Canis Major | Keith Kogane

Extras: So, About Claire

Warning: If you've made it this far, then I assume you're already under the knowledge that Claire (Arielle's ex-girlfriend) had passed away. As a formality I'm going to warn you of a mild trigger warning (I don't think I wrote in anything too intense for anyone to be possibly be offended/triggered by.) 

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   "She used to be someone special to me." Elle brushed the dark brown hair out of her face and sighed. "Her name was Claire."

Keith was momentarily shocked. Claire? There was only one person named Claire he knew, and he had hoped it wasn't the same person. Not out of jealousy or intimidation but because if Elle had really been in love with the same Claire, there was no happy ending to what she was about to tell them.

"You probably recognize that name," Elle said with a bittersweet smile plastered on to her face. She wasn't trying to let the atmosphere become too heavy, but when talking about a dead person it wasn't easy to keep the atmosphere from becoming thick. "Claire Blanchard was a fighter-class pilot, had a rebellious streak, and never hesitated to fight for the little dude." Elle let her eyes fall to the floor, she could feel Shiro place a supportive hand on her shoulder.

"What happened?" Allura asked. Shiro's hand instinctively rubbed a circle into her shoulder, he already knew of Claire's accident. A while before his Kerberos mission, there was devastating news that a cadet had stolen one of the land rovers from the Garrison. He and other faculty members were looking for hours until they stumbled upon the wreckage. Claire had no chance, the doctors did everything they could but she was too far gone the moment the Garrison found her.

Elle touched Shiro's supportive hand and the dam of tears broke. "I'm the reason why she got into the car accident." Shiro's hand didn't move, he already had his own insight on the situation. He realized that the young girl trying to visit Claire was Elle, but she used the name Ari instead.

As Shiro was thinking about Claire, he remembered sitting outside the patient room. He had stayed behind to inform his higher commanding officer of the situation with the cadet. He agonized over why this happened. Shiro's thoughts were distracted by frustrated voices. It was a young girl arguing with the receptionist who wouldn't let her in because she wasn't family.

"Why can't I see her?" the girl cried. "Tell Claire it's Ari! She'll let me in!" Shiro was ready to intervene when Commander Iverson stopped him from getting up.

"It's best if we don't let her see what happened." Iverson said, a solemn look on his face.

"What do you mean?" Lance's voice pulled Shiro out of his flashback.

Elle's hand gripped tighter on Shiro's. "There were people who looked down upon same-sex relationships in the Garrison, especially my father. He was one of the faculty members and I was worried that he might catch wind of it. Then Claire and I got into a huge fight over it. She stormed out, but I-I didn't know," Elle's voice hitched in her throat, a sad breath wheezed out of her lungs as her face pulled itself down into a heartbroken frown, "How was I going to know she was going to do something like steal a Land Rover?" Shiro consoled Elle silently and began to speak for her.

"Claire died from her injuries from the Land Rover crashing. Everything the hospital could do wasn't enough. I'm sure you cadets were given the new lecture on safety not long after." There wasn't more to the story. The story came to a screeching halt because Shiro didn't know anything further and Elle had broken into a guilt-ridden sob. Claire was her first love and her best friend.

"Elle," Allura had come to Elle's side as well. "I'm terribly sorry that you had to go through that." Allura's voice was very warm and comforting. Shiro's side hug provided Elle comfort as well.

"I'm glad that you've opened up to us, Elle," Shiro's soft voice said. "We all love you for who you are, and I'm glad that you feel like you can talk to us about this." Shiro's words brought tears to Elle's eyes. "Nothing was your fault," he said gently.

Hunk wiped the tears forming in his eyes. "Oh come on guys I gotta get in on this hug!" Everyone quickly followed suit and crushed Elle in a teary-eyed mess of a hug. It was a very nice moment that Elle was sure to remember.

~~~~~Extra~~~~~

"Wait, so you like both boys AND girls. Right?" Lance asked.

"Lance!" Shiro chided.

"I'm just making sure!" Lance exclaimed.

Elle laughed. "Yes. It's both boys and girls. Maybe you should try it out, sometime."