After several months as Paladins, they had all become very familiar with large galas and other diplomatic situations. However, none of those required dancing as part of the deal.

"What do you mean learn?" Hunk asked. "I'm just not so good with choreography, okay?"

"Hunk, please. You all need to learn this Altean dance." Allura pressed. "It's a formal ball thrown in honor of you. Of all of you. Of Voltron. Of everything you stand for in the universe. Shouldn't that be enough of a motivator to try?" She asked and looked to the group around her. A long silence followed until Pidge raised her hand.

"Yes Pidge?"

"Princess, if the ball in our honor… shouldn't we dance like humans?"

"Pidge! Yes! I agree with Pidge!" Lance said, pointing in her direction.

"Pidge I'm sorry, but Lance has demonstrated plenty of your dancing and none of it is…" She tried to think of a way too sexual or silly. "…up to par for such an event."

"He's an idiot and that's not dancing." Keith said coldly and just as Lance opened his mouth to retort, Shiro came between them. He cleared his throat and grabbed Allura's attention.

"Princess, on Earth we had formal dances complete with wonderful music and appropriate movements. I know this is an important event, but we're humans-" He side glanced Keith, giving him an inclusive look "-from Earth. Shouldn't the universe know what type of beings we are? What we're like?"

She paused and folded her hands in front of her, debating. Shiro stepped a little closer to her and spoke with less authority and more tenderness.

"Princess, I know you want to teach us this dance. I know you want to continue Altean culture. But we're way out here, trillions of miles from home, and no one seems to know what humans even are."

"It just makes since to even out the playing field a bit." Pidge added.

Allura sighed and looked to the paladins.

"I want to see this dance from Earth. If it's appropriate, we'll go forward with your dance. If not, we do this the Altean way." She paused and smiled. "So, who will demonstrate?"

Lance raised his hand and Shiro lowered it immediately with a stern "No". Looking around to the others Shiro sighed, not realizing any of them didn't know formal dances, himself included.

"Guys, really?" Pidge said loudly. All heads snapped toward her.

"Do you know how to?" Keith asked, shocked.

"I know a lot of dances." She started to tick on her fingers. "Tango, Waltz, Foxtrot-"

"Where did you learn to Waltz?" Lance asked, eyes wide in surprise. Pidge grinned.

"I did a lot of things on Earth you don't know about."

Hunk shook his head. "And I here I thought we knew everything about each other. I let you in my head hole and everything."

"It doesn't matter. Can you teach us?" Allura interrupted the banter. Pidge had the equivalent of a record scratch in her head. She had a few seconds to reboot herself and think her way through this.

"Can we even get music from Earth out here?" Shiro asked, trying to help her along.

"Can it not be to Altean music?" Allura asked, feeling a little hurt that her music wasn't good enough.

"Well it works best with the music written for the dance." Pidge finally said, her brain coming back online.

"Oh! It's a special choreography and song pairing? Interesting!" Allura beamed.

"No, it's not like that exactly. There are specific pieces of music categorized as Waltzes. We need those pieces…" She thought for a moment and perked up when she got an idea. "Lance! Give me your phone."

Everyone looked to Lance and he raised his eyebrow.

"First off, how do you know I still have that thing and second, I can guarantee you there is no classical music in my library."

"No shit." Keith laughed as Lance dug out his phone from his pocket.

"Rude! What do you listen to, the sound of the smallest violin to drown your emo sorrows in?!"

"It's better than that stupid euro-pop trash you listen to, I know that! We share a wall!"

"Wanna go mullet?!"

"Guys! Phone!" Pidge yelled and they looked to her, breaking their feud so Lance could walk over to her and hand her the silver device. She sat in her chair on the bridge and plugged the phone into her laptop. She took a moment to side eye Lance. "FYI, your snapchat story is horrible."

"What? I thought those were just going out to the void of space! Wait." He paused and looked back at her with narrow eyes. "You've been watching this whole time? You have your phone still? How are you watching?"

"I rigged the ship's long range communications to sync up to the wifi back at the Garrison." She said while messing with her laptop. Lance was a mess.

"We've online this whole time?!"

"Lance, please." Allura interrupted, turning to Pidge. "Why do you need this device from him?"

"If I can get wifi out here, I have access to basically all of human knowledge - including an infinite music library."

They all paused and Hunk cleared his throat. "You know they can track torrents, right?"

Pidge turned her head so fast Hunk was surprised she wasn't injured.

"Do you really think the FBI can get out here to arrest me? Besides," she smirked and turned back to computer, connecting the laptop to the side panel of her chair, "My IP address is the same as the International Space Station so if they really want to peruse poor isolated astronauts trying to stay in touch with the rest of humanity it's no skin off my nose." She tapped away at her laptop in silence and sat up straight. "There." She reached up to the control panel floating in front of her and a video came up on the main screen for everyone to see. It was a video of a waltz tutorial with different examples of the actual dance in action, including the Vietnamese Ball.

"Nice work Pidge." Shiro said, at her side and put a hand on her shoulder.

"You hacked into YouTube from billions of miles away…" Hunk said in amazement while he and Keith shared a mischievous glance.

"2,000,000+ hits. Nice." Lance commented, folding his arms.

"This will be our teacher. I'm downloading this into my laptop and backing it up into the ship's system. It's a small file and you wouldn't believe the ship's capacity." She tapped a few more keys on her laptop and unplugged lance's phone, tossing it to him. He panicked and dived for it, catching it just in time.

"Hey! What if this thing broke and you needed wifi again?" He said while getting off the floor.

"Oh I copied your MAC, ID, and SN off your MIMO and installed it onto my laptop and the ship's mainframe. The ship is now a flying phone with wifi. Should be good enough for us, considering that's all we have."

"Why didn't you just use your phone to copy all that stuff?" Lance said with a pout, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

"I wanted to make sure I could do it without corrupting the phone's receiver." Lance's mouth fell open in a mix of rage and shock while Keith slapped his chin shut with a satisfying smack and a laugh.

Allura was absolutely transfixed by the dance that everyone was ignoring. Coran made a comment to her that it reminded him of a dance he had done when he was much younger with the royal court back on Mo'orea. She smiled with her blue and pink eyes wide.

"This dance is beautiful. So simple but refined! I'm impressed." She said, turning to the paladins.

"So… is it approved?" Shiro asked.

"Yes. This is a wonderful display of human culture. We'll all have to learn it together. We can use the training deck for practice. Training is not a priority for the next several quintants."

"That's unlike you." Pidge said with a smirk. Allura gave her a tiny glare.

"I haven't attended a ball in over 10,000 years. I will not let sloppy dancing ruin that."

They all turned their attention to the video and were lost in thought for a few minutes before the video started to loop.

"We should all get some rest," Shiro suggested. "I'm sure we are expected to be up bright and early to dance." Everyone took his tone as dismissive. As everyone left, Lance complained that they could have chosen something more upbeat like a mambo and hunk rested a hand on his shoulder, Keith making a bad dancing joke.

In the morning everyone met in the training deck, the room not nearly as full as they thought it would be with all seven of them there. Pidge pulled up the video on the screen in the training room. She stood next to it and adjusted her glasses, looking nervous.

"So I know I said that the video would teach you guys but I think I might need to physically help you too. We all learn differently."

"Pidge you just don't want to do this." Lance said with a frown. She huffed.

"Regardless of my feelings, I actually know how to dance, Lance. So shut up and pair up."

Coran and Allura paired, Hunk and Shiro paired, which left-

"Hey! I will do this but not with him!"

"Shut up and just learn the stupid dance." Keith said through his teeth.

"No way hothead! I'm not having someone with no rhythm lead me in a dance."

"Actually Lance, you're the lead." Pidge said with a small grin.

"What?" Keith squeaked and she shrugged.

"This dance works better when the tallest person is the lead."

"Pidge, an inch? Does that really count?" Keith complained. Lance was putting his hand on Keith's head and following it straight over to his head.

"I'm counting at least three inches, but hey, size doesn't matter right?" Keith swatted away his hand and looked over to his team.

"Hunk! Trade me!" He yelled like a child.

"Sorry guys, I'm taller than both of you and I am not a good dancer. Shiro is the only one taller than me so and I need a lead."

"Paladins! Please stop this arguing. I thought you were all past this. Just learn the dance now and you can dance with whoever you want at the ball." Allura pleaded.

"Fine." Keith and Lance said at the same time, frowns to match. Pidge took in a breath.

"Okay. Leads, take your left hand and grasp your partner's right hand. Then put your right arm around your partner's shoulders while they put their left hand on top of your shoulder." She said brightly and she was met with lost eyes and blank faces. She sighed and came up to Shiro, the nearest person, and placed their hand where she had just said, stretching her arms due to her short stature.

"Do this." Everyone shared a nod and she sighed, letting go of Shiro for Hunk to take her place. She stood next to the video playing over on a loop.

"So like the video says, just do the left box for now and as you get better we will learn how to move around a room."

Pidge watched as they all came together slowly. The Altean pair moved easily, as if dancing was second nature to them despite the origin of the dance. She supposed that was one reason their race had been so good a building intergalactic relationships; adaptability. Hunk was clumsy but Shiro was kind, reassuring him patiently while trying to lead him. Keith and Lance however were not moving quite as well. Their dancing was choppy, almost angry. Like a battle. Their faces looked angry from where she stood and she knew they were lost causes.

In reality, emotions very different and deeper were warring in them. For Lance the best word for it was embarrassment. No one on the ship had ever seen Lance date a guy or even show affection or flirt with one. When he was around pretty aliens, he always flirted with the females. He was and always had been bisexual, but he felt like everyone forgot about it unless he brought it up. And when it was brought up, it was like he was trying to prove something that he didn't have to prove. So having to be this close to another guy would normally fluster him - but this was Keith. The guy who in the beginning of all this went from hating him to being completely indifferent to him. The guy who brought out his worst side. The guy who made him so competitive it was shameful. The same guy who he has grown to be to friends with. Keith. Who was now in his arms, trying to learn a fairly simple dance with great difficulty. Lance was a natural dancer, he just needed to see it a few times to get it right.

Keith on the other hand was not coordinated at all outside of battle. More than once Lance had to catch him when he stumbled. Keith was humiliated that Lance was the one who was leading him, getting his feet stepped on by Lance when he failed to go fast enough or missed a step. Although Lance didn't say anything other than a few directional cues, Keith never made eye contact with him. He knew Lance was staring at him, he could feel it. But the stare felt judgmental and so, because of the ocean of negative emotions threatening to drown him, he kept his gaze to the floor and their feet.

They had both lost count of how many boxes they had done before Pidge was talking again. Keith guessed it had been a lot because his neck was aching.

"I think you guys got the general idea down. You guys made a lot of progress today. We'll do more tomorrow."

Keith was relieved but Allura spoke up.

"Pidge we've barely started and the ball is just quintants away."

"You and Coran are natural dancers and did so well that you don't need this part anymore. The rest of us need some rest before we try again tomorrow. Rome wasn't built in a day." Allura gave her a blank look and Pidge rolled her eyes. "Just get some rest. We've been doing this the majority of the day. Food, shower, sleep, back here tomorrow."

They all nodded and parted ways, Hunk and Shiro sharing a joke on the way out. Lance and Keith separated and he turned to exit with the others. When he didn't feel Keith's presence behind him, he turned to see Keith rooted to the floor, eyes averted from the group. The whooshing of the door closed leaving him and Keith alone.

"Hey, we're leaving." Lance said to try and snap him back to reality. Keith looked up at him with such a pained yet harbored expression that Lance didn't know what to say.

"Dude, what's wrong?"

Keith's heartbeat was in his throat and now he was ready to push all of his emotions into one - anger. He narrowed his eyes at Lance and started to walk towards and past him.

"I'm fine."

Lance caught his arm as he passed and Keith was quick to rip out of his grasp, his gait halting.

"Keith… it's just a stupid dance. You'll get better, I promise."

"It's not the fucking dance."

There was a tense pause and Lance had to resist the urge to ball his fists.

"Then what's the problem, because I was being pretty damn patient."

"You were staring at me the whole time." Keith said, looking up at him as if his unspoken words were clear.

"That's how you dance, idiot."

Keith ignored his voice and walked away, leaving him in a cloud of fury and confusion. When he got to his room he punched the wall with a loud yell, suddenly breathing heavily. He kept replaying the feeling of Lance's eyes on him over and over. How stupid he must have looked and every little mistake he made. His silence and small but caring cues. Lance's hands on his body a little lower than directed because he couldn't keep his balance. Lance pulling him closer than beginner-level dancers do to move Keith's body in sync with his own, fighting the sudden urge to be even closer. Feeling like Lance also made a mental note of every mistake, every trip, and every time he messed up to use against him somehow. It was infuriating. Keith didn't like someone to have an upper hand on him and Lance being that person was the worst possible situation for him.

He unraveled his fist to lay his hand flat against the wall, pressing his forehead against the cool metal as the small vibrations from the ship echoed in his skull. He let out a shaky breath and tried to sort out his feelings with logic like Shiro had told him so many times. Why was he so angry? Lance had plenty of chances to make fun of him, but he hadn't. He could have made snide remarks at anytime, but he didn't. If anything his hands on Keith's back and in his palm had been reassuring. So was this even about Lance? He sighed, almost a growl as he banged his head against the wall. Of course this was about Lance. Everything was recently. He was who Keith thought about when his chaotic brain was idle. He thought about his dumb smirk when Keith was alone and thought of a joke. He saw Lance's face every night before he slipped into the world of dreams. And what was scariest was when ever either of two was injured in any way, the protectiveness seemed to be a two way street. He knew any other member of the team would protect any other just as quick, but for Keith the thought of Lance not surviving because he couldn't get there in time tore at him.

He sighed again and pulled away from the wall to shrug off his jacket and slip off his boots. When his hand gripped the heel of his boot he felt the ache in his knuckles. He frowned and sat on his bed when his jacket and boots were on the floor and took off his right glove. His knuckles closest to his thumb were purple and swollen. He shook his head and let his hand fall into his lap. He knew how to punch without hurting himself. He knew better. But when his emotions bubbled over, he had very little control over his actions. He exhaled a laugh, thinking it was something that probably made him and Red a great pair in the first place. He looked up to the wall and sure enough there was a sizable dent in his wall. He felt stupid. Lance made him feel stupid. And angry. And comforted. And calm. And confused. And emotions he didn't want to even mentally admit.

He lay back on his bed and started at the bunk above him, resting his swollen hand on his chest after putting his glove back on. Keith was like that for an unknown amount of time. Like the sun setting on Earth, his room dimmed so slowly he didn't realize it was dark until his thoughts came back to him. He looked around and his room was only lit at 15%. He couldn't believe he had there for the rest of the evening with his mind completely empty. He had either meditated on accident or possibly broke his own brain. A sudden knock came at his door making his hair stand on end. He might have jumped if he weren't so exhausted.

"Yeah." It wasn't a question, just a dry invitation to enter. The door slid open Lance came into his room, in his shirt and jeans and apparently roaming the ship with just socks on. The door slid closed and Keith was silent in the dark.

"Sorry, were you sleeping? It's so dark in here." He said softly.

"No just thinking." He paused and spoke clearer. "Lights, 75%." The room obeyed him and slowly brightened up the room. Keith looked to lance and sat up, seeing a silver object in his hands. Lance followed his gaze and looked down at the small covered tray.

"Oh, you uh… you skipped dinner. I just thought… you might be hungry." He said, sounding nervous. Keith heard and couldn't imagine why he would be nervous. Lance looked to his right and saw the huge dent in the wall.

"Shit. What happened? Get in a fight with your boots?" He laughed but Keith's blank expression didn't change. He sighed. "Anyway, here's your food." He handed it to Keith who instinctively reached for it with his right hand. When the weight was released into his hand the blinding pain made him drop the tray with a loud clatter. He looked down at his hand, more swollen and purple than earlier, the dark coloring bleeding down into his fingers. Lance looked over everything and came closer to Keith's hand. He tried to tell Lance to go away but his words never came out, Lance sitting on the bed beside him. After a beat he reached for the strap of Keith's glove.

"Don't." Keith said so softly, not very convincing. Lance only paused for a moment before slipping his glove off. Keith let out a sigh of shame and relief, the glove had actually been restricting the blood flow to his hand. Lance inspected his hand and his brows knit together.

"We should get you to a healing pod." He didn't ask what happened or why, he just went straight to a solution - something he had been doing a lot of recently. Keith was stubborn as ever though.

"I'll be fine."

"Keith your hand is broken. No matter how Galra you are, that's a broken hand for sure. The swollenness and the red marks give it away."

He ripped his hand out of Lance's grasp and though it hurt he refused to show it.

"Lance, it'll heal. Don't worry about it."

"It won't heal overnight and we have things to do like dancing and possibly an emergency Voltron formation. Just let me take you to a pod. You'll be fixed in like two hours tops."

"Lance just stop." Keith was looking at the floor, his room a mess with splattered food and a broken plate. Lance still had his glove and set it on one of his boots. He was quiet, trying to find another solution. He felt like this was his fault somehow - like always.

"What is wrong?" He asked Keith, each spoken with care, curiosity, and urgency for an answer. Keith huffed and slumped his shoulders, refusing to answer.

"Either you tell me why you broke your hand on the wall or you let me take you to a pod - and I can carry you there if you don't pick one."

Keith knew he could and that this wasn't an empty threat. He chose the lesser of two evils and stood slowly, making sure his hand was protected and held to his middle. Lance stood and walked with him through the ship to the pod bay silently. When they reached the bay Lance stepped ahead of him to pull a pod up and open it. Keith stepped inside and watched Lance push all sorts of buttons on the side.

"Where did you learn how to operate one of these?"

"Pidge. Coran helped too." He answered without looking up.

Keith nodded. Pidge had been such a valuable part of their team. He was glad she stayed. Lance looked up to him with an odd expression. Fear? He wasn't sure.

"So this thing says it will take about two and a half, maybe three hours. I think. Numbers are hard to read when they are spelled out. Just sit tight and take a nice nap, okay?" His words were so heavily drenched in concern the Keith was taken aback.

"Okay." He relied softly.

Lance pushed a button and the door closed, Keith instantly feeling tired and warm.

"I'll be here." He thought he heard Lance say but he couldn't be sure as he slipped away into the void. Darkness consumed him and he felt like he was floating. A cool sensation saturated his hand, like water from a pool, bottomless and never moving. It felt like he was in there for just a few minutes when suddenly the whooshing of the pod door snapped his eyes open, making him take in a gasp of air. Lance was in front of him, a small smile on his face.

"Sorry. It took three and a half hours. I guess I read it wrong."

Keith's mind was blurry but he tried to step forward, tripping. Lance caught him, like he had been doing all day and everything that had happened that day came flooding back to him instantly. It brought his mind into focus, his heart pounding and feeling stupid again. He tried to straighten himself but kept stumbling and tripping. Eventually he let lance half carry him back to his room.

"Where is everyone?" He asked, his voice weak, trying to distract from is pink cheeks.

"They've been asleep for hours."

Keith looked down and squinted.

"What time is it?"

"About 2am our time?" He said, a guestimate. He hadn't looked at a clock for a while now. They walked in silence and Lance opened the door for them when they reached Keith's room, dragging him to the bed and placing him down with care. Keith felt foggy again and looked around his room.

"What happened in here?"

"Oh… I cleaned up the food and the shrapnel and then put your boots and jacket where they usually are. I had time." He paused and pointed to the bed. "I got you some more food too. I know how hungry the pods made me, so I thought you would be too."

"Lance, what are you doing?"

It was an honest question but Lance didn't have an answer that didn't sound weird. He stuttered and tried but couldn't come up with anything but a red face.

"I guess I'll let you rest."

"Lance." Keith said a little harsher.

He sighed and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, face still red.

"I'm just trying to help."

Keith looked up at him, confused, and Lance tried to elaborate.

"You had a bad day. That dance took a lot of your concentration and I felt bad. I just wanted to help a friend out."

Keith's eyes widened. "Friend? I thought we were 'rivals'."

Lance's face went darker and he was a little annoyed.

" I thought we were passed all that. Fine, a teammate."

"No… friend is… nice." Just unexpected. So Lance thought of them as friends? That somehow changed everything and nothing for Keith at the same time. He had the faintest smile on his lips when Lance looked back to him. "Thanks." He said with an entirely new demeanor. Lance just nodded.

"Get some rest. I'd like my partner to be able to pay attention tomorrow without staring at the floor." He smiled wide and excused himself. When he was alone, Keith ate the food - still warm - and let his mind rest before laying down, empty tray on the floor. His mind was consumed with the fog again but he still saw Lance's face before he lost himself into a dreamless sleep.