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Keith has always loved the idea of flying and going to space. When he was a little kid, his dad used to take him out into the desert where they would set up a tent and a telescope to watch the stars streak across the sky. His dad would tell him stories of aliens fighting to protect the galaxy against evil, in between goofy tales of alien abductions. Keith grew up knowing every star in the sky by name and myth.
He loved the tranquility and the silence of the sky, and he never understood what people meant when they said that space seemed lonely. Because how could you be lonely when you’re surrounded by cosmic dust? The very same particles that make up every being anyone has ever known. The bits and pieces of everything that has travelled millions of lightyears over hundreds of billions of years to be sharing the same space as you. It felt magical to Keith—it was almost like space was his religion and the particles that inhabited it were his deities.
Maybe this is why Keith never managed to understand people quite right. Maybe he spent too much time looking up, and not enough time looking forward. He got too caught up in quasars and nebulae to put the puzzle pieces of humanity together.
Or maybe it was because stars can’t leave you like people can. Maybe it’s because he never tried, or maybe it’s because he tried too hard, but Keith knew that no matter what, year after year, the stars would always be the same, and that couldn’t be said for people.
Keith loved the stars, and he loved the Garrison because while sure, he had to wear a dumb uniform and follow rules and do his homework, the academy gave him a way to get closer to his lights in the sky.
The Garrison gave him a place to go after his dad passed away. They taught him discipline and skill. They taught him how to properly fight and how to fly. They gave him a fighter pilot’s class distinction and a brother named Shiro. The Garrison gave him a boy, brown haired, and blue eyed, and loud, as he was, he still sent Keith spinning.
The Garrison showed Keith that Earth could be someplace that he might want to be.
The Garrison gave Keith hope.
And that’s why things went so bad, when the Kerberos mission failed.
Keith loved the stars until they took Shiro away from him. Keith loved the Garrison until they tried to cover up Shiro’s disappearance as “pilot error”. Keith loved flying until it felt more confining than freeing.
That year in the desert, was the worst year of Keith’s life. He was alone—truly alone—for the first time. Because while, sure, he had lived alone for a few years prior to going to the Garrison, Keith had always had the stars. And while he didn’t have many friends, he had Shiro. And during that year, Keith had none of that. Just the sun, and the sand, and the snakes, and that little lonely shack.
Keith knew then, what people meant when they said space seemed lonely. Keith knew why people hated the cosmic dust floating in the air around them. Keith understood why people filled the silence with needless chatter.
Keith hated that he understood.
Keith hated being alone.
So, Keith looked for someone new. New stars to look at. A pull in his chest leading him to something—someone—some big event. Something.
Then Keith found Blue. And Shiro. And that boy with the brown hair and the blue eyes. And they brought him back to the stars.
They brought him back to flying and soaring and seeing again. The boy who filled the silence with needless chatter and held his loneliness deep inside of himself, gave Keith a way to build himself a world in which he would never be lonely again. That boy gave him a family.
Lance gave Keith back the stars. Except they were no longer plainly in the sky. They were hidden in the freckles on his cheeks, and in the corners of his eyes, and the twinkle in his laugh, and the shock of their lips pressed together.
Keith has found his new universe, and it rests inside a lover boy with brown hair and blue eyes and a smile that could melt gold.