It was days after Zarkon's death before Keith came out of a healing pod and fell into Shiro's arms, his legs too weak to stand on his own. Shiro held him until he felt he could stand on his own and looked around. Only one of the pods was still glowing, Lance contained inside. If there was one person with worse habits than Keith, it was Lance's drive to throw himself in harm's way for someone else. After the final battle everyone but Coran had ended up in a healing pod for at least a few hours but Keith and Lance had taken the worst of the damage.

"Hey, nice to see you in one piece after that last charge you two did." Shiro said patting Keith on the head as Keith adjusted.

"It- it was necessary. Otherwise we'd never take down Haggar. But, we did it right? They're gone?" Keith asked running a hand through his long hair, it felt strange to have it out of a braid after so long. He'd never bothered to cut his hair after they came to space, which led to Lance mocking him for a girly haircut, at least until Pidge had gotten sick of it and tased him.

"Yeah, buddy. We got them. Hunk destroyed the ship after Pidge used me to distract Zarkon and took him down. Your suicide charge took down Haggar and the druids. Allura's been monitoring the chatter via Pidge's radio to make sure there aren't going to be any more threats. It looks like we can go home now." Shiro said soothingly leaving a hand on Keith's shoulder.

Keith felt all the happiness that built up from knowing that they had won. Leave it all at that statement. Home was a place he didn't have other than the Castle Ship, but he assumed they meant going back to Earth. All he had on Earth was a shack in the desert and a hoverbike, maybe when they were dropped off on Earth he could keep the Red Lion? It would be strange to be without her after so long.

Shiro seemed to take his lack of response as a worry about the others, "Hey, everyone's ok, we even picked up a lot of the Rebellion. They helped Pidge find her family while you were out, so we're heading straight back to Earth. But first let's go show off that you're awake to everyone else. They've been hanging around in the lounge since Coran kicked them out of here. Matt's excited to meet you and Lance." Shiro lead Keith out of the Pod room and down the hall toward the lounge.

As they entered Keith saw that someone had turned it into a giant tent. There were pillows and blankets everywhere, implying people had been sleeping out here instead of in their rooms. Team sleepovers happened about once every few weeks during the war to relieve stress and bond™ as a team as Allura liked to try and force. Allura had finally given up on her own bonding exercises after she had accidentally made Keith and Lance ignore each other for a week during the middle of a series of distress beacon checks.

They had learned very quickly after the wormhole incident that most distress beacons were traps by this point, the planet taken over by Galra long ago. Some planets were worse off than others having been completely taken over with none of their original inhabitants left. Some planets had pockets of rebels on them that, when discovered, typically were more than willing to help free the planet and then kick Voltron off to make sure they wouldn't try to take over like the Galra had. Lance had been offended the first time but both Shiro and Allura understood. It often reassured the rebels that Voltron had nowhere near the manpower to actually rule a planet, or even a city if they had wanted to. Typically negotiations had to be done through Pidge, Coran or Lance because the others were too intimidating, Shiro being the Champion, Hunk being so large and well built, Keith for being so angry, and Allura was to regal for actually talking to the Rebels. Pidge was small enough to not be intimidating, even though those who knew her knew otherwise, Lance was personable enough that unless he was trying, the Rebels took to him well, Coran was also so dramatic that the Rebels adopted him as crazy uncle everywhere they went.

Sometimes Allura sent Keith or Hunk with whoever was negotiating to act as muscle but it wasn't typically necessary. Shiro was the best at diplomacy after the princess but anywhere there were Galra there was rumors of the Champion and once someone recognized him, either from the slave camps or the rumors about him from the Galra themselves and most Rebels wouldn't work with him. It seemed to Keith that Allura had managed to contact the Rebels in the Galra themselves to help with the internal takedown after Zarkon and Haggar died, which was relieving.

Pidge bounced up from her pile of pillows once she heard the door opened to admit Shiro and Keith, which attracted the rest of the Holt's attention and Hunk's from his fiddling. Pidge threw her arms around Keith's middle and rested her head on his shoulder.

"You're awake! That means Hunk owes me parts for Rover 7.3, he bet that Lance would wake up first, but I knew there's no way you let Lance beat you at anything. Come meet my family! They were helping organise the Rebellion for the past three years, it's why we could never find them."

Keith nodded in acknowledgement, wrapping his arms around Pidge's shoulders. She had grown over the past sevenish years they'd been in space, they all had, but using Coran's height based naming system they were still Number 4 and Number 5. "That's relieving, I guess. I thought it was odd that we never could find them even though everyone seemed to know who they were."

"Yeah, they lived on a mobile base in charge of routing for ages. C'mon, move, you've gotta meet them." Pidge declared using Keith's grip to drag him along through the maze of bedding over to where her family was. Keith had seen photos but both looked understandably older and more tired than the photos he'd seen. Matt and Pidge looked almost identical since it seemed Matt was wearing one of Pidge's spare outfits. Sam, her father, worse something that looked like it came from Coran's closet. The odd outfits made Keith wonder what had happened while he was in the Pod as pidge tugged him into lying in her lap as she did introductions, Shiro trailing behind and lying on Keith to pin him in Pidge's lap waving at Matt as he settled.

"This is my father Sam, as you know, and my brother Matt. Dad, Matt, this is Keith, the Red Paladin and Shiro's favorite pillow." Pidge introduced winding her hand into Keith's hair trying to detangle it for Lance to braid whenever he woke. Lance had offered to braid Keith's hair in apology for mocking him after Pidge tased him, and Keith let him at Shiro's urging. Afterwards Keith discovered that none of the other Paladins could braid as well as Lance. With Hunk's urging it became a habit to only let Lance braid his hair before missions. It may be superstitious but missions seemed to go better is Lance braided his hair over anyone else.

Hunk shuffled over to the pile of paladins flopped on Shiro's stomach allowing Pidge to lean back on Hunk making a loop of Paladins on the floor to Matt's amusement. Keith let himself drift off as Pidge talked to Matt feeling the comfort of his team around him, trying to ignore the cold pit in his stomach of the thought of giving it up when they got back to Earth. He couldn't see how they would be able to do this on Earth, Pidge and her family lived so far away from Lance's family in Cuba, Shiro's family in California, and Hunk's family in Hawaii. With how they were always going on about missing their families he didn't see how they could stay together on Earth so he was determined to soak in as much of this happy feeling to remember once he was back in his shack in the desert. Shiro seemed to feel Keith's mood drop again and poked him in the ribs startling Keith into sitting up from his spot and almost smacking Pidge in the chin with his forehead. In retaliation Keith booped Shiro's nose as he laid back down and said "I'm basking, let me bask Shiro. Stop with the poking, Lance'll do enough of that when he wakes up, don't start early."

"Yeah Shiro, let the man bask. Paladin Pile™ is for basking. And once Lance gets here he'll squirm and poke, and I mean, I love him like my brother, but the man squirms like no one's business when he's awake." Hunk said waving his arms around and almost smacking Pidge in the side.

"Fine, fine, I'll leave the poking to Lance. But Keith, no getting lost in your head, we won and now it's time to relax for a bit." Shiro insisted reaching up to poke Keith in the nose.

"So, Keith, how did you first meet my sister? She won't tell me." Matt broke in, scooting closer to the Paladin Pile™.

"Well, I officially met her for the first time twice. Which do you want to know?"

"How do you meet someone for the first time twice?" Matt asked confused. Shiro started laughing as he'd eventually gotten the story out of the pair and found it very amusing.

"Well, I met Katie and I met Pidge. So which story do you want?" Keith asked, smirking as Pidge poked him in the forehead.

"No telling him about the first time. Honestly don't tell him about either time. They're both embarrassing. And they both got you in trouble too." Pidge said smushing Keith's cheeks to try and make it hard for him to talk.

Sam now edged forward, "Now I want to know. Are you going to deny your father Katie?"

Pidge stuck her tongue out at him, "Yes. I'm not a baby, that doesn't work on me anymore."

Sam looked sad and old, "I know you aren't a child anymore, but you'll always be my child. Is it so bad that I want to know how you were while I was gone?"

Pidge puffed out her cheeks, "No fair trying to guilt trip me!"

Matt grinned, "Is it working?"

"No!"

"C'mon, tell us, Pidgey! I want to know!"

"Well," Keith broke in, "When I met Katie it wasn't too long after we were told the Kerberos Mission failed due to pilot error- Pidge stop pulling on my hair!"

Pidge booped him on the nose again, "No. No telling secrets."

Shiro from further away continued the story, "Apparently Pidge couldn't accept the explanation that the Garrison gave out, so she-"

"No, Shiro" She drew out his name, "Not you too."

"She tried to sneak in, and well, at this point I didn't really care about the Garrison either, so when I caught her, I helped her instead of reporting her. So we got to the commander's office. And she-" Keith cut off squirming as Pidge reached over him and started poking at the ticklish spots on his ribs. Hunk got tired of her interrupting and picked her up and put her in his lap, leaving Keith's head to drop onto a pillow.

"Not fair Hunk!"

"Shhh. I want to hear the story, I haven't heard this one." Hunk replied keeping her contained in a hug that pinned her arms to her sides. Could she have broken out of his grip? Sure. Did she bother? No, she had resigned herself to her fate.

"Anyways," Keith continued, letting himself focus on the memory, "She hacked the computer, and I decided to be the lookout. I told her that someone was coming and she dumped this USB with me and went back to typing and told me to go away, and then I saw her be escorted from the premises and banned from Garrison ever again. So here I am, with the USB drive I have no idea what it contains. So, I go find a empty computer lab and sit down and plug it in. And it's password protected."

"Oh, no." Hunk commented,

"Oh yes," Keith replied, running his fingers through Shiro's forelock. "Now, we'd talked for maybe five, ten minutes by this point. So I know absolutely nothing about her. But when I hold the mouse over the submit button the mouse turns into a peanut. So the only clue I have is a peanut. And I sit there for half an hour trying every variation of peanuts I can think of before I try peanut butter-"

"No. Pidge, bro, tech buddy. Why?" Hunk gasped rocking her back and forth on his chest.

"I needed a password but not one that anyone would think of!"

"But why give a hint?"

"Most people give up after ten minutes or have hacking software anyways. Though, the hacking software would have wiped the drive." Pidge explained deliberately not looking at anyone.

"Eh, good enough plan I guess." Hunk conceded.

"And, and?" Matt broke in excited.

"At first all I could find was this picture, and at first it didn't make sense because it was just the ship taken to Kerberos. But then I realized, the ship had landed on Kerberos just fine. I found another picture timestamped at the same time from the internal camera that showed the ship empty. And I realized this was proof. Proof that there had to be aliens and that the Garrison was covering up your disappearance and I couldn't ignore it either. But then I found something strange in the readings visible on the screen, they were acting like they'd gotten hit by an EMP. I guess the Galra's beam screwed all of our tech up."

"C'mon Keith, stop delaying your crash and burn." Pidge taunted from her place on Hunk.

"Fine." Keith conceded, "So, I ejected the USB and wrapped it in the bandages on my knife. It was small enough no one would notice. But I got caught in a lounge with a knife out by Iverson. And well, when he asked why I wouldn't tell him. He made some crack about how I shouldn't give up my shot at being the best pilot to come out of the Garrison by being stupid. And well, you know my temper-"

"Yes Keith we know very well." Shiro snarked.

"Shush you. I just found out that there was a possibility you were alive, and at some point he implied you were a failure as a pilot and I just. Exploded, nothing but rage. And I, well, I." Keith paused stumbling over his words.

"Did what everyone has ever wanted to do and punched Iverson in the face?" Pidge offered.

Keith smiled sheepishly, not brave enough to look over at Matt or Sam, "Well, yeah. Next thing I knew I was being escorted out of the Garrison with only a five minute stop to grab my stuff from my bunk and left out on the curb. And Katie was waiting out there still and she asked me if I had seen the pictures."

Pidge laughed now, "All he could say was 'Holy shit there's aliens' and 'Shiro is alive' in this dazed voice. And he eventually figured out he had nowhere to go and he looked at me all serious and said-"

"Fuck the Garrison." Keith finished, "And that's how I met Katie."

Matt burst into laughter as soon as he finished, "You punched Iverson?"

"In the face. Twice actually." Keith said dreamily, still thinking of the feeling of his fist connecting with Iversons jaw. The pain in his knuckles was worth it for the bruises on his Jaw Iverson couldn't hide.

"Having spent time with the man, I think we all have felt the urge. He was better in private but not by much." Sam commiserated.

"You were a legend once people figured out what happened." Hunk told Keith, "The boy who punched Iverson and Lived." Keith could hear the capital L in Lived. Because no one had ever dared to punch Iverson before.

The whole group looked toward the door as it opened, allowing Coran and Lance to enter. Lance, like Keith was in Healing Pod suit and was leaning on Coran greatly as he entered the room. Upon seeing the bedding everywhere he seemed to perk up considerably, "Hi guys, sleepover day?"

"More like sleepover week, bro. We've been waiting for you to get out, you lost me a bet bro. You lost to Keith." Hunk complained as he released Pidge and was putting tiny braids in her hair.

"Sorry, bro. Am I seeing double? Do I still have a concussion? Because I am seeing two of Pidge and that's just not right. The world cannot support two Pidges. Shiro," Lance had reached their pile and flopped on the amassed bedding, "Shiro, there can't be two Pidges the castle wouldn't survive the inventions. Am I dreaming?" Lance dramatically crawled so he could put his head on Shiro's stomach next to Hunk's head.

Matt seemed affronted by the accusation of being a second Pidge, "Excuse, I am Matt. I am the original Holt Child™ I am not a 'Pidge copy' thank you." Matt did the air quotes around 'Pidge copy' and stuck his nose in the air.

Lance stared, "Oh wow, now I can see it. Yeah, Pidge was never that dramatic about that sort of thing. Robots sure, not being a Pidge copy. Did you know when we found Pidge after we'd been split up she'd made these weird statue, robot, things of us. It was kinda concerning."

"Shh, Lance you missed story time already. No more than one embarrassing story to my family a day. It's a new rule until we get home." Pidge poked Lance in the head from her perch on Hunk even though Hunk had given up holding her down.

"We're heading home?!" Lance shot up, then flopped back over groaning in pain.

"Well, Lance if you'd let me explain when you came out of the Pod you'd know that already. You're as impatient as a Bullruck, you know-"

Lance waived off Coran's explanation, "Why wasn't that the first thing you told me? I've been dying to go home for ages!"

Coran sat himself down near the Paladin Puppy Pile™ as they were at the moment, "Well, I thought you might care more to know everyone was safe more. And your first question was about if the war was over not our current destination." Coran fiddled with his mustache, "If you want to know things, Lance you need to ask the right questions. I've been a bit busy with helping Allura with negotiations of the rest of the Galra Army's surrender. It's taken most of our time dealing with the conflicts in the Rebel groups about the matter. It has been very busy for the Princess, so I've been monitoring you lot, which other than retrieving you from Pods has been enjoyably easy, so thank you for not causing problems for once."

"Our two troublemakers have been asleep until now so, no worries." Shiro laughed from his position as Hunk and Lance's pillow. "It also helped that Sam and Matt showed up around the same time as Pidge woke up or we might be drowning in robots already."

"Hey, I've only made one this week!"

"And what was it, Spot 23.7?" Keith sniped.

Suddenly Hunk burst out, hugging Pidge really hard making her squeak, "Awww, guys I missed you so much while you were sleeping. It was so quiet and I kept making extra food and it was so weird! Everything was so quiet and bro, you would not believe how the mice were trying to comfort me. I couldn't believe they left Allura to come hang with me, all by myself!"

Shiro whispered to Keith, "As you can see, Hunk woke up first and well. He was lonely, so we set up sleepover nest once I woke up too. Pidge woke up three days ago so we were wondering how much longer you two would be out."

"Almost set up a secondary betting ring." Matt supplied, having given up on leaning over and plopping on Keith's chest above Shiro's head to join the conversation.

"But you both woke up, so now, as long as things go according to plan, we get to sit back, relax, and help Allura manage Rebels until we get home." Shiro said, rubbing Keith's leg soothingly.

"Do you know what we do after we get home? Like, since Zarkon's dead do we have to give up the Lions and stay on Earth, or are we visiting a bit and coming back to the Castle? Just because Zarkon's gone and Haggar's gone doesn't mean there will be peace. The Rebels are too disorganized and there's so many traumatized people. What if when the dust settles, we still need Voltron?" Keith asked anxiously, his voice getting louder by the word and his hands anxiously pawing at Matt's hair and then Shiro's as he started to hyperventilate.

Both Matt and Shiro sat up, allowing Keith to breathe without the extra weight on his chest. They slowly pulled him into a sitting position wrapping their arms around his back to support him. Lance rolled off Shiro and Hunk sat up holding Pidge to his chest. Coran went rooting through the amassed bedding for the blankets that Keith normally used as well as the designated Panic Attack Blanket™ and started wrapping them around Keith, forcing Shiro and Matt to let go for a few seconds. Pidge wiggled off Hunk and went to grab a water pouch from the collection stashed in the corner of the nest of bedding. Hunk sat up and opened his arms, allowing Shiro to manipulate Keith into Hunk's arms for a hug. Lance crawled around so he had access to Keith's hair and started finger brushing it out.

Hunk kept a steady pressure around Keith, whispering soothing words as Lance continued playing with his hair. Keith buried himself into Hunk's chest hyperventilating and crying as he let his anxieties take over, both his worry about being on Earth and the situation in space. Lance run his fingers soothingly working his fingers into the roots of Keith's hair to give him a head massage. Once the crying started to die down, Coran started to explain.

"We knew this might be a problem, but we also know from Lance's ever so helpful calender how long it has been since you were last home. With Zarkon's fall it is now safe enough to let you visit your homes. It is also time for us to tell the Earth's governments that there was a war and about life out here in space. You were right to worry about the power vacuum left by Zarkon's death, but it is not anything you can fix right now. What we want right now Keith, is for you all to have at the very least, a vacation. If we do need Voltron again, we won't be far away and we will come and get you. We won't exclude all of you, you fought for us even though you knew nothing about our situation from day one. You all are integral to how the universe runs now, but there is nothing stopping you from going home and relaxing."

Keith, who had been calming down seemed to be working himself up again turned toward Coran and once again was getting louder with every word, "That's half the fucking problem! I DON'T HAVE A HOME. Once we're back on Earth I have nowhere and nothing!" Keith took several rasping breaths leaning against Hunk continuing quietly, "Once we're back on Earth, everyone will be gone, even Red. I'll be alone in a desert again. I-I-I-" his voice broke and he started coughing. Eventually he could breath again and he finished, "I can't take being that alone again, in a shack in a desert. I can't do it."

The group, which had been silent while Keith broke down again, burst into noise, protesting the whole idea that Keith would be alone once they got to Earth. Eventually Lance took charge, he used his grip on Keith's hair to turn Keith's head to look Lance in the eyes, "There will be no desert for you. At the very least, I know my Mamá and Abuela would adopt you on the spot-"

Keith sniffed slightly eyes watering, "It's hard to adopt a 25 year old, Lance."

"Sh, that won't stop them. And they'll stuff you so full of ropa vieja you'll burst. And all of my hermanos will climb all over you and get you to deploy your beyard like twelve times to show off. Seriously, we're not gonna let you go back to the desert by yourself with not even Red for company. Seriously."

Hunk jostled Keith lightly in his lap to get Keith's attention, "Even if Lance's huge family wouldn't take you, mine would. Ohana is everything, and you bro, are part of my ohana as much as Lance and everyone else. They'll stuff you full of poke and saimin and malasadas as much as Lance's family would. My makuahine and makuakane will love you, no dessert for you."

Shiro was next, kneeling in front of Keith and pulling him as close as he could while Keith was still wrapped in blankets and in Hunk's lap. "My mother will stuff you so full of nabe and miso and rice and ochazuke until you can't move. Then dad will feed you cioppin and chowder in a homemade bread bowl that we could feed the whole team for a week. They've thought I've been dead for almost, god, eight years now. But trust me my father could never leave a person in need hanging, and right now, Keith, you need a place to go and they will give you one if no one else will. So, Keith, no shack in a desert for you." Shiro patted Keith's shoulder and then backed off a bit as Sam, Matt, and Pidge came forward. Pidge was finally able to give Keith the water packet and made sure he started drinking it.

Sam put a hand on Keith's blanketed knee, "As the only parent on the ship at the moment, let me tell you, there is no way-"

"Absolutely-" Matt broke in.

"Positively-" Pidge nudged her father grinning, and playing with the end of the Panic Attack Blanket™ still wrapped around Keith.

Sam gave both his children exasperated looks but continued, "No way that I would let you go back to an abandoned shack in the desert after seven years of fighting. We don't even know what condition it would be in and any food you had would have gone bad-"

"No it wouldn't. Its canned." Keith almost giggled, emotionally spent from all the positivity he was being bombarded with.

"Just because it's canned, doesn't mean it's still good. And even though I've only really met you today, I know you're a good person, Katie wouldn't care this much about you if you were anything less. I can see that you care, that you're lonely. We won't leave you in a desert alone, therefore, I believe I speak for my whole family when I say this, Keith, I declare you an Honorary Holt™ making you my fourth child. And since that makes over half the Voltron Team Honorary Holts™, let's just finish adopting you all, Hunk, Lance, Coran even, with the power rested in me as Dad of the Holt family, I declare you Honorary Holts. Princess Allura can be one as well when she gets some free time."

Coran looked touched to be included in the declaration, "Oh I haven't been part of a family in well, 10,000 years or so. Why on Altea, if you wanted to include new members of you family you had to catch a hufflelump blindfolded while not touching a tree! If you ran into a tree then you had to-"

Lance patted Coran's shoulder, "We get it Coranic, dude. It's been ages since you've had a family other than Allura, it's exciting for all of us dude! But here on Earth, we don't make you chase around animals to be included in family. Sometimes it takes paperwork, but most of the time it just takes a declaration like that. But now we have a very important problem on our hands."

"We do?" the whole group asked.

Lance nodded sagely, starting to fishtail braid Keith's hair now that he was calmer, forcing Keith to twist his head slightly so Lance could start the braid. "Yes now we have the all important decision since I don't want to be separated from you guys either, so how do we announce our arrival? Show up at the Garrison and make a big deal of ourselves for the media, hit up the Holt's then the Shirogane's to tell our families we're alive? I mean once we're on the planet we can finally call our families since we'll have cell service."

Sam and Shiro exchanged glances before Shiro decided, "I think we'll… Hey, Coran can we take the Lions and scare the locals a bit to help make it easier for them to believe aliens are real?"

Coran hummed and hawed about if before saying "Well, yes if you think it will make it easier to establish relations. But why would scaring them be necessary?" He twirled his mustache some as he thought.

"The reason is simple," Sam said, "to everyone who knew us, we're dead and if what we have to say, such as aliens are real and among us, isn't something they want to deal with they'll try and sweep it under the rug and hide it from everyone. Therefore the best chance we have is to surprise them and make it so no one can cover up our entrance, a Castle in the sky helps, but taking the lions and appearing on TV would make it undeniable."

"You just want to rub in the fact that we lived in the Garrison's face." Pidge accused.

"Well, yeah," Shiro agreed sheepishly, "but can you blame us? They said we're dead and called me a bad pilot, I deserve a little payback don't you think?"

"Of course," Lance agreed his hands swiftly and confidently completing the braid, "I can only wonder what they said happened to us though. And. Sad thought, Keith, did anyone even notice you were gone?"

The mumbled answer of "Well, probably not." Told Lance that no, no one knew where Keith was.

"Well, now they will. Because when we get back, there's no way we're letting you slip back under the radar. So, whenever we hit Earth's atmosphere let's go rub it in their faces that we lived and we saved the galaxy with them never knowing. And then we can hit the Holts and everyone else and stuff ourselves for the next week on all the things we missed. Cuz seriously guys, I love you but I would kill for some arroz con leche, or even just ice cream."

"Peanut butter cookies." Pidge sighed dreamily.

"Haupia." Hunk replies reverently.

"Daifuku" Shiro agreed.

"Red velvet cake." Matt and Sam sighed.

The entire group had slowly collapsed back into a Puppy Pile of Paladins and Friends™ while the declarations were being made, as Keith after a moment of thought decided to include, "Chocolate pudding," while chewing on the straw of the water pouch absently.

The group finally dozed back off, the paladins all touching in some way to seek comfort and Matt taking pictures of the Pile™ to show all the families later when they thought that their children had grown up without them. And finally, slowly they let themselves rest.

AN: I literally gave myself sugar shock writing this. If I screwed up, feel free to tell me (I've been up all night, I prolly missed something). I did some research for the part with food and families at the end, but if I got it wrong feel free to tell me and I'll fix it. Shiro's dad comes from San Fransisco.

Hang out with me on Tumblr mikiri

And thank you to the BB Sprint squad for inspiration and idea bouncing. And thank Kerunk (aka gleefreak97) for being awesome.