When Two Worlds Collide

Chapter 3

       

"Where do you want me to start?" Keith asked him. Lance sat there for a few moments, completely and utterly shocked. He didn't think that it would be this easy to get Keith to open up to him and discuss what has been bothering him for the past couple of months. Lance had just assumed that Keith would have put up more of a fight to talk than he did. Lance had thought that the process of trying to get Keith to talk to him would have involved more screaming, yelling and fighting. He thought that this conversation would end up in some sort of brawl. It hasn't happened yet, but the conversation isn't over yet. This fact was very unnerving to Lance that he didn't have to do that much to get Keith to talk to him. Something wasn't right here. And it kinda scared Lance, just a little bit.

After a few moments of careful consideration, Lance was finally able to tell Keith what his answer was. "I guess that I want you to start wherever you feel most comfortable at," Lance said as he looked Keith in the eyes. He then moved to wrap an arm around Keith's shoulder to provide some comfort for him. He had failed to notice the slight blush that dusted Keith's cheeks and if he did, then he didn't bother to mention it. It took a few moments before Keith was able to work up the courage to start talking again. He let out a deep breath as he focused his gaze to look back down towards the ground and on his feet. He never realized exactly how dirty his boots were until they were that he could focus his attention on without freaking out. He felt nervous about spilling all of his deepest and darkest secrets to Lance. The only person who has ever known about Keith's life before Voltron and before the Garrison was Shiro, and now he's gone so... Anyway, all of his life Keith has never really been one to talk about himself and he's never really been able to be open with other people. He's always just kept everything to himself and that's how he's always done it and that is what he prefers to do.

"Huh....." Keith shuddered as he rubbed his hands together. He didn't know what had happened but it seemed like the temperature had just dropped low all of a sudden. And to add on top of all of his other problems, Keith hates the cold. Maybe it's a side effect of living in a desert for pretty much all of your life, but the point is that it doesn't take that much for Keith to get cold. He shivered once more and then looked back at Lance who just seemed to be sitting there waiting patiently on him to continue. "I guess that I should start with my childhood right?" Keith said after he cleared his throat. "I mean that's where most people start when they're talking about what's bothering them right?" Keith questioned Lance. Keith was completely lost at what to do at the moment. He's never done anything like this, no one except Shiro and the occasional social worker had ever asked him to talk about his feelings. Lance shook his head in approval like he knew what he was talking about and motioned for Keith to continue. "Uh... Well, I guess that I should start with my parents first." Keith said with a little bit of uncertainty laced in his voice. "M-my Mom left not that long after I was born. My Dad didn't like to talk about her that much, and I had learned not to ask about it, so we never really talked about her much, if at all." Keith stated. And that was where Keith had left off about his Mother. What little information that he was able to get on her when he was younger wasn't all that much. He had gotten used to the fact fairly quickly that he didn't have a mother. Though he had always wondered what had happened to her. It wasn't until he came to space that he realized why things never made any sense when it came to his mother. With her being Garla and all it kind of was a no brainer as to why she had left. It still hurt though. "Then there's my Dad he- he,.....he uh..." Keith just kept getting more choked up the more that he tried to talk about his dad. His father was also another very, very sore spot for him in his past among many, many other things that had occurred.

Lance had seen that he was struggling and had squeezed his arm tighter around Keith's shoulder. And he could tell that by how stiff the other boy's body language is that he was very stiff and uncomfortable about this conversation. It didn't take a genius to see that Keith was barely keeping it together as it was, and it would probably only get worse as time went on. "Hey, Keith man it's ok, just chill out some ok?" Lanc told him. "You don't have to say anything that you don't want to ok?" Lance said as he tried to soothe his nerves some. "I-I know that I need to be more open with not only you, but the rest of the team too, but I just can't get the words out to tell you." Keith confessed as he shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself. "Are you cold Keith?" Lance asked as he turned his head to get a better look at him. Keith didn't say anything but Lance could tell that by the way that he was holding himself and shivering that he was probably just a little bit cold at the very least. Keith jumped up in surprise when he felt something being draped over his shoulders. He was even more shocked that it was Lance's jacket that was wrapped around his shoulders.