[For Sam] Urban Fantasy AU

[lonered]

Keith can't get the image out of his mind -- the tall, striking man with the strangely two-colored hair and the eyes the clear and endless gray of the sky after a storm, caught in the light of the full moon, like the entire world is about to glow with it. It's almost a memory, he thinks, and that's why he can't let it go. He's never had a memory of his lost time before.

It doesn't make any sense. Why this man? He's seen him before, of course, around town. He's rather hard to forget. But this is something more than that, something more than a strange and inconsequential dream cobbled together from pieces of his subconscious and an attractive stranger. It has to be more. Whenever he dreams, after all, he only dreams of running, of the night air and the scent of the woods and the moonlight spilling over the world.

It's the first lead that he's had, and it's in this strange town that he can't seem to make himself leave. Keith doesn't know exactly how he's going to find this man, and the only plan he has is to keep an eye out. But life and luck are kind today, and in the coffee shop, just as he turns from paying for his caffeine, he finds himself staring at the man walking through the front door.

Violet eyes snap wide, and for a long moment Keith can't do much else but stare. He's still staring when the barista is calling his name with his drink. He turns to gather up his coffee, holding the cup and going back to staring at this man, as if he's trying to decide how to best approach him that won't immediately chase him off. 'I had a dream about you and the moon.' would probably make him sound crazy.

But he has to say something. He needs to put answers to this. The fugues, the lost time with no memories, waking up in places he doesn't expect, or waking in his bed somehow more exhausted than when he went to sleep, it's been growing worse lately. He needs answers before it drives him crazy.

So for now he just stares.

Comments

[lonered]

"Thank you," he murmurs, and he means it. He's only met Shiro, and this other man -- this other wolf -- is already doing so much for him, has already given him answers that he never even dreamed of having. Things are starting to make sense for him, and it's the first time in his life that's happened. It's warm and terrifying and good and exciting.

He sits up straighter as Shiro's hand leaves his shoulder (and already he misses the warmth of it, which is strange; he's never been a big one for touch) and nods. "Yeah. That's... something I should know. I want to learn."

[spaceforged]

Shiro picks up the boxes they haven't finished and carries them to the kitchen. "Push back the table and leave the floor clear. Strip to the waist after you're done." He unbuttons his shirt and pulls it off. His body is littered with scars.

He deposits the leftovers into the fridge and returns, dropping his shirt onto the couch and undoing his belt. He works off his shoes and socks. "Do you remember how it felt to run as a wolf? What you felt like to be a wolf?"

[lonered]

Keith is one his feet almost immediately, setting about moving the table and clearing a space like Shiro has said. Easy enough. But it makes sense. He doesn't want to ruin this guy's living room. "On it."

He reaches back to tug his shirt off, draping it over the back of the couch, turning just in time to see a shirtless Shiro. There are two reactions at war simultaneously in Keith then. The other man is unfairly gorgeous, and it's terribly hard not to look. But all those scars, Keith (and the wolf that is quite awake inside him) wants to growl at the thought of anyone hurting Shiro, to find whoever it was and shred them. It's a strong enough reaction, visceral really, that Keith is surprised at himself.

It takes him a moment to catch up with the fact that Shiro asked a question.] I... yeah. Yeah I think so. Always thought it was a dream before but yeah... I remember.

[spaceforged]

Shiro nods and deftly undoes the snap on his pants, leaving his hand there. He lost a lot of modesty in the short time he's been a werewolf. But he has this urge to be a little more considerate for Keith. "Keep that feeling in your mind. Let it flow through you."

He allows himself to get a good look at Keith. The shirt had hinted at a body toned by survival and keeping in shape. But without the cloth in the way he's beautiful from the intensity of his gaze to the way his long dark hair falls over his shoulders and accents his broad shoulders. His face is all sharp lines from his nose to the line of his jaw. There's something feral about him, a wildness that shines in his eyes that draws him in like a magnet.

He doesn't even realize he's come to stand side by side with him until he reaches out a hand between them and touches his bare arm. The way Keith is looking at him would piss him off if it were anyone else. But there's no pity in his eyes only a simmering rage locked up in something else. "Hold that feeling." He says again as he lets him go. "The people that made these marks are dead, Keith."

And he lets himself change lest he say something that might be too much. One moment there's a man then the black wolf is back in place, looking up at Keith with bright blue eyes. It's safer as a wolf. He won't feel that urge to run his fingers through soft dark strands and whisper soothing words.

It surprises him. He hasn't felt like this before. His relationships were always about letting his guards down and learning how. Not, this warm feeling in his chest. Internally he stares at his wolf who calmly looks back at him. 'Balance, brother mine. It's the clearest thought his wolf has ever shared and he doesn't know what to do with it.

[lonered]

That touch to his arm draws him out of that building anger, and he wonders at himself for it. Getting swept up in his emotions isn't new for him, but that had been stronger than usual. He takes a breath and blinks at him.

Dead? Good. Even if both Keith and the wolf inside him are both in agreement that they'd have liked the opportunity to tear them to pieces, because how dare anyone think they could harm his-- No. No that's not right. Shiro isn't his anything, he reminds himself and tries to focus. Then Shiro is changing, and Keith is busy watching him, wide-eyed, meeting that now-lupine gaze.

A flicker of a smile, more in his eyes than anywhere else. Okay. Hold that feeling. For a moment he shuts his eyes and takes a breath. The wolf inside him steps forward, and for the first time man and wolf meet and step into the change together. The next moment there's a wolf in his place, a dark gray that bleeds into a darker sable in places, eyes a shade or so of violet darker than his human gaze, but similar enough. A rush of exhilaration. This... this is the missing part of himself. He's finally found it.

[spaceforged]

Keith is as beautiful in wolf form as he was the first time he saw him. Tonight they'll run together under the light of the moon. He grins as well as a wolf can and stretches from his toes to the tip of his tail. He pads to Keith's side as he kicks out of his pants and boxers. He grabs them in his teeth and tosses them aside.

His ears perk up and he nods to him as if to say your turn.

[lonered]

Embarrassingly enough, when Shiro approaches, Keith's tail decides to give a very puppy-like wag, the embarrassment only compounded by the fact that his tail is currently trapped in his pants. Good job, Keith. Very dignified. Clearly an Alpha wolf.

But he manages to squirm and kick his way out of his pants and boxers as well, more or less kicking them off and out of the way. All right. There. Free.

[spaceforged]

He huffs a wolf laugh and waits patiently for Keith to get free. Shiro jerks his head and walks away heading for the back hall. He leads him to a door and stands up, pushing on the latch. All of the doors in the apartment have latches. He slips inside the moment the door opens.

Inside is a sunroom. The shelves start at the door and line the walls all the way to the wide window overlooking the back alley. A rope ladder is tucked beside the window just below the window latches. Shiro hops up onto the window seat and puts a paw against the latch. He demonstrates opening it. The window splits along an invisible line and opens out. He leans his head out and pulls it back shut. He looks at Keith and raises his eyebrows.

Give it a go?

[lonered]

Keith pads along behind Shiro, curious as to where they're going, but willing to follow Shiro wherever it is that he may lead. He trusts the other werewolf, and his wolf trusts him as well. It's a good feeling, new mind you, but good.

But oh. Oh! That's clever. Shiro has the whole place set up to navigate as a wolf then/ Keith ducks his head in a nod. Yup. Give it a go. Lead on Shiro, and he will follow suit, jumping up onto the window seat to mimic what he'd just seen. Yup. Very clever.

It's all so different and strange. He's been the wolf before, and bit by bit those memories are surfacing, but this is the first time he's been aware of himself in the moment in this shape. It's amazing.

[spaceforged]

He perks up and wags his tail, pleased Keith picked up quickly on how to navigate the window. He drops down off the sill and heads for the door. Shiro pauses to stretch and looks back.

They'd run tonight. An alarm sounds from his phone and he uses the door latch to slip back into the hall. Shiro trots over to his phone and puts his paw on it. Ah, time to go catch the train to downtown. He changes back, swiping his thumb across the surface of his phone screen.

"Keith, we need to head to the station. Unless you'd rather go by car." He reaches for his clothes, completely at ease with sitting naked on his apartment floor.

[lonered]

Keith watches before slipping down and following after Shiro, poking his head out the door when the alarm sounds. He watches the other wolf check the phone, and when Shiro changes back, Keith does the same without thinking.

It's only after he finds himself standing in the doorway, quite naked, and looking at Shiro -- equally nude -- that this particular fact hits him. Right. No clothes. And he supposes for someone used to being a wolf, that's entirely normal.

But for him, it is brand new and Shiro is the sort of stunning they carve statues to commemorate. He fights a blush and looks away, trying to remember where the kicked his pants. "No. No that's fine. Whatever's easiest."

[spaceforged]

He makes the mistake of looking up and stares at his alpha. Shiro forces himself to look back down at his clothes. Keith looks like one of those ancient statues of warriors.

All he'd need is armor and a sword in hand...or just the sword. He pulls on his boxers and tries to put it out of his head. He needs to get a grip. But he can't get it out of his head how easily he and Keith fell into a companionship as if they'd known each other for years.

He pulls on his clothes, buttoning his jeans and tugging his shirt back over himself. "We'll take my car. It isn't far and we won't have to deal with station delays."

[lonered]

There's a moment, not a long one, when Keith feels Shiro's gaze on him and he has to fight the urge to move closer, to reach for the other man. And that is a first for him. Instead he shakes it off, takes a breath and retrieves his own clothes, pulling them on. His hair, somehow, is in even further disarray than usual.

It really is strange, the companionship between them, how being around Shiro makes him feel comfortable and safe in a way that he doesn't remember ever feeling, like eh's been just waiting for Shiro to find his place in his life all this time. He tries to set that thought aside to mull over later. For now he nods.

"Car it is." There's a smile on his face before he even realizes it. It's... it's been a good day. That's all.

[spaceforged]

Whatever pull he has to Keith seems to go both ways. Maybe Coran will have an explanation for it. He rises to his feet and pulls on his shoes, snagging his keys from the bowl by the door. He smiles back at Keith as he reaches for his coat and pulls it on. "We'll make it with time to spare."

Normally he takes his motorcycle. But a car will let them talk and he really wants that. He wants to know more about Keith. He opens the door and locks it behind them, taking the stairs down to the parking lot below.

His car is a sleek black honda crv that could fit a wolf in the back. It has before and as he unlocks the doors, he tells Keith out of all of them, Hunk is the biggest and could still fit in the back.

[lonered]

"Great."

At this point in time, Keith is along for the ride. He may be the intended alpha of this pack, but he's still figuring all this out. He's put his trust in Shiro entirely, and he doesn't think for a moment that it's been misplaced.

So he slips into his car, leaning back to peek at the space. Handy. "So. Wolf mobile. Got it."

[spaceforged]

“The Awoo Mobile.” He howls just a little. Shiro buckles himself in and turns on the car. Immediately the radio comes on and gives the weather report.

He idly checks what he has in the cd drive. Ah, one of the medical journals he had been studying. He had slowly been listening to journals about humans and techniques to mend the body. It was therapy he had taken upon himself.

He switches it out and flips on Spotify. A soothing blend of cafe style jazz rolls through the car as he looks behind him and pulls the car out.

Traffic is light at this hour. He splits his attention between it and Keith. “There is more to a werewolf than what you’ve seen so far. But, I thought I’d tell you those parts later. You’ve had a lot already. It’s up to you how much I tell you now.” He glances at him and smiles.

“I’ll guide you best I can and naturally you can ask Coran anything you like.”

[lonered]

Keith's eyebrows shoot up. This dork. But he's laughing because that was adorable is what that was. He settles into the passenger seat, oddly relaxed. Or maybe not oddly, when he thinks about it. He's at ease around Shiro, and there has to be some reason for it. He's sure it has to do with the wolf. Partially anyway. Some of it is just Shiro himself, kind and gentle and huge dork that he is.

He looks over when Shiro speaks, nodding. "I want to know everything eventually. I feel like I've just figured out this huge piece of myself I've been missing for... ever. Things are starting to make sense. They never have before." The entire bigger picture of his life had never been coherent or clear, but that made sense given all the key pieces he'd been missing.

Now he had them, at least some of them. It's such a relief he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Okay. I trust you, Shiro."

[spaceforged]

He remembers what it was like learning what he is. The Holts had always been strange. Sam had been a presence in his life while he worked at the Garrison. Adam used to be unsettled by him. When Sam vanished and he stumbled through a world suddenly turned strange and horrible, he had craved that stability.

He'd found Pidge, Coran, and Allura. He'd learned fast. Keith will likely learn faster. This is his birthright. "You'll know everything soon enough." He smiles at him and the rest of the ride is quiet. He drives lightly, his control of the car absolute.

When they arrive, he slips the car around to the back of the bookstore to the nearly hidden parking lot behind it. He parks the car just as a tall, thin, scholarly looking red-headed man opens the back door. His clothes seem partly cut from a bygone era, the high cheekbones lending to his smile. "Shiro my boy! This is the best I've seen you look after a full moon." Shiro locks the car doors once he and Keith are fully out of the car. "Dare I hope you've stopped fighting yourself?" Shiro doesn't say anything but he claps Coran on the shoulder.

How many people had noticed how hard he fought to maintain himself?

The man continues to smile and gestures they both come inside. The inside of the shop is full of bookshelves and organized within an inch of its life. Despite that it feels homey and comfortable. Coran meets Keith's eyes as he points to the closed 'for private meeting' sign on the glass. He drops his eyes a minute later. Who is in the most dominant has been established. Coran ushers them both into a small private office and shuts the door behind them. "Can I get you anything to drink?" Shiro shakes his head as he sits down and silently notes the aged and battered books spread out on the ancient cherry oak desk.

Coran gets Keith his drink if he asks for it and settles behind his desk. "As I said and you likely know, Keith." He turns his attention fully on the Alpha werewolf. "I had hoped you two would meet. Every time you've been here you looked so miserable." And Shiro while a good leader, has taken care of everyone but himself. His own needs need met, but Coran keeps that to himself. "Most Born werewolves I've ever met were born into a pack. It's very rare. Magic such as ours doesn't pass well. Given being turned at all is...you have to nearly kill the one you're turning and a child's will is still forming. That's why all werewolves born with the wolf in them are Alphas."

He glances down at the books. "Long, long ago such men and women were the kings and queens, emperors, and village leaders that kept all safe." He gently touches the pages of the book in front of him. "A different era, those days." Shiro quietly aches for him. To wake up in a world so strange...he can relate. Coran waves off any concern. "Now, I imagine you have questions! I'm here to answer them and I assume Shiro is willing to answer a few himself. More than he likely already has."

[lonered]

It's the second time that Keith's heard someone comment on Shiro looking better after the Moon. He wonders what that means, how it usually affects Shiro. Did something different happen this time? It can't just be his presence, can it? No matter what Shiro might have said about what his role as Alpha might mean for the pack.

He doesn't comment on it and instead follows Shiro and Coran inside. He takes his seat as well, hesitating at the mention of looking miserable. Well, it's not like he can argue it, can he? He's spent his entire adult life just feeling wrong and lost. Until now. Until he met Shiro and found this other part of himself, that had always been there. Keith is quiet as Coran speaks. "I never knew... anything about that. I never knew what I was. There wasn't any pack. My father wasn't a werewolf." And his father was all he had, until he didn't.

Kings and queens and emperors doesn't sound anything like him, but... keeping people safe. Yeah. He'd like to do that. If he can.

"I have a lot of questions, but I don't know where to start. If my being here, if my stepping up as Alpha will help the pack, then I want to. It feels right. All of this feels right. But it's all new to me."

A hesitation and he adds, "Shiro said it might be possible to track down information about my mother. I never knew her, but I know her name. Krolia."

[spaceforged]

Coran nods, “Yes, I can look into it for you. If she has used that name for a while then I can track where it leads. We all leave trails in the world that one can see if you know where to look.” He smiles as he spreads his the books out a little further.

“Now we can start with what an Alpha is to a pack. You will be the master of us but just as we need you for stability, strength, unity, protection...” He rests his hands on the desk. “You need a pack to balance you. Alphas are the most aggressive and dominant of us all. They need to be. They need to keep others safe and will try to protect everyone they come to care for. Even their mates.”

Shiro settles in his seat and watches Coran. He had heard this before. As far back as when Coran laid it out for him as a temporary pack leader. “An alpha has the power to pull on the entire pack if they need to.” Coran says, “That’s why they must be an alpha that can be trusted. You have already shown the caliber of your soul. You have shown you can be. All of us are drawn you and have been for a while. Whether by happening by each other or not, you have been seen and accepted by our wolves.”

Shiro says nothing but Coran briefly considering warning them of how deeply that acceptance has gone between their own wolves. He decides not to. Shiro is badly damaged and needs to slowly come into it. Their own alpha seems to need the same.

“Pack are bound together by magic. I can teach you how to do it. Shiro has all that an Alpha has except the dominance. We need that, Keith. We need you.” Shiro and Coran both look at him with their eyes turned, the blue and yellow of their wolves.

“All werewolves have magic.” Shiro says. “But it truly shows itself and what gifts it brings when a pack unite. We’re tied together.” He taps his temples and Coran nods.

“Mate bonds are the same way. Two wolves tied together soul to soul.” Shiro blinks. He had never asked. Never wanted to know but Coran speaks it with experience and his heart aches for him anew. “A beautiful thing, having a mate bond. We have a gift to know those we love better than humans can. The same can be said or family and friends.” Pack.

[lonered]

Keith can't be entirely certain why, but somehow the mention of mates and mate bonds has him fighting the urge to squirm in his seat. It's his wolf, he realizes, as if the beast inside him has opinions about exactly that. He's not sure what that means but for now he tries to brush those thoughts away, flashes of thought that are more image and sound and scent than any words or coherent thought -- and all those images seem to involve very specifically the eyes and the voice of the man beside him.

So he does his best to stow those thoughts away and focus on what Coran is saying otherwise.

He takes a breath. All of this is a lot. He's spent most of his life entirely on his own, not attached to anyone or any place. Bound to nothing. The idea of taking on something like this is terrifying. But oh it's everything he's needed and wanted for so long too. He knows it is. Something in him, something beyond just the wolf that is his other half, is singing with it. Another breath and he nods. "I want to learn. I want to be what the pack needs."

A pause and he adds, hesitating now. "About the mate thing... is... is that..." it's an awkward question. "Is that something I should worry about? I'm pretty terrible with that sort of thing."

[spaceforged]

“Only if you want to.” Coran says before Shiro can say anything at all. He has an odd feeling as his wolf side stirs sharing images and scent. They’re all focused on the man at his side. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

“You can take you time finding someone if you want a relationship with anyone. It’s only in rare cases the wolves choose someone first.” He carefully doesn’t look at either of them. It’s all too telling what has happened here. They need to find that out naturally.

Or they might not have any chance at all. “In those cases usually the two people are so compatible the wolf side chooses to make sure that neither person will drift past their possible mate and will get to know each other instead. They are balanced and there’s never been a case where they were incompatible. Our wolf side is as alive as we are and wants to protect us.”

Shiro doesn’t remark that not all werewolves believe that. This is how their pack operates and he prefers it that way. Coran folds his hands over each other and looks to his new alpha. “I will teach you everything I know. And I can share with you what I know about each pack member before you meet them. Or in the case of Shiro, things that should be noted.” Shiro swallows and rises from his seat. “That’s my cue to wander the shelves isn’t it?”

The older werewolf nods and Shiro pauses to touch Keith’s shoulder. “Ask whatever you want to ask. Coran is doing this to spare us both pain. It’s okay. I don’t mind you knowing anything you want to know. I trust you, Keith or I wouldn’t have brought you here.”

He walks away, closing the door behind him as Coran watches Keith with a calm measured stare. He waits until Shiro is out of earshot. “Don’t feel troubled. Our Shiro endures. He led us when we needed a leader and while he can’t be an alpha, he is a strong man. Nothing we talk about here will break him. There are just some things he can’t tell you himself without it hurting him and I know you don’t want him hurt.”

He almost says more than that and stops himself. “Whenever you’re ready.”

[lonered]

Keith's eyebrows rise in surprise as Shiro gets up to go. Oh. He hadn't expected that, but as he resettles in his chair and looks up at Shiro at the touch to his shoulder, it makes sense. Keith nods at him, offering a flicker of a smile up at him at hearing that the other werewolf trusts him. That trust is mutual, or Keith wouldn't have followed Shiro.

Once the door shuts, his gaze swings back to Coran. He nods slowly at what the older wolf has to say. It makes sense, but the expression on Keith's face darkens as he considers. "I don't want to hurt him. I'd never want to hurt him. But someone did. He... told me they were dead. The ones who'd hurt him." And Keith and the wolf within are still simmering in a slow rage that anyone would dare hurt someone as kind and genuine and good as Shiro.

"What happened to him? And why have you and Hunk both said he looks better after this moon? What does that mean?"

Keith sits forward in his chair, ready to listen, intent.

[spaceforged]

Coran clears the books from the front of his desk. He takes a ring of keys and pulls a drawer out and unlocks the box inside. He takes out a single photo and lays it on the desk.

In the photo is a man with long dark hair spilled out over a battered couch. He had been covered with blankets but the line of the jaw and the scar on his face says Shiro. “Matt sent me this right after they got Shiro back.” A collar is locked around Shiro’s throat with a number as if he were just a lab animal.

Coran waits until the photo has been absorbed before he continues. “Shiro used to be a soldier and a space pilot. He was also terminally ill.” Another pause as he sets down a photo of a much younger Shiro with bright eyes, thinner, and clearly happy beside an older man and the younger brown haired guy from the group photo of the pack.

“They were set to fly a mission that would take years to complete. Instead the shuttle was taken out mid-flight and Pidge and Matt’s father Sam, Matt, and Shiro were taken from the wreckage. Sam was already a werewolf.” He produces more photos. Shiro in the midst of a rage his eyes blue as the sky above and half into the change more beast than man his right arm sparking with purple light.

Shiro before the pack eyes still burning and in command. Then a more relaxed Shiro gently helping a dog up into the exam table at the vet. “Shiro found his way back to the Holt house. Matt told me that Shiro is why he escaped so early. They put them in underground fighting pits and Shiro took his place. He survived the longest in that pit before he was too hurt to continue and they...set a crazed wolf on him. It is the only way Shiro could be turned. Peace bringers are rare for a reason.”

He waits for Keith to absorb it all. He reaches out to gently lay a hand over his. “I hunted them.” He says and there is nothing kind in his voice. There is a hunger and a rage there that hadn’t been in his voice before now. “But when I found where they had kept him...” his eyes lighten to the werewolf yellow. “He killed them, Keith. He killed them all. From the Druids who had tested their magic on him down to the janitor. No one was left alive.”

It doesn’t give a full answer. He takes a second to tone down his own anger and sighs. “They robbed him of every joy of being a werewolf. He was their killer of underground pit fighters. He wasn’t the one to turn others. And when he wasn’t fighting in the pit. They tested their magic on him. Their chemicals. They did a lot of tests on him during the full moon. Tried to find ways to control his mind.”

The rage tries to surface but he holds it back. He is well aware if he guessed right, Keith would be furious enough for both of them. “Shiro only uses his wolf as a last resort and during full moons runs alone...chased by the past as far as any of us can tell. The next day he’s at his most touchy and vicious. Closer to an alpha in a rage. We take care of him during those times. He never lets anyone but Hunk into his apartment for a few days. But you didn’t experience any of that did you?”

[lonered]

The anger in Keith rises slowly, like water heating, the slow rise of steam before a full scalding boil. He's only just met Shiro. He knows that, but he's certain of the kind of man he is. The wolf inside him is clear on it. Shiro is strong and kind and gentle and good, and how dare anyone hurt him, force him into that situation.

He hears the rage in Coran's voice and it echoes with his, resonnates, and he meets the other werewolf's gaze with his own. And oh Coran is right, there's very little short of the blood of those responsible that would calm any of the anger in him at the moment -- though that thought alone is enough to catch him off-guard, strong and certain as it is. Coran's hand on his should help, does help, but it also doesn't quite stop his grip from tightening downright vicelike against the arm of his chair until the wood creaks and then snaps.

Well, that draws Keith back to the present, and he sits up, startled. "...sorry. I didn't mean to..."

But he refocuses and shakes his head at the last question. "He's been patient and kind. Probably more than I deserve." He glances back over his shoulder in the direction of the closed door Shiro left through. He sounds almost distracted as he adds, "He showed me his wolf form, too." A pause and, even more like he's only half aware of what he's saying, "He's beautiful." The man. The wolf. All of him. Every broken and mended piece of him. The wolf in Keith agrees entirely and settles quite smugly as if pleased that the human half of him appears to be getting with the program.