Disclaimer: All belongs to dreamworks.
And the third one of the Keith Week. Originally posted on Archive of Our Own. I actually did other two days, but the results were really lame and I have no interest in bringing them here. This has a... pinch of klunk, it's very subtle. Eh, but you can see it as friendship, why not.
English is not my first language.
Keith
Keith doesn't remember his mother, and his father was something faint in his memory, but for what he can recall, he wasn't purple.
He always thought he was human, full and completely, and he never thought he belonged anywhere else. But he turns out to be part Galra and he's unsure at first on how to react.
He hides it.
He's scared. How can he be a Galra? Of everyone, why he? It is not something he can say to them easily. It isn't something he can just comment in the middle of dinner while they're eating green goo or something of the likes. And while he wants to believe his team will support him, the reality hits him like a brick.
The Galras anihilated Coran and Allura's planet. They broke Pidge's family. They tortured Shiro.
He hides it.
It doesn't take too long before Shiro discovers him and ask him what does that means, and Keith first reaction is to say he touched quintessence and maybe that's what's causing it. And Shiro believes it for the moments.
But Keith is not sure. Is he that lucky? He's afraid of not being human, afraid of what that means and afraid of what he means, but then he thinks something in him tells him he should be accepting it already. It's disgusting, the way he feels, and he tries to push him inside him and forget about everything.
And then, when he remembers Shiro's widened eyes, he swallows hard and tries to think that Shiro wouldn't hate him for that. Shiro would never hate him for that.
Maybe if he repeats it enough times, he will believe it.
Allura announces he's indeed part Galra and they aren't sure of how to react. Shiro and Pidge are quiet, very quiet, all while Lance and Hunk are cheering him and talking on how much that doesn't matter and how much they're a team and how much support they will give them. And he is sure they will. He smiles softly an their hugs; all while they inspect his purple skin because he transformed in their request.
Shiro evades his eyes and Pidge leaves the room quickly. Allura and Coran's faces are not better.
As diplomatic as they are, it barely shows. But Keith knows them, Keith's been living in that ship with them for months, and he knows they're not okay with this, and he is unsure if they will ever be. And he feels that wave of disgust about being something he doesn't feel like he is travelling through him.
He has to endure it.
Pidge finally talks with him. It isn't about something important, at least at first, she talks about a piece of technology they found and next thing he knows, Pidge says, "Look, I'm sorry. I was surprised. I still consider you my team mate and... we're good."
It didn't take that much.
Pidge's smile is sad and her eyes scream doubts, but then she smiles big and hugs him, hard, she's warm and easy to hug and when Keith realizes he's hugging back, albeit awkwardly.
When Pidge says everything is okay, Keith can start to believe it.
She inspect his purple skin, and the way his eyes glow (but they're still the same, the pupil didn't went wide or yellow) and she's interested in how he really doesn't look different except, well, his skin turns deep purple.
And that eases her, for some reason.
Her faces softens, and for a second guilt travels through her eyes before she smiles again and says she has other things to do.
Keith's heart tightens in his chest and he feels lighter and happier for the rest of the day.
Shiro is difficult.
And it isn't because he wasn't supportive, it is because he's too supporting, without caring about his own needs first. Keith isn't a conscious man in the slightest, about his feelings, and the ones of other people were hard to manage; he still knows Shiro is trying too hard to make it like it isn't a big deal.
But it is a big deal, and Shiro had to accept that.
And when they train hand by hand and Keith starts growing again and becoming purple, Shiro just smiles sadly. He goes closer, closer, and touches his cheek with a finger. Keith laughing is sweet and low, and Shiro can't avoid to laugh too.
Shiro ask him to stay like that for a while. He also ask for a rest.
And Shiro seems exhausted after five minutes, and his eyes don't stop switching between slight disgust and then, to something akin awe.
"You're very brave, Keith."
Keith lets go the breath he didn't know he was holding, and he realizes he was a about to cry for Shiro's scrutiny.
They end the day. But Shiro finally stops seeing at Keith with fear and it sometimes just changes to a extreme concern, but Keith is used to that look, and doesn't really really mind.
Keith really doesn't mind how Shiro looks at him, the only thing he can waits is that Shiro looks at him how he used to look at him, back when he was human.
Allura and Coran are weird, in the sense he doesn't know how to deal with them. Allura is too proper and stern, Coran is too old and weird. Both are unreachable to him for different reasons, and he's not sure how he can made them see he's in their side still, always.
It is them who come to him and ask him tons of question. Since when? How much can you transform? For how long can you keep your human form?
And in those meetings, an idea came out. Rebellious Galras, and they thought that if Keith was still Keith with Galra blood in their veins, then the Galras couldn't be all that bad. There must be people there, Galras who are exhausted of their leaders being tyrannic.
Allura and Coran are excited. They keep talking about a revolution from the inside plus Voltron would make the work far more easy and impressive.
Keith isn't sure, because he hasn't seen a good Galra yet and he doesn't want to get his hope up, not now that he's trying to be oblivious about his nature.
And when they ask him about that, he says he does not think in it. They look him with concern, just like Shiro, and they interrupt themselves in the middle of an advise.
He needs time.
Keith doesn't know how to feel about being a Galra, if he has to be honest.
He supposed he always felt... different, as if there was something more to him, but he always attached it to his dreams as a pilot or as an angsty teen phase. Now, he wasn't so sure. And it's weird because, the only time when he had ever feel normal was as a Voltron paladin.
As if the stars were waiting for him.
If it were any other race... Keith thinks in the unfair destiny of being a hybrid product of Earth, such a distant and lonely planet, and the Galra, an empire who has reigned for ten thousand years. Ironic, of course; sad was how it felt. While he tries to hides his feelings about them, truth is that he doesn't knows what else to think of himself.
Because if he came from a place who is capable of such things...
But maybe the Galras are not bad. Not all of them. And he doesn't know them, and he's not sure if he wants to know them, but he holds in him the fact the Galras can be good too, just as how people on Earth can be good and bad.
And that eases him, and he can see the Galras with most respect. He can see with more respect any Galra being who finds themselves governed by such assholes.
If there's any Galra out there who needs help, they can be damn sure Keith will be the first to help them.
Keith was never a man who liked touching but he is fair okay with Hunk and Lance touching his skin. Probably because when they do it, they are reassuring, they treat him like if he were a bit more normal than how he feels lately.
His head is in Lance's lap and his feet are in Hunk's lap, they talk about something that seems exciting but his mind is only in their light touches, until something escapes through his lips like if he's been holding it for so long. He's tired, very tired, and they should be sleeping, but they're not and Keith can't help it.
"Do you guys... still see me as a human?"
His voice breaks, and Lance and Hunk do that thing again when they look at each other and they seem to communicate with their minds. Keith is a bit jealous for that, because he feels left out, but then they change their faces to a smile, and Lance is the one who talks.
"You're an idiot, what are you even talking about?"
And while Hunk is complaining by Lance's lack of manners, Keith is actually very grateful for that. Because that means yes.
Yes was the only thing he wanted.
And if he has to be honest,
what the hell.
Only because he's purple and his eyes glow and he suddenly has growing spurt that come back to normal after some minutes, who gives a damn.
He's not them simple because he didn't live there. And he's long gone to try to hate the Galras, and he could be ready to give them a chance, but he knows nothing about them. So he isn't them, not yet, and maybe not ever; not at least until he knows them and he knows what is really about being a Galra.
For he belongs to earth, to its mountains and deserts and oceans.
To its people.
And when they talk about him, the red paladin of Voltron, Guardian Spirit of Fire, earthling is really the only acceptable name.
Or just Keith.
-.-.-.-
A/n: I started to write it with a Keith half-Galra/half-Altean, but I liked the "earthling at core" bit, and I decided to leave it... ambiguous? May explain the growing. It's just an excuse to make Keith as big as Galras usually are, tbh. Thanks for reading!