Chaos started early in the morning.

And by early, Rosalina meant early.

By seven, her house was completely full. People had to stop by Rosalina to get slathered in sunscreen. In one of the unused bedrooms, Veronica and Rachel were doing people's hair. In the bathroom, Lance was coating everyone in rainbow eyeshadow and putting whatever flags they wanted on their cheeks while he showed off his sparkly tank top and bi bandana wrapped around his arm. Keith was armed with the body glitter. In the kitchen, Hunk was putting ham and cheese sandwiches together as Marco counted the pre-packaged fruit cups and water bottles and other snacks to last them through the day. People rotated through the house, an efficient machine they had perfected long ago. Throwing a few others into the mix hardly stuttered their progress.

They were out the door by eight thirty.

It took three full cars to get everyone to the park where Pride would be held. Events were supposed to last all day, and they were allowed to bring in their own food and drink. From what Veronica claimed from last year, the food vendors were pretty expensive. They would leave the coolers of food in Luis' car and carry just a few snacks in his backpack. Marcus and Shiro also carried backpacks with water bottles—all fifteen carefully labeled by Rachel.

Keith stood in the middle of the group, trying to adjust his skirt. His boots were in the car, in case the heels started to hurt his feet. He was wearing his black crop top with the rainbow skirt, the front of which just barely touched his knees as the back fell to his calves. He had shaved that morning, from toe to hip, and had even painted his nails in rainbow colors the night before.

Hunk swooped down and kissed Keith's cheek. "You look good, Keith."

Keith smiled shyly. "Thanks, Hunk."

As Rosalina looked around their rowdy group, she had to pause and think a moment. "Huh."

"What?" Marcus asked. "What's wrong?"

The group, overhearing Marcus, turned to her and she eyed them carefully. "I have six children and only two are straight." She narrowed her eyes at Rachel and Luis. "Where did I go wrong with you two?"

Peals of laughter filled the air.

It took a while before they were calm enough to enter the park. It was still early enough that people were just trickling in. Most of them would come with the parade in an hour or so, but they wanted to be able to check the booths while they could.

Rosalina and Marcus had given Keith and Lance fifty dollars each for whatever they wanted to buy. Most of the small things like stickers and stuff were free, but there were some tables with merchandise that people could buy. It was a struggle trying to convince Lance he didn't need to buy every single thing he came across. Pidge was quick to smack his hand every time he reached for his wallet.

They moved as one large group, crowding around tables but trying to take up as little space as possible. People tried to make way for them when they could, but fifteen people was a lot to make room for.

At least it was nice out. Her children, she knew, wouldn't burn too bad. Well, except maybe Keith. She wanted to put more sunscreen on him but he dodged her every effort, hiding behind Hunk or Shiro. But then she went after Shiro—they were just so pale. And Pidge! Pidge was the worst of them. But they managed to dodge her and promise they would put more on at lunch. Rosalina agreed, but grumbled all the while.

Booth after booth, filled with so many colors and pride things she could hardly keep track of. There was one booth handing out small drawstring bags with lots of memorabilia depending on which flag you wanted. Lance happily picked up the pink and blue and purple bag. Inside there was a full-sized flag Lance wanted to wear as a cape but Rosalina convinced him he didn't want to lose it or ruin it, right?

Adam was also quick to pick up the same bag, showing it proudly to Shiro who picked up a rainbow one. Veronica picked up her pink and orange stripped bag with a grin, waving it in front of Rachel's face to tease her. Marco nonchalantly picked up his black, grey, white, and purple bag with a small smile.

While Sylvio and Nadia haggled with one of the ladies behind the table into letting them have all the bags please, Rosalina kept an eye on the teenagers. Hunk was fretting over which one he wanted, either the same as Lance or the pink and yellow and blue one (Lance was no help in that regard, making a list of pros and cons for both with wild claims). Keith stood by looking bored, but not picking up a bag yet, interestingly enough. Pidge was eyeing both the pink, blue, and white one and one that was yellow, white, purple, and black. Pidge's gaze caught hers, and her cheeks flushed brilliantly as she stepped away from the table.

Frowning, Rosalina went up to her. "What's wrong, Pidge? Don't you want one?"

Pidge kept her eyes away from her, as if ashamed. "N-No, I was just looking."

Rosalina tapped her fingers to her leg, thinking. "What's this one mean?" she asked, pointing to the one with the yellow stripe. "I know what the others are, but not this one."

"It's—uhm. It means 'non-binary,'" Pidge replied quietly, fingers playing with the hem of her large green shirt. "It's under the trans umbrella. Uhm—"

"Oh!" Rosalina smiled at Pidge, hoping to ease her nerves. "Shiro explained what that one means. Are you—can I ask? Or is that rude? That's probably rude of me," she babbled, hiding her warm face behind her hands. Oh, she was just messing this up, she knew it! She was still learning how best to be supportive, but—

"Oh," Pidge said quietly, smiling shyly up at her. "Yeah. Uhm. I am. Uhm. Non-binary, that is."

"Oh!" Rosalina grinned and grabbed the bag. "Then you should definitely have it! Oh." She just managed to keep from thrusting it into Pidge's face and dropped her smile. "I'm not meaning you have to if you don't want to—"

Pidge laughed. "It's fine, Rosalina. I—yeah—I do want it, actually. I just didn't know if you would be okay with it, you know?"

Surprised, Rosalina blinked at her a few times. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Pidge shrugged, taking the bag from her. "I dunno. Not many people are."

"Are your parents?"

"I haven't told them, yet."

Rosalina nodded. "Okay. I won't say anything, okay? Not until you tell me. Uhm. May I ask which pronouns?"

"Uhm." Pidge shrugged, looking away and scratching her nose as she clutched the bag close. "I guess female pronouns are okay for now until I tell my parents, yanno?"

Smiling brightly, Rosalina placed a hand on her head. "Just let me know if that changes, yeah?"

She spied Keith watching them from the corner of his eye. His fingers brushed over the pink, blue, and white bag before he grabbed the rainbow one. If he wasn't comfortable with it, she wasn't going to push him. But hopefully he heard her being supportive of Pidge and would be willing to talk about it to her—or at least not be afraid to come to her if he needed. She met Shiro's eye over him and he gave her a supportive smile and a thumbs up. Good. So she hadn't bungled that up too badly, then.

Apparently, Nadia and Sylvio had convinced the lady that if they had leftover bags when the day was over that they could have them. For now, though, they were only allowed one bag and they both picked the rainbow bags.

The group marched on.

Lunch rolled around, finally. They picked a spot under a large tree and spread out several blankets to make one large picnic blanket. Rosalina set the sunscreen in Shiro's hand with a firm glower that had him quickly uncapping the bottle and shoving it towards Keith once he had a good glob of it. They made a large circle with Nadia and Sylvio in the middle so they couldn't wander off without tripping over an adult. Marco started passing out sandwiches, and everyone passed them down the line, same with the fruit cups and chips. Shiro and Marcus quickly handed out the water bottles. Music played in the background from the stage—Veronica said they were all LGBT+ bands, which Rosalina thought was rather nice.

It was—good. She kind of wondered why she hadn't come before. From her understanding, though, this was the biggest Pride had been since Altea had started it some years before. Not through lack of trying, but through lack of appropriate funding.

Rosalina looked around at all the colors and all the happy people surrounding her. Even the drag queens were simply stunning. She saw Lance eyeing them and she wondered if maybe that was something he would be into. She could ask him later, though. It was so nice, being surrounded by such joy. Even her little group! Eight of the fifteen of them identified as not 'cishet' as Shiro had explained to her a few weeks ago. And she felt so blessed to know each and every one of them, to have them as part of her family.

The group started lagging around dinner time. The kids were getting cranky, and there was absolutely no way they would be able to stay up late when the tables would start packing their things away.

They ate a quiet dinner at Sal's and headed their separate ways, showering and getting ready for bed quietly, even though the sun barely touched the horizon.

Before she went to bed, Rosalina checked on Lance and Keith. Lance's hair was still wet from his shower and he was splayed on top of the covers, mouth open and drool escaping onto the sheets. One foot hung off. Rosalina smiled fondly at him, finding a thin blanket to drape over him. If he got hot, he could just push it off. She kissed his still-wet hair and quietly backed out of the room.

Keith was in a similar position, though he had at least crawled under a sheet. Rosalina smoothed back some of his hair, still damp from his shower. His cheeks were a little burned, and his shoulders were a little pink. She would bite back an "I told you so" in the morning when she handed him the aloe. She kissed his temple, smoothing back his hair one more time, and left, quietly shutting his door behind her.

Back in her room, Marcus sleepily blinked up at her. He still had glitter dusting his cheeks.

With a smile, Rosalina climbed into bed. There would be glitter on the sheets in the morning and Marcus would probably make a joke about strippers or Edward Cullen. And she would laugh and roll her eyes and tell him not to worry; she loved him best.