2019 Voltron Whumptober Collection

12 "Don't Move"

Word Count: 1,956

The Garrison was just as he remembered it, full of scowling people, and rules, and the endless rush of lessons, and orange, and teachers wandering around with hands on their hips looking about as lost as the students they taught-

So, yeah.

More or less, it was exactly how he remembered it.

But, then again, even though so much was the same, so much has changed since then.

Where should he even begin to describe the changes that made this familiar place, this- comforting place feel so alien to him?

Shiro was different for one, more- distant than before they blasted off in the blue lion all those years ago. A part of him knew why, he was trying to stay out of the way, neither of them had really talked since- well- Keith wasn't sure if he should try talking to the man about what just happened during that fight between them, or if he should keep his distance (because if Keith was being completely honest with himself, he wasn't sure how he should think about it either, and a small part of him never wanted to think about it ever again).

But Shiro wasn't the only one acting off either.

Allura wasn't the same, not since they landed and everyone, literally everyone ran into their family's arms with tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces, while the princess stood off to the side with a faraway look in her blue eyes, arms crossed, biting her lip, and Keith got it, he did. He'd stood there with her when everyone else had embraced the people they haven't seen in years, Krolia had gone off with Kolivan with help get together what was left of the Blade of Marmora, so he was left surveying everyone's happy faces alone.

But he'd gotten used to it by now.

So he didn't mind.

But, of course, that small, seemingly insignificant thing was different too.

That he didn't mind anymore.

Keith was a leader now. Somehow his head had been screwed on tighter over those two years with his mom in the abyss. He was more levelheaded now sure, a part of him was grateful for those two years away from the stress of his life, with the only person he'd been looking for since this whole shenanigan started. But he was also now two years older than the people he'd grown to know as his family.

And it was different.

Too different.

So you could understand why he was currently wandering the streets of Platt City, trying to understand just why the heck he was here, why everything felt so foreign to him in a place that was supposed to feel like his only true home in the universe around the people that hadn't changed (at least in his mind) in two years.

What was wrong with him?

Keith shoved his hands further into his jacket pockets, the unfamiliar color still catching his eyes when he looked down, it was still red, but it was a different color red, the cut different than the cut of his old jacket, the jacket he'd outgrown during his two years in warped space.

It was different.

He was sure how to think about it besides it was just different.

Too different.

He wasn't sure how to think.

And let's not forget about the looming and incredibly large publicity that came with being a paladin of Voltron. Just because he was now the public face of the team didn't mean he liked people any more than before this whole trip had begun.