One freshly finished chapter, for your enjoyment! As always, thanks for reading, and sticking with me through every chapter! I don't have much to say this time around, so I will just let you all get to the new content! Until next time!
maroon
chapter fifteen
bonds
So Keith was purple.
That sure was a thing.
He must have been staring, because Keith paused in tearing apart the vaguely food-like strips they had been given to eat, staring back at him. He felt himself flinch, something about those golden eyes unsettling him, but he fought it down.
It was just Keith. Not some dangerous Galra poised to rip him apart, limb by limb. Just Keith. He was the same person he had been before, bad mullet and all. Heck, it was even worse now, what with the weird two tone thing it had going on- the top layer was a deep purple, the bottom was... what was that, magenta? Orchid? Rachel would be able to tell better than he could.
And with that pang of homesickness...
"Something on my face?" Keith had the audacity to ask, like his whole face hadn't changed in the three hours since he'd last saw him. And okay, maybe that was an exaggeration- his whole face hadn't actually changed that much, his facial features were pretty much the same as they had been when he'd looked human. He might not have any pupils, but the shape of his eyes hadn't changed, and the only thing that had changed- his nose, which was flatter than he remembered- didn't do much to change the overall shape of his face.
But look- three hours ago, Keith had been human. Or he'd looked it, at least. And now he was Galra, all claws and sharp teeth and purple fur.
Okay, so he didn't really have fur, except for like, on his head, which was super weird, but listen- he was still purple and that was a fact.
A fact he could deal with. It was an adjustment, that's all.
"You mean aside from your ugly mug?" Lance retorted. "Nah, just wondering how you can even stomach that stuff."
Keith just blinked, tearing off half a strip of dried meat. "It's good."
"It literally has no flavor." Lance shot back.
"Sorry Keith, but I'm with Lance on this one." Hunk chimed in.
Keith merely blinked again, swallowing. "Earth food has too much flavor."
"Keith!" Hunk gasped, sounding betrayed. "I thought we were making a breakthrough!"
The only reason he actually knew Keith was looking at Hunk was because he literally turned his head to do so. He totally could not track where those eyes of his were looking. Maybe he wasn't a science geek like Pidge, but he couldn't help but wonder just how they worked. Did they actually have no pupils or like, could they just not see them?
Weird. He hadn't thought about it before. Even while Antok had been showing them around the base- although, to be fair, what with the one eye, he had to do a lot of head turning so it was kind of easy to figure out where he was looking. He wondered if that was like, a common Galra thing or not, because he hadn't seen any others with just the one eye.
Or the tail, for that matter.
Heck, there were a lot of Galra around here that didn't seem to fit the mold. He was pretty sure he'd seen at least one with what had to be wings of some kind.
Maybe Pidge was right. Maybe they really didn't know a whole lot about the Galra. Heck, he'd been guilty of thinking of them as one whole, mindless mass of evil. Which, to be fair- it wasn't exactly like they had any examples to the contrary. Not before Ulaz.
Or well, he guess technically they did, but they hadn't known Keith was Galra, so you know what? It didn't count. It totally didn't count.
"I'm not saying it's bad," Keith told Hunk, "-I just don't see why it's necessary."
"Keith, I just want you to know how much those words are hurting my heart right now." Hunk told him, placing a hand over his heart as if to emphasize. "Right here. They're hurting me right here."
"I know where your heart is Hunk." Keith stated, and he was pretty sure he had just rolled his eyes. He had to have picked that up while on Earth, because there was no way that was a common Galra thing, what with the- you know, the lack of pupils and all that.
"What, cooking not a big Galra thing?" Pidge asked.
Tilting his head, Keith frowned. "Not really. It's more efficient this way. Rations like these can be taken on missions. Not everyone has time to sit down in the mess hall and eat."
"Well yeah," Hunk admitted, "-but is it always rations?"
Keith hummed, ripping off another chunk of a dried fruit strip. "Not always. Sometimes during festivals, Kolivan arranges for a real meal."
"Real, huh?" Lance noted, arching a brow. "So you admit this stuff's not actual food."
"It's food." Keith said flatly. "And you know what I mean."
Yeah, he did. But he was not going to pass on the chance to mess with Keith- he might be all purple and Galra-y now, but as far as he was concerned, that didn't change anything. They were rivals, dammit, regardless of whatever Keith might think.
Maybe if he kept telling himself that, he wouldn't have to face the crushing truth Keith's revelation had brought about- that he'd probably never considered him his rival at all. Not at the Garrison, not with Voltron. Why would he? He was an actual alien, for Pete's sake- he grew up flying ships out of a base that was stationed in between two black holes.
Of course he'd never be able to match up.
And that was depressing. Time to think about something else, Lance.
"Festivals?" Hunk asked, and Lance muttered a silent thank you for the subject change. "You guys have those?"
"Sort of." Keith frowned. "Kolivan tries to keep as many old traditions alive as he can, but it's not easy. Zarkon's second reign ushered in a cultural reformation that eliminated most of the old ways. Anything that wasn't related to the expanse of the Empire was left behind, even outlawed on some occasions. I think the only old tradition the Galra Empire has left is the Kral Zera, and even that hasn't been hosted for centuries."
He recited it like he was reciting a textbook, Lance thought.
"Wait," Pidge frowned, "-second reign?"
Keith blinked, tilting his head. "...yes?"
"Yeah, you kind of lost us with that." Lance remarked. "What do you mean by second?"
Blinking, Keith frowned, opening his mouth to answer, only to quickly shut it, his gauntlet making a faint beeping sound. He didn't miss the way his ears twitched at it, kind of like he'd seen Allura and Coran's do sometimes, whenever they caught a distant sound- usually one that no one else could hear.
(He wouldn't admit it, but he'd kind of secretly been hoping for fuzzy ears. Like Sendak's.)
Holding up a finger, Keith turned around, bringing up a screen. He could just make out Kolivan's image, before his own gauntlet gave off a beep.
Bringing it up, Shiro's image flickered into focus. Huh. Guess their meeting was over, then.
"Lance, Hunk, Pidge, think you three can come down to the meeting area?" Shiro asked. "We've just about finished sorting out the tasks that need to be taken care of for this plan to work."
"Copy that, team leader." Lance said, resisting the urge to give him a mock salute, but just the moniker was enough to cause Shiro to arch a brow in mild amusement. "We'll be there in a few minutes."
"Great." Shiro said. "Kolivan should be contacting Keith, so-"
"Keith's actually with us, Shiro." Pidge piped up.
Blinking, a faint look of relief crossed the black paladin's face. "That's good to hear. How...?"
"He's fine." Hunk supplied. "Definitely purple, but fine."
Something in Shiro's shoulders eased at the confirmation. He knew why he was asking- the mention of surgery had caused him to stiffen, one hand straying to his right arm. He kind of got it- nobody exactly had to ask to know that Shiro had gone through some pretty traumatic stuff during his year as a Galra prisoner.
Any mention of surgery probably sufficed to make him nervous.
"Good to hear it." Shiro said. "I won't hold you up."
The communications cut off from their leader's end. Lance glanced up towards Keith. He'd finished his call with Kolivan, an expression on his face that could only be apprehension. No way he hadn't overheard that.
"You okay, Keith?" Pidge asked.
Blinking, Keith slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, fine."
He was lying. Badly. Lance couldn't help but wonder just how he'd managed to keep them in the dark for so long when he sucked this bad at it.
And here he thought that the Blade of Marmora were supposed to be like, elite spies or something. If he didn't know any better, he'd say Keith had just been making shit up as he went along. Granted, he was sort of getting the impression that Keith was like, a baby agent or something, but still- his poker face could use some work.
"Anyways," Keith got up before anyone could say anything else, like he didn't want to talk about it, "-we should probably get going. Kolivan's not a fan of being kept waiting."
And that got Lance to his feet. Because thus far, his impression of the Blade of Marmora's leader was a guy that he seriously did not want to piss off.
Shiro had to admit, he was a bit nervous.
When Kolivan had brought up the matter of Keith at the tail end of the initial alliance meeting, he'd kind of sensed what he was about to ask. The only thing he knew as to how Keith was keeping a human form was that he was using something, in his own words- which out here, could have meant a million things.
In this case, it meant a chip.
Kolivan had given them an explanation, but he was pretty sure Allura understood it better than anyone else in the room had. When fused to the body, it could be programmed to manipulate an individual's quintessence, altering it to match that of another race's, within limitations.
Effectively, it could be used for shapeshifting. It was how Keith had not only managed to look human for so long, but also how he had fooled the bulk of the Galaxy Garrison's medical checks.
It had been designed and built by a reazit, which had been quickly explained as the Galra equivalent of a human psychic, or an Altean alchemist. Allura had frowned at the latter comparison, but she did not dispute it.
Said reazit was Keith's grandmother.
He'd hadn't been able to gather much information about her, other than the fact that her name had been Svatavi, and that sadly, she had passed on. Felled during a mission, Kolivan mentioned briefly, though he didn't spare any details. Aside from Keith, she was the only reazit the Blade of Marmora had- from what he had understood, those born with the gift within the Galra Empire were taken to become druids.
Even Allura had paled at that.
Said chip could be used for years- decades, even- without faltering, and without harming the one it had been planted in. Before Keith, there had been a Blade of Marmora agent who had used it for the upwards of seventy years, infiltrating the Unilu, and using said connections to divert resources to the Blades. They only had to stop because the Galra Empire literally wiped out the supply chain overnight.
What Kolivan was asking was if Allura wished it to continue to be used.
He hadn't missed the way Keith had gone pale at the question, nor the way he had dropped his gaze, not looking at any of them. Like he had already given up hope on getting a positive response.
It struck him then, that Keith missed being Galra.
It should have been obvious. If he had been forced to live as a Galra for years, he would miss being human too. But somehow, he'd never even stopped to consider it.
Maybe it was because as much as Keith had admitted to it, it was hard to imagine him as being Galra. He had no frame of reference for what he might look like- although the Galra he had encountered after coming out of the corrupted wormhole kept coming back to mind.
They had been awfully alike.
Lifting her head, Allura sensed his gaze on her. He looked away, fixing it back straight ahead. She'd made the right choice, but he couldn't help but wonder why.
Kolivan had been right- that from the perspective of the universe, it would have been better if all of the paladins were human. Or at the very least, not Galra.
He'd been certain that Allura would agree with that.
But also... if he had to be honest, he was a bit nervous about seeing Keith. It left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he couldn't exactly deny that he'd been through hell at the hands of the Galra Empire. His right arm was testament to that, a permanent reminder that he wasn't quite the same person he had been going in.
So to see Keith as Galra...
He'd probably be fine, but the lingering possibility was there.
The door to the meeting room opened, and Shiro looked up. Pidge was first, filing in and taking the same seat next to Allura she had the first time. Lance followed behind her, taking the seat next to Pidge, and Hunk came behind him, taking the seat across from Allura.
Then came Keith.
He recognized it was him right away. Even if he hadn't been in the civilian clothes he'd fetched from the Castle for him, and had instead been in Blade armor, he'd probably still have recognized him just as quick. The shape of his face, his body type and height, the style of his hair... none of those things had changed.
He also looked remarkably like Krolia. The markings on his cheeks, the ears, the two toned hair... his pupils had vanished, which wasn't something he'd expected, but if anything, the resemblance between the two had only increased, even if what had linked them at first was now gone. Maybe his gut instinct had been right- maybe they were related.
He felt himself relax.
At the same time, he sensed Allura stiffen. Gaze flickering towards her, he took note of the hard set of her jaw, not quite looking at Keith, yet somehow unable to tear her eyes away from him at the same time. As if visual confirmation meant that she could no longer deny the truth that was in front of her.
He wanted to say something to Keith, but now wasn't the time. After.
Kolivan lifted his head, looking towards the red paladin. "Kyix."
Keith exhaled, trying to ignore the pointed look he was getting from Allura. Instead, he took the seat closest to Kolivan, just as he had the first time around. "You called?"
Inclining his head, Kolivan transitioned into business seamlessly. It was easy to tell that he had already been doing this for thousands of years, a fact that was still mind boggling to him. "Yes. We have made some arrangements."
"As you know," Allura began, her voice sharp enough to make Keith flinch, though he wasn't sure she'd done it on purpose, "-in order for this plan to succeed, we will need to build a teleduv large enough to transport Zarkon's ship."
"So, more scaultrite, right?" Hunk asked.
"Yes." Allura told him. "A lot more."
Hunk perked up, looking a bit hopeful. "Am I sensing a trip back to the space mall here?"
"I am afraid not." Allura said. "While the Blade of Marmora has some scaultrite in their own reserves, it is nowhere near enough to construct a teleduv of this size. We will have to get some the old fashioned way."
Hunk chewed on his lip, suddenly nervous. "...and that would be?"
"Going into the belly of a Weblum." Keith half-muttered.
"Kyix is correct." Kolivan stated. "Which is why he will be tasked with retrieving it alongside you, paladin Hunk."
"Wait," holding up a hand, Hunk frowned, "-are you saying I have to go into the belly of some... what exactly is a Weblum anyways? Is it like a Balmera? Please tell me it's like a Balmera."
"Space worm." Keith remarked, crinkling his nose. "Eats planets. Dead ones."
"...a space worm." Hunk repeated.
"Yup." Keith told him. "Real riot."
Hunk cringed, but wisely chose not to say anything else, eyes darting towards Kolivan, and then up towards where Antok lingered behind him, remaining standing.
"As for the rest of you," Allura began, frowning at the interruption, "-Lance, you will take Pidge and Shiro in the blue lion to rescue a prisoner from a high security Galra prison facility."
"A prisoner?" Pidge asked, adjusting her glasses.
"Slav." Shiro told her.
Pidge blinked. "You mean the genius that Ulaz mentioned? The one who built the gravity generator?"
"Wait," Keith frowned, "-Slav got captured?"
"Several phoebs ago." Kolivan informed him.
Keith cringed at that, even harder than he had at the mention of the Weblum. He honestly couldn't recall a single time that he'd looked more visibly disgusted, and for a moment, he couldn't help but wonder what type of person this Slav was. All he knew about him was that he was a genius engineer on par with the Olkari, if not better.
And if the Blade of Marmora thought of him as a valuable asset, then he probably was. So Keith's reaction was a little... well, curious.
"So, escort duty." Lance said. "Right, I can do that. What will you be doing, princess?"
Allura gave him a faint smile. "I will return to the Balmera. We will be in need of a crystal."
Coran would head to Olkarion, make arrangements with the Olkari. The Castle of Lions had blueprints for the teleduv stored in its archives, so they would need those.
"So when do we leave?" Pidge asked.
"As soon as it is safe for your ship to depart." Kolivan remarked. "In the meantime, you are welcome to make use of our base."
"Am I to assume that we will still need escorts?" Allura asked.
"No." Kolivan said simply. "Now that the terms of our alliance have been worked out, you can come and go as you please. With a few exceptions."
"Exceptions?" Allura asked, narrowing her eyes. "Like what?"
"Restricted areas." Kolivan stated. "I would much rather avoid having one of your paladins get into an accident."
"If you were to fall into the base's main power generator," Antok supplied, "-there would not be a trace of you left to clean up. Very efficient."
Allura merely inclined her brows. "Duly noted."
"Yeah, yeah, definitely noted." Hunk agreed.
"Good." Kolivan said, rising to his feet. "Unless you have anything else to add, Princess Allura, I believe we can adjourn this meeting."
Allura's gaze briefly flickered towards Keith, before she looked back towards Kolivan. "I believe that is all. Assuming this virus of yours works, this will provide us with the best shot yet that we have had to take down Zarkon."
"It will work." Kolivan insisted.
Allura merely frowned. "Let us hope."
Sensing the tension quickly building in the air, Shiro got to his feet. "Right. Paladins, dismissed. It's been a long day, but do try to stay out of trouble."
"Keith," catching the red paladin's eye, he gave him a faint smile, "-you have a minute?"
Blinking, Keith slowly nodded his head. "Sure."
"I won't hold you up for too long." Shiro told him. "This is your first time back home in awhile, I'm sure there's plenty of things you want to catch up on."
Something in Keith eased at those words. Turning his head, he looked towards Kolivan, who merely inclined his own. A faint smile twitching at the edge of his lips, Keith turned back towards him. "Guess we can talk."
"Know any places around here that are good for that?" Shiro asked.
He swore Keith almost seemed to light up at that, quickly nodding his head. He took that as his cue to file in behind him- he didn't know if Keith had just specifically lead them on a winding route to the meeting room, or if the base was just designed that way, but somehow, he got the feeling it was pretty easy to get lost around here if you didn't know where you were going.
And he didn't get the advantage of having the grand tour.
He fell into step behind Keith. The curl of his hair over the collar of his jacket was the same, but the contrast was less stark now- the pink purple of his hair was less vibrant against the white of his jacket's high collar. As if sensing his eyes on him, he twitched it up, peeking back towards him.
"Ilun said you got them for me."
Ilun? Probably another Blade, Shiro quickly determined. He vaguely recalled handing them off to a short, female Blade, so that must have been her.
"Thought you might need something to change into." Shiro told him. "Although I guess you probably actually had clothes of your own here, now that I think about it."
Keith gave him a faint smile. "Yeah."
They didn't say anything much after that- he was content to let Keith guide him to wherever he was taking him. The mood between them was an easy one- and he was grateful for it.
He'd have hated it if it turned out he was just all talk.
But he was... yeah, he was fine with this. With Keith like this. This was the real Keith- and frankly, Shiro was just glad he was getting the chance to get to know him. It couldn't have been easy, keeping it a secret for so long, on a strange alien planet.
His lips twitched a bit at that. To Keith, they were the aliens.
"We're here."
Looking up, Shiro blinked. The room they were in was both large and completely empty, though Keith was already busy tapping away at some controls. Before he could even ask, the air around them shimmered, the walls melting into a completely different place.
He recognized it at once as the view from the Galaxy Garrison's rooftop.
"I sent them this one." Keith remarked, folding his arms in front of him.
"I- this is the view from the Garrison." Shiro stated. "What is...?"
"Technically, its a training room." Keith told hm. "It uses hard light holograms to simulate various terrains so that we can practice our skills on difficult terrains. But there are a few Blades who were born planetside that use it for stuff like this, so they don't get stir crazy between missions."
"Huh." Shiro frowned. "And you sent them a panoramic view of Earth's horizon."
Shrugging his shoulders, Keith chanced a faint grin. It wasn't that different, he thought, from what he was used to. "I liked it."
"Glad to hear it." Shiro remarked. "Guess Earth wasn't all bad then."
"Maybe." Keith admitted. "It's still backwater, though."
"I can't really dispute that." Shiro admitted.
Keith just nodded. "You said you wanted to talk?"
"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Shiro said. "We might not be going anywhere for another two days, but that's still a pretty tight timeline. Was your surgery...?"
"My surgery was fine." Keith said, maybe a little too quick for his tastes, but maybe he was just in a hurry to reassure him everything was okay. "It just stings a little, that's all. It'll be better by tomorrow. Galra heal quickly."
"Just wanted to make sure." Shiro said. "Getting scaultrite sounds pretty tough."
Keith grimaced. "That's one way of putting it."
"And how would you put it?" Shiro asked.
"Disgusting." Keith said frankly.
Snorting, Shiro grinned. "Which is why Hunk will probably need you."
Humming, Keith nodded his head. "I never said I wasn't going. I'm still a paladin."
Brow furrowing, he dropped his gaze. "I think."
"You are." Shiro reassured him. "The red lion knew you were Galra when it chose you. Allura knows that."
"She's probably not happy about it." Keith said.
"No," Shiro admitted, "-she's not. But she just needs some time to digest the information."
He was pretty sure that universally hating the Galra had been supporting Allura all this time. The shock of betrayal was probably easier to handle if she viewed it as inevitable- letting herself believe that the Galra were evil was probably easier than thinking that those she had ounce trusted had all turned on her. To be shown otherwise...
...all things said, she was handling it pretty well.
Looking up at him, Keith frowned. "Do you think she hates me?"
"No." Shiro said, resolute. "I don't think she hates you, Keith. She knows you better than that."
Snorting, Keith quirked a brow. "I haven't exactly been that social with her."
"No," he admitted, "-but I think your actions have spoken enough."
Considering that, Keith leveled his gaze with his. "What about you?"
Blinking, Shiro frowned. "What about me?"
"I mean..." Trailing off, Keith spread out his arms, shifting uncomfortably on his feet, "-me. Are you okay with me? Like this?"
Biting back a comment that he thought that was obvious, it occurred to Shiro that maybe to Keith, it wasn't. "Like I told you, you being Galra doesn't change anything."
Staring at him, Keith eventually looked away. He'd spent a year as a prisoner of the Galra Empire, so he'd gotten pretty good at being able to glean where they were looking.
"So," Shiro said, changing the topic, "-you grew up here?"
Without looking at him, Keith nodded. "Yeah. Just me and my mom."
"And a couple dozen Blades." He added, with a faint smile.
"Your mom, huh?" Shiro asked. "What's she like?"
Looking up, Keith quirked a brow. "You already met her."
"Huh," Shiro said, knowing right away that he meant Krolia, "-you two look alike."
"We get that a lot." Keith said.
"I'm guessing your father wasn't in the picture." Shiro observed.
He hadn't meant anything by it, but Keith went rigid at the remark. "No. He's dead."
He said it so coldly, that he couldn't help but wonder how much of his original theory had been true. Whoever Keith's father was, he didn't seem to care much that he was dead. Guess that negativity he'd picked up on hadn't just been in his head.
He also knew better than to press.
"I'm guessing that's probably why Krolia kept asking about you." Shiro said, changing the topic instead.
Keith blinked. "She asked about me?"
"Not you specifically." Shiro noted. "But she did ask."
He brightened at that. "It's been awhile since we've seen each other. We're not supposed to have contact while she's in deep cover."
"Sounds rough." Shiro observed. From what he had gleaned, Keith's age was one of the few things he hadn't outright lied about on his enlistment form- being separated from your only parent at a young age couldn't have been easy, even if there was no way Keith could have possibly been truly lonely on a base with this many people on it.
No wonder he seemed so close to the other Blades.
"That's what being a Blade is." Keith told him. "We're fighting an impossible war. Or we were, before Voltron."
Impossible war. The words gave him pause, and he realized that Keith was right. Before Voltron came along, fighting against the Galra Empire really had to have seemed like an impossible war- a fight that they could never win. The odds were so wildly out of their favor, that it would have been easier to give up.
But they hadn't.
Resting a hand on Keith's shoulder, Shiro smiled. "You're a part of that too, you know."
Looking up, Keith just stared at him for a long moment. He wondered briefly at the swoops of red at the corner of his eyes, if they were from his father, or some other relative. Krolia hadn't had them.
"I know." He finally said.
Nodding his head, Shiro gave his shoulder a pat. "Good to hear it. But I did promise not to take up too much of your time, so I'll let you go now. But Keith?"
"Yeah?"
Motioning towards the walls, he gave the red paladin a genuine smile. "Thanks for this."
Watching Shiro go, Keith exhaled.
That... could have gone worse. Honestly, he didn't even know why he had been so worried- Shiro had already told him that the fact that he was Galra didn't bother him. It wasn't like he thought he was lying to him.
But he'd still been anxious.
He'd been anxious around the paladins too, but it hadn't been as bad. He didn't know them as well, not as well as he knew Shiro. And Allura... he'd be satisfied if they could just reach some sort of understanding. He wasn't expecting much from her.
But Shiro had been fine. So had the paladins, for that matter. Sure, the hair thing had been a little weird, but after lying to them for so long, he guessed he could endure a little weirdness between them.
It almost made him want to laugh. What had he even been so worried about?
Shiro had been right- him being Galra really hadn't changed anything. Nothing that mattered, at any rate. Sure, Allura was bound to treat him more cooly now, but their relationship had never been that great to begin with, and honestly?
He could understand why she would.
They probably did need to talk, to work things out... but not now. Shiro was right- it had been awhile since he was home. If he was only going to be here for another two days, he'd better make the most of it while he still had the chance.
With that in mind, he made a beeline for Ilun's quarters. He had a promise to keep.
To his surprise, he found that it was Vrek, not Ilun, who was waiting for him. And no child.
For a second, he was worried, before he quickly concluded that there was no way Vrek would be so casually sitting around, reading a mission briefing if there had been a problem with either his wife or child.
Vrek merely locked eyes with him. Unlike his wife, he had pupils, but unlike his mother's, they were thin, like narrow pricks set against yellow sclera. "Come looking for Ilun?"
"I promised I'd see her youngling." Keith said. "Your youngling."
"Just missed them." Vrek told him. "Went up to Naveera's."
Making a faint hum, Keith's gaze flicked across their quarters. The pair had linked their sleeping holes, creating a single vast one. It looked recent- but Vrek had been sent away on his mission maybe a phoeb before Keith had been sent to Earth. He wouldn't have been around to see the birth of his own child.
But that was just how things worked around here. It was normal. They couldn't spare the Blades, just for something like that. Ilun herself would have been given time to bond with her newborn, and Kolivan would never send anyone who was pregnant into danger, but the father was a different matter.
Especially Vrek, who was one of their foremost weapons specialists.
"So," Vrek began, eying him, "-I hear you're a paladin."
Lips quirking into a grin, Keith shrugged. "Might be."
"Little mischief-making Kyix, a paladin." Vrek teased, and for once, he allowed it- after all, Ilun was also aket, and Vrek had married her regardless. "Who would have thought. The universe has a strange sense of humor."
"Tell that to Kolivan." Keith remarked. "I'm pretty sure he was ready to yank out his fur at the news."
That earned him a laugh. "Since when have you never not garnered that reaction from him?"
"There's probably been an occasion." Keith said. "Can't say when, but it must have happened at least once."
"Forgive me if I do not take your word for it, youngling." Vrek teased. "Be off with you. Go amongst your kind."
Crinkling his nose, Keith frowned. "I'm not really a youngling anymore."
"That is what all younglings say." Vrek said simply.
Narrowing his eyes, he knew there was nothing he could say to that. He could think of at least one rude Earth gesture he could use in response, but out here, it wouldn't exactly have any meaning.
Besides, it would probably only prove Vrek's point.
Excusing himself, Keith made his way up to the nursery. Children were raised there until their first cycle of life, after which they would begin living with their parents. But it also served as a place for parents to leave their children when they were on missions, or were otherwise unable to tend to them on their own.
He hadn't been raised in the nursery, but that went without saying.
Maybe it seemed to contrary to his image, but he did actually like kids. It was expected for the younger members of the Blade to assist with looking after the children- and given the circumstances, that basically amounted to him right now.
When they got a little older, he'd be in charge of their training. Or at least, that was how it was supposed to be- with his new paladin status, that was now up in the air.
He came to an abrupt halt just outside of the nursery. Swallowing, Keith felt his muscles tense, as he tried to process the unexpected sight.
Allura.
He knew she had been given free reign to come and go where she pleased- but he just hadn't expected to find her here. He'd expected... he didn't know, exactly. That she might hole up in the bunk room that she and the paladins had been given for the duration of their stay, or that maybe she would spend all her time in the archives, sorting through several centuries worth of information.
Maybe even take out her frustrations in one of the training rooms.
Just... not here, in front of the nursery.
Lotor was half-Altean. He bit down on his lip, trying to avoid making that link, knowing it was absurd the moment it popped into his head. The princess was nothing like Lotor. Whatever she was here for, it wasn't for that.
Stirring, Allura looked up at him- and to his surprise, blinked. As if she hadn't expected to see him here.
He felt himself stiffen under her gaze. "Princess."
She did much the same. "Kyix."
Right. Guess they were having that talk after all.