Hey, it's chapter fifteen! Lance and Hunk finally meet the crew, and Keith has still yet to discover that sometimes the real family is the friends we make along the way. Someday, my child, someday. Not today because you're astonishingly dense about this sort of thing, but someday!

cosmic dust

chapter fifteen

blue paladin

If she had to be perfectly honest, she found herself a bit bored.

Pidge and Matt had gone to do some reconnaissance, taking the hoverbike that Keith had borrowed to get here. They would return in the afternoon, after scouting out the lay of the Galaxy Garrison, which to her understanding, took up a rather vast campus to the northeast of them.

The desert, she quickly determined, was not nearly so pleasant as the lake had been. She had always been a bit curious about them- there were no deserts on Altea, and though she had traveled with her father to all manner of planets, she had never once traversed a desert.

She was beginning to realize that she had missed absolutely nothing.

How Keith had grown up in a place like this was beyond her understanding. Still, she supposed it did explain one thing- his uncanny ability to travel light. She was uncertain if he even owned more than the clothes on his back, and that luxite blade he seemed to carry with him everywhere.

Which she still found herself wondering about. She had been meaning to ask him about it, but she'd never so much as had the chance. He didn't exactly make himself that available to her, though it wasn't entirely as if he were avoiding her either.

With very little else to do, she found herself watching him. At first she thought he would mind, and shoo her away, but it seemed that for the time being, he tolerated her presence. If she had to be honest, it wasn't very interesting, but it was at least better than staring off into space, alone with only her thoughts.

She never did handle boredom well.

Once these cadets came, things would likely become rather lively- but Matt had informed her that they likely had classes, and therefore, might not show up until the late afternoon, at best.

"Princess," Keith's voice startled her more than a little, not having expected him to speak, "-can you hand me that wrench?"

Glancing around her, she took notice of the tool by her feet. With a slight frown, she picked it up, placing it in Keith's waiting hand. Not once did he turn to look at her, merely glancing down at his hand to confirm that she'd handed him the right thing.

Frowning, Allura's brows knit together. She had seen him banter with Pidge, so she knew that he was capable of it, but it seemed that when it was just the two of them together, talking was something he found himself hesitant to do. It was not that she didn't understand- there was an awkward air between the two of them.

He was, after all, Galra.

"You know," Allura began, "-on Altea, when someone helps another, we tend to thank them."

Still not even looking at her, Keith continued his work. "Thanks."

Her frown deepening, Allura shifted on her feet. With his hair pulled back, bangs swept out of his face, she'd finally gotten her first good look at his face. It was a shame, she thought, that he was not more human, for he was actually quite attractive in his own right.

Even if his face was stained with oil at the moment.

She was starting to sense that this hoverbike was important to him. He certainly seemed focused on fixing it by himself, even refusing an offer of help from Matt and Pidge. It was clear to her that he was not nearly as skilled at mechanics as either the green paladin or her brother were, not from the frequent way he consulted what she could only assume to be a manual of some kind.

He was not, however, letting that stop him. There was a stubborn perseverance there, befitting of a red paladin.

His jacket tied about his waist, Keith's brows were furrowed in concentration. Pausing to wipe some sweat from his brow, only managing to wipe more oil on his face as he did so, Keith stood up, taking a step back.

"Is it done?"

Glancing over towards her, Keith frowned. "Should be close."

Watching him with curious eyes, her gaze flickered down towards the hoverbike. They had nothing like it on Altea, so she could not help but be curious about them. Even she could tell that this one was a different model than the one Pidge and her brother had taken out, with a coat of red and white paint that so strongly reminded her of Keith.

The same colors were reflected in his jacket, as well as his choice of footwear. It was as if he had been wearing the color scheme of his paladin armor the whole time.

The thought amused her, at the same time as it unsettled her. The armor of the red paladin had last been worn by her father- so to have it be worn by another, especially by one who carried the blood of her people's sworn enemy, was not a thought that rested easy with her.

Nor was passing on her father's bayard to him. For a split second, she almost considered claiming it lost, much like the black bayard was. Surely his luxite blade would suffice.

"Want to give it a test ride?"

Blinking, having not expected that offer at all, Allura looked up at him. She wondered for how long he had been watching her, and felt unsettled at the thought.

"Me?" Allura asked.

Keith blinked, tilting his head. "You've been watching me tinker with it this whole time. I thought you were interested."

"Just a bit bored, actually." Allura admitted, seeing no reason to hide it. "Not much for me to do but to rehearse my speech to the blue paladin."

Letting out a snort, Keith folded his arms in front of him. "Somehow I don't think you'll need that."

As much as he had laughed it off, Allura very much doubted that. He and Pidge alike each had their own motivations for wanting to fight against Zarkon- but how could she ask it of someone who had nothing to do with the war? She would be asking him to leave behind his home, his friends, his family, all for something as vague as a war he had never even heard of.

A speech, she thought, was very necessary.

Keith must have taken her silence as disinterest, for he returned to his task of fixing the hoverbike. Shutting the engine panel, he swung one leg over it, resting his hands on the controls of the bike. Retrieving a worn key from one of his belt pouches, he inserted it into the ignition, giving it a turn.

For a moment, it simply sputtered, his face falling.

Then it roared to life, hovering several inches off the ground, and she found herself wondering if the person before her was truly the same half-Galra that she was coming to begrudgingly accept as the red paladin.

It occurred to her, in that instant, that she had never seen him smile like that before. Giddy, almost like a child.

He seemed to catch her looking, for he ducked his head away, an act which would have been much more effective, were his bangs still falling in his face. Quickly powering down the hoverbike, he shoved the key back into his pouch, climbing off of it.

"Hungry." He began, barely sparing a look at her. "You're hungry, right?"

Frowning, it struck her in that instant that Keith was embarrassed. That too, was a rather novel concept.

"I am feeling a bit peckish." Allura admitted. It was true, at least in part.

Giving her a curt nod of his head, Keith wordlessly made his way into the shack, apparently using that as an excuse to dismiss himself. Watching him go, she was half tempted to follow him inside- before she decided that it would be perhaps better to spare him.

Still, she didn't understand why being happy was something to feel embarrassed about. If anything, the flash of unbridled emotion had endeared him a bit to her.

Keith, she thought, was something of an enigma.

There was his abnormal quintessence, that much was true- and that was still a mystery she was very keen on solving. But it was more than just that- she had begun to notice it, ever since they had arrived on Earth, that he seemed to bear complex feelings for his own home planet.

Perhaps she should give him more credit- surely before they had taken him prisoner, the Galra Empire must have given Keith a chance to join them. While his halfbreed status would have likely prevented him from ever being fully accepted to their ranks, at least he would be able to obtain some kind of status among them. And yet here he was, throwing in his lot against them.

A faint smile on her lips, Allura's gaze lingered on the red and white hoverbike.

Perhaps the red lion had not made such a poor choice after all.

"So this princess- what do you think? Nine? Ten?"

"I don't know Lance," Hunk frowned- or at least he was pretty sure he'd frowned, he had that kind of tone, but he was sitting behind him, so he couldn't really tell, "-she's an alien, right? She could just be some kind of weird blob with a tiara."

The image made him snort, probably more than Hunk had intended. "I mean, yeah, but Keith was pretty human looking right? Who's to say this princess isn't?"

"Huh. Yeah, I guess you've got a point there." Hunk admitted. "But she's like, an alien princess. Who knows how different her culture is? What if you say something and you accidentally end up offending her?"

"It'll be fine." Lance reassured him. "I'll just pile on some of that old Lance charm."

"Yeah, that's kind of what I'm worried about." Hunk admitted.

"Wow Hunk, thanks for the vote of confidence." Rolling his eyes, Lance sped the hoverbike along the desert, following the GPS. Hunk had fixed it so it wouldn't send their coordinates back to the Galaxy Garrison, but they could still use it. "Looks like we should be there soon."

"Uh, Lance, do you see what I'm seeing?"

Frowning, taking note of the mixture of surprise and awe in Hunk's voice, he glanced up. Letting out a low whistle the moment he spotted it, he pumped the gas, speeding up a bit. "Guess he wasn't lying about there being other lions."

"No, guess not." Hunk admitted. "It looks kind of... green, maybe? I thought he said he flew a red one."

"Maybe he's colorblind." Lance said with a shrug. Who knew how he saw the world with those freaky eyes of his. "Or maybe it's one of the other ones. He did say there were like, four others, right?"

"Yeah, guess he did." Hunk admitted. "So we're really going through with this, huh?"

"No turning back now, Hunk." Lance told him. "Besides, I've got a good feeling about today."

"You just say that because you didn't crash the simulator for once." Hunk pointed out.

"Wow, way to make it sound like that's a thing I do on the regular." Lance frowned, shooting a quick glance back towards his friend, before he focused his attention back out front.

"I mean..." Hunk trailed off. "Oh hey, there's the shack."

"And there's Keith." Lance noted, pulling the hoverbike to a stop, powering it off. Tugging off his helmet, he frowned. Part of him had nearly convinced himself that he'd made the guy up, but no, there he was in, in the flesh, all weird eyes and purple ears and bad hair.

Leaving his helmet on the hoverbike, he made the trek over towards where Keith was waiting, watching them expectantly. "Before you even ask," Lance began, "-yes, we disabled the tracker."

Well, Hunk did. But eh, details.

"Good." Keith told him, his tone curt. "Now come on."

Catching up with them, Hunk exchanged a glance with Lance. Shrugging his shoulders, he fell into step behind Keith, letting him lead them back to the dusty shack. The place was just as much of a wreck as it was yesterday, as if somehow, a princess coming over didn't justify cleaning it up a bit.

And oh man.

The princess.

It wasn't hard to pick out which of three people in the shack was the princess. Not only was she the only other alien there aside from Keith- and the presence of not one, but two humans certainly caught him by surprise- but she was, well...

Blob with a tiara his ass, she was gorgeous. Take that, Hunk.

Standing a little straighter as she approached him, he put on his best smile. He might not know much about aliens, but that dress could not be comfortable in this heat, so if the princess was looking her best for him, then who was he to not return the favor?

Besides, who knew? If he hit it off with an alien princess, then maybe King Lance would be in the cards one day. Now that he could get behind.

"I am Princess Allura, of the planet Altea." And oh man, even her voice was out of this world. "I wish that our meeting could be under better circumstances, but it is nevertheless an honor to meet the one chosen by the blue lion."

An honor. Oh man, oh man.

"I'm Lance McClain, of Earth." Dialing up the charm, he flashed the princess his most award winning smile. "And the honor's all mine, princess."

He could have sworn that the smaller of the two humans gagged, but he was going to ignore that. Nothing was about to ruin this moment for him, no sir.

"Uh, I'm Hunk." Hunk chimed in, coming up behind him. "Hunk Garrett. Also of Earth, since that seems to be a thing that we're doing."

"It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Hunk." Allura told him. "I understand you both have already met Keith, but please allow me to introduce you to the paladin of the green lion, Pidge, and her brother, Matt."

Sparing a quick glance towards the pair of humans, Lance's lips twisted into a frown. He didn't know what a paladin was, but that older brother of hers looked kind of familiar, now that he got a better look at him.

In fact, if you got rid of the scar, and gave him a pair of glasses, then...

...hold on a second.

"Matt?" Lance asked. "As in, Matt Holt, of the Kerberos mission?"

"Wha- the one that was supposed to have crashed?" Hunk asked, looking over his shoulder. "Oh man, you're right, it really is him. But I thought he was supposed to be-"

"Dead?" Matt finished, giving them both a toothy grin. "I'm afraid the reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

...why did he get the feeling he'd been waiting all this time to say that?

Which still didn't take away from the fact that he was here, in the flesh, very much not dead. He always thought that there was something fishy about the pilot error story, but he'd thought it was like, some kind of mechanical failure or something that the Garrison had tried to cover up. He'd never once imagined that any of it's crew could still be alive.

I mean, come on! The mission had Takashi Shirogane as its pilot, and that guy was practically his hero! A legend! No way he could have made some kind of rookie error, not a chance.

And there was definitely no way those nasty rumors circling around the Garrison were true. They never would have cleared him for that mission if he hadn't been in sound mental health, so something like him crashing the shuttle on purpose made no sense. So a mechanical failure was like, the only thing that made any sense.

"Guess we're starting from Kerberos, then." Keith remarked. He'd taken up a position against the back wall, arms folded in front of his chest. "Pidge, you want to do the honors?"

"Gladly." Springing to her feet, Pidge adjusted her glasses. "Long story short, the Kerberos mission didn't crash. It was abducted."

"By different aliens than these." Matt added, almost as an afterthought. Which was fair, he had kind of been just about to ask that.

"Wait, so you're saying the Garrison covered up an alien abduction?" Hunk asked. "Oh man. Oh man, this is serious."

"So if you're here," Lance began, looking at Matt, "-where's the rest of the crew?"

Ouch, loaded question. Figures- he'd remembered something about the Kerberos mission being crewed by a father son pair, or something along those lines. If this Pidge was his sister, that would go along way to explain why she reacted badly to the question too.

Keith though... he couldn't really tell, but he could have sworn that he averted his eyes. Which was weird. Why would he be upset about the crew?

As if sensing the mood, Allura stepped in, answering the question herself. "I am afraid that is something we still do not know. We believe them both to be alive, at least, but thus far, Matt is the only one that we have managed to locate."

"Well, to be more exact, we just kind of ran into each other in space." Pidge noted.

"You know, as you do." Matt said, making it sound super casual, which uh, it totally wasn't, just for the record.

"So wait," pointing at Pidge, he gave her a skeptical look- she couldn't be older than what, fourteen?, "-you've been to space."

"Yes?" She told him. "Geez, try to keep up."

"So wait, these aliens that abducted the Kerberos mission," Hunk interjected, "-are they like, the same ones that you were talking about?" He asked Keith.

"Pretty much." Keith told him. "Right now, we don't think they know for sure that the blue lion is on Earth, but the faster we get it off your planet, the better."

"Maybe you should give them the full story, Allura?" Pidge suggested. "It might help."

"Yeah, I'm all for the full story." Hunk told them. "That's kind of what we came here to get."

"Yes, of course." Nodding her head, Allura took a step forward. "Where would you like me to start?"

"Uh, the Kerberos mission?" Lance suggested.

Sounded like as good a choice as any.

"As you know, the crew of the Kerberos mission was abducted from the far moon of your system. The ones who took them are known as the Galra Empire," and he didn't miss the faint way her gaze flickered over towards Keith as she spoke, which, weird, "-and they are lead by Zarkon, a vile being who seeks only power, and is blinded by conquest."

"That sounds bad." Hunk noted. "Like, really bad."

Yeah, way to state the obvious buddy.

"It gets worse." Pidge told him.

"Yeah, uh, that's not encouraging." Hunk told her. "You said these guys were over by Kerberos? Have they- have they been to Earth?"

"Twice." Keith spoke up.

Exchanging a nervous glance with Hunk, Lance chewed on his lip. "So this... Galra Empire, they want the blue lion?"

"Not just the blue lion." Allura told him. "Voltron is only weapon powerful enough to put a stop to Zarkon's empire, and now that he knows that it still exists, he will stop at nothing to track them all down."

"Fortunately," she added, giving them a faint smile, "-all lions but two are in our possession already. With the blue lion, that will make four, leaving us with only the yellow lion to track down."

"Like she said earlier, I'm the paladin of the green lion." Pidge chimed in, jerking her head up towards Keith. "And Keith's the paladin of the red lion. We have the black lion too, we just don't have a paladin for it yet."

"Paladin in this sense meaning pilot." Matt chimed in.

"Yes, it is as Pidge says." Allura told him, nodding her head. "We already know where the yellow lion is located, though getting it might be a bit tricky. Once all of the lions are assembled, and their paladins found, we will be able to form Voltron, and begin to fight back against Zarkon's empire."

"So these lions, are what, some kind of a super weapon?" Lance asked.

"It is a bit more complicated than that, but I suppose that is the short version of it." Allura told him.

Frowning, Lance nodded his head. "Right, well I can see why you'd want to keep that out of the hands of some kind of evil alien empire. But how'd one end up here on Earth?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering that too." Hunk admitted. "Giant robot lions don't exactly sound like the kind of thing you just lose track of."

Closing her eyes, Allura shook her head. "We did not lose track of them. In a last ditch effort to prevent Zarkon from obtaining them, my father sent them off to the far corners of the universe. The blue lion landed here."

"Like I said, the faster we get the lion and go, the better." Keith spoke up, butting into the conversation without so much as a trace of tact. "Right now they're not sure, but that could change at any moment. Once it does, it's only a matter of time before they find it."

"And trust me," Keith added, "-you don't want that."

"What, you some kind of Galra expert?" Lance asked.

Merely arching a brow, Keith didn't so much as flinch. "I'm part Galra."

"Wait, you're-?" Lance began, staring openmouthed at Keith, before turning around to face Allura. "He's part Galra? I thought you said the Galra were the bad guys!"

"The Galra Empire are the bad guys." Pidge snapped, sounding almost defensive. "Keith's not part of the empire."

"Pidge is correct." Though she said that, Allura's tone sounded pretty darn strained. "Keith is part Galra, yes, but he is not the enemy. The red lion has chosen him."

"So what's the other part?" Hunk asked, blinking when all eyes turned to him. "What? You said he was only part Galra, so like, he has to be half of something else, right? That's how it usually works, right?"

"It doesn't matter what the other part of me is." Keith snapped, narrowing his eyes. "What matters is that we get the blue lion. Are you going to help us or what?"

"Wow, someone's testy." Lance noted.

Baring his teeth, Keith drew up to his full height. "Look, I just don't-!"

"Keith." Raising her voice, Allura frowned, expression stern, even as Keith turned his glower towards her. "That is no way to speak to someone that we are asking for help."

Keith held her gaze for a moment longer, before he looked away. "Fine. Carry on without me, then."

Watching with one eye as Keith stalked across the room, Lance couldn't help but flinch as he slammed the door shut behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Pidge and Matt exchanging a glance.

Heaving a sigh, Allura's shoulders slumped. "I must apologize for Keith. He is... rather defensive on the subject of his heritage."

"No, I get it." Hunk told her. "That was my bad. Is he gonna be okay, though?"

"He'll be fine after he blows off some steam." Pidge told him. "Sometimes it's best just to give him his space."

Fine by him. He wasn't about to go after some cranky half alien with a mullet.

"So, back to the blue lion." Lance said. "You called me its chosen or something, right?"

Nodding her head, Allura stood up straight again. "Yes. Much like Pidge and Keith are the paladins of their respective lions, you are the paladin of the blue lion."

"So that means what, exactly?" Lance asked. "Because that sounds like some kind of super awesome destiny thing to me."

Furrowing her brow, Allura gave him a small frown. "Yes, I suppose it would be destiny. I do not know about it being super awesome though."

He barely even heard her, if he was going to be honest, too busy preening. Him? Chosen? Like some kind of legendary hero? How cool was that?

And they said he'd never amount to anything. Hah! In your face, Iverson- he was a chosen pilot, and what were you? Just some underpaid military man working at a base in the dusty desert.

"I don't know, Lance." Hunk frowned. "From the sound of it, it kind of sounds like she's saying you have to fight against these Galra Empire guys."

"Pssh, how hard can it be?" Waving his hand, Lance brushed off his concerns. "I mean, this Voltron thing is supposed to be like, crazy powerful, right?"

"It's not that simple." Matt told him, his gaze hard. "Voltron might be powerful, but Zarkon's been building this empire of his for ten thousand years. Earth is located in one of the few pockets of space he hasn't conquered yet."

"Matt's right." Pidge told him. "If we don't stop him, then it's only a matter of time before the Galra Empire invades Earth."

Oh, that... that sounded bad, yeah. Exchanging a glance with Hunk, it sunk into him then that maybe this whole thing was actually serious. It was just... some kind of alien space war sounded like something straight out of science fiction, but this was reality, wasn't it?

People died in reality.

"Matt and Pidge are correct." Allura told him. "Even with Voltron's power, it will not be an easy fight. We are still short two paladins and two lions, so we will not even be able to form Voltron until we find them."

"If you accept your destiny as the blue paladin, and come with us, I cannot say when you will be able to return to Earth." Allura confessed. "Finding another blue paladin will be difficult, but not impossible, and I would not wish to force this destiny on you, nor anyone else. The choice is yours."

"I-" Opening and shutting his mouth, Lance realized that he didn't know what to say to that.

Going into space? Flying the blue lion? Fighting evil aliens? That all sounded awesome, he wasn't going to lie.

But leaving behind Earth? His family? His friends?

Looking over at Hunk, he tried to picture a world where he wouldn't be able to just knock on his door any time he wanted. And his mom? Sure, he was only able to visit her on holidays, but Texas and Cuba were still a lot closer than Cuba and like... the rest of the universe.

But if Earth got taken over by these Galra Empire guys, would he even have a choice?

"I don't know." Lance admitted, shoulders sagging. "Can I think about it?"

Nodding her head, Allura gave him an understanding smile. "Of course."

"While you're thinking about that, any chance you can tell us who the Commander who found you with the blue lion was?" Pidge asked.

"Commander Iverson." Lance told her. "Why?"

"Need to know whose computer to hack." Pidge told him. "We'll be using the open house tomorrow to sneak into the Garrison as prospective cadets. All information about the blue lion is housed on the Garrison's internal network, so I need to be on the inside to gain access to it."

"Can't they like, charge with treason for that?" Hunk asked.

Shrugging her shoulders, Pidge looked indifferent. "Eh. We're already on Zarkon's Most Wanted list. Being charged with treason is nothing."

"Pretty sure they'd have to bring me back from the dead to charge me with treason." Matt pointed out. "God, it's so fucked up that I'm legally dead."

"Still not off the hook for those birthday presents." Pidge noted, elbowing her brother with a cheeky grin.

"Remind me the next time we're hanging around the black market. I'll pick you up something shiny." Matt told her.

Crinkling her nose, Pidge made a face. "Ugh, I hate shiny. And you don't just hang around the black market, Matt."

"I like shiny." Allura ventured, holding up a hand, regal countenance seeming to fade at once.

Exchanging a glance with Hunk, for a moment, Lance couldn't help but wonder exactly what it was that he'd gotten them into- and who with.

"They leave?"

"They're gone." Pidge told him. "So you got the hoverbike working, huh?"

Resting his hand on it, Keith looked down at it. Honestly, he didn't know why he had worked so hard to restore it. He would only be leaving it behind again. Sure, he could ask Pidge to load it into the green lion, and they could take it to space with them, but compared to what they had come here to retrieve, his father's old hoverbike sounded so low priority.

Being selfish wasn't something he was good at.

"It was my father's."

For the life of him, he didn't know why he told her that. Maybe some part of him was just tired. Being here, on Earth... it felt like it was harder to keep things a secret, especially now that he was back at the shack, back to the closest thing he'd ever had to a home.

As expected, she perked up at the small bit of information right away. Pidge being Pidge, she'd probably already figured out he'd been raised here.

"Yeah?" She asked. "What did he do?"

Glancing down at her, he debated telling her. It wasn't like it would hurt if she knew, and she might even find it kind of funny. After all, the red lion was supposed to be the Guardian Spirit of Fire, so it fit.

"Firefighter."

Just as he expected, she let out a faint laugh. "What, and his son goes on to pilot the red lion? Now that sounds like fate."

"Yeah well," cracking a grin, Keith stroked the hoverbike, "-he probably would have gotten a kick out of it too."

He probably would have. He still didn't know what it was that his father had been doing with the blue lion, nor what it was that his mother had wanted with it, but the two things had to be connected. He could only hope that burning all of his research on it wouldn't backfire on him, praying that there was nothing important in there.

He just... he didn't want them to think any less of him. If they saw all of that...

Stupid, he knew. He'd be leaving them eventually anyways, and then they probably would. Maybe he was better at being selfish than he gave himself credit for.

"What happened to him?" Pidge asked, in that quiet tone of hers, when she dared a question she feared he wouldn't answer. She was naturally curious, he knew, so the fact that she let so much slip by without question was... he appreciated it. Really.

Closing his eyes, Keith turned away. "He died."

Out of the corner of his eye, peeking one open, he watched the way her face fell. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Keith told her. "It was a long time ago."

"How long?" She asked.

Leaning back against the hoverbike, Keith glanced down at his hand. Brows knitting together, he balled it into a fist, hiding the purple from view.

"I was eight."

Eight years old, and all alone in the world. Dead father, absent mother. It sounded like a sob story. Keith hated it.

"The shack was his." He continued, looking towards it. She already seemed to have figured out that much, no point in hiding it any longer. "We used to live here together."

He caught the glint in her eyes, one of a theory confirmed. "Christ, no wonder you're such a nature boy."

Giving her a small smile, Keith let out a faint laugh. "You should give it a shot. It might surprise you."

Crinkling her nose, Pidge made a face. "No thanks. I'll take a computer any day."

"Missing out." He told her. "Lance agree to help us?"

"Sort of." Pidge told him. "He'll help us get the blue lion, but he says he needs to think about the whole paladin commitment."

Figures. As far as he could tell, he was just a normal run of the mill kid. Who the hell in their right mind would want to leave that behind, to fight a war in space?

Not that he was much of one to talk there. Not when he was planning to ditch everyone once they'd found all the lions. He wasn't sure what he'd do after that. Take his ship and leave, scramble the transponder code so Pidge couldn't find him. Maybe he'd keep searching for Pidge's father, if they hadn't found him by that point.

Keep looking for Shiro.

He'd bring him home, one day.

"You think he'll come?" Keith asked.

"Don't know." Pidge said with a shrug. "It's not like he's got any stake in this. We might be better off trying to find a new blue paladin. Maybe Matt could take a swing at it."

"Bet he'd like that." Keith observed.

"He would." Pidge said. "I think he's still hoping for the yellow lion."

"Not the black lion?" Keith asked.

"He said he's not ready for that kind of commitment." Pidge told him, and unable to help himself, he let out a loud snort. "Feeling better?"

Blinking, Keith glanced down at her. The idea of having people who worried about him was so strange- he thought he'd been getting used to it, back when he had lived with Shiro, but once he had been taken by the Galra, he'd forgotten the trick of it again.

Nobody worried about a halfbreed prisoner.

Nobody worried about a weapon.

"Yeah." Keith lied. "A bit. Sorry about storming out like that."

"Eh, can't really blame you." Pidge said. "It took nearly a year for you to tell me that you were half-human. I can't exactly expect you to leap at the chance to tell your life story to someone you've barely even met."

"I told Matt." Keith pointed out.

"Eh, Matt doesn't count."

"Don't let him hear you say that." Keith told her. "Pretty sure he'd cry."

"I'm his little sister." Pidge told him. "Making him cry is practically my job. Now come on, we've got a heist to plan."

Pushing himself up off the hoverbike, Keith trailed behind her.

Family must be nice.