MakeSureTheySeeMyFace Asked: Shiro feeling stressed and Keith soothing him with massages, or choosing to spar with him
Their room reeked of stress when Keith got back. He'd left Shiro working on his project several hours ago to get some time in the sims. He'd figured by the time he got back, Shiro would be done and they could cuddle up and watch a movie or something before hitting the rack. That's how things normally worked.
Instead he came into a paperwork explosion. Their bed is covered in reference books. Pencils, rulers, and graph paper all over the floor, and Shiro is sitting smack dab in the middle of it. Yanking on his own forelock and literally growling at the laptop screen in front of him.
"He didn't reply," Shiro shouts, startling Keith, "Johnson, that grargh," Shiro makes strangling gestures in the air, "Has all our schematics, and he just disappears off the face of the earth with them." Shiro throws his hands out to simulate poofing into smoke.
Keith pulls his cadet top off, tossing it over a chair, before picking his way across the floor to his boyfriend, "That what all this is about," Keith points at some of the papers imitating tumbleweeds on the floor, "You trying to recreate someone else's part of the project?"
"Trying being the operative phrase," Shiro slams the laptop closed, "This was supposed to take weeks with help from others. I can't do it all in one night!"
"You talk to the professor?" Keith asks, moving some of the books around so he can sit on the bed above where Shiro is leaning against it, "You've got a pretty good reputation. If you and the other members say this guy walked over with part of the project, he'd probably cut you some slack." Keith couldn't get away with that sort of thing, but people at the Garrison bent over backwards to accommodate Shiro.
"Can't he's already gone for the day," Shiro says, burying his face in his hands, "The earliest he'll see it is tomorrow morning."
Keith reaches down and starts to rub at Shiro's shoulders. They feel like rocks under his skin, he's so tense, "Then it looks like you're done for the night,"
Shiro throws his head back so he can look at Keith, "This is due in two days. Two days, and all we've got is my crummy recollection of the drawings."
Keith keeps up the massage, "Is there anything else you can do about it tonight besides continuing to make our room smell like finals week?" Their room was actually one of the nicer places to be during finals week. Then it was only his and Shiro's stress scents to deal with, as opposed to every damn person in the Garrison having a melt down at once.
"Yes-" Keith raises and eyebrow at him, "-No, nothing right this second." Shiro slumps against him.
"Good, open back up the laptop and pick a movie for us to watch," Keith says, squeezing Shiro's shoulders, "I'll even be nice and work out some of these knots for you."
Shiro sighs and opens the laptop to pull up Netflix.
The next morning Johnson emails Shiro back.
Note:
This is right after they move in together. Keith is still making the adjustment of switching mentally from calling Shiro boyfriend to mate.
Also, as you can tell, Shiro doesn't pick up the habit of stress scenting Keith until after his year of hell.