(I do not own Voltron)

Updating is still being planned out, however still in high school so I will work around that. Hope you enjoy the story!! I will get Chapter 2 out soon hopefully.

Chapter 1: Who Knew?

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It all started in a quiet afternoon, or at least that's what they thought was equivalent to Earth time but it's hard to tell in space. This was one of their rare, free afternoons since training usually happened and would bleed into the afternoon but Shiro and Allura let them take off earlier.

Lance and Pidge were both in a blanket and were sleeping after multiple rounds of a 2 player video game they fell asleep. Hunk was playing a 1 player game since he was not into video games until Pidge and Lance came along and they were still a million times better than him.

Keith and Shiro walk into this sight 10 minutes later as both have just gotten out of a spar. Shiro is reminded by how the three youngest paladins had all been a unit before and knew how to just hang in each other's presence, not to say they all couldn't do that but these three were just so in sync that sometimes it was scary.

He could see Keith scoff, he was never one to like social interactions and found more peace in moving or training but most weren't like that. Hunk smiles and waves at both of them and Keith opens his mouth to speak.

"Have you guys been sitting here all afternoon?" He sounded a bit snarky but it was just something he couldn't imagine doing himself. Hunk nods as he kills the last of a swarm of zombie… bugs? "We've been playing games and some of us got a bit tired and I mean today is a rest day, right?"

Hunk was right, it was a rest day and Pidge looked like she needed the sleep. Even Lance who had the best skincare and sleep routine had minor eyebags and with all that product, you could only imagine how tired he was. Hunk nudged the sleeping pile and Lance groaned while Pidge opened her eyes and looked around, her eyes landing on the duo who weren't there before she fell asleep.

She waved as she rubbed her eyes then hit Lance who still had his eyes closed. Both of them were sitting up, Lance using the couch as his support and Pidge grabbing her glasses. "Where have you two been?" Pidge asked Shiro and Keith.

"Training" Both replied simultaneously and I could see the confused looks on Pidge and Lance's faces. "Why do you both look so shocked?!" Keith asked, a bit frustrated since he saw their behavior as normal while what the other three were doing was just crazy. Why would you waste a perfect day?

"Today is a rest day, right?" Pidge said as she and Lance shared a look, flicked their wrists, and now had watches. When did they get those watches? Suddenly holograms were projected from the watch and they both looked at something that Shiro and Keith couldn't read. "Today is a rest day, so why train when we have rest days?" Lance asked looking puzzled

"Please tell me you both aren't energetic and you just made an impromptu decision." Pidge almost begged, she could not take that much energy when she liked her life chill and putting minimal effort into most things. She knew that Hunk and Lance felt the same way so she just needed Shiro and Keith to nod so she could live with the bare minimum effort to keep herself alive.

"We spared because we need to be in great shape to be able to win the war, and the war doesn't take a day off." Shiro said and Keith followed that up with "Plus we are always moving on the field while you three either keep standing and fire or in Pidge's case just need to direct a whip." That was the wrong thing to say as three bayards were thrown at him

"What was that for?!?" He screamed at the three who all wore deadpanned expressions. "Since you think it is so easy to control all of those weapons then you can try to do them and take our roles if this is how you are going to react," Pidge said as Lance nodded, still sinking into the couch while Hunk was nodding much more awake than Lance.

"I don't even know how to use a wipe or the sniper riffle Lance uses!" Keith shouted as Pidge and Lance gave smug looks towards him. "Then don't shit on our use of time" Shiro yelled "language" as Lance and Pidge started to laugh at his statement.

"Shiro, we know more curse words than you do," Lance said Pidge and HUnk nodded along as Shiro looked pulled with that statement as he said, "What do you mean that you know more curse words than me?" The three shared a look before looking at Shiro and bursting out laughing. Catching their breath Lance answered his question with a factual tone. "Shiro, we have been called every slur in the book, every curse word, it could be for being a lazyass." Lance answered as Hunk spoke up "Geniuses" Then Pidge "COcky know-it-alls" Lance shrugged at the slack-jawed responses they got as he spoke up once again. "People don't like it when you're good, even if you have the skill to back up the cockiness or if you look like you don't try. Hell, the only reason people didn't bully Keith was that they would be beaten up and that Keith knew Shiro which automatically made him untouchable."

The trio was nodding at the statement since in their eyes, it was true. Keith was known not to take people's shit and would lay hands on anyone. They knew damn well that people don't have the same kind of immunity that Keith or even they have with the Garrison. People knew something was up when they were caught multiple times outside of campus after hours and knew that they should have been expelled but they had the same immunity and the Garrison needed them.

They were brought out of their thoughts by Shiro's delayed reaction of "WHAT!" Keith then decides to speak up at that moment. "While the fact that I could kick their asses, I always had a suspicion that they didn't like me and only wanted to see Shiro." Lance laughed and said "Glad to see your self-aware Mullet."

"Who is self-aware?" Allura asked as she and Coran entered, looking at the scene before them. Shiro looked a bit shocked and lost while Keith was fuming a bit, Pidge was sitting on the couch with Hunk and Lance. Lance was still in the blanket and looking sleepy while Pidge was on her computer with HUnk looking over at it with Lance.

"Keith" HUnk answered as Lance pointed to the screen and Pidge made a small sound and started to type again. "Oh, I have another reason, everyone knew Mullet came in through a scholarship and recommendation which was made public, same with Shiro though there are 5 total scholarships that were given." Lance listened easily as he looked like he was thinking a bit.

"Who got the other 3?" Keith asked, curious as to who it could be since most were just horrible at flying, not counting their grades. "You're looking at them." Pidge announced as she smirked

Lance sighs "Why am I thought to be the cocky one, you were the one who would be angry and started to jump on us just to be taller and look down on people." Pidge hit him with a pillow, creating a pillow fight between the three. This ended with all of them a messy pile with a blanket that got into the mix and each one of them laughing at each other.

"Are they okay?" Allura asked as Coran chuckled. Keith looked at Shiro as Shiro wore a fond and exasperated expression on his face. "I think they're fine Allura, their acting like kids, hell, maybe even siblings. I would still like an explanation on how you three got into the Garrison." Shiro wanted to know how these three got in if they were in the fighter class which he knew that Keith was the best at, maybe an even better pilot than him. So how did they get a scholarship, almost all of them were lazy so how?

The three were laughing as they started to get out of the pile and look at Shiro, sharing looks and then looking at Lance who groans and looks like he lost the non-verbal argument.

"We all had some sort of way of being seen, my sister went to the Garrison first and when Matt Holt came to ask her since she was the team leader for research he saw me on the Zoom call talking about space distroation and how we could theoretically bend the rules of science that have already been placed. You can guess that he was interested and brought it up with the Garrison and signed a contract to help them in the area of stem and planning the trajectory of the Kerberos mission."

Lance said as Hunk continued with the story. "I bumped into Lance while escaping some of my bullies while he was talking to some Garrison officers about moving into the dorms. The bullies caught up to me with the commotion but I wasn't going to apologize so I was going to take it that day then Lance stepped in before they could even try something and they left. We introduced ourselves and learned similar interests and got into an interesting conversation that piqued the Garrison's interest and next thing you know I am handed a scholarship." Hunk and Lance laughed at Pidge's smug look.

"I went hacked into their systems from my house and since almost no one could do it they decided that it would be better if I was on their side than not. It was more or less a decision, that I didn't want her as an enemy and placed me and allowed me to fake my identity they knew I was still messing around but they also knew I wasn't leaking anything so I wasn't being an issue." Pidge said as she laughed with her story remembering someone who said they should expel her but was shut up real quick.

"We all did things that they swept under the rug since we were still helping them out and because almost everything we did had made anything complicated, just annoying. I would sing songs across campus and sleep in class, I didn't even try to be the class clown I just enjoyed life because this wasn't a life-changing experience since I was offered it so suddenly that I didn't care if I was expelled. I also always had a backup in the military." Lance said, shrugging at the last bit, with a bored expression because everything he said was true. This was mostly an experience for him and he knew that it was better to live in the present and always keep chasing the highs in life but to not be sad about not getting there every time. Hunk and Pidge nodded in agreement to what he said as he was thinking and even continued his train of thought.

"Life is too short" He learned that lesson the hard way with how many people he knew who had died, from health issues to even being a pilot and he knew he wanted to die how his tio did. His tio died doing something he loved, sailing and he knew that he wanted to go doing something he loved to die happy. Then Hunk started to speak again.

"Lance is right, this is just mostly an experience and it was pretty much handed to us so why would we say no? Plus we got to meet each other and now can do the bare minimum since each of us has different skills so we complete things we don't want to complete."

The three laughed as the rest looked at them as if they were insane. "Why didn't you tell us?!?" Shiro half-screamed because if they had a skill that could be useful for missions and could have saved more people.

"Before you get your knickers in a twist-" Lance started "ask yourself this, how did four children and one adult start winning battles or even succeed since someone should have died unless plot armor exists in real life." Shiro buffered in real life as he processed Lance's works Keith started fuming, not getting what Lance was saying.

"So what we aren't dead so what's your point?" Keith growled out as an amused smile passed on to Lance's lips. "Well mullet, you see we aren't lucky or anything but we made sure no one would die, that is the bare minimum in our opinions. We have even saved missions when y'all that we were just lucky."

Keith froze, thinking back to all the times it was just lucky that none of them got seriously hurt or died but was interrupted by Pidge talking. "We didn't account for the bomb and Lance had to suffer for it" She turned an apologetic smile towards Lance, Hunk doing the same while Lance waved them off with a smile playing on his lips once again.

"I'm supposed to be the strategist of the group, it was mostly my job to account for it, plus emotions were high," Lance spoke, hinting at Pidge's impulses to leave to find her family and Hunk being torn between doing the same as Pidge or staying as a paladin. They both gave him sheepish smiles but knew that they were already forgiven.

"So far there wasn't been a real good reason to start doing things that would show our strengths, I mean Zarkon already has an impression of us and he will eventually fall into our trap." Lance shrugged with a competitive smile. Shiro turned to him confused. "What trap?" Pidge spoke up with an answer.

"Lance is our strategist and came up with the plan to act stupid and dumb while I and Hunk try to show that we are all brainy and could be taken out easily physically, so far it has worked since even you guys believe it. The Garla would assume we aren't a threat when we actually our and we could easily take them out since they have false information" Pidge fist-bumped Lance and Hunk who both had smiles on their faces.

"We really need to work more on teamwork between all of us and not just you three," Shiro says, running his hand through his hair anxiously, the trio frowns. "Sorry Shiro, we're just used to keeping ourselves out of things and we just don't tell others about what we do. We have been together for over a year and we have only been at the castle for a month and sometimes we are just training or avoiding each other. That was much harder in the Garrison so we learned to get along and read each other." Lance supplied, Pidge following his statement

"We needed to know when Iverson said something too harsh or too close to the truth. There were also times we needed to be brought back to reality, I remember there were days when one of us or all of us would be a bit floaty and we needed to bring ourselves back. We needed support and all had the same issues so it was easier when the other person knew what was going on and wouldn't call you dramatic." Pidge laughed at the last bit, really there were many times that someone had told her that she was making problems for herself by getting her head.

"Yeah Shiro, we never meant to not include you or Keith but we just got used to dealing with our problems we each other and only relying on other people. If I am being honest I don't know how you could help us with our mental health or when we are feeling floaty. It seemed stupid to worry you or everyone else" HUnk said with a shy, sad, small smile. Coran spoke up with a question, "What do you mean when you say floaty?"

"Floaty is like when you no longer feel pressure and reality soon is forgotten and it's just you and sometimes other people. Everything you're doing is on command and you have this feeling of not being there but still semi-aware of what you are doing. It sucks because soon you just feel lost, especially if you get too floaty. I remember that one time I had a panic attack and did not even realize it until my legs finally gave out and I felt a jolt from the fall and realized what happened. I was confused and lost and didn't know where I was going and felt alone." Lance described, relaxing on the couch and looking at the wall wistfully at recounting what happened with a sad smile that matched Hunk's.

Pidge grimaced at the memory. "Lance was so out of it that he couldn't even hear us talking, we noticed something was wrong but wanted to brush it off but when we got back to the dorm he just stood next to his bed for hours. I think you were just so tired that you told me that you needed a rest." Pidge, shuttered but at the memory, it was a scary memory with how unresponsive and dead Lance looked with his eyes just glazed over. She promised herself that he wouldn't get that bad again.

Lance ruffled her hair with a smile that she couldn't help but return because he was okay now and hadn't gotten that bad since then. Shiro was grimacing at them but dropped it when he saw the scene and it made him sigh.

What could he do? These teens were each other's support systems as they were all somehow fucked up in the head. Allura looked at him, probably wondering what to do since she most likely didn't know how to handle the situation. He sighed again looking at the trio who were still together, giving each other a bit of comfort.

"Okay, now that we discussed this, I think it's time we all go to sleep. I believe that all of us need rest." He could see the trio's grateful look as they slumped back into the couch as if those works freed their spirit just a bit more. Tomorrow will be a long day and he couldn't help but feel they were making a bit of progress. The Trio left the room first followed by Keith then himself and a guess that the Alteans retired to bed. Each one of them letting sleep take them for the next day.