12 Days of Writing

Keith's First Christmas

Summary: Keith had never had a Christmas tree, or a family to celebrate with. And now that he does, it's a little overwhelming. Voltron: Legendary Defender fanfic.

Keith shrugged off his crop top jacket and flopped onto his bed. It had been a really, really long day.

First, they had some weird party on a planet that loved dancing more than breathing (Allura had said it was for diplomatic reasons or something), followed by Keith being thrown in jail (was it his fault he couldn't perform the dances right? He didn't know it was offensive to their culture to not know how to dance), and lastly Lance's excited, annoying comments about Christmas.

Christmas.

Christmas.

The one holiday that Keith groaned about and felt physical pain over. It didn't help that it was Lance's favorite holiday. It was just more proof that the holiday sucked.

According to Lance, Christmas was tomorrow. That meant that it was Christmas Eve, right? Keith sighed. He remembered Lance talking excitedly about traditions that his family had for Christmas Eve that he wanted the others to join in. Keith had excused himself without a word, determined to leave before he was roped in.

But of course it hadn't been that simple.

Shiro had stopped him before he left, a steady hand on his shoulder. "Keith? Where are you going?"

Keith resisted the urge to rip his shoulders out of Shiro's grasp. "I was going to sleep. I'm tired."

"Stay for Lance's traditions," Shiro urged. "It'll be good for you."

Keith's tired state just made him more grumpy. "It sounds boring. Plus, I've never celebrated Christmas; why start now?"

There was a gasp from behind Shiro, and Keith looked behind his friend's enormous build to see a hand on Lance's face. The other boy looked dramatically surprised at Keith's statement, and Keith ground his teeth together.

"Never celebrated?" Lance wiped away fake tears. "Poor Keith, having to live under a rock his whole life."

Keith bristled. "I was in the desert for a year, Lance. Doesn't mean I don't know what Christmas is. I've seen enough cities and parties to know how big the holiday is."

Lance just grinned his annoyingly snarky grin and said, "Well, I'm sure you have. But have you ever seen one of my parties?"

Keith didn't answer. Of course he hadn't; Keith hadn't known the blue paladin long enough, nor had he thought them close enough friends--no, sorry, rivals, as Lance called their relationship--to be able to know that kind of information.

"Come on, Keith," Hunk tried to convince him. "Just for an hour, and then you can have the whole night off."

Keith thought about it, but clearly his silence was interpreted as acceptance and soon he was crowded by all the paladins and Allura (Coran was laughing on the sidelines).

Hours later, and now Keith was able to finally rest. It had been a long, long day, and the attention from the other paladins was awkward and he didn't know what to do.

So, the best thing to do was drift into a relaxing, dreamless sleep.

*/\*

Keith woke to banging on his door. He shot up, bayard in hand as he exited the room, looking for danger. But instead, he was met with Lance's annoying face stretched in an impossibly large smile.

"Morning! Glad you came out so fast!" Lance grabbed Keith's arm and looped it in his own. Keith just about drew his bayard on him, but thought twice. If he did that, there would probably be consequences (aka Shiro would be very disappointed and Keith wouldn't see any light for days).

So, instead, Keith growled, "Let go of me."

"No can do!" Lance said, dragging Keith with him toward the commons room. "Don't want you running off before we even celebrate Christmas."

"We did that last night," Keith grumbled.

Tsk tsk. Lance waved a finger in Keith's face. "No no, that was Christmas Eve. This is Christmas Day."

"I see no difference."

"Oh, you will, my friend," Lance opened the door to the common area. "You will."

And there, standing in the center of the room, was the largest Christmas tree Keith had ever seen. Granted, he'd mostly seen shop window trees or the occasional family tree in the window of a home.

But now, before his eyes, was a twelve foot tree complete with beautiful decorations and sparkling lights. Around the tree sat all his friends, including Coran and Allura. Allura had a santa hat on her head, and Coran's mustache was impressively gelled so it shone and stayed in its perfect position.

The others were still in pjs. Pidge had a bow on top of her head, glasses resting carelessly on the tip of her nose as she unwrapped a gift. Inside was a box of computer building parts. "Awe!" Pidge held the gift close to her chest. "Thank you, guys."

Lance shuffled Keith into the circle on the floor, sitting next to him. "Our rivalry is put on a temporary truce, okay?" Lance said. "Also, we started without you since you were taking so long."

Lance grabbed a decorated box and held it out to Keith. "Here, from everyone," Lance smiled.

Keith tentatively took the box and held it in his lap awkwardly. All the others stared at him expectantly, and he guessed he was supposed to open the gift. He unwrapped it and held out a knife cleaning kit. It wasn't much, and definitely something he needed, but Keith started to feel something funny in his chest. He blushed. "Uh . . . thanks?"

Everyone smiled and went back to conversing with one another. There were a few more gifts to open, Shiro getting a mug (Allura had a matching set, so she gave him one. The result was a blushing mess), Hunk got a set of cooking supplies, and Coran received a hair care product ('Great for moustaches!' could be read clearly on the side).

And finally it was Lance. The boy picked up his present and opened it with reckless abandon, the paper flying in the air like a cartoon would depict. Lance held up the gift . . . it was a radio.

Keith groaned, imagining all the terrible songs he was going to hear over the next several years, Lance's singing making it ten times worse.

Lance smiled widely and turned it on, a song already playing: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The next few hours we a blur, Keith laughing along with the others at Lance's terrible singing. They ate breakfast somewhere in there, and played a few games before everyone went their separate ways to "play" with their new toys.

Keith sighed and sat down on the couch, just staring at the tree. It really was beautiful. Keith wondered when the others had had the time to set it up; it wasn't there last night.

"So, Keith," Lance said, plopping down beside Keith on the couch. "What'd you think about your first Christmas?"

Keith didn't know what to think. It was . . . warm? Loving? He couldn't place it.

Lance sucked in a quick breath. "Whoa . . ."

"What?"

"Nothing, just . . . you smiled," Lance's own smiled grew. "You don't really do that very often."

"I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," Keith's lip stuck out in a slight pout.

"Pfft!" Lance laughed. "It's good, it's good! I promise!"

"Can I really trust your promises?"

Lance covered his heart with his hands dramatically. "You wound me."

Keith and Lance broke out in a fit of laughter, the warm feeling in Keith's chest growing. Lance wasn't so bad, when he wasn't trying to annoy the crap out of Keith.

"So, do you think I should try wooing Allura with song?" Lance asked.

Keith quirked a brow. "She's definitely not going to take that well."

Lance waggled his eyebrows. "I know I could woo you with my charming voice. You're just so easy to rile up." A pillow was shoved into Lance's face as Keith stormed out, anger billowing off of him in waves.

Keith took it back. Lance was a jerk.