Lucky Silver Sun
Unlucky Draw

Keith felt unlucky.

Waves of emotion washed over him ever since Shiro disappeared, a cacophony of noise rattling around in his head. The noise worsened when they, the paladins of Voltron, finally found the older teen. His stomach performed flips, attempting to make sense of the cascading emotions, but also the feelings of guilt. Shiro came back quite unaware of the time which passed since they defeated Zarkon, but also seeming to have forgotten the emotional wreckage from finding out that.

The red paladin attempted to sleep away the feelings of anxiety, only to find himself sitting up and flicking on the light switch, allowing a cascade of light to wash over him, allowing him to bury his face into his hands, leaning over feeling like he was about to vomit. Galra scarred Shiro mentally and physically, and yet Keith was part Galra. Somehow, Shiro managed to say something uplifting.

"Look. You're right in saying you're not like a brother to me Keith. The fact your part Galra, the fact you may not have the same mom, even the same dad. That doesn't change the fact you ARE my brother. I'm more hurt by the fact you think I would reject you because of this, than I am over something as trivial as blood relations. I'd die before I ever, ever hurt you on purpose."

Keith swallowed, standing up from where he sat, unable to sit still.

He moved to the door, the emotions still wracking his head. Kolivan surmised when Shiro disappeared that the disappearance was the result of some kind of mental pain the black paladin didn't wish to deal with, but instead was choosing to avoid. The chances of Shiro lying were slim, but Keith still didn't know if the reason behind Shiro's pain was that the older teen was indeed rejecting him, or that Shiro thought he'd hurt someone he cared about.

"I'd die before I ever, ever hurt you on purpose."

Somehow, he found himself on the bridge, staring out into space. Allura joined him, unnoticed until she lightly touched his shoulder, leaning into his body. He took a deep, his eyes closing as his entire body relaxed. Despite only knowing Allura for a few months, the young paladin found himself quite comfortable around her, letting her presence melt into his personal space without complaint.

It seemed as if the day to day routine of the ship started up, moving along as if they hadn't found Shiro. In fact, it felt like the day before was just a dream. Hunk came onto the bridge, closely followed by Shiro. "I didn't see you at breakfast or lunch Keith."

"Oh." The red paladin turned. "You said the other day that you were needing to stalk up on supplies, right."

"What does that have to do with you not eating?"

"I wasn't really hungry. Lance, will you go with Hunk?"

"Hold on. No."

Keith took a deep breath, knowing full well the blue paladin was the only one who struggled with the fact he was serving as leader in Shiro's place. "Why not?"

"Because! It's not fair that you send us away just so you can spend more time with Shiro. Your already his favorite, you know. It's been that way since the garrison."

"And…"

"I want to spend some time with Shiro. Why don't we wake him up?"

"I told you last night that we needed to let him sleep in."

"Seriously! You're such a… a…"

"A what?" Keith folded his arms and glared at Lance, who glared back. Out of the corner of his eye, the red paladin noticed something black and turned his eyes slowly. The others hadn't yet noticed Shiro entering the room, or the dazed look on the black paladin's face.

"Um, good morning you guys?"

Keith's head turned now, looking Shiro over. The older paladin was out of it, and his worry made him hesitate. "Oh. Good Morning Shiro."

"Keith, it's not morning anymore. Seriously."

"How many times can he use the word seriously in one conversation? And why's he miffed at me. I thought I was being polite." His eyes blinked, watching Shiro's mouth twist up into a smirk as a soft, familiar chuckle escaped the older teen's lips. Something amused him, so he thought carefully, realizing that good morning wasn't something to be said at this time of day, though why it couldn't be said in response to someone else's mistake didn't click. "Oh. That's right."

"I guess I slept in longer than I thought." Shiro's statement made Keith swallow, fighting back the urge to walk over and hug Shiro. After all, he was still acting as a leader of Voltron, but as a paladin he needed to take his role seriously. Pidge remained perky, and things seemed to be settling down. For some reason Shiro felt the need to change the subject to something Keith didn't want to talk about. "Then Keith's been a good leader?"

"I wasn't a good leader. I never got Lance to really do what I asked him to without a fight. I failed, letting him down. Just like I did with the whole Blades of Marmora, digging into things I shouldn't have. There's no way that…" … things would go back the way they were before, between the two. It seemed like a wall was built, yet Shiro acted like that wall wasn't even there.

Pidge and Hunk felt he'd done a good job, but as Shiro pushed he and Lance both piped up with, "as if."

Shiro of course responded in a way only Shiro could, pointing to the fact they'd agreed on something. Thing seemed like they were going well, when the black paladin stepped in things, as people tend to refer to such situations. The older paladin brushed aside Lance's concerns, not realizing the nagging issue which persisted between the two which came to light when their previous leader disappeared.

"Great! You're Shiro's favorite yet again!"

"Do you really think that I want to be the leader? Or that…"

"Stow, it Keith! You are his favorite. Always the teacher's pet!"

He stormed off to the training room, feeling hurt at Shiro's actions. He took a deep breath, trying to brush aside the nagging feeling that the black paladin did in fact favorite him, but how Shiro had made things worse. He tried taking deep breaths, "Shiro didn't mean to. Shiro didn't know. It's been an entire year since he disappeared, so he has no idea what happened while he was gone."

"Are you alright?" Kolivan stood against the wall.

Keith startled. "What do you mean?"

"You missed your morning training session, but also didn't show up during meal time."

The red paladin's eyes darted to the ground, swallowing as he did so. "It's really nothing."

"Nothing?" The leader of Marmora took a deep breath. "You keep to a strict schedule. What changed between yesterday and today is the fact Takashi Shirogane is back."

"I'm glad. I don't enjoy being leader. But, I guess he really doesn't either." Keith looked up. "Do you?"

"It depends on what you mean by enjoy. If you mean do I enjoy how those I lead don't do what they're supposed to, no, that isn't enjoyable. That isn't to say there aren't positive things to being a leader."

"Well, I've no idea what they are."

"Perhaps one day you'll discover them. Enough on the subject, as it is time for your training session."

Things went well, and Keith started to feel better after the exercise despite having not fallen asleep the night before. He was out of breath, when Pidge came in walking right up to the two dueling figures, nearly getting knocked by Keith's swinging blade. The red paladin let out a yelp while Kolivan looked on in amusement. "Pidge! What the quiznack are you doing?"

"Keith! Shiro says you're still leader, so I have to ask you!"

Keith took a deep breath, realizing Shiro managed to in a matter of only a few hours make his life a living hell. "Calm down. You know Shiro didn't mean it. It's not as if he's trying to get revenge, or something. I mean, it's not as if you did anything wrong. Nope. You did something wrong, but Shiro would never, ever stoop that low."