I want sleep.

۝ ۝ ۝

We were in the cave, although I had no idea how I ended up here. Did I sneak out after all? Was the communicating device not enough? How long had I been here?

Keith was in front of me, but not in his usual spot, not with the habitual one meter between us. He had put way less space between us this time, his hand prompted on my shoulder. I was looking at him through bleary eyes, wondering why he was so close. His lips moved, but I couldn't read them, and couldn't feel the warmth of his breath against my face. I swallowed, hoping to disperse whatever was blocking my ears from hearing what he was saying. Like a echo bouncing back to me, I could finally pick up on what words his mouth was forming.

"Lance. Lance, I have to tell you something..."

The image of him flickered, just like a hologram, and I wondered if this wasn't in fact real, and that he was just another created, artificial form in my room that seemed so very true. But how could his hand solidly be placed on my shoulder? I couldn't feel his touch, but I could see it.

I could see it, his lips moving, and the next tick, I could hear it too.

"Lance, I really l..."

I gasped awake, so fast that it felt that my whole being flew out of my body for the moment. I was so disoriented, the map inside my head momentarily turned completely upside down, in a way that prevented me from reading the coordinates of my thoughts. My chest was heaving and sinking, and my body felt both painfully awake but also very much exhausted. I didn't realize I was sweating until I touched my forehead, watching how the light around me reflected into the droplets in my hand. I also caught something else with my eyes; the device, placed just beside my legs, probably because I'd never put it away from yesterday.

Lance, I have to tell you something.

The dream I had - the fact that it was even a dream to begin with disconcerted me - was the faintest of an echo in my head, and I could hear it again, how it was bouncing from wall to wall, messing up every thought of mine, just like before.

My arm felt itchy, and numb, like I'd put all my weight on it during my sleep, but still I reached for the apparatus, trying to navigate through the fictitious morning fog, blinking away the remaining blur in my eyes.

I pressed open the chat we had yesterday, just to see. I was sure that it was something there, something I'd missed to read because I'd been just that tired. It was something he'd written, I knew that, almost for sure. 

The chat popped up in the air, and I blinked, closing it, just to turn it on again. I did this three times, and the results always stayed the same. I tried one more time, just to make sure, and threw the device to the side with a growl when nothing changed. My heart was thumping hard against my ribcage, and it felt unhealthy to have my pulse increased this way just when I woke up. My skin felt droughty - probably because I'd gone without my facemask yesterday - and it tasted horrible in my mouth. Not only was Keith stirring up my thoughts, but also messing up my skin routine. 

There was nothing new, no message I had missed to read. My mind had been just that desperate, and created an illusion based on what I really wanted to see. But what did I want to see, and what was it that Keith was supposed to say? Was my brain telling me something?

That was something I needed to figure out, so that's exactly what I did.

The hologram of him almost instantly formed in front of me as I sent signals to his device, biting down on my pride the whole time. I didn't know what was going on inside my head for me to act this way, but I had a very weak will to retreat, so I didn't, instead waiting for the connection to fully set.

Keith looked anxious as he answered, his eyebrows wrenched. His face was the only thing I could see. "Lance? Is everything alr..."

He fell silent, taking a good look at me, and slowly, very slowly, a little grin was appearing on his lips, his facial features softening. Eventually, he let a little chuckle slip past his lips.

I had a bedhead, didn't I? My hand immediately flew up to touch my hair. Shit, I had a bedhead. Turning the device away from me, I tried to fix the mess of white hair strands, looking at the mirror in front of me to make sure I looked as proper as possible. I kept cursing under my breath the whole time, hating how Keith's little laughs filled my room in a way that rang the bells in my sanity. 

"Stop laughing!" I hissed, running my trembling fingers through my short hair, refusing to see Keith's reaction. I ran my fingers under my eyes, trying to press some life into my face. I slapped my cheeks to wake me up a little, and Keith continued to laugh from beside me. When I felt less ugly, I decided to inhale deeply, before picking up the device again, facing Keith with a glare. He smirked back at me, and it was very close to make me drop my act.

"Good morning", he said at last, his voice low, and my heart was spasming. To think that I would hear Keith wish me a good morning; it seemed like something completely implausible, but here I was, hearing exactly that.

I could only stare at him, not getting anything out of my mouth. My mouth was drained of every possible word. 

"I thought that something had happened you", he continued, snorting. "Why else would you be calling so early in the morning? But I should know by now, how your motives will forever be a mystery to me."

"Hmph", is the only sound that came out of me, and I pouted, looking to the side, doing a really lame try in hiding the flush on my cheeks. 

"Why'd you wake up so early, anyways? Do you usually wake up this time?" I heard him ask, but I spurned to look at him, still trying to pull through with my moue. I heard shuffles from the other line, and Keith's careful footsteps that rang through the cave. "And I will probably have to cut this call short, since it's time for me to shower."

At the sound of his latest sentence, my head whipped around so fast that I could hear my whole spine crack. That was concerning, and the pulse in my ears at the sight of him was too. My chin fell wide open, and I could feel how my whole body was going slack, making me drop the device in my lap, but the image of him was clear anyways.

The image of him, in front of me, shirtless, his suit peeled off from his torso, the top part of the attire hanging down from his hips, showing his ridiculously toned back and arms, as he was facing away from me, reaching for something in one of the supply boxes that was out of view from the camera lense, and it looked like he was standing there, on my bed, baring his skin to me like that - it sounded wrong, even in my head.

The natural light that the fire shed painted his skin a warm opera mauve, and the muscles under pulled and stretched with every movement he made, and the several battle scars elongated on his back as he stood up straight, unfolding a red towel - that looked very shabby - in front of him. His whole body glistened, like he'd been training hard, and still his mullet managed to maintain its thick, dark curls. To make it even worse for me, Keith decided to run his hand through it, shaking away droplets of sweat. He turned around, his muscles swelling, and that's when my nose broke down into an actual nosebleed.

Keith turned around fully now, his face contorted into a horrified expression, and he dropped his towel just to fly toward his device, picking it up, the hologram flittering just slightly. "Lance? What happened? Are you okay?"

Quiznack, shit, quiznacking shit, quiznacking hell~ 

"Quiznack!" My hands flew up to my nose, precluding it from dropping down and staining my blanket. I stumbled out of bed, almost falling face first on the floor. The metal surface under me felt sharply cold when it met my burning hot skin. I staggered forward, trying to drag myself to the door, Keith's worried voice calling from behind me.

"Wait here!" I yelled back, almost colliding with the wall in front of me, and I didn't know if it was due to the nosebleed, or just my usual ineptitude. Either way, I quickly needed to get to the bathroom.

Keith yelled my name again, even as I let the doors close after me.

۝ ۝ ۝

"Stupid, stupid, STUPID!" I splashed water over my face again, squeezing my eyes shut when it came in to my eyes. I forced them open, starring at my reflection with bloodshot eyes. "You doltish little Xznly Squiwl!" I punched the sink, only for an instant shot of pain to surge through my arm, and I retreated in agony. "Ow ow ow..." My fist pulsated, and I could guarantee a bruise would form on my knuckles. Sigh. At least the nosebleed had stopped, but I'd not only lose a lot of blood, but also a lot of my judiciousness. My head felt emptied on basically everything, except for the constant appearing memory of the incident this morning. I flicked my head at the thought of it, only to wince again when I'd used my wounded hand. I couldn't even get frustrated without making a fool out of myself.

Okay, so it had officially happened - me getting a nosebleed from the sight of Keith. I'd eventually come to a point where I blushed so hard my nose couldn't take it, and I hadn't expected less than this humiliation. And this was official too: Keith was absolutely, truly, drop dead gorgeous, no doubt about that. And hot too. Especially hot. I knew that my nose wouldn't have lasted longer than this, so it was about time I got a nosebleed. 

I took one last look in the mirror, deciding it was time to get out. I had spent at least twenty minutes here now, trying to stop my nose from gushing, and for the images of him to leave my head. Not that they would, but I could always try to hustle them, just for now, and then I could proceed to freak out over them later. 

I hurried out of the bathroom, hoping that Keith wouldn't be annoyed I'd leave him alone for this long, and to my very little surprise, he'd ended the call as I entered my room again. But then, to my very big surprise, he hadn't left me completely. The device blinked on my bed, indicating I had a message to read. Suddenly, the room didn't feel so barren anymore, and I careened my way over to it, my hands reaching out for it, fingers shakily turning it on. Keith's message popped up almost immediately:

Go to the garden, I'm here.

۝ ۝ ۝

It was way too early for this, honestly.

The grass tickled my bare feet as I ran out, my robe flapping like a cape behind me, and I ignored how one of my slippers had managed to slip off my foot during my haste. To think I'd be this energized this early in the morning... Keith definitely had his ways.

The sun had just begun to arise, and I knew that I didn't have long before everyone else would be awake, and I knew how Allura would react once she realized that I wasn't in my room when she would come to wake me up. The orange and pink sky told me I could get into serious ado.

I panted as I reach the tree, running around to see Keith sitting and leaning back against the tree trunk. My mind instantaneously wanted to paint him the way I'd seen him in the cave, but I shook my head, trying to suppress that urge. Upon seeing me, he flew up into a standing position, his hair swinging in a way that couldn't be possible, and the next tick, he had taken a step towards me, cupping my face and turning it upwards. I squeaked, every part of my body shutting down. I could feel how the blood was gathering in my face again, and I knew there was a 99.5 chance I would get a nosebleed again.

Keith's hand felt frigid against my sizzling hot skin, but my heat was nothing compared to the one his eyes held as he intently stared at my nose, his eyebrows harshly knit together in concentration. His thumb grazed the spot just under my eye, and everything in me solidified. It was terrifying, to not be able to move. Was this how I would die? Because it sure is a wonderful death.

He didn't say anything, and I couldn't get anything out of me, so we stood like this for a while, with him holding my face, staring at my nose like he'd never seen such a thing before. My eyes traveled downwards, and my head kept on trying to take away the suit on his torso, just to see again. I quickly had to look up again, opening my mouth. 

"...Keith...?" I squealed, and I had to clear my throat to shake in some sonority into my voice. "Keith? How... How long have you p-planned to stare... at my nose for?" His hand moved, only to place the pad of his thumb over the bride of my nose, moving it up and down slowly, turning my head down again, moving his eyes up to mine. 

"What happened?" he asked, his voice mellow, and I melted all over again, my legs almost giving out and sending me tumbling down to the ground. 

"I...I-I...I was... I just..." My mouth kept flopping, but nothing sensible came out of it.

"Hey, don't feel embarrassed about it. Just tell me, I just want to make sure you're okay", he assured, still not letting go of my face, and I couldn't do anything but to just gawk.

Right, his abilities to smell my feelings. Lovely. There is no escaping his sharp senses.

"I-I'm okay...", is all I said, hoping he would understand. 
He did.

"Alright." Far too soon, his hand left my face, and I almost descended forward because of the dearth of his support. I tumbled forward, as he stepped backwards, and I quickly had to regain my balance. "I'm glad you're okay. Just wanted to make sure." He smiled, before turning around to walk towards the forest again, just like that.

I gaped, my mind spiraling in a way that couldn't be normal. My hand flew up, but stopped mid-air, hanging like that, just like everything else was just hanging in my head. 

"I... What? I-is that all? You just came here to check if I was okay? You came all the way here, just to do that, when you could've just stayed on the call? And now you're just going to...leave? Just like that?" My voice was wavering, and it was annoyingly pitchy, but I couldn't care about that now, not when he had the audacity to...

He looked over his shoulder, that same grin on his lips. "Just a reason to see you in person, I guess." My mouth fell open again, and I could feel how my eyebrows flew all the way up to my hairline. My chin just lightly grazed the grass strands under me. He snickered. "Besides, I never got the time to shower."

And with that said, he turned around and leaped over to the trees ahead, not looking back, even as he reached the beginning of the forest, and ran in. I watched him disappear into the green chaos, away form me, and only when he was completely gone could I move again, and the processor in my brain too. Only one thought was placed in my mind:

He's going to shower. Where the hell does he shower? Okay, but if he hadn't carried a whole mechanical shower with him to that cave, I didn't know how else he did it. Where? Was it a another place I didn't know of, beyond his cave?
Of course there was - I barely knew the places of my own planet.

The questions in my head was resolute enough to cloud every sinful image of him in my mind, and I needed to get some of them answered. At least one, no matter how wicked it was. I had time, maybe one varga, to a minimum.

So I waited a few doboshes, before running to the same direction as him.

۝ ۝ ۝

This took way too long to write, but it's finally out! Stay tuned for the next chapter, and to see how it goes for my spicy bois.