Wings of Home II: Wings of Change

Building Bonds

"What am I going to do with you." He probably shouldn't have used those exact words; Shiro imagined Adam – if he were still alive – would have something to say regarding those exact words, not to mention have handled the situation better. In the back of his mind, there were so many reasons to miss Adam, to grieve for him despite the fact recent events left Shiro majorly struggling for a chance to grieve.

Of course, he wasn't the only one affected by everything going on; Adam, after all, was one of the stable things in Keith's life he'd learned to come and trust before his entire world ended up shaken from the ground up. In the back of his mind, he found himself left wondering if forcing Keith to eat was a good idea, or if Adam might have another suggestion. "It's frustrating not having someone to bounce ideas off of."

Yet, there was Penelope Alvarez, offering the chance of being a sounding board as one single parent to another if he ever needed an ear, yet in the back of his mind, he wondered if she might be a sounding board regarding his grief. Shiro wasn't sure what drew him out of his thoughts, but whatever it was – he found himself sitting in the conference room watching four kids divvy up the food in front of them, almost as if they'd always been friends their entire life.

His eyes focused in on Keith, who – from Shiro's perspective – was the one teen not acting in this manner. "Come on Shiro. You're overthinking this. Keith's just being Keith, but you know none of these kids would treat Keith as anything but a friend. Elena after all, made major progress with him, her, her significant other and her brother, but she's actively attempting to engage him."

Of course, Elena's attempts in engaging him, getting him to eat didn't seem to be working. Perhaps what drew his attention away from his inner thoughts was how slowly the others were beginning to worry about Keith and the fact he wasn't eating. The look on Matt's face was one of definite worry, while Elena – despite the fact she'd likely consider the label sexist – was definitely acting like a mother hen.

It was Hunk who finally said something. "Is your stomach upset? Is that why you're not eating?"

"Well, no."

"Then you should eat. You don't want me to play the flying shuttle into your mouth game."

"The what?"

"I think he's talking about the game parents play with really little kids when they're being stubborn about eating. It can be a choo-choo, an airplane..."

Elena took a deep breath. "The real point here is, you don't want Hunk to play that game as it's super embarrassing having someone force-feed you, but that was also his way of being nice about it. I'm not going to be nice, because the last thing I want to see is one of my friends making themselves sick because they're refusing to eat."

"Oh..." Shiro started speaking up. "And you don't want to get on my bad side by making yourself sick, do you, Keith? Because you know I'll be very upset if you do. I won't be the only one. Ryo – he'll be much worse."

"You mean he'll finally stop being nice to me."

Shiro almost gagged, hating the fact Keith now looked at him with a look on his face which said he definitely wanted their brother to go back to the way things were. Change – Keith never dealt with change well. Warning bells went off in Shiro's mind, telling him Keith might make himself sick on purpose. "No. He's going to be even more nice than usual. That behavior that is bothering you? Guess what? It's only going to increase."

Keith's eye went wide in horror, but he finally decided to take a bite of food. The look on his face said he enjoyed it, but the way he muttered as he spoke after he swallowed said he was still being down. "Okay, Maybe I am hungry. I still don't feel good, so after I finish, can I still go to the nurse's office?"

"Yeah. I get the fact things have been crazy for you the last few days and your mind's still processing everything."

"Hey! Did you know that alien chick was in his dreams and that's how he found the place."

Shiro's mouth dropped, quite unsure of what to say regarding the unexpected connection between Keith and Allura. Yet, in the back of his mind, he wondered if that explained why Keith was so awkward earlier in the day, avoiding eye contact with her. More importantly, he wondered if he was going to have a conversation with Keith which Adam lectured him about having with his younger brother months ago.

Mentally, Shiro cursed himself.

His phone went off, making him let out a sigh. He pulled out the phone, looking at the number. "Speaking of Ryo, it seems he's calling me."

"You aren't going to tell him..."

"Eat your food and I won't. That said, him being nice isn't actually a bad thing Keith. Maybe one of these three can explain that to you because I've still not thought of an explanation." Shiro stepped out of the room but lifted his phone up. "Ryo, I'm kind of busy right now."

"Aren't you on your lunch break?"

"Sort of. What do you want?"

"Well, how's Keith doing?"

Shiro opened his mouth yet remembered Keith almost didn't eat. As such, saying he was alright would be a lie. "You know, Keith is pretty freaked out about you becoming nice and all concerned all of the sudden. Maybe you should back off a bit? It's driving him insane and I'm having to personally deal with him going insane."

His words were met with a brief silence. "Fine. You're not going to tell me about Keith, so can you tell me about Allura?"

"Who?"

"You know. The girl Keith's dreamed about – tried telling me about. Akira's imaginary friend that I went along with when we were younger. Some fairy tale princess who turns out not to be some fairy tale, but a real-life alien chick who he most definitely has a crush on."

"Keith doesn't have a crush on Allura."

"I'm quite sure I know what I'm talking about."

"Says the person who insisted I couldn't have feelings for Adam because I'd so far only dated girls."

"Yeah, well as you pointed out, there is such a thing as bisexuality, but you're also not my twin brother, so I can't read you the same way."

Shiro felt his eyebrows shooting up. "This is coming from someone who's struggled with reading Keith ever since we became a family unit again." He was met with another silence, yet he found himself thinking a strange thought. "Or are you saying you can read him?"

"You're not the one who had to deal with learning your twin was alive when everyone kept telling you that he was dead, and you were insane for thinking otherwise."

"That..." Shiro's eyes opened and closed, his eyes drifting towards the ground. "Are you saying you do have – you know – this twin thing, but you've been pretending it didn't exist because people told you it didn't?"

"It's not just that Takashi."

"Okay, then elaborate."

"It's kind of a two-way thing, but..." Ryo paused.

"Keith's amnesia. The fact he doesn't remember us from his childhood let alone being called Akira."

"That. It's really hard to attune myself to him, painful, not like it was before. But... I was almost afraid I wouldn't ever get that back. And then there's this girl. Picking up on that – that was easy, but I thought – I thought it might be a way in. I'm tired of the way things are."

"I get that, but you need to give him time."

"It's been well over a year – a few now."

"And you were a pain in the ass." Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look. Let's talk about this when I get home. I'd rather this be a face to face conversation, maybe between the three of us."