i.e. No Different

Mirror and Image

Shiro had first noticed it on the return trip in the Red Lion. The Blade of Mamora's leader, Kolivan, was stoically standing behind them, fading in presence like a shadow after they had contacted Allura and the others of their imminent arrival. Keith, who had been tense for weeks at this point, was still wound tight, shoulders high, face grimacing, and not from the injuries of the past two days of fighting for "knowledge or death." So Shiro leaned forward, the only privacy manageable in the cockpit.

"Keith?" he asked quietly.

"I never knew," the young pilot replied. "I never knew I wasn't... human."

"Keith..."

"I mean, when I saw Ulaz, his blade... I wondered. Tried to plan around it-" That reckless idea that Zarkon could find him, Shiro realized- "but I never knew."

And now Keith was questioning himself.

Well, Shiro knew that despite Keith's more stoic nature, he'd feel things deeply, without showing it. So Shiro reached his flesh hand out and grasped the young ace's shoulder, pulling him in. "Keith," he said softly. "Ancestry just gives looks. You are you. That's all you need to be. That's all that matters."

"Shiro..."

"I've known you for years," Shiro quietly insisted. "I want you to lead this team if anything ever happens to me. That hasn't changed. And it won't."

Kieth let out a long, low breath, and through his natural arm, Shiro could feel the tension finally leaving Keith's frame. Shiro's acceptance encircled them, and the anxiety finally eased.

"Thanks, Takashi," Keith replied softly.

Shiro just squeezed his living arm around Keith a little tighter in response as they entered the docking bay. He then stood. "A Galra arm doesn't make me any different than the man I was before. The same goes for you and your ancestors."

Keith gave a small smile, and nodded. Shiro gave a reassuring smile and nodded back.

The next time Shiro noticed was after they had introduced Kolivan and debriefed everyone on what had happened at the headquarters of the Blade of Mamora. Everyone had reacted, naturally, to the fact that Keith was part Galra, but Shiro had expected that. It was a shock, even for him, and he knew they'd need a moment to adjust. The next few days as they planned, would be a touch rocky, no doubt, but he believed everyone would come around without difficulties.

But Shiro didn't like the way Allura kept looking away from Keith whenever he explained something. He understood, basically, the issue. Allura had not had positive interactions with the Galra, and up to this point, she'd been very clear on her dislike and loathing. Shiro had just thought her mature enough to realize that Keith was still Keith. Coran as well, seemed stiffer, but from what Shiro understood, Coran might have known the Galra before they became conquerors.

Keith didn't say anything about it. He just looked down.

The debriefing took a while, and Keith, in particular, was exhausted and injured. So once they were all caught up, Shiro rather firmly said that they all needed rest.

Kolivan didn't like it. He wanted to get straight to strategizing, but Shiro narrowed his eyes. "Our team has been on watch for the past two days as we made contact with you, and we've been constantly on the move before we even came here, since you were the priority. We aren't going anywhere. We are allies against Zarkon. So we will sleep and talk more in the morning."

The mask showed nothing of Kolivan s face, but there was a shrug of the shoulders that seemed amused.

Shiro nodded. "Coran, would you mind taking Keith down to the infirmary?"

The elder Altean's eyes tightened, but he smiled and pulled at his bushy mustache. "Of course! It sounds like you've had quite the ordeal! Come along, we'll get you all checked out. Maybe set you in cryo-pod to speed things along!"

Keith gave a small smile, shoulders drooping again. "Thanks," he softly replied.

Coran's tightness eased ever so slightly.

Shiro smiled as well.

"Hunk, stay with me. We'll take first watch."

The next two days were of heavy discussion, planning, and strategizing. Shiro watched with concern as Allura continued to give Keith the cold shoulder and the young pilot just looked down, shoulders hunched. If they weren't so busy with discussions, Shiro would have pulled the princess aside, but there was no time. Kolivan proved to be a veritable mine of information, laying out Galra fleets and flight patterns, basic tactics and formations, the kind of deep intelligence that they desperately needed, and Shiro questioned continuously, getting them memorized and fine tuned for predicting responses to their attacks. Pidge also eagerly questioned Kolivan on Galra tech, Hunk not far behind, and what sorts of schematics they had access to for Pidge to reverse engineer. Lance listened and stayed loose, his questions keener than one would think from his foolish demeanor. Keith was the quietest and seemed content to stay that way when Allura's reaction to him saying something was to ignore him. The tension was returning to his shoulders.

Shiro's lips tightened. He really needed to talk to her.

Once they had their plan of attack, Shiro once again insisted that they get a good night's rest before mounting their individual missions.

Early, far earlier than any of the others, Shiro awoke to take last watch. He waited at Keith's door, and the young pilot eventually came out, rubbing his eyes. "I always thought you were an early riser," Shiro teased lightly.

Keith just grumbled.

Shiro chuckled.

When they arrived, Coran and Pidge, who were on watch, both looked over, glad to see them.

"Finally," Pidge sighed, glasses off and rubbing at her eyes.

Shiro reached over and cuffed her head. "You were coding again, weren't you."

She scowled up at him, which didn't work with her tired eyes very well. "I have to stay awake somehow," she muttered.

"Well, now you can sleep," he said. "Pleasant dreams."

"Yeah, yeah," she yawned.

Keith was already at his station, looking at readouts, so Shiro nodded to himself. He followed Pidge and Coran out of the bridge, and held Coran back a moment. Pidge kept stumbling down the hall.

"Coran," Shiro asked quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Hmm?" the old Altean turned. While he wasn't as sleepy as Pidge had been, it was clear that Coran was looking forward to some more sleep before the day and their missions started.

"With Keith," Shiro clarified.

Coran blinked, then his mustache twitched to a smile. "Yes, Shiro, I am. I'll admit, it was a shock, and I'm still adjusting, but I'm fine. When I took Keith to the infirmary, I realized that all my tests still came back as they were before. No different. And I saw I was being as foolish as a Flawfiqi Aurdekempf walking into a uqaniac lilldoran."

Shiro, as usual, let all the alien words wash over him and took the underlying meaning that Coran meant. "Good. Can you talk to Allura?"

Coran gave a heavy sigh. "I can't make any promises. She was too young to remember what the Galra were like before. I have lost everything to the Galra. Ten thousand years, my family, my friends, all of it. But I understand loss and how to deal with it. She lost everything, but she's never really lost anything before. Even when we woke up and she was grieving King Alfor, she had all of you to deal with, getting the castle up and running, a thousand different distractions. And the Galra to hate. Now she's been confronted with Keith and the Galra and I'm not sure I can get through to her."

"We need to try. The tension and mistrust will harm all of us if left unchecked."

"I know," Coran said around a yawn. "I'll try to speak with her before we leave tomorrow."

"That's all I ask," Shiro replied. Coran nodded tiredly and continued on to some much needed sleep. He headed back into the bridge and took his station. Keith was more awake and running scans, and Shiro noticed that the young pilot was finally relaxed. And he sadly realized it was because no one else was around other than him.

After saving the Balmera again, finally destroying the ro-beast and regrouping, came a long debriefing and their different missions. Shiro had gone first, with Pidge and Lance, mostly to get it over with, since Slav constantly interrupted and Shiro's last nerve was already frayed to breaking. Everyone soon saw why, so Shiro was at least able to share in his misery. Keith and Hunk explained their adventures in the belly of a beast and Shiro had to watch again as Allura only spoke to Hunk. Coran's talk didn't seem to have done anything then. Shiro may have to intervene, but defeating Zarkon was more important at the moment. They were all exhausted and he didn't want to fray any nerves further than they were, so it would have to come later.

Shiro was intent on several hours of sleep, but first he had to cleanse himself of the day. He may have lingered in the shower a few minutes longer than strictly necessary after the length of the previous adventure, but his muscles were more relaxed, his stump wasn't aching like it usually did after a long day, and he was starting to cool down enough to think about his pillow. He was heading down to the galley for some water when he was surprised to see Keith storm past. The young ace's shoulders were nothing but tension and his face a frustrated scowl as he stalked down the halls, completely unaware of his surroundings and turning to the training deck. At this hour?

Shiro frowned, wondering if he should follow, but decided to let Keith cool off from whatever had set him off.

Entering the dining hall, however, made Shiro lose his appetite. Hunk and Lance were there, laughing, Pidge still up on the bridge for watch.

"Who knew Galra-Keith had a sense of humor?" Lance was saying.

"I know, right? Galra-Keith is so different than Regular-Keith," Hunk chuckled. "It's kind of refreshing."

Lance kept laughing. "Going full Galra seems to be an improvement to me!" The sharpshooter wiped a tear from his eye. "Keith, how do you like your new Galra personali-" Lance looked around, surprised that Keith wasn't there, but shrugged. "Guess being Galra is why he's so sneaky. I didn't see him finish his meal."

This again. Tired and wanting to go to bed, the Paladin knew he was on his last nerve and wasn't sure if now was a good time to address this, but that kind of language wouldn't keep, and Keith was obviously bothered by the it. Shiro took a deep breath and stalked into the dining hall.

Hunk and Lance were still chuckling and turned when Shiro stepped up to the table.

"Hey, Shiro!" Lance greeted brightly.

"Oh," Hunk took a moment to swallow, "hey, Shiro."

Then the two of them saw Shiro's frown and crossed arms and straight back.

"Uh... Shiro? What's wrong?" Hunk asked softly.

Lance was blinking in confusion. "We haven't been back long enough to get into trouble, why the frowny-face, boss-man?"

Shiro took another long breath.

"Do you realize that Keith isn't the only member of this team that's part Galra, correct?"

They both blinked in unison.

"Uh, no?" Lance asked. "Last I checked, Keith was the only one with a grand revelation about heritage - unless you count Pidge being a girl. Which was pretty big now that I think about it, I mean I have the best radar and she didn't even make a blip and-" Shiro cut him off with a hard glare.

"Shiro, I don't understand," Hunk said, knowing they were both in trouble but not seeing the immediate cause.

"You never thought that I was part Galra?"

The two Paladins still stared dumbly. Then Lance, of course, bound to overreactions, broke out laughing. "Ahahahaha, good one Shiro! You! Part Galra! Ah, that's hilarious."

"I don't get it," Hunk mumbled. His eyes were bouncing between Shiro and Lance, slowly backing away from the latter and trying to save face while still being honest.

Shiro didn't respond, instead he lifted his fake arm and held it up.

"Wait, you mean your arm?" Lance squinted at it. "Um, Shiro, that arm-"

"Is Galra," Shiro explained, voice tense. "That makes me part Galra. Possibly even more so than Keith." Shiro turned sharp eyes to the sharpshooter. "So am I Galra-Shiro now? With a new Galra-Shiro personality? Am I more humorous now that I'm Galra-Shiro? Or perhaps my skill at combat now makes sense because I'm Galra-Shiro?" On his last nerve, he was much louder than he had intended, but he had to make this heavy, important. They had to understand what they were doing to Keith.

"Shiro..." Hunk started to say.

"No, no, wait," Lance said, lifting his arms up in a stopping gesture. "You're not Galra, you're just – like – part Galra. It's not like you've been Galra your whole life and decided to hide it or anything."

Shiro slammed his prosthetic onto the table, rattling the empty plates there and making Hunk scared enough to give an undignified yelp. "And you think Keith did? That he just didn't think to tell anyone? He didn't even know. He's having an identity crisis and you think poking and making fun of it helps? Do you have any idea what it's like to wake up one day and realize you're not who you thought you were? To know there's a whole part of you that's suddenly missing and you have no idea how you even lost it? To go through nights wondering if you ever even had it? To stare at yourself in the mirror and not recognize yourself? Do you know how long it takes to reconcile that? To accept what you are and what you've become? Is mocking that really a good idea?"

Shiro caught himself at last, seeing the unhindered fear in both of them as they had backed into a corner, staring up at the Paladin and hugging each other in bleak certainty that they were doomed. A leader should never cause that expression on his subordinates – Shiro had crossed a line. He took a deep, slow breath through his nose, closing his eyes and reflecting on what he said, connected Keith's predicament to why it bothered him so much, and accepted the result of his actions. He exhaled, and when he opened his eyes he saw the two slowly unwinding, sensing the danger had passed.

"... Sorry," Shiro said finally, rubbing his forehead with his real hand. He needed another shower. "That was out of line."

Hunk responded first. "No, Shiro. You were right." The engineer disentangled himself from Lance and stood up. "We're sorry. We weren't thinking. We'll talk to Keith tomorrow."

"No," Shiro said firmly. "You two are to report to the training deck now. It will be you two versus me and Keith. I think that should make things about fair."

Hunk's shoulders dropped in defeat and he nodded his head. "Yeah... that should do it."

Shiro turned hard eyes to Lance.

The sharpshooter immediately shrank back, arms up in defense. "Fine! Just stop glaring at me!"

Keith was already dripping in sweat when the three of them arrived. His shoulders tensed at seeing Lance and Hunk, and Shiro watched as Hunk seemed to notice and then the massive mechanic seemed to shrink in on himself in guilt. Lance just pouted, too embarrassed by his own behavior to dare show any other signs of weakness instead of bravado.

"Shiro?" Keith panted, reaching up to wipe the sweat from his brow. "What-"

"Computer," Shiro called out, walking forward to stand by Keith. "Two on two match up. Set timer, one varga."

"An hour?!" Lance groaned.

Keith gave a questioning glance, so Shiro reached out and used his real arm to pull the ace pilot in, like he had in the Red Lion's cockpit not that long ago. "Team Galra versus Team Human," he whispered. Keith quickly glanced at Shiro's prosthetic arm, then widened his eyes. His smile was minuscule, but his eyes danced as he nodded his head.

Admittedly, Lance and Hunk had the initial edge, since Keith had spent a fair bit of time working out his frustrations, but Shiro had far more experience than all three of them put together. Add on to the fact that both he and Keith would usually spar together in the mornings made for a far more compelling match.

Halfway through the match, Team Galra had scored another point, starting to inch their lead into a more comfortable margin. Everyone was sweating and tired, especially after an already long day, but they were taking positions again, each far more vested in the competition.

"Hey Keith," Hunk called over. "I meant what I said before. Being part Galra makes you more human."

The ace pilot blinked, straightening, before a more honest smile crossed his lips. Shiro nodded to himself. Now if only Lance could overcome his own pride...

By the end of the match, Shiro was the only one still standing. Keith leaned forward, hands on his knees, panting, Hunk stretched out on the floor not even bothering to move, and Lance sitting in an exhausted slouch.

Shiro looked to his teammate, gave a small smile and winked. Keith was exhausted, but caught the look and a corner of his lip twitched.

"Okay everyone," Shiro announced. "Time to stretch and cool off. Then hit the showers and go to bed."

Keith straightened, and together they walked over to Hunk. "Aw man," the large pilot groaned. "I think I need to sleep for a week."

"No, you just need more practice," Shiro replied, eyes glittering in mirth.

"Nope! No way, I am not joining you two at stupid o'clock for your little sparring matches. Someone needs to make decent food here, and the only one available is me!"

"True," Keith agreed. Both he and Shiro grabbed a hand and hauled Hunk up. "Without you we'd all be starving."

"Yeah! Exactly! See Shiro!"

Shiro chuckled. "Can you handle stretching on your own?"

"Yeah, not a problem," Hunk moaned, already putting an arm up and behind his back to grab an elbow and pull gently. "I know the drill."

"Need any help?" Keith offered.

"No. And Keith, I really am sorry."

The ace glanced away. "It's a lot to adjust to."

"Yeah. Doesn't make it any less wrong."

"Thanks."

"Will no one help me up?" Lance whined between gasping gulps of air.

Shiro and Keith glanced at each other and Shiro ever so lightly bumped Keith's shoulder with his own. They shared an amused grin and walked over.

"Seems like you're ready to stretch your hamstrings," Shiro said lightly.

"I don't want to stretch, I don't want to shower, I just want to collapse in bed." Yet, despite the whining, Lance did stretch out his legs and start leaning forward.

"Good," Shiro nodded. "Keith, help him push." Shiro watched the ace pilot's shoulders tense again, but then relax because he was too tired to argue. So he stood behind Lance and lightly touched the sharpshooter's shoulders to push him further into each stretch. Shiro stepped back and started his own stretches, grabbing a foot and pulling it back to feel the pull in the front of his thigh. He watched the two carefully, but neither said anything. Keith wouldn't, of course, and even if he did he was too awkward to try, but Lance by contrast almost never stopped talking, and Shiro had expected the Blue Paladin to use the opportunity that had just been given to him. With his head down on his knees, Shiro couldn't read the Cuban's expression. He sighed and switched to his other leg. He could only push so far.

It was midnight when they were finally done stretching and showering – or whatever the Altean equivalent to midnight was, and Hunk had lost all coherency by then, merely grunting before leaving to his room. Shiro was tired enough to join him, he had the bone deep exhaustion that usually meant a night without nightmares and night terrors, but before he could to go to bed he wanted one last check on Lance, see if he had found his chance to apologize for his behavior.

After seeing Hunk off he turned back to the showers and saw Keith running a towel through his hair, thick black locks knotted around his head before he shook it and let gravity pull them down. Lance came out of his shower, already in sleep gear, cream massaged around his face and ready to go to bed. He glared at Keith through a mirror, small eyes boring holes into the red Paladin, mouth low on his chin.

"... You're still a jerk, you know," he muttered.

Keith of course heard it and spun around. "What?" he demanded, instantly defensive. "Because I'm Galra?"

"No!" Lance shouted, all spent energy from the training magically back as he leaned aggressively forward on one foot and pointed. "You've always been a jerk and being a Galra won't ever change that!"

He stormed out of the room, face dour, leaving Keith a little breathless.

Shiro, however, and learned early on how to interpret Lance's outbursts. He walked in and let Keith see him. "That's about as close to an apology as you're going to get," he said.

Keith looked up to his mentor in utter bewilderment, wet hair clinging to his forehead. "That was an apology?"

Shiro offered a reassuring grin. "That's a Lance-Apology. It's a little different from a human-apology. Come on. Tomorrow's a full day of preparation. We should get some sleep."

When all was said and done, on the eve of the attack, after yelling at Lance and Hunk, after seeing Allura snub Keith yet again and following as Coran went out of his way to not stiffen at his presence, Shiro was beginning to think that most of the wrinkles had been straightened. Allura was the only holdout who was so obvious in her dislike and Pidge hadn't had any time to comment. But for the princess to realize what she was doing, Shiro was beginning to think that he'd have to make a point of accepting Keith, to model how she was supposed to treat the Red Paladin – i.e. no different – and as the sun finally set on Olkari and they moved back into the castle he was forcing himself to put it aside and focus on Zarkon. The fight. The plan.

He made one last tour of the ship, walking down the halls, contemplating the training room and the galleys and the throne room. The medical wing. The docking bays. The architecture was alien, but it had been home for a time, a place where he regained his sanity after his year of capture, where he had made up for his failures, where he had found a purpose in his life. Everything he had gone through had brought him to this moment, and his mind slowly emptied, focus drifting over him. He could almost hear a purr in the back of his head, the Black Lion giving approval, perhaps.

He was making his way to his quarters – sleep might be possible, but meditation was more likely. As Shiro turned a corner he saw Keith leaning against a wall, arms crossed. Shiro tensed almost automatically in anticipation, seeing the young teen talking to Pidge. Something made him stop, however, and he simply watched.

"... and with all the new data from the prison block there are a lot of new ways to modify my algorithm to narrow down the list of groups and subgroups that have Matt and that way the search will go faster. More data is always better and it gets a little better every time and there's also the fact that reverse engineering Galra programs are getting easier with more exposure, and all the details Kolivan gave us will make my hacking even quicker and-"

Keith held up a hand, and Shiro could just make out the look of annoyance, the twitching eyebrow. "... Why are you telling me this?" he asked, voice low and a little petulant.

Pidge was mostly in shadow, and the pause drew out for a long moment before she shrugged her shoulders. Shiro had seen her brother and father do that so much he almost wasn't sure who he was looking at – that was the shrug of a Holt trying to hide pain.

"Sorry," she said, voice lower, quieter. "It's just... If my algorithm is good enough to find my family, I figured it might help in finding yours. If you were interested."

Shiro's eyes widened, and he smiled broadly as he saw Keith struggle to come to the same conclusion. The young teen blinked rapidly, staring down in a mix of shock and confusion, before he tightened the cross of his arms and looked away himself, scoffing. "What are you talking about?" he demanded, defensive.

Shiro almost stepped in right then, but Pidge cut him off.

"You know... you're Galra family. I mean, we don't have a starting point yet, I don't even know which parent – no, it might be a grandparent or something – but you said out there earlier that you might want to start looking for them. I... I know what it's like to not know where your family is. I just wanted to help."

Keith sputtered, unused to the acceptance after so much negativity from everyone else. He uncrossed his arms, unsure what to do with his hands before stuffing them in his jacket pockets. "... Do what you want," was the best he could offer.

Pidge left shortly after, and Shiro came up and slapped a hand on Keith's shoulder, startling the young teen. "Shiro?"

"You better get used to that," he said deliberately. "Once everyone else comes around they'll all be clamoring to help you find your family."

The flush that spread on Keith's face was worth the tease. "You don't know they're going to do that," he muttered, still sullen. Shiro wrapped his arm more fully around the boy's shoulders, much like in the Red Lion, and touched their foreheads together.

"Pidge is the most mature member of this group of teenagers," he replied, "The others will take a while to catch up to her, but they will. It's just a matter of time."

And for the first time in days, he watched Keith smile freely.

End

Author's Notes: We've become obsessed with this show. The hard-hitting nostalgia of the old 80s show we grew up watching hits really hard at times, and yet its so much better at the same time - it's so weird and so cool.

Not much to say for this fic in particular, just a plot bunny that bumped around Mirror's head until she decided to write it. Haven't got a firm grasp on all the characters yet, but we hope you enjoy!