Collecting the shards

Crimson

Knowledge is a blessing and a curse.

The thing about Akira's very tense relationship with Di Angelo is that it was deeply woven with his uncertain relationship with Koráki, but with the discovery of his roots came the inevitable ordeal of facing that particular clusterfuck. But even if he refused to admit them, Akira knew where his feelings stood when it came to Koráki; or he had thought he did.

The blade trials had put the seed of doubt in Akira's head, not because of Koráki's presence, but because of what his role had been, to guide Akira forwards. And while that wasn't anything new, now Akira saw it a little different.

There was also the matter of his newfound interest, and how different it was from what he had felt for Koráki, and how different it was from how every other blade felt. Because yes, Akira did think his attraction to Leandro was related to his Galran genetics, but the more he considered it, the more he knew it wasn't so.

Granted, the more physical part of it did probably have to do with Lady Venus' influence, but everything else he felt for his right hand, and probably his best friend, was entirely on Akira. Which brings him back to the matter at hand.

In the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter what kind of relationship he had with Koráki, because it did nothing to change the way he felt towards Di Angelo, just the reason for those feelings. Akira had been jealous, just like he was now.

Leandro, who apparently wasn't as good dealing with flirting as he was at doing it himself, has slowly but surely slipped into the role of distraction and coercer, while also slipping into the role of Akira's right hand. The blades' eagerness to help him train was amusing at first, but got old pretty quickly, nowadays it got on their nerves.

Like, sure, Akira was jealous, but they all had a soft spot for Leandro, and he caught practically everyone in the team finding ways to get Lance out of training with the younger blades, never when Lethri was the one calling him, since she was old enough to be Shiro's mother, and mated. And wasn't that just another problem for the pile, the whole mating system Galras fell under, the fact that Akira would too eventually; he was not looking forward to experiencing puberty, since apparently the reason his 'human' one was so mild was that it wasn't really puberty.

Akira wished, not for the first time since getting stuck in space, that he could contact Koráki somehow; but his many attempts at making rainbows and throwing coins had all been failures. It sucked, because Akira really could use his input on stuff, particularly when he was the only person who'd know about Akira being part alien.

Maybe he'd even talk about Leandro with him, after all Koráki and Di Angelo had what seemed like an unbreakable bond, one of mutual respect and clear devotion. Akira had seen it the sparse few times Di Angelo appeared on the Iris message with Koráki; which just fed into the whole 'not actually love' thing, because that hadn't hurt.

Not the way it did when Akira saw Leandro make a joke that the princess actually laughed at, knowing that he'd been orbiting around her from day one, and that if she were to actually give it a chance there was no way she wouldn't fall for him. After all Leandro was...

He was...

The team's stability.

Their connection.

Their heart.

Selfless, and charming, and sharp, and caring, and cunning, and...

And.

How had it taken this long for Akira to realize this?

Deities above and below.

He was so very, very screwed.

It takes a return.

It takes a departure.

It takes a meeting.

Allura has a very thin grasp of the importance of all three of these matters, until it's too late to do anything about it. She takes them one by one.

Shiro returns.

Shiro returns and the team struggles to get back to pace, struggles with the extra set of hands, struggles with a leader that's been heavily affected by this war, and a second command that can't get to him. Lance stays in the red lion, as Keith takes to helping the blades in an attempt to broaden their reach as much as possible; he keeps them up to date, until the day he doesn't.

Keith leaves.

Keith leaves for a crucial mission, and they lose all contact with him, and the blades do try everything, as do the rebel forces. Lance pulls away from them, a shadow of the paladin he'd been, putting full focus on the mission; and the team suffers for it.

Not immediately, and not noticeably, or at least not until matter three.

They meet Lotor.

They meet Lotor, son of Zarkon, and this sends them spiraling onto a series of revelations that shake their sediment, and this is where Lance's distance becomes noticeable. Animosity rises amongst the paladins the longer Lotor remains their prisoner, but no one can deny his usefulness, or his compliance.

Eventually, they let him roam the castle, with constant vigilance, which seemed to calm things a little, everyone except Lance. Shiro and him are constantly at each other's throats about Lotor, sometimes literally, with bayards activated and someone having to intervene.

Lance is openly and loudly against Lotor being in the castle, against them giving him even the slightest bit of trust. And Shiro seems to want Lotor as part of the team, the sooner the better.

The problem being, neither of them have good enough reasons for their stances, and those stances are so opposed to how they generally act that everyone is thrown off course. They think they find out Lance's reason, if nothing else, when Lotor tries to make a move on him and ends up punched in the face.

But they're wrong.

They should've listened to him.

They didn't.