[C] Settling In

It had been a little over three weeks since a handful of humans had been entirely uprooted from their lives, with little more than what they had in their pockets.

Today Fleck was feeling being alone. He had found a viewing deck in the castle and settled down onto the padded window seat that stretched the length of the incredible window, with his sketchbook in his lap.

That was hours ago.

Now he was still sat in the same position, carefully shading the detail of the sketch of the Prince he shared this castle with. He'd been sketching all the people he'd suddenly started rooming with this afternoon, and the Prince was one of the last to be sketched.

He hummed quietly as his pencil moved over paper trying to get the right texture of Dick's robes.

Over the last three weeks, Dick had been trying to keep himself busy. Desperately busy. Anything to keep to keep his mind of the events that had still felt so fresh for him. He found himself mostly running tests on the castle and cleaning. Lots of cleaning.

It wasn't like there was anyone else to do it.

His feet had found himself to the observatory deck. He had already run tests and cleaned it a few days ago. There was no harm in it double checking.

He opened the door and instantly spotted the tanned human in the corner.

Out of the four humans on board, he liked this one the most. He had a calming presence about him. He wasn't overly energetic, too aggressive or anti social.

Dick mulled by the door, debating on whether to disturb him or not. Then decided he wanted the company. Maybe the human wanted it too?

"Fleck," he said simply in greeting as he made his way over.

Fleck looked up at the call of his name.

His lips curled into a half smile, not quite as warm and welcoming as usual, but by no means cold.

"Morning- Uh, afternoon?" His eyes flickered out the window. "I don't know how to tell time out here, and my phones been dead for weeks." He was detached from Earth time.

He gave Dick another, little sheepish smile, before his gaze turned back down to his sketchbook.

Dick mirrored Fleck's little smile

"It's midday - so you are close either way. The default for the ship is to run by Altean time unless we have landed on another planet. It is the same for your suit."

A phone was the little devices all the humans were carrying, he knew that. Amr was trying to work out how to make their technology compatible. The ins and outs of it, he didn't know.

Dick sat opposite Fleck with a comfortable distance between them. Blue eyes turned down to the book in Fleck's lap. After a few moments of just light scratching filling the silence between them, he spoke up: "Can I ask what you are drawing?"

"Midday," he repeated.

He'd get used to the time zones eventually. It'd just take some time.

His gaze turned back up to Dick when he asked the question and he turned his book around, resting it on his knee so Dick could see.

There was a sketch of Amr on the left page, his profile laughing in that exaggerated way he had. You could almost see the tears glistening in his eyes, the sketch was so detailed. Almost photo-realistic.

The sketch of Dick was a little less rendered, but so clearly him. In the sketch he had his shoulders straight, his chin tilted upwards slightly, and was looking just to the left. His expression was proud, his hair gleaming and smooth as it fell to his shoulders.

"Oh."

His cheeks pinked.

"It's me."

Looking very proud; the persona he constantly tried to keep. If going by this single sketch Fleck had done, he was managing to keep it up.

Being the last true Altean, and not having anyone to lead anymore, it was still his castle by right. That made him still a leader of sorts. Even among this very strong and mature characters.

He stared at the sketch for a long moment before realising who it was on the left.

"And Amr. You're very good, extremely good if you drew this without reference. You really captured his likeness."

He turned his eyes up to Fleck.

"May I look through it?"

"It is."

At least Dick recognised it. That said something about his ability, at least, when people recognised themselves in his sketches.

"Thank you." He had indeed done them all by memory.

He nodded, tucking a lock of bleached hair, now beginning to show his dark roots, behind a pierced ear.

"Sure. Just be careful with the last few pages. I havent been able to fix them."

He started from the sketches of himself and Amr and worked back. Turning each page slowly and silently. He lingered on the sketch of Giacinto with a warm smile.

Then he turned to a lot of botanical sketches. A few portraits of people he didn't recognise. Almost all of them had the same high level of detail and care. Even if the sketchbook itself was almost falling apart.

"It must have taken you years to get to this level of skill," he said as he passed the sketchbook back to Fleck.

He watched Dick look through his sketchbook, looking for any outward reaction on his face.

Fleck knew he was a damned good artist, but he still liked to get people's opinions of his art. 

"I've been drawing since I could pick up a pencil." Pretty much two full decades. He set the sketchbook down on the seat next to him.

"I was the same." Before the war started.

He curled a piece of hair behind his ear and leaned back onto the glass, pulling his legs up in front of his chest, heels on the edge of the seat. If it was anyone else, he would have tutted.

He nodded to the sketchbook that Fleck had placed down next to him.

"Please, don't stop drawing on my account."

He craved the company, but he didn't want to interrupt the human.

"You should get back into it."

He hated hearing that people dropped their art. He grew up loving every aspect of it, and he enjoyed finding like-minded people.

He shook his head, relaxing further back against the cool glass of the window behind him.

"I'd rather speak with people than draw them."

"Well, if it isn't too much of a problem."

He toyed with his rings, eyes on the humans face. Then his rather strange ears.

They were ugly, by Altean standards. Despite them, it didn't make the human ugly. Quite the contrary.

"Tell me, do they mean anything?"

He curved his finger around his ear, pushing back the piece of hair that stubbornly refused to be pushed back.

"The other humans are pierced, too. And I know that in some cultures, each piercing means something."

He tipped his head slightly to the side, questioningly, before he realised what Dick was asking about.

"Ah, no, not really."

He reached up to flick the ring in his septum.

"In my country they're fashion statements. In some other countries they mean different things. Do they mean anything to your people?"

He was curious, actually. It wasn't every day you got to ask an alien about their culture.

"Oh, I see."

They had so many of them, in so many places that it was a little hard to believe they were just 'fashion statements'. He had to wonder if they were pierced in places over than their face. He was too embarrassed to ask.

He toyed with his own earning.

"They are just an aesthetic choice, like your own, but we normally just pierce our ears. Also, I guess it is also an indication of class. Only the wealthy pierce their ears."

He suddenly felt self-conscious of the piercing and forced his hand to rest on his knee instead.

"All classes pierce themselves on Earth, but it tends to be the lower classes that pierce anything but the ears, or have more than one pair.

He touched his septum piercing again then shrugged.

He didn't care that he was one of the lower classes.

Dick stared at the septum piercing that Fleck was playing with, realising what he was implying. He suddenly felt even more self-conscious of the metal through his ear.

He decided to try and push the subject away from classes.

"What is it like, on Earth? Honestly, I have never heard of that planet until you all woke us up."

Us being him, Giacinto, and the mice. The last few remnants of Altea.

"That's... a broad question."

He chewed on his lip, turning his gaze out to the spectacular view. "My experience of Earth is probably very different than the others."

A little smile curled his lips. "For me? I loved it. I have a big family - truly big - and though we didn't have much, we had everything, you know?" Material items weren't abundant for their family, but they didn't want for anything.

His own lips turn up into a smile.

He wondered what accounted for a large family on earth. Ten children? One hundred? Was it a family unit made up of cousins and grandparents? Did it include friends? He wanted to know.

"I guess?" He always had everything he wanted, he didn't know what it was like to get by on so little. But he could sympathise.

"Tell me about them, your family. That is if you want to," he hastily added on.

"My family... Are a bunch of crazy people," he laughed.

"I have a lot of siblings. With all their partners, there has to be over twenty of them." There were definitely a lot of them.

"I'm closest with Leo. He's a little older than me. My half brother." He grinned, nose scrunching up a little. "We were raised pretty much like twins. We did everything together. We shared food, toys, even made up our own language together."

His smile softened as Fleck spoke about his family. They were close, that was obvious with the warmth he had in his voice when he spoke about them. Especially Leo.

He must miss them.

In fact, really, almost everyone on this ship must all miss their family and friend. None of them had much choice when they were thrown into this mess.

But he wasn't going to dwell too much on that.

"I'm going to guess you both must have gotten up to a lot of mischiefs. You seem the type," there was a slight teasing tone in his voice.

"Oh yes, so much."

His grin widened. "Poor Chai and Chrys got it the most. The two of them were saints to deal with the two of us at our worst."

He and Leo were definitely the terrible twosome growing up. 

He had loved every minute of it.

"Chai and Chrys? They're your siblings I'm guessing?"

His own thoughts wondered. Before Voltron. Before the war.

"I had a sort of similar relationship with a family friends son. I was a few years older than him, but he was attached to the hip to me as soon as he could work. Despite not being related, we were like brothers and caused our own amount of mischief."

"Yeah. Brother and sister."

Two of his closest. They'd shared a lot growing up, good times and bad. He didn't know how many times Chrys had almost brained him as a child, but equally his older siblings had been so protective growing up.

"Those are the best sorts of friendships. I have a few like that."

He fell silent then. Had. He had a few friendships like that. He was sort of trapped in space now, wasnt he?

Dick hummed, letting the conversation fall into silence and stretch on. He came to the same conclusion as Fleck: They both couldn't see their loved ones anymore.

After a few minutes, he couldn't stand it for much longer. He didn't want to leave this conversation on a sour note. Plus, he genuinely wanted to get to know this human and their culture more.

"Tell me more about Earth. Maybe... Are your clothes always that baggy? Surely that must get annoying, and it doesn't seem very practical."

"No, clothes can be... There are so many different types and fashions. I just prefer not to show off too much."

He didn't like wearing skin-tight clothing much. He liked the looseness of his clothing. It wasn't too loose to be in the way, but it wasn't tight enough to show off how built he really was.

"I like the loose clothing. It's cooler, too. I lived in quite a hot country."