Chapter Text
Keith shifts in his seat.
“I have a bad feeling,” he tells Shiro as they’re landing on a planet that they just saved.
“Why? What’s wrong?”
Keith shrugs.
“I don’t know, but just stay on your toes.”
Shiro nods, giving Keith one last concerned look before turning back to what he was doing. They land and are escorted into the city. The people there are like living blobs with giant bug eyes. Everyone is staring at them as they walk through the streets. They’re crowding around, smiling with their huge teeth.
Keith sticks close to Shiro, a habit that he picked up when he was getting bullied at the Garrison. Shiro gives him a small smile which he tries to return. They’re taken to the castle, the entryway lighting up when they come in. It turns purple and beeps.
“That’s for authorization, so you don’t have to worry about that,” the man escorting them says, speaking directly to Allura.
He glances at each one of them before moving forward. He takes them to the throne room, which is currently empty.
“Stay here, and I will go get the queen and king.”
After he leaves, Keith turns to Shiro and Allura.
“Were they not expecting us?”
Shiro shrugs.
“Different races have different cultures, and in this one, I think the king and queen aren’t supposed to be the first ones in the throne room,” Allura explains.
“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”
“No it doesn’t. Why would they be the last ones here?” Lance asks.
“I assume their culture is just different from ours. It doesn’t matter if I think it makes sense.”
“Take that approach,” Allura says, glaring at Lance who puts his hands up in surrender.
Keith smiles, looking away. Shiro puts a hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith taps his foot, wondering why it’s taking so long, but then the doors open, and two blob people walk through, followed by a few dozen guards. The guards position themselves around the room while the other two people walk to the thrones. They don’t actually sit down, not that Keith even knows how they would do that. Instead they turn to face the Paladins.
“Thank you for saving our planet.”
“Of course, it’s our pleasure,” Allura starts, then goes into her pitch for the coalition.
Keith starts to tune her out, more watching what everyone in the room is doing. Eventually they ask if the Paladins will stay the night since it’s late. Then they can talk more after the king and queen have had time to consider their offer.
“Yes, we’d appreciate that, but if it’s too much of an ask, we can go back to our ship to sleep. It’s no issue either way.”
“No, we insist you stay here. The rooms in our palace are the best of the best, and we can make sure that you have everything you need while you’re here,” the queen says.
Wonderful, we get to stay with the blob people tonight. Just what I always wanted.
From the look on his face, Lance is thinking the same thing. They’re escorted to another wing of the castle, and each given their own room. Then they’re left to their own devices. Keith heads to Shiro’s room immediately. Shiro is sitting on the edge of his bed, but he doesn’t look surprised to see Keith.
“Hey, otouto.”
“Hey. Sorry, I just wanted to come see you. I’m still pretty on edge, though I guess there might not be a reason for that, huh?”
Shiro nods.
“Yeah, they seem nice enough.”
“A little creepy though.”
Shiro laughs.
“Yeah, you’re right about that too, but we should try to refrain from saying things like that until after we leave tomorrow.”
Keith nods, dropping down on the floor by Shiro’s feet.
“I feel so uncomfortable sleeping in someone else’s house.”
“I know, you’ve always been that way. It took, what, six months of you coming to my apartment to actually sleep?”
Keith blushes, looking down.
“Yeah, it might have been a bit longer.”
“Well, you can stay in here tonight if you want.”
“Nah, Lance would start making up rumors that we’re sleeping together.”
“You know you could just explain what kind of relationship we’ve had,” Shiro replies, raising one eyebrow.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to. Why should I have to explain myself to someone who treats me the way Lance does?”
“Well, I could also just tell him what otouto means. He knows that I call you that all the time.”
Keith laughs.
“Yeah, you could. I don’t really care what Lance thinks, if we’re being honest. I think he’s just jealous cause he looked up to you, and I knew you personally. I only care when he starts telling other people about it.”
Shiro hums.
“I’ll talk to him later.”
They sit talking for a few hours before Keith stands up.
“Ok, I should get back to my own room. I’ll see you later.”
Shiro nods, dropping onto his bed. Keith ends up pacing the length of the hallway as quietly as possible since he’s still feeling on edge. It’s really late when someone walks into the hallway, holding a weird object. They make eye contact, and Keith cocks his head to the side.
“Sorry, I don’t know if I should be out here, but I just had a lot of pent up energy.”
The blob man throws the thing he’s holding at Keith, who flinches back, incredibly surprised. Then it starts spewing smoke into the hallway. Keith’s vision goes dark before he even hits the ground.
He wakes up with chains wrapped around his wrist and ankles. Something is on his face, but it takes a minute to figure out what it is, but when he does, he feels like his heart stops. It’s a muzzle strapped to his face, the edges cutting into his skin. He’s been stripped down to the bottom half of his flight suit, his armor completely gone.
He’s alone in the dark, but he can hear someone talking in the distance, and it sounds like it’s through a door. Keith feels like he can barely breathe as the muzzle sits heavily on his face. Tears prick his eyes. Eventually the door opens, flooding the room with light. Keith flinches back, the tears finally falling down his face from how tightly he closes his eyes.
Someone grabs his arm, pulling him to his feet. He barely manages to open his eyes as he’s pulled onto what looks like a stage in the middle of a stadium. The blob man that’s pulling him feels like slime against his skin, and he can’t help but shudder. The chains around his hands are hooked to a beam, forcing Keith to stand up straight. There are tons of blob people all watching him and the two blob people on the stage with him. There’s a booth attached to the right wall, and the Paladins are all restrained up there with guards watching them.
“This is the Red Paladin. He’s the scum of Voltron, and the rest of them are just fine with Galra in their midst,” the one next to Keith snarls. “We had to restrain him when he became violent. We’re going to give this one what it deserves, then kill the rest of them so Voltron can be reset, and we’ll have a chance of winning this war!”
There’s loud cheering at that point, and Keith feels his stomach start doing flips.
They’re going to kill all of us, because my mom was an alien?
He doesn’t even attempt to process that any further, already knowing that it’s going to lead to a full mental breakdown. The man turns to Keith.
“We will start by whipping the beast to cripple it before killing the others.”
He holds up a whip, but Keith keeps his eyes on the man instead of his weapon. As he’s uncoiling it, Keith turns back to Shiro, unable to do anything but look. He can’t see Shiro’s face from here, but he can imagine how distressed he is right now. He looks away, unable to think about that anymore.
The blob man whips his bare chest and stomach first. Keith can feel the hot tears running down his face, the sharp pain, and the blood dripping down his torso. His brain can’t seem to keep up with exactly what’s happening, shutting down to try to protect him from what’s happening. It isn’t until they’re halfway down his back that light flashes from the other side of the stadium.
It takes Keith a minute to realize that it was an explosion. The blob man pushes a knife against Keith’s throat, and he’s too tired to even try to do anything about it. Not that the restraints would let him do anything anyway. Before the man can do anything other than cut through the first layer of skin, something goes through his head. He kind of melts, and Keith sees Shiro.
Shiro cuts through the restraints on his wrists, catching him before he can hit the ground. His back burns where the open wounds come in contact with Shiro’s arm. Tears are pouring down his face as Shiro tries to figure out how to get the muzzle off of his face.
“I know, otouto. I’ll get this thing off in just a second. I can’t risk cutting it, so I have to-” Shiro trails off, but finds the locking mechanism a second later.
He throws the muzzle away as he cuts through the chains around Keith’s ankles. Keith throws himself into Shiro’s arms, sobbing. Shiro holds him close, rocking them back and forth while murmuring reassurances. He can’t even find it in himself to be embarrassed when he sees the other Paladins watching from the other side of the stage. He just buries his face in Shiro’s shoulder to hide from everything.