Since the @the-heith-zine is out now, I can post my fic from it!! I had such an amazing time throughout this process of this zine’s creation and I want to personally thank @mikuridaigo for being the best zine mod ever!
“Come on, Hunk! I need your help. You can keep making googly-eyes at mullet later, let’s go!” Lance beckoned from the doorway to the lounge, eliciting a glare from Keith as a blush spread over he cheeks. Crossing his arms, Keith huffed at the thought of Hunk leaving– he’d just gotten finished with a massive project, and Keith had just finished his afternoon training. This was the first time all day they’d even seen each other.
“Alright alright, I’m coming! Yeesh.” Hunk turned back to Keith, a fond smile on his lips and a chuckle on his tongue, “I’ll be back soon, okay? Promise.” He reached over to put a gloved hand against Keith’s back, giving his skin two taps before letting his hand fall to catch up with Lance. As innocuous and simple as it was, it caused Keith’s heart to flutter as he watched his boyfriend run down the hallway.
Words of affection never came easily to Keith. His childhood had been a slow laying brick wall of disappointment and hardship, burying those three little words along the way. But Hunk? Hunk was the wrecking ball he never knew he needed, smashing his way through every wall Keith had ever built. And even better, he understood. He never pressured Keith to return the words, and had begun foregoing them entirely for something else. A gesture. A touch. Hunk had come up with it a few months prior, and each time Hunk used it his heart soared.
Two taps on his back… that was it.
But the significance floored Keith. He’d asked Hunk what it meant in the beginning. “Two taps: one for you and one for me. One after the other to remind that I’m always here for you, that I’ll always by your side, that you can count on me… and that I’ll always love you.” Hunk had explained, a bashful smile on his lips as he played with Keith’s hands while they sprawled out in the yellow paladin’s bed one night. Keith had just stared at him in quiet shock. He couldn’t believe someone had cared enough to put so much meaning into something so simple. They could spend a thousand lives together and Hunk would never truly realize how much those two simple taps meant to him.
“You know, just once I’d like to have a mission that goes smoothly!” Lance yelled from behind his shield before firing a few shots at the encroaching Galra.
Hunk grunted as he took a few steps back into their ever slowly closing defenses; “What would one of our missions be if it actually went according to plan?” He retorted with a dry chuckle, glancing around as the countless sentries kept backing them up into the corner. They were trapped. “Anytime you wanna get that door open would be great, Pidge!”
“You pressuring me won’t make the process go any faster!” Pidge shot back, her frantic fingers shaking slightly as she typed in countless codes to try and get the door of the Galra ship open behind them. It was their only hope of getting out of this mess, and she just had to pray that the others could hold the sentries off while she hacked into the system. The Galra had begun getting smart to Pidge’s tricks– triple encrypting the codes to their interfacing, delaying her progress much to everyone’s nerves.
Keith growled under his breath, wincing as blast after blast knocked into his shield like hammers against his forearm. Hiding behind his shield wasn’t going to keep the Galra at bay. He couldn’t just rely on Hunk and Lance to force them back– he had to do something.
Keith wouldn’t necessarily call himself the king of calm, rational thinking– which was what made his next move not all that surprising; In a blind rage Keith broke out of the defensive semi-circle of paladins as he aimed at attacking a sentry that had dared to get a bit too close for his comfort.
“Keith, no! Get back in formation!” Shiro ordered, taking a step out to assist the red paladin only to once again get battered by gunfire.
Keith grunted as he dropped one of the sentries, ducking instinctively from the swing of an enemy sword before slicing through a couple more. It had given Pidge a bit more time, yes, but there were just too many– they could all see that. Even Keith finally had to retreat a few steps, realizing the predicament he’d gotten himself into. He didn’t have the stamina to keep this up, but by then it was too late. Sentries had surrounded him despite Hunk and Lance’s attempts to keep them off his back.He should have listened to Shiro. “Pidge, come on!!” Keith growled as he swung to keep at least a sword length distance apart from the enemy. What he didn’t see was the sentry coming from behind, he didn’t see the way it rose it’s blade to strike, didn’t see the way the other sentries were already turning their attention away from the red paladin and back to the others because they knew it would be over in a second.
Without the slightest hesitation Hunk was barreling forward, panicked eyes trained on his boyfriend. His lover. The light of his life. He would do anything to keep him from harm… and so he did.
It had happened in a flash. One moment Keith was trying to fight off the swarm of Galra surrounding him, next he was being shoved to the floor. He’d thought it had been an enemy trying to get the upper hand on him, but it wasn’t until Lance cried out Hunk’s name that he turned his head to see what had happened. Hunk was crouched over him, trying to hide the wince on his face with a slight smile. “I made it in time.” He whispered before grunting and falling to his knees.
Staring wide-eyed up at Hunk, the entire universe halted. The Galra, their team, the fight… nothing else mattered, not right now. Hunk had pushed him, Hunk had saved him. And as the space around him began to move again, he realized the look on Hunk’s face was one of pure agony. He pulled Hunk into his chest with one arm and brandished his shield with the other, eliciting a moan from the wounded man as the briefly stunned sentries began their attack once again. Thankfully, they finally seemed to have a stroke of luck.
“GOT IT!” Pidge shrieked as the doors slid open, “Get inside!”
Lance and Shiro wasted no time, running forward and grabbing the two off the ground– using their collective shields as a large barrier as they pulled Hunk’s form into the other room. Shiro was immediately radioing the castle for an emergency evac, and Keith was hovering over Hunk before the doors had even fully closed.
“Where are you hurt? Hey, look at me, where does it hurt??”
Keith hadn’t seen where the blade had cut, but it only took a moment for him to see the damage: a clean slice right on his shoulder, between the chest plate and shoulder pad. He could already see the redness darkening the sliver of black suit. Much like the red that was pulsing behind Keith’s eyes.
“Are you crazy!?” Keith screamed, “You could’ve gotten killed! I was handling it on my own– I had it under control! You– you didn’t need to–” he hadn’t realized how much he was shaking, or that the threat of tears were beginning to glisten in his eyes. So he shut them tight to hopefully stop what was inevitable. “I’ve lost too many people in my life, Hunk! I can’t… I can’t…”
His voice trailed, breath shuddering to a halt as he felt a hand on his back– trembling slightly, but firm.
A swell of emotions made him open his eyes, focusing on Hunk’s who was staring at him with a strangely calm smile for someone who was heavily bleeding. “I-I’ll always be there for you. You can count on me.” He muttered. Even injured, Hunk was striving to comfort him. Ground him. Calm him down. He felt those tears begin to prick his eyes again, and this time he didn’t try to hide it. “I love you.” Keith choked out a shocked laugh at his own words before shaking his head, “I love you, Hunk.”
The look on Hunk’s face gave Keith a pang of pride for his sudden confession, he’d never seen him so surprised… or content. He still had a smile on his face as his hand slipped from Keith’s back and his body went limp.
“Hunk…? Hunk!”
—-
The next thing Hunk felt after the numbing tiredness that overtook his body was cold. He had only begun coming to when he heard a releasing hiss and was stumbling on shaky legs out of a pod. Before he could steady himself, arms were wrapping around him. He let out a sigh at the warmth, his body begging for more as he leaned more into the body before he let himself really grasp who was holding him… though it wasn’t much of a question.
“Keith… hn- what happened?”
“You were an idiot and took a sword for me.” Although the words held some spite– or guilt?– his breath trailed over Hunk’s chilled shoulder like a warm summer breeze.
Opening his eyes he looked around, the dimly lit cryopod room suggested it was late. That, and the fact that they were the only ones here. He may have expected Lance to be here too, so everyone else must’ve been asleep.
“And I’d do it a thousand times more.”
Keith pulled away slightly, enough that he was able to see Hunk’s face and study those beautiful brown eyes for a moment. He knew Hunk meant every word he said, and there was a part of him that wanted to scold for saying something so rash… but the reality was, he would too.
