The Real Enemy [Klance]

Chapter 10

The morning, or simulated morning, was bright. Wisps of the dream he had had last night faded away until he could only remember the feelings that the dream had brought him. They had been pleasant.

Keith sat up and rolled his shoulders out, stretching. This bed was so much more comfortable than the prison bed he had stayed in the first night. His clothes felt stiff from sleeping in them, but it wasn't anything uncomfortable. He contemplated taking a shower, but he didn't know where he could do that. He remembered Hunk showing him a bathroom on the tour, but he didn't remember where it was.

He got up. Maybe he could just wander around till he found it.

He stepped over to the wardrobe and riffled through it for a moment before finding a red lined towel. This would do. There were other clothes in there, but other than a gray shirt identical to the one he was wearing, they were all riddled with holes from what he assumed were from moths of some sort.

He would have to change back into the same clothes (Bar the shirt) but they weren't that dirty so he didn't mind all that much. There was a small blood stain on the shoulder of his jacket from where lance had fallen on him, but the reds blended (almost) and he could wash it out whenever he found the shower.

He grabbed what he needed and headed out. He wandered for a few minutes all alone but found himself at the dead end of the medical wing. He was about fifty meters away when he caught the whisper of hushed voices. Curious, he followed them into the infirmary.

Maybe he could get one of them to give him directions. Or soap.

His ears twitched as the voices grew louder. He peeked his head into the door way and peered in to see what was going on. It seemed like the entire crew was gathered around a healing pod looking at whatever was inside.

"Come on, he should have been out like nine hours ago!" Pidge muttered impatiently.

"But we don't know if he was lying about his head being the only thing that got hurt. Coran, pull up the stats again." Hunk's words tumbled out in a jumble. He kept looking from the others to the pod like he would miss something if he looked away for too long.

'Was Lance still in the pod from last night?'

Keith took another step forward.

"You saw them two minutes ago. I'm sure Lance will be fine, concussions and head wounds are always a bit more complicated and sometimes take much longer to heal. And if his body has been under extreme amounts of stress or been lacking sleep for a few days it makes the process slow to a crawl. It uses the energy the body already has in it to restore the other parts of it, an exchange if you will. If he doesn't have adequate amounts of energy it has to focus on restoring that too. Also-"

"Okay Coran, I think that's enough for now." Allura spoke up softly as she smiled gently at the man in question. "But I suppose he hasn't gotten much sleep since The Hal-," She cut herself off as if she was going to say something different before changing her mind before saying, "Keith. Since Keith got here."

"That idiot. He kept saying it was his fault and refused to let it go."

"He tortured himself for days over that. He was cracking terrible jokes the whole time. Ones that actually made since, but they were at his own expense." Hunk put a hand on the pod and sighed.

"He really needs to learn to convey his emotions in a more healthy way." Shiro said solemnly. The entire group nodded as one.

A sense of Déjà vu came over him and Keith felt as if he was overhearing things that he shouldn't again.

"If you ever want to learn to control it you're going to have to stop relaxing with your other ears." Thace had lectured him. It had been a few weeks after the 'incident' and Keith was trying his hardest to make things better, and they were. But he was still unable to control his hearing.