Keith and Krolia Headcanons
•After it registers that Krolia is his mother, Keith’s first reaction is a brief moment of shock, followed by anger
•The thing is that it’s not actually anger though (or rather, not only anger, but that’s what it comes off as)
•It’s just the way it comes out. In truth he feels unbelievably confused and disoriented.
•Why did she come back for me? Why is she accepting me now? Why was she gone all this time? Why?
•It’s a whole lot of hurt that he thought he managed to bury after all these years of being alone, but now that he’s face to face with her everyone comes surfacing back up and he doesn’t have time to deal with so many feelings and it all manifests itself as extreme aggression
•”You vanish entirely from my life at a random point and then suddenly come strutting back in to drop a bomb like that? Where were you all this time? What were you doing? What was so important that you abandoned—“
•He catches the voice crack and storms out of the room before the tears can come
•Krolia is left there standing for a moment in complete confusion because ??? the mission??? come back??? but then it catches up to her just how he must feel and she feels the blood drain from her face and now she’s physically calling out to him to wait
•Once they get back to the Blades after the mission he heads straight to his room, leaves the rest to Krolia alone, stares at the wall for a bit before it comes rushing back to him and he breaks down
•Krolia finds out where his room is from another Blade and is about to go in there to explain everything to him but she hears his sobs
•She knows it’s not her place to be comforting him when she came in out of nowhere, so ignoring the splintering of her own heart she turns away
•He tells the other Paladins about her right away, hating to procrastinate, but it’s clear to everybody how abrupt he’s being on the topic and why
•His voice sounds flat and emotionless to his own ears but he doubts at least one person watching can’t see the tightness of his jaw, the tensing of his shoulders, the faint puffiness lingering around his eyes. He wishes they couldn’t though
•Everybody reacts appropriately, aka “wait but this is so sudden what” but Keith doesn’t have the energy to go through the whole story, not to mention he doesn’t even have it yet considering he’s still hiding in his room and hasn’t spoken to Krolia since
•He just tells them he’ll be fine and then clicks off, the last expression he sees being Lance’s worried wide eyes because he knows Keith can be brusque but not usually to this extent
•After that it takes Keith quite a while to warm up to Krolia
•The first week is filled with cold glances, flinches, shifting gazes, and narrowed eyes
•The second week is filled with slightly more welcoming body language, but still very little conversation; Keith throws himself into every mission he can, trying to drown out his problems with his work
•On the third week he cracks, and Krolia finally gets the chance to explain her absence and tell him about everything that happened
•Fourth week, Keith accepts what she says and they manage to bond a bit over their similarities and what they like to do, and Keith tells her about his friends
Keith: “you’ll like them all except maybe Lance sometimes he annoys me to the point that I wish I could shove him up against a wall” Krolia, internally: “hmm in what way do you mean ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)”
•Fifth week, he lives up to his earlier statement and brings Krolia to meet the Paladins, Coran, Matt, etc
•Everyone’s really wary of her at first but she ends up visiting a lot and soon becomes an aunt of sorts to them all
•I mean it gets to the point where Keith comes up to the Paladins and Pidge accidentally says “is Aunt Krolia coming?” and Keith blinks because he doesn’t even call Krolia “Mom” yet and here are his friends referring to her as their aunt lmao
•Coran gets super offended over this nickname for her because he’s Uncle Coran and this lady comes waltzing in and adopts such a similar title so much quicker than he did
•He complains constantly about it to Allura at first
Coran: “I simply don’t understand Princess“ Allura: “understand what” Coran: “how they could betray me like this” Allura: “they’re not betra—“ Coran: “how could they betray me like this”
•He also interrogates Krolia at every chance he gets on any possible intentions she has for this group
Coran, shooting eye daggers at her and leaning forward: “so what makes you think you’re qualified to be an aunt” Krolia, folding her arms shooting daggers right back: “what makes you think I’m not”
•Eventually though he warms up to her and they become an absolutely iconic duo
•They’re practically inseparable, always talking on the sidelines while the Paladins discuss strategy or joining in themselves
•They tease the Paladins about their crushes all the time and discuss it together to no end
Coran, sipping tea from who knows where: “did you know my favorite Paladin has a crush on your favorite Paladin” Krolia, raising her eyebrows over her cup: “what do you take me for it’s so obvious that I knew before I even saw them interacting”
Coran, in a failed attempt to subtly let Krolia know about Hunay: “so Hunk how’s Shay been have you two been up to any fun lately have you gone out lately how’s Shay been” Krolia, swooping in through the doorway from where she was eavesdropping: “who’s Shay”
•Sorry I just had to explore this wonderful concept of Coran and Krolia‘s relationship I should probably stop now
•She also loves teasing them about their jobs and hobbies
Krolia, leaning over Hunk’s work and smirking: “shouldn’t those be double-modulated” Hunk, closing his eyes and giving a heavy sigh: “I thought you were my friend”
Krolia, watching Lance train and cupping her hands over her mouth: “YOUR STANCE IS OFF” Lance, dropping his sword: “and how would you know Miss Kogun” Krolia: “my last name isn’t even Kogane that pun is invalid”
•Wow this post strayed so far from its original purpose um let’s go back to Keith and Krolia
•Once he sees that his friends like Krolia, Keith finds it a lot easier to act more welcoming toward her
•They were already establishing a closer bond but Keith always seemed pretty closed off anyway, not rude or anything but y’know just Keith
•At some point Krolia asks if he remembers her at all from before she left and he says no
Krolia: “but I cradled you in my arms” Keith, giving an involuntary snort and coughing to cover it: “sorry yeah go on”
•Keith gradually becomes more comfortable around Krolia and starts to see her as a mother figure, although he still calls her Krolia for a long time
•When he calls her mom for the first time, it’s because she refuses to let him go on a mission that she thinks it’s too dangerous for him
Krolia: “no Keith you’re not going off just to get yourself killed that’s ridiculous” Keith: “BUT MOM“ Krolia, after staring at him for half a minute in pure shock and silence: “if you think that finally addressing me as ‘mom’ is going to make me budge you’re wrONG” Coran, popping his head in: “was that a voice crack I heard my dear Krolia”
•But after that Keith can see how happy being called Mom makes Krolia so he tries to let it stick
•He still slips up a lot but doesn’t only pull out the Mom card for blackmail I mean he’s not evil
•They’re a broken family, but each day is a day of mending
