Merry Christmas to those who celebrate Christmas!
This takes place at some point around season 2, before Shiro goes missing. The title comes from the Christmas song of the same name.
It starts when Pidge makes the hallway lights flash red and green.
Coran is the first one to notice. He frowns up at the newly-flashing lights, double checks the wiring, and then heads to the Green Lion's hangar.
"Number Four, are you in there?"
"Come in," Pidge yells, through what sounds like clenched teeth. Coran enters the hangar to find her tinkering with something, a screwdriver clamped between her teeth. She spits out and looks up at Coran. "What do you need?"
"I was, ah, wondering about the lights," Coran says. "In the halls."
"Are they not working?" Pidge asks, frowning.
"No, they're working. They're… colorful."
"Yeah, I know. I made them do that."
"I thought you might," Coran replies. He doesn't think anyone else would have been able to, except perhaps Hunk. "Um, why?"
"'Tis the season," Pidge replies, going back to her tinkering.
"'Tis the season?" Coran repeats slowly.
"'Tis the season," Pidge confirms sagely.
"Ah. Quite."
Coran has absolutely no idea what that means - he's not even sure if the first bit is a word, or if it's just the translator malfunctioning - but he's found that, when the Paladins say strange things like this, it's normally some Earth thing that only they could understand. He's learned it's best not to ask.
"The lights will still work with the alarms in case of an emergency, yes?"
"Mmm, hmm," Pidge agrees, the screwdriver back in her mouth.
"And there's still enough light for people to see by?"
"Mmm, hmm."
Coran shrugs. "Well, I guess there's no harm in that, then. 'Tis the season, after all."
Whatever that means.
Allura is the next one to walk in on Pidge doing something strange. They've stopped on a forest planet, and Allura has been negotiating with the leaders while the Paladins explored. She's exhausted, and she really wants to just curl up with her mice and take a nap, but Pidge is blocking the hallway, doing… whatever it is she's doing.
"Ah, Pidge? What are you doing?"
Pidge looks down at Allura from her stepladder. "Decorating."
Allura looks around. There are branches strewn all over, draped along the walls. She recalls that the Paladins mentioned the trees in the forest looked like something called "evergreens" from Earth. Perhaps this is an Earth tradition. Allura can't quite figure out why people would take branches from trees and put them on the walls, but she knows that Earth traditions can be rather strange.
"Quite," she finally says.
"Deck the halls and all that," Pidge adds, as if that makes any sense. "These are about as close as I can get to boughs of holly."
"I see."
"'Tis the season, you know."
Allura blinks, wondering if something's wrong with the translator. "'Tis the season?"
"You and Coran are a lot alike," Pidge says. "Yeah, 'tis the season."
Allura stares at Pidge for another long moment, then she decides she's just going to chalk this one up to humans being weird. She's had to chalk a lot of things up to humans being weird since the Paladins started living in the Castle.
"Make sure you put the ladder away when you're done with it," is all she says.
"Yeah, I will," Pidge promises, already taping another branch to the wall. Allura stares at her for a moment, wondering if it'll make any more sense if she watches a little longer.
It doesn't.
She shakes her head and slips past Pidge, heading to her bedroom. Humans, she thinks to herself for the millionth time, are a very strange species.
Lance is the first of the Paladins to figure out what's going on. "Pidge!" he calls as he strides into the Green Lion's hangar. "What day is it?"
Pidge's head pops up from underneath her desk. "What reckoning?"
"Earth reckoning," Lance replies. "How far into December are we?"
A grin spreads across Pidge's face. "Almost three weeks. So you figured it out?"
"Red and green lights and evergreen garlands?" Lance replies. "You weren't exactly being subtle."
"You're the only one who's figured it out so far," Pidge replies.
Lance preens. "Obviously, I'm the smartest."
"Sure, Lance."
"So." Lance sits down in Pidge's desk chair, looking down at her. "What's your next step?"
"Ideally, Christmas carols," Pidge replies, showing Lance her laptop. "I'm trying to make sheet music for some of my favorite carols, but I have no idea how sheet music works. And even if I make it, then I have to make a program to play it."
"Just sing it," Lance suggests.
Pidge shrugs. "I'm not that good a singer."
Lance puts a hand over his heart. "Well, then, it's a good thing I'm here, Pidgikins."
"If you ever call me that again, I will shave every inch of your body while you sleep."
"Jeez, you're scary. Fine, Pidge. It's a good thing I'm here. I am, as you may know, an ex-choir boy with, I've been told, the voice of an angel."
"Who told you that, your mom?"
"Yes, but other people said it too."
Pidge looks at Lance, then looks at her sad attempt at sheet music. "You know what, whatever. Let's do this. I'll get some stuff to record you."
"Yes!" Lance cries. "We are going to Jingle Bell Rock the quiznak out of this ship!" He holds up a hand for a high-five, and Pidge slaps it without question.
"'Tis the season," she says.
"'Tis the season!" Lance crows.
The next person to get in on the Christmas spirit is Hunk. "If we're doing Christmas," Lance announces, "we need gingerbread. And candy canes. And hot cocoa. So we need Hunk."
"Fair point," Pidge replies, so they go to the kitchen.
"Try this," Hunk says immediately, holding out a spoonful of… something.
Lance opens his mouth obediently and allows Hunk to shove the spoon in his mouth. "Mmm. Good. Tastes kinda… cheesy."
"Cheesy?" Hunk repeats. "Like, parmesan or cheddar or…"
"Kinda like cheddar," Lance replies. "Or maybe mozzarella? Something like that."
Hunk hums. "Something that would be good on pizza?"
"You're gonna make pizza?"
"Can we stay on topic, Lance?" Pidge asks.
"Right." Lance nods. "Right. The topic. Hunk, it's December 20."
"It's that close to Christmas?" Hunk cries. "Oh, is that what the lights and branches were about?"
"And Christmas carols," Lance adds proudly.
"Carols?"
"Lance recorded some carols," Pidge replies. "I'm going to start playing them around the Castle."
"Because Christmas," Lance says firmly. "So, any idea how we could make gingerbread? Or candy canes? Or hot cocoa?"
Hunk frowns a little, looking around the kitchen. "I might be able to figure out gingerbread with some of those spices we picked up at that space mall. And I don't know about candy canes specifically, but I think I can do peppermint. Hot cocoa will be harder. I've been trying to figure that out for a while, but nothing works. It's either not chocolatey enough, or it ends up really chalky."
"Have you tried it with Kaltenecker's milk?" Lance asks.
"I have," Hunk replies. "I even tried it with water, but it didn't work."
"Of course it didn't," Lance dismisses. "Hot cocoa with water is gross and wrong."
"What's so wrong with making hot cocoa with water?" Pidge asks.
Hunk and Lance look at each other. "We can't be friends anymore," Lance announces. "How could you even say that?"
Pidge rolls her eyes. "Need any help with cooking, Hunk?"
"If you guys want to."
Lance and Pidge look at each other. "I don't have anything better to do," Lance replies.
"Sounds good to me," Pidge adds.
"Alright," Hunk says. "Let's do this thing."
Keith only finds out when he walks in on them decorating a tree. "Is that one of the trees from that forest planet?" he asks, frowning.
"Yup," Pidge replies from her perch on Hunk's shoulders.
Keith blinks. "Why is it inside the Castle?"
"'Tis the season," Lance calls.
"What season?"
Hunk, Pidge, and Lance all freeze, looking at each other, and then they all turn to Keith. "Keith, it's a Christmas tree," Hunk says slowly.
Keith looks at the tree. "Oh. So that's what they look like."
"Oh my god, mullet, have you never seen a Christmas tree before?"
Keith bristles immediately. "Look, Christmas has never really been a thing for me-"
Pidge hops off Hunk's shoulders and goes over to Keith. She places her hands on his cheeks, ignoring his widening eyes. "Keith, my sweet darling child-"
"I'm three years older than you."
"-We will make sure that this is the best Christmas you've ever had."
"It's kind of the first," Keith replies.
Hunk makes a wounded noise. "Oh my god, he's never celebrated Christmas before."
"I'm right here," Keith protests.
"Come on," Pidge says, grabbing Keith's arm and dragging him over to the tree. "You're helping us decorate."
"I-" Keith's eyes go wide. "I don't know how-"
"All you're doing is putting ornaments on branches," Lance says. "It's not that hard. Even you can figure it out."
Keith is tentative as he starts picking out ornaments and setting them on the tree, but he grows more comfortable as time passes. At the end, everyone agrees that he should be the one to put the star on top. The tree is tall enough that Hunk has to give him a boost, and Lance immediately tells Pidge to climb onto his shoulders, and they almost knock over the tree as Keith and Pidge start play-fighting on Hunk and Lance's shoulders.
"Best Christmas," Pidge says when they finally fall into a pile of limbs on the couch.
Keith's lips are only barely twitched into a grin, but that might as well be a huge smile for him. "Yeah, I think it will be."
Shiro, as he often does, follows the scent of something fresh and delicious to the kitchen. He finds Hunk and the others baking something that immediately makes him think of Christmas.
"Is that gingerbread?"
"It is," Hunk calls back. "Or as close as we can get to it."
"It's less than a week to Christmas," Lance says. "We had to get our Christmas spirit in."
"Be sure to keep the gingerbread away from Keith," Shiro warns. "He'll eat all of it."
The other Paladins all stare at Shiro, then they turn in unison to stare at Keith. Shiro knows him well enough to know that he's desperately trying not to smirk. He wonders what he's done this time.
"You said you'd never celebrated Christmas!" Lance cries.
"You asked me what gingerbread was!" Hunk cries.
"You guys are way too gullible," Keith replies. He's lost the battle against his smirk.
"They fell for that?" Shiro cries. He slings an arm around Keith's shoulders and pulls him against his chest. "Keith loves to play the sad orphan card. Remember when you convinced Matt you'd never celebrated your birthday before?"
Keith's smirk grows. "That was a good one."
Shiro turns to the others. "Matt comes to me, almost in tears, talking about how we need to make sure Keith celebrates his birthday cause he's never done it before, as if I don't know that my mom threw him a party the year before."
"To be fair, I never celebrated Christmas or my birthday much before your parents started fostering me," Keith protests.
"You lied to us," Lance says, apparently still stuck on that. "We let you put the star on the tree! It was all a lie? How can we ever believe anything you say ever again?"
"You shouldn't believe anything he says," Shiro says. "He lies. All the time. Especially if he tells you any embarrassing stories about me."
"Shiro, I don't have to lie to come up with embarrassing stories about you," Keith counters. "I have more than enough true ones."
Lance's gaze flickers from Shiro to Keith. "What sorts of embarrassing stories?"
"Ones that are lies," Shiro says promptly.
"Well, if we're being festive, there's the one where Shiro managed to tangle himself in the Christmas lights and couldn't get free for over an hour," Keith offers.
"That was one time!"
"Oh Shiro tree, oh Shiro tree," Pidge sings under her breath.
"Your brother said the same thing," Shiro tells her.
Pidge preens. "We Holts tell very sophisticated jokes."
Something dings and Hunk immediately flutters over to the oven. "The gingerbread is done!" he announces. "Now we just need to let it cool."
"Yeah, Keith, let it cool," Shiro says, smirking.
Keith rolls his eyes. "That was when I was a kid, and it wasn't that hot."
"It had come out of the oven two minutes before, and you couldn't taste properly for days."
"This is so amazing," Lance whispers reverentially. "We get dirt on both of them. This is the best Christmas present ever."
Pidge and Hunk both nod in awed agreement.
The rest of the day is spent eating gingerbread, taste-testing different hot cocoa variations, and trying to explain Christmas to Allura and Coran. Pidge is pretty sure both of them are still completely confused, but they're going along with it without complaint.
By the time everyone starts heading to bed, Pidge is starting to feel all festive-d out. They've gone through all the Christmas traditions they can do, including blasting Lance's Christmas carols as loud as they could and singing along loudly and badly. The feeling of fun is starting to wear off, and homesickness is rushing in to take its place.
After a few minutes, the only people left in the lounge are Pidge and Shiro. "I, uh, I guess we should head to bed," Pidge says.
"Probably," Shiro agrees mildly.
He doesn't move, and neither does Pidge.
"I miss home," Pidge admits in a whisper. "I miss celebrating Christmas with my mom and my dad and my brother. I want to find them, and I want to go back to Earth."
"I know you do," Shiro replies. "We all do. But you know we need to defeat the Galra first. We can't go home as long as the universe still needs Voltron."
Pidge sighs. "I know, but…"
"And hey," Shiro adds. "You managed to bring Christmas to the ship. You figured out what day it was on Earth, and you helped us celebrate. That's pretty amazing." He stands and heads to the door, pausing to rest his hand on Pidge's shoulder. "For what it's worth, I think your family would be very proud of you."
Shiro leaves the room, letting Pidge choke back the tears that are springing to her eyes at the mention of her family. The compliment is worth a lot. Pidge is sure that Shiro knows that.
"'Tis the season," Pidge says quietly to the empty room. "Merry Christmas, Mom. Merry Christmas, Dad. Merry Christmas, Matt."
There's no response, but Pidge almost feels like she can feel her family's presence there, in the lights and tree and decorations. She lets out a shaky breath, then she stands and heads to the door.
"Merry Christmas," she says again, not quite sure who she's talking to this time, and then she leaves.