A break to the beach was long-earned, Keith thought, as Lance's family's van rounded into one of the side streets that led to the beach and parked on the edge of the kerb. It had been weeks of bitter work at the Garrison. A Galra invasion was not exactly what Keith had envisioned when he thought of returning to Earth after years, but somehow, though he wouldn't admit it to his teammates, it didn't surprise him either. Commander Holt had the Paladins working closely with him daily, yet progress was slow without a clue to Haggar's whereabouts. If it even was her behind the disheartening discovery.
The repairs to the Garrison would take months, too, and the construction was a constant reminder of what it had cost. Between all this, Hunk had suggested a couple of days away - the Paladins, as a team. After all, they were used to each other in the Castle of Lions, and it was hard not to be homesick for any arrangement you had spent years on and off in, even if it was a ragtag group such as theirs.
The Garrison had always felt too busy to Keith, now even more so.
Lance's family was a different kind of busy - for better or worse, he wasn't sure. They had left the pod they had taken down for the weekend, and Lance's brother had rushed to offer them the family's van, on the condition that Lance brought his kids for a day out too.
The road to the beach was long, curving right along the water's edge. Varadero was clean, crisp; the evacuation of its inhabitants had been swift, thus the landscape was spared from Sendak's assault. Very few cars passed. It was easy to tell that few people had returned since the end of the occupation. The sky was clear, reflecting almost artificial blue onto the even waves. Long, arching palm trees lined the edges.
Keith closed his eyes and imagined zooming through on his bike.
Luis' kids burst out of the van first, followed by a very freckled Pidge who had spent the whole ride looking up the ecological characteristics of the area on her tablet. The rest of them filtered out.
The view was breathtaking. Keith hung back a little as they walked down to the sea, wondering how a place could look so serene when the world was waiting with bated breath for something to give any moment.
Hunk made straight for the water in long strides, testing it with a large hand flat in the waves before he lay right down across the water's edge. Keith watched him with a smile.
"Oh my god, dude," Hunk said. "Oh, yes. It's the perfect temperature," and he turned and flopped onto his stomach, waves clear as tinted glass lapping up the sides of his body at steady intervals.
It wasn't long before Allura and Coran had recruited Keith and Shiro to teach them how to play volleyball; after several minutes staring at another group's game and whispering together, trying to figure out whatever its aim might be. The conversation amused Keith greatly, though he kept his mouth shut.
("Why would they not just grab the ball? Surely that would provide a much more directed throw?" "I don't know, Princess, maybe it's like football - I know for a fact you're not supposed to grab the ball with your feet first.")
Shiro perked up, happy to oblige, and though Keith felt the sun a little too strongly to really be interested in running around on hot sand right now, that fact compelled him.
He and Coran were one team. Allura's hair was swept high in a ponytail out of her face, swishing as they played. Combined with the flip-flops and loose tank top (all Veronica's, he had heard Allura's profuse thanks on the stairs that morning) it gave her an endearingly different air. She looked remarkably - human, politely pleased in the way most people were when they put on formalwear. It was Shiro who looked unlikely, his arm literally hovering high to hit the ball, though their white heads in gleaming in the sun made them look like quite a team.
He envied Shiro; Allura was a much faster learner than Coran, and in the end they (arguably) won the match. Still, the game didn't amount to much, considering the Altean strength in most of their clunky hits had him and Shiro flinging a few feet across the sand on their asses every few minutes.
"I think," Shiro said, rubbing where he had fallen on his knee, "we can call it a day." Coran yelped in apology next to Keith. Keith couldn't help laughing at the ridiculous sight.
"Mm, I think that might be for the best too," Allura mused.
"Great job, though. You're fast learners," Shiro said, laughed.
"Little too fast, huh, Shiro?" Keith said, taking off his gloves. It was hot.
Allura helped Shiro up, and he glared pointedly at Keith, before whacking him with the ball.
Human throws definitely still hurt.
It was fun, even if there was sand in places he didn't even want to consider now.
They made their way up to the top of the beach, which was more crowded with vendors selling drinks and renting out all manner of equipment. Shiro was eyeing the deckchairs and hammocks. Keith bought a bottle of water for two credits, and then seeing the price, bought another. While the rest of them wandered off, Keith picked a spot in the shade of a palm tree to sit and cool off.
The sun was lower in the sky now, hiding and resurfacing behind a few scattered clouds. Keith marvelled at the difference it made; the water unnaturally bright one moment, like the energy drinks he lived off as a cadet, dulling to the color of slate the next; always vast and beautiful.
When he was cool enough he walked back into the sun towards. It was hard to resist the urge to soak it up. The Garrison outpost was in the middle of the desert, sure, but it wasn't like this. The heat at high noon there was dense, it encroached on his eyelids, seeped into the gaps in his clothing wherever they trained outside.
Here it was pleasant. Not cooler, but it dispersed evenly, tempered by sea and salt. He wondered if his Dad would have been at home in this kind of weather; if even Krolia would, and where she was now.
Coran was sitting cross-legged in the shallow water with Pidge, who hadn't looked up from her scanner since the moment she arrived.
"Uh, Pidge," Hunk said plainly, wading up to them. "You know we're not on an alien planet, right?"
Pidge picked up a clump of shells in her hand. "Cut me some slack," she said excitedly, "I've never had the chance to scan Earth materials!" She patted the rectangular scanner attached to her wrist with pride, "I perfected this on the ship, remember? Did you know that it can tell not just the molecular structure, but the exact life story of each object, too? I loaded it with all the data I could gather for Earth's geomorphysics before we came to Cuba."
Hunk's eyes widened as Pidge pressed a button to load a holographic projection. From then on, it was all familiar chatter.
And there was Lance. Keith didn't even have the heart to be annoyed at Lance's exuberant comments to his niece and nephew, drifting all the way here from where he sat a few yards away. Keith watched. Lance had had an uncharacteristically dazed look about him since they had arrived, but he sat surprisingly still, the dutiful uncle tending to a haphazard row of half-built sandcastles as Lili and Yaniel puttered about, ambling over wet sand and bringing shells and scraps to decorate the flimsy structures. Lance kept looking out into the water almost every few seconds. Keith could hardly follow his gaze - the light on the water glittered harshly, blinding white with every slight way he tilted head - but the same thing didn't seem to bother Lance at all.
Keith leaned back and half-listened; to the kids and Lance, to Pidge and Hunk and Coran, to the waves and the breeze and the far-off sounds of a stereo playing upbeat music, and the clinking of forks on the shoreside restaurants. The heels of his palms dug into the hot sand. It wasn't scorching down here like the sand near the road, it felt more like a hot press for his tired tendons.
"And besides," Pidge was saying now, legs absently shifting sand like snow angels, mirroring Hunk, "I haven't been to the beach since the time we took a family holiday in Florida before Matt left for space," she said.
He couldn't tell if seconds had passed or an hour.
Coran was humming a tune he didn't recognise, eyes lifted to the sky but with his hands shielding his brows from the sun. Keith took one look at his skimpy shorts, formed a sentence in his head - something about if Alteans burnt like humans did in the Sun, and -
He sat up with a jolt of his head and stretched a crick in his neck. He had almost fallen asleep, with it tipped forward. He took a few long drinks of his water and looked around.
He couldn't find Shiro. For a minute, Keith wondered if he had headed back, if he should go and expect to find him in the van. He got up, but he didn't have to look far. It turned out Shiro was fast asleep, high up on the beach where the palm trees clustered; in a colourful rent-by-the-hour hammock slung between two trees.
Keith's heart glowed. Shiro's arm lay carefully in his lap, his expression perfectly peaceful under the shade of humongous palm leaves. Keith's hand went straight to his card in his pocket and he checked it. He had only used four credits today. He topped up another couple of hours at the stall.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Allura holding a coconut, blinking curiously with her eyebrows high as the vendor continuously tipped almost half a bottle of rum into it. He had half a mind to run over there and interfere - the guy was looking very strangely at his enthused customer - but Keith dropped it when Allura pulled the coconut towards her and took a long and casual sip through the straw, her face lax like she was relishing a pleasantly cool drink of water.
Oh. Right. He wondered absently what could get Alteans drunk - if they were even capable of such a thing. Allura opened her eyes and caught his, with a wave.
He went to sit with her, both of them with their legs hung over the side of her deck chair.
"It's just beautiful here, isn't it?" she exclaimed.
"Yeah," Keith said, feeling a shell with his fingers, picking it up and throwing it as far as it would go.
"I have to admit the uh, yellow is a bit strange to get used to," she said, picking up a clump of sand and letting it fall in a shimmering sheet through her fingers.
Keith drew his eyebrows together.
"Oh, the sand is - the sand was more pink on Altea," she said. "or blue, or green. And much coarser. You could sleep on this," she said wondrously.
Keith could. The heat of the sun on his weary shoulders, and the breeze that lifted off the waves to temper it, definitely lulled him. Every noise felt more distant and blurred and buzzed with every second that passed - Lance joking with Lili, her loud, high laughter. Pidge and Hunk still deep in conversation over a pile of shells and seaweed.
"Keith, buddy, come get in the water!" Hunk yelled suddenly. "Princess! Hey – Lance!" Pidge and Coran were either side of him, floating and splashing expectantly; Yaniel sat on Coran's shoulders, concentrating hard on exploring how well his moustache would droop sleekly towards his chin when doused in seawater.
Allura laughed richly at the sight and leapt down. "Coran, I like your new look!"
"I do believe it's trendy, Princess!" he managed, before Yaniel pulled his moustache shut again.
"Lance!" Hunk yelled again. "Come float with me, you fellow beautiful seafarer you!'
"No can do," Lance shouted back, "I'm on guard duty." He looked like he was itching to get up.
Keith walked over after a moment's thought.
"Lance," he said. "Get in the water."
"Huh?" Lance looked up, forehead wrinkling with confusion.
"I'll watch the castle," Keith said, crossing his arms.
Lance narrowed his eyes before they widened in surprise. "Seriously?"
Keith smiled. "Yeah, go."
"Okay," Lance perked up. "Lili, honey," he said, pulling her little arms together at the wrist and holding them to keep her attention. "Keith's gonna guard the castle for you, okay? I'll be back before you know it."
Lili looked skeptically up at Keith, who tried not to regret the offer.
Lance saw this. "He's a little crabby - you just remind him, 'don't be a grumpy butt, Keith,'" Lance demonstrated, earning a few giggles.
He stood up, leaned into Keith and whispered, "Seriously, I know you like to be all stoic, but don't, man. She's already kinda traumatised with how down everyone around her has been with the invasion."
Keith nodded meaningfully. He understood. "Sure," he said, a hand on Lance's shoulder.
Lance ran down halfway to the water, pulled off his t-shirt and stretched, almost bouncing in the sand. He stopped. "Wait, didn't you wanna come?"
"Nah." Keith craned his neck, looked back towards Shiro, and down at Lili, who was already padding off to find new decorations. "Maybe tomorrow."
Lance pointed a finger, "I'll hold you to it."
Keith watched him stumble across the wet sand and practically jump into Allura's arms, who laughed and caught him bridal style even as she tipped backwards, unperturbed although Pidge at her elbow leapt away, scowling when a splash got her directly in the eye.
Keith shoved up the legs of his pants and folded them so they would stay. He worked on reinforcing the castle. Lance really had been guarding it in the barest sense of the word, and Keith cupped more sand around the edges and cracks. When he was sure it would stay, he sat closer to the water, letting it wash over his feet.
It was like a cool wave, like drinking icy water after a training session, rolling pleasantly up to his head from his toes. The sand was odd when wet under his feet, too, a strange spongy texture when Keith dug his toes in.
He spent a long time watching the group. He saw Hunk look back at him with concern on his face, until Lance whispered something in his ear. The sight made him feel surprisingly grateful, just as his comment over Lili had taken Keith aback a little.
He watched. When Shiro awoke, he joined Keith soundlessly, and then they both did that.
They would be back at the Garrison soon enough. Who knew what these next few days (months? weeks? years?) would hold for them, and when this precarious period of calm would give away. They were tireless, all of them, and they would continue being so. Some without a planet, most without family.
He used to think only people as alone as him, with nothing to lose and therefore nothing lost, could ever had the grit to be so tireless.
The soft stunning blue of the ocean kept rolling on, endless; sparkled gently like Allura's distant laughter, like Shiro's sheepish post-nap eyes when they met his over the sandcastle.
He was wrong. The truth was the opposite.