Living a Past Life (A Voltron Legendary Defender Fan Fiction)

Chapter 9

Keith began breathing too quickly as he stared down at the broken dish. He immediately knelt down and started to gather up the small pieces of glass.

"Keith!" Shiro yelled as he watched him cut his finger on one of the shards. He quickly moved around to the other side of the table, and knelt down in front of the boy.

Keith was full on sobbing, "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." his hands were shaking as he continued to pick up the glass, which just led to more cuts appearing on his hand.

"Keith, you need to stop." Shiro hated using such a stern voice with him, but he hated watching him hurt himself even more.

Keith finally looked up at him, and the first think that Shiro noticed was the terrible fear in his eyes. "Here, let me take that..." Shiro held his hand out, to take the glass from him.

Keith flinched away, and instead, held his hands close to his chest in fists. Shiro wanted to cry as he watched the blood drip to the floor, from the spaces between his fingers.

"Keith... please..." he sobbed.

Allura laid a hand on his shoulder, "Let me try..." she knelt down next to Shiro, "Keith, may I have the glass? You're hurting yourself..."

Keith glanced down at the blood on his hands, then looked up at Allura. After several minutes of thinking it over, Keith slowly held his hands out to her. She opened up her palm, and he let the shards fall into it. This gave them a good look at Keith's own hands, which were bloodied and raw.

"I'm so sorry..." he sobbed.

"For what?" Allura asked in genuine confusion.

"I... broke the dish..." he sounded miserable.

"Oh buddy..." Shiro said sadly, "You don't need to apologize for something like that. It was an accident." Keith began crying even harder. "Come here..."

Everyone expected him to flinch away. Therefor, they were surprised when he simply hung his head and went over to Shiro. He gently wrapped him in a hug, as Keith continued to cry.

After a few minutes of rubbing gentle circles onto Keith's back and trying to calm him down, Shiro finally stood up. "Why don't we take you to the infirmary, so that Coran can fix you up?"

"Then after that, why don't we have a movie night in the lounge?" Pidge suggested.

"Oh Yeah! I'll get the blankets!" Lance cheered.

"And I can make us some cookies!" Hunk grinned.

"Although, let's not put any scaultrite in them this time." Coran teased.

Hunk rolled his eyes, "You accidently make Teladuv lenses one time, and you can never live it down!"

They all laughed, and Shiro helped Keith up. "Come on, let's get you patched up."

Keith didn't move and looked at them with a mixture of confusion and fear. "That... that's... it?"

"What do you mean?" Lance asked.

"What... what about..." tears were pouring from his eyes. "What about my... pu-punishment?"

"What punishment?" Hunk asked, sure that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Aren't you... going to hit me, Mr. Shirogane?" Shiro felt like his heart had actually broken into two pieces. Keith was looking up at him with such fear in his eyes, and Shiro didn't know what to say. He looked over at the others, and he obviously wasn't the only one that had been dumbfounded by the question.

"Why... why would I hit you?" That wasn't the question he wanted to ask, back he just had to come up with something to fill the silence.

"Because I did something wrong." He said it so matter of factly, "I broke something..."

They all began to cry. So that's why Keith had been so nervous and jumpy around them. He had been abused as a child, and none of them had known about it. how could he have never told them? How could they have never noticed?

Shiro was the most distraught of them all. He had known Keith the longest, and still hadn't seen it. He knew Keith hadn't liked his foster homes but he never thought...

He knelt down, and wrapped Keith in the tightest hug possible. "I promise, I will never hurt you. In any way. No matter what's happened. I will protect you no matter what. You're my bother. I love you."

"We all do..." Keith looked up, and saw everyone else was crying too. That was... kind of odd. But... he didn't mind it. maybe they were telling the truth after all...  

(A/N - Hey guys, thanks for reading. Happy Thanksgiving week! When I say Vol, you say...)