"Keith?!"

Lance's voice called out to him, rippling through the dark corner Keith hid in, his face buried in his arms, knees to his chest, his fast and unsteady breathes heating his face. The heat was spreading, twisting, raging against his heart, which was fighting against the fire that seized his chest. He couldn't slow down his breath, his heart was racing, pounding against his chest, seeming to block out all reality, even the call from the tall Cuban boy he has only minutes before been so close to. Everything in Keith's body was on fire, and every second brought another wave, crashing down upon him, cracking his skull open in piercing pain and letting the poisonous spores lay their seeds on his brain, spreading and taking over his thoughts like a virus. Stop… Another wave. Stop, stop, stop. He felt like he was gonna throw up. Ice cold heat crawled down his body with the virus, and it took ahold of his stomach, wrenching and tying knots within his weak and frail body. Lance, don't find me, I don't want you to see me. Don't see me. Find me. Help me. Don't look at me. Stop it. Stop it.

"Keith? Where are you?"

He called again. Don't find me. Help me. Don't see me. Find me.

"Keith…?

The door opened, light flooded in, burning Keith's skin, revealing his ugly truth to the whole world, and even worse, Lance. He stood in the doorway, looking down on the shaking boy hidden in the shadows. Keith attempted to quiet his breathing, burying his face deeper in his arms, and recoiling even further into his body, like he would escape Lance's gaze if he just hid better. But in his head he still called out to him, though his piercing gaze tormented Keith, he needed him to stay. Don't leave me. As though on command, Lance stepped forward, tentatively, like Keith would bolt at any second like something frail and frightened. Keith stayed where he was, too afraid to move or say anything, his head still pounding, he couldn't cry, he wanted to scream. The world, the whole universe, was crashing down around him, everything was wrong, everything was lost, Lance couldn't help. Another step sounded a bit more confidently towards him. Then another. And another. An eternity in each second, but the eternities were blessings that fleeted from Keith's grasp every time he grew weary of them. And soon the distance between him and lance became a few feet, a foot, inches, then he was there, looking at Keith, his gaze burning a hole through Keith's sloppy and crumbling walls.

"Wow...it's okay, dude. It's okay, just breathe."

Keith felt Lance's touch on his back, gentle and hesitant. Keith relaxed his eyelids and did as instructed, he slowed his breathing into a steady, deep rhythm. The shaking decreased slowly over the span of a few minutes. His heart pounding began to simmer down in his ears, and the quiet began to engulf him. The warm touch of Lance's hand never left Keith's back, and it spread to his stomach, untying the bigger knots there, to his brain, killing the deadly spores and his thoughts began to quiet. A few more minutes passed by. They stayed that way, Keith not looking up, but Lance remaining patient, staying there for when his breathing would hitch again and Lance would soothe him.

"It's okay. It's okay…"

Quietly and sweetly, calming his brain and allowing his cramped limbs to relieve their tension, Lance's voice was like medicine.

"I'm sorry" Keith whimpered, his voice cracking and barely audible in the dark room.

"Don't be, you didn't do anything. Everything's fine." Lance soothed, running his hand slowly up and down Keith's back, sending small shivers of delight through his aching and tense muscles. Without much thought, he relaxed into the touch, leaning forward towards Lance's chest and further into his arms. He felt small and raw, barely any strength left in him, and Lance let him fall into his arms. Keith's own arms wrapped lazily around Lance's torso, while one of Lance's arms held him and brought him in closer, and the other continued to move up and down Keith's back. The little prickle Keith felt every time Lance got close sent a shiver up Keith's skin, breaking any of the remaining darkness left in patchy marks under his skin. Suddenly the air around him felt much colder, and Lance's warmth was like a small kiss of sunlight, everywhere it touched his skin. He buried himself further into Lance, letting himself be cradled by Lance for a change. He could feel his eyelids become heavier as time lulled by and the idea of untangling himself from Lance at any point in time seemed revolting.

"Are you okay?" Keith didn't know how much time had passed, half an hour? An hour? Maybe two. He had become so used to the silence that even Lance's smooth and quiet voice seemed to disrupt the whole room and bounce off every wall surrounding them.

Keith moaned in response, but feeling that was just a little too pathetic, he attempted to find his voice somewhere within the cracks of his dry and tired throat.

"I think so."

"Did something happen?"

"No."

"Did I do something"

"No"

Silence.

"I was having fun," Lance said hesitantly, sinking his head onto Kieth's shoulder so Keith could feel his steady, low breathe on his neck.

"I was, too." Keith's voice was apologetic, he had ruined everything.

"I got really scared when you ran off, I wasn't sure what happened."

"Nothing did, everything was good, we were having fun, but then...I don't know. I felt, alone, even though we were surrounded by people, I… I felt freaked out. My heart started racing and I just suddenly wanted out of there."

Lance hummed his reply.

"I wanted you to find me" Keith added, burying his face a little further into Lance's shoulder.

"I'm glad I did," Lance said sincerely without hesitation, the hand running up Keith's back was so inviting and slow, Keith felt like he was going to lose his mind. He shifted his legs slightly to get more comfortable. Lance's hand stopped abruptly.

"Don't stop." The hand returned. A few seconds passed while they shifted slightly, staying together and relaxing closer into one another.

"I'm sorry"

"You don't have to apologize," Lance said again, his head leaning into Keith's soft hair, it's smelled like coconuts and sweat.

"But it's my fault, I ruined your whole night"

"My night's not ruined"

Keith blushed slightly at this comment, his sense returning slightly to him.

"Oh"

More silence.

"Keith?" Once again Lance broke the warm, motionless silence. His voice was like a lullaby to Keith, he wanted to hear his name in that voice over and over again.

"Hmm?" Keith said the smallest crack of a smile grew on his lips as a sweet everlasting calmness washed over him.

"Does that happen a lot?"

"What?"

"You know… what happened tonight?"

"Oh," The smile faded, "Kind of. Not as much as it used to, doesn't happen a lot up here surprisingly enough. They kind of started after my dad died, Shiro's the only one who really knows, I mean, besides you, now, I guess. I've gotten a lot better at keeping them under control, I meditate some now, and I'm usually pretty good about breathing, I don't really know what happened this time."

"How come you didn't tell me?" Lance's hand stopped stroking Keith's back and he held back a whimper.

"I didn't want you to know. I thought I had it under control." He squirmed a little, trying to get Lance's hand moving again. Lance got the message and continued and Keith was okay again.

"I wish you would have told me, it would've been easier to know what to do."

"You did fine"

"Huh, yeah. Lucky for you I've had my fair share, so it's gotten a little easier."

"Do you get them often?" Keith asked curiously, his head lifting slightly with the question. They were beginning to have an actual conversation now and it struck Keith how they're current position was a bit inconvenient.

"Not anymore. I meditate too, plus, I took therapy for years when I was younger and that helped a lot, but keeping a level head in space, it's no easy feat. I miss earth..."Lance's voice grew quieter, Keith knew this was a touchy subject for Lance.

"I'm sorry Lance. I don't really know what you're going through. I don't really have a home and the closest thing I have to family…" Keith trailed off leaving the sentence open.

"Shiro?"

"All of you guys."

Lance blushed slightly.

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry I cut you off"

"No it's okay, I know what you mean. I… care about you guys, too."

Keith tightened his grip slightly around Lance, and Keith felt such a tug when he felt Lance do the same.

"How long have we been down here?"

"I don't know."

They sat there, neither making a move to try and get up and untangle themselves, but they could both feel their eyes getting more and more droopy.

"The other's probably went to bed"

"Mmhmm," Keith said, preparing for the separation, but they both just sat there, neither making a move.

"You should probably go…" Keith said reluctantly, he didn't want to say it. He didn't want Lance to leave, he didn't want to go to sleep alone, he didn't want to wake up in the morning and let things go back to normal. These couple hours were precious, and he didn't want them forgotten.

"What are you talking about?"

"Um, we need to go to bed? You, know, you in your room and me in mine?"

"Keith…?"

"What?"

"This is my room"

"What?!"

Keith's head jolted up and he looked around, in the dark, he could see much, it looked as plain his, but then he spotted Lance's many toiletries, face creams, pajamas and lion slippers, all neatly arranged in a different corner near the door.

"Oh my god"

"Yeah, it made it a little harder to find you, I didn't think you'd hide in my room. I just thought you figured that and that's why you hid in here."

"Oh my god no! I wouldn't do that on purpose!"

"Dude it's okay, I'm not mad or anything." Lance laughed.

Keith pulled away finally from Lance's arms, not seeing Lance's face fall at this as their torsos drew away from each other and they were inches away again.

"Oh man, I'll have to walk" Keith moaned, making Lance chuckle, his room was just a few doors down.

"I mean…" Lance trailed off nervously, a bit of tension snuck back into the air as Lance looked down at the ground looking semi-embarrassed.

"What?" Keith asked curiously, was something wrong?

"You don't have to...you know...leave," Lance said quietly without looking at Keith's face, however intimate they just were, that could be a pass, a friendly gesture, but as the realization struck Keith, everything got way gayer than expected.

"Oh...OH!" Keith's face changed into a heavily embarrassed look as his thoughts began to race.

"Not anything weird!" Lance clarified quickly holding out his hands and shaking them in front of Keith's face, following where Keith's mind was going, "I just mean…" he started to trail off again, "If you didn't want to be alone…"

Keith let it hang there briefly before blurting out, "I-I don't!'

Lance looked up, slightly surprised to hear Keith's voice raised. His blush abated slightly, and he just stared up at Keith whose feet were shifting side to side avoiding looking at Lance, he hadn't meant to raise his voice.

"I mean, sorry, I don't want...to be alone" He rephrased blushing harder under Lance's blank and still slightly surprised gaze. He felt like a specimen as he squirmed under Lance's innocent gaze, avoiding his eyes and the disheveled nature of his warm, inviting bed. Jesus, him, in Lance's bed, with Lance. The thought was alluring, but he didn't want Lance to know that.

Lance finally looked away and towards the ground as well, picking himself up to stand next to Keith. They stood like that, glancing down towards their feet, both keenly aware of the others movements. Lance focused on Keith's breath and his own heartbeat, Keith focused on not moving, because if he did, he'd surely fall over. God, he was tired. Lance moved his head up slowly, looking at Keith's face again. When Keith looked up to meet his gaze, he was met with a small coy smile, that made his heart jump a little. Lance's expression was sheepish and a bit tentative, but sweet with maybe just a hint of cockiness hidden somewhere in those deep blue eyes.

"Tired?" he said, the drowsy tone of his voice made it more deep and husky and grizzled and oh god was this really happening to Keith? Everything that had happened in the last couple of hours had been so odd, Keith had seen a part of Lance that he didn't always get to see. He was being caring and sweet and shy and so utterly different to the cocky flirt Keith was so accustomed to. Not that the flirt didn't also send his heart rate flying, but this was entirely new, exciting and a bit intimidating. Lance's smile cracked a bit wider when he saw Keith avoiding his gaze again, but still keeping his eyes locked on his lips. Okay, a lot intimidating.

"Yeah", unlike Lance's, Keith's voice was small and although it was crackly, it wasn't in the way Lance's was. Keith sounded more like a child, a small child whose eyes were heavy and drooping and who was pouting to his mother to put him to bed.

Lance moved swiftly passed him, which was impressive considering Keith felt like if he moved he'd collapse. In fact, he was so tired, that he barely noticed when Lance's warm, soft hand snaked its way into Keith's, pulling him slightly. He moved with the slight nudge and turned around to face Lance, whose face was still smiling slightly and expression sheepish once again. But he continued to pull Keith forward who slowly trudged with him till they reached the bed and Lance sat down, letting go of Keith's hand and scooting towards the wall.

Keith just stood there, watching Lance adjust against the wall to leave plenty of room for another person, for him. Lance moved quietly in the dim light moving the blanket to his feet and just… waited. His eyes still looking at Keith through the light tones of multiple purple lights along the walls bouncing of Keith's pale skin. It was still dark enough to sleep, but light enough to see and make everything hazier. Keith's lights did the same thing, all the lights in the castle could change color and light intensity; Keith preferred purple in his room, too. He expected Lance would prefer a blue tint to his room while falling asleep, that was probably one of the reason's Keith thought this was his room before.

Lance shifted a bit, as though he was the one uncomfortable now, under Keith's gaze, like he was beginning to regret inviting Keith to sleep in the same bed as him. Keith noticed, and without a second thought, collapsed next Lance. Actually collapsed, his head hit the pillow hard and his body crashed right after it, making Lance jump a little with the unexpected bounce. Keith moved his head to the side and curled in slightly on himself, to get more comfortable. He shut his eyes and was asleep within seconds, his last fading thought was of how close he knew Lance was from the warmth radiating off his body, wrapping Keith into a cocoon of comfort and sweet, sweet content.

...

The next time Keith woke up, everything was a bit fuzzy, the room was still dark, maybe darker than when he'd fallen asleep, hard to tell. He felt subtly aware of the blanket, that wasn't originally on top of him, he thought, but was now on top of the- two of them? He opened his eyes just a crack wider, the sleepiness seeming to pour out of them like tears, the further he opened them the more the sleep-filled haze dripped away from him.

He was curled up against something, someone, warm, whose only movement was the rise and fall off their broad chest. That's when he noticed the smell: coconuts, strawberries and something stronger. The smell was familiar, but he knew it didn't belong to anything he could describe, it was just his smell, Lance's smell. Keith knew it was Lance before he tilted his head slightly to look at his sleeping face, he instantly knew. Lance's face was calm and tranquil, not any type of cocky smirk, or any exaggerated expression at all. It was like the face of a child, smooth and young, with the lips parted ever so slightly. Keith noticed the faintest snore escaping those lips, he hadn't noticed it before, you really couldn't tell unless you were this close and paying attention. It was cute. Far too cute.

Keith suddenly realized the position they were in, specifically the position he was in. Keith's arm was wrapped lazily across Lance's torso. Somehow, Keith had shifted lower on the lengthy bed, making him seem and feel much smaller next to Lance. His legs were pressed up against Lances' under the covers and one was even protruding on top of Lance's right leg. The position was vulnerable and intimate, and probably the result of an urge Keith would not have acted upon had he been conscious. If Lance woke up, it'd be hard to explain why Keith was clinging to him in such a way, and Keith would never be able to live it down.

It took a lot of Keith's mental strength to try and detangle himself from Lance. He couldn't help it, with Lance, he felt safe and warm, who in their right mind would want to leave? But he did. He slowly moved his protruding leg first, then the other. When he had done this, he felt Lance under his arm, beginning to stir. The boy next to him turned slightly towards Keith, lifting his left arm to drape it lazily across Keith and pull him closer, like a teddy bear that had escaped his grasp.

Keith remained deadly still for a whole minute after that, not sure what to do. Maybe, if he had been more awake, he would have made a more rational decision. But sleep was tugging at his eyelids more and more urgently, alluring him into tranquility and peace. And Lance was holding him, Lance, the boy who refused to remember how Keith had held him, was now clinging to Keith just as much as Keith was clinging to him, and he wanted to make it last. That's probably why, against his better judgment, settled back down, melting comfortably into the beautiful Cuban boy next to him and relinquishing into a sweet sweet sleep.

Author's notes:

This started out as just a one-shot, loosely based on ikimaru's sleepover comic, she's an amazing artist and I would highly recommend going to check out her work if you somehow haven't already seen it. I'm not sure if I will continue this and make it full-fledged fanfiction, so if you'd like me to continue it just let me know!

I am also very open critiques, I want to improve my writing and make it more enjoyable for my readers. I decided to take on a challenge and try to depict a panic attack as best I could from personal experience and research. However, I don't want to misrepresent something like that, so if you think my depiction was inaccurate in some way, then please don't hesitate to let me know.

I'm also still very new to this site, so if there's something I need change because of the guidelines or structure of my story, please let me know! Thank you for reading!