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“Ah, this is where you ran off to!”
Keith looked up toward the door of the break room to see that the owner of the voice that had spoken was Romelle, who stood in the entryway, giving him a little wave. At his feet, Kosmo peered up from his own nap and thumped his tail at the sight of their visitor. “I didn’t run off,” Keith said. “I politely excused myself.” He doubted it was really a big deal. The party that the MFE pilots had decided to throw in the Atlas’s cafeteria to celebrate the end of a long week of missions was hardly the same thing as one of Voltron’s diplomatic gatherings that required Keith to be there and on his best behavior. He didn’t need to stick around if he had better things to do.
“Still, I couldn’t help but be curious, you know?” said Romelle. “Why did you leave?”
Keith shrugged. “Too noisy for me. Not really big on parties in general. What about you?”
“Oh, I was growing tired, that’s all,” Romelle replied. “Needed a break. Do you mind terribly if I join you?” She gestured toward the couch.
Keith scooted to the side. “Be my guest.”
With a smile, Romelle crossed the room and took a seat, careful to keep her feet off of the sleeping Kosmo. “You know,” she said once she was settled, “Tiring though the party was, you did rather miss out. It’s quite fun down there.”
“Eh, not really my kind of fun,” Keith said.
“Hunk made most of the sweets that were being served. You like those, don’t you?”
“He always saves me leftovers.”
“And Coran and Allura were giving people a lesson on Altean culture. Coran was telling stories, and Allura was teaching people some traditional dances. Of course, Lance taught her a couple of traditional Earth dances in return.” She twirled a strand of hair thoughtfully around her finger. “Do you happen to know much about the cultural significance of ‘Fortnite Dances’?”
Keith shook his head. “Wouldn’t know. I, uh, don’t know much about dancing in general.”
“Hmm. I’ll have to ask him about the history later then, I suppose.” Romelle cocked her head toward Keith with a smile. “It certainly wouldn’t hurt, you know, to learn a little about dancing. It’s a beautiful art form, really. Can be quite freeing. And when done in company, dancing with others, there’s a bond that forms, I feel. Both between the people and the dance’s history. A lot of the ones that hold the test of time have stories behind them. For example, The Two Yonwood Tree Dance was actually - ” Her smile suddenly faltered. “Well, ah, I suppose you’d want to ask Allura about it, not me.”
“Hm? Why?” Keith asked with a frown.
“That’s one of the dances she was showing the others at the party. And it’s - it’s different, from the way I learned it.” She sighed, releasing the hair that she had been twirling and letting it spring back into shape beside her ear. “It certainly makes sense, I admit. The Altea she knows and the colony I know existed thousands of years apart. Of course there would be differences. Still, it would have been nice…”
“... You miss it, don’t you?” Keith said slowly.
Romelle chewed her lip for a long moment before answering, “At times. On the one hand, it turns out that the place I called home was really a front for a mad prince to kill off our people by harvesting their quintessence, so, admittedly that does sour the memories somewhat.”
“Uh - ” Keith said, unsure how else he could possibly respond to that.
“But,” Romelle continued. “For the longest time… it was still home. Where I had grown up, where my family and friends were. It was a comfort. And for it to all come crashing down upon me so rapidly, well…” She sighed. “It would have been nice to get another piece of it back. You know what that’s like, Keith? Were you that way with Earth, when you left?”
Keith hesitated. An empathetic ear would be nice for Romelle right now, a chance for her to talk about homesickness to someone who understood the feeling and who’d been through something similar, but truth be told, he hadn’t felt the same way. He hadn’t been homesick, at least not the way his teammates had. Sure, there were things he missed about Earth, like fast food and his favorite radio stations and the desert hares that lived close to his shack.
But you couldn’t be homesick for a place that had never really been home. He had learned that in his time in foster care, bouncing from one house to another, some nice enough, some not so much, but never with families who were truly sad to see him go. There was always the sense that he wasn’t supposed to be there, that he wasn’t truly welcome, that he was the square peg someone had tried to force into a round hole. He felt like that at the Garrison, too, and when he’d lived in his desert shack, the place had been too empty, too unfeeling to be home.
Maybe that place had felt like home once before, back when he and his dad had lived out in the desert together, but that was too long ago. He couldn’t remember the feeling of home, so he may as well have never felt it at all. And he didn’t quite feel at home in the castle, and certainly not with the Blade, or on that whale.
“Not really,” he finally answered. “I just never really had a home to miss.”
Romelle blinked at him as if needing a moment to comprehend what he said, then took in a sharp breath and moved her gaze to her feet. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I hadn’t realized.”
Again Keith shrugged. “It’s not a big deal. Not like I was starving in the streets or anything. I had houses, roofs over my head, just… not homes, I guess.”
“Mmm. I think I can get that,” Romelle said slowly. “I believe that was a bit of the concept behind the Altean colony, that home’s not about where it is, it’s about what’s in it. Everyone deserves to have a piece of home. People and pastimes that are comforting and welcoming. You… you really don’t…?”
“I mean, I’ve got Shiro,” Keith amended. “So if we’re talking making people our homes, then that’s - I guess that’s close. Although, of course, things have been turbulent ever since Kerberos, but - ” He shook his head. “Anyway, ah - we weren’t talking about - I mean, I’m not the one who’s feeling homesick here.”
“Ah, what an elegant deflection,” Romelle said with a little smile. “But, well, yes. I like to think I’ve held my composure quite splendidly ever since - since everything that happened. But, oh, I don’t know, at times little reminders start to pick away at me. Like that dance I mentioned. My father taught me the Two Yonwood Tree Dance when I was younger, and I always would dance it with Bandor. So I suppose, seeing Allura perform it so differently, well, it was a little reminder that - that things have changed. That home as I knew it is gone now.”
The two sat in thoughtful silence for a moment after she finished, Romelle with a faraway look in her eyes. Keith interrupted the quiet by clearing his throat. “Hey, uh,” he said. “How would you do the dance differently?”
“Well, the basic movements are more or less the same still, although Allura’s added some twirls that weren’t there before. And the way she was showing how to grip your partner and the way your feet move, there was a - a flowiness, of sorts, I suppose you could say, and that - well, it’s a bit difficult to explain in words.”
“... All right,” Keith said, setting his tablet aside and getting to his feet. “So show me.”
Romelle’s eyes lit up in delight. “Really? You mean, right here and now?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“I thought you didn’t like to dance.”
“Well, maybe it’ll grow on me.” He bent down to push the low table that was in front of the couch out of the way, and Kosmo opened his eyes and lifted his nose an inch to observe the proceedings. “So,” Keith continued, moving back to the couch, “What sort of music is this dance supposed to go with? Is it a slow dance, a fast one?”
“I believe you can dance it to most any tempo,” Romelle answered. “But it has to be fairly high and light. That represents the wind that the trees are dancing in.”
Keith thought a moment, then turned on his tablet, pulled up a search bar, and typed in ‘flute music’. He tapped the first video that came up and turned back to Romelle as the music started. “This work?” he asked.
Romelle nodded eagerly. “Oh, definitely!” She hopped up from the couch, moving deftly around Kosmo to join Keith in the little makeshift dance floor. “All right, so we start facing each other, with our hands locked, like so.” She positioned Keith and took his hands in her own, spreading their arms to the side. “Now, traditionally for most Altean dances with partners, the taller of the pair is supposed to lead.”
“Ah…” Keith said.
“Fortunately I learned it with Bandor, so I’m used to playing the part of the taller partner. No need for you to fret.” She tilted her head at Keith with a slight frown. “Although, really, you aren’t that much taller than me. You’re quite sure you’re a Galra?”
“What? Yes, I’m sure.”
“It’s just, well, you’re certainly the smallest Galra I’ve encountered thus far, and I wasn’t sure if – ”
“Let’s just dance,” Keith grunted.
Romelle nodded hastily and returned her attention to her posture. “Right, of course. Go ahead and start by following my feet, like this.”
She started to lead, and Keith followed her feet in a slow box-step pattern, each step moving them only a few inches. “This is the easy part,” Romelle explained. “Your feet keep in more or less the same pattern for the whole dance, and only move slightly. The majority of the movement in the dance comes from the waist and the arms. Here.” She guided his upper body as they swayed from side to side. “You’ll need to loosen up a little, Keith,” she continued after a moment. “Relax your shoulders and wrists.”
“Sorry,” Keith said. He let out a slow breath, trying to oblige and release the tension in his torso. “Never did a dance like this before.”
“Do you have much dancing experience?” Romelle asked.
“Well, in fourth grade they made us all learn to square dance…” He fought down a shudder at that memory. “But other than that, no.”
“It should come fairly naturally to you. I’ve seen you swordfight plenty by now, and you can be astoundingly graceful with your body.”
Keith let out a little snort. “I’m pretty sure the two skills are more different than alike.”
“How so?”
“For one thing, it’s my understanding that stabbing your dancing partner is, uh, frowned upon.”
Romelle laughed lightly. “All right, fair point. Speaking of not hurting your partner, do try not to step on my toes.”
Hastily Keith moved his gaze back to his feet to get them off of Romelle’s. “Sorry,” he said again.
“You’re starting to take steps that are too large, see,” said Romelle. “The movement of the dance is based on the yonwood trees, so the lower half of your body is the trunk, and it has to be grounded and firm. The upper half is the branches, and those move and sway. Here, I’m going to lift the arms, spread your fingers once they’re over your head.”
Keith watched Romelle’s finger for his cue as to when to move his own, and leaned with her motions as she swept their bodies in a circle. “There you go,” she said. “Stay relaxed, it makes it easier.”
“I’m trying,” Keith grunted. “So, you said that this dance has some sort of history behind it?”
“Mm-hm,” said Romelle. “If I recall correctly, one of the early kings of Altea had yonwood trees planted in the ceremonial courtyard where the royal family would greet visitors. So yonwood trees came to represent a greeting of sorts. The dance is based on the image of two people meeting and uniting for the first time, and the juxtaposition of firmness and flexibility as keys to partnership. Like… like me joining your team.”
“I – I see.”
“Lean back now, stretch your arms out.” She demonstrated, and Keith mirrored her. “I don’t know if I ever thanked you for that, by the way.”
“Thanked me for what?” Keith asked.
“For welcoming me onto your team. Into your family. It is… it’s certainly something that I needed. Gives me a purpose of sorts. Gave me back, well, something that I was missing.”
“Hey, don’t act like it was us doing you a favor,” Keith said. “You’ve been just as much a help to Voltron as Voltron’s been to you. Besides – ” He gave her a soft smile as they straightened again, bringing their hands to the center. “Kosmo likes you too much to let you go.” The wolf in question wagged his tail at the mention of his name.
Romelle laughed. “I suppose there’s no arguing with that last point.”
The music from the tablet began to wind down, and Romelle brought her feet back together, releasing Keith’s hands and stepping back with a little curtsy. “Thank you for indulging me, Keith,” she said.
“No problem. Uh, thanks for teaching me your – your dance thing.”
“Perhaps at some point you could return the favor and teach me this ‘square dance’ you mentioned.”
“Not if our lives depended on it.”