Hug prompt? Keith is sick or having some weird galran allergic reaction to something while being super clingy to shiro while he's busy, but the poor boy is having a 'don't leave again' panic attack:3
So this got… weird? And long? I’m gonna blame it on the fact that I’m exhausted and put most of it under a readmore, but I hope you like it, and if not, I’m really excited to work on your other prompt you sent once I get there, and that one will probably not be this weird.
“When he gets better, we’d better give him a full complement of Galran vaccines,” Shiro whispered to Coran over Keith’s head. "You can do that, right?“
Coran nodded, looking sympathetic. Keith had been horribly, desperately ill for going on 65 hours now, and Shiro was tired of playing space heater while Keith slept on top of him. The rest of them were apparently immune to Keith’s bizarre inverse-fever, which was good, but if Keith didn’t start turning around soon, the rest of the team was going to have two patients, because Shiro was going to go crazy.
Coran reached down and put a hand on Keith’s forehead, Shiro moving his chin to give Coran better access. "I think he’s shivering a little less, now.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Even if had any on hand, they’d be expired after 10,000 years.”
Shiro groaned, and the noise was just enough to make Keith shift in his sleep, his grip on Shiro’s shirt getting tighter. At the start of this whole thing, Shiro hadn’t minded letting Keith cuddle up to him for warmth, but now he was tired of being pinned down all the time, with Keith plastered on top of him like another prosthetic appendage. They both needed sleep, but lying down with Keith’s weight pressing him into the couch made him feel a little trapped.
“Do you want me to try to take him for a little while again?” Coran asked.
Shiro closed his eyes, thinking about it. The problem was that they couldn’t leave Keith without a heat source, but they also couldn’t leave him with something electric or mechanical that might burn him without him realizing it.
The other problem was that Keith wasn’t in his right mind, even when he was awake. In the early stages it had been fine, just Keith almost like usual, apologizing for snuggling up to Shiro even as his shivers made the words hard to speak, but then the neurological symptoms had kicked in and he was desperate, afraid, unable to let go of Shiro, or unwilling to, or something. Coran said he didn’t really know enough to tell what was going on in Keith’s head, but it definitely wasn’t something they could put him in cryo for when his primary symptom was already being too cold, so that was that.
“Yeah,” Shiro finally answered, “Better to try while he’s still asleep. I’ve gotta go to the bathroom. I’ll try not to be long, though.” He wanted to be long. He wanted to be so long, and he felt bad about it. It wasn’t Keith’s fault he was sick.
Coran nodded, climbing over the back of the couch until he was jammed sideways between Shiro and the back of the couch. They were too close together, but it was better than waking Keith up. Shiro slid over carefully, putting one foot down on the floor as Coran finally got room to roll onto his back, shoulder to shoulder with Shiro. Transferring Keith from one of them to another was always tough, and as Shiro tried to extricate Keith’s fingers from the front of his shirt as gently as possible, the boy started stirring again.
No no no no no! he thought, freezing. Keith settled down again when neither Shiro nor Coran moved a muscle, and then Coran slid an arm carefully around the red paladin and Shiro went back to freeing himself from Keith’s death grip. At least Keith didn’t have his arms all the way around Shiro’s chest this time. That was harder.
Once Shiro was free, he left the room as quietly as he could, making a beeline for the bathroom. When he got out and Keith wasn’t screaming and didn’t seem to know he was gone, he paused for a moment to assess things. He had to decide whether to go back yet or not, and he had to decide fast, before Keith woke up again.
His stomach growled and he headed for the kitchen, torn between the desire to run so that he could get back to Keith faster, and to dawdle, so that he could have more time away from him. He did feel bad about that. He did. But he also felt it, and he wasn’t sure how to stop feeling it, so acknowledging it seemed like his only real option.
Hunk looked up when he entered the kitchen, eyebrows raising in surprise. "Oh, hey, is he-“
"No. Not really. Coran’s got him, so I’m grabbing something to eat before he wakes up again.”
Hunk nodded. "Ok, yeah, sounds good. Let me know if you need me to hold him again for a while, ok? I think last time I had him for a whole half an hour before he started screaming about not knowing where you were again.“ Shiro nodded, trying not to rub his eyes and let on exactly how tired he was.
He was three bites into a bowl of food goo when an unholy shriek came from Keith’s direction, and he had to close his eyes and center himself. Patience yields focus. He should be focused on Keith. Keith who needed him. Keith who he cared about. Keith who was brave and strong and would never be like this if he could help it, who would probably be mortified and even more miserable than Shiro if he realized what was happening to him. He breathed in and out slowly, then opened his eyes again.
The shriek stopped, replaced by a desperate shout that was more clearly his name.
"I better go,” he told Hunk. "Think you can bring that by for me once I get Keith settled again?“
"Of course!” Hunk said, sounding offended that Shiro would even ask. "And anyway it’s probably almost time to try to get him to eat again, too.“
That was a fight Shiro was glad to delegate to someone else. "Yeah. That’s true. I’ll send Coran to get you once he’s calm but before he falls asleep again.”
Part of him wanted to walk, but as Keith called his name again, voice rising toward another shriek, his heart couldn’t take the thought of leaving him like that, confused and desperate. He broke into a run.
When he burst into the room, Keith tried to get up, flinging himself off of Coran and almost immediately tumbling to the floor. "Shiro!“ His voice was rough now that it was close to its normal volume, ragged from too much screaming and too many times waking up without Shiro in his direct line of sight. "Shiro, you’re alive!” He tried to drag himself forward along the ground, making Shiro feel suddenly like the biggest jerk in the world.
Shiro pushed himself to move even faster, half falling down himself as he reached for Keith a little too fast.
Keith immediately latched onto him like a limpet, burying his face in Shiro’s chest. "You’re alive, you’re alive!“
Shiro pulled Keith closer, wrapping his arms tightly around him. "I know. I know. I am. I’m here.”
Keith took several deep, panting breaths, clinging hard to Shiro, but then he calmed down and his breathing slowed, and for a minute, he seemed to forget. Then he realized where he was again.
“Shiro!”
“Yes,” he answered, not making it a question. He hadn’t answered his name with a question in a day and a half. Keith just needed confirmation. He didn’t want anything else. Shiro was probably an asshole for ever leaving him for anything.
"Good.” Keith sighed, a deep shudder running through him so hard Shiro could feel it. Quiznak. Shiro was torn between wanting to know what was going on in Keith’s head so that he could maybe try to fix it, and being intensely glad that he didn’t know. Coran said Keith was probably hallucinating, but Shiro was hoping it was just forgetfulness. Blanks weren’t ideal, but they were better than bad memories.
Shiro wanted to get Keith back up onto the couch, but even that could be hard when it meant Keith had to let go of him. They’d tried to get Keith to accept other sources of warmth, and he could snuggle up to Coran or Hunk for a little while sometimes if Shiro was in his line of sight and holding his hand, but when he was at his worst, even that was a struggle. Shiro had thought he might lose circulation in his hand last time they’d tried it, Keith was squeezing so hard.
It took them half an hour to get Keith calm enough to go back to the couch, sitting up and leaning heavily into Shiro, and another half an hour to get him to eat anything at all. By the time they’d gotten 6 bites of food goo down him and Shiro had finished his bowl, it was clear that the best thing for everyone was if Keith went back to sleep again, like his drooping eyes were clearly threatening to do anyway.
7 hours later, Shiro woke up feeling surprisingly rested. He opened his eyes, trying to gauge how long it had been since he’d fallen asleep, and put a hand on Keith’s forehead out of habit. Keith was warm, and it took everything in him not to shout for the others and wake him up. He pushed Keith’s hair back from his forehead, laying his hand against Keith’s skin again, just to be sure. It was true. He was warm. He was warm.
A wave of joy and relief broke over him and suddenly he was laughing, full belly laughs that jostled Keith hard enough for the boy to sit up, pressing against Shiro’s chest to lever himself into a sitting position. "Whuzzat - wha - where am I?“ Keith’s eyes locked onto his face, still half confused, but more there than they had been in 2 days. "Shiro?”
For a moment, Shiro was afraid Keith was going to go desperate again, that he was going to turn out to still be sick. Instead, the boy’s eyebrows furrowed. "Why are you sleeping on the couch? Why am I sleeping on the couch? Why does my head hurt?“
Shiro wrapped his arms around Keith and pulled him in for a hug, both relieved and weirdly disappointed by the way Keith immediately tried to wriggle out of the embrace. He let go, and Keith pushed back away from him, scooting backward to sit on the couch between Shiro’s feet. He looked confused, staring at Shiro like he was waiting for an answer.
"You’ve been sick,” Shiro told him, “But I think you’re ok now.”
Keith nodded, but still looked a little befuddled. "What did I have?“
"I can’t pronounce it,” Shiro answered, “But don’t worry. We’re gonna get you some vaccines before you have to go out into Galra territory again.”
Keith nodded. "Vaccines. Cool.“ Shiro suspected Keith wasn’t processing that, really, but at least he was not processing it calmly.
"You’re gonna be ok,” he told Keith.
Keith nodded back earnestly. "Ok.“ Shiro couldn’t tell if Keith believed him or not.
He looked exhausted, something in his eyes going unfocused as he tried to stare at Shiro.
Finally, after a moment of Keith’s wobbly staring, Shiro did something he’d spent 24 hours swearing he’d never do again. He held his arms open, waving Keith toward him. "Come on, come here. You look like you’re still a little out of it.”
Keith crawled back over to accept the hug, but then broke loose again after a minute. Shiro was almost disappointed. Then he actually took the opportunity to stretch his arms and legs and he thought he’d never be disappointed to be denied a hug ever again.
