Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Keith! Come on, we have to get up or we are gonna be late.” Shiro shook Keith lightly trying to gently wake his brother up. Groaning, Keith flopped back over onto his side, refusing to face Shiro. Maybe if he didn’t get up Shiro would go away. At least that's what Keith hoped anyway, but of course the world could never be so kind. Taking a different approach Shiro rips his pillow out from underneath his head and wacks Keith with it. Keith shoots up out of his bed and shoots his brother a menacing glare. He was not a morning person that much was obvious. So when he was woken up, he couldn’t be responsible for any murders he commits. His brother being at the top of that list at the moment.

“Start getting ready and I’ll drop you off at school.” Shiro yelled over his shoulder as he walked out of Keith’s bedroom. Keith slammed his face into his bed wanting to scream. Dragging himself out of bed, he threw on a pair of slacks with a black shirt and his signature jacket. He looked around his room to see if there was anything else he needed to grab before Shiro ushered him out the door. Keith’s eyes fell on the picture of his dad and a much younger looking version of himself. Their faces were smushed together, both smiling so genuinely it made his heart ache of someone who once was. Keith shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. Feelings like that weren’t gonna help him make it through the day. When he walked into the kitchen, Shiro shoved a cup of coffee and his backpack into his arms and pushed him out the door.

“Are you going to the station today?” Keith asked, taking a long bitter sip of his coffee.

“Yeah and I’m probably gonna be home late,” Shiro replied, stopping at a red light to look at him. “But I put some leftovers in the fridge so you can have that for dinner.”

Keith rolled his eyes, smiling fondly at his brother. He was ever so doting on Keith but in all honesty he would never change it for the world. It filled him with warmth to know his brother cared so much. Shiro was a police officer so he worked a lot which meant Keith usually had a lot of time to himself. Sometimes he wouldn’t get home until around nine o’clock but Keith always waited up for him. He would ask him about his day, enjoying their late night talks.

Shiro turned into the school, waving him off to have a good day. Keith sighed walking to his first class already wanting the day to be over before it even started. He barely paid attention in any of his lectures, yet he had never failed a class. Many of the students would give Keith dirty looks for this. Except there was this one kid who would always try and challenge Keith. The kid always lost saying Keith was cheating or something outrageous and Keith would fix him with a look that screamed are you stupid? When he looked around in his classes the kid didn’t seem to be gone today. Usually, he was followed around by a little possie that consisted of a gentle giant and a short kid with glasses.

The bell rang pulling Keith out of his thoughts. He was walking to his next class when his shoulder collided with someone else's. Keith moved back surprised until he saw who it was. James Griffin, the number one star boy and the biggest asshole in the whole school. He fixed James with a glare, wanting nothing more than to be left alone by this kid. James always tried to pick fights with Keith. He did his best to ignore the boy but even a pacifist would want to hit this kid.

“You should really watch where you are going, Kogane.” James called out with a shit eating grin. Keith tried to brush past him but he was pushed back yet again. He only had so much patience and it seemed like James wanted to run him dry.

“Aw you're really just going to try and walk away?” James taunted him, poking at his chest. This school was full of little assholes just like James. The Garrison Academy was a private school that you either got into because you had a rich family with connections or you were so talented they would accept you. Keith had gotten a full ride scholarship because he passed the entrance exam with one of the highest scores the Garrison Academy had ever seen. Really he didn’t want to go to some prep school but Shiro had practically begged him to, saying that it would help him in the future.

“James just move out of the way.” Keith sighed, exasperated.

“You think you’re too good for this school but the only reason you are here is because of your brother.” James looked at him waiting for a challenge. Keith knows he’s all talk. James wouldn’t dare risk his reputation on someone so beneath him as Keith Kogane.

“I took the test just like everyone else and passed. Mommy and Daddy didn’t have to pay my way in.” Keith got more in his face just to say the last part and scoffed. “I could out do you any day, James.”

James, unable to control his anger, begins to turn beat red. Keith knows that his words struck a nerve. Although he knows he’s playing with fire he can’t help wanting to put this kid in his place. James’ takes a few deep breaths, his face slowly turns back to more composed with a malicious glint in his eye.

“Is that what your mommy and daddy tell you? Oh right you don’t have-”

Keith’s fist slams into James’ nose with a satisfying crack. All the patience he had breaks, leaving his anger coming out hard and fast. James hits him back, busting Keith’s lip. Keith laughs manically, making a move to jump on him. He knows that he will get in trouble so he might as well fuck up the boy in the process.

Suddenly both boys are being pulled apart by some teachers and dragged to the principal's office. The teacher that brought them there pulls Keith into a seat outside the office and ushers James in. Keith rolls his eyes; of course they would hear James' side of the story first. He waits there for so long that it's the last period of the day. When James walks out he gives Keith a side glance, smirking. Keith just glares knowing whatever happens next it's not going to be in his favor. He walks into the room sitting down stiffly in front of the principal.

“Starting a fight is unacceptable, Mr. Kogane. Mr. Griffin has already said his side and I would like to hear yours.” The principal stares at Keith with a tired expression. Keith knows it doesn’t matter what he says, they aren’t going to back some orphan who has anger issues over their star boy.

“Do you really wanna hear mine or do you just have to pretend to be fair? When everyone knows that you will always back the kids with the most money.” Keith says, venom dripping in his voice. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea to start a fight with the principal but Keith couldn’t take it anymore. It’s been a shitty day and he feels like making it everyone's problem. The principal stares at him again, slightly more agitated.

“Mr. Kogane, I do not have time for this. Either tell me your side or receive your punishment.”

“It doesn’t matter what I say. I’m sure James got a slap on the wrist because some crazy kid attacked him right?”

“His punishment is none of your concern.” Keith can tell the principal’s composer is thinning by the way he clenches his jaw. Keith can’t help the laugh that slips out of his mouth.

“Because I’m right?” Deep down Keith knows he should stop but the words keep coming out. That seems to be the final straw as he’s finally being yelled at.

“Mr. Kogane, I have had it with your attitude!” He yells, not waiting for Keith to say more before speaking again. “You are suspended for a week, now get out of my office.”

“Gladly.” Keith grits out. Keith heads for the door but before he can leave he’s being called yet again.

“Oh and Mr. Kogane we will be notifying Shirogane about this.” The principal smirks at him. Keith fights the urge to tell the bastard to fuck off and he walks slamming the door behind him.

By the time the issue with James had been settled it was already the end of the day. Since Shiro was working late, that meant he had to walk home. It may suck but it gave him time to clear his head. Keith knew that when Shiro got home he was probably gonna get an ear full. He groaned, running a hand down his face before wincing when he brushed the bruise on his cheek. Keith didn’t think he came out of the fight too bad, only having a couple bruises and a busted lip. James had a black eye and a bloody nose. Keith smirked to himself taking great satisfaction in the fact that he fucked up James face. That was quickly dispelled when he thought about how Shiro was gonna talk about everything that had happened. Shiro knew Keith better than anyone else and he would be mad at him on how he handled himself, that's for sure, but in the end he cared about how Keith felt. Keith wasn’t the best with his emotions or emotions at all really. Shiro always encourages him to open up but he just doesn’t know how to.

Keith is pulled out of his thoughts when he hears a sudden crunch. He lifts his foot up seeing a blue crystal shard. What the hell is that? Keith wonders bending down to pick it up. The crystal, now in two shards thanks to his foot, glistens in the light.

Keith gets a chill causing his hair on the back of his neck to stand up. He whips his head around looking for something suspicious. Someone is definitely watching him. Always trusting his instincts he starts to run into a back alley. He knows he was right when he hears the deafening sound of footsteps behind him. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Out of breath stares at the wall in front of him. He’s at a dead end and the footsteps haven’t stopped. He feels in his pocket for the blade he always keeps with him. Keith doesn’t get the chance to pull it out before he’s being grabbed. A man probably in his early twenties grabs Keith by the throat pushing him up against the wall. He squirms trying to kick at the guy any way he can, gasping for air as the man squeezes his neck tighter. Keith forgets that he has the crystal in his hand until a part of it falls onto the ground.

“Where the hell did you get this kid?” The man questions, loosening his grip slightly so Keith could answer, but being the deviant that he is, he spits in his attacker's face. The guy grunts, tightening his grip even more than before. Keith gasps, fearing that his windpipe might get crushed. The guy opens his mouth to say something else but closes it when he hears someone yelling.

There are three bodies running towards them when the guy mutters something under his breath, grabs the shard that Keith dropped, and runs for it. Keith slides down the wall as his world starts blackening. The last thing Keith remembers is hearing a bunch of panicked voices before he is out cold.

Chapter Text

“Do you think he’s gonna be okay?”

“He should be fine. At least I think so anyway.”

“You think so?! That’s not exactly reassuring, Pidge!”

“Well I’m not a doctor! He seems alive enough.”

Keith stirred wanting nothing more than to sleep this raging headache off. Sadly, some shrieking voices aren’t going to allow him to do that. He sits up, opening his eyes slowly letting them adjust to the light. The first thing he sees are three curious faces staring at him. If Keith’s head didn’t hurt so much he probably would feel a little self conscious, but at the moment he can’t seem to care.

“See I told you he was fineee.” Said the shortest one, with remarkably puffy hair with round glasses. The other two were much taller, he couldn’t understand why but they all looked familiar.

“Well I didn’t exactly want a dead body in our hands, okay? We have enough problems as it is.” One of the boys huffed. His hood was up covering the top of his head where his brown locks of hair fell out the sides gently. His blue eyes locked with Keith’s for a moment before glancing to the side.

“What’s going on? Where am I?” Keith questioned, his voice coming out more horse than he expected. When he looked around, the area was dark and cold. There was a big computer and some other technical things he didn’t recognize but other than that the area seemed to be pretty run down. Nothing about this place seemed familiar and that set Keith’s nerves on edge.

All three pairs of eyes turned to him. Yet another uncomfortable stare down that Keith couldn’t stand. He wasn’t the best in social situations but he tried. Kind of. Not really, but that's besides the point. The hooded one speaks up first.

“Well you kinda got your ass kicked by one of the guys from the Galran gang.” He shrugged with a slight smirk. Keith groaned, remembering being choked until he blacked out. Not one of his finest moments. By the expression on the bigger guy's face he must look as horrible as he feels.

“Wait- Galran? What’s that?” Keith raised an eyebrow at him. The look of shock was evident on the hooded boy's face which confused Keith even more. Before he could speak up, the one with round glasses cut him off.

“The Galran are one of the biggest gangs in this side of the city.” They said walking over to hand Keith an ice pack. He didn’t realize how much he needed it until the cold slowly soothed the sharp pains in his head.

“Thanks…” Keith trails off as it dawns on him he doesn’t know any of their names. The one with round glasses chuckles a little, understanding his confusion.

“I’m Pidge, this is Lance,” they say, pointing over to the hooded boy and then the bigger guy in the back. “That’s Hunk.”

“But why did the guy attack me? Uh, also I’m Keith.” He adds awkwardly.

“Maybe it was because of this?.” The hooded boy now named Lance picks up the crystal shard Keith had before he was jumped by the mysterious guy. “Did you steal it from him?” Lance asks, squinting his eyes suspiciously, Keith stares at the shard as it glems in the light.

“I found it on the ground.” Keith says, glaring at him.
“Are you sureee?” Lance questions, teasing him a little and moves closer to Keith’s face looking for any deception in his features. Lance sighs, obviously not finding what he was looking for. His face changes, turning softer before breaking eye contact with Keith to look at Hunk.

“Hey Hunk, we still have that med kit right?” Lance asks.

“Yeah! I’ll grab it.” Hunk replies and starts rummaging through some cabinets.

“Sorry dude but you look like shit.” Lance comments and Keith rolls his eyes. Considering everything that he went through today he’s sure looks like hell. Pidge hands Keith a mirror for him to look at himself. He winces at his own reflection. There are bruises on his neck and cheeks as well as a busted lip from his fight with James. Damn he really does look like shit. How is he going to explain all this to Shiro? He should probably try and leave out the part where he got jumped by some gang groupie.

Hunk comes back with the med kit and hands it over to Lance before joining Pidge where they are researching the crystal. Lance begins rummaging through the med kit. He takes out a tube, applying the liquid to his fingers and then rubbing it on Keith’s cheek. Keith jerks backwards at the cold sensation and that fact that someone is so close in his personal space. Lance hesitates, making sure Keith is okay. He only nods, giving him the go ahead. He’s too tired to fight it anyway.

“Jesus you look like you fought five guys.” Lance says, adding a bandage to Keiths cheek. Keith shrugs lightly, careful not to move too much.
“Close I fought two.” Lance looks at him wide eyed.

“Who else did you fight?!” He practically yells.

“James, some kid from the Garrison.” Keith shrugs again. It's not like he planned to get in a bunch of fights today. Lance's mouth hangs open as he puts the last bandage on Keith’s cheek.

“Damn Keith you’re a scraper.”

Keith stares at him for a moment and then bursts out laughing. Any normal person would have told him he was crazy or at least been a little scared. Nope. Not Lance, he just calls Keith a scraper. Keith can slowly feel the tension seeping out of his body, he didn’t realize how on edge he was until he started laughing. Lance throws him a crooked smile as he puts away the med kit.

“Hey Keith, do you know anything about this crystal you found?” Pidge pipes in. Keith walks over to the table where Pidge has all of their equipment, placing his hand on their chair where they are closely examining the crystal.

“No, actually I have no idea. When I stepped on it, it broke into two and that guy took the other half.” Keith answered, shaking his head.

“Why did he only take one half?” Hunk asked, joining them at Pidges lab station.

“The other half got stuck in my hand so he couldn’t exactly see it.” Keith scrunched his nose, looking down at the freshly bandaged hand. Pidge just hummed, getting lost in thought. Keith felt his phone buzz in his pocket and when he looked at it there were almost 20 missed calls and texts from Shiro. So much had happened that he lost track of time.

“Shit! I gotta get home.” Keith said, making a turn to leave.

“Woah there slow down, pretty boy. You’re not going anywhere alone.” Lance announced, placing his hand on Keith’s shoulder to stop him from leaving. Keith shot him a glare, moving out of his grip.

“What do you mean?” Keith snarled. He should have known that help never comes for free. When someone helps you they always want something in return that's why Keith never takes anyone's help, except for today but really he was so out of sorts that he couldn’t bring himself to care, but now that was biting him in the ass.

“Listen, I'm just saying that it's probably not the best idea for you to go walking around at night by yourself.” Lance puts his hands up trying to sooth Keith. He didn’t understand what Lance was trying to get at. Keith wasn’t scared. If someone else wanted to try him today then that would be their funeral.

“I’m perfectly capable of walking home by myself.” Keith deadpanned.

“You do realize that the guy who attacked you got away and definitely saw your face right?” Pidge says not looking up from their work. Keith groans, yeah okay the guy probably knows who he is now but there's no way they would want Keith that bad right? He shivers at the thought. Keith isn’t one to back down but having someone possibly after him definitely makes him feel a little uneasy. Keith makes sure to shoot Shiro a quick text before pushing Lance out the door and telling everyone thank you, because he could have been in a much worse situation without them. He’s never been great at thank you’s but he hopes he got his point across.

Lance and Keith start their walk in the cold night air. Keith vaguely remembers this area gaging that their walk should only take them about 5 minutes. And what an awkward 5 minutes that’s gonna be. At least ten times now Lance has tried to make a wrong turn and Keith has to drag him in the right direction. He does feel a little better walking with someone else, although he would never admit that to Lance. It was a nice change of pace even though he didn’t fully trust the group yet they seemed to have pure intentions. Keith wasn’t much of a conversationalist but he was curious about some things.

“So are you guys a gang too?” Keith asked, gesturing outward. Lance glanced to the side thinking for a moment.

“Not really, but we can kick some ass!” Lance started punching the air to show off his moves, causing Keith to roll his eyes. By the way they were talking earlier Keith could tell the group must have some sort of beef with the Galran gang but they weren’t a gang themselves?

“Who are the Galran gang anyway? I know Pidge said they were the biggest gang but they seem like pretty bad news.” Lance’s face turned more serious at Keith's question. He sighed, kicking a rock before answering.

“They are a pretty group of nasty people that don’t care who they hurt.” Lance sneered. He kicked again at the rock but this time missing. Keith was no stranger to the look of pain on Lance’s face. The Galran may physically hurt Keith but it is obvious they have impacted many peoples lives in bad ways.

“Yeah I got that part.” Keith smiled, jesting to his neck. He had dealt with enough bullshit today so there was no need to dwell on some nasty gang. Not to mention he didn’t know what he would do if Lance got too emotional. They had talked for so long that Keith didn’t even realize that they were already at his front door.

“Well pretty boy if you ever need a bodyguard I wouldn’t mind.” Lance said with a wink. Keith couldn’t help the light blush that spread across his cheeks. That's the second time Lance has called him a pretty boy and it's giving him a weird feeling in his stomach. Even if he is nervous Keith’s never one to back down.

“I don’t need a bodyguard,” Keith stepped closer to Lance pointing his chin up at him, “I can handle myself.” Lance was quite a bit taller than Keith which made him want to show him how tough he is even with his small size. Lance’s eyes wided for a second then he put his hands in his pockets, leaning even closer to Keith. Their breaths mingled as he spoke.

“That much is obvious-” Lance didn’t get a chance to finish when the sound of the front door swung open with a swoosh. They both whipped their heads to the door.

“Where the hell have you been?!”