Shiro walked from the training deck towards his room. He couldn't remember how he had ended up on the deck and strangely enough he didn't care at that moment. He just knew that he needed to walk through the hallway and to his awaiting bed.
One step in front of the other. The sound of his own footsteps were strangely hypnotizing. Regular like no other but he could change it if he wanted to. It shouldn't, but it gave him an inner peace to know he could control something. Even if it was a minor thing that shouldn't mean anything at all.
Shiro stopped when he was about to walk into something. He had been looking at his feet and the last thing he needed was to walk into a wall or door because he couldn't be bothered to look where he was going. He looked up and looked right into grayish, purplish eyes almost hidden entirely by long, black bangs.
"Keith?" Shiro asked and looked at the face in front of him with furrowed eyebrows and wide eyes. His hands got a life of their own and started examining Keith. He briefly felt around Keith's relaxed shoulders before he started feeling around Keith's face and pushing the hair out of his eyes.
A weight left Shiro's shoulders but his stomach still felt tight and he had trouble breathing properly and instead in- and exhaled hurried and shallow puffs of air.
"It's really you?" Shiro asked when his left hand settled on top of Keith's head and kept the bangs out of his face. Shiro's right hand stayed on Keith's cheek and made Keith's left eye narrow because of the squeezed cheek. He couldn't remember why he was so surprised by the sight of Keith in the hallway but he couldn't keep himself from getting emotional.
Keith made an agreeing sound deep in his throat. Shiro hadn't expected Keith to make any sound and just that simple use of his voice was the most beautiful sound Shiro could imagine.
"What are you doing here? It's late," Shiro said and looked around the hallway that suddenly seemed much darker than before.
Shiro could feel Keith nodding and looked back at him. He wasn't trying to get away from Shiro's hands which was very unlike Keith who would accept physical contact from Shiro but would stop it if it stretched over too long a period. Such a period was normally less than a few seconds and Shiro had been touching Keith for at least a minute.
"You should go to sleep," Keith said so quietly and breathy that he sounded like a mild breeze.
Something stirred in Shiro's stomach but he ignored it and informed Keith, "So should you."
"I've been sleeping for a long time," Keith answered and looked sincerely into Shiro's eyes.
Those words stirred that something Shiro's stomach even more and made him look closely at Keith again. Keith was looking a bit peaky. It was only half a shade lighter than his normal skin tone and if it had been Lance, Allura or Hunk, it wouldn't have looked nearly as bad, but the slight difference made Keith paper white.
Shiro's right hand moved from Keith's cheek and to his forehead to see if he could feel a fever. There was no difference and Shiro pulled both hands away from Keith and staggered a step away from him when he looked closely from his fingertips to his bicep.
His right arm looked identical to his left. That wasn't right since he could swear that it was made of metal.
Keith took the step between the two and squeezed Shiro's right, and very human, wrist and Shiro looked up at him and gasped. Keith looked completely serene but blood was gushing out of his mouth and down his chin and torso where it spread into the fabric of his white shirt. Hadn't it been black just a moment ago?
YOU ARE READING
Adrenaline
Fanfiction"Another arm, the human one, tried to grip Keith but he was a split second faster and jumped out of Shiro's reach before turning towards him again. What was wrong with Shiro? Was this some kind of PTSD flashback? Shiro had never attacked them before...
