The door to Keith's room slid open without warning. He looked up from his spot lying on the floor to see a very large, oddly shaped silhouette. He knew it was Allura with her hair down and fluffy and her dress billowing out around her, but the hallway lights were bright and his room was dim, only lit enough so that it felt less like he was in a box.

Allura seemed startled when he looked at her.

"The door was unlocked this time," she gestured around with stiff movements. "I only walked up to it," she explained.

Keith laid his head back down. "Are you here to ask me to come to dinner?"

"No, actually..." she came and sat down next to him. As the door closed his eyes had to readjust to the darkness. "The ship has to be repaired so Coran recruited Hunk to help him but they need new material since the explosion blew off half of one of the thrusters and Lance volunteered to go get the ore but he refused to take one of the lions, he wanted to take a shuttle again but Pidge told him that there was no way she was letting him fly another shuttle after he almost died in the last one so she took him in the green lion and I don't know enough about the ship to help Coran and I can't fly a lion to go get materials and the Castle is broken so there's nothing for me to do!"

Keith took a second to take all of that in. "Lance almost died?" that was, of course, the most pressing thing on his mind out of all of that.

"Oh," Allura started like she hadn't realized Keith had been shut in his room for the past day. "Lance couldn't get the blue lion to respond to him, so he took one of the shuttles out to fight. When he came back, the shuttle was destroyed and he was piloting the red lion."

"Red?" Keith asked in bewilderment.

"Well, I think so anyway," she amended. "When the lions came back, Coran went to go get you to see if you were okay, but Lance was the one who came out of the red lion. He won't talk about it though."

Keith tried to think about whether that made sense to him or not. Red was hard to win over and she was loyal to a fault, but if Red wasn't his anymore...

When he didn't comment, Allura went on. "So now I'm here."

Keith sighed. It sounded like she needed attention but Keith was not the best person to give it. Keith wasn't good with people in general, let alone an alien Princess who wanted to talk. Sure, they had been sparring against each other more frequently, in fact, he's probably spent more time with Allura than anyone else on the ship lately, but their conversations were short and usually involved yelling.

"And the real reason you're here is?"

"I'm not hungry," she responded quickly.

He sat up. "I think it's because you've run out of distractions," he told her bluntly.

She made a mildly defensive sound. "When I came here I thought you'd be more depressed," she expressed, insensitively.

If Keith were a different person, he'd probably get mad at her, but Keith didn't care enough about what other people thought to take offense.

"What you really want is for me to talk about what happened, right? What's the point in that?"

"It should help you deal with things."

"You're one to talk," he pointed out.

Allura turned angry. "You know nothing! You're whole family isn't dead!" she yelled with venom.

Still, Keith stayed calm. "You really don't know much about me."

Allura's expression lessened the slightest bit. She wanted to know more and was waiting to see if Keith would offer it willing.

"I'm an orphan, Allura."

Her face dropped. "We're the same?" she asked in a soft voice.

"No," Keith shook his head. "My mother left when I was a baby. I don't remember anything about her. My dad wouldn't talk about her so I don't know what she was like or why she left us. My dad kept us isolated, we lived in the middle of a desert. He died when I was eight and there was no one who knew I was living alone for months. I got in trouble at school and when they couldn't get a hold of my dad, I had to tell them that he was dead. I was put in foster care and I—"

"Wait," Allura interrupted. "I'm sorry, what is foster care?"

"It's where the state takes custody of a minor and places them in temporary homes just so that they have a place to stay. The state pays the parents to take kids in so you can get a lot of people who don't care about the kids at all, they just want the extra money."

"Oh, I see. Please continue." Allura was listening intently. Looks like Keith was giving her what she wanted after all, but he was trying to prove a point.

Keith still took a moment. It wasn't easy for him to talk about this. "I was moved from house to house and it was hard. I couldn't stay out of trouble and I didn't think my life meant anything. But then, when I was twelve, I met Shiro. At the time, he was in his senior year at the Galaxy Garrison and he was about to graduate their piloting course. This school's mission statement was to train the next generation of space explorers. Shiro was visiting schools all over the country to recruit new young students. He told me I had talent as a pilot, that I had potential. It was the first time in years anyone had told me I was worth something."

Allura gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. Keith hadn't noticed before but she looked stricken by his story.

He looked away from her to continue, he wouldn't be able to say anything if he watched her expression. "Shiro even told me that if I applied to get into the Garrison, he'd personally recommend me. It didn't take me long to decide I was going. I found out that it was a boarding school, so if I got in, I wouldn't have to stay in foster homes anymore. But when I got into the school, it's not like I suddenly stopped getting into trouble. I think Shiro felt responsibility for my behavior because he had recommended me to the school and to all these people he looked up to. I expected him to yell at me but he never did. Before I knew it, he was taking care of me. I didn't think I needed to be taken care of until I started to feel like my life was getting better because of him. Then he left for Kerberos. It was supposed to take only six months. He made me promise not to get into too much trouble while he was gone. It was his dream to be out in space, so I was happy for him and I promised. Three months later we got news that because of a pilot error their ship had crashed and none of them survived."

Allura made another weird noise but Keith chose to ignore it.

"I didn't believe it for a second. I didn't know what had really happened but I knew there was no way Shiro would crash his ship. I tried so hard to keep my promise to Shiro but... it was so much harder when I didn't know if I'd ever see him again. I got kicked out of school for beating another kid half to death after he called Shiro a useless failure. I knew he said it just to provoke me but I was so tired of never fighting back when he messed with me, I just—" Keith got worked up thinking about it.

He collected himself with a deep breath through his nose. "For a while I had thought I'd lost my only chance at ever finding out what had really happened to Shiro. I didn't know what to do and I had no place to go again, but I wasn't going to go back to foster care. I went back to the little house in the desert my dad had built and I felt something out there. So I stayed and I searched for what I was feeling and it led me back to Shiro when he escaped the Galra on his own. I was able to save him from the people who were trying to cover everything up and that same day we found the blue lion with Lance and she brought us here. I suddenly had Shiro back and I had a defined goal for the first time in so long."

Keith looked back at Allura so that he could finish making his point. "But now Shiro's gone for good and ending a war is so ambiguous. We're not the same, my whole life I've had things taken from me. Now is no different."

Allura's beautiful blue eyes glistened and she had to look away this time. "I didn't realise. It's true that my life before the war started was blissful by comparison," she admitted. "But you must understand—"

"I'm not trying to compare my grief to yours," Keith stopped her. "I know that losing three people isn't comparable to losing everyone you knew. Just know that other people have griefs too." His point made, he laid himself back down.

After a stretched moment, Allura very slowly laid herself on her side facing him. Never before had Keith felt more awkward around her than in this moment. He stiffened up and refused to look anywhere but the ceiling. The silence between them lasted so long that Keith began to wonder if Allura planned on sleeping right there in the middle of his floor.

"I'm sorry," she practically breathed in his ear. This felt so intimate, like a secret, but Keith couldn't explain why. "I... regret a lot of things I took for granted back on Altea. I acted like everything would always be waiting for me and I took more interest in other cultures than in my own. I was able to cry for my father once his memories were gone and I cried for Shiro, but I haven't been able to cry for my people. I've been wondering since waking up, 'What's wrong with me?'" she whispered.

Keith turned his head and met her eyes. They were full of sorrow but no tears came. All he did was stare back at her with his own pained expression, but he knew this meant something to the both of them. It was, in essence, comfort without words. Perhaps they were the same in some ways.

Without breaking their eye contact, Allura made a small gesture to Keith's left hand, the one closest to her and the one rapped in a bandage. "If you won't let me heal that, I can at least fix your glove," she continued to speak softly, not disrupting their quiet sense of togetherness.

She didn't know how important his gloves were to him or why. There was something in the way she offered to help him that really squeezed at his heart.

"I didn't know you could sow," he remarked quietly. There was so little space between them, it hardly took any voice at all for them to hear each other.

Allura smiled like he had made a joke. "Actually, I can't, but my mice can."

"Your mice? How can they know how to sow when you don't?" he asked, picturing that one scene from Cinderella. He'd reference that if only Allura could get it.

"I don't know how either," she chuckled.

"I had always thought that as a Princess, you'd be taught all sorts of things for the sake of being able to interact with anyone." At least that was his perception of old Earth Princesses.

Her smile waned. "I did have a governess. She was brilliant and tried to teach me a great many things, but I was too picky about what I was interested in."

"Is that one of the things you regret?"

"Yes," she admitted. She looked to the floor and moved her arm into a more comfortable position under her head. "She was a member of the largest temple in our capital city. She would always ask me to come to the temple in disguise so that I could be there without distractions and actually learn something. The royal family attended services at the temple once every phoeb in adherence to tradition. They were the same ten services every deca-phoeb. I didn't think my father and mother actually believed in what the five prophets said and I never went to the temple outside of my obligation. But then my father built the lions and he built five of them. I've been questioning whether he believed or not ever since. My biggest regret is that I didn't take the time to learn more about the beliefs of my people. I know hardly anything about what they held sacred. Their beliefs will die with Coran, if they haven't already died long ago."

Keith tried to imagine what it would be like to have all the spiritual beliefs of Earth just disappear over night. Whether he believed in a higher power of not, religion shaped human culture and defined the way many people lived their lives. It was integral to each society on Earth.

"Why don't you ask Coran to teach you? If it's important to you, you should ask," he suggested.

Allura looked him in the eyes. "I'm afraid."

Keith search her face for anything she wasn't already telling him. "Why?" he asked.

"Because it's expected that the royal family takes Altea's beliefs seriously. If I admitted that I didn't know anything, it would disgrace my family."

"But..." Keith knew he needed to tread carefully. "There are only two of you left. If you don't want it to disappear you have to learn it and then teach it to other people."

"Who would I teach it to? There are no Alteans left."

"If you learn about it, I'm sure the team would be happy to listen to you share. And you can do what most people do. If you have children, teach the beliefs to them."

Allura bit her lip in thought. "Maybe I will," she paused. "But if I do, you had better be the first person to listen to what I've learned."

"Fine, we'll make it a deal," he held out his hand to her.

She looked at it, clearly not knowing what to do. It was his bandaged hand as well, so she was probably hesitant to touch it. Keith thought he'd have to explain to her, but she slowly reached out her own hand and gently grasped his. Their hands rested between them and Allura didn't let go. Keith knew enough about human social norms to know that continuing to hold hands between friends was weird but Keith had never held anyone but his dad's hand before. This only felt familial to him and he craved that feeling just as much as he thought Allura did. So he wouldn't tell Allura that this was weird and he wouldn't ask her to let go.

"Can I ask you something?" Keith asked after some time of just soaking in this feeling.

"Of course," Allura assured him.

"You said earlier that you were more interested in learning about the beliefs of other cultures. Does that include the Galra?" he ventured.

Allura gave him a sad smile. "Yes."

Keith wasn't sure if she wanted to elaborate. "Will you tell me about them?" he chanced.

She sighed softly. "Alright then." She looked to the side as if trying to remember. "There were differing beliefs about gods on Daibazaal, but there was a prophecy that held wide belief among the Galra. The older generation was always looking for signs that the prophecy was about to come true so it was very important to know the prophecy for any diplomatic meetings with them. I can't say I remember the whole thing anymore. I must admit that I wanted to forget it when the war started." She thought for a moment more and Keith waited patiently.

"I can't tell you word for word but I will paraphrase. 'When the Galra have lost their way and have scattered like yondrovs, a leader will rise to bring his people back to Kovalil. He will be raised in adversity, inheriting two worlds. As he grows he will kill his brothers and sisters and he will drink their blood. His reign will cause uproar, the house will be severed in two. No one can measure his might, for he will not act alone. He will heal the deformed hahka limbs and plant new roots in tilled soil.' That's as much of it as I can remember."

"That sounds... horrific," Keith responded. "And there were several words I didn't understand."

Allura giggled at his bemusement. "Let's see if I can explain then. Hahka is a special type of tree that grew on all the planets in the Aepus cluster where Altea and Daibazaal were. No one is sure which planet the tree originated on. Then... ah! Kovalil is a mythical place or it may have been a real place at some point, but the word in Galran just means home. And then..." she couldn't seem to come up with another word Keith wouldn't have understood.

"Yondrovs," Keith supplied.

"Ah, yes! Yondrovs! They were a creature from Daibazaal that were mostly solitary unless there was a famine. In which case, they would hunt together in groups to catch larger prey," she explained.

"That sounds like wolves," Keith thought.

"Wolves," Allura pronounced with effort.

"Creatures on Earth."

"I see. Was there anything else?" she asked.

"No, but... did Galra actually drink the blood of someone they killed?" he asked with disgust on his face.

"That comes from an old belief that drinking the blood of beasts would grant you their power. When I was growing up, it was commonly understood to mean 'to gain strength from.' The prophecy was ancient even back then though, so it could be literal. I hope it's not," she added.

"Do you think the prophecy could be happening now? If it were real, that is."

Allura hummed. "I think the Galra are too organised under Zarkon to be like yondrovs. But I don't remember the whole thing. Coran might know more about that too."

"I like Coran," Keith blurted.

Allura laughed like the ringing of bells. It was the most open, honest-to-God laugh he had ever heard from her. She smiled at him with the warmth of all the stars they'd ever flown past.

"I like him too!" There was something in the way she'd said that that made Keith wonder...

"Did you know Coran for a long time before all of this?" he asked.

"No," she shook her head, still smiling.

So that's what is was. "I had always thought Coran was like an uncle to you."

"He was my father's engineering consultant for Voltron. I didn't meet him until the war started and my father wanted his help in case something happened to the Castle of Lions or the lions we still had in our possession. My father must have trusted Coran a lot to save him along with me. I'm very grateful that Coran is so kind to me."

"He is kind," Keith agreed. "And he seems to like taking care of people."

"Yes, he does. That's why he persists in calling me Princess, even if there is nothing left for me to rule."

"That's not what makes a Princess, Allura."

She gave him a funny look like she didn't quite believe him but didn't want to say so. "Keith. May I ask you something?"

He gave a single nod, showing his consent.

"Would you be my friend?" she asked.

"I thought we were friends. I think." He wasn't entirely sure because Allura had not always been... the most forgiving, shall we say.

"On Altea, there is the type of friendship we have now, the type where we can get along and we have a positive view of each other, and then there is a deeper friendship that has to be asked for."

"What does that entail?" Keith didn't mean to sound skeptical, he just didn't want to promise something he didn't understand.

Allura looked at their hands, still clasped together between them. "It is a promise of trust and a declaration that we will come to each other's aid no matter the distance. The word for it in Altean is a compound word that literally means 'though we are apart, we are together.'"

Keith looked to their hands as well. The sentiment was so nice and so reminiscent of how his and Shiro's relationship had been that he couldn't help how it stirred his feelings.

"I accept," he said simply, making sure to look at her.

Her smile was simply beautiful. She looked so comfortable even though the floor was metal and her arm must have been falling asleep under her head.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Looks like Allura had gotten what she had wanted, but Keith had gotten something out of it too.

Lance had just gotten back from a very long trip of flying with Pidge and all he wanted to do was get out of his armor and relax in his own room. Pidge had been trying to get him to talk to her about things he wasn't ready to talk to her about all day long! All he had wanted to do was focus on their objective, but no~! Not when there was plenty of time to kill and absolutely nothing happened on their trip. No contact with anything. Not a ship, not a new species, not even regular alien planet fauna. This was not Lance's day. But honestly, when was the last time it had been Lance's day?

Lance was still in a bad mood by the time he rounded the last corner into the hallway where the crew's rooms were. He almost didn't notice, but when he got to his door there was a stack of paper laying at his feet. The top one was folded in half so he couldn't tell what they were.

He bent down and picked them up and started flipping through the pages. Now he remembered. These were the drawings he drew in Keith's room while Keith had slept. They weren't that bad if he said so himself. He had drawn all of the lions, Voltron, some cool looking aliens they had met...

Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure some drawings were missing from the pile. Maybe they had gotten lost under Keith's bed.

He flipped the folded one open to see which one it was, but it wasn't one of his.

On it were a crudely drawn person in red and person in blue. The red one had its arm over the blue one's shoulders and it looked sick. The blue one had its arm around the red one's side and it was clearly looking at the red one. At the top it read, 'Thanks' and at the bottom, 'I think I can sleep now'.

Keith could keep whichever drawings of Lance's he wanted, so long as Lance got to keep this one.

A/N: It took me six chapters but I finally got to the actually prophecy! I might love character building too much.