Catch the Stars ||Keith Kogane||

26

Trip's body still felt like an overcooked noodle. Her knees hated the feeling of any weight being put on them. That's why she was allowing herself to sit down in the control room rather than stand and glare out the window like usual.

She sat beside Allura on the platform of the center pedestal, her elbows on her bent knees and her head on her fists. Her eyes were closed as she allowed herself a few seconds to relax her tired muscles. The paladins around her were doing the same, talking quietly about how Zarkon could be finding them.

There were many opinions in the air. Some scientific and others just spitball to say they contributed. 

"There has to be a tracking device on the ship," says Pidge confidently, "that's the only way he could track us even after a full jump!"

Coran shook his head and crossed his arms defensively, "The castle would have alerted us of any planted devices," he insists, "and to be sure, I've already scanned every inch and there's nothing."

Pidge purses her lips and bites the inside of her cheek, not having another explanation. 

Allura and Keith, however, had very drastically different thoughts than a bug on the ship.

"There's no point in denying it," Allura is saying to Trip's left, "Zarkon must be tracking us through me." 

Trip lifts her eyelids to look at the princess in confusion. Everyone else was giving her the same look. She looked convinced that she was correct and Trip almost laughed out loud because of it.

"That's not true, princess," Coran is assuring her.

Allura bites her lips and Trip watches her body language, "is it so hard to believe?" she asks them all.

She was tapping her fingers against the tops of her thighs, she's nervous, and refused to make eye contact with anyone around, she feels guilty. Trip wasn't convinced, though, and neither was anyone but her.

"Zarkon's forces showed up on Eros when I woke up," she says. Trip raises an eyebrow to herself but doesn't make a comment. Yeah, that made sense. But that's the only thing that made sense with her theory.

"It's not you princess," Keith speaks up before she can continue. He was standing away from the group, making everyone turn around to look at him. His face is blank and emotionless, "it's me."

Trip wanted to slam her head into the wall in hopes it would knock her out. She opted not to, thinking her knocking herself out cold while being tracked by enemy no. 1 would only make things harder on everyone else. Instead, she presses her head harder into her palm and listens to his reasoning.

"Because..." Hunk pushes him to elaborate.

Keith lightly shrugs his shoulder, "I just think that Zarkon must've imprinted on me during our fight or something like that," he looks towards the window to avoid all the attention he had brought to himself.

"But we don't know that," Says Shiro to him, "and we can't make any big guesses like that until we have more information."

Lance raises a hand to scratch the back of his neck, "he makes a good point."

Trip sees this as the time to speak up, "it can't be either of you," she tells them both confidently, "or any of us," she curls her fingers against her cheek one by one to crack the bubbles in her joints, "they would've followed us to Olympia and Harron hasn't reported any Galra ships around."

"She makes an even better point," Lance agrees, "the Galra wouldn't turn down a chance to attack the Olympians."

"I suppose you're right about that," Allura says but still sounds unsure. Keith gives a shrug as his response and Trip takes that as a 'you're right.'