I just made 3 new drafts wtf am I thinking this is a bad idea
Also, at sarah12kid, your prayers have been answered
Keith POV
Keith doesn't think he's felt a touch this gentle in a long time.
Actually, he doesn't think he's felt a touch this gentle in his entire life, and you were barely grazing him.
Keith took a brutal beating from the training bot after he tried to see if he could fight it in hand-to-hand combat (he couldn't). He was planning on just ignoring the multiple bruises and scratches on his body, maybe put a band-aid if it was absolutely necessary, but that plan was pretty shot after you spotted him in the hallway.
From there you dragged him into the infirmary, insisting on treating him despite his complaints. But now, Keith was starting to feel thankful toward that bot for scratching up his face, because if it wasn't for the gash on his cheek and forehead, those soft fingers of yours wouldn't be brushing against his face as you treated the open wounds.
Your fingers barely touched him as you bandaged the cuts, unintentional in the process. You weren't even thinking about, unlike Keith who couldn't stop. The peroxide-soaked cotton didn't sting so harshly and the bandaging didn't feel so obviously uncomfortable like usual.
Simple procedure he could have done himself turned into a pleasant ordeal all because of your enticing touch.
It had been so long since he felt someones touch on his craving skin, one who he usually denied affection simply because he himself couldn't get beyond his own walls. But this wasn't technically affection, though now Keith wished it was. He wondered how it would feel to intertwine his calloused hand with your soft one. To feel your actual hand, palm and all, cup his face or have your nimble fingers in his hair.
"Alright," You mutter as you smooth a patch over Keith's face, thumb edging off the end and stroking his cheek, "I'm done."
As you pull away, putting the white, plastic, first aid kit back together, Keith feels his skin cry out in distress, begging him to reobtain the sweet softness it had been craving for so long. Instead blood rushed to his face, the feeling of embarrassment from his desperate thoughts rising with it. Despite his best efforts he couldn't will the growing heat on his cheeks away, apting to praying you don't notice his reddening skin.
Unfortunately for him, you do.
Furrowing your brow, your eyes narrow in on his flushing skin. Swooping your head down low after a moment, you inspect Keith's face at a closer proximity, thinking nothing of it except his health. Pushing back his bangs you rest a hand on his burning forehead.
"Are you alright? You're really warm."
It was really a simple question, but Keith's brain could hardly compute it. Not with your pretty eyes so near he could see the variations in your irises. Or with your gentle-looking lips so close to him he just wanted to feel them on his own and get lost.
And especially not with your soft hand pressed so gingerly to his forehead, relieving the aching need it created on his skin.
Keith stared at you, star-struck into silence for a long moment before his antisocial instincts kicked in. Shaking his head vigorously and retracting from your intoxicating touch, Keith tried to hide his moments of vulnerability.
"I'm fine." His voice was gruff and short.
Before you could even get an answer in he jumped off the table and headed for the door. He stopped at the entrance for a split second and muttered a quick 'Thank you' before bolting, leaving you confused in an empty room.
It wasn't until he was a good distance away from the medical bay that Keith started to slow his step, thoughts of what just happened taking over. Eventually he came to a stop, leaning against the closest wall as he tried to decipher what spell you put on him to make him so powerless. Anyone else and he would have been his same, difficult self but with you he felt like a lost puppy:
Desperate for someone's affection.
Even now his body was crying out for your touch, feeling lonely without your attention. Absentmindedly, Keith raised a hand to his forehead, grazing the place yours had been with ginger fingers.
Keith closed his eyes and reimagined it: The soothing comfort your touch brought to him. How entranced he felt with your every move.
A conversation appeared in Keith's mind. It was with Shiro from a long time ago, the garrison.
He had told him that one day he'd find someone who made him feel different. That had an affect on him like no one else ever did. They'd make his heart strain and his breath go away. He'd long for them in ways he never thought he needed. Shiro told him to never push them away, even if how they made him feel scared him.
Because nothing hurt more than to become neglected by someone you love.
Sighing, Keith dropped his hand and opened his eyes. The thought of that scared him more than the spell he was under when with you. But he couldn't deny what he felt.
How his heart was tight in his chest and how hard it was to breathe.
How much he longed for you.
How no one had ever made him feel the way you did.
And how the thought of your neglect scared Keith more than anything.
There was no way to deny what was blatantly infront of him:
He loved you.
He loved you more than he thought he ever could again.
Slowly, Keith smiled.
