*trumpets trumpeting* Finally finished this fic! I started it like a month ago, but because I'm such a perfectionist I couldn't stop redoing it and editing it. This is actually my first Voltron fanfiction, so yay, I'm making history here. So without further ado, enjoy some good ol' broganes content. :)

I own nothing!

It was late at night (or maybe early in the morning, he wasn't sure) when Shiro was rudely awoken by a knocking at his door. He'd been asleep in his dorm for hours, exhausted after a long day of tutoring the younger cadets. It was the first downtime he'd had in 24 hours, so of course Keith just had to disturb his bliss by choosing this this time at night to bother him.

That kid was going to be the death of him, he swore it.

Shiro didn't even bother to open his eyes as he sat up in bed, stretching and mourning the loss of slumber. "Yeah?" he called, though it was hoarse.

"Shiro?" He immediately recognized it as Keith's voice, even muffled through the door. Though he'd already had a feeling it was Keith just by the fact that he'd knocked in the first place. The only other person who would come to his room at this hour was Matt, but he would have barged in and gone straight to Shiro's Xbox without even bothering to wake him up. So that left Keith.

Shiro yawned. "No, I'm just some random guy sleeping in his room," he answered sarcastically. Then, a little nicer, "What do you need, bud?"

"...Can I come in?" Shiro could hear Keith shifting uncomfortably from the other side of the door.

Honestly, he was tempted to say no. He really just wanted to go back to sleep and deal with this in the morning when his brain was functioning properly. But he knew that even if he did that, Keith could easily pick the lock if he really wanted in. It's not like he hadn't already done that in the past. So regretfully, the safest option was to let the poor kid in before he broke his doorknob again.

With a low groan, Shiro accepted that he probably wasn't going to get to go back to sleep any time soon. Besides, Keith never really sought him out at night unless it was an emergency, so Shiro's protective instincts were what got him up from the bed and to the door.

He opened the door, blinking against the dim light of the Garrison hallways. Once they adjusted, he got a good look at Keith.

Ouch.

The kid's face looked like it'd been beaten repeatedly with a meat cleaver. His right eye was swollen and purple. Blood dried below his split lip, and all along his cheekbones were painful-looking bruises that were already starting to darken. And from the pained tightness in his jaw, Shiro could guess that wasn't the extent of the damage.

Shiro winced. Yup, might as well kiss sleep goodbye for tonight. "Damn, kid, you must have really pissed somebody off."

Keith rolled his eyes halfheartedly. "Hello to you too," he said. Then, more contrite, "Can I come in?"

Shiro opened the door wider and stepped aside. "What happened to you? Did you get hit by a bus or something?"

"More like a fist." Keith groaned quietly, holding his arm protectively against his chest.

"Seems like a few more fists than that," Shiro muttered under his breath. He pointed at the bed. "Sit," he ordered. He went into his bathroom to grab the first aid kit he kept under the sink. When he returned, Keith was sucking on his sore lip and wincing.

As Shiro rummaged around the kit, he commented, "Man, that's some beating. How come you came here instead of going to the nurse?"

Keith shrugged. "If I go there, she'll just tell Iverson. I've already gotten into two fights this semester, and I can't exactly afford to get in trouble again." He had the audacity to smirk, despite it clearly causing him pain. "'Sides, you're good at keeping your mouth shut."

Underneath his brotherlike concern, Shiro couldn't help being disappointed in Keith. This wasn't the first time he'd come to him broken and bleeding after getting into an altercation with someone bigger than him, and it wouldn't be the last. If he kept this up, pretty soon he was going to wind up getting expelled, and there would be nothing Shiro could do about it.

He was only seventeen. Still a kid. If he got kicked out of the Garrison, Shiro knew he'd end up getting thrown right back into foster care.

Shiro didn't want to see Keith's anger issues ruin his life.

He stayed silent as he pulled out some antiseptic and wet a cotton ball with it. Taking great care, he wiped the blood and dirt off Keith's face.

"So," he started casually. "You mind telling me who did this?"

Keith didn't answer and picked at a loose thread on Shiro's blanket.

Shiro sighed. "You're lucky, you know. I can cover for you for the next few days while you heal up, but you can't keep doing this every time someone looks at you the wrong way. I'm serious. If the faculty had found out about this, you'd have been screwed. You do realize you're already on your second strike, right? One more and you're gonna get kicked out, and then what will you do?"

Keith rolled his eyes and mumbled, "I know, I know."

Shiro turned Keith's face to look at him. "Do you? Because if you did, you wouldn't still be pulling this kind of stuff. If this happens again and you get caught, I won't be able to save you. My pull with the higher officers only goes so far, Keith."

Keith pulled away from Shiro's grasp and balled his fists. "I know, okay? I get it. You don't have to lecture me like you're responsible for me or something. You're not my father, you know."

Shiro grabbed Keith's chin again, firmer this time, and continued to fix up his scrapes. He ignored Keith's whine when the antiseptic stung the cut on his lip. Served him right. "I'm not trying to lecture you, but you have to admit all this fighting is getting out of hand."

Keith scowled. Shiro could feel the tension in his body, the anger boiling deep inside him and threatening to overflow. He could see his defenses going up. "Well what else was I supposed to do, just let that asshole get away with talking about me like that?"

Shiro's hands stilled. "Wait, what? Who talked like what?"

Keith clenched his jaw and glared at the wall behind Shiro's head. "Nothing. Forget it."

But the look in his eyes suggested that it was most definitely not nothing. "Keith." Shiro ducked his head to look him in the eyes. "Tell me what happened."

Keith glared at him. It was times like this that Shiro often wondered what Keith must look like to other people. Judging by his angry demeanor, he must be a pretty scary guy to those who didn't know him well. But Shiro still couldn't look at Keith without remembering the time he tried making a Rice Krispy omelette and nearly set the kitchen on fire, so he wasn't as easily intimidated by him as others were.

He smoothed a bandaid over a cut above Keith's eyebrow, giving the boy a stern look all the while. Eventually Keith seemed to give in. He slouched and let out a frustrated breath.

"Listen, it... it wasn't my fault, okay? I told you, I've really been trying."

"I believe you," Shiro assured him.

Keith bit his lip, but continued. "Anyway, I was hanging outside by the entrance to the dorms for some fresh air—" (That part didn't surprise Shiro. Keith often described living in the academy as suffocating) "—and some guy I recognized from my engineering class bumped into me on his way in. Didn't even apologize or anything."

Shiro's eyebrows narrowed knowingly. "You didn't."

Keith's lips twitched. "Yeah. I got pissed. But I swear, all I did was yell at first. I wasn't planning on actually doing anything."

"Then how'd you manage to get so messed up?"

Keith hesitated and looked down. "Eventually he got angry too, and I dunno, he must have snuck out and been hanging at a bar or whatever before that, 'cause he seemed pretty wasted. So pretty soon we were both yelling and then he..." He hesitated.

"Keith?"

Keith avoided Shiro's eyes and took a breath. "He called me an orphan," he mumbled, so quietly that Shiro barely heard him.

If the look in Keith's eyes didn't break his heart, the waver in his voice sure did when he stumbled over the word orphan. "Keith..."

Keith put up a hand, stopping him. "Listen, I know I overreacted. I mean, he was just telling the truth, right? I am an orphan. I can't— I can't get mad just because someone was stating a fact. But it's— it's just the way he said it—" His voice shook, and he cleared his throat to cover it up.

Now, Keith wasn't one to show emotion, well, ever, so there were few things that got to him. But feeling unloved, unwanted? Being reminded of how alone he was in the world? That was a major one. So Shiro knew that even though it was just some random upperclassman with a chip on his shoulder, his words hurt. A lot.

Meanwhile, Shiro was mad. Not at Keith, of course. In fact, if he hadn't already known that Keith had so many problems with physical contact, he'd probably have already smothered him a hug by now. No, he was angry at the kid who dared to say something like that to the boy he thought of as a little brother, who already had enough to deal with without adding jerk upperclassmen who hurt people just because they can to the mix.

Keith sniffed. "Anyways, he just kept going on, saying that I didn't matter and nobody would want me and I shouldn't even be here in the first place, stuff like that. And then— I dunno, I just lost it."

The look on his face made Shiro want to find this guy and teach him a lesson. But Shiro couldn't lose it now, not while he had a bruised and bloodied Keith in his room, with misty eyes and shaky breaths he was desperately trying to hide. So instead of storming out and probably winding up getting himself kicked off the Kerberos mission, Shiro returned to the task of tending to the cuts on Keith's face and forced what was hopefully a convincing smirk. "Man, I'd like to see how he looks if this is as bad as you got," he said. Which wasn't even a lie—he hoped Keith had at least gotten a few good swings in. At least then if Shiro ever saw the guy, he could recognize him from the bruises and know just who exactly deserved payback for hurting his little brother.

Keith shook his head. "Nah, I got barely a punch in before his friends joined in. There were three, maybe four I guess. I didn't really stand much of a chance." He winced at the memory. "Uh, anyway, after a few minutes I guess they got bored and went back inside. Then I managed to get up and come here, and you know the rest."

Shiro's eyebrows pulled together, but he didn't speak. After knowing Keith for so long, he'd learned by now that the last thing Keith would want was pity. So rather than talking, Shiro pursed his lips and continued bandaging Keith's injuries. He moved on to Keith's arm, which he'd been favoring since he got in. Shiro prayed it wasn't broken, because if that was the case there would be no way they'd be able to hide this from the Garrison faculty.

Thankfully, after a few minutes he dismissed it as just a little bruised. He finished checking Keith for any other injuries in no time, and he went to put away the first aid kit. Then he sat back down on the bed and faced Keith.

"Keith... You do realize I'm leaving for Kerberos in six months, right?"

Keith looked down. Shiro knew he didn't like to think about the prospect of him leaving. "So?"

"So, you're gonna be on your own for a while. Pretty soon you're not going to have me around to patch you up and cover for you when this kind of thing happens. I don't want to come back from space and find out that you're living on the street, or in the desert or something after getting kicked out because you couldn't control your anger," he said.

Keith shrugged with one shoulder. "I can take care of myself."

"Well I really hope so, because if you get into trouble while I'm gone, that's gonna be it for you. I can't leave in good conscience unless I'm positive you'll be okay, and as of right now, I'm not so sure that's the case."

Keith pulled away and looked Shiro in the eyes, abruptly serious. "Don't say that. Don't even think about giving up this mission just because you think you need to take care of me or hold my hand or whatever. Don't forget, I've lived on my own before and I made it this far. I'll be fine, okay?"

Shiro looked at him a long time before finally nodding. "Okay. It's just... I worry, you know? It's hard to imagine leaving you behind for so long with no one to stick up for you."

Keith rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "It won't be that long. It's not like you'll be gone forever, right? And believe me, you won't have to worry about me getting kicked out anytime soon, 'cause I know that if I did, you'd probably beat me up for getting expelled when you got back."

"That's true," Shiro laughed. He nudged Keith with his shoulder, and Keith nudged him back.

They were going to be okay, he thought. He'd be back from the mission in no time, and until then, he had a feeling Keith would be fine. So long as he knew Shiro was returning, that he wouldn't have to be alone for too long, he would find a way to stay out of trouble. Shiro wouldn't have to worry about him getting kicked out anytime soon, he was sure of it.

See the sad thing about this is that because Shiro gets taken prisoner and is legally dead back on Earth, all of his worsts fears regarding Keith come true because Keith does lose it and he does get kicked out and he does end up all alone again. So there's some extra angst for ya ;)