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Chapter Text

No one ever said that fourth year at Hogwarts was going to be easy. You know, with upcoming O.W.L.s and the Triwizard Tournament Lance actually expected this year to be a whole lot worse than the previous ones. But, Merlin, none of that could’ve prepared him for the Yule Ball.

“And that’s… what?” Pidge asks as Plaxum jogs back to her friends, all of them giggling. “The third person that rejected you this week? And it’s Tuesday.”

Lance gritted his teeth, but didn’t answer as he tapped his fingers against his thigh, a nervous tick he had developed a long time ago.

He was scared he was actually going to end up without a date, and that would’ve been mortifying. Especially because of…

Keith Kogane.

God, he hated the guy. Well, not anymore, really. Now they were friends, and they got along well enough too. Lance actually enjoyed hanging out with Keith more than he did with Pidge (which wasn’t a lot, because he would’ve preferred to be with James Griffin sometimes rather than her) or Hunk.

But when Lance had bet him that Keith wouldn’t have been able to get a date before him to the Yule Ball? Keith had been so confident he would’ve beat him that Lance had just thrown his all in it.

Hunk put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a brief, sympathetic squeeze.

“Hey, man, you’re gonna find someone eventually” he said reassuringly. Pidge snorted.

“Yeah, when people start to get desperate the night before”

Lance glared at her, but didn’t say anything else. Just fixed his bag on his shoulder and turned around, walking towards his next class.

Behind his back, Hunk and Pidge exchanged an exasperated look, before heading following after the Slytherin.

”Look, dude,” Hunk panted as he catches up to Lance (the guy had really long legs, he moved fast), “you will find someone, I’m sure of it. And if you didn’t, you could always just ask someone as a friend instead of a date?”

Lance stilled in his tracks and turned towards his Hufflepuff friend, grinning widely.

”Hunk, you big gassy genius!”

”Hey! I thought we were over that..-“

”Hunk, my man, come to the Yule Ball with me?”

Hunk froze, and Pidge stifled a snort.

”Err… sorry, man, but I’m already going with someone else…” Hunk said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

”Oh” Lance murmured, visibly deflating, but he quickly lit back up.

”Who is it??”

Hunk’s face flushed red, but he didn’t answer. It was Pidge instead.

”Why Shay, of course” she teased with a smirk directed into Hunk’s direction.

”We’re just going as friends” Hunk blurted out, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

”You know, uhm… house solidarity!”

”Sure thing, buddy” Lance replied, but his mood was still down.

He turned towards Pidge with an hopefully look, but she just shook her head and grimaced.

”I wasn’t even planning on going in the first place, but with you? Yeah, hard pass” she scoffed.

Lance tried his best not to fill hurt. He knew this was just Pidge’s way of joking, but it still hurt, especially after all the rejections in the last two weeks.

”Aren’t you three supposed to be in class?”

The three of them jumped and turned around, only to meet eyes with Allura, staring at them with a frown, her prefect badge shining on her black robes.

”Yup, we were- uhm, we were just heading there, ‘Lura” Lance explained, trying to give a charming smile last minute that definitely didn’t help.

”Ok, well, hurry up. I don’t want to have to write you up”

The three of them were already rushing towards their next class, but Lance froze in his spot and swivelled back around.

”Lura-”

”With Romelle” she interrupted him before he even got the chance to ask, her lips curving for a moment in a small, apologetic smile.

”Right, never mind, thanks anyway” Lance muttered, and he hurried back to join Hunk and Pidge.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No, no, Shiro, no-”

”I’m just saying! That would make everything so much easier!”

”Im not a gonna- I’m not gonna ask Lance to come to the Yule Ball with me! I’m not that desperate!”

“But that would make everything so much easier-”

”No!”

That… had been going on for almost ten minutes, in the seventh year Gryffindor boys’ dormitory. Shiro’s dormitory, obviously, since Keith was still a fourth year.

”But you’d win the bet and get your guy! That’s two-in-one!” Shiro protested, nodding wildly as if to manipulate Keith into agreeing. But he wasn’t having it.

”Yeah, or lose a friendship with the one person that ever actually gets me to feel something that isn’t- uncomfortable!”

He didn’t have the right words. He never had the right words. But… Lance didn’t make him feel inferior, small. Which is absurd, because Keith was the best of his year, but he still did.

”Ouch, buddy…” Shiro muttered.

”I didn’t mean that you do”

But that was a lie.

Shiro was better than him at almost everything. He was a better fighter, he was calmer, more levelheaded. And when he was still on the Quidditch team? He was the better seeker, and Keith only got the role after Shiro was forced to quit last year. All of his teachers always told him to “be more like Shiro”. And he tried. Patience yields focus and all that. But it just didn’t work for him.

But Lance…

Lance always saw him as the one to beat, even now that they were (sort of?) friends.

Not Shiro. Keith.

And that made him feel weirdly… appreciated, and important. And so he kept the rivalry going until he was no longer afraid that Lance would turn his friendship down.

But now he was expected to do another, even bigger, step in their relationship.

”Look, if I ask Lance, and he turns me down, or laughs in my face… I-I can’t have that, it’d kill me” he whispered, staring at the red blanket on Shiro’s bed.

Shiro was silent.

”I can’t handle losing him just because I caught feelings, okay?” Keith finished, a little louder this time.

They stayed like that for a while, just staring at their feet, in contemplative silence.

”You know,” Shiro said gently after a while, “Lance really cares about you too, and he wouldn’t want to lose this friendship, even if he didn’t like you back”

Keith curled in on himself more.

”Plus if anything you can just ask him to go as friends”

Keith hummed, then smiled slightly at Shiro.

”The older, the wiser” he mumbled, his smile turning slightly more teasing.

Shiro rolled his eyes, but squeezed his shoulder.

”Go get your man, twerp”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lance had already been turned down twice that morning, at breakfast (yes, he asked two girls out at breakfast. He figured one of them was going to say yes, at least), so he wasn’t having exactly the best day. But when Keith cornered him after potions he might’ve just imploded.

”What” Lance sighed, gently prying his arm out of Keith’s grip.

The Gryffindor’s face was flushed, maybe from running, and he was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, like he did when he was nervous. It was a tick Lance had seen way too many times on the Quidditch field.

”Do you have a date yet? For the Yule Ball” he asked, slightly out of breath.

Lance scowled and crossed his arms in front of his face.

“No, not yet. Why? Did you already get one?”

A feeling of discomfort filled Lance’s stomach, like it was trying to eat him from the inside. But it was surely only because Keith had won the bet, right?

Right..?

”No, not yet, that’s why I’m here”

Lance felt relief flood him instead, before it was replaced by confusion.

”What do you mean that’s why you’re here?”

Keith chewed on his bottom lip nervously.

”I just… I was thinking maybe we could… I don’t know, me and you… like… as friends, it doesn’t have to be a date…”

Lance stopped hearing after that, because he was sure enough he had gotten the point.

Keith Kogane wanted to take him to the Yule Ball. Maybe (preferably?) as a date.

The Slytherin took a moment to understand how that made him feel. Weirdly giddy, was the answer. The idea of going to the Yule Ball with Keith made him feel giddy. Which was insane because he didn’t… like-like the guy, right?

”Okay” he said before he could even register his words. Keith raised his head and looked at him in shock.

”Okay?”

”Yeah, okay” Lance nodded, although feeling a little nervous.

”Let’s go to the Yule Ball together”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“As… friends, right?” Romelle asked hesitantly, stilling her fingers where they were braiding Allura’s hair.

Lance buried his fingers in his own hair, pulling slightly.

”…Undefined?”

Adam snorted from where he was reading his book and lowered it, staring amused at Lance. ”Undefined? Seriously? It’s obviously a date”

Lance felt his face flame up. ”What?? No! We’re going as friends, just that”

Allura and Romelle exchanged a look but didn’t say anything. Adam just chuckled.

”What.” Lance snapped, annoyed. The older Slytherin just raised his hands with a smirk.

”I’m just saying that maybe you could acknowledge the fact that this isn’t just a friendly hang out, but an actual ballroom dance that he invited you to” Adam said, a little gentler now. Lance paled.

Because… yeah, that’s wasn’t exactly what friends did. Or, well, they didn’t say “it doesn’t have to be a date”, like they wanted it to be one.

And Lance kind of wanted it to be one? He had toyed with the idea in his head, imagined him and Keith holding hands while walking in the corridors between classes, or going to dates during the weekends at Hogsmeade, or kissing before and after Quidditch games…

But none of that could’ve ever happened. Because Keith sure as hell couldn’t have liked him, right?

Not right, please make this be not right.

So Lance just took his books, shoved them back in his bag and stood up.

”It’s too loud here, I’ll go finish in the common room”

His three friends eyes him unconvinced, since the library was quiet as hell at the moment, but they didn’t say anything and they just let him leave.

They were just friends. Right?

“Wait, Lance!”

Lance turned back around at Romelle’s voice.

”What?”

”If Keith asked you first, doesn’t that mean he won the bet?”

…

”MULLET!”

Chapter Text

Wizard dress robes were hideous. Truly, deeply, profoundly hideous.

That’s all Lance could think of as he looked over the options that his dorm mates had picked. They smelled old and stuffy and Lance was more than sure that some of them had mold on them.

Not him, tho. He was wearing a good old muggle suit, because that’s the kind of things you do to stand out when you’re the only muggleborn Slytherin in your year.

Recently more muggleborns had started to get claimed in Slytherin, but it still was seen as unusual, or weird, or just straight up freaks. And Lance loved to bother the kind of people who thought of him as a waste of magic.

But tonight… he felt nervous, showing his face in the very wizardry world, at a very wizardry event. Because all eyes were going to be on him.

Well, not on him, but on Keith.

Because Keith was already famous in the wizard world, and not good famous. He came from a long line of pureblood Slytherins, but his mother - a Galra, nonetheless, a servant of Zarkon - had married a muggleborn, and they had Keith. Keith was the first Gryffindor in his family since ages. And all of this always drew a lot of attention to him, and consequently to anyone who hanged out with him.

Or in this case, his date…

Because being a muggleborn Slytherin? And dating Keith Kogane? That just added a whole new layer of unwanted attention.

Still, Lance straighten his white tie one last time (he had aimed for a blue and white look for the Yule Ball, since the theme was black and white + your school/house color). He was going to that Ball, and he was going to have fun, and it was gonna be with Keith.

Ohhh, boy…

~*~

It was safe to say that Keith was freaking out. Which is kind of what happens when you invite the boy you’ve had a crush on for a couple years to a ball and you’re not sure if you’re going just as friends or as more.

”Dude, relax, will you?” James Griffin said from where he himself was fiddling with his robes. “You’re gonna get sweaty, and people don’t like their partner’s sweaty”

Keith wouldn’t exactly say he and Griffin were friends. They were house and dorm mates, that’s for sure. They had gotten in plenty of fights, and back when Keith was still a beater in the Gryffindor Quidditch team Griffin would mock him for his “inferior skills”.

(Which- obviously, since he was born to be a seeker)

After way too many house points lost, Allura, their prefect, had insisted for them to at least try to get along. So they had, and James turned out to be surprisingly decent company when he wanted to be.

”Oh, because you’re a big expert on dates” Keith muttered under his breath, and a corner of his mind reminded him that no, it’s not a date until Lance says it’s one.

”For your information” Griffin proclaimed, twisting the sleeve of his robe so hard he almost ripped it, “me and Ina are gonna start off strong after tonight, she’ll be completely whipped!”

Keith mentally considered telling him that the only one who was whipped here was clearly James himself, but he decided to keep that information secret.

“Look, the thing is-“ Ryan Kinkade intervened from his corner, where he was leaning against a wall, “-that Lance wouldn’t have agreed to come with you if he didn’t want to, especially after how he yelled at you in Transiguration”

Keith cringed at the reminder. He had just been coming out of Transfiguration when Lance had intercepted him and chewed him out for cheating with their bet. Keith had became the same color as his tie.

That wasn’t exactly how he had planned for the others to find out who his date was to the Yule Ball, but it was as good of a way as another.

“Whatever- point is, the night is young and you shouldn’t stress so much now, when you can do it later when Lance dumps you for some hot chick!”

Keith would’ve gladly punched James’s guts, but Nadia Rizavi preceded him.

”Where did you come from?” James chocked out, clutching his stomach, as the Slytherin approached a now surprisingly red-faced Ryan.

”From the dungeons? Like all the other Slytherins?” Nadia deadpanned, crossing her arms.

”All the-“ Now it was Keith’s turn to choke, as he turned around towards the stairs where the Ravenclaws and Slytherins where starting to flood in, along with the Durmstrang students.

”Relax, Keithers! It will be okay” Nadia said, clapping one hand on Ryan’s shoulder.

”So, shall we get going, date?”

Ryan (who might’ve looked intimidating, but was still an Hufflepuff after all) sputtered, but offered Nadia his arm, who took it with a firm grip and leaded him into the Great Hall. Shortly after Ina Leifsdottir reached them, and James - who was still recovering from Nadia’s punch - started looking breathless for a whole different reason.

Keith was gay, not blind. He could tell when a girl was beautiful, and Ina absolutely was. Her short blond hair, usually straight and slightly messy, since Keith suspected she didn’t really brush it, was perfectly styled in small waves. Her dress was also very simple, but she still managed to rock it.

So Keith could understand why James was breathless.

…Until he saw Lance

Because Lance McClain came up the stairs wearing a blue muggle suit, his hair curly like they naturally were, his lanky limbs looking weirdly in-place for once, and Keith forgot how to even exist.

So him and James were just standing there like spluttering idiots, so what?

Ina approached James, rubbing her thumb and index together nervously.

”So… shall we get going?” she asked, her tone letting through the smallest bit of emotion for once.

James seemed to snap back to life. He extended his arm with an exaggeratedly charming smile (one that he had seen on Lance one too many times, to be honest) and led Ina into the Great Hall.

Leaving Lance and Keith alone.

Or, well, alone for a few seconds.

”Wassup, losers”

Pidge popped out of nowhere, punching Keith’s arm. She was wearing a muggle suit herself, just in green.

Lance sputtered, taking his eyes off Keith.

”Wha- you said you weren’t coming!”

Pidge shrugged. “Yeah, with you”

Before the Slytherin could beat her up, Hunk and Shay appeared at his side.

”Oh man, this whole thing is huge!” Hunk noted, his hand squeezing Shay’s. She caressed his arm gently.

”Don’t be nervous, Hunk, you look great” she reassured him.

And they both did: they were both dressed in a dark gold color, which made them look like some sort of emperor and empress from a far away kingdom.

“Damn, you want us to give you some time alone?” Pidge asked, exchanging a grin with Lance, who seemed to have forgotten his anger for the Ravenclaw.

Both Hunk and Shay turned into a deep shade of red, and the former gave his friends a glare.

”Come on, we should get inside” Keith said, breaking the tension.

Lance’s eyes snapped back to him, and he felt his face grow warm. Weirdly enough, Lance’s face looked a little warm as well.

Pidge just shrugged and went in, followed by Hunk and Shay.

And Keith and Lance were left alone yet again…

”So…” Lance cleared his throat, tapping his fingers on his thigh like he did when he was nervous.

”…Shall we go in?”

Keith just nodded, then (curse him for taking James Griffin’s example) he offered his arm out to Lance.

The Slytherin took it, with a sight flush to his cheeks, and let Keith lead him inside.

~*~

“They look like they’re having fun” Shiro whispered to Adam as he twirled him around.

And Keith and Lance were having fun, maybe even more than he and Shiro were.

But that might’ve been because Shiro, being the Hogwarts champion, and Adam, being his date, had to dance basically all the time, and they were both tired as hell.

(Hey, it’s their seventh year, N.E.W.T.s are hard.)

However, watching the others was fun enough.

Kinkade and Rizavi were having fun in the center of the room. The Slytherin was just giving it her all, while the Hufflepuff smiled bigger than Adam had ever seen him and (surprisingly) matched her energy.

Griffin and Leifsdottir were in a corner. She was talking, probably blabbering about some subject or important topic, and the Gryffindor listened completely in awe.

Veronica and a girl from Durmstrang (Allison? Alicia? Oh, no, right, Acxa) were chatting near the refreshment table, both looking pleased.

Allura and Romelle were outside, somewhere (probably making out, but whatever, definitely none of Adam’s business)

Hunk and Shay were just being the cute potatoes they were. And Pidge was just hovering nearby like an awkward child thirdwheeling her parents.

None of them, however, were having as much fun as Keith and Lance.

They were dancing and laughing, attempting some weird dance moves that just had to be muggle, even if Adam didn’t recognise them.

”They’re cute together. Do you think they’ll kiss?”

Shiro snorted. ”Nah, knowing them? I’ll give it another three years”

Adam grimaced. That was the territory they always disagreed on. Bets.

”No. I bet one of them confesses next year, but they will get together in two years”

The Gryffindor gave him a sceptic look.

”Why would they wait a year to get together after one of them confesses?” he asked like the idea itself was just ridiculous.

Adam shrugged, biting his lip. “I don’t know, I just… feel like something will happen. Something bad”

Shiro gave him a worried look for a moment, before shrugging it off. “Not tonight, okay? Just fun, just us”

Adam turned back to his boyfriend. How could he deny him one normal night after all that had happened to them?

”Okay, just us”