The sky above them was rosey in color, deepening into crimson and burgundy on the very edges where dusk was beginning to approach. The air had been cooling steadily throughout the afternoon, and from their makeshift camp underneath the bellies of their side-by-side lions Lance was cursing into a pile of damp wood with growing worry. They didn't know how much colder it would get, and more than that the steady mist of rain had managed to get both of them halfway to soaking wet during their quest to find half-dry wood for a fire.

They were stranded again, this time because the planet had some strange natural electromagnetic field that had manged to fuck with their Lion's navigation and comm systems. He and Keith were decent enough pilots to be able to make due without it and fly by eye, but that was only if they knew where the hell they were even GOING. They'd strayed away from the others by a peculiar happenstance that had nothing to do with them being caught in an argument and certainly nothing to do with any kind of insane dare someone put someone up to, and in the momentary distraction the massive trees of the dense forest had closed in on them and they'd ended up completely lost. The two of them had flown around blind for hours, but when they realized night was closing in they'd been forced to give up the search for the rest of the paladins and try set down to make camp. Without nav the rainy three hundred foot tall canopy of trees was too dark to fly through without risk of ramming their faces straight into an onyx black tree trunk, and their only choice was to wait til morning to try again.

The lighter in his hand was hot with overuse, and Lance narrowed his eyes in warning at the burned-out end of the twig he was holding it under. "Don't you dare -" he muttered at the stick, just in time for another wet breeze to put out the sputtering baby flame he'd been nursing.

Next to him, Keith stood on watching with arms crossed and a flat look on his face that said he clearly could not have been less impressed if he tried. "Are you done yet?" He asked scathingly, and Lance's fist curled around the lighter with the urge to throw it at Keith's stupid pretty face.

"Does it freakin' look like I'm done?" Lance spat, sparking the lighter again and watching as it fizzled out against the damp leaves. "God d- quiznak!"

Keith shifted his weight from one hip to the other and repeated, with meaning, "Are you done yet?"

Lance shot to his feet and aimed the plastic red lighter straight at Keith's forehead. The fucker didn't even dodge, snapping it out of the air like Lance had casually passed it to him instead of winging it at his eyes because he was a total goddamned asshole. "Thank you," Keith's tone sounded like he had spat out the word 'finally,' instead. He squatted down and started rearranging the fire wood, striping thin layers of wet bark off some of the kindling with his knife and tucking them under a pyramid of wood. In no time at all there was smoke, and to Lance's utter disdain a small flame was licking its way up a log in within a few minutes.

Stupid shitty Keith and his dump crappy ability to absolutely anything better than Lance did. Of course he can start fires! Keith's the sixty billion double-dollar man; he can build a house, run a decathlon, and fix your car to run on self-satisfaction all while looking effortlessly sexy! Lance scoffed, annoyed at both Keith and himself for being annoyed at Keith in the first place. He was supposed to be getting over this whole hatred and unrequited rivalry bullshit.

Lance edged his way towards the slowly growing fire, using his back to block the wind from the adolescent inferno. "I bet you suck at swimming," he muttered bitterly.

Keith didn't look up from where he was poking at the wood with a stick. "You are right," he agreed conversationally, shifting a stick log carefully into the flame. "I can not swim."

Lance blinked in surprise. "Seriously?"

Keith hummed absently, nodding. "Desert, remember? I've been in about two swimming pools in my life and I sank like a rock."

"Dude," Lance couldn't even believe this! He couldn't swim at all? That wasn't even safe! What if they landed on some kind of watery mer-people planet? Was this idiot's plan just to avoid water and hope not to drown? "Dude," he repeated in a different, more meaningful tone of voice. "Next time we find a beach, I'm teaching you how to swim."

Keith finally looked up at him, eyebrows raised high with surprise. With a bit of unfair incredulity, he asked "You're gonna teach me to swim?"

Lance worked very hard on not being indignant. "Well, yeah! You're a liability as you are, man." He leaned back on one hand, using the other to help him extravagantly boast "And I happen to be a natural in the water! You know me and Hunk's friendship started with us talking about surfing for an hour and a half?"

"I didn't," Keith said with interest. For some reason, Lance noticed, his lips had curved into a small smile, the oddly gentle look on Keith's face highlighted by the orange glow of the fire warming his handsome features. What. a. dick. "I'll have to trust you to take care of me, then." The tone of voice he said it in carried a small touch of sarcasm, but there was enough sincerity for the words to embarrass Lance into a quickened heartbeat.

Twilight fell over them like a wet towel, and soon the only light was the fire they were huddled around. Lance had wanted to sleep in their Lions, but Keith had paranoia issues that prevented him from being able to sleep when he had no idea what was outside and the view from the cockpit in this place was all but naught. The fact that they so far hadn't seen so much as an insect in the way of local fauna was more creepy than it was reassuring, to the point where even Lance was going to make an actual effort to stay awake during his shift as night watch.

Very little wind made its way through the paths of the thick trees, and the little nest they'd made for themselves under the standing sentinels of their lions was at least dry if not particularly warm so they could change into their normal street clothing to string their wet paladin armor near the fire in hopes of drying them out. Time was passing in the dark at a rate neither of them could gauge, and it could have been anywhere from twenty minutes to four hours that Lance and Keith sat there. The conversation was sparse but easy, exchanging short passes of small talk around the dense tranquil silence, and Lance was sort of proud of both of them that they managed not to get into any arguments despite ample opportunity. Learning and growing an shit, right? He and Keith were some mature-ass motherfuckers. Suck it, Pidge.

Somewhere in the hazy pass of time they had both scooted closer and closer to the fire, the air around them damp and uncomfortably cool. The fact that they'd happened to have spare clothes was a miracle, and Lance was just bemoaning his inability to wish a blanket or towel into existence when across from him on the other side of the fire as he noticed a full body shiver shaking the tight-wound curve of Keith's shoulders. "You cold?" Lance asked a little stupidly.

Keith looked up from his folded arms for just a moment, dismissing "No, I'm good," before returning to his 'I'm-obviously-conserving-warmth-by-curling-in-on-myself-like-a-pissy-armadillo' pose.

Out loud Lance hummed in response, but deep in his heart of hearts he was rolling his eyes with a scoff. Damned fool liar. Of course this idiot was cold – look at his freakin' crop-top jacket! It looked about as insulating as a candy wrapper, and some instinctive manly urge inside of Lance suggested that he offer Keith his own coat in its place. He ignored it, because that was dumb and this wasn't freaking Dawson's Creek. Instead he got up and walked over to the pile of firewood Keith had been sitting next to the whole night, grabbing a fresh piece and throwing it on the smoldering charcoal of the last log they'd put on there. They couldn't stoke it too high considering they needed the wood to last them the whole night, but there was enough to at least thaw out their asses a little. Lance glanced at Keith out of the corner of his eye when he stood up, trying not to notice how small he looked right now with his arms propped up on his knees like a grade schooler. Lance sighed, this time out loud. God damn it.

Lance didn't walk all the way around the fire to where he'd been sitting before, instead plopping himself down in the small space Keith had left between himself and the pile of firewood. So small a space it was Lance had wound up pressed almost completely against Keith's side, which was closer than he'd intended to be but since the point of sitting here was some sort of body heat sharing Lance couldn't really argue with the logic that they were probably better off like this anyway.

Keith didn't say anything, his version of acknowledging the gesture was leaning back a bit so instead of being curled downward in on himself, he was leaning... You know. On Lance. Lance who had to play this cool and act this wasn't a big deal because he had been the one to start it and so COULDN'T freak out now, he'd look like a bitch. Why is your heart beating so fast right now, Lance? Stop it. Stop it or he'll hear that.

Lance made a conscious effort to relax his shoulders, and time crawled forward. After just a few minutes Keith was relaxing with renewed warmth, and Lance couldn't even congratulate himself on a job well done because relaxing had meant the other paladin pretty much melting against his side, to the point where they were less leaning against each other and more actively cuddling because Keith was awful and had no awareness of social skills and Jesus Jiminy Quiznak, it was sure warm next to this fire NOW, wasn't it?

Keith eventually gave up any pretenses of having a spine all together, resting his head on Lance's shoulder sleepily as his eyes drifted closed. Lance swallowed thickly, feeling the dry slide of nothing down his throat as he choked out "Planning on sleeping right here, then, buddy?"

Keith didn't even open his eyes. "'S'here or on the ground," he mumbled with a tired slur, and Lance... Lance agreed. The ground was wet and hard and the grass was prickly instead of soft and Lance couldn't in good conscience just shove Keith off to land on it. Ugh, this was what he got for trying not to be a dick anymore.

"Fine, but when it's your watch I'm using your damned lap as a pillow" he muttered back moronically because WOW Lance, really? His LAP? Just thinking super gay thoughts about Keith isn't enough and now they've gotta spill out of your big mouth, too?

Just when he had hope that Keith miraculously had not heard that nonsense before he'd fallen asleep, the words "Okay, no prob," fell out of pouty lips just as Keith crashed into unconsciousness.

"Fuck," Lance swore with quiet meaning into the fire. Just, fuck.

He ended up letting Keith sleep an extra two hours after his watch should have ended.