Broken Arms

Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender

My second Voltron fic and my first Kidge fic! It's mainly friendship, but in a way towards the end especially, it does get kinda shippy. XD

A warning now, there's hints of Shidge…I started writing this before the canon ages came out. However whenever I write this pairing, I always age up Pidge. She's seventeen in this and as I said, there's hints, an allusion really and it's not confirmed.

That being said, I hope you enjoy!

The castle hallways were grey with dim lighting, seeming to wash everything in a soft, sad glow matching the emotion that wrapped itself around Keith as he wandered the enormous Voltron headquarters. His shoulders slumped; his gait was in time with heavy, dull thumping of his heartbeat. He didn't normally wander the halls when—mostly—everyone else was asleep. But tonight his room seemed suffocating and there was no way for Keith to get any sort of fresh air save for taking Red—no, Black—out for a flight…not that she'd acquiesce in any case. He didn't think he could blame her for that, nor was he truly sure if he wanted to be out there among the stars. Under normal circumstances, yes, absolutely. But now? Keith was fairly certain that the innumerable stars and heavenly bodies out there would overwhelm and swallow him whole. Which couldn't happen. Not until Shiro was found in any case.

Shiro…

Keith's big brother in every sense of the word except for blood. The lack of that connection never bothered him; it didn't matter to him. Shiro was his mentor, his best friend. Someone who looked out for him and never stopped believing in him; making sure he stayed on the correct path, teaching him how to stay calm in the moments when he wanted to be fiery. Shiro was just…someone who cared. Keith hadn't had that in a long time. Not since his father had vanished when he was eight and he was tossed from foster home to foster home within the system until he was old enough to escape it.

Shiro had found him not long after that and like hell was the model Garrison student going to let the boy whom was posturing despite his visible rage and hurt trying to prove to the world that he could take it on at his age be on his own. Shiro managed to convince Keith to come back to his place, to his family, though it had taken hours of arguing and Shiro never once raised his voice. He reintroduced Keith to warmth, security and the genuine happiness of family, something the young Kogane hadn't felt in years.

The new pilot of the Black Lion was startled from his thoughts when his left shoulder collided into a column and sent him staggering a few steps. He stared in surprise and was even more shocked to find that his vision was warm and blurry. Oh. Tears. Keith hadn't cried in nearly two years; not since the night he had stormed away from the Galaxy Garrison and its venomous pit of lies that were mostly spewed from that asshat Iverson. The night it hit him that Shiro was missing and that he was truly alone once again.

The Shiroganes had reached out to him upon learning of his expulsion and despite their kind words and reassurances that he was still welcome under their roof and despite knowing how selfish it was, Keith hadn't returned. He just couldn't; Shiro's absence would be so enormous to the point of smothering and had he stayed, the craving to have answers would've been so great as he would've been undoubtedly echoing his brother's parents' desires and it would have been to the point that he probably would have done something that would've gotten him arrested. Or at least banished from the Garrison's premises, like Pidge had been.

Pidge…

Keith's fellow arm of Voltron had refused to swallow the lies the Garrison had tried shoving down her throat about the dark turn the Kerberos mission had taken, saying that her family was dead and pinning the blame on Shiro. She'd snuck onto the Garrison grounds several times, hacking her way in, tearing apart security systems that were most likely child's play to her, determined to find the real answers of everyone's fate. Iverson had busted her one too many times and she had been thrown off the campus and been named Persona Non Grata. Like hell that was going to stop her. She'd faked an identity that was accepted as a student, chopped off her long auburn locks, donned the military school's uniform and swept past the doors that had been previously slammed shut in her face.

Keith grinned at those thoughts, part of him wishing he could have met the defiant genius sooner, knowing they probably could've been friends before becoming unwitting defenders of the universe, dragged into a war they had never known existed. Or at least, he and Pidge could've been good acquaintances before all this. Taking a much needed deep breath and swiping away his tears, Keith continued his way down the hall, searching for the teammate he had a feeling was still awake in these early hours.

He'd walked for nearly two doboshes before he found her, hearing her voice quietly filter out of a crack in the door of her lion's hanger. Talking to herself whilst working was a typical Pidge habit; it was usually a sign of how deeply involved she was with a project, never seeming to realize there wasn't anyone to really listen to her. Keith wondered if she actually found that preferable or if it was merely a quirk of her habits.

Peering in, Keith watched as Pidge sighed loudly, raking both of her hands through her thick, unruly hair that was slowly reaching back toward her shoulders. "This would be so much easier if I could just take a scan of Black's last readings and mission recordings from when Shiro was piloting." She paused and Keith could see from the look of concentration on her face that she was listening to whatever Green was telling her.

Pidge shook her head. "I can't ask her that, Green. You know how broken she was when we returned from that insane battle. She had collapsed. I've never seen her do that before. You all seem so powerful, so majestic. I guess vulnerability was never something I thought you guys were capable of. So no, I can't ask the Black lion for help, I'm not making her relieve that hellish moment again."

The green Paladin continued to type away on her laptop before addressing her metal partner once more. "You wouldn't happen to have any other ideas, do you?" Apparently the answer was "no" for Pidge let out a soft groan before leaning back and gently letting her head thump against the lion's paw. She threw her hands up. "I am seriously lost here, Green. I'm blank. I've got nothing."

Keith took this as his cue to enter the hangar. "I hope this means you're not waving the proverbial white flag," he teased.

At the sound of her new and hopefully temporary new leader's voice, Pidge shot up, nearly giving herself whiplash, something both humans winced at. "Keith! What're you doing here?" She tilted her head, amber eyes squinting as she stared at him, assuring herself that he really was there and not hallucinating the young man's presence out of exhaustion. Though, if that were the case, wouldn't she be seeing Shiro instead?

Her fellow Paladin shrugged, looking away from her briefly before replying. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to go for a walk. I figured you'd be awake as well. Looks like I was right."

"You were right," Pidge agreed though she could help but wonder if she were missing a piece or two to Keith's story. Why would he actively seek her out when he normally preferred being solitary? When she called him a loner days ago, she hadn't said it strictly out of snark.

Keith nodded toward her laptop. "Working on something interesting?"

Her reaction was a bit surprising to say the least as she looked away from, her entire being seemed to curl in on itself; fingers into fists, shoulders hunched, head down and her knees coming up toward her chest. Her eyes were forlorn and her mouth sagged into a deep frown. "Looking for Shiro," she murmured.

"I heard you talking to Green," Keith admitted. "I could ask Black to help…"

Pidge shook her head, still in that balled-up position. "No, thank you. It's fine. I'd rather not bother her."

Keith tilted his head and leaned toward the right as he chased after her eyes. "Then could you at least look at me, please? I'm not mad that you can't find Shiro; I keep running into dead ends too." When she glanced at him for half a tick before looking elsewhere, he attempted humor. "Could you at least tell me why you're looking like I just busted you for sticking your hand in the cookie jar?"

She huffed out a sound that was torn between being a laugh and a sigh. "I was being selfish," she told him quietly. "I…I haven't been looking for Shiro this whole time." She gritted her teeth, holding back tears. "I was looking for Matt…"

Ah, now he understood her sudden change in behavior. She was most likely remembering their fight back when they were still new to being Paladins, to being a team. Keith could admit that if he hadn't grown emotionally and mentally since that time then Pidge would have a right to not trust him not blowing up at her. But things were definitely different now.

He sat down next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, mentally frowning at just how small and lithe she was. She was horrible at taking care of herself and he was willing to bet that save for Shiro for the most part, they were all horrible at not noticing her lack of self-care. He leaned against her slightly, resting his head against hers as he silently offered her warmth and reassurance, taking in the same from the mere presence of a friend.

"Tell me about him?"

Pidge froze at the completely unexpected question. Slowly she began to unclench her fists, one finger at a time, her shoulders and spine relaxing as she straightened, turning to look at Keith, and forcing the older Paladin to sit up as well. She stared for a long moment as if trying to detect a lie in his visage. He calmly stared back. "You really want to know about Matt?"

"I don't really know much about him," Keith replied with a shrug. "Save for the fact that he's your big brother and that you're tearing apart the universe to find him so to speak. You and Shiro," he amended. "I met him once for a moment, but obviously he's a big part of your world. Also, you're my friend…but I don't know a lot about you. Not to mention we're partners," he stopped. Sighed. "We were partners."

"We're still teammates," Pidge encouraged. "We'll be the arms of Voltron together in no time, you'll see."

Keith nodded slowly, only partially pretending to believe her words. "So tell me about Matt?"

This time her sigh veiled a laugh. "Telling you about Matt is pretty much like telling you about a large part of my world. He's my big brother as you know, obviously." She adjusted the stolen glasses that were her only physical connection to her missing sibling. "My fiercest protector, my loudest cheerleader, my very best friend…my biggest challenger, actually."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Pidge leaned her head on Keith's shoulder as she explained. "It was how he pushed me to do my best, to go beyond whatever barriers I had made myself comfortable with. He made sure that I didn't just surpass any technical know-how, but that I knew how to get creative with it, make a project interesting and mine. Matt usually did that by taking advantage of the stereotypical rivalry between siblings, especially ones with a significant age difference like the one we have…it was all light teasing and banter, constant reverse psychology, but thanks to the Holt temper and stubbornness I'd inherited from the generations, Matt's tactics always worked and I'm grateful to him for it. "

"I just wish I could tell him that."

"You will," Keith stated with the conviction that often wavered within Pidge herself. "And like I said earlier, I'm not mad. Honestly, Pidge, if I knew you weren't looking for your family and that wasn't due to us being engaged in battle or you recovering inside a pod, I'd be worried."

She actually snickered at that. "We can't have that," she teased, though she lacked the mirthful bite when half of her sentence was swallowed by a large yawn.

Keith stood up and stretched his back before reaching a hand out to Pidge. "C'mon, Katie, time for you to sleep in an actual bed."

Pidge's first instinct was to snort and start to retort with a quip that she wasn't the only one to sleep at odd times and in odd places either most likely when his words actually registered with her. Her amber eyes went wide and she nearly stumbled as she took his hand to stand. "Wha-wh…you…you-you…know…Ka—how?" She took a breath to center herself then asked, "How do you know my name is Katie?"

Keith chuckled and it was a sound Pidge hadn't heard in an achingly long time. A sound that made her heart soar. "Shiro may have let it slip once or twice when talking about how impressed he was with all the things you do with tech; your robotic creations, your viruses," he snorted. "Or maybe I should say Shiro would gush, especially when mentioning how cute you would get as your eyes light up whenever you slipped into technobabble."

Pidge nearly slammed into a wall at that. Fortunately for her, Keith took her clumsiness as proof of her exhaustion for he carefully steered her toward the door. "Yeah, you're going to sleep. Now." He looked at her sidelong and added, "And for the record, Shiro slipping up had nothing to do with me figuring out that you're a girl. Watching him turn red when I asked him who Katie is was pretty entertaining, though."

"How did you figure it out?"

Keith was silent for a moment, lost in his memories before replying, "You had already said goodbye to your dad and brother before the shuttle took off for Kerberos, I was still saying goodbye to Shiro. Matt had come over to say hi and on his way, dropped his picture of the two of you. 'Wow, she's really pretty', was Shiro's immediate response."

Keith grinned slyly, laughing outright at the crimson hue Pidge's face had become. "Matt was annoyed and started arguing with him, though he only said that you're his baby sister, he didn't give a name, however he had shrieked your age…which immediately caused Shiro turn as red as well, Red and he stammered out apologies because he hadn't known just how big of an age difference there was between you and Matt let alone you and Shiro himself."

Another chuckle slipped. "In the end though, Shiro still gets red anytime I bring up the incident which means that I have blackmail for a long time to come."

Pidge scoffed, "Considering that I now know, I don't think you have blackmail on him anymore."

Keith shrugged, "that's for me to know and for you to get annoyed over."

"How does that even make sense?"

Her friend merely grinned, sly and mischievous, bordering the line of wicked. "As I said before."

Pidge rolled her eyes. "Okay, I think we're both overtired to the point of being ridiculous," she shot Keith a look. "Some of us more than others."

Keith couldn't help himself, he nearly cackled at that and the sound was so startling and strange, yet it was just pure, unguarded Keith in this moment that Pidge couldn't help but dissolve into giggles with him, laughing as hard as she dared in the dead of the night. The two collapsed to the floor, still snickering as the adrenaline rush that had suddenly crashed over them, ebbed away, leading them toward a warm silence.

Pidge was the first to break it. "Y'know…I didn't exactly spend my time looking for Matt…just for the sake of looking for Matt."

Understandably, Keith was confused. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged, finding the cold tile that was cooling her heated skin fascinating. "I…I needed the distraction…" she drew her knees toward her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "I figured if I focused on finding my brother, losing myself to a whole other project, then I wouldn't have to deal with the fact that we lost Shiro.

We lost Shiro, Keith. Our leader who is sometimes our literal head; and I'm not just talking for the sake of Voltron. One of our best friends; who absolutely completes us. We're broken without him, Keith." Her voice hitched and she did nothing to stop the tears that were pooling in her eyes. That bout of laughter had left her more emotionally raw than she had previously thought. "I'm broken without him."

Keith swallowed the lump that had risen in his throat at his friend's words. He crawled over to her and tugged her into his arms. "It's okay to cry, Katie." She sobbed at that. Her damn birth name always brought her walls crashing down and an emotional reaction out of her. The one glaring crack in her Pidge façade.

Keith hesitated before placing a hand against her head and ran his fingers through her short, thick hair. "You're right though, we are broken. Broken, but not shattered. Not unfixable. It's okay that we miss him, but we can't let that be the end. We gotta keep fighting in this war and we can't give up on Shiro. We will find him." He swallowed hard, biting his lip. He was the leader here, for the time being. Pidge needed him. No crying.

Pidge seemed to sense his self-argument for she mumbled into his now-damp shoulder, "it's okay for you to cry too, Keith."

He snorted wetly. "I don't cry, Katie."

She leaned back far enough to gently thump him on the chest. "Liar. You know, you don't have to be big, bad fiery Keith Kogane all the time, right?"

Still, he tried fighting back the tears that were stinging his eyes as he hugged her tighter. "I know…I…I just…"

"I know you miss him like hell."

That did it. His sobs matched the aching thumping of his heartbeat as he buried his face in the crook of her neck and cried. Pidge was right. Shiro was gone; he was suddenly catapulted into the role of Voltron's new team leader and the new pilot of the Black Lion. He doesn't really know what to do nor does he entirely have the patience to find out and he hates it.

So he cries. He cries and mourns, unravelling bit by bit, but not really minding that it's Pidge he's crying with. She's his friend, the Shield to his true Sword and one of the few people he knows will help him put him back together whenever he breaks down.

Keith too, would be one of the people to put Pidge back together whenever she breaks. To remind her that it was okay to be Katie and to help her find the balance of the two, this he swore.

When their sobs eventually dwindled down to sniffles and hitched breaths, the two slowly pulled away, rubbing at their eyes, feeling even more exhausted than earlier. As one they stood, silently making their way back toward their rooms. When they were nearly there, Pidge once again broke the silence. "I'm glad you found me. I needed that. To laugh and to cry."

"Me too."

A half smile tugged at her mouth as she said in the most serious voice she could muster, "I won't tell Lance that you cried."

"You mean, you won't tell Lance that big, bad fiery Keith Kogane cried, right?"

Her smile grew as she nodded. "Right."

Upon reaching her room, Pidge was about to turn and say good-night when Keith awkwardly asked her, "Will you sleep with me?"

She snapped around at that, eyes wide with shock as she hissed out, "what?!"

He blushed violently. "N-n-not like that! I'm not propositioning you, Katie, I swear. I-I-I…I just don't want to be alone right now."

Pidge relaxed, her expression softening. "The silence is smothering, isn't it?"

Keith sighed, relieved that she got it and wasn't about to wake the rest of the castle to the sound of her beating the daylights out of him. He nodded. "Yeah…it's too loud weirdly enough. Just…too much."

"Well, we're right here," Pidge said, tilting her head toward her door. "So…c'mon in." She opened the door and headed straight for her bed, too tired to deal with anymore potential awkwardness. They could be weird later that morning.

Keith followed, stripping off his jacket and placing it onto a nearby chair before slipping into Pidge's bed. He curled around her, her head resting on his chest, his arms holding her firmly but not too tightly to him. He breathed out as a weight lifted from him due to the mere prospect of him not being alone that night. No threat of being drowned by the stars and silence.

He wasn't alone. Shiro may be missing, but he wasn't alone. That was finally beginning to really click for him now.

"Good night," Katie whispered in a sleep slurred voice.

Keith closed his eyes, slowly dropping his head against hers, finding himself easily lulled to sleep. "Good night…"