Chapter Text
Shiro had seen a lot. Aliens were real, the universe was a lot bigger than he could ever have imagined, and he was a warrior against a centuries-old evil empire ruled by large purple cat-lizards.
All of that, and yet this was maybe the most unbelievable thing he’d ever seen.
The other four Paladins of Voltron sat in a line in front of him, staring right back. Except they weren’t quite… themselves. The mission had gone haywire (as it always seemed to do, but maybe Shiro was just bitter) and things had… changed. Just a bit.
Hunk was on one side, holding tightly to Lance’s hand. They both looked almost normal, except that they were each approximately three feet tall with elongated ears and facial markings much like Allura and Coran’s, although Hunk’s were the color of pure gold and Lance’s were gleaming blue. Their eyes glowed a bit too, and their skin was just a little too smooth for a Human, their hair too shiny.
On Lance’s other side was Keith. They all knew Keith had Galra blood, but that plain fact was nothing compared to how he looked now – short, shorter than Hunk but maybe taller than Lance, and bright purple and fuzzy, with big fluffy ears and a sort of crest of fur on his head. The violet eyes were almost the same, but the sclera were now yellow, and they almost glowed.
Pidge, purple too and even smaller, was clinging to a newly-created tail. If Shiro had to guess, he would put her at less than two years old, if she’d been Human. She wasn’t. Even fluffier than Keith with fur a paler shade of purple, her ears and solid-yellow eyes were enormous in her tiny face and she clutched her tail like it was a security blanket, curling and uncurling the toes of her new paw-like feet.
Hunk, Lance, Keith, and Pidge had been turned into children. And to make it even better (worse, really, much worse), they weren’t Human children. Two Altean peeps and two Galra kits sat in a row in front of Shiro, staring at him like he had all the answers to the universe.
“How on Altea did this happen?” Allura murmured from beside Shiro. She sounded just as lost as he felt.
Shiro didn’t know. He had been separated from the others, they had been in a room without him, and something had happened, because when he’d finally arrived it had been to the sight of four very small not-Human children sitting confused on the floor. Somehow, he’d gotten them all into the pod and gotten back without any mishaps, but now they were here and not a single person in the castle knew what had happened or what to do.
“Well,” Coran said, sounding not quite as confident as usual, “we might as well ask the individuals in question. Besides,” he added, a little quieter, “we need to know what they know. What their mindset is, rather. Our Paladins are now very small and totally different species – even if we don’t know how or why that happened, we need to know how they are doing now and what they are thinking and feeling.”
“We need to know what they need,” Shiro said, just as quietly. “Human children are essentially helpless at this age. I don’t know anything about Alteans or Galra, but they seem really young.”
Allura nodded. “And we do not yet know how to fix this. They may be in these forms for a while, we cannot afford to let the Paladins of Voltron become hurt or sick. They need to trust us.”
“Only one way to learn what they know, and what they need,” Coran said, regaining confidence now that he had processed a little bit. “Lance,” he said, and the peep straightened up, ears perked at the attention and eyes wide. “Lance, my boy, how are you?”
“I – um…” Nervous blue eyes glanced over at Hunk, who shrugged helplessly. “I don’t… know?” the newly-changed peep’s voice turned up at the end, almost a squeak. “I… who are you? I like your moustache.”
Coran lit up. “Why, thank you!” He gave him a radiant smile, which fell quickly. “Wait a tick. Do you know any of us, at all?”
“Lance,” Hunk said immediately, pointing at the blue-marked peep.
“Hunk!” Lance exclaimed, doing the same.
“Mreep,” said Pidge, staring somewhere between Shiro’s hair and Coran’s moustache.
“Shi…ro?” Keith said, and Shiro’s heart leapt, but the word was said like a question, without any familiarity. He must have said his own name at some point during the hasty retreat back to the castle.
Shiro’s own brother didn’t know who he was.
Admittedly, Shiro himself would be hard-pressed to identify Keith within the fluffy alien child sitting in front of him. But it was real, and these were his Paladins. Even if they were tiny, and young, and not at all the same species as when they had left the castle this morning.
“What are we going to do?” Allura mumbled, almost to herself. She seemed just as in shock as Shiro felt. “I… I have no idea how to care for peeps, much less kits.”
Shiro didn’t know how to take care of Human children, either. They were out all three ways.
Coran took a deep breath and clapped his hands. Shiro, the two Galra, and all three Alteans turned to him sharply, the Altean and Galra ears at attention from the sound. “I believe that the first order of business should be dinner,” the mechanic said, calm as if four-fifths of Voltron hadn’t just been de-aged and de… specied? Re-specied? Shiro’s head hurt.
Allura looked lost too. “But… aren’t there other things we should be concerned with?” she asked. “Such as returning our Paladins to their correct age and species?”
Her pseudo-uncle smiled. “Of course, Princess,” he agreed amenably, “but for now we have four little ones who are doubtless ready for dinner, and we can’t be having anyone going hungry, now can we?”
All four young stared at him with wide eyes, but despite their fear and anxiety about being in an unfamiliar situation with unfamiliar individuals, they didn’t seem to be afraid. Maybe there was still some familiarity in there somewhere, traces of memories of who they really were.
Not that they could be Paladins right now anyway. That much was obvious. Allura looked over her newly-modified team and sighed. “Alright. Coran, let’s move the castle somewhere farther away and safer; we are in no condition to fight any battles right now. Shiro, we will meet you in the kitchen as soon as we are able, maybe try to feed them while we warp?”
Shiro sighed. He had no experience with kids, but there wasn’t really a choice in this situation. “Got it, Princess.”
He just hoped they hurried.
First things first. The memories of the other Paladins was clearly blurry, and they were all reasonably quite nervous. Shiro knelt down, very aware of just how big he was compared to them, all muscles and shoulders and scars and his dratted arm that hummed just loud enough to be noticeable. He looked like a threat, and they needed to not be afraid of him.
“Hey,” he said gently, looking at each Paladin and hoping that eye contact was not too aggressive in Altean/Galra body language. “I’m Shiro. I know you’re confused and scared, but I promise you can trust me. Allura and Coran, too.”
“Mister Mustache?” Lance asked, head tilted like a bird.
Shiro suppressed a laugh. “Mister Mustache.”
Keith’s ears were twitching nervously. “Where are we?” he blurted, holding tighter to Pidge who made a vague noise through the tailtip still in her mouth.
“This is the Castle of Lions,” Shiro said. He really hoped that Keith remembered him at least a little bit, or that he wasn’t as distrustful as he usually was. Otherwise, this was going to be hard. “We’re in space.”
That did it. Keith’s ears shot up and he sat up so fast that the movement nearly sent Pidge toppling off the bench. “Space?” he asked, with very badly-controlled excitement.
“Space,” Shiro said. “Here, come with me – all of you. We can go see before we get dinner.”
It was a good call. Lance and Hunk went nuts at the observatory window, climbing the weird chairs and side benches and exclaiming over everything, from particularly bright stars to the spinny bits of a telescope Coran had brought out a few cycles ago. Keith just sat down in the middle of the floor and stared, stars reflecting in his new yellowy eyes, ears and crest fully raised with excitement and happiness.
Pidge was less interested, blinking blankly at the window before crinkling her nose and returning to the fun game of biting at Shiro’s fingers – fortunately the metal ones, or Shiro might be significantly less accepting. But she seemed to be enjoying herself and her ears and tail weren’t stiff with stress, so he was counting it as a victory.
They stayed there for a while. Shiro watched the other three as Pidge burbled to herself and chewed on his fingers. Lance and Hunk, much like their normal relationship, were instantly close and one was always following the other as they explored the room and gazed out the window at the stars. Keith was clearly more awkward and nervous, making little effort to interact with them. He sat on his own, watching space drift by.
Eventually Shiro couldn’t take it anymore and went to him, settling down beside his newly-Galra-ified brother. Keith jumped at the arrival, but as soon as Shiro was sitting Pidge abandoned him and crawled over to tumble into Keith’s chest. She meeped and mrowped until he helped her roll over and sit up, then settled down, tugging on her tail and watching the room placidly.
It seemed to work. Keith relaxed, probably more because of the even-smaller-than-he-was kit in his lap than because of Shiro’s presence, but Shiro was willing to take anything at this point. Hunk and Lance were happy, talking over each other and staring out the window between bouts of climbing whatever they could reach. With Pidge close, Keith had settled down, and now looked much calmer, content to look at the stars while his kin-sister played with her own tail-fluff. The entire situation was beyond weird, but Shiro felt himself relax slightly for the first time since walking into that room and finding his Paladins changed.
No matter how interesting the space-window was, however, they were still kids and lunch had been a long time ago. Hunk’s stomach growled loud enough to startle everyone, but before Lance could laugh at him his own did the same. Keith’s ears twitched, glancing down and then back at Shiro. Maybe Galra didn’t get grumbly tummies, but he was obviously hungry too.
“Okay, come on,” Shiro sighed. “Let’s go to the kitchen and see what we can find.”
By the time Allura and Coran made it to the kitchen, having transported the Castle of Lions to a relatively empty stretch of space unlikely to be noticed by any Galra, the place looked like a pack of yelmores had stampeded through it.
Lance was dancing on the counter, a bowl of food goo half-forgotten in one hand and Hunk grabbing at his ankles. The (former?) Yellow Paladin was probably trying to get his friend to come down before he hurt himself, but more likely was going to trip him and send him crashing to the ground. Keith was fighting with Shiro for… some reason, but there seemed to be claws involved. Pidge was nowhere to be seen. There was food goo everywhere.
Shiro looked immensely relieved at the sight of the two adult Alteans. “Thank god you’re here, I –”
Whatever he had been intending to say was cut off by Keith letting out a particularly loud screech and swiping at him again, catching new little claw-nails in Shiro’s shirt. Lance slipped a little and dropped his bowl of goo, which narrowly missed Hunk’s head. A suspicious clunk sound came from one of the cabinets. Goo dripped slowly from where a blob had stuck to the ceiling, dropping to splat onto the floor.
Wide-eyed, Allura stood there like a gylup, staring at the disaster that was the food preparation area. Coran, however (thank the stars for Coran), leapt into action.
“What an adventure you all are having here,” the mechanic said pleasantly, as if he had simply walked into an animated discussion or a lively game instead of chaos incarnate. Smoothly he swept Lance off the counter and deposited the peep safely on the floor beside Hunk, who wrapped his arms around him in relief. Another few steps and he had lifted Keith out of Shiro’s arms – and more importantly, removed a very scratched-up Shiro from the reach of Keith’s little claws – and set the kit to sit on the counter, handing him a bowl of goo. “Why don’t we just eat in here, rather than bothering with all the nonsense required for dining at a table. And cutlery is so very overrated, I agree,” he added, stretching up and just managing to reach the top of the cabinets where a tiny purple Pidge had somehow made her way, curled around her own bowl of goo which she was daintily eating with her bare hands.
Coran turned around, Pidge in one arm and the food goo in the other, only to see Allura and Shiro staring at him, mouths open and eyes wide. “I – how –” Shiro stammered, and Allura seemed just as lost.
“Erm,” said the advisor. “I’m afraid I know little more about children than you do. There were never many peeps in the castle, and even fewer kits – back before the war.” He shrugged. “I’m only really good at managing adults, which these little ones certainly are not. But not to worry! This can be a learning experience, and we will all be highly skilled at childcare by the end of it!”
Even with Coran’s enthusiasm and best attempts at baby-wrangling, dinner was more than a little hectic. Hunk and Lance seemed to have taken it upon themselves to completely dismantle their food and were playing with their goo much more than eating it. Keith kept trying to escape to who knew where. Pidge quickly lost interest in her dinner and began to fuss, squeaking and mewling since she was now apparently too young for Human (Galra?) words.
At last the adults gave it up. “Why don’t you two take everyone up and try to figure out the sleeping situation?” Coran suggested, rescuing Lance’s cup from toppling off the counter. “I recommend making one bed up for all four, they may feel safer together. Hopefully by then they will have settled.” He caught Keith as the kit made another break for it, placing him back in his spot. “In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do about this place. I’m suspecting it’s time to get out the old cleaning bots once again, and see if they’re still any good at removing food goo from odd surfaces.”
Allura sighed, giving up her attempts to settle Pidge. “I believe we could all use the rest. The sooner everyone is in bed and asleep, the better. Tomorrow, we can begin searching for a solution to all this.”
They could only hope there was one.
It had been a very long day, and Shiro was exhausted. The mission had been hard enough before it turned his entire team into children and altered their species to boot – those had just been icing on the crummy cake. Shiro was so tired, physically and mentally, that he thought he might actually sleep tonight, for once.
It was not to be. Just a few minutes after Shiro had laid down, a tentative tapping came from the door.
Should have expected this, Shiro thought to himself ruefully as he gazed down at the four. Lance seemed to be leading the pack, holding tightly on to Hunk, who looked like he was regretting knocking on the big scary Human’s door. Beside them Keith was holding Pidge – although clearly he didn’t know how, and she had slipped a little, and now he looked like a little kid trying to hold a cat, arms wrapped tightly just under Pidge’s arms as she hung like a sack of potatoes from his grip.
“S-Shiro?” Hunk was the one hiding, but Lance was looking a little uncertain now. “I – we – it was dark, and we couldn’t sleep, and Pidge wouldn’t stop… clicking? And Hunk –”
“Not me,” Hunk hissed, looking half-embarrassed and half-nervous, “this was your idea!”
“– we wanted to come find you, and –”
Shiro sighed, and they all cowered back a little. He hurried to reassure them. “I’m not mad,” he said, crouching down to meet Lance, then Hunk, then Keith’s eyes. “I should have guessed that it would be scary to sleep all on your own in this great big castle.”
Hunk’s eyes glimmered in the darkness, but his new cheek markings positively glowed. “Can we…”
“Yes.” If tiny Altean Hunk was anything like big Human Hunk, he would never quite be able to ask, to intrude on the space of another. “Of course, you can all come sleep with me.”
Maybe this was a bad idea. Shiro was prone to sleeplessness and restlessness and terrible violent nightmares, but right now he was exhausted, and although he’d been trying to repress it all day, there was a part of him that desperately needed to reassure itself that his team was alright.
The bed wasn’t made for five, but four of the five were pretty small now so they would make it work. Shiro rescued Pidge from Keith’s well-meaning but inexpert grip so that the bigger kit could go dig more blankets out of the cabinet. Hunk immediately started building some sort of nest, commandeering Lance to help him, and Shiro just stood there, watching his team industriously construct a den out of a mountain of blankets as Pidge sucked on her tail and watched him with wide pupil-less yellow eyes.
Eventually the peeps and Keith seemed to be satisfied with the blankets’ arrangement and turned to him. “Bedtime,” said Hunk happily. Shiro couldn’t agree more.
Lance was first in, tugging Shiro after him. The team’s sole remaining Human lay carefully on his back, the even-tinier-than-usual Pidge curled on his chest, as Hunk pressed against his other side and Keith took the edge. The kit had obviously struggled with the want to sleep beside Shiro and Pidge – guardian and tinykit – and the need to be on the outer side to get away or protect the others, as needed. The protective urge won out over personal comfort, and Keith lay carefully on the side of the bed, his eyes glowing like Hunk and Lance’s cheek marks, shining in the dark.
Lance was already asleep, and Hunk pressed close to Shiro, already drifting. A sound like a soft trill emerging from his throat. Shiro would have to ask Coran, but it sounded happy. Pidge was a nearly-spherical ball of dark purple fuzz curled on Shiro’s chest, completely out. Even Keith’s gleaming eye-blinks were slowing as he dozed off.
This was, technically, an emergency. Four-fifths of Team Voltron was down. This would have to be fixed, and fast. Until Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge were back to their original ages and species, the castleship was all but helpless. But Shiro was tired, and the bed was warm, and for the first time in a long time, he felt safe as he drifted into sleep.