Work Text:
The common room was unusually quiet. Coran hummed to himself. He had been certain that the Princess and the Paladins had been watching a movie just a few doboshes ago –
Ah. He’d been right.
They were all there, five human Paladins and one Altean Princess. The movie was still playing, the castle translating the script’s Altean real-time for the Paladins just as it did the words of the two living Alteans, but the volume was low, and none of the six were watching it.
They were all asleep.
Looking at them, Coran was suddenly reminded that they were all still really just children. Even Allura would still have been under the guidance of her father and many tutors and advisors had things not gone the way they had, and as best he could understand Shiro was the oldest of the Paladins and even he would barely be considered an adult by human standards. The others were even younger.
How did I end up as the only adult, Alfor? Coran thought to himself, creeping over to a cabinet. He was certainly not the most mature Altean around, as his king could have easily attested to. He should not be the only official supervision for a not-quite-mature Princess and a set of half-trained Paladins. They should not be the only thing standing between Zarkon and the universe.
But such was life. Coran smiled sadly, memories and wishes washing through his mind. Nothing could be done about it. They were doing their best. So was he.
Quiet was a rare thing in the castle, despite its size and low occupancy. Half the time, alarms were blaring – either in spontaneous drills or, more frequently now, real emergencies. Even when there weren’t alarms going off, they were so often training, or working, or talking, or arguing. Shouts, laughter, the clanging of metal and beeps of technology – it was uncommon for the space to be quiet. Now, though, seemed to be one of those times.
Coran settled the blankets from the cabinet over the Paladins and Princess. Pidge positively vanished beneath one, already half-smothered beneath Hunk’s arm and Lance’s legs. None of the three even budged at the addition – Hunk and Pidge had been hard at work on something the last few days, and Keith and Lance had been assisting as best they could. He layered a second blanket over the other three, who, although exhausted, reacted slightly more. Allura shifted, Keith rolled over, Shiro half-opened his eyes, but Coran settled them all back with soft touches and quiet murmurs. They needed all the rest they could get. Saving the universe was a big job, but he knew they could do it.
A nap would definitely help, though.