As Cold as Fire [VOLTRON Keith X OC]

The Belly of the Weblum

We head into the yellow lion while the others split up as well. Hunk and I waved goodbye, while Keith looked quietly at the ground. I noticed Allura looking at Keith, contempt slowly taking over her features. She catches my eye and smiles, but I can't find it in myself to smile back. I began to wonder if I shouldn't have been so quick to promise Keith that I would punch anyone who reacts weirdly. After all, Allura was the last person I expected.

I wave one last time to the others, and walk into the yellow lion.

"Why does Allura get to take a leisurely visit to the Balmera while we have to fly into the belly of a giant space worm to get scaultrite?" complained Hunk while he drove the lion.

"Cos she's in charge," I said with a roll of my eyes.

Keith glanced at me before replying, "You heard Coran. Building a huge teludav isn't easy. Everyone has a job to do and this is ours."

Hunk groaned. "But I always get the worst jobs. Go to a Galra-occupied planet to get my lion. Go to a Galra-occupied Balmera to get a crystal," he listed, "Go into the belly of a beast with the only Galra alien team member."

I was sure I had heard the last bit wrong.

"I'm not an alien."

"Well... you're kind of an alien," pointed out Hunk. "You're way more alien than me. You're at least some alien. I'm-I'm none alien."

"I'm an alien, you're fine with me," I pointed out.

"Well yeah, but... you know..."

Keith sighed and moved towards the front of the cockpit. "Let's just concentrate on the job here."

"Yeah." It took him no more than two ticks to continue, "Was-Was your mom the alien? Your grandpa? How Galra are you?"

"I don't know."

"Did the Blade of Marmora, like, teach you the secret handshake, or something?"

"No," Keith answered with increasing frustration. "No one said anything."

"The Blade of Marmora... they're real tight-lipped, aren't they? I get that your society is secret, but is everything a secret?"

Keith finally snapped, "Okay, look, it's bad enough that Allura hates me now. Can you just lay off?"

"Allura doesn't hate you..." Hunk said, trying to make him feel better. "You just need to give her time to accept the fact that you're Galra, the race that destroyed her entire planet and all of her people." I tried to discreetly kick Hunk's ankle to get him to stop talking. But he doesn't get the message. "Yeah, she might hate you a little bit," he successfully concluded.

"Okay, guys." I stepped in. "Let's just watch the video Coran told us about. We need to know how to collect this stuff."

Hunk tapped a button on his console, which transformed into a video screen. It glitched at first, before settling onto the image of a much, much younger-looking Coran.

"Hello, brave Altean."

"No way," Hunk exclaimed, holding back laughter. "Is that Coran?"

I grinned. "Yup."

"So, you're about to go into the belly of a weblum to harvest scaultrite. Good for you! Scaultrite is an important substance, with thousands of commercial and industrial uses, including fabrication foam, insect night vision goggles, teludav— " The video suddenly freezes.

"Uh..."

"—anti-fungal klanmüirl lotion and other such lubricants."

"What's wrong with the video?" asked Keith.