Work Text:
"Game Night"
Lance practically pranced into the lounge holding two decks of cards. He plopped onto the couch and put the two decks onto the table. He grinned and looked at his fellow Paladins. His grin faded a little. Someone was missing. "Where's our emo Paladin? We can't have Paladin Game Night when there are only four of us!"
Shiro nodded. "I think I know where he might be."
"If he's on the training deck-" Lance started.
"I don't think he's there," Shiro replied. He left the lounge and headed for the Blades' room. Keith regularly spent time with the Blades as he was part of their pack.
Shiro knocked on the door and heard, "Come in."
He entered and heard a purr. He grinned as he saw Keith nuzzling Antok. Thace was grooming the Red Paladin, and Ulaz was nuzzling the back of Keith's neck. Kolivan was rubbing Keith's back, and Antok's tail was wrapped around Keith's waist with his arms around his abdomen. Keith was purring at all the attention. All five Blades looked at Shiro when he entered. Keith perked up a little. "Shiro?"
"Sorry for the interruption, but Keith is missing Game Night. Lance brought Uno for us to play."
Keith perked up even more. "I love Uno." He looked at his pack. "Can I go?"
"Of course, kit. We also may come. We would love to see this game you love to play," Kolivan answered.
All five got up and followed Shiro back to the lounge. Their entrance was noticed by the other Paladins. Lance's eyebrows shot into his hairline. "I see you found our errant Paladin."
"I'm sorry, Lance. I forgot about Game Night," Keith apologized, surprising the Garrison Trio.
"Have a seat, Mullet, while I shuffle and deal." Lance shuffled the two decks and then put them together before shuffling them together. Keith took a seat on one of the couches. Then, Lance dealt seven cards to each of the Paladins. He turned the top card over and put it next to the deck. It was a red seven. "Since I dealt, it's Shiro's turn."
Shiro looked at his cards and plucked one out. He put it on top of the red seven. It was a red five. Keith was next. He did the same motions as Shiro, but the card was different. It was a green five. Hunk played a green three, while Pidge played a green card, but it had a circle with a slash through it. Lance 'hmphed.' Shiro played a green four. Keith stared at his cards before pulling out a green two. Hunk grinned and played a yellow two. Pidge played a yellow six. Lance groaned as he reached for the deck. "Why are you picking on me?" He drew card after card until he laid down a yellow two after drawing four. "Ha!"
Keith looked over at the Blades and noticed they were confused as to the rules. "Come over here and we can explain how to play."
Ulaz sat beside Shiro, Antok knelt behind his kit's head, Kolivan stood beside Pidge, and Thace sat beside Lance. Each Paladin showed their cards to the Blade stationed near them. Shiro spoke next. "The idea is to match either number or color of the card that is face up on the table." He picked out a yellow nine and placed it face up on the discard pile.
Keith went next. "I don't have yellow, but I do have a blue nine." He played his blue nine.
Hunk laid down a blue three. Pidge grinned. "If you don't have either color or number, you could play one of these." Pidge put down a black card that had two small ovals in two corners and a larger version in the center emblazoned with the word wild. Each oval was split into fours; each section colored a different color (red, blue, yellow, and green). "This is a Wild card. You get to pick any of the colors shown in the oval. I want green."
Lance grinned. He laid down a card that had two arrows facing opposite directions on it. "This is a reverse card. It causes the direction of play to go in the other direction." He looked at Pidge. "So, play your green."
"Gladly." She laid down a green five.
Hunk looked at his cards and frowned. "If there are no cards you can play, you draw from the deck until you do." He drew cards. Fortunately, he only had to draw two cards before he found a green card that a plus two in two corners and had two overlapping cards in the center of the card. "Sorry, Keith."
Keith grinned. "It's not me you should apologize to." He played a red draw two on top of Hunk's green draw two. "If you have a matching draw two, you can stack them and the next player has to draw two additional cards."
Ulaz looked at Shiro, who was mock glaring at his kit. "Thanks a lot, little brother."
"Love you too, Shiro," Keith replied easily.
Shiro drew four cards. "If you fall victim to a draw two or a wild draw four, you draw your cards and lose your turn."
"Now that Shiro has drawn his cards, it's just a red card to me, so I can play-" Lance started.
"This one?" Thace gently pointed at one of Lance's cards.
"Exactly." Lance laid down the card Thace pointed out. It was a red five.
Game play commenced quickly with the Blades chiming in every so often. They noticed each of the Paladins were having fun, even if they had to draw cards which all of them had to do at some point in the game. Near the end, Hunk had two cards in his hand at the beginning of his turn, and he said, "Uno," before laying one of them down. "When you get down to one card, you have to say 'Uno." If you don't and another player catches you, you have to draw two cards."
Lance looked at his fellow Paladins, "Can anyone do anything?"
"I can, assuming I'm not sabotaged," Keith responded. Game play followed, and Keith played a wild draw four, and Hunk just grinned and laid down another wild draw four. Lance's head hit the table.
Pidge whistled low. "I'm glad that was the end of this game."
As the Paladins put their cards into the deck, Keith was handed the cards to shuffle. He started shuffling, and Ulaz asked, "Why doesn't Shiro shuffle?"
Shiro blushed slightly. "Last time I shuffled cards with my prosthetic, the cards ended up going all over the room."
Lance laughed. "We ended up playing 216 card pick up instead of Uno."
Keith finished shuffling and handed Shiro the deck. The Black Paladin looked at the Galra. "Aside from us Paladins, who else wants to play?"
"I will pass," Kolivan replied.
"I will simply watch the kit," Antok responded.
"I will," Ulaz answered.
"Me too," Thace agreed.
Keith grinned as two members of his pack joined in their Game Night. Maybe they would be able to find a game all nine of them could enjoy. He settled in to play the game with Antok's tail rubbing up and down his back. He kept most of his subsequent purr out of his voice as they played into the night.
Fin