When Lance got back to the lounge, he found everyone waiting for him. He beamed cheerfully at them all, giving them the good old Lance 'thumbs up'.

"Just like I thought - I'm totally good to go!" he said, sitting down in a chair next to Hunk. "So - what's up?"

Keith pointed over at Rayzor. The after-effects of the pain meds were fading, but clearly weren't completely gone yet. "Sounds like Rayzor has some Council news," he said. "Which of course we all just can't wait to hear-we all just love the Council -"

Rayzor tried to keep a smile from his face at Keith's unusually vocal and sarcastic behavior, but Keith saw and scowled slightly.

"Dammit," he said to himself, but Coran patted him on the knee in a 'It's okay,' gesture and nodded for Rayzor to continue.

It seemed that a seat on the Council had opened up. An older member had decided to step down, and Rayzor had presented himself as a possible candidate for the open position.

Coran smiled as Rayzor finished.

"Congratulations," he said warmly, extending a hand towards Rayzor, who shook it.

"Well, I'm not on the Council yet," Rayzor said, "but - I am hopeful."

Allura was smiling and nodding. "Well, we're very pleased to hear that you have decided to try," she said, and Rayzor nodded at her.

"It may not come to pass - but if I do become a Council member - I intend to keep our alliance strong," he said, rising to his feet. "I have to attend to some things - but - "

The leader of the guards hesitated before continuing. "If - if you would like, I could come back afterwards - "

Hunk nodded vigorously, smiling at Rayzor. "Sure!" he said, beaming. "We could play cards or something - "

"-and maybe you could tell us more about your culture's history," Allura said. "-I'd love to learn more about it-"

Allura realized that Rayzor seemed startled..and maybe a little bit pleased at her request.

"I'd - I'd be happy to," he said. "If - if you like, I'll - I'll bring someone I'd like you to meet."

Coran saw the Paladins and the Princess nod.

"Sure," Keith said. His mouth twitched then, but it was a genuine half-smile as he said, "Just as long as they don't mind if I'm in the room-"

Rayzor snorted then, a sound that Keith understood to mean 'Of course they won't mind, don't be ridiculous', as he rose to leave and headed towards the door, saying he'd be back within a few hours.

As he left, Rayzor saw the shortest Paladin wave goodbye to him in a - a downright friendly manner. He felt…odd…as if he were actually glad to know she wished him well.

"Wow, Pidge," Lance said, looking after Rayzor's retreating form, "you sure warmed up to him-"

Pidge shrugged a shoulder. "Well…I spoke to him on the comms yesterday, remember? When we were coming back to the planet in Black?" She looked back towards the door and readjusted her glasses.

"He was - well - he was asking how everyone was - and it - it didn't really sound like he was just gathering military information. He was - worried. I don't know - I think - I think he might - I think he might actually care."

She realized that Allura and Coran were listening with great interest to her words, and she shrugged again. "I don't know, that's just the feeling I got. And from how he's acted recently - I think he really does want to keep our alliance strong."

Lance jumped to his feet, grinning. "Speaking of alliances - we need to celebrate!" he said, and he turned to Pidge. "Hey, Pidge, do you have Star Trek?"

Pidge looked at him as if he'd spoken gibberish.

"Do I have - Lance," she said, and she pulled out her digital drive, a huge grin on her face. "What kind of geek do you think I would be if I didn't have Star Trek?"

Hunk grinned over at her. "Pidge, have I told you that I think you're pretty cool?"

"Well, I'm not stopping you from saying it again," Pidge said back to him, smiling.

"How 'bout Star Wars?" Keith asked, interest showing in his voice. Pidge gave him a quizzical look.

"Well…I have all those too…unless you were hoping to see those three 'prequels'…"

Keith made a retching sound and waved his hand. "We don't talk about those - those don't count - hell, I'm okay with saying they don't even exist - "

Lance nodded vigorously. "Oh, those were dark days - brrrr, egh - "

Hunk shrugged. "Well…they weren't great…but at least the effects were decent - "

Pidge nodded at Hunk as she began to set up the drive. "Yeah…but story-wise…" she shuddered expressively.

"No argument there," Hunk said. "Well, anyway - what do you think we should start off with?"

Keith shrugged and sat back in his seat.

" 'S cool," he said. "I've seen pretty much everything."

Pidge looked up at him, her eyes gleaming. "Well, how about the reboot of Star Trek?"

Hunk nodded, but Lance leapt to his feet. "What?! We're not starting with the original?"

Keith looked over at Lance, and his eyes seemed to narrow slightly. "What, you didn't like the reboot?"

Lance waved his hands around his head, shaking his head. "No, it's not that - it's just - "

Keith groaned and let his head fall back against the edge of the couch. "Lance, just because it's a reboot or a spinoff doesn't mean it's not just as good - or better than - the original thing - "

Lance made a sound of insulted disbelief and pretended to faint onto another couch.

"Sacrilege!" he exclaimed, but he was grinning, and Hunk and Pidge were laughing at how Keith was shaking his head and beginning to tell Lance that he could think of at least five shows that had improved from -

Keith almost stopped then, realizing he was talking way more than usual, but he saw that the other Paladins were really interested, and he saw that Coran and Allura were seemingly fine with just listening.

Hell with it.

Keith kept talking, getting really animated about the different shows and movies, and as he kept talking, Lance realized that he felt a lot less homesick now.

Hunk and Pidge loved this stuff too, but they were so darn smart that sometimes Lance felt a little bit left out when they got involved in lots of techno-babble. But now that he realized Keith was just as much a nerd - or a geek - as he was - somehow, that made home feel a lot closer than it had before now.

They might be fighting the Galra, and they might be lightyears away from home…but sometimes…it was the simple things that kept you sane.

Then Pidge pulled out her tablet and tossed it over to Keith, who used it to bring up the different shows to illustrate what he was talking about.

"Okay, take this one-" he said, and Lance felt his jaw drop open.

"Dude, that's a classic!"

Keith looked over at him, clearly not agreeing with the sentiment.

Lance leapt to his feet.

"You realize," he said, but he was grinning as he said it, "that this means war!"

Keith grinned back at Lance, making a 'come at me' gesture as he said "Bring it - I've got all day."

As they began arguing about what made a movie or a show a classic, Pidge whispered over to Hunk "I wish we had some popcorn - this is going to get good," and Hunk nodded in agreement.

"But - " Pidge said, and she took the tablet from where Keith had put it down on the table - "if they go for more than another few minutes - how 'bout you and I just start watching Stargate?"

Hunk grinned at her. "Fine by me."