Full Summary:

Allura, daughter of Alfor, owner of Altea Entertainment had always dreamed of following in her father's footsteps to create the next big musical act. However, so far so bad.

Taking advice from Romelle, a co-worker, Allura travelled to Plaht for an event called "The Battle of the Bands". There, she saw five quirky individuals who she immediately saw potential in. Although they seemed like an awkward mish-mash of a band, turning them into the world's number one band will not be easy.

So, let the journey begin.

Genre(s): Alternate Universe (Rock Band, University,), Drama, Eventual Romance, Friendship, Fluff and Humor,
Relationships: F/M, Gen, M/M
Characters - Voltron Ensemble Cast (almost everyone from the show appears in this one way or the other)
Co-writer - Nightmare-Taichou

Crossposted on AO3

Rise of Voltron Pt. I

It was a morning like none other.

Allura, daughter of Alfor who owned the small entertainment company Altea, woke up with a start. She had finished her studies in Music Business and she felt as though it was high time she followed in her father's footsteps. It's been two years now since she graduated from her master's program, and until now she hadn't seen the talents that she was looking for.

In the past, her father had created one of the most successful bands to date —The Paladins —of which he had been a member. They had the world wrapped around their fingers, their albums were multi-platinum, their tours were held in the largest places in terms of seating capacity…The Paladins were just that awesome.

But of course, nothing lasts forever.

As age caught up with the Paladins, so did their time. The group of five called it quits after successful years of music. Each Paladin went their own way; Alfor creating Altea Entertainment, Zarkon got married and together, he and his wife Honerva created a conglomerate known as the Galra Empire, Trigel owned a dance studio, Blaytz and Gyrgan were off producing music.

"Allura, where are you going at this hour?" Alfor asked when he saw his daughter hurriedly eat her breakfast and was heading through the door.

"I have things I want to do, father." She replied with a smile. "I can't make the next big musical act by lounging around, now can I?"

Alfor sighed. While he adored his daughter and her determined spirit, he worried that she may be trying too much to be like him. "Princess," he started, eyes looking downcast. "You don't have to do this."

"Why not?"

"Look, while I don't mind that you want to make me and your mother proud, you don't have to do everything that I did." He said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Find your own path, Allura. Then you will truly be successful."

Allura's eyes widened at the statement. She looked away from her father for a second before meeting his gaze once again. "I will."

With that, she headed through the door and entered her car. What her father said had greatly stuck to her, and she wondered just what kind of path would she take? She loved music —she ate it, breathed it, showered in it. All she wanted was to make the best musical act like her father's Paladins but maybe, as he stated, it wasn't her path.

"Then what could it be?" She mumbled to herself.

…

…

Three students sat under a large oak tree, nibbling on burritos. To the left, there was a tall, yet burly and heavyset young man who wore an orange headband, tied around his dark brown hair. His name was Hunk. Beside him was a much smaller girl with short brown hair and glasses, her name being Katie but her family and close friends (these two) called her "Pidge". And lastly, beside Pidge was a tall and slender young man with short brown hair and blue eyes. His name was Lance.

"Can you believe Iverson? He failed us!" Lance whined as he took a bite of his burrito. "How could he do that?!"

"He's a lecturer, of course he can do that." Hunk retorted. "But all I know is that for this next assignment, we have to ace this if we want to pass this course and graduate."

"But how are we going to write a song with that theme?" Lance groaned out. He then looked to Pidge as though she would have an idea.

Which she did. With a smirk, she suggested, "We could ask the ace songwriter to do it for us."

"Ace songwriter? Who?" Hunk asked.

"She's talking about Keith." Lance deadpanned with an eye roll. "I'd rather die than ask him for anything."

"Well, we don't want to die with you." Pidge remarked.

"What? Did he do something Lance?" Hunk asked. "For you to rather fail than go to him for help says a lot, you know?"

Lance sighed and held his burrito down. "That guy is always trying to one-up me. But he's so damn good at what he does it's infuriating."

"Oh."

"And what if he charges us?"

Pidge didn't look amused. "Well duh. No one does anything for free these days."

"So, how much money you got?" Hunk asked. "I got a few hundreds."

"Me too." Pidge nodded.

"Are you serious?!" Lance shouted.

…

…

At the end of the school day, Lance, Hunk and Pidge walked to the apartment complex, nervous.

Whilst they've heard of the ace songwriter, the best in their cohort, they've never really met him. Lance has had a few run-ins with him here and there. But apart from that they didn't know him that well.

Keith didn't live on campus, but his apartment wasn't far either. It was just a simple fifteen-minute walk, but for the trio, it felt like an eternity. Throughout their walk, Lance recited his lines to say to Keith, since he was the most charismatic of the three, Pidge decided to let him do the talking in order to win Keith over.

Finally arriving, the trio walked up the stairs to the third floor and knocked on the bright red door. Thanks to Pidge's hacking abilities, she was able to get Keith's address from the school's database.

"Alright, here goes nothing." Lance swallowed the lump in his throat, readying himself. However, Hunk was so nervous that he knocked on the door before Lance was even ready. "Hunk!" The slender man shrieked in fright. "I wasn't…" the words died on his lips when the door swung open, revealing a light-skinned young man with dripping wet dark hair and violet eyes. "…ready?"

"Hello." The young man greeted. "What do you want?" His voice was devoid of hostility.

"Hi…I'm, I'm Lance." He then turned to Pidge and Hunk and introduced them. "And we would like your help."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "My help? With what?"

"You see, Iverson gave us an assignment and we cannot afford to fail it—"

"Since we failed one already." Hunk added.

"—so we were wondering if you could help us write a song?" Lance smiled nervously, inwardly cursing that all his charms went through the window.

Keith grinned.

Seeing that face, Hunk and Pidge knew that that was the face of someone scheming. Like they had just found their prey. The young man in red then opened the door wider, indicating that they should enter, to which they did. What they expected the inside of his apartment would've looked like, was completely different than first thing that greeted their eyes was the glass doors that revealed a nicely furnished terrace, with wooden chairs and two tables. The living room was furnished with a grey sofa to the back wall and in front of it, was a small glass-top coffee table. To the left, there was a white bookshelf which nestled in the top left hand corner. A flat-screen TV was mounted on the front wall, facing the sofa and table. Beneath the TV was a guitar stand with about four different guitars and one acoustic. Across from that was a violin and a mounted wall table with papers scattered all over.

"So, you want to pass Iverson's course of death." Keith chuckled. The trio nodded, "But before that, you should know I won't do it for free."

"Yes! Yes! We know!" Hunk piped up, as though waiting for Keith to say it. "We have —"

Keith held a hand up, stopping him. "My terms."

"Your terms? What do you mean?" Pidge asked. "We've got money!"

"I don't want money." Keith said. He walked towards the guitars and took up the acoustic one. "Can you play instruments?"

"Yeah, I play the drums, Pidge is a master at the keyboard, not only can she play classics but you should really hear some of her programming! And Lance plays the Rhythm and Bass guitars and does vocals too." Hunk rattled off without a second thought. "Wait, Pidge does vocals too!"

Once more, Keith grinned. "Then it's settled."

"Wait, wait, what?" Lance asked. His suspicions were rising, "You don't want money, but how is it that being able to play instruments is a good payment?"

Pidge elbowed Lance in his sides and dragged him away from Keith. "Shut up and work with it. You really think I wanted to lose seven-hundred dollars just so?!" She whispered angrily.

"No…" Lance replied. "…but don't you think it's odd? What does he want with us being able to play instruments?"

"Are you done?" Keith then asked, irritated at their huddling and whispering.

"Yeah, we are." Hunk replied. "So, what do we need to do?"

"You see, my brother and I —"

"You have a brother?!" Lance shrieked.

"—want to enter the school's 'Battle of The Bands'." Keith continued as though he wasn't interrupted. "But as you can see, the two of us won't do."

"So, you want us to make up the rest." Pidge finished.

"Yes."

Hunk gaped.

Lance's eyes widened.

Pidge groaned.

"So, what's it gonna be? Fail Iverson's course or pass it while making a temporary band with me and my brother?" The smirk on Keith's face sent goosebumps down Hunk's spine, feeling like he was about to make a deal with the devil. Weighing their options, the trio relented. Nothing could be worse than failing Iverson's course and having to do summer school with the said man anyway.

"So, who's your brother? Where's he?" Pidge asked. She had been curious all this time, and finally, the chance to ask had come.

"He's not here at the moment but…" Keith trailed off, not wanting to say anymore. "You know Takashi Shirogane?"

Lance gasped. "What do you mean if we know him?! That man's a legend! He aced every course when he was a student here!"

Then, it clicked to Pidge. When she had to hack the school's database for his address, she had seen his last name. But at the time, she hadn't realized that it was the same surname as the man hailed as a legend in their school. "Oh my God! Keith Shirogane! How did I not realize it!?"

Keith smirked.

The trio let out high pitched screams and shrieks. Hunk grabbed Keith by his collar in shock, Pidge and Lance collapsed into the couch and gaped.

"Shiro…is your brother?!" Lance couldn't believe it. "What the hell?!"

"Yeah, whatever." Keith sighed. He then walked towards the table with the violin and papers, took a clean, blank sheet and reached for a pen. "So, tell me, when do you want this song by?"

"Two weeks from now." Pidge answered.

Keith raised an eyebrow. "So, it isn't due in two weeks, right? Because if that's the case, I'd have to finish it earlier so you can —"

"No, no, no." Lance interjected. "We aren't idiots. It's due a month's time."

"Okay, so two weeks it is." Keith abruptly stopped and reached for his phone. He unlocked it and gave it to Pidge. "I'll need your numbers to let you know when and where we're gonna practice."

"We're still doing that?" Hunk nervously asked.

Judgemental eyes looked at Hunk.

"I'm not the one who wants to pass Iverson's course." Keith quipped.

Hunk said nothing more except nod in agreement. After everything was settled, Keith confirmed their ideas and intentions for their song and then sent them on their way. They —more like Lance and Hunk—wanted to meet Shiro, but Keith told them they'll eventually meet.

The trio left the apartment in good spirits, Pidge and Hunk heaving a sigh of relief that they got to save the money they would've spent on bribing Keith.

"So, now what?" Lance asked.

"We mentally prepare ourselves for that Battle of the Bands thing." Pidge replied, scrolling through her phone. "As it is, we've only ever performed in front of our cohort, not the entire university and outsiders."

Hunk covered his mouth as bile rose in his throat. "I think I'm going to be sick just thinking about it."

…

…

"Keith, you home?" Shiro called as he entered through the door. "Keith?"

He got no reply but as he neared the boy's room, he heard strumming. Keith's acoustic guitar filled the room with a soft, melodious tune, his humming adding to the mix.

Shiro's face softened.

He loved to hear when Keith sang, the boy's voice was pleasing to listen to. Shiro didn't greet the boy, instead, he leaned on the doorjamb, and watched him create.

It wasn't until minutes after that Keith stopped and saw Shiro staring.

"Shiro!" Keith shrieked. "When did you get here?!"

Shiro and Keith had known each other for years, since Shiro's mother had first been Keith's babysitter. Krolia, Keith's mother, was often time on tours with her band —Blades of Marmora —and needed someone to look after Keith. She ended up getting Shiro's mother and ever since then, the two boys had been inseparable. But, with her having to be so far away from home for such long periods of time, Shiro's parents decided to adopt the boy, so that he wouldn't be taken away from her. However, even though he lived with them and had their surname now, the adoption was just on paper. Krolia had always videoed called, sang Keith lullabies and read him bedtime stories over the phone. And once she's back in town, she always spent time with her little boy.

The older male smirked, "Oh, a few minutes ago."

Keith groaned, "Seriously? How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough." Shiro then walked over to Keith and sat on his bed. "So, what are you working on?" He was used to Keith writing songs and creating all the time, so this was nothing new.

"A song for schoolmates."

"Keith…" Shiro knew what the younger male meant. "...were you bribed into doing homework for someone else? Again?"

"Not really. They came to me, and I decided to make use of them."

Shiro looked at Keith questioningly. "Huh?"

"Remember the Battle of the Bands?" Shiro nodded. "Well, I found our remaining members."

Shiro gasped. "What did you do?!"

"Shiro! Calm down! It's nothing illegal! They needed help so I made a fair trade." Keith defended.

Shiro face-palmed. "If people need help why…?"

"They wanted to pay me for my services." Keith deadpanned.

"Oh."

"Yeah, so when are we gonna practice? They play instruments and two out of the three are on vocals too."

"I have to check my schedules to see when's the best." Shiro hummed. He whipped out his phone and scrolled as though looking for something. "I think I can meet them tomorrow."

"Great." Keith nodded. He then messaged Pidge, informing her of meeting Shiro. Within seconds he got a reply:

P: Sure! They don't have anything doing tomorrow anyway.

K: Great! I'll pick you guys up at 1:00pm. Be ready.

P: Sure. Let me just send the memo. Lol!

A smile appeared on Keith's face. For once, he'll be a part something with Shiro and not holding him back. All these years, it had been Shiro's dream to be in a band, but because Keith had expressed that he'll be the best lead guitarist he's ever seen, Shiro decided to wait on Keith, however, finding the remaining band members wasn't easy.

Still, even though this arrangement with three random strangers wasn't ideal, at least Shiro will get to perform in a band. Even if it's just for a day.

Little did Keith know, that this was just the beginning of what fate has in store.

Thanks for reading!