Hey, Brother? {a Voltron fanfic}

Chapter 16

Kiera was well aware that she was asleep. But she had no idea how long. It was almost as if she had been actually knocked unconscious by an anesthetic or something.

She started to hear faint voices outside her healing pod.

"How long until she comes out?"

"Is she okay?"

"Wonder how her ribs are doing..."

"Not everyone reacts the same way."

"Remember how long Lance was in there?"

"I want a nickname already!"

That last comment was Lance. These were followed by more silence. Then the voices came again.

"No more flesh wounds, just a bunch of scars."

"Why is she still in there?"

"Does this thing even heal broken bones?"

"What if she is bleeding internally?"

"What do you think my nickname will be?"

More silence. Then, a voice closer to her, as if whoever it was had pressed their face against the pod.

"Kiera. Can you hear me? I know you can't really reply but..." the voice trailed off before saying "I haven't told the others about what you said. I feel like I want to know more before I tell them. And I want you to tell them with me."

Another moment of silence before the same voice whispered a single word "Sister." as if it were magical, revolutionary.

More silence. Kiera's consciousness was slowly coming back to her. None of her other senses were working but hearing.

A whole collection of voices entered her hearing range.

"Why is she still in there?"

"She should be healed already."

"What would happen if the ship lost power or was attacked?"

"Everything will be fine."

"I just want to know if she's okay."

"Kiera will be fine."

"Remember how she said she hadn't slept in a long time? She'll be better rested than ever."

"She would kick our collective asses if she heard us talking about her as if she were a damsel in distress."

A single thought floated through Kiera's mind Darn right I would.

The voices faded away and Kiera lapsed back into nothingness. Quiet, dark nothingness.

Then, at some point, Kiera felt her consciousness return and the healing pod opened. The light hit her eyes and she closed them.

Kiera took a tentative few steps out of the pod with her eyes closed. A stair was right in front of her and she stumbled to the floor. She just lay there, groggy and confused.

She felt tired but not her usual sleepless tired. More like a weight on her shoulders kind of tired. Her eyes flickered open and slowly got used to the bright light. She wiggled her finger and toes. Testing all of her joints to make sure she was still intact took her only a few minutes.

Kiera placed her hands under her shoulders and pushed herself into a seated position with her legs folded under her. The cream coloured suit was slightly sweaty but not damp, as if she had sweated a little and it had dried out.

Her ribs felt mostly healed. Sure they were a little sore, but definitely not broken. She began to wonder what time it was.

Standing slowly, Kiera scanned the room, looking for anything that would tell her what time of day it was. Then, she remembered she was in space and time literally had no meaning.

She sighed and sat down on the steps toward her healing pod. Her head felt heavier than usual so she placed it on one of her fists and propped her arm up on her leg.

The sound of a door sliding open jolted her head up. She turned to look and saw the person had frozen still.

Keith shook himself from his shock and ran up to her and engulfed her in a hug "Kiera."

"Hey Keith." She said, returning the hug. The hug felt warm and safe. For once, she didn't gag at the idea of this much physical contact.

Keith pulled away and looked her up and down "Are you okay? How are your ribs?"

"I'm good. My ribs are just a little sore now." She sighed "How long was I in there?"

"About a week." Keith said "Much longer than most cases. Must be because of your ribs."

Kiera nodded and stood up "I really need to get out of this skin tight jumpsuit. Do you think Allura has some of her old clothes lying around because there is no way I'm tall enough to fit into her current clothes."

Keith snorted "You could ask."

"Fine." She said "Lets go." They started to walk out of the room before Kiera remembered something Keith had said when she was in the pod.

She stopped walking "Keith?"

"Yeah?" He said.

"Did you come to see me when I was in the pod?" She asked.

He frowned "Yeah, why?"

"I heard you." She said "I could hear what you said. About not telling the others because you wanted an explanation and all that." For once her tone was deadly serious "I understand if you don't want to tell anyone but you deserve an explanation at least."

She took a breath and said "When I was little and still with my adoptive guardians, they told me the story that was explained on this little sheet of paper that was swaddled up with me when I was a baby. They'd found me floating in a river, crying. They picked me up out of the river and brought me inside. They unswaddled me and found the paper. It had the name Kiera on it. And it had the story of how a baby had come to be floating in a river."

"My father was human and my mother was Galra. The paper explained that I had a twin brother who was a little more Galra than me. He didn't have my mismatched, crazy hair." She continued "My brothers name was Keith."

A pause fell between the two. Not awkward at all but it was filled with questions.

Keith grabbed Kiera's arm and said "Thank you for telling me. I wouldn't mind telling the others if you don't mind it."

Kiera laughed "I don't mind at all. By the way, this is going to sound like a weird question, what is our last name?"

"Kogane." Keith said "The Kogane Twins. I like the sound of that."

"The Kogane Twins that will fight you and win sounds better." Kiera said "But that's just my opinion."

Keith grinned at her and the Kogane Twins that will fight you and win walked out of the healing pod room, side by side.