Chapter Text
It was cold, dark. Empty.
And silent.
Ever so silent. Not a single sound.
No breathing.
No heartbeat.
Then suddenly.
The rustle of fabric.
Shiro slowly opened his eyes, blinking against the light.
He was still lying down. Didn’t he die?
He remembered being in Keith's arms. Keith’s crying and pleading.
Keith’s voice.
He turned his head slightly and a familiar black shock of hair appeared in his view. It was resting on the bed to his legs.
“...”, Shiro opened his mouth to call him, however, nothing but a screeching sound came out of it.
It was loud enough to wake Keith. He rose his head and when his eyes found Shiro’s they went wide. He stood right away only to lean in closer to the other.
“Shiro,” he whispered, tears shimmering in his big eyes.
Shiro smiled and closed his again. Hearing Keith voice was so surreal. He must’ve died after all. But his body was in pain, his lungs still hurting. It was another kind of pain, though. It felt dull and declining. Not sharp and cutting through his intestines.
His throat was sore and swallowing hurt but he tried to speak once more. Keith watched him with furrowed brows as no real sound came out of it.
“What happened?” Shiro signed then, still not processing what had happened after he lost consciousness. Was he still ill? Did Keith get his coronation? How many days have past?
Keith was in simple clothing and from what Shiro could tell they were in his rooms.
Keith hesitated shortly, the furrow between his brows deepening. “You just stopped coughing. I thought...I thought you died. Other came to help and we laid you down. And then...I waited.”
“How long?”
Keith bit his lip. “A week.”
“ You waited the whole time? At my side?” Shiro asked with a smirk on his face. His heart felt full and fuzzy.
The reaction was immediate. Keith blushed up to his ears and turned away. A rasping sound left Shiro’s throat as he was chuckling. Keith was too cute.
It hit him then.
He was alive because he stopped coughing.
He stopped. Right when Keith told him he loved him.
Shiro tugged on Keith’s sleeve to get his attention again. “Did you mean what you said?”
“Mean what?”
“What you feel for me.”
Again, Keith’s face lit up and he worried his lips before he nodded barely visible.
Shiro looked at him for a few seconds, before he let his head fall back into the pillows and chuckled. It sounded sore and raw but Shiro didn’t care. With one hand over his eyes, he snickered over this irony of fate.
Keith watched him first, then push his arm but as he couldn’t move Shiro to look at him, he croaked a small “What?”
Shiro exhaled and looked up, the brightest smile on his face.
“You saved me, Keith.” He sat up, grabbed the back of Keith’s head and sealed their lips.