You're My Brother

Simulation Disaster

One month had passed since Shiro had left for the mission to Mars. Surprisingly, Keith was doing very well without Shiro. Did he feel lonely? Absolutely. But was he genuinely fine on his own? Yep.
"Alright! Listen up!" Iverson ordered, silencing the now twenty two wannabe pilots. Hunk Garret has dropped out to enter the engineering program. A good decision on his part. "We're changing things up again today! You'll be paired up based on status as always, but we're working from the outside in."
The cadets looked at one another in confusion.
"For example, if you're number one, you go with twenty two. Number two goes with twenty one and so on. It's up to you to order yourselves like so. I'll check at the end so don't screw it up."
Immediately the cadets all scrambled to find their flight partner. All except Keith. No way was he willing looking for him.
"Kogane!" Iverson yelled, "Get off your ass and find McClain before I kick you two both out of the program!"
"Yes, sir!" Keith hollered back, saluting The Officer and joining the crowd to find his partner.
"Aw man..." Lance whined, "I have to work with you?!"
"I don't like it either, but I'd rather stay than get kicked out."
Lance hung his head, disappointed in how the day was going. "Fine but I call dibs on being the pilot in command."
"Are you kidding?!" Keith shook his head repeatedly. "No way. I'm the fighter pilot. You're just a cargo pilot. With today's simulation, I'm in charge."
Clearly neither were satisfied with this situation, but Lance did have to agree with Keith. He was the superior Cadet and ranked higher.

***

Inside the simulator, things didn't get much better.
Keith took the seat in front, the seat designated for the commanding pilot. The seat behind was for the co pilot. Or in this case, the cargo pilot.
Once the two boys were situated, the simulator started up. The screen illuminated with a flash of white light. It faded to show a landscape for Earth, the Garrison to be exact. The planet was under attack from an unknown species. It was only one 'alien' ship, but it was deathly powerful.
Their job was to distract it's fire from the planet's surface while still attacking the exterior of the spacecraft.
Simple, right?
"Lance!" Keith yelled over his shoulder, "you have to aim at the targets!"
"I know, I know!" Lance hollered back. "But it's hard when you keep changing directions!"
"Deal with it!" Keith ordered through gritted teeth, thrusting the controls forward, putting the aircraft into a nosedive.
"Keith! What the hell?! You're going to crash!"
"Aim for the ship, and fire!"
"I can't even see it on the radar! You gotta pull up!"
"Just shut up and let me do my thing!" Keith was yelling orders left right an center, never waiting for an 'okay' from his copilot.
Lance suddenly stopped firing, "this isn't teamwork, Keith! I need a plan, from you, not orders!"
"I'm in charge here!" He snapped. "Fire at the ship or we're going to fail!"
Suddenly, the screen went black.
"Simulation failed." A robotic voice echoed through the small room.
"This is all your fault, Lance!"
"My fault?!" Lance stood up, his mouth gaping open having taken full offense from Keith's words. "You're a terrible Captain! I was just trying to do my job while you changed plans every fives seconds without telling me!"
"That's enough!" Iverson entered the simulator and dragged both boys out by their ears. "What in the name of God do you think you're doing?! Do you think this is a game?!?"
Lance immediately bowed his head, "no, sir..."
Iverson looked to Keith. "And you? What is this to you?!"
"Not a game, sir." The raven haired cadet answered with more confidence than Lance.
The two cadets slowly looked to their other classmates. All eyes were on them.
Keith noticed how nervous Lance had become. The boy was shaking. Well, not all of him but his hands were trembling like an Earthquake with a magnitude of 10 on the richter scale.
Lance noticed his hands as soon as Keith did. He gripped his wrist hard with on of his hands in an attempt to steady their shaking.
"Alright, you two. I'm tired of warnings and excuses. Both of you to the principal's office immediately!"
"But-"
"Do not talk back to a senior officer, Kogane!" Iverson grabbed the boy by his wrist and dragged him to the door. "Both you and McClain here will report to the principal at once!"
"Yes, Iverson, sir..." Lance managed to say before heading to the office.
"Thanks a lot, Taylor!" Keith spat when the two had made it to their destination.
Lance knew better than to say anything else. He wanted to retaliate, even Keith saw the frustration in the cargo pilot's posture. The way he was biting his lip signaled that he too was unhappy about the current situation.
"Look..." Keith groaned, leaning back in his chair. "I'm sorry I wouldn't give you time to concur with my plans."
The Cuban boy's eyes widened. Keith was apologizing. This was one messed up turn if events.
"But..." the Fighter Class Cadet began, "you should've done your job. It doesn't matter how terrible of a pilot you are, if you can't even aim you're going to fail."
"Oh, screw you, Mullet!" Lance hissed, "Just because you're some naturally talented cadet doesn't mean you have to be a total mierda all of the time!"
"The hell you just call me?!"
"Mierda!" Lance repeated. "Mi! Er! Da!" He pronounced every syllable with aggression. "It means shit, idiota!"
That one, Keith knew. He had been called an idiot, though he was sure it was being used in a much more vulgar way. Keith grit his teeth, but slowly grinned. "Hey, Lance. How do you call someone an asshole in Spanish?"
The other Cadet was puzzled by the question, but slowly answered, "Capullo... Why?"
"That's what you are. A big capullo." His pronunciation was awful but he didn't care. "You are a muy capullo!" Keith flipped Lance the bird before standing and walking towards the door of the office.
"Que te jodan!" Lance yelled at the other cadet. "And your gramma is way off, you little mierda!"
If Keith had learned anything about Lance, is was that he had a tendency to mutter Spanish words when emotional. Regardless if he was alone, or surrounded by others, or if he was sad, terrified, or ticked off. If any sort of emotion altered his natural train of thought, he flipped out and started speaking Spanish and English simultaneously.
"Explain what happened." The principal asked Keith as he took his seat.
"We messed up in the simulator. That's-"
"That's not all." She said, cutting him off. "You refused to show any sort of cooperation with your co-pilot, you barked orders continuously, never once waiting for a reply, but most importantly, you defied orders given to you by your commanding officer on numerous occasions."
"I understand... And I'm sorry..."
She shook her head, "Sorry will not cut it this time, Keith. And seeing as Officer Shirogane is no longer here to vouch for you, I have the power to impose proper punishment on you."
"What?!" Keith stood up in defiance. "That's not fair! You can't just- What about Lance?! He did the same things!"
"No, Keith. Your actions have carried on long enough. One more misstep from you, and you're out."
"But-"
"Go! Out! I'm tired of seeing you in here." She motioned for him to leave, showing no patience for his refusal.
"Yes, ma'am..."
As he left, Lance was called in to be questioned.
"Did you learn your lesson, Mullet?"
"Shut up, Lance." Keith snarled, pushing past the Cadet, making his way swiftly and furiously down the corridors.
He stormed through the halls until he found himself in the instructor's quarters. Checking the labels on the doors, he stopped just outside one, pounding the door with his fist.
The door slid open within seconds. "Oh!" Adam looked shocked to see Keith standing there. "What do you need?"
"Help." He mumbled, inviting himself in and taking a seat on the couch.
"With..." The Officer paused before taking a seat next to the Cadet. "With what?"
"I screwed up! Big time! I'm one wrong move away from getting kicked out!" He rested his head in his hands, "I don't know what to do. Shiro always helped me with this... But he's on Mars and-"
"Hey..." Adam placed a reassuring hand on Keith's back. "It'll be alright. You just... have to work around your temper."
"But how?!"
"Well... What if we talk through what's happened?"
"No. I don't talk. I came here for answers. Not to answer questions!"
"Okay, okay..." The Officer took a deep breath, "What about the phrase Takashi taught you? Patience yields focus."
"What about it?!"
"You made a promise, did you not?"
"Yeah... but..."
"So why don't you keep your promise? Take things slowly, don't jump in to action and fight all the time."
"Right because that's easy."
"It's not, actually. I know it's not. But if you really want to succeed here, you're going to have to learn to control your temper."
Keith huffed, his gaze moving to the Officer next to him. "Look, I get you're trying to be helpful because you made a promise and all, but if you really don't believe in me, then just say it." He stood up, inching towards the door.
"Keith. Listen. I know I suck at being a mentor, I'm not like Takashi, but I want to help you."
"Your encouragement means nothing if it's done because of some promise."
"And if I told you I was trying to help out of the goodness of my heart you wouldn't believe me?"
Keith shrugged. "Well... I don't know about that... But I would be very surprised. Not because I think you're a jerk or anything... But because-"
"No one has ever treated you with kindness other than Shiro."
The Cadet was surprised in how Adam knew. Sure, he and Shiro talked a lot. All of the time. But he never expected Shiro to talk to anyone about him.
"Yeah... I know. Takashi told me everything. Why else do you think I was so quick to change my opinion of you?" The Officer gave a slight smile, "I do want to help you. Although I am terrible when it comes to helping others... however... If you ever find yourself in need of someone to talk to, I am here to help. At least until Takashi comes home."
"Adam... Do you... I don't know... Think you could cover for any mistakes I make?"
Adam chuckled, shaking his head. "The idea is for you to learn from your mistakes so that I won't have to. But I'll help you learn if you'd like."
Keith nodded, grinning slightly. "Yeah... That'd be nice..."