#v:idk

Nearly a dozen visits in 3 months and the nurses were already dubbing Keith their frequent flyer.  Always in and out of the clinic, body littered with day-old bruises, scrapes and cuts.  One time a gash that might have come from a knife, though Keith was never all that forthcoming about how he managed to get beat to hell half the time.  But the clinic didn't press, didn't call the authorities.  It was just some small place tucked between an office building and a corner mart, and didn't seem to question the young man's utter lack of insurance.

Which suited him just fine.  Questions were annoying, and the answers dangerous.  Authorities meant word might reach the Galra, and that meant Keith was gone.  

He was grateful for the places that operated just a touch under the radar.  Letting him get fixed up, maybe grab some good painkillers along the way, without having to visit an actual hospital or suffer through the ER waits.  Now it was only the doctor he was waiting for as he sat there on the edge of the padded exam table, one hand placed gingerly over his side where the skin was miscolored with ugly splotches of a darkening purple and blue.  A black t-shirt and red jacket were already tossed over the armchair in the room, the young man staring off into space, looking rather bored as he waited.

That boredom faded as the door opened, blue-gray eyes taking in the man that entered with an almost resigned air.  All those dozen visits, each unplanned and unscheduled, Keith cycling through probably 3 or 4 different nurses.  And yet Doctor Shirogane was the only physician who ever saw him.  

“Wally!” he blurted out, speeding around the damage zone.  The damage zone for the battle they had won, sending the last of those interdimensional invaders falling back into the portals they had first arrived from.  But now they had to help clean up and stuff and Bart wasn’t exactly looking forward to that part of the superhero thing.  Cleaning his own room was bad enough, never mind 4 square blocks of the city.  

But hey, there were always little distractions.

“Wa--er--Kid Flash!”  And he skidded to a stop right in front of Wally, practically vibrating with excitement.  “Lookit this.”  ‘This’ was the perfectly spherical piece of metal he was shoving forward and into Wally’s face.  It was a sphere with no seams, perfectly smooth and shiny with no blemishes except for the port that seemed to blink open on the side nearly colliding with Wally’s face, an artificial eye staring out, it’s pupil shimmering red, darting back and forth as it seemed to take in the surroundings.  

There was the wail of the baby and Henry smiled fondly into the face of the newborn. “Its a girl.” Henry informed Walburga who was looking tired but pleased holding Regulus. Say what one would of the wizarding worlds desire for an heir. Walburga had wanted a daughter. Her words of thanks were enough and Henry’s eyes misted when he was hugged tightly by the woman. She was his cousin on his father’s side. The Shafiq family was smart enough to have ties to several important families.

“Congratulation.” he told her the baby had tears wiped away and so too did Henry with the back of his hand.

It was a few years later..

Henry stepped into the House of Black and immediately was almost run over by the twin. Cera was crying about her doll which had been broken and Regulus was trying to council her.  The Alchemist had leaned over in time to check on the doll, only to be bounced on by an over excited Sirius. Who hit him hard enough to bring tears to his eyes.  It was all Henry could do to not turn into his animagus form and chase the boy through the house. He’d like that anyways. Handing his hankerchief to the little girl to wipe her eyes. Using his sleeve to wipe his. Henry fixed the broken doll and all was sunny for a time.

It always seemed like he saw more of the Black Children than anyone did.

Two Sorting Ceremonies saw Sirius Black into Gryffindor and than Cera and Regulus, one destined for Slytherin. His own house, the other with her older brother Sirius. Sitting with a sobbing Cera after the Ceremony on the steps upstairs while the Great Feast went on. Hugging her trying to reassure her that it wasn’t going to matter, that her house was not a definition of her. That Regulus would be alright that she would be alright. Her sadness and tears over whelming. Henry wept quietly for her. Even as she cried for Regulus.

His oldest had become a causality of an early war. He stood in his office holding the sheet of paper. It was from the Ministry, his boy. An Auror and a damn good one. Had been attacked in a muggle neighborhood. He was gone their was nothing that Henry could do.  He wasn’t surprised to see Cera, her family called her a disappointment, she wasn’t not to him. Children had a right to live and be who they were. The restraints of Pure Blood Society often favored the son’s over the daughters. It needed to stop.  She was in tears, she did not even know the man well. However, he was close to her family and the tears were silent but fell much like rain from the heavens.

He was gone Regulus was gone, the family had mourned him and the two of them stood where there was no body. No one had found him. No one knew if it was true. Was it just wistful thinking ? Was it just hoping that he might still be alive somewhere ? Henry did not know. This war..this damn war had taken so much from everyone.  Twins always held a special bond and when a frantic Cera had sobbed against him desperately chanting she couldn’t feel him anymore. Henry could only cry with her. Regulus was as Cera was family. A member of his House they were family.

Tears were a common thing, war brought little but them.

Keith had never stopped fighting.  Not from those early days when he’d realized there was nobody he could trust.  Not when Shiro had stepped into his life and changed that.  Not when the man had vanished.  And certainly not when Keith and the others had found both Shiro, the Blue Lion and gone barreling off into space.  

With a grim determination in his eyes, he hadn’t stopped fighting when the Galra had dragged him from his cells.  He wouldn’t give them anything.  Would die before he gave them anything.  A cold voice promised he’d wish for death before the end.  

After that, everything was a blur of pain and fear.  Pain and fear and eventually a hazy, indistinct figure with warm, worried blue eyes that swam in and out of his vision.  Keith could barely croak out a response, voice dry and raspy, hair hanging limp in his eyes as Allura half-carried, half-dragged him through a desperate escape.

And then the pod.  Everything awash in red as the emergency readings flared powerfully strong, the hull battered, as the cosmic storm raged around them.  Keith groaned softly, violet eyes dark with pain, his pupils dilated, breathing short and raspy.  He couldn’t focus his gaze on her at first.  It wavered up there, over her shoulder.

The cake was everywhere.  Keith wasn’t even sure how it had started, but here he was, pulling cake out of his hair, even as a laugh bubbled up.