Growing Pains (A Voltron Legendary Defender Fan Fiction)

Chapter 7

It had been a few weeks since the training exercise, and Keith was finally getting a hold of his strength. The first few days were met with crushed doorknobs, snapped pencils, and flattened basketballs. But now that he had started training with the bots every night, he was starting to get a hang of things. He was now able to pull his punches so that he didn't look so much like a freak in front of his friends.

They had recently helped the Blades liberate a planet, which gave Keith the opportunity to talk to Kolivan in person for a few minutes. Keith didn't know what he would have done without him. the man was incredibly patient with him and talked him through everything that was happening to him. He said the increased speed and strength were normal in comparison to his human ability. All in all, things had been going pretty well. They'd had several successful Voltron missions, the team was getting along better than ever, and Shiro seemed none the wiser to his current situation. So of course, life had to just go and ruin it.

When Keith woke up the next morning, he felt another headache coming on. It wasn't nearly as bad as last time, but it still wasn't pleasant. He walked into the bathroom, and thoroughly inspected himself. The last thing he wanted to do was to head to breakfast, right when he was growing a second nose or something. Hopefully, that wasn't a possibility...

When he didn't notice anything that had changed, he figured that maybe this was just a regular headache. He finished getting dressed and made his way over to the dining room.

He quietly took his seat and closed his eyes, while trying to block out the other conversations as the others filed in.

"Hey... you feeling alright?" Keith didn't need to open his eyes to know it was Shiro talking to him.

"Mmm... head hurts..." he said tiredly.

"Oh, Keith..." Shiro sat down next to him, "You're putting so much pressure on yourself. It's not healthy."

The others were obviously able to pick up on the fact that they were having a private moment, so they didn't disturb them.

Shiro gently began to run his hand through Keith's hair. He tensed for a moment, afraid that he would feel his ears, but he quickly relaxed and leaned into the touch, as it helped alleviate some of his pain. However, what neither of them were expecting was the soft purring sound that escaped his throat.

Shiro smiled as Keith buried his head in embarrassment, "You really must not be feeling good." Shiro joked. "After breakfast, why don't you just relax in your room. I had planned on giving everyone a break today anyway." Keith nodded his head but didn't look up at him. "Are you sure you're, ok?"

"I'm fine." He answered a bit too quickly. Luckily, Hunk chose that moment to walk in with the trays of food.

As soon as Hunk set the tray in front of him, Keith was salivating. He had never been the craziest fan of meat. He wasn't vegetarian or anything, it just wasn't one of his favorite foods. He could go a couple days without eating meat, and not even noticing. However, this looked heavenly. Hunk had made some scrambled eggs from some kind of space bird they had come across and paired it with a slab of thick, juicy, delicious-smelling, meat.

"Breakfast is served!" He smiled.

By this point, Hunk, Allura, and Shiro were used to Lance and Pidge absolutely inhaling their food. Which they did again today, so nothing new. However, they were shocked to see Keith going at his meal with the same gusto. He had picked up the meat with his fork and tore off large bites with his teeth, not even bothering to use a knife.

"Wow..." Hunk whistled, "I didn't know my cooking was that good..."

"Keith... don't you think you should slow down?" Shiro asked gently, "You already don't feel good, I'm afraid that this will make it worse..."

He tried to put a hand on Keith's shoulder when suddenly Keith turned to glare at him and... growled? Shiro quickly raised his hands up in surrender. At this moment, Keith came back to himself. He set his fork and the rest of the meat back on his plate. "I... I'm sorry... I'm just so... tired..."

"I know buddy." Shiro went to pat him on the shoulder but thought better of it. "Why don't you go lie down. I'll stop by later to come check on you."

"Would you like Coran to make you some more medicine?" Allura asked.

"I'll be alright. Thanks" he stood up and made his way to his room. This was getting out of hand. He could barely control himself.

As soon as he walked in, he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and rid himself of the stary pieces of meat stuck there. However, as soon as he opened his mouth, he let out a small scream in shock. "No no no... not again..." there, instead of his usual canines, were four long fangs. 

(A/N - Hey guys. Thanks for reading. When I say Vol, you say...)