Lance was descending the stairs of his childhood home as the doorbell rang. He could barely hear his mom over the shaking of his knees as she welcomed Allura in.

"Come in, Come in my dear. Oh you look wonderful! Doesn't she look wonderful Lance?" She opens the door so Lance can see Allura and he was stopped in place by how gorgeous she looked. He felt his heart flutter for the girl he'd been pining after for deca-phebes, but there's a small tinge in the back of his head that he ignores.

"Wow, You look amazing," Lance said, completely baffled by the sight of her. She's wearing a gorgeous light pink Earth dress with a golden belt and matching golden earrings. Lance almost felt underdressed in his jeans and button up. Allura noticed the more casual dress of Lance and his mom and felt a bit overdressed.

"Thank, you look nice as well." Allura said. She meant it. But it's probably the first time she has seen Lance in something other then his paladin suit or the outfit he wore when they first woke her up so long ago. She smiles sweetly as Lance finally completes his descent down the stairs.

"Well it's no Altean vestments but…" Lance begins but is stopped by Allura giggling.

"Imagine you in a Forlongian brill hat." They chuckled heartily together at the thought of it. You should've seen me in the bucket, Lance thinks to himself, only making himself Laugh more.

"Oh, Allura, this is my Mom, and this is my Papi." He continues, naming off his sisters, his brothers, and his beautiful nephew and niece. After introductions, they make their way to the table to eat. The family of course asks how they met and while they have an idea from the stories they've heard, they want to hear it from the legends themselves. While the food is passed around Lance and Allura tell them of their meeting. That leads them from tale after tale of their harrowing space deeds. After one that made Lance look particularly grown up, Veronica, Lances oldest sister couldn't but speak up.

"Look at Lance, all grown up and saving the Universe. But he wasn't always such a hot shot. In fact he was actually a very awkward kid." This led to all the siblings taking turns embarrassing Lance with stories about a younger, sillier Lance.

"...and then she put mud in the water and told Lance it was chocolate milk." Lances brother Marco says. The whole family, except for Lance, Laughed.

"Oh yeah, Veronica said, "I still can't believe he fell for it.

"What did he do?" Allura asked, laughing.

"He told on me of course." Veronica scouled, "And then Papi gave him Ice Cream and I got none."

"Yeah," Allura turned towards Marco who continued, "Lance was always the baby of the family. It only took you coming to dinner to graduate him to the Adult table. The rest of the family turn towards the tiny table in the corner where Lances Nephews and his only slightly older twin are sitting, his twin Rachel is shooting daggers at lance and everyone laughs again. Allura laughs too but she can't help feel like she's out of place. She knows Lance invited her but she can't help but feel like that maybe Lance should have spent this night with just his family, without her.

"Speaking of dates," Veronica leans into Lance with a sly smile, "Maybe you can put a good word in for me with that long haired friend of yours, hmm?" At the mention of Keith, Lance gets whiplash as all the emotions from earlier come flooding back. His eyes go wide and suddenly he's all defensive.

"What, Keith?! No, not,"He finds the words just spilling out in a huge mess, "absolutely not, no! No way! No." He can barely maintain a steady breath and keep himself from blushing. Luckily his face was already quite flushed from the embarrassing stories earlier. Allura studies Lance's reaction closely and there is a strange tension in the room as Lance just keeps going on about how Keith is absolutely not an option.

Luckily Lance's mom swoops in and leans towards Allura, "Lance never brings girls home. You must really mean something to him." Allura turns towards Lance's Mom and listens, feeling quite flattered.

"I can see that now. When we first met, he gave off the impression that he was rather popular with the ladies. But after getting to know Lance, I think there's much more to him that."

"That's McClain men for you. His father is the same way. But I'm glad that Lance was able to find someone who had the patience to see past all that talk and see the real him."

"A toast," Veronica says, standing up and interrupting Lance's word vomit of objections, "to family." Everyone joins in raising a glass. "Though we may be apart after tomorrow, We'll always remain close at heart. Family is forever."

"To Family," all them echo together harmoniously, all except Allura. She raised her glass but she can't help but feel even more out of place and lost then before. Lance looks over, noticing her sadness and feels guilty and helpless. He felt guilty about Keith, but he can't get Keith out his mind, or push aside how angry the idea of Keith being with his sister makes him. But he also feels helpless because he can't undo what has been done to her people. He decides to focus on cheering up Allura and getting through the evening and then he'll worry about Keith and these feelings he is having.

Dinner ends ands after helping his mom and dad clean up, Lance offers to walk Allura back to her room. As the walk through an old park, the night sky is clear and stars shine down upon them. Lance and feel the tension and sadness that is weighing on Allura's mind. As the walk in the park the reach an large tree, left barren by the Galra's assault on Earth.

"This place used to be so beautiful." Lance can't help but say.

"It's my fault that this happened to your home." Allura says, her inner turmoil manifesting in words of self doubt.

"No it's not your fault. The Galra was bound to come to Earth whether we met you or not. But because we found the Blue Lion and eventually you, we kept them away from Earth for a few extra years and for the record I'm glad we met you. It was one of the best things that has ever happened to me." He says, trying to cheer her up. But she simply walks forward toward the tree, her back to Lance. She gently puts a hand on the tree and closes her eyes. Lance watch as the tree starts to glow where Allura has touched it and soon the that glowing grows outward until the whole parks is lit up with altean magic. As each branch glows, it is given new life as leaves and flowers begin to grow from what was once dead and rotted. Allura pulls her hand away and the glowing fades to reveal a beautiful scene of blossoming flowers.

"When we were out there, fighting against the Galra, I somehow felt like… Like we were a family. Each of us was alone, but we were alone together." Allura brows knit and she chokes back a sob. Lance steps forward to reach out for her but stops as she continues talking. "But now, here on Earth, I see that everyone already has a family, and a home to return to, once the war is over." A tear escapes what is an otherwise impenetrable dam of emotion and trickles it's way down Alluras cheek. "But I have nothing and no one. I'm still alone and I have no one waiting for me, no home to go back to after the war. For the first time since I fell out of that pod and into your arms," She finally turns towards Lance, multiple tears now flooding her eyes and rolling down her cheeks, "I feel uncertain about what my future holds." Lance moves forward and holds her, letting her cry out her frustrations, her fears. He had no idea she was holding such a weight on her shoulders.

Allura pulls away when there is a natural pause in her crying and wipes the tears away from her face. "It's silly," She laughs, the sobs subsiding, "I used to think the team relied on me, that I needed to be strong for everyone else. But now I see that it was I that needed all of you. You are my Strength. Even now, when my heart is overwhelmed is feelings of anguish, you are here for me."

"Allura," Lance pause, contemplating his next words carefully, "You are not alone. Because you will always be a member of Voltron. All of us, we need you, not just as the Leg of Voltron or pilot of the Blue Lion, but as your friends, and no matter what happens at the end of the war, you will always have a place with us on Earth. Because sometime family is more than just the people you are born with, but they're the people you find who become family along the way and nothing will change that."

Allura is shocked by the truth in Lance's words. She smiles softly. But Lance continues.

"Plus, you can't lose hope Allura. There might be a whole colony of Alteans out there who need a Princess to guide them and tell them about their history. Their true history, not the one that was made up for them."

"You're right Lance, " Allura fels Lances arms around her and pulls away. She remembers the words of Lances mother about how they were glad someone could see into Lances big heart. "But I don't think it can work between us."

"But, I thought," LAnce felt himself start and then stop. He was upset but then relieved as an Image of Keith flashe in his mind.

"You have been here for me, even now in my hardest times, but I can't confuse my gratefulness for feelings. It would easy to for me to push away these feelings of loneliness by accepting your affection, but that wouldn't be fair to either of us. You deserve someone who can give you all the love you are capable of giving them, someone who sees who you truly are deep down. But me, I never noticed the true you, not really. Plus I believe it's time I focus on myself, find my purpose for after the war."

"Allura, " Lance said hesitantly, "Allura if that's what you want, then I support you. But please know that no matter what happens, I meant it when I said you were one of the best things to happen in my life and If I have anything to say about it, you'll never be alone. I will still always be your friend and I will always be there for you whenever you need me." At these words, tears found Allura's eyes again and she embraced him once again, thankful for his kindness and understanding and for the first time that night, she didn't feel alone.

A small beeping interrupted their embrace and the turned to Pidge's little robot collecting floral specimens for Katy, Pidge's mother. It waddled over to them, a small icon looking like a smile appearing on its screen as its ears moved up and down.

"I think it wants us to smile." Lance concluded from robots eager movements.

"But I can't," Allura sniffled wiping the last batch of tears from her face. "Not after i've been crying like this. I'll look horrid."

"You look beautiful Princess," Lance said and with these words Allura smiled and they turned toward the little bot. They smiled as it took the picture of Lance with his arm around Allura's waist and Allura's arm around his. Soon the picture prints out and they smile at it fondly.

When Lance finishes dropping off Allura and they go their separate ways at where the hallway splits. Her room is down one corridor and his is down another. He walks slowly down his hallway, his brain trying to process all that has happened that night. He wasn't paying attention as he turned the corner and bumped right into Keith. Keith jumps back.

"Oh Keith," Lance almost shouted, not expecting to see Keith until the morning, in public, where it'd be natural to ignore what almost happened between them. But no such luck, because Keith was standing right there, wearing his Garrison uniform.

"Shhh, Lance do you wanna wake the whole hall?" Keith scolded him.

"Sorry, I… we… you just surprised me." Lance felt his cheeks burn and he hoped it was dark enough Keith couldn't see.

"So I guess you're on your way back from you date with Allura huh? How'd that go" Keith said in such a nonchalant way, it was almost like the incident from before never happened, and that made Lance mad. Wait, why am I upset? Lance thought to himself.

"Oh yeah, She, um, turned me down," Lance said, rubbing his head in embarrassment

"What!" Now it was Keith's turn to be too loud.

"Hey, keep it down Mullet. You don't wanna wake half the hall do ya," Lance said, mocking Keith's voice.

"You're right, maybe we should move this conversation elsewhere.

…

As soon as the two boys set foot in the hull of Red lion Keith began.

"What do you mean she turned you down?" Keith said with a slightly raised voice, half out of joy and half out of anger. Lance sat down on a seat in the lion's hull and began to explain the date. As he explained, Kith's anger subsided. He soon sat beside Lance and listened intently.

"Wow," Keith said when Lance was done, "I had no idea she was going through that, but I know how she feels. When my dad died, I felt completely alone. If it hadn't been for Shiro, I would've never known that family is more than blood. But you were right, we are her family no matter what."

"Yeah, it kinda sucks that she doesn't feel the same because I really liked her, but when she told me, there was a part of me," Lance paused and looked at Keith. Would he really tell Keith? But he found the words come out so easily like he knew he was safe. "It was like a part of me was relieved because of what… happened..earlier...with you." Lance finally got the words out and what happened next surprised Lance. He looked up to see Keith blushing so hard that you couldn't see the scar on his face. Lance probably would've laughed at how cute Keith looked if he wasn't also blushing.

"Lance," Keith finally managed to say after an awkward silence, "you don't have to do anything. I mean, I don't expect anything from you. I get that it was a mistake and that you didn't…"

"Keith," Lance interrupts him. He reached over and hesitantly put a hand on Keith's arm, "It wasn't a mistake." He looked directly at Keith and then looked down. "It was just, bad timing on my part. I just… I don't know. I've never liked a guy before but now I do and…"

"Wait you like me?" Keith interrupted, looking astonished. Lance pulled his hand away from Keith and rubbed his own head while blushing.

"Well maybe, yeah. I think I do. But I don't know what to do when you like a guy." He said. He almost sounded embarrassed.

"You don't have to do anything special." Keith replied is a soft chuckle, making Lance feel more embarrassed. Lance looked away and Keith could see he might of hurt him. Nice work Kogane he thought to himself.

"What I mean," Keith said as he reached out and touched Lance's cheek, gently guiding him so the were facing one another again, "You just start by talking and getting to know each other first." Keith moved to pull his hand away from Lance's face but then Lance's hand caught his mid air. He held Keith's hand tightly for a minute.

"Then what should we talk about?" Lance asked. At this Keith smiled and knew that he'd made the right decision on top of the black lion that morning.