#actually maybe starting a translation gag account would help me practice

[silly-cherries]

RNA ダメ🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫 ダメ🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫

U A C U G U U G A C C C

NO FUCKING RNA 🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫 NOT ALLOWED 🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫

[sarah--writes-blog]

Diet

VOLTRON SEASON 2 SPOILERS

This is Part 3 of Being Galra | All Parts

The Red and Yellow Paladins learned more about the other than they ever thought they would, and not in the bad way. During a normal day, this wouldn’t have happened, but the situation they were in set the tone for open and shameless talks - the comfort of good food, the social release of midnight conversations, the sleepiness breaking down mind-to-speech filters. Keith would have never known where Hunk’s orange headband came from and the story behind it. Likewise, Hunk would’ve never guessed that Keith liked to wear toe-socks in his boots and how he ‘Hulked-out’ of his favorite pair when his Galra form was first revealed.

All at once, the two was aware of the situation. Almost two hours had passed, the kitchen was still a mess, and the entire Altean Casserole had been demolished. The paladins were leaning back in their chairs, feeling comfortably full and drowsy.

Hunk was right, Keith thought, picking an unidentified ingredient out of his teeth with his claws, Don’t know why I doubted him. I feel like I could fall asleep right here. The taste of the vermillion snack lingered on his tongue. His gaze lazily drifted to the bitten cans and dirtied utensils strewn across the kitchen.

“We should clean up a little. Or at least consolidate. Coran might actually kill us.”

“I’d expect Princess Allura to murder us, not Coran.”

“You’d be surprised how protective Coran is about his kitchen.”

This launched Keith into another story. As he retold his experience with a very angry Coran, the two paladins started to clean up. It was a struggle to get out of the chairs with their bellies so full, but the manage it. Keith took a station at the sink and Hunk handled bringing him dishes and putting away the food.

The system worked well until Keith was done with the dishes and was suddenly very much aware of how uncomfortable his stomach felt. The cleaning had distracted him from the slowly growing ache in his belly. But now it was painfully obvious. This wasn't just the discomfort from eating too much. This was the discomfort he knew too familiarly with childhood lactose intolerance. This was the discomfort of bad decisions and ‘I might actually throw up.’

Keith glanced over at Hunk. He seemed to be perfectly fine as he put away the last bag of mysterious Altean food. But we made sure there wasn't any milk in it, Keith thought as one hand drifted over his stomach, And I haven't had a reaction in years.

His stomach didn't care. It growled beneath his palm, giving Keith one warning to prepare himself. He braced his hands against the counter in front of the sink, closed his eyes tightly shut, and waited as metallic saliva started to coat his tongue.

With no more cleaning up to do, Hunk immediately noticed. “Keith? Are you alright?”

“Don't feel good...” he muttered through clenched teeth. Hunk stepped over to his fellow paladin, putting a concerned hand on his back. He didn't like how far down Keith's new ears were bent and how his new claws were digging into the countertop.

“Do...you feel like you're gonna be sick?” He asked, voice low and quiet.

Hunk got his answer. Keith lurched forward, and with a single gag, everything came up in a flood. The previously pristine sink was splattered with unsettlingly-orange vomit.

Hunk was known as the resident weak stomach. From simulations to actual flying to slightly-nauseating videos, Hunk was sure to be the one to bring lunch back up. But when it came to his friends, something different kicked in. He turned away to allow himself to gag once and turned back with complete intent to be as helpful as possible.

He tried to crack a small joke to lighten the mood, “Heh, couldn’t’ve given me a bit of warning first?”

Keith didn’t laugh. Hunk didn’t either. He put one of his large hands between Keith’s shoulder blades, feeling the Red Paladin’s muscles clench with each wave. Even though Keith no longer felt overly full - in fact, there was a huge sensation of relief - he still felt like his body was rebelling against him. There was the usual aftermath of throwing up. His throat burned, his stomach muscles ached. But there was definitely something else bothering him. There wasn’t a full sense of relief that comes from getting rid of something bad in your stomach, and his tongue started to feel a bit swollen.

His shoulders may have relaxed, but his mind was starting to panic. The top of his mouth itched, and his stomach was ready for a second round.

“Something’s wrong...”

“Nah, you just ate too much. You’re a lot smaller than me, and I feel like I’m about to burst. And you ate more than me,” Hunk assured, pulling a glass from a cabinet, “Maybe Galras have smaller stomachs.”

Keith weakly shook his head, “No...my mouth feels weird...swollen, tingly...”

Hunk offered him the glass after filling it with water, “Like...an allergic reaction?” he asked. Keith could only slightly nod before more of the midnight snack showed its face again.

Hunk could deal with a lot of things. He could pull himself together to help someone throw up, he could bring someone down from a panic attack with ease, he could even set a bone back in place (with a cringe). But he wasn’t prepared for an allergic reaction, especially when everyone else more qualified was asleep.

“Uh, alright. We, uh, you’re gonna be okay! Just try to keep breathing! Air is important, air is very important! Is your throat swelling up at all?”

Keith shook his head before spitting in the sink. This allowed Hunk to breathe a bit better.

“Alright, good! Good, that’s good. Let’s, uh....let’s get you sitting down with a bucket or something.”

Hunk brought Keith gently to the ground and put a mixing bowl in his lap. He could practically feel Keith’s stomach churn as the Red Paladin swayed. With a hesitant hand, he brushed Keith’s downturned ears. His cat back on Earth liked it, maybe Keith did too?

“What’re you doing...?”

He slid his fingers down behind Keith’s ear, and delicately scratched the thin layer of fur. At first, there was no reaction, and Hunk feared that he’d horribly violated his friend or something of the like. But then, like someone had turned on a switch, Keith let out a deep breath and his shoulders relaxed. Hunk smiled. It was the most relaxed he’d ever seen Keith during their time in space.

But that didn’t detract from the situation at hand, “I’m going to get someone who can help. You stay right there, I’ll be back soon.”

As soon as Hunk left, Keith felt another round of vomit coming up his throat again. This time, he let his mouth hang open over the bowl, not wanting to fight it.

I bet this wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t Galra, he thought, It’s not lactose and it’s not affecting Hunk...it has to be that I’m Galra...

The self-loathing thoughts cut out as more bile slid off his tongue, which was feeling incredibly swollen. Inklings of a headache started at the back of his brain as his muscles clenched up again, unable to bring up much more of anything. So he kept his eyes closed, his head down, and waited for Hunk to return.

When Keith pulled his head up again, three new sets of eyes were looking at him with the utmost concern. Hunk had gotten Shiro, Coran, and Kolivan, all of them still in pajamas. While Coran and Kolivan muttered to each other indistinctly, Shiro was kneeling next to Keith with a soft smile.

“Hey, what’s going on? Hunk said you were having an allergic reaction.”

Keith knew what Shiro was doing with the calm voice and the smile. He was trying not to freak him out and make the potential lack of air worse. But even though he knew Shiro’s game, it was still helping.

“Think so...” he rasped, “Not milk, we checked. Don’t know what’s happening...”

Shiro nodded and returned his gaze to the Yellow Paladin, “What did you make?”

“I-I don’t know! Everything was in Altean! It was just bright orange and we called it a casserole!”

Coran put a hand on Hunk’s shoulder, “It’s alright, Hunk. Just get it out and I’ll read it.”

Hunk nodded and hurried through the cabinets. While Coran helped identify them one at a time, Kolivan knelt next to Keith as well. His face was unreadable, but there was something about his eyes that conveyed the concern.

“Is there anything we should know about this?” Shiro asked him, settling in to sit cross-legged with Keith on the ground, “We’re not used to Galra biology.”

“The biology is relatively similar. But if it didn’t affect the other paladin, that’s a cause for concern. I’ll review the foods after the Altean does.”

Keith spit into the bowl and looked up at his mentor, “Do Galras eat different things than humans...?

“I would imagine, but I have no knowledge of what food humans produce on your planet. From the looks of your teeth, it could be very different,” Kolivan stood, “I’ll speak with your leader about it privately. For now, you should save your strength and recover.”

It took an hour for the adults to figure out exactly what made Keith sick. Coran had to translate each ingredient, Shiro had to figure out an earth-equivalent (if there was one), and Kolivan had to take into account Keith’s partial Galra heritage, which was harder than full Galra heritage. There was extra confusion about the mysterious bite marks in the cans, but that wasn’t the main concern. All the while, Hunk found a spot on the floor with Keith.

“I’m sorry I got you sick...” he apologized as the guilt set in, “It’s all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault...” Keith breathed, “We just got lucky.” His stomach had finally settled down, but now he was plagued with a piercing headache.

“Unlucky,” Hunk muttered, “Can I do anything? I feel like I owe it to you...”

“Let’s just be sure to check next time...”

When the adults finally found the root of the problem, Kolivan approached the paladins.

“Well, you managed to find one of the few ingredients that all Galras have an extremely adverse reaction to. It’s called veka seed. And you ate almost three times the amount to induce a reaction. If I had ingested that much, I would probably be dead on the ground.”

Keith swallowed hard. Hunk bit his fingernails.

“But since you’re not fully Galra, your human side took care of it. Humans apparently metabolize veka seed very well. In fact, Shiro says it's good for humans. You might feel bad for a few days, but you'll recover just fine.”

The Galra then addressed Hunk, “Until we figure out exactly what parts of Keith are more Galra-oriented, I would suggest you test everything. Who knows what other poisons you might feed your friend.”

With all worries put to rest, Coran and Kolivan went back to sleep. Hunk and Shiro ushered Keith to bed, making sure to put a glass of water on his nightstand and a trashcan by his bedside. The Black Paladin went back to his room once Keith assured him he was alright, but Hunk lingered.

“Are you positive there isn’t anything I can do?”

“Positive. Shiro said I’d be fine by tomorrow,” Keith muttered, settling into bed, “You can go back to bed, Hunk.”

“Anything at all? Literally, anything you can think of-”

“Sleep. You can let me sleep.”

The words stung the Yellow Paladin’s heart, though he knew Keith was just exhausted, “Oh. Okay, I’ll, um...I’ll see you tomorrow morning...”

Immediately, Keith felt unbearable guilt. Here Hunk was, just trying to make sure he was okay after almost poisoning him, and he snapped at him to go away. “Wait, Hunk?”

“Yeah?”

Keith sighed, “Actually...you could do the ear thing again...”

Hunk couldn’t help but smile. He walked back over to Keith’s bedside and found the sweet spot again. Within a few minutes, Keith was completely lax and sound asleep.

Hunk took Kolivan’s advice to heart. Every time he decided to make something special for the team, he brought Keith into the kitchen with him. He was given a small spoonful of each material to test, both for allergies and taste. At first, Keith was hesitant, especially around the other paladin, but soon found the advantages. It reminded him of licking the spoon at home when he was young. He also learned a plethora of cooking tips and tricks, and in the off chance that something did react badly, he got his own custom-made meal.

Maybe being Galra wasn’t so bad.