#lance flash bang

Ratings:G

Summary: Lance is a Cuban pop star starting to gain popularity in the United States and Keith is a two-time award winning actor. The rising popularity has them both cast in the upcoming blockbuster, Voltron: Legendary Defender, playing rivals to lovers amidst a Sci-Fi thriller. The public seems to think that they’re a match made it heaven, labeling them ‘Hollywood’s Hottest Couple.’

Too bad they hate each other’s guts.

Warnings:None

Here’s my writing contribution for the @voltronbigbang. I might make it into a full on multi-chapter fic, so we’ll see. You can find it on AO3, here!

Lance takes to fame like a fish to water.

The flashing of camera lights and screams of adoring fans- all of it, a paradise of Lance’s own making. He thrives in the attention, basking in the confidence it instills. What used to be something of dreams is now a mind-blowing reality; once upon a lifetime ago, he was just a simple boy from Cuba singing acoustic covers for spare change on a dingy corner and now- well, now he does the same thing, but in front of thousands.

It sparks something within Lance, a desire. A desire to be heard, to be seen, to be known. And for someone who thrives off the validation of others, the resulting attention is welcomed with open arms. Because when he’s on the stage, singing and having the world listening on the edge of their seats, he feels bigger than it all. Feels like what he’s been telling himself all this time- of I’m the bestandI can do it, I can make it- is actually true when half the world agrees with him.

Which makes Keith Kogane all the more frustrating.

Not only does the actor not instantly recognize him when they meet at the gala hosted by the ever prestigious Altean Studios, but even when he does connect his face for that of the one plastered on millions of billboards worldwide, he doesn’t even have the decency to look impressed.

It shouldn’t be as insulting as it is, but Lance finds a way.

Somehow, despite walking in the same circle of peers and friends, the two have never met in person, but Lance would be lying through his teeth if he said he didn’t know of the actor. No one can turn on their television without seeing those wide, obsidian eyes and oval face, framed by the universe’s most terrible haircut, expression varying for whatever character and scene he’s playing. He’s won awards for his work, nonplussed in his acceptance and natural talent, enough so that it has Lance twisting in jealousy and maybe a little admiration.

He had thought that the feeling had been mutual, that his celebrity crush hadn’t been a projection of transparent hope. But now, with Kogane’s blank face giving him a once over before turning away, Lance thinks maybe it might’ve been all in his head.

So he’s left standing by the bar, face flushed in embarrassment with the sting of rejection he hasn’t felt for a long time. Not since he was twelve and playing for empty rooms.

But Lance wouldn’t be Lance if he let’s this snag trip him so close to the finish line. So he takes the time to fix the collar of his blazer and run a nervous hand over his gelled hair while other gala goers laugh and talk and enjoy the night. He allows himself one despondent moment, lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed, before shaking himself and forcing a smirk. It’s the face of a star.

It seems the world needs a reminder.

~

He plays show after show after show, putting his soul into his music. He doesn’t rest until his songs reach the top of the charts, played on every radio station to the point of obnoxiousness. And when Lance finally takes his talent to the next level, when his lyrics are on the tip of everyone’s tongue and voice echoing through ever pair of headphones, he gets a phone call from his manager excitedly telling him that she has a casting director on the other line inquiring about his appearance in an upcoming movie. It’s a big step and Lance is unashamed in his response time, the “YES” a near yell and scaring his cat right off the kitchen counter.

And that’s how he lands the part of some big franchise he knows nothing about, but is eager to join.

Maybe it’s the thought of branching out, flexing his skills and broadening his horizons. Maybe it’s the thought of retribution, of proving to the haters that he’s more than just a pretty face and mediocre voice. Maybe it’s all the time he spent with Pidge and Hunk, nerds in their own right, spent fantasizing of a world well beyond this one. Whatever it is, something about a sci-fi, action-thriller screamed award-winning, drawing him in before he’d even glanced at the plot. He’d always wanted to go to space and what was space without stars.

As expected, Pidge and Hunk are ecstatic about the role. They pester him with questions, screaming up a storm when he answers to the best of his knowledge, pulling out comics and action figures alike while they spout nonsense about things like alternate universes and continuity errors.

“Who are you playing? Is it the lead? Oh my god, it’s the lead isn’t it?” Hunk practically crushes Lance in his excitement, lifting him up and spinning him. He sounds close to tears, even as a smile breaks his face in half. “My best friend! In Voltron! Oh, this is a dream come true!”

Pidge is more dramatic in her excitement. “If you mess this up, I swear, we’re disowning you as our friend.”

Lance can’t help but laugh at that.

~

He takes acting lessons, learns how to fake cry and how to keep his expression steady even when his friends are making truly hideous faces at him from on the other side of the studio. It’s progressive and Lance feels better for it, ego rising with the compliments sent his way about his technique and aptitude for the work.

It’s counterintuitive of him, but, as he moves up in his career, he makes of point of keeping tabs on Keith’s. Ever since that embarrassing meeting, he’s labeled the man as the one to beat. A rival among the most talented.

But the universe must want a good laugh, because it’s only when Lance starts to resent the actor that he begins to see him everywhere. It’s a manner of utter coincidence that they seem to frequent the same joints and only start to run into each other once it’s the last thing Lance wants to happen. The feeling must be reciprocated this time around, because where Lance balks at the near collision of bodies around a innocent looking corner downtown, Keith looks near livid; the other man stops just short of growling when he runs into Lance three consecutive days in a row at the gym they both hold memberships for and then frowning profusely over a steaming cup of coffee from a cafe near Lance’s apartment a week later.

Lance tries not to think too much on it, shrugging it off each chance meeting with the assurance that things move on and soon enough life will get tired of shoving them together.

Or, at least, he hopes so.

~

It three weeks later that reality proves him wrong.

A single blip of his phone alerts him to a text from Hunk and with it, a screenshot. A screenshot of Voltron’s cast listing to be exact. And Lance, poor, unsuspecting Lance, nearly chokes on his drink when he takes a look, jerking in his seat and gasping for breath when his eyes zero in on the headshot of his supposed co-star. There, typed in an official looking font and positioned in the space above Lance’s, is a familiar name.

Keith Kogane.

With the remains of his jasmine milk tea dribbling down his chin, Lance curses his luck. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”