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Keith's POV
It was another successful mission and we were taking off our armor. Pidge changes in a separate room now that she's grown into a "beautiful young lady" as Coran likes to put it.
He did get the beautiful part right. She's changed so much throughout the four years we've been Paladins. Now it's much harder for her to disguise herself as a man, so she stopped. She let Allura change her armor with a more feminine appearance, the only difference for her is that it was around her chest rather than a flat chest, 'Cause now it sure ain't flat.
Stop thinking about her boobs you perv.
I shake those thoughts away and start taking off my armor while the rest of the group finished and are now in their regular clothes. And now I fully let myself think about Pidge.
Ever since she had to change her uniform because she was growing up, I've began to notice just how long we've been working together as a team. She was fourteen when we started and I just turned 17. She's eighteen now and I still have a few months till I turn 21. There was a big time difference when we were younger, but now as I think about it it isn't as big as I thought.
She is just as brilliant as ever, probably even more. Her eyes are the same honey brown. Her smile is the same. Her teasing is the same. Her attitude is the same. Then why am I feeling attracted to her now?
I sigh as I walk out of the shower room half naked because Lance thought today was the day to prank me, but oh is he wrong.
I find him in the lounge with a smirk on his face, "Come on, Lance. Don't you think we're too old for this?" Lance laughed and stood, reaching out his hand to hand me the shirt, but right when I was gonna grab it, he snatched it right back, "Nope."
I growled and threw myself at him catching him under my body and the two of us started fighting like old times. And unlike old times, Shiro wasn't the one to stop us. It was the very same girl who's been plaguing my mind the past couple days.
"What are you two doing?" The both of us stopped immediately, me feeling hot in the face while Lance wore his eternal smirk that he has kept since we were teens, "I know the tension between the two of you got heavy but please don't do that here."
Pidge was standing right in front of me, forcing me to look up from the floor to face her. She was wearing the black, skintight under body suit from our armor and her hair in a ponytail. She looked beautiful. Unfortunately, my blush started creeping up my cheeks right as she said that. Lance only rolled his eyes and quipped back, "Pidge, come on, you know I'll never take your boyfriend from you."
Pidge rolled her eyes, smiled, and turned to walk away. At the same time, Lance let me go, giving me the perfect view to watch her go.
"Hey Keith?" Quiznack. "Y-Yeah." Curse you stutter. "You okay? You seem out of it." I shake my head to straighten my thoughts, "Yeah. Yeah. I was just... thinking."
I unconsciously look in Pidge's direction before she left the hall to catch a final glimpse, but unfortunately, Lance caught it. He snickered and smirked at me when I turned back, "Really?..."
"Lance..." I warned.
"...because that looked like..." He continued teasing, leading me down the hall to my room.
"Stop..." I warned once more, taking out my Bayard for effect.
"Alright, alright I'm joking." Lance started laughing patting my back, "But go get her, man." All of a sudden he pushed me into the hallway, making me bump into Pidge. But unfortunately, Pidge wasn't suspecting me to bump into her, so she started falling too.
I managed to turn my back to the floor before we fell so I could take the blunt of the hit. My head hit the floor first and I felt something stab my side. Everything started getting blurry and I could hear loud yells but I don't understand anything they're saying. I closed my eyes but then felt a slap to my face causing my eyes to open and see an angel looking down at me.
Her long honey brown hair cascaded perfectly down on her face. Her honey brown eyes peering down at me were mesmerizing. And her lips seemed so soft. But she suddenly stepped back in surprise, her mouth was moving but I couldn't hear her words. She seemed to get choked up and her hand lifted up to cover her mouth and her eyes turned red and teary.
Suddenly, my body was being lifted off the ground and my head was becoming woozy. In the far distance, I could hear crying but I have no idea as to who is crying. Everything was blurry and making my head spin so I decided to close my eyes and succumbed to the darkness.
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Third Person POV
"Are you stupid!" Pidge was watching Keith while he was in the healing pod, sadness all over her features. But now she's reprimanding Lance with a deadly look in her eyes.
"Do you know how close he was to dying?!" Lance pulled his hair in frustration as his mind keeps replaying the moment he almost killed his closest friend. When Lance pushed Keith, he forgot vital information: Keith always carries his blade with him. So as Keith fell, his blade shifted and stabbed him in the side. Not only that but he got a mild concussion and cut his head as he hit the floor.
Pidge was damn near tears at seeing Keith like that, sure he's been in worse conditions before, but he was never so close to dying in her arms. The commotion caused the rest of the team to check what was going on and that only caused more screams.
"Why did you even push him?" Lance stayed quiet, knowing it was better if he didn't answer. "Why?!" Pidge took a step closer to the Blue Paladin, and if it wasn't for Hunk, she would have probably be strangling the life out of Lance.
"Why?! Because that stupid scaredy cat has been crushing on you since forever and you're too dumb enough to not tell him you like him! So I pushed him thinking that I was doing you both a favor, but NO! He decides to have his STUPID BLADE ON HIM! WHY THE HELL DOES HE HAVE A BLADE IN HIS GYM SHORTS?"
"So I can defend myself from idiots like you." Pidge and Lance's heads snapped towards the healing pod steps. There laid Keith looking half asleep, "Keef!"
The whole team was silent, the only soul willing to say a word was Shallura's son, Alfor. The chubby toddler crawled out of his mother's arms and crawled towards the woozy Paladin causing Keith to crack a small smile, "Hey, pal."
The whole team ran towards him, Pidge being the first to get to him. She held up his back as much as she could, but soon enough Hunk and Lance picked him up and carried him to his room, Pidge stood and followed them, "How are you feeling?"
Keith chuckled, "Like I've gone through hell and back." Pidge chuckled, "Well, I can only imagine the pain you went through." Keith then slowly turned his head towards Pidge and a small smile grew, confusing Pidge, "What?" Keith turned his head back to look at the ceiling and smiled, "You're beautiful."
Pidge stopped in shock and let Hunk and Lance take Keith to his room to change him into his regular clothes. She stood in shock staring at the door sliding closed. "He called you beautiful." She jumped at Shiro's voice and got in a stance to fight, but once she saw Shiro's amused smile she put down her hand and rolled her eyes. "He was woozy from the pod, he couldn't have actually meant it."
Shiro leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, "I think he actually did mean it, but he probably didn't mean to say it." Pidge blinked, her head bringing up a blank and confusing her even more. Shiro sighed, "I see the looks the two of you give each other and it grew while I was missing. He likes you too, Katie, you just have to tell him."
Pidge stood stiff as Shiro left to take care of Alfor.
He likes me?
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Hunk and Lance sat Keith down and he still had a dream like face and giggled, "She's so pretty." Hunk gave Keith a cold towel and put it to his face while Lance laughed, "Man, I wish I had a camera right now." Keith didn't hear him and grabbed Hunk by his jacket, "I mean, did you see her?! Dang, is she single?" Lance bursted out laughing, making Hunk glare at him for a while. He helped lead Keith to the shower and as Keith showered, he scolded Lance for taking a small video of Keith.
Once Keith got out of the shower with a towel around his waist, Hunk asked him, "How're you doing, man?" Keith groaned as he began putting on his shirt and Hunk chuckled, "I guess that answered my question." Lance went into the closet as Hunk started explaining to Keith what happened.
"So Lance pushed me and I bumped into Pidge and I somehow got stabbed with my blade and got a mild concussion and a cut on the back of my head?" Hunk nodded and Lance had a sorry look as he handed Keith the rest of his clothes, "Sorry about that, man. I didn't know you had your blade with you."
Keith shrugged it off as he entered the bathroom to put on his underwear and pants. "Do you remember anything?" Keith narrowed his eyes as if trying to remember, "I think I remember someone crying." Keith tugged on his shirt and when he could finally see again, he found Hunk and Lance with straight faces.
"What?" Keith asked while tugging on his pants. Hunk looked at Lance and he shrugged though he couldn't see them through the bathroom door, Hunk sighed and began, "Pidge told us to swear we wouldn't tell anyone, but it was her who was crying." Keith's breath hitched, "She cried for probably five minutes."
That's weird. Pidge never cries. Only once before, when she found her brother and father. She didn't cry when she lost her father and brother, not when she got shot in the arm, not even when Green was almost completely destroyed in a mission. So hearing that Pidge cried was HUGE news for Keith.
"She cried?" Hunk and Lance both nodded, "How bad was I?" Lance had a guilty look on his face when he began, "You lost 30% of your blood." Keith nodded and put on his jacket, "I have to go find Pidge."
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Pidge was sitting on a counter of the kitchen by herself eating some space goo, thinking of the events of the past three days. She remembered being so panicked. He was seriously injured. The blade dug in deeply into his abdomen and the hit on his head caused a mild concussion and he lost a lot of blood.
She panicked and ended up crying, which is odd for her. And now, she only hung her head in embarrassment that Hunk and Lance saw her like that.
"Pidge?" Quiznack. Pidge turned around to find Keith out of breath and standing near the entrance to the kitchen, looking extremely attractive. Pidge gulped and nodded, "Yeah?"
Keith let go of the door frame and walked closer at a slow pace. When he got near enough, he asked, "Do you like me?"
That was it. It was so simple and random and blunt. He didn't proclaim his love for her nor did she to him. There was no grand romantic gesture. There was no long speech. And there was no incredibly insane stunts. It was a simple four word question.
It was a simple question, do it got a simple answer, "Yes."
In a single second, Keith took another step, grabbed her cheek, and tilted her head up while he tilted his down and connected their lips.
All those years working together. All those years lowkey protecting each other's butts. All those years stealing secret glances at the others. All those built up emotions were shown in one simple, awkward kiss.
It was their first kiss, but it wasn't like the cliche kiss in most movies. It was awkward, smushed, and short. The two pulled apart and smiled at the other awkwardly. Keith cleared his throat and began again, "Can we try that again?" Katie laughed but obliged and nodded. She hummed in content when her lips met Keith's again and their lips moved in sync. This kiss was much slower, though just as innocent. It was nothing but pure love and Shiro was glad the two of them didn't decide to go any farther because he would rather not lose his appetite as he was eating lunch.
You see, the two love birds didn't realize that Shiro was in the room when they decided to silently confess their feelings. But he didn't mind, it was kind of amusing honestly.
So now Shiro sat eating his space goo as a happy new couple made out in front of him unknowingly.