Keith not knowing and Keith knowing what had happened was two completely different people. It had taken Keith a while but the truth eventually bled through and he showed more emotions than he had in a long time. Keith showing emotions was usually a good thing but when that emotion was hostility toward oneself, it made it a mixed experience.
Almost everyone was in the dining room when Shiro arrived. He did a quick headcount and came one person short but didn't realize who right away. Not that they needed him to remember them. The only one who needed such a thing was Keith and he was already sitting next to Hunk and looked up when he heard footsteps. The look of light curiosity grew colder when he saw it was Shiro.
"Keith I-" Shiro started. Dinnertime was far from the best timing for apologies but Keith was hardly seen by anyone in the castle when it wasn't time to eat and Shiro decided to use his courage when it poked its head out.
Keith turned his head and closed his eyes. It reminded him of when a cat would actively ignore someone but instead of being funny, it just tightened Shiro's chest and forced him to stop talking because of the fear that the ball of emotions in his throat would show itself to everyone.
Hunk gave Shiro a look. It wasn't really unkind but far from a welcoming sight. Hunk then turned to look at Keith and let his features melt into something more sympathetic.
"Do you want to eat somewhere else?" Hunk asked and Keith opened his eyes and turned his head just enough to look at Hunk in the corner of his eye and gave a small, almost non-existing, nod.
Shiro wanted to stop them from leaving. Telling them that he would stop talking or even that he could leave so Keith and Hunk didn't have to but Shiro found himself both mute and unable to move from his spot on the floor until Keith and Hunk was long gone. He couldn't even say anything when Pidge arrived to the table and asked where Hunk and Keith was.
"Allura can heal a whole sentient planet but not a person and we're trusting aliens who's never even seen a human before?" Hunk asked right after Coran and Allura had told them they were heading towards Jedremi since it would be midmorning for the people they had saved. Technically they could have landed on the planet any time they wanted to but it was easier to go to the people who already knew of them and kinder to wait the few vargas it took for it to be morning on the planet. Allura and Coran had left shortly after to make a wormhole and fly the castle to the planet on the other side of the wormhole.
"We don't really have another choice," Pidge answered quietly.
"We've barely met these people before, how do we know they won't try something funky?"
To be fair, under normal circumstances, Shiro would probably have been backing Hunk up. Both because letting a stranger do something unknown to a friend was an alarming concept in itself to Shiro but also because of the fact that under Hunk's usual suspiciousness of strangers he had an impeccable ability to see if people had alternative intentions.
However, Pidge was right in that they didn't have another choice. Besides, Keith had expressed his willingness to try and he was right when he said it was his choice. Even if Keith had the self–preservation of a mouse infected with Toxoplasma gondii. They would just have to be cautious but open to the aliens.
A couple of doboshes passed and they all felt the castle move through a wormhole and the castle started to move through Jedremi's atmosphere, when questions started to plaque Shiro.
Should they tell the Jedrics about Keith's heritage? It would be a risky move considering the image the Galra must have for all captured or ex-captured planets but at the same time, it would be risky not saying anything since they didn't know the differences between humans and Galras and didn't know how much Keith was of each. Not that Shiro suspected the Jedrics to know a lot about Galra anatomy.
Logically Keith should be half/half with how difficult other hybrids from Earth had reproducing, but Keith didn't look Galra at all. At least not most of the time.
"Should we tell them that Keith is Galra?" Hunk voiced Shiro's worries.
"Maybe? I don't know?" Lance looked around at the others. "What do you think?"
Shiro was about to tell them about the pros and cons when Keith huffed loudly and Shiro turned his head and was met with a venomous glare from the corner of the room on the left of the door where Keith was standing stiffly so he wouldn't lose his fragile balance. Right, it was Keith's life. Keith, who was awake. And angry.
"Do you want-" Shiro started before stopping himself. Of course, Keith didn't want to and a 'no' could indicate both just that and that he thought it was a bad idea. "Can we tell them?" he asked instead.
"'o," Keith answered and moved his arms in a way that indicated that he was trying to cross them but was unsuccessful. It would have been easier if Keith let off the glaring for 2 seconds to look down at what he was doing but Keith just gave up instead and Shiro decided to act as if he had forgotten or not seen the attempt.
"Okay." Shiro nodded at himself. He suddenly regretted letting Keith have any say, as horrible as that sounded, but he would let Keith have the last say. For now at least. If it became unsafe for his health, he would tell them about Keith or get Keith away from the Jedrics no matter what. It was hard but Shiro knew he could live with Keith hating him for the rest of their lives but he wouldn't be able to live with Keith dead or hurt worse than he already was.
"But the red lion would do something if they tried anything, right?" Hunk asked only moments after Keith had declined telling the Jedrics about him.
"Of course she would, buddy, where have you been? Everyone knows she has some weird obsession with Keith," Lance laughed with an empty voice no one commented on.
"But she didn't save him from Shiro," Hunk pointed out and an icy silence fell over all the paladins. Everyone turned their eyes to Shiro who did his best to seem invisible.
Allura came back to tell them that they would be flying into the atmosphere shortly and probably to check that everyone was ready by the entrance to the outside. Usually they would all be in the control room together since it took about as long for Allura and Coran to walk from the control room as it did for everyone else, so there was no need to separate. However, moving Keith around took time and Shiro was glad that Allura had some decency when it was about Keith and didn't suggest they just left him by the door like some discarded or momentarily forgotten toy.
"Allura!" Lance called as soon as he saw her.
Allura sighed in a familiar tired way. It almost felt normal and Shiro could almost see a situation where Lance would have flirted with her.
"Why didn't the red lion stop Shiro?" Shiro felt his eyebrows rise but doubted anyone else would have seen his surprise even if they looked at him. Lance really was bold and didn't waste any time at all.
Allura blinked twice in bafflement and had to ask, "What are you talking about?"
"When Shiro attacked him in the hangar," Shiro barely stopped himself from wincing and he wished there was a way to describe the incident that didn't awoke the guilt anew in him. "Red just stood where Keith had left her when we cleaned off all the blood."
Oh god, he had almost forgotten about all the blood. Shiro could throw up but still glanced at Keith and saw his eyes were wide and focused on Lance and Allura.
Shiro looked back at Allura and saw her lifted her head up a little straighter and widen her eyes for a short moment. "The lions can't attack the other paladins," she said in a way that made it hard to figure out if she was being condescending or just stating a formerly unknown fact.
"What?" Pidge asked. "Is that why Zarkon could destroy Altea? Because there was some weird thing stopping the other paladins from stopping him."
Allura's eyes grew cold as she turned them to Pidge who tensed her shoulders in stubborn refusal of admitting she was being insensitive despite having realized it herself. "It was what stopped Zarkon from doing that before."
Coran came down the hall with his usual energetic way. "What are you doing here talking like Muldoks on Nunvill?" It was hard but Shiro was almost sure he sensed some irritation from Coran that Allura hadn't walked back the control room in a timely manner.
"Sorry Coran," Allura apologized. "The paladins realized the lions can't attack the other paladins."
"Oh, don't you worry about that," Coran tried to reassure. The tone was great but there had to be some substance to calm anyone down.
"Don't worry about it? Coran, someone has already been hurt because of this," Pidge hissed and gestured to Keith who had sat himself down in his corner and looked like he wanted to be just about anywhere else.
"We didn't think anyone would have attacked their teammates. At least we had hoped no one would," Allura sent Shiro a tired look and for the first time since they found out Keith was part Galra, she seemed troubled by what Shiro had done. He had wanted Allura to act as before she knew about Keith being Galra but he hadn't thought it would have made him feel this bad.
"We could still have used this information before," Shiro murmured. Not because he thought it would have changed a lot but it was important information that could be crucial in the future and maybe it could have done something in the past too. Not very likely but maybe.
"We're landing on Jedremi in a few ticks," Allura snapped like a tired, underpaid teenager that was forced to look after her troublesome siblings.
Pidge stopped Allura from leaving with a hand on her arm but it wasn't an angry gesture and Allura looked cautious but curious at Pidge's changed demeanor.
"So that's why he didn't think it was Keith. Red didn't try to do anything so Shiro didn't think it could have been him," Pidge said in a relieved voice. Shiro gave her a side eye. Did she want to find a reason for Shiro's actions? Did she want to forgive Shiro? Even just the thought was enough to almost shake Shiro out of his external calm.
Pidge looked back at him and he wanted to nod his head. That would have been nice but as nice as the lie would have been and as much as Shiro wished he had a better excuse than 'I didn't think about all the signs as soon as I saw a Galra', he couldn't lie about this. Pidge deflated when Shiro firmly shook his head and Shiro didn't know if he should be happy that he didn't know if she was disappointed in him or herself for getting her hopes up. Both options sounded painful.
Shiro sent Keith a look and wasn't surprised to see Keith pointedly looking away from him with resignation and a hint of resentment.
The memory of Planet Jedremi had faded in all the paladins' minds. They were usually saving planets and people on a monthly basis and sometimes there was several planets in only a few weeks' time. They had been saving far less lately but all the previous rescues still muddled into a giant mess in everyone's minds.
Well, it was that and the fact that they barely even saw the people of Jedremi before they had to go because one thing was certain; the Jedrics was a memorable people. Not so much what they did, just their whole energy. They moved with almost ethereal grace and beauty and there truly was a supernatural feeling about their slightly glowing, light blue skin. Their thin frames should have made them look fragile but they seemed bigger than the whole universe when it was combined with how tall they were and the tight feeling Shiro got in his gut when he was near them.
They were both captivating and terrifying. Shiro both felt drawn to them and wanted to get far away from them. One thing was certain though; the thought of leaving anyone alone with them was enough to want to shelter everyone Shiro knew for eternity. Especially when the one being left behind had already caused so much concern and anxious thoughts around himself.
A Jedric walked towards Shiro and as he looked up, he decided that they were just intimidating. Suddenly their big, intelligent eyes seemed more like a stereotypical alien, except blue instead of green, than a beautiful creature.
"Welcome," the alien said and Shiro wondered if there was something wrong with his helmet's translator or if this creature's voice was really than booming.
"We come to ask for your help," Allura said as she took a step in front of the paladins. She didn't seem surprised by the booming voice so either his translator was broken or she had talked to them before. Both was just as plausible as the other was.
The Jedric didn't come with an answer and somehow the silence seemed even more booming than any words. Shiro looked further down at the other Jedric who all stood tall and strong. They all looked exactly like the one next to them and Shiro wouldn't have been surprised if they in fact didn't reproduce but just fell down from the sky like fallen angels. Not the romanticized kind of angels from renaissance paintings and storybooks that looked like humans with wigs but instead the some of the actual biblical kind that had to start every meeting with a human by saying, 'Do not be afraid.'
"What help do you require?" the Jedric asked and Shiro started to hear the static of his abused helmet.
"We've heard of how good healers your ancestors was, so we've come for you to ask for you to heal one of our injured Paladins," Allura stated. There was an odd overly formal tone to her, more than there usually was when she was talking to allies, but it was expected when all the Jedrics seemed overly formal too and even just their presence screamed for one to be polite beyond believe.
"I see," the Jedric said and titled its head enough for Shiro to notice but little enough that he was impressed with himself for noticing anything. "Can we see your injured one?"
"Of course," Allura perked up but was still too proper to be anything close to perky.
Keith walked with his right arm around Lance and his left one around Hunk while he looked down at his feet so he could walk without accidentally kicking himself or giving himself a sprain by stepping wrong. Lance's height was ideal for such help as he was only slightly taller than Keith but Hunk was half a foot taller and made the arrangement very uneven. It would have been far better if Keith could have been leaning on two others with a more similar height, be it two much taller like Hunk or someone of similar height to Keith like Lance. Okay, technically someone shorter would work too but only Pidge was shorter than Keith was and there was no way she could support Keith alone and taller individuals tended to be stronger so it was better to find someone taller by default. Best bet would have been Shiro paired with either Hunk or Lance as he was somewhere in the middle of those two height wise but just seeing Keith was cutting into his flesh and he didn't dare finding out how it would feel to touch him. Especially when Keith was conscious and knew what Shiro had done. Keith now knew just how deplorable Shiro really was.
Shiro found himself unable to stifle the urge to say something to Keith and found himself whispering an apology to Keith when he was half a step in front of him. Keith stopped in his tracks and almost fell, as neither Hunk nor Lance was ready for a sudden stop.
Keith got them all to awkwardly turn around so he could face Shiro. Keith didn't seem to care that they had important allies waiting for him and just looked intensely at Lance as he pulled his wrist out of Lance's grip so he could remove his arm from Lance's shoulder.
After that, he faced Shiro again and for once Shiro couldn't read the fire in Keith's eyes. At least there was a fire as his suicide attempt had ironically woken him to life again but it was alarming for Shiro to look into Keith's eyes and not be able to read him. It had happened constantly in the start of their friendship but that had been years ago and only because Keith hadn't let him see anything close to emotions for months but here he was displaying something that Shiro couldn't read. There was no fear that Shiro could see, which was actually more concerning than anything else in Shiro's eyes as Keith should have been trying to hide himself far away from his attacker, but there was anger in Keith's intense glare, probably disappointment, but there was so much more in Keith's eyes that Shiro simply couldn't decipher.
Keith look a step forward with Hunk trying his best to stabilize him but Keith barely seemed to notice as all his focus was on Shiro.
Shiro knew he should have been expecting it if he was honest with himself and it far from hurt enough physical to warrant his stunned reaction but he still took a step back with widened eyes and a hand on his cheek when Keith hit him with his whole unstable bodyweight. It was not so much the pain that got to Shiro as it was the sight of Keith's anger and how he fell as soon as he had thrown the punch.
Shiro didn't even get to properly react before Hunk had pulled Keith up again and Lance was under Keith's right arm again and they were walking to the Jedrics again.
The Jedric in the front looked down at Keith and even next to Hunk and Lance, who should have looked the exact same height as Keith when so close to the light blue creature, Keith seemed impossibly smaller than everyone else.
The Jedric welcomed Keith and put a hand on Keith's head. It was so big that it covered his head all the way from just above Keith's forehead and to the base of his skull. Shiro felt his muscles tense as he watched the interaction like a hawk just in case the Jedric was about to crush Keith's skull. It had no reason to do so but Shiro couldn't stop the anxiety from spreading from his stomach and to the rest of his body. It made his arms tingly and his legs so light that he felt like he could have jumped the distance between him and three of his teammates.
Shiro didn't catch the Jedric's next words but it didn't take a genius to find out when Hunk and Lance reluctantly let go of Keith and let him be taken to the large group of Jedrics by the tall, blue thing while they walked back to the rest of the team.
That was bad enough in itself but then Keith looked back at the rest of them with huge, begging eyes. Keith looked at everyone with that look at Shiro stubbornly bit his lip so no one would know how choked up he was that Keith wanted help. He wanted someone, anyone, even Shiro, to safe him from these scary things and Shiro wanted to so much. More than anything else in the Universe but he couldn't.
He could just watch as Keith kept his eyes on everyone from the castle until he was lost in the sea of Jedrics.
"Are any of your translators acting weird too?" Pidge asked as when they all had arrived back in the castle so they could wait for Keith without disturbing the Jedrics who apparently needed huge distances of nothing but dirt and their own people to collect the energy to heal Keith.
"I thought it was just mine," Hunk told Pidge and Lance came with a surprised and breathless, "Me too!"
Shiro widened his eyes as it dawned on him that that voice had either been that booming or had actually broken their equipment. Who the quiznak had they left Keith with?