By the time he had awoken, the ship was in full gear. Its night glowing lights replaced to the brightest. The white lights only visible since they seeped in through the bottom of the red Paladin's door and into the darkness of his room. It was late, from what he could tell, too late to still be sleeping in if the voices from outside were of any value.

Perhaps "sleeping in" was the wrong term considering Keith hadn't slept at all. His very thoughts, even the insides of his lids when he did close his eyes, we're plagued with nightmarish visions.

His head swam in all the possible outcomes. All the outcomes of where in the world Shiro had gone to. Or if he was even alive at all.

Shiro had known- must've had a clue long before that he could leave Voltron's command to Keith. Why else would he have, on several occasions, mentioned becoming leader if his disappearance hadn't become reality.

Keith, still laying in bed with his eyes towards the roof, furrowed his brows. "Why me?" He couldn't help but mumble this to himself as he'd done for several hours on end.

Why did Shiro choose Keith? He hoped, oh how he hoped it wasn't only because they knew each other well enough for the black Paladin to feel as though Keith could be trusted.

With a heavy sigh, he stood, throwing his blankets across the bed; not caring in the least whether he left a mess or not.

The castle, seemingly realizing the red Paladin was awake,turned the rooms lights to their brightest setting to which Keith automatically shut his eyes. With a huff, he grabbed his jacket, quickly throwing it on before creeping out of the room. He, in no way whatsoever, felt the need to alert the other Paladins of his presence.

For a moment, the castle was oddly silent; giving way only to the general soft humming it normally made. The voices, the shouting from earlier had apparently vanished; retreating into the lower deck of the ship.

whatever time it was, breakfast- or possibly lunch?- was already being served.

From the smells wafting upwards, whoever was cooking had somehow started a fire. Somehow.

Keith, again, couldn't help but to sigh. He hoped that in some way the day would get by smoothly. As smoothly as he could anticipate over the sounds of Lance's and Hunk's sudden shouting. The red Paladin thanked whoever was listening that he was nowhere near the two.

It only took another moment before he gathers his bearings, before he wiped the sleep from his eyes and headed downstairs. Almost like a torrent of sound, voices pushed past the open kitchen door and out into the rest of the castle.

Oddly enough, Him wasn't near anything that could be deemed a kitchen appliance, but rather Lance was. He was crawling hid way over the larger Paladin with a towel vigorously flinging back and forth. The towel was home to a magnitude of flickering flames.

"Lance, hold still will you?" Hunk all but yelled.

"I'm trying!" Said Paladin had jumped to his feet, whipping at the towel in an intense manner. The flames hardly flickered from existence; only seeming to get much more violent. "Hunk- it's not going out! Why doesn't this castle have a fire extinguisher?" He held the towel out and far from his face. "A particle barrier, Altean upside down pool, huge ass lion robots, but no extinguisher."

Keith continued to watch from his place at the door, arms down by his sides, back straight, and face taut. Pidge in the corner; collectively typing away at her computer, taking no notice of what was going on, only seemed to fuel his growing rage.

"Agh!"

The blue Paladin's screech snapped Keith out of his reverie. In a single stride, he was across the room, shoving Hunk to the side- he was trying to calm the panicking Lance- and roughly grabbed hold of the wrist holding the smoldering towel.

They met eyes for a brief moment. The look in the red Paladin's startling Lance so much that he was completely unaware of the other hand shaking its way for the towel. Swiftly, the towel was snatched and dropped to the floor when a booted door stomped at it. The flames finally gave out.

The room was a mixture of silent relief and calm at the danger that was no longer evident. Though, Keith could've thought differently. From the sudden burst of laughter emitted from Hunk to the silent chuckling that was Pidge, the red Paladin felt a sudden unforgiving sense of loss. And when Lance had smoked then, only a smirk, Keith's own relative protection from emotions shattered.

Then he was there, a face in the background. His defining scar across the bridge of his nose. He only stood there, though, with his all-loving, all-caring smile. It was a smile that could move planets and create tectonic shifts. It was something Keith wished he'd be able to see again, in the real world, not just another crazy hallucination his brain was able to manifest. And, he had this sinking feeling, that he might never be able to see that again.

He was dimly aware of the living, breathing figure before him. The one with the short brown hair and the god awful annoying sense of humor. But whatever would get his mind off of Shiro, he was thankful for it.

"Hey, dude."

The voice broke through his foggy brain at last.

"You alright, man?"

He was going to give a snarky remark, something about keeping his nose out of things that had nothing to do with him, but couldn't bring himself to muster up a response. He was out of words and the only thing he could do was nod mutely.

The expression Lance wore was lacking his usual humor, concern was the only think lining his features.

Is he concerned...about me?

He would've pondered more, but interruption quickly followed. Coran had just as nearly toppled over the short Pidge with his frantic run into the room. With a panicked voice he called, "Is anyone hurt? What's with all the yelling? Was there a fire in here?"

Hunk took this as his initiative to right the fallen green Paladin and cool the Altean's quick questions.

Keith immediately turned from the group, calling out a mumbled, "I'll be in the training deck," and escaping just as quickly. A glance back, and he was offered one last look from Lance before the door shut behind him.

To those who have followed, favorites, and/ or reviewed, I highly appreciate it.I've decided to try something new with a truly amazing fandom. and show.While season 2 may have left off with several questions, I've deemed it my brains creativity to form my own version of how I feel Voltron will go.After this point: angst galore, action, violence, and severe acts of angry swearing will proceed.Thank you for the feedback, I'll be happy to hear any concerns or thoughts in the future (*︶*)