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Keith was happy. Everyone had just finished with a successful meeting with a new perspective alliance member and they were able to simply talk down a battlecruiser of Galran soldiers and Marmora had even managed to get them on her side, to help strengthen her claim to the throne when the Kral Zera happens.
Though now his only thoughts were on relaxing with his human pack. He didn’t know why, but he started actually wanting to relax. He was getting tired more often and actually looked forward to sleeping and taking a break suddenly. Tonight he was joining everyone, including the MFE pilots, for a movie night again and was going to spend the night with them.
As he came into the pilot's lounge, as everyone had dubbed it, Hunk was overly excited to have a new shipment from Earth, including more earth junk food like fat cakes and popcorn. Keith just smiled as he took his spot in the nest with Kosmo quickly curling up on his lap.
“Don’t forget my snacks too!” he shouted into the kitchen as he scratched Kosmo behind the ears.
Hunk popped his head around the corner of the kitchen, “Don’t worry, I won’t forget your nasty snacks.”
Keith just playfully smirked as he leaned back.
It was then that he noticed a few new scents and objects. They were not the other paladins and he immediately grabbed them, nudging Kosmo to the side.
Nadia must have come up at some point since she sat down next to him, “I hope you don’t mind, but the rest of us thought we should contribute to the nest thing since we started using it more often.”
Keith paused and realized he wasn’t upset about it. He let out a chirp of acceptance and nodded. Though they were put in wrong. He started pulling all of the new fabric and heard a groan of frustration.
“What the hell Kogane! You just said it was okay to Nadia. Why are you removing it then!”
Keith looked up and saw Griffin’s annoying face twisted in anger. Keith pulled back from his reorganizing in shock letting out a surprised chirp.
“Ah, it was wrong… it needs to be over there.” Keith tries to voice why it was wrong as he points to where the material needed to be.
“Why? It feels just fine. Why do you have to change it?” James huffs in annoyance.
Lance and Pidge choose that moment to join the group. “Ah ah ah!” Lance exclaims, “No undermining Keith’s decisions when it comes to nest building!” he then takes a seat on one of the couches to let Keith continue working, even handing him one of the blankets he had dropped. It was a bright green one with purple aliens. It smelled like James. He moved it to his left and interwoven it with Nadia’s blanket and one of his own. The textures and scents just worked better than when it was next to Lance’s and Hunks.
Pidge opens her tablet to the movie screen, “yeah, Keith somehow knows how to make it ten times better than any of us ever could. I am certain it is a Galra thing.
Keith eans back finished. “It’s not really that difficult, I just weave it a bit better, so that it holds together longer, and I align the blankets too, so fabrics feel better and the scents blend better.”
“Scents?” Ryan questions as he sits next to Nadia.
“You saying we all smell?” Griffin shoots out.
Keith looks confused up at him while Nadia threw one of the small couch cushions at him, “Would you just shut it, James. “He can just smell our individual scents like the other Galra, how about you read some of the culture and bio packets we got!”
James huffs and sits down next to Ryan. He reached the last blanket that was fuzzy and pale yellow. It smells like Ina, but also a few other things. It made him pause.
“Does Ina have someone else in her room?” he asked allowed. Trying to pinpoint the unknown smell.
The others looked at him in surprise.
“Why would you say that?” Nadia asked.
Keith held up the blanket, “There is more than just her scent on it. Smells female and not human, but that’s all I can get.”
Just then the woman in question comes out of her room in her casual clothes and holding something fuzzy and silvery grey.
“So I did leave that out here. I couldn’t remember.” She said as she sat down next to Keith. Keith immediately matched the other sent to the fuzzy thing in her arms. The thing moved and looked up at him. She was a large silver fluffy cat.
Ina smiled at the cat and scratched her ears as the creature purred loudly.
Kosmo looked up from his spot on Keith’s side. Sniffs the cat and then lays back down.
“Damn, that things purrs louder than Keith. Didn’t think that was possible. Keith threw a pillow at Lance without even having to look. The cat leaned and moved to Ina’s lap, causing a toy to fall down. A plush that looked like a sock with cartoon cat faces all over it. Though it smelled weird. Familiar but weird. It made Keith’s head feel weird too.
“This is Freya, she is a Norwegian forest cat and is my emotional support companion. She can help ground me with my Autism. I finally got the okay to have her on board and had picked her up in this last shipment from earth. “
Everyone nodded in acceptance and tried to get the attention of the golden-eyed silver cat, everyone except Keith. He had a dazed look in his eyes as he suddenly leaned into Ina’s lap and also started purring loudly. Rubbing his face and giggling.
Kosmo whined in worry as everyone just stared at him in shock.
“Dude! What the fuck!” Lance shouted as James pulled him off. Keith made a weird yowling sound as he then snagged at the sock thing and started rubbing that to his nose. And then seemed to go limp in James’ arms curling up in his lap as the Galran hybrid continued to laugh.
Pidge just laughed and snapped a picture. She already seemed to know what is going on and laughing at the hysterics of everyone else.
“Keith! What the hell man!” James shouted.
“Smells good” Keith just slurred as he nuzzled his nose into the sock toy and inevitably deeper into James’s lap.
Said man was bright red at this action.
Lanced turned to the unbothered and amused Pidge seeing she seemed to know what was going on, “Yo Pidge, what the hell happened?”
Everyone turned to the small genius. In-between laughs she managed to spit out one word “Catnip.”
Everyone looked quizzical, “What the hell is that supposed to mean!” Hunk asked worriedly as he had joined everyone when all the commotion started.
Pidge managed to collect herself seeing how she needed to further explain for all of them. “Catnip is the reason. It’s like this drug for Galra, makes them all high and loopy.” She pulled up her tablet and said, “I just sent a message to Ulaz, so we just need to pull the toy away from Keith.”
Everyone looked down at the seemingly sleeping Galra hybrid. James eased the sock toy out of Keith’s hands but Keith suddenly bit down on it and narrowly missed James’ hand, tearing the sock toy slightly as he did so. James leapt back as Keith jump to his hands and knees growling lightly. Though it was muffled with the toy still in his mouth. His eyes had taken on a yellow glow with his irises a more vivid purple. The others were a bit shocked at the reaction. Hunk tried to approach the agitated Keith, with his hands held up and palms open. But Keith was going to have none of that. He crawls backward and jumps to the left. Right behind Ina.
Without hesitation, she just places her hand on his head and scratches. Her hands trail down to just behind his ears and he melts into a lump on her side, now purring louder than the cat in her lap.
Freya glanced up at him and in her own blissed-out state sniffs him and starts licking his hair. Everyone just stares at the three of them in wonder.
It is at that moment that Ulaz came barreling in with a mask over his face.
“You said Keith was subjected to an intoxicating herb for Galra?!”
He saw Keith on the floor next to Ina and rushed to him.
“It is really an earth herb that has a similar chemical composition to the Galra one, but yeah. The herb is in the sock toy thing.”
Ina held up the toy as Pidge spoke. She threw it again that was when Ulaz’s eyes went wide and was holding back Keith. Freya though was unobstructed as she leapt after the toy and returned to rolling around with it.
Ulaz did a quick overlook of Keith and was relieved when no big problems came up. “He should be okay. No lasting damage should have acuredrd and will be fine in a few hours.”
“More like for the rest of the night if it was in his mouth” another voice chimed in.
They all looked up and saw Adam and Shiro in the doorway. “He once ingested catnip tea back on earth and spent the whole day high as a kite. So good luck with that.”
Ulaz looked down at Keith at those words, “Maybe he should return to the pack nest then. It would be for the best.”
Ulaz moved to pick him up but Keith let out a high-pitched growl and may have even snarled. “No!”
Ulaz dropped the Galran kit in shock and Keith then rushed away and curled up back in the nest in-between Lance and Nadia where he originally was and some of the catnip still lingered. He glared up at Ulaz and hissed at him.
Ulaz blinked in shock and then chuckled lightly. “I guess he has made his decision then.” He turned to the others. “The chemical from the herbs mostly just releases the inhibitions we have with our instincts. When in direct contact it will make Galra more relaxed as well.” he glanced at Ina and then at the cat with the toy, “I would highly recommend that those toys do not leave this room and that they are put away when Keith is in here. It can become a highly addictive stress reliever if it is anything like the herb we use.”
Adam cackles from the doorway, “Addicted to catnip that’s hilarious.” Shiro just shakes his head as his husband as the others just nod in confirmation to Ulaz’s request.
“We can do that no problem!” Nadia shouts as she takes the toy from Freya and throws it back into Ina’s room. The cat quickly followed after it. Keith whined at the loss but remained cuddled next to Lance purring contently in a sleepy daze.
Adam snapped a picture as he just chuckled to himself. “I’ll get a sample later for you to analyze to see how much more potent it is to the Galra herb.” He directed at Ulaz.
“That would be good, thank you.” he then looked sadly at Keith, the kit must want to remain with his human pack because it still faintly smells of this catnip, and Ulaz would rather remove him from it, but he seems so peaceful next to the current red paladin and he just can’t make himself force the kit away. This one night should be okay. He would prepare some of the head soothers for the inevitable headache that will come from the use of these types of herbs.
Adam and Shiro stayed a bit longer to make sure everything was indeed fine with Keith. There was only one incident of Keith trying to go back into Ina’s room to get the toy but was promptly caught and the door closed, though Freya stayed with everyone else.
Keith had sulked for a bit but eventually went back to his dazed giggly state. It was definitely unsettling to the MFE pilots, but everyone else just seemed used to it.
When questioned by James, everyone just shrugged and Lance explained, “When you have been shrunk down to the size of a flea. Dealt with the clones and so many other weird space shenanigans this is kinda nothing.”
Shiro and Adam just chuckled and left the rest of them to their movie.
Keith had no interest in any of the movies they had watched that night. He had instead jumped from lap to lap seeking the person that could give the best head scratches. He had been too dazed to even crawl though so it had been very funny watching him move to everyone. Keith had settled on Ina and remained the rest of the night in her lap with Freya. Kosmo decided to curl up next to Keith, worried for his friend. The cat had decided to also help groomed his head and face, this must have felt good because Keith’s purring doubled in volume. Everyone soon fell asleep to the soothing sound.
The next morning Keith woke to a pounding headache. His nose felt all stuffy and his throat felt like sandpaper. He looked up blearily and saw that he was in the paladin nest. He felt his pillow shift under him as he moved, “Good to see you’re finally up.” Ina comments.
“Yeah, we were getting worried about you,” Lance chimes in from the kitchen. He was helping Hunk make something.
Pidge was sitting a few feet away from Keith and looked up from her computer, “Ulaz messaged me that he had a headache reliever and a few other things to make you feel normal.”
Keith had been wondering what happened last night when it all rushed back to him. His face bloomed bright red and buried himself in a pile of the nest blankets whining loudly. This made everyone laugh lightly.
He felt a small hand pat his back, “Don’t worry we won’t tease you too much,” Pidge said with an obvious grin in her voice. Keith just moaned in annoyance.
He felt a foot nudge him in the side, “oh quit your bellyaching, Hunk make pancakes. The alien kind with the bright pink syrup.” Lance comments.
He peeked up through the blankets as he glared at Lance. “You can have some if you promise not to dump the syrup on me again,” Lance adds. That leads Hunk and Pidge to chuckle and left the other pilots in a bit of confusion.
Pidge just turned to them, “inside joke from our time in space.”
Keith just slowly got up and hoped that the rest of the day would be more normal and less embarrassing for him.