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Part 4 of Kit Keith
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Published:
2019-01-27
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3,364
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1/1
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Translator Down

Summary:

Due to an electrical storm the power and thus the translators go down in the castle. This leads to an interesting revalation about keith to the other paladins.

Notes:

Hey ya all! I know I don't normaly leave one of these, but I figured i should change all that.
so this take place before smoll Grump and if you havn't read Dads of Mamora you may need a little filler information.
Kolivan is Keiths grandfather
Antok is Keiths Uncle
Keith is considered a very younge kit to Galra, like a 3 or 4 year old to a human
Shiro's family adopted keith when he was 7
Takratik- Galran for grandfather

if ya all have any questions feel free to leave a comment, or you can leave a comment to just leave a comment. i love hearing anything and everything about my fics!

Work Text:

Keith was siting cuddled up next to his pack in the lounge area of the castle. Allura had needed Kolivan and the other heads for a meeting of the Coalition in a few quintents. They decided to join the paladins early so that they could spend some time with Keith before the event. Thace and Ulaz were off to the side going over notes and Keith was leaning against Antok’s side as he listened to Antok and Kolivan discuss the plans for the meeting.  He looked up at them and noticed what they were saying didn’t match up to their lip movements.

“Why do your mouths not match what you’re saying?” he inquired.

The Father and son paused their conversation and looked down at the kit. “What do you mean?” Kolivan asked.

Keith sat up as he turned to them, “Your lip movement didn’t match up with the words I was hearing.”

Ulaz and Thace had apparently be listening in on their conversation, “Kit, what language are you hearing when we speak?” Ulaz questioned

This caught Keith of guard, ‘how do they not know what language they are speaking?’ he thought. Then it all connected, “you guys aren’t speaking English are you?” he states.

“No, we are not,” Antok chuckles. “We are speaking Galran.”

Keith tilts his head in curiosity,” but how?”

Thace explains, “There are translators in the base, our suits, and apparently the castle.”

Kolivan added, “It would probably be best if you started to learn Galran. Translators don’t work on any text and you never know if something causes them to go out.”

As if on cue a loud thunder clap rushed through the castle and the lights suddenly flickered but reappeared.

“What the Quiznack?” Keith shouted as he curled back into Antok’s lap. And then was quickly wacked by Antok’s tail.

“You don’t know Galran, but you know Altean profanity?” He questioned.

Keith looked down at his feet, abashed, “Coran and Allura say it a lot.”

Before he could get any further reprimanded by his Uncle or the rest of his pack the rest of the castle’s inhabitance rushed into the room. Keith quickly jumped out of Antok’s lap, embarrassed by the childish behavior.

“Did you guys hear that?” Lance shouted.

Pidge answered for us, “Of course they did! That thunder clap shook the whole castle!”

Coran decided to explain at that moment, “We have apparently flown right into a space electrical storm. It should only take us a few Varga’s to get out of but until then-“another loud clap of thunder and Keith resisted the urge to seek comfort from the closest pack member. “Until then, we will just have to sit tight.” Coran finished.

The lights flickered threateningly again.

“And hope we do not lose power temporarily.” Allura adds.

“How?” Pidge questions.

“Yeah, I thought the castle was run off of Balmerian crystals?” Hunk chimes in.

Coran explained, “Yes, but the Crystal’s energy if turned into electricity through the castles system, and the electricity running outside the ship can confuse the system and over whelm it. If that happens, then we will be stranded here until the storm passes and the system re rights itself.

“Well let’s hope that doesn’t happen!” Lance stupidly says.

And as if by some higher karmic power, that is the exact time everything goes dark and the loudest thunder clap shakes the castle. Keith couldn’t resist the urge any longer and latched on desperately to Kolivan as he bit down a whine of fear. Keith was adamant that the paladins would not hear any of the kit sounds he makes. A quit purr of reassurance calmed him slowly as Kolivan’s clawed hand gently patted his shoulder. Keith began to relax and released his hold on his grandfather as the emergency lights flickered on. Everything was bathed in a red glow.

“Well this will be fun,” Pidge groused, “Allura, do you know how long it will take for the storm to pass?”

The reply was not what any of the humans were expecting. Instead of Allura’s oddly British accented English, she spoke in this weird soft and flowy language. There were a lot of soft vowel like sounds interspersed with sharp chirps and rolling trills.

“Okaaayyy” Pidge commented nervously.

“It sounds like the translators are down too.” Hunk stated. He then saw everyone’s deadpanned expressions. “What?”

“The pun.” Keith stated.

Hunk looked a little lost. Then his eyes shown in realization, he chuckled a bit, “Oh I guess I did. It is kinda funny though.”

Suddenly, the castle shook from something crashing into it.

“What the fuck?!” Pidge exclaimed. As she staggered into Hunk.

“Coran, what was that?” Shiro asked as he righted himself against the couch. Coran had already been pulling up a screen and proceeded to speak, in Altean. “And you can’t understand what I’m asking.” He deadpans.

Pidge and Thace looked over his shoulder. “It looks like something hit the top of the ship.”

The paladins also herd some gruff sounds that were low and sharp.

“Guess that is what Galran sounds like.” Lance commented.

Keith eagerly listened to his pack speak to each other. Excited to hear the new language.

Just then another loud crash and a tremer shook through the castle and nocked everyone to the ground.

“Quiznack!” Coran shouted as he and Allura righted them self. The profanity was followed by some other sounds, but was cut off as Antok wacked Coran on the head.

A low growl was heard from him as he said some other things in Galran. 

The paladins then watched as Coran seemed to respond in Altean.

The humans simply blinked in surprise. Hunk leaned into the group, “So… what just happened.”

Shiro tilted his head in thought, “I think Antok just chastised Coran for saying Quiznack and that they can both understand each other.”

“What’s wrong with Quiznack?” Lance asked.

“How the heck would we know why Quiznack is bad?” Pidge complained.

Suddenly a Kolivan let lose a low growl and every one of the paladins flinched as he glared at them. Meanwhile Thace and Ulaz are seemingly trying to hold back laughter.

“Keith, what’s going on?” Lance nervously asks.

Keith, manages to hold back some chuckles as he joins the others, “Quiz-“ another low growl, but from Antok makes Keith pause, “That word, is apparently a very strong profanity for both Alteans and Galra.”

Pidge chuckled at that, “So we sound like a bunch of toddlers learning to say a new word to them”

Keith shrugged, “Probably. Also I wouldn’t say it around Antok. His tail hurts like fuck.” He rubbed the back of his head, remembering the pain.

“What no growl for saying fuck though?” Lance questioned.

“Translators are down doofus, they don’t know what Fuck even means.” Pidge explained.

“Oh, right…”

More clanging shook the castle ship.

“What the heck is going on out there?” Hunk complained.

The Blade members seemed equally concerned as everyone crowded around Coran’s apparently battery powered screen.  It would seem that there was not only a thunderstorm outside, but they had also a meteor shower.

“Well this is great.” Pidge deadpanned, “We are sitting ducks out here. It is going to be hell to patch everything up.” She then slumped down into the couches in defeat.

“We’ll just have to see how everything looks once we are out of the storm, and the meteor shower passes.” Shiro tried to helpfully advise.

“Till then I guess we can just chill out here.” Lance added as he plopped down next to Pidge. Hunk joined the two of them. The Alteans were huddled over to the left of them as they tried to fiddle with the screen, probably trying to get some power back Keith thought. He headed back over to his pack, but sat next to them instead of his normal spot in one of their laps. He was fully aware of how close his friends were. Shiro joined him and sat on his other side, with Kolivan and the pack to Keith’s left and the paladins and Alteans to his right.

The storm rages on, and the inhabitants of the castle manage to find ways to distract themselves. Allura and Coran discarded the screen awhile ago, either they gave up on returning power or the battery died, Keith it unsure. The Galra were talking and grooming amongst themselves. Lance some how pulled a deck of cards out and roped the other humans into a game of poker.  They were playing with various berries and vegetables that Hunk grabbed from the kitchens.  After a few rounds Keith bowed out with his winnings. He joined up with his pack, Ulaz wrapped his tail around Keith’s waist and started grooming his hair. Keith quickly looked nervously over at the other paladins and saw they were deeply engrossed in the new round so he leaned back and started munching on the carrot like root.

Keith loved them, they were super sweet but not sickly so. Ulaz had noticed his kit eating something and leaned over to inspect it. As soon as he saw it was a plant, which was more like sugar to all Galra, he yanked it from Keith’s grasp with a reprimanding growl. Out of habit Keith whined in complaint at the loss of his snack.

This got the attention of the rest of the pack. Antok tried to placate Keith and handed him the jerky like bar that Antok keeps on himself for this exact reason of a snacking kit, but Keith wanted the carrot like treat back. He let out a frustrated growl and reached for the root. Kolivan apparently did not approve of the tone of the growl and lightly taped him on the back of the head. Keith glowered up at his grandfather. He pointed over at Ulaz who still held the root, and let out a whine of complaint. Kolivan gLanced from Keith to the plant and realized the problem. He huffed in amusement and let out a soft chuff in Ulaz direction. The doctor grumbled in complaint but handed back the vegetable. Keith let out pleased huff and went back to eating it.

That is till Pidge suddenly piped up “What the heck just happened?”

“Ahh…” Keith stuttered out, realization dawning on what he just did.

Hunk chimed in, “it looked like you were talking with them, but you were just making a bunch of weird sounds,”

Keith looked down, his flashed flushed with embarrassment, “I kinda was… Galra have two forms of communication. A verbal and nonverbal. I can’t speak Galran, but the nonverbal one I guess I always knew?” he explained.

Antok could apparently sense Keith’s slight distress and started to rub his back. Keith unintentionally leaned in to the comfort.

“That’s cool!” Lance exclaimed.

“I had wondered why you stopped making those sounds back at the garrison.” Shiro commented.

Keith visibly bristled at that, “Everyone kept making fun of me when I went back into the homes.” He whispered.

Shiro’s face fell, “Oh Keith,” he stood up and moved closer to Keith and his pack. He knelt down and pulled Keith into a hug. “We don’t think that.  None, of us here think that, I promise.” Keith gLanced up at the others who all nodded eagerly at Shiro’s statement.

“Of course buddy.” Hunk added.

Keith nuzzled into Shiro and began softly purring.

Kolivan began raking his claws through Keith’s hair again and the kit turn back to his grandfather. Shiro let Kolivan take Keith back into his lap as the youngest blade started to fall asleep.

Lance watched this and started to yawn, “A nap doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Anyone up for a sleepover in here?” Hunk asked.

Lance threw his fist in the air, “Yay Sleep over!”

The shouting quickly woke Keith up. He sleepily glared at Lance and the blue paladins words registered in his head. “A sleep over sound nice.”

Pidge shrugged in response, “Eh, I got nothing better to do” she added.

Shiro shook his head in amusement, “I’ll help gather blanket and pillows.” He turned over to Keith, “You wanna let your pack know that we’re are all spending the night in here?”

Keith just smile, “If you get enough blankets and pillows I can build a nest and it should be obvious for them.”

Lance and the others froze at Keith’s words, “Nest?” He questioned.

“Yeah, Galra sleep together in large nests, made out of various blankets and pillows. It’s actually really comfortable.” Keith explained.

 

Within minutes, Keith stood around a pile of blankets and pillows as thunder racked through the castle. The other paladins helped move the couches further back, Coran and Allura also helped. They seemed to quickly figure out what the humans were planning. The blade members look on in curiosity. That is until Keith chirps in help as he begins spreading out the blankets and pillows. The other paladins move out of the way of the large Galra as they help Keith weave blankets and pile pillows in the large area. Thace went to move one of the couches back a bit further but accidently rolled over Antok’s tail. A high pitch yowl came from Antok as he gripped his pained limb. The scream was quickly followed by the repeated shouts of “Zamotill, Zamotill, Zamotill.”

This caught Keith’s attention as Kolivan tries to cover his ears from the obvious profanity. As Ulaz looked over the injured tail, Keith shakes of the hands and curled up to Antok and let out a high pitched rumble of a kit trying to comfort another. Though he saw Antok wasn’t that seriously injured and had simple moved on to sending death glares to an apologetic Thace, Keith ponders the word Antok repeated. He thinks he could manage to say the word at least, though he wasn’t sure what it meant. It was a simple enough word, and he herd it enough times.

He started muttering it under his breath, hesitantly trying out the new word. “Zamatill… no. Zamotill.” A smile grew as he figured out the correct pronunciation. He then said it louder so his pack could see that he was trying to learn more of the language, “Zamotill!”

All work on the large nest halted. And the three other Galra glared daggers at the now blushing Antok. He grumbled something and helped up his injured tail, as if in proof of explanation or excuse. Kolivan wacked his son upside the head, not too lightly.

“Is Zamotill not a good word?” Keith asked. This utterance of it a second time was apparently hilarious to Thace and Ulaz as they started balling in laughter. He turned to the paladins in confusion, maybe they understood something that he missed. Pidge was the only one that seemed amused. “Pidge, do you know what going on?”

She chuckled lightly, “I’m pretty sure it is a bad cussword based on their reactions” she told him. “Wasn’t that you first Galran word too?” she said with a cheeky smile.

Keith huffed in annoyance as he leaned against the mostly finished nest, “Not really, I know family terms, but that’s basically it.”

“So it basically was,” Lance chimed in, “Your first word was a cussword!” Lance teased. “What was it anywas? Za….zamo….zamo… how did you manage to say that last part, Keith?” he questioned.

“What are you talking about? It’s easy. You just trill the l’s like this- Za-mo-till” he exaggerated his mouth movements and even managed to say the words right as well. He was happy with himself as Lance tried and failed to mimic him, till he heard a low growl from behind and was wacked lightly on the back of the head. He turned quickly and saw a very disapproving Kolivan. Keith stated back at him flabbergasted.

Shiro chuckled of to the side, “I don’t think they like you cussing either.”

Keith blushed and let out a small whine of apologies to his grandfather, knowing that would be the only thing to appease him right now. Kolivan huffed in acceptance and nudged Keith to back to the nest building. Keith readily accepted as the other paladins watched on.

“Well that was interesting.” Pidge commented. As she took a seat on the couch.

“But it’s nice to see Keith relaxing, he seems less stressed when he is with the other Galra.” Hunk added, leaning in next to her

Shiro reclined against the couch, “I’m just glad that he is allowing others to take care of him again, I haven’t seen this side of Keith since our mom died.”

Pidge smiled softly. “Yeah, that is a good thing.”

“Zamo…zamo…..” Lance grumbles as he throws himself down on the other side of Hunk. “UGH!!!” he throws his hands up in exasperation, “How the crow, does he trill the L like that?”

Pidge chuckles lightly, “You haven’t figured it out yet.”

Lance glared back at her, miss understanding what she meant, “If you can do it then show me!”

This just made her laugh even harder. “I can’t and that’s the point! The Galra language is based on sounds that the human vocal cords just simply can’t make.”

Lance blinked in confusion,

Shiro, though nodded in understanding, “She’s right. It’s why back in the arena, the other prisoners and I all had such a hard time. Though some of us managed to make a bastardized version of the language.”

Pidge was about to comment when Keith grabbed all their attention with a happy chirp, “Done!” he turned to the other humans, “you guys can come in now, sorry I kinda took over.” He added sheepishly.

Lance quickly plopped himself down next to Keith, “No problem, Mullet! Dang this is soft!”

Hunk and Pidge were next to join in on the blanket nest, “Yeah no kidding, I can see why you guys enjoy this way of sleeping. It’s softer than any mattress I’ve ever had!” Hunk exclaimed.

“Like laying on puffy pillows,” Pidge comments sleepily.

Shiro slides down behind Keith and slowly raked his fingers through Keith’s hair, “You did a good job with this.”

Keith leaned in to his brother’s touch, “I had help.”

Kolivan suddenly sat down next to them and handed Keith and Shiro some of the food they still had. Allura and Coran joined everyone in the nest and brought more food and some drinks as well.

As they ate, Shiro added, “Though if I remember correctly, it was also your idea.”

“Maybe so”. Keith said as he cuddled into Shiro.

The food was quickly finished off and dishes placed outside of the nest. The paladins were quickly enveloped into the warmth of the nest and found themselves relaxed and tired. Keith tiredly looked around and saw that Allura was already fast asleep against Coran with all the mice somewhere in her hair. Pidge and Hunk were curled around Thace, with Ulaz behind him and slowly stoking his ears. Antok was next to Ulaz and had Lance slowly nodding off next to him. Kolivan pulled Keith out of Shiro’s grasp and wrapped a blanket around both of them. He lightly nuzzled Shiro and then deeply nuzzled Keith.

Shiro cocked an eyebrow at this. Keith just chuckled a bit, “I guess they see you guys as a part of the pack now too. And since all of you are around my age, they probably see you all as kits too.”

Suddenly Lance lurched up. “I haven’t herd any thunder in a while!” and if my more karmatic magic the power suddenly flickered back on and the red lights everyone had grown used to flickered out.

“Aww…” Lance whined.

Suddenly all the lights were out. “Is that better number 3?” Coran asked.

Lance leaned back into Antok, “Yeah.. and it’s good to understand you again Coran.”

 Coran simply chuckled lightly. “Same here my boy, same here.”

Kolivan purred in contentment as he nuzzled Keith and then Shiro again. “Sleep now kits.”

“Night Takratik”, Keith nuzzled into his Grandfather and then his brother. Content with all his family surrounding him that his purrs filled the room and blended in to those of the adult Galra around him.

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