"I'm going to tuck him into bed for the time being," Lance announced looking down at the drooping eyes of his son. "I'll come find you guys when he's up for good and I can introduce you to him," he said quietly bouncing Leo gently in his arms. The paladins nodded and he turned and walked out of the hangers towards the quarters. As he walked out the doors, the others all turned to each other. Coran, Hunk, and surprisingly Shiro's faces were lit up with excitement; while Allura, Keith, and Pidge had reluctant grimaces on their faces.

"So now we're going to have to live with Lance and his spawn, great," Pidge muttered looking off to the side.

"Oh come on Pidge! This is going to be great, we'll be able to teach him so many things!" Hunk gushed, she only gave Hunk a deadpanned look which he ignored. Keith crossed his arms and looked worriedly at the doors where Lance and Leo left.

"Are you sure that he is going to be safe up here? We are fighting a war after all," he commented. Coran popped up beside him with a smile.

"Not to worry Number 4, the Castle Ship is equipped to handle the raising of all sorts of species even during times of great violence," he stated twirling his mustache. "There are certain parts of the ship that can be locked down for safety,"

"Still raising this kid is going to be a pain in the ass," he grumbled looking away.

"Keith," Shiro huffed. "Not all kids are difficult,"

"You're the one who told me that kids were hell to raise," he defended himself.

"Actually I said that you were hell to raise," Shiro stated with a quirked eyebrow. Keith let out an indignant noise and a blush rose to his cheeks. He gave Shiro a hard punch to the bicep which he received with a grin.

"Anyways," Hunk drawled gaining the attention of the rest of the paladins. "I'm going to go cook Leo a welcome dinner,"

"Or, I could cook him a traditional Altean dish," Coran suggested with a flourish. The paladin's visibly cringed.

"Um, I think he might need something sort of familiar for his first meal," Pidge said inching away from the man.

"Yah, going from home-cooked meals to space food is difficult," Hunk added heading towards the exit.

"Well, someday then," Coran said with a huff. The paladin reluctantly nodded before escaping behind Hunk.

"Someday," Coran promised himself in the silence of the hanger, ignoring the bored expression Allura was giving him.

______________________________________________________

When Lance returned with Leo in his arms they were scattered around the kitchen watching Hunk show off his cooking skills. He had just taken a pan of cookies out of the oven to cool and was now expertly chopping strange looking vegetables. They looked over and smiled when they saw Leo gazing around in awe and Lance looking down at him with udder adoration shining in his eyes. Leo noticed them and immediately tucked his face into his father's shoulder to hide his face. They stood up, Hunk abandoning the chopping board and wiping his hands on his apron.

"Guys this is Leo," he said with a flourish gesturing to the shy child. There were various soft greeting coming from the paladins, not wanting to startle the already shy child. Lance grinned and poked him in the side making him twitch and cautiously peek his face around again. Lance put him down on the ground and took his hand to walk him closer to the team.

"Leo, these are all your aunts and uncles," he said with a beaming smile. The paladin's eyes widened and when Lance looked at them their faces grew matching smiles. Leo's eyes sparkled as he looked into his father's. He walked him to the two Alteans who were looking curiously at the waddling figure.

"This is Princess Allura of Altea, and Royal Advisor Coran!" He said gallantly raising a fist in the air like he does when telling Leo a story. "This is their Castle, and we're very lucky that we have such strong friends up here in space," he crouched down next to him and rubbed his back.

"You're a princess?" He asked quietly staring at Allura. She giggled and crouched in front of him alongside Coran.

"Yes, I am," she replied holding out her hand which he took with a look of pure wonder. "I welcome you to the Castle of Lions,"

"Thank you," he answered shyly shuffling his feet. He looked up at her hesitantly, glancing at her face then back at the ground again.

"What is it?" she asked grabbing his attention.

"Can I be a princess too?" He finally asked, a blush lighting up his face. Allura looked startled for a second before she let out a series of laughs. Leo looked glumly down at the ground thinking she was laughing at his question. He looked up when he felt something go around his head. He brought his hand up to feel the metal of Allura's tiara now resting comfortably on him.

"Anyone can be a princess, Leo," he said giving him a sweet smile which he returned. She ignored the worried, helpless expression that was on Lance's face and waved him away when she saw that he wanted to return it to its owner.

"You make quite a lovely one as well!" Coran stated giving the boy a low bow. Lance sighed and gave up, opting instead to finish his introductions.

"This is Uncle Hunk," he said picking him up again and carrying him to the yellow paladin who could barely contain a squeal at the sight of the child. "He can fix anything, or cook anything you could possibly want, and he's daddy's best friend,"

"Hey there, Leo," he said quietly raising his hand in greeting. Leo hesitated a moment before raising his hand too and waving. "I was just making you something to eat, do you wanna try some?" he asked with a grin. Leo hesitated and looked up. At Lance's nod, he looked back at Hunk and gave a firm nod.

"Yes, please," Hunk turned back to the counter and grabbed one of the cookies that came out of the oven and finished cooling. He held it out to the boy who took it with a thinly veiled look of disgust, it wasn't hard to tell it was because the outside was dark green with what looked like bright purple grass on top of it.

"Thank you," he said anyway, even though it looked like he wanted to drop it right there.

"Don't worry buddy, it tastes way better than it looks, I promise," Hunk said crouching a bit in order to be at eye level with him. Leo looked into his eyes as if weighing his options. In the end, he bit into the cookie and immediately his eyes widened and he looked at the yellow paladin in complete wonderment.

"Wow! That's really good!" He cheered giving Hunk a wide smile. Hunk stood and puffed his chest out in pride. "Can I have another one?" Hunk was about to answer and give him one but Lance cut in first.

"You can have another one after dinner, okay buddy?" Lance answered looking down. Leo gave a short pout but nodded sullenly. Hunk ruffled his hair and Lance turned to face Pidge.

"This is Aunt Pidge," he introduced her. Standing in front of her, she and Leo were standing at the same height. She gave a nervous wave not moving to do anything else. Unlike with Hunk, Leo didn't need a second thought to be comfortable and immediately gave her a happy wave and a cheerful hello. "She's super smart, she'll be able to answer anything you ever ask her, she's a super great friend too!" Pidge blinked and smirked proudly before pushing her glasses up.

"Wow!" Leo stared at her in amazement. "Can you really?" She looked at the starstruck expression on his face and felt her heart melt a little bit.

"Of course I can, I'm the smartest one on this ship!" She exclaimed putting her hands on her hips. They all gave a slight snort of amusement before he started approaching Keith.

"Don't worry champ, in a year, you'll be taller than her," he stage-whispered to Leo who gave a light giggle in response.

"This is Uncle Keith," Lance said ignoring the cry of indignation that came from Pidge. He had his arms crossed and only gave a short nod to the boy, who tilted his head in confusion. Lance gave a snort of amusement.

"Ignore the bad boy outside Leo, he's actually a big softy and would protect you at all costs. If you ever feel scared for any reason; go to Uncle Keith, I promise that he would do whatever it takes to protect you," he said earnestly bumping his forehead with his son's. Keith looked on with shock at hearing Lance describe him. Although he just found out about and met Leo, it was true that he would never let anything happen to him while he was with them.

"Really?" Leo asked amazed looking at the red paladin. He reached out a tiny hand which Keith took gently.

"Thanks, Uncle Keith," Leo said with an open-mouthed smile. Keith couldn't help the widening of his mouth and returned the smile full force.

"See, I told you! Total softy," Lance said with excitement, happy that his son got along with Keith even if he couldn't.

He was excited to introduce Leo to Shiro; as it turns out Lance wasn't Shiro's biggest fan, not when Leo was around. It was a feat in itself that he hadn't noticed him yet; patiently waiting at the edge of the group, enough to stay out of the way but still be engaged with what was going on.

"Okay buddy, I know that you'll know this guy," he said still facing Keith who gave him a look of confusion. He turned to the man and his son let out a gasp when his eyes caught onto Shiro's face. He wriggled enough that Lance had to put him down and he ran to Shiro's feet. He didn't say anything and just stared up at the man. Shiro chuckled and lowered himself to crouch on one knee in front of Leo.

"You're Takashi Shirogane," he breathed in amazed. Shiro quirked his brow when he pronounced his name without flaw and looked to Lance who gave a shrug in response.

"Yup, that's me," he said holding out his left hand instead of the prosthetic right. "Its very nice to meet you,"

With stars in his eyes, he rapidly shook Shiro hand with both of his own. Leo began babbling about how much he loved Shiro and his piloting, and how cool he thought he was when he went to space and that he was sad when they said he was gone. Shiro closed his eyes and grinned feeling blush flush his cheeks in embarrassment. The frenzied speech suddenly came to a halt and he opened his eyes in confusion. He sucked in a small breath of air when he noticed that Leo was staring at Shiro's Galran arm with curious eyes.

"Oh, um," he stuttered trying to come up with a lighthearted excuse for the boy.

"Are you okay?" Leo asked quietly looking up at the baffled leader.

"Um, yes?" he replied. Leo just nodded before touching the metal of the arm and looking up with a small smile.

"That's good, you look even cooler than before," he admitted. "Your hair and the mark on your face makes you look cool too!" he patted Shiro's where his scar ended on his cheeks. Shiro felt a bit of water build in his eyes as he looked at Leo, so amazed by someone as broken as him.

"Wait," he said suddenly pausing in his exploration. "Are you my uncle too?!" he asked excitement overwhelming his face. Shiro chuckled again and pushed his hand through his hair.

"Yup, Uncle Shiro," he confirmed. Leo gasped and looked back at Lance who was almost cackling at the sight of the two. Leo practically hopped back to Lance with glee and he swept him into his arms to cuddle him to his chest. The paladins looked on with a newfound sense of hope in their chests. Perhaps this wasn't going to be as rough as they thought.

"Let's go see the lions, Leo," Lance suggested nuzzling their noses together. Leo let out a tinkling laugh as they walked towards the door. He looked over Lance's shoulder and waved to the team as they walked out of the kitchen, a giant smile lighting up the entire room. There was complete silence as they stared at the door.

"I would die for that child," Allura deadpanned after a moment.

"As would I Princess," Coran said beside her completely serious.

"He's an angel, an absolute angel," Hunk cried from where he began cutting vegetables again.

"I can't believe that came from Lance," Pidge stated bluntly as she stared at the door.

"If anything ever happens to this kid, I'm going to kill anything that gets in my way. Except for Lance, I'm not letting him lose his parent again," Keith announced to them. "But, anything else. Dead," the others nodded in acceptance while Shiro sat frozen in the same position as before, but now with tears of happiness streaming down his face and his hands covering his mouth.

"I'm the cool uncle,"