"I miss the sea," Lance mumbled, nearly inaudible. "I can't hear the waves on the shore when I go to sleep. I can't see the sunlight on the water when I wake up. I missed it enough when I was living at the Garrison, but now it's– I don't even know if I can ever go home again and I–" He seemed to shrink in upon himself, letting out a sigh as he rubbed his temples. "God. Sorry. Forget I said anything. It's stupid to worry about that kind of thing now…"

Keith shook his head. "I asked, didn't I?" he said softly. He wasn't sure what else to say.

Instead, he began to think.

"You want… to have a beach day?"

Keith frowns. "Well, when you put it that way it sounds stupid, but… uh… yeah. I want to see the beach."

Coran laughs, already eagerly summoning a massive star chart. "Not stupid at all, young paladin! The seas of Altea were a thing of beauty… liquid diamond, as far as the eye can see, with sheets of solid crystal floating atop it, even chunks of the stuff as tall as buildings! All reflecting the sunlight at the most dazzling angles…" He heaves a wistful sigh, flicking absently through the map, passing by galaxy after galaxy until he reached their local solar system. "An awe-inspiring sight – or, well, it would be if you could look at it without damaging your eyes. Anyway, it's no wonder you miss it. I'm sure that the seas on Earth are just as magnificent to behold."

"Uh… sort of." Keith peers curiously at the holographic solar system sprawled across the length of the entire room, floating just at eye-level. "Is there anywhere nearby with seas made out of just – y'know – water?"

"Water?" Coran tugs on his mustache thoughtfully, frowning. "Hmm. Water." He taps purposefully on the ship's console, then darts from one end of the room to the other, bringing up stats on various planets and moons and muttering to himself.

"There's an ice planet not far from here," Coran calls out from behind a planet hovering by the door. "The whole surface is covered in water!"

"You can't really swim in that, though," Keith reasons.

"Ohhh I see." Coran nods sagely, darting to the other end of the room, closer to the holographic sun.

"There's one with a sea of hydrogen peroxide! That's pretty close to hydrogen dioxide, right?"

Keith pulls a face. "Only if hydrogen dioxide was a deadly poison."

"Oh. Yikes." Coran scratches his head, brow furrowed, and enters another algorithm into the console, hops from one end of the room to the other, pores over stats on what seems like nearly every celestial body in the system, but after a while, he simply sighs. "Sorry, Keith… I don't think I can help you with this one.

Keith's heart drops into the pit of his stomach, but he simply shrugs. "Don't worry about it, Coran. It was a long shot, anyway…"

Coran looks at him with a softened expression, letting out a long breath. He dismisses the star chart with a wave of his hand, and the two of them are simply standing in an empty room. Coran closes the distance, placing a hand on the paladin's shoulder. "Keith… I know you must miss Earth," he says gently, looking out the window at the massive expanse of empty space between them and the nearest star. The artificial blue light of the console room throws the deeply etched lines spidering across his forehead and beneath his eyes into sharp relief. "I miss Altea. More and more every day…" He takes a deep breath, and suddenly smiles. "But you know what gets me through it?"

"...What?"

Coran squeezes Keith's shoulder. "Knowing that my home isn't some rock, or where I hang my hat. Or, more like where I would hang my hat if I had one." He beams, letting go of Keith and turning to face the window once again. "It's wherever the six of you go."

Keith's chest tightens as Coran gives him one last pat on the back and makes his way to the door to get back to his pilot's duties, and the words echo in his mind.

Wherever we go…

He has an idea.

"Keith… why are my swim trunks sitting on the table?"

Keith looks up from his lunch, stone-faced. "Huh? Oh, that's weird… but now you mention it, I could really go for a swim. Wanna come with?"

Lance raises an eyebrow. "You wanna swim right now, halfway through your lunch?"

"Um… I'm not hungry."

Lance squints, slowly grabbing his trunks from the table. "I don't know what you're up to… but since I'm bored, I'm gonna roll with it."

Keith bites back a grin, hurriedly cleaning up his half eaten lunch and ducking into his room to change. "Whatever, man. You're too suspicious."

Ten minutes later, the elevator doors open to the castle's pool room and Lance lets out a strangled cry of some mix of joy and embarrassment as he takes in the scene before him.

The chairs could almost be mistaken for lawn chairs with the towels tossed over them, and on top of those towels, Pidge and Allura are splayed out as if soaking up the rays of a much too distant sun. Shiro sits with his feet dangling in the pool, singing along to a Beach Boys song playing on the loudspeaker. Hunk is carrying a tray of drinks with a heavenly pineapple scent and little cocktail umbrellas, one of which he hands to Coran, who is wearing the most fluorescent floral shirt Lance thinks he's ever seen.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" he asks weakly, a bewildered smile spreading across his features.

"Beach day," Hunk says simply, pressing a smoothie into Lance's hand. "Don't question it. Just – uh – give us some suspension of disbelief here, we don't have much to work with."

Lance shakes his head, full on grinning now, but he gives a shrug and chugs the smoothie in one fell swoop, then lets out a whoop as he makes a running leap at the pool.

"NO DON'T DO A–" Hunk cries, but Lance does the cannonball anyway, splashing all over a sputtering Coran and an indignant Pidge, getting the back of Hunk as he quickly turns to shield the drinks from flying pool water. Keith lets out a laugh and follows suit, despite everyone's exasperated cries.

And the bickering that follows feels an awful lot like home.

"I can't believe they made us clean up the pool room," Lance pouts, wringing out a dripping towel. "Just because we made a little splash."

"Well, we were the only ones who got in the pool and tracked water everywhere."

"Yeah, yeah, all right," Lance mumbles. "But it still sucks."

Keith snorts. "Then just give me the towels and you can grab the smoothie glasses."

"Fine." Lance heaves a faux dramatic sigh and dumps the pile of towels on Keith's head with a grin.

"I swear to god Lance I will whack you with one of these."

"Okay, okay, I'm cleaning, I promise," Lance snickers, picking up the smoothie glasses from a nearby table.

For a while, they work in silence. Then, once Lance has cleared the tables, he sits down next to Keith and grabs a towel from the pile, wringing out what seems like an impossible amount of water.

"Hey…" he says, suddenly hesitant, "Coran said this whole beach thing was your idea."

Keith's breath hitches in his throat. "Oh. Uh, well, not really. It was Hunk who put it all together, I just sorta suggested it, I guess."

"I see." Lance is silent again for a while, wringing out the towel until it finally stops dripping, then stands with a satisfied grunt. His fingers brush through Keith's hair as he does – a light, fleeting touch that makes Keith shiver slightly. "Thanks… I felt really at home."

Keith looks up at him from the corner of his eye, the color rising in his cheeks. Lance is smiling – shit he has a nice smile, warm and gentle and soft, like a sunset over the water – and he feels a smile of his own tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I'm… glad."

Lance grabs the newly dry towels and the tray of smoothie glasses and heads for the door, and Keith swears he can see his ears turning red. When he leaves, Keith indulges in a smile, running a hand through his hair.

If home is where the heart is, he knows where his is.

He'd like to think he knows where Lance's is, too.