A/N: Keith is an empath and he is struggling with dealing with his ability.
*Contains self harm*

- Picture from twitter: misspoofles

Keith's life has never been simple. After never knowing who his mother was or the reason why she left him. Losing his father and the only brother and friend he ever knew to space.

Struggling with the ability to sense and read the emotions of another being was painful, which made him push others away and keep to himself. Over the years in many different foster homes and feeling others pain he became so distant he became touch-starved. Whenever someone touched his skin, it felt like it was on fire and only hurt him worst than being hit or feeling someone's emotions. He wore finger-less gloves because if the palm of his hands came into contact with a surface someone previously had touch, some of their emotion could linger behind and effect Keith even if it was of the past.

So, when he discovered strange energy signals, he followed them and they soon enough lead him to his lost brother and only friend. 
They plus a few other teens soon were rushed up into space, into an unknown area, in an unknown war. 

After a while once everything settled down, Keith let out a breath that he didn't even realize that he was holding. Being in space had many problems but it also had an upside to it all. It was quite out there, calm. He still locked himself away in his room, to get away from the others emotions on the castle but it was so different than being on Earth. He had to move out to the desert to find some kind of peace and quite. Keith couldn't function with others, he couldn't live by them either for he was overwhelmed with everything. 

Now when he got overwhelmed, he would either train for hours or find a space spot in Red. He was so grateful for Red, for the red lion seemed to pick up on his abilities and the pain and stress it caused him on a daily basic.

Keith thought things were looking up, however he should have known better than to get his hopes up. After a horrible mission, everyone came back injured in someway and their emotions were high, with their thoughts racing putting Keith more on edge. Allura had locked the training deck off because she wanted everyone to get a chance to rest up after they lost horribly on their last mission. By doing that, she had unknowingly put Keith in more harm than a few hours training could ever do to him.

Everyone was sitting around in a kind of daze as they all thought about what had just happened. Once in awhile one of them would speak up and a small conversation would begin but eventually it would die down once memories and pain came back to them. Keith sat off in the corner of the room. He had his eyes held tightly shut as he tried his best to shut everything out but it was beginning to become way too much for him to possibly handle, especially on his own. 

Keith gripped his left shoulder tightly, feeling the pain in it where Hunk had injured his shoulder. His body was slowly beginning to tremble with all the stuff he was getting hit with. Out in the battle, his mind and body seemed as if they didn't focus on any of that stuff at all. He would soon come to learn that Red was somehow blocking everything out for him when he was in the cockpit. 

Keith had blocked out everyone voices and was just drowning in all of their feelings. He was itching to escape it all but had no real idea on how to do that.

Eventually, Keith was curled up in a small ball and was shaking with so much pain. His shoulder ached along with different parts of his body, injuries that he knew the other paladins had received during their battle.

"S-Stop" Keith whispered in pain as his grasp around his legs tighten, bringing them closer to his aching chest.  

Just then Pidge had walked over towards him and he just lost it, all the strength he had that was holding him together was lost within a second of her coming closer towards him.

"No!" he screamed and moved away from her, scaring her and making everyone else turn towards him. 
"No! Don't! Don't come any closer!" yelled Keith and he pressed his back against the wall of the room. 

"Keith?" questioned Pidge but Keith quickly shocked his head 'no'.

"What's wrong? Are you hurt?" asked Allura as she slowly walked over towards Pidge. 

Keith quickly glanced over at her and hit his head. "My head" he cried out in pain then hit his chest as a single tear ran down his face.

"Keith-" began Pidge but was cut off by Keith.

"It's exploding! The p-pain! You're letting it in! St-Stop!" cried out Keith who hit his head again. As soon as Keith said those few words something clicked in Shiro's mind. 

Keith's an empath. He feels pain and emotions.

Shiro wanted to slap himself for forgetting this detail. He thought of how stupid he could be. He knew this and remembered times he had to calm himself down completely before going near Keith, especially when he was having one of his episodes. Shiro opened his eyes and for what felt like the first time since leaving Earth with Matt and Sam, he saw Keith, the real Keith. He saw his baby brother and he was screaming out in pain. 

Keith needed him.

"Stop! Everyone take a step back" called out Shiro, everyone gave him a look and knew he had to be demanding about this if he actually wanted to help his brother out. "Now!" yelled Shiro and everyone did as he said, all eyes where on Shiro then they quickly moved back towards Keith when they all heard him gasp out in pain. 

Keith had his blade he always carried with him now pressed against his wrist as he pressed down, drawing out blood.

"Keith!" yelled Lance who made his way closer towards Keith but Shiro hurried forward and grabbed Lance's arm before he could touch Keith. Shiro yanked Lance backwards, earning himself questionable looks as to why Shiro had stopped Lance from trying to help Keith. Shiro held his hands out towards everyone and drew in a deep breath before turning towards Keith.

"Keith. Keith, can you hear me?" Shiro said as he had to sadly watch Keith slice another cut into his arm. He was so worried that if he moved too quickly on Keith that it would only drive him farther into his episode and he didn't want to see that ever happening again.

"T-The pain..." Keith whispered without looking up from his wrist that was bleeding. The cuts weren't deep enough to kill him but deep enough with enough pressure to surely leave a scar behind.

"What pain?" asked Pidge and Shiro glanced over his shoulder to look at her. She hadn't moved from her spot but she was deeply concerned for Keith, as everyone else was.

"All of it. Everyone's pain! It h-hurts!" cried out Keith who then gripped his shoulder tightly and Pidge turned towards Hunk and saw him slowly rubbing the same shoulder Keith was holding tightly onto.

"I feel it. I feel all of it" Keith said as he then hit his forehead again and bit his bottom lip until it was bleeding.

"Shiro?" asked Pidge but before he could answer her, Keith screamed out in pain, tears were rolling down his eyes down as he quickly brought his blade down towards his wrist to make a vertical cut. Shiro couldn't wait no longer and he sent out a silent sorry to Keith as he quickly grabbed his arm and yanked the blade out of his grasp. 

As soon as Shiro had grabbed Keith, he flinched away at the touch and screamed even louder as he tried his best to get away from him. Keith flipped out as soon as the blade was gone and then Shiro's arms were tightly around him, holding him in place. Coran came over with a needle and bent down before Keith. 

"I won't hurt you my boy" Coran said as he moved closer. Keith then suddenly opened his eyes and looked directly at Coran.

"You are hurting me. You're pity...it's...it's like razors inside!" Keith said and Coran looked over at Shiro who nodded his head, telling Coran that it would be okay to give Keith the sedative. Coran nodded and quickly pricked Keith's pale skin. Keith's hand moved up quickly and held tightly onto Shiro's shirt as he balled in up. He continued to cry out in pain but slowly his body began to slowly down and soon enough he went limp in Shiro's hold. Coran waited a moment before taking Keith from Shiro and heading off towards the med bay. Shiro sighed and picked up Keith's blade and stared at it. He could hear the others saying his name, trying o get his attention for they wanted answers as the what was going on. A single tear ran down his face before he stood up on his feet and looked at everyone in the room.

"There's something I need to tell all of you'' Shiro began.

----------------------------------------------------

After telling everyone what had happened, what Keith was dealing with a wave of sadness flowed through the room, it was so heavy that they all could feel it. They all felt bad for Keith and wanted to do everything that they could to help their friend out. When he left he over heard Pidge and Hunk discussing about a possible way to block what Keith was feeling, either through a wrist band of some sort or possibly some kind of medicine.

After what felt like forever and a huge weight that he forgot he was carrying around, Shiro made it to the med bay to find Coran all alone.

"Where's Keith?" he asked Coran.

"As soon as number four woke up he rushed off towards the hanger. I believe he muttered something about the red lion but I can't be sure. I...I also heard about what you told the others. If there is anything I can do to help, please let me know" said Coran and Shiro nodded his head and then left towards the red lion hanger, towards his brother. 

When Shiro entered the hanger he saw the barrier around Red. He slowly walked forward and laid his hand upon it. He closed his eyes and tried to reach out to the red lion. "I know he's in there. He needs me, I can help him out. Please let me in'' said Shiro. He only waited for like a minute, probably what was long enough for the red lion to ask Keith if it was alright for Shiro to come in. The barrier slowly went down and Red lowered her head and opened her mouth to allow him in. He whispered a small thank you and rushed in to find his little brother.

Keith was there, curled up in his paladin seat. His knees where pulled up to his chest and Shiro could see his small form shaking and hearing the little sobs and whimpers coming out of him. As soon as he stepped by the chair, Keith's head popped up and he quickly held his arms out for Shiro to pick him up. A smile formed upon his face. He reached down, picked the small red paladin up and then sat down in the pilot seat with Keith curled up on his lap, his face smashed into the crock of Shiro's neck. Shiro gently rubbed circles on Keith's back and hushed him a few times when he would get worked up. Between the sobs, Keith would mumble out a few words, telling Shiro how Red was helping him. Shiro hold on Keith grew as he silently thanked the red lion for being there for his brother when he had not been. He held Keith until he fell asleep in his hold. 

Keith now felt warm, safe and loved but knew that his battles with this, being an empath where far from over.