A/N: This was going to be a one-shot. It is not a one-shot. I don't how many shots there will be. Probably just a few. But who knows. Not me.

Lance was flirting again. This time the audience was...more receptive, though. Keith wasn't sure if it was an improvement or not.

"Oh, Princess Risia, your radiance outshines the sun this morning!" Lance swept down into a low bow, holding the princess's hand gallantly in his. His fingers were curved gently around her dainty, double-jointed claws, carefully cradling. The princess giggled and blushed, hiding her face from view and wiggling all over with glee.

Of course, this princess was maybe...six years old, as humans would reckon it. And Lance was flirting indiscriminately with her and all of her sisters, of which there were many. Keith has lost track of the names of the royal children long ago. Lance, though...somehow he had memorized them all instantly, without even seeming to break a sweat. Keith was not completely convinced that it wasn't magic.

Princess Risia looked back at Lance, swaying back and forth in her pretty, flowing pink dress. "Thank you, Payadin Yance," she lisped. Adorably. Everything about this royal gaggle of children, this entire race, was weirdly adorable. Lance and Hunk had fallen for them instantly. Even Keith wasn't wholly immune, but he was doing his best to hold himself at a slight distance. They were here for a reason.

And okay, yes. The reason they were here was exactly what Lance was doing. But that didn't mean Keith had to do it, too. Lance was just...so good at it.

After a couple more increasingly elaborate compliments from Lance, Risia finally pulled free and ran off, laughing and shouting, to join a few of her siblings playing on the lawn. Of course, another princess was already waiting (they had formed a line to be schmoozed by Lance, it was simultaneously the cutest and most ridiculous thing Keith had ever seen), and Lance was ready. He swooped in, took her tiny hand, and started telling her in no uncertain terms just how beautiful she was.

Keith looked away, hands fidgeting at his sides. It felt weird to be away from the Castle of Lions and not be wearing his armor. But this was a diplomatic mission, and they were in the most secure location on the entire planet of Sylose, the royal palace. Allura had insisted that it would be rude if they appeared not to trust the Sylosian security to keep them safe. Still. The paladin armor had served as both formal wear and protective gear since this journey began, and Keith felt slightly naked without it.

Not that he was. He was very much the opposite of naked. Technically, these clothes covered just as much skin as the paladin armor, except for the fact that they didn't come with gloves. (Keith had tried to sneak his comfortable fingerless gloves into his ensemble, but Allura had caught him and nixed that on the spot.) They had been forced to raid the ancient storage rooms of the castle again to find formal Altean clothing to fit everyone, and Keith privately thought that they had failed in his case, though Coran had been sure that everything Keith was wearing could almost have been tailored to fit him.

But it itched. His collar was too high, and the jacket hugged him in unfamiliar places. And the trousers didn't have enough storage room. Yeah, they had pockets, because no civilized race didn't put pockets in their clothes, but...they weren't big enough. Keith sighed. He missed his own clothes.

At least they had been allowed to bring their bayards. They were hooked to the back of their belts, hidden under the flowing formal jacket. Allura had impressed on them very strongly that using the bayard was an absolute last resort, though. "Only in case of actual Galra attack," had been her exact words. Otherwise, they were supposed to accept whatever weapons the Sylosians chose to allow them, if any. Keith had snorted at that, because what alien race was ever going to give a bunch of strangers weapons to play around with, but Shiro had given him a glare and Keith shut himself down before Allura figured out that the noise came from him.

Once Keith had seen where they were going, he'd revised his estimate of whether or not their hosts would just up and give them weapons. They were visiting...basically a fairy tale castle. Like, even more so than the Castle of Lions. It was built into the side of a mountain, sprawling and huge but seeming delicate from a distance, with high towers and battlements and stained glass and pretty much everything you'd expect to see on an Earth-style European castle.

Lance had gone sparkly-eyed immediately, the way he always did whenever anything about their adventures through the known universe remotely matched his daydreams of being a knight-in-shining-armor rescuing damsels in distress or whatever. Keith, though, just saw a place that probably did a lot of stuff with very cool old weapons. There was probably an armory. He wanted to try them all.

The Sylosians weren't quite what he'd expected either, from Allura's descriptions. She had said that they were a race of strong warriors, with a deep tradition of defense, which was why the Galra hadn't managed to conquer them yet. They were surely on Zarkon's to-do list, but for now they were strong enough, and far enough away from the center of the Galra Empire, that they'd been able to hold out. Which made them extremely attractive allies for Team Voltron, of course.

So somehow Keith had gotten it into his head that this was a race of big, muscular warriors on par with the Galra. He had expected to be towered over by everyone they met, expected a lot of suspicious looks from narrowed eyes, tense expressions and guarded shoulders. He had not expected a race of, essentially, tiny, sharp-eyed birds.

The Sylosians were humanoid, with the usual arrangement of head, body, arms, and legs. But their hair was like very fine, elongated feathers, and actual feathers overlayed the tops of their heads, and their exposed skin was covered with what looked like fine down. They came in all sorts of colors, though if Keith watched carefully he thought he could pick up family resemblance amongst some of them. Their mouths were stiff, with pointed lips a little like a beak. Their eyes were small and faced the front, so they had obviously come from predator stock, and when Keith saw how closely they watched, and how sharp some of their claws were... Yeah, the warrior thing started to make sense. He wasn't going to underestimate any of them, that was for sure.

And calling them tiny was an exaggeration. The tallest Sylosians, like the royal couple, were only an inch or two shorter than Keith. But the vast majority were shorter than them, which meant that most of Team Voltron towered over them. Allura had shapeshifted to be closer to their height, as well as changed the color of her skin to a soft, buttery yellow not unlike the queen's, but the humans didn't have that advantage.

Except Pidge. The instant they stepped out of Blue to greet the entourage waiting for them, every Sylosian within fifty yards went bug-eyed over her. The royal couple had already had diplomatic smiles on their faces to greet Allura with, but the moment they had a chance to look over the paladins, they fixated on Pidge. "Princess Allura!" the queen had exclaimed, interrupting whatever the king had been in the middle of saying, some bland greeting speech that probably even he wasn't listening to. "Please introduce us to the Green Paladin!"

The king immediately stopped pretending that what he was saying was important and looked at Allura expectantly. She blinked, eyebrows raising, then agreed. "Of course, let's get on with the introductions, then. This is the Black Paladin, Shiro..."

"No!" The queen spread her arms, long white top feathers tufting up from her head in what Keith quickly learned was a sign of excitement or agitation. "Start with the Green Paladin."

And that was that. Every single Sylosian they'd met so far had fallen in love with Pidge on first sight. She was understandably weirded out, but after Allura had pulled her aside and given her a hurried, whispered crash course on diplomacy, she came back smiling and gracious, though her eyes were pained. The queen and king refused to let Pidge out of their sight and practically doted on her every move, so she was currently stuck with Shiro and Allura doing the negotiation thing. She was probably bored out of her mind. Keith didn't envy her at all.

At least Hunk and Coran's job was more fun. They were deep in the palace with the Sylosian heads of science, talking about technology and sharing information. From the look on Hunk's face, they were probably going to find the kitchens, too, before long. Keith wished him well on his quest.

And somehow Keith and Lance had gotten this duty. Which Keith wasn't sure how to characterize. Not babysitting—most of the royal brood were plenty old enough to care for themselves, though there was a passel of "chicklings" as the Sylosians called them underfoot at all times. After Hunk and Coran headed off with the scientists, the king had simply gestured at a Sylosian Keith had taken for a random courtier and annouced that his oldest daughter would show the Red Paladin and Blue Paladin around the palace to "impress on them the wonders of Sylose."

So Keith and Lance had gone with the royal daughter, grateful to escape. Behind them, Allura and the queen had settled down for a long session of diplomatic one-upmanship. It was an endless list of, "Your palace is beautiful." "Your Blue Lion is amazing." "Your guards are well-trained." "Your Paladins are very handsome." Or so it sounded to Keith, anyway. Obviously everything took much, much longer to say, because diplomacy always took forever.

In the hallway, though, their new escort turned to them with her cheeks puffed up and eyes bright in a big Sylosian smile. "I'm Princess Milifaria, but you can call me Mili. Let's go have fun!" Then she grabbed both of their hands in her strong, scaly talons and ran.

Sylosians were small, but they were fast. Keith and Lance both had to work a little bit to keep up. It was fun, though. They flashed through hallways and corridors, past gigantic windows and expansive tapestries and statues in alcoves. Before they'd gone far, other Sylosians started to join them, leaping out from doorways and around corners, yelling and laughing in their high-pitched, shrieking way.

Keith might have been alarmed, but he saw the family resemblance with the first princess. These were more sons and daughters of the royal couple. There were a lot of them. Did the Sylosians give birth in clutches, like birds on Earth? It would probably be rude to ask. He still wanted to, though.

Lance wasn't wary about the newcomers at all. He was grinning from the instant the three of them started running, and that grin just got bigger the farther they went and the more little birds joined them. Of course, part of that could have been because a pretty girl was holding his hand. Then they reached some kind of back door on the palace and streamed out into a massive network of gardens and lawns. These plots of land were sheltered between the bulk of the palace and the mountain beyond, but this time of day there was plenty of sunlight, and the entire area was absolutely stunning. Some of these plants had clearly come from off-world, but they were all being maintained with meticulous care.

As soon as they were in the open, Mili dropped their hands, and Lance and Keith were swarmed by small Sylosians. Keith was even more overwhelmed and weirded out than that time with Arusians, but Lance was in his element. Little ones kept tugging on his clothes and hanging off his arms and hands, and Lance grinned at all and sundry, answering the questions that came at him a mile a minute.

"Did you really fly that blue lion machine? Do you fly all the time? Are you a good flyer? What's your name? What's the Red Paladin's name? Can we play in the blue lion? Does the lion have a name? What's the lion's name? What are your friends' names? Can we see the Green Paladin? Will you give us a ride in the blue lion?" It just kept going and going. Lance laughed and answered as quickly as he could, but his words kept getting overrun with more questions.

Kids were hanging off Keith, too, but not nearly as many, and no one was asking him questions. They all preferred to look to Lance for that. Clearly he had celebrity status, since he was the Blue Paladin (it was funny how Keith could hear the capitals in their voices) and they could all see the gigantic blue lion peeking above the ramparts on the far side of the palace grounds. That was fine with Keith. Let Lance take the attention. He liked it. Keith was happy to provide support in the background.

Eventually, though, even Lance got overwhelmed by sheer physical numbers. He was still smiling and laughing, cheerfully answering the same questions over and over, when the press of little bodies against his legs finally exceeded his capacity to withstand the weight. Keith caught a flash of panic on his face, and then Lance was on the ground under a dogpile of tiny kids. The chicklings were still laughing, of course, immensely pleased with their new human plaything, and more of them were piling on by the second. But Lance had stopped making any noise.

Keith was over there in a heartbeat, lifting little bodies out of the way as quickly and carefully as he could. "Sorry, sorry," he apologized, hoping in a distant sort of way that he was being respectful enough. "Sorry, I just gotta get to my friend, sorry..."

He dug him out, found Lance flat on the ground, staring up at the sky with his face blank and pale. Okay, good. He hadn't had time to panic yet, not even with all that weight suddenly landing on his chest. Keith reached a hand down, and Lance snagged it, palm to palm, in a desperate grip. Keith hauled him up with one strong heave, and Lance stood there, leaning against him arm to arm as he fought to catch his breath.

The little kids milled around, chirping worriedly, and Lance managed a shaky smile. "I'm okay, I'm okay. You didn't hurt me. Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Everything's fine." Which was just so...Lance, to instantly give himself over to reassuring the people who had almost harmed him even when he had every right to be upset and overwhelmed...

Keith's hand tightened around Lance's upper arm. He hadn't realized he was still holding him, but he was. And well, Lance's legs were wavering underneath him, so it was all for the good. It wasn't enough to be noticeable to anyone but Keith, hopefully. But Keith was sharply aware of just how bad that could have gotten, just how quickly. If Lance had gone into a full-on panic attack, it would have scared all of the children badly and probably set back their diplomacy efforts.

A few older siblings waded their way into the press, shushing the little chicklings, rubbing their hands over their heads and urging them to go play, give the Blue Paladin a moment to catch his breath, they could talk to him more later. Mili moved over to Keith and Lance, her big eyes liquid with regret. "I'm so sorry, Paladin Lance. I didn't realize the little ones would be too heavy for you."

Lance laughed, just a touch hysterically, and straightened up against Keith's side. "It's fine, it's fine. I'm fine. I used to play like that with my little siblings all the time. It just surprised me when they all jumped in at once, that's all. I'm okay. Could you just, uh...give me a moment?"

She nodded and moved away to distract the chicklings. Keith turned to Lance, watching him carefully. Lance was taking slow, deep breaths, staring out over the gardens as if seeking calm there.

"Are you really okay?" Keith asked in a low voice. "Do you need to go back to Blue?" That was why they had brought the blue lion for this mission instead of a pod ship, of course: so Lance would have somewhere to retreat if he needed to, and so he'd be able to keep talking to Blue whenever either of them wanted to.

Lance shook his head. "I'm fine." But his voice was soft and distant.

Keith frowned. "There's nothing to be ashamed of. Even I would panic if I was suddenly dogpiled by twenty tiny strangers."

Lance shook off his distant mood and flashed Keith a smile. It seemed genuine. "Yeah, but that's because you're, like, a teenage hermit, dude. I really am fine, I promise." He pulled in a deep breath in proof, only an edge of a shake to it. "See? The exposure therapy is working. At least for short periods. Plus, I knew you would come dig me out right away, so I only had to hold out until you got there. It's all good."

Keith wasn't satisfied, but he gave a slow nod. He needed to trust Lance to know his limits. Allura had had a talk with him about that, too, when Keith had gone a little, well...overboard on the protective thing on the last mission. Keith couldn't help it, though. He just really didn't want Lance to get hurt again.

But yeah, he would try. Trust Lance. Lance trusted Keith all the time, after all. He really should try to return the favor.

Lance sighed and leaned into his shoulder a little harder. His voice lowered, words aimed right at Keith's ear. "Listen, I know this seems like fluff duty. We're just supposed to hang out with the little princes and princesses and have fun, right? But there's more going on here. One of the older princes, Yarian, you see him over there?" He tipped his chin toward a Sylosian who stood a bit off from the others, watching over the chicklings with an air of cautious affection.

Keith squinted at him, then nodded. Not because he'd noticed the prince before, but to show Lance that he was listening. Lance nodded his understanding.

"He's been watching us the whole time. The older princes and princesses...I bet they're deeply trusted by their parents. They're watching us, evaluating us. Seeing what the paladins of Voltron are really like. The Sylosians are looking for strong, useful allies who also won't, like, ruin their culture or anything. So I can't collapse just because some little kids jumped on me, okay? I know you and Coran and everyone else are going to tell me that I'm not weak, it's just something we have to deal with, but to them, that would definitely look like weakness. We need to keep it under control. Just for a couple of days or whatever."

Keith grunted in ackowledgement. He didn't like it, but he saw where Lance was coming from. "Still. If gets to be too much, just give the signal. I'll cover for you."

Lance grinned. "Of course. I expect nothing less from you, my buddy, my man, my Ace bandage, my numero uno compadre in arms."

Keith smiled, a bit reluctantly, but genuinely for that. Lance had a weird gift for setting even him at ease with his seemingly endless prattle of off-the-wall expressions. "Okay."

Lance chuckled and looked away. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I see a whole slew of princesses who need to be flirted with."

Keith nodded and let him go. Still, he couldn't bring himself to join in. He stood at a slight remove, watching over Lance and the entire flock of royal children at the same time. After a few minutes, though, he felt a tug on his hand and looked down to find that one little princess, Risia wasn't it, hanging off him with bright, sparkling eyes and puffed-up cheeks.

"Payadin Keet!" she exclaimed. "Pyay wit me, Payadin Keet!"

Okay. He should have known he wouldn't be allowed to keep himself separate for long. Keith sighed, but he went with her. If he let the chicklings dogpile him instead, at least it would give Lance some (literal) breathing room.

Yep. That was what he was telling himself on this one.