One by one the McClains started showing up. Every time someone walked in I'd jump up and we'd engage in a sobbing mess of hugs. They'd freak out over the fact that I had a beautiful finance and daughter before going on to tell me what was new with them. Lisa and Luis's kids were so big now, last time I saw Silvio and Nadia they were four and two. Now Nadia doesn't even remember me and Silivo is confused and thinks people can come back from the dead. He's half convinced I'm a ghost, which is kinda funny but also heartbreaking. Veronica had been on many exciting missions during her time as an Officer at the Garrison. She claimed everyone went on search parties for Hunk, Pidge, and I almost every night for the first year. When they couldn't find a trace they finally gave up and accepted that we were dead. Silvio made sure to tell me about the funeral they had and how there was no body so they just put up a stone. Mama said she never wanted to put it up because a mother knows and she knew I wasn't dead.
It was heart shattering hearing this. I knew some of them must have some resentment towards me for disappearing without a word however no one showed any. We were all simply happy to see each other for the time being. That is until Marco showed up. As soon as he entered the house he forwent the hugs and went straight to demanding answers. Since he was the last to arrive I figured it was time to explain everything anyway.
Everyone made their way to the living room; Mama, Papa, Abuela and Lisa sat on the couch, while Luis, Nadia, Silvio and Veronica sat on the love seat. Rachel and Lana took a seat on the recliner and Keith, Nova and I claimed the other love seat. Marco decided to lean against the wall from afar, glaring daggers at us. Keith, showing his usual defensive self, was trying to take up as little space and act as non threatening as possible. As soon as we decided we were going to Earth Keith was worried my family wouldn't like him or be scared of him. My poor baby. To try and calm him I tried wrapping my arm around his shoulders while holding Nova in my other arm.
"So, where have you been?" Marco asked, arms crossed.
"You're not going to believe me, but I was in space fighting a 10,000 year old war." I said, deciding to be blunt.
Everyone stared at me like I was crazy for a moment before the arguing started up. Everyone was yelling over each other trying to either call bull on my explanation or to try and shut up the acusors. Finally Keith stood up and deactivated his disguise. Immediately there were some screams from various sources. Dad and Luis bolted to their feet, probably to protect everyone, whether it was from nothing or not. Most everyone else was frozen in shock. I myself didn't know what to do at first. This wasn't exactly how I had wanted to reveal to my parents my love was out of this world but I guess I wasn't really stubble with my explanation either. What I did know was I couldn't leave Keith to face my family alone. I had to stop the looks of fear before Keith never felt safe here again.
"Oh yeah, and Keith's an alien." I announced, standing and putting my arm around his waist, pulling him to my side. "Isn't he cute?" Nova squealed to the sight of her mom.
"Kitty!" exclaimed Lana as everyone seemed to get used to the idea or at least realized that they weren't in danger.
I smiled, "Exactly! He's the cutest space kitty there is." Keith pouted at that, which helped prove my point.
"Actually, I think it's a tie." Keith explained, deactivating Nova's belt and taking her from my arm so he could nuzzle her little head.
"You might be right there, Love." I said brushing Nova's cheek causing her to purr.
"What the hell, Lance?" Marco asked.
"I know it's a lot to take in and yes, I probably could have been a little smoother, but this is the truth. I got in a sentient alien spaceship," I pointed to Blue. "Which is my cat, and pulled into a 10,000 year war. For the last four years I've been fighting off an evil ruler, Zarkon, who has imprisoned half the universe alongside Shiro, Hunk, Pidge and Keith who also have sentient lion robots. Also fun fact: our lions all come together to form a giant robot, which just so happens to be the most powerful weapon in the universe." I explained as Keith and I sat back down. "Questions?"
"You were trusted with the most powerful weapon in the universe?" Luis asked while finally setting down.
"They didn't have a choice. Blue chose me as her pilot."
"So the cat is the ship?" Veronica asked.
"Yes, she can grow and shrink."
"You fight an evil ruler!" Silvio exclaimed, "So you guys are like superheroes?"
I smiled, "Exactly, superpowers and all, buddy."
He smiled, "That's so cool!"
"Wait, superpowers?" Rachel asked.
"Yep, the lions," I gestured to Red and Blue, "led us their powers."
Veronica laughed, "You're messing with us right?"
"Nope!" I smiled, looking to Blue, "let's give them a show, girl." I then laughed at their faces as I lifted the water out of mama's cup and made it a frozen heart. Like everytime I use my powers Blue lit up with the effort of letting me use her power.
"Cool!" The kids screamed.
"I don't believe this!" Luis said.
"I know right! Keith show them yours." Keith rolled his eyes before holding out his hand and making a fire heart for a few seconds.
"Wow!" The kids screamed again.
"Yeah, and Keith has his Galra powers on top of his Voltron powers!"
Keith frowned, "No I don't."
I waved his answer off. "You're just saying that cause it's normal for you. He's got like night vision and super smell and hearing. Oh and he's got claws that can cut through practically anything!"
Keith smacked me in the arm then, mumbling, "Stop making me sound super threatening!" at the same time that all the kids exclaimed, "Awesome!"
"This is fun and all but I think we're asking the wrong questions here." Marco sneered. "Why didn't you even try to get a hold of us!"
I frowned, "I couldn't."
"You couldn't? Or you just didn't care?"
"He couldn't." Keith repeated calmly, though I could see the irritation in his eyes. "If we contacted Earth that would have led the Galra here. It would have put you all in danger."
"So if you're here now then that means you won the war, right?" Abuela asked.
I shook my head sadly. "No, not exactly."
"What do you mean?" Mama asked heartbroken.
"The team agreed that it was time Earth joined the Voltron alliance in the fight against Zarkon." Keith explained.
"But why now? Are we not in danger anymore?"
I cringed, "Well, you're in considerably less danger than before."
"That's not true." Keith admitted so I slapped him in the arm. "What? I don't see the point in lying to them."
I sighed. Of course Keith wouldn't get this, he was raised in war. "I didn't want them to worry."
"Yeah, it's too late for that." Rachel chuckled. I looked to Mama to see she was one comment away from an anxiety attack.
"Mama don't worry. Everything is under control. Team Voltron will protect Earth."
Marco scoffed, "So what I'm hearing is you finally felt like gracing us with your presence."
"Would you stop? I told you I didn't have a choice. I didn't contact you for your own safety." I explained once again.
"But we're not any safer." Veronica recapped.
"Well-" I started only to be interrupted by Keith.
"No." I hit him again, it wasn't very hard but he still glared at me for it. "I don't understand why you keep hitting me. What am I doing?" This had me smacking my head. Oh, my adorable clueless idiot.
"Lisa can you take the kids in the other room for a second please. We'll catch you up later, okay?" I asked. Lisa seemed to understand and gathered her kids and Lana up under the cover of going to get a snack. She was going to get Nova too until I spoke up. "Nova's okay. It's nothing she hasn't heard before." She frowned at this but nodded anyway. As soon as the kids were out of ear shot I smacked Keith again.
"Why do you keep doing that?" he grumbled.
"You can't just talk about war and danger in front of kids like that! They could get nightmares!"
"But we talk about it infront of our kids."
"It's different. To Nova it's normal and she knows not to worry plus she's real little and probably doesn't understand most of it."
"Could you get to the point before we run out of time?" Marco snarked.
"Right, sorry."
"Can I explain now?" Keith asked. At my nod he did just that. "We got a tip that the Galra are planning to attack Earth. We came in hopes of stopping the attack then preparing you guys for future attacks in case we aren't here to help."
"Why don't you go to the government first?" Luis asked.
"They wouldn't believe us. It's much easier to get people to team up with us after a demonstration. Plus you know they'd try to take control of Voltron. I mean they probably still will but if we protect first then it's harder for them to demand control because they're too shocked to demand things. It's all a bunch of political rules that would bore you to no end." I waved off.
"So you're waiting until Earth is attacked?" Dad asked. "That doesn't exactly seem like the best plan."
"Allura and Coran have scanners up so we should be notified before the Glara are dangerously close." I explained. "Trust us, we know what we're doing, have done it a million times. The Earth governments won't believe us until they see it with their own eyes."
"So why couldn't Earth join the alliance sooner?" Luis asked.
"It wasn't your fight yet." Keith answered.
It was at this moment that Lisa came back with the kids all munching on goldfish crackers. "Are you guys done or do we need to get drinks too?" She asked.
"We're good." I answered. "Any other non-war related questions?"
There was a long pause of silence as the kids and Lisa sat back down.
"So you guys are engaged?" Mama asked, changing the conversation to a more upbeat tone.
"Yes we are! He said yes a few months before Nova was born!" I exclaimed, squeezing Keith's hand.
"He didn't want to have a wedding without you guys." Keith added.
Mama cooed "Aww, that's so sweet of you, mijo."
Rachel frowned, "But you didn't feel guilty having a kid?"
"You guys didn't stop your lives when I was gone. You had a kid!" I countered.
"We thought you were dead!" Rachel yelled.
"And I could've been at any moment out there." I yelled back.
"And you decided that was a safe environment for a kid?"
This made me quiet because at first I didn't want to have a kid. I thought the same thing. That it would be a dangerous life for my child and that there was no guarantee that they would even survive the pregnancy with all the fighting Keith had to do. Keith had been the one to convince me that there was never gonna be a right time to have a kid. He said we couldn't wait until the war was over to start our life because there was no way of knowing when the war would end. That some things in life you just had to throw caution to the wind and go for it. He claimed that we couldn't let Zarkon take any more from us than he already had. We can't give him the satisfaction of dominating our lives.
"You're right, it isn't." I admitted.
Keith stood up, "That's not true, the castle of lions is the safest place in the universe." He pointed to the lions. "Those are the most powerful things in the universe and they're emotionally attached to her. Nova's perfectly fine. Thousands of people have kids during wars all the time, this is no different. Just because we're soldiers doesn't mean we don't get to have a family life. I was raised by a whole pack of soldiers and I'm just fine."
Veronica asked. "But what if you both died on a mission?"
Keith gave the most serious look he could muster. "Team Voltron is full of the most powerful soldiers there are with the most powerful weapons in the universe. I'd like to see any damn fool try to take mine or my mates' life."
Once again Keith managed to stun my whole family into silence, a difficult feat that many are unable to do.
Damn I have a badass mate.