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Keith smiled as he packed his things. He was going to be on the Castle of Lions for a full movement. He was bringing his pack to meet the other Paladins. He knew it was going to be fun to have his pack and the paladins on the same ships. Their personality clashes would be interesting. He smiled as Antok picked up his bag and gently nudged him towards the door.
There was a smile in his voice as he spoke, “Go on, kit. Let’s head out.”
The trip to the castle was one full of amusement for Keith’s pack. Keith was restless and constantly in motion, his excitement keeping him from staying still. They knew he missed the other paladins, and they wanted him to have a good time with them. They quickly arrived at the Castle and were greeted by the paladins. Pidge practically jumped onto Keith as he exited the pod. She immediately began rambling on about her latest project and left the others in the hanger. Once they were far enough away, they looked at each other and smirked.
Keith’s eyes glimmered with a dark kind of mischief that was matched in Pidge’s eyes, “You ready?”
Pidge gave an eager nod, “Yep. I found an extremely dangerous animal that lives on a planet we visited recently and got what it sounds like.”
Keith had a brief moment of contemplation, “Should we get Hunk in on this? He doesn’t deserve to be pranked.”
“True,” Pidge paused for a moment, deep in thought. After a moment, her eyes lit up, and she gave Keith a blinding smile, “I have an idea. I can ask Hunk for help on something in my lab. Take him there, we explain, and lock him in there while making it so that any sounds from outside can’t make it in.”
Keith nodded, “Good idea. Let’s go.”
Within moments, they had Hunk in Pidge’s lab and were explaining the plan.
“So, Keith’s pack keeps on teasing him on how short he is.” Pidge began.
“They also keep saying that, because I’m a kit, I might get bigger, but I’m just so ‘adorably tiny’,” Keith interjected, using finger quotes.
“Yeah, yeah, anyway. We both are the shortest people on the ship and get teased by our height a lot, so we decided to prank everyone to teach them a lesson.” Pidge was practically vibrating in her excitement, “What we are going to do is imitate the sound of a dangerous animal from the planet we were just on and scare them.”
Keith cut in before Pidge got carried away, “But we also decided that you don’t deserve to be scared, so we are locking you in here and cutting off sound from outside other than coms.”
Hunk gave a hesitant nod, “Alright, thanks I guess. Just be careful.”
They nodded and smiled, “Of course. See you in a few doboshes!”
With that, they crawled into the vents to begin their master plan
The team and Keith’s pack sat in the lounge. Kolivan discussed plans with Shiro and Allura while Antok tried to keep up with Ulaz and Coran’s conversation on different medical terms, leaving Thace to listen in on everything. He was the first to hear it. The haunting growl that filled the ship sent shivers down his spine.
“Did you hear that?” His voice shook and he inwardly chastised himself for showing weakness.
“Wha-” Coran began before he was cut off by another growl.
Allura stood up, “What was that?”
Coran’s face was pale as he also stood, “That sounded like an animal from the planet we were just on.”
Shiro glanced at him, “Is it dangerous?”
He was met with a nod and a small, “Highly.”
Lance looked around, “Where is Keith, Pidge, and Hunk?”
Everyone grew silent until Shiro spoke, “I haven’t seen Keith or Hunk since Pidge took them to her lab.”
Kolivan sighed, “I suggest we find this creature fast and grab those three on the way.”
The group separated, and the blades tried using their enhanced hearing to track it down, but they soon discovered that the sound was traveling through the vents and could be originating from anywhere in the castle. Shiro and Lance were heading down parallel hallways on their way to Pidge’s lab. They were the next unfortunate victims. At about halfway down the hallways, they were pounced on and sent tumbling to the floor. Both Paladins let out loud, high pitched, screams that resonated through the castle. When the others arrived, they found the Paladins laying in the hallways, blinking at the ceiling, with nothing in sight. They found themselves shouting themselves as a blanket like material pinned them to the ground.
They were about to panic when they heard voices coming from the vents, “Whoohoo! We did it!”
The voices started talking to each other, “Did you hear Lance’s scream? It was so high pitched!”
“Yeah, did you hear Shiro’s ? I didn’t think his voice could go that high!”
Then, they heard the vent open and the thud of someone dropping to the ground. The group sat up and saw Pidge and Keith. They quickly met up in the lounge after freeing Hunk from Pidge’s lab.
Shiro started the lecture first, “What were you two thinking? We thought you were in danger! That was reckless and comple-”
He was cut off by Pidge, “We were not reckless. The definition of reckless is, in reference to someone or their actions, without thinking or caring about the consequences of an action, but we completely thought this through, and we care about the consequences.”
Lance piped up then, “Then why did you do this?”
He was met with two deadpan stares as they both said, “Revenge.”
Everyone sat back in surprise as Keith spoke, “We are tired of being called short or being teased about our height. We’re smaller than you guys; we get it but that is no reason to constantly point it out.”
Pidge continued for him, “This prank was to teach you a lesson. We are sick and tired of it so give it a rest .”
Everyone sat in silence until Antok pulled Keith into a hug, “I’m sorry, kit. I did not intend to hurt or insult you with my comments. It was inconsiderate of me. Please forgive me.”
Keith hugged him back fiercely, “Of course, Antok. We just wanted to teach you a lesson and get you to listen.”
“How did you make the noise of that creature? It sounded so real,” Coran inquired, curiosity coming to the surface.
Pidge’s eyes brightened, “Well, you see, I found an audio recording of the sound the animal makes, so Keith and I imitated the sound.”
Kolivan sat forward, “Wait, you mimicked it?”
They nodded and Ulaz muttered, “Fascinating.”
Thace shook his head, “Humans are weird.”
Everyone chuckled and a few vargas later, they were all cuddling together, asleep in the lounge.