Shiro blinked into wakefulness. The earlier summer tantrum of deafening thunder had calmed to a mewl. Rain pattered gently against the window and a sallow moon hung in the cloud-brushed sky. The floorboards of the little lakeside bungalow creaked under light feet. Cool air raised the hairs on Shiro’s back as the blankets were lifted and the mattress depressed. He smiled. ‘Welcome home.’
There was no reply. ‘Keith?’ Awkwardly, he began turning in place; felt the small body tense behind him. There, waiting for him, were those devastating eyes all laced with moonlight, wet with unshed tears. ‘Hey. Keith. Keith,’ he muttered, running his hand up Keith’s cold, damp bicep and pulling him against his chest. He kissed Keith’s cheek, his ear, the baby hairs that ghosted round his forehead. He was trembling. ‘What’s wrong? What happened?’
Keith drew back, teeth pulling on his bottom lip as he collected himself. Shiro pushed a strand of thick black hair behind his ear and waited.
‘Shiro,’ Keith said, his voice rattling thin. ‘Let’s get married.’ His earnest, open face was distraught; a fitting proposal for a man who – even now – waited for a shock departure, an inevitable no.
‘Yes.’ Shiro pressed a kiss against Keith’s lips. He laughed into them. ‘Yes. Let’s. Yes, yes.’
No smiles from Keith: just a single, shaking nod. ‘Good,’ he said, in the manner of someone brushing their hands together after a job well done. ‘Good.’ He wiggled his hips forward, until his belly was flush with Shiro’s. His hair was strung wet across Shiro’s chest, angel fish-fine. Strong fingers marked a course up the length of Shiro’s spine, resting finally in the cropped fuzz at the bass of his neck. ‘I love you,’ Keith said.
‘I love you too,’ answered Shiro. ‘And in the morning, if you wake up first, the answer will still be yes.’ At Keith’s moody uncertainty, he tweaked his nose. ‘Just in case: always yes.’
I have a serious headcannon that when they’re a little older, Keith still suffers shockwaves where he think he might lose Shiro again. In this instance, on the drive home, he was worried that something had happened to Shiro in the storm, which prompted a sudden and moody proposal.
