Hey guys! Guess who's back with a new chapter? Technically the first chapter, but details don't matter right now. Hopefully I can keep up with a somewhat regular update schedule, but me being me, I'll probably procrastinate or get writer's block. Most likely both at the same time, but I'll do my best to keep chapters coming out consistently. Anywho, here's the first official chapter.

"Lance!"

There was a loud crash as the red paladin yelped and promptly fell out of his bed. Still half asleep and confused, his head shot out of the pile of blankets that had fallen off the bed with him.

"What's going on? What's happening? Is there trouble? Is it the Galra?"

Keith rolled his eyes at his teammate's antics. He walked into Lance's makeshift bedroom inside the red lion. Ever since they had lost the Castle of Lions, all the paladins were making do with sleeping inside their lions. Coran and Romelle were staying inside the blue lion with Allura while Shiro and Krolia were in the black lion with Keith.

"The only trouble anyone is going to be in is you with Allura if you don't hurry up. We were supposed to meet up in the black lion for a meeting after breakfast, but you didn't show up to that either, so here we are."

Lance groaned as he sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, some of his blanket slipping off his body to reveal his torso. His bare torso.

Keith immediently turned his head away from Lance and shut his eyes. "Please, for the love of Voltron, tell me you're not naked under that."

Lance stood up completely to reveal that underneath the blanket he was wearing a pair of blue lion printed boxers. "Wouldn't you just love that?" He said sarcastically as he grabbed his blanket and threw it back on his bed. "It got really hot last night and the red lion isn't really known for having the best air conditioning system."

Keith turned back at the other paladin and stared at the copious amount of blankets on his bed to avoid looking at him directly. "And it never occurred to you that, maybe, you could go to sleep without like 10 blankets on top of you?"

Turning to face him, Lance put a hand on his hip, "For your information, there are only 7 blankets. And did you seriously suggest that I go to bed without any blankets? What kind of monster goes to bed without any sort of cover?"

"Are we really arguing about blankets right now? Look, we need to get over to the black lion for this briefing and this conversation has been going nowhere," Keith said.

"Ok, fine. Just let me get ready and we'll head over to- "

"Oh no no no no. None of that. Last time you said that we waited half an hour for you. I thought Allura was gonna murder you if you didn't show up when you did."

As much as Keith appreciated how much time and effort Lance could put into the whole moisturizing and conditioning or whatever it is he does, because boy did it pay off, sometimes he feels that they had bigger responsibilities as defenders of the universe and that maybe that should be more of a priority than face masks.

"Ok, ok. I'll just hop in for a quick shower," Keith gave him a look, " A real quick one, I swear. And I'll put on some clothes and we can go. Sounds good?"

Keith looked at him, "Fine, but if you're not done in 10 minutes I'm heading over there first and you can deal with Allura's wrath all on your own."

"Deal. I'll be done in a tick." Lance grabbed a towel off of a hook on the wall and turned the corner into the bathroom. Keith heard the door slide shut behind him and the shower turning on.

Sighing, Keith looked around the room as he plopped down on the bed to wait for the Cuban boy. He noticed that other than the ridiculous amount of blankets and a complicated looking gaming system that Pidge probably hooked up, it seemed that Lance had not brought much when they evacuated the castle.

Although, looking at the wall that the bed was attached to, there were more than a few pictures that were hung up. Keith sat up to look at them more closely. There were some of Lance, Hunk, and Pidge dressed in Galra and druid uniforms? One was taken of all the paladins and the Arusians before the castle began its journey. There was one of the paladins on stage doing the Voltron show while he was off with the Blade. In another one was Lance posing next to Kaltenecker, still in full space mall disguise.

Keith chuckled to himself as he went through all the memories, even the ones he wasn't there for. His eyes wandered a bit further down the wall at the other pictures. There were a few where Lance had taken pictures of the other paladins when they had fallen asleep in the lounge, all of them with crudely drawn mustaches on them. However there was one that caught his eye. A picture of him and Lance, laughing and congratulating each other after a mission well done.

He didn't remember that picture being taken and from the looks of it, someone had probably taken the picture amiss all the excitement. Keith smiled at the pictures fondly. He had never really been the sentimental type, the type to keep pictures of every occasion and go back through them on a rainy day. No, he'd much rather use the rainy day training and leveling up on the simulators. But after looking at Lance's collection, he could see why someone would enjoy it.

Keith continued looking at the photos when his eyes landed on something. In between the wall and Lance's pillow was a folded up picture. "Oh, guess it fell down during a battle or something," Keith thought as he reached over to pick it up. Keith unfolded the picture with the intentions of putting it back up with the others when he paused.

In his hands was a picture of what Keith assumed to be Lance's family. Everyone from his grandparents to his niece and nephew were in there picture and they were all smiling brightly at the camera. Keith could see where Lance got his smile from.

"He must really miss his family," Keith thought as he gazed down at the picture. From the looks of the old photograph, it had been held many times. Lance must've really treasured it if it had stayed in tact the whole time they were in space.

With a soft smile, Keith moved to pin the picture back onto the wall alongside the others. However as he was searching for a pin to attach the said picture to the wall, he noticed something else.

There was another picture stuck behind the one of Lance's family.

Keith carefully peeled off the top picture to reveal another picture. In this picture, Lance seemed to be a bit older than he was in the family picture. It looked like it was taken possibly the year they found the blue lion.

Lance was standing in front of the main Garrison gate, wearing his cadet uniform and grinning widely. But what really caught Keith's attention was the girl he had on his back waving at the camera. She looked a few years younger, maybe around Pidge's age. She had dark hair that was pulled into a high ponytail and was wearing what Keith assumed to be a prep school uniform. And she was hugging Lance. Tightly.

Not to mention the swirly cursive on the bottom of the picture that read, "Shoot for the stars, Sharpshooter!" She even put a heart on the exclamation point.

Who is this? Did Lance actually have a girlfriend back on Earth? No no no, that can't be. If he did he wouldn't have flirted with Allura when we first got to the castle. But then again, he also flirts with almost anyone we meet. But Lance doesn't seem like the type to cheat on someone.

As Keith was going through his slight dilemma, Lance was finishing up his shower. The red paladin reached for the towel and dried his body off before wrapping it around his waist. He moved to start his morning face routine when he remembered that Keith was waiting for him outside.

"Dammit, that's right. We have to get to the meeting soon," Lance muttered to himself. Sighing he braced his hands on either sides of the sink in the small bathroom. His mind wandered back to the dream he was having before Keith came in.

Nova.

He hadn't really had time to think about what she would be up to now. Last he saw her was before school had started for her and she came to visit him at the Galaxy Garrison. She obviously wasn't allowed inside, but he got special permission to spend the weekend in town with her before she had to leave and classes started up again.

Lance smiled to himself. She was probably still in school around now, maybe doing some crazy science experiment that she was gonna get in trouble for later. Or maybe it was nighttime and she'd still be up pulling one of her infamous all nighters either studying or doing research.

Shaking his head, Lance pulled himself out of his thoughts.

"No time to be living in the past. Holy Quiznack! Has it been 10 minutes yet? Keith better had not actually left me."

With that Lance spun around looking for his clothes. That he did not bring in with him. Lance groaned and tightened the towel around his hips, slipping on his lion slippers and heading towards the door.

Keith was still arguing with himself when he heard the bathroom doors sliding open. He quickly folded the pictures back together and slipped them back under Lance's pillow. By the time he sat back up, Lance had just turned the corner.

"Hey, you ready to go yet? It's almost been 10 minutes and Allura's gonna get — where are your clothes?" Keith stared at Lance who was only wearing a towel and drying his hair with a smaller one.

"Well, if someone hadn't rushed me, I would've grabbed them before I showered. But I'll have you know that I skipped my whole morning routine for you. So if my beautiful face starts breaking out, it's all on you."

Keith rolled his eyes as Lance walked pass him towards the small closet. Lance grabbed his clothes and threw them on the bed. He reached for his boxers and moved to put them on.

"Lance! I'm still in the room!" Keith said turning around to face the door.

Lance glanced up as he was pulling up his jeans. "Meh, I don't really mind. You grow up with as many siblings as I did, privacy's not really a thing anymore."

He pulled his blue baseball tee over his head and looked around for the towel he used to dry his hair. He saw it on the corner on the bed and grabbed it to dry out what he could. The rest would have to air dry.

Keith turned around to see Lance finally dressed and let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. This boy was gonna be the death of him one of these days.

"You ready to go yet? Allura's probably getting cranky right about now, and I do not want to be on the end of that."

Lance was putting on his jacket as Keith spoke. "Yeah, let me just grab something real quick." He plopped down on the bed and reached his hand under the pillow. After feeling around for it, he quickly snatched it and stood back up.

Keith, waiting at the door and already knowing what Lance had in his hand, feigned innocent and asked, "What'd you need to get?"

Lance walked up beside Keith and pressed the button to open the door. "Oh it's nothing. Just a good luck charm." He slid the 'good luck charm' into his jacket pocket and walked out.

He looked back at Keith. "You coming? Cause I am not facing the wrath of Allura alone."

Keith stared back at Lance before smirking and walking out of the room and towards the mouth of the red lion. "Whatever you say sleeping beauty, but we both know Allura's only gonna be mad at you, I'm only the messenger boy."

Lance stood there as Keith moved passed him. It didn't register in his mind what the black paladin had said until he turned the corner. Not wasting anymore time, Lance jogged to catch up, "Hey, mullet, wait up!"

We started off the story with a little Lance and Keith interaction. (Yay!) Just a little background as to where in the timeline this story takes place, it's been a while since they've defeated Lotor quintessence field. They've decided to head for Earth, but they're making slow progress. Next chapter will elaborate more on the situation.

Until next time, this is WishingDayDreams signing out.