for being into it… I think he’s on Voltron, actually. He's a paladin, too.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think it’s fair for anyone who plays an MMO to accuse someone else of being a bigger nerd.”

“He meant it with love,” Shiro assured him.

Just then they noticed the crowd starting to move back towards the hotel.

“Oh, looks like we’ve got the all-clear to go back in,” Keith said, gathering his things and standing up.

“That’s a relief,” Shiro said. “And I meant what I said about using my machine, by the way.”

Keith hesitated. “I don’t know… I wouldn’t want to intrude…”

Shiro waved him off. “It’s no trouble, really. I was actually done with panels for the day, and was going to head back there, anyway.”

“If you’re sure…” Keith said. A sewing machine would speed things up… He might even finish with enough time to enjoy the rest of the convention.

“I am,” Shiro insisted, smiling his bright sunshine smile. And, well, Keith was only human.

“Okay. Thanks.”

~*~

After a quick pit stop to his own room to pick up the rest of the pieces of his costume, Keith found himself sitting at the desk in Shiro’s hotel room in front of the other man’s sewing machine, furiously stitching pieces together.

Shiro, for his part, had shed the armour pieces of his costume, and was lounging on the hotel bed, scrolling through something on his phone. The quiet between them was comfortable, neither of them feeling the need to fill it with awkward small talk.

In what felt like almost no time at all, Keith found himself with a finished costume. There were a few things that could be improved on it, details that would take much longer than one evening to improve on, but overall, it wasn’t too bad.

He got up from the chair and started folding everything to place in his bag to bring back to his room.

“All done?” Shiro asked, looking up from his phone.

“Yeah,” Keith replied. “Thank you for letting me use the machine. I think I’d have been working on it until the very last minute, otherwise.”

“It’s no problem,” Shiro said, getting up from the bed. “I’m glad I could help.”

“You did.”

This would probably be the point where Keith should leave. The thing was, he didn’t really want to say goodbye to Shiro yet.

“Um… Will you be wearing your paladin costume again tomorrow?” Keith asked, fishing for a reason to see him again. “If you are, we could always enter the masquerade together.”

Shiro’s face lit up. “I am, yeah! That’s a great idea!”

“Great!” Keith replied. “I’ll stop by the info desk tomorrow morning to let them know… And I guess I’ll see you in the Greenroom?”

“Yeah…” Shiro answered, and then: “Actually… Did you want to get dinner with me tonight? You’ve been working for a while. You must be starving.”

Keith flushed. With the way Shiro was looking at him hopefully, it was very much sounding as if he was asking him as a date .

“I… Can’t really afford to eat out this weekend,” he admitted sadly. “I’ve got some popcorn in my room, though, so I’ll be fine… probably.”

Shiro’s eyes widened. “Is that… The only food you have?”

Keith winced. “Yeah, I know, I really should have budgeted better…”

Shiro shook his head. “Okay, nope, I’m fixing this. I’m treating you to a good dinner tonight, and then we’re stopping at the grocery store to get you a better variety of snacks for the rest of the weekend.”

“What?” Keith gaped at him. “You’ve already helped me out a ton, you don’t have to--”

“I want to,” Shiro insisted. “I’ve had badly budgeted conventions in the past and people helped me out, so this is me paying that forward. Besides” He winked. “It’s my duty as a paladin to help others, right?”

Keith struggled at finding words for a moment. He didn’t think he’d ever come across anyone as genuinely good as Shiro, before. Finally, he nodded. “I… Yes. Okay. Thank you so much.”

Shiro smiled at him. “Don’t mention it. Let me just get changed, and then we’ll head out.”

~*~

The dinner was, by every standard, amazing. The restaurant wasn’t anything fancy, but the food was delicious, and Shiro was the perfect date. They talked a bit about Monsters and Mana, but didn’t stray into useless small talk. Shiro also didn’t make a big deal about covering the meal, or the snacks they picked up on the way home, and Keith vowed to himself to either pay Shiro back somehow, or to pay the favour forward once he could.

The night unfortunately didn’t end in a kiss goodnight, much as Keith tried to show he was open to it, but at least he knew he’d be seeing Shiro again the next day.

When the time to meet up for the masquerade came up, Keith waited in the greenroom, thankful that his costume wasn’t too warm. Sure, there were parts of it that were fur-lined, but barbarians being shirtless was a blessing. So was air conditioning. He couldn’t imagine how warm Shiro was going to be in his paladin armour.

“Hey Keith!” Shiro’s voice rang out, catching his attention.

Keith turned to greet him, noting how red Shiro’s face was.

“Hey, you okay?” He asked. “You must be boiling in that with the heatwave today…”

“I’m… I’m okay,” Shiro said, pointedly not looking at Keith.

Huh. Weird. Had he done something wrong?

“I’m sure your costume is nice and breezy, though…” Shiro continued, glancing quickly at Keith’s chest before looking away again.

Oh, Keith thought smugly. So that’s what was up.

“Yeah,” he replied, moving in closer to Shiro and letting his voice take on a flirtation tone. “It’s pretty great. At first I was worried I might get self-conscious walking around shirtless, but to be honest, I feel kind of sexy.”

Shiro made a strange noise with his throat that had Keith worried he might have gone too far, but he was rewarded with Shiro’s red face glancing at him again.

“It is. You are, I mean. Sexy.”

Keith couldn’t help but smirk. “Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.” Understatement.

Shiro let out a nervous chuckle. “Even though I’m fully covered?”

Keith brought a hand up to trace some of the patterns on the armour with his finger. “Sure. Leaves more to the imagination.”

Whatever Shiro would have replied to that was cut off when one of the masquerade judges called them over.

The judging was fairly uneventful, aside from Shiro being assigned a handler to make sure he didn’t pass out. Shiro tried to refuse, but the judge insisted. The handler, a pretty girl in an elf costume named Allura, gave them their space, only approaching to make Shiro drink some gatorade periodically while they waited to go on stage, but her presence still made them tone down the flirting a bit.

The looks they gave each other were pretty unmistakable, though.

When it was finally their turn to go on stage, though, time seemed to speed up, and before either of them knew it, they were done, and Allura was patting them each on the arm to let them know that the winners of the costume contest would be announced at the closing ceremonies the next day.

“How are you feeling?” Keith asked, glancing at Shiro.

He shrugged. “A bit tired from the heat. I should probably get out of this costume, much as I was hoping to maybe do a photoshoot with you…”

Keith nodded sadly. “It’s okay, I get it. I wouldn’t want you to get heatstroke on my account…”

Shiro bit his lip, then looked at Keith hopefully. “You could always… come with me? If you don’t have any other plans? You could, erm… Help me get out of the costume?”

Keith’s breath caught in his throat, and he had to stop himself from answering too eagerly. “Yeah, um. I could definitely do that.”

As if he’d suddenly gotten a second wind, Shiro grabbed Keith’s hand and pulled him in the general direction of the elevators. “Great! Better not waste any time, then.”

Keith laughed, letting himself get pulled along. And if he got an early start on removing Shiro’s costume while they were in the elevator, at least no one but them had to know.

~*~

Keith woke with a start at a loud noise, sitting up and looking around the dark hotel room in confusion. After the first few seconds, he recognised the sound of the hotel’s fire alarm, and recognised that the room he was in definitely wasn’t his own. Snoring softly next to him, Shiro slept on, oblivious to the noise. The digital clock on the desk read 3:04am.

Keith glared daggers at the walls of the hotel room, internally debating if “not burning to death” was enough motivation to evacuate the hotel at this time of morning. Before he had to make the decision, though, the alarm stopped, blessing the room with sweet silence.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he muttered before flopping back down and going back to sleep.