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Keith didn’t always make the best decisions.
Once, when he was thirteen, he went with Shiro and Adam to a skate park. Keith was unimpressed with most of it. The one thing that caught his eye was a tall ramp that no kid dared to go on. Keith watched as some teenagers tried to scale the ramp, though no one could reach the top of it. Adam gave him his old skateboard and pointed to the area the other kids his age hung around. Keith brushed him off and went towards the tall ramp. He’d never ridden a skateboard, but how hard could it be? Shiro turned to watch right as Keith pushed off the ramp. Shiro and Adam ran over to the bottom of the ramp, hoping to catch him before he fell. Despite their best efforts, Keith flew off the fast-moving board. He ended up breaking his wrist, splitting his lip and losing one of his front teeth. To this day, he can’t recall ever seeing Adam so scared. Shiro still laughed about the entire situation.
Keith was always that impulsive. He never saw it as one of his faults. He trusted his gut and always thought it was enough.He would only speak when he was spoken to. He then said exactly what he was thinking. He didn’t like being wrong. His teachers used to call him “high maintenance” or “disrespectful”. Adam always chastised him to think before he spoke. For a long time, Keith didn’t understand why.
Voltron changed that. Suddenly Keith was surrounded by six other people twenty-four seven… or whatever the Altean equivalent is. He was spoken to all the time. His gut feeling often didn’t lead to the best solution. Sometimes he said things that offended his fellow teammates. He had to learn how to work as a team. His fellow paladins helped him learn what that meant.
His break from Voltron taught Keith a lot of things: he learned about his Galra heritage, what it took to be a leader, how everything happens for a reason. He learned what it meant to wish he was somewhere else. He missed being a part of Voltron. He missed Hunk and Pidge’s engineering banter, Shiro and Allura’s strict schedules... he even missed Lance’s stupid pick-up lines.
No, he missed Lance. He missed his right hand man. With Shiro’s absence the two grew really close. Lance finally stopped viewing him as competition and realised how great of a team they were. Keith found himself giving Lance something he’d only given three other people in his life: his trust.
That had to be the reason so many of his visions of the future in the Quantum Abyss included Lance, right? It wasn’t because of his juvenile crush on the other man. Lance had feelings for Allura, not him. He made that clear even before they became paladins.
When he came back to Voltron, Keith found it hard to fit in again. It had been almost three years since he was a paladin. It didn’t help that the team changed almost as much as he had. It took him a long time to understand his place as the Red Paladin. It took him twice that time to understand how to be the Black Paladin. How was he supposed to fall into this role again?
He reverted back to his old social ways. The only one who seemed fazed was Lance. Keith figured that once they were back on Earth Lance wouldn’t care as much. He’d have his family, his parades and his princess, right?
Now this stupid game show was testing all of Keith’s patience. First, they didn’t answer his questions. Then, they made him play some stupid game that had nothing to do with their current mission… yeah, it was only stupid for that reason. It had nothing to do with the fact that he didn’t have enough time to complete his drawings. Then they tried to pry on his team’s insecurities. Sure, Lance didn’t fit the traditional description of smart, but he was by no means dumb. Heck, he was the only one to realise something was wrong with Shiro!
Keith tried not to let his irritation show. They had to get out of this… thing. They still had to get back to Earth. Pidge, Hunk and Lance had to see their families. Shiro had to reconcile with Adam. There was no way they were going to spend eternity in this game show.
When the host asked each person to write the name of the paladin they thought should escape, Keith only had to think for a moment. He scribbled down the name and waited for everyone else to catch up.
Hunk chose Allura. Allura chose Pidge. Keith tried not to think too much into it when Lance chose him.
“Keith, the leader, who do you think deserves to make it out of here, huh?” The picture was revealed and the audience gasped. Keith didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. “Lance? Why Lance?”
I just don’t wanna be stuck here for eternity with Lance.
I don’t wanna have to deal with him and Allura together. I don’t wanna hurt him anymore. I don’t wanna have to keep lying to myself about what he means to me.
“I just-” Something crashed to his side. Keith turned and saw Hunk and Lance scrambling to pick one of their pens up. He knew they must have been playing tic-tac-toe on the screens. Keith smiled slightly. Maybe some things didn’t change in his three years away.
“I just think out of all of us, Lance has the most optimistic outlook on everything. He’s hard on himself, but he’s quick to find the good in others. Lance is the only one of us who can help everyone stay optimistic during the fight against the Galra.”
Keith’s heart was pounding so hard, he didn’t hear anything that came after that. The next thing he knew he was back in Black’s cockpit. “Maybe that was just some… messed up dream.” Keith thought.
“Hey guys, I just dozed off for a second and I had this crazy dream.” Hunk said.
“Garfel Warfel Snick?” Pidge asked.
Keith’s blood ran cold.
Well, quiznack.