Lance remembered even if Keith didn't the first time they really talked to each other. It had been months into their Garrison carriers and Lance had already set himself to be Keith's rival even though they hadn't interacted with each other other than the few times they walked in opposite directions in the hallway and Keith acknowledged Lance's existence enough to take a step to the side as Lance did the same so they wouldn't collide. Just like he did with every other cadet he saw.

This day however Keith was actually looking and talking to Lance. First to tell Lance to shut up when Lance reached the fourth minute of loudly talking at his classmates who who like they were in a faraway world. Lance, of course, wouldn't stop talking without a fight but soon found out that may have been better that day.

"Excuse you; I'm the best pilot in my class."

"Really?" Keith asked but had clearly already decided he didn't believe Lance.

"Yeah, you should know that already." Lance almost looked sincerely concerned for Keith not knowing. Or maybe he was actually concerned and trying to hide it very badly.

Keith thought for a moment. He didn't interact with or note many things about his classmates, but he knew he was the best his class and that the second best was defiantly redheaded and far fairer than this idiot. Not to mention that she was female. Keith looked at the boy again and came to a relation.

"You're a cargo pilot." Keith had almost forgotten that the fighter and cargo pilots shared most classes.

"And the best one you will ever see."

"The best cargo pilot. You must be so proud," Keith said looking unimpressed.

"Of course I'm proud. I'm the best in my class."

Keith widened his eyes. "Yeah, you're right. That must be almost as good as being the least soggy piece of bread."

"You're outta this world, and I would know."

It was months into their time as paladins of Voltron and Lance was flirting with an alien. Which wasn't unusual, but this one looked quite male with its tall and gray frame, wide shoulders and rough but symmetrical face. Not that Keith was an expert in alien biology. It only lasted a couple of distressingly painful minutes before the alien realized Lance was flirting and turned away from him so the alien could sprint away with a shocked and disturbed expression.

Lance looked disappointed for a second before be noticed Keith staring after the running alien, but was interrupted by Keith right before he could say something.

"Wasn't that a man?"

"You have a problem with that, Keith? Are you against same sex attractions or something?"

Keith finally stopped looking after the vanished alien. "Why would it even matter who you like. No one is going to like you back anyway."

Lance stood with wide eyes and kept closing and opening his mouth. It was an amusing sight and Keith barely managed to suppress his amusement.

Lance would most of the time be the one teasing Keith, sometimes with little success and sometimes he was so successful that he was lucky that the others could keep Keith from killing Lance in cold-blooded murder.

Keith never knew when the teasing would take place, he doubted Lance even knew before he started it, but he generally was ready for anything as soon as he saw Lance's dumb face.

"¡Hola, Keith! ¿Bueno pues?" Lance shouted as he entered the dining room where Keith was almost done with his post workout meal.

"Um, hi Lance," Keith answered, confused why Lance needed to shout and why he needed to say hi and something else in Spanish.

"¿Hablas español? Lo hago porque soy inteligente." Lance asked with big eyes in fake curiosity. Lance was probably mocking or insulting him. Keith knew very little Spanish but Lance said something about being smart, and Keith was 80% sure that meant he was saying something about Keith being dumb.

"Can't you find someone else to bother?" Keith asked and hoped he sounded just irritated enough for Lance to leave but not irritated enough that Lance would find annoying him fun.

"Oh, sorry, I will have to speak your language then? Your only language, but I guess not everyone can be smart enough to speak more than one." Lance talked as if he was some aristocrat and Keith was just waiting to be called a peasant.

"Languages have nothing to do with intelligence," Keith grumbled even though he knew it might have been a small lie. He sure was impressed heard about the teenager that had learned 20 languages in 4 years when he was still on Earth, so there had to be something about intelligence and languages.

"So you don't speak anything else than old, boring English?" Lance walked over and stood behind the chair next to Keith.

It hurt his neck to turn it so far, but he wasn't about to turn away from Lance. "Of course I do. I'm just stating it's no big deal since idiots like you can do it."

"Really? But no te creo," Lance said with fake sympathy. Whatever he said, it was probably to rile Keith up and he wasn't going to let him have that satisfaction. He was legally an adult and he was going to take the highway and not act childish. Don't give him what he wants, Keith, he reminded himself, one shouldn't argue about knowing other languages when one only remember some of the words Shiro taught him.

"Nūdorubouru!" Keith yelled like he was shouting 'fuck you' at himself for biting into Lance's bait.

Lance looked surprised that another language than English was coming out of Keith's mouth. Good thing Japanese wasn't as commonly known in North America as Spanish was because Keith was sure he wasn't even pronouncing it right and he had no idea if what he was saying made any sense. Shiro would be horrified to hear Keith butcher the language.

"¡No sé lo que dices pero te odio!" Lance shouted.

"Uma, neko, inu!" Keith shouted back and had a vague idea of the animals he was naming.

"¡Coño!"

"Hansamu!" Keith belated realized it sounded too much like its English meaning but he was already red from anger so at least he didn't have to worry about Lance finding out that he was blushing.

"¡Eres palestino!"

Keith stood up and looked Lance in the face as he tried to make his gibberish intimidating as he spoke in a low voice. "Kabe, hyō." Keith heard how cutesy it sounded and it was solely determination that stopped his expression from wavering.

Lance lost some of his fire. "Siempre me haces sentir como un jodido idiota y odio que te amo." Keith was not an emo tea or whatever that last part meant, but he was lacking Japanese words and the creativity to invent some to shout at Lance. Therefore, he would just have to shout the last few he knew and leave.

"Ko, hyō, otōsan, inu!" Keith shouted and hoped Lance didn't notice some of the words had been used before.

Lance was about to say something more but Keith couldn't let him because he really didn't have any other words to say and Lance clearly knew the Spanish language well. Keith left his bowl of almost finished goo but Lance could wash it and deserved it for being a Spanish-speaking showoff who didn't deserve to have the last word.

Shiro was leaning up the wall as Keith walked past him and followed him down the hall.

"That was very entertaining," Shiro said, sounding more light-hearted than Keith had heard him in a long time.

Keith hummed broodingly and Shiro fortunately took that as an appropriate reply.

"I feel like you two weren't really listening to each other." Shiro shook his head a bit. "And you both had such valid points too."

Oh right, Shiro was picking on Keith but the only thing Keith think was that he had forgotten that Shiro was decent at Spanish. Maybe even close to how good he was at Japanese. How could Keith forget that there wasn't much Shiro couldn't do?

"You could tell me if Lance said anything interesting."

"Sure," Shiro said cheerfully but Keith recognized the evil in Shiro that was coming to the surface. "But then I would also have to tell Lance how articulate you really are, Keith."

Keith huffed in reply and looked away from Shiro, and how could Keith forget that under that leader façade was an evil and childish man hiding, who would like nothing else than telling Lance how Keith was really just naming random words instead of insults?

Shiro walked up next to Keith and looked at Lance freaking out to Hunk.

"and then he just hit me because he thought I wanted to fight, Hunk!" Lance was yelling distressingly on the other side of the training deck.

"Why are you acting like you don't know what a high five is?"

Keith glanced at the man next to him.

"It's funny." He shrugged.

Shiro sighed disappointed but Keith could see a stifled smile when he took another glance.

"Just don't overdo it. I don't think Lance can take much more."

"You know me, Shiro."

"That's why I'm worried."

Keith smiled and an evil glint shone like a star in his eyes.

"Okay, Keith, Buddy, one more time. I say 'Vol', you say 'tron'. Vol-"

Keith was quiet until he couldn't take Lance's hopeful expression any longer. "Voltron."

"No!" Lance shouted. "How are you not getting this? The instruction is still in the chant!" Lance clawed at his hair and Keith started feeling just slightly badly about teasing Lance. The first time he had tried to teach the chant to Keith, Keith had been genuinely confused about what he was expected to do, but the other times had been completely on purpose.

"You said it differently last time."

"What, I literally say the same thing word for word every time I try this with you."

"No the part after I said 'Voltron'. You said it differently." Keith was starting to curse his soft heart. Now Lance would probably explain it so thoroughly that Keith couldn't play it off without seeming too dumb.

"That's not a part of the chant. The only parts is me telling you what to do and then us saying Voltron." Keith opened his mouth but Lance quickened his speech before Keith had a chance to interrupt. "Together! We say Voltron together. As in I say the first half and you say the second one."

Should Keith nod now to show he wasn't completely stupid and understood or could he still turn this around so he could use it to agitate Lance again? After all, there were only so many things he could seem oblivious about, so every little thing mattered.

"Do you get it now?" Lance somehow managed to both look hopeful and heartbroken at the same time, before he sighed dejectedly. "Or should I get Shiro to explain it better?"

Curse his soft heart. Curse it all. "No, I think I got it now."

"Really?" Lance said in a slightly higher pitch than normally and actually put his hands together and folded in on himself a bit so he could look up at Keith instead of the other way around.

"Yes, you explained it much better now."

Lance's smile blossomed brighter than any sun or crystal Keith had seen and maybe it was worth it to give this one thing up.

Lance straightened and replaced his bright smile with his more usual cocky expression. "Of course, it was great. You shouldn't expect anything less from the Lance-man."

Okay forget it. It wasn't worth it at all but it probably too late to back off now.

"Okay, okay. I say 'Vol' and you say 'tron'. Vol-"

Should he destroy Lance's dream of getting a chant? He could still do it. Keith looked at Lance's encouraging smile as Lance looked down the inch or two between them. Keith mentally sighed. Saving the Universe was making Keith too weak.

"-tron…"

Lance threw his arms up in the air and smiled even brighter than his earlier sun-weakening smile. He took a couple of loud breaths looking searching at Keith's face before he threw his arms around Keith and tightened his grip until it was almost painful.

"You did it, Keith. You actually did it." Keith stood rigid for a few of Lance's excited breaths before he hesitantly put his stiff arms around Lance.

On one hand, he could never go back to not knowing how Lance's chant went without even someone as thick as Lance finding out that Keith was faking it, but on the other hand, he felt appreciated and like Lance was proud of him. Like he had done something to be proud of.

Feelings were so complicated.

"This" Lance said seriously, as he held a spoonful of purple goo up for them all to see. "Is the shit."

"Aww, thank you, man," Hunk said earnestly. He had seemed nervous at the start of the meal if the others would like the changed goo.

Should Keith have fun with this? He looked over at Hunk's happy face and decided not to. Hunk was great and Keith didn't want to be the one to ruin his moment of glory.

The others were happy too, except Coran who seemed to like the food but was miffed that the others seemed to like Hunk's experimental food and not Coran's food. Keith felt a bit badly about not enjoying the food, Coran presented when they started their Paladin carriers but it had been rather nauseating.

Keith decided that Coran would get over it soon and happily take care of the castle or whatever Coran did when Keith wasn't looking. Talking to the princess maybe? Could be, but he didn't think they had much to talk about that wouldn't make them sad. Lance seemed closer to Coran than the others were so maybe they were reminiscing about Earth and Altea together or comparing the planets to each other.

Keith was most of the time in a conversation at the dinner table with the others, but he didn't understand how some of them could be in two conversations simultaneously. He could barely keep up with his one conversation with Pidge about Commander Iverson. Apparently, he was the exact same back when Keith had him as a teacher as he was when Pidge joined the school.

"That tasted like shit," Lance exclaimed so loudly that all other conversation stopped.

"That wasn't very nice," Pidge said like the hypocrite she was. Keith liked her but even Keith was occasionally surprised about how… honest she was about her feelings. Pidge would probably tell a new mother that her baby was ugly without feeling any guilt. Okay, maybe Keith could admit he made her sound worse than she was, but she defiantly wouldn't keep quiet about not liking the food.

"I thought you liked it, Lance," Hunk told Lance. He looked so pitiful that Keith got that weird protective feeling he got when he saw an underweight kitten meowing in a cardboard box when he was 12.

"No, Hunk, I didn't mean this food. I meant the green food from that celebration banquet."

"Oh, the one with the-"

"Yes exactly!"

"Yeah, that was nasty," Hunk agreed.

Keith had never actively tried to make a connection with anyone before all of them were brought to Allura and Coran, but he found himself just a little bit envious about the bond Hunk and Lance had. He envied Pidge's bond with them too but to a lesser degree. The bond was depending on how long they had known each other, Keith concluding internally.

"Why would you even eat the green food? It looked so gross!" Pidge asked and showed Keith that his inner monologue about her honesty hadn't been completely misguided.

"You were just too chicken to try it. Everyone else got a taste," Lance teased.

Pidge wrinkled her nose. "Who would I try something that made even Coran green?"

"Keith drank nunvil after he saw Lance vomiting after drinking it," Hunk informed her.

Touché, Hunk, Keith thought but wasn't overly bothered by his words.

Allura seemed to take the switch of conversation less well and put down her spork even though she was only half done with her bowl before she delicately cleaned her already clean mouth with her napkin and put it on her bowl so she couldn't see the contents in the bowl. And here Keith was, thinking the princess was tough and she couldn't even take a bit of puke talk.

"What did you eat then, Pidge?" Lance in a way Keith couldn't determine if it was amused or irritated.

"There was some delicious looking buns," Pidge answered with her nose pointed up to the ceiling.

"Oh, I didn't get to taste them," Hunk said excitedly and Keith couldn't get the imagine of Pidge stealing the food out of his head. "How were they?"

"The worst thing I've ever tasted."

"Really, the worst?" Keith asked surprised. The buns had had a funny taste but it had been far from the most horrible thing he had tasted. Different taste buds then or maybe Pidge was just too smart to taste all the horrible things Keith had put in his mouth so the buns really were the worst thing she had ever tasted.

"No, not really. It was not entirely bad, but not something I would hunt down again."

That made more sense and Keith nodded a bit before asking, "But then why did you say it was the worst thing you've ever tasted?"

"Does everything have to be literal with you, Keith!?" Lance interrupted annoyed. It was irritating that the times Keith wasn't acting blank to annoy Lance was the times he became most annoyed with Keith.

"I always talk literally, Lance."

"I forgot, we can't speak like normal human beings," Lance paused, as he glanced at Coran and Allura before continuing, "and other just as civilized beings when you're at the table."

"I think the buns tasted like dick," Keith answered unfeelingly when he decided that he could get the best of this since the moment was already ruined for Hunk.

The others looked at Keith with either big eyes and raised eyebrows or furrowed eyebrows and squinting eyes, except Lance who seemed completely frozen safe for the red entering his cheeks and the high-pitched choking noise he let out.

Pidge cleared her throat. "Keith, you meant that figuratively speaking, right?"

"No," Keith answered, as he looked her in the eyes with a deadpanned expression. "I meant it tasted like a literal cock."

"Heh, this is a joke, right? Haha, you made a joke, Keith. It is one, right? Because how would you…?" Hunk asked but Keith was sure he knew the answer already so Keith simply let his eyes wander over to Hunk and smiled a crooked smile. This was so funny.

He looked over at Shiro who looked like his life was flashing in front of his eyes and the smile morphed into big, proper smile. As Allura excused herself from the table in a far more hurried manner than she normally did.

I know the Japanese makes little sense. That was on purpose because Keith kind of sucks at it even though he remembers a good number of words. The Spanish on the other hand, should make sense, because my Spanish teacher will probably hit me with a ruler if I got nothing out of the 3 years I was taught. Even if I will excuse it with me trying to use the few Cuban words that I found that fit into their conversation (such as coño) However, please correct the Spanish or English for that matter if there's anything wrong with it.

Here's the translations:

Spanish: ¡Hola, Keith! ¿Bueno pues? = Hello, Keith! What's up?

Spanish: ¿Hablas español? Lo hago porque soy inteligente = Do you speak Spanish? I do because I'm intelligent.

Spanish (and English): Really? But no te creo = Really? But I don't believe you

Japanese: Nūdorubouru = bowl of noodles

Spanish: No sé lo que dices pero te odio = I don't know what you're saying but I hate you

Japanese: Uma, neko, inu!= Horse, cat, dog!

Spanish: ¡Coño! = Bastard

Japanese: Hansamu! = Handsome!

Spanish: ¡Eres palestino!= You are stupid/retarded

Japanese: Kabe, hyō = wall, table

Spanish: Siempre me haces sentir como un jodido idiota y odio que te amo. = You always makes me feel like a fucking idiot and I hate that I love you

Japanese: Ko, hyō, otōsan, inu!= Child, table, father, dog!