Shiro pulled Lance against him as wakefulness came to his senses, he pressed his face in his boyfriend's hair and let out a tired groan. Lance twitched in his sleep before he let out a quiet snore and snuggled into the warmth behind him. Shiro could only smile at the Cuban before he carefully climbed out of the bed and towards their bathroom. He returned after a few minutes to find Lance curled up in the same place as before. He sighed and approached the bed, shaking Lance's shoulder to rouse him. His head lifted off the pillow and looked blearily up at his boyfriend's face.

"Rise and shine," Shiro smiled. "We got a mission today, remember?" Lance groaned and face planted back on the pillow, before reluctantly crawling out of bed and pulling his regular clothes on. They left after Lance was finished his morning routine and headed towards the dining hall to meet the other paladins. Like usual they were served food goo and they dug in while Allura started briefing them about the upcoming mission.

"As you know, we liberated planet Talebaria from Galra control," Allura started bringing a hologram of the planet up. "Our only mission today is to form an alliance with the Taleberian kingdom, and have them join the Voltron Coalition,"

"We believe that we will be able to accomplish our goals fairly easily," Coran added. "They contacted us earlier and they wished to thank us with a celebration in our honour," he twirled his moustache with a proud look on his face.

"Now, I must warn you about the way the Talebarians behaviour differs from ours," Allura said bringing the focus back to her.

"What do you mean?" Hunk asked.

"The Talebarians are very... open creatures," she replied. "They show their emotions and feelings much more openly than others; so you must be careful not to react poorly to them, they aren't used to having to censor their feelings,"

"Interesting," Pidge hummed. "Whats the reason for that? Something chemically different than other species?"

"You'll have to ask them that yourself Pidge," Allura chuckled. They returned to their breakfasts and exchanged casual conversation; soon enough they were in the Talebarian atmosphere and they were changing into their paladin armour. They made their way to the Castle entrance and waited for the Alteans to join them. They arrived minutes later and Allura stepped forward with a slightly stern look of her face.

"Remember: Keith no threatening the locals, they aren't used to people keeping themselves from others,"

"Patience yields focus," Shiro muttered looking towards the door.

"Understood," Keith mumbled looking away from her. She nodded in approval before looking at the other paladins.

"Pidge; while I know you're curious, be cautious of what you ask of them, they may not be comfortable with comparing their body to another species," Pidge pouted but nodded nonetheless.

"Hunk; I believe you will be the least likely to cause a problem, but I'd like to remind you to connect as much as you can with them, like how you did on the Balmera," Allura smiled encouragingly. Hunk smiled in return and also nodded his head.

"Lance and Shiro; I know that your relationship is very important to you, but please don't let it cloud your judgement when you deal with the citizens," she pleaded. Lance and Shiro looked at each other in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" Lance asked. Allura laughed nervously.

"It seems that a fair number of the locals hold a certain amount of admiration for Lance," she replied. She searched their faces trying to gauge a reaction from either of them.

"I don't think we'll have a problem with that Princess," Shiro reassured her.

_______________________________________________________

Problem. This was a problem. Shiro thought, gripping his glass of some sort of alien drink tightly in his human hand. He was looking across the ballroom at the sight of his boyfriend happily chatting away to one of the Palace's guards. The guard was about Shiro's size, with dark bluish green skin and bright neon green eyes. They had been talking like that for the better part of an hour, and Shiro could feel his teeth grinding together the longer he stared at them. Deep down he knew that he shouldn't be feeling the jealousy bubbling in his belly, but when it came to Lance he couldn't help but want him all to himself. He turned his attention away when one of the villagers approached him and offered him their thanks. He accepted it with a smile and conversed with them for a short time, after they were gone he turned his head back to look at Lance. His eyes widened when he saw the guard even closer to Lance then he was before, and Lance with a small blush dusted across his cheeks. But this was different from when Shiro would make Lance blush; this was a blush of mortification and he could see that Lance was slowly trying to inch away from the alien. Finally, Lance got up the nerve to leave the conversation and pushed away and tried to move further down the wall. 'Tried to' being the idea, until the guard's hand wrapped around his hip and pulled him back towards him. The cup in Shiro's hand shattered. Before he knew it he was over to the two of them, and his Galra hand was buried in the wall beside the man's head. Close enough that the man's breath fogged up the sleek metal, his terrified eyes looked into Shiro's furious ones.

"Back off," Shiro growled. He frantically nodded and scurried away. Shiro turned to Lance who was looking at his arm, still embedded in the wall.

"I'm sorry Lance, I shouldn't have gone off like that," he said ashamed, looking down at the floor. "I just couldn't watch that anymore,"

"Shiro, babe, its okay," he reassured him. "You just protected me, that's what a good boyfriend does," he smushed Shiro's face in his hands and kissed him. Shiro's face lit up in a blush and gave a small smile.

"Now, we should probably go explain what happened to Allura before we start looking crazy," Lance suggested. He started walking to the throne where Allura was chatting with the Emperor and Empress when he was called back.

"Lance?" Shiro called quietly.

"Yah?" He asked turning around.

"I'm stuck," he admitted with a blush, tugging at it to prove his point. The only response was Lance's laugh resounding around the room.