AN: Aaaand I'm back! Thank you so much for everyone that showed support for the last chapter...reviews especially are honestly my favorite thing like, ever! I hope you continue to enjoy the story?

Shiro POV

Pidge left.

A flash of green in the corner of his eye told him, paired with the sound of fleeing footsteps.

"Pidge!" Allura called.

There was the sound of someone else moving, in the direction of the infirmary doors. They didn't get very far before-

"Hunk, wait!" Lance warned. "Just...let her be. For now."

"But-"

"I know, buddy."

Shiro stopped listening after that.

Part of him knew he should be gathering the team around, that being together was a priority when there was something that affected moral. But another, more in charge, part of him decided to ignore that piece of himself for the moment.

Instead, he focused on Keith's face.

Which, thinking about it, he probably wouldn't appreciate.

Shiro didn't really care. As far as he was concerned, turning up unconscious under dubious circumstances forfeited your right to a lonesome rest in a cyro-pod. Not that this looked like much of a rest-Keith's face was lined and tense, his hair plastered against his forehead with sweat and his skin whiter than a sheet.

Shiro reached up and tentatively trailed a finger down the lid of the pod.

"Hey, uh, Shiro?"

Lance.

"Hunk and I, we're going to the kitchens-Hunk's gonna get something together."

Shiro forced himself to nod.

"You, um, you wanna come with?"

Shiro shook his head.

They left.

Allura came to stand beside him a little bit later.

Silent and still, she was exactly the type of company Shiro wanted at the moment. For ten doboshes or so they listened to Coran play around with controls until the man finally wrote something down on a screen, pressed one last button, and let the control panel sink into the Altean floor.

"Well, I'll be doing some maintenance in the paladin wing," Coran announced. "Don't hesitate to call if you need me!"

"Thank you, Coran." Allura acknowledged, her head tilting in a tight nod.

Then, he was gone.

A while later Allura finally uncrossed her arms.

She reached out and placed a hand on the pod (Shiro's had long since returned to his side) and sighed softly.

Allura's hand slipped away. "I'm going to check the readings on the planet. Perhaps I can find something that will be of use."

Shiro knew he should go with her. Help look for solutions and to try and find what had happened. But if they were both gone, that would mean no one was in the infirmary. He couldn't leave Keith alone.

"Okay."

She walked away.

"Shiro."

Hunk had returned.

"I brought you a pookie-well, a cookie. But it's purple, so, um, you know. Pookie?"

Shiro reached out and let Hunk drop the treat into his human hand. "Thank you."

"No problem, I mean. I think they taste good, and, well, gotta share the love."

Shiro took a bite. The food melted in his mouth, sweet and balanced. He offered the baker a smile.

"Shiro, I can stay for a bit. If you want to-Idk, go find something more to eat?"

Shiro really considered it. He could feel the ache in his lower back, and his skin was crawling with stale sweat. But then he thought of Keith, a much younger version, with red eyes, a temperature that gave off worrying heat, and a tight grip on Shiro's wrist. Don't go-Please, Shiro.

Shiro stayed.

Hunk left.

It was even later when Lance paid him a visit.

His hair was wet, dripping on the shoulders of his robe. His frown was evident.

"You look like shit."

Shiro cracked a smile at that, turning to look at his teammate.

"Thanks."

Lance didn't seem to find it funny. "I mean it Shiro. You look ready to keel ove-"

He shook his head, swallowing those words down.

"You need a break. Grab a shower, a change of clothes. Something to eat that isn't a pookie. Some sleep."

"In a little bit," Shiro promised. "Just...in a little bit."

A moment of silence.

"Fine. I'll come remind you."

Lance turned on his heal and that was that.

Shiro and Keith were left alone.

Hunk POV

Hunk rolled the dough between his hands, the violet substance molding to the shape of his hands when he grabbed a fistful and separated it from the rest of the batch. He smoothed the piece into a sphere-bordering on a squat cylinder-and set it down in the half completed row spanning midway across his pan.

He grabbed another chunk and repeated the process.

Then, once more.

Behind him he heard a weighty sigh-the fifth one in the last half-varga.

Hunk considered saying something (for the fourth time), discreetly eyeing his best friend through the reflection of a metallic instrument-a device that functioned as some sort of toaster as far as Hunk could tell.

It turned out he didn't need to do a thing.

"Like, what the heck!" Lance burst out. Finally. Hunk glanced over his shoulder just in time to watch his hands fly into the air. "That stuff was underneath his paladin armor. Man, how the hell do you get cut underneath your armor without leaving a scratch on the outside?"

Hunk shook his head. "I don't know-"

"Exactly!" Lance agreed. He stood up from his chair and began pacing back and forth as Hunk starting rolling out another row of dough. "This alien stuff is-is-"

"Crazy?" Hunk offered.

"Crazy! And you know mullet-he's a hothead! A ticking time bomb! A-a-"

"Loose cannon?"

"Right! And it's like he's got superpowers or something. The way he can avoid hits-I mean-What the hell could've gotten the drop on him. Really."

"Hmm," Hunk murmured as he finished, grabbing the full pan and sliding it into the Altean version of an oven. He'd taken to affectionately referring to it as a heater. "I don't know Lance."

Lance huffed, the same arms that had been gesturing sharply for the last half-dobosh were now crossed tightly over his chest.

"When he wakes up we're going to run evasion drills again," Lance decided. "Because he clearly didn't pay attention-you know what. We're running all the drills. And whatever knocked him out-he's telling us what did-we're going to focus on that too."

Hunk spun around lazily to face his teammate, leaning against the Altean counter. "Good idea."

Lance nodded. Then, abruptly drew his hand through his hair, fingers scraping against the roots and disrupting the meticulously cared for hairstyle. Hunk mentally winced. "He's such an idiot. Oh my god."

A pause.

"When he wakes up I'm going to kill him."

Hunk shrugged.

"Violently."

"That's understandable," Hunk agreed. "You do that. But, when you're done, you, me, him, Shiro, Pidge, Coran, and Allura too-we're all gonna sit down, and we're going to have some pookies. I think we could all use a bit of them in our lives at the moment and everyone is going to participate."

Hunk finished another sphere and settled it on the tray with the others.

Lance stopped pacing, turning to stare. "Wait what? Pookies?"

"Pookies." Hunk grinned, nodding in the direction of the heater. "Purple cookies. I got a hold of some ingredients from that planet we visited a couple quintants ago. You remember, the one with the orange sky?"

"I remember."

"Well, when Keith wakes up, we're all gonna get together, and I'm giving him a pookie." Hunk felt a frown twist his lips. Gray clouded his head like cobwebs. And then suddenly he needed to say it, needed Lance to know. His hands curled into fists and he stared at the ground as the words left. "I-I wanted to make his favorite food, you know? But, well, I don't know what his favorite food is."

Lance's expression morphed. His glare loosened and his eyebrows drew up. "Buddy-"

"I know yours is garlic knots," Hunk interrupted. "Pidge loves lasagna, extra cheese and just a little overdone."

"Hunk-"

"Shiro likes pizza with pineapple. I don't know what his favorite is, but I know he liked pizza with pineapple. And he can't stand tea without honey, but he prefers coffee anyway. Black, with just a dash of milk." Hunk shook his head. "Coran is all over food goo, you know how he is?"

"Yeah."

"Even Allura. She loves chocolate, even if she thinks it tastes like something from Altea-I know that was chocolate we tried. And she ate the American breakfast I got together-even if there wasn't any pepper in the eggs. And I'm pretty sure those eggs were like, eighty percent yolk-but she ate it and loved it. Told me so."

"But Keith," Hunk sighed. "He eats it all. Says thank you, every time. But never once, not once has he told me what his favorite is. Not even what he likes."

Lance had walked over now, lending one arm that wrapped around Hunk's shoulders in support. "You can ask him when he wakes up."

Hunk nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I will. And then I'm going to make whatever he says. It doesn't matter if we need to fly all the way to Earth to get the stuff to do it."

"Exactly, and in the meantime-" Lance pointed his chin at the heater and offered a smile, not a smirk or a quick flash of teeth like he was prone to do. An actual smile that turned up in both corners and just barely let his two front teeth poke into view. Lance's smile. One of the good ones. "He can try a pookie."

Hunk gave a smile of his own. "Yeah."

They stood there for a moment, before Lance's arm slipped away and Hunk was able to finish separating his dough into raw pookies and then slip the whole thing into the heater. When this batch was done, he would bring one to Shiro, offer their leader a break from Keith's side. It was obvious enough he needed one.

Pidge's POV

Pidge felt like an intruder.

She watched, passive but not, as Coran urged Shiro away from the pod and closed Keith inside. She almost expected him and his box to be lowered into the ground to be covered with soil and grief and, in short words, completely abandoned.

But that didn't happen.

Keith stayed propped up behind the translucent lid, gray skin turned blue by the tinted window, and Shiro stayed standing not three feet away.

Pidge stayed where she was too. Waiting at the entrance of the infirmary with Hunk on her right and Allura on her left, and with a full view of Lance glancing hesitantly from them to everyone else from where he lingered in the middle of the floor.

Lance scuffed a toe against the ground and glanced around. They made eye contact.

What do I do? His eyes asked.

Nothing you can do. She thought. He must have gotten the message because a second later Lance was dejectedly standing next to Hunk, both hands jammed in his pockets, and a frown fixed to his face.

Coran babbled for another minute or so, fiddling with controls, ordering Shiro a couple feet back at one point so he could tap at the cryopod for some reason.

Pidge drew in one breath after another, each filled with the taste of an Altean infirmary, a tang that could only be described as clean. Sharp like antiseptic and so much colder. It crawled down her throat like ice and left her swallowing back the bitter taste.

Distantly she registered Allura murmuring something soft, probably poetic and heartfelt.

"I'm gonna go run a search on those pictures," she announced, pretty sure the princess had finished talking.

It didn't matter, Pidge was already through the infirmary doors and making her way down the castle halls, ignoring the words called after her.

She thought of going to her room, but the idea of four walls so close around brought the image of Keith in his cryo-coffin to the front of her mind. The lounge was also an option, but she expected one or two of her teammates would be making their way there soon enough. She wasn't in the mood for conversation.

So Pidge let her feet walk and her mind wander-until she found herself standing in front of Green.

"Hey, girl," Pidge greeted. Her lion offered a low rumble and lowered her head so Pidge could climb inside.

Immediately a bright energy surged around her like a whirlwind, brushing away the cold and blanketing her form in warmth.

"Thanks," Pidge sighed, sinking into the pilot seat. "I needed that."

The chair vibrated as Green purred.

Pidge pulled out a device, the nearest replacement to a phone she had found and altered since her excursion into space. She idly entered a passkey and the photos popped into view-the last tab she'd had open before she allowed the not-quite-phone to time out.

She thumbed through the photos she'd briskly snapped-less than a dozen to browse through. A couple focused on certain symbols specifically, others zoomed out to show multiple or all of the images carved into his skin in one shot.

Pidge and Hunk briefly had a chance to look at the different marks while they were flying back to the Castle in the pod and at the time neither of them had recognized anything.

Looking at the photos now Pidge came to terms with the fact that hadn't changed.

Absolutely none of them meant anything to her-after years of learning different earthen and alien coding languages it couldn't be more frustrating to suddenly have another script she didn't understand. But Pidge was nothing if not persistent, and this would be far from her first challenge.

It was possible the symbols made up a language, it was possible they made up something else. Either way, Pidge planned to find out their meaning.

She opened a new tab, starting setting up an algorithm for a deep search of all the data she'd accumulated on the not-phone. Videos and images and information scrounged from different worlds they'd visited.

Later, if this didn't pan out, she'd toy around with the information filed away in the Castle. But sifting through the thousands of years of available data didn't exist in a timeline she envied.

Pidge shifted in her seat. Then, immediately regretted it as a familiar ache made itself known. In her muscles. In her feet. Her back.

She was in good shape, but earlier that morning the paladins had been woken from their sleep-sent searching straight after a distress call the Castle monitors had picked up. The signal had ended up driving them to a stranded craft and they'd sent the four occupants on their way, ship fixed and supplies stocked.

But then they passed a planet under Galra rule and just had to stop in...only to be sent to a neighboring allied planet by the frantic leaders. Warnings of the Galra responding ruthlessly to the native race's resistance chasing them to the same planet Keith had collapsed on-for reasons unknown.

And Pidge had spent the entire time fighting, running, flying. Her mind stretching to work out problem after problem.

She yawned.

To sum it up, she was tired.

In front of her a gray bar flexed on the screen of her device, rising up and down in tandem with the progress of her search. She scanned the coding appearing at the top and the dismal progress report it made up. Vargas until completion.

She felt Green sigh alongside her, her metal body humming beneath Pidge as her eyelids dragged down. She forced them open, tracing the path of the loading bar with her gaze-but that only caused her breathing to deepen. Match the slow back and forth of the fluctuating line.

Pidge leaned into the heat of her pilot seat, the field of her vision cutting down to a small sliver. Back and forth the line grew and shrunk. Up and down her chest agreed.

She didn't even notice falling asleep.

Keith POV

He left his jacket tangled in the thorns.

After tearing his way through the wall, barbs catching on his skin and snagging at his clothes, it had been him dropping his knife in the muck that forced him to slip loose of the trapped sleeves. Ducking to rake his hands through the murk and grab his knife had been the priority-no question. He didn't regret it.

But as the cold clung to him and goosebumps crawled over his skin he couldn't help but wish he had one more thing from the outside to hold onto. Unfortunately, he was beginning to realize that here-wherever here happened to be-was a place of ice. Anything that would bring warmth, heat or otherwise, wasn't something that was supposed to last, his jacket included.

Distantly a ragged scream rang out. Followed by another. And one more. Each louder, stronger, and closer than the last.

He forced himself to his feet, tearing himself away from his spot leaning against a skeletal, winding tree. He'd already tried fighting.

ColdPainBurningScreamsCan'tGetAway-

It hadn't worked out.

So he tightened his grip on his weapon and focused his gaze to the black horizon.

Time to move.

Keith drew himself to his feet and there was nothing to grab. No bag or weapon to reach for besides the one already clutched in his hand. So he fell into a steady jog, footsteps tentative over the bare dirt and mud, which was riddled with divots and fallen, rotting trees. The ones still standing were spread out, but the sheer number plunged the distance into shadows and uncertainty.

His destination stood out over it all though.

White like bone and towering over the tree line, it waited. The only building he'd seen since the town he'd landed in.

The less said about that the better.

After that place it was definitely a risk to go towards anything that resembled civilization, Keith knew that. But staying to the woods wasn't working either, and the sound of pursuit only got closer the longer he ran.

He had to try. And who knows? Maybe there was something other than safety waiting for him there. A person, someone who could tell him where he was-what planet he was on. And if not, there could be a sign.

Anything would be infinitely better than what he had now. Which was nothing.

Nothing and no one.

Keith flinched as a howl sounded over the blood pumping in his ears. His foot caught on a branch that snaked away from the fallen carcass of a tree. He staggered and nearly impaled himself on his own blade.

When he regained his footing his heart was beating angrier than before, but the ache in his chest that had only festered since his arrival was named.

He was lonely.

After years of bouncing around in the foster system, whatever tentative bonds he managed to form being severed every move, he thought he knew how his life would play out. Solo.

And then he met Shiro. Who took him under his wing when he didn't have to. Who forced his companionship on him until Keith grudgingly accepted this new person had dug out a spot in his life. He grew used to have him around and there and everything was maybe a little less hard.

Until Shiro left on his Kerberos mission.

A Shiroless Garrison wasn't the same. Sure, there was Adam. Shiro's ex made a point to track him down, go on a few practice runs in the simulator, catch a bite to eat after where No Keith, you are not ordering double french fries in place of the salad. Mostly to be annoying, Keith was sure. But other than that, he didn't have any friends. Just less obnoxious classmates and more obnoxious classmates. There was no one.

Then he got expelled. Moved out to the dessert. And then, then he was truly alone. Just the night sky, him, and the shack he lived in.

Until Shiro came back.

And he brought the other paladins, Allura, and Coran into Keith's life at the same time.

And suddenly there were people joining him for training, asking him for help to cart around projects and random boxes of tech. Dragging him to the kitchens for a chat or inviting him to spa nights. He always said no, but still. The thought was there.

But now. In the forest with the bone tower in front and the stairwell town and those things behind him, he had no one once again.

Somehow that hurt more than the bruises and superficial cuts that marred his body.

He just wanted to ruffle Pidge's hair, fist-bump Hunk, wrestle with Lance, to gain a pat on the back from Coran. He wanted to share a casual hug with Allura again, and Shiro too, whose embraces were so much firmer and encompassing but no worse and no better.

The mud beneath his foot caused him to slip again and this time he really did fall to the floor of the dead forest. Ash and dirt and water smeared across his shirt and pants. Painted his skin.

The howls of the creatures hadn't stopped. They were louder than ever before.

He was cold and aching and tired.

He had no jacket.

He had no friends.

Keith was alone.

Lance POV

"Shiro," he warned.

Luckily, it seems the Black Paladin was finally ready to listen. Hours after they needed him to.

"Yeah," Shiro agreed. He raised his hand, pressed it against the cyro-pod, and then turned to leave. "You're right, Lance."

Lance walked over to stand where Shiro had stood in his silent vigil.

He watched Shiro go.

And then Keith and him were together.

AN: Hey. Well. That's done. This chap feels really short, but also like, weirdly rambling? The plot's gonna pick up in the next chap. Promise, I already got it planned out and like, the skeleton written, so that should be available shortly. Hopefully it goes a bit better than this part...which I'm like, not that happy with. Especially Hunk's bit...that felt so cheesy and ooc and omg, I'm sorry guys.

But I mean. Anyway. It's been a bit since I updated, and I was just sick of this sitting in my docs. So please let me know in the comments what you guys thought...feedback means so much to me, and I'd love to get a picture of how you guys received this update! Thanks for reading, cya'll!