Out Of The Woods

Something to Talk About

"I can feel you glaring at me from halfway across the room, Acxa."

"I can't decide if I hate you more or less for what you did," she said, glaring daggers at him. "More. I despise you."

"I had nothing to do with what happened, I swear," Lotor said exasperatedly, turning to look at her with a frown. "I didn't even know what happened until she told me before I dropped her off home. Have you heard from him at all?"

"No."

"He's been hiding out at our apartment for the past week," Hunk spoke up from the pastry table as he set down a cake. "He's just been watching soap operas all day. I never knew a guy could binge watch Jane the Virgin in three days straight."

"That's....sad," Lotor said with a small crease of his brows. "He does know that he has to come back to work sooner or later, does he? He cannot pass onto the other rotations if he doesn't pass his neuro rotation."

"Look at you, suddenly acting like you care," Acxa said with narrowed eyes. "You could care less."

"Acxa, for the last time, I didn't know that she had broken up with him before we went out for dinner! When she walked out and said she needed to speak to him alone, I figured that they were planning an outing or something akin to that. Never in a million years would I have imagined that they would split up."

Allura sighed from her spot at the table with the blank onesies, setting down the paints gently.

"No one saw it coming. We all thought they were alright, and then...this happens. What caused it? Do you know, Lotor?"

"The only thing that ever seemed out of sorts to me about them was how much they used to argue about the intern issue at work. Keith came to me on a few occasions to talk about the problems he was having with the interns, and we talked about it."

"She knew about those too," Allura frowned. "I overheard her talking about it with Ezor the other day, before they broke up. You don't think that that was what separated them, do you?"

"At this point I don't know what to think," Lotor sighed. "All I know is that she has been trying to act like nothing is wrong this entire week and he hasn't bothered to show up. Blaytz came up to me and asked if I knew where Keith was. He only sighed and walked away when I told him that I had no clue about his whereabouts."

"My mother hasn't heard from Keith in a week, and it's worrying her. Are you sure you had nothing to do with this sudden break up?" Acxa questioned Lotor, gripping a deflated balloon in her hands tightly.

"I am sure," Lotor said flatly. "My relationship with her is different and completely separate than the one she had with Keith. If they split, it was most likely because of the murmurs going around about Keith and his child led by Griffin. The medical school interns this year are the most ruthless one's I've seen so far, and I saw Katie's group go through this hospitals' doors. They are heartless."

"Was the bullying really that bad, though?" Hunk asked, glancing at Lotor. "I never heard anything about it."

"Of course it was that bad! It separated Pidge and Keith even though they were basically already ready to get married," Allura said incredulously.

"To the rest of you, it might not have seemed like there was anything going on since you only interact with each other and a few select residents, but to those close to Katie and Keith? They all know. Katie is the resident in charge of them, for heaven's sake! The pressure was put on her every day and she was bound to crack eventually," Lotor said before looking down at the palms of his hands.

"I just thought she would be stronger than to let what was going on affect her relationship this time," he whispered to himself.

"Everything is going to hell with all the relationships everyone thought would last," Hunk grumbled. "Who's next? Veronica and Acxa?"