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"Whats this about?" Kolivan asked Shiro.
"It's about Keith. He's turning 18 soon so we want to celebrate it by having a birthday party and we want to invite you too!" Shiro answered, smiling.
Kolivan and Antok glanced at one another quizzically before the leader spoke again, "...A 'birthday party? I'm afraid we don't know what that is".
Shiro chuckled, "Ah, figures. It's a human thing. Basically, every year on the date a person was born on, we celebrate it in order to commemorate that person achieving another year of living. And since Keith is going to finally be an adult this year, we want to make it really special and memorable for him".
Kolivan gasped lightly at the thought that Keith wasn't even an adult yet. He knew that the paladins were young but...that young? How old were the others? Were they all just children? He shook the thoughts from his mind to reply to Shiro's invite. "The Blade of Marmora would be happy to attend," Kolivan replied, glancing again up at Antok.
"Great! We'll contact you later to discuss preparations, bye," Shiro smiled, waving as he walked aboard his lion.
The two watched as Shiro left for the castle.
"Keith isn't even an adult, by human standards..." Antok stated, both still in shock by this information.
"It appears so...That also brings up the question of how old the other paladins are. The green one is even smaller than Keith. I knew they were young but, not young enough to still be just children." Kolivan replied a little anxiously before both headed back aboard their ship.
A week later and everything was set up and in place. Hunk had prepared loads of food for everyone. Lance and Pidge had prepared music as well as games to play. Coran and Allura had prepared decorations. Turns out Alteans had a similar tradition to birthdays, so the concept to them wasn't foreign or weird. Shiro oversaw everything and helped out when he could. Keith just had to not be in the main hall for the entire day. And the BoM just had to stay quiet about it. Speaking of the devil, a call came in mid-preparation, as planned. Making sure none of the decorations were visible, Allura and Shiro took the call. Kolivan simply stated their small mission was a success and that they'd be arriving shortly. Keith seemed to not suspect a thing. Good. They finished decorating the place - red, white and black ribbons adorned the walls, along the back wall was a large sign reading "Happy Birthday Keith!" with red lions on either side of it and all along the floor was glitter and cut out red lions. Lance, Hunk and Coran came though with the last plates of food and Pidge finished setting up the game systems and music player.
Not soon after, the BoM ship docked. That was Lance's queue to keep Keith occupied until every member of the organisation had filed into the main hall. Which was...a lot. Lance strode confidently down to greet Keith who was waving goodbye to Kolivan and Antok.
"Heeeeyyyy Keith. Buddy. Pal." He yelled excitedly, slapping an arm around Keith's shoulders and heading towards the rooms. "We gotta play some Smash Bros. I still need to kick your ass from last time. I won't loose again!" Lance shouted, taking a competitive stance whilst pointing at Keith.
"Hmm sorry Lance, not now. I need to speak to Shiro about the mission we just completed. Maybe some other time..." Keith sighed, ignoring Lance's fighting stance.
Lance panicked a little, he needed to keep Keith occupied so the Blades could make it onto the ship. He jumped in front of Keith and wagged his finger. "Nu-uh! Forget about the mission for a minute, we gotta fight dude! You aren’t gonna chicken out on me, are ya?" he smirked, hoping he would take the bait.
"No. Lance. The information is, and I can't believe I’m saying this, more important than kicking your sorry butt at Smash." he tried to hurriedly walk off annoyed at Lance's repeated attempts at forcing him to play.
Lance panicked even more. 'Heck! Gotta think quick' He worriedly thought. He jumped once again in front of Keith and breathed deeply in, frowning and covering his nose. "No! Just...smell yourself. What did you do, faint your opponents with your stench? You need to shower dude. Seriously," Lance feigned being disgusted by Keith's fake body odor smell. It seemed to work though. Keith looked a little anxious before smelling his armpit.
"...I smell, that bad? Is it really that noticeable?" He asked.
"Yep. Now go and shower!" Lance frowned, pointing towards the showers.
"I won't be long though. Tell Shiro that, please Lance? It’s important Shiro and Allura know this," Keith sighed, looking softly at Lance.
"Sure! I’ll let them know. Go on dude." Lance waved as Keith hurried to the shower blocks.
As soon as Keith disappeared through the doors, Lance picked up the communicator from his pocket and whispered into it ,"Coast is clear, hurry up," to Kolivan and his crew. Quickly, hooded and masked Blades filed through to the main hall with Lance leading the way, Kolivan and Antok being the last ones.
Whilst they were waiting for Keith to come out of the showers, Allura, Lance and Pidge handed out party hats and party poppers to everyone.
"What do we do with these?" an unmasked Antok asked Pidge, holding the string hat awkwardly in his hand. Kolivan equally as confused as to what to do with it.
"Oh, they're hats. They go on your head, like this!" she excitedly replied, putting the string around her head and behind her ears, making sure the hat was straight on her head.
Antok, Kolivan and the rest of the Blades followed. They all looked hilariously funny in them. Antok's was too small for his head and Kolivan's had cute cats on them. Not something you'd see either of them in ever again.
Pidge looked up and chuckled nervously, "Y-you look great!" she stumbled before handing them a party popper.
They looked down at the strange bottle shaped contraption with a string on the end.
"Human traditions are strange...I like them," Kolivan noted, glancing softly up at Antok.
Keith left the shower rooms after only a few minutes and started making his way up to the main hall.
"Everyone, positions! Positions please! Keith is on his way!" Allura yelled after checking the camera system. She dimmed the lights once everyone got into position.
Keith was a little suspicious. From Lance being adamant about not letting him talk to Shiro and the BoM ship not leaving as soon as he left was...odd. Had something happened? He was brought out of his thoughts when near the entrance to the main hall, an oddly shaped object on the ground caught his attention. He picked it up and was even more confused. It was a paper cut out of the red lion? He wanted answers. What is going on? He strode quickly through the door to the main hall and was greeted by darkness. "Uhm...guys? Whats going on?" he called out apprehensively.
The lights suddenly jolted back on, party poppers went off and party horns sounded. Everyone in the room then screamed "HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH!!" and even more party poppers and horns went off. Keith was completely caught off guard. He glanced around the hall, speechless.
"Guys...y...you remembered?" he began to tear up a little. Even he didn't remember it was today.
His 18th. Guess space really messed up his sense of time. Even the Blade of Marmora was involved? He smiled at his fellow paladins as they came over for a group hug. "Happy 18th Keith, hope the foods good. I spent an entire day panicking about it. I hope it was worth it." Hunk quickly stated.
"Happy birthday you edgelord. Have a good one," Pidge laughed.
"Happy day of birth, Keith. I wasn't joking about Smash by the way. I still intend on kicking your ass at it." Lance smugly stated, squeezing a little harder.
"Happy birthday Keith. Thank you for your hard work and dedication to Voltron. Please take some time to relax, you deserve it." Shiro smiled softly, ruffling Keith's hair.
Keith couldn't get a word out. He was so happy they remembered his birthday and the fact the Kolivan and the Blades were here made this all the more better. He simply hugged the group back and smiled.
They all let go of one another eventually and headed over to the main platform where Allura, Coran, Kolivan and Antok were. There was a big cake in the middle of a table. It was red and black in colour with a small cute red lion figurine on top of it.
"Happy birthday Keith! Please blow these candles out and make a wish," Allura excitedly spoke.
Keith took a deep breath and blew out the lower candles, one by one. The cake was so tall that he couldn't reach the top ones no matter how hard he blew. Lance couldn't help but snicker before being promptly jabbed in the sides by both Pidge and Shiro.
Keith glared at the cake before being lifted off the ground by two large 3 fingered hands. Antok. Keith now able to reach the remaining candles blew them out. He was carefully put down and patted on the head by Antok, who gave Keith a genuine, non terrifying smile for once. The smaller Blade awkwardly grinned up at him as the crowd clapped and cheered.
Everyone came around the food tables and picked out what foods they wanted before going to do their own thing. Regris, Thace and Ulaz ended up in the corner with Lance, who was explaining what Mario Kart is to the somewhat confused Galra.
“So, you can choose any character and any vehicle you want but the aim of the game is to come 1st place. The wheel controls what direction you go in. The ‘2’ button makes you go forward, the ‘1’ button makes you slow down and you see this cross shaped button? Pressing this side makes you use an item that helps you win. Got it?” Lance said, holding up a Wii remote and pointing to the controls.
Thace looked a little baffled, unsure about the game. Ulaz looked at and fiddled with the controller, interested in how it works. Regris is bouncing slightly in his seat excitedly, waiting to race. Eventually they start the race, Thace and Regris forgetting the forward button initially and Ulaz and Lance making a head start. The course that they were racing on was Luigi’s course, a simple short track and easy going for beginners. Ulaz ended up winning, much to the amazement of Lance considering the Galra never even heard of a Wii, let alone played the damn thing.
Keith and Hunk binged on food whilst sitting to the side. “Soooo, how was your day Keith?” Asked Hunk through mouthfuls of chocolate cake.
“It was OK - pretty uneventful. We just took over another small Galra base, operated by drones. We did get some infor-SHIT I forgot! I need to tell Shiro about the data we collected,” Keith suddenly yelled, jumping up only to have Hunk yank him back down by his arm.
“Yo, It’s fine dude! Allura and Shiro already got the information from the mission whilst you were in the shower. Chillax, it’s your birthday party. Don’t worry about it. You’ve been working super hard lately, both with Voltron and the Blade of Marmora. You deserve to have some chill out time with good food. ” Hunk exclaimed, calming Keith down.
“Y-yeah. I guess you’re right. Thanks, by the way, for the food. It’s really great! You spent the entire day making this?” Keith asked,
“Well technically two, since some took longer to prepare. Namely the cake. Coran and I painstakingly decorated it. Glad it all turned out alright haha,” Hunk exasperated, glad he didn’t have to do any more work.
“What got you into making food in the first place?” Keith queried.
“Ah long story. I’ll give you the rundown. My mother made the best food ever. Like. Better than mine. She always had the best most tastiest recipes. I wanted to know how to cook like her so every week I’d get cooking lessons from her. My stuff, naturally, wasn’t as good as hers but she didn’t mind and she always encouraged me to cook more. When her work became more intense and she couldn’t look after me as much, I had to cook for myself more often. Then, when I went into the Garrison with Lance and Pidge, the food was terrible. Underdone or overdone, sloppy, lazy and gross sometimes. I couldn’t have that so I ended up honing my skills and taught the ‘cooks’ some lessons. Or just ended up making food for us three.” Hunk replied, sighing. “Also, its a big stress relief for me as well as rewarding.” He continued with a smile.
“That’s good. I’m glad you find cooking so fun. You’re really good at it and your mother would be proud of you,” Keith warmly spoke.
“Aw, thanks dude. I think she would be too.” Hunk grinned, shoving another piece of cake in his mouth.
Keith smiled, digging into more of Hunk’s cooking.
Pidge and Shiro were talking with Kolivan and Antok about other human traditions. “So let me get this straight. Every year in autumn, you celebrate this ‘Halloween’ where you dress up as scary creatures, eat candy and give each other gifts?” Kolivan asked, muddled.
“No no no, we dress up as scary creatures and eat candy but no gift giving. That’s what we do at Christmas.” Pidge clarified before taking a bite out of a sticky rib.
“Why do you dress up though, what’s the point?” Kolivan questioned, still not getting it.
“To scare each other. We also hold parties like this one but where we’re all dressed up as these creatures. It’s quite fun to see everyone's creative side,” Shiro spoke as Kolivan nodded, trying to understand.
Antok chuckled at the thought of the green paladin being a “scary creature”. How can one so small be scary? “So...is this Santa Claus a scary creature too? Do you dress up as him?” Antok queried.
“No. That’s a Christmas thing again. Although. Now thinking about it...a big fat bearded man who you don’t know, with a sleigh and 12 reindeer, coming down your chimney to give gifts in the middle of the night does sound a bit odd. Actually. That sounds a little creepy now that I’m explaining it.” Pidge shuddered.
“Your human traditions are weird. I can understand gift giving but dressing up as creatures sounds unnecessary and excessive. Can’t you just scare each other in normal attire? We Galra do that all the time to assert dominance.” Kolivan explained.
Shiro and Pidge both looked at each other sheepishly. “Humans on their own aren’t really scary. We don’t have sharp claws or fangs, we don’t have large spines or fur or scales and we don’t have any features that are particularly intimidating to one another. So we dress up and do it that way.” Shiro chuckled.
“Mmm true. Your human teeth are blunt, your nails aren’t very impressive and you’re all rather small. Are all humans as small as you paladins?” Kolivan simply asked.
Shiro and Pidge laughed at one another, both knowing who Kolivan was mostly referring too.
It was a really light and happy atmosphere. Keith smiled throughout the night, enjoying everyone's company and birthday wishes. He was going to remember this one for years.
The night eventually came to a close, the Blades making their way back to their ship. The tables were practically empty, the food being completely devoured. The paladins, Allura, Coran, Kolivan and Antok remained in the end.
"Hey, we got you some presents to open dude!" Lance smirked, handing him a large rectangle wrapped up present. Each paladin followed, placing presents one on top until it became too heavy too hold so Keith placed them carefully on the table. Allura and Coran handed him a beautifully wrapped gift. It was crimson red wrapping paper with a black silk ribbon on top.
Then Kolivan and Antok stood in front of Keith holding a badly wrapped present with too much tape on it. Kolivan's hat had become wonky and Antok had some coloured string on his ear from a party popper. They looked awkwardly in silence at him and vice-versa. Kolivan broke the odd silence and in his usual stern voice spoke, "We researched what human male children like at age 18 please accept this gift and a happy birthday,". Keith sheepishly smiled and took the gift after saying a thank you. And with that, they walked off to join the rest of their crew. He sighed, somewhat happy that interaction was over.
The rest all looked at each other, then at the now trashed hall, then back at each other.
"Pfffft, we'll clean this up tomorrow. Everyone deserves a rest after that smashing party! Get a good sleep everyone." Coran yawned, heading towards the rooms followed by Allura.
“Goodnight paladins, rest well!!” she smiled, before disappearing through the door.
“Hey, need a hand taking your gifts to your room?” Lance asked, already taking some of the presents.
“Yeah, sure.” Keith replied tiredly, grabbing the remaining ones. The other paladins had already started walking back to the rooms. They all wished one another a goodnight before heading into their room. Keith and Lance placed the presents down on the desk before Lance too, wished Keith a goodnight and left.
Keith was left to unwrap his gifts. One by one, the gifts and paper covered his room. Hunk cooked a selection of homemade cakes and biscuits for him. Shiro got him a very nice smelling shower gel and deodorant set. Lance gave him a red jacket with “cool dude” written on it and a soft cat toy. Pidge made a cool red lion helmet that lit up and moved. Allura and Coran gave him a ball of some sorts, a really pretty red one that shone brightly when held....he wasn’t sure what it did or what it even was. It came with a very sweet note though about how both Allura and Coran were very proud with Keith. He smiled warmly. Next was Kolivan and Antok’s present. It was...a little shoddily wrapped up and quite frankly he didn’t expect a gift from them. The gift was covered in what looked like the entire roll of tape. At least it was secure. Eventually, Keith managed to tear through the wrapping paper and was a little shocked at the amount of things they gave him:
A pair of black and purple socks...with two toe holes...and very large. Probably meant for a Galra.
A translucent and plain bottle of green coloured liquid. Intrigued, he took the cap off it and smelled it. It smelled like a mixture of wet grass, vanilla and burnt fries. Perfume? A drink? Something else? He couldn’t tell.
Another plain bottle of liquid but this time it was blue in colour. He did the same and this one smelled like a mixture of glue, orange and tuna. But he still wasn’t able to tell if it was drinkable or not.
A...large blue ball of ‘edible, child safe’...fabric???
And lastly a small poster. Wait. He recognised some of these people on it. It was a poster of the band...Smash Mouth. Oh. Ok. He wheezed a little internally.
Stretching, Keith yawned and looked around at the presents he got. He grinned and was genuinely feeling happy and loved. He didn’t think they cared too much about him as he often came off as uncaring and cold. Smiling, he clutched his chest softly, a little tear falling down his cheek. He was even more surprised the BoM got involved and whilst the gifts Kolivan and Antok gave were...odd, he didn’t care. The thought counted the most. He was thankful he had friends like this. Calling it a night, he cleaned up, changed into his pyjamas and went to sleep, grinning intensely.