Happy New Year! Hope you all enjoy this little update!

This happens before Team Voltron goes to the Empire.

XxXxXx

Keith walked out of Sakura's room, the door sliding closed behind him. He paused for a moment before walking down the hall. Making his way down the hall, he paused when he saw Pidge's door open, he walked over to Pidge's room, finding her sitting on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest as she hugged her legs.

"Hey Pidge." He greeted, the youngest of the team turned to see him leaning on her doorframe.

"Hi."

"You miss your dad already, don't ya?" He asked as he continued to lean on the frame with his arms folded.

Pidge nodded. "Yeah. I don't know when I'll be able to see him again."

Keith walked into the room, stepping over or around things in the room and walked up to the bed. "We will get to return home, Pidge." He sat down on the bed next to her.

"You're a great friend, Keith." She looked at him. "But don't make promises you can't keep."

He sighed heavily, looking at the alien that Pidge had brought back with her when they all got seperated through a wormhole, the creature set itself down on Keith's lap. "Ok." He said. "I don't know when we'll be able to return home. But I know we will sometime in the future."

"It was nice to have both my dad and my brother back." Pidge said, looking down. "It felt really good." She paused. "Made me miss my mom even more." She looked at Keith again. "Do you miss yours?"

He blinks, his eyes lost focus as he looked away. "I guess I do. The way I am is because of her not being in my life." He shrugged. "I have no clue who she is, no clue to where she is, and I don't know what she looks like."

Pidge bit her lip. "I'm sorry." She apologized. "I didn't know."

He smiled a little, and turned to look at her. "It's ok." He gently bumped her shoulder with his arm. "No worries."

That caused Pidge to smile. "Ok."

"Hey! You beach blonde Royal Pain!" Lance's annoyed yell came from the hall, and the two turn to look towards the door to see Lance running past the open door. "Get back here!" Lance yelled, racing past the door.

"None of us, minus Allura and Shiro like the fact that Lotor gets to roam freely in the castle." Pidge commented. "Lance and Sakura are both disturbed by it."

"Lance is just plan easily annoyed by it." Keith said with a smirk. "But Sakura?"

"She tries her best to stay away from Lotor as best as posible." Pidge answered. "She's made it very clear she doesn't trust him."

"The line of trust has been blurred for sometime." Keith sighed. "Pidge." He looks at her. "Commander Holt said that he was worried about Shiro, that Shiro has been acting different lately."

Pidge looks down, quiet for a long time. "Yeah." She admits. "He hasn't been acting like himself lately."

"How different?"

"It's the little things that I've noticed." Pidge paused, wondering if she should continue, but this is Keith who's asking, and he'll do whatever it takes to get answers. "Sakura use to call Shiro 'Big brother', she won't call him that anymore. Just like Shiro won't call her 'sis'. And just the little cute nicknames they've called each other."

"I noticed that too." Keith said. "Sakura has been really spooked about something, since Lotor now has his claim as Emperor. And now, Sakura refuses to be in the same room as Shiro." He looks at the alien who's still in his lap.

Pidge took a big deep breath. "Some ... something happened yesterday. between Shiro and Sakura."

Keith looked at her. "What happened?" He wanted to know.

Pidge remained silent, looking at her lap.

"Pidge." He pressed.

She sighed. "He hit her." She was afraid to look at Keith.

XxXxXx

Hunk, and Coran were walking down the hall. "Keith is still here?" Coran had been asking as they walked.

"Yeah, Sakura has been really spooked ever since what happened with Shiro, and Lotor taking over as new Emperor." Hunk answered with nod. "She's afraid that if Keith leaves, we'll never get to see him again, and she fears Lotor is just plan using us."

"WHAT!?" Keith's angry voice echoed into the hall, causing the two to stop, and watched as Keith stormed out of Pidge's room, with Pidge quickly running after him.

"Oh my." Coran said, blinking with surprise. "What's going on now?"

"I think I know." Hunk said, quickly moving after Keith and Pidge, Coran quickly caught up with him.

XxXxXx

Shiro was in the training room as he used his robotic arm to slice through the simulation robotic drones, when the doors opened and a very angry Keith walked in, and Shiro turned to see him.

"Keith." His eyes widened slightly. "I didn't know you were still here."

Keith stalked up to him, and socked him in the stomach, then kicked his legs out from under him - knocking Shiro to the floor and the red Paladin stomped on his chest.

"Keith! What's gotten into you?" Shiro choked.

"The only one who needs to be slapped in the face and back to their senses is you." Keith hissed with anger, behind him - peeking into the room from the doorway is Pidge, Hunk, Coran, and Lance.

"Keith's pissed." Lance commented.

"Of course he is." Hunk replied. "Wouldn't you be?"

XxXxXx

Sometime later, Keith just finished loading his ship inside the pod room. Sakura walked over to him.

"You have everything you need?" She asked, her arms hung down to her sides.

"Yeah." He turns to her. "Are you gonna be ok?"

She slowly nods. "I, I think so."

He walks over to her. "I will be back." He gently ran the back of his hand on her left cheek, where a bruise had started to form.

"And you'll stay." She said, her voice very thick with emotion. "I want you to stay."

He kissed her gently. "I love you."

"I love you more." Sakura hugged him tightly, and he could tell she was still scared about something.

"Babe, everything is going to be ok." He told her gently.

"I just have this feeling that something is going to happen, and it's scaring the crap out of me." Her voice shook as her arms tightened around his neck.

He kissed her cheek, and had to pry her arms off. "I will return." He said firmly as he held her arms.

"Ok." She whispered.

Keith kissed her again.

"Aww!" Hunk coed from the doors, then yelped as he fell into the room and landed on the floor with a loud thud. He instantly jumped back to his feet. "Sorry! Sorry!" He blushed when the two turned to him.

"Hunk. Look after her for me?" Keith asked.

The big guy blinked, surprised. "Of course I will."

Keith then walked up to him. "You guys be safe. Ok?" He grunted when Hunk suddenly grabbed him and hugged him tightly.

"We will, if you will."

XxXxXxX

After another final goodbye to Keith, he left. Sakura now sat in her room. A knock came to her door.

"Who is it?" She called.

"It's Pidge."

"Come in."

The door slid open to reveal Pidge walking in. "I hope your not mad at me for telling Keith what Shiro did." She said with hesitation.

The older girl shook her head. "No. I'm not mad at all, I just wanna be far away from Lotor as possible."

"Well, you don't have to worry about Lotor, cause he's back at the Empire." Hunk said as he walked in behind Pidge as he held a tray in his hands.

"I'm sorry guys, but I still won't go with you all." Sakura folded her arms as Hunk placed the tray of food on her desk.

"Well, if you stay, so will I." Pidge said. "I don't wanna leave you here by yourself."

"You guys go." Sakura told her friends. "Find a Sentry to beat up or rewire. Have it kick Lotor between the legs." She suggested.

Hunk folded his arms. "We'll go, only if you promise to sleep. You haven't been sleeping well."

"Am I that obvious?" Sakura asked, then nodded. "I promise." She smiled.

A look suddenly crossed Pidge's face, like she was suddenly remembering something important. "Sakura." She rushed up to her and whispered something in her ear. Sakura's eyes widened and she pulled away.

"Of course you can, I have lots." She got up and pushed Pidge into the bathroom, leaving Hunk alone with a confused look on his face, when the girls came back out, Pidge was holding a plastic bag with something inside it.

"Thank you so much Sakura." She smiled up at her.

"You're welcome, anytime you run out, you can always come to me. The embarressing and frustrating part is running out of paper."

"What did you do?" Pidge asked, eyes wide as she hugged the bag to her chest.

"The only thing to do. Paper towels and the trashcan."

"And on that note, Pidge, let's head out." Hunk said. "According to Allura, we can not be late."