Keith was pretty young for a cop. He had been, what was defined by the adults in school as, a "troubled kid". He was smart but had a hard life. He graduated early from high school, and applied to be a cop. He wanted a different, still structured, environment, from school and his childhood environment. He excelled at all of the various tasks that made up the training. Passed all the written tests with flying colors. He struggled with the physical portions of the training; not enough to fail but it did shatter the illusion of perfectness with his fellow classmates and gave him a certain relatableness. Yet Keith never could really make friends. He was too closed off and the others sensed it too. He was chosen to go to an area with a mediocre amount of crime. He liked it that way.

He was the youngest one in his precinct, but there were a few recruits who were around his age so he did not feel inferior. The other cops often joked about him being young. Keith figured they were intimidated slightly by his presence and that's why he was the butt end of the jokes. The captain wasn't aware of the comments and Keith never bothered to inform her. They didn't bother him.

Not everyone made jokes. Keith had a few people in which he could hang out with on break, or they would come visit whilst Keith was filling out and filing paperwork. The first person he met was, of course, the Lieutenant Allura. She was fair and kind, but did not allow bullshit. Keith felt welcomed into the precinct with her as the person in charge. She introduced him to Takashi, his partner-in-crime.

Takashi, or "Shiro" as he told Keith to call him, was a young war-veteran who got a job as a police office after returning home due to immense injury. Shiro and Keith spent long days sitting in their cop car, chatting and getting to know each other. Shiro looked tough and Keith never wanted to get on his bad side. He expected Shiro to be cold and isolating but he was actually warm and inviting. One day whilst on patrol, Shiro had told Keith the story of how he lost his arm. There was an attack on his base, with poisoned bullets. Shiro was lucky he only got shot in the arm, some others weren't as lucky, and had to get his arm off so the poison wouldn't spread. Keith didn't dwell on the details, but did inform Shiro that if he needed anything he would be there. Shiro told Keith the same thing. Shiro had become a test dummy, and through the weeks Keith worked with him, he had a new prosthetic arm technology almost every week. They became close as friends. Keith started hanging out with him at the office too. That's how he met, and became friends with, the whole "team".

Coran was the third person he met. Coran was Allura's assistant and he was good at his job. Coran was bubbly when answering the phone, when talking to people, and when dealing with criminals on the rare occasion. Coran had helped Keith with processing the paperwork and Keith discovered why Shiro told him Coran was a lot. He talked Keith's ear off but Keith didn't mind. It just meant he didn't have to talk. Coran hung out with the two cops over breaks and Keith grew fond of the various rantings and ravings of orange mustached man.

After Keith's first arrest as Shiro's partner, he met Pidge. He wasn't sure about Pidge at first for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Keith did not get off on the right foot with Pidge. When first introduced, Keith thought Pidge was male and address her as such, saying "Nice to meet you Mr., er, Doctor, Holt." Pidge didn't seem to be offended, but Keith still felt bad. Secondly, Pidge worked in the morgue. Keith had just arrested someone who shot and killed someone else. He was shaken up by the whole experience of seeing an actual dead body. The way Pidge was so comfortable around it, and was excited to dissect the person, made Keith uneased. He did note that Pidge wasn't disrespectful in any way, asking if we knew who the person was and if the family has been notified. Pidge was bright and bubbly despite her morbid job. She greeted them warmly when they did meet, and even though Keith messed up Pidge didn't treat him different from the others. She instructed Shiro about where to put the body and then showed Keith his side of the policy when it comes to bodies. Pidge brightened up their breaks; she rarely talked about morgue subjects unless it was in reference to one of their cases.

Keith immediately knew Hunk was going to be a good cop. Keith was glad when Hunk entered the squad, as Keith had been the 'new guy' for a while. No one was hard or mean to him because of it, Keith just felt like he was intruding until Hunk arrived. Like he had to prove his worth as a new cop, that he fit the job. Now that a new person was here, he didn't feel the pressure. Hunk brought in pastries on the first day, and Keith gave him the tour on Allura's request. Hunk was very sociable. Keith could tell he would be a good cop for situations where they had to talk down a criminal or ease a worried/panicking civilian. Hunk had a calming presence about him. He was open and bubbly. How anyone could hate Hunk, Keith didn't know. Hunk during their breaks, and eventually precinct socials, told them about how people looked down on him for not being physically fit. Which was a lie; Hunk was sporty as hell, it was due to his body size that people made assumptions about his athletic ability. Keith invited Hunk to go to the gym with him to workout after work approximately two weeks after he joined the force and Hunk teared up.

One day, almost a year into Keith's employment at the precinct, Allura called a meeting in her office with Keith, Hunk, and Shiro. The boys stood at attention along the wall and watched as she paced back and forth after closing the blinds. She finally sat down at her desk and opened a case file. It wasn't the biggest keith had seen, but it had multiple reports.

"There is a criminal on the loose. Recently had not been active until a day ago when he popped up."

"Any patterns?" Shiro asked.

"He typically targets wealthy neighborhoods. Doesn't kill anyone; he goes in, tazes or knocks them out, steals a bunch of expensive stuff, and we aren't sure how he decides to sell the items. There is no pattern of pawn shops or online auctions. We know it's him because of his signature stamp; he always uses knockout darts to make his victims pass out. Due to this, he's known as Sharpshooter; he always lands the shot and never misses."

"At least he isn't killing anyone," Hunk awkwardly pointed out. Allura gave him a look and Hunk decided to keep talking, nervously. "I mean, he could kill them. He definitely had the opportunity each time…"

Allura raised an eyebrow and Keith felt bad for Hunk. He had a point; not a good one, but Keith could see what Hunk was trying to get at.

"I think what Hunk was trying to get at is," Keith backed him up, and Allura's confused glare shifted to him, "that this guy obviously is just in it for the money. Maybe he can be reasoned with?"

Allura's curious glare turned into a smile.

"Maybe. You guys are going in with non-lethals as your primary defense, lethals only if Sharpshooter pulls them."

Allura handed them the report to look at. There were some shitty camera surveillance photos that didn't give them much to work off of appearance-wise. His name was in Allura's handwriting as SHARPSHOOTER. There was a list of items stolen from various neighborhoods and houses. He typically wouldn't stay in one area for more than two robberies, but he did have a pattern.

"So what's the plan?" Shiro asked.

"Tonight we are sending teams of two into the neighborhoods that, according to the pattern, he would target next. Shiro, Keith, you two. Hunk, you're with a cop from the other precinct that the neighborhood crosses over into named Shay. I'm with the Lieutenant of the other precinct, Lotor. And a few more cops from this precinct will be monitoring and updating us on surrounding areas. One person will enter the house, the other will wait outside incase Sharpshooter bolts and the cop can't immediately chase. You are dismissed."

They all exited the office, Shiro elbowing Keith on the way out and mentioning jokingly how he's stuck with Keith again. Keith returned the elbow jab in a playful manner. They headed to their adjoined desks and Keith sighed at the paperwork. He didn't mind paperwork, it was more so the quantity of it that had him not looking forward to it. Hunk had to go interview a witness for a recent arrest he did. Across from Keith, Shiro worked away at his own mountain of paperwork. Shiro had apprehended a druglord. Keith helped him with the arrest, providing backup. That was apart of Keith's workload too. Keith sat down at his desk, excited for the evening to come.

Over his time at the precinct, he found that he enjoyed being out of the brick walls more, whether or not the night was full of action or not. Keith kept track of time, disappointed every time minutes had passed and not hours.

Shiro brought takeout to Keith at sunset, a few hours before they were supposed to go out to their station. Shiro discussed with Keith about how they were going to approach they night. Keith was better at stealth than Shiro, and Shiro was better at running than Keith, so they decided that Keith would be going into the house if Sharpshooter was there and Shiro would wait to see if he ran and as back up.

Shiro drove Keith into the neighborhood in his made-into-a-cop-car.

"What the hell?" Keith commented when he saw Shiro's choice of vehicle. "Out of all the cars you could drive, you choose this tiny-ass Passion Coupe?!"

Not only was it tiny, but there was more personality. The original color of the car was a bright pink that made Keith think of Hello Kitty. A graphittist thought so too; everyone at the office, Shiro revealed, teased him because he hasn't caught the person who painted a Hello Kitty symbol on the trunk of the vehicle. On the top of the car was a set of police lights, installed for the car. It wasn't the color that made Keith laugh as he squeezed into the passenger side. He liked the color pink himself (although he wouldn't flaunt that fact). The people who knew Shiro would figure he would be into a camo car that's big and bulky. Keith questioned if Shiro could even fit into the car before the driver proved he could.

"Listen up, Deputy Kogane. At least I'm not trying to compensate, Mr. Dodge Ram."

"Just drive." Keith growled, turning away to hide his smirk.

Their stationed point was a cul-de-sac full of big houses, long paved driveways, and pristinely cut lawns that made Keith grimace. He pictured his one bedroom apartment and all the repairs that needed to be done. That HE needed to do, or get one of the others help him out with. Shiro would probably get mad if he saw the space in which Keith lived. It was better than absolute poverty, and Keith was grateful that he didn't grow up into the cycle. But many of these rich people would never even know how bad some people had it. Keith knew his view of rich people was cynical, and there were good rich people who donated to charities and whatnot. It was more so the ones that threw extravagant parties just because and waste food and resources. The ones that don't give a shit that people like Keith were living paycheck to paycheck (at least until he secured more time in the precinct) and eating shit food because that was all they could afford. Keith felt lucky that he had a roof over his head that was his own, and he could afford to eat three meals a day. One of which typically included takeout.

Keith rolled down the window to let some cool air in. His thoughts had distracted him and when he came back to the present he realized how stuffy Shiro's car was.

"So, what's our story?" Keith asked. Shiro, since parking the car on the bottom of the cul-de-sac, had turned on the music radio and was on his phone. Keith peaked over at his screen.

"Seriously?" He chuckled flatly "You're looking at memes during a stake-out?"

"Only the wholesome ones. You gotta entertain yourself somehow." Shiro retorted with a chuckle.

"Aren't I enough entertainment?" Keith smirked.

"No." Shiro said flatly. The two glanced at each other and burst into laughter. Keith hushed them both.

"I'm going to go see if Sharpshooter is in any of the houses already," Keith said after he calmed down. Shiro nodded. Keith went to open the door when-

"Oof!" a male voice exclaimed. Keith froze and then immediately closed the door. He peaked out and saw a male lying on the ground, rubbing his head. Keith took in this guy's features; his caramel skin, his contrast of sharp and soft features, and the fact he was dressed in all black.

"Sorry dude, didn't see you there," Keith said awkwardly. The guy got up slowly.

"It's okay," the guy looked at Keith.

Keith didn't know any openly gay cops in his precinct. Or any queer people. He didn't want to be the first. The man he accidentally sent to the ground made Keith feel like HE was the one who was just hit by a car door.

The guy leaned into the window, resting his elbow along where the glass disappeared. He eyed Shiro and then returned his beautiful eyes to Keith.

"What are two majestic boys such as yourselves doing in a parked car this fine evening?" He said hoarsely. There was a long pause before Shiro elbowed Keith softly, unnoticeably.

"Just, uh, waiting for a friend," Keith finally said, clearing his throat.

"We are going to this epic party," Shiro said, trying to sound cool. Trying.

"Sounds fun," the guy said, his eyes not leaving Keith. Keith had a weird feeling in his stomach, a sense of familiarity. He couldn't quite figure it out, but this guy sounded familiar.

"What are you doing walking around this late?" Keith asked.

"Oh, you know, went for a late night jog. Gotta keep up the cardio in case I happen to meet someone cute one day," Lance said, wiggling his eyebrows at Keith. He was definitely flirting with him. But Shiro was right there. Keith averted his eyes. There were a few lights on but the night was quiet, apart from the radio in the car.

"Hunk said he will be out in a moment," Shiro told Keith. The guy looked around, taking his arm off of the ledge.

"Well, should probably be getting back to my parents. Night boys, be safe." The guy gave them finger guns as he sauntered away. He went over to a house with a light on in one of the back rooms. Keith still felt that there was something about him… Had he met this guy before? The way he talked, the way he flirted, was ringing a cacophony of bells inside Keith's head. As the guy walked away, Shiro suddenly stiffened. He grabbed the Sharpshooter case folder, opened up to the shitty picture. He put it up for comparison. The guy they were just talking to had the same build, and from the distance looked approximately the same height. It was impossible to tell the ethnicity of the person in the photo.

Instead of walking in through the front door, the person in question snuck around to the back.

"You think that's our guy?" Keith whispered, despite Shiro being the only person within a five meter radius of him.

"Possibly? I mean, why did he go into the back. Why is he going to his parents when he looks around your age?"

"Hey! I'm not that old," Keith retorted. "And maybe he is visiting?"

Shiro gave him a doubtful look. They stared at each other until Keith broke.

"Fine, I'll go inspect. Radio in if you see anything suspicious."

"You too," Shiro said. He ruffled Keith's hair with his new robot arm, and Keith almost teared up at how fatherly it felt. He looked up to Shiro these days yet saw him as an equal. Shiro and he both had shitty pasts but were brought together to form a brotherly bond. Keith exited the car and made sure he did it as quietly as possible as to not draw attention to himself from anyone nearby. He snuck around the house to the back door, which he horrifically realized was locked. The window was open enough for Keith to slip into; and, he thought, for the guy from earlier to slip in. He readied his taser and ventures cautiously further into the house.

There was a singular light on in the kitchen, through a hallway and a dining room. He heard some sort of disturbance in the kitchen. Keith tredded lightly on the hardwood floor of the mansion-of-a-house. Was careful to stay out of the light casted in the doorway, in case his shadow gave away his presence. He heard a voice saying something.

"Shit," a familiar voice said. After a few seconds, Keith heard a gentle thud and the voice repeated the curse. At the end of the hallway, when he entered the dining room, he almost tripped over the two bodies on the ground. Keith maneuvered flawless, recovered from the shock of finding two bodies, and sprung into action. He checked for signs of life, relieved when the two seemed to be unconscious and alive. Upon inspection, he found a dart in both of the victim's necks. He internally swore. He could have prevented this. It was Sharpshooter who spoke with him earlier. Keith made sure the two victims were stable before daring to peek into the kitchen. He had been hearing the same word over and over again.

Keith blew his cover. When he peered into the other room, he couldn't control the laughter that escaped him. Sharpshooter was sitting on the kitchen island, a bag of grapes half empty, grapes scattered around him on the island and on the floor. He was throwing grapes into the air and trying to catch them in his mouth. Judging by the amount on the floor, Sharpshooter was significantly better with a gun. He had just missed again when Keith had laughed. Keith jumped back, hoping despite the odds that Sharpshooter didn't think anything of it.

"Whoever you are, you threw off my game!"

Keith stayed put but chuckled. He heard the guy sigh.

"You're either a cop or a thief. Whichever one it is, I know you are there so you might as well come out."

Keith readied his stun gun and entered the doorway, aiming at the boy on the counter.

"Come peacefully and you will get a lesser sentence." Keith firmly said, but his voice quivered. Sharpshooter smirked and raised his knockout dart gun.

"I may not be the best at catching grapes in my mouth, but I assure you, I will only need one shot. And it will be quick."

Keith got a good intake of his surroundings. He noticed the guy had a big bag that looked full. The guy seemed relaxed with a gun pointed at him at first glance, but Keith saw the worry in his eyes and the tremble in his non-shooting hand.

"Come peacefully," Keith said again, not letting his eyes leave Sharpshooter's. A sudden look of realization took over Sharpshooter's face.

"Wait, you're that guy from the car!" he exclaimed and Keith smirked. God that was hot.

"Give yourself up. We have been tracking your movements, and have found you. We will catch you again if you somehow manage to get away right now."

The guy didn't budge.

"What's your name?" Keith tried a different route. The guy glared at Keith for what felt like an hour due to the tension.

"Lance."

"Hi Lance. You have been linked to multiple different crime scenes. Breaking and entering, theft, and forcing drugs onto civilians, to name a few. The sooner you come in, the less of your life you will spend behind bars, the less life you are wasting. Since you haven't killed anyone, your sentence is incredibly better than if you had. If you shoot me with that, your sentence will be worse since I am a cop-" Keith said logically, but was interrupted.

"Why do you care?" Lance snapped. Keith hesitated and was caught off guard. The rest of his monologue flew out the window.

"I care because… well I don't know. I care because this is a poor life choice you made..." Keith trailed off because Lance cackled. "What's so funny?"

"It's all the same for you cops." Lance bitterly said. "You think that I am in control of my life. Do you think I chose to be the oldest child in my family? I chose that my parents couldn't get enough money to pay for an education for me? I did choose to start stealing but what were my options? What were the other fucking options cop dude? I would LOVE for you to tell me how to get more money. I'm already working two jobs to support my family. Then I do this because four incomes isn't enough. I do this so that my siblings can pick whether they want to live with our parents or if they want to live with me."

Keith felt a part of him empathize with Lance; that had never happened before with anyone he arrested.

"There's other job options. These people don't deserve to have their home invaded and their stuff stolen." Keith said. Lance scoffed.

"Do you know how hard it is for someone like me to get a good livable paying job? And these people… they are living in luxury. They have never known what it's like to go hungry because your sibling's development is more important than your own. They have never experienced having to do terrible, degrading things in order to get next months rent and food on the table. Do you think I take pride in this? I don't. But I do what's necessary to survive and help my siblings."

Keith was speechless and solemn. He understood why Lance was doing this now; obviously he didn't fully understand it, as he had never been in those circumstances. He was an only child with a single parent. His dad always made sure he would be fed. He felt in this moment defeated. He had to do his job, it was the law. But Lance wasn't to blame; he had shitty circumstances. He wasn't causing permanent damage. He had some morality.

"Lance, I promise if you come with me without fighting back we can help you get resources once you get out of jail, if it even comes to that." Keith thought of the different programs set up to help Mala Prohibita criminals. Hell, Lance could get a job at the precinct. "I can help you and your family."

Lance's shooting arm was shaking slightly. He looked like he was fighting an internal battle.

"That sounds like some bullshit," Lance said, his voice cracking part way through.

"Lance, you have a gun pointed at me. Why would I lie?"

Lance gave Keith a once over.

"Because you don't want me to shoot you so you offer me a sweet lie. You want me to cooperate."

"I want you to get the help you deserve!"

Lance bolted, grabbing the bag of goodies. Keith could not catch up; he decided to radio Shiro. By the time Keith made it outside, Lance was in handcuffs, connected to a grate in the ground. Shiro waved joviously at Keith.

The car ride was silent again, a part from the music Shiro played. Lance was passed out in the back; the two cops were to arrest him while the rest of the group went to the crime scene and helped the victims. Shiro happily hummed along to songs Keith didn't know. Keith watched the boy in the back of the car. Lance had put one of his own darts into him while Keith and Shiro transferred him from the grate to the car. Keith pondered the boy. He didn't attack Keith, so he was in a good place for court. Hopefully the victims won't press charges. Keith pondered Lance. He had morals; he didn't kill any of his victims. He only stole the food and expensive items. He was trying to feed his family. Keith did think that Lance could have had a choice, but the thing is Lance didn't know he did. He thought about how his family might think of Lance now that he was a criminal. Would they still love him?

Shiro and Keith got to the precinct and Shiro had to carry Lance. They were the first to arrive; Shiro suggested taking him down to Pidge to give her the darts that were still in Lance's pouch. The pair of cops received a slew of strange looks from their co-workers. Keith had the upper half while Shiro had the lower. As they passed, Shiro called out "We've got Sharpshooter!". That sent the precinct into applause and Keith face into a shy blush.

"What do you have?" Pidge asked when the boys were halfway down the stairs, in her line of sight. The boys were focused on carrying Lance and didn't answer.

"WHO do you have?" Pidge said, sounding concerned but also curious. She pointed to a table for them to put Lance on until they wanted to relocate him again. Shiro cuffed him to the legs of it, in a position Keith could only imagine being uncomfortable when Lance wakes up. Pidge guided them into her lab space, Keith following them in but staying at the door. He watched as Pidge took the darts Lance was carrying, dumped the contents onto a film, put it under the microscope, and looked at the substance. For a while. Too long for Keith to focus. He was tired and, although he wouldn't admit it, on edge for a reason he couldn't pinpoint why. Keith decided to explore the lab. He walked around the perimeter; stopped to examine a skull on Pidge's desk.

"Don't touch that" Pidge said, not moving her head.

How could she see him? Keith thought. He kept going. He tried poking something else that he wasn't sure what it was.

"Or that."

A few seconds later, Keith found something else.

"Officer Kogane?" Shiro said.

"Yeah?" Keith said. Shiro cleared his throat and tossed something at him. Keith caught it and grimaced at Shiro once seeing the fidget device. He silently accepted the tool and resumed his position leaning on the door frame. He watched Pidge fiddle around with science books and machines. She luckily did not have any autopsies to do.

"Whaaat…?" Keith heard a male voice groggily say. He turned around and saw Lance was waking up, wiggling his arms and trying to stretch but finding out he's cuffed. Keith left the doorway and approached the criminal. He wiggled around, obviously disoriented and confused. Keith waited for him to speak, standing on Lance's left side with his arms crossed and a neutral expression on his face. He tried to hide his fascination with the criminal.

"Where am I?" he said. "Am I… on a table? Wait… Am I cuffed to the table?"

"Yeah," Keith deadpanned.

"Kinky!" Lance exclaimed, winking at Keith. Keith flustered. "I've tried ropes and belts, but this is a first for handcuffs…"

If Keith wasn't blushing before, he was DEFINITELY now.

"That's… a bit more information about you than I want…" Keith tightly said. He shrunk into himself. Lance gave him a good once over, an inquisitive expression on his face and something in his eyes.

"You look familiar…" Lance said. This made Keith more uncomfortable than before, which he thought to be impossible. Keith shrugged, not wanting to admit that Lance DID seem familiar.

"Yeah, I arrested you." Keith deadpanned. "Can you tell me what was in those darts?" Keith decided to switch the topic to his job. Lance did not fall for it.

"Come on, do you think I look familiar?" Lance asked. Keith kept his stare on the boy. "Humor me."

"No," Keith deadpanned. He turned away and called to Shiro. "He's awake."

"And very uncomfortable!" Lance called after. Shiro entered the room, looked between Lance and Keith, and then told Keith to bring him upstairs for holding.

Keith took Lance's feet first, uncuffing one from the table, then attaching it to the other one, before going to the hands. Keith told Lance not to resist, to which earned him a remark about about a roleplay situation where Lance was on the giving end of that statement and not the receiving end. Keith cuffed Lance's hands together, got him to sit up, and while holding on tightly to the wrist shackles, undid the feet cuffs. He led a complacent Lance to a holding cell upstairs. The only available one was near Keith's desk. Keith was fine with that, only because he could watch Lance's behavior better if he was close to him. Laid down on the bench, his gaze never leaving Keith. The cop in focus did paperwork in the meantime. He still had a lot of it to do. He tried to focus but his mind kept drifting to the Latino in the cell behind him, where he knew him from. Lance had never been caught, so Keith probably had never arrested him before. It's not like Keith was a part of a previous precinct, this was his first. He would have to dig up a yearbook when he got home later that night. He shrugged off the thoughts, leaving the investigation for later that night. He continued to do paperwork - and got most of it done - until Shiro tapped him on the shoulder. Keith jumped; he was so focused on his work that he didn't hear Shiro approach.

"Hey, time to clock out," the older cop said. "Did he talk?"

"I honestly don't know if he knows how to without flirting or making any sort of innuendo," Keith commented. He warily looked over to the cell, relieved to see Lance sleeping on the bench.

"Yeah… He seems to like you in particular," Shiro elbowed Keith. Keith smacked him lightly.

"Hey!" a criminal in another cell called. "Can I use my phone call now?"

Lance bolted into a sitting position on the bench and Keith groaned. Shiro sighed and told Keith he would handle the call. Lance approached the cell door and smiled.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow," Keith said. He smirked. "Have a nice sleep."

Keith started to leave but Lance called something out when he was halfway out.

"I remember where I know you from!"

Keith rolled his eyes and kept walking. It was probably a way to rile Keith up, to keep him busy, and a source of entertainment for Lance.

"Deputy, if you come back, I'll jog your memory."

Keith kept walking.

A/N: HUGE thanks to Shiranai Atsune for suggesting this. I had fun writing it and trying to figure out how it would go down. I hope you all enjoyed it! Not sure how long this will be, but more will come.

Let me know how you feel about it :)