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And he found him staring. Again.
“I’m so sorry,” Shiro apologized, looking down nervously when their eyes meet, “It’s just... you look a lot like... someone...”
He blinked, a vague memory of a certain name dancing in his tongue.
“Akira...” he murmured, startling the ghost. What a weird thing to do.
“You know...?”
“I saw him,” he explained, the similarity of himself in a uniform, “In one of the visions.”
Shiro smiled fondly, a bit of melancholy gathering in his eyes.
“The visions...”
“Who was he?” he asked carefully, seeing the curved lips in the most beautiful smile he had ever seen grow tight, “I mean, if you don’t want to tell me-”
“My best friend,” Shiro answered easily, glancing down to the lack of his right arm and laughing shortly, “My right hand. My colleague.”
Keith felt himself smile a little, refreshed by the sudden joy Shiro showed, bubbling inside him. So different from his evil side, trying to kill him just a few minutes ago.
“My love.”
He jumped in his place, finding Shiro still smiling at him, but his eyebrows curved in anguish, and felt his face go red.
“I loved him,” he continued, a weird blush appearing in his pale and almost transparent skin, his eyes closing for a moment, “I loved him so much.”
He opened his mouth, not even knowing if it was to speak or something more, but he couldn’t control the sudden memory of all those smiles and looks he received from him, full and flooded of something he really couldn’t situate. His cheeks felt warm and his heart was being too loud, even when all that affection wasn’t for him.
“And I couldn’t say it to him,” Shiro interrupted his line of thoughts, “I was so scared. I was... afraid of what he would think of me.”
He frowned, the frail tone of his voice being too painful, and he looked down, biting his lower lip with consternation and anxiety.
He remembered all the actions that made Shiro’s feelings very clear; all the smiles, the touches, the tiny and charming sparkles that flew all the way from Shiro’s eyes to Akira’s existence. And he couldn’t believe that the stars going all the way back were invisible to Shiro.
“He loved you.”
The little whisper almost inaudible made Shiro stop staring at the floor, his surprised expression going directly to disbelief.
“What?”
Keith huffed, trying to regain his courage, and he prayed that he could explain those feelings correctly, because they weren’t his.
“I saw it, Shiro,” he started, his own voice feeling distant from inside his body, “You were everything to him. You were... the only one that could understand him, the only one that genuinely tried to be his friend... to be his support.”
“Keith,” the spirit tried to interrupt with a weak laugh, although his eyes were full of pain.
“No, Shiro,” he insisted shaking his head, “I saw it. The way you looked at him, the way you smiled when you were together, was the same way he smiled when he looked at you, when you were by his side.”
Shiro opened his mouth, his lips moving around words without start nor end, and he saw him nearly shake his head, his feet immediately coming alive by themselves and closing the distance between them, his hands taking his face and force him to look into his eyes, the grey eyes sparkling in surprise at the technically impossible contact they were having at that moment.
“Keith...”
“He loved you, Shiro,” he repeated, suddenly breathless, “He loved you with all his heart. With all his soul. You don’t have any idea how terrified he was when he lost you. How sad and monotonous his life turned after losing you.”
The words fell out without control, Keith feeling as stunned as Shiro looked when hearing what was said with his voice, the knowledge of everything that was being said being absolutely new for him, too.
“And seeing your face one more time, alive and young, so bright as how you were once, but with a different name and a different soul was what broke completely my heart,” he confessed strangled, a sad smile stretching his mouth and the sting on his eyes blurring his sight, “You have no idea how I suffered, Shiro. Of how I missed you...”
Shiro’s lips opened, letting out a shaky sigh that hit his face softly, the cold of his transparent skin and absent breath bit by bit going warm while his grey eyes stared more intensely. Then something Keith didn’t understand went totally clear for him.
“Akira?”
A laugh escaped from his mouth, the smile twisting up in all directions in an attempt to contain a sob.
“I missed you so much, Shiro.”
A huff against his mouth and his eyes closed completely, the brief and vague touch over his lips disappearing as fast as his sight went dark. And when he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in another place of the room, witnessing a kiss in front of him that a few seconds ago he was part of. His carbon copy, more translucid and mature, with a scar crossing his right cheek, was gently holding Shiro’s face while Shiro hugged his waist tightly with his left arm.
He was too confused about what happened, so much he didn’t even noted when the kiss ended and both spirits where laughing softly, their foreheads leaned into the other.
“Keith.”
He looked up and found something very alike the reflection of a mirror, weirded out when seeing himself smiling so sincerely.
“Thank you.”
He mouthed, not knowing what to say, and the image in front of him started to fade, Akira’s eyes going back to Shiro and smiling at him so fondly that Keith felt himself once again reliving visions of Shiro’s memory.
The colors went lost and the lines disappeared, a beam of light shrinking in the space and leaving the room in the dark as before, the only source of light being the slight shine emanating from Shiro’s transparent body.
“Keith,” he murmured turning to him, and Keith blinked, blinded by the big smile that was directed to him, “I’m sorry, I think he possessed your body without permission.”
Keith opened his mouth, closing his eyes and scoffing.
“What...?”
He heard him laugh and he himself couldn’t help laughing too, hearing distantly the voices of his friends in the hallway, shouting his name.
“Shiro...” he started, staying silent when he didn’t know what else to say.
“Thank you, Keith,” the ghost acknowledged, taking a step to him and caressing his hair softly, causing him a blush when remembering the kiss he didn’t have a right to have felt, “I owe you.”
He bit his lower lip, feeling his eyes sting again, and he looked up at him, smiling the best he could.
“Rest in peace, Shiro.”
The lovely smile widened, and slowly the image before him started to fade, the touch in his hair staying present for a moment before fading, too.
“Keith!”
The door opened suddenly, the knob hitting loudly against the wall, but none of it startled him even a bit.
“Keith! Are you okay?!”
He blinked, turning to his breathless friends in the portal, and until then he felt the hot tears falling through his cheeks.
“Guys...”
All of them went paled, seeing him wipe carelessly one side of his face with the back of his hand.
“KEITH!”
He immediately found himself being hugged by the four of them, the warmth from his friends appeasing a little the emptiness that his heart was suffering unfairly.