Blinding trust

[Voltron Legenday Defender] White Collar!AU

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    Part I

    At the time, Shiro was still a rookie, even if he’d graduated with the highest grades.
    Yet, when Professor Montgomery showed the Monet’s painting at the Impressionism congress for the White Collar division agents, Shiro couldn’t stop himself by standing up and affirming, “it’s a fake”.
    “It was authenticated by the museum curator, Agent Shirogane,” Montgomery replied, with a little embarrassment.
    “It’s a fake,” Shiro repeated. “The direction of the brushstroke is slightly wrong. Monet put them around 45° degrees, while this painting has them almost vertical.”
    Montgomery frowned. “It’s a far fetcher conclusion. There are other evidences about the authenticity of the painting, like the cracks caused by age…”
    “Cracks can be faked too. We saw a method just last week with Commander Holt. But brushstrokes don’t like, not even the best con can fake them entirely.”
    In the end, Montgomery asked for another check on the painting.
    It was Shiro to find out the signature of the con artist, a small red lion impossible to notice with naked eyes, and hidden between the flowers on the painting,
    That was the reason the con artist’s surname became “Red Lion”, at least until Shiro discovered his real identity between a sea of nicknames and alias.
    Keith Kogane.

    There are two folders on Shiro’s desk. One contains all the information about the case Shiro’s working on, also said the Flying Dutch case. On the other side, Adam’s lawyer’s request about the divorce, that Shiro is supposed to sign to make it definitive.
    He doesn’t know why he’s so affected by it: Adam and he broke up almost a year ago and none of them seemed to have second thought about it. At that point, the divorce is just a formality to confirm in front of the law a situation that was already stabilized.
    With a sigh, he leaps thought the divorce papers. The Flying Dutch case is a dead end at the moment, so better clear the head with something more mundane.
    He’s about to sign the first paper, when Allura opens the door of the office, a serious expression on her face. Shiro knows she wouldn’t have disturbed him if the situation wouldn’t have been serious.
    “What happened?”
    “Keith Kogane escaped this morning.”

    “Do you know someone from Connecticut?” Adam asked.
    “No?” Shiro didn’t lift his head, keeping the hard work of wrapping presents in red paper. “Why?”
    “A Christmas Card for you, with the postal stamp of Connecticut.”
    This time Shiro looked at him and, with a frown, took the card from Adam’s hand. It was a simple one-page card, with a very short “Merry Christmas” on the white side; the other showed the image of a reindeer in the middle of a snowed forest, with a star sky above it. It looked handmade, with watercolor.
    And then Shiro remembered.
    “Keith’s prison is in Connecticut.”
    “It came from Keith?” Adam screeched, and teared the card from Shiro’s hand.
    “What?” he protested.
    “It may be dangerous. Maybe it was made with poison or something.”
    Shiro rolled his eyes. “Keith isn’t like that.”
    “He’s a criminal.”
    “He’s a con artist, not a killer,” Shiro replied, as he tried with a tired effort to take the card back.
    “Still,” Adam said, taking his cellphone, “you arrested him. He may have some grudge against you. It’s better if we have this thing checked.”
    For saving his marriage life, Shiro agreed. Turned out the card had nothing strange, it was just like it seemed, a Christmas card from Keith, and Shiro managed to keep it.

    Keith was convicted for a three-year prison sentence, and he has another five months before he can gain his freedom back. There is no reason in Shiro’s mind why a smart person like Keith should have escaped in that moment. Besides, Keith assured him that he’d like to try to live an honest life.
    Something must have happened.
    “Maybe he just got tired,” Lance comments behind him, while the head of the prison is showing him the video of Keith’s last visitor. “Criminals can’t really change, you know? Not by themselves, not if they have other possibilities…”
    Shiro ignores him to focus on the head’s explanation. “Kogane didn’t receive any other visitors after this one, and after this he started growing the beard, as you saw.”
    “Whatever happened, it’s because this visit.”
    The head nods. “We made a script of everything they said, but it’s a really mundane conversation about books.”
    “It was the first time this woman came to visit Keith?” When the head nods, Shiro nods at the screen and comments, “she wore a wig.”
    “And her passport was fake too,” the head adds. “We haven’t understood yet how she managed to surpass our software for the identity control.”
    “She’s a professional.”
    Shiro lifts a hand to stop Lance, that was about to formulate one of his conspiracy hypothesis, and returns his attention to the video. She also kept her head in a titled position, so they haven’t a cleat image of her face despite all the camera. Not even the facial recognition software could have helped them find the woman’s real identity.
    But she communicated Keith something. Something as important that force Keith to escape. Shiro looked at the video with great attention and he sees it: the way the woman’s finger taps on the table at a certain point.
    Morse code.
    “Give me a piece of paper,” Shiro orders, and then scribbles the Morse code on it.
    Knowledge or death, the code says.
    “I know where Keith is going. We must hurry.”

    “Hello, Keith.”
    The room is dark, but Shiro sees clearly the shadow stopping his research inside and startling.
    “The Morse code?” Keith asks.
    “The Morse code,” Shiro confirms. “You should have known I would have remembered the motto of the Blade of Marmora.”
    “I did know,” Keith replies. “I just hoped to have a little bit of time before you found out and reach me in my last shelter.” In the dark, he slumped a little against one of the pillar of the room. “You have to let me go, Shiro.”
    “You know I can’t.” Shiro takes a step forwards.
    “You’re armed?”
    “Should I?”
    Keith shakes his head, then look behind him, at the window. “We’re surrounded, aren’t we?”
    Shiro nods. He takes his communicator and contact his men, confirmed the target is inside and that they can come. “Why did you do this?” There isn’t disappointment in Shiro’s voice, only desire to understand.
    “How much before they arrive?” Keith asks instead.
    “One minute, more or less.”
    Keith kneels again and rums in the box, as he was doing before Shiro’s arrival. When the agents arrive and grab him by the shoulders, pushing him back with his arms behind his back, something fell from Keith’s hand. He doesn’t fight against the agents as they handcuffed him, but he turns his head towards Shiro. For a second, in the light and over Keith’s gaze, Shiro feels naked and the scar on his nose twitches a little.
    “I can help you, Shiro,” Keith yells. “Let me go. Find a way to let me out of prison and I’ll help you. I know who are looking for. The Flying Dutch. I know who he is.”
    Shiro hesitates a little, but the agents drag Keith away without giving him the time to ask for more.
    “The metal you found out in the safe, Shiro!” Keith yells again. “It’s the metal for the Canadian banknotes. Check it! And then come for me.”
    “We should search this place, sir?” one of the agent asks, once Keith’s voice disappeared in the far.
    “No, I don’t think it’s necessary,” Shiro replies.
    When he’s left alone in the room, he kneels down and picks up the object Keith was looking for: a small figurine with the form of a lion.


    “I checked,” Shiro says as Keith sits down in front of him in the visitor room, eager.
    “And?”
    “You were right, it was the metal for the Canadian banknote. How do you know?”
    A little, confident smirk appears on Keith’s lips. “I made a trip to Canada once.”
    Shiro lifts an eyebrow. “Should I checked the local museums for fake painting?”
    “Better not.”
    With a smile and a shake of his head, Shiro lets it go. He puts the hand on his pocket and places on the table the small lion figure. “You need to wait five months. Only five months. Instead you risked another two-year of prison just for this. Why?”
    There is a visible relief on Keith’s face when he sees the figure, but then his lips tighten. “I will tell you everything, I promise,” Keith says. “But only if I’m out of this.”
    “I’ve spoken with Procurator Sanda,” Shiro affirms, as he looks straight into Keith’s eyes. “She’s not your biggest fan. And not really mine, to be fair. But I managed to convince her to give you a chance.”
    “A chance?”
    “You could spend the last part of your sentence, which she still has to establish how long, with an ankle bracelet and being a consultant for the White Collar division.”
    “Working for you?” Keith asks.
    “That’s the idea, yes. But,” Shiro warns him, “before making a final decision, she wants proof that you can really be useful for us.”
    “She want the Flying Dutch.”
    “Yes, and soon. She gave us two weeks.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay?”
    “Yes, I can do it.”
    Shiro lets a relieved smile. “I’ll tell her to prepare the documents for you then.”
    Just when Shiro is with his hand on the handle of the door, Keith calls him. “Thank you for this, Shiro.”
    “I really meant it when I said that I wouldn’t have given up on you.”
    Keith lowers a little his head. “Then why you stop visiting?”
    The grip on the handle tightens. How do explain it? How to explain how Shiro had problem – still has – to seeing himself in that new body, with the prosthetic and the scars? How to you explain the look of friends and colleagues, that tried to be sympathetic but, for Shiro, ended up to pitied him, to treated him like he was made of glass, not very different that when he was a child and people were scared because of his illness.
    But Keith is still there, waiting, with a puppy expression on his face, and Shiro realizes that until now he hasn’t asked or commented or even looked at him like Shiro is different.
    “Because I didn’t want you to look at him like this,” he answers honest.
    “There’s nothing wrong in you, Shiro,” Keith answers immediately. “It’s good to have you back.”
    The weight disappears from Shiro’s shoulder. “It’s good to be back.”


    Part II

    Their first con brought Hunk and Keith more money that they’d seen in all their life. Hunk was so moved he cries, and in the same moment he made plan how to use it. And how to open bank account in very far land where they could escape and live happy forever. Keith grabbed a good amount of it and did as every reasonable con artist would do: he bought a bike.
    A red one, fast. He’d always wanted one.
    He drives around and outside the city all day, all his worries about the future gone. In his way back, he returns to the same auction they sold the copy of the painting. A man in a suit was talking with the director. He smelled of cop from there.
    It was impossible they’ve already found him. He stood there, like an idiot, too inexpert to move. He freezes when the agent moves towards him.
    “Nice bike,” he said, with a sincere smile. And damn, the man is gorgeous. It was unfair, but at least it gave Keith the perfect excuse to be out of himself.
    “Thanks…” he whispers. “Uhm, hey, I saw you talk about the audience… there was something wrong? A friend of mine bought something there yesterday.”
    “Oh, no, just routine, to check that nothing suspicious happened at the auctions. Rookies like me are sending to the most boring mission.” He smiles again, and it’s an attack at Keith’s heart. “But, for everything, don’t hesitate to contact me.” And he offers Keith his card.
    Takashi Shirogane.
    A name Keith wouldn’t forgot.

    “I still think it’s not a good idea,” Hunk whines. “Robbing from an Embassy is bad enough. And then we have to trust Acxa?”
    “We talked about it. We need someone to get the statue inside the Embassy and she was the only one that could do it,” Pidge replies. “None of us could.”
    “Yes, but… It’s Acxa. The same Acxa that has already left K. alone? And I’m just going to remember you that it was the same exact object we’re trying to steal now? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…”
    “Your complaining has been noted,” she comments. “I’ll put them in a box named: it’s too late for it. Since, you know, K. is inside the Embassy right now.”
    “It calms me down, okay?”
    “But it unnerves me.”
    “Guys,” Keith whispers in the coms. “I think I’m inside the office.”
    He hears Pidge tipping of her computer. “Affirmative. Just wait two seconds… okay, all clear. You can go out.”
    Keith takes the hammer and uses it to break the pottery statue he’s hiding inside, as a modern Troy horse offered to the Embassy so Keith can sneak inside unnoticed. Not the most smoothly of plans – hiding inside a not so big statue hasn’t done wonder for his muscles.
    “The safe should be under Dalì’s painting,” Pidge informs him. Keith takes off the paiting from the wall with care and places it on the ground.
    “Found it.”
    “Are you sure there wasn’t any alarm on the painting?” Hunk asks.
    “Yes. I checked.” Pidge’s tone is annoyed.
    “But are you sure? I mean, hacking an Embassy can’t be so easy, not even for you…”
    “I’M SURE.”
    “Guys, quiet! I can’t open the safe with you screaming in my ears.”
    They mutter a low excuse while Keith places his ear on the safe and turns around the handle to digitate the combination. It’s a new model, but he used to have a sixth sense for combination that the prison didn’t cancel. It takes two attempt, but he opens the safe.
    “Is it inside?” Hunk says, excited.
    Keith takes off the cloth that cover it and here it is: the Voltron Carillon. “Yes.”
    “Go out of it,” Pidge says. “Acxa should be ready for her distraction in two minutes.”
    “Gotcha.” Keith sneaks out of the office: giving the party in the main hall, no one is surveilling the private quartier. Smoothly he climbs down the stair and reaches one of the windows on the first floor. They’re automatic close for security reason.
    He waits for Acxa’s diversion, and he has to wait ten minutes over the agreed time.
    “Something’s wrong,” he mutters to his coms.
    “She’s being discovered?” Pidge asks. “Let me check… I can’t see her anymore in the main hall.”
    “I’m going checking on her,” Keith says. He places the carillon on the ground, in the corner behind one of the library. He brushes off his suit so he can pass for one of the guest and walks steadily towards the main hall. A guard is approaching him and Keith immediately tries to think of a credible excuse.
    The guard doesn’t even reach for him, because the diversion takes place: the sound of something breaking and then white smoke filled the room, to fake a fire or, even better, an explosion.
    Ready for it, Keith covers his mouth with his sleeve and takes three steps behind. People screams in the hall and the guard turns to the confusion. Keith runs back to the window, now automatic opened so the smoke can rush off.
    “The carillon is gone!” he coughs
    “Acxa,” Hunk murmurs. “I know it! He used you to steal it and now…”
    “No time for this,” Pidge says. “Keith, you have to go out from here now!”
    As planned, Keith jumps off the window. Most of the attention are on the main door, from where the guests are escaping. With fast steps, but not so fast to be suspicious, Keith takes a secondary street. Of course his bike, the one is supposed to use for escaping, is gone too.
    “Damn,” he swears, while he takes of the coat of his suit and ruffles his shirt trying to get a casual look. “How many time I have until my ankle bracelet start working again?”
    “Twelve minutes,” Pidge informs him. “Will you make it back in time?”
    “I must.” He looks around and, since no one is paying attention, he gets out the street and takes the metro.

    Shiro offers him a beer to celebrate the ending of their first case. They caught the Flying Dutch thanks of Keith’s leads and actions, which makes their agreement about Keith being a consultant definitive.
    “So.” Shiro places the Black Lion figurine on the table. “You promised me to tell me everything. Start from this.”
    “It’s a piece of a carillon named Voltron. It was owned by Catherine the Great.”
    “You stole it?”
    “The carillon, no. I tried, but failed. The figurine… Zarkon owned it.” Keith doesn’t miss the way Shiro stiffs a little. “It was common knowledge in the Galra gang that Zarkon owns the key to find an enormous treasure, and that hid this secret inside the carillon, but you can access to it only if you put back the figurine where it belongs.”
    “And how this figurine ended up in your last hideout? You were in prison when Zarkon died trying to kill me with that bomb.”
    “Inside the Galra gang, there are two different movements. Not the Blades – they’re an independent group that left the Galra years ago. Those group were still under Zarkon’s control, but they disagreed on their objective. The first one is leading by Lotor, and they’re more in artistry cons and cyberattack. The second is called the Fire od Purification, they’re into robbing. And killing.”
    “Who prevailed now that Zarkon’s dead?”
    “No one, for now. But the only way for one faction to surpass the other is to find Zarkon’s treasure, so they’ll try to collect the carillon and the figurine. In the meantime, they’ll obstacles one another in order to prevail.”
    “Why are you in all this? You aren’t a Galra anymore.”
    “But I was a Blades. Even if they’re con themselves, they disagreed with the Galra methods. Their plan was to keep out of the Galra at least the figurine, so they wouldn’t able to find the treasure. And in the war for the supremacy, maybe the Galra will destroyed themselves.”
    “A good plan. I still don’t understand why you have to escape.”
    “I won’t tell you who the woman is,” Keith states. “But she realizes someone from the Galra found her… and I was the nearest person to entrust the figurine.”
    She looks at Shiro, trying to understand if he’s lying. Shiro nods solemnly. “That’s all?”
    “That’s all you need to know.”
    “Well, I guess now the figurine is safe. The Galra won’t take it from the FBI storage.”

    The ankle bracelet forces Keith to walk only in the restricted area around the FBI building. A big problem for someone like Keith that loves quiet place and not the big city. Yet, even inside the area there are small place Keith likes to walk alone and think. Especially when he needs to think.
    Especially when he failed so incredible he probably condemned everyone.
    With a sigh, Keith shakes his head and leaves the park behind him. Sulking won’t help. Finding Acxa, on the other side…
    “Hello, Red. It’s nice to see you again.”
    Keith stops and lifts his head. It isn’t Acxa, but close enough.
    “Lotor,” he grits behind his teeth at the man on the other side of the street. “What are you doing here?”
    “You know very well what.”
    “Acxa.”
    “You two are very good friend,” Lotor recognizes, with a smile. “But her loyalty will still be with me. We both believe in my possibility for a new course for the Galra gang. A course even the Blades can approve. A course even you can approve.”
    “I have no intention to go back in the gang. Not even with the Blades.”
    “This is your idea, or Detective Shirogane’s?”
    With an eager of rage, Keith takes a step forwards, and his ankle bracelet starts ringing: Lotor chose to appear at the limit of his area.
    “Look at it,” Lotor smirks. “They put a collar to you and use you like their personal guard dog. They don’t deserve you, and you’re better than that.”
    “That’s not like it.” Keith thinks back at Shiro, and in his mind Allura and Lance appear too. The start wasn’t the best, but now he feels some affection towards them.
    “I’m sorry for you, it’s clear you care,” Lotor says. “But they don’t.” His tone hardens. “Acxa doesn’t betray you because of me. She was forced to. By your Detective.”
    “That’s not true.”
    “She was arrested,” Lotor continues. “They trade her freedom in exchange of the carillon. Convenient, don’t you think? You would still loyal to them, and would hate us even more. Everybody lose but them.”
    Since Keith is unable to answer, Lotor adds, “go check it. I’ll be waiting for you if you’d like to return.”
    And he leaves, with Keith unable to follow him because of his ankle bracelet.
    He returns home with a spun of thoughts in his mind. Believing Lotor is easy: he’s manipulative, but he said some truths. Shiro betrayed him once in the past, even if Keith expected it. He’s ready to almost everything to arrest bad people. And to be honest, Keith acted behind Shiro’s back too. It is just fair if Shiro moved on his own.
    Before he has a chance to settle down his thoughts, or even finding out if Lotor is right about Acxa, Shiro is here in his apartment, sat down at his table.
    “We need to talk.” He smiles, and Keith shivers. “But before, can you convince the people hidden in the secret hideout behind the library to get out? I’m not here to arrest anyone.”
    There’s no point to hide anymore. “Guys,” he calls.
    The library moves: Hunk and Pidge appears, both of them with their head low.
    “Nice to meet you, I guess you’re Keith’s partner and… Pidge?” Shiro’s mouth opens. “You worked for the Insurance! You testified about Keith at the trial.”
    “Yeah, well,” she murmurs, embarrassed. “Looks like fighting to destroy a secret criminal organization and look for a mysterious treasure is more interesting that dealing with clients. Besides, Keith promised me to reveal where he hid the Tiziano painting.”
    “Oh?” Shiro raises an eyebrow.
    “No comment,” Keith says. “This is…”
    “No name!” Hunk squeals.
    “Fine, no name,” Shiro chuckles. “We have a work to do.” He puts his hands in the bag at his feet and places the carillon on
    “You have it?” Pidge and Hunk exclaims at the same time and they have no restraint anymore to reach for it and examines him without asking permission.
    Shiro’s eyes are still on Keith. “I have to take it without permission to the proof storage.” In his hand, there is the Black Lion figurine. “I’m here to help you, Keith. I want you to trust me this time.”
    With a long breath, Keith sits down in front of him and nods. Hunk gives him the carillon and Keith takes the figurine and puts it in place at the center of the lid. Then he opens the lid and, at the same time, a secret small drawer appears and the bottom of the carillon. Keith push in out and takes off the piece of paper inside it.
    “What is it? What is it?”
    There are strange formulas on the paper, and all four of them look at it with a frown on their face, until Pidge exclaims, “I know what is it! It’s a fractal.” And she blabbers an explanation about how the formula can allow her to build a specific geometric form that some time ago it’s used as a tracker for particular frequencies.
    “Ah,” Keith realizes. “I know now what Zarkon’s secret treasure is.” Three pair of eyes are on him. “During the Second World War, the Germans stole as much arts as they could from the conquered land. Most of it was recovered at the end of the world, but there were still some pieces missed. Legends said they all were on a submarine that sunk in the ocean, and the soldiers on board were able to signaled their last position to a soldier that keep that position secret.”
    “If that’s true…” Shiro exhales.
    “We’ll be finding one of the richest art collection of all time,” Keith ends. He turns his gaze to Hunk. “Can you build-”
    “Yes! I can!” Hunk doesn’t even wait for the end of the question and rushs to take back his instruments. In a second, he and Pidge are immersed in their calculation. Shiro shakes his head and smiles. He stands up and goes in the terrace. Keith joins him.
    “Listen, I-”
    Shiro lifts a hand to stop him. “I know in the past I made action that should make you distrust me,” he says, “but when I said I wouldn’t have given up on you, I meant it. Please trust me on this.”
    “I do. I’ve always trust you.”



    The feeling that something is wrong hit Keith when he opens the door of the house. It’s dark inside.
    “Thace?” he calls. The answer is a low groan, enough to lure Keith’s attention to the figure laying in the ground behind the sofa. Keith reaches for him: Thace looks fine, but disoriented, with a bruise on the right side of his head.
    “What happen?” he asks, fully realizing he won’t get an answer back. He grits his teeth and fear descends upon him: while Pidge should be at his house, Hunk basically lives in Keith’s attic, checking his fractal communicator to find the submarine’s frequencies.
    He jumps towards the stair of the attic, but the phone rings. The suddenly sound startles Keith, and his senses are out of rage. With his breath hard, he answers it.
    “Go outside,” a rude voice orders.
    With steady steps, Keith returns to the door: there is a purple limousine outside, with dark windows that makes impossible to see inside. A guard opens the behind door and Keith sees Shiro inside, his arm behind his back.
    “Please,” the guard says.
    Shiro shakes barely his head, but Keith has no choice. He gets up on the limousine and sits down next to Shiro. In the seats before him there is another guard with a gun pointed at both of them. The other guard joins them, closes the door, ties up Keith’s arm with plastic strap and then sits down next to his colleagues, with his gun in his arm.
    “Where are you taking us?” Shiro demands, but he gets no answers.
    They travel in silence; the only comfort is Shiro’s leg that brushes his own. The dark windows make impossible to realize where they are, and counting the time isn’t helpful either to understand the direction. Keith suspects they’re out of the city when they limousine stop.
    The guards drag outside the limousine and push them forwards a hallway until they reach a production hall. Keith’s heart misses a beat once he sees the hall is occupied entirely by an old submarine with the symbols of the Third Reich. The scales that cover the metal are a sign of the long time it passed in the water.
    “Amazing, isn’t it?” A voice attracts their attention. “Recovering it hasn’t been easy, but luckily our affairs are going great recently, since the Blade stopped being a pain in an ass.”
    “Sendak,” Keith growls.
    “The head of the Fire of Purification?” Shiro asks.
    Sendak smirks in his direction. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Champion. I hoped to face you in a more neutral field, but well, you played dirt first allied himself with this traitor.”
    Shiro frowns. “How do you call me?”
    “How do you find the submarine so fast?” Keith moves in front to Shiro. “And what did you do to Hunk?”
    “Oh, your little partner. It’s not worth enough of my attention, I just wanted his fractal.” With a smirk, he places his hand on the submarine. “About this… Don’t you realize? You played right in my hands. I’m the one that revealed Acxa where to find the carillon, so you can steal it for me. I intercepted the signal of your fractal so I can find the submarine. I had you do all the works for me and you didn’t even notice.”
    “And you brought us here just for gloating?” Keith growls.
    “That would be fun, but not.” He nods at one of his man, who cuts Shiro’s and Keith’s restraint. “Unfortunately, I can’t access at the submarine. Zarkons found him back then, you know, so before sinking him again, he put a defense mechanism on it.” Sendak places in front of them a box. “Either you know the secret code, or you disable the dynamite. Otherwise, the entire submarine will explode.”
    “Do you want us to find a way to disable it?” Shiro asks, a frown still in his face.
    “I just want you to end your work. Good luck!” Sendak and his men leave the hall, closing Shiro and Keith inside it. They reappear on a window at the same height of the upper part of the submarine – Keith suspect the window is strong enough to resist at any explosion – and give orders from them. “There is a trap door just next the submarine entrance. Go there.”
    “Well, better getting start.” Shiro takes the box
    Keith shots him a look, worried. There is no way Shiro doesn’t understand Sendak will probably kill them once they give him what he wants. Still, it’s not like they have other choices. He follows Shiro climbing the ladder and they sit down on the metal.
    While Keith opens the trap door, Shiro looks at him with a little smirk. “What?”
    “Well, beside the fact we’re prisoner of an evil mastermind that plans to kill us and we’re at risk of blowing up in an explosion, this is pretty exciting, isn’t it? We’re about to discover a lost treasure.”
    Keith isn’t so eager to indulge in Shiro’s black humor. Still he says, “I’ve always thought you would have been a great partner in crime. There is some anarchism in you.”
    “Guess that’s true,” Shiro chuckles. “But me too… I thought more about you being my partner. And now you are. We’ve been a pretty good team, don’t you think?”
    “Yes,” Keith admits. “I don’t want this to be over.” He opens the trap door and takes off an old typewriter connected with caves at the dynamite. There is a mechanism that can be stop with a four-letters sequence, but there aren’t any clues how to find out the code.
    “Then cut off the caves!” Sendak isn’t a patient man.
    “I’m not a bomb-disposal expert, but I’ve followed some courses about it,” Shiro says, grabbing a scissors from the box. “I can recognize which caves can be cut without risking the dynamite to explode.” Still, Keith holds his breath as Shiro operates.
    For a second, it seems fine. Then, the mechanism activates and a countdown of five minutes appears on the screen. Keith swears. They’re gonna dies and there’s nothing-
    “Keith.” Shiro places a hand on his shoulder. “You’re the greatest art history expert I know. And you’re incredibly smart too. If someone can understand Zarkon’s code, it’s you. I trust you.”
    His eyes stings by the sweetness of Shiro’s belief in him. He bits his lips and focuses on the typewriter, while his mind wanders back at his time with the Galra gang and then with the Blades, and how the spoke about Zarkon’s secret. If there is someone that knew that secret, it was Zarkon’s wife, who he loved dearly. But she died, and her name was longer than four letter… but she would love to have her son Lotor to inherit Zarkon’s empire, and the only thing she left Lotor was…
    “I know it!”
    K-O-V-A
    The countdown stops. Shiro’s grip, still on his shoulder, tightens. “You did it.” Keith relaxes and feels suddenly tired.
    They don’t have time to rest. Without speaking, they turn to look at the hatch. They open it and slide inside. It’s pitchy dark, but Shiro’s torch is enough to show all the painting, the jewels, the statues they’re preserved inside. Keith’s mind is in a blank state in front of all the artistry he can see.
    “This is fun,” Shiro murmurs, with a childish joy.
    “Good job,” Sendak’s voice arrive behind them. “I’ll take it from now.”
    Keith returns in front of Shiro. They can’t fight in that tight place, and with two gun pointed at them. “There’s no reason to kill him,” he says. “You won. Every Galra will accept your leadership since you had Zarkon’s trasure. You don’t have to prove anything.”
    “Nice try, but you know it’s not how it works,” Sendak says. “Lotor and his little group won’t surrender so easily, and I’ll have my hands full of dealing with him. I can’t have the Champion on my tail too.”
    “I don’t like this nickname,” Shiro informs him.
    “You gained it when you defeat Zarkon,” Sendak explains, with a smirk. “Since that you’ve become a prize for us Galra. And I want that prize.”

    There is no need to contact Hunk. He knew about Keith’s failed escaping and his consequence agreement with the FBI by himself, and he presents himself at Thace’s house, in which attic Keith lives without being invites, with homemade biscuits with him.
    Keith hasn’t betrayed him at the process and never lets Hunk coming to visit him. He protects him because hes what Hunk deserves to have being his friend for so long.
    Still, Keith misses him, and he lets Hunk hugging him for long.
    “You’re an idiot, you know that?” Hunk says, at the end.
    “I know. Thank you for sticking with me.”
    Hunk smiles. “Let me see that thing.” He examines the ankle bracelet and sentences, “high technology, I can’t disarm it for more than twenty minutes. Maybe they can be enough if we plan the escape carefully…”
    “No,” Keith states. “I’m not going anywhere.”
    “What, why?”
    “You know why,” Keith grits his teeth. “The Galra are at war.”
    “It’s not your business anymore. Even if the Blades…”
    “This is not about the Blade, this is about Shiro,” Keith snaps. “He went that far to almost arrest Zarkon, and Zarkon killed himself trying to kill him, while Shiro survives. He’s a target for the Galra. Do you know how they called him?”
    “The Champion,” Hunk murmurs. “But… The Galra are at war. They’ll be focused more on the carillon than on Shiro.”
    “But that’s the problem. If one of the factions get their hand on Zarkon’s treasure, the other will need something big in order to survive. Killing Shiro may be that something big.”
    “So what’s your plan?”
    “I’ll take Zarkon’s treasure and let the Galra destroy himself and protecting Shiro in the meantime.”
    Hunk looks sad. “You’re not superman. And to be honest, you don’t owe Mister Detective anything. He may have been nice with you, but he’s the one that arrested you. He tricked you. Just warned him about the danger and-”
    “I’m doing this with or without you, Hunk.”
    “You’re so stubborn,” Hunk complains. Then, his expression softness. “You love him.”
    Keith lowers his gaze. “It’s stupid, I know.”
    “It’s not. Mister Detective is handsome, and gentle, and witty, and funny. For an FBI, is cool. And to be honest, we owe him at least the fact that he agreed to not looking for me after your arrest.”
    “So you’re in?”
    “Of course I am, you big idiot.”

    Keith hates being drugged.
    It leaves his mind groggy, and making his brain working slowly. He ears someone calling him and he blinks trying to regain his consciousness.
    “Sorry to wake you up, but I can use a hand here.” Shiro nods at their situation.
    They’re laying down at the bottom of an empty floodgate. They’re tied up ankles and wrist with plastic strap; the ones at the ankles connect a chain to a block of cement, so they can’t escape not even by jumping around. And the water is now flowing from two opening in the floodgate, towards them.
    Sendak is being extra.
    “Any ideas?” Shiro asks.
    “Well, I have a file,” Keith says. “We can use it to cut the restraint and escape.”
    “Sendak’s men searched you.” Shiro frowns.
    “It’s inside the stitching of my jeans, next the zip. An old trick,” Keith explains. “Usually I’ll try to take it myself, but maybe it’s easy if you do it?”
    “Okay.” Shiro coughs, his cheeks pink. “Okay.”
    He crawls towards Keith and pushes his head on his lap. His mouth is on the button of the jeans to open it when Keith realizes it was a bad idea. Shiro’s head in that position evocates imagines that aren’t adequate to their situation. He holds his breath until Shiro lifts his head, the file between his lips. He passed it to Keith’s hand and he swiftly frees himself and then Shiro, just like when the water is reaching them.
    Sendak’s men notice their escape and they start to shooting them. From that distance, it’s easy for them to run and avoid it. They move forwards the stairs to climb up the floodgate when the shooting increases, but it isn’t any more aimed at them. Once they reach the top, they see the shooting between Sendak’s men and Shiro’s team: Lance and Allura are there, covered behind one of their cars.
    “They find us,” Shiro murmurs with a relieved smile. Lance lets Allura covering him as he jumps forwards and shot perfectly two men, disabling them. He tries to shot the other cars’ wheels, but Sendak manages to get inside and run.
    “He’s escaping.” Shiro re-enters in his cop mode immediately.
    “Shiro!” Lance exclaims, moved. “And Keith… why are your pants opened?!”
    But Shiro doesn’t let the moment stopping him, even if his ears are red. “No time! Sendak’s escaping. Allura, Lance, in the car with me. James, Nadia, follow us with the other car. Ryan, Ina, arrest those people and then bring the other safe back.” Then he jumps on the first car near to him and barely waits for the others before driving on Sendak’s trace.
    In that moment, Keith’s attention is focused on Hunk, that gets off one of the car, his fractal communicator in his hand. Relief descends upon him knowing that Sendak didn’t harm him. Hunk let the communicator fells and grips Keith in a hug.
    “I was so worried!” Hunk cries. “I went out just for five minutes and when I returned Thace has been attacked, everything in your attic was destroyed and you didn’t answer the phone… Pidge remembered the fractal so we built it back and we followed the signal to the submarine but you weren’t there and I felt it was too late…”
    “I’m glad you’re okay,” Keith murmurs, patting his back. “But we have to go now. I need to help Shiro-”
    “Nope, guys,” Ryan says. “Shiro will kill me if I don’t bring you back. Come on.”
    He pushes both of them in the car to drive them back at the office. Keith doesn’t fight back, but his hands grip his legs and he grits his teeth. He doesn’t want Shiro to fight alone.
    “Keith,” Hunk whispers. “Look.”
    A red biker – Keith’s biker – approaches the car at the traffic light. Keith understands: he lets the car starts, then he opens the door and throws himself out of it, rolling on the pedestrian. The bike stops in front of him and Acxa gets off.
    “This is my apology,” she says, handling him the helmet.
    “I know you’re doing this for Lotor too, but thank you.”
    He takes the bike: it still has his modified radio where he can hear the police’s communication, so he knows where to drive: the port. He parks the bike next to Lance’s car, which had blocked Sendak’s limousine. Nobody is around. Carefully, Keith enters in the container’s maze.
    He hears shooting and runs in that direction. His feet stumble on a gun. At a couple of meters from him, Shiro and Sendak are fighting in the ground: Sendak has a knife in his hand and he0s trying to stab Shiro, who kept the other’s wrist to disarm him.
    Keith has never shot anyone: as con artist, the Blades of Marmora are subtler. Yet, he takes the gun and shots at Sendak’s back without a second though. The shoot rings in his ears. Sendak startles, blood spreading on his shirt. The knife slips from his hand and he fells forwards. Shiro moves him from himself and then lifts his gaze, seeing Keith with the gun in his hand.
    “Keith… you save me. Again.”
    “We save each other.”

    “This is a bad idea.”
    “You think all my ideas are bad, Hunk,” Keith pointed out.
    “Well, it’s not my fault if you’re eager to get killed. Or arrested, in this case. You’re going to save the man who’s trying to catch you!”
    “I know, but I can’t let him. He’s my fault he got caught by those criminals.”
    “He followed you in there, I’d say at least fifty percent of the fault is his!”
    “Hunk, shut up. I’m entering.”
    The abandoned warehouse was silent and dark. Keith didn’t have a gun with him, but he kept his hand on his knife hung at his belt as he walked inside. His eyes adapted at the low light. With his back at the walk, he moves fast but with attention.
    He startles when he hears a muffled sound. It came from a room at the end of the hallway. The door was half open, so Keith peeks inside: the room looked empty except for a man sitting down on a chair: Shiro. His arms were behind his back and a cloth was in his mouth.
    He pushed the door a little. Shiro lifted his head and widens his eyes, but he didn’t gesture at him to escape, so Keith guessed the room is safe. He opened the door entirely.
    “Don’t worry, I’m here,” he said as he rushed towards him.
    But Shiro’s arms were free, and Keith found himself face on the ground with a swift movement, handcuff closed on his wrist.
    “Keith Kogane, you’re under arrest for forgery and conning. Everything you say…”
    He stopped listening, his breath accelerating and the heart that beat strong in his ears. It was a trap. Shiro used himself as bait to lure him out. Keith should be angry, should protest, should yell and complain and fight back, just like Hunk was screaming in his ears in that moment.
    Instead, there was relief upon him. Shiro was safe.
    “I got him, you can come,” Shiro said to the coms, and Keith crawled a little away from him taking change of his distraction. But there was no point into trying to escape: Keith could be impulsive sometime, but he could accept defeat. He turned to look at Shiro.
    “Keith… you…” Shiro murmured. “Why did you come back?”
    “You were in danger… I thought so, at least.”
    “I…” Hunk’s yells were so strong that Shiro noticed the earphone at his right ear.
    “Please let him stay,” Keith plead. “It’s all my fault.”
    Gentle, Shiro took off the earphone and stomped on it to destroy. “I won’t,” he assured Keith. “I…” he tried again to speak, but his colleagues arrived in that moment and Keith got dragged away from him.

    The opening day for Keith’s first exhibition as an artist, Shiro reaches him before the opening, while Keith is finishing to settle all the paintings.
    “Are you here to arrest me, Detective?” Keith jokes. “Those are all mine.”
    “I know. I’m so proud of you.” His smile is soft. “You deserve this.”
    “It’s all you,” Keith answers. “For pleading the judge to reduce my sentence… and to believe in me.”
    Shiro shakes his head a little and pretends to look at one of the paitings. “I’miss you as my partner in crime.”
    “I’ve never said I’ll stop working with the FBI,” Keith points out. “But you were never my partner in crime. I wished it, you know. Our little challenge when you’re trying to arrest me was fine but… I wished you on my side.”
    The hand of Shiro are on his coat and he stiffs. “That would be nice. But…”
    “I know, I know. You’re Detective Shirogane. Even with the Blade… not matter our morality, yours will be always different from us. That’s fine. And no,” he hurries to add when Shiro looks intensely at him. “I’m not turning back to that life. I’m glad of what I have now.”
    “Keith,” Shiro says. “I’ve never told you… about the day I arrested you-”
    “I’m not angry at you.”
    “I know, it’s just…” Shiro sighs. “I loved you. I still love you.”
    Keith is dead, he’s sure. Because his heart just stops beating.
    “When Allura proposed the plan of faking my capture, I thought it was stupid. As much as we could call ourself a sort of strange friends, you would never have risked yourself for me. And that was the reason I accepted. I wanted the proof I was wrong about the tension I felt between us. Instead, you came.”
    “What you were going to tell me there…” Keith understood. “But you were married!”
    “My marriage with Adam ended up long ago. We’re still together for sense of habit, I guess? I wonder if Adam had realized it before me… My accident gave us the ideal excuse to take a decision we should have made years ago,” Shiro murmurs, and he was sad. “I loved him, but with you… it was different. And then I had to arrest you and I was so sure I lost you… I was so happy when you wrote me that Christmas card… and after the accident…”
    His blabbering was interrupted by Keith’s lips on his one, Keith who grabs him by his tie and keeps him near, his hand that paws Shiro’s shoulder. Keith feels he starts breathing again after a long time.
    “You have a very bad timing,” Keith chokes on himself by crying and laughing at the same time.
    “I know, sorry, I’m very bad at this.” Shiro reserves him an apologetic smile. “Maybe I should leave, the opening time is near and-”
    “Don’t you try,” Keith warns him, his hand still on the tie. “You’re going to be my performative art.”
    Shiro laughs. “Well, you’re the artist.”
    “Con artist.”
    But there isn’t any falsity in the way they kiss again.
     
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0 replies since 14/2/2020, 22:11   14 views
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