AN: I had actually forgotten it's James/Keith week so I had to rush to get this first chapter out this week. The fic is done, but I'm still editing and not going to be able to post the whole thing before James/Keith week ends. Which is fine, because it's not written for James/Keith week, I just wanted to post the first chapter during it to celebrate.

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

Unsurprisingly, it was Hunk who brought it up first.

Ever since Keith reached out to Hunk and helped him sneak out of the Garrison stronghold to look for his parents, Hunk's overbearing presumptuousness had - and Keith wasn't even aware this was possible - gotten even worse. Maybe Hunk thought their little heart-to-heart was permission for him to dig into Keith's business at every opportunity, and while Keith would never regret doing what he could for Hunk - because if anyone deserved it, it was Hunk - he did wish that there was still a bit of reticence in their relationship. Just a bit. Just so Hunk wouldn't ask him things like:

"So what's up with you and James?"

Feeling like he was sticking his hand in a trap, Keith said slowly, "What do you mean, what's up with us?"

The trap sprung; a suggestive smirk spread across Hunk's face. "Uh, all the Significant Looks you guys have been having at every opportunity? You're not exactly subtle."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Keith retorted, feeling like he was on the defensive even though there was nothing to be defensive about. It was all Hunk's fault for using that tone of voice; Keith could hear the capital letters in 'Significant Looks'.

Hunk looked at him, eyes half-lidded with scepticism, then turned to where Shay was standing next to them, carefully sifting through the basket of alien vegetation cradled in her arm. "Shay, what do you think?"

Shay blinked, glancing up. "Might you be referring to the one that is looking in this direction with a meaningful gaze?"

"Wait- what?" Keith looked around them before he was fully aware he was doing so, catching James's eyes from where he was lingering in the doorway of the Garrison building at the edge of the field they were in. Now that Hunk had brought it up, Keith was acutely aware of how he was staring at James and how James was staring back. Forcing himself to break the standoff, Keith turned back to find Hunk and Shay both staring at him with obnoxiously knowing looks. "What!"

"Mister Hand is being idle," was all Hunk said, the small plastic trowel in his hand coming dangerously close to rapping the knuckles Keith had wrapped around his basket. The eyebrow he raised at Keith already said everything he wanted to say.

Keith turned back to the doorway to find it empty. Hunching his shoulders as he looked down at the basket, Keith gave the contents a sullen stir.

Perhaps realising that the conversation was actually making Keith uncomfortable, Hunk sighed and said, "Look, it doesn't really matter what's between the two of you, but you're wearing that constipated look you get when you're bottling stuff up and I just think you should talk to him, okay? Air it all out. It'll do you both good and it's gotta be more satisfying than just staring at each other all the time."

"If you have words you wish to say to that one then you should speak it," Shay added firmly, one dirt-smudged claw patting at Keith's forearm and leaving streaks of brown against his skin. "I would not wish for you to have regrets."

Keith sighed too. "I don't know, okay? I don't know what you think is between the two of us and I don't know what I'm supposed to be saying to him. He just...looks at me all the time and...I don't know!"

"Well, let's start from the beginning," Hunk said reasonably. "Why is he's looking at you all the time, and why do you look at him back?"

Keith shrugged, keeping his attention on the basket. "I don't know why he looks at me, maybe he's the one with something to say. ...I guess that's what I've been waiting for. For him to say whatever it is he wants to say."

"Perhaps it will be easier if you ask what that one wishes to say to you," Shay offered gently, far too nice to point out how obvious her suggestion was.

Keith scowled. "Why do I have to do all the work? If he has something to say, he can just say it. It's not like he's ever had trouble speaking his mind before."

"Wait, you know him?" Hunk blinked.

Keith blinked back at him. "You don't know James?"

"Well, yeah, I know James," Hunk spluttered. "But I didn't realise you knew him! You act like you didn't know anyone from the Garrison!"

"Oh, you might not have heard…" Keith looked away, suddenly uncomfortable. "I knew James from before the Garrison. And we kind of had a fight not long after we joined. James always had a big mouth."

Hunk gasped dramatically. "Wait, James was the kid you punched!?"

Keith stared, dumbfounded. "You knew about me punching a kid but not that it was James?"

"Look, it was the first time I saw violence up close, okay? It was really traumatic! I didn't realise it's the same guy!"

"I just punched him," Keith said sulkily. "It wasn't that violent. Wait, you were there?"

Hunk ignored Keith's inadvertent admission that Hunk was one of those he had forgotten with ease. "Man, I can't believe that kid was James. Wow, no wonder you guys stare at each other all the time, you have a Past. Maybe he wants to apologise for that."

"That was years ago." Keith snorted. "He's probably forgotten all about it. I don't know what problem he has with me now, and I don't care."

Shaking her head at their foolishness, Shay went back to sifting through her basket, picking out the leaves that were too ripe and no longer safe for human consumption. "If you had a Balmera you would not forget such simple details of the past. The Balmera knows. The Balmera would remember."

"Yeah…" Hunk said slowly, "that sure would make things simpler, I guess." But his eyes were staring at Keith with the panic of a man who had just learned that everything he had ever said to 'A Rock He Admires Very Much' on her home planet had been recorded and remembered by the god-analogy of her people.

"Whatever." Keith felt absolutely no guilt in leaving Hunk hanging and peeked over at the doorway again, even though he knew James had left and there was no point.

"Do you not wish to speak to that one?" A small frown settled on Shay's face. "If that one is making you uncomfortable…"

"Is someone making trouble for you, Paladin?" La-sai butted in out of nowhere, having apparently made his way over while they were talking. "I know these are your people, and I would not dream of presuming, but if anyone tries to pick a fight with you, just let me know!" He stared fiercely in the direction of the doorway, reminding Keith of his bravery standing up against what had once been his King.

La-sai wasn't the only one; the other Olkari, who had been spread throughout the field checking that the alien vegetation was growing properly on Earth soil, were all making their way over, faces set in determined frowns reminiscent of when they were fighting the Galra together.

Feeling like he was unwittingly sentencing James to the terrible fate of being put on the intergalactic blacklist, Keith hastily said, "No, nothing like that! It's just between the two of us, okay? It's not a big deal."

The growing crowd of Olkari did not look convinced.

Perhaps feeling responsible for the misunderstanding, Hunk came to his rescue. "Calm down, guys, it's okay, it's the other kind of trouble." He made an incomprehensible gesture with his hands and the trowel and suddenly the glares on everyone's faces melted away into scorching pity.

"What did you just tell them?" Keith whirled on Hunk, a little wild-eyed.

Hunk shrugged. "It's either admitting that you're having Unresolved Sexual Tension with James or continue the misconception that you two are having a fight. I figured the first one is less likely to end up with him in the hospital. And a bunch of aliens in it with him."

"We don't have sexual tension!" Keith turned to the Olkari starting to disperse. "We don't!"

"Uh-huh," said Hunk. "You forgot I was there when we were sneaking out of the Garrison and James and Veronica came to give us a hand." It seemed Keith just couldn't convince anyone today.

"If you say so, Paladin," La-sai said grudgingly. "But if he tries anything, just let us know. I do not know what rank he holds in your organisation, but he cannot win against the combined might of the Voltron Coalition."

"No, leave him alone!" Keith snapped, exasperated. He did not want to try explaining to the Garrison top brass why James was being harassed by aliens. He wanted to explain to Shiro even less. "He hasn't done anything."

The Olkari stopped dispersing, looking at him with wide eyes. The same wide eyes as Hunk and Shay.

Keith focused on his basket again, weighed down by their stares. "He hasn't done anything. Just leave him alone."

He could see La-sai squinting at him out of the corner of his eye, muttering under his breath, "Oh no, this is just like one of Lubos's soaps..."

It might very well had been the most insulting thing anyone had ever said about Keith, and he used to live in a group home. "Excuse me!?"

La-sai was undeterred by Keith's glare. "Are you sure you two are not locked in a passionate forbidden love?" he asked in a put-upon voice. "Although I cannot imagine why he would be forbidden to a Paladin of Voltron. Is he already spoken for? Does he have another paramour? Is he stringing you along?"

The Olkari still crowding around them gave a scandalous gasp in unison. Keith hung on to his patience by a thread and reminded himself that he was, regrettably, the Black Paladin now and that meant he couldn't throw a temper tantrum because the Olkari thought he was having an affair. The snorts of laughter coming from Hunk definitely did not help.

Finally choking back his mirth, Hunk wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and said, "Okay, guys, that's enough. Poor Keith is going to get an ulcer at this point. He's not up to anything with James...yet." A sly look was sent Keith's way; he pretended not to see it. "And it will be up to Keith to decide whether he wants to do something about whatever's between them or not. It really isn't anything you guys need to worry about, sorry for disturbing everyone."

"Oh, young love," one of the Olkari who had yet to return to their patch of the field sighed softly into her clasped hands.

Keith had finally had enough. "Look, can we just go back to checking this field? We need to finish harvesting this week if we want to get the report to the Global Food and Agriculture Organisation in before the deadline and there's still so much to go through." He waved at the other three fields surrounding the one they were in, only two of which had actually completed the harvesting process. "If we want to prove the viability of Earth-grown Olkari plants, we need to be able to make our case properly. On time."

It seemed to do the trick, the remaining Olkari wandering back to their posts now that the spectacle was over. La-sai gave Keith a firm nod, one that Keith returned hesitantly hoping it didn't mean James was going to get jumped by overzealous Coalition members after all, before leaving as well.

Keith released a deep sigh once it was just him, Hunk, and Shay again, slumping down until he was resting on his heels and hanging his head tiredly between his shoulders.

"If you had talked to him and worked out what's going on between the two of you, you'd have known what to say just now," Hunk pointed out, his tone gentle and without the light teasing it held before.

"You will feel better if you tell that one your feelings and know of the feelings of that one in turn," Shay added.

Luckily, Hunk's family arrived just then, sweeping up not just Hunk and Shay, but Keith too, in a tidal wave of warmth and kindness and pointed questions about whether they were eating enough.

The two kids, finally found after so long with seemingly no ill effects from their time under Galra occupation – none worse than usual at any rate, bounced between excitedly updating Shay on their day and introducing themselves to the Olkari they hadn't already met.

It was heartwarming to see the soft look on Hunk's face as he watched his reunited family. And a relief too, because it put an end to the topic. It meant Keith didn't have to try to explain that he didn't know what his feelings for James were in the first place.

He stared because James was no longer the boy he had been, and neither was Keith. He hadn't thought there was any more meaning than that. But Hunk seemed so sure it did mean something.

Keith just wasn't sure he wanted it to.

James wasn't a man prone to self-reflection, but he would like to think he was mature enough now to know his own faults. He was a jealous man, always too concerned with other people when he should have been more concerned with himself. He had been trying to overcome that - one of the few ways in which he was thankful to the Galra, because there was no room for envy when you're trying to stay alive - but the war was over, peace was here, and at the end of the day, James was a weak man.

He was also a man at the end of his rope, because he had been looking for Keith's stupid wolf ever since he saw its capabilities and he still hadn't seen hair nor hide of it unless it was by Keith's side. Which defeated the whole point of James finding it on its own and luring it away with bribes. James sighed and gave the chew toy in his hand a gloomy squeeze.

One more corridor, he told himself, marching down a hallway near the Paladins' quarters on the Atlas. One more then I'll give up for today.

Later, he would commend himself for not quitting there. But at the time, James was too busy being in shock at the sight of Commander Iverson down on his knees at the door to Keith's suite as he cooed over the same blasted wolf James had been trying to find for weeks.

Before he got the chance to pull himself together, Iverson turned in his direction and glared up at him from the floor of the corridor. "And what are you looking at, Griffon?"

"Uh, um, I didn't know you guys were such good friends," James said weakly, trying to prod his brain cells back into working order. His jealousy was trucking along just fine though; his stomach roiled at the thought that not only did Keith now have a giant space wolf that teleports, it was friends with Iverson when James couldn't even find the damn thing.

"He's a good boy." Iverson harrumphed, turning back to the wolf. "Yes, you are, you know you're a good boy, don't you? Such a good boy waiting for your master here and not stepping into that muddy field and making him clean up after you. Good boy!"

James watched Iverson coo over the four foot tall menace for a moment, then forced himself to approach. He had already wasted hours today looking for him, there was no way he was going to let this chance slip away.

Crouching down a small distance away, James reached out hesitantly with the chew toy and gave it a light squeeze, waving it in the general direction of the wolf.

"What are you doing?" Iverson asked flatly.

James shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. "Just introducing myself."

Iverson rolled his one eye, more exasperation packed into that single movement than most people could manage with two. "He's a bit thick, but he means well," Iverson told the wolf, as if James was not kneeling right there next to them. "He's not a bad kid. Wanna give him a chance?"

James held his breath as the wolf turned his muzzle from Iverson to him. It felt like he was being measured, and James hated the idea that he might be found wanting. But the wolf seemed to be satisfied with what he saw; he reached forward and gently picked up the toy with his mouth.

"There, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Iverson said. "Relax. You are stressing him out stressing out so much."

It was automatic by this point to follow Iverson's orders, and James found himself releasing the breath he hadn't even realised he was holding. Watching the wolf gnaw delicately on the toy, James was surprised to feel a tendril of warmth at the sight.

"I didn't know you liked dogs," said Iverson, syncing up unknowingly with James's thoughts.

James shrugged again. "It's a wolf, sir. A bit different from a dog." That wasn't a real answer. But the real answer was that James was a jealous man. Because Keith left the Garrison before James ever came close to beating him, and then he came back with a team of giant robot lions that transformed into an even bigger giant robot, a teleporting space wolf, and a maturity made all the weirder by the fact that he was apparently younger than James now. Because if James couldn't have Keith - and how could he even think of having Keith, Black Paladin, Leader of Voltron, Blade of Marmora, titles that James didn't even know the meaning of - then he might as well go after his wolf.

The wolf glanced up from the toy and gave a small 'wuff' as if saying he approved. Maybe this could work. Maybe the wolf would take him teleporting someday the way he did with Keith. It would probably be the closest James ever got to him.

AN: The Global Food and Agriculture Organisation, also known as Geefao. I didn't want to use real world organisations, especially since the world of Voltron takes place after WWIII, so this was the compromise.

Coming up next: Featuring Pidge, Ryner and the Mers (with Sam)