Part 42

                                    

                                          
Kai refused to remove her helmet but her armor was off and she was left in the bodysuit, she just crossed her arms and stayed standing so no one could reach her head without her noticing then stopping them.
"No, I do not wish for anyone to see my face in the state it is currently in," Kai said.
"Come on, it can't be worse than Keith's face," Lance said, earning a flick to the ear from Kai, "Ow!"
"Don't insult him, at least not when I can hear you," the Kalvorian stated.
Keith walked over, ignoring the now red paladin, "Kai, whatever it is, you don't have to be afraid to show us. We're a team and we won't take advantage of your weakness," he said, holding his hand out to her.
Kai tensed then sighed softly and placed a hand in Keith's, "Alright but....I-I'm not afraid of showing all of you, I'm afraid of what's happening to me."
Kai took her hand back then placed her hands on either side on the helmet and took it off, her eyes had silver veins branching out from them, stopping at her cheekbones but curving up to decorate her forehead and surround a blank spot in the middle of her forehead.
"Wow," Pidge adjusted her glasses and leaned forward to get a better look, "I was not expecting this."
The rest of the paladins were silent and only stared in awe at the alien girl's face, not knowing what to say. Kai clenched her jaw and put the helmet back on to hide her face.
"I shouldn't have taken it off, your expressions say that much," she spoke softly, hugging her arms.
"Hey, hey, I think we were all just stunned by how pretty it is, we were expecting something worse," Hunk spoke first.
"Yeah, it's like a shimmery mask surrounding your eyes, it's really beautiful," Lance complimented.
Kai turned to Keith who shrugged a bit, "It's... different," he wasn't sure what to say but it was clear to everyone that what he said wasn't what Kai wanted or needed to hear.
She ran out of the control room, taking the shortcut to the red lion hangar where she ran to her lion, hiding inside of Silver's cargo hold. She yanked off the helmet and threw it into a corner, curling up and softly sobbing.
                          
"Keith! That was not the time to be vague, it was so obvious she's self conscious of her silver veins!" Pidge crossed her arms.
"I couldn't think of anything else to say!" Keith argued, "She-," he suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence, "She's hurt!"
Pidge had sensed it too so they hurried to the red lion hangar, everyone else following though Lance took the shortcut and got there first.
"Kai, are you alright in there?" he called up, "Come on it's your best bud, Lancey Lance!"
There was a moment of stillness and silence before Silver lowered her head to allow Lance entrance just as everyone else got there. Keith and Pidge raced over but were knocked back by the force field. Keith jumped up and started pounding his fist against the field.
"Hey! Let us in!" he shouted.
                          
Lance found Kai curled up and softly sobbing in the cargo hold so he walked over and sat next to her, placing a gentle hand on her back.
"It's alright, Mullet didn't mean it like that, he just didn't know what else to say," Lance pulled her close.
Kai swallowed the lump in her throat then buried her face in Lance's shoulder, tightly gripping his shirt in one hand.
"I-I couldn't tell how he was feeling, I felt nothing coming from him and only shock coming from Pidge," the Kalvorian sniffled and held onto him, "Previously, whenever I felt nothing from him then it turned out to be something bad later that he wanted to hide." Kai's hair stayed as black as the space outside but one lock was a bright pink.
Lance started petting her hair to calm her which worked quite quickly, Kai's grip relaxing and her tense figure softening. She slipped her arms around Lance's torso, hugging him as he slipped an arm around her shoulders.
"It's alright, just take a minute to calm down and collect yourself, Mullet-brain is on his way here to fix things. At least as best he can without hurting you more," Lance said.
Kai slowly let go and sat up, her hair hid her face, "He didn't mean to, he didn't know it would hurt me," she placed her hand right under the middle of her clavicles where her heart beat under her fingertips.
Lance slowly reached over then moved some hair away from her face, "Don't hide it, Kai, even though it's unusual, it's beautiful."
She smiled slightly and the pink lock of hair turned white as she grabbed his hand and kissed the palm of it, closing his fingers around the spot she kissed before guiding Lance's closed hand to rest over his heart.
"A kiss to save in your heart for when you need it. Pidge taught me that quite a while ago, I don't quite understand what she meant but the gesture was sweet and I thought it would be appropriate for this situation. I hope I'm right, am I?" she asked.
Lance was blushing like crazy, "Um, yeah yeah, totally appropriate," he said then added, "As long as Keith doesn't find out, he'd kill me."
"I'd explain that it was all me and you really did nothing except sit here and comfort me," she smiled, moving her hair out of her face, "Thank you for being here for me."
"No problem but we should probably go back and join the others, tell them that you're okay now," replied the brunette.
Kai stood and helped Lance to his feet, "Agreed, thank you again for coming to comfort me." They left the lion and the force field went down.