AN/ Update: Slight grammar fixes, and revisions included phrasing. Enjoy!
Keith sat the edge of his bed. It was late at night, at least by earth's time. But, honestly, it was much harder to tell time off planet with no sunrise and sunset well, anywhere.
The rest of the team had all retired to their rooms and had long fallen asleep. Keith knew this because he had been lying in bed, silent, for at least an hour and a half to make sure the castle was completely silent. Once everything was quiet, he pulled his knife out from underneath his pillow. The whole team might know about his Galra roots now, but leaving the knife in the open, exposed, felt much too unnatural.
Looking down at the knife in his hands, Keith unraveled the athletic bandages from its hilt. The Galra insignia shimmered purple as he rotated the weapon in his hands. He stabbed at the air with it once. The knife had since regained its original size from after it changed during the Marmora trials, but still felt different somehow. Almost like it carried a new weight. Not physically, of course. But physiologically, the thing left figurative ton of unanswered questions. He stabbed at the air again with the weapon. Questions he was determined to get to the roots of.
"Like where you came from." Keith said aloud.
"I came from down the hall, dummy." Lance answered. Keith jumped off of the bed and hid his knife behind his back. He turned to see Lance standing in the open doorway to his room, wearing his blue robe and ridiculous facial cream. "How long have you been brooding over that knife?" Lance asked.
"How long have you been watching me!?" Keith hissed in reply.
"I don't know. Five minutes? I kind of assumed you would say something when the door opened, but I guess you were too deep in the emo zone to notice the sound." Lance shrugged.
"Why are you in my room!?"
"The light was on."
"Lance!" Keith shouted. He was growing flustered, and could feel his face growing red. He rubbed his face like he was tired to hide it. "You have no business barging into my room."
"Whoa, I'm just checking in on you dude." Lance held his arms up in a dismissive manner. "I figured you might want to talk some about recent events." Lance rose his eye brows and looked at the arm holding the Galra knife behind Keith's back.
"I'm good." Keith told him. He sat back down on the bed, away from Lance's line of sight.
"Aw, come on, you don't want to talk about your mysterious family tree?" Lance continued. He walked over to Keith's bed plopped down beside him. "I bet there's some real shockers in there."
"I'd rather not." Keith warned.
"Alright, you don't have too then." Lance conceded. Keith huffed angrily and turned his back to him. "I'm sorry if I pushed a little too far, Keith. I'm sure I'm the last thing you want to deal with right now."
"You've got that right." Keith snarked back.
"Well, I was expecting something more along the lines of 'No Lance, you're no trouble at all,' but that's okay too, I guess."
They were both quiet for a moment, listening to the sounds of the tired castle. Even though there was no such thing as night in space, the castle seemed to creak louder when everyone was asleep.
"Could you get out of my room Lance?" Keith finally asked. Lance in turn laid down on his bed and spread his lanky limbs over the entire spread.
"But your bed is so comfortable," Lance played, looking up at Keith with phony puppy dog eyes. Keith swiveled on the bed and pressed his legs up against Lance's torso. A look of concern took over Lance's face. "You're not going to kick me off, are you bud?" Lance laughed nervously.
"Of course not." Keith lied. He pushed back and forced Lance against the wall with his feet.
"Hey!" Lance cried out in protest. He swatted at Keith's legs, and Keith pushed back harder. "Get off of me!" Lance laughed.
"Get out of my room!" Keith shot back.
"I can't! You're pinning me against the wall!" Lance cried. He grabbed at Keith leg's and slapped at it weakly.
"You are not going to get me to move by hitting me like a little kid would," Keith laughed. Lance grabbed his knee and yanked, pulling Keith loose from his position. "Hey!" Keith yelled. Lance laughed as he pulled Keith off his butt and pushed him onto the floor. Keith grabbed Lance's knee as he fell, pulling Lance to the floor with him.
Lance landed on top of Keith's side, which cracked against the hard floor.
"Ow!" Keith yelped.
"That didn't hurt." Lance accused.
"How would you know?" Keith pushed at Lance's chest to push him off, but Lance stayed firm in place. The pilot had enough rough play experience with his siblings and cousins to be able to keep himself where he wanted during wrestling matches.
"Dude, you fall on your butt in the training room more than everyone else combined. If anything, your butt is callused enough to take a fall off anything."
"I didn't know you knew so much about my butt." Keith deadpanned.
"Alright, you made it weird." Lance recoiled and pulled himself off Keith. Keith squirmed away and pulled himself back onto the bed.
"About time you got off," Keith sighed. "I thought I was going to have to threaten you." Keith removed his knife from the waist band of his pajamas and placed it delicately on the bed.
"You still had the knife?!" Lance quickly pulled himself up and stole the knife from the bed. "What the heck is wrong with you? You could've accidently stabbed me!"
"Accidently?" Keith asked.
"See? There you go threating to murder me again. If I didn't know better, I'd say Galra Keith is finally ready to make his move and kill the leader of Voltron."
"First of all, you are not the leader of Voltron." Keith pointed out. "And second of all, Galra Keith is still just Keith."
"Whatever you say, 'Keith.'" Lance pressed. "Besides, we all know who runs things around here." Lance gestured to himself and puffed out his chest powerfully.
"I guess you do do a lot of running as the right leg." Keith concluded with a hint of sarcasm.
"Well thanks buddy. You make it sound so underwhelming." Lance smiled, sort of bitterly.
"No problem buddy." Keith patted Lance on the back. "Any time."
"Alright, don't get all touchy and feely with me Keith. Your furry genes will rub off on me."
"Excuse me?" Keith exclaimed. He pulled his hand away and scooted further down the bed. "I am NOT a furry." He held his index finger up and pointed accusingly at Lance.
"I didn't say you were." Lance pointed out. "I only said you had furry genes."
Keith was taken aback, and now had both of his hands placed defensively on his chest.
"How could you say that?!" Keith exclaimed.
"Well, obviously someone in your family was a furry. And I don't want to risk catching that."
"No one in my family was a furry, Lance!" Keith shot back. Lance shrugged defiantly.
"Well somebody in your gene pool slept with a Galra." Lance shot back. "And it had to have been somebody directly related to you. So… Who is it?" He teased.
"No one!" Keith started. Then he paused. His eyebrows knotted together as he fell into deep thought. Suddenly, his face drained of color.
The room fell quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time. The blue pilot shuffled uncomfortably in the awkward silence.
"Keith... are you alright?" He finally asked.
Keith stayed frozen in place, but Lance could see the slight shaking of his hands. Lance tentatively placed his hand on Keith's back. "Is it because I asked about your family? Dude, I'm sorry. Everybody has weird family members. It's really no big deal."
"Oh my god." Keith muttered to himself.
"What? What is it Keith?" Lance asked.
"Lance," Keith turned to look Lance in the eyes. "I think it was my dad."
"The furry or the Galra?" Lance questioned.
"The, ugh, furry...?" Keith muttered. He shook his head and continued to look down at his lap. "My dad must have... he..." Keith trailed off without finishing the thought.
"Oh," Lance muttered. "I didn't think you would actually know who it was." He turned and ran his fingers nervously through his hair. "I, um, ugh… Yikes dude."
"Yeah, yikes…" Keith repeated. His thumb was rubbing the symbol on the knife again, almost absentmindedly. Lance patted his back a couple more times, then slowly started to rub it slowly. Keith made a strange noise, and it took Lance a minute to realize what it was.
"Whoa, are you crying?" Lance asked. Keith dropped the knife and buried his eyes into the crook of his elbow.
"No," Keith whimpered. "I just need a minute."
"No, that's okay man, take a minute." Lance assured him. He patted his back again, then rested his arm across Keith's shoulder. Keith whimpered something and nodded in understanding.
"It's just," Keith sniffed and swallowed hard. "It just sort of all felt real all of a sudden. Why I have this knife, why I never met my mom…" A weak whimper escaped from him as he leaned in closer to Lance. "Why wouldn't my dad tell me about my mom...?"
"You're okay," Lance uncomfortably soothed. "I'm sure you're just tired."
Keith pressed closer into Lance's side and cried even harder.
"Okay, we're doing that now," Lance said aloud. He moved his other arm and draped it around Keith. "That's okay, let it out man." He jumped slightly as Keith let out another wave of sobs. It seems he was a bit of an ugly crier.
"I can't believe you called my dad a furry." Keith eventually cried.
"I'm sorry." Lance apologized.
"I can't believe you're right." He cried even harder.
"I know," Lance nodded. "I have a way of bringing out the truth in people."
Keith weakly punched him in the shoulder.
"You're the worst Lance," Keith sniffed as the last bit of water left his eyes.
"I know, you've told me that too." Lance laughed.
Keith laughed lightly and pulled away. He sat up and wiped his eyes, leaving his face red and puffy.
"Thanks for the minute, Lance." Keith said.
"Ah, don't mention it man," Lance smiled. He pointed at Keith's face and waved his finger purposefully. "This just means you owe me one later."
"Yeah, we'll see about that." Keith smiled.
"Yes we will Keith! You never know when I might need some a backup emo-support." He snapped his fingers and pointed at him with a pair of finger guns. "Maybe even some backup Galra support."
"Still just Keith support." Keith told him. Lance pushed himself off the bed and began walking towards the door.
"That little but of Galra in you we know about now, doesn't change how we knew you before Keith. You're still my hot headed copilot who happens to owe my a favor. You just have some bonus points for it now."
"Gee, thanks Lance." Keith deadpanned.
"Your welcome." Lance grinned. He placed his hands on the doorway right before he left. "Can you promise me something Keith?"
Keith leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
"Ugh, yeah. What is it?" he asked.
"If you suddenly sprout pointy ears, or start showing signs of purple skin, you better tell me ASAP." Lance smiled. Keith rolled his eyes and pulled away.
"Fine. If I suddenly hit a second puberty and literally become 'Galra Keith', you'll be the first to know."
"Nice." Lance smiled. He stepped backwards into the hall and placed his hand on the door scanner. "Well, a face like this needs a healthy amount of beauty sleep. I'll see you in the morning, man."
"Yeah. Night Lance."
"Night Keith."