Disclaimer - I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender. This was written for in response to a prompt from the Autism Acceptance Challenge collection over on A03.

Are

"You're not my brother."

Shiro wanted to scream but screaming would only relieve his frustrations at the moment and not fix the problem in front of him. Of course, in the literal sense, what was right in front of him at that moment was not a problem, although there were plenty who would label Keith a problem child.

"You're like a brother."

Those words brought on a sigh from Shiro, his eyes glued onto the teenager in front of him. Just a few seconds before, Keith looked at him, his eyes narrowed and his mouth pushed into a firm line indicating Keith was, at least in Keith's mind, stating a firm, undeniable fact of reality, but as he said the next sentence the teen's facial features softened as Shiro continued watching him.

"Shiro, are you mad at me?" Keith's facial features contorted, his mouth twisting while his voice lowered, as if he expected Shiro to yell at him which was precisely why, no matter how much he might want to vent his frustrations, Shiro didn't. No, Keith got enough of that from Ryo who didn't bother trying to understand Keith.

"No. Just..." Shiro smiled at him. "Hey. Want to have pizza tonight?"

Keith's eyes darted to the kitchen area of their small apartment, his mind debating what he wanted for dinner. His mouth opened to say something but didn't say anything. Instead, his eyes looked back at Shiro as if he knew someone was trying to change the subject on him.

"It really is okay, Keith," even though it didn't really feel alright, even hurt hearing Keith say Shiro wasn't his brother even though they did share the same father and mother.

"Something to keep in mind is that Keith's lived experience, his reality up until now has in fact been being your father's only child," the psychiatrist explained. "He needs to get used to this new reality that contradicts the facts of that old reality."

"It's not okay though. I know it's not, but..." Keith glances away, worrying the side of his mouth which indicated something upset him. "Shiro..."

Shiro didn't know what to say, looking at Keith right then, but then. "I want..."

The front door opened and a third person said, "I'm home," preventing Shiro from telling Keith he simply wanted to make things better for him, to ease that feeling of not feeling okay with the situation that he knew Keith was feeling. Shiro heard the sound of keys being set onto the kitchen counter right before the third person said, "What's going on?"

"Hi Ryo," Keith muttered, continuing to look away from them both. His eyes continued drifting around the room, avoiding eye contact with Ryo. He sat down on the couch, continuing to fidget.

"I asked what was going on," Ryo stated.

"Ryo," Shiro turned to look at him, pushing his lips together. The young man standing in front of him, if it weren't for the shorter haircut, was, in fact, the spitting image of Keith.

Ryo looked him in the eye, his eyes narrowing. "So, what did he do this time?"

"I didn't..." Keith's voice strained, but then he looked at Shiro. "Did I do anything wrong?"

Shiro turned towards his younger brother, his mouth breaking into a smile, fully planning on telling Keith that he hadn't done anything wrong when Ryo said, "If you have to even ask that, it's obvious you did."

At that moment, Shiro watched Keith's eyes widen only for an instant as Keith quickly bolted into the other room, the room he unfortunately shared with Ryo. Shiro let out a deep breath, turning to look at Ryo. "Really?"

Ryo glared at him. "Really what?"

"Did you have to say that of all things?"

"Well..."

"No well about it, Ryo, but how many times do I have to tell you Keith is autistic?"

"And?"

"If Keith has to ask what he's done wrong, it's because whether it actually not something that is obvious to him! I've explained this to you over and over again!"

"You don't have to take your frustration out on me," Ryo snapped.

"Well, I certainly shouldn't take it out on him as you do!" Shiro snapped back. He watched Ryo's mouth open, his eyes widening. Taking a deep breath. "Ryo, I'm sorry."

"No, you're not. If you were..."

"Don't." Shiro narrowed his eyes.

Ryo's response was to storm off, heading right into the room he shared with Keith, slamming the door, but yelling followed the slamming, and Keith hurtling out of the room in a panic followed the yelling.

"Woah! Hold it!" Shiro reached out, knowing full well Keith was bolting for the door.

"Let me go, Shiro!" Keith struggled in his grip.

"So, you can do what? Go and get yourself hurt goodness knows where? Stay out all night so I end up worrying where you are?"

"I..." Keith's struggling slowed, the fact he hated Shiro becoming ever too apparent. "You're not my brother." He muttered. "Am I allowed to think you're like a brother though?"

"Yeah. Yeah, you are?" Shiro swallowed. "Ryo..." He glanced up at the door of their bedroom, which Keith slammed on the way out. "Hey. Um, did..."

"The usual," Keith muttered, suddenly relaxing into Shiro's arms, letting himself be embraced in a hug. Shiro sighed, letting the sigh race across the top of Keith's head on purpose, watching as Keith's eyes closed. He followed up by placing his chin onto the top of Keith's head, looking at the door. Shiro knew what the usual was without Keith saying, though that line—Ryo telling Keith that he wasn't his brother—didn't always come up, but Ryo getting mad and telling Keith that when he didn't want Keith to be his brother at the moment didn't help Keith's sense of reality.

"Pizza?"

"Pizza."

He ordered the pizza then, watching Keith settle into the couch so he might watch a show, his eyes drifting over to the door of the bedroom the twins shared. When the pizza arrived, he let Ryo know dinner was there, but that he expected them to eat together as a family rather than one individual taking food to their room to escape. Most often this was Keith, but sometimes Ryo did the same.

The way Keith walked towards the table let Shiro know that twin was in a better mood, although he didn't know how long that would last. Ryo on the other hand, was definitely in a bad mood, scowling and pulling his chair out in a flourish, making Keith look up at Ryo. He opened his mouth to say something, only for Shiro to sake his head saying he shouldn't.

Dinner proceeded in silence and they finished eating. "Well, that was nice eating together, wasn't it?"

"We're not a family," Ryo stated firmly, glaring at Keith as his twin flinched, digging at the fact Keith hadn't grown up in the same household as he and Shiro did.

"Ryo..."

"He's not my brother," Ryo snapped. "And he's weird."

Shiro waited for Keith to explode on them. Instead, after a few minutes, Keith said without dropping a beat. "Well, my mom's an alien." Shiro's mouth dropped, then his eyes blinked. Keith looked at him and then said, "Well, doesn't that explain why I'm so messed up?"

"Keith..."

"You're insane," Ryo glared at his twin.

"I'm..." Keith stood up then, bolting from the table so that one of the chairs hit the ground and a door slammed. Thankfully, it wasn't the front door, but it wasn't the door of the twins' bedroom. Instead, it was Shiro's bedroom door that slammed.

"Really?"

"Well..."

"Don't. Don't try and excuse the fact you've brought this on yourself Ryo. I'm going to bed, so you can clean up."

"Keith's in your room, so doesn't that mean you're taking the couch?"

"Oh, I'm not taking the couch. You are, as I'm going to sleep in your guy's room tonight." Keith, after all, wouldn't likely be in the mood for comfort as he never was after he and Ryo had one of their arguments.

"He's saying mom is an alien."

"Well, maybe he wouldn't say that if you didn't tell him, he wasn't our brother."

"I don't want him as a brother, but you don't have to deal with him having the same face as you!"

Shiro turned and looked at him. "Those words, Ryo, are something you may one day regret."

V

"Those words, Ryo, are something you may one day regret."

"You were right," Ryo said bitterly, looking around the empty apartment that once belonged to Takashi and now belonged to him and Keith jointly. Except, Keith didn't stick around long after Takashi's death, what with Ryo not knowing how to deal with Keith like Takashi did along with continuing to say some rather cruel things. "As weird as it sounds, I'd love to hear him say..."

"Mom's an alien!"

Ryo's eyes blinked and his head tilted back from where he sat at the dining room table enjoying a cup of green tea in an attempt to soothe his nerves, but what he saw in front of him was most definitely—Ryo felt as if he were in some kind of sci-fi themed dream, seeing both Keith and Takashi there. Keith seemed excited to see him for once while Takashi gave him a rather pointed glare. "Keith..."

Keith's eyes blinked, standing there in that obnoxious red bomber jacket he'd always liked and Ryo hated only for Ryo to come and miss the sight of, but the face that looked so much like his own if Keith would only cut his hair more often sported a scar across Keith's chin that made it so anybody could easily tell them apart if they wanted to. He turned, looking at Takashi. "Oh. Yeah. Not the best way to start the conversation of us being alive."

"Who said you were dead?" Ryo muttered. He sat up, twisting around in the chair so he could get a better look at him. "Nobody told me you were dead, just run off somewhere and not the desert this time, or at least that's the jest of what I think the garrison was telling me." His eyes narrowed, looking right at Takashi. "You on the other hand..."

Takashi flinched, looking him right in the eye while rubbing the back of his head. Ryo didn't like how Takashi's hair turned white so prematurely, how a scar now adorned the bridge of his nose, let alone how his older brother's arm was now replaced with an artificial one.

"I guess you could say we ran away to outer space?" Hearing Keith speak made Ryo turn his head, but the way he smiled felt majorly different from the angry twin brother he remembered from the time right before Takashi died, even right after. He looked right at Ryo and said, "Hey. Look. I brought Takashi home, Ryo. Aren't you happy?"

"Am I happy?" Ryo watched Keith, then looked at Takashi. The look on his older brother's face—well, Takashi seemed tired, for starters. There also seemed to be this wariness about Takashi, as if he expected the two to blow up at each other, which in the past was the case. "You're asking me if I'm happy?"

He didn't feel happy.

In the past, Ryo knew he would have explained that to Keith in no uncertain terms. Specifically, he would have let Keith have it by yelling at him, telling him that he wasn't brother in the same way Keith always said that about him and Takashi. Ryo's eyes narrowed, remembering how hurt Takashi looked every time Keith said those words, which always simply made him even angrier, but then...

"Hey. Ryo."

"What?" Ryo turned away, not wanting to lose it with Keith even though he'd not had any practice of not losing his temper with his twin brother. His attention turned towards his cup of tea, swallowing as he did so. In the back of his mind, he knew seeing Takashi was like seeing a ghost, given not only the way he looked but that there should be absolutely no way he could show up in the apartment alive.

His eyes closed, waiting for the ball to drop.

Yet, the way the ball dropped wasn't expected when he heard Keith speak up from the other side of the table just as he decided to take a drink of his tea. "You're my brother and I love you."

The tea came out of his nose, but from behind him Ryo heard Takashi let out a groan before muttering, "Sorry."

Ryo looked right at Keith, watching the look on his twin's face shift to one of confusion. "I don't get it."

"You don't get what?" Ryo didn't know what was going on around him at all, as Takashi most certainly shouldn't be there, on Earth, alive and Keith—Keith most certainly shouldn't be there rattling off in such a familial manner as such things were foreign to his twin.

"I thought that's what both you and Shiro wanted to hear, but..." Keith's mouth twisted, his head shifting so that he looked at Takashi. Ryo turned, looking at his older brother who just seemed ever so tired. "Hey. Shiro."

"Yeah?"

"You look tired. You've looked tired ever since..." Keith stopped speaking the moment Shiro flinched, but Ryo felt his stomach lurch. "Hey. Ryo. You didn't take over Shiro's old room as you planned?"

Ryo turned his head, looking right at Keith. "Well, no. You ran off, leaving me here alone, so there was no point..." He looked away, feeling ashamed. "I shouldn't have. At least not that soon. But..." He turned and looked at Takashi. "You."

"Yes?" One of Takashi's now white eyebrows which once a dark black color like Ryo's own shot up.

"I would have thought you would be far more ecstatic about that, about Keith saying you are his brother."

"It's..." Takashi stopped speaking, a faraway look in his eyes. "So, Keith's right. I am rather tired, so maybe..." He swallowed nervously. "So, maybe I will go lie down?"

"I..." Ryo narrowed his eyes. "Look, I'm fine with you going and getting some sleep, but the two of you just walked in here out of the blue after I was under the honest impression that you're dead and Keith..." He turned and looked at Keith. "I thought you didn't want anything to do with me?"

"Likewise I guess? I mean..." Keith glanced away. "I'm sorry."

"What..."

"Showing up like this upset you, but I didn't exactly tell Shiro that you and I aren't exactly..."

"On speaking terms?" Shiro sighed from behind. "I kind of got the drift already."

"Upset," Ryo muttered, looking down at his cup of tea. He pushed it aside, suddenly thinking it rather pointless. "Keith, look..."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't..." Keith looked at his hands. "Saying you're like my brother when you are was rather cruel."

"Yet you didn't understand that to be true. I don't get what..."

"Krolia," Keith stated firmly. "She set me straight."

"Krolia. Why does..."

"She really is an alien."

Ryo flinched, remembering how Keith came in and pronounced their mother was an alien without a single bit of hesitation, yet that wasn't anything new either. In the back of his mind, what with Keith suddenly being more open to admitting they were family, brothers even, that he was simply joking at Ryo's expense, but now he sounded as if he'd gone insane. Yet, in the back of his head, Ryo didn't remember a single time Keith used their mother's name before. "Takashi."

"So, um..." Takashi cleared his throat. "I didn't exactly recognize her. I mean..."

"Shiro was lost out in outer space, you know."

"Keith, you're not helping. I told you not to bring that up."

"But Krolia..."

"Keith, please."

"She's an alien," Ryo stated, wondering now if he was dreaming.

"Yes," Keith said while Takashi remained silent.

After a bit, Takashi said, "Long story."

"I imagine it is but is that why you're acting so weird?" Ryo turned and looked at Takashi, noticing how he avoided eye contact with both him and Keith, only to notice that even after that particular reveal that Takashi was still doing this. "Takashi?"

"I'm fine."

There was that thought, though, in the back of Ryo's mind. "It's still bothering me though."

"What?" Takashi looked at him, confusion there.

"As I said, I'd have thought you'd be more ecstatic at hearing Keith say you are his brother, rather than that you're simply like a brother to him. Isn't that a big..." Ryo watched Takashi's facial features twist in horror.

"I..." Takashi glanced away, clearing his voice. "I really should lie down."

"No." Ryo narrowed his eyes. "Not until you tell me why you're acting this way. You owe me that much."

"I almost killed Keith! Alright!"

Ryo grit his teeth together, still not following. Keith let out a sigh. "Shiro, we've been over this."

"Keith..." Takashi didn't want to talk about what Keith seemed completely fine with.

"You weren't yourself. You..."

"That's not the point," Takashi's voice quivered.

Ryo looked from one of his brothers to the other, unsure of what was going on. The look on Takashi's face was what Ryo expected of someone who almost killed someone they cared about. The look on Keith's face—well, was the look Ryo expected of Keith, yet he knew full well how certain things went over Keith's head. Keith frowned at Takashi and said, "That is the point."

Ryo's mouth twisted slightly. "So..." Keith startled, looking at him, almost as if he realized Ryo was there. "I admit that I don't know what happened, but I do know if I were to almost kill you, or Takashi for that matter, it wouldn't matter if I wasn't myself at the time. I'd still be upset I almost killed someone I cared about. Wouldn't you?"

Keith's eyes blinked. He then said, "Oh, yeah." He looked past Ryo at Takashi. "Sorry."

"That..." Takashi let out a sigh. "You don't need to apologize."

"Yeah. But Ryo does need to know you didn't mean for all of that to happen."

"Why?"

"I don't know. It just seems like an important thing to forget, doesn't it Shiro?"

Ryo opened his mouth, wanting to say there were a lot of things they seemed to be forgetting to tell him, yet his mind still felt as if it were in a dream. "How about we let Takashi get some rest and I order pizza? You still like pizza?"

"I've not had pizza for over three years."

"Don't you mean over a year?" Ryo frowned. "Maybe two, if you count that year in the desert?"

"Um..." The look on Keith's face said there were things he was forgetting to tell Ryo.

"Yeah. I'll just go and order the pizza now," Ryo sighed. He turned towards the phone, a smile spreading across his face.

Note - Says fans, if Keith and Shiro were biological brothers he would never have said "like a brother" because that is a concrete reality. Says an autistic individual I know, Keith would have if that wasn't a concrete concept for him.