Chapter Text
Panic was not how Lance expected to wake up the following morning. As soon as he regained consciousness he bolted up, fear creeping up his spine as the smell of damp earth and rotting wood permeated his senses. Falling out of bed at six in the morning and getting a bloody nose was also not a great start to his day.
Keith was unrolling a wad of toilet paper as Lance held his hand out, trying to keep the pool of blood from spilling out in between his fingers. His hair stuck in all directions and he looked just as tired as Lance if a bit more irritated as he pressed the wad up against Lance's nose and lead him to the bathroom.
"I'd say good morning but uh…" Lance said, shoving wads of toilet paper up his nose and washing his hands. His voice was nasally.
A small voice in his head added, "and annoying." He inwardly flinched at the thought.
Keith grumbled something unintelligible.
"Huh?" Lance said.
"I said I think we're going to open the shop late today." Keith repeated, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Lance felt immediately guilty. It was a feeling he was very familiar with. Standing there while Keith looked like he was ready to murder anything within a mile radius wasn’t helping either. Lance would be the first to admit that seeing Keith get annoyed was a bit funny- the guy would get mad over anything. However; for once, Lance didn’t get any joy out of riling him up. This wasn’t some stupid joke, this was a serious problem that was beginning to affect more than just him.
"Do you want breakfast?" Lance asked, grasping at a way to make it up to Keith. "I'll pay." Food was a fail-safe, right? Apparently, Lance was right on the money. Keith gave an immediate response, nodding.
"Vrepit Sal's?" He asked.
"Yeah, sounds good," Lance replied, feeling a bit lighter and nearly forgetting about the ridiculous amount of toilet paper sticking out of his nose. After getting himself cleaned up and changed into regular clothes him and Keith were off to the homey little restaurant. They sat at a booth, Lance ordering coffee and Keith wrinkling his nose as Lance added an obscene amount of sugar and cream to it.
“Want a little coffee with all of that?” Keith asked, opting for a cup of tea himself.
“Maybe if the coffee wasn’t sludge here it’d be tolerable,” Lance replied, sipping at his cup and nodding satisfactorily. “I prefer Andi’s Coffee House. They have stuff that's actually good.”
“That place is so expensive though!” Keith exclaimed, wrinkling his nose in disgust. “Why would anyone pay six bucks for a cup of coffee?”
“You just have poor taste.” Lance teased, smirking over a mound of whipped cream in his cup.
“Can you even call it coffee?” Keith continued.
Lance simply rolled his eyes, perking up as food was brought to the table. Truth be told sleepwalking left him a lot more hungry than usual.
“So…” Keith let out, swallowing a piece of bacon. “You remember when Shiro and I first found you sleep walking?”
“I try not to,” Lance said with a frown.
“Well, my point is that the next morning you asked if it had something to do with your magic. Do you think it does?” He asked.
Lance mulled over the question. Truth be told he couldn’t give a definitive answer. Thinking about it, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to draw a connection between the two given everything that had gone on in his life recently. Lance knew he had dreams. The problem was that sometimes they would be fuzzy. The shapes would be indistinguishable. He’d grasp at it as consciousness entered his mind but the more awake he was the further the dream seemed to be. The only thing he really remembered was the menacing yellow eyes that had chased him prior. That would never be erased from his mind for as long as he lived.
He also remembered Keith. Clear as day. Lounging. Reading. Sleeping. Well, sometimes. Lance now had the knowledge that Keith was a bit of an insomniac. He’d be up in the early hours of morning, occupying himself with menial tasks. He knew he liked to draw in his free time; Keith used the collection of animal skulls he had as a reference. Sometimes he’d make Shiro breakfast but that was usually when Lance woke up. Lance gulped his coffee heavily, feeling invasive. He hid his face as heat rose to his cheeks. Pushing the dreams down he wiped his mouth with a napkin, chewing on his bottom lip.
“I’m not sure. It could be.” He finally replied, conflicted. “I just don’t know where I’m going, but it always feels like I need to be somewhere.”
“Maybe we should do a sleep study?” Keith suggested. That had Lance raising his eyebrows.
“What do you mean?”
“What do you mean ‘what do I mean?”
“You’re just gonna watch me sleep? That’s creepy!”
“Wha- No! Well yes- I mean-” Keith groaned. “It’s to make sure you don’t hurt yourself while you sleep walk dumbass!”
“But I don’t want to sleep walk!” Lance lamented.
“Well then how are we supposed to figure out where your subconscious wants you to go?”
Lance pensively stuffed a piece of pancake into his mouth, unwilling to admit defeat. Keith just snorted, shaking his head.
“So my place or yours?” Lance asked flirtatiously, deciding to try and lighten the mood. He then laughed at the blush that crossed Keith’s face.
“No really, do you want me to sleep at my apartment or your house?”
“U-Um, I don’t know… Maybe mine?” He asked. Lance raised an eyebrow. It had the desired effect. A flustered Keith was entertaining. It was a whole new avenue of humor for Lance and he didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it sooner.
“It’s just that you seem to want to keep wandering into the woods! Maybe whatever you’re
‘Looking’ for could be closer!” Keith stated defensively, eyebrows knitted into a scowl. It was endearing, actually.
Lance was caught off guard by the fact he thought it was cute. He interrupted the thought, pushing it into the deep recesses of his mind. Now wasn’t the time to be developing crushes, especially now. Somewhere in another state entirely Pidge was probably feeling a sense of unexplained smugness.
“Fine, fine. Don’t get your panties in a twist.” Lance conceded, laughing.
“So...do you like to read?” He said after a beat of silence. He remembered Keith reading frequently in is dreams. It was a better topic to bring up for Lance, he could only handle so much magic talk.
“Uh, yeah…” Keith replied, taking a sip of his tea. That was how their conversation developed into something more casual throughout the entirety of breakfast. It was normal. Welcomed. And if Lance was being honest, he was happy to finally get to know Keith a little more outside of their unfortunate encounters. Even if he already knew a little more than he should. Work was relatively painless. There was less bickering than usual, a testament to their hardship the following night. They were both too exhausted to get under each other's skin.
When Shiro returned from his trip Keith and Lance filled him in on the details of their late night excursion and their plan. He seemed concerned by the new development and as they sat around the kitchen table he looked thoughtfully into his mug of tea.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but I want to make sure your safe Lance,” Shiro stated. “And I don’t mean just physically. It seems like this is something that could affect your mental health.”
Lance pouted at the table. Truth be told, he didn’t want to talk about his sleepwalking. Wasn’t it enough that Keith and him had come up with a solution? Besides, it was already affecting his mental health. At this point he was under the impression that would never change. It was just a fact of life now.
“Pretty badly. How long has this even gone on?” Shiro asked.
Lance shrugged. “I dunno. I did it a lot when I was a kid and it’s just kind of popped up again.” He stated begrudgingly. Lance knew Shiro was only concerned but he still couldn’t help but feel it was condescending. He could handle himself. He was an adult.
Lance sighed, leaning forward and waving his hand dismissively. “Look, I can handle this. I feel better knowing that I’ll have someone here to make sure I don't fall off a cliff or something.”
“Or be slaughtered by some monster.’ He thought to himself. Shiro looked at him dubiously but nodded in defeat.
“Alright. Do you want me to cut your hours at the shop? You look a little worse for wear after a night of, I assume, little sleep.”
“No, it’s fine. I still have rent to make!” Lance stated, giving a little laugh and a smile. It didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Fair point,” Shiro said. “Well, I guess that's that. I’ll help Keith keep an eye on you.”
“It’s fine. We can just put a charm on him.” Keith stated. “It’ll just alert me if you open the front or back door. Like a little alarm.” He explained to Lance. It seemed simple enough even if he felt a bit bad he’d be waking Keith.
The only thing left to do was go get his stuff. They collectively agreed about a week would probably suffice for a sleep study. Truth be told he stalled a bit. Visiting his parents gave Lance some time to just resume the sense of normalcy. He had dinner. He joked with his brother and he’d even sat down with his mom to watch one of her cheesy soap operas that he’d never admit he got slightly invested in.
It was when he was sitting on the couch during a commercial that his mother lingered, a look of worry on her face as she put a hand on Lance’s knee and looked into his eyes.
“ Mijo , is everything okay?” She asked.
Lance was caught a bit off guard but he smiled encouragingly. He was used to her doting and worrying over every little thing, but he’d be damned if he didn’t admit she was preceptive.
“Yeah Mama, everything is fine.”
“Are you sure? Hows the apartment? Are you getting enough sleep?” She pressed, clearly unconvinced. Ah. So this is what her worry was about. Lance could do without everybody inadvertently pointing out he looked like shit.
“It’s okay. The apartment is just quieter than I’m used to.” He answered, not entirely lying.
“You know you always have a room here sweetheart.”
“I know.” Lance gave another terse smile, patting his mother's hand to comfort her. “I’m okay though. Really. Just a little tired.”
They resumed watching TV but it wasn’t long until Lance had to leave. He made it back to his apartment and packed a bag complete with pajamas, favorite blanket, skin routine, and all. He was confused when Keith thought it was too much.
“I didn’t know you were moving in with us.” He said as Lance slid a backpack off his shoulders and put his overly stuffed duffel bag on the couch he’d be sleeping on.
“What? I can bring more if you’d like?” He shot back. Keith rolled his eyes.
“There's some food in the fridge if you haven’t eaten anything.”
“Oh, I ate at my ma’s house. Thanks though.” A beat passed. “I actually think I’ll try to sleep, I’m pretty tired.”
Keith shrugged. “Okay. I’ll be in my room if you need anything. I stay up pretty late so don’t feel like you’re bothering me.” He said. Lance resisted the urge to say, ‘ I know,’ because realistically he shouldn’t know.
“Thanks,” he settled with instead. The lights were turned off and Lance settled onto the ouch, the old springs creaking underneath him in protest as he readjusted and the cushions hugging his body close. It wasn’t that bad. Probably one of the more comfortable couches he’d slept on.
And then he tried to sleep. And tried and tried and tried. Tossing and turning on the cushions that started to feel like they were swallowing him up more than anything. The worst part is that every time he felt like he was finally drifting off he’d jerk away again, every aspect of the forest permeating his senses again, the fear spreading throughout his chest like an infection. He’d be back at square one again.
Eventually, Lance just gave up. He didn’t think he could handle another scare. Every time he was jarred awake he was back in that terrifying chase with the mysterious monster. Pulling out his phone and browsing random apps and pages, he knew that sleep deprivation was an infinitely better fate then being confronted with his night terrors again and the fear and bone tired exhaustion that came with them.