Prepare yourselves.

The first time they suspected something was up was on the way back from joint training.

Pidge and Griffin were walking at the front of the group, looking over the stats they'd gathered during the session. It made sense— he was the leader of the MFE's, and she was the Green Paladin. She was the best choice to explain his squadron's data from the system.

Besides, it wasn't uncommon to see the MFE's and the Paladins mingling these days. While the two teams had had their differences when they first met, they'd grown to have a bond of amicable competitiveness between them. And even at that, most of them would consider the others to be friends.

Hunk, Lance, and Rizavi could usually be found in the kitchens at night, grabbing snacks and talking about the latest gossip. Shiro, Kinkade, and Keith formed a habitual workout regimen that they completed in the early hours of each morning. Leifsdottir had introduced yoga to Allura, and the princess had fallen so in love with it that the two had a special hour set aside for it each day, and oftentimes Romelle would join them.

So no, it wasn't strange at all to see Pidge and Griffin talking.

What was strange, however, was when they brushed shoulders.

The reaction among the teams was instantaneous.

Rizavi and Hunk shared a glance, followed quickly by Hunk slapping a hand over Lance's open mouth. Shiro and Keith raised an eyebrow, then looked to Kinkade, who just shrugged. Allura blinked for several seconds before she turned to Leifsdottir, though she was busy peering at the space (or lack thereof) between the Green Paladin and the MFE leader.

Because here's the thing: both teams knew that their teammate was not one for physical contact.

Neither of them were cold, but they also weren't the hug-y type, either. To classify either of them as being used to such a casual touch would be inconceivable. Touch was used as needed, sparingly, but also to convey a great deal of emotion when necessary.

And that was when the two teams began to have their suspicions.

Tip toe left. Duck down. Slide over. Look right. Look left. Coast clear.

Rizavi snickered. She'd been wanting to do this for months, and it seemed that now was the perfect time. All the Paladins had just gotten in from patrol, meaning that they most likely would be off somewhere showering or eating.

And that meant she could sneak in to take a peek.

It's not like there was some rule against it, right? She was just naturally curious— there were five giant alien cats on base, and she'd seen them up close only a handful of times! So what if she wanted to look at them again?

Steeling herself, Rizavi took her final steps toward the door. She honestly didn't care which cat was behind it, so long as she had more than a few minutes to investigate.

She reached for the handle, pulling it open as slowly as possible. When it was cracked far enough, she put one eye up to it.

And her mouth promptly fell open.

"So you're telling me you have to do this every month?" Griffin was saying.

"Well, we don't have to, but Green likes it," Pidge replied with a shrug.

Rizavi blinked, then rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses. No, surely that wasn't her leader standing beside the giant cat, his pants rolled up to his knees and a sponge in his hand. And surely that wasn't Commander Holt's daughter handing him a bucket of soapy water, their hands brushing casually as she did so.

No, surely not.

"Sounds to me like Green's spoiled," Griff laughed as he dipped his sponge into the water.

The smallest of the Paladins gasped, then reached down and flicked her hand to splash Griffin in the face. "Hey! It's our bonding time, okay?"

Rizavi's went wide when she heard the rare sound of James chuckling. "Alright, alright, I get it— mystical bond and all that."

The spunky MFE took off running without another thought.

"You saw what? No way!"

Rizavi put her hands on her hips. "I'm being serious! They were washing her lion together! Like— friends, or something, I don't know!"

The group in front of her looked suspicious, and she groaned. Rizavi had called this meeting into order because she thought they'd all want to know, but now it seemed that no one was going to believe her in the first place!

"Look, I saw what I saw, okay?" she huffed defensively.

Hunk's eyes filled with concern. "What should we do?"

"First of all, tell him to stay away from our Pidge," Lance grumbled. "He shouldn't be alone with her like that!"

All the MFE's straightened in their chairs immediately.

"You seem to be the last one to make judgements on interactions between male and female, Lance," Leifsdottir noted.

The Blue Paladin sputtered. "I-I— hold up, how did this become about me?"

Kinkade cleared his throat. "Griffin's a good guy, he wouldn't try to pull anything." His tone left no room for arguing.

Shiro shook his head. "We're not saying he's not, but this is our teammate we're talking about."

"And this is our teammate that we're talking about," Rizavi insisted, crossing her arms. "Look, the only reason I came here is because I know we all saw what we saw last week."

Everyone in the room shared a knowing look.

After a moment had passed, Keith stood up from the table. "I'll keep an eye on things," he decided firmly. "And if any of you see anything, you report back to me. Got it?"

"Got it!"

This was the moment. If anything was going to happen, it'd be now.

The Paladins had just finished in the training room, and Keith knew that the MFE's were heading in next. It would be the first scheduled interaction that the MFE commander and Pidge would have ever since the secret meeting two days ago, and Keith was determined to see for himself whether something was up or not.

To make one thing clear: Keith didn't believe Rizavi's crazy claim.

Sure, it may seem to others that Pidge often preferred to be by herself, but the idea of her making a new friend in the MFE commander didn't seem too far fetched to Keith. Besides, it was good for the teams to get along.

So no, he didn't believe that there was anything other than a friendly camaraderie between the two. The others were simply spinning tales about a forbidden budding romance.

And thus, Keith observed.

He leaned back against the far wall, watching as Pidge wiped the sweat from her forehead and took a sip of water. She laughed at something Hunk said, then jabbed an elbow into Lance's side. Allura joined in on the joke, and Shiro shook his head at the young adults.

Keith nodded approvingly. Typical behavior.

The door to the room slid open, and Keith's eyes honed in on the MFE leader. Griffin's face was neutral, as it usually was. His eyes swept the room, passing over the Paladins without a second glance. Finally, he made eye contact with Keith, and the two men acknowledged each other with their standard courteous nod.

Just as Keith thought. Typical. Behavior.

His theory confirmed, Keith turned around to pick his bayard up from where he'd set it on the ground. He stood up and dissolved it into his belt, turning back with an open mouth to tell his team it was time to go—

And that's when he saw it.

The MFE commander's calm facade had cracked.

He was staring at something in a trance, a little smile on his face. Keith followed his gaze, his heart stopping when he realized that it was on Pidge, who was— blushing?

Keith's violet eyes widened.

He snapped his head back to Griffin, only to find that the leader had turned his back and walked over to the console to set up a simulation.

Wondering if he'd just imagined the whole thing, Keith turned his eyes to Kinkade. It seemed the stoic man had been waiting for him. He met startled violet eyes with steady grey ones.

A feeling of understanding passed between the two, and Kinkade gave an almost imperceptible nod. He'd be keeping an eye on things as well.

Keith looked at Pidge one last time. She was back to her typical behavior, this time chiding Shiro about how he should let her take another look at his arm sometime.

The Black Paladin's eyebrows furrowed. What had just happened?

His mother always told him he was a romantic at heart. He never found any reason to correct her, because it was true.

Kinkade kept his expression carefully blank as he stared at the pair two tables away from him. He'd been observing them at every meal time for the past few days, and they were following what he had decided was their standard mode of operation.

"No, James, it's the other one!" the Green Paladin was laughing. She tapped a button on her tablet and held it up closer. "See?"

Griffin leaned in closer, and Kinkade's eyes narrowed. Standard mode of operation was in action.

It was entirely obvious to Kinkade. The lack of distance between them, the cheesy smiles, and frequent blushes.

It could mean only one thing.

"They're official," he shrugged.

"What?!"

"Nuhuh!"

"What do you mean?"

Lance stood up from the table and crossed his arms. "I don't buy it. Pidge wouldn't keep that kind of stuff from us! We're like family!"

Leifsdottir raised an eyebrow. "This is the girl who kept the fact that she wasn't a boy a secret from your team for months. I wouldn't put keeping secrets past her."

"You do make a fair point," Allura hummed, tapping her cheek inquisitively. "For all we know, they could've been together for a whole phoebe now."

Hunk and Lance's heads whipped around to give each other a worried look.

A moment of silence passed before Lance shook his head. "Fine!" he exclaimed, slamming a hand down on the table. "We're investigating this ourselves!"

And investigate they did.

"We were both there!" Lance screamed.

"What reason would we have to lie?" Hunk pouted.

Keith rubbed his forehead. "You mean to tell me that you saw them walk into the building, both of them dressed up, and you thought the best course of action was to call this emergency meeting?"

Rizavi gave a dubious look. "Yeah, you didn't think to follow them?"

Lance and Hunk traded a nervous glance. "Uh…no?" Lance squeaked.

"Heh heh," Hunk laughed awkwardly. "It might have slipped our minds."

The group of Paladins and MFE's let out a loud groan.

Shiro's eyes took in the disgruntled group in front of him before he got up from his chair and headed toward the door. "We're getting to the bottom of this," he muttered.

The former leader of Voltron weighed his options. Part of him was partial to the idea of simply asking Pidge what was going on, but he knew how evasive she could be. She often lied about little things like whether or not she'd gotten enough sleep the night before. And even though he always knew it (her tale-tell sign was looking down to the right), he could never get the truth out of her before she'd change the subject or walk away entirely.

So no, he had to wait for an opportunity. And it seemed that opportunity was now.

He was walking back to his quarters late one night, and had purposefully taken the route that passed by the labs to check up on Pidge. It was a pretty standard routine, given her habit of staying up too late working on various projects. Usually each team member took a shift, and his was tonight.

Shiro walked up to the door and slid his keycard. The doors opened up to reveal a sleepy looking Pidge, not that he was surprised by this in the slightest.

"Pidge?" he called softly.

She blinked at him blearily, turning slowly in her chair. "Hm?"

Shiro chuckled, "Pidge, you know you need to—"

And then he froze.

A couple seconds passed. Pidge tilted her head at him. "Shiro?"

He snapped out of it. "S-Sorry, I…lost my train of thought," he said, clearing his throat. "Is that, uh, is that a new sweater?"

The youngest Paladin looked down at the item of clothing in question. "What? Oh, yeah, you could say that."

"It's, ah…it's a little big on you," he commented. Pidge gave him a look of indignation, and Shiro hastily added on, "Not that it's bad! It's fine!"

"Yeah, yeah," Pidge said, rolling her eyes. She reached over and shut her laptop, then gave him a wry grin. "I know you're just here to make sure I go to bed."

He smiled back, though his shoulders were now tense. "Well, someone has to."

Pidge nodded (a little begrudgingly) before she hopped off her chair. "Well, goodnight, Shiro," she yawned as she walked past him.

A whiff of musk suddenly hit his nose, and Shiro had to force himself to remain unfazed. "See you tomorrow, Pidge."

The Paladin gave another smile before she turned to walk toward her room. The moment she was far enough away, Shiro fell back against the wall, eyes wide.

She'd smelled distinctly like cologne.

Shiro blinked rapidly, his mind racing. Of course! It all made sense! She was wearing—

"Oh my gosh," he whispered aloud.

Pidge was wearing Officer Griffin's sweater.

"Shiro, are you alright?"

His grey eyes lifted to meet the jeweled ones of the princess.

She wasn't looking, though— instead, her eyes were up, staring at the air as she sniffed. "Something awfully strong must have come by," she stated factually.

Shiro's eyes widened. "You smelled that, too?"

"It's hard not to with heightened Altean senses," Allura nodded. Her face showed her confusion. "What does it mean? I saw Pidge leave before you just now."

The former Paladin shook his head. "I'm not sure yet, but I think it has to do with the situation."

An amused smile came onto Allura's face. "Human romance is much different from what it was on Altea," she chuckled. "There, it was common to be open with your affections. The ambiguity of this situation is quite puzzling to me."

"Yeah…" Shiro trailed off, his mind still spinning. "I guess."

He walked away in a daze, leaving Allura staring after him. The princess sighed, wondering why all of this was so difficult to understand.

Then again…if she wanted knowledge, perhaps it was time she began to seek it for herself.

Allura spent much of her time the next several days consumed by her efforts. Humans in general had been rather confusing to her ever since the day she'd met them, but this…what was the phrase? Ah yes— this one "took the cake."

All of the MFE pilots and her fellow Paladins had been driving themselves insane over the matter, and Allura simply couldn't figure out why. She herself had plenty of open courtships before the war, and none of them were made to be as big a deal as this. Romance was a simple thing, an accepted part of life. But it seemed to her that the humans had some sort of strange fear of it.

Thus, she tried to dig deeper.

First she went to the library, but that didn't aid her search. All of the things the books talked about, none of them had witnessed— there had been no grasping of hands, no pressing their lips to each other's. It seemed that if these books were the sole authority on human romance, there was hardly any evidence to go on.

That was when she decided it'd be best to simply observe.

At the moment, both of the teams and the high command were gathered for a meeting. Pidge and Officer Griffin were sat next to each other, but that wasn't strange. The members of both teams frequently changed their seating based on the needs of the meeting. Given that the topic involved Pidge's area of expertise and a new MFE mission, their position was entirely practical.

And luckily, Allura was on Pidge's left, giving her the up-close advantage she needed to examine them.

So far, all had seemed normal.

They spoke up when necessary, paid attention, and seemed focused. At one point, Allura thought she saw them staring at each other, but surely it was simply a passing glance.

Then she detected movement.

Allura turned her head carefully as to not attract attention. She narrowed her eyes and looked closer.

One of Pidge's feet was tapping Officer Griffin's.

Allura's eyebrows scrunched up. Well, that was…odd.

Her eyes flickered up. A tiny smile (one she was positive hadn't been there before) now graced Officer Griffin's lips. There was movement again. Allura looked back down. This time, it was his foot that bumped into Pidge's.

The princess blinked, unsure what this gesture was supposed to mean. Perhaps it was a friendly human game? She determined that she would ask Leifsdottir at their yoga hour later that evening.

What she didn't expect was for the MFE analyst's typically neutral expression to break.

Keith took in a calming breath. "Allura, tell us, in your own words, what exactly you saw."

Allura looked around at the panicked expressions, growing worried. "Well, they seemed to…I don't know, push their feet against each others?" she guessed.

Her audience gasped, and she shook her head. "Who knows, perhaps it was just a mistake, but it didn't seem like one. Is this sort of foot…gesture common in Earth romance?"

"Yes," Leifsdottir replied, her eyes serious. "But only under certain circumstances."

A new wave of theories began to spring up from her colleagues, but the analyst retreated inside her mind. She had known James Griffin far longer than anyone else. She liked to think she had categorized everything there was to know about him in a neat little file in her brain.

But if he was breaking protocol like this…

Ina Leifsdottir shook her head. Something must be happening between him and the Green Paladin.

Quietly, Leifsdottir got up from the table and walked away.

It was time to add more data to the file.

"They were holding hands."

"WHAT?!"

Leifsdottir held her ground. The group blinked at her, as though they were waiting for her to take back what she said. She didn't.

One by one, each of the Paladins and MFE's slumped back into their chairs. She knew they were trying to process what she'd told them. No one would have believed it unless it came from her. And no one in their right mind would ever call Ina Leifsdottir a liar.

"What do we do?" Rizavi whispered.

Keith and Lance shared a meaningful look, and Lance whipped out his phone. "Time to call in the big guns."

"You want me to do what?"

Veronica was staring her brother down fiercely, and he glanced around the table for support. No one dared to speak.

Lance turned back and gave her his sweetest smile. "You know, spy! You're good at that!"

His sister held up a hand. "Let me get this straight," Veronica said. "You guys have been watching Pidge and James for over a month now, and you still can't figure out if they're in a relationship or not? Wouldn't it be obvious if they were?"

"You don't know Griff like we do," Rizavi said, shaking her head.

"And Pidge can literally hack into the Garrison and sneak in under a false identity," Keith added. "She could be up to anything, and we'd have no idea."

Veronica's eyes passed over the group. They all look frustrated, that's for sure, but each had an edge of desperation in their eyes. They were clearly concerned.

Sighing, Veronica put a hand to her forehead. "Fine, I'll see what I can do."

Being a superior officer did have its perks, but right now, she was pretty sure that tracking James down through the vitals monitor in his suit was abusing her power.

Veronica flattened herself against a wall, waiting for the hall to clear. "Why am I doing this?" she grumbled.

Shaking her head, she refocused on the mission. She consulted her monitor again. He was in a room just down the hall— wait, what was he doing in one of the Paladin's quarters?

'Pidge,' she realized. It must be her room. If the others were right, it was the only thing that made sense.

Taking in a deep breath, she rounded the final corner. The hall was completely empty.

She walked forward quietly, dialing her senses in for the slightest noise. It was silent, but that was no surprise. It was almost 2pm— nearly everyone was on duty. She noted how strange it was that Griffin wouldn't be on a shift at this time, as well.

A quick check of the schedule on her monitor told her that he was. Veronica frowned. What would make him abandon his post?

A few steps closer. She fell back against the wall, a mere three feet away from the door. It was cracked open.

Veronica steadied her breathing, then closed her eyes. Focus. Listen.

It took a few seconds before she could make anything out, but when she did, her eyes flashed open.

Someone was crying.

Her heart racing, Veronica dared to inch closer. She tilted her ear toward the door, and slowly but surely, she began to pick up muffled conversation.

"I-I didn't know how to tell you."

"Shh, James, it's okay, it's okay…you're gonna be okay."

There was a loud sniff before he croaked, "They're g-gone, Katie…my parents were killed, and I didn't even get to say g-goodbye."

A rustling of material. "I know, I know…I'm sure they knew you loved them."

"I just…" A broken sob. "I just wanted to tell them. One last time. And it was too late. They were already g-gone."

Veronica felt tears forming in her eyes. She should've known. It was the three year anniversary of the invasion. Griffin's parents had lived in Plaht City, one of the first places decimated in the attack.

She got up the courage to take a peek, and her heart shattered. Pidge was sitting on the edge of her bed, one of her hands stroking up and down James' back as he clung to her as though she was his only lifeline. He wept into her shoulder, and all Pidge did was tighten her hold on him.

"Shhh, I'm here, I'm here," she soothed. A hand came up to thread through his hair. "I'm right here, James." He nodded against her neck.

And then, Pidge's eyes lifted to meet Veronica's.

Veronica could only stare back, wondering how long the Paladin had known she was there. Pidge looked straight at her, her gaze slowly shifting from defiant to pleading.

Though she didn't quite know how, Veronica knew what Pidge was asking. She nodded, cast one more worried glance at James, then backed away and shut the door.

"So?"

Veronica took in the group in front of her. Their eyes were sparkling with excitement, some of them holding onto each other.

Her eyes fell to the ground somberly. "Yeah…yeah, they're together." Expressions of concern fell over the Paladins and the MFE's at her tone. She waited before she looked up. "I think it's good," she decided. "They need each other."

"What did you see?" Hunk whispered, eyes worried.

A small grin broke out on Veronica's face. "Two people who love each other…and maybe they don't know it yet, but they will soon."

Everyone blinked, each of them turning to look at their counterparts with confused faces.

"Do you think they know?" Katie wondered aloud.

James shifted to draw her closer, dragging his nose through her hair and inhaling her scent. "Mm, maybe, but I don't mind," he hummed.

A vision of her fellow Paladins chasing down her new boyfriend entered her head, and Katie cringed. "You might wanna rethink that opinion."

The handsome man behind her just sighed happily and held her tighter. "I don't think even Green could keep me away from you."

Katie let her head fall back onto his shoulder, cracking up laughing. "Oh? You wanna test that theory?" she challenged.

"I don't think I'll have to," James grinned. "She seems to like me a lot more after that bath last month."

The Paladin rolled her eyes. "I knew you were sucking up to her."

"I want her to like me!" he replied defensively, then pouted when Katie stuck her tongue out at him. The two dissolved into a fit of laughter, both knowing that it would take a lot more than a simple bath to get James fully on Green's good side.

After their giggles calmed down, the couple fell into a comfortable silence. Katie idly watched the movie in front of them, not really caring about it as much as the fact that she was wrapped in James' warm embrace. As the two had gotten to know each other, she'd found that his lap was one of her favorite places to be. She was small enough to fit comfortably, and he was more than happy to hold her for as long as either of them pleased.

James adjusted his position, burying his face into her shoulder. His nose brushed against her neck, and a burst of tingles ran through her.

Her boyfriend took in a slow breath. "Thank you for being there for me today," he whispered. "It really meant a lot to me. I know you were busy, a-and," his voice cracked, and Katie turned around to see that his eyes shone with unshed tears. "I-I'm…I'm sorry for distracting you."

"Hey," she said, taking his face into her hands. "No more apologizing, James," she admonished gently. "You had every right to be upset today. I just wish you'd told me sooner."

He shrugged, but nothing about it was casual. "It's hard to talk about." James swallowed thickly, "And…I didn't want you to feel bad about it. There was nothing any of us could've done."

"There are a lot of things we could've done," she murmured truthfully. "War is always filled with regret."

James nodded, his beautiful brown eyes downcast. Katie straightened up and put her hand under his chin to force him to look up. "I don't want you to carry this alone," she told him. "I'm here to carry it with you."

A pained look entered his eyes. "You don't have to, Katie."

She simply moved back down to snuggle into him. "No, but I want to. So let me, James," she said, then smirked and looked up at him, "Or else I'll tell Green you're sucking up to her."

James chuckled, squeezing her gently. "Anything but that, please," he pretended to plead. "I'm polishing her claws tomorrow."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Oh my gosh, I'm so telling her!"

The couple shared a laugh before Katie fell back against his chest. She nuzzled her cheek into his sweatshirt, taking her time to enjoy his oh so intoxicating scent of pine and musk. She hummed, wondering if she could find a way to steal another one of his sweaters. He had a habit of offering them whenever he saw the slightest of shivers run through her.

Katie Holt had never thought she could be so happy in her entire life. She knew the news of their relationship would get out soon, especially after they'd been seen by Veronica.

But strangely enough, Katie found that she didn't care if everyone knew. She had James, and that was all that mattered.

I told you to prepare yourselves. Leave a review, please!