Blood and Genetics

What's Freedom?

Shiro knocked quietly on Keith's door. "Keith? You awake?"

The door opened in response, a red-eyed Keith behind it. "Hey," he croaked.

"Keith are you okay? You look like you've been—"

"Had a rough night. Couldn't sleep. I'll be alright."

"You sure?"

"Sure."

Shiro nodded. "Okay. So... the bracelet came in. It was a lot faster than I'd expected, I think they've got a warehouse in town." He held it out, a leather bracelet with a circular charm on it. "I connected it to my watch and my phone already. You remember how to activate it?"

"Double click the charm," Keith said immediately, taking it from him. He turned a little away from Shiro, and Shiro saw him shaking his Garrison uniform sleeve over his burned skin and putting his hands in his pocket.

Oh, Keith.

"Thanks, Shiro. You didn't have to do this for me."

"But I want to do it."

Keith eyed him warily. "Are you sure? What if I wake you up in the middle of the night?"

"Then I'll be glad that you have the bracelet and aren't gasping for air on your own in the dark," Shiro said firmly.

Keith hesitated and then voiced an opposite fear. "What if I press it in the middle of the night and you don't wake up? What if you don't hear it and you're not there?"

"Keith. Listen. I will always be there. I promise."

Keith hesitated, searching Shiro's face. "I believe you," he said firmly. And Shiro could see that he did believe it, even if he was uneasy with the thought of relying on someone else, but he did think that Shiro would take care of him. Shiro felt a warm glow in his chest. "You want breakfast?"

Keith nodded, slipping a plastic bag with his inhaler inside into his uniform pocket. Shiro had been given an extra inhaler- just in case Keith lost his or forgot it but needed it. Shiro hoped he'd never have to use it.

"Some of my flight group came over," Keith supplied as they walked towards the mess hall, as if trying to fill the silence, "Hunk Garret and Griffin."

Shiro felt a frown begin to cross his face. "Are they giving you trouble?"

"No," Keith assured him quickly. "They're nice. Well, Hunk is. Griffin is..." he hummed, searching for an answer. "Mmm... He's not nice, exactly, not like Hunk, but he's not mean, either. I think being annoying is how he's nice? I don't know. He's weird."

"He's the one who kept provoking you?"

"Yeah. He's not doing that anymore. Not on purpose, anyway."

"Not on purpose?"

Keith rolled his eyes. "He keeps saying that I need to stop getting sick so that he can beat me in the simulator. I think he's trying to say 'get well soon' but I don't know."

"And Garret?"

"He's the one who got you yesterday."

Shiro remembers the nervous cadet. "Oh. Friend?"

"Maybe." Keith shrugs. "I'm waiting to see. He made me cookies after the fire, though."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. They were really good."

Shiro's phone buzzed, and he looked at it with a sigh. "We're getting some trouble with landing gear on the Kerberos ship. I'm sorry, Keith, I've got to handle this- I'll be back around lunch, okay?"