Archive of Our Own ^beta

        It started out small. So small, really, that Pidge didn’t notice it until it had escalated quite a bit.

        One of the first times Pidge really thought something was going on was late one night.

        Pidge couldn’t sleep. Well, that was a lie. Truth was, Pidge almost never slept. They would code and work all night, looking for traces of where Matt could be. Sometimes they would find a lead, spend hours researching, only to be led to a dead end.

        They had a massive headache from doing exactly that the night before, and even though they tried to sleep, they couldn't. It was a constant tossing and turning, and the only thing that made them vaguely tired was the light from their computer.

        Even if any sleepiness they felt from the screen was eliminated the second the screen was turned off.

        Pidge rubbed their eyes, glasses moving and falling back into place, albeit crookedly. They had their hair gathered in a ponytail for once, tied up with a scrunchie Lance had gotten at the space mall.

        That had been fun, the next trip to the mall. It consisted of everyone that time, and they had a mini sleepover in the lounge after everyone’s hair had been done.

        Pidge was given pigtails, much to their chagrin. Keith had been given a braid, Allura was given space buns, and Hunk was given two braids. They all agreed they couldn’t do much about Shiro’s hair, and just tied up his white tuft.

        Pidge giggled at the memory, smiling softly as they thought of their team. If nothing else, Pidge was glad that the war had given them a new space family, more people not only to fight with, but to fight for.

         Pidge yawned, ready to go back to their room to try and sleep but eventually work on a project they had saved and stay up until the next morning. That was, until they heard the laugh coming from the kitchen.

        Quietly stepping towards the door, Pidge could barley make out the voices, which were low and quiet. At first, Pidge thought it could be Lance and Hunk. They knew Lance had nightmares occasionally and would go to Hunk for comfort.

        They immediately pushed it away though. It was too quiet for Hunk to be baking comfort food. Pidge would know, they had been there plenty of times.

        Pidge then thought it could be Shiro and Keith. If Pidge suffered from insomnia, Lance had nightmares and ADHD, while Hunk had anxiety, who’s to say nobody else on the ship couldn’t sleep?

        They decided to just open the door and see who it was, too lazy to come up with a plan to casually eavesdrop on whoever was in the kitchen at this ungodly hour. (Other than Pidge, because they had an excuse.)

        When the door slid open, Pidge was surprised at what they saw. If they weren’t so tired (why were they so tired?) they would’ve made a louder noise, maybe one of confusion or a snarky comment.

        As it was, they just stared at Lance and Keith.

        Lance was sitting on the counter, on leg folded under him as the other swung from side to side. He had a bowl of food goo in his lap, shoveling spoonful’s of it into his mouth as he talked. Pidge crinkled their nose.

        Pidge looked back at Keith, who wasn’t in pajamas. He seemed to be in his normal outfit minus the jacket. His hair was in a ponytail, and he was sipping water out of a pouch as he watched Lance talk. Keith put in some input a few times and ran his fingers through his bangs, which were sticking up every which way.

        Pidge cleared their throat and the two boys looked at them.

        Lance sent her a sympathetic grin, and Keith nodded.

        “Couldn’t sleep?” Lance asked when they approached.

        Pidge nodded, immediately going to the fridge to get a water pouch. “Yeah, you?”

        “Nightmares,” Lance said, looking back down at his bowl of goo. Keith and Pidge shared a glance.

        “Like I said,” Keith whispered, “they’re not real.” He put his hand up to place it on Lance’s shoulder but seemed to think better of it.

        Pidge stared at the strange softness in his voice. It wasn’t anything they had ever heard him use before, only when talking to his lion or to himself. Pidge stared at the spot Keith’s hand used to be, so close but so far from that comforting touch Lance probably needed.

        The question was though, did he really want it? Or could Keith just not give it?

        Lance smiled sadly at them both. “Yeah. I know.”

        Pidge slowly closed the fridge, watching the two with interest. Usually, Lance would go to Hunk when he had a nightmare, even if Hunk were asleep.

        It was strange, Pidge thought, that Lance would be talking to Keith about this. His sworn “rival,” enemy in life, competing unless they were fighting back-to-back.

        This, the melancholy they saw right now, was something Pidge only saw on the battlefield, without the cold hard expressions of war. What Pidge saw now was the vulnerability, and as Lance and Keith kept talking in hushed whispers, they took it as their cue to leave.

        They sent one more look behind their shoulder as they sipped the water pouch they had gotten.

        Both of them slightly illuminated by the dim lights, light shining off of Lance’s cheekbones and Keith’s hair. Lance putting a spoonful of goo in his mouth, then continue talking. Keith smiling softly, nodding, water pouch finished.

        And as Pidge left to their room, they couldn’t help but notice they painted a beautiful picture together. On and off the battlefield.

><><><>< 

        The next day was… Normal.

        Scarily normal actually.

        Pidge looked back and forth between Lance and Keith. They were acting the same as before, same snarky comments, same snide remarks, and same dumb competitions.

        Pidge didn’t get it. Last night they had been talking, probably talking about nightmares, which Lance only talked about with Hunk. Pidge knew something had happened, but they didn’t know what.

        Later, though, when Pidge was really looking, they could notice a few things. Like how they stood marginally closer together than usual, and how Lance had put a hand on Keith’s shoulder when teasing, and Keith hadn’t shrugged it off. How their bickering became lighthearted teasing, something more affectionate, and dare Pidge say, fond.

        Something changed the last few days, Pidge knew. The feeling had been there for weeks, Pidge just didn’t know when. Whatever it was, it made their usually exasperating fights become almost funny.

        Pidge stared at Lance and Keith across the dinner table, where they were currently having a goo eating contest and would probably end up starting a food fight.

        Pidge couldn’t wait.

><><><>< 

        The hall was quiet as Lance walked, the only noise the echoing of his sniffles and his footfalls, and maybe the occasional whirring of the castle.

        It had been a bad one tonight. Gruesome and scary and frankly, something Lance didn’t want to dwell on anymore than he had to.

        He knew why the dreams kept happening. They were at war, of course they would happen. It didn’t mean they had to be so fucking vibrant.

        Lance tightened his arms around himself, shaking the thoughts of his nightmare out of his head.

        Water. That’s what he needed. Something to clear his head before heading back to bed. He didn’t need to talk about this one. It wasn’t even one of the worst ones just… Scary.

        Scary in the way he was surrounded. Scary in the way he could hear Keith scream his name. Scary in the way he heard Keith’s screams. Scary in the way Keith had looked at him when Lance finally, finally got to him. Scary in the way Keith smiled, grateful but knowing Lance was too late.

        He was too late.

        Lance picked up the pace to the kitchen, shoving the tears back. He opened the door to the kitchen, then startled when he saw the fridge door was open. A head popped out from the top, and Lance sighed at the irony.

        “Lance?” Keith questioned, closing the fridge door and opening the water pouch he had taken.

        “O—Oh, hey,” Lance said, and it sounded weak and raspy to even himself. He winced.

        Keith raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay?”

        Lance entered the rest of the way to the kitchen, making his way around Keith and to the food goo dispenser. Food goo? Dammit.

        “I’m fine,” Lance answered. “Just getting a late-night snack.” He waved the bowl in his hand for emphasis, then took the hose and filled it.

        Hey, he might as well go all out, right? He needed the distraction.

        Keith raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Lance cursed the fact that he was so easy to read. Or maybe Keith could read him easily? He didn’t know which one was worse.

        “And I’m pilot of the yellow lion,” Keith replied, raising an eyebrow.

        Lance sighed. He didn’t want to deal with anything. He just wanted to go back to bed and forget about his nightmares that starred the very mullet in front of him.

        “Just nightmares,” Lance mumbled, going to push past Keith to get some peace and quiet.

        Keith grabbed his wrist, though, eyebrows furrowed in a way Lance refused to call cute. “Nightmares?” he repeated.

        Lance shrugged, looking away as his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. Who was he to get so worked up over a nightmare? It was just that, a figment of his imagination.

        Keith still hadn’t let go of his wrist.

        “Do you want to… Talk about them?” Keith asked hesitantly.

        Lance blinked at Keith for a moment, studying his face. Was Keith not going to make fun of him? Laugh and say it was dumb? Dismiss it and tell him to go to bed?

        Lance apparently took too long to answer, because Keith backtracked. “I—I mean, only if you’re comfortable. I don’t want to interrupt your sleep—”

        Lance chuckled dryly. “I don’t think I’d be able to sleep anyway.”  

        Keith nodded and opened his mouth to continue. Lance held up his hand, making a signal for Keith to shut up. He looked appalled for a second, head tilted and eyebrows raised.

        “I guess I could talk about it…” Lance muttered, taking his food goo and moving back to the kitchen.

        Keith nodded once as Lance sat on the counter, pulling his leg and food goo up.

        The air was awkward, really, and Lance didn’t know how to start. Keith was looking away, indigo eyes hidden by his bangs. So, he did what he did best, and bull shit his way through it.

        “I guess they started after the battle with Sendak,” he admitted. Keith looked up, shocked that Lance was actually talking to him about it.

        Keith’s surprised look was soon replaced with one of concern. Lance kept going.

        “They weren’t that bad, then. It was more like… Vague dreams that had me scared at night, nothing big. But the more homesick I got I guess they just got worse. I missed my family, I miss my family, and sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever see them again but I tell myself to stop thinking that. But in dreams, in my head, I can’t stop it.” Lance knew he would probably regret telling Keith everything in the morning, but at that moment, all Lance needed was someone to talk to.

        “And recently, they’ve just been so vibrant. I used to go to Hunk when I had nightmares but now he’s super busy, and they are way too frequent and I don’t want to bother Hunk all the time—”

        Lance cut himself off, realizing fresh tears were streaming down his face. Quiznack.

        “Lance…” Keith started, voice uncharacteristically soft. He seemed to reach out his hand, but thought better of it and took his hand away. “I don’t have nightmares, usually because I don’t sleep but… They’re not real. I know you wake up in the middle of the night, and this is probably shit advice, but just… Convince yourself. It was just something your brain came up with, nothing like reality.”

        Keith sighed, running his hand that wasn’t still holding his water pouch through hid hair.

        “I know I’m bad at pep talks but… I tried.” Keith gave an all too endearing shrug at that, smile small but still looking remorseful.

        Lance gave a small smile in return. “Yeah, that makes me feel better, actually.”

        Keith looked relived, and Lance chuckled.

        They moved on from what Lance’s nightmares were, eventually talking about Lance’s family, how Keith didn’t have any family until Shiro basically adopted him, how they both loved stargazing on roofs, and how different the stars were in space.

        Until suddenly Lance heard a throat clear from behind him. He turned and looked just as Keith did and smiled at who he saw. Keith nodded.

        “Couldn’t sleep?”

><><><>< 

        Hunk stared at the ceiling in front of him, thinking about whether or not it would be worth it to get out of bed and get food.

        He had been feeling especially homesick lately, and cooking could only serve as a distraction for long enough before he made too much food. Hunk sighed, removing himself from bed as he searched for a hair tie.

        He usually had his headband, but he was too tired to try and tie that thing right now.

        He groggily opened the door to his room, stepping into the blessedly dim hallway. Hunk had never really been awake at night, too deep asleep to wake up in the middle of the night. The only times he had been awake was when Lance woke him from a nightmare, which was happening less and less frequently. He wondered why.

        Hunk quickly decided he did not like the absolute silence in the castle at night. He made his walk towards the kitchen brisk, his footsteps reverberating along the hallways.

        It sent shivers down Hunk’s spine.

        When he got to the kitchen, he let out a sigh of relief. He wanted to get into the kitchen and eat something.

        That was, until he heard two familiar voices streaming out from the door. Hunk’s hand paused about the control panel, and he quietly opened the door as to not alert the voices he was there.

        He thought it would be them, really, but actually seeing it was completely different than hearing voices.

        There was Lance, flour (or the alien equivalent of it) in his hair and on his cheek, also covering the front of his pajamas. Keith was cackling as Lance tried to shake it out of his hair, complaining about it. Keith just laughed harder.

        Hunk stared on in confusion, but wasn’t very confused when Lance grabbed a handful of flour and threw it down Keith’s shirt, and another handful onto his head.

        “Lance!” he exclaimed in an annoyed voice, but his amusement was poorly disguised. “You’re going to waste the flour.”

        “You didn’t seem very concerned about the flour when you threw it at me!” Lance replied, throwing his arms into the air.

        “It was an accident!” Keith groaned, as if they had already had this conversation a million times in the span of five minutes. Which, knowing those two, they probably did.

        It was silent for a moment as they stared at each other, then burst into laughter.

        Hunk was so confused. What were they doing? If they were trying to bake, why didn’t they get him? And why were they baking in the middle of the night.

        The two didn’t move very gracefully in the kitchen. Lance kept opening the wrong cabinets as Keith mixed whatever batter they were making too hard and got batter everywhere, again.

        Sometimes, Lance would poke the side of Keith’s head to get him to move, and Keith would scrunch up his nose before moving so Lance could add something else to the batter.

        Hunk stared at them fondly, wondering what they were even trying to do? Making a cake in the middle of the night? Hunk didn’t see the point of doing it without him. He happily would’ve come along to help.

        Though, as he looked at them, he was pretty happy he wasn’t awake. They acted like almost different people alone. Yeah, Lance still made teasing remarks, but they had less bite, and in return, Keith’s dry humor showed more and more.

        Eventually, they both put the cake pan into the oven as Hunk stayed hidden in the shadows. He was aware he might have been stalking them a little bit, but it was too cute to mess up.

        Keith pursed his lips as he turned to Lance. “Do you think he’ll like it?”

        Lance paused as he thought about it, and Hunk’s thoughts swirled as he thought who’s he?

        “Even if the cake turns out shitty, I think Hunk will still appreciate the gesture. You know, he needs to be treated sometimes too.”

        Something in Hunk’s brain clicked, and he had to hold back tears. They were making him a cake? Rivals Lance and Keith were working together so they could make Hunk a cake? Hunk would probably cry again when it was given to him.

        Keith sighed as he leaned onto the counter on his elbows. “I just—I feel bad for not noticing his homesickness. Of course I thought he was acting different, but I thought it was just paladin stress, you know? I forget you all have families to actually miss back on Earth.”

        Lance drew his lips into a straight line as he looked at Keith, and Hunk felt like he was intruding on a very private moment, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away. There were probably still tears streaming down his face, and he would blame it on the fact that they were making him (him!) a cake and not that he was still listening to their conversation.

        “I know, Keith. I really wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for him offhandedly mentioning his family. Everything clicked into place then.”

        Hunk remembered that comment, a few days ago. He and Lance had been doing lion repairs, when he said something about how much his mom would’ve loved to be there and look at the lion, too. It must’ve come out sadder than he thought.

        Lance placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder, which seemed to startle him as he whipped his head towards Lance. “And Keith? I know you don’t have a family back on Earth, but you should know, we’re your family. This team is a family. We’ll be here whenever you need us, even if you’re not homesick, or particularly sad. Hell! Come to us when you’re happy, so we can be happy with you.” Lance smiled. “We’re family, you hear me?”

        Hunk could barley process when Keith nodded and jumped at Lance, wrapping his arms around Lance’s neck and seemingly squeezing.

        Lance chuckled, hugging Keith back. Hunk could only see Lance’s face, but he looked so happy, so soft that it made Hunk’s heart melt.

        “Now let’s go, Mullet,” Lance said, pulling away with a wide grin. “We still have a cake to wait for a decorate!”

        It was then, when they were distracted, that Hunk decided to sneak out. He still wanted the cake to be a surprise, after all.

        Hunk fell asleep immediately, covered in the warmth of blankets and his friends love.

><><><>< 

        Keith screamed when he saw the face an inch above his own, blue eyes boring into his as they whispered, “Hey, Mullet!”

        Keith shot up, knocking his forehead against whoever was trying to wake him up at some sort of ungodly hour.

        The person yelped, then exclaimed, “Seriously, Mullet?”

        “Why are you here?” Keith groaned. “I was asleep.” He had probably only been asleep for two hours max, because of training until he dropped but… Details.

        “Ignoring your rude wake up skills,” Lance started, “I need your help with something.”

        Keith raised an incredulous eyebrow, sitting up cross legged. Lance? Asking for help for something? Unheard of, really.

        Lance pointed at him. “I know what you’re thinking. What does the ever so perfect Lance need help with?”

        “Not what I was thinking, but go on.”

        “Well! I want to bake.”

        Silence. Keith stared at Lance to see if he was serious. After staring at Lance’s face a few moments longer than necessary (he would blame tiredness), he determined Lance was completely serious.

        “And you came to me… Why?” Keith inquired slowly, brain still processing. “Why not ask Hunk?”

        Lance sighed dramatically as he grabbed Keith’s wrist and yanked him up off the bed. “Because,” Lance emphasized, “it’s for Hunk.”

        “Oh,” Keith said. “Why?”

        Lance blinked at him for a second before turning to lead Keith out of the room. “He’s been homesick,” Lance said. “I wanted to do something nice for him. But since I don’t know how to bake, I thought it would be wise to have someone make sure I don’t burn the kitchen down.”

        “Oh,” Keith repeated, a feeling of guilt knowing it’s way up his chest. He had noticed Hunk acting a bit strange, but he assumed it was just extra paladin stress. They were having some pretty stressful missions recently.

        Maybe that’s what caused the homesickness for him. Keith looked at Lance, who was still holding his wrist, and wondered how homesick Lance must be.

        “We have arrived!” Lance exclaimed as the kitchen door slid open, letting go of Keith’s wrist to throw his arms wide.

        The first thing Keith saw was the abundance of ingredients sitting on the counter, along with lots of bowls and pans. It didn’t even look like half the stuff they would need for a cake, though.

        “So…” Keith started, trying not to miss the warmth of Lance’s hand, “we just, start baking?”

        Lance walked over to the counter, picking up a piece of paper before he shrugged. “I guess.”

        Keith sighed as he walked over next to Lance, taking the paper that had all the ingredients. He told off the missing ones, and Lance got most but left out a few because they couldn’t find it.

        Who knew Altean kitchens were so complicated?

        “This would go in next, right?” Lance mumbled, holding a cup of a sugar like substance.

        Keith shrugged. “I guess.”

        Lance gave him a glare. Keith just grinned back.

        “Can you get the flour from over there?” Lance asked, looking back to focus on his mix. Keith rolled his eyes a complied.

        Keith walked over to grab the flour, holding it with two hands as he asked, “What flavor even is this ca—”

        Unfortunately, he didn’t get to finish his question, because his brain decided to trip over his own feet as he was walking. Which caused him to squeeze the flour, which made a giant dust cloud.

        Unfortunately, again, Lance had been turning around that second to answer Keith’s question but stopped when he got a face and body full of flour.

        Lance blinked. Keith blinked.

        Then Keith burst into hysterical laughter.

><><><>< 

        The cake, to Hunk’s surprise, actually tasted really good, with vanilla icing and everything.

        “From me and… Keith,” Lance muttered shyly, handing Hunk the cardboard box the cake was stored in.

        Hunk still cried, even though he knew they had made a cake for him.

        Seeing it, being gifted it, was way better than knowing you had a gift in the first place. He wrapped Lance and Keith up in a hug, and they returned it.

        He let them go after they had a slice of cake, telling them it was great and they would be invited to eat with him soon.

        For now, though, Hunk would silently eat his cake in front of the yellow lion, talking about his family as he ate a piece of cake his new family had made for him last night.

><><><>< 

        It was, for all intents and purposes, supposed to be a normal dinner.

        A normal dinner where they sat, talked about what they did that day, talked about what they would do the next day, what planets they needed to visit, and other things the paladins claimed were “boring,” but Shiro found it was quite interesting.

        But it was also interesting when Lance “accidentally” spilled some of his food goo onto Keith’s lap, and when Keith took a handful of food goo, smashed it into Lance’s hair and deadpanned, “Whoops.”

        Lance squawked in mock outrage as Pidge cackled, who then threw more food goo at Lance’s face.

        It escalated quickly.

        So there Shiro was, laughing along with all the other paladins as they were covered in goo, and tried to remember the last time he had so much fun.

        He stared fondly at all his teammates, proud of how far they had all come as a team since their first ever food fight. Really, Shiro shouldn’t be surprised when they happened anymore. Food fights happened at least once a week, and they were a good destress mechanism.

        But days like that? Where everyone is already happy and just having a good time? Those were always Shiro’s favorites.

        “I’m going to get some food goo that we actually eat this time,” Lance said, picking up his plate to head to the kitchen.

        “You were the one who started the whole thing, dumbass,” Keith said rolling his eyes, but stood up with his plate anyway.

        “Yeah, well,” Lance was saying as they walked into the kitchen, and that was all Shiro heard before Hunk and Pidge started talking about technology things, and, were they talking about Shiro’s arm? He didn’t know.

        As Hunk and Pidge were in the middle of explaining what phones on Earth were like, they heard a crash from the kitchen.

        Shiro stood up first, the others quickly following suit.

        He barged into the kitchen, only to see Lance putting Keith in a headlock as he screamed, “You want to repeat that, punk?”

        Shiro was about to reprimand them for getting into a fight right after they had a good team bonding experience, until he got a look at Keith’s face.

        He was grinning, laughing even, eyes crinkled at the corners as he shook his head. “You have a bony ass.”

        Lance yelled in outrage, before Keith turned around and started... Tickling Lance?

        Lance shrieked again as Keith continued to tickled his sides, both of them grinning from ear to ear and breathless with laughter.

        And really, all Shiro could think was huh. Good for them.

><><><>< 

        Allura was bored. Very. Very bored. She never thought she would wish for some action, but there she was, sitting at the observation deck and wishing for something interesting to happen.

        Shiro was at the training deck, Pidge was researching who knew what, Hunk was baking, and Coran was cleaning the pods. She had no idea what Lance and Keith were doing, but she assumed they would both be in their separate rooms.

        She wondered if Keith was reading that Altean novel she had recommended earlier, and if Lance was using a face mask she had given him. She wondered if Shiro was doing the stances she had showed him correctly, and wondered what kind of food Hunk was making. She wondered if Coran needed help with cleaning, and wondered if Pidge was making any progress on finding their brother.

        Allura wondered, wondered, wondered.

        Until she decided to do something. She could do missions, right? Start organizing and prioritizing which planets needed help more, or could wait a bit longer. And also sort through planets they could rest and recharge.

        Even paladins needed days off sometimes, she knew. Off the stuffy ship and out into open air. Allura knew she did.

        Allura decided to take the long way to the bridge, just to look around the castle more. The mice followed her, squeaking along as she walked and talked through the castle.

        She had few memories tied to the castle, but with the paladins filling up the rooms and her heart, it was feeling more and more like home.

        Allura passed through the paladin quarters, expecting to hear nothing but the silent clicks her shoes made and the mice squeaking behind her. What she did not expect, however, was to hear a bought of laughter come from Lance’s room.

        Allura stood there for a second, shock probably evident on her face. She had assumed the paladins were alone, unless Lance was laughing at himself, which she highly doubted.

        Allura pondered for a moment, before walking forward and pressing her hand to the keypad. She grinned. Being a princess had its perks.

        As the door swished open, she realized the laughing hadn’t just been Lance. Keith was there as well.

        They both wore purple face masks, which, Allura knew, were the one’s she had given Lance to try. They were both sitting on Lance’s bed, Lance sitting crisscross as Keith sat in front of him, eyes closed. Belatedly, Allura noticed Lance was braiding Keith’s hair. The two sections of hair looked like French braids, if what Allura remembered was correct.

        Lance was talking, voice loud and boisterous, and Allura had no doubt that if his hands were free, he would be gesturing with his entire body. 

        “And then!” Lance exclaimed. “The jellyfish tried to sting Veronica, but me, being the heroic angel I was—” Keith snorted “—jumped in front of her a saved her from the wrath of the jellyfish.”

        “So you got stung instead?” Keith replied, peeking one eye open to look up at Lance.

        Lance nodded. “Yes, and it hurt like a bitch.”

        Keith laughed, and Allura startled at the sheer… Openness of it. She had never seen Keith laugh that loud, and now that she thought about it, she didn’t think she had seen Keith do more than a small chuckle from time to time.

        She was thankful to Lance, really, for being able to let Keith laugh so openly. Strong bonds between paladins were necessary for Voltron, after all.

        And, Allura pondered as the door silently slid closed, those two had a very strong bond. And really, it would only get stronger.

><><><>< 

        The training bots slashed at Keith, aiming for anywhere they could get their robot swords on.

        Keith dodged every attack, hitting the bots with fervor. Every bot that went down was a small victory for Keith, but they kept coming. He was panting, movements becoming sluggish as he tried to aim for the bots middle.

        The training bot dodged, which Keith should’ve seen coming really, and the flat side of the sword hit Keith’s back as he went careening forward.

        Keith growled as he flipped onto his back last second, parrying the sword that was dropping towards him with his own. He lifted it, sending the training bots sword flying across the room.

        He lifted his feet upwards to kick the bot in the chest, which also made the bot fly across the room, a few feet away from the sword.

        Keith got up and charged towards the bot as it was still down, sinking his bayard in it’s back as the training room program said, “level eight complete” and the bot dissolved into robot dust.

        Keith was panting as he walked over to grab a water pouch, then belatedly realized there was clapping and whistling coming from the entrance of the training room.

        “Woo-hoo, Mullet!” the clapping said, and Keith groaned as he pressed the cold water pouch to his forehead. “Way to show off, eh?”

        “What do you want, Lance?” Keith sighed, turning to see his teammate walking towards him.

        Lance titled his head to the side slightly, an innocent expression on his face. “Can I not just come over to see what my favorite mullet is doing on his day off?”

        Keith shot him a look, and Lance sighed dramatically. “Fine. Everyone else is busy, so I was wondering if you wanted to hang out.”

        Before, Keith would’ve found the request odd. Why would Lance want to hang out with him, of all the people on the castleship? But now, Keith was glad that Lance would willingly spend time with him, even if Lance used the cover up that everyone was already busy. It filled Keith with a warmth he couldn’t explain.

        (He could explain it very well actually. He knew what it was. But he didn’t really want to dwell on it, not now, not with Lance right in front of him as he smiled.)

        Keith crossed his arms. “And who’s to say I’m not busy right now?”

        Lance scoffed. “Please, Keith. You know you’re way too tired to continue fighting at your peak. I saw you with the boy just now, and you usually would not let the bot get the upper hand.”

        Keith sighed, hating that Lance was right and how well he could read him. Lance grinned like he knew he had won, but Keith didn’t want to feed his ego.

        “Let me shower first,” he said, completely failing at not feeding Lance’s ego. But if he got to see Lance light up like that, Keith thought it was worth it.

        As they parted ways, Lance yelled after Keith, “Make sure to wear something comfortable!”

        Keith turned to ask Lance why, but he had already disappeared around the corner.

><><><>< 

        Keith sighed as he walked towards Lance’s room, ruffling his hair. He was wearing his usual black shirt but decided to change into some grey Altean sweatpants that were in his closet. They were softer than anything Keith had ever worn, but maybe that was because he never wore comfortable clothes in the first place.

        Keith knocked on the door to Lance’s room, which slid open immediately to reveal a grinning Lance.

        “Keith!” Lance exclaimed. “Okay okay, get in here,” he continued, grabbing Keith’s arm and dragging him into the room.

        Keith had never been in Lance’s room before, and as he looked around the room, he tried taking in what he could of the room.

        There were various pictures of the team and other things plastered around the room. Selfies with aliens from planets they had saved, selfies with the team, pictures of the castle, landscape pictures of other planets they had visited, and, Keith noted with surprise, even some pictures of himself.

        Lance’s bed was made, and on the nightstand next to it was a framed photo of the team. There was also a collection of something in a small box. It looked like stickers, or maybe pins, and next to that a stand that held rocks. He knew Lance collected trinkets from when they visited planets, but he didn’t know where Lance put them.

        Guess he knew now.

        “—and I guess we could do some face masks afterwards,” Lance was saying, and Keith belatedly started listening to what he was saying.

        “Wait, what are we doing?” Keith asked, bewildered.

        Lance sighed. “Have you been listening to a work I’ve been saying?” Keith shrugged guiltily.

        Lance huffed fondly before he turned to enter the bathroom, then came out with a plethora of bottles, which honestly made Keith feel a littler overwhelmed.

        “We’re not doing all of these,” Lance said, as if he were reading Keith’s mind. “These are just out options.”

        Lance sat down in the middle of the floor, patting the spot next to him for Keith to sit. Keith hesitantly sat down next to Lance, peering at all the different bottles. So, they were having a spa day. Apparently.

        “Why,” Keith sighed, though it sounded more like a statement than a question.

        Lance laughed as he shuffled through the bottles, picking out one.

        “Okay, so the first thing we have to do is cleanse our faces. I’m pretty sure you don’t even know what a cleanser is, since you probably use bar soap to wash your face. And while Altean bar soap is leagues better than what we have on Earth, it still doesn’t compare to this,” Lance rambled, shaking the small bottle pump in his hand for emphasis.

        Keith nodded, even though he could barely comprehend half of what Lance had said. Cleanser? What even was that?

        Lance picked up a small tube of something purple next. “We’ll be doing something simple today, and I really wanted to use this face mask, so we’ll be using this one Allura gave me.” Keith nodded along, staring at the purple goop inside the bottle.

        “Next, we need to moisturize, so we can just use this handy moisturizer I have, and we’ll be all set!” Lance finished, grabbing a half empty bottle of something that was a cloudy color.

        Keith blew out a breath of air, slightly overwhelmed with all the information he had gotten at once. He had barley thought that he was about to have a spa day with Lance, and then he was bombarded with even more information.

        Lance seemed to sense how much information it was at once, because he put his hand on Keith’s shoulder and whispered, “don’t worry, we’ll take it slow.”

        Which absolutely did not send shivers down Keith’s spine, no way.

        Lance patted his shoulder once, oblivious to the turmoil that one comment had on Keith, and got up with the stuff he was using and marched over to the bathroom.

        Keith regulated his breathing, then got up to follow Lance.

        Lance turned on the sink when Keith entered, turning the water to the hot setting to wait for it to actually turn hot. Keith raised his eyebrow at the thing Lance was holding which seemed to be a red headband.

        Lance looked up when Keith entered and grinned, waving him over.

        “If we’re going to be using face masks, we can’t have hair in our face,” Lance said, grabbing Keith’s face and using the headband to push his bangs back. Keith flushed.

        “Is this really necessary?” he mumbled, crossing his arms.

        Lance scoffed. “Of course it’s necessary! You can’t get face mask in your hair.”

        “Of course,” he replied in the most sarcastic voice possible.

        Lance grinned at him, fixing up the headband and getting closer than strictly necessary. “Obviously,” Lance said again, breath fanning over Keith’s face before he pulled away and pumped some cleanser into his hand.

        “Now let’s go, McEmo, time to cleanse!”

        Keith prayed the red in his face wasn’t too noticeable.

><><><>< 

        “Hold still!” Lance exclaimed as Keith squirmed.

        “But it’s cold!” Keith complained, pouting. Lance tried not to think about how adorable that was.

        “Yeah, well, beauty is pain,” Lance said, grinning.

        Keith glared, though Lance could see the faint amusement in his eyes.

        The cleansing had gone well, until Keith decided to splash Lance with water, which started an all-out water fight that soaked their clothes. They were dry now, using Lance’s hair dryer.

        (“Keith what are you doing?”

        “Drying myself?”

        “That’s not what it’s—fine, okay.”)

        “What do these even do again?” Keith asked, scrunching up his nose as Lance finished applying the mask.

        Lance swatted near his face. “Don’t scrunch up your nose, you’ll wrinkle the mask!” No matter how adorable that was. “And these masks unclog your pores and give you skin smooth as a baby’s bottom,” Lance grinned crookedly.

        Keith sighed. “You’re a dumbass.”

        Lance laughed as he started applying his own mask, the mixture cool on his skin. It made him reminiscent of his family, how he used to have spa days with his sisters where they always did masks, and sometimes painted their nails. How they would sit in a line doing each other’s hair, and sometimes his mama joined them.

        “Lance?” Keith asked, and Lance realized he had already finished his mask and zoned out.

        “Oh, sorry,” Lance said, trying to smile but realizing he couldn't with a mask on. He used to laugh with his sisters anyway.

        “Are—are you okay?” Keith asked, and Lance figured that question would’ve been strange just a few weeks ago. When he and Keith were still sort of rivals sort of acquaintances. But now they were closer, they were friends, and Lance felt a surge of warmth when Keith asked the question.

        He smiled sadly, thinking back. “I used to do this with my sister’s all the time. We would sit on our beds, talk about school, romance, shows we watched, all basic teenage stuff, really. We would paint our nails, do our hair, use face masks. If they ever wanted to do my hair, they would only really be able to use pins and stuff, since my hair isn’t very long.” He chuckled. “My mom and niece used to join us sometimes, my brothers too. It was…’” Lance trailed off, not knowing where to go.

        Lance looked back at Keith, who was smiling softly. “That sounds really nice, Lance.”

        Lance was hit with a surge of protectiveness. Keith never really had a loving family, until Shiro came. And then Shiro was basically ripped away from him, and he was left alone. Lance swore, when he got back home (when, not if) he would introduce Keith to his entire, loving family. He hoped they would love Keith just as much as he did.

        “Can I braid your hair?” Lance asked before he thought better of it.

        Keith’s eye widened, before he slowly nodded. Lance grinned, adjusting himself on the bed so Keith could sit in front of him.

        Keith shuffled over, before settling right in front of Lance. Lance reached out, gently running his fingers through Keith’s hair. He could feel more than hear Keith’s sigh as he melted, and Lance almost cooed.

        They sat in silence for a while, Lance running his fingers through the unnaturally soft mullet, then parting it so he could do two separate braids. He wanted to have his hands in Keith’s hair for as long as possible.

        As he detangled the hair on the right side, Keith muttered something.

        “What was that?” Lance asked.

        “Um,” Keith repeated. “Can you—can you talk about your family more?”

        A grin lit up Lance’s face as he thought about all the stories he had about his family. “Of course!” he exclaimed, wrapping his arms around Keith’s waist for a quick hug. Keith stiffened for a moment, then leaned back and seemed to reciprocate.

        Lance didn’t want to let go, but he knew he had to. Running his fingers through Keith’s hair, he started one of his favorite stories.

        “So, we were on the beach right?”

><><><>< 

        “Are we all ready?” Pidge asked, looking around the room to see if their friends were indeed ready for movie night.

        “Lance isn’t here yet,” Hunk stated, and Pidge rolled their eyes.

        “I know that, even though he’s the one to insist we come, he’s always last.”

        “Him or Keith,” Shiro piped up from the couch, where he was reading something on his orange Altean device. Pidge knew not to ask by now.

        Allura was rifling through different movies on Pidge’s computer, fascinated by the array of alien movies Pidge was able to get their hands on. It was a win-win for Pidge really. They got to try their alien translating software (because surprise, not all aliens spoke English as a second language) and everybody else got to enjoy movie night.

        Pidge would be lying if they said they didn’t enjoy movie night either.

        “This one seems interesting,” Allura claimed, clicking on a movie with a strange green alien that had a long body, and one eye poking from the top like a snail. The other alien on the cover was exactly the same, except blue.

        It wasn’t very hard to tell it was a romance, and as Pidge looked at it, they realized it was one of the movies they hadn’t translated.

        “We’d have to have subtitles on for that one,” Pidge said, and Allura pouted.

        “Awe, quiznack.”

        Just then the door opened, and in came Lance, clad in his blue Altean pajamas. Pidge found it strange that he wasn’t wearing his robe, but Pidge shrugged it off.

        “Wassup guys!” Lance proclaimed, settling between Pidge and Allura to get a look at the movies. “Have you chosen a movie yet?”

        Hunk sighed. “Not yet.”

        Lance grinned and nodded as he looked through the movies, humming. “Let’s see…”

        The door to the lounge opened again, and in came Keith. Pidge looked at him and did a double take.

        Because while it was common for everybody to wear their Altean pajamas, color coded of course, Keith usually never wore his. But there he was, red pajamas on and even a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. And was his hair in a ponytail?

        Everybody stared at Keith as he entered, which Keith immediately stiffened at. “Um…”

        “Hey Keith!” The only person seemingly not fazed by Keith wearing his pajamas was Lance, and Keith’s shoulders seemed to lose some of their tension when he realized one person was acting normally.

        “Hey guys,” Keith started, and everyone seemed to snap out of their trance.

        “Hey Keith,” Shiro smiled before returning to his device, and Hunk smiled at him before getting up.

        “I’m going to get more snacks,” he claimed as he walked out the door, waving as he left.

        Keith approached the other three on the floor, which still surprised Pidge. He usually went to sit on the couch and watched whatever the others put on. It really was a day filled with surprises.

        “What do you guys think of this movie?” Lance asked, angling the computer so everyone could see what was on the screen.

        It seemed like a bad racing movie, but with more explosions. The back of the cover was literally an explosion, and the main alien on the cover was grinning with a helmet tucked under one arm as his leg bled. Or maybe his leg was completely gone. Pidge couldn’t tell.

        Pidge shrugged. “Sure, but Hunk is probably going to kill us,” they stated.

        Lance snickered. “Probably. But hey, its action, so whatever.”

        Just as they were putting the move up, Hunk came in with two giant bowls of popcorn (as close to popcorn you could get in space) and multiple cups filled with some sort of light pink liquid.

        “Coran and I had been experimenting with some drink flavors, so I decided to have you guys taste it!” Hunk exclaimed, putting the space popcorn down and setting a cup of the drink in front of every paladin.

        Pidge and Allura wrinkled their noses. “I think I’ll pass,” Pidge said.

        “No offence to my uncle, but if he helped make it…” Allura started.

        Keith shrugged, blanket still wrapped around his shoulders. He looked cozy, Pidge noticed with interest. It had been a while since they had seen Keith so at peace with the other paladins, and maybe it was the first time ever.

        “I’ll try it,” Keith said, picking up the concoction sniffing it.

        “You brave, brave soul,” Lance said, reaching over Pidge to pat Keith’s shoulder.

        Keith shot him a look before taking a sip of the drink, and his eyes widened. Pidge waited for him to spit out the drink, or for his nose to wrinkle in disgust, but Keith just smiled. Honest to quiznack smiled.  

        “It actually tastes pretty good. Like, lemonade mixed with orange juice?”

        Pidge raised an eyebrow at him, then looked towards the others.

        “We might as well try it,” Shiro said, raising his glass. The others followed suit, giggling.

        They tried it at the same time, and Pidge was happily surprised to say it did taste tangy. It reminded them of home, and the lemonade their mom would make during summer, and how her dad would make chocolate chip cookies to go with it even though their mom insisted “chocolate does not go with lemonade!”

        Pidge had enjoyed it anyway. They wouldn’t trade those memories for the universe.

        Pidge smiled gratefully at Hunk. “Thanks, Hunk. It tastes great.”

        Hunk seemed to get the underlying message, because he just smiled and nodded.

        The others were quick to finish their drinks as they got ready for the movie. Hunk was sharing part of the couch with Shiro, while Allura and Pidge decided to sit on the floor. Lance and Keith sat behind them, and, Pidge thought as they looked over, they were sitting pretty close together.

        Pidge used the darkness of the room to hide their smirk.

        The movie started playing, and truthfully, Pidge had no idea what was going on. The whole movie was mostly racing, giant explosions happening every two minutes, which usually resulted in the actor (were they even acting?) climbing out of the car with a missing limb, or sometimes, no head.

        Pidge kind of thought of those creatures as cockroaches. Hunk almost barfed.

        It had Pidge enraptured, really, and the only reason they looked away was when they heard a small thump and squeak from behind them. They turned their head to the side slightly, so it wouldn’t be noticeable that they were looking.

        Keith was asleep, leaning his head onto Lance’s shoulder. What surprised Pidge wasn’t the fact that Keith fell asleep (although they were proud he felt safe enough to fall asleep in front of them), it was the face Lance was making.

        It was open and fond, a small smile on his face as he looked down at the sleeping boy on his shoulder. His eyes were shining, and he looked so soft in that moment Pidge felt as though they were intruding on something.

        But, Pidge thought as Lance’s head fell on top of Keith’s not five minutes later fast asleep, they really shouldn’t have been surprised in the first place.

><><><>< 

        Shiro sighed wearily. The last battle had taken quite a bit out of him, and all he wanted to do was rest.

        But, as black paladin of Voltron, there was only so much down time he could have.

        He held his Altean device as he walked along the long hallways, taking a breather. His feet eventually led him to the training room, but he really did not want to train right now. But from the sounds of it, somebody else was already in there.

        Shiro walked until he found the entrance to the balcony of the training deck. He shrugged. Even if he didn’t want to train, being able to watch someone and (sort of) be in their presence while reading seemed like a good idea.

        Shiro entered the room, wondering who he would see.

        When he peered through the glass window, he definitely expected to see Keith. Who he didn’t expect to see was Lance, fighting side by side with Keith.

        Shiro immediately put his device down, entranced at how they fought.

        They were both in their normal clothing, but each had their bayards. Shiro was impressed by how well they worked together, hitting down bot after bot like they were nothing.

        Lance and Keith were back-to-back now, Lance shooting bots that were farther away as Keith got the closer ones, all of them dissipating into whatever particles they did when defeated.

        Eventually all the bots were defeated, and they both stood there, catching their breaths. Shiro was about to say something over the microphone to congratulate them, but before he did, Keith stood up straight and said something.

        Suddenly, the terrain around the two boys was not that of the training room. He watched as rocky and tree filled land made up the training deck, making it look larger than it actually was. Shiro watched as Lance and Keith smirked at each other, then they nodded and took off in different directions.

        Shiro also noted how the simulation included the paladin armor, and how large the deck looked. Shiro knew this level existed, but he had never tried it out before.

        Shiro tried looking for Lance, but couldn’t spot him anywhere. Keith was hidden slightly, but easier to find. He was crouching behind a bush of some sort, expression serious as he yelled something.

        More training bots appeared, but they seemed different somehow. Their movements looked smoother, weapons sharper. Shiro realized it was probably the simulations doing.

        Shiro was watching Keith so intently that he barley realized when a bright blue shot came from somewhere in the canopy of trees, shooting down at least two bots.

        Keith charged out of the bushes then, attacking the remaining five as Lance shot some more from above, always aiming for the one’s Keith was farthest from. The bots were finished quickly, but Shiro knew it wasn’t the end of training.

        Keith made a vague sign with his hands to somewhere above him, probably signaling to Lance. He had no idea what it meant, but Keith thought Lance seemed to, because he started walking forwards again. The simulation seemed to be molding to the two of them, moving and shaping as they walked.

        A yellow shot came from a tree above Keith, but he dodged it. A blue blast came from the tree right in front, and a training bot fell out of the tree before disintegrating.

        Multiple bots came falling from the trees then, and Keith’s eyes widened in a small panic. Shiro watched him take a deep breath, then yell at Lance for something.

        Multiple blasts came from the foliage, hitting every bot it was aimed at square in the head. Keith sliced through them like butter, eventually activating his Blade of Marmora knife to fight.

        The swords swished through the air as blasts still fell from the sky, and Shiro was entranced at the teamwork.

        Another unexpected surprise was when it started raining. It started as a light drizzle, one it seemed that Keith barley noticed. That was until he slipped in mud and almost got hit by a bots sword.

        Keith gasped, stumbling backwards as Lance shot the bot.

        There was a quick lightning, and Shiro didn’t realize it’s significance until a tree, Lance’s tree, came falling down.

        Keith screamed something Shiro assumed was Lance’s name, and pushed the bot he was fighting away as he stumbled towards the tree. Shiro watched on with interest as the loud thunder accompanied the lightning.

        Lance crawled out of the tree branches, armor scratched but mostly unharmed. Lance and Keith both nodded at each other, then turned back to look  at the approaching bots.

        They did something similar to what they had been before the simulation happened, except they used the terrain to their advantage. Lance stood on the trunk of the tree, kneeling as he aimed for bots farther than Keith. Keith darted around and behind trees, ambushing two or three training bots at a time.

        They both did slightly separate things, things that shouldn’t have melded together but just did, like some sort of puzzle.

        They were both getting closer to each other, until they were back-to-back. The rainfall steadily continued, and everything seemed to pause at that moment. Suddenly it wasn’t Shiro watching two of his teammates and surrogate brothers training, it was just Lance and Keith, back-to-back.

        Then the moment popped as they both ducked at the same time, two different blasts from different bots aiming for both of them, then getting hit instead. Shiro noticed a subtle nod, then Lance stood up, shooting with his bayard.

        Keith stayed on the ground, slashing at anything that got too close. When he was behind Lance, he would stand straighter, but he did most of his fighting from the ground. Which, frankly, was impressive. Shiro had no idea how his little brother did it.

        Suddenly, Lance crouched down, back straight as if he were waiting for something.

        That something happened to be Keith stepping onto his back and jumping up, slashing at more enemies that were farther. When Keith cut down at least five, he tuck and rolled to the side as Lance shot even more.

        It was then Shiro realized this type of synergy didn’t just happen. They had to have practiced a lot to get where they were now. His chest filled with even more pride as he watched them fight, side by side.

        There was another flash of lightning, another tree that started going down. Lance didn’t notice, Shiro realized as Lance aimed his gun at another bot. He was going to get crushed by a tree.

        That was what Shiro thought until Keith tackled him to the side and out of the way of the tree. Keith landed on top of him, until Lance turned then around so he was sitting on Keith’s lap as Keith was still on the ground.

        Lance aimed his bayard towards more bots that were far away, and he got up, offering his hand to Keith.

        They grinned at each other as Keith look Lance’s hand, something shifting between them, as if it was an unspoken secret between them.

        They stood and immediately went back into battle, slicing and shooting and fighting hard.

        There was more rain, more thunder and lightning, but they worked through it.

        Eventually, there was a giant green rectangle in the middle of the sim, proudly displaying the “simulation complete” message.

        Their surroundings literally melted away, starting from the top of the training room to the bottom, until Lance and Keith were no longer wet from rain and they were back in their normal outfits, panting from exhaustion.

        The two boys looked at each other and grinned, until they started laughing. Shiro found himself chuckling along with them.

        They looked so happy, so carefree, Shiro couldn’t help but feel some of that weightlessness transfer to himself.

        Lance, still laughing, wrapped an arm around Keith’s shoulders. Shiro expected for Keith to pull away, complaining about how they had just finished a workout.

        Instead, Keith just leaning into him, resting his head on Lance’s shoulder and grinning. Lance laughed into Keith’s hair, squeezing him tighter. Shiro felt even more pride in that moment.

        Pride in the fact that Lance and Keith got along on and off the battlefield. Pride in the fact that they trained hard together. Pride in the fact that Lance and Keith found each other to lean on in times of war.

        Shiro smiled down at them as he picked up his abandoned Altean device. He would give them more time together, to bask in the fact that they absolutely destroyed that training simulation.

        Shiro walked out of the room, heart light and a giant smile on his face as he walked towards the kitchen for a snack.

><><><>< 

        Lance knocked on Keith’s bedroom door impatiently, waiting for him to hurry up already,

        “I’m coming, I’m coming!” Keith exclaimed, and the door slid open, revealing a very disgruntled Keith. “You’re ten minutes early.”  

        “You were five minutes early last time,” Lance retaliated, smirking at Keith.

        Keith sighed. “Let’s just go,” he muttered, stepping out of his room and next to Lance as they walked to the training deck.

        A while ago, Lance and Keith had developed some sort of system. Twice, sometimes thrice, a week, they would train together. It was an effective and fun way to get them training, and Keith’s goading was always able to make Lance work harder. Not that he would ever admit that.

        “Any plans for today?” Lance asked, sticking his hands into his jean pockets.

        “I was thinking we could start with hand to hand, then move onto the training bots, then try the simulation again?”

        Lance whooped. The simulation they had been trying was difficult, something they hadn’t completed yet. Lance had faith in them, though, and he knew they would be able to face it today.

        Keith smiled at him, and they walked the rest of the way as Lance talked about everything and anything, with Keith adding in input every once in a while.

        They eventually reached the training deck, and Lance slid the door open.

        “After you,” Lance said, bowing dramatically as Keith rolled his eyes. Lance snickered.

        “So, hand to hand?” Lance asked, clapping his hands together.

        The answer he got was a kick to his side, and Lance wheezed as Keith gave him a smug smile.

        “Give a warning next time!” Lance complained.

        “Always keep your guard up,” Keith shrugged, lifting his fists. Lance rolled his eyes as Keith attacked, Lance blocking most of them.

        When they first started their training together, Lance was horrible at hand to hand. He’d get his ass handed to him every time, but he didn’t give up. They kept practicing together, and soon enough, Lance was almost as good as Keith.

        Almost, but not quite.

        Keith landed a kick to Lance’s chest that sent him sprawling. Lance groaned as Keith snickered, then offered him his help. Lance grabbed the hand, as if he were going to use it to lift himself up, then with a strong grip, used his hand to flip Keith over him and onto his back.

        Lance kept his grip on Keith’s wrist as he righted himself and moved to hold both of Keith’s arms down.

        “I kind of fell right into that one, didn’t I?” Keith sighed, and Lance laughed.

        “Kind of. Again!”

        Lance got off Keith, grinning as Keith pulled himself up. They both got into stance and attacked again.

><><><>< 

        Coran walked through the castle, whistling. It was another day just like any other, early in the morning when all the other paladins should have been asleep.

        The castle was on its way to another alien planet, and if Coran had checked correctly, they would be arriving later that quintaint.

        As it was, he decided to do some maintenance on the castle before the others woke up, as he did every day. It was calming, something he did before Altea was destroyed.

        They were bittersweet memories, yes, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed them any less.

        Coran walked towards the kitchen first, washing dishes. He hummed a classic Altean song as he scrubbed the bowls and cups, elbow deep in bubbles.

        He thought about how, if the other paladins were there, they would have started a bubble fight. Lance and Keith especially. Coran chuckled at the thought.

        He washed the counters and considered trying to make some sort of breakfast for the paladins but decided not to, knowing Hunk was usually the one to wake after him (and go to sleep first). Hunk had been trying out new recipes if Coran remembered correctly.

        Coran did his daily chores around the castle, before walking into the medbay to clean the pods.

        He stopped in his tracks, though, when he saw two paladins already there.

        There were two buckets in the middle of the floor, filled to the brim with suds, as Lance and Keith scrubbed the pods. Lance was talking about something, waving one hand around as he used the other to scrub his pod.

        It would seem as if Keith weren’t paying attention to the spiel, unless you saw how he looked at Lance every couple seconds, or cracked a small smile at something the other boy would say.

        Coran felt himself fill up with warmth and pride. A while ago, the paladins would barley want to help clean if they were asked. But now, there they were, talking and cleaning, unaware of Coran’s presence in the room.

        Coran cleared his throat, and Lance whipped around. Probably a bit too fast. His foot caught on the bucket by his feet, tripping him as he spun and spilling the bubbles (and Lance) all over the floor.

Lance groaned, sitting up and shaking his damp hair, droplets of water and bubbles flying every which way. Coran tried to hide his chuckles as Keith full on snorted.

“Good morning boys,” Coran said grinning.

“Good morning Coran,” Lance said sheepishly, trying and failing to stand on the now soapy floor.

“Let me help you up,” Keith said, walking over to him. Coran felt another pang of pride for them, and how far they had come in their relationship. From rivals, to acquaintances, to friends, to, Coran suspected, something more.

As Keith walked over to Lance, he seemed to have mistepped, as he slipped on the bubbly surface as well and fell face first into Lance’s stomach.

 “Dude,” he wheezed, lying on his back and splaying his limbs out. Coran laughed boisterously.

“This is your fault,” Keith mumbled, but made no move to get off of Lance. In fact, he crossed his arms onto Lance’s stomach and rested his head there.

“So, Coran…” Lance started, chuckling nervously.

“Thank you, boys,” Coran interrupts, walking towards them and being careful not to slip. (Unlike the time he got the slipperies. He was off that day, alright?)

He helped them both up, smiling. “Would you boys like to help me finish cleaning?”

        They both nodded, smiling at him, and Coran grinned back.

        A while later, Coran was in the middle of telling a very interesting story about how he defeated ten monobugs, large creatures with tough shells and five pointy fangs.

        “That’s crazy,” Lance whistled. “We don’t have anything like that on Earth, right Keith?”

        Keith seemed more interested in scrubbing the pods than being the conversation, and it seemed Lance had picked up on that. Coran watched with interest as Lance lit up, looking back to Coran.

        “Hey, did I ever tell you the story about how I saved my sister from a vicious sea creature?”

        Keith seemed to perk up, a small smiling lighting up his features immensely. “It was a jellyfish, dimwad,” Keith said, now paying more attention to the conversation.

        Coran considered that Keith had heard the story before and smiled. Of course he would have.

        Lance made an indignant noise. “Excuse me, for a small child, that is a large accomplishment!”

        “It still seems like you’re a small child,” Keith muttered, and Lance made another noise.

        Coran could see the glimmer of happiness in his eyes, though. The way he smiled at Keith was telling enough, and Coran chuckled.

        “I would like to hear the story about the jellyfish,” Coran said, and Lance grinned.

        And as Keith cackled along to the story Lance was telling, Coran considered the fact he was telling it more for Keith’s benefit, and not his own. They had something special, Coran knew. Something that would come out very soon.

><><><>< 

        Simply existing was a tiring ordeal, Keith thought as he and the team trudged through the hallway after a mission.

        It had been a tiring one that day. They had gotten a distress signal from a nearby planet, and per the Voltron code, they had to go save it from the Galra. There had been more ships than they anticipated, and it was difficult. His lion had gotten hit quite a few times, and Keith was still feeling the aftereffects.

        He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face as he reached his room. He really didn’t feel like removing all his armor, so he took the chest plate and arm armor off.

        He left the room and trudged towards the common room, where the group had agreed to meet for the debriefing.

        As he entered the common room, he noticed the other paladins had done the same thing he had. Taken off the chest plate and arms, leaving the rest on.

        Keith looked around the room, where the rest of the paladins were sitting. Hunk was sitting on the right side of the large couch, Lance sitting on the other and leaving a large gap in the middle. Pidge was on the floor in front of said large gap. Shiro was resting on another side. The only person who seemed alert was Allura, her hair up in a bun and a serious expression.

        Upon closer inspection, however, she seemed tired, dark circles under her eyes and a drooping face.

        And maybe Keith did what he did next because he was tired. Maybe he wanted to be closer to someone than next to them on the couch. Maybe he was just a person that was way, way too far gone for Lance.

        Either way, he crawled onto the couch, resting his head on Lance’s shoulder as he folded his legs, placing them on Lance’s lap. Since his tired self was feeling rebellious, he laid his arm around Lance’s waist, and buried his head more into the crook of Lance’s neck.

        Keith was expecting a “what are you doing?” Maybe for Lance to push him off and claim he didn’t want physical affection right now. Or maybe physical affection from Keith.

        But none of that happened. Instead, Lance wrapped his arm around Keith’s shoulder and pulled him closer, burying his face into Keith’s hair. He felt Lance sigh, and some of the tension Keith didn’t even know Lance had faded away.

        Lance wrapped his other arm around Keith as well, and Keith could feel the way Lance smiled into his hair. It wasn’t a grin, or a smirk, or anything other than soft. Keith couldn’t see, but he could definitely feel it.

        Keith smiled back.

        He could vaguely hear Allura’s voice say things about the mission he already knew, things about how everything went down and that, luckily, most the inhabitants of the planet were safe.

        Keith couldn’t help but smile more, turning his head slightly so his cheek rested on Lance’s shoulder instead.

        Freeing the universe was tiring, Keith thought, but most of the time, it was very, very rewarding. He smiled and buried his head in Lance’s shoulder again.

><><><>< 

        “Where is Lance?” Pidge grumbled, crossing their arms as they huffed.

        “Late as usual,” Keith muttered, not looking up from the planet debrief that paladins were given.

        Hunk sighed. He knew Lance was usually late to these sorts of meetings, since he usually slept in late. But come on! Even Hunk was getting a bit impatient.

        Impatient in the anxious sort of way, at least. He just wanted to get it all over with.

        The person who seemed most calm that morning was Keith, which was surprising to say the least. If Hunk were to think od anybody that would be most annoyed that Lance was late, it would be Keith.

        But no, Keith was calmly reading through information about the planet they would be landing on in a few hours, tops.

        Shiro sighed. “Do we start without him and fill him in later?”

        Allura frowned slightly, but nodded, opening up an image of the planet. It was large and bright purple, swirls of blue and orange mixed throughout. It reminded Hunk of Earth’s clouds, so similar yet so different.

It was gorgeous, Hunk thought. Too bad there were probably Galra trying to take it over. That sucked.

“The inhabitants of this planet are small and red,” Allura started explaining, and all paladins nodded along as Allura kept talking about the planet.

Apparently, the Galra had taken over more than half of the planet, and sections they hadn’t taken over were either oceans (toxic to humans and Alteans) or parts of the planet that were protected by rebel groups.

Hunk was glad to hear that they would have at least a bit of backup in saving the planet, and he was determined to help all he could.

Suddenly, the doors to the bridge opened and in came a frazzled looking Lance. His jacket was tied around his waist and his hair was mussed, slightly curly, as if he had forgotten to brush it. He probably had, Hunk assumed, if the way he leaned against the door trying to catch his breath was any indication of how much of a rush he was to get there.

“Lance,” Allura started to reprimand, in a bossy voice that made Hunk flinch, “you’re late.”

“I know,” Lance huffed, his breathing going back to normal. “Sorry, Princess. Did I miss anything?”

“Only the whole meeting,” Pidge snarked, which elicited a groan from the blue paladin.

“Seriously?” He sighed, officially moving into the room.

Hunk nodded sympathetically. “Sorry, bud. I—”

“I can review it with you,” Keith offered, accidentally cutting Hunk off. Hunk raised an eyebrow. “I could always use a refresher.”

Lance perked up, grinning. “That would be great, dude!”

Lance practically skipped over to Keith, and to the shock of probably everyone (not just Hunk right? Everyone else was confused too?) he draped himself over Keith’s back, arms loosely wrapped around Keith’s waist and chin propped on Keith’s shoulder. He was seemingly looking at the orange device in Keith’s hands.

What shocked Hunk (and the rest of the team? Right?) most was that Keith didn’t push him away. In fact, he seemed to slightly lean into Lance, moving the Altean device so Lance could see better.

“Of course,” Keith smirked. “I would always love a chance to prove how much more I know than you.”

Lance made an indignant noise, taking his chin off Keith’s shoulder to glare at him. He kept his arms around Keith’s waist though, which sent alarm bells through Hunk’s head.

“C’mon man, that’s not nice,” Lance pouted, and Keith laughed.

“Just pay attention, Sharpshooter,” Keith said, and was it just Hunk or did that sound very affectionate?

Lance grumbled, placing his chin back onto Keith’s shoulder as Keith started explaining information about the planet, which was probably the third time he would be going over it.

Hunk was only slightly confused as he left the room with the rest of the paladins. He thought about how much time Keith and Lance had spent with each other the past couple weeks, months maybe.

The whole thing seemed natural, Hunk thought as he split from the other paladins to go to the kitchen. The real question was, did Lance and Keith notice?

><><><>< 

        Allura sighed idly as she kicked her feet in the pool, watching as the other paladins played and messed around together.

        The mission earlier that day had been slightly stressful, but it wasn’t as difficult as most missions they had. Allura still thought they needed some time to wind down afterwards, though, so she proposed swimming in the pool.

        Lance was most excited out of most of the paladins, since he was jittery for the entire debriefing before sprinting to his room to change into swim trunks. Hunk and Pidge were not far behind, followed by a leisurely Keith and Shiro.

        Allura had excitedly taken out her swimsuit as well, which she hadn’t used for a long while. She had changed into the pink one piece, which had two holes on each side, then opened up more to make a gorgeous crisscross pattern across her back.

        She remembered when her dad had given it to her as a birthday gift, saying it was something her mother had designed herself. Allura cherished it.

        She looked back at where most of the paladins were swimming in the water. Shiro was sitting on some sort of float, wearing sunglasses (quiznack knows where he got them, although Allura highly suspected Coran gave them to him, as well as the drink he was sipping), Pidge was in Hunk’s shoulders, shouting something or other and pointing at Lance. Lance was laughing, splashing water at the other two. Hunk splashed back, drenching poor Lance once again.

        Allura looked next to her, where Coran was sitting, kicking his feet in the water silently with her. She looked behind her, where Keith was sitting on a chair, reading something, maybe a novel she had recommended to him. Allura found it strange, though, that he wasn’t swimming with the other paladins.

She wasn’t the only one who thought so, apparently, because a voice called out “hey Keith!”

Keith lifted his head at Lance’s voice, cocking his head like a small creature, which Allura thought was adorable.

“Come join us!” Lance yelled, and was met with shouts of agreement from the rest of the paladins.

“Yeah, no, I’m fine here,” Keith said, turning back to his device. Lance made an affronted noise.

“Keith!” he whined, dragging the name out. “You have to!”

Keith sent him a deadpan look.

“You really should at least stick your feet in,” Allura joined, and Keith sent her betrayed look. Allura snickered.

“Yeah Keith!” Pidge piped in from their perch on Hunk’s shoulders. “Join us!”

Shiro raised his glass, tipping his sunglasses down as he looked at Keith. “Join us, Keith.”

Then started an entire chant of “join us! Join us! Join us!” that had Allura laughing so hard she had to clutch her stomach, chanting in between wheezes.

Keith looked slightly overwhelmed, and kept shaking his head, looking back at the device. “No way.”

There was a chorus of aww’s that Keith ignored, but Allura swore she saw the beginnings of a smile at the corner of his lips.

Suddenly, Lance was getting out of the pool, shaking his hair out and placing both hands on his hips.

“Alright,” he said. “You’re making us do it the hard way.”

Keith’s eyes widened as he looked up, panicked.

“Don’t you dare,” Keith threatened, but Lance just sent him a smug grin before lifting him up in a bridal carry.

Keith shrieked, dropping his device as he grappled to get a hold on Lance. His cheeks were flushed, and Allura snickered as she exchanged a look with Coran.

“Lance,” Keith hissed, “put me down!”

Lance just laughed as he carried Keith to the pool, and Keith struggled in his grip.

“Lance, if you don’t put me down right now I swear—”

“Alright, alright,” Lance conceded, smirking. With that, he dropped Keith into the pool.

Keith emerged from the top, gasping for air and glaring at all the laughing paladins. He pouted, which made reminded Allura even more of a small creature, and she laughed even harder.

Eventually, Keith cracked a smile, shaking his head. Allura saw him shoot Lance a fond look, and she smiled even wider than before.

“Out of the way everybody!” Lance screamed, backing away from the edge of the pool. He ran towards the pool, then jumped in yelling “cannon ball!”

The resulting splash drenched everybody, including Allura and Coran. Allura laughed, smiling fondly at all the paladins.

She felt a pat on her shoulder and turned to look at Coran.

“Go join them,” he said, and Allura didn’t need to be told twice as she jumped in a waded towards the other paladins, engaging in a large splash war that had her content for the rest of the night.

><><><>< 

        Pidge sighed as they typed, not understanding anything they were doing. The code was starting to get blurry, and they really didn’t feel too good about what they were doing.

        Running a hand down their face, they sighed. How were they supposed to do anything if they couldn’t focus on what they were supposed to be doing? They needed to figure out the encryption for the paladins next mission.

        “Are you okay Pidge?” Keith asked from the other couch in the lounge, looking up from where he was reading on the Altean device.

        Really, Pidge thought, he and Shiro really were brothers, both reading half the time.

        Pidge sighed. “I’m fine, fine, just…”

        “Frustrated?” Keith supplied, and Pidge made a noise of agreement.

        Pidge kept staring at their computer screen, fingers hovering above the keyboard, occasionally going to type and then coming back up, before the door to the lounge slid open.

        Lance walked in, the hood of his jacket pulled up as he entered. He looked tired, dark circles under his eyes and a small frown, so small Pidge wouldn’t have noticed it if he wasn’t slouching.

        Lance walked past them, going to the couch where Keith was. Pidge made a noise of confusion as Lance brushed by, but was even more confused when Lance plopped down onto Keith, head resting on his chest.

        Keith accommodated accordingly, lifting his device as Lance settled. He eventually stopped shifting, which allowed Keith to put his device back down. What Pidge’s eyes widened at was how Keith thread his fingers through Lance’s hair.

        Lance sighed, then started talking.

        He was talking about everything and nothing. Pidge wasn’t even sure Lance knew they were there, but they didn’t feel like interrupting to tell him so.

        He talked about his family, the beach, how he loved stargazing and constellations, and how much he missed his mama’s homemade garlic knots.

        Keith just hummed, as if he had heard these things a thousand times before. And Pidge realized, not for the first time, he probably had.

        The talking was a good distraction, and Pidge found themself smiling as he spoke. They reluctantly closed their computer, placing it to the side as they listened, leaning back on the couch.

        The ranting wasn’t annoying like Pidge thought it would be. It was relaxing in a way, far off and soft, like something reminiscent. The talking sounded cloudy, and Pidge realized that it was probably because they started drifting off.

        Lifting their head, they looked back at Lance and Keith, still talking. Another cloudy voice joined in, and it took Pidge a moment to realize it was Keith’s voice talking as well.

        Blinking so they could get a clearer view, they saw Keith still running his fingers through Lance’s hair. But Lance was smiling, laughing at whatever he was saying, and Keith seemed to roll his eyes and huff fondly.

        Pidge kept listening, not registering what was happening as they drifted off, slowly, silently, head feelings clearer than it had been in a long while.

><><><>< 

        Later, Pidge didn’t know if it was minutes or hours, they woke up to find a blanket draped across them, as well as one draped across the sleeping forms of Lance and Keith on the opposite couch.

        Pidge smiled, closing their eyes and letting sleep overcome them once more.

><><><>< 

        Allura flicked through all the planets that had been giving distress signals in the past few quintaints. There were so many. Allura sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, something she knew she learned from Shiro.

         There were so many things left to be done. They had missions for information, distress signals, and occasionally, a random battle where Galra ships attacked that left them all sore.

        Allura started wistfully at the stars, wishing she could talk to somebody. Usually she would go to Coran, but all she wanted was someone that would listen, She didn’t want advice. She just wanted to be heard.

        She started out at the abyss of space, not for the first time wondering how much was really out there.

        “Hey, Dad,” she whispered to the window. “What do I do? There’s just so much and… I wish you were here. You or Mom. I miss you both.” Allura sighed.

        “Mom?” she said hesitantly. “I miss you.”

        Allura felt choked, then quickly closed the planets she had been looking at. Her eyes were already watering, and she honestly hadn’t felt very well.

        “Princess?” came a voice from the door, and she looked up to see Shiro entering the room.

        Allura wiped her eyes, sending Shiro a small smile. “Hello. What brings you here?”

        Shiro looked at her skeptically, raising an eyebrow, but shrugged. “You’ve been here a while… I thought you would need a break.”

        Allura smiled but shook her head, opening the distress signals again. No more had popped up, but that didn’t make the amount any less plentiful. She held back a sigh.

        Shiro placed a hand on her shoulder, and sent Allura a small smile. “I think you should take a break. Wouldn’t want to over work yourself, okay?”

        That time Allura did sigh, but closed it again. She hated the way Shiro’s eyes softened, understanding and oh so brotherly. He was, Allura realized, the older brother she had never had. She knew he was an older figure to the other paladins, whether it be a brother or father figure Allura didn’t know.

        She knew how safe he made herself and the other paladins feel, though, and that was the most she could ask for. Walking out of the control room with Shiro, they started wandering the castle.

        “Would you like to talk about anything?” Shiro asked, and Allura looked over.

        “Anything?” she asked, wanting somebody to listen but no knowing if she should dump it all.

        “Anything,” Shiro replied, and Allura broke.

        As they walked, she told him everything on her mind. How she missed her home planet, how she was stressed with everything going on, all the missions and constantly fearing for the paladins, her family’s, lives. She spoke about how she would just love to feel her mothers embrace again, how she just wanted to hold her dads strong and grounding hand again.

        She didn’t even realize she was crying at some point, the tears falling silently as she ranted.

        She ended up talking about more than she thought she would, talking about how much she wished things were different.

        At the end she had to catch her breath, taking large gulps of air.

        “Oh, Allura,” Shiro started, but it didn’t feel as condescending like most adults. It sounded more like understanding.

        “I’m scared, too. And stressed. But you know, we are your family. We will always be here for you, if you ever want to talk about anything. All of us are here for you.”

        Allura sniffed, grinning up at him. “Thank you, Shiro,” she replied, feeling a bit small.

        Shiro nodded as they continued, walking throughout the castle. They talked about a few other things, but stayed in a comfortable silence most of the walk. Allura felt calm, and she hated to admit she definitely needed a break.

        “Allura,” Shiro murmured, “let me show you something.”

        Allura cocked an eyebrow, but Shiro pit his finger to his lips and winked. Allura silently followed him until they reached a door, and when Shiro opened it, it only slid part way open.

        Allura recognized it as one of the observation decks, but what made her raise her eyebrows more was the fact Lance and Keith were there, talking. Their voices weren’t very hushed, but Lance was laughing while Keith looked frustrated.

        “I found them here a while ago,” Shiro whispered, smiling softly. “I think Lance is teaching Keith Spanish.”

        Shiro’s statement was proven correct when Allura heard Lance’s next comment.

        “Okay, okay, repeat after me. Hola, me llamo Keith. ¿Como estas?”

        “Hola,” Keith repeated, and even Allura could tell his pronunciation was horrible, “me llamo Keith.”

        Lance sighed, but he was smiling. “We’ll work on it.”

        Keith huffed. “I still don’t understand why I have to learn basic Spanish.”

        Lance sighed as if they had talked about it before. “Because,” he stressed, “only knowing battle strategies in Spanish is useless. You can’t talk to anybody normally by saying ‘on your six!’”

        Keith crossed his arms, pouting. “You could…”

        “Not the point Keith!”

        They both started laughing, and Allura and Shiro pulled away as the door slid closed. She didn’t know why, but she felt lighter after seeing them talk. Something about it made her feel happy, gave her hope.

        “Yeah,” Shiro smiled as if he could read her mind. “It made me feel happy, too.”

        Allura realized she had been grinning, and nodded. It made her feel happy. Light, less stressed.

        “Thank you, Shiro, really. I needed this,” she said, trying to be as genuine as possible to show her gratefulness.

        “No problem, Allura,” Shiro sent her a warm smile. “We’re family, and we help each other as much as possible.”

        Allura felt herself tearing up for the second time that quintaint, but they were happy tears. She laughed forward, wrapping her arms around Shiro’s waist and squeezing.

        Shiro wrapped his arms around her in return, and they stayed there for a second, Allura sniffling into his shirt. She pulled away, smiling.

        “I’m a bit hungry,” she said. “Do you think Hunk will be in the kitchen?”

        Shiro laughed and smiled. “I think so. Let’s go.”

        Allura skipped towards the kitchen, and had a smile on her face the rest of the day.

><><><>< 

        “We did it!” Lance cheered through Keith’s comms, his face popping up on the screen in front of him. Lance was grinning from ear to ear, small baby hairs surrounding his face since he couldn’t fix it because of the helmet.

        “Yeah, we did,” Keith grinned back, a warm feeling pooling in his gut as Lance laughed.

        Lance looked back at Keith, smile shrinking a bit but not losing any of its glow. It turned softer, more peaceful.

        “I’m going to give you a hug when we land,” Lance stated, his face determined.

        Keith was taken aback, lips parting and then closing again. All that came out was an intelligent “huh?”

        “A hug!” Lance exclaimed.

        Keith stared for a moment longer, then his shocked face turned soft as he looked at Lance. “Not if I hug you first.”

        Lance’s face took on the competitive glint they always did when one of then instigated a challenge. “I’m going to hug you so hard, Mullet.”

        Keith smirked. “Can’t wait, Sharpshooter.”

><><><>< 

        Shiro removed his helmet, shaking his hair out as he sighed happily. They had been randomly ambushed by Galra jets, but Voltron had been energized and ready.

        They fought well, and finished the mission in fifteen minutes. Almost a record.

        The best thing about it was the way Shiro watched Lance and Keith fight together. Even though they fought separately, they worked together, hitting ships that seemed to be aimed at the other, lions flying around each other.

        Speaking of, those two lions seemed to be missing at the moment. The others had already landed, coming out of their lions.

        Eventually, both lions docked. Their mouths opened at the same time, and both Keith and Lance launched out. Shiro was surprised for a second, before seeing that they were running towards each other.

        Shiro watched as Lance lifted Keith by the waist, grinning. Keith held onto Lance’s shoulders, laughing as well. Lance eventually put Keith down, and Shiro watched as they stared at each other a moment.

        Then they both pulled each other close, into a tight hug. Shiro saw their chest plates bang together uncomfortably, but he smiled at his friends anyway.

        They were both still smiling and laughing, and as they both turning to join the rest of the group on their way to the bridge, Lance placed his arm around Keith’s shoulder. Keith leaned into the touch, and Shiro hid his proud smile by walking in front of them.

        And if he didn’t that Keith fell asleep against Lance as they debriefed the short mission, he didn’t mention it.

><><><>< 

        Hunk held a container of cookies, walking through the hallway and towards Lance’s room.

        Lance had asked for Hunk to make butterscotch coffee cookies, or as close as he could make them. Hunk had asked why, but Lance just stuttered and blushed, shrugging and saying he liked the recipe Hunk had made at the Garrison.

        Hunk didn’t ask anymore questions, but he knew well enough what, or who, they were for.

        Hunk chuckled as he walked, turning the corner to knock on the door to Lance’s room.

        There was no answer, and Hunk raised an eyebrow as he knocked again. No answer. Hunk slid the door open, saying, “Lance?”

        The room was empty, and Hunk sighed. Of course Lance wouldn’t be in his room. Now he had to go on a wild goose chase to find his best friend.

        Cookies in hand, Hunk left the room in search of the ever illusive Lance McClain.

><><><>< 

        “Hey, Shiro,” Hunk said, entering the lounge.

        Shiro was the only one there, sitting crisscross on the couch and reading on his device. He looked up, smiling at Hunk.

        “Hey Hunk. Did you need anything?”

        Hunk nodded. “Have you seen Lance?”

        Shiro frowned. “He was in here a while ago, I don’t know what for, though.”

        Hunk sighed, then turned to leave with a quick, “Thanks Shiro,” as the door slid closed.

        The next place he tried was the training room, where he expected to find Keith.

        Keith wasn’t the one who was in there, though. Allura looked over her shoulder and smiled at Hunk, who smiled back.

        “Hey Hunk!” Allura said as she finished pulverizing another bot and walked to drink some water. “What brings you here?”

        Hunk chuckled nervously. “Well, I’m looking for Lance. I thought, if anybody knew where Lance was, it would be Keith, but…”

        Allura hummed, a contemplative look on her face. “I saw Lance come here asking for Keith, but other than that, nothing.”

        Hunk sighed and shrugged. “Thanks, anyway.”

        Allura smiled softly at him. “Don’t worry, Hunk, he’ll show up.”

        Hunk shrugged. Really, he just didn’t want the cookies to get too cold. He knew Lance hated cold cookies, but if he waited any longer, the cookies would be cold. Too bad Hunk couldn’t communicate with Lance to tell him his very important threat.

        Hunk thought about where Lance would be again, and decided that if he couldn’t find Keith, Pidge was his next best bet on where Lance would be. That person was a psychic, Hunk swore.

        He knocked on their door, and heard a strange combination of crashes before the door opened, revealing a lightly disheveled Pidge.

        “Yeah?” they said calmly, despite the mess that Hunk could see behind them.

        “Have you seen Lance?” Hunk asked, lifting the small container of cookies that were definitely getting cold.

        Pidge cocked their head to the side. “With Keith?”

        Hunk huffed, and he would have crossed his arms if he could. “I know that, but I can’t find Keith either.”

        Pidge pursed their lips, then shook their head. “I dunno what to tell you man. I’ve almost cracked this code, though, so…” They motioned their thumb behind them, and Hunk sighed, waving them off.

        Pidge shut the door and Hunk was left to aimlessly wander the castle. At least he had cookies to munch on. If there weren’t any left, it was Lance’s fault he didn’t get the cookies in time.

        As Hunk was passing by a random room, he heard something thud. Hunk startled, dropping the cookie that was currently on its way to his mouth.

        He closed the container, slowly approaching the door. He watched as the door slid open slightly, peeking his head in.

        There were Lance and Keith, kneeling together in the dark expanse of the room. Lance seemed to be whispering something as he held Keith’s hands, slowly moving his thumbs across Keith’s knuckles.

        Hunk gasped as he saw the tear tracks on Keith’s cheeks, and Keith was shaking his head. Lance seemed to move his arm, moving his hand to the back of Keith’s head to drag him forward. Keith buried his head into the crook of Lance’s neck, and Hunk felt like he was intruding something very personal.

        He slowly backed away, closing the door with a soft smile.

        He dropped the cookies off in the kitchen.

><><><>< 

        The team was laughing as Lance talked, waving his spoon around a bit too much.

        “Honestly,” Lance said again, “she was so mean.”

        “Lance,” Keith piped up, “didn’t you tell me that it was seaweed that made you lose the race and not your sisters hand?”

        Lance sputtered, turning red as he whipped around to look at Keith, mouth hanging open as Keith tried to contain his smile.

        “That was confidential!” Lance exclaimed, while Keith and the other paladins started cackling.

        Pidge wiped a tear from their eyes, looking back at Lance and Keith. Really, Pidge thought, anyone could see the way Lance looked at Keith as he laughed.

        “You’re all no fun,” Lance declared, shoving a spoonful of goo into his mouth.

        Allura, the only one who was giggling instead of outright cackling at Lance (seriously, Pidge wondered how she did it) shook her head. “Lance, don’t be dramatic.”

        “Way to take away his most prominent character trait,” Pidge said, which made Lance choke on his food, sending Pidge a scalding look.

        “I’ll have you know!” he exclaimed, waving around another spoonful of goo. That would not end well. “I am not as dramatic as other people here.” He shot a look at Keith.

        Keith raised his eyebrows at Lance, but before they could start smack talking, Shiro interrupted.

        “Lance is right, actually. Keith is a drama queen.”

        “Shiro!” Keith whined, pouting. Oh, now Pidge could see it.

        They started laughing at the look on Keith’s face, and when Keith sent them a glare, it just made them laugh harder.

        Lance pat the top of Keith’s head, a  n obviously fake sympathetic look on his face. “It’s okay Keithy, let it out.”

        Keith glared at Lance, and Lance opened his mouth to keep talking, waving the spoon around.

        Until the food goo flew off the spoon and landed in Pidge’s hair.

        “Seriously?” they growled. They knew that goo was going to fall off, but they didn’t think it would have landed on them.

        “Whoops,” Lance said, not completely sarcastic but not that genuine either.

        Pidge reached for their spoon, ready to fling a spoonful of goo into Lance’s hair, see how he liked it, when Hunk’s voice stopped them.

        “No, no, nope!” he said, grabbing the spoon from their hands. “We have already had three food fight this week, I do not feel like cleaning anymore!”

        Keith seemed to slouch, crossing his arms. “You’re no fun.”

        Hunk sputtered, shaking his head. Then, with a look, he gave Pidge their spoon back, which Pidge happily took. Too bad they couldn’t pellet Lance with goo.

        Tomorrow maybe.

        Conversation seemed to take it’s normal track after that, Pidge telling people how close they were to finding leads on other planets and the Galra, Hunk talking about new recipes he tried in the kitchen, Shiro shrugging and saying he read in the black lion that day.

        What used to surprise Pidge, but really didn’t anymore, was the fact that Lance and Keith seemed to spend more time together. And by more time, they meant basically all the time.

        So, really, it wasn’t a shock to Pidge when most of their stories featured each other. It was something Pidge had come to expect during dinner. And, although Pidge would never mention it, they loved how Lance brought out another side of Keith, not just his broody side. How he was able to actually make Keith snort, or have Keith engage in conversations he otherwise wouldn’t have.

        As Pidge was cackling at something or other Allura had said, which honestly, probably wasn’t supposed to be funny, Pidge dropped their spoon. They sighed at their clumsiness, blaming Lance for it being contagious. They were a scientist; nobody would oppose them.

        Crawling under the table, Pidge retrieved their spoon with a triumphant noise. They sat there for a second, wiping it on their shirt to make sure it wasn’t dirty.

With how pristine the floors always were though, they doubted it was that dirty. Pidge made a mental note to thank Coran for cleaning the castle constantly. Who knew what would happen if he didn’t.

With one more rub, Pidge nodded and started getting up to sit back in their seat and finish their food goo. Something stopped Pidge, though.

They looked back down at the floor and had to stifle a gasp. Those were Lance and Keith’s feet, hooked around each other under the table. Pidge grinned, wishing they had their orange Altean device with them.

They sighed and crawled out from under the table, knowing it would be suspicious if they stayed down there any longer. The only person who sent them a questioning look was Shiro, to which Pidge just raised their spoon. Shiro narrowed his eyes, but seemed to deem the spoon clean enough for Pidge to eat off of.

They didn’t contribute anything else to the conversation, thinking about what they had saw. Maybe, just maybe, Lance and Keith had gotten their shit together and gotten together.

Pidge considered it, and hoped they were right and that Lance and Keith would tell the team soon. Hopefully.

><><><>< 

        They were not together. Don’t ask Pidge how they knew, but they knew. Little clues and hints told them the dumbasses were still pining.

        Pidge sighed. They were always doing that when it came to Lance and Keith, lately.

><><><>< 

        “Shut up,” Keith hissed, not looking back at Lance.

        “That’s so mean, Keith,” Lance said, hiding behind a crate. “I think my commentary is absolutely necessary.”

        “Both of you should shut up,” Pidge muttered, looking above the crate to see if any sentries were around.

        When they spotted that there weren’t any, they ran ahead of Lance and Keith, to the chagrin of both of them.

        They both followed, and Pidge got up a map of the Galran base they were currently infiltrating. It seemed they had a bit to go if they were to get to the control room, and Pidge frowned as they walked.

        “You know, I think this is spooky,” Lance started, and Pidge groaned.

        “Lance, please,” they said, turning a corner. Pidge saw Keith send Lance a look out of the corner of their eye, and Lance got a shit eating smirk.

        “Voy a molestar a ti ahora,” he said, and Pidge groaned. Now was not the time for Lance to annoy them in Spanish. Pidge always regretted not taking Spanish at the Garrison for that reason alone.

        As soon as Pidge opened their mouth to tell Lance to shut up, Keith interrupted.

        “Yo creo que tu estas hablando Español para molestar a Pidge,” Keith replied, one eyebrow raised as Pidge gaped.

        They were in so much shock, apparently, they stopped walking and Lance rammed right into them.

        “Ah!” Lance exclaimed, regaining his balance. Pidge kept staring at them both.

        “What?” Keith asked, raising both eyebrows.

        Pidge blinked before turning around, trying to shake off their shock. Since when had Keith known Spansih? Was he fluent? Lance, Pidge understood, but Keith? They wondered how.

        That would have to be put on the backburner, Pidge thought as they came into the control room. For now, Lance was positioned as a guard for the door, and Keith would stay next to Pidge as they got information.

        Pidge stood in front of the controls, typing as they decoded messages. They ushered to Keith, who put his hand on a sensor. It worked, and Pidge continued typing. Then the downloading started, and Pidge relaxed.

        “Hey, uh, guys?” Lance said from the comms. “There’s a sentry coming, what do I do?”

        “Shoot it!” Keith said, and Pidge rolled their eyes.

        “But we shouldn’t be noticed!” Lance        hissed, and Pidge watched as Keith tried to face palm, but ended up hitting his helmet.

        “Then don’t shoot!”

        “Okay,” Lance said, and there was a silence before a loud pew interrupted it. Pidge sighed.

        “Well,” Lance said as the alarms started going off, “the sentry saw me.”

        “No duh,” Keith sighed, but if Pidge wasn’t mistaken, he sounded a bit fond. Or maybe that was the blaring alarm.

        Pidge looked over at the download. Thirty-two percent complete. They started typing, trying to find a way to hurry it up.

        “Oh no,” Lance mumbled. “I’m gonna need some backup.”

        “I’m coming,” Keith said as his bayard activated, but the door opened and in came Lance, shooting sentries as he walked backwards.

        “No need!” he said, and Pidge could hear his voice normally now, no comms needed.

        Pidge heard the battle start as their teammates fought to protect them, and they pushed away the guilt that came with that thought. They had to get the information, and quick.

        They listened to the background of battle, lasers shooting and metal clanging against metal. They heard the grunts of Keith and Lance, the way they were marginally in pain. They heard sentry after sentry fall, and reveled in the feel of victory.

        Eighty-eight percent now. It wouldn’t take much longer, then they could join the battle and they would be able to leave. So much for stealth missions. They weren’t really team Voltron’s thing, anyway.

        Ninety-five percent. They were almost there. The sounds of battle were dwindling, but Pidge didn’t look away from the controls.

        Ninety-eight. They almost whooped. There was another clang, and then twin sighs of relief. Pidge grinned as they stared. Another victory for Voltron.

        That’s what they thought, really. But the second the loading screen hit ninety-nine, several things happened at once.

        There was a gasp. The sound of a laser gun firing, but not the one Pidge was used to. There was a scream, then the shout of “Lance!”

        Pidge whipped around; the download done as they pocketed it. Pidge scanned the room and saw Keith and Lance on the floor. Lance was sitting up, clutching his side as he coughed. Keith’s eyes were blown wide, and Pidge wasted no time in getting to their side.

        “What happened?” they asked, and Lance looked up to give them a shaky smile.

        “This idiot,” Keith grunted, already trying to help Lance up, “jumped in front of enemy fire.”

        Lance tried to scoff, but it turned into more of a cough as he stood. Keith draped Lance’s arm over his shoulders, eliciting another cough from Lance. The hand covering his wound went up to cover his mouth, and Pidge gasped.

        The guns sentries used were like lasers, and tended to cauterize the wound, if only slightly. But Lance’s was still bleeding, red liquid already forming around it again as he bled.

        “Oh, that looks a little bit bad,” Lance stated, and Keith let out an indescribable noise. Lance’s face was pale, lips drawn as he tried taking a step.

        Pidge went next to him, trying to support the best they could as they started walking towards the green lion. Pidge could vaguely hear Keith saying something to Lance, but they didn’t understand it. It was probably Spanish.

        The group kept walking, Keith trying to keep Lance awake and alert by talking, but eventually it seemed that didn’t cut it.

        “Hey, Keith?”

        “Yeah?”

        “I’m going to pass out.”

        And he did so. Promptly. Right on top of Pidge. They yelped, trying to get a hold on the taller boy, but Keith caught him instead. They exchanged panicked looks, and before Pidge knew it, Keith had lifted Lance bridal style and they were sprinting towards where the green lion was parked.

><><><>< 

        Hunk was worried. And not just for Lance.

He peeked into the medbay, where Keith was still sitting in front of Lance’s pod. He sighed, leaving the room again in search of something to cheer Keith up.

Hunk had heard the events of what happened from Pidge, who told him they thought they had gotten every soldier, but apparently there was one left. It had shot at Keith, but Lance had jumped in the way before it hit him.

Hunk knew the guilt Keith was feeling. Hell, sometime even he felt the guilt of thinking another paladin got hurt because of him. But Hunk knew that whatever was keeping Keith in front of the pod was a little bit more than simple guilt.

He entered the kitchen, where Shiro was sat with Allura and Coran. He perked up as Hunk entered the room. “How is he?”

Hunk shook his head. “He’s still there.” They both knew they weren’t talking about Lance.

“He’s been in front of Lance’s pod for a few hours now,” Allura said, concern lacing her voice. “He missed dinner.”

Hunk sighed. “I know, I’m going to bring him some food goo.”

Shiro smiled at him, soft and tired. “Thanks Hunk.”

“Of course,” Hunk smiled back.

“Be sure he eats it!” Coran called after him, and Hunk chuckled. He always thought he was lucky to be part of such a caring team. He knew the others were too, and he hoped Keith wasn’t too angry right now.

Holding the bowl of goo reminded Hunk of when he had tried finding Lance to give cookies to. He remembered that scene, and it just made Hunk more determined to show Keith how much they all cared.

The doors to the medbay slid open, revealing Keith wearing a green blanket around his shoulders. Pidge must’ve been there recently, Hunk thought, and he smiled.

“Hey buddy,” Hunk said, sitting down next to him.

Keith eyed Hunk for a second, gaze traveling down to the goo then back to Hunk, then back forwards and towards Lance’s still figure.

“You missed dinner,” he continued.

Keith sighed, shoulders losing some tension Hunk had barley realized was there. “I know.”

Hunk nudged the bowl of food goo towards Keith’s lap, and Keith took it. He sent a small smile Hunk’s way before eating.

They sat in silence for a bit, the only noise around them the small beeps of the machinery around them. Keith eventually finished, the bowl clanging onto the floor of the silent room.

Hunk stayed silent. If Keith wanted to talk, he would. If not then that was fine as well. He would still be there.

“I’m just…” Keith started. “I’m cold. Without him.”

Hunk nodded, knowing the light Lance brought to a room. How warm he was when Lance gave hugs. He had a feeling Keith was talking about something else, though.

He nodded. “I know.”

Keith sucked in a breath as Hunk put his arm around Keith’s shoulder, but he immediately melted into the touch.

“I just—why would he do that? Why would he jump in front of the shot? He’s—he’s such a self-sacrificial asshole.”

Hunk chuckled, rubbing circles into Keith’s arm. “Yeah.”

“And I just…” Keith paused, then sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Yeah,” Hunk said again, and that seemed to be enough for Keith to burrow into the blankets even more.

Hunk didn’t pretend he couldn’t hear Keith’s small cries, but he didn’t acknowledge them either. He just held Keith tighter, rubbing circles into the smaller boys back.

Eventually, Keith’s quiet cries led into soft snores, and Hunk picked him up and carried him to his room so he would get a good nights rest. Lance would be up by the next morning, Hunk was sure of it.

><><><>< 

        Coran shot up in bed, cheeks still stained with tears, soaking his mustache and wetting his pillow. He sighed. Crying in his sleep was less common now, than before, but some nights…

        Some nights the dreams would be back, and Coran didn’t know if he was crying tears of sadness or happiness.

        He slowly removed himself from bed, taking off his night hat and placing it on the nightstand. He smiled slightly. Melenor had knitted him that hat. Allura had given it to him, though, and the thought of small Allura sheepishly giving him his gift made him actually smile.

        He opened the door, walking towards where he always did when he had his dream limbo. He remembered whenever he and Lance would be there at the same time, talking about homes that were so similar yet so different. In reality, the way they missed their homes were different, too.

        Lance felt a longing to go home, missing his siblings and imagining what it would be like when he went back. Coran dealt with… Grief, mostly. He hid it though, hiding behind a masks of silly stories and happy adventures that he hoped would help heal the way he hurt when he thought of Altea.

        Lance wasn’t fooled, though. He talked Coran through it, the way Coran had helped him as well. It was an exchange, a give and take the other happily volunteered for. It was one of the reasons Lance was his favorite paladin.

        He was concerned for Lance when he had to be in the healing pod, as were the others. But none, Coran thought, were as worried as Keith. He thought about Lance and Keith, and the thought of them brought a grin to his face.

        Nothing like thinking about your paladins lives to forget about your own nightmares, Coran knew. He smiled. What Lance and Keith had was special, he was sure of it.

        That was Alfor for him, Coran thought wistfully, then banished the thought. He was going to think about his paladins love lives, dammit, not his own.

        He thought of Keith’s concern, the way he looked at Lance. He thought of the way Lance looked at him back, the casual affection they shared and the bickering as a married couple.

        If they didn’t get together soon, Coran thought Pidge was already planning something.

        He shook his head, continuing the way to the observation deck.

        The walk was always refreshing, to say the least. It dried his tears, gave him time to think and calm down. By the time he was at the observation deck, he would always be calm, and ready enough to think about Altea without it being so painful.

        He was getting better. He really, really was.

        As the door to the deck slid open, Coran was met with a sight he didn’t expect to see.

Lance and Keith were sitting in the middle of the floor, and blanket under them as they seemingly stared at the stars. Around them, there were a few other trinkets, such as a picnic basket and pillows.

Coran didn’t know what it was, but everything seemed different. It was something about the air, the way they held themselves, and the way they were both looking at each other like they were their world.

Which, really, was probably accurate.

Coran looked at their hands. They weren’t interlocked, but instead, Keith had Lance’s hand in both his own, playing with Lance’s fingers. Coran watched as Keith leaned forward to put his head on Lance’s shoulder, and Lance used his other hand to run his fingers through Keith’s hair, placing a kiss on top of his head.

Keith looked up slowly, a wide grin on his face. Lance grinned back, then leaned forward to place another kiss on top of Keith’s head.

Coran was grinning now, prepared to walk away. Keith whispered something, and as Lance whispered it back, they both leaned forward as their lips met in the middle.

Coran had a feeling he knew what they said.

><><><>< 

        “I knew you’d be awake,” a familiar voice said, and Keith didn’t need to look to see who it was.

        He slowly looked up anyway, at Lance who was standing in his doorway, wide grin in place. Keith’s heart did a somersault as he looked at him, but he quickly looked back down at his device.

        “What is it, Lance?” Keith asked, pretending to read the words but only listening to what Lance was going to say.

        “I just wanted to spend time with you,” Lance mumbled, and Keith would’ve been inclined to tease him a bit, but the softness in his voice made Keith’s throat close up as he looked at Lance.

        “Oh,” he whispered, hoping he didn’t sound as breathless as he felt. “Okay.”

        Lance grinned, then gestured with his hand for Keith to follow him. His signature grin was back on his face, but the dim lighting of the castle made it appear softer. Or maybe it would’ve been softer anyway.

        Keith got off his bed to follow, and Lance grabbed his wrist and all but dragged him somewhere.

        “Where are we going?” Keith asked, raising an eyebrow even though he knew Lance couldn’t see him. He hoped the sentiment was implied in his tone.

        “It’s a surprise!” Lance sang, moving his hand from Keith’s wrist to Keith’s hand. Their fingers weren’t intertwined, but Keith could feel the blush rising up to his ears.  

        The rest of the walk was spent in a comfortable silence, but Keith figured out exactly where they were going. He had been on the path too many times to count.

        The door to the observation deck came into view, and Lance grinned at Keith. “Now, close your eyes.”

        Keith gave Lance a look, but did as he was told, closing his eyes. Lance’s hands held both of his as he was led forward, tripping over something that didn’t seem like it was supposed to be there.

        “Okay, look down and open.”

        Keith opened his eyes and did as told, then sucked in a breath. It was simple, really, just a blanket settled onto the floor and pillows, a small picnic basket somewhere off to the side.

        Lance smiled at him as he sat, patting the spot next to him. Keith happily took it, and Lance reached over to intertwine their fingers.

        They were both silent for a while, watching the stars. Keith almost expected a cricket to start chirping, how they used to in the desert when everything was quiet and only the stars were visible.

        Lance squeezed Keith’s hand as he sighed, and Keith looked over at Lance. His heart clenched as he saw Lance looking down, guilt etched on his face.

        He opened his mouth to speak, but Lance beat him to it. “I-I’m sorry for scaring you guys,” he started. “I feel bad but, I would do it again if it was for your safety.”

        Keith’s throat went dry. What was Lance talking about?

        “The whole thing put things in perspective for me, kind of. I thought, if I didn’t take risks now, who’s to say I won’t do them before someone takes my life?”

        Keith sucked in a breath, squeezing Lance’s hand. Lance sent him a small smile before looking back at the stars.

        “So, I thought I would take a risk. Because,” Keith interrupted himself with a soft laugh, and he turned to look at Keith, stars reflected in his ocean blue eyes. “Because I love you, and I wanted to tell you before anything happened. Because war is unpredictable and—”

        Lance abruptly stopped, and Keith didn’t know why until he heard sniffling. Oh. His sniffling. Tears ran down his face, and he used the hand that wasn’t holding Lance’s to wipe them.

        “Oh, no no no, don’t cry,” Lance whispered, cupping Keith’s cheeks and wiping away some stray tears. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same, but I just needed you to know—”

        “How could you think for a second,” Keith interrupted, and Lance’s mouth snapped shut, “that I don’t love you back?”

        Lance blinked for a moment, mouth shaped into a perfect ‘o.’

        And Keith knew he was impulsive. It was his thing. So really, it shouldn’t have been a shock when he rushed forward, pressing his lips to Lance’s quickly. The kiss wasn’t much, Keith didn’t even give Lance time to kiss back, but Keith was filled with adrenaline.

        Then Lance smiled, slow and soft and so, so loving, and it made Keith explode with fierce fondness.

        Lance slowly leaned forward, and pressed his lips to Keith’s for a slower, longer kiss. Keith sighed into it, wrapping his arms around Lance’s neck as he cradled Keith’s face.

        They pulled away slightly, before leaning in again, and again, and again, before they were giggling into the kiss so much they had to stop.

        Keith gripped Lance’s hand again, intertwining then detangling their fingers. “I love you, Lance,” he said, squeezing his hand, “but please don’t do what you did yesterday again.”

        Lance smiled wryly, pushing a lock of Keith’s hair behind his ear. “I’m afraid I can’t promise that, cariño,” he said, hand going to cup Keith’s cheek again.

        Keith nuzzled into Lance’s hand as he sighed, smiling back. “I know.”

        “But I’ll try,” Lance said, and Keith looked at him. “I’ll survive, we’ll survive through everything. For Voltron, for us. I’ll try Keith.”

        Keith gripped both of Lance’s hands, feeling fresh tears well up. But they were more happy ones. “I’ll live for you too, Lance. We’ll survive, together.”

        Lance grinned back at him, closing the gap between them once again, and Keith knew he couldn’t be happier.

><><><>< 

        Pidge slowly ate their breakfast, dead on their feet. Or in their chair. Whatever.

        They had tried sleeping, they really did, but the code on their computer needed to be fixed, and Pidge just had to fix it.

        The only person who didn’t look dead on their feet was Keith, who seemed to be smiling more than usual. He wasn’t poking at his goo, just chatting happily with Hunk.

        Pidge smiled a bit. It seemed having Lance out of the pod helped boost his morale, more, at least. They turned back to their food as the door slid open, revealing the last person to join the breakfast table.

        “Good morning!” Lance exclaimed, grinning as he walked towards the table.

        The robotic sound of “good morning” was said around the table, and Pidge almost snickered as Lance scoffed.

        “You could at least be a bit more enthusiastic,” Lance tutted, grabbing a bowl already filled with food goo.

        “Morning, babe,” Lance said again, and Pidge’s head whipped up as they saw Lance press a chaste kiss onto Keith’s lips.

        Keith chuckled, letting out a small but chirpy “morning.”

        “Right in front of my food goo?” they muttered, and the others laughed.

        “Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming from a mile away,” Lance said, gesturing between him and Keith as he shoved a spoon of goo into his mouth.

        Allura grinned. “I’m so happy for you two!” she said as she clapped her hands together.

        “Congrats,” Shiro said, smiling at them both. The sincerity brought blushes to both of their faces, and Pidge wished they could take a photo for blackmail. Knowing Lance though, he would probably want the picture sent to him.

        “Congrats, buddy!” Hunk said, already standing and walking over to their side of the table. Hunk picked them up in a hug, and the other paladins quickly joined.

        Even Pidge got up, snickering and rolling their eyes as they gave congratulations. They wouldn’t really tell anyone, but they were so glad that Lance and Keith found happiness together.

        After the hug, everybody sat down again, and Pidge looked as Lance and Keith bickered, but they were holding hands, so it really took away from the remarks.

        Pidge thought that if soulmates existed, then Lance and Keith were definitely it.