When Two Worlds Collide

Chapter 15

Something was wrong with this picture. Now, keep in mind that Keith wasn't that great at interacting with people and reading social interactions and ques, but even he could tell that something was wrong here with this picture. Shiro was off, to say the least. Out of all of the people on board the Castile ship, Keith had known him the longest, and he could tell that something wasn't right with his adopted older brother. He was acting off, like there was something wrong. Keith was really worried about him, Shiro really wasn't eating or drinking anything. He wasn't really speaking to anyone and was holding himself up in his rooms for all hours of the day. Shiro was basically isolating himself off from everyone else, and didn't want to see anyone else. Which wasn't like Shiro at all, and that really unsettled Keith. Sure, Shiro was an introvert and liked to keep to himself just like Keith. And the man has been kidnapped twice by the Garla now, and he's been through so much that Keith knows that Shiro wouldn't come out of it the same. And he's seen Shiro at his worst because of this, but something wasn't right about this. Something was really different this time, and it made a pit harden and settle in Keith's stomach. He had to go and talk to Shiro about this. Voltron needed their leader, and it sure wasn't Keith.  

Keith left his room and headed down the hallway towards Shiro's room. Once Coran was able to get Shiro stable enough he put him in a pod for a couple of hours and he was out and set up in his room not that long after. And Shiro hasn't left his room ever since. Keith was worried out of his mind, he's never seen Shiro that bad before. And it was killing him inside that he couldn't do more for the man that took him under his wing when he needed his help the most. Shiro has done so much for him over the years that they have known each other, and Keith didn't feel indebted to him or like he owed him, but he just wanted to help. Shiro took a chance on him, and saw something in him, when all of the others in the world had just left him for dead. The only other person who even tried to help him as much as Shiro was one of his foster mothers. In fact it was the foster mother that he had right before he got shipped off to the group home that he was in when Shiro met him. She was a nice young woman by the name of Gloria Evans. She was nice, and she was a bit older than Shiro was when they met. So that made her about 26 give or take, Keith wasn't too sure, and he couldn't remember. She was the only foster mother that Keith loved like his own that loved him back. At one point she even wanted to adopt him! For the longest time, she made Keith feel the happiest that he has ever felt. That was until he came along though, and ruined Keith's life forever.

One of the only things that Keith didn't like about living with Gloria was her boyfriend. His name was Roger and he was a mechanic that worked at the local garage in town. He seemed okay to Keith, he was awkward around people so he just thought that all of it was normal. Roger also had this weird obsession with Keith. At first he didn't think anything of it, he was only 12, he just thought that the guy liked him and wanted to get along with him because he was going out with his foster mom. So Keith indulged him, he went to the park, and played ball with him. Everything seemed normal to him, or as normal as Keith thinks it is. Though the way that he used to look and stare at him. It made Keith uncomfortable, but Gloria really liked this guy so he kept his mouth shut to make her happy, because he loved Gloria. And things were okay between the three of them, when Gloria started talking about adopting him, they even made plans for Roger to move in with them after the papers were finalized. Though everything changed one night.

Even though Roger didn't live with him, he'd spend the night over a lot. At first it just started out as a regular sleep-over, they ordered in pizza and watched a couple of movies, which Keith had gotten to pick out. After that was over Keith went to bed while Gloria and Roger stayed up a little bit later and had 'adult time' as Gloria liked to call it. Keith rolled his eyes at that when she tucked him in that night, because he knew that was just a codeword for them getting drunk and having sex. And he told that much, Gloria rolled her eyes and smacked him on the arm before kissing the top of his head. She got up, turned off the lights and closed the door as she walked out of the room. Keith fell asleep that night like normal, he was in a deep sleep when he heard it. Even though Keith does have the ability to sleep like a rock, more likely than not he's a light sleeper. And because of that he was able to hear his door open, and someone walked into the room. Keith had a strange feeling about it, but didn't think anything of it. He thought that it was just Gloria coming in to check on him like she normally does throughout the night but will deny it in the morning when Keith confronts her about it. He was getting ready to go back to sleep when he felt it. Someone had climbed onto his bed, on top of him and was moving to pin him down. That set Keith off like that. He snapped open his eyes and saw Roger holding him down. Keith didn't know what to think at first, but when he could smell the alcohol on his breath he knew that things were about to get bad. But the first thing that he was worried about was Gloria. He knew the women well enough to know that she would never let anything like this happen to him. So this made Keith wonder what Roger had done to her to get her out of the way.