Yes! I love my idiot mullet child. My time has come!
Keith likes geology. He collects cool rocks, but mostly he likes to give them back to nature “where they belong.” If the mood hits him, he can stare at a single rock, following all its lines and imperfections for hours. He loves learning about processes like erosion and sediment and how they form today’s landforms. Shiro loves the stars and anything to do with space, but Keith’s thing is exoplanets.
Keith’s boots are permanently filled with fine, orange dust. It never ends. Even after months, nay, years in space, Keith is still dumping more freaking sand out of his shoes.
One time when Lance was feeling homesick, Keith dumped one of his boots out and offered a small pile of sand to him with “Here’s some Earth.” Lance still hasn’t decided if that was horrifying or sweet.
Because he got made fun of or put down for having interests that were “weird” or “lame,” Keith plays the things he cares about very close to his chest, unless it’s something that he knows is broadly socially accepted like piloting or, in Voltron, training. This has the effect of people accusing him of “having no life,” but Keith would rather people think he’s boring than make fun of something he actually cares about.
It took years before Keith was able to admit to Shiro that he liked video games. And even longer to confess his favorite video game.
(Keith as a kid actually bases a lot of what’s “socially acceptable” off of what Shiro thinks is cool. Except Shiro is NOT cool. Shiro is a giant nerd. But Keith’s starry-eyed admiration takes a long, long time to recognize that)
Speaking of interests, Keith really likes experimental metal and atonal music. It’s intricate and compelling and never predictable. But Shiro says it “gives him anxiety” so it’s something Keith indulges in only when he’s completely alone, with headphones in, so it’s not inflicted on anyone else.
There IS a lot of emo music on Keith’s phone. What no one knows is that’s not Keith’s musics: it’s Shiro’s. Shiro made him a playlist once named “From One Angsty 13 Year Old To Another NOTE: Listen to this instead of punching Iverson!!.” Keith keeps it on his phone because the songs remind him of Shiro, and also that Shiro is, in fact, a lovable disaster of a human.
Keith’s opinion of Shiro is simultaneously deep admiration and awe and “he’s dumbest person I’ve ever met.”
Shiro’s response to this was “Seems legit” while shoving an entire taco into his mouth.
Most Keith’s thoughts aren’t really verbal. He feels things, and he does a TON of subconscious processing extremely fast. Which is good when he’s flying and he needs to absorb and act on a lot of information very fast. This is what makes his instincts so good. However, this also means that when trauma!brain is triggered and starts making feels and/or decisions, Keith is an in the dark about how/why that happened as anyone else. Keith feels things extremely deeply, but he can rarely trace back his thought process to figure out why he feels the way he does. Shiro has been helping him sort out his own thought process, and he’s made progress but many things are still completely mysterious to him.
Like Keith, Red isn’t really verbal either, and Keith loves it. All his life, Keith’s felt like he was one step behind everyone and running to catch up, but when he’s in Red, he just fits.
Shiro was patient and caring enough to learn Keith’s language and way of being. But Red already is.
Keith was worried at one point when all the other paladins were talking about how the Lions talked to them, and Red didn’t do anything like that. Maybe he really wasn’t meant to be a paladin. Maybe he’s just a place holder until someone better comes along because he can’t connect like that.
This lasts about as long as it takes for someone to go, “Dude! Red would come for you from across the galaxy if you got a freaking paper cut. Don’t tell me you guys don’t have a crazy deep connection!”
It’s the first time that Keith really understands that different doesn’t have be mean the same thing as bad.
Given three bad options and a stressful situation, Keith will inevitably pick a fourth, even WORSE option that shouldn’t seem possible. It’s a special talent he has.
When Shiro was aggressively adopting Keith their friendship, Keith was plagued with doubts of “Why does Shiro want to be friends with me?” and fears that one day Shiro was going to decide he wasn’t worth it.
“Not gonna happen,” Shiro said every time. “But how can you know?” a little, angry but anxious Keith would say. And Shiro would just ruffle his hair. “Because I’m not going to let it.”
Years later with Voltron, Shiro is the one worried that he’s not enough and the rest are going to move on without him (as IF. Keith’s lived without Shiro once. He’s not going to do it again). It frustrates Keith that Shiro can’t see how brilliant and important he is, and does he not know they would all trade the universe for him?! But… at the same time, Keith gets it. Even if Shiro’s being stupid. So he does his best to repeat back everything Shiro said to him when he was younger and maybe, just maybe pay back the best friend he’s ever had.
Keith does not understand “polite” lying. At all. One time he tried, and Shiro laughed so hard he was wheezing for a minute straight.
Also, Keith just can’t lie in general. This does not stop him from trying anyway. This also does not stop Shiro for letting him go as far as he can just to see how deep Keith will dig that hole before he finally gives up.
Sometimes Keith just…forgets people exist. He gets stuck in his head or his thoughts or whatever he’s focused on, and it’s like there’s a thick fog between him and anyone else and most attempts to pull him out of it will be met with anger and a cold shoulder.
When they were at the Garrison, Shiro dealt with this by flicking Keith in the forehead and going, “Hey. You here, kiddo?” like it was actually a question with an unknown answer when Keith was drifting off. Keith hated anyone else touching him like that, but it was somehow okay coming from Shiro.
If you’re wondering if Keith has attempted to use the same technique to pull Shiro out of a flashback, yes, yes, he has.
The effects have been…varied. Sometimes it freaks Shiro out more. But other times it’s jolted Shiro back into the present, and more than once it’s even made Shiro laugh. Keith figures this has a better track record than most his attempts at pro-social behavior.
“Keith. Slow down. What would Shiro do? Would he drive us over this cliff right now?”
“Okay. Bad example. I forgot Shiro is as crazy as you. How about Hunk? What would Hunk do?”
“HUNK WOULD VERY MUCH NOT LIKE TO DIE, SO CAN WE PLEASE NOT DRIVE OFF THIS SCARY AND VERY DEADLY CLIFF RIGHT NOW?!?!!”
Keith tries, he always tries SO. HARD, to do the right thing. But somehow his moral compass and internal reasoning never seems to line up with everyone else, and it frustrates and discourages him to no end.
Shiro’s the only person who’s taken the time to explain why certain actions were good or bad, despite Keith’s intentions. Which is probably why 90% of Keith’s conscious is just Shiro’s voice in his head.
Keith latched on to Team Voltron almost as quickly as Shiro did. He doesn’t tell them because he doesn’t think it’s appreciated, doesn’t want to face the rejection when they say his caring isn’t wanted, but this team is HIS. They’re one unit and they HAVE to work together. Keith is prepared to protect, to fight for, to even die for this team, and he is DESPERATE to make sure they all get out of each battle okay.
It doesn’t work. They keep getting hurt, especially Shiro to whom Keith owes everything. But Keith is nothing if not stubborn, and he’s going to keep fighting as long as it takes.