Chapter Text
A few weeks later...maybe? Honestly time is nearly impossible to understand in the same four walls and nearly constant light and few trips outside to the matches and the infirmary. One minute feels like ten hours and one hour feels like ten seconds.
Anyway, a few some thing later, Shiro wakes up to something that surprises him. He really shouldn't be shocked though. It was only healthy that sex is part of anyone's life, provided that they found it enjoyable and wanted it. Lots of people have sex, whether it be together with others or by themselves. It's nothing new, hell, even Shiro has been there quite a bit, starting from his teen years and going further.
So why isn't he prepared for it?
Keith's lying on the mattress, clearly sleeping even though Shiro can't see his face. He's on his belly, left arm curled under the blanket and the other thrown over his head. Every few minutes, he makes a small noise, like a mix between a whine and something else. He stays pretty quiet before starting over again. Pretty soon, his visible hand twitches against the mattress before the younger pants. It doesn't sound like a nightmare. If it is, it must be a good one? Were there good nightmares? Or were they dreams? Ugh...Shiro's too tired for serious thoughts like that.
As if to prove his thoughts, Keith's tail shifts between his legs, the base visible as a bump through the blanket. The younger stiffens slightly before making another sound. A second later, he full-on moans before going deadly still. Shiro slams his own eyes mostly shut just as Keith's own slide open, staring around softly in confusion. Shiro watches discreetly, not wanting to scare Keith, as the younger settles back down. Shiro keeps his breathing deep and slow as he peeks at the other through his eyelashes. Keith huffs before pausing, sniffing the air before leaning downward, shifting before groaning softly. A second later, his tail flicks over to his nose, tacky with clearish white cum.
"Great," Keith drops the tail, both ears flicking before he glances up at Shiro. The older stays deathly silent before the other slowly creeps out of bed. Even without Galra senses, Shiro can definitely smell Keith. The younger clearly doesn't know he's awake, for he drops his tail before turning to go to the tap on the wall.
His thighs are soaked, making Shiro blush the slightest. Luckily for him, Keith turns to walk to the corner, grabbing the rag to wash up. The older man diverts his gaze, trying not to be rude.
He deserves better than to be gawked at like all the others have done. Sure, Keith's insanely beautiful and strong and talented and caring. He's been seeing more and more of that every day in this cell and during their training sessions. But he shouldn't think of him that way. He wouldn't be much better than Zarkon if he did, especially if Keith doesn't see him like that. Hell, he most likely doesn't, not anymore. Don't crushes die off eventually? Don't crushes become nothing after a while?
So why was his growing stronger?
He slips to sleep again just as Keith appears back against the bed, the lumpy mattress dipping slightly under his weight, a warm presence under his chin.
…..
Shiro wakes up with a slight problem. Make that an enormous problem. Maybe not his biggest problem ever, but definitely up there.
He's got an erection.
From a dream. A dream that had featured Keith, the person he's sharing his room with.
Great. Not that he doesn't want to enjoy it, but Keith is literally less than a foot away from him now. He doesn't want to wake Keith to an awkward moment, especially not with how Keith's whole time here has revolved around this, unpleasantly for him. But he can't fight the itch there. He needs to take care of it.
So he does. He takes care of it as silently as he can before he sinks into the hazy post-orgasm bliss. It's been a long time since he's done this, between all of the stress and loneliness and despair. The last time might have been on the Kerberos mission or the few nights before the trip. He doesn't remember since it feels like years ago.
Before long, he knows he has to clean up. His hand is sticky and he really should clean up. He glances over his shoulder, seeing that Keith is asleep, body relaxed as his tail twitches slightly. He nearly laughs at the image, since Keith dreams kind of like a cat does. His hand even jolts a bit as if deciding to partially make a motion only to not do it. It's honestly cute.
Carefully stepping off the bed, he goes to the water before grabbing the rag to clean up. He gets done after a long moment, washing the cloth out really well before returning back. He'd been taking to sleeping naked lately since his prisoner outfit stinks like sweat and blood no matter how much he cleans it. Ulaz is one of the nicer medical workers and he's been vacant for a while. Keith had reassured him the stench was fine, but Shiro doesn't want to bother him with it. Besides, Keith's a heater as it is, needing no clothes to be hotter than anyone Shiro has ever shared a bed with, platonically and romantically. He honestly likes it, appreciates the touches and the other entertaining him, and he back to him. They talk about everything or nothing, and it's amazing either way.
As soon as he's in the bed, Keith sniffs the air before scooting close to him, a little whine coming out before he settles down, nose in the corner of Shiro's neck. The older carefully runs his fingers through silky black hair, slipping back to sleep himself with his arms around the younger. Keith snuggles closer before nipping at his neck gently, letting out a soft sighful chirp before Shiro falls asleep…
…..
Shiro sighs as he marches back to his cell. The match was gruesome, pinning him against three opponents at the same time. He had had to behead one, cut another in three, and burn another's face off. He just wants to get back to Keith so the younger could hold him and soothe away his mental pain.
He comes to an empty cell. For a moment, he thinks he's been transferred to a new one. But then he sees that his crop top is still on the bed, the blanket completely ruffled up on it. The small bucket of his sits tipped over, water spilled down the drain. The rag is off to the side.
He steps inside as the door shuts behind him. He waits a minute before inspecting the room. It's clear that Keith had been drug out of the room, the pail knocked over in his fight. Shiro clenches his deactivated arm, worry growing.
Why did they grab him? Did Zarkon take him back? Did he lie about Keith being his? Did a random set of guards come in and take Keith? Was he okay or were they currently drugging and raping him again? Or…
Did the witch have him…
Shiro paces around his cell. He doesn't like either option, but if it were him personally, he'd take the drugs and forced sex over anything the witch had planned. Haggar is a nasty piece of work. She likes to experiment with her prisoners as if they were toys and not real people. He still remembers the lightning crackling through his veins painfully and her sharp voice as she commanded his arm be taken away and replaced.
Shiro hisses quietly before sitting on the bed. Nervous energy flows through his body as he waits. What if Keith doesn't come back? What if he gets killed by Haggar? What will Shiro do? Without Keith, Shiro has nothing. Without Keith, he's got a prison that's turning him into a monster and people who he's taking away from their families. But he needs to get back to Earth to make sure that the people there are okay. Hell, maybe Earth doesn't exist anymore. Maybe it got blown up like some of the other prisoners told of their home planets. Maybe-
He's broken out of thought as the door opens to his cell. He prepares himself for a fight, knowing it can be anyone who could trudge through the door. He gets into a fighting stance up on the bed, body balanced and fists up. Sure, he can't use his arm like he normally does, but it still packs a punch that can shatter bones.
But he relaxes a bit when he sees Keith. The younger looks exhausted, hunched over slightly as he makes his way into the cell, tail limp and dragging along the dirty floor. He's not drugged, and the collar doesn't glow until he walks in far enough. The younger staggers closer before climbing onto the bed and whining softly.
"Keith," Shiro calls out before pulling the younger near. Said half-Galra whines again before sniffing at his neck, licking at his skin. Shiro winces as a sandpapery tongue comes out, leaving a burning trail of flesh that's no doubt red and irritated, "Keith, slow down. What's wrong?"
Keith whimpers and whines more, more of an instinctive noise than an actual verbal acknowledgment. Shiro frowns, looking the young man over for wounds. He gasps a slight shock when he sees that Keith body has changed some more.
His toes have claws now, just as fatally sharp as those on his hands. It was probably why he had been limping his way into the cell. Keith's tail curls around to his lap, not hiding anything, but rather moving aggressively in circles. Shiro blinks before snatching said limb up. The ends of the furs are black, making the tail look bushier...wait, no...it is thicker than before, twice as many hairs in it. He quickly glances at Keith's head and other places to see that the hair there is thicker too. It's more fur than hair at that point, even the thin happy trial is fluffier and thicker. The tufts on his ears are thick enough to see now as they flick occasionally.
Looking at Keith's face, he's surprised to see that his ebony hair is turning dark neon purple at the tips, as if someone has dipped every single strand into grape hair dye. He gazes further into Keith's eyes, blinking.
Are Keith's pupils more slit than before? Also, are his fangs sharper and a bit bigger than before?
He gazes at said features before seeing that, yes, his fangs are like needles and wider around, still double fangs. And they carve inward slightly, as if made to keep something from fleeing when bitten into. Before he can react to any of this though, Keith's scratching his flesh arm with sharp claws, drawing blood before hiding behind him and quietly making that distressed sound over and over. Shiro wonders what could be scaring Keith enough to cause such a reaction. That is until he looks over at the door of their cell.
It's the witch. She stands there watching them with an eerie silence, as if conducting an experiment and they're in a petri dish. Her robes save her from exposure, showing only her glowing eyes and long hair, her purple sharp nose pointing at them. Hell, for all Shiro knows, she could have 18 arms beneath that cloak, though he doubts it.
"Hello, Champion," she greets him with that sickly wicked voice of hers, making chills run up his spine, "I see you've chosen a good bed slave. A fighter through and through."
"What do you want?" Shiro demands, holding onto Keith while making sure he doesn't look away from the witch. His voice doesn't shake, but he's close to it.
"The boy is most interesting," she goes on, eyes watching the younger who shrinks back, "For the longest of time, I thought your alien DNA held the key to everything, Champion. You were my biggest project. I had no reason to look at a random sex slave, even when Lord Zarkon took him in as his personal bedwarmer. Even when it was...discovered that he is a half-breed. But bringing out his Galra features has been quite rewarding. I've discovered much from this one boy alone."
She stands silent for a moment before cackling darkly. Shiro expects a bolt of lightning to hit them both, but no such thing happens as the woman eyes them both.
"Your mother was a fool," the witch watches Keith from under her cloak. The younger lets out a louder distressed cry before pressing his hands to his mouth, attempting to silence the sound, "To leave her kit alone for so long, alone and defenseless. So much potential in you. Perhaps she was loyal to the Empire, and wished to be rid of a half-breed pup like you. She mustn't known what you were truly capable of, did she?"
Keith's ears twist back as he chirps brokenly through his fingers. Shiro hugs him tighter as he glares at the witch who merely stares back at them. Keith's parents have always been such a sore subject for the younger, and Shiro hadn't ever bothered to bring his mother up after the first time Keith had crossed his arms and said she didn't matter and he didn't want to talk about her.
"The boy has potential," she mutters as if in thought, "The hidden ability to sense quintessence. The will to absorb quintessence into his very being without being sickened or mutated. If I can just harness the ability, I could use it to destroy entire systems without leaving Central Command. We'd power our ships for centuries to come. The Komar will finally be completed. Any resistance will be harvested and decimated on the spot. Lord Zarkon will have no opponents to fight. The Empire will be the strongest it's ever been."
She grins, teeth sharp before she raises her hand, it starting to glow purple with lightning. Shiro stares in shock before grabbing Keith up and throwing himself in the way. Waiting for a blast, nothing comes. He glances to the side to see that the cell is closed, the small hatch showing just her eyes.
"I am watching you, Champion," her voice echoes around the room as she stares, "Don't disappoint me. You will be strong, even if I must replace you part by part. Infections must be cut off at the source."
And then she's gone with a swoosh of darkness. Shiro holds onto Keith's shaking body as he makes more sounds. He quickly pulls Keith's claws away from his mouth, worried that the younger will accidentally cut himself in his fright. Strangely, there's no scratches there, and his fingernails are normal, if a bit thick. He carefully hugs Keith before getting them comfortable in the bed, covering them both with the blanket.
"She scares me," Keith whispers after a long time, tail curling around Shiro's metal wrist, "She scares me worse than all the rapes and the brandings and the words. She's the one with all of the power. She's cold and cruel and twisted. There was this liquid stuff and she was injecting it in my body...they grew in like this...she's scary. Shiro...I'm worried."
"Me too, buddy," Shiro nods back, cradling the younger to his chest, pressing a kiss to his forehead, "Me too."