Peace.
It has been so long since Keith last felt it. As he laid on the floor, tackled down by the space wolf he felt it, the peace he deemed as a dream, a story form back then when he was only a child.
He had been happy, before the first big tragedy of his life: his father´s death, which was and to this day still is, the greatest lost one can feel.
For a long time he believed he was alone in the mourning of not just the only firefighter in his small town but his own hero. Been as he was, his father used to be a man of bold statements and few friends, in that they were alike. But now he understands he wasn't alone, somewhere across the universe, sometimes in an inhabited planet or in a spaceship, perhaps fighting for her life; there was someone who hurt as him, which made him greedily happy.
To know someone loved him as much as Keith himself, maybe even more.
Meeting his mother felt, in the least poetic way: as a slap in the face. At first he was shocked, for years he assumed his mother was a human who died and that was deduced by the way his father used to talk about her, like a distant memory, with the same reverence one talks when praying. Never mentioning her name. Like it was a secret. As if, by saying it out loud, he'll put their lives at sake. Cruel ironies of the destiny, it probably was. Keith always knew he loved her. The man talked the way fifteen years old talk about their first crush.
He told Keith, the time she attempted to make a cake, the images narrated by his father took an even funnier turn now taking into account Krolia's background. A lot more stories accompanied that one.
He misses him fondly.
Later in his life he couldn't believe his mother was dead anymore. The blade been the only thing of hers left; he thought she was from a gang, a yakuza even. And so he searched, sky and earth crossed his lens.
At sixteen he desisted, 'maybe she was an alien' he thought to himself in a jokingly way. The universe must have laughed at him.
What he learned from that is, when you stop searching for something, the thing hits you in the face.
A similar thing happened after Kerberos, his second biggest tragedy and the one that left more physical scars, most from fights and the rest, he couldn't remember. But when he was eighteen, and lived in a shack in the middle of the desert, his mother was the least of his concerns. He was learning to live without he's guiding light and best friend. Trying to find a purpose, and grasp little things from the amazing moments his father used to predict for him.
When he learned his mother was from another species many things began to make sense, but meeting her was an experience he will always be proud to have.
She talked, and told him her story, some parts hurt him and some others make him believe. Is still a long way to walk but they are not alone, they understand each other. Both left the people they loved the most, both lost the people they loved the most and for the both the news arrived in the worst moment.
They were so like each other, as much his father used to say.
Now Keith has someone that understands him, has friends that could die for him and who he could die for, has Shiro who is safe: the only concern Keith has is that. And now he has a haired cosmic companion.