"So what, you're together now?" Lance questioned, raising his eyebrows as he waited for an answer. Keith turned his head and refused to make eye contact whilst James blushed so much that he could have been mistaken for a tomato.

"I guess..." Keith eventually ended up mumbling. He seemed more absorbed in a loose thread in his trousers than in the conversation topic. Lance's eyes dropped to where Keith's hand was lingering besides James's, too nervous to actually touch him but clearly wanting to do so.

"Oh my God," Pidge jumped up with enough power to shake the room. She stormed towards James and poked him in the middle of his chest so he stumbled backwards from the force. James looked petrified as he shakily raised his hands in defence. "You better not lay a hand on him or I will find you. I know how to get away with murder, by the way."

(Little did James know, his boyfriend knew how to get away with it too.) (This is by far the best line in the entire book.)

The colour drained from James's face and, upon noticing, Keith finally reached out and connected their hands. The subject of hurting people and abuse was still touchy for James, even though his father and long since gone. It wasn't quite as bad as Shiro's PTSD but that didn't make it any less valid and Keith wanted James to feel comfortable around his friends; not threatened. "He won't hurt me. Leave him alone, Pidge."

"Good." Pidge broke out into a grin that made the entire room question how her mood was able to change so quickly. "Now, Hunk and I have some business to attend to." With that, she grabbed Hunk's arm and tugged him out of the room so they could continue working on the technology with the Garrison's top scientists. Unsurprisingly, it was a high-demand job that took up most of their time.

Shiro let out a satisfied sigh, smiling at Keith and James who still seemed rather bashful about their relationship. He raised his human hand to pat Keith on the shoulder in a way that was full of pride before mumbling, "I'm glad you two get on so well. You suit each other."

"Thanks..." James and Keith murmured in unison. They were hanging their heads so both had a tuft of fringe hanging over their eyes, still embarrassed. If Lance was happier for them, he would have laughed and called them a pair of emos: that was exactly what they were.

"I need to go too. I promised Adam I'd take him out on enough dates to make up for my disappearance. I have a lot of dinners to make." With a little wave and a grin, Shiro walked out. That left Lance alone with the new couple.

"Congrats..." Lance muttered, though he refused to meet either of their gazes. At some point, his hands had snaked into the pockets of his jeans and his shoulders had slumped in a way that made it appear like he took the news negatively. Still, he forced a smile.

"Are you alright?" Keith could see right through his friend as if he was a transparent pane of glass. "You seem upset." Keith was the one to state the obvious: he had never been one to beat around the bush. Lance shook his head before making something up about needing to be somewhere and fleeing the conversation. James's eyes didn't leave the paladin until he was out of the door and out of sight. He couldn't help but feel like Lance was bothered but he could only hope it wasn't for the reason he thought it was.

-

"Did you hear?" Robin questioned, leaning back in her chair so she could make eye contact with Bentley. Since starting the case, the bags beneath Bentley's eyes had thickened in size and nearly everyone on the precinct had noticed. Despite constantly teasing the youngest of them, they did sympathise with him since they knew he had a young baby at home and was short on money. They saw him as the little kid in the precinct; someone they had to look after.

"Hear what?" Bentley mumbled, not bothering to look up from his notebook. He had spent all day up to that point rereading every single note he had made since the case had started. After McClain's mother had lost it and started to claim that she had seen the lion, he felt like he had hit a deadend. It felt like he was going on holiday but just found out that the main road he needed to use was closed off for roadworks. He had hoped reading the notes back would kickstart some motivation but he couldn't find anything that would help.

"Those kids have been found."

Bentley froze, mouth dropping open. His hands went stiff around the paper he was reading and it took mere seconds for them to begin clamming up. "What kids?" There was no way: it was his case so surely he would be the first person to know.

"The ones you're investigating, you dumbass. They came back from space this morning. I thought someone would've told you."

Bentley buried his head into his hands and let out a prolonged sigh. He couldn't help but notice just how greasy his skin was and, that morning, he could have sworn he had found a grey hair on his head. "That must have been what Sandra was trying to tell me. She said it was important but I refused to talk to her because I wanted to check all my notes."

"Probably. I think you better interview them, especially since all that lion bullshit McClain kept going on about has turned out to be true."

"You're joking, right?"

"Nope."

As Bentley ran a hand through his hair- that was probably growing greyer by the minute- he shook his head repeatedly. "I can't believe this... Was Kogane with them?"

"Apparently." Robin shrugged, turning back to her computer to type something. Bentley didn't understand how she could be so nonchalant about it when he was tearing himself apart from the inside. He was sure the case would make it into the history books with how bizarre and unbelievable it was. Maybe if he solved it, he would go down in history too... but was there even a case to still solve anymore?

-

Keith had only just been on Earth a day when someone knocked on the door of the dorm he was temporarily staying in. He stood up and pulled it open, expecting it to be James or Shiro; maybe even Hunk or Pidge if they needed something. Instead, he stood face-to-face with a police officer.

"My name is Officer Bentley. Are you Keith Kogane?" Officer Bentley asked, raising his eyebrows as he let himself into the room. Keith kept his jaw tense as he nodded.

"Can I help you?"

The officer let out a sigh before it was his turn to nod and force a smile. "Why yes, you can. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."

"Oh... okay." Keith could feel the colour draining from his face by the minute but he continued to maintain his confident demeanour.

"Thank you," Officer Bentley took a seat on Keith's desk chair whilst Keith plopped back down onto his bed. They were opposite each other and one of the first things the police officer noticed was how much Keith's hands were shaking. A confident tone was one thing but body language was often what gave the truth away. If they were going just by looks, it certainly appeared that Keith had something to hide. "Do you know a man named Henry Griffin?" The officer started to jot something down in his notebook when Keith nodded stiffly. The paladin looked petrified all of a sudden which was interesting; if not very suspicious.

"Who doesn't?"

"Then you must know he went missing three years ago and the case is unsolved. We have reasons to believe you may be involved."

"What, why?" That was the cue for Keith's words to begin shaking as much as his body. The police officer leaned forward to drink in the terror behind Keith's eyes, wondering if it could have been guilt. The fear was like a drug to the officer. It made him feel high and jittery, in conjunction with helping him forget all of the reasons he believed the case was a deadend.

"We found a knife outside of the shack you once lived in. It still had Griffin's blood on it," Keith didn't say anything but dropped his head to look at his lap. He didn't appear to be denying anything. "Am I right in saying that you and his son, James Griffin, didn't get along well during your first year at the Garrison?"

"Yeah but we were stupid kids," Keith's voice cracked so he swallowed thickly in an attempt to suppress the emotion trying to make an appearance. "We made up and became friends actually."

"Oh that is interesting. How did you go from mortal enemies to best friends?"

"He- We just did..."

Officer Bentley shifted in his seat before pulling something out of his backpack. It was a black notebook that, though it was generic enough to belong to anyone, made Keith feel nauseated all of a sudden. He flicked the book open. "We also found this," He turned it around to show Keith all of the different drawings. "Do you recognise these?" Of course Keith did. He could remember all those times he had hidden himself in the corner of the lunch hall just so he could get a glimpse of the boy he had been crushing on much harder than he would ever like to admit. He remembered how the pencil had felt in his hand as it glided across the page, forming the beautiful complexion that belonged to Lance. James had endlessly teased him about it but he didn't care. He was a teenager in love.

"Yes... I drew them."

"Did you stalk Lance McClain prior to your expedition into space?"

Keith seemed shocked at the question. His face scrunched up like a small kitten on the verge of sneezing. "No? I just..." Keith's entire face blossomed into the colour of a tomato. He buried his head into his hands and let out a shaky sigh. "I had a massive crush on him, okay? That's why I drew him. Because I was too scared to actually talk to him but I really liked him."

"Oh," Bentley shut the notebook again, so harshly that the sound seemed to echo around the enclosed room. Disappointment flooded through his facial expression quicker than a storm could ever flood a lake. He hadn't really considered that they were teenagers and Keith might have just liked drawing the boy; not in a way that involved any kind of malice or obsession. "Did you plant the knife?" That seemed like the only piece of valid evidence left but it wasn't enough to arrest Keith- not unless he came forward about what he had done.

Keith opened his mouth to respond but the sound of a knock on his door prevented any words from escaping. "Sorry..." He ended up mumbling before standing up to open the door. James was standing behind it, drowning in one of his oversized hoodie which had the Garrison logo spread across the front. He was smiling but it vanished as soon as his eyes laid upon the policeman.

"Am I interrupting something?" James asked, furrowing his eyebrows and diverting his gaze between his boyfriend and the police officer.

"No, no, we can continue this another time. It was nice meeting you, Keith." The police officer pulled himself up and held out his hand for Keith to shake. After he reluctantly did so, the policeman nodded and left the pair alone.

"What was that about then?"

Keith glanced down at his sock-clad feet. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

"The police were talking to you. It can't have been nothing."

"They just wanted a report about Voltron, that's all." The lie was heavy inside Keith's chest and it hurt but he couldn't tell James the truth. Regardless of whether it felt like someone had forced him to carry a large anvil, James couldn't find out. Not yet.