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Lance stirred in his bed and groggily sat up, resisting the urge to rub his eyes because his facemask was on. He stood up on shaky legs and moved towards the bathroom, washing his face off and drying it. He moved back into his room, surprised to see Keith standing over his bed with a shocked look on his face.
“I get it, I have the best room in the ship, but you don’t have to steal it. Plus you have your own room, smelly.” Lance said jokingly. Keith shot straight up and blushed softly.
“It was going to be a surprise, but you caught me in the act,” Keith brushed his hair out of his face and pulled out a box “so happy birthday!” Keith gave Lance the box and smiled.
Lance slowly peeling off the wrapping paper to reveal a picture. He teared up, looking down at the picture and smiling a little. “How did you get this picture?” He asked, sniffling a little and wiping his eyes.
“Pidge said that when we were trying to figure out how to form Voltron and they kept having problems and opening their eyes, they saw a picture of you and your family. We then tried to figure out if the headbands logged the pictures they outputted, which they did, so we just ripped the picture off of that and printed it. I figured since this is your first birthday without your family you could use them in the extent that we can get out here.” Keith said in a rushed voice, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly. Lance smiled widely and laid the picture on his bed before engulfing Keith with a hug.
“I know it’s not much, but…” Keith trailed off, blushing more.
“Shut up. It’s perfect, dipshit.” Lance laughed before speaking again “Thank you so much, Keith. You don’t know how much this means to me.” he stated, smiling widely and kissing Keith’s cheek, causing the slightly short boy’s face to turn a nice crimson color.
Keith smiled and grabbed Lance’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “There’s more for you, but you gotta wake up and get ready first.” Keith smiled and told Lance. He nodded and smiled before urging Keith out of the room so that he could get ready.
Allura had recently given all of the paladins Altean clothing for diplomatic and comfort purposes because honestly, the clothes from Earth were starting to smell a little. Lance laughed at himself before putting on one of the blue button up tops with gold accents on. He looked in the mirror and smiled before winking at himself. He shuffled some black pants on and quickly put his shoes on before exiting his room.
Lance walked into the dining room area to see everyone standing around the table with a mountain of presents.
“Happy birthday, Lance!” They all cheered at the same time, smiling widely. Pidge ran over and hugged him.
“Hi, you little gremlin.” Lance said, hugging his friend back.
“Keith said that you caught him putting your first present on your bed, did you like it? Did it look good enough?” Pidge asked and looked up at him.
“I loved it, Pidge. Thank you for helping him get that for me. It means more than words can adequately comprehend.” He smiled and ruffled Pidge's hair.
“I don’t really understand what exactly is going on, but I am glad that you are happy, Lance.” Allura spoke, going over to him and hugging him.
“It’s my birthday!” Lance said excitedly looking around again at the room.
“A what?” Allura said, looking confused
“You know, birthdays. Cake, candles, stupid hats, the big shabam.” Lance grinned and giggled softly.
“The big what?” Allura asked more confused. She looked back to the rest of the group and they just smiled back at her. “I shall research more of this later.” She stated.
Keith walked up next and hugged Lance again. Lance laughed “I thought we just did this?” He laughed and smiled widely.
Keith laughed and hugged Lance tighter. “I never wanted you in my life, but here we are.” Keith started before getting cut off by Lance.
“Gee, thanks.” Lance rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.
“Wait, shit, that’s not how I meant to start this, fuck-” Keith groaned. “I’m glad you’re in my life, babe. You make me extremely happy and I appreciate all that you do to make everything okay around here. Thank you.” Keith kissed Lance’s cheek.
“Thank you so much, Keith.” Lance grinned towards his boyfriend and booped his nose, Keith rolled his eyes in response.
Keith stepped back and let Shiro come in and hug Lance. Except Shiro didn’t just hug Lance, he picked him up and twirled him around and then hugged him. Lance giggled and nuzzled into Shiro’s chest. “Did you even know it was my birthday?” Lance asked, looking up at his other boyfriend.
Shiro laughed and responded with “How could I not?” Shiro smiled widely. “Keith and Hunk told me like the second we all got together, but I already knew because I remember before I went to Kerberos you had me sign something for your birthday at orientation and that had July 28th at the top of it.”
Shiro pecked Lance’s lips before speaking “I think Hunk is getting jealous, so I’m gonna let him have some of you, baby doll.” Shiro grinned and kissed the top of Lance’s head before Hunk moved it and suffocated him in a hug.
Hunk ruffled Lance’s hair and smiled before leaning down and whispering softly “I was able to engineer some rain for you to splash around in.” Lance squealed and hugged Hunk tightly.
“You didn’t!” He exclaimed. It wasn’t a big deal, but to Lance it was the world. Hunk nodded and Lance hugged him even tighter.
“I totally did for my birthday boy!” They both giggled softly and looked at each other lovingly.
Coran was next. He hugged Lance and gave him a small necklace. “This is Altean. It was my son’s before he died, but you remind me so much of him and I know that he would approve of you wearing it.” Coran smiled.
“Thank you so much, Coran. It’s truly an honor.” Lance hugged him again and put it on, smiling softly to himself.
“The pleasure is all mine, my boy.” He laughed and smiled.
“This wasn’t how I planned on my birthday going, but all things considered, I guess it’s not the worst day ever.” Lance downplayed, trying to hide a smile.
“Shut up. It’s perfect, dipshit.” Keith mocked and rolled his eyes. Lance mouthed the words right back to him and then Keith did the same back to him. They continued to do this until Allura got fed up and ushered everyone to sit down to eat cake.
They sat down and Hunk lit the candles. They all sang happy birthday while Pidge was recording. Lance blew out the candles and smiled softly.
“What did you wish for?” Shiro asked, leaning over in his chair and kissing the side of Lance’s head.
“I wished for home.” Lance said simply.
“We’ll take you back soon, I promise.” Shiro said, smiling sadly in his direction.
Lance nodded before speaking up. “I can’t believe you actually did all of this for me. You really didn’t have to.” Lance said shyly, trying to hide how much he appreciated the whole gesture.
“Please just stop being sappy and eat your cake.” Pidge said, laughing. Lance smiled once again and dug into his cake.
“Happy birthday!” Everyone cheered once more before digging into their cake.
Lance grinned at his friends kind gestures. There are many ways to say “I love you.” The way of the day was “Happy birthday.” Space was empty, but Lance, for the first time in a very long, found that he was not.
“Lance we have another surprise for you.” Hunk said happily. Lance raised his eyebrow in confusion. Hunk grinned and picked Lance up, taking him to the front of the ship. He could see a moon, a sun and… Earth.
Lance let out a happy cry and grinned. “We figured it was time for a break and time for you to see your family again.” Hunk said, placing Lance down. The rest of the group had followed them to see the response.
“Thank you all for the best birthday ever.” Lance cried happily, hugging them all.
This was the best birthday for him, he had his three wonderful boyfriends, his wonderful friends and finally his extraordinary family who he had dearly missed.