When Keith and Lance returned from a minor recon mission from Tyvrek, a planet with a temperate climate that reminded them both of Earth, they happened upon the rest of the paladins drowning… in a sea of cards.

"UNO!" Allura all but screamed, getting on her knees and hurling a single card in Hunk's direction. "I WON! FINALLY! Oh–" She sat back and smoothed down the front of her dress with a radiant smile. "Welcome back, paladins."

Keith took note of the mischievous gleam in Pidge's eyes, as well as the mortified and exhausted looks on Shiro and Hunk. "What're you guys doing?" he asked.

"A team bonding exercise!" Coran piped up, fingering his mustache in that peculiar way of his. "It's rather quite challenging, if I do say so myself."

Before Keith could ask what kind of team bonding exercise involved throwing cards at each other's faces, Lance had finished shedding the armor of his pilot suit and came jogging right in.

"Heeey!" Lance grinned, his whole face alight with glee. He was still wearing the black bodysuit. "You guys're playing Uno! When's the next game? I'm so in."

Hunk shook his head. "Careful, Lance."

"Huh? Why?"

Shiro grimaced, looking pointedly at Allura. "She cheats."

At that, Allura gasped. "I beg your pardon? I would never!"

Pidge blew a raspberry. "Yeah, don't be so salty."

Allura and Pidge high-fived.

Lance adopted a menacing look and rubbed his hands together. "Well, you've never played against a champ! Don't worry guys, I got you covered."

Shiro and Hunk looked at one another.

"Coran!" Shiro whispered, "Back us up here!"

"Yeah, dude," said Hunk. "With you, we'll be the winning team for sure!"

Lance rolled his eyes. "Gee. Thanks for the support."

"Charmed," Coran said, smiling broadly. "Really, I am. But…" Coran moved to stand behind the girls. "UNO there's only one winning team in this family."

"OHHHHH!" Allura and Pidge cried, while Coran made it rain Uno cards on his favorites.

Keith felt his mouth twitch with laughter. He smothered it down when Lance abruptly turned around to look at him.

"Hey, Keith! Don't just stand there! The fam's waiting for you!"

Keith stared at the group in thoughtful silence. Fam, as Lance often called them, was short for family. He'd never had a family before, but… Yes, he thought, this was probably it.

Keith pursed his lips and asked, hesitantly, "How are there even teams if we're playing Uno?"

"Ah, just shut up and play, man," Lance said, waving him over and scooting to the side to make room for Keith to join their little circle on the floor.

"Okay," he said, coming over to sit beside Lance, feeling an odd sense of pride and belonging as Hunk slung an arm over his shoulder and Shiro ruffled his hair and Lance's hand, warm and familiar, squeezed his knee.

And the feeling stayed, even when Pidge slapped down the fourth Draw Two card in a row and screamed "GET REKT," even as Coran changed the color from red to yellow, and even as Allura's third Skip Turn card left Keith with a handful of red and blue cards in his hands.

He found how easy it was to laugh through it all, even when he looked like he was holding half the deck and when Shiro's last card was thrown in the air and it struck Lance in the eye and he went down shouting "MAN DOWN, MAN DOWN!"

He laughed, his seventeen red and blue cards slipping from his hand, because, yes, this was probably what it meant to have a family.