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Keith woke later than normal. Had been, consistently, whenever there was an "off day" for the past few phoebs.
Coran had insisted on having an "off quintant" at least once a phoeb, because while Allura knew the importance of staying sharp, Coran understood and stressed that the majority of the team consisted of teenagers.
Coran, evidently, was familiar with the dangers of burnout. And Allura was receptive enough to take these concerns to heart.
Despite this, Allura or Shiro would typically get on the team's case if anyone slept in too long because it meant delaying breakfast for everyone else—since apparently schedules were still non-negotiable on these days. But ever since their visit to the Blade of Marmora...
Keith had been "allowed" to sleep in or stay in his room as long as he pleased on these "off quintants". "Allowed" being in quotes here because it wasn't exactly permission, but distance that was the culprit of this so-called "freedom".
Keith Kogane loved to act tough. It was his crutch, really.
He once heard Pidge describe vulnerability and intimacy as "leaving yourself open to being attacked" and he couldn't have agreed more. So being stoic and volatile to conceal any exploitable weaknesses became his MO.
From the time he was eight and his first foster care agent deemed him "too much of a hassle", to most recently when Lance had called him a "complete pain in my [REDACTED]", Keith developed and mastered the ability to pretend that he wasn't vulnerable.
Pretend.
Keith was good at it, but there was a problem, he realized.
Pretend...
As good as he was at hiding his vulnerability, there was a hole in his method. A massive one.
There was always a weak spot that let that vulnerability out into the open. No matter how much he closed himself off, he always possessed one outlet for his vulnerability to get air... An anchor, if you will. For a while it was his father. And after him, up until four months ago... It was Shiro.
His brother.
The person he would happily and eagerly sacrifice everything to save.
And the person who had stared at him with horror and looked away when Kolivan had announced what he was.
Pretend...
So now he had to remind himself.
Without an anchor, he had to maintain the low repeat of the word in the back-most corner of his mind, ensuring that his exterior didn't crack. Not for a single thing. Because it turned out that he was so dependent on these anchors that once the opening became a wound, it was impossible for Keith to close it.
So he had to cover it with a reminder. A bandaid.
Pretend...
Pretend...
Pretend...
Keith couldn't afford to find a new anchor. He needed time to heal that wound, so he couldn't risk another attack, but by the time it would heal, it would probably be too late to reach out again.
His teammates hated him now, that much was obvious. Some of them just made it more obvious than others.
The harshest had been Allura and Coran.
Coran tried to be polite and maintain their relationship, but there was a clear difficulty he faced in this. Most likely recalling every horrible thing done to his family and home and people by Zarkon and his forces, and hiding it to the best of his ability through forced smiles and praise. Avoiding him had become the best "compromise", so Keith stopped approaching him for advice.
Allura on the other hand hid none of it. Her gaze was scathing for the first few movements. Suffocating, actually. Hunk had once deduced that she probably had this intense, scary side to her under the playful exterior, a side entirely born and fed into by the war. And while he was intrigued about Hunk being right, Keith was petrified when he found himself at the receiving end of that side. For the first few quintants, she refused to allow him in training, and would make comments under her breath about who his mother was, (a particularly low blow that she couldn't have understood the impact of yet). It was only when Coran had a talk with her that she began acting more cordially. Although that meant her simply being distant from him half the time, and just after they had that "tracking" incident that could have led to a nice friendship.
The others...
Pidge was the hardest to read, so Keith simply went about things as normal the way she did. Although he assumed that she was treating him the same because she felt obligated.
Lance and Hunk were clearly uncomfortable about the situation. They tried staying on both sides, but half of those attempts resulted in hurting Keith more.
Lance had instigated the talk Coran had with Allura, but the way he said it had heavily implied that it was simply because he felt pity. Something about Keith "looking more down in the dumps lately".
Keith despised pity.
Hunk had been more kind, the most kind out of the whole population of the Castle. But even he had told Keith "I know it sucks, but I mean the Galra were the ones who destroyed her planet and wiped out all her people, she just needs time to process that you're one of them." Keith had only made a note to never let his shield waver after that interaction.
His relationship with the people they saved had changed drastically too after this came out. At this point Keith didn't care who let that information leak or why.
The only reason they bothered to be subtle about how they felt about him was because they were under the—false—impression that the team was supportive of him.
But he had built up a tolerance for being hated by the masses. It was just something he had to get used to as a "troubled" foster kid.
No no. The only thing that hurt him in this whole saga...
The only person who managed to pierce his shield and strike his heart was his anchor. Who had unknowingly used that singular opening of vulnerability and turned it into a wound.
The man who had taken him in and raised him with his wonderful fiancé when everyone else had deemed him hopeless.
His brother.
Shiro.
That pain, compared to the others, was also immediate.
Shiro had gone with Keith and begrudgingly allowed him to take part in the fight to keep his blade, knowing how important any answers related to his AWOL mother were.
Shiro was the one who had silently urged and persuaded Keith to give up, holding out the dagger to give to Kolivan before it lit up and morphed into a sword.
Shiro was behind Kolivan when he informed Keith that he was allowed to keep his blade because the only way he could awaken it was if he had Galra blood in his veins...
... So Keith had a perfectly easy view of how Shiro's expression had twisted into a horrified shock. It had stuck only for a moment, but Keith saw it.
Now, ever since returning to the palace, Shiro had tried defending Keith. Urging Allura to be more understanding, asking Lance and Hunk to be less "reactive" with him...
But never looking Keith in the eye.
He knew why he didn't. Keith knew that every time Shiro saw him now, he would be reminded of his torture. How he was kidnapped with the Holts and had his arm brutally removed and replaced. How he was forced to give Matt a crippling injury to keep him from being slaughtered while he and Sam continued being forced to fight other prisoners for the entertainment of their captors...
And now, of course, everything they had endured and witnessed as a team up until now.
Every quintant they spent fighting this war contained at least one reminder of how terrible the Galran Empire and its denizens were.
So Keith understood.
For the four phoebs that this went on for, and however long this would last, Keith understood.
So damn it, why did it hurt so much...?
Right now, he was laying in a bed that wasn't his. In a room that was only offered to him by the leaders of this planet because they falsely assumed that the team would protest if he was asked to stay in his Lion instead. At this point he would have preferred to sleep in Red, but he couldn't come off as impolite and make his current image even worse, (no matter how tempting it was at this point).
He found himself getting no sleep again. Staring endlessly at the blade that had given him the key to unlocking an understanding at the cost of severely wounding him.
The only way he could have this blade was if his mother was a member of the Blade of Marmora. He had briefly caught a look of understanding on Kolivan's face as if to confirm this. He might even have been able to ask who his mother was.
But if she was part of a resistance against Zarkon... It actually made a little sense why she left.
Maybe she crashed on Earth or something. Met Tex and had Keith and left him with this clue to find her when he was older. Going back and fighting the war so that maybe he wouldn't have to.
But that still left him potentially at the mercy of people who would hate him once they found out what he was.
How could he even be sure that she left to protect him, anyway? All he knew was that she left.
But...
A teasing voice in his head asked.
If she didn't want to see me again, why would she leave me with a way to find her...?
Keith groaned, refusing to look at the blade while also refusing to let go of it. Turning over in the uncomfortably stiff bed and trying to sleep.
At least before he found an unwelcome surprise the following morning.
• • •
"Are you fucking kidding me‽"
Keith blinked, sitting up in his room in the Castle and immediately feeling the seductive grip of curiosity on his conscience.
It was Pidge. And whatever she was yelling about, she was angry.
‘Less than two hours of sleep, every waking minute spent worrying about her family members, and now someone had the nerve to break her machine’ angry.
He sat up, begrudgingly indulging his stomach's desire for sustenance, and exiting his room. Wandering through the cold grey hallways of the giant ship towards the kitchen where the noise was coming from.
He didn't put much effort into his appearance on these off quintants anymore. Right now, for example, he was barefoot, and wearing the pair of black sweatpants he managed to snag at the Space Mall alongside his t-shirt. Discarding his favorite jacket as if he was unworthy of it. To top it off, his hair was a mess.
But none of those things were on his priority list right now.
As much as he hated having to face that tension again, the curiosity he had for whatever Pidge was angry about had too much of a death grip on his psyche. And also, he hadn't eaten since yesterday after they returned from that planet, which Pidge got on his case for.
"Pidge," He couldn't help tensing as he heard Shiro's voice. Carrying a more stern tone this time. "Watch your language."
"Why the FUCK does language matter now, Shiro‽ You wanna see the language on THIS‽ I have a translator, you know!"
Oh boy, what was this about, indeed...?
Originally, Keith assumed that Lance or Hunk had accidentally ruined a contraption of Pidge's. But for Shiro to need to warn her about cursing...
This had to be something more serious. Which, he reasoned to himself, meant that he should be in on this conversation. Even if it was hanging in the background and listening like usual.
He rounded the corner, completely oblivious to what he was about to take part in...
And suddenly all eyes were on him while the noise was silenced.
The entire team.
From left to right, Keith spotted the staring of Shiro, Allura, Hunk, and Lance, with Pidge on the other side of the kitchen island, her body blocking something. Apparently it was the subject of the conversation. Coran was sandwiched awkwardly behind and between Allura and Shiro, but his staring was just as intense.
Keith couldn't help winding up like a spring. He was used to uncomfortable stares that lingered just long enough for him to pick up on... But that should have stopped two phoebs ago...
"Um... Hi...?"
"Keith," Allura said in a tone completely different than what she had given him for the past few phoebs. He couldn't put a finger on it yet, so his caution immediately kicked in. "Is it true?"
Before Keith could answer, he saw Pidge lower her head and growl at the table. "The fact that you have to fucking ask..."
"Pidge." Shiro said warningly.
"SHUT UP, SHIRO!" Every single person in the room jumped. Eyes went wide as saucers and jaws dropped to the floor. "What the HELL is wrong with you‽ You should be angrier than I am! He's your fucking BROTHER, isn't he‽"
Keith blinked, frowning a bit as he processed just how relevant he probably was to this conversation.
He tried again to look at the subject, and due to her outburst, Pidge no longer blocked the object in question.
Wait... That box...
Keith paled and tensed at the same time. Not even processing yet that this was anger for him instead of anger directed at him.
"Keith—!" Pidge whipped her head around, honey-brown eyes flaring in rage as her shoulders shook. "What the fuck is this...? And why the fuck was it at your door‽"
Keith's mouth went dry.
Yesterday, they returned from a mission involving them staying at a planet they liberated. And the hospitality Keith had received in comparison to his non-Galran teammates was... Not unusual.
Now that he realized... His little "gift" had disappeared after he'd opted to leave it outside his door.
He had—wrongly—assumed that one of the staff members had taken it back to avoid his teammates seeing it.
"Um," He started stiffly. Wanting the conversation to end as soon as possible because he could feel the exasperation from the others. "A box?"
"Did you see what's in the box, Keith...?" She asked in a low tone through gritted teeth.
And she caught him in the lie before he even said it.
So she grabbed the edge of the box, turning and shoving it against his chest and making a rattling sound with the contents. Forcing him to look at the container again and reveal his disgusted familiarity to what was in it.
A dead animal.
More specifically, an animal that was a common pest on that planet. Essentially their version of a rat.
More than that, there was a scribbled paper over the body. Revealing what it was while making the message unmistakable.
"Do you know what this says, Keith...‽"
Before he could answer: "No, and I don't want to," she had her translator out. Harshly telling it to "read this out loud in English".
And before anyone could brace themselves...
"This will be the last pest that called itself a paladin. Leave before you end up like him."
And suddenly Pidge was shaking all over again.
When she looked at him, Keith was shocked. Not by the fact that her rage had temporarily shifted to horror, but by the realization that she was feeling it on his behalf.
This wasn't blame.
This wasn't even pity.
This was sympathy.
Care.
"Why didn't you tell us about this...?" Upon seeing his expression, her rage came out again. The atmosphere of the room darkening. "Why aren't you angry about this...?"
Then, her eyes went wide, and Keith's panic arrived too late to satiate the realization that hit her.
"This isn't the first time something like this happened, is it, Keith‽"
The way Keith's body tensed gave away the answer to everyone much more efficiently than any verbal answer could.
He was so tense that he didn't even notice how the expressions on everyone else had changed, too.
He heard her mutter one more time. Based on the constant replaying in his head, he was pretty sure it went something like: "Holy fuck, we're idiots..."
She took one more deep breath. Something that turned out to be the last mildly civil action she made in this entire uncomfortable but necessary conversation.
The first of many conversations like this, actually.
That act of civility was immediately silenced when she slammed the box back down on the island, making everyone jump.
"How many times has this happened, Keith‽"
He stammered quietly, but his answer was loud enough to make everyone shudder. "I—I don't know... I stopped counting after the fifth—"
"The FIFTH‽" Pidge screamed. "What planet was that‽"
"O—Olkarion, I think...?"
"Olka—‽" He heard Hunk breathe.
He completely forgot that everyone else was there. And how he could feel the sting of another feeling he hated.
Humiliation.
He remembered one reason why he never told anyone…
But strangely, he didn't see disappointment or annoyance in their expressions, but instead what looked like concern.
"Olkarion..." He saw Pidge counting off with her fingers as she recalled every planet they visited afterward. Adding to a number that Keith had stopped counting because it made him too uncomfortable to process... "Eleven... Five plus eleven..."
This time, it was Lance that broke the silence. "Sixteen times, Keith...?"
"Not—" He swallowed. "Not all of them did something like this... But—"
"But what?" Pidge snapped again. "They all made it clear they don't like you anymore, huh? You save their planet and a bunch of others hundreds of times, but they still treated you like one of Zarkon's lackeys‽"
Keith flinched at the bluntness.
"Why the fuck are you okay with this, Keith‽ No part of this is okay! I don't care if you were rude to them, you're a Paladin like the rest of us! You've risked your life protecting these planets just as much as us! And you deserve to be treated with respect!"
Keith was quiet for a moment before shrugging. Trying to replay that word over and over again for his own sake.
PRETEND...
PRETEND...
PRETEND...
"I mean... They've all suffered because of the Galra, haven't they? So—So I don't know... I guess I assumed they just needed time to process...?"
Keith didn't even realize how much those words had gutted the team. Not until later when another conversation would happen. Hunk in particular had to turn around so he wouldn't burst into tears. After all... Keith parroting this sentiment meant that Hunk had unknowingly trained him to take this treatment quietly.
They all had, whether they understood that or not.
"Allura," Pidge breathed. "Can you please tell them that we know...? And that we'll... I dunno, turn down any non-official visits unless they stop...?" Some kind of punishment...?
Allura sighed. Normally, she would play devil's advocate and urge that maintaining good relationships is important. Perhaps she would have even used the "processing" argument if Keith hadn't bludgeoned it first.
But instead, this time, she said nothing, turning and muttering to Coran to try and contact the planets.
In the minor scuffle, Keith took the opportunity of not being looked at to rush out. Completely forgetting or betraying his hunger and running at a high speed while the others were too late to react and potentially catch up.
"Keith‽"
"Keith, wait!"
"Where's he—?"
Pidge blinked once, and then promptly shoved the box towards the others. "Can someone burn this? I'm going after him."
"Pidge—" It was Shiro again, voice sounding much less stable than before.
"Shiro—!" Pidge groaned. "Just—Let me talk to him, please‽"
At this point, Shiro's resolve was too weak to protest. "... Okay..."
Pidge was off, rocketing herself down the halls in search of her teammate.
His room? No.
The training deck? No.
His Lion...?
Pidge made a break for the hangar containing the Red Lion.
She noticed it.
She noticed the way the team treated Keith after finding out what honestly wasn't even "big" news as far as she was concerned. Hell, she had been relieved. Why wouldn't she be? Her closest friend at the moment—(don't tell Hunk and Lance)—had finally made an important breakthrough in learning about his mother after years of endless questions. Surely the fact that she was in the Blade of Marmora at least quartered the list.
But then... She noticed the team's reactions.
Allura's immediate disdain as if all the warm and friendly moments she had shared with Keith no longer meant anything to her.
Coran's similar disdain that he at least tried to hide.
Shiro's attempts at defending Keith as if it concealed his disdain.
Lance's feigned indifference, as if pretending that all was normal would magically make it true, on top of generally avoiding Keith.
Hunk's attempts at comfort that always fell flat nowadays.
Pidge noticed it all. And it pissed her off to no end.
What the Hell was such a big deal about Keith being half Galra? He didn't know Galran. He didn't grow up around them. He never even met his mother. The whole reason they found this out was because he had no idea about any of this!
So why the fuck was he being punished as if he was part of Zarkon's army‽ As if he hadn't risked his life countless times in order to defeat Zarkon‽
Pidge had met him when she was known as Katie Holt. And she was sure that half the reason Keith was more open to her from the jump was because he recognized her from their brief but intimate interaction years ago. Chatting lightly while they watched their loved ones rocket away for that damn Kerberos Mission.
She noticed then, too.
She noticed how guarded he was. Similar to how she was but ultimately different in motive.
While Katie was guarded by an identity crisis that was now beginning to resurface in space...
Keith was guarded by loneliness.
She noticed all the hints that made this make sense: Keith was an orphan. His mother left when he was an infant and his father died when he was young, leaving him in foster care where he proceeded to be tossed around like mad, and the agents were somehow surprised when he started lashing out because of it. Keith, as an individual, was no stranger to being rejected, and while he was introverted, he definitely wasn't mean. That was an act he put up to keep people from hurting him. An act that even people as observant as Hunk and Lance had fallen for at one time or another.
But she noticed it.
Which was exactly how they became faster friends compared to the rest of the team. They didn't talk much, but they didn't need to. Pidge and Keith both understood self-isolation, and found comfort in simply being in each others' vicinities to satiate that void.
This didn't mean deep or even uncomfortable conversations didn't happen. How else would she have found out how much that blade meant to Keith? And how else would he have known that she actually preferred who she was in space compared to on Earth?
But when it came to basic company... They enjoyed mutual silence.
An odd-looking dynamic, definitely. But a close friendship that rarely needed speaking.
Which was why she noticed how much this was hurting him.
Why she was trying to be his normalcy until this—hopefully—passed.
And why she had insisted on talking to him first.
Pidge paused briefly when she made it to the tunnel. She couldn't zip-line down to it, (the sheer fact that the handles didn't come when the sensors caught her signaled that he was there), so she slid down the rim of the tunnel on her socks.
Then, she was in front of Red.
"Red? Is Keith in there...?"
Red didn't respond. Pidge couldn't blame her.
"... I'm not gonna ask if he's okay because I know he's not..." She sighed. "Can I... Come up and talk to him, please...?"
There was a hum, a low growl really, and then she laid down to allow entrance.
"Thanks... I'll try to help him..."
The grumble she received in turn seemed like a threat, so Pidge made note of it.
"Keith?" The person curled up in the Red Lion's cockpit tightened his position, refusing to respond. "Keith, you don't have to say anything, okay? I know that was rough. Just... Don't close yourself off too much, please...?"
Keith might have mumbled something, but she couldn't be sure. Picking a spot and sitting crisscrossed against one of the walls while Keith remained by his seat.
It was quiet for a while. Very quiet.
Normally, a long period of silence wasn't alarming for the two of them. But right now...
Pidge knew better than to push it.
On Keith's end... Someone was pushing. And it wasn't his friend.
Keith, she doesn't pity you...
Doesn't she, Red?
Of course she doesn't. I might not be her Lion, but she's worried.
... This already hurts too much, Red... I don't wanna chance it...
I understand, but I think you'll find her a good person to lean on.
And how do I know she's not doing this because she feels like she has to...?
Because if she did, she'd be pushing you to talk, wouldn't she?
Keith glanced back to his side where Pidge was. Fidgeting a bit with her fingers but not looking bored. She looked... Nervous.
She glanced up once, and the second their eyes met, Keith was forced to concede that Red was right.
“I… I messed up, I think.” She started quietly.
“Huh?”
“I—I was trying to treat you normally so you had at least one person who wasn’t being different with you… But that probably looked like I was in denial or something, right?”
Keith didn’t respond for a moment. Eventually shrugging before he did so. “I mean… I thought it was nice. I just wasn’t…” He didn’t want to say it because he knew it would sting, but Pidge silently urged it out. “I wasn’t sure if you were just doing that because you felt obligated to.”
“Dude,” Pidge frowned. “No. Are you kidding? You saw how angry I got back there… Sorry for putting you on the spot too, by the way… But I’ve been holding that back for ages because I didn’t want you to think I was mad at you…”
“You’ve been mad this whole time?”
“At the team, Keith!” Pidge shouted. “Do you know how fucking infuriating it was watching them all act like all the things we did together suddenly mean nothing because—What‽ Because your mom was a Galra‽” She threw her hands up. “Keith, do you know what I thought when I heard that‽ I thought: “Finally! Keith has a clue who his mom was!””
Keith blinked, recognizing that he should have expected this outburst after earlier.
Most liked to assume that Keith was more hotheaded due to his rivalry with Lance, and because of his more “brooding” nature.
But he and Lance were both volatile together because they had become experts at winding each other up.
And all things considered, the “brooding” was just him being an introvert.
No, the real hothead of Team Voltron had always been Pidge.
Honestly, Keith knew this so well that had he not been distracted by what he was going through, he would have noticed that Pidge had gone an uncomfortably long time without so much as making a sarcastic quip.
Had he not been distracted, he would have been bracing himself for an explosion like what had happened in the kitchen just now.
“Keith…” Pidge started again quietly. “You know what’s really been pissing me off about this…? It’s… Kinda a weird thing to harp on, but…”
“I mean, I’ve had this fixation with my mom’s blade for forever, so…”
“Well… I’m—Obviously I’m mad at the others for what I just said—“
“Shouted.” Keith humorously corrected.
“Whatever!” Pidge threw her hands up. “But I’m really mad that they ruined that breakthrough for you! Maybe I’m just biased because the whole reason I’m in outer—fucking—space was to find my dad and brother, but you finally make some progress in finding out about your mom and you can’t even appreciate it because the team’s being fucking racist to you!”
Keith jumped. “Pidge—“
“Don’t, Keith! That’s exactly what it is! And you know what? I can think of two people who should have understood but for some reason—!” She cut herself off.
She didn’t even have to name them because Keith was present for that conversation.
Lance had paused the board game they’d gotten at the Space Mall almost a year back, and suddenly asked if they were okay with a sudden, serious conversation.
Lance went on to explain how much he liked it in space, not just because of the vast variety of worlds and cultures, but because he wasn’t singled out from his peers. All species were treated as equal among one another—except for the Galra—and Lance was never asked to “speak English” or to “tone down” his stories from when he was growing up in Nuevitas. He was just human like the rest of his teammates, and if anything the other people they encountered were curious and wanted to know more.
It was such a breath of fresh air compared to how he was treated on Earth.
Similarly, Hunk recalled how nice it felt to not have anyone comment how surprised they were that he could “speak so well”. And when people were confused about where Samoa was, Hunk knew it wasn’t due to intentional ignorance but instead due to the fact that Earth was completely new in this vast system of planets known to have sapient, evolved life on it.
None of them had thought to touch on how Galra were collectively viewed because the Galran Empire was causing legitimate harm to many planets housing millions of innocents. Zarkon and Haggar’s names were spoken with complete fear and resentment lacing them for good reason. They were tyrants in every sense of the word, and everything that the team had been taught in their history classes of every horrible act that a human society had done—genocides such as the Holocaust or the Rape of Nanjing—Zarkon’s empire and army had done it at least once to every other planet under their control.
But, there was another reason behind their “blind-eye” that they were all more ashamed of.
They had never considered the way Galra were viewed as being wrong because up until recently, they had yet to encounter anyone within the species who wasn’t loyal to Zarkon and his cause. They had yet to—to their knowledge—meet a Galra who was fully innocent.
And they definitely weren’t expecting one of their teammates to be part Galra…
Lance and Hunk, in Pidge’s opinion, should have been understanding for what Keith was going through. Lance especially had to deal with similar every time he admitted proudly or was forced to admit that he was from Cuba.
Instead, they had “claimed neutrality”, but really just quietly taken Allura’s side in the whole mess because they weren’t sure how to handle this revelation themselves.
Keith lowered his head, Pidge took a long look at him, and she understood. Just like always. Dragging herself on her knees to him until she was close enough to carefully pull him into a hug. “You shouldn’t be thinking this at all… But in case it needs to be said: You’re not a monster… You’re not evil… And you don’t deserve to be treated like this.”
She took a breath and spoke more confidently when Keith leaned on her.
“You are the Red Paladin of Team Voltron… You were chosen by the pickiest Lion second to Black.” She ignored the indignant grumble. “You’re our quiet strength. You’re the one who actually sits back and observes, and you catch the things the rest of us can’t. You care, you care so much you throw your life on the line for us and for the freedom of the universe every single day. Do you think you would’ve marooned yourself out in the middle of space in a tiny escape pod, when you thought Sendak was tracking us with your blade, if you didn’t care?”
Keith couldn’t respond, because they both knew the answer.
“You’re just as important to this team as the we are to you. Understand something: Team Voltron is your family, Keith, and it’s not your fault we failed you this time.”
Keith wasn’t expecting those words to hit the hardest, and Pidge would later pat herself on the back for stringing together such an effective and poignant set of words.
He held on for a bit longer, hesitantly returning the hug and finally relaxing his guard when she tightened her end.
They entered another period of silent comfort after this. It lasted longer than usual, and it felt heavier than most times, but it did what it was supposed to. What it could, for now.
No, Keith wasn’t okay, and wouldn’t be for a while.
But he was letting someone into that wound. Someone who wanted to help him heal it.
So, it was a start.