A/N: WTF SHE'S ALIVE! Her readers gasped in amazement. She only sighed. She's been gone so long she forgot how to put words into sentences into stories into fanfics. She is working on it though. Here is her attempt to start remembering how to write.

Seriously, though. Joined a new fandom. Binged this entire 8 season show in 6 days. Blame my friend, who's been begging me to watch it for a full year. This oneshot is dedicated to her. Merry Christmas love!

Cute, fluffy oneshot. Canon compliant. Allurance. Klance friendship. Rated K. Enjoy!

Lance wandered the halls of the Atlas, deep in thought. They had only left earth a few weeks prior, and so much had happened since then. His mind was clouded with thoughts of all the things that had happened to him in the past four years. As well as all the things that were yet to come. He shook his head, trying to focus. He was currently a man on a mission! He couldn't get distracted now.

Said mission was to find something nice to surprise his girlfriend, Allura. They had only been dating for a few weeks (since right before they left earth, actually) but Lance knew she was his one and forever. He just wanted to find some way to show her that. Especially before things got too crazy. You didn't get dull moments for long when you were a Paladin of Voltron.

"C'mon Lance! What are things that Allura likes that I can get in space?" Maybe he should get Hunk to cook her some sort of Altean food? But then the present would be more from Hunk. Or he could have Pidge modify one of her weapons for her? Or create a new one? No, that would be a gift from Pidge. Lance wanted to give her something all his own. But he couldn't bake. He was useless with technology. What could he give her that was truly special when he lacked all the talents that everyone else seemed to have?

Wait a second! He remembered that when they were back on Earth, Lance's niece had French-braided Allura's hair and she had loved it! Since they left the next day, Allura never got a chance to learn how to do it herself, even though she mentioned wanting to. "What if I learned how to French braid? Then whenever Allura wants her hair braided, she can come to me. We can bond over it! It can be like a cool thing we do!"

Lance almost patted himself on the back for coming up with such a great idea! Now, he just needed to learn how to French braid! That couldn't be too hard, right?

Wrong.

The first person Lance asked was Pidge. She used to have long hair, and her workshop was in the part of the ship he was, so why not? "Hey Pidge! Can you teach me how to French braid?" he asked, bouncing inside without knocking. Pidge looked up from where she was tinkering with some piece of Galra tech.

"As in, hair?" she asked quizzically. "I don't really know how to do that. My mom always braided my hair for me. I never cared that much about it. Why don't you ask Veronica? I'm sure she knows!"

Lance jumped off of the chair he was lounging on. "Of course! Thanks Pidgeon!" Ignoring her glare from the nickname, he dashed out of the room. He knocked on Veronica's door but she didn't respond. He checked the bridge next, but only found Shiro and Sam. Getting increasingly frustrated, he headed down to the gym.

There he found Krolia, Axca, Veronica, and Rizavi. The three younger girls seemed to be having a pushup competition while Krolia observed, a bemused smile on her face. "I NEED FEMALE HELP, STAT!" he announced loudly, startling Rizavi and causing her to fall over.

"For what? Are you having relationship problems already Lance? You started dating like three weeks ago!" Veronica teased. Lance rolled his eyes.

"I need to learn how to French braid Allura's hair, actually. She mentioned wanting to learn when we were back on Earth but she never got the chance to. I wanna learn so I can braid her hair for her!" He blushed as a chorus of 'Aws!' filled the room.

Veronica pulled Lance over to Rizavi, who was already pulling her hair out of her ponytail. "We'll teach you! It's not as hard as it looks, it just takes practice. First you, group the hair into different sections like this…"

Axca finished her reps of pushups and went to stand next to Krolia. "The Earthlings are strange sometimes," she commented. Krolia snorted.

"You get used to it." The Galra ladies watched Lance struggle to weave Rizavi's hair together. "Everyone here is so close. Like the whole Atlas is a family. I missed having a family."

"I never had one." Axca's face darkened a bit. "But Veronica has shown me what it's like to have family. Keith, too. He was the one who first showed me what kindness and mercy was like. You should be proud of him."

Krolia smiled. "I am. I wish I could have been there for him more. But he certainly found his path on his own. With help from Shiro and his fellow Paladins, of course."

A cry of pain from Rizavi brought their attention back to what was now the hair salon section of the gym. "That's it! I'm done!" Lance hollored. Indeed, Rizavi's hair was now in a messy pleat.

"But at what cost?" the girl moaned. "My head feels like it went to war with an octopus or something."

"Oh, shush! I did a great job, didn't I? Right Veronica?"

The Cuban girl squinted at the MFE Pilot's hair. "I mean, it's definitely a French braid. You're gonna need to practice it a few more times to get it a little neater."

"Alrighty! Ready for round two, Nadia?"

Rizavi immediately glanced at her wrist. "Whoops, would you look at the time? I promised Kinkade I would go help him film something! Bye!" She dashed out of the room, skidding around the corner and out of sight. Lance scratched his head.

"She's not even wearing a watch! Whatever. Who am I supposed to practice on now?" He looked around. Veronica, Axca, and Krolia all had shorter hair. So did Pidge and Hunk. Matt would have been perfect except that he CUT HIS HAIR (Lance gave him a silent treatment for a week after that incident. How dare he ruin perfection?) He racked his brain. He needed someone who's hair was only slightly longer than Veronica's…..

Suddenly, his face lit up into an evil grin. "Thanks for teaching me, Ronnie! I know just who to practice on!" He followed the path that Rizavi had taken out of the gym, going nearly as fast and skidding around the corner as well. All he had to do was dash down three hallways, take the elevator up a floor, and find the door that was right across the hallway from his own bedroom door. He lifted his fist and knocked.

Immediately, barking resounded inside the room. Footsteps and shushing sounds could be heard through the door as the occupant grew closer. Lance stepped back as the door slid open and he was met face to face with grayish-purple eyes, a scar, and a perfect amount of long, messy hair.

The owner of the messy hair squinted. "Hey Lance!" Lance then realized he hadn't said anything since the door opened.

"Keith! My buddy! My man!" He tossed his arm around Keith's shoulders. The red paladin didn't pull away like he used to a few years ago. True progress in their friendship. He did, however, look very suspicious.

"What did you do now, Lance? I can't get you out of every situation you get yourself into!" Keith paused. "Geez, I sound like Shiro talking to teenage me…"

"Think you might have a few gray hairs here too!" Lance teased, examining Keith's mullet. "Speaking of your hair, I need to borrow it."

"What?"

"Okay it's a long story but basically I wanted to surprise Allura by learning how to French braid her hair and Veronica taught me how but Rizavi won't let me practice on her anymore and besides her you have the longest hair of everyone on this ship so I need to practice on you." Lance finished the whole sentence in one breath and then sucked in more air. "Pleeeeeaaaaaassseeee?"

Keith raised one eyebrow. "Dude, I'm not letting you braid my hair. Just go practice on Allura."

"Nooo! It has to be perfect before I show her!"

"You're not braiding my hair!"

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"With like 3,000 cherries on top?"

"Do you understand what 'no' means?"

"I'll give you my dessert for a month!"

"I need to stay in shape, extra sugar is bad for me."

"I'll make your bed for a month?"

Keith scoffed, not unkindly though. "You think I care if my bed is made or not?"

"Fine!" Lance crossed his arms. His eyes narrowed dangerously. "You leave me no choice. Puh-leeeeeeeaaaaaassseee?" He softened his expression and gave Keith the best puppy eyes he could muster, making sure his lip quivered a bit too.

"Oh gosh no… Not the puppy eyes! Go away Lance!" But Lance persisted, and he finally won. "Argh! Whatever, come in. Do whatever."

Lance waltzed past Keith to give Kosmo a friendly pat. Then he pointed to the floor in front of Keith's bed. "Sit."

Shiro and Iverson were making a full inspection of the ship, to make sure that everything was in perfect working order. They wanted to make sure the Atlas hadn't maintained any minor structural damage that could become significant later. They were currently walking down the hallway that belonged to the bedrooms of the male paladins and MFE pilots.

"Ow! Stop it! That hurts!"

Shiro paused. "That sounds like Keith," he commented. He glanced over at Keith's room.

"I didn't hear anything," Iverson responded, shrugging. He turned to keep walking when finally they heard a loud yelp.

"ARGH! That hurts!"

"Stop trying to get away! You're such a pain in the a-"

"Excuse me? You barge into my room to subject me to horrible torture and you're complaining because I don't like it?"

Iverson looked very concerned. Shiro just rolled his eyes. He'd been listening to Keith and Lance fight for five years, and he was so done with it. He strode over to Keith's door, swinging it open. "Can you to get along for just five minutes? Honestly, you should be over this stupid petty rivalry by now and yo-" Shiro suddenly cut himself off, frozen.

"What?" Iverson asked. He walked over and glanced into the room before he started laugh. Keith was sitting cross-legged on the floor, wearing sweatpants and a too-big red hoodie. Kosmo was curled up next to him with his head in Keith's lap. Lance was in proper uniform, sitting on Keith's bed. He had his hands buried in Keith's hair, which was halfway braided in a very messy French braid.

Both boys scowled as Shiro and Iverson lost it.

"What is this? Spa day?" Iverson asked.

"Keith you've never been more beautiful," Shiro said with a straight face. There was a pause and then they both started laughing again. Keith's face turned the color of his hoodie and he immediately rose, stomped over, and slammed the door in their faces. Both battle-hardened men walked away with tears in their eyes from laughing so hard.

"Lance, what exactly are you doing? Also please hurry. I need to go join Romelle to talk to the Altean in a few minutes."

"Just give me three more seconds, Allura. I promise, it'll be worth it!" He continued weaving the silky white strands together, tongue sticking out of his mouth as he concentrated. "There! You can open your eyes now!"

Allura opened her eyes, blinking a few times as she let them re-adjust to the light. She turned and looked in the mirror against her wall. "Oh Lance! It's gorgeous!" she exclaimed. "I love it!" She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you so much!"

Lance blushed and shrugged. "Just wanted to do something special for you."

"I love it!" she repeated. "I can't wait to show Romelle!" She practically skipped out of the room, the worry and fatigue that had been clearly displayed on her face for days now replaced with a big smile. A smile that Lance had caused. It made him so happy.

Mission Accomplished.