If Ever I Try to Push Away You Can Just Keep Me There

"Is this Keith Park?"

The voice on the other line wasn't familiar to Keith, neither was the phone number. It was from his adopted parents' area code, though, so he had answered without second thought.

"Yes," he responded, covering his other ear so that he could hear the voice as he got on the bus. His other teammates were still celebrating their win over their rival, so he walked straight to the back of the bus where it was at least marginally quieter.

"Good afternoon, Mr Park. I am Amelia, from Dignity Heath Hospital in Chandler. You're listed as one of the emergency contacts for a Mr Akira and a Mrs Maiko Shirogane?"

Keith felt his blood chill. "Yeah, they're my parents."

"There's really no good way to say this, Mr Park, but I'm afraid your parents were in a car accident. It appears that there was something on the road and that caused your father to lose control of the car and crash into the road's median. They're both awake right now, but I'm afraid it doesn't look good and at their age I doubt they'll make it through the night."

Keith's eyes filled but he schooled his voice to remain calm. "Thank you for calling me. Has my brother been told?"

Amelia's voice softened. "Yes, I called Mr Shirogane right before I called you." Keith felt the tears start to fall. "Your parents are in the ICU now, if you wish to visit them. Tell the front desk who you are and if they give you any trouble about visiting hours then send them to me."

"Thank you," Keith repeated softly, bidding her good bye and hanging up. Immediately, he called Shiro.

"I'm driving to pick you up now," Shiro answered in lieu of a greeting. "How far out are you?"

"We're pulling out now," Keith said, cursing the catch in his voice. Shiro sounded so calm, and here he was falling apart. "It'll be an hour."

"Perfect," Shiro responded. "I'll meet you at the practice facility."

Keith agreed and hung up, unsure of what to do with himself. He wanted to go up front and force the bus driver to drive faster, but there was traffic so that would just annoy the driver and make Keith angrier. Instead, he put his headphones in and listened to music on the highest volume he could stand while not being painful. It helped keep his thoughts from running down a slippery slope as he stared out the window.

Lance looked around about half way through their drive and noticed that Keith still hadn't joined in the celebration. He frowned – usually Keith would stick to himself for the first portion of a drive but then he would join the group and mingle. Today, he was nowhere to be seen.

The rest of the team was playing a card game so Lance ducked away and walked back to find where his soulmate was hiding. He had to walk to the very last row, and when he got there Keith was facing out the window and Lance could hear his music from where he was standing. He didn't want to startle him, but Lance didn't know how else to get Keith's attention so he reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. Keith stiffened but didn't turn, so Lance sat down determined to wait until Keith was ready.

It only took a minute before Keith hit pause on his music and turned to face Lance. That was when Lance could see the tear tracks running down Keith's face.

"Are you ok?" Lance asked tentatively. And immediately felt stupid – of course Keith wasn't ok. He had never seen the man cry in the entire year and a half that they'd known each other. Keith just shook his head, opening his mouth before closing it right back up. "Is it your brother?" Keith shook his head. "Your parents?" Keith looked down, nodding. Lance reached out to put his hand on Keith's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Keith took a few deep breaths to get his vocal chords to behave. "Can you ask Coach if I can leave my car at the practice facility?" he asked quietly. "Shiro's picking me up from there."

"Sure thing," Lance promised, giving his shoulder a squeeze before walking forward to find Coran. He was in the first row, looking at game footage his phone and mumbling to himself as he planned for their next game.

"Hey, Coran, can I ask you something?" Coran looked up from his phone at the sound of Lance's voice and his face lightened.

"Of course, my boy! Sit down, what can I help you with?"

Lance sat and lowered his voice. "Something's happened with Keith's parents. His brother is going to pick him up when we get back, so can he leave his car at the practice facility until he gets back?"

Coran frowned. "Of course, that is not a problem at all. Is it serious?"

Lance shrugged. "I think so? I'm going to go back and sit with him so I'll let you know if there's anything else."

Coran nodded. "Thank you, Lance."

Lance returned to Keith and saw that he hadn't put his headphones back in yet. "Hey – Coran said that you're fine leaving your car there."

Keith nodded his thanks and returned to looking out the window. Lance wasn't sure how to comfort him, so he stayed there and debated whether Keith would prefer an arm around the shoulders or just holding a hand. Before he could decide between the two, Keith's head landed on Lance's shoulder. Lance took that as a cue to wrap an arm around his shoulders. He wasn't sure how to help, but he hoped that his friend found at least some comfort in him being there.

Keith had closed his eyes as he leaned against Lance, and when Lance didn't seem to be uncomfortable he kept them closed until the bus pulled into the practice facility parking lot. Keith saw Shiro's car and shot up. He gathered his headphones together but was stopped when he went to reach for his bag. Lance held it out to him, and gave him a smile before he left to gather his own things together. Keith was the first one off the bus and practically sprinted to Shiro who enveloped him in a hug.

"It's ok, I'm here," Shiro promised as Keith hid his face and the tears that started falling again. They stood like that a moment before Keith remembered that he needed his bag from under the bus and dreaded walking back to his teammates like this. Before he could break away from Shiro, though, Shiro pulled back and Keith saw Lance walking over with Keith's bag.

"Hey, Shiro," Lance said as he neared them both. "Sorry to hear that something happened with your parents – I hope you're alright." Shiro nodded his thanks and Lance turned to Keith. "Here's your bag. Text me when you get there?"

"I will," Keith promised. "Thanks for everything, Lance."

"It's no problem," Lance assured him. "Drive safe."

Keith put his things in Shiro's car and they both got in. "Are you ok not stopping by your apartment?" Shiro asked as he started the car and got ready to pull out of the lot.

"Yeah," Keith assured him. "Let's go."

Lance watched Shiro's car drive off and wished that there was more he could do. He settled for texting Pidge and letting her know that her roommate wouldn't be back for at least the night.

Lancelot: Hey Pidge, something happened with Keith's parents so he won't be there tonight.
Pidgeot: Gotcha, thanks for letting me know. Anything I can do?
Lancelot: I'll let you know.

They weren't even out of California before Keith had to speak again. "Shiro, I'm sorry. I'm a mess and you have to worry about me but they're not even my real parents–"

"I'm going to have to stop you right there," Shiro interrupted Keith. "What do you mean they're not your real parents?"

Keith looked at his hands in his lap. "I mean, they're your real parents and they just kinda took me in but now I'm the one crying and–"

Shiro shook his head. "Keith, right now I'm focusing on getting us to Chandler before it's too late," he said, voice cracking slightly on the last word. "So I'm not going to get in to the myriad of ways that you're very wrong in thinking like that. You're my brother – you have been since we met. If they're not your real parents, then does that make me not your real brother?"

"No," Keith said, seeing where Shiro was going with this.

"Then stop thinking that way and get ready to drive because I'm tired and want a break."

Fortunately, they were not too late. Unfortunately, Amelia's prediction had been spot on. The Shiroganes hadn't been young when Shiro was born, so they weren't young when Keith came along either. Both Keith and Shiro had known that this day was coming, but that didn't make it any easier.

After, they returned to their parent's apartment. It was dark and Shiro didn't seem to have the desire to do anything. So Keith took over. He steered Shiro to the couch and sat him down, forcing him to drop the bags he had been carrying. Even though it was three in the morning, they hadn't eaten much more than snack food in the past twelve hours so Keith went in to the kitchen to get them both dinner.

The frozen pizza was in the oven when Shiro next spoke. "Keith, your bag is vibrating."

Keith frowned as he walked over, wondering who would be texting him. When he saw the name, he immediately felt guilty. "Quiznak," he swore, making Shiro snort.

"You still say that?"

"Yeah," Keith replied, unlocking his phone. "It's not a swear so I won't get in trouble with my coach when I use it." When he opened the text thread, there were multiple messages and Keith felt even guiltier – he hadn't looked at his phone all evening.

The Tailor: Hey, did you make it?
The Tailor: Hello?
The Tailor: I'm going to assume you did because I don't want to worry.
The Tailor: I hope everything's alright.
Star Boy: Hey, sorry, I didn't have my phone near me for most of the afternoon. We made it.
The Tailor: I'm glad. Everything ok?
Star Boy: …no.
The Tailor: Ugh, I'm sorry. Life sucks sometimes. If you need anything, I'm here.
Star Boy: Thanks, Lance.

The kitchen timer started beeping so Keith moved to take out the pizza and sat down with it next to Shiro on the couch. Shiro had grabbed a family photo album and was flipping through the pages with a small smile. Keith joined in, and they ate and reminisced until they both fell asleep.

When Keith woke up, the whole apartment felt surreal. He could almost forget that the previous night had happened.

Almost.

Shiro went to the hospital that morning, but Keith couldn't bring himself to join. Shiro came back with a small box – his mother's glasses, his father's watch, and their wedding rings. They were both tense, and Keith didn't know what to say to make the tension go away. Shiro held up his mom's ring with a pensive look on his face.

"I'm sure Allura will like it," Keith said as he cleared out the kitchen. They both had pots and pans and things, so those were headed to the donation center. Shiro turned bright red and Keith laughed. "Especially when you tell her that it was mom's – she'll think it's perfect."

Shiro put that ring back but then held out another to Keith. "Well, then you can give dad's to Lance. I'm sure he'll like it too."

Keith felt his face light on fire and ducked behind the counter to get more things out of the cabinets. Shiro laughed at him and like that the strange tension was broken. They were both still sad, but as they cleaned out the apartment they were able to laugh and remember the good times rather than brooding on the bad.

That evening, Keith and Shiro were haggling over who got what out of the library of books and movies that their parents had when Keith's phone buzzed again.

The Tailor: When are you getting back?
Star Boy: Tomorrow – can you let coach know that I'll be back to practice on Monday?
The Tailor: Sure thing.

In the end, Keith had to give up the series of their favorite TV show to watch together, but he did get the entire Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler book collection so he counted it as a win. When Keith had moved to college, their parents hadn't needed the house anymore so they moved to a smaller apartment. The benefit of this was that it meant the job of clearing it out was made much easier on Keith and Shiro this weekend, and they were done before they left to go back to California. Even still, Keith found himself feeling morose as they drove away for the last time.

Lance wanted to do something for Keith, so he texted Pidge to let him in to their apartment on Sunday. When she opened the door, she looked confused.

"Keith isn't back yet," she told him as he walked inside.

"I know," Lance replied. "I still want to do something for him.

"Whatever," Pidge responded, gathering her books together. "I have to go work on a lab, don't burn the building down."

He waved at her as she left, and then got to work. He knew that Keith liked his mom's empanadas, he ate them every time Lance shared leftovers, so he got to work on a fresh batch.

He had finished the first batch and the second was five minutes from completion when Pidge returned, bringing Hunk along. "We're going to bake cookies," she declared, kicking Lance out of the kitchen. He conceded, packing up the empanadas to store in the fridge.

When Keith entered his apartment, there was a lot more noise and movement than he had been anticipating. The oven timer was going off, Pidge told Lance to get out of her way, and Hunk said that he needed to open the oven door. All the chaos meant that they didn't realize Keith had entered, so he took advantage of the opening to slip into his room. He dropped the box of books and things next to his bed, not wanting to deal with that just yet. Instead, he changed into comfier clothes and wandered back to the main room to see if he could claim the game system before anyone else did.

The kitchen was still loud enough that he managed to get the system turned on and his favorite game started before anyone else realized he was there. When they did, it was because Keith swore at the game while there was a lull in sound coming from their efforts.

"Keith!" Pidge yelled, launching herself at him on the couch. "I didn't hear you come in."

"Hey Pidge," he greeted her back, pausing his game so he could wrap his arms around her. "You all were being loud in the kitchen – I've been here for a half hour already."

"Blame Lance for that," she told him, not letting go.

"Hey!" Lance objected. "I was trying to make him empanadas!"

"Well Hunk and I made him cookies," Pidge retorted.

"I'm the only one making cookies right now," Hunk clarified from the kitchen. That made Pidge let go, she didn't want to be robbed of her credit for the aid in cookie creation so she ran back to the kitchen. Lance took her spot on the couch next to Keith.

"Hey, are you ok?"

Keith sighed and shook his head. "Not right now." He still had to deal with a second set of parents dying. But as he looked around at his friends they were all comforting him without treating him like glass, and he already felt himself feeling better just listening to the banter and normalcy. "But I will be."