Chapter Text
— Day 1: Pets
It had mostly been a joke. It was just that with Shiro back on Earth and Keith kicked out of Garrison Galaxy, Shiro had insisted they move in together. Keith still didn’t know how he felt about that; they were only half-brothers, just recently introduced to each other, and already Shiro was taking responsibility for his fuck ups and inability to get himself in line. Their father was too far out, and Kieth had managed to get himself into the local university.
He’d never fly, but at least he could do something.
“Come on; pick one,” Shiro encouraged him, smiling. He looked like he meant it.
“… We don’t have to,” Keith finally muttered, averting his eyes back to the display of small reptiles. There were snakes and some lizards.
“If you really don’t want to, then we won’t. I just think it would be, you know,” Shiro shrugged, looking over the glass tanks. “Nice. Break the place in.”
“… You like pets?” Keith felt obligated to ask.
Shiro hummed, leaning in to look at a frill-necked lizard. “No idea. Never kept one; landlord didn’t allow it. Figured it would be nice to try it now I can, though.” He tapped at the glass, waited a moment longer, then moved on.
Keith followed, leaving the reptile corner and heading towards the loudly chirping birds. Keith had his own opinions on pet stores (he didn’t like them), but Shiro had driven them all the way out here already.
“I’ve never had one either,” He thought to volunteer, just so Shiro could see what a bad idea it was, to get a pet.
“Oh, really? Then I guess it’ll be a learning experience for us both,” The other continued easily.
Keith regretted mentioning how much he’d wanted a dog when he was younger, in response to Shiro asking how he found out about having a half-brother. It really had shut his eight-year-old mouth, to hear he had an older brother, and instead turned him on to never-ending begging to meet him.
Shiro was everything eight-year-old Keith Kogane had wanted. Too bad Keith wasn’t eight any more.
Uncomfortable, Keith scanned the store as Shiro peered into the budgerigar cage. It smelled strongly of food pellets and animals, and had all kinds of pet supplies; it was big and well-lit, but Keith still didn’t like it.
“We can’t get a dog, unfortunately,” Shiro muttered, regretful again that Keith’s old childhood wishes couldn’t be fulfilled and making Keith want to squirm, “So what was your backup pet?”
“Uh…” He scanned around the store again, this time with intent. “Rodent.”
“Rodent?” He sounded surprised. When Keith looked back at him, he was upright and staring at him.
“Yeah? Why?” He asked, a little defensively.
Shiro raised a hand. “Nothing. I just… seemed more a cat type, really.”
Keith shrugged a shoulder, a bit aggressively. “Well, they don’t have any here, so I didn’t want to say, I guess.”
Shiro smiled easily, wide and kind. “I guess. Hey, you know any places they might?”
Breath catching, Keith snapped his head up. “There’s a rescue sanctuary,” He asserted boldly.
“Great! Where is it?”
Keith found it so much easier to keep talking now he’d started. Shino seemed to pick up on his eagerness for the place, and Keith found himself telling him all about his volunteer work there, how much he’d learnt from the two full-time workers there.
“There’s a chinchilla,” Keith insisted again, as Shiro pulled into the small parking lot in front of the small building. “His name is Herc, but I just call him-” Keith cut himself off as Shiro turned off the car, and the older man glanced over at him, expression open.
That was the problem. Shiro was just such an inviting person; Keith had almost spilled his most mortifying and intimate secret.
“Never mind,” He muttered, and hurriedly unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. Shiro followed after him, and didn’t seem upset that Keith sped ahead and entered before him.
“Keith!” Allura, one of the full-time workers there, looked surprised to see him. Keith nodded at her from where she was behind the counter.
“Hey Allura. This is Shiro,” He added, when Shiro entered, the little bell above the door rattling as it shut.
“Oh…” Shiro seemed dazed at the sight of her (Keith didn’t blame him; Allura was a sight) before snapping out of it with a friendly tilt to his mouth. “Hello! Hi, I’m Shiro,” He said, and started walking up to the counter. Keith stared at them long enough to notice that Allura, a stickler for the Rules, was actually coming out from behind the front desk to greet him, and left them to it.
Keith beelined for the chinchilla formally known as Herc.
He was kept in a side-room, and neither Allura nor Coran minded when Keith came in even on his off-days to see the guy. He’d been domesticated, so he liked the attention, Keith thought. Honestly; the only reason he hadn’t taken in the little guy months ago was because he couldn’t afford the time or money he’d need to take care of him. Keith sank to his knees in front of the large wire cage, smiling at the fuzzy ears that popped up, the tiny face peeking out of his favourite hidey hole.
“Hey Hunk,” He called out softly. “How’re you, buddy?” he tapped on the food bowl with a fingernail, laughing quietly when he hopped all the way out.
“Hunk the chinchilla?” That sent the little guy diving back for his hole again, and Keith looked up quickly at Shiro. He was grinning, and Keith was surprised at how happy he looked. His other smiles had nothing on the toothy, charming grin he was sporting now.
“Allura? I think we’ll take him.”
It turns out; Hunk had had a cage-mate. His name was Rascal, and they’d actually been together since they were babies. Keith had had no idea, because originally Rascal had been re-homed, but then they’d moved and sadly been forced to give him up.
Shiro was more than willing to take them both.
“I’ll be honest; this is the first time I’ve ever had a pet, and I’m not too confident, if they’re better for someone with more experience,” Shiro was confiding in Allura, both of them leaning of their forearms over the counter, towards the other.
“I’m sure with all Keith’s learned for their sakes you’ll do just fine,” Allura hastened to reassure him. Keith, cradling the two chinchillas in a carrier with their favourite bedding, ignored them. They’d already loaded their cage into the car and bought them food and even treats, so now all Shiro had to prolong his time with Allura was the paperwork, which she wasn’t hurrying him with in any way at all.
Keith didn’t mind. Watching Hunk and Rascal was plenty entertaining enough for him.
“Hey, Keith, since you named Hunk, mind if I re-name Rascal?” Shiro called.
Without looking away from where Hunk was washing his face and Rascal was pressed up next to him, Keith shrugged. “Just make it cute.”
Shiro chuckled, and he and Allura leaned in over the paper. Keith glanced up briefly when Allura let out a loud shout of laughter, but then again, Keith didn’t know what Allura did when she was into someone, and he ignored them again.
That later proved to be a mistake.
“You named it Keith Junior?!” He cried out, outraged.
Shiro raised his hands in a shrug, his smile still infuriatingly bright. “Well, Hunk just made you so happy, just like Keith Junior, so… You only said it had to be cute.”
Keith couldn’t believe this.