Despite how far he’d come, Keith had been expecting something like this to happen. Everything running nice and smoothly? Hey, that’s great, here, have a wrench thrown in the works. It didn’t help that the situation was far too familiar from far too many times. At least the man in the bed was stable from all they could tell, but that meant the past few days had just been that waiting game to see what was actually wrong considering, well, if he was stable and fine, Shiro should be awake and not in some coma state.
He blew out a sigh from his watch post beside the other man’s bed. He was trying not to hover too much, but he couldn’t help it when there was that itch along his nerves just waiting for an alarm to go off because things had taken an even worse turn.
Shiro jerked awake with a start, "Keith! No!" he cried out, bolting upright in bed and shaking, sweat beading on his brow as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. Where was he? What was going on? His breath came in pants as his eyes focused, landing on the black-haired man. "Keith…. You're here…."
Keith stood and rushed to the side of the bed as soon as Shiro woke. He reached a hand out to press against Shiro’s left shoulder, a grounding weight even as he kept his body leaned back in case the other man needed space.
“I’m here, Shiro. It’s Keith,” he reassured. “We’re in the hospital in Atlantis. You’ve been out for a few days…”
Shiro's hand covered Keith's, gripping hard. "You're alive…" he said, voice hoarse before he fell back against the pillows. He ran a hand over his hair, chest heaving as he tried to process what had happened - hand going out to cup Keith's face. "You're okay? Really?"
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. What had Shiro even been going through if that was his first response? Keith leaned forward and reached a hand up to help guide Shiro’s hand to rest on his cheek. “I’m alive and ok. I’ve been here since you passed out. Nothing’s happened to me.”
"I passed out? No… that doesn't seem quite right…" Shiro said tiredly, hand stroking Keith's cheek before pulling his hand back to rub it over his eyes. "It was like a bad dream." One that he didn't want to dwell on too long.
Shifting to sit on the edge of the bed, Keith blew out a sigh as he rested his hand back on Shiro’s shoulder. “Here, you passed out. Nothing could wake you up. There were others too who were affected,” he explained calmly. Soothingly. “You ok?”
Shiro nodded, covering Keith's hand with his own and squeezing. "Yeah… I'm fine." He felt fine, physically at least, even if his mind was still reeling.
His eyes narrowed as Keith studied Shiro carefully. He knew the other man, but then he’d had plenty of experience with Shiro lessening what was going on with himself for the sake of others. Even more than just how the other man downplayed his own medical condition. But he also knew how pushing the subject could go. Especially when mental stuff took time. His look softened as he nodded slowly. “What happened, Shiro?” he asked softly.
Shiro scrubbed a hand over his face, sighing heavily. He wanted to protect Keith, to not burden him with whatever he'd just happened. He pulled Keith to him for a gentle kiss. "It was just a bad dream, Keith… nothing more." Which didn't explain why Shiro felt like he was going to lose his lunch.
Even if there still wasn’t a good answer, relief oozed through Keith at the kiss. Shiro was awake. Shiro was physically ok. And even if he didn’t remember the whole passing out, he at least remembered before if he was reacting like this. The whole thing sounded like more than a bad dream. Or well that ‘bad dream’ might be underselling it considering the few things he said while he was still in that waking confused state. But…
He nodded slowly before offering a return kiss. “If you need to talk about it, I’m here. Whenever you need it, I’m here and ok.” He smirked as he wrapped an arm around Shiro in a tight hug. “You haven’t managed to get rid of me yet and it’s not happening any time soon. No matter how many times you pull this.”
Shiro wrapped his arms around the younger man, squeezing him a bit tighter than was strictly necessary to make sure he was there and alive. "You know that offer goes both ways, right? I have the feeling you've been holding out on me with a few things that happened after I left for Kerberos."
A twinge of guilt crept through Keith considering Shiro wasn’t wrong. Except it was likely more than just a few things, but it always felt like trying to figure out how to bring up one thing would just spiral them down a rabbit hole. Like ‘oh hey, the last time I went through something like this, it was because your consciousness was having issues with your clone body, which by the way is also why that whole disease thing isn’t an issue later’. Oh yeah, that was completely understandable and easy to accept… It just felt like a lot to dump on the other man when this place felt like a safe haven. A do over. Maybe have things go better with less hurt happening.
“I know,” he said softly, mimicking Shiro’s squeeze. “And you know talking’s not my strong suit.”
“True…” Shiro said tiredly, leaning back against the pillows and pulling Keith with him. He had no desire to go to sleep, but the fear based adrenaline was still pounding through this veins. “Fight or flight’s more your style..”
A thought crossed his head and he ruffled his fingers through Keith’s hair. “You been here the whole time?”
“Sometimes both at the same time,” Keith retorted as he shifted to stretch out beside Shiro. He blew out a content puff as he nodded his head into the ruffle. “Haven’t left since I got you here. Wasn’t going to let you out of my sight.”
Shiro raised an eyebrow at that, surprised that Keith had been content to just stay here. “Surprised you haven’t gotten bored out of your mind… how long have I been out?”
“Patience yields focus,” Keith drawled with a light poke to Shiro’s arm. “It was getting tough there, but now you’re awake.” He frowned at the question. “Days. Not a week yet, but days.”
Shiro laughed, though it was a bit hoarse. "Apparently if I say something enough, you do listen," he said with a smile, arm tightening its grip around Keith. "Who'd have thought it was possible for you to be patient."
“I listen,” Keith grumbled back. “Following the advice might just take some time.” He shrugged. “The perks of being on a team and leadership?” Which was just part of it. Yeah, they had a good deal to do with his patience slowly getting stronger, but being on a space whale, waiting, for two years, also had a big hand in that. “Don’t worry, I still have my run off and do my own thing moments, so don’t get too comfortable with this whole patient thing.”
“Maybe I just need to tie you to the bed to teach you more patience then,” Shiro teased. “Or to make sure you don’t run off too often.”
Keith raised an eyebrow as he let out a snort of amusement. “Yeah, it doesn’t work that way. At all.” He pat his hand lightly against Shiro’s chest before resting it there. “Besides, we need to get you a clean bill of health before you even try anything even close to that.”
"There's nothing wrong with me," Shiro said covering Keith's hand with his own and breathing a content sigh. "I'm sure they'll be kicking me out of here in no time flat.."
Keith nodded as he blew out a sigh of his own. “No time flat can happen even faster if I go and get one of the doctors.”
"I'm sure they'll come by soon enough," Shiro said. "I'm not ready to let go of you yet."