DChan87's VLD One-Shots

You Are Better Than You Think You Are

Post s6: Before they leave for earth, the Paladins have some work to do. But when Keith notices that Allura is off on her own, he's prompted to talk to her about what happened between her and Lotor, and her powers, while old feelings begin to change.

Cover art done for me by Nocandnc!
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It was going to take a while for the Paladins to adjust to their situation. The Castle of Lions was gone. Lotor was stuck in the space between realities. Keith had finally come back. There were possibly even more Alteans out there than originally thought. The Galra were in danger of descending further into civil war. But all of that would have to take a backseat for now. They defeated Lotor, brought peace to their universe and saved many other realities from destruction. They deserved a little rest.

Everyone was still coming down from the emotional roller coast of the last quintant. They didn't know if Lotor was dead or not, what could happen to Shiro, or how they were going to get back to Earth without the Castle of Lions. On top of that, a lot more work needed to be done before they could really set out on their return journey to earth. Since Shiro was in no condition to fly just yet, that delayed them even further. They were all tired. But they were also relieved.

As much as Keith wanted to leave, he fully understood that his friends needed to wait. He already spent two years on a space whale with his mom—well, time was kind of strange on that space whale. Only a couple of weeks had passed in real time. So on top of catching up with everyone, he had to figure out if he really was 2 years older or not. It hurt his head thinking about it. So he returned his focus to re-bonding with his friends. He had a lot to catch up on. He was mostly just relieved to have the real Shiro back, even if he was inhabiting a clone body now. He honestly didn't know what he would do if he failed to save Shiro. That it was a clone didn't matter.

He was thinking about it, sitting next to his canine companion a ways away from the others, who were off in their own activities. Pidge and Hunk constructing a device to amplify their communicators so they could send a distress signal. Lance was doing his best to help, but was mostly relegated to helping build the device instead of programming it. Everyone else was off on their own, for lack of a better term. Krolia, Romelle and Allura tended to Shiro, trying to keep him stable as he recovered from everything. Even Lotor's generals, because the Paladins felt sympathy for them and rescued them, spent time with them. However, after a while, all six women went off on their own, but Krolia and Allura lingered by Shiro longer.

Eventually he noticed that Allura wasn't with Krolia. He promptly sat up, coming alert. His canine companion whined and nuzzled his arm. He didn't panic, but he was concerned. He'd been away from everyone for 2 years—to them it was only two weeks—and he hadn't had enough time to catch up to them, despite his love for them being the fuel to warp to their location, and it felt awkward to suddenly jump back into the team. But he was vaguely aware that Allura and Lotor were involved, at least for a short time... and then Lotor turned out to be an evil motherquiznaker who used her to get what he wanted.

Feeling his chest tighten a little, he hurriedly looked around the campsite until he spotted a lone figure sitting over past the Blue Lion. At least he found Allura. But she was off by herself. He felt an immediate, deep desire to talk to her, but... he was afraid that the amount of time he was gone really had widened the gap between him and everyone else. He was technically older than them now, even though he was always the Garrison trio's senior. Would that affect how they saw him? How would it affect how Allura saw him? But he knew that Allura was deeply hurting after learning that Lotor had been using her. And again, his desire to speak to her again welled up inside him, making him visibly sad for her.

As if sensing Keith's concern for Allura, the space dog stood up and bounded over to Allura, almost knocking Ezor over as she was walking over to Krolia. "Wait!" Keith called after his dog, then he stood up and chased the dog.