hello! I was looking up prompts and saw this one and thought, why not write a Klance fic on it? this is my first VLD fic, so I apologise if the characters are a bit OOC. I *should've* planned everything out so that there are no plot holes, but if it happens I'll deal with it then; I was too impatient and couldn't wait to post the first chapter lol.

unfortunately, while planning I couldn't fit Allura in anywhere so this fic won't feature her, sorry!

**this chapter has thoughts of feeling insignificant and implied suicidal thoughts**

At the ungodly hour of three in the morning Keith was on his phone scrolling aimlessly across various social media platforms. It wasn't unusual, and he had long accepted it as the norm - staying up either to work on pieces of art or simply because he couldn't fall asleep. Or didn't want to, he couldn't tell. Either way, the point was that he was used to the quiet of the small hours, and definitely not his phone vibrating, causing more noise than he thought possible.

The call was from an unfamiliar number, but definitely one from his region. Having nothing else to do and feeling adventurous, Keith answered the call.

"Hello?" Keith cringed at the sound of his voice. He hadn't spoken aloud in five hours, after all.

"Holy quiznak! I can't believed it actually worked!" The voice was unexpectedly loud and Keith held his phone away from his ear before turning the volume down. The caller also sounded young, which relaxed Keith a bit, at least it wasn't some creep. Now, the only other real question he had was why, but first -

"What worked?"

"Your number. Or well, I put in random digits that just happened to be your number." Keith couldn't suppress a groan. Of course he would be the one to randomly receive a call from a stranger.

"Oh," the caller sounded hesitant, "I woke you didn't I?"

"Nah, nah, it's okay. I was doing art and couldn't get to sleep, you're lucky you got my number and instead of someone actually asleep, imagine how angry they'd be." There was a pause, like neither of them knew what to do, or to say. Keith decided to take the next step forwards. "Um, what's up? I've never had a stranger call me at 3AM before."

"Well I've never called anyone at 3AM before," came the sheepish reply.

"You're joking."

"Not at all, actually."

Keith saw his chance to ask the burning question, and he took it. "Then why now?"

"I felt lonely." The caller's emotion dropped and Keith couldn't help but feel empathetic.

"Oh?" Keith wanted to help, even though he wasn't really benefitting from this, at least he could feel good about making someone else feel better.

"Yeah, it's just- the whole universe, it's so big, you know? Are we- do we even mean anything? The milky way is one of at least a hundred billion galaxies, our solar system is this tiny section of the milky way, and our Earth is merely a spec in our solar system. So what does that make us? We are like a single grain of sand on Earth, and so what does that make us compared to the entire universe?" Keith could hear the stranger take in a deep breath, and hoped they wouldn't start crying on him.

"Whoa, hey there buddy, you alright?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get so deep."

"Don't apologise, it's fine-"

"Sorry."

"I just said-"

"Oh shit, sorry - fuck! Sor-" Stranger, as Keith had dubbed them, chuckled, and it was a warm, melodic noise to Keith's ears.

"ANYWAYS, it's okay, I get you, I think about that a lot too." Keith wasn't lying, staying up often meant he was alone with only his thoughts for company, and it was the one time he let his mind wander unrestricted. Keith wouldn't be lying either if he had said that he was kept up occasionally by these kinds of daunting thoughts, he tried keeping them in the back of his mind as he felt uneasy thinking about such things, but it was hard in the darkness.

"You do? Glad I'm not the only one. On a lighter note, do you wanna know how I make myself feel better? It may help you." Stranger sounded happier, and it brought a small smile to Keith's lips.

"Sure, I'm all ears."

"I just start thinking about all the people I have in my life. Maybe I don't mean anything to the galaxies or even the world, but I mean something to them at least, right? And even if I'm not their world I do feature in their life book, if you think of it that way. I'm not popular at school but that doesn't matter, I have two best friends whom I wouldn't trade for all the popularity in the world. And my family, sure they get on my nerves more often than not but I still love them endlessly. The point, I guess, is that I just try to appreciate what I have, and it may be cliché but it works."

"Hm… Yeah, won't work for me." Keith knew he was being unfair, Stranger knew nothing about him, but he couldn't help being just a bit mysterious.

"Why not? You haven't even tried it yet!" Keith could tell Stranger was getting annoyed, and knew it was time to explain before his little act backfired in his face.

"I don't need to, I don't have a family." It was a lie, and Keith knew it was, but damn he loved being melodramatic.

"But you still- wait, what?" Here it comes, the full explanation. Having to tell the tale so many times Keith couldn't help but do it monotonically, indifferently even.

"Yeah, I lost my parents when I was six, and was adopted less than half a year later - officially, anyway, I started living with my adoptive family the day my parents died. Don't get me wrong, I love my adoptive family but it's not the same as my biological family you know? And it wasn't like I was so young that I couldn't remember them, I still do. I remember how my parents would laugh and dance around the house on a lazy Sunday, teach me how to paint, and kiss my injuries whenever I hurt myself. Maybe I didn't know them for that long but it doesn't mean I can't miss them. And it hurts, I'm not going to lie. I wouldn't trade my adoptive family for the world but sometimes I can't help but think of what it would have been like if my parents hadn't died, and maybe somehow I could join them to start making up for all the lost time. So yeah, I know I mean something to someone, but that someone could've been my mum or my dad and it's not." Wow, Keith was not expecting that to turn so intense; towards the end he did show emotion and his tone did change and he was tearing up but there were no takebacks now.

However, that didn't mean he couldn't regret it. Stranger hadn't responded and Keith was afraid he had frightened them off, yet the call hadn't been disconnected.

"Hello?" Keith tried his luck one more time but to no avail, he wasn't going to get a response. "Oh, bye."

Almost disappointedly, Keith hung up the phone.

depending on how efficient I am, this could well be finished within two weeks, I'm on school holidays right now and have nothing to do :)

so, what do you think? let me know by leaving a review!