Takashi "Shiro" Kogane (takashi) wrote in valloic, @ 2022-08-17 19:51:00 |
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Keith was inside this apartment. The husband. The clone was not immune to all of that which made Shiro who he was and Keith was a very large part of that core. It left a sour taste in the clone's mouth. Love was a weakness and Keith was weaker still. He'd saved a version of the clone once, after all, even knowing it wasn't Shiro. Even after that clone had tried to murder Keith and the other paladins.
Letting himself into the apartment, he scanned the room for the space wolf. He doubted he smelled any different from true-Shiro, but he had no intentions of being distracted.
"Keith?" He made his voice sound worried and full of affection as he called out. "Are you here? I haven't been able to find him." News of the clone had been impossible to avoid. "Please tell me you're here and he hasn't hurt you too."
The second Keith had heard that there was a clone of Shiro running around - and boy, did that bring back unpleasant memories - he had started reaching out to people to make sure they hadn't seen him. He had tried calling Shiro at work too, but had been unable to get through until recently, when his husband had answered a call and told him to meet him at their apartment to regroup and figure out their next step.
So he had gone there and nothing has seemed off about the empty apartment he has returned to. Keith had been checking his bedroom to make sure there wasn't….a clone hiding in the closet or something, when he heard the front door open and close, with his husband calling out for him.
Relief flooded him, that he sounded unharmed. Leaving their bedroom for the front room, the tension further drained from his shoulders at the sight of Shiro. "Hey, you okay? How's Atreus?" He went in for a hug, wanting the solid confirmation that Shiro was okay. The memory of the clone from home flashes in his mind's eyes, of those soulless eyes that Haggard had been controlling him through. At first glance, there was no sign of those eyes here.
The clone met Keith’s hug easily; muscle memory was a wonderful thing for a nightmare creation. He held Keith close and pressed a cheek to his head for a moment before he pulled back. His gaze may have been soft, but he used it sharply. He looked over Keith as if he was confirming no injuries when really he was checking for weapons.
“Atreus is fine. He’s a god, after all. I wasn’t sure you’d fare as well.” Backhanded concern sounded natural in Shiro’s voice. The clone knew all too well that Shiro could sound patronizing and parental, given the right word choice. Even with the man he loved. “I’m glad you’re all right. Have you checked the apartment already? The balcony?”
Maybe it was the part of Keith that refused to believe that any version of Shiro would hurt him, despite the evidence of how wrong that assessment was vividly maring his face. For whatever reason, he didn't see or hear the warning signs that the man in front of him wasn't his husband. The comment about Atreus was just a matter of fact. Galran heritage aside, Keith was no god. The sharp look in Shiro's eyes could be put to the fact that he was worried about the clone version of him running around.
Stupidly, he played into the clone's hands. "Nothing anywhere, it doesn't look like he's been here. I sent Kosmo to go check on our friends, so he should be back soon." Gripping Shiro's hand, he squeezed it and tipped up on his toes to brush a quick kiss to his "husband's" lips. "Come on. Let's go check on the Castle and Lions. Maybe the Cabin. There's too many places he could be, but those are good starts."
The confirmation that the wolf was busy elsewhere was welcome. The clone couldn't hide a faint smile as Keith pressed a kiss to his mouth, that likely wouldn't seem out of place. His reaction to Keith's suggestion might, however.
He put a muscular arm across the door, barring the exit.
"No." It was a steely reply, so he put effort into adding fake warmth back into his voice. Whether he succeeded was another story. "I mean to say…I've checked those places already. He's too smart to stay where we might easily find him. You're safer here. You'd never win in a fight against him this time." He turned the deadbolt on the door and ushered Keith away from it. "He's stronger than before. He knows more and he's not bound to any third party's will. He would rip you apart, Keith.”
Having Shiro become slightly overprotective was nothing new. He always put up a token protest whenever Keith suggested dumb and dangerous, but as long as he knew what he was doing, Shiro usually fell in step with him and joined him on his adventures. So hearing that no? That wasn’t what tipped Keith off.
It was the fact that Shiro doubted his abilities and thought he stood no chance against this clone. Keith didn’t have any doubt in his abilities. Even as reckless as he could be, he knew he was capable, and Shiro had always been the first person to back that thought up. Even when Keith did doubt himself, Shiro was always there to make sure he knew how skilled he was.
So to hear his number one cheerleader do a complete 360 on this? It had the back of Keith’s neck goosebumping. Not only that, Shiro wouldn’t want to stay in the safety of their apartment, while this clone potentially hurt their friends. He would want to team up and take the clone down as quickly as they could.
Something was wrong here. And it didn’t take a genius to figure out what it could be, given the situation.
Letting himself be ushered away, Keith tried to play it cool. “He’s still you, Shiro. Even if something’s been warped in him, I don’t think he’s unreachable.”
Keith had been the one to figure it out the last time. He'd known something was off and even though this Shiro was a nightmare version of the clone, he remembered the sensation of being caught. He recognized the shift in Keith's expressive eyes. And he felt the complicated swirl of emotions that came with being seen by the person Shiro loved most.
"He's really not." The clone took a step closer, continuing to separate Keith from the exit, but also turning him away from the hallway that he knew led to all of their weapons in the apartment. His head tilted in a dangerous way. "Most people with your experience would learn from it, Keith." He reached out to graze a thumb over the scar on Keith's face, not quite smiling, but definitely looking sharper by the second. "What would I do if something terrible happened to you?"
Keith knew he was gambling with something dangerous now. Shiro hasn't been deemed the Champion in that gladiator ring for no reason. He knew the clone had all the same memories and skills as his own Shiro. But still, something in him refused to give up on the man in front of him, his Shiro or not.
"Is something terrible going to happen to me?" Keith asked, eyes still impossibly fond even though his instinct for danger was going off.
"That…" The clone's eyes lowered over Keith's face with heat. With intent. What he intended was the mysterious part. "...Remains up to you, Keith." With that, his hand shifted from Keith's scar to his throat and he drove Keith backward into a wall. Photo frames of the Kogane wedding crashed down to the hardwood floors, shattering glass at their feet.
"You're still so weak. So soft. All of you are so soft." He knew part of that was simply that Shiro surrounded himself with good people. Compassionate people. But he also knew it was because they were soft for Shiro himself. And it made the bitterness burn inside of him. His grip on Keith's throat tightened to uncomfortable and he snarled in his face. "You should be stronger by now. Your Galra mother would be ashamed."
It was instinctive that his hands scrambled up to where the clone Shiro was holding him by the throat, squeezing it just so. Fingers tried to pry the hand away from him, but after a few seconds of panic, Keith dropped his hands and tried to suck in enough breath to get some words out, going slack in the process.
"Not soft," he hissed out between gritted teeth. Then he gathered what strength he had and pulled a move that Shiro himself had taught him, back in their Garrison days. Keith rammed the heel of his palm up into the taller man's chin and when he loosened his hold in response, Keith slammed his forearm against the arm holding him against the wall. With that element of surprise, he kicked off from the wall with his foot to shove Shiro into the wall opposite of them, where a bookshelf full of mementos from their time in Vallo waited to rain down on them. "I'm stronger for knowing him. For knowing you."
It would've been boring if Keith didn't fight back. Despite the clone's insults, he thought highly of Keith's fighting ability. He was dangerous when he wanted to be. Agile and alien. Like this, he was a challenge. Shiro loved all of Keith, every facet of him. The clone only cared about the ferocious side.
"That's more like it," he growled. Like a charging bull, he rushed forward and slammed his shoulder into Keith's solar plexus. They crashed backward, over the couch, and landed in a pile of limbs. The clone hurried to regain control, climbing on top of Keith as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a perfect replica of Shiro's bayard. It flashed to life, forming into a sword. The clone pressed it dangerously close to Keith's neck.
"I'd hold still if I were you, husband dear. Maybe I'll make it painless. As a wedding gift."
Keith might have believed in every version of Shiro, but he wouldn't make it easy on this one to hurt him. He pushed back against the press of the bayard with a stubborn determination to end this without bloodshed. Bracing his hands against Shiro's arm to keep him from slicing through his throat like he was threatening, he pleaded with the clone once again. "Shiro, you don't want to do this. I love you and I know somewhere deep down in you, a part of you loves me too." Even as he said that, he could feel the blade of the sword start to cut into the skin of his neck.
It was sheer luck that in that moment, Al Catpone decided to come out hiding and hiss at the fighting pair. It was enough of a distraction that allowed Keith to buck his hips to dislodge the Shiro clone off him and scramble for a blade that had been taped under the overturned coffee table. He brandished it with a wince, feeling blood run down his throat from where the clone had nicked him.
"Please stop this. We can figure this out, if you put the bayard away." Maybe Keith was weak for still trying to reason with this version of Shiro, but he couldn't bring himself to end this fight by hurting the man in front of him.
The clone growled his frustration at Keith’s words. He didn’t want feelings; he wanted violence. He wanted to destroy Voltron and everything bound up with it. He wanted to prove that he was the superior Shiro. But he was fallible and the cat distracted him. He swung for it, but Al dodged easily away and scratched his hand as he was flung off of Keith.
He recovered quickly, ending in a low crouch – a panther’s pose, with his sword brandished and bearing Keith’s blood.
“Shut. Up. The only way this ends is with you dead. You and your precious Shiro. Black didn’t know the difference between us before, he won’t know it now when I fly him away from here.” The clone leapt for Keith, rolling them across the floor and through the glass shards scattered there. He bashed a fist into Keith’s ribs and an elbow into his cheek as he lifted the bayard high.
The door crashed open. Real Shiro was panting in the doorway. He looked a little worse for wear from his previous encounter with the clone and his attempts to find him since, but it was the murderous look in his face that carried through the room. The clone drove down with the sword but Shiro was there, his own bayard forming a shield and slipping between the sword and Keith’s chest. Metal clanged and sparked. Shiro made a furious, protective noise and tackled the clone off of his husband.
When Keith hit the floor, a sickening crack could be heard. His vision blurred and his ears rang, giving this nightmare version of his husband exactly what he wanted - Keith shutting up. The only thing that escaped from his mouth was a weak groan, while he struggled to keep his eyes open. His blade had been lost in the tackle and there was nothing stopping Shiro from running him through now. His eyes, so much like his mother’s, were unfocused when the clone tried to bring down the killing blow. “Shiro, please.”
He must have passed out though because when he came back into awareness, the clone and his real husband were trading blow for blow on the far side of the apartment. He couldn’t keep his eyes open long enough to follow what was happening, but every time they opened, there was another piece of furniture broken and the sounds of the identical black bayards meeting in battle.
Forcing himself to try and shift, the room was spinning by the time he was propped up against the broken coffee table. Fuck, he felt so weak at that moment, not able to do anything but helplessly watch Shiro battle the worst version of himself. The only way he could tell them apart was a splash of green paint on the clone’s leg, something he hadn’t noticed until now. But he had no doubt that it was the clone that had the marker - the ugly sneer on his face was so reminiscent of the clone back home that had scarred him years ago.
This couldn’t happen again. It wouldn’t. Shiro was alive this time and he would protect Keith with everything he had in him. And it was a lot, what he had in him. The love and the devotion and the vigilance. There was half a lifetime of wanting to keep Keith safe and cared for powering every strike, fueling every dodge.
Things got dicey when Shiro spotted Keith sitting up looking dizzy and hurt. The clone got the upperhand for the briefest moment until Shiro knocked the clone’s sword across the room and bashed the edge of the shield upwards into the clone’s chin with all the energy he could pull from Black. Shiro watched his own eyes roll back into his head when the clone fell backward, unconscious and bleeding into their carpet. As much as Shiro wanted to rush to Keith in that very second, he made himself climb to his feet and rip a cord from the blinds nearby. He used it to bind the clone’s hands behind its back.
Then he rushed to Keith. Crashed towards him, more like. He fell to his knees and lifted his hands to each side of Keith’s head, like he was afraid to touch him.
“Keith. Are you okay? Tell me what hurts.” His voice was choked with emotion. He’d poured out apologies to Atreus earlier and the same words were gearing up for Keith, but he wasn’t sure I’m sorry was enough when it was the second time this had happened. His touch was achingly gentle as he used his sleeve to dab at the blood on Keith’s neck. “Jesus. Keith…I…” He didn’t know what to say.
Feeling utterly useless, he swayed forward a bit, before Shiro held him more securely. “Shiro,” was all he managed to get out, smiling a little bloody from one of his incisors having cut the inside of his cheek. Then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he passed out, knowing that even though he was hurt, he would be okay.
Shiro had him. Keith had nothing to worry about now.
Panic constricted Shiro’s throat but he caught Keith with ease, holding him close. This he could do without hesitation. He lifted his husband up into his arms and moved for the door. He’d realize later that he still didn’t have his phone, but he could call Lance and Atreus from the hospital. Getting Keith somewhere safe where he could be seen by healers was a priority. The priority. The only priority that mattered in that moment.
But he did stop to stare down at his own unconscious face on the way to the door and he made a fervent promise. “I’ll be back to deal with you soon.”