“Sick” (includes a mini About at the end detailing the premise of my Area 51 AU)
He couldn’t bring himself to move. Before falling asleep, he had taken most of his clothes off, feeling as if he was going to sweat himself dry.
Although a t-shirt and pants were hardly enough to make a difference, they had to be much better than just a pair of boxers.
But he couldn’t move. There was no energy to spend. He had no way to know how long he had been asleep, but it was as if he hadn’t slept at all. Every joint in his body was on fire—there wasn’t an inch of him that didn’t feel pain. He was shivering so hard, he couldn’t even spare the energy to grab his clothes.
Keith let out a stifled groan of pain. Of course, nobody would hear him, but his instinct was to call out for help. Something was just wrong.
At the same time, he was afraid of what they would do to him once they were aware of his condition. Would they cut him open? Take more of his blood until he was sucked dry? Give him more drugs?
Keith shuddered, swallowing down the raw lump in his throat.
Either way, he felt doomed. He had long ago lost track of time, but it couldn’t have been more than a few months since he had been taken.
He was going to die, either in his cell or on the table.
The idea of attempting to take his own life lurked quietly in the back of his head...but the urge was weak, and he was too afraid to do it. Even if it meant avoiding dying like a lab rat.
But the wait itself was killing him. He had no idea when they were finally planning to do it. There was no way…
The sound was coming from his ankle bracelet. He didn’t know what it meant, but in his weak, paranoid state, he could only offer bewilderment. Maybe, if he had any amount of energy in his body, he would have started to panic. Instead, the anxiety remained muted, but not fully subdued.
He shuddered once more, curling up even harder in on himself. The tension hurt his body, but there was nothing else he could do. He had never felt so helpless…
The lights came on. Keith stiffened.
“Check the specimen’s temperature. The monitor might be malfunctioning.”
Keith groaned at the pressure of whatever was pressed against his temple. He tried to move away from the doctor, but quickly gave up, unable to move his head more than an inch. He barely registered the beep from the doctor’s tool.
“103. It’s not life-threatening, but I think we should keep an eye on him. We haven’t had much of an opportunity to monitor him in this condition anyways.”
Monitor...they were going to make him sit through their tests. He didn’t want that. He was too tired.
Keith let out another groan of protest, but they didn’t hear him.
“Fair enough. But I’m not touching him. I don’t want to catch whatever he’s got.”
He felt a hand grab his shoulder.
“N-no, please,” Keith whined, unable to do nothing more than grab weakly at the mattress to keep himself on the ground. But the set of arms plucked him off the floor like he was nothing.
Okay so I may have been a little liberal with the interpretation of the prompt (exhaustion) but this is my challenge anyways lol.
Not gonna lie, had a bit of a hard time writing this, and this is a pretty rough draft (especially because I’ve been at work all day) but I committed to writing every day for the rest of the year, so that’s what I’m doing.
I was too busy tonight to really work on an updated About for this AU/fic, but some of my followers from my main blog most likely already know about this AU, so for y’all that know me already, you should know the premise. For those of you that don’t, this is what the AU is about:
This is an Area 51 AU where a Galran/human hybrid Keith is discovered and taken into custody by the government. This does not have any connection to canon world, but rather takes place in modern time.
The first fic that this excerpt takes place in is a story that details the traumatic experiences Keith faced as a “specimen” in Area 51, from the age of 15 to 18. If I ever get far enough, the next fic will be about Keith’s life after he manages to escape Area 51 (with the help of another doctor who takes pity on him).
The sequel fic is actually the original inspiration for this whole AU, because I originally thought about Keith pretty much learning to get back in touch with society after being put in isolation for about three years. So Shiro finds Keith, and Keith hitchhikes a ride off Shiro, but then Shiro takes pity on Keith and lets him stay at his place for the night. Then he sees Keith turn into a purple alien and that’s where the story starts. (When I started working on this fic, I thought about Keith maybe being part Altean or something other than Galra, so he could arguably fit into our society without being seen for the most part. I’m thinking he didn’t know he was an alien until about a week before he was discovered and captured by the government. His body constantly morphs between phases based on his unstable moods, similar to the Hulk. I’m not sure if this detail will stay the same or not, because I don’t know how this works and if there’s a way to explain that scientifically in a way that’s believable. But at the same time, this is an AU and meant to be something fun to write, and also sci-fi doesn’t necessarily have to make literal sense like the real world, so I probably don’t need to freak out too much over believability. Idk/ To be honest, I’ve actually been more focused on my Circus AU these last few months. I have been working on this AU for over two years, so of course I can’t just drop it. I’ve put way too much work into this!
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed! If you liked my work, feel free to follow me! Comments and likes are also greatly appreciated!
