Keith/Voltron Stories ✔

Elemental

"Keith, what's gotten into you lately?" Shiro asked with a frown.

"Nothing." Keith replied, crossing his arms as he slouched on the couch.

"You're so irritated lately; everything seems to set you off." said Lance.

"I said I'm fine!" Keith spoke and got up from the couch, heading towards the doors. "Will you just drop it?!"

The room was silent as the doors slammed shut, Keith's silhouette disappearing down the corridor. Pidge looked up from her computer because of the loud sound but looked back down straight away. Hunk was feeling confused: he was worried about Keith but also intrigued as to his recent behaviour. Lance was annoyed at Keith's attitude that he felt was directed at him and huffed when he saw Shiro wasn't going after him to tell him off for his outburst. Shiro was sitting still- the frown still present on his face- and he closed his eyes whilst thinking of what could be wrong with Keith. 

The past few weeks had been uneventful, only stopping to fix the castle or get supplies and meet residents of planets. He guessed that Keith could simply be missing the energy of battle but that didn't explain his constant frowning, jitters and outbursts of anger or annoyance. Usually he would only get annoyed when Lance ticked him off but know it was over ridiculous things. Shiro was really worried about Keith but the boy didn't want to open up about his worries. He was avoiding them.

As Coran called for dinner, the paladins rose from their seats and walked to the kitchen, eating in an uneasy silence. Allura grew concerned at the atmosphere and was worried by someone's absence.

"Where is Keith? I'm sure he heard the dinner call." she asked, looking to Shiro for answers.

"I don't know, princess. We had a talk earlier and he got mad and walked off so I haven't seen him since. It's not like him to miss a meal, not recently at least." Shiro explained, looking at the empty seat on his right.

As time passed, the paladins grew closer and bonded into a family. With their combined efforts, they had managed to get Keith to be more open and to come to all of the meals; he began to tell someone when he was worried or not feeling good. It was a great change from the quiet and angsty Keith and they had discovered he was actually quite funny and was a great help to Hunk in the kitchen. So for him to not show up for dinner was very strange and the red paladin's absence was felt by everyone...

After the argument, Keith headed straight to the training room to let off some steam. He had been doing that a lot lately- even more than usual- and he had increased by eight levels in a fortnight. He spent the next few hours slashing at bots and working on his stamina, ignoring the small rumbles in his stomach. When he had reached exhaustion and stopped the training sequence, he walked over to the bench and reached for the towel and water bottle. But he dropped them both when the heat appeared and he let out a shout. 

Looking around to make sure no-one had seen or heard him, he placed his things under his arm and headed for the showers, grabbing a fresh pair of clothes from his room on the way. The shower cooled him down immensely and he exited feeling relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever. He looked at his watch and saw dinner would have finished by now; not wanting to run into anyone or head back to his room, he slipped to the exit and took a hover bike out to a small clearing near the castle...

"Princess, someone has left the castle." Coran spoke as he looked at the screens in front of him.

"Keith?" Allura guessed.

"Yes."

"This is the fifth time he's done this now. I want to know what's up with him, something seems to be ailing him." Allura said with a frown.