[ oh my god this is exactly what he didn't want to happen!!!!!!! keith!!!!! lance can literally feel keith's stupid little brain boiling over next to him, blurting out stupid things like shiro's name.

it hurts lance, too, to see shiro without an ounce of recognition on his face, but he's not-- this isn't the fucking time for getting punched in the face and letting everyone see it, sendak is sitting right there and sendak fucking knows who they are and also who shiro is, there's more going on here than just what they're seeing. they've got to-- they've got to keep up appearances, or something. they can't fall apart here.

which means lance can't fall apart here, and he's got to keep keith from doing the same.

he claps his hand over keith's mouth before he can say anything else stupid, dragging him to face lance and kind of... octopusing all over him like lance is trying to be decoratively seductive in front of their prospective master. the only way to keep keith from snapping and launching himself into combat is to physically prevent him so that's exactly what lance does, twining his arms around keith's shoulders and getting in between him and shiro, trying to snap keith out of his staring contest. he cuddles aggressively against keith's neck, watching shiro sharply. ]

Wow, no, nooooope, that is not true at all, it was for the glory of the Galra empire etc, definitely not for anybody in specific. [ he can't exactly kick keith in the shin while they're in front of everyone, but he snakes a hand up to pull keith's hair at the nape of his neck instead. ]

And yeah, we're undefeated. We're, uh, going for the Champion's record.

[ he has no idea what shiro's old arena record is, it's just shit coming out of his mouth. ]