Marked For Death | klangst

Twenty.

Every night that Lance was sleeping away in the healing pod, a member of the team would always stay up at night to watch over him -- in case something happened, like he woke up or his vitals spiked abnormally. Keith had the first night, and though he was determined to stay with the Blue Paladin throughout the course of the following day, Shiro forced him to his quarters to rest, taking over his job for the remaining ten hours. Hunk volunteered next, wanting to spend some time with his unconscious best friend alone. He took both that night and the following day. Pidge, seeing that he was about to fall over from weariness, relinquished him of the task and proceeded to stay up all night, her fingers flying across her laptop to pass the time. The next morning, Shiro and Allura went into the infirmary, only to find Lance the same as he was previously and Pidge, eyes barely open from behind her glasses. As soon as she saw the two, she shakily stood and dragged her feet down the hallways to her room. She slept the rest of the day. Feeling like it was her time to do her part, Allura stayed with Lance next. Still, there was no change whatsoever.

"Shouldn't he be getting better soon?" Shiro asked her towards the end of her "shift," a perplexed yet worried look in his eyes.

Allura touched the base of her throat nervously. "He should, yes..." she confirmed, her voice heavy with anxiousness. "But he isn't."

Shiro swallowed the lump in his throat. "I was afraid you might say that," he groaned, running a hand through his tousled hair.

"Should we inform Keith?" Allura asked in dread, already fretting at his reaction.

But Shiro shook his head. "Not we," he told her firmly. "I'll go. He knows me the best, and I know him. I can calm him."

"Are you positive?" the princess asked unsurely. "It seemed to me that only Lance was capable of that in times like these."

Shiro bit his lip, hard. "I can do it. Just, please watch over him, okay? And te--"

"Yes, tell you if anything changes," Allura finished for him, her blue eyes sparkling with sadness yet subtle hints of pride and admiration. "I know, and I will."

Instead of answering, Shiro smiled at her lightly, and set off to Keith's room, his footsteps landing heavily on the steel floors.

Keith's door entered Shiro's vision quicker than he thought it would. He was secretly dreading his talk with the Red Paladin, the most unstable at the moment. Several scenarios ran through his jumbled mind, all fearing the worst. He couldn't be sure how Keith would react to the news, but he did know that he wasn't going to take it lightly.

With a trembling hand, Shiro knocked on Keith's doors. He tried to compose himself by taking deep breaths and releasing them in heavy, yet controlled, sighs. He did this only until the door slid open, revealing Keith, his arms wrapped around him as a shiver passed down his body. Shiro noticed the deep purple bags under his eyes, his sunken in cheeks, and disheveled hair. He saw the way his shoulder's drooped, the way his movements were sluggish, the way he looked at the Black Paladin with sad eyes -- eyes that used to be so full of energy. Now, all that energy has escaped him and left him for dead, only sparing the empty shell standing before him now.

Keith's eyes slowly made their way up to Shiro's face. In an instant, his unkempt and depressed demeanor changed into one of worry and fright. "Did something happen? Is Lance okay?" he rushed in before Shiro could even begin to think about uttering a single word. "I knew  I should've been there..."

"Keith, take a deep breath, okay?" Shiro answered him but telling him, his arms reaching out to grasp his shoulders in comfort. "Lance is the same. Nothing's happened. Actually, it's the fact that nothing is happening that I'm here."

Keith cocked his head to one side in confusion. "I don't understand."

Shiro sighed, his heart weighing his spirits down. "I spoke with Allura, and she says that Lance should be about recovered by now," he began to say, his voice scratchy.

Before he could continue on, Keith told him, "But that's a good thing, right? He'll be out of that pod in, like, a couple of hours, yeah?" His face grew hopeful, but as soon as his eyes met Shiro's, the hope faded. "Is he not getting better?"

Recognizing the despondency in his voice, Shiro shook his head in confirmation. "He's shown no signs of improvement over the past few days, despite the fact that he should have. And Coran's looked over the pod he's occupying. It's fully operational and is functioning like it should, so it's not that the pod is faulty."

"There's got to be another reason, though," Keith said determinedly, his eyes fierce. "Maybe he was just a bit more exhausted than Allura thought, or maybe the pod began malfunctioning after Coran looked at it. Maybe he knocked something out of place, and it just needs to be put back again. Perhaps --"

"Keith!" Shiro grimaced in pain, his voice tight with emotion. "You know all of those situations aren't true. And I get it. You don't want to accept the fact that Lance isn't recovering, but some things you just have to look at it for what it is, no matter how hard it is."

Keith shifted his gaze to his feet. Another shiver raced through his body, racking every nerve with a numbing cold. "So... what? I'm just supposed to accept the fact that Lance is never going to recover from his time on Grumga? That I should just pull the rip-cord before the opportunity is gone? Just take the defeat and run?" he asked in hurt wonder, his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth twisted into a deep frown.

"Of course not," Shiro tried answering, but eve he knew that his previous words did imply Keith's suggestions. "All I'm trying to say is that... you shouldn't tear yourself up over it."

"Don't tear myself up?" Keith shook his head at his once-role model in sorrowed disgust. "How can I not? I was there when he went missing, and I could do nothing then. I spent a week pacing around this stupid room, endlessly cursing myself for allowing him to slip through my fingers. I spent another two days curled around Blue, constantly wondering and worrying if Lance was dead or alive? And now, he's back but his health isn't improving, and I can't do shit about it! I couldn't do anything then, and I can't do anything now. So I'll ask you again... How am I not supposed to tear myself up about this?

When Shiro didn't answer, Keith released a strangled sigh. "I think you should go. I need to be alone right now," red told black, retreating back into the dark shadows of his room where he could only be blue with sadness, where he longed to be with the blue he so desperately needed to be who he was -- to be red.