#(also let Shiro be angry at being left for so long + replaced accidentally (because not even Keith&Pidge knew the difference)

[void-tiger]

Oneshot (ish?) Idea:

Keith actually TALKS to the Team and just expresses that he doesn’t want to lead. Which, still leaves the Team Stuck since...they’re once again without a Black Pilot. (And no amount of pleading will get Keith to stay.)

Shiro visits the Black Lion’s hangar yet again. He promises he isn’t there to force a Bond, but if Keith isn’t going to do it anymore, they’re kinda stuck. Shiro tries giving the Lion his quintessence through what feels like a frayed Bond and allowed the Lion to find him at all—he can’t pilot, but maybe he can give his energy so that the Lion won’t need one?

Black Lion takes the quintessence—freely given, no demand for Paladinship—and uses it to take Shiro to the Astral Plane.

Except...there’s another Shiro there, and his presense feels so much more solid and assured than Shiro’s ever did since waking on that Galra cruiser. (And maybe he isn’t “Shiro” at all.)

Black Lion returns the clone, who immediately calls the rest of the Team. They don’t know HOW to get Shiro back out...but surely reverse-engineering the Balmera Ceremony but with their Voltron Bonds is a good place to start??

Thankfully it works, and Shiro’s reunited with his Team. Adjusting to having his own body again (and seeing a clone. And his Team not recognizing their differences) takes time to adjust to (and a longer time to accept and heal from.)

But. Shiro’s finally home. Everyone’s reunited with their first Lions. The rest can come later.

[dark-unimaginably-stupid-kids]

I Feel Everything [Ch-2]

Fandom- Voltron (D.U.S.K!AU)

Pairing- Klance (Eventually)

Rating- N/A (Seriously winging this monster, I’ll get back to you.)

Lance is a vampire trying desperately to prove he’s worth something despite lacking certain specific abilities vampires of his stature should have.

Keith just discovered he’s a werewolf and he’s not okay with this one bit.

Pidge is  experimenting in magical circuits, Hunk is almost inclined to study her instead.

Allura, Lance’s distant relative, has an age old feud she keeps very politely under wraps with Coran’s help but Lotor might not let her.

And Shiro is… as usual, tired.

Chapter Notes: Rewind: how Keith went from being a generally irritable human to a very confused werewolf.

In which Shiro is odd, Allura is crazy pleasant, and Lotor gives Keith conflicting vibes.

Also Tangled. Because Keith’s dad tried his best.

0-2 Side B (Keith)

If Keith was honest, he’d probably waited way too long to call the cops.

He sat there with the handcuffs digging into his wrists, locking his hands behind his back as he hunched in the sheriff’s department’s waiting area. There was dried blood on his hands and it made him angry just to smell it.

The officer who’d detained him was sitting at his desk with his head back, a balled-up paper towel pressed to his nostril.

He could smell that too.

Last he checked his nose wasn’t that strong before.

“You got knocked out by a kid?” One of the other cops says to officer Nosebleed.

He grits his teeth and mumbles the phrase “Sucker punch.”

Keith never really understood that term. Possibly because most people are too proud to know the difference.

Much like stupid cops who run their mouths about shit they know nothing about.

“I was just trying to file a “missing persons” report you jackoffs.” Keith grunts though he knows no one is paying attention.

“The kid’s got some disciplinary issues, it seems.” One of the cop’s mutters.

“No hun, I’ll be home in another hour or two, don’t worry.”

Keith flinches, looking up to his left where the Sherriff is behind a closed door and talking to his wife on a little cellular phone despite his voice sounding like he was standing right in front of him.

He can smell the turkey sandwich he had that afternoon too.

What the hell is going on.

“He’s been kicked out of how many schools?”

“Heh, I was right then, the dad probably did just get fed up leave him.”

“You didn’t say that to him?”

“…I might have.”

“You deserve that bloody nose Reynolds.”

Keith groaned loudly, hoping to catch someone’s attention though he wasn’t sure what he’d do with it once he had it. When that didn’t work he leaned back, adequately upsetting his arms and proceeded to start bumping his head back into the wall hard enough to be annoying but not hard enough to hurt himself.

“Kogane! Quit that!”

“Make me,” Keith growled.

The cops shot him a look but returned to their whispering.

“The kid clearly has no respect for authority.”

“Do you not remember what it was like at that age? And the kid’s dad just left? Where’s his mom in all this?”

Keith thumped his head back just a little harder, “My dad didn’t leave. He’s missing. Something’s happened to him!”

The cops ignored him.

“His mom left when he was three apparently.”

“Jeesh. So it’s just him now?”

For the love of god, “If you’re going to talk to me like I’m not here at least talk a little lower!” he shouted, he wanted to throw his arms out for emphasis but only succeeded in rattling his cuffs against the back of the bench and wincing as they rubbed against his already injured wrists.

“I just checked we have no record of a legal guardian for him. He’s a ward of the state till someone shows up now.”

“With his history we should take him for a psych e-val. Make sure he’s not dangerous.”

“He’s clearly dangerous, look at me.”

“We can’t lock up everyone who wants to punch you.”

“We can try. And we can start with the ones who did. Besides, it’s just a short stay in a psych ward. He did assault an officer and he has a history of violent outbreaks and depressive episodes.”

Keith saw red.

Depressive episodes?

His dad was a manic depressive drunk in his younger years. Go figure, that can happen when one day you have the perfect life and the next it’s ripped out from under you by someone else’s selfish decisions.

But he’s been better lately. He cleaned up his act. He’d been sober two years.

They were good.

And now he was missing and this garbage office wasn’t going to help him and they were nitpicking through his life and judging him and—

“Come on, we’re going for a ride,” said officer Nosebleed.

“Where?” Keith grits out.

The officer simply grabs him by the shirt collar and hauls him to his feet. Keith makes to bite him—a reflex, he considers, that he wouldn’t normally act on— and the cop snatches his hand back quickly.

“Jeez you some kind of rabid dog!? You wonder why your parents left you.”

Keith barely registers the sound of the other officer sighing deeply before his vision flashes red again.

He isn’t even sure what he’s saying.

Something about ripping the mans throat out with his teeth.

His jaw feels so tense he doesn’t even think he’s bluffing.

He lunges forward, expecting some manner of resistance from the officer but suddenly he’s suspended in the air, someone’s hand gripping the back of his shirt tightly as his legs dangle.

He can see the officer in some manner of suspended animation, prepared to block Keith’s assault but somehow frozen.

“Don’t get used to this okay? You won’t always have time magic when you’re working. This is a onetime occurrence because otherwise we’d have a whole boat load of clean up to do and I am not volunteering for that crap. Hell, I shouldn’t even be wasting my time on you trainees…”

Keith flailed, but the person speaking had an iron grip.

The was someone else there that wasn’t there before though, and this person wasn’t directly behind him so he couldn’t see him.

He was tall, muscular, with a flash of white in his otherwise dark hair, a reddish violet slash mark across his nose.

“Of course, Dante, but why did we come save a human?”

“You’re still blind, aren’t you, Takashi?”

The male with the shock of white hair flushed. The other who Keith still couldn’t see finally started to lower him to the ground.

When his feet touched the ground he immediately spun around and bared his teeth at the man who had so easily held him before. Why he bared his teeth? He wasn’t sure.

There was a smell in the air. Something that made him nauseas. Angry.

Keith’s instincts were screaming to fight.

Then the man he’d accidentally turned his back to reached out a hand and clasped his shoulder.

Keith whipped his head back with a snarl, but the man didn’t flinch, instead his eyes lit on something in his hair.

“Oh. Well. That’s surprising,”

“Get your hand off me.”

Takashi had no problem following directions, but then he caught sight of the handcuffs and glanced at the other male with a slight question in his eyes.

The other man was about as tall as Takashi, but he looked older despite the simple long brown hair and the lack of scars on his face. His eyes were two different colors, one green and one blue and while oddities like this usually caught Keith’s attention looking directly into this man’s face made his blood boil.

“What the hell is going on here?! How did you—how did you freeze the officers?!” Keith shouted, wincing at his own volume as he surveyed the room and realized even the rain just outside the office window had frozen in place.

Dante rolled his multi colored eyes and motioned for Takashi, “This is all you, kid.”

Takashi nodded and turned to Keith, bowing over slightly to make up for their height difference.

“I understand your hearing might be a bit sensitive so I’ll try to keep my voice low, alright?” He started, just above a whisper.

Keith scrunched up his face and fought the twitch, “Back the fuck up dude.”

“Okay well. Right. Uhm…” Takashi looked up at the ceiling, made a very clearly doubtful face and tilted his head from side to side.

The other male threw his hands up, “I am so done with this. I’m not a fucking babysitter. Ian is a one time thing. I’m out of here. You have two minutes before tweedlefuck and whatstheirface start up again.” There was the sound of clock ticking and suddenly the man was gone replaced with the phantom image of a clock face ticking down two minutes.

Takashi’s face shifted completely then, standing up straight and reaching for Keith’s hands. Within two seconds his wrists were unbound, and the other male was ushering for him to follow.

Keith opened his mouth to explain why he absolutely had no reason to trust or follow him but Takashi simply rolled his eyes.

“You can come with me or you can sit here for two minutes and wait to be placed in handcuffs again. Your choice kid.”

Alright. There were two ways Keith could look at this.

This was some sort of dream and he should go with it. Or he had been sucked into some alternate universe and he was doomed and should go with it.

He eyed the cop he was about to murder, pulled back his fist and punched him once more on principle before following after Takashi.

Out on the street Keith could almost imagine things were normal if it weren’t for the fact all of the cars appeared to be parked and there was absolutely no sound.

Everything smelled sterile like someone had opened a bottle of bleach.

He did not like it one bit.

“Good, you followed. Alright. So sorry about acting like a dunce back there, the fastest way to get rid of Dante is to pretend you aren’t worth his time. And honestly? Dante just isn’t good for the reaper image. He’s… well he’s not a reaper, he doesn’t have any sense of diplomacy whatsoever.”

Keith stared at Takashi for a solid minute before abruptly turning around and starting to walk back into the sheriff’s department.

Takashi reached out and grabbed a hold of Keith’s wrist causing the smaller boy to wince, “Whoa—hold on, look, I’ll explain. And—here, let me fix that. Give me your other hand okay?”

This was some trippy dream, Keith decided, if a hot guy was asking to hold his hands a breath after referring to reapers as actual things.

Eh. Might as well go with it.

At least his senses weren’t super spiked anymore.

Takashi smiled at him when he held his wrists before placing his hands beneath them and shutting his eyes.

Keith blinked at this. Hot guy wears eyeliner. Perfectly winged eyeliner.

Yup. Definitely a dream.

Pretty lucid too. Hm.

Takashi opened his eyes and beamed at him, so bright it actually surprised Keith for a second before he realized it was far more surprising that his wrists were back to their milky white rather than the angry searing red they’d been a few seconds ago.

“This some kind of reaper ability?”

“Repairing dead skin cells? Yes.”

“…I’m Flynn Rider.”

“I’m sorry?”

Keith looked to his right and said to no one, “Why does her hair glow?”

Takashi laughed, “Okay. Must be a reference I’m not getting. That’s fine. Just means you’re warming up to me, right?”

Keith shrugged his shoulders, “I think it means I needed that psych eval, but sure. We’ll go with yours.”

Takashi shut his eyes and breathed deeply through his nose, “Patience yields focus,” he told himself before quickly looking around and suddenly reaching out and covering Keith’s ears with his hands.

A second later the cacophony of sound started up, the motors of cars on the street, children screaming, birds chirping, but Takashi’s grip managed to muffle a great deal of it.

The scents were back too though. He could smell everything and the only way he could explain it was like someone pouring hundreds of different paints down a single drain and that drain was clogged and bursts of colored paint were being spat back into someone’s mouth.

And. Something awful.

Like. Expired milk.

Keith lurched and reached up to try and cover his nose and mouth at once.

“God what the hell!” He screamed, only managing to rattle his head further.

He wasn’t sure when he ended up on the ground.

“I swear, changelings probably have it better than this…” Takashi mumbled, it was low enough that presumably Keith shouldn’t have been able to hear but focusing on the closest sound was helping drown out the rest.

It still wasn’t enough though.

“Okay. let’s go somewhere more quiet, yeah?”

…

If this is a dream Keith really wanted to wake up. Now.

Sure, he hadn’t reached first base with hot stranger yet but you know what? Keith could deal with that. That was an acceptable sacrifice for all of this to be over already.

He just wanted to wake up and for his dad to be there laughing about how he’d overslept and making them a terrible breakfast and for this entire week he’d been gone to not have happened.

“Takashi…was it…?”

“Shiro, you can call me Shiro,” said the reaper.

“Shiro then…”

Keith sat in his own living room, the blinds drawn and the pleasant if overbearing smell of jasmine under his nose. It was his favorite once, but after this he wondered if he’d ever have a favorite smell again.

“Please… Start over.”

Shiro gave him a sympathetic look as he dragged a blanket off the couch and draped it over Keith’s head and shoulders while he held his bottle of jasmine scented lotion to his nose. Keith eyed him skeptically but Shiro only shrugged, “Blankets are comforting? Kinda?”

Keith sighed but relented and pulled the blanket in close under his neck.

“So, let’s start over,” Shiro began, sitting down on the coffee table and bumping Keith’s leg with his own, “I’m a reaper.”

Keith made sure his cynicism was the most clear emotion on his face. Shiro certainly didn’t look like a reaper. He looked like some J-Pop star equipped with a ridiculous black and white hood to hide away from people who might recognize him.

The other guy, Dante or whatever his name was, he could kind of look like a reaper? At least, he was dressed in this black suit that made him look moderately threatening.

Granted, if Shiro was to be believed, his healing abilities came from being a reaper so maybe they weren’t supposed to be threatening?

Shiro certainly didn’t look threatening. He was just so…comforting?

Keith sighed and tightened his grip on the blanket.

“Okay.”

“Do you accept that yet?”

“Move it along.”

“Alright, so, a reapers job is to travel between the human world and the other making sure lost souls go to where they belong,” Shiro explained.

Keith didn’t like the sound of that, “But you swear I’m not dead?”

“No, you’re not, but you were about to kill that officer so we were alerted to your existence. See, there are two kinds of lost souls. Dead ones and…well, ones that are just plain lost. That’s where you come in,” Shiro explained, broadly gesturing to Keith.

The younger boy raised a brow and slowly turned to look around the house, “…We’re literally in my living room. I’m not lost.”

Shiro blinked at him and Keith could very nearly see the ebbing of his patience. It almost made Keith want to smile.

Instead, he with the magic eyeliner took a deep breath and leaned in closely, “Come on kid. Weren’t you the least bit curious about…?” then he made a broad motion to the sides of his own head

This did not make Keith any less confused, “about…?”

“These?” Shiro grabbed a hold of his ears and tugged.

“Your ears?”

Shiro groaned, “Not my ears, your ears.”

Keith was not following at all.

Suddenly Shiro shifted to do his own quick look around the house before a thought occurred to him, “…When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror?”

Keith shrugged.

“…Showered?”

Keith rolled his eyes, “Yesterday.”

“Did you wash your hair?”

“No, didn’t have the time. Was kind of focused on looking for my dad not making sure my hair was tolerable.”

“…Did you brush your hair?”

Keith felt like he was on some kind of trial now, “Again, really wasn’t focusing on my hair. What is your fixation?”

Shiro took a deep shuddering breath before standing up, “You’re going to want to look in a mirror Kid.”

That really shouldn’t have sounded so ominous, but he did as he was told, shuffling into his father’s room and up to the master bathroom’s sink who’s mirror was still intact unlike his own from an incident a few years back that consisted of climbing out his window (just to see if he could) and his flailing legs when he realized he had no purchase on the porcelain wall.

When he looked in the mirror all he could see was himself draped in the blanket. Sure, he didn’t usually identify with Linus from the Peanuts but there wasn’t anything particularly out of the ordinary about it.

He sighed and glanced around his father’s untouched room. The man had just gone out for chips, to try and give their two person birthday party a little more of the festive feeling. Keith had opted to stay home because, as the birthday boy, he reserved the right to not have to wear pants.

But then he didn’t come home.

Keith had called for a while.

Then started asking the neighbors.

A days later his birthday came and went and Keith started skipping school turning over every rock between his home and the local grocery store. He simply didn’t trust the cops to do their job, especially not when it came to his dad, so he didn’t bother, but when a week had passed he decided he couldn’t just rely on himself alone.

If this was his father two years ago he’d have accepted it, fine, his father had finally abandoned him too.

But that wasn’t who he was anymore.

They had a small tower of films they’d voted on watching, Uno cards and clue set up next to the couch. His dad loved clue, he made up voices for the characters and as annoying as Keith liked to say it was they both really enjoyed playing together. He’d bought an ice-cream cake and said they could both be miserable about it later because they were out of Lactaid pills.

“We ride together, we die together!”

“Do you even know where that’s from?”

“…Some old movie. Your father can’t remember. Cut me some slack.”

Keith’s chest hurt.

Movement in the mirror made Keith raise his head, expecting to see Shiro standing in the doorway despite the fact the other man had made no move to actually follow him and instead saw…

Something moving under his blanket.

Rather, something on his head was moving.

His grip on the blanket went slack and the movement on his head caused it to slip back.

It was dark in his father’s room, but he was able to see them just fine thanks to their movement, going straight up in shock.

Two fist sized furry…animal ears.

“What…in the hell…are THOSE?!”

…

Something should probably be said about how quickly Keith’s mind went from confused to “murder” as he decided this must be some ridiculous horrific prank courtesy of the so called reaper out in the hall.

Hell, what if this whole thing was a prank?

The entire damn week.

Definitely.

How? Keith wasn’t sure. But it had to be. It was time for his dad to come out from behind the curtain and go “How’s that for a birthday huh?” and laugh like a doofus while Keith throttled him.

It was the only plausible option. And it certainly beat the alternative.

He eyed the fluffy triangular shaped…monstrosities on his head and tentatively reached for one with his left hand. It was soft, softer than his hair when it was clean and brushed. In an effort to reign in his sanity he considered dog breeds and what kind of fur the most resembled. Not quite Maltese. He settled on Pomeranian—just their ears though. He always wondered why Pomeranian ears had fur softer than the rest of their bodies, and he figured if these were his new ears then he was officially some kind of Pomeranian.

…

Keith blinked at himself in the mirror, took a deep breath and removed his hand from his ear.

…

“SHIRO.”

The reaper took less than a second to pop his head in through the doorway, “Oh good, you actually called for me, I’d been standing outside for a few minutes I didn’t want to intrude.”

Keith had to fight himself not to clarify that Shiro’s very existence in his life was an intrusion but there were far more pressing matters.

“Explain. Now.”

Shiro blinked at him, then quite suddenly stood up straight rising to his full height, brows furrowed and arms crossed.

Keith felt his throat go dry.

“…Please.”

Shiro relaxed, “Better. Alright. So.” He moved over to stand beside Keith, ducking his head a little as he turned Keith back to face the mirror.

“These are your new ears. Werewolf ears. Because you’re a werewolf.”

Keith blanched, “Uhm?”

That made utterly no sense.

“I’ve never been bitten by a dog in my entire life. In fact, dogs love me, how is that even possible? How could I have missed this!?” Keith croaked.

Shiro made a clicking noise with his tongue before bumping the smaller boys head with his, “No silly, you’re not a changeling, you’re actually a natural born.”

Excuse me?

“So you’re telling me I’ve been a werewolf my whole life?”

Shiro nodded, “Which is probably why dogs love you if I’m being honest.”

“How the hell are people born werewolves? Wouldn’t that mean my family—”

The reaper nodded again, “Yes, exactly. Your mother, I believe, was a werewolf. She mated with a human, you father, which really isn’t the brightest thing one of our kind can do because generally humans just—don’t mix well with we supernatural folk.” Shiro released his grasp on Keith and turned around so his back was facing the mirror now. “Generally when one of us reproduces with a human the outcome can go one of three ways. Option 1- the offspring is still born. Option 2- offspring is physically strong but mentally absent and basically becomes a little raving monster. And then there is option 3, the rarest possibility, you.”

Keith backed up until the backs of his knees found his father’s bed and he allowed himself to fall back onto it.

“I don’t understand…My mother was a werewolf?”

Shiro nodded, furthering the space between them by backing up and leaning against the master bath’s sink.

“Yes, you avoided displaying werewolf traits because you were raised here, in the human world, but after a certain age one’s biology simply can’t fight it anymore. Your birthday just passed didn’t it?”

Keith was going to be sick. This whole thing was insane. Absolutely positively bonkers. Had someone slipped him something? Was he drunk?

“How…How do…So all werewolves have these ears?” It was anyone’s guess why that was the question that came out of his mouth.

“Yes,” Said Shiro.

Huh. Go figure.

“…Then why haven’t I ever seen any?”

Shiro smiled, “Now that’s a good question. You should pack.”

Keith’s brows knit together in confusion, “Pack?”

The reaper stood up straight again and motioned for the door, “Well you can’t exactly stay here looking like that. And just wait till you sprout your tail. Man, I do not envy you.”

Keith felt his eye twitch. Shiro simply motioned for the door again. He was slowly phasing out of “hot stranger” and into “mildly attractive bothersome acquaintance.” And then he looked at him like that, that ‘do as your told’ face that Keith wanted to fight with every fiber of his being but somehow couldn’t.

“…Where are we going?”

“Well, this is the human world. So, by process of elimination we are going to…not the human world.”

…

It takes three hours of cajoling and one utterly terrifying “was that police sirens?” for Keith to finally agree to consider leaving.

He put on a movie for Shiro while he packed despite not having made a decision yet.

“Here, so you can catch the reference I made earlier.”

“This is a princess movie,” Shiro starts as he reads the back of the DVD, the menu screen already lighting up the dim living room.

“My dad is a single parent trying his best. Someone put the idea in his head that I needed a female presence in my life and to make up for his lack of game he decided to Disney his way out of it. I also have Frozen.”

“What’s Frozen? Sounds…Cool.” Shiro grins.

Keith falters, blinks at Shiro for a solid two minutes, then turns on his heel and goes back to what he was doing.

He shuffles around the main room of the house for a few minutes, eyeing miscellaneous objects as he fingers the strap of a duffle bag he used for the gym.

He really isn’t sure what he should be packing, or how long he’ll be gone. Shiro had basically given him a crash course in the supernatural explaining there are three other worlds full of creatures and monsters straight out of Halloween Town.

Well aside from the fact that werewolves are people with wolf ears? Does he have a werewolf form where he’s hunched over and covered in fur, half man half beast?

Shiro had said no, they turn into full on wolves though he’s seen some do partial transfigurations when not requiring the use of their full wolf forms, Shiro also said that was tricky.

But whatever, that was going to take a whole lot longer to get used to anyway.

No, Shiro had explained some next level biblical shit like “World Below” and “World Above.”

Apparently World Above was like some elitist club you could only get into if you knew a guy or slipped the bouncer a hundred.

Meanwhile World Below was some sort of cluster fuck of “the darker brood” to use Shiro’s exact words.

“It’s actually where I’m from,” He’d said proudly.

Keith had grimaced at him.

“Creatures dealing with death tend to be down there. It doesn’t make me evil or anything.”

Suddenly the idea of Shiro being evil and trying to lure him to his death occurred to him, but Christ he had wolf ears what the hell else was he supposed to do but listen to the stranger who smiled at him like he wasn’t the throw away failure everyone else made him out to be.

The third world was some Fuckery code named “Illusions” which was just a round about way of saying “Limbo” in Keith’s opinion because apparently Illusions was some kind of clusterfuck with werewolves and vampires and witches and all sorts of shit that made Keith kind of nauseas.

“The Grim actually lives in Illusions, I’m training to replace him which is how I ended up here with you. But I don’t worry about that a lot, there are like. Four other people in line ahead of me for that spot so I mostly just go through the motions.”

Keith had eyed him curiously, “So do you spend hours talking others into following you on a regular basis or…?”

Shiro smiled, “While I do enjoy the time away from Dante, nah. Guess you can say I took a special interest in you.”

Keith flushed.

Shiro then proceeded to beautifully dodge any and all implications.

And now he was sitting on Keith’s couch watching Rapunzel sing about her boredom.

“This blond chick is my kindred spirit,” Shiro announced to no one. “She’s also hella talented,” he whistled, “Tell me someone realizes how positively gifted this girl is? Like they’re not just gonna make her the vapid love interest, right?”

Keith bit back his retort that, as this was a princess movie, the male was usually the vapid love interest but instead he mentally sits on the fact that he really can’t fathom how his life brought him to this point.

“Are you done packing? I’m not expected to watch this whole thing, am I?” Shiro glanced over at Keith’s virtually empty duffle bag and sighed deeply, “Keith…”

The boy shook his head, “Hey, Tangled is actually a pretty good movie. Like. It’s funny. Just deal with the singing.”

“Keith pack. And I have no problem with the singing. I love singing. You should hear my Car-aoke.”

Keith has no words to respond to that one and so he turns to walk towards his room where he’ll actually have real things to pack but before he disappears into the hallway he glances back at Shiro who is still leaned over the back of the couch, one arm dangling off the side. When Keith had voiced certain concerns during their three-hour discussion Shiro had made certain promises.

“You’ll really help me find my dad?”

Shiro’s eyes softened at the repeated question, “I’m a reaper, so generally, I’d know if he was dead. And I have a certain amount of reach. So. Yes, I will do what I can to help you find your father.”

“You promise?”

Shiro’s eyes retained their softness though he tilted his head and his smile took on a certain ‘we’ve been through this’ air but he nods.

“And you’re sure your…witch?” Keith continues, his weight heavy on the foot closest to the hall as he tries to remember what Shiro said earlier, “…witch friend can make it so I’d know if my dad ever comes back on his own?”

The reaper rolls his eyes but his expression remains fond as he turns back to the television set, “She’s a vampire actually. But yes, I’m pretty positive there’s some blood magic for that.”

Keith takes a deep breath but nods as he finally makes his way down the hall.

…

When he’s done packing the meager proof of his existence he can hear Shiro singing along to “I’ve got a dream.” His voice actually isn’t half bad if Keith is being honest, but he’s decided he’s absolutely not going to indulge Shiro in this simply on principle.

He sits down next to him on the couch anyway and leans his head back against the couch.

“Oh! Done already Keith?”

He nodded.

Shiro grinned, “And by the way. You are not Flynn Rider. He’s too smooth for you.”

Keith shrugs, “Eugene then.”

Shiro blinks, “Who the hell is—Whatever. Now I’ll just shoot a message to my friend, we’ll cast a little spell and hit the road, yeah?”

Keith nods, slowly as if everything is finally beginning to dawn on him, the idea of leaving home, still not knowing where his father is, a creature called a reaper and his own messed up biology…

He looks at Shiro and expects some weird glowy magic show. Instead, Shiro reaches into the pocket of his hoodie and pulls out what looks like it could have been a cell-phone in some weird futuristic world.

“…You have cell phones?”

The reaper raises a brow before he starts to chuckle, shakes his head, and focusses his attention on his phone. Quickly he types out a message to what appears to be his most recent contact and doesn’t even put it down to wait for a response. Within moments a small noise like a bell is heard and his cheeks tint just the slightest shade of pink.

Suddenly Keith remembers thinking of Shiro as the hot stranger and considers that he’s probably straight, of course. Then his new friend turns to look at him with the brightest smile on his face and Keith can’t help the small smile back though he’s not sure what they’re supposed to be smiling about.

“She’ll be here in a couple minutes. You’re gonna love her. Everyone loves her,” Shiro’s eyes lit up just talking about her so Keith wasn’t so sure. “Anyway, yeah bro, we have cell phones. Well. I’d have to define ‘we’ really. Mostly I’m just gifted with really smart friends. Matt and Pidge made this, it works between the human world and world below and between Illusions and world below—but they haven’t managed to make it span the human world to Illusions. They’re working on it though so no big deal.”  Shiro slumps back against the couch and glances at his phone screen again, “We’re actually pretty lucky she was trying to visit me right now otherwise we’d be here a bit.”

Keith’s nose picks up something beside the jasmine he’d basically scrubbed his face with. It’s vanilla and clean linens and it also comes equipped with the noise of rustling skirts and…water?

He raises his head and turns to the back of the room. Shiro eventually turns with him and Keith notices in his peripheral how the reapers face practically lights up like a goddamn Christmas tree.

There’s a girl in his house.

A woman, really. Tall, dark skinned, silver white hair cascading down her back in massive waves. Honestly, if Keith were straight he’d probably panic and run from a girl so breathtakingly beautiful. As it stood, Keith was thankfully gay and could happily accept that this was just some kind of goddess standing in his living room, no big deal.

“Hello Shiro—Oh! You’re watching Tangled? Make room!” She laughed in a way that made Keith physically ill because he knew he would never have that kind of heart stopping power.

As she made her way over though, everything in Keith’s system started to shoot warning signs.

And then, like some kind of internal guide, his head screamed, “Vampire” and then immediately after that followed up with ���Vampire equals Threat.”

Shiro scooted closer to Keith and pat the remaining space on the loveseat. Since it was just Keith and his dad they never really cared to get anything bigger.

The girl sat down, her skirt, some silky blue thing slipped higher up one leg as she tilted forward, passed Shiro and offering Keith her hand, “You must be Keith, my name is Allura. I hope you’re feeling alright? I understand for half breeds like yourself this kind of transition can be varying degrees of…uncomfortable.”

Keith wanted to reach out and grab her hand, be polite. He wanted to return the kind expression on her face. He wanted so terribly to shut down the screaming in his brain but it just wouldn’t stop and all he managed was to lift his shaking hand and slowly pull it back and further from her palm.

Allura spared him a confused glance for a moment before she seemed to realize, “Oh. Goodness, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I’m a pureblood so your body is probably heavily rejecting the idea of me, isn’t it?”

Keith swallowed and managed to nod.

“Right then, don’t worry, it’ll pass. Why don’t we just relax for a little bit? We’ll watch tangled, your body can become accustomed and then we can get to work on your blood binding spell, sound fair?”

When Keith only managed to nod again, squeezing himself against the armrest and into the plush leather of the couch, Shiro draped an arm around his shoulders.

“A lot of vampires could be pretty threatening, and werewolves have it ingrained into them to be wary of the species, but I swear on my life Allura here is one of the best people I know okay? So, try not to worry too much.”

“Oh! Oh! This is the best part look at Maximus!” Allura squealed happily in a way that was too smooth to be real.

Shiro blinked back at the screen though he didn’t remove his arm from Keith’s shoulders, “Maximus is the horse right?”

Allura smacked his free arm lightly, “Yes of course Maximus is the horse, have you not been paying attention?”

Keith tried to squish himself further back but when it appeared to be impossible he tilted his head vaguely toward Shiro and tried to make himself comfortable by talking to him again, “How does she know Tangled when you don’t Shiro?”

While Shiro attempts to defend himself and his priorities when traveling the human world Keith is painfully aware of Allura’s soft smile as she leans against the opposite armrest and idly rubs a piece of her skirt between her fingers before casually swiping those same fingers along her lips.

They look wet now.

Alluring.

Huh.

Alluring Allura.

What kind of bullshit.

His attention turns to her skirts and he realizes the silk looks like it’s rippling, water in every stitch.

When she realizes what he’s looking at she shakes her head, “Oh, sorry, don’t worry I’m not wrecking your couch or anything. Just had to bribe a water witch for the portal magic. The skirt is how we’re going to travel once we’re done.”

Keith really didn’t want to know because even with that explanation he doesn’t know. He doesn’t understand. All he can really grasp is there’s water in her skirt.

“…Are you thirsty?” Keith says finally, his confusion winning against his nerves.

Shiro stops short and carefully nudges Keith back into his cowering position, “You never ask a vampire if they’re thirsty, Keith, it’s just not polite. Sorry Allura.”

Allura shook her head, “It’s quite alright Shiro! It’s not like he has any way of knowing. I actually am a bit parched, sorry if that idea frightens you, but you have nothing to worry about, my being a pureblood means I can go ages without feeding and it wouldn’t make much of a difference.”

Keith wasn’t sure why he persisted, but he did, “…I have cranberry juice? If you want some.”

Allura spared him another surprised look before that smile was right back in place, “…I’d love a glass, thank you, Keith.”

This somehow managed to make his mind behave a bit, she had gone from “Threat” to “guest” now that he was trying to play host.

Alright, progress.

…

The spell they placed on the house was incredibly simple. Allura asked for Keith’s hand which, after bonding over the entirety of “I see the light” and their varied degrees of glee in Shiro’s absent humming, was not as difficult a task as either of them had initially thought.

She warned him she was about to prick his finger so when she did Keith didn’t even wince. Then she took his hand and guided the small bloodied spot to press against the wall. This is where Keith finally got his glowy magic light show. Her eyes, a crystalline blue green lit up pink where her pupils should have been. The glow spread to fill her eyes casting long shadows on her face from her lashes as her lips moved but she said nothing. Her hair had even started to lift ever so slightly as if some imaginary wind was brushing against her. But as quickly as it had begun it was over and she was patting his hand.

“There, now if anyone of your blood enters this house once we’re gone, you and I will feel it and we can come straight back here.”

Shiro clapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he was ready to go.

Keith eyed his house a moment longer before he decided he wanted to do one last thing.

He found a sharpie and a scrap piece of sketchbook paper and scrawled in large bold letters: “A Werewolf? Really?” before taking a refrigerator magnet and tacking it up right there front and center.

“Okay. Now I’m ready.”

Keith was not ready.

When Allura’s skirt dropped the water in its fibers Keith panicked for a second, preparing to get the questionable substance on his shoes or something, but instead the water moved like some sentient being. It pooled around Allura’s feet and shimmered with this gold light that made Keith dizzy.

Then she reached for his hand again, Keith looked to Shiro and he nodded for him to proceed.

“Just don’t think too much okay? Portals are all instinct,” He tells him.

Keith looks at the water and figures, that much is fine, instinct is something he can handle.

It’s like jumping into a pool, and then becoming one with the pool. That shouldn’t feel natural but Keith can’t see a problem with it. And then he feels Shiro’s grip on his hand and can practically feel his consciousness pushing him forward.

And then they were standing at a fountain in what was basically an enormous brightly lit orange cavern.

“Alright! Let’s get you settled shall we?” Shiro grinned, not releasing Keith’s hand and moving away from the fountain.

Keith barely has the time to look around when he’s ushered into a building, but he does get the opportunity to smell everything.

And he’s about to be nauseas again.

And the lights are too bright and there is so much noise and it’s so much worse than it was outside the sheriff’s department.

Allura and Shiro must have noticed your discomfort because suddenly they’re whispering among themselves and Shiro guides your hand over to Allura, “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna run to transports and see if someone can help relax you okay?”

Keith doesn’t like this, but his head is pounding so hard and there are a number of strangers around who all smell like the weirdest things—and god he hadn’t even looked at them before the closest person(?) is purple and small and he(?) has huge teeth and he’s smoking something that smells absolutely disgusting and the person they’re talking to smells like roses and looks very much like the rolled out of a bush that morning and wow god this overload of everything needs to stop

And then there’s Allura.

She takes his hand and pulls him close to her, pressing his head into her hair as some of it has found its way over her shoulders.

This is. Actually helpful. She smells strong but it’s pleasant and it’s less confusing than dealing with everything. And her hair is soft.

She ushers him over to a bench and sits with him still pressed into her shoulder softened by the waves of her hair. Her voice is soothing if a little frightening in how he realizes she sounds extremely persuasive, “Shhh, just listen to my voice alright Keith? My voice is the only one you need to listen to. Try to block everything else out.” She’s running her hand through his hair to try and calm him but one of her hands grazes his ear and he flinches so hard she actually jumps. “Oh! Sorry, sorry, I forgot. Shh, I’m sorry. I won’t do that again. You silly wolves and your extra appendages…” she giggles, trying to be clear that she’s joking when suddenly her mirth dies in her throat.

“Princess. Taking in another stray?”

There’s a sizzling in the air and Keith has to raise his head when he feels Allura puff out a heavy breath through her nose.

When he looks at the person who’d spoken his fight or flight response is screaming again.

A million red flags, dangerous, hostile, bad, bad, bad.

Allura doesn’t let go of his hand but her beautiful sea green eyes are narrowed on the man standing in front of the two of them now.

“It hasn’t been Princess in a long time and you know that. Do you need something, Lotor?”

The man simply shrugs his shoulders, “I was just checking in on the transport division as usual. When I felt your presence back here I simply had to come by and say hello.”

“Hello. Now goodbye.” Her voice sounds so abnormally icy Keith can’t help but stare at her.

Lotor, the silver haired male who’s skin is almost as tan as Allura’s (making Keith wonder if all vampires have dark skin rather than the pale skin of their stories) doesn’t move to leave. In fact, he closes the distance between them and bends at the waist a bit so he can be closer to their eye level as he scrutinizes Keith.

“A werewolf?”

Keith can feel the tension in his shoulders when Lotor looks at him.

Allura’s arms are defensively wrapped around Keith now and he has no idea when that happened.

“A half breed…” Lotor continues, a glint in his eye as a smile slowly makes its way to his face.

Allura moves so Keith is pushed behind her ever so slightly as she stares Lotor down, “Put your fangs away Lotor, he’s a child.”

It’s when she says this that Keith realizes that despite her young looks she’s probably significantly older than he is, being a vampire and all.

“Relax Allura, you know I just happen to have a healthy interest in half breeds. Human crosses are even rarer. How’s about it child? Would you ever like to come chat with me?”

Keith grits his teeth. He doesn’t know Lotor or why Allura seems to dislike him so much but his instincts are definitely telling him the man is trouble.

The boy opens his mouth to respond when he gets a whiff of the other vampire. He smells like earth. Like a cabin during rainy weather. It’s calming. And this thought alarms the hell out of him.

It silences him however.

And Lotor gets a good solid look at his face, and his eyes, blue green like Allura’s, appear to soften right in front of him.

If Allura notices she says nothing.

“What’s your name wolf?” Lotor begins almost softly, “Mine, as Allura here so crassly announced to you, is Lotor. First and only son of Zarkon and Honerva. Understand you are under no obligation to grant me your name however it would be much appreciated.”

Keith hates how much he actually wants to tell him.

“Honestly Lotor who still goes by those silly rules…” Allura mumbles though to contradict her statement she does look down looking vaguely ashamed.

“A named thing is a tamed thing Allura you’d be wise to remember that,” He extends his hand to Keith, still too soft, still too patient.

Keith stares at the hand unsure if he should be offended by it or intrigued.

“Ah! Lotor!”

At Shiro’s voice Lotor’s eyes immediately harden and he retrieves his hand, “Takashi. A pleasure.” Keith wonders why the vampire is clearly lying when one look at Shiro tells him the feeling is mutual.

“It’s nice to see you, I see you’ve met my new friend. Did he tell you his name?” Shiro asks casually though there’s an edge in his voice.

Lotor sighs, “No, and that’s fair, he doesn’t have to. I was just on my way out.”

“I’m sure you were, happy trails Lotor!” Shiro says with too much enthusiasm.

Lotor spares Keith one last glance that Keith can’t help but return, unsure why the vampire draws his attention so much. He bows his head, says goodbye, and is gone in the blink of an eye. As soon as he disappears the rest of the scents in the room are painfully present again and Keith is shuffling around Allura to see where he could have possibly gone while trying to ignore the twisting in his gut at the unpleasant assault to his senses.

“He teleported Keith, we vampires can do that for places we’ve seen before. He’s very much gone,” Allura explains.

“This the guy?”

Keith realizes then that Shiro didn’t return alone. Behind him is a thin blond with lightly sun kissed skin and eyes the color of fresh blood. Keith takes a small amount of joy in noting that the boy appears to be shorter than him but around his age.

“Yeah, I just need you to give him a bit muddle how much of his senses he actually registers. That’s a thing you guys can do right?”

Allura looks put out by the presence of the blond but she still relaxes enough to let Keith go. “If you were just going to do that I could have kept talking…” Allura mumbles to no one in particular.  

He’s not sure how much he likes any of this though. The blond moves forward and Shiro kneels next to the bench, a comforting hand on Keith’s knee, “This is Angel, your instincts don’t know him like they know vampires, but for full disclosure, he’s what is generally referred to as a devil.”

Well that sounds comforting.

“He’s not a bad guy though. And I mean, really, he’s just a kid.”

Angel, who’s face is directly in Keith’s line of sight, rolls his eyes, “Yeah well this kid didn’t have to take time from his work to help you with your hobby dude.”

Shiro smiles and playfully nudges the blond who ignores this and instead ushers Shiro’s hand out of the way, so he could sit beside Keith.

“I’m going to touch you okay?” explained the blond.

Keith nods and Angel motions for him to lean forward, his hands open.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m basically going to lower your sensitivity. Imagine your senses as a string tied to your mind that is currently tied very, very tight. It’s this tension that’s causing you to get sick and to feel as poorly as I’m presuming you do. I am going to loosen that string, allowing you to go about your business for a little while without the pain. But be aware, this works kind of like that disease that lets people not feel pain. Just because you don’t feel it doesn’t mean nothing bad is happening.”

Shiro and Allura exchange looks. Shiro speaks again, “It’s not exactly like putting your hand on a stove and not realizing its burning. These are just sounds and smells.”

Angel spares him a bland expression, “It’s a basic disclaimer dude, I don’t know what kind of bullshit you’re gonna get into I’m just covering my bases. Keith, yeah?”

Keith blinked at him.

“Just don’t blow out your eardrums cause the world felt quieter and then come blame me, yeah?”

Keith is really unsure how he could ever, but nods anyway. Then Angel puts his hands on either side of his head and stares deeply into his eyes for a moment.

Keith thinks Angel looks almost more human than Allura and Shiro despite neither of them having features nearly as odd as bright red eyes.

Speaking of, those eyes shut and for a moment Keith is heavily overwhelmed by the noise and the smells and Angel smells like apples and caramel and something a little more grounding.

And then it all stops.

A moment after that he can hear Shiro and Allura, and Angel’s pulse with his wrist so close to his ears, but everything else is in hushed tones as he’d imagine an office should sound like.

He almost feels normal.

Angel opens his eyes and releases him, “Remember that its temporary, you should go find a quiet space to get used to your new abilities.”

Shiro takes the conversation from there, clapping Angel on the shoulder and stating his gratitude. Angel shrugs, “No big deal. You owe me one though.”

“Fair.”

“You’re taking him in right?”

“Of course.”

Allura smiles and reaches her arms around Keith again, “We’re going to have so much fun! I’ll tell you all about the world and what I know about werewolves—which isn’t a lot if I’m honest but!” Keith knows she’s just trying to be positive and encouraging and he appreciates that.

Angel leaves with a simple wave, presumably to get back to work.

Shiro disappears again, saying something about paperwork and Allura spends the time pointing at random strangers and whispering details about their races and what they could be doing in a government building. Keith also learns that in this case ‘government building’ means ‘witch building’ as the witches were the government.

He also learns, from the people who wave to Allura as they filter in and out of the building, that she is fairly well known. He doesn’t ask her about Lotor’s princess comment.

When Shiro returns he gives Keith the game plan, they’re going to go back to his place, camp out, work on getting Keith used to his new surroundings and new ways of registering his surroundings, and then Shiro was going to set Keith up with a friend of his in Illusions, a werewolf and his sister so that Keith could learn first hand about his mother’s people.

Honestly, Keith isn’t all that inclined to leave Shiro’s side, he and Allura were the ones who were going to help him find his father.

But he figured, he’d cross that bridge when it came.

…