Destiny & Dragons (Klance Fanfiction)

Defenders of the Alteans

A/N: I changed Shiro to Takashi because in this AU, Keith and Shiro are brothers so both their surnames are 'Shirogane' (Art above by The Searching Astronaut on Tumblr).

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Keith's Point of View
Many years prior

My brother and I met Kolivan as a 'special client' to our business. My father used to be close with Kolivan- he would say that they used to fight together when they were younger, that they vowed to help each other do whatever it is necessary for the greater good. I always thought there was something more to that, though.

Kolivan was the one who taught me to swordfight better than Takashi. I grew up with him giving me advice on how to approach attackers and what to do if I ever needed to defend myself or anyone else. Since our family owned the Blacksmith Workshop, all the weapons were at my disposal. However, the bow-and-arrow was the one weapon I could never fully master.

My father did not say outright why Kolivan should be taken more seriously than our other clients. I always thought that it had to do with the fact that he was my trainer, but I was obviously wrong. One year after my father died, Kolivan spoke to my brother about the Blade and confessed that our father had been one of the leaders.

I eavesdropped on their entire conversation, hurt as to why Kolivan wasn't speaking to me as well. Deep down, I knew that I was just a twelve year old boy, not ready for the responsibility of leadership. Takashi was also the only Mage of the group so that was another advantage for him.

Takashi, on the other hand, was completely ready: he did not hesitate to accept Kolivan's request to be next in line as one of the leaders of the Blade, fighting beside Kolivan as one of his right-hand men. So not only was Takashi the owner of the Workshop, he was a leader of the Blade.

For three years, I felt jealous toward Takashi because of that- I found it unfair that my older brother was allowed to take over all my father's possessions, leaving me with nothing to remember him by but a simple knife from my mother, a gift that was meant for me from my mother. Saying that it was a gift from my father would be a lie towards myself.

Takashi then began trusting me with manning the workshop alone while he set out on Blade missions. I did not know what the Blade was but I remembered how much I wanted to be a part of it. During this time, I personally hired Shay to help me out in the Workshop because we received good pay anyway and I refused to clean the shelves. Shay initially offered to help me out because she noticed that I always had to do things on my own and felt sorry for me. For a while, I enjoyed not only the pity, but her company.

In my spare time, I would leave her to do the rest of the work in the Workshop while I trained harder and faster with a sword, pretending I was fighting my brother. Out of spite and jealousy.

"I need to run another errand for Kolivan," Takashi would lie to us occasionally, "I'll leave Blacksmith with you again just in case there's a break-in. He'll protect you."

Takashi thought he could keep the Blade secret from me, but he was wrong. At first, I did not care if he left his dragon with me. I was so angry and jealous at Takashi that I wanted to keep Blacksmith away from him, to make him realize what it felt like to be hurt and lonely for so long.

However, I changed my mind the day Blacksmith started flying towards the Workshop entrance worriedly. I knew immediately that Takashi's life was on the line and all thoughts of jealousy and anger was thrown completely out the window.

It's a dragon's duty to fulfill their master's desires, but a dragon also knew when he was most needed. Takashi's desire was always to protect me so he did not take Blacksmith with him. Now, I realized how selfish I was, how immature and careless I had been. My own brother, the last family I had left, was probably dying and it was all my fault. The next thing I knew, I was grabbing my mother's knife from the shelf and running out the door with Blacksmith, Shay calling out to me worriedly.