Matt was sitting in the Castle Lounge fuming silently as Pidge gently poked his cheek. The Yellow, Blue, and Red Paladins slowly rolled in, watching the scene with vague interest until Matt suddenly screamed.

"Pidgie, would you stop that!"

The sudden outburst jolted the other boys and knocked Pidge over like a gust of wind. When they all recovered, Matt looked at his sister and apologized.

"Sorry Pidgie. I'm just real tired."

"Dang dude, who stole your Happy Meal?" Lance questioned, having never seen the older Holt sibling so upset.

"Shiro," the rebel groused.

"What did Shiro do?" Hunk asked.

The others ask in similar accord, curious as to what their leader could've possibly done to upset him.

"You probably wouldn't understand, but the great Shirogane decided that I was 'Too old to be making jokes during training' and 'Should act my age'."

Before anyone could question his words, Keith burst out laughing. He laughed so hard that his whole body shook and he held his sides. The other three paladins huddled together and stared at him like he'd lost his mind. Matt on the other hand looked on puzzled. When he finally stopped, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, Lance spoke up.

"Are you… feeling alright?"

Keith paid him no mind but instead looked over to the older Holt with a gleeful look of questioning.

"You're serious? He actually said that?"

"Every word," Matt confirmed with a nod.

Keith let out another round of chuckles, and the other paladins slowly became desensitized to the unusual sound.

"He actually had the nerve to say that out loud. Pigs must be flying back home," Keith said.

"Uh, dude… What's so weird about Shiro telling someone not to joke around?"

"Because Shiro can be the most impish, impulsive, immature yutz you will ever meet," Matt answered.

"What?"

"Shiro?"

"No way."

Hunk, Lance, and Pidge all voiced their disbelief loudly, but the other two shook their heads and stood their ground.

"I'm telling you, he has done some stupid things you probably would've had to see to believe," Keith said.

"I know that's right," Matt agreed.

"Well, I still don't buy it," Lance insisted.

Keith paused for a second, trying to figure out how to convince them. Then memory came to mind, and a wicked smirk crossed his face. He turned to their newest companion.

"Did Shiro ever tell you about how he got his ears pierced?"

"Actually, no. He never explained that," Matt answered.

"Well why don't you sit back and I'll tell you all about it?"

The other five scrambled to get comfortable in the seats. When they finally settled, Lance and Hunk were sitting with Matt between them, Pidge tangled in his arms.

"Alright, so it started like this: Shiro, his twin brother, their little sister, and me were all playing truth or dare…"

The four youths sat in a circle on the floor, laughing at the completion of Keith's most recent dare. The youngest now had his hair full of glitter, several falling down for every which-way he turned his head. When they calmed down he turned to the only girl of the group.

"Alright Agi, truth or dare?"

"Hmm… Truth."

"Alright then…" He pauses to think, then his eyes brighten as a wicked idea comes to mind. "Is it true that… You kissed Blake Charles behind the school last week?"

The brunette looks both confused and offended by the question and gasped indignantly at the accusation.

"I beg your pardon? Absolutely not! I'd sooner slap that womanizing good-for-nothing before I'd kiss him!"

The twins let out synched grunts of agreement, and Keith chuckled.

"Why would you even think that?" Aguri asked.

"Well…" Keith hummed. "I seem to recall you having a crush on a certain Blake, so I thought the girl he kissed might've been you."

"Blake Henry you baka, not Blake Charles! How could you even think-" she cut herself off as she finally noticed Keith's wicked Cheshire grin.

She rewound exactly what she said and mentally cursed. She flushed red realizing she'd just admitted her crush in front of all her brothers and turned to the twins. Ironically enough, the two gave her twin stares that clearly read 'Excuse you?'.

"M-Moving on!" she rushed, trying to change the subject. "R-Ryou, t-truth or dare?"

"Dare," the older twin answered monotonously.

"Um… I dare you to… Hmm…"

"What's the matter Imōto? Can't think of anything?" Ryou teased.

That did it.

"Alright smart guy. I dare you to wear a dress."

The whole room went dead silent. Then suddenly the other boys burst out laughing. They laughed so hard, tears of mirth began to run down their faces in streams. When they finally broke off, the eldest was red-faced and embarrassed at the very idea.

"I am not wearing a dress!" He objected.

"It's truth or dare Ryou," Takashi returned. "You have to do it. Or, are you too chicken?"

"You know what?" Ryou snapped as he got off the floor and stomped up the stairs.

The other three burst into fits of giggles. Thinking he left the game, they were about to move on when they heard a noise. They trio turned their heads around and gaped. Standing at the top of the stairs was Ryou… wearing his mother's pink floral sundress. The others were so in shock that they said nothing. When it finally wore of, they three laughed so hard that they rolled all over the floor.

"Oh, stop laughing! Can I take this stupid thing off now?"

"Wait, wait," Lance interjected. "Shiro's twin brother, actually put on their mother's dress?"

"Did I not just say that?" Keith answered.

"Yeah, I know. But picture it guys: a guy who looks exactly like Shiro, wearing a dress."

Lance let the idea hang in the air and after a few moments of thought, everyone burst out laughing.

"Alright, back to the story guys. So Aguri made Ryou wear the dress for the rest of the game…"

Ryou was fuming mad. He had to sit there, in his mother's dress. And pink was not his color! He turned to his twin with a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Alright Takashi, truth or dare."

"Dare!"

What the twins didn't notice were the other two's shared look of exasperation. They could sense trouble from a mile away.

"I dare you to pierce your ears."

"Uh-oh," Keith murmured.

Aguri facepalmed.

"What?" Takashi asked.

"Hey, you said you wanted to get them pierced!" Ryou justified.

"Yeah, but I haven't asked mom yet, do you want her to kill me?"

"Are you chicken?"

The elder twin proceeded to make clucking noises and loudly imitate a chicken, flapping his arms and pecking. The other two were shaking their heads, already knowing the outcome.

"Fine!" Takashi snapped.

After that, the younger twin went about stomping around, gathering the items he would need to do it. The two youngest didn't even bother trying to talk him out of it. Once he was set on doing something, it would get done — come hell or high water.

"Do you think we should call the paramedics now, or…?" Keith asked.

"Honestly, with these two idiots for brothers —" she gestured to the older twin who was currently laughing his head off, still getting a few clucks in here and there, and to the unseen younger who was cursing up a storm in Japanese. "…I'm surprised we don't already have them on speed-dial."

Finally Takashi came back with all his materials and began to sterilize a needle with a lighter. Aguri got up with a sigh.

"I'll get some ice."

"Hey! Don't leave me to witness this… stupidity alone!" Keith complained.

"Someone sane has to make sure he doesn't accidentally stab himself in the face," Aguri reasoned.

She abruptly turned and left, leaving poor Keith to watch the madness unfold. He watched with a pained look as Takashi pinched his earlobe in an attempt to numb it before deftly perforating it in one fell swoop. While the action was clean; the outcome, however, was not. The younger twin was now bleeding profusely. Keith pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, trying to stave of the impending headache as Takashi let out several swears in both English and Japanese.

"Neoneun babo ya," Keith hissed.

Luckily, Aguri returned with ice and clean washcloth to sop up the blood. After the process was repeated a second time, Aguri and Keith officially declared the game to be over. Even so, a few hours later; when Megumi and Seiji Shirogane returned home, all hell broke loose. Megumi was the first to notice, despite Aguri's best effort's to hide it with flesh-toned bandages and make-up. The Shirogane matriarch was normally very quiet and reserved. But when she saw what her second-eldest had done; first she checked and double checked to make sure he hadn't given himself an infection, then she threw a kind of rage that made her husband think twice before interrupting her.

"Megumi-chan, honey, please calm down."

"Not now Seiji!"

He remained silent after that.

"Keith, Aguri! Explain what happened, now."

So, the two youngest took turns explaining what had happened, starting from Ryou's donning of a dress, to Aguri trying to hide it from them both.

"… And I didn't expect it to work, really. I just wanted to buy Takashi some time to break it to you both."

When the tale was told, Megumi looked torn between laughing, and grounding all of them for a week. She understood that Ryou would give Shiro such a dare, that wasn't surprising. What was surprising was that Takashi actually went through with it, and that the other two did absolutely nothing to stop him. Then again, she knew that they were aware that Takashi would stop at nothing once his mind was made up, not unlike herself. After a few moment's deliberation, she came to a decision.

"Alright, Keith, Aguri, you're both grounded for the rest of the night. Go to your rooms."

The two shared am look, but neither of them quarreled and silently obeyed. When they were out of sight, Megumi turned to her eldest sons.

"Ryou, you are grounded for a week, no TV, no going out; just school and home. That's it. Go to your room."

Ryou opened his mouth to argue, but a look from his mother followed by a 'don't-do-it' head-shake from his father convinced him otherwise. When he left, Takashi stared nervously at his parents. It had finally donned on him just how stupid he'd been. Sadly, hindsight couldn't help him now.

"And as for you, Shirogane Takashi, since you so desperately wish to keep those mars on your flesh, I have a special punishment in mind."

Keith smirked at the memory, glad he'd decided to spy in on the moment. It had been somewhat satisfying to watch.

"So what happened?" Lance asked.

"Well, to make a long story short, Shiro wound up wearing his sister's old Hello Kitty earrings for a whole month."

The entire room burst out laughing. The Paladins laughed until their sides ached and tears streaked their faces. When they finally calmed down, Keith spoke again.

"So, to sum it up, Shiro has almost always been always been an impulsive idiot. At east where his brother is concerned."

It was that, unfortunate moment that Shiro decided to step into the lounge. Hunk and Pidge held their breath to hide their giggling, while Lance snickered silently. Matt and Keith just turned at him with knowing smirks.

"I heard you guys laughing all the way from the dining hall," Shiro said. "What's so funny?"

And once again, the other's laughed.