so this is an au loosely based on buzzfeed unsolved, and if you dont know what that is, its basically an amateur ghost hunting web series led by a believer and skeptic, which of course just makes for the most interesting dynamic; a dynamic I wanted to indulge in with Keith and Shiro, so thats basically what this is. I hope you guys like it!
It was Thursday evening here in their cozy little office space at the Garrison, and Keith was readying the camera on its tripod as Shiro went through the heavily detailed notes in front of him. Shiro was mumbling to himself at the table as he read out loud, trying to get his words into something like a script as he prepared for this week's supernatural video. Keith only smiled to himself as he listened to his partner in crime argue with himself.
"The Sotterley manor— No, no, no, wrong one. Shit," he said, and Keith's eyes strayed to him as he fumbled through some papers in a dark blue folder and pulled out a different set of notes. The tense set to his eyebrows smoothed out as he read them. "All right. Aliens." Shiro took a deep breath and finally caught Keith's amused glance. Shiro huffed impatiently. "Are you finished yet? I feel like you're purposely stalling to prolong my nerves; it looks fine!" he said, gesturing to the camera between Keith's hands.
Keith chuckled once and finally clicked RECORD on the video camera, guilty as charged. "I would never," he said as he slid into the seat beside Shiro, his gaze skimming around the room fondly to all the surrounding memorabilia the two of them had amassed over the past two years of their ghost hunting adventures. They'd visited so many places in the time since they started this web show that Keith's child-self could have only dreamed of going to, and so Keith had always made a point to grab a souvenir from the haunted places they'd investigated. A memento to his cherished life now.
This penultimate week had been an easy one. Their first case about aliens meant that they didn't have to go out and investigate any old mansions or tainted hotels for ghostly figures, which gave him more time to focus on one of the last weeks of his job here at the Garrison training new cadets in the simulators, gearing them up for space travel. A job he'd only just gotten a year ago when he graduated himself.
So, the week had been light, and he'd actually been looking forward to this case more than most; aliens were much more interesting to him than ghosts, after all.
"You ready?" Shiro asked, and Keith bit his lip and held his hand out toward Shiro, urging him on. Shiro nodded and finally faced the camera to deliver their opening line, flicking on his video persona, which didn't differ wildly from his true self; mostly just projected less nerves into his voice and more conviction into his words.
"This week on Garrison Unsolved, Keith and I will delve into soon-to-be released top-secret files surrounding the controversial subject of extra-terrestrial life in an attempt to answer one of Earth's age-old questions: are aliens real?"
Instead of Keith's usual impassive shake of his head toward the camera when Shiro referenced their usual subject of ghosts, Keith infused a bit of feeling into the unsure shrug he gave the would-be viewers, letting his uncertainty show with a coy smirk. Aliens were probable, and while Keith could be stubborn in his beliefs of the unknown, or any of his beliefs in general, he wasn't a liar. He'd let Shiro present the evidence without complaint, and hopefully he'd get more fuel to fill his alien conspiracy riddled heart in the process.
"To help us find an honest answer to this question, we'll be examining some first-hand accounts from credible witnesses who claim to have seen UFOs up close and in person. We'll also be taking a look at some exclusive never-before-seen footage straight from the Garrison itself. This is top classified information that's been off the public radar for decades, but with the recent disbandment of the organization in charge of these secret files, and Keith and I's close involvement with the Garrison, we've been given first glance at information set to be declassified later this month."
Keith tapped his fingers along the tabletop, earning Shiro's attention immediately. "This better be good stuff, Shirogane, you know I don't like to be played with. This could be like that time you promised me irrefutable audio footage of an inter-dimensional ghost, and all I got was some heavy breathing and what sounded like Lance whimpering in the other room."
"It was not Lance! I'm telling you, it was real communication from beyond because Lance was all the way on the other side of the house eating his cheesesteak when we picked up those audio waves."
"Okay, then. Lance's moaning," Keith corrected with a sly smile toward the camera.
Shiro gaped at him incredulously before he huffed and nodded to himself, slipping into his more comfortable self as their silly banter started—just like Keith knew it would. "All right, tough guy," Shiro said as he straightened his notes on the desk. "Aliens." He gazed at Keith, one eyebrow raised challengingly, practically daring him to treat this case the same as he would their ridiculous ghost cases. "Thoughts?"
It was no secret to Shiro about where Keith stood on the alien belief spectrum, so Keith thought it was funny how Shiro thought he had the upper hand here, like letting everyone know that he actually believed in something supernatural or sci-fi was like betraying his whole skeptic persona their fans had come to know him as. But Shiro was mistaken; Keith had absolutely no problem with letting the world know about his interest in aliens.
Keith joyously leaned forward on his arms as he glanced between the camera and Shiro, who was now sitting back in his chair with his arms folded like he'd just won their ongoing battle of are ghosts real? Keith's gaze finally landed on the camera as he said, with eyebrows raised, "A hundred percent hands down way more believable than unseen ghosts."
Keith had the satisfaction of seeing Shiro sputter at the unashamed confession, but he was quick to drop his arms down onto the table like Keith had done and stare him down. "You believe in aliens?" Shiro said, even they both full well knew that he did. "How can you believe in something that's never been factually seen and confirmed, and yet you scoff at all the thousands of accounts of ghost hauntings recounted around the world every single day?"
"Easy," Keith shrugged. "Anyone with a shred of open-mindedness within the realm of actual possibility would be a fool to think otherwise. I mean, to think that we're it? That the human race is the only thing this giant, beautiful explosion of a galaxy had coughed up in its entirety? No way. There's gotta be other intelligent life out there somewhere, there just has to, because if we're all the universe has to offer, then she ought to be ashamed of herself."
Shiro scoffed, amused. "Who, the universe?"
"Damn, right. So much potential there to expand on intelligent life, and instead she would choose to stop with primal humans," Keith said, going into a dramatic reverie and shaking his head. "Tragic."
"Right," Shiro said, straightening up for the camera once more. "There you have it, folks. We've finally managed to get Keith the Skeptic to believe in something other than his beloved string cheese he carries everywhere, and he finds a way to take it out on Mother Nature. Real winner, this guy."
Keith chuckled as he laced his fingers behind his head, completely at ease with his life's choices. "Just keeping it real, Shirogane. If the aliens come, I'll be the one standing in front of the crowds with a welcome sign doused in gold glitter pointing in our direction that says LAND HERE."
"And, what if they're hostile aliens coming to occupy our planet?"
"Then, I'll become hostile. You think I can't take on a few little bug-eyed creatures? Shiro, please, I've kicked your ass in the sparring room so many times it's embarrassing at this point." Keith glanced toward the camera. "Which, by the way, I've done about—"
"Okay!" Shiro said, voice shrill and cheeks pink. Keith laughed out loud. "Moving on." Shiro mumbled something else beneath his breath, and Keith was almost positive he heard the words when aliens come and dead man uttered.
They dove into the evidence Shiro had collected this past weekend on alien conspiracy theories over the years. Most of the conspiracies and first-hand accounts were things Keith had already read up on in the past when his alien interest had been at an all-time high. He'd be lying if he said his childhood obsession with the stars and aliens and the unknown up in space hadn't led him to becoming a pilot here at the Garrison, the country's most revered school for space travels. He had yet to travel into space on a mission of his own since graduating last year, but Keith took comfort in the long held secretive knowledge that that was soon about to change.
Besides the old-news alien theories Shiro was currently recounting for the camera, there was still the exciting bit that Keith couldn't wait to get to. Just last month, General Iverson had approached them with news of the declassification of top-secret files and footage an obscure branch of the Garrison had silently been working on for nearly a decade. With Shiro's and Keith's academic focus on space exploration and piloting, of course they'd known the existence of such an organization within the Garrison existed, but that's about as much as they knew. They weren't privy to any evidence found and scrutinized, they've never seen any officials reports from that side, it was just nothing but the awareness of such a group.
But so many things were about to change, and one of the perks of being chosen to go on the next flight up into space was that it had moved Shiro and Keith's priority level up to the very top within the hierarchy here. It was the reason the Garrison had prematurely handed over the classified footage to them to discuss in their latest supernatural video because by the time the Garrison planned on rolling out this information to the public, Shiro and Keith were going to be hundreds of thousands of miles into deep space by then.
"Now, it's time to get to the climax," Shiro said as he brought out his data pad.
"That's what he said," Keith said, smirking at the camera and winking.
"Keith!" Shiro admonished, but he never took his eyes off the data pad as he perused through his emails for the classified footage that had been sent to him. "This is a family friendly channel, we cater to all ages so long as they can handle the spooky content."
Keith snorted and rolled his chair closer to Shiro to peer over his shoulder at the tablet. His heart delighted in seeing the slight blush on his best friend's face; it was so goddamn easy to rile him up. "What exactly is spooky about creaky faucets and logical explanations for the odd sounds we hear when we go out to those haunted houses? This is PG at best. Nothing that hasn't ever been seen in a Tim Burton film."
That may have been a stretch since some of the content matter they discussed could get graphic at times, but he did enjoy seeing the blimped up face Shiro made at the comment.
When Shiro rolled the video footage on the tablet, Keith simmered down and watched earnestly at the footage he'd never been able to get his enthusiastic hands on before. From what Shiro was saying for the viewers and what Keith could ascertain from the video itself, this was a low-quality recording of an unidentified aircraft flying at high speeds just above the Atlantic Ocean, traveling at an impressive speed that even the Garrison's top aircraft couldn't compete with.
To Keith, the UFO looked like a tiny little bean floating above the water, the camera quality from the jet distorted enough to only catch the general shape with its monochrome visuals. It wasn't exactly the foolproof evidence he'd been hoping for, but he thought there was something to be said about the fascinating speeds the UFO had managed to achieve. He idly wondered if the shuttle he was scheduled to fly into space with could compete with this UFO.
"Those bastards," Keith said as Shiro finally stopped replaying the video for them. Shiro chuckled once, incredulous, as he carefully laid his tablet down on the table. "Keeping information like this a secret from the world. Where do they get off?"
"You're never satisfied, are you? We've been given this footage as a courtesy since we work here, we're lucky we got to see it at all."
Shiro didn't mention the implication there, how they really were lucky to see this since they wouldn't be here for the publishing, but nobody knew about their mission yet. Only Shiro, Keith, a few close friends, and the top brass of the Garrison. It wasn't customary to keep piloting news like this a secret from the public for so long, but these were special circumstances. Shiro and Keith hadn't wanted their fans to flood the comments section with questions about the mission, so they'd decided to hold off and announce to everyone during their final episode next week.
Keith rolled his eyes at Shiro's humble graciousness. The man was happy with any old bone he was thrown. "What does this prove? That someone out there has a faster aircraft than the U.S., big surprise. America can act like top dog, but we don't come from the proudest of beginnings. Just ask Columbus."
"Okay!" Shiro said, voice high, clearly not wanting to start that debate. "While I agree with you on the Columbus point, I gotta say it's a little disheartening seeing your lack of patriotism. You work under the government, for the government, and for this country's scientific advancement on space intel, so I wonder sometimes why you ever got into this line of work."
"I didn't come here for the goddamn country, I came here for myself. I want to know for myself what lies beyond our blue and green home, and I've learned that if I want things done, I gotta do them myself. So, here I am working at the Galaxy Garrison for my own damn advancement, and fuck everyone else who thinks I owe them shit."
Keith nodded to the camera proudly, satisfied with his honest confession even if he knew he was going to have to cut that rant out so he didn't get reprimanded by Iverson, who was actually a pretty big fan of their web show, but it felt good to pretend for a second. Pretend that he could say whatever he wanted and be honest with no repercussions.
Shiro chuckled to himself as he shook his head and glanced bashfully back at the camera. "You're such an anomaly. Just when I think I have you figured out, you go and say something that just blows my mind, and then I have to reconfigure you all over again."
"I gotta keep everyone on their toes, otherwise what do I got going for me?"
Shiro elbowed him playfully in the arm, and Keith noticed that he never pushed his chair away from its cozy spot practically right on top of Shiro. "You know full well that you have the world at your fingertips right now. Quit downplaying yourself; you're amazing, Keith."
"Aww," Keith cooed, and he reached up to pinch Shiro's cheek playfully. "Isn't that just so sweet?"
"Quit it!" Shiro laughed, yanking his face out of Keith's delicate hold. "See if I ever say anything nice to you again." Shiro tried hard to keep his face neutral as he gathered his notes and pretended to focus on those, but Keith knew he could get the man to crack effortlessly.
Keith pffted. "As if you could stop yourself, Mr. Sunshine. It's in your DNA to pass out compliments to everyone. I swear, you've got the soul of an eighty-year-old grandma living inside that twenty-five-year-old ripped body of yours."
Shiro blushed madly, the red tint reaching all the way to the tips of his ears this time as he tried and failed to suppress an embarrassed close-lipped smile at the camera, and Keith laughed heartily at the sight. Too damn easy.
Keith leaned forward and studied Shiro's comically frozen face before he glanced toward the camera and whispered conspiratorially to the viewers, "I think we finally broke him. Who would have known it'd be me to do it instead of the endless number of ghosts we visit, huh?"
Keith suspected Shiro was playing this up as a means to end the video on a humorous note, so Keith waved a hand in front of Shiro's face very pointedly before he chuckled once more and talked to the camera. "I guess that's the end of our debate here tonight. Come back next time to decide if Shiro ever came back to himself or if this is actually an alien possession happening before your very eyes. You be the judge. This is Keith and Shiro signing out, and remember to tune in next week to our finale episode where we've got some major news to share with you all. Trust us," Keith waved his hand in front of Shiro again before facing the viewers solemnly. "You won't want to miss this."
Keith went back to waving his hand again, and after a couple more seconds of this charade, Shiro burst into laughter, shoving Keith away with a hand to his face.
"You're the worst," Shiro laughed as Keith got up to click the video recorder off. The little red light went out, and Keith shrugged at Shiro, his lips still twinging in amusement.
"You know the fans'll eat that shit up," Keith said, and they both knew exactly what he was referencing. It hadn't taken long since the first episode aired for people to point out the awesome chemistry between the two of them, the easy banter they held even with their differing beliefs in the supernatural. If anything, people seemed to soak that shit up more since they were opposites in that way, and so seeing the theories of what the fans had so cleverly nicknamed "sheith" becoming a couple were commonplace after two whole years of doing this supernatural web show together.
It didn't bother them though, not like how some of their more casual fans had feared. Shiro was Keith's best friend, and they couldn't help how other people interpreted their little interactions together. The way they sometimes brushed arms against each other with ease and didn't pull back. The way Keith always knew what to say to reel the fear back in Shiro when their adventures got a bit too much. The way they invaded each other's personal space like they had every right to, and the way they shot flirty comments each other's way every now and then. They knew how their close friendship could appear to some people, but they didn't mind it because they knew where they stood with each other. They were best friends, and nothing more.
At least, that's what Keith kept trying to tell himself.
He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel something more for his best friend. He kind of figured that out once when he caught himself thinking that Shiro looked adorably cute when he had a dab of strawberry ice cream on his nose. He hadn't even thought about it before he'd wiped it away with his finger and slipped it into his own mouth to lick it clean until after he saw the stunned look on Shiro's face. At the time, the only thought that had been running through his mind was one along the lines of oh shit shit shit, I must have crossed some invisible boundary, how do I fix this? To which his answer to his own question had bubbled out of him in the form of a forced laugh and a strong declaration for his love of strawberry.
Keith, in fact, hated strawberry, but that was now a trivial secret he had to keep to himself.
It was just hard not to like the guy when he was literally the nicest person Keith had ever known. Shiro walked the halls of the Garrison like the golden boy he was, and no one dragged him for it. There was no reason to when Shiro was absent of arrogance and full of a genuine kindness that radiated from his every fiber. You'd have to be some kind of asshole to say anything against an angel like Shiro, someone who bravely faced the skies at a high velocity and yet trembled in his boots at the sound of a pin drop in a haunted house.
Keith was his total opposite. He shrugged off company and kept to himself, graduating at the top of his class, and yet hardly anyone really knew who the true Keith Kogane was even twenty-three years into his life. And he preferred it that way. Growing up in an orphanage had taught him that if he kept everyone at a distance, he wouldn't have to feel bad or guilty or sad when he eventually moved on to his next venture, leaving behind people who would miss him and who he would miss in return. Why go through that trouble when he could avoid it all?
But his relationship with Shiro was different. For the time being, their interests clashed and had practically been woven together with how much they studied the same subjects and shared the same goals. He'd figured out pretty early on that Shiro was someone he was going to be crossing paths with a lot in his time here in the Garrison, so when Shiro had attempted a real friendship with him in the form of starting this supernatural web show, Keith had welcomed it, and they never looked back.
Now here he was, standing behind a tripod and watching Shiro hustle his papers away into his bag, hopelessly pining after the only person he'd ever fully let into his life, and Keith could probably rank the current state of his mind as one of the top five most confusing times of his life, second only to the awful summer in his teen hood when he'd tried to figure out if a mohawk would look good on his head as opposed to a slick fade. The mullet seemed to do it for him now, along with the occasional ponytail, and Keith was glad that dark time was behind him.
Shiro stood up from the table and slung his bag over his head, gripping onto the strap in front with both thumbs hooked on. "So, where to? Pizza or chicken wings?"
Keith blinked at him, trying to push away the intense feelings coursing through him. Get a grip, Kogane.
"Uh, pizza. Pizza's cool. I still want to see if we can teach Mabel how to make that Mothman monster of a pizza." Keith moaned deliciously and tilted his head back, remembering the sweet taste of such a delicious pie on his tongue. When he detached the video camera from the tripod and closed up the legs of it, he took in the blush back on Shiro's face. He had his lips sucked in between his teeth as he gazed purposely away from Keith, like if they didn't make eye contact, then Keith wouldn't be able to see the color in his cheeks. Keith snorted, and said, "Pizza get you going, Shiro? If you wanted that to start with, you coulda just said so. I don't care what we eat as long as we get it in the next fifteen minutes because I'm starving. All that talk about aliens really gets me going."
Shiro cleared his throat as Keith carefully slid the video camera into its case and put it away before he leaned the tripod against the wall. "No, it's not—" Shiro sighed and finally gazed back at Keith through playful, narrowed eyes. "Will you just hurry up before I take off without you?"
"Don't make threats, Shiro. We all know you're a soft pit bull, okay? All bark and no bite."
Shiro scoffed and reached around for Keith to trap him in a headlock, running his knuckles through Keith's already messy hair. "I'll show you pitbull, you kitten."
They got to the diner in less than ten minutes with the way Keith drove, speeding past all the stop signs on the desolate roads with his hover bike as he raced against nothing to get the two of them there to Mabel's Diner for their post-video meal. They did this every week after they filmed their video as a way to wind down. It was just routine now. Film on Thursday evening, grab a bite to eat afterward; then on Friday, Keith got done teaching his classes earlier than Shiro did, so he spent a majority of the afternoon editing the video to their liking, dropping the boring bits and the embarrassing glimpses, and putting together a scary story of a haunted house with their colorful commentary for everyone to enjoy. Once Shiro joined him in the evening and looked over the finished product, they uploaded it to their page and waited for the comments to roll in while they sat back with a few peanut butter and jelly sandwiches Shiro usually picked up from Hunk on his way to Keith.
It was something the two of them had looked forward to each week, the regular course of a routine making Keith feel safe and secure in where he was at with his life. He wanted to think Shiro felt the same, and truthfully, the man had never given any inclination that this side gig of theirs was too demanding on their lives. If anything, it strengthened their bond, gave them something else to talk about and explore together because Keith certainly wouldn't be roaming around the country investigating haunted houses on his own. He didn't think Shiro was too keen on that idea, either.
"Can I ask you something?" Shiro said as he wiped at his mouth with a clean napkin, eyeing Keith hesitantly. The look immediately put him on alert, and he hurriedly finished chewing his slice of sausage pizza before dropping the rest down to his plate.
"Anything."
Shiro chewed on his lips for a moment, swirling the tip of his finger on the tabletop before he said, "Do you really believe in aliens?"
There was no hint of teasing in his voice like there'd been earlier in their Unsolved office, and Shiro was gazing at him with thinly veiled apprehension, a look that tugged at Keith's heart.
Keith wiped at his mouth with his greasy napkin. "I mean, I think there's something else out there. Something intelligent like us, maybe even more so. But I don't really think they're like little green, bug-eyed creatures, you know? They probably look like us, or some variation of us."
Shiro nodded, more so to himself, and he seemed to battle with himself, debating whether or not to say something, before he let out a nervous laugh. "You're gonna think it's silly."
"Shiro," Keith said as he folded his hands beneath his chin. "I already think everything you say is silly and ridiculous when it comes to the supernatural, so go ahead and say it."
Shiro kept his gaze for a few more seconds, searching for something Keith was hoping he'd find. Then, his shoulders slumped. "They're just nightmares, you know? I've been having them all week since I started gathering a case for this week's Unsolved episode. It's mostly just being out there in space and encountering hostile aliens. Just… I don't know." Shiro sighed, and his muscles were taught with words unsaid. Keith wanted to grill him for more, take all of Shiro's worry away and ease his heart until nothing but excitement for their upcoming trip stayed, but he also didn't want to push Shiro, especially here at a diner with prying ears.
Instead, he pushed the tray of their diminished supply of pizza aside and rested his hand on Shiro's arm, immediately grabbing the other man's attention. Shiro's skin was warm beneath his fingers, and his gaze was soft and expectant on his, and Keith loved every bit of it.
"Have I ever told you how much you obsess over the little things?" Keith said, and Shiro gathered an indignant breath to interrupt, but Keith rushed on before he could. "I'm not patronizing, I swear. I just wish you wouldn't do that to yourself. You do it all the time, and then your mind goes into overdrive with all that can go wrong. You spend so much time stuck in your head that you forget the bright side. In two weeks, we're going to fucking space, dude! Farther than anyone's ever been, and we get to do that together. I honestly couldn't have planned it better myself. It's so perfect, Shiro, and you're sitting here worrying about the worst case scenario. What happened to the man who's supposed to be the positive to my negative, huh?"
He nudged his arm at the end, enough to shake a small smile loose from that tense frown Shiro was wearing. A much better sight that eased a bit of weight off of Keith's chest.
"I'm right here," Shiro said softly, and he laid his hand on top of Keith's on his arm. Keith's heart rate sped up at the touch, and he tried to control his breathing, which wanted to run wild all of a sudden. "Of course I know you're right, and of course I'm ecstatic to be given this opportunity, made even better by the fact that my copilot is going to be my best friend, but I really can't shake this feeling like something big is gonna happen."
"Something big is gonna happen. We're gonna land on that moon, and we're gonna collect as much data as we can before time's up. We might even get to dance with whatever friendly creatures we might find inhabiting the surface, if there even is anything there to find. They could probably teach us a thing or two of their customs so we don't give them a reason to be hostile."
Shiro laughed at that, and Keith was relieved to see the lingering tension leave his shoulders with the action, finally succumbing to Keith's fruitful imagination.
"As long as I get the first dance. You promise?" Shiro said, and his eyes still looked a bit vulnerable despite the cleared tension in the air. Keith thought maybe Shiro was asking him to promise so much more, and even though he didn't know exactly what he was agreeing to, Keith would give it to him. He'd give Shiro whatever peace of mind he needed and still keep his promises.
"Promise," Keith said, squeezing Shiro's arm with the single word of reassurance. His heart lit up when Shiro tightened his grip on Keith's hand, a warm grip he'd only imagined feeling in his dreams at night.
They finished up their pizza, and Shiro drove back this time, joking that he wanted to make it back in one piece. As the wind whipped through Keith's hair, biting him on this chilly night through the desert, he squeezed Shiro a bit harder around the waist, silently sending him good vibes and hoping Shiro woke up a newly refreshed person in the morning.
This story is completely done, so I'll be updating regularly. I hope you guys liked this so far, thanks for reading! :)