As Cold as Fire [VOLTRON Keith X OC]

Is this what love feels like?

"I care about you, Riley. A lot. More than I realised. More than I ever thought I could."

Holy shit.

I could still feel his eyes burning into the back of my head. I crossed my arms and pretended to focus on what Coran was saying.

"We've made great progress while you were gone. And now that we have the scaultrite, we should be finished in less than a quintant."

We all stood in front of the Teludav, admiring Coran's work from the castle. As I had thought, we really had swept up the whole argument under the rug. Shiro advised me to not start anything as it was 'best to not distract everyone right before defeating Zarkon'. I decided to go along with it for now- it wasn't like I had anything left to say to my dear sister anyway.

"Wow. That is one giant Teludav," Lance praised.

Keith nodded. "Nice work, Coran."

Hunk held his fist towards Coran. "Good job, Coran! Fist bump." He bumped his fist to Coran's. "Now blow it up."

"Oh, don't you dare!" Coran replied, pulling his fist away, looking mortified. "It took forever to build this Teludav! And let's not forget it's a pivotal piece that we need for our plan to defeat Zarkon."

Before Hunk could explain, Slav cut in through comms, having somehow gotten outside the castle and next to the teludav all the way down at the Balmera. "I've made some improvements to your design. This will increase our chances of survival in this reality by 205 percent." He knocks on the new material.

Coran frowned. "Is this guy a little...?"

"Yes."

"No doubt."

"Not a fan."

Coran's eye twitched as Slav continued to knock on it. "Stop hitting the Teludav!" A small explosion sounded.

"Ow."

We divided to go back to each of our rooms to catch up with some rest for the final battle tomorrow. I decided a small night time walk wouldn't hurt to process everything that happened today. I guess Allura and I were fighting again. We were about to defeat Zarkon tomorrow. And Keith...

I had no clue what to make of that whole conversation.

And speaking of that little devil, someone cleared their throat behind me.

"Keith?" Lost in thought and the endless night sky, I hadn't even heard his footsteps.

"Oh. Hi."

I cringed internally. "Hi...." I sighed, walking up to him. "Listen, I don't want things to be awkward between us. You're my closest friend, and I believe you if you say you meant all of that platonically."

"I love talking to you too late at night and too early in the morning."

He didn't reply.

"Keith?"

He still refused to meet my eyes. However, I did catch his lips part slightly, and his voice formed a quiet mumble of words. I furrowed my brow, unable to hear it.

"What? I didn't catch that- wait, where are you going?!"

"I- um I think I heard someone call me!" he lied. Within seconds I was left all alone under the starry night sky, thinking, nobody called you, you little shit.

A few minutes later I had finally decided to retreat to bed, but as I was about to enter my room and stop thinking about mullets, the universe had other plans. Coran called me from the other end of the corridor. Next to him was Keith, looking a little redder than usual. I tried to avoid his eyes.