ON A BETTER NOTE; I finally got around to writing some katt, and I know it’s not sheith, I know… but this could also be pretty much platonic if you want so yeah, take it as you will? I kind of just started writing and went where the conversation did, which uh.. isn’t the best tactic for prose but eh it’s rough anyway
So, maybe the stakeout wasn’t the best place for a conversation. But Matt’s curiosity had gotten the better of him, so there they were.
“Wait, they really had you go up against fully initiated Blade members? Isn’t that unfair?”
Keith shrugged and stayed where he was slumped against a crate. They weren’t supposed to really do anything- unless, of course, something went wrong, and Matt’s squadron was called to be utilized. The Blade really was stretched thin, across all the territory they were trying to cover and regain at once.
“So how long did it last?” Matt followed up, after eyeing one of the Blades on the ground below their roof station.
“Uh… couple days?” Keith scratched his jaw and frowned. “Not really sure- everything got kinda fuzzy after the first hour.”
Matt was sure his eyes were as wide as saucers before muttering, “Geez… were you… okay? I mean, after getting out of a pod, I’d assume you’d feel better, but still-”
“I wasn’t in a pod,” Keith looked at him like Matt was deluded. “We had work to do. I couldn’t just abandon the team while they collaborated with the Blade.”
Well, maybe he was deluded, because he can’t have heard that right.
“You never slow down, do you?” Matt asked, shaking his head like an afterthought. “Even after leaving the Garrison, it’s just been go, and keep going, and never stop. You and Shiro both.”
The observation earned him a barely-there laugh. “Yeah, guess so. But what else are we supposed to do, you know? Responsibility was always going to catch up with us one day.” After a pause, he rolled his head toward Matt where it was still resting against the crate behind him, exhaustion lined in the circles under his eyes. “We’ll pull through, though. We have to.”
And then he glanced down at the coin Matt had been fiddling with since they’d gotten up there- a gift from Pidge that he’d nearly cried at, upon receiving. It was his first piece of home in a long time.
“Now more than ever,” Keith said, voice bordering on soft.
Matt took one more long look at the keepsake, before sliding it back into his pocket, next to the bracelet that Tiosh had given him. Maybe it was too sentimental, for the war they’d been caught in.
But Keith pulled a chain necklace from his belt, showing him the names engraved in the tags, and Matt thought that maybe Keith didn’t care about it being too sentimental, either.
“How did you make those?” He asked curiously, leaning to see all five of them.
“I didn’t have to, thankfully,” Keith answered, thumbing over the thin metal to spread them on his palm. “Everyone gave their spare. I just…” He sighed and traced over Shiro’s and Hunk’s where they overlapped. “I wanted them to be with me. It sounds stupid like that, but if-”
“It’s not stupid,” Matt was quick to reply, reaching out to close Keith’s hand over them. “Well, it’s a little stupid that you left, when they’re your family now, but… it’s not stupid to miss them. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.” He tried for a reassuring smile, and may have winced internally. He was starting to feel like Shiro, giving advice to cadets at the Garrison again.
But Keith tucked the necklace away again, looking back at him with older eyes, and he was shaken out of the feeling. That was a lifetime ago, galaxies away.
Well, if he was on the counselling path- “I’m sure they miss you just as much, you know. You aren’t the same kid from the Garrison, back on Earth- even I can see that. But maybe that’s a good thing.”
Keith’s gaze dropped, like he was too tired to hold it up. “You’re right. It’s not just me though, because being up here, out in the stars…” He offered another shrug. “It changes everyone.”
Matt couldn’t hold back another smile at that; the observation should’ve sounded strange, coming from Keith, who Shiro would often describe as generally reserved, but maybe it was to prove a point. That, or Keith was unwittingly being ironic.
Either way, Matt found himself agreeing, even after they were called to the ground, and the mission ended soon after.
Space had a funny way of pulling people apart, but space also seemed to have an even funnier way of, sometimes, pushing them back together again.
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