VOLTRON ONE-SHOTS

Keith x Nifa - See

Word Count: 1,962

"No."

He stopped mid sentence, mouth snapping closed as his eyes screwed into a look of confusion, "What?"

"I said no," she shook her head, arms crossed tightly over her chest, forcing herself to look him in the eyes and not on the small bag he continued to pack with his things.

In went his red jacket.

The old sheath to his knife.

The small stuffed hippo she'd managed to get him for his birthday just a few days ago-

She bit her lip to keep from screaming.

He wasn't leaving.

He couldn't be leaving.

Not again.

"Keith, I don't want you to leave. You- you can't run from this, not again," though, if Nifa was being completely honest with herself, this was the only time he was truly leaving and not coming back. Him and his Blade missions she could stand, because she knew he'd be back from those and she could pretend, even for just a little bit, that he'd never left before he was off again and the cycle would repeat itself all over.

She had been sound with her charade of repeating to herself that Keith was the black paladin, he couldn't leave this time-

But this time.

After what happened today.

He- he wasn't coming back.

It'd been a mess all morning, the paladins getting back from escorting some refugees that had been ambushed mid-transport; Galra ships falling onto them like ants to honey, and tearing with such ferocity, they needed Voltron to finish the fight.

They needed Voltron.

But Keith wasn't back yet.

Sitting on the castle's bridge, listening to the cries of the rest of the team in battle, she'd known Shiro and her were thinking along very similar lines, both of them knowing, sooner or later, it would've come to this: with Keith off on a Blade mission while his team desperately needed him someplace else-

And it was Shiro who made the first move to do something about it, running down to the black lion's hangar and reconnecting with her in just enough time to fly to his team and finish the fight.

Without Keith.

And when the Blade finally stepped into the castle's bridge hours later-

He was met with hard expressions at every angle.

Nifa would be lying if she said she didn't understand the pressures everyone was facing during those moments of staring coldly at the only member of their team absent during an important operation. They needed Keith to be present, and not away as many times as he was with the Blades, no one had given him a single reason to be running off like this, and it was tearing everyone apart to be picking up after the one person who should have it all under control.

But-

At the same time-

She also understood what Keith was going through. He'd been told all those months ago that he wasn't human, and now he was finally getting the chance to explore that side of him, to understand what being Galra in this war really meant.

But it still didn't change the fact they needed him here, at the castle, with Voltron more than they needed him with an infiltration, rebel group, more than ready to give up their lives to the cause. Even with Shiro finally, back, none of them denied they still needed all hands on deck.