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Keith is a super late blooming omega (because Galra), and he doesn’t have his first heat until just before Shiro leaves. Keith is still a minor, and he’s technically a ward of the Garrison. He literally doesn’t have anyone to guard him, and Shiro finds out Keith is going to have his heat in a sectioned off area of the sick bay. That’s unacceptable. It means Keith wouldn’t even have a room with a real door--just a curtain--and he’ll be on a hospital bed, not in a nest.
Iverson very reluctantly okays Shiro guarding Keith in his own apartment. Keith is so, so embarrassed and also so, so relieved. Shiro lowkey can’t believe Keith didn’t tell him about any of this and he found out via gossip, but he gets it. Keith is shy and private about a lot of things.
Keith hadn’t told him because he just knew Shiro would volunteer to help, and he didn’t think he could handle having the alpha he was crushing on help him without it meaning something. But, the thought of doing this alone in the sick bay without a locking door? Yeah. No thanks. Ultimately, he was relieved.
But of course, it’s a Galra heat. Keith doesn’t understand why it’s fucking hell, but he can’t handle it. He holds out as long as he can before he finally comes out of Shiro’s room (which had initially been a slice of heaven before his heat turned bad) and wakes up Shiro (who was on the couch) and begs him to take him to the hospital so they can knock him out for the duration of his heat.
Shiro is horrified. He’s supposed to be responsible for Keith, but now he’s got a crying omega in his living room (and he’s never seen Keith cry, and he’s seen plenty of times when Keith had a reason to). The omega he’s supposed to help is shaking and trying to be brave and reeking of absolute misery. Shiro grabs him to his chest and promises to do anything--anything at all--to help Keith, even if that means he breaks the guard and takes him to the hospital. They can even go off campus grounds and go to the hospital in town so Keith doesn’t have to deal with being like this around the people he knows, if that will help (which would be tortue on an alpha--taking their omega into unfamiliar territory during a crisis). Keith goes absolutely limp in his arms and asks if Shiro will just hold him.
Of course Shiro does.
They end up back in Shiro’s bed. Keith very timidly asks if Shiro will take his shirt off, and he does. They stay close for hours, and Keith cries the whole time (but softer now) and finally falls asleep. Shiro thinks maybe that is it, but when he wakes up again, it’s just as bad. Keith uses the toys, but it hurts and he starts panicking if Shiro leaves the room, so Shiro is just holding this hurting omega who can’t satisfy themselves and it turns out he’s not that strong.
He can’t help it. He kisses Keith.
It’s just on his forehead, and then his cheek, and then somehow they align just right and it’s on the lips. Maybe it will be okay if he’s the one holding the toy. Maybe Keith just needs a hand around him, or to be completely skin-to-skin with an alpha, or maybe it will help if he’s got fingers in him instead of plastic. Maybe he needs alpha cum on his skin, or his glands, or in his-----or maybe if he can suck on an alpha’s glands---or if Shiro sucks on his while-----maybe if they------
It doesn’t end up being a thought or a choice.
It just happens.
Keith is finally, finally better. He still has a miserable heat. He hurts everywhere, but he’s so much better. They don’t talk about it, exactly. Shiro just checks in with him to find out what works best. They figure it out. In between waves, Shiro feeds him and guards him. During waves, well...
When his heat ends, they don’t talk about it. It’s not exactly awkward--they just silently agree that it was an emergency, and that was it. There’s no regret, even though they both feel guilty (for different reasons). They both know Keith would have been put in a medical coma if he hadn’t had Shiro there, and that’s probably worth it, but only if Shiro never gets in trouble for it. Shiro still wouldn’t have regretted it, even though he’d lose Kerberos, but he knows Keith would regret it forever, and he doesn’t want that for him.
So, they don’t acknowledge it. If they did, even in private, if something changed between them and someone noticed----well, it’s just too much to risk.
Shiro thinks about it a lot. He’s not in love with Keith, but the urge to protect him is strong. He’s going to be away for over a year, and Keith will have heats while he’s gone. He’s worried about it. He tells Iverson that Keith will need a private room for next time, and thankfully that does get arranged. It helps.
Keith tries not to think about it, and shockingly he’s mostly able to succeed. In a way, nothing has changed for him. He knows Shiro cares about him--probably more than he should--and he’s still in love with Shiro. It’s the same. He feels the same when he sees him, feels the same whenever they part. He wants Shiro’s happiness more than he wants his own. It’s the same.
Only, something feels different.
He feels like he needs to protect himself in a way he never has before. He can’t pinpoint it, though, so he doesn’t stress over it. It’s just something there, in the back of his mind, and it drives him to be an even better fighter and pilot. He matters. Not himself, exactly, but still him.
He doesn’t know he’s pregnant for a long, long time. He doesn’t show. He doesn’t develop. Hell, he was on birth control as per protocol, so it’s not even remotely on his radar. But, his Galra genes means the birth control was worthless, and it also means that his pregnancy doesn’t develop when he isn’t “safe”. He’s not safe at the Garrison after Shiro leaves. He’s not safe when Shiro dies. He’s not safe in the safe in the desert.
They’ve been on the castle ship for a month before he realizes it. The very first morning he wakes up and vomits, he knows why. Well, not really. He knows he’s pregnant, but he has no clue how.
He puts off telling people as long as possible. In fact, it doesn’t get out until a bad fight puts him in a healing pod. He wakes up to everyone crowded around, far too concerned and far too carefully not asking questions.
Shiro’s still not in love with Keith. He’s a kid he loves with his whole heart but not like that. And yet, his heart breaks when Coran blurts out in surprise that the pod reading says Keith is pregnant. He’s so angry and jealous and hurt--it’s not betrayal, and it’s not at his omega--but it’s deep, raw hurt. He can barely look at Keith when he wakes up, and he barely makes it back to his own room before he loses it.
Keith explains to everyone he thinks it’s Red or quintessence, somehow, and no one knows what to make of that. However, none of the previous paladins were human omegas (obviously), so who knows? It freaks Lance out because he’s a human omega, and he insists on getting fancy Altean birth control.
Shiro feels like he’s going crazy because he hurts everytime he talks to Keith or even looks at him, but he also can’t stop. Keith smells so good and all Shiro wants to do is hold him and breathe him in and tuck him away in the softest bed he can find. He has to stop training with him. His curving stomach and his sweet scent are too distracting. He ends up having to stop being in the training room with him at all because watching Keith fight and train with the others makes him too angry. If someone lands a blow, it takes everything he has not to jump up and tear them apart. He’s too cowardly to talk to Keith about it, pulling away. He knows it hurts Keith, but he can’t ask him about this, if Keith ever slept with someone else, if it’s really possible that Red is the reason.
Shiro can’t help resenting Red, and eventually they can’t form Voltron. And that, of course, is a huge, huge problem. The paladins try an intervention with Shiro. He tries to give up Black, because he can’t be a leader right now. He failed Keith. The omega who once relied on him can’t trust him anymore. No one can trust him. He’s the one with the problem. The poor Alteans are mystified. Why is Shiro wanting to protect Keith a bad thing? How could Shiro have failed? Space magic happens.
Throughout this, Keith is scared. Nothing makes sense, and he’s so alone. Shiro barely talks to him anymore, and Keith isn’t brave enough to ask why. He knows Shiro still cares about him, though--he’s more protective than ever. Nothing makes sense.
As scared as he is, he’s not unhappy about the pregnancy itself. The thought of being a single parent while in the middle of an intergalactic war is terrifying, but the baby? He never thought he’d have one, never imagined someone would want to have one with him, and so it feels like a miracle. He’s got a tiny family, and he’s going to do his best to take care of it.
Keith tries bonding with Red more. Red is, so far as he can tell, the father of his child, even though she gently explains to him she’s not capable of that, more than once, but he really can’t think of another explanation. He’s even asked about the food goo, and that was not only a dead end but a very upsetting day (mostly thanks to Lance freaking out again).
In the end, Red is the one who figures it out. In a desperate bid to make peace with everything, Shiro sneaks into Red’s hanger late at night. He places his hand on Red’s paw and begs her to talk to him. He apologizes for his anger and tries to explain himself. Abruptly, fury explodes from the lion. She roars at him that he has abandoned his mate and child. She attacks him, and Black fights back, and the castle is in chaos in moments. Keith is the first on the scene, and he desperately joins Black in defending Shiro. Red, realizing that Keith has forgiven his mate’s “betrayal”, relents, but her fury still bombards Shiro’s mind. Black crouches beside him and opens her jaws, beckoning her paladin to take safety. Shiro goes, confused and shaking so hard he can barely walk. Keith can’t help himself and goes with him, even though Shiro apparently can’t stand to be around him.
Once inside Black, Shiro collapses. Keith holds him. He has to. Shiro turns and buries himself in Keith’s neck and breathes deep. It’s his child. It has to be. Keith smells like his. He starts crying and trying to apologize because he’s done every part of this wrong, and Keith had trusted him in the deepest way an omega could, and he failed him. Keith doesn’t understand what Shiro’s trying to say, but Black nudges into the back of his mind and says “Your mate will protect his child. He is strong. His love for you is strong.” She urges Keith to forgive him, which is just as confusing as saying Keith’s child is Shiro’s. What was there to forgive? Shiro had saved him. Shiro always saved him.
It takes a while for Shiro to calm down enough for them to talk. He’s overwhelmed when Keith shyly but earnestly says he’s glad it’s Shiro’s. He can’t think of anyone he’d rather have be a father to his child and that he’s the best man Keith knows. He doesn’t regret anything--even the timing, because having to be pregnant when Shiro was gone would have been terrible. Shiro feels guilty about that because in a lot of ways he has been gone. He promises to do anything Keith wants him to. Keith just smiles and says “Hold me” and Shiro realizes he’s never wanted to do anything more.
They don’t kiss or go further, but Shiro thinks about it. His mate--not his mate?--is beautiful and healthy and full of his child. He aches to show him in a tangible way how grateful he is that Keith still wants him near despite everything. Yes, Keith is beautiful and has that wonderful pregnancy glow, but it’s more than that. It’s so much more than physical. Keith has forgiven him, easily, without hesitation. Keith wants him in his life and wants him to help raise their pup, if Shiro feels up to it. Shiro doesn’t know how to process the enormity of that. Keith is making it his choice if he wants to be involved…! He would have been lucky if Keith allowed him occasional supervised visits. Keith has had to deal with all of this alone. Shiro can’t ever make it up to him. The best he can do is be there for him in the future.
Shiro asks Keith if there’s anything he can help with during the pregnancy--rubbing his shoulders, making a nursery, anything--and Keith shyly asks if he can sleep in Shiro’s room. Shiro very nearly kisses him on the spot. There is nothing he would like more than having Keith sleep beside him. Keith ends up moving in completely within the span of three days. He just feels so happy and safe in Shiro’s room. He knows his child is protected and he starts sleeping for hours a day, his belly growing fast. Shiro lies awake beside him, memorizing the details of his face.
One morning, when Keith is looking extra sleep-rumpled and content, Shiro whispers to him that he never thought he’d have a family. He hadn’t wanted one--not when he thought he was going to die young. Now he just feels privileged he can be a part of one, even if it may not be for long, and he’ll do his best to fight his disease so he can be there for the both of them. Keith blinks his eyes open and mumbles sleepily that it’s okay: he knows Shiro always does his best. Shiro had no idea Keith was awake, and he can’t stop blushing. Keith giggles and snuggles closer.
Shiro has never heard him giggle.
He realizes he’s in love.
He cares about Keith and his happiness and safety more than anything in the Universe. He wants to do everything in his power to make Keith’s life better, even in the tiniest of ways. If that wasn't love, he doesn’t know what love is.
“Can I kiss you?” he asks.
Keith startles fully awake and his eyes are huge. “You can always kiss me,” he whispers.
-----
The next time Keith takes the pilot seat in Red (or rather, waddles in and sinks/falls down), Red notes with a purr that Keith has taken back his mate. Keith blushes and rubs at the mark on his neck--still new!--and agrees.