The sky was beautiful. In all the madness that was his life, that was the one thing Keith knew. The sky was beautiful.

There were the stars, shining rays of light, pin pricks in a great silky blanket. Unlike the harsh jarring burn of the sun, the stars were soothing, something Keith could stare at for hours on end. When his eyes were screaming at him to go to sleep, he would still stay up and watch.

And then the meteors, fragments of greatness, the "fifteen minutes of fame" for the sky, burning too quickly and leaving too much of an impression for that.

On the other hand, comets were something beyond the sky he always saw, a miracle that would only grace Earth every couple of decades at best. It was weird to say, that Keith was grateful for their eternalness, a remainder that something would at least always stay the same, even when their cities crumbled and humans were nothing but a footnote in history, the comets would still come and look in their worldliness and smile.

But his favorite was the moon. Its soft silver glow, its beauty in every phase it was in, its reassuring presence. Wherever he was, the moon was there, circling the Earth. While the rest of the cosmos were beyond Earth, beyond the tiny little humans that lived there, the moon's universe was Earth. It made him feel gooey and warm whenever he saw the moon smiling at them in the sky.

Yes, Keith loved the sky.

Step 1: Boil 2 cups of water.

Step 2: Add noodles, breaking up as desired.

Step 3: Cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Step 4: Stir in seasoning from Ramen flavor packet.

Really, Keith didn't know why he even bothered reading the instructions anymore. They were practically ingrained his brain by now. Maybe he did it to try and fool himself into thinking that this wasn't his nightly dinner, and only something he broke out every couple of months when he was feeling lazy or nostalgic. Either way, he read them, put the water to boil, and then walked out on his patio to stare at the night sky.

There was a slight breeze in the air, and Keith had to brush his bangs from his face more than a few times while taking the small walk to the battered old lawn chair that rested at the edge of his yard.

The chair had become accustomed to weight over the years, and it hardly shifted when he sank down, the tacky plastic pressing against his back. Relaxing into the chair with a sigh, he looked towards the sky and watched as the stars twinkled. Virgo was rising tonight.

Then, bright as a diamond but twice as fleeting, a spark shuddered against the sky and disappeared. Keith paid it no mind.

That is, until the ground against his feet rumbled and one of his chair's legs broke. Then he paid it mind.

"What the…" He sprang up from his now-broken chair and looked at the sky. A trail of sliver was painted across it. And it ended at the field across his yard.

He was lucky he was an expert at it, because the fence hardly scraped his thighs when he jumped it.

The ground looked like it had been beset by a minor earthquake, and spindly thin cracks were in the red-brown ground, closer to compacted dust than it was to any kind of dirt.

Then the cracks opened up into gorges, and Keith was pulling his feet out of them periodically, shaking the dust off his boots and hoping he didn't disturb any scorpions. He was running so fast that he didn't even notice the crater before he nearly fell into it.

The crater was large, probably twice the side of his old kiddy pool when he was younger, but was strangely shallow, maybe five feet deep. But the strangest thing was that a girl was laying in the center of it, and Keith had to blink twice to make sure she was real.

Her hair was white as sand in travel brochures and was splayed out from her like a fresh stream trickling off a mountain, gleaming like gold. She looked as delicate as porcelain, but the skin on her hands was rough and calloused like she had worked her whole life and before it. The cloths looked like liquid silver, slinking into a dress made for a fairytale princess from a sci-fi movie.

Keith breathed, "Holy shit," and then eyes with no identifiable color looked back at him.

The moon shone duller than usual.

The girl said her name was Allura, and her voice sounded like ripples in a lake, hypnotizing for no reason at all. She also had no preference between beef and chicken ramen, mostly because she didn't know what that meant.

"You know, beef is from a cow, like…" Keith muttered it beneath his breath, staring at the ground. "…moo."

"What was that?" Allura asked, question peeking with innocence as she sat on his kitchen counter. "I couldn't quite hear you."

"Moo, like, a cow, you know?" Keith said, swallowing his shame at being 20 and saying "moo" to a completely strange, beautiful girl he had found in a field at exactly 9:12 pm.

"What is…a cow?"

Keith looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "'What is a cow'?"

Allura nodded eagerly, eyes brightening with curiosity.

"Just…" Keith pulled out his phone, going to his partner-in-crime: google images. "Here." He handed her his phone and she took it, pinching it between pointer finger and thumb.

But Allura seemed to have completely disregarded cows since the next thing she said was, "What is this?" She sniffed it, and opened her mouth and –

"No!" Keith jumped forward and grabbed his phone from her hands, barely a centimeter from her mouth. "It's not food!"

"I simply thought it might have been the 'beef ramen' you keep talking about," Allura said, looking genuinely apologetic.

Keith sighed, "No. It's a phone." Allura still looked confused so he added, "Like a mini computer. An electronic device. Not. For. Consumption."

"What does this 'mini computer' –" Allura said the words strange, stretching the syllables and letting it lay choppy on her tongue. "– do?"

"You can google stuff, play video games, call friends halfway around the world…" Keith trailed off as Allura continued to stare at him with a blank face. "…do – do you know what any of that means?"

Allura shook her head no.

"Give me a moment."

His laundry room was a great hiding spot, Keith found out. Especially for making private phone calls.

"Shiro, you got to believe me. There's this girl, and she's in my kitchen, and I don't think she knows anything about the modern world!"

Shiro chuckled. "Okay, sure Keith. You do know April Fools is still seven months away, right?"

"I'm not kidding, Shiro!" he hissed. "I am 100% completely serious."

"Keith, you said the same exact thing when you were trying to convince me that a random pigeon you had found was somehow Pidge after a science experiment gone wrong. Sue me if I have some doubts that Interplanet Janet somehow managed to crash land in your yard."

"It's true!" Keith protested. "I'll send you a picture! Will that prove it to you?"

Shiro sighed. "Sure."

….

….

….

"I'm coming over as soon as possible!"

"You better," Keith said.

There were four knocks on his door, and Keith opened it to see his four friends standing behind it. And then they immediately pushed past him into the house.

"So, Keith, where is this lovely lady I've been hearing about?" Lance asked, making his "I'm going to pick up a girl tonight" face. Keith glared at him.

"Don't even think about it. Shiro, make sure he doesn't think about it."

Shiro slapped Lance on the back and said in his best commanding voice, "Don't even think about it."

"Fine, fine," Lance relented. "But if she thinks about it…"

"Trust me, she won't," Pidge said, darting past her taller companions to peer into the kitchen. An orange and black backpack was strapped on her back.

"Hey-" Lance started to protest, before Pidge interrupted.

"Is that her?" Pidge pointed to where Allura was sitting, but not intruding. Yet.

"Of course," Keith answered.

"She's right there? I wanna see!" Hunk ran over to where Pidge was standing, and stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh, wow. She's pretty."

"Let me see!" Lance crashed into Pidge and Hunk in his hurry, and the three tumbled onto the ground.

Allura poked her head into the hallway, eyes shining. "Keith, are these your friends?"

Keith ran a hand over his face, regretting his decision already.

They had moved into the living room and were sitting on his worn-down couches, Pidge set up on the coffee table in the center.

"So, let me get this straight, you're like some weird alien lady from the great beyond?" Hunk asked, looking Allura up and down with skepticism.

"I…I don't remember where I came from, so you could be right," Allura said politely.

"So you have some form of amnesia?" Shiro said.

"Am..nes..i- amnesia! Yes, it think that's it!" Allure brightened, as if being diagnosed with amnesia was somehow a good thing.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if you're an alien because, baby, you're out of this wo-"

"Lance!" Shiro and Keith both growled.

"Sorry! I was just trying to give the lady a taste of what she can have." Lance slipped an arm around Allura's shoulders, but she shrugged it off.

"I don't think I really want whatever you have." With that the group burst out into laughter.

"Ha! Classic Lance-styled rejection," Pidge snorted, hooking up another set of cables she had pulled from her backpack. Keith winced. His poor electricity bill.

Pidge evidently finished setting up whatever she was doing, because she pulled out a small grey microphone and shoved it into Allura's face. "Can you say something into the mic?"

"What?"

"Good enough." Pidge turned to her laptop, and started frantically typing on the keys.

"Oh-kay." Allura turned back to them, looking confused.

"That's just Pidge," explained Shiro. "Which reminds me, Pidge, do you have any sample bags?"

"Sure." Pidge grabbed a small plastic bag out of her backpack and tossed it to Shiro. "Why?"

"I'd just like to get a sample from the crater. See if there's anything unusual in the soil." He glanced at Keith. "Coming with?"

"Nah," Keith declined. "I'd rather make sure Handsy-Mcgrabgrab doesn't try anymore 'moves'."

"Hey!" Lance protested, and Keith heard his back door swing shut as Shiro disappeared from the room.

"That's…pretty fair, Lance," Hunk pointed out.

"Hmmph," Lance scoffed. "I'm gonna raid your fridge for that comment, Keith."

"Oh! I'll come with!" Hunk said. "You still have those cabbages I gave you, right?"

"Yeah. Not sure what you think I'd do with them," Keith said.

Hunk narrowed his eyes. "Maybe eat something other than ramen noodles?"

Keith shrugged. "Meh."

Then it was only him and Allura, and Pidge's typing in the background.

"Is it common for people to steal your food?" Allura asked, glancing back at Pidge as she continued to focus only on her computer screen.

"For these losers? Yes," Keith answered, propping his feet up on the coffee table with a thump.

"Losers? I thought they were your friends?"

"Losers…is a term of endearment among us," Keith said carefully.

"Oh…alright, loser." Allura grinned, wide and bright. Pidge snorted.

His friends ended up leaving once it hit 10:45, Pidge and Shiro promising to give them the results of their individual tests soon. Hunk had left them with stir fry for a late dinner, and Keith found out that he had way more vegetables than he had thought.

After dinner, Keith set up a cot in the living room for Allura. He didn't have enough money to shell out for a hotel, nor did it seem like a good idea anyway. Allura had spent five minutes flicking his lights on and off, so he didn't know how she would deal with an elevator.

"You can sleep here for the night," he declared, making Allura look up from her latest quest: opening and closing the freezer door over and over again.

"Sleep?" Allura asked, staring at the pillow in his hand curiously.

"You don't know what sleep is?" Now this was insane.

"I know what it is," Allura said, and Keith gave an internal sigh of relief. "But why now? I'm not even tired."

"You will be in the morning, trust me."

Allura squinted her eyes at the pillow, before looking at him, questioning, again. And then she walked over and grabbed the pillow from his arms. "Okay."

Keith just walked into the kitchen when – "Allura, did you sleep at all last night?"

"Of course I did." Allura rubbed at her eyes, shuffling from foot to foot. "What makes you think I didn't?"

"The fact that you're pouring cereal directly onto the floor." Allura looked down, and sheepishly stopped pouring the cereal box.

"I…don't know how this quite works yet."

"Ok." Keith rolled his eyes and went to power up his computer, an old hunker from the early 2000's. "Take a seat next to me. We're going to find out where you come from."

"Really?" Allura dragged a chair over and sat down. "You can do it just like that?"

"Well, it's no guarantee…" Keith pulled up google and typed in, "countries' flags". "But if you recognize any of these, maybe it'll show which area you came from."

The first one that popped up was, of course, the American flag.

"That one." Allura pointed to the screen. "I remember that one."

Keith nodded to himself. Off to a good start. It's not like that was basically one of the most well-known flags in the world. Yep.

But unfortunately, Allura didn't seem to recognize any other ones.

"Seems like you probably live in the US," Keith said, powering down the computer. "At least the information we need will probably be easier to find-" He looked over to Allura and sighed. She was passed out in his chair.

And it worked like that. Allura would take naps during the day, and stay up all night. Anytime she wasn't asleep during the day, they looked for more clues on where she came from. That was their routine. Until Lance came over.

"Dude, you totally got to come to this party's Rolo throwing! I heard he spent, like, three days planning it."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Keith dismissed, moving to shut the door.

"What? Come on!" Lance pushed past him defiantly. "This is gonna be awesome! You can't miss it!"

"You know I don't like Rolo," reminded Keith. "And if I remember, you don't either."

"Well, yeah, but-" Lance shuffled nervously.

"You just want to try – and fail – to hit on Nyma again."

"Well – she's hot!" Lance said defensively.

"And has handcuffed you to a tree seven times."

"But I think tonight might be my shot!" Lance insisted.

Keith groaned, "Bye, Lance."

"But the party-"

"Party?" A new voice entered the fray. Keith tensed. Allura.

Lance nodded. "Yeah, at Rolo's." He grinned, his glinting mischievously. "You know, he invited Keith and you. And he'd love if you attend."

"No-"

"Yes!" Allura squealed, grabbing his hand. "Keith and I would love to attend!"

"Great! See you at 7." Lance winked at them. "You know the address."

Keith wanted to die.

The lights were dimmed, bad rap music was pounding through the speakers, and it smelled like beer and idiocy. But at least Pidge was there, with her results back.

"I'm telling you it was inconclusive!" Pidge shouted. It was their third time trying to have this conservation, and this was the first time Keith had actually heard what she said. "Her accent doesn't fit any one in the archives, though it hit close for a British or New Zealand one. But like I said, nothing conclusive."

Keith groaned. "Damn it. Did you send Shiro's soil sample to your dad's lab?"

"Yep. But it broke down under testing."

"What? Is that even possible?"

"Well, yeah. It didn't just 'disappear', you know. It admitted a gas. It probably had a negative chemical reaction to the stuff in the lab. But it's not normal for Arizona soil."

"I think I got that." Keith rubbed his hand over his face. All their tests, and they all lead to nothing. "Thanks, Pidge. I think I'm gonna head home now. Have you seen Allura?"

They had parted when Pidge had dragged him over to the snack table to talk, and Lance had grabbed Allura to take her to the makeshift dance floor.

"Uh…ask Lance?"

"Yeah, I will."

Lance bounded up to them, a stupid grin on his face. "Ask me what, Keithy?"

"Don't call me that," Keith growled. "Where's Allura?"

"Guess what?" Lance exclaimed, before proudly brandishing the palm of his hand. "I got Nyma's number!"

Pidge adjusted her glasses and squinted at the number on Lance's palm. "Lance, that's the number for Wong's Chinese Restaurant."

"Wait, really?"

"Lance." Keith glared at him. "Allura."

"Oh, yeah, I sorta of left her when I went to go talk to Nyma."

"You what?"

"She'll be easy to find, don't worry," Lance dismissed, but he was trying to avoid looking Keith in the eyes.

Keith groaned and resisted the urge to chew out Lance, instead resolving to search for Allura on his own. He stormed over to the dance floor, her last known location, and stopped in his tracks. She was...

The colorful lights were bouncing off of her, making her white hair look like an array of pinks, blue, purples, and greens. She was dancing, off-beat and but happy, laughing and smiling at nothing. Keith heard his heartbeat loud and clear. He hardly noticed the moon in the window behind her, looking like a watered down version of itself.

"What is this place?" Allura wiped her hand across the store window and staring inside inquisitively.

"It's where I work," Keith answered, taking out his key ring and unlocking the front door. He needed to open the shop, and he couldn't think of anywhere else for Allura to go other than with him.

"Work?" Allura said, before repeating it again, softer. "Work."

"Yeah, work. It's how I pay for stuff, like all the Lucky Charms you eat," Keith smirked at her.

"Lucky Charms are wonderful," Allura responded. "They feel tingly on my tongue and I always feel so energetic afterwards."

"Sugar will do that to you." Keith pushed the door open, a small ting echoed from the silver bell hanging over the door. And then he heard Allura's gasp, and she breezed into the store, mouth agape. He guessed he probably should have told her he worked in a flower shop earlier.

"These are…beautiful." Allura sighed, and she brushed her fingers over the tulips. "And…fragrant."

"That's flowers for you," Keith said. "Do you want to wait in the storeroom while I work?"

"Does it have flowers in it?"

Keith laughed. "No, actually, that's where we house all our gang members. They get cranky if you wake them up to early, so I wouldn't make a peep if I were you."

Allura crooked her hip. "I have a feeling that you're not telling the entire truth, Keith."

"Got me. Yes, that's where we keep our flowers."

Allura clapped her hands excitedly. "Brilliant! I'll stay there."

"Okay, Allura. If you need anything, don't hesitate to shout."

"I won't," Allura promised, and disappeared behind the storeroom door.

Allura stepped out the storeroom a couple times, mostly to ask questions about a variety of flowers. They went to the cafe next door for lunch, and came back so he could finish his shift and close.

"Head outside without me," Keith advised. "I'll only be a minute longer."

Allura nodded and exited to wait by the storefront.

Keith glanced around the store, before shoving an extra ten in the register. Then he went over and grabbed a pot off the shelf, a small white flower nestled in the dirt. He cradled it in his arms, and exited the store slowly, pushing the door open with his elbow.

Allura gasped, and her eyes, iridescent and colorful, seemed to glow.

"Here, it's a type of morning glory." Keith gave her the pot, and she stared at it, a smile curving on her face. "It's called a moonflower."

Allura said, soft, gentle, "And why is that?", and her fingers were trailing up the stem.

"It only blooms in the evening and night," Keith explained. "When the moon comes up, its petals open."

Allura stared at the flower, and her face practically shined. "I think it's happening now," she whispered.

The flower was trembling slightly, and slowly, very slowly, its petals opened, turning to face the evening sky. It was beautiful.

"Keith, what is a kiss?"

Keith nearly dropped the lasagna Pidge had been so generous in giving him. "What?"

"A kiss." Allura gestured to the grainy image on the TV. "The girl in your magic picture box seems to fret quite a lot about getting her first one."

Keith swallowed, and suddenly everything inside him was a desert: hot, dry, and with the wind howling in his ear. "A kiss is…when you put your lips against another person's."

"Oh." Allura went back to staring at the screen. "I don't get why it's so special."

Keith didn't know why he didn't drop it right then and there, but some part of him didn't want Allura to think that was all there was to kiss. Maybe Lance was finally getting to him. Maybe he just went momentarily insane. "No, it's more than that. It's…" He set the lasagna down and moved to sit next to Allura. "A kiss is, like a promise. It's a way of saying, 'I love you'."

"Then why don't people just say it?" Allura looked at him, and Keith suddenly realized they were close, too close, and shifted backwards until his back hit the arm of the couch.

"Because…sometimes people are afraid. And sometimes people think kissing is a better way of saying it…and, well, kissing…it's nice."

"Nice?" Allura looked at him, and then her hands were on the side of his face, pulling him closer. "And it's just a pressing of lips?"

"Allura…" And then Allura's lips were on his and he forgot how to speak.

She was unbelievably soft and Keith was embarrassed. His lips were dry and rough and he chewed on them too often and he cursed himself for dismissing every offer of Lance's chapstick. But Allura didn't seem to notice. Or…move.

"Allura, no," He gently moved her head back, and started unconsciously rubbing circles into her cheeks. "You have to move. Like this."

And then they were pressing back together again and he moved as slowly as he possibly could, gently pressing in and then retreating, again and again before Allura started to move in return, and it was innocent, like child's play, but Keith felt a rush of blood to his cheeks and a delicious thrum was starting to form in his head when Allura opened her mouth and-

"Well, I don't know how humans can do that for long," Allura said, sighing and giving little gasps for air. "I'm already out of breath and you seem like you can just keep going!"

"I've heard it gets better with practice," Keith said, running a hand over his still-tingling lips.

Allura looked at him, and her eyes, iridescent, clouded, unreadable, caught on his mouth.

"Let's try it again."

Everything became so utterly domestic that it made Keith hurt. Allura was in the kitchen, singing off-key to an Adele song on the radio, and Keith's heart could burst. She was trying to recreate his "exquisite delicacies", meaning she was currently microwaving old spaghetti.

"Keith! Where did you put your tomato milk?" Allura shouted, searching through cabinets.

"It's called sauce, Allura, not milk. Don't make it weird," he replied, a laugh bubbling in his throat. "And it's in the fridge, second shelf to the top."

"Alright, loser." Pidge had informed her of the actual meaning of the word, and Allura stuck her tongue out at him as she opened the refrigerator.

Keith laughed at that, and returned her gesture. Then he glanced at the window, and his heart stopped. The moon looked grey, almost black. The full moon was supposed to happen tomorrow.

"Allura?" Keith approached Allura, who was sitting next to the window, staring out at the sky. She had been silent all day, and while he was trying to respect that (he had those moments too) but the lack of her presence was slowly wearing him down. "What's wrong?"

"Keith," she murmured, eyes far off. "I remember where my home is now."

"That's great, Allura!" he said, but inside his heart was breaking. What if it was halfway around the world? What if he never saw her again? No, this was great for Allura. He shouldn't be selfish. "Where is it?"

"There." Allura pointed to the sky. To the moon, black and ominous when it was supposed to be shining. Keith felt his heart drop to his boots.

"W-What?"

"I'm a spirit of the moon, Keith." She sounded far away, too far away, despite being about a foot away from him. "It's my home. Without me, it's dying."

"But-" I'll die without you. He could have worked with Australia, Indonesia, even Antarctica. But he'd never see Allura again if she went to the moon.

"I know," Allura said, answering his thoughts. "But I must go. It is my duty."

"I'll – I'll." Keith sighed, and took a minute to compose himself, to stop the trembling of his hands. "I'll see you off."

They stood in the field, right next to the crater where he had found her. It was filled with water, and Keith marveled at the fact that it hadn't evaporated in the Arizona heat. Must be moon magic.

Allura was in the clothes he had found in her, the silver fabric gleaming as she kneeled down and dipped her hands into the water. "Please, allow me to go home once more. I know my duty now."

The water bubbled violently, and when Allura removed her hands, they were smooth and shining, not a callous on them now. But the water was spreading, glowing, dripping down her arms to her dress. Keith did not know if he could even call it water now, since it had turned into a pure silver color.

"What-" Keith let the exclamation slip, but stopped when Allura turned around. She was crying, and her tears were silver too.

"Keith, do you wish to know why I fell?" she asked, and her hands were trembling as the silver spread, a bright glow encasing her.

"I wanted to experience human desires, and I did. You made me feel love, Keith. But I cannot let my home be destroyed. I cannot stay with you. And I am sorry for being so selfish towards you."

"Selfish? Allura, you were the best thing that ever happened to me. I'd rather have you leave than not know you at all."

Allura smiled, small, but there. "Thank you, Keith."

"Can – Can I have one last kiss?" he asked.

"Yes." And it was like kissing pure energy, everything bursting and exploding into flames of color, of silver and white, and he swore he felt tears on his cheeks, fizzling and disappearing as fast as they fell and he opened his eyes-

And she was gone. But the moon was shining.

Author's Note: *insert Sokka and Yue joke here* Hey guys, remember to fav and comment!