"You know they won't let you keep me." Shiro paused and looked up to where Keith was observing his workout. Since he started opening back up, Shiro had gone out of his way to spend more time with him. Some times it almost felt like it used to. Albeit with a very quiet Keith, he'd mostly only spoke when spoken to. Start a conversation like this was unusual, and Shiro would do everything he could to encourage the behavior. Even if he had to humor his delusions a bit in the process.
"Oh? You think so?" Shiro prompted. He pushed up to standing, and walked over to where Keith was sitting on the bed. There wasn't really any other furniture in the room, and even with the treatment Shiro had given him-he hadn't wanted to cripple him permanently-it'd still be a couple months before he could stand on his injuries.
"I know so," Keith said, "Those guards, the ones you..killed." Keith glanced away before continuing, "They told me the druids were bored of letting you play with me, and they had plans for how I could serve the empire."
"Oh sweetie," Shiro cooed, taking his love's face in his hands, cupping it gently, "They were lying. No one is going to take you away from me." He'd kill anyone who tried.
"They weren't lying." Keith said, looking up at him, daring him to challenge his baseless assertion. Great, he'd dug his metaphorical heels in. Sometimes humoring him could be exhausting.
"Keith-" Shiro started, but Keith cut him off, "No, listen to me." Keith said, yanking on his human hand as if he might lose Shiro's attention, "I figured it out. I'm the red paladin. The Galra have had Red for ages, but they couldn't ever get her to accept one of them. Now they have me. Do you really think they are going to pass up the chance to figure out what makes our bond tick." It was the exact sort of conspiracy theory Keith would come up with. A bunch of disparate facts that sounded reasonable when arranged in a certain way, but ended up with you chasing aliens around Area 51. Or Blue Lions of Voltron in the desert, a tiny unhelpful mental voice supplied. A small ping of pain followed it. He needed to stop thinking about this, before he gave himself a headache.
Focus on calming Keith down, "No one is taking you from me." He said in his most assuring tone, "Haggar promised."
"She lied!" Keith shouted.
Another ping of pain. Haggar would never lie to him. "Haggar doesn't lie."
"Gods sake, think about what your saying." Keith responded, frustration making him fling his hands around in emphasis, "It's her job! Even by your crazy beans logic, she has to be lying. She's loyal to the empire," Of course she was loyal, and Shiro should strive to be like her, "and she'll do what's best for it." Never doubt she had the empires best interests at heart, "Which is taking me away from you and figuring out how to make more Red Paladins!" Keith Was HIS. The small pain bloomed a hundred sharp edges and tore through his head. He tried to shake it loose. He needed, he needed to stop this conversation. The war between 'Mine! Mine! Mine!" and the pain was too much. "If you just-"
"Shut up!" Shiro yelled.
"Not until you listen!" Keith yelled back. His Galra arm was still on Keith's face. He didn't think. He just turned it on.
Keith shouted, but Shiro held on, let some of the flesh burn before letting go, "Shut up, I said stop talking." Shiro was breathing hard. He just needed a few minutes of silence to get his head back on straight. Sort things out so the pain would go away.
Keith crawled back away from him, eyes wide with surprise and pain. He saw the exact moment that determination took over, Keith clinched his fists and moved back towards him, this was no longer cute, "No." Keith challenged.
Shiro's arm still glowed, he let his grip burn Keith's upper arm as he hauled him up to see him face to face, flipping it back off after he twisted and cried out, "Be quiet" he said, dark and low. Letting the threat be obvious.
"You said you didn't want to hurt me." Keith's voice was gaspy from the pain, but he didn't shut up.
"I said, I would hurt you if you made me." He replied, tightening his grip on Keith's new burn for emphasis.
To his credit, Keith recovered quickly from the new bout of pain, "I'm only talking." Keith said through gritted teeth, "You wouldn't have to unless, I was right." The pain in his head had been receding to a mere ache, but the words brought it back suddenly. He let go of Keith in surprise. Dropping him back on the bed. This wasn't working. By the time he inflicted enough pain to make Keith shut up, his own head would have split open. He needed to do something else.
"Think, Shiro, you're smart. You have to see you're not important enough to be allowed to keep me in the long run." Keith implored, as Shiro stumbled across the room to a certain box. It was filled with things he and others thought he might need when Keith was given to him. He'd mostly left it alone, except for the restraints. He founds what he's looking for and quickly returned to the bed.
"What is tha-" Keith's voice was cut off as he forced the bit gag between his teeth. A small struggle and the gag was locked behind his head. It was over. Keith's made angry noises and clawed at the strap, but whatever he was trying to say was blessedly indistinct.
Shiro let himself breathe. The gag wasn't a permanent solution, but it would give him a bit of time to think and let the pain go away before he had to figure out what to do.
End Note:
Shiro may have cracked Keith a lot over his captivity, but he couldn't do so without revealing a lot about how his brainwashed self thinks.
