[It's like a wire snapping, a literal dam bursting. Shiro speaks again and even though Keith's lips are still parted like he'll say something back, the words have all escaped him. The lights try to helpfully supply it for him: I thought you’d never feel the same.
He can't control it when it happens - his eyes were already misty as it is this whole time and for all that he could be pushed to the literal fucking edge by pain and trauma, to hear this and realize Shiro means it? That it's real and not just a fleeting desire in his own mind?
The hand Shiro has on his cheek is suddenly going to feel very wet, as unbidden tears just start to spill over his eyes. Keith cries all wrong somehow, like he doesn't register he's doing so, like he doesn't know how. He stares less in shock, still disbelieving but god if the longing isn't clear there, now more than ever. The first thing he finally manages to choke out, is perhaps predictable in the end:]