A Matter of Family

Chapter Five: Memories of the Past

*note to readers* Alright, chapter five! Little heads up, I'm gonna be away from home for a few days and might not be able to pose anything for that time period, but this story hasn't exactly gotten a lot of views so I don't think anyone will be begging for more a whole lot. I can understand that though since its completely not what happened in the show, but I'm gonna post it to get it out there and see what happens. It was my first Voltron fanfic, and is a bitter sweet kind of thing for me (my inner critic going nuts whenever I reread this thing: knowing how it really happened in the show and all). Anyways, here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy!

__________

Keith stumbled out of the small, wrecked cargo ship Mordon had freely given him. He groaned, rubbing the back of his neck, which he had strained just a little during the crash down to Forelongs.

"Well, when Mordon said that the cargo ship was on its last minutes, he wasn't exaggerating." He uttered to himself, recalling what the older alien had told him.

He had thought Mordon was, as he had said, exaggerating just a little when he had told Keith the cargo ship wasn't even worth a cent because of it's bad shape and didn't have long before becoming unfixable (he'd been trying to get rid of it anyway and was happy to give it away to Keith despite its condition). Just as Keith had been descending into Forelongs' atmosphere, the ship had completely went nuts and malfunction after malfunction went back to back. It was a wonder that Keith was still alive and barely harmed. Barely, because he had received a minor blow to the head during the crash (though it still hurt pretty bad because of the previous injury he had gotten and was still healing from), and he had strained his neck a little with that.

Keith should have known that something like that would have happened, and to be honest he had known, but he rushed right in anyway, not really thinking it over much. He sighed. His own headstrong and reckless nature could someday be the end of him, as he had once in a while been told at the Garrisons, but going against your own nature is difficult to do. Keith had never been good at going against his nature or his instincts, because both were the essential tools he had ever had to survive on his own, both in his childhood and after his father and Shiro disappeared. Without those things, Keith would have never made it.

He had learned to not trust anyone. He had pushed the people close to him away because he was afraid of them pushing him away. With Voltron though, his whole life had changed. Everyone, Shiro, Allura, Pidge, Hunk and even Lance and Coran; they had all become his family. In his natural habit though, he pulled away from them, and went to the Blades. Keith looked down at the leg braces Pidge had made. For some reason, they brought him some kind of comfort, even though they were just leg braces. They reminded him of his family, his team family that is. He had yet to find his real family, but he was determined to do so by the end of this journey.

Keith's leg braces were still functional, and they fulfilled their job well, even after what they had been through. Still as silent in their working as they were before all this happened, they enabled Keith to walk and jog. Thankfully, with all this activity, Keith's legs were getting slightly stronger with every step, and he was amazed at how fast it was happening.

Keith looked around at the planet's surface. While there was no grass, the ground was covered with loose, dark soil. Trees sprouted from its crust and their branches were high up on the trunks. The sun's light peeked through their leaves, and Keith breathed in deeply. The forest had the smell of any forest, wood being the biggest scent. It felt a little like Earth. Almost like some kind of home. Keith found it comforting to be out of the city and in the woods. He walked around a little to explore. With no ship to get him back home, he would have to see if this planet had any kind of civilization. Luckily he had spent much time on his own in the wilder places on Earth, so all this wasn't new.