Partners In Crime (Klance/Shidge)

Chapter 6 • Journey Start

Keith raced to find Katie, the hope dwelling in his heart like a baby in a mother's stomach. He was running so fast that he accidentally ran right past his target. He stopped and turned around in the matter of seconds. Katie was already facing him, a bewildered look on her face.

The mullet-wearing male was swift to put the book in her arms, breathing heavily. "Last... Ten pages... Read," he said in between his gasps for air. Katie looked at the journal and carefully skimmed over the pages, hand caressing the worn pages like a mother to her baby's cheeks. The brunette's eyebrows furrowed, confusion sketched across her air-brushed facial skin.

"My father had a journal quite identical to this one. Same style and everything," she mumbled, reaching the last written-on page. At her words, Keith was the one to be baffled. She counted ten pages backward, eyes quickly scanning the page she came across. Her bold, brown orbs were quick to become watery.

Keith reached out, but stopped. This girl was a stranger and he wasn't one to initiate skin contact. With that, his hand fell once more and he settled with asking, "What is it?"

Katie looked up from the pages, free hand lightly resting over her mouth. "This... This is my father's handwriting!" she exclaimed from beneath her hand.

Keith sucked in a large portion of the oxygen around them. "How could that be possible? How come your father wrote in my dad's journal?" Katie just continued on to sob, hair enveloping her face. It was at that moment Keith came to realize exactly what had happened. She was taken from her family. Her everything. It was amazing she held up to this point.

All it took was a sigh to blow her ship over, Katie quick to sink into the waves. "I...I don't know exactly how, but I've... Read it enough to recognize it. I just..." she let out a breath. "This is a lot to take in."

Katie let her arms fall to her sides and locked eyes with Keith. "What could this mean?"

"I don't know," Keith said, ruffling the back of his head lightly. "No one else in the guild could understand what was written in here, and I never knew where to look for someone... anyone with any information pertaining it."

Katie ran her finger over the worn leather of Keith's journal, studying the crinkles and crevices. "Maybe... maybe we could check with the Holt Mansion?" Katie suggested nervously. "I know you and the rest have been strict with keeping me here— away from which I came, but if you want some answers, than that may be the only place to find them."

The duo stood there in a silence as a plethora of  thoughts ran through the red paladin's mind. He longs for more information, but at what price would he pay? If the guild brought Katie back to the Mansion— even for this one bit of time— they would not be assured that she return back with them peacefully. And they would hate to take her by force again.

He simply sighed and crossed his arms, resting himself in his normal "I'm-thinking-so-don't-disturb-me" facade.

Katie dipped her chin in his direction slightly. "I know its not the best plan in the world, but it may be the only way for you to attain more knowledge of the journal— and why my father may have wrote it."

Keith began walking away after gently snatching the journal from Katie's fragile-looking hands. "Let's consider the rest of the guild before making this decision."

Without looking back, Katie could tell his eyes were in a cold glare as he continued away. "I will speak to Allura before we even begin to think of this rash choice any longer."

Katie sighed and shifted her glasses up her nose. Without much more to do, she figured she may as well study the Green Lion— no— her lion's controls.

Keith walked in the cave against the direction of wind flow. Allura may be at her quarters and Katie had a point. Her father, Samuel Holt, wrote in Keith's father's journal. That fact alone proved he would know so much more than they could ever because he knew what was never written. He knew exactly what Keith's dad did and most likely, why he went missing.

That's all Keith has ever wanted to know. He felt spurts of euphoria run through his veins. At the same time, he felt scared. What could his dad have to do with the Royal Scripter? As an outlaw, how would the two even come close to mingling?

Lost in his mind, Keith didn't see the person he was about to run into. Crashing into the steel rock chest of their gracious and fearless leader, Red's pilot tumbled backward onto his bum. Shiro held his palm out facing upward, waiting for Keith to let him assist in standing up again. The old torn journal sat on the ground next to him and Shirogane's eyes fell on it.

Instead of waiting, the leader took the initiative and helped Keith to his feet. "Still fusing over those last few pages? Why don't you let our little green lioness give reading it a try. If our feisty highness is willing to cooperate," the broad male suggested, smiling at the younger member.

"I already have... She gave it a look over," Keith replied, picking the book up, "She said something that I want to have investigated. It could help us a whole bunch and that's no lie, but it's something dangerous, especially considering we've just returned from the location and the place could be crawling with police."

Shiro raised a brow, giving the ravenette a curious look. "And what does that mean?"

"It means that the last ten pages were written by Katie's father and that means the answer we desire lies with the parents of the girl we just kidnapped."

________
Omaigosh? An update! Color me sister shook! Sorry I watched too much of YouTube today— (This is spaceaholic and oof same, but I finished season two of the Dragon Prince hohoho it was nice)
Brought to you by spaceaholic & ThatOneServant