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Shiro is awake and waiting for him, when Keith finally decides he’s beaten enough training bots that he won’t slug his mate in his stupid face and heads back to their room. He’s still not ready to hear whatever Shiro has to say, so he grabs a change of clothes and locks himself in their bathroom for a long relaxing shower before Shiro can try.
Shiro’s still there when he gets out. Sitting with his back against the wall on their bed. He’s not wearing his kicked puppy expression anymore. His eyes are serious as he looks up at Keith, “Can we talk?” Shiro asks.
“Are you going to give me another meaningless apology?” Keith says, not trying to keep the bitterness out of his tone.
“No,” Shiro shakes his head.
“Fine,” Keith says, throwing his towel into the laundry basket, “We can talk,” Shiro looks to the spot beside him then back at Keith. Keith manages not to growl at the look. Walking over calmly to sit a respectable distance away from Shiro, facing him with arms crossed.
Once he’s settled, Shiro starts speaking in a low voice, “I thought about what you said, and I spoke with Lance.” Keith feels his shoulders tense up. He doesn’t like the idea of Shiro running off to talk to Lance right after they had a fight about the omega, “He understands I’m not available, and have no plans to become available.” Shiro holds up his hand to stop Keith from interjecting, “I’ve asked him not to stand so close to me. I told him I have a responsibility to my mate, and it was my fault for not asking him to back off sooner.” Keith’s nose wrinkles. Lance shouldn’t have had to be told. No one had to tell Keith that acting all interested around other people’s mates was rude, “He’s sorry by the way. He didn’t mean to intrude on your claim, and he’s going to try to avoid doing so in the future.” That’s good. That’s very good. In fact, when Shiro very slowly reaches out and touches Keith’s cheek, he doesn’t bite him. Shiro let’s out a breath and Keith noses his palm. Shiro’s scent is calming. It would be so easy to leave things here. Accept the apologies and changes offered, but they aren’t finished.
“It’s not just Lance, you know,” Keith reluctantly pulls away from Shiro’s hand, “It’s others too, the same behavior, maybe not as bad, but it adds up, and you allow it.” He gives Shiro a pointed look, as the older alpha hand drops back down to rest on his legs.
Shiro’s head droops, “I know, and I’m sorry. I’m going to try to set up better boundaries. Make sure people know I’m not interested.” Shiro’s fingrs clenches and he looks up to meet Keith’s eyes, “Things are going to happen, though. We’re a small team, and I’m the leader. I’m going to have to get close to the other members and watch out for their emotional health. That includes being a shoulder to cry on.” Keith gets that. He really does. He doesn’t want Shiro to stop being caring open Shiro. He just wanted some respect.
“I don’t mind people touching you sometimes,” He tries to put his thoughts into words, hand drifting down to pick at a fraying piece of blanket, “I’m not trying to make you put up a bubble where no one can ever give you a hug or casual friend stuff. There’s just a line where it stops being friendly and starts being more, and I don’t want people to cross that around you.” Is that really so much to ask?
“I’ll make sure everyone understands it’s purely platonic, and I’m don’t want anyone but you.” Shiro says, “Will that be alright?”
“Yeah,” Keith nods, “Yeah, that’s all I really wanted.”
Shiro gives a tentative grin, leaning forwards and twisting around so he’s actually looking up at Keith, “So does that mean I can hug you now?”
Keith smiles down at him, “Yes it does.”
Shiro bursts into motion. Wrapping his arms around him to bodily lift Keith into his lap. While Keith shrieks, Shiro chuckles and rubs his neck against Keith’s. Nipping at the top of his ears for good measure, before flopping them both down on the pillow.
The only part of Shiro’s face he can reach from this hold is his chin, so Keith bites at that, “You’re lucky I love you,” He play growls at Shiro.
“Yes I am,” Shiro adjusts him so he can kiss his forehead, “Now go to sleep, we’ve got an early morning.”
“Jerk,” Keith grumbles, shifting around until he’s comfortable.
“Beautiful,” Shiro retorts, snuggling closer to him.
It’s warm and comfortable in Shiro’s arm, so Keith closes his eyes.