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A painful silence took over the bridge of the Atlas as they all watched the five lions shoot to the sky, carrying the unknown robeast with them. A brilliant light exploded off the Earth. And then there was relief, tears of joy and victorious cheers as they had won the final battle of the day.

Five streaks of color painted the sky like a single firework.

It took a few moments for all of them to realize what was happening.

The lions were falling .

Shiro urgently tried to contact the paladins. “Keith?! ...Keith! ...Lance! ...Allura, Hunk, Pidge! Anyone! ...Keith!”

The lions continued to fall.

“…no…” Shiro whispered helplessly.  

Veronica clenched her fists, her eyes locked onto the red lion. Her brother wasn’t responding. Lance wasn’t responding. A bitter part of her was angry because they just got him back, damn it . Another part of her was begging that Lance was fine. The rational part of her snapped her attention to her console. Lance was not gone.

Not yet. Veronica made herself believe that statement.

With renowned determination, her numb fingers began tapping on the console to scan all of the lions. “Calculating trajectory and estimation of where the lions will land, captain!”

The strength in her voice lit a fire in those that heard her. They all shared her earlier sentiment.

Not yet.

The paladins of Voltron were still alive. And they were going to do everything they could to ensure it.

After a few minutes, Veronica announced, “Trajectory confirmed!”

Coran quickly changed the main screen to show the results of the estimated landing spots. He turned to Shiro with a solemn look. “They’ll reach the ground in 5 doboshes, captain.”

Sam confirmed the ship’s status from engineering. “We’ll be online in roughly 5 minutes as well.”

Shiro examined the screen. Out of all the lions, only the blue lion was going to land in the ocean. Assuming the lions were out of power, they’d have to prioritize getting to Allura first. But they couldn’t keep the other four waiting either. Who knew what injuries the five paladins could be sustaining? Aside from the black lion that was estimated to land near the Garrison base, the other lions were too spread apart and rescuing the lions one by one could potentially endanger the paladins’ lives.

The captain of the Atlas leaned forward and addressed the Atlas crew. “We need a way to get to all of them at once and provide any medical assistance to the paladins if necessary. Time is of the essence right now. The blue lion is heading to the ocean. And only the Atlas can retrieve it. The other four…,” Shiro trailed with a frown.

Suddenly, James voice spoke through the comms, “MFE squadron ready to deploy any time, captain. We can get them out of the lions and back to the garrison in no time.”

Iverson frowned at Shiro. “Those things aren’t meant to transport injured passengers.”

“Commander Holt,” James addressed formally.

Sam answered from his station. “Yes, cadet?”

“Those maglev rescue pods you built. Can they be attached to the MFE’s?”

“Oh! Yes, of course! I’ll arrange for them to be attached right now!”

They all heard as Sam ordered a few engineers to transport the rescue pods to the MFE hangar. It was built to enable the MFE’s to participate in rescue missions and transportations. Due to its advanced magnetic levitation technology, attaching the pods to the MFE’s took no longer than a minute.

“Pods attached, captain!” Sam happily reported.

The captain of the Atlas smiled. “Duly noted.”

The screen made a beeping sound just as Coran notified them of the recent update. “The lions have landed, captain!”

Shiro spoke over the comms, “The Atlas will be making its course to the blue lion. MFE squadron, prepare for a rescue mission. I’m assigning you a lion each. Coran will send you their locations. Get to them, get the paladins out and report to the Garrison infirmary.” He then turned to Iverson. “Notify the hospital to prep for anything and everything.”

There were various responses of acknowledgement before James’ voice came through the comms again. “Captain Shirogane, I’ll escort you to the black lion.”

“…what?”

The formality was dropped as James continued. “You know as well as I do that the Atlas can retrieve the blue lion without you and-“ his tone softened, “-I’m sure you’re worried about cadet Keith.”

Yes, Shiro was going out of his mind with how worried he was, especially of Keith. But he couldn’t just leave the Atlas could he? Shiro looked up from his console. His crew weren’t smiling but they showed understanding in their eyes. Iverson gave him a single nod, an approval Shiro didn’t know he needed until he had it.

More voices spoke over the comms.

Nadia came through first. “Veronica, you coming? I’m heading out to the red lion right now.”

Veronica instantly directed her hopeful gaze to her captain.

And then Ina’s voice spoke, “Commander Holt. I believe it would be beneficial to you if you would follow me to retrieve your daughter from the green lion.”

Sam Holt could only respond in half-formed words of surprise from the unexpected offer.

Finally, James cut in again for confirmation. “Captain Shirogane?”

Shiro’s face hardened with his resolve to see Keith as soon as possible. And he knew Veronica and Sam felt the same way about Lance and Pidge. He turned to Coran first, fully knowing that Coran was dying to check on the princess. “Coran, take the Atlas with Iverson and chart the course to get to Allura. I’ll meet you at the Garrison infirmary. We’ll get the other lions into the Atlas after we’ve made sure all the paladins are safe.” Then, he announced over the comms, “Veronica, Sam and I will meet you in the MFE hangar, cadets.”

There had never been a more enthusiastic chorus of “Yes, captain!”

Shiro took his place in the spacious rescue pod to ensure everything was accounted for. He admired the versatile stretchers that could be folded and carried into any situation, the medical supplies for immediate treatment and the food rations already pre-packed in the pod. Sam had built it large enough to house at least five people comfortably and could hold quite a heavy load without holding down the MFE fighter jets due to its advanced maglev technology.

“Strap in, captain, we’re taking off,” James spoke from the cockpit.

Shiro did as he was told and teasingly reminded, “I’m not the captain here, cadet. You can call me Shiro.” He could practically hear James’ hesitation to do so in the silence that stretched as the fighter jet revved up. Shiro chuckled. “Hard to do, huh?”

In a momentary lapse in character, James almost shouted, “It’s so inappropriate!” Finally, James relented and sighed. “You can call me James, then.”

While waiting for the hangar door had to be opened manually because the systems were still offline, Shiro asked, “How’d you know I wanted to go to the black lion?”

He heard James scoff. “With all due respect sir-“

Well , Shiro thought. At least it wasn’t ‘captain’ .

“-everyone mourned for your death after the Kerberos mission failed. Except one. And I’m sure you know who.”

Shiro did know who.

“He kept fighting Commander Iverson ‘til he finally got kicked out. I…” James sighed. “I didn’t understand at the time, why he threw away the opportunity you gave him. But then I realized, why would he stay at a place that kept claiming you were dead?”

Shiro felt an overwhelming wave of affection for Keith as James told him what happened after he was taken by the Galra.

Once the hangar doors were fully opened, the four MFE fighter jets took off with incredible speed and soared through the sky in just a few seconds. James continued. “That kind of devotion isn’t usually a one-way street, sir. When we heard rumors about your return and then Keith went missing with three other cadets, it wasn’t hard to put the pieces together. He saved you, didn’t he?”

Breathing out a laugh, Shiro softly admitted, “More times than I’d like…”

That was why Shiro wanted- needed to see Keith. He needed to make sure Keith was alright. He didn’t want to mourn for another family member.

As though James had read his thoughts, the MFE pilot said, “He’s a stubborn guy, sir. Something like this won’t kill him.”

All of a sudden, blue sparks shimmered and Kosmo appeared in front of Shiro in the rescue pod.

“…Did the wolf just-“

“Yes.”

Kosmo whined pitifully at Shiro who reached out to pat the cosmic wolf’s head. “We’re getting Keith back. Don’t worry.”

James remembered it like it was yesterday. Keith finally went too far and assaulted a senior officer. All because he couldn’t accept the truth that Officer Shirogane was dead. James remembered being annoyed with Keith because everyone was mourning for the crew of the Kerberos mission. Did Keith really had to make it worse for everyone by not being able to accept reality?

One would think James was happy Keith had finally been kicked out from the Garrison. But in truth, no matter how many times James went head to head with Keith, he never actually hated him. Some part of him envied Keith, yes. Other parts of him respected Keith for his skills and acknowledged him as the better pilot. So when James caught wind of Keith’s dismissal, he ran. He ran through the corridors and made it to the dorms in record time. He went to Keith’s room but it was already empty.

“…no…”

James remembered how scared he was at that moment. He knew Keith wasn’t stupid so why ? James gritted his teeth and ran towards the nearest exit. He couldn’t deny the relief he felt when he saw Keith’s familiar red hoodie and mullet hair walking towards the exit. James wasn’t too late.

He didn’t think, he just shouted anything that came to his mind to stop Keith from possibly making the biggest mistake of his life.

“KEITH YOU CAN’T GO!”

He watched as Keith stiffened and turned to glare at James. “What do you want?”

“You-!!” James huffed, “You can’t just throw it all away! Are you really going to waste everything Shiro did to get you here?!”

Keith rolled his eyes and started making his way to the exit again.

Fueled by anger and frustration, James chased after Keith and grabbed him by the hood of his hoodie and slammed Keith to the wall. Keith threw the first punch. James reciprocated. They fought for dominance, taking turns slamming each other to the wall before James pinned and straddled Keith to the ground. They were panting and glaring at each other.

Keith snarled as he pushed James off him and sat up, “WHY DO YOU CARE?!”

James fell on his butt but he shouted back, “BECAUSE YOU’RE THE BEST PILOT WE HAVE!!”

James remembered how Keith’s eyes had widened and how he finally took James seriously and listened .

“Keith… You’re the best out of all of us… You can’t… You can’t just leave.” James felt just as vulnerable as Keith looked. “Please…”

He remembered watching Keith slowly stand up. He remembered seeing the pain in Keith’s eyes. He remembered hearing a heartfelt “Sorry… I... can’t.”

Then James remembered watching Keith walk out of the Galaxy Garrison without saying anything else. He didn’t remember much after that but Ryan found him in the gym with split knuckles and a raw throat from screaming out his frustration.

That was years ago. James had come to terms with and accepted Keith’s dismissal. Still, hearing about Voltron made James inwardly proud. And then when he finally saw Keith again, he played his part to ensure that the Voltron crew understood how dangerous Earth had become. But at the back of his mind, he wondered. Was Keith’s memory of him limited to the last day they fought? Were they starting over? They had never been ‘friends’ before because they were both dumb children.

But they were adults now. If Keith was willing to put the past behind them, James would really like to get to know the real Keith.

With all that was happening, James didn’t get to talk to Keith, to bury the hatchet and start over. And now he was flying at super speed just to make sure he could .

The black lion had landed near the Garrison base. And yet getting to Keith still felt too long. Once the fighter jet landed, James jumped out of the aircraft with Shiro and the wolf teleporting beside him. They quickly approached the black lion. Its mouth was jammed shut.

“I’ll have to cut through it.” James readied his weapons but before he could do anything, he felt a pull in his guts and saw a burst of sparkles.

He and Shiro found themselves in a slightly tilted dark room which James assumed was the cockpit of the black lion. James looked to the wolf in question that probably made it happen. “…or we could do that and save time.”

The following silence was eerie. They turned to the pilot seat and rushed towards where Keith was slumped to his left.

“Keith…!” Shiro steadied the red paladin on the pilot seat.

The safety belt had disengaged and Keith’s helmet had a huge crack on one side. James carefully helped Shiro to take the helmet off. They hissed quietly at the wound that was bleeding sluggishly from Keith’s head. Kosmo whined sadly as it leaned its chin on Keith’s lap.

There was a soft groan followed by a hoarse and groggy, “..iro..?”

Shiro sighed in relief at hearing Keith’s voice again, “Yeah, it’s me buddy.”

Keith lifted his head and opened tired eyes to look at Shiro with a playful smile, “...captain of the Atlas, huh? Knew you were too good to… retire...”

Shiro huffed as he fussed with the blood trailing down Keith’s face, “Can’t let you guys have all the fun, can I?” He took Keith’s weight to let James examine for any other injuries. Shiro didn’t forget that James held the best record for first aid responder.

Keith leaned into Shiro’s embrace and let himself go pliant. He was so tired.

Meanwhile, James took note for spinal injury and discreetly tested Keith’s motor functions as Shiro kept him conscious.

“Is everyone okay…?” Keith asked softly.

“They will be. I promise.”

Keith closed his eyes but continued to mumble, “…get the coalition… and contact mom... probably got the blades… and rebels all rounded up already…”

Hearing Keith revert ‘Krolia’ to ‘Mom’ was a little alarming. He only said ‘Mom’ when he was addressing Krolia directly. They had to get Keith to medical like yesterday .

Shiro whispered urgently to James, “We need to go. Now . Kosmo can probably teleport us to the infirmary but I’m not sure if three people is too much for him.”

“…three?” Keith opened his eyes again and looked to his other side where James was hovering. “Oh.” Keith’s eyes were glazed over as he reached up to lightly pat James’ cheek. “Sorry for punching you so many times...”

The apology was so random and so not the time or place that James actually laughed at how ridiculous it was. Still, James felt much lighter for some reason. “It’s fine, Keith.”

Kosmo whined again and lifted its nose to nuzzle Keith’s face. Keith turned his attention to his wolf and hugged it slowly. Then, he quietly said, “Kosmo says he can do it.”

James frowned, “Do what?”

The tugging sensation was suddenly back and blue sparks burst in their vision as Kosmo teleported all of them out of the black lion. They instantly found themselves in the infirmary of the Garrison where several nurses had fallen out of shock from their sudden appearance. One look at the bleeding wound on Keith’s head got the nurses moving though.

A gurney was called for and Keith was taken from Shiro’s arms. After a breather, Shiro spoke to his communication device, “Shiro to Atlas, Keith is safe. Pilots, status report on the other paladins.”

A few minutes later, Shiro and James’ earpiece crackled to life.

“Leifsdottir reporting. Katie Holt safely retrieved. Injuries sustained are only minor bruises. Currently unconscious due to sudden drop in pressure upon reentry to Earth,” Ina reported dutifully. “Heading to Galaxy Garrison with Sam and Katie Holt, captain.”

Veronica cut through the comms next. “Lance is fine too.” No one commented on how shaky her voice was.

Nadia added cheerfully, “Rizavi here, on the way to Galaxy Garrison with the blue paladin, captain.”

“Kinkade reporting. Yellow paladin retrieved. Possible minor concussion. Charting course to the Garrison infirmary. Two other civilians on board, captain.” Ryan informed. They could all hear two voices crying for their son in the background of Ryan’s transmission. Hunk’s family must’ve been near the yellow lion’s crash site.

Shiro let out a relieved sigh knowing all his cadets were alive. “Thank you, pilots. Coran, how’s Allura?”

“Her vitals are stable. We’ve just retrieved the blue lion from the ocean.” After a while, Coran came back online. “She’s unconscious for now. I believe they’ve spent most of their quintessence in that last battle.”

“Alright, see you at the infirmary, Coran.”

“Yes, captain.”

Shiro let himself relax against the wall with James nearby, probably waiting for new orders. They made it. They all made it. All he had to do was contact the coalition and Krolia- Shiro’s body went rigid. Krolia. Keith.

Shiro bolted from where he was leaning and dashed towards the direction where he saw Keith was carried to earlier.

“Sir?!” James called out in alarm and chased after his commanding officer.

Slamming the doors of an operation room open, Shiro zoomed in on Keith. He was pale and lying on a stark operating table. They had removed his paladin armor and undergarments. His head injury looked so much worse in the brightly lit room. It was obviously going to need stitches. Once the initial shock of Shiro’s entry was over, various hands stopped him from going closer to Keith and were instead pushing him out of the room.

“Sir! You are not allowed-“

Shiro desperately spoke up, “Wait! Keith isn’t fully human! He’s part-galra!”

“…pardon?” one of the doctors asked.

“I’m not sure what side effects he’ll have on the medication and anesthetic. I don’t think he’s ever been dosed with anything and I’ve never seen him sick my whole life.”

There was an awkward silence that was broken by James who had followed Shiro inside the operation room. “That explains. So much.” He began listing down using his finger. “The inhuman instincts. Deadly punches despite how scrawny he is. Not sleeping for days in a row. He practically cheated his way- OW!”

Everyone in the room turned to the operation table where a fully awakened Keith had seemingly thrown a stainless steel solution basin to James’ head with striking accuracy. Keith glared weakly at the MFE fighter pilot. “Don’t make me start punching you again, Griffin.”

As if that wasn’t enough to stun the room, blue sparkles started appearing beside the operating table before Kosmo materialized with someone else.

Keith looked up dazedly to the intruder and then smiled warmly, “Hey mom…”

Krolia returned the smile and lovingly brushed her hand against her son’s cheek. She then looked up at the surgeons in the room with a stern look, “I’ll take it from here.”

Shiro wasn’t sure which was funnier – everyone’s gobsmacked faces or seeing Krolia put on scrubs.

As Keith’s final stitch was knotted, the other paladins arrived at the infirmary with their respective MFE pilots and families. As soon as the paladins were reported safe, Shiro and Sam made their way back to the Atlas to retrieve the lions while the MFE squadron was spread out for rescue relief.

Once Sam and Shiro were back in the bridge, Iverson informed them of a signal that had been continuously sent to Earth every five minutes for the past hour. Shiro gave the clearance to play the transmission and they all listened intently.

By the end of it, Sam was crying and Shiro was pulling him into a hug with a wet laugh.

As they celebrated, the transmission continued to replay. “Hailing Earth. This is Matthew Holt from the Voltron Coalition. We’re coming home.”

Waking up was a strange process. Keith felt… weightless. Maybe he had finally been drugged. He always wondered what that felt like. He opened his eyes sleepily to a warmly lit room and two familiar faces smiling at him.

“How you feeling, Keith?” Krolia asked gently.

Before he could think of anything better, Keith said, “…floaty.”

Kolivan chuckled, “Apparently, it works with those who are part-Galra as well.”

Keith thought over Kolivan’s words for quite some time before he squinted at the leader of the Blade of Marmora, “Did you give me Galra drugs?” He looked to Krolia next. “Mom, am I high on Galra drugs?”

Krolia scooted closer to Keith and bent down to kiss his forehead. She answered fondly, “Yes you are. You should be aware that human anesthetics don’t work on you.”

Keith mulled over the concept of anesthetics. Then it dawned on him. “Oh. That’s why stitches used to hurt so much... Thought the doctor lied to me ‘bout not feeling anything before he started stitching.”

Krolia and Kolivan frowned at Keith’s words.

“What did you do about the pain?” Krolia asked carefully.

Keith smiled dazedly but proudly, “Grin and bear it.” His smile fell when he saw the sad look on his mother’s face. “What’s wrong?”

He could tell her smile was forced as she said, “Nothing.”

Krolia reached out to caress her son’s face. “You should get some more rest, Keith.” Her fingers raked through his hair gently in a repetitive soothing motion.

Right on cue, Keith started blinking slowly, already struggling to stay awake. Krolia’s gentle touch was only lulling him deeper into sleep.

Even with his eyes closed, Keith managed to mumble, “…’ove you…”

Before he went under completely, Keith heard his mother apologize. He didn’t know what for. Keith would think about it later.  

The next time Keith woke up, he felt more grounded. The room was dark and he could see the moon from the window. The atmosphere was a little different from earlier. There were two different set of snores and some mumbling coming from one side of his room.

Keith turned his curious attention to the source of the noise and couldn’t stop smiling at the sight. There were extra bedding on the floor where Hunk, Pidge, Lance and Allura had taken permanent residence. They were tangled up to the point Keith didn’t know where one started and the other ended.

The door to his room slowly creaked open. Shiro stared at him with wide eyes from the doorway. “Keith..! You’re awake!”

Keith put his forefinger to his lips to shush Shiro and then pointed to the puppy pile beside him.

Shiro quietly closed the door behind him and huffed. “They’ve been there all day.”

“Are they allowed to do that?” Keith gestured to the makeshift beds.

“You think staff can really stop Hunk and Lance from pulling their mattresses and linens to your room?”

Keith laughed softly. He took a long look at Shiro’s face as the man approached him quietly. There were bags under Shiro’s eyes and he was slouching. His feet were dragging slightly as he walked. His uniform was not in its usual primness. All in all, Shiro was a mess.

“No offense captain, but you look like shit.”

Shiro didn’t even bother with a smart retort. “The coalition arriving definitely kept all of us awake. And we had to set up places for everyone to temporarily settle in. The debris will be a pain to clean up and everyone’s already asking when we’re gonna get rid of the Galra bases.” Shiro rubbed his face tiredly with his human hand.

Wordlessly, Keith scooted over to one side of his bed and patted the empty spot beside him.

Shiro raised his eyebrows in mock amusement.

Keith rolled his eyes and flailed an arm. “Just get on the bed already.”

This was familiar territory for both of them. Shiro took off his formal attire till he was in his shorts and T-shirt. His robotic arm floated to Keith’s bedside drawer and set itself down.

Just as Shiro was getting on the bed, Keith smiled cheekily. “You could literally get coffee without getting out of bed.”

Shiro snickered, “Best part of my mornings nowadays.”

Both of them arranged themselves till they were comfortable and their limbs were entangled. They laid together on the single hospital bed and listened to their friends sleep. Shiro eventually drifted off while Keith stared at the moon, embracing the comfort and warmth of having his found family nearby.

When Matt came over and whipped out a camera, Keith posed with a stoic face and a thumbs up. It soon became the first picture to be posted on Voltron’s Instagram account (courtesy of Pidge who made it just before she fell asleep that night).   

Matt sat on the foot of Keith’s bed – the only available space since Shiro occupied most of it.

“You look good,” Keith smiled.

Matt sighed and patted what he assumed was Keith’s leg. “You too. Aside from that, of course,” he pointed to Keith’s bandaged head. “I met your mom and-“ He whistled coyly. “- now I know where you got your looks from.”

Keith kicked him playfully for that comment.

“No seriously,” Matt laughed. “You even have the same resting bitch face!”

After another kick for good measure, Keith and Matt stared at each other with smiles that didn’t quite reach their eyes. They shared a mutual understanding look of what the other went through during the years they were apart. Matt started talking softly about the day Voltron was officially announced missing. His tales were somber at best and tragic at worst but were retold with a small smile. Keith recounted Voltron’s own journey in return; facing the pirates, discovering the truth about their time away, and the seemingly endless days stranded in the void. They chatted about their respective experiences in space till the morning light bathed the room.

It didn’t come to anyone’s surprise that Keith went missing three days after he had his head stitched. Although it didn’t surprise them, they were still frantically looking for him because- “Damn it Keith, you have a head injury for quiznak sake!” Lance shouted as he searched the hospital.

Kosmo made it worse by not even batting an eyelash when they asked the wolf where Keith was. Which in turn made Krolia ignore their panic because the first to sense Keith in danger would be Kosmo.

Although they knew Krolia was right, they would feel much better knowing (or seeing) where Keith actually was. Hunk and Allura ended up enlisting everyone’s help, including the MFE fighter pilots who weren’t surprise of Keith’s disappearance either.

Curious about the lack of shock, Allura ended up asking, “Was Keith always like this?”

James crossed his arms, “Always. At least once a week.”

“He’d miss some classes but not enough to actually get banned from the examinations,” Nadia added with a shrug.

“Oh.” Allura frowned. “That sounds quite unlike him.” The princess was certain Keith was a hardworking paladin even before he was reunited with his mother and had started running training drills.

“Keith only skips classes when he has already mastered the study material.” Ina voiced out. “He believes time is better spent learning something new rather than experiencing redundancy.”

Everyone looked to Ina with a mixture of surprise and incredulity.

Nadia was the first to ask, “How…did you know all that?”

“He told me when I asked. And tutored me for the better half of my second year.”

James was rubbing his forehead and muttering, “…I can’t believe your secret tutor was Keith…”

Ryan looked to Ina and inquired, “Did you know where he used to run off to?”

“Keith showed fond interest for the simulation room.”

Hunk sighed, “We checked there already.” He turned to Pidge. “Did you ask your dad yet?”

“He’s been in the Atlas engine room since yesterday, he wouldn’t know a thing. Besides, Shiro is doing a proper check routine today. Dad’s probably busy with the crystal core.”

Lance had been frowning the whole time but then he finally decided. “Okay. We got more people now and we still haven’t looked in the south and west parts. Let’s split up. If there’s still no sign of him, then…” He sighed dramatically, “…we can call Shiro.”

Nadia did a half shrug. “Why not just call the captain now?”

Pidge clapped her hands together. “Because he specifically told us to make sure Keith stayed in bed and we do not want to disappoint the Captain of the Atlas ‘cuz that ship can crush Voltron with a single step.” She paused for dramatic effect before continuing, “He would never do that but you get my point.”

“….right. Let’s go find Keith then.”

As they started walking and discussing the splitting of the teams, James stayed behind. Ryan was the first to notice that he wasn’t following and questioned James silently by lifting his eyebrows.

James lips move in thought before he met Ryan’s eyes. “I need to check on something. You guys go on ahead.”

Sam had been tinkering with the crystal core of the Atlas when he saw a familiar face hovering nearby. “Keith! So good to see you up and moving already!”

Keith inclined his head. “Feels good to finally walk around. The Atlas is amazing, Sam.”

Sam was honestly touched by those sincere words. “Thank you, Keith.” He retracted the core back to its original position and gave Keith his full attention. “Well! Obviously I missed the chance to give you a tour but how ‘bout an inside look on those MFE fighter jets? Bet you haven’t seen them up close yet!”

“No, not yet.”

At a nearby control panel, Sam looked up for Keith’s biometrics in the Garrison records and gave him full clearance for the Atlas and an upgraded status from ‘Senior Cadet’ to ‘Garrison Pilot’.

Keith’s eyes widened in both awe and fear. “You sure ‘bout that?”

Sam looked Keith directly in the eyes and said, “Keith. I trust you with every ship in this universe. Your ability to pilot quite literally anything is something Shiro and Krolia will always boast about.”

Keith groaned good-naturedly, “Great.”

“I understand why the change of status might make you uncomfortable and you should know that I can revoke it anytime.” Sam grinned mischievously. “But how ‘bout a free pass just for today?”

Keith could only smile as Sam started directing him to where the MFE hangar was located.

If the simulation room was Keith’s escape as a cadet, where else would he escape to as an adult if not at the hangar? That’s what James thought. He recalled how knowledgeable Keith had been in class when it came to the history of past aircrafts and pilots. He also remembered how (secretly) excited Keith had been every time they piloted a new jet in the simulators. With the Atlas and four new fighter jets in the Garrison ground-level hangar, there was no way Keith would pass the opportunity to explore the aircrafts.

At first glance, there was no one near the four MFE jets so James went upstairs to the observation deck. Upon opening the door, James saw Keith staring at the aircrafts through the floor-to-ceiling glass window. He approached loudly. “I knew you were too stubborn to stay in bed.”

Keith had his arms crossed as he casually spoke, “Every time I try to go out, they push me back in.”

James lightly slapped Keith upside the head as he got closer and stood next to the red paladin. “It’s for your own good, idiot.”

Keith must’ve been in a good mood because he accepted the gesture and insult. And unlike when they were younger, being alone together didn’t feel so toxic anymore. It was at that moment when both of them realized that times had changed. They were adults who had always shared the same passion for flying.

James stole a glance at Keith and saw that Keith’s eyes were solely focused on the MFE fighter jets. He imagined a different reality where Keith wasn’t expelled and had graduated top of their class. “Could’ve been you, y’know. If you stayed at the Garrison.”

Instead of dwelling on that reality, Keith tried not to snicker as he turned to James. “Does that mean you still think I’m the best pilot in the Garrison?”

James played along and smirked back. “Please. That was years ago. You’re way out of your game now.”

“Bet I can still outfly you with the MFE.”

“You don’t even know how to fly it.”

Keith raised an eyebrow as a challenge.

“You can’t even be here without authorization.”

“I have Commander Holt’s.”

“Let me rephrase then. You don’t have authorization to fly the MFE’s.”

Keith took out one of the Garrison-issued portable mini-tablet from his pocket and flashed his profile at James. “Technically, I’m a Garrison Pilot-“

“How the heck did-“

“-and you’re the leader of the MFE Squadron. According to rule G18/14-B and R6617-K, it states that all pilots who are authorized in the Garrison hangar by their commanding officers are allowed to fly their designated aircrafts for routine checks. Sam also said I could ‘go for a spin’ if I’d like.”

James gave Keith a long, hard stare. Unbelievably, Keith was not wrong. Even if he did change how the rules were worded, he was not wrong. “I can’t believe you still remember the rulebook after all these years.”

Keith shrugged innocently. “Had to know the rules if you wanna legally break them.”

“You’re a menace. How did Shiro ever put up with you, I’ll never know.”

Keith huffed out a breathless laugh. Their conversation sounded so similar to the past but it was missing the snide intonations behind each sentence. Wanting to test out the waters of their new dynamic, Keith let himself nudge James by the shoulder and quietly inquired, “You should probably do routine checks after the battle with the Galra. Test the speed. Go for a race. “

James closed his eyes. He was fighting a losing battle with how logical Keith’s suggestion sounded. It’s not like he didn’t race with the MFE pilots to ensure all the jets were in top condition. It was actually part of the Garrison routine check. “Why do you keep reminding me why I hate you?”

“You should be hating the loopholes in the rulebook.”

“No, I blame you since you’re the one uncovering them.”

Keith was still waiting expectantly for James to agree to it. He wasn’t dumb enough to fly alone with his head injury. And he knew James wouldn’t let him fly alone anyway.

When James remained unyielding, Keith slouched and used the tone he used on Shiro when he didn’t get what he wanted. “Guess I’ll just fly any of MFE’s alone then...”

James pinched the bridge of his nose. “For the love of-“ He sighed. “Fine. One round, Keith. Out and back in.”

Keith’s smug look made James groan as he turned around and went for the control panel. He keyed in the authorization codes to open the hangar doors before he tuned his comms for the MFE Squadron channel. “Leifsdottir, can I take your MFE for a spin? I’m doing a formal routine check.”

Nadia’s voice came through, “Wait, why are you asking for Ina’s-“

“Sure,” Ina cut in bluntly.

James shrugged. “Well, you heard her. Suit up. There should be a spare pilot garment in the-“

A short burst of blue sparks was the only warning James got before Kosmo suddenly appeared with a familiar getup carefully lodged in its mouth. Keith took it, patted Kosmo’s head and the cosmic wolf disappeared a second later.

James was not impressed by the Garrison pilot suit Keith was already holding up. “Convenient,” he mumbled.

They both made their way out of the observation deck and down to the locker room beside the hangar. James took out his own uniform and they both turned around to give the other privacy as they changed. It was routine for James to put on his pilot gear so he ended up turning too early. He was thankful that he managed to hold in a gasp.

The scars that marred Keith’s body reminded James that Keith’s trials in space were just as hellish as it had been for them during the past few years on Earth under Sendak’s reign. Maybe even worst from the looks of it. Most of the scars looked flat and faded – leaving only pale whitish marks. But some of them were raised pink skin, taking the shape of jagged lines that molted across Keith’s shoulders and back. James wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what the wounds originally looked like when it happened.

Noticing that he could get caught staring, James turned around and pretended that he hadn’t seen a thing. After a minute, he asked, “You done?”

“Yeah.”

Safely turning this time, James went to Keith to make sure everything was put on correctly. “Alright, you’re good.”

Keith deadpanned. “I do know how to put on a pilot suit.”

James ignored that statement just for the heck of annoying Keith and gestured with his head towards the hangar, “Let’s go.”

They walked side by side until they reached the fighter jets. Keith couldn’t tell them apart so he asked, “Which one is Leifsdottir’s?”

The look of shock on James’ face was almost comical. “Are you crazy? She’ll murder you in her sleep for piloting her MFE without permission.”

“….Then, whose MFE am I flying?”

James tossed Keith a safety helmet. “Mine.” He patted the aircraft to indicate which was ‘his’ and then went on to Ina’s MFE jet.

Once they got strapped in their respective pilot seats, James tested the communication device in his helmet. “Checking in. Keith, can you hear me?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay listen up. First, you press the red button and initiate the launch sequence. We’re still using the standard Garrison-“

Keith was hardly listening as he let the pilot in him take over and started pressing buttons and pulling the levers. The thrusters burst with a roar and the MFE fighter jet took off out of the Atlas with Keith grinning in excitement.

James watched his jet take off with a straight face. He sighed. “… why do I even bother?” Of course Keith could pilot the MFE on instinct alone. The idiot would’ve found a way to fly even without James present. After putting in the launch sequence, James punched it to keep up with his rival.

Shiro was a little worried when he saw the notification for an incoming video call from Pidge on his tablet. Ever since they had settled down on Earth, Shiro felt a sense of dejavu from his time as an instructor at the Galaxy Garrison. Although he was the captain of the Atlas, he was in some ways, still Keith’s benefactor. Thus, important official calls came from those of higher command and ‘Keith’ calls came from comrades (which consisted of the paladins, Matt and the Alteans). Shiro looked at his tablet screen again before he let out a silent plea, “Please don’t be about Keith.” And he answered the call.

Pidge looked bored honestly. “Shiro, Keith is missing.”

Shiro closed his eyes and let out a breathless and very silent but emotional, “….fuck.”

“DUDE DID YOU JUST SWEAR?” And suddenly Pidge was wide awake.

“Pidge, I’m a fully grown adult. I can swear if I want to.”

Unfortunately, she wasn’t listening anymore.

“GUYS I GOT IT ON TAPE!”

“NO WAAAAAAAAY”

“Hey Shiro, can we share it on twitter?”

“Hunk, we gotta do a mixtape of Shiro swearing!”

“GUYS,” Shiro called out exasperatedly, “Where was Keith last seen?”

Allura shrugged on the screen, “Matt informed us of having a…. ‘cuddle fest’ on Keith’s hospital bed before Hunk woke up and realized he was missing. The Earth families have been keeping a lookout.”

Lance butt in with, “Shiro, listen. It’s not our fault okay? No one in the hospital even saw him leave! And we’ve looked everywhere in the Garrison! Except you know, the places we’re not allowed to go cuz Keith can’t go there either so what’s the point?”

“Have you asked Kosmo?”

Hunk’s face suddenly popped up from the bottom of the screen. “Yeah we did that first but Kosmo just stared at us and then we went to Krolia who said that if Kosmo is fine, Keith is fine and that makes no sense at all because Kosmo isn’t physically with Keith even if they do have a weird mental connection whatever. And we’re all just really tired-“ The screen angle was changed to show Ina, Nadia and Ryan present in the search party as well. “-and James sort of ditched us earlier so like-“

Suddenly, Veronica called out, “Captain Shirogane, sir!”

“Hold on Hunk,” Shiro looked up from the tablet. “What is it?”

“Two MFE’s have just launched out from the Atlas.”

“What?” Shiro asked dumbly.

Iverson was frowning from his station. “Under whose authorization?”

Coran hummed as he checked the records and then announced, “It seems Sam gave the authorization- I mean, Commander Holt.”

Shiro turned back to his tablet. “Did you say that James is missing too?”

“Yeah why?”

Again. Dejavu. Once upon a time, when Shiro was still a Garrison instructor, he had watched various times where Keith and James would go head-to-head in an undeclared race using the simulators. Evidently, adult Keith missing was worrying but adult James missing too? And two MFE jets launched out of the Atlas? There was only one conclusion. “I think I found Keith. You guys can come to the bridge-“

Pidge’s voice cut off Shiro’s, “Oh! Hey Kosmo-“

Suddenly, the bridge of the Atlas became fully occupied as Kosmo started transporting 7 people to where Shiro was. Pidge and Hunk were cooing at the wolf as they urged the very stunned never-before-teleported MFE fighter pilots to pat Kosmo too. Lance was already approaching his sister and Allura was happily joining Coran at the helm.

Shiro sighed tiredly. “Veronica, I want visual on those MFE’s and comms established ASAP.”

“Yes, sir.”

Then, Shiro directed the bridge communication channels specifically to the Chief Engineer of the Atlas and asked, “Sam, where’s Keith?”

Casually, Sam answered, “He went flying.”

Shiro was already pinching his forehead, “He has a head injury.”

“…Is he not allowed to fly when he has a head injury?” Sam’s voice took an accusing tone, “That didn’t stop you .”

Shiro was suddenly very uncomfortable with the stare everyone in the bridge was starting to give him. For good measure, he replied to the Chief Engineer with a vehement whisper, “That was one time.”

“Visuals obtained!” Coran announced cheerfully.

“Comms connected.” Veronica added.

The paladins of Voltron and Coran froze where they stood and sat because the laughter that was coming through from the MFE’s was so achingly familiar, something they hadn’t heard for a very long time.

Keith was laughing freely, his voice packed with excitement and adrenaline.

Even James sounded infectiously thrilled, “You pilot actual alien tech lions! How is any of this exciting to you?”

“Sam literally integrated technology from three species into this jet. It’s different, okay? We racing or not?”

James scoffed. “First one through the Orion terrain wins.”

“You’re on! Let’s see what these jets can do!”

A sound blast burst through the comms as the two MFE’s flew with maximum speed and out of Atlas’ visual. But the sounds of James and Keith’s friendly banter went on in the silent bridge of the Atlas.

Iverson was the first to break it. “Are we not going to stop them?”

Hunk answered with a dazed look, “With all due respect, commander…”

Pidge continued, “…we haven’t heard Keith laugh in a long time. Not… not like this.”

“Never like this…” Allura whispered softly. She never even knew Keith could let out such unbridled laughter before.

“Yeah…” Lance added wistfully. “If it takes an illegal race in the MFE’s to get him to laugh like that, then…”

Shiro smiled sadly. “Why not, huh?”

Even Sam was smiling secretly from the engine room as he heard the distant laughter and teasing between two young adults.

James should have expected that Keith could rope him in for a few hours of flying in the MFE jets. One race turned to ‘Best-two-out-of-three’ and it spiraled downwards from there until the Sun had set. They both slowed down as they reached the mountain ledge that signified the end of the Orion terrain for the umpteenth time that day.

The night was graced with cool winds of the desert and the stars shining brightly above them. Both of them exited the MFE’s, took off their helmets and sat on the ledge with their legs dangling freely over the edge.

The silence between them was a welcoming thing. James angled himself back to lean on his arms and watched Keith enjoy the night winds against his face. Keith must’ve noticed him staring because James suddenly found himself being stared at right back. But Keith had a small smile on his face and it was tilted as though he was asking ‘What are you looking at?’.

That face was nothing like the angry teen James had known before. The temper that Keith was known for and the constant tension in his body was hardly there. In its place was the phantom pain in Keith’s eyes and the burden of the universe on his tired, slouching shoulders.

James had made his peace years ago that Keith was dead and Voltron wasn’t coming. He made peace that he had lost someone he couldn’t quite call a friend and that was the only thing he had regretted.

‘No more regrets.’ James thought to himself. He held out his right hand and introduced himself. “James Griffin. Garrison MFE pilot.”

Keith was caught off guard and looked genuinely shocked. He stared at James’ hand like it was a foreign object. He understood the implication, of course. It was clear as day that they’d never been friends before even though they’d been classmates since childhood. And no matter how much Keith knew James used to hate him, James was one of the people who never looked away.

Hesitantly, Keith took the offered hand and grasped it. “Keith. Red paladin of Voltron. Pilot of the Black Lion.”

James cleared his throat and glanced at the fighter jets behind them.

Keith let out a surprised laugh before adding, “…and temporary Garrison pilot.”

Their hands fell back to their side while James scoffed, “With how you were flying mine today? Sam should just build you another one.”

“As amazing as that would be, I’d rather Voltron not be one pilot down any time soon, thank you.”

They both turned to their respective helmets in alarm.

Keith asked cautiously, “Shiro?”

“Oh, back with us, are you? You guys done taking the MFE’s for a spin? Should I start implementing a time limit for ‘routine checks’ now?” Shiro asked amusedly.

James looked pale as a ghost at being caught by Commander Shirogane but Keith was just snickering.

“Also, I’ve got a lovely doctor here who would love to explain to you why flying with a head injury is the worst possible decision a pilot could make.”

“Can’t they make an exception for me?”

Shiro chuckled fondly as he said, “ Especially not for you.”

“But you got away with it.”

Keith smiled at James’ affronted expression for talking back to their commanding officer.

There were distant voices in the comms speaking over one another but the clearest one said, “No, actually he didn’t! He just finished getting his own lecture and didn’t want to suffer alone-“ The cut-off sentence was followed by various noises of arguments and laughter.

Keith smiled at his helmet before putting it on. He stood up from the ledge and offered James a helping hand. “Let’s head back before they start sending the lions out.”

Once the MFE’s had safely landed, Keith was whisked away by Kosmo before James could say anything. He made sure both their jets were properly recharging before he went to the locker room. He was not surprised to see his team waiting for him.

Nadia probably looked the most displeased with him. She had a face of indifference on her and her arms intimidatingly crossed. “You went flying.”

“With authorization.” James squeezed between her and Ryan to get to his locker.

Nadia practically ignored his words. “You’ve never broken the rules before.”

“I didn’t break any.”

“Taking off from base without explicit command is rule-breaking, Griffin.”

James tilted his head towards Nadia at hearing his family name. They only used those in formal settings which meant Nadia was accusing him and was willing to go to great lengths to ensure he wasn’t let off without reprimand. He didn’t look away from Nadia as he replied ‘formally’, “Leifsdottir, please explain to Rizavi about the loophole in the rulebooks that excused my actions today.”

Nadia was fuming. “ What loophole -“

Ina cut her off as she recited dutifully, “The combined rule of G18/14-B and R6617-K states that, with authorization to the hangar, cadets and Garrison pilots with qualified flying skills are allowed to perform a full routine check of their designated aircrafts if there are suspicions of functionality disorder. Full checks include testing the full capabilities of the aircrafts by piloting them in the permitted air space around the Garrison which includes the Orion terrain. Since there are no time limits for the full checks of aircrafts, James and Keith didn’t break any standing Garrison rules.”

Nadia was just glaring at James’ smiling face. “The leader of Voltron was not qualified.”

James waved his hand. “He’s flown more ships like the MFE than we ever will, Nadia. And I’m pretty sure you saw how well he flew even with a bandage around his head.” He quickly changed to his normal cadet uniform and added as a finality, “No point arguing about this.”

Before James left the locker room, Ina caught his arm to stop him. “Why’d you really fly with him, James?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t want to see the leader of Voltron get hurt under my supervision.”

Nadia scoffed disbelievingly. Ryan and Ina both gave him piercing stares.

James sighed. “He would have literally flown one of our MFE’s with or without me, alright? Sam already gave him clearance. I just made sure he didn’t fly alone.”

Ryan hummed in thought. “Why was he so adamant to fly the MFE?”

“You guys won’t believe this but-“ James smiled. “-he thinks the MFE’s are, and I quote, ‘the coolest fighter jets ever’.”

Nadia’s eyes were wide as she asked, “He thinks they’re cool? He pilots a freaking lion ship from space!”

James waved his arms in an obvious manner, “Exactly!”

It didn’t take long for him to be back in his team’s good graces as he told them about his new friend. They hadn’t seen James smile like that in a long time too.

After the (unnecessary) report and update about the MFE’s to Commander Holt, James made his way to exit the Atlas when he overheard some muffled shouting from the room he was walking by. He wasn’t about to eavesdrop but what happened next was too intriguing.

Suddenly, one voice spoke in an even tone but it was said with such finality, nothing else was heard. “You’re grounded.”

There was a few seconds of silence before James heard Keith almost scream, “I’M TWENTY!.... ONE!” The pause indicated Keith didn’t even know how old he was anymore and that, more than anything, made his outburst all the more amusing.

“Don’t fight me on this, Keith, or I will confiscate the hover bike. And Kosmo.”

There was some grumbling before the telltale sound of Kosmo’s teleportation was heard and then all of a sudden, the door that James had been listening on was opened. He was met face to face with Keith’s mother.

If James had to describe Krolia, it’d be ‘if looks could kill, you’d be dead already’. Keith definitely got his intensity from his mother.

Krolia acknowledged James with a subtle nod and a softer expression than her usual one. “He needed that today. Thank you.” Then she walked past him without another word.

It took James a while to realize that she was talking about their MFE race. Of all people, she was thanking him ? That can’t be right. James took a deep breath and braced himself as he turned around and almost shouted after Krolia. “I..! I hurt your son! When we were… younger.” He watched Krolia’s steps falter and continued with his apology, “I insulted you. And your significant other.” James bowed at a perfect angle. “I’m very sorry.”

When he raised his head, he saw Krolia smile gently at him. “I know you are.”

And then she just continued to walk away, leaving James feeling very unsure as to whether or not he had been forgiven or if Krolia was going to stab him in his sleep.

It was hard not to feel sent back in time when the dining facility still looked exactly the same as it did from when Keith had last seen it. After a good 10-minute heated argument with Krolia, he used Kosmo to storm off and get some dinner with the rest of the Garrison personnel. Hospital food was as bland as it was a hundred years ago anyway. After picking up a tray of food, Keith found an empty table in the corner to sit at. A few minutes later, Keith watched James slide in in front of him with his own tray of dinner.

His face was a little pale as he admitted, “Your mother. Is terrifying.”

Keith nodded because yes, she was. “Thank you.”

“It wasn’t a compliment.”

“I’m taking it as one.”

“Where are the others?”

Keith shrugged as he bit into two pieces of sweet potato fries. He almost couldn’t hold back his moan at how good it was. God, he’d miss Earth food.

James didn’t miss Keith’s attempt though. “Good, huh? What’d you guys eat in space?”

“You don’t wanna know.”

“Oh c’mon Keith! It wasn’t all that bad.” Lance called out from afar. He was apparently approaching with his own tray of food… along with many others who slowly filled in the empty spaces beside Keith and James.

Matt added on, “The food goo, was amazing~!”

“And hey if you wanna try some alien cuisine, I think Sal is thinking ‘bout opening a shop!” Hunk excitedly exclaimed.

“No more scaultrite cookies though.” Pidge smirked.

Hunk had goosebumps from remembering the metaphorical pain of his broken teeth. “Urgh those were awful…”

Rizavi inquired curiously, “What are… scaultrite cookies? They sound familiar.”

Pidge’s face lit up, “You’ve probably heard it from my dad. You see, scaultrite is this material that we found in the castle of lions and Hunk wanted to bake cookies and…” she trailed off.

Meanwhile, Lance was gesturing to Ina and Ryan’s plate of seafood and retelling his tale about eating food prepared by mermaids. Hunk added on about how the whole planet was basically an ocean and they had cool bubble head charms to help them breathe.

Matt was telling James about the castle’s food goo machine which by the looks of it, was not appealing at all to James.

“What’d I miss?” asked a familiar voice coming towards the noisy table.

Keith looked up to Shiro, “Nothing much. Did the captain wanted to sit with us?”

Shiro used his pseudo commanding tone and said, “Move it.” He managed to squeeze in after Keith nudged Matt away. And that was how Keith found himself facing a familiar blonde.

“Ina,” he greeted with an inclination of his head.

“Keith,” she replied back just as politely.

James stared at the two of them and then sighed. “I still don’t get how she managed to get you to tutor her.” He frowned at Keith. “In what universe are you a good tutor anyway?”

“Tutor? What are you talking abou-“ And then it dawned on Keith as he stared at Ina. Those days back in the Garrison when she’d find him at every single of his hiding spot to ask him so many questions and refused to leave until he answered them. “Oh.”

Lance was already cracking up. “YOU DIDN’T EVEN KNOW SHE WAS USING YOU FOR TUTORING!”

Keith cursed inwardly because he realized he may have said everything earlier out loud.

Ina was smiling at him though. She admitted to the table, “Keith is an excellent tutor when he wants you to get out of his personal space.”

That got all of them laughing. Even Keith sportingly accepted everyone’s teasing of his so called emo-phase.

In case of any emergencies, the paladins were housed where the lions were; in the Atlas. And since there was plenty of room in the Atlas for more than just Garrison personnel, that was where all of the paladins’ families were housed temporarily until all the new shelters were built. It also gave reason for everyone to be able to rest at night with their families. Even the MFE fighter pilots were stationed to sleep in the Atlas where they could quickly get into battle formation should they need to. The paladins and MFE pilots shared the joint sleeping quarters that was closest to the hangar that housed the lions and the fighter jets. Shiro and Matt had separate quarters that weren’t too far away from the cadets’ joint quarters as well.

It was the first night all the paladins were released from the hospital (because apparently, once the leader of Voltron was out of the hospital, he wasn’t going back in), and James found himself in his Garrison-issued pajamas but he was nowhere near his assigned bed. He was nowhere near any bed at all and neither were his squad or the paladins of Voltron.

Because apparently (again), when your mother is an alien who happens to co-lead a lethal undercover group of spies, you don’t get to sleep until you run their 200+ drills even with a recovering head injury.

And James, his squad and the other paladins were every inch the curious beings they were when it came to the Blade of Marmora.

At first, it was the lack of Keith in the washrooms because no matter how many years you were away from the Garrison, you don’t miss the clockwork nightly routines. When James asked where Keith was, Lance and Hunk had shrugged and said he was probably with Krolia. So when James went to investigate, so did Ryan, Ina and Nadia. And when the girls went, Pidge and Allura tagged along too which ultimately lead to Hunk and Lance following as well.

That was how they found themselves looking through the one-way mirror of the training room. Shiro had already been watching before they got there because he passed by the training room after his meeting with Kolivan and Olia and was mesmerized by how fluid Keith and Krolia were moving. To be honest, all of them weren’t sure if Keith was kicking ass or getting his ass kicked by his mother.

It was one of the most intense hand-to-hand combat James had seen. He never knew Keith could move so fast or initiate so many jumps and leaps without a running start. Both Keith and Krolia were wielding weapons that resembled kukris. If James ever wondered if Keith was ambidextrous, he had his answer as Keith comfortably switched his dominant hold on his blade’s handle. The sound of clashing blades were ominous and it didn’t look as if Keith or Krolia were holding back.

After various amounts of pinning each other down, Keith and Krolia finally loosened their body stance and bowed at each other. They were both smiling and exchanging comments on each other’s moves. And that was when James felt almost ashamed of himself because it felt as though they were intruding on a private moment as Keith openly conversed with his mother.

Kosmo then suddenly showed up in the training room beside Keith and started pulling on Keith’s Marmora uniform. Keith yelped in surprise and found himself draped over the wolf. As retaliation, Keith roughhoused the big wolf, catching the wolf as it teleported and playfully tossing about on the soft foam mats. The wolf probably felt left out from watching the mother-son duo ‘play’. Once Kosmo had had enough, the wolf fell on its side and Keith dropped himself onto the bed of fur. Both of them were panting but Keith was smiling. He looked to Krolia who had watched them in amusement. Keith spoke softly to her, about things the eavesdroppers couldn’t quite hear. And after a minute or two, he was out like a light, head and body cushioned by Kosmo.

Shiro looked at Keith in awe. “He finally fell asleep on his own…”

Lance turned to Shiro. “What do you mean finally ?”

Pidge crossed her arms. “Matt said he hasn’t been sleeping.”

“But-…” Hunk looked sadly at Keith through the mirror. “We’ve been cuddling every day!”

Allura looked downcast. “I had a feeling Keith wasn’t sleeping since he was always awake no matter what time I woke up…”

James shrugged. “Well, now we know all he needs is a workout.”

Ina and Rizavi stared thoughtfully at the leader of Voltron. Ryan was the one who voice their opinion for them. “Or maybe he just needed the right people.”

That was when Krolia turned to stare at all of them through the one-way mirror. The MFE pilots and the paladins froze like deers caught in a headlight. She simply smiled that smile of hers, leaving them to feel exactly how James felt when she said she knew how sorry he was. They scurried back to their rooms after that. Krolia chuckled and proceeded to join her son for a short nap.

“…told you not to scare my friends off…” Keith mumbled sleepily.

“All I did was smile at them.”

Keith scoffed. He cuddled into Kosmo and relaxed, knowing Krolia wasn’t going anywhere. At one point (for almost two years), it was just the three of them on the dirt floor. As it turned out, beds didn’t quite feel right for Keith anymore. Without the Galran drugs to dull his senses, Keith much preferred sleeping where he was, half on top of Kosmo, half on the ground and near his mother. If the nightmares of the memories from the past or future came to haunt him, he could trust his mother to talk him through it.

Colleen had long accepted that sleep eluded her husband and children. She had gone a few days without checking up on them because she knew she would find them awake and tinkering with some new device (or building new satellites for Earth in Pidge’s case). Colleen drew the line on the night all of them were assigned to sleep in the Atlas rather than in the base. She checked on Katie first to make sure she was at least in bed without any gadgets. She checked on Matt but found it unnecessary when he was already tucked into bed by his partner. Lastly, she went to check on her husband in the engine room of the Atlas.

The doors to the engine room opened to present her husband typing something at the computer bay.

Colleen sighed and let out a stern, “Sam.”

“Mm-hm?”

“Bed. Now.”

Sensing that it was his wife’s ‘no nonsense’ voice and mentally calculating the amount of sleep he had the past few days, Sam gave in. “Alright alright. Bed it is.”

Some of his bones creaked as he stood up straight and stretched a little. He offered Colleen his arm and they walked out of the engine room together. It was close to midnight when they walked past the training room that was still suspiciously bright.

Colleen sneaked a peek and gasped at what she saw. “Is that Keith?” She rushed into the training room without hesitation.

“Colleen, wait!”

Deep sleep was something Krolia could no longer achieve willingly. She had trained her body to be on constant alert to protect herself. When Keith came back into her life, her alert system was triggered much more easily due to her overwhelming desire to protect her son from all harm.

Logically, she knew no one would be dumb enough to ambush them in the Atlas unless they were intruders. So when Krolia found herself pushing her Marmora blade against the neck of a harmless-looking female earthling, she immediately recoiled back.

“Colleen!” Sam cried out as he rushed to catch his shocked wife. Her legs had given out the moment she saw Krolia’s fierce eyes. That split second told Colleen everything she needed to know about Krolia as a mother.

Meanwhile, Krolia looked chastised with the frightened look in the humans’ eyes. “Forgive me. Old habits die hard.”

Colleen shook her head mutely. “No. It was my fault for approaching hastily.” She turned to look at Keith who was slumbering away with fistfuls of Kosmo’s fur. From what Katie said, Keith would work himself to the bone in the castle’s training rooms. She thought the worst had happened and Keith had injured himself even more. She never would have thought he was sleeping like a baby cub under the watchful eye of a protective lioness. Looking at said lioness, Colleen inquired, “Are the beds not comfortable? I’d rather he not sleep here.”

Krolia tilted her head curiously. She was surprised to see the Holt matriarch care so much. Krolia deduced that it was most likely because she was a mother as well.

“Keith is under unique circumstances. He will need to relearn the comforts of a bed.”

“Oh. Well then.” She stood up with her husband and inclined her head. “Our doors are open if you need any help.”

Krolia nodded her thanks and watched the two humans leave. She had found an interesting companion.

The next day in the Garrison mess hall, Keith and Pidge were frowning as they watched their mothers chatting away at a table.

Pidge was tapping her fingers on the table, blatantly ignoring her breakfast tray. “Remind me again how your mom started talking to my mom.”

Keith shook his head. “No idea.”

“Well.” Matt butted in from beside his sister. “Technically, you’re an honorary Holt family member.”

Keith grimaced in confusion. “I am?”

Even Pidge was lost. “He is?”

“Yeah dad said it was official this morning. Something about mothers uniting or whatever.”

Keith and Pidge tilted their heads in their mothers’ direction.

Pidge crossed her arms and furrowed her eyebrows, “Like how Hunk and Lance’s mom exchange cooking techniques and recipes?”

“I guess.” Matt shrugged. “Except our moms are probably discussing how to handle wayward children.”

Both Keith and Pidge made a humming sound of agreement with dawning awareness in their expressions. That was something they could believe. Finally satisfied, they both started digging into their breakfast.

Keith did not need babysitting. Not outright. Everyone figured since Keith would not voluntarily let himself be confined, they would confine themselves with him. And living together in the Atlas' joint sleeping quarters without any impending doom sort of brought out everyone’s true colours.

The paladins and MFE pilots’ joint sleeping quarters consisted of two dorms – for female and male cadets, five bath stalls per dorm and a kitchen pantry with a lounging area separating the two dorms. The lounging area was sparsely furnished; it had a semicircle sofa fit for all of them, a few wall decorations and adjustable lights. The couch became their favourite place to simply sit and talk. The girls’ dorm was basically filled with Pidge’s tech which Ina liked to question about and Rizavi liked to play with. The kitchen pantry had obvious signs of Hunk’s cooking which Ryan had become a constant presence as sous chef. And the boys’ dorm was in a semi-messy state from Lance and Keith’s or Keith and James’ bickering.

Like the saying goes, 'You never truly know someone until you have lived under the same roof with them.’

And the paladins, despite having lived together in the castle of lions, they had never lived as close as they did in the Atlas.

Pidge and Hunk were casually sitting on the sofa when Keith appeared and started to tilt all the wall decorations by a small angle, barely noticeable. Then he went to the pantry, got himself a glass of water and sat with his friends.

The green and yellow paladin exchanged a questioning look before Hunk gave in. “Um Keith. What’d you do that for?”

Keith snickered. “I’ve been moving everything out of place as a prank.”

Pidge deadpanned. “Keith, I don’t think anyone’s going to notice-“

Suddenly, James came into the joint quarters and nodded at all of them in greeting. He made his way to the boys’ dorm but then his steps paused. His head turned with a suspicious look at one of the wall paintings. Pidge and Hunk watched in shock as James actually went to one of the frames Keith had tilted and adjusted it back to the correct position.

Then he looked to the other wall decorations and frowned.

Nadia and Ina chose that moment to exit the girls’ dorm and Nadia rolled her eyes at him. “It’s just a picture, James.”

“No… It’s not at the right angle. I swear someone’s been moving everything around here. Yesterday all our beds and drawers moved a few centimeters to the right.”

Sitting beside Hunk, Keith was doing a very bad job at keeping a straight face as he pretended to sip at his water.

James turned his suspicious eyes to the culprit which elicited a burst of laughter from Keith who quickly jumped over the back of the sofa and ran out of their joint quarters. James growled in frustration before giving chase. “KEITH, COME BACK HERE!”

“Children.” Pidge muttered to herself, “I’m surrounded by children.” But inside, she reveled in the fact that Keith had an adorable sense of humor. She wondered sadly if he had attempted that sort of prank with them in the castle of lions but none of them took notice.

By the look on Hunk’s face, he was probably thinking the same thing. “Hey wait, didn’t Keith have a check-up today?”

“It’s in half an hour. He still has time to fool around.”

All of a sudden, her communicator beeped. It was one of the prototypes she had built with Matt in conjunction with the new satellites their father would launch soon. For the time being, it acted as a simple pager. After reading the short message, she tossed the communicator to Hunk and excitedly stood. “Read that, go get the boys and go get ready,” she commanded.

She grinned at the two female MFE pilots who were nursing hot cups of coffee on the sofa and corralled them back to the girls’ dorm.

Sam accepted the new satellites from the foreign research team with a big smile. “Ah yes! This will ensure that all of Earth’s communications will be back online by next week!”

The research team looked baffled, “Commander, we still need more than just these to establish communications again!”

“Oh that’s fine. My daughter already built 16 satellites and gave all her blueprints last week! I launched three of those for minimum communications usage and I’ve sent the blueprints to the development team. If we push production, we should be able to launch all of them by Monday.”

“Your… Your daughter…?”

Just then, Pidge came bursting through the door speaking a mile a minute. “Hey dad we’re going to the beach in the red lion don’t miss me okay? Love you, bye!” She hugged him briefly, kissed him on the cheek and was out of there as quickly as she had come in.

Sam watched the door closed and then turned back to the research team with the same smile on his face. He gestured at the exit proudly. “My daughter.”

After a short tousle with James (once the MFE pilot actually caught him), Keith was reminded by Shiro to head to the Garrison infirmary for his last check-up. Keith’s stitches had healed nicely and he was officially approved for harsher activities. He was heading back to the Atlas, finally bandage free when he was intercepted halfway there by a flying red lion.

The red lion landed in front of him, bowed forward and opened its mouth to let out the stairs.

“Get in loser, we’re going shopping,” Lance’s voice spoke over the speakers.

Keith crossed his arms and leaned his body on one leg. “Really, Lance?”

“Oh c’mon! The Sun is shining~ The sea is practically calling to us! Let’s go to the beach!”

Deciding to humor his friend, Keith feigned interest. “Just the two of us?”

“Of course not!” It was followed by a few different voices saying things like “Hi Keith!” “I’m here!” “BEACH” indicating that the red lion was carrying quite a few passengers.

Keith smiled fondly and figured, why not? He was already contacting Krolia as he took the stairs to board the red lion.

Colleen had to admit, she had grown fond of hearing the sound of teenagers around the Atlas. So when it became too quiet, she became worried and a little wary of their whereabouts. As far as she was concerned, only Keith had left the ship to have his stitches checked on. Curious as to where the others were, she checked the joint quarters, the bridge, the engine room, the mess hall and the training room.

There wasn’t a single sign of any of the paladins, the MFE pilots, her son or Shiro. And Keith should have been back already.

Fortunately, she found Krolia in one of the lounging area, nursing a cup of coffee and reading an old book.

Colleen asked, “Where’s Keith?”

Krolia looked up from her reading material. “He went to the beach.”

“But he’s grounded.”

Feeling honestly confused, Krolia asked back, “Is he not allowed to the beach when he’s grounded? It’s not like he’s leaving the planet or anything.”

Colleen took a deep breath and simply walked away because she had nothing to say to that. Obviously Krolia’s definition of ‘grounded’ meant planet-confinement rather than house-confinement. It was logical in a sense since Keith piloted alien tech lions that could fly to another solar system in under 10 minutes.

After Sendak’s invasion, many shops were closed down but some shops like the beach stalls still had their products safely stowed away inside. One of the owners had apparently commented on Voltron’s social media and offered to reopen some of the stalls if they decided to come to the beach. Lance didn't hesitate to take the opportunity.

Everyone had gotten appropriate swimwear (bathing suits for the ladies and board shorts for the guys) and some much needed sunscreen. The shop had three individual changing rooms so everyone took turns. Keith was the last to change into his black and red board shorts. In truth, he was a little nervous to go out without a shirt. He had seen how no one had it as bad as he did. Shiro would’ve matched the severity of his scars but Shiro’s new clone body ensured that the only scar he had was the one across his nose.

So yeah, Keith wasn’t sure he wanted to be the only one parading grotesque scars. He was pulled from his thoughts when someone knocked on the door of the changing room he was in.

“Keith? You alright?”  

Keith huffed, “M’fine Shiro.”

“…”

He could almost feel Shiro’s disbelief through the door.

“Look, Keith. They’re not gonna think any less of you. Trust me.”

With one last deep inhale, Keith unlocked the door and walked out. Shiro was smiling proudly at him. “There you go. You look fine.”

Keith shrugged indifferently even though he knew nothing got pass Shiro, he could sense Keith’s anxiety anyway. Keith appreciated the silent support though as Shiro tailed after him. When Keith walked out of the shop, he shrunk a little at everyone’s scrutiny. He could tell they were trying hard not to stare but it proved to be a bit difficult.

“….woah.” Lance whispered in awe.

None of them missed Keith’s flinch but before they could reprimand Lance’s lack of tact, the blue paladin’s face practically lit up. “ That is the coolest necklace I have ever seen!”

Keith had almost forgotten about his necklace. He was so used to wearing it that he had forgotten none of them had seen it yet. It was shaped like a sleeping wolf – in a curled position. The material it was made from had pieces of glowing ruby-like gems that glowed softly, even in the dark. Keith instinctively touched the handmade necklace around his neck. “What, this?”

“Yeah! Where’d you get it?”

Giving the necklace a fond look, Keith explained, “While Krolia and I were travelling in space for two years, we managed to visit our home planet. She carved this from a native rare ore for my birthday.” Keith looked up just in time to see everyone’s shocked faces ranging from bulging eyes to gobsmacked faces.

A shutter sound was heard and everyone turned their attention to a snickering Shiro who held a phone in his hand. “Priceless.”

Keith smiled cheekily and exchanged a high-five with Shiro. “I was joking. I can’t believe you guys fell for that.”

“OH MY GOD KEITH!” Lance started shouting while flailing his arms. Pidge and Hunk were close seconds in terms of shouting all sorts of disbelieved words. James looked traumatized at the fact that Keith had another home planet somewhere out there.

“She did carve it though,” Keith murmured.

“And it was for your birthday?” Allura asked kindly. Keith’s almost shy smile as he ducked his head was a good enough answer.

After getting over Keith’s excellent joke and getting offended that Shiro knew before they did, the whole team including the MFE pilots were ready to embrace the ocean.

“WOOHOOOO!!!!” Lance shouted as he ran to the shoreline with a surfboard under one arm.

“…when did he get a surfboard?” Keith could’ve sworn there wasn’t a surfboard in the red lion or in the shop they went to earlier.

Shiro patted Keith’s back playfully. “Who knows? We fitted more than 10 people in the red lion, I’m pretty sure Lance can squeeze in a surfboard too.”

They did fit in more than 10 people in the red lion and it was a wild ride from start to finish. Keith wasn’t sure how his friends managed to convince even the MFE pilots to join them but it was probably good for morale to spend a day at the beach. Keith had never been to one himself so he was looking forward to it. He had heard stories and read books about the waves and ocean breeze. And his first impression of the beach did not disappoint.

Keith wasn’t even surprised when Kosmo eventually showed up beside him as he looked out to sea. “Fancy a swim?”

Kosmo responded by trotting around the sand. The wolf’s fascination was almost as bad as Allura who had knelt down on the soft white sand and examined them in the palm of her hands with an excited gleam in her eyes.

“How can something made from a combination of small tiny uneven stones feel so soft?!” the princess had almost squealed. It was adorable.

There were a few large umbrellas that Ryan and James had set up for some shade where the girls were lounging. Hunk and Shiro were setting up what looked to be a barbecue pit. Lance and Matt were already in the water with a surfboard each (where they both got it, no one knew). And Keith was just enjoying the repetitive sound of the crashing waves.

“Here.” Pidge handed him a phone. “You haven’t been in charge of the Voltron account yet. Post whatever you want.”

Keith took the phone and realized that Voltron’s Instagram account was already opened. He looked out to where Lance and Matt were waiting to catch a big wave and smiled deviously at Pidge. The green paladin wiggled her eyebrows and nudged her head towards the ocean in silent communication. Keith gave a thumbs up before they both headed closer to the water to catch any embarrassing moments of the two surfers on camera.

Pidge shouted to get their attention. Since they were so far out, they focused solely on trying to listen to what she was saying and thus, they completely missed out on the huge wave that was forming behind them. Pidge continued to distract them while Keith recorded their impending doom. The huge wave finally crashed over the two surfers and Keith couldn’t help himself from laughing. Pidge was no better.

When Lance emerged from the water and heard them laughing, he deduced what Pidge had actually been doing. His shout could be heard loud and clear. “DELETE THAT FOOTAGE!”

It only made Pidge laugh harder.

Eventually, they did catch more waves and Lance was totally in his element as he rode out tube after tube like a professional surfer.

“KEITH!” Matt called out as he finally staggered onto shore. He had swam back without his surfboard because Lance wanted to try something. “Lance was asking if it was possible for Kosmo to teleport you onto my surfboard.”

Keith raised an eyebrow but complied. Kosmo materialized beside him through a mental command. A second later, Keith disappeared from where he sat and reappeared on Matt’s surfboard that was out at sea with Lance.

Matt took Keith’s place and watched as Keith and Lance seemed to be fighting already. The adrenaline from being out in the water hadn’t abated so Matt turned to the group and asked, “Does anyone wanna bury me in sand?”

Surprisingly, Ryan nodded and Ina answered with a curt, “Sure.” The three got up and went to find the right consistency of sand to bury Matt in.  

Meanwhile, out at sea, Lance seemed to have kicked Keith off of Matt’s surfboard without jostling Kosmo who had balanced itself on the back of the board. Lance crossed his arms and held his head high in victory. But then he was looking at the water with an alarming look. “NO! Keith, don’t you dare-!!” Keith emerged from Lance’s other side and pulled him into the ocean as well. They both resurfaced in good humor and then tried to wrestle in the water.  

After watching Matt allow himself to actually be buried (she thought he was joking), Allura quietly asked, “Is this… normal for Earthlings?”

Matt had requested to become a mermaid. Ina had nodded and began commanding Ryan what to do. She took her job seriously and together, Ina and Ryan ensured that Matt Holt had a perfect mermaid body and tail fins.

Nadia grinned at the princess. “You bet.”

“Did the Garrison ever take cadets out to the ocean?” Shiro questioned James. He had petitioned for it before he left Earth with Sam and Matt.

“Yes, sir. Twice anually. They started it a year after you left for Kerberos.”

What Shiro would do to stop James from referring him with any formalities.

Keith and Lance were just approaching the shaded area where everyone was resting when Pidge grumbled, “We should do something fun. Something all of us can play.”

“How ‘boooooooout-“ Lance drawled and reached behind his back to pull out a ball. “-BEACH VOLLEYBALL!! MFE against Team Voltron!”

Pidge lifted her hand. “Cool but I’m sitting out.”

“Why?”

“Allergies”

“....what-”

“I can be the referee!” Matt chimed in from where he was buried neck down.

All the while Keith was bodily spinning Lance and muttering, “ Where are you getting all of these stuff?!”

Allura nervously smiled. “I don’t know how to play?”

Hunk patted her assuringly. “Don’t worry. You can watch first and trade places with me later. The pit’s about ready for some roasting!”

“Alright!”

And so, the teams were divided. Lance, Keith, Shiro and Hunk on Team Voltron and James, Ryan, Ina and Nadia on Team MFE. Fortunately, there was an old net tied to two poles already, probably from before Sendak’s invasion. Matt explained the rules in layman terms so that even Allura understood. And then the game began.

As a bystander, Allura had to admit; humans were vicious in sports and the unity they had as a team shone in the face of adversary. Lance and Keith’s usual banter was nowhere to be heard. Instead they were directing it towards the MFE pilots. The pilots on the other hand, worked in such synchronized moves, it was almost impossible to look away.

Shiro was still getting used to having a floating arm. Sometimes he’d stumble and more than once, he’d been caught by a good spike from the opposing team. By the third “Sorry, sir!”, Shiro called for a time out. He chided the MFE pilots, “Guys. Forget I’m your commanding officer for one day, okay? You’re not disrespecting when you throw a spike at me. And call me Shiro.”

The pilots only nodded slowly. When Matt restarted the game, the pilots threw away any reserves they had and threw spike after spike without hesitation. Team Voltron retaliated with just as much heat. Keith’s quick unpredictable jumps and Hunk’s powerful spikes were just as deadly as James and Ryan’s. Then, the game seemed to tilt for one side when Ina and Nadia started using a feint to tip the ball over the net. Lance or Keith would dive to save it but that left them a little vulnerable for the counterattack.

Shiro pulled Keith and Lance back and whispered, “I got an idea.”

When Ina tried the feint again, the MFE pilots were shocked that Team Voltron didn’t react as frantically as they did before. Instead, the watched the ball fall but before it hit the ground, a metal arm zoomed in to save it. In midst the shock, team Voltron initiated a quick play and spiked the ball successfully to the other side.

Pidge and her brother were holding in their laughter from where they were recording the game live.

Nadia was the first to recover from the shock. “THAT IS NOT FAIR!” And honestly, she didn’t care that she was shouting to her commanding officer.

Shiro laughed heartily and began using his arm as some sort of libero. There were more shouts and insults exchanged as the game heated up. Allura was more than a little intimidated when Hunk urged to switch places. But the competitive streak in her soon warmed her up to the game and everyone discovered that the princess could really spike .

After a few more points, Keith asked to be switched with Matt because he saw Hunk handling the barbecue alone. Besides, the points never mattered. They just wanted to beat each other to the ground.

“You alright Hunk?” Keith asked as he approached the pit.

“Yeah! I don’t mind having an assistant though.”

“What can I do?”

That day, Keith learned the names of at least seven different ingredients used to marinate chicken and beef and how to ‘man the grill’. Keith had said a small “Thanks” when Hunk revealed that the beach trip had been preplanned but they all waited till Keith was cleared to have some fun.

Hunk smiled and nudged Keith’s shoulder. “That’s what friends do.”

Yeah. Keith was no longer going to question whether or not they were all friends.

After admitting to a tie, Team Voltron and Team MFE came over to the pit where the smell of food had distracted them. Hunk had really outdone himself with the delicious chicken, beef, mashed potato and classic garlic bread. Simple but wholesome food.

Keith was still grilling the last batch of beef cuts when the oil in the bowl Hunk had given him ran out. He looked to the supplies that happened to be near Shiro and called out, “Shiro, can you give me a hand?”

There was a dull thud in the sand beside Keith’s feet and he looked down to see Shiro’s actual robot hand lying there. He looked to the captain of the Atlas with the most deadpan look, showing how absolutely done he was with Shiro. Everyone couldn’t help but laugh at Keith’s facial expression – even the MFE pilots. Pidge and Lance were almost laughing themselves to a choking fit. And miraculously, Matt had caught it all on camera.  

As they were eating, the videos and photos of their day at the beach were posted with dumb captions and hashtags. The Voltron social media account practically burst with life as people from everywhere commented on their day at the beach.

Somewhere in the Atlas, Colleen was panicking over the photos and videos but Sam simply held her hand and said, “Let them be dumb 20-year-olds, dear. I believe it’s been awhile.”

The parents and families that were staying in the Atlas played and took in each post; basking in the utter joy of the teens at the beach.

After eating their fill, some of them sat leisurely and watched as the Sun began to set while some of them took calming walks on the beach.

Keith had opted to jog with Kosmo on the shoreline, enjoying the sensation of damp sand on the soles of his feet. When he finally stopped to catch his breath, he looked out to the horizon. He heard someone approaching from behind till that person stood beside him. Keith saw the distinct blonde hair of his ex-classmate out of the corner of his eye.

“I never thanked you for what you taught me in the Garrison,” Ina said.

Keith never saw it as tutoring so he wasn't quite sure what to respond with except, “You're welcome.”

All of a sudden, he was being hugged with a soft “Thank you.”

The hug was short-lived and Ina left him standing there, still a little shocked and completely unaware of the other two people approaching him.

“Well Keith. I didn't know you liked hugging so much!” Pidge playfully nudged his side.

“Why yes, Pidge! First Shiro, then Hunk and then Ina! In fact, I think he wants a hug right now,” Lance suggested slyly.

“No. No he does not.” Keith glared half-heartedly at his smirking friends.

Keith ended up running from both of them as they tried to coddle him with hugs. Unfortunately, Shiro caught wind of what they were doing and ended up catching Keith before pulling him into a hug. Pidge and Lance plastered themselves around Shiro and Keith. Ina and Nadia decided to join in the ridiculous antics of the Voltron crew, pulling the MFE boys with them. Hunk, Matt and Allura laughed and joined in the group hug, smothering Keith and each other effectively.

“Do you feel our love, Keith?” Pidge's muffled voice asked him.

Keith grunted nonchalantly.

Shiro laughed when Keith softly muttered to his ear, “...hate you…”

Pidge started squirming when the hug got too intense and lasted way longer than it should have. "Okay enough of that sappy stuff. Let's take a group shot."

"Why?" Keith asked incredulously. 

"Do it for the gram."

"...for the what?" 

Lance waved his hand towards the setting Sun. "Pidge, the lighting isn't exactly perfect."

"I'll make it perfect."

Their group photo ended up looking  as though it was taken while the Sun was still high in the sky. It was beautiful. They all left the beach feeling light and happy. Keith didn't even realize he was smiling the whole way home.

As time went on, the paladins and the pilots got to know each other even better. Allura loved Earth desserts especially the cold ones like ice cream, milkshakes and shaved ice. Ina could cook a mean scrambled egg and could calculate as fast as Pidge and Hunk. Nadia never backed down from a challenge and was a constant source of entertainment when she beat Lance at every challenge he threw at her. Ryan loved animals and was often seen petting Kosmo or other wandering strays.

And surprisingly, James and Keith were as close as though they were best friends but neither seemed to notice. Keith knew exactly what James was allergic to, James knew what drinks Keith liked, they both had inside jokes no one understood and they fought just as much as they were caught sharing smiles.

When Allura asked Lance, he scoffed. “I heard they came from the same school and absolutely hated each other. You tend to notice more if you hate them right?”

Allura piqued. “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer?”

Lance grinned at the Altean princess. “Look at you! Quoting back Earth quotes already!”

They all lounged on the sofa until it was time for bed. Predictably, Keith did not sleep in the dorms and no one asked where he went at night. But at around 3am, James would startle awake by the door sliding open since he slept closest to the entrance. He watched as Shiro carried a sleeping Keith to his assigned bed. The captain of the Atlas gave an apologetic look to James before he quietly slipped out of the room.

They had talked about it before, how they were trying to get Keith used to normal beds again. It would take time but they had promised to help.

James went back to sleep but it lasted only an hour before he was awake again. This time, it was because someone was moaning in pain. Krolia had warned all of them about the nightmares. And since no one else heard, it was up to James alone to help Keith. James got up from his bed and quickly tried to wake Keith up. Krolia had said that the most important thing was to get Keith back to this reality. They didn’t question what that implied.

After grabbing Keith’s shoulders and giving them a few hard shakes, Keith jolted up and seemed to be scrambling for something- ‘ His knife..,’ James thought.

Keith’s eyes were glazed and wild, panic had filled his chest and the paranoia from seeing the strange places from the future in his nightmares made him backed away from James till he harshly hit the wall.

James sat on Keith’s bedside and lifted both his hands in a placating gesture. He spoke quietly like Krolia had coached them. “Keith. You’re in the Atlas. You’re safe. It’s alright. It was just a nightmare.” James continued saying all sorts of assurance until Keith’s body wasn’t so tense, his eyes held more clarity and his breathing had slowed down to a much normal pace.

From their past experience, James knew Keith was a little uncomfortable with physical contact but Krolia had insisted that physical contact was what Keith needed most to ground him from his nightmares. So while James had been speaking, he inched closer and closer and held out his hand. He waited for Keith to initiate contact. James wasn’t disappointed when Keith took his hand and squeezed hard. The MFE pilot scooted a bit closer and let Keith rest his forehead on James’ shoulder.

James could feel Keith’s cold sweat seeping into his clothes and the small tremors that still wrecked Keith’s body. Hesitatingly, James held the back of Keith’s head with his free hand and continued whispering assurances. Keith leaned into James a bit more and focused on breathing. Keith mentally repeated James’ words until he believed in them.

A few minutes passed in silence as Keith finally regained his bearings but he was still resting his head on James’ shoulder.

“…thanks,” Keith hoarsely mumbled.

“Stop moving everything in the dorms and we can call it even.”

James felt more than he heard Keith’s muffled laughter. He saw Keith’s phone (a gift from the Holts) and reached out for it. James opened the Voltron social media account and played the various videos from their one-day vacation at the beach. Keith listened to his friends’ laughter and good-humored insults, he listened as the MFE pilots shouted at Shiro for the first time, he listened to the soft rumbling of the sea that was a constant background noise in each video. From the sound of their happiness in each playback, it was hard to believe that more than a week ago they had been fighting for their lives to save Earth.

They were not okay. Not after all that they’d been through, after all they’d done, after all the blood that stained their hands. But maybe, with a little help from each other, they could all live to smile and laugh another day.

Keith closed his eyes and let the memories of his found family wash over him; the smell of the ocean, the sound of the waves and the warmth from their hugs.