A, You're Adorable (Klance) [DISCONTINUED]

Fourteen: N is for Never

No way am I never letting you go. In fact, I would let you go right off the nearest cliff.

The short popsicle stick chose Lance to take attendance at Pidge's panel. There were almost as many people sitting down as there were on the sign-up sheet. He cleared his throat. "Voltron and Shay- here. Panel members- here. Grace from Math- here. Other Grace Li- here. Jennifer from Study Hall- here. Katy with a y- here. Katie with an i-e but in a lower grade- here. James. Riley. Keith but not as bae. Emily. Sara with no h. Other Sarah. Ross. Tim. Deez nuts. Your name is now and forever Deez nuts, so sucks to be you. Loss. Nate. Other Nate. Others. Here we all are."

"Welcome to the panel," Shay chirped.

Pidge stood, which was completely unnecessary, considering that she was taller when she sat on the high stool by the panel. "Thanks for coming. I'm Pidge, and these are our Garrison members. Give 'em a hand."

She wasted little time in waiting for the applause to stop. "Aight, aight, that's enough. We're gonna clap more later. Y'all wanna introduce yourselves?"

Allura had made everyone little name cards, but they said their names and occupations anyway. There were two pilots (one fighter, one cargo), an engineer, a comms guy, and two scientists, which was a good spread. Their neatly folded cards read "Shiro, Mae, Matt, Coran, Daniel, Allura" from left to right in the audience's perspective. Keith was already thinking about the conspiracy that would explain the messy arrangement that completely ignored their jobs.

Shiro was seated the most upright out of the six, with Matt slouching the most (he was leaned forward ever so slightly). Mae twirled a lock of hair between her left-hand forefingers.

"Aight, then. Who's the lucky dude who gets to ask the first question?" Lance queried. "Hands up!"

"Mullet bro, I see that edgy glove of yours," Pidge pointed. "Speak."

"Can you explain a hypothetical situation in which two members of the piloting program are dating? How would they stay connected?" Keith's trepidation melted away as he saw several of the panel members sit up and open their mouths.

"I-" Shiro and Allura began simultaneously.

Shiro deferred to the librarian with a slight wave of his hand. "Go ahead, Allura."

She nodded. "I personally haven't encountered such a situation, but I've heard a few stories. You can hope to be put on a copilot mission or a joint or team one if you want to stay together."

"For the space training period you'll live in pretty close proximity, too," Daniel added. "Like normal college dorms, you can request to be roommates if you're the same gender."

As the session moved on ("What's the food like?" asked Deez nuts.), Lance grinned at Keith and took his hand. "Thanks, buddy."

"Don't you dare call me 'buddy' after how you acted in front of eomma," the Korean tsked.

His boyfriend shrugged. "She seemed pretty okay with us kissing."

"'Don't worry, Mrs. Kogane, we're only doing innocent things, for now.' Never say that again."

"I wouldn't say I would never want to be abducted by aliens," Matt considered. "It would be cool to discover a friendly species, you know? But, in general, I wouldn't want to, especially as a passenger aboard a ship."

Spurred by the reminder of his old conspiracy bulletin board, Keith began folding a spaceship out of a piece of scrap paper. The printed side contained the middle third or so of an essay about rock doves and their contribution to the urban setting commonly portrayed in movies. Yeah, he could generally agree that Pidge's presence in the background of a movie would add to the city atmosphere, especially in a futuristic scenario. What passionate nerd with the surname "Baker" would write about such a topic, no one could say.

When Keith tossed the ship into the air, it looped back and poked Lance in the cheek. The Korean fell off his chair, muffling his snickering with his hands. Lance began shaking with silent giggles so much that he almost dropped Keith as he tried to help him up.

No one and everyone stared at their silly kiss, if only for a split second. Just a second, during which Allura visited Keith's brain on Gooey Circa-80s Chick Flick Island, Shay thought of an actual relevant movie, and Hunk wondered if he was supposed to do that. (No, Hunk, take your time, bro.) Lance flashed a trio of female freshmen flustered with internal fangirling in the corner a cheeky smile. "Do they broadcast a stream or something of what goes on on board the ship? Don't wanna have the world see a zero-gravity kiss or anything without knowing until after."

Keith briefly pressed his nails into Lance's palm. It would be a lie to deny the temptation to kiss Lance in space, but the Cuban didn't have to be so upfront about it.

"Usually it's only broadcasted on big missions or during communications with the Garrison," Coran responded helpfully.

Keith's mind puzzled and did panic-stricken cartwheels over the questions he and Lance had asked. By the time he had finished, Pidge had stood. "Cool beans. Our time's up, so give these guys a round of applause. Thanks for coming. If you have more questions, Shiro and Coran are in school and have open rooms during lunch, Allura's at the library in the afternoons, and Mae and Daniel brought business cards."

As the students filed out, Hunk began folding chairs. The others stood to help him. Mae received a call, Daniel went to pick up his nephew from soccer practice, and Allura returned to her desk outside. The teachers went to do their teacher thing. Shay was a volleyball player, so she bid everyone a good day and started walking back to school.

And then there were four, like always. Pidge pushed her stool into the corner. "Space Dad needs a life."

"He's 25. Let the man live."

"Lance, he's six, and he finishes books within the week. He doesn't even have a cat. He needs help."

"At least he knows how to cook for himself," Hunk pondered. "He probably knows how to make a mean ramen."

There was a noise of general consensus.

Keith stretched his legs. "Let's go home. The History test is coming up."