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Kolivan was angry. Enraged that a member of his pack had felt so unwanted, alone in a group that was supposed to be his friends. His pack.
The other three Galra in the room felt the same way, glances exchanged between each other after Keith had drifted off again. Thace's tongue was lapping gently at Keith's cheeks, wiping away the dried tears tracks and trying to ease the puffiness in his eyes. Grooming calmed Keith down, he remembered. Calmed him down after missions, why should a nightmare be any different.
-
He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it.
Keith, a member of his pack, had been mistreated by his friends in the worst possible way. They had turned his back on him, unintentionally or not, just because of something he couldn't control. He was still Keith at the end of the day, but what message did the actions send to the young kit?
That he would be rejected if he wasn't a certain way. It sickened Thace to think about what Keith had described. The looks of pure hatred from Allura, hesitant looks from everyone before they went near him. He could only hope that it would be cleared up.
-
Ulaz was concerned, both for Keith's emotional well-being and his physical well-being.
He could only assume the type of stress that weighed on Keith's body when his closest friends all but rejected him. He couldn't even begin to guess the physical effects that he had yet to figure out.
Sleep deprivation.
Stress sometimes caused an inability to sleep. He knew that often, early on in his stay, Keith would wander the halls of the blade headquarters rather than sleep. Now, he was content to sleep surrounded by his pack, but how often did he wake up and just lay there?
Upset stomach.
This came for Keith in the form of nausea. Keith often came to him during the day in the medical bay, complaining of being nauseous. Ulaz had chalked it up to his stomach still adjusting to Galran food and let him lay down for a bit. Had he judged wrong? Was it actually a symptom of stress?
Changes in appetite.
Ulaz would notice that Keith would either eat too much or too little, but according to the paladins, that was normal with the kit. But had it been getting worse? Ulaz wished he had been more observant of when Keith hadn't finished his plate or had taken second servings.
Ulaz thought that maybe he was thinking too far into this, but he couldn't let the thought go. Had it been stressful for Keith? Surely the war was, but was it added stress that could have been avoided?
-
Antok was ready to rip heads off.
Kolivan's hand rested gently on Antok's shoulder, rubbing at the tense muscles.
"I know you are mad, Antok, we all are, but you can not do anything rash." He said. Antok growled lowly.
"I know we need the paladins if we ever hope to defeat Zarkon, but sometimes I really wish we didn't. Leader, did you not just hear the kit minutes ago? He was trying to excuse them! Saying it was okay! That they were well in their rights to exclude him! To ignore him!" Antok said.
Ultimately, he knew he was getting too worked up to think straight, so he allowed his pack to settle him in the nest again. He curled himself around Keith, protecting him.
"We need to talk to the paladins about this." He said.
No one disagreed with him.
-
The next morning, Kolivan made up an excuse for why the four blades had to go do important business, and why Keith couldn't come with them. They knew that Keith would be upset if he knew what they were doing, but they wanted to protect their pack member.
After making sure that Keith was occupied, the four blades made their way through the headquarters and into the main control room, starting a video call with the paladins. They didn't care how early it might have been, they were not going to sit around and allow the paladins to get away with what they did wrong.
Allura was the first to answer the video call, smiling politely at the four Galra that the paladins had almost come to call friends. She hadn't even been able to open her lips to speak when Kolivan cut her off.
"We need to discuss something with yourself, Coran, and all of the paladins." He said, am unfamiliar level of edge to his voice.
Allura blinked in surprjse before calling all of the paladins in, a few grumbling about how their sleep was interrupted.
"What did you need to talk to us about, Kolivan?" Shiro asked.
"We have noticed some quite... disturbing things about Keith that we would like to clear up." Ulaz said. Shiro frowned, worried.
"What type of things?" He asked.
Thace sighed a bit. "Well, last night, he came to us after a nightmare, and its really what it was about that concerned us. Its not about Keith specifically, but rather, how you have treated him."
"Whoa, hang on, how we were treating him?! He's the one who gave us the cold shoulder all the time!" Lance protested, jumping back at the aggressive snarl that sounded from under Antok's mask.
"Settle down, Antok. This was supposed to be a calm discussion. And yes, he may have, but have you ever stopped to consider it was because of how you were treating him?" Kolivan said, narrowing his eyes at Lance.
"Kolivan, nightmares are often exaggerated versions of the fears-" Allura began, quickly being cut off by Antok.
"Yes, but the fears are started in truth." He said. Pidge looked up at the video screen.
"What exactly was the nightmare about?" They asked.
"It was about how... differently, and in Allura's case, coldly, you all treated him after he found out he had Galra blood." Kolivan said.
"What do you mean?" Hunk asked, confused and a bit concerned.
"Keith noticed how you guys hesitated, just slightly, around him. And Allura, honestly, completely ignoring him for days on end? Imagine how that felt for him." Thace explained.
"How it felt for him? Imagine how it felt for me to find out that one of my friends has the blood of the species that killed my entire race!" Allura exclaimed.
"That may be so, but Keith is exactly as you said, a friend. He was still Keith, you all just discovered something new about him. But you treated him differently." Thace argued.
"He still had the same personality and quirks that you all knew and accepted, but you made him feel unwanted simply because of his bloodline." Antok growled. Thace reached out and gently rubbed his back, the paladins watching in slight amazement at how quickly Antok relaxed.
"Keith felt unwanted?" Shiro asked, his voice soft and sad. Kolivan nodded.
"Yes, and it concerned us. It seemed to have caused him extra stress, as several physical symptoms of stress are present in him. Nausea, loss of sleep, changes in appetite, it was all there." Ulaz said.
"Also, we also know of the blue paladin's tendency to name-calling." Thace said, his eyes glancing to Lance. Lance sputtered, looking offended.
"That was just teasing! Its normal!" He exclaimed, but quickly realized his mistake when he saw the absolutely enraged faces of the four Galra.
"Normal? You call it normal? Did it never occur to you that maybe it was hurting him and you didn't know it?!" Thace said, his voice a low growl.
"No, I was just teasing, he knew that." Lance tried to explain.
"But did he know? Surely you've noticed that in some aspects, Keith isn't great at picking up on things. I wouldn't put it past him to be unable to tell between teasing and genuine hostility." Ulaz said.
"Well, if it hurt his feelings, he would have told me." Lance mumbled.
"I don't think he would have. I've noticed that Keith hardly ever voices what makes him uncomfortable. We've relied on body language." Kolivan said. Shiro nodded.
"I have noticed that, actually, that's a very good point. So, its been hurting his feelings all along?" He said. Ulaz nodded.
"We do want to apologize to Keith. Is there any way that's possible?" Allura spoke up, genuineky apologetic.
Just then, small thumps that definitely didn't sound like Galra feet sounded in the room.
"Ulaz? Are you in here?" It was Keith, that much was obvious. As he came into view, the paladins noticed a few differences in him. He looked healthier, and his normally pale skin had a healthy flush to it. The bags under his eyes weren't as prominent, and Shiro was sure they were keeping him from training in the middle of the night.
The paladins watched in amazement once again as the four Galra went from growling and angry and calm and gentle, parental, in just a few seconds.
Thace looked over at Keith first. "What's wrong, kit?"
Kit?
Since when have they been calling Keith 'kit'? He was hardly a child, at least by human standards.
"I feel a bit nauseous. I went to go find Ulaz but he wasn't in the medical bay, and someone said he was in here." Keith said.
"I am in here, kit. Did you eat anything that you normally don't?" Ulaz asked. Keith shook his head.
"Did you start training too closely to after you ate?" Ulaz continued.
"Maybe?" Keith said. Ulaz sighed patiently and gently rubbed Keith's back.
"We've talked about this, kit, you can't do that. I also don't have any of the nausea medicine on me right now. Would you like to stay in here and rest or go back to the nest and rest?" He asked. The way Keith tightened his grip on Ulaz's arm was enough of an answer for the pale Galra.
Keith stepped into the frame of the video and smiled a bit at his friends. "Hi, guys." He said.
He stepped back into Antok's leg, startled, when every paladin tried to say different variations of 'we're sorry we treated you so badly after finding out you were part Galra'.
"Its fine, guys, it really is. It just... surprised me, I guess." Keith said. Shiro sighed.
"It really isn't fine, but we can't change it now, can we?" He said. Keith shrugged.
"Still, its fine. I would just appreciate it if you didn't do it again." He said. All of the paladins nodded.
Thace reached over and ran his claws through Keith's hair, pausing at the soft purr at rumbled through the room. Keith flushed pink, frozen in place.
"Kit, are you okay? You are flushed like when you had the fever." Kolivan said.
"Kolivan, he's fine. That happens to humans when they get embarrassed." Pidge said, unable to contain a giggle at the way Keith hid his face in Antok's thigh, his total body height barely reaching the largest Galra's hip, making Antok very nearly triple Keith's size.
At least now Keith knew how they felt around the taller paladins.
Antok looked down and gently scooped Keith up into his arms, guiding his head to rest on his shoulder.
"Just rest, kit, we will get you some medicine soon." He said softly, grooming back Keith's hair. The action was soothing to Keith, soft purrs escaping him as he drifted into a light sleep.
"What... is that? The licking? The purring? Why are you calling him 'kit'? Nest? What's going on?" Hunk asked, thoroughly confused as he watched Keith sleep in Antok's arms.
"In Galra standards, Keith is merely a child. Because we don't know how Galra he is compared to his human genes, we can not estimate it for sure, but right now, at eighteen, if he were fully Galra, he is only a toddler." Kolivan explained.
"Therefore, we have claimed Keith as our kit. As for the licking, Galra groom each other, but its also a soothing method. We have not heard the purr before, but I would guess it is slowly emerging Galra instincts. Our nest is our bed, all of us sleep in it because Galra sleep in packs." Thace said.
"Along with that, kits need a good deal of sleep. We can't force Keith to nap, of course, so we wait until he gets tired and then soothe him to sleep." Ulaz explained, leaving the room. Shiro assumed it was to go get the nausea medicine for Keith.
"Let me make one thing clear for you paladins. Keith was very hesitant about these instincts. If I hear a single breath from him about you teasing him about it, I will make sure you regret it. Understand?" Antok said, his arms covering Keith like a blanket.
"Absolutely."
"Yeah."
"Definitely."
"Loud and clear on that."
"Understood."
"Noted."
Ulaz came back into the room, gently nudging Keith awake and handing him the medicine. Keith took it without question, trying ti drift back off to sleep. Ulaz nuzzled him affectionately, turning to the paladins.
"This has been a pleasant discussion, but I'm afraid our kit has to get to the nest. We will talk soon." He said, turning off the video call. The four Galra made their way to the nest, laying Keith down and covering him with a blanket. They would all have to get back to their duties soon, but for now, they would be content to watch their kit sleep, knowing he was safe and content.