Continued Reality: A Voltron Fanfiction

THE MESSAGE

     It has been a whirlwind of a day for Pidge. Between Shiro's funeral and seeing all of her old Paladin friends in person again, her insides feel like an emotional roller coaster. Especially when it came to seeing Keith again...

She knows that she acted like a complete idiot in front of him, and she is totally embarrassed about it. She just hopes that Keith didn't notice anything... too much. But it was great helping him to feel better, and she is thrilled to have gotten two hugs from him today! Even if Hunk did turn one of them into a group hug.

She is now walking through the hotel that she and all the others are staying at. As she begins to walk towards the elevator to head up to the room she is sharing with her brother, she passes the lobby. Sitting on a table, unattended, is a laptop computer. It is opened up and turned on, but she glances around and doesn't see a single person in sight.

"What are you doing here all alone?" She says aloud, speaking to the computer as if it were an adorable puppy. She pulls up the nearest chair and sits down, her fingers hovering over the keyboard.

What are you doing? She thinks. You don't know who's computer this is...

But she just can't resist. Back in her element, she begins typing and clicking, searching through the files to see what whoever owns this computer is up to. But she pauses when she sees a file titled "Shiro."

Realization finally dawns on her. This must be Keith's computer... She's about to stand up and hightail it out of there, but she's full of curiosity. What could Keith have about Shiro on his computer? Could it be a goodbye message? A last will in testament? She is just about to open it, when she senses someone approach from behind.

"What are you doing?"

At the sound of Keith's voice, Pidge yelps involuntarily. She jumps, causing the chair to tip over. Her arms flailing, she and the chair go crashing down to the floor. Keith stares at her with his arms folded, slightly startled.

"I-I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," Pidge says as she jumps up. She hastily attempts to stand the chair back up as well, but it slips from her shaky grip and slams over hard. Deciding to leave it be, she spins to face Keith. "It's just, I saw a computer with no one around. And you know how I am with computers, and it just didn't seem right for it to be sitting there without anyone doing anything on it, so I went to check it out and to see who's it was but then I saw the file on Shiro and I wasn't sure whether I should look at it or not but I almost did and..."

Realizing that she is rambling, and at a very quick pace, she feels the heat of a blush creeping up on her face. Keith holds his hands up defensively. "Hey, it's okay," he says, a warm smile across his face. "I trust you."

Hearing him say this causes her stomach to twist up in knots. But in a good way? Geez, love is so confusing... she thinks. "Oh, okay. Well, um, goodnight." She gives him a half wave, and begins to walk towards the elevator again.

"Actually Pidge, could you help me with something?"

"Absolutely, yes!" She says, entirely too enthusiastically.

Keith sets the chair back up and sits down in front of his computer, the glow from the screen illuminating every detail of his face, including the Galra mark on his right side. She has to fight to keep from staring at him as she walks over and stands beside his chair.

"It has to do with Shiro," Keith says as he opens up the file. Onscreen, a paused video of their old friend appears. "He... he left me a message, one he knew that I would get in the event of his..."