Court of Feathers

Nineteen

Word Count: 2,827

"What?"

Her voice had dropped to a whisper the second the guard had uttered those words, and Shiro was surprised to find dread curling and twisting in the pit of his stomach. Even though he knew that he didn't know the king, not as nearly as much as his own daughter would, Shiro couldn't help but feel that this sudden news was incredibly bad.

"I'm sorry, princess." The guard's fingers were still clenching and unclenching uncontrollably, and at this point, for a moment it reminded Shiro of something Keith would do when he was nervous or upset, but that thought was quickly diminished when, Shiro could clearly see the man quivering with every breath he took, the unmistakable look of fear shining in his eyes.

"N-no," Allura whispered, she teetered on her heels for a moment and Shiro almost braced himself to move in case she collapsed, she looked as if she was going to hit the ground at any minute, but at the same time, she looked like she just might explode, in anger or an even worse rage, but of which one Shiro wasn't sure yet.

Her crystal blue eyes were blown wide with fear and shock, her entire demeanor had shifted and he wasn't entirely sure how to handle it without the fear of her either shattering under his fingertips or blowing up in his face.

"I-I must go," she said suddenly, balling her fists, Shiro barely caught the box she thrust in his direction before it hit the ground. By the time he straightened up to catch another glimpse of the avian princess, she was already gone, a smudge of white in the night sky headed for the castle, and Shiro had a fleeting thought for a moment of wondering whether or not she was going to be alright.

It was quickly dismissed. Of course, she, herself was going to be fine, but Shiro had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that things at the castle just took a terrible turn for the worse. It sounded to him that killing the king was completely unheard of until now. Did any other kings die before Alfor? He decided he'd tuck that question away to ask someone later, Shiro was mind rambling, and he needed to focus on what had just happened.

The king was dead. The king was dead? How? Weren't they safe from the Galra here? Wasn't there nothing to worry about here?

No, he came to a conclusion as his thoughts reminded him, they were, in fact, not, not here, Lance had said that their attacks on Altea had paused, but he never said that the Galra had been defeated.

He looked forward, gaze locking with the castle gates that loomed ahead in front of him not too far away, and began walking his way back, letting his mind wander in the process, after all, there wasn't really anything much he could do, and he felt out of place when he began thinking about what he could possibly do in the days to come.

The prince and princess just lost their father, after all, Shiro didn't think they would be up for anything in the following days, and Shiro didn't want to come off as a burden to them, maybe he could ask Hunk for something to do in the kitchen that would keep him out of the way of the royal siblings, right?

Do you really think you should do that? His mind immediately whispered and that was a pretty good point, Shiro was a wreck when it came to cooking. Any meal he and Keith had usually came from restaurants nearby that would deliver. Very rarely would Shiro step foot in a kitchen, and on those rare occasions he was feeling brave, it always seemed to end up in a disaster that Keith stepping in and cleaning up the disaster zone while Shiro sat in the living room, questioning his life choices.

Yeah, so no for asking Hunk to help in the kitchen.

His thoughts then went back to Allura, and his heart clenched again, remembering how scared she seemed to look the moment that guard flew down to tell her the news.