VOLTRON ONE-SHOTS

Keith - If Only It Were pt. 1

Word Count: 1,734

Time.

It wasn't as simple as it sounded. Time had a funny way of twisting your mind. It made you feel like your heart was going to burst. Making you feel as if you were drowning in open air, or thrusting a sword to give the killing blow-

Then it all disappears.

Keith didn't like the feeling, he didn't like time, he didn't like the choking feeling of memories that wouldn't just go away...

Why wouldn't they go away?

He couldn't, no, he refused to go to sleep last night, or the night before that, or any night he could remember ever since it happened. He could still see the flash as it fired that haunted the dark behind his eyelids, the pressure on his shoulder shoving him to the side to protect him from a death meant for him.

He deserved it.

But it never came.

And after time after time of Kolivan holding missions from him because You need rest and you need to get over this, once you've done that, come talk to me, he just hid in his room after that. He wasn't going to try if no one cared to give him the time to just do something normal, he didn't need special treatment, he needed Kolivan to trust him. But Kolivan didn't back away from his word, in fact, if Keith was being honest, Kolivan had been purposefully setting the whole Marmora base against him.

And he was getting sick of it all.

Keith could barely keep his eyes open when he stumbled onto his bed. Hitting his foot against something hard on the side of the bed sent a string of curses out of his mouth as he curled up into a miserable ball on the sheets, letting out heavy breaths through his nose as he closed his eyes, clenching his fists together as if he could fight against the dreams plaguing his sleep.

He didn't mean to drift off, he swore he didn't, but he did.

He knew as soon as he opened his eyes, he knew he was dead, Keith could feel the burning pain in his leg when it had been grazed by blaster fire earlier in the mission. The blood in his eyes from a head wound continued to clog his vision as he swiped around his eyes to clear his sight almost hitting the floor when he did.

"Keith, come on!" Krolia, no, his mom, said to him as he struggled to keep up, his knee threatened to buckle with every step, but he gritted his teeth through the pain and stepped up his pace, he was not going to fall behind.

Turned out that the mother-son mission had been a set-up. Swarms of Galra soldiers waited behind every door, and it was pure Hell to get back to try and get out of there in one piece.

They finally came to a stop, crouching behind the next bend of their escape route.

"Where are they all coming from?" His mother cursed under her breath, and, despite the life-threatening circumstances that were currently gripping them both, Keith couldn't suppress the small smile that lifted his lips.

In the past few weeks alone, Keith felt fuller than he ever had in his life when he had been on his own. His mother's attitude reflected his own at times, and she seemed to be the only person that could read him as if he were an open book.

Sure, Shiro had been there for him, but this just felt different, not as.... Cut off as it had felt with Shiro days before Keith decided to leave, this felt different, but in a good way.

She suddenly shifted her position to face him, "How's your leg holding up?"

Keith shrugged, holding back the grimace that came with moving, "Could be better, but I'll make it."