Set after s2 but before s3.
Allura stands in silence at the command center. The lights are dimmed and the only brightness are the stars in space. They blink back and do not speak.
They no longer provide answers or assurances since the day the Black Lion opened and his Paladin wasn't inside.
The princess does not move. She just stares out, familiar purple eyes wandering from constellation to constellation as if trying to understand something beyond her control. Her hands at her side betray her calmness as Keith stalks into the room, anger a permanent marker on his face.
Allura's fists are clenched. They almost draw blood.
The Red Paladin steps up like a black ship slipping into harbor and anchors himself next to her. His voice is hard, volatile, failing to hide the anger seething beneath. Allura wonders if he's even trying.
"Why did you stop me from looking for Shiro?"
She is ready, prepared for the question since the day the Red Paladin slammed a fist against the Castle's walls and the Blue Paladin looked lost, confused, mirth disappearing from his footsteps; and so she answers, never looking away from the winking stars above and beyond her reach. "Because this cannot last. We must move on."
"Move on?" Keith's response is even more immediate as he fires back. Something ugly crawls on his face and Allura is reminded of how young he is.
"Shiro would want us to move on. To find a new paladin. To form Voltron."
Keith's jaw juts out, ripping the space between them, as he snarls, "You didn't even look for him and now you're counting him off as dead! How could you? I thought you cared!"
Allura snaps her head over to Keith and the movement is sudden and scary as she moves for the first time since he entered the room. "You think I don't care? Because I didn't break down and bare my soul?" Her once familiar purple eyes are hard and haunting; they bore into the Red Paladin and he shifts away before holding his ground because Allura is not finished yet.
"How could you begin to know how I'm feeling?"
And not for the first time since the Black Lion opened and Shiro wasn't inside, Keith looks at Allura standing beside him and does not see the furrows on her brow. He does not feel the tightness of her jaw or smell the sweat dripping down her back.
He does not hear the mourning in her voice.
Allura breathes in deep once, twice, steadying herself so that ash no longer resides on her cheeks. Her face does not betray her even if everything else does; her face is iron, steel, an unforgiving look that mirrors Keith, yet he takes no notice.
He is too angry and too young to understand that she is a princess and that she has her duty to Altea, to her father, and to these humans who have become family.
Why can't Keith see that she's doing this to honor Shiro whose presence lit up the stars?
And Allura is left wondering if she should be glad that Keith is like this because there is at least still hope that Shiro is still alive and not dead. As the boy spins away, whirling further and further from her orbit, she thinks maybe not if such thoughts only bring destruction. That is why she reaches across and pulls Keith back from spiraling away and into her arms because Shiro would have wanted the team together no matter what.
The boy flinches, stutters, anger still making waves on his face, but Allura holds him tighter because she cares and she cares too much.
She tries not to think of the empty seat that will soon be filled.
Overhead, the stars wave at her and begin to reform into the constellations she know them to be.
- For sleapyGazelle for being an amazing friend and putting up with me.
- I really wasn't sure how to end it but I hope you all still enjoy the story.
- Reviews are much appreciated! :)