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Keith retched as he coughed out droplets of water, gasping for breath for was seemed like minutes. His chest kept heaving up and down and up and down, lungs expanding as far as they could in order to drink up the surrounding air.
He was never going under the surface again. Never ever.
He turned to Lance with a ragged sigh, nudging the bigger boy. He didn’t move. His eyes even didn’t twitch, let alone open. “Lance,” he rasped out, tasting salt on the back of his tongue, “Come on dude, get up …”
He still wasn’t moving … “Lance?” Actually, he really wasn’t moving.
Everything was still. His shoulders didn’t shift and his chest didn’t rise and -
‘Ohmygod,’ Keith thought, brain clicking into overdriving within a split tick, ‘ohmygodohygod!’
He wasn’t breathing. Keith felt every bone in his body turn to ice. He bent down as fast as he could, practically throwing his head against Lance’s chest. If he just listened, then he’d hear the soft thumping of Lance’s heart.
He heard it daily, felt it daily; he knew it was there, he just had to stay calm, just had to listen, just had to –
It wasn’t there.
With a few quick swears Keith scrambled up onto his knees.
It took him longer than he wanted to admit before he remembered basic Garrison training and got to work on compressions and even longer still before he found the right place on Lance’s chest and actually got to work.
Lance wasn’t going to die, not if Keith could help it. The world would be too harsh, too cold, without him.
Lance was cord, his tether: he helped Keith stay social and sane and safe.
“Come on,” Keith ground out. The straightened arms and thirty count pumps got finally into the rhythm they needed as Keith worked the magic of his first year health class.
His entire body felt like ice. Keith didn’t know if it was from the water or the wind or the dread coursing through him. Keith was used to feeling warm when he fought. Adrenaline was like his natural heater.
But now it’d just magically turning into an ice bucket and plopped itself down in front of the fan that was Keith’s lungs. And with every breath another cold, searing wave of air gushed through him.
“Come on!” he snapped, tears prickling at the corners of his eyes. They felt like lava as they trailed down his face, melting his skin for a spilt second before the freezing feeling seeped back in.
He kept up the pace, shoulders burning from the locked, stiff position they’re suddenly been thrown into.
Keith didn’t know how long he knelt there, how long he worked his frozen muscles in attempt at getting Lance’s heart to stop, how long he just kept muttering word after frigid word of ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘don’t go’ and ‘I love you’ over and over and over.
All he knew what that he was just about to give up, just about to sit back and hold his head in his hands and sob and sob and sob until he had nothing left.
Then Lance opened his mouth and coughed.
Keith stopped, staring wide eyed and jaw slacked at the blue Paladin. He was breathing. Good god, he was breathing.
Lance groaned, trying and failing to roll over onto his side. “Ugh,” he moaned in pain, “I feel like I got hit by a semi.”
Keith gave a cry of relief and dropped on top of his boyfriend. He felt for Lance’s chest, pressing his fingers down hard in order to feel the familiar ‘thump’ of Lance’s heart. He found it, and it was music to his ears.
Lance just kind of stared down at Keith in shock.
“What happened?” he mumbled, “My does my throat hurt…” he paused, “why the hell does my chest hurt.”
“You died,” Keith said, voice cracking, “You – you stopped breathing and your heart wasn’t working and,” the tears spilled out his eyes and gushed over his cheeks like a waterfall of salt, “I thought I was gonna lose you, Lance, I don’t wanna lose you.”
Lance was quiet. Keith wasn’t surprised, it wasn’t every day that you were told you’d just been revived. They lay there for a while, Keith
It was only when Keith shifted to look at Lance that Lance frowned and sat up, quickly brushing away a few stray tears, “Why’re you crying?”
“You died!” Keith protested with a sniffle, “And how could you not know I was crying?”
Lance shrugged and leaned down to kiss away some of the droplets after near Keith’s eyes. “I was having an existential crisis,” he chuckled, “Not to mention you’re freezing.” He grabbed Keith’s hand, working his fingers against the skin that his stupid ass gloves didn’t cover.
“Feels like ice,” Lance muttered. Keith nodded at that, not really knowing what to say. He leaned back down against Lance, resting his head against the blue Paladin’s chest.
“What’s with you and my heart?” Lance asked.
Keith shot him a look and he shut up.
They sat like that for a while, Keith listening for the reassurance that Lance was alright – that he was alive – while Lance cradled Keith in his arms, slowly warming him up – like fire taken to ice.