~Growing Up With The Blades~ (Voltron Keith)

~Prologue~

Okay so if you're here from my one shot book, this part is the same as the beginning of that but the next chapter it'll be a little different. I guess that chapter was kind of a trailer? If you aren't from my one shot book then uh welcome I hope you like my book. This prologue will describe key events in Keith's live and stuff. Here you go!

Keith always knew he was different.

Ever since he was born he was aware that he didn't look like the other Blades.

For starters, his skin was completely the wrong colour. Instead of a dark or light purple, Keith's skin was a pale peachy colour.

On top of that, all the other blades had bigger, fluffier ears higher up on their heads. Keith's ears were small and more on the side of his head.

Height. Don't even get Keith started on height. All the other Blades were tall and well built where as Keith was short and slightly lanky.

There were a lot of other things that made Keith different from the rest, but if Keith were to sit here and tell you all the mental and physical differences, we'd be here for a while.

When he was younger, his carer, Thace, had told him it was a medical condition. Something about his DNA being faulty. As a child, Keith had believed it, but as Keith began to grow up, he realised the definition seemed incomplete, as if Thace was hiding him from something.

You may be wondering why Keith has a carer and not proper parents. This was because his mother had been sent away on an important mission that would last years and his father, well, Keith didn't exactly know. Thace had told him multiple stories of his father. Sometimes it was that his father had joined his mother on the mission. Sometimes it was that his father had died. Whatever it was, Keith had stopped asking questions, knowing Thace wouldn't tell him the truth anyways.

As of now, Thace wasn't in the Blade bases. He was undercover in one of Zarkon's ships. He had been there for about three years now. Keith had grown used to having no parent figure even though it did bug him sometimes.

Growing up as a Blade probably isn't as bad as you think. Across the many bases they had Hospitals (although they weren't used much), schools, Nurseries and more. Keith hadn't really been to many of the Blade bases. He'd only been to the one Thace used to stay in and the school. However, he mostly just stayed in the school one as they had rooms there and no one was really waiting for him back in the other one.

Being in school was hard for Keith.

You'd think everyone would be interested in his odd appearance. You'd think people would talk to him and he would be popular.

In fact, it was quite the opposite.

During his younger years of school, Keith was bullied. People made fun of his small ears and pale skin. They'd call him names like 'Shrimp legs' for his height and 'leaf ears' for his strange ears. It wasn't uncommon for Keith to call Thace in the middle of lessons crying in the bathroom, telling Thace how he just wanted to come back to him already. Thace would normally calm him down enough for Keith to go back to lessons but it didn't stop Keith from hurting.

During his teenage years, Keith hit his lowest point. The height difference between him and his classmates was embarrassing. Sometimes, Keith would add a slight heal to his shoes just to make him feel taller. He'd get in fights often and almost got kicked out multiple times but Thace somehow always managed to keep him in his school. However, Thace had to go on his own mission. Keith had no one to call late at night and no one to stop him from being kicked out. Eventually, he was transported to another school.

This other school was a little better. Sure, he felt like everyone there hated him but they kept their opinions to themselves. Keith managed to get to the top of his class easily, impressing a lot of teachers. The class were eventually split into groups. These would be their mission companions for their school life and maybe even more. Of course, people were allowed to ask to be with people they knew but seeing as Keith knew nobody, he just let himself be assigned to whoever. Luck was on his side this time as he was assigned with two Blades named Keof and Lein.

Keof was probably one of the nicest people Keith had ever met. He had pointy ears poking out of his Dark, short purple hair. His body was more buff than Lein's and he had a scar near his right eye. His tail was purple with a darker purple on the end.  A lot of people were fond of Keof but Keof never seemed to pay much attention to them unless he was on a mission with them. He was extremely protective and hated the thought of losing a blade on a mission. His ranking, similar to his parents rankings, was pretty high. What interested Keith the most about Keof was his Blade. When activated, it was wide and could almost be used as a small shield. Keof also owned a whip but he didn't use that as often.

Lein was similar to Keof but at the same time completely different. What Keith found interesting about Lein was that Lein didn't really have a gender. They looked quite feminine but at the same time looked masculine, not that the shape of your body defines what gender you are. While growing up, Lein's parents had wanted them to be a girl but Lein found that they preferred being either a 'he' or a 'them' so most people just switched it up a lot. Lein wasn't as buff as Keof and had blue hair half cut. They had floppy ears and their tail was more of a blended dark purple. Lein was more of a prankster than Keof, something Keith admired. Lein was pretty talented at everything except for cheering people up. That was more of Keof's thing. Lein's weapons were their blade, a gun they made themselves and some smoke bombs just in case. Keof was more of a team player where as Lein liked doing missions on their own. Sadly, Lein's parents weren't Blades. They were soldiers or Zarkon and Lein had been at one point too. When Lein was young, they escaped their parents because they felt like what they were doing was wrong. Keof found him and that was how they became friends.

When Keith had first met these two, his first thoughts were to only talk to them when he had to. They were going to go on missions, after all. Keof and Lein had been friendly to him and tried to get him to open up and at first it had been difficult. Keith had eventually become more open after a fight he had with one of the other groups which had ended in Keof and Lein finding Keith curled up in one of the broom closets. Keith had explained a group had locked him in there. When Keof asked why, Keith began to explain his issues with people and his appearance. He'd admitted that his childhood had been rough and not many people had liked him. Keof and Lein accepted him, of course, and hugged him tight saying they didn't give two damns about Keith's different appearance. After that night, the three had become inseparable.

Well, almost inseparable.

Aaand that's the prologue! I can't wait to get properly started with this book! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!

Words: 1290

~Author Mill