Loving You to the Stars and Back // Keith x OC //

The Next Step

2

I woke up looking at the ceiling of my dorm room, remembering the fact that I almost died last night at the hands of Commander Iverson because I arrived back on base minutes before curfew. I know I can get away with a lot of things, but not curfew. He was even waiting for me at the landing platform with his watch at hand when I discreetly flew past security. He was staring from a distance with his one eye, surveying the area until I returned. At least now, I'm living and breathing for another day.

But even if I did get in trouble, I would still be happy to the fact that I was able to see Keith after so long and getting to catch up with him. Now, I was part of his search in finding that blue lion and whatever was coming. The entire thought of it was intriguing and it was getting me excited.

I got out of bed and got ready for breakfast. Monday mornings were awfully slow and I try not to catch the usual blues, but when everyone acts groggy, I get infected too. I stretched my arms a little as I walked out of my dorm, seeing the short brunette walking down the hall.

"Pidge!" I called out, catching the girl's attention. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Athena," She says as she graces me a quick smile.

Pidge Gunderson is a cadet who arrived a year after me. She was a diligent student and I admired her intelligence. For someone her age, Pidge was extremely amazing at what she does. She's meticulous and very detailed oriented in everything that she did. Funny thing is, she came to Galaxy Garrison portraying as a boy and up until now, she has been keeping that a secret for quite some time. Even her team doesn't know.

When we first met, her androgynous appearance made me believe that she really was a male until I caught her needing help. I won't get into details how but let's leave it with Mother Nature's calling.

"You're early today." I walked beside her since we were heading down the same direction.

"I'm starving," She whines as she placed a hand on her stomach. "I woke up pretty early this morning and I couldn't go back to sleep so my tummy was asking for food. I ran out of smuggled snacks from last week." We both exchanged laughter as we continued to walk down the hallway.

"Any news on that alien talk that you've been researching?" I asked.

Pidge turned to me with wide eyes filled with excitement "Yeah! I was meaning to tell you yesterday but I saw how you beat the curfew and Iverson waiting on you on the landing platform. I decided to wait until today to tell you. I didn't want to get caught being outside of my dorm."

"Good call." I let out a laugh before laying the smackdown, "Okay, so spill the tea."

Pidge went on about how the radio frequency she had kept track of had continued to rise, still saying the word 'Voltron.' It's crazy that Pidge found out about this a few months ago with her inventions, let alone find out there is life outside of this big blue-green globe.

She had been on this search for her father and older brother for almost a year now, believing that they were still alive. I remember hearing it on the news and at the garrison, that they were assumed dead, including their pilot, Shiro. The garrison even accused it to be Shiro's fault for the team's disappearance. 

I didn't believe it either, but I had no evidence to back up that it wasn't a pilot error as the garrison had claimed. That wasn't like Shiro at all, letting his team die or get lost in space.

Shiro was the role model for every cadet who wanted to become an exploration pilot. He was the one who took Keith under his wing, mentoring him so he too could be a great pilot. That's how Keith became top of our class. Keith didn't want to believe that his mentor was gone in space. Shiro was also my role model as well, so believing that he was dead wasn't easy for me either.