Ever since Lance could remember, his favorite color was blue. It was the color of rain, of the ocean. It reminded him of the sky on a summer day, and the times he would be at the beach with his family. It made him feel calm; stilled his racing heart whenever he saw it.
Blue was everything good in the world, everything good in his world. But he had to leave that world behind, instead choosing the purples and yellows of space, the oranges and grays of planets. He's only seen a handful of blue in the galaxies he's been to, but none of them offered the peace that he usually found in them. They mostly gave him anxiety and the sneaking suspicion the people on them were trying to kill him.
But they were back on earth, now, and he was surrounded by friends and family. Sendak was defeated and no huge scary robots were trying to end his or his friends' lives. Everything was good, right now. Calm. Blue. So, since there weren't any life-threatening, planet-destroying business consuming his time, Lance was bored.
"Can we pleeeaasseee go to the beach? It's only a little while away from here and it could be a team bonding trip!" Lance threw up his hands and smiled at the point he threw into his argument.
Shiro rubbed his eyes and glanced at Allura. They, Lance, and the rest of the team were gathered inside the control room of the Atlas. Coran twirled his mustache thoughtfully and suddenly snapped his fingers. "I agree with Lance. The team has been under a lot of stress and pressure lately, and a trip to the—er—beach would do us all a lot of good."
"Yes! Thank you, Coran," Lance exclaimed.
"I wouldn't mind going to the beach," Pidge spoke up. Everyone looked at her and she pushed up her glasses and shrugged. "What? I may not like the outdoors that much, but I have to admit, I'm going a little stir-crazy from being in here for so long."
Hunk nods his agreement. "And then maybe we can go to an actual restaurant. Oh, I haven't been to one in so long. I wonder if that sushi place is still down there. Ooh! We should go to that!"
Pidge crinkled her nose. "Ew, sushi is gross."
Hunk gasped. "Pidge Holt, you have offended me."
"I think going to the beach would be a waste of time. We have just found an Altean as the power-source to that robot, we should be focusing our time and resources on researching why and where this Altean came from, not frolicking at some beach," Allura said, crossing her arms. But she uncrossed them when Shiro reared his hand on her shoulder. "I think," he said. "That this decision should be up to the leader. He has listened to all of our opinions and it is up to him."
All eyes turn to Keith, who was leaning against the wall. His gaze shifted to his teammates, and Lance gave him a thumbs up and an encouraging nod. He sighed. "Fine. Let's go to the beach."
Lance's withdrawal from the ocean affected him more than he thought.
When he opened up the van door and the smell of the sea—salty with a tinge of fish—washed over his senses, he could barely hold back the barrage of tears and emotions that welled up inside him. He knew he missed it, missed the sound of the waves crashing, the birds calling to one another, the specific blue color that only belonged to the ocean, but he didn't know how much he needed it. It was like having a stuffy nose and realizing how much you took a clear nasal cavity for granted; his soul had awoken with his arrival to the sea, and he hadn't even realized it was asleep.
"You just gonna stand there or are you coming?" Pidge remarked, poking him in the side. He startled and looked down at her, stooping to carry some of the beach toys she was holding. He grabbed three pails and an umbrella and looked away sheepishly.
"Thanks," she huffed, shifting a gigantic duck floaty to the other side of her body and hefting a tote bag up higher on her shoulder. "You'd think with all these people someone would help you. Nope, they all left me to carry everything."
Lance didn't hear her. He was too entranced with staring out to the horizon, drinking in the scene in front of him. Empty sand stretched out before him, a calm ocean lazily lapping the shore, and his friends racing to see who could make it to the water first. Pidge must've seen the yearning in his gaze because she sighed.
"Here." She took the toys back from Lance and nudged him with her sandaled foot. "Go on, I'll be right behind you."
Lance smiled at her and started running, pausing once before calling back, "Thank you, Pidge!"
Pidge tripped as the head of the duck dragged on the ground in front of her. She grumbled, "I feel like such a mom."
Lance couldn't stop the tears, anymore. The joy and the nostalgia that the beach stirred in him was too overwhelming, too powerful, and he choked out a "Gracias, Jesus" as he dove into the shocking water.
"Hey, Lance! Heads up!" Hunk called as Lance surfaced. Lance swiped at his face and laughed as Hunk tossed a football at him, missing severely.
Lance grabbed the football and saw Keith tentatively enter the cold water. He grinned. "Keith!"
Keith looked up at him, arms crossed tightly over his chest. He barely caught the football that Lance chucked at him. He slipped in the sand and crashed into the ocean, spluttering and shuddering when he came back up, holding the ball over his head.
"Woohoo!" Lance and Hunk cried in unison.
Back on the sand, Pidge dumped the toys onto the spot next to a dumbstruck Allura and Coran, who was slathering sunscreen into his pale skin. "Whew," Pidge panted. Sweat dripped from her brow and into her glasses. "My arms kill."
"I have never seen such a thing," Allura breathed. Her eyes absorbed everything she could land her eyes on, and her body was stock still as she consumed it.
Pidge glanced at the ocean and shrugged. "Yeah, it's alright. Gotta be careful of those jellyfish and sharks, though."
"Jelly what?"
Keith was more of a desert person. He preferred those sands over the ones at the beach. Nonetheless, he had to admit, he respected the ocean and her power. Although, he didn't as much like how unaccustomed he was to it.
"The salt is getting into my training cut, Lance. I don't want to go in it, anymore," he repeated for what felt like the seventieth time. He stood under the rainbow umbrella that Pidge had set up, and rolled his eyes as Lance started his infamous "puppy-dog eyes".
"Please, Keith? You said yourself this was a team bonding trip," he pleaded, clasping his hands in front of him.
"I'll go with you," Allura offered, slightly raising her hand. Her confident demeanor had left and was replaced with a fidgety teenager standing in unknown territory. She pulled up her white bikini top self-consciously.
Lance's face brightened and he grabbed her hand. "Okay! Let's go."
Keith watched as he led her into the water, and Allura let out a wheezy squeal as the cold water caressed her skin. She glanced back at Keith, and he gave her a small, encouraging smile. It was enough. Her eyes turned to a steely determination and turned back to the ocean and dove in, splashing a surprised Lance.
"How do you like it?" Lance asked as Allura surfaced. Her hair was plastered to her shoulders and forehead, and she was shivering, but her smile was huge.
"I," she said. "Love it.
Keith turned to Pidge, who was struggling to get sunscreen onto her freckled back. She glanced at Keith with a sheepish look. Without talking, Keith took the sunscreen tube and rubbed some into her back.
"You getting in?" He asked as he squirted some more white paste onto his hand. Pidge arched her back as the cold sunscreen hit it.
"I don't know, if the temperature is anything like that sunscreen, I'm not even putting my pinky toe in," she said, picking up her spaghetti straps so Keith could get her shoulders.
Keith finished and shut the cap on the sunscreen. "You should at least try it."
"Says the boy who didn't even last ten minutes in said water." Pidge snorted and took back the tube. "Thanks for helping me."
Keith bumped her shoulder with his own and snapped her strap. "Anything for my little sis." •••
Hunk was ecstatic. Overjoyed. Over the moon.
He was home. Finally home, and with his best friends, all of whom were safe and alive and not dead on a planet galaxies away because a giant space insect crushed them. He was at last feeling the breeze that only earth could give, the smell of soil and sand and ocean, the gentle whisper of sand rubbing against sand. The lull of the waves. He soaked it all in, a hand in his chest squeezing his heart until tears leaked down his dark cheeks.
"Hunk?" Lance asked, paddling up to the float Hunk was lounging in. "You okay, buddy?"
Hunk sniffled and smiled, not bothering to wipe his face. "Yeah. I just, really missed this. I missed home."
Lance grasped his best friend's shoulder and leaned his head against it. "Me too, Hunk. Me too." •••
Shiro sat in the car after the rest of the paladins got out. He didn't notice that Pidge had needed help, or that Allura and Coran were amazed at earth, or that Keith was slightly uncomfortable. The only he knew was that the ocean transfixed him.
He didn't think he'd see it again. Years in space fighting, being captured and tortured, his conscience stuck in a robotic lion, had left him somewhat hopeless. Not hopeless that they weren't going to win, he knew that the paladins had what it took to defeat the Galra. It was hopelessness over the fact that, yes, they would win, but they might have to lose their lives in the process.
Seeing the way the sun dances on the waves, and the distant green blob of Pidge riding on Lance's shoulders and a red Keith on Hunk's made his throat constrict in a way that only happens when he's in private.
He sat there, letting the car heat up under the blazing sun and the tears stream down his cheeks until the air got too stuffy. He slowly opened the car door and got out, inhaling deeply. He closed his eyes and tipped his face to the sky.
They were home.
A/N:
What up bois and girls, it's another one. This is no ship, just family. So hope you enjoy.