Finding Hope ~ [Voltron WA 2018]

Chapter 23: Long Live Zarkon

"Open and close your fists for me," Coran told her. It had been a little over a week since the night of her terrors, and she was thankful to Shiro who suggested keeping it secret from the rest. Not that she didn't love the other she just knew them all too well, she knew Allura would not want her to be left alone in fear of it happening again. It reminded her of something her mom would do, then Lance would question her about what had happened pushing her until she snapped at him, which she hated it when that happened. Then there was Hunk, who would bring her meals and want to help her with her work and so forth, she loved Hunk working with her, not for her. 

It's been two and a half weeks since she and Matt returned to the castle and everyone was anxious to get back in the fight against the Galra and their new leader. They suspected it was Lotor, but they couldn't be sure. And no one was more anxious then she was. She was able to do her simple training which seemed more like physical therapy than training to her, but she was pleased when Shiro would tell her that they were going to do a team-building exercise. Which she usually didn't like but wanted to train with her team as much as possible, so she never complained. 

She obeyed Coran request and squeezed her hands shut then would reopen them. "Any pain?" he quizzed her. "No.," she said in ah. "Back on earth, a break like that would take weeks to heal!" Hunk cooed. She nodded in agreement "Well it looks all good. you should be able to land a solid punch in a couple of Quintans" Coran stated with excitement "Speaking of punches" Lance started "Where did you learn to punch like that?" Which earned him a glare from Shiro. She turned a slight red and hoped no one noticed "The old witch had it coming" she said voice shaking a little, she hoped no one noticed that either. She jumped down of the counter and began to walk away "Keith" she said simply "Keith taught me" they all fell quiet.

___________________________

As Pidge exited, Shiro turned on Lance. "Lance, we talked about this," he said "I know, I know it just slipped" he replied "Try not to do it again please," Shiro told him as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know it's hard not knowing fully what went on, but we must respect her timing." Lance nodded and left the room without another word. 

"I'm going to go make milkshakes" Hunk started tapping his fingers together. 

And with that, he left. "You must not blame yourself for something you can't control," Allura told Shiro. "I know, It's just hard we need Voltron more than ever, but I don't want to push her either." Allura put a comforting hand on his shoulder and without saying anything more also turned and left leaving Shiro alone with his thoughts.

_______________________

Pidge found Matt in the lounge where she sat down beside him. "You got your casts off! That's great." She smiled slightly at his excitement. "yeah it feels great" before either good say another word Hunk entered holding two milkshakes. 

"I made celebratory milkshakes for you two" He chimed "Just a little gift from me and Kaltenecher, No big deal." He passed the Holt siblings each a milkshake, then continued "Fun fact about Alteans they don't get brain freeze. Coran and Allura just totally hoovered up their shakes in one slurp! I've never seen anything like it before"  he chuckled as he sat between them. They sat in silence for a good long second before Hunk asked: "So, like, what have you been doing since you got busted out of Galra prison?" He froze for a sec then added rather sheepishly "The first time?" Matt chuckled lightly before he responded, "I've been stationed at a listening outpost, monitoring Galra radio chatter." 

Hunk squeaked "Are you serious? Then you should totally check out the Galra finder Pidge built. We used it to track down a Galra fleet and save a planet." 

Pidge chimed in forgetting all of her worries "Hunk made the locator that led us to the first Voltron Lion, and we just built an upgraded version of it to track Lotor."