I've lived so much life

[whatsacactus]

Who: Keith and Sevii house
Where: Sevii Island
When: 9/2 night time
Summary: Keith waking up after a week long sleep for that good good canon update
Rating: PG 13 for Keith's glo-up
Log:

[A week of sleep. Uninterrupted, deep, silent sleep. He doesn't remember falling asleep so heavily he doesn't wake up. He remembers laying down to sleep after the bonfire and 'Never Have I Ever' with everyone from their world. Espurr and Torracat coming to curl up with him and then... Everything. Everything happening. Shiro crashing. The Blue Lion. The Alteans, Voltron. Zarkon and fighting the Druid in a room of quintessence in glowing vats. Lotor, Shiro disappearing, the Blades, Kuron, his own mother.

So much more than Shiro had told him before he'd ask to hear nothing. It feels like it's been years.

So much that Keith audibly gasps when his eyes open. His breathing's heavy and he's confused. He was in the Black Lion. He crashed it. By all accounts, he should probably be dead from it. He's in a soft bed, and there's something vibrating next to him. A minute later, something headbutts his cheek and it's a cat - Torracat. It feels like a faded memory, this cat. All of them, his Pokemon, a dream he remembers upon waking up.

He carefully raises one hand, stroking her back a little.]

Hey... Why're you so cuddly, huh?

[He doesn't notice anyone else in the room with him.]

Comments

[shiro2hero]

[Yeah, guess who's also there. Who despite so many admonishments not to do this, went and did this exact thing. Staying put in the room. Having dragged a chair in.]

[Except, somehow, he'd crashed. His arms folded on the edge of the bed. His head crashed down on top of them. He'd let Armin and Matt relieve him, occasionally. But for the most part?]

[He's been right there.]

[Keeping watch.]

[whatsacactus]

[He gives a little "oof" when Torracat walks across his chest to Shiro's side. Keith blinks slowly, then realizes what he's seeing. Shiro, before the fight with Zarkon. Before he died. The hair is the proof alone, but he remembers everything Shiro had told him before.

He starts to sit up, pushing himself onto his elbows before carefully further. His whole body feels sore, laying in bed for a week or from crashing the Black Lion, he isn't sure. It's weird. Torracat lets out a Tooooor and butts against Shiro's arm. Hey, the human's awake.]

[shiro2hero]

[More likely than not, this is the first time he's really slept since that first morning. Despite literally everyone's best efforts to the contrary. It's just been too much. If his face weren't buried in his own arms, that much would show on his face -- in the dark circles back in place.]

[He feels the bed shift. The cat butt into him.]

Okay... okay. I'm back. I'm up.

[Thinking it's only her. Only Torracat reminding him what he's responsible for.]

[whatsacactus]

[Keith gets settled sitting upright. And it's clear some things have changed, the way he's sitting taller, a little bigger all around. His hair has grown and there's a long scar from his right jaw to just under his eye.

Something that hasn't changed is how his eyes hold concern for his best friend. Or how his voice always goes soft for him.]

Shiro... [Torracat smugly sits between them, tail swishing. Look, she kept you both safe.]

[shiro2hero]

[It sort of looks like someone yanked his head up on a string. His eyes go wide. It feels sort of like his heart just jumped straight up into his throat -- they made it? They got through this? They...]

[His expression doesn't change, when those new features register in his head.]

[But that's secondary.]

[That's something to talk about after the kneejerk response of grabbing his friend and wrapping him up in an exhausted, welcome back, hug.]

[whatsacactus]

Oh--

[Oh, that's a hug. That's a hug he's missed, and since Shiro's keeping it gentle, so does he. Keith rests his forehead against Shiro's shoulder and breathes in deep. They saved Earth. He survived, somehow. He's back in... this weird place. It's been years.]

Long time no see.

[shiro2hero]

[Not careful for long. Because no sooner is it returned than he's holding on a little tighter. Because ... they made it. They didn't lose anyone else. Not yet.]

It -- must have been.

[There's an apology on the edge of his throat, but he bites it back. Hard.]

We really missed you.

[schachmeister]

[It's not Armin who first notices something has happened to Keith; it's Espurr. He's in the living room with her, showing her one of the picture books he had gotten for Circinus when the Voltorb had first learned to read, when suddenly she stiffens, her head jerking up before she scrambles away.]

E-Espurr!

[Armin doesn't have a choice but to follow her, leaving the book on the carpet. He can't just let her take off on her own like that. Something might be wrong. He's not entirely surprised when Espurr leads him to Keith's bedroom, though admittedly, his chest tightens when he sees it. He knows there are two equally possible things he might find inside: Keith could be awake again or he could be gone. And until he steps inside, he won't know.

It's Schrodinger's Keith, if Armin knew who Schrodinger was.

There is no sense in putting it off though. Whatever he will find inside, it won't change, no matter how long he dawdles outside the room. He pushes the door further open so he can step inside himself, his eyes automatically going to the bed --well, not like there is much else to look at in Keith's room-- and the sense of relief is immediate.]

Keith. You're-- [Taller. Older. Scarred. There is going to be no question about whether Keith knows new things, not with him looking like that, so Armin just settles for the painfully obvious.] awake. [His voice might sound a little shaky with relief as he runs one hand through his hair, smiling.] Everybody is going to be so relieved.

[whatsacactus]

[He's been awake for a little bit - long enough totalk with Shiro some before everyone else finds out he's awake. Espurr's entrance, climbing up the bed to bury her whole face into him is welcome. He'd wondered if they got her into her ball or something else.

He's stroking her gently, smiling a little when Armin comes in after her.]

Hey - Armin. [It feels like a far off memory, saying that name.] It seems like it.

[schachmeister]

Espurr most of all, I imagine. I've been trying to keep her calm, but--

[He shakes his head a bit. Things had gone okay enough, were it not for one critical horrendous flaw of Armin's: he's not Keith.]

How are you feeling? Is there anything I could get you? Jean was starving when he woke up. I'm sure there is something in the kitchen if you are hungry.

[whatsacactus]

I appreciate it.

[No, there really isn't anything Armin could do to fix that problem. Espurr's picky like that. He looks back down at her, moving to curl up against the crook of his arm and effectively rendering one of his arms useless for the time being.]

Thanks, Shiro already brought me some food. I was pretty hungry. Just getting used to being upright for now.

[schachmeister]

Nothing he cooked, right?

[Probably not though. Keith looks far too lively to have consumed any of Shiro's cooking.

If Keith won't object, Armin will perch himself on the edge of chair Shiro had been using to keep vigil at Keith's bedside.]

Is he asleep now? Shiro, I mean.

[whatsacactus]

Something Hunk cooked.

[And there goes Espurr, falling asleep against him and purring up a storm. She'd missed her trainer, and all that worry finally got a release to exhaustion. Keith looks to the door in thought, then back down at the little kitten.]

Maybe... I'm not sure, he went somewhere. [Either way, Shiro's fine.] Thanks for looking after Espurr.

[spacebaloney]

[Lance, as assigned by Shiro, has been taking care of the house. He doesn't think he's doing a very good job because, to be honest, how does one take care of a house that isn't his and everybody who lives in it can handle themselves? So Lance has been doing a lot of sitting around nursing his broken nose, calling into work and asking for another day off much to his manager's chagrin, and waiting. Waiting for something to happen, either more of Matt dragging Shiro into bed for some much needed sleep or for Keith to suddenly just go poof.

Only one of those happens and as far as Lance checked in this morning, Keith is still there, coma'd out. It's what he expects to see when he goes back into the other guy's bedroom hours later with a Wailmer shaped watering can in hand to check on his succulents (and probably murdering them in the process.) The plants are fine and still sitting on the ledge as expected. However, Keith is up and his eyes are open and the sight almost has Lance dropping the can right on the bedroom floor.]

Keith!

[It takes a second for the change in his future teammate to hit Lance and that's when he's squinting his already narrowed eyes in suspicious confusion. What's on Keith's face? And did Keith bulk up?]

Keith?

[whatsacactus]

[Keith watches as Lance walks in without a word. Goes to water his succulents (which he checked and are definitely overwatered). He waits to see how long it takes and...


Yep there it is. He smiles at him.]

Hey.

[spacebaloney]

Don't hey me! What happened to your face? What happened to your.... [Lance waves a hand up and down and scowls.] ...everything?

[Even the mullet's longer. Something happened during Keith's coma and Lance needs to know what.]

[whatsacactus]

[Keith stares at him, completely blank faced. Then shrugs.]

The passage of time?

[He knows he was only asleep here for a week and logically this is impossible. But so are the pokemon here. It's all he got.]

[spacebaloney]

[Lance frowns and then puts down the watering can with a kind of force that isn't born from anger or anything like it, just a lot of worry and concern over Keith that he doesn't want to admit to. What would it matter anyway when he and Keith are supposed to still be relative strangers?]

Bullshit. You were asleep for only a week and now there's something on your face and you look...

[More muscley. Swole. Stronger. Hotter. More something Lance can't quite put his skinny finger on and he can't figure out how someone in a coma manages to pull it off.]

...different.

[whatsacactus]

[Keith is still watching him.]

Can't explain it. A week here, years back home.

[pidge_out]

[Pidge hears the news from Shiro some time later in the day. But as soon as the news has been broken to her she's racing up to his room, taking the steps three at a time, and when she finally gets to his room her eyes are wide with a mix of excitement and relief. A feeling that only seems to grow when she sees the telltale scar on his face. After all, where everyone else has been confused by the change, for Pidge and Hunk it just means that now he knows what they know. It's definitely the cause of some of the relief she's feeling at the moment.] Keith! Do you really know everything now??

[whatsacactus]

[Keith is looking through both his pokegear and his actual orange phone from their world. He's trying to catch up on everything, see what's been happening when Pidge comes in. He looks up, then smiles a little. He isn't exactly sure when Pidge is from; Shiro must've gotten to her last time and asked her to keep it mum.]

Define 'everything'.

[pidge_out]

[She's still smiling a little as she steps further into the room, perching herself at the foot of the bed, head tilted thoughtfully.] Well, the last thing I remember from home is all of us deciding to head back to Earth.

[whatsacactus]

Oh.

[Oh boy.

Keith looks innocently down at Espurr, asleep in his lap and he's loathe to wake her up. She's probably been annoying everyone the entire week.]

I'm past that. Way... way past that.

[pidge_out]

Tell me. [Space time continuum be damned. Keith just fell asleep for a week looking the way they had when they'd first met, and then woke up with several years worth of memories and a physical being to match. Plus they're in a universe where it's okay to make animals fight each other for fun and profit. Nothing makes a lot of sense. How much damage is knowing the future going to do to her?] Did we make it home okay?

[whatsacactus]

[Well, Pidge asked. He was going to ask how much she wanted to know, if she wanted to know. Leave it to her to lead the way.]

We do make it home.

...It's okay now.