Shiro slept for two entire days after they pulled him from the Tundra, during which time the second-in-command had to literally tie their leader down the first morning after to keep him from destroying half the training room as he waited. And then Shiro finally did wake up, the happiness with which he greeted his brother after months of grief was like new air.
At the same time, Lance was jealous, and more than a little angry. He knew these would disappear quickly though – it wasn't Shiro's fault, him leaving them. And it was only natural Keith would give him so much attention, to make sure he was ok after being gone so long. He had two PTSD attacks just within the first day. And that was good. He would never be free of it, of course, but it meant he could heal from what he experienced, not repressing it like last time.
For quite a while now he'd been Keith's world, the only one to go to for comfort. It was so nice, to be needed, for the short time he was. But now Keith could do ok without him. The Black Paladin was back, Keith could finally go back to his lion that definitely did not have any brakes, and Allura was far more talented in the weapon her father built than he was.
But damn if he would bring down Keith's happiness with that. Things would sort themselves out. Keith was finally happy and that mattered far, far more, because far more wonderful than the feeling of being needed, was the feeling of everyone around him being happy to the core even in the middle of a messy war.
On the second night, after Shiro had woken up around noon, Keith stayed in Shiro's room – had passed out leaning against the bed. It was the first time they'd slept separately in months, and with the utter silence of space – not just silence of the night, but empty, horrible kind of silence that could drive people crazy if they were in it too long – Lance barely slept at all, no longer used to it. It had taken months for them to adapt to the quiet when they first arrived. Now that Keith would no longer need him as much, he would be more like himself again, gain back the fire to his independence and confidence to work alone without Lance there to check him like when he was leading. Even if Keith didn't want them to, they would drift apart in the coming weeks. One day soon he might be sleeping alone every night again.
He felt sick. Literally sick. But the next morning when he saw Keith at breakfast, smiling at everything and laughing without Lance having to tease him into it, well, this was someone he loved, and seeing those you love happy is worth it. At least, to Lance. It was the best thing in the world. Better than rain, flying, better than having a relationship if it means that person will be less happy.
Keith spent every second of his day with his brother for two days. Two nights, they had been apart, barely spoken, except at that night's dinner when Shiro commented about them not fighting.
"Oh, we still fight plenty," Keith muttered, but it was with a tiny smile.
Lance snickered. "Give it like a week and things will be back to normal. I think everyone's on their best behavior because Space Dad supervision is suddenly back."
Pidge shifted in her seat, looking away.
"… Except for Pidge, apparently."
Pidge smirked. Shiro gave her a look. "What did you do."
"… Hacked some more Galran prison network stuff."
"Pidge."
"Is that judgment I hear! They're our enemy I should be allowed to hack them!"
"No, pride."
Pidge giggled, covering her mouth and pretending it didn't happen.
Shiro shoved back his plate only half-finished, but his tone was light. "Anyway, I'm gonna head to sleep. We land tomorrow afternoon but I'm supposed to still be resting for a while."
"Night, Shiro!" Keith called after him, waving.
"You're not staying with him again?" Lance murmured under his breath, leaning close.
"Nah. I need an actual long shower and time to introvert."
This much he could ask, then. This much was ok. "Please stay with me tonight. We can just sit there and read or something. I kinda miss you."
Keith's smile made him feel a little better.
…
The next day they had sunlight, as they approached into the target solar system; the sun there was a blue giant star, waking them a bit earlier than usual by filling the cabins facing it in wavering blue light.
"'S like when you see the pool reflecting light." Keith observed drowsily as he woke, Lance already long since up for his usual morning routine, humming the usual of a slow Beyonce song to bring Keith slowly awake – he was not a good morning person and always needed time to begin full brain function, and having non-startling auditory input always seemed to help.
Lance nodded, keeping his eyes away from the window and its burning point of light – the windows filtered radiation to safe levels, but it still would leave a bright spot in your eyes, despite the fact the light making its way into the room was faint like an early sunrise over the distance.
"'S pretty." Keith continued after a moment, still watching the faint ripples on the ceiling. "Like we're underwater but air. Cuz it's blue, like you."
"~Everything is blue, his pills, his hands his jeans, you know I'm covered in the colors pulled apart at the seams. And it's blueeeeee, it's blueeeee oh, oh...~" Lance half hummed, half sang, under his breath.
Keith rolled sideways, managed to not trip over the sheets and faceplant like he did sometimes, and stumbled his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth, returning to grab his clothes for the day with the brush sticking out of his mouth.
Technically, they still had separate rooms, and they tended to switch between them, so he was still wandering around cluelessly looking for his black training shirt that must be in the other room when Lance returned with food for both of them, though they both made a face at it. Lance put it on the side table to make it clear it was for later – eating too early, despite what human culture told people about it being important, always made them both feel nauseous for hours.
"Still humming that one? What's it?"
"Colors. You got it stuck in my head. It is kinda perfect for us actually, if you change a line or two." Lance shrugged, and started from the beginning, singing aloud this time and taking Keith's hands to spin them around lazily, breaking once to yawn, which Keith echoed and using his small advantage of being two inches shorter, dropped his head to rest on Lance's shoulder – though because he was falling back asleep, not out of affection.
"~You were red, and you liked me 'cuz I was blue… but you touched me, and suddenly it was lilac sky-~"
And then the piercing wake-up alarms went off. Both of them startled, and almost tripped as they missed the next step.
"… I hate those alarms." Keith muttered, now much more awake, lifting his head.
Lance narrowed his eyes. "Nope. Not letting it ruin it." He determined, and pulled Keith back to him, making himself relax with a deep breath and threading together the fingers of the hand held up in dance posture. Keith gave him a knowing look, using their new wakefulness to change it to actual dancing as Lance kept singing, this time with a different slow song as Keith returned to the previous state of absolutely melting.
It was thirty minutes into the forty-five minutes between alarm and beginning of training when his voice finally got a little overused and they finally had to stop and force down a bit of the food, curled up on the bed. Reaching the training hall was like waking up from a dream, and Keith greeted Shiro by racing to him and giving him a rare awkward shoulder pat.
"You saw me yesterday, Keith."
"Yeah, shut up."
…
"I win." Lance said triumphantly.
"Lance, I have you completely pinned."
"I know."
Keith flushed. "Oh."
Lance laughed lightly, drawing him down and pressing their mouths together affectionately, tilting his head slowly.
A noise of total shock and the slam of a door interrupted this, as Shiro shut the door in Pidge and Hunk's faces.
"Oh, uh, is it time to switch to the maze already?" Lance asked awkwardly as Keith let himself fall sideways and sat up, putting probably too much space between them in an effort to make Shiro more comfortable.
"Er, yes. Uh..." Space Dad shifted awkwardly, taking a deep breath. "Okay. Um. I know everyone is riding some kind of high from things going so well and the entire team being together again, but Keith, taking that out on Lance in that way is… not a good thing to do."
"… Huh?"
"Well, the endorphins released when doing something like physical training shouldn't- uh- you- just- that kind of physical- uhhh… Keith, please don't uhhhhhhhhhhh…"
Lance snorted and Keith threw him a glare.
The door banged open as Pidge kicked it in, straightening from her obviously eavesdropping posture.
"Pidge! Did you two both hear..."
"Yeah." Hunk nodded. "That was truly one of the most awkward things I ever heard you try to do, I'm sorry, but that was hilarious."
"Yeah, didn't you tell him?" Pidge demanded curiously of Keith.
Keith tipped his head. "Yeah, I think so – I had to of… Yes. I kinda rambled about the whole Lion King thing, for certain, and Lance piloting Red. I definitely told him about Puigaria. So yes. He knows."
"So why is there a problem with-"
The proximity alarms went off, informing them they were approaching the planet and to brace for booster activation.
…
After sitting in a boring conference for three full human hours, the paladins were in various stages of either falling asleep or hyperactively fidgeting with something beneath the table, when they were finally let out like kids to a schoolyard, given a variant of a picnic lunch, and led by a guide who then excused themselves to go finish some work based on the plans they'd just made to the meadows filled with alien wildflowers.
"Cool, plants." Lance grinned. Not a lot of planets had them, in fact, this was only maybe the tenth of the hundred or so they'd visited that had widespread innate vegetation.
"They grow back instantly, look!" Hunk pointed at one, where he had picked the flower and the stem revived to a bud instantly. "Guilt-free flower picking. Awesome."
"They come in all the colors. It's like a giant gay pride blanket." Keith muttered, still glassy-eyed from the meeting but slowly achieving his usual high functioning energy state. "The floor is made of pride."
"Keith… dormir, mi Príncipe. Just go to sleep." Lance gestured to the blanket beside him. "It's really soft. I wonder what they use for the threads..."
"Ah, that would be the vomit of the Jacopasslclud Worm." Allura answered instantly. "Once hardened it breaks apart into thin strands which are spun and woven."
Lance, frozen, slowly stood up off the blanket. "On second thought, that sounds interesting about the flowers, Hunk. Let's go pick some."
Keith laughed at him.
When they returned, it was to find Coran had thankfully fetched a replacement blanket from the ship after Pidge had explained it was another Human Thing, arms overloaded with flowers.
"Hey, guys!… Can you even see?"
"Nope, not really." Lance informed, waggling his eyebrows playfully. "But we brought back a few to decorate the most gorgeous person in existence. Maybe I'll even get a date this time."
Shiro made an annoyed sound. "Lance. This is not the time for flirting with Allura-"
"Aw, thanks-" Keith began.
"Yeah, here you go Coran!" Lance chirped, and they both dumped the entire pile into the eldest Altean's lap. The man's face lit up with a surprised laugh along with Pidge and Allura. Keith nearly choked on air, completely torn between laughing and being offended, and Shiro stared with his mouth slightly open in confusion.
"What did you find out about the flowers?"
"For one, a lot of overexposure to the sap ca- ACHOO!- causes Hay Fever." Hunk groaned. "But only if you rub it in by accident. Also-" And he began to describe and compare with Pidge using a lot of Latin terms.
While Allura, Pidge, and Hunk began conspiring with Coran about making something with them such as flower crowns, Lance turned to Keith and pulled the last one out of his hair – the only one they'd found in traditional dark wine red, as the majority of the dark flowers were more greens and blues. "Juuuust kidding, Hermosa, mi Amado."
Keith flushed bright red as Lance sat down next to him, tucking the flower behind his ear. Shiro stared. "Lance… I'm sorry, but I think you're letting earlier effect you too much." Shiro leaned close to mutter to both of them, glancing to make sure he wasn't overheard by the others chattering away about colors on the other side of the blanket. "Look. I know you two are closer now, friends even, but… A relationship would be dangerous to the team – please. Understand?"
Both of them blinked at him.
"… I thought you told him?" Lance looked at Keith.
"I did. I definitely did, in as many words too."
"Wait – what?" Shiro yelped, voice a bit high pitched.
"Seriously Shiro. How do you misinterpret, 'Lance started sleeping in my room to help with the nightmares', and 'the only way the new leadership worked is if Lance was with me', and 'Lance showed me Lion King and we spent two hours arguing if I would be Simba or him, and we finally agreed I could be Simba only if he was Nala'. How do you misinterpret."
"Wait, so you did tell him but he didn't notice?!" Pidge put in, the entire team staring by now.
"We've been dating for months."
"… Oh. Ohhh, that's why you gave me weird looks in the training room. I see. You guys are already… dating. You are dating my little brother YOU ARE SLEEPING WITH MY LITTLE BROTHER YOU SHADY FLIRTY LITTLE JACKASS-"
Lance shrieked in terror as the glowing Galratech hand slammed down right where he had been a moment before, burning a hole in the blanket.
…
"-and that's how Kuron found out about it, so yeah, I'd say you're taking this pretty well." Lance assured Shiro, patting his shoulder. "But wow. You took almost as long as he did to notice."
"So you've been dating him that long? Hm." Shiro stared thoughtfully out the window. "Sorry for assuming it was new and trying to break you up."
"It's fine, I mean not like we really date anymore anyways."
"Huh?"
"Well I mean it's been a couple years since that, we're married, we kind of have a routine now – it's diff-"
"MARRIED?!"