Keith hissed in pain and stuck his finger in his mouth. That had been the fifth time he had stuck himself in the past hour, but if he had any hope of finishing this in time he was going to have to stick at it. Sighing, he leaned against the cool wall of his small room.

The blades didn't have the fanciest furnishings around, but they were sufficient. A part of Keith wondered if his life of solitude had been fated to prepare him for a life of fighting in space. After all, if he'd grown up in a mansion he doubted he'd have adapted to the small barracks at the garrison or on the marmora base nearly as quickly as he had.

He looked down in his lap at what he'd completed thus far. Collecting everything had been difficult but worth it. He'd seen so many different places and met so many different people. Way more than he had on earth.

And he'd found out things. Things about the universe, other people, and himself. The fact that he was, at least partly, alien still felt like a vague fever dream.

So many things had changed in his life in such a short amount of time. It was almost hard to reconcile.

The biggest difference was the number of people in his life. Before it had just been Shiro and Matt. But now there was Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Coran, Kolivan… and Allura.

I wonder if she's still mad at me…

The way she'd reacted had been a shock. So much of a shock, in fact, that Keith couldn't even really be angry. Instead he'd just been confused.

At least until he'd spoken to Coran.

Honestly, he should have thought of speaking to him BEFORE making Allura a gift that doubled as an Altean insult. But that just seemed to be the way things went for Keith. The harder he tried to get closer to people the more it seemed backfire.

Even now he wasn't confident Allura would be able to forgive him even after he finished this apology gift. But it was the only thing he could do.

He just hoped she liked this one.

Allura sat alone on the observation deck playing with the bracelet in her hand. She'd managed to get help from the paladins in deciphering what all the charms represented on earth.

At first she'd worried about being able to properly identify everything since the whole thing was homemade. However, it seemed the craftsmanship was good enough to easily identify the symbols.

There were seven charms in all. The first she'd easily identified as a star. The second was a sun. The third seemed to be a really simple rendition of some kind of flower.

The fourth she had needed a little help to identify, but Pidge had told it was an artistic representation of a moon. More specifically one that had waned to slit. It seemed an odd choice in Alluras mind, but it was still pretty.

The next two, were a little harder to figure out since they were a little more complex than the others. But after a lot of discussion it was agreed that the two were likely a lion and a mouse. Obviously representing the lions and the space mice, who were more than a little flattered to have been included.

The final one Allura had kept to herself. She wanted to talk to Keith about it's inclusion, and what exactly it was he had meant it to mean.

But as it was, the princess wondered if he'd ever really come back to her.

He had always returned to her in the past. No matter what it was that kept them apart. But in the past she hadn't thrown a homemade gift in his face.

She had always been rather harsh with Keith. First there was that whole thing when she'd found out he was part galra. Though she'd realized her mistake, it was still something she hadn't readily forgiven herself for. Then when he'd distanced himself from the team, she hadn't pushed hard enough to get him to open up with her.

If she had, a lot of pain may have been avoided.

As she dreamily stared out into the void of space, she failed to notice the door to the observatory opening. Nor did she hear the steps approaching her from behind. She didn't even register his presence until he spoke.

"A-Allura?"

The princess blinked.

And turned around to see Keith standing behind her.

"Do you, uh, do you have a minute?"

Allura stared at him for a moment, but then smiled and nodded.

Keith didn't sit down. Instead he shuffled around in one of the pouches attached to his belt.

"I-I uhm, I'm sorry about before. I asked Coran about it and he told me about how charms worked on Altea and how it was this big insult and I really should have asked him to begin with, but-but I didn't think of it at the time and I-"

He stopped when Allura took his hand and pulled him down to take a seat next to her.

"I know." She said gently. "I, too, am sorry. I should have said something to you instead of storming off."

"Well, I mean, that's not your fault. You couldn't have known it wasn't a-"

"And neither could you." She cut in. Allura frowned and faced forward. "It's a very nice bracelet. I should have thanked you for it."

"A-About that." Drawing something from his pouch he held it out to Allura. "Coran told me that Alteans exchanged necklaces with the people they uh… that they liked."

Princess Allura stared open mouthed at the decorative necklace dangling in the air in front of her. It was obviously handmade. Held together by some kind of knotted cord. But the jewels that were laced into it were very much real.

"I found this one on thayserax, and this one on the balmera, and this-"

"Keith." He stopped mid sentence to see Allura smiling at him. "Thank you. It's much more than I deserve."

Leaning over, she wrapped her arms around his torso and held him close.

Keith couldn't help but return the gesture.

Burying his face into her hair, he whispered.

"You deserve the stars and so much more."

Allura didn't reply. Instead she gripped the small charm bracelet in her hand. Running her fingers over the small heart shaped one, whose meaning she no longer needed to ask.