Work Text:
Heart pounding, he ran, ran, ran. No, no, no no no. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening, he couldn't be Galra, one of them, he couldn't be, no, but he was, so he ran.
He didn't know how it happened, but it didn't matter now. The only thing he knew was that his teammates saw, they saw his purple skin, his yellow eyes, his furry ears, his Galra body. The distrust in their eyes set his heart into a frenzy and in his mind into a panic, so he ran.
Turning a sharp corner, he almost slipped, not quite used to his new form. His breath was short and heavy, and gasping for air he finally arrive at his room. Never before had he locked the door so fast.
He sat on the bed, panting, trying to calm down, but nothing worked. He was Galra, he was Galra, and they all hated him, he was a monster. He felt his throat burn, the sensation familiar from the lonely nights spent on Earth, and he waited for the salty tears to come.
They never did.
He wanted to scream. Here he was, with all this bottled up emotion, and he couldn't release it, why wasn't he crying, the tears wouldn't come. He tried to force them out, but nothing came. He couldn't cry, and he didn't know why.
He took a shaky breath, and when he tried again, a deep rumbling sound came from his chest. Startled, he felt his ears perk up, and the rumbling began again. He was purring.
He couldn't cry. He couldn't cry, but he could purr.
Damn his Galra genes, damn his Galra body, he couldn't produce tears but he could purr. He didn't know why or how this was happening, but it was torture. All he wanted to do was cry, but his damn body was only letting him purr like some cat.
His ears perked up again at a knocking coming from the door. "Keith?" a timid, shaky voice asked. Lance. "Keith, let me in. Please." A few ticks of silence, then, "I promise, I won't hurt you. Keith," Lance paused, taking a shaky breath, "Please."
His new heightened sense of smell made out the faint scent of salt. White hot jealousy burned through him. Lance could cry. Lance, who had no reason to cry, could, and here he was, crying while he couldn't. He didn't know why he opened the door. Some irrational part of him thought maybe, just maybe, if he could just see Lance cry, the tears would come.
The purring hadn't stopped.
Lance looked startled when the door opened, as if he hadn't really expected it to. At the sight of Keith, ears laid flat and face pained, he started crying harder. Rushing forward, he hugged Keith tight, trying to make up for his silence before.
"I'm sorry," Lance whispered, then, louder, "I'm sorry. Keith, I messed up, I should have said something, shit, I'm so sorry."
Keith tightened his hold on the blue paladin, and in relief his knees buckled, but Lance held him as they both crumpled to the floor. The purring was louder know, and Keith would have given anything to just be able to cry, dammit. He choked out his own apologies, spewing self hatred of his newly discovered genes, while Lance did his best to replace the hate with love.
Slowly but surely, the purple began to ebb away.
When the first tear came, Keith began to sob in relief.