A New Beginning

[justapidge]

It was all still a lot to take in, even several days after the fact. The Castle of Lions was gone. Shiro--the real Shiro--was back. Lotor was gone. They were on their way back to Earth. So much had happened in such a short amount of time that all of the Paladins had been left scrambling to keep up in their own ways, scrambling to process everything and push through and everyone was coping in their own ways. It probably didn't help that they were all essentially traveling separately despite being able to communicate at all times and it was strange. Not bad. Just strange.

Which made every stop they made important. A chance for everyone to interact closely and reconnect; rebuild their bonds especially now that they were all truly back together again.

For Pidge, though, there was one person in particular that she hadn't approached directly and needed to. There was a lot that she needed to say, needed to address, but it was hard to put it all together. When the clone--when Kuron, as he'd come to call himself thanks to Shiro--had first snapped and escaped with Lotor, Pidge could have stopped him but she hadn't been able to take the shot. One look and she had frozen, finger on the trigger of her gun as she stared at the person she had come to see as an older brother; as some of the only family, the only connection to her family, she had left prior to finding Matt and her dad again. And then the castle had been attacked by the same virus protocol she had created and planted in his arm, just in case, and she had known right then and there just how far gone he was.

Lucky for all of them it turned out that it hadn't been the real Shiro at all and Kuron was being controlled by Haggar. Still a lot to process but..better than the alternatives.

They had landed on a rather lush planet to rest for a day or two before continuing their journey, three days since they had gotten Shiro back. Three days since Kuron had gotten a name and become apart of their ever growing family. Pidge was sitting on the ground by her lion's paw, back resting against the large metal appendage as she fiddled with her communicator to adjust the settings better. Her gaze flickered over towards the Black Lion then back to her communicator, the screw driver she was using slipping and earning a scowl from her.

She was too distracted for this.

With a sigh she tucked it away and climbed to her feet, leaving her helmet on the ground by the lion's paw as she made her way over towards the Black Lion. She'd seen Keith and Krolia go off with Hunk to see what sort of edible things they could find in the surrounding forest which meant Shiro and Kuron were probably the only ones still in the lion..unless Lance was bothering them. Worse case scenario she'd just have to awkwardly ask for some time alone right? Calibrations. That would be her excuse. Well, not really an excuse since she did intend to eventual try and make a new arm for Shiro and Kuron both but, well, it was a good conversation opener at least.

Comments

[headspacedad]

He was still recovering. Being dead, it turned out, took a lot out of you.

Being alive apparently did too.

Kuron and Keith both helped out where they could though and Black was a constant steady reassurance as well. And the rest of the team - the rest of the team helped simply by existing. Which wasn't to say that that was all they were doing. Each one of them made it a point to go out of their way to help him, to be around him, to simply ground him, half full of apologies most of them couldn't even quite figure out, eager to make everything up to him as if those months dead were somehow their fault. Lance was the worst, and most obvious, and it broke Shiro's heart a little to watch the younger man so desperate to make up what had never been his fault to begin with. But Hunk was always saving him the best parts of a meal, Allura was constantly coming over to discuss things that didn't need his input, Coran was full of stories and Pidge -

Pidge was avoiding him.

He was aware of it and he wasn't quite sure it was something he needed to interrupt. He'd picked up bits and pieces, everyone reluctant to tell him or Kuron just how bad things had been after Kuron's Haggar driven attack. So he knew that Pidge had saved the ship and that it had had something to do with a countermeasure for a virus in his Galra arm. But there was more to it than that, he could pick up that much at least and he had debated tracking her down himself to ask. Except - patience yields focus. And sometimes Pidge needed to come at problems from her own angle in her own time. He could give her at least a bit more before he did anything.

But he was still aware of her. More than she probably knew considering Black kept careful track of the other lions now and the other lions kept careful track of their paladins and Shiro was tied into that network so much more intimately and closer than he'd been before. Which was why he asked Kuron to take Lance off to look for fish and asked Lance to take Kuron off to look for fish when Black gave him a head's up from Green. If the others were still trying to figure out where Kuron fit into the team, Lance was more than willing to make room, feeling personally responsible for 'failing' the other man when he'd reached out for help, unaware of exactly how bad it was. Time together between the two of them might help heal Lance a bit - and give Kuron some sense of himself and finding his own place with the friendliest, easiest of the paladins.

The added bonus was it gave Shiro some alone time.

Alone time waiting for someone else.

He looked up from where he was sitting on Black's paw at her approach, shifting aside the tablet he was attempting to read left handed. Hoping she was going to talk to him in more than passing.

"Hey, Katie," he used the name deliberately, voice light so she wouldn't feel any expectations on his part.