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“I… I’m not sure if I can accept that.”
“Keith, are you kidding me it’s just-”
“It’s never just mothman, Lance!” he bellowed in his face. This was a very serious matter to him. Before attending the Garrison, Keith was a hardcore believer in the supernatural and unknown; he would proudly say he was a cryptid hunter. He used to have one of those t-shirts that said, “I believe.” on the front. At night, he’d sneak out of the house with a flashlight, recorder, and camera and try and look for them. Them, being aliens (which he now knew were very real), Bigfoot, and of course, his favorite, mothman. He’d be out there for hours listening to the sounds of the forest and its inhabitants. Keith would always find himself brought to one spot in the forest where it was especially quiet. He’d turn off his flashlight and just look around, think about what could be there. The entire time, his recorder would be going. Some nights when he thought he saw something, he would begin to provide commentary. He still had all of those tapes in his shack back on earth. The old recorder still worked too; it moved from mothman to Voltron while he was there.
So basically, his entire life up until now had revolved around the unknown. For Lance to insult that… Was unforgivable. The young man in question just continued to berate all of his ideas.
“Look, dude, I just don’t think it makes sense? Like there’s literally no evidence towards-”
“I have a bunch actually if you would just listen to me-”
“Keith! No! None of that evidence is real! You’re bigfoot is just a blurry image of young tree that happened to be shorter than everything else!”
“ Excuse me?! ”
“You took that picture when you were eight, how would you know?”
Keith glared. He didn’t want to have this conversation anymore. With one last look of contempt, he stormed out of the room leaving behind a very exasperated Lance. As he strode past a very confused Hunk and Pidge, he found himself walking in the direction of Shiro’s quarters. The second the doors were open, he let himself in with a frustrated rant about how Lance needed to open his eyes. He paced back and forth across the room throwing his hand in the air as he went on about, “The uncanny number of sightings,” and, “We obviously haven’t seen everything .”
“The fact that he dismisses this when we’re literally on an alien spaceship is just… I can’t work with him.”
Shiro watched on in amusement as he continued to complain. He was absolutely fuming. It brought him back to the days when Keith would be caught coming back in the house at five am because he was out so late. He remembered his little brother coming back at ten some days because he fell asleep in the woods. Their parents would scold him for a half and hour before taking away his camera and recorder. Then he’d be grounded. At that, he’d come running back into his room like he was now to whine about them. Something along the lines of, “Hiding humanity from the truth.” A few more minutes into the spiel, Keith used the exact phrasing. He tried to hide his snicker as he went on.
“The world needs to know! But no one- Wait. Shiro, are you laughing at me? You know how important all of this was to me!”
He chuckled. “Yeah. Yeah I know. It’s just that you’ve used those exact words years ago. All the time. From when you were six, up until I left the house. It’s funny that you still say that. You used to do this too, remember? You’d come into my room, frustrated because Mom and Dad took your ‘hunting equipment.’” He sighed contently, “Some things never change I guess.” As he thought back, he also recalled how their parents would give him his stuff back, and his eyes would absolutely light up. His parents confessed to him one day that they enjoyed listening to Keith’s little endeavours on the recorder. They supported him really; it was just the safety they worried about. He wondered if there was a parallel for that today.
Keith just looked to him vacantly. He wasn’t sure how to respond.
Testing the waters, Shiro pressed on. He couldn’t let him be mad at Lance forever. Afterall, his little brother had come to him to talk about the blue paladin before, and it wasn’t always in anger. “You should go talk to him. Apologize,” he suggested. He then paused for a moment to let the idea stir in his head. Keith turned to him, seemingly more open to it. The second he opened his mouth to answer though, Shiro had to add in, “Yeah, he’ll never go out with you if you get mad about something like this.”
Keith only made an indignant sound before starting to leave. Before he left though, he turned over his shoulder and said a quick thanks. Much calmer than before, he made his way to the castle’s sitting area where he left Lance. Once he entered though, he was nowhere to be seen. He could only assume he stormed in a similar fashion after he left. Tiring of their feud, Keith dragged himself to Lance’s room. The door slid open automatically, and he slowly walked in. He stayed far away from the bed where Lance sat with his arms crossed, pouting, and went to stand awkwardly on the other end of the room.
“Hey… Um… I’m to apologize? I guess?”
No response.
“I know I was kind of… Abrasive.”
Still nothing.
Keith groaned, “Just talk to me! I’m trying to be a good guy okay? What do I need to do to get you to not hate me?!”
There was a little shuffling on the bed. Lance was turning to face him but not making eye contact. He mumbled, barely audible, “Maybe if you said sorry or something, I don’t know…”.
Rolling his eyes, he said hastily, “I’m sorry. There. We good now?”
“What for?”
“What? What do you mean what for , I said sorry didn’t I?”
Lance was now looking him in the eye completely, still not pleased as he explained, “What are you sorry for. I, Keith Kogane, am sorry for…”
Keith groaned at the specifics, “I, Keith Kogane, am sorry for hurting your feelings.” He huffed out the final word. “So. We’re okay now, right ?”
The blue paladin smirked to himself. “I don’t know… I’m still feeling a little wounded. You may have to say it a few more times. And like… With feeling now.”
With a withering look, Keith hesitantly walked over to the bed. He sat down next to Lance and awkwardly put his hand on his shoulder. Looking up to him, his eyes were wider. The corners of his mouth were lifted, but not in a smile. More in anticipation of one. His face was noticeably pinker as he said softly, “Lance, I’m really sorry that I hurt your feelings. Will you forgive me?”
Finding it hard to deny it, Lance stammered out his answer, “Oh, um. Uh… Yeah. Yeah, it’s cool. Everything is fine.” Feeling a tad to close for comfort, he scooched away from him.
A little surprised at how easy it was, Keith stood up. He was totally oblivious to what he had just done. At that, he began to walk out of the room. At the door, he stopped to turn around. “Hey Lance?”
“Um… Yeah?”
“I’ll see you around.”