It's a new installment! And it's two parts! I was going to write this all in one go, but about halfway through I realized it might make more sense to write this as a two-parter, rather than try and fit everything into one chapter and either end up with something rushed or something that was just really super long. Anyways, this takes place before the previous installment, not long after they meet Ulaz, but before they go to Olkarion and Zarkon proceeds to chase them around the universe.

Hope you enjoy! I think this will be a fun one!

when your black cat and space pollen don't mix

part one

This was, Lance decided, the worst possible mission.

Not only was the jungle so oppressively hot and humid that he could feel it even through his paladin armor, but he was stuck here with Keith.

"Pick up the pace, Lance." Keith called out from up ahead. "You heard Coran. We need to get these samples before sunset."

Lance grumbled to himself, silently repeating Keith's words in a mocking tone underneath his breath. He didn't even looked bothered by all the vines and bugs, which swarmed around them in spite of their armor, and was just neatly picking his way through the jungle. He guessed it helped that he had a sword to clear a path, which he guessed benefited the guy behind him in turn, but would it kill him to slow down a little?

"What's so important about these samples anyways?" Lance called out, quickening his pace as much as he dared. The whole jungle floor was a mess of roots, just waiting to trip the unsuspecting. He had no idea how Keith was managing to navigate them so easily.

Must be a cat thing.

He huffed slightly at the thought. He still couldn't believe Keith was a cat. Even worse, he was the cat- that damn black cat that had been such a thorn in his side back at the Garrison. He hadn't even apologized for stealing his stuff! Sure, he'd always given it back after awhile- except for the food- but it was hard to believe that just one year out in the desert had caused him to forget him when he'd spent so much time tormenting him in feline form.

(Hunk would point out that Keith didn't even spend half as much time doing so as Lance seemed to think, but he'd brushed his friend off. He was totally right.)

"Coran said they're used in salves and stuff." Keith noted, chopping away a tangle of vines. "Antibiotics, too. Healing pods can't cure the sick."

"Then why do we just need a sample?" Lance asked. "Shouldn't we just like... take a whole bunch of the stuff?"

Keith stopped, turning to look back at him. He took some comfort in the sweat that clung to his brow, plastering his bangs to his forehead. "Taking too much isn't good for the environment. Besides, with even just a single sample, Coran can use the Castle's systems to synthesize new stuff."

"How do you even know that?" Lance asked, using this chance to catch up with the werecat. Shifter. Whatever he wanted to call himself.

Keith stared blankly at him. Honestly, he had no idea how he hadn't realized he was the Garrison stray before. That deadpan look was totally the same.

(Also if werecats were real, then what else was real? Were there vampires running around back on Earth? Unicorns? Mermaids? God, he hoped there were mermaids. Please let there be mermaids. Sure, he'd found like, an entire planet of mermaids now, but there was absolutely no downside to there being more mermaids.)

"Coran told us." Keith said. "I thought you were listening."

"I listened!" Lance huffed. "I know what we're supposed to find, at least."

Keith didn't look convinced. "Just stay close. We don't want to get separated."

"Yeah, that'd be just terrible." Lance said, rolling his eyes. Getting a break from Keith and his awful mullet sounded like the best idea he'd heard all day.

"I mean it, Lance." Keith said, actually picking up on his sarcasm for once. "You heard Coran. There's dangerous animals living in this jungle. We don't want to have to fight one alone."

Lance just groaned, but followed behind Keith at a slightly quicker pace nonetheless. It felt like forever until they found the first of the flowers that they needed to collect samples from. Some kind of pollen that was useful for... something, he guessed. He hadn't exactly been paying attention to the specifics. All he knew was that Hunk and Pidge got to go back to the mer planet, while he was stuck in this godforsaken jungle with Keith.

Heck, he'd rather take being stuck on the Castle. There's where Shiro and Allura were, working out exactly how Ulaz had managed to infiltrate the Castle and shutting that hole in their security down. Things had been a little tense between them ever since... well, since Ulaz, but at least they had Coran there to help bridge the gap.

"Be careful." Keith warned him. "We don't want this thing blasting pollen everywhere."

Lance's nose crinkled in disgust. For once, he actually agreed with Keith- being coated in pollen by some weird space flower did not sound like his idea of a fun time.

"And what will you be doing?" Lance asked, already pulling out one of the tiny vials Coran had given him. "You just going to stand around and look pretty while I do all the work?"

Keith frowned, staring blankly at him. "I'm standing guard."

"I could stand guard." Lance said. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm kind of a sharpshooter."

Keith just rolled his eyes. "I have better hearing. That makes me the better lookout."

"Right. Almost forgot you're a cat." Lance said.

Keith's frown deepened, but he didn't say anything to dispute him. For his part, Lance begrudgingly accepted that he had a point- between the two of them, Keith did make the better lookout. It was so weird to think about the fact that someone he had always just reasonably assumed was human was actually part cat, or however the whole Shifter thing worked. There had only been a few scant appearance of cat Keith since the whole revelation had gone down, so it wasn't like he knew much about it. In spite of Keith's promises that he would answer any questions, he'd been pretty tight-lipped on how it all worked, pretending instead that he didn't know half the answers to Pidge's questions.

Pushing the thought aside, Lance concentrated on extracting the pollen. There were four other samples they needed to collect after this, so he just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible. He still took the utmost care in getting it, because again, being coated in pollen for the rest of their trip here just sounded awful.

Scraping a few particles of the pollen into the little vial, Lance waited until after he'd corked it to exhale. Tucking it away, he turned back towards Keith. "Okay, so that's one down. Now where's-?"

He paused mid-question, noticing the hard look in Keith's eyes. He was staring off into the distance, looking so serious that Lance couldn't even manage to laugh at the way his nose was twitching. "What is it?"

"Something's out there." Keith said, his grip on his bayard sword tightening. "Something big."

Instinctively, Lance summoned his bayard. Training his rifle in the direction Keith's gaze was fixed on, he narrowed his eyes, trying to pick out whatever it was that he was looking at. It all just seemed like a lot of green to him.

But he could hear something.

True to form, Keith heard it a lot sooner than he did, already shifting into a defensive stance. Seconds later, something massive- and green, Lance noted with mild annoyance- burst through the bushes, charging straight towards them. Lance's first shot bounced off its thick hide, barely leaving him with enough time to jump out of the way.

He wasn't sure what he was looking at. It looked almost like a massive lizard, but its legs and hind quarters were coated with a thick layer of green fur, and it had a huge pair of curved horns. It had six eyes- two large ones and two sets of smaller ones, and wicked looking claws- but the thing that really sent a shiver up Lance's spine were the massive fangs, and the mouth that unhinged slightly as it turned towards him. Suddenly struck by the fear that the thing intended to swallow him whole, Lance hastily got to his feet.

"Hey!" A shout drew the lizard-thing's attention away from him. "Over here!"

Keith was glaring at the lizard-thing from the other side, and if he strained his ears, Lance swore he could pick up on what sounded like a low growl coming from the red paladin's throat. His eyes looked different, more cat-like, and somehow he didn't think it was just due to a trick of the light. Keith had his blade angled at the creature, showing no signs of fear as it turned towards him with clear intentions of making another charge.

Which was exactly what it did. It hurled itself towards Keith, jaws unhinged. Keith was faster, ducking out of the way- and at the same time, slashing at its thick hide with his bayard. It was slightly more effective than Lance's rifle had been, but all it seemed to do was irritate the creature- which was definitely already irritated as it was.

Keith growled, the sound more animalistic than anything a human could produce. But then, Keith wasn't exactly human.

The creature charged towards Keith again, and though he evaded it a second time, apparently it had accounted for that. Keith, on the other hand, hadn't accounted for its absolutely massive clubbed tail, blindsided by it. He slammed into a nearby tree with enough force to shatter his helmet, kicking up a cloud of pollen from the nearby flower.

Keith coughed, breathing in a gasp of the planet's air. Lance momentarily panicked, before he recalled the main reason that Coran had advised them to keep their helmets on was just because of the bugs, and not because the atmosphere wasn't breathable or something like that. Keith staggered to his feet, glaring at the lizard-thing- ready for another counterattack in spite of the massive blow he'd taken mere seconds ago.

Then he just... went limp.

There was no other word to describe it. Keith's eyes blew out wide, like someone had dilated them. His grip on his sword grew lax, every ounce of coiled tension in his body disappearing in the blink of an eye. His nose was twitching, but Lance couldn't make fun of it now either, not when there was a horrible death creature slowly approaching the now apparently incapacitated Keith. Dimly, Lance recalled that Coran had used the results he'd gotten from the scans he'd taken of him and Shiro while they had been in the healing pods to deem if the planet's atmosphere was safe for them, and was struck by the sudden realization that safe for them didn't necessarily mean safe for Keith.

It was such a glaring oversight that Lance nearly would have kicked himself, if the situation weren't so serious. He had to get that thing away from Keith before it decided to make a meal out of his bony, half-feline ass.

"Hey!" Lance called out, firing a shot to taunt the creature into looking his way. "Over here, ugly! I bet Keith doesn't even taste good!"

The lizard-thing made an ungodly noise as it turned towards him. Lance paled, suddenly regretting every single decision he had made in life that had led him to this point. His bayard had already proved ineffective against its hide, so what was he even going to do?

As the creature partially unhinged it's jaw, preparing for another charge, something clicked. Maybe he couldn't damage its hide, but that wasn't the only way to take something down. And the creature just so happened to provide him with the perfect angle of attack.

At least, he hoped. If he were wrong...

Well, if he was wrong, then both he and Keith were about to become lizard chow.

Bracing himself, Lance took in a deep breath. As as the lizard-thing prepared to charge, Lance readied his bayard. Aiming not for the creatures hide, he instead fired three shots, straight into its mouth- and where it was hard on the outside, it was anything but on the inside. The creature collapsed, letting out an awful death shriek, before finally succumbing.

Exhaling, Lance slowly lowered his bayard, his hands shaking. He couldn't believe that actually worked.

Snapping out of it, he turned back towards Keith. The red paladin seemed to be completely out of it- he was more interested in the flower than he was in the horrible death monster that had nearly tried to kill them both. And judging from the sound of the shrieks he could make out in the distance, if they didn't get out of here fast, there were going to be even more of them.

No thanks. That was a hard pass from him.

"Keith, buddy," Lance slowly began, edging around the creature on the off chance that it was somehow actually still alive, "-we need to go."

Keith didn't acknowledge him, causing Lance to swear underneath his breath. Dismissing his bayard, he closed the gap between them, crouching down next to Keith. He was staring up at the flower like it was the most interesting thing in the world, his eyes mostly pupil- and kind of yellow? Not like Galra yellow, but-

-cat yellow. They were cat yellow.

Okay. Definitely a werecat thing then.

Regardless, they had to leave- now. The rest of the samples could wait, at least until he got Keith back to the Castle so Coran could (hopefully) figure out what was wrong with him. Not waiting for an invitation, Lance hoisted Keith over his shoulder, almost buckling under his weight.

"Wow, you are way heavier than you look." Lance observed.

All Keith had to say in response to that was an odd chirruping sound. Glancing behind him, he watched as the red paladin lazily tried to reach out towards the flower, his hands just brushing against one of its massive petals.

Okay. Weird. Not going to stop him from getting the hell out of here though.

Switching to a fireman's carry, Lance began to walk as quickly away from the area as he could manage with Keith on his back. He didn't get that far before Keith started to wriggle in his grip, producing a noise that he could only describe as pathetic. The further they moved away from the flower, the worse it seemed to get.

"What is it with you and that damn flower?" Lance snapped, momentarily losing his temper. "The stupid thing spewed it's pollen all over you, and you-!"

Snapping his mouth shut, something finally clicked into place. Keith wasn't acting weird because of this planet's atmosphere. He was acting weird because of the pollen.

"Oh man," Lance whispered, unable to keep the edge of amusement out of his voice, "-it's catnip. It's space catnip."

Before he had a chance to really enjoy that realization, he heard that ungodly shrieking sound again- closer than before this time. He could revel in the fact that there was space catnip later. Right now, he just had to get them both the heck out of here.

And fast- a lot faster than he could go carrying Keith on his back.

Thankfully, he had an idea. Setting Keith down, he popped open the cork on the little vial he'd filled with pollen earlier. Keith perked up, his nose twitching as he caught the scent of it, making another one of those weird chirruping noises.

"You want this?" Lance asked, unable to keep himself from grinning.

Keith chirruped again, staring up at him with wide eyes. Lance took a few steps back, and Keith followed, his gaze never leaving the vial. He moved on all fours, the curvature of his spine seemingly having shifted in tandem with his limbs to make the movement easier. His hands and feet seemed to have slightly changed shape underneath his paladin armor, and he realized that there was a tail flicking behind him. It was almost like he had tried to transform into a cat, and had gotten stuck halfway.

Lance chose not to process this- not yet. Instead, he took a few more experimental steps back, and when Keith followed him still, he corked the vial- couldn't spill their only sample- and took a few more. Keith still followed him, his gaze still fixed on the vial, and the promise of whatever was contained within.

"Come on mullet," Lance grinned, giving the vial a playful little shake, "-if you want it, you have to come get it."

Upon saying that, Lance broke into a sprint. Glancing behind him to confirm that Keith was following behind him, Lance swore under his breath. He was following behind him alright- and he looked pissed.

By the time they reached the blue lion, Lance was out of breath and Keith was still out of his mind. He'd been hoping that the effects of the pollen would start to wear off the further they got away from the flower, but it just didn't seem like luck was on his side today. Maybe it was just because half of what it had emitted earlier was still stuck to Keith's armor, or maybe it was something more complicated than that. He didn't know. All he knew was that he was glad to be out of that damn jungle, away from the horrible death lizards.

At least Keith was behaving now. For a second Lance thought he was going to try and maul him, but he'd calmed down once he had given him one of the empty vials to bat around. He'd let him into the cockpit, too worried about what his pollen-addled brain would get him into if he left him in one of the cargo holds. Right now he was busy licking the pollen off his armor, which definitely couldn't be good for him, but every time Lance tried to stop him, he hissed and flashed what were definitely claws at him.

Groaning, Lance sunk into the pilot's chair. He was just grateful he'd won at rock paper scissors earlier, so they had come here in the blue lion. He was pretty sure the red lion could fly itself in the event of an emergency, but he didn't want to test that out for himself.

He briefly considered paging the Castle of Lions, but quickly dismissed it. Maybe this would all wear off by the time he reached the Castle.

(It didn't.)

Shiro had no idea what to expect when Lance had asked for his help getting Keith out of the blue lion, but it wasn't this.

"So he's been like this since...?"

"Since before we left the planet, yeah." Lance told him. "I thought it would wear off by the time we got here, but..."

His gaze trailed downwards, falling on Keith. The Shifter had all but tackled him off his feet no sooner than he had entered, and though he had since gotten off of him, he had yowled loudly until Shiro crouched down next to him. After that, he'd shoved his chin underneath his hand, yowling some more until Shiro began to scratch it, and was now content to purr happily, his eyes closed as his tail wagged in response.

It wasn't the tail wagging that surprised him. That was normal- for Keith, at least- probably due to the fact that for a portion of his life, he'd been raised by a wolf. What was new was... well, everything else.

Despite the more feline behavior- tail-wagging aside- Keith was still human, for one thing, or well... mostly. His human ears were gone, replaced with a large pair of black cat ears, along with the aforementioned tail. It was hard to tell with his paladin armor still on, but Shiro was pretty sure that both his hands and feet had become more paw-like, but he was otherwise almost entirely human.

But even if he was fully a cat, this sort of behavior wasn't exactly normal for him. Keith would sometimes let his guard down and allow people to pet him, but they were typically people who didn't realize what they had in their laps wasn't a normal cat. With people who knew? He'd indulge it a little, particularly if he was in a low mood and looking for a bit of comfort, but otherwise he kept his distance. In spite of having allowed Hunk to pet him before, now that he knew the truth, Keith had shrugged off any attempts at affection in his feline form from him- and the rest of the paladins, for that matter.

The only time Keith had ever behaved anywhere close to this was that time Adam had accidentally given him that catnip tea. He'd been out of it for hours afterwards, completely given over to his more feline instincts. He was guessing that was the case here too.

"Okay," Shiro exhaled, "-okay. We'll figure this out."

Keith huffed as Shiro stood up, his lips set in his usual scowl. His tail flicked angrily behind him, clearly upset that Shiro had stopped scratching him. He felt a little ridiculous doing it when Keith still looked so human, but he still felt a pang of guilt over having stopped.

They had to find a way to fix this.

"Coran," Shiro said slowly, "-we need to talk to Coran. Please tell me you got that sample."

"It was the only sample we managed to get, but yeah, we got it." Lance told him. "Plus there's the stuff that's still on Keith's armor. You know, where he didn't manage to lick it off."

Shiro stared blankly at the blue paladin. "He ate it."

"I couldn't stop him!" Lance protested. "Every time I tried, he got all angry and hissed at me!"

Heaving a long sigh, Shiro rubbed his forehead. This wasn't what he expected to have to deal with today, but hopefully they would be able to find a way to fix this. Or maybe it would just wear off like the catnip tea did- though somehow he suspected that this might take a lot longer than a few hours, depending just how much pollen Keith had been exposed to- and exactly how much of it he'd eaten.

"I'll take Keith with me to the med bay." Shiro finally said. "You find Coran and bring him to meet us there."

"You think he can fix this?" Lance asked.

"I don't know." Shiro shook his head. "The last time he got into catnip..."

"Wait, Keith's gotten into catnip before?" Lance asked. "Like, actual catnip and not space catnip?"

"Yes, Lance." Shiro said dryly. "And no, I'm not going to give you any of the details. Keith's going to be embarrassed enough when he comes back to his senses, I'm not adding anything else to that."

Lance huffed slightly. "Fine, I guess you're right. I'll go find Coran."

"Thank you." Shiro told him, watching as Lance trudged out of the blue lion.

Keith watched him go, tilting his head slightly as he left. Blinking slowly, he stared back up at him, his earlier annoyance presumably forgotten.

Crouching down, Shiro managed a weak smile. "Hey, buddy. Think you can come with me to see Coran?"

Keith trilled, butting his chin with his head. It would have been adorable if he were an actual cat, but as it was, it was just kind of embarrassing. Heaving a sigh, Shiro idly scratched behind one of his newly sprouted ears.

"You don't understand a thing I'm saying, do you?" Shiro asked.

Keith just purred in response, more out of happiness from getting his ears scratched than any semblance of comprehension. His feline instincts seemed to be in complete control, no semblance of his usual human intelligence present.

Thankfully, when he stood up to leave, Keith followed him, trailing behind on all fours. Maybe it was just his posture, but Shiro swore he looked a little smaller. They arrived in the med bay around the same time Lance and Coran reached it- and Allura, he noted, the princess trailing behind the advisor.

At the sight of them, Keith hissed, ducking behind Shiro's legs. Shiro frowned, glancing down at him in confusion. "It's okay, it's just Coran and Allura. They're friends."

Keith still hissed, going so far as to try and take a swipe at Coran when he tried to come closer. Thankfully, the advisor quickly backed off.

"I'm sorry." Shiro quickly apologized. "I don't know why he's doing this. Any of this, really."

"No harm done." Coran said, looking largely unbothered by the reaction he'd gotten. "It may very well be that he's just not used to our scents."

"I must admit, when Lance came to tell us the news, I thought he was exaggerating." Allura frowned. "Clearly not."

"I've seen him like this once before." Shiro began, giving Lance a hard look. He got the message, handing Coran the sample of pollen before he quickly made himself scarce. "Except that time he turned all the way into a cat. His behavior's pretty much the same, though."

"Let's see if we can't get Number Four inside, and give him a look over." Coran said. "Hopefully we'll be able to figure out just how badly the pollen's effected him."

"Lance also mentioned he may have eaten some." Shiro supplied weakly.

Coran's brows shot up. "That will definitely complicate matters. Ingested substances tend to be far more potent than those that have simply been inhaled."

"Why in the world would he eat some?" Allura asked, crinkling her nose in visible disgust.

"He's pretty out of it." Shiro explained. Behind him, Keith's ears flattened, hissing loudly at Allura. "He tried to do the same thing the last time he got into a similar substance. Thankfully it had been diluted into a tea, so the effects only lasted for a few hours."

"I don't suppose you have a sample of this... catnip, I believe Lance called it?" Coran asked, to which Shiro shook his head. "Ah, well. I didn't think you would. Still, at least we have a sample of the pollen that was the cause of all of this."

"Let us hope it will be enough." Allura remarked, staring down warily at Keith. "You don't suppose he bites, do you?"

"If he does, you and Coran are probably the safest." Shiro observed.

Coran and Allura shared a look. He knew that Keith had given the Alteans a quick medical briefing on Shifters, and that had included the particular properties of his saliva. Normally Keith knew better than to bite- when he wanted to express his displeasure, he'd usually resort to scratching instead. But he had no idea if the current Keith had any of the same holdups, or if he was even aware of who and what he was.

He certainly seemed to recognize him at least, Shiro thought.

"Well, let's get him in, take a look." Coran said, striding into the med bay. After a moment of hesitation, Shiro followed him, Keith trailing along behind him. He kept casting a wary look back towards Allura, who merely remained where she was, hovering by the doorway.

"He doesn't seem to like me." Allura observed.

"Nonsense!" Coran assured her. "I think it's both of us he doesn't like, not just you, princess!"

As if to give proof of this, Coran reached a hand out towards Keith. He hissed and swatted it away, his tail standing at full alert. Shiro was almost positive that underneath his armor, Keith's fur was standing on end.

"Still," Allura's frown deepened, "-how exactly are you supposed to examine him if he won't let you anywhere near him?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll work it out!" Coran said easily enough. "Worst comes to worst, we can get Shiro here to hold him for us long enough for me to get a blood sample. Probably need to do a scan too, just to make sure there's no lasting damage from being hit by the tail of a gudit. Those beasts can hit quite hard!"

"Well what should I do?" Allura asked.

"Guard the exit." Coran told her. "Make sure he doesn't slip away."

Unfortunately, Coran was right, on both counts.

He did have to try and wrangle Keith, and he did try to escape. He spent the entire time yowling, thrashing against Shiro's grip. Both he and Coran were sporting some new scratches, but thankfully Keith had refrained from biting anyone. He'd used his right arm to restrain Keith as a precaution anyways. Being a Shifter didn't sound terrible- except for the part where he had no idea how it would work with the metal arm- it was the possibility of death he was more worried about.

As soon as he gave Keith some slack, he'd bolted, barreling past Allura and out of the med bay. He moved to chase after him, but Allura told him it would be better to leave him be for the time being- she'd locked off any potentially dangerous parts of the Castle already. The worst he could do was make a mess out of the kitchen or shred a few sheets.

"Well, the good news is that the effect should wear off on its own." Coran told him. "The bad news is that it might take awhile."

"How long is awhile?" Shiro asked.

"Oh, about a quintant or two, give or take. Not too terribly long, thankfully." Coran said, to which Shiro let out a breath of relief. "It's impossible to say exactly how much of the pollen he ingested. We could try to pump his stomach, but..."

Shiro shook his head. "I don't think we'll even be able to get him back into the med bay after this."

"No, I thought not." Coran agreed. "In the meantime, all we can do is ensure that he feels safe and comfortable."

"Of which we already off to a great start." Allura quipped.

Shiro winced. "Can we at least track where he is?"

"So long as he still has his armor on." Allura told him, already bringing up a screen. There was a single red dot indicating what was presumably Keith's current location. "From the look of it, he's retreated to his quarters... or rather, just outside of them."

"That would indicate that he has some kind of recollection of both where and who he is." Coran mused, toying with one end of his mustache. "Though perhaps not necessarily the intelligence with which to actually open the doors, if he isn't actually in the room already."

"I should be able to open it remotely." Allura said. "Perhaps he will calm down a bit in a location that's a little more familiar to him."

"Do it." Shiro told her.

Allura tapped the screen, and a second later, the red dot moved forward slightly. Guess Keith really hadn't been able to figure out how to open the doors.

"We should probably brief Hunk and Pidge when they get back." Shiro said. "What's their ETA?"

"Their mission shouldn't take longer than a few more vargas." Coran replied. "I could even contact them now if you like, ask them to come back to the Castle."

Shiro shook his head. "Let them finish their mission first. The situation's not that urgent."

Just weird. Now that he'd been reassured of the fact that the effects of the pollen would wear off, Shiro was able to fully appreciate just how weird the situation was. It was one thing to know that Keith was a Shifter, that he was capable of turning into a cat, but another to see his brother lost to his more feline instincts- while simultaneously not quite being fully feline.

He suddenly wished he knew more about Shifters. Maybe if he did, he would know exactly why this was happening.

It wasn't that he'd never asked- it had more to do with the fact that Keith just didn't know. His father was the only other Shifter Keith had really known, and once he was gone, there was nobody left to teach him. He'd vaguely hinted at the fact that there were other Shifters at the Garrison, though he had never elaborated on who, but somehow he suspected that Keith was too embarrassed to ask them any questions he might have.

From the sound of it, Keith had a Shifter clan out there somewhere, but they wanted nothing to do with him. He never complained about it- in fact, he barely ever talked about it, but sometimes Shiro suspected that the rejection had created a hole in his life, one that he and Adam had never quite managed to fill.

"We should probably be a bit more careful in the future." Allura mused. "This pollen is one thing, but we mustn't overlook the possibility that there could be entire planetary atmospheres that might be toxic to Keith and not the rest of you."

Inwardly, Shiro winced. Allura had a point- just because Keith (usually) looked human, it didn't mean that he actually was. This pollen incident was proof enough of that.

"I can do a scan of him, if you like!" Coran suggested. "Like I did with Lance and Shiro."

"Good idea." Shiro agreed. "But it should probably wait until after the effects of the pollen have faded. I don't want to spook him any more than we already have."

"Putting it mildly." Allura mumbled. "I still don't understand why he reacted that way to Coran and I. Did we do something wrong?"

"I don't think it's about anything you did wrong, princess." Shiro assured her. "I think Keith's just overwhelmed. This is probably a lot for him to process."

"I suppose you are correct." Allura said, though her frown didn't fade. Guess the rejection was really getting to her.

"I should probably go keep an eye on him." Shiro said.

"Yes, of course." Allura nodded. "Let us know if anything changes."

"Will do." Shiro promised, ducking out of the med bay and making his way towards the residential floors. Once he got off the elevator, he tried to move as silently as possible, creeping down the hallway. The door to Keith's room was still open, presumably because he didn't know how to close it, Allura having likely opted to leave it open so that he didn't feel trapped.

"Keith?" Shiro softly called out. "You in there?"

There was a faint hiss from the bed, a single yellow eye peeking out from underneath the covers. Keith had curled himself up inside of them, protectively shielding himself from the outside world. Shiro huffed slightly- he looked ridiculous, and the fact that he was still half wearing his armor didn't help. They had stripped him of the upper plate and his gauntlets, but he was still wearing the lower half of it. If it bothered him, he didn't show it.

"It's okay." Shiro assured him. "I'm not here to hurt you."

Keith frowned, but the hissing stopped. Shiro smiled at him, edging into the room, making sure to keep his hands visible. Keith watched them warily, like he expected him to reach out and drag him out from underneath his blankets any second now. Clearly he'd deeply betrayed his trust.

"I'm just going to sit here." Shiro told him, taking a seat along the wall. "I'm not sure how much of what's going on you understand, but you're really not in a state where you should be left alone for long."

Keith huffed slightly, looking away from him. He didn't emerge from his blanket cocoon, but he could still sort of see him. After a few minutes, he yawned loudly, curling deeper up into them, all but vanishing into the cocoon save for a dark-colored ear and a tuft of black hair. Not even a minute later, Shiro picked up on the sound of his steady breathing, and realized that he had fallen asleep.

Silently chuckling, Shiro shook his head. It figured Keith would be exhausted after the day he'd had. Folding his arms in front of him, Shiro leaned back against the wall, closing his eyes. He was feeling pretty tired too. Maybe a nap wasn't such a bad idea.

Who knew? Maybe when he woke up, Keith would be better. He doubted it, but it never hurt to try and think positively.

Exhaling, Shiro relaxed his shoulders. If he got better, that was fine. If not... well, he'd just have to figure out the best way to handle the next two days or so. Keith was just essentially a weird, oversized house cat at the moment. He could handle that, right?