Chapter Text
Keith inhales sharply through his nose as he feels himself shake awake from the deep slumber he’s been enjoying, and for no particular reason at that. He blinks his eyes open but quickly closes them again, fully intending to go back to sleep.
A sudden, white-hot pain at the base of his spine ensures that he doesn’t. To his surprise, the unpleasant feeling dissipates as soon as it comes. However, it’s quickly replaced by an equally unnerving pressure and tightness in the center of his lower back, right above his buttocks.
What the hell, he thinks, trying to focus past the sleepiness. I’m too young for arthritis.
He reaches around, trying to find the source of his discomfort. His fingers brush against something, some weird kind of tube-like shape with a fleshy texture that seems to be… connected to his tailbone? It’s warm to the touch.
Without a better idea in his sleep-deprived head, he wraps his fingers tightly around the suspicious thing and yanks it full force.
And then he yelps in surprise.
Because he feels the yank too.
It is that night, at 2:19 a.m., Castleship Time, that Keith Kogane comes to an utterly terrifying realization.
I’ve grown a tail.
Keith opens his eyes wide, screams, and promptly falls out of the bed.
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This– This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.
There is no way that what he’s seeing and feeling is true and Keith knows it. It’s just one of those stupid, nonsensical dreams that he gets sometimes ( space madness, Lance calls it). Soon, he’s going to wake up and he’s going to be just fine and dandy and normal, as tail-less as ever.
He paces in circles around his small room, pinching his skin again and again until he leaves red marks all over his arm. He can still feel the tail, poking out from above his sweatpants.
Clenching his throat to prevent an embarrassing sob of frustration from escaping, he stumbles out of the door, deciding to seek the person he trusts most.
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“Shiro! Open the fucking door! This is an emergency!”
Keith pounds at the door of his older brother’s room, sweat rolling down his temple. He glances around nervously multiple times, making sure that there’s absolutely no one else in this corridor aside from him.
Mortifyingly, he can feel the damn thing swinging and twitching behind him, as if it’s got a mind of its own.
At long last, the alien door clicks and slides open. Keith taps his feet impatiently, huffing out a breath as he finally sees his brother standing in the threshold.
“What’s the matter, Keith? Are you hurt?” Shiro asks in a slightly panicked voice, still rubbing the remains of his sleep out of his eyes. He gives the boy a brief look-over, shoulders slumping slightly in relief as he discovers that Keith is not, in fact, covered in blood.
“What the fuck is this, Shiro?” Keith exclaims, pointing at his own behind.
Shiro blinks in surprise, his eyes finally falling to where the teen is pointing. He stares at his tail for a few long seconds before answering.
“That… seems to be a tail.”
“Why do I have a tail, Shiro?” He asks again, his voice sounding a bit calmer but no less flabbergasted.
“I, uh, don’t know.” Shiro sounds and looks just about as confused as Keith feels. “But I do know that you need someone to talk to right now.”
The man shifts to the side, an open invitation to enter his room, which Keith takes without hesitation. He stomps inside, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. He wipes them away with his sleeve, rubbing, as if irritating his eyes can stop them from watering.
“I wake up, I feel a cramp in my back, I touch my back and I have a tail,” Keith stammers out in lieu of an explanation, voice all weird and shaky. He takes in a big breath, huffing it out half a second later.
He can feel himself hyperventilating. He tries to take in slow, rhythmic breaths, just like Shiro had taught him, but it doesn’t seem to be working.
“Keith, look at me, please,” says Shiro, standing two steps behind him.
The teen turns around tentatively, looking up at his brother with a trembling chin.
“Hey, kid.” The man’s mouth stretches into that warm, familiar smile as he places a warm hand on top of Keith’s shoulder. “Whatever this is and however it’s happened, it’s gonna be okay, I promise. Okay?”
Keith nods quickly, feeling himself calm down a bit, as he tends to do in Shiro’s presence.
“Come, sit down.”
Shiro leads him to the bed. He sits down, legs pressing close against the older Paladin’s. He tries his best to ignore the way his tail bends at a weird angle on top of the mattress, causing him discomfort.
Shiro rubs at his arm slowly, breathing in deeply and slowly exhaling, wordlessly instructing Keith to do the same. He follows his brother's instructions, soon feeling his own breath even out, almost returning to its normal state.
“Does your back hurt right now?” Shiro asks, searching his face.
Keith shakes his head. “No. It stung for like a second but then stopped.”
“Okay, that’s good. And the… tail just appeared in one piece at once?”
“As far as I can tell.” Keith shrugs. He can feel his own shoulders shaking, teeth chattering.
“You can feel it and everything?” Shiro presses further.
The teen just nods, squeezing his eyes shut and breathing shallowly. His throat closes up, any will to speak leaving his body.
“Hey,” Shiro smiles, getting his attention. Keith looks up and watches as the man spreads his arms wide. “Hug?”
The teen immediately slumps forward, falling into his brother’s embrace. Shiro wraps his arms around him securely and begins stroking his hair with one hand.
They stay like that for what feels like hours to Keith but is more likely about ten minutes. He feels the man sigh against him, squeezing him tight once again before pulling away slightly.
“We’ll figure it out, Keith. I’m sure there’s an explanation for whatever is happening to you,” Shiro whispers, before he gently pats the boy’s cheek. “I’m gonna get you some water, okay?”
Keith nods, not trusting his voice to speak just yet. Shiro grabs his blanket, wrapping it around Keith’s shoulders like a cocoon.
“Be right back,” he smiles.
“Um, Shiro,” Keith croaks out, looking up at the older Paladin. “Can you bring me my plushie?”
He feels himself burning bright red up to the tips of his ears, as he always does when he acknowledges the existence of his stuffed animal. It’s embarrassing, even when the only person around has known him literally almost his entire life. Yet still… He may be almost an adult, but he’s very vulnerable right now and he needs the familiar piece of home with him right now, no matter what anyone says.
“Of course, Keith. Do you need anything else from your room?”
He swallows. “No. Just him.”
Despite himself, he can feel his tail twitching in what feels like excitement. He curses quietly.
Shiro leaves the room quietly, a promise to come back soon lingering on his lips. Keith slumps forward, falling onto the bed with his full bodyweight, the blanket covering his curled-up form.
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Out of all the things that have happened to Keith in space, this is definitely the one he has the hardest time getting used to. And for obvious reasons.
His new tail feels all stiff and awkward, like it doesn’t belong there growing out of his tailbone (it doesn’t). Keith doesn’t have complete control over it. At the same time, it moves and flaps around against his will, bumping into things and getting snagged on furniture.
Showering is definitely the worst.
At first, he tries to ignore the thing entirely while enjoying the nice hot water after a long night of talking things out with Shiro. However, his tail still keeps swishing in the small, cramped space of the shower, spraying water and suds all around - including on Keith’s face.
Also, it seems like his body parts don’t care at all whether Keith decides to ignore them or not - they’re still getting sweaty and grimy throughout the day, he realizes dejectedly. And so, with the feeling of resignation, he reluctantly takes on the task of scrubbing his unruly tail clean.
Keith had a dog once. Briefly, for only a couple of days, before its owners noticed his poster and came to get their pet back. It was a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, covered in sand from the desert and mud from rolling around in puddles. Keith had to give him a thorough bath, which was definitely a teaching experience. He remembers soaping up the pup’s tail which wouldn’t stop wagging, getting Keith all wet in the process.
Now, washing his own tail is a completely different kind of thing. He stares at the appendage with its hair tip pathetically soaked, as if he can make it disappear if only he glares at it long enough.
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“Lance found out,” Keith mumbles, munching on a nutritional bar as he sits with his legs criss-crossed on top of Shiro’s bed.
Shiro glances at him from above his Altean novel in surprise, head tilted to the side. “Oh?”
“Yeah. He saw me in the kitchen while I was inhaling food like some kind of savage bushman. It was honestly a bit embarrassing.”
“Well, how did he react?” Shiro inquires, putting away his book for the sake of this conversation.
“My first instinct was to run away from him, so I did,” he says simply. This nutritional bar feels a bit too chewy and the texture is way off, but at the same time it tastes almost like coconut, which is Keith’s favorite. He cannot decide if he likes it or not. “Then he followed me to my room and knocked on the door until I let him in.”
A beat of silence passes between them. Shiro raises his eyebrows, sending the teen an expectant look.
“And?”
“We had a conversation,” Keith mumbles.
Another unspoken ‘and?’ hangs in the air. The dark-haired boy sighs.
“It went well. He didn’t make fun of me.” Keith finally finishes his snack. He crushes the weird Altean alternative to plastic in his hand, staring at it. “And he kind of actually made me feel better.”
“Well, isn’t that nice,” Shiro smiles at him, leaning back on the bed. Keith stares at him, a small frown forming on his mouth.
“That’s the thing,” he says, chucking the wrapper across the room, hearing his brother exclaim a small ‘hey!’ in protest. He reaches for his hippo plushie instead, squeezing it in his hands. “Lance is too nice and I can’t deal with it.”
He shuffles around on the bed and settles his butt a little bit closer to the edge so his tail can lay across the mattress more comfortably.
“Even when he’s teasing me or joking, he manages to make it sound so kind somehow. And it wasn’t always like this, obviously, he used to be straight up mean.” Keith winces at the memory of their early, not-so-friendly banter. “But now he reassures and comforts me and laughs with me instead of at me. He asked me how I was feeling, not just physically but also, like, mentally, you know? Took me by surprise. His words sound too nice and I can’t stand it!”
Keith huffs, tail flicking in frustration, its tip thumping against the wall. He scoots forward a bit more and glances towards Shiro.
“Sounds like someone’s got it bad for our Blue Paladin,” the man teases, wiggling his eyebrows at Keith.
“Watch your mouth, Shiro.”
“Watch your butt before you fall off the bed,” he retorts.
Keith only has half a second to react before he’s stumbling forward, limbs flailing as he lands almost face-first on the ground. He grumbles quiet curses under his breath as he scrambles to stand up.
Shiro laughs at his expense, the good older brother he is.
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“Alright, team, we’re gonna have a break for ten doboshes,” Shiro’s voice crackles through their comms. “Let your Lions stretch their legs a bit. We’ll regroup near that stone arch up north.”
Keith sighs, allowing himself to relax in his pilot’s seat as he gives Red free reins. The Lion, seemingly as exhausted from trying the new formation as he is, only paces around for a minute or two before sitting on the sand and stilling completely. In the windshield, he sees Blue and Yellow engaging in some sort of race for a bit, before they too settle down.
“Good girl,” he chuckles, petting the control panel affectionately. He feels Red purr at the back of his mind in response. “You did a good job, have some rest.”
Suddenly, his comms ping him a signal again. He glances up, seeing a request for a private call from Shiro. Without much further ado, he accepts.
“Hey, kid. How are you feeling?” Shiro smiles at him through the video feed.
“Eh, exhausted from training but still pretty good.” Keith shrugs, slumping a bit more in his seat. “Why?”
“I just wanted to check in on you since we haven’t really had time to talk since you told the team about your new… thing,” Shiro says awkwardly, wincing at his own choice of words. Keith just chuckles. “They didn’t bother you too much, did they?”
“Not at all, they took it pretty well. Just make sure that Pidge doesn’t try to sneak up on me in the middle of the night and run experiments on my tail.”
Shiro laughs, bright and open. “Alright, I’ll have a talk with her if she tries anything.”
He pauses for a bit, staring at the Red Paladin with his head tilted to his side.
“Guess now we both have a new body part we have to get used to, huh?” He says sheepishly, waving his Galra arm around, which causes Keith to crack a small laugh. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be okay, no matter what happens. Just remember than you can always talk to me if you want.”
Keith’s mouth stretches into a small smile at how concerned about him the older Paladin is feeling. “Hey, Shiro?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re a good brother.”
“Thanks. You, too,” the man says with fondness reserved only for his sibling. They stay like that for a second, and then: “Remember you still owe me those twenty bucks from three years ago.”
Keith huffs. “Asshole.”