Thread by @KesRunsSlow

#sheith

Back in high school, Keith was never even on Shiro's radar except in passing.

The school superstar jock was kind to him in the hallways, but that was it.

Keith was a scrappy little stray, hanging out with the art kid groups, the band nerds, practicing with the chorus

kids, sitting with the goths and punks in passing periods when he wasn't the one doing the skipping.

Time passed though. Shiro went on to play college football on a major scholarship while also studying astrophysics.

Keith graduated highschool and took a job with a newly

discovered uncle in his mechanics shop and finding a love for motorcycles.

He grew from scrappy street punk into....well.

Let's just say he buffed the fuck up.

With meeting Thace and then all the rest of his long lost extended family full of cousins and other aunts and uncles,

he started taking better care of himself, working out with Uncle Antok and cousin Regris, while Uncle Ulaz made sure he ate proper healthy meals.

He also found parkour with his cousin Ezor and her wife Zethrid.

With his smoke dark hair in a long braid tossed casually over his

shoulder, his jumpsuit tied by the sleeves at his defined waist, covered in grease and dirt, he looks up when Thace tells him they've got a client coming in.

Keith hollers an affirmative then dives back into a racing car, hopping a little (he's only 5'6" yall, he didn't inherit

the family height of 6' or more) until his legs are kicking out behind him.

He hears the purr of a fancy engine (i know jack about cars so NYEH) but Keith can't wiggle free of the engine he's working on.

He hears a murmuring voice, male, seems pleasant, and then his bright star

best friend Romelle laughing sweetly.

"...course we can fit you in, Sir. Thace let us know you were coming."

"I'm sorry it's so last minute. I didn't want to take it to the dealership but I just don't know what's wrong, and Marmora got the best reviews."

Romelle puffed proudly

and patted the man's left shoulder.

"A wise decision, Mr. Shirogane. Keith's our top mechanic. he'll have your baby back to purring in no time."

At hearing his name, Keith shouted from the car, "You bet your fuckin ass I will. Rommie, some help?"

"Oop!" She hurried over and

fished Keith out, patting him clean sort of, then making a face at her now greasy hands. "Yuck..."

Keith rolled his eyes, then turned around to speak to the client.

His jaw dropped open.

The man looked like a model that just stepped out of a GQ mag. Muscles held in check only

by the strength of his pale lavender long sleeved button down. Trousers a soft dark grey only accentuated the man's ass, thighs and calves. It was unfair.

It was the face behind dark sunglasses that got Keith, though. "No...It can't be... Takashi?"

"Huh?" The man looked mildly

bewildered. "Oh...uh, yes? Wait... I know you..."

"I mean, yeah, man. We were at Garrison a good 15 years ago."

Shiro's mouth fell open as he looked over his sunglasses at the man before him. Compact, muscled, but slight, willowy, elegant in his stride. Like water.

"Of all the

shops in Garrison City, you turn up here."

That voice sent a shock straight to Shiro's dick: rough, deep, teasing... Shiro shook his head and gave the man an easy grin.

"What can I say, I wouldn't trust my baby to some dealership mechanic."

"I should hope not. I'll leave you

boys be." Over Shiro's shoulder, Rommie mouthed 'fuck he's hot, ask him out keith!' then she slipped away back into the office.

"Eheh...You're....Kogane? Right?"

"Yessir. I'm surprised you remember!" Keith smirked and surprisingly, Shiro blushed, just a little.

"Well, I only

had a few concussions in college." Keith eyes flicked from Shiro's platinum silver hair to his right shoulder and the metallic hand.

Nightsky eyes lifted back to Shiro's and Keith crossed his arms over his chest. "Only a few, ha. Alright, let me get a look at your car and you

can give me a rundown on what's wrong with her."

Shiro, internally, was freaking out so bad. For heaven's sake, he was a high powered CEO for a tech innovation firm that worked with NASA. Why did one little mechanic affect him like this?

He'll tell ya why. Because he was cute

because he had an ease around him that Shiro missed from his younger days.

After the accident in his senior year took his right arm, his NASA dreams had all but been destroyed until a girl in his class, Allura, had told him to speak with her father. Altea Innovations had hired

him right away and, really, it was a dream job.

Truthfully, it was Allura who told Shiro to check out Marmora because, to complicate things further, they had pissed off Altea's rival company, Galra Industries, when they'd refused to work on Lotor Daibazaal's shitty street racer.

So, Shiro was sent on a recon mission.

He and Keith hashed out some deets and then he handed over his key. Not long after, a driver (who glared at Keith) came in a black bentley to pick Shiro up.

Once he was gone, Rommie came back out and hip checked him. "Yer gunna have dreams

about his ass for weeks."

"Fuuuuuuuck me runnin, yeah. Yeah I am. He grew up real nice from the jock he used to be."

"Well, we can dream, right? Dude's so loaded. His boss makes more money than M/usk and B/ezos combined. He's outta our kind's league." She sighed at the same

time as Keith before they got back to work.

In the bentley, the driver peeked in the rearview mirror.

"Odd shop choice, Boss. I mean, this isn't the greatest neighborhood..."

Shiro huffed a little. "Yes, Lance. I know. But Allura asked me to check them out. Turns out I knew the head mechanic back in high school."

"That

scrawny guy with the braid? Or the blonde with the big-"

"Lance." Shiro warned. The driver flinched a little.

"Sorry. But is there actually anything wrong with your Benz?"

Shiro sat back, offering a little smirk. "I might have tweaked a couple things last night. Kicked the

exhaust pipe for good measure."

Lance chuckled and went quiet for the rest of the drive back to Altea Tower.

Meanwhile, Shiro let himself drift while he scrolled his phone. Keith had been so small, and so sad and angry when they were young. He always turned up with cuts and

bruises, and Shiro NEVER told the boy about the times he beat up some of his own footballers for shitty remarks and dangerous thoughts. He didn't tolerate bigotry from his team.

But he never made a move to speak with keith directly. He'd been too scared.

Now, he used his access

to do a little dirt digging. Perhaps unwisely.

A sealed juvenile record. That made sense. CPS records. (cw child abuse and hinted darker things) Allegations of assault against foster parents, arrests for trying to pimp out the 16+ kids. Images of Keith looking feral and bloody,

with teeth bared, hair wild. Footage of the cops holding Keith back and trying to attack some guy already in cuffs before Keith went to a small group of kids that included Romelle.

Hospital records for Keith and Romelle. Shiro slapped a hand over his mouth.

What he'd gone

through read out horrifically in clinically written reports.

Eventually, a small news article - Orphan boy discovers long lost family.

A pic of Keith, standing next to Romelle. They were surrounded by tall men and women who all vague resembled each other.

The biggest thing,

though, was the woman with her arms tightly around Keith, her face buried in his hair. She had purple-dyed hair in a pixie bob cut and a long braid down her back.

His mom. Krolia Marmora Kogane.

Shiro's aching heart eased a little on keith's behalf.

Shiro had been through so

much himself, but compared to keith, losing an arm and getting a prosthetic almost seemed paltry.

He closed out of his programs and sighed heavily, rubbing his face.

They arrived in the Tower and Shiro made his way up to his office to send Allura the -relevant- information he'd

already dug up.

By the end of the day, he'd almost forgotten about Keith, Romelle, and how their shop tied in with Altea and Galra.

His top engineer, and honorary Dad, Sam Holt was finishing a new project involving the next gen of prosthetic tech. His son Matt had helped with

the design while Matt's sister Pidge had done the coding.

The Holt Sibs were like engineering gremlins. Shiro adored them.

Pidge popped up in his DMs, asking if he'd wanna go get a drink after work.

Usually, Shiro declined, but this time, he agreed, but not after asking Matt

to help him find an outfit. Shiro was terrible at dressing down and looking like a casual civvie. It wasn't that he was too bougie for regular clothes.

Shiro was just that apparel-challenged and had no idea about fashion, something Matt frequently liked to take advantage of on

Holt-Shirogane family vacations.

It would be nice to unwind with his own best friends for a little while. He trusted Pidge to keep him in check.

@threadreaderapp unroll please!