How Far I've Come (Keith x Reader)

⚪︎ The Beginning; Chapter Eighteen ⚪︎

☆-.-☆

The meeting with the Paladins, while it went well, rapidly turned into the unexpected at an undesirable speed.

While you were in a peaceful sleep, forced only by your utter exhaust from the pod, you tried to dream. Dreaming is soothing, it gives you visions of what you wish you had. It also lets you live in your perfect world for a little while. However, you found yourself dogged with the opposite;

Nightmares. Hellish, sickening nightmares. The kind that makes you nauseous in your dreams, and uneasy when you wake up. Even when you would jolt awake, once you forced yourself back to the sleep you needed, the horror continued in the terrifying fashion it had minutes before.

It was all the same. It all started with black. Then, without warning, everything you had ever feared surrounded you, screaming and screeching and grabbing at you like demons summoned just to torment your past, present and future.

Your parents shrieked at you, pointing out all of your failures and regretting the day you were born.
'You've never made us happy!'
Iverson shouted right into your ear, commanding you to do better than the best, to stop disappointing your peers and learn how to do what you're doing with joy.
'Stop crying and get up, what happened to you?'
Shiro slaughtered everything in his path, his thirst for bloodshed beyond his control, as well as maintaining the power of his arm. Throughout the entire nightmare, the sound of screams and slashes were blasting eerily in the background.
'I am what they wanted me to be.'
Lotor cackled as he held golden chains in his clawed fingers, jolting you every time he gave a light tug, his father and his witch standing behind him.
'Are we pouting? Chin up, Princess.'
Keith screamed in your face, cursing your name to high hell, blaming you for all that went wrong after you left. It's all your fault. He asked you not to leave. You left anyway.
'You were never there for me!'

A hand gripped your shoulder. For the umpteenth time, out of too many to count, you jerked up in your new bed, gasping deeper than a drowning man would for air.

"Woah, what happened!? Are you okay?" Shiro asks, removing his hand from you. You watched the metallic, weaponized arm as it drifted away, the same weapon that killed nameless bodies in your dark and inescapable dream.

The rest of Voltron, (all except Keith), stood behind him in silent worry. You nod, sitting yourself up in a position to talk. "Nothing." You lie. "Scary dream."

"Alright, we're always here if you need us. Hunk made you something to eat. Are you up for it?" He asks yet another question, and you nod yet again, instantly feeling the weight of a metal platter on your lap. "Space burritos! I don't know what kind you prefer, so I made all three of my favorites. I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed cooking them!"

Hunk smiles, your approval of his food being all he looks for. You can see in his eyes that Pidge has talked you up good, and it's likely that it was a little too exaggerated. Tension fills the air, overflowing the room with the need to complement Hunk on his work and please the group, enjoy the food-

"Why don't we ask a few questions while you eat?" Shiro offers, cutting that tension into five calm auras. Three burritos, each a different variety of obscure space flavor. You get to try them all. You would prefer that eventually, you'll tell Hunk that you loved them all. Time to eat. Finally.

Something hard and wobbly shakes inside the first wrap as you cut into it, like stale Jell-o with a crisp cookie center. "So, if you wanted to know, Keith's letting go of some stress at the moment. Training, to put it short." You nod at the Black Paladin's words.