Author's Note: I do not own Voltron or any of its characters, properties, etc. Nor do I own any products, locations, or placements used in this story. I only own the characters I've created, and that's it. Also, I do this only for fun and stress relief purposes and make no money off it.

I appreciate all of my readers, old and new alike, as we embark on the sequel to "Someone Like You." If you know the first book, fabulous; if not, well, you'll catch on quickly, and you can always ask me questions. I'm here to help. Reviews and feedback are always welcome and encouraged; I do my best work when I'm under scrutiny.

Let's get this party started.

Title Song: "Happy" by Leona Lewis

It was sometime in the dark hours of the early morning. Judging by the stars, Sven guessed it was around 0200 hours. "Come on, little man, let's go," he said patiently, lifting Erik out of the crib. The boy had been fussing for the past twenty minutes, and it became clear that he wouldn't be going back to sleep on his own. Sven had then gotten out of bed, prepared the bottle of formula, and taken his son out on the balcony for an early-morning feeding. He'd set up two rocking chairs out there so he could do his two favorite things on Pollux: spend time with his son and watch the stars.

He couldn't lie; his life hadn't been wonderful since he left Arus seven months ago. Pretending to be happily married to Romelle after the ultimatum she'd forced on him was maddening. On the bright side, he was pleased that he'd be on hand for Bandor's wedding in a few days, serving as his best man.

"There you go, little man," Sven said to his son as he fed him the bottle, using Nanny's nickname for him. "Eat up." True, Erik was old enough to eat solid foods now, but in the middle of the night, he just wanted his bottle. He wanted comfort. Sven couldn't say that he blamed him.

They'd had a small one-year birthday party for Erik, just the five of them. Bandor's fiancée, Princess Emma, had baked the cake, a damp one-tiered chocolate cake with a single layer of buttercream frosting which she claimed she baked every year for her siblings' birthdays on Planet Exxus. It reminded him of the Guinness cake Lenora used to bake for their floor during their final year at the Academy.

Gazing up at the stars, he thought about his elskede. He missed her. Really and truly, he missed her. Those few hours they'd spent together on Arus brought him more joy than all of the years he'd spent with Romelle. Now she was married to another man - the proof was in the pictures - and he was back with his wife.

"Oh! I didn't realize you were out here."

Sven turned his head in the direction of the voice. Emma stood on the balcony with him, dressed in her nightgown and matching robe. "Emma. Come on over."

"If I'm interrupting, I'll leave."

"Nonsense. Sit down." Sven motioned to the rocking chair beside him. Emma hesitantly sat down, looking over at Erik as she did.

"He's so cute," she said after a long pause. "And soon he'll be my nephew."

"Right on both counts." He was glad to have Emma there - he was so tired of being lonely. "How have you been adjusting to life on Pollux, Princess? Are you ready to be married to Bandor?"

She shrugged. "So far, so good. And I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she replied pleasantly, gazing over at Erik as he was starting to drift off. The bottle was still in his mouth. "Gods, I just adore him." She leaned over to gently touch the top of his head.

He turned his head to look over at her. Slate-blue eyes met navy, wide and hopeful. "Sven, you know I would take care of Erik if anything happened to you and Romelle. I would watch over him and make sure he was raised well."

"I know you would, Emma."

They were quiet for a moment, the only sound being Erik's sleeping breaths. "I went to the doctor with Romelle yesterday," she said quietly, staring up at the stars. "He thinks that her depression is lifting, and he reduced the dosage of her medication." She shrugged. "Though I can't figure out why she'd still be depressed. She and Erik are bonding quite well, it's like she never missed out on the first five months of his life."

It was Sven's turn to look back up at the stars. He wanted to tell Emma everything about why he had changed so much since Crydor and Arus. Why he was different. Why their marriage was different. How his Haggarium infection was being held at a standstill, lurking like a virus just waiting to re-infect him.

And then there was that night with Lenora. That was the night that had single-handedly changed everything. Knowing that she was still alive made him yearn, especially on nights when Romelle was so distant and cold towards him, for his days at the Academy.

He would never get those days back.

Exhaling, Emma lifted her head, and for a moment the two of them studied the night sky. "Bandor told me that you used to be a navigator. The best in the Alliance."

"One of the best, yes." He thought about Morgan, and how competing with her had forced him to hone his own navigational skills. "I enjoy reading the stars."

"I can tell." She turned her head to look over at Erik, now happily asleep while his father was wide awake. "Sven, I know something's not right here. Tell me, what is it that you really, truly want out of life?"

His eyes didn't leave the night sky. "I just want to be happy, Princess."

When Jeff walked past Morgan Feld Rackens in the kitchen on the way to the refrigerator, clad only in a pair of boxer shorts that she swore were holdovers from their Academy days, she nearly smacked him with her frying pan.

"Dude! What was that for?" Jeff cried out as he jumped out of the way to avoid the pan.

"That," she replied testily, "was for keeping me awake half the night with your grunts and your moans and your - seven hells, will your poor girlfriend even be able to walk this morning?"

Jeff leaned against the granite-topped kitchen island with a satisfied smirk on his face. "Maybe, maybe not."

She shot him a dirty look.

"Hey, what did you expect? The Explorer just docked last night. I haven't seen anybody except the commander and the Vehicle Team in ten weeks." He paused to look down at the floor. "I bet Commander Hawkins is gonna catch seven hells from his wife about going over the allotted eight-week exploration cycle."

Morgan nodded in agreement. "Yeah, he's probably in the doghouse for that. When I talked to Len yesterday, she said she was ticked off about him overriding her orders."

"Hmm. Lucky for me, my significant other was happy to see me, instead of ticked off." He opened the refrigerator door and pulled out two bottles of water. "Okay, I'm going back to bed now."

"Jeffrey Aki!" Morgan shrieked. "You leave that poor girl alone, will you? She needs to be able to walk!"

"Hey, if she asks for it, who am I to say no?" Hurriedly, he ducked out of the kitchen and darted back up the stairs before Morgan could throw any more kitchen utensils at him. It was a good thing that he and Morgan had been friends for so long and had been through so much together over the years. Otherwise he might think she was really trying to kill him.

As he entered his bedroom with the two bottles of water and locked the door behind him, he heard her stir in the bed. "Jeff?" she called out quietly. "Get back in bed. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Chris."

After having been away for ten weeks, Jeff would have been very happy to just watch Christiane Kogane while she slept. He really had missed her. With every fiber in his being, he missed her. They had been romantically involved for almost nine months now, though they had been friends for much longer. It still wasn't right, in his mind, that he was dating Keith's sister. Friends weren't supposed to date their best friend's sister. Friends weren't supposed to kiss or stroke or close the deal with their best friend's sister, either.

Some best friend Jeff was turning out to be.

As he moved back into bed, he gazed at her form. Christiane was beyond beautiful with her creamy skin and those blue-black ripples splayed across her bare back. She looked up at him with sparkling turquoise eyes as he pulled the comforter back over his body. "Snuggle with me," she requested, and he obliged.

As he held his girlfriend in his arms, he had an overwhelming feeling to ask her a question. The big question.

"Hey Chris, I want to ask you something."

Being a seer, Christiane braced herself. She knew what Jeff wanted to ask. He wanted to ask her to marry him. It was obvious, even if one wasn't a seer. She couldn't let him do it.

It wasn't that she didn't want to marry Jeff. She did. He was The One. She knew it, and she sensed that he knew it, too. But she didn't want him to propose to her just yet. First, she didn't want some off-the-cuff proposal that took no thought or preparation. And second, right now, she was happy just as they were. She didn't need anything more.

When she was eight and her brother Keith was twelve, her parents died. She was too young to understand what really happened, but what she did know was that she and her brother were orphaned, separated, and placed into the care of the state. Christiane was shuffled between foster homes and foster parents, some good, some definitely not good. She had no contact with her brother; it wasn't allowed. When she turned sixteen, she filed for legal emancipation, and with nowhere else to go, she enrolled herself in the Space Academy.

The rest of the story was harder to bear. Once enrolled in the Academy, she frantically searched for Keith, somehow knowing that he would be there. And when she found him...

When she finally found her brother, he was like a different person. Darker. Sadder. Very bitter. And as he looked at her, disapproval thick in his aquamarine eyes, it was as though he couldn't stand the sight of her.

She knew from her visions that it wasn't that he hated her or didn't want to see her, it was just that he couldn't. Looking at her reminded him of the too many horrors he'd seen in his lifetime, the too many crushed dreams and future aspirations washed away, and so he just couldn't. He was emotionally stunted and suffered from too many intimacy issues.

Which was why Christiane did not want to get married any time soon. Being with Jeff was like a dream come true. It was the happy ending she deserved. And living under the same roof with David and Morgan Rackens? She knew that they were their friends' den parents, but they were truly like her surrogate parents as well. She loved them, and she didn't want to cut the apron strings just yet.

She drew in a deep breath. "Jeff, I love you, but I don't want to get married yet."

He drew a sharp breath, and a shocked expression settled onto his face. Duh. She's a seer. Of course she would know what you were about to ask, Dummy. Trying to backtrack - which he knew would look completely foolish in her eyes - he mumbled, "What, marriage? No way, Chris. Not yet, anyways. I, uh, just wanted to ask you if you'd like to move out of here and get a place of our own. You know, just the two of us living together."

Gently, she placed her hand on Jeff's bare chest and her lips on his. "Don't rush it, Jeff," she said sweetly. "I love you, I will always love you, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm happy, really and truly happy, and I just want to enjoy everything the way it is for just a little while longer."

Nestling herself into his arms, she drifted off into a blissful sleep. Jeff gazed down at her as she slept, thinking that he would just have to be patient and wait until she was ready. After all, she would be his forever. It wasn't like she was going anywhere.

When Commander Jonathan Hawkins woke up, completely undressed, he knew he was in trouble. He was curled up in bed next to his wife. His wife who was anything but completely undressed. Last night, he couldn't tempt her, he couldn't entice her, he couldn't convince her to forgive him. Nothing worked. So he gave up and fell asleep.

She was still sleeping, wearing her black Lululemon yoga pants and sea-blue tank top, with a long-sleeved mesh pullover with arms so long that there were actual thumbholes in the seams, and fuzzy socks on her feet. She slept on her shoulder, with her back and chestnut ponytail to him.

She was angry, and rightfully so.

He pulled her in towards him and kissed her awake. "Lenora, don't be angry," he said soothingly. "I love you, and I've missed you."

Her chocolate-brown eyes shot open, dark and annoyed. "You know I love you, Jon, but what you did - overriding my command for an eight-week exploration time frame - does not make me happy."

Hence the reason she wouldn't make love to him last night.

They had been married for six months, and the Explorer had been on two missions in that time. With the first mission, the ship and Vehicle Team returned to New York and docked after the allotted eight weeks. Afterwards, Lenora had greeted him at home with Veuve Clicquot champagne and the black Love Slip from Agent Provocateur. He'd barely made it through the front door before she attacked him with kisses.

Last night, though, dressed in complete uniform, it was Space Marshal Stensson who greeted them at the hangar, scowling. Captain Richard Newley shot the commander a sympathetic glance as he watched the ire dance around in the Space Marshal's eyes. "Good luck, my friend," he whispered, clapping Jon on the shoulder. "I sure wouldn't want to be going home with her. She looks ticked off."

She certainly was.

"Lenora, I'm sorry that I disobeyed orders and went two weeks longer than we should have," he said carefully, positioning his body over hers. "You have to understand, though, that eight weeks is not much time for us to explore the outer rings of our solar system. Sometimes it will take us eight weeks just to get out there."

"I understand that." Her voice was hard and unerring. "However, I also understand, Commander Hawkins, that you are a newlywed, with a wife who loves you very much, hates to see you go, and has only spent two months of her married life with you." Her upper lip quivered for a moment before she continued. "In addition, every time you disobey your wife's orders, you make her look like a fool in front of the entire Galaxy Alliance. And if the Space Marshal looks like a fool, then what strength can there be in the Alliance?"

He nodded. "You're right, of course." He collapsed his full weight on top of her and kissed her passionately. This time, at least, she didn't struggle or try to push him away; she accepted his mouth eagerly. "I'm sorry, Lenora. I really am. It's easy to lose track of time in space."

"I know." She blinked back tears. "But I've missed you, Jon. I only wish you knew how much I've missed you. Remember how you'd have to leave me in Boston, or Paris, or Vegas when I was in hiding? Remember all of the pain and sadness we'd feel when we were separated?" She wrapped her arms around his neck. "God, Jon, that was nothing compared to this."

He pulled her upright and grabbed the pullover from over her head. "I'm sorry, my darling. I am so sorry. So very sorry." He lost himself in the feel of her lips, the feel of her curves underneath his fingers as he slowly undressed her. "I am so sorry for putting you through that. I swear to you, I won't do it again."

Once she was as undressed as he was, he lost himself inside of her as well.

Sharing a bed with Allura. Black coffee. Perimeter scan.

Life was good.

Keith stood in front of the screen at Castle Control, sipping his mug of black coffee and going through the images for the perimeter scan, one area at a time. The shot of the balcony was becoming his favorite. He found himself feeling unexpectedly happy every time he caught Larmina practicing yoga out there in the early morning, disciplining herself into a fine warrior. It reminded him of his old Academy friend, Lenora Stensson. Every time he thought of Lenora, he thought about how she had helped him create the relationship he now had with Allura, and he was pleased.

Larmina was becoming more and more like Lenora. The way she carried herself, the way she disciplined herself was very much like what Lenora had done for herself when she was the same age. Allura, not knowing the Space Marshal the way her boyfriend did, was simply pleased at how well-rounded and responsible her niece was becoming. But Keith - as well as Lance, Pidge, and Hunk - could see the change in the cadet, the way she was honing her body and her skills into something greater, making herself into something better than anyone believed she could be.

"Larmina looks good out there. Too bad she's underage."

Keith sipped his coffee. "Lance! Get your mind out of the gutter."

Lance looked amused. "Captain Crankypants, how many times do I have to remind you that my mind took up permanent residence in the gutter?" He paused to sip his own coffee. "But all kidding aside, she's completely blowing past Vince and Danny-boy in terms of maturity and development. It's like, once she met the Space Marshal, she aspired to be something greater than a cadet."

"That's exactly what it is." The screen changed from Larmina on the balcony to the quiet solitude of the gardens. They watched it, neither one of them saying a word. The only sound heard in Castle Control was the slurping of coffee.

"So the three of you are going to Pollux tomorrow for Bandor's wedding?"

Keith nodded. "Yeah. For three days. Good thing Pollux isn't too far out from Arus. If we're needed, we can make it back soon enough."

Lance shrugged. "True. But do you really expect Lotor and company to attack? It's been almost eight months since we've heard anything from the Drules. It's getting kinda boring around here."

"Boring is good."

"Only to an extent."

Keith sighed. Lance was never going to learn. He was always going to be the hot-headed, heavy-drinking, action-craving, female-companion-loving guy he'd been at the Space Academy. And now that Keith was finally happy - and finally satisfied with how his life was turning out - he wondered if he'd really want it any other way.