Birthday Surprises

Keith was the first recipient of a surprising package at his doorstep.

He had been coming out of his room to head to breakfast, somewhat grateful that Allura hadn't felt the need for a surprise drill that morning, when he quite literally tripped over it. Annoyed, because his constant training gives him better balance than that, he looked to the source.

Keith blinked in surprise at the box sitting just outside his door. It looked like most of the containers that could be found in the castle's storage units, but someone had tied a red bow on it and slid a small card underneath it.

Curiosity piqued, he crouched down and slipped the card out. He studied it for a moment. It wasn't anything too fancy, just a piece of folded paper, though he wondered where someone had found paper on this ship, and it had a drawing of a red lion wielding a sword on the front. It was a more anime style drawing, but it was good enough. Humming to himself, he opened the card.

Keith stared in shock at the words written there.

"Happy Birthday! Hope it's a great day!"

There was no signature, and Keith didn't really recognize the handwriting, so he knew that whatever this was, it wasn't from Shiro.

Which led to the even bigger question of how this person even knew it was his birthday.

Was it his birthday? He hadn't been paying attention to the Earth calendar Pidge and Hunk had managed to set up, so for all he knew it could be.

Keith eyed the package suspiciously. He picked it up and took the few steps back into his room. For all he knew, this was another of Pidge's pranks and he'd prefer for it not to be all over the hallway if it was.

The ribbon came off easily, and, trying to push down the paranoia, Keith opened the box.

He could only blink in surprise once more.

Inside the box was a sheath, obviously handmade but with very good craftsmanship, that matched his knife perfectly where it sat on his back in its well-worn container, as well as a new pair of fingerless gloves, almost an exact match to the ones he currently wore.

Picking one of the gloves up, he could instantly tell that they were made of an Altean material just by how fine it felt. Experience told him it would take a lot more to destroy it though. He then tentatively touched the sheath. It also was made from some sort of Altean material; it felt sort of like leather but it was too smooth to the touch, and it was thicker and more durable than his current sheath.

Keith stared at the gift. These were the types of gifts that would take time and thought put into them. The materials were good and it was obvious that love and care was in every stitch putting them together.

Someone had taken the time to make these for him, all because it was, apparently, his birthday.

Only Shiro had really cared to do something like this before, but it couldn't be him.

Actually, there was only one person on the ship who could've had the skill to make something like this, but it felt nearly impossible that it could be him.

Only one person had managed to craft together lion slippers after only a couple days in space.

But as Keith entered the dining area, a fuss about his birthday was only kicked up when Shiro wished him a happy birthday and prompted the other paladins to wish him well.

However, Keith did think he saw a flicker of a smile on Lance's face when he started using the new sheath after things went down with the Blade of Marmora.

Allura, Coran, and the mice were all confused when they each found a package outside their doors. Well, Coran's package was outside his door and the mice's were smaller packages sitting next to Allura's. They were all placed on the same day.

Allura and Coran's packages were both accompanied by a card and the ribbon matched the color of the recipient: pink for Allura, teal for Coran, and a light pastel of each of the mice's fur colors.

All gifts were taken into the owner's room, the mice gathering around Allura as she pulled out the card. It had a drawing of a flower on it, not one she was familiar with but one she was sure was on Earth, and she opened it, reading its message aloud,

"No clue when your birthday is, or how it'd line up to Earth time, but seeing as how back home this would be the start of the New Year, I figure this is as good a time as any to give you this. Happy Birthday!

"P.S. Each of the mice gets a present, too. Cheese is finally something we can make."

The message intrigued Allura further. She wondered if birthdays on Earth were like the celebrations held on Altea. After opening each of the mice's gifts and distributing them, she then turned her attention to her own package, giggling at the joy radiating from her little friends.

But her breath ended up catching as she opened it.

Inside was a necklace, its chain thin and dainty and with a pendant of a very familiar flower.

A juniberry.

There had been two possibilities as to who these gifts were from before this. After all, only two of her paladins had been trying to figure out how to use the milk from Kaltenecker to make various Earth foods. Now she knew without a doubt who it was from as only one of them had ever offered to buy her jewelry.

Allura clutched the pendant close, smiling through her tears.

Not that Coran was in any better of a state.

Over in his room, his card was a picture of an orange lion with a familiar mustache on its face. Within it read, "No clue when your birthday is, but this is as good a day as any to give this to you. Thanks for everything you do for us all, and happy birthday!"

Inside had been what Coran was told was a picture frame. Most Altean picture viewers were digital, so there had been no use for the teal painted wooden frame with lions and stars stuck onto it.

But what really got to Coran was the picture within the frame.

It was a physical copy of a photograph that Coran had shown only one paladin.

As Coran held the picture of his family close, he could understand why humans liked having physical items to hold what was precious.

Though when Coran and Allura each approached Lance to thank him, all they got was a wave and a smile.

"It's your birthday. You deserve it."

Hunk was the only one who found his package inside his room.

He, of course, knew right away what it was. He actually kept track of the days they were in space. Besides, this wasn't the first year he'd woken up to find a birthday present by his side.

Not bothering to get dressed, Hunk padded over to his gift and slipped the yellow ribbon off. Picking up the card, he couldn't help the grin on his face at the drawing of a yellow lion in a chef hat while wielding a wrench in its jaw. He opened it to read the heartfelt message, "Happy Birthday, dude! Don't know what I would do without you here!"

Hunk tried not to get too choked up at the message.

Setting the card aside, he proceeded to open the box up.

His face immediately lit up.

Inside of the box were jars of spices. Each one was labeled, most of them with names he didn't recognize though there did seem to be a few authentic Earth spices in there as well, and the ones that were not from Earth each had a description of the taste and use of that spice. Hunk could feel his grin widen as he thought of all the tasty treats he could make from these.

It was as he was reaching for one of the jars that he felt a brush of cloth against his fingers. Curious, he pulled it out.

And he immediately froze.

One thing that his moms had tried to instill in him was to always be prepared. They had tried to encourage him to at the very least always carry a handkerchief with him as it could be used for many things.

Now, there weren't many ways that a person could be prepared for suddenly being launched unexpectedly into space in a giant, mystical space cat robot. But even on that final night at the Garrison, Hunk had had the handkerchief his moms had given him in his pocket.

Unfortunately, that handkerchief had met an unexpected end in a pool of acid.

But now he was pulling out a handkerchief just like the one his mom had made him. A cheery yellow with his initials embroidered on it.

Hunk carefully set down the present and hurried from the room. He immediately headed to the door right next to his.

"Lance?" He asked as he knocked the door. It opened within seconds and he walked in to see Lance pulling on his jacket.

Lance grinned up at him. "Hey, Hunk! Happy - !"

Hunk engulfed him in a hug. "Thank you!"

Lance just chuckled and returned the embrace. "Nothing but the best for my brother from another mother."

"Don't you have enough siblings?" Hunk couldn't help the watery laugh as he squeezed his friend tighter.

"Never!"

The two of them hugged for a while, neither wanting to leave just yet.

Shiro had always hated his birthday.

Mainly because due to it only really occurring once every four years, it had left him the butt of many age jokes. And those had gotten old by the time he had technically been alive for 6 years but he had only experience one birthday.

As such, he tried to avoid thinking about his birthday as much as possible. Because even Keith, the kid he'd taken under his wing as a little brother, hadn't been able to resist age jokes.

Needless to say, that's why he stared very suspiciously at the package adorned with a black ribbon on his room's doorstep on what would have been March 1st back on Earth.

Though the other paladins would never have believed him, Keith was capable of practical jokes.

It looked innocent enough, so Shiro tentatively brought it into his room. Upon seeing the card though, Shiro knew that this wasn't from Keith. The black lion roaring at a starry sky and crescent moon wasn't Keith's style at all.

Now actually curious, Shiro opened the card.

"I know it's technically not your birthday, but hey, considering the last couple years, you should get to celebrate still being alive! Happy Birthday-ish!" He read aloud.

Well, whoever this was from has a point. Shiro thought. Without any more hesitation, he opened the present.

Inside was a set of headphones and a music player. There was a note on the player that read, "I managed to find one with a lot of relaxing music on it. It may help."

Shiro blinked down at the items as their significance hit him.

Back on Earth, he had of course learned about PTSD as part of his studies and he remembered now that relaxing music helped some people deal with it.

This was…

Wow.

Shiro smiled at the gift, and wondered who this could be from.

Then it occurred to him that there was probably only one person on the ship who would write messages in blue glitter pen.

Pidge snorted awake in Green. She looked around her surroundings for a second, trying to remember what she had been doing before she fell asleep.

Right. She'd been finishing up installing some algorithms into Green to help boost the targeting system.

Well, at least that was done with.

Pidge sat up and cracked her back. She really needed to stop falling asleep sitting up. She could already hear the lecture about posture from Lance as she picked up her laptop and left her lion.

She paused as she saw a package at her work station. She squinted at the box that was topped with a bright green bow. It stirred a memory in her, but she couldn't…

Oh. She flipped open her laptop where she had a tracker for the Earth day equivalent.

It was her birthday.

Huh. Pidge went over to the box and pulled out the card on it. She snickered at the green lion on the cover that seemed to be tapping at a laptop and had glasses perched on her nose. She flipped it open to read, "Happy Birthday, gremlin! Maybe this will help as you never go to your actual bed."

That was enough incentive for Pidge to toss the card to the side, rip off the bow, and open the box.

She couldn't help but stare in astonishment.

Slowly, Pidge pulled out the green, knitted snuggie. She had once mentioned, way back in the Garrison days, that she liked snuggies because she could cover up fully and still work on her projects. Plus, then it wasn't such a big deal if she fell asleep half way through her work.

But to actually knit one? The materials and time to make it shocked Pidge, and to go to such effort…

Pidge huffed out a small laugh and carefully folded the snuggie.

Maybe she would listen to Lance's lecture this one time.

Lance nearly panicked when he saw the time on his phone.

As Paladins of Voltron, they were always busy and Lance was pretty sure that he hadn't been able to sleep past eight since they came to space. Not to mention that he had had to get up earlier at the Garrison.

So, seeing that it was nearly ten, his alarm had somehow turned off, and he was super late to morning training, it gave a guy enough reason to panic.

Lance went through his morning routine at lightning speed (after all, being late was no reason to skip it), and he frantically tried to come up with an excuse for his lateness.

Actually, why hadn't Hunk at least come to wake him?

Lance pushed that thought aside as he hurried down the corridor to the kitchen. Holy crow, they are going to be so mad…

Lance slid into the room, explanations already falling from his lips, "Sorry, guys, for some reason my alarm – "

"Happy Birthday!"

Pop! Pop!

Lance's eyes widened in surprise at the sight before him.

Keith and Pidge were holding the exploded poppers, grins on their faces. Hunk stood holding a birthday cake practically radiating happiness as he laughed at his friend's shock. Shiro stood next to a pile of presents and his eyes were scrunched up as he genuinely smiled. Allura, Coran, and even the mice were getting into the birthday cheer as they were all somehow wearing pointy birthday hats.

Lance hadn't – he hadn't –

He had not seen this coming. At all.

"It's my birthday?!" He shot a look at the Earth calendar on the wall, and yup, sure enough, it was that exact date.

Pidge snorted. "You make a point of remembering all of our birthdays, and then you forget your own." She adjusted her glasses. "How typical of you."

"Hey! We've been busy, especially with getting Shiro back!" Lance defended, reaching out to ruffle her hair and ignoring the indignant noise she made.

"Well, I suppose he's not wrong." Allura admitted.

"Besides," Lance pointed out, "it's not like we did anything for everyone else's birthdays, and pretty soon it'll have been a year out here."

"Oh, really?" Shiro quirked an eyebrow at that. "Nothing was done for our birthdays?"

Oh, cheese. Lance thought. It was almost like they knew, but that should have been impossible. Sure, he gotten, and even made, them all gifts for their birthdays, but he had made sure to never sign any of the cards. Only the Alteans and Hunk had –

"We know, Lance." Keith said bluntly, rolling his eyes. "You really didn't think we'd talk about it? Besides, I'm pretty sure only you and Coran know how to sew. It wasn't that hard to figure out." His brow furrowed as he thought about it for a second. "Though I still have no clue how you knew about my birthday…"

"I made a point about knowing everything about my rival in the Garrison." Lance replied, and Hunk snorted at that understatement from where he was setting the cake on the table. "But still, I just did all that because I wanted to! You didn't have to – "

"You say that as if we didn't want to do this, Number 3!" Coran said, twirling his mustache. "And as you said to us before, it's your birthday! You deserve it!"

Lance could feel wetness prickling at his eyes. This was… this was just…

"Ah, come here, buddy!" Hunk scooped his friend into a hug.

"Hug Pile!" Pidge declared as she dragged Keith into hugging the other two and the rest of the group quickly joined in.

Lance gave a watery chuckle as he did his best to hug them all back. "I love you guys. Thanks."

"Yeah. We know." Keith said.

And as all of Team Voltron hugged each other, some of them having tears in their eyes like Lance, Lance knew that this was going to be a great birthday.

Because it was with his second family.

AN: So I headcanon that Team Voltron got launched into space some time in August. Seeing as we haven't been told Keith's birthday yet, that means that his birthday would've been the first to come up. I also headcanon that Lance is like, a wiz when it comes to arts and crafts from sewing and knitting all the way to drawing, so we get some of that as well.

So this is my contribution for Lance's birthday! He deserves hugs and a party and everything. However, seeing as I started watching Voltron recently, I realized that I had missed pretty much all the other Paladins birthdays (except Keith) and who knows when the Alteans' birthdays are. So this is for all of them as well, and it's how Lance is a sweetheart that just wants to give his friends presents on their birthdays.