The memories of Lance's abuse were still fresh in the minds of the paladins. They realized that he probably hasn't had a good Christmas since the day he was born. It's about time that they changed that.

______________________________________________________

Lance had never had a good Christmas. It was easier to say that Lance was never allowed to have a good Christmas. Not when he was living with his family, anyway. Thinking back to the Christmases that he left behind on Earth, there was never any good memories that came with them. He wanted more than anything to feel the joy that came with Christmas; the joy that everyone else seemed to have when he looked at people on the street. His father knew that too; every year he would taunt Lance with them. Presents, foods, cookies, anything really but he would never let Lance touch any of it.

One year, when he was about nine years old. Lance tried to sneak away with a Christmas cookie that laid forgotten on the counter while his siblings were raiding the kitchen. He had almost gotten outside when his father's hand wrapped tightly around his wrist and yanked him back. He looked down at him with such venom as he ripped the cookie out of his hand and threw it on the ground in front of him.

"You don't deserve these things, boy," he snarled at him before he slapped him across the face. A split second later, he backhanded the other one making Lance fall back with a cry. He looked up at his looming father with tears in his eyes, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. His father spun around without a second thought and headed towards the kitchen again.

"Clean that up," he hissed before walking past the door's threshold. Lance gasped and scrambled up to his feet, scooping the broken cookie up in his trembling hands and stumbling to the bathroom to dump it in the trash. As he cleaned his hands of the sugar, he looked at himself in the mirror. His hair was dishevelled, his eyes were watery and filled with tears, and his cheeks were bright red.

______________________________________________________

Red cheeks became a morbid Christmas tradition in his life. More than anything, he wanted to experience some sort of Christmas joy. So, every year he tried to somehow experience it. His father would always catch him though, whether it was sneaking food away from the kitchen, or decorating the small area behind the shed with decorations that had been thrown away and was punished for it.

He would sit up in his room or outside holding his stinging red cheeks, listening to the laughter coming from the living room as his siblings opened up their gifts. Sometimes he would cry and sometimes he just felt numb. Why couldn't he have the things that they did? All he wanted was to have a good Christmas. At least the colour of his cheeks were festive.

When he moved away to the Garrison, he opted to stay at the school over the break. Hunk invited him to come to his house for the break but he declined. He didn't want them to have to deal with him while they were supposed to be having fun with their family. He knew that Hunk meant well, but down deep he was afraid that he would be excluded like he was in his own house. He didn't want Hunk, his only friend to find out what happened to him during Christmas, or during his whole life really. That wasn't his cross to bear. It would always be his.

He was slightly afraid when his team started talking about Christmas. He didn't really know much about celebrating it, except for the small tidbits he could get from the TV when no one was looking. Thankfully, no one asked why he was suddenly so quiet, too caught up in the excitement that Christmas brought for them. He yawned and stretched his arms above his head, drawing everybody's attention over to him.

"I'm beat, I'm going to head to bed," he announced before running out of the room. The paladins looked around at each other.

"He didn't seem too excited," Hunk commented staring at the door.

"Maybe..." Keith trailed off looking down at the table before stopping. They waited for Keith to continue but he wasn't forthcoming.

"Maybe?" Pidge prompted waving her hand for him to continue. He looked up at them, a sad expression on his face.

"We saw how his dad was, maybe he's never had a good Christmas or a Christmas at all," he suggested sadly. They all realized at the same time, frowns appearing on their faces and stomachs clenching in sadness.

"Well, we'll just have to fix that then," Shiro declared standing up. "We're going to give him the best Christmas of his life,"

"YEAH!" They all cheered jumping up as well. They immediately started planning and assigning duties to each other. They cheered as they walked out of the kitchen, excited to start on their plans.

"Coran, do you have any idea what they were talking about?" Allura asked from the end of the table where she was sitting through the entire dinner.

"Not a clue Princess,"

______________________________________________________

Lance couldn't help but notice his team's weird behaviour over the next few days. Every time they would look at him, they would start smiling even if they were clearly trying to stop. Allura had also landed on a planet for some reason, when he asked about it, she just said that they deserved a break. Which was especially weird for Allura since she wanted them training all the time, but whatever. Maybe one of the team had told her about Christmas and she decided that this would be a gift for the team.

From what he could see from the bridge's screens, the planet was covered in lush trees that varied in colour. They all looked like pine trees though, it must have been a huge coincidence for Allura to have picked this planet to land on. He left the bridge, planning on going back to his room and maybe doing a spa day for himself since they didn't have any plans for training that day.

"Hey, Lance!" Someone called from behind him. He spun around and saw Keith walking towards him.

"Whats up?" He asked meeting him halfway. He quirked a brow at the red Santa hat that was perched on his head.

"Want to come pick out a Christmas tree with me?" He asked, pointing his thumb in the direction of the hangers. Lance's thoughts immediately screeched to a halt.

"Really? You want my help?" He asked in disbelief pointing to himself.

"Yeah, of course,"

"Is everyone else busy?"

"What? No," Keith laughed. "I thought that you would have the most fun with it,"

"O-okay lets go!" He said excited, taking Keith by the arm and started leading him to the hangers.

"Nice hat by the way," he said, once again admiring the red cap.

"Oh yeah, Coran fabricated them for us, I got one for you too," he said pulling it from one of the pouches on his belt and handing it to Lance. He immediately pulled it on his head. It was just as fuzzy and warm as he thought it would be.

"We'll probably have to take a pod," Keith said when they walked through the hangers. He chose one randomly and looked back to Lance. "Do you want to pilot?"

"Huh? Oh, no, that's fine," he said, shocked that Keith would ask him.

"Okay," Keith shrugged climbing inside, joined shortly after by Lance. They didn't fly far from the Castle since the terrain was covered by the trees. They marvelled at the surreal colours that they came in.

"What colour do you think we should get?" Keith asked, running his fingers on one of the trunks as they passed.

"Um, I don't know, a green one?" He suggested shrugging his shoulders. Keith looked back at him and his unsure face.

"Out of all of these trees, you want a regular Christmas tree?" Keith laughed. Lance puffed up his cheeks.

"It's not about what I want Keith," he huffed crossing his arms.

"Well, I know everyone would want a fun tree, and you're the most fun person on the ship, so which one do you want?" He argued with a smile. He watched as disbelief spread across Lance's face. Lance blinked and started looking around, now his team was sort of depending on him for this. In the far distance, a bright spot of colour caught his eye and he started making his way towards it, Keith following closely behind.

"Oh yes, this one," he decided, pointing at the bright cyan tree they were walking towards.

"Huh, blue, never saw that coming," Keith teased standing beside Lance.

"W-we can choose a different one," Lance said blushing and wringing his hand together.

"What? No way, look at this thing!" Keith exclaimed gesturing to the tree. Before Lance could argue again, Keith summoned his bayard and sliced through the trunk of the tree. It fell to the ground with barely a sound.

"Now we just gotta get it inside the Castle,"

______________________________________________________

Carrying a tree was a lot easier than Lance thought it would be. It wasn't very heavy at all, especially when there was someone to help you too. The only problem was the pine needles that were getting all over the floor.

"It's fine that we're making a mess Lance," Keith said as they carried the tree into the lounge. He had asked the question about twenty times as they carried the tree, nervously looking around the entire time. Keith's heart squeezed in sympathy, hoping never to learn why Lance was so anxious the entire time.

"Holy crap, that's the coolest tree I've ever seen," Pidge said from where she was sitting with her laptop, like Lance and Keith she had a Santa hat on her head as well.

"I know right? Lance picked it out," Keith said as they placed the tree in the fabricated tree stand Coran had made. They watched in awe as the tree floated in the middle of the ring without any need for something to hold it. They looked over to Pidge when there was a flash of light. They didn't notice before but she had a string of lights beside her while she typed away on her computer. She pushed a key on her computer down and the lights turned on, and off again when she pressed the same button.

"Yes, it works," she cheered gathering the bundled lights up and running over to join the two of them.

"We can decorate the tree now," she said gesturing to it. She turned to Lance with glittering eyes.

"You want me to help?" He asked pressing his hand to his chest. She nodded excitedly and dropped the string of lights in his hands.

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to go clean up those pine needles," Keith said, turning and walking out of the door.

"Let's do this!" Pidge cheered throwing her fist up in the air. Lance looked lost down at the lights, he didn't want to admit to Pidge that he's never put up lights before.

"Since you're taller, you could hold the lights at the top and I can twist them around the tree," Pidge suggested, seeing the struggle on Lance's face. He nodded instantly and reached up to hold the end of the lights to the top. He gave the tail end to Pidge who untangled it carefully. After it was straight, she ran around the tree like a creature from hell. She cackled as Lance tried to keep the lights in neat lines on the tree. She looked at the crooked lines with pride and nodded her head.

"Perfect," she declared returning to the couch and gesturing for Lance to come over as well. She pushed a box towards him and carried her own back towards the tree, Lance following after her like a lost puppy.

"I know they're pretty homely but I think they're cute," she said taking off the lid of the box. The box was filled with ornaments of various shapes, colours, and sizes. Lance gasped and tore the lid of his box off too. He was going to be decorating a Christmas tree. He looked back up at Pidge, tears welling up slightly in his eyes. Thankfully she was turned towards the tree, already haphazardly adding ornaments to the tree. He sniffed slightly and wiped his eye, missing the smile that spread across Pidge's face. He took a sparkly blue snowflake out of the box and hung it on the tree.

With every ornament that he hung on the tree, his smile grew wider. He could only feel absolute joy every minute that he spent laughing with Pidge. By the time that they were finished, the tree was covered in every sort of ornament someone could imagine. It wasn't the prettiest tree there ever was, but it was theirs.

"Whoa, look at that tree!" Shiro gasped when the door to the training room slid open. They turned to the leader with big smiles on their faces. Unlike the two of them, Shiro had a pair of reindeer antlers perched on his head.

"Isn't it pretty!" Lance cheered throwing his arms up. Shiro laughed nodding his head. Pidge ran from her spot and over the couch to pick up a bunch more string lights and handed them off to Shiro.

"You guys should decorate the rest of the room too," she said.

"What about you?" Lance asked before she left the room.

"Hunk wanted my help with something earlier," she said backing out of the door. Lance looked at the door in confusion but turned back to Shiro a second later.

"What do you say?" He asked holding the lights up. Lance smiled and nodded his head. They started at the end of the room after they found a platform to stand on, it hovered slightly off the ground giving it enough height for Shiro to climb up and hang them. He held out a hand to Lance for the lights.

"Be a deer?" He asked with a straight face looking at the lights in Lance's arms. He choked as he handed the start of the string to Shiro.

"Are you serious?"

"What? Not a fawn of deer puns?" He asked focusing his gaze on hanging the lights up instead of looking at Lance's reaction.

"You fucking know me, Shiro," Lance sputtered.

"You're right, I knew you were deer to me for a reason,"

"Shiro, you're going to fucking kill me,"

"No!! I'm too fawned of you!" He cried reaching out to Lance as he collapsed dramatically to the floor. He kneeled beside Lance, hands pressed in prayer position in front of him.

"Deer Lord, I stag you to bring our blue paladoe buck to life. We all love him very deerly, and we are all his biggest fawns,"

Lance wheezed and squirmed around on the floor. He stopped after a moment and held his hands up to Shiro, who grabbed them and pulled him to his feet.

"Buck up kid," he said as he passed.

Shiro continued to throw deer puns out until they reached about the middle of the lounge. He looked back at the lights they had already put up and saw that they were lit up.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas," he sang as he hung up the next set of lights.

"Everywhere you go, take a look at the five and ten glistening once again," he looked down at Lance with a smile. He looked up with glittering eyes.

"Do you know any Christmas carols?" He asked focusing back on his task. Silence greeted him and he looked back over to Lance who was looking down at the floor with a blush on his cheeks.

"Lance?"

"Um, yeah, I do know some but I've never sang them," he explained not bringing his eyes to meet Shiro's. It was embarrassing that he had memorized Christmas carols, hoping that someday he would be able to sing them. Shiro was asking though, he wasn't even sure if he could sing in the first place.

"What songs?"

"I know the one that you were just singing,"

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas," he started singing again. He paused looking over at Lance and pointed to him. He clutched the lights to his chest in embarrassment.

"Come on Lance, sing with me," he pouted.

"Everywhere you go," he sang after hesitating for a few more seconds. Instantly Shiro's face lit up with a smile as he sang the next line. As they sang the rest of the song, Lance could feel his smile getting bigger and bigger. When they ended, he didn't hesitate to start the next one, Shiro immediately picking up after him. They worked through the entire room, covering it in beautiful lights and filling it with joyful singing.

"Guys dinner," Keith called poking his head into the lounge.

"Whoa, this looks amazing," he said in awe gazing at the golden lights, lighting up the room.

"Thanks, Keith," Shiro replied jumping down from the platform and heading towards the door with Lance in tow.

______________________________________________________

This had to be the most food he had ever seen in one place. Even though none of it looked like Earth food, he could tell that everything on the table was going to be delicious. They immediately started digging in, thankful comments directed to Hunk. He brought up a spoonful of something that looked like mashed potatoes except it was purple to his mouth. He hummed in delight, it tasted just like mashed potatoes. It didn't take long for them to finish everything and for Hunk to go back to the kitchen to fetch something else. He brought out a tray of frosted Christmas cookies and Lance's stomach dropped.

Hunk passed the tray to Shiro who passed it down again and again until it arrived at Lance. He felt a trembling start in his fingers as he looked down at the tray. His red cheeks tradition started because of a tiny Christmas cookie. He looked up at their smiling faces warily. He knew that he could trust them, but he would always feel some sort of doubt.

"I can really have one of these?" He asked quietly. He could see the flinch in their expressions but they kept smiling even if it was only for him.

"Of course buddy, I made them just for you," Hunk said genuinely. Lance's eyes widened. Just for him?

With a trembling hand, he picked up a cookie shaped like Blue with a Christmas hat. He giggled slightly at the design and brought up to his mouth. He bit into the cookie as tears rolled down his face. It was delicious.

"Oh, Lance," Shiro breathed out getting up from his seat as Lance put his head in his hands. He pulled the chair from the table, the other paladin's following his lead and surrounding Lance's chair as sobs broke loose. Shiro crouched in front of him and opened his arms invitingly. Lance fell into his arms with a cry and latched around his shoulders. The others fell to their knees and latched on, chins trembling and eyes filling with hot tears.

"Thank you so much," he whimpered pulling back to look at each of them. His face was filled with gratitude even as he cried.

"You're so welcome Lance," Hunk cried patting him on the back.

"I don't have anything that I can give you guys though," he sniffed. If he had known that they would have done all of this stuff for him, he would have tried to find to make something for all of them. He felt awful now, knowing that they spent so much time on him for this day.

"Lance, having you here is enough, you have been through so much, at the very least you deserve this," Shiro said sternly. Lance whined but nodded, a few teardrops falling from his eyes at the movement. They sat cuddled together for a while longer before they decided that it was time they went to bed. They had an emotionally draining day and they deserved to rest after it. They walked to the paladin quarters together, happily laughing and smiling as they said goodnight to each other.

As Lance stood in front of his mirror, looking at his cheeks, bright red after crying. He realized that red cheeks don't always have to mean grief anymore.