Once getting to the Tower, the Paladins followed the Titans to their new rooms.

"Tada!" Beast Boy said, presenting his room with a flourish. Lance blinked at the room, taking in the sight before him. Unmade bed, sheets thrown everywhere, pizza boxes laying around in random places, clothes messily covering the floor. He blinked again a few times.

"Woah. Okay… wow." He then blinked a few more times before shrugging. "Yeah, okay, whatever."

Beast Boy's eyes widened in surprise. "You don't mind the mess?"

"Well I mean… you should see Pidge's room. It's way worse than this," Lance scoffed, dropping his things on the floor. He had gotten out everything he had stored inside of Blue and took it with him into the tower. He made a beeline to the bathroom where he cleared out everything near the sink. He began setting up all of his skin care products, much to Beast Boy's shock.

"Dude…" Beast Boy breathed, looking at all the various products now set up near the sink. "What is this?"

"My skin care! You see, I have to moisturize using this in the morning." Lance held up a bottle he just took out. "And then three hours later, I wash it off and apply this," he held up another bottle that didn't really differ from the first other than in color, "and then during the night, I do a facial mask and cleanser to keep my skin soft and supple," Lance explained, still setting up the sink.

Stunned, Beast Boy just nodded along dumbly as he watched his sink overflow with bottles of various sizes and colors.

Upon reaching Robin's room, Shiro just set down his stuff and looked around appraisingly. There wasn't really any decor or color to this room. The walls were white as paper with brown shelves and the only pop of color were the royal blue bed sheets.

Shiro stared at the bed with an unreadable expression. It was a single queen bed. Robin saw it and cracked a small smile of amusement. "Don't worry," he said, pulling out an extra mattress. "We aren't sleeping together."

Shiro laughed awkwardly with relief and settled down on the mattress. "Thanks."

"No problem." Robin looked at Shiro seriously, taking out a round device with a T on it. "How would you like to help us defend Jump City?"

Pidge awkwardly followed the silent Raven to her room. It was dimly lit, filled with mystical artifacts and sculptures, a trunk, and a ton of books. A circular bed was in the center of her room with ornate headboard and purple-blue sheets.

Raven brought out an extra mattress using her darkness control and set it down next to her bed. She stared at Pidge dead in the eyes and said quietly, "Don't touch my things and don't make a mess."

Pidge nodded slowly and inched toward her mattress with Raven retreating to her own bed and reading. Pidge took out her laptop and a piece of Galra armor and began typing rapidly. The room was silent with the only noises being the quiet clicking of the keyboard and the occasional clink of metal.

Hunk and Cyborg had no troubles chattering on with each other about all the technology based things that they could think of. Hunk was amazed at Cyborg's machinery and how he managed himself.

"Wow, you sleep on a computer table?" Hunk asked, examining the 'bed'.

"Yeah, that way I stay fully charged," Cyborg said, gesturing to his robotic parts.

"But you know, it would be better if you used an alternate energy source to the one you're using," Hunk said, pointing to Cyborg's battery with a disgruntled expression. "That battery can't do as much as things like energy crystals can do! I think I have a few Balmera crystals Shay sent me," Hunk muttered, looking through his bag. "Not to mention you wouldn't have to charge them."

Cyborg looked at him curiously, interest peaked. "What is a Balmera crystal?"

"So, Starfire, was it?" Allura asked casually, looking at the alien girl. "What planet are you from, if you don't mind me asking?"

Starfire smiled happily and rambled on about her beloved home planet, Tamaran. "I come from Tamaran. It is wonderful! I miss Galfore," Starfire said, smiling wistfully.

Allura's eyes widened in recognition. "You wouldn't happen to be Princess Koriand'r?!" She asked, shocked.

Starfire jolted, not expecting her real name to be known. "How do you know this?" She asked suspiciously, her hands lighting up with star bolts. "Did my sister send you?"

"O-oh, no!" Allura said nervously, waving her hands. She dropped her disguise to reveal the sickle-shaped markings on her cheekbones and her pointed ears. "Do you remember me, Princess? We met once when you were really young," she said, tucking hair behind her ear.

Starfire smiled widely and squealed. "Princess Allura! It is you! I have missed you so!"

In Starfire's joy, she never noticed that Allura had pink cheek marks instead of the blue she remembered and Allura also missed the fact that Starfire had green eyes instead of purple.

Keith dropped his things off in his and Coran's room and headed immediately to find Shiro. Coran, seeing this, sighed. He debated on whether or not to call out to the quiet teen, but decided against it and went to find Princesses Allura and Koriand'r.

When Shiro and Robin walked out of Robin's room, Keith was leaning on the opposite wall with his head bowed and staring at the ground.

"Keith?" Shiro exclaimed in surprise, not expecting to see the younger teen here. Keith looked up and sighed in relief.

"Finally." He saw Robin coming out from behind Shiro and blinked as a thought occurred to him. He turned to the shorter boy and asked bluntly, "Do you have a training deck?"

Robin, taken aback, shook his head. "No… but we do have a training course."

Keith shrugged. He wasn't picky when it came to training. "Can I use it?"

Shiro sighed. Why couldn't Keith just lay off on the training for a bit? "Keith, maybe you should relax for a bit. We're back on Earth."

Keith frowned and awaited Robin's response.

Robin examined Keith interestedly, seeing bits of himself in the older teen. "Sure. Go ahead. The Titans can take this opportunity to see a new fighting style."

"Woah!" Beast Boy exclaimed, watching Keith slash a flying disk and gracefully maneuver to avoid five more whizzing by. "Dude…"

"Psh. Show off," Lance scoffed. Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro just sighed as they watched Keith just fly through the course without breaking a sweat.

"Why aren't you guys amazed? He's even better than Robin!" Beast Boy said, flailing his arms in Robin's direction. The leader of the Teen Titans seemed a little put out as he watched Keith finish the course in half of the time it took him.

"Well, for one, Keith is always trying to one-up me," Lance began, ignoring Pidge and Hunk's tired sighs and mutters of "here we go again". "And two… I don't need to ogle at how 'amazing'," he used air quotes, "Keith is at close combat when I'm the best sharpshooter in the whole universe." He puffed out his chest and grinned proudly, missing the disk that just barely seemed to miss his head. He ducked with a startled screech before turning from the smoking device to Keith's smug look. "Hey! You did that on purpose!"

"Oops, sorry." Keith lifted his bayard to display the red and white sword more openly as he smirked. "My bayard slipped."

"Oh, haha, very funny, Keith!"

"Alright, you two," Shiro intervened, knowing a full scale fight could break out, despite his amused smile.

Keith gave a small chuckle before returning to his original activity as Lance crossed his arms and mumbled under his breath. Pidge and Hunk stayed by his side, biting their lips to keep from laughing.

"Lance," Pidge managed to say with a steady voice, "while I don't doubt your abilities as a sharpshooter… Keith has everyone beat hands down in close combat." Hunk nodded in agreement with a sympathetic pat to Lance's back.

Lance's previously puffed chest at her compliment deflated slightly, but puffed up again. "I bet I can beat his time!" He turned to Keith who was going through the training course again and yelled, "Hey, Mullet! Move off the course and let me have a turn! I bet I can beat your time easily!"

Annoyed, Keith turned his head to look at Lance before sighing and cancelling the course. "Whatever. Go ahead."

With a confident swagger, Lance walked to the middle of the room and stood there. Nothing happened. "Why isn't anything happening?"

"Oh, sorry," Cyborg said, starting the course.

Lance's bayard turned into a blaster and he began easily shooting the slow moving disks. Compared to the Galra, these training disks were nothing. He easily went through the disks and looked at the giant smashing fists. He smirked and raised his blaster and began shooting one specific spot on the fists, causing the spot to slowly break away until a tunnel was formed in all of the fists. He casually walked through and finished the rest of the course with a flourish and easy-going smile plastered onto his face.

"So?" He said with a proud expression. "How did I do?"

"... Keith was faster by a few seconds," Pidge told him. "But you still did really well compared to the other scores in here."

The Titans flinched and an aura of shame seemed to surround them as they were easily beat by the newcomers from space.

Lance, noticing said aura, deactivated his bayard and smiled sheepishly. "Uh...oops. Sorry, guys. Didn't mean to outshine you."

"It's fine," Robin said wearily, rubbing his temples. "How did you go through the course so easily? We still occasionally have trouble with certain parts."

Lance blinked. "Compared to the Galra sentries and stuff we go through up there, this was pretty easy. Really, those Altean training decks pack a mean punch too."

Pidge pushed up her glasses and turned to Hunk who seemed to know what she was thinking and nodded. "We could help upgrade your course," Pidge offered.

"Yeah, Pidge and I are really good at this kind of stuff," Hunk said earnestly, looking eagerly at the large control machine in front of Cyborg.

Robin pondered for a moment and hesitantly nodded. "Thanks, we could use the help. It seems we've been taking it too easy."

"I may have the blueprints to one of our Altean Gladiators somewhere with me," Coran piped in, fiddling with his mustache and still disguised as human. "That would be a substantial upgrade to the course you have here."

Lance shuddered as he made his way back to the others. "Yeah, I still have bruises from the last time we sparred with them. As a full team too."

"But…" Hunk said helplessly. "We would have to reprogram this entire room to cope with the suddenly advanced technology that will be entering it. Not to mention that the amount of power that goes into those Gladiators…"

"We could use the Balmera crystals and just rewire the machine to up the radiator in order to cope with the sudden power boost," Pidge muttered, her glasses glinting.

"Oh yeah! And with the use of the Galra metals," Hunk said excitedly.

"We could create an electromagnetic current to help sustain the particles!" Pidge finished with equal excitement and vigor. She and Hunk immediately hurried Coran to get the blueprints and fetch the Balmera crystals while the Titans stared at their backs, baffled.

"Do they usually do that?" Beast Boy asked blankly. "Because I have no idea what they just said."

All of the Paladins sighed and chorused, "Yes."

"All the time," Lance griped, "and I never understand them either."

"No one does." Shiro sighed fondly with an amused quirk of the lips.

"Did you follow along with that, Cy?" Beast Boy asked his robotic friend.

Cyborg shrugged. "Some of it. But it was confusing even to me."

Lance huffed. "Tech nerds."

After Keith's and Lance's spectacle of a training course, they—and by 'they', it's just Lance—took pity on the dumbfounded Titans—mostly to show off his skills some more—and showed them a few fighting techniques they had learned while fighting the Galra.

"Once Pidge and Hunk have the Gladiator installed, I'll demonstrate more in depth," Lance says, waving his blaster casually.

"Lance, it's getting late," Shiro said, popping his head into the room. "You'd better sleep. The Titans also probably need their rest."

Lance nodded and he followed Beast Boy back into his room. They spoke for a bit, joked around about their teammates, and Lance applied his usual face mask and moisturizer. Beast Boy fell asleep while Lance finished his skincare. Lance climbed up to his portion of the bunk bed and lay there, staring at the ceiling. He just stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, listening to Beast Boy's snores, and eventually grew bored and slipped out of the room, careful to not disturb his roommate.

He wandered around the Tower aimlessly before he entered the lounge area and walked over to the window that took up the entire wall and gave him a view of the city. It was alive with bright lights and an unfamiliar sight to Lance, who had only ever really seen the smaller cities near the Garrison which was located in the desert in the middle of nowhere.

He leaned his forehead on the glass and inhaled deeply. The cool glass felt soothing on his too hot skin and he leaned into it, closing his eyes.

"Lance?"

He yelped and flailed as he was startled by a curious Hunk staring at him. Lance put his hand on his chest and tried to slow his heartbeat as he smiled weakly at his friend.

"Hey Hunk."

Hunk gave his friend a concerned look as he noticed something off about him. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

Lance's smile dropped and he looked at the ground. "What do we do now?" he said softly.

Hunk's brows furrowed in confusion. He didn't understand the question. "What do you mean?"

Lance bit his lip and and felt the familiar burn in his eyes of oncoming tears. "The castle's gone!" he said shakily, fighting back the tears threatening to drip down his cheeks. "It was… it was our home…" Lance stared out into the city again, eyes fixated on a building that was probably a club, lit up and buzzing with activity.

He fondly remembered how his mamá had forbid his oldest sister from going to any club until she was at least twenty-five, but she snuck out anyway and even took him with her once. His thoughts took a darker turn when he realized just how long it had been since he last saw her and how heartbroken his family probably was. He could imagine his mamá saddened over never using her chancla again, his abuela crying over her lost nieto, and his hermanos mourning the loss of their youngest brother. All of which he might never see again.

"I… I never really realized what happened until now. I was too excited to really process it, but..." Lance let out a shaky breath. Ashamed, he felt himself beginning to break down. He covered his mouth to muffle his quiet sobs and felt moisture on his cheek. He vaguely realized his tears had already began to fall.

Hunk frowned and reached out to put a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "It'll be okay, buddy," he said soothingly, squeezing his shoulder. He felt Lance shake and turn away even more, hiding his face from him.

"Is it really, though?" Lance asked, tears falling faster. He sniffled and wiped his face, but more tears kept falling and dripping off of his chin, landing on the ground quietly. "We don't have anywhere to return to, Hunk," Lance said, his vision becoming blurry with more tears. "We only have Earth…" He blinked away the tears and looked back at the unfamiliar city. "And I have my doubts about this being our Earth…" he whispered.

Hunk pulled his friend into a hug and Lance buried his face into his shoulder to both hide his face and lean into the comfort his friend was offering him. "Yeah…" Hunk said quietly, rubbing Lance's back comfortingly, "but we had to leave the castle behind. We could've died if we stayed…" Feeling Lance shake even more and his shoulder getting wetter, Hunk hurriedly added, "And this isn't all that bad. I'm sure Coran, Pidge, and I can fix the castle. Plus this is pretty close to Earth and we can stuff our faces with normal food and not," Hunk made a face, "goo. We'll buy all the food we can and bring it back with us on the ship so we can just have this large supply of human food!" Hunk felt Lance laugh slightly and smiled at his success in making his friend feel better.

They stayed like that for a while until Lance's sniffling stopped and his shaking ceased. He pulled back from Hunk's shoulder and smiled a genuine smile at him. "Thanks, Hunk," he said quietly.

Hunk scanned his face for any sign Lance was lying and once he was satisfied, he smiled back. "It's no problem, Lance."

Lance felt his face and gasped. "Oh no!" He cried in horror.

Hunk's eyes widened, hoping Lance didn't remember something to make him homesick again. "What is it?"

"My face!" Lance said, feeling his cheeks and forehead.

Hunk stared dumbly at his friend. "What?" he asked disbelievingly, unsure if he had heard correctly.

"My serum from my moisturizer and face mask is gone!" Lance said despairingly. "And my face is swollen! I'm going to have to reapply and hope that the swelling goes down and my skin stays smooth…" he fretted.

Hunk laughed slightly, glad his friend was back to normal again. "I see."

"This isn't a laughing matter! My skin is very important and my skincare is not cheap!"

"Go to sleep, Lance," Hunk said exasperatedly, shaking his head.

Lance smiled again and hugged his friend again, squeezing him tightly. "Thanks again, Hunk."

"It was nothing. If this ever happens again, tell me," Hunk said sternly, squeezing him back. Lance chuckled but said nothing, unsure if he would be able to keep that promise.

Shiro tossed and turned in his bead, sweat beading on his face. Haggar stood over him, laughing and holding up a Galra knife. "This time, I'll replace your other arm!" she cackled, raising the knife. "Don't worry, Champion. This arm will aid you in the Arena." She smiled. "You'll thank me later." She brought the knife down.

Shiro sat up in his mattress, breathing heavily and arm glowing bright purple. Robin looked at him in shock and noticed his arm glowing.

"Is this normal?" He asked, eyeing the arm warily. Shiro noticed his gaze and smiled nervously.

"I'm fine, don't worry." He turned his arm off and wiped the sweat from his face tiredly. Another nightmare.

Robin stared at him longer and didn't say anything for a while. Shiro assumed he was suspicious about him and laid back down, expecting another sleepless night. He was surprised when Robin spoke again.

"You get nightmares?" He asked softly, knowing all too well what the feeling was like. He himself still had nightmares of his time with Slade.

"Yeah…" Shiro sighed deeply. "I was… I was held in Galra captivity for a year before I became a Paladin…"

Robin realized the familiar signs of PTSD and felt a sense of pity for him. He seemed as if he had went through a lot. Robin knew all too well what it was like to suffer from his past. And from what he had seen, Shiro did not deserve any of it. "May I ask how you lost your arm?" Robin asked gingerly, unsure if he would tell him. He completely understood if Shiro wouldn't. He was a complete stranger after all. They had just met.

"The Galra took it," Shiro said curtly, unwilling to say anything else. Robin noticed his reluctance to say anything further and respectfully kept silent, going back to working on his weapons.

Shiro stared pensively at his arm and felt resentment course through him. He never wanted this arm. But if it wasn't for this arm, he would never have met everyone else. He never would even have survived in the Arena. However, he knew that he would give anything in order to have his human arm back. Even if it meant never meeting any of the other Paladins.

The next morning, Shiro was up bright and early. He had fallen asleep uneasily and luckily had a dreamless slumber. He noticed Robin was already up and still working on his weapons. Robin reminded Shiro a lot of Keith. They both were quiet, early risers, trained constantly, had short tempers, and were—dare he say it—slightly emo. Robin turned around and noticed him awake. He gave him a nod and went back to working on his weapons.

"Robin," Shiro called out hesitantly, "is it fine if the Paladins use your lounge for something?"

"What do you need it for?" Robin asked absentmindedly, sighing in frustration at his lack of progress.

"Bonding time," Shiro said with a smile. Robin paused. Of all things, he didn't expect that.

"Sure…" Robin agreed, wanting to know what 'bonding time' meant.

"You can watch if you would like," Shiro offered, "it's your Tower after all."

Robin nodded but didn't respond.

Shiro got up and stretched, happily walking over to the door and leaving the room. He could just imagine the horror on the other Paladins' faces when they heard the words 'bonding time'. He walked all around the Tower to collect the other Paladins. He poked his head into Raven's room and dragged out a tinkering Pidge, he woke up Hunk from his slightly deep sleep, and walked into Lance applying his skincare. Then he walked over to the training room and dragged a protesting Keith away from the flying disks. He was just going to collect his childr—Paladins, but he seemed to also have acquired the curiosity of the Titans as well. Everyone followed him around once he had visited all of the rooms.

"Alright, Paladins!" Shiro said, clapping his hands. "Robin has offered to give us this lounge for a couple of hours. Of course, this is still their place, so they'll be coming and going and maybe staying behind to watch, but they won't disturb us. It's bonding time!"

With slight sadistic glee, Shiro watched the amounting horror change their facial expressions. He immediately grabbed Keith when he tried to crawl away and held him next to him.

"Aw, another exercise?" Lance whined. "Can't we have a break after all that's happened?"

Shiro smirked. "We had one planned after the battle, but never got to do it," he said innocently, inwardly laughing at their groans, "therefore, we're doing it now. Now sit down, Lance, so we can start."

Lance snickered at the disgruntled Keith still in Shiro's hold. "Now your little emo butt can't move," he taunted.

Keith slipped into the remaining spot in the circle, right in between Shiro and Lance, a scowl etched on his face.

"So, what're we doing, Shiro?" Pidge asked, adjusting her glasses. She put down the screws and bolts she was fiddling with and leaned back.

"Well we don't have the mind meld helmets," Shiro began, looking off to the side as he wracked his brain for alternate exercises. "So we'll just have to get creative. Which is why Coran gave me these," he said with a smile, pulling out the same cuffs that had triggered their very first successful team bonding session - an all out food goo fight.

The rest of the Paladins immediately began sputtering and yelling out their protests while the Titans watched in confused interest.

Cyborg, having been leaning against the counter, blinked at the sight. "Uh… so bonding means… metal bracelets?"

"Don't look at me, dude. All this alien mumbo jumbo goes right over my head," Beast Boy said with a shrug.

"I do not understand," Starfire said, tilting her head to the side. "Metal rings are good for the building of the team? Is this another if your Earth customs I am unfamiliar with?"

Raven pulled her hood down to be able to see the now desperately squirming Paladins better. "I think these are more along the lines of alien customs than human customs," she said dryly, despite her own peaked curiosity.

"Whatever it is, watch carefully. These people have proved to be pretty skilled despite their looks. If this exercise seems useful, we'll probably use it too," Robin said, his arms crossed as he watched critically.

"No way! Nuh-uh! I am not going to be chained to Keith again!" Lance was saying, already leaning away from the cuffs that Shiro had passed to each of them.

"I don't want to be chained to you any more than you do to me," Keith said with a frown.

"I spend a good hour making myself look nice and I don't need your stupid mullet messing this up!" Lance said, frantically gesturing to his face.

"My hair can't do any damage to your face, Lance," Keith said with a disbelieving look on his face.

"If you two are done, we can begin?" Shiro asked, removing his face from where he had rested it in his hands.

"Fine," the two chorused.

The Paladins all resisted the urge to flinch as the cuffs clamped around their wrists before being pulled to each other, connecting them all within their circle.

The Titans blinked at the sight, Beast Boy actually snickering as Lance and Keith tested the cuffs by pulling their wrists apart, only to have them snap back together.

"This-" Cyborg gestured to the sight before them, "-is a bonding exercise? Man is it different up there…"

"This… does seem rather strange. Even for me," Starfire said, blinking at the Paladins curiously.

"So, what now, Shiro?" Hunk asked, eyeing the cuffs distastefully from where they had connected with Pidge and Lance's.

"Robin?" Shiro called to the surprised leader of the Titans. He smirked at the unhappy expression his kids—PALADINS, his Paladins—gave him.

Robin looked at his fellow leader curiously. Did he have to participate in this bonding exercise too?

Shiro nodded his head over at this giant ball of Altean string Coran had given him. "I need you to… tangle us up with that."

"What?!"

"Tangle?"

"Shiro!"

The Paladins' cries of outrage made Shiro chuckle as Robin hesitantly took the string and wrapped them up.

"Don't hesitate, Robin. Tangle us very well," Shiro said, smiling. The other four Paladins grumbled as the string passed over them and around them.

"I don't see why this is necessary," Pidge said flatly, glaring at the string that had fully wrapped her up.

"It's bonding, Pidge," Shiro answered, smiling wider at their disgruntled expressions.

Hunk sighed at all the chaos around him. Lance and Keith were arguing and kicking each other with their free legs, tangling them up further. Pidge was unhappily glowering at Shiro who was smiling creepily wide as the string was all tied up around them.

"Now, guys," Shiro said calmly, "this is Altean string. That means that it won't break. It won't fray or snap. So we have to work together as a team to untangle this." He couldn't hold it in any longer and let out a few guffaws at the blank looks on their faces.

"Shiro, can we really do this all before breakfast?" Hunk asked concernedly. Shiro shrugged.

"That depends on how well we work together as a team."

"Not very well," Pidge scoffed, watching Lance and Keith continue to further entangle themselves.

At this point, Lance had ended up awkwardly squashed beneath Keith with their legs tangled together and their wrists pinned underneath their combined weight.

"Oh, now look what you've done! Now we're stuck!" Lance cried, wiggling to try and get his left side free from under the other.

Keith growled and glared at Lance from his peripheral. "You kicked me first! You're the reason we're like this!"

"My fault!?"

"Who else's?"

The Titans watched this spectacle with various amounts of disbelief.

"Are these the same guys who beat our course in like a minute?" Beast Boy asked skeptically, watching them squabble like little kids.

"Apparently," Raven said, crossing her arms and leaning against the counter.

"Robin, are we really going to have to do this?" Cyborg asked, looking at the tangled teens with a bit of horror.

"... We'll see what comes out of it…" Robin responded, not so sure about 'bonding time' anymore.

"Guys!" Shiro yelled, stopping Lance and Keith from killing each other and taking Pidge and Hunk with them. "This is why we need bonding exercises. Now, Keith and Lance, you've just made it harder for all of us. This is why we need to learn to work together."

"Sorry, Shiro," Keith said, voice strained from his position as he grunted, trying to somehow lift himself off of Lance. The string seemed to have other plans. Lance was firmly stuck to Keith.

Hunk sighed and shifted so he could help them try to untangle themselves. After a few moments of failing, he got an idea.

"Pidge, you're pretty small!" He said to the youngest Paladin. She looked at him with a slightly offended expression. "No, no!" He said hurriedly, trying to appease her. "It's a good thing!"

"What does my size have to do with this?" Pidge grumbled, but continued to listen.

"You can use your smaller hands to get in further tangles that Shiro and I can't reach," Hunk said, pointing to specific knots that Lance and Keith were laying on.

"Not really," Pidge said as she held up her shackled hands, "I mean… we're attached to each other, so I have the added size."

"Can you at least try, Pidge?" Lance begged, "Mullet is heavy and crushing my ribs."

Pidge sighed and scooted closer. She pushed the cuffs further back her arm and reached around a few strings to get to some of the other knots. After a lot of tugging and struggling to get between Lance and Keith's very tightly bound bodies, she finally managed to free them from each other. She huffed and blew away some disheveled hair from her face with a peeved expression.

"Don't do that again," she warned, scooting back to her original spot.

"Good job, Pidge," Shiro said, patting the Green Paladin on the head. He turned to face the pouting Red and Blue Paladins. "See, this is what happens with teamwork. Your teammates get you out of tough situations."

Lance and Keith resigned themselves to the bonding exercise, but still sent each other the occasional glower or jab to the ribs as they bumped into each other.

"Shiro, next time, put someone in between those two," Pidge said tiredly after the twelfth time she was shoved because Keith shoved Lance who hit Hunk who hit her.

"Yeah…" Shiro said, looking at the two arguing teens. An epiphany occurred to him. "I still haven't punished them for flying Red and Blue without permission."

Upon hearing those words, Lance and Keith froze, even though they had been mid struggle.

"Uh… Shiro, isn't this punishment enough?" Lance implored, shaking the cuffs. Shiro shook his head.

"This is bonding time. There will be a separate punishment for the two of you. You guys need to learn to get along," Shiro said, smiling deviously at their terrified expressions.

"AHA!" Pidge crowed triumphantly. "Hunk and I are free!" She and Hunk were both stringless and away from the three that had isolated themselves in all of the strings.

"Great. Now help us," Lance demanded. Pidge sighed.

"Hunk… I'm hungry." Pidge looked at Hunk who blinked in surprise.

"Oh yeah, we haven't had breakfast yet, have we? I'll get started on that as soon as we get out of these cuffs." Motivated by the thought of cooking, he freed Lance and Keith and took all of the string off of Shiro in less than a minute. The cuffs fell off, having served their purpose, and before anyone could say anything, Hunk was in the kitchen.

"What did that even do?" Beast Boy asked, staring at the now free teens.

"It helps us work together as a team apparently," Pidge said dully, collecting her mechanical parts that she had been tinkering with earlier.

Lance chuckled and he and Keith made their way to the Titans. "Yeah, the first time we were chained together was when we couldn't work with each other to save our lives, literally. It ended up in an all out food goo war."

"Food goo?" Raven asked, an expression of disgust as to what the substance could possibly be crossing her face.

"You don't want to know," Lance answered her with a small shudder.

"It's been so long since we've had normal food," Pidge said wistfully. "What I would kill to get a chocolate bar… or eggs and bacon," she added loud enough for Hunk to hear.

"Got it!" He called back. The sound of sizzling and the aroma of delicious food and melted butter wafted over to them.

"I'll take anything at this point," Lance said with a sigh, slipping into one of the seats.

"For once I agree with you," Keith added, sitting in his own seat.

"Hunk," Beast Boy said sheepishly, "I'm a vegetarian."

"It's fine," Hunk assured him, "I'll make a separate dish for you. In fact, I have the perfect thing!"

Pidge, sitting on the floor, suddenly hopped up and ran out of the room in an excited frenzy.

"Pidge, where are you going?" Shiro asked.

"Training room!" Pidge called back. "I just want to see something!"

Lance groaned as the smell of food grew stronger. His stomach began telling him that it needed to be fed in order for it to not complain. Loudly. "Hunk… when will the food be ready?"

"In like ten minutes?" Hunk answered unsurely. "It's been a while since I've used normal food. I've kind of forgotten."

"Hunk…" he whined, flopping forward onto the table, "I can't wait that long!"

"Well if you hadn't tangled yourself up with Keith, we would have eaten faster," Hunk said dryly, flipping a piece of bacon.

"I still say it's Keith's fault," Lance said with a shrug, not a hint of remorse in his voice.

"Say whatever you gotta say to make yourself feel better," Keith replied.

"Wait, you said it's been a while since you've cooked normal food?" Cyborg asked, leaning with one hand on the table. "How have you been living this whole time!?" he cried in exasperation.

"Food goo," Lance answered like it was obvious. At the disgusted expressions he got, Lance defended, "Hunk's a really good cook so he could make even that taste good! Coran on the other hand…" Lance shuddered at the 'healthy nutritional Paladin Lunch' Coran fed them.

"So if Hunk is that good at making food goo taste good…" Beast Boy said, a new look in his eyes as he started salivating. Lance caught on and he also began to drool at the thought of Hunk's cooking.

Cyborg gave the air several long sniffs, breathing in the luscious smell of the sizzling meat. "Man, that smells good! I think I see where you're coming from," he said to Lance, smirking.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, homemade scrambled eggs with a side of freshly fried bacon, doused in a light sauce for extra flavor and a touch of parsley on top of the eggs," Hunk said with a professional tone, brandishing plates of steaming breakfast.

The teens all ogled at the food as they had their plates slide up in front of them. It was arranged and decorated to appear many times more appetizing, even as Hunk came around and sprinkled a little bit of crushed black pepper atop the fluffy eggs.

"And for you, Beast Boy-" he placed the last plate before the still drooling teen who stared at it in wonder. "-I have prepared tofu eggs sprinkled with bread crumbs aside the gently minced bushel of greenery ranging from parsley to basil."

"Wow, this is… really something," Robin said, peering at his steaming dish with wide eyes.

"Tell me about it, man!" Cyborg cried through his too full mouth and teary eyed expression of bliss. "You have got to try this!"

"Yes, I do agree, it is quite tasty, Friend Hunk," Starfire said as she swallowed another bite.

"Yum…" Raven said monotonously, but truly enjoying the eggs.

"How have you done this?" Beast Boy asked in wonder, his own cheeks puffed and stuffed full as he stared up at the Yellow Paladin as if he were a god. "I've never had tofu eggs this amazing!"

"Yup, that's Hunk for you," Shiro said fondly, picking up his fork to start on his own meal. "Best chef in the world."

Hunk laughed sheepishly, waving his hands as if to dismiss the onslaught of compliments. "No, it's… really not much." No one believed his humble words, of course.

"H-Hunk…" Lance stuttered, his eyes pouring with tears of happiness as he stared up at his best friend with another bite already prepared on his fork. "I love you so much!"

"Woah! Lance, you okay?" Hunk asked in sudden worry as the Blue Paladin continued to bawl as he shoveled eggs into his mouth.

"I'm better than okay! You made long awaited Earth food ten times better than it would be!"

Keith stayed unnaturally silent throughout it all as Shiro smiled sympathetically and he and Hunk worked to calm their teammate down. Even though he hadn't said a word, a light flush dusted his cheeks as he relished in the mixture of Hunk's genius and the taste of actual Earth food. He would never admit it, but he was in heaven on the inside.

The rest of breakfast went by relatively uneventfully with the exception of Pidge's return as the thrill of chef mastery faded. The Titans and Paladins continued to talk adamantly about anything and everything. They shared stories of space and stories of crime fighting and found common traits between their roommates.

Halfway through it all, Allura and Coran had entered and revealed their true identities. The space mice also crawled out from Allura's hair to greet them. Their human glamour dropped and revealed their cheek marks and pointed ears. This had come as a shock to almost all the Titans before the two aliens were given the time to inspect and be in awe of human food—something alien to them.

It came as a nice break from all the action that had been happening so far.