"Y/N, Matt!" Shiro's voice echoed through the rebel base. Somehow Pidge must have found a way to reestablish the communications.

"Yeah, Shiro?" Y/N spoke back, hoping for a quick response.

"We need you and Matt out here, now!" He hollered. "The canon is almost completed but there's too many Galra for us to fight off alone!"

Y/N looked to Matt and waited for his recognition. "Alright, we'll be there right away."

The pair fired up one of the small rebel ships and were in the air in seconds. That fear Matt had felt last night about this mission had faded entirely as he looked at Y/N, her body relaxed and a small smile glued to her face. She piloted the ship right into the storm of Galra without a single doubt and Matt fired at every ship he saw. The pair worked flawlessly together. It was like Y/N knew exactly where she needed to fly for Matt to be able to take shots at approaching ships. Because of them, the Galra never got close enough to the canon to halt the Olkari's work on it. And, in the time they'd spared, the canon got finished.

"EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WAY!" Keith screamed, making everyone look to the sky. Breeching the atmosphere was one of Zarkon's ships, the biggest they'd seen yet. "They're going to fire the cannon!"

Knowing the power that canon held behind it, everyone was quick to evacuate. The last thing they wanted was to be caught in its line of fire when it went off. Of course, the lions were able to take their paladins away at nothing much less than light speed, but Y/N and Matt were forced to put all of their energy into maintaining the ships speed. Y/N struggled to fight against the opposing pressure the throttle was kicking back. Matt noticed and abandoned his seat, seeing as how keeping his hands on the blasters was now useless. He stood behind Y/N and pressed his chest firmly to her back, pushing the throttle down with both of his hands on top of hers. The ship sped up a little, causing him to nearly lose his balance.

A nearly binding flash of light flooded the ship, followed by a deafening explosion from the canon. The lions were out of sight, but Y/N and Matt were still in danger.

"We're going to get hit," Y/N panted, still keeping a firm hold on the ships speed.

Matt curled his hands around hers a little more firmly. "No we're not."

The shock wave from the blast shook the rebel ship as Y/N and Matt fled. Just after it hit and nearly knocked them out of the air, the lights in the ship flickered out and the engines completely failed. Red emergency lights began flashing and Y/N's face went cold, unsure of what to do.

"There's a lake up ahead, can we make it?" Matt asked, grabbing Y/N's shoulder and pointing forwards. Holding onto the throttle was also useless now.

She sighed and clenched her jaw. "We can try."

Like it was instinct, she spun to her left in the chair and grabbed hold of the joystick with both hands. "On my cue, help me pull the ship up. It's the only way we'll make it."

Matt put his hands over hers again, waiting for the cue. They careened through the air at an hazardous speed too close to the ground for comfort.

"NOW!" Y/N shouted and pulled back on the joystick as hard as she could. Matt helped her hold it as the bottom of the ship scraped across the ground below them, the nose practically in the air. The boy could hear the bottom of the ship being torn to shreds and knew if they didn't hit that water soon, they'd be the next part of the ship to go.

Luckily enough, before that happened, an explosion of water engulfed the ship and within seconds it came to a complete halt. Slowly, Matt cracked open his eyes to be met with the complete opposite of what he expected. He'd anticipated a complete wreckage to surround them, or for water to be filling the ship. But, instead, when he looked out the front window, he saw nothing other than the lake, calm and illuminated with a warm glow by Olkarion's constant state of sunset.

"You can let go," Matt stifled a laugh and pulled Y/N's hands away from the ships controls. "Check this out." He lifted her chin so her gaze fell forwards instead of down.

"We're not dead?" She croaked.

"Definitely not. Now c'mon, there's a hatch for us to get out." He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the middle of the ship, pointing up. On the roof, there was an emergency hatch but it was too high for either of them to reach.

"Give me a boost." Y/N asked, raising her leg. Matt locked his hands together and placed them beneath her foot, hoisting her up. Y/N fought with the door for a few moments before it cracked open, letting in a bright stream of light. With it, a small ladder fell down and both kids climbed out of the ship.

"Considering we just crash landed, you couldn't ask for a much better view." Matt laughed. "Now lets just hope the water isn't freezing."

Hesitantly, Matt slipped off of the side of the ship and down into the water. To his relief, it was lukewarm and actually quite pleasant. Y/N followed his lead and sunk into the water, swimming away from the ship, which was probably a good idea seeing as how it could explode any moment. Once close to the middle of the lake, Y/N rest her head back in the water and let out a laugh of sheer disbelief.

"Wanna go swimming when we get back to Arus?" Matt suddenly blurted. After being gone from earth for so long, he'd forgotten what it felt like to be suspended in water, and he'd forgotten how much he enjoyed it. Everyday in that prison, he thought about how much he missed Pidge and his home, but never thought about the little things like swimming. What made it even better was that Y/N was here with him. The girl who he'd met by chance on a rescue mission.

For the longest time, Matt never believed that someone special came into your life when you stopped looking for them. It seemed like a ridiculous statement, especially when it was his dad who said it to him everyday. But, he'd been proven wrong over the past few weeks. On earth, like most other teenagers, he'd wanted someone to love. Despite how hard he tried, no one came around no matter where he looked. It felt like everyone was avoiding him like the plague. Then, after escaping the Galra prison, he wasn't really looking for someone, yet that was when Y/N came along.

Y/N raised a brow and smiled. "After everything that just happened, that's what you're thinking of? Going swimming on Arus?"

"Yeah." He laughed lightly, splashing water at Y/N.

The girl gaped at him before a devious smirk grew on her face. "You asked for it, Holt!" Water flew right into his face, causing him to cough. In an attempt to escape, he dove beneath the surface of water and swam towards Y/N, wrapping his arms around her torso. It took nearly all of the energy he had left to drag the girl underwater. Once he did, he found himself unable to stop himself as he pulled the girls face to his and placed a quick kiss on her lips. Something he'd been wanting to do for a while but was always too afraid to.

Just three years ago, before he left for the Kerberos mission, Matt never would have imagined himself to be here: having his first kiss underwater on an alien planet in the middle of an intergalactic war.

He wouldn't trade it for anything.

Once they had to come up for air, the pairs water fight continued for some time until the sound of the lions flying overhead caught their attention. "Vacation's over! Let's get outta here!" Lance's voice boomed in the sky, coming from the blue lion.

Pidge swooped down as close as she could to the water and Y/N and Matt clambered inside eagerly, laughing so hard that their stomachs and cheeks hurt. What they'd just been through was a little too surreal, and laughter seemed to be the only reaction their minds could muster.

"Do you guys have an aspiration to die that you haven't told me about yet?" Pidge asked, not even looking back, as Y/N and Matt made their way to their seats. "Because that was close, I saw the whole thing."

"Not that I know of, just bad luck." Matt shrugged, catching Pidge's gaze for a quick second. She rolled her eyes, smiled and then turned her focus back to piloting.

Since all of their gear was soaking wet and beginning to stink pretty bad, Pidge dropped Y/N and Matt off at the rebel base to get some dry clothes. She told them to meet the rest of the team in one of the large towers just a little ways away once they were done. Just like before, the door to the rebel base opened before either of the kids could knock.

"They made it!" One of the rebels hollered out happily, dragging Y/N and Matt in. Once their eyes adjusted to the light, the pair could see all of the rebels in the base surrounding them, cheering happily.

"We didn't do much," Y/N stifled a laugh, shyly leaning into Matt's side. She hadn't been expecting such a large crowd.

"Are you kidding?! Together, you guys took out twice as many Galra than the rest of your team!" Someone exclaimed, then shifting his gaze to look intently at Matt. "Your girlfriend is so cool."

"Ahhh—Alright," Matt tried to calm the crowd who burst out in cheers of agreement. "We're just here to get some dry clothes and then we need to get back to our team. So—uh, if you don't mind..."

Awkwardly, he grabbed Y/N's hand and showed her through the base, eventually finding a small container hidden in a corner amidst other things like weapons and food.

"Girlfriend, huh?" Y/N teased, shoving Matt's shoulder.

"Sorry about that, I accidentally said it after Zarkon took you and I wasn't thinking straight—then, of course, they wouldn't let it go and—"

"Matt," Y/N shushed him. "It's ok."

Her smile never failed to make his heart stutter.

He knew he had a stupid look on his face, probably squinted eyes and a crooked smile, so he looked away as quick as possible and began to rummage around for clothes their size. There was nothing more than midnight blue shirts and grey pants, but they'd have to do. It was these, or layers upon layers of soaking wet rebel gear. The choice was obvious. Once Matt found their relative sizes, he stood up and awkwardly handed Y/N the stack of clothes. As if they'd made a silent agreement not to look, they both turned away and began to struggle with taking off the clothes which clung to their bodies. Y/N had it easier since she wore her suit, and had changed in a couple of minutes, but Matt was basically a mummy.

"I'm stuck."

"What are you talking about?" Y/N asked, still facing the other direction.

"I'm stuck. Very literally, stuck."

"You didn't..."

"I did." He whimpered. "Please help."

Y/N turned to find Matt, arms up in the air, the shirt stuck over his head. He struggled relentlessly, but his efforts were completely useless. Y/N had thought it was common knowledge that a wet shirt couldn't exactly be taken off the same way a dry one could, but apparently Matt never learned that lesson back on Earth.

"Matt, chill out." Y/N tried her hardest not to burst out in laughter as she reached up in an attempt to help resolve the situation.

"I'M CLAUSTROPHOBIC I CAN'T CALM DOWN!" He shouted through a mouthful of damp fabric and squirmed a little more.

"Stop moving and I'll fix it!" Y/N tried to reach up, but it was difficult seeing as how tall Matt was and how violently he was struggling against the mess he'd gotten himself into. Y/N made one last attempt to reach up and grab the boy's arms, but he tripped over his own feet, sending them both toppling backwards into the floor.

Matt kicked and thrashed around, but luckily for Y/N, this was nothing different from fighting back on Aturdir. She sat on his stomach and gripped his sides tightly with her legs, immediately making him stop kicking.

"OW!" He muttered, still fighting with the shirt over his head. Y/N sighed and reached up, untangling the shirt and freeing his arms. Once he got it over his head, he threw it away as far as he possibly could, panting like he'd just been running to save his life. The girl laughed and crossed her arms, looking to Matt who's face was now flushed a deep red and hair a complete mess.

"You're a disaster." She admitted.

"My life was in danger." He countered, raising a brow at the girl who still sat atop him.

"So nearly crashing a ship didn't bother you, but a wet shirt did?" Y/N quipped.

Matt blushed even a little more, mimicking the girl and crossing his arms too. "Like I said, claustrophobic."

"Alright, c'mon,' Y/N stood up and helped the boy off of the ground, handing him his shirt. While he put it on, she gathered her wet clothes and suit up off of the floor and tossed them into a bag she'd found laying around. Matt then did the same, and the next thing they knew, they were walking back through the forest towards the Olkarion city.