As his opponent's sword came at him, Shiro felt a smile cross his face.

Finally. A chance to show these bastards what he could do.

He dodged the blow easily and struck out with his own weapon, the one he'd chosen specifically for this fight. It was modeled after the weapons the training bot used, but Shiro always thought of the weapon as a bo staff.

His opponent took the hit, staggered, and kept coming. Shiro whirled the staff around and swept its legs out from under it. As it struggled to regain its feet, he dealt it a resounding blow to the chest with the end of the staff.

The light in the center of its chest flickered and died, signaling a fatal hit, and the Proselyt training bot shimmered out of existence.

Shiro wasn't even breathing hard. He turned to face the room again.

"Come on, then," he snarled. "Let's finish this."

Three more enemies approached him, weapons raised, and Shiro leapt forward with a roar.

Earlier that day, Keith had told Shiro that bed-rest would be the death of him. Shiro had only just managed to smile and told him they'd get back to the Castle as soon as possible.

"Yeah, yeah," Keith grumbled. "I know."

He'd looked around the room then, and Shiro knew his friend was trying hard not to show how much he wanted to get out of the tunnels. Shiro remembered how desperately scared Keith had been when he'd first woken up, and the memory made him grind his teeth.

"…uh…Shiro?"

Keith's voice was inquisitive, but not scared. Not anymore. Shiro brought himself back to the present with an effort.

"Yeah?"

"You look like you want to kill something."

Shiro laughed, but it was a short sound, not at all humorous, though his next words were.

"You know me so well-"

"I should - I've known you since I was - like, four."

Shiro rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh, I remember that - you were short - "

Nearby, Lance and Pidge and Hunk were working on assembling something that looked like an abstract puzzle. They'd originally brought it out for Keith, but he'd gotten bored after about five minutes, so they'd moved it away and begun working on it themselves.

Lance's head shot up in interest, and he bounded over to where Keith and Shiro were talking. He'd long since recovered from his cold, and his hands were mostly healed, but he had insisted on staying near the infirmary all the same, claiming that he was part of the official 'Boredom Prevention' squad, with Pidge, Hunk, and Beyris making up the rest of the group.

"Ooh! Oooh!" Lance said, practically hopping up and down in excitement. "So, like, were you guys classmates - or foster brothers - or what?! I've been dying to find out!"

Shiro and Keith both blinked and looked at each other.

"…kinda…both…" Shiro said. "Keith and I grew up together. Our families were neighbors - and when he came to Garrison, we roomed together. Actually…"

He scratched his head and looked at Keith. "When did we first meet?"

Keith looked off into the distance for a few seconds, his face pensive as he answered.

"…wasn't it…at a Garrison event? Some sort of picnic? I think I was there with my parents…and you were there as a new student…so maybe…you were ten and I was…four?"

Lance's mouth dropped open, and interest radiated off him. "Wow! You met when you were that young?"

Shiro looked at Keith, still shaking his head. "I'm sorry - " he said, "- I don't - "

Keith seemed to be counting on his fingers, and then he nodded decisively. "Yeah, I would have been about four. Didn't I knock you down?"

Shiro thought hard for a minute, and then his face cleared. "Oh yeah, I do remember that. I think you were racing someone else and barreled right into me. We all went sprawling, and all I could think was damn, this kid is fast."

He gave his old friend a half-fond, half-exasperated look. "You were always running head-first into things-"

Keith gave Shiro a sarcastic thumbs-up. It was hard to manage, given that his arms, hands, and fingers were still in the process of healing and were still stiff and clumsy, but he managed it.

"Glad to know I made an impression, Shiro."

Lance snorted in laughter, and Keith looked confused.

"Impression! Get it? You fell down and…oh, never mind…" Lance said, but from over at the puzzle table, Pidge giggled.

"Nice one, Lance," she said, and Lance visibly brightened when he saw that she'd gotten his joke.

Hunk looked up at them all, three puzzle pieces still in his fingers.

"Hey!" he said excitedly. "Maybe we could all tell the stories of when we met for the first time! You know, like track back to when we first encountered each other!"

Lance nodded excitedly. "That's a great idea, Hunk! Though it might be tricky - I mean, Garrison is a huge place, and it's hard to remember everything - "

Pidge was trying to find the corners of the puzzle, and she was having some trouble.

"These things are needlessly complicated sometimes," she muttered, and Hunk nodded absently in agreement just as Allura came into the room and told them that the Council was about to send off the remaining conspirators into exile.

Keith had half-frowned in confusion.

"Just now? It's been, like, four weeks."

"Two," Allura corrected, but her tone was gentle.

Keith looked down at his arms and hands, which were still encased in glowing cyber-splints. The interruption of the healing cycle meant that he needed more recuperation time than normal. The bones had long since mended, but the cyber-splints were still necessary to help Keith's muscles and tendons return to their normal, healthy state.

Shiro remembered the day when Coran and Allura had told Rayzor and Aurelis that Keith was descended from a Druid. The two Proselyt had immediately sworn their silence, but it wasn't out of fear for what others might think. It was out of concern for the Red Paladin's safety.

The last thing we want is for Haggar to discover that she has a grandson.

The thought of Haggar trying to use Keith as a weapon against the team made Shiro want to kill something again. He wouldn't let that happen. He would make sure Haggar never got the chance to hurt his friend like that -

With an effort, Shiro pulled his attention back to the present once more. Keith was saying something to himself.

"Ha - two weeks - it feels like four - maybe even six -" Keith said under his breath. Beyris looked up from the game of checkers she'd been setting up on the table by his bed and poked Keith's knee with one of her elbows. Keith jumped and looked down at her.

"Stars, Beyris," he said, and Shiro had to smile at his friend's surprise. Keith was so rarely startled by anything, it was always enjoyable to see his reaction. "I keep forgetting you're there - can't you like, grow six inches or something? You know, to help me see you better?"

Beyris shook her head. "Don't be silly, Keith. I'm the perfect height!"

Seated at his desk behind her, Aurelis muttered something under his breath. A mischievous grin spread across Beyris' face, and she leaned backwards in her small chair so she was looking directly up into Aurelis' eyes and threw her arms wide open. At the same time, she crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue, startling the healer so badly he jumped in his seat and dropped the papers he was holding.

"GAH!" he said, and scowled down at her as Beyris uncrossed her eyes and beamed up at him again in apparent innocence. Even Shiro laughed as the healer bent down to gather up the papers, muttering something about 'incorrigible prankster' and 'just like your father when he was your age'.

"See?" Beyris said. "Perfect height. 'urelis never sees me comin'." She leaned forward in her chair again and grinned up at them all, obviously quite proud of her accomplishment. On her lap, the mice chittered and chirped in what seemed to be applause.

Lance wiped a pretend tear from his eye and sniffed proudly. "That's my Padawan."

Keith reached out his still-somewhat bandaged hand in a pretend Force choke-hold towards the Blue Paladin. His arms were mostly healed, but still, Shiro saw him wince even as he said, completely dead-pan, "I find your lack of creative references disturbing," and Lance pretended to claw the air in an effort to breathe, being wildly dramatic and flailing around like a fish out of water.

Beyris had seen the movies with Lance the day before, and she chuckled as she went back to setting up the checkerboard. Hunk laughed so hard, he dropped the puzzle pieces he'd been holding, even as Pidge shook her head sadly and said, "It only works if you do the voice, Keith -"

Keith had half-glared over at her, about to argue the point, but then Coran had poked his head into the room and asked Allura and Shiro to come with him, and they'd gone to the Council chambers, where the three conspirators had insisted on their 'right' to a trial by combat.

Needless to say, it didn't go the way the conspirators had hoped.