What Desire Will Make Foolish People Do

"The important thing is the Cestova did not end up in Galra hands," Allura said firmly.

We'd attempted to contact he Castle as soon as we were clear of the Necrosis Nebula. After a few tries we managed to get a comm channel through to Coran and Shiro. They were pretty relieved to hear from us. Shiro hid it well, but I could tell he had been worried. Coran, on the other hand, didn't really hide anything. He didn't like Allura taking risks, and he wasn't happy with any of us that we engaged the Galra without any possibility of support from the rest of the team.

"Had something happened, you would have been at the mercy of the Galra," Coran said sourly. "By the time we found out what occurred, it may have been too late to plan a rescue mission."

"You should have contacted us first," Shiro added. "Even if you didn't think you needed us."

"It, uh, wasn't exactly a choice," I said quietly, feeling my cheeks get hot and my chest get tight. We'd avoided how this whole mess had started for a while, but I'd known it was coming.

"What do you mean it wasn't a choice?" Coran demanded.

I opened my mouth but the Princess spoke first. "We were late leaving Vostoth," she explained. "In order to make the planned rendezvous we needed to take a shortcut."

"Through the Necrosis Nebula," Coran said. "That's… just… inexcusable." The Altean's eyes shifted to me. "It was your idea, wasn't it?"

"Sort of… well, completely," I admitted. "I just thought that-"

"I agreed with Lance's assessment," Allura interjected. "He is a skilled pilot, and if we hadn't encountered the torpedo-mine, he would have safely navigated the nebula."

"A torpedo mine!" Coran hissed. "What were you doing approaching something so dangerous?"

"Hey, it approached us!" I snapped.

"That's what happens when you fly through uncharted space! Ships have gone missing in the Nebula for tens of thousands of a deca-phebes." His eyes bored into me. "You took a tremendous risk with Allura's life," he said. "Do you know what could have happened?"

I felt cold, but was also starting to sweat. I felt sick, almost like I was going to puke. I really didn't know what to say.

"He also took a tremendous risk to protect us," Allura said before I could bring myself to reply.

"I don't doubt his courage," Coran said, "But brave deeds alone don't keep people safe. And they certainly don't win wars."

Shiro put his hand on Coran's shoulder. "Fortunately, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been." He pressed his lips together for a tick. "Overall, it was a pretty good outcome. You did some good work." His eyes flicked to each of us. "All of you."

I felt the tension in my chest let up just a bit.

"We are setting course for Vostoth now," Coran said in a tone that made it clear, good outcome or not, he wasn't happy. "It should take us about twenty vargas to get there."

"When we do," Shiro added, "I'm thinking we might stay for a quintent or two. It's been a while since any of us had any real R and R. Vostoth sounds like as good of place as any to fix that."

That was the first good news I'd heard in a while. After all of this, I could use a couple days to relax. I glanced down at my wounded leg. Hopefully I wouldn't be spending it all in healing pod.

"An excellent idea," Allura agreed.

"We'll contact you when we enter orbit," Shiro said. "If you need anything else before then, you know how to reach us." A thin smile formed on his face. "And Lance... don't go taking any shortcuts."

The transmission clicked off and I exhaled.

"Well, Coran isn't happy," Keith said quietly.

I frowned at him. "Someone with half a brain could've figured that out."

"So you're saying you figured it out?"

"Corran sees protecting me as his duty," Allura reminded us. She put a hand on my shoulder. "He might sound upset with you, but he's truly upset with himself."

"What does he have to upset with himself about?" I asked. It wasn't like he'd done anything wrong.

"Nothing, truly. But he'll blame himself for letting us get into the situation we did, and not having a backup plan."

I shook my head. "But none of that—that's not his fault."

The Princes gently squeezed my shoulder. "People who truly care tend to feel guilty about things that are not their own fault," Allura said quietly.

"Yeah," I said quietly, turning to stare out the windshield. I got what she was trying to say, but I wasn't really buying it. Regretting you didn't do something more is a lot different than regretting you did something dumb. But, at least, I appreciated that she cared enough to try and make me feel better about my own mistakes.

Keith stood up. "I need to contact Kolivan," he announced. "I'll use the comm in the aft compartment; this may take a while."

I looked at him and accidentally frowned a bit. "You're not… I mean, I just thought that maybe you'd be coming back with us?" Not that, like, I really wanted him to come back. Well, maybe a little. Not like a ton though.

To my surprise, Keith's lips twitched like I'd said something that bothered him. "This is war," he said quietly. "I need to be where I can do the most good," he continued more loudly. "The team is fine without me. The Black Lion has accepted Shiro again, and Red… seems to be tolerating you."

I leaned back in the chair and smirked. "Red's pretty happy with the upgrade."

"I'm sure," Keith said skeptically. He took a deep breath. "Kolivan won't be happy that he needs to send someone to pick me up… or much else about this mission actually."

"It's not like you could've saved the Cestova," I told him. "Even if you hadn't run into us or the Galra, the ship would've been impossible to move… and probably exploded."

Keith shook his head. "Kolivan cares about results, not excuses."

"Galra are notoriously ill-tempered," Allura remarked. "Present company excluded, of course," she added quickly."

I looked over at her and smirked. "Present comp—do you even know Keith? He's, like, the definition of ill-tempered."

"And suddenly talking to Kolivan doesn't seem that bad," Keith added as he walked towards the rear of the cockpit. "Thanks for that."

I leaned back a little. "I do what I can."

A/N: I know this is pretty short and very long overdue! I apologize for that. Hopefully you all still enjoyed, and as always, thank you for your support!