#Tie between the space one where Arnold takes off his helmet and the musical haunted house

[rueitae]

For the record, this is the fault of @sp4c3-0ddity, who originated the idea. You can read it and our subsequent conversation here.

I am so sorry.

When Allura opened the door to the classroom it was as she expected.

Pidge sat at her desk, attempting to ignore the world by focusing on writing whatever current code she had pulled up on her laptop. Their classroom pet, Platt the mouse, lay lazily next to it, soaking in the warmth.

Keith was also at his desk, clearly in deep concentration. He was working on what she recognized as their assignment from Friday. It didn’t surprise her that he wasn’t quite finished. Out of the entire class he was the most meticulous, bordering on perfectionist.

Their current unit of study was weather. Their assignment over the weekend had been to draw contoured lines across a surface map. Lines of equal temperature, isotherms. Lines of equal pressure, isobars. Lines of equal wind speed, isotachs. It was tedious and time consuming if one wanted to get it just right.

He was also visibly trying to claim deniability to what was going on in front of him, as he had a hand up over his face, blocking what was about to be a disaster.

Lance stood on his desk and was eyeing the desk in front of Keith. Hunk stood behind him, on the ground, with bug eyes.

So yes, everything was about what Allura expected.

“Lance, I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

“It’ll be fine, Hunk. It’s not a far jump. How many do you think I can get before Coran gets here?”

“Dude, I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

“I’m recording it,” Pidge pipped up, eyes not leaving her computer screen.

Hunk’s eyes wandered over to the door, where he saw that Allura had just entered. A mischievous grin graced his face. “I’ll bet you can make it to the door.”

Lance looked up and finally noticed Allura’s presence as well. He blushed hard. “Allura! I didn’t even see you come in!” He stepped forward in order to greet her, but in his fluster had completely forgotten that he was standing on a desk, and was not on the ground.

He landed on his back, knocking the desk in front of Keith out of place. “Oww…..”

Soon the class had him surrounded, looking down in worry.

“Lance, are you alright?” Allura asked, concern written all over her face.

“I told you it was going to end badly,” Keith admonished, craning over his desk to look at his classmate.

Lance glared. He was clearly fine, his dignity the only thing wounded. “Stupid gravity, I wish we could just turn it off whenever we wanted to.”

Keith blinked, looking extremely confused and a tad exasperated. “Why even is that the first thing that comes to your mind? Maybe just, not do things that might end up with you getting hurt?”

“You’re one to talk, Mullet.” Lance slowly sat up with Hunk’s help. “I saw your fight in gym class yesterday.”

Keith stared with wide eyes, and very much looked like he wanted to slam his head against his desk.  “We were supposed to. It was boxing day.”

“If you want to turn off gravity, just go to the Zero-G chamber,” Pidge suggested evenly.

“Iverson hates us and you know it. He’d never let us in during our free time,” Lance complained. “I’m talking just snap our fingers anywhere and we could just all float along all cool like!” He gasped before donning a particularly flirtatious grin. “Think about all the romantic possibilities. You could - “

“Laaaaaaance!” The class responded in kind with a mix of groans and annoyance.

“Besides, it’d be a terrible idea.” Pidge continued. “If we could turn off gravity at will here on Earth, everything would go wrong.”

“Pidge is correct,” Allura agreed. “While perhaps fun for a time, I don’t think it is as simple as everything just suddenly floating off the ground.”

“I, personally, would like gravity to continue doing its thing so that my feet can stay firmly on the ground,” said Hunk.

Keith casually glanced up at the clock, where it was nearly time for class to start. “Isn’t Coran cutting it a little close today?”

The door to the classroom slammed open on cue. It wasn’t Coran. “Did someone call the name of the co-”

“No,” Pidge deadpanned.

“-olest, most handsome big brother in the universe?” Leaning against the doorframe, Matt stood flashing a suave smile in the most ‘cool’ stance that he could manage.

Lance jumped up and pointed. “You! What are you doing here? Your classroom is down the hall. You’re not even in our grade.” He then moved awkwardly closer to Allura, who, if she noticed, didn’t seem to care much either way.

Matt not-so-casually waved him off and walked over to where his sister sat, and a second figure emerged from the doorway. Shiro entered back first, checking up and down the hallway before fully entering the classroom.

“I think we’re safe now,” he said in half explanation while he closed the door. He looked far more relieved than he should for being in the wrong room with class about to begin.

Matt grabbed a seat next to his sister and stole a peek at her work, eyes flashing in comprehension. “We convinced Slav let us join your class today,” he finally said.

Hunk’s face fell ashen.

Pidge smiled wide. “Really? That’s awesome! That means we’ll be hands on learning some advanced material. You’re the best, Matt!”

“Anything for the best sister ever,” Matt replied with a smile.

Allura lifted a finger to her chin in thought. “But the only time Slav ever lets you join our class is - “

“I knew it,” Hunk interrupted, already taking steps towards the door and a sense of dread in his voice. “I knew I should have stayed home today.”

There was a distinctive double beep in the near distance. Platt’s ears twitched as he sat up in attention. With a few leaps that Lance could only wish to emulate, the mouse jumped up to one of the windows near the front of the classroom and held onto the top with his two front paws, then let his weight pull down and let the window open.

A purple and pink twister came in through the window as Platt fell and bounced off the ground, landing neatly on the large desk in front of the classroom. The colorful breeze eventually settled behind the desk where Coran stopped spinning, cape spread out dashingly.

“Good morning, students! I hope your synapses are ready to work today!”

“Morning, Coran!” Most of the class responded back as they found their way to their regular seats. This included Matt and Shiro, as joining the younger students was a very regular occurrence.

Matt practically cheered his good morning. Allura, Lance, and Shiro were more measured with theirs, but still obviously enthusiastic. Keith and Pidge were distracted, but amicable.

Hunk wore a look of distrust and worry, already repeating a calming mantra to himself.

“Today we have a full day of learning ahead of us!” Coran explained with glee, taking off his stylish helmet. “We’ll be taking a look at the fabulous effects gravity has on weather on different planets!”

“Yes!” Lance exclaimed, pumping his fist. “Zero-G here I come!”

“No better way to learn about the universe around us than to experience it for ourselves! That means it’s time for a - “

“Field trip!” The class finished for him, most of them already rushing out the door. The school bus with a strange silver and blue paint job beeped for joy in the background.

Hunk burried his head in his arms. “I knew I should have stayed home today.”

~~~

It beeped again when the entire class was seated inside it.

Coran sat at the steering wheel with Platt comfortably on the wheel itself.

“Everyone ready? Our first stop will be a Balmera, and if we’re extremely lucky, we’ll experience the unique environment of a Weblum!”

“Sounds awesome! Let’s do this!” Lance said excitedly.

Even Hunk softened up a bit in the seat in front of him. “I guess if we’re headed to the Balmera again it’s not too bad of a field trip… I’m glad I didn’t stay home after all.”

Pidge grinned wolfishly from across the aisle. “You just want to see your girlfriend.”

“No kidding, Hunk. I want to meet her. I didn’t get to go with you guys last time,” said Lance.

“That’s because you were recovering from surgery,” Keith reminded from his seat in front of Pidge. “We went into your brain.”

Lance shivered. “That still gives me the creeps you were all inside my body.”

The Bus seemed to take offense at that and beeped angrily. Several springs in Lance’s seat came loose and pinched his butt.

“Ow! Dang it why does the Bus hate all of us?”

“It doesn’t hate us, Lance.” Shiro was ever trying to be the voice of reason. “Buuuut it definitely loves Allura the best,” he admitted with a helpless shrug.

The Bus beeped in confirmation.

Allura blushed from her seat across from Shiro. “Oh my. I’m flattered, Bus.”

Matt grinned wickedly. “Allura is truly a diamond in the Bus.”

There were groans all around. “Maaaaatt!”

Coran laughed at the antics and turned to Platt, who gave him a mouse salute. “Time’s ticking by in the school day! Bus, do your stuff!”

With a turn of a key, the Bus did just that. Today, it had decided, it was going for a very specific form. One that, when you looked on the outside, was more castle than spaceship. Since they were already halfway to Earth’s Moon, no one was bothered by it.

Bonus:

Except that someone was bothered by it.

Somewhere, deep in outer space, Shiro awakes in a cold sweat. He looks around and sees that he is in his room on the Castle, just as he remembered he had left it the night before.

He double checks that he is still here. Body? Check. Mind? Debatable. Spirit? The Black Lion purrs in confirmation.

For the first time in what seems forever, Shiro did not dream of his time with the Galra but rather his team displaced into a children’s cartoon.

He resolved to find himself a hobby. Fast.