Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Garrison threw a party for the press one year before launch to Kerberos.
There was excitement and nervousness in the air. There was laughter but the reporter was just around the corner who would ask the questions you wouldn't want to answer.

Katie remembered practicing with her brother the evening before. How to say the information not emotion, how to say what needed to be said not more nor less. No doubt. Smile.

The questions were also tough for her. Questions if they will make it. What are the risks. The length of the journey.
Questions, Katie wondered about anyway. There were in her head ever since she got to know about the operation, but actually saying them out loud - made them real.

She played with the glass of apple juice she got for the event. She sat down at their table - not that it mattered that it was theirs. Her father and brother were giving interviews and even her mother mingled successfully. Having two people of your family going into space made you interesting.
"Apparently.", Katie muttered under her breath and took a sip out of her glass. She looked at her reflection in the juice.
No one spoke to her. She was just a high school student.
Her mom was not a astronaut but had a PhD in biology. Katie got a A+ in biology, but it was not like that mattered to any of the Garrison officers.

Matt and her were close, she knew about the mission, where they were going and even stuff that she didn't have the clearance for.
But her mom knew more, something else. Katie knew there must be more than her family was telling her.
They always told her; everything is going to work out. She didn't need to worry.

Katie huffed but refocused on the moment. She was sitting alone at this event surrounded by Garrison officers.
She couldn't help but also like it. Sure, she was barely part of the event, she didn't even get champagne like everyone else, but she was there - at the Garrison.
No place to start than the bottom?

Then, she saw Keith across the room, he was arguing with Shiro as usual. But shortly before they ended their conversation, they calmed down and Keith nodded.

The black-haired only walked a few steps before a waiter wanted to hand him a glass of apple juice. Keith shook his head but the waiter insisted.
But Keith just ignored him and walked around him. The waiter shot him an annoyed glance as he was walking away.
Katie rolled her eyes but then Keith sat down at her table.

She greeted him with a knowing smile: "Making friends I see?"

Keith chuckled dryly and looked at his hands.
Katie nodded and commented absently: "Matt and dad were stressed the last few days. I bet Shiro is too. Tomorrow they will be back to normal."

He hummed but he didn't look convinced: "I rejected an opportunity at the Garrison. Shiro is not happy."
Katie raised a brow curiously. Keith sighed and explained: "It would have been special one-on-one training. Well, two-on-one. With that I could possibly even skip a year. But I refuse to work with James."
She nodded and so did he. Then, they sat in silence for a while.

Then, he turned to her and told her: "If the press wouldn't be here, I would totally steal Shiro's keycard."

"We could steal some champagne.", Katie suggested with a shrug.

Keith looked at her surprised but he was definitely interested: "Just take it from the waiter in front of everybody?"

"But to steal the keycard from a high ranked officer is easy?"

"Touché. Let's do it!", he agreed and stood up.

Katie grinned and happily left the apple juice on the table as she began to go through the people with Keith.
On the go, Katie pulled and his hand, forcing him to come closer to her: "Where are we going?"

"Kitchen."

"Isn't that this way?"

"We have another stop on the way."

He stopped in the hallway in front of a room; Katie knew all too well from their other adventures. It was the room where they kept the uniforms.
"Let's see what they have!"

Keith opened the door with ease but didn't turn the lights on. He closed the door and used a flashlight to not alarm anyone that might come inside.

"Let's see … second year student, third year … physics teacher...guard..."

"That's good, right?", Katie whispered and pointed at the guard uniform.

Keith chuckled: "But they would never buy that. I never saw such a small guard."

She rolled her eyes when he suddenly threw a uniform at her.
"Cook?", Katie questioned.

"No, this is the cooking helping staff. The upside is, that they constantly change, so an unknown face is nothing unusual for them."

"Smart.", Katie nodded and began to pull on the uniform above her clothing.
Keith did the same and when they finished, they left the room as silently as possible.

Keith handed her a hair tie and also tied his own hair in a ponytail although it was barely long enough for one.
Katie did the same, but Keith explained: "Details like this could mean the difference of getting caught or not. Everyone in the kitchen knows you have to tie your hair."

They walked into the kitchen and went straight to a chopping board - like they indeed worked there. There were vegetables and they just started working.
Katie picked a carrot and a knife and carefully started cutting.

Keith just finished his second piece of vegetable and hissed at her in a whisper: "What are you doing?"

"I am not that fast!"

Keith shrugged and continued but then, she pointed out: "You have to do it with more precision!"

Keith was ready to argue, when the chef came towards them, before they were able to cover up their doings, he already eyed it.
He sighed and mumbled: "There are a lot of people, there is no time."
He pointed at the champagne and continued: "Take that and bring it to the hall."

Katie and Keith quickly nodded and each took a tablet of champagne.

When they left the kitchen, they grinned at each other proudly.

"I can't believe we just did that!", Katie mumbled amazed and looked at her tablet full of champagne.

"Now we have to empty them and bring them back without being noticed."

"The bathrooms?"

They were perfect to do different activities than expected from the Garrison students because they were the least supervised area in the building.

Once in the entrance part of man bathroom, they sat on a bench next to lockers. The bathrooms of the Garrison were cleaner and bigger than in other it might be in other institutes - being the most advanced space research school in the world sure brought in some founding. Keith and Katie each picked a glass and got comfortable on the bench. They clinked their drinks.

Katie tasted one sip but then grimaced: "Still not it."

Keith looked at his glass and mumbled: "Yeah."

They took in the room there were in. There were sinks, the lockers, a few benches and a door to the toilets.
Katie thought out loud: "This room can be locked and it is unsupervised, imagine what could happen in here!"

Keith raised a brow, but Katie just shrugged with a smile.

After they covered up their tracks, Katie and Keith entered the event hall again.
Katie tried to rearrange her hair after she undid her ponytail and so she didn't notice Shiro stepping to them right away.

The officer simply raised a brow at them. They just looked back at him. Shiro didn't hesitate to check if his keycard was still in its place and was surprised when it actually was.

Katie gave him an innocent smile and Keith gave him a proud half-smile. They went back to the Holt's table without adding anything.
Shiro watched them walk away with curiosity.

When they sat back down at the table again, Katie stated: "We're amazing undercover!"

He chuckled and commented: "Key to that is to not exclaim that you are undercover."

She rolled her eyes: "You know what I mean! Furthermore, I was only telling you and I trust you."

"I trust you too.", Keith agreed but then his tone got more serious and he mumbled: "But you never know who else might hear it. Be careful."

Katie nodded and picked up her glass apple juice she previously left behind.

Chapter Text

The teacher wrote 9/9 onto the chalkboard and asked the class how it is possible that this is 1 and 0.9 simultaneously.

Katie looked up interested. Finally, a question that was not as dull.
She lifted her hand, but the teacher picked other classmates of hers. She rolled her eyes at their answers. They tried to explain it – and failed.
When it is finally Katie's turn, she gave a short but precise answer. It was summarized, because no one - sadly - wanted to hear all about it, but she also included a hint in there to show that she knew more.

The teacher nodded at Katie's answer but she did not miss the slight annoyance on her face.
Katie huffed. It was not her fault that no one in the school was actually interested in learning something challenging.
The class went on, but Katie already lost interest. She moved a paper on her desk, a sheet the teacher gave out earlier, to reveal an actually interesting formula.

The tasks Matt and especially Keith gave her from the Garrison were far more interesting. They were difficult and she never was able to wrap her head around them - but that was exactly what Katie liked about them. It was finally something worth putting her effort in.
It made all more exciting to read about the solution later.

When Katie started bringing these Garrison tasks with her and started solving them in class, her teacher proceeded to take them away from her. At some point, the teacher even called her mom.
Colleen was concerned, and told Katie at home to restrain from continuing to do these in school.
Katie did not do that, but she got better at hiding it. There were a few hiccups here and there where her teacher took them away, but Katie noticed she was not angry about it if Katie already solved the problem that was currently discussed in class.
So, Katie did just that. She did the busy work. She solved the problems from class simply to be able to move on from them. Katie looked forward to her hard formulas just as much as her classmates were confused by her behavior.

They eyed her papers curiously, some asked what she was doing, some why she did it.

Some comments were out of pure interest but Katie knew that some of them were mocking her.
"When you're so sure you're better than everyone of us, why don't you skip a year?"
"Why do you try these equations when you can't solve them?"
Or the classic, but still hurtful: "Nerd."
It was the way it was said that hurt the most about it.

Matt on the other hand, watched his sister with a warm smile as she went through a huge pile of paper that were the solution to her math problem, trying to figure out what she did wrong.
He sat down next to her at their living room table. He was not sure she even noticed him, so he commented: "You know, it is not a shame that you can't figure these out. This is stuff you learn at the Garrison. You are just in high school!"

Katie looked at him and smiled proudly. She slid a paper in her writing over to him. She marked almost everything red. Matt gave back a hesitant smile and was unsure what he was looking at.

She explained: "Don't you see it? I did this! I got this part right!"

Matt looked closer and spotted the section where nothing was marked red. He raised his brows impressed. His eyes flew over the rest of the paper, he stopped when he noticed: "This is 3rd year stuff. I only gave you 1st year. Where did you get this from?"

"Keith gave it to me."

Matt chuckled dryly: "Are you doing his homework now?"

"Not true! Quite the opposite actually. He is forced to attend class and pay attention to explain it to me!"

"I heard Keith is quite great at maths.", Matt joked in disbelief.

Katie shrugged: "Yeah, he's not that great. But he still knows a lot more than me!"
Matt chuckled and while he thought it was sweet of Keith to do all that for her, he doubted that she had a realistic chance when he looked at the paper in front of him with more red ink than blue.

Keith sat in math class at the Garrison and the numbers - and letters - where just that. He lost track a few weeks ago. Luckily, Katie was catching up on the basics needed, so she was not as far yet and he didn't need to explain the current class to her - yet.
The professor looked at Keith and wanted to know: "You usually ask a question."

Keith bit his lip. He understood so little this time that he didn't know what he didn't know.
So, he went for another question: "Is it allowed to take the books from the library off campus?"

The professor raised a brow but answered: "As long as you still give them back in time, it's no trouble. There is no need to take the studying off campus when there is vacation though. You could just ask any question now."

And so, he did ask a few. It barely helped his understanding though.

He was usually not that interested in maths. It was an obligatory class he had to take. He always got just enough to pass. His grades in piloting and anything practical really provided him enough credit to get into the next year.

That was till Katie said she would like to learn it. Same reason he was walking towards the visiting room in the afternoon with a thick book under his arm.
From the second year and up they were not allowed to leave campus whenever they please to, mainly because the Garrison wanted to ensure that they took their studies seriously. Every student cost them a lot and they didn't want to waste their money on someone that was not as invested.
It was possible for the students to leave campus, but it was a hassle – a lot of formulas – so most family members and friends just visited the school instead.
Most students got mainly visits from their families. Since Shiro was on campus anyway, Katie was Keith's only visitor.
And she made sure to come every time there was an opening for visiting.

Every time Keith came into the room, Katie was already there sitting at their usual table waiting on him.
This time someone else was sitting with her already. According to his uniform he was a student at the Garrison - second year.

Keith just sat next to strange person that was sitting opposite to Katie.

"Hi.", Keith said and the student turned to him. It dawned on Keith; he knew this person. His dark skin and hair seemed familiar. He used to be in the same class with him - till Keith was giving the opportunity to skip a year.

"Oh, well. I better bounce!", the strangely familiar student said and clapped with his hands on the table before he went away.

Keith asked Katie right away as he sat down: "What did he want?"

She shrugged but her mood shifted when she spotted the book he bought: "Is it for me?"

"It is coming with bad news though..." She looked at him concerned as he slid it over to her on the table.
Keith shrugged and told her: "I do not do well enough in class anymore to teach you everything. And even for the rest, I think it is better when you learn from the book. But this book is great - apparently. I didn't read it."

Katie chuckled and assured him: "That's okay. Thanks for the book!"

Although, she liked the book, he wanted to change the topic, so he asked: "Did you solve last month's task?"
He expected a "no, but..." as usual, but everything stopped for him when her lips formed a grin and she clapped: "I did it!"

"What?!", he was not able to hide his surprise and amazement.

"Matt gave me a hot clue but I did it - myself."

"You really are a genius.", he mumbled in disbelief.

She smiled and looked away, she played with her hair, then her eyes went to the book in front of her. Her lips formed a smile and she looked up to him and stated: "And you do really care."

Keith was taken aback by that. He stared at her, and she at him.
She started to get nervous, so did he. Katie got up, took the book and said fast that he was only able to understand because he was used to her rambling: "ThankyouforthebookreallybutIhavetogonowoverandoutImeanbye!"

Keith didn't get the chance to say anything back because she was rushing to get to the exit.
He got up as well since he didn't expect any more visitors.

On his way back, he passed the first-year student that sat previously with Katie. He stepped towards Keith and whispered to him: "Next time go with flowers. It may have a better effect that a big ass math book."

Keith was too confused from what happened with Katie earlier to care about him, but still, his statement stuck in his head.
"Why would I give her flowers? From where anyway? The plant lab? I bet her mom has lab plants at home."

They it dawned on him. Flowers - flowers. Oh.

Later that evening, Keith was back in his room - the room he had by himself. Getting in trouble with enough other students made the Garrison get you a single room apparently.
Keith would have been upset about it, if he didn't enjoy having a room for himself so much. No annoying other presences telling him what was not right about him.

He sat down on his bed and dialed Katie's number with his phone.
She picked up within a second and greeted him with a high note: "Hi!"

Keith didn't expect a response this soon, so he took a moment to answer: "Hey, are you alright?" The comment of the other student came to his mind, he swallowed them and added: "Do you like the book?"

"Oh, it is amazing! I love it! The explanations in this one are quite different from the ones in my other ones. I get why it is considered such a good book! Maybe you should give it a try once too! This is a different attempt at the explanations, maybe you can grasp it too with it!" Katie fell quickly back into her relaxed rambling, but made Keith also relax.

"Maybe. But first, keep it for as long as you want."

"I will, thank you! How was school today?"

"We got new teams assigned. They are trying all kinds of combinations to find out who works best with whom. It is randomly chosen by a system, and I got James - again! It seems to be ripped."

"I could actually rip it."

"What?"

"I bet it is a not that difficult computer system - it does not sound like one at least. It is not the computer that holds all the secrets of the Garrison but a randomizer for picking third year student teams.", Pidge stated and was already thinking about how she could proceed.

"You can do that?"

"Not yet! Can you show me the computer sometime?"

"Sure. But you have to come in with your dad or Matt because I don't think I can bring anyone in that area."

"No problem."

Only four days later, Katie was in the Garrison walking through the corridors with Keith towards the room with the computer.
"I am still amazed that you were able to come so fast.", Keith commented under his breath as she inspected the signs next to the doors they passed.

"I have two people I can ask. Three if you count Shiro. It is like when your dad says no ... ask your brother!", she chuckled and looked at another sign, that they were passing.

Keith explained: "These are the rooms from the higher years. Do you notice that they are way less than the other lower years? Not many get that far."

"Are you afraid you won't?", Katie asked and looked at him a bit worried.

He shrugged: "I don't know. I am bad at team work, bad at the theoretical stuff, bad at following orders ..."

"Hey, but we two work great together! And what you lack in theory you have in the field!"

Keith smiled and Katie paused for a moment before she mumbled: "And you barely have to follow orders once you are the one calling the shots."
They locked eyes, and Katie was fast to look away again. She cleared her throat and added: "I mean, it is true, isn't it? Eyy, we are here!"

Keith was glad for the change of topic and looked around, he commented: "Keep that excitement for when we reach the actual destination."

She rolled her eyes and Keith showed her into a room next to the big simulator hall.
"Here is where we get briefings about the simulation of the day before we go into them."

There was computer, which did not look different from an old windows computer considering his form. But it appeared to be rather new.

Katie sat behind it and clicked a few times. It didn't take her long to let out a laugh in a huff.
"It is such a simple algorithm. And a rather simple computer too. I bet they just took the insides of an old 2100 and put in inside of a new skin. Saves a lot of money for sure. And work for me!" She grinned at the last part and started to click more eagerly.

Then, she pulled out a USB stick and copied everything on the computer onto it.

While they waited, Keith asked: "Do you think you can actually rip the randomizer?"

Katie nodded: "Sure. How hard can it be?"

When Keith called her the evening after that, she started the call with: "Apparently, it is really hard!"

"What do you mean?"

"I found the program Iverson probably used as a randomizer. I can read the programming; I do not have to decode anything. But programming in general seems to be a whole lot harder than I thought. I had a few hassles already. A few times, it was a 3-minute fix, I needed hours for, and sometimes it is just an hour thing, I guess. Or I just haven't figured out the minute version. Anyway-"

Keith interrupted her: "Hold on. How many hours are we talking?"

"I may have worked instead of slept last night. But I did go to school today, so the only thing my mom gets to complain about are my eye bags."

"It is not that important. And if you can't figure it out-"

"No! I can. I will. I will need a bit more time than I first thought though, but that's alright."

"If you say so. Promise me, you'll sleep tonight though?"

"Done.", Katie agreed and yawned. Then, she continued with a little disappointment in her voice: "I didn't even read a paragraph in the book you gave me."

"Don't beat yourself up about that."

"I may have to get another book about programming."

"But a normal library book will suffice, right?"

"Since I can't even get the simplest things done, yes. Will come back to you, if it is not!"

"I bet on it."

She chuckled and changed the topic: "And I bet you beat your record today? The imaginary meteors seemed to have a silver lining today."

"By half a second."

"That's amazing! Man, I really wish to see you fly once."

"It's only a simulator."

"Still. It is like you said the other day when I was at that computer in the Garrison. You didn't know what I was doing, but you knew I was doing it well, and it was impressive - interesting to watch. It is the same with me seeing you fly - probably."

Keith inhaled and his heart starting beating faster. She wanted to see him fly? Good thing they were calling, so he was able to blame his long pause to the connection passing out for a second and blame the heat on his face to the fact that he was still wearing his jacket - and no one was present to tell him otherwise.

Chapter Text

Weeks later, Keith was cleaning up the classroom after class. He was almost finished when Shiro came in and wondered: "I heard you assigned yourself to cleaning, I have to say I'm impressed."

"Thanks.", Keith mumbled without looking up from his work. He threw the last bit of trash away, Shiro only watched him. As Keith was finished and looked up to the other, who asked: "Do you have the evening free tonight?"

Keith thought about it for a moment. He did not want to do another study group thing with other students like the one Shiro once dragged him to. Furthermore, if we would do something tonight, he would miss out on his call with Katie. But Shiro seemed to be in a rather good mood after he saw him doing the cleaning and he didn't want to let him down right after, so he answered: "Yeah, what's up?"

Shiro accompanied Keith on a walk through the hallways. The officer explained: "I am invited to a dinner tonight."
Shiro was already able to see Keith rolling his eyes, but when the officer added, that it was at the Holt's, his expression shifted.

"I can't leave the school."

"You would be with me. And I already talked to Iverson."

Keith nodded: "Yeah, then sure."

Dinner parties were not Keith’s thing, so Shiro was not surprised to meet him in front of the Garrison in his usual pair of jeans. Shiro greeted him with a smile and showed him the way to his car. Keith followed without saying a word.
When they drove for a while, Shiro asked: “Everything alright? Nervous?”

“Not really. They already know me, right?”

“Of course. What is on your mind then?”

“I am failing maths.”

“Oh, how did that happen?”

Keith sighed and explained: “I don’t understand it anymore.”

“But you were making progress only a few weeks ago?”, Shiro wondered and stopped at a red light. He looked at the younger one, who was looking outside the window to avoid eye contact.

“I really tried, but it didn’t work.”, Keith muttered finally. His last words came out more in a hiss. Then, he supported his head with his elbow on the window frame and looked outside in thought.
Shiro started the engine again at the green light and wanted to know: “Did you stop trying?”

Without looking at the other, Keith mumbled: “No. Not really.”

The officer decided to leave it at that and suggested: “Maybe you could ask Matt to teach you?”

“I rather ask Katie.”

Shiro raised a brow, and couldn’t suppress a small smile: “Isn’t she still in high school?”

“She is a genius.”

“Sure. I believe you when you say she’s smart. But I also think you need a different person for this job. There is more than one smart person out there, you know.”

Keith didn’t answer to that, and Shiro knew this meant he didn’t agree but knew better than to keep arguing. He taught him well, but this time, he needed to push his point. Keith can’t fail math just because he is too stubborn.
When they parked in front of the Holt’s house, Shiro reminded him: “Remember to ask Matt for tutor lessons.”

Keith hummed, but didn’t say anything.

When they stood in front or the main door, Keith stood behind Shiro. Katie’s mother was opening the door and greeting Shiro, her father came right after. Keith felt lucky being where he was - behind Shrio, avoding all welcome rituals. He didn’t feel like giving them a welcome hug.

When Keith went into the house, they simply greeted him with a nod, which he gladly responded with also. His excitement for the evening was changed though, when he saw Katie in the living room. She was putting plates on the table.
Keith immediately went to her, noticing Matt only with a nod on his way to her.

She was still busy with the eating irons, he stepped next to her and mumbled: “Hello.”
Katie looked up and smiled at him knowingly: "Hey, good you're here. I have a surprise for you by the way!”

Keith raised his eye brows curiously: “Oh? What is it?”

“Party pooper, I am not just going to tell you. It is a show-you-surprise. And it is my room.”, she pointed up while explaining.

He nodded but before he could say anything else, Katie’s mother was putting the starters down and the others sat at the table. Keith sat down at the chair, he was standing closest to, Katie did the same.
He was glad, this also meant there were sitting next to each other.

"How's Adam?", Sam asked.
Shiro chuckled and when he began to start a story on how he and Adam discovered a racoon at the Garrison, Keith looked at Katie.
She shot him a grin, but didn't say anything. Keith raised a brow and wondered what she might be up too.

He looked at his starter salad and noticed there were still a few tomatoes left. He liked them the least, so he always ate them first. The story of Shiro was not getting any more interesting, so Keith counted his tomato pieces.
Three, four, five and six.
He followed along with Shiro's racoon story, although it shifted to the time Matt found one. In the Garrison. Keith leaned over to Katie, what made her freeze. He mumbled: "We should find our own racoon at the Garrison sometime."

"Yep. Sure!", Katie mumbled, forcing a grin. Keith followed her glance, there was a tomato laying in-between their plates.
He sat straight up again and looked from the tomato up to her: "Did you try to sneak your tomatoes on my plate?"

"Pff.", Katie chuckled, but her expression was saying it all.
He smiled at her knowingly and whispered: "Play it cooler next time. No one knows what you did when you don't tell them. Eyes tell too by the way."

"Did my eyes tell?", she wanted to know with great interest, what made him chuckle.

"Your whole expression really. But yeah, your eyes too."

"At least I was able to sneak one tomato onto yours.", Katie mumbled content and turned back to her plate.
Keith looked at his plate and counted his tomatoes. One, two, three, four, five, six. Did he already eat number six? He didn't remember.
He looked at Katie who couldn't suppress a smile.

"Tell me!", he whispered to her.

She chuckled and winked: "Don't tell."

"So, Keith, how's school?", Sam asked him directly. He focused his attention from Katie back to the rest of table - getting back into the racoon talk, if that was still the topic. He was honestly not really paying attention.

Keith gave a short answer: "School - is good."

Katie decided to add excited: "He keeps on beating his record on the flying simulator!"

Matt smiled and teased Shiro: "He is coming for your position, Takashi."

The officer smiled proudly and mumbled: "I sure hope so." Then, Shiro's expression changed and he asked Keith: "Anything else new?"

Keith thought for a while and then stated: "We reached the year 2034 in history class."

"Oh, that was a big year."

"Said this about 2024 too.", Keith mumbled almost inaudible under his breath. Katie raised a brow at his comment, she for sure heard it.

Shiro turned to Matt and asked: "Since Keith won't ask himself, could you help him out with math? He is struggling."
"Sure.", Matt nodded and wanted to know, "Which topic are you at?"

Keith shrugged: "Something with too many letters."

Katie interfered and shot at her brother: "You said no when I asked for tutoring!"

Matt shook his head: "Because you should rather focus on your own school studies."

Katie frowned but then challenged him: "Like Keith should focus on the advanced e-equations in 11 dimensions?"

Keith nodded and agreed: "Yes, that was it."

Matt looked first a little dazzled and then was met by a wink from his sister.

Keith looked in-between the siblings and suggested: "I mean, if Matt is already explaining, I don't see why Katie couldn't join us. I wouldn't mind."

Katie was getting excited, but her mother tuned it down: "I am sure you wouldn't, but school is hard enough for Katie. She doesn't need extra work."

"Mom, please!"
Mother and daughter looked eyes for a bit and in the end, Katie broke it and huffed.
Matt turned to Keith and confirmed: "Do you have time tomorrow after school? We could meet here."

Keith nodded.

After this and many stories from the others, that came close to the racoon stories in terms of interesting, he was glad when the dining part was over.
While Shiro and the others started talking about the mission, Katie pointed with her head to the stair that lead upstairs.

Keith nodded and the both left the conversation.

In her room, she sat on her bed and patted next to her to signal him to sit down too. She pulled out a laptop out of her nightstand and opened it. After she turned it on, she placed it on her lap and Keith moved closer to her to also have a good look onto it.
"Is this the surprise?", Keith wanted to know confused as he stared at the desktop wallpaper of a night sky.

"Wait for it!", Katie said as she clicked on a program, which, as it opened, looked like the randomizer program from the Garrison.

Keith's eyes widened: "It has been weeks, I thought you had given up on it."

Katie shrugged: "A bit. But only because I studied a bit in other fields to get my answers for this, but then I got a little distracted by them and so on. Do you want to try it?"

Keith nodded and Katie explained: "Here pick all students, all combinations and then with space bar you start the randomizer."

Keith did as she said and he first thing that came up was "James and George." Then "Mary and Romeo", then "Philipp and Tina"

"Amazing! When do I show up?"

"Just keep on trying."
Keith spammed space bar till finally there was "Hunk and Keith."

He looked up to her, and her eyes were almost glowing from excitement. He smiled at her in disbelief: "You're awesome."

She got a little shy, but then opened something else. It seemed to be the same randomizer as before.
"Come on, try it."

"What's the difference?"

Katie shrugged with a smile and watched him starting it up.
After a few, his name came up "Keith and Katie"

He chuckled: "Wow, what are the odds?"

"In this simulation; 100% actually.", Katie said and started playing with her dress on the side of her legs.

Keith commented while looking at the laptop: "I like this."

Katie tried to look at his face unnoticed and smiled. She began to relax and agreed in a small voice: "Yeah, me too."

"Which simulation was more work?"

Katie chuckled and put the laptop on the other side of the bed. "Definitely the second one. The change of the probability of a match is really simple it is just a number you have to set. Like 0% for you and James, 100% for us. The problem I had was to edit my name into the name list. The computer, I have taken the randomizer from, is naturally connected to the Garrison network and this way it gets the names to randomize. But I got behind it - eventually."

"Could you install the first version onto the computer in the class room?"

Katie looked shocked: "Definitely not! My coding works but is far from elegant. It like instead of cleaning up your room for real, you just put everything under the carpet. Then, you have a huge pile of 'carpet' in your room. Unpresentable just like this.
Furthermore, if anything goes wrong and they get to know it was you, like the algorithm suddenly starts making mistakes around your name, because I changed the algorithm around your name, you would get into big trouble! You could be expelled! That's really not worth it."

"I guess you're right."

"James may be annoying, but you are smarter than let that holding you back. Risking everything just to avoid one time working with him ..."

Keith sighed and after a moment he nodded in agreement and he laid his head on her shoulder.

She looked at him for a while and then stroke his hand that was laying on the bed in thought. They stayed like it for a while, then she added with a sigh: "I do think we make an awesome team, but there are other people out there too. Many idiots, but also a few that are not all that bad."

He lifted his head from her shoulder and looked at her puzzled: "But your classmates are horrible to you too?"

Katie's expression changed for a second, but then she assured him: "Yeah, true. But I get through because I have people that have my back. I have you, my brother, Rosie ... I think it is also important that you have multiple people. Because not everyone can be there all the time, because a person can be busy, angry at you, simply not there or just wrong from time to time.
Do you get what I mean?"

"Don't you like our friendship?"

"Not what I am saying!", Katie argued immediately. She sighed and tried a different attempt: "For example, when I go into the dog school, it is nice to have Rosie as my friend there. When I go to events at the Garrison it is nice to have you there. This is of course not the only reason why we are friends, but do you get what I mean?"

Keith thought about it and then closed his eyes shortly: "Alright, I trust you."

Katie smiled at him and "Trust me, it will be worth it."

When Keith arrived at the Holt's house the next day, he had funny feeling in his stomach. He didn't really want to meet up with up Matt.
At first, he was doing it to do Shiro a favor, then Katie was all about that he should be giving people more of a chance yesterday.
And of course, there was the possibility of Katie herself actually joining them, what would have been amazing. At least one of them would have had fun with it.

He knocked at the main door and Katie opened it. She grinned at him and greeted him with a hug.
She quickly broke it again and explained while closing the door behind him: "Matt agreed to let me join in!"

Keith nodded and smiled but his thoughts were still at the hug from earlier. It completely caught him off guard.

Matt sat down with them at the living room table - same one they ate at the day before.
Katie and Keith sat down the opposite side of him.

On the table was a book with a few loose papers on it, but there were not opened yet. Matt pulled the book in front of him and laid his arms on the table, elbows on the book. He looked at both of them and stated: "Some ground rules. First, Katie's participation was her idea only. Second, no funny business. No cheating, if you don't know - you don't."

They both nodded. Matt nodded opened his book. He handed them both a piece of paper and a pen. He started: "Before we start with the equations, let's start with the easiest. So, what's e?"
Matt wanted to give that question to Katie, so she didn't feel left out and she would get a change participate at all.

Matt looked at Katie, but Katie looked at Keith, but Keith just looked confused. He mumbled unsure: "A number. A crazy long number."

"Alright.", Matt muttered, "E is..."

Katie inhaled and leaned forward as she answered: "E is a mathematical constant. It's approximately equal to 2.718."

Keith nodded and pointed at her: "Yes."
Katie grinned proudly and gave him a thumbs up.

Now it was Matt's turn to be confused. He stated: "No. That's not how it goes. Keith, you need to know the answers by yourself. If the answer is too obvious for you, feel free to give it on to Katie. But otherwise, Katie, you can't give the answer."

She pouted shortly but agreed upon it within a second. Keith nodded as well, although he knew this was going to be a hell of a long afternoon.

What started with drawing the e-curve, ended with an equation that was ... something. And they didn’t even reach the eleventh dimension, they were still on the sixth.

Matt did his best explaining it, but Keith could always think of something he didn't get.
Matt stayed patient with him the whole time and broke it down to him, again and again.
Katie only listened attentively, and didn't ask any question or gave extra pieces of information as Matt asked of her.

After a while, an alarm on Matt's phone rang. He turned it off and explained: "Sorry, I have an appointment I need to get to. We could continue this sometime else though. You really made progress. On theee..."

"... Euler's number!", Keith answered.

Matt nodded. Before he got up, he asked his sister: "Were you able to pick something up too?"

Katie nodded and mumbled: "Definitely! I still have a few questions about optional planning but with all the new info, my book doesn't look so alien anymore."

Matt blinked a few times and asked: "Excuse me, which book?"

"Keith got me a math book."

"And you read it?"

"Try to. It's tough."

"Is it third year math?"

Katie shook her head: "Nope, like general. A summary of pretty much everything."

"Why would you give her such a book?", Matt asked Keith annoyed. Keith knew this face; he was angry with him and he also knew why. Katie's mother stated clearly that Katie shouldn't do advanced math. Keith didn't agree with that, so he did not do anything wrong on his account. So, he decided to play dumb and simply shrugged:

"I almost ran out of things to teach her, furthermore, the book is way smarter than me. Why not?"

Matt shook his head and stated: "Doesn't matter now. Anyway, I won't tell Mom and Dad about it, so you better the same. I really have to leave now."

Matt got up and went to the door. Before he left, he warned them: "Don't do anything stupid!"

"Sure, bye!", Katie screamed back and with that her brother was gone.

"Do you want to do something stupid?", Katie chuckled and raised her brows.

Keith grinned at her and argued: "I thought you were big on rules."

"Pff, but not with Matt."

"He seemed pretty smart a few minutes ago."

"Oh, he is super smart. He is going to space for god's sake. But as his little sister, I have the privilege to change my name into his on the walking-Bae-Bae-plan.", Katie stated and got up to a whiteboard and began to erase a few spots.
Keith followed more slowly as she wrote Matt's name and the now free spots.

"I thought you like him?", Keith was confused.

Katie turned to him: "Of course! But why do you think is my name so often on here? He does this too! Mom gave up on trying to get us to stop to constantly exchange our names, but as long as Bae-Bae is being walked, she doesn't care anymore."

Then, Bae-Bae came in and licked Katie's leg, whereon Katie went to get the leash.
"Do want to join me on a walk?", she asked Keith as she kneeled down to attach the leash to the dog's collar.

Keith looked at the plan: "It's Matt's turn today."

"We don't really use that plan.", Katie stated with a shrug and walked towards the main door.

Keith followed and she continued to explain: "Mom thinks we can't get it done otherwise - or rather me. I doubt mom trusts Matt to go to space but not walking with Bae-Bae regularly."

Chapter Text

Things were looking up. Keith was able to get a passing grade in maths and Katie was able to learn with Keith without her parents noticing.

It was a Friday and it was the day Keith would get his grade in mathematics. He had no school on this day, he had to get it in Garrison building in town.
To Keith's surprise, he saw Katie waiting in front of the building. To Katie's surprise, Keith was walking out with a classmate, talking.
Katie immediately hid jumping into the nearest bush, not knowing Keith had already seen her. Katie didn't want Keith to end the conversation with his classmate (his new friend?) just because he saw her.
The voices faded and Katie figured they had left. She dared to peak out of the bush, but fell out of it, when she saw Keith standing next to it, crossing his arms.

He grinned with a chuckle: "Amazing stealth skills."
Katie stood up, and wiped her dress in attempt to get the leaves and sticks that stuck to it most gracefully. But there were still leftovers especially in her hair. "You were the only one who saw me though!"

Keith didn't want to agree with her as she picked the stick parts out of her hair, but she was right. James didn't see her. "True."

"Nice, I did it!", Katie cheered and nodded proudly.

Keith chuckled, but got serious when Katie asked: "How did it go?"

"I passed."

Katie cheered even more than before and gave him a tight hug. "I knew you could do it!"
He closed his arms around her and mumbled: "Thank you. And thank you for your help. I couldn't have done it without you."

She broke the hug argued: "It was all you!"

"I wouldn't have had close to as much fun learning without you. Not just saying it because you cheated for me in front of Matt."

She smiled. "He noticed though."

"Big time. But it was fun."

"It was." Katie mumbled in thought and looked at him, her eyes wandered to his hand. Within a second she took it. She let the feeling in for a hot second, then, she took a breath and pulled at it and took a step in a direction. "Let's go celebrate. I'll pay!"

Keith was taken aback by everything, but he was fast to agree: "Yeah!"
He began running, pulling her with him. She fell behind, laughed and tried keep up.

In the end, after running through a few streets, they stopped at a red light. Keith heard her breathing heavily and was about to apologize that he ran so fast, but then when their eyes met, she smiled at him. Keith swallowed his apology; it didn't seem like the right time. He noticed they were still holding hands, but he didn't feel like letting go.
Keith was maybe a little lost in his thoughts, because suddenly Katie nudged him and hinted at the green light.

They still walked with intertwined hands; Keith still didn't know what to make of it. "You like holding my hand to drag me around, huh?"
Katie's grip loosened, and Keith noticed she tensed up. He grabbed her hand again.

"Hey, I didn't mean I want to let go." "Me too.", she added fast.

They walked around the city. After a while, Keith questioned: "Where are we going?"

Katie got flustered and shrugged: "I ... don't know. I didn't think of that ..."

Keith joked: "You just wanted to walk around longer?"

She squeezed his hand she was still holding and announced quick: "Yep!"
When she looked at him again, he looked shy, she smiled: "You could have picked a place as well."

"Well, I didn't."

Katie nodded and stopped walking at once. Without looking at the restaurant next to them, she pointed at it they stood next to. "This one."

"Burgers?"

Two weeks later, it was visitor day in the Garrison. As always, Katie was already waiting on their table when he came in.
He sat down next to her. She grinned at him. "I have a surprise for you."

Katie grabbed under the table and revealed a paper bag from the burger shop they previously visited.

"Burgers?", he noted.

"Burgers. You can't leave every day, so I thought I bring some to you."

"You're amazing.", he mumbled with a smile.
She stared at him with big eyes. When she broke out of it, she chuckled and put a strain of hair behind her ear. "Thanks."

"I wish we could make another trip like that in the city."

Katie was quick to agree: "We could do so many things! We don't need to eat burgers - again. We could eat something else, or nothing at all! Do something entirely different! Or not ... I really don't care."

"We could do the craziest!"

"Yes! Who knows? Up to space!", Katie thought out loud with a smile.

Keith chuckled: "Wouldn't that be something."

"But seriously, I don't care what and where."

"Yeah, you’re right. As long as we together."

Katie loved seeing him smile and wanted to tell him many more things, but then she only went for a peck on the cheek.
Keith was surprised and clearly was blushing. She noticed, what resulted in them both being flustered.
"Alright, let's go somewhere. Whenever.", Katie concluded and held out her hand. "Deal?"

He chuckled and accepted. "Deal."

Katie's heart felt light, but then she spotted her brother walking through the glass window and it dropped.

Keith followed her glance. "1 week."

Katie said in a shaky breath: "1 week."

145 hours.
Katie was at the Garrison, watching Matt and her dad do their last preparations in the hall while she was sitting in spectator room. They haven't left the Garrison grounds for a few days already. Katie inspected the key card she got. It was a visitor card and got the security number 7. It was the lowest possible and only gave her access to spectating areas and the cafeteria.
She fiddled it in-between her hands and got lost in her thoughts as she watched Matt building a robot together and then put it back in the suitcase. Over and over again.

Her dad was doing the same thing. Katie sighed. This was not what she had thought of when she got permission to be at the Garrison during their last days before launch.
Katie's eyes narrowed as she spotted her mom next to her dad, measuring the time he needed to build or deconstruct the robot. Katie pouted she could have done this as well. She looked around in the spectator room, in which she was alone - apparently no one else was as useless.

Unwillingly she got up and left the room. She had seen enough. In the hallway, many working people were walking past her. No one questioned her or gave her a second look.
Katie sighed and strolled through the hallways. When she wanted to walk into the student rooms hallway, her card wouldn't let her in. There was a missing authorization.
A student was passing her and about to walk in. Katie stopped him and wanted to know: "Hey, do you know why I can't get in? I have a visitor card."

The boy looked at her card and then wanted to know: "Who do you want to visit?"

"... Keith. Keith Kogane."

The other one thought for a while and then added: "Well, does he know? Visitors are only allowed here if they walk in with a student."

Katie looked at her card and bit her lip.

The boy smiled and suggested with a wink: "Hey, I am Hunk, want to visit me?"

Katie's face lit up and nodded eagerly: "Thank you so much!"

Hunk scanned in his card, then Katie scanned hers again, the doors opened. Katie noticed the numbers appearing on the screen: "What do they mean?"

"Oh, I guess it is my id number?"

Katie nodded in thought and thanked Hunk again before she knocked on Keith's door. No one opened.
She sighed and crossed her arms. Hunk, who was, although she didn't notice before, still there, explained: "If the light is red there, it means no one is in there."
Katie looked at the little red light and nodded, although her thoughts already wandered to where Keith could be.

"Are you a friend of Keith? I could help you find him!"

"That would be great!" As they walked outwards the student room area; she wanted to know: "Are you a friend of Keith too?"

Hunk shook his head: "I am only in his class. Where do you want to look for him?" He stopped to show her his keycard. "Since Keith is my class, he couldn't have gone anywhere where I can't go as well - security level 6."

"Something more private. Where could he be alone?"

"I know a few places, follow me."

A hallway later, Hunk wanted to know: "So, how do you know Keith?"

"Our families are close."

Hunk was confused at that but didn't comment on it. "And you?"

"Me?"

"Are you close?"

Katie cleared her throat and put a stray of hair behind her ear. "Yep, sure."

Hunk smiled at that and opened another study room. He sighed. "He's not here either."

Katie shared his disappointment and her eyes fell on the sunset through the classroom's windows.
"Could we go onto the roof?"

Suddenly, Hunk stepped in front of her: "We can't go there."

"But hypothetical you could?" She squinted her eyes.

"We are having the clearance for the roof, since it is not secret but we are not allowed to."

Katie took a step past him: "Thanks for all your help."

He argued: "No! You could get in trouble!"
Katie stopped her steps for a second, and then turned around with a groan. She quickly put on a smile again.

She crossed her arms and mumbled defeated: "Thanks. I think I will go back to my family now."

"You won't go to the roof?"

Katie shook her head with a smile and went her way back to the spectator room. And although Hunk took a different route, she really didn't plan to go the roof.

Her mom was waiting in front of the spectator room with crossed arms.
"Young lady, where did you go? You can't just wander off. This is a dangerous environment!"

"Sorry mom. I just took a stroll around.'

Her mother relaxed a bit but still eyed her worried. Katie was relieved when Shiro came by and interrupted their conversation. "Hey Katie, we were about to do a break and eat in the cafeteria. Do you want to join us?"
Katie happily agreed, although her mom didn't seem to appreciate that she apparently got a reward for running off.

She walked to the cafeteria with her mom, Shiro needed to quickly brief with someone before, but he promised to catch up. On the way, Katie and her mom didn't exchange a word. When they reached their destination, Colleen immediately was countered by a few officers asking questions about the launch. Katie stood by and waited patiently.
After a while her view drifted through the room, finding her dad and brother with their colleagues. No free chair for her.

Katie looked again at her mom, who was in conversation with the officers. Katie took exactly three deep breaths before she decided to turn around and ran out. Roof it was.

She didn't know the way exactly, but roof was naturally on top, so she always went for the way up.
When she reached the door that led to the roof, her heart was beating fast - and not just from the running. Would the door open even with her visitor card only?
The door opened. She exhaled relieved.

Katie stepped outside, and she was met by Keith who was in the middle of quickly standing up. When he recognized her, he stopped and sat back down on the edge, feet dangling a hundred meters in the air. Then, he tapped next to him.
She hurried to sit next to him and immediately leaned her head against him and exhaled relieved again.
He stroked her arm and mumbled: "It's tough."

Katie sniffed what even surprised herself. She didn't know she had been crying. She quickly wiped her tears away.
Keith watched her and wanted to know: "How did you find me?"

"Sunsets. You like them. Why are you here?"

"There is nothing for me downstairs."

Katie nodded absently. "I wonder why they even would let me come, if I can't even speak to my family. All I can get is watching them through a glass."

Keith chuckled sadly. "I know. I don't even bother to come to Shiro’s invitations anymore."

"You don't?"

"Everyone looks at me like I am an alien. I think they don't understand why Shiro brings me along. When they asked Shiro in front of me, why he didn't bring the class best student James Griffin ... it was the last straw."

"Everything sucks, right?!", Katie said with a smile under tears.

"Yes!", Keith laughed with a tear rolling down his face as well. When he calmed down, he looked at her and mumbled: "I am glad that you are the Holt that stays here."

Katie nodded absently and started playing with her hands. She mumbled under her breath: "You know, I would have tried to come along if I could."

Keith eyed her for a second with an unreadable expression, but then gave her tight side hug. She laid her head on his shoulder and hugged him as well. As she snuggled into him, she added: "But I am glad you're staying too."

He chuckled slightly and explained: "Don't worry, if I ever leave, it will be with you. I don't think I can find a better crew than you."

She exhaled with a smile.

They cuddled till the sunset was long gone. They almost feel asleep, but then the door opened again.

Normally, Keith would have jumped up, but he was tired from sitting still for so long. So, this time he only moved his head slightly to see who it was. It was Shiro. The officer smiled when he saw them, but also sighed. He sat behind them, what made them turn around in their sitting position.

Shiro looked at both and then explained: "I was looking for you."

Katie nodded and looked away embarrassed. "I'm sorry that I left."

Shiro sighed again. "It's alright. I am used to people not appearing, although they said they would." His eyes were clearly on Keith while saying it.

"Please tell me, why are you here? Not downstairs?", Shiro wanted to know. He seemed genuine, Katie wasn't able to see anything that indicated that he was angry, so she told the truth: "We were only in the way, there is always someone more important to talk to."

"You have to understand, it is important. There is a lot to discuss ..."

Katie nodded along but then argued: "I know. I know. It is no one's fault. It is important. I guess, I just can't let go of Matt and Dad yet. I always felt we have so much time left, and suddenly it feels like they are already gone."

She was crying and Keith gently stroke her hand in support. Shiro only watched till she recovered from sobs and continued: "I am just not strong enough."

Shiro smiled and argued: "But you are so strong. You love them, so of course, you don't want them to go. And I promise you, I know so for sure, it is just as hard for them." Shiro shot a side glance at Keith, but the teenager was quickly avoiding eye contact.

Katie nodded and calmed down a bit. Shiro looked in-between the two, in the end his eyes rested on their intertwined hands. "You have each other. That means you both have the strength of two. And I know you two, if you set your head to something, you can do it."

Katie agreed and Keith was looking at Shiro again but didn't say anything.
Shiro added: "And if you ever need help, Adam will be there for you."

Keith didn't look convinced. "Are you sure?" He had seen a few of Shiro and Adam's fights. They were not pretty.

Shiro closed his eyes for a second but then stressed: "He will always be there for you - for you too Katie, if you need him."

She smiled at him and even Keith nodded.

Shiro stood up and suggested: "Do you want to come back inside?" They looked at each other and then followed him inside - hands still intertwined.

The launch for the Kerberos mission was a world event. The night before the launch, there was going to be a huge celebration on the Garrison grounds.
It was a gathering of the families of the people involved, the sponsors and supporters from all over the world.

70 hours still launch.
Katie bit her lip and looked up from her watch. Matt and her dad were putting some of their belongings in the car in front of their house. When they came back inside, they passed Katie who was standing in the doorway.
Her dad shortly squeezed her shoulder and smiled, but when Matt closed the door behind them, he looked worriedly at his sister.
"Are you excited for tonight?", Matt askes in attempt to cheer her up.

She forced a smile and nodded; Matt saw right through it. He pressed his lips together and then told her to follow him into his room.

His room was tidied up. Everything was in place and there was no messy spot. It hurt Katie because she knew it was never tidy in her brother's room. He only tidied up because he was leaving.
He handed her a book. She looked at him confused before she actually looked at the book. It was a book about encrypting and decrypting messages.

She smiled but then her brother sighed and told her: "The Garrison does not approve of us exchanging messages. They did know apparently - or got to know. They worry that it might mess with the official communicators, so ..."

"I can't write to you?", Katie cried, she wanted her voice to be steady, sounding neutral. But it came out high-pitched, she hugged the book tight.

Matt nodded slowly. "But there will be a private call. We can talk then. This is important, you get it?"

"I get it."

Matt sighed relieved and went for a hug. Katie was still hugged the book and felt stunned. In the embrace, she mumbled: "What do I do if you don't come back?" It were words that laid on the top of her tongue for a long time, but it was the first time, she actually spoke them out loud.

He broke the hug and looked at her. It was a genuine question. She was not able to completely hide her sadness, but at that moment, there was more curiosity in her eyes than sadness.

Matt sighed and sat down at his bed. She followed.

"It is a possibility.", he stated.
Katie nodded along with dedication in her eyes: "I know."

Matt looked at her with worry. All he could hear was, "I know, I would risk it too."
Although, Matt was totally ready to risk his own life, he would not want his sister to go into space. Not yet, but preferably never.

"You would not be alone. You have Mom. Look out for her?"

Katie nodded determined. "Always. I promise.”

Matt gave her a side hug and explained: "If I don't come back, I want you to keep on learning just as hard and achieve what you want - even if this is also space travel. I know you can do that too."

Katie blinked with tears in her eyes, pictures of her day-to-day without her brother were flashing in front of her eyes.

Matt looked at her and stated without leaving any room for doubts: "And always believe in your skill and knowledge, no matter what anyone else says. Yes, you are no Einstein - yet, so people will probably tell you otherwise a few times. But don't let them discourage you, you are incredible smart."

She chuckles dry while wiping a tear away: "Being smart does nothing for me if my brother is gone!"

Matt nodded and hugged her again, rubbing her back. She let the book fall to the ground, she previously held on tight to, to hugged him as well.

"Of course not, being smart does not solve everything. Heck, sometimes it creates problems that wouldn't be there otherwise." He paused and broke the hug to look at her. "But it is still our superpower. And if we use it wisely, it can bring us places."

"Like space.", Katie mumbled and looked proud at her brother.

"Like space. If you want to."

Katie nodded and picked up the book from the ground.
She stroked her hand over the cover in thought, he waited for her to say anything. After she sighed, she looked at him.

"Don't dare and get lost.", she said in a serious tone, only half-joking.

"I will just steer towards the giant fireball to guide me home.", he said with a smug grin.

"Even if you end up outside of the solar system, I..."

Matt interrupted her: "How is that supposed to happen? We won't miss Kerberos..."

Katie raised her brows and pressed her pointing finger in his chest: "No matter where you would get lost, I will find you."

Matt huffed, and put her finger down. "I have no doubt." He was only half-jokingly admitting this.

"I mean it"

"Me too. I have no doubt."

Katie lifted a brow.
Matt smiled at her, which she returned. She couldn't blame her brother for not totally believing. It was a far fetch. She was not even studying at the Garrison, far from being the elite group of astronauts who studied years to even get the chance to get picked to travel into space. It was more a dream than a plan.

But when Katie looked at her brother it made her believe it was possible.

The launch party was the same as the one a year before.
There was excitement and nervousness in the air. There was laughter but the reporter was just around the corner who would ask the questions you wouldn't want to answer.

Katie remembered practicing with her brother the evening before. How to say the information not emotion, how to say what needed to be said not more nor less. No doubt. Smile.

The questions were also tough for her. Questions if they will make it. What are the risks. The length of the journey.
Questions, Katie had nightmares about anyway. This close to the launch made them feel more real than ever.

Katie was standing next to her family in a crowd of the people. Colleen turned to her daughter and reminded her: "No games tonight, alright? This is serious."

"How? What? I didn't do anything!"

"I know - not yet. Last year, I saw you leaving the hall with Keith. Do not do it again."

"What? What did we do wrong?"

Colleen rolled her eyes. "You tell me! Whatever it was, do not do it tonight."
Katie raised a brow and crossed her arms. Her father laid his hands on his daughter’s shoulder and added: "I bet it was nothing bad."

Katie shortly bit her lip and then stated: "We only went outside to talk. We wanted some peace and quiet."

Colleen squinted her eyes: "And from 'just talking' you needed to rearrange your hair when you came back in?"

"I made me a ponytail before."

"Why?", Colleen insisted to know the bigger picture.

Katie let out a big annoyed sigh: "Because we went on the roof and it was windy!"

"You shouldn't be on the roof, young lady!"

"Can't be that bad when my visitor card opens the door to it!"

Colleen was about to open her mouth to argue with that, when Sam interfered: "Katie, you promise to not go on the roof tonight?"

Katie rolled her eyes but nodded. Then, Sam turned back to his wife: "She will do great. I know it. Now, let's enjoy the party." He nodded towards his children before he walked Colleen away to a few colleges for a chat.

Matt and Katie stayed back. Matt mumbled under his breath: "I didn't know you had an exclusive adventure with Keith a year ago. A windy roof?" He chuckled. "Sure, must have been windy."

Katie nudged him what made him laugh even more. She turned to him and was about to show it to him — verbally –, when a high-ranking officers walked towards them. She took her finger and his chest and quickly shook her brother's hand instead with a forced smile.
"Good luck.", she said and walked away.

She heard the officer say to Matt when she was already a few meters away: "Your sister seems lovely."

Katie huffed with a half-smile, unsure if it was meant as an insult or compliment. She continued to walk to their assigned table. Keith was already seated, eyeing her with a smile as she sat down next to him.
He mumbled: "Making friend, I see?"

"Har har. My mother only trusts me as far as she can see me."

Keith sighed with a shrug.

"Oh, by the way, she saw us sneaking out a year ago at the party." He raised his brows and she continued: "I don't know what she thinks we did, but she made me promise not to do it again."

Keith nodded. "The champagne didn't taste well anyway."

"I like apple juice better.", Katie nodded in agreement.

"You don't even have a glass."

Katie pouted and looked at his glass. He shook his head and pulled it closer to his body: "I smiled at the waiter for this."

"You didn't."

"I think he remembers me."

"From the time you ignored him or the time you destroyed the chunk of plates?"

Keith inhaled through his teeth. "I forgot about that. I am surprised, he gave me some then, at all."

Then, Matt sat down on the table, carrying two glasses. He put one in front of Katie.

"You're welcome.", Matt mumbled and took a sip out of his glass. Katie raised a brow confused and eyed her brother suspiciously. What was he up to? His smirk was telling.

The siblings kept eye contact while Katie took her glass and took a sip. She almost spit it out.
"What is this?"

Matt grinned at her: "Champagne!"

Katie's eyes went wide.

Matt added challengingly: "You already tried it once?"

Katie immediately looked at Keith for help. Keith caught her glance and pointed with his eyes warningly at Matt. Katie’s head spun back to her brother, but he only looked at her confused.
Katie put on a smile and said: “Well, I didn’t - hence my surprise. So, thank you for sneaking me some!”

Matt raised his brow but drank his champagne without another word.

Katie leaned over to Keith as whispered with a big grin: "We're amazing undercover!"

Keith mirrored her grin and mumbled: “We’re getting better.”

Chapter Text

Keith walked with Adam through the hallways of the Garrison towards the spectator room - it was not possible to get any closer to the departure than that. Security let Adam in without hesitation - he worked there after all. They raised a brow at Keith since students in the first years were not allowed in the best spectator room. But Adam simply laid his hands on him from behind what eliminated any further questions from security. Keith had to admit that it was getting him past anyone without saying anything, although he didn't like that he touched him. Keith of course didn't know for sure, but he figured Adam didn't like it being close to him either. His movements were nervous. But Adam never mentioned it, which Keith was actually thankful for. They had to coexist for Shiro, that was all it was. And it worked. So, there was no need for a discussion.

When there was no one in sight in the hallway, Adam turned to him and opened his mouth to say something. When Keith looked him though, Adam decided against it and put his hands in his pockets. Keith rolled his eyes and sighed.
When they finally reached the spectator room, Keith immediately reached out for the doorknob - he couldn't wait to not be alone with Adam anymore. Their awkward breakfast with Shiro was enough Adam-time for him for quite a while.

But Adam put his hands over Keith's to signal him to stop. Adam said: "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

Keith sighed and looked away. There were so many things going through his head, but they were all just stating the obvious. And he didn't need Adam to tell him that everything is going to turn out just fine.
Adam nodded barely visible and took his hand away to let Keith open the door.

Inside, there were many people he didn't know. Many wore uniforms, a few a simple suit. It was way bigger than the spectator room for the training arena, which was about the size of half a class room. This spectator room though was barely a room, it was a long hallway with a glass wall, which gave you a perfect view on the rocket, which Keith looked at so many times before.

Adam and Keith stepped in. No one gave them the light of day when they stepped in, they all had their eyes locked at the rocket, a few were whispering to each other. The air was thick. Keith wished he could have just cut through it and make it go away. But his annoyance was also poked by his confusion that Adam still stood beside him. He usually left Keith to himself the moment they stepped in a room.
Keith turned to him and raised a brow.

Adam only smiled at him. He looked uneasy too. Keith had enough and mumbled: "What are you doing?"

Adam sighed and crossed his arms. "Am I too close to you?"
Keith shook his head.

Adam closed his eyes and mumbled: "I am trying to be supportive. Of you."
He let his arms dangle again and turned to the rocket to have a quick glance at it. "I am doing badly, aren't I?"

Keith only huffed and stood next to him, also turning his eyes onto the rocket. "You don't need to take care of me, it doesn't matter what Shiro said."

Adam chuckled dryly. "Takashi made poor decisions in the last few months. But when he asked me to look out for you, I knew that that was not one of them. And I am not opposed to it, I really want to do it. I want to be on your side, will you let me?"

Keith eyed him with squinted eyes. "I am not going to get rid of you?"

"Exactly. Listen." Adam turned his body to Keith and stated: "If you ever need anything, you can come to me. If you need a place to stay in case the Garrison wouldn't work out or any other reason, there will an empty bed at my place. I know you have your own shack, but just in case."

"Thanks, but I won't-"

"Need it? Yeah, probably. But like I said, just in case. And it will go without judgement. I supported Takashi through his training for this mission too, although I was not a fan."

Keith smiled: "And although, you are not a fan of me, you would still support me?"

Adam smiled at him with a small chuckle and closed his eyes: "Something like that."

"Thank you." Adam opened his eyes surprised as Keith's words, but Keith was already looking back at the rocket.

Adam exhaled relieved. This went better than he expected.

There was an announcement over the speakers: "Launch in 10 minutes."

Suddenly, Keith's heart was beating fast. He closed his eyes and tried to control his breathing.
Unwillingly, the morning flashed in front of his eyes.

"I hope you know that I love you.", Shiro said. Keith held back tears.
It didn't make it hurt less that he was leaving. Keith didn't even know what he was supposed to think.

He clenched his fists and really fought these stupid tears, when suddenly someone was touching his fist gently. He immediately pulled away out of instinct. When he opened his eyes, he was met with Katie standing in front of him who was smiling at him with puffy red eyes. She was not crying at the moment but clearly had been.

She reached out for his hand again and he let her. He wouldn't admit it, but when she stroked her thumb in their intertwined hands, it calmed him more than he had thought initially.
Katie leaned on him, and although he pressed his eyes together his shoulder dropped.
He could finally feel himself breathe again.

Keith glanced to his other side and noted and that Adam put a few meters distance between them. His attention was quickly back on his friend who started stroking his arm with her free hand. It was too fast for comfort, and when he looked at her, he saw that her stare was blank and that she was holding back tears too.
Without thinking about it, he closed her into a hug, which she returned within a second. She sobbed, and Keith felt tears rolling down his face too at last. He laid his head on hers and sighed.

Keith noticed her mom eying them from across the room with a surprised expression. Normally, Keith would have cared by a lot, but at the moment his focus was to keep the hug tight and make Katie feel like the world was not ending - although it was.
But also, the hug made him feel less alone. Like there was someone left. He knew that Katie was staying, but it felt more secure of a fact the moment she was in his arms.

The speaker announced: "5 more minutes till launch."

It made them loosen their hug and Katie mumbled in a small voice: "I am the biggest cry baby in here."

He chuckled and stroke her head: "I am coming for your crown then."
She heard in his voice that he had been crying too. She quickly broke the hug to look at his face. She stroked his cheek with a smile and he returned it. "I am clearly the winner.", she said in a comforting voice with a hint of mocking in her tone.

Keith chuckled; his heart finally felt like it was not dragging on the floor. He laid his hand above hers on his cheek.

When she carefully took her hand back, she handed him a tissue.
As he took it, she explained: "I will go back to my mom now. Thank you for the hug."

Keith nodded and Katie turned and went back to her mother.

Keith looked at the rocket for a while and noticed that a few engines were already moving - starting up.

The speaker announced: "2 more minutes."

Keith's heart dropped, but he felt more at peace now. He wiped his tears away and spotted Adam still standing alone a few meters away.

When the speaker announced, it would be only one more minute, Keith went to stand next to Adam. The men exchanged a smile for a second before they both turned back to look at the rocket whose engines were clearly now all starting up.
Keith was glad Adam didn't comment that Keith clearly had cried. He knew a few people that would have for sure.

"T minus 10... 9 ..."

Keith breathed; it was the only thing he knew how to do at the moment. His head was empty, his mind was glued on the rocket. The start of the rocket was one of the most dangerous parts of a trip into a space.

"6 ... 5 ... 4"

There was forming more dust under the rocket.

"3 ... 2 ... 1"

The rocket slowly started lifting itself up from the ground. In less than a minute it left the atmosphere, the boosters were thrown off.

The whole room began to cheer. While some applauded politely and maybe even let a smile slip, some whistled with joy and hugged each other.
Keith sighed and put his hands in his pockets. At least Shiro was safe for the time being. The next and last obstacle would be their landing when they would return.

Chapter Text

Katie ringed the bell of her house. Bae-Bae came to a rest next to Katie's feet and wiggled her tail excited.
While Katie waited for her mom to open the door, she kneeled down and removed the leash from Bae-Bae's collar. When Katie got up again, she was met with the annoyed face of her mother. But before she could say anything, Katie did: "I thought I didn't need the keys since you are home."

Her mother looked taken aback for a moment, but then she added as Katie walked past her in the doorframe into the house: "But you can't be for sure. You need to take the keys with you. Always. What if I get called in for an emergency?"

"I would manage."

Colleen followed her daughter to the stairs. Katie stopped walking upstairs as her mother said: "You would be locked out. Alone in our front yard. And there would be no way to know how long I would be gone. So...?"

Katie sighed and mumbled with a eye roll: "...I will take the keys with me next time."

When Katie walked up the stairs, Colleen didn't follow. As Bae-Bae ran past Katie into her room, Katie let out a small chuckle. Bae-Bae could not read the room at all. Not knowing what was going on, that would be something for once.

Katie's head unwillingly turned to her brother's room, which door was closed - for three weeks already. Matt didn't felt that far away. He used to be at programs and working at the Garrison, more often than not staying overnight. So, not having him or her dad in the house was not that unusual.
It felt like a big period of overtime at the Garrison and not like they wouldn't come back for another few months.

When Katie was in her room, she noticed that a few items were moved and overall, it was a little tidier. Katie stormed out and ran into the kitchen, where her mother was making dinner.
"Did you cleaned up my room?", wanted Katie to know. She tried to suppress her anger and keep her voice as neutral as possible.

Colleen rolled her eyes and without looking away from her cooking, she nodded. "It was a mess. You're welcome."

"I didn't ask you to tidy up."

"Then do it yourself."

Katie bit her lip and left. But instead of going back to her room, she went straight towards the front door.
"We eat dinner in an hour. No going out!"

Katie spun around. How did she know what she was planning to do? Katie groaned and went back to her room. Which her mom had cleaned. Her mom never did that before - before the launch of the Kerberos mission.
Home was still home, the location didn't change, but the feeling sure did. It was empty with only her mom and herself, but it also felt too full with only her mom. She was everywhere.

In her room Bae-Bae was napping peacefully on Katie's bed. Katie smiled and decided to join her dog. She grabbed the math book that she hid under her bed and got comfortable.
She opened the chapter she left of, and it didn't take long till she was fully concentrated on its contents instead of the problems of the day.

Suddenly, there was an angry knock on the door. Katie looked up and her mom didn't look happy - again. Katie closed her book and smiled confused.
"I called you multiple times for dinner already."

Katie got up and explained: "Oh, I'm sorry. I was deep into a book."

"Homework?", Colleen asked.
Homework needed to be done before dinner was the underlying indication.

"No, it is not for school. Dinner?", Katie shook her head and walked past her mom, hoping to change the course of the conversation.

Colleen nodded but took another glance towards the book her daughter was reading previously. To Katie's relief Colleen walked with her downstairs. But then, she wanted to know: "What kind of book is it?"

"Just ... a science book."

Colleen raised a brow.

"I had a question. I think I am getting my answers."

"Maybe I can help?", Colleen asked with a smile.

Katie returned the smile, but in contrast to her mom, Katie was forcing it. She needed to make this lie more believable.

"It is not really a help kind of situation? I only really read about it. I am good."

"Alright then." Colleen said and couldn't fully hide her disappointment. Till they sat down to eat, neither of them added anything.
Katie looked at her plate. Potatoes with vegetables - and mini tomatoes. They were even worse than normal tomatoes. But her mom was annoyed enough with her as it was, so she decided to literally just swallow it.

Colleen started a conversation: "How's school?"

"Fine."

"I noticed that you are not home a lot." There was it. The real question.

"I have to fill in for Matt walking Bae-Bae, and I like studying at the library. Furthermore, I visit Keith at the Garrison. That reminds me, tomorrow is visitor day again."

Colleen still didn't look all to happy and convinced, so Katie added: "All my homework is always done, and I am home when it gets dark."

Colleen nodded and dropped the topic. "Are you going to participate at the science far?"

The science far was a big competition at the school, where students would present their discoveries. The best from each school would compete against the others.
Colleen won at her age. So did Matt, so did their dad.

Katie never questioned she would participate. And win. "Sure."

Keith looked at the blackboard where the exam result hung out. He searched for his student id number on the papers.
Passed. Passed. Passed. Failed. Passed.

Keith followed the line to at what he had failed. Maths. Again. He groaned and it made the student next to him look at him.

"Not happy with the results?"
Keith raised a brow.

"You can't get an A in every class, star student.", James mumbled and crossed his arms.

Keith shook his head: "Not the issue."

James shrugged and looked back at the blackboard. He put his hands on his hips and mumbled: "I could also improve a bit."

Keith wanted to leave the conversation right there, but then he remembered what Shiro and Katie always used to tell him. About that he should be more open to people.
James was annoying, but right now he seemed decent. If he would give him a shot, maybe it would make Katie - and when he came back - Shiro happy.
Keith nodded to himself. That was worth enduring James for a while.

So, he asked: “Do you want to practice together?"

"Because I would need help from our star student?"

Keith huffed. If he was being so direct, he was happy to comply. "As if I would like to spend time with you. But together we're more efficient."

James raised a brow and eyed him for a long second. "I guess we could help each other out in our respective best fields."

"Sure."

"I am heading to the simulator anyway."

James nodded and followed Keith into the training room. The classes of today were called off like every day when test results were hung out.
Keith didn't say anything, so James wondered out loud: "Why are you training at the simulator? You hold every record?"

Keith shrugged. "I don't know."

"So, you have problems in other classes but decide to practice your best one even more?"

Keith shrugged again, but sucked in a breath.

"That is actually a good idea."

Keith looked at James surprised. No one ever said that to him about his study habits.
James added: "In the end, you want to be a pilot. And when you excel at flying and have a crew to do the other things, you're all set."

Keith nodded and was still struck that they actually agreed on a matter. It felt like they never agreed on anything before.

When they reached the flying simulator, the same one they did the test to enter the Garrison at the first place, James crossed his arms. "You can go first."
Keith hesitated. Then, he suggested: "No you, like you said, I practiced plenty already."

James nodded dedicated and sat down. Keith sat on a chair next to him and watched in silence. If James was concentrating, it meant he was not talking - luckily if you'd ask Keith.
The first ten levels were done smoothly and Keith couldn't have done it better himself. He crossed his arms and watched the further run of the simulation with growing interest. Now it was getting interesting.
From level 10 on, it was getting somewhere, 15 was getting interesting, 20 was fun and 30 felt like flying.

James just passed level 12 and mumbled under his breaths: "Any notes?"

"All good. But lean back a bit, relax."

"Rela-" James stopped as he almost hit a meteor and steered around in the last possible second. "How could I possibly relax?"

Keith sighed. "Just do. It helps keep your calm."
James didn't comment on it and concentrated fully back on the simulator. Keith noticed that James actually slightly leaned back. It was more a relaxed position but his body looked just as when not tenser than before. Keith rolled his eyes.

Just when James hit level 18, he failed. He fell back in the chair and groaned with frustration.
Keith commented in intend to make him feel better: "You made some really good moves though. Like in level 4 when you almost hit the meteor, you reacted really fast."

James looked at him and raised a brow. Was Keith actually smiling at him? Giving him a compliment? Was that pity?
He huffed and stood up and signaled Keith that it was his turn now.

Keith sat down; James walked to the chair to the pilot's right where Keith previously sat. When James looked at the screen, he noticed that Keith was not starting up the simulation. He was in some kind of code.
"What are you doing?", James asked with big eyes.

Keith answered calm and neutral as ever: "I like to start at level 15."

"That's cheating."

"It's more efficient."

"And cheating. How do you even know how to so this? I saw you in programming. Not your strongest suit."

Keith bit his lip. He knew how James felt about Shiro, so he lied and said: "Matt showed me."

"Are the records even real? Or did you cheat them too?"

Keith thought for a while: "I don't remember. I don't always start at level 15 though."
James squinted his eyes at him, and Keith looked away. This was going badly already and Keith didn't even start his simulation yet.
But Keith got James' message and closed the code and started at level 1. He leaned back relaxed; this were about to be some long 15 minutes. Every level was about one minute. They differ in length every time, so you won't fall into a rhythm.

He passed level 3 and shot a side glance at James, who eyed the screen with intensity. Keith quickly looked back at the screen. He got closer to a meteor than he would have liked to, but overall, he didn't risk crashing in order to shot a glance at James.

At level 4, James wanted to know: "So, what class are you failing in?"

Keith bit his lip and tightened his grip around the controls. He took a deep breath.
"Math."

James couldn't help to be confused. "But you improved so much. I saw you in class."

Keith let out a small sigh. The period where he learnt with Matt and Katie. When he actually was keeping up with class. The moment Matt stopped having time, it went downhill almost immediately.

"Yeah, but it's different now."

James nodded and hummed. Keith was able to sense his suspicion. He was glad that he just reached level 10, so the simulation demanded more attention what also meant that he would get a little bit more distraction from James. Not a lot, but every bit counted.

"How did you improve in maths like this?"

"I studied. A lot." That was true.

"With Shirogane?"

Keith cleansed his teeth and dodged the following meteor with a sharp turn.
"No."

"But you had help, right?"

"Yeah."

"I could use it too, you know?"

Keith was focused on the simulation and he wished that his thoughts were more dominant on the simulation. But the techniques of dodging the meteors had gone over his muscle memory long ago, so there was plenty capacity of his brain that had to deal with James at the moment.
"Matt tutored me."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. Do you have a problem?", Keith hissed and made another sharp turn.

James crossed his arms with a smirk as he noticed that Keith tensed up a bit.

"I was just curious, but now that he's gone it doesn't matter anyway. I can't ask him to show me too."

Keith took a breath and added: "Since we're only in third year, our math should be easy for any upper classman. You could ask whoever."

"Yeah sure."

Keith rolled his eyes but understood. If Shiro wouldn't have asked for him, he wouldn't have studied with Matt either.

Keith surpassed level 15 and James didn't comment on anything else, what Keith was glad for.
Keith finally relaxed fully again and only thought about the simulation. The levels flew by, and he surpassed level 25. He heard James’s exhale when he flew into level 30.

But Keith couldn't spend any of his focus on James right now. Level thirty required even all of Keith's focus. His eyes saw a meteor and he moved the controls like second nature. James let a small defeated "wow" slip when he reached level 33 with only one close call so far.

At some point, Keith didn't notice the levels anymore, he fell into a tunnel vision, it was only him and the meteors. Suddenly, "FAILED."

Keith sighed, leaned back and relaxed. Huh, he tensed up after all.
After taking a few breaths, Keith shot a glance at the screen. Level 39. Not bad.
He then turned to James who still looked surprised.

James mumbled. "I guess it has been a while since I used the simulator."

Keith nodded. The simulator was open for everyone - even for none students. Most put it off as useless practice since they had also classes where they flew with actual small ships. Flying was also not generally considered as hard, so the flying classes were enough that everyone caught on. But Keith mastered the simulator. This simulator was known for children and visitors - and the usual showoff between students in-between classes. But nevertheless, it taught piloting in extreme situations really well.

"Do you often play video games?", James asked curiously and got Keith out of his day dream.

Keith thought about it. He never had any video games in the shack and Shiro didn't own any. He really enjoyed playing with Katie at her house the few times he was there.
"Not really."

"Well, you should. You would be surprised. This simulator is actually the most boring video game there is."

"It is not a game. It is simulator."

James rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean!"

Keith shrugged, and James changed the topic: "So, what can I do?"

Keith looked at him confused.

"To improve. You have to know some tips."

"Do it over and over again."

"That's it?"

Keith nodded. "I read a few books about the different engines and their influence to stirring but other than that it has just been the simulator."

“Where did you get the tips like relax while steering?

“It is just about keeping your calm.”
“You know all about that, right?”

Keith inhaled sharply. He was not sure if he meant it as a pure observation or as an insult, so he nodded halfhearted.

James nodded. "How do you plan on getting through maths?"

Keith sighed and looked away. James noticed and added. "I want to improve still, but I am far from failing. I could let you copy my work, maybe that helps."

"Yeah sure."

So, Keith copied a homework from James the next day, but Keith didn't understand what he was writing. He sat in his room and it was already late. On his tablet was the photo of James' homework and although he already copied it, he didn't get it.
It was already late, but he still dialed. It rang and he held his breath. With every ring he grew more unsure whether this was a good idea. He lifted his finger to end the call, when Katie answered on the other end: "Hello?"

She didn't sound like she just woke up; it made Keith relax a little.

"What's up?", Katie mumbled maybe a little tired.

"Could you look over my math homework?"

Katie stayed silent for a second but then agreed while falling over her own words: "Yeah, sure. No problem. I did tasks from you before."

"But they were from a few months ago. That is way more advanced."

"Let me just see. Can you send me a photo?"
So, Keith sent a photo of his own notes. He waited for any answer from his friend, who was suspiciously quiet on the other end. She hummed occasionally but other than that she didn't say anything.

Keith eventually wanted to know: "Do you know the topic? It's okay if you're not-"

"No, no. I read about it. I can figure it out. Let me get my smart book."

Keith smiled to himself. He didn't regret getting all the papers from the library that he should give the book back the library for a second.

He heard that she was thumbed through the book. When it stopped, she let out a hum that she always made when she was deep in thought.
Then, she asked him: "Can you explain to me what you did so I can catch up?"

Keith gulped. He actually couldn't. He mumbled a little embarrassed: "This is actually not my homework, it's James'. I don't get anything of it."

"Oh, no problem. Then, we will just figure it out together. So, could you read the task to me?"

At the end of the night, literally, Keith had multiple papers with notes and scribbles. He had about eight different solutions and they couldn't figure out which one was the right one.
Katie yawned and Keith unwillingly joined in.

He let his head drop onto the equations.
Katie must have heard the dull sound of his head on the desk, because she encouraged him: "We'll get there!"

Keith glanced at the clock. It was already 4 a.m. Even when they wouldn't be dead tired, they only had time till time till 7. Then it was roll call and Keith needed to be present for that. Breakfast was at 9, maybe he could work on it further then.

"I think we should wrap this up. A few hours of sleep could do us both some good.", Keith mumbled in defeat. He didn't believe that they would come up with the right solution in time anyway.

"But we're so closeee.", Katie argued.

"And thank you for that. It was all you."

"It wasn't though." Keith smiled and put all the papers in his folder for class tomorrow. Before he ended the call, he said: "Promise me, you'll sleep and not further work on it?"

He could almost hear her rolling her eyes, but she agreed to it. They said their goodnights and just a minute later, Keith passed out on his desk.

When his alarm went off the next day, his eyes still felt really heavy and he knew this was going to be a hell of a day. He sat up and was immeaditley reminded that he slept on his desk from the papers than sticked to his cheeks. He removed them and as he did that, he also took a look at them.
Even though it was probably all wrong, he suddenly looked forward to math class. He was not invested in math, but after last night he was definitely invested in figuring this task out.

The morning went by fast, roll call and the morning pe class. Then, Keith picked a small breakfast from the cafeteria and spend the rest of the hour-long break napping in his room.

In math class, the teacher explained the previous homework. Keith picked out the papers from last night and ticked the right things and marked and corrected the mistakes.
But in the end, none of Katie and his attempts came to the right solution.
Keith couldn't help but to feel disappointed. He copied the right solution from the blackboard, so he could show it to Katie. The right solution wasn't even identical to James' solution. It was similar, good, but not elegant nor perfect.

When class ended, and Keith began to pack his pile of unorganized paper, their teacher stepped next to his desk.
"I noticed you made quite some notes.", she smiled at him.

Keith looked at his work and shook his head: "It's all wrong though."

"Can I see?"
Keith gave her a few papers and she read through them.

While reading through them, she nodded in thought. When she handed them back to him, she commented: "You're right, your solution isn't correct, but there are some really good thoughts in there. They are far from what we are discussing in class, you used more advanced methods, which are naturally still a little over your head."

"I got this book from the library..."

His teacher immediately clapped her hands. "Ah! Now it makes sense. Well, it is a good book apparently - too good of a book actually. Maybe try to stick to our formulas for now."

Keith continued to pack and didn't comment on it.
Before he left the room though, his teacher handed him a sheet of paper with something handwritten on it and told him: "This is a book I recommend. It covers what we do in class more detailed without being to advanced."

Keith nodded and took the paper.

Chapter Text

Katie was excited for the day, since she would have the chance to see Keith again. He asked her to bring the math book that he gave her to return it to the library. She was a little sad about it, but she knew that the day would come. But he assured her that he would take it from the library again as soon as possible, he would.
When she was getting ready to leave for the Garrison, she looked under her bed to get the book out of the hiding spot. Her heart dropped to her feet as she realized it wasn't there. She stood up and looked around in her room nervously.
There were a few days when she forgot to put the book back under bed after reading, she would leave it on her desk or bed instead. But she hadn't looked into the book yesterday and it was neither on the desk nor her bed.

Katie sat on her desk chair in defeat and began to think. Where could she have put it? She never took it to the living room since her mom would see and she tried to keep it a secret from her mom.
Her eyes wandered over her desk. Her plant was green and straight, which was odd. Her plants always looked brownish and sad. She put a finger in the soil. It was still wet.
Her mom watered it.

At least she didn't clean the room again according to her clothes that were over the back of her chair. Katie eyed the plant for another second before going back to thinking what could have happened to the book.
Then, it hit her. Her mom.

"She must have taken it.", Katie muttered under her breath. She sighed defeated and made her way downstairs to have a conversation she didn’t want to have.

It was really down her luck that her mom found the book two days before she was going to return it anyway after she had the book for weeks. It really had been weeks. Suddenly, Katie wondered how long students at the Garrison were allowed to keep books from the library.

When she got downstairs, her mom was watching TV, not really taking note of her daughter, but when she spoke up, she turned around. Katie came straight to point. "Have you seen my book?"

Colleen turned off the TV and tapped next to her on the couch. Katie swallowed. So, it is going to be a talk-talk. That couldn't mean any good.

When she sat down, Colleen gave her pitiful smile. Katie hated that look, so she asked again: "Did you take it?"

Colleen's friendly facade dropped and she crossed her arms. "The question is, did you take it?"

"What?!"

Her mother shook her head and explained: "It is from the exclusive Garrison library. You don't have access to that. Did you take it from Matt’s room?"
Katie inhaled. This was the opportunity to leave Keith out of this. And Matt wouldn't mind that Katie falsely let their mom know that he forgot to return a book. He was lightyears away – and till he came home their mom would have surely forgotten about it.

Katie looked down: "I took it from his room, he must have forgotten he had it ...."

"That book is only leant! It must be way over!"

"I'm sorry. I did plan to return it today. I know I can't go in the library, but I wanted to give it to Keith."

That calmed Colleen a little and her shoulders dropped. But then, she added with a sharp tone: "I also told you no advanced math."

Katie sighed. Of course, she noticed that too.

Colleen joined the sigh. "But I have to admit, you didn't neglect your school work or your chores, so I guess you can keep learning."

Katie got excited. "Really?"

Colleen nodded slowly. "Yes, if that is what you really want."

Katie smiled widely and closed her mom in a hug. Her mom stroked her back as she mumbled: "You learned advanced math all this time already, didn’t you?"

Katie hesitated for a second, what made her mother chuckle.
Colleen broke the hug and stated: "I should have known." Her anger was gone.

"Sorry. It is just so interesting.", Katie played with her hands and hoped that the conversation would end soon, so it couldn't still go downhill. It seemed like a pretty good time to stop.

Colleen nodded and got up; it didn't take long till she handed her daughter the book.
Katie accepted it with a grateful smile.
After Katie left the house, she felt like she defeated and befriended the dragon all at once.

When Katie walked in the parking spot of the Garrison, she noticed that it was weirdly empty. When she got to the main door, she found a paper that said that visitors were not allowed until further notice. Katie sighed, as she turned around, she changed the grip on the math book.
The book. She needed to get it to Keith.

Katie ignored the sign at the door and went inside. The receptionist was distracted by his work. Katie looked left and right. And other than him, no one was around. She could try to just run down the hallway, but without a visitor card, everyone could immediately see that she didn’t belong. The risk was too high.

So, with a defeated sigh she stepped to the receptionist counter. He looked up and squinted his eyes. “There is a sign up.”

Katie forced a smile and added: “And I saw that! I just wanted to know if I could leave something for a student?”
The receptionist eyed her as if he would consider it. Eventually, he shook his head. “No exceptions.”

Katie laid the book on the counter. “It is a library book from the campus. I don’t mind keeping it longer, but it should go back. Don’t you think?”

The receptionist gave her a forced smile and accepted the book. “Of course. For whom is the book?”

“Keith Kogane.”

“Of course.”

Katie raised a brow. “What does that mean?”

He only huffed and took the book from the counter into in one of his drawers. When he looked back at her, he stated: “The name came up a few times.”

Katie nodded and read his name tag. He met her glance when she looked back up. She quickly turned around and left.
When she closed the door behind her, she exhaled relieved. She did it – but probably won’t be able to pass with anything else with Bob Meyer. Didn’t matter. Luckily for her, the receptionists changed a lot.

“I wish we could hang out.”, Keith said over the phone. There was only dim light in his room at the Garrison. The Garrison prohibited visitor day, because a few children, who visited, caused a false fire alarm that ruined the old meeting hall. Visiting day was called off temporarily, even though it extended to feel like an entirety.

Katie laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling in surprise as Keith suggested it over the phone. Meeting up? Her heart made a jump, but then disappointment hit her. She added: “But visitor's day is off.”
“Oh, I know.”
Katie’s lips formed a smile at his words.

“So, there were a few students from the Greenleaf high school the other day. They took a tour for their science class. It was the whole class, I heard it was planned for a long time. But maybe can you work with that?”

“If Greenleaf can get in there.”

“Exactly.” Greenleaf was just some ordinary high school that ranked high in international rankings.
Katie chuckled to herself and thought about it for a while. How could she make up a reason to go into the Garrison? Her science classes were currently not about any topic that could be explored further in the Garrison by looking at the professionals.

Then it occurred to her. “The Science fair! I need to make a project for that! I can come up with something that I would need to go in the Garrison for!”

“That’s a great idea!”

“So, which area is interesting science wise but is also practiced ground you can access as a visitor only?”
It was silent for a while on the other end.

Katie also thought about it herself. She knew for a fact that the plant lab was classified enough that students couldn’t enter, her mom told her a few times about students that tried to enter without permission. But maybe she could…
“Maybe my mom could bring me to work.”

“That would be awesome!”

“Mhm, if she agrees to it. I am not sure if she would want me to learn about her work that closely. It would be pretty advanced, she’s no fan of that.”

“It turned out alright when she found the math book. Tell me how it goes.”

“Always.”

Katie brought the idea up with her mom while dinner.
“Are you sure, honey?”, Colleen was not able to fully hide her confusion.

“Plants are still not on the top of my mind, but research is. And research is research in the end, right?”

“First, it’s not 'plants', it's botany. And what made you change your mind?”
Katie had that answer prepared. “I was thinking I could do something on plants for the science fair.”

“You are?” Colleen was not even trying to hide her confusion, but Katie noticed that she was not completely opposed to the idea. It seemed like there was a slim chance she would still say yes to the idea.

Katie sighed: “To be honest, I just want to be at the Garrison. The whole place is just so ... cool and interesting! I just want to spend time there!”

Colleen didn’t answer for a while, she took a few bites of her dinner. Then, she sighed: “Why did you lie that you want to do something for the science fair at first?”

Katie was taken by surprise. With a small voice she answered. “I thought otherwise it would be a straight no.”

“I don’t appreciate you lying to me.” Colleen let her statement hang in the air while she took another bite.

Katie thought the topic was done - it was as clear as of a no someone could get. But just when she accepted to let the topic die too, her mom said: “I can arrange that I can take you with me.”

Katie’s face lit up.

“Thank you so much!”

Colleen smiled and they continued eating, both looking forward to going to the Garrison together.

And the day came.
It was a Saturday, so Katie could come along without missing school, which Colleen stressed, would have been in no way acceptable. Katie made sure to behave extra well during that week in class, so no teacher would reach out to her mom and make a complain that could possibly influence her decision to take her with her.
While they drove to the Garrison, she gave her daughter a quick rundown. “You are going to get a visitor’s pass, so other people will know that you did not just walk in there. But still, you can’t leave my sight for a second. It is a big property, and you don’t know your way around the labs. It is on the opposite site of the astronaut training.”

Katie nodded, but Colleen didn’t miss the slight disappointed in her eyes, so she added: “But I know that you really want to see the astronauts, so I guess we could walk by in our break.”
Katie grinned and got excited. Colleen smiled and continued: “For my lab, no touching of anything. Don’t touch anything you didn’t invent yourself, remember? And no opening of anything. Some plants emission pollen or fumes that we do not want in the air. Understood?”

“Understood.”

When they walked in, Katie recognized Bob Meyer at the reception. He shot an annoyed glance at her, but she got her visitor card without further question after she said her name. When they walked a few meters, Katie whispered to her mom: “How did he just gave me the card? No questions whatsoever.”

“They have a system where they enter everyone that has clearance. Now they only need an invitation from an employee and you get in. You have been here before, but I needed to give them a little more.”

“What kind of information?”

“Your profession, your reason why you’re here. Before it was always clear. It was open day for family. Now, you are here as an intern.”

Katie chuckled: “Did you just gave me an internship without me even knowing?”

“Perks.”, Collen smiled knowingly.

Katie agreed but was distracted from their surroundings from there on. They walked the usual way Katie knew around here that far, but now they were entering the area of pla- botany labs. The people which were either scientist or security, they encountered in the hallways greeted Colleen in a friendly matter.
When they finally reached her lab, Collen opened the door with her hand print.

“Is this a top-secret facility?”
Colleen gave her a questioning look. Katie pointed at the keycard around her neck: “The doors usually open with keycards.”

While they walked inside, Colleen explained: “You could also use a keycard, but since I spend a lot of time in here, they integrated my hand print. They don’t do that for every room.”

Katie nodded and looked at the first plant to change the topic. Colleen began to explain: “These are the vegetables which we modified their DNA of. If they work out as we intent them to, they are going to become the next line of the astronaut food.”

“Are they safe to eat?”

“No, not yet. That is why we are still working on these. Don’t worry, we make every knowable test on them before we announce them as safe for consumption.”

Katie nodded and looked around. There were all kinds of plants around. From peas to tomatoes, from berries to even apple trees that were in an extra room that was full of glass walls.
Colleen explained: “Trees don’t fit in these little banks for plants of course, so they got their own room. But it really just the same but bigger. With the glass walls, the air stays with each tree.”

Katie nodded. “So, what do you do all day?”

“Getting the data from the plants. The consistence of the soil, air and plant itself. From time to time, I take samples from the plants, make tests on them. There is a lot that goes into each step.”

“So, what can I do?”

“Of course, I can’t let you work with the actual plants, they are classified. But you can do a few little chores around or do something in the office.”

Colleen expected the usual response from her daughter to chores and paperwork, but she nodded and didn’t seem to have lost her excitement just yet. Colleen shrugged it off, she would not complain. It was an extra pair of hands and if she enjoyed herself while doing it, why not.

At the beginning, Colleen had doubts to bring Katie along. She never doubted her intelligence, but being responsible was still not one of her strongest suits. But she proved herself. In the end, Katie came every weekend. Every Saturday and whenever there was still enough time after school.
Katie never complained about her work that her mom assigned her to – only at the Garrison is to note. Chores at home were still not her favorite thing to do at home. But even that improved over time. And she did her work well. Of course, there were mistakes, but they were none everyone could have made as well. Of course, she filled out the document wrong the first time. Of course, she didn’t draw the plants correctly. But that was all on Colleen, she should have showed her better.

And besides having an extra pair of hands and just company in the lab, Collen really enjoyed spending more time with her daughter. She always felt like Katie was closer with her husband or Matt. The time in a lab was finally a time where were able to bond.
But even though Colleen enjoyed all these things about Katie coming along, there was still a part of here that questioned the why. Why would she spend that many hours in an office doing boring paper work, cleaning or organizing when these are things she usually despises? Just for a walk through the astronaut area from time to time? Katie didn’t look bothered to do any of the chores, and she would continuously say that it was for science, so she didn’t mind. And Colleen chose to believe it. What else could she do? There was not enough doubt that it felt right to investigate further.
But then, one day, it all made sense to her.

It was a Saturday like any other the last two months. Katie was comparing numbers to check for mistakes on the computer in her mom’s office. The more people looked over the numbers, the better. It was usually a task done by interns. Though of course, it was always supervised by the leading scientists, her mom would check her work over at the end of the day.
Colleen knocked on the doorframe and announced: “Time for lunch.”

Katie nodded and finished reading the current line. She turned off the computer and stepped next to her mom. When they stepped out of the lab, a colleague started talking to her mom, so Katie took a few respectful steps to the side but stayed in sight for her mom. The conversation took a while, so Katie took a look on the clock. The time couldn’t be right. It was 1:14 pm. The usual dinner time was 12 am. At least that explained the grumble of her stomach.

She just finished that thought, when her mom walked over to her and told her: “I’ll need another minute. You can already go ahead, you know the way, right? Don’t go anywhere else but the cafeteria, can I trust you?”

“Of course. I will go straight to the cafeteria.”

Colleen nodded and they parented ways. Colleen went back to her colleague, Katie walked towards the cafeteria.

When Katie opened the doors to the cafeteria, she was stunned. There was not the usual crowd of people she encountered while lunch. The different departments had different lunch times; the botany labs usually got lunch with engineering. But this crowd was way too young to be engineers.
These must be students.

Katie’s heart made a jump. Students. Keith. He could be somewhere amongst them.
Of course, it was a stretch. While she did the walks with her mom through the spectator hallways of the astronaut track, she never once spotted Keith under the students. But this was another setting, so it was another chance!
There was still a long line at the kitchen counter since the break just started. About half of them were already seated. Katie estimated their age to be around Keith’s, so that was a good sign – at least it was his grade. But even though there were not many students in each grade, the cafeteria was still big and everyone wore the same uniform. Keith had black hair, what unfortunately was a pretty common hair color as well.

“Katie?”
She spun around at the sound of her name and was met by a surprised Keith holding a tray with his lunch.

“Heyy!”, Katie gave him a slight shy wave.

Keith’s surprise settled and he gave her a warm smile. “Hey.”
They hadn’t seen each other for a while in person. Visitor day was still canceled, Keith couldn’t go outside school grounds without supervision and although they were technically the same building sometimes during the week, time and place hadn’t been right before.

Katie looked at his plate and raised a brow. “You have chocolate pudding.”
“I like chocolate pudding.”

“But you’re lactose intolerant and they don’t have vegan pudding here.”
Keith bit his lip. Katie smiled knowingly.
They kept eye contact for a while, before Keith broke and explained while looking to the ground: “It’s James’. James gave it to me since he wanted to apologize for … earlier.”

Katie simply nodded; Keith knew that the topic was dropped. “So, why are you here?”
“Food. Actually. I am going to get some for myself. As well... You sit down, I’ll find you!” She already waved goodbye and turned around to go to the counter, but she stopped mid-step as he said: “Wait.”

Keith held his tray towards her: “We could share, so you wouldn’t have to get in line …” And so, we could spend more time together, he added in thought.

Katie agreed without hesitating and grabbed the pudding from his tray. He then followed her to the nearest table and sat down on the chair to her right.
She already opened the pudding and stole the spoon from Keith, when he noted: “You can also have something of the main dish. You don’t have to set on dessert.”

She chuckled: “You make dessert sound like something bad.” She demonstratively took a full spoon of pudding in her mouth.

It was Keith’s turn to chuckle. “It is not.”

“What I am saying.”, Katie smiled at him and watched him as he took the eating irons and began eating the main dish what was noodles with tomato soup. The moment he looked up, she looked away. She put a stray of hair behind her ear and changed the topic: “So, how are the noodles?”

“They taste weird.”

Katie was full attentive within a second, since she couldn’t wrap her head around it. “What?”
“I don’t know.” Keith sniffed the noodles and shrugged. “I don’t know what it is though. They don’t taste bad, just weird.”

Katie leaned over to get a closer look at his plate, but they looked and smelled just like noodles in the cafeteria did. Keith rolled a few noodles on his fork and held it towards Katie. She raised a brow but then took the offer.
While she was chewing and trying to decipher what he meant by they tasted weird, she noticed the smirk on his face. She swallowed and stated: “You tricked me into eating.”

Keith chuckled and looked at his food and shrugged. Katie smiled and leaned back. She watched him eat for a while and then admitted with crossed arms and a shrug: “It was good, I have to admit.”

“Well, thank you.”, Keith said more jokingly than anything else. But the moment he looked at her it became warmer and more genuine.

Katie looked at anything but him and mumbled: “Well, thank you too. For the noodles I mean.”

They looked eyes for a second and suddenly everything got really hot and the table all so very interesting.
They sat in silence for a good few silent breaths till Keith decided to change the mood.

"So, how come that you are here, your lunchtime is usually an hour earlier."

The question brought Katie back to her usual self: "I am not sure either. At first, I thought Mom just forgot the time, but the usual botany scientists that we eat lunch with are also here right now. So, I guess the times changed."

Keith said before he was able to stop himself: "That's amazing!"

Katie was filled with the same amount of excitement and turned to him with a bright smile: "Yes, right?"

They both grinned at each other, they didn’t even mind their heads being mere centimeters apart. Katie added contently. "I can't believe it - finally!"

"I can't believe you did all the boring work just for a chance to see me." Keith bit his lip after he said that and looked away. That didn't come out the way it sounded in his head.

But Katie only chuckled and proudly smiled to herself.
Although a moment later, she sighed and admitted: "It started as only hoping for an opportunity to hang out but it was not that bad actually. Sure, plants are still ... plants, but it is still science and I learned a lot."

Keith nodded without adding anything further. He was still too glad that she didn't comment on what he had said previously.

Katie turned back to her pudding and mumbled: "And we did saw each other that one time; I waved at you in the hallway from 100 meters apart? You even saw that! It is a small building, you meet."

Keith argued: "It's the biggest building in Nebraska"

Katie shook her head: "Nebraska is small though!"

"Still a state!"
Katie waved it off and put a finger demonstratively on the table. "Back to my point. I knew I would meet you here, since we are in the same building. Way better chance than in the city.”

“Especially since I live in the desert.”

“Oh, shush.”, Katie laughed and nudged him slightly. She continued unbothered: “Anyway, I had nothing but patience. Literally, I have nothing to show for but patience. And it worked out! I knew if I was doing everything right, I would eventually get the opportunity to go somewhere else than just the botany lab."

"Like a prisoner on patrol?"

"Like a prisoner on patrol." Katie paused and added. "Kind of ironic since you are all wearing orange not me."

Keith looked down at his uniform. "Touché."
When he looked back at her he mumbled: "You will be in the uniform too one day, I know it."

Katie got flustered. "Really?"

“One-hundred percent.”, Keith nodded absently and poked his food with his fork in thought. He turned to her and said: “I forgot! I still have that math book for you!”

“My math book?”

Keith chuckled: “No, not the same as before, another one. But one my teacher recommended – it Is supposed to be more on your level.”

Katie gave him annoyed look, and Keith argued: “No place to start than the beginning? Give it a try, it will be worth it. I am sure.”

Keith got closer to her face and mumbled: “I already thumbed through it, I put bookmarks in there. Normal sheets of papers, just the results of our math problem from *the* night …”

The night they stayed up to solve that one equation - well, they failed to solve it. Keith gave her the solution over the phone but insisted on giving her the papers in person.

Katie also got closer to him and said challengingly while winking with her eyebrows: “Interesting.”

“They are.”, Keith said with a smile.

Katie looked in his purple dark deep eyes and suddenly all her sass was gone, and was exchanged by something … else.

Keith must have noticed the change too, because suddenly, his expression shifted and he leaned back to bring some distance between them.

It brought Katie back to the present; she also leaned back and shook her head. She clapped her hands and suggested a change of topic: “So, the book?
Keith turned to his bag and held it towards her.

“You knew I would be here? And brought the book?”

Keith chuckled and shook his head: “I actually read in it myself. I thought about reading a bit after I ate.”

“If you want to read it yourself, then you should keep it yourself!”

Keith held it even further towards her. “It is not a special book, there are more copies in the library, I will just get another one.”
Although still hesitantly, Katie took the book. She thumbed through it and when she saw all the paper in there, it made her laugh. “You really put them all in there? Singular and all on different pages?”
She held the book higher to get a better look at it, what made some of the notes fall out.

Katie quickly grabbed them and put them back into the book. “It’s amazing, thank you!”
She closed the book and looked back at Keith. Behind him, she saw her mom just walking in. She waved at her and after her mom took notice and nodded at her, Katie’s attention was back on Keith within a second.

Just when Katie was about to start a new topic, another student stepped next to their table, what made Katie close her mouth again. The student eyed them both, before his eyes rested on Keith and he said: “Do you want to hit the simulator?”

Keith sighed and Katie turned to him and explained: “We can catch up later, studying is more important!”
Keith nodded at her, he tried to smile, although he was not happy with the situation.

Katie nudged him slightly: “Go already!”

Keith got up, grabbed his tray, her empty pudding cup and walked away with the other student,

Katie sighed and drew lines with her finger over the book’s title letters. She smiled and opened it in a more vertical position, what made a note immediately drop to the table. She picked it up and noticed that it was one of the notes that belonged to the task that she and Keith tried to decipher for a whole night. She was torn, what should she read first; the notes or the book itself?
With a glance towards the clock, she decided to read a bit of book for the rest of break. She rather got into the notes when there was more time to spent – even when that meant she had to wait still she got home.

But only after two pages, someone sat down next to her. She fully expected it to be her mom, so she finished reading her current sentence before looking up. Her eyes grew wide than she noticed that it was indeed not her mom. It was a someone high-ranking – not that her mom wasn’t.

She knew him – barely. She knew many people that were a big shot at the Garrison on a similar level through her family. Maybe she knew Adam a little better, but still not enough for him to sit with her alone.

Adam smiled at her, Katie grinned and greeted him: “Hello Mr We…wa…ehm Adam?”

He chuckled, but agreed: “You can call me Adam, it’s fine. Hey Katie.”
Katie nodded and looked around. She was not sure what to say to him. Was there a reason he sat down next to her? “Is there anything you need?”

Adam looked at her book. Katie followed his eyes and then glanced at him. He smiled and explained: “Don’t worry, I won’t take it away from you. It is just that Keith extended the duration of keeping the last book he leant, like a lot. Too much.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t worry about it, he apparently doesn’t either.”

Katie raised her brows.
Adam shrugged and sighed. “Well, maybe you could help him give the book back in time this time?”

“Sure…?”

Adam was content with this answer apparently since he said a simply goodbye and left the table.
But Katie was too much in her own head to care about Adam. Keith only asked her to bring back the book once, and he didn’t even press the topic. It was more like a sidenote.
And how did Adam know about this at all?

Katie opened the book again but noted in her head that there was a whole new riddle to solve.

After the lunch break was over, Katie and Colleen walked back to the lab as usual.
Katie would have liked to hide the book in a bag, but she didn’t bring anything to the cafeteria. Inevitable, her mother gave her a curious glance with a knowing smile.
Katie pretended she didn’t notice and hoped this way she would avoid to come up with an answer. But when they reached the lab, her mom voiced her thoughts: “Keith got you a book?”

Katie hugged the book tighter and only turned slightly towards her. “Yeah? It is not advanced math though. Just third year.”

Colleen raised a brow but didn’t comment on it. She just smiled at her daughter. Katie didn’t exactly know what to add, so they stood in silence. Really awkward silence in Katie’s eyes. “Back to work?”, Katie asked in hope to put an end to it.

Colleen slightly lifted her hands: “Alright, alright. Don’t tell me then.”

“Tell you what?”

Colleen shrugged and turned to work on her tablet. Katie squinted her eyes. Did she know something she didn’t?

Katie sat down in the office and just turned the computer back on, when her mom knocked and went to stand in the doorframe. “I have to meet someone at 1 pm, it could take a while.”

“I will put it in your calendar”
Her mother hummed and added: “Well, you could take your other break then.”

“It is the usual break time, so yeah I planned to.”

Colleen nodded and tried again: “You could take a stroll around the astronaut area.”

Katie was confused. “I thought I couldn’t go alone?”

Colleen nodded: “See, that is true. You shouldn’t be alone. Doesn’t have Keith his break then too?”

Katie’s eyes went wide, and Colleen smiled to herself and turned around. Already in the other room, she yelled: “But it is up to you how you spent your break.”
Colleen added in her thoughts: "It's the reason you wanted to come with me anyway, isn't it?"

Chapter Text

When the clock hit 1 pm, Kaite heard her mom leave. Her mom made a point to close the door with an extra loud smash. Katie told herself though that it could have been a coincidence.
Katie sighed and looked at the clock again. 1:01 pm. She was confused about what her mother said to her earlier. It was not like she didn’t want to go and visit Keith, but her mom didn’t just get a change of heart, did she?
Katie couldn’t quite put her finger on it yet, and it made her uneasy. She didn’t like being in the dark.

Katie tapped with her finger on the table in thought. She considered the worst-case scenarios, but in the end, her mom allowed her to go. She got up and couldn’t help but to get excited.

Katie knew her way to the astronaut area. And not just because of the strolls with her mom – she knew the whole building plan. She might had already looked it up multiple times. Just in case!
She was used to the area being rather empty. She was usually there when Keith and her snuck away during events or when the event was happening at that exact spot. She never actually seen it on a regular day.
It was also different from the strolls with her mom. Her mom insisted that would stay in the spectator hallways, but that way the places you could visit were pretty limited. Furthermore, Katie found it exciting to actually walk within the students– like if she was one of them.
And there were many students in the hallways and in the halls. Katie strolled around for a bit in her search for her friend. She decided to pass every spot Keith previously mentioned to her. He needed to be somewhere.

She was glad that no one gave her a second look. Maybe it was because according to her age, she could be a student herself – she wishes – or because of her visitor pass dangling around her neck. Or because the students wouldn’t care if someone was under them that didn’t belong – at least someone looking as none threating as herself.

Katie made a mental note that it may was an advantage to be that small – but just sometimes.
She walked into a bigger hall. It was a hall which had a really high glass roof, through which light came in. From the upper few floors, you were able to see in the hall from offices and spectator hallways, which Katie knew all too well.

As she looked around at the gigantic hall, she noticed the sounds of something that sounded like a video game. Katie was immediately interested and quickly understood that it came from something that looked actually similar to a gaming machine except that it had a seat in front.
Then, Katie saw that Keith was sitting on that very seat.

His eyes were concentrated on the screen, so he definitely didn’t see her yet. Another student passed through the door she was still standing in. She stepped out of the automatic door, so that the door would close. She stayed close to the wall and shot another glance at Keith. He still didn’t see her.

Katie couldn’t help but watch him use the simulator. He moved the controls so quickly; he looked like he was deep in his element. Katie smiled and was not sure if she should step closer. Would that distract him? He wouldn’t expect her to be here, so it probably would. So, she decided to wait – and watch – from afar till he was finished.
And as it turned out, that took a while. After some time, she leaned onto the wall and crossed her arms, although her eyes never left Keith and the simulator he was using.

Students passed her going in and out of the hall, but she didn’t mind them. A few said a quick greeting, a few others were clearly confused by her presence - which was fair. She was not wearing a uniform as opposed to everyone else in sight.

After a while, she noticed that people gathered around Keith and watched him with great interest. Katie would have loved to step closer as well, but decided against it. She did change her positioning a few steps to the side though to get a better look at Keith again, since her vision was impaired by the many people crowding around him. But it didn’t really help it, she still couldn’t see properly.

Suddenly, someone next to her said: “It’s Katie, right?”

Katie spun around. It was the boy that tried to help her find Keith. Hunk.

He chuckled in response to her reaction: “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”
Katie still raised her brows at him. She was simply confused by why he was talking to her. Plus, she was busy.

He wanted to know: “Did you find Keith in the end the other day?”
Katie nodded absently and mumbled: “Yeah, yeah. He was fine.”

Hunk smiled again: “I’m glad! And as I see, you won’t need my help this time to find him.”

Katie shot a glance at the crowd around Keith and then back at Hunk. “Yeah.”

Another student joined the conversation, and Katie was glad. She didn’t feel like it was going anywhere before. The other student would hopefully lead Hunk someplace else.
“Hunk- “The other student stopped and changed his tune as he noticed Katie. “Oh hi! Nice to see you again! “

Katie nodded. He once sat down next to her in the visiting hall, she didn’t even remember his name.

The student looked at the crowd around Keith and mumbled curiously: “Did it work out between you two?”

Katie shook her head confused. What?

Hunk turned to the other and nudged him. “Lance!”

“Sorry! I only mean well!”

Hunk turned towards Katie and mumbled: “Don’t listen to him. I, for my part, am really happy Keith has a friend like you. I saw you visiting a few times.”

Katie gave him a shy half-smile.

Suddenly, the crowd “ooh”ed, what it made the three turn around. The people in the crowd cheered and mumbled excitedly: “Level 42!” “Wow!” “Good job!” “How does he do it?”

Katie’s mood shifted and she couldn’t help but peak at the crowd.

Hunk took his friend by the arm and pulled him away while saying: “Bye, nice to see you!”
Lance waved as he got dragged away. Katie quickly mirrored the wave and was glad that they finally went away.

When they left, she turned towards the crowd.
They disbanded and began to split into smaller groups again, the show was apparently over. But oppose to all the students walking away from the simulator, Katie walked towards it – finally!

Keith was just stepping away from the seat when his eyes met Katie’s. She excitedly waved at him with a big grin. He was clearly surprised, he only slightly lifted his hand to greet her.
Katie stepped towards him and gave him a quick hug: “I saw you using that simulator! You did amazing!”

Keith looked away, slightly blushing. Katie didn’t seem to notice and kept on talking: “Well, I don’t know what level 42 means, but they seemed really excited about it! So, good job!” She gave him two thumps up.

Keith chuckled and turned to the simulator as he explained: “This is the Orbit Axiom X, the most advanced flight simulator. And Level 40 means really hard, usually people only get to the half of that, around 20.”

Katie’s eyes went wide, and inspected the machine curiously. Keith knew that there were a thousand questions forming in her head in that moment.

“I watched you using the simulator, but towards the end the crowd was impairing my vision. Would you fly again for me? You said you would!”

Keith got flustered: “You watched me? For how long?”

“Not that long. A bit. I don’t know. I lost track of time. Anyway, would you show your skills to me?”

Keith raised a brow: “Really? You want to see that?”

Katie nodded excited and sat down on the chair next to the simulator.

Keith shrugged and sat down in the seat again. He was not sure if he should give himself a head start. But after playing towards level 40, he felt a little drained, so he started at the beginning; level 1. After the higher levels, over 30, level 1 appeared to be in slow motion. He shot a side glance at Katie. She didn’t seem to mind.

After he passed another few levels, Keith wanted to know: “Are you just going to watch me go through all the levels?”

“Yup! If you let me.”

Keith nodded. After he passed level 8, he got an idea. “Do you want to fly?”

“Me?”

He moved slightly more left in his seat. Katie hesitated and only stood up from her chair, now standing at his right shoulder. She didn’t sit down next to him though. Keith decided that she still got enough vision on the controls as it was, so he started to explain their functions and how to move them.
“Pretty simple. Now you!”

Before Katie could say anything, Keith got up, what made the simulator without a person to steer for a short moment. Katie dropped in the seat as fast as she could and grabbed the controls. There were so many meteors! She pulled the controls, scratched more than one rock, but didn’t crash – not immediately at least. Before she could reach a new level, “FAILED”.

Katie huffed and looked at Keith with a challenging look. “I was not prepared.”

“Yeah.”, Keith agreed but still smirked at her.

She shook her head and chuckled dedicated: “You have to show me now. For real.”

Keith nodded and stood next to her in a way that he was able to look over her shoulder.
“Start with the simulation with this button and I will give you notes along the way.”

Katie shot a doubtful look in his direction, but then she pressed the button. It started easier than before, what made sense since Keith already passed a few levels before he let her take over.

She steered around the meteors and felt good about it. But Keith didn’t say anything, she quickly looked at Keith again to check, suddenly, there was the sound of the “FAILED” screen.

Keith whispered with a chuckle: “Stop looking at me.”

“And you stop not helping!”

“You were doing just fine!”

Katie turned around to face him and pointed at the red screen: “And then, I failed!”

“Alright, then here is my help; look at the screen.”

Katie turned back to the screen and mumbled contently: “Thank you. Okay, let’s start again.”
In the next round, they start was rocky, literally. Katie hit the third meteor at the first level. She immediately turned to Keith. He laughed: “That can’t possibly be my fault.”

Katie smirked and looked back to the screen with a shrug: “I didn’t say anything.”

As an answer, Keith started another round without any warning. Katie passed level 1 and mumbled: “I am not looking, but pretend I am looking at you right now. What would I see?”

“I am looking at your screen.”

“What do you see?”

Keith sighed. “Alright. You want to get the extended report?”

“Yes, please!”, Katie nodded and made a big swing to dodge another meteor.

Keith laid his arms on the seat’s back and sighed. “Your reaction is slightly delayed, you need to steer a moment before, because there is a chance that the meteor could slightly move shortly before you pass it. If you only begin to dodge that close to it, you are at a high risk to hit it. Then, you look at the wrong numbers, it’s showing. Look at the second row, not the first. It is tempting since the first one is not constantly changing, but the second row got the information you need. Then, you also prioritize the wrong controls, you need to put more focus on the right one, not the left one, it will make sense later on. Furthermore-“

He stopped as he saw that she failed again. When he looked down to her, he was not surprised to look directly into her face. He was not sure if she failed because she looked up to him or the other way around.

“Furthermore?”, Katie asked with a smile.

“You just need way more practice.”

Katie got out of the seat: “I guess that sounds legit. I never flew before.”

“It was still really good.”

She nudged him: “Liar.”

“I am not! I practice every day with that thing, you can’t prepare my skill set with yours. We have to compare your performance with middle schoolers.”

“I am in 11th grade!”

Keith shook his head: “No, that is the grade students usually use the simulator for the first time, when they visit the Garrison to test for talent. And you got to level 5 just now, that is over average.”

Katie nodded but wanted to know with a side glance: “What level did you get?” Katie knew that Keith’s class did the test.

“7”

“Such a show-off ...”

“Who got an honorary mention at a high school science fair when they were only a middle schooler themselves?”

“Alright, I see your point.”, Katie agreed.
They began to walk out of the hall and through the hallway.

They walked in silence for a while, then Keith suggested: “Would you like to visit the library?”

“I thought that wasn’t allowed.”

“Well, if they never find out.”

Katie smiled. “What the Garrison doesn’t know.”

“My point.”

Katie’s heart was beating fast as they walked into the library like they – she – belonged. Security didn’t look at them twice, or at all. They must have seen the student uniform from Keith from out of the corner of their eye. There were hundreds of students walking in and out every day and since the library was deep into the Garrison grounds, no one prohibited to enter was able to get that far anyway.

Katie walked behind Keith from the security guard’s point of view. Her green dress could have given her away, although some students wore their causal wear occasionally. Not often, but it happened.

When Katie and Keith successfully passed a few bookshelves and were out of sight for security except for the cameras, Katie couldn’t help but look around in awe.

“I can’t believe I’m here!”

Keith only smiled at her and watched as she walked from shelf to shelf, inspecting the books, occasionally pulling one out and skipping through the pages. There were a handful of students calmly studying in the background looking sleepy, which were a clear contrast to Katie who tried her best to contain her excitement and not to squeal. It was better if she didn't direct anyone’s attention to them.

Suddenly, her eyes went from the books to him, but neither her wide smile nor warmth in her glance was fading.

Earlier that day, Keith would have looked away – he had looked away. But this time, he returned the warm smile.
After a while, he laid his head in an angle and suggested: “Do you want to sit down and read a bit?”

Katie’s eyes lit up even more. Keith chuckled slightly to himself. “Alright, I will get myself something to read as well. You go sit down; I will find you.”

Katie nodded and sat down on the nearest couch. Keith would be able to sit next to her and the couch was not in the center of the library and attention; it was the perfect spot.
She opened her book, but she couldn’t concentrate on it. Her eyes kept on shifting through the shelves. They were barely any people to watch, but everyone looked so important and smart in their uniforms. She wanted to be like them.

Since she barley looked at her book, it was no surprise that she saw Keith coming. He smiled at her as he sat down next to her. He commented: “The library is more interesting than your book?”

Katie hummed and shrugged. “Just a really interesting place to be.” She then glanced at the book he got. “What did you choose?”

He showed her the book. It was the same math book he gave her earlier.
So, he was telling the truth that the library had multiple copies. Not that she doubted him – but she did. She bit her lip. She didn’t want to distrust him, but Adam made her question things.

Of course, he noticed her shift in expressions. Katie sighed and admitted: “I talked to Adam.”

Keith raised a brow. He was confused. Katie couldn’t blame him; she was just as confused as him that Adam talked to her.
She continued to explain: “He mentioned that you kept the book way longer than you should. The big math book you gave me.”

Keith nodded. “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I don’t want you to get in trouble for me! I would have given it back to you if you just had told me!”, she was upset, but made sure that her voice was still barely more than a whisper, so that it wouldn’t disturb the silence in the library.

Keith argued: “That’s my point. I didn’t want you to give it back. You liked it so much.”

That made Katie pause for a second before she shook her head. “And thank you, but that’s not right. You don’t need to do this for me.”

“But I want to.”

That left Katie dumbfounded for another few seconds. She eventually shook her head and leaned back into the couch, looking at her book. “And I appreciate it, but don’t do it again.”

Keith nodded.

They read their respective books for a while.
After a while, Keith said: “September 8th.”

Katie raised a brow.

“The date where I have to give back the book I gave you.”

She smiled and leaned on him as she continued to read her book.

The next time Keith spoke up, it was to announce that he had to get back to his classes. Katie remembered with shock that she also only had a limited time to go off to. “How late is it?”, she demanded to know.

Her mom let her go wherever she wanted for the first time. And she lost track of time.
Her mom was going to kill her.

Chapter Text

Katie hurried back from the library back to the botany lab. Her one-hour break was long over and the meeting, her mom went to, was probably over too. She had probably already noticed that she wasn't back yet. Her mom probably also already went furious and started to plot plans on how she could ground her daughter till she was fifty.

When Katie opened the door to the lab, her mom was already there. She turned slowly when she heard her daughter enter. To Katie’s surprise not furiously. Her mom simply raised her brows in question. Right. Katie had to answer where she had been.

Katie was just processing, thinking on what to tell her, when Colleen spoke first: “I just came back. Did you also just come back or were you on the toilet?”

There was it. Her opportunity to lie. To get out of it without any consequences. But then, Katie remembered how disappointed her mom was when she noticed Katie lied to her about the reason why she wanted to go to the Garrison. Furthermore, she had been nothing but good to Katie these past weeks and kept on letting her come with her to the lab. Katie decided it would not be fair to her mom to lie to her now.

Katie took a deep breath and stepped fully into the lab, making the door close behind her. “I lost track of time. I am really sorry.”

Colleen did the last thing Katie expected her to do. Her mom smiled. Smiled. Genuinely smiled.
While Katie was still hung up on that fact, Colleen waved it off: “It happens. Did you have a good time at least?”

Katie shook her head trying to shake of her confusion as she walked slowing in the direction of her work space. “Yeah. It was … good? Yeah, a great time.”

Colleen chuckled and hugged her tablet. She looked at her daughter what made her stop in her steps. So, the conversation was not over yet. Katie bit her lip. Her plan was to get out of her mother’s hair as fast as possible, so she would not stay long enough for her mom to change her mind.

Katie smiled at her, holding her hands behind her back. Her mom stepped to her: “So, did you find Keith?”

Katie nodded. “Yup. He was not that hard to find.”

“And you didn’t go anywhere dangerous or prohibited?”

Katie looked to the side. Her mother waited patiently on her answer. Katie went from her heels to her tip-toes and back as she mumbled: “Well, we went to the library.”

Technically prohibited. But probably the least dangerous environment on the property.

Her mom smiled and nodded. “Well, it is good to know that you had a good time.”

Katie nodded and squinted her eyes at her. Why was she like this? What did she do that changed her mind?

Adam knocked on Keith's dorm door in the evening. Keith opened, and so they stood directly facing each other.

"Can I come in?", Adam wanted to know.

Keith squinted his eyes, but then stepped aside, so the other could enter. As the door was closed again, Adam asked with a smile: "So, how are you doing?"

Keith crossed his arms. "I am studying more maths again if that is what you're worried about."

Adam widened his eyes and then shook his head. "Not that."

Keith let his shoulder drop. Adam's smile returned at the notion and explained: "I just wanted to check in."

"Oh, okay."

"You spend time with Takashi a few times a week. So, at least wanted to see you once since it has been a few weeks already."

"Yeah.", Keith mumbled as he took a look around his room. It was not a total mess like the spaces Katie worked and lived in, but it was not tidied up either.

Adam added: "Is there anything I could do for you?"

Keith wanted to wave it off immediately, but then he got an idea: "Could you give me access to the hoverbikes?"

"Did Takashi teach you how to ride one?"

Keith nodded. Adam thought for a moment but then nodded. "I will look into that."

Keith smiled at him. Adam actually agreed. Kind of. He agreed more to it than Keith would have initially expected.
They then proceeded to coexiste in the silence for a few heartbeats till Keith mumbled: "Well, is there anything I could do for you?"

Adam looked at him with raised brows, clearing taken aback by his offer.

Keith didn't look at him, but he elaborated. "You probably miss Shiro too."

The other smiled. "I do."

"Yeah."

Adam stayed silent and just when Keith wanted to ask him something else just for the sake of changing the topic, Adam said: "You could join me for dinner sometime, if you would like."

"Are you sure?"

"The table is currently pretty empty."

Right. He was living by himself in his and Shiro's apartment close to the Garrison grounds lately.

"I will."

"You're not just saying it?"

"Promise."

Adam’s house was not far away from the Garrison, but still outside Garrison grounds, so Keith needed permission to go there. Adam arranged that he got the permission, so one evening Keith was able to leave to go to Adam’s house without anyone standing in his way.

Keith noted that Adam actually looked surprised to see him at his door. And Keith couldn’t blame him. He often backed out of his promises to meet with Shiro. Adam probably knew that. He definitely knew that.
But although the surprise was clearly written on Adam’s face, he didn’t mention it. He already prepared dinner, so they wasted no time and went to sit down together at the table to eat.

Adam started a conversation: “You said you would like to use the hoverbikes?”

Keith nodded and stopped eating to look at the other. Adam was relaxed and continued eating as he continued: “I looked into that and sure, I could let you use them. But I can’t let you use them alone; I would come with you. Alright?”

“Sounds good.”

“Good.”

Keith nodded and continued eating. He couldn’t suppress a tiny smile. He really missed hover biking with Shiro. Now he could at least get one of the two things back.

“Which route do you want to take?”, Adam continued to ask.

Keith shrugged. “Just around the desert. Passing the cliffs would be nice.”

Adam smirked. “Passing the cliff or jumping off the cliff?”

When Keith looked at him a little dazzled, Adam laughed. “I knew Takashi taught you that. I told him not to, but well …”

Keith couldn’t find the humor in that. It didn’t sit right with him. So, he asked: “Why not?”

Adam gave him a warm smile. “That is a pretty dangerous jump. I wouldn’t place you in danger like that.”

“But I know what I am doing.”

“Yeah, yeah. I don’t doubt that. You can make the jump now, I believe you. I was just worried it could have gone wrong earlier down the line.”

“But it didn’t.”

“I know.” Adam sighed. “I just like to keep it safe. I know I am pretty alone with that mindset at the Garrison.”

Keith didn’t comment on that, Adam eventually added: “If you could do me a favor; please stay save? If not for your own sake, then for mine. And if you are really convinced on a plan, at least tell me? So, I can help?”

Keith smiled. “I will do that.”

“Thank you.” Adam nodded and returned his attention to his food.

Keith noted that Adam might not be all too bad. He looked forward to go hover biking again – even if it meant doing it with Adam who was not approving of any stunts.
The days towards the date they decided to go hover biking went well too; Keith saw Adam occasionally, but he didn’t push any further conversations on him, which was a win in on itself for Keith.
The day they went hover biking also went well. They each rode their hover bikes through the desert. Keith was following behind Adam, he had to promise to stay behind him. And he did.
Suddenly, Adam took a different route than they previously agreed upon. Keith did not expect that Adam would be the one that clunked out of their agreement.

“Trust me!”, Adam screamed back at Keith as he took a turn that was away from the desert – and cliffs. Keith sighed but decided there was no alternative. He did promise to stay behind him.

Adam led him into the city, and Keith grimaced. Adam had definitely planned something, and although he refused to tell what it was, he did admit that he planned something he promised Keith would enjoy.

The moment they left their hoverbikes in a place at the edge at the city, Keith’s doubts only grew. Their plan was that they would go hover biking. Now they were leaving their hoverbikes behind. How could Adam’s surprise could be any better than the day they had planned? But the officer held onto his believe that where they were going was a good idea.

Keith just followed him; he knew that there was nothing he could say that could make Adam change his mind and turn around.
Adam led Keith into a neighborhood that didn’t look any special at all. The only peculiar thing Keith noticed were the many people on the streets. More people than you would expect on a normal day – and they were all walking in the same direction. It was also the same direction Adam walked towards.
It dawned on Keith. An event with many people. Keith was now actually curious – in a bitter way – on how an event with many people could be better than to go hover biking by themselves in the desert.

They walked towards a school – a high school. Keith was never a fan of school, especially of high school, so his excitement only shrunk the closer they came.

Keith looked up to Adam, who was walking in front of him. How could he still be so convinced this was a good idea? Keith sighed and kept on thinking about how he could convince Adam to turn around as fast as possible.
As he spotted Katie running towards them, all these thoughts disappeared within a blink of an eye though. She jumped into Keith’s arms for a quick hug. She immediately stepped back again, and chuckled nervously: “Sorry. I am just very excited. And nervous. So great that you could come!”

Keith turned to Adam in question. The man smiled at him: “Katie asked me if it I could bring you to her science fair.”

“Surprise!” She said and suddenly turned a little shy. She fiddled with her hands behind her back and kicking with one foot in the air. “Remember how you said you couldn’t ask Adam to bring you here? Well, I did.”

Keith was lost for words, so decided to just smile at her. Katie noticed and beamed back at him.

Adam cleared his throat and let them know: “I will be in the café down the street. I have work to finish. I will be waiting on you.”

He nodded at both at them before, he left them to themselves. Katie appeared to get more nervous again, but she took a deep breath and offered him her hand. “Want to see my project even before the judges?”

Keith took her hand before he could think about it and agreed to it.

Katie dragged him into the gym hall of the school that had be redecorated to fit the science fair. Katie didn’t talk, she was focused on coordinating their way through the crowd. At the table she stopped at there was a setup of an experiment. It was about plants. There was a poster wall around it explaining it, probably. A lot of numbers and cryptic wording. Science was never Keith’s strong suit.

He noted surprised: “I thought you didn’t want to do anything with plants?”

“My mom inspired me. Plants are not all that bad.”

Keith smiled at her and looked closer at the experiment. The setup of the experiment consisted mainly out of small pots with plants. When he eyed the poster, he grinned knowingly. Equations. So many.

“What?”, Katie wanted to know began to play with her hands again. Keith smiled at her and shrugged: “I just thought these equations are very you.”

She smiled and added: “They are also very you; you know. I used formulas I learned from learning together with you. It was almost like you were my partner in the project.”

Keith smiled at her and turned his eye away from the experiment. He wanted to know: “So, what did you find out?”

Katie grinned and explained how she used different kinds of lights to mess with the circadian rhythm at the plants and how it impacted their succussion.
Keith nodded along, he was able to follow, but there were a few hiccups. He eyed the poster wall while she talked in hopes of finding the answer, he was looking for, written out. Before he was able to do so though, Katie noticed: “What’s wrong?”

“I fear I was not able to follow you completely.”

“Oh, no problem. What did you not understand?”

Keith looked around, and avoided her glance a bit. It was kind of embarrassing for him that he didn’t understand high school science completely. He saw a few people coming closer to them, when they locked eyes with him, he quickly turned away to look at his friend again. He took a breath and admitted: “How did you check how much they have actually grown?”

Katie turned to her experiment and pointed at a glass next to them. “I measured the air consistency. The bigger the plant, the more distinct the consistency of the air surrounding it. Something my mom taught me.”

“And this works?”

“Good enough to prove that I am at least onto something.”

“That is?”

Katie chuckled. “If you mess if the sleeping schedule of plants, they hate you for it.”
Keith nodded with a smile, but then he noticed that the men, who he had already spotted before, were now standing next to them, watching them. Keith was not sure how long they had been standing there already. He stepped out of their field of vision to give them a better view on Katie's project. He would have walked even further away, would have Katie not grabbed his hand and tell him that it was alright.

The men looked at the experiment. One asked: “What was the period examined?”

Katie immediately answered: “31 days, the maximal duration that the rules allow. Of course, my experiment would have benefitted from a longer duration, but I think the results are still clear.”

The men nodded and moved on to the experiment next to hers.
Keith looked at Katie. She exhaled relieved, but then she looked worried in the direction of the men questioning another student.

“Were these your teachers?”, Keith asked with raised brow.

She shook her head. “But the jury.” She took a deep breath and sighed: “But that doesn’t matter anymore. I said what I said, it’s all good.”

“You think they didn’t like it?”

Katie pointed with her head to the jury talking to the other student. “They are asking her way more questions than me. They are even looking longer at her experiment than mine. I messed up.”

Keith tried to calm her: “But there were standing with us a while before they said something.”

“They did?”, she questioned with big eyes.

Keith nodded slowly. He was not sure if she liked the idea or not. But he felt better to let her know. Because it meant that they at least really looked at the experiment. And they heard Keith ask all these stupid questions. He bit his lip. What if she didn't mess up, but him?

But Katie already seemed to have forgotten about the competition: “Do you want to go around and look at the other experiments? Some are really interesting!”

Keith agreed to it and so they walked around looking at the other students’ work. There were the experiments that went by the book and did the same 5 experiments over and over again. A lot of volcanos. Then, there were the projects that were barely projects. They didn’t have a conclusion nor a real idea behind them. They were clearly made by the ones that were forced to participate. At last, there were the few experiments like Katie’s. People that were passionate about science. Who executed an original idea smoothly.
Keith took a look at each experiment in the hall, but in the end, he still liked Katie’s best. Maybe it was because it was the first one he saw or because it was the only experiment he got a detailed explanation of. Or maybe he was simply biased.

Suddenly, the hall got more silent, and everyone looked in one direction. When Keith followed the people’s eyes, he spotted the jury hanging a ribbon next to a project. Everyone clapped and cheered.
So, it was now time for the prices. The experiment that had gotten the ribbon had not been Katie’s though.
Keith was not sure what that experiment that just got the award was about. His focus was on Katie who followed the jury’s movements curiously.

If he would have asked, she probably would have said, that she was not nervous, but he noticed how she played with her hair.

They awarded another project with a ribbon. Everyone cheered and clapped. Keith clapped more slowly, he was more focused on Katie and her project. He wanted her to win.

The jury passed the row with Katie’s project. Keith noticed how Katie sucked in her breath and how she exhaled disappointedly when they passed her project. The jury stopped at the project next to hers.
Before the jury placed the ribbon though, they made a speech about the importance of scientific education and effort. Keith rolled his eyes and hoped they would proceed quickly. When they placed the ribbon at the project though, it was not first place; It was a special placement, an extra price.

Keith had just realized that this meant that there was still a chance on the first place, when one of the jury members announced: “And first place, with the experiment about the circadian rhythm, goes to Katie Holt.”

Katie shot Keith a smile before she slowly stepped to the other winners. While they made photos, someone suddenly spoke to Keith: “Nice to see you here.”

He turned to see Katie’s mom. Of course, she would be here too. He nodded and explained: “She invited me to come.”

Colleen smiled and nodded along as she proudly looked towards the winners. Keith followed her view, but Keith bit his lip. He was not able to share Colleen’s excitement fully.
Keith had excepted Katie to be happier about it herself. Something in her smile wasn't as genuine, it wasn’t sitting right for him. He made a mental note to ask her about that later.

Then, a presentation each of the winner’s experiments followed. Afterwards, people started to clear out. Keith went back to Katie. She was at her project’s table talking to her mother. When he stepped closer, his friend just told her mom: “… it is going to take a while.”

Colleen nodded, gave her a kiss and left with a wave.

When Katie noticed how close he already was, she quickly avoided looking at him and turned back at her projects, grabbing a plant pot. Then, she just held it as if she forgot what she wanted to do with it.
Keith pointed at the pot: “Where do you want to put it?”

She looked surprised at the pot as if she didn’t even notice she was holding it. She was lost for words for a heartbeat, then she chuckled. “... in the box. Of course.”

Keith helped her cleaning up her project, what took about five minutes.

When they walked outside the hall, Keith commented: “Is everything alright?”
At first, she was surprised that he spoke to her, but then she quickly nodded.

Keith doubted her, but agreed. When they reached the side walk, he turned to her. “So, the event is over?”

Katie nodded shyly at him, then she mumbled: “But Adam doesn’t know that.”

“What?”

“I told him, it would take three hours longer?”

Keith looked at her with big eyes.

Katie paused for a bit, she eyed her shoe as she said: “I thought we could spend some time together. Outside the Garrison. If you don’t want to, you can just tell Adam it ended early.”

Keith shook his head. “No, it does sound nice.”

Katie’s face lit up. Her nerves seemed to be gone as she cheered: “Amazing! So, I had an idea where we could go!”

She took his hand and pulled him back into the school. Keith didn’t share her excitement to go back into the school, but he trusted her. Keith had already been wrong about Adam’s plans today.

Katie pulled him through the hallways of the school, they were too dark to properly see. It was only thanks to her that he didn’t trip or caught a wall. After multiple hallways and staircases, she opened a door. It was suddenly so bright, that it took a moment till he was able to open his eyes again. Then, he saw that they were on the roof of the school.

Keith put his free hand over his eyes to blend out the sun as he looked around. There were a few benches and a high fence around the edge. There was a basket ball ring with a few balls laying next to it, most of them were missing too much air.

When Keith looked back at Katie, she smiled at him and asked: “Do you like it?”

“It is pretty nice.”

Katie nodded and looked around as well. She mumbled: “I figured you would like it. You like the roof at the Garrison, right?”

“Yeah.”, he agreed in a huff as his lips formed a smile. He wanted to add more, but he suddenly forgot what he wanted to say.

Katie glanced at him and said in a knowing tone: “Did the sun just come out or did you just smile at me?”

Keith blushed, then he was confused. Was this a compliment? Did he do something stupid that she felt the need to be overly nice to him?
Katie’s expression faded as she noticed his reaction, she waved it off and mumbled: “Don’t worry. It is just a saying.”

She walked towards the basket ball ring. Keith remained where he was as he still thought about what she just had said. Keith didn’t know if he understood her saying correctly – the idiom or whatever – but he did understand that she commented on his smile. Which made his stomach flutter, which in return made him feel guilty about his response. He should not have reacted like that.

Keith stood still for too long, because Katie was curiously eying him from the basket ball ring. He nodded and walked towards her. As soon he was only a few meters away, she threw a ball at him. “Do you know how to play?”

Keith eyed the ball in his hands. The ball wasn’t in its peak condition, but there was enough air in it, so they could play with it. When he looked back to her, she raised a brow at him.
He quickly looked back at the ball. Right. She asked him a question. What was the question again?

“Do you want to play?”, she asked again and came closer to him with another ball in hand.

Keith looked at her and stated: “I like your smile too.”

Her eyes widened, then she chuckled and quickly turned away. He bit his lip and added: “But when my smile is like the sun, yours is like the moon.”
She looked at him curiously, he didn’t miss the slight blush forming on her face.

He knew that it was too late to turn back now, so he added: “Well, your skin doesn’t mix well with too much sun, right? And you like the night better. So, it makes sense that your smile is more like the moon.”

Katie held back a laugh and looked down. Keith smiled at her and waited for her to say anything. Eventually, she looked up to him and said: “Thank you, that was really cute.”

Keith smiled back at her, then suddenly it felt like his stomach flipped. Was she flirting with him? Was he flirting? … Was he doing it well?

Katie hugged her ball and mumbled: “Well, you apparently don’t want to answer my question whether you want to play.”

Keith nodded. Right, that had been the question. Was it too late to answer now?

Katie threw her ball a few meters away, then she grabbed the one Keith was holding and let it roll in the same direction. Keith looked after the balls till Katie spoke up again. And she was so close. So close.

She pointed out: “I have a better question anyway.”

“You do?”

She looked down to his lips and asked bluntly: “Would you like to kiss me?”

When her eyes went back to his, Keith immediately smiled. It made Katie let out a small relieved huff. She didn’t move and kept on looking at him, waiting for an answer.
Then, his eyes went to her lips as well. He didn’t think about it before, but now that the thought entered his mind, he felt like it would never leave his head again.
He nodded.

Katie grinned at him and placed her hands on his shoulder before she went on her tiptoes to put her lips on his.

When Keith thought before that it felt like his stomach flipped, then it was doing a whole back flip now. He suddenly didn’t know where to put his hands anymore, so he kept them to his own sides. She had her eyes closed, pressed together. He knew because he did not close his. He was pretty sure he was doing everything very wrong, but it felt so right at the same time.

Katie broke the kiss without putting any more distance between them, her hands were still on his shoulders. She beamed at him; Keith was sure he was wearing the same expression.

He mumbled: “You’re awesome.”

“You're too!”, Katie immediately agreed, which made Keith close her into a hug.
It was Katie’s turn to be taken aback. It was the first hug Keith initiated that wasn’t about giving her comfort because she was feeling sad. He was hugging her because of a different reason. She snuggled into his chest with a smile.

They stayed in each other’s arms for a while. Keith mumbled into her hair: “Just to be clear, you were flirting earlier?”

Katie snorted and hid her face in his chest. Her voice could only be heard muffled. “That was so embarrassing.”

He stroked her back and hummed. “I am glad you invited me to come today. Or blackmailed Adam to take me here – whatever.”

Katie loosened the hug, so that she was able to look at him. “I am indeed glad.”

Keith smiled at her and then looked at the balls. “I would be up to finally answering your question about playing basketball.”

“You know how to play?”

“Do you know how to play?”

Katie chuckled and walked towards the balls. “There is a basket, there is a ball. How hard can it be?”

While the sun was going down in the background, they played their own version of basketball since it turned out that neither of actually knew the rules of the game.
When the sun had almost completely disappeared from the horizon, they decided to call it a day. Colleen nor Adam would believe that a school event would take place beyond darkness.

When Keith put the last ball back on the pile, Katie grabbed his hand. She looked up to him to check if it was alright, Keith nodded slightly and so they walked through the hallways of the school hand in hand. Opposite to when Katie led him to the roof, they were walking in a slower pace.

When they reached the sidewalk, they had to go in different directions – the Holts’ home and the café where they had parked Adam were in the opposite direcitons.

Keith and Katie looked each other, and without saying anything, their faces came closer till they shared another kiss.
Keith closed his eyes this time and it was already so much easier than their first kiss.

When they actually parted and walked their separate ways, Keith was left alone with his thoughts on his way to the café. He tried really hard to get rid of the stupid smile that wouldn’t leave his face, so that Adam wouldn’t get suspicious.

He had gone to a science fair. Not a date. He did not go on a date; he went to a science fair.
Keith needed to get his story straight. He went to a science fair. And he had a date.

He couldn’t believe that he actually had a date. He had a date!

Chapter Text

When Katie came home from the science fair, Colleen opened the door. Her mother smiled with a knowing look and wanted to know how it had gone.

Katie thinned her lips, so she wouldn't let a very telling smile slip. She then took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves. She tried her best to keep an indifferent face and nodded as she took off her shoes: "It was fine – as fine as cleaning up can get."

Colleen hummed, but she didn't let go of the topic at hand yet. "If you say so. Just remember if there is anything you want to talk about or tell me, I'm here."

Katie's eyes widened and she quickly turned her back to the other. Had she seen right through her already?

Her mother chuckled and leaned on the door frame. She looked around for a bit, then she added: "And I have also good news for you."

Katie looked up attentively.

Colleen's smile grew wide. "The Garrison is opening for visiting hours again."

Katie made a small jump and clapped. She cheered: "Really?!"

Colleen raised a brow; Katie cleared her throat and straightened her hair. "I mean, that's ... nice, good."
Her mother huffed in a chuckle and walked into the living room. She looked over her shoulder as she said: "Tomorrow's Saturday. Do you want to go to visitor day or in the lab?"

Katie's heart was going wild. She was going to see Keith again! Either during breaktime or visiting hours … or what if...?
She quickly shook her head and followed her mother. "Can't I do both?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, once I'm there anyway ... the visiting hall is opened three hours at max, so there would be plenty of time left!"

Colleen sighed with a smirk. "I suppose you want to be there the moment it opens?"
Visiting hours would start one hour earlier than Colleen's shift.

Katie looked at her hands which she was fidgeting with. "Yeah?"

"Alright."

Katie went to her mom and hugged her tight. "Thank you!"

Colleen stroked her daughter’s back, but then her expression dropped. She wanted to know: "Will you stop working in the lab now that visiting hours are back?"

Katie immediately broke the hug and looked at her mother confused. "No! What makes you think that?"

The other one sighed sadly. "Katie, we both know why you wanted to come in the first place. You don't really like botany."

"I made my science fair project about botany!"

"Katie ..."

She crossed her arms. "Fine! Yes. I don't like plants, but after I spent so much time in the lab, I do think they're really interesting."

"Really?"

"Why did you think I make that project about the circadian rhythms? I could have picked any other topic. I was truly interested in it." Katie eyed her mom with searching eyes. "I think I now understand what you see in them."

Colleen was truly touched by that. She proudly looked at her daughter, who was getting uneasy under her eyes. Katie looked at everything but her mother as she added: "Science is still science after all."

Colleen nodded. "Was this your motivation to get the idea to ask to come with me to the lab in the first place?"

"You won't let that go?"

Colleen shrugged. "I already know the answer, I would just like to hear it from you."

"Well, if we both know, we don't need to talk about it." Katie turned away. She slowly started to walk away from the conversation. She almost escaped successfully, she had just reached the middle of the stairs, when her mother said: "You know, I met your father in the Garrison too."

Katie ran the last few pairs of stairs. Nope.

Chapter Text

Katie couldn't remember being this excited - in a positive way - to go to the Garrison.
It was going to be the first visiting hours since a long time, but that was not why Katie was so excited; it would be the first time she would see Keith again since the science fair. Since their kiss!
They hadn't talked on the phone since which had been exactly two whole days (which was a normal time period between their talks, but it felt way longer this time around).
Visiting hours in the Garrison would be the first time they would finally speak again.

Her heart beat fast when she came closer to the Garrison. Katie opened the doors to visiting hall and her heart stopped for a second when she spotted Keith. She couldn’t help but smile immediately and walked towards him.
She beamed as she sat down next to him: "Hi!"

Keith shyly returned her smile. "Hey"

Katie bit her lip and looked away. This was already awkward. She took a deep breath and picked a topic: "Visiting hours are back!"

"Yeah, that's great!" He continued to smile at her shyly.

Katie sighed. Their conversation was not flowing like it usually did. Their kiss made her so happy, but was it the right choice if it led to ... this?

She started another attempt. "So, how were your classes yesterday?" She pointed at the homework that laid in front of him.

"It's just English class."
She shrugged and still eyed his work with great interest. He chuckled and turned to his bag. A moment later he handed her another book. "This is way more interesting."

Katie hesitantly accepted the book. An astronomy book.

Keith explained: "It's no math, but I thought it might be interesting and a nice change of pace."

"Thank you! I am excited to read it.", she said delightedly. Then, she added in a teasing banter: "But don’t imply math is not interesting."

He raised a brow. "So, you are telling me you rather look at numbers than stars?"

"Yeah?"

"You can't be serious."

She shrugged with a smile. "Maybe. Anyway, I promise to give this book a fair shot."

Keith smiled. “I really liked to learn about the stars.”

“You read the book too?” Katie laid the book down and eyed him curiously. He shyly tensed his shoulders, but smiled. “I really like learning about space.”

“Me too!”

Keith chuckled: “How did we not find out this common ground before?”

Katie joined in the chuckle and it finally felt like old times. She turned around to her bag and held the math book towards him that he gave her a while ago.
He hesitated to accept it and stared confused at the cover. “It’s not due yet.”

Katie hummed and titled her head: “But I am already done with it, so I don’t need it anymore.” She paused before she continued: “Maybe I could come with you to the library when you give it back?”

Keith was surprised. “Right now?”

Katie was taken aback at first, but then agreed: “Ehm, yeah sure. Why not?”

He titled his head and pointed at her chest. “You don’t have your visitor pass.”

She pouted and looked down. He was right.

Keith thought for a bit before he suggested: “I might have an idea how we could get there without you having one.”

Katie’s face lit up. “I’m in!”

So, Katie walked with Keith through the hallways of the Garrison – without a visitor pass. But Keith told her; confidence is key.

Katie did her best to greet everyone like usually. And to her surprise; it worked. She passed a few officers she knew, and they greeted her back without questioning her presence despite her missing pass around her neck. They were so used to seeing her, they probably didn’t check.
But even though it was working out without an inconvenience, her heart felt so much lighter when Keith finally stopped at a door and began to enter a code.
The moment the door closed behind them; Keith whispered with a smile: "Good job!"

“You’re way too calm for your first time doing this.” Katie crossed her arms.

Keith shrugged. “Well, I did sneak around this place a few times already. Not with another person, but …”

Keith wanted to walk on, but Katie grabbed his arm and demanded to know: “Are you risking to get suspended right now?”
He looked at her for a while, before he shrugged again.

“Why would you risk it?” She didn’t let go of him.

He stayed silent for a while, before he admitted under his breath: “I want to give you something special.”

She didn’t follow. “What? You being suspended?”

“No!” And despite it being dark, Katie could still see how he looked to the ground defeated. “You bring me all these little gifts, I was in your home, I have nothing of that. But you really like being at the library.”

Katie took his hands in hers and mumbled: “You do realize I visited you for two years in a stinky hall that is a good drive away from my home?”
He stared at her dumbfounded.

She tolled her eyes and emphasized: “I would still do that you know. I don’t care where we are, even if it is …” She looked around in the dark. “What is this?”

"A storage hall.”

Katie smiled. “Even if it is a storage hall who knows where in the Garrison.”

He smiled back, but was still unsure. “And what do I do when I want to give you something special?”

She laid her arms around his neck and mumbled in thought: “I really like the library books. Or how about flowers?”

“You don’t like flowers.”

“But I do when they’re from you.” Katie paused. “They would be special because they’re from you.”
She gave him a kiss on the nose, before she let go of him and turned around. “Alright, why are we here?”

Keith looked at her a little longer, before he answered: “It is a storage facility, but more importantly it is in the middle of most facilities, so it basically a short cut to everything."

Katie's brows rose and she eyed the many boxes and shelves that were five times as tall as her. "How did you even find out about this?"

"I needed a hiding space."

"It is not on the official map of the building."

Keith nodded. "No one that uses the room needs to be told about it, and everyone else should stay out anyway. Easiest to not let anyone know of its existence in the first place."

Katie carefully placed her steps as she followed Keith through the shelves. He looked around every corner before they passed it.
When they came to a stop, Katie whispered: "Is anyone else ever here?"

"Rarely. But better safe than sorry."

Katie nodded and Keith signaled her to follow him again.
When they reached the door, Keith turned to the screen next to the door and started tapping on it. Katie curiously peaked at it, but she couldn't decipher what he was doing.
Before she was able to ask, he said: "I will use one of the worker's ID to open this door."

"You can just do that?"

"It is pretty common that someone unauthorized is getting something from inside her for someone authorized. They would still use this person's ID to get in."

"Won't they notice?"

"The system has bugs, so it is not unusual that an entry appears that no one did. But since nothing is missing and they can't spot anything on the cameras, no one really cares to investigate further."

The moment he finished speaking the door opened. Keith nodded contently and walked into the hallway. The hallway to the student dorms.
Katie had to admit that this storage room was an awesome short cut. No one had seen them and it even went faster than on the normal route.

Keith took her hand and led her through a few hallways that were almost empty. But before he crossed any corner, he peeked carefully to check if the coast was clear.
When he suddenly flinched as he looked around a corner, Katie knew something was wrong. She was proven correct as he turned around with a sigh. He bit his lip and whispered: "Adam saw me, I'm sorry."

"But you are allowed here?"

Keith was about to answer, when Adam already peaked around the corner with a too-nice of a smile. Adam eyed them both and noted that Katie at least appeared like she felt guilty that she trespassed without permission. Keith on the other hand was giving him a challenging look.

Adam nodded at them: "Hey, Keith. Katie."

"It's my fault.", Keith said immediately.

Adam sighed and agreed: "Yeah, I figured. How would Katie know she could use the storage hall as a short cut?"

Keith looked down and shot an apologetic look to Katie. She looked in between the two, then she argued: "I am allowed to go here without permission when I am on break. I am still the same person with and without my pass."

Adam raised his brows and looked at her while he took that information in. He eventually let a small smile slip and relaxed his shoulders. "I guess … you could say that. But the security cards have a reason. You should go and get yours if everything is just the same."

Keith shook his head: "Just tell us what you are going to do. Ban Katie from the property? Throw me off the school?" Keith knew that Adam had enough authority to do both.

Adam huffed and reached for his pocket. He threw something towards Katie as he said to the other "Give me some more credit."

Keith squinted his eyes, but then he looked at Katie, who showed her the card Adam threw to her. A visitor pass.
Adam added: "You're right. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to go here at any time. Security clearance should not be bound to a time."

"Thank you!", Katie huffed in a relieved chuckle and put the card around her neck. Keith repeated more silently: "Yeah, thank you."

When Katie was finished, Adam added: "This card is registered as my visitor. So, anything you do can be traced back to me. Do not break anything. Do not disturb anyone. Can we can agree on that?"

Keith nodded slowly; Katie smiled. "Thank you so much! We won't disappoint you!"

Adam nodded at the both of them before he turned around and went on with his day.

Keith looked after him, he was taken out of thoughts by Katie shaking his arm excitedly. She explained with a grin: "This visitor card has security clearance 6, Keith! 6!" She made a small happy jump.

"Really?", he raised a brow, but couldn't suppress a small smile himself. No matter how confused he was that Adam gave her the card, her happiness was contagious.

Katie nodded and eyed her card again. "Unlike my internship card, which only has security clearance 7, it includes the library! The library!" Her voice was getting higher till the end and Keith didn't miss how people started turning towards them.

Keith asked: "Then let’s go to the library!" He was pretty sure of her answer and he was proven correctly when she took his hand and started pulling him with her — to the way to the library.

She got slower when they reached their destination and wanted to know: "Any recommendations for good astronomy books?"

Keith shrugged. “You are probably interested in a different kind of books.”

Katie eyed him curiously. “What do you mean?”
“I like reading about the exploration of space, you like to read about the science behind it.”

“Well, I think we can still find a book that we will both enjoy!”

Keith smiled and squeezed their intertwined hands once they entered the library. Katie led them to a shelf dedicated. Keith let her take the lead around the bookshelves. He assumed that Katie probably knew her way around better than him, although she had been in the library only once. She also had an actual idea of what she wanted to read. And Keith didn't mind that much what they would end up reading. He also didn’t mind watching her eying the books with glowing eyes and occasionally taking one out to inspect it further. She did let go of his hand to do the latter one though.

Keith looked at books as well, but the titles of the books remained only words about topics for him. He did not care what he would end up reading as long it was next to her.
When he shot another – totally random, he was not staring – glance to her, she met his eyes.
But neither her wide smile nor warmth in her glance that was previously directed at the books was fading.

"I still can't believe that I can now come her whenever."

Keith nodded: "Yes, you can even go by yourself." Keith didn’t want to feel sad about that fact, but he couldn’t help it.

Her expression dropped, she mumbled with a shrug: "Well, I don't think I will do that though."

Keith was puzzled. Katie stepped closer to him and stated: "This pass does not only allow me to go to the library. It also means that I can visit you really easily now – and I rather visit you than dusty old books.”

He chuckled. “And coming from you, that’s a compliment.”

She smiled at him and she stood so close. “You bet.”
He looked down at her face, and within a heartbeat he placed his lips on hers. It was getting easier and felt more natural with every kiss, but he was still unsure if he did it right. When Katie laid her hands on his shoulders, he flinched at first but then relaxed into the kiss.

When they parted Katie beamed at him before turning back to the books. She thought for a moment before she pulled out a book and showed it to Keith. He read the title out loud: “A brief history of time. That doesn’t sound all that scientific.”

Katie smiled. “Because it isn’t! I was actually surprised to find it in this library, because it is written for people that aren’t scientists.”

“Like me.”

She chuckled. “Like you.” She looked back at the cover and then at him. “Would you like to read it together?”

“Isn’t that boring for you?”

Katie shook her head with a smile. “I would like to read the book as well, because Hawking only uses one single equation in the whole book. And as someone who likes to use numbers as much as I can, it does sound really interesting!”

They sat down together at a table in the library and almost lost track of time again if Katie hadn’t remembered to install an alarm on her phone.
She smiled at Keith before she got up. “I can’t have my mom waiting for me — again.”
He nodded and slightly waved at her. She mirrored it and already took a few steps away from him when she quickly came back only to place a peck on his cheek.
After it Katie ran away too fast that Keith would have been able to respond – he had been too taken aback by it to say anything anyway.

Keith walked out of the library a few minutes later after he put the book that they read previously back on the shelf.
When Keith stepped out of the library, he was met with James to his surprise. His classmate leant against the wall with crossed arms. He immediately looked up when the other came out.

Keith wanted to know confused: “You were waiting on me?”

“I am curious.” James stated confused and walked towards the other. He crossed his arms and explained: “The last few weeks I saw you with books that confuse me. First, a math book with advanced math like only professors need it, and a few days ago I saw you with last year’s math book. Neither is relevant for our classes at the moment, which is weird considering the end of the semester is near. So, you either lost all sense of judgement that you do something else entirely than the things required for the exam or you have someone else showing you math. Someone that is showing you math in a different way – speed. Whatever.”

Keith didn’t respond immediately, James took that as his answer: “Listen, I thought we had been on the same page on this. If I am going to slow or too fast, just tell me.”

Keith shook his head. “A … friend is just occasionally helping me out with homework.”

James shook his head and added: “Are you seriously getting help from someone else? We had a deal! You teach me piloting; I help you in maths!”

“We can still do that! I just ask her the occasional question.”

“Why don’t you just ask me?”, James’ voice was getting louder and he was getting another step closer to the other.

“I figured you wouldn’t help me! Your whole help was sending me your already done homework without any further explanation.”

“You improved a lot in class and you didn’t say anything, I thought that everything was good.”

Keith huffed and looked away. James did the same. Then, he squinted his eyes and wanted to know: “Did you even want to be on a team, star student?”

Keith crossed his arms: “I am not so sure anymore.”

James took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, he was more collected. He thinned his lips and asked with an annoyed smile: “Do you think she could also teach me? I would like to improve until the exams.”

Keith stared at the other taken aback. Eventually he mumbled: “I could ask her …”

“When will you see her again?”

“She is going to be at lunch today, she has an internship here.”

Chapter Text

Katie walked from the library to the reception first to get her visitor pass – the one that her internship provided. The pass was weaker in general, but it was specifically for the labs and Katie decided it would be best to also use it for it.

When she was on her way to the labs afterwards, she was lost in thought and replayed the morning in her head. Seeing Keith again, Kissing Keith again and to tie up nicely; her new visitor pass.
Katie couldn’t believe her luck. And it would only be a few hours till lunch, only a few hours till she would see him again.

When Katie came into the lab, her mom looked up her tablet almost startled. Katie titled her head curiously.
Colleen chuckled embarrassed and scratched her head. “I guess … I guess I was lost in thought for a bit there.”

Katie smiled and already turned to her workplace, when she noticed the silence. Her mom always asked her how her time with Keith was. But she didn’t ask this time.
Katie turned back around and saw that the smile that her mother had put on previously had already faded as she was tapping on her tablet. Katie immediately went to her.
Her mom didn’t realize her daughter was standing right next to her till she laid a hand on her shoulder.

Colleen flinched again. Katie curled her lips. “Are you alright?”
Her mother sighed before she nodded.

Katie smiled, but shook her head. “Something is up, I know it.”

Colleen stroked her daughter’s cheek in thought before she shook her head as well. “I am okay, really. You have nothing to worry about.”

“Is it about Dad and Matt?”

Colleen’s eyes widened. Katie smiled. “It is always about their mission when you say I have nothing to worry about.”

Her mother sighed with a loving smile. “You really shouldn’t be worrying about this.”
Katie smiled back at her. “I already do anyway. Do you actually think that I don’t think about them? I miss them too.”

Colleen quickly nodded and inhaled deeply. Katie hugged her mother, who tightened the hug immediately. It didn’t take long till Katie heard little sobs. It pulled on her heart.

“I am not going anywhere; you’ll always have me.”

Colleen relaxed a little, her daughter could her the smile in her voice as she said: “Thank you, Katie.”

When they broke the hug, Colleen quickly wiped her eyes with her hand. Katie was quickly handing her a handkerchief. Her mother thankfully accepted it.
The moment she finished clearing her nose, she wanted to know: “So, how was it seeing Keith again?”

Katie rose her brows, but then she smiled relieved. Her mom was back.

Katie chuckled. “Really great! And you won’t believe what happened when we went to the library!”

Colleen’s face lit up.

Katie was confused. “You already know?”

“No, no. Just say it.”

Katie shook her head softly, then she told her with the same excitement as before: “So, Adam caught us sneaking to the library. And then he gave me a new visitor’s pass!” She held her new pass proudly towards her mom.

It was Colleen’s turn to be confused. That was not the story she expected. “Adam gave you a visitor pass?”

“Yes! One that is registered as his visitor. It has security clearance 7. Seven! So, it also gives me access to the library!” Katie grinned and made a small happy jump.
When she noticed that her mother was not necessarily sharing her excitement, she calmed herself.

Colleen added: “No, no. I am happy you have the new card.” Katie smiled hopeful at the other. Her mother added: “I just didn’t expect it.”

Katie nodded. She went from her toes to her heels and waited for her mom to add anything. When she didn’t, she suggested: “So, back to work?”

Colleen nodded and watched as Kaite went happily towards her workplace. The scientist rose a brow. She knew her daughter loved science and books more than anything else, but could solely that make her this happy? Colleen suspected that there was more to the story.
Adam seemed to know a little more, maybe she should pay him a visit sometime.

Lunch.

Keith sat next to Katie at a table in the cafeteria. They were so focused on their conversation with each other that neither of them noticed James approaching till he sat down at the opposite side of the table.
Keith had already forgotten that he told James about his friend that helped him with maths — and that she would also be in the cafeteria. But of course, James didn't forget. How fortunate.

James smiled at the both of them before he turned to Keith and wanted to know: "You said I could meet the one that helps you?"

Katie looked at Keith surprised, Keith sighed and nodded at his friend. "Well, that's her —Katie. Katie, that's James."

James looked at the girl confused before he whispered to Keith over the table – totally out of Katie's earshot: "Are you messing with me?"

"I am not." Keith raised a brow challengingly.

James huffed. Katie smiled innocently at him: "Scared that a girl is smarter than you?"

The two students looked at her shocked. James chuckled dryly and stated: "Well, no. It is just I don't think some high school student can help me with my third-year math exam in an advanced space facility."

Katie shrugged. "You wanted my help."

James was dumbfounded for a second before he shook his head. He lifted his finger: "Keith improved in class, so ..."

Keith interrupted him: "No, no she is right. You wanted her help."

James sighed and turned to Keith: "Do you even take this exam even seriously?"

Katie answered before he could: "He did improve, didn't he? So, do you want my help or not? If not, scam away. And if you still do want my help maybe stop insulting our intelligence."

James was taken aback by her statement, so he paused before he asked her: "How do you even know this kind of math?"

Katie smiled contently. "Self-study. And my brother taught me a lot."

"And your brother is ...?"

"Matt Holt."

James leaned back in his chair and mumbled under his breath: "Of course he is." He crossed his arms. "Yeah sure, whatever, let's study together."

Katie nodded. "After we finish eating? I still have an hour left of my break."

James raised a brow with a smile. "Ah right, you have an internship here, right?"

Katie nodded shyly. "Yeah? What about it?"

"Did your brother organize that too?"

She squinted her eyes. "He has nothing to do with it. It is in the plant lab."

James nodded along and mumbled after a bit: "... If Matt's your brother, Samuel is your father and his wife ... works in the plant lab."

Keith and Katie looked at each other a little confused. James eyed them alternately before he got up and said: "I am really looking forward to our study lesson … Katie. I am going to get my stuff."
His tone made clear that he wasn’t genuine.

When he was gone, Katie looked at Keith: "He seemed bitter."

"He is angry because I asked you for help with my math homework instead of him."

Karie raised brow. "Why?"

"We made a deal; I help him with piloting, he helps me with math."

"And he didn't help you?"

Keith shrugged. "I rather asked you."

Katie smiled but then she took his hand to her side and mumbled: "That's sweet, but why miss out on a classmate's support?"

Keith smiled. "Because I rather talked to you than to him?"

Katie looked away flustered and bit her lip in a chuckle. "Let's finish eating, so we're finished when he returns."

Only fifteen minutes later, the eating trays were exchanged with math notes of Keith and James. James couldn't fully hide his surprise when Katie also pulled out a notebook of her own.

James scribbled into his notebook with a smirk and then held it to Katie: "I just don't get why this equation isn't working out, can you?"

Katie looked at his notebook silently as she went through the math problem. James eyed her unimpressed. After a while he turned to Keith and was about to say something when Katie said: "There is a mistake in the second and last line. Furthermore, I think you copied the formula wrong, because the formula exactly like this — with the negative numbers — is too advanced for your current class. So, there is probably a mistake in the first line too."

James stared at her with an opened mouth before he quickly turned his notebook back to him to recheck the formula. He took out his calculator and rechecked the math book where he copied the formula. He mumbled baffled in disbelief: "She’s right."
Keith lifted his hand from the table and Katie gave him a silent high-five with a smile.

James looked up to the both of them. "Alright. Alright. Let's do the real thing next."

"Sure.", Katie nodded. Keith asked in the group: "How about Fibonacci graphs in multiple dimensions next?"

Katie bit her lip. "I haven't done that yet. Can you explain?"

James chuckled. "You can solve my equation in your head, but you never heard of these graphs?"

Katie shrugged. "I heard of them, but yeah I don’t know how they work exactly. I am learning all over the place, so I haven't covered everything you did."

"And you covered things we didn't.", Keith added.

Katie nodded excited. "Exactly! So, tell me about these graphs!"

Just when Keith started to explain, James threw in: "In which way is this helping us two? We were supposed to learn for our exam."

Keith slid his notebook to James. "Then, you explain it to her. Don't worry. She will have questions."
Katie agreed with an excited clap.

James shook his head, but he did as told. And it went well till Katie asked the first question. The question threw him off a little, but he was able to get it. The fifth question made James say: "I don't know why. Just listen."

And so, Katie did listen without asking any more questions.
When James finished, he asked: "Do you get it?"

Katie asked in response: "Did you get it?"

"What? I just explained it to you."

Katie sighed. "You learned the explanation for it by heart. That is not the same thing as understanding it."

"But I can solve the tasks using its principles."

Katie crossed her arms. "Wasn't your goal to improve? That's my opinion what you should work on."

James looked at her dumbfounded. "I am not ... this is ... I can do all the equations! How would you know the difference?"

Katie thought for a moment before she scribbled a formula in her notebook and gave it to James. "Solve this."

"What is this?"

"A formula."

"Whatever.", James mumbled and started working on it. "That is first year stuff."

Katie gave Keith the same formula as she said to James: "Just do it."

James finished first and gave it back to Katie. She immediately smiled at him. "That's wrong."

"What? How ..."

Katie explained proudly: "This formula combines many principles with exceptions that you only know when you deeply got into each of them. Matt told me that you only understand a topic fully when you can solve tasks like that."

James curled his lips. "Well, Matthew is pretty smart."

Katie nodded with a wide smile. Then she said: "Just consider what I said, alright?"

"So, you are saying that I should go deeply into math topics that we only touched briefly on in class?" James turned to look at Keith's notebook and his writing under the formula. Keith's solution had way too little lines to be ever correct. James smiled mockingly. "And Keith learns the same way?"

Katie squinted her eyes. "No, but his goal is to pass. Your goal is an A++. And Matt made a point that I know exactly how to get an A++."

James lifted his hands. "Alright, whatever. I will try."

Katie nodded contently. James looked over to Keith and then asked her: "Should we do something on Keith's level now? He should get something out of this as well, right? The math exam is in a few days already."

And so, they continued to study together after lunch till the exam. While Katie and James did the more advanced math, they helped Keith understand the easier ones.

Every study session went the same. They would eat, then they would study together – on all the days till the exam in a few days.

When they wrapped up their last study session that would be the last one before the exam, James said with a genuine smile: "Thank you for all your help, Katie. I have a good feeling about the exam."

"My pleasure." Katie said and beamed at the both of them. "The best of luck to both of you! You got this." To underline her point, she showed them her crossed fingers.

James left the cafeteria with a smile. He didn’t expect to get along with them that well.
Sadly, he didn't spoke with neither of them again after the exam. And he was not sure whether he should approach them. Was he close enough with them for him to just sit down with them? Add to that, they were only barely in the cafeteria for their lunches before they left. James was sure they were busy.

The next time James actually met Keith outside of class was in front of the blackboard.
They only nodded at each other in greeting.
The grades of the math exam were about to be hung out.

Keith crossed his arms and didn't say anything. James was not sure what to talk about either. "Where is Katie? She is usually with you."

Keith looked at him surprised. "She doesn't have a break at the moment."

James nodded absently. Even though he had doubted her in the beginning, he now sometimes forgot she wasn't an actual student at the Garrison.
A teacher came and greeted them both with a smile before he hung out the results. The moment he stepped away the two students stepped towards it.
With a beating heart they searched for their student ID on the result sheet.

James was first to find his. He mumbled under his breath in amazement: "I actually improved."

He turned to look at Keith, who still had his eyes on the paper. To James' surprise he noticed Katie approaching from behind the black-haired. When James met her eyes, she put a finger on her lips. He nodded.

Keith's shoulders sank as he turned to James: "I passed."

"I knew you could it!", cheered Katie from behind. Keith jumped back startled, but quickly recovered from it and closed her into a tight hug with a chuckle.

When they began to part, James noticed that they were kissing.
He stepped back with raised brows. That was new.

James looked around the hallway to look at everything but the two. That was when he noticed that Hunk was approaching. They greeted each other with a nod.
Hunk also saw the Keith and Katie kissing, but then turned to the result sheet without saying anything.

When Katie and Keith parted, Katie put a flower she bought behind Keith’s ear. "My mom said I should give it to you."

"Thanks.", he said and gave her another peck on the cheek. Katie's eyes wandered to James and she stepped to him: "You're happy with your results too?"

James nodded whereon Katie high-fived him with a proud grin.

James suggested: "We should celebrate!"

Katie beamed at him. “We so should!”

James looked quickly in between the couple and added with a shrug: "You can also celebrate by only yourself too."
He liked being their friend, but he didn’t want to be a third wheel.

Katie went to him and shook her head. "Nooo! We did this as three. We should celebrate as such!"

Keith nodded at what she said. James suggested: "I do have a gaming console in my room."

"That sounds awesome!" Katie cheered and gave James another high-five. Then her expression softened as she added: "I have to get back to the lab though. I only got a tiny extra break to check out the results with you."

"You could come to James’ room when your shift is over?", Keith suggested.

"Today? I would love to, but how do I get home afterwards? I can’t ask my mom to stay overtime …"

Keith thought for a bit, then he added: "I could speak with Adam?"
Katie smiled and crossed her arms.

Keith looked away and said: "Adam mentioned that he wanted to have us two over for dinner, so he will probably agree. And you could sleep over?"

She raised her brows. “He would allow that?”

"Well, I could ask?"

"That is the requirement.” Katie chuckled. On a calmer note, she added: “I also have to ask my mom. But she likes you and she likes Adam, so I don't think it will be a problem."
She waved it off.

Keith nodded, whereon Katie waved at both at them and she walked away. She turned while walking to say: "Looking forward to it."
Because of it she almost ran into Hunk, who was also walking away. Luckily, he had been able to dodged her just in time.

James and Keith walked away from the blackboard together to the student hallway.

James noted: "I didn't know you two were together."

Keith looked at him surprised, then he smiled to himself. "… Yeah."

"And introducing her to Adam, that's a big thing!"

Keith eyed him from the side and gulped. He was well aware.

Colleen couldn't deny Katie the tiny break to check on Keith's test results. And when she watched her daughter storm out of the lab excited, she knew it had been the right choice.

But the few minutes Katie wouldn't be in the lab were also an opportunity for Colleen; she wanted to get a chance to talk with Adam and this seemed like the perfect time frame.
She quickly finished up her current task before she made her way to Adam's office. She had to admit she wasn't so sure where it was – while she used to visit her husband often in Shiro's office, she never had been in Adam's.

But she knew the department Adam worked in, so the rest came together quickly. He was understandably surprised to meet Colleen at his door.

"Hello, Colleen. What can I do for you?"

"Hey, I wanted to talk to you."

Adam nodded and let her in. They let the door close but didn't sit down.

He started by asking: "Is this about the visitor pass I gave Katie?"

Colleen shook her head with a smile. "No, I think it was really nice of you. And Katie has proven herself really responsible, so I don't think you will regret it."

Adam mirrored her smile and nodded as she crossed his arms. "She wants to read. Sure, the library was off limits, but I call that a pretty relaxing rebellion phase."

She chuckled. "Yeah, yeah that's true."

Adam added: "And I am glad Katie spends time with Keith, his grades went up ever since and he barely got in any trouble at all."

Colleen rose her brows surprised. "Really?" She thought for a bit. "I was convinced they would bring out each other's wild side."

It was Adam's turn to chuckle. "What made you think that?"

"At the launch parties for Kerberos I caught them twice sneaking of to god knows where."

He shrugged with a smile. "Takashi mentioned that he was suspicious of them that one time too. But it was just that; his keycard was still in place, there was nothing broken or missing reported in the days after, so I assume they really just snuck away to a quieter place."

Colleen nodded and was not able to hide her worry completely.

Adam noticed and added: "Keith likes to escape to quiet spaces, for example to the roof. Takashi actually found Keith and Katie on the roof once. I can only assume that they went there on the other occasions where they went missing too. And I don't think it is reason to worry."

She nodded along. She thought for a bit, then she wanted to know: "How close do you think they are?"

Adam raised a brow, Colleen elaborated: "Katie usually tells me everything, I worry that she wouldn't tell me ..."

"... if she has a boyfriend?"

She nodded and crossed her arms as well.

Adam shrugged with a smile. "Who knows. But what I know for sure is that they are as close as they can be. And I am so glad that Keith found someone he gets along with that well.”

Colleen immediately agreed. "I am so glad Katie has one normal thing going on in her life."
Adam nodded with a smile.

"Thank you for allowing Keith to go the science fair by the way. Katie had been really happy about that."

Adam smirked to himself. "I mean a science fair that takes till the evening must be a hell of a science fair."

They chuckled together.
After it died down, he added: "How can I say no to them hanging out? Must have been nice outside of the Garrison grounds for once. It was a really good idea of Katie."

"It had been her idea?"

Adam looked at her surprised. "Yeah, she approached me about it."

Colleen nodded; Adam noted: "I was thinking; I could let them hang out at my place too. If you're okay with it of course."

"I love the idea! Katie spends a little too much time in the Garrison anyway."

"You think that?"

She looked away. "I want her to have a normal life too. Living as or with an astronaut ... well, you know best how that story goes."

Adam nodded along. "Yeah. I definitely understand."

"And I know Katie will be a successful scientist one day with great chances of becoming an astronaut as well. And I am not trying to prevent that from happening. Not at all!” She sighed. “But I want her to have normal things too."

Adam smiled. "That is a really good point."

"Do you feel the same way about Keith?"

"Well, I am not sure how far you can compare our relationship, but I am just as glad when Keith is out of trouble and happy."

"I think you're doing a great job at that."

"Really?" Adam had doubts.

"Sam told me how difficult Keith could be, but you're handling it all so well."

"Well, I credit most of this to Katie."
Colleen was about to answer when there was a knock on the door. The two looked at each other surprised before Adam opened the door for no other than Keith.

Adam smiled and asked: “Hey, what’s up?”

Keith looked at Colleen shortly, before he focused back on Adam and said: “So, about that dinner …”

Chapter Text

When Colleen returned from visiting Adam, Katie was already back in the lab from visiting Keith to check his math grade together. Colleen knocked at the doorframe of the office Katie worked in with a smile. Her daughter looked up from the computer screen.

Colleen explained: "So, I was visiting Adam and I heard you and Keith are wanted to have dinner at his place tonight?"

Katie's eyes widened. She continued to avoid eye contact as she put a strand of hair behind her ear.

Her mother smiled knowingly and added: "Adam doesn't have time today, so I suggested to do it in our place instead?"

Katie looked up to her mother confused and was about to say something, but Colleen was faster: "And I know you want to stay a little longer today." She paused. "And I could do some overtime and take you home with me if you two help me make dinner at home."

That sounded too good to be true. "Yeah, yeah ..." Katie eyed her mom rattled. There had to be a downside to all of this, right?

"Keith already agreed on helping with cooking." Colleen added with a shrug and knowing smile. "And sure, he could sleep in Matt's room."

"He did – he can?" Katie rattled confused.

“Sounds good?”

"Yeah, that sounds great!!!"

"I am looking forward to meeting Keith." Colleen said as she turned around to leave.

Her mom already knew Keith. Katie's stomach fluttered at the thought what her mom implied with her statement.

Keith and James were on the way to the labs in the evening.
James peaked at the signs next to the doors of the ambulance of scientists' offices they passed.
"I never heard of any of these names Du Boi-oui-rrr? The professor's names, I mean. But anything about their fields too; like intergalactic Parasitology? Feels like made-up words."

Keith smiled barely noticeable and kept on walking dedicated into a direction. James kept up and asked: "Do you actually know where you are going?"

He nodded and explained: "I will know when I get there."

James raised a brow. All the hallways looked the same and Keith wasn't reading any of the signs. James squinted his eyes. Sure, keep telling yourself that you know where you are going.

Suddenly, they heard quick steps behind them. When they turned around, they were met with Katie running towards them. She jumped at Keith to hug him in a giggle: "See, I knew you would be able to find me!"

Keith gave her a kiss on the forehead and noted: "But for the next part you need to turn up your stealth skills."

Katie let go of him and nodded seriously.

James raised a brow. Katie put her hands on her hips: " We are going to your room, right? So, we have to sneak me into the boy’s dorm hallway.“

"Oh, they don't care if girls come or go."

They both eyed James surprised.

James chuckled embarrassed and coughed. "Well … I heard."

Katie smiled at him knowingly. "Well, then show us."

James rolled his eyes. "It is not that difficult; you just walk in there like you belong."

The first guard they encountered refused to let Katie pass. The three could only retreat.

They gathered behind a corner out of sight and earshot. James scratched his neck nervously. "I was so sure it would work – it worked previously."

"Maybe because I am not wearing a student uniform."

Keith thought for a bit, then he suggested: "We could change that."

She held his shoulder and voiced her doubts: "But even then; an unknown female student getting into the boy dorms will still looks suspicious."

James threw in: "You resemble Matt so much, just hide your hair in your shirt and without a dress, you pass as a boy."

Katie looked at him in thought. She imagined herself in front of her inner eye. Did she really resemble Matt that much?
Keith already titled his head in worry, but then James added: “I think it is worth a shot."

Keith glanced at Katie and noticed that she seemed to have broken out of her thoughts. He was relived and joined in on the idea: "Remember the dressing room we went to after we stole the champagne?"

James smiled confused: "You did what?"

She smiled with her usual charm and commented. “It worked previously.” Then, she answered Keith: "No cameras, and opportunities to change – perfect."

So, they were headed for the dressing rooms. The dressing rooms had lockers as walls. There were also bathrooms in the room connected to them.

Keith walked in first to check for others. When James and Katie joined him in the dressing room, Keith was already at a locker putting in a combination. He opened it and revealed a first-year student uniform.

James' eyes widened: "You planned this?"

Keith gave the uniform to Katie and mumbled: "Not exactly like this, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to have a spare uniform here."

"Like when you ... stole champagne?"

Katie sighed: "It wasn't that big a deal." She started to put on the uniform over her clothing.

James crossed his arms. "Considering we are under drinking age and drinking is especially prohibited for us on Garrison ground ..."

Katie stopped in her doing and eyed Keith angrily. "Did you risk getting suspended back then?"

Keith's eyes widened, then he shrugged.

Katie shook her head with a sigh and put on the uniform's pants. When she was finished it was clear as day that this was a way too big for her.

It was James' turn to shake his head. "No one is going to buy it."

Katie waved it off and started adjusting the uniform with safety pins she pulled out of her pocket.
The two stared at her surprised. She shrugged. "You would be surprised how useful these are."
She showed them a slim hairband. "And these too!"

Katie managed to correct the uniform, that it was not that obvious anymore, but it was still a big jump of faith that a guard wouldn't bat an eye at her.
She eyed herself in the mirror when she finished. Her hair was in a bun that she had put in her shirt to make her hair actually look short. She tilted her head.

Katie had to admit that she resembled Matt. A bit. Maybe. She looked away quickly and mumbled under her breath: "Man, I don't like short hair."

Keith walked up to her. "It will only be for a few hours."

She lit up and nodded before she turned to James. "Ready to try again?"

James sighed. This was still a far shot.

But it worked. Somehow.
It was another guard, what certainly helped. Not only because the guard hadn't just rejected someone blonde mere minutes ago, but also because he only batted a shorty side eye at the group of students before he looked away again.

When they closed the door of James’ room behind them, they looked at each other surprised. It had actually worked. Katie cheered: “Amazing!” She leaned towards Keith and mumbled in a whisper: “We’re amazing undercover.”

Keith smiled slightly at her to agree. James voiced his doubts: “You did get caught at you first try.”

Katie facepalmed herself with a groan and Keith laughed. Keith laughed.
James stared at the other boy surprised. He had never seen him laugh like this before. Katie nudged her boyfriend with a pout. “Not even that funny!”

Keith grinned at her as his laughter died down and shook his head. He formed the words with his lips. “It is though.”

James looked inbetween them confused. “What did I miss?”

Keith crossed his arms. “Katie likes to announce that she is great undercover, what frankily, blows her cover.”

Katie shrugged and mumbled: “I stand by it.” She turned to James. “So, games?”

James clapped and pointed at his gaming console. “My roommate is out taking photos of the whole process of dawn, so he won’t return for a long time.”

“Sweet! Then, what are we waiting for?”

James turned on the gaming console in his room. Together with Keith and Katie hr sat down in front of the TV and started a fantasy game (monsters and mana but as a video game).
Since they were a group of three, the first levels were no match for them and they quickly reached the more advanced ones.
At level 22, James voiced his discontent in a mumble: "The archer stays more distant to the team, but you are not even in range to us!" He shot an annoyed glance at Katie.

But then suddenly, there was a notification that they unlocked a legendary item.

Katie pointed out proudly: "See! Cool box."

"There are like four ogres closing in on us."

After they barely managed to kill the ogres, Keith suggested: "Alright. From now on; no more side quests, let's finish the game and then we go into the deadly side quests."

James nodded. "I second that."

Katie sighed but agreed. "Alright."

With their combined power – meaning they did not separate constantly – they finished the level pretty fast.
"I have never got past that level before.", James noted surprised.

Katie contently laid her controller down. "Teamwork has its advantages."

Keith said more to himself: "We do make a good team." He looked up to James. "I am sorry that I didn't ask you to help when I struggled in maths."

James eyed him surprised. "Hey, it's alright. I mean if I would have a girlfriend that could teach me piloting, I would also ditch on you in a heartbeat."

Katie and Keith exchanged a shy glance.

James noticed and added with a sigh: "I am also sorry how I treated you in the beginning, Katie."

Katie relaxed and shrugged. "It's okay. I get it, I don't belong here. I can't blame you for doubting me."

James smiled. "You do belong here though. You are lucky with your family, yeah, but you do deserve your internship here.” He sounded genuine.

“Thank you.” Katie nodded, but still looked away.

There was a pause, but then James thought out loud: “I always wondered, are you the one that does Keith's homework? Or is it actually a team effort?"

"I help him.", she corrected him.

Keith chuckled slightly.

Katie eyed Keith knowingly. "Doesn't falsify my statement that it is a team effort."

James smiled to himself. Then he suggested: "Ready for another team effort? Level 23?"

Katie picked her controller back up. "Bring it. But I think I am going to dump the archer character. I want to be a warrior!”

“You could be a knight, tank or paladin. I think paladin would fit your current stats best.”

“Two paladins in one team?” Katie raised a brow and looked at Keith.

James answered before the other could: “I think that could work nicely, I protect us with magic and you two fight close up. I could double up the spells instead of casting new ones, it could be more efficient.”

“Then it is settled!”, Katie said and made her archer die, so she could respawn as a paladin.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

The three looked at each other startled. James paused the game and asked hesitantly: "... who's there?"

"It's me." Adam. Keith closed his eyes as a silent curse.

James leaned towards the others and whispered: "Can we let him in?"

Katie laid down her controller and mumbled: "He probably knows I am here already anyway."

Keith sighed knowing she was right. He stood up from the ground and opened the door. There Adam was, smiling way too nice again for Keith's liking. Why wasn't he more upset – or upset at all?

"What do you want?", Keith asked while crossing his arms. He tried to step in front of Katie to block Adam's view of her. But Adam raised a brow at him and announced with a shrug: "I am just here to tell you that Colleen is looking for you two."

Katie jumped up while cursing under her breath. Keith turned back to Adam with a raised brow. "How did you know where to find us?"

Adam smiled amused. "I knew you wanted to celebrate with James. I also watched some security footage – your interesting new blonde friend caught my eye."

Katie put a strand behind her ear, but asked: "Does it really stand out that much?"

Adam eyed her from top to bottom before he shrugged again. "Students would never wear clothes that are too big on them, but from the corner of the eye, I think you can pass."

Katie shrugged. "Good enough, I guess."

Adam rolled his eyes. "But you know you are not supposed to be here?" His tone was not threatening at all, it sounded like he was genuinely asking. Keith narrowed his eyes at him, confused once again.

Katie smiled at him. "Yeah, but you know … video games …"

Adam smiled shortly than he said: "Still, you should better change before you meet you mom in the lobby."

"Thanks Adam, you're the best!" Katie cheered and gave him a high-five. She turned to Keith and said: "I am going to hurry to the changing room. What is your combination so I can put it back into your locker?"

Keith shook his head. "No way, I am coming with you."

Katie pressed her lips together but eventually agreed. They both looked at James and said their goodbyes. James gave them a small wave. "It was really fun, we should do that again sometime!"

"Yeah, of course!" Katie agreed happily. "We still need to beat level 30!" Keith nodded too.

Then, Katie turned on her heel, grabbed Keith's hand and pulled him with her out of the room past Adam. Adam nodded at James before he left as well.

The guard of the student hallway actually looked twice at Keith and Katie when they stepped out the hallway followed by an officer. But the guard was more focused on the relaxed officer following. The guard ignored the two but asked Adam when he walked out: "Is there something wrong?"

Adam shook his head with a smile: "One cadet spilled food on their freshly cleaned uniform and wanted to cover it up. Nothing important."

The guard nodded and with that the topic was done for him. Adam sighed. As long as the two weren't dealing any serious damage, he was fine covering for them. They were just teenagers after all.

In the locker room, Keith entered his combination while Katie started to take off the uniform. She looked at him from the corner of her eye unsure and apologized: "I am sorry for asking for your combination. It is your right not to share it."

Keith looked up to her surprised. "No, that's not it." He looked away and eventually turned back to the locker. "I just didn't want you to walk all by yourself in the Garrison with the oversized uniform. You are way less suspicious next to me – someone in a normal sized uniform."

Katie couldn't help but smile. "Thank you."

"I don't want you to get caught." Keith said and opened his locker. Katie put the uniform inside without saying anything at first. When she met Keith's eyes, she answered: "But I don't want you to get pulled into anything just because I did something reckless."

Keith smiled sadly. "But I bring you into these situations. Without me you wouldn't do it, so without me you wouldn't have the trouble. So I guess my only way of making it up to you is saving you trouble you get in because of me."

Katie chuckled and put his face in her hands. "You don't need to make up for anything, alright? I love spending time with you. I love every second of it, alright? I-" she looked into his eyes alternately. She suddenly looked down in a huff. When she peaked back at him, his eyes were still focused on hers.
She smiled lovingly at him and said: "You know what I mean, right?"

Keith beamed at her in response. He slowly lifted his hands to her jaw before he leaned down and kissed her. Katie smiled into the kiss and pulled his face even closer.
Kissing was great, was it always this great? She wanted to pull him even closer, it was like he couldn't be close enough.
They started to tumble, in response Katie threw her arms around his neck. She grinned at him before she kissed him again.

Suddenly, Katie's phone rang. She was set on ignoring it, but eventually Keith broke the kiss with a look that made her roll her eyes and pick up the phone.
When she saw who was calling, her heart dropped. "It's my mom! Oh no, she is going to kill me!"

Keith only gave her a compassionate smile. Before she answered she told him: "I told her we would meet an hour ago!" Katie took a deep breath and put the phone to her ear.
The call was over as fast as it had begun. He raised his brows: "What did she say?"

Katie put the phone back into her pocket, confused. "She just told me that she is done with work for the day and waiting in the lobby for us."

He tensed his shoulders. "And that's a bad thing?"

"No, it's not! That's the thing! My mom lets me do everything! It was not long ago that she would not even let me read an advanced math book and now she is okay with me not meeting with her in time?"

"Now that you say it – Adam is also unusually okay with a lot of things lately."

They just looked at each other for a while. "Is that a bad thing?" Keith mumbled eventually.

Katie shrugged. "No, no it is great!" She held her own arm. "I just feel like there's something my mom isn't telling me. She wouldn't do a 180 just like that. But that's just the thing; she never tells me anything!"

"She wants to protect you, I guess."

Katie narrowed her eyes. "Well, I don’t need protection."

"And I know that."

"Yet you would get expelled for me – in order to protect me."

Keith smiled at her with a shrug. "I like being your human shield."

"I would rather have you just as my human." Katie thought for a bit, then she added shyly: "Or would you like more being my ... boyfriend?"

"Yeah ..." Keith smiled widely.

Katie jumped into a hug and giggled excited. "Just a warning; my mom thinks you're my boyfriend for a while now."

He took the hug in and asked unsure: "Does she like me?"

She loosened the hug in order to look at him: "I think so yeah."

Keith nodded and said: "Then we should really be going because she might change her mind about me if we leave her waiting that long."

Katie squeezed his hand with a smile: "Yeah, you're right. Let's go."

Chapter Text

Colleen waited for them in the lobby like she said she would. She smiled at them, she didn't even mention that it was later than they said initially.

Katie exchanged a look with Keith but stayed silent. The whole ride home, Katie stayed silent. Keith had no choice but to do the same as well, because he couldn't figure out for the life of him what to say to Colleen.

When they got out of the car, Colleen wanted to know: "Everything alright, Katie?"

Katie took a deep breath and asked: "Can Keith sleep in my room?"

Keith and her mom looked at her equally shocked. Katie met their eyes and explained: "My bed is big enough, so why not, right?"

Colleen didn't answer and only looked at her. Katie stepped closer to her: "Good idea, right?"

Her mom bit her lip. "Why are doing this?"

"Me?", Katie huffed and crossed her arms. "You are the one that doesn't seem to care what I do!"

"I care!"

"Then punish me for being late today! Punish me for trepassing into the library, punish me for studiying advanced math instead of for preparing for my english assignment!"

Colleen huffed and rolled her eyes. "You want to be punished? Seriously?"

"Of course I don't want to!" Katie looked to the ground.

Colleen got louder. "Then why do you bring this up?"

"You tell me?" Katie matched her volume.

Then suddenly silence.

Colleen chuckled in a sob. She mumbled more to herself: "What was I thinking? I can't replace your father."

Katie looked up with tears in her eyes. "I- what? No, no dont worry about that. They are just out there, they are not gone."

"Yeah ... right.", Colleen nodded and rearranged her shirt. She looked to Keith, who also smiled at her. He added: "I am sure that they're well."

Colleen's eyes widened. "Right. You also have ..." She took a deep breath and tried to control her breathing. Katie went to stroke her arm. "Are you alright, mom?"

Colleen stepped away and wiped her tears away. "Yes, honey. I just ... miss them. A lot. But everything will be alright, alright?"

Katie cheered up and nodded eagerly. "Yes! Of course!"

Colleen looked at Keith and told them: "And of course, you can stay in her room. And sorry for my outburst."

Keith nodded suddenly unsure.

Colleen clapped. "We should get inside!"

Only half an hour later, Katie and Keith sat on couch in the living room with a pizza in front of them. Colleen just left the house again. She had told them she needed to run some errands. Earlier today Colleen said one of the reasons Keith was allowed to come was if he helped cooking, but it was Colleen who ordered the pizza. They didn't ask for it.

Katie eyed the pizza in front of them with squinted eyes. Keith followed her glance and mumbled: "Maybe she just got hit with a wave of emotions?"

She eyed him from the side. He tensed his shoulders. "Sometimes ... I too just feel like punching down something. It can hit me at any moment. And not everyone ... punches things."

Katie smiled at him. "Yeah, yeah that might be it." She sighed. "But I have seen her sad before. That's not it."

"Maybe it is me ... sleeping ... in your room?" Keith gulped and looked at everything but her.

Katie just shook her head. "No, that's not it. She was upset about me wanting to be punished, not the sleeping thing."

Keith closed his eyes and bit his lip. Katie kept on tipping her foot nervously on the ground. It made Keith open his eyes again. He looked at the pizza which still remained untouched. Then his eyes turned to the TV. The DVD for Starfight 7 was in the player, a movie they both have seen many times. They just needed to press play.

Keith reached for the remote control and suggested: "There is nothing we can do for your mom right now, how about we just start the movie?"

Katie hesitated but eventually nodded. Keith pressed play and laid back on the couch. Katie got comfortable in a blanket and leaned on him. Keith left his blanket simply over his legs. He moved it slightly though to check the phone in his pocket. His phone had no reception. Weird.

When he looked back at Katie, he was met with two curious eyes. She asked: "Everything alright?"

Keith smiled. "Just checked if Adam texted."
Katie nodded.

They directed their attetion at the starting movie. Keith felt weired out by the fact that he had no reception in the house where everything related to technology was usually functioning perfectly.
But then he laid a arm around Katie and suddenly it didn't seem that big of a deal anymore.

Keith was interrupted in his sleep when someone was slightly pulling on his blanket. He opened his eyes and recognized Colleen despite the dark. She tried to rearrange his blanket to cover him better. When she noticed he was awake, she quickly smiled at him. Colleen whispered a short "Good night" before she left.

Keith would have thought more on it but he was too tired and too comfortable at the moment. When he snuggled back into his pillow he noticed that it was indeed not a pillow. He froze. It was Katie.
He had slept with Katie in his arms. His heart started beating like crazy. He felt his face heating up. What did he do? How did that even happen? He wanted to get out of the situation, but he didn't dare to move. Because what if Katie would notice and then he had to explain why he hugged her in her sleep?

So, he stayed still best he could. As time passed, Katie still hadn't shown any sign that she was waking up. He looked around in the dark. The TV was off, Colleen was gone. There was nothing and no one except them. Sleeping. In each other's arms.
Keith looked back at Katie, his arms were still around her. He didn't know why, but he just hugged her closer. Nothing happened. 

Except that his heart made a jump.

He couldn't help but smile.
Then, he placed a kiss into her hair. Her hair smelled so good. Before he knew it, he feel asleep again.

Way too soon, Colleen shook them both awake. She was gentle with it, but Keith immediately jumped up. Katie on the other hand woke slowly. And he was worried his slight movements could wake her. Her mom shook her and continuously said her name multiple times for a while.

Katie eventually managed to mumble drunk on sleep: "What?"

Colleen smiled. "I want to watch something on TV, could you go sleep in your room?"

Katie mumbled something to herself and looked at Keith for a long moment. Keith began to blush. He quickly suggested: "I can also sleep in Matt's room ..."

Katie slowly blinked at him, too sleep drunk to process the information properly.

Colleen redirected the attention on her: "Do whatever, but I really want to watch something now, alright?"

Katie nodded and stood up. Keith followed. Colleen didn't turn on the big light in the living room, it remained only lit by a small lamp in the corner. So, Keith's eyes had to readjust a lot once they were in her room and Katie turned on the big light.

"Don't you want to sleep?", Keith wondered confused.

Katie rubbed her own eyes and yawned, but she shook her head. "My mom never watches TV, why now?"

"I don't know? Does it matter?"

"Something's off."

Keith nodded absently and looked at her bed. He sighed.

Suddenly, Katie's attention shifted. "What's wrong?"

He widened his eyes. "What? I didn't say anything."

"I saw you looking at my bed. Don't you want to sleep in the same bed?"

Keith stared at her dumbfounded. His brain was already trying to come up with some kind of excuse.

She smiled at him. "We don't have to. It is up to you. Do you want to?"

He looked at her still out of words. But it felt like she was expecting an answer right away, so he blurted out: "I- I don't ... know."

Katie raised a brow. "Oh?"

Keith tensed his shoulders. "Sorry."

She smiled at him and took his hands. "No worries. Like I said we don't have to. But how do you don't know?"

"What?"

Katie chuckled. "I mean, I get a no and a yes, but how do you don't know? I am genuinely curious."

Keith looked at her in awe. Then he looked away. "... it is a weird reason."

Katie pulled on his hands to encourage him. "I got called weird plenty of times, I think I get weird."

Keith sighed and slowly began to look back at her when he began to explain: "I always knew you were special to me, yet ... I don't think I would have ever kissed you first."

Katie looked at him a little sad. Keith shook his head and stressed: "But that's the thing! I love kissing you!" She looked at him in a mixture of surprise and being flattered.

He added: "But once you do something, or for example ask, it doesn't seem as bad as before. Like hugging, I don't hug anyone but ... you." He sighed. "And despite that if you would have hugged me when we first met, I would have hated it. Does that make sense?"

Katie stroked his cheek. "I get it." She smiled lovingly at him and added: "While I would love to share a bed with you, I don't mind if you sleep somewhere else. We have the whole day together already!"

He smiled back, but it faded quickly. He looked to the ground. "But isn't sleeping in the same bed something a ... boyfriend would do? Something a boyfriend ... would want?"

Katie took both his hands and said proudly: "Apparently my boyfriend doesn't."

Keith looked up to her still unsure. "Are you sure that it's fine?"

She nodded sure of herself. Keith closed his eyes and added more silently: "And what if ... I never change my mind about it?"

Katie didn't answer immediately, she took his words in for a moment. Then, she smiled and said: "Then, we should get a real second bed, because Matt will claim his bed once he comes back."

Keith chuckled reliefed and hugged her. Katie snuggled into him and smiled. In the hug, Katie commented: "Let me give you a tour of Matt's room so you don't get lost."

He chuckled and gave her a kiss in her hair.

Chapter Text

Katie snuggled into her bed, alone. Keith was sleeping in Matt's empty room.
Matt was not in his room. Her eyes jumped open. Matt was not here. She curled her lips and turned around in her bed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath in order to try to shake the thought of her brother. He was coming back. Just like her fath-... and there were the memories of her father.

Katie wiped a tear away. Why were these thoughts not leaving her alone? It was usually not that bad. Suddenly, she remembered what her mom had told her by the car that night. I can't replace your father. Katie pressed her eyes shut. Her mom planted those stupid thoughts into her head with her worries.
Her mom was worrying for nothing. They were coming back. Her father always came back before. Why should this time be any different?

Katie turned in her bed again. And again. Eventually she sat up and hugged her legs. When she laid her head on her knees, her eyes wandered towards her window. The stars.
Matt went with her onto the roof late at night more times than she can count. These nights were always her favorite.
Sometimes they would write with their dad if he was in space, other times they would just look at the stars and see if they were able to discover a new one.

Katie got up and walked to her ceiling window which provided her with a great view on the night sky. She recognized the constellations that Matt taught her. She smiled when she spotted the stars that showed her the cardinal points.

When she turned away from the window, she decided to get a glass of water before she went back to bed.

When she reached the stairs, she heard the TV from the living room. Her mom must still be watching. It sounded like the news. Katie stood still for a moment. Why did she insisted on watching the news? Were there even any news shows at this hour?

Katie shook her head and kept on walking. Maybe she was more sleeply than she realized. She carefully walked down the stairs, but then she caught the word "Garrison" from the TV.
Katie froze and it felt like her heart stopped. She could only hear her own breathing for a moment. She shook her head and tried to listen to what the news were saying.

"... Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing."
The world was frozen, Katie couldn't move, her head was empty as she listened.
"... crew members are belived to be dead. The Galaxy Garrison said the crash was presumbly caused by a pilot error. It is indeed a sad day for all of humanity."

Katie didn't listen to what the TV continued to say. She ran upstairs back to her room. It couldn't be true.
She closed the door while she was breathing heavily. She jumped back into her bed and pulled the covers over head. Another nightmare.

Yes.

Why did she always have these nightmares?
She felt hot tears on her cheeks and wished she would just wake up.

When Katie opened her eyes again, the room was lit by the sun through her window. She must have fallen asleep. At last.
It looked peaceful, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.
Katie was not able to put her finger on it though, everything looked normal at least. The bad feeling only grew though when she stepped out of her room and was immediately met with her mom waiting for her in the hallway. Despite looking crushed, her mom was smiling, although it looked a little sad.

Katie raised a brow confused. "... morning?"

Colleen nodded. "Good morning, dear. I- we ..." She took a deep breath. "Get ready and meet me in the kitchen, alright?"

Katie nodded sleepily. She slept too bad that night to think further about her mother. Katie nodded and stepped to Matt's door room to knock. Colleen audible gasped. When Katie turned to her confused, her mother said crestfallen: "Bring him too."

With that Colleen went downstairs. Shortly after Keith stepped out of his room, rubbing an eye. He was suddenly very awake though when he noticed Katie's worried expression. "What's wrong?"

Katie looked at the stairs and shrugged lost in thought. "My mom will be telling us in the kitchen in a bit. She seemed ... off."
Keith eyed her. He could squeeze her shoulder to show he supported her. He could hold her hand. He could, he should ...
While he was still hesitating, Katie already walked towards the bathroom. Keith crossed his arms and sighed. Katie shortly smiled at him before entering the bathroom and said: "I only need 5 minutes!"

Keith went back to Matt's room and changed back into his uniform. He felt his phone in the pocket and to his surprise, it had reception again. Oh, it did. 34 messages, 12 missed calls, and 3 voice mails – all from Adam. Keith raised his brows and was about to tap on them, but then Katie already announced that she was done in the bathroom.
Keith shrugged and put the phone back into his pocket. Whatever Adam wanted could wait.

When they entered the kitchen only a minute later, Colleen was leaning on the counter looking at the wall. She was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't notice them walking in.

"... Mom?"

Colleen flinched and quickly rearranged herself and stood up straighter. Keith didn't miss her deep eye bags and red toned eyes. His heart started beating faster, he didn't like where this was going.

Colleen took a deep breath and started to speak with a shaky breath: "I ... there is ... something. I ... need to ... tell you." It was like every word on her lips was poison that she didn't want to spit out. She eyed Katie heartbroken.
Out of reflex, Keith took Katie's hand and squeezed it. Suddenly Colleen added: "... you both ... should know."

Keith's eyes widened, but then he felt a squeeze from Katie. Right. He wasn't alone in this either.
Keith was still uneasy though. He couldn't help, but to be reminded about a conversation with a fireman long ago. The man stumbled over his words just like Colleen right now and had looked at Keith in the same sad way Colleen ... Keith felt how his breathing stopped when it dawned on him.

"... Kerberos ..."

The word alone was a knife piercing through his heart. He felt his breathing getting faster, he looked around looking for a way to escape. But another squeeze from Katie's hand intertwined with his own, made him stand still. He looked up to Colleen scared. Keith gulped. It was like he was seven all over again.

Colleen nodded and Keith closed his eyes, defeated. She said: "Due to ... a pilot error-"

"What?!"Katie screamed, devastated. Colleen's shoulders fell as she mumbled in disbelief: "You were on the stairs last night."

Katie only shook her head and took steps backwards. Keith held her hand tighter because that was the only thing he knew how to do at the moment.

Despite Colleen's best efforts, tears were rolling down her face as she said: "I am so sorry, Katie! I thought my head was playing a trick on me last night when I thought I heard someone! I hoped-"

But Katie didn't seem to hear it, she remained in her shocked state. Finally her eyes met Keith's. She looked at him frozen like a deer in the headlights, while he was starting to shake.

Colleen came closer to her daughter, crying. "I- I am so so … sorry, honey."

Katie shook her head and gave her a challenging glance. "No, they are not dead."

The room went silent, the other two stared at her in disbelief. Katie spun around, turning to each of them alternatively. "A pilot error? That is just stupid, they wouldn't do that. Right?"

Silence.

Katie looked at Keith. "Right?"

He nodded slowly. "It does seem off ..."

Katie nodded excited and turned to Colleen. "See, mom! Keith also believes it! Don't worry!"

Colleen watched her daughter flabbergasted. Katie wasn't crying, she hadn't even shed a tear yet. Had she even listened to what she had just said?

"They're dead, Katie." Colleen stated coldly. "Dead."

Katie looked at her with fury. "I will prove it to you!"

Colleen chuckled sadly. "And how do you plan to do that?"

"I will! Just let me-"

Colleen stepped forward and grabbed Katie by the arm. "What? What are you going to do?" The concern was thick in her tone.

Katie looked away shortly, then she explained: "I will build something ... – yes. Matt showed me-"

"Katie, Katie!" Colleen screamed till she finally stopped talking. Then she stressed slowly: "There is nothing for you to build, nothing for you to prove. If there is anything left to uncover, the Garrison will take care of it. You can't do anything, please ... you have to understand this."

Katie stared at her, eyes locked. Finally, Katie looked away. "No."

"No?" Colleen threw her arms in the air. "You have no grasp of what is going on right now."

"Yeah? I am not the one crying, I still have a clear head!"

Colleen was taken aback, but quickly wiped away her tears with her arm. She hissed back at her: "You are the one who is not thinking straight. You seriously think you are better at finding out what is happening in space than the biggest space facility there is? You are just a girl!"

That made Katie tear up. She shook her head and ran out of the kitchen. Colleen bit her lip as she looked after her. Then her eyes fell on Keith who had watched silently. He met her glance shortly before he followed Katie without another word.

Keith caught up with Katie at the front door. She had her hand on the door handle, frozen when she heard the sobs and crying of her mother. Keith carefully placed a hand on her shoulder. The moment he made contact though, Katie opened the door.

Keith followed more slowly. "Where are we going?"

She spun around. "We?"

"Yeah?"

Katie smiled and threw car keys at him. Keith caught them easily with one hand. "Your dad's car?"

"According to mom, dad is dead, so ..."

Keith eyed the keys in his hand hesitantly. He never got his driver's license, but he drove enough with Shiro to know how to handle pretty much any vehicle. But this felt ... not right.

Katie stressed: "I just need to get away from here." She looked at him with pleading eyes. Her anger seemed to have passed, she looked beaten. "Please."

That was all it took for Keith to open the car. They both got in and Keith immediately started it.
Keith was not sure where they should drive, but out of the city seemed like the best idea. They stayed silent as Keith drove through the city.
Katie stayed in her thoughts just like himself.

When they had left the city long behind them, far in the desert already, Katie looked at him and said: "Faster."

Keith nodded and sped up.

"Faster!"

Keith smiled and felt how he got pressed deeper and deeper into his seat. Katie didn't need to say anything, he sped up further and further. Only when the car started to make noises, Keith stopped pressing on the gas.

He quickly peaked at Katie. She smiled fascinated. "Awesome."

Keith slowed down the car a bit, Katie was about to complain, but then Keith began to drift and change directions rather quickly. Short exclamations from Katie told him that she liked it too. Eventually there were clouds of sand that were blocking Keith's vision too much for his liking, so he came to a sudden stop.

Katie exclaimed surprised as she got pulled forward and then back into the seat.

Keith smiled and turned to face her. He widened his eyes when he saw she was crying. He extended his arm, but Katie hid her face in her hands and started sobbing.

He carefully stroked her back. She was mumbling something, but her sobs were swallowing her words. Keith's heart was aching seeing her like this, he wanted to cheer her up, but considering what they found out today ... crying seemed like the appropriate response. His heart sank. He wasn't crying. He touched his cheek to check. Dry.

Keith sighed and started the car again.

Katie shook her head. She grabbed the steering wheel and pleaded, sounding more desperate than demanding: "No! I don't want to go back home!"

"We're not going back."

Her "okay" was muffled by her knees she hid her face in. She was still crying, her occasional sobs were the only thing heard between them till Keith came to a stop – gentle this time.
Katie looked up tired and noticed a small wooden hut.

Keith smiled slightly and unclicked her seat belt."Let's go inside."

Katie nodded and got out of the car with him. Keith opened the door of the hut and revealed the simple living space. The furniture was just about functional and modern enough for someone to be able to actually live there.
Keith answered her unvoiced question: "This is my home."

"Your home?" Katie looked around surprised. At least she was distracted for a moment.

"And we are so far off from the city, no one will find us here."

Katie nodded and sat down on the wooden bench in front of the turned off TV. Keith sat down next to her. Katie wasn't sobbing anymore, but tears were still rolling down her face. Keith grabbed a blanket and threw it over her legs.

"They're dead, right?" She looked Keith in the eye. There was no fury left, this time it was genuine. "I need to hear it from you."

Keith bit his lip and hesitated.
It would be nice to pretend. He knew he wanted to when his dad died. If they never acknowledged it fully, was it even true? But there was no use. Reality always caught up.
He sighed. "They are dead."

"Yeah ..." Katie formed fists in the blanket, pulling on it.

Keith moved closer to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know it's barely ... anything, but I'm still here." She looked at him with big eyes. "And I always will be – with you I mean."

Katie smiled and closed him into a tight hug. "It's everything to me. You're everything to me." She snuggled her face into his shoulder and sighed.
Keith relaxed in the hug, this felt like home. Yeah, he didn't need anything else but her.

Katie sobbed into the hug: "I screamed at my mom." She hid her face on his shoulder. "Why did I do that?"

He gently stroked her back and mumbled: "Feelings make you do ... things. It doesn't mean that you really meant it."

She hummed and broke the hug to look at him. Her face was red and wet, her attempts in cleaning up with a single handkerchief she found in her pocket looked like a desperate attempt. "I need to get back to my mom."

"What?" Keith eyed her, rattled. She was crying her soul out only a minute earlier. And now she was fine again?

"I can't leave her alone in this." She stood up, her legs were shaking. When she took a step, she immediately fell. Luckily Keith caught her in time before she caught the ground.
She started crying again. "Why can't I even do something simple like walking?"

Keith hummed and sat her back in the bench. "You are not stupid."

Katie curled her lips. "I didn't say-"

"You were thinking it." Keith stated without looking at her at first. "Why worry about something untrue on top of everything?"

Katie hummed and leaned onto Keith, snuggling into the blanket. She looked around the small space and mumbled sleepily: "Wouldn't it be great if we could stay here forever? Just like this?"

Keith smiled. "It would." He heard a stomach growl. "How about I make us something to eat?"

Katie nodded and removed the blanket off her, but Keith put it on her again. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. Katie smiled at him lovingly and laid back down, falling asleep within seconds. After the night and morning she had, she needed the sleepp more than she realized at first.

Keith was able to gather the ingredients for pancakes in the kitchen. He worked for a bit and when he waited for the old gas stove to heat up, he pulled out his phone. Adam had tried to reach him – badly. Now he knew why. Keith shortly glanced at Katie, who was sleeping peacefully.
He looked back at his phone and opened the messages. Adam was asking him to pick up the phone, to meet, to ask where he was.
Keith opened a voicemail but immediately closed it again. The worry in his voice was ... something he didn't like.

Keith stared at the screen in thought. Should he write back? Call him? He was about to put the phone away when there was an incoming call. From Adam.

He hesitated, but picked up. "Hey."

"Keith!" He sounded out of breath. "Where are you?"

Keith looked over to Katie. "I'm good."

"... did you hear what happened?"

"I know."

"About Kerberos-"

"I know." It came out more in a hiss than Keith would have liked. He took a deep breath. "I'm fine."

"I am coming."

"Don't."

"Keith-"

But Keith ended the call. He quickly put the phone back into his pocket and concentrated on getting the pancakes right.

Katie woke up to the smell of burnt ... something. Her eyes flew open, but there was no fire. Just burned pancakes on a plate on the tv table in front of her.

"Sorry, I messed up." Keith scratched his neck nervously.

Katie sat up and took the plate with a smile. "Thank you."
Keith sat down next to her, she placed a peck on his cheek.

He couldn't help but smile too. He suggested: "How about a trip around the area?"

"The desert?"

"It is more interesting than it seems."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Katie flinched. "You said no one will find us here!"

Keith mumbled something, but quickly went to a drawer and pulled out a big purple knife. It looked more like a dagger.

"Keith?!" Katie eyed him with widened eyes.

But when he opened the door. It was Adam.
Keith rolled his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

Adam pointed at his dagger. "Where did you get this?"

"It is mine."

"Well, lower it."

Keith did, but did not invite him in. Adam peaked behind him and spotted Katie. Keith stepped in front of his view of Katie. "We're good."

"I can see that."

"Don't- ... pretend like you care." Keith hissed and turned away.

"What?"

Keith spun around and screamed at him, tears finally flowing: "You can stop pretending you care about me now, Shiro is gone! He will never know!"

Adam took a deep breath and responded calmly: "Shiro is not the only reason I care about you."

"You wouldn't if it wasn't for him."

"Well, I wouldn't even know you if it wasn't for him, so yes." Adam noticed how Keith seemed to think about it. He smiled and walked past him into the hut.

Keith didn't comment on it and only closed the door behind him. "Are you going to rat us out?"

"I need to tell Colleen."

Katie pulled the blanket closer and looked away. Adam sighed and added: "I don't need to tell her where you are. Just that you are safe and sound."

Chapter Text

When Adam went outside to call Colleen, Keith sat down next to Katie on the bench. She gave him a compassionate smile and stroked his hand. Her eyes were tired. He sighed.

Katie bit his lip. When she peaked at his weapon, she wanted to know: "So, where did you get this dagger?"

Keith looked at the weapon in thought. "I have it from my mother."

"... your mother?" Katie's eyes widened. He had never talked about his mother. He mentioned his father, but never his mother.

He huffed in a chuckle. "It is the only thing I have. About her, from her."

"I am sorry."

Keith shrugged and laid the dagger on the table in front of them. "It's fine."

Katie pressed her lips together. That was not the kind of distraction she wanted to initiate.

Luckily, at that moment, Adam came back inside and nodded. So, he had talked with Colleen.

Keith looked at him with doubt. "What now?"

Adam shrugged. "Whatever you want. But Colleen made me promise that I would stay with you." The two were about to argue, but Adam held up a hand and said: "Let me finish. I doubt there is anything out here that's dangerous. You know the area Keith, I trust you."

Keith nodded.

"But you two will join me for dinner at my place tonight. And the next day, we will go to the Garrison together."

When they agreed, Adam kept his word and left. And so he was gone and they remained alone by themselves. In the middle of the desert, surrounded by only sand and stone and no one else.

Keith turned to Katie: "How about I show you the area?"

And so they decided to explore the desert. Katie expected that they would take her dad's car, but Keith walked towards the hover bike that was parked next to the shack. While he was preparing it, Katie looked in the distance, but there was no trace of Adam, they were truly all alone. She was not sure yet whether she liked it or not. But in the moment everything new, everything different, everything distracting was good. When Keith mounted the bike, she got on second, hugging him from behind.
It didn't take long till Keith sped up. Katie immediately tightened the hug. Keith slowed down and chuckled. "I can't believe you never rode a hover bike before."

"And I can't believe you know how to ride one." She would have liked to nudge him for his comment, but she was too scared to even losing her grip on him just a little.

But they were going slower now, it was a more relaxing speed. Katie even decided to loosen her grip in a more comfortable hug. She mumbled in thought: "Hover biking is like advanced math is for me, right? I technically shouldn't, but well what can you do when you are good at something?"

Keith chuckled. "Exactly."

"You could teach me piloting too, you know, if you want."

He chuckled. "I wouldn't call riding a hover bike piloting."

Katie hummed. "I would like to know piloting too, I want to know exactly what you spend your time on. It will take a long time, since that is not my specialty, but I do plan to stick around for a long time."

She tightened the hug again, but this time because she snuggled into him.
Keith smiled as he continued to look at the road. "That sounds good."

"And then I will beat the simulator like you do."

"I have no doubt."

"You should though." Katie chuckled.

Keith shrugged. "Let's make it a team effort like my homework?"

"I don't know how you imagine that could work, but gladly."

Suddenly, Keith came to a stop. Katie looked around confused. There was nothing around, just a few huge rocks in the sand. Only sand and mountains in the distance were decorating the horizon.
Keith announced: "We're here!"

"Where is here?" Still confused, Katie also got off the hover bike.

"No where. That's the point." Keith turned to her with a smile. He went to sit down on a flat smooth rock and patted the spot next to him. When Katie took a seat next to him, she noticed that the stone was comfortably warm. And then she noticed the quiet. The peace and quiet of the no man's land.

"It's nice." She commented with a relaxed smile, although the exhausting day was still visible in her tired eyes.

Keith nodded. "When I am here, I feel like I need nothing else."

"Aren't you afraid of aliens?"

Keith looked at her dumbfounded. "That's what you're thinking about right now?"

She turned to him with an almost childish grin. "Deserts make me think of area 51."

"I don't think aliens are real." Keith shook his head.

Katie immediately turned to him, her excitement exchanged with curiosity. "What makes you say that?"

"With all the advancements humanity made in the last 50 years and area 51 didn't change one bit? I doubt that they actually work on something there."

They stayed in silence for a while, before Keith added: "There are rumors of an alien ship crashing about 19 years ago in this very desert though."

Katie's eyes lit up. Keith chuckled and commented: "Aliens could be bad too."

Katie shrugged. "The desert seems fine, so I doubt their hostility. So, details?"

Keith sighed and thought about it. Considering that his dad had his cabin exactly where the sighting was supposed to have happened, it was no wonder that he kept telling him about it. The details about the ship were slim though, they quickly shifted into stories about his mom. He sighed and concluded: "My dad didn't tell me that much about the ship crashing, more about that was the time he met my mom. I don't think he was very interested in the ship part."

Katie eyed him surprised. There was another mention of the woman she had heard nothing about till today. Was it because they were in the desert and it reminded him of her?

Keith scratched his head. "I don't remember a lot, I think I was only 5 years old when he told me though ..."

"Do you know where the ship crashed?"

"Very close to the shack. Or in the caves of mountains? There was definitely something about that area."

Katie jumped up and offered her hand. "Let's check it out!"

"The caves?"
She nodded and looked in the directions of the mountains. "Have you ever been there?"

He also got up, but shook his head. "I don't see what I was supposed to find there."

Katie thought for a bit and looked at the mountains like they were the answer. Eventually she shrugged. "I don't know. Something is telling me to go there." She turned to him. “Like a gut feeling, you know?”

Keith's eyes suddenly widened. He thought that the feeling mixed with the urge to go there was an impulsive thought that he randomly had, but the fact that Katie named it too made it real. Maybe there was actually something there? But Keith shook his head and questioned: "Are you sure it isn't just your curiosity for aliens?"

She looked away and laughed under her breath. "Maybe."

Keith thought about it. The journey would definitely distract her – them – from today, but it would be a long and possibly dangerous trip. And Adam awaited them for dinner. He would kill them if they died and didn't show.

So, Keith suggested instead: "Or I could show you my favorite route to take with a hover bike. No aliens, but it does feel a bit like flying a space ship."

Katie's eyes lit up again. "Why didn't you say so before?"

"You seemed so scared before!"

"I wasn't!" She crossed her arms. "I just have to get used to it."

Keith smiled and Katie grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the hover bike. "Let's go!"

Katie and Keith’s day in the desert was so exciting, that it was easy to forget the reason why they were there together in the first place. It was the sudden thought that let you stare in the distance, the occasional ache in your stomach that reminded you of reality. But the thoughts were quickly silenced; in the end, it was easy to pretend.

Reality was coming closer as the evening approached though. Because as promised, they arrived at Adam's place around dinner time. He looked overly relieved when he opened the door and recognized them. Keith couldn't say he'd blame him, they indeed had been considering exploring unknown caves without any equipment, backup or experience just a few hours before. Plus, of course, the trouble that Keith got into before when he was struggling.

Adam greeted them shortly and invited them in. "Perfect timing, dinner is almost ready."

The teenagers stayed unsure though, Adam noticed and bit his lip. "You could help me with setting the table?"

They agreed without protest, but they seemed – to put it frankly – dead inside.

Adam never wanted children, let alone teenagers. At the start, he had rolled his eyes at Takashi's troubled kid that he for some reason was really invested in. Takashi would tell his partner about the spark he saw in the boy, but Adam could only focus on the spark it ignited in Takashi. So, how could Adam do anything else then support him in helping the kid?
For the longest time, supporting Takashi in that matter meant, to not comment on Takashi being late for dinner when he was presenting as Keith's parent at a teacher conference again, because Keith caused trouble, again.
Then, there were the rants when Takashi was frustrated with Keith when he had been too stubborn for his own good. That made Adam see the resemblance more and made him understand his care for the kid better. But it was when Takashi spoke about Keith's achievements, that Adam knew why Takashi cared so much.

When Takashi told him he wanted to go back to space, Adam was angry, frustrated and devastated. Takashi told his partner he understood, but he still had the nerf to ask him to look after Keith while he was gone – as long as that might be. It seemed like the only thing Takashi cared about, like it was his last request, like he was going to die. He was sick and still wanted to go to space and even he was sure he was going to die?
Adam's first reaction was disbelief and just when he wanted to lash out, his anger had disappeared. Keith was not to blame in the matter. He didn't deserve his anger, but someone that looked after him. When Adam thought about it though, he didn't even really know the kid. Yet despite everything, he still fullfilled Takashi's wish.

Dinner was silent. Adam was in his thoughts, eying Keith from time to time. Now that Takashi was actually gone, it felt like Keith was the one thing Takashi left behind for him. Adam shook his head, he was getting sentimental.

Half way through the meal, Adam decided to speak up: "There will be an extended coverage of the Keberos mission on TV, would you like to watch it?"

The teenagers froze. They immediately locked eyes, then they slowly agreed to it. Adam felt the same way. He didn't want to hear how his partner died in detail, but he also needed to know. He hoped it would give him closure.
Takashi was constantly in his head ever since he told him he would go, although Adam swore to forget about him if he actually went through with it.
But his heart just wouldn't listen to logic.

Dinner was a blur, although nothing was said, his head kept him busy with a thousand conversations formed by thoughts and worries. He was sure the teenagers felt the same way.
Eventually dinner was over, finally, and they gathered on the couch in front of the TV.

Keith and Katie held hands as they watched the advertisements before the news. Adam eyed them for a while before he decided to get up and to go back to the kitchen. They looked horrible, although Adam wasn't their parent, his heart broke. Maybe he could get them a snack? Was there even a snack that could help their situations in the absolute slightest?
In his desperation, Adam opened really any cabinet in hopes of finding literally anything that could cheer them up, even just a little bit.
Then in one cabinet, he found next to a few glasses of jam, a glass of peanut butter.

When he returned to the living room, the news were just starting. Adam quickly placed the things he brought on the TV table without any notice from the two. He couldn't blame him, he was also tunnel focused on the news.

The channel milked it. First, they rolled up all the events in preparation of the mission. How the ship was built, how the astronauts were chosen, how they were trained, interviews with them.
It must have been cruel for Keith and Katie. On the other side, it wasn't a program designed specifically for the mourning families and friends of the lost crewmembers. It was a world wide coverage of an event that was of importance to all of humanity.

Finally, they reached the events when it went wrong. And it was over as fast as it started. They barely revealed any information. Takashi apparently made an error, they lost communication and that was it. That was it. They didn't know. No one knew more than that. They were gone, dead, just like that.

The channel ended the show with a few interviews of high ranking members of the Garrison thanking them for their sacrifice in the name of science, praising their bravery or telling plans on how they plan to proceed the next time.

When the advertisements started again, Adam was fast to turn it off.
"Shiro made a mistake?" Katie's voice was small, but it was loaded with emotions. "A crucial mistake that caused them to vanish just like that?"

Adam pressed his lips together. He knew Takashi had not been fit enough for the mission. "Everyone makes mistakes."

Katie turned to him. She looked angry. "So, you believe that Shiro would make a kind of mistake that would doom his entire crew?"

Adam had a clear opinion, but he was sure, it was better, if he wouldn’t share. Keith, on the other hand, sighed and explained: "He also had his issues. Maybe he had a problem with his body ..."

Katie snapped at him. "My dad and Matt knew about his health issues. My dad still always stressed how he would only go if Shiro would accompany them. Why would he say that if it wasn't true?"

Adam shook his head. "He wasn't always honest about his issues."

Katie didn't listen. Instead she thought out loud: "What if ... what if the Garrison is lying about what happened?"

Keith raised his brow, intrigued. Adam, on the other hand, laid a hand on her shoulder compassionately. "I know you miss your family. But you can't actually believe that the Garrison, a world wide recognized institution is lying. Don't worry, if they lie or if something about what they are presenting won't add up, someone will find out."

Katie looked at Adam with a determination that made him gulp. She stated without leaving room or objection: "I will find out."

But Adam still shook his head. "You don't need to. There is nothing to find out. And even if there is, it would not be your responsibility. You don't need to do anything."

Katie's eyes went to the ground. Then she nodded.

Keith stroked her back. "Let's go to bed?" Without looking up, Katie agreed. When they left the room, Adam stared blankly at the TV table with the snacks he brought.

A peanut butter jar and chocolate spread jar with two spoons. He was not even sure they noticed the jars were there. Adam had no direct connection to either of these kids, yet why did his heart bleed at the thought that the two had so much worries already that they couldn’t care about snacks?
A tear rolled down his cheek. He quickly swiped it away and got up. As he walked towards his room, he cursed under his breath: “After everything, why is there still nothing I would rather do than talk to you, Takashi?” He swallowed a sob.

When Keith closed the door of the guest room behind him, he turned to Katie, who had stayed silent since they got up. He stated: "You are still set on revealing the truth?"

Katie looked at him in a way he had never seen her before. It was like something washed away all her other emotions, like she was a force that was only going in this direction from now on. But then she looked away. She said it like a silent promise: "I will."

Keith smiled. “I have no doubt you will.”

Katie eyed him curiously. “You are not trying to convince me otherwise?”

He shook his head and put his hands on her shoulders. “I am with you, whenever, wherever. We are a team.”

She nodded as tears were rolling down her face.

He pressed their foreheads together. "I won't lose you. Where you go, I go."
They stayed like that for a while before Katie pulled him into a tight hug. Keith stroked her back and voiced his thoughts: "We're at the Garrison tomorrow. Let's start there."

Katie tightened the hug and nodded into his shoulder, taking his scent in. No matter how rough things might be, she would always have him, they would always have each other.