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It was two days before the Kerberos launch and Daphne was scared. She was scared for Shiro and Matt going out into space. She was scared for Keith because he would be staying here without Shiro. So as soon as Daphne was released for the day, she flat out ran to Shiro’s room, and if anyone took issue with the speed at which she was moving through the halls they didn’t say anything to her.
When she arrived he wasn’t there. So she picked the lock and waited. Daphne hadn’t intended to fall asleep while waiting for Shiro but between the anxiety of losing her friends and the horrific premonitions keeping her up at night, well, she was exhausted and more than a little sleep deprived.
-
The soft sound of Shiro’s door opening caused Daphne to stir but not wake and when Shiro saw her sleeping on the floor with her head against his bed, his heart sank. He had skipped going back to his room immediately after teaching class in favor of taking a walk before dinner. He had then gone to dinner without coming by his room. He wondered how long she had been here.
He moved closer to the bed and got down on his knees in front of her. He reached out and was about to gently shake her awake when he got a good look at her face, she had tear tracks down her face, dry but present. “Daphne, hey Daph. Can you open your eyes for me please? It’s time to wake up.”
Daphne whined a little in response. She snuggled into the familiar touch, hesitated a moment before a soft “...Shiro?” At the sound he went to pull away from where she had snuggled into his chest. She whimpered and held on to him with a death grip.
“Daphne, come on. You gotta let go.” She responded with the faintest whisper, so quiet that he didn’t catch what she said. “What was that?”
“Please don’t go.” barely louder than the first time she’d said it.
He sighed, this again. She hadn’t been herself for over a month, it had gotten worse and worse as the time of his launch approached but she wouldn’t say what it was exactly. Shiro decided his best bet was to change the subject.
“When was the last time you ate? Did you sleep through dinner?” He asked while gently trying to remove the girl from his chest.
“Uuummm, lunch maybe… breakfast?.” Her voice slightly slurred with sleep.
“Really because I didn’t see you in the mess during lunch, at all.”
“Mmmh, ‘m not sure.”
Shiro let out a heavy sigh. “You need to eat regular meals. And when was the last time you slept?” Shiro was starting to get concerned by the fact that she wouldn’t open her eyes. If she didn’t have a death grip on his shirt he’d probably be carrying her to the infirmary right now. She unfortunately had a history of skipping meals and sleep when under stress.
She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘hypocrite’.
“What was that?” He asked with the slightest bit of playfulness in his voice.
“Don’t know. Sleep hard, nightmares.” He stopped trying to pull her off.
“Daphne, can you talk to me about what you’re feeling, about the nightmares? Maybe talking will help.”
“No.”
“Can I at least get you to eat something?”
She thought for a moment, “Not going anywhere.”
“It’s ok, I’ve got food in my apartment.”
“Okay.”
When she made no move to actually move or even open her eyes, Shiro sighed again and decided to just pick her up and carry her into the other room.
If anyone decided to barge into his room and saw them like this, it wouldn’t look good. She was 17, a cadet, and a princess and he was an officer, 24 nearly 25, and leaving on a long space mission in two days. He knew there were already rumors around the garrison.
Of course the moment he had her cradled in his arms carrying her out of his bedroom was the moment someone knocked on the door.
“Shit.” He muttered, and then louder, “Coming. One minute.” But before he could panic, the person on the other side of the door spoke.
“Shiro, It’s me. Can I come in?”
“Come on in Keith.” Shiro had relaxed at the sound of Keith’s voice, he felt that Daphne had relaxed slightly as well. The door slid open, revealing Keith. “Daphne’s here too.” Shiro unnecessarily supplied.
Keith raised his eyebrow. “I can see that. Hey, Daph.”
“Hey.”
“Shiro, what’s wrong with her?”
Shiro had started to try and make some instant noodles for Daphne but it was a bit difficult while carrying her. Keith came over to help, he took over the food prep.
“She hasn’t been sleeping well and I’m not sure when the last time she’s eaten was.”
“Well I can tell you it wasn’t today. I didn’t see her at breakfast or lunch as she typically sits with me.” Shiro moved to the couch with her and sat down. She stayed in his lap.
“She’s being kinda clingy, even for her. Don’t you think?” Keith asked from his place in the kitchen finishing up the soup for Daphne.
“Yeah, I’m pretty worried about her. I’m not really sure what to do though.” Keith shrugged and brought the noodles over to the coffee table. He sat down next to Shiro. He poked Daphne’s leg.
“Wake up Daph, I made your food.” Daphne raised her eyebrow without opening her eyes. “Shut up!” Shiro laughed a bit. Daphne smiled at the sound.
“Come on, Daphne. Keith make soup for you, you should eat it.”
Daphne opened her eyes, just a bit. “Thanks, Keith.”
Keith looked a little startled. “Shiro, take a look at her eyes. They are all red and shiny.”
Shiro reached to Daphne’s face and tilted her chin up to his face but she had closed her eyes again.
“Come on, Daphne. I need to see, you could be sick.” Daphne, in response, tried to bury her face back into Shiro’s chest. “No, Daphne.” Shiro summoned his best caring commander voice. “Look at me. Good, now open your eyes for me.” He looked into her eyes. They were red and glassy like Keith had said. He immediately switched to caring and soft, “That’s it.” Daphne looked pretty bad.
“See what I mean, Shiro?”
“I do.” Shiro hesitated for a second then took the back of his hand and laid it across her forehead. Up until that point she had kept her eyes open. As soon as he touched her face she closed her eyes and melted into his touch. Almost immediately he pulled his hand back. “Daphne, your burning up.” He looked again and noticed the flush on her face and cracked lips. “You need to go to the infirmary.” How had he not noticed before?
“No. I don’t wanna leave you.” She fought her way back into the safety of Shiro. He could feel how weak she was.
“What’s wrong with her?” Keith asked wide eyed and worried for his friend. He would never say it out loud but she was his only other friend beside Shiro.
“She has a fever and I suspect she’s dehydrated. It’s from not sleeping or eating I’m sure.” Then Shiro looked Keith in the eyes, a serious look on his face. “Keith I need you to do something for me.”
Keith understood the seriousness in Shiro’s gaze. He nodded.
“I need you to hurry to the infirmary. Get the doctor and tell them that Cadet Lothirwen is ill and needs medical attention. Bring them here. If anyone tries to stop you on your way there tell them that I sent you to get the doctor. Don’t tell anyone but the doctor about Daphne, it's very important. Do you understand?” Keith looked a bit confused but nodded. “Go, Keith. Please hurry.”
He nodded again, looked back at Daphne with concern once more then hurried out the door.
Shiro looked back down at Daphne. “Come on, you can’t be sitting in my lap when the doctor comes.” She made a disappointed noise but finally allowed Shiro to pry her off of him.
He put her next to him on the couch and leaned her over so she was lying down. She shivered.
“I’ll get you a blanket, hold on.” He got up and went into his bedroom to get the one off of his bed. When he entered the room he was surprised to find her sitting up waiting for him with her eyes open. She looked miserable. “Daphne?”
“Shiro, I need to tell you something.” Her voice was weaker than he had realized. She hesitated for a moment like she was at war with herself over what to say to him. She seemed to come to a decision, but not one that she liked. “It’s about Keith, he isn’t going to do well without you.”
“Oh, I see.” He came up sort for a moment. Shiro had thought that with the extent of her distress she was going to tell him that he was going to die in space or something like that. “I won’t always be there for Keith, or for you for that matter. He needs to learn to survive the garrison without me, but that doesn’t mean that he needs to do it alone.”
Daphne shivered again. Shiro came over and gently helped her to lie down before covering her with his blanket. He brushed some hair out of her face before continuing.
“I may be leaving for a long space journey but you’ll be right here. No matter what happens, you stay with him, promise me.” Daphne nods, too tired to say anything more at this point. “You may be the one with premonitions but I have a feeling that it's going to come down to the two of you against the world and I want you two to stay together.”
Just then the Shiro’s door alert went off before the door opened to Keith and the doctor. Daphne stopped paying attention to what was going just then and allowed herself to drift off into a fitful sleep. She missed how Keith hovered in the corner, anxious and unsure. She missed how Shiro never took his eyes off of her, all the way from his apartment to the infirmary, until they kicked him out for the night.
-
Daphne woke up in the infirmary the next day. She wasn’t sure what time of day it was but she could tell she wasn’t alone. She delayed opening her eyes for a minute needing a second to gather herself before facing Shiro again because that was undoubtedly who was by her side. For over a month she had known that something terrible was going to happen to him on the Kerberos mission. Naturally she assumed the worst. She had become increasingly distressed and Shiro kept trying to get her to talk about it but she couldn’t exactly tell him that she thought he was going to die in space. She just couldn’t do that to him. So she had told him about about the other set of premonitions, the ones concerning Keith. What was she going to do?
“I know you’re awake, you can stop pretending to be asleep.” Her eyes flew open, searching for his gray ones.”Hey you. How are you feeling?”
She thought about it for a moment, she honestly felt pretty crappy but better than she had yesterday. “I feel fine. Can I leave the infirmary now?”
Shiro laughed a bit. “In a few minutes. The nurse said that once you woke up they would take your IV out and let you leave.” He pushed a button by her bed to call the nurse.
“Do I have to go to class today? I don’t want to go.”
“No, you’ve been given the day off. We are going to go get you some food and then take the rest of the day easy. How does that sound?”
Daphne smiled. “That sounds pretty good.”
“Keith is going to join us after his classes get out this afternoon. It will just be the three of us all evening.”
And that’s how they spent the rest of their day, happily and together. Shiro went out of his way to make sure Daphne and Keith had all the snacks they could want. And if Shiro tried a little too hard to make them smile and laugh, Daphne went right along with it. She made sure Shiro had happy memories of his last night on Earth.