Written for Day 14 of Sheith Month: Meteor Shower.
"Where are we going?" Shiro asked, half-laughing, but allowed Keith to draw him along without protest anyway.
"Just come on," Keith smiled slightly, looking over his shoulder at Shiro, "you'll see."
Shiro had to catch himself from a mild stumble at the sight of Keith's smile, playful and excited, accompanied by warm eyes and . . . soft somehow. He smiled back. It had been . . . a long time since he had seen that look on Keith's face - since . . . weeks before his departure on the Kerberos mission. If all it took to put it there - keep it there - was Shiro running after him for mysterious purposes in the middle of the night, Shiro was more than willing, and he didn't care where.
Besides, Keith had swept him off like this before with no explanation, in the middle of the night or between duties or once, memorably, in the middle of one of Shiro's classes - Shiro still couldn't figure out how he'd managed to get in, get to Shiro, and drag Shiro out without attracting notice - and it was always something. . .
Well. Fun. Something special.
Shiro's smile softened as he remembered those times before, but he tucked the memories away to pay attention to what was happening now.
He was surprised as Keith pulled him into Red's hangar, but apparently he was the only one. As soon as the doors opened, Red rose and moved towards them, lowering her head and opening her jaws in welcome. Keith hadn't even slowed down.
"Where are we going?" Shiro couldn't help but ask again, eyes wide, squeezing Keith's hand.
Keith's grin widened, but he didn't answer, shaking his head and pulling Shiro up and into his Lion. Shiro shook his head but didn't hesitate to follow, and stood comfortably behind Keith's chair as he settled into it, holding onto the back with one hand. Red rumbled, low but loud, and in a few moments they were soaring out of the Castle entirely.
Shiro knew how fast Red and Keith were, but he got an up-close reminder as Keith didn't even pause, punching up the speed and blasting away from the Castle. Shiro slid his hand down to rest on Keith's shoulder - he didn't really need the grip for stabilisation anyway; he was steady on his feet and Keith flew smoothly, for all their speed, as long as no one was shooting at him.
Keith lifted his head and looked up at Shiro, that smile still warming his face, and Shiro bit his lip and smiled back, toes curling in his boots.
It was maybe half an hour before they stopped - how far could Red have flown in half an hour? Shiro wondered suddenly - and Shiro wasn't sure where they were, still floating in space, though it was pretty here. They were near several planets, all of them swirling blue and purple. He trusted that Keith had brought them somewhere safe - as safe as open space could be - and didn't ask.
"Here." Keith said, sliding his fingers down Shiro's inner forearm and clasping his hand. He tugged gently until Shiro bent and perched on the side of the pilot's seat with him. "No, don't look at me," he laughed, eyes bright, stroking the back of Shiro's hand with his thumb, "watch!"
Shiro didn't know what he was supposed to be watching, but he obediently looked out Red's viewscreens. It was a lovely little corner of space, although-
Shiro's breath caught as a pinprick of nearly golden light swept through space some distance in front of them. At first he thought it was a ship, and then he realised it was a meteoroid only in time to notice three more spinning after it. His eyes widened.
Each of them - comets? - trailed an almost-gold streak of sparks behind them, and more poured through the open space every moment, in a slow, steady increase. Shiro grinned, tightening his hand around Keith's, weaving their fingers together.
"How did you even know this was happening?" Shiro asked softly, not wanting to disturb the moment. Keith leaned against him with a quiet murmur that wasn't an answer, but Shiro didn't ask again, glancing down at him and then back out at the . . . show.
Keith had taken him to see a meteor shower once back on Earth - it hadn't been on the Garrison's alerts, no one had seen it coming, Shiro had no idea how Keith had figured it out himself, but he had, somehow, and had dragged Shiro off without explanation. They had curled up on the edge of a cliff, Keith's hoverbike still warm behind them, and Keith had refused to explain what they were doing there, and then the silver-golden and bright streaks had slowly begun to shoot across the sky.
It was one of Shiro's fondest memories, soft-edged and almost surreal, the night sky close around him and Keith and the glowing meteors lighting up the desert.
"Red knew." Keith said quietly as even more bright streaks appeared, stroking Shiro's knuckles with his thumb and leaning more snugly into Shiro's side, head nudging against him. "She knew it was coming and when she saw, in my memories," Shiro's throat tightened as Keith paused, and he smoothed his thumb over Keith's lightly, "she showed me, so that we could bring you."
"Thank you." Shiro said, to both of them, squeezing Keith's hand and lifting his other to gently brush one of the steering columns. Red pulled it away from him, but she rumbled around them, low and friendly. "It's beautiful." Shiro said as he dropped his hand, eyes fixed on the light show ahead of them again.
I woke up one day last week at 4am, randomly had this idea, and wrote it in about 40 minutes before going back to sleep. Apparently my sleepy brain likes fluff.