a/n: Honestly I just was thinking, thinking, thinking about what to write. Then this came to mind.
Keith was shivering.
It was so cold that he did not want to go to training.
Rarely he had felt this way; the only time he could think feeling this way was when he came down with a head cold. If he was feeling anything else like anger, sadness, or happiness, he would go to training anyways. Training always made him feel better and cleared his head so, usually, he went.
The training he didn't want to go to was in about an hour.
He still had time if he moved now. Extra layers, warm shower, and extra warmup. Easy. But he still didn't want to. He rubbed his arms in an attempt to get warmer. God, it had freezing in the castle today. He didn't know when it exactly set in but sometime during the night. Sometime, somewhen.
He didn't know what caused it.
He didn't know.
Only that...it was cold.
All he remembers is climbing into bed. He was training yesterday, maybe, a flash. But- All that he could remember was...not much. He grew colder and colder the longer he was in his room. Nobody checked on him so he just sat cold, snuggled into the sheets of his bed.
He went deeper into the blankets and bundled up the best he could.
Keith felt there was a large object in the middle room. It felt odd. It somehow felt...familiar.
Something didn't feel right. Keith just was so, so cold and he didn't know what to do about it. So he stayed and tried to bury himself even deeper inside the covers but he kept on shivering.
When would someone come for him?
.
Everyone was in the dining room except for Keith and Shiro.
Pidge was sitting in her spot, aimlessly scrolling through her latest device she just made, working out the bugs while Hunk was offering advice on how to make it smoother working. Lance was chatting with Hunk and Pidge, offering tips of how to make the device flashier and more mobile. Every once in a while he told Pidge something that caused her to perk up and she would tell him that she would consider it. That made Lance brighten up when it happened. For all the rambling Lance did, he had important words in anything he said, whether to brighten someone's mood or genuinely try to help. Coran was reading through documents for the next mission grumbling every few seconds while Allura was staring at the table thoughtfully, listening to the others conversations.
An expression flashed across the alien princess's face. Then she became puzzled.
"So..." Allura started, "Where is Keith?"
"Not sure." Pidge shrugged, she picked up a screwdriver and adjusted something on her device.
"Do you think he is late because he slept in?" Coran inquired, flipping his papers to the next page.
"Maybe." Hunk was now paying attention, looking away from Pidge.
"Wait." Pidge put down her device.
Two people where at full attention; Allura squared both her shoulders back at both their attention at once.
"What?" Allura asked.
"Do you think he went and is training without us?" She asked.
Shiro entered the room, "He wouldn't do that, I told him not to specifically."
"Ha!" Lance laughed, "Only Keith. Only him to be told to not train without us. Really."
"Yes really." Shiro agreed.
"Well if it is true or not, we have to go find him," Coran commented, "The castle is only so big and the planet's atmosphere we landed on remember is poisoned."
"Oh." Lance said, nodding, "Yep, sounds like we need to find him."
"Yeah, ok." Pidge sighed and got up.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes, "Coffee first, then I'll help."
"Ok, Pidge to coffee and everyone else get to finding him stat." Shiro nodded to Pidge.
Pidge gave him a half smile, they shared a glance.
"Sounds good to me." Hunk got up a moment after Pidge.
"Ok then." Allura clapped her hands together, "It is settled. Mission find Keith before we train together."
As everyone split up there was a feeling in the air that something was amiss, wrong, off. The sub-groups that split up were Coran and Allura; Hunk and Pidge, then Shiro and Lance. The mice scurried around too, finding the hidden spots where Keith could have gone in the castle. Though the castle was big there was only so much where everyone could search.
.
As everyone was searching for Keith, Keith himself was in his room trying to get warm even still. Going under the blankets and breathing hot air under them didn't work as well as curling up into a very tight ball. Nothing worked.
It made him upset.
Keith sighed, staring up at the ceiling, a feeling that he should be doing something else. He wasn't sure what he should be doing but he knew that it was something different.
The door opened and Keith looked up.
Keith looked at Lance, wondering what was so shocking. Why was he not looking at him, on bed. Instead, Lance's attention was to the source of the heavy, odd feeling. Keith then glanced at what Lance was looking at. Keith could not comparand at first.
It was him...Keith?
What?
Wait-
No.
He wasn't there! He WAS here on the bed under the blankets and yet...oddly...unmistakably...He was lying on the ground at the same time. What confused him further was that he lay in a pool of blood.
What was going on? Something hot bloomed in Keith's chest and he was no longer so cold but hot, burning, warm.
The realization hit.
It was that...
Lance was the first to see...Keith...the body...no- Keith.
What was he...Where?
Keith couldn't breathe.
He wasn't breathing...he was dead? Was he? Keith couldn't think, staring at himself on the floor.
This was insane, he had to be dreaming.
.
A minute prior.
Lance was running ahead of Shiro, anxious to find Keith to tell him off first. To tell him that he shouldn't of been doing something that Shiro specifically told him not to do. And to see the look on his face after that! It made Lance's stomach flip. He just wanted to see Keith.
So, Lance went to the first place he thought Keith would be.
And that was Keith's room.
There was a smile on Lance's face,
running into the room,
pushing...the button... the automatic doors opened
Time slowed.
Lance's face fell, smile gone.
All Keith could see on Lance's face was nothing. Nothing he could read. He had no expression. Nothing.
There was absolute stillness.
Then searching, Lance's eyes moving as if searching for something, face processing but finally an settling on an expression of horror.
"Keith?"
A pause.
Then screaming.