I decided to write a sort of bonus chapter, as a thank-you to all of you readers. :) I can't believe I cleared a thousand views on this story! (I mean, I kind of have to believe it; the evidence is right in front of my eyes and all . . .)

I hope you like it!

It took approximately half a varga for the disaster called the lounge to be cleaned up. It might have taken a shorter time if no one had gotten distracted, but Pidge, Matt, and Hunk spent most of the time trying to fix the video game, and Lance kept giving them unhelpful advice. Keith and Allura tried to find the checker pieces, but finally gave up.

Allura turned to the mice. "Would you try to find them, friends?"

They squeaked and ran off, soon returning with the remaining pieces. Keith counted them, just to be sure, and handed the box to Coran, who took it rather abruptly.

"We're lucky you didn't lose the pieces for real," he said huffily. "It's not like we can just stop anywhere to buy replacements."

Lance looked up from where he was folding a blanket with Shiro. "Hey, is checkers your favorite game?"

"One of my favorites, yes," said the advisor.

Lance dropped his blanket, causing Shiro to sigh, bounded over to Coran, and held up a hand. Coran high-fived him without hesitation.

Matt, who had been watching, raised an eyebrow and turned to look pointedly at Keith.

"Scientific query," he said, nudging Pidge. "How come Coran knows how to high-five people, and Keith doesn't?"

The red paladin stared at him for a moment. "I do know how. I just don't see the point."

Matt nodded sagely and wrote something on his datapad.

Keith moved warily closer. "Wait. Are you actually . . . taking notes?"

Matt stuffed the datapad between the cushions. "Uh, what? Notes?"

"You know, dude," said Lance, "I said you were a better actor than I am, but you can't really play dumb."

Allura, the mice once more clustered on her shoulders, said, "So! What is the next part of your bonding exercise? What do Earthlings do after pillow-fights?"

Lance froze, obviously thinking fast. "Uhh . . . my siblings and I used to watch movies and stuff. Sometimes we worked on puzzles or just played board games."

Coran held out the checker box. "I challenge you to a round of checkers! You'll never beat Coran the Checker Champion!"

Keith leaned closer to Pidge. "Do you find it odd that the Alteans have the same name for checkers that we do?"

Pidge leaned back, passing the mostly-fixed game to Hunk. "Actually, I have a theory about that. The word 'checkers' describes what the board looks like; it's not just a random name. You've probably noticed that whatever translative abilities that were given to us by that first scan in this castle – at least, I assume it was that first scan, I mean, it could have been Blue, I don't know – anyway, we have the same names for a good many things. It's usually proper names that are more of a problem, and since the word 'checkered' is technically an adjective . . . Hey! I just thought of a possible logarithm to work out the anomalies between Altean and English!"

Completely forgetting what she had been saying – somewhat to Keith's relief, it might be added – she fell to typing rapidly, muttering to herself all the while.

Coran and Lance were playing checkers, each glaring intently at the other as they made moves. Keith paused, trying to figure out how they could move, and even jump each others' pieces without looking at the board, then gave up. Instead, he went to help Shiro stack up the remaining pillows on the empty couch.

Allura had gone to her room, but now returned with a deck of cards. "Does anyone wish to play memory?" she asked.

Matt sprang from the couch. "I would be honored to play, Princess."

She smiled. "Pidge, do you want to join us?"

The green paladin never even looked up, still talking to herself. "Maybe now I can figure out what Coran meant by a raxelsploid. I'll just cross-reference this . . ."

Matt and Allura glanced at her, then set to work setting up the cards without further delay. Keith wandered over to watch Hunk test the game again – true to form, he'd gotten it in working order and was now engaged in fighting some sort of dragon creature.

Shiro leaned against the wall, watching everyone and feeling more relaxed than he had in a good while. His eyes felt heavy, and he thought that perhaps he'd be tired enough to get some real sleep tonight. Just as he was considering heading to his room, a wild cheer from Coran brought him jolting upright.

The advisor was engaged in some sort of victory dance that involved a lot of leaping and shouting, while Lance sat across from him with folded arms, trying very hard to look miffed.

Finally he broke into a grin. "Great move, Coran. I didn't see that coming."

"Thank you, Number Three! You're a formidable opponent, I must say!"

Coran stopped bouncing around just in time to realize that everyone in the room was staring at him, various expressions of amusement and surprise on their faces. He swallowed. "Um – so! Lance, I don't believe you ever answered Allura's question about what was next. . ."

"Yes, I did. I said we played games."

"Ah, yes. What else do you do?"

Shiro stepped forward. "Actually, I think I'm going to head to bed."

"No, you're not," said Pidge, shutting down her laptop. "You get first choice, though – couch or floor?"

He blinked. "What?"

Hunk got up and stretched, unplugging the game. "Do you want the couch, or a pile of blankets to sleep on? Sleepover, man."

"Oh. Um, actually – I hadn't really. . ."

Lance grabbed his arm. "Aw, come on, Shiro! It's been so much fun hanging out with everybody!"

"Well . . ."

"Yeah," said Keith unexpectedly. "Besides, if you go to your own room, you'll just be wandering the castle in a few hours anyway."

"I do not –" began Shiro.

Matt, who had lost the memory game very quickly - Pidge suspected it was because he kept staring at Allura's blue eyes - elbowed him. "Yes, you do."

"Not every night."

"That's true," said Pidge, holding up a finger. "For the sake of accuracy, I will admit that you only walk around nine nights out of ten."

Shiro felt overwhelmed. "I thought –"

"That we didn't notice?" said Hunk.

" . . . Yes."

"Well, we do notice," said Lance, folding his arms. "I mean, how can we not, with you checking on us?"

"I never meant to wake you," was all Shiro could say.

"You don't," said Keith. "Only once or twice."

Pidge adjusted her glasses, looking very smug indeed. "I figured out that the panels that open our doors register the time at which they were last opened. So, it's been standard procedure lately to check our panels in the morning and compare the results. Generally, you check on us around two in the morning, Earth time."

Shiro just stood there, staring at them. Lance patted his shoulder. "We appreciate it, we really do," he said. "I mean, it's not like anything really could happen to us while we're in the castle – apart from that crystal, I mean. . . yeah, anyway."

"Our dad used to do that all the time," said Pidge.

Matt nodded. "When we find him, I'm so telling him that you were our surrogate dad."

Shiro recovered enough to glare at him, but Matt kept right on talking. "I'll tell him that you were our dad while he was gone."

"I'm not – I wasn't –"

"Hey!" shouted Lance. "Yeah, totally! Shiro's our Space Dad!"

Shiro slid down the wall to a sitting position. "Lance . . ."

"Awww!" Lance flung his arms around Shiro, and Pidge followed his example. Coran sniffed loudly, wiping at his eyes, and Allura smiled brightly. Shiro glanced up, once Pidge and Lance released him, to see Hunk beaming, and Keith and Matt grinning at him.

"What, you too?" he muttered, trying very hard to feel displeased. It didn't work, not by a long shot. "Well, in that case, Space Kids, it's time for bed."

"Yes, Dad!" chirped Matt, reaching out a hand to haul Shiro to his feet.

The black paladin hauled him closer and hissed, "That better not become a habit, Matt."

"Yes, Dad."

"I mean it!"

"Yes, D –"

Matt bolted, Shiro close on his heels. Desperate to escape, the lanky teen attempted to leap over the lounge, but didn't quite make it. He fell flat, and Shiro calmly held him down while Pidge tickled her brother mercilessly.

When his shrieks of laughter finally became desperate, Shiro released him and selected a blanket from the pile as though nothing unusual had happened, leaving Matt gasping and muttering threats of dire retribution.

Coran and Lance spent a few moments arguing over who got the orange blanket, until Coran said, "But you're the blue paladin! You should like blue!"

"I do! I love it! But Pidge wrapped all her computer pieces in it, and . . ."

Coran snatched the blue blanket and dumped the loose wires everywhere, then shoved it at Lance. "There!" he said, looking a little maniacal. 'Take it! Take it!"

Hunk leaned over and whispered to Shiro, "I'm not so sure giving him cocoa was a good idea? He's been acting a little strange. More so than usual, I mean."

Shiro grinned and flopped down, stomach first, on the couch. The others claimed their blankets: Hunk, Pidge and Keith took yellow, green and red, of course, and Allura took pink. Matt paused for a long moment, sifting through the remaining colors, and finally decided on a brown blanket with green plaid stripes.

Pidge, already cocooned on the floor, gave him a sleepy thumbs-up.

Allura dimmed the lights and said, "Good night, paladins! I'll be sleeping on the bridge, just in case something does come up."

"Right!" answered Coran. "And I'll be in the engine room in case of a wormhole jump. Sleep well, all of you!"

Once they left, it was silent for a few moments until Lance decided to nudge Hunk in the ribs with his foot. Hunk yelped.

"Quiet," mumbled Shiro, already half-asleep.

A pause.

Then Pidge whispered, "Hey, Matt, how 'bout we work on consolidating our data tomorrow? We've probably got a lot of doubles by now."

"Yeah, great idea. We could also –"

Keith poked his head. "Shh."

Matt stuck his tongue out, and Pidge let out a surprised giggle.

Shiro sighed heavily and turned over to face the others. "Okay, everyone, that's enouh. Go to sleep, and NO MORE TALKING."

As he wrapped up again, he could have sworn that several people said, "Yes, Dad," but he decided to say nothing about it.

For the time being, at any rate. Tomorrow he'd be awake enough, but for now he was just too . . . tired.

Shiro slept.

The other paladins and Matt waited until his heavy breathing convinced them that he was well and truly asleep, and then they celebrated, quietly. Pidge grinned at Matt. Lance and Hunk shook hands. Hunk grinned at Keith. Lance and Pidge smirked victoriously.

And Keith high-fived Matt.