"You need some ice for that?"
Keith looked up from pushing his breakfast around with his spoon. Hunk stood on the other side of the table, holding a bowl of green breakfast goop in each hand. The yellow paladin smiled at him.
"I'm fine," Keith frowned.
"What was that?" Hunk asked, leaning in. The tail of his bandana slipped over his shoulder, and swung dangerously close to the mound of green goo Keith had made in the bowl before him.
"I said I'm fine!" Keith snapped. Then sighed. "Thanks though."
"No problem, man," Hunk shrugged.
Keith watched Hunk saunter away to join Pidge at a neighboring table with his one good eye. The other was so bruised from his mishap in the training room the night before that he could not even open it. The circumference of his right eye socket was black, tinged with a deep blue that made his face look like a fruit that had gone bad. He wondered how long it would take Lance to ask him if he was going to get a "sweet eyepatch for that". Keith absentmindedly scratched the side of his nose and winced. He couldn't put an eyepatch over this even if he wanted to.
It's your own damn fault, you know, he thought, gazing into the churning green abyss of his breakfast. You shouldn't have let yourself get distracted like that. Not by - the doors to the cafeteria slid open. Keith's head instinctively jerked up.
His eye widened as Shiro walked in, tall and lean and perfectly trim in his armor. Keith quickly looked down at the bowl in front of him, but not before he saw of Shiro's expression crumpled in disappointment at the sight of him. It wasn't like this was the first time Keith had gotten himself a black eye. Shiro and Adam had patched him up after plenty of fights. He scoffed into his breakfast. But never after a fight he'd lost with a computer.
"You did this to yourself," he muttered, forcing a mouthful of the Altean protein paste down his throat. It wasn't half as bitter as his words. That much was helpful.
Shiro sat down on the bench across from him, but Keith said nothing, just shoveled another spoonful of into his mouth.
"What happened yesterday after training?" Shiro asked.
"It's fine," Keith mumbled between big, sticky bites, refusing to meet Shiro's gaze. "I'm fine. Really."
"Keith," Shiro's brow raised, nonplussed. "I'm not talking about your face."
Keith tried to swallow. A deluge of swears was stymied only by the glob of breakfast goo that had gummed up his tongue. His mind raced to how fear had spread across Allura's features in the dark. He felt his heart begin to thump beneath his armor at the thought of his own face, how he had felt it, twisting. He had felt it start in his eyes, something inside grasping at him, pulling itself up from inside him by the threads of his own fear. And anger.
He hadn't meant for it to happen. Not like that. All he had wanted was for Allura to back off. That was all. He tried to swallow.
"Can we talk about this later?" Keith choked, forcing his breakfast down his throat.
"If you want to finish your breakfast," Shiro said, calmly. "I can wait."
The red paladin pinched his nose as he felt a headache coming on, and a bolt of electric agony seared through his face. He could not suppress the wince that made his face crumple beneath his hand.
"Come on," Shiro said, quietly.
He got up first. Keith followed, abandoning his breakfast at the table. He was sure he would catch flack for it later. Though some small part of him hoped that maybe, just maybe Hunk would clean up his mess. It was promptly cutoff by the part of him that knew the truth. No one was going to clean up his messes for him. He glanced up as the doors slid open.
Not even Shiro.
Keith slid into the hall behind him, his one good eye darting down the corridor. They were alone. For now. Shiro tilted his head to the right and they hung a corner. Keith tread lightly, hoping no one would hear. One of the many lessons of all those long nights at the Garrison. Keep your step light. Your breath tight. Always be on the lookout for -
Shiro stopped, but not before Keith did. His nose jammed into Shiro's armored shoulder and he stifled a groan of agony.
"What the - " he hissed.
Keith opened his one good eye to see Shiro paused at another corridor corner. Shiro did not speak, only held up a hand behind him. He was so close. So close that if Keith swayed to the left, Shiro's hand would graze his hip.
"You okay?" Shiro asked, glancing over his shoulder.
"Fine," Keith mumbled miserably, looking at the ground.
"Let's go."
The hallways of the Castle of Lions stretched on and on into the dark. Where Shiro went, Keith followed, the hole in his gut growing bigger with each step. Just when Keith was sure there were no more corners for Shiro to whip him around (on this floor), Shiro disappeared. Keith sighed, and dug his hands into the pockets of his armor.
And then his one good eye widened.
The door they had walked through led them to a room didn't even know the castle had. They were standing on an observation deck before a viewing window stretched from floor to ceiling. Shiro pressed a finger to a keypad on the wall, and the room fell into darkness. Keith's eyes dilated in on the stars. Constellations glittered at the edge of an orange gaseous nebula, brilliantly bright against the black expanse of space stretching on before them. Wow, Keith thought, as the word reshaped his mouth, but no sound came. The nebula's orange light stretched across the floor, illuminating Shiro's face.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Keith shrugged. "Until it collapses in on itself."
A gentle chuckle escaped Shiro, filling up the room. Keith chewed his lip, trying not to smile at the sound. No matter how serious Shiro was, he had always been able to make him laugh. On occasion, anyway. "This can't be what brought me here for," Keith said, flatly.
"I thought you might like to see it," Shiro was the one shrugging now. "It reminded me of the Spider Nebula."
There were several spider nebulas, and if Keith was being honest, he would have admitted that he had no idea which one Shiro was referring to. Keith forced himself to look at the nebula instead of Shiro. He had to hand it to him, this observation deck was quite a find. Keith hadn't heard any of the other paladins talking about it. It hadn't even come up in a passing comment from Coran, whose grandfather had designed the Castle of Lions himself. Keith took a deep breath. There was no telling what secrets the castle kept.
A small part of him wondered if this would be one of their secret places. Like the dunes overlooking the mesas. Keith closed his eyes, and could almost feel the castle's engines thrumming beneath his feet. And then he could feel their speeders, vibrating over the sand. He could feel the power of that engine it in his bones, electric and racing up the spine guard of his jacket. He opened his eyes and looked back at Shiro. Or maybe that was just what it felt like to stand so close to him.
"Allura didn't mention anything about giving you a black eye," Shiro said. Though he smiled, his tone was mirthless.
"Oh," Keith blinked. "This wasn't Allura. It was - " he stopped himself. This was already embarrassing enough. "What was it that Allura mentioned, exactly?"
"That you made her uncomfortable," Shiro replied, somberly. "What was said between you two is just that - between you two. But we're a team, Keith. We all need to act like it."
Keith crossed his arms over his chest. "Just because we're a team doesn't mean we all love each other."
"No one has to love anyone," Shiro stiffened. "But we do need to show one another mutual respect and courtesy."
Keith swallowed. He hated when Shiro was right. But he usually was. "Look, Shiro, I'm sorry -"
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Shiro said, simply, without anger or ire. His gaze remained trained on the observation window.
He did not look at Keith. But Keith looked back at him, watching the orange light of the nebula dance across his face. It highlighted his cheek bones. Brought warmth to his dark eyes. Illuminated his adam's apple, trailing down his throat to where his skin disappeared beneath his armor.
Keith shifted his weight. "I know."
"So you'll apologize to Allura then?" Shiro raised a brow, but did not look away from the nebula.
"I didn't say that." Keith looked at the ground. "I get that I made Allura uncomfortable, but what I said wasn't out of line."
"Keith," Shiro's brow furrowed in the dark. "Whatever you did say made her upset. We're a team. It's unacceptable to threaten -"
"I didn't threaten her."
Shiro held up his prosthetic hand, but Keith continued.
"And I don't agree with what she's doing." Keith took a step forward, into the light. It looked warm, but it brought no warmth into the room. It was just as cold as the rest of the universe. "If she knew what I know about y-" You. He almost made it.
"I told you about my condition in confidence," Shiro cut him off as he turned to face him. "And I expect it to stay that way. But that's not what we're here to talk about. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you agree with the princess or not. There is a chain of command here, and I need you to respect that."
"Excuse me?" Keith sputtered, blinking back at Shiro with his one good eye.
"If you disagree with Allura, I'm sure there's a more productive way for you to address that. After you apologize to her."
Shiro turned to face Keith. The look on his face made Keith's stomach sink. Shiro's mouth was a hard, unforgiving line across his face. His arms were crossed over the breastplate of his armor. "Please don't make me repeat myself again, Paladin."
Keith shrunk back into the shadow of the unlit room. Is that all I am to you? Keith thought. Just another cadet under your command? He looked up at Shiro, and his breath caught in his chest. But then he straightened himself, refusing to let his knees buckle. He had to tell him.
Shiro had to know by now. After all those long nights, and how he had never knocked on anyone's door but his. The sideways glances at target practice. The words that were always crowding the tip of his tongue, threatening to explode between them, shattering all the perfect silences they had shared watching the sun set over the dunes.
"I - " Keith began.
"Paladins!" Allura's voice rang out over the intercom. "A Galran ship has been detected."
Keith's eyes met Shiro's in the dark. He watched, waiting for the expression to shift on Shiro's face. It didn't.
"We'll be in their sights soon."
"Come on," Shiro ordered.
Keith nodded, but said nothing. What more was there to say?
Shiro advanced across the viewing chamber, passing Keith with only a few strides. Keith fell in line behind him. As the door slid open, Shiro sighed. Then glanced back over his shoulder.
"This conversation isn't over."