Chapter Text
The house was buzzing as people arrived to witness the wedding of Katie Holt and Keith Kogane. Katie was nervous. Of course, she is. Even if she’s pretending that the whole wedding is a sham with Keith, she can’t help but imagine how their wedding would have actually looked like if they proposed like a normal couple.
The Proposal. It was all because of that stupid proposal that she fell in love with him. That stupid proposal on the street where the two were constantly teasing the other. That stupid proposal that she wished Keith meant. But, now… now all she wanted to do was get through with the wedding so she can confess her feelings to Keith.
As Allura and her mom helped her dress, she could see Keith already dressed and heading for the barn. As the girls were fixing Katie’s dress, she shuffled towards the window to get a better look. The girls shuffled after Katie comically and Allura peeked over Katie’s shoulder to see what she was looking at.
Allura smiled once she realized who Katie was watching and turned her away, “You will get to see him in the barn. But for now, you are going to have to control yourself.” Colleen laughed at Allura’s reprimanding and Katie couldn’t help but blush. When Colleen placed the veil over her daughter’s head, Katie knew that it was time.
“We have to get down to the barn now.” Katie nodded and followed her mother down the stairs with Allura behind her holding the long tail of the dress. Allura was wearing a long pink dress with a slit all the way up to her upper left thigh with a v-neckline.
Katie breathed in deeply and tried to calm her nerves as she hugged her mother and Allura before they left to their seats. As Katie peeked to the audience, she worried as she saw Keith smiling at Grammy as she walked over to him to kiss him on the cheek.
"I still can't believe you're doing this." Katie turned around and saw her father standing before her with a disappointed look on his face, Katie sighed and began, "Dad I don't want to talk about it."
At that very moment, Pachelbel Canon in D starts playing and Katie hooks her left arm around her father's right. The two slowly walked down the isle, Katie looking around, finding Hunk, Natalia, Matt, Shiro, Allura, Lance, and Uncle Coran.
They stopped right in the beginning of the walkway to give the audience time to look at her dress. It was a beautiful charmeuse, off shoulder dress showing off a small bit of cleavage (something Katie definitely didn't like). Her long honey brown hair was pulled into a side ladder braided bun.
Katie looked straight at Keith straight, admiring how handsome he looks in his suit and his beautiful purple eyes. Katie smiled at Keith but it wasn't for the audience, it was exclusively for him. It was a real smile. And Keith could tell.
He gave her a closed lip smile and once she finally arrived to the altar and gave her father a kiss on the cheek, he took her small hand in his huge calloused one and the two approached the priest.
Keith's mind has been running wild since the morning. He felt guilty for being so mean to Katie and for making her marry him against her will. He felt like one of those Disney villains. But he also wanted to go through with the wedding. Katie was the best girl he's ever met. She's a challenge to his quick wit, to his snarky responses, and to his empty threats. She's exactly what he needs in life to become the person he knows he could have been. She's exactly what he wants in life. But he doesn't want to live with someone who isn't happy to be with him, that's just cruel.
So when the priest began the ceremony, Keith lifted his finger to stop it. The priest paused his speech and turned to Keith, "Sir, do you have a question?" Katie's head turned to Keith quizzically as Keith shook his head, "No- I- uh. I have something to say."
The priest, confuzzled, asked, "Can't it wait till after?" Keith seemed hesitant but eventually shook his head, "No. No."
The priest motioned for Keith to go ahead and he turned around and faced the crowd, "Hi. Thank you all for coming out. I, uh... have an announcement to make. A confession, actually."
Katie turned to Keith with wide eyes, "What are you doing?"
Keith only ignored her and continued, "I am Korean. Yes. I'm Korean. With an expired visa who was about to be deported. And because I didn't want to leave this beautiful country, I forced Katie to marry me." The whole crowd gasped as Katie lowered her head and hissed, "Keith, stop it."
Keith continued, "See, Katherine has always had an amazing work ethic. She fought hard for what she deserved. For five years I watched her work harder and smarter than anyone else in the base, including myself. And I knew that if I threatened to destroy her dreams... she would do just about anything."
Keith looked down and choked up as he tried to compose himself, "So I blackmailed her to come up here and to lie to you. And I thought it would be easy to watch her do it." Keith paused, looking at all of Katie's family, "But it wasn't."
Matt inhaled deeply, extremely close to beat Keith to pulp (at least the most he could) for hurting his baby sister. Keith winced at the disappointed looks of the Holt clan but continued, "You are all wonderful people that deserve so much more than a scumbag than I. Don't let this come between you. I'm the one at fault. I'm sorry for lying to you all."
Katie pulled on Keith's arm, "Keith..."
Keith moved his hand away and turned to Katie, who looked like she was about to burst out in tears.
Keith sighed, but he knew that he was doing was right. So the last words he said to Katie were, "This was a deal and you held up your end, but now the deal is off."
Keith climbed down the stairs and stomped his way out, not before turning to Mr. Gilbertson, "You're my ride to the airport. Meet me at the dock." Mr. Gilbertson turned around and watched Keith with a smug look
Keith walked out of the barn in a rush and avoided everyone's gazes, knowing he might just break if he did.
Katie's eyes were watering as she stood there in a daze. She was only knocked into reality when she heard the door shut closed.
Katie turned to her family, who were all murmuring to themselves and she slowly walked down the altar towards her family. Colleen approached her daughter and reprimanded her with a voice laced with hurt, "What were you thinking?!" Katie shook her head, but she couldn't bring herself to talk to her family.
Allura approached her cousin too, grabbing Katie's hand to gain her attention, "You lied to us?"
Katie nodded slowly and let go of her cousin's hand, "Listen, I've got to put my head on straight. I'll explain everything later."
With that, Katie left her family and friends in the barn and walked out slowly at first. Once she finally reached outside, she picked up her dress and kicked off her heels. She ran at a full sprint towards the house, hoping to catch Keith before he left her.
She burst open the door, and stepped inside. She looked around the living room and took off her veil. She took a glance upstairs and climbed them the fastest she could, jogging to the bedroom she shared the last three days. But when she got there, she didn't see the man she slowly learned to love. She found his suit and a golden pocket watch.
Next to it, she found a copy of her prints with a letter attached.
You were right. Your work is amazing. I lied because I knew I would lose you as an assistant the moment I turned in your work. But you are an amazing weapons designer with extraordinary ideas. I'll be sure to send your work to Bergen and Malloy along with my recommendation for you to be promoted to Commander. Along with your resume. I wish you the best, Katherine. Have a good life. You deserve it.
Keith
Katie stared at Keith's horrible, rushed penmanship, her hands tracing over every written word as she imagined him struggling to write legibly and quickly, wrinkling his nose as he concentrated. But as much as she wished that he was back, she still couldn't believe he would do that to her. Leaving her at the altar with a barn full of family and friends so she could alone explain all the sh*t she had to go through.
She crumbled the paper a bit as her anger grew more and more as she kept thinking about her idiot boss. Suddenly, she heard a knock on her door and she turned around.
There stood Lance wearing a simple tux with a white button down and turquoise tie. He had a smile on his face, "Well, that was... eventful. People are gonna be talking about this forever."
Katie looked at Lance, but her mind wasn't on Lance. It was on her stupid boss. "Yeah. Yeah."
Lance put his hands in his pockets, "Are you OK?"
Katie nodded but then the nod formed into a shake of the head, "Yeah-um- no. I just feel... You know what the problem is? The problem is that this man... is a gigantic pain in my *ss. First, he left me on the altar after he dropped the bomb about us being a sham couple and that he was blackmailing me. Then he goes ahead and leaves this note. 'Cause he doesn't have the decency, the humanity to do it to my face. Five years. Five years I work with this... this... d*ckbag with a stick up his *ss. Never once has he had a nice thing to say, and then he goes ahead and writes this crap!"
Katie crumpled up the paper and threw it across the room, not noticing Lance trying to calm her down by speaking to her in a soft voice, "Katie."
Katie, however, still went on with her angry rambling, "But none of that matters because we had a deal!"
Lance tried again by repeating her name softly, "Katie. Katie."
Katie quickly realized she was yelling and calmed down a bit, "Sorry. I'm sorry. I just... He makes me a little crazy sometimes with his bipolar sh*t."
Lance laughed and walked closer, "Yeah. I can tell."
Katie nodded and raised her eyebrows, as if saying 'You see?'.
Lance tilted his head and pressed his lips together, "So you're just going to let him go?"
Katie looked straight at his eyes and he gave her a tight lipped smile, him already knowing the answer as she brushed past him and to the front yard.
He followed close behind and helped her make her way down quickly.
Once she made it outside, all eyes were on her but she didn't care. She continued walking and tried to avoid the incoming questions from her family.
Matt saw her first and asked, "Where are you going?"
Katie brushed right past him, simply answering, "I have to talk to him."
Her father, however, was having none of that and grabbed a hold of her arm, "Why would you do that?"
Katie shook her arm loose and continued walking to the boat, not noticing that Lance stopped before he could get in between her and her father as she continued fighting with him, "It has nothing to do with you."
Sam stood in front of Katie and stood his ground, "I'm not gonna let you do this."
Grammy looked at the two with incredulous eyes and urged for them to stop fighting, "Stop! Stop it!"
Katie glared holes in her father's head, "I'm not asking for your permission. I'm a grown adult. I'm twenty-five for God's sake!"
Unbeknownst to them, Grammy's screams for the two to stop had ceased and she was slowly crumbling to the floor as she gripped the skin above her heart.
Colleen gasped and rushed to hold onto the beloved grandmother, "Annie! Sam! Sam!" Katie and Sam both snapped their heads to the grandmother being gently lowered to the floor by Lance and Matt.
Katie rushed to her grandmother, her bare feet carrying her to Annie in a flash and she desperately grasped her grandmother's hand and held it to her heart as tears tore paths through her cheeks.
It appeared as if someone called the ambulance the second Annie fell because after a few minutes of everyone panicking, she could hear the loud engine of a plane.
Soon enough, Matt tore her away from her grandmother as the paramedics secured her on a small gurney and boarded her on a plane, the family quickly climbing in after.
As soon as the door closed, the plane began the process of flight and was moving across the water, flying above the water a few seconds later.
Annie had a small mask on her face to supply her with oxygen as they made their way to the hospital, her eyes closed peacefully and her hands woven together on top of her stomach.
Sam sat their intertwining his hands with his wife's, silently praying that his mother makes it out alive. Matt and Katie only stared at their pale grandmother, both looking distraught. Katie had tears stained on her cheeks and she thanked Allura for using waterproof eyeliner.
Annie then moved her face and removed the mask so she could speak. Katie called out for her father and mother and the whole family scooted closer to Annie as she grabbed Katie's hand.
"You two need to stop fighting. You'll never see eye to eye. But you're family." Grammy looked up to her son, Sam, and struggled out, "Promise me you'll stand by Katie. Even if you don't agree with her."
Sam nodded and tried to look away from his mother, "I promise." His voice failed him as he held his mother's wrinkled hand.
Grammy looked at Katie, whose eyes were brimming with tears once more, "Katie. Promise me you'll work harder to be a part of this family."
Katie nodded, and managed to choke out, "I will. I will, Grammy."
Annie, now pleased with the promises, laid flat and closed her eyes, "Well, then, the spirits can take me."
Katie exhaled sharply as one of the paramedics placed the mask on her again, "Oh, Grammy."
The whole plane sat in silence as Grammy laid stiff. But suddenly, her eyes opened wide and mischievously and she sat up with ease, "I guess they're not ready for me."
The family sat in confusion as Grammy turned around and called out to the pilot, "I'm feeling much better, sonny. No need to take us to the hospital. Take us to the airport, please."
Katie breathed out in relief and disbelief and she clutched her rapid beating heart.
Sam shook his head, "Mom, what the hell? Were you faking the heart attack?" Colleen merely laughed as Matt exclaimed, "Come on!"
Grammy looked between the two and shook her head, "It was the only way I could get you two to shut up and get us to the airport!"
Suddenly a familiar voice spoke from the pilot's seat, "Grammy, we're not authorized to take you to the airport."
Grammy glared at the Hispanic and warned, "Lance McClain, don't make me call your mother."
Katie opened her eyes wide as she remembered that Lance had a part time job as a pilot.
Once the plane landed Katie ran from the plane and onto the hard concrete, completely ignoring the hard pebbles digging into her feet.
She stood frozen in place as she saw the only 'Sitka Skyways' plane gaining speed on the tarmac. Suddenly, she saw her brother picking up his phone and frantically calling a number, "Chuck! Hey. It's Matt Holt."
Katie looked at her brother with an incredulous eye, not believing that he was calling a friend as she was trying to get to Keith.
Matt ignored his sister's gaze and continued his conversation, "Hey, uh- I need a favor from you buddy. Keith is on that plane and my sister's got to talk to him. Can you stop it?" Katie was thanking the stars that her brother was so social.
Katie couldn't hear anything but she assumed it was angering her brother because he ended up shouting, "Chuuuuck! I need you to stop the plane. Please."
Katie looked at her brother with hopeful eyes but he only shook his head and thanked Chuck before hanging up. Katie turned around and watched as the plane took off with Keith in it.
She watched sadly as the love of her life left her life... forever.
Sam soon walked behind his daughter and whispered, "I'm sorry, Pigeon, I didn't know how you felt about him."
Katie nodded and offered a sad smile as her mother consoled her by hugging her and rubbing her back, "Oh honey. It's going to be OK."
Katie only shook her head as she let loose some soft sobs.
The next day early in the morning, Keith was packing his office away into boxes. No one helped him. Some his soon-former-employees stopped by his glass door and peeked through to watch as he packed his trophies of his old high school football days.
But once they saw him grab a box, they scattered away and hid from his gaze. "Nyma!" Keith called out from inside the office as he struggled to open the door, eventually opening it by grabbing it with his hand and lowering his entire body in order for him to turn the knob.
Once he finally stepped out of the office, he didn't fail to notice Katie's desk. Specifically, a picture of her on her college graduation. Her radiant smile brighter than ever as she held her diploma and her acceptance letter to work for NASA.
Keith cleared his throat and looked around for Nyma, spotting her as she talked with Rolo. "Nyma. Nyma. I need for you to send the boxes in my office to this address, please."
Keith shamelessly interrupted their conversation and offered Nyma a small slip of paper with Keith's family's old home's address.
Nyma took it and skimmed through it nodding and looking back up to the Commander. "Yeah. Sure. Uh- Commander?" Nyma's eyes were focusing on a figure behind Keith and she pointed at it as Keith asked, "What? What?"
Keith followed what Nyma's finger was pointing at and his gaze landed upon a short, panting, honey-haired, and hazel-eyed beauty heading straight for him.
"Katherine." Keith muttered as he looked around the room, finding all eyes on what's about to go down. His gaze landed on Katie again and he looked at her up and down, taking notice of her messy hair and the fact that she was out of breath, "Why are you panting?"
Katie tried to calm her breathing as she closed in on Keith, "'Cause I've been running."
"Really? From Alaska."
"No dumb butt. From the garage where I parked my car."
"Oh."
"We need to talk."
"Well, I don't have time to talk. I have to catch a 5:45 to Daejeon." Keith turned back to Nyma and handed her the box as he began giving orders, "I need the boxes to go out today-"
"Keith."
"I want to make sure everything is-"
"Keith! Stop talking!"
Keith twirled around to face a furious Katie and he sheepishly skimmed through the room, watching all the employees duck from his gaze.
Katie immediately went back to her normal tone of voice and continued, "Gotta say something. This will just take a sec."
Keith crossed his arms and looked to the floor, "Fine. What?"
Katie crumbled up the jacket she held in her hand and used one hand to emphasized her words as she spoke. "Four days ago... I loathed you. I used to dream about you getting lost in one of your missions or poisoned."
Keith nodded, "That's nice."
Katie continued, "I told you to stop talking. Then we had a little adventure in Alaska and things started to change. They changed when we kissed. And when you told me about your tattoo. Even when you were checking me out half-naked."
The crowd started chuckling and murmuring after they heard that and Keith blushed before adding, "You also checked me out."
Katie smirked and continued, "Hell yeah I did. But I didn't realize any of this until I was standing alone. In a barn. Husband-less."
Keith tried to look away from Katie as she took a step closer, "You can imagine my anger until I realized that the man I love is getting kicked out of the country."
Keith froze as his eyes met Katie's own full of love. Katie took another step closer, "So, Keith. Marry me..." Keith shifted in his spot to recover his shocked face, "...Because I'd like to date you."
Katie, although being a woman, seemed completely confident over proposing to a man. All the girls awed at Katie as she stood confidently in front of the Commander.
Keith, however, hesitantly shook his head and struggled to whisper, "Trust me. You don't really want to be with me."
Katie nodded and whispered back, "Yes, I do."
Keith shook his head again and whispered, "You deserve someone better-"
"I think I should have a say on who I deserve, Keith." Katie retorted angrily, offended that he would make such accusations on himself.
Keith shook his head, "This'll be much easier if we just forget everything that happened and I just left."
Katie nodded, "You're right. That would be easier."
Keith nodded along with her and shrugged as he tried to keep himself from crying at the thought of leaving Katie.
He took a step closer and took one last look into Katie's beautiful, unique set of hazel brown eyes. His eyes traveled down to her lips, but he respectfully looked back into her eyes as he whispered, "I'm scared."
Katie took that moment to really explore Keith's dark violet eyes. His mutation that makes him so... him. The deep color of violet transported her to space itself. The never ending void of space.
Katie nodded and whispered back, "Me too."
At that moment, Katie threw her jacket to a chair. Her right hand grabbed Keith's tie and pulled him lower as her left lost itself in the forest of Keith's black hair.
The crowd gasped as their lips met in a slow passionate kiss. Keith's arms slid up to Katie's waist as he pulled her closer to him and to close the distance they had between.
The two relished in the other's love. All their love poured out into one kiss. Katie took control of the kiss, not that Keith minded, and her hands placed themselves along both sides of Keith's jaw as the kiss extended.
Once the two pulled apart, they slowly opened their eyes and Keith smirked once he saw how red Katie's face was and whispered, "Aren't you supposed to get down on your knee or something?"
Katie, who was still holding on to Keith's face, whispered back, "I'm gonna take that as a yes."
Keith nodded, "OK."
Katie looked back down to Keith's lips and licked her own as she pulled him back for another kiss, this one much more feverish. The crowd behind them chattering as they shared multiple kisses, not one forgetting to express a small declaration of love in its wake. Katie's hand slid down from Keith's jaw to his chest as she led the kisses to a much slower pace until they stopped completely and stared lovingly into the other's eyes.
In the background, Katie could hear Plaxum yell out, "Yeah! Show him who's boss Katie!"
The couple only laughed as they pulled in to kiss again in front of the room, not even caring if they saw them any more.
Behind the two, stood Lance (who was the one who flew Katie all the way to Texas). He was smiling as he watched the two happily making out in the office. Plaxum was also watching the two with a smile and sighed, "It's great to see those two finally got together."
Lance nodded and turned his head to look at the bluenette next to her, immediately blushing the second he saw her, "Y-yeah."
Plaxum also turned to look at the man she was talking to, her cheeks also turning pink once she saw his face. "Um... My name's Plaxum."
Lance smiled and extended his hand, "Lance." The two turned back to the couple making out in the middle of the room, then they both turned simultaneously and both said at the same time, "Do you want my number?"
Katie and Keith both pulled apart laughing once they heard that and pulled apart to look at Plaxum and Lance hand the other their number.
Keith turned and smiled as he watched Katie watch her two friends with amusement. Katie turned back to Keith and asked, "What?"
Keith shook his head and pulled Katie close again, "Mine."
Katie smiled as the two started yet another kiss and she silently thanked jack*ss Keith for being a jerkwad and forcing her to marry him. Because if not, she wouldn't have met the real Keith and she would have never fallen in love with him.
Bonus:
"So, let me see if I got this right. You two are engaged again." Mr. Gilbertson sat in front of both Keith and Katie in his office as they tried to once again apply for a fiance visa.
Both Keith and Katie nodded, Keith holding Katie's hand.
Mr. Gilbertson rose a quizzical brow, "For real?"
Keith chuckled, "Yeah."
Mr. Gilbertson sighed, "You sure you want to go through with this because one wrong answer and I'm going to take you down!"
Both Katie and Keith glanced at each other in worry. Not worry about if they were going to answer the questions right. No. They were worried because Mr. Gilbertson is kinda crazy.
"O...kay."
Mr. Gilbertson narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Let's do it."