VOLTRON ONE-SHOTS

Keith x OC - I'm Sorry

Biting my lip, I shook my head, feeling the tears threatening to spill. "No."

"Is he- is he crying?" Lance asked after a moment of silence, his brows furrowed in worry.

"We have to get in there, he can't take all of this on by himself," Pidge said, he calculating eyes lowering toward the floor, trying to think of a solution.

"No, I have to get in there," I said, looking up at them, "believe me, I know him, the last thing he'd want is a crowd helping him deal with his problems."

"She's got a point there," Lance said, placing his hands on his hips, turning toward the green paladin. "Have any ideas?"

"I could try hacking into the castle's system to unlock the door that way, but the firewalls me and Matt set up a few days ago might be a slight problem," Pidge said, biting her lip in frustration.

"We could try the mice, see if they can get into his room and unlock it that way," I said, my voice a little lower, just in case Keith was trying to listen in on us. I stood back up, my wings going out a little for balance until I got back on my feet.

Pidge shrugged, "It's worth a shot."

"Where would we find them though? This castle is like, huge. I bet they know it better than we do."

"And if we ask Allura to help, she'll want to get involved," I added to Lance's statement.

"We could try the kitchen, hoping they're taking a snack?" Pidge shrugged.

"We don't have many options, so it's worth a shot," Lance said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

And with that, we headed off to the kitchen.

...

They weren't in there, or the training deck, or Allura's room, or the bridge.

"How come when we least need them, they're everywhere, and when we really need them, they're nowhere to be found?" Lance groaned arm draped over the back of the couch.

We were currently sitting in the lounge after scraping every inch of the castle, or at least the parts we knew of. Nothing.

There was one point we ran into Shiro, Allura, and Coran, practically yelling about what was to be done next, about Keith and the war effort, but mostly Keith.

We caught Hunk in the kitchen, stress cooking his feelings into little deserts.

I sighed and laid my head back, my wings spread out, my metal arm playing with a frayed end of one of the pillows, even though I couldn't feel anything anyway, so what was the use?

Eventually, Pidge left, muttering something about "Matt" and "Galra map", now I was just left with Lance.

After a minute or two of just blankly staring up at the ceiling, I got up and stretched, "I'm going to go check on Keith."

Lance nodded and watched me walk out of the room without a sound.

I still couldn't believe Keith would try something like that, he never seemed like the kind of guy to do something like that. Hurt himself protecting others? Yeah, plenty of times, but never something that severe.

Even if he really was trying to save us all, why that? There were probably other options, like storming the ship and shutting off the thing manually, but for him to think that was his first option-

I couldn't wrap my head around that.

I sat down on the floor next to his room, the cold of metal underneath me seeping through my skin and I shivered slightly.

I pulled my legs up against me and leaned my head back to meet the wall, letting out a sigh.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why would he do it?

Why did he think he had to do it?

Why did he even think something like that was an option?

I closed my eyes and listened.

He stopped crying, at least I think he did, as far as I could hear he did.

"Keith." I tried again, "Why? Why did you do it? Please, just, talk to me." I felt a tear trail down my cheek.

"Please."

I almost fell over when the door suddenly opened and I quickly shot to my feet, coming face to face with Keith.

He was a mess, and that was putting it lightly. He was now only wearing the tight undersuit of his Marmora uniform. His black hair was a mess, sticking in every direction, tear trails streaked his cheeks and just to sun it all up, he looked dead.

His eyes were downcast, I could tell that much, but his bangs hid the rest of his expression from view.

"Hey," I said lightly.

He didn't say anything, not looking at me.

"Can-can I come in?" I asked, not daring to take a step closer in case he would change his mind.

There were a few seconds of silence, then he nodded again, taking a few steps backward for me to enter.

His room looked like a war zone, the lights were dimmed as low as they could, pieces of his Marmora suit were thrown all over the floor, his knife dug into the wall next to his bed. The sheets were rumpled and strewn, a pillow sat on the floor in a corner.

Keith sat down on the bed, immediately putting his head in his hands, his back shook slightly.

I sat down next to him, listening to his quiet sniffles, I watched a tear fall and soak into his black pants.

"Are you okay?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

"No." His voice was hoarse and quiet.

"I-" I started.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Acira," Keith was not a pretty crier by any means, but the moment he had grabbed onto me, latching like a lifeline, I didn't care. He needed comfort, he was shaken beyond anything I had ever seen him. In fact, I had never seen him cry like this before, but I was going to hold onto him for as long as he needed.

"It's okay, you're alive," I said softly, petting his hair, helping him to try and calm down, but it only made the tears fall faster.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to protect- I didn't see any other way to-" he couldn't get the words out.

"Shh," I said, rubbing slow circles on his back, listening as he sucked in air only for a fresh wave of tears to come over him.

"I'm sorry."