When Two Worlds Collide

Chapter 4
It was quiet, very quiet, a little bit too quiet if you asked Hunk. Though that might be because he was currently alone in the common area of the Castle. He was very used to all of the hustle and bustle that normally occured in the Castle. Well that was the normal that he had gotten used to. After Shiro,... vanished everyone had adapted to a new normal. Hunk knows that the sudden and unexplainable disappearance of their beloved leader Shiro had hit everyone on Team Voltron hard. After Shiro went missing after that last one in with Zarkon, things changed drastically around here. And being the very empathic person that he is, it didn't take Hunk long to notice all of the changes both subtle and not that had happened almost overnight.

For starters there was Pidge. She was still as her fun loving, smart as a tack, tech guru self. But Hunk could see the differences. Pidge was one of the ones who changed more sutlely than the others did. Yes, she was very upset when Shiro vanished and she still is. Though Hunk has noticed that she had begun to isolate herself from the rest of the inhabitants on the Castle. She was more reserved than she used to be when they first came to space and that is saying something since they couldn't really get her to talk to them at all in the beginning. Hunk hates seeing her do this to herself. Pidge now spends every waking moment locked up in her lab in Green's hangar tinkering around with something. No one really knows what it is, and she won't tell. He knows what she's spending all of her time doing though. She's in there trying to find a way to locate Shiro and her father and older brother Matt. This is the second time that Shiro has vanished on her and the rest of her family is still missing. He knew that she was having a hard time dealing with all of this. Hunk wishes that she would just open up to him or anyone really. He just wants her to take care of herself and sleep, like he knows that she hasn't been doing this last little bit. He loves that girl like a little sister and it would break his heart if something ever happened to her.

Moving on to the next member of the crew that he is worried about is Coran. The old Altean was still his usual eccentric and extravagant, and cheerful self. Though whenever Hunk sees him smile now, which is rare, he can see that it doesn't reach his eyes anymore like they used to. Even though they haven't known Coran and Allura very long, Hunk knows that Coran views all of the Paladins as his own family like he does Allura. All five of them were considered to be his niece and nephews along with Allura. The Yellow Paladin knows that Coran is having just as a hard if even harder time with the disappearance. He saw Shiro as a nephew or even a son-like figure. And from previous knowledge, Hunk knows that it is a devastating blow to a parent to lose a child when they were fairly young, just like Shiro and the fact that you are still alive when they die. All that Coran does now is sputter around the Castle "fixing" things that he deemed needed to be fixed. It was more like Coran was going around the Castle saying that things needed to be repaired to give him an excuse to be moving around and productive. He was just trying to do anything and everything to keep himself busy. Though to be honest, all of them Hunk was the least worried about him. Coran seemed to be handling all of this fairly well. He was dealing with the loss of Shiro. And from what Hunk could gather from the talks that the two of them have had over the past little bit, he was doing ok. At least Hunk could get him to talk about it, unlike everyone else when he tried with them and they just brushed him off.

Though Coran might be handling everything ok, that wasn't the case for everyone. Allura was a very hard person to read. The young Altean Princess seems to be a master of putting on a facade for everyone to see while she is suffering on the inside. In all of the time that they have been in space he and Allura had never "clicked." Now, don't misunderstand what he was trying to say. He actually really likes Allura. She is a very intelligent, graceful, diplomatic beautiful and quite intimidating woman if you asked him. But the two of them just never went together like him and Lance did when they met back at the Garrison, or anyone else for that matter. It wasn't what Hunk would consider a bad thing though. He still loved and respected her like he would any of his over friends. There was just a little bit more of distance between the two of them, unlike the others. They weren't as bad as her and Keith though. A little distance never stopped Hunk though. Hunk knew that out of all of them, Allura was probably closest to Shiro. Afterall the two of them had spent a good bit of their time out in space planning out attacks and other strategies to help win the war. And there was nothing wrong with that. Allura could hang out with whoever she wanted to. And that just makes Shiro's disappearance that much harder for her to handle. Hunk knew that Shiro's disappearance was somewhat similar to the death of her father. From what little that Hunk knew about King Alfor's death was that he had put Allura and Coran in the healing pods to protect them from Zarkon and his army. So basically he was here one minute and gone the next, which is exactly what happened with Shiro. And he could tell that all of the stress from the disappearance of Shiro and the Coalition, Zarkon, and now Lotor was taking its toll on the princess. She seemed colder, less welcoming than what she normally projects on tobotuers. And Hunk didn't fail to notice that she seemed paler and that there were dark bags underneath her eyes. It was easier to annoy her and have her temper flare up. She was beginning to turn into a female version of Keith. It was a little bit concerning if you asked Hunk. The few times that Hunk had gone to Allura to see if she was alright, she had brushed him off and said that she had more important matters to attend to. Hunk eventually gave up on her after a while.