His Color Is Red (Voltron Highschool AU)

Astronomy (one)

The redundant dripping of liquid could be heard echoing in the depths of his mind. He steadied his breathing, just as Shiro taught him. He didn't know how to control his rapidly shaking body, though. Despite it being near 80 degrees in his room, he still felt cold. Not just any cold, the freezing cold of terror looming over him.

He covered his ears to stop the dripping noise from entering his ears, but there was nothing he could do. It wasn't real. He couldn't stop seeing the past in his present.

Knock knock knock

Keith jerked his head up and looked to the door. It was his door. The door to his own room. The door that wasn't locked. The door that Shiro chose not to enter, in order to respect Keith's privacy.

"Keith, breakfast. Don't forget today's your first day. And don't think I didn't notice that you didn't take your pills last night. I put them at the table, you better drink them." Shiro said through the door.

Hearing Shiro's voice warmed Keith. His heart slowed down and his vision focused on the present. He got down from his bed and walked towards the closet to change into his new school's uniform. As he fixed his hair, he looked into the mirror and took a long deep breath.

Keith, without a word, sat down at the dining room table. Eggs and bacon. The eggs were made into eyes and the bacon was the smile. Keith looked at Shiro, who winked at him, and Keith rolled his eyes. The first thing he did was take the 3 pills that sat on the side of his orange juice and swigged it down. Shiro sighed.

"Judging from the bags under your eyes, you had another episode. You know how important these pills are. They help you until you can help yourself. Why didn't you come to me?" He asked.

Keith looked down at the food he poked at. "Didn't want to bother you..." Keith said in a mumble.

"I always have time for you." Shiro kindly reassured. He smiled at Keith and he smiled back. Not that any of his smiles had been genuine lately.

A knock came to the front door as Keith was finishing breakfast. Shiro ran to open it and was promptly greeted with a kiss. He smiled.

"Hello, Adam dear," Shiro said lovingly.

A tan and tall teenage boy with glasses stepped inside. Keith came into the living room. He wasn't very familiar with Adam, but he was nice enough for Keith to let his guard down. Adam was Shiro's boyfriend since sophomore year. They didn't live far from each other and the two often walked to school together. This would be the first time Keith had two friends to walk to school with.

"Hey kid, ready for your first day of Altea High?" Adam asked. "He fed you, right?"

Shiro elbowed him, and he chuckled. The three proceeded to head to school. Keith still wasn't used to being around people, so he stayed quiet. "Oh, Keith, don't forget to stop by the clubroom after school." Shiro said.

"The astronomy club, right?" Keith finally spoke up. Shiro nodded.

"Yep. It only has, like, 5 members, and most of them don't actually care about astronomy, but I think you'll like the people. I'm president, in case you were wondering. The moderator, Mr. Smythe, or Coran as we call him, is a bit odd but welcoming." Shiro explained.

Keith looked at Adam, who put his hands up. "Yeah, that group is way too much for me. I'm more into the tech club." Adam said.

The three got to the highschool gates. Adam went off to homeroom, while Shiro took Keith to the principal's office. Shiro didn't want Keith to go alone, due to his uneasiness when it came to adults. Keith didn't argue. Shiro was, so far, the only person he could trust.

Principal Alfor was a nice and fair principal, according to Shiro. His daughter was actually a member of the astronomy club. The principal basically just welcomed Keith to the school and handed him a schedule. He also gave Keith special permission to use the bathroom to change into his long sleeved PE uniform rather than the locker room. Shiro was the one who requested it. Keith was relieved. He handed him his schedule and appointed Shiro to make sure he knew where to go.

After they left, Shiro took a look at his schedule and smiled. "Well that's good. You have...all of your classes with Lance. He's in the astronomy club. I see Hunk and Pidge in here too, but Allura is in the smarter classes. Pidge should be too if she just applied herself in subjects other than science..." Shiro mumbled mostly to himself.

"I'm sorry, there's a girl in this school name Pidge?" Keith asked.

"Her name is Katie, but everyone calls her Pidge. You'd like her. Anyway, your homeroom is down the hall, look for 107. I already told Lance, Hunk, and Pidge to look out for you, you guys have homeroom and lunch together." Shiro explained.

Keith was extremely nervous, despite his calm demeanor. Shiro hadn't known Keith long enough to know when he was anxious. He hid it really well. He couldn't let himself be a target. So, Keith finds his class and walked in. Luckily, he wasn't late. The teacher, Mr. Iverson, acknowledged him as he walked in. Even though all the students weren't in class yet, he still asked Keith to stand at the front.

"Alright, guys, this our new transfer student. Care to tell 'em your name?" He asked.

"Keith Kogane." Keith plainly said. Words weren't his strong point. Keith looked across the class. He didn't really know what the astronomy club people Shiro mentioned looked like, so he wasn't sure who to look for.

"Oh! Oh! Shiro's new brother!" Someone in class suddenly exclaimed excitedly. Keith looked at them and saw a tall tan boy with short brown hair and blue eyes.

"Yes, he is also Shirogane's brother. You can take a seat next to Lance and Katie over there." Iverson said, pointing to a seat next to the boy and a short girl with glasses. Well, she looked more tomboyish, but her uniform gave it away.

He sat on the left side of class next to the cute tan boy, Keith presumed was Lance, and in the back of the tomboyish girl, Keith presumed was Pidge...or Katie. Lance smiled at Keith with sparkling eyes.

"Soooo, you're Shiro's little bro now, right? I'm Lance, this is Pidge, and Hunk overslept. You'll meet him at lunch. Even when he's sick, he's always there at lunch." Lance joked.

Keith wasnt great with small talk, so he really wasn't sure what to say. "Give the boy some room to breathe, lover boy." Pidge said, turning her seat around. "So, where'd you come from, new kid?"

Keith looked to the side worriedly. "Daibazall High..." He said, reluctantly. Daibazall, home of the galrans, are the enemies of Altea High. Mostly because they usually boasted about their amazing grades and test scores. Just last semester, the galrans snuck into the school and trashed it. Though they were smart and they had no evidence.

"Isn't that school, like, super smart? And full of rich entitled assholes?" Lance asked. Pidge threw a pencil at him.

"He's right. But, I'm sure Shiro told you that I'm his adopted brother. I wasn't rich or entitled. I had nothing." Keith said.

Pidge shot Lance a deadly look and Lance gulped. "Uh, sorry. Didn't mean that included you," Lance said apologetically. "Oh, you're coming to voltron after school today, right?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Vol...tron?" Keith asked.

"The astronomy club! We call the club and our group Voltron. We thought it'd be cool if we had a name. It's also what we named our robot mascot. We've been looking for a red paladin." Pidge said.

Keith had grown very confused. "Red paladin?" He asked.

"Yep. I'm blue, Hunk is yellow, Pidge is green, Shiro is black, and Allura...doesn't want to be a part of this..." Lance said. It suddenly looked like he was about to cry.

Keith decided to ignore it. "I'm not really interested in astronomy, I'm only going 'cause Shiro wants me to..." Keith admitted.

"When you get to the club, trust me. You'll be interested." Lance said, a smug smile creeping up on his face. Keith looked at Pidge, who had a similar smile.

Something told him that he was in for something interesting...

(Word count: 1433)