Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender, nor do I own any of it's characters. I do not own the cover art, either. It was taken from this link that belongs to an amazing artist: post/156916736040/voltron-dump-good-lord-its-been-a-min-king-and

All I own/could own is the plot and story idea. This idea may have been done before, I do not know. This is my personal touch to this sort of situation. Again, I do not own Voltron: Legendary Defender, nor do I own the cover art. Only the plot. Enjoy the story.


Keith.. Keith was just another face in the crowd. He was no one new, just someone that could easily be glossed over in a crowd. Keith was quiet, but he didn't appear shy. Not to most, at least. Keith was not a shy person in the eyes of others. He was the freak, the slow kid, the aggressive kid that needed discipline. He was still that kid, just.. things were different, now. For him, at least.

Keith was silent, always the silent child. Some said that he played mute, played deaf.. sometimes he did. He'd look people dead in the eye and raise an eyebrow in confusion. Even when they shouted so loud that his ears ached, Keith could pretend, because there were days that Keith just couldn't manage to pull out a reaction. Not one that'd please the ones that antagonized him because he was just that different from others. Other days he'd look people in the eye with a sort of unbridled rage and no one but his brother could stop him from throwing the first hit.

There was a reason that Keith was labeled the problem child. There was a reason that Keith had no friends years after being orphaned.

Keith was antisocial. He rarely spoke unless spoken to by the teacher, and, even when he got into fights, Keith would barely breathe a word. The only words heard from him were the ones spoken to the teacher and the ones he murmured when he grew aggravated.

"Leave," he'd glare, even as a child. There was always fire behind his words, fire no one quite understood.

"Shut up," he'd look people in the eye as he often would give a growl of frustration. It'd be low and guttural, even animalistic, to the point that some would back off right there.

"Leave me alone." Sometimes, his voice would be desperate, even tired.

Most often, there wouldn't even need to be a word spoken and Keith would lunge at someone. He rarely lost the fights he got into, but when he did.. neither really felt like they'd won anything. It was just rage.. anger and fists would fly faster than the blink of an eye. There was a reason Keith had been kicked off the football teams. Not just because of his disciplinary issues, but because he was often too rough for the other players. Silent communication was perfect for him, but it was the fact that he was so aggressive that got him kicked off. It was funny.. because, in spite of his aggression, Keith was easily one of the smartest students in the school.

It didn't help that every time that Keith reached a new educational level, Shiro would graduate and move on, leaving him behind. Keith was always alone. And, entering high school with Shiro off with Matt during his classes, or locked in his room everyday until break, when he'd finally join Keith again in the quiet little house that was always too quiet when the three weren't spending time together or the kitchen wasn't on fire or something, Keith would realize that he'd never felt more alone. It was agonizing.

And his dreams, oh god Keith's dreams never seemed to end. There would always be something new, no matter how small. A new person, a new machine, a new name, species, fact, way of thinking, method of living, something was always happening, even in old dreams. They'd come back and Keith would be shocked by something new. Without Shiro around, Keith needed an outlet for the dreams. For a long time, he tried writing about it, but he gave up on that method. He'd tried calling Shiro to talk or even going up to his room, but that attempt was quickly shot down. Shiro was a college student, a damn good one at that, but even he got overwhelmed by the work and he was always one to turn into bed early. Unlike Keith.

It wasn't until one day in class, around the second semester of his freshman year, that Keith found his outlet. His mind was numb, and the words he absorbed sank in only to fade into the back of his mind. And then something surfaced, something familiar. Keith didn't know what to do it. At that point, it'd been so long since he'd told Shiro, he thought that he'd explode with all of the things he was keeping inside. So, he turned to an empty page in his notebook and put his pencil to the paper. It wasn't until he heard his teacher's voice beside him that he came back to reality.

Keith learned, after getting that page taken away, that drawing and sketching were his outlets. Painting became a big part of him as well, once that same teacher took him out of his disciplinary class and placed him in Art I. Most were wondering why the emo freak was put in an art class out of all the ones available until they saw his art. He was considered an art nerd once the word got around. It was the reason why he had teachers mail his art to the house or meet him at a local shop rather than just taking everything home at the end of the school day. Those projects easily became important to him.

They had all had derived from his dreams, after all.

So, as he discovered this method, there were things that.. happened in his dreams, some unspeakable due to the mental turmoil it put Keith through, other things Keith could babble on about for hours, embarrassingly enough. As Keith showed Shiro this skill on Shiro's winter break, he'd notice something that would just 'click!' when he showed off his dreams. The ones he could remember and bring himself to talk about.

They were overlapping with some dreams Shiro had been having in college. Now, Shiro wasn't the perfect man, some things he'd look at and find he couldn't remember at all, but he could look into Keith's drawing and say that he remembered something like it, too. Shiro didn't have Keith's artistic ability, but he could remember bits and pieces that'd often overlap with Keith's drawings. It was something so odd, but they never really told anyone. They'd probably be called crazy if they did. It was another secret between the two brothers.

Lucky Keith, right?

It seemed like that, but it didn't help with school. Not with the people in it, there was always someone.. just someone that had to stick their nose where it didn't belong. Someone that had to get into Keith's business and crawl under his skin until he lost his patience. Keith was never that lucky.

Most at school, most that cared to learn about the emo freak they whispered about, knew about Keith's artistic ability. Some actually looked to his artwork in awe, but others saw it as just another part of his freakishness. First Keith was damn near stoic, then he got kicked off the football team, he got into fights, was always alone, and he was an artist? Apparently, that was a freaky thing that Keith himself couldn't quite understand.

Keith had always been considered socially inept. It had been proven time and time again that he certainly struggled in the area, seeing as he lacked friends, and his social awkwardness tended to get him into things that even he himself didn't understand why he was dragged into. There were few times where people gave that to him. He was the trouble kid, even though he was Shiro's little brother. Being Shiro's little brother was what got Keith out of suspension and the little school for the delinquents. Juvenile Hall, District, the school for little shits - it was all the same thing. Keith was.. considerably lucky at times. Simply because he was.. Shiro's little brother.

Keith hated that excuse, he never used it, but someone always brought it up. The only reason they were comparable was because.. well there were a few reasons. Shiro smiled more, he was more friendly, more appreciated, more socially interactive, and just.. overall more. Apparently, Keith was living in his brother's shadow, but even Keith knew well enough that it was just others being jealous because Keith was Shiro's brother. Keith loved Shiro, and couldn't quite understand why people said he was living in Shiro's shadow. His brother would never do something like that to Keith, so why were people saying that?

No, being Shiro's little brother wasn't why Keith would get into fights. It was actually the reason Keith avoided them. Being reminded that he was Shiro's brother was enough to help Keith remember that he didn't need to get into a pointless fight. He made sure that Shiro knew about it, too. He was proud to be his brother, even if he had a hard time showing it during school.

For those that actually gave a shit, most reasons people got into fights with Keith were because they had insulted Shiro, Matt, or Keith's mother or father. Granted they hadn't been apart of Keith's life as of the past years of his life, they were still people Keith held close to his heart. He wasn't going to let someone poison their good name.

Sometimes, he'd see bullying going on and it just so happened that no one was looking their way or there happened to be no teacher in sight. Other times, someone would criticize his art, his literal dreams, calling them bullshit and apart of Keith's desperate escape. Dammit, if anyone knew the value of art, they'd know that even Keith's pieces meant more than they appeared to.

Keith didn't fight for the fun of it or even begin to go looking for a fight, the only person he could manage it with was Shiro, he actually hated to fight. But there were times when he couldn't get over something and there were times that fights were impossible to avoid. Keith had taught himself self-defense. It happened that his method usually ended with bloody knuckles, noses, and clothes. Not to mention bruises, but never scars. He was sensible enough to realize when he'd crossed a line. That line specifically.

Keith was still human, believe it or not. He was afraid, he was impulsive, he was alive, he.. he was completely and utterly human, even with his dreams. They probably meant nothing, but he had convinced himself otherwise years ago. Even though he still asked Shiro what he thought they could mean, especially since there were ones that'd overlap.

Keith's dreams just so happened to make the gap between himself and others widen.

It was one of the reason why he was so problematic, at the very least, seeing as there was a lot of meaningless criticism pertaining to his art. By people that barely knew a thing about what he drew or barely knew much more than Keith's name and the rumors spread about himself. He almost wished he could stop them, but.. he couldn't give in like that. High school students that were in the gossip circle had nothing better to do. Unless they struck a nerve, Keith wouldn't give the time of day.

Keith was another face in the crowd. He was quiet, aggressive at times, and always alone on school grounds. He drew art of a place he was sure only Shiro and himself knew a lick about. He was the typical 'emo' that wore dark clothes, was always alone even in the supposed group projects, and never made social gatherings an option. His friends were Matt and Shiro, but he didn't talk with them much. He was lucky to see them in the morning during breakfast, really. And then he had dreams to go to space and literally dreamed about being in space with people he'd never truly seen in space.

For the past two years, that was how life went for Keith. He'd start and often end the day alone.

It wasn't until a few months into his Junior year of high school that things seemed to change. He remembered the day clearly simply because it was so different and a shock to his mundane routine. It was also the first day of his high school carrier that Keith hadn't felt completely and utterly alone in school. Which was funny, because even on the few days Shiro somehow got permission to attend the school with Keith, because of some holiday, Keith couldn't help but feel alone.

Needless to say, Keith began to question his art and dreams more often.


A/N: I understand that this probably isn't the best start to the story, but it is something I wanted to try and begin sharing with this site. Please leave constructive criticism or compliments on any part of this. I'd appreciate knowing what I did right and wrong. I apologize if this is a bit.. scattered, I have that tendency in my writing and am trying to improve. Thank you for reading! This was posted on my Wattpad account as well. _cee_blue_