Little Red

Part Two

He'd never been one to have dreams very often, but he always had dreams when he fell asleep there. They were foggy, he was only vaguely aware of what was going on, but it always brought him such a light and happy feeling. The dreams where he found himself laying with his head on someone's chest, feeling their hand playing with his hair, hear their soft, familiar voice, telling him everything would be okay. It only took about two repeats of this dream for him to realize, it was Shiro. He recalled a time shortly before Shiro disappeared.

He'd gone to talk to him late at night, and while there he ended up staying so long that when he finally got tired Shiro told him to just stay there with him. Maybe it was how tired he was, maybe it was that dumb crush he'd kept suppressing, whatever it was, he accepted and laid down with Shiro. It was awkward enough to begin with, and he was glad he remembered to take his shoes off before getting into bed this time. Even with how tired he'd been, Shiro still fell asleep before him, and half an hour later, Shiro had shifted in his sleep, and his arm draped over Keith. He had immediately gone tense, his face heating up as he blushed. He was soon able to relax though, but the position was just a tad bit weird, so he carefully pulled his arm from under Shiro's. This left his arm pretty much wrapped around his waist, and Keith found this ideal. For the first time in a while, he fell asleep peacefully, a smile on his face.

In the morning Keith and Shiro woke up around the same time. The first thing Shiro did was sit up and apologize, saying it must've been uncomfortable to sleep like that. Keith had just smiled and shook his head, telling him it was fine, but things were still kind of awkward. It didn't help when he ran into Lance on his way out of Shiro's room, who immediately started questioning his bright red face and disheveled hair.

He was disappointed to wake up, every time. He lifted his head and looked around tiredly, the disappointed look on his face becoming evident immediately as he laid his head back against Lotor's thigh.

Later on when they were alone, Lotor had gently taken his chin and tilted his head up to look at him. Keith had to work hard to suppress the desire to kill him every time he touched him.

"Something seems to be troubling you. What is it, my pet?" He asked him. He looked genuinely concerned but Keith wouldn't even try to tell himself he really was.

"Nothing's bothering me. I'm fine." He said tiredly.

"I saw your face when you woke up earlier. If something is wrong let me know and I can try to fix it." He said.

"You can't fix this Lo-... my prince..." He sighed, closing his eyes. Even if Lotor was being so much kinder to him now that he'd stopped fighting, he knew what would piss him off, and he wasn't prepared to do that.

"I don't appreciate being lied to." The prince let go of his face and rather forcefully pulled him on to his lap, one arm around his waist, the other resting on his chest. He rested his head on Keith's shoulder, and it had to be obvious that he was pretty tense.

"I'm fine, my prince." He said seriously. He wanted him to let go of him, just leave him alone for a while. He could tell the prince was getting irritated. It had been a long time since he had last seen him lose his temper, but he didn't exactly want that right now. "I'd just... like to be alone for a little while. Can I go?" He asked, glancing at him.

"Is that all? You should've just said so before." Lotor placed a kiss on his neck that made his skin crawl. "Go ahead, I will come find you later." He let go of him. Keith stood up and hurried to leave the room, stopping at the door as he felt Lotor's eyes staring him down from across the room. He remembered he wanted to do whatever he could to stay on his good side and turned around.

"Thank you. My prince." He said before leaving the room. The first time Lotor let him roam the ship he thought he was stupid. Then he realized that this ship was absolutely crawling with guards. The only rooms he could get into were usually the one Lotor was in at the moment, or the room that Lotor had given him shortly after he gave in to him. Sometimes he couldn't even go with Lotor and was left wandering around by himself, or curled up in bed. Sometimes while he was wandering around he'd pass one of Lotor's generals. Was he intimidated by the four of them? Very. Was he also interested in all of them? Also very. He'd tried to stay out of their way anyway, just to be safe.