Lance gave out directions lazily, yet accurately. He made Keith put him down about half way there, but ended up leaning heavily on him the whole time. When they finally entered the large round room with strange circles in the middle of the floor Pidge and Hunk were already down to the skin tight black suits under their armor.
"You look rough Lance." Pidge said as she began to take off the top of the black suit. Keith averted his eyes out of politeness and helped bring Lance over to the side of the room where the other Paladins were standing. There were tables and shelves full of small bottles and gauze and space-band aids that looked like they were pulled right out of the wall.
Lance stuck his tongue out at Pidge and didn't bother looking away. "You can look at her Keith." He said loud enough for Pidge to hear. Keith directed him closer to the table and didn't respond as Lance sat heavily on it.
"Yeah, I'm wearing a sports bra. Don't worry about it dude. At least you're polite." She directed the end of her words over to Lance.
"Good lord Lance. Where is all of that blood coming from? I didn't see it earlier..." Hunk gestured to Lance's armor where blood was dripping from where he removed his helmet. Hunk seemed almost nauseous.
"That's because I wiped it off and covered it up." Lance muttered under his breath almost as if he was annoyed. None of the others heard. Well, of course no one but Keith.
"Let me see." Keith interrupted their banter. Lance was going to need this cleaned now.
Lance huffed out a complaint but said nothing more. Keith turned Lance's head to the side with the wound gently, pushing his chin to the left and scanning his messy brown hair for the source of the bleeding. About six centimeters above his right ear was a long horizontal gash which ran from the edge of his hair line to just past his ear. There was crusted blood dried in his hair along with a line of free flowing blood. Keith couldn't be sure how deep the cut was exactly but it was pretty bad.
"How did you even get this? You're going to need stitches and with how much blood you've lost I'm surprised that you're even conscious right now."
"Oh my god." He heard Pidge gasp from somewhere behind him. He glanced over out of instinct. She was standing with one hand over her mouth, the top half of her suit hanging on her hips and dark green sports bra covering what needed to be covered. On the shoulder of the arm hanging by her side was a large black and blue bruise that ran down to her elbow.
"It was from when I pushed you out of the Particle cannon's radius wasn't it." She said quietly, her voice shaking.
Pidge didn't strike Keith as the kind of person who would cry at any given point. Or even show any kind of weakness at that. Seeing Lance like this and assigning herself the blame was affecting her very strongly, and not in a good way.
Lance cast Keith a dirty look and suddenly Keith understood why he had wanted to wait.
"It wasn't your fault Pidge." Lance tried to calm her.
"Yes it is, I remember. You took you helmet off for a second because the voices were breaking up and you couldn't handle how loud it was. You took it off and got distracted and almost got hit by the cannon." She took a breath and forced the unshed tears in her eyes down. Hunk stood beside her awkwardly, not knowing what to do.
"It wasn't your fault. I should have kept the helmet on." Lance said slowly. He was beginning to run out of steam again and if they didn't wrap up this conversation soon he was going to pass out.
"I pushed you out of the way as best I could." She whispered.
"And you saved me. You know," Lance gestured to her shoulder. "I think we're even. Bet that hurts like a bitch."
Pidge sniffled and smiled. She rubbed her eyes and gave Lance a quick hug before backing up. "Sometimes you just really remind me of my brother. And I really couldn't imagine losing you," she looked over at Hunk and even spared a glance at Keith. "Or anyone else on the team. It would be like I lost my family all over again." She said, then changed the subject, sobering up. "Guess I'm just a little emotionally stretched right now guys." She laughed and the others smiled at her. She locked eyes with Lance.
"You might as well use a pod. Unless you want to sit through like," She scrutinized the wound. "15 stitches." At those words Keith heard Hunk shudder and go back to dressing and rubbing at his own bruises, which seemed much less abundant compared to the other two paladins.
"Yeah, no. Pod please." Lance's eyes were drooping and he had to keep yanking them open, only for them to flutter shut again a moment later. "You know I've got a real killer headache." He slurred.
"Keith, I'll show you how to use one of the Healing pods." Pidge pulled him away from Lance who laid down on the table. He was about to protest that someone should really watch that idiot when Hunk moved closer to the blue Paladin and began to talk to him, telling him that if he wanted to get in the pod that he would need to take his armor off. Lance let out a low whine that made Keith's ears flatten but sat back up.
"Okay then." He muttered and followed Pidge to the center of the room. There was what seemed to be a control panel of some kind and when Pidge began typing away Keith knew that he would never figure out how to function one of these without outside help.
"Alright, so you just enter the injury type here in Altean, but all you really need to do is look at the pictures provided. Altean anatomy is pretty close to Humans. Then you hit this button here and a pod will come up ready to go." Pidge pushed the button and one of the circles on the floor rose up and produced a pod that would fit one person standing up.
"Altean?" Keith asked. It sounded familiar for some reason but he couldn't quite remember why.
"That's the species the Princess and Coran are. This is their castle... Well... The King's castle, but we don't talk about him." Pidge trailed off.
Keith remembered a brief history lesson from the Blade on Alteans.
"Alteans once helped Zarkon. The two groups worked together in harmony. But Zarkon ended up betraying them and destroying their entire race long long ago." The teacher had droned on.
Keith tried to pay attention to the lesson, but the student behind him kept kicking his chair. When he had signed up for a more advanced class in the higher levels he had expected a higher maturity set than 5 years of age, but all of his 12 year old peers showed him otherwise.
"Psst. Halfy!" The boy beside him whispered. The teacher either didn't notice or didn't care that others were speaking while she was. Keith tried to ignore him and pay attention.
"Halfy!" The boy whispered again. This time, however, it was accompanied by a ball of paper being thrown into his face. It bounced off and landed on his desk. It was harmless. But it had great consequences.
Keith took a deep breath and tried to calm down. Despite his better judgement he began to uncrumple the ball.
On it was a crudely draw picture of a boy with no ears, long stringy hair, black holes for eyes, dull teeth, and no skin tone despite the rest of the picture having bits of color.
The word 'TRASH' was written in bold letters at the bottom and other mean things danced around the edges. The word 'Halfling' showed up many times.
He glanced up after looking at it for quite a while and noticed that most of the class was also looking at him. They all had slightly different emotions on their faces, but all of them resembled some type of mirth. He peered back down at the paper and noticed that every word written had different nuances. Practically everyone must have 'signed' it with one bad word or another.
He felt anger rising up in his stomach. It was burning its way up his throat and threatening to spill out. The paper ripped in his hands and he looked down at it. He turned his anger to it. He ripped it in half again and again and again-
"Keith stop that! Why are you not paying attention! And wasting paper like that!" The teacher called him out. The class around him muttered words of agreeance to hide their giggles of amusement. The anger that had been boiling on the surface finally came through.
He screamed, "Shut up!" It was mostly at the students who were still laughing and giggling and making fun of him. It didn't matter that they did it quietly, he could still hear them. He stood up in his desk, his chair falling over behind him. He wanted to leave. "Shut up!" He shouted again and screwed his eyes shut.
"Awe! Halfy doesn't know how to control his hearing!" The boy snickered. He was the initiator. "So sad. Always listening in on everyone's conversations. Getting us in trouble." He growled out.
The voices were so loud. There were so many of them. They were everywhere. Behind him, in front of him, on top of him, in his bones.
Keith covered his ears and tried to calm down. The anger made it louder, it fueled it.
"Not everyone can be the teacher's favorite like you." The boy stood up and was standing beside Keith. The other students were crowding around them, forcing the teacher out of the equation.
"Not everyone can be adopted by the Leader of the entire Blade." The boy pushed him. Keith stumbled, his hands falling from his ears but his eyes still screwed shut.
Ignore him. Push the anger away. Ignore him Ignore him Ignore him Ignore-
"Not all of us can get their grades handed to them. Cheated points given to them." He pushed Keith again, harder this time. Keith stumbled closer to the door. Closer to the other side of the ring of students.
"So what's it gonna be Halfy." The boy slurred.
Everything snapped.
Keith had worked so hard to get where he was. He studied day in and out. He paid attention in class so that he would understand the concepts they learned. He turned in all of his work on time and took the most accurate neat notes anyone had ever seen. They assumed the teacher made notes for him.
He thought that being smart would get him places. Earn him friendships. He tried being nice and polite when he started. But that got him nowhere. Everyone already seemed to have it out for him. The teachers spoke highly of him. Saying things like, "Keith is a model student, you should be more like him." As if they were setting the group against him from the beginning, telling the others that they would never be better than Keith.
It didn't help that he was the son of Kolivan or that Thace was practically his second father as well. Kolivan the Leader of this whole thing and Thace, the best infiltrator the Blade had seen in decades. It just pitted them more against him. They thought that he used their influence to get things he wanted. To cheat his way into the higher classes. Their jealousy blinded them.
And then there was the worst part. The part that he couldn't control.
His hearing.
It had always been sensitive, but it was different from the others. The others could control what frequencies they listened in on. They could tune one out and another in to reduce the insane amounts of chatter that their ears could pick up.
Keith could not.
Thace suspected that it had something to do with his human side. Humans had alright hearing, but nothing nearly as precise or accurate as a Galra. They couldn't do much to tune in and out and they couldn't even hardly hear in the first place.
So Keith had to listen to everything. He couldn't turn it on and off. He was stuck. When he was home alone or with Thace or Kolivan or the others he trusted he would change into his human ears. Just to get some peace and quiet.
He did it in class once and a few of the students laughed. A few were horrified. And a great many were there to make fun of him. The word 'Halfling' making its first appearance and his name was suddenly no longer Keith. Halfy was the only thing the others were to call him now.
He never did it again.
So he kept his painfully sharp ears attentive and tried to focus on the teacher and the teacher alone.
Sometimes though, he would hear students talking, plotting. Pranks were frowned upon in the school and the ones that they had been planning had been particularly harmful. He ended up sabotaging them by consistently stealing the harder to get materials that they couldn't easily replace.
They eventually found out it was him. And he guessed that this was his punishment. The boy who had started all of this was the main conspirator.
He was tired of the scrutiny. The name calling. The isolation. The loneliness. It was making him go insane and this push was all he needed to fall into a mindless rage.
With a growl he pulled his fist back and smashed the boy's smug, light-purple nose. There was a moment where all of the power behind the punch just pushed him back, but the boy wasn't moving fast enough because soon after there was a crack and Keith pulled his fist back.
The boy fell to the floor. His ears were flat and his pale yellow eyes were streaming tears as he whimpered. His clawed hands were covering his nose but Keith could see the blood running down his face and sticking to his fur.
Keith's fist was screaming at him, telling him that punching people like that wasn't worth it if they weren't soft enough to not break his fingers. He didn't care.
"Keith!" The teacher shrieked. Of course it would be his luck that the teacher would manage to break through the circle of students now, once all fingers pointed to him and his only evidence of the other's deception (the paper) had been ripped beyond recognition by none other than himself.
Of course.
Keith had been sent straight home, or back to his room on the ship, where his dads were waiting for him. Neither of them had looked happy.
Keith refused to tell them about the name calling at first. He was afraid that they would agree with the students, that it was a valid reason to bully and isolate him. Deep down he knew that he was being stupid, but he couldn't bring himself to believe that anyone had actually cared about him at that point.
"Keith." Thace had said sternly. "Look at me." Keith looked up to his face. "Look me in the eyes." Keith forced himself to look up into Thace's soft yellow eyes. When he met them he could feel tears form in his own eyes. It was like all of the guilt and sadness washed away his anger and left only embarrassment for putting his Fathers in such a dishonorable position.
Before he could stop it he was sobbing. Kolivan, who was standing beside Thace, squatted down and wrapped him in his arms. Keith threw his arms around his neck and buried his face in his shoulder. Keith was still so small for his age that squatting was the only way his towering father could reach his level.
Thace was quick to join Kolivan. He stooped down and held onto both of them as Keith cried.
Keith ended up spilling everything then and there. Letting the entire story from start to finish tumble from his quivering lips as he tried to control himself.
"But you c-can't do anything. I have to solve the problem on my o-o-own." He was finished with his story and his eyes were dry, but the hitch in his breathing and occasional hiccup still plagued him.
The two Galra sat back and looked at Keith. He was only ten. Doing work that was two years more advanced than the average Galra. He was smart. He knew that they couldn't fix things for him because it would cause more trouble than it would fix.
"Well, punching the boy may not have been the best course of action. However-"
"I know what you are going to say and I don't think you should encourage the boy." Kolivan cut Thace off. Thace smiled sheepishly. "Keith, you need to find a way to cope with bullies. To befriend people who wouldn't set out to be your friend in the first place. This is a good way for you to practice infiltration skills."
"What?"
"He is right actually. This could be the social side of your training. Try to become a part of something that doesn't want you." Thace finished for Kolivan.
Keith frowned.
"Maybe not the best choice of words Thace." Kolivan caught his eye and raised a brow before not so subtly gesturing to the still very vulnerable looking Keith. They had learned long ago that spelling things out wouldn't go over genius little Keith's head and that the obvious whispering was a big fat no. But, there was this thing that they did that Keith didn't quite understand. It was like they would talk with their eyes with voices only the two of them could hear.
Now was not one of those times though.
"Oh, yes." He cleared his throat and stood. "Well, Keef." He said, slurring his name and making the boy smile. It was how the little boy had said his name for the longest time and every once in a while his dad would call him by that as a joke. "Why don't we go talk strategy in the dining hall?" Thace reached down before Keith could say anything else and perched him on his shoulders.
Kolivan laughed as Thace swayed a bit from the new weight but ultimately steadied himself. "Careful now. And Keith?"
Keith hummed out that he was listening.
"You still will be punished for punching that kid in the face." Kolivan said. Keith sighed.
"Well if I wasn't then the kids would hate me even more." He whined.
"Exactly. Think of it as phase one of infiltration." Kolivan laughed.
"There you go Lance. We'll see you in an hour." Hunk said as he shut the healing pod. Keith looked around.
Pidge was back by the table, applying a goo to her bruises and wincing. Hunk was standing by a pod and Lance was standing in said pod.
Lance was wearing a completely different suit from earlier. He must have changed while Keith was zoned out. He was standing with his eyes closed and was perfectly still, almost as if he were asleep, or-
"Keith, I think we are good in here for now. Thanks for bringing Lance in. I know he's really stubborn and obnoxious sometimes but... Well he's pretty much family." Hunk said as he turned to him. Keith gave a small smile and nodded.
"Family is important." He said sadly. "I didn't get hurt, but I'm kind of tired. I think I'm gonna go to bed." Hunk nodded and said goodnight. Keith waved to Pidge on his way out and she waved back with her right arm, cringing as the pain reminded her that she was severely bruised. He wondered momentarily if he could say goodnight to Lance even though he was in a pod. He decided against it, afraid the others would tease him.
He got back to his room with no problems and pulled his boots off before he laid down on the bed, fully clothed. The only thing he did was tug his hair tie out before pulling his cell blanket over his shoulders and passing out.