Story bits

“James, please.” Keith says, reaching for his hand. He pulls it away, looking at the other boy. “Don’t ‘James please’ me. This is the second time this week. And the seventh this month.” “I’ve been busy!” Keith defends. “Oh, so you’re too busy to spend time with me, but not too busy to spend time with Lance and Pidge? Or Lotor and Romelle? Axca and Veronica? You seem to have time for everyone but me.” James says. “James, that’s not true.”

“Isn’t it? You’ve canceled almost all of our plans for weeks, and whenever you are with me, you’re texting or leaving to call one of them. And they’re all you talk about! Lance this, Pidge that. Lotor did this, Axca did that. What about me? You hardly talk to me anymore. You never ask how I’m doing, what I’ve done, anything! I swear, sometimes it’s like you’ve forgotten I even exist.”

Keith’s heart sunk. “James, what are you saying?”

James took a shuddering breath. “I think- I think we should break up.” He says. “What? Realy?” James nods. “Yeah. I mean, we’re hardly together anymore, and this is the first time we’ve had a real conversation in weeks, and we’re fighting.” “But James-” Keith starts. “No. No.” James sighs, head bowed. “No more empty apologies. No more broken promises. We’re done Keith. We- we’re done. For real.” Keith clenched his fists by his side. “Really? You’re being serious?” James nods. “I can’t believe you! We’ve been together for over a year!”

“You think I don’t know that?” James snaps, bringing his head up and meeting his eyes.  “You think I don’t know? Yes, it may have been over a year, but I’ve barely seen you these past two months. You’re always doing things that make you happy. Well what about me? Don’t I deserve to be happy too?” James asks, voice wavering. “And I- I used to be happy with you, but now you’re never around. This- us, isn’t working.” James slipped off the ring Keith had given him for their six month anniversary, placing it in his hand. “We’re done Keith.” James brushes past him, around the side of the building and down the street.

Keith yelled and punched the wall. This was not how he’d wanted today to go.”

Five years later…

Keith laughed as Lance told him and Pidge the story, depicting how he’d almost fallen off the set during his last stunt. Coran burst in the doors, someone behind him. “Alright guys! Meet the newest addition to the Voltron crew,

James

Griffin!”

The trio froze.

James offered a small smile. “Hey Keith. Lance, Pidge.” Keith gulped. “Uh, hi James.” Coran smiled. “Oh great, you know each other! Well, he’s going to be playing a major role in the flashback scenes from the Space whale episode. I’ll get you the script.” He says to James. “Thanks.” The  mustached man runs off, mumbling under his breath. He comes over to the others. “So, how yal been?”

“Um, are we going to pretend that nothing bad happened between the two of you?” Lance asked. James shrugged. “I got over the breakup a long time ago. So that’s fine by me. Keith?” He shrugged. “Sure. How’s Cameron?” James grinned. “She’s great actually. Sophomore now. Shiro and Adam?” “Finally got married. They're planning to adopt.” “You’re not gonna ask about Ronny and Matt?” Lance jokes. James shakes his head and pulls out his phone. “Still text Ronny, and Matt likes to stay over at Ina’s. But I must say, If I’d known I was seeing you guys again, I would’ve dressed nicer.” James jokes. “In what? A suit with no shirt?” Pidge asks with a smirk. “Money is money. Also, it’s gonna pay for Cam’s college tuition and car.”

Keith takes his hand and brings him to the pool, the blue light reflecting off their faces. “Come on James. It’s not cold.” James smiles at him. “I have a feeling that even if it was, you’d be sure to warm me up.

They stepped in the water, and swam around for a while. James floated on his back in the middle of the pool as Keith leaned his head on his chest. “Wait here.” He said, swimming away. He got out and went to their stuff, grabbing something from his pants pocket before going back in the water. “What’s that?” James asked, swimming over to him. Keith smiled and brought his hand up.

In his hand was a slim silver band, with a small, red, heart-shaped gem on it. 

it was the exact one Keith had given James in real life. he saw the other's eyes widen as he made this realization.

“Just a little something for you.” James gasped. “Really?” Keith nodded, taking James’s hand and slipping it on his ring finger. “It’s beautiful.” James whispers. “But not as beautiful as you.” Keith said with a grin. James blushed a bit. “Keith!” He chuckled. “What? It’s true.” James smiled, meeting his eyes. He cupped Keith’s face, brushing some hair out of his eyes. “I love it.” He says. “But nowhere as much as I love you.” Keith grins and pecks him on the lips. “I love you too.” James’s smile grows even more and he pulls Keith in for another kiss. Their mouths stay slotted together as they pull each other closer, chests pressed close together. 

"CUT!" Coran yells. They seperate and James pushes his own hair out of his face. "That was very good boys! I think we'll use that for the show." James smiles. "Great. Is that all for today?" Coran nods, handing him a towel. "Thanks. And we don't have anything to shoot tomorrow or Sunday, right?" He asks, toweling his hair. "Yes. Why?" James brings his hands down, flipping his hair out of his face. "I promised my sister I'd be at her recital. It's tomorrow night, which means I'd need to fly out tonight." Coran smiles. "Well then go! I'm sure she'll enjoy seeing you."

The two boys head back to the dressing rooms, wrapped in towels. "Hey, Keith?" James asks. "Yeah?" "Do you wanna come with me? I know Cameron would love to see you." Keith gawks at him. "Wait, really?" James nods. "Yeah. Besides, if we're cool enough with each other to makeout while half naked, we're cool enough to go on a plane ride." James jokes. "Are you sure we're cool? Because that kinda felt like when we used to..." Keith trails off. James shrugs. "I said I got over the breakup. I never said I got over you." Keith stops. "Wait, so-" James chuckles. "Você ainda tem uma chance."(you still have a chance.) "Porra. Esqueci que você falava português." (fuck, I forgot you could speak Portuguese.) James chuckled. "You forget a lot of things. Meet me outside in an hour and a half." He said before opening his door.

Keith grinned and headed down the hall to his own dressing room, a pep in his step. He dressed and dried his hair quickly, selecting blue jeans and a red v-neck, accompanied with his black hoodie.  He went to the green room, and Pidge laughed when she saw him. "Look at you! I take it your scene went well." He shrugs. "Yeah. Can you take care of Kosmo this weekend? I'm gonna be out of town." "Yeah, sure. Where you going?" "James invited me to Cameron's recital." He says, grabbing a Coca-Cola from the fridge, Lance chuckles. "Você já está indo para casa com ele?" (you're going home with him already?) Keith rolled his eyes. "It's not like that. Also, apparently, James speaks Portuguese, so we're going to have to find another language to talk shit about people in." Lance huffs. "Dammit! Well, you know Korean, right?" Keith shakes his head. "It'd take too long to teach you. We'll just have to be more careful."

"More careful about what?" James asks, walking into the room.

Keith now understands why he's a model. Black jeans and a tight, long sleeve camo shirt with black and white shoes. "About talking shit where people can hear them." Pidge answers. "You guys always were bad at that. That's why me and Pidge learned Russian. "эти идиоты, я прав?" (these idiots, am I right?) Pidge nodded. "Couldn't have said it better myself." 

James grabbed a water bottle. "Well Keith, you ready to head out?" Keith nods, putting the cap back on his drink.

They sat in the dark, and the stage lit up. The girls all filed out in a line, their white costumes glittering in the light. As they danced, James smiled. His eyes never left one of the girls in the middle. "Is that Cameron?" He whispered. James nodded. "She's been working on this for months. I couldn't miss it. She'd kill me." James whispers back. 

At the end, James ran outside real quick and came back with a small bag and some bright blue roses. Cameron came running over, out of her costume and in skinny blue jeans and a black hoodie. "James!" She called, jumping into her arms. He smiled and caught her, spinning them around. "Hey Cam. You were amazing." He said. They pulled apart and she smiled. "Thanks." She glanced to the side and did a double take. "K-Keith?" He grinned. "Hey Cam." She smiled and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "It's been so long! You- you look so different!" She said. He laughed. "You do too. I almost didn't recognize you." "Keith! Good to see you!" Mrs. Griffin said, coming over. She hugged Keith and he smiled, breathing in her familiar scent. "Hi Mrs. G." Mr. Griffin nodded at him. "Oh Cam, I got you something." James says, handing her the bag. 

She pulls a little white box out of it, raising an eyebrow. She opens it and gasps. "James.. it's beautiful." She mutters. "What is it?" Mrs. Griffin asks. Cameron pulls a delicate silver chain with small ballerina charm. It had it's arms out, and was doing one of the dance moves from the routine. A small sapphire hung next to it, and tiny rhinestones dotted the ballerina's skirt. "Oh my." Cameron clipped it around her neck, smiling at it. "IT's perfect. Thank you James." James smiled brightly at his sister. "Anytime."

James sat in the water, eyeing the ring pinched between his fingers. The gem still shone as brightly now as it did when he first got it, right here in this pool. The blue light reflected off his face, making his skin seem to glow.

"I thought I'd find you here." He looks up and sees Keith, also in swim trunks. "Mind if I join you?" James shrugged. "It's a free country." Keith grinned and slipped into the water besides hi with a groan. "Fuck. I'd forgotten how good this water felt." James hummed absentmindedly.  Keith's hand slips over his own, staring at the ring. "You kept it." He whispered. James nodded. "yeah." He placed it in Keith's hand. "But you probably want it back now."

Keith looked at James, pain filling his eyes. "Do you not want it anymore?" "You don't want me anymore. This should go to the one you love." Keith chuckled. "James, I gave you this ring for a reason." He slips the ring back on James's finger. "And I meant everything I said to you, now and then." James looks up at him in awe. "I I think I always knew you were the love of my life." Keith says.

James feels his heart rate spike. Keith says those words with such conviction, he can't tell if he's acting or being serious.

"I love you." James blurts. Keith grins at him. "I love you too." James grins and cups Keith's face,  pulling him into a gentle kiss. It soon grows heated and Keith grabs James's thighs as he wraps his legs around him.

"CUT!" They hear someone shout. They ignore them. "Keith, James, you can stop sucking face, the scene is over." They keep going. Keith slips his tongue into James's mouth, causing him to whimper a bit. It's barely audiable, but Keith can hear it.