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autisticlancemcclain · 7 months

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Keith wakes up with terror turning to ice in his veins and his brother’s name clawing its way out of his throat.

He takes a moment, chest heaving, to orient himself. The details of the dream quickly fade, dark caves and towering footsteps, leaving only an impression of fear and the memory of Shiro, falling, crying out for Keith to save him, and Keith being just too late. He peels the sweat-soaked sheets off himself in disgust, tossing them haphazardly on the ground in front of him. Grunting, he forces himself upright, placing his feet on the cold tile floor of his bedroom to force himself fully awake. Sunlight streams through his window, assaulting his bleary eyes, making him grumble as he walks over to the bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for the day.

Not unusually, his nightmares have woken him hours before he really needs to be awake. He only has one afternoon class, today, and it's frustrating to have one of his few mornings off spoiled so early. As he spits frothy toothpaste into the sink, he tries to rework the whole situation in his mind. Waking up too early sucks, but with the extra time this morning, he’ll have time to wash his sheets. That’s a net neutral, at least.

It doesn’t take him too long to gather up a load of linens and clothes, tossing them into the machine, sipping a coffee as the old thing chugs on. He hangs them to dry once the cycle is over, tossing some overdue marking into his messenger bag and scarfing down a bagel before hopping onto his bike.

His bicycle, that is. He would never take his precious bike to class. The one and only time he had, it had been vandalised by angry students. Never again.

The ride to the school is uneventful, normal, boring. Even the asshole drivers who refuse to give him space on the road, coming within inches of crushing him, are par for the course. He wonders if he looks particularly dead-eyed, or if that’s just how he feels.

“Hey, Pidge,” he says to his lab assistant, nodding at her as he walks into their lab. She shouldn’t even be his lab assistant, really. She’s more brilliant than he’ll ever be, and it’s insulting that she has to answer to him. But she’s only twenty, and whip smart as she is, their field is ripe with rich old white guys who smile condescendingly at her and call her sweetheart. No one will give her a tenured position. So while not ideal, their situation is the best both of them can come up with: Pidge gets total freedom in his lab, any resource that she wants and he can get his hands on, and he’ll publish any finding she discovers with her name as a second on the paper. That way she’ll be credited with dozens of peer-reviewed papers before she even has her doctorate, and once she’s finally got a lab of her own and every intellectual around the globe is interviewing her, she can tell them all where to stuff it and get all the credit she deserves.

“Bad news, Kogane,” Pidge says, glancing up at him with a furrowed brow.

Keith grimaces. If Pidge is looking up from her computer screen, then he’s fucked.

“Is the building on fire?” he says hopefully. That’s a slightly less miserable conclusion than the one he knows is happening.

She huffs sadly, shaking her head. “Nah, check the douchebag waiting in your office.”

Sighing, Keith does. James Griffin, head of the geography department and the resident jackass who’s been trying to shut Keith down for years.

“Keith!” he cries, grinning at him like they’re friends.

Keith doesn’t even pretend to smile at him, staring at him blankly.

“Good to see you, pal,” James continues, either oblivious or uncaring. “Thought I’d drop by and personally deliver the news. I’m getting a new office!”

The absurdity of the sentence makes Keith blink, looking at James in confusion. “Pardon?”

James ignores him, pulling out a tape measure and holding it against the cabinets and counters, barely even making any real effort to measure anything. Keith finally starts to notice the smugness to his department head’s grin, and something like dread builds in his stomach.

“See, progressive volcanology just isn’t what it used to be. Ten years ago it was breakthrough science, today it’s an ancient relic of the past.” He snaps the tape measure closed, turning back to face Keith. He no longer makes any effort to hide his smirk, placing a falsely pitying hand on Keith’s shoulder. Keith shrugs it off immediately. “They’re shuttin’ ya down, bud. I’m taking the space. I’m sure you myriad of adoring students will be devastated, but budget cuts are budget cuts, and this is a decision the department has to make. For the good of the university, you understand.”

Keith knows that pleading is useless. In all likelihood, this decision was made months ago, and he’s only hearing about it now because it’s been finalised. No way would James be so confident otherwise.

But there’s nothing he can do to stop himself from trying.

“You can’t shut us down,” he pleads, throat unfathomably dry. “We’re – we’re on the verge of a breakthrough, James, I can feel it, shutting us down would be spitting in the face of progress –”

“How many of your sensors are even still active?” James interrupts. “One? Two?”

He sounds so smug that Keith can’t bear it. “Three!”

“Right,” James says, snorting. “Three whole sensors.” He turns away, patting one of the overhanging shelves of the wall, crowded from front to back with dozens and dozens of rock samples slowly collecting dust. “It’s not worth the money it takes to keep them going.”

“You can’t do this,” Keith begs, voice quiet and small. He hates himself for his weakness in front of James, of all people in the world, but his hands shake and his blood rushes in his ears and the only thought running through his mind is save the lab save the lab save the lab. “It’s all I have left. Of him.”

To James’ credit, that gives him pause. He’s an asshole, but he’s not a monster.

“It’s been ten years, man,” he says softly. “The lab isn’t going to bring him back.”

Keith says nothing. He stares at him, eyes hard, hatred and pain alike building up in them and spilling over.

Shiro’s sensors. Shiro’s work. Shiro, all over the lab, in every way, the only pieces Keith has of him that are still going, that are not stagnant, and James is taking them away. Whether or not it’s James’ fault directly is irrelevant – Keith hates him for any role he plays.

“I’m sorry, Keith,” James says, and he almost sounds sincere before disappearing out of the lab and down the hall.

Keith sits down heavily in his – in Shiro’s – rickety old office chair as he goes, elbows on the crowded desk, fingers clenched in his hair. Pidge puts a gentle and awkward hand on his shoulder.

It doesn’t matter.

— — —

His classes pass in a blur. None of his students even pretend to pay attention, but that’s not unusual. He can’t remember the last time someone came into his classroom and gave even one eighth of a shit. Hell, the last person in his class to care might have been Pidge.

By the end of the day, he’s exhausted. He dreads the bike ride home, knowing it will take more energy than he has, but he tries to convince himself that the fresh air might make him feel less like the world is collapsing in on itself.

He fails.

By the time he stumbles through the door, late afternoon light spilling over his messy coffee table, he feels like a used battery from 1996. He slides the scattered change he’d found on the road today into one of his near-filled collection bottles and collapses on the couch, face-first, groaning as loud as he can into a scratchy pillow. He blindly flails one arm around until it hits the beeping answering machine, letting it play its onslaught of messages, preparing to delete whatever spam calls have made it through while he was gone.

“Keith, hey. It’s Adam. Just calling to remind you that today’s the day! We just left, we’ll be there around quarter to six? Hopefully. See you soon.”

With a gasp, Keith yanks himself upright with so much force he nearly throws himself off the couch.

Adam.

Adam!

The next message plays automatically. “Hey, got your answering machine again. Getting a little worried. We’re halfway there, and we can’t wait to see you. Right, kiddo?”

A much younger voice mutters something unintelligible, but the tone makes their enthusiasm – or lack thereof – abundantly clear.

Keith sweeps a bunch of junk off his coffee table, frantically searching for his calendar. He finds it under a stack of half-finished books, praying to himself that what he’s hearing is wrong somehow, and today is not the day he thinks it is.

In bold red ben, in the tiny square of the 28th of June, is his niece’s name written in capital letters and underlined no less than five times.

“Hana,” he breathes, and looks in horror at his watch just as the answering machine beeps and plays the newest message.

“Alright, well, we’re ten minutes away, so I hope everything’s okay. Please be ready.”

“Fuck!” Keith shouts, jumping up off the couch and catapulting into action. He can’t believe he forgot! It’s so easy for all the days to blur together, for dates to lose meaning, when everything is so mundane. He’s been thinking that Hana’s visit is ‘months away’ for half a year now, completely forgetting that time is, in fact, linear.

Adam is going to kill him. And worst of all, he is going to be justified.

He starts scooping random shit off end tables and random surfaces, sticking it wherever there’s space. Adam is a neat freak, always has been, and if he looks through that front door and sees the mess he is about to leave his only daughter in for ten whole days he is going to take it out on Keith’s hide. Keith shoves a random stack of cereal bowls into a drawer, stuffs a cabinet full of old newspapers, kicks a pile of discarded sweaters into a corner and throws a blanket over them. His answering machine beeps again, and he whips his head to his clock, watching in horror as the big hand ticks to the 9 – it’s five forty-five on the dot.

“Hope you’re home, Keith, because we’re pulling up to your place.”

A silver car slows to a stop across the street.

“Fuck!”

Keith increases his half-assed cleaning tenfold. He dumps every dish he sees into the sink, hacks up a lung from trying to blow away the accumulated dust, glances in the fridge to see what expired food he needs to toss. Is Adam going to search through his fridge? Probably not.

But there’s a chance.

He sees his brother-in-law approach the front door as he’s holding a stack of greasy car parts and freezes, slowly backing away as the man turns and makes a face at the car. Keith hears the doorbell ring but ignores it, figuring he has about three more rings to panic-clean before Adam gets fed up and picks the lock. He rushes to his bedroom, grabbing the truly gigantic quilt Pidge’s brother had made him, and throws it over his couch, coffee table, and armchair in a half-assed attempt to make the room look less like Keith has not cleaned in several weeks.

It does not work.

The doorbell rings for a third time, followed by rapid knocking.

“Keith? You home?”

Keith takes a deep breath, forcing a smile on his face.

Fine. This is going to be fine.

“Hey, Adam!” he greets, opening the door. Adam glances behind him, taking in the mess, so Keith quickly closes the door as much as he can without squishing himself.

Unfortunately, Adam has always been quick. He raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “You forgot, didn’t you.”

“Forget?” Keith laughs nervously. “Of course I didn’t – I didn’t forget! Been looking forward to this for weeks, counting down the days, just been prepping like you would not believe –”

Adam takes off his glasses, cleaning them slowly while making direct eye contact.

Keith sighs.

“Yeah, I forgot.”

“Come on, Keith,” Adam sighs, sliding his glasses back up his nose. “We planned this months ago. Ten days. That’s all I ask. She’s your niece.”

“Just because I forgot doesn’t mean I wasn’t looking forward to it!” Keith says defensively. “I haven’t seen her since she was what, nine?”

“Seven,” Adam corrects flatly.

Keith winces. “Right. Seven.” He follows his brother-in-law to his car, forcing himself not to drag his feet. He is excited. He is. He loves his niece, and besides, it’s only ten days. What can happen in ten days?

“Hana,” Adam says, knocking on the roof of the car. “Say hi to your uncle.”

“Hi to your uncle,” deadpans a young girl, pulling her beanie further down over her eyes and sinking into her seat. Adam sighs, heading to the trunk to dig out some bags, and Keith has to bite his cheek to keep from laughing. He probably shouldn’t laugh when teenagers are being little shits, but that was kind of funny.

“Hey, kid,” Keith says, in the same semi-awkward tone he used to talk to Pidge in until she started decking him every time he did. He inclines his head at the device in her hands. “Whatcha got there? One of those ePod thingies?”

The look she gives him is so dry and judgemental that Keith almost feels the need to both apologise and pull out a fiver to pay for the stupidity of his sentence, which is honestly an insanely powerful look for a thirteen year old to pull off.

Only Adam’s kid, honestly.

“It’s a PSP,” she says, like that’s the most obvious thing in the world and Keith is a dunce for not knowing. “And ePods aren’t a thing. The word you’re looking for is iPod.”

Lordie, this is going to be a tough ten days. Keith should have researched how to make teenagers like him.

Well. Maybe not. That would probably get him on a list somewhere.

“It’s good to see you, Hana,” Keith says, switching gears. He smiles slightly, and it's genuine, because he really is glad to see her. “You wanna head inside? Door’s open, I’ll meet you in a few.”

“Come see me first, baby,” Adam calls.

Hana huffs and walks over to see her dad. He hands her a duffel bag, which she shrugs over her shoulder, and then cups her face tightly, leaning down to kiss her head.

“Ten days, okay?” he murmurs. “Then I’ll meet you in the Ottawa airport.” He squeezes her in a hug, which she returns, if slightly reluctantly. “This move will be good for us.”

“Right,” Hana says, so bitter that Keith actually physically winces. “I am so pumped to leave behind everything I’ve ever known and go live in a new country. Thank you so much for doing this for me.”

Without so much as a backwards glance at her father, she pulls away and stomps inside to Keith’s place.

“Yikes,” Keith says, grimacing at his brother-in-law. Adam isn’t looking at him, gaze following his daughter with an expression Keith can only describe as pained. He doesn’t say anything for several moments, just staring at the house, eyes far-away and deeply sad. Keith’s chest starts to ache, right under his sternum, because he gets that look, too.

“I don’t know what to do,” Adam says softly. “I’m just — I’m just trying to do the right thing for her.” And it’s been months since they’ve talked anything but surface level pleasantries but they will always be the same, Keith thinks, and he reaches over and squeezes Adam’s hand because he will always be family. Adam squeezes back, smiling tightly.

“I’ll take care of her,” Keith promises. He swallows against the sandpaper roughness of his throat and tries to stand up straight, to make up for his crumpled shirt and messy hair. The attemlt makes Adam roll his eyes, which makes Keith grin. Adam can never stay mad at him for long.

“I know you will, brat.” He cups Keith’s cheeks identically to the way he did Hana’s, tipping over to kiss his forehead. Keith’s eyes close and his hands come up to grab Adam’s wrists. “I trust you. I just wish you would take better care of yourself.”

He pulls away and Keith lets him go, watching the easy way in which he composes himself, clearing his throat and straightening his jacket and pushing up his jacket, putting himself back together in front of Keith’s eyes. The process has fascinated him since he was little; the way Adam can always pull himself back to full height.

“Besides,” he adds, pulling his car keys out of his pocket and heading for the passenger side. “You have my daughter to look after, now. If she comes home to me in ten days complaining about doing the dishes because Uncle Keith just eats pasta out of the pot, I will fly back here just to smack you.”

Keith snorts. “Noted. Drive safe, Adam.”

He waves as he shuts the door and starts the car. Keith watches him go, then turns back towards his house, peering through the door, looking for a glimpse of the kid. He doesn’t see her, but he can hear the muted sounds of a video game from outside.

“I have no fucking clue what I’m doing,” he mutters to himself, and walks inside.

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linipik · 1 year

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Werewolf Keith + Vampire Lance

This story starts with Keith, who has never gotten along with werewolves, looking for Shiro (who is himself a vampire). And Lance is just an average, very competitive human, and is tired of this new student (Keith) one uping him and driving him insane in all his classes (in more ways than one).

Until one day... Lance discovers the whole shebang, including some secret war between vampires. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, maybe looking for Keith after he has been missing classes for a couple of weeks just after lance gets a grip on his own feeling...But still, he is caught/deathly hurt in the middle of that, and one vampire (kof Allura kofkof) turns him.

And that's just the beginning of it all, with recently turned vampire lance finding and getting into this new life with cryptids and blood with his werewolf bf Keith.

#klance #voltron #vld #voltron fanart #voltron legendary defender #lance mcclain #keith kagone #fanart #this au is good i tell you #im glad this year omre ppl got to see that #everything ties up to the old vamp adashi comic i did lol #allura has the key to bring ppl back to life somehow and i stick with that

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corruptedplaylist · 14 days

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Lance looks through the binoculars again and finds Keith at the same time Adam calls Keith’s name and points at where Lance is standing. The other boy glances up, caught between a laugh from watching Pidge and Hunk write a lewd message in the sand. He flips him off and Lance’s hand-painted skull grins back at him. Keith’s cheeks are pink from the chill, his eyes bright and mischievous as the wind catches on the edges of his hair.

Lance mechanically waves back as he pulls away from the binoculars, Keith becoming a tiny figure against the sand as a blush begins to stain Lance’s cheeks. He hikes the collar of his jacket up, glancing furtively back at Shiro and then down at the shore below.

Oh.

Fuck.

——————————————————————————————

this was an excerpt from chapter 10 of my fic! here's some more info if ur interested:

title: looking out for you

platform: ao3 only

rating: t

genre(s): slice of life college au

ships: Keith Kogane/Lance McClain, Adam/Shiro

words/chapters: 187k/18 chapters

status: completed

summary/elevator pitch: wholesome queer vibes and healthy communication a la voltron. found family shenanigans include: paintball, halloween parties, laundromat trips, beach episode, family dinners, video game tournaments, awkward confessions, grocery shopping, and some good old angst and character development. also, lance may or may not get possessed by a ghost but it's not pidge's fault.

i was reminiscing on this fic and decided to just promo it bc why not? drop me a comment/kudos if u check it out and like it!

for anyone who has already read it or is planning on reading it, i've done faqs between the three acts. i recently updated my faq here for act iii if anyone is interested (i finally got around to putting in some more details!)

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malfunctioningemi · 11 months

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Sk8 Roller Derby AU - Tomoe

Character Sheets

Tomoe Kikuchi, formerly known as Tadashi Kikuchi in her childhood, is Eve's personal assistant and loyal servant. Quiet and unassuming, people do not expect anything of her, which she prefers. She owes so much to Eve, but perhaps loyalty will dwindle when the person she holds closest becomes reckless.

Other posts [1] [Reki] [Langa] [Miya] [Cherry] [Jojo] [Eve] [Shadow] [Oka] [Extras [1] [2] [3]]

#sk8 #sk8 the infinity #tadashi kikuchi #sk8 tadashi #sk8 snake #adashi #sk8 roller derby au

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periwinkle-the-11th · 11 months

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Adam and Shiro only getting together bc Keith calls them out on their shit

"why do you keep staring at my brother" Keith asked from the pool in front of Adams lifeguard chair

Adam froze darting his eyes from the very attractive man reading in the grass about 15ft away, to look at the small drowned rat looking child in front of him. "sorry, uh, what's up buddy?"

Keith (the drowned rat child) "my brother! You know blue swim trunks, reading a really long boring book, bleached section of hair right at the front that kinda makes him look like a skunk! You keep staring at him!"

Adam always forgot how observant children were.

Keith continued "he's single you know, and I'm guessing because everytime your not looking at him he's looking at you that you both swing each other's way!"

Swinging one way means to like someone! Keith thought as he swam away without waiting for the lifeguards response.

He'd learned this from Shiro's friend Matt!! He was very excited to find a way to use it in a sentence, he'll have to tell Matt later!

(When he does in fact tell Matt later the man breaks down into hysterical laughter. And absolutely refuses to explain why.)

#the garrison doesnt exist au #or smth #didnt think this through much #adashi #adam vld #shiro #keith #broganes #mini fic #drabble #headcannons #i'd say keith is like 9-10 in this #young keith

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the-kittens-of-vol-tron · 1 year

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*looking for a very specific style of fic and finding none*

Me: *opening my laptop* fine. I'll do it myself

#new fic in the works #but adashi and SE AU comes first #klance #langst #kangst #adashi

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senrisey · 1 year

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klance au where lance and his family move to a house near the beach and he goes out to check out their neighbourhood and the beach and sees a surfer along the strong waves.

keith, who has lived in that neighbourhood all his life alongside shiro and adam and taught him how to surf, is unbothered by the people watching him from the shore up until he looks at them and sees lance's very noticeable figure (he was wearing a very vibrant blue jacket). he was too busy trying to get a good look at lance that he didnt notice that a wave crashed on him and fell off his board. shiro immediately goes to get him out.

by the time keith gets back up the water surface, lance was already gone.

#voltron #vld #vld keith #vld lance #klance #adashi #voltron au #i just thought of this cuz im at the beach #vld shiro #this au might stay with me for at least a week

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scattered-winter · 3 months

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ADAM IN 1D PLEASE (ASK GAME NOT ONE DIRECTION)

in my head this is from the leverage au. is he conning someone? is he hanging around headquarters? nobody knows. however he IS looking at shiro and it IS teasing/flirtatious in nature

also i know the prompt didn't call for boots but those ARE boots. but i didn't like how they looked so i cropped them out. but know in your heart that he is wearing knee high 5 inch stilettos

#winter's art #fox #actually very proud of this one. rare artist W #voltron #voltron legendary defender #adam voltron #adam wakim #<- rich inner world name for him for those who dont know #he's my special little patootie pie #leverage au #adashi #<- adjacent

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wltsleakirazine · 1 month

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WLTS Vol II Character Intro: Dante Evangelista

Who's here, queer, and tired of everybody's shit? Dante is! Say hello to the no-nonsense, expert pilot of the group!

Remember that artist applications for We Live to Sabotage Volume II: RE:VOLUTION are still open for a little over another week!

❗️APPLY AS AN ARTIST HERE!❗️

Linktree

(A description of all the text in the image can be found below the cut)

Name: Dante Evangelista

Age: 31 (February 14)

Height: 180.3 cm (5'11)

Weapons: Sets of daggers and a classic shotgun

Background: The definition of "no fucks left to give," I left Earth after the Malod invasion took away my peace, my home, and my fiancé to jump head-fist into the unrelenting job of an undercover weapons-dealer for Valyrian. Extremely cautious and always by-the-books, all I really want is to live out my life away from danger and glory but since I can't do that, the least I can do is help create change in the harsh status quo of the universe.

Extra text:

He/Him (next to flags)

"literally hidden everywhere" (at the end of purple arrow)

"cool" (under weapons)

"from Earth" (at the end of blue arrow)

"One of Valyrian's best pilots" (under background)

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uniquecellest · 3 months

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Adam and Shiro being in RWRB AU

* Adam and Shiro coming from very established families especially at the Garrison, though Adam's not only help contributes but also helped found the Garrison

* Shiro secretly having a crush on Adam but didn't know it at first

* then it hits him one night

*Adam is aware he has strong feelings for Shiro he just doesn't know where they lie

*the two are the biggest rivals ever competing for top spot

*Shiro asks for class changes due to Adam being in most and once he realizes his crush can't blushing around him

* Adam assumes Shiro wants more rivalry than friendship and goes with it

*Matt and Keith are done with their shit obviously

*Adam starts to be colder to Shiro and throws himself into his studies since he doesn't have Shiro in many of his classes anymore

*there's a formal gathering where they make fools of themselves so they have to be besties at things

*it starts with them being roommates and being in all the same classes together

*they start getting along

*at the next big event when Adam sees Shiro talking to someone (he thinks it's flirting) not to mention his over stimulation he goes outside

*Shiro finds him

*Adam kisses Shiro and freaks out and leaves.

*Adam like leaves leaves, when Shiro goes back to their dorm Adam is gone along with all of his things. All of their friends haven't seen Adam either

*Adam's family forces him back for his mid terms/end of term exams and he completely ignores Shiro acting like Shiro doesn't even exist

*Shiro finds Adam asleep one night in the library. Shiro takes Adam back to their dorm (Shiro still refers to it as theirs despite now rooming with Matt and taking on Keith). Shiro sleeps on the couch putting Adam in his bed

*The two start a secret relationship though they act like friends to the public. Only Matt and Keith know

*The two go away for Spring Break together. They're saying 'I love you' at this point but Shiro confides how hard he has fallen for Adam, which freaks Adam out so he leaves. (Not due to Shiros feelings but due to his own bc he realizes how deep his feelings for Shiro goes and it scares him)

*Adam doesn't resurface at the Garrison for a while after spring break so Shiro throws himself into his studies.

*Someone who is jealous of them, their spots, their grades, shares photos with the Garrison of Adam and Shiro kissing and holding hands (person thinks that Adam and Shiro only got their spots bc of their families) as an expose (person could also have a thing for Adam or Shiro)

*Matt and Keith become Shiros saving grace at the Garrison while it turns out Veronica and Adam are besties and she's his saving grace at home

*Veronica and Matt plot together to get Shiro to Adam

*Shiro is upset at Adam for ghosting and not even responding once the photos came to light

*Adam then confesses how deep his feelings for Shiro goes and how it scares him and when the photos came out he was only worried for Shiros safety not his own

*the two reconcile

*to everyone's surprise it's not Adam's family they have to convince its Sanda bc she's too busy trying to "protect" the reputation of Adam's family

*Adam and Shiro live happily ever after with their gremlin little brother/son Keith

#voltron legendary defender #takashi shirogane #voltron #adam voltron #keith kogane #adam x shiro #adashi #shiro x adam #shirogane takashi #shadam #adashi in a red white and royal blue au #shiro is an alex claremont-diaz variant #adam is a henry longassname-fox variant #they have supporters #but also people done with their bullshit #mainly matt veronica and Keith #those three are so done with pining and the running away #actually running away from feelings

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keithbutgay · 11 months

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brogashi lilo and stitch au ft.

shiro as nani

adam as david

keith as lilo

and kosmo as stitch

#10 year old keith: he likes your butt and fancy hair. i know. i read his diary. adam: *touches hair he thinks it's fancy?#voltron #voltron legendary defender #broganes #adashi #i love them so much #lilo and stitch au

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autisticlancemcclain · 8 months

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When Shiro hears news of his mother’s death, his first thought is good riddance.

His second thought is fuck. Loudly, and repeated many times in his head. And out loud. In the middle of the night, sitting straight up in bed, startling his fiancé awake.

“T’kashi?” he mutters, eye squinted as he blindly pays the bedside table for his glasses. “What’s going on?”

Shiro’s mouth works on autopilot. “It’s my mother.”

As it always does when she is brought up, which is frequently due to her many life decisions, Adam’s face wrinkles as if he just bit into something very sour.

“Oh. What the fuck is she up to now?”

“Uh, the afterlife.”

Adam’s face freezes. Shiro chokes down hysterical laughter. It doesn’t work, and comes out kind of reedy and strangled.

“Mr. Shirogane,” comes the tinny voice from his phone, and Shiro startles.

“Oh, shit, yes. Sorry. Um. I wanted to ask about my brother. Where is he? When can I pick him up?”

There’s a hesitance from the other end that Shiro doesn’t like. He sits up straighter, if at all possible, and Adam’s face hardens — it has been a four year long fight, with his mother, to try to get Keith over as often as possible for even an ounce of stability, and not a fight they have won very frequently, but it is not one they’re willing to give up. Shiro has no doubt that the state will fight just as hard as his mother did.

Adam and Shiro will simply fight harder.

“The safety of the child is the state’s first concern,” the lawyer says neutrally.

“Great. Give me an address and twenty minutes, then, and I’ll bring him right home.”

The lawyer’s voice is steely. “He is home, with a lovely young couple who are happy to have him.”

“There is a lovely young couple who he is related to and whom he has familiarity with right here,” Shiro grits out. “Tell me where my brother is.”

The lawyer waits a moment. “It might be a difficult transition, you know. It would be nice for Keith to have a mother and a father, for once.”

Before Shiro can even blink, a hand reaches over and snatches the phone right from his face, and Adam throws it open onto the bedspread, presses speaker, and sets off.

“You listen here, you gristly assed motherfucker. Takashi has the right of next of kin. Failing proof of neglect or abuse, which you have tried and failed to invent on our end so many times the court as all but banned you from trying again, Keith is legally required to be placed in our home should Shirogane Saori be found incapable of care. And, as you can imagine, lying on a table in a morgue renders one quite incapable. If you don’t provide an address clearly and concisely in the next fifteen seconds, I will sue not only you and your firm, but you mother, your father, your children, and you dusty tailor, you ugly brown suit wearing hetero. Are we understood?”

There’s another stretch of silence, wherein despite the gravity of the situation Shiro considers proposing to his fiancé again, before the lawyer finally speaks.

“…Group home on 4th and King.”

“Thank you,” Adam says tersely, and slams the phone closed. He scoffs at it. “Fucking jackass. Someone should kill him.”

Shiro snorts. Then he giggles. Then he starts laughing, and then he can’t stop, and he laughs so hard tears come to his eyes, and then they don’t stop, either, and his breath hitches and a lump forms in his throat and his whole face starts to get itchy. Adam pulls him into him immediately, cradling him into his lap like he’s a child, and he goes without resistance because it’s Adam doing to holding, and because he doesn’t know where this sadness is coming from. He has hated his mother for more years than he has loved her. The only time he’s thanked her for anything in the last eight years was one he held Keith in the hospital, skipping his first day of high school to do it. She has been crueler than kind to him for most of his life.

But she was his mother, in many ways. In all ways except the ones that mattered. And apparently that counts for something.

“We need to go,” Shiro whispers, trying to lift his head. Adam gently presses it back into his neck, holding his arms around him.

“It’s four in the morning, starshine. Maybe we wait a few hours?”

“No.” The hoarseness of his own voice makes him wince. “He can’t…Adam, I don’t even like my mother, and look at me. Keith is going to be inconsolable. She carted him around like a baby doll. He loved her.”

Adam winces. He knows it’s true as much as Shiro does. Their mother’s erratic lifestyle has gifted Keith an assortment of attachment issues, as evidenced by the tantrums whenever she dropped him off at their apartment when she was bored.

Not that Keith understands the issue. Because he is four, and because he has gone through more things in his four years of life than many children will before they are even ten, but not enough to stop thinking his mother is the most important person on Earth.

Quickly they dress, shoving in whatever clothes are near without worrying about looking presentable. They don’t bother with much more than brushing their teeth, skipping shaving and breakfast and coffee in favour of speeding to the parking garage.

It only takes them fifteen minutes to get to the group home the lawyer has mentioned, and they waste no time in rushing up the steps, uncaring of social norms or etiquette as they ring the doorbell and stand fidgeting at the front door.

It takes a long time for the door to open. Shiro can’t help feeling like that is intentional.

“What,” barks the man at the door, as if their intent isn’t expressly obvious given the circumstance.

“I’m here to pick up my brother,” Shiro says as politely as he can manage. “Keith?”

“He’s sleeping,” says the man, who Shiro presumes is one of the foster parents running the home. “Come back tomorrow.” He tries to slam the door shut, but before he can register his own movement Shiro is slamming his hand against the door. The wood cracks under his palm.

He doesn’t bother saying anything. He doesn’t have it in him. He simply shoves the door open, sending the man stumbling, and strides in, remembering at the last second to try and keep quiet so as to not wake any other sleeping children. It takes him three tries to find the right room, but when he finally swings open the right door he knows, from the very second he sees the lump of blankets on the bottom bunk in the far right corner. He stands frozen for a moment at the door, watching his baby brother breathe, seeing the dried tear tracks on his face, the stutter of his breaths and shake of his chest. His thumb is firmly in his mouth, a habit he’s had broken for two years.

Shiro’s eyes begin to leak again. He feels Adam squeeze his bicep once in comfort, then wordlessly he walks off, gathering the messy scattering of Keith’s things into a large backpack. Trusting him to know or guess what belongs to his brother — all largely things they’ve bought him — Shiro approaches the bed, kneeling carefully at the edge of it. He reaches out and brushes Keith’s hair out of his face, gliding his thumb across his forehead. It wrinkles as Keith wakes, squinting his eyes up at Shiro in grogginess and confusion. It takes him a moment to register what’s going on, but Shiro knows the exact second it does, because his indigo eyes go blank the way they do when Keith is so far overwhelmed he can’t even come close to starting to process how he feels. Shiro braces himself for whatever vitriol, likely directly quoted from their mother, is about to come out of his mouth.

“I don’t want you,” Keith cries. He makes a sound in the back of his throat, cracked and strained; a long, keening cry. His face twists up and he glares at Shiro in what can only be described as betrayal, as if it’s Shiro’s fault their mother is gone, as if it was Shiro’s evil plan to take her away forever so he can never go back.

He wouldn’t even be surprised if that’s what their mother has told him. It hurts anyway.

“I know,” he chokes out, hushed. He brushes his thumb over Keith’s forehead again, slow, from temple to temple, and to his surprise his brother leans into it slightly as his breaths hitch with sobs. “I know, baby.”

He exchanges a look with Adam, who, God Shiro loves him so much, understands immediately: they have ten minutes.

Two years ago, when their mother dropped Keith off at his doorstep one day and fucked off to Atlanta for a week, Shiro decided enough was enough. Keith was convinced she was coming back to get him every morning and was devastated when she didn’t. It was an endless, sisyphian cycle. Shiro took the day off school, took his limited funds, and brought Keith to a paediatric specialist. It was of course not the most thorough evaluation, as that was something that could only be done with time, but there was almost definitely some valuable input. Shiro learned, in harried, layman’s terms, that their mother’s flakiness meant Keith always believed he was about to be left behind. Her babying of him lead him to believe that he was at fault when that happened. When he was actually happened, he was prone to tears and affection, trying to win back his mother, trying to prove that he was a good enough baby doll for her, basically.

And if that doesn’t work…well. Then the hurt and the anger start, and God knows how long it will last.

“Ten minutes,” Adam mutters, stuffing one last thing into the backpack and shoving it over his shoulders. “Let’s go.”

Taking the blanket with him, because fuck these guys, Shiro lifts his baby brother up, holding him tightly to himself, pressing his face into his neck. He starts to powerwalk down the hallway back to the front door, Adam close behind him. He vaguely hears the same man who opened the door start to argue with them, start to try to stop them, and he trusts Adam to handle it, because all he can hear in his head is a countdown. If they don’t make it to the car in time and Keith starts really wailing, they are going to take him away, and Shiro knows he will never get fucking visiting rights because the family court system is the most broken thing in America, and Keith will be shoved into some random group home that doesn’t care about him and won’t care about him and he’ll be treated like shit or worse not treated like anything at all, and he will grow up thinking that there is no one who loves him and no one to turn to and Shiro will never forgive himself or his mother or the world.

He needs to get his brother to the car.

He rushes down the beaten down concrete steps as fast as he can while still being careful in the dark. The car is half a block away, the only place they could find parking, and he starts to jog, ignoring the ache in his arms. He’s held Keith for longer. At the seven minute mark, he registers yelling voices and a door slam and Adam’s rapid footsteps behind him, and by the ninth they make it to their beat up piece of shit fourth-hand car, throwing open the back door, setting Keith down gently, bucking the kid in as quickly as they can manage.

Shiro has lost count of how much time they have, if they have any at all. His heart pounds so rapidly he can feel it everywhere in his body. He’s bitten the inside of his cheek so harshly he can taste blood. He feels like he’s gonna throw up.

He’s barely thrown a seatbelt on by the time Adam shifts into gear and tears out onto the busy street, cars honking at him. Shiro meets his eyes in the rearview mirror, trying to find strength in his look, in his support. He tries to tell himself that the worst part is over, now; Keith is with him, beside him in the back seat, Keith is going to stay with him forever, now, he is going to make his baby brother’s life stable from now on. They are starting to swim their way out of the deep end.

And then the wailing starts.

It’s loud. Keith takes a huge, deep breath, then lets out a noise that Shiro can only describe as agonised, so big and heavy that it pulls on his little body, straining against the seatbelt. His face is bright red from the force of it, and Shiro can count his teeth with how wide open his mouth is. Bizarrely, Shiro wonders if he’s loud enough for the windows to break, or their eardrums. He’s not sure if his own pain comes from his ears or his heart.

“I want my mama!” Keith sobs, shouts, screams, cries. “I want my mama! I want my mama!”

“I know,” Shiro whispers again, for what feels like the millionth time that night. Between Keith’s stuttering breaths Shiro hears Adam’s soft cries, looks up to see tears streaming down his face. He’s surprised to find his own face dry as a bone, the lump in his throat he’d felt earlier completely disintegrated. He feels hollowed out. “I know, Akira. I know. I know.”

Shiro wonders if this is what it feels like to drown.

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linipik · 10 months

Text

FAR OUT AT SEA

"Shiro is determined to know if the new human research base is a risk for his fellow merfolk with the help of a marine biologist and research intern Adam."

rating: T

pairing: Adam/Shiro

tags: Adam (Voltron) Shiro (Voltron), Keith for half a line but he is there, Merman Shiro, Everyone lives, First Meetings, plot-driven action, Alternate Universe Merpeople, Canon-Typical Violence

This fic is part of the Once Upon the Seashore PDF (get it for free on my Ko-fi)

Chapter 3 of 4

Or that was the plan. Unfortunately, there were cameras Shiro didn't discover on time and sensors he could not avoid. Before he could destroy more than half the machines, he was captured.

The superior officers tried to hide the havoc from the cadets, researchers, and interns. However, the damage was considerable, and, soon enough, soon enough the whole base’s personnel was moving.

With his heart about to break through his chest, Adam ran towards Shiro's quarters and found them empty. At that moment he knew that a suspicious incident down in the deepest, more classified parts of the whole facility was thanks to one single person. How could Shiro go behind Adam’s back? the one person who has been helping him, after all the things they've discovered together. But if Shiro was really involved, doing so would be more dangerous than anything they’d been discovering before. Steeling himself, Adam resorted to going with the rest of the staff and waiting, turning off any suspicions for when it would be easier to sneak around.

He didn't find anything in the higher-up offices, the security rooms, or the storage units, which made him restless. It didn't make much sense to look for Shiro deeper down the base, but since they were being so careful and all out of better ideas, Adam went there.

The way there was painfully quiet, but he knew, thanks to the planes they uncovered early on, that there was a huge walk-in fridge at the bottom of the marine biology lab internal dock, which was used to store big tanks in a queue for cleaning.

Adam almost forgot how to breathe. There were temporary cameras and alarms set in place so he could not come closer, but there was no mistake, that face was Shiro's face with pointy fins in the place of ears, sporting a very new very deep cut on the bridge of his nose. It was Shiro but all the way down in his shoulders in his arms shiny dark purple scales, all the way down to… to a lustrous dark flying fishtail. Adam had to do a mental double-take.

Mermaids were real and Shiro was one of them. Mermaids, merfolk, merpeople, a merman. In front of him.

This was beyond anything Adam could imagine or dream. It also… made sense, somehow? No wonder Shiro had so much random deep knowledge of marine life, no wonder he asked stuff about their operation. Above all, no wonder he was so invested in unveiling whatever the base was doing in the middle of the ocean. Probably this was his home first and they were invading!

Adam was still frozen in place, wishing nothing more than to see that familiar and other-worldly face up close and to be able to talk to Shiro about everything he had seen while living deep in the sea, knowing that the truth was so much wilder than anything he ever imagined. It all would have to wait, though. Shiro was bruised and seemed heavily drugged, he needed Adam's help.

The few officials with enough clearance were probably afraid and had decided to guard Shiro with machines only, probably wary of the reaction any soldier would have upon seeing a real merman. An actual merman! Adam couldn't wrap his head around it yet. Forcing himself to function, he dug in his memory for the passwords and system protocols he had learned while trying to breach the security measures with Shiro the days prior, and after a lot of tinkering and mumbled cursing, he managed to loop the key cameras and cut the flow of sedatives. Hoping Shiro was not too sensitive to changes in pH and temperature of the water, Adam connected the nearest water supply to replace the whole tank, dumping the contaminated liquid in another nearby.

Shiro stirred up after a while. He blinked heavily, disoriented, and bumped into the glass by accident, which made him scowl. Instead of trashing or causing a ruckus, though, Shiro shook his head vigorously and used his hands to explore the limits of the tank. Frozen in place, still unnoticed, Adam could see Shiro had membranes between his fingers.

It was truly incredible.

While Adam, mesmerized, stared at him, Shiro reached the upper edge of the tank and struggled to remove the lid… lid that was locked with a bolt placed outside the tank. Damn, what was Adam doing? He swiftly approached to remove the bolt, startling Shiro.

“Sorry!” Adam said, unsure of what he was apologizing for.

As soon as the lid was removed Shiro took his head out of the water.

“...Hey” he added quietly, something between a greeting and acknowledgment of the new situation between them.

Shiro got his upper half body out of the tank and quickly crawled helping himself with his hand through the shallow water, following the drain into the marine biology lab main pool. It didn't look like the first time he has gotten himself in this kind of situation, very different from the helplessly drugged-up merman Adam first saw moments ago floating in the tank but not a little less impressive. Dumbfounded, Adam followed him, mindful of not stepping on his fins.

“Do you think you can open the gate to the cetacean interaction pool?” Shiro asked once he got comfortable in the marine biology pool, "There is a hatch towards the open waters at the bottom of this, I think.”

“Takashi.”

Shiro turned to finally see him. Adam had a million questions and the full awareness of that being the worst moment to ask any of them.

“Adam, I'm sorry,” Shiro said before Adam could gather his thoughts, there was a plea in his tone “you understand why I didn't tell you, right? No one is supposed to know.”

Adam knew that was exactly the case, yet he needed to understand.

“I…” he stuttered. It was hard to find of a single thing to say, their situation was far more complicated than the unnamed thing they’d been dancing around since they met.

Then they could hear the sound of people approaching.

“Shit. I'll open the gate” Without losing a second, Adam ran towards the control panel and initiated the opening sequence. Shiro swam towards the sluice gate, ready to escape as soon as the pool got filled with enough water for the doors to open.

“They can’t find you here,” Shiro's worried tone traveled over the sound of the water rushing into the pool, “And… don't tell anybody I was an intern, they usually can’t put two and two together and realize we can shift forms.”

“Who's there?!” someone yelled from afar, “WHO IS THERE!?” the voice repeated while the footsteps came to a halt and the clicking of guns echoed in the corridor.

“GO!” Shiro shouted.

– o –

Adam could only run back inside the walk-in fridge, hiding behind all the tanks. He heard a crowd breaking into the lab, their gasps and curses upon finding Shiro, and many fierce screams and hits. There was a loud splash and many people yelled stuff like “Don't let him get away” and “Grab the UUVs.”

It was over after a few more seconds of whirring, clashing, and swearing. Curled in his hiding place, Adam couldn't help a sense of dread. Could Shiro really run away unscathed? Judging by the officer's cursing and rapid exit toward the upper levels, Shiro might have been lucky this time. When Adam determined it was safe enough to go out of hiding, the faint pink tint on the pool and the trail of blood made his stomach churn.

Adam was just an irrelevant intern, but he was determined to do everything he could to help. Lucky is not enough, He had to make sure Shiro was not followed, his secret his people were not going to be easily hunted if he could help it.

Shaking his commotion off, he ran to erase any and all evidence of Shiro's existence, both as a human and as a merman And the last two hours have to be complete confusion. He tinkered with all the cameras, he stole all the files from the archives, he threw away the clothes, the food in the fridge, he burned the notebooks and fake IDs. While wiping out any mention of Shiro from the base, he wished he could wipe his memories as well. It was the sensible thing to do. The best thing to do. Shiro was something -someone- too amazing -too special- to be forced to be apart from his true home in the name of science or in the name of Adam's dumb feelings. He would never see Shiro again, and he'd better be at peace with that reality sooner than later.

With all evidence lost, the whole ordeal was officially brushed off as a freaky accident, something about a faulty engine exploding that didn't really make sense but was better than proclaiming a mermaid had come to destroy half the equipment of a supposedly super secure military base. The mess was picked up, the very few people implicated were bribed and then relocated, and nothing was said about the incident again, going down in everyone’s memories as a cryptid sighting at best and not more serious than that.

Left adrift among all that chaos and all his plans for the future shattered, Adam ended up accepting a new position at an institute that had nothing to do with the one he originally aimed for, located on land where he could still see the shore from the lab's window.

----

Far Out at Sea is complete on PDF >> GET IT HERE <<

#adashi #vld #voltron legendary defender #merfolk AU #fanfic #just one part to go :3 #this one has my fave illustration so there's that too!

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