Entering group was rough. Everyone was already in their seats but Shiro felt like it was an entirely new group. Same door, same faces, same routine— but someone was in the walls again. The bugs danced across his legs and traveled up to his arms. The hissing in the walls got closer.

"– Shiro? Ro?"

Keith

Shiro felt himself jump. His body was slower than usual. It was probably the bugs. They'd burrow into his muscles, controlling him like a stringed puppet. Keith was talking again—

"Hey, how many fingers am I holding up?"

Had he always been right next to him? Why was he asking about fingers, he hadn't fallen. After all, there was too much noise to focus anyway. Maybe the group didn't hear it, but he did.

The endless hissing grew louder. The movements under his skin intensified as the hissing grew into screams. Voices he never heard were being tortured behind plaster.

His chest hurt and every breath was harder to get out.

Someone grabbed his arm and he panicked. The voices in the walls must have escaped. The tears blocking his vision left him defenseless, so he did the only thing he could think of; start swinging.

He hit something. It felt like metal, maybe skin? He wouldn't dare say it was someone— that just meant the voices would know he knew they were real. They'd get him, and everyone would call him crazy.

Strong arms hugged him from behind. He screamed.

"Shiro, breathe. It's safe, have you been taking your meds?"

The itching wouldn't stop. The voices had finally gotten bodies. His tears blurred his vision, but he was able to see enough. Familiar silhouettes, scents, voices.

What did the things in the walls start sounding like his friends?

"I know it's hard, Shiro, I need you to tell me at least three things you can see."

It was no use. The voices finally caught him. He had escaped them for two days, but they got him. Adam left, and the voices came back. They knew he was alone. They knew he wasn't safe.

"Can someone get Coran? Juniper?"

__•__•__•__•__•__

By the time Romelle joined three days later— later than Coran had told them due to panic attacks prohibiting her from leaving her home— no one mentioned Shiro being withdrawn. Just like they didn't mention Keith's dented wheelchair, the bruises on Hunk's arm, or Coran's insistence that Shiro sat in the middle— away from the walls. His meds were upped and he narrowly avoided a hospital stay.

"Shiro, care to share? Successes, stressors?" Coran spoke calmly. His jovial tone once again returning into group. Shiro liked the man, despite what the voices said.

"I got into the program for out-of-state study. They said I could go to Ireland to study for the remaining semester."

He ignored the short congratulations from Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Keith moved his hand to his arm. A solid presence, slowly touching his skin with plenty of time to move away.

"I– I don't know if I'm stable enough to go alone."

Admitting that hurt.

Stable?

It made him sound crazy.

Despite the bugs, the voices, and paranoia... Shiro knew one thing.

He wasn't crazy.

Right?