you're gonna go far, kid | ON HOLD

chapter 3

When Keith walked into the apartment an hour too early and glowering at the floor, he was not surprised when Shiro looked up from the book he was reading to give him The Look. The look of parental disapproval and disappointment. One that Keith received far too often from his twenty five year old brother.

Shiro closed his book and exhaled a long sigh with the likeness of an exhausted, martyring mother of five. "Keith."

"Shiro," the boy replied mockingly. Shiro's eyes were full of exasperation, Keith could tell, even though he'd been home for a total of five seconds. Usually, Keith would try to at least show some semblance of decency, but he was too tired for politeness today. So instead he rolled his eyes and made a face. Shiro sighed again, ran a hand through his hair and patiently waited for Keith to sit down. After a brief staring contest, he complied.

In the most monotonous voice he could muster and without making eye contact, Keith began to recite the explanation he'd been practicing the entire walk home. It took much longer to think of it than he'd anticipated, but since a two and a half hour walk was preferable over calling Shiro only an hour after he dropped him off, it worked out pretty well.

"Yes, I know, I'm sorry. I swear I tried but you haven't met Pidge's friends they're awful the kid wouldn't shut up. It's like he can't just allow one fucking minute of silence. I know this is supposed to be helping me or whatever, and I tried, I really did, but I can't do it. I'll be fine so just leave me be for a bit, yeah?"

Shiro opened his mouth to say something, but a moment later he closed it. He looked sad, and not the I saw a rabbit get hit by a car this afternoon kind of sad, but the helpless sad of someone who was being forced to surrender. Guilt clenched in Keith's gut, and he looked down and picked at a thread on the purple blanket on top of the couch. He should've said something, he knew, but he stayed quiet.

They sat there for several painful seconds, and with each one, Keith felt more and more like crawling into a small hole and disappearing. How did he manage to always make things so difficult? Keith couldn't bring himself to tear his eyes away from the patterned rug, too afraid that he'd start crying if he looked up. But at the same time, he wasn't sure if he was able to cry. There was nothing left to feel.

Finally, Shiro just said, "Okay." That was all. There wasn't any pushiness in his voice, no anger, or anything. None of the impatient irritation from when Keith had first walked in. All that he got was 'okay.' Shiro picked up his book again and Keith sensed that he was dismissed from the conversation.

Still a bit confused, Keith stood up. As he passed Shiro on the way to his room, he spoke again. "If you do want to talk, just know I'm here. I know it's hard for you but... in case you do. No pressure or anything though. I mean it."

Keith's voice cracked when he replied. "Yeah. Thanks."

-

Two weeks passed, and things finally began to quiet down. No more zombie prodigies came to attack Keith, but unfortunately Meticulous stayed. Keith would never admit it, but for the past week he had slightly begun to grow on him. Less of the time he wanted to sucker punch the hero, and instead he grew curious about the finer details about Voltron.

Though it began as asking simple questions like was there a leader of the group (yes, Scythe and some woman he wasn't allowed to name), and were they just going around helping old ladies cross the street or was there a real purpose to them existing (no, they had to defeat some evil guy named Zarkon, Meticulous didn't elaborate). Over time, Meticulous seemed to get more comfortable around Keith and started telling him things about the team without Keith having to ask. Scythe's favorite food for energizing was zucchinis. Flare and the Pigeon had a vegetable garden. Though Keith often rolled his eyes and acted like he didn't really care, Meticulous always had something interesting to say and seeing him every day, despite their constant bickering, Keith felt a little less isolated from the rest of the world, but he'd never tell anyone that.