A/N: Synopsis: Krolia's missing, and Kolivan is just trying to stay out of trouble.
Rating: K
Genre: Humor
Small paws pattered down the metal hallway. The young Galra hurried down the hall as quickly as he dared, ears pricked for sounds of adults who would send him out of the maintenance halls. His hands nervously clenched the slim braid of hair that hung over his shoulder, eyes scanning the walls in search of his mischievous friend who had vanished down the hall a few doboshes before.
The Galran outpost was a small and run-down place floating in the midst of the Marmora asteroid field. The outpost was constantly being beaten down by the asteroids around it, but the inhabitants stubbornly refused to let the base fall apart.
Still, there were abandoned sections where walls were too badly damaged and sometimes doors that led to open space. It was dangerous to wander those sections, yet here the young Galra was.
The Galra reached a fork in the hall and halted. He frowned down each hall, both appearing equally empty. Finally, after a dobosh of shifting from foot to foot, he gathered the courage to call for his friend.
"Krolia?"
The sound was barely audible, even to his own keen ears. He took a deep breath, small chest puffing out, and squeezed his eyes shut to call again, slightly louder.
"Krolia, where are you?"
"Right here, silly!"
The young Galra nearly screeched at the cheery -and much too loud- voice from right behind. He spun around to face his shorter friend.
"Krolia, this isn't the time for games!" he hissed.
"Aw, you worry too much, Kolivan," Krolia teased, blinking innocently at him.
Kolivan gave Krolia his best scowl. Maybe it was because she knew him well enough to know that he wasn't really mad or maybe it was because his ten deca-pheob old face couldn't quite form the scowl with any sort of fierceness, but Krolia didn't look impressed.
"You don't worry enough," Kolivan finally said.
Krolia rolled her eyes. "It's just a hall. It's not like we're breaking any rules."
"We're breaking your dad's," Kolivan reminded her. He instantly regretted saying that when Krolia's face fell, and tried to change the subject. "Mom is looking for you."
Krolia huffed, but Kolivan knew it was just because her brief freedom was ending. Her dad was busy working in Zarkon's fleet, and rarely got to visit. While he was gone, he had left Krolia in the care of Kolivan's mother. Kolivan was used to her strict rules, but Krolia always had a hard time listening.
"Even Antok is searching," Kolivan informed her.
Krolia perked up at the mention of Kolivan's little brother. At eight deca-pheobs old, he was the same age as Krolia. It was easy for Krolia to get him to join her wild escapades, and Kolivan so often found himself being the voice of reason if the three of them were alone.
"He's with Mom," Kolivan said.
"Fine, I only wanted you to come, anyway," Krolia said with an easy shrug.
"Oh, no. You aren't getting me in trouble again," Kolivan said, crossing his arms.
"I won't!" Krolia insisted. "I want to show you something that Papa gave me."
Kolivan looked at Krolia's empty hands. Her thin grey pants didn't have pockets, and her shirt didn't appear to be concealing anything.
"I don't have them with me. Papa said I had to keep them hidden, so I am keeping them in one of the empty rooms." Krolia's eyes gleamed in the dim light.
"Mom is looking for us," Kolivan said, not as firmly as he would have liked.
"It'll just take a few ticks!" Krolia clasped her hands together and gave Kolivan her best yupper pup eyes. She threw in the final blow. "Please?"
Kolivan groaned. He never could say no to that face, and Krolia knew it. She smirked and darted down the left hall without even waiting for Kolivan to say yes.
A small part of Kolivan wanted to just head back to his family's dorm, but curiosity and thinking of Krolia's hopeful face pushed away the thought. Stifling a sigh, Kolivan scurried after Krolia.
Krolia led Kolivan to a hall that must have been abandoned for deca-pheobs. A lot of the lights weren't working, and there was only one set of footprints blurring the dust that covered the ground.
Krolia went to a door nearly at the end of the hall and pressed her hand to the scanner. The door opened with a screech that had Kolivan yelping. He pressed his hands to his ears until the dreadful sound ended.
"Oops, shoulda warned you."
Kolivan glared at Krolia, who at least had the decency to look apologetic. She beckoned him inside the dim room.
The room was an old storage space. It was mostly empty now, with just a few buckets on the shelves on the wall. A random sentry arm was laying in the corner.
Krolia scrambled up the shelving to reach the myriad of piping in the ceiling. She swung up to sit on a wide pipe.
"Come on!" Krolia called down.
Kolivan made sure his sigh was extra loud. He climbed up the shelves and grabbed the above pipes to pull himself to sit beside Krolia.
"Okay, now what?"
Krolia stood and reached into a gap in the pipes. After a tick of shuffling around with her hands, she pulled out a grey satchel and sat down. She opened up the satchel's flap. Despite himself, Kolivan found himself leaning closer.
Krolia pulled out an identical set of daggers. The black metal almost seemed to glow in the darkness. One knife had a purple emblem that really did glow.
"Papa said they are made of luxite, a really rare metal," Krolia said in a conspiratorial whisper. "Luxite is special, almost like magic!"
"Magic?" Kolivan repeated, unimpressed.
"Papa has a knife like this, and it can turn into a big sword!" Krolia explained, throwing her arms wide for emphasis.
"Really?"
Kolivan looked at the knives with new interest. Krolia wasn't one to make up details like that, so she must have been speaking the truth about the knives turning into swords.
"Papa says I'm too young to unlock the blade myself," Krolia said, pouting a little. "But he's going to help us learn when we're older."
"Us?"
"Yep! Papa gave me two knives, and told me to give the other to someone that I really, really trust." Krolia held out the knife with no emblem to Kolivan.
"Are you sure?" Kolivan asked, reaching out but not taking the knife.
"Of course! There's no one that I trust more than you, except for Papa. Antok needs one, too, but Papa only gave me two. It'll be our little secret for now, okay?"
"Okay."
Krolia beamed as Kolivan took the blade. To Kolivan's utter shock, there was a flash of light, then the same emblem that was on Krolia's began to glow in his.
"The luxite connects to the user's life force," Krolia explained excitedly. "No one else can claim this knife as theirs!"
"Our knives are connected to us," Kolivan said, awed. He gave Krolia a rare smile. "And our knives connect us to each other."
"It could be our own special club!" Krolia crowed. "No one will ever be invited, unless they have a special blade! We'll be the Blades of… of…"
"Marmora?" Kolivan suggested.
Krolia shrugged. "We'll work on it. But, the point is, we're a team!" Her face clenched in attempted seriousness as she pressed her left fist to her opposite shoulder. "No one can break us apart. We'll be together forever and ever."
Kolivan's smile grew as he mimicked the salute. "Forever and ever."
