How Far I've Come (Keith x Reader)

⚭ Seeking Assistance; Chapter Thirty-One ⚭

"So how was it?" Shiro asks Lance, feeling the tension calm a bit once they had regrouped. Pidge and Hunk awaited his answer while Keith stood quietly off to the other side of the room. Their meeting place is an empty booking cubicle that hasn't been used by the resort in months, secluded and silent in the air of the setting sun. "What kind of intel did she give you?"

"She doesn't remember anything about last night. No side effects, no aftershock or soreness. Y/n was completely normal, she has no idea she almost died." Lance explained, hands in his pockets. His muscles were relieved and his skin felt rejuvenated after filling in the gap that Lotor left in Y/n's spa day.

"Somehow I find that creepier than if she knew something's wrong."

"I agree. She is lonely, though. Lotor makes her feel more like a... like a worker than a fiancée. Especially after he left her completely on her own today, she said she probably would have just gone back to the ship if I hadn't been there."

Pidge taps away at sort of digital notepad, too busy to care for Hunk's shoulder-hovering. "Thank you for doing something so last minute Lance. It really helped us put ourselves in a more positive part of her judgement." Shiro says.

"For a free facial and massage? I'd be the thing hanging off of Lotor's arm for the attention alone."

"Could you be any more pathetic right now, Lance?" Keith spat, teeth grinding in the shadows.

"Keith-"

"She's not some 'thing' hanging off of his arm. You were just in the right place at the right time." Keith sneers, glaring into the wooden floors. "She would have invited anyone."

Allura slipped a small, sympathetic frown. "Keith, please try to understand that this situation helped us very much. It would be best to keep any jealousy you may have at bay."

"Jealousy? You all think I'm jealous?" He asks, facing the group with a sharp turn.

The room shared awkward glances, but the agreement throughout the room is chilling. Keith's fists shake, eager to do... do something. If he were only allowed to abandon the morals that he doesn't even hold to himself, this whole situation could have been fixed weeks ago.

"In what way could I be jealous? It couldn't be that the one person who I know Y/n has liked before me just got to spend a day out with her 'for the mission'. Maybe it's because I had to see him make her laugh on the cameras in ways that I can't because some imbecile prince decided he needed to ruin a life so he could have a new plaything." He shouts, grabbing at his shirt, searching for any source of life stability at this point. "Maybe that's why!"

"Keith.." Shiro mumbles, walking across the room to approach him kindly.

"Don't touch me." Keith warns, so the offender keeps his distance. There's an anger similar to Keith's behind his stormy grey's, but a sheet of deep sadness layers over them. Shiro knows something he doesn't.

"I know you've been through a lot, but you have things to consider." Shiro says timidly, gesturing his hands to show his open honesty. "Just calm down."

"..What things are there to consider? I don't understand."

"Well," Shiro says, "you have to know that in most of the situations where we get Y/n back, we probably won't end up with one that acts like the way she was before."

"Well yeah, two rounds of hell with the Prince of Deranged City would change someone." Keith tenses his shoulders deeply, posture crippled and confused, engaged with concern.

"Not.. not like that."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean to say is.." Shiro rewords himself. "If we do bring her back to our side of the war, we may not be able to have her back to the way acted around us before Lotor. She'd be the way she is now, only with Voltron in favor of her best interest."