mostly-aus-and-feelings - Tumblr blog

[mostly-aus-and-feelings]

I’ve actually listened to and liked a lot of the song that people have been saying are the theme songs for The Arcana Game characters!

But you are all fools...

No song better describes Julian Devorak than

Bohemian Rhapsody.

[mostly-aus-and-feelings]

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The entire vld fandom:

[mostly-aus-and-feelings]

The Space Between Us AU

I need an AU based off the movie The Space Between Us. I’m open to any ship but I mostly see it as a Klance AU.

Like

Lance’s mother was an astronaut and she accidentally ended up pregnant before a mission to space and ended up dying from complications. but NASA or the Garrison or whatever just told her family that she died from complications or something and never told them about Lance so he grew up on Mars. and he started talking with Keith, a foster kid who kinda hates everything and everyone but really doesn’t. he just wants to be free. Any way Lance comes to earth and immediately escapes to find Kieth and to find his family.

Then there’s a rode trip and a little crime because teenagers without money.

Or

Maybe it would be better if Keith was the one born on mars? And Lance isn’t a foster kid but he feels ignored by his family? So he runs away to help Keith cross the country trying to find his father while running from Shiro, who’s honestly trying to help because oh my fucking god Keith you weren’t built for this planet! Look I’m going gray! I’m too young for this shit! I need a drink! And Keith gets all the way to California and finds Thace who isn’t his father, though I do remember when everyone legit thought he was, and it turns out he’s Krolia’s brother?

Anyway. Keith/Lance has to go back to Mars because Earth’s atmosphere is killing them and the other immediately joins the space program because fuck. Yeah Earth is their home but they fell in love with his idiot from mars and like hell is 33.9 million miles gonna separate them.

Anyway. Thanks for coming to my tedtalk on what I think a good Klance AU would be.

Carry on

[mostly-aus-and-feelings]

Collision - Crash

Work heavily inspired by theprojectava

specific work of inspiration for this chapter is -

https://theprojectava.tumblr.com/post/161711113423/saturn-you-taught-me-the-courage-of-stars-before

Chapter 3 - Crash

“I’m going to go to space!”

“No, no, no. No going to space unless it’s in something that I build. I am your older brother it’s my job to get you to space and back safely.”

“You’re not even older than me by five minutes. Doesn’t count.”

“I’m older than you by 317 seconds and it does too count!”

“Fine. Then you better enlist at the Garrison too because I’m going to space. Bitch.”

They had always been together, maybe not always side by side but they had always been close enough to be there. Ryou had always figured that they would be together until the end, but looking back he figured that destiny had always been trying to split them up and when it had found that no force on Earth could do it, destiny gave Shiro visions of stars. So, when Shiro went for them, Ryou followed as closely as he could but, he’d never dreamed of them the way Shiro had. His paradise wasn’t in space, it was on Earth, digging through scrap metal and tearing apart engines only to put them back together better than ever. To build something better. But still, he followed Shiro to the Garrison and he became one of the best damn engineers they had the displeasure of working with.

He should have known that the day Shiro fell in love with stars that Ryou would lose him to them. He should have seen it coming but, he’d apparently had put too much faith in Shiro’s love for Keith, his brother’s younger protégé and firmly denied crush, would be able to bring him back home. But it hadn’t. because even though Shiro was ass over heels in love with Keith, the stars had still been his first love and though they were beautiful, space was a cold and cruel bitch.

Something wasn’t right though. Because he may have lost Shiro to the stars but he was just that; lost. He wasn’t gone. Ryou could feel that he wasn’t gone.

The Garrison was lying.

They said it was a crash. They said it was either due to engine failure or pilot error. Which was absolute bull shit. Ryou had built that engine himself. He had Matt Holt test it himself daily and neither of them had ever let themselves get too distracted by lingering looks, or subtle touches, or rushed kisses in a closet in the engineering lab. And Shiro was the best pilot the Garrison had. Hell, those bastards had boasted and bragged about him for months. Top of his class, best of the best, the one that everyone should aspire to be. They put his brother on a shining pedestal and then had the audacity to push it into the mud with their lies of pilot error.

It took watching Matt’s little sister, Katie, get dragged out of the Garrison kicking and screaming about them covering it up, about them not even sending someone out to actually investigate what happened, and just lying through their fucking teeth, for all the pieces to snap into place. Matt had always said that his sister was one of the smartest people he’d ever met, that she was probably even smarter than he was. Is she was putting pieces together than he should be too. So, he drops out. And he grabs Keith on his way out because the kid was on a war path. Ryou couldn’t even find it in himself to be mad when he finds Shiro’s room torn to shit, looking like a tornado ripped through it instead of a distraught teenager. It would have broken Shiro to see Keith like this so, Ryou grabbed him and left. Neither of them glancing back.

Ryou doesn’t even finish the plans to the ship he’s going to build, to the ship he’s going to take to fucking space to find his brother, before Keith disappears too, taking the hover bike that he’d been fixing up for the past few months while Ryou had been busy planning. It hurt. It felt like he’d failed Shiro once again. But he couldn’t blame him. Keith was young. He had more to do in his life than morn a man lost to the stars. Keith needed to move on and being stuck in a scrap yard was not helping him do that. So, no. He didn’t blame him. But, that didn’t stop him from getting drunk and cursing him for abandoning his brother just like everyone else. He starts drinking a lot after Keith leaves.

He stops drinking the day he finishes his ship though. He tests everything, from the engine and thrusters all the way down to making sure the fucking toilet flushes properly. Matt would have been proud. He has everything prepared, everything ready to go. He builds a launch pad and sets up the ship. He’s ready. He’s leaving. He’s going to find Shiro and his crew, drag their asses back to Earth, and never let his stupid brother leave this planet again. Firing up the engines is a powerful feeling.

Turning them off and just sitting in the cockpit, starting up into blue sky, is a defeating one.

It’d been over a year. Not by much. 12 months and 17 days. But still, Shiro had been missing for over a year. In space. Vast, endless space. The only lead he had was Kerberos and even that would take him months to get out too. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe Shiro was gone.

Or maybe not.

When Ryou had left the Garrison, he’d planted a device that would allow him to pick up any radio chatter they put out, hoping, praying really, that he’d eventually hear something about Shiro. Or about anything weird that might explain something. He’d given up hope around the time Keith left. But reports of a ship crashing to earth and causing a red alert caught his attention. And a name. A name that make the world feel as if it were falling from under him.

Takashi Shirogane.

But before he could finish grabbing what he thought he might need; food, first aid kit, a fucking bat in case the garrison tried to stand in his way of getting to Shiro; the reports changed to another code red of how Shiro had been taken from garrison personnel by four as of yet unknown individuals. Ryou punched the wall. Could nothing go right? Could destiny not just keep Shiro in one fucking place for 10 fucking minutes so that Ryou could get to him?! Please?!

The chatter was over as quickly as it had started and Ryou was beyond frustrated. Patience yields focus had always been something Shiro loved saying but Ryou could absolutely confirm that it was bull shit. He’d been patient, he’d done his waiting and his planning but none of it mattered.

The chatter started again around noon the next day. This time it wasn’t talking about a ship, but a… giant blue lion? And something told him that if he was leaving, that if he was going after Shiro, he needed to leave now. The reports were talking of the blue lion leaving the atmosphere as he’s doing his final checks before he turns on the engines. Ryou had never dreamed of the stars. He’d never wanted to go to space. He’d wanted to build things and live surrounded by plans and projects. He’d wanted to stay firmly planted on the Earth. But he wanted his brother more. And if that took shooting himself into the void of space after a blue lion then so be it. Though he would have to admit, seeing an alien war ship was a bit more of a surprise than he’d expected.

He gunned his thrusters when he realized that the ship was about to go into the same warp it had just come out of and if he wasn’t behind it, tailgating on the wake it left, then he was going to lose Shiro. again. He was thankful for the auto-pilot feature he’d installed because his ship was not made for the speed it was currently traveling at. He was pretty sure he passed out at least 6 times in the several minutes it took them to get to the edge of the damn solar system. But even then, after everything, he still wasn’t fast enough to make it to the wormhole the lion flew through. If Shiro wasn’t dead by the time Ryou found him, he was going to kill him.

The alien war ship was stalled for a long time, Ryou hiding his ship in the space debris so as not to be seen, before what looked like a portal opened up for it as well. He knew it probably wasn’t going to the same place Shiro had gone but he was already the far out and going back to earth no longer felt like an option.

 Months turned into another year but that was fine. He could be patient. He could wait for this war to be over. Because he was a part of it now, and months of fighting with rebels against the Galra empire had taught him that sometimes destinies were different than what you planned.

Especially when destiny directed you on to a Galra ship to plant bombs in all of its main engines and you get lost trying to get out, only to stumble into a lab where you find your brother being held captive in a tube full of really gross looking liquid. Fan-fucking-tastic.

“You know what, you little shit, fuck you.” Ryou cursed as he activated the electric baton that he’d lifted off a Galra soldier during his third or so month in space. “If anyone should have gray hairs, it should be me after all the shit you’ve put me through.” He slammed the baton against the glass, fracturing it and send spider-web like cracks through it. The second hit, caused it to crack even more. The pressure of the liquid behind the cracks caused it to shatter and Ryou stepped back to avoid the initial rush before moving back in to catch his brother as he fell. Shiro’s physical weight plus the emotional weight of staring his younger brother in the face again after two long years, made his knees buckle and they dropped to the floor. Ryou checked his pulse and let out a relieved sigh when he found it, dropping his head and pressing his forehead to Shiro’s.

The first explosion shook him out of the elation he’d been feeling at seeing Shiro again. At being back with his twin. His other half. He took a breath and slid one of Shiro’s arms over his shoulders and stood as he wrapped an arm around his brother’s waist. The metal arm made him falter for just a second, as did the discolored scar that ran across the bridge of his nose. But now was not the time to think of the implications of new features. Now was the time for him to get his ass in gear and get his little brother to safety.

Moving around the ship was slow going, even more so since he had to be extra careful of guards and sentries since he wasn’t just going to be able to drop Shiro and fight and the explosions were happening more and more meaning that the countdown to total engine failure was coming to an end. They had just about reached his ship, which he had hidden in a transportation hanger when the ship suddenly pitched to the side, sending them sliding. Fuck. Being this close to the outside of the ship, he could almost feel the atmospheric gravity of the moon, pulling them in. They needed to get out of here. Now. Ryou grabbed Shiro and dragged him to his ship, dropping him into the only passenger chair with probably a little less grace than intended.

“Sorry, not that sorry.” He muttered, buckling him into the seat before hopping into the pilot’s seat. He quickly pulled out a device and punched in a code, making the hanger door open. It was probably a good thing that Shiro was unconscious. There was no way that he wouldn’t get a firm and obnoxiously serious lecture about his flying. Sentries suddenly started marching into the hanger, weapons drawn and immediately firing on sight. He started the ships thrusters a little harsher than necessary but launched them out the hanger door. He cursed loudly and repeatedly as he caught one of the wings on the side of the hanger door, effectively ripping it off and sending them spiraling. Yeah, he definitely would have gotten a lecture.

He tried to fly them out of the ship’s wake so that they wouldn’t be pulled down with the ship but the explosions had created a field of debris that kept them too close. They were going down one way or another and fuck it, if it wasn’t going to be on his terms. Ryou turned the ship so that instead of trying to fly out into space, he was flying towards the moon, using the Galra prison ship as a heat shield as they entered its atmosphere. Once through, he turned the ship to the right and activated the thrusters, sending them speeding away from the falling ship. He tried to keep it steady as warning signs started popping up and alarms started blaring. He looked over at Shiro and took his brother’s hand as he braced for the crash. he couldn’t help smiling a little before his ship smashed into the surface of the moon and he blacked out.

 “-ou! Ryou, I swear to god! Open your eyes! Ryou, wake up!”

What the fuck. Why did Shiro sound so panicky? Did they sleep through a class again? No… wait. They hadn’t had class since they had graduated as officers. Hell, he didn’t even go to the garrison any more. He was too busy looking for-

“Shiro!” Ryou shouted as he launched himself into a sitting position. They stared at each other for what was only a few seconds but what felt like a small eternity before they were wrapping their arms around each other and squeezing, each trying to hug the other as close as possible. He didn’t even realize that he was crying until he heard Shiro let out a sob. They both paused and moved back, looking at each other’s face, not so identical any more, before letting out a noise that was half sob, half laugh. Ryou ran his fingers through Shiro’s two toned hair and Shiro grabbed the back off his neck pulling him into another hug.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“I know, I’m sorry too!”

Ryou wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that but it was long enough that they finally ran out of tears and the ones they had shed were starting to dry on their red faces. His face kind of hurt but they were alive and they were both smiling, so he really couldn’t see a down side in any of this. He had his brother back. He had Shiro back. Maybe not entirely in once piece but who cared, they both knew that one of them was going to lose a limb one day though they had both figured it would be Ryou during some engine blowing up in his face. Shiro was alive. He was safe. He was back. Destiny had tried to separate them. It had found that no force on Earth could do it so it sent them to the stars. But fuck destiny. Sure, they hadn’t been side by side but now they were back together and no force in the fucking galaxy was going to separate them again. Destiny and Zarkon’s War could kiss his ass.

The sound of engines flying past broke up the good feeling and they both turned to look out the cockpit window, Ryou pulling Shiro closer to him. Two lions flew overhead, not unlike The Blue Lion of the Legendary Voltron that he’d seen what felt like a lifetime ago, though these two were Green and Yellow. He turned to look at Shiro, who was smiling again. The smile wasn’t as wide and abundantly happy as it had been, it looked like it had aged a little. But that was understandable. A few moments ago, all that had mattered was that they were back together. Now, they were back in the middle of a war, people counted on them, and shit needed to get done.

“I need to get to them… we should go before they leave us here.” Shiro said, sounding just like he had when he was heading off for his mission to Kerberos. No, he sounded different. Back then he’d only sounded like a mission leader. Now, he was one. Ryou nodded before taking a moment to look at all the ways Shiro had changed. The ways they had both changed. They were taller, they both had scars, they both had a look in their eye that spoke of different horrors. Shiro was different than how he had been back on Earth, but so was he. And they were together again so he really didn’t give a shit.

[mostly-aus-and-feelings]

Collision - Strike

Work heavily inspired by theprojectava

specific work of inspiration for this chapter is -

https://theprojectava.tumblr.com/post/164499580183/a-little-twisted-im-uncontrollable-emotional

Chapter 2 - Strike 

“Ah quiznak…” Lance muttered, realizing that he’d left his helmet back in the Situation Room and waved Hunk and Pidge on as he quickly turned back to get it. He was probably a little more excited for this mission than most due to the fact that it’s been their first mission since getting Shiro back and they were all getting to fly in their original lions once again. Lance had been missing Blue like he missed rain. He ran in and grabbed his helmet, almost making a small, triumphant noise before it died in his throat as he watched Keith and Shiro kiss. He felt frozen for only a moment before he realized that he was staring and gripping his helmet tighter and tighter. He slowly backed out of the room, turning to start running to the Lion Hangers just as they were breaking apart.

He ignored the tightening feeling in his chest as he took the zipline and the speeder down into Blue. This was not the time for this. It wasn’t even as if it was unexpected. Keith and Shiro had been building towards a relationship for longer than Lance has known either of them. Everyone could see it in the way they looked at each other. It was obvious. But it still hurt. God, did it hurt.

“Alright, guys. Let’s go over this one more time.” Shiro said, voice ringing clear through the commlink as the Lions launched, effectively pulling Lance out of the pity party he’d been sinking into. “Keith and I are going to provide support and cover-fire. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge, you all are getting aboard that ship, getting whatever data you can from it, freeing what prisoners you can, and then getting back here. Understood?” He was met by a unanimous “Understood” and then they were off.

Flying in Blue was almost enough to loosen the tight feeling in his chest. The controls were familiar and her movements were fluid as if he was moving through water instead of space. It felt a little bit like coming home. He could feel her all around him, making him calm, making him patient, making him ready for the battle ahead.

“I missed you beautiful.” Lance sighed softly, fondly patting the steering with a small smile on his face before maneuvering her into formation with Hunk and Pidge. He tried not to think about why Shiro had chosen Keith to stay behind with him and not Hunk or even himself. He knew it wasn’t because he valued Keith’s life more than theirs despite the nagging little voice in the back of his had that said it was. He knew that Keith wasn’t the best to infiltrate anything due to his hot-headed tendencies to engage in a fight regardless if the mission was over or not. He knew that Shiro picked Hunk and Pidge because they were the best when it came to getting information from Galra facilities and he knew that if there were prisoners than Lance might be able to be a friendly face for them. But it was hard to pull his thoughts together when the image of the two people he wanted to notice him the most kissing kept flashing through his mind.

Maybe that’s why it hurt so damn bad. Because Shiro and Keith did notice him. Just not in the way he wanted. Lance had five siblings and almost three times as many cousins, he’d grown up around conflict and competition. His rivalry with Keith was something he fed off. It reminded him of home too. Of his siblings and cousins. Keith made him want to be better. And Shiro. Shiro was his hero. He’d been one of the best pilots in the Garrison. He had been the golden boy. The one that everyone wanted or wanted to be. They had both been introduced to him on the first day of classes at the Garrison, Shiro as a TA and Keith as a fellow student. It had been fate. Though apparently it was a different fate than he thought.

Lance forcefully shook his head to clear the rather unhelpful thought from his head as they began their assault. Keith and Shiro began immediately providing cover fire as fighters began pouring out to defend the ship. There weren’t as many as there were on battle ships but there were still a good few. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge landed one by one, getting out of their lions and sending them off on auto-pilot to help distract and confuse but to also stay close in case of a quick extraction.  They quickly make their way inside the ship, using the external vents and dropping out to sneak along corridors when the vents got too tight for Hunk and Lance to fit through. The sentries posted outside of the main control room are easy to take down with a few well-placed shots and the ones inside are easily neutralized when Hunk fires on them.

“Paladins.” The Galra commander hisses before he makes a break for the alarm and comms station but he doesn’t see Pidge using her smaller size to her advantage until she’s shoving her bayard under his armor, electric shocks running through the alien’s body causing him to seize before passing out. Lance almost felt bad. Pidge and Hunk immediately took control of the ship and began plugging in the necessary equipment to extract the ship’s data.

“This Ship doesn’t seem to have a whole bunch of actual personnel, mostly just sentries.” Pidge muttered as her small fingers flew across her key board. “Shutting them down… now. The soldiers should be too preoccupied with Shiro and Keith. Hunk and I will be able to guide you down to the cells to begin prisoner release.”

“whoa, whoa, whoa, we’re not sending him alone!”

“Hunk, I need you here with me and Lance is capable enough to take care of himself, it’s not like this is his first prison run all by himself… even though all he managed to free was some Galra’s pet.” Pidge smirked.

“Hey!” Lance said, putting on a small pout at the teasing, “It was a fifty-fifty shot!” Hunk still looked unconvinced. “Don’t worry, Buddy. If I run into trouble, I’ll hunker down and call for back up. I promise!” Lance gave Pidge a small salute before turning on his heal and heading into the ship. He followed their directions through the maze of halls and corridors, punching in code after code to open doors and make a clear shot for the prisoners to the escape shuttles. They were actually making really good time with the plan going as smoothly as it was. At least it had been until the explosions started. Lance groaned as the first one threw him to the ground.

“Guys, we’ve got company.” Shiro said, voice mixing with the slight ringing in his ears.

“Galra?” Pidge asked.

“No, rebels. Hurry up and get out of there.”

“Copy.” Lance huffed, moving to get up. He wasn’t sure what made him notice the small shock of white hair. Maybe it was the angle, maybe it was just the place he’d happened to look, but whatever it was he was sure he wouldn’t have noticed them if he hadn’t been thrown down. The cells on each floor all opened automatically with a certain code but this one hadn’t.

“Pidge. I got another one. I need the code to cell… 7703.”

“Try weird symbol that looks like a K-257.”

“Thanks.” Lance quickly punched in the code, stepping back a little as the metal and glass door slid open with a hiss. “Don’t be afraid, I’m Lance and you’re being rescued by the Volt-“ he was cut off by a sharp intake of his own breath as he stared at the prisoner. This… This wasn’t possible. Shiro was outside, Piloting the Black Lion. He wasn’t here, trapped in some Galra cell. He couldn’t be. The prisoner lifted his head and while the facial features where all Shiro, the eyes weren’t. The eyes were gold, a vibrant, burning gold that seemed to almost glow in the same way that a lot of Galran eyes did, illuminating the prisoners pale face. There was a muzzle strapped over his face but even through the grated texture, Lance could have sworn he’d seen what looked like fangs. Lance was so wrapped up in his own shock that he didn’t even hear the beginning of the growl until it was so loud that the prisoner was shaking with it and Lance could almost feel it.

“H-Hey… Hey. Easy.” Lance said, his voice cracking at first before he cleared his throat and tried again as he lifted his hands in an open, placating gesture. “Easy… Uh, It’s okay, Shiro.” The prisoner growled even louder and even made a move to kick out at him before Lance let out a yelping sound and backed away.

“It’s Kuro!” The prisoner, Kuro, Snarled. Actually snarled. His voice was loud and rough, the growl coming from his chest not making it any smoother, and his words seemed just slightly slurred, as if coming from behind teeth that were just a little too big to be in his mouth. As if from behind fangs, Lance’s brain told him.

“Right! Okay, Kuro. Alright, listen buddy, I’m getting you out of here, okay?” He asked, not even trying to pretend that his voice wasn’t a few octaves higher than normal. He inched his way forward, and punched in the code to the energy cuffs that were keeping Kuro secured to the wall before darting away, out of the reach of… whatever he was. Lance watched Kuro rub at his wrists for a few ticks before those golden eyes were back on him. The hair on the back of his neck raised and he couldn’t help but feel as if he had made a mistake in letting Kuro go. The last time he’d felt like this, he’d been back home, in Cuba and he’d finally been old enough to swim with sharks. Except now, there was no cage between him and the predator.

Kuro stalked forward and for every step he took, Lance took a step back. He probably would have kept backing up until he ran into a wall if another explosion hadn’t sent him forward. He didn’t even have time to brace for his fall when large hands wrapped around his biceps, steadying him. There was a sharp feeling on one of his arms and when he looked down, he was surprised to see an arm almost exactly like the one the Galra had given Shiro, only this one was equipped with wickedly sharp claws at the end of each finger. Lance looked back up at Kuro only to find the man watching him, head cocked slightly to the side. He opened his mouth to say something along the lines of ‘thank you’ or ‘we need to go’ but was cut off but a loud metallic groan and the sensation of being about to fall.

“Guys! Engines are down and all the explosions have pushed us into the moon’s atmosphere! The ship is going down!” Pidge shouted across their comms as the groan of metal on metal grew louder.

“Get out of there now!” Shiro ordered. Fuck. How was Lance going to explain Kuro to Shiro?

“Lance! It’s too dangerous for you to try and get back to Blue! You’re too deep in the ship! Get to an escape shuttles, we’ll pick you up on the moon’s surface and regroup!” Hunk yelled, frantic and panicked but also trying to keep a level head for Pidge’s sake.

“Copy!” Lance could feel his feet starting to slide as the ship started rolling as it fell. “We need to go.” He said, stepping back from Kuro before taking off down the hall to the escape shuttles. There was no sound of secondary foot steps behind him and for a second Lance thought Kuro wasn’t behind him. A quick glance over his shoulder told him that he was and that Kuro had nearly silent footsteps.

“Shit!” Lance panted as they slid to a stop in the emergency hanger. All the escape shuttles were gone. Either taken by prisoner or Galra soldiers who were abandoning ship. What were they supposed to do now? A strong hand grabbed him by the collar and pulled him over to the side of the hanger towards a tube. Kuro pressed the hand the Galra had given him against a scanner and pushed lance inside when it slid open before stepping in after him.

“It’s small but it beats dying.” The clone said, voice still rough but the rumble behind it no longer felt like a growl, but more like a purr. The pod began to count down and it ejected them before Lance was entirely ready. It felt like they were free falling. “Hey.” Lance opened his eyes at looked at Kuro, who tapped at the muzzle still locked around his face. “Think you can get this off me, Baby Blue?” He asked, and this close, Lance could definitely see fangs.  

[mostly-aus-and-feelings]

Collision - Hit

Work heavily inspired by theprojectava

specific works of inspiration for this chapter are - 

https://theprojectava.tumblr.com/post/163986930308/i-am-constantly-torn

https://theprojectava.tumblr.com/post/163881172258/feindesliebe-ger-loving-your-enemies-they

Chapter 1 - Hit

Keith should have known that something was off, but finding Shiro again, safe and alive, had blinded all of them.

“So, what happened to your undercut? Didn’t like it anymore?” Keith asked, gently running his fingers through the hair on the side of Shiro’s head. It was a little weird. Since he had known Shiro, the man had always kept his hair at a sharp, clean, regulation cut. He missed the feel of the short tiny hairs that gave the nearly shaved area of Shiro’s head a nice, fuzzy feel but, he couldn’t really bring himself to give a damn as long as Shiro was back.

Shiro hummed and his arms tightened around Keith’s waist, relaxing further into the hold. It felt nice to just be able to relax and cuddle, though Keith would always deny that that was what they were doing. The younger would always say that the word was too sappy for his tastes, he much preferred the word ‘snuggling’. As if that was better. But it was nice to lay intertwined with one another on a mess of blankets and pillows that they had both horded in an unused room, a secret place just for them when being around that others was just a little too much or when they just wanted to be alone.

“No, it’s just-… the Castle’s air-conditioning is super strong.” Shiro muttered, looking down a bit as his face started to redden a bit in embarrassment, “Got a bit too cold sometimes”. It was adorable.

Keith couldn’t help the small smile on his face at Shiro’s shy confession and just pulled the larger man closer to him, continuing to run his fingers through the newly cut and slightly longer hair. He started at the top, gently brushing the white flock from Shiro’s face, and combed his fingers back, pausing every now and then to gently massage the scalp in certain areas and softly laughing when Shiro made low, happy groans and buried his face further into Keith’s chest. Eventually, Shiro’s breathing evened out into a soft and slow, even pattern and Keith smiled down at the sleeping man, moving his hand to the base of Shiro’s neck, gently petting the soft baby hairs he found there. His fingers ran over a small series of scars right at the edge of the hair line, though he didn’t really give too much thought to them. They were small and smooth, thin and slightly curved, except when they weren’t…

Keith’s brow frowned a little as he continued to rub his thumb over the slightly raised scars. Something was off about them. They were small and broken up, some were straight and some were curved, but they were all the same size. They were all evenly spaced. Curiosity peaked, Keith shifted just slightly so that he could take a look at the back of Shiro’s neck. He wished he hadn’t. The scars were tiny and slightly raised, they weren’t any lighter or darker than Shiro’s natural skin color. If you hadn’t been looking for them, you probably would have never noticed them. Which is probably what the Galra had been hoping for because the tiny little ‘K-301’ scared into the back of Shiro’s neck was not a prison number. Shiro’s prison number had been tattooed onto the arm he’d lost and later coded into the arm they had given him. This was something else and it made his blood feel like ice in his veins.

Over the next few days, Keith watched him and every minute he did the cold feeling in his chest grew colder. This wasn’t Shiro. He knew how he had missed it. He knew how they had all missed it. But now that he had seen it, he couldn’t stop seeing it no matter how much he wanted to look away and not see it anymore. Not see how he had once again failed the man he loved. It was amazing how many little things you could see when you stopped looking at the big picture. Not-Shiro never did anything that Shiro wouldn’t do but rather he didn’t do things that Shiro would. He didn’t sneak into the kitchen anymore to steal weird alien cookies. He didn’t look to anyone with a silent plea for help whenever Pidge was going off on a science related tangent that he had no hope of following but he didn’t want to disappoint her and restrict her quest for all the knowledge in the known universe. He didn’t try and smother his laugher around Lance because this Shiro didn’t find Lance funny. This Shiro didn’t have Shiro’s sense of humor, the sense of humor that had Shiro biting his tongue and looking to heaven for the strength not to add to any of Lance’s jokes because Lance could never know. They would never hear the end of it if Lance knew that Shiro found him hilarious.

Not-Shiro didn’t do any of that. But he touched the back of his neck more than Shiro did, rubbing the pointer finger of his flesh and blood hand over the numbers. He always stood with his body facing Keith, as if he was never fully engaging anyone but him even when he was talking and focusing on the others. He would sometimes stare out the windows of the ship but it would never be the thousand-yard stare that Keith had gotten used to seeing, this one was blank, as if for a few seconds or a minute he just wasn’t there, though he’d always snap out of it with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Just not in the way Shiro’s smile didn’t reach his eyes sometimes. The biggest thing that Keith noticed was the thing that he hated himself the most for because Not-Shiro touched him like Shiro wouldn’t. Not-Shiro touched him like he wasn’t afraid that he would hurt Keith. He wasn’t overly hesitant. He wasn’t worried about what the others would think because this was still new even though they had been building up to this for years. He wasn’t afraid to give Keith everything he wanted. And Keith hated himself because this is what he had always wanted with Shiro. And it wasn’t fucking fair.

But he could handle it for now.

He could handle the nights when he’d wake up to see Not-Shiro standing over him, the purple glow of his Galra given hand being nearly blinding in the dark. He could handle the heat of it as Not-Shiro held it at his throat, ready to kill. He could handle late night words and kisses from a parody of the man he loves. He could handle finding out that Not-Shiro was a Galra made clone, Phase 3 of the Kuron Project. He could handle Kuron sneaking quick kisses and touches in the morning when he forgot the night before and became Shiro once again. He could handle all of this if it meant that the others didn’t have too because right now, they needed Shiro and right now, Kuron was the closest thing they had.

Keith watched as the other Paladins ran off to their Lions, ready and willing to answer the of a rebel distress beacon that had been going off inside of a Galra prison ship. He reached out, quickly catching Kuron’s hand before he could follow them and gave the clone a barely there smile at the look of confusion on his face before Keith pulled him closer. He raised up onto his toes as he pulled the clone in for a kiss, one hand on his cheek, the other on the back of his neck. Keith ran his fingers over the scared ‘K-301’, silently happy for it. He was not going to lose Shiro again and while Kuron may not be Shiro he was what Keith was clinging too, so the Galra could throw all the clones that wanted at him, but this one was his now.