Don Quixote was super hard for Katie to master technically. The ballet is set in Spain when exploration was a major concern with an emphasis on the more Spanish side of ballet technique. As a result, everything was bigger, more showy, and faster in comparison to more known ballets like Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake. Just because it is a hard ballet doesn't mean she didn't like it, however. Faster was usually more entertaining and more fun to dance for a full house. One thing she could do without was all the sexual innuendos and especially the kisses she and Keith had to pretend to be enraptured in as Don Quixote and Kitri openly expressed their love for the other. Thankfully, all the kisses were fake and didn't involve any awkward moments between Katie and her new found friend.

"Ugh… Why was Spain so sexual?" Katie complained aloud to Keith as they walked together from the studio to a nearby café. They had decided on getting hot chocolate since it had been snowing all day.

"All the brothels and gypsies, maybe?" Keith suggested as he pulled his coat tighter in an attempt to keep the cold out.

"That's not really a great thing to be remembered by…" she mumbled more to herself.

As they went into the warm café, Katie checked her phone out of habit. She saw a snapchat notification from Lance that was sent not too long ago. She furrowed her brow in confusion. That's strange for him to want to talk to me first. Probably wants dating advice again. She thought as she ordered and sat down by the window as Keith waited for their drinks. Katie quickly opened it to see what he had sent.

'Look, it's you!' was the caption with a blurry pigeon seemingly pecking at some food still in it's wrapper with a smiling Lance in the corner of the screen. Katie snickered to herself. What a dork.

Before she could reply, he had sent another one. 'It stole my sandwich!' was the caption with the same bird flying away with a piece of bread. That was all it took to get Katie laughing aloud.

"What's so funny? More blackmail on Shiro?" Keith asked as he sat by Katie and set their drinks down.

"No, my dance partner from home was just attacked by a pigeon," Katie said fighting back more giggles as she wiped a stray tear from under her eye.

"Is he the one you like?" he asked nonchalantly.

Katie blushed furiously and quickly retorted, "No! Well… Maybe at one point I did, but he likes someone else…" she mumbled the last part and visibly deflated slightly as she sipped on her hot chocolate.

"Have you replied to him yet?" Keith asked curiously.

"Not yet, why?" she said, knowing that look he got meant trouble.

"Good, I have an idea."

Lance was about to explode. How dare she leave me on open! That was a pure masterpiece that took all day and 5 pigeons to get right! He thought to himself as he pouted in his apartment. A simple 'Lol' would have sufficed not silence for 2 hours… He sighed and fell onto the couch dejectedly. I bet she's with that stupid Keith guy… Lance frowned and patted his cheeks. Stop it! Allura promised nothing could be going on between them. Stop worrying. Right then Lance's phone alerted him he got a new message. Excited, he flew from the couch and dove to grab his phone off the table.

"Finally!" he exclaimed as he saw it was from Katie. After quickly opening her reply, his jaw dropped in shock. She looked like she was in the middle of laughing, but the thing was, was that she had her hair down and curled into waves with a bit of lip gloss coating her lips. 'Idiot' was all she said. Lance had forgotten how much he missed her laughs in response to his jokes in rehearsal. Allura would give him a smile at most. He replied quickly before he would regret his decision.

(page break)

"Are you sure about this…?" Katie asked to both Keith and the small woman on the laptop screen. Keith dragged her to his apartment to video call Allura for help.

"Completely. Especially since he hasn't even seen your hair out of your ballet bun, this'll get his attention in the very least." Allura's voice said from the speakers.

"I still think a little more shoulder woul-" a pillow thrown from the couch stopped Keith from finishing his sentence.

"I'm not trying to seduce him, Keith!" yelled a flustered Katie.

"Just dance Lydia's dance in Act 3 of DonQ if that's what you want," Keith flinched as Katie threatened to throw the last couch pillow at his head. The girl had superhero strength when she was mad, and Keith would very much prefer to keep his face as is.

"I'm not belly dancing either," pouted the small dancer, offering a glare at a laughing Allura on Keith's laptop.

"Has he replied yet?" Allura asked.

"Oh ya," said Katie as she picked her phone to check. "Ya, he has." Katie moved so they could all see his reply.

The snap was of him facepalming and smiling largely with a tint of pink on his bronze cheeks. He had put 'I saved them, so we can add them to our best friend scrapbook! Also… who are you getting all cute for? They are lucky.' Towards the bottom of the picture.

Keith looked up see Katie a bright pink. He laughs as he waves a hand in front of her face. "Helloo? Earth to Pidge? Man, you seeing this Allura? She's whipped."

"I am," giggles Allura. "Well I should go, update me tomorrow how everything goes, okay?"

"Roger that," said Keith as he hung up and shut down his laptop. He looks back at Katie to find her face covered and curled into a ball on the couch. Seeing his moment, he grabs her phone and snaps a picture of her and sends it to Lance, saying 'I think you broke her' and sets her phone back down. "Let's get you to your apartment. No offense, but this was more than enough of playing wingman for a whole month."

Katie groans as she sits up and nods. "Thanks for everything. See ya tomorrow, I guess." She quickly grabs her things and goes home, emotionally exhausted.

When Katie made it back to her apartment, she saw Lance had screenshotted the last snap she sent. Wait… I never replied back to him… She frowned as she realized it must have been Keith. She quickly sent a message asking what Keith sent him before shaking off her coat and the snowflakes from her hair and clothes.

While she sat down to work on programing her simple and small robot, she thought about what had just occurred.

Nothing he said really indicated he likes me… Just the usual playful banter between friends, right? He of all people should know I don't really do dates in the first place. Katie shook her thoughts from her head to focus on typing the right commands for the robot.

"Lance! Hey! There you are!" Allura exclaimed as she found Lance in the warm up area.

"What's up, Allura?" he asked suspiciously. She rarely looked for him of her own accord.

"I was just sent an extra ticket for the performance Katie is doing, but I can't make it that night. Do you want it?" she asked happily.

"Aren't they performing the same time we are...?" Lance slowly stood up.

"Nope this is the only night we don't conflict with them. So do you want it?"

"I don't see why not," he smiled as he grabbed the ticket from her hand. This'll be a nice change to be able to just watch and not perform… and to see Katie dance from a different view too. Lance blushed a bit and smiled at the thought of seeing her for the first time in a few months. "Thanks Allura." He smiled at her and put the ticket in his bag. May 13th couldn't come fast enough.