Nightmares (Klance)

Part 9: Longing Wight

Keith hates this. He hates the cold spot next to him on the mattress. He hates how quiet it is without the sound of Lance's gentle breathing, but most of all, Keith hates that he can't fucking sleep.

It's only been the past few weeks that Keith has been able to sleep, but the consecutive nights of eight hours or more rest has completely ruined his rhythm. Not sleeping has been a constant for Keith, but now he feels sluggish and irritated during the day. He's clumsy when polishing his bayard and he nicks himself. His headaches are brutal, and he snaps at his teammates. His arguments with Lance have increased tenfold, in both frequency and aggression. Even Lance seems shocked at the outbursts, but he doesn't take it personally. Especially when he sees Keith snap at Shiro. Shiro levels the smaller boy with a harsh glare.

"Remember....who you are talking to." Shiro growls. Keith seems to remember himself and apologises in a weak and nervous voice.

All of their synergy from the previous week's drone drill is gone. Keith is the first one out. It's unheard of. He falls through the floor with a weak groan and doesn't come back up for several minutes. He just lays on the mat wondering what he did to deserve this.

Allura pushes them to do a Voltron drill and it's almost unbearable. With the Paladins all linked together, Keith's negativity is contagious. It floods his team member's minds and they struggle to keep Voltron in tact.

"Guys... I've gotta...." Hunk sounds like he's going to be sick.

"I hear ya. Voltron disassemble. We can't do anything like this." Shiro commands.

They pull apart, and even Allura seems to get that something has gone wrong. That another drill won't solve this. She looks at the woeful state of her Paladins. No one says anything to Keith, but he can feel everyone's eyes on him. When their linked, it's hard to exactly pinpoint which thoughts and feelings belong to who, but he feels like everyone must have worked it out. He's the only one looking ragged despite the relatively simple exercise.

He needs to fix this.

...

Midnight. There's a tentative knock on Lance's door.

"Hunk, I'm not trying..." But it's Keith on the other side. His voice immediately drops to a low whisper.

"Oh, Keith? What's going on?"

Keith scratches his arm nervously.

"C...can I sleep with you?" His cheeks burn. God, how could he be doing this?

Lance blinks at him. Then his face pulls into a smug expression.

"Couldn't stay away, huh?"

"Lance, Please!"

"Ok, ok, come in." He guides Keith into the room.

"Do you want next to the wall or your usual spot?"

"Usual thanks." Before Keith can really question what he's doing, he kicks off his boots and is slipping off his pants. Lance can see the rush and panic in his movements.

"Whoa, slow down. Are you even gonna tell me what's wrong?" Lance stills Keith's hands. He holds them by the wrists as he's about to rip off his shirt.

"I uh.... I can't sleep."

"I thought you were used to that?"

"I was, I was, but... for some reason... augh it's crazy...." Keith rubs his temples.

"Try me."

It feels weird to have their roles switched. Now Keith can fully appreciate just how meek Lance must have felt when coming to him for help.

"When you were with me, I could sleep. And I was. And now I'm used to it, so if you take sleep away... I can't handle it!" Keith collapses on the edge of the bed.

"Usually I'd just fight through it. Re-set my body clock, you know? But we don't have time for that. The Galra could attack any day. You felt Voltron today!"

"Oh god, that was you?" Lance takes a seat next to Keith. He nods.

"That was terrible. It felt like somebody had told me that every puppy in the universe had died."

"Yeah well... that's the state I'm in right now."

"Man, you do not handle fatigue well."

"Thank you. I'd figured that out."

Lance shakes his head and laughs. He crawls over and slides himself underneath the blankets, before holding a side open for Keith.

"Well, come on then. The sooner you get to sleep the sooner we can fix this."

Keith smiles. He's missed this. God has he needed this. He wraps the blanket tight around his shoulders and the smell of ocean spray and aloe vera is intoxicating.

He's unconscious before Lance can even wish him goodnight.

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And we're back to fluffy cuddles! Been driving for the last few hours, traffic totally sucks ;)