Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When Shiro walks into the lounge of their castle-ship, the team does not expect him to be carrying a small child that resembled Keith- unkempt hair and all.

"Uh, Shiro?" Hunk says, eyebrows furrowed and glancing at the child, "What'cha got there?"

Shiro looks down at the bundle in his arms, who was staring intensely at Hunk and making the bulky teen uncomfortable with his unwavering gaze.

"Keith," he answers, as if it was an everyday occurrence that the red pilot was de-aged into a child.

"Yeah, but what happened to him?" Pidge asks, adjusting her glasses as she walked up and examined Keith. The child turned away from her, seemingly shy, and buried his face into the crook of Shiro's neck.

Pidge cooed, finding it adorable.

"On that scouting mission we just came back from, Keith got sprayed by some plant's spores-" he started, cradling Keith's head against his chest, "-and while under the influence of the pores he consumed a fruit from the plant. At first he was fine until he started complaining about stomach pains and his joints aching and then he was a child."

Once he finished the explanation, Allura walked in with Coran following close behind.

"Welcome back, Shiro! I take it the mission went-- Is that Keith?" Allura was instantly at the black paladin's side, roving her eyes over Keith's now small frame. Keith in turn detached his face from Shiro to glance at her with wide, curious eyes. After a few seconds he was back to hiding in Shiro’s neck.

“Yeah, any idea why he’s like this?” Shiro asks, gaze switching between Coran and Allura’s thoughtful expressions before he explains what happened again.

“Well,” Coran says, “there’s a number of fruits in this current galaxy that can have that effect on someone, and depending on the fruit the effects can last from a few Earth days to a month!”

Shiro prays that it isn’t the latter, they couldn’t form Voltron with Keith as a pre-schooler. And he was afraid the longer Keith stayed like this the more harm it could do to his body.

As if reading his mind, Pidge speaks up, “Is this fruit harmful to him? Aside from the obvious bodily changes.”

“Fear not! Keith is perfectly fine, none of the known plants are harmful at all!” Coran replied, twisting the end of his moustache with his thumb and forefinger, proud that he was very knowledgeable about this subject.

“If we could identify the plant we can diagnose how long he will be like this,” Allura supplies, nodding at Coran, “Coran will baby-proof Keith’s quarters so he will be safe.”

“Sounds good, princess, I’ll take Pidge with me tomorrow morning to collect a fruit from the plant,” Shiro says before he’s interrupted by Keith, suddenly fussing and squirming in his hold.

“Woah, what’s he doing?” Hunk squeaks out, terrified Keith would morph into some giant alien thing and eat them all-

“He’s uncomfortable,” Lance replies, uncharacteristically serious, “I think he’s hungry.”

“How do you know that?” Pidge scoffs, raising an eyebrow at the Cuban male, who in turn crosses his arms and gives her a look.

“I’m a very experienced older brother,” Lance says matter-of-factly, snapping back to his normal self, and Pidge rolls her eyes at him. Shiro watches the exchange and feels himself relax, knowing that when he leaves the following day Keith would be in good hands. Lance was a familial expert, and Shiro knew that- having had listened to Lance ramble about his family when he grew homesick.

Deciding to test out if Keith actually was hungry, Shiro simply asks him with a “what’s wrong, bud?”

“Hungry…” Keith mumbles out, pouting cutely with furrowed eyebrows. Shiro chuckles and looks expectantly at Hunk and Lance.

“Would you be able to whip something up for him?” He asks them, watching Lance and Hunk exchange a glance before nodding.

“Go rest, Shiro, Lance and I got this,” Hunk says, a soft smile on his features as he holds out his arms, offering to take Keith off him. At the mention of rest, Shiro suddenly realises how exhausted he is and nods with a thankful smile. He moves to give Keith to Hunk but the child’s grip tightens like a vice, eyes wide with fear, not wanting to separate from the man.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, I’ll be back. I’m just going to let your big brothers take care of you for a while, okay?” Shiro coos, receiving a small whine of disapproval from Keith but he relented, loosening his hold on Shiro’s shirt. Pidge snorts at Shiro calling Hunk and Lance “big brothers.”

“Promise you be back?” Keith whispers, hands fiddling with the shirt fabric. Shiro nods with a reassuring smile and Keith finally lets him hand him over.

As soon as Hunk has a comfortable grip on Keith, Shiro leaves the room with Allura and Coran in tow, most likely giving the two a detailed explanation of his trip before he retired to his room. A few silent moments tick by, with the three remaining teens watching over Keith warily. Until Keith, who had been trying not to panic at Shiro’s absence, starts sniffling, the grip on Hunk’s bicep tightening.

“Lance!” Hunk yelps in a panic, not knowing what to do, “what do I do!?”

“Uhh, make the food! I’ll hold him!” Hunk nods, hurriedly handing the sniffling child to Lance before running off to the kitchen. Keith starts full on crying once he’s in Lance’s arms, fussing and squirming so much that Lance almost drops him.

Pidge and Lance make their way to the kitchen too, Lance trying to calm down Keith but to no avail. Absolute havoc fills the kitchen, panicked shouts and horrible wailing echoing down the halls.

//

It takes the three half an hour to finally get Keith to chill the fuck out (Pidge’s words). Pidge managed to locate a baby chair and Hunk had managed to make food-goo not taste like stale bread enough that Keith would eat it. The first time they tried to feed him normal food-goo, Lance got a face full of goop and more ear-splitting wails.

So know here they were, watching Allura (who had come in halfway through to investigate what the ruckus was) feed Keith, sitting in a pink baby chair decorated with flowers. Allura was, so far, the only person Keith would let feed him without having a tantrum.

“He’s worse than my baby cousins,” Lance groans, slumping in a chair out of exhaustion. Pidge mirrors him and Hunk sighs, relishing in the sweet peace.

“Is there something that would be easier to make for him?” Hunk asks, vaguely registering Coran walking in, a tablet of sorts in his hands.

“We could go to the Space Mall and buy food for him!” Coran suggests, handing the tablet to Allura, “A few stores sell what could be the Earth equivalent of baby food- It’s considered a delicacy.”

Pidge makes a face, “Rich aliens eat baby food for a living?”

“Basically,” Coran replies, “Though I don’t blame them! This ‘baby food’ is quite tasty.”

This time Lance joins Pidge in making noises of disgust.

“Ugh, one time I had to eat baby food because all we had in the house was baby food- I don’t recommend living off of a diet of mushed chicken and carrots for a week,” Lance says, shivering at the memory. Pidge snorts at his expression.

“Gross, dude,” she laughs.

“Oh, man, but the apple range of baby food is so good,” Hunk chirps, earning a judgemental look from both Shiro and Pidge. Hunk shrugs at them, not caring that he enjoyed eating baby food once in a while.

A quiet burp interrupts their conversation and Allura giggles at the adorable display, Keith looking a little dazed and tired from the fuss he had made. Lance gets up momentarily to get Keith a cup of water. When he hands the cup to Keith, holding it just in case Keith spills, the child surprisingly grips the cup well enough to drink by himself. After he’s satisfied a yawn escapes his mouth and he makes grabby hands at Lance, surprising the teen once again.

Lance picks him up from the baby chair cradling him in his arms as Keith immediately rests his head on Lance’s shoulder.

Pidge laughs at the domestic display, wishing she had her phone with her right at that moment so she could take a photo. Oh, that’s right, she does- so she snaps at least ten photos before escaping the room so Lance didn’t have time to put down Keith and rugby tackle her to the ground.

Instead, Lance huffs at her retreating form, deciding he’d exact revenge on her later. First, he had to get Keith in a bed.

“Is his room ready?” Lance asks, directing the question to Coran, who nodded eagerly, walking out of the dining room with a skip in his step to lead the way. Hunk tags along, curious to how Coran would have set up the room.

When the door slides open, Lance sees that the floor had been padded, a crib-like gate attached to Keith’s bed, and the tell-tale outlines of glow-in-the-dark star stickers on the walls and ceilings. Not to mention the bed looked extremely comfortable now, inhabiting at least five pillows and a blanket. In the far right corner of the room was a box full of well-worn kids toys.

“Nice job, Coran,” Hunk says, impressed. Coran stands with his hands on his hips, shining with pride at the compliment. Lance lowers Keith onto the bed, tucking him in afterwards and watching him curl up almost instantaneously.

“What about a baby monitor?” Lance asks once he gets Keith in the cot.

“Oh, I installed a camera in here- it’ll alert one of you if he starts crying or wakes up!” Coran replies. Lance hums and watched the steady rise and fall of Keith’s chest.

“But isn’t he, like, three or four? He doesn’t need a baby monitor?” Hunk questions, eyebrows furrowing.

“It’d be good if we can have eyes on him most of the time,” Coran tells him, “If something were to happen we need to be alerted.”

Hunk mulls over this before agreeing. He peeks at Keith in the cot before exiting alongside Coran. Lance stays for a little while longer, somewhat sulking.

“You need to get back to normal right quick, Keith, I can’t make fun of you while you’re a baby,” Lance huffs, frowning at Keith’s sleeping face. Sighing, Lance stretches, joints popping before he heads to the door and turns off the light, watching the stars lightly illuminate the room before he shuts the door so he can get his own rest in his own bed.

Chapter Text

The first thing Lance wakes up to is a commotion right outside in the hallway. Disgruntled that his beauty sleep had been interrupted, he makes his way to the door to investigate the noise.

As soon as the door opens he hears the wailing and his brotherly instincts kick into overdrive. Lance runs to Keith’s room, where the door is open and a sleep deprived but panicking Pidge is hovering over Keith’s cot, trying to calm him down.

“What do you want!? Toys? Food? COOPERATE WITH ME, KEITH!” Pidge yells, obviously in hysterics.

“What’s happening?” Lance asks, taking the toy from her hand that she was waving in Keith’s face and trying to push him back into the cot. Keith had been trying to get out of his cot but to no avail, resulting in wailing.

Pidge grunts, stepping away from the bed to flop onto the padded floor, tired as hell.

“I dunno, I woke up to him crying and when I came in he was trying to get out of bed,” she said, pinching the bridge of her nose in irritation.

When Lance picks Keith up from the cot the child is pacified to sniffling and Lance sighs.

“He was probably just lonely, maybe waking up in a dark room alone scared him,” Lance suggests, rocking Keith in his arms to calm him down. He’s successful in doing so and Keith snuggles up into his chest contently, snot and tears smearing on Lance’s pyjama top. When Lance looks towards Pidge he sees a sad look on her face.

Sending her a quizzical look, Pidge decides to explain herself.

“Well, you see, he cried when Shiro left the room yesterday, right?” Pidge says, Lance nodding at her while he petted Keith’s head.

“I was just thinking; if he reacted so strongly like that back then and just now,” Pidge continues, “-and he immediately calmed down when you came in, what if when Keith was a kid he had separation anxiety?”

Lance stares at her and ponders the thought. He’d heard of separation anxiety before, experienced it before with his puppy back home and one of his younger sisters, and thinks it’s a solid reason. Before Lance can share his thoughts, Pidge cuts him off with a sentence that chills him to the bone.

“What if… what if our Keith, the one that isn’t a baby, still has separation anxiety?” she says, her voice quiet and eyes downcast. Lance is saddened at the thought and turns his gaze to the small bundle in his arms. It would explain some things, he thinks and then sighs.

“Even if he does still have it, we can help him when he gets back to normal,” Lance says and motions for Pidge to leave the room so she can go back to sleep. She gladly complies, leaving the conversation at that and retreating into her room, door locking behind her.

Lance makes his way to his room, adjacent to Keith’s, and settles into bed with Keith still in his arms. He faces the wall, using his own body as a barrier so Keith doesn’t end up rolling off the bed. Lance falls asleep with the comforting feeling of someone to protect hovering over his senses.

//

In the morning, Lance wakes to something gently tapping his hands, something twiddling with his fingers. He grunts, cracking his eyes open to see what the thing was. He finds Keith, awake but sleep still slightly fogging his mind, playing with Lance’s hands.

“Good morning, Little Keef,” Lance greets, smirking when Keith jumps and lets go of his hands, retreating his own small hands to his chest.

“Good morn’” Keith mumbles out quietly. Lance hums and sits up, stretching his arms over his head before scooting to the edge of the bed to get dressed. Before he slips his shirt off her turns around to spot Keith staring at him with that unnerving gaze children have.

“Uh… a little privacy?” Lance asks and Keith bobs his head, putting his head down and palms over his eyes. Lance feels his cheeks tinge with a light pink at the child’s actions and quickly gets dressed. Speaking of clothes… Lance looks over at Keith, the boy still only wearing a tea towel they found in the kitchen, fastened around his waist with Hunk’s bandana. Lance hums in thought and decides they’d stop by Allura’s quarters before breakfast to see if she had any children’s clothes- seeing as the toys and baby chair belonged to Allura.

When he finally lets Keith open his eyes, the child blinks owlishly up at him and he smiles, heart fluttering before he snaps himself out of it, scolding himself. Idiot, that’s Keith, not your baby cousins.

“Come on, bud, let’s go visit Allura,” he says, picking the boy up only to have him squirm. Lance relents and lets him go, opting to hold his hand while they walked down the hall instead. Lance takes note that the boy could be independent when he wanted to be.

When they make it to Allura’s quarters, Lance knocks on the doorway before gaining approval from Allura to enter. Allura is seated at her vanity with her mice lounging in her jewellery box.

“Good morning, Lance and Keith,” Allura says happily, giving a small wave to Keith who waved back shyly.

“Good mornin’, Princess, I was just wondering if you had any clothes that could fit our little buddy?” Lance asks, lightly jostling the hand holding Keith’s to motion to him. Allura brings her fingers up to her chin in a thoughtful manner, scrutinizing Keith’s frame. This makes the boy uncomfortable and he shifts behind Lance’s leg, gripping his pant leg.

“I think I have something, that’ll fit him! I’ll dress him so you can go have some breakfast,” Allura says, getting up and striding over. She crouches down to Keith’s height and smiles at him. Lance nods, but before he leaves Keith in Allura’s care he remembers the conversation he had with Pidge that morning. He detaches Keith from his leg and squats in front of the boy.

“I’ll leave you with Allura and she’ll dress you up real quick, okay? You’ll see me soon so don’t worry,” Lance tells him, ruffling his already messy black hair. Keith replies with his own quiet “okay” and Lance smiles, getting up and striding out of the door.

//

Lance is finishing up his food while he chats with Pidge, herself already in her paladin armour ready to go out on the expedition with Shiro later, when the doors slide open revealing Allura holding Keith’s hand. Keith has the mice tucked close to his chest in his other arm.

When the four in the dining room see what Keith is wearing a variety of reactions fill the room. Shiro gawks, Hunk and Lance spit out their food, and Pidge stifles laughs.

Keith is wearing a cute, blue summer dress with matching flats. His hair had been combed neatly and a pink hairclip keeping his bangs from his eyes.

“Oh, my GOD,” Pidge squawks out, falling out of her chair when she can’t hold in her laughs anymore. Allura giggles and leads Keith into the wide area of the dining room, all the attention turning Keith shy that he hides behind Allura’s flowing dress.

“You didn’t have any, like, shorts?” Lance inquires, wiping food goo from his chin while he tried not to imagine what Keith in his natural age would look in a dress instead of his child body.

“Well, I did, but they didn’t fit him. Besides, he doesn’t mind wearing it.” Allura says, stopping at the head of the table. “I think he quite likes it.”

When the two are at the head of the table, Hunk seems to have recovered from shock and appeared to be gushing over Keith, while Pidge righted herself, phone in hand from most likely taking photos. At this angle, Keith can clearly see Shiro seated in his chair, paladin armour and all. Keith’s eyes perk up and he lets go of Allura, little legs carrying him over to Shiro.

“Daddy!” the boy squeaks out, surprising everyone at the table. Shiro the most.

“Uh, buddy…” Shiro starts, getting interrupted by said child, who was motioning for Shiro to open his palms. When he does, Keith places the mice one by one into Shiro’s hands as if he was showing them off. Shiro smiles softly, almost forgetting what the boy had called him moments ago.

“’Daddy’?” Lance wheezes out, laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach. “Space Dad confirmed.”

Shiro flushes, placing the mice on the table before picking up Keith, who happily situated himself in the man’s lap. He catches the team snickering at him and shoots a glare at Lance.

“I swear, if any of you start calling me father you’re all grounded from your hobbies,” this shuts them up immediately, gaining an amused chuckle from Allura. She hates to say it, but Shiro does act like a father figure to the other four paladins.

“But, Daaad—“

“Lance,”

“Sorry.”

Shiro sighed and rubbed his temples, deciding to finish his food before he feels Keith wiggling in his lap. Looking down he sees Keith giving him the biggest pair of puppy eyes he’s ever witnessed.

“Buddy, as much as I want to, you can’t eat this. From what Hunk told me, you hate it,” He says softly, watching Keith swish his head around to sulk. From the other side of the table, Hunk gives a victorious chuckle and slides a small bowl across the table, coming to a stop right in front of Keith. The boy blinks owlishly at the bowl and looks up at Shiro as if he was asking for permission.

Shiro shrugs and looks up at Hunk who nods and Shiro gives Keith his spoon instead of getting up to get a new one. He wasn’t up for eating much anyway.

Keith digs in with a surprising amount of finesse a toddler should not have.

//

Keith kicks up another fuss when Pidge and Shiro are about to board their lions to leave, clinging to Shiro’s leg in an attempt to make him stay. Shiro frowns sadly at the child and bends down to ruffle his hair. He wipes the tears on his cheeks and reassures him he’ll be back, that Keith just has to behave while he’s gone and that if he does, Shiro will come back sooner.

This seems to convinces Keith enough and he hesitantly lets him go. They’re in the castle control room to watch the Black and Green lions disappear into the distance, Lance carrying an upset Keith around because the child refuse to leave Lance’s side.

“Ugh, can somebody take this child from my body, please? My arms are about to fall off!” Lance complains, hiking Keith higher up on his body to stop him from slipping. Lance takes a look at Keith’s sulking face, sighing afterwards when Keith doesn’t seem to plan on releasing Lance anytime soon.

Lance really wishes Shiro would come back sooner.