First Voltron fanfic, but unlike many of my other fics, this is a one shot. Depending on the responses, I may expand it into a series, but this can be read as a standalone.

Culture Shock

It took twelve years, five months, two weeks, and three days before Keith saw another human.

Sure, he guessed he could look in the mirror to see the other half of his heritage, the heritage he lost the moment his mother decided it was much too dangerous to hide and took back to the stars that she had come from. Lost in the firefight that destroyed the ship they had been on. Lost the moment his father had died in the blast. Keith had vague memories of his life before the Galra, before everything came crashing down in tears and blood, and no matter how much he tried to cling to the idea that he could keep the memories of Earth safe, they faded beneath an onslaught of prejudice and violence.

Eventually he lost his mother as well, a rebel against the Galra who fought with everything she had to keep her son safe, only to see him enslaved much like the rest of the galaxy seemed to be. He could still even remember her whispers to him, telling him that he should be strong and that he had the proud heritage of both races to draw from before she was pulled painfully away to be led into battle in the gladiatorial arena. Keith imagined that she fought bravely to the end, standing tall even in the face of death.

He could never be like her and he knew it. He endured jeers from the full-blooded Galra, taunts that his human heritage made him weak. All Keith could do was stand tall and bury everything under pride and anger. He knew his mother would be ashamed of him, burying everything that made him human so deep that he wouldn't let anything show. He did it to survive. He did it to protect himself. In doing so, he knew he lost something he could never regain.

They decided to see just how feral the halfbreed could be. Tossing him into the same gladiatorial matches as his mother had been forced into when he was thirteen, Keith had been forced to fight for his life repeatedly against foes that would have killed him. He learned quickly, fighting just as much if not harder than some others in the arena. The Galra were quick to point out that the halfbreed was obviously superior to the other combatants due to his Galran ancestry.

However, all it took was a human who was just as desperate to survive for Keith to fall in the arena.

The Champion, they called him. Keith himself wasn't sure what to call him, the alien that wore a face similar to his own, but the human did something more unexpected than just beat him. He let him live. Keith, who had killed others with his own hands in the arena, watched as the human spared him, only to be dragged off to who knows where as punishment.

Keith wasn't without some autonomy. Being part Galra meant that they preferred to prove to the halfbreed mutt that they were superior, that any Galran slave was superior no matter the quantity of other in their veins. It meant that he was permitted his mother's blade and allowed to roam around as long as it didn't interfere with his normal duties. Keith had never taken advantage of this autonomy before until now.

Getting into the cell block that housed the Champion had been easy. Getting to the Champion to actually speak with them was much harder, but Keith managed it by offering to bring him his dinner. The guard in charge of feeding the human had remarked that Keith probably wanted to spit in the face of the human that bested him. Keith said nothing, choosing to stay silent on the fact that he was just curious about how a human ended up in space.

The first meeting was awkward. The Champion had heard of the feral halfbreed, and Keith was wary about being so close to the weaker half of his heritage. In the end, Keith left the cell with more questions than answers, a plate of half-eaten food held in his hands and the memory of a burning gaze and even more burning questions about why Keith had forsaken his own people. Keith could never answer them, knowing that he no longer knew what it was to be human.

The second and third times were no better. Keith had no more answers for the man than before, though now the man questioned how he even came to be with the Galra. Keith didn't know how to answer that, since to him, it was obvious why. He was a Galran halfbreed, a stain on his own people. No matter what, he was with his people.

By the fifth meal, he must have been a common sight to the man now that the man no longer threw questions at him about allegiances or why he had become a murderer (he wasn't, he was a survivor same as the Champion). Instead, he studied him silently, trying to peer into Keith like he held the answers to the universe. Then he opened his mouth.

"What's your name?"

It was such an odd question from the man that Keith paused for a moment, dark eyes blinking before he realized the question had been directed at him. "Keith."

"That's a really human name. No last name?"

Keith had to spend a long moment searching through his memories before he realized that no, he had no last name he could recall. Whatever a last name was. He ended up shaking his head in response, unsure of whether a last name was something humans were used to or not.

The man shifted a bit, his gaze still studying Keith. "You don't talk much, do you?"

Keith ended up shrugging. "Not much to talk about."

The man continued to study him, and the rest of his meal was consumed in silence. It wasn't until Keith was collecting the tray and leaving that he spoke again. "Takashi Shirogane."

"What?" Keith blinked, wondering if that was some sort of human farewell.

The man managed a smile so faint that Keith wasn't sure if it was real or not. "It's my name. Takashi Shirogane. Nice to meet you Keith."

Keith didn't stay after that, fleeing the room as quickly as pride allowed him and returning to his own bunk for the night. There he stared at his mother's blade, reminding himself that he was Galra, not human, and to admit that he shared something with the Champion was admitting weakness. He didn't sleep well that night.

He didn't know why he continued to visit the human either. He'd studied him, found that the man didn't want to be left alone with his own thoughts. He knew the human was still being forced to fight in the arena, that he was still being as merciful as he could be there, and still was punished for it. Keith knew because he too fought in the arena, though he found his hand shaking more and more any time he went in for the finishing blow. He figured it had to be something the human was doing to him, making him weak when he needed to be strong. It was the only reasoning that made sense to the halfbreed.

Still, the meetings with the human persisted, and Shiro (the man had insisted on the nickname as he hated that Keith tried to refer to him as the Champion) told him about life on Earth. Keith couldn't believe that a race so weak had managed to avoid being enslaved by the Galra for so long. After all, he was proof that all humans were inferior to them. No other human but Shiro had managed to be seen in the gladiator arena. They couldn't survive.

Just as suddenly as Keith had met Shiro, his life took an unexpected turn. He was fast asleep, his room dark with the night cycle, when he felt a hand clamp over his mouth. Thrashing, he found himself waking up to an unusual Galra pressing a finger to silent lips. The Galra then raised a blade similar to Keith's own that showed the same symbol as his mother's blade before he whispered harshly.

"Quiet. I'm fulfilling a promise to your mother, but you mustn't say anything. I'm getting you out of here."

Confused, Keith nevertheless followed the older Galra as they made their way to the medical section. It wasn't until he found them outside of the cell for the human that Keith stared at the Galran in confusion. He didn't give the halfbreed any explanation, only ducked in and out of the room long enough to retrieve the human while Keith felt cold sweat trickle down his back. This didn't feel right.

In all honesty, Keith didn't get a chance to question why anything about the situation didn't feel right. As soon as the human was retrieved, they were beset by guards intent on stopping them. Keith drew his mother's blade, feeling it lengthen into a sword to parry and deflect the blasts directed his way. He managed to hold his own decently enough, but it was much different than in the arena.

Later, Keith would wonder about everything happening around him, but when he found himself within an escape vehicle with Shiro, all he could do was watch as the place he considered home for nearly his entire life went up.

Keith watched from a distance as the humans swarmed all over the vehicle and retrieved Shiro. Keith didn't know what to do. On the one hand, the halfbreed was now trapped on a world he had little memory of. Nothing seemed familiar, and he'd been startled to discover that humans came in all shapes and sizes as he watched them work. On the other, there was something in the air on this world that called to him, and he couldn't place what or why. It was like waking up from a long dream, where reality and fantasy blurred together in just a way that made everything familiar and foreign at once, and for the first time he could recall he cursed his inhumanity because if he had even an inkling of anything of this world, then he'd be better able to help.

As it was, he stayed in the shadows, hoping that the humans wouldn't be able to spot him. They could best help Shiro, he reasoned, while he was unable to do so. He hadn't missed that during their flight, Shiro had been under the influence of some kind of drug before stumbling into the escape vehicle. However, crouching in the shadows hadn't prevented him from hearing Shiro thrash and flail about the Galra coming and the fact they needed to find Voltron.

Keith had of course heard of the legend of Voltron. What Galra hadn't? It was said to be a myth from before the war, a great creature or machine that could match the Galran forces and defeat them. Keith himself had mixed feelings about it, as he was certain that such a legend never existed. If it had, then he never would have been forced to endure the existence he had.

He sat, trying to determine the best chance of survival he had. He was completely alien in this world, and he knew he'd stick out like a sore thumb trying to survive. Shiro, on the other hand, was born and raised on Earth. He'd know the best way to survive here.

Mind made up, he glanced around. He needed a distraction, and the Earth vehicles looked simple enough. He needed to be able to distract the guards enough to get to Shiro and then take off on them, or at least get to the ship they came in. It was of Galran design, and Keith was confident he could figure out how to pilot it long enough to get away.

He was unfamiliar enough with the world that he didn't know how to work their technology, but he at least knew how to set fires. That led to him setting fire to some of the vegetation and making his way around to get to the containment area. Incapacitating the guards (he couldn't kill them, damn his newfound weakness), he got inside and managed to get to the Champion before he found unexpected complications.

Shiro of course didn't recognize him, as he was unconscious while the halfbreed freed him from his bonds. It was the three others, humans by the look of them, which caused Keith to pull up short. He clenched his fist, hating the sudden interruption of his rescue attempt as he stared down the tall skinny human.

To his surprise, the three didn't try and stop their escape. Instead, they decided to assist. Shiro had been passed to the larger of the three to carry while the skinny one complained, but Keith needed all of his concentration to incapacitate the rest of the guards watching the ship. Taking off had been interesting, but he again ignored the skinny human while he attempted to fly the Galran ship. The tiny one seemed to be intent on studying the ship itself, while the larger one was apparently trying not to get sick all over the interior.

By the time he'd managed to find a place to land, they had lost the pursuing humans, but now Keith had a new problem to deal with.

"Okay buddy, who the heck are you?" The tall skinny one strode forward, prodding Keith deliberately with his index finger. Keith resisted the urge to break the appendage off.

"Keith. Who are you and what were you doing?"

"We came to investigate the crash site. We didn't think anyone else would be there so fast until we saw the place swarming with troops." The short one studied him carefully, and Keith felt himself grow nervous under their gaze. "What were you doing out there?"

"Rescuing me, I assume." The others turned to stare as Shiro, finally conscious, stared at Keith quietly. Keith felt the stare and tried not to fidget. He couldn't help but wonder if Shiro somehow blamed him for his captivity, but that was impossible. They had both been slaves of the Galra, even if Keith had misgivings about leaving. "You escaped too?"

Keith nodded quietly, feeling as though he shouldn't be there. Everyone else's gazes slid from Keith's to Shiro, confusion apparent on their faces. The smaller one cleared their throat and Keith glanced toward him. "Okay, well, as long as we're introducing ourselves, I'm Pidge, and that's Hunk and Lance."

More human names, Keith thought as he stared from one to another. That's what Shiro meant when he said that Keith's name sounded human. Lance was grumbling that he didn't need to be introduced to some weird guy with a tendency toward violence, while Hunk was waving awkwardly from where he'd settled down. Was this the heritage that his mother had tried to tell him to remember?

He missed the questions being asked of Shiro, up until he found himself being stared at intently by Pidge. The younger male (and he had to be male, right? Maybe? Keith wasn't sure, he hadn't seen any other different genders of humans before) was studying him, looking as though he was waiting for an answer. He then realized he didn't hear the question. "Huh?"

"I asked if you'd been a prisoner long. You haven't heard of any other people out in space, have you?"

Keith shook his head, bewildered by the question. He hadn't realized that he'd be mistaken for human. Didn't they know an alien when they saw one? Besides, up until Shiro, Keith had never seen a full-blooded human before. Couldn't they tell the difference between a halfbreed and a purebred human?

He was saved from the questions by Shiro, who was frowning as he rubbed his forehead. "Guys, I don't remember much, but I think he's been out in space longer than I have."

Keith tried not to look nervous as the stares returned to him, but it was a close thing. He then heard Lance snort. "Well, he's about useless then. No wonder he nearly crashed several times."

Keith nearly growled. "I'd like to see you do better with a Galran ship. Considering I'm the most familiar with the technology, I was the best choice to fly."

"Okay, knock it off you two." Both Keith and Lance looked over to spot Shiro stand and walk over to the hatch. "I'm going outside to catch some fresh air."

He barely heard anyone else's reply, watching as Shiro walked out of the ship into the fresh air. Keith suddenly found the urge to join him, as out of everyone, Shiro was the only one that knew the truth about his rescuer. Suddenly he found himself shoving himself away from the console and striding toward the hatch.

Lance had already spied the movement and crossed his arms to glare at him. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Out."

He ignored Lance's sputtered reply and headed away, climbing out of the hatch and taking a deep breath to steady himself. His eyes then caught the sky, awash in oranges, pinks, and purples, and Keith stared. The memory was vague, but he could vaguely recall the last time he'd ever seen a sky that colorful. It'd been either his mother or father he'd been sitting on the shoulders of, and they'd watched a sunrise together. He was fairly certain that he hadn't seen any since, and like the rest of his memories of Earth, it was vague at best. Suddenly he wondered just how much he lost being with the Galra.

"You've never seen a sunrise before."

Keith blinked and looked over toward Shiro, who was watching the sunrise himself, but glanced toward Keith. The older man looked back toward the sunrise with a nod, but Keith could figure the man's question easily enough. "I remember one, I think. I was a lot younger, and I think I was with my parents."

"So you have been to Earth before."

"I was born here, if that's what you're asking." Keith gave the man an uncertain smile. "I just don't remember much about it." A small hum was all that was communicated between the two, and Keith looked curiously back toward the sunrise. "How much do you remember about your time?"

"Very little." At Keith's astonished stare, Shiro shook his head. "It's all jumbled together, like I'm looking at a puzzle but can't recognize the pieces."

Keith nodded to himself. "That's probably for the better. I remember enough."

"But you didn't want to leave, did you?"

"It was all I knew. It was home." A lump formed in his throat, and he clenched his fist. "You didn't tell them about me being part-Galra, did you?"

Shiro crossed his arms, frowning. "It's not my place to tell. You were stuck in the same place I was, so I doubt you'd been there willingly."

"No, I wasn't." Keith shook his head, trying to dispel the thoughts of home and the mixed emotions connected. "You don't… hate me for what happened, do you?"

"Unless you were the one that commanded the Galra to capture me, I doubt I have reason to hate you." Keith snorted, and Shiro patted Keith on the shoulder lightly. "If anything, I think I should be thanking you since you probably helped me escape."

Keith said nothing, letting the older man go on into the ship again. After all, Shiro was wrong. Keith hadn't done anything to save Shiro. That one Galra had, and all the halfbreed had done was gone after Shiro for a completely selfish reason. He wasn't nearly as strong as his mother had wanted him to be.

Finding the Blue Lion had to be pure luck, Keith thought as he listened to the princess's description of the lions and who would be a best fit for each. They had nothing to go off of, and Keith had been the only one that could read the Galran writing on the console and scanners. As it was, they had been barely able to get to the lion before the Galra had shown up, and Keith again had a moment of conflicting emotions that he struggled to hide as Lance piloted the lion away from the confrontation. Now, standing with the others and being told they were the new Paladins for Voltron, he felt completely out of place. He was the enemy! Couldn't Coran and Allura see that? They had to know a Galra when they saw one, right?

Except they didn't, and Shiro had given Keith a pat on the shoulder as they left to find the Yellow and Green Lions. Keith had to stay behind, as they hadn't located Red Lion, and he crossed his arms self-consciously as he realized that maybe the lion didn't want to be found for a Galra to pilot. Allura had stated she was doing her best, but Keith couldn't help but wonder if she was unconsciously trying to hide Red Lion from the halfbreed. He also couldn't help but wonder if the Red Lion would even accept him. It was extremely picky, after all. It had to sense that he wasn't human.

Except neither were Coran and Allura, and their people had built the lions. Maybe the lions didn't care who piloted them, only that they were the best fit for each lion. He glanced over to Allura, seeing her go through star charts as she struggled to find the Red Lion. If he didn't have to admit he was part of the enemy, then he could survive his time with the Alteans.

Keith sat quietly, his thoughts troubled as he realized he was being asked to fight against his people. Sure, he'd been a slave for the majority of his life, but he couldn't think of the Galra without remembering that his mother had also been one. The thought that he was fighting against half of himself made him feel ill.

He thanked whatever higher powers there were that when they had finally found the Red Lion, it was in orbit. While the others went to deal with distracting and keeping the Galra warship from destroying the Castle of Lions, he grabbed for the opportunity to distract himself and leapt at the chance to be useful for once. The fact that it gave him the opportunity to work out his mounting frustrations with the situation altogether merely made it all the better.

He knew he was good, as the only person to ever best him in the arena had been Shiro. However, even he couldn't handle the numbers of the guards they'd sent, and he'd resorted to using the air lock to get rid of them. When he'd been sucked out as well, he'd thought that he was dead, up until Red Lion activated itself and saved him. When the team formed up Voltron to get rid of the ship, Keith was surprised that it hadn't rejected him.

Now, he sat quietly, observing the rest of the group as they celebrated their first victory. Keith sat by himself, picking at the material of his sleeve as he frowned and thought to himself. It was strange, and crazy, but his life had been upended in a way that he hadn't thought possible. He'd never thought he'd ever be free of being a slave, instead dying in the arena like his mother had. However, the halfbreed knew that no matter what, he didn't think he'd change what happened.

He didn't notice the person sitting next to him until he glanced over and noticed Shiro. He seemed to be squeezing his prosthetic hand with a concerned look on his face, and Keith was immediately reminded that up until two days ago, neither one had been free. Shiro noticed Keith's gaze, letting go of his hand to give Keith a bemused look, even if it was a bit forced.

"So how does it feel to be human?"

"I'm not." Keith gave Shiro a look that suggested that he was probably insane. "I haven't been a day in my life."

Shiro shook his head. "I don't know about you, but you look pretty human, and whether you realize it or not, you act pretty human."

Keith stared incredulously. "But that's impossible. How do I even act human?"

Shiro paused, studying the scene before him quietly for a moment. Pidge was speaking with Allura about learning more about the castle to help out, while Hunk was already talking to Coran about food and what they had to eat. Lance was already waving to the others, stating he needed to get shuteye after everything they had been through in the past day, and Keith realized with a jolt that no one had slept since the ship had crashed earlier.

"I don't think there's an answer for that."

The comment caused Keith's attention to snap back toward Shiro, and a frown pulled at his face as he considered the answer. "But you just said that I act human."

"What I meant was that you react in the same way that I think anyone else in your situation would act." Shiro nodded toward the others. "I bet you anything any one of them would be confused, scared, nervous, and many other things had they been in the same place. I don't pretend to know what it was like for you, and I certainly can't imagine trying to fight against what you grew up knowing."

Keith nodded. "I guess. I just… They don't know, and we're fighting-" my people, my home, myself. The words echoed in his head, even if they weren't spoken aloud. He sat contemplatively, trying to banish the thought that he didn't belong like many other times within the last few days.

Shiro pat his shoulder and squeezed it gently. "Just take it a day at a time. If you want to tell them, that's up to you. You do it when it's comfortable for you."

When Keith nodded again, Shiro relaxed and then looked concerned again. "When we rescued the prisoners, they called me the Champion. You know why, don't you?"

Keith froze, his mind already supplying the answer. He did know why, it was what Keith called Shiro initially himself. However, it was tied up with what Shiro didn't remember, and the fact of the matter was, Keith wasn't sure if Shiro remembering was a good thing. Chewing the inside of his cheek, he nodded hesitantly. "I do. I was there."

Shiro chewed on his bottom lip before he asked, "What happened?"

Keith sighed, rubbing his face. "It's complicated. The Galra, we make prisoners fight each other. It was how we met, actually. You were the best, so they decided to send their best."

Shiro stared, and Keith felt uncomfortable with the realization that he'd admitted too much. "They made us fight each other?"

"The better fighter won. If you hadn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Keith stood, not wanting to have the conversation for longer than necessary. He'd lost, in a society that taught that you won or died. He expected to die in the arena. That he hadn't either proved that he was weak, or that humans were inherently stronger than Galra were. In either case, it meant that Keith was weak, and he hated feeling weak. Weakness was a death sentence.

It wasn't until later, when Keith was trying to sleep, that he heard a knock at his door. Frowning, he tried to figure out what the knock was for before resigning himself to checking it out. What he didn't expect was for Lance to be on the other side, studying him with a frown. He strode in, and Keith was too surprised to stop him.

"So you're Galra, huh?"

Eyes blinking wide, Keith slapped a hand over the access panel of his room to shut the door. He didn't want the entire castle hearing this, after all! "Who told you?"

Lance smirked. "One, you and Shiro suck at speaking quietly outside of a ship with its hatch down, and two, you keep cringing any time the phrase 'fighting the Galra' comes up." Lance looked him over again before shaking his head. "You know, for someone that's supposed to be an alien, you're not as big, purple, or hairy as I expected you to be after seeing Galra today."

"Um, thanks?" How was he supposed to respond to that? He didn't exactly see himself as anything really special, and the idea that not being large, purple, or hairy wasn't alien was strange. "You don't look too weird yourself."

"Wow, you really are alien, huh?" Lance crossed his arms, then let his smirk grow wider. "Well, I will tell you right now that I'm considered one of the most attractive members of my species."

Keith looked Lance up and down a bit, trying to see it. "No offense, but you're the wrong shade for me. Plus, you're really skinny."

"Ha ha." Lance rolled his eyes. "Seriously though, why are you so worried about everyone finding out? You didn't blast us or attack us, did you?"

Keith opened his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't leave his head. His people were the cause of the intergalactic war. They had exterminated the Althean civilization. The Galra were even now enslaving millions of people across the universe. However, he instead gave a shrug and crossed his arms. "Because the Galra are the enemy."

"Hey, news flash. You were just as much at fault as Hunk is. You're no more special than anyone else here." Lance snorted. "Besides, you're here now, helping. That counts way more than what's in your family tree."

Keith frowned. "Um, what's a family tree?"

Lance blinked then shook his head. "You really are hopeless. You know what? Tomorrow we're going to teach you about Earth culture. Give you a crash course. You really need it."

"I don't think I nee-"

"Nope, not hearing it!" Lance then pointed at Keith. "Your education is seriously lacking. Take advantage of it. Between me, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro? You'll be sounding like an Earth native in no time!"

"So everyone knows?" Keith was trying to figure out if it was good or not.

"Well, I don't think we're telling the princess or Coran anytime soon. Something about how your people destroyed hers and everything. But yeah, we know." Lance crossed his arms again, looking pleased with himself. "So you cool?"

Keith touched his face, trying to check his temperature. "No, I think I'm actually pretty warm right now."

Lance palmed his face with a sigh. "Yeah, we're totally teaching you Earth culture and sayings. This is really pathetic to watch."