Work Text:
Voltron Valentine’s Exchange
Hotspotforahotshot
Giftee: wolviecat
Pairing: Shiro/Keith
Tropes: sickfic, return home, galra!Keith
Word Count: 1003
Keith looked up at the twinkling stars and thought for the millionth time, When will I see Shiro again?
The last time the two had seen each other was October 23, 2016. Keith’s 17th birthday.
A lot had happened in a couple years. He matured from an angsty teenager to a less-angsty, grimmer adult.
The younger missed his best friend. Missed when things were normal, and he was able to see his crush whenever he wanted.
Now, Keith had discovered his Galra ancestry and was worried about Shiro’s reaction.
Not that there could be much of a reaction from someone presumed dead.
Sighing, the half-Galra left his sanctuary in the desert, finding that his mind was racing more than ever.
He woke up the next morning to his radio blasting at full volume. “Breaking news! There have been frequencies received from the pilots who were sent on the Kerberos mission. We have a confirmed location for exploration pilot Takashi Shirogane, junior science officer Matthew Holt, and senior science officer Samuel Holt. We’ll be returning tomorrow with more information.”
Keith bolted up, put on his helmet, and jumped on his red hoverbike.
He sped through the desert, most likely breaking every speed limit there was, until he reached the Holt house.
“Pidge! Open the door!” He shouted frantically as he pounded the bell with both fists.
Five agonizing seconds went by and he was just about ready to pick the lock, but Pidge threw open the front door and ushered him in.
Pidge’s brother, Matt, and Shiro went way back. Of course she knew more than what the news chose to reveal.
“Come on, tell me what we can do to get Shiro back to us sooner!” Keith could feel his Galra instincts rising up inside of him, desiring to kill anyone in between him and his best friend.
“The Garrison isn’t telling us what condition my dad, my brother, and Shiro are in. We have to go to the last place the Garrison would expect, so that we can find them before anyone else does.”
The two clambered onto Keith’s hoverbike, not even bothering to argue about who drove faster.
Passing his desert shack, Keith felt a glimmer of hope.
Pidge nearly fell off the back of the bike. “Keith… this has brakes for a reason! You know what, we almost overlooked the Garrison’s abandoned depot campus.”
He turned them around hastily and beelined toward the depot campus hardly anyone knew existed.
“Pidge, once again, you’re a genius.”
They parked and took in the surrounding area of the abandoned buildings. Only Pidge knew that some students liked to camp out there, and a certain favorite person of Keith’s even had a room of his own that he treated like a hideaway, complete with a blanket fort.
Pidge and Keith activated their heavy duty flashlights and found the hideaway in record time.
“They have to be in here! On the count of three, we open the door.”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three!”
Flinching, Keith mentally prepared himself to see his long lost crush again.
Pidge, already hugging her brother and her father, had tears streaming down her eyes as she saw how empty their own eyes looked.
Keith blinked once to make sure the man in the blanket fort was truly his Takashi.
Shiro, sound asleep, was trembling from sickness and Keith snapped out of it. He cautiously approached the figure and reached out to touch his face.
“It’s… really you.” Keith murmured as he noticed new scars on the skin he thought he was familiar with.
Pidge, Matt, and their dad allowed them some privacy and stepped into the adjoining building.
Daring to go closer, the eighteen year old stared into Shiro’s closed eyes.
The next morning, as he came face to face with his Shiro, Keith was shocked to find that he had fallen asleep almost instantly, being comforted by his crush’s presence.
Since they were alone now, Keith allowed his Galra ears to make their appearance. He figured there shouldn’t be an elephant in the room once he opened his eyes.
A cleared throat caused Keith to turn towards Shiro and listen.
Shiro’s lips were moving, but no sound was coming out.
Keith remained calm and produced a canteen of water which he held up to Shiro’s face, guiding the mouthpiece and tipping it so the liquid would go slowly.
Finally, Shiro gave a weak chuckle and rasped, “I’m home.”
This simple statement brought Keith to hesitantly cup Shiro’s chin and confess, “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear that. Welcome home.”
Shiro tugged Keith to sit down beside him in the blanket fort. “Hey… mind telling me about your new appearance?”
Knowing that he was referring to the fuzzy purple Galra ears, Keith nudged him. “Only after you tell me how you got that scar across your nose.”
It felt like the two hadn’t even been separated, as they caught up with each other’s lives and wound up cuddling amid a pile of blankets that were softer than they looked.
Speaking of things that were softer than they looked…
Shiro was still recovering from his illness from space, but he was well enough to begin playing with Keith’s new catlike features.
Embarrassed, Keith let out a few quiet purrs and then tensed up. He worried that the older pilot would hate the changes that had occurred while he was gone.
Luckily, Shiro was more than happy to comfort Keith and he even tried searching for a tail.
“Takashi… you really don’t mind that I look like this?”
“Of course not. I’m going to have all the time in the world to get used to waking up next to you and seeing you.”
“You mean…”
“Keith Akira Kogane. Will you be my boyfriend?”
Breath catching in his throat, Keith flung his arms around Shiro’s torso and felt happier than he ever had.