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Keith coughed as he snuggled next to Krolia for comfort and heat. She knew that he would have loved to have his favorite stuffed animals to cuddle with and to be wrapped in his quilt that she had made for him as a baby. But as they were still on the space whale, that was impossible. It was hard for Krolia to see him so sick as his cough was pretty bad, his nose was runny, and he was just plain miserable. Carefully, Krolia adjusted to nurse her son wishing that she could do more with what meager resources they had been able to find so far.
“Mama, I don’t feel good.” The kit whimpered beginning to cling to her. Nuzzling her son to try to comfort him a little, Krolia whished that she didn’t have to go to the river to draw some water and leave Keith alone when he wasn’t feeling good, especially since she didn’t know how well her son could defend himself in this condition. It was well known that kits had a tendency to act younger when sick, which depending on the kit could hamper with their ability to do certain things. Keith clearly had inherited this trait as he had been acting childish ever since he had caught the bug.
Gently she began licking him for extra comfort, knowing that he was going to need it if he were to wake up while she was gone. Calming down, Keith began to drift off to sleep, unaware of what his mom was worrying about. Once he had fallen completely asleep, Krolia slowly and carefully crept away trying to not wake him up. When she felt that she was in the clear, the young mother hurried to fetch the water hoping that she would be quick enough to get back before her son woke up.
While she was gone, Keith slept soundly dreaming that he was back home having fun with his whole family. That is until Kosmo woke him up by stepping on him. Once awake the sick kit looked around for his mama and started whining when he didn’t see her, but soon perked up when he heard his dad’s voice. “It’s okay buddy I’m here and your Mama will soon be back.” Then with his dad stroking his head, Keith fell back asleep feeling like his dad was actually there.
Upon returning, Krolia was relieved to find that Keith was still asleep and wondered if the strange phenomenon that had occurred had anything to do with it. Snuggling back beside Keith she noticed something by his head. It was his dad’s dog tag; she had assumed that he had been wearing it when he died and was destroyed, but apparently Keith had it the whole time. “Kai, I miss you.” Krolia picked it up and tucked it away in a pocket just to have it near her for a while, she’d give it back to Keith later so that he could put it back where he had been keeping it.
Keith stirred a little not enough to wake up, but it was enough for him to whimper a little because he was sick. “It’s okay baby, I’ve got you.” Krolia told her son pulling him closer. Just then, a flash happened and showed Kai speeding in his car with a clearly sick three-year-old Keith. “Hang in there Buddy, we’re almost there.” He whispered to Keith. The poor kit was shivering violently, was having trouble breathing and had turned a pale lavender in reaction to the galran sickness. Bursting into a secret underground hospital for aliens, Kai ran to the emergency area, scared that his young son might not make it. Luckily, they were able to get him in right away and soon had Keith stabilized. “It’s a good thing that we have a good grasp on how to treat this virus or we might not have been able to stabilize Keith in time. But I think he will be fine after a few weeks of treatment.” Keith’s pediatrician, Dr. Green, whom Krolia recognized as the same doctor that she had while she was on earth.
“Will he have to stay here the whole time, or will he be able to come home before then?” Kai asked
“No, we will be keeping him here to keep an eye on him the whole time. If Keith was older then I would be more confident that there won’t be any complications, but as it is I want to make sure that this won’t hinder his development.” She replied shaking her head. Not understanding what was going on, Keith tried to pull off the bracelet that was attached to a machine giving him medicine. “Sorry buddy, you have to keep that on.” His dad told him gently pulling the kit’s hand away, causing him to pout.
The flash ended with Kai cradling Keith in his arms, leaving Krolia to cuddle with her son teary eyed from thinking about how easily she could have lost him, never getting to hold him again. The boy happened to wake up then and noticed that she was upset. Wanting to cheer his mom up, he let out a series of chirps to tell her that he was okay. Krolia smiled at this attempt and wished that her other kits were there to chirp alongside their big brother.
As if on cue, another flash happened showing her son Kip dashing down the stairs of a house that Krolia didn’t recognize. His curly navy hair was tangled, and his eyes were full of worry. “Shiro! Keith’s sick and won’t come out of bed until he sees that you’re still here.” The thirteen-year-old burst out upon seeing their father figure. He wasn’t sure if Shiro would actually come to check on Keith, since he knew that this wasn’t something that kids their age normally needed.
Luckily, he did come, much to Kip’s relief and soon understood that he needed to stay home for Keith. Kip wished that he could have stayed home from school to help comfort his brother and knew that the others felt the same. Kyle, who was the biggest and strongest, with lavender eyes and brown hair, showed his displeasure about it by slamming the front door behind him so hard that it cracked. Kayla, the smallest, who had curly violet hair that covered her galran ears, a swirl marking on her left cheek that came from her ear, and dark blue eyes, stayed by Keith’s side as long as she could without being late. And Kelly refused to leave until she was satisfied that Shiro would stick to what he knew that he could cook. Once that was settled, she smoothed out her short dark brown hair and had a pleased look in her emerald green eyes.
The twins Leo and Cleo, whom were their foster siblings, made less of a fuss but still had a sad look in their green eyes when they left with their red hair still wet from their showers. Before he left, Kip nuzzled his big brother and whispered to him that he would get him a treat. It was always hard when one of them got sick, because no one seemed to understand that they needed to be together during that time. None of them even knew why, it was just something that they naturally knew from birth and didn’t know how to explain. When the flash faded, Krolia nuzzled Keith knowing that he was going to get emotional from what they had just seen, as she was at that very moment. For galra are very close to the rest of their family and need each other to be there for them on a regular basis, even for something as simple as a quick hug now and then.