Keith doesn't really come all the way back to himself until it's all over. The body's shoulders heave under his hands, once, twice. Allura takes a quiet, gasping breath, and the Black Lion looms like a thundercloud at the back of his head. Something slides into place and settles, and suddenly the body feels like Shiro again.
He opens his eyes and finds Shiro looking up at him, hazy and stunned. The rest of his hair's gone white, some distant part of him notices. "Hey," he tries against the best grin he can manage, and it comes out creaky and hoarse.
"Hey," Shiro says back to him, and some of the haze clears from his eyes. There's a raucous cheer and babble of voices from the group at large, and Shiro waves back to them, saying something that Keith loses in the sound of Hunk sniffling noisily to his left. He passes out again after only a minute or so, but he still feels like Shiro, and the unconsciousness just feels like sleep.
Keith rocks back on his heels, suddenly aware of the press of gravity on his knees and shins, the bloom of bruises through his shoulders and back and hips, the dull ache that might be something fractured in his ribcage, and the way his right eye waters at the hot, swollen lash of the burn across his face. Across from him, Allura sways, the phosphorescence of her pupils at low ebb. Coran catches her shoulders before she can visibly topple. The clamor of voices is suddenly too loud and too close, pins and needles at the back of his neck, a blurred crush of noise stuffing his ears. His breath strangles in his chest and the nearness of Hunk and Krolia's bodies next to him presses tight and claustrophobic along his spine, making his shoulders crawl. He digs his nails into his palms, a sensation bright and singular as a star, and backs himself a little ways out of the circle until he has the space to breathe again.
They wind up moving Shiro and Allura into the Black Lion's hold. Nobody quite comes out and says it, but there's a palpable, unspoken anxiety that Shiro might slip loose of his moorings again. They cram the hold full of people and medical supplies, cots carefully set up on opposite walls, the small space close and echoing with the combined noise of nearly a dozen people trying to be quiet. Keith takes himself into the corner by Shiro's cot and busies himself stowing what they'd been able to grab of Shiro's personal effects into a storage rack. It puts half a bulkhead between him and the rest of the room, damps the noise and the closeness a little.
He lingers a selfish breath after the others have shuffled out, closes his eyes against the dim light and the sear of the burn on his cheek and lets himself lean against the wall. Lets his hands clench again, tries to focus on the quiet, singular sound of his breath. There's a flux on the edge of his awareness and the smell of ozone, and the wolf is suddenly seated in front of him, wriggling his shoulders into the narrow space Keith occupies. He takes a breath and buries his hands in the soft warmth of his fur, thinks about maybe going to sleep right here in the dark and quiet.
"Are you… all right?"
He startles at Allura's voice, opens his eyes to find her sitting up on the pallet, watching him carefully. He pries himself upright and holds back a wince as the ache in his ribs bites dully at his side. "Yeah. Just tired." He eyes her critically. The markings on her cheeks are dull, almost colorless. "Are you all right?"
Her lips pull up ruefully. "I am tired as well."
He gives a huff under his breath, almost chops it short when it comes out more like a galra noise than a human one. Allura eyes him thoughtfully, but she doesn't comment. "Thank you," he says after a moment. "For bringing him back."
"I could not have done it if you had not found him first."
It calls up the memory of Shiro, insubstantial and alone in the endless space of the Black Lion's domain, and he has to look away. "Still. Thank you."
"Of course." A small silence comes down, but just when he's about to make his excuses and leave, she gestures to her cheek. "You should have that seen to."
The burn gives another vicious pulse up through his cheekbone and he has to close his eyes against it. "It's all right. I don't know how many medical supplies we managed to save." It hurts, but it's not life-threatening. So long as he keeps it clean, it'll probably be fine.
"Surely we can spare a hand's length of bandage," she says. She frowns up at him, and after a moment, pats at the stool parked by the cot before reaching for the medical kit. "Here. I can do it now." He blinks and she pauses. "Unless you do not want me to, of course. Even so, you should take care of it."
He hesitates. They'd all patched each other up at some point, back when he'd been flying Red, but that feels like a long time ago. Allura waits patiently, the kit in her hands as the seconds drag out, and his cheek gives another hot, agonizing pulse. He swallows. "All right."
He crosses the hold, the wolf padding alongside him, and sits down awkwardly in front of her. She opens one of the sterile packets. "I'm afraid this will hurt."
"I know." He still can't keep himself from jerking back when she dabs the cleaning pad at the wound, a hiss boiling through his teeth. The wolf's ears flatten and he digs the fingers of his right hand into his ruff. "Sorry," he gets out.
Allura pulls back, her brow creased. "I wish we had something gentler."
"It's fine."
He takes a few breaths in and out while the sting blurs into the miserable throb of the burn. After a moment, he drags the stool over to the corner where he can brace himself against the wall and gives Allura a shaky nod to continue. Her mouth goes tight, but she brings the pad up to his face again.
It's no better being prepared for it, and his eyes tear up after only a couple of swipes. She winds up giving him a wad of gauze to hold over his right eye, and he keeps himself as still as he can, the muscles in his neck taut. It's a wretched, agonizing experience, but she's quick and efficient, and when it's done, he sags in place, sweat cooling in the hollow of his throat.
"The next part will not be so bad," she tells him. Nevertheless, she takes her time disposing of the sterilizing pad and rummaging through the kit. Her eyes dart up to him a moment before her gaze flicks away to the wolf where he leans his massive, shaggy weight into Keith's hip. "Can I ask where you've been?" she says softly.
He closes his eyes and opens them again. "The Quantum Abyss."
She stays quiet for a moment, lips pursed as she picks through the supplies. "Then some time has passed for you."
"Yeah." He's not sure what else to say to that. Maybe she isn't either - the silence draws out while she straightens the supplies.
"Here," she says finally, opening another packet. "Keep still if you can. I do not think this will hurt, but I will try to be quick."
He reflexively braces himself anyways, but she's right. It goes on so cold that his nerves can't decipher the initial sensation, but by the time she's swabbed it up past the point where the burn pulls at the corner of his mouth, it's started to blunt the worst edges of the pain and his eyes shutter closed in unexpected relief.
"It hasn't been so long for us," she says. "But you should know that we have missed you. All of us." He blinks his eyes open, a little startled, and she gives him a slight, uncomfortable smile. "None of us were at our best, but I think we have all regretted the circumstances of your leaving."
"I…" He blinks again, wishes he had an excuse to look somewhere else. But Allura's hand is steady on his cheek as she coats the burn with the salve. "It was what was best at the time."
She swipes gently at the burn where it creeps across the edge of his orbital and fishes for a bandage. "Perhaps. But you should still know." He should probably say something to that, but Allura smooths the bandage onto the underside of his jaw and he's forced to keep still while she finishes. It hurts less than he was expecting, nothing more than a hot dull throb up through his jaw and cheekbone.
"Thank you," he says when she's done.
"Of course."
He sits there for a little bit, watching Allura's hands as she repacks the medical kit, the twinned shine of her hair and Shiro's in the dim violet light of the hold. The Black Lion's quiet, looming presence seeps through the back of his thoughts. The other Lions are resonant pinpricks against her, Red fiercer and brighter than the rest. He can barely hear a murmur of voices outside the open ramp, Lance bickering with Pidge with occasional interjections from Hunk in a sensible, exasperated tone. "I missed all of you too," he says. "It's… good to be back."
And it is. Despite the unaccustomed noise and closeness and the claustrophobic press of bodies and voices, he's missed this, missed them.
"We are glad to have you here," Allura says gravely.
He pulls himself upright after a moment and stands, a little stiffly. "You should get some rest."
"As should you."
"I will. I swear."
She throws him a long, skeptical glance, but it softens after a moment. "Then rest well."
"You too."
He heads back up out of the hold towards the murmur of voices outside, the wolf pacing next to him. The bruises ache and his ribs twinge and the pulse up through his cheekbone pounds, but there's a makeshift stove set up outside, the others ringed tightly around it while Hunk stirs something. It's loud and bright, but he takes the spot next to Krolia, a little distant from the center, just quiet enough not to be overwhelming. Lance and Hunk and Pidge chatter back and forth like jackdaws, but they throw his name out to him every few sentences, keeping him in orbit around their small bright point. The wolf thumps himself down at Keith's back, and slowly he sinks into a doze.
Tomorrow, he'll move himself a little closer in. And eventually, the noise and closeness will be familiar again.
AN: For the prompt "proper medical attention", requested by Pippythewriter.