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“Hold on, Shiro.” Keith waited until Shiro was gripping the bed railing with his left hand and then pushed it toward the window. Lance was still running through the flight checks, so Keith had time to make sure Shiro had the best view.
Keith stepped back. “How’s that?”
“Perfect, Keith,” Shiro said, smiling up at him. Keith ducked his head and locked the bed in place before tapping the feed.
“It looks like Lance will be ready for liftoff any minute now,” Keith said.
Shiro perked up. “That’s great!” He bit his lip and looked through the small Medbay window. “You could go watch in the cockpit with Lance if you wanted. You’ll have a better view.”
Keith shook his head. “I wanted to watch with you. I mean… unless you want me to go.”
It was Shiro’s turn to shake his head. “No, that would be great!” He turned bright pink and smiled sheepishly. “I mean, if you want.” Keith raised an eyebrow and Shiro chuckled, patting the blanket next to him. “You should probably sit down.”
“Why?” Keith asked.
“Just trust me,” Shiro said, so Keith gingerly perched on the bed next to him, trying to take up as little space as possible. “I won’t bite,” Shiro teased.
Keith scoffed. “I”m just not used to humans asking me to sit down.”
“Oh,” Shiro said, blinking at him.
Keith shrugged and checked the feed. “Oh, Lance is starting the flight sequence soon –”
The ship shook underneath them and he gripped the blanket. “We are go,” Lance said over the feed, and everything started to shake.
Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder. “It’s a weird feeling on your first flight,” he said. “Here, come look out the window.”
Keith leaned over just as the ship gave one more enormous shudder and lifted off the ground. Keith’s organic parts squirmed as he watched the ship rise higher and higher. He stared as the trees and ruins of Oriande shrank smaller and smaller beneath them, until they passed through the atmosphere. The view from the window flashed from blue to gray to black.
The sky exploded in a riot of stars, as far as the eye could see – and Keith’s vision was pretty good. Perks of being a SecUnit.
He looked over at Shiro, who smiled indulgently. “It’s really something, isn’t it?”
Keith nodded. “It really is.”
Lance tapped the feed to say he was ready to jump into the wormhole. And suddenly the ship lurched forward, rocketing into a mass of swirling color.
“That never gets old,” Shiro murmured and Keith looked over at him.
“Are you upset you’re not piloting?”
Shiro shrugged. “A little. I’m glad Lance has some piloting experience though. It would suck to have to wait around on Oriande to get picked up.”
Keith snorted and Shiro grinned. “It would have been fun to show you the asteroid field outside Altea though.”
Keith laughed. “I guess you’ll have to show me another time, Hotshot.”
Shiro’s cheeks turned pink again. “I think I can do that,” he said.
Eventually Shiro dozed off, leaving Keith to look out the window while an episode of Sanctuary Moon played in the background.
He woke Shiro up as they entered the atmosphere and he watched in awe as the ship flew over forests, and mountains, and even a bright, shining sea. “It’s beautiful!” he exclaimed, glancing over at Shiro.
“It is,” Shiro said, smiling softly at Keith.
***
Altea was officially Keith’s favorite planet. Hands down, no contest.
He connected to the feed as soon as they landed, and even his processors were overwhelmed by the barrage of media and news reports and some sort of tour guide bot that offered to show him the best that Altea has to offer .
When the ship finally landed, Keith helped Shiro walk down the gangway, with an arm slung around his waist. As they deboarded the ship, two humans were waiting for them on the landing pad. An augmented human with long hair and a scar on his cheek, and a human with blonde hair and blue marks on her cheeks. “Allura!” she called, running forward and clutching Allura’s hands. “Are you alright? We heard –”
“I’m alright, Romelle” Allura said with a tired smile. “But Shiro was hurt, we need to get him to the MedBay –”
The other human paused in the middle of hugging Pidge so tight xer feet dangled off the ground. “Shiro? What happened?”
Shiro waved. “I”m ok. You might need to mock up a new arm though.”
The other human’s eyes widened. “Holy shit…”
“Yes, quite,” Coran said. “We can give you all the details while we walk, yes?”
The humans nodded and they all walked inside. Shiro swayed on his feet, and Keith tightened his grip on Shiro’s waist. “Are you alright?”
Shiro nodded, but Keith didn’t like the way his jaw tightened with every step.
When they finally reached the MedBay, a huge red Medbot scooped Shiro up in its arms, carrying him to one of the open beds. Keith started to follow without thinking, but the doctor took one look at Keith and blocked his bath. “No constructs in the MedBay.”
Allura scoffed, pointing at the purple Medbot standing next to her. The doctor sniffed haughtily. “That bot is part of our MedSystem. I don’t know your construct.”
The doctor might be right to distrust Keith, since he was already convincing the MedSystem that he was the friendly new MedBot in charge of scheduling and patient intake. But that didn't mean he had to like it.
Allura was still trying to argue with the doctor by the time Keith was elbow deep in the system. He managed to switch the doctor's schedule to third shift for the rest of the month by the time Allura was hissing, “Just let us say goodbye.”
Finally the doctor relented. Keith brushed past her and strode over to the bed. The red MedBot gave a soothing chirp as it sent Shiro’s vitals to Keith’s feed.
“Shiro,” Keith murmured.
Shiro blinked sleepily up at him. “Keith,” he whispered.
Keith smiled at him. “Hey, it looks like they gave you some sedatives.”
Shiro stirred. “Will you come back in the morning?”
Keith nodded. “I’d stay all night if the doctor would let me.”
Shiro frowned, his lip jutting out in a pout. “You wanna see my baby tomorrow?”
Keith blinked. “I didn’t know you had one,” he said. He noticed one of the Medbots – the purple one – drifting closer to listen in, and he pinged it to fuck off.
Shiro nodded as he struggled to keep his eyes open. “You’d like her, she’s pretty.”
Keith patted Shiro’s shoulders, like the humans always seemed to do on Sanctuary Moon. “She sounds nice.” Shiro leaned into his touch, and Keith whispered, “Get some sleep, Shiro.”
Shiro hummed, his eyes finally closing, and Keith brushed his hair back from his forehead, even though no one had done that on the show.
He turned to leave, whispering to the red MedBot (his new favorite). “Take care of him for me, ok?”
The MedBot beeped at him and Keith nodded, going back to join Allura.
Once they left the MedBay, Allura sighed. “There’s not much we can do when we’re all so exhausted,” she said reluctantly. “Let’s meet in the morning to debrief. Pidge, can you do some scans on Shiro’s port to see if you can get any data?”
Pidge nodded and Allura bit back a yawn. “Alright, let’s go to bed.” She looked over at Keith. “Come with me, Keith, I’ll show you to your room.”
Keith had been expecting a cubicle, like the one in the SecHub, but Allura led him to his own room – a whole room! She showed him where all the charging ports were and then ducked out, eager to go to bed herself.
Once he was alone, Keith spun around, arms outstretched. He had never had so much space to himself before. He could watch all the media he wanted!
But he didn't watch media right away. He might not be on an official contract, but old habits die hard. He hacked all the security cameras and set alerts on the news feed, so he would know if Lotor or Galra Tech were mentioned. You know. Just in case.
He tried to settle onto the bed to watch some Sanctuary Moon, but he couldn’t resist the urge to patrol the halls, to make sure the humans were alright. He tapped into MedSystem to check Shiro’s vitals as he walked. He didn't want to watch Shiro on the feed, that felt too… Personal. But checking his vitals made him less anxious somehow. No matter where he was, he would know that Shiro was ok.
After he had patrolled the halls a bit, he ran out of things to do, so eventually he drifted back to his own room and collapsed onto the bed.
Halfway through the first episode of Sanctuary Moon, a bright light spilled across the bed, and he looked up to see the moon peeking through the blinds as it rose.
***
In the morning, Keith snuck into the MedBay with the help of the red MedBot. Shiro’s vitals looked good, and based on his heart rate, he was awake. And sure enough, Shiro was sitting up in bed, and he grinned when he saw Keith. “Hey.”
Keith smiled. “Hi, Shiro. How’re you?”
Shiro shrugged. “Ready to get out of here.” He smiled again, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’ve spent enough time in hospitals for a lifetime.”
Keith nodded. Humans took much longer to heal than SecUnits, and they didn’t have access to all the media in his files, either. Sitting in bed waiting to heal sounded like torture. “Plus you probably miss your baby.”
“My what?” Shiro asked, blinking.
“Your baby. You said I’d like her because she was pretty.”
Shiro stared, completely confused, and then he threw his head back and laughed . Keith tilted his head, and Shiro shook his head, still laughing. “Oh man, you had me going there for a second...”
The red MedBot beeped behind him, and the doctor came running. “Mr. Shirogane, are you alright – oh.” She said, wrinkling her nose. “I thought I said you weren’t allowed here.”
“He came to see me,” Shiro said, eyebrow raised. “I don’t see any mayhem in his wake.”
She pursed her lips. Keth made his best “don’t piss off the stupid client face,” and she finally sighed. “Fine. But you’re responsible for him, Mr. Shirogane.”
“Fine,” Shiro said, and the doctor flounced off.
Shiro rolled his eyes and smirked up at Keith. “Here’s hoping I can get out of here soon!”
Keith raised an eyebrow and checked the doctor’s notes. “You’re in luck – it looks like I’ll be able to spring you out of here in a day or two.”
Shiro collapsed back on the pillows. “It can’t come fast enough,” he groaned, and Keith laughed.
***
Sure enough, Shiro was released from the MedBay the next morning, and Allura invited everyone – and Pidge’s brother Matt – to a celebratory breakfast in her suite. Shiro let out a moan of longing when he saw the berries and fresh fruit spread out on the counter. Allura laughed.
“I thought you might enjoy some real fruit,” she said. “Unfortunately Hunk and Pidge devoured all the mango already, but there’s lots of other fruit.”
Shiro grabbed a plate and gleefully filled it with fruit and one of the round buns that Keith had only seen in media. Shiro sat down at the table across from Matt and took a big bite, closing his eyes. “Glad to get back to human food?” Matt asked with a smirk and Shiro nodded, too busy picking up a strawberry and popping it into his mouth to talk.
The others slowly trickled in, devouring the breakfast spread, and when all the plates were empty, Allura sat up straighter and knit her fingers together. “So, now that we’ve made up for all the food goo we’ve been eating, I thought we could all talk about Lotor.”
The others traded nervous looks. “I haven’t picked up any chatter about him,” Pidge said. “I’ve been trying to recover some of Rover’s lost data, but I haven’t had much luck so far.”
“Ah,” Allura said, her cheeks turning pink. “The lost data will be less of a problem than I expected.” The others stared at her, and she continued, “Before we left Oriande, Keith gave me all the data we’ll need to take down Lotor and Galra Tech.”
“Oh,” Shiro whispered, and Keith bit his lip, remembering the memories he’d sent to Shiro during their fight beneath the city.
Luckily (or maybe unluckily) Lance piped up, “Wait, how did Keith have the data?”
“Yeah,” Hunk said. “He’s not part of our research. How did he collect any of our work?”
Seven pairs of eyes turned toward Keith, and he shrank back in his chair, staring at the empty plate in front of him. He felt Shiro’s hand rest on his shoulder, and he chanced a glance up. Shiro’s eyes softened, and Keith felt some of the tension leak away.
He looked back at the others, and then started fidgeting with his abandoned fork. “It’s because of the contract,” he murmured. “I recorded all of your conversations for the company.”
There was a moment of silence, and then a lot of shouting. “You were a spy the whole time?” Lance shouted, outraged.
“So the company has copies of all our proprietary data?” Pidge exclaimed, equally horrified.
Keith held his hands out, and Shiro said, “Enough,” and the others all quieted down instantly.
“I didn’t want to,” he said. “The company does it to everyone – that’s how they make most of their money.”
Coran nodded, trading glances with Allura. “So, corporate espionage.”
Keith nodded, and Lance squinted at him. “So do they have files on us all right now? Are they going to post embarrassing videos?”
Keith smirked. “I’m pretty sure the recordings of you singing in the shower are safe, Lance.” Lance stuck his tongue out, but he looked moderately relieved. “And they don’t have anything now – they can’t harvest my data until I’m turned back in to the company.”
The others looked at each other nervously. “They would really get everything?” Hunk whispered, looking queasy.
“Yeah, but usually most of it’s not very interesting.” Keith said with a shrug. “Just a lot of arguing about the mission, sex, arguing about the sex, complaining about the equipment, complaining about the company… and a few corporate secrets."
Pidge raised an eyebrow. "There's really that much sex on exploratory missions?"
"You have no idea," Keith said, his voice pained.
"Anyway," Allura said delicately. "Thanks to Keith, we have something to go on." She glanced at Coran. "We've been working on collecting some physical evidence as well."
"Physical evidence?" Shiro asked, his brow furrowed.
"Yes," she said, brushing her hair behind her ear. "I don't know what we'll find, if we even find anything, but I'll let you know as soon as I do."
Keith's eyes narrowed, but then Lance leaned forward. "So if you were really recording everything… you have tapes of Pidge snoring."
"Not this again!" Pidge groaned and Lance threw his hands up.
"I'm just saying, I heard what I heard, and now we have proof !" He turned to Keith. "Ok, Keith, show us the goods."
Keith glared. "I'm not a movie projector, Lance."
Pidge cackled and Lance scowled at xer. "Fine, Pidge can download all of Keith's data and –"
"No," Keith snapped, his hand clenching on the edge of the table hard enough to scratch the metal. Lance stared at him, wide-eyed, and the others went quiet.
"Sorry, I – I just –" Keith shook his head. "Just – no downloads," he mumbled, shrinking back in the chair.
Shiro rested a hand on his shoulder, and Keith wished he could hide behind his helmet.
"Well, I think Keith's already given us everything important," Allura said gently. "So I'll let you know if we find anything interesting."
The others nodded, slowly pulling their chairs away from the table, but Keith bolted from the room before anyone could stop him.
***
Keith was sitting on his bed, flipping through his media files but unable to pick anything, when there was a knock on his door.
He thought about pretending he was powered down, but then Shiro murmured, "Hey Keith, can I come in?"
Keith sighed and flopped back on the bed, but he sent the code to open the door all the same.
Shiro stepped inside and said, "Wow, you have a really great view."
Keith nodded. “I could see the moon last night.”
Shiro sat down next to him, tilting his head to look up at the clear blue sky with its lilac clouds. “Just wait for the equinox, when both moons are in this hemisphere at the same time.”
“Like the moons on Oriande,” Keith said, and Shiro nodded.
“Yeah! But the moons’ orbits only align three times a year, so everyone goes moon gazing.”
“That sounds fun,” Keith said, a little hesitant.
Shiro hummed, bumping his shoulder against Keith’s. "Hey, sorry about Lance, he doesn't think sometimes."
"I know that ," Keith scoffed, and Shiro chuckled. Keith sat up, making room so Shiro could sit on the bed too. "I just hate it…" he mumbled. "When people remember what I am."
Shiro hummed. "Did I ever tell you why I hate Galra Tech?"
Keith shook his head, and Shiro sighed. "My body stopped responding to treatment, so when Galra Tech offered an experimental trial, I signed up in a heart beat. But it turned out that Haggar didn’t want patients, she wanted lab rats."
He glanced down at the place where his metal arm should be. "They cured my illness, but in the process they tried to make me their puppet."
Keith leaned closer, and Shiro relaxed against him, letting out a breath. "I know what it's like to want to keep some part of you that's yours," he whispered.
Keith nodded, staring at the crack between the floor tiles. He couldn't look at Shiro, couldn't bear to see his face. After a moment he felt warm fingers tracing up his arm, across his shoulder, pressing gently into the nape of his neck as they tangled in Keith's hair.
"It's ok, Keith," Shiro said, so softly that Keith thought he might have a performance failure if he kept talking like that. But Shiro's thumb brushed over his skin and Keith shuddered. He'd never been touched, not like this, not ever.
Shiro stayed very still, just swiping his thumb over Keith’s skin, and Keith gradually let his eyes flutter shut. If he was human he would’ve dozed off completely, but eventually he blinked and sat up. He was afraid to know how long he had been drifting – he wouldn’t be checking the feed for that later – but Shiro just smiled at him.
“I have an idea,” he said, and Keith’s eyebrows shot up.
“Are you finally going to introduce me to your baby?”
Shiro huffed. “You’re not supposed to guess .” Keith smirked and Shiro stood up, grabbing his hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
Keith had no idea what to expect – he’d only seen babies in media shows before – but when Shiro keyed into a door that opened up to a hangar he frowned, confused.
Shiro laughed. “She’s uh, she’s not a human baby.” He waved his hand toward a cherry red vintage hoverbike.
Keith’s eyes widened, and he ran up. “Wow, I’ve only seen this in old media – where did you get it?”
“She was my Jiji’s – she was a little worn down by the time I got her, but I’ve been putting her back together.”
Keith ran his hands along her sides, marveling. “Does she run?” he asked, turning toward Shiro.
Shiro threw Keith a set of keys. “Let’s find out.”
Keith grinned, jumping up into the seat and putting the key in the ignition, just to hear the engine turn over. It did its best to start, but it puttered weakly and then died out. “I bet I know what it is, this happened all the time on Jarre…”
He hopped down to check the compressor, when an unfamiliar voice suddenly rang out. “Hey, Shirogane, I didn’t know you’d be back so soon!”
Keith peeked over the hood of the bike and saw a tall, thin augmented human reaching out to clap Shiro’s shoulder. The other human saw Keith and gave Shiro a look. “Who’s your friend?”
“Keith,” Shiro said, shooting a look Keith’s way. “Keith, this is James.”
Keith waved, and James' eyes widened even more when he saw the gun ports in Keith’s wrist. “You’re letting a bot touch your bike?” he asked.
Shiro frowned. “Yeah, why not?”
“You’ve seen the reports,” James hissed and Keith rolled his eyes, popping open the engine and tinkering with the air filter. If James knew so much, he should know that Keith’s sensors were stronger than a human’s ears.
“Don’t be stupid, James,” Shiro said. He tapped the port on the back of his neck. “There are humans who would say the same thing about you and me.”
James scoffed. “Sure, but what does a random bot know about bikes?”
Keith snapped the hood shut and walked around to test the ignition. The purr of the engine was almost as satisfying as the outraged look on James’ face. “Apparently enough,” Shiro said, his voice full of laughter. “You wanna take her for a spin?” he asked Keith.
Keith grinned, settling into the pilot’s seat and shivering when Shiro pressed close to him, wrapping his left arm around Keith’s waist. “Hold on tight,” Keith said, giving James another wave and pulling out of the hangar, with Shiro’s whoop echoing in his ears.
They flew through the city, past buildings as tall and shiny as the futuristic media shows, through tiny alleys and roads full of food stalls, the different scents so overwhelming for Keith, who was used to the humans eating various dehydrated meal packs and fruit leather.
Every now and then Shiro would whisper directions in his ear, or point out his favorite noodle shop, laughing whenever Keith did anything show offy. By the time they turned back, Keith’s cheeks were aching with how hard he was smiling.
***
When they finally drove back into the hangar Keith jumped off the bike and turned, holding his arms out for Shiro. Shiro smiled, his cheeks turning faintly pink as Keith helped him down. “Thanks,” Shiro said once he was standing on his own feet again. He reached up to run his fingers through his hair. “For helping with the bike too.”
Keith nodded, running his hand along the side of the bike. “No problem. I haven’t been able to do any repairs like that since Jarre.” He smirked up at Shiro. “Their mining equipment was even older than this, and not half as pretty.”
Shiro laughed, reaching out to pat the hood fondly. “That’s what I like to hear.”
Keith bit his lip. “My… my friend Tex. He would’ve liked her. He’s the one who taught me how to work on the mining equipment and how to ride the hoppers.”
Shiro smiled softly. “He sounds nice.”
Keith nodded. “He’s the one who started calling me Keith, actually. He said K31H was too hard to say.” He shrugged. “His actual name was Heath Kogane, so he said our names rhymed.”
“Would you want to look him up?” Shiro asked. “See how he’s doing?”
Keith shook his head. “I’ve tried looking him up, but he isn’t on the website for the company that hired me, and I – I was too afraid to check the incident file. I didn’t want to find his name”
Shiro nodded, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. Keith gave him a weak smile. “But at least he taught me how to replace a compressor, so if you ever want to get a new one, you know who to ask.”
Shiro laughed. “It sounds like I need to order a new compressor.”
Keith shrugged, biting back a smirk as Shiro turned off the lights.
***
Keith spent the next few days with Shiro, helping Matt and Pidge work on Shiro’s new prosthetic, and then running down to the hangar to ride around the city with Shiro. He still checked the feed for mentions of Lotor or Galra Tech, but it was oddly silent. It sent a little prickle down his side, but then Shiro would toss him the keys and Keith would smile and head for the hangar.
But then one morning, Allura pinged them about another meeting. It was the first time Keith had been in the same room as everyone else since Lance had asked about downloading Keith. Lance gave him a weak wave, which he returned, but he was staring at the ground and trying to resist the urge to pull up Sanctuary Moon when Allura said, “Thank you for coming so quickly. I have some news that may be... upsetting, so I wanted to tell you all at once.”
“What is it?” Hunk asked.
Allura looked at Shiro for the briefest second, and then she folded her hands delicately in her lap. “We’ve recovered some Galra Tech equipment from Oriande,” she said softly. “Including some of the clones.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Keith looked over at Shiro, who was fiddling with his pen, his jaw tight and his eyes dark and Keith thought He knew. She must have already told him .
Lance was sputtering, and Pidge said, “What does that mean? Are they viable?”
Allura took a deep breath. “They are viable –”
“Are they safe?” Hunk asked. “How do we know they won’t attack us, like –”
There was an awful pause, and then Shiro said, “Like I did.”
“I didn’t mean that –” Hunk said, looking miserable.
“We know, Hunk,” Allura said quietly, shooting a sympathetic glance Shiro’s way.
“It’s not your fault an evil scientist hacked your brain!” Lance said, immediately followed by a quick elbow to the ribs from Pidge.
Shiro nodded, but his jaw was tight, and his heart rate was still rising, and before Keith could think about it he heard his own voice blurting out, “Why don’t you just hack the governor module?”
There was another silence, and then Pidge laughed. “But that would be impossible. The governor module is wired into the central nervous system, if we try to hack it the entire system would shut down.”
“Well how do all the rogue SecUnits on TV do it, then?” Lance asked.
“Those are fictional,” Coran said softly, but Hunk shook his head.
“I don’t see why we couldn’t override it, if we just sent a command –”
“It would fry the whole nervous system,” Pidge insisted. “Trust me. There’s a reason you only see rogue bots on TV.”
Keith pinged the group feed. What about this? He added his code, chewing on his lip while he gave them time to read it. Humans were so unbearably slow at reading code, it was almost mind blowing.
Suddenly Pidge laughed again. “That’s brilliant,” xe said.
“So wait,” Hunk said, “You hacked your own governor module?”
Keith nodded, and Lance squeaked. “So you’re a rogue SecUnit? Just like on Arusian Nights!”
Keith rolled his eyes. “That show is so dumb. As if my eyes would magically glow red when I’m about to go on a murder spree.” He looked up at Lance’s scrunched up face. “What?”
“So… have you gone on a murder spree?” Hunk asked.
Keith folded his arms. “And get sent back to the company to be stripped for parts? No thank you.”
“So you were pretending to be a regular SecUnit this whole time?” Pidge asked. “How did the SecHub not notice that you weren’t complying?”
“Easy. You just hack the SecHub. Then whenever you get a new file update, you delete it.” Hunk still looked faintly queasy, and Keith said, “I never wanted to hurt anyone, I just –”
“Didn’t want to be controlled,” Shiro murmured, and Keith looked back down at the table, with a nod.
“Well, it was clear on Oriande that you were an excellent SecUnit,” Allura said, kindly. “You were the reason we all escaped, and you gave us a fighting chance against Lotor and Galra Tech’s schemes.”
Lance and Hunk seemed to relax at that, and Shiro murmured, “And you saved me. Even when it would’ve been easier to leave me behind.”
Keith’s performance capability dropped a percentage point. “Well, my risk assessment module has always been a little buggy.”
Shiro stared at him for a second, and Keith cringed. Why had he said that , of all things? But then Shiro tipped his head back and laughed and laughed. “Shit, I knew that the first time I saw you ride that hoverbike.”
Keith laughed, incredulous, and Shiro grinned at him.
“Adrenaline junkies are so weird,” Hunk muttered, and Allura bit back a smirk.
“So, what’s the plan?” Lance asked. “We wake up the clones and hack their governor modules? And then what?”
“I think we should start with one,” Pidge said. “And then we can see what happens.”
“So it sounds like we’re winging it!” Coran said brightly, clapping a hand on Hunk’s shoulder.
“What could go wrong?” Shiro asked, eyebrow raised.
“Are you asking me or my risk assessment module?” Keith asked, and the others all laughed. Even Hunk.
***
It was eerie seeing the three clones asleep in their pods, all lined up. Pidge walked down the row, checking all their vitals, and finally pointed at the pod on the far left. “Let’s do this one.”
Keith traded a look with Allura, who nodded. “Very well, Pidge.”
Keith fidgeted while Pidge and Matt tinkered with the pod, trying not to wake the clone up too quickly. He wished Shiro was there, but Allura and Coran and Pidge had decided that it would probably be too much for the clone to see Shiro first thing on waking. But they insisted that it was important for Keith to be there when they explained things to the clone – although he didn’t know what they expected him to offer except mutual existential angst.
Pidge and Matt finally drained the pod and opened the port. There was a moment of heart wrenching silence where they watched the clone’s chest rise and fall. One heartbeat. Two. Then his eyelashes fluttered and he squinted in the bright lights of Pidge’s lab.
Allura stepped forward, smiling gently. “Hello, I’m Allura Alforsson of Altea. How’re you feeling?”
The clone blinked at her, and he looked so much like Shiro had when he’d woken up in the hospital. But then his gaze landed on Pidge and he smiled. “Pidge! You got a haircut!”
Pidge froze, sending a panicked look at Matt. “Matt? Pidge?” the clone called, his smile dimming a little. “It’s me, Shiro.”
Pidge stepped forward. “Hi,” xe said softly. “How’re you?”
Allura turned to Keith in a wave of silver hair. “What’s happening?” she asked in a sharp whisper.
“I don’t know!” Keith said. “They didn’t pass on memories from our principal to us back at the company.”
Allura frowned. “So was this a mistake? Or was it deliberate?”
Keith nodded. “It must be a mistake, I don’t know why they would do it on purpose.”
They turned and looked up at the others. The clone was frowning, and he was looking back and forth between Pidge and Allura. “What’s wrong?” He swallowed, looking down at his prosthetic. “Is the disease spreading again?”
“No!” Pidge said, reaching out to reassure him. “It’s just – I don’t know how to explain this.”
“Pidge, just tell me,” the clone pleaded, and Pidge shot a desperate look at Allura.
“Maybe we should bring him in,” Allura said.
“Are you sure?” Keith murmured, but Allura was already sweeping out of the room.
“Keith –” Pidge whispered, and Keith stepped forward.
The clone looked at him, faintly panicked. “What’s happening?”
“You’re ok,” Keith said, hating that he couldn’t think of anything to say. He hadn’t exactly had a welcoming committee when he woke up. “Everything’s going to be ok.”
The clone nodded, but his breathing was still shallow. Keith reached out, touching his metal arm gently. “I’m Keith,” he offered.
The clone smiled, heartbreakingly earnest. “Hi Keith, I’m Shiro.”
Keith smiled, ignoring the ping of his performance capability dropping. “Nice to meet you.”
The door slid open, and Allura walked in, with Shiro behind her. The clone gaped at Shiro. “What the –”
“Hi,” Shiro said. “It’s ok, we can explain –”
The clone laughed, edging on hysterical. “That’s it. I’ve finally lost it.” He looked over at Pidge. “I’m having a mental breakdown, right?”
“No,” xe said softly, and the clone blinked.
“I don’t understand,” he whispered. Shiro reached out to him, but the clone flinched away. Shiro stepped back, and he looked so wounded.
Keith stepped in between them. “It’s ok,” he said, his voice low. “We found you on a planet called Oriande, and we brought you here.”
The clone shook his head. “Why was I on Oriande? And who is he?” he asked, pointing at Shiro.
Keith took a slow breath. “You were cloned by Galra Tech. You’re like me.”
The clone looked at him. “Like you?”
Keith nodded, brushing his hair away from the nape of his neck to show his port. The clone stared. “So I’m not real?”
“If you’re not real, I’m not either,” Keith said firmly. He held his hand out. “I feel real, don’t I?”
The clone slowly reached out and took his hand. He nodded, biting his lip. Keith smiled, hoping it was reassuring. “It’s going to be ok,” he said.
The clone stepped down out of the pod and wavered on his feet. “Keith,” he whispered, and Keith reached out to catch him just before he fell.
Keith looked up at the others. “What do we do now?”
***
Keith carried the clone to a bed and set him down gently, tucking the blanket in around him for something to do. He looked over his shoulder and Allura gave him a worried smile. “Come on, Keith, we're going to have an emergency meeting.”
Keith nodded, following her down the hallway, back to Pidge’s lab.
As soon as Allura walked in, the others went suddenly silent. “What the fuck?” Lance asked, and for once Keith totally agreed with him.
“I know –” Allura started to say, but Pidge interrupted.
“I didn’t think he would have memories!” xe said. “The ethical implications are so bad, how do we even handle this?”
“And how did they even get Shiro’s memories?” Hunk asked. “Why is no one freaking out about that?”
Everyone turned and looked at Shiro. “I… I don’t know how they would’ve gotten them. I don’t remember most of my time at Galra Tech.” He sighed, his shoulders hunching slightly. “You’d have to ask Haggar.”
“Oh, I plan to,” Allura said, eerily calm. “I think the coalition will be very interested to see what Haggar and her minions have been up to.”
The others came up with their own theories, but Keith wasn’t listening. He was focused more on Shiro, who was playing with a pen, not talking to anyone else. Keith leaned his shoulder against Shiro’s, letting Shiro go weightless against him. Keith only started paying attention when Lance asked what they were going to do about the clone.
“Maybe ask him?” Keith said, his voice sharp.
“Do rogue bots usually tell the humans their evil plans?” Lance asked. “I’m not totally sold on you yet!”
“The clone thinks he’s Shiro!” Keith snapped. “And Shiro would never do that!”
“This does make things more complicated,” Allura said, trying to head off the argument. “But I’ll contact our Coalition representative and let them know what’s been happening.”
The others filed out of the room, and Shiro caught Keith’s wrist. “Could you…” Shiro whispered. “Come to my room?” Keith nodded, letting Shiro lead him down the winding halls to Shiro’s room.
Shiro collapsed into the bed, holding his hand out for Keith to join him. Keith climbed into bed, wincing when his weight made the mattress sag. He wasn’t sure what Shiro wanted, but Shiro just rested his head on Keith’s chest. He was quiet for so long that Keith thought he had fallen asleep, until Shiro murmured, “I thought I’d escaped Haggar’s clutches for good. But it turns out she’s going to drag me back one way or another.”
“No,” Keith whispered fiercely. “She’s not going to ever touch you again. You or the constructs.” Shiro let out a shuddering breath, and Keith wrapped an arm around Shiro’s shoulders. “I won’t let her.”
Shiro nodded and Keith hesitantly reached up and ran his fingers through Shiro’s hair. Shiro’s shoulders tightened, but before Keith could apologize Shiro melted into his side. “You’re going to put me to sleep,” he murmured, his eyelids already starting to droop.
“That’s ok,” Keith said. “I have some media I can watch.”
Shiro laughed. “Is that what you’re doing when you pretend to go into sleep mode?” Keith huffed, and Shiro nuzzled into his chest in apology. Keith’s fingers started running through his hair again and Shiro hummed. “What’s your favorite?” Shiro asked.
“Sanctuary Moon,” Keith admitted, and Shiro smiled.
“That’s a good one…” he said, and then he yawned, and Keith chuckled.
“Go to sleep, Shiro.”
“Mmmk,” Shiro mumbled. Keith had no idea how he was a comfortable pillow (his nonorganic parts weren’t exactly soft), but in a few minutes Shiro’s breathing slowed, and he snored faintly. Keith smiled to himself, letting Shiro’s heartbeat lull him into sleep mode.
***
Keith came out of sleep mode to dozens and dozens of alerts. Shiro stirred gently next to him as Keith read through them.
Partnership between Voltron Alliance and Sincline crumbles after a failed exploratory mission to Oriande.
Sincline accuses Voltron Alliance of stealing proprietary information.
Lotor of Sincline demands Voltron Alliance return the technology they removed from Oriande without authorization .
Garrison Co. announces new terraforming project with Sincline.
Keith was already seething when another headline made his organic parts queasy. Garrison Co. mounting an inquiry into the use of their proprietary equipment.
“Shiro,” he whispered, running his hand up and down Shiro’s arm gently.
Shiro sighed, blinking up at Keith, until he saw the panicked look on Keith’s face. “What’s wrong?” he asked, sitting up.
Keith shook his head. “The company, they’re going to take me back.”
Shiro caught his arm. “What?” Keith sent him all the alerts, and Shiro’s frown grew deeper as he read. “Come on,” he said, climbing out of bed and grabbing a shirt. “We’re going to talk to Allura.”
Keith sat on the bed, frozen. “We’re what?”
Shro’s face softened. He took Keith’s hand gently. “Come on. We’re going to tell Lotor and Garrison Co. to go fuck themselves.”
Keith followed Shiro, trying to ignore the constant pings of more and more alerts coming in. Shiro pinged the feed. Allura, what’s going on?
Come to Pidge’s lab, she said. Bring Keith. We’re discussing options now.
Options. Keith’s nonorganic parts were fighting with his organic parts, and he followed Shiro, his head starting to ache.
When they walked in, they saw the clone standing in one of the paper hospital gowns that humans wore in medical shows, while Pidge checked his vital read-outs. “Hi,” he said brightly with a wave, and Keith waved back tentatively. Allura swept forward, smiling calmly.
“So you’ve heard the news?” she asked.
“Yes,” Shiro said. “Allura, you can’t let them do this, you can’t let them take Keith or the clones back, it’s not fair –”
“I know,” she said, putting a hand on Shiro’s arm. “They’re not going to get their hands on either Keith or Kuro, I promise you.”
Shiro turned and stared at the clone. “Kuro?” He asked with a laugh. “That’s a terrible pun.”
The clone – Kuro – laughed. “I thought Jiji would be proud,” he said.
“He would,” Shiro said softly, and Kuro beamed at him.
“Ok,” Pidge said. “You can go put on your clothes now.”
“Great!” Kuro said, dropping the paper gown and taking the clothes Pidge held out to him, totally unperturbed.
Shiro buried his head in his hands and Allura turned bright pink. Behind them, the door slid open and Hunk and Lance walked in. “What is happening?” Lance screeched, clapping a hand to his eyes. “Why is he NAKED?”
“I’m working on it,” Kuro said cheerfully, taking the pants from Pidge, who was laughing so hard xe almost dropped them.
Keith tilted his head. “She went to a lot of trouble to make him anatomically correct."
"Not helping, Keith," Shiro mumbled into his hands.
"No, she went to a lot of trouble to make him look human," Keith said. The others turned and stared at him – even Kuro, who only had his pants half on.
“That is odd…” Allura murmured. “Why would they do that?”
“Ummm, can we talk about how Sincline already knows that we have the clones?” Hunk asked, his hair sticking up in every direction. “Because personally I’m more worried about that!”
“Already on it,” Pidge said, waving at the parts of Kuro’s metal arm that were scattered across her table. “They got an alert when we woke up Kuro – but I’ve disabled the tracker and I’m going over his arm with a fine toothed comb to make sure there’s no way they can take control.”
“So, that’s great, but why aren’t we talking about how we’re going to be arrested?” Lance asked, but Allura laughed.
“Oh no, we’ll be fine. Sincline broke about 15 Coalition laws, and I’ll make sure the Coalition is well aware of that.”
“But why would they do that?” Shiro asked. “Why would they bring attention to themselves like this?”
Allura frowned. “I don’t know. I would think that Lotor would be smarter than this, but I would have never expected him to betray us in the first place, so…”
“Uh, guys?” Pidge said. “There’s something weird here.” The others crowded around, and she held up one of the panels from Kuro’s arm. “I was expecting to see the Galra Tech logo, like Shiro’s arm, but this… this is bad.” Keith squinted, and saw a small stamp.
“What company is that for?” he asked. “I don’t recognize it.” He looked up at Allura, who looked shell shocked.
“It’s the Druids symbol,” she whispered. She looked over at Coran. “This is bad.”
“What does that mean?” Shiro asked. “Why would the Druids have constructs with my DNA?”
Coran blanched. “They’ve formed a corporation, but they’re more like a cult. They’ve been hunting for alien remnants for decades, under the guise of ‘research.’” He glanced over at Allura. “It sounds like Haggar has joined the Druids and dragged Lotor along with her.”
“But what does Shiro have to do with alien remnants?” Allura asked. “He’s never been exposed.”
But Coran shook his head. “The Druids are obsessed with the legend of Voltron. They think if they can find the lions, they can rule the universe.”
“Wait,” Keith said. “The sentient robot lions from that old cartoon?” He looked around at them. “I thought Voltron Alliance was like, a nostalgic thing.”
Allura frowned. “My father always used to love those stories. His first ship designs were named after each of the lions.” She looked over at Coran. “But he never went looking for them, did he?”
Coran shrugged. “Your father could be a very secretive man. If he knew the location of any alien remnants… he never told me.”
“Wait,” Shiro said. “There were five lions right?” Allura nodded and Shiro swore. “What if she wanted pilots?”
Coran clapped his hands. “Yes! The pilots were supposed to have a psychic bond, both with the lions and each other.” He looked over at Kuro. “I suppose she thought that’d be easier if the pilots shared the same DNA.”
“Creepy!” Kuro said brightly, and the others all stared at him. He shrugged. “I’m still coping with the fact that my head is full of memories that aren’t mine, so what could be worse than that?”
“Glad she didn’t miss the dark sense of humor,” Shiro said, with a grim smile. “She sure was thorough.”
“You know… she might be onto something,” Allura said, tapping her fingers on the table.
“Oh no, Allura’s going to become a supervillain,” Lance said, and Allura scoffed.
“No. I was just thinking of our Atlas program…” She shook her head. “But we can talk about that later, for now we need to take care of Lotor.”
“Well, we have all of the footage Keith took, right?” Lance said. “My sister’s a journalist, she could probably help us get the story out.”
“Now there’s an idea,” Allura said, and Lance positively glowed at the praise. “Could you give her a call and see if she’s free?”
“To take down Lotor and Galra Tech? She’ll be free,” Lance said, already typing away on his PADD.
***
Keith had been slightly worried about meeting Lance’s sister, but she was much more no-nonsense than her brother. She took turns speaking to each member of the exploratory team individually, and with much less squawking than Lance would. When Keith walked in, trying to ignore the butterflies in his organic parts, she smiled and pointed at the chair on the other side of the table. “Please sit down, Keith. This shouldn’t take long.”
She must have meant by human standards , Keith thought as he answered question after question – not just what had happened on Oriande, but how the team had gotten along, what he thought of each person, what he thought about the Sincline team. She was very interested in his conversation with ACZ4, and asked a lot of questions about the combat bot and her relationship to Lotor.
She asked Keith to describe the cavern where Lotor had attacked them, where they had found the clones. Keith had never talked so much before, and his voice was so rough he almost wished for a glass of water, like on the crime procedural shows.
Veronica nodded to herself, typing a quick note on her PADD. “So you’ve hacked your governor module, correct?”
Keith bit his lip, and nodded.
“Can I ask why?” she asked softly.
Keith felt his performance capability drop to 93%. “On Jarre –” he finally said. “There was a rock slide. My friend was caught in it, and when I tried to help him, the boss said to save the equipment instead.”
Veronica nodded. “So what did you do?”
Keith stared down at the table. “I ignored him. I managed to save the human before the governor module sent me into shut down mode.”
“And then what happened?” she asked softly.
“I woke up in the company warehouse, waiting for a memory wipe,” he said. “It was scheduled for the next varga and I just – I didn’t want to forget.”
“So you were punished for helping a human on your team,” Veronica said. “That doesn’t sound like a rogue SecUnit on a mission to kill all humans.”
“Did Lance tell you to say that?” Keith asked, and she laughed.
“Lance watches too much media,” she said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “But I was wondering – you said you sent memories to Shiro when his mind was controlled by Lotor’s programming.”
Keith nodded, not sure what she was getting at. “Just memories – we had gone on a ride to test the hover bikes, so I thought that might… help.”
“It sounds like you really care about him,” she said, and Keith felt his shoulders curl in. “It’s alright,” Veronica said, and Keith ducked his head, wishing he still had his helmet to hide behind.
“I wasn’t going to let Lotor hurt any of my humans,” Keith said. “But I – I couldn’t let them control Shiro.”
Veronica nodded sympathetically. "I understand, Keith." She skimmed through her notes. "I think I have everything I need from you, but if I have any other questions I'll send them to your feed."
Keith was so relieved that he would have slumped in his chair if he was a human on Sanctuary Moon. "Thanks, Veronica," he said.
"Of course," she said with a smile. "Can you send in Hunk next?"
"Yes," Keith said, gladly taking the opportunity to retreat. Just before he opened the door, he turned back. "Do you think the company will make Allura send me back?"
Veronica looked up at him and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Keith, I have a feeling Garrison Co. has a lot more to be worried about than you do."
Keith nodded, hoping she was right.
After he sent Hunk in, he fled to his room, and was in the middle of a mini Sanctuary Moon marathon when he heard a knock on the door. He checked the feed and saw Shiro standing outside, so he tapped the door’s controls to let him in.
“Oh,” Shiro said, his hand still raised to knock. “Hey, Keith.”
“Hi,” Keith said, forcing his hands not to fidget. “Is everything ok?”
“Yeah,” Shiro said, stepping into the room and sitting down next to Keith. “Just exhausted from all those questions.”
“Tell me about it,” Keith said with a grimace, and Shiro laughed.
“It’s been a while since I got the third degree like that,” he said, leaning back casually.
“Yeah. Usually they just poke around in my memories to get what they want, which doesn’t take as long,” Keith said.
Shiro hummed, looking over at Keith, and if Keith could blush, he would have. “What did Veronica ask you about?”
“Oh, mostly normal mission debrief stuff… and questions about what happened in the cavern.” Keith couldn’t name the expression on his face, even when he rewound his feed and rewatched it. “I never thanked you. For bringing me back.”
“You did!” Keith said, confused. “And you don’t have to thank me –” But Shiro shook his head.
“I do. What you did – Veronica said she’d never heard of anything like that before. She said we must have a strong connection.”
Keith’s performance capability dropped. He had no idea how to talk about feelings. “Well, you’re my favorite person,” he said helplessly.
Shiro smiled, brighter than the ship entering the atmosphere, and Keith sat frozen, his organic parts screaming to run away and his inorganic parts refusing to listen. “You’re my favorite person too,” Shiro murmured.
“Why?” Keith croaked. “I’m not human, I don’t even know how to talk to humans! I’m just a SecUnit!”
Shiro took Keith’s hand with his prosthetic, twining their fingers together. “I don’t care if you’re human, Keith. I’m not a regular human anymore either.” He reached up with his organic hand, cupping Keith’s cheek, his eyes dropping to the scar on Keith’s cheek. “We match, remember?”
Keith let out a weird hiccuping noise – his organic parts finally betraying him – and whispered. “I don’t know how to do this, I’m not – good with humans. I don’t know how to be with one, I don’t have all the right parts…”
“Keith,” Shiro murmured, pulling him close, and Keith went lax in his arms, letting Shiro hold him.
“I don’t know how to do this,” he whispered. “It’s not like they have bots on those dumb dating shows.”
Shiro laughed, running his hand up and down Keith’s back. “It’s ok, Keith, you don’t have to know. It’s like Sanctuary Moon, right? We’ll be exploring new frontiers.”
Keith snorted. “I don’t think that’s what they meant, Shiro.”
Shiro chuckled, pillowing his cheek on Keith’s hair. “Probably not. But we don’t have to have all the answers right now. We can figure it out together.”
“Ok,” Keith mumbled into Shiro’s t-shirt, and then he huffed out a laugh. “They definitely didn’t include this in any of the training modules.”
Shiro laughed, running his fingers through Keith’s hair. “Mine either. They really need to get on that.”
“Maybe we can write one,” Keith said, turning his face up to Shiro hopefully. Shiro smiled down at him, indulgent and soft and fond.
“Yeah,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to Keith’s forehead. “Anything you want, baby.”
Keith trembled at the gentle touch, the pet name, and let Shiro hold him, hoping that he would be able to keep this, the new feeling spreading through his chest, where his human heart would be.
***
Veronica turned out to be right – within days Keith's feed was exploding with headlines like Garrison Co. Prioritizes Equipment over Human Clients.
Sincline under Fire for Illegal Cloning Facility on Oriande.
The Druid Connection: How a Respected Scientist and Prominent Businessman Became Entangled in a Cult on the Hunt for Alien Remnants.
Lotor of Sincline Placed on a Leave of Absence.
Haggar's Location Unknown as Ethical Questions Grow.
Allura was thrilled, and had a celebratory dinner with everyone from the exploratory mission. The humans all passed around something bubbly and alcoholic and little sausages on sticks.
Allura stood to make a toast, something about the importance of friendship and how they were all dedicated to exploring new world together. Keith wasn't really listening, too focused on Shiro's hand resting on his shoulder.
“So enough beating around the bush,” Allura said, her eyes glinting. "It's high time I announce our new project." She turned to Kuro. “How do you feel about being a pilot?”
“I keep thinking I already am one,” he said. “But I guess it doesn’t count when you just remember taking the pilot’s test?”
Allura smiled. “Probably not.” She raised an eyebrow, looking between Shiro and Kuro. “We’ve been working on a new ship, our biggest terraforming vessel yet. But the Atlas will need two pilots.”
Shiro and Kuro turned to look at each other, eyes wide, as the others cheered. Pidge sloshed xer drink all over Lance and Hunk laughed at his outraged face. Matt threw his arm around Kuro's shoulders, and Kuro blushed all the way up to his ears.
Keith raised an eyebrow at Shiro, who pretended to cough to hide his laugh.
"Yes, it's very exciting," Allura said brightly. "But I have one more announcement."
Everyone turned to look at her, and she winked at Shiro.
Shiro squeezed Keith's shoulder and he looked up at Shiro, his brow furrowed in confusion. "We'd like to officially invite you to join the Atlas crew," Shiro said, smiling down at him softly.
"Me?" Keith asked. "But what about the company?"
"Well," Allura said, "After a little conversation with our attorney, Garrison Co. saw things our way."
"I can't blame them," Hunk whispered. "Kolivan is scary."
"Quite," Coran said, as Allura held out a piece of paper to Keith. He took it, his fingers shaking as he tried to focus on the words.
Garrison Co. officially signs over ownership of SecUnit K31H to Keith Kogane, effective immediately…
The legalese blended together and Keith blinked up at the others. "What does this mean?"
"It means you just have to sign here, Keith Kogane," Shiro said. "And you'll be free of Garrison Co. forever."
"How… they never…" Keith said, and Shiro smiled, reaching out to pull Keith closer. He went boneless against him, staring down at the piece of paper.
"I can't believe it," he whispered.
"So you'll come with us, right?" Hunk asked, and Keith looked up to see everyone watching him expectantly.
"As long as we’re not going to Jarre," Keith mumbled, and the others laughed.
"Thankfully it's not Jarre," Allura said. "We have a few options for our first mission…"
She started going over the details, but Keith couldn't pay any attention. Luckily Shiro seemed to notice, and he took Keith's hand, guiding him outside.
Keith took a deep breath, staring up at the starry sky.
Shiro wrapped an arm around his waist, and Keith leaned into him, letting his temple rest on Shiro's shoulder. "I have one more surprise," Shiro whispered and Keith turned to blink up at him.
"Another?" he asked, and Shiro smiled.
"I think you'll like this one," he said, holding out his PADD. Keith took it, but before he could press play he saw a familiar face that he hadn't seen since Jarre.
Keith's jaw dropped and he looked up at Shiro. "You found him?"
Shiro smiled. "Veronica did some sleuthing, and she gave me his contact information."
Keith felt his performance capability drop, then spike, and he almost dropped Shiro's PADD. "I can't believe it," he whispered, and Shiro pressed a kiss to his hair.
"Thank you," Keith whispered, and Shiro smiled at him, brighter than the twin moons above them.
"Anything for you," Shiro whispered, and Keith threw his arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to hide his face in Shiro's chest. Somehow he accidentally pressed play, and he heard a familiar voice come through the PADD's "Hey there, Kiddo…"
Keith laughed – SecUnits weren't able to cry, but if they could, he was sure he would be crying now. Shiro just held him tight, standing together in a world that might have a place for them after all.
***
1.5 deca-phoebes later
“Come on, Keith!” Hunk called, standing outside a gate for some sort of animal enclosure. “You don’t want to miss out on the Terran fauna!”
“Watch out for the vampire bats,” Lance said, sticking his fingers in his mouth to look like... fangs? Keith wasn’t sure, he looked more like the walrus videos Shiro had shown him. “They’re out to suck your blood!”
“I should be pretty safe then,” Keith said drily, and Lance pouted.
“Man! I always forget! Why are you so hard to scare?”
“Having guns in his arms probably helps,” Matt said, grabbing Kuro’s hand to show him one of the displays.
Suddenly, Keith felt… something. Not a radio signature or a ping from the feed, but a call. He turned and looked out at the rolling hills covered in swaying grass, the hoverbikes speeding past them overhead. He didn’t know what it was, but it echoed in his mind, making his organic parts shiver. If he could just figure out where it was coming from…
“Keith!” Shiro called. “Come on, the zoo’s about to open!”
Keith turned around, smiling over at Shiro. “Coming!” he called. The strange signal could wait, but it wasn’t every day you get to see a real Terran lion.