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It felt weird to be back.
For as long as he could remember, Keith had always wanted to get away from Earth. Never really having a place to call home, he would always dream about going to space. It was like the stars were calling out for him, which if he thought about it now, it was probably the Red Lion that was calling for him.
Going to space and becoming a paladin had been the best thing that ever happened to Keith. He found a purpose, a family, and his actual mom (plus a really cool teleporting space wolf). Deep down, he never thought he would return to Earth. But now he was back, and while he wasn’t happy to be there as a child, he was happy now.
To be honest, he would have been happier without the whole altean robo-beast thing that happened, but he couldn’t complain. Much.
It had been a couple of days since Keith had woken up at one of the Garrison’s hospital rooms, disoriented and his head hurting. He had spent all his time in the room, either sleeping or tired from the constant headache he had.
It was nice to see that his mom and Kolivan were okay though. And Kosmo had always kept him company by the foot of his bed. Luckily, his headache hadn’t lasted long and he was cleared to leave the room before he got too restless.
On the first day of his all clear, Keith had decided to visit the other team members with Kosmo.
First, he went to visit Hunk, who was surrounded by family members and Shay. Kosmo instantly ran over to Hunk’s siblings, licking them until they were basically dripping in saliva. He stayed for a couple of minutes, talking and laughing along with them.
Then he went to Pidge. When Kosmo and Pidge’s dog first saw each other they were growling and barking, but seconds later they were curled up around each other. Apart from Bae Bae, only Matt was there with Pidge. Their parents were busy at the moment but they were going to come later. Keith sat at one of the chairs, a fond smile on his lips as he watched the two siblings bicker. Sometimes he’d team up with Matt to tease Pidge.
After checking on Pidge, he went to check on Allura. Strangely enough none of the alteans were there, not even Allura. They were probably working already.
He then headed towards Lance’s room, deciding to find Shiro for last, since he would be the hardest to track down.
Keith knew that he had been kinda weird with Lance ever since he came back from the whale trip with his mom, but after being stuck on the back of a whale for two years, Keith had realised some things. He realised that what had started as a tiny, barely-meaningful crush on a loudmouth annoying boy, turned into a deep affection for a beautiful and meaningful boy with bright blue eyes who always talked about home and tried his best to make everyone around him happy.
It had become something deeper than a measly crush. Love, that’s what it was. He had fallen in love with Lance, and it pained him that he fell in love with someone he knew would never return his feeling. Because he like someone else. A certain altean princess with white hair and beautiful eyes.
So Keith tried to pull away. But he realised that he was just hurting the both of them even more, so he pretended that his feelings didn’t matter, and tried to ignore whenever Lance mentioned the princess in an affectionate and loving tone.
As Keith neared Lance’s room, he noticed that the door was slightly open. He was about to knock and ask if he could come in, but hearing a familiar accented voice made him stop.
“...like you, Lance.”
Oh.
Through the door, Keith could only see Lance and part of Allura’s hair. At first, Lance looked almost hesitant, but then he was smiling and grabbing Allura’s hands.
“R-Really?”
There was something in Lance’s voice that he couldn’t place. He heard a faint giggle coming from Allura.
For some reason, Keith still hadn’t left. But then he saw Allura slowly leaning in towards Lance.
Oh.
Keith felt like there was a stone in the pit of his stomach. He could feel a lump form in his throat. His eyes got a bit watery, but he refused to let them fall.
He heard a small whine and he felt a wet nose nudge his hand. He looked down and saw Kosmo nudging his hand with a sad look on his face. He smiled sadly and lightly ran his hand through his wolf’s fur.
“Hey, don’t worry about me. I knew nothing was ever going to happen between us.”
He left his spot outside of Lance’s room as quietly as he could and he made his way towards Shiro’s room, hoping he was there.
He reached his brother’s room and knocked on his door. He stared at his feet as he waited for him to answer. If he even was in there in the first place.
The door opened, and without looking up, Keith walked forward until his head bumped into a firm chest.
“Keith? I didn’t know you were allowed to leave.”
Keith quickly backed away when he heard a different voice, looking up to find himself looking at Adam.
Shiro’s boyfriend.
His other almost-brother that, although hesitant at first, took care of him when Keith first joined the Garrison.
“Oh...uh hey Adam.” Keith said weakly, “I was expecting Shiro to open the door.” He felt his face flush.
The other man crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. There was a small smirk on his face, “I can see that.” Keith felt his face redden even more.
“What were you doing, shouldn’t you be in bed?”
Even though seeing Adam had distracted him, his mind wandered back to what he saw a couple of minutes ago.
The lump in his throat grew and the stone in his heart felt heavier.
Keith tried to speak.
Kosmo nudged his nose against Keith’s hand again and the half galra scratched him behind his ear.
Adam looked back and forth between Keith and Kosmo. He knelt on one knee and he scratched behind both of Kosmo’s ears resulting in the wolf to stick his tongue out and wag his tail happily.
The older man looked up at the half galra, dark eyes piercing into his soul.
Keith tried again. He opened his mouth to answer his previous question, but the lump in his throat prevented him from speaking.
Adam’s eyes softened as if he understood what was going through Keith’s mind, and he stood up. He opened the door wider.
“Do you want to come in and talk about it?”
Keith was about to refuse, say that he was fine and that he should leave, but he hesitated. To be honest, while at the beginning he wasn’t as close to Adam as he was with Shiro, Keith eventually had warmed up to the man with glasses. He had become another brother to Keith.
(Also it was amazing to have another person to team up with and make fun of the supposed ‘golden boy’ Shiro.)
So Keith said yes, and both men and wolf walked into the apartment.
Looking around, Keith saw that the apartment hadn’t changed much. Even after the initial break-up and Shiro’s disappearance, Adam still stayed in the same apartment that he and Shiro had shared. The familiar view lessened the lump in Keith’s throat a bit.
Adam lead him to the couch, Kosmo curling up on the floor next to his feet, and then proceeded to the kitchen.
“Do you want anything?”
Keith refused, but after a couple of minutes, Adam came back with two mugs. The smell of coffee and something else filled his nose.
Adam handed him one of the mugs and when Keith tasted it, the faint taste of alcohol mixed with the strong taste of coffee hit his tongue. Keith recoiled at the taste.
Adam laughed at the younger boy’s reaction and said, “I added a bit of it to your coffee. Felt like you needed it.”
The older man sat on the couch, turning to face Keith, and sipped his own (alcohol-free) coffee.
“So, what happened?”
The half galra looked down at his mug and tried to formulate what he wanted to say. Adam waited patiently.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Keith opened his mouth.
“This morning they allowed me to finally leave my room, so I decided to check on the other paladins. I went to Hunk and Pidge first, hanged out a bit with them and their families, and then I went to visit Allura. No one was in her room, which I thought was a little bit weird, but I just thought that she and the other alteans probably went to work already.
“So I, uh, went to Lance’s room—you know blue and now red paladin Lance— knowing that Shiro would have been hard to find, as usual.” He chuckled a bit, thinking about all the times that he had lost and found Shiro. They should really put a tracking device on that arm or something. Adam laughed too, probably thinking the same thing.
“And so I went to his room, and when I, uh, got to his room, I saw that his door was kinda opened, so I was about to knock, ‘cause that's what you do right? So I went to knock but then I heard Allura’s voice.” Keith swallowed, the lump grew. “And I, uh, I heard her say that she, uh, liked him.” The half galra’s voice became smaller as he progressed.
Adam didn’t say anything. Keith swallowed again and continued.
“I don’t know why. I don’t know why I didn’t leave, I already knew that Lance had feelings for Allura, so it was obvious that he was going to be happy when Allura confessed to him. And he was, he was smiling and he grabbed her hands. And I still didn’t leave. Then I saw them leaning into each other and that’s when I left.”
Keith’s voice got watery, and he felt ashamed that he was letting himself get so affected by something that he knew was eventually going to happen. But at the same time, he wasn’t expecting this.
“I knew that Lance liked Allura, he made it obvious since day one. But I wasn’t expecting for her to like him back. I mean sure, I was gone for a while so they probably bonded in that time, but Allura liked Lotor. I just, I just don’t understand when she has feeling for Lance. And yeah, I’m happy for them, I have to be, they’re my friends. But it hurts . It hurts knowing that I can’t do anything about it because Allura was always Lance’s first choice but Lance isn’t Allura’s first. Lance deserves to be someone’s first choice, and I understand that there was no chance that he would choose me, but he still deserves to be someone else's first choice. Not some rebound.”
By now tears were streaming down Keith’s face.
“It hurts that now I’ll have to see them being all lovey-dovey with each other while I try to pretend that it doesn’t affect me. It hurts to know that I just can’t avoid them, because when I first tried avoiding Lance I ended up hurting the both of us. It hurts knowing that he can be with someone that he has always cared about and that I never stood a chance. I hate this, I never signed up to have feelings for him and now, here I am, crying about a stupid boy with stupidly gorgeous blue eyes and a stupid smile that makes me forget everything that’s wrong with me. I hate it.”
The half galra was now sobbing. Adam grabbed both mugs and placed them on the coffee table, before pulling the younger man into his chest. Kosmo, at the sound of Keith crying, jumped onto the couch and curled up against his side, trying to provide comfort.
Adam kind of knew what his pseudo brother was going through. He had been through similar experiences himself, but never as intensely as Keith. He didn’t know what to do, so he just kept rubbing his hand up and down Keith’s back, trying to provide comfort with any way he could.
The sound of the front door opening caused both of them to look up, seeing a slightly tired Shiro walking through it.
The scene in front of him, his little brother leaning against his boyfriend’s chest with tears streaming down his cheek, sucked any tiredness out of his body. He went into instant Older Brother mode.
The white-haired man crouched in front of his little brother, grabbing hold of his hand.
“What’s wrong? What happened? Who do I need to kill?”
The last question caused Keith to let out a watery chuckle, but when the younger boy tried to speak, another choked sob came out.
Shiro looked at his boyfriend, silently asking him the same question.
Adam looked at Keith for permission, and when the boy nodded, the man turned towards his boyfriend and gave him a summary of what Keith told him. How he went to visit the paladins and how when he went to visit Lance, he heard Allura confessing to Lance and then how Keith saw them leaning in to kiss.
Keith’s sobs grew quiet, the remaining tears quietly streamed down his face.
Shiro looked at his little brother, who was still slightly shaking, and he felt his heartbreak.
“Keith…”
For once, the ‘always have a pep talk/motivation speech ready’ Takashi Shirogane didn’t know what to say. It’s not like he could beat up Lance for not returning Keith’s feelings. One because Lance was also his friends, and two because you can’t control who you have feelings for. Lance couldn’t just pick who he liked and who he didn’t and he had no way of knowing Keith’s feeling for him. So Shiro didn’t know what to say.
He got up from his crouching position and Kosmo hopped down from the couch to give him a seat next to his brother. The wolf curled at their feet and Shiro sat down, wrapping his arms around the boy in the middle. Shiro rested his head on top of his brother's and played with the tips of the boy’s hair.
They stayed there, providing comfort for the heartbroken boy, all three holding onto each other and not saying anything. After a bit, he could feel the slight shift in Keith’s breath and the sound of soft snores coming from under him. Shiro moved his head to find that Keith’s eyes were now closed and his lips were slightly parted. He fell asleep, probably exhausted after what happened and all the crying that followed it.
That thought made his heart feel heavier.
Shiro looked up at his boyfriend. He had a sad smile resting on his lips, mirroring his own. They were both lucky to have found each other, someone who they loved and loved them back just as much.
Shiro felt Keith slightly shift underneath him, probably uncomfortable from his position on the couch.
In a low voice, the Japanese man said, “I should probably take him to bed.”
They slowly unwrapped their arms from the sleeping boy, trying to not wake him up, and Shiro scooped Keith into his arms, carrying him bridal style. If the younger boy was awake, he wouldn’t have dared to let Shiro carry him like that.
Shiro headed towards the front door, intending to bring him back to his own room, but Adam stopped him.
“Wait, just let him sleep in our bed. I have a feeling that it’s best if he doesn’t wake up on his own.”
He agreed with Adam, so the white-haired man took Keith into their bedroom, laying him on the bed. Adam followed closely behind. Shiro carefully took the half galra’s shoes off, covered him with some blankets, and went to leave.
He was stopped, however, from a low whine coming from the bed. He looked down to see that Keith had his eyes barely open, staring at him with an expression that tugged at Shiro’s heartstrings.
“Stay….please?” The younger boy said in a soft voice.
Keith looked at Adam, who was standing by the door.
“You too. Stay, please? I don’t want to be alone right now.”
The two older men looked at each other. This was so unlike Keith, who usually never voiced his internal struggles nor ever asked for anything. But who were they to deny him for what he asked for? Of course, he didn’t want to be alone at the moment.
So, both Shiro and Adam took off their shoes (Adam took off his glasses too, and Shiro deactivated his altean arm) and they climbed under the covers and laid on either side of Keith. Thank god the bed was big enough to fit all three of them.
As the older men wrapped their arms around the younger boy and held him closely, Shiro felt Keith let out a deep breath and relax.
“Thank you”
Keith’s voice sounded small and vulnerable, a contrast to his usually strong and guarded tone.
Shiro looked at Adam when he felt the other man grab his hand. They fondly smiled at each other and he said, “No problem, little bro.”
Shiro could feel Keith’s small smile against his chest, and after a couple of minutes, the younger boy was out like a light. Both men closed their eyes. A couple of minutes later, they also fell asleep.
If anyone came into the room at the moment, they would find two grown men curled protectively around a smaller figure, interlocked hands resting on top of the said figure. All of them sleeping, and each of them with a fond smile resting on their lips.