When Two Worlds Collide

Chapter 2

                  Not that long after Keith had stormed out of the common room during his conversation with him and Lance had he realized what an idiot he had been. He was so stupid, he was so, so, so, stupid for letting Lance see him like that. He never should have let Lance see him in such a vulnerable state, once let alone twice! God he was such a moron, he never should have let his guard down like that. Now Lance has seen a part of him that he has never shown to anymore except his father and Shiro. And he had intended that no one would ever see him in such a state, never again, not what happened after the last time he thought that he could let somebody get close to him. He won't go through that again, if he had to do that Keith really thinks that he would end up killing himself for it. And now to top it all off Lance was a witness to all of it. So now he had plenty of new materials that he could use to tease and taunt him mercilessly and hold over his head just to get a rise out of Keith and a laugh for himself. To make matters worse on himself was the fact that Lance never would have even found out about any of it if Keith had not had been stupid enough to let his guard down and go out of his bedroom that first night. The only reason that he had ventured out of his room during the Castle's night cycle that night was because he had been suffering from nightmares for the past months. Sleeping and him hadn't had been the best of friends for the past couple of months. Half the time Keith couldn't sleep because of his insomnia was running rampant, and when he could sleep he was plagued with nightmares. And this particular nightmare had been extremely gruesome and felt very real. When it was over Keith had woken up in a cold sweat, with his heart hammering so hard in his chest that he thought that it might burst out, his ears were ringing so hard that he felt dizzy, and he was nauseous that he thought that he was going to puke .So he figured that he left his room to go through a walk that he might be able to calm down his nerves enough so that he could at least salvage a few hours of sleep. Normally when he couldn't sleep he would go to the training room and train himself into exhaustion. But this time around his body and his mind were both so tired that he could hardly function. He knew that if he had gone down to train that he would have hurt himself there and there would be nobody awake to come help him. So once he had calmed himself down Keith thought that a walk would be the right thing to do help calm himself down and relieve some of the stress he was feeling. He figured that he might as well do something useful since he couldn't sleep. And it probably helped that it seemed like something that Shiro would have told him to do.

Though Keith hadn't expected to run into Lance in the little secret hideaway that he had found and thought that he was the only one who knew about it. And he certainly hadn't expected to have on of his flashbacks in front of him either. At this point Keith couldn't even really remember what this particular one was about to be honest. All that he could clearly remember about that one was that feeling of pure and utter fear, and panic that just seemed to flow rapidly through his veins. And how his anxiety levels had just seemed to spike higher than he ever thought was possible, when he had realized that there was someone else in the room with him and he was no longer alone and able to suffer in peace. Keith had felt his lungs plummet into his stomach when his fear idled brain had pieced together enough to let him realize that the person in the room with him was none other than Lance. And that one single thought alone was enough to send Keith over the edge. And over the edge he did went.

After Keith was able to calm himself down after his first encounter with Lance, he had felt so embarrassed and so guilty. He felt embarrassed at the fact that he had ruined the reputation that he hah held up among the team. Keith knew that he had a reputation for being a hothead and that there was this some sort of image that people had of him whenever they thought about him. And especially the one that Lance had of him since he declared them "rivals." He knew that most likely the vision that Lance had of him painted him as an all around pompous, and cocky, hothead asshole who thought that he was better than everyone else. So for him to look and act, and to be so vulnerable around someone, that someone being Lance was unheard of. And not to mention that it was so out of character for him that it was downright terrifying to think of. And yes, he did in fact realize that he had probably scared and traumatized Lance during both of their encounters more than Keith was by them, but the amount of embarrassment that he felt overid that feeling completely. Then there was the guilt that he felt for almost killing Lance the first time he saw him in an attack. He was lucky that he was able to snap himself out of his spoke out state that he stopped himself from hurting Lance. He felt so bad about that, yes he knew that Lance hate his guts, and wanted nothing to do with him most of the time unless he wanted to make fun of and poke at Keith, but Keith himself didn't actually hate him. Even though the thinks that Lance can be annoying sometimes, but Keith liked Lance. He liked Lance more than anybody realizes. And yes, again he knows that it is a bad idea to fall in love with and gain a crush on someone who repeatedly tells you that they hate your guts. Keith sighed to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair. Once he got back to his room and locked the door he flopped down on his back on his bed. It was then that it really hit him that he needed Shiro here with him to help him deal with his problems. Keith didn't know what he was supposed to do about this. It was hard for Keith to organize his own thoughts into something coherent when he was so exhausted from the lack of sleep he was he getting. Though that's sort of self-explanatory since he's pretty sure that he hasn't slept at all since Shiro's been missing after their last battle with Zarkon, and that's been months ago. He would doze off periodically throughout the day sometimes, but it was never for long periods of time. He couldn't sleep, and when he was able to barely grasp it, he was often plagued with nightmares that kept him up all night.