Chapter Text
It was during lunchtime with Lance that Keith noticed that Pidge was missing.
He and Lance were sharing a large bag of fries at the local fast food joint that was only a minute's walk from the college campus. It seemed like a good idea-- he and Lance had the same class after lunch, so they decided to work on their homework and help each other out at sections the other was confused about. Finals were next month, and their teachers were not going easy on their workload. As much as Keith and Lance groaned about the extra homework, they knew they couldn't complain. Pidge and Hunk had it worse. Hunk spent nearly every waking moment working on his assignments, which was a bit tough on the poor guy. As much as he loved science and mechanics, he also loved cooking for his friends. No matter what Pidge, Lance, and Keith said, ramen noodles did not count as a substantial meal alternative. At least, not every day. Plus, whipping together meals was a sort of stress-reliever for him. A stress-reliever that he sadly had no time for lately.
Pidge, however, seemed to be almost completely vacant. She had decided to sign up for a ton of classes the summer before-- and while Keith was proud of his girlfriend, he couldn't help but worry that she was juggling a bit too much. These days, she was holed up in either her room or her lab, working on projects left and right. He knew she loved it-- earlier during the year, when they both had enough time to kill a few hours together, she couldn't stop rambling about how amazing her classes were. Even so, he couldn't help looking at her steadily-growing exhaustion and growing a little bit concerned. She barely had time for anything else. The only time he saw her was when she was commuting from home to school. They usually spent a minute or two catching up on each other's day and joking around before running off to their respective classes.
But now, as Keith was soon to discover, it had gotten worse. As he and Lance struggled over their report, trying to wrap their heads around a concept that both of them were having trouble understanding, Lance leaned back on his chair, stretching his legs. "Man," he groaned when he heard his back pop. "I swear my brain wasn't built for this stuff."
"Stop," Keith grumbled, resisting the urge to crumple up his paper and toss it to the side. "You're not allowed to complain until we're at least halfway through."
All he got was a long, drawn-out moan from Lance. Keith sighed. Lance was burned out-- a feeling that he could relate to all too well. But he had learned, through experience, that the more work they did now, the less they'd have to do later. Biting his lip, he thought for a moment, before an idea sprang to him. Leaning over, he waved his hand in front of Lance's face to get his attention. Lance opened a single eye to shoot him a glare. "Dude, you gotta realize when a guy's trying to rest--"
"I'll buy you another soda if you can finish this before lunch is over," Keith interrupted, grinning. He knew all he needed to do was provide Lance with the right incentive, and he could completely restore his motivation. And sure enough, it worked.
Lance waited a few more moments to savor the wondrous relief of closing his eyes and resting before grumbling once again. "How dare you motivate me to work when all I wanna do is sleep," he whined. Dragging himself up, he reluctantly picked up his pencil. Managing a grin, he side-eyed Keith smugly. "I'm holding you to that, Mullet." And with that, he vigorously went back to work.
Keith picked up his own paper, smiling a bit as he did so. "Y'know, Pidge could eat this for breakfast. These equations are nothing to her."
Lance snorted in agreement. The two of them worked in silence for a few more minutes, when Lance stopped once again, scrunching up his face. "Now that you mention it," he mumbled, tapping his chin with his finger, "where is Pidge? I haven't seen her in a while."
"Huh?" Keith looked up. "What do you mean? I thought you told me you both were meeting up yesterday so she could give you a few tips for your chemistry report."
"Oh, whoops. Guess I forgot to tell you." Lance bit into a French fry. "She never showed up. I waited for an hour before calling Hunk and getting him to help me instead. I thought you'd know what happened to her since, you know, you're her boyfriend and all."
Keith shook his head slowly. "No," he said with a puzzled frown, "I haven't seen or talked to her since the beginning of this week."
"Huh. Weird." Lance reached for another French fry, discovering that all the big ones had already been eaten. All that was left were the little potato nubs and oily crumbs that usually got filtered to the bottom. Shooting Keith a glance, he quickly tipped the whole thing into his mouth before his friend could reach for any more. Keith made an indignant noise, lurching forward to try and steal back as much of the French fries as he could, but he was too late. Lance let go of the container willingly, having finished it all already. He gave Keith a tight-lipped smile, chewing loudly. Swallowing, he continued grinning smugly at him until Keith sat back with a huff.
"Let's call Hunk," he grumbled, refusing to acknowledge Lance's victory. "He might know where Pidge is."
"We can't." Lance turned once to toss the empty fry container into a nearby trash can before swiveling back to Keith. "He pulled off two all-nighters to get all his homework done before the weekend so he could relax on Saturday. He told me, no matter what, not to wake him up. Unless we're under attack by aliens or something."
"Oh." Keith bit his lip. "That's strange. Think we should look for her ourselves, then?"
"Yeah," Lance agreed. "But let's finish this report first. I still wanna claim my free soda."
. . . .
Later that evening, Keith and Lance met up at the campus courtyard. They both tried texting Pidge, but none of them got an answer from her. And so, they agreed to wait a few minutes to see if she would get back to them then. But, as the minutes stretched on and they received no answer, it was soon apparent that they'd have to take matters into their own hands. As they watched their fellow students mill about, going about their own business, they quickly arranged that they'd meet at the college-sponsored coffee shop in an hour. Lance would search the left wing of the college building, and Keith would search the right. And with that, their hunt for Pidge began.
Keith decided to head straight for Pidge's favorite professor, Dr. Coran. The middle-aged man taught all of her favorite classes, and he was one of the teachers the students found friendly. It was obvious he was trying to fit in with the younger crowd, but his efforts were more endearing than embarrassing. Pidge found him amusing. His office was located near the right wing entrance, so Keith had no trouble finding him. Knocking on his door, Keith stopped a moment to look at the professor's fancy nameplate nailed onto the wooden door before hesitantly walking in. He hoped that he wouldn't run into any students seeking out Dr. Coran for advice on assignments, but there was no one inside the office other than the professor himself.
Dr. Coran stopped in the middle of sipping his coffee and glancing over a reports stacked on his desk. Smiling, he set his coffee mug down on his cluttered desk, watching as Keith walked up to him. "Hello, Keith," he greeted amiably. "I didn't expect to see you here. I didn't know you were in one of my classes."
"I'm not," Keith said. "I'm actually here to ask about Pidge. Have you seen her?"
"Hm." Dr. Coran put a finger to his chin, trying to remember. "I had her for her engineering course this morning, but I'm guessing that is not what you mean. I do believe she mentioned to me something about going to finish the robotics project I assigned her in the mechanics lab room. Try checking there."
"Oh, thanks." Bidding the professor a quick goodbye, Keith set out in search of the mechanics lab. It was the room where students could borrow equipment, instead of having to buy it for themselves. They usually worked on projects like building robots, or welding together bits of metal and whatnot. It was definitely Pidge's environment. If she'd be anywhere, that would be the place. The only problem was that it was on the fourth floor of the building, and the elevators were broken. As Keith started his long trek up, he silently thanked himself for taking all of those karate classes that were keeping him in shape. Sprinting up the stairs left him a little breathless, but at least he wasn't totally exhausted.
It took a bit of searching-- the hallways had lots of twists and turns, and Keith hadn't been on this floor in a long time since most of his classes were held downstairs-- but he eventually located the lab. Peeking in, he wasn't surprised to see it was packed to the brim with students hoping to get some last-minute projects completed. With a sigh, he squeezed himself into the room, maneuvering around bags strewn on the floor here and there. He tried to locate Pidge, but with so many people squeezed into one room, her small size could easily be swallowed up by the crowd. Eventually, after knocking over some weird contraption, getting yelled at by a student, and accidentally stepping into the trash can, Keith decided to just ask someone if they knew where she was. Apparently, she had decided to continue her work in another lab instead, when this lab started getting a little too packed.
And so, Keith began his wild goose chase, checking out all the labs he could find on that floor. Each were crowded with students working on projects. Every time he asked someone if they had seen Pidge, they ended up giving him the same answer-- she found the place too crowded, and headed off somewhere else. Almost an hour later, after searching every lab on the fourth floor, Keith gave up in frustration. He stomped down to the first floor, heading towards the library. Maybe there he could clear his head before meeting up with Lance at their designated meeting place.
Stepping into the college library, Keith had to stop and once again take it all in. No matter how many times he came in to study or to do homework, the sheer size of the place never failed to astound him. The amount of books stored on those bookshelves always filled him with a certain pride in knowing that so much information was right at his fingertips. No wonder it was his and Pidge's favorite campus hangout area. They both spent so much time during the beginning of the year exploring the library, studying together, fervently discussing their two favorite subjects-- space, and cryptids. Keith fondly remembered those coffee-filled evenings, surrounded by the smell of fresh paper and old books, talking with Pidge. Once, she had dared him to make a stack of books taller than she was. He had readily accepted the challenge, managing to pile textbook upon dusty textbook until the pile teetered over her head. And for all his efforts, the whole thing just ended up crashing down onto both of them. They both had left the library with bruises and the wrath of the librarian hovering above their guilty consciousness.
With a smile lingering on his lips, Keith headed to the back corner of the library. It was where his favorite subject, the space travel section, was located. There, he had told Pidge just how badly he wanted to explore the stars. And Pidge had revealed that that was her dream, too. She loved the stars just as much as he did. Despite the fact that she also wanted to help build the tech needed to make space travel easier and safer than before, and he wanted to b the one piloting spaceships into the farthest reaches of space, their dreams and goals were centered around essentially the same thing. And there, in the space travel section, they dreamed out loud to each other. It was, in a word, their special place. It was where they went to when they just wanted to recharge their creativity and motivation.
Keith was so lost in his thoughts he did not notice the large pile of books that he walked right into. He barely had time to register what he was tripping over before he came crashing down onto something curled up among books and papers strewn about the floor.
And that something was Pidge.
The second he landed on top of her, Pidge jerked in fright and screamed. Loudly. Loud enough to send Keith stumbling back in fright. Scrambling away, he opened his mouth to say "Pidge!" when he bumped his head painfully into the nearby bookshelf. A large textbook on the safety procedures of a space shuttle dislodged itself from up high and came crashing down on his head. Hissing, Keith held his head, positive that a lump would be forming there by tomorrow.
As he sat there, rubbing the sore spot, Pidge pushed her glasses back up onto her nose, squinting at him. "Keith?" she asked. Crawling forward, she gaped when she saw the angry welt that was throbbing under her boyfriend's fingertips. "I'm sorry!" she yelped. "I didn't know that was you!"
Keith opened one eye to look at her. "Who did you think I was?" he asked, painfully removing his hands from his head.
Pidge paused sheepishly, hunching her shoulders as she pulled her laptop closer to them to show him her screen. It was a scene from The Ring, paused during a particularly creepy moment of the dark-haired girl reaching ominously towards the camera. Keith blinked curiously. "So, you were watching this, why?" he asked, looking up at Pidge.
She shrugged. "I've been doing homework for... hours, I think, so I decided to take a small break and watch a scary movie. Cause scary movies are a great idea for sleep-deprived people, am I right?" She gave him a wry smile. "Anyways, when you crashed into me, I totally thought you were a ghost or something. Sorry for screaming."
"Sorry for scaring you." And with that, Keith pulled her into a hug. "Gosh, am I glad to see you." He felt Pidge tense a little, tilting her head in confusion.
"You're acting like you haven't seen me in a while," she chuckled, returning his hug and theatrically patting his head. "Do I really gotta be there with you every minute so you don't freak out?"
"Every minute?" Keith pulled back to raise an eyebrow at her. "Pidge, no one's seen you for the past three days."
Pidge was silent for a few moments, before exclaiming out loud, "What?!" Turning around rapidly, she snatched her phone from the depths of the books and various electronics strewn about the floor. Trying in vain to turn it on, only to discover it was completely out of battery, she quickly fished around in Keith's hoodie pockets for his phone, earning herself a surprised "Hey!" as she drew out her boyfriend's device and pressed the side button. The screen flicked to life. Quickly checking the date, Pidge gaped in shock when she discovered that she had, indeed, spent three days in the library. Slowly, she sat back down onto the floor, gazing into the distance in disbelief.
"I actually spent three days in the library."
"Pidge, I know you have homework, but it can't be that bad," Keith said, more than a little concerned. "Can it?" He frowned, picking up one of her projects and examining it. He suddenly jerked in panic, swiveling to face his girlfriend. "What about your classes?! Are you telling me you missed those?!"
"Nah," Pidge mumbled, rubbing her head. "They all ended a week early. My professors figured that, with all the work they were giving us, we needed the time to get it all done. So, they decided to cram the remainder of the material before fall break into last week, and cancelled classes for this week. I wanted to get it all done before your break started. The library just seemed to be the best place I could concentrate."
"Oh." Keith looked around at the small living space Pidge had created for herself in this small little corner, wedged deep into the space travel section. It was filled with projects and papers and books. To the left, Pidge had her computer, as well as a few other monitors, balanced on a small pile of books. "And how far did you get?"
Pidge shrugged, opening her mouth in a wide yawn. "I'm about done," she muttered. "The Ring was my reward for getting 95% of it completed, so, I don't have that much to do. Let me just... finish this paper, and..."
"Pidge," Keith said incredulously, "you gotta sleep. This is too much. I mean, you practically transformed the space travel section into your own bedroom. Why were you in such a hurry to finish everything, anyway? You know you have the weekend, and fall break, to get it all done."
Pidge nodded in acknowledgement, scooting forward to rest her head on Keith's shoulder. "Yeah, but next week is your birthday. And I wanted to free the weekend so I could spend time with you."
A warm feeling filled Keith's chest. He shook his head. Pidge never failed to amaze him. She had stayed awake for three whole days, relentlessly working on her assignments, just to be able to spend quality time with him right before his birthday. He was sure he couldn't ask for a better girlfriend. "Okay, you can finish your homework after you sleep," he said, scooting forward to start cleaning up her mess. "I don't know about you, but I'd say you've earned it."
Pidge made a low sound of protest, tugging the books he was gathering away from him. "But I'm so close, Keith," she mumbled. "Let me just get it over with."
Keith fixed her with a stern stare. "No."
Pidge pouted, crossing her arms stubbornly. "You can't make me go back to my dorm."
Keith opened his mouth to retaliate, then sighed. Arguing with her would be pointless, especially if she had her mind made up about something. At this point, he knew it was best to compromise, instead of insisting he was right.
"How about this, then," he said. "I say you take a nap. It can be in the library, if you like. You get some rest, finish your work, and then go pass out as long as you want in your dorm later. Sound fair?"
Pidge continued pouting, opening her mouth to protest once again. But before she could, Keith gathered her up in his arms, leaning back on a bookshelf. "You want sleep," he coaxed, wrapping her up closer in a hug.
"No I don't."
"Yes you do."
"...Fine."
With that, Pidge shifted so that she was more comfortably situated in her boyfriend's arms. It didn't even take a minute for her to be softly snoring on his shoulder. Keith blinked, and shook his head. And she was telling him she didn't need rest.
Suddenly, his phone buzzed. Careful not to wake her, Keith reached over to turn on the screen, seeing a text message from Lance. His friend was wondering where he was-- he was supposed to have met him at the coffee shop fifteen minutes ago. Sending him a quick reply that he had found Pidge and that they both were going to hang out at the library for a bit, Keith busied himself by slowly and awkwardly reaching above his head and pulling a book off of a nearby shelf. Since he was there, he might as well get some studying done.
And there he stayed, surrounded by the sound of pages turning and Pidge's steady breathing.