Chapter Text
Keith had never been a big fan of Christmas. With how often he jumped from foster home to foster home, he was never anywhere long enough for anyone to want to get him anything. So Christmas was just another ordinary day for him.
Unfortunately for him, not everyone shared the feeling.
Everyone in the castle was woken up by the loud sound of Lance running down the halls singing anything from The First Noel to Santa Baby. Right now, he was belting Jingle Bells at the top of his lungs. Keith groaned and pulled his pillow over his head in an effort to mute Lance's singing. It didn't work. In fact, it seemed it got louder. It was at that moment that Lance burst into his room.
"Keith, buddy, wake up man!" He bounded over to the side of the bed where Keith was sliding as far away from him as possible without falling off. "You know why?" All he got in response was a groan. "Because...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas~everywhere you go~take a look at the five-and-ten~glistening once again~with candy canes and silver lanes that gl—" He was cut off by a pillow to the face. Keith was throwing his sheets over his head and curling up like an armadillo. "Geez sorry for trying to bring some Christmas spirit." Keith almost felt bad until he heard Lance start singing a new song as he walked out of the room. "Have yourself a merry little Christmas~..."
Keith rolled his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Tried. But Lance had permanently woken him up. Groaning, he slowly got out of his cocoon. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he noticed something on his desk. He walked over, sheets wrapped around his body, still grumpy from being woken up the way he was. A candy cane. Lance must've left it when he came in. He shook his head, but there was a small smile on my face. He had to get ready though, as his stomach reminded him at that moment, growling loudly in the silence of the room. He dropped the candy cane in favor of washing his face.
He didn't know where Lance could have possibly gotten a candy cane all the way out here in space, but he had learned a while back not to underestimate how far Lance would go for something he liked. Halloween had been, well, interesting to say the least. He was about to walk out of his room, but he stopped. Reaching over, he grabbed the candy cane before walking out.
Pidge greeted him as he walked into the kitchen. He took his candy cane out of his mouth to say hi, but before he could he was interrupted.
"Jesus Keith, why is your candy cane sharp?" Lance was looking at him in disbelief.
Keith didn't miss a beat. "To stab you. Festively."
"Ha ha yes very funny." He rolled his eyes before going back to whatever he was talking about with Coran.
He took his usual seat next to Lance and started eating his food goo in silence. That is, until Lance started singing again. The red paladin looked up to see Lance had left his seat and was now singing to Allura.
"I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true oh
All I want for Christmas is you~"
He was about to continue, but at that moment, Allura said something that completely silenced him.
"What's Christmas?"
Lance looked like someone had just slapped him in the face, and they might as well have because that's how offended he was.
"You don't know what Christmas is?! How do you not know what Christmas is?! It's the most wonderful time of the year!"
"You can't be that surprised," Hunk piped up. "I'm pretty sure Christmas is strictly an Earth thing."
"Still!"
Lance threw his hands up in the air before walking over to Pidge. They seemed to be discussing the best Christmas tree decorations.
"Um so what is this 'Christmas' he was going on about?"
"Oh sorry Princess." Hunk turned in his chair to address her. "Christmas is this holiday we have on Earth. People get a big tree and decorate it with lights and ornaments and tinsel and put a big star on top. Everyone gets each other presents and they wrap them and put them under the tree."
Hunk was about to continue, but Lance yelled out, "You don't even know about Santa!" before collapsing in Pidge's arms rather dramatically.
Of course this only brought more questions. "What is Santa?" Allura looked almost scared to know the answer with how strongly Lance obviously felt about it.
"Santa is this made up—"
"Allegedly!" Lance supplied.
"—person that parents tell their kids about. He wears a big red coat and has a white beard. He lives in the North Pole and he has all these worker elves that make toys for the kids. He keeps a list of all the children, whether their naughty or nice. If you're nice, he brings you presents and if you're naughty you get a lump of coal. It's basically just a scare tactic adults made up so that kids would behave. Some kids still didn't behave." Hunk pointedly looked back at Lance who scowled at him. "Anyway, he would come to your house the night before Christmas, come down your chimney, leave your presents, and eat the cookies and milk you're supposed to leave him. I don't know, my parents never really let me believe in Santa."
"They robbed you of your childhood!"
The yellow paladin rolled his eyes at Lance's comment. At this moment, Pidge slid a paper over to Hunk.
"Oh this is what he supposedly looks like." Pidge had drawn a picture of Santa. Allura (and Coran who had come over to hear more about Earth things) stared at the paper before Allura spoke up.
"So...he's a fat man who breaks into your house and leaves you gifts...and people are okay with that?"
At that, Hunk laughed. "Yeah I guess if you word it like that, it's really weird."
Coran and Allura are just looking at each other really confused and a bit terrified at the idea of Santa.
"Anyway..." Allura started, "everyone, we're going to be stopping at a nearby planet today to do some shopping. We'll stay for a few tecks."
"Ooo! That's perfect!" Lance was now standing looking very excited. "Everyone, buy presents while we're there. Christmas!"
"Okay Lance, we'll keep that in mind," Shiro said, effectively silencing Lance who had sat down but still looked excited. "Make sure you get everything you need, we don't know how long it'll be before we go shopping again. Dismissed."
Everyone got up to go their separate ways: Allura went to tell her father about Christmas, Coran went to the bridge, Pidge went to her lion's hangar, Hunk was grabbing another bowl of food goo, Lance was going to the observation desk, and Keith was heading to training deck.
He could hear Lance speaking animatedly about egg nog behind him as he made his way to the lift.