The city of change.

Change can be measure in small increments. It can be measured in large ones.

In can be that you simply decide to wear a different shirt then you normally do on a given day.

If you're Keith, it could be that you start to understand the idea of friends and family.

Of love.

Keith's arrival in Nautilus was at a time where he found himself cut off from the others of his world, his fellow Paladins of Voltron. From Shiro, who he had just found after year of being told but holding out hope that he hadn't been killed on a mission. From Pidge, the daughter and sister of the other two on Shiro's mission. From Lance and Hunk, the boy who proclaimed Keith is rival and the best friend who gave out the best hugs there was, even if Keith never said it. From Coran and Allura, all that were left of an long dead planet called Altea.

From his team.

Although he desired to return home to find out what happened to his team, his newly Awakened status and inexperience with Bending caused him to have to wait, something that he was arguably not very good at. But patience yields focus after all, a mantra that Keith tried to remind himself of day in and day out while being stuck here.

Unfortunately, when it comes to the city of change, one cannot remain stagnate and separate, no matter how hard they try.

For Keith, it beings when he starts talking to others - like Jane, for instance, wherein he finds a shared interest in space. Or even Sunset Shimmer, who he bonded with over fighting the spiders in the West and the idea of technology and magic.

Other then Sunset Shimmer, his biggest change is when he meets Adela. At first, he has no idea who she is - she is, after all, stuck as a cat and out wandering in the West, so Keith picks her up and takes her home. He doesn't actually find out this cat is a person affected by one of Nautilus's storms until later, when they start to bond over their shared love of swords. It's this that starts the ball rolling - they start to spar together and even kiss under the influence of one of the infamous Valentine's storms. It's probably safe to say that that single event is the start of something that Keith never expected to happen.

He had no idea why Adela had been so upset about it of course, Sunset is the one that had to explain it to him. He still didn't understand it completely, but he was quick to assure Adela that he wasn't upset about any of it - it was a storm after all. Things continued as they were, Keith spending his days training and patrolling, wanting to keep himself busy in the grand scheme of things. Storms come and go, and life goes on, but there is an itch that he can't leave alone, even if he tries to ignore it.

Keith had always wanted to go home - it had been a constant thought in the beginning. To learn how to Bend well enough so that he could step back through the gate and return home. But things had happened, things had changed. He had changed. He still wanted to go home, at the very least, he needed to know that everyone was alright after they had been separated by the corrupt wormhole. But unlike before, he wanted to come BACK. He had no intention of staying in his world, not at the moment. Nautilus had become home to him - he had friends, in Adela, Sunset Shimmer and the rest of those he had talked to along the way. Being the Red Paladin of Voltron was his destiny, but he knew that he had been called to Nautilus as well, and he wasn't planning on staying away for too long until he found out why. He must have answered the call for a reason, right? He made a special note in his 'Goodbye for Now' post to those two, assuring them that he would be back and asking Adela to watch over his things, something he wouldn't have done before Nautilus.

Keith kept to his word and returned not long after, but with startling news - news that he fretted telling his teammates, especially Allura and Coran; because he was afraid of how it would affect their view of him and cost him the only family he had in his own world. It was not news, however, that he kept from Sunset Shimmer or Adela, no matter how devastating it could possibly be. The former was a fountain of assurance and acceptance, something Keith so desperately needed, even working to assure him that his friends back home wouldn't shun him either, and the latter... well, Keith's news caused her to reveal a little bit of her own backstory. A move that caused their friendship to deepen even further, to the point that there were others who were jokingly referring to Keith as Adela's boyfriend.

Things went on, as they often do. Keith and Adela trained together, she made him a shield, he shared conspiracy theories with Sunset Shimmer... all the standard things that Keith normally gets up to. He even received a piece of home, with the arrival of Coran, his unofficial 'space uncle' as it were.

Coran's arrival, however, brought up a whole new host of problems. One of Keith's greatest fears had always been going back home and seeing how the others reacted to the news of his heritage. Coran's acceptance of Keith for who he was, Galra blood and all, took a weight off his shoulders that had been there since he returned to Nautilus. And although Keith doesn't know this, Sunset Shimmer also had a few words with Coran regarding this and Coran was pleased to see that Keith had managed to form bonds with others who cared deeply enough about him to pretty much give him the shovel talk in regards to Keith's feelings and his family.

The one event that caused Keith to face the one thing he had been purposely trying to not think about was the Mirror Storm. Forced to spend a week purple, fluffy and fully convinced that he and Adela had ventured beyond the awkward 'is this a crush or not?' phrase, to full out dating, he had been hurt when Adela had told him that she didn't remember any sort of relationship other then being close friends. When the storm was over, Keith was left bereft and left to face the two things about himself that he had been trying to not think about - his Galra heritage and his ever changing feelings for Adela.

That he truly cared for her as someone he could see spending the rest of his time in Nautilus, for however long that might be, besides.

For someone who started out a loner, who pushes people away before they hurt him, this was a frightening realization. But it's not one he can ignore. He can no longer ignore what Adela means to him; that Sunset is practically his other best friend and sister by this point; that Coran is the both the Uncle and Father he hasn't allowed himself to have in forever.

For an orphan who was alone, for someone with walls so sturdy and well built, they might as well be Fort Knox, this is perhaps the biggest change of all.