Summary:

"The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable."

― Friedrich Nietzsche

The accident was unexpected, but that is why they are called "accidents."

The driver that had plowed into their car, which they had used for once, had a BAC two and half times the legal limit.

Aunt Su-jin and Uncle Akira were dead on impact. It wasn't looking like Shiro's seven-year-old cousin Keith was going to make it either. He'd suffered a head injury. Surprisingly very little blood was lost but he had yet to regain consciousness. His Mom and Dad were arranging Aunt and Uncle's funerals on the phone with the crematoria.

Shiro had been left at the hospital with a cell phone to call them with any updates to Keith's condition. That's where he found himself, nearly being driven mad by all the beeping.

Keith's eyes snapped open and Shiro could have sworn they flashed yellow, but he blinked and they were normal. Must have been a trick of the light. Keith was babbling in a mix of Japanese and Korean, making it hard for Shiro to understand anything. Keith looked at him and the blank look sent shivers down Shiro's spine. A nurse came in with a doctor and he was shuffled out into the hall for what felt like forever.

"Where are your parents?" a doctor asked.

"Making arrangements for my Aunt and Uncle," Shiro said. The doctor sighed.

"What's wrong?" Shiro asked.

"Your cousin has retrograde amnesia. He cannot remember anything before today," the doctor said, "He may regain his memories in time…."

Shiro tuned out everything else. Keith had lost his whole life because of that drunk. That drunk who was alive with only a few scrapes and bruises in a holding cell in the county jail. It wasn't fair!

Keith knew he had forgotten more than just his parents. There was something else he lost too. Something that hurt even more than having just nothing before the day he saw his cousin standing next to his bed.

Shiro had been the best about the whole thing. His Aunt Keiko and Uncle Haru had treated him like he would shatter. He wasn't a baby! He had a dagger that Shiro said he carried with him everywhere he could.

Now it was the only memento he really had about his parents and his life before that day.

It made him so mad!

It also pissed him off when the people in town looked at him with that look. He helped his Aunt Keiko pack up the small house in the desert and found some frankly weird stick figure art he tossed into a box with other things to be put into the cellar under the house. The loft where they had slept was barren and soon, the small house was as lifeless as the urns they buried behind it.

Shiro placed a hand on Keith's shoulder in silence. He followed Shiro wordlessly into his Aunt Keiko's car and they left his little home behind.

Many years Later...

"All aboard were lost."

Keith had been in the mess hall whenever the news his cousin and crew were lost over Kerberos. Pilot error? Were they kidding him! Shiro was the best there was and there was no way it was pilot error. Keith didn't even remember storming into the commandant's office.

"What are you covering up!" Keith snarled at the commandant, "Shiro was too good a pilot for that bullshit!"

"Language cadet, and I'd watch your tone."

"Tell the truth!" Keith yelled.

"Stand down, Kogane or you will be expelled on the spot for this blatant insubordination!"

"Expel this!" Keith stormed out of the office.

He had his dorm packed up within the hour.

MP: This is the end of part one of Links.
I'm pretty sure you all knew how this was going to end...
What's up next? Well, I have a SHIT ton of school work to get through for this semester but should all go well, I'll probably not be on THIS side of the podium again.

Before the next part of Links can even be written I have to finish my other major Voltron fic series: Lab Rat more specifically the FINAL part of it Reconciliation.
I have it outlined. I really, truly do. I just can't make myself write it, for some reason or other.
Then I have other stuff to get done, but after that I'll make another fic like this one for the Links series.