For the 1000 followers special: Matt/Shiro/Keith, because we talked about it, number 46? Congrats by the way on the milestones!
It’s the 1000 Followers Special! Based on these prompts. Prompts are now closed. Don’t want to see all 35 of these? Block ‘1000 Followers Special’. Can’t read on mobile? These will slowly be posted to AO3 starting in a few days as ‘Hold Up Half the Sky’. A huge thank you to Xagrok for the beta’ing!
The problem they run into with this arrangement was that neither Keith or Matt were used to sharing.
That wasn’t exactly true, though. Keith had foster siblings he’d learned to work with, and Matt had a very nosy and curious little sister. Both of them had learned to deal when things weren’t exclusively their own.
They just weren’t naturally inclined that way.
Which lead to moments like this.
(Read More Below)
Shiro had been leaning back against Keith, enjoying a quiet moment. He liked this arrangement, because having Keith at his back meant that no one could sneak up on him. And Shiro could relax fully, because he trusted Keith completely. For his part, Keith seemed to like calmer times when he could pet Shiro’s hair absent-mindedly, and otherwise not feel pressured to speak or act. Instead, he had a pad in his other hand, reading while Shiro dozed.
Then Hurricane Matt entered, in his usual burst of noise and energy.
“Hello there,” he called, flopping down onto the bed. It jolted both Shiro and Keith, making Shiro slide a couple of inches farther down on the bed. “So there is where you two got off to, huh?”
Keith eyed him, still holding onto Shiro under his arms. “Clearly.”
Rolling his eyes, Matt stretched out until he was between Shiro’s sprawled legs. “So literal, Cherry Bomb.” Then he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Shiro’s mouth. “You look cozy.”
“I’m pretty comfortable,” Shiro admitted. But even as he said that, he shifted to sit up better and wrapped an arm around Matt’s shoulders, smiling into his mouth.
Behind him, Keith made an annoyed noise. “We were having a nice moment,” he muttered.
Oops.
Pulling away, Matt rested his head on Shiro’s shoulder, so all he could see was his curls and the other side of the room. The tension in his shoulder spoke of honest annoyance. “You’ve been hogging Shiro all afternoon.”
“It’s not hogging,” Keith shot back. “He wanted to be here.”
Okay, no. “Hey, enough,” Shiro called, just a hint of the leader tone creeping into his voice.
But that never stopped Matt before, and it didn’t work now. “And then he was enjoying being kissed,” he returned easily, and it would have been reasonable if not for the hint of something snide in his tone. “Works both ways, you know.”
“Can’t you go be loud somewhere else?”
Pulling back, Matt pouted at Shiro. “Aww, Sugar Bear, you want me here, don’t you?”
Shiro snorted. “Less when you’re using the nicknames.”
“Takashi,” Matt corrected. “Are you kicking me out?”
And despite the fact that he knew Matt was being playful, that still tugged on his heartstrings. “No, I’m not.”
Keith huffed. “Cheating.”
“Is not!”
Closing his eyes, Shiro groaned. “Okay, seriously, enough. Matt, you did interrupt a quiet moment. Keith, Matt was just being himself, and he’s welcome here, too. Would you two cut it out?”
There was a moment of chagrined silence. “Wasn’t trying to get you heated,” Matt told Keith quietly. “I just wanted to know where you two got to.”
“I know,” Keith replied, in nearly the same tone. “You weren’t being excluded.”
Matt winced, which meant it was a direct hit. “Eh, everyone gets one on one time. S’fine. You just weren’t where I expected you, so... made it worse. Anyway.” He ducked forward and kissed Keith, gentler than the kiss to Shiro just a minute ago. “Want me to go?”
Shaking his head, Keith offered a small smile. “No, you can stay.” He glanced over at Shiro, who smiled and relaxed now that they weren’t getting into a spat. “In fact... You can go first.”
“Hm?” First? Shiro opened his mouth to question that, but then Matt darted forward to kiss him. The force of it knocked him over onto the bed, but Keith was there a second later, giving him a gentler kiss.
The trade off continued for a few dizzying moment, until Shiro had forgotten all about their tiff. “Okay! You made your point.”
“What point?” Matt asked, all studied innocence. “No points here. Just very relaxing kisses.”
Yeah, relaxing. As if they didn’t know the back and forth was making his head spin. “Wait. Wanna see you two kiss.”
Keith gave him a last peck. “Sure.” With that he turned and kissed Matt too, casual and easy. It wasn’t the rapid fire tease, but a simple, easy exchange.
Maybe they didn’t come to sharing naturally, but they were plenty good at it when reminded.
And where Keith was all intense silences and Matt was misdirecting noise, they were good together.
They balanced.
Leaning back, Shiro watched them with a smile, content to enjoy the show.
They had problems, sometimes, but they worked it out.
