A hole in the wall

The question caught Keith off guard. He paused, his mouth dangling open, half a word out before Hunk abruptly cut in. It was unusual for Hunk to cut someone off; it's rude, the yellow paladin had said before.  He is the one polite paladin out of the lot of them. Well, Shiro too, most of the time.  The rest of them though? No, Keith had to admit that the rest of them are all uncouth, rude at times, socially awkward at best.  What could you do though, when you spent so much time isolated with the same six people in space for years?

He snapped his mouth shut and turned his head slightly to peer over his shoulder. He turned just in time to see James' gaze flick away, in the opposite direction.  

Subtle, Keith thought, the corner of his mouth twitching momentarily into a grin.  He turned back to Hunk and shrugged casually.  "I don't know what you mean."

Within their little speaking circle, Pidge and Lance had turned to gaze across the room as well; James was studiously ignoring them now. 

"Didn't you punch him once?" Lance asked, voice lilting in amusement.  

Pidge looked at Keith, brows raised. She could not hide the excitement on her features. Dear Pidge; as eager for gossip and drama as the rest of them.

Keith coughed out a sharp laugh, clearing his throat to cover the sound a second later.  "Yes. Yes, I did.  But even he agrees now that he deserved it."

The memory of that long past event was still distasteful to Keith; even to that day had no patience for any slander against his father.  James had crossed a line with his comment that day. He should have known better, Keith reasoned when they spoke about the brawl some time after the paladins returned to earth.  James had been sour for days after Voltron had landed, bristling anytime he saw Keith and snapping at his teammates.  Feeling it best to keep his distance, Keith had kept to himself, leaving the room when James entered, if possible.  At some intense prompting from Kincade, James had decided it best to address the elephant in the room rather than continue to languish in anger and potentially endanger missions with his attitude.

With his nerve steeled, one day James had cornered him in the hangar as he hopped from his lion, Kosmo appearing at his side a moment later. The dog's high pitched whine alerted him to the young man's approach and Keith straightened, unsure what was coming.

"Keith." James said stiffly. He was ramrod straight, perfect cadet posture.

Keith raised a brow. "James."  There was a long pause as they stared at one another, each of them unsure of the other. "Can I....help you?"

There was another beat of silence before James allowed himself to relax, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly.  "I would like to talk to you."

As it had turned out, there had been a lot to say. It was perhaps the most emotional but productive talk Keith had ever had and he walked away with an unlikely friend. And after that? Necessity forced them to work together daily. If he were asked to guess how they grew so close, so quickly, Keith would credit the close proximity, day in and day out, from mission to leisure time.  

There was something comforting, alluring even to spending time with James. Unlike with the other paladins, he knew James well.  They had been orbiting one another since early childhood, living parallel lives, hardly interacting outside of necessity, but always aware of one another. Waiting at the bus stop, navigating group projects, passing basketballs in gym glass. The sheer mundanity of what they had experienced together was startling.  Somehow, it made him feel closer to James than to some of his fellow paladins who he had bled for. 

And suddenly the memories of his childhood were not always tinged with resentment and deep rooted rage at the unfortunate lot in life he had ended up with.  

One day after dinner, when the rest of the MFE pilots had left the table, leaving only he and James, James leaned over and excitedly said, "Remember in fifth grade when they brought all those animals to school? In the gymnasium they had the snakes and insects and one of the girls tried to touch a snake and ended up hitting the thing out of the handler's hands when it snapped at her."

Keith laughed loudly.  Of course he remembered that day.  "Yeah, it started slithering all over the place and I ended up catching it."

"Yeah, you did." James cackled. "You just reached down and yanked that thing up by its head."

Once they began reminiscing, Keith was surprised to find that there were a number of good memories, happy memories, some even from after his father had died. They sat for hours in the cafeteria talking, until the cleaning staff politely asked them to leave so they could do their jobs.  After that, they went into town, using the local bartender's good will towards earth's saviors to procure some pints of heavily watered down beer, and stayed up well into the morning.

It became a thing.  At least twice a week they were in town, slurping bubble tea or trying a new cafe.  James loved hot chocolate and tea, it turned out; Keith had no particularly strong feelings for any drink, so he was happy to just go along for the experience.  Without even realizing it, they had become a thing.  Not that they shared that with anyone; they were being cautious. It was highly unlikely that anyone would protest their dating. Perhaps a cautious supervisor might move them around different units so that they were not working side by side and distracting one another, but beyond that Keith thought someone would need to have a lot of balls and gall to try and tell a Voltron paladin and the MFE flight commander what they could and could not do. 

Coming back to himself, the other paladins staring at him, Keith thought it curious that none of them had seemed to notice the extra time he and James spent together. Or if they did, they did not think anything of it.  His previous obsession with Shiro may have left the others with the impression that his fervor would be cringingly visible. 

"Anyway," Keith said, grinning inwardly, "no, there is nothing going on between me and James. He and I are on perfectly good ground. We have mended our differences."

"Didn't know you to be the type to get over a grudge." Lance scoffed. Pidge elbowed him hard in the side. 

Keith didn't rise to the bait; he had gotten over having childish squabbles with his fellow paladins. "I can if the offender is contrite and offers a sincere apology."

They continued on with their prior conversation, eagerly anticipating their next mission in space:  a three month-long excursion accompanied by the Atlas crew and MFEs.  It would be their last big mission for awhile, the garrison had explained. As much as they desired a peaceful life on earth, there were times all of the paladins itched for a bit of adventure, a taste of their old lives.