**Author's note: So since today is Mariko's birthday (April 14th—see her profile), here's a new chapter as my way of celebrating. Yay! And for anyone following my other story, Takashi to Mariko, I'll also be uploading a new chapter to that as well sometime later today. Double uploads, double yays! xD

Also, I've created a Tumblr and I'll be posting sketches I've made for this fanfic. I'll probably be posting my artwork for other fandoms as well at some point in the future (once I make something I'm actually proud of anyways lol). But right now I only have one pic of Mari on there, so if you're interested in seeing it I'll have the link attached to this chapter on the Archive of Our Own version of this story.

Also, if anyone wants to give me tips on how to use Tumblr, it would be much appreciated (cuz I'm still trying to figure out how it works xD).

**I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender!


Balmerans old and young gathered on the surface of the Balmera as they joyously thanked their saviors for freeing them from Zarkon's forces. Bonfires were lit and food was prepared and there was much dancing and laughter all around as the celebration commenced. It wasn't exactly the parade Lance had been hoping for, but he was pleased nonetheless.

Despite her exhausted state, Allura had refused to return to her chambers in the Castle to rest, insisting upon staying for the festivities. So with the princess reclining on a makeshift bed of cushions (of which Coran had graciously brought down to the surface from the Castle), the rest of the team and Shay's family sat near her in front of their own personal fire.

Hunk stayed noticeably close to Shay all throughout the festivities, indulging her by eating several bowls of cave root and cave bug stew, admiring the newly grown crystals that were poking out of the ground, sitting next to her as he told her about Earth and their previous adventures on Arus. He even had begun dancing around the fire with her, the duo giggling as they ungracefully moved to the rhythm of the music.

"Aw, look at the big guy," Lance cooed, plopping down on the ground next to Pidge and Mari. "He looks so happy with her. She even got him to dance."

"That's the magic of having a boyfriend or GIRLFRIEND," Pidge teased loudly enough for Hunk to hear, and he shot her an annoyed look before quickly averting his attention back to Shay. "They bring out the better sides of you. Sometimes, at least."

"Mullet over here really needs to find his significant other then," Lance said, jabbing a thumb at Keith. "From what I've seen, he only has two sides: rude and gloomy."

Keith's eye twitched and Lance grinned at him challengingly. Before a fight could break out between them, Mari casually intervened, "It's the opposite then with you, Lance. You need to find someone to help keep all of your sides under control. Is that why you're always flirting with almost every girl you meet?"

The Blue Paladin made and offended sound. "No! And nothing's wrong with having a bunch of different sides to your personality!"

"I never said there was," she rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying you can be really unpredictable and it's a bit—"

"Annoying," Keith instantly provided and Lance glowered at him.

"No, it's not annoying," Mari huffed, shooting the Red Paladin a pointed look. "It can just be a bit…overwhelming sometimes."

"Oh, I see. You can't handle all of this?" Lance smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively as he gestured to himself. "Don't worry, Mari. You're not the first girl who's felt that way about Lancey Lance. It's okay, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"Gross! As if!" she cringed, nearly gagging on her "cave juice" as Shay had dubbed it. "Keep dreaming, 'Lancey Lance'!"

"Maybe annoying was the right word," Pidge muttered, her glasses glinting as she pushed them further up the bridge of her nose.

"Hey!" Lance pouted. "I was just kidding, you know!"

"It was still annoying," Keith said.

"No one asked you, Mullet," Lance growled back at him.

"Numbers Three through Six, what are you doing just sitting there?" Coran suddenly called over from the dance circle that had formed around the fire. He had been getting his groove on with Shay's grandmother just moments ago, and had paused mid-twirl to wave them over. "Come over and celebrate! Let loose!"

A giddy grin spreading across his face, Lance hopped to his feet excitedly. "Ha ha yeah!" he cheered. "Let's go you guys!"

"You mean dance?" Pidge grimaced. "Yeah, no thanks."

"Aw come on! We can't be any worse than Hunk," he tried to persuade her. "Let's go join the fun!"

Before Pidge could argue, Lance grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her to her feet, dragging her to the dance circle. She tried to squirm free from his grip and escape back to the safety of the sidelines, but he was still much stronger than her and he easily spun her around before dipping her.

"Hola señorita," he spoke suavely, putting on his most charming smile. "Bailarás conmigo?"

"I have no clue what you're saying to me," Pidge stated flatly, looking very unamused if not rather pissed off.

"Eso no es un no!" Lance laughed and Pidge let out an angry squeal as he proceeded to sweep her around the fire, the pair quickly getting lost in the circle of other dancing couples.

"She's going to kill him as soon as he lets go of her," Mari chuckled and a huff of laughter escaped Keith's lips.

"You're not going to dance, then?" he asked, casting her a wry smile.

"Not much of a dancer, I'm afraid," she replied, crossing her legs in front of her in finality. "I don't have anyone to dance with anyways."

Keith was quiet for a moment and Mari took another long sip of her cave juice to fill the silence.

"Too bad Aaren's not here," he drawled finally, and she nearly spit out her drink.

"W-What? " Mari spluttered in between coughs as the juice went down the wrong tube.

Keith suppressed a grin. "I'm sure you'd be willing to dance with him."

"I think the quiznak not!"

"You know, you never did explain who he is to you," he continued to prod. "Or what you were doing kissing him."

"Uh, he kissed me, not the other way around," Mari was quick to correct him. "And why do you care all of a sudden? Did my brother put you up to this?"

When Keith just responded with a small smirk, she let out an irritated sigh but found herself explaining anyways. "Okay, look: Aaren was—is my friend Magdalena's younger brother. We were classmates and good friends until he told me he liked me in a romantic sense. I responded that I didn't see him that way, he put distance between us, and we grew apart. The day before we found Takashi and we were all launched into space, he reached out to me again. I met up with him and we caught up on the past few years, and then without warning he just…you know, he—he leaned in and kissed me."

"You don't have any romantic feelings for him then?"

"Absolutely none," Mari deadpanned. "God, just thinking about what he did makes me so damn pissed off! I can't believe I left myself so open and vulnerable like that!"

Keith rolled his eyes. "It was just a kiss. Get over it."

"It was not 'just a kiss'!" she snapped back. "It was random and unwanted and I felt violated. I was starting to open back up to him hoping that we could be friends again and he took advantage of my moment of weakness."

"Whatever. I think you're just overreacting."

"Shut up. I just wanted my first kiss to be special, that's all," she muttered sourly.

"Didn't think you'd be into that kind of stuff," Keith hummed in thought. "That 'special first kiss' kind of stuff, I mean."

"Well, I'm not anymore," she grumbled. "Aaren ruined that for me…I hope he dies in a hole."

"Who do you want to 'die in a hole'?" The duo looked up to see Shiro approaching them, a small smile gracing his features.

"No one," Mari groaned, and when Shiro looked to Keith for an explanation, the Red Paladin simply shrugged.

"Okay…" he drawled, grunting softly as he sat down next to the teens.

"How's Allura doing?" Keith wondered—Shiro had been keeping her company ever since the celebration started.

"She's hanging in there," he said, glancing towards the reclining princess as she chatted with three Balmeran children. Her smile was tired and she looked pale, having barely enough energy to lift her head off the pillows and maintain a coherent conversation.

"She looks like she's going to collapse," Keith noted and Shiro sighed.

"I'm trying to convince her to call it a night and get some rest, but she won't listen."

"That's just Allura for you, I guess," Mari said.

"Reminds me of someone else I know," Shiro teased, nudging her gently in the ribs, and she frowned at him.

"I am nothing like Allura."

"You're both irritatingly stubborn, you both always think you're right," Keith murmured, and Mari would've punched him if he wasn't wearing his armor.

"Like you're one to talk," she scoffed and Shiro laughed lightly as Keith scowled at her.

The jovial music that had been filling the air faded away as the song ended, and the dancers around the fire dispersed to take a break. Lance and Pidge came into view once more, the latter looking annoyed yet flustered as she stomped over to the group. Lance seemed to be in an equally dour mood, pouting as he cupped his hand to his slapped-red left cheek.

"What happened to you two?" Shiro asked, a hint of concern in his tone. "You guys looked like you were having fun out there just a minute ago."

"I wouldn't call being swung around like a rag doll and being forced to listen to terrible pickup lines for the past five minutes fun," Pidge almost growled, sitting down with an oof next to Mari.

"Hey, don't lie! You were laughing and smiling for at least half of the dance!" Lance exclaimed, and she shot him a deadly look that made him flinch.

"Well, do that again and I'll do more than just slap you," she threatened and he stifled a fearful yelp. He scooted closer to Shiro for protection before glancing around the bonfire.

"I wonder where Hunk went," he observed out loud and the others scanned the area for the Yellow Paladin as well. The big guy seemed to have completely disappeared…along with Shay. Then, as if on cue, the Yellow Lion emerged from the Castle before casually gliding through the air away from the area of celebration.

"Oh, nuh uh!" Lance gasped exasperatedly. "No quiznaking way!"

"Oh my gosh, he's pulling a Lance!" Pidge clutched her stomach as she hunched over in laughter.

"After all his scolding for what I did with Nyma, he turns around and does the same thing with Shay?!" he exclaimed incredulously, glaring in the direction that the Yellow Lion had flown. "Unbelievable!"

"Yeah, but unlike Nyma we can actually trust Shay," Mari pitched in and Lance groaned miserably.

"What're they even planning on doing?" he mumbled sourly.

"I believe Number Two mentioned taking Shay to watch the sunrise," Coran provided as he approached the group. "It will be her first time seeing one and Hunk wanted to find the perfect spot to view it with her."

"Awwww! Hunk's such a good guy," Lance couldn't help but grin and the others nodded in agreement. The group was quiet for a moment, everyone staring contentedly at the fire. The music had started up again and couples were beginning to recreate their dance circle, but no one made a move to join them.

"So…We've completed our first mission and freed everyone on the Balmera," Pidge said hesitantly, breaking the short silence with the change in subject. "What do we do now?"

It was a loaded question. What would they do now? It's not like they could go straight up to Zarkon's HQ and challenge him to a battle, freeing the universe and getting it done and over with in one fell swoop. Although Mari wished it was that simple, their team was nowhere near ready to directly take on the emperor himself.

"We can't do anything," Shiro finally decided. "Not until Allura completely recovers, at least. We need her to be at full strength before we can take on another mission, so for now we'll just wait."

"That sounds boring," Lance moaned. "What are we supposed to do until then?"

"Well, we have yet to confront Sendak," Coran pointed out, reminding everyone that the Galran commander was still frozen in the Castle's basement. "I can hook him up to a memory extraction unit for interrogation."

"That sounds good," Shiro agreed. "I think we should do some team training as well. We're all still getting used to our lions and we clearly need to practice with Voltron some more."

"Yeah, we couldn't even kill that thing," Pidge agreed, glancing towards the horizon at the robeast encased in Balmera crystals.

"Ooh! I know the perfect training grounds for you and your lions then," Coran said cheerfully. "The original paladins often trained there. We can set a course for it tomorrow if you'd like."

"That would be great, Coran, thanks," Shiro nodded. Then addressing the others he clarified, "All right then. Tomorrow will be a day of training. After that, we'll try to get whatever information we can out of Sendak. Hopefully we'll find something in his memories that can point us in the next direction and get us one step closer to defeating Zarkon."


Sorry if my Spanish is off/incorrect. I haven't practiced it in about a year now xD

**Please feel free to leave a comment/review down below! They are much appreciated :D