𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚃𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎 - 𝙺𝚎𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝙺𝚘𝚐𝚊𝚗𝚎 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

Chapter Seven - What now?

Keith P.O.V

Thoughts whirl around my head. Anger. Regret. Shame. But most of all; guilt. Guilt, for lashing out at Shiro the way I did. Guilt, for pushing her away. Guilt, knowing that if I hadn't been so focused on myself then maybe Allura would've been fine.

The build-up of emotions had overwhelmed me, made me lash out at the person I trusted the most along with the most vulnerable one I know, too. With every swing of the sword as I aim at the training bots, I put everything into it.

Soon enough, all of it - the anger, the regret, the shame - washed away, leaving me to think of the guilt. 'Just apologise to him. You've known Shiro forever, he'll understand if you just talk to him.', I thought but, at the same time, I couldn't bring myself to.

Eventually, I hauled myself up from the cold, hard floor of the training room, my mind fixed on talking to Shiro. I hastily changed into my usual clothes before walking towards his room. I held my breath as I knocked on the door, stepping back a little. I flinched as the door opened, revealing him, tired eyes and all, smiling.

"Hey... can we talk?", I mumbled, ignoring the look of utter shock on his face as I did.

"Sure, come in.", he replied, moving to the side and turning the light on. Hesitantly, I took a step forward and entered the room. I noticed how tidy it looked; the polar opposite of Pidge's room. Everything had its place, even down to the finest detail of a picture frame. "Please, sit down. No need to be so nervous, Keith."

I slowly lowered myself onto a chair, hands fidgety. I looked at the ground. Both of us stayed silent for a minute, no one speaking. I took it as my cue to speak up, so I shyly cleared my throat and looked at him as he sat in front of me, a soft, reassuring smile etched onto his face.

"I-I came to say sorry for earlier... it's not your fault Allura was captured and it was wrong of me to take my emotions out on you. " It's just... I've been holding my anger in for a while now, and I-I guess I just snapped. So sorry, Shiro. I shouldn't have lashed out like that, especially not at you.", I admitted, now even more nervous to see his reaction.

To my surprise, he reached over and rested his hand on my arm, his smile growing even wider. "It's okay, Keith. I knew you didn't mean to lash out at me, or y/n for that matter. Speaking of her, maybe think about talking to her as well. But before you do that, what else has been stressing you out?", he asked, worried.

Now that's the one question I was hoping not to be asked. I took a shaky breath, gathering my thoughts before I spoke. 'Should I be honest with him? Or do I keep it to myself?', I thought to myself as I stared down at my pale hands. My mind was telling me to do one thing, but my heart longed to do another.

Feeling ready, I looked back up at Shiro, preparing myself to speak. His comforting smile gave me a slight boost of confidence as I sucked in another breath. "I... I can't help but think, if we had found y/n sooner, she wouldn't be in the predicament she's in now. And I've hurt her so many times, she'd be better off staying away from me. Why doesn't she?", I asked.

It felt good to finally speak my thoughts aloud, especially when it was to the person I look up to. Although they were just words, it had felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. Shiro chuckled, snapping me out of my thoughts. "What's funny?", I asked him.

"Nothing, nothing. Thank you for confiding in me, Keith. You can always come to me if you want to vent, you know. And as for y/n, I'm sure she's grateful we managed to save her at all. She would never be upset with you for something like that. And she wouldn't be better off without you, either. ", he replied.

Confused, I tilted my head to the side, staring him in the eyes. "How do we know that though? For all we know, she could be furious with me! All I've done is hurt her and push her away since she's been here, yet she's so nice to me!".