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By some miracle, they had a free day for once.
The Castle of Lions had landed on an ally planet to rest and restock, and after the intense time they had had recently, even Allura couldn’t protest when Lance and Hunk turned on the puppy dog eyes (“But what is a puppy-dog?”) and begged to go to the seashore for a day. The planet of Merean had beautiful indigo seas with snow-white sand, and the two beach-dweller Paladins had nearly lost it at the sight.
Even Allura wanted to take a break. And so after resupplying and performing enough diplomacy to ensure a continued alliance, the Paladins, Princess, and Mechanic all dropped their work for just one day and went to the beach.
Hunk and Lance, of course, were ecstatic. They had grown up by the sea, and both missed it almost as much as they did their families. This ocean was tinted a little too purple, and not even the purest beach on Earth had sand this white, but the water was warm and the sand was soft, and the two were as happy as a pair of clams, whatever those were.
Keith and Pidge were… not quite clams. More like nervous dreykari. Keith, having grown up in the desert, was very unaccustomed to large quantities of water and did not seem sure whether he should be curious or afraid. Pidge simply did not enjoy the outdoors, especially sand and water that ruined electronics so easily. But the joy of their fellow Paladins was infectious, and soon both were having fun, regardless of the sand and water.
Shiro, too, actually enjoyed himself. The Paladins and Alteans could only recall a handful of times that the Black Paladin really smiled and laughed, truly enjoyed himself the way a person his age should (he really wasn’t that old, despite the leadership and past trauma that weighed heavy on his shoulders and aged his heart).
But for just one day, just a few hours on a beach that was almost-but-not-quite like Earth, he relaxed. He laughed when Lance got sand dumped on his head courtesy of Hunk. He smiled at the sight of Keith hesitantly standing in ankle-deep water, watching the waves wash over his feet with an intensity not usually given to tiny seawater splashes. And later, lying in the sand watching Pidge and Hunk build the universe’s greatest sand castle, he fell asleep.
Allura had never spent much time near the oceans of Altea, but it was clear that Coran had fond memories of the sea, and although it was unfamiliar to her she was content to watch her pseudo-uncle and the Paladins relax and enjoy themselves, something that was far too rare for all of them.
Lance hardly left the water. Hunk and Pidge worked on their sand castle with dedication not often seen outside of cooking or tech tasks. Keith wandered around, standing in the shallows and then moving up and down the beach and back to the sea, apparently intrigued by the concept of sand but with water – similar but very different from the deserts he was so accustomed to. Coran performed some bizarre aquabatics that had Lance almost drowning in his laughter, and then promptly attempting to imitate them. Allura swam until she grew tired, then sat on the beach beside a snoring Shiro, tracing patterns in the star-white sand and watching the others with a smile lightyears more real than the one she had been wearing in the diplomatic meetings earlier that very day.
Later, they would be exhausted. Keith and Pidge would be spectacularly sunburned and even Shiro would have redness dusted around his scar. Lance would have the worst water-up-your-nose he’d ever experienced in his life, and Hunk wouldn’t get the water out of his ear for two days. Allura was going to be combing sand and bits of purple seaweed out of her hair for weeks. Coran’s moustache might never be the same again.
It would be worth every minute.