Mr Sandman

2

Keith groans and buries his face in the pillow as his mind slowly escapes from the grasp of sleep. He carefully stretches his limbs, one by one, sighing at the silky mattress caressing his skin, before turning around and slowly sitting up, rubbing his eyes. His back snaps like a broken twig.

Man, what a night.

He'd rather not remember the very, uh, intimate dream he's had, but honestly it's the first thing that crosses his mind when he's more or less awake. Keith takes deep breaths and tells himself it's going to be okay, though - he's not some kid to be embarrassed over something as trifling as a kiss in a dream - no, he's better than that.

Groggily, he rises from the bed and moves to the bathroom to begin his daily routine. A moment later, he's dressed and ready to go to the kitchen, opening the door to the hallway with his confidence fresh and steady.

"Ah, good morning, Keith."

The red paladin freezes at the voice coming from behind him - deep and modulated and powerful, and undeniably Shiro's.

This, this is the moment - Keith takes a deep breath and turns around to greet the smiling captain, with a curl of his own lips, as they begin walking together towards the kitchen. "Morning, Shiro. How was your night?"

"Lonely," the captain replies sotto voce. Keith doesn't know how to respond other than glancing at him, knitting his brows together in worry.

"Lonely? Are you okay, Shiro?"

If Keith had to guess, the answer's a big no. Shiro was never seen with his head downcast unless he was in deep concentration, and even then it was a rare sight - and now, now the captain faced the ground like he couldn't bear to lift up his gaze.

"Yeah… I kept waking up in the middle of the night, and every time, when I realized I was by myself…" Shiro halts walking, and so does Keith. When the captain finally looks at him, it's with a different emotion than the red paladin imagined - it wasn't sadness, or stress, or anything close to that - no, that shine, that glint in his eyes - it's longing.

Shiro's hand rests on Keith's cheek, and the red paladin tenses up as his leader leans in to gently press their foreheads together. "I couldn't stop wishing you were with me."

The longing-

It's for Keith.

Oh no, fuck, fuck, fuckdammit, he's not ready for this and he'll never be because this is Shiro and he just can't, his chest hurts and his heart is gonna collapse, fuck-

Making matters worse to Keith's already panicked, chaotic thought process, Shiro's eyes flutter closed and he catches the raven's mouth in the sweetest of kisses, with his tongue softly flicking at the red paladin's upper lip. Keith gasps, both his mind and body going haywire, and the only thing he finds himself able to do is placing both his trembling hands on Shiro's chest to push him away.

Panting and staggering, Keith retracts himself towards the wall, pressing his back against. "Shiro, why- We're not supposed to- I can't do this!" he tries, choking on the words he doesn't even know if he should speak. "This… it's…" The red paladin covers his head with both hands - a dream was enough, he doesn't need Shiro messing with him in reality. "This is too sudden!" he finishes.

"Sudden, you say?" Shiro approaches again, trapping Keith against the wall with both his arms. "Did I never make clear how much I want you? Or is it because we're two men?"

No, no, the gender is the least of their problems. Shiro is… he's Keith's friend, leader, and inspiration. He's a brother. He's-

"Tell me what's sudden about this, Keith," Shiro whispers against his lips. "You mean to tell me you don't like it when I kiss you?"

"Th-that's not…!"

"Tell me," Shiro hisses with firm authority, sneaking one leg tightly in between Keith's. The red paladin shudders and hides his burning face on the crook of Shiro's neck while his fingers dig into the captain's chest.

"Shiro, please…!"

Please, what? Give him a second? Let him breathe? Kiss him again?

But Keith's voice is breaking - as is his will. With each passing second of Shiro's hot breath on his ear, and his body pressing so close, Keith's self control falters. If this keeps on…

"Can't you accept me?"

Accept…

"Please, let me in. I can make you happier than you've ever been."

"Is he breathing?"

"Accept me, Keith."

"Let's dump cold water on top of him!"

"We're not dumping water on top of anyone."

"You're such a spoilsport, Shiro!"

...Shiro? But Shiro was just hugging him, and they were alone, there weren't any voices-

"Okay, let me handle this. Keith… KEITH!"

Screaming, the red paladin jolts up on the bed. He looks around frantically, seeing all the other paladins in a circle around his bed - where he's located, rather than the hallway, it seems - staring at him with curiousness and worry; Shiro included.

"What the fuck!" he yells, ripping the blankets away from his body and standing up with angry lava running through his veins - he dreamed again about that… him…! "Fuck!" he swears again, pushing his way out of the bed and marching to the bathroom, locking the door behind him as soon as he's inside.

His heart aches as it thunders against his ribs - and the commotion in the bedroom doesn't help in the slightest.

"Do you think he was having a nightmare?" Hunk begins.

"I've never seen him swear like that," goes Pidge.

"Maybe he sleeps wearing a diaper and didn't want us to know!" Lance cackles.

"That's enough. You all go on ahead, I'll wait for him," Shiro says - and, unknowingly, signs Keith's death sentence. Cardiac arrest is going to be written in bright red ink on his obituary.

The red paladin tries his best to calm down his heart and his breathing. Counts from one to ten, splashes cold water on his face, takes a melting hot shower as he brushes his teeth with freezing mint toothpaste - and it works, to an extent.

Until he opens the door to his bedroom and sees that Shiro is, indeed, waiting for him, sitting on the bed without realizing just what his mere presence is doing to Keith.

Nothing, Keith tells himself as he walks to the wardrobe, it's doing nothing. It was just a dream, after all. It's not like Shiro's suddenly going to-

"Keith…"

He freezes. Damn it. His fingers curl so tightly around the shirt he's holding that his knuckles turn white.

Is this a dream again? Or is it reality…? And when did it become so hard to differentiate the two?!

"I'm sorry that we bothered you," Shiro begins, "But we were worried. It's already lunch time and you hadn't appeared even though you're an early riser, so we figured you may be in trouble."

Well, they were right.

"I'm okay," he assures, turning to face Shiro after a long internal debate. "I just overslept." His eyes roam attentively over the captain's face and and body language, to see if he can detect anything out of place - ultimately, there's nothing. Keith sighs and turns back to his shirt - of course nothing's going to happen; what did he expect? "Sorry that I worried you."

"It's no problem, Keith."

And he thinks it's gonna end just like that; he's gonna be fine and won't have a sudden heart attack - until a cold robotic hand touches his shoulder firmly, and rises all the hairs in his body. Keith sucks in breath through his teeth and keeps it locked inside his lungs while waiting for something he can't even name.

"You know you can count on me, right?"

He just nods dumbly in response.

"...okay. I'll see you around then."

It's only when the door closes and Keith almost faints from lack of oxygen that he realizes he'd yet to breathe again. His shoulder still feels the biting cold from Shiro's hand, and it pains him to admit that his body's reacting way too easily and sensitively to the feeling.

At least dreams are only dreams, and those are probably never going to repeat themselves.

Now, if only he didn't feel that pang of frustration deep down...

**

Here's hoping you liked this second chapter! See you again soon!