They had a clock in the castle.

It wasn't too hard to set up. They knew what day it had been when they left Earth, and were able to make a rough estimate about what time it had been as well. With just a quick search into the castle's timekeeping systems, they were able to determine exactly how long it had been since Allura and Coran had awoken from cryosleep. The thing that took longest was just pinning down a precise conversion from Altean timekeeping to Earth's system. But once that had been calculated, it wasn't hard to figure out what the date and time was back home.

The clock was set to the same timezone as the Garrison; so Lance and Hunk had to add or subtract a few hours to get the right time for their own homes. And since they had only approximated the time it was when they left Earth, they knew it was bound to be off, by minutes or even hours.

But it was there. A basic system that they could look at if they ever wanted to check what day it was back home.
It wasn't until after they'd made it that they realized just how homesick it would make them.

In the beginning, Hunk would check it obsessively, constantly worrying about just how long they'd been away from home, how long it had been since they left Earth without warning, how long it had been since they all just disappeared without their families knowing anything.

Lance's solution was to just ignore it. He went without opening the program, saying he didn't want to remind himself. But Pidge caught him on more than one occasion, sitting in the bridge in the dead of night, staring mutely at the numbers ticking away in front of him.

It was worse for Shiro, having left Earth over a year earlier than the rest of them. Every once in a while, they'd catch him looking at that clock for just a little longer than usual, the year being what set him off the most, reminding him of just how much time he'd spent in Galra captivity.

Pidge had initially set it with reminders, so that it would notify everyone of birthdays and holidays. They'd all input the dates that were important to them, family birthdays and anniversaries, saying it'd be nice to be alerted for that sort of stuff. But when the castle alerted them all of Matt's birthday and sent Pidge into a fit of tears, they'd collectively decided that it would be best to avoid all that. Hunk went into the system and erased the alerts; he left the dates themselves untouched, but deleted the program that would send them notifications.

And gradually, they all decided to leave it be. What was the point of reminding them all how far from home they were, how homesick they were, how long it had been since they last saw their families?

And so, most of the time, the clock went largely untouched.

Keith seemed to be the one least affected by it. He checked it on a semi-regular basis, viewing the date in a disconnected sort of way.

As a result, he was the one most on top of things. He'd let Hunk know about the other Paladin's birthdays a few days before they happened, so that he'd be able to surprise them with a cake.

It wasn't until it was later in October that any of them realized that he'd skipped his own.

"Guys."

It was Pidge who noticed, pulling up the clock on her laptop in a moment of curiosity. She was in the lounge, working quietly, while the rest of the team relaxed. The five of them were resting after a training session, while Allura and Coran were working on the bridge.

When they looked over at her curiously, she looked up from her screen in mild shock. "Tomorrow…tomorrow's Halloween."

There was a pause. Then Lance, in excitement, "Seriously?! Man, I love Halloween!"

Hunk had brightened considerably, sitting up straighter. "Should we, like, do something to celebrate?"

"I can't believe we're missing Halloween," Lance bemoaned. "I had so many ideas for, like, group costumes, and Halloween parties."

Shiro frowned. "Wait, Keith, isn't your birthday, like, a week before Halloween?"

Everyone froze, looking over at Keith, who was doing his best to just disappear into the couch cushions. "Um—"

"Yep," Pidge confirmed, looking back at the calendar on her laptop screen. "The twenty-third. Exactly a week ago."

"Keith!" Hunk exclaimed. "I've been counting on you to tell me when everyone's birthday's are coming up! Why didn't you tell me?"

Keith shrugged, self-conscious, uncomfortable with all the sudden attention. "I dunno. Didn't really wanna call attention to it."

"Dude," Lance said emphatically. "It's your birthday. You're supposed to call attention to it. So we can all celebrate."

Keith crossed his arms, leaning against the wall and stubbornly refusing to meet anyone's eyes. "I've just never had a big birthday celebration before. It's not a big deal."

"It's totally a big deal!" Lance insisted.

"Keith," Hunk said calmly. "We are going to throw you the biggest, best, birthday-slash-Halloween party you've ever had."

"You…really don't need to do that."

"Of course we do," Pidge told him, tilting her head and giving him a curious look. "You've always made sure that our birthday's got celebrated. Why shouldn't we do the same for you?"

Keith blinked, taken aback. "I just…I don't need all the attention."

Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Keith."

"Listen," Lance said flatly. "We get that you have your whole angsty teen thing going on. But you realize that we're still your friends, right?"

Keith leveled a glare at him. "I'm not an angsty teen."

"Dude, you totally are. It's one of your character traits."

"Alright," he said, standing abruptly. "I'm not dealing with this."

"Keith," Shiro called after him, but Keith ignored him, stalking through the door. Shiro sighed. "I'm gonna go talk to him. I'll see you guys later." Without another word, he'd followed Keith out of the room.

And so Pidge and Lance and Hunk were left alone. Lance grinned slyly, steepling his fingers. "Party planning committee?"

"Party planning committee," Pidge agreed, shutting her laptop.

Hunk cracked his knuckles. "Alright. This is gonna be the best birthday-slash-Halloween party in the whole universe."

"What is…Halloween?"

Allura had entered the lounge mid party-planning, joining them on the sofa and listening with curiosity. The birthday part she understood; the Paladins had already introduced her to their strange traditions for celebrating the anniversary of their brith. But she was unfamiliar with the other thing they were discussing.

When she asked, the three Paladins paused their talk, looking over at her in mild surprise.

Lance recovered first, smiling at her brightly. "Only the best Earth holiday," he replied enthusiastically.

"It's like, you dress up in costume," Hunk continued, "wear whatever you want. And then there's trick-or-treating, where kids go door-to-door and get free candy."

"And everything gets decorated to look scary," Pidge added. "Like, skeletons and ghosts and witches and stuff."

"Ghost stories!" Lance exclaimed. "Aw, man, those are the best."

"I just really liked the excuse to go outside dressed however I wanted," Pidge replied. "It's the only day of the year where it's socially acceptable to go out in public while dressed as a dinosaur."

"…I want to see you in one of those inflatable dinosaur costumes."

"Not gonna happen, McClain."

"Dressing up was always the best," Hunk agreed. "Did you guys ever do any of those, like, group costumes? I never really had, like, a group to do that with."

Pidge rolled her eyes. "Be thankful. My parents were really into matching costumes. They made it a family thing, where we'd all dress up in a group."

"Oh my god, please tell me you have pictures."

"Lance."

Allura watched the exchange in fascination. "So," she started hesitantly, "you dress up in strange costume, get sweets from strangers, and try to scare each other…?"

Hunk blinked. "You know, when you put it like that, it does seem a bit weird."

"Well, all the Halloween traditions have historic roots," Pidge told them. "Like, it was originally supposed to be a festival for honoring the dead, which is where the ghost stuff came from. And back in ye olden days, it was thought to be a time when, like, the veil was thin? Something to do with the changing of the seasons from summer to winter. So they thought that spirits were able to walk the earth or whatever. That's where the costume thing comes from too—they'd dress up to try to confuse evil spirits."

"Huh," Lance said.

"What about trick-or-treating?" Hunk asked.

"I…." Pidge paused, frowning. "I'm actually not sure."

"Or carving pumpkins!" Lance added. "Man, I always loved carving pumpkins." He paused. "…Think we could find anything like a pumpkin out here in space?"

"I think the pumpkin carving also stemmed from the whole scaring-away-evil-spirits thing," Pidge replied. "Though they were originally turnips."

Allura leaned forward, resting her chin in her hands. "And what exactly is a pumpkin?"

Hunk frowned. "Like…a big fruit, kind of roundish. Usually about this big." He held out his hands about a foot apart. "Orange."

"And you carve them?"

"Usually faces," Lance explained. "But sometimes other pictures. It was a part of decorating."

"And this is to…ward off evil spirits?"

"Nah," Pidge said. "Well, I mean, it was. But not anymore. Now it's just for fun. None of that stuff about ghosts and monsters and stuff is, like, actually real."

"That you know of!" Lance said with an eyeroll. "Until a few months ago, we didn't even know aliens existed. Who's to say there aren't ghosts out there?"

"Science," Pidge said flatly. "Aliens make sense. It's just statistically improbable that we would be the only intelligent life in the universe. But there's no scientific evidence for ghosts."

"Remember that time the castle was haunted?"

"That was a corrupted AI system. Not a ghost."

"Why are we celebrating this Halloween of yours now?" Allura interrupted. "As an aspect of Keith's birthday, I mean."

"Oh," Hunk said. "It's tomorrow. Back on Earth, Halloween is tomorrow. So we're just sort of celebrating them together."

Allura's eyes brightened. "Ah," she mused. "Excellent. What can I do to help?"

Hunk spent all morning working on the cake. Cakes in general were't the easiest to make, since they required a number of ingredients that could be pretty hard to track down. But Hunk had stocked up on "flour" and "eggs" and "sugar" the last time he'd found them, and so he locked himself in the kitchen for hours, doing the best he could to recreate a red velvet cake.

Lance and Allura were in charge of decorations. They closed off the lounge, filling it full with both birthday and Halloween themed memorabilia.

Coran and Pidge had gone on a field mission to collect the closest thing to a pumpkin they could find. They weren't quite the right size and shape (let alone color), but they shared a similar structural build-up to Earth pumpkins, which meant that they could be carved.

"They're pink," Lance observed, as Pidge and Coran carried the "pumpkins" into the lounge.

"Yep," Pidge muttered. "Pink pumpkins."

"Technically," Coran said, carrying in the next pumpkin, "they're not 'pumpkins'; they're Rnslaefs."

Lance blinked. "Rin-whatta?"

"Rnslaefs," Coran repeated.

"Rinslay…I can't even pronounce that." He shook his head firmly. "They're pumpkins."

"Bright pink pumpkins," Pidge agreed.

And Shiro was on Keith-watch, delegated to distract him and keep him away from everyone else. "I should let you know," Shiro had told Hunk early in the morning, as he was only just pulling out ingredients for the cake, "Keith doesn't really like his birthday that much. It's never really been a big thing for him. So maybe don't go too crazy."

Hunk had saluted. "You got it, Shiro."

And when Hunk passed this along to Lance and Pidge, they'd nodded seriously. "We're gonna have to fix that," Lance decided.

"Don't worry, Hunk," Pidge agreed. "We'll make sure this is the best birthday party he's ever had."

So when Shiro lead Keith through that door, and they all turned on the lights and yelled "Surprise!", they took his initial shock and silence as a good sign.

"Happy birthday!" Hunk exclaimed, holding out the cake platter. "It's red velvet," he told him. "Or, at least the closest to red velvet that I could manage. Cuz you're the Red Paladin, ya know?"

"I—"

"And look, look!" Pidge enthused, dragging Keith over to the table covered in space pumpkins. "We even have pumpkin carving!"

Keith blinked. "What pumpkin?"

"I know, I know, the color's a bit weird. But they share a lot of similarities with the ones back home—"

"Guys—"

"We also managed to find some virtual board games or whatever," Lance added. "Including something that looks remarkably like a ouija board, if you're up for talking with ghosts or something."

"Really, guys—"

"Basically, we just wanted to give you the ultimate birthday-Halloween combo party," Lance continued.

"You—"

"Your Halloween holiday just seems so fascinating," Allura said, clasping her hands together. "And we wanted to make sure you got as much of the experience out here as you could—"

"Everyone just—everyone just STOP!" Keith yelled.

The room fell silent.

Keith took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. "Look," he started. "It's clear that you guys put a lot of effort into this, and I really appreciate that. But I really, really, didn't need any of this."

Hunk deflated. "Do you…not like it?"

"It's not that," Keith griped. He wiped furiously at his eyes. "It's just. I didn't really need the reminder that another year had gone by. I don't need all this attention!"

"Keith—" Shiro tried.

"Stop," Keith repeated firmly. "I didn't…I didn't ask for any of this. He shook his head. "I. I'm gonna take a walk."

No one stopped him as he stalked from the room, for the second time in the past two days.

Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose. "I thought you guys weren't going to go so crazy."

"We didn't mean to," Pidge squeaked. "We just…wanted to give him something that would make up for all the bad birthdays."

Shiro sighed. "I know," he said. "But it's not really that easy."

Hunk winced, staring at his cake dejectedly. "Sorry, Shiro."

He shook his head. "This is my fault. I should have stopped you earlier—"

"No," Lance interrupted firmly. "This is on us."

Pidge was still staring at the closed door that Keith had disappeared through. "I'm…gonna go talk to him." Without waiting for a reply, she ran through the doorway and down the castle halls. Green was in her mind, gently directing her until she located the Red Paladin.

He was in his chair on the bridge, his legs pulled up into the seat with him, using his knees as a forehead rest.

Pidge stopped a few feet away, rubbing at her arm. "Keith?" she asked hesitantly. When she didn't get an answer, she pressed forward. "I'm really sorry. We should have paid more attention—"

"You don't have to apologize," he mumbled. "I know you guys means well and everything. It's fine."

Pidge sat down on the floor next to him, using his seat as a back rest. She tapped her hand against her leg anxiously. "I…I think I've got some Halloween movies saved on my laptop," she offered gently.

After a long moment, Keith let out a deep exhale, looking up to glance over at here. "I…yeah. That sounds nice."

Pidge offered him a smile, standing up and holding out a hand to him. "Let's go, buddy."

Upon re-entering the lounge, they noticed that the decorations had been taken down. All the orange-and-black and confetti-print everything had been removed from the walls and taken out of the room entirely. Even as they stepped inside, they saw Coran tugging the pumpkins out of the room.

"Keith," Lance greeted, glancing at the doorway in surprise, his face flushed in embarrassment.

Hunk sent him a look of concern, his eyebrows furrowing. "You okay?"

Keith offered a weak smile. "Yeah," he whispered. "Uh, happy Halloween."

Lance quirked a lopsided grin. "Happy Halloween."

Pidge jumped down onto the ring of sofas, grabbing at her laptop. "Alright, what do you guys wanna watch? Ghostbusters? Hocus Pocus? Scream?"

"Do you have Stranger Things?" Keith asked, walking over so he could peer at her laptop over her shoulder. "I know that's a TV show instead of a movie, but—"

"Hell yeah," Pidge interjected, pulling up the folder in question. "Every episode."

"Oh, dude, I am so down," Lance said, flopping onto the sofa beside her.

"I'll get the system set up," Hunk offered.

Shiro put a hand on Keith's shoulder, giving him an apologetic smile. "You sure you okay?"

"I'm fine," he insisted. "Really."

Once Pidge's laptop was hooked up to the larger viewscreen, Hunk turned off the lights, sitting down by Lance. Allura and Coran joined them, asking in hushed voices what it was they were watching. And when everyone was situated, Pidge hit play.

Keith sat down on the floor at her feet and pulled one of the remaining space pumpkins into his lap, drawing his knife to start carving. "Thanks, guys," he said, as the show's opening sequence played on the screen before them.

"Anytime."

AN:

Me, before I started writing: Alright this is gonna be a cute light hearted fic where the Paladins teach the Alteans about Halloween.
Me, 500 words in: Oh. Well. Hm.

I swear I didn't intend for this to start off so sad.
THIS WHOLE FIC JUST GOT SO OUT OF HAND, I DIDN'T MEAN FOR THIS TO HAPPEN, I SWEAR IT

My fics this week just keep getting longer, aha

The timing for this one is just sort of nebulous, Who knows when it takes place. Probably sometime during the first two seasons.

And Pidge suggesting they watch Scream, lol I crack myself up

Anyways, I hope you guys all had a wonderful Halloween!

As always, come hang out with me on Tumblr (this-book-has-been-loved) or the Platonic VLD Discord server (NHYrCz5)!

~Brigit