so anyway not to crackship but i cant stop thinking about this james griffin character who so obviously was in a rival/antagonistic role with keith in school and the garrison and, assuming nothing drastic has happened, is still at the garrison now

and i imagine them and, later, him, getting word that voltron, this…legendary defender or whatever, is here to help which is weird as hell at first but exciting when you find out takashi shirogane is one of them (and alive??) so they all go out to greet them and out step the paladins in their impressive matching armour, helmets on after an awe-inspiring battle. the garrison members step forward, iverson in the front, and james is watching the obvious leader approach, steps measured and confident, figure lean but obviously primed for combat, and thinking, holy shit, an actual space hero, leader of a universally-legendary mecha team, what a fucking badass of a pilot, who could possibly-

and the person reaches up to slide off their helmet, and a familiar mullet falls down, and theres keith fucking ‘’discipline-case’’ kogane, bigger, older, war-scarred, and better than ever looking back at them.

hes as cooly irreverent as ever as he asks ‘miss me?’ and everyone who knew him is Shook. iverson fears for his remaining eye, and all james can think is oooooooh fffffuuuck

shiro has his own moment of smug reunion (both because yeah thats the kid i vouched for lookit him now, and GUESS WHOS STILL ALIVE YOU PRICKS) while james has an inner-hatecrush meltdown trying to reconcile the kid he looked down on as cadets with this…cool, in-control, accomplished, beautif-uuuh man in front of him, and just as he think hes got a handle on it and might give speaking up a go, lance mcclain (is EVERY PALADIN AN OLD CLASSMATE OF HIS???) steps up and leans an elbow on keiths shoulder like hes done it a thousand times. hes making a quip or a joke or something at the garrisons expense, but he glances james’ way.

Nope. No, you- No, no, no. No, you don’t. his smirking eyes say. I’m Keith’s rival.