Work Text:
— Day 7: Bear
It all started with Shiro’s bullshit idea about moving.
“You can just admit you’re embarrassed by me; we don’t have to move all the way out to the boonies!” Keith had argued, which had resulted in more arguing, and finally ended with them both in tears, promising to make the best of it together.
Stupid Garrison. Punch one idiot instructor in the face and suddenly you had a “disciplinary hearing”. Well, Keith’s disciplinary hearing had ended with him flipping off the presiding officer and getting himself a nice expulsion. Then his half-brother Shiro had quit his job with them, even though he loved space, and it was his dream career, all because his half-brother was a punk kid who ruined everything.
“I’m not working for anyone who won’t put up with my family,” he’d said, shrugging it off like it was simple, throwing his life down the gutter for someone he hadn’t even known existed until two years ago.
Then they’d argued, and Keith had lost, because they really were moving out to a desert.
“There’s a scientific research facility,” Shiro had explained to him brightly as he’d helped put the last of their boxes in the back of Shiro’s station wagon (it looked like a hearse, but Keith wasn’t allowed to say that it looked like a hearse because Shiro didn’t think it did, even though it totally did). “Astrophysics. My buddy Matt works there! You remember Matt, right? His younger brother- sister, his sister Katie went to Garrison, too.”
“Nope,” Keith said sullenly, flipping his hood up as he got in the car, Shiro sighing as he started it up.
“Well, she was fast-tracked through and now she’s interning there. They live out there, you know; the Holts swear up and down it’s a beautiful place.” Shiro headed for the highway.
“Boonies,” He muttered, and pulled the strings on his hoodie tight, the hood scrunching up over his eyes.
“It’s too hot.”
“Take your jumper off, then.”
“No.”
Shiro then stacked another box on top of the one he’d already given Keith, effectively covering his face from his sight. Keith grumbled and turned, trudging sullenly towards the house. He was sweating and there was sand all over him already, but at least the roads were asphalt. There was no real gutters or footpaths, but there was a road, so-
“Shit!” Keith swore, as he tripped up over a tuft of scraggly grass he hadn’t thought would be so deeply rooted into the ground.
“Whoa!” Someone yelped, and Keith collided with the boxes, the cardboard bending under his weight as the boxes hit something, catching him in the process. He felt strong arms lift the boxes slightly, and Keith let them be taken, getting his footing back.
“Sorry! Sorry about that!” Shiro called for him, jogging over. “Hi! I’m Shiro, and this klutz here is Keith. We just moved here.” Shiro settled his prosthetic arm against his shoulder and Keith grumbled about that, too.
“Oh, Shiro? Matt’s friend?” The boxes moved, and Keith glanced up at his rescuer-
Only to fall in love instantly.
“I- here- let me-” He stammered, grabbing for the boxes and hugging them to him. The gorgeous specimen of a man before him just laughed, letting him grab them like an animal, his warm brown eyes alight with a friendly glimmer, his wide smile bright against his dark skin. Keith bit back a whimper. He had no idea it was even possible for someone to be so good-looking.
“That’s me! Know Matt, do you?” Shiro offered his flesh and bone hand, and Hunk shook it without an issue.
“I do! I’m interning at the station with Pidge- Katie, I mean. I’m Hunk.” Hunk turned to him, and, dazzled, Keith reached out to shake his hand, only to suddenly remember the boxes when they lurched sideways, Shiro and Hunk grabbing for them as Keith slammed both hands back onto the boxes, steadying them again.
“Sorry,” He squeaked out. Hunk laughed, and it was as perfect as the rest of him.
Keith spent the next week in agony. Shiro had Matt’s younger sister Katie- she let her friends call her Pidge -drag him around the tiny hick town. She brought her buddy along; his name was Lance and Keith was sick of him three minutes into knowing him. Apparently being ‘the cool and mysterious new guy’ was an unforgivable offence in his eyes, and Keith was very tired of his passive-aggressive little comments.
He didn’t do anything about it though. Shiro had already moved for him once.
Anyway, where else were they going to go? Alaska? At least here there was one solitary upside to putting up with Lance- Hunk was his best friend, and he came sometimes, too. Those were the days Keith really cherished, or that time they’d run into him while he’d been out. At the pizza parlour, at the arcade, even that time they went to the bowling alley; Hunk made all those crowded, noisy places bearable and loveable, and Keith was head-over-heels for him.
Keith was laying on the floor of their living room, listening to Shiro washing the breakfast dishes as his mind wandered. It was a Saturday; did Hunk work? Was it on Saturdays? Pidge and Lance said there was some kind of community event going on; this town in the middle of no-where mostly relied on their local radio station for news and current events.
Keith couldn’t stand the static that sometimes came from the bad signal, though, so Shiro was the only one who listened to it, to and from work in his not-hearse station wagon.
Speaking of… “Hey, Shiro, did you remember to get the milk?” Shiro didn’t respond. Groaning, Keith hauled himself to his feet and trooped into the kitchen. “Hey, Shiro-?” He stopped and sighed in exasperation. Shiro had his headphones in as he dried the dishes, smiling at nothing. Probably listening to his podcasts again. He’d been trying to get Keith into The Bright Sessions for weeks now.
Keith huffed and left. What did it matter if Shiro knew where he was going or not? It was like, a ten-minute walk, and he had his phone on him. It would be fine.
It was not “fine”.
Keith dodged, diving out of the way as the shadowy figure swooped for him. He rolled over his shoulder and sprang back up onto his feet, swearing as he turned and high-tailed it for home, milk forgotten.
Was this what Pidge meant when she told him it was “mail day tomorrow”?! Keith’s feet were pounding against the baking hot pavement, the heat penetrating the bottoms of his sneakers as he ran. This was such fucking bullshit! Keith yelled when another one suddenly burst into existence right in front of him, barely managing to avoid colliding with it. He shuddered to think what would happen to him if he touched it.
“KEITH!” A loud roar sounded somewhere down the street, and Keith whirled around to face it; it only took him half a second to look, but they were already behind him, from the familiar sound of the growling, snarling blur that tackled the shadowy figure he’d almost run into.
Keith spun, staring as an honest-to-God bear attacked the figures that had been hounding him, almost frozen with shock before a more familiar voice called out to him.
“Keith! Over here, quick!” Keith turned, dragging his eyes away from the sight of the hulking bear’s attacks last, and sprinted over to Pidge, who was ducked down with Lance behind a parked car.
Pidge was typing furiously on her computer, but Lance was free to berate him. “What the Hell, man?! Why would you go outside on mail day?! We said we weren’t doing anything!”
Keith grimaced. “I didn’t want to go out with you guys, I wanted milk.”
“Milk?! You were gonna die for milk?!” Lance yelped, disbelief written across his face.
Keith found it insulting. “In normal places, mail day isn’t a thing,” He snapped. “Anyway-”
He was cut off by a roar of pain, and they all turned to the bear, now set upon by one of the figures, obviously in pain, though Keith couldn’t see any external wounds on him.
“Hunk!” Lance cried, and Keith felt his blood turn to ice as the bear rolled familiar brown eyes onto them.
He didn’t stop to think, instead doing what he did best; acting on instinct. He jumped up onto the car, took a breath, and jumped; just as Shiro came hurtling into view above him. He sprung up, and he felt himself stretch, felt his bones rearrange, his flesh extend in ways familiar to him; like taking a deep breath after nothing but stagnant air. He gained altitude easily, his body remembering how to fly, and fly well, even if it had been so, so long, his brother angling his wing beats to climb with him. He wasn’t happy; Keith could tell Shiro was furious with him, but he’d help, and that was all Keith needed for now.
“What the Hell?!” He heard Lance yell, his voice distant as Keith reached a peak.
“Now,” Shiro agreed, voice echoing in a way impossible in the crisp open air, and they dived, fast and sure, each aiming for one of the shadowy figures. Shiro, older and more experienced, angled for the one fast approaching his brethren and the bear Keith was sure was hunk.
Keith aimed for the one hurting him. He was more stationary, and anything that hurt Hunk was his prey.
He opened his mouth wide at the very last second, the familiar stretch and creak as his bones rearranged themselves for just a moment almost nostalgic, until Keith swallowed the unsuspecting thing whole.
It would be trapped in his belly until Keith saw fit to either free it or consume it. A Messenger of God had nothing to fear, so long as he could manage to eat it first.
Keith skidded to a halt lazily, careening into his brother and using him to stop. Shiro’s firm back bent, but he didn’t fall.
“Watch it,” Shiro grunted, his voice snapping back from the dual howl of their kin to a more human noise, for a now more human throat. Keith just belched. There were things to worry about; God would call for them, wanting, sensing their return to their natural shapes, and they'd have to answer, but for a split second Keith indulged, looking around with sight he was meant to have, hearing things as he always should, scents a human nose could not detect filed away easily in his brain. He enjoyed his body, as he was meant to have it, before he let his bones creak small again, his flesh solidify into something human, his face rearrange into a teenagers perpetual, sulking scowl.
They turned to face the trio now behind them, Pidge trotting up to them, eyes narrowed, as if she would be able to see those sharp black wings again if she just squinted hard enough. Lance was crouched at Hunk’s side, and Keith’s heart lurched when he saw he was human again, naked, but not bleeding.
“Is this what Matt meant when he said you two would be just fine here?” Pidge asked suspiciously, her attention briefly caught as Lance helped Hunk to his feet, using his jacket to cover him as he yanked on the jeans Lance had handed to him. Keith was a little disappointed he hadn’t been able to sneak a glance, but it was overwhelmed with the relief Hunk was alive.
Shiro shrugged a little, and Keith snapped a glare over to him. He’d had to show freaking Lance his wings, and how they cast no shadow and reflected to light, and Hunk had been hurt because he’d been so hesitant to eat whatever had been trying to eat him, and now he was bloated and had a skinned knee and Hunk was staring at him in shock, Lance no better, gaping by his side.
“I still fucking hate this town!” He swore at Shiro. Shiro just sighed.