The team was in their room for the night. The community hoodie was on the floor. Pidge had puffy eyes, Shiro looked defeated, Lance and Keith had raspy voices. Keith's was more raspy, seeing as he had won, and Hunk had stress baked the small kitchen empty.

"Everyone move the mattresses." Keith managed to get out. It was the first words spoke in over an hour. Since the entire team had gotten there, they stood in a circle around the hoodie, like some sort of satanic ritual. Even though Keith was giving orders, Pidge was the first to move. They had pulled the bedding off. They let it crumble to the floor before tugging at the mattress. Normally they would have no issues moving it, but the emotional exhaustion of that day quickly turned into physical exhaustion.

"I gotcha, Pidge." Shiro murmured before dragging it against the floor. Pidge didn't comment and merely took the time to held the other beds lose their sheets and scratchy blankets.

"Incoming!" Hunk announced to the group as he threw a few pillows to the center. That made Lance smile, the first time anyone had smiled all day it felt like.

It was a short mission for the group. Pidge shed the bedding, Hunk threw the pillows to the middle, Shiro flung the mattresses, and Lance made one giant block with them. Keith had taken it upon himself to build, for lack of better word in Lance's mind, a nest. The hybrid had gotten the least scratchiest blankets, fluffed pillows, and made sure the hoodie was first to go in the jumbled middle pile.

"Mission complete," Shiro remarked. His tone was flat but he was more relaxed than he had been all day.

One by one each paladin got to the middle. Hunk remained standing, looking back and forth from the pile of limbs to the kitchen.

"I have muffins on the counter," Hunk reminded the group. He rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit Lance quickly recognized.

"Just get in here, big guy," Lance dragged him to the middle.

Pidge nuzzled between Shiro and Lance's sides. They curled just below Shiro's ribs like some sort of tumor. Shiro couldn't resist giving their shoulder a small pat– then drawing back his arm before Pidge got the chance to bite him.

"By the looks of it, we've had some shitty types of day." Again, Lance was speaking. Keith had gone quiet, his voice too raspy to talk much more without hurting.

"Preach!" Hunk, Shiro, and Pidge raised their fists to the air.

As the group bundled in the nest, Keith tried to make sure everyone had equal share of space. He reached over a few of them here and there, placing a pillow under someone's legs, etc. Lance thought it was cute.

"Anyone see Coran and Allura lately?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah, Coran has gone on some crazed 80s music binge, Allura is figuring out how to work with Earth tech." Pidge offhandedly remarked.

"Is that why they haven't seen us?" Shiro sat up, disrupting the warmth and nesting mission of Keith. He groaned and pulled him back by his shoulder. This made a blanket shift and Keith landed a pillow between Shiro and the bedding. Shiro hit the pillow before Hunk began to talk.

"Yeah. They keep meaning to visit, but Allura is still trying to figure out how Earth calendars and the tech-y maps work and Iverson is being no help."

"So like usual– poor Allura." Keith managed to talk loud enough for everyone to hear.

"That's rough." Lance replied. "So.. anyone want to talk about their days?" The false enthusiasm created a silence. It wasn't awkward, but Keith knew if he didn't speak up no one would get anything off their chests.

"My mom's still dead. And I feel like I'm not... I feel like I'm broken because I'm not grieving right. I'm trying to keep everything okay so I don't have to think about her." Keith whispered.

"Adam and I are fighting again." Shiro admitted at the same volume.

"We won a war, like... holy crow... so why am I so scared still? We haven't won fully, but... I don't know." Lance tried to blink away tears. He didn't succeed, but Pidge was quick to raise a hand to his face. In an attempt to wipe away a tear they pushed his nose.

"My parents make me wanna throw myself out of an airlock. And I keep crying. I don't know why, I never used to cry this much. But my main point is the airlock." Pidge mentioned over Lance's quick laugh.

"I'm so anxious I cried into the muffins."

"They're gonna be a little salty then." Lance joked. They all laughed. It was a long laugh, much too long for what Lance said. But the group needed it.

"We're gonna be okay." Shiro reminded them. "We always are."

"Doesn't feel like it." Keith murmured. Shiro wrapped his arm around Keith. "We gotta at least fake believe bud," he fake scolded.

This made Keith laugh.