Chapter Text
When the zombie apocalypse hit it was every man for himself, it was kill or be killed. Keith was lucky enough to have his brother, Shiro, but others weren’t so lucky. Trusting people in a world like this was basically suicide, so when his brother proposed they help someone who was unknown Keith wasn’t exactly in agreeance.
“Keith, we can’t just let someone die,” Shiro whispered as he could see the tanned man backing up further towards the alleyway wall. The two of them were at the edge of the alleyway peaking in from the barren sidewalk, they had been stopped when they heard the man’s shouts.
“He could kill us, we can’t risk it, there are only four of them anyways. He can handle it,” Keith scowled, peaking in behind Shiro, he knew that he could take 4 zombies if he had to, so why should they help this guy. “Just let natural selection do it’s thing,”
“This isn’t natural selection Keith, I’m helping him whether you like it or not,” Shiro was gone in an instant pulling out his knife, slowly creeping up on the zombies. Keith let out a small groan and followed him in for backup, sure he didn’t agree but he wasn’t just gonna let his brother go in there alone.
Keith watched as Shiro took down the zombies one by one with the knife, and reached out his prosthetic arm to the tanned boy who was crouching against the wall. Why didn’t he try to fight? It wasn’t like it was a hoard, it was 4 zombies?
“You okay, buddy?” Shiro asked, with his arm still out. Keith could see the hesitation on his face before he grabbed the prosthetic and hoisted himself up.
“Y’know I could be better, thanks for the help,” The man sighed, dusting himself off with a small pained smirk. “A group of raiders got to me a few hours back and stole all of my stuff, they call themselves ‘The Galra’ or something like that.”
“The Galra?” Shiro asked, his eyes widening as he turned to look at keith. Keith instantly knew the group and a sour taste was put in his mouth, if they were nearby they needed to leave now. Shiro and Keith didn’t exactly have a good standing with them.
“In that case, we are leaving, let’s go Shiro,” Keith got out, turning on his heel, he didn’t want to stick around if the group was nearby.
“Wait, why are you bleeding?” Keith stopped in his tracks and turned back when he heard his brother’s words, he finally noticed the blood that was starting to stain the tanned man’s shirt. He must not have noticed, and a part of him started to feel a little bad.
“Yeah those guys that took my stuff managed to cut me pretty bad, but it’s nothing I can’t handle,” The man got out, swaying a little into Shiro. He had clearly lost a lot of blood and Keith knew that Shiro wasn’t going to just let him go on his own now.
“Nope, you are gonna come with us, we have first aid supplies back at our hideout and we can patch you up,” Shiro spoke as he hoisted one of the man’s arms around his shoulders to keep him steady. “Keith, watch my back, I don’t have much access to my weapons like this.”
“Shiro -,” Keith started, worry laced in his voice. He didn’t like the sound of this. Bringing someone new to their secret hideout, it was called a secret hideout for a reason. It was secret, no one knew about it. But here shiro was just bringing in a complete stranger.
“Keith, I won’t ask again,” Keith knew by that voice that it was time to shut up. His brother didn’t exactly have a short temper but he had his moments of frustration and now was one of them. He could hear it in his voice and he silently walked behind the two and kept watch, looking in all directions to make sure there were no threats. Keith wasn’t exactly the best person for this though, because he was known to be an awful shot. He was really only skilled in close combat so he hoped there would be no interruptions.
When they finally got back to the hideout he could see that the man was shocked, their hideout was actually rather elaborate and they had spent a lot of time keeping it hidden. It was 15 minutes out from the small town in the middle of the woods and it was nearly impossible to find. The thick bushes and trees made their shack almost invisible to passers and no one was dumb enough to venture into the woods, with the fear of getting lost. Shiro and Keith knew these woods like the back of their hand, so when they went hunting or fishing it was easy for them to find their way back.
“This place… did you guys build this?” The man asked, looking around as Shiro placed him onto one of the cots in the corner of the room.
“Mostly,” Keith deadpanned as he started to look for the medical supplies while Shiro began to apply pressure to the wound. “We mainly built the security measures like the leave blankets so that no one would find us, but I guess that’s out the window now,” He gave a glare to the man as he handed Shiro the medkit.
“I wonder what crawled up his ass,” The man groaned in a whisper, looking at the floor while Shiro picked through the kit. Keith felt his anger well up and before he could think he had the collar of the man’s shirt balled in his fingers while Shiro watched with wide eyes.
“Shiro is the one that chose to help you, you little brat.” Keith gritted. “I, personally, wanted to let you die and right about now I still do, so how about you shut the hell up, before I make that cut deeper.”
Keith felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over at Shiro who had a worried, yet stern expression. He sighed and looked back to the man who had wide eyes and let go of the collar pushing the male back a bit before storming out of the cabin. But moments later the door flew open and he grabbed his walkie talkie, which they used to keep in contact. He was mad, but it was just dumb to go out alone without communication.
+++
Lance, the man they had helped, was still wide eyed from what had happened. He hadn’t expected the man to react so harshly and he made a note to never say anything about him under his breath again. Lance would deny it if anyone ever asked, but Lance was a little afraid of Keith now, he didn’t seem like someone he wanted to mess with. He even had the edgy hair to match his attitude.
“My brother, is a little untrusting if you couldn’t tell.” Shiro sighed as he lifted Lance’s shirt and started to dab at the wound. It had stopped bleeding, but it was best to disinfect and cover it before any infection started.
“You know I couldn’t tell,” Lance joked, groaning a bit as Shiro dabbed a little hard to get into the cut. “I don’t blame him, “ Lance admitted, hunching over a bit. “I would have left myself to die too, I’ve been alone this whole time. You really saved my ass back there, I would be dead right now.”
“When I lost my arm I wished I had someone who jumped in to help, but as you can see that didn’t happen.” Shiro joked, his face falling a bit. “I don’t like to see others in the same situation.”
“How did it happen?” Lance asked, quickly covering his mouth, feeling some regret. “I’m sorry - I,”
“It’s fine.” Shiro laughed, flexing his prosthetic arm. “It was a long time ago, This baby is a constant reminder to never try to defeat a horde by yourself. I got bit.” Shiro admitted. “I was shocked at first, but I knew I couldn’t just die yet. I couldn’t just leave Keith, so I took the sharpest object I could find… and well you can imagine the rest.”
“W.. woah.” Was all Lance could manage to get out. Shiro was like a god to Lance at this point, he was star stuck to say the least. “That’s.. Well terrible, but really cool.”
“Yeah, it was really hard to get used to, and trying to makeshift a prosthetic arm was a bitch, but Keith and I managed. Shiro had a smile on his face and Lance wasn’t going to lie his face felt rather warm. He was about to respond, but they were both cut from the silence when they heard Keith’s voice over the walkie talkie.
“Uh, Shiro, I need you at the lake now, like right now.” Lance watched as Shiro grabbed the walkie with furrowed eyebrows, Lance could see the worry on his face.
“There are 10 of them, I don’t even know where they came from, but I’m kind of in a tree right now. I don’t know how much longer it will hold though…” Keith's voice was a little frantic and Lance could feel his own heart speeding up,
“I need to go, can I trust you?” Shiro asked, placing a hand on Lance’s shoulder. Lance gave a quick nod with wide eyes and handed Shiro the gun that was sitting on the table closest to Lance.
“I’ll patch myself up, you can trust me. I promise.” Lance’s expression was serious and when he saw the stern looks on Shiro’s face soften he knew he had gotten his point across. Lance was not one to double cross. He didn’t want to be like the raiders who had taken everything from him. As Shiro left he quickly grabbed the medkit and searched for some ointment, he knew it would sting but he powered through it and got it into the cut, hissing a little and recoiling from the pain. After he had gotten through that he placed gauze on the cut and wrapped it in bandage. He put the medkit aside and sighed when he looked around, This place almost felt homey, when he looked at the side table beside the cot he was on he could see a dusty framed photo of what looked like Shiro and Keith as children with their parents. Lance’s heart started to ache as he remembered his family, but he was very quick to push that aside. He wonder what had happened to their parents, but it wasn’t hard to come to a conclusion. Everyone went out the same way. You either got bitten, or killed.
As Lance sat around he just took in all that was see in the cabin. He could see they had a fair amount of food and a hefty range of weapons, it was shocking how these two were so successful. It always made him wonder how he may have gotten by if he had stuck with a friend, or with one of his brothers. After almost 15 minutes Lance was starting to grow worried, he didn’t know how far the lake was but he didn’t think it would take this long for Shiro to go and bail him out. Lance looked around and spotted a gun on the table and chewed on his lower lip as he got up and grabbed for it. He didn’t know if this was a good idea but he wanted to help. He grabbed his jacket that had been thrown on the floor when they had got in and made sure the gun had ammo. When he got out he was thankful to see Shiro’s boot marks in the mud and moved as quick as he could, making sure not to lose the tracks. After what seemed like 5 minutes of running Lance reached the lake and saw what was taking them so long. The zombies were all dead now, but they were replaced by Galra group members who were holding them captive. Keith was being pressed against the dead tree, while Shiro was being pushed into the mud. He recognized them as the group that had taken everything from him and even saw his sniper rifle on the back of one of the males backpacks. Sure it wasn’t a compact weapon but it was useful for other scenarios, and besides Lance loved to show it off to the hot guys and girls he would chat up on travels sometimes.
“Seems like there is a lot of people to raid in this town.” One of the men smirked as they pushed Shiro farther into the mud. “These two seem loaded, all we have to do it find their base, let’s start searching.” Lance ducked behind a tree as one of the members walked towards him, there were only three of them, but they were well armed, and if they took you by surprise they would easily have the upper hand. As the man walked by Lance he quickly grabbed the man and wrapped his arms around his neck, snapping it quickly. Usually there would be remorse, but these guys were the ones that double crossed him, so he could ignore any guilt. The others saw their friend drop to the ground and as they loosened their grip Lance saw Keith disarm the person who was holding him. Keith was quick to plunge his knife into the Galra’s chest but his victory was short lived when he turned to see the last man holding a gun to Shiro’s head as he pushed him farther into the mud. Lance could see the panic on Keith’s face and Lance pulled out his gun and aimed, he had to get this right. He had a good aim, but this was crucial.
“If you do anything he d -.” Lance cut him off with a loud bang, and moments later the man was on his side with blood seeping from his head. He saw Keith breath out a sigh of relief and quickly ran over, ignoring Keith’s wide eyes as they both helped Shiro up.
“That, that shot was incredible.” Keith gaped, as he stared at Lance who had a large smirk on his face.
“They don’t call me Lance, the sharp shooter for nothing,” Lance laughed as he walked over to the dead body that had his sniper rifle. “I’ll take this back, thank you very much.”
As lance threw the gun over his shoulder both Shiro and Keith were staring in awe, and it was starting to make Lance blush. He never really got praised for his shooting skills, but now he was making people speechless it seemed.
“Lance, you really came through.” Shiro spoke, as he nudged Keith’s arm.
“Yeah, thanks.” Keith quickly spoke, as he avoided eye contact. Lance let out a short laugh but was cut off when Keith spoke again. “Also, I uh, I’m sorry for earlier.”
Lance nearly felt his heart stop when he saw the look on Keith’s face, His face was flushed from embarrassment and Lance could feel his skin starting to get goosebumps. Keith was like god tier hot, and he didn’t seem to notice till now. He thought that maybe it was the mullet that had thrown him off. Lance had to gulp and turn away before he could even speak.
“Yeah well, I hope you learn to trust me more Samurai,” Lance got out voice crack included, quickly walking away from the sounds of Keith groaning and Shiro laughing. He may be a little fucked here, if he starts to fall for more than Keith’s looks.