"Keith Steven Kogane."
"How many times do I have to tell you my middle name isn't Steven before you stop calling me that?" Keith asked, but he turned around and didn't follow the others as they filed out of the common room.
"Fine," Matt replied. "Let's go for something a bit more fitting. How about 'Keith Dumbass Kogane'? How's that?"
Keith blinked. "What?"
"'What,' he says, like he wasn't about to fly into a super strong shield ten minutes ago," Matt said derisively. "What the hell, Keith?"
Keith pulled his shoulders in defensively. Matt had the feeling he was about five seconds away from pulling his hood over his face and hiding in it. "Someone had to stop that cannon."
"And who says that you flying into the shield would do a damn thing?" Matt retorted. "And even if it did, which is debatable, what makes you think you're an acceptable loss?"
"The mission is more important than the individual," Keith replied, which was bullshit if Matt had ever heard it. "Anyway, if no one took the cannon out, we all would have died when Naxzela blew."
That was... somewhat less bullshit.
"I just hope you know that you scared at least ten years off my life out there," Matt said. "And if you ever try to pull something like that ever again, I'm going to tell Shiro, and he's probably gonna tie you to a chair or something to keep you from being an idiot and getting yourself killed."
The slight grimace that crossed Keith's face was more than enough to tell Matt his threat was a real one. "Fine."
"And," Matt added, grabbing Keith's arm and dragging him over to the couch, "now we're gonna cuddle."
Keith spluttered. "What- Matt! I need to debrief with Kolivan-"
"Kolivan, Schmolivan," Matt dismissed. "And don't even try to say you don't like cuddling, because every single time we would have a movie night back at the Garrison, I would wake up with you clinging to me like an octopus." He sat down and pulled Keith down next to him. Keith remained stiff and awkward, and Matt sighed. "I will forcibly wrap your arms around me if you don't do it yourself, you know I will."
"Fine," Keith groaned, but the way he leaned into Matt's side made it clear that he wasn't nearly as put-upon as he wanted to appear. "How long do we have to do this?"
"As long as I want," Matt replied. "Now, do you want to tell me about the Blade of Marmora, or should I tell you about being a rebel?"
Keith leaned into Matt a little bit more. "I'm not supposed to talk too much about our missions to people who aren't Blades."
"Then I'll talk," Matt stated. "Okay, so it all started when I was broken out of the Galra prison..."
Matt had barely even gotten to the part where he faked his own death when Keith fell asleep. He had been so quiet that it was hard to tell the difference at first, but when Keith went even more boneless against Matt's side, Matt realized that his breathing had evened out. He grinned a little and wrapped an arm around Keith's shoulders, holding him close.
He hadn't been lying when he said Keith's stupid stunt scared ten years off his life, and he had the feeling that the Blades weren't giving Keith nearly enough hugs, so he was going to have to make up for lost time.
Honestly, it took longer than Matt had expected for someone to wander into the common room. The someones in question were Pidge, Lance, and Hunk. They all looked at Keith, who was clinging to Matt like the octopus that he truly was, then at Matt, then at each other.
"Um," Lance finally said, "what?"
"It's the Matt Holt Cuddle Extravaganza," Matt declared, spreading the arm that wasn't wrapped around Keith. "Everyone is invited, except Lotor. That bitch can choke."
"Saved us," Keith mumbled, so maybe he wasn't quite as asleep as Matt had thought.
"Fair point," Matt agreed. "Okay, I take back the bit about choking, but he's still not invited to the Cuddle Extravaganza."
"Sounds good," Pidge said, jumping onto the couch and nestling into Matt's side that didn't currently have a Keith glued to it.
"Since when does Keith like cuddling, though?" Lance demanded.
Keith let go of Matt just enough to raise one hand to flip Lance off, then he burrowed back into Matt's side. He had to really be exhausted (and touch-starved like whoa, when was the last time someone had hugged this boy?) to care so little about the fact that his cuddling was being observed.
"The real question is, when are you two going to get in on this?" Matt countered.
Lance and Hunk looked at each other. "I always like cuddling," Hunk finally said, going to the couch and wrapping himself around Pidge. Lance stared at Keith for a moment longer, then went over and wormed his way between Pidge and Hunk, squirming until he managed to find a comfortable position.
"We should do this more often," Lance declared. "Maybe we could even get Shiro to join in sometimes."
"Oh, Shiro is definitely joining us," Matt said, noticing the way Keith tried to burrow impossibly deeper into Matt's side at the very mention of the name. "The Matt Holt Cuddle Extravaganza cannot be missed. Literally, because I'm now declaring it mandatory."
Pidge punched him in the ribs far harder than was necessary. "Shut up," she grumbled. "I'm trying to sleep."
"Jeez, fine," Matt huffed. "No need to get pissy about it."
"I'll hit you again if you don't shut up."
"I'm shutting up, I'm shutting up."
Pidge probably fell asleep after that, since she didn't punch Matt again. Matt was pretty sure Keith was asleep too, but he'd thought that before as well, so he wasn't going to assume anything when it came to Keith. Hunk seemed to have fallen asleep basically the second he hit the couch, and even though Matt couldn't see enough of Lance to be sure, he was guessing he had fallen asleep too. Which left Matt the only one awake in the room.
He leaned back and closed his eyes, and although he didn't think he would be able to sleep - he was actually astoundingly uncomfortable, given that he had lots of people lying on top of him and thus couldn't really feel any of his limbs - at least he could rest easy.
As uncomfortable as it was, resting easy was much easier when surrounded by (or, in this case, covered by) family.
Shiro walked into the common room, looked at Matt and his collection of sleeping teenagers, and shook his head fondly. "Snuggle party?"
"The Matt Holt Cuddle Extravaganza," Matt corrected. "And you're joining."
Shiro blinked. "Matt, I-"
"Cuddle with Keith," Matt said firmly. "Or else."
Shiro sighed. Matt had heard from the others that his memory could be a bit spotty in places, but he hoped that Shiro still remembered the last time he hadn't done something when Matt had threatened "or else." It had been back at the Garrison, and Shiro hadn't stopped his panicked muttering over his notes for his basic maintenance final, even when Matt, who had been on the edge of pulling his hair out over his advanced programming final, had asked him seventeen times (he'd counted) to be quiet. That night, Matt had quadruple knotted the laces for Shiro's sneakers together and used almost a whole roll of duct tape to tape his boots together.
He hadn't regretted it at all. It was finals, and he had given multiple warnings. It wasn't his fault that Shiro had no sense of human decency.
"I should really-" Shiro began, but Matt was having none of it.
"Or else, Shiro."
Shiro sighed again, but it sounded like he did it more for the drama than anything else. He walked over to the couch and sat down next to Keith, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Cuddle with him, for God's sake!" Matt hissed. "That is not cuddling!"
"Matt-"
"I swear to God, Shiro, I will tell every member of the Coalition every embarrassing story about you I can think of if you don't cuddle with Keith right now."
Shiro looked at Matt. Matt looked at Shiro. Something in his face must have convinced Shiro that Matt was deadly serious (as he was), since Shiro wrapped an arm around Keith's waist and leaned on him gently. A furrow in Keith's brow that Matt hadn't even noticed was there smoothed out, and Keith somehow managed to pull closer to Shiro without getting farther away from Matt at all. He really was like an octopus sometimes.
"What's this?" Coran asked as he and Allura walked into the room. "You look like a pack of yalmors!"
"We still don't know what those are, Coran," Lance mumbled, so hey, Lance was awake!
"This is the Matt Holt Cuddle Extravaganza," Matt said. "And it's mandatory, so..." He would have waved if he could move either of his arms, but one had a Pidge latched onto it and the other had a Keith, and he couldn't really feel either of them anyway. "Come on, time to cuddle."
Allura blinked. "I... I don't know-"
"It's a very important Earth tradition," Matt said, trying to sound as serious as possible. "We do it to bond as a team. It's not considered complete until every member of the team is involved."
"Matt," Shiro groaned.
Matt shot Shiro a look. Normally, he would kick him, but his legs were pinned too, so a glare would have to do. "It's very important."
"Well," Allura said hesitantly, "if it's so important, I suppose Coran and I should join in."
Matt beamed at Allura. "Thank you, Princess!"
Allura walked over to the couch and tentatively sat down next to Shiro, leaning on his back. The tips of Shiro's ears went bright red. Matt made a mental note to make fun of him for that later, although he had to admit that he would also be completely incapable of keeping his cool if Allura started snuggling with him. He didn't have to mention that, though.
Coran sat down next to Allura and wrapped an arm around her waist. "This is very much like a pack of yalmors," he declared.
"I think the Earthlings are sleeping, Coran," Allura whispered.
"Oh, sorry!" Coran whispered in what was perhaps the loudest whisper Matt had ever heard in his life.
"Is the tradition complete now?" Allura asked Matt, looking at him over Shiro's shoulder.
"Well, we've got everyone joining in, but on Earth, normally we'd snuggle overnight," Matt replied. "Since everyone ends up falling asleep anyway."
"That sounds logical," Allura replied. She shifted a bit to get comfortable, making Shiro's eyes go wide for a moment, then let out a sigh. "You're very comfortable, Shiro."
"Thank you, Princess," Shiro replied. Matt was impressed at his ability to sound almost completely normal.
"Everyone shut up," Pidge groaned, punching Matt in the side again, which he thought was completely unfair, considering everyone else was making more noise than he was. Even though she was still at least half asleep, she still hit really hard.
"I'm sorry, Pidge!" Allura whispered. "We'll be quiet now."
The room was quiet after that, except for the sound of everyone's breathing. Matt closed his eyes and tried to get into the least uncomfortable position possible, which was difficult, given that he could barely feel most of his limbs. They would hurt like hell in the morning, but he was on an alien ship that probably (hopefully) had ways to deal with that. The Alteans seemed much more advanced than humans, so if they couldn't deal with limbs that had fallen asleep, Matt would be highly disappointed.
As he finally drifted off to sleep, his last thought was that no matter how uncomfortable he would be in the morning, it was worth it.