"I still can't believe Mystique designed this herself," Hunk said, running his fingers along a delicate design in the wood. "I never pegged her to be the designing type."

Lance pulled the handle of a tube and skittles came rolling into his hands. "Well she has good taste at least," he exclaimed while shoving the candy in his mouth.

Keith groaned from his chair as Pidge and Allura emerged from the bathroom. "Well. Makeup is on and I feel much more ready to face Florida," Allura declared, placing her makeup bag into her backpack.

"Not usually a makeup kind of girl but man do I feel refreshed!" Pidge exclaimed as she flopped on her chair.

Lance looked at her up and down. She was wearing what Hunk deemd as white "shortie short shorts", a lacy, neon green and pink splotchy tank top that matched Allura's, and flip-flops. Her hair fell just above her shoulder and Lance caught himself staring. He shook his head to clear it and went back to his skittles. "An improvement from this morning," he teased.

Pidge threw one of the complementary pillows at her co-worker. "Oh like you looked so amazing this morning," she retorted. 'Ugh. Who am I kiddig. He looked hot.' she mentally scolded herself.

"Oh look," Keith interrupted, not looking up from his magazine. "Something else for Pidge and Lance to have a lively debate about."

Keith, Hunk, and Allura were saved from further arguments by the pilot announcing their arrival. "I'm not sure Daytona Beach is ready for us," Hunk commented as everyone buckled up.

"Lance flung open the front door and took a few steps inside. "Ahh. Home sweet home," he exclaimed, taking a long breath in.

"This isn't your home Lance," Pidge reminded, coming in after him. "And did you really make me bring your suitcase in so you could have a dramatic entrance?"

"One," Lance began as the others filed into the three story beach house. "It is for the next two weeks and two, yes. Yes I did."

Pidge rolled her eyes, shoved Lance's suitcase at him, and climbed the stairs. She could hear the others clambering up the stairs behind her but she paid no attention. Afterall, with them stuck on the stairs, she'd get first pick of rooms.

The genius decided on a room at the far end of the hall. It was one of the two rooms that had a balcony plus it was facing the ocean. She quickly claimed the room and started unpacking a few things.

Meanwhile Hunk and Allura, having claimed their rooms, began to explore the house. "If I remember correctly, two stories, plus a basement, kitchen, livingroom, dining room, mud room, game room in the basement, five bedrooms not counting the pull out couch in the basement, two bathrooms and a hot tub all in a house litteally on the beach is what we are living in," Hunk recalled with slight wonderment. "Mystique really gets what she wants."

The two entered the large modern kitchen. The kitchen was furnished nicely with new appliances. "I feel like everything is too expensive to touch," Alllura commented running a finger over the marble countertop. Hunk flung open the fridge door and shrieked. Allura ran to her friend's side and peered over his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"The only food in here is what appears to be a protein shake! How am I supposed to bake with a protein shake and the spices on that rack," he exclaimed, motioning to a full spice rack next to the stove.

"This is supposed to be a vacation, Hunk. We aren't supposed to work and your job is cooking," Allura replied. She walked back over to the counter and opened a wine cooler. "At least we have good wine."

Hunk closed the fridge and headed for the front door. "Well I, for one, love cooking so I'm going to go by groceries." He left Allura to finished exploring as he approached the stairs.

Lance and Pidge were just coming down the stairs as he passed. "Nope. He's totally going to choose Jessica," Pidge declared, stopping next to Hunk. "Where are you headed?"

"Groceries and probably the boardwalk," he replied slipping on some sandals. "Wanna come?"

"I got nothing better to do," Pidge replied. Both Hunk and Pidge looked expectedly at Lance.

Lance looked from his friends to the beach behind the house.

"I'll let you drive the Porsche," Hunk baited, dangling the keys in front of him.

"Done!" Lance exclaimed and grabbed the keys.

The trio headed to car, the conversation consisting mostly of the extravagance of the vehicle. Pidge ended up in shot gun and was therefore the navigator. With little to no trouble, excluding a slight detour, Lance soon had the car parked. They were only about a three minute walk from the boardwalk so Lance and Pidge decided to check it out while Hunk went shopping.

Almost half an hour later, Lance and Pidge had tried all the attractions that they had come by. They decided to stop and get ice cream at one of the shops. Lance was sitting at a table, checking his Instagram, while Pidge was piling her ice cream with gummy bears at the toppings table.

"Lance?!" an excited male voiced exclaimed from behind him.

Lance looked up from his phone but didn't turn around. "Oh no," he breathed before facing the source. "Landon!"

A dark haired man embraced him before he could even get a good look at him. "It's been forever, brother!" Landon exclaimed as he pulled back. "How ya been?"

"Landon, we saw each other last month at Dad's birthday party," Lance replied. He then noticed a cute, blonde girl standing patiently behind Landon. "Who might this be and what might you two be doing in Florida?"

Landon let out a little laugh as he pulled the girl into a side hug. "This is Amanda. And we are here celebrating our two week anniversary. Amanda, daring," he continued as he looked at the blonde. "This is my much younger brother, Lance."

"Actually I'm only eleven minutes younger then him. We are twins," Lance corrected, shaking Amanda's hand. "No offense to either of you but isn't two weeks a little soon to be spending a week away with each other?"

"Not when you're in love," Landon replied, gazing cheesily into Amanda's eyes. He looked back at Lance. "But what would you know about love? You've never been able to outlast me in relationships. What are you doing in Daytona? You clearly aren't here with a girlfriend."

Lance subconsciously clenched his fists. "That's so not true, Landon. Not that it's any of your business, but I am here with a girl!"

An unbelieving smile took over Landon's face. "Really? Like I would actually believe you found a girl who would put up with your antics," he scoffed, rolling his eyes.

Amanda lightly slapped Landon's chest. "Lan. From what I heard, Lance is not nearly as bad as you. Don't give him a hard time."

Landon's eyes turned to ones of affection when Amanda spoke. "It's my obligation, babe. I'm his older brother," he replied, never taking his eyes off Lance.

"Well BRO," Lance injected. He crossed his arms. "Obligation or not, you still have no reason to torment me this time. I am in fact here with my secret girlfriend."

"Oh? Then where is she? What's her name? What does she look like, huh?"

Lance's mind went into overdrive trying to think up an excuse. Before he could reply, he heard Pidge next to him. "Who's this, Lance?" she asked, smiling at Landon and Amanda.

A light bulb went off in Lance's brain. He put an arm around her waist which, to his surprise, didn't seem to faze her. "This is my twin Landon and his girlfriend Amanda. They are spending a romantic week here just like us," he explained. He looked at her, pleading with his eyes that she'd go along with his scheme.

"Oh," she replied, giving Lance a slight nod. She looked back at Landon and Amanda. "I was not aware that Landon had a girlfriend."

Lance silently applauded her for playing her shock off so well. For some reason, he superbly became conscious of his hand on her waist. A tingly feeling lept from his fingers to his shoulder. Little did he know, Pidge was highly distracted by the burning sensation his hand was leaving on her skin. Her shirt was pretty thin so there was very little between skin and skin.

"Well," Landon declared. "I don't believe we have had the pleasure of meeting." He held out his hand. "I'm Landon, Lance's much older much cooler brother and this is Amanda, my actual girlfriend."

"Katie but most people call me Pidge," she replied, shaking his hand. She then shook Amanda's hand.

Amanda smiled a friendly smile. "Such a fun nickname!"

"My brother called me Pidge when we were little and it just kind of stuck."

"Aww that's cute," Amanda replied with a smile. "Speaking of cute." She lowered her voice and almost whispered to Pidge. "Aren't those two adorable when they do that?" She gestured to the twins next to them.

Pidge had to admit, the two glaring daggers at each other did have an odd attractiveness to it. Landon was practically Lance's clone but had a rounder face and was a little taller. Pidge had to chuckle at their childlike behavior. "They are pretty adorable, aren't they," she replied just loud enough for them to hear. Pidge almost couldn't hold back a laugh at Lance's bewildered look.

"Well little bro, looks like our girlfriends," Landon put air quotes around girlfriends, "are getting along wonderfully."

Lance crossed his arms, Pidge immediately missing the presence of his hand. "What's with the air quotes?" he asked annoyance spewing from his tone.

It was Landon's turn to cross his arms. "If you two are really a couple, which I doubt you are, you will have no objection to getting supper with Mandy and I tomorrow night."

Lance hesitated for a split second but was saved by Pidge. "It's actually me and Mandy not Mandy and I. I'm a college professor but that's high school level," she corrected. Though her tone was firm, her eyes and smile were sweet. "Ignoring that, we'd love to."

Landon looked a little annoyed but nodded to the pair. "Good," he declared, gently taking Mandy's hand in his own. "Meet us at the fancy seafood place on the beach. Marco said they have amazing fish. Six-thirty, don't be late."

Amanda breathed a quick goodbye to Pidge before she was pulled down the boardwalk by Landon. As soon as they were out of earshot, Lance turned to Pidge.

"I'm sorry. I think I've gotten us into a pickle," he apologized, running a hand through his hair.

Pidge tried to ignore how attractive she thought the gesture was and sat at their table again. "Well I could've outed your lie but I didn't so I'm partially to blame too," she replied taking a spoonful of creamy ice cream. "And I'm the one who agreed to dinner."

Lance glanced after his brother but turned his attention back to Pidge. He sat across from her. "Why? Why did you go along with it so quickly? And why on earth would you agree to the date? I appreciate you helping me but I feel like you have an ulterior motive."

"First off, you need to relax. Second, I overheard your conversation. I also know a thing or two about sibling rivalry. Helping you get a point over Landon seems like a fun vacation scheme," she explained. She kept her other reason to herself because there is no way she is going to tell him that she thought being his girlfriend would be fun.

The man across the table eyed her skeptically. "So there is nothing you gain from this? Just a way to fill vacation time."

"Not necessarily."

"Ah-ha! Ulterior motive!"

Pidge rolled her eyes. "Oh calm down, Lancelot. I want you to come into one of my extra-cred lectures. I'm having trouble getting my students to understand the importance of careful consumption. It'd just be thirty minutes of my Life of Fullness course. Matt will be there too."

"You wouldn't have to blackmail me, Pidge," Lance replied, finishing the last of his ice cream.

Hunk arrived just before Pidge could reply. "You two ready to go? I got cold stuff in the car."

Meanwhile...
Shouts of joy erupted from the game room. Allura danced excitedly as Keith laughed. Even though Allura had beaten him at darts, he couldn't help but smile. She was so over enthusiastic about a game.

"Are you sure you've never played this before?" Keith asked as they went to collect their darts.

Allura nodded. "Yes. My uncle would never let a game like this into the house. If he knew I was playing it, he would have a heart attack."

"Allura we've known each other for years and I still don't know much about your family," Keith commented, retreating to a bar stool. "If I cross a line, tell me but why don't you talk about them?"

Allura thought for a moment before replying. "I don't know me parents. I don't even know if they're dead or alive. And I don't care to. I was raised by my uncle and aunt. It's not like I have a bad relationship with them or anything, in fact my aunt and I are extremely close, but I guess I just prefer to keep that part of my life private."

While she was talking, Allura took a seat next to Keith. They faced each other, causing their knees to overlap and their legs to touch. Keith listened intently to Allura. He felt a strange string of emotions. Sorrow for Allura's lack of knowledge about her parents, comfort at the fact that she may be able to understand his orphaned past, slight happiness that she had told him, and of course nervousness at the feeling of their legs touching with the memory of their kiss playing in his head.

"Thank you for telling me," Keith said after a moment of silence.

"What about you? I don't know anything of your family either."

"That's because I don't have one. I was in and out of foster homes until I was eighteen. Never stayed in one house more then a year. I was lucky to be able to go to school though." Keith gave a small laugh as he continued. "I actually went to the same boarding school for high school as Hunk, Lance, and Pidge. Of course, we didn't know each other back then. After I graduated, I moved out on my own and I've been working bars ever since."

Allura was slightly surprised that Keith wasn't more spiteful about his past. He had full right to be. "You were a bar tender before you could even drink?" she half asked, not able to suppress a giggle.

Keith laughed a little too. "As crazy as it is, yes. In one of my foster homes the adults, Duke and Julie, were both bar tenders. Duke would teach me tricks every night and apparently I became pretty good. Julie taught me basic bar drinks when I turned fifteen. They were the best family I had."

"What happened to them? Did they get in trouble for teaching you that stuff?" Allura asked, completely wrapped up in Keith's story.

Keith shook his head. "Nah. As long as I never drank anything, there was nothing wrong with it. Duke's dad, who lived in London, passed away so they had to move to take care of the business. Unfortunately, I could not join them." Keith suddenly felt the sting of loneliness and looked down at his hands.

Even now the topic of Duke and Julie made him sad. He had loved them and they loved him. They would've been a perfect family. Keith felt the tears preparing to fall. He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to cry in front of Allura.

He suddenly felt arms wrap around him. The bar tender opened his eyes to find Allura embracing him tightly. Keith gingerly hugged her back. He realized that she was crying and pulled back.

"Allura, why are you crying?" he asked in calm shock.

The woman across from him quickly wiped her eyes. "Because I'm emotional and you just told me about how you lost he only people that you wanted to call your family."

Keith couldn't help but smile a little. "I love that you're so touched but it's in the past."

"That still doesn't make it any less painful," Allura replied. The two heard someone come in upstairs before Lance's loud declaration of bringing lupper. "Keith. If you ever need to talk or just need a friend, I'm always here."

Keith smiled at her. "Thank you Allura." He stood and glanced up stairs. "Do you have any clue what lupper is?"

Allura chuckled and stood as well. "Nope. But apparently Lance has it. Let's go see," she replied, heading for the stairs. Keith followed her, smiling at the conversation that had just taken place.

Sorry for the long chapter. :( I guess I wanted to fit more in here then what I thought. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!

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