[ there's no real reason for him to be so surprised to find keith right there, hovering over him. he hadn't heard the telltale sounds of footsteps drawing further away, or the tight snap of a door being shut. and yet, when he opens his eyes, they clear on an expression of unrestrained shock, complete with raised brows and a slack jaw. the kind of surprised that's tinged with a sense of wonder, much like keith himself might look should he ever finally find his beloved mothman.
what hurts? everything, lance wants to say, because he's Dramatique™ like that, but there is a strange sense of urgency radiating from the other that he finds himself feeling humbled to, or at the very least abashed. this is serious, and though instinct has him reaching for a joke, a taunt, maybe even a fart — anything to shake this weird tension off — he finds himself coming back empty-handed, so he grasps at the sheets instead. ]
—Sorry.
[ keith may not have been prepared to apologize, but as proud and defiant as lance himself can be, his own apology is sitting there ready on his tongue. he hecked up back there with zero, should have called for back up when things got too dicey, maybe even way before that; but he realizes now that he hecked up here too, somehow, and that's why he can't quite meet keith in the eyes anymore, staring off instead to some random spot away from him.
it's the bonding moment all over again, isn't it? where lance felt compelled to brush this off as nothing, inconsequential in the grand scheme of things seeing as how he's fine, hes's getting better, why make it a bigger thing than it already is—
it's not nothing to keith, for whatever reason lance is still struggling to understand, and so maybe brushing if off like that hadn't been the most sensitive thing to do... ]
I'll tell you what you wanna know, just... just promise you won't go looking for trouble, okay? [ a pause, and one final attempt at levity: ] I don't think I can be as good a nurse as you.
[ it's not about not trusting keith's abilities. keith's one of the strongest, most dynamic fighters he knows. he knows the guy will do whatever it takes, but (thanks to their late-night swamp chat) now he also knows for a certainty that keith is also the kind of guy who won't stop, either. and past faith in abilities, and past his own sympathy for his confused attacker — he just doesn't want to have to come home one day and see keith all bloody and broken. he saw it once, back on the castle-ship after meeting with the blade, and it had been bad enough then. for some reason, lance things if he saw it again now, he wouldn't know how to even deal with it. ]
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what hurts? everything, lance wants to say, because he's Dramatique™ like that, but there is a strange sense of urgency radiating from the other that he finds himself feeling humbled to, or at the very least abashed. this is serious, and though instinct has him reaching for a joke, a taunt, maybe even a fart — anything to shake this weird tension off — he finds himself coming back empty-handed, so he grasps at the sheets instead. ]
—Sorry.
[ keith may not have been prepared to apologize, but as proud and defiant as lance himself can be, his own apology is sitting there ready on his tongue. he hecked up back there with zero, should have called for back up when things got too dicey, maybe even way before that; but he realizes now that he hecked up here too, somehow, and that's why he can't quite meet keith in the eyes anymore, staring off instead to some random spot away from him.
it's the bonding moment all over again, isn't it? where lance felt compelled to brush this off as nothing, inconsequential in the grand scheme of things seeing as how he's fine, hes's getting better, why make it a bigger thing than it already is—
it's not nothing to keith, for whatever reason lance is still struggling to understand, and so maybe brushing if off like that hadn't been the most sensitive thing to do... ]
I'll tell you what you wanna know, just... just promise you won't go looking for trouble, okay? [ a pause, and one final attempt at levity: ] I don't think I can be as good a nurse as you.
[ it's not about not trusting keith's abilities. keith's one of the strongest, most dynamic fighters he knows. he knows the guy will do whatever it takes, but (thanks to their late-night swamp chat) now he also knows for a certainty that keith is also the kind of guy who won't stop, either. and past faith in abilities, and past his own sympathy for his confused attacker — he just doesn't want to have to come home one day and see keith all bloody and broken. he saw it once, back on the castle-ship after meeting with the blade, and it had been bad enough then. for some reason, lance things if he saw it again now, he wouldn't know how to even deal with it. ]