Star Crossed (Keith/Lotor fic)

Chapter Eleven

Keith couldn't remember the last time he'd been grounded. Coran and Kolivan has been more or less silently elected as the adult authority leaders here, and they decided Keith wasn't leaving the castle anytime soon unless necessary, and aside from blade missions, it really wasn't necessary to leave.

He at least had Lotor to keep him company, when he wasn't trapped in long meetings with Shiro, Allura, and Kolivan that none of the other Paladins were permitted to. Otherwise, they spent a lot of time together, sparring, just wandering the castle, just being together.

They never brought up the conversation they had before Keith had been taken, or what they did the first night they were together again. Lotor never asked, Keith never brought it up, but they only seemed to get closer. When they were together they could hardly keep their hands off each other. They held hands when they walked together, Lotor often kept an arm around him when they sat together, and Keith had taken to frequently leaning against him. It just felt right being close together. They even slept together most nights, despite the fact their rooms were on opposite ends of the castle, Lotor often woke up to find Keith crawling into bed next to him.

He never questioned Keith out loud, just made room for him and held him close. He didn't particularly mind, he was happy to have the other boy close to him. He snored softly when he slept, and he looked calm and peaceful. Honestly, Lotor found him absolutely adorable.

One night when he crawled into bed, Lotor pulled the blanket over him and pulled him into his arms as usual, smiling as Keith settled down and curled up next to him.

"Goodnight, Little Red..." He murmured, already drifting off back to sleep. Keith shifted in his arms, turning to face him.

"Lotor..." He said quietly. He opened his eyes to look at him, smiling softly until he saw the look on Keith's face. He looked... scared. Uneasy. After all that had happened it was enough to make him nearly panic.

"Keith? Darling, are you okay?" He sat up, looking down at him. Just earlier that day he had seen him behaving as usual, smiling and laughing as he talked with the black Paladin, bickering stubbornly with the blue Paladin, he'd seemed in a good mood all day. What brought this on? His mind immediately drifted to his constant arguments with the blue Paladin and he worried that maybe that would take a toll on his mood. He was already deciding he would have to have a civil word with Lance when Keith spoke again.

"I... can't sleep." He glanced up at Lotor before looking away again.

"Are you not tired? Is something bothering you?" He asked, frowning worriedly.

"No, I mean, I can't sleep. I can't let myself fall asleep." He sighed and sat up too now, running a hand through his messy hair. "It's just, ever since then it was one thing after another and I had barely any time to rest and now everything's okay but... it's not."

"What do you mean...?" Lotor was confused to say the least, but right now keith needed to be listened to and comforted, so he put his arm around him and pulled him close.

"Every time... every time I close my eyes or try to rest or sleep it's all I can think about... what they did to me, to you, it won't leave me alone." He said. "Every night I fall asleep and have these awful dreams... where I'm... I'm..." he groaned, pulling at his hair with one hand as he couldn't even finish his sentence.

"Where you're back there? Suffering through it all over again?" Lotor finished for him. Keith looked up at him and nodded slowly, causing him to sigh and run a hand through the other man's hair, smirking down the parts sticking up from all of Keith's pulling. "I know... it's hard to move on from it and hard to pretend it didn't happen. It's going to hurt for some time but... I promise it'll get better. Like a physical wound it'll eventually heal and be little more than an ugly scar in the back of your mind."