Moon Princess
Soul Bonding

"Someday, princess, you'll grow up. When that day comes, you'll likely meet someone you're fated to meet, but that person's not me."

In all honesty, the person Allura soul bonded with was the last person she would have expected outside of perhaps Lance.

Human's, after all, had strangely shaped ears which were rounded instead of pointed, but Keith's physical features were less than desirable as well. The red paladin was scrawny, to the point his bone's poked through slightly, but he was also gangly and awkward. Personality wise when she met him, Keith was majorly distant to those around him.

Allura couldn't help but contrast Keith with the black paladin. Sure, Shiro also had those rounded ears that humans had, but his other physical features were desirable. He had broad shoulders, and firm muscles, with a well defined chin. The black paladin's movement was smooth, but Shiro also seemed comfortable with the way his body moved. He was also more personable than Keith.

Yet, it hadn't been Shiro that she'd soul bonded with, but Keith.

She wondered if one's soul bond was something one fought against like she did, purposefully looking for some kind of excuse to reject Keith. Allura certainly jumped on him being part Galra really quick, but that likely just added to the list of undesirable features about Keith. At least, until that very moment, she thought she'd lose him forever.

In truth, she'd also realized she loved his undesirable qualities just as much as his desirable ones. Keith was, for example, an interesting person to talk to once you did get him started, but he put a lot of thought into what he said when he did say it. He was trust worthy, but his sense of duty and honor was something to be admired, but also something she was sure her father would have liked.

And….

She'd come to kind of like Keith's ears, which she now thought were just slightly more pointed than the round ears of other human's, except for perhaps Shiro. She'd wanted to touch them once she'd accepted the soul bonding, yet she restrained herself. Keith, after all, wasn't from her culture, but that of Earth, and that of the Galra. She didn't know if the other cultures perceived the action with the same familial and romantic inclinations as her own.

But, there was also the fact Keith was uncomfortable being touched. He'd tensed up when she hugged him, yet she had to hug him, to let him know how precious he was to her, although Allura didn't think he truly understood just how precious. He was also slightly leery of her, and she couldn't blame him with how she reacted to him being part Galra.

As she told him, it was her, not him, but she wondered if he truly understood what she meant by that.

When Shiro disappeared, she could feel the sorrow pouring off him, so she also knew Keith and the black paladin were close, somehow. She'd not quite figured it out until they met Sven. She hadn't noticed what she'd figured out because of the white hair and the scar, or the difference in the length of hair. Sven though had pure black hair and no scar, but his hair was the same length as Keith's roughly.

The reason the two were so close was simply that they were family.

Thus, she found herself watching Shiro carefully. Before she'd compared Keith to the black paladin, disappointed that Keith wasn't perfection like Shiro was, but now she wanted to watch how he interacted with Keith. She watched how Shiro rarely touched Keith, remember how when he did, it was as gentle and calmly as possible, but on Keith's terms.

She also talked to Shiro, trying to find out more about Earth, the place Keith came from, hoping to gain some clues in order to know the red paladin better. "What is Earth like?"

Shiro startled, his eyes blinking as if his mind were elsewhere. "What is Earth like? Well…"

The black paladin simply looked down at his drink, remaining silent rather than giving an answer. Coran pulled at his mustache. "I am curious as well."

"It's okay you guess."

"You guess? Is it not your home planet? Surely you have more to say about it than that?"

It's complicated." Shiro swished his drink around, staring down at the drink, but continuing to smile. "For starters, on my home planet I'm legally dead, so that's one of the first things I'll have to fix once we get back."

"Then all of you are planning on going back to Earth and not staying longer?"

"Yeah…" Shiro continued to look at the ground. "Most of us have family back there."

The black paladin seemed bothered by her line of questioning. "But what about Keith?" Her eyes drifted over at that point to Keith, yet he seemed to know to avoid eye contact, but also quickly left the room, purposefully avoiding her. Shiro hadn't answered but remained silent, so she decided to press. "I thought he doesn't have a family."

"You thought…" Shiro's voice strained slightly, his fingers of his mechanical arm tapping his other arm. Allura looked back in time to see this, the want for Keith to stay remaining. He didn't look her in the eye either. "Well, Keith did say he was thinking about looking for his family. To do that, the best place to start is honestly going back to Earth."

Allura's head turned back, her mouth pushing into a frown. "He can't find that information out here, in space? In any of the numerous Galra records out there, there might be something. I'd help him look."

"It…" The black paladin took a deep breath. "He was born on Earth, so it's definitely the place to start."

"But what if he wasn't born there, but elsewhere? How can you know for sure?"

"He's still got to rule it out."

Allura took a deep breath, turning her head, hurt that Shiro was keeping things from her, but that Keith was also going to be leaving. It also hurt to see that Keith wasn't participating in the celebrations. It also hurt knowing that both the red and black paladins, for some reason, weren't excited about going back to Earth, yet both were in rather dark moods.

It was then that she sought Keith out. She pressed, seeing the hurt in his eyes, wanting him to know he had a place there, at the Castle of Lions with her. She thought at first, maybe his connection to Shiro was the reason he said no, or that he wasn't soul bonded with her, as he wasn't Altean, but then that pain of being Galra came back.

Something else was bothering him, something he couldn't say out loud. He struggled to speak to her but to also say goodbye to her. The overwhelming feeling she got was that he wanted to stay, that he wanted to be with her, but she also thought maybe, just maybe that was wishful thinking on her part, and that he spoke the truth when he said he didn't want to stay.

"Princess?"

Allura found herself drawn away, realizing that the mice were staring at her from where Coran was staring. He looked at her in worry. She smiled at her advisor. "Sorry. I miss them already."

One of the mice squeaked at her, letting her know they were concerned and had gone and gotten Coran. Worse, they knew how she felt about Keith leaving, yet…

Coran pulled at his mustache. "Particularly Shiro?"

"Shiro?" Allura titled his head. For some reason, Coran winked at her, but she didn't quite follow what he was getting at.

"You know. If you've soul bonded…"

"No. I haven't."

"Princess, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's a beautiful thing."

"No, I mean he's not the one I've soul bonded with." The words came out, while Coran stood there, a bit confused.

"Not Shiro?"

"No, not…" Allura worried her lip, something bothering her about what Coran had said. "I'd rather not say who it was just yet, as I'm still trying to figure out how to best deal with these feelings. You know, I think I'll go do a scan of the planet. Maybe I can get an idea of what his home is like that way."

Coran titled his head, a tad confused. The princess didn't hear him say. "You say his home, but it's not Shiro?"

V

"Where's Keith?" Lance leaned back in his chair, looking around trying to find the red paladin. Like Shiro though, he'd disappeared. Matt and Pidge were chatting with Hunk, while Sam watched, but the tech talk was making Lance bored. So bored he actually noticed the person he enjoyed making fun of was missing from the room.

Specifically, he wanted to push that mental button of Keith's regarding his outburst in the shuttle ship. He honestly wasn't sure what Shiro said to make the red paladin's outburst about real siblings, but said button was honestly to tempting. Pidge and Hunk glanced up, while Matt frowned.

"Keith?" Matt's entire body relaxed. "Shiro still needed to talk to him."

"Still?" Lance's mouth pressed together, unsure what to think about that. "But they've been gone for hours. What could they be talking about that will take that long?"

The older of the Holt siblings opened his mouth, only to glance at his father. The look on Sam's face made Matt shut his mouth tight, before shaking his head. He pushed himself up from where he sat. "I'm going to go and look for them. They can't be that far away."

"You shouldn't interfere." Same spoke up.

Lance's hand's pushed into his pockets. "How is going and finding them interfering? I'm just curious where they are."

"And what they're doing." Pidge piped up, only for her to be elbowed by Hunk.

The blue paladin glared at them, before heading out of the room. He didn't ask Hunk to come, as it seemed that his friend was more interested in tech talk. The yellow paladin's voice drew him back. "Hey. You aren't going to go and bug Keith about, you know, that?"

"You mean the not a real sibling thing?" Lance turned his head, smirking over his shoulder. "You know I can't resist."

"Yeah, but isn't that kind of a little mean? I mean, family, or lack thereof, isn't that a big deal to Keith, and a very sensitive spot."

The blue paladin frowned, something clicking. He let out a deep breath, rubbing a hand through his hair, turning away. "Fine. Not going to make fun of him for that. But now that you mention it, what's up with that?

Looking back, Lance saw Hunk's eyes blink, before his friend shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not going to push. Keith will tell us when he's comfortable."

"So, you're not going with me?"

"Nope. I really want to see my family. Don't you."

"Well, yeah. But…" Lance shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. "I need to walk around for a bit. You know how I am."

"Okay. If your family gets here, I'll come looking for you."

"Thanks."

The blue paladin continued along, quickly finding the smaller conference room, opening the doors as he went. He saw Shiro first, obviously talking to someone, though at this point they were silent. Lance assumed the person was Keith, but the pissed off look on Shiro's face was because the black paladin was upset with Keith's outburst. He opened the door, wondering if someone needed to intervene, only to freeze.

The person talking to Shiro wasn't Keith.

"Sis?"

His sister looked up, pushing up her glasses. "Lance."

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm one of the garrison psychologists. Why else would I be here?" Lance took a deep breath, glancing at Shiro, knowing full well why his sister was there. He opened his mouth to say something, only for his sister to speak up. "I'm working on a psych evaluation right now. I need you to leave. Mom and dad will be here when all of you have had your evaluations.

"Wait. No." Lance stepped in, the door closing behind him. "Shiro, where's Keith?"

"What do you mean?" Shiro sat there, his arms folded across his chest, his mouth deeply set, his face emotionless. Lance's sister though seemed bothered by what he said.

"Seriously! You asked him to come and talk to you, and now he's not here. He's not there either." His sister was pushing up her glasses, a sign that she disproved of something, though Lance never knew what that might be.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

His sister's notepad hit the table, making that snapping sound when someone set such things down, but not the majorly loud kind of sound. "Takashi Shirogane, are you refusing to tell me that he was here? Where is he now?"

"Again, I don't know what you're talking about."

Lance's fingers twisted into fists, his lips pushing together in frustration. For someone who was his hero, his idol, this wasn't something he expected. He stepped forward, slamming his hands down. "You know what she's talking about! Keith! Keith Kogane! Our red paladin! You were talking to him! This isn't funny!"

Shiro turned, his eyes dark, and the words he said came firmly. "This is none of your business."

"It may not be any of my business, but it is mine. Particularly since he is, here in Japan, still a minor until he turns twenty. I can't overlook the fact a minor may be in a dangerous situation he shouldn't be in."

"He's safe."

His entire image of Shiro seemed to shatter, falling to the ground right there. His sister stood up, turning Lance around and pushing him out of the room. "I need you to leave."

The next thing Lance knew, he was hearing the door close behind him. Letting out a deep breath, his long legs propelled him forward, hurrying back to the room. He slammed the door open. "Keith's gone!"

Everyone stared at him. Hunk spoke first. "What do you mean?"

"My sister is in there giving Shiro a psych evaluation, but Keith wasn't there." Lance folded his arms across his chest. Sam and Matt looked at each other, their worry growing while Hunk and Pidge simply remained surprised.

The corners of Hunk's mouth trembled. "What do you mean he wasn't there?"

"What else would I mean?"

Sam and Matt stood up, both heading to the door. Lance startled, confused at their actions, but Pidge's brother turned. "Stay here. We're going to go and talk to Shiro, see if we can't make some sense of this."

The two were then gone, and Lance glared at the floor. Hunk's voice strained. "Wait. Wait. We don't have time. We need to find Keith."

Pidge frowned, before opening up her computer. Within a few seconds, she managed to hack the system and began to troll the security footage. Her brow scrunched, frowning. Lance swallowed. "What is it."

"The video footage."

"What about it."

"Keith, he went with Shiro, talked to him for a short period of time, but then left."

"He left?" Hunk's eyes widened.

"Yeah. He seems to be looking at something written on paper, but the camera can't make out what it says. Backwards Earth tech." Pidge frowned. "I just know that he walked right out of the garrison, nobody paying attention to him as he did so."

"He left us!" The yellow paladin's eyes began to water.

"Shiro…" Lance looked at the ground. "He has something to do with this."

"We can't exactly ask him though," Pidge looked up. "But you're right. Shiro seems to have given him some kind of instruction. Problem is, I don't understand why Keith needed to leave like that."

"We need to find him! We need to tell him he's wanted! We need to tell him not to go off like that!" Hunk blurted out, standing up, nearly bowling Lance over as he headed for the door.

Pidge and Lance looked at each other, but then stood up. There was no question what they were going to do. No matter how long it took, they would do it. Pidge downloaded the footage, and then after a second thought scrambled the entire database, putting the footage on a loop.

V

Keith was indeed his precious little brother, but Shiro couldn't help but think that the red paladin was going to get hurt emotionally, and hurt really bad. On one side, he wanted to respect Keith's decisions, but on the other, there was that desire to go into big brother mood. Nobody noticed that Keith was gone, which also meant it hadn't registered that Keith was even there. That, or they'd not figured out who Keith really was. Which meant that person didn't know, nor did the media. Yet.

They, of course, sent in a psychologist. Chances were he was first because the damage on the outside was the most obvious, but the questions he knew were to check for the PTSD he knew was there. He didn't bother lying, answered things truthfully, yet kept his answers simple. None of the questions brought up Keith, so nobody knew to start looking for him. The clock said quite a few hours had passed since he'd sent Keith off, so he should be there, and safe by now.

Then, Lance blew it.

Worse, the psychiatrist contacted the commander of this particular Garrison, and he came straight to the room.

Shiro looked away, unable to look the man in the face, but said nothing. The man's hand's slammed down. "What is this I hear about Akira being here, but you letting him leave?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." The black paladin kept his arms crossed. The psychiatrist sat down, concern on her face. "You know as well as I do that Akira is dead."

"No. I know as well as you that he's alive Takashi. I'm aware of a lot more than you think."

"It's none of your business."

Again, the hands slammed down. "He's my grandson. It is my business."

"Commander Shirogane, I didn't know you actually had a heart." Shiro's eyes narrowed, his jaw tightening. The man's face was now inches from his own. "You gave up on him being alive years ago, and never went looking for him. None of you did. None of you except mfather. You didn't care at all, so don't pretend you did."

A sudden blur occurred, and suddenly Shiro's cheek stung, his eyes going wide. "Don't tell me I don't care, when I tried bringing him home a year ago when you disappeared just like your mother and father did."

Shiro looked at the table, frowning as his cheek continued to sting. His mind was real, one of his panic attacks setting in, so he hadn't heard what the man said. He was there, a prisoner again, just as one of the Galra slapped his face. They cursed, said things that he didn't understand, purposefully turning off the translator so he couldn't do what they said.

He sat there, frozen, terrified, unable to do anything. He didn't see his grandfather's anger melt, although his body remained tense. The psychiatrist frowned, watching the ticks and signs of a PTSD attack. He didn't hear the man say, "What is wrong with him?"

"PTSD, sir. I might as well be upfront with you that his psych evaluation hasn't been going well, but I believe he's aware of the fact he's having episodes, so he's been truthful with me."

Shiro found himself brought out of his trance, a hand placed gently on his shoulder. He didn't like the look on the man's face. "Don't worry. You'll be home soon. Safe. I want Akira home and safe as well though. Do you understand me?"

The black paladin closed his eyes. He understood to well, and choose not to say anything. The door opened, and Matt's frantic voice filled his ears. "Shiro! Where's Keith!"

Shiro's eyes opened up, seeing Matt and Sam there, watching him carefully. Commander Shirogane turned to Sam. "Holt, can you talk some sense into my grandson? I need to know Akira is okay."

The older Holt sibling paused, his eyes blinking. "Keith's okay. He can take care of himself rather easily."

Sam looked right at Shiro, the look on his face making the black paladin advert his eyes. "I'm a little more concerned that Shiro let Keith leave."

"Yeah. That's the real question. Why did you let him leave!" Matt got closer, almost in his face. "Keith is your little brother. He's your entire universe, and you'd do anything for each other. Why would you…"

"Because he is your entire universe." Sam frowned. "You don't keep a cherished bird caged, but let it fly free."

Matt completely stiffened up, and his grandfather took a deep breath. The psychologist got the reference but seemed rather horrified. His grandfather though remained clueless. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means your grandson thinks he's doing the right thing by letting your other grandson choose his own path. Yet…"

"Keith's safe," Shiro spoke up again, feeling ever so tired. The path Keith decided to take still scared him despite knowing that the red paladin was indeed safe, yet he couldn't give anything away.