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Keith sighed as he brought Black in to land, his mind still on the battle they had just fought. Facing only one of those Altean-powered robots made for a challenging fight, but having to deal with two of them at once had stretched them all nearly to their limits. Shiro especially, Keith thought with a grimace; the Atlas' robot form was proving to be a formidable ally during a fight, but Shiro didn't have anyone else helping him the way that all of the paladins shared the load of being Voltron.
It had been a hard-won victory, and they had been able to bring the enemy vessels to the Atlas to help the captive Alteans, but at the moment Keith was more concerned with how his team was doing. As if in answer to his thought, Lance's voice suddenly rang out to all of the lions.
"Man, I am beat," he said, and Keith could hear it in his voice.
"Me tooo," Hunk chimed in, his voice muffled like he had faceplanted into his console the moment Yellow had touched down in the hangar. The mental image made Keith smile, and he could hear Pidge and Allura laughing.
"I think we all are," he said. "That was a really tough fight, but you all did an amazing job." Keith tried to project the sense of pride that Shiro had always instilled in them after a victory, wondering for the thousandth time how Shiro made everything about being a leader seem so effortless. Keith liked to think that he was getting better at it, but it was hard to completely override his self-doubts, no matter how much time had passed.
At least for the time being, it seemed he had been successful. Allura said "Thank you, Keith, you were great as well!", and after a few seconds Hunk added "You guys couldn't see me, but I was nodding."
Keith laughed, and Pidge said "We all did really well, I think we're doing better than ever as a team!"
"We definitely are," Keith said. They'd come so far together, and he knew that when it was time to finally confront Haggar, they'd be ready. For now, though, there were more pressing concerns. "You guys should get some rest; we don't know how long we have before another one of those things finds us."
There was a general murmur of assent from the rest of the team, and then the lines went quiet as the others left their lions. Keith sat with his eyes closed for a few moments, fighting against his exhaustion. He needed to go rest too, but first he wanted to check in with Shiro, just to make sure he was okay. Shiro hadn't said anything to them since they had made it back inside the Atlas, and Keith knew he wouldn't be able to relax until he saw Shiro's face.
Yawning, Keith got to his feet and stretched before climbing down out of Black. Just a quick detour to the bridge, he thought, and then he'd get some sleep.
"Where's Shiro?" Keith yelled in alarm before the bridge door had even opened all the way. He hurried into the room, looking around.
Coran turned to face him from where he was standing at Shiro's console. "Ah, Keith!" he said brightly, watching Keith skid to a stop in front of him. "Not to worry, Shiro just went back to his room to have a little lie-down."
"Oh," Keith said, "that's good." Stupid, he thought at himself, when was he going to stop assuming the worst when Shiro was out of his sight? He hoped his embarrassment from overreacting wasn't showing on his face.
"Yes," Coran said, turning back to the console with a slight frown. "He's still using too much of his own quintessence to power the Atlas when it's transformed," he went on, almost talking to himself. "I keep telling him to not to overtax himself, but he's as stubborn as the Princess when he wants to be." Keith frowned as well.
"But he's okay, right?" he asked, unable to keep the worry completely from his voice.
Coran looked surprised. "Yes, of course!" he said. "A little rest is all he needs, then he'll be right as riddlywinks, don't you worry!"
"All right," Keith said. He was willing to accept that Shiro wasn't in any immediate danger, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed at not being able to talk to him. "Well, I'm going to get some rest too," he continued, and turned to leave the bridge. "Let us know if anything happens."
"Will do!" Coran said, and Keith nodded over his shoulder at him.
"Thanks, Coran," he said, and easily returned the smile that was being sent at him.
Once he was out in the hallway, though, he let it slide off his face in favor of a more worn out expression, yawning as he made his way towards his room. He was still worried about Shiro (he would always be worried about Shiro), but the right thing to do would be to leave him alone so he could rest. Keith would catch up with him in the morning.
Outside his door, Keith was greeted by a bright flash of light and then Kosmo was nuzzling up to him, as comforting a presence as always. "Hey, boy," Keith said softly, scratching him behind the ears. "Where have you been?"
Kosmo gave no indication of this, but merely followed Keith into the room, jumping up onto the foot of the bed and curling up. Keith smiled at the sight and then began removing his armor. His exhaustion made the process feel like it was taking forever, but eventually he got the outer layer in a pile on the floor and flopped onto his bed, sitting against the wall and stretching his arms out in front of himself.
He must have still seemed preoccupied, because after a few seconds Kosmo turned to face him with a questioning look in his eyes. Keith gave him a faint smile and then started petting him, smoothing his hand through the soft fur on his neck.
"It's just Shiro," Keith confided. "I wish I could've talked to him, but he needs to rest as much as any of us do. More, probably. So it's fine that I can't see him tonight, I'll just check on him tomorrow."
Keith let his head thump back against the wall, continuing to pet Kosmo as he thought. He really hoped that Shiro was all right; Shiro had always taken on a lot of responsibility, but these days he had more on his plate than ever, between planning high-level strategies with the Blade of Marmora, helping to determine Voltron's next missions, and being the captain of an entire ship with its own crew to command. Keith knew that Shiro was more than capable of performing all these roles, but he also knew that one of Shiro's bad habits was giving himself over to his duties without properly taking care of himself.
It was good that Coran was there to keep an eye on Shiro, Keith thought, letting his eyes fall closed as he let out a yawn. He was still petting Kosmo with a slow, lazy rhythm, but he knew he ought to stop and get ready for bed. He had just resolved to get up again when there was another flash of light, bright enough for him to sense even with his eyes closed. There was a surprised exclamation and the sound of something hitting the floor, and Keith could tell that he was now sitting on a couch rather than his bed. He opened his eyes.
"K-Keith!" he heard to his right, and he looked over to find Shiro staring back at him with wide eyes, having seemingly dropped a tablet in surprise at finding a cosmic wolf nearly on top of him with Keith on the other side of the couch. Keith couldn't help but smile; he'd wanted to see Shiro and Kosmo had brought him right to Shiro's study. He should give Kosmo a treat later.
"Sorry about this," he said, and Shiro just grinned back at him.
"No problem," Shiro said, giving Kosmo a quick head scratch before bending to retrieve the tablet. "I was just going over some of the data that Sam gathered from the newest druid bots; it's fascinating stuff." He straightened back up on the couch and turned to Keith, but Keith had just remembered something.
"You're supposed to be resting!" he said accusingly, noticing now that while Shiro had taken his jacket off, he was otherwise still wearing his uniform. Shiro gave Keith a startled look before shifting his gaze to the side.
"Oh, I guess you talked to Coran," Shiro said, and he gave a rueful chuckle. "I know he thinks I'm pushing myself too hard, but it's nothing I can't manage. And besides, I am resting! I'm not standing on the bridge, am I?"
He gave Keith a look like they were in on some private joke, but Keith wasn't amused. "This isn't resting," he said flatly, and Shiro looked even guiltier. "And you have been pushing yourself too hard, I can see the bags under your eyes packing some luggage of their own."
Shiro snorted a little at the attempted humor, but when he looked up at Keith his expression was serious. "I'm not doing it on purpose," he said, a touch pleadingly, "it's just that I'm really starting to get somewhere with the Atlas! Did you see how much more responsive it was in battle today?"
"Yeah," Keith said grudgingly, "I noticed." It had been hard to tell at first, given that Voltron had been doing all it could to keep both enemies engaged while Shiro completed the transformation, but eventually Keith had noted that Atlas was keeping up with the pace of the battle far better than it had before. It would never be able to match Voltron's speed due to its size, but its agility and the movements of its limbs had been sharper than ever.
"So then you understand how important this is!" Shiro said, excitement rising in his voice now that Keith wasn't chastising him. "If I can just hone my control of Atlas' second form a bit more I'll be able to give Voltron some real support in battle."
Keith chewed on his bottom lip, trying to choose his words carefully. "I do understand the importance of this, Shiro, but you won't be able to help for very long if you keep draining all of your own quintessence during these battles."
Shiro nodded. "I know," he said. "But it's different from piloting a lion, finding the balance in our bond is a lot harder. I just need some more time."
"You'll get the hang of it, I know you will," Keith said, giving Shiro a warm smile. "That's a problem for another day, though. The Atlas isn't going anywhere, and neither are those druid bots, so for now you really need to get in bed like you should have been this whole time."
Shiro laughed. "Gee, Keith," he said, "if I knew you were this eager to get me into bed I would've–"
He suddenly cut himself off, looking terrified, and Keith's heart started pounding wildly. He could feel his face heating up and looked at the floor, hoping that Shiro wasn't looking at him either.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Shiro said, and his voice sounded far away through the rushing of blood in Keith's ears. "That was a bad joke, I really must be tired..."
Shiro got to his feet, and in a panic Keith stood up too, not sure if he should stay or make a run for it. When he managed to look up he saw that Shiro was blushing violently.
"Um," Keith said, and Shiro quickly squeezed his eyes shut.
"Sorry," he said again, and then he set his tablet on the table. "I'll, uh, just go. To my room." He glanced at Keith apologetically and then turned and walked very quickly to the far end of the study, slipping into his bedroom and closing the door behind him.
Keith stood blinking after him for a moment, and then looked down at the couch. Kosmo, who had been silent and motionless this whole time, gave him a very bored look and then stretched out to occupy all of the newly-vacant couch.
"Of course you're no help," Keith muttered, looking back up at the door Shiro had disappeared through. He was trying to process what had just happened, but his brain didn't want to cooperate. In fact, his brain was stuck on a loop of Shiro joked about us sleeping together Shiro joked about us sleeping together which Keith was finding difficult to break out of.
The problem, he thought, was figuring out whether Shiro knew about Keith's feelings. They'd never talked about it (Keith was determined to take it to the grave if need be), but he'd always had the feeling that Shiro had still known. How could he not? Shiro was the only person that Keith had ever been honest with back on Earth, and while he had gotten better at keeping his emotions under control as he grew older, he had never really tried to exercise that kind of restraint around Shiro, knowing it would be useless.
As a result, he had come to expect that whenever he was making his crush on Shiro a little too obvious, Shiro would simply ignore it in that supremely kind way of his. Keith had thankfully grown out of the blushing-and-stuttering phase quite quickly, but every now and again Shiro would do or say something that would leave him completely in awe, and those were the moments when he would think there was no way that Shiro didn't understand how he felt. But Shiro never said anything, and Keith took it as another kind gesture, a rejection that didn't need to be spoken. It meant that Keith was allowed to love Shiro as long as he never made that love overt, and that had been his policy for years.
Now, though, Keith wasn't so sure. If Shiro knew how he felt, then his joke had a cruel edge to it beyond simply teasing Keith, and in all the time they had known each other Keith had never seen Shiro be cruel. But if it wasn't meant to be a mean joke, if Shiro really had let something slip out unintentionally due to his fatigue...something casually, almost playfully flirtatious at that...
Keith stared at the door to Shiro's bedroom, wondering how far he was willing to take this. He had no doubt at all that if he left right now and returned to his own room, it would be like nothing had happened in the morning. They would both pass off anything said tonight as a product of being over-tired, and eventually the residual awkwardness would fade, leaving their friendship untouched and undamaged.
Unchanged.
Screw that, Keith thought, and before he knew it he had marched right up to the door and knocked.
It didn't take long for Shiro to open the door. He looked marginally more composed than he had a few minutes ago, but Keith could still see a faint blush dusting across his cheeks. The sight was incredibly endearing.
"Hey," Shiro said, and he met Keith's eyes briefly before looking away. Keith decided not to drag this out any longer.
"About what you said before–" he started, but Shiro shook his head, wincing.
"I know, I know," he interrupted, closing his eyes with a pinched expression. "I should never have said that, and I'm sorry you had to find out this way."
Keith blinked, telling himself not to get too excited. That didn't necessarily mean what he hoped it meant. "Find out what?" he asked, his voice sounding much more faint than he had intended.
Shiro shook his head again before looking up at Keith, maintaining their eye contact this time. He looked regretful, and he sighed a little before he spoke. "My feelings for you, Keith. I didn't mean for you to find out like this."
Keith's heart seemed to shudder within him, and he felt a sudden warmth sweep through his body. He couldn't believe this; he'd been right.
"Shiro, it's okay," he said, trying to control his facial expression. "I love you."
Shiro gave him a strange half-smile. "I know, Keith," he said gently, "but I don't mean it the same way you do."
Keith frowned at that. "How do you think I mean it?"
The half-smile became a full one, but there was a wry twist to it. "Keith, I hope you know how important your friendship is to me. You're the most incredible person I've ever known. But I've never thought of you as a brother."
Keith suppressed a groan, feeling his face heat up again. Of course that was coming back to bite him.
"Look, Shiro, that wasn't really what I..." he trailed off, unsure of how to say what he wanted to say. What he was desperate to say.
"It's all right," Shiro said. "I should have been proud to be like a brother to you, and in the past I would have been. But the way I feel about you has changed: I've loved you for a long time, Keith, but ever since this whole adventure began I've started to realize that I love you. That I'm in love with you." His face was so open and earnest; Keith couldn't look away.
"Shiro," he said slowly, "when I called you my brother in the past it's only because I didn't have another way to express how much I cared about you. If I'm being honest, it was never the right word, because the way I feel about you hasn't changed. I'm in love with you too."
Shiro looked thunderstruck. "Oh," he said, and his eyes roved over Keith's face helplessly. "Really?" he added in a small voice.
"Yeah," Keith said, letting the smile he'd been fighting against spread across his face. "I thought you knew."
Shiro shook his head wordlessly, his shocked expression giving way to one of joy. They stood like that, grinning at each other ridiculously, for a few seconds.
"So," Keith said, taking a step closer to Shiro. "Can I kiss you?"
"Please," Shiro said, and then his arms were around Keith, pulling him into a kiss that seemed to light up his entire body from the inside out. He pressed himself as close to Shiro as he could and kissed him back, nearly dizzy with relief at this culmination of all his years of longing. He slid his hands down to Shiro's waist, holding him tightly as their kiss slowed, losing some urgency but gaining a new kind of heat.
Shiro tilted his head slightly, and Keith was just responding to the new angle when Shiro abruptly broke away, a huge yawn escaping from his mouth before he could hide it behind his hand. Keith started laughing, and when Shiro finished yawning he looked at Keith sheepishly, his eyes sparkling.
"I can't persuade you to ignore that, can I?" he asked hopefully, and Keith laughed again. He gave Shiro a quick kiss and then stepped back, putting some space between them.
"Nope," he said. "This whole conversation started because I want you to get in bed, remember?"
Shiro grinned at him, but then his smile changed to something softer; he looked almost shy when he spoke again. "You could stay, if you want. Not like that!" he added quickly at the look on Keith's face, waving his hands frantically. "I just mean to sleep. You need rest too, and it would be...nice, to have you here," he finished quietly.
Keith couldn't reply for a moment, his love for Shiro seeming to overwhelm him completely. He cleared his throat. "I would like that," he said, ducking his head so that his sappy smile was aimed at the floor.
"Okay," Shiro said, and when Keith felt he could risk looking up again he saw that Shiro was looking at him like he was the most important person in the universe. Funnily enough, Keith thought it didn't seem all that different from how Shiro had looked at him in the past. Keith just knew what he was looking at now.
Shiro moved past Keith to the other side of the room, and when Keith realized that Shiro was beginning to undress he quickly turned away and worked on removing his own shoes and the suit he wore underneath his armor. He couldn't resist the urge the peek a few times, and though he never met Shiro's eyes directly, the faintly smug expression on Shiro's face when he slid into bed in his pajamas told Keith he had most likely been found out.
Keith made it down to his undershirt and boxers and walked over to the bed, sliding in next to Shiro before nerves could get the better of him. It would be idiotic to feel nervous, he thought. After all, this was just Shiro, only for the first time it was a Shiro that Keith didn't have to hide anything from. A Shiro that loved Keith just as Keith loved him. There shouldn't be anywhere in the world where Keith would feel safer or more secure.
All the same, he couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious lying there, and when they turned onto their sides he gave Shiro a timid smile. Shiro smiled back at him, eyes impossibly warm, and brought a hand up to rest on Keith's shoulder.
"This okay?" he asked, and Keith nodded. Shiro rubbed Keith's shoulder for a moment and then brought his hand to trail along his neck until he was touching Keith's cheek, cradling it and letting his thumb play along the edge of the scar there. The tenderness of his touch made Keith sigh, and he felt himself relaxing bit by bit as Shiro continued to stroke his face.
Keith brought his own hand up to catch Shiro's, and he turned his head to press a kiss against Shiro's palm. The action made Shiro's breath catch, and Keith felt whatever tension was left in his body dissolve away. Shiro was just as affected by him as he was by Shiro, he thought, and he smiled into Shiro's hand.
Shiro rolled closer and replaced his hand with his lips, giving Keith a slow, sweet kiss that made Keith's insides glow with pleasure. He couldn't quite believe that this was going to be his life now; an hour ago, the idea that Shiro would ever want to kiss him would have been unimaginable. Keith had never been more glad to be wrong about something, and when the kiss broke he just gazed at Shiro lovingly, completely content with where he was and what he was doing.
Shiro seemed like he was about to say something, but there was a sudden flash of light and then Keith was looking at Kosmo instead, the wolf having teleported directly in between him and Shiro, ending up partially on top of them both in the process. Keith groaned and shoved at Kosmo good-naturedly, while on the other side of the bed it sounded like Shiro was laughing through a mouthful of Kosmo's fur.
"I guess he realized it's bedtime," Shiro said, and Keith leaned up on an elbow to see the amused look on his face.
"Yeah, even though he has his own bed now I haven't been able to get him to stop sleeping on mine," Keith said. He ruffled the fur on Kosmo's head and Kosmo responded by yawning in his face. Keith stuck his tongue out at him.
Shiro gave Keith a fond look and patted Kosmo's head a few times. "We'll work on it," he said, then turned to a wall panel next to the bed to turn off the lights in the study and bedroom. Keith was glad that Shiro's attention was occupied because he was sure he had some incredibly soppy expression on his face from Shiro's casual response, like Shiro had already envisioned their shared future and was looking forward to it.
Keith laid back down as Shiro finished with the lights, blanketing the room in darkness. He felt Shiro moving around and then saw his arm wrap around Kosmo's body like he was reaching out for Keith. Keith smiled and reached out too, grabbing hold of Shiro's hand and lacing their fingers together. The exhaustion he'd been keeping at bay was creeping back in at the edge of his senses, and Keith closed his eyes, ready to give in to it at last.
"Good night, Keith," he heard Shiro mutter softly, and his fingers were given a quick squeeze. Keith returned it, wondering idly if they would wake up holding hands. He kind of hoped they would.
"Good night, Shiro," he said, and between one breath and the next he finally drifted off to sleep.