Hey, Brother? {a Voltron fanfic}

Chapter 10

The Paladins froze, weapons still raised.

Pidge looked at Kiera with sadness in her eyes and said "Kiera, why?"

"You think I actually wanted to stay and help you?" Kiera laughed evilly "Once I saw this ship and the lions, I wanted them for my own."

Shiro raised a fist and said "We gave you a safe place to stay and food. I even gave you support after your nightmares! This is how you repay us?!?"

"Why, of course." Kiera said "What else would you expect? I'm a thief. I'm a bounty hunter." She knew this was a prank but the words still kind of hurt.

"You're a monster is what you are." Keith snarled.

"Oh, Keith." She said, honeying her voice with fake sympathy "Never could beat me in a fight could you?"

He yelled and ran at her. She held one knife against Allura's throat and stuck the other one out and pointed it at Keith's chest "Just a warning, I'm a very good knife thrower. I can simultaneously slit your princess's throat and throw this knife into you chest, killing you both almost instantaneously and still be ready to fight." He stopped running and glowered at her.

Allura pretended to struggle. "Don't give her the ship! She's evil!" She shrieked.

Kiera pressed both knives to her throat again and said "Now, princess, I'm not evil." She took one knife from her throat and pretended to drag it down her back. Allura screamed as if it was actually happening.

"I can't believe I gave you food!" Hunk yelled.

"I can't believe I thought she was pretty!" Lance held up his blaster.

Everyone froze, prepared for a fight.

Then, below Kiera, she felt Allura start to shake. At first, Kiera thought she was having a fit. Then she realized that she was laughing. Kiera's fake evil attitude broke and she burst out laughing. She and Allura collapsed to the ground, laughing so hard their stomachs hurt.

Shiro's eyes widened "Wh-what?"

The other Paladins seemed just as confused.

"Oh my gosh!" Kiera spoke between laughs "Did you guys really think I would take over the ship?" Allura was lying on her back, clutching her stomach.

"You were in on this?!?" Lance demanded.

"Of course I was!" Allura said. Kiera offered her a hand to stand up "Kiera taught me what a prank is. And I must say that it was so much more fun then you described it to be!"

Kiera crossed her arms and grinned "Of course it was! It was a prank by me." Allura and Kiera were still giggling as the Paladins weapons flickered back into their handle-like things. Well, except for Shiro's. He didn't have a handle thing. His hand was his weapon.

"That worked so much better than I thought." Kiera said and wiped tears from her eyes "I thoroughly enjoyed that."

"As did I." Said Allura. She stuck her hand out to Kiera "Good pranking with you."

"Good pranking with you, Your Highness." Kiera said and shook her hand "Oh, and that was another clue. I called Allura princess instead of Your Highness. That should've been a dead giveaway that it wasn't really me."

Lance rolled his eyes "I can appreciate a prank. But that was pretty awful."

"Are you kidding?" Kiera asked "You guys totally fell for it!"

"Whatever." Keith said "Are you helping us find the metal shipment or not?"

"Maybe if you used your eyes, Keith, you would see that the planetary map is showing a single planet over there." Kiera pointed "That's where the shipment is."

"Great!" Shiro said "Let's go."

"We will have to wormhole near there so you can get on your lions and follow it." Allura said "Kiera is going with you by the way."

"I'm not sure I can trust her after that prank." Shiro said "This could be a trap."

Kiera rolled her eyes and quietly said "I shared my nightmares with you, Shiro. You of all people would understand that I could never work with the Galra."

Shiro shifted on his feet uneasily "I'd feel more comfortable with you being on the ship."

"Then I'd just sneak after you guys." Kiera shrugged "Your choice. Take me with you or have me sneak after you."

Lance interrupted "Fine, you can come. But no funny business."

"You're one to talk about funny business." Keith gave Lance a look. Lance rolled his eyes.

"If there are no further objections, everyone get to your lions." Allura said.

"Kiera can ride with me." Pidge offered.

Kiera nodded "Thanks Pigeon. Let's go. Wormhole it up, Your Highness."

"Speaking of Your Highness, you seem to be giving everybody nicknames." Lance said "What's mine?"

Hunk said "Nicknames? I want one!"

Kiera blinked at them then said "You earn your nickname. Kind of like a medal if you're in the army. I get to know you and then I pick a nickname that fits your personality and attributes."

"So why is Pidge Pigeon?" Lance asked.

Kiera shrugged with a smirk "It worked in the moment. Then it just kind of stuck."

"Does anyone else have a nickname?" Lance asked, looking around "Like Keith? You've spent a lot of time yelling at him."

"No, Keith doesn't have a nickname yet." She snorted "Shiro does though."

"Really?" Lance demanded "How?"

"You know how I screamed this morning?" Kiera said "Well, he came to check on me, make sure I was okay. I told him about my nightmare and my past experiences that triggered the nightmare, earning him the nickname Space Dad."

"And, to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the nickname." Shiro said, quickly hiding a smile.

"Oh, come on." Kiera said "You can't possibly hate it."

Shiro smirked at her "Of course I can."

Kiera snorted "Yeah, sure, Space Dad." She heard Shiro grumble something and grinned, victorious.

"Do we really have time for nicknames?" Keith said "We really need to focus on the mission at hand."

Kiera looked him dead in the eye and said with mock seriousness "There is always time for nicknames." Pidge laughed.

"So, Kiera." Hunk piped up "You seem to get around a lot, what's the best intergalactic restaurant you've been to?" His eyes shone a little. The guy was pretty passionate about food.

Kiera grinned "Well there was this really good one a few years ago. It had the best- aaannghaoof!" This last bit was courtesy of the ship jumping into a wormhole and of course Kiera had forgotten to hold onto something so she was flung across the room.