Blackout (A Keith Fanfiction)

Chapter 9

"Hey, Shiro...?" I walk into the lounge, where Shiro sits on the couch looking thoughtfully at his Galra arm.

He looks up at me, pushing aside whatever he might've been thinking about, "Oh, hey Val. Need something?"

"Yeah... kinda... I have a bit of a problem," I sit down across from him, already blushing in embarrassment. "So... Keith has been teaching me hand-to-hand combat... and it's like a regular thing we do." Shiro nods, signifying he understands. "But it's been uh... kinda awkward between us since, uh...  while we were on the mission... we uh... well, I uh..."

Shiro apparently picks up on how much I don't want to say what comes next. "I heard what happened on the mission, Val," he gives me a slight smirk.

"Dammit, Pidge!" I whisper to myself, making Shiro chuckle.

"Look, it'll only be awkward if you make it awkward. You know what I mean?" Shiro advises.

I blink, "Not at all."

"You have two options. You could pretend like nothing ever happened, because if what you've claimed about it being nothing really is true, there's no reason for anything to be awkward. Or you could do the blatantly grown up thing and talk it out," Shiro explains.

"Mm..." I nod my head slowly. "The pretend like nothing ever happened option seems easier. I'll do that." I stand up, quickly, before Shiro can say anything about how that's not what I actually should do, "Thanks, Shiro!"

I rush out of the lounge and to the training deck, where Keith is taking on the gladiator. His back is facing me, but that doesn't mean he hasn't acknowledged my entrance. He takes out the gladiator and it disappears in a flash of blue light, "Y'know, you're late..."

"Sorry, I was talking to Shiro..." for whatever reason, my face goes slightly red. I pull on my fingerless gloves and make my way to wear Keith stands. He seems to be pretending like nothing happened as well.

Keith gets into a fighting stance, "Whenever you're ready."

I blink at him, "I'm sorry, what?"

"You heard me," he gives me a single nod of something like encouragement.

"You... you want me to fight you?" I continue to stand there dumbfounded.

"Well duh. What does it look like?" he brushes off my surprise.

"But we just started... I still suck..."

I must look as lost and confused as I feel because Keith chuckles, "Yes, you do. I'll go easy on you... a bit..."

That's when I get the feeling that he knows exactly what he's doing. I don't know how he knew sparking a sort of competitive side of me would work, but he does. 

I get in position and wait a moment before attacking with a punch that he dodges. I knew he would, obviously. I've watched him fight enough to know how he goes about it. I don't hesitate a moment after he dodges to double back and go to bring my other elbow to his face. Or where his face should be, since he predicts this and dodges my elbow, too. He's quick to drop lower to the ground and kick my legs out from under me. I land on my back with a thud.

That was a short match... Still rather painful, though. The floor wasn't exactly gentle on my back. Keith stands above me holding out a hand to help me up, "Guard your legs more. And if your stance was lower, that wouldn't have hurt as much."

I notice the smug smirk on his face. I roll my eyes and take his hand, "Don't laugh at me. I told you I still suck."

Honestly, I lost track of time. I guess time flies when you're getting your ass kicked over and over again. I also lost track of how many matches we'd gone through, but every one ended in me on the floor and a new set of instructions that bordered on insults.

"You're getting sloppy" "Keep your guard up" "Stop pulling your punches" "What the hell was that?" "You're still pulling your punches"

Keith didn't seem the least bit frustrated with me, despite my minimal progress. That's what made almost no sense to me. Honestly, he seemed to just be enjoying kicking my ass. I guess that makes a bit more sense.

I, on the other hand, was getting quite frustrated. Once again on my back on the ground, I sling my arm over my eyes and let out a frustrated groan.

"Hey, that was a lot better, y'know..." Any kind of motivation from Keith was gonna cause me to take my arm off my face and give him a are-you-serious look. Keith's normally smug smirk was more of a rare, sincere smile as he helped me back up. "One more time, ok?"

I nod and get into position. I take a breath and try to focus as best as I can in as much pain as I'm in. If this is Keith going easy on me, I'd hate to actually be the enemy.

Our final match mostly went by in a blur. At least until I finally actually landed a blow on the back of Keith's head with my elbow. He stumbled forward and I took the opportunity to kick his legs out from under him, just like he'd done the first match. He caught himself before his face hit the ground and rolled onto his back, winded.

It took me a moment to process what actually happened. I didn't get my ass kicked. I help Keith up with my own smug smirk. "Good job," he sincerely congratulates. "You just gotta do that about a hundred more times and you'll be golden."

"Wow, you really know how to motivate people," I scoff sarcastically.

"Hunk made pancakes for dinner!" Pidge pops her head in quickly and bolts down the hall to the kitchen. If there was one thing I learned in my time here, it's that if you're not the first there for Hunk's pancakes, they'll be gone before you get there. (Y'all, I need Hunk to make me pancakes irl)

I run after Pidge without sparing Keith a second glance.

That was a dumb ending. I know. I'm sorry. Thanks for being patient with me for the entire week I was gone. I promise I did try to write last week, but by the time I got home I'd have really bad headaches and a shit-ton of homework to do. I hope this chapter was good enough, especially following that last chapter which (not to be an arrogant ass) was kinda really good for me.

I posted this on my account thing (I've been on Wattpad for years and I still don't know what it's called), but would anyone be interested in a high school or college AU? It'd most likely be a high school AU since I don't know a damn thing about college, but I'm trapped in the hell known as high school.

Would anyone be interested in a Keith x Reader oneshots book? I'd do overall Voltron imagines, but I can't really write for anyone except Keith and sometimes Lance. Really, if you have suggestions for other books or AUs that you want me to write, I'm all ears and would appreciate it a bunch.

Thanks for reading! xx