It had been several phoebs since her pod had crashed and she still hadn't located the lion. It was here, her fellow patrol appeared to be right, but it was well hidden. Kolt had been helping her, 'repurposing' tech from a nearby military base he worked for, and they had narrowed down the lion's location to 3 potential places. All of which were in the mountain range. They were getting closer though, she could feel it – maybe not literally feel it but she felt hopeful, optimistic even.
"I never thought I'd see another lion in my lifetime."
"You've been tellin' me 'bout this ship fer months but – this is beyond words." Kolt turned slightly to face her, "Are you sure you don't want me to contact the Garrison? They could help."
"We've discussed this. It could put your entire civilization in jeopardy."
"Does this mean yer gunna try to contact yer people and continue yer mission?" He tried to hide it but there was a definite hesitation to his words. Krolia looked down, she had a duty to the Blades but the prospect of leaving this planet, leaving him, was too hard to bear.
"My ship being destroyed was the best thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn't go back even if I could." Taking a purposeful step forward, she stood beside him and stared up at the magnificent Lion of Voltron. "I have a new mission now. I'm going to stay here and protect the Blue Lion."
Kolt took her hand, his eyes softening as he met her gaze. "I want to help." She smiled at him. This was wrong, so wrong. She should be returning back to the Blades but she was choosing to be weak. Her time on this planet had softened her and she felt this human man making a home for himself in her heart and there was nothing she could do about it – nothing she wanted to do about it.
"Did you eat them beans I got in the back of the fridge? Been there goin on 3 years now." He chuckled, leaning in the frame of the bathroom door as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet for the second time that evening. "Maybe all the Earth food is finally catchin' up to ya after a year of bein' here? Or perhaps ya'll spent too much time out in the sun? Heat stroke's a nasty bugger."
"Kolton. You are not being helpful. Either get out, or be quiet. Pass me that -" another heave of her guts and she found her arms wrapping tighter around the bowl. "- that wet towel over there, I feel disgusting." She heaved again. "It's been almost two weeks of this, every evening! There's no way it's food or heat related and I didn't think I could catch your human viruses." Another heave.
"Sounds like morning sickness. Maybe yer pregnant." His joke was not funny. Not funny in the slightest and she heaved again before she could smack him.
"It's not nearly long enough; it's only been a year." She was panicking, the labour pains coming closer and closer together. The Galra are a long-lived species, a normal pregnancy should take longer than a simple deca-phoeb.
"Krolia we've been through this. A Human pregnancy lasts 9 months and yer well past that. This kiddo's gunna be half Human 'n half Galra; s'not a normal pregnancy."
"It just feels too – Ahhhhhhh – too soon! Oh Stars I hope everything is ok."
"It'll be fine, everything is fine. Just breathe! Yer doin' great!"
Tiny eyes flickered behind tiny eyelids. Keith was already 3 months old but she couldn't get over how tiny he was. She had him wrapped in a sling and strapped to her chest as she milled about their small desert home. There were dishes to do and a growing pile of laundry, not to mention the constant need to clean with all the sand in the air. Krolia had never been much for the domestic life, she was a Blade first and foremost, but there wasn't a whole lot she could do out here. Earth was an un-contacted planet and she couldn't just go strolling into town in all of her purple glory without bringing down the full weight of the Galaxy Garrison on them. And though she knew she could handle herself, she didn't want the Garrison to get anywhere near her tiny, tiny son.
Keith made a small noise typical of a Galran kit, but rather strange for a Human child. He stirred slightly before returning to a deep sleep; small hands clenched tightly into adorable little fists. She stared down at the bundle, he looked so much like her but it was hard to tell; his more alien features being hidden behind pale skin and rounded ears. His eyes were shaped like hers but white like his father, though after a particularly long night of the little guy crying inconsolably, they had briefly opened to reveal bright yellow sclera with slit pupils. Instead of Kolton's grey irises, Keith's were a deep violet like her own and like her, he had a reflective coating on his eyes giving them a faint glow in the dark and allowing them to reflect light much like an Earth cat.
So far he did not have any claws, but that didn't mean he wouldn't grow them, and his dark black hair had a slight purple tint in the right lighting. If you knew what to look for you could see his alien heritage plain as day, but to any Human he was just a normal baby boy; a little strange but still one of them.
The red and white hover-bike came to a stop in front of the shed and after a few tics, Kolt came walking inside. "Shake your boots." She called over her shoulder out of habit and was met with a groan. Turning around she stopped when she saw him, he had a box in his hands and a wide grin on his face, which usually meant he was up to something. "What's in the box?"
"What's in the booooox?" He snorted and she pinched her eyebrows into a glower. "Sorry, movie reference. Don't worry, s'not a severed head er nothin'."
She gasped, eyebrows suddenly shooting up her forehead. "Why would I assume it is? Kolton Kogane what. Is in. The box?" His resounding laugh helped ease a little of her tension, if he was this casual then it was nothing too be worked up over. But she couldn't shake the feeling that he was up to no good.
"S'fer Keith. Fer his first birthday."
"That's 10 of your Earth months away."
"9, and I know, but I couldn't resist." He kicked off his boots, leaving them on the front porch and stepped inside, carefully placing the box on the coffee table. She stood in the kitchen, frying pan in hand, as he sauntered over to her. His strong arms wrapped tightly around her waist pulling her close, mindful of the little bundle tied to her chest, and planted a warm kiss to her lips.
After a minute or two he stepped back slightly, just enough to lay a soft kiss to the small patch of exposed skin on their son's forehead; the only spot not covered by his messy dark hair. She smiled at him when their eyes met once again and he held her gaze, staring lovingly back while her heart melted. Krolia swore in that moment she was the luckiest woman in the universe.
"Wanna hear somethin' funny?" The little glint of mischief was back as it sparkled in his eyes and she rolled hers. "Sam said some cheesy pickup line t'Colleen and she smacked his arm fer it. I got a laugh outta the whole thing but then she insisted, again, that we come fer dinner to their house. I don't think she's gunna let that one go, but anyways – I told her we couldn't make it on account'a you bein' hurt. She looked at me all surprised and I said – now this here's the best part -" He was struggling to get the words out at this point, trying to hold a straight face as he recounted the story. "- I said you still had a concussion from when ya'll fell from heaven." He lost all control at the end and broke out into a full belly laugh, clearly thinking himself to be hilarious.
Krolia rolled her eyes.
"She – she smacked my arm and said 'Yer just as bas as Sam!' but they don't even know!! Oh babe it was great!" He wiped a tear from the corner of his eye, still struggling to breathe through his is convulsive laughter.
"I still don't understand how this Colleen knows about me."
"She does and she doesn't. Perceptive as all hell that one. Knows I got a lady in my life, and 'bout Keith, but she doesn't know yer purple and from outer space." Kolt made a whistling sound as his arm mimicked a rocket taking off. Krolia rolled her eyes. "You keep doin' that and them pretty eyes of yers 'er gunna get stuck mid roll." He placed a small kiss to her check and walked over to his favourite chair, a plume of dust and sand rising from it as he threw himself down.
Keith was starting to stir now, his nap having been disturbed by his father's exuberant story telling. Curious eyes blinked up at her and he turned his head to scan the room searching for the only other person he knew. The moment those little eyes found their target, Keith was making 'grabby hands' in his direction. A quiet babbling starting up when Kolt took too long to get him.
"Sam says he must be one smart cookie if he's babblin' like this already. Showed him a little video of Keith playin' wit the football I got him. Says kids don't start babblin' till round 4 - 6 months er so."
"Galra kits don't speak until they are nearly 5 deca-phoebs of age. Preferring nonverbal communication until then." She was practically cooing. Her initial thoughts had been it was a Human trait that had him attempting speech like sounds, but now it seemed he was potentially a genius.
Keith immediately proceeded to smack his face against the armrest of Kolt's chair.
His cries were higher pitched than a Human baby, and substantially quieter, much more akin to his Galran heritage than his Human one. This had startled Kolt the first time he heard the boy cry, believing him to be struggling for air. Krolia was merely grateful that this part of his behaviour was more Galran, she had not been looking forward to a screaming Human baby – they were incredibly loud! Her sensitive ears would not have been able to handle that.
Kolt rubbed Keith's back in an attempt to sooth the crying child, the tiny sobs being absorbed by his broad shoulders. Krolia smiled fondly at them for a moment before disappearing into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
After a few minutes she noticed that the living room was suspiciously quiet. Keith had stopped crying, which was good, but there was no sound of television or talking or noisy toys. Setting the stir-fry to simmer she walked back around the corner and was met with the guiltiest of guilty looks she had ever seen. Kolt had Keith sitting between his legs on the floor, his head snapping up to lock onto her eyes and a blush immediately painting his cheeks bright crimson. Keith was happily squeezing a purple cat plushie in his pudgy arms while the box Kolt had brought home lay empty on the floor.
She rolled her eyes – again. "I thought you said that was for his birthday?" She chastised.
"I'm a weak, weak man. But just look at that smile, he loves it!" Both of her men were positively beaming up at her; Kolt holding Keith, and Keith holding his new stuffed animal. Her son held out the purple plush kitty to show her and immediately lost his balance, falling onto his side and pulling the kitty tightly to his chest.
"I just had te get it." He grinned at her and winked.
She watched as his father picked him up, throwing him dangerously high into the air and catching him with strong capable hands, drawing an excited giggle from the small boy before repeating the motion.
Keith was strong; he was sitting on his own already, an ability he inherited from her. According to every Earth parenting book she could find (online) Human babies wouldn't even be able to hold up their own heads yet. A pure Galran kit of his age would be crawling around. It was strange, physically the Galra developed much faster than Humans, but Human's speech patterns developed faster. Keith developed both at an alarming rate. He wasn't talking, not yet, but he was making speech like sounds and that had her excited that he might begin talking soon.
She would speak to him in Galran all day, everyday, but as soon as Kolt came home it was strictly English. Her English was superb now and she could nearly call herself fluent. Some things still caught her, tripping her up on syntax or tense errors occasionally, but all in all she was doing really well. She had started teaching Kolt Galran; he was not fairing well at all.
Her people's language was incredibly complex, the same word meaning two different things depending on the stress placement, and getting the sounds just right had proved incredibly difficult for him. He was not Galra, not even a little bit, and because of this he did not possess the right vocal cords for the Galran language. Based on the sounds Keith made, she deduced that he did have the right cords, which was something she hadn't expected to be relieved about. It meant that he would be able to learn his cultural language; hopefully they could even speak it at home together.
They ate dinner in peace and put Keith down with a warm bottle and his new purple kitty that he would not let go of, before settling down on the couch together. "Wanna watch a movie?"
"Sure."
"Y'alright?" He gave her a puzzled look, tilting his head to the side and cocking a brow. She gave him a small nod and he poked her shoulder. "Hey now, you can tell me. Whassa matter?"
Letting out a long sigh she sat up, removing herself from the comfortable security of his arms. "I just – I worry. Eventually he is going to be old enough to go to one of your learning academies. He'll want to bring friends over. People will wonder why his mother doesn't participate in community events, why he talks about me like I'm here but no one ever sees me. He might let slip that I'm not Human, that HE's not Human and then what? I've been on primitive planets before Kolton. The natives don't usually take the news very well."
"We'll just make sure he knows he can't go shootin' his mouth off 'bout that stuff is all. No biggie."
"And what of me? Will you continue turning down dinner invites? Pretend I don't exist? Or will you announce to your species that I do? What's the plan for that?"
"Yer puttin' too much thought into this. We'll do what feels right."
"You're not putting in enough. We need to be ready for the worst-case scenario. Kolt, we must be prepared."
"What 'er you, some kinda space boy scout? Damn Krolia relax, it'll work out."
"How can you be so sure?" he let out a deep sigh, taking a moment to stare into her eyes.
"Of all the planets in this here system fer ya'll to crash land on, it was Earth. Nice, habitable Earth where the Blue Lion of Voltron just happens to be. You know? That very Blue Lion ya'll been searchin' fer!" She let out a huff and he continued. "Of all the front yards ya'll could crash into, it was mine. I coulda freaked out, coulda tried attackin' or just left ye in that pod of yers to blow up. But I didn't. I pulled yer hot purple butt outta there and dragged ya home to help. And when we got pregnant and were scared 'bout how he'd do in there -" He poked her stomach causing her to jolt with surprise. "- didn't it work out? Give er take some pukin' the pregnancy and birth and all that went just fine. And Keith's a damn fine baby, cute as the dickens too. Healthy as a horse, smart as a whip, and did I mention he's one cute lil' bugger? Cause he is." Kolt nudged her shoulder making her smile. "Destinies a funny think Babe, it'll work out the way it's meant to – I can feel it."
"Stars I hope you're right."