23 / 10

In honour of Keith's birthday, here is an one-shot of how the team celebrates the day of Keith's existence.

Disclaimer - I do not own Voltron : Legendary Defenders

22:13 PM - EARTH TIME

Keith gets a call from Lance, saying that Shiro wants him on the Castle of Lions that night. Keith raises an eyebrow at the sudden demand.

"Please Keith? Everyone misses you…we don't get to see you often anymore. I swear, even the mice miss you and they usually hate your guts."

Keith sighs and nods, "I'll see you in half an hour."

Lance beams and switches the communicator off. Keith closes his eyes and lets out a deep breath, his whole body is sore and he thinks he may have fractured something? He wasn't sure. Plus, he wasn't really welcomed onto the ship the last time he went back. He understands the team's feeling of betrayal completely, but what other choice did he have?

22:49 PM - EARTH TIME

Pidge, Matt and Hunk are waiting for Keith at the loading docks. Matt jumped in excitement upon hearing Keith's arrival. He hasn't heard about Keith in ages, his name was thrown around during the Garrison days, and Shiro would sometimes mention his brother figure while on the Kerberos mission, but he hasn't really gotten to know him. That almost-stunt Keith pulled during the attack on Noxela (A/N: I have no idea how to spell it I'm so sorry) nearly gave Matt a heart attack…the worst part is that the paladins don't know who they could've lost that day. Keith made Matt keep it a secret, he didn't want the other to worry, they've already got too much on their hands, and Keith didn't want them to be distracted from their mission as Voltron.

As a Blade spaceship pulled up Pidge and Hunk recklessly raced towards it. Matt could only smile at the sight. A figure clad in black and purple emerged and was immediantly tackled by the two eager paladins. The usually composed and stern-faced Keith was smiling so much his cheeks started to hurt. Declarations of love and friendship occurs ("WHY DID YOU LEAVE FOR SO LONG?" "YOU COULD'VE TEXTED US" "KEITH WHY ARE YOU SUCH A LONER, I MISSED YOU") before Keith shot Matt a look for help. The rebel jogged over and forcefully pulled Pidge off of Keith, PIdge grumbles and hisses at Matt while the older Holt only sticks his tongue out at them. Hunk clings onto Keith, with tears streaming down his face, as the paladin-now-turned-mamorian dragged himself towards Matt.

"Nice to finally meet you in person, Kogane." Matt says, hand outstretched for a handshake. Keith takes it, smiles and manages a soft "Likewise." before Pidge crashes into him again.

"I SWEAR KEITH IF YOU EVER LEAVE FOR THAT LONG AGAIN I'M GOING TO KILL YOU."

22:58 PM - EARTH TIME

Upon seeing Keith's arrival, Coran ushered 'Number 4' to sit down in the lounge. He noticed Keith's overly tired form, and how he seemed to be wincing a little from time to time. Coran will have a stern talk with the Blade of Mamora for making one of his boys suffer like that. Hunk excuses himself to fetch milkshakes, allowing Matt and Keith to get to know one another as they would be working side by side in the near future. Or at least, they hoped they would.

Pidge quickly sneaks off to get Lance, who is no doubt either playing that one video game, or in the middle of his facial treatment. They did not expect Lance to be pacing in him room, nose scrunched up and eyebrows furrowing occasionally. He opens his mouth to say something to the wall, before closing and pacing again. Pidge bets Lance didn't even notice their trespassing.

"Lance."

Pacing. More pacing, a soft hum, but not directed to Pidge.

"Lance."

"HAPPY BIRTHD-oh it's just you."

Pidge tilts their head, a sly smirk growing on their previously confused face. "Are you practicing to confess? Loverboy-Lance?"

Lance's already reddened ears give away, but he denies the accusation. "Just startled" he says, "I didn't even hear the door open!" he says, "I though Keith was here to sulk in my room!" he realises the last excuse was a little bit of a stretch.

"Who cares, Keith's here. Go say hi to your crush." Pidge deadpans before closing the door. Lance sighs. He won't admit it, but he's been a little lonely without Keith. He knows he's got Hunk beside him, and Allura and Shiro are here whenever he needs them, plus, Matt is an addition. But something was missing…a certain hot-headed mullet wearer's absence was bothering Lance, and to have him back is amazing, but also terrifying.

What if Keith decides to leave again? To be fair, Lance is certain Keith is going to leave again, but he doesn't want to see Keith's back facing him anymore, he doesn't want to see Keith clad in purple and black and wincing every step he takes. He just wants Keith back here with the team, is that too much to ask?

23:02 PM - EARTH TIME

Shiro and Allura have been notified of Keith's return, both paladins raced to the lounge and wrapped their friend in a suffocating hug.

"Shiro, okay, Shiro please, my fracture is going to get worse, please."

A series of apologies later, the team were sat together exchanging stories of events that took place during Keith's absence. Keith's smile wavers a little, but he's happy that the team are in their top shape, and share an incredible bond. He could've never achieved that.

23:35 PM - EARTH TIME

Lance finally decides to make an appearance, Shiro scolds him lightly about how long it took him to realise Keith was back. Lance only pouts at his leader before waving awkwardly at Keith, Keith smiles anyway before taking too big of a sip from the milkshake, resulting in a brain freeze. Shiro laughs at Keith's hunched over shoulders and tightly closed eyes and begins retelling the story of how Keith shoved a whole ice cream into his mouth on a dare once. Matt doubles over, laughing, he's heard this story before, and he himself tried recreating it for the sake of it.

Keith growls and attempts to cover Shiro's mouth with his hands, but alas, he is no match for Shiro's metal arm. "So yeah, he stuffed the entire ice cream into his face, just because some kid taunted him, and then got a major brain freeze. Stayed in bed for the rest of the day because his head was hurting so much."

"I can't believe you're older than me, Keith." Hunk laughs.

"It's not like you don't do it!" Keith attempts to defend.

"Yeah, but I don't get brain freezes like that."

Keith pouts slightly, which causes Allura to giggle. "Gosh, I've missed you and your grumpiness, Keith." She says, "I wasn't able to perform my best Keith because I've nearly forgotten your grumpy face." she ruffles his hair as he raises an eyebrow at the statement.

"Your best Keith?" He asks.

Shiro freezes up, "Let's drop it."

"No, no, no, this is interesting, Shiro why don't you tell the story? Since you like telling stories so much?"

23:50 PM - EARTH TIME

After a whole night of pure laughter, they call it a night. Upon seeing his bed, Keith plops down on it face first, and groans upon the unpleasant feeling in his left arm. Probably a minor fracture, nothing too serious.

He stays like that for a while.

Although they were laughing and everything was seemingly normal…something was off about the atmosphere. Of course, the addition of Matt Holt was quite the change in environment, but Shiro was a little off as well. Lance was remotely quiet for some reason, and Allura suddenly warms up to him. Pidge and Hunk kept sharing glances from time to time, and not knowing the reason behind such changes bothered Keith a lot.

Was it because he changed? Were they forcefully laughing for the sake of his return? Did they find out about his plan of sacrifice?

No, judging by their reactions, Matt probably didn't tell them.

But something was up. His inability to deduct the reason for it urges him to just go to the training room and spar with a gladiator bot, like before. Old habits die hard, anyway.

He glances at his makeshift phone Pidge and Hunk made him.

"11:54 pm…This is way too early for bed." Keith mutters. He sighs and sits up, hands playing with the bedsheets and blanket. He missed his bed, though he wasn't the type to have emotional ties with inanimate objects, but he did miss the environment here.

The Blade of Mamora were intense. Mission after mission. No time for friendship, the people you worked with weren't friends, they were just business partners and nothing more. No emotions required for all tasks, in fact, they were discouraged.

It was so different from Voltron, where everything had to do with relationships with the team and the lions. Where leaving someone behind wasn't an option. Where he had people to talk to, people to care about, and people who cared about him.

He let his mind wander back to his near death experience. He wonders what Shiro's reaction would be if he heard about it. His heart starts hammering in his chest when he imagines their broken faces if he had went through with that plan, if Lotor wasn't there. He knows it wouldn't be fair to them but this was a war, it was either knowledge or death.

00:00 - EARTH TIME

Three knocks on his door. His face is planted in his pillow as he lets out a muffled, "Come in."

The person on the other side doesn't. He groans, gets up, and walks towards the door. A crunching sound is heard and his eyes widen. He looks down at his feet.

Some dumbass left him a note. He bets it was Lance.

"Dear Keithy-boy,"

Keith raises an eyebrow at the piece of paper with nothing but three words written on it. He flips it over, but there's nothing on the other side. The texture felt weird though…like there was previously writing on it but someone got rid of it. It smelt like strawberries, Keith realises. Oh. He knows that this is.

He takes his makeshift phone and shines UV light on it.

"Oh so you are as smart as they say you are! Good job, Mullet. Word of advice: Stay out of the vents."

Keith mouths a 'what' to the letter before tucking it into his pocket and opening the vent entrance. Anything Lance says, he'll do the opposite. It's basic knowledge that Lance almost always means the opposite to what he says, anyway.

He crawls in, it's a little awkward for him since he doesn't have Pidge's build, but its nothing too uncomfortable. He smiles to himself as he remembers the time he and Lance had to work together in the vents. A pang in his chest tells him that he might never be able to do that again.

Soon enough, he finds a green arrow taped on one of the surfaces of the vents. It points downwards. Keith shrugs and slides down without second thoughts. Another arrow guides him to walk forward, and another one turns left, the next one goes downward again, and the one after that goes right.

"SO KEITH HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE LONELY IN A VENT WITHOUT ANYONE TO VENT TO?" Pidge's handwriting. Keith chuckles at the note. "I bet you can't find your way out because you've been gone too long. Serves you right for leaving us alone in the middle of vast nothingness for so long :((((((("

Keith removes the tape from the note and pockets it, before searching for the closest way out from his current position.

00:11- EARTH TIME

Keith ends up in the kitchen. There are two drinks on the table, one a dark shade of blue, with an ominous glow, and the other is a gold-like yellow that reminds him of tea from Earth.

Two pieces of paper taped to the counter, it reads:

"We noticed you wincing, you stubborn jerk. Drink the blue stuff, idiot." Lance. Obviously. No matter how he tries to cover his handwriting by using a red marker, Keith will always know Lance's handwriting.

"The yellow stuff is tea. YES YOU HEARD ME RIGHT - TEA. You were saying you missed tea the other…other day, when you were still aboard this ship. So we got some! You were kinda gone when we picked it up from the space mall though, but here's some of that good stuff anyway." Hunk, no doubt.

He downs the two cups of liquid, with a fond smile on his face. Whatever prompted team Voltron to do this was beyond his area of knowledge. But he'll play along.

Another note was taped on the door. Well, it was more of a diagram, or a children's drawing of the Green Lion. Keith picks up the note and makes his way to the hangar. He racks his brain at the possible reasons for the team doing this, but nothing came to mind. Why had Shiro allowed the team to waste time on this anyway? Shouldn't they be planning for another attack on the Galra? Or set a course to liberate more planets?

Either way he pushed his thoughts aside for now, and focused on the task at hand. Speaking of hands, his possibly fractured left hand feels a little better. He makes a mental note to thank Coran and Lance later (there's no way Lance would've known the blue stuff had healing properties).

A yellow smiley face and a wonky smirking face with glasses were taped on the control panel of the Green lion's hangar. He lifts the paper up and turns on the lights. On the table were a series of weapons, calling to Keith with a muted red glow, Keith jaw almost dropped.

"We thought you might want to take some with you! - Matt and Hunk."

Keith hesitates to pick up the weaponry, afraid that it'd crumble at his touch. Almost as if he's unworthy to use such carefully constructed weapons. Instead of pocketing the weapons, he pockets the note. He'll bring a bag for the weapons later.

A green arrow on the wall tells him to enter the vents (again). He obliges.

00:20 - EARTH TIME

He makes his way to the training room. The gladiator bots were kneeling on the floor, he wonders if this is part of the journey he's been on for the past twenty minutes or so, or whether the last person forgot the clean up. However, a piece of card with pink writing catches his eye.

"Thank you for making us stronger."

The way the A's were done means this one's from Allura. He glances at the kneeling gladiators before realising they were actually bowing. He allows himself to stay here for a while, and to smile at the scene.

"I really should be thanking you…" He mutters.

He takes a good look at the training room. He's almost remembered every single detail of this room, but now that he's been away from it so long, training here seems to be a distant dream of sorts.

Weirdly enough, the memory that comes up in his mind is team Voltron's first training session with the gladiator bots - a disaster, and the team sitting on the floor, sipping on space-juice boxes - also a disaster because Allura came in and handed their asses to them.

He notices a blue arrow pointing to the exit. He follows.

00:22 - EARTH TIME

Ending up in Red's hangar wasn't really expected. However Keith catches the note taped to Red's nose several feet off the ground. He hoists himself up Red and reaches for the note at the edge of Red's nose.

A sigh of relief echoes as he finally un-tapes the note. He sits himself on Red's head - he's sure she doesn't mind - and starts reading.

"I swear this was what Red told me to write.

'Happy Birthday, paladin. It has been long since I last saw' felt? I'm kind of unsure 'you. I hope you are doing well in your training. I understand your reluctance to leave, but I am proud of your choices. Our bond will never be broken for as long as you live, young paladin. You embody the values and traits I admire and aspire to become, thank you for giving me the opportunity to fly with you. Thank you for your hard work. Voltron misses you, Paladin Keith.'

I hope you're tearing up, Keith, because I sure am."

A sad smile finds it's way onto his face. He pats the metal underneath him.

"I miss you too, buddy."

00:30 - EARTH TIME

The black arrow Keith's been following points to the central control area. A dim glow emits from the gaps of the door. Hushing sounds can be heard from the other side. Keith's eyebrows knit together as he carefully pushes the door open.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

In the centre of the room was Shiro holding what Keith assumes is Hunk's handmade cake. Lance is stood on Shiro's right, as Pidge stands on his left. Hunk and Allura are in their respective positions when they form Voltron. Coran and Matt come up form behind and pushes him towards the team, gentle smiles on their faces.

"Happy 19th Birthday, Keith." Shiro says ruffling Keith's hair, the way he used to when they were just kids.

Keith notices tears welling up in his eyes. He understands now. It's the 23rd isn't it? He can't believe he's forgotten his own birthday.

"You're old, Keith." Pidge comments.

"We wanted to push this whole thing earlier, since we're technically like…thirty minutes late. The cake came out later than expected and we still needed the icing and all that stuff. That's why we kind of…sent you in circles." Hunk explains, "Plus, Coran said you may have hurt yourself and so we fetched out some weird Altean healing herbs and made nice tea for you!"

"You really need to start taking care of yourself, Keith! What would we do without you." Allura scolds lightly.

"Yeah, Keith. We need you as much as the universe needs Voltron." Lance adds.

They spend the morning of the 23rd snuggled together in the control room, eating cake surrounded by the views of a seemingly unreachable space. Hunk's idea. The team, however, claims that it was a team-bonding exercise.

"Did you like the weapons?" Matt asks, Keith nods eagerly, Shiro was sure he saw a glint of fascination in Keith's tired eyes.

"The tea worked right?" Coran shouts from across the room, as he brings Keith a whole bottle of that stuff.

"Is this really okay? Isn't this made from ancient Altean herbs? I could just spend-"

"If you think I'm going to let you spend your birthday in a POD, then you are very wrong, number 4."

That shuts him up.

Shiro puts an arm round Keith and leads him to a window. "Not long ago I would've given everything to be able to be in space," he says, "but now that I'm here…I realised that back then…I left you all alone. Lance told me you got kicked out of the Garrison a while after Kerberos went missing. I'm sorry I let you worry, I'm sorry I was the reason you got kicked out."

Keith shakes his head, "No. Zarkon was the reason. Even though we didn't know about him back then…but I got kicked out for a good reason. Plus, it allowed me to find Blue, and assemble Voltron."

Shiro smiles, "I'm really proud of you, Keith. I guess you're no longer that kid looking for fights in the alleyways." he pats Keith's head teasingly.

"I never actively picked fights!"

Shiro only laughs.

"YOU GUYS TRY THIS CAKE IT'S AWESOME" Matt squeals.

Lance complains that Shiro's been hogging Keith and pulls Keith back into the pile of blankets and pillows. Keith really misses seeing his team smile the way they are now, there's no sadness, no worrying about their next move, but just carefree teenagers (and a few adults) that appreciate his existence. He realises that all this was more than a token of their friendship.

This is family.

The thought of finding a family never crossed Keith's mind, but he's found it. This makeshift family of rebels, aliens and space cat robots. He'll take it.