Growing Pains (A Voltron Legendary Defender Fan Fiction)

Chapter 9

"Hey, buddy." Shiro knocked on Keith's door. "Can I come in for a sec?" he expected to get either a yes or no response, however, he was instead met with Keith opening the door for him. "Oh hey. Are you feeling better?" he nodded.

"That's good." Shiro smiled, "We were all going to watch a movie in the lounge, would you like to join us?" he thought it over for a moment, before nodding his head. "Great! The others are getting everything set up right now."

"Ugh, I hate monster movies!"

Allura chuckled, "Now Lance, it's only fair. You got to pick the movie last time."

"Yeah, and it was terrible!" Pidge scrunched up her face, "Who likes all those icky rom coms anyway?"

"I do, as a matter of fact!" he glared at her, "Is this your way of punishing me? Making me watch one of these lame B movies?"

"They aren't lame!" She retorted. "I'll have you know, Godzilla: More God, More Zilla is a cinematic masterpiece!"

"Even the name sounds ridiculous!"

The two continued arguing as Hunk walked over to Keith and Shiro who had just found a spot on the couch. "Hey, guys. Would you like some popcorn? I just made some."

"I'll take some." Shiro smiled. "Thank you, Hunk."

"No prob." He looked over to the other boy, "What about you Keith? Want some popcorn?"

He shook his head. as good as popcorn sounded right now, he just couldn't risk eating in front of them. At least until not after he had gotten a bit more used to his fangs.

"Ok, just let me know if you need anything." Hunk went off to get everyone their popcorn.

"You sure you're feeling, ok?" Shiro asked with concern. "You love popcorn..." Keith nodded quietly. "Ok... hey, remember that time we went camping and burned our tent down trying to cook popcorn?"

Keith smiled but didn't laugh. It hurt him so much not to be able to laugh and joke with Shiro and the others like he used to. When he didn't respond, Shiro frowned. Keith normally loved to make fun of him when they told that story. But now he was... quiet...

Keith normally wasn't a very talkative person, but it was strange that he hadn't said a word sense this morning. He didn't have time to think over it much longer, as Pidge was finally starting the movie. Maybe he was just tired. They had been working pretty hard the last few days liberating planets, so maybe all he needed was some rest.

"Man... that movie was booooring!"

"Oh, be quiet," Pidge rolled her eyes, "You were freaking out with the rest of us any time something excited happened!"

"Ok, maybe there were like, a couple good parts... but the rest of the movie still sucked!"

"Why I oughta..."

Allura laughed as the two continued to argue, "I actually thought it was pretty good. On Altea, we had live performances, but we didn't have anything like you're earth movies."

"I'm so glad we found that set of them at the space mall." Hunk smiled, "They had some pretty good ones in there. I love the adventure ones."

"I rather enjoyed the mystery film we watched a few doboshes ago." She grinned, "I did not expect the butler in the slightest!" they all laughed. "What about you Keith, what's your favorite kind of movie?"

This was the moment he feared the most, being asked something other than a yes or no question. All he could do was look down and shrug. At this, everyone started to become concerned.

"Hey are you alright, Keith?" Pidge asked. "You've been awfully quiet today."

"Maybe he just hates your monster movies as much as I do." Lance joked but when Keith didn't so much as crack a smile, he became serious.

"Keith, why don't you tell us what's wrong." Shiro coaxed.

Tears were started to well up in his eyes, but he just shook his head. He hated this so much. He hated seeing his friends worried about him.

"You can't tell us, or you won't?" Keith looked up at Shiro pleadingly and he sighed. "Ok, it's been a long day. Why don't he all go to bed, and hopefully we are all feeling better in the morning." They all nodded and said their goodbyes, Keith just giving them a simple wave before heading to his room.

As soon as the door closed behind him, he broke down and cried. One day of self-imposed silence down, a lifetime more to go...

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