Keith had stayed beside the pod for the rest of the day, every so often he glanced up to check the infection. He sighed in relief as he slowly saw it healing. Though he couldn't be sure it was because of the pod or because Keith himself was simply near him.
The whole situation seemed more crazy the more Keith thought about it. How had they gotten to this point? Why had Lance felt like he needed to hide this from them? Sure, he and Lance weren't the closest, but the red paladin really thought they were becoming good friends in the last few weeks.
They would voluntarily hang out together, they'd been able to loosen up and joke around with each other. A few times Lance had offered him a high five after missions. So why had the blue paladin kept this to himself? No matter how hard he thought about it he couldn't figure it out.
The rest of his teammates had already gone to bed by the time the pod opened. It took Keith by surprise, he had almost fallen asleep when the door suddenly slid open. He stood immediately to support the cuban boy. Lance's eyes fluttered open as he collided with Keith, grunting and blinking against the light of the room.
Keith had his hands holding the others arm and shoulder, noticing the ink coloured injury had almost disappeared from his chest. He couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped him.
"Ngh.. What happened..?" Lance looked up at him groggily, stumbling as he tried to stand up straight. Keith couldn't say he was surprised he didn't remember, he did seem pretty out of it when they had found him. Just remembering the state he was in started to make him feel worked up again, he ended up staring down to their feet when he responded.
"We uh.. we got worried so we went into your room. We saw that infection and brought you here.. Allura told me to bring up this for you to read when you woke up.." The princess seemed to guess that Keith wouldn't be able to explain what the flower did very well, so she wrote down what she had told them and left it for Lance. Once he seemed to get his footing, the blue paladin took it and read it.
...
"Wow." Was all he said as he joined Keith, who had gone back to sitting beside the healing pod. As he sat down he kept his gaze to the floor, he seemed to be avoiding eye contact.
"..Does it hurt?" He turned to look at the blue paladin. Even if Lance didn't want to address it, Keith sure as hell wasn't going to leave it alone again. Lance simply nodded, finally looking in his direction.
Keith wasn't entirely sure how to go about this, it wasn't like someone fell under these symptoms all the time. He hesitantly stood up, kneeling in front of the other boy instead. Lance watched him carefully, but didn't say a word. Taking that as somewhat of an ok, Keith leaned forward, holding his breath. He was about to stand up and apologize when he felt a weight on his shoulder. He glanced to the side to see Lance tentatively laying his forehead against his shoulder.
The red paladin remained still, not wanting to disturb him.
"Does.. Does this help?" He felt the other slowly nod against him. Keith wrapped his arms around him in return. If this is what it took to help his teammate back to safety, so be it. It wasn't like he completely hated it, it almost felt kind of nice. He blinked a few times, now was not the time to be thinking about that, he had a job to do.
"You don't have to be, like, afraid or anything." He tried, "I want to help you." He stopped kneeling in favour of sitting in front of the other, getting more comfortable. Lance sighed and gently grasped the edges of Keith's shirt with his hands, pressing his face closer into the crook of Keith's neck.
After a few minutes of this, the red paladin spoke up.
"Hey. You should rest, do you.. Want to stay in my room tonight? I don't mind."
"Alright." Lance remained where he was, until Keith pulled back and slowly helped him up. He wasn't entirely sure if Lance was still hurting or not. He was about to lead the way when he felt soft skin against his hand. He turned around to see the other staring daggers at the floor, a flush covering his cheeks.
Holding back a laugh, he properly grabbed his hand and led him down the hall.
…
When they made it to Keith's room, Lance seemed even more hesitant. He stood at the door as Keith took off his jacket and got ready for bed. Deciding the give the other a few minutes to adjust to what was happening, he told the other he'd be in the bathroom and to make himself comfortable.
Keith had already had time to process the whole situation while waiting for Lance to wake up from the pod, but for the him it must feel very strange. To be sitting in your room one moment and waking up from a healing pod the next. After doing everything he needed the red paladin opened the door and exited, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smile as he saw the blue paladin laying under the blankets, looking around his room.
"You don't have much in here.." He mused, looking at the one coat hanger his jacket was currently occupying.
"I don't have much stuff." He shrugged, sitting on the edge of the bed. Deciding it was now or never, he asked the question that's been on his mind since the beginning of this whole ordeal.
"Hey, why did you uh.. Why did you hide this whole thing from us?" He asked flatly, turning to look at him. Lance's eyes widened. I guess he wasn't expecting me to ask. He fiddled with the blanket in his hands for a few moments before finally answering.
"I-I was really confused.. And I didn't want to bother you guys with this I guess."
"You could've just come to me.."
"Oh yeah right.. 'Hey Keith my chest is really hurting and it only stops when I'm around and touching you. Guess you were totally right when you said I shouldn't have taken that potion.' That would've went over very well."
"I was totally right when I said you shouldn't have taken that potion."
"See!" They stared at each other for a few moments before laughing, this whole situation was just too crazy. Lance seemed to read his mind, leaning back as he chuckled.
After they had calmed down, Keith tried again. "Is it hurting right now?" Laying down, he reached out and touched Lance's shoulder with his hand, hoping to provide some sort of comfort.
"I can still feel it a little, but back in the pod room it really calmed down." Lance once again avoided eye contact, staring sheepishly at the ceiling. This was getting them nowhere. Letting out a sigh, he reached over and wrapped an arm around his torso, pulling him to his chest. He knew his face probably looked like it was on fire, but if it helped Lance.
It seemed to work, as soon as he did that Lance let out another sigh like before, and snuggled closer, tangling their legs together. Keith desperately tried to ignore how warm Lance felt, and how fuzzy he felt inside as he held the blue paladin tightly in his arms. How he could feel the others soft breathe against his chest, how every place the others skin was touching felt like it was now burning. How it was a good kind of burning.
As sleep was descending upon both of them, he heard Lance whisper against his skin, so quiet he almost didn't catch it. But the two small words he said made Keith melt inside.
"Thank you.."
A/N: Thank you for reading! I'm having fun with this fic, and I'll try to upload the next chapter as soon as I can! :3
