Half But Never Whole

Chapter 2 - Half A Rivalry

"You fight like a Galra!" Zarkon sneered at him but instead of attacking, he held out his hand and continued "Come back to where you belong."

"I knew we couldn't trust him." Allura hissed, pointing her sword at Keith.

Keith woke up with a jolt, covered in cold sweats and breathing heavily. One of the same few nightmares were in the rotation tonight. was it just a nightmare though? His trip to the Marmora base proved this to be his reality.

He sat up on his bed to properly wipe his face on the end of his shirt. He usually slept in his clothes so that he was prepared to jump out of bed in case of an attack. Tonight, however, he chose to change into a t-shirt and boxers in an attempt to get some sleep after several nights of failed attempts. But he never could get back to sleep after waking up, especially after a nightmare.

Keith pressed his bare feet on the ground, feeling the low hum of the castle ship. It had a soothing rhythm. Sometimes he wondered if the castle ship, too, was a sentient being like the Lions.

Deciding that a little space milk would help soothe him to sleep, he made his way to the kitchen, still barefoot.

"Can't sleep?"

Keith jumped grabbing the nearest tool to defend himself (He forgot his knife under the pillow.) but it was just Hunk sitting in the corner by the space toaster. He was wearing the yellow paladin pajamas and had a tired look on his face.

"Chill dude, It's just me," Hunk said holding up his hands.

"Oh, sorry Hunk. Didn't see you there." Keith said, dropping the spatula back on the counter. "What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep either. Figured some toasted goo with Kaltenecker's milk would help." He replied casually waving towards the space toaster on the counter. "Want some?"

"Erm, lactose intolerant." Keith said pointing at himself nervously. He hadn't spoken to any of the other paladins since his Galra revelation so he wasn't sure what they thought about it yet. Kolivan had a new mission for them. Hunk and Keith were paired together with the Yellow Lion, to collect something called Scaultrite from a creature called Weblum's belly, while Shiro, Lance, and Pidge would take Blue and break out an important prisoner. Of course, Allura didn't trust him on the more important mission.

"The toasted goo should be alright," Hunk said carefully pulling out a hot toasted piece of goo and handing it to Keith on a plate.

Keith hesitantly accepted it with a soft 'thanks' unsure what to say next. Thankfully Hunk looked relaxed and carried on the conversation.

"Honestly I think we should eat well before we head out in the morning. Something tells me we won't have much of an appetite after tomorrow's mission." Keith simply shrugged before nibbling on his toast.

"Why does Allura get to take a leisurely visit to the Balmera while we have to fly into the belly of a giant space worm to get scaultrite?" Hunk grumbled.

"You heard Coran. Building a huge teludav isn't easy. Everyone has a job to do and this is ours." Keith knew Hunk was thinking about Shay but he didn't know how to comfort him.

"But I always get the worst jobs. Go to a Galra-occupied planet to get my lion. Go to a Galra-occupied Balmera to get a crystal. Go into a belly of a beast with the only Galra alien team member." Hunk counted them off his fingers.

"I'm not an alien," Keith said automatically, slightly stung that he was on this list.

"Well, you're kind of an alien. You're way more alien than me. You're at least some alien. I'm-I'm none alien." Hunk said casually, not noticing the look on Keith's face as he reloaded the toaster.