Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Keith makes his way up the beaten path, his tired limping legs taking him up the hill he has traveled many times in his childhood. Keith forced his aching legs to take him further into the forest, hearing his pursuers getting closer to capturing him. In the dark, cold rain, it was hard to spot any location identifiers, but his legs never truly forgot his sanctuary. They led him to a familiar outcrop of trees with a giant rock dead center. Keith knew this area well, this outcrop was the doorway to his sanctuary.

His sanctuary was a place where he could get away from the orphanage - the old run down building that was located at the base of the hill. He had run past that building ages ago, he didn’t want to endanger the children and caretakers. Plus he doubts they’d let him back in, they had kicked him out of the orphanage on his 16th birthday, telling he was old enough to take care of himself. Keith had been glad to leave. At least initially-but at this moment in time he wishes he had begged Headmistress Beatrice in letting him stay longer. He didn’t want to be executed for stealing bread. At least there he would have been mostly fed.

Keith walked up to the boulder, kneeling down and touching the ground for a small entrance to an underground cave that led directly to his sanctuary. Panic had long set in as he hastily searched for the entrance, hearing the knights’ shouts and movements; they were getting close. He probably went around the boulder at least five times before finally finding it. He breathed a sigh of relief then high kicked it into gear, digging to make the entrance bigger so his now-20-year-old body could pass through it. From the corner of his eye he saw the ever approaching light of the lanterns.

“Quickly, the thief's tracks lead this way!” he heard a knight shout; at least it wasn’t one of the hunting dogs, Keith thought as his hands started to burn from the cold and stress from digging in the rain. Right as he finished his thought he heard the howls from said hunting dogs. The fear stopped him for a second till he shook himself into focus once he heard the growls and patter of dogs running fastly approaching him. He decided, a after few moments of digging and thinking of the imminent threat of large teeth tearing into him, that it was good enough and forcibly pushed himself through the entrance. Right before he could fully enter into the cave a dog bit into his arm and locked him into a death grip, trying pull him out. Keith shouted out in pain and clumsily reached for his knife. After a few tries and slicing himself in the process, he managed to stab the dog in the face. The dog yelped and freed his arm. He felt a second bite on his shoulder, Keith gave out another scream in pain. In his struggle, he managed to switch the knife into his other hand and quickly stab the dog. Once freed from the teeth holding him up he began to fall feet first into the cave. While falling he faintly felt teeth just scrape his neck. He fell with a loud splash and thud onto the ground of the currently flooding cave. From the small hole above him he heard sounds of barking and digging. With he lights of the lanterns faintly illuminating the dogs, he could barely make out the blood dripping from one’s snout. He quickly rose to his feet and started jogging further inside the cave as the knights threw insults at him. Keith jogged from several minutes before running into a wall.

“Shit” Keith cursed, getting up off the ground. He started feeling both sides of the wall, trying to figure out if he’d reached the two paths. He couldn’t tell in the dark but from what he was feeling, it seemed right. So he turned right and continued down the path until he reached the outside again... he could barely tell he made it out of the cave. If it hadn’t been for the rain drops hitting his face and flowing down the ruined stairs he would have gone into a pure state of panic. He clumsily climbed his way up the stairs, using every fiber of his depleting strength to lift himself up onto the higher platforms. The hours of running had him exhausted and running purely on adrenaline.

On the final flight of stairs he had to make a running jump, if he remembered correctly. He normally wasn’t dumb enough to just go for it, but in this situation he was sure as hell desperate enough. He ran for the jump, keeping in the back of his mind that falling would break bones and he’d be caught and executed. Failure was not an option. He felt his chest hit the ledge and he quickly held onto the stones in a death-grip. He dangled for a second, trying to hoist himself up. As he was lifting himself up he looked back toward the cave, hearing noises and seeing the faint lights of the lanterns. He picked himself up and limped towards the entrance of the castle. He had no time to reminiscence about the castle ruins, right now he was trying to hide. He walked up to the big door and tried to get it open.

“Open, you shit!” Keith angrily mumbled, running at the door and causing it to swing open. The impact made Keith lose his balance and fall to the ground. He pushed himself up and limped further into the castle, trying to make his way to the sword room - the only room Keith knew he would be safe. Keith would pass by many rooms, each time feeling the fear tear at his heart as the sounds of the knights got closer.

“Where the fuck is it?!” Keith frustratedly said as he started to feel the exhaustion and blood loss affect him. A few minutes of close calls and stumbling later he finally found the sword room. There was no way the knights would find him here, and even if they did they couldn’t get in; not even the dogs. Keith just hopes he could get in, otherwise he was fucked.

Now wasn’t the time for remembrance, but he couldn’t help but think back to the day he choose to explore further into the castle as a child. The doors had just opened to him revealing its secrets held within. Perhaps it was the combination of heading to the sword room and impending doom, that ignited Keith’s nostalgia for perhaps the last time.

The castle ruins had been his place of escape: from the orphanage, from the bullies, from anything that bothered him. It was by accident that he found the place. Keith would oftentimes run into the forest to get away from the insults and stones thrown at him, each time he would go deeper and deeper so that no one would go looking for him. One day he fell down a hole and into a cave. Naturally Keith was scared and unable to get out on his own being so small, however he felt something tug at him drawing him to the ruins. It would also lead him safely out. It would spark Keith’s fascination with old tales and legends, he would often investigate them though of course none of them panned out. Nothing but the Castle ruins; out of all the legends and fairytales he ‘investigated’ the only one with any stock to them was the ruins of the Castle of Lions. Legend has it there was a guardian called Voltron, a giant deity with a great flaming sword and an impenetrable shield. Voltron was the guardian of the world, protecting those who could not protect themselves and defeating the great evils that would harm the innocent. Keith remembers writing down all the runes and drawing what remained of the glass murals, recounting the legend in a journal.

One inscription stood out to him. The great Guardian Voltron had split into 5 beasts because of its great battle with the witch goddess Honerva, whose plan was to drain the world of its life, of it’s quintessence. From here, legends formed from the tales of those who claimed to be aided by the five lion guardians of Voltron, five guardian beasts of fire, water, air, earth and forest. The Guardian deity Voltron, legend says, could be formed once again, by these five lions acting as one. A young Keith would later - rather excitedly - find out from a kind lion priestess that the castle ruins held his favorite guardian; the Guardian of Air, the Black Lion. From what he was able to find out from history and inscription of the runes, the black lion was the head of Voltron, Akira Kogane. A kind yet fierce leader who guided his lions to victory. To say this captured Keith’s attention as a child was an understatement.

Within the mysterious room was a single black and white sword, a sword that looked like no other. It was said the blade itself is giant, easily the width of both of Keith’s thighs and almost as long as he was tall. The handle wasn’t like that of a normal sword; there was no handguard, and it was shaped like a blade welded onto the handle of a shovel. The sword legend said was used by Akira himself. As a child Keith had found out this room was not easily opened - it opens precisely when it wants to. Now, he was unsure if it would open for him and if it would close in time. He quickly ran up to the door, giving it the space needed to open. Not a moment later the door opens just enough for Keith to squeeze through, he quickly squeezed his way through just as he heard a knight shout.

“Stop right there! You coward!”

Now normally Keith would have a witty reply, he was nicknamed Firemouth for a reason, however he was too frightened and exhausted to make any such comments. The door closed with a loud thud, and with that Keith gave a sigh of relief. He turned to the sword in the middle of the room. Up on its pedestal looking rusty and ruined just like the ruins around it. Keith hasn’t seen this sword in years, he had stopped coming to this place altogether, tonight is the first night he’d be back. He didn’t know what drew him to head here, but that was the feeling this place gave him in general. He felt like some force was pulling him to this sword. As a child this was a new discovery, to an adult it was dread. Keith remembers the day that turned him away from this place. He had walked into the room, saw the sword, and saw a black lion coming right at him. Naturally of course, he ran and never came back, until now. A loud bang startled him. He turned his attention towards the door, he saw the lights illuminated through the cracks of the door below it.

“All this for a loaf of bread?” Keith breathed in disbelief running his hand through his hair. He heard several more bangs, no doubt from the troll they kept with them, trying to bust down the door. And from the sound of things, the door was going to give. Another wave of panic coursed its way through Keith’s veins causing a hot tightness in his legs just itching to run. Keith quickly scouted the room for a place to hide, but he saw none... he really didn’t want to fight. Especially when previously it left him with a giant slash on his leg, and several injuries to his arms. He looked towards the rusty sword, not liking his odds with it. It would at least be something, and Keith was not gonna go down without a fight. He felt a tug in his heart bringing him towards the weapon at this thought. Beckoning him to wield it, Keith decided that it was the need to survive and not the creepy feeling he always got when he used to frequent here. Keith stood in front of the pedestal and grabbed the handle, feeling something tingle up his arm and warmth on his hand.

The sword quickly began to glow a bright purple, lighting up the darkened room and giving everything a slight purple hue from its light. The sword had transformed before his eyes, the blade turning sharp and deepening in gorgeous ebony. The handle now cleaned and showing bright white outlines. Keith gasped in surprise, temporarily forgetting about the knights hunting for him. He slowly pulled out the sword as he felt a heat around his right ring finger. A dark apparition appeared kneeling right in front of him - it looked like it had a grasp of his hand. Strangely he didn’t feel threatened, instead he felt a calm start to wash over him. The hazy apparition started to clear into the figure of a man. Keith looked on in surprise. He saw a gentle expression on the man’s face. It was gorgeous, with a chiseled chin, gentle grey eyes, a scar running across his nose and a scruffy beard growing. His hair was long and black, except for the bangs which had a streak of white. The man brought Keith’s hand up to his lips and kissed his right ring finger. He began to feel a ring appear on his skin.

“What ar-” Keith rasped out in confusion, looking at the man in surprise. He was not believing what he was seeing. This clearly had to be caused by blood loss or maybe a fever dream, because there was no way that an incredibly gorgeous man was kissing his hand right now and there was no way a man could form from a sword. The man stood up, taller and broader than Keith, and definitely more muscular than him as well. And extremely naked. Keith let his eyes travel the man’s body unashamedly, the confusion, disbelief and blood loss affecting his better judgement and common sense. The man was pure muscle and his skin was marked with what Keith could only assume were battle scars. On his right hand were purple runes overlapping each other. Keith let his eyes travel back up to the stranger's own. A slight blush dusted Keith’s cheeks. The man brought up a hand and caressed Keith’s face. A gentle smile was aimed solely at Keith; it had him entranced where he was.

“You’re safe now, nothing shall hurt you.” The man promised, gently squeezing Keith’s hand in reassurance. Keith just stared at him in shock.

It seemed like Keith could stay like this forever until he heard one last bang on the door, alerting Keith to the danger he was in.

“Stay behind me! They want me, not you!” Keith yelled turning towards his certain doom, not noticing the man’s surprised look. Just because Keith was fucked doesn’t mean this man had to be fucked as well. The knights, along with their pet troll, burst into the room charging right towards Keith, who raised his new sword with a trembling arm. Keith felt his body get turned around and pressed against the man’s chest.

“I should be the one telling you that.” The man whispered into the shell of Keith’s ear. The warmth of his breath caused Keith’s breath to hitch. The man gently placed Keith behind him and turned his attention to the knights and troll charging them. He brought up his hand and snapped his finger, summoning wind, slamming them against the wall keeping them in place. The man then held out his other hand, the same sword Keith held appearing in the man’s hand. Then he snapped his fingers again, releasing the knights and troll from the wall. They fell to the ground as the man ran up to them and took them out with ease. Keith stood there in shock, he watched as the man turned to him and smiled. They stared at each other for a few moments before Keith’s vision began to blur. The last thing Keith remembers is falling into something warm and hearing a smooth voice call out his name.

______________

Keith slowly began to stir, not quite ready to open his sleepy eyes despite his brain telling him to wake up. Keith stared up at the ceiling, it had painted murals just like the stained glass. Though now it was wrought with decay, the once vibrant colors had faded, leaving a washed out muddy shade of what it had been. Part of the ceiling and paintings were broken letting in the elements, ivy hung from the ceiling and crept over the glass like a hand. Dirt muddied up the vibrant colors muting its purpose to bring colorfully rays of light into the room. Sun shined partially through the broken stained glass, partially illuminating him in dark purples and reds and the bright light of the sun. His sleeping position put him directly in the sun’s beam making him feel warm and sleepy. He felt perfectly content; he laid there for a moment closing his eyes once again, slowly starting to fall back asleep until he finally realized the room he was currently in.

He shot open his eyes, removing the fur blanket he was wrapped in from the top half of his body. That is the second thing he just noticed, the third thing was, he was completely naked. He checked the black fur multiple times as if it would answer all of his questions. Keith took a deep breath, thinking hard on the events that led him to be naked in this fur blanket. He remembers stealing bread because of hunger, he was spotted by a knight, he ran, and was being chased by the knights and their hunting dogs and troll. He remembers entering the castle ruins and….

Keith checked his right ring finger to see a gorgeous black ring wrapped around it. It was shaped like a ‘V,’ with a smaller ‘V’ shape inlaid in a bright purple.

“So that really did happen….” Keith spoke to himself in disbelief running a hand through his hair.

“Wait…” he then said checking for injuries, first looking at his arms where the dogs had bitten him. They were already wrapped up in bandages and he could faintly feel some plant between his injury and the bandage. He checked his shoulder and was met with the same thing. No doubt the gorgeous naked man, who gave him this magical ring, had patched up his injuries. Funny though, he didn’t feel as bad as he thought he would. He actually felt pretty good. The only thing he felt was a dull pain, much like a small bruise, where his injuries were located. How odd, he thought to himself. Keith then looked out into the room, noticing a smoldering fire smoking up a fire lizardfish. It’s fiery scales were cleaned off and cooking on a rock in the center on the embers of the smolder. He had never thought of cooking fire lizardfish in such a way, it was known for being spicy and juicy. It was a common dish in Daibazeel. There were all kinds of fire lizards in this country, and fire lizardfish were one of the most common food consumed. His stomach rumbled from the delicious smell of cooked fish. He briefly wondered what became of the bread he stole, wishing he could pair it with the fish to quell his aching stomach. He passed the cooking meal and noticed his clothes were near the fire: it looked like someone had hung them out to dry. They were simple peasant clothes made of burlap, his jacket made of animal leather as were his shoes.

“You’re awake!” he heard an excited voice call out to him. He jumped in his place,quickly bringing up the blanket to cover his chest. It earned a chuckle from the man he met last night. He was still very naked. And if you called out Keith for checking out the man’s dick he would deny it to his very grave. Not even as ghost would he admit getting a good look at it.

“YOU’RE NAKED!” Keith yelled, now feeling scandalized. As the man approached him, he was carrying a woven basket that held a bunch of herbs, berries and eggs. The sight made Keith’s heart and stomach jump with excitement. The man looked down at himself curiously then looking back at Keith who was now shielding his eyes. The man gave an amused smile. The man also seemed to have shaved his face, unfortunately. But at least he kept his long hair. The man gave him a smile, setting down the basket a good distance from the fire pit.

“Yes,” the man agreed with a nod, clearly not seeing the problem here, two naked guys in a room….and again, just why was Keith naked, he was wearing clothes just hours ago - at least he thinks it was hours.

“Is there a problem?” the man asked making his way towards Keith, who lifted up the blanket higher.

“Well yeah, you’re naked! A-and why am I naked?!” Keith questioned, pointedly looking down at the blanket and not looking up.

“Does it bother you?” the man questioned, stopping in his tracks. Keith still didn’t look up and brought his hands up to his face to keep from further leering at the man’s dick.

“Well I’d prefer clothes…” Keith stated feeling slightly anxious.

“As you wish,” the man simply stated, before what Keith could make out to be a snap of his fingers.

“What?” Keith question slowly removing his hands and looking up at the man,who was now fully dressed in regal dark black armor. How in the world did he do that? Keith thought to himself in disbelief. It looked like it was made for Kings, the armor didn’t have a single dent or fading. The only thing that was not covered was his hands. He then knelt down next to Keith and put his hand on his forehead. Keith slightly shied away from the touch but the man persisted. A flush spread across Keith’s face, betraying him.

“Hmmm….” The man hummed thoughtfully, bringing his purple hand up to his own forehead.

Keith squeaked, “What?!” increasingly feeling stressed as the man’s hand traveled from his forehead to lightly touching Keith’s lips.

“Good, your temperature has gone down. You were cold to the touch when I held you, and your lips were turning blue and your skin was going pale. I was worried you’d freeze, when I took off your wet bloodied clothes I put you in that warm blanket. I later found out you were sprouting a fever, so I had to give you some herbs to get it down. Looks like they have done the trick,” the man explained looking fondly at Keith, causing a slight blush to dust Keith’s cheeks. So that’s why my clothes are off...and his face is so gentle looking, Keith thought to himself.

“How do you feel?” the man then asked, gently grabbing Keith’s chin and examining his face for what Keith assumed to be injuries.

“...Uh-I guess fine, hungry but better than I thought I would feel, in all honesty…” Keith admitted, casting a quick look at his bandaged arm and hearing the rumble of his stomach.

“I’m glad, your wounds are healing up nicely, and your temperature has gone down as well. You should eat and drink, I’ll brew you some tea and cook up these eggs so you can eat them with your lizard fish.” The man instructed with a smile as he started to stand up. Keith grabbed his arm, looking straight into the man’s dark grey eyes. Keith had so many questions and no matter how attractive he found the man( and his dick), he was gonna get his answers and he was not going to get distracted from getting them.

“Who are you? No scratch that, what are you? You suddenly appeared when I pulled out this sword, and this ring-” Keith began his interrogation, holding up his newly ringed hand to showcase it.

“-Showed up on my finger! You also-also…” Keith continued then trailed off, remembering the man kissed his hand;he could still faintly feel his warm lips on his skin.

The man patiently waited for Keith to finish his questions, smiling when he realized what Keith was trying to get out.

“The greeting?” he teased. Keith looked at him scandalized.

“What kind of greeting is that?!” Keith asked, voice hitching higher than he would have liked, but that’s what his voice did when he was confused and shocked.

The man made a small laugh at his statement, earning a pout from Keith.

“It’s a proper greeting, to greet your superiors-or in this case, my new Paladin.” the man explained, withdrawing from Keith’s grip on his arm and moving towards the fire pit, placing another flat large rock on the embers.

“Paladin?” Keith repeated, looking at how fitted and nicely the armor framed his body.

“Yes, Paladin, have you not heard of the legends? That’s something I find hard to believe since you spent so much time researching this place. Surely you have some idea of what I am,” the man suggested cracking open a small egg and letting the yolk fall onto the rock. Keith practically drooled at the sight, he hadn’t had eggs in ages.

He thought of it for a few short seconds before his eyes widened in realization. But how did he know that he came here as a kid?

“Wait you're the Black Lion! Akira!” Keith said, dropping the blanket, exposing his chest to the cool day. He saw the man subtly flinch at the statement.

“That’s...not completely right…” he corrected, stalling his breakfast quest for a brief moment, looking solemnly at the low glow of the heated charcoal.

Keith looked at him in confusion, feeling his heart drop at the man’s solemn look.

“Then…?” Keith coaxed, trying to not pry too much but still wanting to understand the situation he was placed in.

The man snapped out of his daze and continued on with making breakfast.

“Akira was the Black Lion, however…” he trailed off before continuing on his sentence

“However I am the new Black Lion, Shiro,” Shiro explained, now grinding up some herbs and sprinkling them on the eggs. Keith didn’t know what to say to that, Shiro clearly didn’t sound thrilled about being the new Black Lion. Keith decided that he’ll come back to this question. For now he’ll try to understand this ‘paladin’ business.

“...Okay, Shiro, care to explain this whole Paladin thing, I’ve never heard of the beast lions of Voltron needing such things…and how did you know I came here as a kid?” Keith questioned, slightly raising his voice at that last part. This brought an amused smile of Shiro’s face - good, a better subject he’ll actually get answers to.

“Well, a Paladin to a Guardian is a way to stay connected to the world otherwise we are just spiritual lions, we link up our quintessence with our faded Paladin and then we can take actual physical form-it is a way for us to not only take on a physical form but it also helps with forming our original self-Voltron-basically the bonds with our Paladin along with our fellow guardians aid in forming Voltron” Shiro started explaining as he grabbed a teapot and filled up what looked like a melted gauntlet turned cup. He took the eggs off the embers and grabbed one of the smoked fire lizard fish skewer and brought them to Keith. Keith eagerly looked at his arriving meal.

“Isn’t the rock hot?” Keith questioned as he watched Shiro place down all the items in his hand. Shiro shook his head.

“I used my purple hand, now eat I’ll continue explaining as you eat” Shiro stated handing Keith the makeshift cup of tea. Keith nodded and took a drink. It was sweet and warm, he didn’t know what herb this was but it tasted good.

“Faded Paladin?” Keith questioned as he began to bite into the fire lizard fish, it was delicious the smokiness brought out the flavor of the meat; Letting the rock chill for a moment before digging into the eggs. Shiro then brought over the berry basket and placed it in reach then finally settling down next to Keith. Needless to say he had the best meal he’d ever had. All he really had at the Orphanage was soup or porridge. He’d used to steal food from unsuspecting food stands just to get a taste of something solid.

“Yes, it’s the Paladin we are faded too, though it’s a term used pretty liberally since we do choose who is faded to us, it’s generally meant for someone who has the best quintessencial wavelength as our own, we call it faded, since not everyone has the wavelength necessary to bond with a guardian and from there we choose said person. To solidify this bond, we mark our Paladins with our insignia and quintessence color. It shows on your heart.” Shiro explained placing a warm palm on Keith’s heart, then moving it revealing a faint, light purple ‘V’. Keith placed his hand on the same place feeling a warm embrace, wrapping him up.

“We also place on our Paladins an article of matching jewelry, this is basically just permission to use our[Guardian], weapon. It also has to do with marking our bond with our Paladin” Shiro further explained grabbing and lifting Keith ringed hand, and lifting up his own to show Keith the matching rings.

“Also I should mention the jewelry is unique to the Paladin, our bond’s jewelry is rings” Shiro added letting Keith’s hand go. Keith stared at the ring, processing the information that Shiro just explained. Okay that explained the Paladin business but he still didn’t know how Shiro knew he came here as a child, and that he did research on the place. Plus a new question arose in Keith. Why was he chosen as Shiro's Paladin? Surely there is someone more better suited for the task.

“As for knowing that you came here as child, well I assume you could figure out as I was talking about the spiritual lion stuff” Shiro concluded nudging the stone of eggs towards Keith.

“Before it gets cold” he mouthed, Keith nodded as he finished the fire lizard fish and snatched up the eggs.

“Oh so you pretty much saw me waddling around your castle….” Keith grumbled eating his eggs, it had been such a long time since he had eggs, they were delicious. The herbs he added to the eggs made them much more flavorful. Shiro smiled to himself recalling the memory of a much younger Keith exploring his castle.

“Yes, I also walk beside you on your little adventures, not that you noticed, I didn’t have enough energy to manifest. And when I did, well you remember what happened” Shiro said, seeing the embarrassed blush form on Keith’s cheeks.

“Anymore questions?” Shiro asked, watching as Keith took a swig of the tea, feeling a sense of pride that his Paladin liked his cooking. He had spent hours making something that was delicious. So he was pleased that Keith enjoyed it. Keith pondered for a moment as he munched on the berries, he wished he had bread to go with the berries but his breakfast so far has been great so he wasn’t too disappointed.

“Yeah, what do we do now that we are bonded?” Keith questioned, earning a surprised look on Shiro’s face.

“Isn’t it obvious? Defeat Zarkon and the Galra Empire” Shiro stated causing Keith to spit out the berries.

“Are you nuts?” Keith accused giving Shiro a ‘are you serious’ look. Shiro reached out his hand and wiped the berry juice off of the side his mouth. Then licking the excess from his thumb, causing a flush to spread across Keith’s face.

“It’s our purpose, Zarkon is the patron of Honerva, and his head druid Haggar is said to have spawned from Honerva herself. I know it must sound weird for you, growing up in a Galra controlled Country. But they must be defeated, Zarkon has been ruling for ten thousand years now” Shiro said looking at Keith with pleading eyes.

“And it was Honerva who split Voltron, into 5 spiritual guardians when they tried to stop her the first time” Shiro added, subtly rubbing his right arm.

“I see…” was all Keith managed to get out, this whole thing was a lot to process, it left uncertainty knotting his stomach. He didn’t really want to be brought into this ages old war, he just wanted to survive. But then again, life in Daibazeel has been rough due to the Galra Empire constantly at war and all the corruption of nobles and the knights. The people were poor and were starving. Lots of innocent blood had been shed. It wasn’t any better in the colonies the Empire conquered, Keith always felt frustrated and helpless. Maybe this was his chance to change something. If a Guardian was gonna chose him, of all people, he doesn’t want to let Shiro down.

“Is that all?” Shiro prodded looking at Keith, waiting to see if he had anymore question.

“Yes, how do we exactly go about taking down Zarkon?” Keith asked, Shiro looked at him with fondness

“Well we have to search for the others. We cannot do this on our own”

“So how exactly do we find the others?” Keith asked, walking down the broken down stairs from the other side of the castle, Keith had never seen this side before, having never ventured this far around the outside of the castle, everything looked so new despite how old and broken everything looked. At first glance, one couldn’t tell that this was the main entrance to the castle, it just goes to show just how much time had passed.

Everything was overrun with plant life and the sculptures were partially broken, they were missing pieces of itself and were slowly being consumed by nature. Everything was still wet from the night's rain, the thick smell of damp soil and trees hung in the air. Keith’s eyes wandered all around him taking in the site of the new ruins. All the while missing other set of eyes making passing glances towards him.

“Well I only know the location of one them; The Blue lion, who is currently at Altea” Shiro answered walking not to far in front of Keith, but still making glances back, checking on him.

“Altea?” Keith repeated, he had never heard of a place called Altea, he wondered what country or continent it was located. Keith didn’t have vast knowledge of geography it wasn’t needed for surviving out on the streets. He only knew of any colonies in the Empire due to the propaganda and parades held after a victory.

“You’ve never heard of Altea?” Shiro questioned stopping, looking back at Keith, who wasn’t paying attention to where he was walking.

“No I only know a few of the colonies in the Empire, it’s hard to keep track” Keith said, accidentally slipping on a loose step. A pair of strong arms, caught Keith before he could fall face first into the ground.

“Careful the stairs are slippery from the rain” Shiro warned still keeping his arms around Keith, causing him to blush.

“Uh Yeah, I’ll be careful” Keith said standing back up on his own, missing the warmth of Shiro’s embrace, both of them easily fell into step with one another as they continued their trek down the stairs.

“Altea used to be called Arus, if that rings any bells; It’s a beautiful country, it used to be our patron country however-well you’ve heard the rest of the story” Shiro explained keeping his eye on Keith as they walked, clearly concerned he’ll fall again.

“So how do you know where the Blue lion is and you still didn’t answer my question on how we’ll find the others” Keith brought up seeing Shiro grab his chin in thought.

“Well, I only know where the Blue lion is because his paladin fell there so he returned back to his original state” Shiro began to explain.

“As for finding the others that’s going to be a bit harder since we are all so scattered throughout the continent, plus our quintessence looks so similar to our assigned elements it’s really hard to sense them” Shiro further explained looking thoughtfully up at the sky. Keith turned his attention up towards the sky as well seeing how clear the sky looked. Funny how hours ago it was a stormy mess.

“Alright, well Altea is a good start, but how long will it take us to get to Altea on foot?” Keith questioned as the reached the bottom of the steps.

“Well from here a month, but I plan on getting us some supplies and horses before we head off, so with horses it cuts a to 3 weeks time” Shiro answered, looking at the hesitant look of Keith’s face. That meant going into town and Keith knows for sure he is a wanted criminal so he would rather not go back. Sensing his paladin’s discomfort Shiro put a comforting hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“Isn’t there another town not too far from here? We’ll travel there get our supplies and have time for your wounds to heal, how does that sound?” Shiro offered, earning an eager nod from Keith.

“Well, my injuries aren’t too serious to worry about, but the plan sounds fine, but how will we afford supplies and a horse? I can’t even afford a loaf of bread” Keith brought up, unless Shiro had untold amounts of riches he doubts they’ll be able to actually get anything. Their best option might be to just scavenge up food and maybe steal a horse.

“They are something to worry about, don’t ever hide your injuries from me okay?” Shiro stated grabbing Keith’s hand firmly, Shiro looked pleadingly into Keith’s and he couldn’t help but nod in agreement. Shiro smiled looking relieved and did one last squeeze of Keith’s hand before letting go.

“I do carry currency with me, though it might be a bit outdated but I’m sure they might be worth something” Shiro said pulling out a small bag from his pouch. He opened up the bag revealing precious stones. Keith didn’t know what kind of gem it was but Keith knew it had to be worth something.

“This was currency?!” Keith said holding one of the gems up to his eye to inspect it, it was an iridescent pink color.

“It’s the old currency of Altea when they were doing the change due to its expansion they changed the currency, these are harvested from the roots of junaflowers, they are only found in Altea and are extremely valuable, I’m sure we’ll have enough for what we need” Shiro explained placing the gem back into it’s back and putting the bag away.

“The old town is a few miles from here we should get there before sundown” Keith explained, Keith has only heard of Forestshire, it was a town completely surrounded by forest but was a relatively safe place from what Keith has heard of. He never thought of traveling there because it was simply too dangerous on his own.

Keith tries his best to walk on his inflamed ankle, the pain had started half a mile ago and he could feel it swelling. Surprisingly, the pain only started at the halfway point to Forestshire, he thought he would be fine since he didn’t feel any pain this morning, but now he regrets not getting horses from Hilltown. Keith thought about taking another break, but he already had Shiro take 4 breaks already and that was not including lunch for the both of them. They would be ¾’s of the way there by now if they hadn’t stopped for so many breaks. They had to make it there by sundown, which will be in a few more hours. But his ankle was frickin killing him, he was a few feet behind Shiro now, and he never let himself get too far from Keith. So he tried to keep up pace as he could, he wasn’t gonna let one injury hold them back. So he decided to power through, they continued to walk until Shiro stopped and turned towards Keith. Giving him a concerned looked.

“Why didn’t you tell me your ankle has been bothering you?” Shiro asked kneeling down and inspecting Keith’s ankle.

“It isn’t as bad as it looks” Keith defended looking at his huge bruise and swollen ankle, Shiro looked at him unconvincingly.

“I can tell it bothers you, I would have known sooner if you weren’t trying to suppress it” Shiro said standing up.

“How can you tell?” Keith asked defensively, he’ll have to make sure to do better next time.

“Because of our bond Keith, I can feel your pain, but since you were suppressing a lot of it I just figured out what this feeling was and you need to tell me if you are hurt so I can help you” Shiro said placing his hand on Keith’s shoulder.

“You don’t have to worry about my ankle, I’ve had worse, this is nothing” Keith insisted feeling a gentle squeeze on his shoulder.

“Keith, of course I’m worried and just because you’ve had worse.. doesn’t mean I’m not gonna take any injury to you seriously” Shiro stated taking a short pause at worse, the worry in his face when he said that was evident. Which caused Keith’s stress levels to skyrocket, the last thing he wanted to do was cause Shiro worry.

“Yeah it hurts, but I’ll be fine if I can rest it, once we get the horses it should heal up better, so no need to worry!” Keith said trying help ease Shiro’s worry. He’s only known Shiro for a short while but the need to make sure he is okay was overwhelming. It was a different feeling than what Keith was used too. Normally he would hide any injury so people wouldn’t attack him. But in this case, Keith just had a need to not worry Shiro.

“I can agree to that” Shiro said with a smile, making Keith feel relieved. Keith looked around for something to rest on, thinking he could at least take one more break to make sure Shiro didn’t worry. Shiro had other ideas, he picked Keith up and started walking.

“What are you doing?!” Keith shouted wrapping his arms around Shiro for dear life, earning a smug smirk from Shiro.

“What does it look like? I’m carrying you” Shiro simply stated making no attempt of letting Keith go.

“That’s obvious! I meant why are you carrying me?” Keith clarified looking at the muddied graveled road.

“Because we both agreed to give you ankle a rest, the easiest way to do that is for me to carry you” Shiro explained looking a little too happy to carry him.

“Yeah, but I didn’t agree to being carried like this!” Keith said with a pout, he could walk! Sure it would hurt and make his ankle worse but he could walk!

“Well I figured this would be the best way” Shiro said contently, a slight blush dusted Keith's cheeks. Keith supposes the situation wasn’t entirely bad, when was the last time someone held him close like this? Keith couldn’t remember, it was sorted nice. He always craved physical contact, even as a child. But no one wanted anything to do with him and now he didn’t know exactly what to do with such contact. The warmth Shiro radiated made Keith feel sleepy.

“So I know you answered this already, but I’m still still confused on how our ‘bond’ enables you to tell when I’m injured” Keith spoke up after a couple of minutes of silence.

“Our bond, connects are feelings, if you feel mad, I’ll feel that you are mad, if you feel in pain, I’ll feel your pain” Shiro explained keeping his eyes forward. Keith remained silent thinking over this information.

“Is that all?” Keith prodded, Keith wanted to all that he could about this whole paladin-lion-bonding business he was signed up for.

“Like I said, the stronger our bond the stronger we are, eventually we’ll be able to communicate via telepathy, and see each other’s vision” Shiro explained, Keith looked at him in disbelief.

“Pretty cool, I know, but to strengthen our bond I need you to open up to me” Shiro stated, casting a look towards Keith. He could feel himself tense up at the statement.

“What happens if our bond doesn’t strengthen-” Keith slowly began noticing a grim expression on Shiro’s face.

“Hypothetical speaking” Keith then quickly added as Shiro came to a stop. Shiro was silent for an antagonizing several seconds before he spoke.

“Then I revert back to my spiritual guardian form until I find another paladin” Shiro said solemnly, holding Keith tighter to himself. A feeling of misery tugged at his heart, was this Shiro’s feelings? If so Keith felt terrible for even bringing it up.

“I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just curious” Keith trying to fix the gloomy situation he made. Shiro began walking again, not saying anything for a few moments.

“It’s good to know, I don’t blame you for being curious, after all this whole situation must be overwhelming for you. If it makes you feel better, I’m willing to give you an out, if you truly don’t want this, I’ll leave and once the bond is severed you’ll be free to do as you please” Shiro offered, expression looking guarded but somehow Keith knew he meant it, even if Shiro felt pain from the idea. This made Keith’s heart drop, but he did appreciate being given an out even though that was never really an option for him. How could Keith just sit back and watch lives get destroyed when he can do something. Plus he was growing increasingly fond of Shiro presence, he didn’t want him to go away.

“No! I’m good! I’m fine with this! I want this!” Keith said getting a surprised look from Shiro, who then beamed into a smile.

“Thank you for accepting me” Shiro said giving Keith the happiest smile he could muster, leaving Keith completely flustered.

______________

Keith looks at the room from the inside of the entrance way, it wasn’t a high class room by any means but it was the best room he has ever seen. Or had the luxury of staying in. It was a simple room, with single bed and two night stands on either side of it, a single lantern illuminating the room and a small broken window above said bed. Shiro had entered the room first trying to make the room more suitable for his paladin. Keith shook himself out of thoughts and stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. He saw Shiro feel the fabric of the muted red blanket and curl his nose in disgust, it was pretty cute.

“Are you sure this is the place you want to stay Keith? I can get us a better Inn to stay at” Shiro questioned taking off the blanket off the rickety old bed.

“I’m sure, besides it looks like everyone but this tavern inn’s are closed right now so this will do” Keith said immediately sitting down on the bed.

Keith thought the room was pretty decent, much better than what he was used too. Despite the smell of the room was a bit dusty and stale everything about the room was fairly pleasing to him. He figures Shiro must be used to a more luxurious lifestyle, beyond Keith’s wildest dreams.

“It’s already so cold out and it's getting colder, this room doesn’t even have a fireplace and the blanket is too thin it won't keep you warm” Shiro complained with a pout poking the bed, testing it’s comfort levels. Which apparently to Shiro’s standards, was not adequate.

“It’s good enough for me, besides it’s warmer than my place, and a lot comfier so I’m pleased” Keith said not noticing the worried glance across from him.

“Warmer than your place? What’s wrong with your house?” Shiro asked eyeing Keith’s thin frame. Keith’s cheek looked slimmer than it really should look and hearing that his Paladin lives in a cold house, well it caused him great concern.

“Well it’s more of a shack than a house, I can’t afford to build myself a proper house but, I can keep myself sheltered from most of the elements” Keith said sounding prideful at his carpentry skills.

“Your parents let you live in shack?” Shiro questioned looking angry at the mere thought that his Paladin didn’t have adequate shelter. Keith tensed up not knowing how exactly to explain that he was orphaned.

“...After I came of age, the orphanage saw fit to boot me out, and well it’s not like I could afford anything so I had to...improvise the materials” Keith explained intentionally staring at the floor, he let his bangs fall into his face, concealing his pained look.

“I’m sorry I had no idea…I just thought..” Shiro apologized, it would make sense that Shiro didn’t know. Back at Hilltown everyone knew he was that unruly orphaned child. The child no one wanted nothing to do with, he honestly was just lucky to stay there as long as he did.

“It’s fine, I understand it didn’t look like you could travel far for the sword anyway” Keith said shrugging his shoulders trying to act nonchalant about it.

“It’s not fine! How could they just kick you out like that? They knew you didn’t…. I mean look at you! You look starving!” Shiro almost yelled, taking Keith by surprise. He didn’t expect Shiro to react to way, he’d never met anyone who got angry on his behave. At Keith’s shock look Shiro recoiled and looked embarrassed.

“Sorry I know it’s not my place, but it just makes me so angry that happened to you” Shiro said pushing air through his nose in annoyance. Keith looked at Shiro in disbelief he didn’t understand why someone would be angry on his behalf. At the silence Shiro blushed and looked away.

“Well in any case, my blanket is a lot warmer than any fabric blanket anyway, so I’ll have you use that” Shiro said, snapping his fingers and the fur blanket from this morning appeared in his hand. Keith had no idea what magic Shiro was using to be able to do that, and where in the world did it go when Shiro de-summons it? Anyway, he thought, getting up and letting Shiro make alterations to the bed, he leaned on the wall watching Shiro.

“How’s your ankle doing?” Shiro asked looking at Keith’s ankle then directly into Keith’s eyes. His ankle still throbbed in pain but it wasn’t to the intensity it was earlier, it would be better if he could cool it off.

“Well it’s doing better, not walking, was good for it” Keith admitted standing up from the wall and walking towards the bed, he sat back on the bed feeling the softness of the fur in his hands as he ran his hands through it.

“Good, see you didn’t need to be so stubborn” Shiro teased fluffing up the pillows while Keith casted him a glare, Shiro just looked ‘innocently’ at him. Keith took off his boot and threw it at Shiro who easily dodged it.

“And you didn’t need to be so pushy” Keith fired back, moving his injured ankle up onto the bed, Shiro shot him an offended look. Keith gave his own ‘innocent’ look getting an eye twitch from Shiro.

“I was worried!” Shiro defended voice pitching higher than he probably intended getting a laugh out of Keith.

“Don’t laugh! I was concerned!” Shiro continued getting increasingly flustered by Keith’s laughter. When was the last time Keith laughed so hard? His cheeks were already so tired from all the smiling and laughing he was doing. Keith didn’t know why he was so giddy, and didn’t know why Shiro’s frantic voice to be so funny. But it was, and Keith liked that feeling.

Shiro spent the next several minutes sprucing up the room, to his satisfaction, here and there he would make small talk, asking question like ‘what was his favorite color?’; He answered red, and returned the questioned, Shiro’s answer was surprisingly also red. Keith would have thought either black or grey maybe even purple. Shiro then asked about his favorite dish, Keith didn’t have a particular answer, but he responded pickled fire lizard. It was easy to travel with and it didn’t go bad as fast, he could make a good sized one last. Keith then asked what Shiro’s favorite dish was Shiro’s answer was simple, any home cooked food was fine with him, whatever that meant. Keith didn’t much about dishes to picture what Shiro referred to as ‘home cooked’ but Keith just nodded along pretending like he knew what Shiro was talking about. Keith was surprised to find that Shiro was so human despite being a great lion guardian. In a way it was reassuring, it was more comforting dealing with someone more human like than a spiritual lion. Maybe that was the point of the whole ‘paladin’ business. They continued with their questioning until a knock at the door interrupted them. Shiro sat up from leaning on the wall and walking towards the wood door, Keith could see feet from the gap between the door and floor. Shiro opened and made quick conversation with a small, skeleton like elderly lady carrying a tray of food, tea and some herbs. Her salt and peppered hair was tied to the back her her clothes were dirty and worn.

“Can I request some extra pillows? My paladin, twisted his ankle on the walk here and I would like something to alleviate it so it doesn’t move during the night” Shiro requested getting a huff from the old woman who looked liked she would rather be anywhere but here.

“That will be an extra 5 GAC for each pillow” the old woman reluctantly said, her voice was shrill and unpleasant to listen to. Shiro undeterred nodded and pulled out some of GAC he had acquired earlier for the gems he had.

“I will request two more of them” Shiro said placing the tray in one hand and fishing out money from his free hand and handing out 20 GAC instead getting a surprised but grateful look from the old woman.

“Thank you very much!” the old woman thanked earnestly, her previously soured mood brightened up. It honestly made her look less dead looking. She made her leave and Shiro closed the door.

“You made someone’s night” Keith teased sitting up on the bed, Shiro placed the tray on Keith’s lap. There was two creamy orange soup that had chunks of fire lizard eggs and two tea cups. Keith’s mouth watered smelling the delicious soup in front of him. It wasn’t often that he had soup so he planned on enjoying every last drop. Before Keith started digging in with the chipped wooden spoon, he looked at Shiro who had taken the herbs and started crushing it in his hands.

“What are you doing?” Keith asked, Shiro stopped mid squish of the herb and turned to look at Keith.

“This herb has cooling and numbing effects in the juice so I’m going to rub it on your ankle” Shiro said, Keith nodded eagerly. Shiro applied the cooling herb onto his ankle, he felt the immediate cooling effect and sighed contently, not noticing the side look that Shiro gave him.

“Better?” Shiro questioned his hand lingering on Keith’s ankle, whatever this herb was it was great because it instantly cooled and numbed his ankle. Keith nodded as he took another spoonful of soup. It was savory and spicy, just the way Keith liked it.

“You should eat this soup before it gets all cold” Keith said patting on the bed next to him, Shiro looked at him wide eyed before shaking his head. He seemed nervous for some reason.

“I’m not that hungry” Shiro said not making no attempt to join Keith on the bed. Keith gave him a quizzical look.

“I seriously doubt that, you only ate a couple berries at lunch, please join me” Keith insisted, there was no way Shiro wasn’t hungry, he was a big guy who hadn’t eaten much all day. Keith didn’t buy it, plus Keith thought it would be nice to eat in someone’s company for once. He hadn’t done that since his orphanage days and that was not often since Keith spent most of his time at his sanctuary. He would now regret, not spending meal times with the other kids, it was at least provided some company.

“It’s proper to let the paladin eat first, so I'll eat after you” Shiro informed, thinking that would deter Keith. But Keith shall not be deterred.

“Do I look like someone whose proper to you? Besides why is there such etiquette between a paladin and guardian? Aren’t we supposed to be bonding? I’m sure eating together is bonding” Keith said putting his spoon down, not up for eating until Shiro decides to get his ass to bed and eat with him. Shiro looked at Keith in thought, still unsure of himself.

“Besides it’s nice to eat with someone” Keith mumbled into his tea cup, Shiro gave him a look of surprise. Keith didn’t look up from his tea and picked up his spoon again, noticing from the corner of his eye Shiro walked over to the other side of the bed and sitting down next to him. Keith smiled to himself and handed Shiro his own bowl and spoon. Shiro took a spoonful of soup and immediately liked what he tasted.

“This is really good!” he said now eagerly eating the soup, Keith nodded and sported a confident smile.

“See, and to think you wanted to skip dinner” Keith teased lightly pushing Shiro to the side with his body. Shiro laughed and reciprocated the action.

“Yeah yeah yeah, you were right, you were right, okay” Shiro said playfully taking a drink of the sweet tea. They fell into comfortable silence, focusing on their food. They had just finished their food when they heard a knock at the door. No doubt it was the older woman from earlier. Shiro got up and took the tray to the door and opened it. The older woman had the two pillows and was holding up a woven basket, Keith from his position on the bed couldn’t see what the contents were instead. But from Shiro’s expression alone it must have been embarrassing.

“This is our basket we give to all guests, so I hope you two have a lovely night” she said with a wink, taking the tray of dishes and making her leave. Shiro stood in front of the door looking down into the contents of the basket in silence for several seconds.

“What did she give us Shiro?” Keith asked worriedly, Shiro slowly turned towards him, he could barely make out in the low light the blush spreading throughout Shiro’s face.

“Shiro?” Keith questioned trying to coax out a reply from Shiro, he was really curious as to why Shiro was all flustered for. Shiro awkwardly walked over and let Keith peer into the basket. Inside the basket was a bottle of cheap oil, some cloth, a vial of reddish liquid some more of the herbs that Shiro had applied to Keith’s ankle earlier. Keith kept looking at the contents of the basket, not understanding why Shiro was so flustered.

“Yay a basket of free stuff?” Keith suggested getting a ‘are you serious’ look from Shiro. Keith shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

“Keith, this is oil don’t you know what oil is used for?” Shiro explained like it was extremely obvious. Keith thought about it for a moment before realizing what Shiro meant.

“Oh cooking oil!” he responded getting a look of disbelief from Shiro. He placed the basket on the bed and rubbed his forehead.

“What?” Keith questioned not understanding why Shiro was being so dramatic about cooking oil.

“I-It’s not-are you seriously gonna make me say it?” Shiro asked shifting uncomfortably on his feet, his face getting even redder.

“Make you say what?” Keith asked crossing his arms and getting frustrated with the whole situation. What was so wrong about cooking oil? Even Keith new that! Sure most of the cooking oil he knows of is animal fat, specifically fat from the meat flower.

“It’s not cooking oil, and Keith think about it! Why is a an inn open this late at night?” Shiro brought up putting his hands over his face. Keith thought about it again, it wasn’t cooking oil, then what else could it be? Wait, it’s not cooking oil. Keith looked at the basket and looked at the contents again. The oil, the vile, the cloths and herbs known for numbing pain.

“You seriously bought us a room in a love inn?” Keith asked accusingly, now blushing furiously. What gave them the impression that Shiro and him were lovers? He looks back to the reddish vile, taking it in his hands and uncapping it taking a whiff of scent. He scrunched up his nose at the overly sweet smell. An aphrodisiac. The elderly woman gave them a probably very cheap aphrodisiac.

“I didn’t know! I just wanted to get you into a room and out of the cold so you could rest!” Shiro defended, holding his hands up in defence.

“Ghee Shiro if you wanted to bed me you could have at least, gotten us better oil and aphrodisiac! This won’t keep us in the mood nor will this oil provide any slickness” Keith teased nervously, trying to make light of the situation but it backfiring on him and making him blush even harder. Shiro looked at him in shock, mouth agape and face absolutely red, Shiro attempted at getting words out but it just sounded like gibberish to Keith. It was silent of a few moments before Shiro spoke up.

“You know it kinda sounds like you know your oil and aphrodisiacs” Shiro nervously implied taking the basket and placing it to the side of the door.

“Well, yeah I am 20 afterall…” Keith admitted feeling embarrassed, it wasn’t information he just gave out, but it was a fact that he does have experience in having sex. Why is Shiro curious about his experience in that field?

“Oh yeah...right, thats a good age to be” Shiro nervously said looking everywhere in the room expect at Keith.

“You ask that like you thought I hadn’t, why did that cross your mind?” Keith couldn’t help to voice, and immediately wanting to swallow his fist whole once the question came out of his mouth. Shiro finally looked at him looked embarrassed and waving his arms around.

“It’s not like it had cross my mind, it’s just surprising information to know that you have such information about oils and aphrodisiacs! I mean who just expects people to know that! It’s certainly more than what I know not that it’s a bad thing to know! Because it’s a good thing to know! I just don’t know why I think it’s surprising okay!” Shiro rambled quickly cutting himself short before he could dig himself a deeper hole. There was an awkward silence that seemed to drag on for eternity.

“Okay it’s obvious, we both have experienced being adults and all” Keith finally spoke up breaking the awkward silence between them, Shiro nodded at the statement stiffly.

“So there’s nothing to be embarrassed about, so let's just put this behind us-okay pretend I didn’t say that, let’s just pretend we didn’t have this conversation and figure out how we are gonna sleep with only one bed” Keith said getting a nod from Shiro, he also nodded.

“Well I was actually planning on sleeping on the grou-” Shiro began before being interrupted by Keith.

“Not happening, we are gonna share this bed like reasonable adults! And stay on our respective sides!” Keith said feeling surprisingly emboldened despite embarrassed that had just occurred between them. To his surprise, Shiro seemed a little too eager.

“Great!” he said grabbing the pillows and positioning them under Keith’s foot, once fully situated he walked over to the lantern and blew it out. Keith got all settled and comfortable in bed pulling up the covers feeling the dip in the mattress where Shiro crawled in. A moment later Keith felt Shiro put his arms over him and his face on Keith’s shoulder. Keith jumped in his spot at the action.

“What are you doing?” Keith questioned trying his best to look at Shiro in the dark, but of course, to no avail.

“Cuddling?” Shiro said, like there was no issue with two guys who aren’t lovers cuddling in bed was no big deal at all.

“Yeah, but why?” Keith asked voice sounding increasingly distressed, leaning away from Shiro’s touch. Keith had to deal with being carried by this attractive man, there was no way he was gonna last the night being cuddled by him.

“.....Cause I like to cuddle….” Shiro admitted nuzzling his shoulder, this was how Keith died, by the cuteness of a guardian lion. He had a good life and couldn’t think of a better way to die. Keith will accept his fate.

“Oh okay, that’s fine I guess” Keith said nervously, hearing a low rumble noise.

“What is that nois-” Keith began before being interrupted.

“Don’t worry about” Shiro said sounding sleepy.

“But-” Keith protested before getting caught off again.

“Don’t worry about it” Shiro reiterated sounding like there was no room for argument. Keith nodded and didn’t say anything further.

______________

Keith whittles down the piece of wood into an undecided shape, he hadn’t been able to whittle anything into a particular shape the entire time he had been whittling. Usually he could make carvings of fire lizards and birds. But today was an off day, they had been taken some time, from traveling to Altea, to train Keith on how to summon his sword. They were at the halfway point to their destination so Shiro thought it was a good idea to train together to practise their teamwork and Keith’s sword summoning skills. Which had not been successful thus far. Shiro decided they needed a dinner break and went to get them a fresh kill, leaving Keith to whittle unsuccessfully. It was really starting to annoy him, at first he understood that he shouldn’t push himself with his injured ankle, so they just tried to get Keith to summon the sword. Shiro tried to reassure him, saying it takes time, especially since Keith didn’t have any magic training. But Keith didn’t have a lot of patience and it’s been a couple weeks now. He should be able to summon his weapon!

He sighed looking at the cut up wood before tossing it into the fire like all the other whittled wood before it. He watched the fire dance, charing up the wood. He turned his attention to his trusted knife, studying it to see if it could use a sharpening, like usual it didn’t. Keith didn’t know what material it was made of but it was clearly a high class blade, he’s had this since he was a child and it never dulled no matter how he used it. It got him out of a lot of jams and could cut through almost anything. At least Keith can always count on this, even if he doesn’t learn how to summon his weapon.

“That knife…” Shiro said peering over Keith’s shoulder, scaring him out of his seat, he was about to turn the knife over to attack before realizing it was Shiro. He looked at Keith apologetically, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly with his free hand.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to scare you!” he said placing the giant pig-like creature on the makeshift cooker, it looked like Shiro already gutted it, thankfully.

“How many times have I told you to not walk up to me like that! You for a big guy have quiet steps I can’t hear you!” Keith said irritatedly, sitting back down on a log Shiro had moved to use as chair.

“Sorry, I actually thought you could sense me by now….so I thought it wouldn’t be an issue” Shiro explained putting spices on the pig. Right sensing each other, Shiro did explain that he should be able to do that.

“I wasn’t focusing” Keith admitted putting his knife in its sheath, Shiro watched him carefully from the corner of his eye before continuing to tend to their dinner.

“What do you think about when you look at your knife like that?” Shiro asked curiously, up until now, he never really questioned about Keith’s knife or why it was so important to him.

“....A lot of things” Keith dismissed, though technically it wasn’t really a lie, he did think of a lot of things he just didn’t give Shiro a solid answer or elaboration. Shiro looked at him for a bit, before getting up and sitting down next to him.

“What kind of things” he gently prodded, Keith was in thought for several minutes trying to decide if it was worth even mentioning, he was surprised Shiro was waiting so patiently for an answer.

“Well I usually think how I don’t need to sharpen the blade, I’ve had this since I was a child and never once have I ever had to sharpen it. I actually didn’t think you had to sharpen blades for the longest time because of it” Keith answered, pulling the knife out again, Shiro looked at the blade with interest.

“Sounds reliable” he stated holding his hand out silently asking to see it for himself, Keith hesitate for a moment before handing it to Shiro figuring since he technically has handled it before. Shiro took the knife and started inspecting it.

“It is, it’s gotten me out of a lot of tough situations and it can cut open just about anything” Keith said with pride Shiro got up and walked to a tree and started slicing it up, like it was a practice post. He expertly handled the knife with such precision and skill, it surprised Keith, he didn’t think Shiro would be so skilled with a knife. Shiro turned back to him with a smile on his face.

“I’m glad this weapon has protected my paladin well, where did you get it?” Shiro asked walked back and sitting back down handing the blade back to Keith, who was sporting a blush. ‘My paladin’ Keith repeated in his head, those words always made him feel warm when Shiro uttered them.

“Well actually it was a gift from my Dad...” Keith trailed off, recounting the day his dad gave him the knife, he remembered being so happy. He felt a warm hand cover his own and squeezing gently. He turned his attention towards Shiro who looked worried.

“Are you okay? You zoned out there” Shiro said, Keith nodded and removed his hand from Shiro’s and sheathed his knife again.

“Yeah I’m fine just remembering when my dad gave it to me, so anyway after we eat I want to try and summoning again” Keith said quickly changing the subject, he looked at the pork cooking in front of him anxiously awaiting for it to be fully cooked. He was starving and eager to taste something new.

“....I’ve been thinking why you’ve been having such a hard time summoning the weapon and..” Shiro began, Keith looked at him eagerly waiting for him to finish his sentence.

“And I think the issue is you don’t trust in our weapon like you do your knife, that's why you can’t summon it” Shiro finished looking a little pained at his words.

“It’s not as if I don’t know how to use a sword, sure a weapon from a guardian is gonna have unique features but I can learn how to use it” Keith said confidently Shiro sighed like Keith had just missed an important point.

“I don’t doubt that Keith, but I think your approach it too practical, our weapon is unique to us, it is the symbol of our bonds’ strength it’s not just another weapon, just like your knife, it’s not just another knife to you, it’s your knife that your dad gave to you. That is something important to you” Shiro explained pointing at Keith’s knife. Oh, Keith thought to himself, now he was starting to see why he wasn’t able to summon it. Keith didn’t see his weapon as his, but Akira’s, this weapon was like how his dad gave him his knife, something to protect him. It made a lot more sense now.

“I think I get it now, let’s try it” Keith said looking determined, standing up and taking his position, Shiro stared at him in amazement.

“Shiro?” Keith out to him waving his hand to get Shiro’s attention, it did the trick snapping Shiro out of his stupor. Shiro stood up and walked in front of Keith.

“You kinda zoned out there” Keith pointed out, seeing a slight blush dust Shiro’s cheeks.

“Well I was just thinking how amazing my paladin is, is all” Shiro admitted rubbing the back of his neck, now it was Keith’s turn to slightly blush.

“Well we can save the sappy stuff for later!” Keith said looking flustered, Shiro nodded in agreement, giving Keith a gentle smile.

“Alright you may begin” Shiro instructed waiting patiently for Keith, he nodded and placed his hand on Shiro’s chest nervously. Shiro made a small laugh earning a glare from Keith.

“Sorry” Shiro said not looking sorry in the slightest, Keith rolled his eyes and began to focus. Okay Keith, think about grabbing your knife, like Shiro instructed but not your knife and instead the knife he ‘gave’ you Keith thought to himself. Simple enough I just have to pull it out of his chest…..because that’s apparently how this works.

“Remember, feel our bond and grab at it like you would your knife” Shiro spoke, Keith closed his eyes and nodded. Feel our bond? Keith thought, how does he go about thinking of that? Does he think of how concerned and attentive Shiro is of him? Like with his ankle and injuries. Or how he wanted to go to better Inn’s so that Keith could be comfortable. Or does he think about how easy it was to talk to Shiro? Keith has always been a loner, people found it hard to be in his company and Shiro was the only one who didn’t seem bothered by him. Keith didn’t know where or how to feel their ‘bond’ but Keith knew he didn’t want to let down the only person who seemed to believe in him. Keith felt a coolness in his hands and grabbed onto it pulling it towards him. He felt like he was holding onto something, he felt his heart beat in excitement, this was it. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the object he was holding, it was the sword he first grabbed the night he met Shiro. Keith looked at Shiro with pure excitement, Shiro looked at him beaming with pride.

“I did it! I finally summoned my weapon!” Keith said holding his weapon higher, Shiro wrapped his arms around Keith and spun him around.

“I’m so proud of you Keith! I knew you could do it!” Shiro said resting his head on Keith’s, whose face went entirely red at the close contact. He still wasn’t used to it but the actions made him feel warm. They lingered in their embraced for several long moments before Keith became too flustered from the contact. It was overwhelming at the absolute joy he felt because of Shiro. Keith couldn’t recall the last time anyone said they were proud of him, it made him emotional and dammit! He was not gonna cry for something this stupid and ruin the whole moment.

“Now the sword fighting lessons can begin” Shiro said giving Keith a smirk. He took that as a challenge.

“Just so you know, I’m fast and strike quick” Keith bragged taking out his knife, why fight with one weapon when you have two?

“Getting cocky already? Looks like I’ll have to put you in your place” Shiro said eyeing Keith up and down. That shouldn’t be as hot as it was. Keith was kinda hoping he would.

“Bring it” Keith said confidently.

A few hours later, Keith was on his ass panting widely. Not a single time since they started sparring, did he win. He came close to but clearly Shiro has more experience, he handle his blade with grace. While Keith swung his sword with everything he had. Shiro walked over handing over the water container. Keith took it and chugged it down.

“You handled yourself well, you just need to practice and get used to the swords weight” Shiro explained taking the now fully roasted pig creature off of the cooker.

“Thanks” Keith said as he wiped his mouth of excess water off of his chin.

“You seem familiar with fighting, I thought you said you were never thought how to handle a sword” Shiro pointed out handing him a pig leg, he took the leg and started chowing down on it. This is exactly what he needed after hours of sparring.

“That is true, I just learned to fight by street fighting, when your poor and have no food, others will try to fight you for whatever you got. So I quickly learned how to fight, I can fight better with my knife, as you saw” Keith explained, taking a block of cheese, putting it between two bread slices and biting into it.

“That’s…” Shiro spoke taking his spot next to Keith with a plate of his own food.

“You do what you have to do, besides it’s good that I learned anyway makes training how to use an actual sword a lot easier” Keith states, taking another bite of pig leg.

“You’re optimistic” Shiro commented taking a drink of water.

“Makes things a whole lot easier when you are” Keith said digging into some nuts and berries they have collected on their journey. He heard a small laugh from Shiro.

“You’re right”

______________

When night fell they had taken shelter in this tall grassy field, the grass was soft to the touch and a healthy shade of green. Shiro had flattened one part of the grass and laid down the fur blanket the horse made it’s own little crevasse in the grass. Keith laid down and looked up at the clear night sky. It was a relief to relax his muscles, after the hours of sparring and traveling he was exhausted. The good kind of exhausted, he felt productive like he was a step closer to becoming the paladin he was chosen to do. He looks up at the stars and contemplates his life, his life may be shit but at least he could always find a good place to stargaze. He heard Shiro rustling around him no doubt putting everything down for the night, Keith breathed in the crisp night air, it was fairly chilly but the blanket and Shiro’s cuddles kept him warm during the night just fine. After Shiro was finished he laid down next to Keith.

“You comfortable?” Shiro asked voice soft and quiet, he had his body turned towards Keith and his arm propping his head up. Keith didn’t tear his gaze off of the sky as he spoke.

“Yeah, this is the comfiest spot we’ve slept at during this trip” Keith said putting his arms behind his head, using them as a pillow.

“Is that so? I’ll make sure to find better spots” Shiro said eyeing Keith’s frame unbeknownst to him.

“Good, my back can finally have a break” Keith teased, by now he was used to feeling uncomfortable. It wasn’t truly a problem, if he had to sleep on something uncomfortable he would. But it was nice sleeping on something soft.
“I could always give you a back massage” Shiro blurted out, Keith smiled to himself not noticing Shiro’s flustered face.

“You can just do everything can’t you? Cooking, fighting, hunting and back massages. Being a paladin has its perks” Keith teases stretching his aches limbs.

“Anything to please my paladin” Shiro teases not missing a beat. They fell into a comfortable silence. The night was bright with the full moon's light.

“I love stargazing, it always made sleeping in the outdoors manageable, every time a comet would fly by I like to think it’s the stars getting a look at us too” Keith said breaking the comfortable silence, he looked up at the stars feeling mesmerized.

“I’ve stargazed with many people in my time, but I don’t think anybody has ever said something like” Shiro said making a small laugh, Keith didn’t know if that was a good thing, but it made Shiro laugh so cutely so he’s taking it as a good thing.

“I’ll take that as a good thing” Keith said not tearing his gaze away from the stars. He easily forgot how tired his muscles were. Feeling completely relaxed under the stars.

“I didn’t mean it in a bad way” Shiro said watching as Keith’s eyes growing drowsy. Clearly the long day of training not only his muscles but also his magical power had drained him.

“Falling asleep already?” Shiro asked smiling fondly at his paladin, Keith gave a nod letting his head fall to side.

“Goodnight Keith” Shiro said pulling

“G’night Shero” Keith mumbled before falling asleep.

______________

A small whimper jumps Keith right out of his sleep, his blurry eyes taking it’s time adjusting to the moonlight night. He looks around hoping to find the source of the whimper, he hears a rustle to his right. Looking over Keith sees Shiro making a painful expression on his sleeping face. He rubs his eyes before gently rubbing Shiro’s arm.

“..No” Shiro blurts out, no doubt he was having a nightmare.

“It’s okay Shiro, I’m here” Keith says trying to gently wake Shiro from his nightmare. He moves Shiro closer to himself feeling his damp sweaty skin as he did so. Keith wishes he had woken up sooner. He gently shakes Shiro again.

“Shiro wake up, it’s just a bad dream” Keith says being careful to not raise his voice to much, in fear of scaring Shiro.

“Please...Akira” Shiro whimpered, Keith could hear his desperation in his voice. Was Shiro having a nightmare about Akira?

“Shiro please wake up!” Keith pleaded shaking Shiro harder this time. Shiro opened his eyes and leaned his head away from Keith looking startled.

“A-Keith...?” Shiro questioned breathing heavily, Keith nodded wiping the sweat rolling down his face.

“Yes, you were having a bad dream, are you okay?” Keith asks grabbing a container of water and bringing it up to Shiro. He took the container and chugged the entire bag dry. Keith continued wiping off the sweat in worry. I guess even Guardian’s have nightmares, that shouldn’t be as comforting as it is given the circumstances, Keith thinks grabbing the container and setting it back to the side.

“Yeah I’m fine, thank you” Shiro speaks voice sounding a little rough, turning away from Keith. The action made Keith feel cold, he laid back down staring at the back of Shiro’s head. His thoughts was filled with worry, he wanted to give Shiro more comfort but he was afraid of pushing it further. It was clear Shiro didn’t want to explain what happened in his dream. All Keith felt like he could was place a gently hand on Shiro’s back before returning back to sleep.

______________

Keith looks all around him drinking up the unfamiliar landscape, Altea was beautiful, and nothing like Keith expected. The plants had a strange looking lines that glowed various different colors depending on the plant. The wood of the trees, were various colors of either green, blue, purple, gold and white. There were random giant crystals laid out throughout the the land all were a light blue in color.

“It’s so beautiful” Keith spoke out in amazement not noticing the gentle look from behind him, Keith tighten his grip on the horse’s reins staying on the path Shiro had pointed out to him earlier.

“Yeah it is” Shiro replied tightening his hold on Keith’s waist, out in the distance they could see a castle they should be there fairly soon.

“You know, I don’t think I ever questioned you about the Blue lion” Keith said recalling everything they had talked about their mission and that was an important piece of information that they hadn’t discussed yet.

“Really? I thought I told you about him when I told you of Altea” Shiro said taking his eyes off of Keith to look up at the sky in thought.

“No I recall you just gushing about how beautiful Altea looked, you described it to a T, though I did not believe you about the color scheme of the scenery” Keith said, he loved nature he thought he had it all figured out until he came here, everything looked as he knew it to be; Various shades of green and brown with hints of colors from flowers. But here everything was new and different. He wanted to explore and touch everything.

“Well, now I hope you won't ever doubt me again” Shiro teased turning his attention back to Keith’s starry eyed look.

“Lesson learned, so now tell me about the Blue lion, I think it's good for me to know beforehand” Keith, leaning down to pet the horse. They decided to name him Cherry.

“..W-well he's…” Shiro stuttered out, Keith sat back up and craned his neck to try and look back at Shiro from his position.

“He’s?” Keith repeated indicating for Shiro to continue, Shiro immediately turned his head to the side hoping Keith didn’t see the blush forming on his face. Keith looked at him raising his eyebrow in confusion.

“Kinda moody and a major flirt and he was the former red lion before…” Shiro began before trailing off, Keith didn’t need ask what Shiro meant. It was pretty obvious something happened to Akira that made it so Shiro took his place as the Black lion. Keith had so many questions that he didn’t know how to ask or if he could ask them. Keith brought his hand to Shiro’s arm and gently squeezed it in reassurance.

“He tends to be playful but he is reliable” Shiro said changing the subject, Keith nodded and brought his hand back onto the reins.

“Alright, do you know if he has a paladin? Because that's gonna be a major issue when we get there” Keith questioned, seeing the Altean gates get closer.

“Lance is pretty accepting of paladins...since the change at least so even if he doesn’t have a paladin we should be able to find one among the Alteans” Shiro replied getting a strong sense of foreboding. Keith looked at the gate as they were brought closer, noticing a few things that seemed wrong with it. The rusted golden gate looked to be slightly open and there was a hole in the middle of the gate.

“Shiro” Keith called out knowing he was feeling the same way he did.

“Let’s stop here and summon your weapon” Shiro instructed, Keith nodded and stopped the horse tying it to a thick bush. He stood in front of Shiro and summoned his weapon.

“Be careful Keith, we don’t know what we are gonna encounter” Shiro said as they reached the gates, Keith nodded in confirmation. They entered through the gate and were shocked at what they found.

Chapter Text

The kingdom looked like the remnants of a battle, houses were destroyed from both the battle and the natural elements causing the structures to decay and crumble; The skeletal remains of Galra soldiers, Altean soldiers and Altean civilians covered the ground and draping over buildings. Nature had long since overtaken the kingdom, seemingly covering the horrors that had transpired here long ago in beautiful unknown flowers and intricate vines. The once paved roads sprouted in what Keith believes to be Altean weeds. The collapsed structures reminded Keith of the ruins of Shiro’s castle; The stylistic designs and structures were clearly inspired or built by, the Alteans. The wildlife had moved back into the area that once been occupied by the citizens, the strange looking birds sing their songs as if they weren’t resting on the remains of a person who once was alive; Rodents crawling out of the opened mouths of skeletons, bees pollinating flowers growing out of skulls eye sockets. The tragedy that was before him made him feel somber. Having grown up in the Galra Empire, he is pretty desensitised to the remains of people, but he always felt sympathy for them, paying respects to dead when he could. He could handle the past destruction, being so distant from it but Shiro….

Keith feeling Shiro’s distress turned towards him, he looked pale face and shocked at the sight before them, the entire time they were traveling Shiro spoke about Altea with such fondness he could tell he had so much love for this place. He kept telling Keith he’ll love it here, that Altea was more peaceful and beautiful than Daibazeel was. In contrast to the bright colors of Altea, Daibazeel had darker colors, like a dark jewel toned reds, yellows, purples and greens. The wild life of Altea blended easily with the plant life, while in Daibazeel it was obvious what was flora and what was fuana. Shiro had told him Altean’s were more open and friendly than the Galra. Shiro spoke of this place fully expecting it to still be here, to Shiro this must be violently surreal, to him it must have felt like yesterday he was laughing and eating with them. Keith couldn’t even begin to understand how that must feel.

“I’m sure your friend is fine” Keith said trying to reassure him as best he could, he knows their bond enables them to feel each other’s strong emotions so Keith hopes his feelings of wanting to comfort Shiro will reach him; Shiro nodded vacantly unable to take his eyes off the destruction.

“Yeah…” Shiro responded absentmindedly, Keith got his attention by gently grabbing his hand. He would have liked to give Shiro time to process his grief, but Keith didn’t exactly know how to handle that himself and Keith wanted to find the Blue lion as soon as possible, he was starting to get a bad feeling about this place.

“Come on let’s go look for your friend, where would he be?” Keith said squeezing Shiro’s hand firmly. Maybe having a task to complete would take his mind off of things, having a set goal always helped ground his mind when he gets too stressed out about his life predicaments. Plus Shiro must miss all of his fellow guardians, his friend could also give insight on what happen and maybe give Shiro closure.

“Yeah-yes, yes, I think he would be at the main castle” Shiro said squeezing Keith’s hand back. Keith went to unhook their hands but Shiro held on tighter. Keith looked at him, Shiro was giving him pleading eyes.

“It's grounding” Shiro explained, looking a bit shy and ashamed, Keith nodded and gently squeezed Shiro’s hand. Keith could feel Shiro’s anxiety lesson, good he thought.

“I don’t mind” Keith said with a comforting smile, Shiro smiled back appreciatively. They turned back towards the ruins and headed towards the castle. Along the way Keith unable to quell his curiosity from being in a new country, studied the architecture, all the buildings fading designs once looked very beautiful. The iridescent broken materials used to build them looked fancy as well. He could tell it was once a rich kingdom that took care of its citizens. Back in Daibazeel Keith lived in the slums of Hillshire, it was an already poor town of the Empire, everything went to the military advancement meaning the budget couldn’t handle to take care of its poor citizens.

They walked up to what would be the castle gates, the entrance was barren, a giant gaping hole was all that was left of the used to be elegant and extravagant castle gates. The once intricate designs were laid about the area as shrapnel. From the broken walls that surrounded the castle, Keith could tell that it was once beautiful, the walls had engravings of flowers he did not recognize and other intricate designs that was dirtied and faded by the weather and the overtaking of plants. Keith tuned into how Shiro was doing, from what he was reading he was recalling something bad? Keith couldn’t figure out the specifics but he knew Shiro was getting more and more distressed.

“I was in slumber before this happened, I knew there was still a war going on, but I-I” Shiro began, looking like he was about to loose it like the night he had that nightmare, squeezing Keith’s hand a little too tightly. Shiro wore an ashamed expression of shame clearly feeling guilty about events he could not change, Keith put his free hand on Shiro’s shoulder and squeezed reassuringly.

“It’s not your fault you were in slumber when this happened, so don’t blame yourself, if it’s anyone's fault it’s Zarkon’s, look that’s an old Galra armor” Keith said gently pointing out a large galra sentries armored skeleton, Shiro looked at him torn between Keith’s words and his own feelings of survivor's guilt.

“And once we have reconnected with your pride we’ll be able to bring these fallen people the justice they deserve” Keith said voice still soft but had conviction. Shiro’s eyes went wide with amazement, nodding in agreement finding new found conviction. Keith tuning in could feel Shiro brightening up at the prospect of giving these Alteans justice, maybe he wasn’t the worst person to comfort someone after all. They walked through the gates heading into the castle. The inside didn’t look much better than the outside, there were piles of iridescent rubble from the ceiling, stairs and columns. There were fallen remains of warriors from both opposing sides. There were cracked crystals on the walls, the floor was cracked and cratered from battle. The once painted structures were all faded and dirtied. Shiro lead them throughout the castle with ease. After a few hours of searching all of the important rooms and turning up nothing they sat down on the steps of the throne room for a quick rest. The throne room despite being broken down still had a beauty about it, there were columns leading up to the throne chair, some were collapsed laying on top of a dirtied ripped up deep sapphire blue carpet.

“This castle is huge, I think it would be better to split up” Keith said looking out into the throne room that had taken several minutes to reach. Shiro immediately shook his head in protest.

“Absolutely not, you have no idea how dangerous the animals of Altea can be, it’s safer to stay together” Shiro insisted, he did have a point, Keith did not know any of the animals of Altea. Nor did he know the layout of the castle. But it was far more efficient to split up to search than to search one room after room in a pair. Keith wanted to quickly find wherever this Lance was so they could figure out how to get him a paladin. They were losing precious daylight.

“Yes, I understand that but it's more efficient for us to search alone than it is for us to search in pair, it takes less time. We can communicate with our bond so we can notify each other if we find him” Keith explained, Shiro looked thoughtful but still unconvinced. Keith can’t really blame him, they were not at that telepathy part of their bond yet. But they could feel each other emotions and that was enough for Keith.

“Plus I don’t want to be at this when it hits nightfall the sooner we can get this done the better” Keith said, watching as Shiro thought about it looking a little more convinced, okay time for the next phase.

“The faster we can find Lance the faster we can find him a paladin and be on our way to find the others, the faster we find them the faster we can start our fight against Zarkon” Keith said getting a resigned sigh from Shiro. They both knew Keith had a good point but it did nothing to quell the concern Shiro had.

“Alright, but you must take your sword, it's my only condition” Shiro said pulling Keith’s hand up to his chest, Keith nodded and summoned his sword. After several times of reassuring Shiro that he would be fine, they went their separate ways.

“Okay, maybe splitting up was a bad idea” Keith said frustratedly passing the same damn rock he has already passed several times now. The castle was huge and the rooms all looked the same to him. The murals on the walls and ceilings looked all the same they were faded and dirtied from the lack of care, but Keith could still tell what they depicting, it was nude Alteans bathing in streams and ponds. There were murals of naked humanoid creatures with lion heads. There were even gems carved into the walls in shape of the nude bodies of Alteans. He discovered an artist trend fairly quickly with the Alteans. Water, flowers, gemstones, lions and nude depictions of themselves and their gods/spirits. He swears there wasn’t a wall in this castle that wasn’t decorated in murals. In Daibazeel, there wasn’t colorful murals on the walls or beautiful paintings. Instead the color and decorating came from the type of wood and metal placed together and many statues of Zarkon at any given place. The Galra were also more conservative than the Alteans, whatever portraits were made, depicted fully armored and clothed Galra’s.

Keith this time tried the room to the right of the rock, inside the room had lots of fallen warriors. He had to step carefully to avoid stepping on any of them. As he made his next step he heard movement to his left side, he stopped in his tracks and turned in that direction. He didn’t see anything moving but he still had an eerie feeling like he was being watched. He looked at the corpses around the room looking for any signs of rats or anything else that would hide in skeletons. Maybe it was all of the skeletons heads pointed in his direction creeping him but he had a really bad feeling in this room. As he continued walking through the room he swore that the eye sockets were following him. He finally got to the other door of the room, he was about to exit the room when something grabbed a hold of his leg. He jumped up and readied his sword, he looked at his leg seeing nothing. He turned his back to the door and looked back out into the room. He reached for the doorknob and forced the door opened and immediately slammed the door. Keith sighed in relief and leaned on the door.

Keith took breath of relief, he was about to lean off the door when something grabbed ahold of his legs and started dragging him on the ground. He made out a shout before turning himself to look at his attacker. On the top of the ceiling was a giant plant like creature it’s thick petals had long rows of thorns leading right into the center, where acid drool was dripping onto the ground corroding the plants below. He felt a sharp pain in his leg, he looked down were a thick prickly vine had imbedded itself in his leg, he could feel the blood traveling down his leg. He swung his sword down on the vine in a panic nearly hitting his own leg, getting stuck halfway. Out of the corner of his eyes a noticed a figure standing nearby.

“Help!” he desperately called out reaching towards the figure, it stepped closer to him a bit awkwardly he turned his attention from the figure and back towards this terrifying plant creature. He was frightfully close to it’s mouth, he began swinging his sword wildly, watching the vine bleed a milky purple liquid. Remember, Shiro says to remain calm in a high stressful situation, Keith thought to himself focusing on the vine, he watched for the best opening and swung, another sword landed on top of his, slicing his leg open and helping him slice through the vine. Keith heard a screeched from the plant creature, swinging its vines wildly. He looked up at the owner of the an old Galra style sword, seeing a skeleton face with bright glowing eyes above him. He looked at the figure in shock forgetting about the plant creature. The skeleton figure looked to be in the first era Zarkonian style armor, it was holding an old Galra longsword and in its other hand a lit lantern, the style from 10,000 years ago. The armor suit was mostly made of a thick leather from the long dead goblin pigs but how? How was a skeleton that was wearing ancient armor walking around? The skull and jaw bones looked to be Galra there was no flesh present on its entire face.

In Keith’s shock the plant creature wrapped it’s vines around his bleeding leg again pulling him towards it. The undead soldier lifted it’s sword to swing at Keith again, he looked between his two attackers frantic to defend himself. He parried the undead soldier’s attack bracing himself from the unnatural strength of it, now normally Keith still had to brace himself against the Galra’s strength but this was much more intense, as if it were getting its strength from something more powerful and dreadful. The undead soldier reached it’s hand out death gripping Keith’s arm pulling him away from the plant creature. The creature pulled back, making Keith the rope of their victim tug of war. Keith screamed out in pain reaching for his knife, he pulled it out and swung at the vine as hard as he could. When it got stuck he began sawing the vine, he forced his arm and legs to pull against attackers till the vine gave way. He quickly turned to stab the undead soldier but instead stabbed the lantern coating his knife with oil and flames. He blew on it hoping to put it out but instead it made the fire bigger, a pair of large vines slammed Keith and the undead soldier halfway across the room, effectively breaking his ribs. The vine getting coated in falming oil in the process began to burn, the fire spreading quickly engulfing it in flames. The plant creature screeched in pain throwing its very large vines and slamming it against the stone flooring. The flooring began to give way falling to the next floor below. Keith holding tight to his sword and knife began slowing crawling to the exit with one final violent swing from the plant creature the rest of the stone floor gave away.

With a loud thud Keith hit the stone flooring, the impact forcing the breath out of him. Immediately gasping for air he desperately fights to stay conscious, he lets out a painful groan as he becomes increasingly aware of the sharp pain pulsating in his head. He feels something warm and damp rolling down his face and wetting his hair, it’s probably blood he begrudging thinks to himself. He hears footsteps of something approaching him, in fear he struggles to sit up but the weight of fleeting strength forces him to fall back onto the ground. His blurry vision peering out around him he extends his arm out trying to feel for his sword. Once the footsteps came to a stop he freezes up not daring to make a move, he feels eyes staring him down from the side. After a few painful still moments he releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding, he looked to the side to see something big and blue looking down at him cocking its head to the side. He wipes the blood off of his face, focusing his attention on the big blue. He waits for a few moments before his vision starts clearing up.

A transparent sapphire blue lion peers at him with beany blue eyes, his main was short but full, it was bigger than any lion Keith had ever seen. The lion had a strange feel to it, the main seemed to flow as if it were traveling through water, the rest of the body looked like it was covered in iridescent scales. He looked at the lion in shock and to his further disbelief the lion mimicked his reaction, the lion moved it’s paw out towards his face as if it were reaching out to him in disbelief. He immediately leaned back watching the paw come inches from his face, the lion’s eyes felt like they were burrowing into him. The lion placed it’s paw down and lowered it’s head to get a good sniff of him. Keith didn’t know if he should be concerned or not, but the lion wasn’t growling or looking aggressive. It just seemed curious. A burst echoed through the room making Keith tear his gaze from the blue beast. There in the doorway stood the same undead abomination that had attacked him. He scrambled for his sword finally spotting it a good five feet away. He looked back at the soldier creeping its way throw the room, he reached for his knife anticipating the next on slot of attacks. To his surprise the undead soldier wasn’t walking towards him in fact it wasn’t even looking at him, it was looking at a strange structure. It was a large pink crystal standing vertically, hovering over this stone covered in bright glowing rune’s, directly above and below it. Bright pink flowers covered the structure laying on it as if it were a lily pad laying in a pond. Laying in the middle of the structure was a beautiful dark skinned woman with strange pink marking under here eyes and snowy white coily hair she wore a simple gold tiara with three spikes the one in the middle was largest, her dressed looked regal, it was a light pink ball gown dress, her sleeves were off shoulder, it was puffed till half way of her forearm, then it slimmed to her the counter of the rest of her arm. She looked peaceful in her sleep blissfully unaware of the passage of time.

“Princess Allura identified, commence with execution” the undead soldier said, it’s voice sounded hollow, raspy and oddly feminine, he looked towards the soldier vastly approaching the structure. He jumped at the sound of loud growling, looking over at the lion who was desperately trying to take out the soldier but to no avail. Keith wasn’t sure if the structure protected the woman or not but by the lion’s reaction, he wasn’t going to rely on it. The soldier stood in front of the structure pressing a spot on the crystal and began to lift his sword. Quickly positioning himself, Keith took aim with his knife, and threw. The knife impaled the soldiers neck, the soldier stood still for a moment before creepily turning it’s entire head backwards, Keith’s mouth hung open in shock. He watched as the undead soldier turn its body around to match with its head, the knife still in its neck.

“Nice one Keith, get the aggro on you when you are defenseless, once he’s done with me he’ll go after her” Keith chided himself desperately trying to stand up, to his frustration his legs didn’t want to work. The undead soldier creeped it’s way towards him, Keith took the nearest rock to use as one final stand, the undead lifted it’s sword and went to swing.

“Keith!” Shiro’s voice roared causing a gust of wind to slam the undead soldier back, Shiro landed in front of him in a guarding position.

“Shiro!” Keith called out, watching Shiro fight off the soldier. His movements were graceful yet powerful, each swing was delivered with precision. With one shining final blow Shiro sliced the undead causing it to to burn to dust. Immediately sheathing his sword Shiro ran over to Keith, kneeling down and checking over his injuries, Shiro’s eyes widen in horror at Keith’s injuries.

“I’m so sorry I’m late, I-I got ambushed by a lot of them and when I felt your distress I just couldn’t get here fast enough” Shiro said frantically trying to get Keith’s bloody leg, arm and face patched up.

“Really? Seems like you came just in time to me” Keith joked with a sigh of relief, that was too close of a call, Shiro chuckled awkwardly wiping the blood off of Keith’s face. Hearing a loud crack both men looked towards the sound. The crystal structure looked to be melting in chucks, the liquid pooling all over the floor, it was transparent with a pink shining tint to it. The woman, ‘Princess Allura’, who was in the structure was completely freed from her crystal slumber. She stood for a moment, her hair and dress clinging to her as if she were drenched with water. The hole in the ceiling letting in the sunlight making the liquid shiny, like a gem. Both men watched as she lurched forward, Shiro went to move to catch her when a loud roar called out.

“Allura!” a blue blur flew past them, a deep blue apparition transforming right as Allura fell into, it’s increasingly transforming arms. There stood a dark skin, though much lighter than Allura’s skin, man. His hair was brown, and not quite as muscular as Shiro nor as tall. He like Shiro however was very much naked after transforming, they can snap armor on themselves but can’t take on physical form with said armor apparently. A bright glow shined around their ears, after the glow dissipated Keith noticed both of them were sporting a single matching earring on the right side of their ears. It was a dangle earring with a bright blue gem at the ends.

“..W-What’s going on?” Allura asked stirring awake, letting the Blue Lion hold her up.

“Shiro that’s” Keith said in a low voice watching the scene unfold, Shiro still in mid pounce.

“You looking beautiful as always” Lance flirted putting on his best smile, Allura gave him a look of confusion. Her vision becoming more clear she reached for his ears feeling the roundness of it.

“Your ears” she commented with disgust, Lance cocked his head in surprise.

“Are hideous” she said flipping him over, pining his hand behind his back and pinching his ear.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my castle” she interrogated, looking around the room, then focusing on Keith and Shiro, she stared them down trying to rise answers out of them.

“Ow ow ow ow ow Allura it’s me!” Lance pleaded in pain, getting Allura’s attention, she looked at him for a moment, her fierce expression quickly turned to one of thought before turning to realization she immediately let Lance go looking teary eyed.

“Lance?” she questioned with disbelief watching as Lance stood up and faced her with a flustered look.

“I know my face looks different but it’s still the same gorgeous me as always” Lance boasted doing a pose trying to remedy the blunder from before. Allura beamed into a bright smile wrapping her arms around Lance. In her excitement and previous confusion, she didn’t realize the disarray of her castle.

“Well that takes care of finding a paladin for him” Keith said in relief looking at Shiro’s shocked expression.

“I can’t believe you’ve finally taken form! I’ve dreamt about this for so long!” Allura said excitedly, she touched Lance’s single earring and went to touch hers. The sheer excitement would have been endearing if Keith didn’t get this feeling of dread. She was so blissfully unaware of the tragedy that had happened, he didn’t want to see her excitement fade but it was only a matter of time before one of them had to break the news to her. A loud thud drew their attention, another undead soldier had fallen from room above. The undead soldier was missing an arm and a large part of it’s torso, Shiro immediately went between it and Keith in a defensive position. He was about to pounce when Lance waved at him to stop.

“What is that thing? And how did it get into my castle” Allura said giving the undead soldier a disgusted look.

“I think you can take care this” Lance said motioning his hands towards the soldier, Allura smiled eagerly. She brought up her hand up to her earring, a bright blue glowing light shined brightly for a moment, she extended her had forward grabbing on hard light. Once it was fully pulled out the light dissipated revealing the object in the form of a lance, a majority of it was made of water, the hilt of it was a white looking metal covered in bright pink gems. With one swing of her lance, the undead soldier was sliced down the middle. The water had extended several feet like a whip, the undead soldier then turned to dust. Keith looked at her in shock, they have been bonded for seconds and yet she could summon her weapon so easily, it made him feel unworthy of Shiro. Allura turned towards Lance showing him her weapon, he gave her a prideful smile.

“That was amazing! come we must tell my….” Allura spoke grabbing Lance’s hand before realizing that something was dreadfully wrong she did a double take of the room before turning back towards Lance looking aghast.

“Allura..” Lance said gently squeezing her hand, knowing full well what she was remembering.

“Where is my father! And and ….” she demanded looking around the ruins of the castle and honing in on Keith’s injuries and Shiro’s pale face, her expression growing more and more panicked.

“What happened?” Allura’s voice cracking as she spoke looking at Lance tearfully, he winced hearing the distress in her voice. Lance gulped before wiping the tears from her eyes.

“Al-Altea lost…Alfor managed to save you and Coran but..he…” Lance begin to explain, you could tell he was trying his best to hold back his own grief, for Allura’s sake afterall she did deserve to know what had befallen the fate of her country and her father. Allura shook her head violently as tears overflowed from her eyes.

“No no no” she choked, making a heart wrenching wail, Keith looked away swallowing his own lump of tears in his throat. It was hard not to feel for her, she has lost everything. He looked at Shiro who looked pained at the scene unfolding before them, Keith reached over ignoring the pain he felt and squeezed his hand drawing Shiro’s attention.

“Oh I-uh sorry Keith, you’re still bleeding, here let's fix you up over there” Shiro said snapping himself out his thoughts, picking Keith up and taking him, Keith looked behind them seeing Allura fall to the ground with Lance keeping her in his arms, a trial of his blood followed them as they left. Shiro had take them to the courtyard, it was overrun with plant life, beautiful flowers that were all sort of bright vibrant colors and vines surrounding the broken fountain that seemed determined to keep funneling water through. The fountains statue was a depiction of some kind of Altean warrior holding a broken broadsword, the other arm had broken off landing right into the water below. Shiro gently placed Keith on the flat ridges on the foundation, the water looked surprisingly clean, minus the water plants taking home. There was no algae present nor any algae bugs, normally in the rivers or any stagnant water, algae would consume the body of water and algae bugs would flock to it, swampy waters were normal back in Daibazeel. Shiro immediately began wrapping up Keith’s injuries up with bandages and this strange sponge like herb. Shiro said it was good for stopping the bleeding and dulling the pain.

“Oh it’s okay, I’m just as stunned as you are” Keith said trying to drown out Allura’s cries even all the way out here they could still hear her cries, a guilt look embedded itself on Shiro’s face.

“I know you feel guilty but it’s not your fault” Keith said trying his best to reassure Shiro, he nodded absentmindedly bracing Keith’s leg.

“You shouldn-” Keith began before getting cut off by a tired look from Shiro, Keith reached out his hand and firmly squeezed Shiro’s shoulder. He looked at Keith questionly before easing up and putting a hand over Keith’s. He took that as a sign that Shiro didn’t want to talk about it, in a way that’s what made them similar. Keith too found it difficult to talk about his deep emotions. But he found it easier with Shiro, he can only hope that Shiro feels the same way. Maybe later when everything has calmed down Keith can give Shiro some kind of reassurance.

“I’ll feel better once you’re all patched up” Shiro said with a pained smile, withdrawing his hand and making the final wraps on the bandages. Keith winced at the pain in his leg, the numbing agents from the herbs did well for the cuts and bruises but for a broken leg? Not so much, maybe if I put more on it, Keith thought to himself.

“How bad does it hurt?” Shiro asked gently placing his hand on his shin.

“Bad, really bad, it hurts to breath so I don’t think I could hide it if I tried” Keith playfully said lightly patting his ribs; Trying to lighten up, at least his, situation. A small genuine smile crept on Shiro’s face, but it was soon gone at another heart wrenching wail from Allura.

“Good, you wouldn’t be able to walk on it anyway” Shiro spoke, he sounded a bit hallow, but he trying to engage with Keith as much as he possibly could, he appreciated it. He didn’t know if he could handle the silence, knowing Shiro was upset was already enough to unnerve him. He didn’t know if he could handle silence, Shiro already was withdrawing himself anymore than that would stress Keith out further.

“Right,” Keith said, looking at Shiro questionly. He watched as Shiro closed his eyes, soon after Keith felt warmth where Shiro had placed his hand. A bright purple glow illuminated under Shiro’s palm, the warmth of the palm pulsated slowly driving away Keith’s pain.

“What are you doing?” Keith questioned looking at Shiro in total amazement, the bright glow disappeared taking the warmth with it.

“How did you do that, I don’t feel any pain at all this is incredible! Is this what you did back at your old castle?” Keith said poking his leg, not feeling any pain. He saw Shiro wince briefly out of the corner of his eyes.

“A guardian’s bond with his paladin grants us a deep connection, the first connection being the marks, then allowing us to take the pain of our paladin. And if our bond is strong enough, we can take on your injuries” Shiro explained, forehead creasing in pain. Keith didn’t like the idea of his pain disappearing if it meant someone else suffers for it, he’d much rather take the pain on himself. Shiro then moved to do the same thing to his ribs.

“I noticed when I poked my leg, you winced, does that ability take on the pain for everything after as well?” Keith questioned watching Shiro take a seat next to him.

“Currently your leg is broken, so currently whatever pain you would feel, I feel, if that helps better to explain it” Shiro said carefully stretching out his right leg.

“Yeah it does, how long does the trading pain work? Because i don’t see my leg healing soon” Keith said resting his broken leg up on the flat edge of the fountain.

“It lasts for however long it takes to heal, so a couple months?” Shiro speculated rubbing his chin in thought. Keith hung his head low, his ankle had just fully healed from being twisted now he has to deal with an injury that takes longer to heal. How on earth is he going to train with a broken leg?

“And here I thought we’d saved time with the Blue lion already finding a paladin” Keith said bringing his head up to look up at the fading daylight.

“Altea is full of power medicinal herbs and nutrient rich plant life, give it time with proper medicine and rest and it’ll heal before you know it” Shiro said pulling out some jerky and offering some to Keith. He wasn’t feeling particularly hungry but decided to eat some anyway, he was going to take full advantage of having access to food since he grew up with little to no food.
Keith looks out into the courtyard it’s so overgrown with flowers and weeds that the skeletons and rubble were nearly hidden from sight.

“I think we should hide the skeletons from the princess, I don’t think she needs to see all of this, the buildings will be enough” Keith suggested nearly attempting at standing up before remembering that his leg was broken.

“How kind, but in Altea it’s best not to disturb the dead the magic the Alteans possess can make...working with their skeletons a little tricky to handle especially since they had a violent passing..” Shiro explained looking grimacely at ground, Keith slid his hand on Shiro’s shoulder as a comforting gesture, he hated seeing Shiro like this.

“Thank you A-” Shiro began before cutting himself off looking ashamed, Keith gave him a concerned yet confused look.

“Shiro?” Keith questioned gently squeezing Shiro’s shoulder, he turned towards Keith’s direction but his eyes wouldn’t meet his. Before Keith could continue they heard soft footsteps approach them. Both looked towards the entrance of the courtyard where Lance and Allura stood, he was thankfully clothed in similar armor to Shiro’s but was a beautiful sapphire blue, and dressed with gemstones. Allura’s clothes still clung to her making the once poofy elegant dress look weird and misshapen. Her eyes were puffy and red, no doubt from the breakdown she just had, nevertheless she carried herself gracefully with her arms behind her back. Which Keith found impressive all things considered, he doesn’t think he’d be that prose in her situation.

“Sorry about earlier, I know it must have been awkward-” Allura began, her voice sounded raw, she tried her best to sound formal but it was obvious she felt pained.

“You have nothing to apologize for Allura” Lance said putting his arm around her in a comforting gesture.

“Exactly you don’t have to apologize Princess, I can’t even imagine how you must feel” Shiro said standing up from his seat.

“It’s okay if you need more time, Shiro and I can always set up camp-” Keith began but stopping at Allura’s slow shake of her head.

“No-I mean thank you, but that won't be necessary, I’ll be fine, finding the rest of the guardians takes priority” Allura said tone dry, a bit forced.

“It’s okay Hunk and Pidge aren’t going anywhere you can rest if you need-” Lance said face wrinkled with worry, bringing Allura closer to himself, she leaned back into him looking like she was about to cry.

“-I much rather focus on something else right now...and I really want to get out of this dress” Allura said voice so low that Keith had to strain himself to be able to hear her.

“Got it, I’ll even help Coran make you, you’re favorite meal how does that sound” Lance offered, Allura half smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I’d love that let’s go wake him” Allura said looking relieved that at least another Altean had made it.

“While Allura and I get everything we need out of the castle, you and Keith can set up camp and we’ll meet back up with you here” Lance said finally turning towards their direction, his eyes widen in surprise since he wasn’t expecting Shiro to be so close but soon smiled.

“I-” Shiro began he seemed to be rolling over something in his head, like he wanted to say something but he couldn’t figure out the words. They haven’t seen each other in so long, Keith bets that Shiro just misses his fellow guardians, his family.

“We’ll save the introductions and catching up when we have everything all set up, I still have yet to show off all my super cool ultra powerful moves can’t have you taking all the glory” Lance bragged putting on an equally cocky smile, Allura rolled her eyes fondly.

“Oh good, maybe you can bring us dinner why your at it with those super cool ultra powerful moves of yours” Shiro teased, seeing the embarrassed look on Lance’s face. Keith watched as Lance frantically mouth ‘not in front of Allura’, it was nice to see Shiro joke around and reconnect with an old friend, he’d been so tense since they got here, it was good for him. As Shiro and Lance bantered Allura made her way towards Keith.

“....Once we wake Coran up, I’m sure he can fix up one of the healing crystal stations, for your leg” Allura spoke looking at Keith’s injured leg, he didn’t think it was possible for it to heal overnight but considering Allura was in this slumber inside of a crystal, it didn’t seem too far fetched.

“That would be nice, kinda hard to travel with a broken leg and broken ribs” Keith said gently padding his ribs for emphasis. There was a short bout of silence before Allura moved to show what she was hiding behind her back.

“I believe this belongs to you” Allura said presenting his knife to him, in truth Keith didn’t even notice he was so preoccupied with everything else he didn’t notice his knife not being in its sheath, he quickly grabbed it from her checking it over.

“Yes! How did you know?” Keith asked feeling relieved he got his precious family heirloom back. A small smile crept on Allura’s face.

“Lance explained that you got into a fight with one of the undead soldiers inside my crystal stasis chamber it turned its attention towards me...it’s true target, Lance said you tried to protect me, so I only assumed the knife sticking out of its neck belonged to you since it’s clearly not Altean nor belong to any Galra soldier I’ve come across” Allura explained, throwing her arms around her back. How did Keith forget about his knife, he was always feeling for it every time he used it, always making sure it was on his person. He could understand about Shiro not collecting it, given Shiro was under distress since before Keith got attacked, and him being injured didn’t do anything to help it. Just moments after Shiro saved him from certain death that’s all he could think of, his paladin sword and his knife. Funny how he forgot about it.

“...Thank you, for saving me” Allura said surprising Keith out of his thoughts.

“Oh-no I didn’t really do anything, if it hadn’t been for Shiro then we’d both be dead and besides you took out that other one without breaking a sweat, it took me weeks to be able to summon mine” Keith said waving his hand frantically. He didn’t feel like he’d done anything, if anything he felt like he just put the princess in danger and had to be rescued.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the both of you, I’m grateful despite-” Allura said voice beginning to tremble. Almost immediately Lance poked his to the side to check on Allura.

“Despite the circumstances, I understand” Keith said trying to remedy the situation, he’d feel even worse if he made her cry, she’s already having the worst day of her entire existence, he didn’t want to add to it.

“And I’ve known Lance all my life it’s only natural our bond would be strong when he made me his paladin” Allura said.

“Hey, we uh should go awake Coran up now, while they set up the camp” Lance said walking up to Allura, she turned to him and nodded.

“Yes, but we should get-” Allura began before stopping herself and looking at Keith, she was silent for a moment before Keith realized what she was prompting him to do, he was about to answer when Shiro beat him to the punch.

“His name is Keith” Shiro said drawing everyone’s attention. Allura nodded then looked back at Keith.

“-Keith’s leg healed before doing anything else” Allura said turning her attention back towards Lance.

“Is there healing station still operating? All the ones I’ve seen were destroyed” Shiro said looking hopeful.

“How fresh is your bond?” Lance asked looking between the both of them.

“We’ve been bonded for several weeks now. I can only take on his pain” Shiro explained.

“That’s why I was explaining to Keith that once we wake Coran up he can fix up one of the healing stations” Allura explained, Keith looked up at the sky seeing the sun awfully low in the sky they probably had a couple hours of sunlight left.

“In the left wing, on the top floor of the castle there's a healing that looks mostly intact, I think it would be easiest to repair that one, the rest of them are in very bad shape” Shiro explained, the three of them were turned towards each other as if Keith wasn’t apart of the conversation. It was starting to annoy him especially since he was the subject of their current topic.

“The sun is about to set we should get everything prepared before nightfall, and we still need to recover our horse” Keith butted in drawing everyone’s attention they all looked up at the sky.

“Keith’s right we need to get working right away, Shiro are there anymore of those undead soldiers?” Allura asked turning her attention from the sky in favor of looking around in the courtyard.

“When Keith and I slip up to look for Lance, I look out all the undead soldier I came across, when I went to go to Keith’s aid I was ambush by a good number of them. I’m not sure how much are left but I can’t imagine i’d be too many but...I would feel more comfortable keeping guard over Keith” Shiro answered looking worriedly towards Keith. He had to strain himself to not roll his eyes in annoyance. He didn’t like being treated like he was something delicate.

“I have full confidence you can retrieve our horse and gear in quick time plus with two guardian lions around you’ll be able to sense anything that tries to sneak up on us” Keith said, it wasn’t like he was in any immediate danger Shiro made sure of that himself yet he still look conflicted on leaving Keith alone.

“Lance and I will be relatively nearby so if anything happens we’ll be there to help” Allura chimed in, casting Keith a smile. Good at least someone was on his side. Shiro rubbed the back of his head in thought before making a sigh of defeat.

“I’ll check the perimeter on my way to the horse just in case” Shiro explained walking towards Keith.

“Keith-” Shiro began, but Keith already knew what he was gonna say, he reached out his hand and summoned his sword. Shiro was stunned, his mouth hung low watching as Keith set the sword on it’s side for easy access.

“I just beat you to the punch” Keith said with a smirk, Shiro closed his mouth and nodded.

“Yeah..you did” he said blushing, his flush got deeper from embarrassment when heard Lance’s laughter in the back.

“Shut it Lance let’s go” Allura cut in grabbing Lance’s ear as they headed towards the upper stairs, Keith could hear Lance’s pleads of pain fading in volume the further they walked.

“Stay safe” Shiro said before turning into a lion and flying off, leaving Keith to his thoughts. He sat there for a moment before feeling restless, everyone else was busy with a task expect him. That didn’t sit well with him, he needed to do something. He turns his attention towards the lamps on both sides of the arc entrance way, then back at the sky when the idea hit him.

“Worth a shot” Keith said to himself carefully standing up making sure he didn’t put any weight on his broken leg. I better set up the campfire first he thought to himself, he choose a spot on the stone ground where there wasn’t a whole lot of plant life near it. Gently kneeling down he started removing the plants leaving a decent sized stone area. He stood up again and moved stone rubble into a circle, he then scavenged for any wood. He cut down several thick bushes to get enough wood to lite a fire, he’ll have to tell Shiro to bring more wood when he gets back. Keith took out his flint and lit the fire. With his first priority checked off he turned towards the lanterns. Campfire light wasn’t the brightest, so he thought getting the lanterns lit would be a nice touch. He limped up towards the lanterns, inspecting to see it’s condition, the lantern was shaped like a white flower with a blue crystal like pillar in the middle. He poked and prodded at it to see if that had any affect on the lantern. When no light emitted from it he went to plan B, lighting the crystal on fire. He limped back to the firepit and picked up one of the burning sticks and brought it up to the crystal. The flame framed the crystal making the illusion that it was lit, Keith removed it seeing the crystal wasn’t actually lit. Keith clicked his tongue in annoyance and tried again. After several minutes of failing he sighed in annoyance, he blew on the fire deciding he had no other bright ideas, within an instant it caught on fire, it illuminated bright pink flame. Keith smirked to himself and lit the next lantern, when it in doubt light on fire. Keith tossed the flaming wood back into the fire and careful sat next to the fire.

Keith tossed another branched into the fire as he heard the clicks of horse hooves hitting the stone ground. He looked towards the entrance as Shiro appeared with their horse, attached to them were firewood and a freshly caught and gutted, a large elk looking creature, it’s horns grew beautiful flowers.

“Oh good, you brought actual firewood” Keith commented as Shiro tied the horse to nearby bush.

“You could have let me built the firepit” Shiro said grabbing the firewood, setting it down near the fire and placing several logs into it making the fire bigger and brighter. Keith shrugged, watching as Shiro started working on setting up dinner.

“I was feeling restless doing nothing and besides did you really want me to sit in near darkness” Keith pointed up to the fading daylight. Shiro looked up towards the sky then returned back to work.

“I guess you have a point” Shiro said setting up the deer up for cooking, he put herbs and spices onto the meat before moving on to making the tea.

“What kind of special Altean meal are you gonna cook us up tonight?” Keith asked seeing the basket full of unknown fruits and berries. Shiro made a small smile to himself as he moved to skewer several fruit and berries onto a stick.

“Well, this is for us, Alteans have a special diet of plants, fruits, grains, nuts and berries but Coran will take care of Allura so I’m just gonna fix us something up” Shiro explained after setting the final skewer between to rocks for it to be cooked, he put spices on each of the skewers.

“I can watch over the food while you set everything else up” Keith offered, Shiro nodded and helped Keith position himself to watch over the food. Shiro then worked on getting their bedding set up for the night.

“They sure are taking a while” Keith commented turning over the fruit skewers as Shiro began working on their bedding for the night.

“They should be back soon, I can hear Lance walking back towards here with Allura and Coran” Shiro said laying down the fur blanket and placing a weaved grass pillow.

“Oh good, maybe this Coran got the healing station all fixed up” Keith said straining himself to hear the others.

“Hopefully, it’d be good to have your leg healed before we travel out to find the others” Shiro said placing down several large leaves, guess those will be their plates for the night.

“Yeah, that would be nice” Keith said hearing several footsteps approach them. Lance and Allura returned back with an old man, with orange hair, blue Altean marks under his eyes and a big mustache, Keith assumes this is the Coran they spoke about. His attire looked to be of a royal advisor, he mostly wore blue with accents of white and orange.

“We’ve returned with everything we could salvage from the wreckage” Allura announced in a new dress, it was a long flowy pink dress that was cut right before the ankles, sheer ruffles made a majority of the dress, the bodice was the only part of the dress that was tight, the dress had sheer off shoulder ruffle sleeves. Her hair was completely down and she had removed her tiara.

“That’s good, it’ll save us precious traveling time” Shiro responded watching as Lance and Coran set down these strange looking large crystals.

“So I take it the injured one is Keith?” Coran asked walking up to him and started inspecting his leg.

“Yes, I’m Keith” he said watching Coran carefully check his leg, he had a serious look on his face.

“So is there a way you can fix up the healing station?” Shiro asked taking the skewered fruit off of the fire and placing them on the large leafs.

“Well about that, the healing station you pointed out is in relatively good state, the bad news is that it needs a new crystal to power it” Coran explained standing up facing towards everyone.

“That’s a big problem” Shiro said handing out the fruit skewers to everyone.

“Yes, but our crystal mines should still be untouched they are quite difficult to reach if you don’t have the correct Altean alchemic knowledge...or being a guardian lion, it was one of our well kept secrets I doubt the Galra were able to reach it, Lance could easily retrieve it” Allura explained turning towards Lance who was eagerly chowing down on the fruit. He looked at everyone before putting down the fruit.

“Yes we could do that” Lance said grabbing the fruit and continuing to eat it. Keith noticed at the corner of his eye Coran looking at the lanterns.

“By gods are the crystal lights on fire?” he spoke sounding absolutely stunned, everyone turned towards the lantern lights looking in shock.

“Oh yeah I lit the lanterns so it’d be easier for us to see” Keith admitted drawing everyone’s attention. They stared at him for an uncomfortable amount of time.

“What?” he asked looking between everyone nervously, he didn’t know he had done something wrong, he just wanted the campground to have light.

“I didn’t know they could be lit on fire, did you know?” Allura said turning towards Coran for answers.

“...No I didn’t either, they’re not suppose to light on fire” Coran explained walking up to the lanterns in confusion.

“How in the world did you manage to light it on fire?” Allura asked following in Coran’s footsteps. Lance and Shiro gave each others looks, clearly having a silent conversation that made Keith feel uneasy.

“Well I just took one of the branches that was on fire brought it up to the crystal, it took a while to light but I gently blew on it and it just lit” Keith explained getting strange looks from both Lance and Shiro.

“Are you some kind of fire wizard or something?” Coran asked moving from under the lantern.

“No, those wizards are extinct from what the lion priestesses told me, but I just figured that's how lanterns are normally lit…” Keith said drinking his tea to hide his embarrassment. Everyone stared at him in shock and confusion, he looked between everyone nervously wondering what exactly why that was so shocking.

“Well in any case we learned something new about your light crystals and besides getting that energy crystal takes priority” Shiro said coming to his rescue.

The others stopped their questioning stares and resumed back to the plan. Lance and Allura left to retrieve the energy crystal while he, Shiro and Coran filled their stomachs. Coran began prepping Allura’s favorite meal after getting his fill, he took out strange objects from the crystals. Seeing the curious expression on Keith’s face Coran explained all the weird Altean devices to him. The weird crystal objects him and Lance placed down were store crystals, one for food, one of other various of supplies and the other was Allura’s own personal storage crystal.

“Shiro did say that Altea ran on these special crystals but I didn’t fully understand the full extent of it” Keith said pulling out some Altean kitchenware.

“These energy crystals work by Alteans combining their quintessence with the crystals quintessence and molding it into whatever it needs to be used with, though each specific type of crystals naturally works better as certain things” Coran explained, showing in in great detail how the crystals work, the longer he went on the more technical it got and the more Keith, less understood the concepts. He had been understanding up to the point Coran started talking about the technical names of the crystals and going off tangents of said names. He looked towards Shiro for help but the most the traitor would do was shrug with a gorgeous yet irritating innocent smile, he was not innocent.

“Any questions?” Coran finished placing everything back in it’s categories inside the crystal. Yeah Keith had a ton of questions but he’s not to sure if he can handle another round of lecturing he had just survived from.

“Uh yeah just one, does the crystals work with other species quintessence or does it only react to Altean’s quintessence?” Keith asked, out of all his questions this is the one he felt was most important.

“So far only Altean’s quintessence has been effectively used to mold the crystals but an experienced crystal molder, a nephite term for Altean crystal alchemy, such as myself, can mix other species quintessence with the crystal so that they are able to use the crystals” Coran explained referring to when Keith first placed his hand on the crystal and Coran molding the red color that spread through the crystal till it was clear.

“So about tomorrow, I was thinking of doing another run through the castle to get more superficial items, like books and paintings….I think it would be good for us-Allura to have pieces of her home for when we leave” Coran suggested turning his head away in embarrassment, Keith looked towards Shiro whose expression looked glum. Coran had just as much reason to want to keep part of his home as Allura did.

“I don’t mind doing another sweep of the castle it’ll be good to find more supplies for our travels” Keith said seeing the relieved smile on the old man’s face.

“Yeah, we should get up extra early so that we’ll have plenty of traveling daylight” Shiro chimed in, straining a smile.

After Coran finished Allura’s special meal, a plate full of a particular shade of green goo, with all the art put into the architecture and fine arts and including all the varieties of fruits and plants species of Altea he figured that they’re meals would look prettier and artistic. Daibazeel wasn’t known for its artistic expression, but the food was a huge deal with the Galra. Food always had to look and plated artistically or it was a sign of great disrespect, even the preparation of said food had to be taken care of in great detail. To prepare your freshly caught hunt, was a sign of a great warrior and a great Galra. They took their meal times very seriously, especially with the Galra aristocracy. The had specific meals for celebrations, had meal courting rituals and had several kinds of meals each day. Even the peasants abided to such strict meal time rituals. Coran then began working on setting up a camp worthy of Princess Allura, Keith didn’t understand why, Shiro put out all the basic necessities. It wasn’t like they were staying here for an extended period of time. The cosmetics of the camp shouldn’t really matter, but then he thought that maybe this was a way for Coran to work past his own feelings of grief. He seemed too eerily cheerful for someone who just woken up after 10,000 years of crystal stasis after his entire home was destroyed, but grief does strange things to people so Keith should have no judgements, he out of anyone should know how grief works. It wasn’t much longer till Lance and Allura arrived back with the healing crystal, it illuminated a light blue glow.

The five of them traveled across the castle to the healing station, it took awhile for Coran to get everything set up. But after connecting a few vines, and encrypting more runes it activated. The energy crystal hovered above its spot dripping water into the crevices of the glowing runes.

“How does this work exactly?” Keith questioned unconsciously squeezing Shiro’s shoulders more firmly, missing Shiro’s soft smile.

“The crystal healing energy will rain down on you healing all of your wounds” Coran explained pushing Shiro in tow with Keith closer to the healing station.

“Oh okay that makes sense” Keith lied, looking at the foreign machine nervously, Shiro sat him down and walked off the healing station.

“It shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes with that kind of break, it’ll be like it never happened” Coran said placing his hand on a crystal panel resting on a stone structure. The crystal above him roared to life enclosing him with a water like substance, it looked like he was inside of a waterfall watching it flow into the stream. It stayed within the boundaries of the stones super reflective crystal that had tiny runes inside of it. He felt a large drop of water fall on his face, he wiped it away and looked up as it started pouring on him. The water was warm and comforting, the pain of his bruises and cuts began to fade, he reached for the large gush in his arm watching it heal with each passing of water, the color of the drops changed from a pink color to a deep magenta after passing through the injuries. The healing water, seemed to have a mind of its own, several large drops traveling to each spots on his body where he was injured, so many large drops had combined into one large ring of water covering up his broken leg. The water then got absorbed into his skin and coming out a deep magenta color. There was a decent sized magenta puddle surrounding him, after a few moments of the magenta color fading out, the water enclosing him in the station stopped flowing, allowing the access to be absorbed into the crystal panel below. He waited a few moments for Coran to deactivate it, after getting the thumbs up for Coran, Keith moved to stand up, there was no pain and he could move it normally. It was like it had never been broken, he reached down and took off the stick braces Shiro had tied to his leg hours ago.

“You were right it’s like I never broke my leg” Keith said stomping on his now previously broken leg.

“It’s lucky that the Galra didn’t decide to destroy the last healing station” Coran said removing the energy healing crystal from its post and putting it into the storage crystal, cool a crystal within a crystal.

“How do you feel Keith?” Shiro asked wrapping the fur blanket around his shivering form.

“Pretty refreshed, that was the best shower I’ve ever had” Keith said playfully enjoying the warmth of the fur blanket.

“Glad to hear” Shiro said, with a gentle smile that made Keith feel all warm. Coran pulled out a fresh pair of clothes for him to change into.

After Keith had changed into a simple pair of Altean clothes, they all walked back to the camp and sat around the fire in silence, Allura helped herself to some food after much convincing from Lance and Coran. She slowly ate at her goo looking food before taking one of the bigger fruits on the skewer Shiro made earlier and placed it on the ground where 4 mice eagerly bit into it.

“Where did the mice come from?” Keith asked watching Allura pet them affectionately.

“Apparently these little guys got crystalised with me, I felt their presence after I had calmed down, I guess the time we spent together in crystal stasis gave us a connection” Allura answered placing more fruit for her mice friends, Lance giving her a dopey smile as she did so. Keith thought back to the comment Allura said earlier, she said that she knew Lance her entire life. Which didn’t make sense to him, how could she have known him when he has been a spiritual guardian lion for so many centuries.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how do the two of you know each other? I know you mentioned you’ve know him your entire life, but Lance was in his spiritual guardian form till you got...de-crystalized to my understanding” Keith asked getting the attention of both Lance and Allura.

“Well it’s quite simple actually, Altean can see and interact with the guardians, we have a strong affinity with quintessence so it's natural for us to see and interact them, Lance used to let me ride his back when I was a little girl. We used to sneak out together and play in the juniberry meadows catching fairyflies” Allura recounts fondly, as the mice played out the scene Allura was describing.

“Or that time you took the Princess to the moon festival and let her drink nunvill” Coran reminds them with an accusing look towards Lance he placed his hands up defensively.

“Listen she was a little hellion anyway, she was gonna get her hands on nunvill one way or another all I did was provide her with protection and supervision, the worst thing she did was knock over someone’s nightstand and throw up all over your clothes” Lance defended waving his hand dismissively at Coran whose glare sharpened. Someone was still mad about that incident, Keith thought to himself. Allura looked anyway from Coran in a fake innocent way, clearly she had more fond memories of it. Keith remembers his first drink, it nearly killed him. Galra drinks were extremely potent.

“That’s not the point! She was too young! And now that you have taken form I’m not gonna let you live down all the trouble you got her in!” Coran said pointing his finger at Lance who looked genuinely terrified, it was pretty comical, apparently an upset nanny was all it took to defeat the guardian beasts.

“Now now there’s no need for that Coran, it’s all in the past now” Allura said looking extremely flustered. The banter between Coran and Lance reminded him of a father and son-in-law, like the father still angry over the stupid shit his daughter and her boyfriend had gotten into. It was touching in a way, by the end of it all the three of them were laughing, Keith thought it was amazing that they could be playful with each other given the circumstances. But then again he didn’t really have anyone to be like that with, he had to deal with his grief alone, while they have each other and maybe that’s why their reactions was so different than what he expected. The longer he watched them the more his heart ached and yearned for something he never and probably wont ever have. A family.

“Hey you okay?” Shiro asked nudging Keith gently drawing him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah why?” Keith asked feeling slightly startled, Shiro looked at him concerned.

“I was trying to get your attention and you didn’t respond” Shiro said, Keith just noticed he was holding some fairy glass in his other hand. They had picked up some treats from the last town a week ago, they were saving it for special occasions.

“Oh sorry I zoned out there, been a tiring day” Keith dismissed taking a bit of fairy glass, he wasn’t normally a sweets person but fairy glass was sweet without being too overwhelming.

“You miss him?” Shiro spoke in a low voice, Keith looked at him in shock, but then remember they have a bond. Of course Shiro was feeling his emotions. Keith nodded and looked away, because yes he really missed his father. He felt Shiro grab his hand giving it a gentle squeeze, his hand was bigger than Keith’s he could feel Shiro’s gentle strength through a simple gesture. Keith wasn’t delicate by any means but his hand was leaner, more rough and smaller than Shiro’s, he couldn’t help but notice.

“Alright it’s about time we get some shut eye, we have an early start tomorrow” Coran said standing up clapping his hands together.

“Yes but before that we should discuss where we are heading, I don’t know where Pidge and Hunk are located” Shiro said looking towards Lance.

“I know Pidge is closest to us in the Olkarian forests she's been there for a while protecting the Olkarians from being invaded by the Galra, and Hunk I think is some place in Balmera, after we all split up to hold our points we lost contact because of Honerva running interference” Lance said grabbing his chin, staring deep into the fire.

“Olkarian forests? Well that's a start” Shiro said sounding kind of disappointed by the reveal.

“Well if anything Pidge will find us before we find her, Hunk is the one I’m worried about” Lance said getting up and sprucing up Allura’s bed, he snapped his fingers and a blue fur blanket appeared.

“Now that we have a destination, we need to think of how we are gonna travel with one horse” Keith brought up, they were quiet for a moment thinking of how they were gonna make it work.

“Keith and Allura can ride the horse while the rest of us walk on foot” Coran suggested, as he put went to put out the campfire.

“I think you should ride the horse more than anyone here Coran” Shiro spoke sounding a little distressed.

“Nonsense! I’m still in good shape!” Coran said indignantly, jumping up to prove his point, but ended up hurting his back in the process.

“Shiro’s right Coran, Lance can be my noble steed till we can get another horse, right Lance” Allura teased batting her eyes, Lance opened his mouth to say something when Shiro interjected.

“That sounds great! Way to take one for the team” Shiro said a bit too enthusiastically, everyone stared at him awkwardly watching a small blush form across his cheeks.

“I guess I’m playing the role of the horse but to make it clear we are going to the nearest town and getting two more horses” Lance insisted looking at Allura who gave him a playful smile.

“Of course” she said not sounding the least bit convincing at all.

“Alluraaaaaa” Lance whined earning a giggle from Allura.

“Alright now that we have our plans for tomorrow we rest” Coran said as the light of the campfire disappear.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” a voice asked.

“Y-yeah it is” a second voice stuttered not paying attention to what the first voice was commenting on.

“It’s very beautiful” the second voice said, Keith’s vision was blurry, but he thinks he recognizes one of the voices talking. It sounded like Shiro was talking to someone. The sheer emotions that this other voice made Shiro feel was overwhelming for Keith. Whoever this person was Shiro cared for him a lot.

“Are you even looking at the stars Sven?” the voice accused, Keith felt eyes on him but he couldn’t make out the person looking at him.

“Y-yes of course I’m looking at the stars” the Shiro sounding voice replied, the feeling of embarrassment flooded Keith’s system. He felt like he was caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to.

“Are you sure about that? It kinda looks like you’re staring at me” the voice teased, ‘you shine more beautifully than any star’ a foreign thought passed through his mind. A knot formed in his stomach at the words.

“Well I can see the reflection from your eyes-no no no no I mean I can see the stars from the corner of my eyes-no I’m not looking at you” the Shiro voice got out in jambles, Keith felt himself shift over to the side. He heard a deep chuckle that somehow made butterflies rise in his stomach. Keith didn’t like these feelings, somehow he new it was wrong, very wrong. He didn’t know whose feelings these were but they were intense and very much not his.

Keith burst open his eyes in hopes of catching the culprit for the weird dream he was having. He stares straight up at the stars, the flashing bright pink and blue lights danced across each other in the sky. The moon was out in full, being partially covered by the bright stripes of pink and blue. The spirals of white dust traveling from star to star peaked through the pink and blue lights. The beauty of the stars took his breath away, some time during the night the lanterns had run itself out leaving the camp to be bathed by the moon and stars. Was this what the voice in his strange dream was referring to? He turned his head to his side where Shiro laid. The bright pink and blue lights, alternating between the colors and sometimes crossing over making this soft purple color. It blanketed Shiro in stunning light, despite the crease in his forehead. Keith had learned quickly that Shiro never truly had a peaceful nights rest, no matter what he did to try to remedy it. He grabbed Shiro’s hand and placed it on his stomach, immediately Shiro’s hand fisted his shirt. He placed his hand on top of Shiro’s, stroking his thumb across Shiro’s hand. Keith hated to see Shiro in so much discomfort but there wasn’t much he could do but sooth him when he wakes up.

He stared up at the night sky before hearing someone whispering and sniffling. He sits up a tad straining his neck to see the source of the noise, he looks around the camp spotting Coran and Lance facing Allura’s sleeping form.

“It’s hard to believe everyone is gone” he heard Coran say, his back was facing towards Keith so he couldn’t see his expression but by the slump of his shoulders it didn’t seem like they were having a good conversation.

“I’m just glad she made it out alive, King Alfor at least managed to protect his daughter...he died standing against Zarkon, a hero’s death” Lance said, placing a hand on Coran’s back.

“I couldn’t help him protect his people but at the very least I wanted to help protect his daughter he died knowing he succeed in one of his duties” Lance continued with a strain in his voice. Keith focused his eyes further seeing the shake of Coran’s body...was he crying?

“I should have rebonded and made him my paladin again maybe then maybe then we…” Lance began sounding frantic.

“Alfor new the risks, if Zarkon had gotten his hands on you, then I could scarcely imagine what Honerva what have done to you. We got lucky that Shiro managed to seal himself from Zarkon for as long as he could” Coran said in turn rubbing Lance’s back.

“I couldn’t do anything Coran, it took every ounce of power I had to conceal the chamber from him, but I could still hear the screams” Lance said voice cracking. Were they both crying? Keith thought to himself.

“I can’t imagine what that must have been like, but like I said Alfor did what was necessary, Zarkon didn’t get his hands on any of the lions as you said he died a hero’s death” Coran said, sounding somber, neither said anything for a while as Lance covered his mouth to stop his crying from waking anyone. Once the sobs had subsided he heard Coran walk him through calming breaths despite his own voice sounding just as shaky as Lance. A few moments later, after both of them had calmed Lance spoke.

“I’m surprised you didn’t lose it when she cried in your arms after we woke you up, after Shiro and his paladin left I lost it. I had cried over everyone for centuries now but hearing Allura cry like that...it...well it broke me” Lance said, Keith saw Lance bring his hands up to his face in a wiping gesture.

“I have to stay strong for her, Alfor entrusted me to take care for her, I couldn’t let her see me cry when shes so heartbroken she needs someone to help her through this” Coran said, he blew his nose as quietly as he could.

“You need someone too Coran, she won't think less of you for crying...in fact I think she might feel relieved that you are as heartbroken as her about this, sharing your grief with someone helps, Alfor helped me after Ak-” Lance went on stopping himself, his voice cracking at the end.

“I’m sure that was traumatic for all you guardians” Coran said taking a deep in take of air and slowing releasing it. There was a long silence, neither men left their spots, Keith almost thought they fell asleep like that.

“She’s even crying for him in her sleep” Lance commented, Keith saw his hand reach towards Allura, making a wiping motion. Keith could only assumed he wiped a tear from her face.

“...Why did you choose her to be your paladin? It’s too dangerous…” Coran asked, it wasn’t an accusing way but it sounded more out of fear.

“She's courageous, kind, powerful, I always felt like she’d make an excellent paladin for one of us. And I promised myself and to, Alfor I’d protect her, and her being my paladin is the best way. Zarkon if he gets word of her return will hunt her down and if I’m not there to protect her then...then…” Lance explained not daring to finish his sentence, there was another bout of silence, the sniffling had subsided, the only sounds he could hear were, Shiro’s tiny snore’s, Allura’s breathing and the tiny squeaks of the mice.

“Funny how I’d got both Alfor and Allura as my paladin’s” Lance said making a small chuckle. He saw Coran’s head turned towards Lance, he couldn’t see Coran’s expression but his back was no longer hunched.

“I can’t blame you, they both are incredible beings” Coran said, after a long bout of silence, he saw both of them move back to their sleeping positions. Lance right next to Allura and Coran not to far from them. Keith laid back down feeling his neck relax. He hadn’t realized how long he had strained his neck for. It took a while for Keith’s mind to wander down, he was still processing his strange dream when he listened in on Coran and Lance’s conversation. It was a lot to take in he continued to stare up at the night sky till his eyes fell shut.

“Hey Keith it’s time to get up” Shiro gently shook him awake, he opened one eye seeing a soft smile on Shiro’s face. Keith closed his eye and turned over to the other side, sure it was a nice way to wake up but it also filled him with comfort which make him want to fall back asleep.

“C’mon Keith, it’s midday everyone is packing up camp, and your breakfast is gonna get cold” Shiro said shaking him again he felt Shiro’s warm hand rest on his arm, it was comforting.

“Yes, Shiro’s let you sleep long enough, up up!” Coran’s loud voice intruded, he felt Shiro’s warm hand leave his arm Keith groaned in displeasure.

“Coran I said I would handle it” Shiro said sounding annoyed, Keith signed throwing the fur blanket off of him. It was no point in causing an argument of sleeping in he decided to just get up and get it over with.

“Look I’m up, sorry for sleeping in so late” Keith said rubbing his eyes and stretching. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Shiro quickly sit up and walk towards the fire to retrieve his breakfast. The camp looked mostly packed expect for Keith’s sleeping area and breakfast. Allura was dressed in this, what he thinks is some Altean light armor; Her armor was some kind of pink leather looking material latched onto a strange pearlescent white cloth material under it. Her new mice friends sat on her either side of her slightly pointed shoulders pads, chowing down on some bread. She also wore this golden circlet, that had a blue gem in the middle. Shiro walked back over handing him a plate of some kind of plant and fresh fruit.

“Most of the animals here in Altea look like plants, this is the lilyfish” Shiro explained, at Keith’s hesitation.

“This one isn’t gonna kill me like last time is it?” Keith half teased poking it with some Altean utensils.

“I thought the undead Galra soldier was the only thing attacking you” Shiro said looking confused as Keith started chowing down on the plant fish.

“No I was attacked by this strange plant creature first the undead was already in the room while I was being dragged, I must have gotten it’s attention so it attacked as well” Keith explained taking a sip of tea.

“What did it look it?” Coran asked, Keith looked towards the trio staring at him wide eyed in disbelief.

“Well it was really big, hanging from the ceiling the petals had these thorns on it and i guess it had a mouth in the middle and it was drooling this acid, oh yeah! It also had these weird spiky vines coming out of it. It used those to drag me across the room by my leg” Keith explained sticking out his previously broken leg.

“You survived an attack from a giant gorge plant!?” Coran sputtered out in disbelief, Shiro breathed a sigh of relief to his side while Allura hung her mouth open.

“Wait wait a minute, how on earth is a plain old human survive an attack against a gorge plant?” Lance said pointing his finger at him accusingly. Keith would feel offended by that if the giant plant creature hadn’t broken his leg and ribs. Being one of the lesser sentient humanoid species wasn’t very fun in the slightest.

“The undead was carrying a lantern, I went to stab the undead but ended up stabbing the lantern instead, the oil got everywhere causing the fire to spread and burned the gorge plant, it’s vine smashed the stone floorings and I fell into Allura’s crystal stasis chamber” Keith explained taking another bite of his breakfast not noticing the silence that had fallen, he continued eating till he took his final bite. He looked around seeing the stunned stares of everyone.

“Keith…” Shiro spoke drawing his attention, Keith looked at him raising his eyebrow in confusion.

“How in the hell did you manage to catch it on fire?” Lance asked, Keith didn’t answer for a moment watching everyone stare at him, it made him nervous like he was putting on a performance he didn’t want to partake.

“It just did? I mean it was mainly the oil it got everywhere” Keith explained taking a nervous drink of his tea.

“Oh! Luckily the lantern still had oil in it” Shiro said shooting Lance a sharp glare unbeknownst to Keith.

“Uh yeah of course” Lance said slightly shying away, Keith at Lance’s sudden behavior looked at Shiro who gave him a smile.

The walk out of the castle was somber, Allura didn’t make any eye contact as she passed its halls while Coran took up any visuals he could find. He went on how his grandfather built this castle from scratch. The joy and pain in his voice as he spoke so fondly of the castle and his grandfather made Keith’s heartbreak. He knows how hard it is to lose everything, well not on the massive scale as an entire kingdom, but it was still Keith’s everything. His father, mother his childhood home…. He felt a warm hand on his shoulder, he turned to his right to see Shiro giving him a look of concern.

“I-” he began looking at the trio in front of him and Shiro.

“I know how they must feel is all” Keith admitted in a low voice, he never really got into the nit and gritty about what happened with his father and how he ended up at the orphanage as a child. But he sure did tell Shiro fond memories of him, he’s not sure what Shiro thinks but he doesn’t know how exactly to tell him. But the comfort Shiro is giving him, with the least bit of information means more to him than Shiro knows. Keith hopes he can tell him one day. The walk through the town was harder this time, given how cold and rigid Allura looked, the painful expression across Coran’s face, the hallow look on Lance’s, and Shiro’s guilt blooming inside him since they arrived here. It was was unsettling for Keith, the outsider amongst this group, feeling powerless to help them in their suffering. He saw Lance put his arms around Allura who leaned into his touch. Keith looks around him feeling ashamed that he ever felt that naive and insensitive curiosity when he first arrived he hated growing up in an Empire made on deaths of others. As he took a step, he felt a crunch underneath his foot he removed his foot to see what he had stepped on. He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. He knelt down picking up the small toy, it looked broken, faded and dirty. He isn’t sure if it was broke before he stepped on it or after but whatever the case he stood up and brought it to these beautiful flowers and laying it down. In his mind he paid his respects, afterwards he quickly caught back up with the others, it seemed with all that was on their mind they hadn’t noticed. Maybe that was for the best. Allura stopped at the kingdoms gates looking back into the town looking frantic.

“Coran we can’t just leave them without a proper burial! How will the ever pass on! They haven’t even crystallized and turned into dust!” Allura said pointing to a skeleton that was trapped under a large boulder. Coran walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“You know as well as I do that without the alchemic priestesses, moving them would crystalize us instantly, as much as I want to give them a proper burial at this current time we have no choice” Coran said looking distressed at the thought as well. Keith turned towards Shiro who nodded in confirmation. This is what Shiro meant by ‘difficult to handle’.

“I’m sorry” Allura whispered kneeling down in front of the gates and placing a dark blue gem. Everyone bowed at the gem, Keith followed suit. The group completely unaware of the eyes that followed.

They were a good distance from the kingdom, the outlines of the kingdom were surrounded by thick forests, and outlined by silhouettes of Balmeran mountains out in the distance. Once everyone stood atop of the hill they casted one last look of Altea.

In the heart of Daibazeel a witch looks through the eyes of the dead, watching, looking, finding what her and her great emperor have been looking for, for thousands of years.

“Your majesty, I have the most excellent news to deliver” the witch spoke in a raspy deep voice.

“It have located two of the lions guardians including the Black Lion” the witch spoke smiling in amusement of her Emperor’s twisted smile.

“Send the troops to their location, I want the immediate capture of the lions” The Emperor in a smooth deep and sinister voice commanded.

Chapter Text

Keith breathes in the crisp Olkarian forest air, taking in the smell of something vaguely minty, Shiro had explained to him that it’s called pine. He had explained that the giant trees smothering out the sky with it’s large spiky branches were called pine trees and the spikey leaves were called pine needles he explained that ‘vaguely minty’ was a good way to describe it’s scent. Shiro gave him a small laugh at his comment much to Keith’s dismay but hearing him laugh was worth it in the end.

The forest was densely populated with trees and bush, his arms were getting tired of cutting away at the flora to make some traveling space for the horse. The sprouting roots entangling each other made the terrain rough on his feet and knees. He’d hoped to have some relief walking over the pine needles but they weren’t as consiony as he had hoped. They did not rot like regular leaves did, he could hear the snapping of many small branches as he made his way through the forest. Keith’s eyes roamed the forest with awe and fascination, he had an itching to explore. The forest felt mysterious, lively and barran all at the same time. He could hear all the songs of the birds singing for each other and hear chirps of small mammals and insects. Yet he couldn’t see a single evidence that any birds or animals inhabited this place. It created an ambiance that this forest was more lively than it appeared, he could feel eyes on him, not threatening eyes of a predator but eyes looking at the foreign travelers. The wonder of what lies next excited Keith, he never thought that a poor kid living on the streets would ever get to explore a world he couldn’t even dream of. He never realized that forests could be green, and brown, or many vibrant colors. He turns his attention towards his front where a few feet away Coran talks animatedly with Allura who has mounted a lion Lance. Shiro had suggested that they could take turns on the horse, but Allura was concerned for how the traveling would affect Coran’s health. Him being an aged Altean, hell even for a young man like Keith it tired him out he could only image how the travel would tire out any old being. Especially one who has been in crystal stasis for thousands of years. So Allura suggested that Coran took her turn on the horse and she could ride Lance, who protested but lost in the end, as soon as Allura batted her eyes he was a goner. Shiro wanted to argue that barely left time for Keith on the horse but Keith suggested that if he gets tired he could always ride Shiro. Who for some reason blushed at his suggestion, Allura had to stifle Lance’s laughter.

The Guardian Lion’s were massive, he thought over. Yeah he knew they were big but he didn’t process just how big. Lance in his lion form on all fours was larger than the horse. Which was a feat in itself considering it was a Galra hunting horse. They were bred strong and large. It was even more of trip knowing just how lanky and small Lance was. He briefly wonders just how large Shiro was as a lion. He’s only ever seen him in that form from a distance. He turns to his left where Shiro walked beside him. He blinks in surprise seeing Shiro already looking at him, his expression had a gorgeous smile but quickly turned to one of shock. His face immediately went red and his eyes darted everywhere but in Keith’s directions. The two walked in awkward silence. Keith didn’t know how to deal with the flooding embarrassment Shiro was feeling and just not knowing how to pick up the conversation after catching Shiro looking at him. Why was Shiro looking at him? He looks back in front of him seeing Allura’s pout at whatever Coran was saying.

“Y-You must really like exploring, you get this excited look everywhere we go” Shiro said sounding uncharacteristically unsure of himself. Keith looks back to his left noticing Shiro still not meeting his eyes.

“Yeah it's refreshing and do I? I’ve always been told I look like I’m always angry” Keith says smiling to himself. It was nice to hear all the humans in his part of the village always spoke ill of him always saying he looked to angry and Galra like. It was nice to hear someone saw differently.

“Yes, you look cu- I me-I’m glad you get to travel and explore….just hope we don’t get lost on the way” Shiro said looking in front of them. He noticed Lance’s head was slightly turned towards them as if he was trying to listen in on their conversation.

“For the last time we are not lost! I know how to read the astral charts Coran, who do you think taught me?” Allura says giving Coran a frustrated look, he looked equally as frustrated. He pinched his nose before turning back to her.

“All I am saying is, that you’ve said several times there should be a road up ahead and it's been hours since we entered the forest it’s starting to get dark and since we don’t have an accurate knowledge of where we are going then we should find a less densely populated area and set up camp and update the charts. Because there's no point in continuing traveling in a forest and getting lost.” Coran explained in a surprisingly calm voice despite his clearly frustrated look. Keith looked for the sunbeams that poked through the trees branches noticing the array of dark oranges and reds coming through. Normally he was very aware of the sun's rotation. But the forest being so green distracted him from the darkening daylight.

“I’m just going off from what the charts are telling me we are on the roads!” Allura says looking at the giant gem on her cufflet. Keith can’t see her expression but from Coran’s, he can only imagine her expression looked hurt. He could faintly hear Lance’s growl, Coran acknowledged him for a moment before turning towards Allura.

“Princess, let’s take a break, we’ve been traveling for hours the stress is getting too us” Coran says more gently. Keith could see the slump in Allura’s shoulders and a slight nod.

“I can also make us a clearing if need be” Shiro suggests awkwardly seeing the ashamed look on their faces.

“No I rather not destroy the ecosystem here lets just find a brook or stream that should gives us enough of a clearing to set up camp” Coran suggested, looking from Shiro to Allura. She nodded slowly looking back at her wrist.

They walked for several more hours finding only a dried up stream. He heard Allura groan in frustration throwing a random object on the ground. Keith looked at Shiro seeing the same discomfort as he had, in Shiro’s eyes.

“Well that’s a disappointment but at least this space is open enough for a camp, plus we have a nice area to build a campfire! There’s a silver lining to everything!” Coran said twisting his moustache Keith was surprised he sounded so cheery. Allura stared at the dried up stream with discontempt.

“No let’s find a stream” she says gently pulling on Lance’s main. He stood there for a moment before gently laying down. Allura looked like Lance had just insulted her.

“What are you doing?! I said we should find another stream!” she said patting the side of Lance’s head. Keith was becoming increasingly concerned with Allura being so aggro about the charts not being right.

“Allura, please” Coran said leaning down and placing a gentle hand on Allura’s back. If he looks carefully he could see tears of frustration, so he pointedly decides not too look. Out of respect for Allura.

“...Sorry” he faintly hears Allura say, he looked at Shiro hoping to the solution but all Shiro gave him was the same concerned look.

“You can lead us out of here tomorrow, for now we set up camp and rest” Coran reassured, Keith turns around hesitantly he sees Allura looking more composed than she previously was. She slowly got off of Lance who immediately transformed back into his human form. Being unfortunately naked once again. Did they do that every time they reverted back to a lion? If so than he’s thankful and not thankful that Shiro doesn’t take lion form much. Keith turns his attention towards Coran who was struggling to get off of the horse. He walks over offering a helping hand. Coran shakes his head continuing to struggle with the saddle. Keith offers again, he stubbornly denies his help again and Keith watches as the old man fall flat on his ass. He stares down at Coran seeing his white face turn violently red.

“Coran are you okay?” Allura asks, Lance, who was still naked, and her were still in the middle of an embrace. There was a small silence before Coran stood up and patted himself off.

“I’m alright, I’m just testing the ground..to see if it’s soft enough to set up the sleeping quarters! Yes!” Coran said nodding to himself, Keith looked at him with great confusion.

“With your ass?” Lance butts in skeptically with a raised eyebrow, Coran shoots him a sharp glare.

“By falling off of a horse?” Keith askes thoroughly confused and pointedly ignoring Lance’s crude statement. It simply didn’t make sense why would he fall off the horse to see if the ground was soft? Wouldn’t it be easier to lay down on the ground to test how comfortable it was?

“Lance! And yes I have determined this is not the spot suitable for a princess!” Coran said proudly nodding to himself, Lance held back his laughter watching Coran go off and test the ground for suitable sleeping quarters. Keith stares at him not understanding what had just transpired.

“Don’t think too hard on it, he’s just embarrassed, he’s not as young as he used to be” Allura mumbled, as Coran continued to mutter to himself about the ground comfort levels. It was comical how he moved and took finding comfortable sleeping quarters so seriously.

“....Right in any case I’m not too picky I can fall asleep on pretty much anything if that helps” Keith said turning to tie up the horse to a nearby log. He noticed Shiro in the corner of his eye setting up the campfire.

“Well there’s enough leaves and moss to make sleeping on the ground a bit more comfortable for all of us” Allura said handing Lance the supplies from the horse, who stepped in place several times like she was relieved to have all that load off of her. He reached out his hand, petting her neck. She leaned into his touch.

“Yeah I bet that feels good, you deserve a treat” Keith says pulling out an apple and feeding it to her. She eagerly lapped up the apple, bending her neck down trying to bite at his pouch for more apples. He gently swats at her before giving her another.

“Do we have enough water for her to drink from? She hasn’t had anything since we entered the forest” Keith mentioned trying to remember the last time she had a drink.

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll have Lance take care of it, Lance!” Allura says with a hint of mischief in her eyes, before calling out to Lance who immediately walks up to them.

“Yes Allura what do you need?” he asks looking at Allura expectantly.

“Our four legged friend here would like a drink, why don’t you create a drinking station for her” Allura says with a twinkle in her eye. Lance looks at her for a moment before a look of realization hit his face.

“Oh! Right! Everyone stand back and keep your eyes on me because I’m about to blow your socks off!” Lance called out puffing out his chest like those aquatic lizard fish trying to attract a mate. Shiro and Coran looked over to them watching inquisitively. Moving his hands in front of him Lance closed his eyes. For a moment nothing seemed to happen Keith was about to say something when water started sprouting up from the ground. The droplets came up in all shapes and sizes forming a bigger drop as more and more rose. Until it was the size of their combined bags of supplies. Lance opened his eyes looking impressed with himself. Keith admits it was pretty cool, he’s never seen magic like this before. He wondered where all this water had come from. The partially decaying leaves on the forest floor looked normal. Could he summon water like Shiro could summon air? He looked over towards Allura whose smile was beaming with pride.

“Pretty impressive isn’t it? I can gather all the water that’s in a single area, it doesn’t need to be a pond or lake. The forest has plenty of plants and trees that I can pull out enough water and not damage any of the plant life.” Lance explained slightly pushing the water mass towards the horse who happily lapped it up. Keith made a small chuckle at the horse’s eagerness.

“Sorry buddy, we’ll be more mindful about getting you a drink from now on” Keith said petting the horse’s neck.

“Yes it was very cool” Allura said with fondness in her voice. Lance puffed out his chest again looking extremely prideful that his paladin was impressed with his abilities. Keith rolled his eyes turning his attention towards getting the horse take care of. He’d feel guilty having Shiro carry all their supplies because no one took care of their horse. He wouldn’t feel bad if it was Lance, he needed a lesson in humility. But he knew in the end Allura and Coran would ride him leaving the supplies to Shiro. He couldn’t let that happen. Plus he’d mostly feel bad for mistreating an animal.

He unhooked the horse’s food bad, letting it fall unceremoniously right in front of her. She eagerly dug into her food flicking her tail back and forth as she ate. After determining the campfire was close enough to the horse he cleaned up an area for the horse to comfortably sleep on.

“That’s sweet of you” Allura pointed out carrying a bundle of sticks in her arms, he hadn’t noticed that she had left. He noticed Lance come up from behind carrying more sticks.

“What? Oh Yeah I guess, she’s just been working so hard” Keith said noticing that for some reason Lance was still naked.

“Would it kill you to put some clothes on” Keith said glaring at Lance, he looked down at himself then back at Keith before water traveled over his body slowly blending into armor. This was the first time he’d seen Lance summon his armor, he briefly wondered how the others summoning their armor would look like. There was the Forest and Earth Guardian, did the Forest Guardian summon their armor with trees or plants? And for the Earth Guardian was it a bunch of rocks or mug? Only the plants was a decent image to him.

“There happy you prude” Lance said giving him an annoyed look. Yeah being naked must be a Guardian thing. Allura turned to him giving him a pointed look.

“Lance!” she chastised, Lance threw up his arms in defeat.

“Sorry, I just don't see the big deal is, no one in Altea complained about it, only the Galra did though, hey are you part Galra or something?” Lance asked eyeing him suspiciously. Keith rolled his eyes. He’s known this guy for a day and he’s already accusing him of being Galra. Just the typical life of Keith. Allura elbowed him in the stomach.

“Lance! Altean culture is more free with nudity than other cultures let’s please be respectful with our comrade and not make him uncomfortable” Allura said giving him a sharp look. Lance hung his head low in shame.

“Sorry, I was partially joking-but if it really makes you uncomfortable I guess I can keep my clothes on, but when I’m bathing I’m being as naked as want!” Lance said pointing at Keith, he immediately leaned his head back away from Lance’s hand, giving him a small nod. For someone who was practically ancient he sure did act like he was a teenager who just left the nest.

“Lance” Allura chimed in giving him a disapproving look.

“It’s fine, wouldn’t be the first time someone has made that joke, and okay no one is stopping you from being naked while bathing” Keith said waving it off, it wasn’t important to fight over.

“Good!” Lance said looking extremely pleased.

“Hey not saying that socializing with each other is bad or anything but help with setting up the camp would be appreciated” Shiro called out getting their attention.

“Sorry Shiro, we’re on it” Keith said as the three of them went to help set up the camp. He had taken notice that Shiro was spending an awfully long time setting up the campfire. He walked over to see him gently blowing on the fire starter.

“You usually don’t have trouble starting the campfire, is your old age finally catching up with you?” Keith teased watching Shiro’s pout deepen.

“You know I would have thought this forest was in a drought since we haven’t found any bodies of water, but the leaves and sticks are surprisingly damp, even the needles don’t burn so well” Shiro said throwing down the flint on the ground.

“Here let me try, it's getting dark so the fire really needs to get lit” Keith said picking up the flint he scrapped against it seeing the spark land on the dry weeds they had collected on their travels and blew on it. The fire sparked into life, he quickly placed it on some sticks the covering it with some sticks then placing several logs on the fire. He noticed the fire dimming so he blew on it again making the fire burst with energy once again. Keith in his focus to start the fire didn’t notice the suspicious eyes that were on him.

“How do you never fail to light a fire?” Shiro questioned in amazement, Keith smiled softly.

“Well, how do you think I’ve managed to not freeze to death?” Keith pointed out pocketing the flint. Giving Shiro a smug smile, which earned him a playful shove.

“I was gonna offer my super awesome water skills but mister fire wizard over here managed to light it so we’re all good” Lance said there was an odd way that he was saying it that made Keith feel uneasy but he couldn’t figure out what. His body language wasn’t threatening nor was his expression but there was something to his statement that had him on edge.

“Well-” Keith began right as Shiro barked.

“Not now Lance!” Shiro’s glare sent chills down Keith’s spine. He had no idea what set him off but it actually kind of scared him. He looked towards Allura and Coran who were in defensive positions, startled by the outburst. Allura slowly put down her weapon looking between Shiro and Lance and then himself looking confused. Keith shrugged sharing her same confusion. Lance recovered from being startled a lot faster than Keith would have thought. Lance was either banking on their friendship or just plain stupid, maybe it’s a bit of both.

“Okay, okay, no need to tear my head off, I’m not insulting him” Lance defended slowing barring his neck. It was an odd move, he turned his attention back towards Allura who looked at him somewhat relieved.

“....Just not now” Shiro said voice more calm and quiet. Shiro’s expression looked blank, Lance looked at him with shame in his eyes.

“....I-” he began before an empty look from Shiro cut him off. An uncomfortable silence followed making everyone feel on edge. By the time Shiro and him managed to make a decent sized campfire night had fallen, they gathered around the fire making their meals. Keith made a skewer from the berries and fruits they had collected. Shiro placed a teapot on the metal stand above the fire.

Keith sat in awe in the stark difference between the previous night’s dinner and tonight’s dinner. The lively dinner they had yesterday was something he had greatly enjoyed. It had reminded him of his short time with his father. He had always dreamed of having a dinner time with his family growing up. He would used to wonder why it was just him and his dad. And his dad would always say ‘all we need is each other’ in his attempt at cheering up his child. After his dad passed away, a desperate little Keith yearning for connections would creeply watch families eat their dinners. He would imagine himself apart of their household. Telling them stories of the castle ruins he explored in or the animals he played with. For a while it consoled him but after a while it turned sour, his jealousy made him spiteful. Why was he without any family? He would think eating the bread he stole in his sanctuary. The deafen silence of tonight’s dinner reminded him of his spiteful meals alone, when he could have joined the other orphaned kids. He wanted to say something but knowing him he would screw it up somehow and make things worse. Worse thing about this silence was Shiro hadn’t really calmed down, he was still fuming. Even without their bond the way Shiro moved just read as pissed off.

Coran sat awkwardly eating his food goo looking between Shiro, Lance and Allura. Lance looked almost as angry as Shiro. But his crease in his brow started to smooth with the ministrations of Allura’s thumb on his hand. Maybe he could do the same for Shiro. He looked to his side to see Shiro’s partially eaten skewer. Keith thought about reaching his hand to Shiro’s unoccupied hand on his knee but, he’s never had to deal with an angry Shiro before. He had no idea if touching him would help. He knows when Shiro’s scared, nervous or sad it helps but he has no idea how to handle an angry Shiro. Maybe he should suggest Shiro to hunt, let off some steam get away from Lance for a few hours. Heck they all probably could use a break from him. He was annoying.

Keith sat there trying to work up the courage to say something when a voice next to him mumbles.

“You’ve barely touched your dinner, is it not to your satisfaction?” Shiro questioned his voice was level even being pitched this low. The surprising calmness in his voice and the concern on his face stunned Keith to almost silence.

“No the fruits and berries are good…” Keith said awkwardly looking at the Altean trio in front of him noticing Shiro’s voice catching their attention.

“Besides I could say the same to you” Keith pointed out, motioning towards Shiro’s skewer. One would think Keith would feel relieved with Shiro breaking the silence but it only left Keith feeling awkward. His behavior was like as if the others weren’t here, but his low voice made Keith feel like they were keeping the others out. Which didn’t feel right.

“Here you can have mine, I usually hunt in the early morning while your still sleeping anyway. So I’m fine, do you want the rest of the fairy cheese? I think we ate all the jerky, but there might be more cooked apples” Shiro said standing up and walking towards their food bag. He made eye contact with Allura and Lance, they both looked like they were eager to say something. Maybe with the fairy cheese and cooked apples he could make a peace offering. Shiro walked back over handing him the cheese and apples. He pointedly hid one arm behind his back giving Keith a mischievous smile. Normally his smile would have him be playful for whatever little tease he was about to do. But Shiro pretending as if nothing is wrong was amping up his anxiety.

“Guess what I found more of?” Shiro questioned giving him hopeful eyes, he quickly turned his attention towards the trio before turning back towards Shiro.

“Jerky?” Keith implishly said, hearing a soft laugh from Shiro. He eagerly removed his arm from behind his back and presented him with sweet bread. Keith’s face lit up snatching up the bread eagerly. It was bread made specifically for fairy cheese, both were sweet and meant to be eaten together. The white and pink cheese had sprinkles of various nuts and berries and the bread had a special dusting of herbs to complement the cheese. They were rationing it out for their long trip they had thought they ate it all before arriving at the Altean Castle. So Keith was excited to find they had more. He saw out of the corner of his eye Shiro sit back down next to him looking pleased with himself. Keith was about to dig into the cheese before seeing Allura grabbing ahold of her mice friends.

“Keith?” Shiro asked looking at him with concern. Keith looked at the trio for a few more seconds before taking out his knife and started cutting up the cheese, bread, and apples. He picked up his plate, courtesy of Coran, and brought up the slices to the trio.
“I know today has been stressful, so I wanted to share this with everyone. I’m not sure if they had fairy cheese and sweet bread back thousands of years ago. But it's really good” Keith said seeing the hesitation on everyone’s face.

“Thank you Keith, that’s really sweet of you.” Allura said taking her share of slices. She looks at Keith hesitantly.

“Would it be alright if I took some more extra for the mice?” she asks looking sheepishly at him.

“I don’t think the others will mind either” Keith says motioning his head towards Coran and Lance. Allura smiles taking much smaller slices for her mice friends. She sat them down happily watching the mice eat their share. He brings the food over to Lance and Coran who take their share. He then walks back over to his spot handing Shiro’s skewer back to him and holding up his share of treats. Shiro stared at him with what looked to be in awe. It felt good to do something nice. Hopefully this will help improve everyone’s mood.

“Everyone gets a share” Keith said more firmly placing the items in Shiro’s lap before finally digging into his meal. Shiro looked at the food in his lap before quizzically looking at Keith.

“Do you want me to eat this?” Shiro asked, from the corner of his eye he could see Lance stop mid bite.

“You were concerned about me getting enough to eat, and I feel the same about you. So please” Keith said seeing small blush dust Shiro’s cheeks.

“R-Right of course that’s what you mean, because who wants people to starve?” Shiro said making a strange laugh.

“Well people like Zarkon, for starters” Keith plainly said. The answer seemed obvious to him.

“...Yes” Shiro said sounding stunned, Keith looked at him questionly expecting him to finish his sentence. He saw Shiro’s plump lips open then close. Keith was about to say something but Shiro quickly began eating so he dropped it. He looked back over towards the trio who were happily talking amongst themselves. The mice laid snugged in Allura’s lap, Keith smiled to himself.

The dinner was much more livelier after that. Keith felt great, he actually did something right. Food once again saves the day.

After everyone had their fill they decided to discuss their next course of action.

“Before we begin I just want to apologize for earlier, it was childish of me. Losing my temper like that in front of everyone. I’m quite embarrassed from my behavior the last two days you’ve known me I’m normally not like this” Allura speaks looking shamefully down at the floor before looking them in the eyes. Keith doesn’t blame her in the slightest, hell she’s acting better than he would have in her situation. Besides, how does one behave normally after you wake up thousands of years later to find out everyone you love is dead. Yeah she was definitely handling it better than he would have.

“..It’s just, this is the only map I know how to read, this astal chart is something that each ruler of Altea has helped make and...knowing it hasn’t been updated in a very long time, I-I just don’t want to get us more lost more than what we already are” she said looking her her cufflet, there was clear hurt and frustration in her eyes as she stared at it.

“You don’t have to apologize, you’ve been through a lot” Lance said placing his arm around her. She leaned into his touch smiling ruefully to herself.

“That’s besides the point, I shouldn’t have lashed out like that not only did I lash out at Coran I made our companions uncomfortable. I’ll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again” Allura said.

“It’s okay Princess, traveling makes tempers flares I know Lance has had his fair share in the past. Much worse than yours...besides it’s not like I didn’t lash out either. So how about we put that water under the bridge” Shiro said looking sheepishly at Lance. He gave Shiro a scandalized look after hearing Allura laugh.

“I have not! I’m always calm and collected!” Lance said pursing his lips into a pout while shooting Shiro an accusatory look.

“When you’re not riled up, or show boating” Allura teased, laughing at Lance’s growing pout.

“Well now that’s out of the way, we can’t go anywhere tomorrow without our charts being inaccurate. So tonight I propose we update it, since we have two eligible guardian lions at our disposal!” Coran said standing up from his seat pointing to both Shiro and Lance. Allura and Lance immediately perking up in sync with each other.

“Yes we should, but...I’ve never done this without my father’s help…” Allura said looking insecurely at her cufflet.

“You’ll do great Allura, I know you can do it! I’l-Coran and I will be here to help you. But I know you’ll be able to catch on quickly you just need to keep track of the coordinates” Lance said placing his hand over Allura’s. She fondly smiles at him looking more confident than before.

“Update it? How do you update charts?” Keith asked seeing the trio stand up. The three of them turned to him and smiled. Coran was particularly beaming.

“I’m glad you’ve asked number 3!” Coran said motioning for him to come forward. Keith did as he was told. Allura positioned the cufflet in front of them, the once clear gem with a yellow tint had become dark as the night sky. He could the planets and constellations more clearly than before.

“Now, I have to admit Altean maps aren’t the best for the landscape however our astral charts are unchallenged. No other map is as accurate as ours. While other navigators use the basics of using the stars to guide their way. We can lead anyone anywhere with pinpoint accuracy, it also lets us know how long it will take to travel to a certain location-” Coran rambled Allura playfully rolled her eyes and spoke up effectively cutting Coran off from his tangent.

“To cut Coran’s tangents before it begins, this gem goes up into the sky and scans the stars, it splits itself into shards the lighter ones go into the sky while the darker ones scan the ground with light particles. However one design flaw, one that I wanted to redesign, is that we need people to travel to those locations to add it to the map instead of sending out the gem shards themselves. I should also bring up that Alteans strictly used the stars to guide us for thousands of years. It's only recently-well recently before I went into crystal stasis that is, that we began mapping out the landscape for our maps. Since the recent developments of that time, we kept running into unexpected bodies of water or new forests.” Allura explained taking one finger and gently pressing on the crystal then sliding down. Immediately Keith could see bright cracks throughout the gem. The shards begin to float up taking the form of a diamond, they were evenly spaced between each other in all angles. There was one single large shard in the middle of all the larger ones. Allura points it out to Keith.

“This shard stays at the point where you start the mapping process. It provides a camp point locator as well” Allura further explains hovering her hand to the side of the dark gems. He could see touch points on her finger tips, she moved her hand away from the cufflet bringing the darker gems with her. She moves her hand towards Lance who carefully presses the other side of the gem shards. The touch points appeared on his hands she brings back her doing the same thing she did with the bottom darker gems with the lighter top gems.

“This is where Shiro will come in, since he can actually fly” Coran butts in motioning for Shiro to their position. Shiro slowly makes his way over, he reaches out his hand to receive the gems.

“Hey Shiro we should set up a perimeter before we head out. I know Allura can take care of herself and I’m sure Ak-well I’m sure your paladin can handle himself as well. I just don’t want to leave them exposed since we’ll be gone for a few hours” Lance said walking up to Shiro. Keith look between them stunned it was like nothing had happened earlier.

“I like that idea, Keith and Allura should draw their weapons as well just to be double sure.” Shiro says looking from Lance to Keith.

“And don’t worry about waiting for us, our combined perimeter will keep you safe so you both should get sleep.” Shiro added.

“But what about tracking the charts?” Keith asked turning his attention to Allura.

“I’ll just place it in a stable area it’ll sort itself out plus Lance knows how to operate it. He’ll take care of the rest” Allura said turning her head to the side giving Lance a confident smile.

“You can always count of me!” Lance said beaming with pride.

“I know I can” Allura said fondly. Keith was kind of jealous of their relationship. They have known each other for so long. That could have been him and Shiro if he wasn’t a coward and actually went back sooner. Maybe they could have gotten Allura and Coran out of crystal stasis sooner.

“Keith your sword?” Shiro said grabbing his hand to get his attention.

“Oh right” Keith said summoning his sword.

“Wait you still have to summon your sword that way?” Lance questioned he didn’t sound patronizing just sounded genuinely curious. But that didn’t make Keith feel any less irritated by his statement.

“Yeah, well we haven’t known each other as long as you and the princess have” Keith said trying to sound nonchalant about it. He could see an annoyed look on Shiro’s face from the corner of his eye.

“Oh really? It seems like you two have known each other for longer” Lance said, Keith gave him a questioning look.

“Well I meant I’m just surprised with how close you two are. You two have such different colored auras, I can see the process of your auras combining into a mixed color. Normally with such a fresh bond that wouldn’t be happening so I’m just surprised that you have to summon your sword that way. I think you should be ready to summon your sword through your ring” Lance explained himself. Shiro never explained that to him the aura stuff to him. They hadn’t even tried to summon his sword through his ring. He had a hard enough of a time just summoning it through Shiro.

“I think it’s romantic, the point of doing something so imitate is to initiate a bond with your lion. To bring your bond closer to each other. The weapon is a physical representation of your bond’s power, it always amazed me as a child hearing my father’s stories about how he would summon his broadsword when all hope seemed lost. I was sad to find out that the depiction when the bond grows stronger and unlocks more abilities shared between paladin and guardian, the intimacy seemed lost. In a way it always felt like the bond was stunted, the lack of intimacy seemed to distant paladin and guardian. At least that’s what I noticed with my father and Lance. He always talked about the bond between paladin and lion was deeper than even the closet friendships. But I barely saw any of the paladins being intimate with their guardian’s, they were more intimate with each other than their lion’s. So I think it's sweet that you two still summon your weapon together" Allura explained looking at the ground shyly.

"That's beautiful Princess!" Coran said looking at Allura with pride in his eyes. A blush of embarrassment bloomed across Allura's face.

"Well in any case we really should get everything set up for tomorrow" Allura said changing the subject.

"...Yeah we'll definitely find Pidge tomorrow!" Lance said looking a little flustered.