Voltron's Mechanic (Keith x OC)

14) The Red Paladin

I woke up in my bed, everyone in my room, even Keith this time. They all smiled happily.

"Aris!" The others shouted excitedly, happy to see me awake.

I sprang up so I was sitting, picking up the crystal which was on the bedside table. "This crystal was trying to show me something. It's such a rare crystal because it's one that stores messages, one my mom programmed specifically to be given to me, and only me, when I arrived at the Balmera"

"Then why did you faint and go into some sort of coma?" Lance asked.

"A piece broke off. When I picked it up it showed me some messages from my mom, it was a lot, too much for me to handle at once. The rest of the crystal probably holds more, but something mom told me in one of the messages was that they would be shown to me over time, when I'm ready"

"Huh?"

"So the crystal is actually like a computer chip?" Pidge asked.

"Yeah, I think," I mumbled.

"You should rest," Allura said, leading the others - except for Keith - out of the room.

"Did you learn anything?" He asked, sitting on the edge of my bed.

"Nothing about where they might be. But I did learn that these messages should be given to me in my dreams, when my brain isn't completely active. It's not working yet, but it should soon"

"Hopefully you'll learn something about your family"

"Yeah... um, do you remember anything about when we got back from that snow planet?"

"Allura told me that you flew Red-"

"No. Do you remember anything that might've happened afterwards?"

"No, why?"

"It's nothing"

"Come on, tell me"

"You were only half awake, but you kissed me"

His cheeks reddened and he looked down at his hands. "Why don't you get some more rest"

He left, his eyes looking around awkwardly. I got to sleep but when I woke up I felt restless, so I looked for the others. I silently went to the lounge, everyone sitting around and Keith standing in the corner of the room.

"Keith, you piloted the Black Lion when you had to save Shiro. Perhaps you're the one," Coran suggested.

"Keith would be the worst leader of Voltron," Lance said. "I vote for Aris, she'd be a beautiful leader"

"Yeah, we all have our thing. Keith's the loner. I'm the brain. Hunk's the nice one. Allura's the decision maker. Coran's the wise old guy. Aris is the mechanic/genius/fighter/friendly pretty much perfect one. And Lance is the goofball," Pidge said.

"Mm-Hmm. Yeah, exactly. Totally, right-Wait a minute. I'm not a goofball! I'm like the cool ninja sharpshooter"

Keith scoffed with a small smile. "Are you joking?"

"I'm being completely serious when I say, I do not want you to lead me anywhere"

"I don't want to be the leader! That's just what Shiro wanted!" Keith's eyes widened when he realized what he said and then he looked away.

"What are you talking about?" Hunk asked.

"Nothing"

"Shiro wanted you to be his successor, didn't he?" Pidge asked.

"Well, I never heard Shiro say that, and how convenient that you're bringing it up now, when Shiro is gone," Lance said

"Shiro is gone?" I repeated, drawing all eyes to me. "What happened?"