Chapter Text
“It’s getting late,” Keith said, shortly after the bar’s last call.
Pidge looked around. The stools, tables, and booths were empty, the bartenders were keeping themselves busy with cleaning glasses and wiping counters, and the cars passing by outside had dwindled in number. She hadn’t realized how much time had passed since she had introduced herself to Keith and they got lost in alcohol, conversations about the cosmos and cryptids, and even longer debates about whether the Megazord could beat Godzilla in a fight.
The room spun just a little. She could still taste whiskey on her tongue. Various shots churned in her stomach. Her whole body felt warm. The clouds in her head were nice to ponder about rather than her usual thoughts.
“Do you need me to walk you home?” she asked, probably slurring her words but not in a position to care. After all, Keith wasn’t doing any better than her, nearly falling off his stool in his attempt to stand.
He chuckled, which was more akin to a giggle given the drinks they had shared. Either way, it was a warm, gentle sound that made her heart skip a beat. “No offense, but aren’t you a little short to be a bodyguard?”
“Judge me by my size, do you?”
“Fair. Considering Yoda was one badass Jedi, I guess I’ll take you up on that offer.” He smiled at her. “Thanks, Pidge.”
“Katie.”
“What?”
“My real name,” she said, signing the receipt that the bartender had handed to her. “It’s Katie.”
“Oh. I, uh, I guess that isn’t something you share with everyone?”
She smirked. “No, so tell anyone else and I’ll have to kill you.”
He offered his own mischievous grin, so handsome in the bar’s dim lighting that she couldn’t help but stare. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
It wasn’t long before they were walking down the empty streets of Balto together, laughing at jokes and clinging to one another in the cool, desert air. She couldn’t recall how far his apartment was from the bar; the whole trip had been a blur to the quiet night, her inebriated mind, and the electricity that shot along her skin every time he touched her.
“It’s getting cold,” he said, as they stood outside his door.
It wasn’t a simple observation like it had been before. This time, his eyes were deep and wanting.
She returned the look.
“Do you need me to tuck you in?” she murmured.
He stepped closer -- and she grabbed his lapel, pulled him toward her, and kissed him.
The shriek of an alarm cut through the bliss.
Pidge yelped, flailing her arms as she toppled out of bed and landed on her back. She blinked at the ceiling, her body tangled in blankets and sheets.
Sunlight bled in through the window, illuminating a small bedroom with a carpeted floor that was covered in open textbooks, Monsters & Mana manuals, and old laundry. A computer with multiple monitors sat on the nearby desk, surrounded by posters and action figures.
Reality sunk in. Pidge frowned, threw her arm over her eyes, and let out a frustrated groan.
Another dream about him.
If she knew how long her single encounter with Keith -- the red-cladded man from the bar a few days ago -- would’ve stuck with her, she would’ve considered pushing aside her baggage to ask for his number.
She grumbled to herself as she climbed back into bed to retrieve her glasses and her wailing phone from the nightstand. She turned off the alarm (one of many, for she had apparently slept through the other nineteen of them) and unlocked the phone to read the recent messages from the “MNM” group chat:
Lance (8:34 AM):
What day is it?!
Hunk (8:40 AM):
National Awkward Moments Day?
Lance (8:42 AM):
Wait, that’s a thing? But no…
Shiro (8:45 AM):
Game Day!
Lance (8:45 AM):
Motherfreakin’ GAME DAY!!!
Pidge, we’re still on for today, right?
Like, you were still sleeping when I left at 7…
And I didn’t want to wake you up to ask because you might bite my ankles and then I’d have to call animal control and get a rabies shot and have you put down…
And that’s sad.
It’d be like Old Yeller
But with my smol green roommate instead
Allura (8:52 AM):
I never saw that movie
Hunk (8:54 AM):
Yeah, so you totally spoiled it, Lance
Lance (8:57 AM):
W HAT
IT CAME OUT IN LIKE
THE 1700S
Allura, I love you, BUT YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE
Hunk (8:58 AM):
1957*
Lance (8:58 AM):
SAME THING
Hunk (8:59 AM):
It kinda isn’t tho…
Shiro (8:59 AM):
Lol you guys
Pidge rolled her eyes, though there wasn’t any heat in the gesture. If there was one thing that could finally get her mind off of Keith for more than a few minutes, it’d be the weekly Monsters & Mana game she ran for her friends.
She replied to the group chat:
Pidge (9:35 AM):
Yep. Me and Lance’s place, as usual. 6 PM.
She stood to collect her Monsters & Mana manuals from the floor and stack them somewhat neatly on her desk. Her textbooks were neglected by comparison, but she could afford to procrastinate a bit longer on her assignments. Data structures and algorithms came naturally to her, so it’d only take a few hours to finish her exercises for the week.
Besides, she needed a backup plan in case Monsters & Mana failed to distract her from memories of Keith.
Before leaving her room, she stopped and looked at the lanyard that hung down from a hook by the door. Attached to it was a badge from the Galaxy Garrison, featuring a headshot of her father, his smile warm and professional, with his name -- Samuel Holt -- typed beneath it. She touched the plastic, fondly brushing her thumb across his photo.
“Morning, Dad,” she whispered.
She stepped out into the hallway and entered the bathroom, flipping on the lights and the overhead fan. She synced her phone with the Bluetooth speaker by the sink and randomly selected one of her Spotify playlists. Pop punk music blared, loud enough to fill the whole apartment (since Lance currently wasn’t around to nag her about the volume).
She brushed her teeth, popped her daily multivitamin, and turned on the shower, stripping while waiting for the water to warm. Inside, she slowly exhaled beneath the hot downpour, the steam clinging to her and fogging the mirror, bleeding out into the hallway like a dragon’s smoky sigh. She washed her hair and lathered her body with her forest-scented gel, nodding her head to the song in the background--
When his back touched the wall, Keith gasped.
Pidge pulled away from his neck and met his eyes. His violet gaze was wide, filled with desire and a little bit of shock.
She smirked.
He growled, thankful to have been proven wrong about her strength, and he kissed her. He slid his fingers into her short hair, his tongue warm and wet against hers, his body like a campfire that she just wanted to bask in. She let her hands roam over him, from his arms to his chest to his thighs, and she slipped them beneath his jacket and his shirt so she could touch his hot skin.
“God, Katie…”
Her head spun, not just from the alcohol, but also from Keith’s smell and his taste and the fact that her real name -- which she rarely told anyone, much less random guys from bars -- sounded so damn good in his voice.
His mouth never leaving hers, they finally stumbled away from the wall and down the hallway toward his room--
“Damn it!”
Pidge growled, pressing her arm to the shower wall and leaning her forehead against it, trying to reel in her thoughts. The hot water cascaded down her back, reminding her of Keith’s burning touch. Her body ached with desire, its previous contentment circling the drain with her suds. Keith’s voice, heavy with need, then gentle as they fell asleep in each other’s arms, rang through her ears, louder than New Found Glory’s sassy vocals.
She had work in a few hours and a Monsters & Mana game to finish planning. She couldn’t afford to be distracted anymore.
Reluctantly, she grabbed the shower’s faucet handle and turned the water to very, very cold.
Pidge, now cleaned and dressed, sat at the kitchen counter and took a sip of her coffee as she jotted down notes for her Monsters & Mana session.
Enemy encounters. NPC dialogue and backstories. How the labyrinthine crypt that the players would be navigating that night would contribute to not only the overarching plot of the campaign but also the developments of individual characters. Lance’s Sharpshooter would have an opportunity to explore a lead on the whereabouts of his missing sister, while Hunk’s Battle Builder could meet an old friend integral in her quest for revenge. Both Allura’s Star Warden and Shiro’s Dragonian might even collect some useful magical items that would allow them to take control of the narrative next week.
As Pidge put down her pencil, her phone buzzed, the screen highlighted with a personal message from Lance.
Lance (11:20 AM):
Seriously. You okay, Pidge?
You don’t usually sleep in so late
I mean, sometimes you do, like when you need to stay up to the butt crack of dawn to study or you’re out and about doing Pidge things
But not on game day!
She sighed.
Pidge (11:25 AM):
I’m fine
Just haven’t been sleeping well
Stop worrying so much, weirdo
Lance (11:26 AM):
I’M the weirdo?! You’ve been a weirdo ever since that time you were out all night with that one guy and I had to pick you up at Starbucks
Lance (11:30 AM):
Wait…
WAIT!!!
You’re thinking about that guy, aren’t you?! :D
Pidge grumbled, getting up to refill her coffee, her phone vibrating endlessly in her other hand.
Lance (11:31 AM):
Man, I’ve never seen you get like this after a night with someone
You usually just move on with your life, never talk to them again
But this one?
Gotta be special…
Pidge (11:33 AM):
I told you I’m fine
Lance (11:34 AM):
Uh-huh
Can’t fool me, Pidgey
;)
Come on, tell your old pal Lancey-Lance
Besides, don’t you want to see where it could go?
With the guy, I mean
It sounds like you both have great physical chemistry, but maybe it can be more than that?
Stop running away and let yourself actually get close to someone
“Yeah, right…” Pidge muttered, stirring creamer into her coffee.
The morning after her night with Keith, she had woken up in his arms, watched him sleep soundly as warmth bubbled through her chest, and she had promptly panicked. Not in a way that woke Keith up, but in a way that led Pidge to only leave a note thanking him for the nice night and rushing out his door. She had kept her head down, lost in thoughts concerning complicated feelings (and how hungover she was), and had wandered the streets until she ended up at a random Starbucks and phoned Lance for a ride home.
Now she had no way of finding or contacting Keith -- since her brilliant, emotionally stunted self hadn’t asked for his number or even memorized the route it took to get to his apartment -- and while such things normally wouldn’t bother her, they really bothered her this time.
Emotions were dumb. Why couldn’t they all just be robots? Robots were so much cooler.
Her phone buzzed again.
Lance (11:38 AM):
It’s just a suggestion, I swear! Please don’t kill me. I just don’t want you to die a hipster
*spinster stupid autocorrect
She snorted, amused. Frankly, she wasn’t in the mood for a therapy session. She just wanted to get to Ryner's Computer Works, serve her time, and play some Monsters & Mana.
And forget Keith. That was kind of an important task on her to-do list, whenever she finally got around to it.
Still, she appreciated Lance’s intentions, so she was sure to reply so her silence wouldn’t freak him out:
Pidge (11:39 AM):
I know. Thanks, weirdo :)
Then she grabbed her keys, her backpack, and her skateboard before she headed out to catch the bus, ignoring how her phone buzzed once more.
Lance (11:41 AM):
I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I? >:[