Hey ya'll, this is the second part of my Voltron series, following Project Runway; Space Edition

The five Paladins of Voltron enter victoriously to control room of the Castle Lions after a long and hard battle with some Garla footmen. Thought it was only a minor fight to free a moon colony, the team was exhausted. But that wasn't going to stop them from tooting their own horn just a little bit.

Allura, Princess of Altea and one of the two remaining Alteans; the other of course being her trusted advisor and friend, Coran. The Princess looked fondly at her entering Paladins. They walk in tangent together, still in their color coordinated uniforms, recounting the events of their victory.

Shiro, the black paladin and leader, walks over to Keith, the red paladin, and tussles his mullet shaped hair, "Nice job out there with the swordsmanship, Keith." Shiro beams with pride.

Keith swats way Shiro's human hand, "Stop it!" He hissed dismissively, as he smoothing down the hair Shiro displaced.

"Hey," Lance, the blue paladin, yells jealously, "I did good too! Where's my congratulatory pat!"

Shiro laughs as he walks over to Lance, "You too sharpshooter." Shiro gives Lance's short brown curls a tussle as Lance leans up into the touch, like an affectionate kitten.

Shiro then proceeds to Hunk reaching up, "And that was some great defense, Hunk." He ruffles the yellow paladin's hair.

Hunk gives a bashful smile "Aw thanks."

Pidge was obviously trying to sneak away, but Shiro was having none of that. "Come here Pidge!" Shiro said in a tone that wasn't supposed to sound threatening but did anyways.

"Nooo!" Pidge yelled as they weaved through the other paladins to escape Shiro's affections. Pidge begins climbs Hunk like a tree, but has trouble with their footing "Hunk, help!"

Hunk effortlessly lifts Pidge up as if they weighted nothing and plopped them on his shoulders. "There you go." Hunk says.

Shiro attempts to reach up for Pidge, but they smack way his hand, "Ha!" they say in triumph. "Left side of Voltron is the best!"

Hunk parades Pidge around the control room, "Left side! Left side!" matching their enthusiasm as they chant and pump their fists. "Left side! Left side!"

"Oh hell no!" Lance steams, he looks over to Keith. "Yo Red, get on my shoulders!"

"What?" Keith questioned visually confused, "No. I'm too big and you're not strong!"

Lance pouts at Keith's comment, "Ok fine, plan b!" Lance makes a jump for Keith's shoulders, but ends up putting his fellow paladin in a choke hold. Visually Lance is having a hard time balancing himself atop of the struggling red paladin, though that's not stopping him from pressing on, to Keith's dismay. "Right side is the best side!"

"Get off me!" coughed out Keith as he whips Lance around to try and flip him off, both off his back and with his middle finger.

"Right side is the best side!" Lance yells over Keith's protest.

"Stop it!" Keith snarls.

"Come on Keef," Lance wines, "just let me ride you!"

The other three paladins go silent at the blue paladin's word choice, confusing Conan and Allura. Before breaking the silence with a loud burst of laughter from the others.

Both Lance's and Keith's faces turns red at the realization of the meaning, "Wait." Lance shrieks tries to shuffle off of Keith, "I didn't mean it like that!" He tumbles down on to the floor, and brings down Keith with him.

The other paladins laugh even harder at the mishap. A tangle of limbs on the floor, the red and blue Paladin couldn't help themselves but to join in on the laughter they caused.

Allura chuckles to herself as she watches this transpire, before clearing her throat to get their attention. "Well done Paladins," Allura said over the laughter, "You have all shaped up to make a great team."

"Heck yeah!" Lance hollers from the floor, "Kicking Garla butt, anytime, anywhere!"

The other paladins whoop and holler in agreement.

"It's because of all our hard work we've put in." Shiro says.

"Yeah all that team building exercise." Hunk says.

Lance jumps up from the ground, "Dude I have an idea for another one!"

"Continue playing Voltron themed chicken?" Pidge says

"Please no, that was dumb." Keith pipes in.

"Yeah you just say that cause you were losing." Pidge says in a mocking tone.

"Shut up pidge!" says Lance. "What I meant was a sleepover!"

There were confused mummers among the paladins. Allura was familiar with the concept of a 'sleepover', and obviously Lance would be the one to bring it up. The flit that he was.

"Sleepover?!" Coran flustered, his face turning pink, clashing with his bright orange facial hair.

"Yeah! Slumber party in the common room!" Lance continued.

"Dude we're still in our armor." Hunk whined

"Yeah I need like three showers." Says Pidge.

"Same." Keith agrees, sitting up on the floor.

Allura leans into Shiro and whispers "What's the Earth version of 'sleepovers'?"

"You don't have them on Altea?" Shiro quietly replies

"Well, sort of…" Allura drags out uncomfortably.

"It's just something kids would do on Earth with their friends. You would go to their house and.. well sleepover." Shiro replied.

"Except you don't ever sleep!" Lance chimes in

"Cause sleep is for the weak" Pidge follows up.

"I always fall asleep though." Says Hunk.

"Oooh, so it's something you do as friends," Coran says, "You had me going there for a minute, my boy." He directs to Lance, who is bewiled.

Allura rolls her eyes, "So you basically live with your friend for a night? What do you?"

"You play games like 'hide and seek,' 'stiff as a board light as a feather,' 'never have I ever,' or-" Lance puts each arm around Allura and Shiro's shoulder looking between the two beautiful tens. "Truth or dare~" he smirked with a raised eyebrow.

Keith immediately stands up from his position on the ground coughing to cover his jealous tracks. Lance withdraws his arms from either leader in response, a look of concerned and confusion on his face.

"Desperate!" Pidge calls across the room.

"Shut up Pidge," Lance and Keith yell unison.

Shiro puts his hands up, "Alright team, we're all tried from today's fight. Let's just rest up and have a sleepover some other time." Shiro looks over to Lance, "Is that okay?"

Lance crosses his arm with a huff, "I guess," he pouts.

Shiro turns to face Allura, "Is there anything else we need to discuss?" he asks.

Allura blinks focusing her attention on the mission, "Uh, no." She stutters, "That will be all."

Shiro turns back around looking to all the other Paladins, "Alright then, good job team, let's get some rest." He said in a commending yet caring voice.

Lance's arm shoots up, "Dibs on first shower!"

"No, you're going to in there forever!" Hunk whined.

"Yeah and you use all the hot water." Keith said.

Lance scoffed, "Well you shouldn't use hot water on your dumb mullet any ways, it causes damage!"

Keith scowled, "Hey Lance." As soon as he had the other boy's attention, Keith raised his knife to his own hair in a threating manner.

Lance's eyes widened, "Never mind, Keith can have it first," his voice wavered.

Keith triumphantly twirled his knife back into it's holster, "That's what I thought."

"What!" screams Pidge, "What the hell just happened? How is that fair?"

Unbenounced to the smallest paladin, Shiro had sneakily made his way behind them for a two- handed double hair tussle with extra love and support on the side, "Got ya!"

Pidge covered their head in protest, "Noooooo," but it was too late, "Gross, I'm using the shower first!" They ran ahead of everyone else and out the doors.

"What? No fair, I called dibs!" Lance screamed after them.

Followed by Keith, "Lance, I swear to Voltron I will shave my entire head!"

Then Hunk heading the cabooses, "I don't get it, there are ten other showers on this ship."

Shiro stayed behind watching the younger paladins exist the room, he looked back to Allura. "Are you sure there's nothing else?"

The Princess shakes her head, "No, go and rest up. You've earned it." She gives the head of Voltron an encouraging smile.

Shiro nods "Ok," He turns to leave, "Great job today, you two," he calls back as he exists the room leaving Allura and Coran alone.

Coran chuckles to himself, "What a strange brunch those humans are, eh what?"

Allura blanked out on Coran's statement, she was to into deep thought. It had been at least 50 Quintents since she was a waken by the new paladins of Voltron to face the same war she was fighting Decapheebs ago. The old paladins took years of training to bond well enough to form Voltron, but this batch under pressure of spontaneous Garla attack, formed in just few quintents. Their bond to each other was that strong.

She had also notices that all the paladins use one another to help each other cope, with the after match of battle. Shiro, ever the leader, was full of support and wise words. Hunk, the 'cinnamon roll' as Lance and Pidge called him, offered up hugs and food. And Lance, as much as his constant flirting annoyed her, Allura found his jokes were good for keeping up moral. While Pidge was a certified tech genius who could hack anything. And Keith…? Well he was a good fighter, Allura would give him that.

And yet, Allura feels like something was missing, she felt like she was missing. She not a part of the team.

"Princess, did you hear me?" Coran says.

"What?" Allura snaps back to reality, "Yes, humans, odd."

Coran comes forward and places a hand on Allura's shoulder, "I think you should rest up as well, Princess."

She nods, "Yes, I probably should." But she hesitates, stand in place, feet stuck to the ground.

Coran leaned in closer, "Is something the matter, Princess." He said with concern.

Allura hesitated again, she didn't want to worry Coran, he had always been like a second father to her. So naturally she had to choose her words carefully.

"It's just that.., Hmm." She starts, she thinks of how her Father would handle this, any of this. "Coran?"

"Yes?"

"Did my Father bond well with the Paladins?"

"What do you mean?"

She sighs, "Never mind, it's nothing." She shrugs of his hand and starts walking forward.

Coran follows after her, "Princess, your father wouldn't want you to put so much pressure on yourself." He smiles down on her, "He'd be proud of you. I know."

"Thank you, Coran," She knows Coran is being sincere, but she could find it herself to believe him. "I'll be in my room." She makes her way to the doors, the four small mice in hot pursuit.

"Goodnight, Princess." Coran calls after her.

"Goodnight." She isn't sure if he heard her or not, because she had already left the control room.

She walked down the corridors of the castle to her bedchamber, still thinking of her placement on the team. Was she a good leader, would she even be considered a leader? She was a Princess, but of what? Her planet was gone.

She entered her room, the space mice follow suit. Her room was slightly bigger then the paladins', big enough for a Princess. Allura fell backwards on to her bed with a defeated sigh as the mice scurry up the sheets to join her.

Allura thinks back to how the paladins interacted with each other, so familiar and personal. They had all been friends before they met her and became paladins in this war. At least that's what she assumed, Allura never really asked about their lives back on their home planet.

She looks up to her celling as she addressed the four mice, "I just wish I knew the paladins better."

The mice do a little dance in the hopes to get the Princess' attention, even pulling on her hair that was still in a bun.

"What's that?" she sat up and looks down to them as they continue to dance. "You have some new gossip what the paladins?" Allura beamed, she loved to gossip with the nice.

Plachu, the blue mouse jumps up onto the back of Chuchule, the pink mouse. The two mice fall dramatically and awkwardly hold hands, they resembled a certain pair of paladins.

Allura chuckles at the display, "Well that does sound like them-"She stops herself, her expression turns serious, "No," She realizes, "this is not the way to get to know the others." She scoops up the space mice and places them on her shoulder. "I must do it directly, just like my father would."

She triumphantly stands from her bed ready to put her plan into fruition, as the mice cheer her on. Now on her two feet, her legs, weary from the battle, shake and give out. "Tomorrow," she says returning to her seated position on the bed, "I'll start tomorrow."

She lays back down thinking of her battle strategy, before falling asleep.