Keith got to the hangar just as his friends were getting out of their lions.

"You guys are okay!"

"Keith?" Lance asked, taking off his helmet. Hunk came out from behind one of Blue's legs where he was walking to Lance from.

"Hey! You're here too!"

"Yeah, they picked Shiro and I up from where we crashed yesterday, Allura just set the castle on course to get Katie!" Keith said with a wide grin. Lance pulled him and Hunk into a brief reunion hug.

"Look at Mr. Doom and Gloom, finally smiling," the Blue Paladin teased. Keith scowled at him.

"Do you always have to ruin the moment?" Hunk cleared his throat.

"Anyway,"

"We just saved a planet!" Lance exclaimed proudly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was so cool there was this underwater city," Hunk started.

"And there were MERMAIDS!" Lance yelled excitedly. Hunk put a hand on his friend's shoulder to subtly remind him to use his inside voice. The two recounted their time on the (currently thawing) ice covered planet as they walked to the bridge.

"So what happened to you and Shiro?" Hunk asked when they were done. "Is he alright?" Keith grimaced.

"Well, Haggar gave him a nasty wound during the fight at Central Command, and then there were these big reptile aliens trying to kill us, but we got out fine. He's in a pod right now. He should be out by tomorrow if not sooner."

"As long as he's okay."

"Oh! I forgot to tell you, Princess Allura and Coran found Matt! He escaped with a Galra soldier from some sort of resistance, the one responsible for letting the barrier down so the castle could escape. They ended up on the same planet the castle landed on so the two are here now."

"Seriously?! Pidge is going to be happy!" Lance exclaimed.

"Wait what about their dad?" Hunk asked.

"Matt's not sure. He hasn't really… talked to me about anything, but he hasn't seen Sam in a while," Keith said sadly.

"Oh."

"I'm sure we'll find him."

"Yeah."

"Can we meet him? He seems pretty cool from what Pidge's told me," Hunk said. The walked into the bridge, where Allura, Coran and Thace were.

"Not sure. Hey Thace do you know where Matt is?" Keith asked. "This is Hunk and Lance, Yellow and Blue Paladins."

"Good to meet you," Thace said, nodding towards the two boys.

"He went to the training deck," Allura answered, "Are you two alright?"

"Doing great Princess!" Lance cheered.

"No injuries to account for?" Coran asked, hovering protectively nearby.

"Nothing that needs any attention." Keith didn't miss the worried look Hunk sent his friends way.

"Well I'm going to go introduce them to Matt," Keith called, and they left again. "Are you hurt?" he asked Lance once they were back in the hallway.

"Just a little bruised, nothing serious, I'm okay." Lance replied light heartedly. Hunk's expression, however, did not express okayness. He looked like he felt guilty. Keith didn't know what that was for, but decided that it was between the two of them. He saw Lance slip his hand into Hunk's and whisper something to him, and he was sure that he'd smooth over whatever had happened between them just fine.

They got to the training deck, and the door opened.

Keith had never known Matt to be aggressive.

He had never known Matt to be a fighter.

But fast?

Fast was something Matthew Holt had always been.

The young man was almost a blur, dodging and weaving away from the droid's blade, getting hits and parries in with his own knife quick as lightning. He flipped and rolled with the grace of a gymnast (which, Keith remembered suddenly, he had been,) before he caught sight of the three of them and nearly stumbled, almost not blocking the training droid's sword.

"End training sequence," Matthew stated. The droid shut down. Now that Matthew wasn't moving Keith and the other two could look at him. Without the shield of long sleeves and pants, or a jumpsuit, they could really look at him. Matt regretted taking the tank top and shorts from Allura the moment he saw them.

Keith was horrified. He had seen Shiro's scars before he went into the pod, gashes that healed from his time as a gladiator, but Matt's were more than that. With his hair secured into a bun the scar tissue that snaked up his back past the hem of the shirt like rough tree bark was clear to see, as was everything else. The long dragging claw marks along his arms and covering his thighs, the Galran letters carved into his shoulder, the bite marks above his collarbone; the Paladins were speechless. Keith had never even noticed that Matt's leg was a prosthetic like Shiro's arm.

As warm of a brown as they were, Matt's eyes could have turned them to ice in that moment.

"Is there some sort of emergency?" he asked, in a monotone Keith had never heard from him before, breaking about thirty seconds of complete silence.

"No, I just… wanted you to meet my friends."

"We reached the ice planet?"

"Yeah."

"Hm." He turned away, walking to the wall and opening the rack of weapons, returning the dagger.

"This is Lance, he's the Blue Paladin, and Hunk, the Yellow Paladin."

"Your sister was in our group at the Garrison," Hunk told him.

"As long as she's out of there now," Matt sighed, closing the rack. "I'm going to change and then check on Shiro, tell me when we get close to her."

"Okay," Keith said, before the three quickly backed into the hallway.

"Is it just me because I'm really not seeing the guy that would sneak out of the house with Pidge at midnight when the sky was clear to teach her about the constellations," Hunk admitted.

"What the hell happened to him?" Lance exclaimed, but quietly, so Matt wouldn't hear him through the walls.

"I don't know? He hasn't talked about anything, I didn't even know his leg was gone!" Keith answered, voice cracking slightly.

"How did you not notice his leg was gone?!" The door whooshed open.

"Fairly easy thing to miss when I'm wearing pants," Matt said matter-of-factly behind them, wearing the outfit he had been given the day he got out of the pod. The color drained out the boys' faces instantly, but Matt just walked past them with a small wave, not looking back.

"Guys that's a Galra ship," Hunk said, worried. They had tried to make contact with the Green Lion, but Pidge wasn't there. Allura was trying to reach out to her, but not being her Paladin the damage done from the fall made doing so more difficult.

"Yes, but they haven't taken the lion, or tried to attack us yet," Thace stated, "Both of which would have happened by now under normal circumstances."

"What are you suggesting?" Lance asked.

"Stolen vessel." Keith saw Matt's eyes widen.

"Is something wrong?" he asked Matt quietly.

"No," Matt replied in complete honesty. "Thace is there a way for you to get a signal to them?" he asked, urgency in his voice.

"I'm not so sure that that's a good idea," Allura protested, losing her concentration.

"Why do you want to send them a signal?" Hunk asked with a frown.

"It's stolen," Matt said with an unsettling grin, "And that means I might have friends aboard."

The Paladins all looked at each other in confusion.

"The fuck does that mean?" Lance mouthed to Keith.

"I don't know man!" Keith mouthed back with an expressive shrug.

"You guys aren't very subtle," Hunk gestured with a quick elbow movement to Coran, who was looking at the three of them with an amused smile. Lance waved and the man had to stifle a laugh before turning back to the console, shaking his head.

"Got it," Allura exclaimed, "Pidge is aboard the ship, they are friendly. The Green Lion says Pidge told her she was coming out now."

Everyone sighed with relief.

"Now what was that about you possibly having friends aboard?" Keith asked. Matt flashed a dangerous smile at him over his shoulder.

"You honestly think I'm gonna be held captive without raising hell kiddo? Shit had only begun back at the camp when they took me to replace Shiro." A small green and white figure rocketed out of the side of the ship, and the Green Lion came to life, meeting Pidge halfway. The Paladins and her brother ran to the Green Lion's hangar, Matt getting there first by a long shot.

"Katherine Anne Holt you better be ready to explain yourself, young lady!" He shouted up to the lion as she climbed out, hands cupped around his mouth. She looked down at him in disbelief, and he threw his arms open. She jumped, and he caught her, spinning her around so her feet never touched the floor. The cavernous room echoed with the laughter of a tearful reunion, and soon many more as the twelve survivors from Matthew's camp were allowed onto the ship.

Shiro had fallen into the arms of someone he had never thought he would see again.

And he couldn't think of anyone in the universe he would want to be caught by more.

The team gave the young men a moment of peace alone, letting them have a reunion where one of them wasn't in any sort of life threatening condition. It was calm, and warm, and safe. Just the two of them standing pressed against each other, like nothing had ever separated them in the first place.

"I hurt you," he said, breaking the silence.

"You did it to protect me."

"But I hurt you," he croaked.

"That doesn't matter now, Takashi," Matt said, pulling away ever so slightly and cupping the other man's face in his hands. "I forgive you, and I promise: You are never going to have to protect me, ever again."