What if Keith suppressed his feelings for shiro because he saw shiro’s relationship with Adam, and he understood that Adam was in fact important to shiro. So in space he contained his Gay Thoughts™️ and believed that they would make it back to earth and shiro could have a happy reunion with Adam. Keith’s “I love you” slipped out in his desperation during the fight. He thought one or both of them wouldn’t make it out of the fight, so he needed to make his feelings known. In this essay I will-
shiro when he’s about to run out of oxygen in his pod after escaping from the galra: *first thoughts are of keith* shiro in s1 when everyone was thinking of their home & family when they were hooked up to that mind projection thing: thinks of prekerb launch which he attended with keith clone shiro when he’s about to be fully controlled by haggar: stops because of the “i love you” line from KEITH
Keith’s visceral fear of abandonment when it comes to Shiro makes so much more sense now because he always knew he was going to lose him someday,, this wasn’t some far off thing–even if they survived everything with the galra and Voltron, Keith knew Shiro wasn’t going to live a long life. He knew and lived in absolute terror of the fact that Shiro was living on borrowed time, that he could be torn away from him any day.
It’s why he’s so angry and defensive when other people tell him to give up on Shiro, it’s why he’s so fired up when Shiro nearly gives up on himself. Shiro telling Keith he’s finally died in season 6 is the bomb Keith has been waiting for the universe to drop for literally years. He’s facing his absolute worst fear, and like a miracle, he still manages to find a way to bring Shiro back.
And Keith has seen others give up on Shiro the way people have given up on him–whenever he promises not to abandon Shiro, not to leave without him, to save him as many times as it takes–that’s so powerful given their tragic pasts. They have both been left behind by loved ones, but they’ve finally found a home with each other. They love one another unconditionally and neither will ever abandon the other. It’s a link that they both ached for and need.
did…… did voltron just literally point by point copy my ghost!keith sheith fic…. where keith dies but gets saved by the black lion in the astral plane… and appears to shiro while he’s piloting the black lion…. and eventually…. gets pulled out of….. the astral plane….. by shiro…..
god ok not to get all sappy and stuff but seriously, shiro values keith on a personal level that we don’t see with anyone else or between any other two characters (except zarkon and haggar lbr). like ulaz is the one who saved shiro’s life twice and i think shiro takes that kind of sacrifice really seriously. he guns for that alliance with the blade of marmora for the entire second season. he goes against allura and the rest of the team to fight for it.
…and then keith wants to keep his knife. that’s literally all it takes. anyone who says there’s a power imbalance between keith and shiro or that they don’t explicitly and unconditionally trust and love each other needs to rewatch this episode. shiro could easily order keith to give it up, downplay the knife’s importance, or at least argue that an alliance is more important than the knife, but he doesn’t. he literally takes one look at keith and calls it off entirely.
i also just really love the concept of shiro unapologetically chasing after keith and keith not getting it at all.
like, shiro insists on helping him run through sims and plot star charts and keith just sitting there like ??!
keith rounding the corner into the cafeteria and shiro is nonchalantly draped over a table, laughing way too loud at a joke.
keith doing laps in the gym and shiro just so happens to have forgotten something in a locker and oh, hey keith what’s up? didn’t see you there how are you? oh yeah, totally, it’s a great day to run laps HAHAHA.
shiro knocking on his door to drop off a couple manuals he thought would be helpful and oh, hey, you doing anything friday? wanna grab some food and talk flying, ya know, one pilot to another?
shiro touching keith every chance he gets, or complimenting him on the dumbest shit and keith is like, ‘dude, we all took an electronics course, of course I know basic wiring.’
i just love shiro out here tryna lay it down and keith picking it back up like hey man, you dropped this.
just moving along like everyone else 