shining like the stars

20

There was nothing physically wrong with either of them, Coran had declared, although neither Shiro nor Lance had stirred since being expelled from the memory core. That was worrying enough on its own, but Allura had decided the best course of action would be a night's stay in the medical bay. Keith had originally decided to stay put and observe, but Hunk had picked him up under one arm and said they all needed to eat and rest, and that they could trust in the Altean technology to do its job in the interim.

He wasn't really hungry, but Keith ate because Hunk was watching him. They were all tired, and worried, and there were so many unanswered questions that would bubble up but no one really felt much like talking. Keith sat on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees and stared at his dangling hands. Unable to sleep, really, he put his boots on and slipped out of the pilot's quarters, heading back toward the medical bay.

The doors to the training room were open, and Keith hesitated there. The Galra memory core was still sitting where they had deposited it, garish purple standing out against the clean white of the Altean ship's design. To his surprise, Allura was standing in front of it, her hair unbound and her hands on the column. "Princess," Keith said, automatically, and Allura straightened and dropped her hands as Keith stepped into the room.

"Keith," Allura said, half turning and folding her hands in front of her automatically. "What are you doing up? You should be resting, like the others."

Can't sleep, Keith thought but the words never actually left his mouth. He stared past Allura at the obelisk, felt a sick feeling in the pit of him stomach, something solid and black that didn't have form. "What are you doing?" he asked, and Allura closed her eyes and glanced to the side.

"It's foolish," she admitted. "I was trying to see how to make the core activate. I was able to withdraw Shiro and Lance, and I'm unsure how I knew the proper way to do so."

"You didn't know how?" Keith said, surprised.

"No." She turned back around to look at the obelisk, and Keith stopped a few steps away. "It's like ... it told me what I needed to do, what I had to say. Almost like it is sentient, in and of itself." She touched the pillar again with no hesitation, but the writing scrawled along it did not light up. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and Keith thought he saw a flicker of white along the base of the column. He caught Allura's elbow and tugged her arm gently, and she opened her eyes in surprise as her hand came away from the column.

"It's been a long few days," Keith said. "The memory core isn't going anywhere, Princess. Hunk and Pidge were going to get started on it in the morning, anyway. You should go back to bed."

Allura frowned at him, and Keith released her arm as if suddenly realizing what he was doing. Then she sighed and turned away from the column. "You're right," she said after a moment. However, she didn't move, staring away toward the far wall, before glancing back to Keith. "I meant to ask," she said suddenly, awkwardly, and Keith could feel the tonal shift of her voice. "How is your... heat?"

Keith liked to think he didn't blush too easily, the last week of his life aside, but he was making turning pink into an art form. He forced himself not to look away, even if he couldn't stop the blood from rushing to his cheeks and ears. "I think it's over," he said. "I don't really know how to explain a lot of it, but I need to talk to..." Lance's name stuck in his throat, like he couldn't get it out and he let the sentence lay, incomplete. "I won't let it interfere with out missions again."

Allura's mouth twitched up into a smile, and if anything that made Keith blush more. "I am certain you won't," she said kindly. "But please don't feel that you need to hide any part of yourself from us, Keith. Now, or in the future."