A/N: This little epilogue begins after the fight that occurs at the end of season 2 (I'm not writing it out because you've probably seen it and I'm here for the emotional good stuff anyway).

So for this particular story, here are my headcanons:

1) Zarkon is dead. He's dead, okay? Goodbye bad guy.

2) Shiro's disappearance from the black lion is easily explained by him just exiting his lion before the others reach it. The dude's been under a lot of stress, amiright? So once everyone leaves his empty lion, they head to the kitchen to mope, which is where they find Shiro relaxing - with his feet up on the counter - while drinking some space lemonade. (Thanks for playing along with me on this, KaSaPe!)

These not only work with this particular story, but they're also the best I've got until September when season 3 arrives.

Sometimes it was cool to have a space cat boyfriend. The ears were soft and adorable, plus they easily told Lance if Keith was happy or upset. And it didn't matter what position Lance was in, Keith always found a way to curl up against him somehow, even when it didn't look like it would be comfortable. Not to mention the purring that often lulled Lance to sleep. And Lance had lost count of the number of times that he'd found Keith asleep in random spots around the castle, his body curved into places that Lance wouldn't have thought possible.

And sometimes, when he couldn't find Keith, he entertained the idea of just sticking an empty box out in the middle of the common room and waiting to see if - like a cat - Keith would somehow be summoned by the box and show up in order to see if he could fit in it.

And more than once, in his boredom, he'd thought about activating the laser pointer on his rifle and moving it in a zig zag pattern on a wall, just to see Keith's thoughts on random red dot movements…

But he was fairly certain Keith wouldn't be too happy with him for either of those ideas, and in general, he liked to keep Keith happy.

Then there were other times when it was not cool to have a space cat boyfriend. Like right this fucking minute.

"Keith Eleanor Kogane, you get your ass back here right now!" Lance shouted through the comms as he ignored Hunk's pleading whispers that he be quieter.

"That's not my middle name," Keith muttered in response from wherever he was inside this old Galra base.

"I swear to god, every time - every single time - you go off by yourself something explodes!"

The back entrance of this Galra base had blown up about five minutes before, and Lance and Hunk were stuck waiting in the front with their bayards activated as they watched the Galra who were still stationed here scramble out. So far none of them had noticed the paladins. But so far, Keith hadn't exited the base yet, either.

Although Zarkon had been defeated, Allura's theory was that Haggar was now running the Galra military forces, which would explain why there were still active Galra bases and battle cruisers floating around the universe, which the Voltron paladins had been slowly but steadily destroying over the last six months.

"It worked, didn't it? They're leaving?" Keith asked.

"Not the point, Keith," Lance responded crisply. "What are you doing in there?"

"This place has a list of all the currently active Galra bases in its dataset? I'm collecting that information?"

"Yes, that was your mission," Lance responded dryly. "And according to Pidge, you already uploaded the records to the castle. Why is the back of this building on fire?"

Keith cleared his throat, and Lance heard his boyfriend's clear hesitation to respond. He dropped a hand off his rifle so he could rub his fingers against his forehead while he groaned at his boyfriend's impulsiveness.

"They're manufacturing some sort of explosive weapon in here?" Keith finally tentatively answered.

Lance groaned louder. "We talked about this, Keith. Remember? My curiosity killed the cat lecture? I had graphics and everything."

"I still have nightmares about those graphics," Hunk muttered, having otherwise wisely stayed out of the conversation between the other two up to this point.

Keith, meanwhile, huffed out an aggravated sound.

"I still don't see your ass out here," Lance growled in return. He was still watching the front exit and he could see that the steady stream of coughing, escaping Galra was slowing down.

"I'm deactivating their system with that virus Pidge made," Keith finally said.

"Oh, so now you're back to doing mission work, huh? Finished playing with their toys?"

Keith didn't answer him.

Having a suspicion that two of your teammates were crushing on each other, or pining as the younger kids called it – "You're seriously not that much older than us, Shiro," Pidge had added here later - was one thing.

Walking in on Keith propped up on the kitchen counter, with his legs wrapped around Lance's waist while their mouths moved hungrily against each other, was a completely different thing.

Shiro cleared his throat as Hunk and Pidge practically ran into the back of him at his unexpected stop.

Two sets of hazy eyes opened and turned towards the other three paladins as Lance attempted to use the hands he had on Keith's thighs as leverage to push away from Keith enough to stand up straight, not that Keith's legs allowed for much movement.

"Hey." Keith was the first to speak. "Lance and I are gonna be doing this a lot now."

Lance was the first to react with a chuckle that he tried his best to contain as he pressed his forehead to Keith's. "Blunt as ever," he murmured.

There were another few moments of stunned silence from the other three before Hunk thankfully broke it. "That's great, but, uh, could you not do this where the food is kept?"

Lance beamed at his best friend and wrapped his hands around Keith's waist in order to pull his boyfriend down off the counter.

"Thank you," Hunk replied and he finally entered the room fully and moved to grab some bowls. "Seriously, though, I feel like this has been a long time coming and I'm happy for you guys."

Shiro and Pidge followed Hunk and Shiro grinned when Keith's eyes moved to him next.

"Well," Shiro started, "I don't want to make everything about Voltron-,"

Pidge snickered and gave Keith and Lance small high-fives as she passed them.

"- but I'm certainly happy to see you two getting along so well. It's great for us as a team and obviously great for you both individually."

Keith tried to ignore the follow-up teasing look Shiro sent him, which thankfully negated some of the serious tone of his team captain speech.

"I'm not going to complain about anything that lessens the number of stupid fights you two have," Pidge said with a grin. "And, hey, good job on making our grumpy cat smile, Lance."

Lance looped his fingers in with Keith's and squeezed. "Well, he makes me smile a lot too." He sent his sweetest grin Keith's way and watched Keith try to duck his face and hide his blush. But Lance's free hand was there, lifting Keith's face again so that he could press kisses that began on one heated cheek and moved inward towards his lips.

"The food area!" Hunk announced as he sat.

Lance laughed and tugged on Keith's hand. "Okay, we'll be on our way, then!"

"Told you that was the best way to break it to them," Keith said on their way out. "Fast and easy, right?"

"The only time you're allowed to go fast and easy," Lance murmured back

"I take it back, I am going to complain. Because gross!" Pidge called out after them.

"We still have to tell Allura and Coran," Lance said before he tipped forward in order to kiss Keith once again when they were in the hallway.

"Let's just go make out in front of the mice," Keith said with a tug on Lance's hand. "Those two will know soon after."

Keith leaned against the table and rested his chin in the palm of one hand as his eyes roamed over Lance's pretty fingers where they sat tapping out a rhythm on the table across from where Keith sat.

Allura was reviewing details about a distress signal from a nearby planet. But they all knew the free-the-planet-inhabitants-from-Galra-soldiers-routine by now. Besides, Keith couldn't stop his thoughts from remembering how those fingers had deliciously teased him that morning. Or how he'd come undone from Lance's fingers alone, even if that hadn't been their initial intent. But those blessedly long fingers not only knew exactly what spot to focus on inside Keith, but they could reach it so easily. And they'd curled against that secret place again and again with such purpose that Keith could only cling and moan under Lance, all while Lance whispered encouraging words in his ears and looked at Keith as if he was the one who'd created all the stars in space.

He tried to keep his face impassive, sitting here in the middle of their team meeting, but he was getting warmer by the second thinking about how those fingers had spent the last few months earnestly dedicated to the task of learning how Keith liked to be touched.

He heard Lance huff out a sound that might've sounded like just a breath to anyone else, but held a whining plea that was for Keith's ears alone. Keith's nerve endings lit up at the sound and he felt heat in his belly as he tore his eyes away from Lance's fingers in order to meet Lance's eyes. There was a new flush running from Lance's neck all the way to the tips of his ears that almost made Keith smile. But there was also a challenging glint in those bright blue eyes. Lance mimicked Keith's posture by resting his chin in one of his palms and Keith knew Lance was onto him by the way he stared intently back at Keith and began to drum his fingers lightly against his cheek.

Keith's appreciation for his Galra ears was never stronger than when he was blushing. At least his ears could no longer turn red.

Shiro could hear the ferocious growling from the hallway. He paused for a moment for the sole purpose of heaving a deep sigh before he slid open the doors to the simulation room where the noise was originating. The scene inside the room was, sadly, exactly what he'd been expecting.

"Klanmuural," Shiro said, loud enough to be heard not only over the growls of the bear-like beast, but the two paladins who were whooping war cries from where they were currently situated on the creature's back.

At Shiro's correct pronunciation, the simulated klanmuural shrunk to a friendlier teddy bear version before disappearing altogether, sending Lance and Keith quickly tumbling to the floor.

"Shiro!" Keith groaned as he dropped hard on a shoulder and felt one of Lance's feet land hard enough to nearly bruise one of his ribs.

"We almost had him," Lance mumbled from where he'd fallen on his face.

Shiro heaved another deep sigh. "You are supposed to be learning the Altean language. And you're supposed to be doing it with the safety on! Please tell me you've been doing more than just this all afternoon."

Lance sat up with a groan, rubbing at his nose. But he turned to Shiro and fluently said an entire sentence in Altean, complete with finger wagging in Shiro's direction.

Shiro turned to Keith. "What did he say?"

"He said, 'of course we've been in here learning and how dare you insinuate otherwise'," Keith translated, although in a far less outraged tone than his boyfriend had just used. Then it was his turn to huff out an aggravated sigh as well. "He only lets me fight the bear after we've learned stuff."

Lance nodded and beamed in Shiro's direction. "One bear fight for every five new words we learn. And with that kind of incentive, I actually think we're ahead of Pidge!"

Shiro couldn't hide the surprise on his face.

"He's Galra."

"He's part Galra, yes," Allura responded. She wasn't sure why some of the leaders of the planets they liberated tried to point this fact out to her. As if she could somehow be unaware that she had a part-Galra paladin. She had eyes, she could see the cute ears. "And he, along with the assistance of a group of rebel Galra, helped us destroy Zarkon. Now, would you like to join our alliance or not?"

Shiro bit back a smile from where he stood next to Allura while the other four paladins remained a few steps behind them. Allura's tone of voice left no room for further discussion of their beloved part Galra teammate. And he loved her for it.

They'd just freed this planet from the Galra soldiers who were still pitifully trying to keep control of the inhabitants even without Zarkon's direction. Voltron's alliances were building steadily and they were always happy to have another civilization join in to help promote peace and freedom throughout the universe.

However, as they wrapped up their meeting with this group and reboarded the castle ship, Keith thought about the discussion Allura had led over breakfast a few days ago. Since they could all finally breathe a little now, Allura thought the paladins were long overdue for a break. And not just any break. She had mentioned that the five of them had been scooped up into this life without even knowing what they were getting themselves into. And now they were being offered the choice they didn't have at the beginning. She was setting a course for Earth, and offered it up as a visit, although it would be up to them whether or not they returned to the castle at the designated time and continued on with Voltron's mission.

Lance had been practically floating around the castle after this discussion.

But Keith had never felt heavier in his entire life.

After their battle with Zarkon, Shiro had requested that Kolivan stay on with them for a while. He said it was so Kolivan could teach them what he knew about current universal customs and maybe even a little bit of the Marmoran fighting style. But Keith also noticed during meals that Shiro began asking Kolivan questions that pried into Galra-specific customs and behaviors. And Keith noticed that Kolivan not only answered the questions freely, but he also glanced in Keith's direction often as he did so. It only took a few nights of this before Keith finally felt comfortable enough to begin asking Kolivan his own Galra-related questions. He was pretty sure Shiro had set him up on purpose.

He was always going to be pretty thankful for Shiro.

And due to his extended stay invitation, Kolivan had requested that his family be allowed to join them as well. As it was, instead of staying at the Blade of Marmora's headquarters, most of the soldiers stationed there had their families hiding in another secret location. And it had been quite a long time since Kolivan had seen his, which included not only his mate, but their two small and – per Lance - adorable children, Lex and younger brother, Tim.

The paladins stood by as the ship that brought Kolivan's family landed in one of their bays, and then they watched as he was happily reunited with them. Keith hadn't missed the way the reunion had affected Lance. Or Hunk. Even Pidge's eyes were beginning to look a little glassy as they all watched the hugs and affectionate ear rubs. And he was once again reminded that they were heading towards Earth where three of his family members were going to be deboarding. He forced those thoughts away as he was introduced to Kolivan's family.

Lance had taken to the children immediately, and Keith spent the first day of their arrival using his improved hearing skills to search out his boyfriend solely by the squealing caused by Lance chasing around the two young and extremely fast Galra.

Keith leaned against the doorway when he finally found them later in one of the common rooms. Tag had been given up in exchange for digging through one of the bags of toys the kids had brought and from where Keith stood, he could see Lance sitting on the floor and holding up a tablet with one hand while his other hand waved across it purposefully.

He hadn't been spotted yet, allowing Keith a chance to just stand and soak in the sight of Lance with Lex settled in his lap to watch, while Tim was draped across his back, giving him the best vantage point to wave his hand over Lance's shoulder and try to give him pointers on the tablet's screen.

"This is how you color?" Lance finally asked. "What is this even a picture of?"

"It's a rorvack," Lex said.

"They're called that because that's the sound they make when they eat their prey!" Tim said, helpfully.

Lance's face twisted and Keith grinned.

"Don't you have any pictures of like spaceships or, I don't know, puppies to color? You know, something not terrifying?"

"What's a puppy?"

"Do you eat it?"

Lance shook his head at their simultaneous questions. "Here, I'll draw one."

Keith couldn't see the picture Lance was drawing on the tablet, but he could see the way the two kids' faces scrunched up in horror when he was finished.

"Those?" Tim suddenly pushed himself off Lance's back in order to stand. "Those are terrible! They bite and claw!" He lifted his tiny clawed hands and scrunched his face up further, looking as though he was trying to imitate one of the terrible puppies.

Keith thought it was a pretty good likeness.

"Well, maybe I didn't draw it right." Lance tilted his head and glanced at his sketch again. "Cause Earth puppies are sweet and - ,"

"And they're poisonous to Galra!"

"Okay, see!" Keith suddenly said, stepping further into the room. "Clearly not my fault dogs hate me!"

Lance's head shot up, his smile already in place at the sound of Keith's voice. "Well, we did have to put you in a healing pod for that bite."

"You got bit?" Tim's eyes widened as he turned to stare up at Keith. "And you lived?"

"That's amazing," Lex added as she scrambled out of Lance's lap and beelined for Keith so she could grab hold of his hand and proceed to stare adoringly up at him.

Keith offered her an awkward smile and gave his hand a test tug. Nope, she was not letting go. He shot help me eyes in Lance's direction.

Lance pretended not to notice.

Thankfully, Pidge wandered in then and eventually ended up saving Keith's hostage hand, although in a way that none of them were expecting.

She settled in on one of the couches with her laptop and began typing without even making eye contact with anyone else, which Lance always found amusing. After all, she could just work in her room if she really wanted to be alone. But he was pretty sure Pidge thrived on all of their company as much as she thrived by working that big brain of hers.

Lex suddenly let go of Keith's hand and he moved to have a seat next to Lance where he bumped their shoulders together as he leaned over to see what Lance and Tim were now coloring on the tablet. Choosing a color was the easy part, he noticed. The hard part seemed to come in knowing how to wave your hand correcting over the screen to fill in the picture correctly. Although, Lance seemed to already have the hang of it and Keith found his eyes drawn more to Lance's concentrated face than the picture of the giant squid thing that was currently swallowing what looked like a pirate ship whole.

In fact, he was so intently watching the way Lance's tongue would peek out between his lips every few seconds that he almost missed what it was that Lex said to Pidge.

"You look like Matt."

Lance almost dropped the tablet as both his and Keith's heads whipped up to see a stunned looking Pidge stare back at Lex beside her.

Lex's eyes moved slowly around the room to glance at the guys before she turned back to Pidge, clearly worried she'd said something wrong.

"It's just – well, I mean Matt's the only other human we've ever met, but even so, you look like him."

"Where is he?" Pidge whispered.

"Back at the base where we've been living."

The words were barely out of her mouth before the three paladins jumped to their feet and took off to find Allura. Lance stuffed Tim under his arm like as a football on the way out of the door and Lex only grinned as she jumped up to follow.

So turning the castle around and wormhole-jumping to another secret rebel base in order to watch Pidge bust into the middle of the group's dinner shouting her brother's name before hugging the ever living crap out of him had been a real highlight to this entire paladin deal.

Plus it had delayed their return to Earth by a day or so, which Keith appreciated since his chest got tight every time he even remotely thought about the goodbye that he was about to endure prior to Lance's departure.

So he was happy for Pidge and he got a few extra days with Lance. Win win.

And now with Matt by her side, Pidge was as excited as Hunk and Lance to return home. Keith knew at least that Shiro wasn't going to be heading to Earth with them. Not only did he want to stay near the lions, but he'd mentioned to Keith in a private conversation that he wasn't comfortable heading back to Earth just yet.

"They just sedated me without even letting me talk last time," Shiro said with a shake of his head.

"Well, you wouldn't crash land right outside the Garrison this time," Keith had offered.

"I just feel more comfortable in the castle right now."

Keith couldn't argue with him. He'd be happy for the company anyway.

Lance had been on dish duty after dinner and was now in search of his cute boyfriend for some quality cute boyfriend time. But so far Keith wasn't in the common room with the others, or secretly bear fighting in the simulation room, or squeezing in some extra nighttime training on the training deck. And this castle had way too many rooms to be looking in every single one for a wayward boyfriend.

He finally reached his and Keith's new room. Once it was clear that they were only using one bedroom every night anyway, Coran had moved the two of them into a room with a larger bed. Although, since Lance spent every night wrapped around Keith, he hadn't been too concerned about needing a bed with more space. However, he did appreciate that this room had a larger bathroom. With an actual tub.

Plus it was located in a separate hallway from all those who were in single rooms. He couldn't say he didn't enjoy that.

And as their bedroom door slid open, he couldn't help but smile as he finally found Keith, wearing Lance's jacket, curled up asleep in a chair in the corner. Lance sank down on the edge of the bed that was closest to Keith and tilted his head. Keith had half his face tucked down in the jacket collar and his bangs were all falling over to one side of his forehead.

"Adorable," Lance murmured. "Despite the fact that that looks completely uncomfortable, space kitten."

"Don't you dare start using kitten." Keith's eyes slid open so he could properly glare at Lance.

"I've been looking all over for you, babe."

Keith sat up from the position he'd curled himself into and stretched his arms out in front of himself before he slowly stood, doing his best to appear innocent before he jumped forward and pounced on Lance. Lance laughed as he fell back on the mattress and wrapped his arms tightly around Keith in return.

"Stealing my jacket again?"

"It smells like you."

It didn't matter that they'd said this back and forth script every time Lance caught Keith in his jacket, Lance still felt his stomach flip happily every time he heard Keith say his line.

"Hey Keith, you want to stay on and help with this Voltron alliance, right?"

Keith had his face tucked into Lance's neck but he nodded anyway. "Shiro seems to think that my visibly supporting the diplomacy meetings will be helpful. He says that as more populations learn that one of Voltron's paladins is part Galra, that it will help lessen the stigma of the Galra who weren't involved in Zarkon's army."

"Like a spokesperson."

"Yeah, I guess. You can totally see me as a believable diplomatic spokesperson, right?"

"I think we both know the answer to that."

Keith huffed out a laugh as his fingers reached up to curl around Lance's neck so he could run his fingertips through the ends of his hair.

"This is getting long here in the back," Keith murmured. "Starting to remind me of -,"

"Don't you dare say it," Lance growled.

"- a mullet."

"It does not!" Lance dug his fingers into Keith's sides, causing the red paladin to wiggle away from him as he laughed. Keith soon retaliated, though, which led to a small wrestling match that almost landed both of them on the floor.

When they were finished, Keith settled in to sit beside Lance. His ears lowered unconsciously as he pulled the jacket tighter around himself.

"I was talking to Hunk earlier," Lance said as he fluffed a pillow behind his back, "and he's excited about visiting his family, but he's already talking about what kind of food and ingredients he's bringing back with him when he returns. Plus, I think he wants to ask Shay if she'd like to come on board here too. And Pidge is definitely coming back, most likely with Matt. I mean, they still have to look for their dad, so - ,"

"Maybe you could leave your jacket here with me when you go home?" Keith asked.

"Wait, what?"

"Well, unless you think you'll need it?"

"No, I mean, wait as in, Keith – light of my life - do you think there's any possible way I'm leaving you behind on this castle for the month we've been given to go visit Earth?" Lance narrowed his eyes as Keith's eyes moved to the blanket covering their bed and stayed there. "Or," he said in a softer tone, "are you also somehow under the impression that I'm not only going to leave you here while I go to Earth, but then not return?"

"That's your home, Lance," Keith said, his throat so tight he almost didn't get the words out. Plus, his ears were refusing to listen to him and he knew they were still pressed unhappily back against his hair right now. But he wasn't going to be selfish. He was going to push Lance towards what he knew would make Lance happy.

"No," Lance said sternly. "You're my home now, Keith."

"That's your family," Keith added, still unable to draw his eyes up to Lance's face.

"You're my family," Lance insisted. "Galra mate for life, right? Well, so do I. And there's no way I'm ever going to leave you behind. Anywhere."

Lance poked a finger into Keith's chest and Keith involuntary gulped in some air, not even realizing that he'd been holding his breath. He finally lifted his eyes to meet Lance's, and when Lance was certain he had Keith's attention, he continued.

"I'm never going to forget or disregard the rest of my family, Keith. And we are going to visit them, because I am definitely introducing my future husband to my parents."

Keith huffed out an incredulous breath even though he knew Lance was being serious. He was pretty serious about making that a Real Thing in the future as well. But he still wasn't used to how easily or regularly those words rolled right off of Lance's tongue.

Lance continued undeterred. "But I don't belong there anymore. I belong here doing this job." He ran a hand through his hair for a moment as he thought about the things Keith had done to support him. "You're the one who helped me realize that, you know? Showed me that I do have an important part to play here. And I know I sound sappy as fuck right now, but I also know I'm always going to belong wherever you are, space cat.

Sappy or not, happiness bloomed in Keith's chest and he responded by crawling into Lance's lap. He felt Lance smile against his lips as a loud purr began to rumble from him.

"I want you to make me your home too, Keith."

"I love you," Keith whispered immediately as his lips moved from Lance's mouth over towards his ear.

"That's a yes to meeting the parents, right?" Lance teased back. He laughed when Keith's teeth connected with his earlobe and squeezed his arms even tighter around Keith's middle. "I love you, too, Keith."

Keith's ears perked up happily as he pulled back far enough to see Lance's face again. "Although, how do you expect me to casually visit Earth with these ears?"

"Easy," Lance said with a grin. "Pidge says it's October, so we can just tell anyone who asks that you're wearing ears on a headband as part of a costume or something." Lance ran both of his hands through Keith's hair and then rubbed fondly over his ears for a moment. "No one would be able to tell with all this unruly hair if you really have a headband on or not. Although, maybe just try not to move them too much while we're in public."

Keith smiled at that, at Lance's enthusiasm and the fact that he'd already worked out a partial plan for Keith to feel comfortable.

"We're totally telling my family the truth, though. It'll be way more believable that I've been in space this whole time when I bring back my alien boyfriend. Plus, my sisters are seriously going to be jealous that I managed to bag someone with real cat ears."

Keith's ears flicked back and forth contentedly under Lance's fingers as he dropped his forehead to Lance's forehead. "You're sure this is a good idea?"

"Pft, they're all gonna love my space cat boyfriend."

A/N: I wrote out that one of the little Galra children grabbed Keith's hand and stared at him adoringly and suddenly had an image of Lex from Jurassic Park, in case any of you were wondering where the little Galra children's names came from (I also don't own Jurassic Park).

As much as I enjoyed season 2, writing this certainly helped fill in some of the gaps. Thanks for coming along on this ride with me!

UPDATE: If you enjoyed this, and you'd like to see what happens when Lance takes Keith home to meet the family, I wrote a sequel called "Take Me Home" and I also wrote a 3rd part to this series called "Choosing Home"