Wings of Home II: Wings of Change

That Thing

The feeling of dread which settled in the pit of Shiro's stomach wasn't something he got rid of even after knowing the other kids in the Voltron crew were looking out for his younger brother. He felt dread for utilizing child soldiers, not to mention not knowing how the people of Earth would react to knowing most of the crew were in fact children. He felt dread as an older brother would feel dread regarding his younger brother struggling to get through life, so he brushed the growing feeling aside.

Instead, he planned a meeting for the students right after school, calling Penelope and letting her know they would be late getting back, particularly since he wanted to make sure the kids were getting the proper makeup work from their earlier classes along with the fact Elena was acclimating to the garrison. Instead, he got Lydia, who was more than understanding regarding the fact they would need to practice forming Voltron, which would be treated as an extracurricular activity.

He sent Ryo a text letting him know he should get dinner on his own – for some reason his other younger brother, Keith's twin, left way to many messages in his inbox for Shiro's liking, making him think that, yes, Keith was right about the way Ryo was acting. He'd started thinking this when Ryo called to bother him during lunchtime, but now he felt as if Ryo was becoming paranoid.

Of course, there were some messages from Commander Sablan which he wouldn't open.

The first person to arrive at the designated meeting was Allura, who he thought would be more ecstatic regarding the fact he'd secured her the ability to attend classes with the paladins, although she would likely need to catch up even more than Elena did, depending on the subject matter. She didn't react the way he expected, her facial features twisted in worry while Coran looked on with disapproval.

"Look. I know you don't want her to participate in classes, but this is a way for her to bond with her classmates. Sam Holt said something about making the appropriate arrangements for the students, but this way she feels like she's fitting in rather than being treated like an outsider."

"Well, there is that." Coran turned and looked at the princess. "Are you sure princess, this is what you want?"

"Will Akira be attending."

"Keith..." Shiro paused, surprised upon hearing her use that name. "He goes by Keith."

"Oh. He'll be attending, right. Because I got this feeling..."

"He attends classes. When he's not skipping out."

Coran raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you his legal guardian?"

"It's complicated." He didn't want to explain how Keith struggled with some of the students and teachers, yet suspected Allura and Coran would eventually find out. "There are things that are outside of a legal guardian's control, you know."

"Yes. There is that."

Elena arrived next, her eyes unable to look Shiro in the eye. He walked over. "Hey. Something the matter?"

"Um, no. I mean..." She let out a sigh. "I guess I should volunteer the fact my cousin is bullying Keith again."

"What?" One of Allura's eyebrows shot up, but so did the eyebrow of Coran.

"Is this what you're referring too? About it being complicated."

"As I said, complicated."

Matt showed up next, closely followed by Matt. "So... apparently someone is being an ass on the forums again. I locked the topic, but we really need to work on this teamwork thing."

"That's why we're going to be working on forming Voltron as an extracurricular activity, but since us forming Voltron is according to Coran and Allura based on how well we work together as a team, I figured we'd do an hour of team-building exercises which will vary depending on what the group needs, but I'll go into that more when..." Shiro stopped speaking, looking at the familiar face.

The person looked like Keith, yet was definitely not dressed in the garrison uniform, not to mention there were those slight differences an older brother would recognize, such as the way the person in front of him presented himself. Hunk's eyes widened, while Shiro glared at the person in question, crossing his arms and giving Ryo the best, "I'm going to kill you when we get home for not waiting for us to get home to discuss what's going on," look.

"Oh, Keith's here."

"That's not Keith."

Shiro's eyes blinked, his eyes glued on Allura wondering how she knew that Ryo wasn't Keith yet saw a look of anger in her eyes as she looked at what – from the tone of voice she used – was to her an imposter. Ryo looked right at her. "Are you Allura?"

"What is it to you?"

"Um, Allura..." Hunk took a deep breath. "I'm sure that's Keith. I mean..."

"You sense it too, don't you?"

"Sense what?" Shiro felt exasperated with both of his younger brothers.

"Maybe you sense it too Takashi."

"Wait..." Hunk pointed at Ryo. "Keith never calls you that."

"I never said I was Keith." Ryo's focus remained on Allura. "You sense that Akira's in trouble, don't you. It's been bothering you for a few hours now, hasn't it?"

"How do you know that?" Allura continued glaring at him, but Coran's jaw dropped.

"Wait. Princess?"

"Um, shouldn't we be asking who Akira is?" Hunk was obviously confused, nor could Shiro blame him for being that way. He let out a sigh.

"Akira and Keith are the same person."

"Do you think that you could sense where he is?" Ryo continued looking right at Allura.

"You've still not said how you know Keith – Akira is in trouble."

"Wait!" Hunk spluttered. "That's Keith, right in front of us. I mean, unless he has..."

Ryo bowed, catching Hunk off guard, but his words made Hunk stop speaking. "Please. Help me rescue my brother."

"Um, I was going to say, twin." Hunk looked at Shiro. "Please tell me this is some kind of weird joke Keith and you cooked up with Allura's help."

Shiro took a deep breath, thinking perhaps the feeling of dread was actually for a good reason – that he shouldn't have ignored his big brother instinct as simply him being over paranoid like another sibling of theirs. "Nope. This is Ryo. He is most definitely Keith's twin brother."