Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The classroom was buzzing with excitement when Pidge finally made it through the door and took her seat at her usual table. Her partner, Keith Hawkins, was already there with a notebook and pen sitting in front of him rather than the usual heavy iron cauldron.

“No brewing today,” he answered her unasked question.

Pidge raised an eyebrow. “That's unusual for Professor Shirogane. Any idea why?”

Keith shook his head. “He hasn't said. It may have something to do with the officer he's been talking to since I came in.”

Pidge glanced to the front, where Professor Shirogane was in deep conversation with someone in the deep black-and-plum uniform of the Marmora Special Task Force. Thanks to the mask and hood they wore, all Pidge could really tell was that they had a masculine figure and stood a little taller than her favorite Professor.

“It must be something serious...” Pidge murmured.

They didn't have to wonder for too much longer as the last of the stragglers hurried through the door and took their seats, which seemed to be what Professor Shirogane was waiting for in order to begin class.

“I'm sure you've all noticed that there will be no brewing today,” he began, his tone unusually serious. “That is because I have received permission to cover one of the most heavily restricted potions. Because of those restrictions, we will not be brewing nor covering how to brew this potion. You'll also notice that we have been joined by Officer Ulaz of the Marmora Special Task Force, who will observe and ensure that none here abuse the privilege that has been granted to us.”

The class was dead silent at his words, no one daring to break it even to whisper to their desk partner.

Professor Shirogane gestured towards a locked chest on his desk that was roughly eight inches long and five inches wide and stamped with the Marmora emblem on the top. “Within this chest is a single vial of the strongest love potion to have ever been created.”

A ripple of unease went through the classroom. Even Keith couldn't stop a shudder from running through him as he leaned a little closer to Pidge, who reached over and took his hand.

There was a good reason love potions were so heavily restricted. They'd been used in the past with devastating results, causing wars that ruins the lives of hundreds of thousands and, on a smaller scale, used to exert control over others. No matter what type of love potion, at its core it would strip away a persons free will, leaving them vulnerable to suggestion and unable to refuse anything, even if it meant going against everything they believed in.

It was going to be a rough class for all of them, but especially their friend Allura, who had recently been the victim of one of the milder forms of love potion at the hands of someone she thought was a friend.

“Each pair will be given a small portion, which we will study for this class period. I also have different types of food and drink that you will apply small amounts of potion to and see if you can tell any different between laced or unlaced food. None of this is to be consumed and it will be properly disposed of at the end of class. Should any of you be caught in the act of endangering yourself or others, you will be banned from my class and will be thoroughly investigated by the Marmora Special Task Force. If they find that you acted intentionally, the punishment is a minimum of ten years imprisonment.”

Professor Shirogane regarded his class with an unchanging gaze and then stepped aside to allow Officer Ulaz access to the chest, which he unlocked with a few flicks of his wand. Nestled inside a molded velvet interior was a bottle containing an innocuous-looking swirling pink potion.

“It is important that you do not allow a single drop to touch your skin,” Ulaz spoke up, his voice much deeper than expected. “While it is at its most potent when ingested, you may still experience some effects should it touch your skin. If you think you have come into contact with it at any point, tell myself or your professor so we may administer the antidote.”

Pidge could hear several of her classmates exhale in relief and she comfortingly squeezed Keith's hand before chancing a quick glance in his direction. He relaxed a little at the news of an antidote and managed to give her a small smile before focusing back on the lesson.

It was the most nerve-wracking potions class she'd ever sat through, but the promise of cuddles with Keith later was well-worth the stress they all went through as Professor Shirogane led them through the most obvious signs of love potion abuse and taught them the subtle ways it changed the scent or texture of foods and drinks.

They all left at the end of class feeling unsettled, yet pleased by the promise of learning to brew antidotes during their next lesson.

It was as she and Keith hung around to wait on their friends that she realized Allura hadn't been in class that day.

“Professor Shirogane excused her for the day,” Lance told them, abnormally quiet when he and Hunk finally joined them. “I took notes. Want to go with me to give them to her?”

Pidge and Keith agreed, continuing to hold hands as the four of them walked to Allura's room.

Things would take time to get back to normal, but they would all get through it together.

Chapter Text

Pidge sighed as she opened the door to her apartment and stepped inside, exhausted after another long day at work. All she wanted to do was run a hot bath with some nice-smelling salts and maybe pour herself a small glass of wine to relax with while she soaked, but first she needed to check up on her familiar and make sure she wasn't feeling too neglected with all of the extra hours Pidge was putting in recently.

“Emmie?” she called out.

Oddly, her familiar did not respond.

Instead, there was a heavy thump from the next room over and Pidge tensed up. With a flick of her wrist, her wand popped free of its holster and slid neatly into her hand and she slowly moved away from the front door with a defensive spell poised on her lips.

She cautiously entered what served as her living room – a cramped space that barely fit a loveseat and a television for all of her gaming needs – and cast her eyes around for anything out of the ordinary.

Nothing.

There wasn't a thing out of place or missing.

Pidge relaxed a little when she didn't see an intruder like she first assumed. Her apartment was in a relatively safe area, but there had been reports of break-ins recently and she hadn't heard about anyone being apprehended, so a little caution was necessary.

Just as she was about to lower her wand, she heard a second noise. A strange “mmrp?” sound before something black slinked out from behind her tv stand. She stared at the creature and they stared right back at her with unusual purple eyes.

“You... are not my cat,” Pidge stated, trying to figure out why it was in her rooms and how it had gotten in.

The cat leisurely stretched and then trotted over to her, lifting their chin to show off the red collar they wore and the tag attached to it.

Pidge kneeled down to take a better look. “Alright, lets see whose familiar you are,” she murmured as she turned the tag towards her. The front bore the name “Keith Hawkins” and on the back was an address which matched her own except for the room number. “Well, that makes this easy. Ready to get back to your partner?” she asked the cat.

The cat blinked at her.

“I'm going to take that as a yes. Just let me check on Emmie first and then I'll take you home,” Pidge said.

A quick look in her room showed her silver tabby fast asleep in the center of her bed, completely unaware of the presence of another witch's familiar occupying her space. Pidge smiled and left as quietly as she could, retreating back to the living room where the black cat was still sitting and waiting for her. There she encountered a second dilemma: did she pick up the other cat or ask them to follow her?

“If I pick you up are you going to scratch me?” she asked.

The black cat yawned and then stood up to walk over and rub against her legs. They lifted one paw and patted her right leg.

“Okay, I'm going to trust you on this,” Pidge said, bending down to pick up the cat. They settled into her arms with a rumbling purr of contentment and Pidge set off for the floor above her before the cat could change their mind about her carrying them.

She reached the correct room without issue and shifted the cat in her arms so she could free one hand long enough to knock. She didn't have to wait long before the door swung open and an attractive young man with dark hair was standing in front of her.

“Ruby,” he said with a sigh when he saw the cat in her arms.

Ruby wiggled to signify she wanted down and jumped free as Pidge lowered her to the floor.

“I'm really sorry about her.”

“No, it's okay,” Pidge automatically responded to the person who she assumed was the “Keith” labeled on Ruby's tags. “I'm Katie Holt, but you can call me Pidge if you'd like.”

“Keith Hawkins,” he said, holding out a hand.

Pidge happily his hand. “She's a sweet cat, even though she did scare me when I first got home. I may need to set up better security if a cat can break in so easily.”

“If you need a hand, I'm pretty good at that sort of thing,” Keith volunteered. “It's the least I can do after the fright Ruby put you through.”

How could Pidge say no to the extra help when it meant she would have such cute company?

Chapter Text

Pidge never could have dreamed her life would turn out so weird.

Cursed and then locked away in a tower for most of her life, dreaming of a way when a fearless knight would rescue her from her prison and proclaim his love for her, only to be saved not by a brave knight but by a grumpy Galra who came to fetch her for some prince who couldn't be bothered to leave his castle. A Galra who actually turned out to be pretty cool the more she got to know him over their journey to the kingdom of Drule.

She glanced over at Keith as they walked along a well-worn path through the forest, once again marveling over the pretty purple hue of his skin. She'd never really thought of the Galra as being beautiful, but Keith broke all of her preconceptions and forced her to reconsider everything she thought she knew.

Every day it became harder to want to go to the Kingdom of Drule.

Every day that went by it become harder for her to keep her curse a secret from Keith.

“The sun will be setting soon. We should find a safe place for you to sleep tonight,” he mentioned.

She should tell him.

But she couldn't.

Pidge smiled at him gratefully and let another night pass without telling him the truth, instead hiding away as the curse took hold of her, transforming her into a hideous form for as long as the sun was not visible in the sky. When morning came she turned back to her beautiful self and they set out once again.

It was only when they crested a hill and Keith pointed out the castle that was little more than an hour walk away that the panic set in. Pidge requested they stop and rest for the night outside of an abandoned windmill, much to Keith's confusion, and spent the rest of the evening frantically planning out what she would tell him.

Could she tell him?

It was something so taboo when she was growing up. Even her own parents spoke of it with shame. It was hard to imagine anyone would accept it as a good thing, even someone like Keith.

The sun sank closer to the horizon.

“Everything looks clear in the mill when you're ready to sleep, princess,” he said as he exited the building. He paused, taking in the expression on her face. “Is everything alright? You look unwell.”

“I...” Pidge trailed off, looking between him and the safety of the windmill. One more night and she would be within the grasp of a cure for her curse. One more night and she'd never have to speak of it to anyone ever again.

But faced with the second option of telling Keith, someone who she had come to trust and care about, she was suddenly unsure of what was the right path for her.

The bottom of the sun touched the horizon.

Pidge clenched her hands into fists at her sides.

“Keith, there's something I need to tell you.”

Chapter Text

The Castle of Lions was the premiere magical institute of Altea and notoriously difficult to be accepted into even for the best and brightest. They only accepted a maximum of five students per year and Pidge was blessed to count herself among the four chosen in the first year she applied. It meant there was plenty of individual training and enough room for everyone to have their own space to practice and study their chosen Craft.

Pidge loved her room. It was a circular space located at the top of the western tower and came equipped with a bathroom that she was rapidly coming to appreciate. Three windows allowed light to filter in whenever she pulled back her heavy curtains and there was a door that opened onto a tiny balcony that was perfect for stargazing.

Most important, it was her space and she could do whatever she wished without worrying about being interrupted.

She was especially grateful for that as she prepared for her newest ritual, one designed to allow her to divine the identity of her soulmate. It was a concept that fascinated her from the first time it was mentioned by High Priestess Melenor, but also one that felt completely out of reach for Pidge because of one very big reason.

She was awful at all forms of divination.

And from all of her studies, the tried and true method of ascertaining the identity of one's soulmate was through some form of that magical art. There was simply no other way.

Pidge threw herself into the process, taking the time to break down all of the steps and test out a few different ways. She'd gone through a full month of mediation and attempting Astral travel, but found it nearly impossible to quiet her mind long enough to achieve that goal.

When it became clear that meditating wasn't the right path for her, she moved onto the various forms of scrying, starting with the classic crystal ball. And although she tried it with several different types of crystal, she didn't find one that she “vibed” with enough for it to actually work and gave up on that path after two frustrating weeks. She spent another week with a shallow bowl of water and a quartz crystal cluster. And then a round mirror. And then a piece of hematite lit only by candlelight.

All of that brought her to the decision that the only way she would succeed in her goal would be if she crafted her own ritual. She'd had moderate success with Dream Magic in the past and hoped that it could be useful for what she intended.

Pidge took every step that she could think of the ensure the highest chance of success. Her room was already cleansed after her last ritual, so she began with a relaxing bath with purifying salts and herbs and remained there until her head felt clear and light, her magical energy brimming beneath the surface of her skin in anticipation.

She slipped on a simple cotton dress and clasped a band of hematite around her right ankle to help keep her grounded through the process. Next came a circlet crafted from silver, which had a sun-and-moon centerpiece made of sunstone and moonstone, locked by a small diamond on either side. It centered neatly over her brow.

She was ready.

Pidge gathered up the rest of her tools and began to arrange them in the center of the room, taking care with each item and focusing on her purpose. Using a piece of kunzite, she carved her chosen runes into the proper candles before setting them down around her. A stick of sandalwood incense was lit last and she stood with the kunzite in her hands and watched as the smoke curled up into the air.

She breathed in and then released that breath, feeling her magic rise in answer to her call, before turning to the north to begin the opening of her circle, calling in each elemental force to request their aid in her ritual as she lit each candle.

With energy swirling around her, Pidge slowly sat cross-legged in the center of the circle and closed her eyes. She held on tight to her intent, refusing to stray to any other thought.

She wanted to find her soulmate.

She wanted to know who they were and where she could find them.

The candlelight flared along with her magic as her spell took hold. Pidge could feel the heat of the flames. The thickness in the air. The scent of sandalwood, heavy around her.

It continued to build, higher and higher, until the next thing Pidge knew the soft early morning sun was shining in through the windows and all of her limbs were stiff and sore from apparently passing out on the floor.

Pidge groaned as she sat up, blearily looking around and taking note of the fully-melted candles and the stick of incense that was completely burned out. The kunzite was still in her hands, held onto so tightly that it left behind marks when she finally let it go.

As she examined the indents it left, she noticed something else unusual.

Encircling her right wrist was some kind of band of silver ink that was no more than a centimeter wide, comprised of intricate spirals that formed some sort of pattern, but not one that held any meaning as far as Pidge knew. She studied it for a moment, her tired brain working to try and make sense of it all, but a knock at the door interrupted her and she quickly jumped up.

“Just a minute!” she called out.

Pidge hesitated at the edge of the circle and then stepped back into the center. She took a moment to steady her breathing and then went through the steps to close the circle, taking the time to thank each of the elemental forces for their aid. Only then did she hurry around and prepare for the day.

Cleaning up would have to wait.

Another knock and the sound of her friend, Lance, calling for her had Pidge rolling her eyes at his impatience. She checked her reflection and took an extra minute to remove the circlet and place it back into its box before answering the door.

“You have got to learn some patience,” she said before Lance could open his mouth.

“Hey, I'm not the one running abnormally late,” he responded. “You didn't stay up all night reading again, did you? I don't know how you lose track of time doing that.”

“Some of us came here to actually learn and study.”

“Ouch. I'm wounded. My heart!” Lance placed one hand over his chest and dramatically swooned. “Your cruelty breaks my spirit! And after I brought you breakfast!”

Pidge's stomach growled when she caught side of the cloth-wrapped bundle in Lance's hands. “So should I profess my undying devotion to you now or do you want to wait until there are other people around?”

Lance laughed and handed over the food as they left the tower and headed towards their first lesson of the day with Alchemist Alfor. He chatted about whatever came to his mind while Pidge devoured the sandwich and made reaffirming noises so he knew she was still paying attention. She finished it as they passed under the arch marking the potions and alchemy wing of the castle and, coincidentally, came across the other two students of their year – all-around sweetheart Hunk Garrett and his more hot-tempered friend, Keith Hawkins, who also happened to be embroiled in an intense rivalry with Pidge.

The two pairs came to a dead stop beneath the archway.

Pidge was in no mood to deal with him so early in the morning and especially not after yet another failed attempt at divination spellcrafting, so she pretended as though he didn't exist as Hunk and Lance jumped into a lively conversation to try and lift the atmosphere around them.

“Anyway, there's a note on Alfor's door asking us to meet in the Four Seasons Courtyard for our lesson today. That's why we're on our way back through,” Hunk explained.

“Lucky for us that we ran into you!” Lance laughed as he slung an arm across Hunk's shoulders. “Do you think we're gathering ingredients for something? Or does he have another lecture on how our environment affects alchemic equations?”

Hunk shrugged. “Guess we'll find out once we get there.”

The two walked ahead, leaving Pidge and Keith to silently follow behind them. Pidge used every ounce of her willpower to keep her mouth shut and not look over at her rival, telling herself that it wouldn't be worth getting into an argument right before class.

It was when they arrived in the courtyard that everything went wrong.

Pidge tried to walk towards Lance to sit with him like she always did but was stopped by Keith grabbing her wrist and tugging her back towards him. She whirled on him, a snarl on her lips, only to be interrupted by his own furious remark -

“What the fuck? Let go of me, Holt!”

“I am not holding onto you! Why would I, Hawkins?” she snapped back.

In unison, they glared at their wrists, each seeking to prove that they were right, only to discover that they were both wrong. There was nothing there, though Pidge continued to feel pressure around her wrist as though there was something holding onto her.

“Is there a problem over here?” asked Alchemist Alfor as he approached.

Keith tried to yank his hand away from the invisible force but it only served to make Pidge stumble forward and throw a another glare in his direction.

“Alright, alright. Calm down,” Alfor said before either of them could start speaking again. He, like everyone else in the castle, was well aware of the animosity between the two of them. “I'm sure this is someone's idea of a prank and we can get it sorted out quickly. Lets take a look at what's going on, shall we?” He held his hand out over theirs and murmured a few words. Within seconds, a twisted braid of gold and silver appeared around their wrists, with a short chain connecting them.

Keith frowned. “What is that?”

“Fascinating... I've never seen anything like it,” Alfor admitted. “I would wager that the silver is related to some form of soul magic, but I'm unsure of what the gold represents. Melenor would be the best to ask about this sort of thing, unless either of you has an idea?”

Pidge's blood turned to ice in her veins.

Soul magic.

It couldn't be.

Not him!

“He is not my soulmate,” Pidge refused, unaware that she was speaking aloud.

Keith's eyes flashed with something Pidge couldn't define and he tensed his jaw before responding. “Who would ever want you to be their soulmate, Holt?”

Alfor must have called for backup while Pidge wasn't paying attention, because suddenly Battle Mage Shiro was there and was hurrying them to Melenor's office while Alfor stayed behind to teach Hunk and Lance the lesson he had planned for the day. It was there that Melenor confirmed her husbands thoughts that soul magic was involved, with the silver strand representing femininity while the gold represented masculinity – a perfect balance symbolizing the bond between them.

Pidge had no choice but the tell them about the ritual she performed and how it was designed to reveal her soulmate, and from there Melenor came up with a plan to help them.

“You will live together for one week. If you cannot learn to get along in that time, I will undue the spell tying you together. I want to make it clear that you will give this your best effort. Magic has bonded the two of you together for a reason and I should think that both of you would endeavor to learn why.”

So there they were, in the brand new set of rooms they were being allowed to borrow for one week while they lived together, unable to move more than a few feet apart. Neither of them spoke for the first hour, until Keith finally sat down and refused to budge, his violet eyes hard as he stared up at her.

“I don't understand what your problem with me is,” he said.

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Right.”

“I'm serious. From the very first day we met you've treated me like I'm the scum of the earth. What did I ever do to you?” Keith demanded.

Pidge opened her mouth to respond, but Keith wasn't finished.

“Imagine it's your first day in the most prestigious magical institute in the world and as you're leaving your first class you finally see your soulmate. And at first you think it's just another dream, like all of the others you've had since you were old enough to understand what a soulmate is, but when you try to talk to her it all turns into a nightmare.

“At first I thought you were just stressed, but that wasn't right, was it? Because you get along with everyone else in this school. Just not me. So what is it, Holt? What did I do to you that was so horrible that you need to turn every chance meeting into a confrontation?”

The hot flash of fury that Pidge felt when he first started talking dissipated the moment he spoke of his dreams. A heavy, cold weight settled in the pit of her stomach as her mind worked to comprehend what she was hearing. “You... you knew this whole time? Why didn't you ever say something?”

“What was the point? I knew it would only end in rejection. You proved me right about that earlier,” Keith responded. The heat was gone from his voice, replaced by a deep sorrow.

Pidge sat on the floor next to him and pulled her knees up against her chest, thinking back to her first week at the Castle of Lions. It had been a massive change from the rigorous structure and rules of the Galaxy Garrison where she previously studied and she remembered struggling to adapt to a new environment. It took her a moment to place when her first interaction with Keith, an event she blocked from her mind because it didn't seem worth remembering aside from it being the starting place of their rivalry. A rivalry she was starting to think was almost entirely one-sided.

She had volunteered to try and solve an alchemic equation Alfor presented to them and when she was finished, Keith was the first to speak up and offer a critique on her work. She remembered the flush of anger at being called out for making what, in hindsight, was a stupid mistake that spoiled the rest of her work, and then the embarrassment as two students of another year started sniggering to themselves over it. The fact that Keith completely snubbed her as they all left the classroom served to cement in her mind that he was challenging her intellect and from that day on she refused to show weakness.

She breathed out softly and pressed her forehead to the tops of her knees.

Had she really based their rivalry on a simple misunderstanding?

Had her time at the Galaxy Garrison really impaired her social skills that much? Lance was always joking about it, but maybe there was some truth to that.

The competitive atmosphere. The constant drive to do better and be the best. Maybe she carried that with her to the Castle of Lions and let it influence the way she interacted with her peers. She thought she was getting better at it with help from Lance and speaking with their instructors, but those first few weeks...

That first interaction with Keith, when he corrected her and then didn't say a word to her after that – so different from the Garrison, where rivalries were encouraged as a way to push one another to do better. That lack of acknowledgment for it made her feel as though he was looking down on her. Like she was unworthy of being considered an equal.

“Keith, I... I'm so sorry,” she murmured, unsure how to put all of her thoughts into the right words. “I don't know what else to say. All of this is my fault. Our fighting. This chain tying us together. I've never been great at divination and I've been trying for months to use it to find my soulmate – to find you – and after all of that I ended up making a spell and well... I guess Magic got tired of being ignored, so it found a way to make things more obvious for me. And here you've known all along! I can't imagine how that must have felt.”

She snapped her mouth shut and uttered another quick apology as she realized she had started rambling.

“I didn't mean what I said before,” Keith said after a moment of silence. “About how no one would want to be your soulmate? I didn't mean that.”

Pidge lifted her head from her knees. “I kind of deserved it. I've been awful to you.”

“And I was awful right back,” Keith responded, a sudden spark of passion to his voice as he twisted to look at her. “We've both said and done things that we regret. I'm not going to sit here and go over all of it when it'll only make us feel worse. Look, we're stuck together for at least a week, right?”

Pidge nodded.

“Then let's make the best of that time. By, uh, talking things through, I guess. I don't know how people normally do this sort of thing,” he admitted.

“Neither do I,” Pidge said with a grimace. “But we're smart. We can figure it out.”

Keith made a curious sound, but didn't voice whatever he was thinking. Instead, he stuck out his left hand to her – the one with the gold-and-silver chain clasped around his wrist. “Deal.”

“Deal,” Pidge agreed, grasping his left hand with her right.

The chain loosened ever-so-slightly between them.

Chapter Text

“Is this it?” Pidge asked, a little breathless as Keith pushed through the leafy undergrowth and revealed a crystal clear spring hidden within the center of the grand forest. On the far side of the spring was a weathered statue of the goddess Hylia – or at least, that's who they assumed it depicted.

A smile spread across Keith's face as he stepped deeper in the clearing. “I can't believe it. We actually found one of the lost shrines. We need a picture of this to take back to the others.”

“Already on it,” Pidge said, unclipping the sheikah slate from her belt. She held it up and made a few adjustments before snapping a picture, making sure to get both the statue and spring within frame.

Keith turned back to admire the view. They had spent so much time researching the old texts and asking around the area and finally all of their hard work had payed off. It truly was a beautiful sight. A peaceful oasis, nearly untouched by time.

He closed his eyes and relaxed, enjoying the sound of the birds chirping around them, the rustle of wind through the trees, the trickling of the stream that fed into the clear spring, the unmistakable sound of fabric hitting the ground.

Keith opened his eyes as he turned around, a protest forming on his lips at the sight of Pidge lifting her green tunic up over her head. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I'm hot and sweaty and I would very much like to not be either of those,” she responded as she yanked it the rest of the way off and dropped it on the ground along with her belt, pants, and boots. She put her hands on her hips, completely unbothered by the fact that she was standing in front of him in only her undergarments.

“Pidge, this is a sacred spring,” he reminded her. “You can't just go bathing in a sacred spring!”

“First, I'm not bathing. That implies soap and the desire to get clean,” Pidge said, holding up one finger. She flipped up a second as she continued speaking. “Two, there are no rules that say I can't take a quick dip in the nice cool water after spending an entire day hiding in that awful humidity. And three... please tell me you aren't that superstitious.”

Keith crossed his arms over his chest, blocking her path into the water. “I just don't think it's appropriate, Pidge.”

“And why is that?” Pidge challenged.

“Because it's a--!”

“Sacred spring, yeah, yeah,” Pidge interrupted, rolling her eyes. “Any better reason than that? Because I think our goddess would approve of me wanting to cool down so I don't pass out during our hike back to civilization.”

Keith didn't have a better reason than that.

Pidge waited for a few minutes and then smugly nudged past him so she could dip her bare toes into the water. She hummed in pleasure and then stepped in fully. The water only came up to her knees at its deepest point and that was where she eased herself down into it, sitting and relaxing against the sandy spring floor.

She looked up and raised an eyebrow. “Well, are you going to stand there or are you going to join me?”

Keith had to admit that it did look nice. Would it really be so bad if he joined his girlfriend in the sacred spring. They weren't doing anything wrong, after all. Just cooling down.

“I'm going to regret this later,” he murmured mostly to himself.

Pidge let out a cheer as he stripped out of his red clothing and joined her in the water.

Chapter Text

Pidge trudged through the undergrowth, cursing herself for deciding to take a stroll through the woods on a dark, moonless night. Why did she think it was such a good idea? She hated the woods! And nature in general.

Yes, she was definitely the indoors-y type, best suited to viewing the world from a screen and the comfort of her home.

She shivered and hugged herself, rubbing her arms with the hope of creating enough friction to generate warmth. She glanced up to try and see the stars but the canopy of trees completely blocked her view and the only thing that greeted her was more darkness. Her breath came in tiny pants as she looked around, barely able to make out the thick trunks, and it sank in just how well and truly lost she was.

Someone once told her: “the best thing to do when you're lost is to stay where you are”. But did that really apply when no one knew she was out there?

Pidge stopped and took a deep breath to try and calm down. What she needed to do was take a moment to think logically about the situation, highlighting all of the details she knew, and then come up with a workable plan from there.

So.

She was lost in the woods and it was too dark to see anything past a few inches from her face.

Her cell phone was very dead, though she did have a charging cable if she could find a place to use it.

She had no real way of navigating her way back to civilization.

Pidge reached out until she felt the bark of the nearest tree and used it as a way to ground herself. She briefly considered climbing up as high as she could go and hope it would be enough to get a look at the stars, which she could then use to get her bearings, but dismissed the idea as being potentially too dangerous.

There was nothing she could do but wait out the night and find her way once the sun rose once again.

She leaned against the tree and tilted her head back, wishing she could see something. Even the smallest pinprick of light would give her hope.

Pidge wasn't sure how long she stood there, her mind whirling through all of the different possibilities of how and when she would make it back to civilization and even entertaining the idea of someone heroically swooping in with a flashlight to save her. It was fun to imagine, though she knew it wasn't something that was going to happen.

She lowered her eyes and that was when she saw it: something glowing in the distance, lighting up the trunks of trees around it. Pidge held her breath in surprise. Surely she was hallucinating, right?

“Hello?” she called out.

She didn't get a response, but the light bobbed around a bit, as though whoever was holding it was trying to draw her in closer.

Or lead her out of the forest.

Pidge pushed away from the tree and began walking towards the light, praying that she wouldn't snag her foot on the undergrowth. To her confusion, the closer she got, the farther away the light seemed to move, occasionally stopping to sway and let her get a little more caught up before moving away again.

“Who's there? Can you slow down a bit?” Pidge called out, frustration bleeding into her voice.

And just like that, the light stopped. It hovered there in place, growing larger and larger as she approached. It pulsed in a mesmerizing pattern as it appeared the drift in the air, but Pidge didn't take any notice of how odd the whole thing was as she continued to follow it even as she sank to her ankles in cold, muddy water.

She shivered but kept going, the light too entrancing to stop. It would lead her to safety. She knew it.

The water lapped at her calves as the mud clung tightly to her feet, making any movement difficult, but she had to keep going. She was going to get out of the woods and make it back to her safe and warm home before the sunrise and a little bit of water and mud wasn't going to stop her.

Nothing could stop her.

A jet of crackling red energy shot past her shoulder and collided with the bobbing light, which emitted an inhuman screech as it skipped backwards over the water. Pidge watched, dazed, as two additional red jets shot out from behind her, colliding twice more with the light until the screeching stopped.

And then, suddenly, the water moved away from her legs and Pidge swayed, thankfully prevented from falling over into the deep mud by a pair of hands on her shoulders.

There was someone there speaking to her, but their words were so muffled that she couldn't make out what they were saying. Nothing made much sense. Her thoughts were so discombobulated that she couldn't keep anything straight and when the heavy fog clouding her mind finally lifted enough for her to think straight, she was sitting on a soft couch in an unfamiliar room with a warm blanket wrapped around her and a man with dark hair kneeling in front of her, holding up a mug for her to take.

“Drink this. It should help clear the rest of your shock,” he told her gently.

Pidge's hands were shaking so badly that she wasn't sure if she'd be able to hold onto the mug without spilling the drink everywhere, but she gave it a try anyway, choosing to rest it on the top of her legs until she was sure she could lift it high enough to drink.

“W-what happened?” she asked.

There was a moment of silence that stretched on for long enough that she wondered if she needed to repeat herself.

“The forest around here is dangerous at night, but especially during the new moon. Usually it isn't a problem since most people stay away once night starts to fall. They find it unsettling,” he said. “That light you encountered was something most folks would call a 'will-o'-the-wisp'.”

Pidge's brow furrowed in confusion. “But that's... that's not real. That's just a fairytale.”

“They're real and very dangerous. Their only goal is to lead people astray, typically into bogs or marshes, and... Well, those people don't come back.”

Pidge shivered at the implication.

“You were trapped pretty deeply into its thrall when I showed up, but you'll be okay now,” he continued. “Drink that. I need to finish preparing the spare room for you.”

“Spare room?” Pidge questioned.

He shrugged a little and then stood up. “I thought you'd prefer the privacy while you sleep.”

A flash of alarm shot through Pidge and she fought not to spill her drink. “I'm staying here? But why? I mean, don't you have a car or something? You could take me back into town!”

“Any other night, maybe, but... not tonight. And not when the most important thing is you getting rest. An encounter with a will-o'-the-wisp is draining even for people who know what they're doing and I want to make sure you're really alright before I send you away,” he explained.

Pidge watched him walk away without another word and she sat there by herself for several long minutes before remembering she had a drink in her hands. She took a sip and was pleased by the rich taste of hot chocolate, which warmed her down to her core and helped chase away the last traces of fogginess in her head.

And that was when she noticed how exhausted she felt.

Maybe there was something to what the strange man said.

The strange man whose house she was expected to sleep in.

Pidge sat up a little straighter and took a suspicious look around. Wherever she was, it had the appearance of a cozy little cabin with hardwood floors and a real stone fireplace tucked away in the corner. If she craned her head a little she could see directly into the kitchen behind her. There were six other doors that she could see, three of which was closed. The other appeared to be a bathroom and the third was the room the stranger had gone into, so Pidge assumed that was the spare room he mentioned. The final two closed doors led out the front and the back.

It would be easy to get up and leave. There was nothing stopping her.

But... there was also no reason she shouldn't stay. It was still dark out and she had no idea which direction to go in order to get back to an area she recognized. Plus, the stranger (who still hadn't given her his name) didn't seem like a bad guy. Maybe he was a bit weird, going on about a creature that didn't exist as though it were a real thing that people worried about, but that seemed like more of a quirky character trait rather than something to be concerned about.

Okay, maybe she'd be locking the bedroom door before she went to sleep. And moving something in front of it so he couldn't get in until she was ready to get up. And double-checking the windows. Maybe there was a closet she could sleep in?

There was nothing wrong with erring on the side of caution.

Pidge drank more of the hot chocolate while she waited for the stranger to come back and when he did, she blurted out the biggest question on her mind: “Who are you?”

He paused, a look of surprise crossing his face. “Oh, uh, I'm Keith.”

“Pidge,” she responded, unwilling to give him her real name.

“Okay, well the room is ready for you. I found a shirt and some pants that should fit you, if you want to be more comfortable and you can use that bathroom over there to wash up,” Keith said, pointing to the bathroom Pidge noticed earlier. “If you need anything else, my room is right there. Just knock and I'll come out to help. And, uh, you can see the kitchen, so if you need anything from there just help yourself.”

Belatedly, she realized he was trying to give her a tour of the house.

Keith paused for a moment to give her time to speak, but when Pidge said nothing he shifted his feet and spoke again. “You can leave your cup in the sink and I'll take care of it in the morning. And that's pretty much it. Just... I don't recommend going back outside until the sun rises.”

“Because of your make-believe creatures?” Pidge couldn't help but ask.

“Because it's dangerous to be in unfamiliar woods in the dark,” he responded, a hint of challenge in his voice. “Look, I know you have no reason to trust me, but please listen to me on this and don't go outside. Even if you don't believe me about the will-o'-the-wisps there are other dangers, like wolves, that live out there.”

That was a good point.

Pidge quietly agreed to stay inside and watched as he relaxed, his relief completely obvious even to her. He offered a tiny smile and then said something about going to bed, leaving her completely alone on the couch.

She finished up her hot chocolate and put it in the sink like he said, though she did take the time to empty it and rinse it out first. Pidge debated for a moment whether or not she wanted to change her clothes before deciding she'd rather have something clean to wear, although...

Pidge glanced down at her jeans, which were surprisingly clean despite her vague memory of walking through mud.

Either way, jeans weren't comfortable to sleep in and she didn't see any harm in borrowing a shirt and pants, so she changed into those before going to check out the bathroom. The light clicked on by itself when she stepped inside and Pidge's gaze was automatically drawn to the round mirror over the sink.

She frowned and combed her fingers through her hair to try and tame the mess it had become, but there wasn't much she could do.

Apparently her reflection felt the same, because it shrugged at her once she was done and said: “Best rinse it out and try again, dear.”

Pidge blinked.

Then she opened her mouth and screamed as she backed away so quickly that her feet got tangled with each other and she toppled backwards. She felt pain and then blackness took over her vision.

The next time she opened her eyes, she was tucked beneath warm blankets and sunlight was streaming in through the windows. It took her a moment to remember everything that happened the night before, but as her brain started to fully wake up she jumped out of bed and set off to find Keith.

She needed answers and he was going to give them to her.

Chapter Text

There was a legend that those who met beneath the constellation of the Two Lovers were destined to be together for the rest of their lives. Every country had a different version of the tale, but that was usually the heart of it all.

Keith had never put much stock into it. He was the one who forged his destiny and it wasn't something that could be determined by the stars. To believe otherwise was unrealistic.

When he met Pidge during one of his bi-monthly outings with his friends, the legend was the furthest thing from his mind. And over the course of a few months, as he steadily found himself falling for her, he didn't once think that it was due to the Two Lovers.

Not until Shiro pointed out that the night he and Pidge first met, the constellation was shining brightly above them.

“I know you don't believe the legends, but it is a pretty weird coincidence that you two met and fell in love,” Shiro said with a shrug.

“Okay, first, you don't know Pidge likes me back, and two, that's all it is. A coincidence,” Keith said stubbornly. “Me liking her has nothing to do with the way the stars are aligned in the sky! I like her because... because she's Pidge.”

Shiro smiled and patted Keith on the shoulder. “I'm not saying you only like Pidge because of the Two Lovers. Obviously there's more to a relationship than that. I just thought you'd rather hear it from me first and not someone like Lance so you'll be more prepared on how to respond.”

“Yeah...” Keith grumbled, still not entirely placated.

What if he had been unknowingly influenced by the fact they met under the constellation? What if someone that night had mentioned it and he brushed it off like always and refused to think about it, even when he met Pidge? Or maybe someone had mentioned it since then?

“Keith,” Shiro's voice sliced through his thoughts, dragging him back to reality. “Don't let this stop you from telling her how you feel, alright? I know you're worried about being subconsciously influenced by the stars, but don't let the opposite be true either. Don't hold back the way you feel.”

Shiro was right.

He was so determined to not let the Two Lovers dictate who he fell in love with that he was inadvertently doing exactly that.

His feelings for Pidge were his own, built over weeks and months of spending time getting to know one another and the bond that slowly formed between them. He liked her because she was fun and witty and smart. For all of the interests they had in common. For the way she smiled at him softly when they were sitting close and talking.

“You're right,” Keith told Shiro.

He would tell Pidge how he felt.