An AU that takes place somewhere before the end of season two. I had this idea and it just wouldn't let me go. It's been in my drafts since the newest season of Voltron aired. Hopefully, you guys like it!
P.S. Spanish in italics because who trusts Google Translate?
Keith was ten when his dad died. Cancer. There was nothing the doctors could have done. And Keith wasn't dumb. He knew it wasn't their fault. But he still blamed them. Maybe if they'd seen it sooner his dad would have lived.
He was put into the foster care system. Keith didn't really… work anywhere he went. He tried not to cause trouble, he really did, but he was just so angry all the time. No one seemed to understand. And he wasn't sure he wanted anyone to.
He grew used to changing homes once a month. And it was normal. He didn't ever make any friends, because what was the point if he'd just be leaving again in a month?
Sad as it was, Keith expected people to get sick of him. And he was never proven wrong. Until the McClains, that was.
The McClains lived in Cuba. Keith was used to being shuffled from city to city and state to state, but travelling to a whole new country was new. It made him wonder whether everyone in the U.S.A. had just decided they didn't need Keith Kogane anymore.
Cuba was warm. Even warmer than the desert. Keith flew into the Juan Gualberto Gomez Airport with his social worker. The McClains were supposed to meet them in the airport, but after waiting for thirty minutes, Keith started to wonder if this was all just a ploy to get rid of him by the social worker. He knew she didn't like him very much.
Finally, the McClains arrived. A huge group of people. Keith couldn't even count them all, and suddenly he felt very, very shy. What was he supposed to do? Why did this happy, huge family want him?
The decision was made for him when his social worker walked forward briskly and traded a few quick words with a woman who, although not young, was very beautiful. Then his social worker grabbed his arm and pulled him forward for everyone to see.
Keith didn't like feeling like everyone was staring at him. It wasn't pleasant and if he could, he would have run away right then. The grip on his arm prevented him from doing so, and after the social worker left, it was the being introduced to everyone that prevented him from escaping.
The youngest child in the family, and out of the four children, the only one to still be home, was named Lance. Lance was a year younger than Keith and very talkative.
Living with the Mcclains took some getting used to. For a while though, it was nice. Perfect, even. The best it had been since his dad died. Then they asked him to come into the living room for a family meeting. Keith freaked out, internally, of course. He was one-hundred and ten percent sure that he was about to be told they were done fostering him. And in a way, they did.
Keith Kogane was adopted at the age of twelve.
He loved his new family. He still missed his dad, yeah, but this was a pretty good replacement. He learned Spanish. He called the Mcclain parents mami and papi. That was what they were. His parents. Maybe not his first parents, and he wouldn't ever call them mom or dad. Those titles were reserved for his dad and the biological mother he'd never met but his dad loved to talk about.
He and Lance fought a lot, but even though they did, they were best friends. Lance taught Keith how to swim at Varadero Beach and Keith taught Lance how to fight.
When Keith told their parents that he wanted to be a pilot at the Galaxy Garrison on his sixteenth birthday, they supported him wholeheartedly. He applied and received a scholarship.
The next year, Lance told their parents the same thing. Lance applied for the scholarship too. He didn't get into the fighter pilot program, but he did make it into the cargo pilot program.
Lance was bummed, yeah, and Keith knew that him being a fighter pilot must just make everything worse. But Lance had an amazing ability to look at the bright side in everything. And so he made jokes. Called Keith his rival. Acted like he hated him. It was just how they showed love.
He made sure to visit home a lot, and wasn't that a strange thought? Home. He didn't want to miss seeing his older siblings and all his nieces and nephews.
It was strange, but no one at the Garrison seemed to know they were related. It was probably because Keith's last name was still Kogane. It was also slightly amusing to him that the Garrison could miss that.
Keith and Shiro became friends. Lance didn't become friends with Shiro. It was more that he had his own friends though and didn't want to take any of Keiths, intentionally or not. Then Keith was kicked out for a fight after Shiro disappeared and Lance was upped to fighter class.
Lance knew he'd make it up to fighter class with or without Keith getting kicked out. Still, it hurt that Keith was gone.
It hurt even more when he learned Keith wasn't home. Instead, he was holed up in the house he used to live with his dad in. Lance visited him, once. Keith was insistent that there was something out there though, so Lance left him be. Whatever helped his older brother cope couldn't be that bad.
Their parents asked questions, of course, but Keith and Lance were brothers, and they were nothing if not good liers. They told their parents that Keith wasn't running away. He was finding himself. And their parents were amazing because they left it at that as long as Keith called them and kept in touch with Lance.
Hunk, Lance's roommate, knew Lance had a brother, but Lace wasn't sure he knew that Keith was his brother. Lance never really mentioned it and he didn't have a good picture of only Keith. Or at least a clear picture of Keith.
So when he joked about not letting mullet be the one to save Shiro, he supposed he should have known. Everything was clearer in hindsight, though. Because he certainly didn't expect everyone to be so shocked him and Keith were brothers. In fact, at this point, he thought everyone knew.
It started like this:
Lance walked into the living room and slumped onto the couch. A few minutes later Keith came in, tired looking and zombie-like. And Lance just couldn't resist.
"Did poor little Keith not get enough beauty sleep?" he teased in Spanish.
Keith glared at him and replied icily, also in Spanish: "I'm a year older than you, Lance."
It was at Keith's words that the other Paladins did a double take.
"What was that?" Hunk asked. "Are secretly a clone, Keith?"
"What? Why would I be a clone?" Keith asked.
"Because you were speaking Spanish," Hunk replied, wide-eyed.
"I actually didn't know you spoke Spanish," Shiro commented. "Where did you learn?"
Now Keith looked really confused. Lance sure felt confused. Then it hit him, why everyone was so surprised. Lance had never explicitly mentioned that they were brothers, had he?
"And how long did it take you?" Pidge asked eagerly, her eyes shining. "It's taking me forever to learn Altean."
"In Cuba?" Keith finally said. "What's going on?"
"You lived in Cuba?" Shiro asked incredulously.
"My family still lives in Cuba," Keith said.
Suddenly Lance snorted.
"Keith," he gasped through giggles. "Think."
Lance could practically see the wheels turning in Keith's mind. And he could see the moment Keith realized everything. Keith's eyes widened and he snorted. Then he started laughing.
"They-they don't know," he gasped.
Everyone glanced between Lance and Keith, wondering what they were missing that was so funny to those two. That would have Keith actually laughing along with Lance of all people.
"What don't we know?" Shiro asked.
"Shiro," Keith said, still struggling to breath. "Lance and I are brothers."
"What!" Hunk gaped. "But you don't even… and you're not… what?!"
"Have you ever heard of adoption?" Keith asked rhetorically, still giggling.
"But you guys hate each other," Pidge pointed out incredulously.
"We're brothers; of course we do," Lance said matter of factly. "Besides, it's all just for fun and games. We don't actually hate each other, most of the time."
"Yeah," Keith agreed, smirking. "Most of the time."
Suddenly the doors to the living space opened and Allura and Coran came in, deep in conversation about an alien planet.
"Allura!" Hunk yelped. "Did you know Keith and Lance are brothers?"
Allura looked at Hunk, head tilted sideways slightly before she started laughing.
"That was hilarious," she gasped, wiping a tear from her eye.
Coran, however, was looking at him and Keith carefully.
"You know, Princess," Coran began, stroking his moustache. "I don't think it's a joke."
Allura stopped laughing abruptly. "I'm sorry, but did you say you thought it was true?"
"You could just ask us," Lance pointed out, smiling charmingly at her.
"But… you're not serious, are you?" she asked weakly.
Pidge shrugged her shoulders. "They are, Allura. I think that's what's so crazy. Brothers in everything but blood and all that."
"And to think," Shiro said, sounding caught somewhere between amusement and disbelief. "All this because of a few words in Spanish."