Chapter 11

After the shower Keith and Lance went back to their own rooms.

When Keith got back to his room he put his extra shirt into the wardrobe in a separate area to wash later. He changed his ears and let his physical features revert to their usual 'at rest' state. His hair was still slightly damp so he decided against pulling it back.

He wasn't sure what to do now.

He reorganized his other things even though there wasn't much to organize in the first place. After, he polished his sword with an old piece of clothing from the wardrobe.

Once that was finished he tried to think of something else to keep him preoccupied. He felt restless. He felt useless.

What was he supposed to do? Sit in here and think about the things that had lead up to this moment? No, his thoughts were much too messy for that and his past was something that darkened much too frequently for him to be able to remanence freely.

He was bored.

He didn't know what the other paladins were doing at the moment, but he knew that Coran was fixing the castle with Allura. He had contemplated helping them, but he was still wary of Allura. Maybe he could…

He stopped pacing and gazed over to where his blade sat on his bed.

'Yeah, that sounds good.' He thought to himself. He grabbed his sword and sheath. He slung the sheath over his shoulder and pushed the sword into it.

It only took him a few minutes to find the training deck. He had actually payed attention to the group when they were giving directions to the room. He knew that he would be using it at some point.

When the automatic doors slid open with a gentle hiss he caught sight of three colored suits of armor ducking, dodging, and firing rapidly as tall robots chased them around, trying to cut them down with oversized blades.

"Hunk! Your 6!" Pidge shouted out to Hunk as she zapped her own attacker with her Bayard. Hunk turned 180 degrees and was met with the bot that had originally been after Lance, but changed directions to attack Hunk.

Hunk was already struggling with his first bot and when he turned his fire away from the other, the original used the reprieve to sprint closer and attack him from behind. The bot brought its blade in a downward strike over top of Hunks head just as Hunk shot down the second bot.

"Hunk!" Keith screamed out.

Just before the blade sliced through him a blue laser smashed into the bots hands and sent the blade soaring away. A few more blue lasers flew into the bots body until it pixilated and dissipated into the air.

Hunk turned back to look in shock at where the bot was. Then he looked to Lance who lowered his smoking gun. Lance gave a cocky grin and tossed the gun onto his shoulder in a very 'sure of himself' movement.

"Thanks bro." Hunk said in a sigh of relief.

"I've got your back my dude, no worries." Lance grinned.

"Ugg, could you guys, like, tone down the Bro-mance over there a little bit?" Pidge questioned unamused as she replaced her Bayard in her suit of paladin armor. "I bet at this point even Keith can feel it, from all the way over there." She gestured to him and they turned to greet him.

"Hey Keith. Did you need something?" Hunk asked.

"Oh, I was just gonna do some training or exercises or something. Not like I really have anything to do at the moment so…" He trailed off in a shrug and looked around.

"Oh! You could teach us some of that hand to hand combat if you're still up for it!" Hunk suggested.

"Yeah! I was looking forward to that, even though it is a lot of work. I want to be able to kick Lance's ass next time he calls me short stack." Pidge chimed in and sent a glare at Lance to emphasize her point. Keith turned his gaze to Lance, to see where he stood on the matter.

He was expecting him to have some sort of snarky retort to what Pidge had said, but Lance was oddly silent. He had a slight frown on his face and he looked at the ground before realizing that the others were expecting him to speak. As he looked at them he pulled up a small smile.

"Yeah, fine. I don't care." He was smiling, but his eyes weren't crinkling in the corners like they usually did. "Nothing that he's going to show you that I couldn't anyways. You'll realize that it's a waste of time soon enough." He put his Bayard away and crossed his arms while he talked.

Pidge and Hunk shared a questioning glance before shrugging it off and readdressing Keith. "So?"

Keith saw the excitement in the two's eyes and felt inclined to do as they said. But when he looked at Lance he felt uneasy. Where did he remember that smile from? It seemed so familiar. And that strange light in his blue eyes…

"Please?" Pidge was looking at Keith, but it was Lance who seemed to react to it. He bit his lip and uncrossed his arms. Keith thought for a moment longer before he nodded his head.

"I guess. I did say I would teach you guys, after all." He shrugged, giving in. Hunk and Pidge both cheered and high fived each other. Lance smiled behind the two. This one was a real smile as he watched them both.

"Alright! Where do we start?" Hunk asked. Keith walked the rest of the way into the room and stopped before the small group.

"Well, what do you know?"

"They know a lot." Lance answered for them before stepping closer to be beside the others. "They know Choke holds, Elbow strikes, and Takedowns." He said proudly as he crossed his arms once again.

"Yeah, we know what they are, but we don't actually know how execute them." Pidge deadpanned.

"What?!" Lance seemed taken back. His eyes were wide and his mouth fell open with disbelief. "I totally showed you guys how to do those! Hunk?" He looked to Hunk for help as his arms fell from their crossed position.

"Well…" Hunk rubbed the back of his neck and didn't meet Lance's eyes. Lance's mouth dropped wider and he scoffed. "You demonstrated and all, but you just kinda… Didn't explain much past that…"

"Hmph." Lance turned his nose up at the two of them and turned away. The betrayal he felt was evident in his sloped shoulders, even though he was trying to seem angry at them. The only thing his body language said was gloom. Keith looked to the others to see if they noticed, but they seemed to brush off Lance's behavior as overreacting.

Maybe human body language was different from Galra body language. The Galra communicated with body language all the time, but that wasn't a universal thing Keith supposed.

It was suddenly then that Keith remembered where he had seen that fake smile.

Keith was only 13 when he met her. He only knew her over the course of one month, but that had been all it took to burn her into his memory.

"My name is Aubr." She had told the combat class the morning she transferred in. Her parents had changed branches of the Blade and she had to move facilities. Keith only had combat training with her.

She really shouldn't have stood out as much as she did when he first saw her. Her hair was a short, deep violet bob. Her face wasn't remarkably beautiful or ugly and her face marks were standard in that they were a few shades lighter and patterned the lower parts of her cheeks. A small line of much lighter fur ran from the hair line at her forehead down to her nose. Her voice wasn't strong or weak, but a perfectly average mix of both. Her eyes were pale yellow, but also very large. They were the most prominent feature on her face.

"Alright Aubr, today we will be doing group defense. You can choose any group you like." The teacher said. Most of the groups were of friends who had known each other for a long time and many of them didn't seem to be willing to make new friends. Keith's group was made up of the left overs. The ones that didn't have friends or their own groups that they could stay in.

She choose Keith's group. She didn't say a word when she joined them, she just hovered around the edge of their already scattered circle.

Jani, the only other girl in their little group of 5 now 6, decided to start a conversation with her, even though her body language practically screamed no, with her crossed arms and avoidance of eye contact.

"I'm Jani." She said cautiously, as if approaching a very dangerous animal. She held out her hand in greeting.

Aubr looked at her for a moment before Keith heard a quiet sigh and she returned the gesture. She placed her own hand palm up in Jani's hand before pulling away. A standard Blade greeting. Jani smiled.

"Are you any good at fighting? I'm pretty terrible at it…" Jani offered. Aubr seemed to break from her stiff stance at the peaceful question.

"I'm not too bad at it." Aubr smiled slightly.

Jurak, who was a short (Keith was still the shortest though) timid boy, chimed in here. "I think you're lying." He challenged.

'He has no room to talk. He's a horrible fighter.' Keith though silently from a few meters away.

"I'm not." Aubr said with an unwavering confidence. It took Jurak back a few steps.

"Class, it's time to start. Partner up. Begin with breaking out of a wrist hold. Pull as hard as you can from where your partners fingers meet." The teacher instructed.

The group looked around at each other for a moment before they began paring up. Aubr looked at Jani for a moment with hope in her eyes, a small smile still on her face.

Jurak put his hand on Jani's shoulder. "You're my partner."

"But-" He cut her off with a look. "Okay." She sighed. She turned away without making eye contact with Aubr. She didn't get to see how her face stiffened, her smile was still there, but the light in her eyes wasn't. Her body language whispered 'betrayal'.

She squared her shoulders and looked for a partner.

Keith was the only one left. He may have been in the outcast group, but even there, he didn't fit in.

She saw that he was alone and came closer. When she reached where he was standing she made eye contact and was about to speak when her eyes met his. She seemed to see him now, not just a person off to the side, but actually see him. She saw his detailed two layered eyes and his extra short stature and his different hair. She was smart enough and he was different enough. She knew that he wasn't full Galra. That he wasn't like the others.

Keith expected the worst honestly. He expected her to grimace when he held out his hand to start the exercise. For her to look around for a different partner.

But she didn't. When she finally stopped taking in the sight that is Keith, she smiled. A real smile that crinkled the edges of her eyes. She gripped his arm to begin the exercise and asked quietly, "What's your name?"

He didn't quite understand her question. "Aren't you- Don't you think I'm a freak?" He asked quietly.

She smiled even further. "I don't think you're a freak." She leaned in closer until she was able to whisper into his ear. Her breath tickled his ear when she said, "That would make me a hypocrite."

Keith leaned back to look her in the eyes. "You're a-" She cupped a hand over his mouth, startling him from finishing his question.

"Shh! Can you keep my secret?" Keith nodded. She removed her hand.

"I'm Keith." He said when she backed away a bit. She nodded and released his arm from the attacker hold, deciding that they weren't doing the exercise anyway, and held her hand out for greeting. Keith placed his hand palm up and smiled, for the first time in a while, to his classmate.

"It is nice to meet you Keith." Her shoulders were relaxed and her face held a soft yet excited expression. Her eyes were bright.

"Let's start the exercise." He smiled. She held out her arm and they began.

…

It had been a week since Aubr had shown up.

He had talked with her every day since then and found that she was a smart girl, an above average fighter, and a below average socializer. She was no good with the attention that being the new kid brought on. When people tried to talk to her she would avoid the questions and try to get away as soon as possible, or stutter out a short answer and duck her head.

For some reason the more popular kids found this endearing. They begin to pull her towards their group. They invited her to sit with them at lunch rather than with "that weird Halfling who doesn't have any friends."

The first day she declined. She was sitting across from Keith at the small bench like table that fit four people. "Oh, uh, I-I-I wouldn't want to b-bother you all." She ducked her head down and poked at her food. The small welcoming group just smiled and giggled before leaving.

Keith said nothing as he silently digested the insult the group had casually thrown out like they were commenting on the stars.

"They didn't mean it." She offered, breaking him out of his thoughts. Her fork hovered over her food as she stared at him with her pale eyes.

"Yes they did. They aren't very kind to partials." Keith said, using the most polite word he could to describe himself. She frowned at him.

"They just don't know you. They don't seem too bad." She put her fork down on her tray.

"You say that you are-" Keith glanced around and saw that the people at the popular table were looking their way. "What you are, but you don't look it. I do. It makes things different. There is no way to tell you apart from pures." She looked at him owlishly for a moment before blinking her round eyes slowly. She looked down to her food and muttered something quietly. Keith heard, his ears swiveling just a bit more in her direction as he listened.

"I have a tail." Her shoulders were slumped. The mood changed to gloomy quickly.

"Oh… I didn't know." Keith said. There were a few Partials who he knew of that had tails, and all of them had the same other half. The species that the tail came from was not held in high regard and was often thought of as un-pure and conniving. She had all the more reason to hide her heritage if she was half of what Keith was almost 100 % positive she was.

"It's okay. You didn't mean it." She smiled a fake little smile and gazed at him with dull yellow eyes. It obviously wasn't okay.

"I'm half a species that hardly anyone has ever heard of before." Keith blurted out, desperate to change the mood. To keep the only friend he had.

"Really?" Her smile changed just a bit, a curious light brightening her intelligent eyes.

'Good, I can fix this'

"Yeah, they're called 'Human' and my dad was one." Keith almost never talked about his family. Honestly though, he had no one to talk with in the first place. Thace and Kolivan were who he considered his real family now and like that girl had said earlier, he had no friends.

She giggled. "Hu-man." She tasted the word and smiled. "It sounds so odd."

…

"You can come sit with us today, come on, it will be great." The girl smiled down at Aubr and ignored Keith completely. Keith wondered why they were being so persistent. Maybe Aubr was prettier than he had first thought? The girl who was talking to her was pretty shallow, so he couldn't think of any other reason they would act like this.

When Keith looked at Aubr he could see how torn she was. She obviously wanted to fit in. Everyone did. And going to sit with the popular kids would get her on that path. Being seen with Keith wasn't exactly the most helpful thing, even though most people treated him like he was never there in the first place, it made her a target for the more troublesome kids being seen with him.

But at the same time she didn't want to leave Keith. The two of them had become close friends over the course of a week and a half and she didn't want to brush him off like some annoying bug.

Keith didn't want that either.

He knew he was being selfish. He knew that if Aubr didn't do what these kids said soon that they would turn their efforts from recruitment to bullying. But Aubr was his only friend. He hadn't had anyone his age to talk to in so long and he was desperate to keep his one friend.

So he said nothing and let Aubr work through the problem herself.

"Oh, I was j-j-just fin-f-fini-"She stopped and took a breath. "I am done with m-my food now so… I-I-I'm gonna go n-n-n." She couldn't get the last word out so she gave up and the girl's sympathetic smile dropped when Aubr stood with her tray and placed it by the trash cans before turning to leave. Completely avoiding the request seemed to be how she chose to handle the situation today.

Right before she left she turned to the door and looked at Keith. Keith took this as his cue and followed her out after placing his tray with hers. They didn't speak as they walked to their respective classes.

…

It was the third time that Keith wasn't so lucky.

"Hey Aubr!" Today, there were four people huddled around the table, ready to greet her.

"Hey Kaylet." Aubr spoke cautiously to the girl who had spoken. She must have known her from another class.

"So are you going to sit with us today?" She asked sweetly as a wicked smile carved across her face. "Or does the Halfling still threaten you to sit with him?" She crossed her arms and leaned closer to Aubr.

"W-What?"

"Well, we figured that there was no other way such a weird Halfling would be able to get anyone to sit with him and you always seem so nervous when we ask you to leave. So, does he threaten you?"

"O-Of course not." Aubr spoke, confused and flustered.

"Oh, bribery then? I bet the Halfling can get you lots of things, his daddy runs this place after all." She got closer and the people around her did the same, crowding her.

Keith was beginning to feel the heat rise in his ears.

"I don't do anything like that-" The three people who had come with Kaylet broke away from her and surrounded Keith. Keith noticed for the first time that these were the biggest, strongest fighters in his class.

"Shut it Halfy. Wouldn't want another 'episode' now would we?" A boy mocked. All of them stood a head and a half taller than Keith, but he was used to this. Everyone was taller than him at this point and he wouldn't let their towering frames intimidate him.

"His name is Keith." Aubr said steadily.

"What?"

"Did I stutter?" Aubr asked and raised her eyebrow in a challenge. Kaylet looked startled before she recovered the evil grin on her face.

"I like that, you've got spunk. But I still don't understand, why the Halfling?"

"Keith." She insisted. She said nothing past that, but she stood, squared her shoulders, and met Kaylet's gaze. Kaylet narrowed her eyes before she smiled even wider.

"Oh, I get it. Boys, I figured it out." She gestured to the three surrounding Keith to get their attention. Keith glanced to Aubr and saw how her stance shifted. No longer was confidence set in her features. That was replaced with a mask of indifference, but Keith could see the turmoil under her skin and hear the unspoken question.

'Do they know what I am?'

"She must have taken pity on poor 'Keith'" She bent her fingers in mock air quotes as she said his name. "She is just being nice." She turned her gaze back to Aubr and her voice became mockingly innocent. "Or, there is another reason?" She pouted her lip out and batted her eyes.

Aubr was torn. Her mouth was slightly open and she found herself looking back to Keith to try and gauge the situation.

"Anyway, come sit with us. Halfy doesn't need pity or your kindness. Unless… You belong here. At the Halfling table." She spoke with normally, but there was a threat on her breath that rang out loud and clear.

'If you sit with him, you must be a Halfling too.'

"I'll…" She looked at Keith.

"Please." Keith whispered. He couldn't lose his only friend. Not now, when he had barely even gotten to know her.

'Please don't leave me alone.'

"I'll…" She looked at Kaylet. Keith could see the decision being made. The decision to stay hidden. The decision to fit in without him. "Sit w-with you guys I g-g-guess."

"Yay!" Kaylet clapped her hands and walked to her table where some of her other friends were waiting. She sat like she hadn't just torn Keith's only bit of hope from him.

Aubr grabbed her things and the three other popular kids left with Kaylet. Keith let himself fall into his chair.

"We can still be friends." She smiled a fake little smile and gazed at him with dull yellow eyes. She was a terrible lair. She wouldn't risk being revealed as a Halfling.

As she left Keith tried to force all of the sadness away. He turned it to anger. At Kaylet. At her goons. But most of all to Aubr, for leaving him to fend for himself all alone. Again.

But hey, who needs friends anyways?

…

It was about a week later when he heard the first rumors.

"Did you hear?" The boy who sat a few rows away from him asked the boy a seat ahead of him.

"Hear what?"

"About that new girl."

"No, what about her?"

"Well, I heard that she's a Halfling."

"What? No way! She looks fine to me."

"Well that's the thing." He lowered his voice. "She has a tail."

"Oh! Wow, that's nasty."

"Yeah I know right, and I thought she was cool."

Keith stopped listening then. Aubr's secret was out.

He tried to find her before his next class but she wasn't at her class. He asked around a bit. Most people gave him a dirty look, questioned why he would want to know, and then didn't answer, but one person told him that she hadn't been to any of her classes today.

She didn't show up the next day either. But the third day he saw her. He was on the way to combat class. Before he could go in she pulled him aside in a private area away from everyone else.

He yellow eyes seemed drained and were especially pale on the edges. She had been crying.

"You told people didn't you?" She was frowning so intensely that it seemed to pull her whole face into an expression of sadness.

"No I didn't." Keith answered honestly.

"I didn't tell anyone else about it. It had to have been you, no one else knew. Why did you do it?" Her voice cracked at the end and he could her the tears that were soon to come. He opened his mouth to respond but she cut him off. "Was it because I didn't talk to you after I-I" She sniffed and wiped at her eyes.

"No. I didn't tell anyone, I swear." Keith tried to say. She looked at him and the tears fell from her eyes in rapid succession.

"Then how? How do people know?" Aubr questioned.

"I don't know." Aubr bit her lip, her sharp fangs cutting roughly into her skin as she thought. "Did you hand out with anyone who could have figured it out?" Keith offered.

Her eyes narrowed and she seemed on the verge of figuring something out when a hiccup disrupted her thoughts. She wiped at her eyes.

"Kaylet. Did you hang out with Kaylet?" Keith pushed.

"She said that I had to hang out with her and her friends for at least one night. So I did." Aubr said quietly. Then her eyes widened and she brought her hand over her mouth.

"It was Kaylet then." Keith said for her. Her eyes filled with tears again and she covered her face with her hands.

"Yes it w-was Kaylet." She cried out. Keith didn't quite know what to do. "I'm sorry Keith. I shouldn't have blamed you." She didn't pull her face from her hands and cried harder, her entire body shaking.

"Shh, it's okay." Keith said and gently pulled her into an embrace. He was shorter than her, he was shorter than everyone after all, so it was a bit awkward, but she didn't seem to mind as she flung her arms around him and hugged him back.

For roughly the next two weeks Keith protected Aubr from the insults and scuffles and bullying that followed. He stayed by her side and she became his best friend.

It was hell when her parents were transferred again and she left. Left him alone all over again. She was no better of course. There were tears and hugs and Keith would never tell her, but he had begged Kolivan to keep her parents here so that she would be able to stay. Kolivan had said no of course. Best for the Blade that they moved.

The parting was hard for both of them.

But hey, who needs friends anyways?

"We should do a quick self-defense coverage before we go over any of those 'Choke holds, Elbow strikes, and Takedowns'" He listed off the things that Lance had said. "We can go over breaking out of a wrist grab real quick and then move up from there." Pidge and Hunk had a look of determination about them, while Lance seemed to have accepted the fact that this was happening and joined the group.

"So pair up?" Pidge asked. Keith nodded and Pidge turned to Hunk. The size differences were almost comical how the smallest child had paired with the very large Hawaiian man, but they didn't seem to notice.

Hunk held out his hand arm and Pidge tried to put her hand around his wrist but… Her fingers didn't even go halfway around.

"Um, I think that you guys are going to have to separate for this." Keith said awkwardly. Hunk laughed abashedly and Pidge joined him.

"Yeah, you're right." Pidge said. Keith partnered with Pidge, and Hunk with Lance. Lance may have only been a few inches taller than Keith, but his hands were bigger and therefore, better for this exercise.

"Alright, so first…"