#sheith | Keith is grumpy when he hasn't had enough sleep. Or so it seems.

The entire Atlas crew know when Keith hasn't had enough sleep because he legitimately couldn't sleep.

They also know the difference between that and when the Admiral kept him up for -other- reasons.

This morning, thankfully, is not the latter.

The previous day had Keith running drills with the MFE pilots, everything was going ok until James decided to show off and ruined the whole formation. Him and Keith got into it and Keith ended up storming out of the

hangar, telling Lance to finish everything up. The anger and adrenaline that he felt from James nearly ruining millions of dollars of tech just wouldn't leave him, so he was up all night.

The crew knew Keith had a sleepless night based on how close he was hovering to his

husband, with a cup of coffee in his hands that he was constantly muttering into, his face set into a perfect glare.

It was one of those rare days that Keith had off, but was still on-call as always just in case he was needed anywhere.

Once the morning debrief was finished, Shiro pulled his husband aside.

"Starshine, how many cups of coffee have you had today?"

Keith blinked for a few moments as his brain processed the question as well as how to answer it, "This is number 3..." He mumbled as he took a sip.

Shiro sighed softly as he moved some of Keith's unruly hair from his eyes, "I only have a few more things I need to wrap up here, we can take the day off together so you can rest, how does that sound?"

Keith's brain took some more time to process what Shiro was saying, closing

his eyes when he felt his husband rubbing his cheek, probably checking out just how dark the circles under his eyes were.

"...by? Keith?"

He opened his eyes what felt like seconds later but may have been minutes, "Yeah, that sounds good.." he flashed a small smile.

"Ok, why don't you wait here and we can walk back to our room together ok?"

Keith just nodded as he took a seat at one of the empty command stations, continuing to nurse his coffee.

Shiro is already rescheduling their meetings for the next day so Keith can get some proper

rest as he heads back to his position on the bridge.

--

Keith isn't exactly sure how long Shiro takes to finish everything up, time stopped existing somewhere after 3am when he realized he had been up since 3am the day prior thanks to a nightmare.h

He knows that when Shiro is standing in front of him with a hand on his shoulder, his coffee cup has grown cold.

Shiro smiles as he helps his husband up with a small laugh, "C'mon cherry bomb, let's get out of here. You're not even awake enough to keep your angry face on"

The statement, if overhead, may not have made sense to anyone on the bridge. Everyone knew to steer clear of Keith when he hadn't slept. His face would be set in a permanent grimace and he would for sure always be attached to a cup of coffee, Shiro, or both.

What no one on the entire Atlas crew knew was that it was an act.

There was only one person that Keith let his guard down around, especially when he was this exhausted.

The beep of their door closing brought Keith back to the present as he looked around the room,

the lights were dimmed so that there was just enough light that they could safely navigate to their bedroom from the living room. His eyes next found his husband standing in front of him, his hand always a grounding presence on his shoulder.

Keith finally let his guard down, "Shirooo" he whined as he fell into his husband in a half-hug, "can we stay in bed all day? Pleeease?"

"There we are" Shiro smiled as he picked up his husband and started making their way towards the bedroom.

Keith wasted no time in gripping

on to Shiros uniform top and getting comfortable, "and can we have Chinese takeout for dinner?" He mumbled as he tried to burrow.

Another soft laugh left Shiro as he set Keith down, "Of course baby, let's make sure you get some rest first ok?" He quickly stripped down to his

boxers and helped a very uncoordinated Keith do the same.

Shiro made sure to turn off all the alarms on his phone as Keith wasted no time getting under the covers and resting his head on Shiros chest, grumbling when Shiro wasn't moving fast enough for him.

Shiro wrapped his arms around Keith and pulled him in close, "Sleep well starlight, I love you" he kissed Keith's forehead as he sent a silent command to the Atlas to turn the lights off in their bedroom.

"Wuv you..." Keith mumbled as he finally dropped off.

Shiro and Keith took the full next day off, Shiro cited that Keith slept for almost two days straight when they returned to the bridge the following day.

But Keith's lazy smile and a bite mark on his neck said different.

-Fin

Thanks for indulging me on a Keith who is definitely a bit of a whiny brat when he's tired, but only around Shiro.

Feel free to drop me a ko-fi if you enjoyed! https://ko-fi.com/kit_solo