Chapter Text
1
The first time Allura saw it happen was just after a group training session. She and the paladins were making their way out of the training room, and Lance was bragging to Keith as they walked.
“And did you see that shot I made there at the end? Right through that bot’s head. Saved your butt, Keith.” Keith seemed to scowl at his words, but Lance continued on. “How many did you take down again? I bet I took care of more than you. In fact, I’m certain of it! You-”
“Lance!” Keith suddenly yelled, causing Allura and the other paladins to turn back and look at him and Lance. “That is it! I don’t care who took down more! You are the only one who cares about this dumb rivalry! Just let it go!”
What Allura expected to happen at that point was for Lance to start yelling even louder, Keith arguing back, both of them riling up the other, until Shiro had to step in and split them up. It had happened enough in the past that she was familiar with the pattern. What she did not expect to happen was for Lance to suddenly freeze, and for Hunk and Pidge to let out two identical groans at the same time.
“Keith, why?” Hunk asked, sighing and looking up to the ceiling.
“Seriously?” Pidge moaned, slapping her hand against her head.
“What? What’s wrong?” Allura asked, concerned and confused. But as she spoke Keith seemed to come to some realization, and started backing away from Lance, who hadn’t yet moved but was slowly starting to smile with a somewhat manic look in his eye.
“Lance, no, I didn’t mean... don’t you dare…” But Keith’s protests seemed to fall on deaf ears, as Lance took a step towards Keith, and did the last thing Allura expected.
He started to sing.
“Let it go! Let it go! Can’t hold it back anymore!” Lance belted out, in a voice which Allura was somewhat surprised to find was actually pretty nice.
“Lance, knock it off, I swear…” Even as he spoke, Keith seemed to realize that this was a battle he could not win, and he made a sudden dash for the doors.
Lance chased after him, continuing on with the song. “I don’t care, what they’re going to say! Let the storm rage on!” Keith made it through the doors, but Lance was right behind him, still singing. As the doors slid shut behind them, Allura could just make out, “The cold never bothered me anyway!”
The sudden silence of the training room seemed to echo.
“What,” Allura said flatly, looking towards the remaining paladins, “in the universe was that?”
Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge all looked at each other, and shrugged almost in unison.
“Disney,” Shiro said as if that explained everything. Then, seeming to realize that someone was going to need to protect Keith from Lance, or, more likely, Lance from Keith, he started to hurry after the boys.
“I’m surprised Keith even got that reference, to be honest,” Hunk said, following after at a more nonchalant pace than Shiro.
“Oh, come on, Hunk,” Pidge said walking beside him at the same casual pace, “Who wouldn’t?”
Soon Allura was left alone in the training room, in the same spot she had been standing in for the entire duration of… whatever that was.
After a few moments she sighed and shook her head, starting to move forward. She had no idea what had just transpired, or what the word “Disney” was supposed to mean, but they had more important things to worry about. She decided to, as Lance had so enthusiastically sung, “let it go” for now.
2
If that had been the only incident, Allura was sure that she would have forgotten about it completely. Indeed, she almost had, until a similar incident occurred not even two days later.
Allura, Lance, and Pidge were sitting in the common area after dinner. Keith and Shiro had gone off sparring with each other (again), and Hunk was attempting to show Coran, “What edible food looks like for humans.” This was not Hunk’s first attempt at this mission (Coran was insistent that his food was plenty edible and consisting of all the needed nutrients a defender of the universe could want), and no one expected to see them for several more hours.
Pidge was sitting on the couch, typing away on her computer, and Allura was watching the mice practice their newest routine. Lance was next to Pidge, attempting to convince Pidge to let him on her computer, though with little success.
“C’mon Pidge, I haven’t been able to update my Facebook status in like, months.”
“Lance, for the last time, you cannot access Earth social media from space .”
“If anyone could do it, it’s you, Pidge-Podge,” Lance said, ruffling up her hair.
Pidge slapped his hand away. “Lance, I swear, if you call me that one more time...”
“You’ll what? You wouldn’t do anything to me, your favorite Lance! You like me too much, Pidge-ster, Pidge-erino, Pidge-meister, Pidge-y-kins…”
It was at this moment that Pidge seemed to reach her limit, and Lance fell to the floor with a yelp, literally shocked, as Pidge’s bayard appeared in her hand and stabbed him seemly out of nowhere.
“Pidge, why?” Lance groaned from the floor, clutching the side Pidge had stabbed.
“Go bother Allura,” Pidge said, not even looking up from her computer.
Seeming to suddenly remember that Allura was there, Lance sat up quickly. Too quickly, if the groan he tried (and failed) to stifle was any indication.
“Heeyy, Princess,” Lance said, cocking one of his signature grins (though a bit more strained than usual). “How long have you been there?”
“Lance, I was in the room when you walked in. Remember? You came up to me and said,” Allura gave her best Lance-impersonation-voice here, “‘Princess, you must be an alien, cause you’re out of this world.’”
“Really, Lance?” Pidge said, glancing at Lance but still typing away. “That was the best you could come up with?”
“Well it’s true!” Lance protested. “And anyway, the princess liked it!”
“Why do you call her princess all the time?” Pidge asked. “Even if she used to be a princess, she’s not much of one anymore, and if she was, she still wouldn’t be our princess.”
Allura tried to ignore the quick pain in her chest at those words.
“Look Pidge, I’ll put this in simple terms that even you can understand,” Lance said, sitting up, putting a serious look on his face. Pidge must have sensed something in his tone because she even stopped typing and looked up from her computer.
Lance held up one finger. “If you wear a dress…” He pointed at Allura’s outfit, the dress she most often wore. “And you have an animal sidekick…” He then pointed with his other hand at her mice, who were watching curiously. “You’re a princess!” he said conclusively.
At this Lance turned his fingers into finger guns and pointed both at Allura, with a wide grin on his face.
There was silence for about five seconds. And then Pidge took out her bayard and shocked Lance again.
While Lance groaned on the floor Allura turned to Pidge. “Is that really how royalty is determined on your planet?” she asked, slightly worried for the state of a monarchy with such easy requirements.
“Nope,” Pidge replied, getting back to her computer. “That’s just a Disney thing.”
“What’s a…” Allura was asking, but before she could finish her question Lance was moaning again.
“Pidge, why?” Lance reached out a hand dramatically towards Pidge.
“Suffer,” Pidge replied in a flat, unconcerned voice.
It was at this moment that Hunk and Coran came in through the doors, food-less, because apparently, “This man couldn’t make a normal meal to save his life!” Shiro and Keith appeared not long after, as Coran and Hunk argued over their different cooking styles, Lance joining in to back up Hunk. This turned into a full group discussion (i.e.: argument) on when tentacles were acceptable in meals, and Allura did not get a chance to ask her question again.
She didn’t forget about it this time though, and as she later left for her chambers to sleep, she wondered to herself if it was worth it to bring it up again. She decided to leave it alone for now, unless it popped up again.
3
She didn’t have to wait long.
It was happened again during the next pre-mission meeting. Allura entered the room, pleased to see that everyone had made it there on time (Lance often appeared last, and when reprimanded, would usually reply with something along the lines of “The party don’t start till I walk in”).
“Alright Paladins,” Allura said as she clapped her hands together, walking towards the front of the room. Everyone’s conversations petered off and all of them turned to face her. “I’m glad to see you all here on time.” There was a pointed look at Lance here, which he responded to with an affronted expression. “I don’t need to tell you how important this mission is going to be. Now, let’s get down to business.”
What Allura expected to happen was to have the paladins listen attentively as she explained the mission objective. What she did not expect to happen was for Hunk to say, in a singing voice, “To defeat…”
And before Allura could respond Lance and Pidge yelled at the same time, “The Huns!”
All three burst into laughter. Shiro was smiling and shaking his head in amusement. Keith sighed and rolled his eyes. Coran, at least, seemed to be as confused as Allura as they glanced at each other.
“Nice one, Hunk!” Lance cried out proudly, giving Hunk a high-five which he returned with a small smile.
“Yeah, well, it was right there…” Hunk replied almost sheepishly, but still chuckling to himself.
“Er, paladins, I’m not sure who these ‘Huns’ are, but we’re working on defeating Zarkon right now,” Coran said, looking at Allura as if she might have answers. She shook her head, as lost as he was. “If they are a threat though, perhaps you should inform us about them…?”
This seemed to set the trio off, who laughed even louder. Keith groaned and rolled his eyes with more force this time. It was a wonder he didn’t strain his eyes.
Shiro turned to Coran, smiling. “It’s alright Coran. The Huns were only ever an Earth threat, and even then they haven’t been a problem for hundreds of years. These three,” and he tried to give the trio a stern look but there was still clear amusement in his eyes, “were just making a Disney reference.”
“Now,” he continued, this time succeeding in making himself appear serious, to which the three responded to by sitting up and letting their laughter die down, “If we could get back to the mission at hand?”
Allura really, really wanted to stop and ask for clarification this time, but this mission was actually important. She inwardly sighed, and resigned herself to asking about it at the next opportunity as she explained what was to be required of each the paladins for the upcoming mission.
“At least I’m not the only one who is confused,” she thought to herself. “If Coran is doesn’t understand either, then this has to be an Earthling thing.”
4
The mission was a success. The goal was to free prisoners from a Galra battlecruiser, which the team succeeded in doing with zero causalities. Injuries were minor too. Apart from some scrapes and bruises, the only one to sustain any major damage was Keith, who had twisted his ankle after, of all things, jumping two stories down onto a Galran soldier, into order to, in Keith’s words, “gain the element of surprise.”
Allura had shaken her head, and after the mission reminded him, for what felt like the hundredth time, that being the red paladin meant following one’s instincts, not “being stupidly reckless!”
Keith had winced at those words. “Sorry Princess. I’ll try not to do that again. But you don’t have to lecture me. I already heard it from Shiro.” He paused. “And Lance.” He paused again. “And Hunk and Pidge too. Really, everyone has given me the speech but Coran…”
It was then that Coran rounded the corner and spotted the two of them. “Keith! Now my boy, I know what it’s like to feel young and invincible, but you need to remember to take your own safety into account! Why, I remember once when I was a lad…”
As Coran continued on Keith looked over at Allura. “Never mind,” he mouthed.
After a quick medical examination it was determined that, while his ankle was not injured too badly, it would be better to send him into a healing pod for an hour to fix it up, rather than have him hobbling around for weeks, likely making it worse. Keith put up a bit of protest, saying that he was fine, but when Shiro mentioned that he would not be allowed to do any training until his ankle was fixed he quickly agreed to go in the pod.
Keith was placed in the pod, and everyone dispersed to clean up after the mission. One hour later they all met by Keith’s pod. It was an unspoken agreement that whenever possible everyone would be present for people being released from the pods. It reassured the people outside the pods that their injured teammate was recovered, and it let the person being released know of the current situation and what was going on quickly. It was just nice to know that everyone was safe, especially after some of the rougher missions.
Keith’s pod opened up and he staggered forward, seemingly about to fall. Lance, who happened to be the closest, stepped forward quickly to catch him.
“Well hello there Sleeping Beauty,” Lance said in a joking tone as he held Keith.
Keith groaned and pushed Lance back as soon as he found his balance. “Knock it off Lance. I was healing, not sleeping.”
“Yeah, besides, if anyone is Sleeping Beauty it’s Allura,” Pidge pointed out.
Lance froze at this. A look of realization mixed with horror slowly dawned over his face. “Nooooo… ohmygosh you’re right! How could I miss that! I had the opportunity for the perfect pick-up line and I missed it!”
“Her name even sounds like Aurora,” Pidge added, rubbing salt into the wound.
Lance groaned and buried his face in his hands, muttering to himself, “Why, why, why…”
“Would this happen to be another ‘Disney’ thing?” Allura asked, looking between them.
“Yep,” Hunk replied. He moved over to Keith. “Your ankle feeling better?” he asked.
Keith took a few experimental steps. “Yep, good as new.” Everyone smiled in relief.
Everyone but Lance, who now cried out, “I could have kissed her awake and everything!”
Allura looked at Lance and spoke in a steady tone, “Lance, if you are referring to the first time we met, I can assure you, if you had tried to kiss me, you would have found yourself in pain quite a lot worse than just a sore ear.”
Lance sobered up at this. “Erm, yeah, probably for the best then.”
“Alright team,” Shiro said, stepping towards Keith and placing an arm on his shoulder. “Let’s go figure out what’s best to do for the released prisoners.”
They were already walking out the room before Allura realized that she had yet again failed to figure out what this “Disney thing” actually was.
5
The prisoners were brought back to their home planets with a minimal amount of fuss. Allura was relieved. While it was nice having others on board, she had gotten used to their little make-shift family being the only ones around.
A few days after the last of them had been returned found the team in the training room, sparring in pairs. Keith and Lance were up currently, with Hunk and Pidge taking a break and watching them. Allura was there observing too, sometimes shouting out directions or advice. Coran was working on some repairs around the ship, and Shiro was currently on his own against one of the gladiator bots.
“Lance, watch your footing,” Allura called out to sparring pair as they circled each other. Both were fighting hand-to-hand in this match
“Got it Princess!” Lance called back. He leapt forward to try and land a blow on Keith, but at the last moment Keith jumped to the right out of reach.
“Nice dodge, Keith,” Lance said, turning face him again.
“Thanks Lance,” Keith replied. This time he was the one to move forward to attack Lance, but Lance did a backflip of all things and all Keith hit was air.
“Woah, cool,” Keith said wide-eyed. He didn’t seem to realize that he had spoken. Then shaking his head he rushed forward to meet Lance again.
Allura was proud as she watched them. The two didn’t always have the best relationship, so it was good to see such a nice moment between the two.
Pidge suddenly spoke. “I can see what’s happening.”
Hunk looked at her. “What?”
“And they don’t have a clue,” she continued.
“Who?”
“They’ll fall in love and here’s the bottom line: our trio’s down to two.”
Hunks eyes widened in realization. “Oh,” he said with understanding, chuckling.
“Pidge, what are you talking about?” Allura asked confused. Sure Lance and Keith had been getting closer, but not that close. Right?
“The sweet caress of twilight,” Pidge continued on. “There’s magic in the air. And with all this romantic atmosphere…” she and Hunk each took a deep breath at the same time.
“Disaster’s in the air!” they both yelled, so loud that Lance and Keith stopped their match, and even Shiro looked up from across the room (only to get hit in the side by the bot before ending the training sequence).
“What is going on?!” Allura was just about on the point of yelling.
“These two are being dorks, that’s what,” Lance said coming over. “Keith and I are not Simba and Nala!”
“I call Simba!” Keith, who had come over too, said suddenly. Lance looked at him shocked.
“Uh, excuse you, I’m obviously Simba.”
“Please,” Keith scoffed, almost believably serious but a small twitch of his lips gave him away. “You’re obviously that crazy hyena.”
“You mean Ed?!” Lance cried out. “Oh, you take that back, you…” and he leapt forward toward Keith, who dodged with the same move he used earlier.
“Does this mean I’m Pumbaa?” Hunk asked, musing. “I can live with that.”
“You make a better Pumbaa than I a Timon,” said Pidge. “But that perfect moment required some sacrifices.”
“Paladins,” Shiro said coming over, in his no-nonsense voice. One hand was rubbing his side and he was wincing. “We can talk about Disney all we want later. For now let’s refocus back on training.”
And as the paladins moved to follow Shiro’s orders Allura decided that she had had quite enough.
“That is it!” She yelled out so loudly that everyone immediately froze. “Someone, right now, is going to explain just what this ‘Disney’ is! I’m quite sick of you all talking about it and not explaining!”
“I, too, would like to understand,” Coran said, entering the room. “It seems to come up quite a bit, and neither the princess or I quite ‘get it,’ as you Earthlings say.”
The five paladins all looked at each other.
“Huh,” Lance said. “I hadn’t realized we talked about Disney so much.”
“Seriously?” Allura said, looking at him. “Lance, it’s almost always you.”
Lance winced. “Oops.”
“Such a fanboy,” Pidge muttered. Lance glared at her.
Shiro stepped forward. “Princess, Coran, I’m sorry if we have seemed confusing. Disney is something from back on Earth. If you’d like, after we finish up this session, we can meet in the common area and explain ourselves?”
Allura hesitated, and then nodded her head. “That would be acceptable.” She looked across their faces. “But I will expect a thorough explanation.”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Pidge spoke up. “With the amount of Disney nerds on this ship, you’ll get one.”
Allura didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried to see all five of them nodding their heads to Pidge’s words.
+1
“So,” Lance began about an hour later, as all seven of them sat comfortably around the couches. “I should probably start, as I’m the resident Disney expert.”
“Debatable,” Pidge immediately interjected.
“Uh, who among us spent hours every day for most of their lives babysitting younger siblings and nieces and nephews armed with nothing but a TV and Disney DVDs?” Lance shot back at her.
“Stay focused,” Shiro input.
“Sorry,” both Lance and Pidge said at the same time.
“Anyway,” Lance continued on. “It all started with a mouse.”
“A mouse?” Allura asked, glancing down at the four who were curled up in her lap.
“Yeah, a mouse. But like, a talking mouse, who wore pants and stuff. His name was Mickey Mouse, and he went on adventures with his friends, a talking duck, Donald, a talking dog, Goofy, and his own dog Pluto, who couldn’t talk for some reason even if Goofy could…”
“Are… are talking animals common on your planet?” Allura asked hesitantly.
“What?” Lance asked confused. “No, no, no. You see, Mickey and his friends aren’t real. They were created by this guy named Walt Disney, as like cartoons for kids.”
“Cartoons are a type of animation, which is like moving pictures that tell a story,” Hunk helpfully added in. “Like a movie. Wait, do Alteans have movies?”
“We do indeed Number Two,” Coran added. “Why, I was even in a few in my youth! Though I don’t know about this animation business.”
“Anyway,” Lance spoke up again. “Walt Disney made a bunch of cartoons with Mickey Mouse and other creatures, and eventually made the first full-length animated movie in color, which was a big deal when it happened. And then they kept making more movies.”
“They had a bit of a rocky history,” Pidge put in. “Some of their movies were more successful than others. But decades, erm, like, tens of decaphebs later, they started to really do well, and now it’s a household name. Basically every kid grew up watching Disney movies.”
“So…” Allura spoke up, trying to put together this information. “Disney is a person who made entertainment movies for children, which you all watched as children, which is how you know him?”
“Well, yes, but,” Shiro spoke up here, “Disney isn’t just the person anymore. It’s now the name of the company that makes the movies.”
“And they aren’t just for kids!” Lance added. “Disney’s success lies in the fact that their films cater to children as well as their parents. It’s fun for the whole family!” he added with the passion that comes from arguing an often-made point.
“So whenever you’ve mentioned Disney before, you were referencing different movies?”
“Basically, yeah,” all of the paladins nodded along with Lance here.
“Alright,” Allura said. “I think I understand it now. How about you, Coran?”
“Honestly princess, I’m still confused as to why one dog could talk and one couldn’t,” Coran admitted.
“You and me both Coran,” Lance sighed.
“Does that clear it up?” Shiro asked. “The Disney thing, I mean, not the dog thing.”
“It does Shiro, thank you,” Allura said. “Though I admit that I am now a little curious to see one of these ‘Disney movies.’”
“If we were on Earth I’d just pull up Netflix and we could show you,” Lance said. He sighed sadly. “But we’re in space, millions of light-years away from any Earth movies, Disney or otherwise, so I don’t think that’ll be possible.”
“Weeellllll…” Pidge spoke up, drawing out the word as the others turned to look at her. “That may not be exactly true…”
“Pidge,” Lance said intensely, staring at her. “Pidge. Pidge, don’t mess with me right now. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Lance was leaning in his seat towards Pidge, hope dawning over his features.
“If you think I’m saying that I have all of the Disney vault stored on my computer, then yes that’s what I’m saying,” Pidge said matter-of-factly, pushing up her glasses.
Lance let out a whoop of joy and jumped out of his seat. “Dios mío, that’s better than what I thought! The whole vault? Every movie?? How???”
“Every animated one at least,” Pidge amended. “I have some live-action, but I really prefer the animated stuff mostly. And I told you you weren’t the biggest Disney expert on the ship.”
“Oh Pidge, you wonderful Disney nerd you! I could kiss you!” Lance cried out. Allura looked around at the other paladins and saw that, while not jumping around like Lance was, each had smiles on their faces. Hunk even looked like he was close to tears.
“And I could shock you with my bayard again,” Pidge replied casually. Lance didn’t even seem to register the threat, instead turning to Shiro.
“Shiro! Shiro, we need to have a movie night! Disney marathon! Every movie!”
Shiro chuckled. “Lance, I don’t think even you want to watch fifty plus Disney movies in a row.”
“You don’t know my life,” Lance replied back.
“How about,” Hunk suggested, “if we watch one Disney movie per night? Like once a week or something?”
“Yes!” Lance cried out. “Hunk, you’re a genius! Please, Shiro?”
“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Shiro said. “Could be good for morale.” He paused to think, then kept going. “Or bonding. And it would help Coran and Allura understand us better, since we seem to bring it up so often.”
“Please,” Keith scoffed. “Don’t give us excuses. You’re just as big of a Disney nerd as the rest of them.”
“Be that as it may,” Shiro continued on gracefully, “I don’t have a problem against it. Allura, what do you think?”
Allura smiled. “Yes, I would love to get to experience something that seems to be so important to your Earth culture.”
“And I as well,” Coran added. “I want to see a talking mouse!”
“That brings up a good question,” Hunk put in. “Which ones do we start with? I mean, we could go in order, but some of the best movies are like, past number 40.”
“Why don’t we each show them our favorite movie?” Lance asked. Everyone looked at him.
“That… is actually a good idea, Lance,” Keith said in a surprised tone of voice.
“Pish, I know, I have those sometimes,” Lance replied back, crossing his arms and leaning back in an attempt to look casual, but the hint of red on his cheeks from the praise gave him away.
“Okay, so here’s the plan,” Pidge put in. “All five of us can write our favorite movie down on paper. Once a week on movie night we’ll draw one and watch it. I’ll work on making a theater system so we can all watch comfortably. Sound good?” Everyone nodded. “Alright, good. I’ll get started then.”
Pidge then left to go get her computer, and Hunk went with her to help with the system. Lance and Keith set off to solve the problem of where to find paper in a high-tech alien spaceship. And Shiro trailed after to discreetly make sure this wasn’t a situation where they went off by themselves only to try and kill each other five minutes later (It had happened before. A lot).
“Well Princess,” Coran spoke up once the others had left, “looks like we’re going to be having some educational, and entertaining, times ahead of us.”
“Seems like it Coran,” Allura replied with a smile. “Should be interesting, at the very least.”
The future would prove both of them to be correct.