A/N: Hey all! It's been a month, but I finally have the next chapter all done! I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo this month and wrote a children's book - 25,000 words. So I kind of neglected my fan fictions...But here it is! It turned into a monster of a chapter...

Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed!

Enjoy!

The day seemed to start normally. Shiro woke up early, as usual. The nightmares from being captured by the Galra for a year did not let him sleep very much. He went out to the common area where the group ate meals together, expecting, as usual, that he would be the only one awake so early.

To his surprise he found Keith already seated at the table, his head buried in his arms. "Morning," Shiro called quietly, not wanting to wake his brother if he had fallen asleep.

"I'm happy you didn't say 'good', otherwise I'd have to punch you," came the muffled reply.

Shiro chuckled and rubbed the back of the red paladin's neck. "Why are you up so early? You're never up before me."

"Wanted to talk to you." Keith finally raised his head and ran a hand through his unruly hair. "I didn't want an audience and I figured Pidge wouldn't be awake to watch us on the cameras."

"She probably keeps a copy of the tapes anyway." Shiro sighed and shook his head. "I've tried speaking to her, she just doesn't listen. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I - " His brother's face turned red. "Whashdisatance?"

"A little slower, please? I can't understand you when you talk that fast." But Shiro had a sneaking suspicion that he knew what Keith wanted to say. The next words out of Keith's mouth confirmed his hypothesis.

Keith took a deep breath and repeated, his face blushing even more, "What should I say to Lance?"

"I can't tell you. You like him; only you know your feelings." He rested a hand on top of Keith's. "I know you'll figure it out."

"You're the one who told me to do it. Why can't you just tell me what to say?" Keith's head dropped down to rest on his arms again, making Shiro grin softly. No matter how long they'd been apart, his brother was still not a morning person.

"Because I'm not the one with feelings for Lance," Shiro told him, stroking his human hand through his brother's dark hair. "You are."

"Yeah, I know, you prefer Allura."

Shiro's hand paused for a moment before continuing to stroke Keith's hair. "What?!"

"Everyone knows you like Allura." Keith let out a quiet sigh of contentment. "Keep doing that."

"Keith, you are not a dog and I am not scratching your neck." Shiro's fingers stilled as he remembered what Keith had just said. "Why is it that nothing stays secret on this ship?"

Keith raised his head from his arms again. "It's not much of a secret. All anyone has to do is look at you to figure it out. We all spend a lot of time together"

"Oh." Shiro felt himself turn pink. If his socially ignorant brother could figure out that he liked Allura, then maybe he was being too obvious with his feelings. "But back to your problem. You need to figure out what you want to say to Lance on your own. They're your feelings, not mine."

"But every time I try to talk to him he turns it into a joke!" Keith sprang to his feet, suddenly completely awake. "I can't get him to be serious about anything. Whenever I try, he gets upset with me."

"You also blow up at him over the slightest thing, too," Shiro pointed out calmly. "I think you both need to learn to control yourselves. He baits you and jokes around over everything, but you get upset if he so much as looks at you the wrong way."

His brother took a deep breath, as though to protest, but then deflated. "You're right." He dropped back into his chair to his former position with his head down. "I'm awful."

Shiro resisted the urge to groan loudly. Sometimes, it drove him crazy that his brother took everything to heart. That was probably one of the problems he was having with Lance. The blue paladin had a habit of making flippant comments that he didn't really mean. Keith always took them seriously and assumed that Lance was making fun of him. "No you're not. You're just a normal teenager. I said that you and Lance both need to get it together and I meant it. He usually winds up going to the pool just before lunch. Why don't you join him and see if everything will work out?"

"Because I don't swim?"

"Yes you do."

Keith picked his head up and shook it. "I don't. I haven't in years."

"But you know how."

"Yeah..."

Shiro spread his hands. "Then what's your problem? Go swim with him. You don't forget how to swim. Maybe being in his comfort zone will keep Lance from turning everything into a joke."

"Maybe you're right." Keith propped his chin on his hands and stared at the table. "Is there anything for breakfast?"

"Good morning paladins!" Coran entered the room loudly, like he did most mornings. Seeing Keith sitting at the table, he paused. "Number four. What are you doing awake already?"

"I...decided to get up early?" The red paladin stood up. "I'm going to go train."

"No, you are not. You are going to eat breakfast first," Shiro said, grasping Keith's wrist. "You passed out once, you're not doing that again. Sit and eat, and then you can go do what you want."

Keith looked as though he wanted to protest, but shook his head and just sat back down. "Fine. What's for breakfast?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Shiro caught sight of Lance hovering beside the doorway. He was willing to bet that the blue paladin had heard every word. Good. Maybe then these two would finally figure out their feelings.

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Lance's eyebrows shot up as Keith entered the pool area. The red paladin rarely swam, especially after they'd met up going to the pool when Coran had had to repair the teleduv. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

Keith immediately bristled, making Lance sigh internally. It seemed that no matter what he said, he ticked off Keith. It didn't matter if he was trying to joke around or even just make a stupid comment. Everything he said drove the red paladin crazy. "I'm a paladin on this castle ship just like you. I can swim if I want to," Keith retorted hotly. "It shouldn't make a difference to you."

"I was just asking! Jeez, can't you loosen up a little." Lance swam over to the side of the pool and leaned his arms over the side. "I don't care if you swim here."

"You'd better not." Setting his towel on the side, Keith dove into the pool, entering the water with barely a splash. "Just stay on your side of the pool and I'll stay on mine."

Swimming to the middle of the pool, Lance treaded water beside Keith. "Is that really necessary? I mean, we had that bonding moment earlier in the week with the gladiator, when you were all worried about my ankle and stuff."

"Nope, don't remember, didn't happen." Keith immediately swam to the other side.

Lance gritted his teeth and swam after him. He was not letting Keith get away without talking this time. Not after what he'd overheard earlier this morning. "Come on! I apologized for that! I really didn't remember. I was half dead, okay?!"

"What does it even matter to you? Just leave me alone, alright? You do your thing, I'll do mine, and we don't have to have anything to do with each other." Turning around, Keith swam away, leaving Lance behind.

"For goodness – Keith!" Lance swam over to the other paladin. Since he had much more swimming experience, he managed to overtake him quickly. "I've been trying to talk to you for days and you won't listen to me. You either walk away or get all annoyed with me. Or both."

"Can't you take a hint, then?" Letting out an annoyed grunt, Keith made his way over to the ladder and climbed out of the pool. "Just leave me alone already. I'm tired of having to deal with you."

"What are you talking about?!" Lance exclaimed. Now he was angry. Ever since he'd spoken to Shiro he'd been trying so hard to get along with the other paladin. He didn't joke around anymore or say things designed to annoy him. But now Keith was saying that he was tired of dealing with Lance? "I've been great. I haven't made fun of your hair at all. I've been trying to be nice. What more do you want?!"

Keith slung his towel around his shoulders and gave him an angry glare. "I want you to stop it already. Nothing you do will change my opinion at you." With that, he stalked out of the room, leaving a speechless Lance behind.

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Keith stormed into his room and collapsed onto the bed, hiding his head in his hands. He was stupid. He was completely, totally stupid. All Lance had been trying to do was exactly what he'd wanted: to talk. Lance was right; he'd been so much better than usual. It was mostly that Keith was expecting the worst of him.

He changed and lay back down on his bed, taking a tablet Coran had given him earlier. Flipping idly through the books on the tablet, he found himself thinking over the exchange at the pool and felt himself begin to turn red. Lance had been better than usual. Completely normal, even. He was just an idiot who couldn't see that.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of the door opening. The next thing he knew, Shiro was standing over him. "What were you thinking?!" Shiro asked him. He looked angry, angrier than Keith had ever seen him.

"What are you talking about?" Sitting up, Keith set the tablet on the bedside table in an effort to avoid his brother's steely gaze.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about: Lance." Shiro slid a finger beneath his chin and tilted his head up. "He's very upset, and you need to go apologize."

"What do you even know about what happened?" Keith shot back. "How do you know that Lance didn't do anything?"

Shiro sighed. "Because I was watching you two on the cameras to make sure neither of you drowned the other one."

Keith's mouth opened and closed before he eloquently replied, "Oh."

"Yes, oh. I saw what happened, and you're the one who overreacted this time." He rested a hand on Keith's shoulder. "You need to relax. Lance was right. You need to loosen up a little."

"I know. It's just that everything he says sounds like he's accusing me of something." Keith pulled his knees to his chest and dropped his head on them. "I'm an idiot. He's never going to listen to anything I say ever again. Not after this."

"He will. You're just going to have to give him time to get over it. You were rather nasty to him for no reason," Shiro said quietly. "I know you think that Lance has a thick skin, but he's still a person with feelings. The same way it bothers you when he makes fun of you and deliberately misinterprets what you're trying to say, it bothers him as well."

"But what do I do now?" His voice broke, but he didn't care. This had been going on for too long and he just hoped he hadn't completely wrecked his chances with the blue paladin.

Shiro rubbed his shoulder. "You're going to give him some time to calm down and then apologize to him. Meanwhile, you're going to start training yourself to have a lot more patience. Maybe then you and Lance will stop butting heads as much."

"Maybe." Keith sighed and lifted his head. If Shiro thought there was still a chance, maybe there was. "Thanks, Shiro."

"Just trying to keep this team together." His brother ruffled his hair once and stood up. "I'm going to go see if Lance needs someone to talk to. He looked upset when he passed me in the hall."

"I thought you said you were watching us on the cameras?"

"I was. But he also passed me, and I'm not completely sure if his face was wet from the pool or from crying." Shiro started for the door and paused. "I hope for your sake that it was from the pool."

Keith watched as his brother left the room and bit his lip. He hoped so, too.

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Lance glared at the wall angrily. He was so done with the red paladin already. Nothing he ever did was good enough. Everything he said was interpreted as a problem. So as far as Keith went, he didn't care anymore. Let him drop – no, that wasn't true. He still had feelings for him, even if it was completely obvious that Keith would never return those feelings. He would just have to shove them down far enough that it wouldn't affect his bond with the other paladins, and by extension, forming Voltron. Whatever he thought he'd overheard earlier in the day was obviously completely wrong, because there was no way Keith had any feelings for him.

He sat up at the sound of a knock on his door. "Come in," he called, hoping against hope that it was Keith.

To his disappointment, it was Shiro. "Oh. Hey Shiro. What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you," the black paladin replied, walking over to the bed. "Mind if I sit?"

"Nope, sure, go ahead." Lance scooted backwards to make room. "What did you want to talk about?"

"What happened earlier at the pool." Shiro held up his Galra hand as Lance began to speak. "I happened to have passed Pidge's computer and saw what was going on. What Keith did was unwarranted. Are you okay?"

Lance's mouth dropped open. "You're not taking Keith's side in this?"

"He's in the wrong. Why would I take his side?"

"Because...because he's your brother!" Lance exclaimed. "Shouldn't you always take your brother's side of things?"

Shiro shook his head. "Not if he's being an idiot. Yes, you did sound like you were upset when you asked what he was doing at the pool, but he shouldn't have gotten so upset with you like that. But I didn't come here to talk about Keith. I came to see how you're doing. He said some pretty mean things to you."

Lance shrugged, trying to hide the tears that pricked the corners of his eyes. "It's fine. That's just how Keith is. Everything I say bothers him. He doesn't like it when things aren't serious."

"Well..." Shiro's brow furrowed. "I don't know if I should tell you this. Technically, it's a bit personal and Keith should be the one to say something..."

"I won't tell him you told me and I won't tease him or anything like that," Lance said quickly. "You can tell me."

"It's...I just want to make sure you know, this isn't an excuse or something, merely an explanation as to why Keith is always so quick to get upset with you." Shiro shifted into a more comfortable position before continuing, "Keith...isn't exactly my brother. He's actually my half-brother, via my father. Our father. He wasn't...faithful to my mother, and Keith is the result of that. My father never knew about him until Keith was around nine or ten. His mother died then and he was being bounced from foster home to foster home until someone found a record stating that my father is his father as well. Then he came to live with us."

Lance's eyes widened. "Your mother was okay with that?"

"My mother has a bad temper, but even she recognized that it wasn't his fault. She wasn't going to leave a ten-year-old to the foster care system. My father, she was angry with. But Keith...she treated him as though he were her own son. She likes to joke that he's more her son than I am, what with his temper." Running a hand through the white section of his hair, Shiro sighed. "But he still knew that our father didn't want him and I don't think he really got over that. He was forced to grow up a lot sooner than most kids. He's always had trouble getting along with people and nearly got kicked out of school multiple times. I tried to be as good a brother as I could be, but..."

"I'm sure you were fine, Shiro. Keith doesn't seem to be too bad." In fact, after hearing about Keith's childhood, Lance wasn't as upset over his words. The red paladin probably didn't trust anyone at all, not after his own father rejected him. "Maybe...I'll try to talk to him again. I guess I can see where he's coming from now."

Shiro shook his head. "He shouldn't have said what he did to you. No matter what he's been through and had to deal with."

"Still. I know more about him." Lance gave Shiro a bright grin, his mood restored. "Thanks, Shiro. That really helped."

"But Lance, I - "

Lance bounced off his bed and headed to the door. "I'm going to go find Keith now. Thanks again!"

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He found Keith standing in front of one of the windows looking out into space. "Hey," he called quietly, not wanting to startle him.

Despite his efforts, Keith jumped and turned around, his face red. "Oh. Hey."

"I spoke to Shiro." Lance came up to stand beside him and looked outside. "It really puts things in perspective, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

Lance motioned outside. "Seeing all those galaxies. We're really just one tiny space ship floating around. No matter what happens with Zarkon and the Galra, the world will continue to exist."

"What's put you in such a deep mood?" Keith asked, giving him a sidelong glance as he turned back to the window. "You're usually more…"

"Flippant?" Lance offered. "I know. I think I get why you don't like it when I joke around now."

Keith let out a quiet sigh, turned around, and slid down the window to sit against it. "Shiro didn't just talk to you about what I said, did he?"

"Erm…" As he sat down beside the red paladin, Lance suddenly remembered that he'd told Shiro he wouldn't let Keith know who had told him about his childhood. "I'm not supposed to say anything…"

"It's fine. Shiro must have had a reason for telling you." Drawing up one knee to his chest, Keith leaned his chin on it. "I don't blame him."

"Wait, you're okay with it?"

"Sure. I trust Shiro. If he felt he should tell you, I guess he must've had a reason," Keith answered quietly. "I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have gotten upset with you like that. You weren't trying to start up with me."

Lance laughed bitterly and leaned his head against the wall. "I owe you an apology, too. I know I treat everything as a joke, but it's just because it's easier to joke about something than to worry so much about it. I didn't know why you always got upset with me for it. And I guess I can't blame you for thinking I was trying to start up with you. I always wind up baiting you for no real reason. So I guess I'm sorry too."

"We're both to blame." Keith ran a hand through his bangs, brushing them out of his face. "Can we just start over? None of that rivalry stupidity or anything like that."

"Sure." Turning to face the red paladin, Lance stuck out a hand. "Hi, I'm Lance. And you are…?"

Keith wrinkled his nose and stared at the proffered hand. "What?"

"You said you wanted us to start over," Lance explained impatiently. "So, here's us starting over."

"Oh." Keith grasped the blue paladin's hand in his own. "I'm Keith."

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On the other side of the castle ship, Pidge sat in front of her computer, munching on popcorn. "Pidge, what are you watching?" Shiro asked from behind her.

Pidge yelped and reached to shut off the screen, but Shiro just sighed and sat down beside her. "Lance and Keith, right?"

"Yeah. They've made up," she answered, trying to get her heart to stop racing. "Quit sneaking up on me like that!"

"You're spying on two of the paladins. I don't think you can reprimand me for walking into a room." Shiro felt a smile begin to spread across his face. "It looks like they've worked things out. They're not arguing, at least."

"They apologized to each other and talked about something about Keith's childhood?" Pidge fixed him with a stern look. "You need to share that information with the rest of us, too."

Shiro shook his head. "It's up to Keith whether he wants to tell you and Hunk. I only told Lance because I thought that it would help him understand Keith a little better, since they had so many problems. You can take it up with Keith himself if you really want to know."

"I thought you'd say that. I can't even watch the files because Coran took the cameras offline for maintenance when you spoke to Lance," Pidge complained. She propped her chin on her hand and stared at the screen. "But I guess it'll be nice to not have to deal with those two idiots fighting all the time."

"Yeah…" Shiro stood up and started for the door. Maybe, just maybe, Lance and Keith would figure out their differences and finally start opening up to each other.

Maybe it was time to ask Allura about relationships between paladins. He had a feeling that that would be applicable in the near future.

A/N: And that nearly concludes this portion of the story! I'm still debating - should I keep writing short stories for this little universe here, or should I write them as separate stories from other points of view?