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thespace-dragon · 6 years

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For the lovely @seamarmot ~ Thank you so much for commissioning me and special thanks to @girlskylark for the lovely banner :D

Summary: First, we have Lance, a new-minded corporate-worker for Voltron Inc., takes some much needed time off to find himself--on a reality tv show. Let's just say he's had better ideas than that.

Then we have Keith, who was only meant to be a stand-in, to get voted off super early in the show, but there was this one guy he butted heads with all time and the audience liked them? What kind of twisted reality show was this?

Well, turns out that Altea's Juniberries brings people together, no matter if they win an all paid for, expense-free wedding.

WC: 4559

AO3

“You ready?”

“I’ve been working behind the scenes for years—”

“But that doesn’t mean that you’re ready. So...you’re ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

“Love you, babe.”

“Haha, love you too.”

. . .

The crowd applauded as Coran walked out onto the stage, smiling brightly and bowing with his typical flare.

“Welcome, ladies and gents! Are we all ready for today? I’ve got a great line-up!”

Cheers and whistles echoed through the showroom. Coran’s smile grew wider as he waved and greeted the few lucky viewers that got great seats up front.

“Today, I really have something special for you. All of you are big fans of the show Altea’s Juniberries, right?” The crowd cheered even louder than when Coran had first stepped out into the spotlight. “Well, then I am certain that all of you were happy that Mr. Garrett and Ms. Leon made it to the final round, am I right?” More cheers, with a few jeers mixed in as well.

Coran made a surprised face as he walked over to his chair and sat down. “Oh-ho? Some of you weren’t too happy about that.”

“No!”

“Bring back Keith and Lance!”

The show host chuckled. “I have a treat for all of you then. The show’s producers were kind enough to give us the details about what happened that fateful week, and—” There were gasps and whispers among the crowd. “—Now hold on, hold on. We know everything that happened, Director Shirogane was very cooperative with us and answered all of our questions. And—and… we have two very special guests that—after celebrating the newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Garrett-Leon's marriage, we have Keith Kogane and Lance Diaz, the runner-ups to Altea’s Juniberries!”

With a flourish of his hand, Coran waved the two of them onto the stage. Keith and Lance walked hand in hand, smiling and waving at the crowd as they cheered. Lance squeezed Keith’s hand as they took to the stage, both of them slightly nervous to be back in front of the camera again. Well, Lance craved this sort of attention, hence the reason why he was on reality tv multiple times. Keith had been a stand-in. Was supposed to be anyway.

They walked over to the love seat that was across from Coran, sitting down after shaking hands and giving the host brief hugs.

“Wow, Coran, I swear you tried to hype us up even more,” Lance laughed, “You’re getting all these good people’s hopes up.”

“Lance, Lance, Lance. Lance.” Coran shook his head and grinned at the two of them. “You can’t convince me or the people who came here to see you that you weren’t the sweetheart of the latest season of Juniberries.”

Lance reclined and smiled back, resting his arm on the back of the loveseat. "Oh? See I remember it being someone else."

“Really now?” Coran raised his eyebrows and laced his fingers together. “The votes say otherwise.”

“That’s only because he likes to pretend he’s modest,” Keith interjected, giving Lance a light jab in the ribs.

His partner scowled and ruffled his hair in retaliation. “What Keith is trying to say is, that I am modest, and he was actually the fan favorite last season.”

Coran nodded, agreeing with the two of them as they bickered back and forth for the opening few moments, making the crowd laugh and cheer. Lance was excellent at making Keith feel comfortable—Coran had overheard a tidbit between the two of them. As he watched them, he came to understand how they had become a top pick for the show, the two of them playfully poking at each other, each trying to get the other to lighten up. He enjoyed their banter; much different from simply jumping into all the questions and getting to the meat of everything.

But as they say, the show must go on.

“Alright, my boys,” Coran jumped in as Lance and Keith began to talk about random hypotheticals. “I think it’s time to get this show on the road, shall we?”

Keith pushed Lance away and turned to face Coran. “Sure, what do you want to know?”

Coran smiled and sat back in his chair, getting comfortable. “Well, for starters, why don’t you tell us how you started to date? What brought the two of you together in the show? Lance, why Keith? And why did you go with it, Keith?”

Keith glanced over at his partner. “Well, I don’t know about him but—”

“Nope, nono, I’ll go first. It would get all confusing if we don’t start from the beginning.” Lance waved his hands cutting him off. “Okay. So, It started like this…”

. . .

For the first week of Altea’s Juniberries, Lance was trying—trying—to get over the fact that Nyma dropped out of the show. It was totally last minute, and he got it, he truly did. But…but there was only so much he could do since he had no one here.

So, for like the first time ever, Lance was way out of his element. Normally he had someone here, but he couldn't rely on Hunk the whole time. And then there was this whole brooding contestant that was there too. To him, it totally didn't make any sense. Why would you join a reality tv show and not be into it? It totally blew his mind. But it was fine, everything was fine, he was totally fine.

He was, in fact, not fine.

But hey, he had some great eye candy to look at for the next month or so. This couldn’t be all bad right?

Wrong!

From the beginning, Lance and this guy, Keith, were literally shoved together at every turn. There was no partnering up with Hunk, no getting to know Allura, no even trying to be in the same room as Ezor or Narti or Lotor or Zethrid. Forget trying to talk to Honerva and “Zarkon” or whatever the fuck his name was, there was just no getting near that. (Thank god, the audience thought so too and voted them off almost instantly. Lance was pretty sure they were just in it for the prize money and not actually about building relationships, but it’s, you know, whatever.)

In the end, Lance decided to chance it and actually try to talk to the guy after some of the challenges.

Lance leaned against the counter where Keith was making his dinner and crossed his arms. “So…”

Keith side-eyed him and continued making his dinner. “What?”

“So, uh, why did you even join this show?”

Lance watched Keith plate his food before he turned and looked at Lance. “Why does it matter to you? All you do is complain about how bad I am at all this couples shit, and now you want to be buddy-buddy with me?”

“Alright, alright!” Lance threw his hands in the air in surrender. “Yeah, yeah, I know I was an ass earlier.”

Keith didn’t say anything in response to that, no reason to deny or agree. He took a bite of his food and waited for Lance to finish.

“I’m sorry for that, but uh…” Lance floundered a bit, screwing up his face and looking away before finally spitting it out. “Look, we can start over if you want. Seems like we are kinda stuck together in this for the time being, so we could, ya know, make the most of it?”

Keith ate his food, letting Lance stew for a bit while he enjoyed his dinner.

After an agonizing five minutes, Keith moved over to the sink and began to clean up. "Sure, why not? Not like we have anything to lose in this thing, do we?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lance fist pump and beam at him. “So, does that mean we can stop hating each other, now? Cuz I really don’t wanna do that anymore. Just saying.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Look, Lance, I never hated you. You were the one who made up the whole thing.”

“You didn’t really try to convince me otherwise.”

“And you were too wrapped up in that fallacy to even listen to me.”

Lance scrubbed at his face and sighed. “Okay, okay, fine. I was an asshole, and you never hated me. Got it, crystal clear here.”

Keith finished up his dishes and Lance just stood there waiting. By the time he was done, Keith felt like he could cut the tension with a knife. What was it about this guy that made everything like this? It was the same air as the stupid games they played.

“So… what now?” he asked, breaking the silence.

Lance shrugged, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Dunno, we could go chill and just watch a movie? Play a video game? Doesn’t matter to me.”

“You got Netflix?”

“And Hulu, and a PSN account.”

Keith looked mildly impressed. “Fine by me, let’s go.”

. . .

Coran looked a little skeptical. “So, what you’re saying is, is that you technically didn’t start dating in the first weeks of the show? It took you that long?”

“Well, we were on a dating show, Coran,” Lance chuckled. He waved a hand around freely. “The whole idea of that show was to date. Didn’t matter how long it took.”

“You have me there, Lance. So, what was it about that moment, then?”

Lance shrugged. “Dunno, it was just one of those moments where you just sorta… know, ya know? Like, there’s really no explanation for it, I was looking for a friend first before diving into a relationship.”

“And you two managed to be friends before leaving the show?”

“I’d like to say so, all we did was hang out during those ‘dates’ the show put on.”

The show host nodded and turned to Keith. “And what about you? Any special moment for you?”

Keith shrugged. “As I was saying before Lance went off, it was when it like, I don’t know, the fifth or sixth week in and we still hadn’t been voted off?”

“You mean where we went to sudden death with Florona and Plaxum?”

“Yeah, that week.” Keith sat back and crossed his legs, fiddling with his thumbs. “We were in the middle of an argument…”

. . .

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I meant, Lance! I don’t need you buying everything for me!”

“Keith, that is some utter bullshit, I’m not doing it to flaunt my money at you—”

“It sure does come off that way.”

“Keith, will you please just listen—”

“No, you listen, Lance. I can take care of myself just fine, I don’t need you trying to baby me just so you can feel better.”

“I just said that it wasn’t about that!”

“I’m not listening anymore, Lance! Just go hit on some other girl—guy—whoever the fuck you want why don’t you?”

Lance screwed up his face, eyes bright. He opened his mouth but shut it on a second thought. He flipped Keith off before stomping away. There wasn't any help coming from the others in the house that they were all in at the moment, most of the couples were out on dates. Lance and Keith had elected to stay in for once and sadly, it ended in their first huge argument.

For Lance, this fight hurt. His family was well-off, having enough money to put him and his younger siblings through college without any debt and still have some left over. His job paid well before he decided to take some time off and try to find someone, but it looked like even that was going to fall flat. Just like everything else.

And Keith?

Keith turned and stormed off to his room. For him, it wasn’t about the money—it never truly was—it was his pride. He was an independent person, always had been, always will be. He didn’t need someone to buy him things, he didn’t need someone to constantly be doting on him. He didn’t want that. Any of it. But Lance? He just didn’t seem to get it.

They had gotten along for nearly a month now—maybe two, Keith had a hard time keeping track of time in this godforsaken place—and how they hadn't ended each other was a mystery to him.

They were the two sides of the same coin, destined to never see each other, but always there.

Keith flopped onto his bed, smooshing his face into his pillow and groaning. Why? Why was this so hard? He wasn't even supposed to be here much past the first leg of the game. He wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. Keith knew that these games weren't true; like maybe one percent of them actually ended in a healthy relationship. So, it wasn’t like this was unexpected. He and Lance were just… they were the majority here. Plain and simple.

Rolling over he stared at the ceiling, contemplating how he could completely ruin his reputation with the audience so he could just leave the show. He didn’t want to drag Lance off as well, but at this point, it was sudden death between them and oh, what were their names again? Honestly, the only thing Keith could remember about them was their freaking mermaid aesthetic.

Ugh, whatever.

Technically, it was still pretty early on in the show, only the second or third vote out. Everyone was out having dates while the camera crew followed them around, looking as “in love” as fucking possible. The couples that stayed in were still off doing something gag-worthy, sucking up to the cameras and probably each other as well.

But, Keith and Lance had just had a shouting match in the middle of the kitchen (why was it always the kitchen?) and both of them had stormed off in different directions—not caring about the cameras or any of it really.

It wasn’t for show. It wasn’t to get more votes in.

It had actually been a real and emotional argument for both of them. No posturing. No faking it to ramp up the drama. Just them.

And it had hurt. Hurt both of them.

Keith sighed and rolled over to face the window when he heard a knock at his door.

“Go away.”

There was a thud and Keith could just picture Lance hitting his head against the door, convincing himself to stay. “Keith, can we please talk?”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Lance. Just go away.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I want to fix this. Can I come in? Please?”

Fix this? What was there to fix? It wasn’t like they were—oh. Oh, fucking hell. They were on a fucking dating show, remember Keith? Remember that little fact? Yeah, thought so.

Keith rolled off of his bed and opened the door. Lance looked just as bad as he felt at the moment. He turned and walked back into his room as Lance stepped inside, closing the door behind him. With a huff, Keith laid back down on his bed, facing away from Lance.

“Talk away,” he muttered, waving his hand over his shoulder, “I’m listening.”

Lance sighed, and Keith heard his tentative footsteps till the bed shifted. He looked over his shoulder to see Lance sitting at the end of his bed, looking down at his hands, a mix of emotions warring on his face.

They sat in awkward, tense silence while Lance gathered his thoughts, and all Keith could think about was how much he just wanted to go home to his single apartment. Get back to working and going about his business.

"Okay…so, I don't really get where all the—well, I guess it's anger but that's a crude way of putting it, so we can just go with animosity. Yeah, that works—I don't know where the animosity of letting someone try to take care of you comes from, but…" Lance played with his fingers, fiddling with them as he talked. "But I want to say I'm sorry."

“Wow, that was surprisingly mature for you,” Keith replied, voice emotionless.

Lance let his head fall and ran his hands through his hair. “Keith, I’m trying here, cut me some slack please.”

“I’m not someone you can buy off with cool things and pretty words, Lance.”

“And I know that! I literally came here to apologize and try to make things better by being honest and willing to listen, but dammit Keith, it’s a fucking two-way street here.”

Keith tucked his knees up and scowled out the window. “I don’t know why you’re bothering when this is just a dating show and the likelihood of anyone here actually making it work is slim to none. So why are you trying Lance? What’s the point of all this?”

“Because some of us actually want to create relationships, Keith.”

He sat up and glared at Lance. “And you chose a fucking dating show on reality tv to do that? What kind of world do you come from?”

“The kind of world where it’s all about the salary you make at the end of the year.”

Keith blinked, shocked. Lance’s tone was flat. Flat and cold enough that someone could ice skate over it. He couldn’t—that wasn’t was Keith was expecting to hear. It was one of the last things he wanted to hear.

In his silence, Lance spoke up again. “Where I come from, my salary makes or breaks my status. It’s fucked up and awful, but it is what it is. It’s all about making deals, seeing who you can wring the most work out of with the least expense on your part.” He laughed—an emotionless bark more than anything else. “Friends don’t exist without a price tag there.”

“Then why tv?” Keith asked quietly.

“Because nothing else worked? If I couldn’t find friends where I actually live and work, might as well take time off and pretend on a dating show that I have something going for me here, right?”

…He actually didn’t know how to respond to that. Keith sat there, mouth slightly agape. He hadn’t expected that honest of a reply from Lance. “I… Lance, I…”

Lance stood up and walked to the door. “Don’t worry about it.” He turned to look over his shoulder. “If you really want out of this thing, I’ll respect that, but till then, let’s just get through this, yeah?”

Before Keith could respond, Lance left the room, the door clicking softly shut behind him.

. . .

“…And I guess that was the first time that Lance showed his true colors on the show—even though there were no cameras around at that point.”

Lance leaned over and kissed Keith on the cheek. “You mean that was the first time you realized that you loved me.”

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Keith scoffed sarcastically and shoved Lance away.

They all chuckled, Keith laced his fingers with Lance and held his hand on his lap. The two of them smiled at each other, again realizing that they were blissfully happy with each other.

“So, during your story there, Keith, you mentioned, not really wanting to be there,” Coran said after giving them their moment. “Was that something that played into the scandal that you two were involved in at the end of the show?”

“Part of it.” Keith resituated himself and leaned closer to Lance. “I was a fill-in for a last-minute drop. Dating shows work best when there’s an even number of people, obviously. But Altea’s Juniberries keeps a few people on-call just as a contingency. And then we are supposed to be voted off early on in the show to give all the other contestants their best shots.”

Coran leaned forward and stroked his mustache. “But you and Lance nearly made it the whole way.”

Keith nodded. "It was awesome but at the same time nerve-wracking for me. I'm just a stagehand most of the time, behind the scenes and stuff. I wasn't used to being in the spotlight that often."

“And Lance was?”

“Well, after I took time off from my company,” Lance piped up, “I wasn’t nearly in the tabloids all that often.”

“Oh, that’s right! You were promoted to the newest CEO of Voltron Incorporated, correct?”

Lance scratched his cheek, honestly modest for the first time on the talk show. "Yeah…It hadn't exactly been my idea, but the Holts were pretty insistent. They liked my ideas, but I wouldn't say the rest of the company did."

Keith nudged him in the side, grinning. “I remember reading about that. You wanted to—what? Start a kids’ show and create a toy line?”

Coran whistled. “That’s a major change from what Voltron was used to doing, wasn’t it?”

“Only a little,” Lance sat back and explained, extracting his hand from Keith’s to gesture about as he did so. “You see, Voltron participated a lot of humanitarian efforts and the goal was to get kids interested in science and engineering and technology. There were even plans for the arts to be included too.”

“If my sources are correct, you had to leave Altea’s Juniberries because that idea was finally taking off.”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, it just happened to be at the same time that Keith was wanting to leave as well.”

. . .

Things were starting to get tense between him and Keith, and Lance had no idea why. For a couple days straight, Keith had actively avoided him, only doing what he had to do by the show's standards. Show up for the dates, make conversation, smile, and wave for the cameras. It looked normal, but it was far from it.

As soon as they would get somewhere that the cameras weren’t on them, Keith would disengage and act as if Lance was no more than an annoyance. It hurt.

So, just like their first argument, Lance knocked on Keith’s door and waited.

There was a muffled reply from the other side and Lance turned the knob to see Keith packing his bags.

“Keith? Wh—what’s going on?”

His friend froze and looked back at him, an apology written all over his face. “Lance, I—”

Lance stepped inside and closed the door behind him, twisting the lock on it. He had no idea what was going on, but Keith was leaving.

“Lance, I-I can explain…”

“Oh, that’s good! Awesome even, I don’t know why I thought that you wouldn’t explain.” Lance couldn’t stop the words that tumbled out of his mouth—they were hurtful, sarcastic and mean. Uncalled for. “It must have something to do with you avoiding me for uh… I don’t know, three days now? Like damn, that’s just nothing.”

“Lance.”

He crossed his arms and frowned at Keith. “Well, go on, I’m here, listening. Might as well tell me, now that I have you cornered, Keith.”

Keith sighed and ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up all over the place. “I’m sorry, Lance, but I… I just can’t do this anymore.” He waved his hand around the room, meaning the show.

“So? You weren’t going to even try to talk to me about it?”

“It’s not real, Lance—”

“Cut the bullshit.”

Keith closed his mouth and thinned his lips. Lance interrupted a lot, but he was never rude about it.

“I don’t know what suddenly changed in the last week or so, but yeah, this is a dating show, but god, Keith, are you trying to tell me that I don’t feel anything for you? Are you trying to tell me that you don’t feel anything either?”

“No, that’s not what I—”

“Then what is it, Keith?”

He waited for Keith to explain, letting a thick silence fill the air between them. In the back of his mind, Lance knew that he shouldn’t really feel this upset about it, but that didn’t stop the feelings from being real.

While Lance waited, Keith turned and zipped shut his suitcase. He was frowning, dark brows furrowed and his eyes sad. He opened his mouth to speak—

Keith beat him to it. “I want to leave the show.”

And his phone rang.

Both of them jumped from the blaring sound Lance had it set to. He fished it out of his pocket and saw Pidge on the screen. This couldn’t be good. Keith was still looking away, avoiding looking at him. Lance sighed and muttered something about being back in a few minutes.

When Lance left the room, Keith let out an explosive breath. God, this was terrible. He knew Lance was going to confront him sooner or later, but he wasn’t expecting it to be so soon. He had already talked to the director of the show and Shiro was fine with letting him go, he just had to find a way to break the news to Lance.

And this wasn’t it.

Keith sat on the edge of his bed and buried his face in his hands. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to sneak away and leave a note for Lance that explained everything, but this fucking happened.

"God, I'm such a screw-up…"

The door opened and shut as Lance said his goodbyes to whoever he was on the phone with. Keith looked up to see Lance grinning—a small one, but it was his grin, nonetheless.

“So, you’re not the only one who needs to get going.”

“What do you mean?” He frowned and stood up from his bed. “Lance, you still have a shot—”

Lance held his hand up, grin growing bigger. “Okay, one: there’s no staying on this show without a partner; two: I got called back to work.”

“Work?”

“Yup, a plan finally pushed through and they need me around to keep it going, make statements and appearances, the whole shebang.”

Keith deflated. Lance was acting like it was normal, acting like he hadn’t been on the receiving end of Keith’s stupid decision to avoid him. “So… this was all just a game to you?”

Lance’s smile disappeared, and a concerned frown took its place. “What? No!”

His anger flared, and he snapped, “You’re acting like nothing just happened!”

“Keith—?”

He lowered his head and clenched his fists. There were shaking. Why was he so upset about this? Wasn’t it just a game? Wasn’t that all it was? “Lance, just tell me if this was a game or not. Please.”

Just as he was lifting his head to look Lance in the eye, he was there, hugging him close, face buried in his shoulder.

“This was never a game to me, Keith,” he said softly, squeezing Keith closer a little more. “It was never a game to me.”

. . .

“A dating show that wasn’t a game?” Coran stroked his mustache after Lance and Keith finished telling their part of the story. “Aren’t dating games meant to help people find their true love?”

Lance looked at Keith and smiled softly. “Yeah, that’s the goal.”

Keith smiled back and took Lance’s hand again. “Sometimes people miss that, and only want to win…neither of us wanted that.”

“Nope.”

Coran shook his head at the sight of Lance and Keith losing themselves to the other. Lovebirds, he thought.

He turned back to the audience. “Well, there you have it, everyone. Lance McClain and Keith Kogane!”

#klance #voltron #dating show au #keith #lance #vld keith #vld lance #vld coran #corazon #bg hallura #show host coran #commission fic #mogis messes

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