A Very Merry Voltron

           

One frigid snowy day while the Castle of Lions was on the planet Frostium, the Paladins of Voltron plus Coran and Allura were all sitting on the big couch in the lounge. Allura shivered. "Oh it's quite chilly on this planet."

"How about I come over there and warm you up?" Lance responded from the other side of the couch. "Lance!" Shiro warned.

"No, I agree with Allura. It is a rather cold planet." Coran sighed. "But, we can't leave until we have a few more meetings with Queen Nieve about joining the Coalition. Does anyone have any ideas for how we can warm up in the meantime?"

Lance opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, Shiro glared at him. Lance quickly shut his mouth.

"Ooh ooh ooh!" Hunk excitedly bounced up and down on the couch. "How about we make some hot cocoa and put on sweaters?"

"No. I refuse to wear a cutesy sweater with a cheesy line on it." Keith declared.

"All this talk about sweaters and cocoa makes me miss winter on Earth." Pidge commented sadly. "Yeah." Hunk and Lance agreed. Keith just shrugged indifferently.

"What is a winter?" Allura inquired.

"Oh man! You would love it! It's a time during our year when the weather is cold. Sometimes, it snows, which is when miniature ice crystals fall from the sky. There are tons of winter activities like skiing and sledding and ice skating. Also, it's my favorite time of the year because of Christmas."

"Oooohhhhh. We had that back on Altea. Except our snow was shards of glass that fell from the sky. Ha! You had to be careful, or you might have gotten skewered! Ah, good times." Coran wiped a tear of laughter from his eyes.

"I'm still confused. What is Christmas?" Allura wondered.

"Christmas is a time for family and friends to celebrate together. People exchange gifts and sing carols. There's usually lots of decorating and baking, but for most it's the family time that's really important." answered Pidge.

"This conversation is great and all, but I want to go outside and play in the snow. Anyone want to come with me?" Hunk suggested.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Pidge responded. Hunk and Pidge ran out of the room immediately after she said that. Lance was about to follow before he paused. "You guys coming with us?"

"No, Coran, Shiro, and I need to talk about a few things, but you have fun!" Allura replied.

"Keith? What about you?"

"Thanks, but I would rather go back into a Weblum's digestive system."

"Nope. Nuh uh. You are coming with me." Lance dragged Keith out of the room to play in the snow. Keith made a pouty face, but still allowed Lance to haul him outside.

Once outside and in their space suits, the four Paladins marveled at the beautiful sight before them. Even though he would never admit it, even Keith was impressed. The planet was covered in a thick blanket of snow and there was a frozen pond that sparkled in the morning sun. Off in the distance, a palace rose above a city of quaint little cottages that looked like gingerbread houses. Keith was about to comment on how he wanted to go back inside when a snowball hit him squarely on his helmet-covered face.

"Oh, it is so on Lance!" Keith screamed. But before Keith could even form a decent snowball, he was hit with three more snowballs courtesy of Lance. A vigorous snowball fight between Lance and Keith ensued while Hunk made millions of snow angels he named after every person he had met recently. Pidge made snowmen then proceeded to destroy them with her bayard. After a varga or so of playing around, they built two snow forts. It was the forces of Pidge and Keith versus Lance and Hunk. Pidge and Keith were overpowered by Lance and Hunk but only by a Yalmor's snout. The group then decided to go ice skating on the pond. After an adjustment to everyone's suits made by Pidge, they all glided onto the ice. Keith and Lance raced each other trying to be better than the other before both of them crashed into a snowbank. Hunk was doing graceful twirls while Pidge was doing jumps and spins. After a while, their teeth started to chatter, and they headed back to the Castle of Lions.

During the time the paladins were outside, Shiro, Allura, and Coran had a discussion.

"I feel bad for the paladins because they miss Earth so much. I bet you do too, Shiro." Allura confided.

"Yeah, Earth was pretty great. What should we do about the paladins though?"

"How about we recreate your Earth Mristcas?" Coran exclaimed.

"Christmas." Shiro corrected. "That is a great idea though."

"Well, how do we do it?" Allura questioned. "I mean, is there a random earth shop nearby?"

"Why don't we go check out the town's shops and see what we find?" suggested Shiro.

After gathering up some alien currency and a quick ride in the Black Lion, the three arrived at the market area in town. They bought food items, and on the way back, Shiro chopped down a small evergreen tree in one of the forests on Frostium.

"Okay, let's make this the best space Christmas ever!" Shiro cheered.

After that, Shiro got to work setting up the Christmas tree in a corner of the lounge and putting twinkling scaultrite lights on it. Coran put the odd trinkets they gathered from the castle on the tree. He also hung paper snowflakes from the ceiling. Allura prepared an Altean feast of roasted snarbeast, mashed tubers, an alien hot cocoa, and blom fruit pudding. Things weren't exactly like they were on earth, but they made do with substitutes from what they found in the market. Coran put the final touches on the tree with a glowing scaultrite star on the top. Shiro hung a mistletoe up and explained the tradition to Allura and Coran. Allura found a hidden compartment and pressed a button that made an image of a fire pop up so it looked like a fireplace. She placed blankets on the couches along with four ugly Christmas sweaters for the paladins to wear that were knitted by the mice. Shiro placed all the food and drinks on a table in the middle of the room. They all donned their own Christmas sweaters and waited for Lance, Keith, Hunk, and Pidge.

Five doboshes later, all four of them walked into the louge and immediately gasped. The place looked warm and inviting and reminded them so much of earth. Four identical cheesy smiles were placed on their faces. Even Keith looked happy for once. They changed into their Christmas sweaters.

"Thank you guys so much for putting in the effort for this." Hunk gushed.

"Yeah. We really appreciate it." Lance and Pidge agreed.

The smile on Keith's face said his thanks for him.

So, they all enjoyed the food prepared for them by Allura, which was actually pretty good despite the interesting names. Seven dirty plates later, and the humans were teaching the Alteans some of their favorite Christmas carols. They laughed and shared stories of past Christmases. They didn't exchange presents, but just being together was good enough for everyone. The mice put on a show, and there was a standing ovation at the end. Hunk's favorite part was all the delicious food. The best part of the day for Pidge was the stories and carols. It reminded her of sitting with Matt and her dad listening to their stories. Even though he didn't say it, Keith loved it when he got to sit snuggled up with his friends and enjoy the moment. Shiro felt proud that he helped brighten the paladins' day. Coran loved all the carols and taught them the Yalmorian Chant, which was his favorite thing to sing. Allura loved the mice's show and the food reminded her of home. Finally, Lance's favorite part was when Allura begrudgingly kissed his cheek under the mistletoe after he reminded her of the tradition. He could have sworn he saw her blush after, but maybe it had just been the firelight. The seven friends finished the night by having Hunk recite 'Twas the Night before Christmas. That night, they all fell asleep in the lounge with their sweaters on all snuggled up together while visions of sugarplums and Yalmors danced in their heads.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL VOLTRON FANS!