Your P.O.V
A cold sweat rose on my back as, once again, I was jolted awake by a nightmare. Not wanting to worry Pidge, I hurriedly slipped out of the bed and made my way to the living room, knowing no one would be awake yet. Sinking into the soft fabric of the sofa, tears pooled in the corner of my eyes.
Sobs wracked my body, making me tremble more than I had thought humanly possible. I subconsciously rocked back and forth as I cried - a hopeless attempt to escape the images spinning around my mind. Nothing seemed to settle me and being alone just made it worse. I felt vulnerable, exposed and uneasy.
"y/n?", a voice called, snapping me out of my mopey daze. I dried my eyes as best I could, turning my attention to the figure hovering in the doorway. There, tired eyed and all, stood Keith. Something that I noticed about him was that he wasn't in his usual all-black outfit, but rather some loose-fitting pants and a t-shirt.
"Hey Keith!", I said, most likely sounding a tad too bright for a girl who had just been crying her eyes out previously. He looked doubtful but, regardless, started to advance towards me. I shuffled back a bit, giving him more space and making sure he wouldn't be uncomfortable.
He sat down not too far away from me and spoke again. "Why aren't you asleep? Don't you need to be getting a good night's rest?", he asked, in more of an upset tone than an irritated one. Feeling like a small child being scolded, I looked down, finding a sudden interest in my hands.
He sighed but did not attempt to leave the room. Accepting defeat, I sat up and looked at him, taking a deep breath before speaking. "I had another nightmare but I didn't want to wake Pidge so I left her room and came here.", I admitted to him.
A silence of sorts surrounded us, the only noises heard being my shaky breaths. After a while of this though, Keith stood up and offered his hand to me. "You need more sleep after yesterday. Want me to walk you back to your room?", he suggested to me. I gave a nod, taking his hand and allowing him to help me up as I was feeling lightheaded.
We walked to my room in comfortable silence, neither of us knowing what to say but, at the same time, being at peace with the silence. As we reached my door, however, I bit the bullet and talked to him. "T-thank you. For walking me back to my room, I mean. And for being nice to me."
He stood still for a minute, seemingly dumbfounded, before giving a rare smile. "No problem. Do you need me to stay for a bit or will you be alright by yourself?" he asked. I thought about it for a second before answering him.
"I don't want you losing sleep over me, you have more important things to do. It would be in your best interest if you got some sleep.", I replied, making a point of suggesting sleep as he looked tired. Sighing, he took a step forward and looked down at me.
"I'll be fine, but I know your nightmares are worse when you're alone. Please just let me do this? I want to make up for what happened before.", he begged, leaving practically no room for discussion. So instead of replying, I opened the door to my room and walked in, being followed by a certain mullet-haired boy.
"You can take the bed.", I said, grabbing a spare blanket and curling up in the corner of the room. He shook his head lightly and walked over to me, picking me up and placing me down on the bed, lying down next to me.
"Nope, you're sleeping on the bed. You're in no condition to sleep on the floor and I'm willing to sacrifice my personal space if it means we can both sleep comfortably.", he affirmed, his tone unwavering. A strange feeling sprouted within me as he said this, something I had never felt before. Giving in, I sank into the bed next to him.
"I- uh- thanks...", I muttered as I pulled the covers over the both of us. He just gave a small smile then turned and faces the wall, falling asleep pretty quickly. I, on the other hand, tossed and turned for a while, unable to get back to sleep. Eventually, the exhaustion took over and I found myself passed out on the bed, right beside the red paladin.
~ In dream ~
The alarms blared through the castle, deafening everyone it came across. Distress rose within me as Allura's voice spoke across the intercom. "Paladins, some Galrans have infiltrated the base! Get to your lions immediately!", she ordered with panic in her words.
Blinking, I opened my eyes, only to find that stood in front of me was none other than Lotor. Smirking in an utterly bone-chilling way, he continued to make his way towards me, discarding any trace of clothes as he did. "Well well, what do we have here? Could it be? My darling y/n?", he chuckled, leaning forward and grabbing my chin.
I tried to turn my head away but, to my horror, my body refused to move an inch. Instead, I was forced to sit there and endure every second of his hands as they travelled around my body, letting only the slightest of tears escape my fear-stricken eyes.
Once he was finished, he gave me a look that could only be described as spine chilling as he continues to pick me up, carrying me out of the castle and leaving nothing but destruction in his path.
~ Out of dream ~
I pounced up in bed, panting heavily. My chest felt tight and restricted every breath I took, leaving me to feel dizzy. Clinging desperately to the sheets, I noticed a figure out the corner of my eye. My breath hitched as I slowly turned my head to face it.
I sighed a breath of relief when I noticed it was only Keith, sitting up and wide-eyed. He hurried to my side and wrapped his arms around me, bringing my body closer to his own. He rubbed my back soothingly as he spoke. "It's okay, you're okay. I'm here, you're safe. I promise.".
I couldn't speak, so I just held onto him tighter, hanging onto the warm, comforting feeling he gave me whenever we hugged. To my surprise, however, he understood that and just held me tighter. I could feel his warm breath on my forehead as he looked down at me, causing a small blush to creep onto my cheeks.
The panic soon subsided only to be replaced by the all-too-frequent feeling of nausea. As the bile began to rise in my throat, I pushed my way out of Keith's grip and legged it to the bathroom, too focused on making it to the toilet to have time to shut the door.
A feeling of relief washed over me as I made it successfully to the toilet but it vanished once I had begun heaving, hands gripping the lid tightly. Not long after, I felt a hand rubbing my back and moving my h/l, h/c hair away from my face.
Once I felt as if I physically couldn't throw up anymore, I closed the lid of the toilet and leaned against the side of it, drained. I spotted a speechless Keith in front of me as I did so, and shot a weak smile towards him. He frowned slightly but returned a small tinge of a smile. He paused for a second or two before he spoke up.
"Are you alright? Do you need anything?", he asked, speaking gentler than normal. Unable to verbally reply, I motioned for a drink and then smiled slightly. He quickly understood and rushed out of the room, soon coming back with a glass of water. "Here. Don't drink it too fast or you'll feel worse.". Nodding, I brought the glass to my dry lips and took a sip.
"T-thank you... you can go back to your room if you want.", I finally said, but it came out more like a whisper than anything else. He gave a small, tired smile and helped me up and back into my room. We sat down, side by side, and I rested my head against the wall, feeling lightheaded.
"It's fine, I'll stay. Get some more sleep.", he instructed, moving to sit at the edge of the bed to give me some room. Feeling too tired to reply, I just laid down, falling asleep not long after my head hit the pillow. "Sleep well.", he muttered, barely audible, as I fell into a deep slumber.
~ Later ~
I woke up in an empty room, no sign of Keith nor any hints as to where he might be. 'Where's Keith? Did he just up and leave without saying anything?', I thought. I felt a little hurt, but brushed it off and quickly got changed into some loose, comfortable clothes.
Somewhat hungry, I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed some food goo from the Altean version of a fridge. I ate most of the small bowl and emptied the rest into the bin before walking to the control room. I saw everyone but Coran gathered around Pidge's chair, looking at a holographic screen at the front of the room.
I let out a small yawn and stood next to Hunk so that I could see better. "What's this?", I asked curiously. The screen showed a few planets, all circled with some sort of ring, but one stood out to me; it was outlined with a single white ring.
"Oh, hey y/n! We just found some sort of Galra universal station or galactic hub and we're about to head there to check it out.", Pidge explained, chirpier than normal. I nodded, and soon we set off on course to the universal station place.
When it came into view, I couldn't help but be mesmerised. It was a huge, green spacecraft lodged into the back of a planet. Gasps echoed around the room and, honestly, I felt the same about it. With everyone like this, Coran took it as his opportunity to speak.
"It appears the gravitation between the two planets warps the electron emission spectrum enough to keep the planet off the deep space scanners. ", he said, deep in thought, Pidge and Coran seemed quite intrigued by this and, although I didn't understand all the terms they were using, I knew that it must be a pretty complex and difficult thing to do.
All of the paladins, as well as Allura, decided to go inside and see what was happening there. They all agreed that, if it was just some sort of space airport, there'd be no need to hide it. Even though there were quite a few people against Allura going, she made it clear that she'd be going no matter what and they soon gave up trying to stop her.
Before they went to 'suit up' as Shiro says, I gave them all a quick hug, telling them all to stay safe. I was especially nervous about Keith going for whatever reason; it just seemed sort of dangerous and I don't want him, or anyone else, in harm's way.
"Don't worry, beautiful. I'm not just all looks, ya know. I can fight and I'll make sure we all get back unscathed.", Lance remarked, a smirk growing on his face. Pidge slapped the back of his head, and they all went to change into their armour.
I turned around to be met with a certain orange-haired Altean, a smile plastered on his face. "Looks like it's just me and you in the castle, for now, y/n. Would you mind assisting me with a few things while they're in there?", he asked politely. Although he sounded a tad sketchy, I nodded and went along with it.
A smirk grew on his face and he quickly made contact with both Pidge and Hunk, mumbling something I couldn't quite work out. Whatever it was, they started smiling and squealing like little kids. He then sent them on their way and went into a storage closet, later coming back out with a rather... interesting outfit.
"Um... Coran? What is that dress for? And the heels?", I asked, regretting ever agreeing to help him in the first place. His smile enhanced in size as he handed the outfit to me, stepping back.
"Simple. While they're on the mission, you have to change into that and I need some pictures.", he explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"But... why?", I asked again. He simply pondered for a second, bringing a hand up to play with his moustache. He was silent for a while, maybe too long, before he smiled again and clasped his hands together. 'Something's off about this.', I mentally decided.
"You see, number six, Pidge wanted me to get a picture of you in that for future reference. It's just something she asked me to do.", he replied, his voice going higher in pitch. 'Yep, definitely, something going on.'. Regardless, I sighed and nodded, walking towards my room to change.
The dress was f/c and went down to just below the knee. It had a sweetheart neckline and it was strapless. The heels weren't any better, either. They were nude and way too tall for my liking. Even though I disliked the outfit, however, it reminded me of someone I hadn't thought about in a while; my mother.
It had been years since I was captured and all those bottled up emotions seemed to bubble up to the surface as I thought of her, making hot tears stain my face. I sat on the bed, afraid I would fall if I stood up any longer. In the midst of this, the ground seemed to shake slightly, but I was too distracted to even acknowledge that.
After getting myself together, I splashed my face and looked in the mirror again. Groaning, I realised how insecure the dress made me feel, but made my way to Coran so he could.d take the pictures and I could rid myself of this outfit.
Shockingly, when I walked back into the room I saw everyone but Allura, stood there looking devastated. 'Wow, was I in my room for that long?', I thought, looking around. I halted in the doorway, unsure of how to approach everyone. The first to spot me was Shiro, and he looked utterly shocked.
"y-y/n?", he managed, dragging the team's attention to me. I felt unease surface within me and looked towards the ground, embarrassed. I collected my emotions and looked back up, seeing Pidge and Hunk smirking, Shiro smiling softly, and Lance's nose bleeding as his cheeks were flushed a pinkish colour. Looking at Keith, however, I found his face blank, spare a red tint to his pale skin.
"I-I... Coran told me to put this on and...", I sighed, stopping myself mid-sentence before speaking again. "How did the mission go? Where's Allura?", I asked. Silence. Tension. Frustration. Anguish. They all seemed to linger around the room, making me concerned.
Keith finally lifted his head, a frightening look on his face, and turned to Shiro. "Someone lost her on the mission. The Galra took her! Those quiznacking freaking purple space cats have her and it's all because of Shiro!", he basically screamed.
As much as I wanted to approach him and calm him down, I couldn't bring my body to move. Instead, I just stood there, paralysed. It wasn't until he walked past that I managed to grab his wrist in an attempt to stop him.
Instead of speaking, he just froze and turned to face me, furious. He grabbed my hand and shoved it away from himself, slamming the door in my face as he stormed out of the room. Everyone went silent after that. Not a word was shared between the seven of us as we all reacted in our own way to the events of the day.
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A/N: Hey reader, thanks for reading this chapter and sorry for not updating sooner! I'll try to update as much as I can, but another chapter may not be out until the weekend because of a few delays. Anyway, Keith seemed to be getting more comfortable at first, but Allura being taken really triggered him. I wonder if he'll apologise soon? Hopefully! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading, I'll see you in the next chapter! - Gracie