Keith isn't sure exactly what he was expecting when Shiro told him that Adam wanted the team to come up and spend the holidays with them in Adam's cabin.

But whatever it was, it wasn't—this.

"You never told me you're rich," Keith deadpans when Adam opens the door.

He just snorts and yanks him into a hug by his coat sleeve. "Good to see you too, kiddo."

And then Shiro tells Adam he's hogging Keith but Adam won't let go so Keith ends up sandwiched between them, but it feels too much like home for him to be embarrassed, and his earlier nagging suspicion that this is either going to be one of the best or most torturous months of his life starts to lean a bit more towards the former.

Keith introduces the team to Adam and Adam to the team. Shiro takes it upon himself to give the rest of them a grand tour: three stories including a cozy living room with three couches and a TV and a fireplace, a full-size kitchen and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out into the mountains lining the horizon, a game room complete with foosball and ping-pong and pool, a library with a little nook decorated by blankets and pillows underneath a window, a huge firepit on the huge patio in the huge backyard lined with huge trees, and a wooden staircase leading up to a hallway with enough bedrooms for each of them to have their own.

("Except for you guys, I guess," Keith had said. And Shiro shrugged and smiled a little mischievously and then Adam had squawked and swatted at them both.)

Hunk asks Adam if he can see the kitchen again and so they leave to go bond or something over cooking, or whatever it is that people who cook talk about. The rest of them end up in the game room, and Keith is the proud of the way he only panics just a little bit when Lance slings an arm around his shoulders with a sly smile and a glint in his eye and challenges Pidge and Allura to a game of ping-pong.

"Sure, put me on the team with the only person in the room who's never played ping-pong, let alone heard of it," Pidge sighs. "No offense, Allura."

"I'm sure I can learn," Allura says hopefully.

And what they all learn is that apparently Allura has a hidden talent for smacking tiny lightweight balls across tables with oddly shaped paddles because two matches later, Lance is leaning over with his forehead pressed against the table and Keith is lying on the floor in defeat while Pidge and Allura cheer and high-five each other.

"Earth games are so much fun!" Allura says excitedly, her eyes bright. "Can we play again?"

"Please no," Keith groans from the floor, and Shiro laughs. "Have mercy."

Pidge snorts. "I think they've given up."

Lance shoots up and smacks a fist against the table. "Never! C'mon Keith, we can do this. Victory or death!"

"Famous last words," Shiro sighs, and Keith makes a noise of agreement. Lance ignores him and peers down at Keith with his hands on his hips. He narrows his eyes.

"I never took you for a quitter, Kogane."

"M'not a quitter," Keith frowns at him.

Lance considers him for a moment, and then the corner of his mouth curls up into a smirk. He extends his hand. "Prove it."

Keith glances at his hand. Then back up at Lance. He doesn't move. Lance pouts. Keith groans again, and he kind of hates the way that he can never say no to him. "Fine," he relents, hopelessly endeared by the way Lance's entire face lights up when Keith takes his hand and pulls himself to his feet.

Then they lose again and Keith returns to the floor while Lance bemoans the death of his pride.

"How was the ride up here?" Shiro asks later, when Keith is sitting next to Pidge underneath the window in the library and trying not to stare as Lance walks slowly around the room, trailing his fingers across the spines of all the books on the shelves like every single one is some kind of treasure. He wonders idly if Lance likes to read.

Keith shrugs, his eyes following Lance for another moment before he manages to drag his gaze away. "Long."

"Lance managed to get to the aux cord," Pidge sighs.

Shiro huffs a laugh. "Let me guess. Ariana Grande?"

"Mariah Carey," Keith corrects.

"All I want for Christmas is to never have to hear that song ever again," Pidge mutters.

"Hunk nearly drove us over the side of the mountain when you sent us a picture of the kitchen," Keith adds.

Shiro hums. "I thought he'd like it."

Pidge goes on to say something about the bruise she's probably going to have on her arm after teaching Allura how to play the license plate game. Keith is too busy watching Lance again to pay attention. He crosses to other side of the room and stares up the rest of the books, his lips moving quietly like he's reading the titles to himself, and Keith finds himself smiling a little.

He must have stared for a little too long because Pidge jabs him in the side with her elbow and he jumps. "Ow—what was that for?" Pidge raises a suggestive eyebrow at him and he feels his cheeks heat up. "I wasn't—"

"You really were," Shiro interrupts, patting him on the shoulder.

"What was he doing?" Keith starts when Lance suddenly appears beside Shiro and maybe he panics just a little.

"Nothing," Keith blurts, a bit too loudly.

Shiro and Pidge glance at each other.

"I'm gonna go make sure Allura didn't get lost," Pidge announces, sliding to the floor.

"I'm going to go check on Adam and Hunk," Shiro agrees, turning and following immediately behind.

"Oh my god," Keith mutters under his breath.

Lance watches them go. "I thought Adam said Shiro isn't even allowed in the kitchen."

Keith sinks lower into the cushions. "He's not."

He tries to ignore the way his heart flutters nervously in his chest when Lance just shrugs, apparently oblivious, and then turns to him with a bright smile and tugs on his sweater sleeve. "Their loss. C'mon, we get first dibs on rooms."

Keith also tells himself that it's purely a coincidence they end up choosing the first two rooms directly across from each other.

After two trips, when they've lugged all their things up the stairs, Lance comes back into Keith's room while he's finishing unpacking and flops onto the bed, his limbs sprawled in every direction. "You never mentioned that Adam's rich."

"That's because he isn't," Keith shrugs, shoving his last small pile of clothes into the chest at the foot of the bed. "It's a family cabin or something like that."

Lance hums. "It's really nice of him to let us all come stay up here."

"I guess," Keith allows. He leaps onto the bed beside Lance to make him bounce, laughing when Lance squawks and swats at him. "Seems suspicious, if you ask me."

Lance makes a face at him. "Suspicious how?"

"I dunno." Keith drops onto his elbows and props his chin in his hands. "I just think he's up to something."

Lance sits up and Keith narrows his eyes as he pats his shoulder. "You do know that sometimes people are nice just to be nice, right? Do you really think he's like, some kind of serial killer who lures people out to his cabin in the woods and picks them off one by one—"

"Once Adam cried because he thought he stepped on a bee," Keith deadpans, and Lance snorts. "So no, definitely not. I guess I just thought he'd want to spend his first Christmas after the war with Shiro, you know?"

"He is spending it with Shiro," Lance points out, poking him in the side. "Plus his five adopted space children."

"I mean by themselves," Keith rolls his eyes, poking him back. "I'm just saying, he's being weird."

"You're being weird," Lance counters, his lips quirking up into a smile.

Keith scoffs. "You're not allowed to insult me in my own room."

"You just insulted Adam in his own house!"

"I grew up with him, I'm allowed to do that."

Lance sighs.

Keith pokes him again.

Then Lance squints at him, and Keith raises an eyebrow. "I want you to know that you brought this upon yourself."

"What are you—" Keith's eyes widen and he cuts off with a squeak when Lance's hands shoot toward him, and Keith immediately smacks them away. "No! Lance no—" He scrambles to get away, but Lance is already leaping to his feet and tackling him back onto the bed, grinning as Keith lets out a muffled shriek. "Lance—" he squirms and tries to shove at Lance's chest when he goes for Keith's sides, and then he erupts into an involuntary fit of giggles.

"You're pitiful," Lance snickers, poking persistently at Keith's stomach.

He snorts when he tickles Keith's side again and accidentally gets himself kneed in the chin as Keith jerks onto his side. "Oh my god—" Keith tries to take a big enough breath to stop laughing. "Lance, it's not funny—"

"Could've fooled me," Lance laughs, leaning back a little when Keith's hand smooshes into his cheek.

Keith takes the opportunity to try to wriggle out from underneath him, but Lance immediately recovers and pins him back down, this time going back for his stomach. "Lance stop I'm literally going to punch you—"

"Make me," Lance teases, grinning again as Keith helplessly shoves at his arms, breathless from laughing too much.

Then someone clears their throat behind them and they both freeze, staring at each other for a split second before they react. Lance nearly topples off the bed in his haste to scramble away as Keith shoots up into a sitting position, flailing a little. Adam is standing in the doorway with an amused look on his face.

He folds his arms and leans against the doorframe. "If you two are done, Hunk and I made dinner."

Keith feels his face flush, still a little out of breath, and he prays that his cheeks aren't as red as they feel. "Okay," he manages.

The corner of Adam's mouth twitches, the way Keith knows it does when he's trying not to smile. Lance coughs weakly. Keith tries not to die.

"Hurry up then," Adam says eventually, turning to go back into the hallway without waiting for them to follow. "Everyone's waiting on you two."

He disappears, leaving the two of them sprawled awkwardly on opposite ends of the bed. They look back at each other for another moment, and then Lance grins and stifles a laugh, and Keith's heart maybe flutters a little. "Race you downstairs?"

"Nice hair," Pidge says when they tumble into the kitchen just a minute later.

Keith blinks. "What?"

And Lance bursts into laughter and pats Keith's hair down and Keith pretends he doesn't notice Shiro and Pidge smirking at each other.

It's hardly eight when Keith wakes up the next morning to the sound of Lance's voice right outside his bedroom yelling for everyone to wake up, and Keith considers getting up just to push him down the stairs, because at the very least he'd expected to be able to sleep in over the holidays.

"Guys! Guys, come look outside!"

Keith cracks his eyes open, squinting against what little sunlight is starting to filter into the room through his window. There's some shuffling outside in the hallway, and some footsteps as some of the others start coming out of their rooms.

"Why," he mutters to himself, groaning and rolling over. He tries to muffle the sound of apparently everyone congregating just outside his room with his pillow, but it's not quite enough. He groans again.

Someone knocks on his door and he pulls the sheets over his head as Shiro pokes his into the room, laughter ringing in his voice. "I forgot how hard it is to get you up in the mornings."

"And I forgot how insufferable you are in the mornings," Keith retorts, burrowing further into the bed.

Shiro tears the sheets away and Keith sighs loudly. "Trust me, you're gonna want to see this."

He ignores Keith's indignant noise of protest as he takes hold of Keith's ankles and starts to drag him out of bed, smiling in satisfaction as Keith kicks at him. "Okay, okay! Jeez, I'm coming."

And then he's hardly stepped into the hallway behind Shiro when suddenly Lance is there, eyes bright and excited, grabbing his arm and tugging him over to the balcony where everyone else is gathered to look out one of the many enormous windows at the front of the cabin. "Keith, look!"

Keith sighs, rubbing his eyes. "I don't understand what could possibly be so important that you have to go and wake everyone up—" His eyes drift toward the window, and he freezes.

Because outside where there should be a driveway, and a yard, and trees, there's just—white. Everything is totally and absolutely covered in white. He rubs his eyes again. He blinks. "Is that—"

"First snow," Lance murmurs beside him, and Keith can't help but feel like the awe in his voice is completely justified, and maybe even a little understated.

The sight of it literally takes his breath away. He's seen pictures of course, heard plenty of people talk all about it and describe it in all kinds of ways, but none of that has ever compared to this. The way it glitters softly in the glow of the morning sunlight, the way it gently rises and falls with the slope of the landscape and the mountains beyond the trees, the way it seems to rest gently on the ground like a blanket wrapped around its figurative shoulders.

He must look as starstruck as he feels, because Lance speaks again after another moment. "You've never seen snow before." He says it more like an observation than a question.

Keith tears his gaze away from the window long enough to look at Lance, who's watching him with a searching sort of expression. "I—" He looks back to the window, and at the vast expanse of white staring unblinking back at him, and it's distracting enough that he kind of forgets he was talking.

"He's never really left the desert," Shiro answers for him, voice soft, and suddenly Keith feels a bit like he's a kid again. He can't seem to stop staring at the snow outside, mesmerized by the way it seems to demand his attention and is yet a calming presence all at once. Is this really what he's been missing out on all this time?

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lance demands. "Let's go outside!"

Everyone dashes back into their rooms to change—except for Lance, who catches Keith's arm when he tries to follow suit, and Keith makes a noise of protest. "What're you—"

Lance shushes him, tugging him in the direction of the stairs. "If we go right now while everyone else is changing we can be the first ones in the snow."

Keith looks down at his wrinkled T-shirt and pants and frowns, even while he lets Lance drag him down the stairs. "We're still wearing pajamas."

"It is a sacrifice I am willing to make," Lance says soberly, snatching Keith's coat from the rack next to the door and shoving it into his hands. "Now c'mon!"

They both shrug on their coats, Keith a little confusedly, and then they jam their boots onto their feet and gloves onto their hands and Lance throws the door open and pushes Keith outside.

If Keith wasn't already awake, the rush of freezing cold air that hits his cheeks makes certain that he is. He shoves his hands into his pockets and burrows a little further into his coat and stares at the line where the porch meets snow and maybe his heart beats a little faster with anticipation. There's a light layer of snow dusting the railing along the deck, which he inspects as Lance pulls the door shut behind them.

Now that it's all right here in front of him, it suddenly feels very overwhelming. It looks even softer up close. He tentatively reaches out and pokes at it, blinking when it immediately gives and he can see the little crystals tumbling apart where he touched it.

The yard looks like it's been covered with a blank, white sheet, or a really big blanket that glitters. He stands there at the steps for a moment, quietly taking it all in, and then Lance appears at his side and nudges him forward.

"Well? Go on."

Keith looks at him. "What?"

"Don't you wanna go out there?"

Keith glances back at the yard. "Well—I mean, yeah, but—"

Apparently Lance can read his thoughts, because he smiles slowly. "I know you think it looks too pretty to mess up, but walking around in the snow when it's fresh is the second best part of it. Trust me."

"What's the best part?"

"Would you just—" Lance huffs and nudges at him again. "I'm trying to give you the ultimate first snow experience!"

"Okay, okay," Keith mutters. He carefully walks down onto the first step, the second step, and then he stops, one foot hovering over the last step half-buried underneath the snow.

"Keith, if you don't walk into the snow right now I'm going to push you in myself—"

Keith takes a deep breath and watches as his foot sinks into the snow and he nearly falls over because he wasn't expecting it to be quite so deep. He takes a few small steps, kicking it up a little as he goes and listening to the sound of snow crunching underneath his feet. And he won't lie, Lance is right. The feeling is so satisfying. "Cool," he smiles a little, watching his breath appear in a small cloud in front of him before disappearing.

"Did you just make a pun?" Lance calls from the porch. "It really is a Christmas miracle!"

Keith makes a face at him, and then glances at his trail of footprints from the steps to where he currently stands. "It's soft," he calls back.

"Good observation," Lance grins, crossing his arms over the railing and leaning on it.

There's a brief moment of quiet as Keith just looks around some more, and then he holds his arms out and lets himself fall flat on his back with a muffled thump. Some snow manages to get underneath the collar of his coat, and it's freezing cold on his neck but it feels nice. The sky is still a soft gray, the last clouds of the recent snowstorm floating lazily by. He hears some crunching footsteps approaching, and then Lance's face appears, and even upside-down, Keith can make out the smirk on his face and the amusement in his voice.

"Having fun?"

Keith picks up some snow in his gloved hands and Lance's smile grows as he lets it cascade back down before plopping his arms back down. "Soft," he says again.

"You're such a weirdo," Lance says, and Keith tries not to smile.

Then Keith throws snow into his face and manages to make it halfway across the yard before the others come outside in time to see Lance tackling him back into the snow.

lancey lance — Keith K
December 1st, 2:13 AM

lancey lance: hey keith
keith
keith keith keith

Keith K: it's 2 in the morning.

lancey lance: yes i know how to read the time thank u
what're u doing?

Keith K: sleeping?

lancey lance: you drank all that coffee after adam specifically told you not to
so i know for a fact that you were
in fact
not sleeping

Keith K: adam can't tell me what to do

lancey lance: mhm okay keith
come outside

Keith K: ...what

lancey lance: i know u can read keith

Keith K: once again, it is 2 in the morning
and it's literally 20 degrees outside

lancey lance: your point

Keith K: ?
it's the middle of the night and it's freezing
wait
are you seriously outside right now?
lance
oh my god fine i'm coming

lancey lance: bring ur coat
:)

Keith finds Lance standing on the deck, cheeks and nose slightly pink in the soft glow of the porch light as he leans against the railing and looks out into the dark.

"Why are you like this," Keith mutters, shivering a little at a slight gust of freezing wind and hunching his shoulders into his coat.

Lance doesn't look up, just smiles as Keith stops beside him and follows his gaze toward what little snow is illuminated by the porch light. It's actively snowing now; Keith can already see the indentations of everyone's footprints and snow angels from earlier fading significantly.

But something feels—different, somehow. Like the sounds of the everything else have faded too, muffled by the sheets of white on the ground. The world seems completely quiet, except for the flakes of snow falling softly to earth. It's peaceful. That's the only word Keith can find to describe it.

"This is the best part," Lance murmurs beside him.

Keith watches the snowfall for just a little bit longer before looking at Lance, and he can't help but notice the way he smiles softly at the world of white falling gently around them. He makes himself look away again after a while. "Yeah," he says quietly.

What he doesn't notice, is the way that Lance glances at him after he's looked away, and watches him instead.